23 Bonfire of Birthdays

23: Bonfire of Birthdays

Jared Hall

Our wolves had so much fun tearing around in the mountains over the weekend that we lost track of time. Before we knew it, it was Sunday night and the sun was starting to set.

"Dude! Drive faster!" Beckham yelled as he pounded on the back of my seat.

"Boy, you better stop or you"re walking from here," I threatened him. "You"ll get there when you get there."

"We"re going to miss them lighting the bonfire!" Bowie joined the loud yammering now, too.

"Oh. The horror. How will you live?" I deadpanned.

"You"re just jealous you weren"t invited!" the twinadoes said in unison, which was how they often spoke.

"Bram said I was welcome to come."

"Only out of pity!" Beckham snickered.

"Yeah, no one wants an old man like you at their birthday party!" Bowie hooted.

Thank the Goddess, we arrived before I hurt one of them, and I put the truck into park a few hundred feet from where I could see the fire roaring in the darkness.

"We"re here!" Bert and Ernie needlessly pointed out by - guess what? - shouting together.

Then they threw open their doors, and we all froze in place.

"Mates!" the twinjas shouted at the exact same time I did.

Their heads swiveled to me with huge grins as I sat there in shock.

"You smell your mate, too, big brother?"

I nodded, too stunned to figure out which of them was talking, and took another deep breath of mesquite. It reminded me of my grandpa"s workshop and the long, golden curls left over after he planed a piece of wood.

"Is she the same as ours? Wow! You waited eight years just to share with us?"

They both doubled over with laughter as I turned the truck off and got out.

Dear Goddess, sweet mother of all shifters, have mercy. Please don"t make me share a mate with Thing One and Thing Two!

"What does she smell like, big brother? That"ll tell us if we"re all sharing one mate."

It wasn"t unheard of in times when she-wolves were in short supply for brothers to share, and identical twins and triplet males always did.

Beckham and Bowie knew they"d share a mate since they were old enough to be told what a mate was. Since they were basically sharing a brain, they had no problems accepting it. In fact, they were looking forward to it a little too much, to be honest. If I had to hear about their bucket list of threesome positions one more time...

Groaning in frustration, I scrubbed my hands over my face.

"Well, big brother? What do you smell?" the twinnie winnies demanded.

"Both of you say yours with me so I know you aren"t playing me," I growled. "On three. One, two, three."

"Suede."

"Suede."

"Mesquite."

Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! I closed my eyes for a second in a fervent prayer of gratitude.

"Oh, yeah!" One of the doppelgangers slapped me on the back while the other shouted in my ear, "We"re all mated now!"

"Quiet down," I rumbled and opened my eyes.

"Too excited for that!"

"Listen, Shrek and Donkey, there are only two people here who it could be. Either Yolanda or Sophia. If it"s Yolanda, you two need to calm the hell down. Loud noises scare her—"

"We know, big brother!" one of them laughed.

"We"ve gone to school with her since we were in kindergarten," the other pointed out. "Same with Fifi. We know them way better than you."

"Wait! Wait, wait, wait! That means one of them is yours!"

"Yes, we already established that." I gritted my teeth and fought the urge to find a brick wall and pound my head against it.

"No, I mean, either Yola or Fifi is yours!"

"Becks, if I didn"t know better—"

"I"m Bowie."

"Bowie, if I didn"t know better, I"d think you were either drunk or concussed. Again, we already established that my mate is here."

"Yes, but it"s one of our friends, not some nameless girl we don"t know."

While I was trying to lower my intelligence enough to communicate with him, Beckham grabbed my arm and tugged me forward.

"Come on, big brother! You were brave enough to play football in a stadium full of thousands and thousands of people! You can find enough courage to meet your mate."

"Boy," I muttered, "you better hope your mate has enough courage to meet you."

#

Sophia Bishop

I smelled something exquisite over the fragrance of burning wood and froze in place.

"Mate?" I whispered, feeling my heart pick up speed until I thought it would burst.

"Who is it, Fifi?" Bram jumped off of Gamma Reuben"s lap and bounced up and down, grinning like a lunatic.

"I don"t know," I murmured, looking around for the source of that rich honey scent.

Of all the guests we"d invited, there weren"t many who it could possibly be...

"Yola? You, too?" Luna Posy squealed.

I glanced over at Yolanda, and her big black eyes looked as stunned as I felt.

"Oh, my," she breathed, and I followed her line of sight as three figures appeared out of the darkness.

The tallest and broadest of them strode right over to me, and all I could do was stand there in shock with my mouth hanging open, probably looking as attractive as a toad.

I couldn"t really help my reaction, though. Mr. Hall was not at all who I was expecting to be my mate!

Is the Goddess for real? She gave me a teacher as my mate? He"s eight years older than me, for the love of the moon!

When I remained silent, Mr. Hall dropped to his knees at my feet, putting us almost eye to eye.

"Sophia, I— I"m probably nothing like the mate you dreamed of." He took a deep breath. "And I"m sorry. I know you"re most likely disappointed."

An awful thought occurred to me, and I sucked in a sharp breath.

"Are you— Are you rejecting me?" I whispered, agony piercing my heart.

"No!" Horror painted his face. "No, no, no! Never! What I"m saying is, I know I"m too old for you and rough around the edges and obsessed with football and— Well, instead of a shining prince, Beauty is stuck with the beast."

Staring into those light hazel eyes, I saw kindness and admiration and such earnestness, it made my heart twist.

And just that quickly, he wasn"t Mr. Hall anymore. He was Jared.

My Jared, with his tattooed arms and his loud Harley Davidson and his grease-stained fingers and his working man"s hands.

Smiling, I laid my fingers on his thin, red lips.

"Do you know the best part of that fairy tale?" I asked him and moved my hand to stroke his thick beard.

"When the monster transforms into Beauty"s ideal prince, I suppose. And I would if I could, Sophia. I"d turn myself into the mate you dream of. Knock off a few years, erase the tattoos, take myself down a few sizes—"

"No, Jared, I don"t want any of that. You are perfect just the way you are." I shook my head. "The best part of Beauty and the Beast is what happens at the end."

"They kill the evil step-sister? No, wait, that"s the wrong story." His eyebrows drew together. "Is it the one with the wicked queen who drowns in the river?"

"No!" I giggled, and his eyes lit up as I did.

"Sorry, my beauty. I don"t remember how it ends."

"Yes, you do. It ends like all good stories do. They live happily ever after."

"Oh." He looked nonplussed for a second, then he smiled. "So does that mean you want to keep me?"

"I can"t live happily ever after without my true love, now, can I?" I frowned with mock exasperation. "Besides, I need a beast who will help me slay dragons, not a prince who would lock me in his castle and forget about me."

"Forgetting you is something I could never do, Sophia. The beast would die without his beauty."

"And Beauty would die without her beast," I whispered.

Cautiously, Jared brought his hands up to cradle my face in his calloused palms, stirring up those delicate mate sparks. When I didn"t protest, he gently pulled me closer while he leaned forward, and I drew in a sharp breath of anticipation. His lips met mine and his prickly beard tickled my cheeks, and all thoughts flew out of my mind but one.

This was the beginning of our once upon a time, and it was going to last forevermore.

#

Yolanda Ramirez

Fresh baked bread.

It filled my nose, my head, my whole being.

Two tall, broad-shouldered boys came closer and brought that delightful smell with them, and I wanted to drown in it.

Two boys?

I blinked, then looked again and yep. My eyes were working fine. Beckham and Bowie Hall still towered over me with happy grins.

I had two mates.

Two, when I wasn"t sure I could handle having one.

My wolf, Pochard, howled with happiness, but my head spun.

I"d known the twins nearly all our lives, and they were loud and rough, brash and bold, popular and confident, fit and gorgeous.

Everything I wasn"t.

Dizzy and scared, my lungs went wild. My chest ached and all my muscles tightened painfully. Squeezing my eyes shut tight, I slapped my palms over my face.

If I can"t see them, maybe they"ll disappear.

"We"re not going anywhere, Yolly," an amused, but soft voice said from my left.

Did I say that aloud?

"Yeah, you did, baby girl," said the same voice from my right. "Now breathe."

"Everyone"s... looking... at... me!"

"Shh, baby girl. Shh. No one"s here."

"Luna made them all leave. It"s just us now. You"re okay, baby girl. You"re safe."

"We won"t hurt you. Not ever, Yolly. And we"ll never let anyone else hurt you."

"I"m not— I"m not— I"m not right for you," I panted, "and you"re not right for me."

"You"re absolutely perfect for us."

"And we are absolutely perfect for you."

"No," I whispered. My lungs settled down, but my eyes streamed with tears. "You"re too much for me, and I"m not enough for you. "

"Look at us, Yolanda," the twins demanded.

I shook my head, my ponytails flying wildly around my head.

"Baby girl, don"t you trust the Goddess? She believes we belong together. Can you at least give us a chance?"

"Why? You"ll just crush me and I"ll just disappoint you. You"re like that huge, roaring bonfire and I"m a small, quiet candle."

"Oh, my sweet Yolly." One of the twins chortled softly, and I really wished I could see which one it was, but I still had my eyes closed and my hands over my face. "We need that small, quiet candle to teach us how to be kind and gentle."

"And you need that huge, roaring bonfire to teach you how to burn all the obstacles between you and your dreams."

"What do you know about my dreams?" I whimpered.

"You love giraffes," one of them began. "Every year for your birthday, all you ask your dad for is to make a donation in your name to save the giraffes. You dream of seeing one in person someday."

"You also dream of going to Paris," the other picked up. "You don"t speak a word of French, but something about Paris calls to your heart. You want to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower and sit in front of the Rose window at Notre Dame and shop along the Champs-élysées."

He even pronounced it right, and a tiny smile tugged up my lips.

"We know you"re shy," the first one whispered. "We know you don"t like attention. We know you"re a gentle soul. Give us the honor of protecting that small, steady candle."

"How do I know you won"t blow it out?" I whispered back.

"You don"t. No more than we know if you"ll dump a tanker of water on our roaring bonfire."

"I wouldn"t do that," I protested, my eyebrows puckering a bit with indignation. "I"d never try to make someone be something they weren"t."

"And that"s exactly how we feel," the second one murmured. "We have fears, too, Yolly. Can you see us as individuals? Can you even tell us apart? I get tired of being asked, "Which one are you?" all the time. I want my mate to see me."

"And while you have to trust that we"d never do anything to snuff out your little flame," the first one added, "we have to trust that you"ll let us burn as bright and high as we want to."

I thought about that for a minute and realized they were right. Boys, even ones as loud and proud as these two, also had vulnerabilities.

Finally dropping my hands, I bit my bottom lip and slowly opened my eyes.

Beckham and Bowie Hall knelt in front of me, their serious, tawny gazes fixed on my face.

"Trust us just a little bit, Yolly," Beckham said quietly. "We won"t crush you, and you could never disappoint us."

"Please don"t reject us," Bowie added. "Give us a chance, baby girl. Just one?"

"I was never going to reject you, but I"m scared. We seem like such opposites. How can this work?"

Bowie lifted one hand and held it out. Slowly, I put my pudgy fingers in his and sucked in a sharp breath when the mate sparks jumped and danced between us.

"Will you try something for me?"

I raised a skeptical eyebrow, but nodded, which made him smile. And if that didn"t make my heart skip a beat! Say whatever you wanted about the Hall twins, but there was no denying they were as handsome as angels.

"Ignore how different we are for a minute and think about what we have in common. My brother and I are hardworking and honest. We treasure our family and our friends. We don"t lie, cheat, steal, bribe or backstab. We enjoy learning, exploring, and helping others. We want to be seen and valued as individuals, not as one unit. We like pups and kids and want a bunch of our own. And our mate is going to be the most important person in our lives."

He trapped my fingers with his thumb, then brought them up to his lips. Staring up at me through his eyelashes, he pressed soft kisses to each of my knuckles, and heat filled my cheeks as my insides twisted tight.

Those sultry eyes are lethal!

"Now, does that sound like we"re so different in the areas that really matter?" His lips brushed against my skin with each word, and I shivered.

As I shook my head, Beckham slowly and gently touched his fingertips to my chubby cheek. My lips parted under the gentle sparks warming my skin, and he smiled.

"You"re already in our hearts, baby girl, and we can only hope we"re in yours." Then, with determination, he said, "We"ll make this work, Yolly. We need you, and you need us, and the Goddess in her wisdom brought us together."

"You"re right, Becks. She did. And you are in my heart." I paused, inhaled courage, and exhaled fear so I could admit a long-buried secret. "To be honest, I"ve always had a crush on you two."

Imagine my shock when, instead of crowing about it and smirking or fist-bumping each other, both boys turned into statues for a second before they looked at each other, then back at me.

"Say that again," Bowie rasped.

"I"ve always had a crush—"

"No. Not that. The other part," Beckham demanded.

"You"re in my heart—"

"My name, baby girl."

"Oh. Becks. Beckham. Beckham James Hall."

Tears flooded his eyes at the same time a brilliant smile lit up his face.

"You can tell us apart?" Bowie breathed.

"Of course. I"ve always known which one of you is which." Confused by their reaction, I tilted my head.

"Baby girl," Beckham said in a broken voice.

Next thing I knew, he had one arm under my butt and the other around my waist and took me with him as he stood up. I yelped in surprise.

How is he lifting me up? I weigh two hundred pounds!

"You"re going to hurt yourself!" I shrieked as he adjusted his hold so both his arms were under my big butt. "I"m too heavy!"

"Baby girl, if you"re not comfortable, tell me and I"ll put you down, but if you"re only worried about me, don"t be. I could hold you like this all day. I bench press five hundred pounds with ease."

"I"m stronger, Yolly," Bowie purred. "I benched five-fifty on Friday and didn"t break a sweat."

"I could have, too, if I wanted," Beckham retorted with an eye roll. "Yolly? Are you okay with this? You can tell us no. We won"t get mad or anything."

"I like it," I admitted shyly, although I still felt a little awkward to be basically sitting on his arms. "You"re so hard."

Dead silence, and I realized what I said and could have died.

"No, I meant, your body is so hard. Like, I mean, muscles! You have so many hard muscles!" I frantically tried to explain, but feared I was only making it worse. "I"m so soft and squishy and you"re not! That"s what I"m trying to say!"

"Relax, baby girl," Bowie chuckled. "We know what you meant. You"re our squishy toasted marshmallow."

"Toasted marshmallow?" I squawked.

"Your skin is the exact color of how I like my toast," he said with a shrug. "And you just called yourself squishy. Therefore, you are a toasted marshmallow."

Giggling, I hid my face in Beckham"s throat and Bowie chuckled again.

"Can you hug me, toasted marshmallow?" Beckham asked.

Nodding, I slid my arms around his neck and laid my head on his chest. I"d never been this close to a boy other than Bram and my father, and certainly not in this situation. Then Bowie joined us, pressing his front against my back and resting his chin on my shoulder, and I felt like I was wrapped in their strength and scent.

"You smell so nice," I whispered.

"Oh? What do we smell like? You smell like suede to us," Bowie said, his warm breath on my skin making me shiver.

"Promise you won"t laugh?"

"We won"t."

"Fresh baked bread," I admitted.

"Aw!" Beckham cooed. "Sounds mouth-watering! I"d make a crude joke about you having a taste of us, but Bowie hasn"t recovered from your hard comment yet and would blush."

Bowie"s chest vibrated against my spine as he laughed, and I squeaked as I caught his meaning.

"Shh. We know you"re innocent," Bowie breathed in my ear. "We won"t rush or push you into anything you"re not ready for or comfortable with."

"We"ve never been with anyone, either," Beckham told me. "We"ll learn it all together, okay?"

"Okay. Beckham?"

"Yes, baby girl?"

"I love you. Bowie?"

"Yes, toasted marshmallow?"

"I love you."

"And we love you," they chorused.

#

Posy

As soon as the Hall boys joined the party, Bram and I looked at each other and giggled.

"Let"s clear everyone out," I whispered to him. "Yola especially is going to be self-conscious."

"Yeah. Good idea. Let"s head to the field. We put out a bunch of blankets so people can stargaze."

"Oh! The Percys are still going, right?"

"The... The what?"

"Mason!" I called and he was at my elbow before I could turn around to look for him. "Tell Bram about the Percys while I get the others to help move everyone to the field for stargazing."

"Perseids," was all he said, and I rolled my eyes, but that seemed to be all Bram needed to hear.

"Ah, yes! Perfect time of year to see them, although last weekend would have been better."

"It was!" I chirped as I linked the rest of my mates what I wanted them to do. "We stayed up all night watching them."

"Not the only thing that stayed up all night," Mason murmured, and my whole face turned red.

"And I"m out!" Bram squeaked.

Grabbing Gamma Reuben"s hand, he tugged him out of his camp chair and pulled him along to disappear on the other side of the bonfire.

"Behave, Mason," I scolded. "That"s bedroom talk for in private."

"Sorry, baby. You make it so easy to tease you." He waited until we were halfway to the field before he added, "And it got you back for that fake turd you left on the toilet seat."

My mouth dropped open. I stumbled and would have gone down if he hadn"t caught me around the waist. Lifting me up, he settled me on his hip, and I automatically wrapped my arms and legs around him.

"Do the others know?" I whispered in his ear as he carried me along.

"Nope. And I"m not going to tell them. If they figure it out on their own, though, they"re going to prank you back. You know that, right?"

"They won"t figure it out," I said confidently. "They"re so busy trying to one-up each other that they"ve forgotten what the initial pranks were, anyway."

"True. And they"d never believe their sweet, innocent mate would be that devious." He smirked, and I giggled before I dropped my head to his shoulder.

When we got to the field, he grabbed a few blankets and we spread them out, then plopped down to stare at the sky. My other mates joined us minutes later, all of them quiet and calm for once. As the six of us curled up in a big puppy pile, a truly happy smile spread across my face.

All around me, I could hear the soft conversations of our friends, the crackling of the bonfire behind us, and the steady breathing of my mates.

This, I thought. This is everything. This is pack. This is love. This is home.