I looked among the five of them. I wasn't about to give Ash another chance to hurt me. Let alone come back only after they hurt me, and after my wolf came out. They made a choice. So have I.
"Guys!" I called out, everyone of them looked to me.
"So, Rose," Ash said, getting up, dusting off the dirt. "About the mate bond-"
"I reject you, Ash, as my mate." I interrupted them, looking them in the eye. Ash looked stiff, like they weren't sure what I said.
"Sorry?" Ash asked.
"I reject you, Ash," I repeated. "I will never be your mate, even if my life depended on it."
Ash looked a little angry. The twins and the girls went in front of me, blocking Ash's view of me. My parents pulled me through the door, almost into the house.
"It's time for you to leave, Ash," Drew said, almost baring his teeth. Ash finally left with their phoenix. I watched them; the other four stood there, like they were guarding something irreplaceable. Soon enough, Ash was gone. The other four were hesitant before turning to my parents and me. My parents almost demanded the four others inside. I sat on the sofa, and our wolves were cuddling in the corner. Dad's bear was close, Mom's wolf too. Four of my mates sat on the sofa across from my parents and me.
"So, you four are her mates." Dad started. I knew this would go badly. Dad had a habit of making people uncomfortable when he was judging them. Drew and Markus are the next alphas, but are still affected by Dad's judgment. "You mistreated Rose."
"We did," Markus said, his voice low and remorseful. Drew sat still, like a mirror image; the other two, Selene and Anny, sat in silence and just looked down at their hands in their laps.
"Dad, they didn't mean to-"
"Rose, don't." Selene, Anny, Markus, and Drew all said in unison. all looking in my eye. I blinked in surprise. I didn't expect them to tell me not to say anything.
"Rose, you defended Ash for almost a year before you agreed that what they did was inexcusable," Anny said, looking in the eye. "You can't blame this on fear of humans, because we grew up with you since birth. We shouldn't have doubted you when the ceremony happened, when your wolf didn't appear, and it NEVER gave us the excuse to say what we did!"
I just sat there in silence. Anny had never talked like this; her tone was angry, at herself and the others.
"Anny is right," Drew said, his fists clenched. "What we did wasn't excusable, for fear of humans coming into our pack as thousands of others have, when you grew up with us."
"It's just like with Ash," Selene spoke up. "You spent a year making excuses for them. We had to constantly tell you not to do that for them for a year before you accepted it. Heck! Even in therapy, your therapist told you the same thing."
I was shocked into silence. My parents were just as stunned. The girls never once spoke like this or loudly. Markus and Drew both looked tense. I looked to our wolves. Mine was the biggest, curled around the other four happily. My parents stayed silent, probably shocked.
"... You guys are different," I said quietly. "When you guys and Ash were fighting the first time, you always said to stop making excuses for them... and you guys did it again when Ash showed up again."
The four of them were still not easy on themselves. I know the tensions were high with humans ruining lives, but it still hurt to see how they struggled to understand what was happening and how this could happen. I don't blame them, I know I would be suspicious like they did, and I would feel guilty as hell if I found out the same as they did.
"I'm not holding this against you. Just keep this in mind: if this happens again, I won't give second chances to anyone." The other four perked up when they heard me say this. My parents looked at me in shock.
"Rose-"
"It's okay, Mom. I know what I'm doing." I told my mom when she was about to intervene. I looked to the other four; they looked relieved and determined. I think this made the clingy factor in them worse.
As days went by, this thought became increasingly true. The twins were clingy and possessive when we went out together. Then Anny and Selene were spoiling me with items I had wanted but couldn't buy. Nice jewelry, dresses for events, even took me to McDonald's and got me more than one twenty-piece nuggets and extra fries, desserts, and my favorite drink, I enjoyed the day since I had a big appetite, while they only got one meal, but they were happy to eat with me, and I enjoyed the food. And before you ask if I'm overweight, no. I'm actually very slim. Low metabolism. And food doesn't typically turn into fat. It always goes to my curves. This made the twins even more possessive. It got to the point that they would stand angled around me to keep people from looking at me. I appreciate it since I'm curvier now after eating so much McDonald's. I didn't mind that much, besides the upsetty-spaghetti expressions they make at others who came close. It was a mess, but it wasn't too bad. I've even found money left from the four of them, more than I know what to do with. None of them admitted to leaving it, and often left more every time they came over. So I just put away the money for a rainy day.
I got to use some to go out with mom and dad, and we ate at one of the nicest places in the pack for dinner. I still got looks, not judgment, but curious looks. Probably, since I have the white wolf's bond. Mom, Dad, and I enjoyed the food, and I started getting into taking Mom with me to get some spa days done. Anny and Selene would take me there, too. hired dietitians for my parents so they can stay as long as possible. The twins sometimes fell asleep on my shoulders and would watch what I was doing when they were awake, and nothing was going on. I could tell they were doing all they could to make up for what happened. I'm okay with this new life, just not the possessive act with the twins when someone just bumps into me. My parents are getting used to it. I heard Ash was banned from returning to the pack. The twins had left a scar on them. If anyone is scarred by an alpha, are forever marked as an outsider. They can go to another pack, whether they are welcomed or not is debatable. I was intrigued, but not surprised. Ash never got along with the twins, so I was expecting this, especially since Ash made fun of an eating disorder I developed back then.
One night, Selen and Anny had set up a sleepover, and the twins came to the sleepover too. I had gotten there early and thought it would just be the three of us girls. I had changed into a sports bra and a set of shorts. When I came out of the bathroom, I froze seeing the twins. They froze too, sing me dressed like this. I never dressed like this in front of them. I felt heat creeping up my neck, face, and ears. That's when Selene and Anny realized they hadn't told me about it and scrambled over to block the twins' sight of me.
"Look away!" Anny screamed, snapping the two out of their thoughts, and they quickly looked away, red in the face, and they were stuttering. Selene ran to Drew and yanked off his hoodie, then ran to me and pulled it over my head, except it was on backwards on me. "It's okay to look now."
"You put this on my backwards." I pulled the hood off my face. then worked on turning the hoodie around on my body. The twins looked at me and got tense seeing me in Drew's hoodie. They were only looking at the hoodie. looked down and saw how the hoodie was so big it covered me completely.
"I don't think this makes it better, Selene," Anny said, looking to Selene.
"Well, it's good enough for now; these two aren't going to be eyeing her chest or belly!" Selene countered. I just stayed silent, looking between the girls and the twins. The twins looked territorial and glanced at each other. Oh no.
"She would look better in my hoodie than yours." Markus said, and I fully turned to them with wide eyes.
"Hell no!" Andrew shot back. "My hoodie looks better!"
"Sure it does, you prick!" Markus snapped back. Then, just like that, they started fighting. I moved behind the girls to avoid getting hit. The girls moved to surround me like a protective space. Anny and Selene have done this often when the twins fight. This time it's about whose hoodie I'm wearing. They didn't act like this before, but then again, my curves did grow from the big meals recently, and the snacking. Selene and Anny talked about this before when they noticed the changes. They called the twins a set of horny bastards. I laughed at the time, but, thinking about it now, our relationship has shifted dramatically. Beforehand, we would just hang out and tell jokes, then the ceremony changed us to that messy stance, then the desperation, now the new change in us just acting more like those poly mate relationships I heard about a little bit ago. They split the time for each evenly and managed to live happily like that, lots of pups too.
I don't know where to go with this new situation with mate scents and these guys acting clingy, protective, and possessive. I don't know how I feel. I just hope this relationship goes well. I'm just scared things will go badly one day, and we can't stay together as we used to. Then again, we are grown-ups now, so might as well just go through this and see where it leads.
"Rose?" Anny asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"Uh-Huh?" I looked up at Anny, and she and Selene looked at me, concerned. Drew and Markus looked bruised and concerned, and turned my way. "Sorry, What?"
"Are you okay?" Drew asked, and I could almost see him and Markus with puppy ears pinned down on their heads.