Chapter Seventeen

Travis

Living at the London flat with Sheldon instead of Trista was an adjustment. We kept odd hours, napping here and there, as his waking hours moved more toward daylight. I’d always been a night owl before my job at Starscale Search, so I empathized with him. It took a once in a lifetime job to fall on my head before I’d give up parties that started at midnight. I missed them at first. I missed all of it, that was until my ‘friends’ started to fall away. Without Trista around to stir up the drama and parties, people just stopped coming around or calling me. It also helped that we no longer had all the extra cash to blow.

While Sheldon and I did settle into the flat over the weeks that followed our excursion through the Other World, signs of my old life were everywhere. I made the choice to not regret those years because they led me to both my new job and true-mate. Still, watching Sheldon redecorate our bedroom and drone over his share set of the Lost Fang bone china made me want to give him more – the whole deal. The house, the back garden, the car and driver. That last one because I still wasn’t sure if Sheldon could drive or not.

I hadn’t talked to my parents for long since meeting Sheldon but considered calling my sire to talk about the trust fund issue, but decided against it. We’d make do for now. Hell, maybe one day it’d be our kid using that trust fund money. Later, I’d talk to Trista about lowering our number of ‘vacation homes’ to a reasonable one. We could split the profit and then I could buy Sheldon the house he deserved.

“I could buy you a house,” Sheldon said, lowering his sunglasses to look at me.

“Huh?” I blinked, still lost in thought.

He took his earplugs out and sat up. We’d laid out a blanket on the balcony to get some sun. I wasn’t sure Sheldon would be up for it, but so far he hadn’t burnt to a crisp.

“I could buy us a house if you’re worried about it. I get it. Raising a kid on the fourth floor with a balcony and amazing windows seems like it might be a deathtrap. Other people have done it, though. We could ask M-A-G-I,” he spelled out the hearth program’s name so he didn’t butt into our conversation, “how we could childproof things. If you’re worried about Trista, maybe you could convince her to pick one of the other places you own that you won’t use anymore, and she’ll clear her space out here. Like a fair trade, you know? Unless she’s really attached to the flat. Then I guess maybe you could choose another place.”

“Sometimes I forget you can hear my thoughts,” I chuckled, sitting up too.

“You think very loudly,” he teased, “but it something we’ll have to talk about soon.”

“Are we?” I asked, leaning over to sniff the crook of his neck.

“I don’t think that’s where I’d smell pregnant, sweetheart,” he laughed but let me nuzzle him anyway. “I haven’t gotten morning sickness, but I keep having dreams about eating raisins.”

“Huh? Raisins? Maybe I should stay up some night and dream eavesdrop,” I said, pulling him to me so that his head rested on my shoulder.

“My carrier swears every time he’s pregnant, they’re all he wants to eat,” Sheldon said.

“And are you craving them now?” I arched a brow at him and glanced down at his still-flat belly.

“No, but I’m dreaming about them,” he laughed. “Maybe it’s the same thing.”

“I don’t think it is. When I was a kid, I had this recurring dream that I ate the microwave in our kitchen. I don’t think that’s the same thing as eating a microwave.”

“You’re adorable,” Sheldon laughed. “I can only imagine your wolf trying to do that. If you want, we could place a grocery order and --- Wait? Grocery stores sell them, right?”

“What? Raisins? Probably. That should be a definite answer, but I don’t know that I’ve ever bought raisins.”

“No, Alpha. Does the grocery store sell pregnancy tests?”

“Probably. I mean Trista had a lot of pregnancy scares as a teen and while we were in college, but she just snagged them from our dads. They’re doctors. So, they always had them in the house or in their offices.”

“You have a visitor pressing the call button,” Sheldon said.

“Huh?”

“Don’t you hear it?” he blinked.

“Nope, but I believe you. Do you know who it is?” I asked.

“If I tell you, you may never stand up.”

I sighed. It had to be Trista. It was always Trista. She couldn’t even stay away and let us have a matingmoon. Starscale Search gave me six weeks of true-mate leave and she couldn’t even make it through three weeks of us being at the flat without showing up.

“If I ignore her, will you think I’m a total asshole forever?” I asked hopefully.

Sheldon frowned at me and shook his head.

“Fine,” I sighed. “You’re as bad as my carrier. Giving me looks that make my ass ache.”

“Be nice, Alpha. She’s crying,” Sheldon’s frown deepened.

“Shit,” I swore under my breath and grabbed my shirt from the balcony railing.

I put it on as I sprinted through the house. Trista had always been a bit of a drama queen. She knew how to work fake tears to get what she wanted from a lot of people. The second I tuned into our twin link her fear rushed over me. Fear was not an emotion Trista experienced often.

“Come up, come up,” I said into the intercom as I pressed the button to unlock the elevator. “Don’t you have your card?”

“No. I don’t have anything with me,” she said over our twin link.

I turned to grab my own card, but Sheldon held it out to me when I turned around. The elevator didn’t care which side of the door swiped the card as long as someone did.

“I’m going to take a shower and give you two some time alone,” Sheldon said, turning toward the hallway.

“Are you sure? Shit. I mean, are you okay?” I asked.

“I am. Even if I’m pregnant. I’ll be pregnant later after you calm your sister down. I’ll even put in my ear plugs and try not to pay attention.”

“No, do pay attention, please,” I said as the elevator chimed.

“We’ll see,” Sheldon said, disappearing down the hallway as I swiped my card to open the elevator.

Trista drew in a sobbing breath as she stepped out into my arms. The door shut behind her and my heart dropped into my stomach. Did she know too? How had she found out about the almost certain death looming over the horizon?

“Mill-Mill,” I said, defaulting back to what I called her when we were tiny and she still went by Mildred.

“I can’t do this to him,” she said, trying to swallow down her tears.

“To who?” I asked.

“Therine,” she sobbed.

“Who the hell is Therine?”

“Not the person dying,” my wolf chimed into my thoughts, and I let out a long, slow breath.

Their secret was still safe for now.

“My true-mate, you jackass!” She swore.

“What?” I leaned back out of our embrace to see her face. “Where is he? Don’t tell me you left him standing outside! Millie! Trista! Fuck! Either!”

She let out a little sniffy laugh and shook her head as she crossed the room to flop down on the sofa.

“Twin, where is your mate?” I asked again.

“Back at the hotel in water shifter territory,” she said, leaning back and rubbing her forehead with the heel of her palm.

“Why?” I asked. “Did you run out of money?” I glanced toward the bedroom door where my wallet was.

I wasn’t loaded, but I’d do my best to cover her hotel bill, so she wasn’t embarrassed in front of her new mate.

“No, his family owns the hotel. He’s a seal. Adorable fucking seal, Trav. I can’t do this to him,” she rubbed her forehead faster.

“Stop before you poke out your third eye,” I said and flopped down on the sofa next to her.

“Be his true-mate! Me! He’s good. He wants to see the world but stays at home to help his widowed mother run the hotel. He volunteers as a lifeguard in his free time and gives swim lessons to people who are afraid of the ocean! And I’m--- I’m just me.”

“Trista, he chose you at some point,” I reminded her. “This is supposed to be a good thing. No, it is a good thing.”

“How?”

“Are you going to make another spoof video of our siblings?” I asked.

“No!” she sighed.

“Trista being obnoxious and partying didn’t make you bad. Hell, the normal social media didn’t even make you bad. Maybe we were annoying, but we have our reasons.”

“What if I fuck his life up? What if he wakes up and figures out that I’m just a bitch and ---”

“Look, I’m still mad at you for lying to me, but you’re more than just a bitch,” I said.

“I’d pop any other man in the nose for calling me that.”

“Good. So would I and that’s the point. One bad thing can’t ruin your life. Does he know about it?” I asked.

“Yeah. I told him everything trying to convince him that somehow our noses were wrong.”

I reached over and patted her shoulder. She growled and yanked away from me.

“What the fuck, Trav?”

“Did that hurt?” I smirked.

“Yes! That fucking hurt!”

“Well, that’s because full claiming glands don’t like to be slapped.”

She slapped my shoulder in the same spot and I laughed.

“Mine,” I pulled over my shirt to show off Sheldon’s claiming bite, “isn’t full!”

“Asshole,” she said, but managed a real laugh.

“Look, I’m not saying life will ever be the same as it was before the video. It can’t be. We’ve found our mates. Sheldon might be pregnant. He keeps dreaming about raisins and that’s a sign in his family or something.”

“Your mate might be pregnant and you’re talking to me?” she asked, her eyes growing big.

“You have no room to speak on it, sister! Your adorable seal is in another fucking time zone!”

She leaned her head against the back of the sofa again.

“Maybe he’ll be good for you. I mean, he’ll have to be. He’s your true-mate. If he hasn’t ran screaming yet that is.”

“He hasn’t, somehow,” she sighed.

“Look. Life is crazy, but meeting him is a good thing. I don’t think I’ve ever heard you question whether we’re good or not before. Maybe you could help at the hotel. Run their social media or something.”

“They don’t even have a website for the hotel,” she groaned.

“Well, make them one. Talk to his mom or whoever and get it going, if they’re interested. If not, do a documentary or start taking photographs for tourists or something. Buy a bunch of bathing suits and spend all your free time swimming!”

“You make it sound so fucking easy,” she sighed and closed her eyes.

“It is or it will be with some practice,” I told her. “You’ll figure it out if you just stick it out.”

“Thank you for not yelling at me.”

“Just because you pissed me off doesn’t mean you’re not my twin. You need to figure out how to make things right with Scott. You lied to me, but you really hurt him. Maybe there isn’t a way to make it right. I don’t know, but some day when life is calmer, you have to try. Maybe your mate will have some idea since he’s so good,” I nudged her with my elbow. “Besides, he’s the only one who’ll see your memories in his territory. It’s your chance to start with a clean slate. Sure, social media is still there, but,” I shrugged, “who cares? Seriously.”

“What if I fuck up and hurt him?” she asked.

“I don’t think you will,” I shook my head. “I don’t think you’d have shown up crying to my matingmoon if that was on the table, Trista.”

“I’ve never done a serious relationship.”

“Me neither before now,” I shook my head.

“I’ve only fucked around with fuckbois,” Trista sighed.

“Well, maybe he’ll be a fuckboi in the bedroom,” I teased.

She slapped my chest with the back of her hand and laughed.

“I’ve never been so scared in my life. Not even when they turned off the trust fund.”

“You’ll be okay. You have a good heart, Trista. You just need ---” I took a deep breath. “You just need to focus on yourself and your mate and not everyone else. Don’t worry about who’s buying what or drinking what or fucking who. Just live. Hell, disappear from social media all together if you need to. This is about what you need and what your mate needs. Not what so-called friends and fans need. I haven’t posted since, well that night. I’ve vlogged. Shit. Recorded. I’ve recorded, because there are things I don’t want to forget, but outside of my work account I just said fuck it.”

“I made my accounts private now,” she sighed.

“That’s why you’re afraid,” I nodded. “You’re serious about him and you don’t get serious about anything.”

“I want to give him the world.”

“Well, I hate to break it to you, but the first step of getting this adorable seal shifter the world is actually being there.”

“He knows I came to visit you,” she said.

“Good. Don’t run off without telling him.”

“I didn’t want him to worry.”

“Here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to go back to your mate and tell him what you told me. All of it. Then you’re going to do whatever you two need to do to work through it. That’s probably more on your part than his. I’m going to sprint out to the pharmacy to buy a pixelated baby test.”

“Oh! Hold on!” she said, opening her diaper bag sized brown leather purse.

I stifled a laugh as she fished around the bag.

“Kitchen sink!” I fake-cheered and she shot me a dirty look.

“Here,” she said, pulling out a box with the pixelated baby on the front. “It’s the green one too. So it knows sooner.”

“Thanks,” I said, pocketing the test.

“Okay. I’m leaving now, but you have to stop ignoring me all the time, please. It makes me crazy. It’s like talking to myself.”

“I’ll pay attention if it’s urgent.”

“I almost want to drag you back with me,” Trista frowned.

“My job is here,” I laughed.

“There are Other World gateways. I got here in fifteen minutes and that included walking from the nearest one.”

”What did you think of that?”

“The gateway? It was fine, I guess,” she shrugged.

I opened my mouth and shut it again. This wasn’t the time to tell her that I’d sooner move to Heartville or even Sheldon’s coven’s stronghold before I moved with her. Either of those options brought Sheldon closer to his family.”

I hugged Trista bye and kissed the top of her head. The elevator doors shut, and Sheldon hugged me from behind pressing his cheek against my shoulder.

“She’ll be okay,” he said, his voice soft and reassuring.

“Hey, do you miss your family?” I asked him.

“What do you mean? We’re on our matingmoon. I haven’t thought about them much besides texting Mom about the interesting parts of shopping in person.”

“What about in the long run?”

“Is this about you commuting from Heartville? You thought about it for a second while talking to your sister,” he whispered.

I turned around and covered up his ears. Magi still had noise blocking on and it kept out most of the sounds I could hear, but Sheldon picked up kids laughing miles away.

“Would you even like that? You hated going through the Other World, Alpha,” Sheldon frowned.

“It’s something I could get used to. There’s something coming up and I think ---” I took a deep breath. “I can’t tell you what’s going to happen. It’s not my story to tell, but when it happens, I think I’ll need to be close to my pack and you were happy around Cardian. I know Terrick hates me, but he’ll have to come around, right? It’s not a war. It won’t get me hurt or you or whatever. It’s just---”

“I believe you,” Sheldon said, rising to his tiptoes to kiss my cheek. “If you need to be there and you can handle the commute, then let’s raise our kids there. Let’s settle down there after our matingmoon. Will your job be okay with it?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “A lot of the other guys commute in from further out in the Moonscale Territory. One bear comes in from Spain three days a week for the part of his job he can’t do remotely.”

“Is it what you want?” Sheldon asked.

“I think it’s what we need,” I said. “Besides, we can still come over here and shop at all the grocery stores.”

“We better. I’m addicted to those blood chocolates your sister has stashed all over the flat.”

“We will or we’ll drone them in,” I said, pulling him closer for a real kiss.