"What the fuck where you thinking of, Alexei?" he asked almost wearily. "You let her bite you, infect you? Since when did you start thinking with your dick? That's usually my job." His brother frowned slightly and sipped at his drink.
"I let her bite me because it was pointless to deny her," Alexei finally answered after a little pause. He was trying to work out the best way to ease his twin into accepting what had happened between him and Cedar and what was going to happen to him with Loretta.
"What does that mean exactly?" Andrei asked irritably, a puzzled expression on his face. "Pointless to deny her? You should have just told her no and let that be the end of it." He stared impassively at his twin, waiting for him to admit his foolishness.
"Andrei, I couldn't tell her no because I wanted her to bite me," Alexei admitted quietly. "I didn't just want it, I needed it." He watched shock ripple across his brother's face and took a deep breath. There was no point putting it off, he had to tell him everything.
"I've just spent a year's exile in bloody Ecuador because of what I told the Weres last year," he explained. "I had a lot of time on my hands to think about my actions, to question them. I did some reading up on pack life, their rituals and stuff. What I read shocked me but also answered the question I was trying to answer. The reason I did what I did was because I was reacting to a Were mating pull. Not just any Were either, Cedar Alexander to be exact."
The colour drained out of Andrei's face and he sat there stunned as he looked at his brother and tried to digest what he was telling him. Alexei thought he was the mate of a wolf? Did he have any idea just how insane that sounded? He tried to speak and couldn't find any words.
"Believe me, my reaction was just like yours at the start," Alexei continued with a rueful smile. "I didn't want to believe it either but the longer I was away, the more I craved my wolf. I read everything I could get my hands on and this craving seemed to be a typical reaction to being separated from a mate. I couldn't go to her quickly enough when I came back. I almost went looking for her before I even came to see you but I managed to contain myself somehow."
"Weres and vampires can't mate," Andrei managed to grind out, his tone incredulous, his thoughts in utter chaos. What would this mean for his brother if The Council found out about it? His eyes hardened as he glared at Alexei.
"We're a different bloody species, Alexei. Our bite is instantly lethal to a Were so how can we bloody mate with them? Have a little fun with the wolf by all means but you can't mate with her. You'll kill her if you try."
Alexei frowned deeply, a strange expression crossing his face. He knew the mating was incomplete; that it was one sided because he couldn't complete the ritual, couldn't bind himself as irrevocably to Cedar as she had to him. Just thinking of it made a sharp pain rock through his body so he tried his hardest not to.
"She's mine, Andrei," he said quietly. "Whether or not I can complete her ritual is a moot point. She belongs to me. The one sided bond is just going to have to suffice if it's all we can hope to achieve. I will not leave her, ever, so there's no point in you thinking that this is just going to go away."
Andrei saw the determined look on his brother's face. He also so the brief flash of pain which crossed it when he mentioned that the mating couldn't be completed. He tried to wrap his stunned mind around it. This couldn't be happening. There had to be some other explanation for why his twin was acting so out of character. Alexei hated Weres. Hell, he didn't particularly like women as a general rule either.
And yet the expression on Alexei's face told a thousand words. "You're in love with her," Andrei whispered shocked.
His brother's words hung on the air for a fraction of a second and then Alexei remembered that he needed to breathe. He sucked in a deep breath as his heart hammered loudly in his chest. He had never consciously thought of it, never let the words even enter his brain, choosing to use the term mates or mating instead. But once they were out in the open there was no hiding from them. He was in love with Cedar Alexander.
He didn't answer Andrei, didn't admit the words out aloud. For some strange reason he didn't want to utter those words for the first time to anyone other than their intended recipient.
"Do you know how much of a headache this going to give me?" Andrei sighed wearily suddenly feeling the last of his anger drain away as he realised he had no choice but to accept what his twin was telling him. Alexei really believed he was the mate of his wolf, to the extent that he had allowed her to infect him. He would never have allowed that to happen unless he was utterly confident in his own mind that it was the right thing to do.
Alexei pursed his lips and then took a drink from his glass. "A big one?" he chuckled softly, suddenly feeling as if he had a huge weight lifted from his shoulders. It was as if admitting he was in love with his frustrating little wolf had lightened his spirits, set him free somehow.
Andrei was already thinking ahead, trying to work out how to protect his brother. The Council would probably ignore the odd sexual relationship between Weres and Vampires but they wouldn't condone an open mating. They wouldn't accept their species being polluted with the wolf gene. It would be effectively creating a hybrid species in their eyes.
The vampires involved would be shunned from their society. And there was no telling what would be done to the wolves. This could lead to open war between Weres and Vampires. A war that would make last year's one look like child's play.
Andrei could actually understand why Caleb had done what he had done now. The Ancient obviously knew what had occurred between Alexei and Cedar. He would view this as Andrei failing to protect the Hanlon pack. He was warning him that he knew what was going on and he wasn't pleased about it.
This also made it doubly surprising that the Ancients had disappeared from the ceremony immediately after it had concluded. He had expected Caleb to come looking for him and Alexei once the formalities were over but he hadn't. Only he had expected it to be because they had dallied with a couple of the wolves, not because his brother was mating with one of them.
"You seem to be taking this rather calmly," Alexei said when he didn't speak for a long time.
Andrei snorted. "Believe me, calm is the last thing I feel right now," he answered with an edge to his tone. "I'm trying to work out the ramifications of this, Alexei. So far what I'm coming up with isn't good. Not for the Weres or for you."
A sudden thought crossed his mind and he blinked slowly. "How long has Nors had that little wolf living with him? You don't think he's mated with her too?"
The question surprised Alexei because he'd completely forgotten that the huge redheaded Ancient had taken a wolf under his protection. Nors was such a secretive person that most people knew nothing about his private life as a general rule so it was easy to forget about the wolf because she was never seen with him in public .
"It must be nearly a year now," he answered thoughtfully. "I don't think he's mated with her because Caleb brought him to the ceremony. If he's pissed at us because of the wolves, I think he would be equally as pissed at Nors too if there was anything going on between him and a Were."
"You can find out," Andrei said quietly seeing a frown appear on his brother's face. "If Nors is attached to his wolf romantically he will be more likely to talk to you about it, Alexei. He's Ancient. All of them would have sensed the wolf gene in you tonight despite it being so faint. Their skills are more advanced than everyone else's so it's foolish to think they wouldn't. Nors doesn't like me so he's hardly going to answer any of my questions. He may yours if you have something in common with him."
Nors didn't like most people so Alexei wasn't keen to go looking for him. He was one of the few people who Alexei wasn't confident about going up against and despite Andrei's words, he knew Nors didn't like him anymore than he liked his brother.
"Why does it matter if Nors is mated to his wolf?" he asked with a disgruntled note to his voice.
Andrei's brown eyes began to twinkle slightly, his lips curving in a slight smile. "Because if he has then Caleb Cullen is going to have to get involved," he answered slowly. "At the moment it looks like he's dumping this whole nightmare in my lap but if one of his own friends is knee deep in shit along with us then he'll have to act." The thought of how irritating it would be for the Ancient to get involved when he obviously didn't want to actually made Andrei feel a lot better.
