13: Shopping With The Girls... And 2 Overprotective Mates

"Where to first? Furniture store or Babies R Us?" Ryder asks, but 10 seconds later facepalms as his brother drives us to the strip mall.

"Babies R Us has everything we need, so..."Ry laughs at my answer and D facepalms yet again.

"I know that! I just had a dumb moment, okay!" D's statement only makes Ry and me laugh at him harder than we already were.

"Right, D. Sure you did," Ry says, sending us both into another laughing fit.

"Whatever, you two. We're here anyway, so let's go," D says, opening his car door to get out when Ry stops the car.

"I need to take my driving test, too," I say, thinking out loud as I get my things to exit Ry's car.

"We can go after shopping. I had forgotten you just turned 16. Apparently, your father did, too," I can tell D has been trying to slide that into the conversation for a while, now.

"You could've just asked me about it, you know. I would have told you," I say, holding my head down.

"Well, will you tell us now?" Ry asks me, looking in the rearview mirror to look at my face.

"Sure. So my mom died when she was giving birth to me and my father has always hated me for 'killing his mate.' My brother and Jordan always tried to help me whenever they could, but Jordan's dad backed my father up and they couldn't get to me usually. They kept trying, though," D closes the car door and nobody else makes a move.

The twins climbed in the car to sit next to me, not getting out of the car (which was kind of awkward, but sweet as well).

"Anyway, my alpha and father ended up locking me in a cage/cell in the basement, where the prisoners were led, instead of giving me a room in the actual packhouse. Noah tried to help too, before he left the pack and turned rogue. Luna Elissabeth wanted to help me too, but she was too scared of her mate to actually do anything. The abuse continued for years, and the luna eventually stopped speaking to the alpha. John went mad. He started drinking, smoking, doing anything he could to stay as happy as he could without his mate. That's when it got worse for me. Sometimes, John and my father would sneak into my cell at night and inject me with wolfsbane. They did this nightly, just watching me thrash around in pain. When I started becoming immune to it, they would up the dosage to an unsafe level. I really could have died because my body and wolf were so weak. It really was a miracle when I shifted on my 13th birthday, but I only told Kade and Jordan. One time, my father injected me with so much wolfsbane, it started pushing my blood out. I was in the hospital for a day, but I couldn't feel the sun of the wolfsbane in my system anymore. My father thought it was funny to see me like that, immune to all ones of pain, so he kept giving me that much. The pack doctor said that there was more wolfsbane in my blood than blood and that I will always have around a pint and a half in my bloodstream rather than blood. So now, I'm immune to it. The wolfsbane actually made me stronger and heightened my pain tolerance considerably, so I'm not really an omega; the alpha just refused to re-rank me. That's my whole story," I look up from my lap to see Ryner crying silently and Ryder looking close to tears.

"How could they do that to you? They were the alpha and beta! They should have treated you like a part of the pack, not some science experiment!" Ry was hysterical, so I snuggled closer to him on my right.

"Hey! It's okay. The Moon Goddess does everything for a reason. Think of it this way: if I hadn't been treated that way, Noah wouldn't have rescued me and we would all have a piece missing from us. I'm okay. All the things I went through made me a stronger person," I try to comfort Ry and I'm happy to see that it works.

D takes my hand and I look at him. There is nothing but pride and admiration in his eyes and it makes me happy that it's directed towards me. I squeeze his hand reassuringly and look to my right to see a sniffing Ryner. I do the same to his hand and smile brightly, snuggling in close to them both.

We stay like that for a couple of minutes until Ry's face is clear of tears and everyone is happy. Well, D is dozing off to sleep, but we're all calm. I nudge D off of my shoulder gently to wake him up a bit. When he wakes up fully (Ryner and I had to poke and prod him for 2 minutes straight), he puts his head back on my shoulder, making me laugh.

"Let's go. I wanna be done and back at the packhouse before dinner. Plus, we have to buy 5 of everything," they both nod to me and we shuffle out of the car, still hand-in-hand.

"At least we already know the genders. But buying these are going to be awkward," Ry rubs the back of his neck with his free hand and chuckles awkwardly.

"I didn't think about that part. Maybe we should just go home and order everything online?" D asks, trying to drag Ry and me back to the car—unsuccessfully.

"Oh, boo-hoo. All the workers here are nice werewolves from my pack. They helped Kade and Jordan sneak me food sometimes. It's the humans we need to worry about, but there aren't many around here," I use the hand connected to Ryder's to drag him into the store with Ry and me.

As soon as we step through the doors, all the humans look at the 3 off us with dirty looks and sighted faces. Chloe walks over to greet us upon hearing the automatics sliding doors, but when she sees me she only hugs me and squeals slightly. This action, of purely platonic intent, makes D growl at Chloe and Ry whimper at me. I pull away and roll my eyes at D but hug Ry. D sighs in defeat but grabs my hand again like it gives him comfort.

"Okay. So, clearly, we have some catching up to do, but first: why are you in here?" she asks me, giving Ry and D s small side-eye as if accusing them.

"Long story," she nods, so I tell her everything.

Ryner walks away to someplace in the store after giving me a kiss on the cheek, but F just stays with me the whole time. Quiet, but randomly squeezing my hand as if it's his lifeline. When I'm done with the whole story, Chloe is ecstatic to help us.

"First: does Mikaela know? Second: what are the genders?" Chloe asks me and D the questions, but D tightens his grip on my hand when she asks me the first.

"4 boys and a girl. And no, she doesn't. We came here first," D is now staring at the side of my head, but we both ignore him, Chloe gives me a reprimanding look when she hears that Mik doesn't know.

"Oh, my goddess. I'm texting her right now. She needs to be here to help us," Chloe walks away to get her phone and text our best friend and when she's walking away, D steps in front of me and crouches down to look me in the eyes.

"Who is Mikaela?" he asks me, just barely concealing the jealousy in his voice, but I could hear it.

"Don't worry. She's Chloe's and my best friend. She works at the Starbucks across the street," D doesn't look sure, so I kiss his cheeks one after the other.

"I was told to come quick and see my bestie!!" Mik nearly yells as she runs through the doors, holding a treinta decaf iced caramel macchiato.

"Mik! I have so much to catch you up on!" Mik nearly lunges on me, bringing me into a hug and consequently disconnecting D's hand from mine.

D growls at yet another one of my best friends, but this time with more dominance. Mikaela, being the werewolf she is, bows her head in submission and detaches herself from me immediately. Because I'm a lycan and D is my mate, his growl doesn't affect me, so I glare at him, making him stop growling almost immediately. I hold me glare until he apologizes to Mikaela, returns to her gleeful aura at once.

"I brought you your favorite drink. Now spill," she hands me the large drink and a straw, and after she puts her hands on her hips and practically stares me down.

I put the straw in the cup, but right before I'm able to put the straw in my mouth, Ryder takes the drink out of my hands. He gives me a reprimanding look, and he probably thought the drink was caffeinated, not knowing that I don't drink caffeine at all.

"It's decaf. Now gimme," he reluctantly gives me the coffee and I drink some before diving into the story with Mik.

About halfway through the story, Chloe comes back with a couple of booklets. D clearly gets bored and walks off to find somewhere to sit, but where I'm still in his line of vision. When I'm down retelling the story, the 3 of us get D and all get baskets to try and find Ry.

'Hey, we were done way earlier than expected. Want Jordan and I to meet up with you guys?' Noah says in the mate link, surprising me when he said they were done.

'Sure. We met up with Chloe and Mikaela at Babies-R-Us. I'm starting to get hungry again, so I'm going to convince Ry and D to get dinner when we're done.' I reply to him, taking a couple more sips of my coffee.

'Okay. We're on the way.' he nods resolutely in the link and I smile back at him.

"Okay, Kyle. First things first: cribs. There are some models on the floor but there are way more in this booklet and we keep them in the back," Chloe hands me a booklet and flips through one of the others while Mikaela wanders off to look at toys.

"D, what do you think?" I say, showing him two different ones. "The one with the blue would be for the boys and the white one would be for the girl," I specify, receiving a nod in return.

"Oh, thank Goddess I found you guys. I got lost and was looking all over the store for you. But who are you?" Ryner directs the question at Mikaela, who joined us after he left.

"I'm Mikaela, my friends call me Mik. I'm Kyle and Chloe's best friend!" She says in her peppy tone.

"Cool. Did you guys find anything?" Ry looks at D and me, and then at Chloe and Mik.

"Yup. This one we can get for the boys, and this one I really like for the girl," I smell Noah and Jordan come up behind us and I smile.

"Sounds good. What's next?" Jordan asks Chloe, scaring Ry nearly out of his pants.

"Hello, alpha. Is that... Noah?! I haven't seen you since we were little. I'm glad you're back, bro," Mik says to her childhood friend, giving him a bro hug like they saw each other yesterday.

"Hey, Aela! Chloe. I trust Kyle filled you in?" he hugs them both and Ry stands there, dumbfounded.

"He did! Now we have to get strollers! Look in this booklet," Chloe shoves another booklet into my hands after taking the previous one away.

I pick a single stroller that has multiple colors, so we'll get 5 in different colors and let the babies choose. I show the others and pick out 5 of the 13 colors: gold, black, baby blue, forest green, and pale rose. Next, we get the formula, bottles m, and extra nipples for the bottles. Then we break off into 2 groups: Mikaela, Noah, and Ryner to get some toys and Chloe, Jordan, Ryder, and I to get clothes.

We finish buying everything at around 6, and at that time, I'm extremely hungry. We found about 50 outfits for all of the pups, toys, and all of the essentials for just over half of the $10,000 budget.

"Where do you want to go to eat?" Ryner asks me and Chloe and Mikaela struggle to hold in their laughter.

"I bet I know," Jordan says as I pretend to think about it.

"If you say McDonald's I think I might actually cry," Ryder says, looking at me with his brother in anticipation.

"No, it's a local place run by a werewolf-human couple. They're really nice," I say to him, confirming Chloe's, Mikaela's, and Jordan's beliefs and giving Noah a clue.

"Don't tell me those mates are still running that place? After all this time (Always. Sorry. I'll leave now) they can't still be running that place," Noah asks incredulously, receiving nods from everyone but Ry and D, who are giving us all confused looks.

"They are," Jordan confirms verbally, and D looks at his breaking point.

"Could someone please tell us who these mystery mates are and where this mystery restaurant is?" D asks, frustration rolling off of him in waves.

"Oh! Sorry. The restaurant is called Wolf Bite and it's run by one of the pack members, Rosalissa, and her mate, Edmund. Rosa net Ed at culinary school and they decided to open Wolf Bite," Noah explains to the twins.

"Yeah. And only werewolves and their mates can eat there. That's where I took Ashley on our first date before I told her I was a werewolf," Mik says to the group.

"Where is Ash, anyways?" I ask Mikaela as Chloe starts leading the group to Wolf Bite.

"She's on a trip with her family. They invited me but I can't miss too much school and they'll be back tomorrow. She's in an online college, so she's not really missing anything," Mikaela says, perking up when she talks about Ashley coming home.

"At least she's coming back soon. Anygay, we're here, so brace yourselves," Chloe says, 'forgetting' to tell Ry and D how only werewolves and their mates can eat there.

"How do they check? Is there like a -" D gets cut off when he touches the handle of pure silver.

"The door handles are silver. And, there's also the wolfsbane," Jordan says as I examine Ryder's burnt hand.

"There's wolfsbane too?! Why is there so much security if humans can't even feel it?" Ryner asks.

"One: there is no wolfsbane, just more silver," I give Jordan a reprimanding look. "Two: it's one of the only places besides the packhouse where we can be ourselves," I reply to Ry's question.

"Hello and welcome to Wolf Bite. How man- oh! Hey, you 3! How many for you today?" Rosa, the co-owner, gives Mik, Chloe, Jordan, and I hugs and eyes my 4 mates when they glare at her after hugging me and Jordan. "And who are these 3?"

"Hey, Rosa. A table for the 7 of us today," Rosa nods and gets silverware and menus for all 7 of us.

"Wait! I nearly forgot! You guys know the drill, the newbies will get it eventually," everyone but Ryner and Ryder smirk still Rosalissa's comment, Ry and D just look confused.

Rosalissa turns around to the host's stand and picked up an ornately decorated steel bowl in the shape of a wolf. In the bowl was a pen made entirely silver. Rosalissa approaches our group again, bowl in hand, and goes up to Chloe first.

Chloe huffs and hesitantly picks up the pen. A soft sizzling sound could be heard as Chloe immediately threw the pen back in the bowl and cradled her hand. This happened to Noah next, then Mikaela, but neither Ryner nor Ryder approach the pen in the line before me. Eventually, Ryner taps the pen gently and Ryder grabs it like Chloe. That just leaves me. I pick up the pen and hold it for a couple of seconds, only receiving a small tingle where the silver touches my skin. Ry and D look at me but stop when Jordan gives them a 'we'll talk about this later' look.

"Okay! I have a table for 7 ready for you guys," she walks us to a large party table next to the kitchen.

"Thanks, Rosalissa," Chloe chuckles out.

"No problem. Now, do you want to tell me who these 3 new guys are? Kyle, they seem to be all doe-eyed for you," she winks at me, causing Ryner to blush.

"Well. This is Noah. You might be able to recognize him from about 11 years ago," I point to Noah, to which Rosalissa gasps and gestures you hug him, Noah chuckling but complying.

"And who are these 2? They seem familiar, but I just can't place it," she says, tapping her chin and looking at the twins.

"Yeah, they're the Royal Twins, Ryner and Ryder," I say nonchalantly, Rosa gasps once again and releases Noah to bow to Ry and D, to which Noah laughs.

Ryner shakes his head and buries his face in the crook of Jordan's neck, embarrassed at the way people were looking at us. Ryder, noticing this as well, hurriedly holds Rosa up from her bowing position. At this point, everyone at the table was laughing except Ryner and Ryder.

"You don't have to do that," Jordan says between his low chuckles.

"But they're... they're the..." Rosa fades off, looking at Jordan and me incredulously.

"They're my mates. Jordan, Noah, Ryner, Ryder, and I are all mates," I say to her.

"It's a long story, Rosa," Mikaela giggles out to Rosa, who nods and pulls out her mini notepad.

"Okay. What do you guys want to drink?" she hands each of us one of the menus in her hand the rolls of silverware.

*~*

After ordering all of our drinks and food, then eating it, I wanted cake. Specifically, red velvet cake, which Wolf Bite didn't have. When I mentioned this, Ry perked up considerably and Jordan groaned. So, as we all piled into our cars (for reference: Chloe and Mikaela are in Chloe's car; they carpool to work. Jordan and Noah are in Jordan's car. Ryder, Ryner, and Kyle are in Ryder's car) and called each other on the way back to the packhouse.

"I want cake!" I pout from the backseat of the car, next to Ryner, who is cuddled into my shoulder and dozing off.

"Well, it's really late and everywhere's closed baby," Jordan says through the speaker and I hear Noah chuckle a bit.

"Yea, well, I'll make it myself, then. To Kroger we go!" I can clearly picture Jordan's incredulous face as I say this, but he sighs anyways (thank you mate bond).

"Okay," he sighs out again and we all change direction to the pack's Kroger.

"So you know how to bake?" Ryder asks me from the driver's seat as we pull into Kroger's parking lot behind Chloe's and Jordan's car and we all get out.

"Yeah. It takes my mind off of things, so I bake every chance I can," I nod to Ryder just as someone hugs me from behind in the parking lot.

Based on the scent and the tingles, I know it's only Jordan, so we enter Kroger and start shopping for ingredients. While we were there, Chloe bought gummi works and Ryner bought a ton of different sour candies.