Mate ...s ?!?!
Chapter Four

[Jace’s POV]

The nagging feeling of recognition was there as I took in my little Mate’s face. As soon as Kin came in and looked down in disgust at my little Mate, I knew this was not going to end well. I knew instantly it was his youngest brother by his look of anger and that he was going to cause problems for us. I hadn’t truly recognized Orion until Kin had made that face at my Mate in the bed. I hadn’t know that our Mate would end up being little Orion. If I had I would have done so much more to protect him. I had known Kin had a little Omega brother but never paid too much attention to him. Now I was kicking myself for that mistake. Hard.

Jaxson didn’t know it but Orion had been abused since Kelani was killed. I had only seen it once but I hadn’t really thought much about it and Kin never bothered to care much after his precious twin died. I knew how he felt, or at least I could sympathize. I would never know what to do with myself if something happened to Jaxson. I loved my brother and I knew Kin had loved his sister. However, I would never place blame on a child that had no idea what had been going on.

The night before Jax and I had left for Alpha camp Kin had come to the house a complete wreck and I had let him go home like that. I flinched internally thinking of what he must have done to my poor little Mate. I could never tell any of this to Jax or he would beat the shit out of me for keeping this from him for so long but I would have to make sure to keep Kin away from Orion now. I would never let anything happen to him again.

I had looked up as Kin rushed into the room his insults rolling off until he drew the last one. It was the last thing I remember before I am now holding him up against this fucking wall for calling my MATE an IT!!! No one insults him that far!!

I had never liked putting up with Kin’s bullshit and I was going to END it all now!!! He has always been trash!!

“Jace!!” Jax called out to me as he rushed over to me to try and unhook my hand from around Kin’s throat. “Come on, bubby he’s not worth it.” He said his voice trying to calm me down. It was hard but I let him do it.

I sighed and tossed Kin from the room, slamming the door in his face before locking it behind me. I whipped around and gathered Jax into my arms, holding him tightly against me. “I want to kill him.” I whispered angrily against Jax’s neck. I really wanted to kill Kinder.

Jax pulled his arms out from under mine showing me just who the stronger twin was and wrapped them around me, “Shh, it’s all right. We won’t let him get anywhere near our Mate.” Jax said his voice dead serious and I knew he meant it. I nodded and turned to the bed where I was expecting to see my sleeping Orion.

However, I was faced with a very conscious Orion. He was just lying in the bed, not moving, his eyes wide open as he stared at the ceiling. Jax and I moved to his side quickly, gathering on the same side, hoping to not overwhelm him again. This time we were on his level so at least we weren’t towering over him.

“Are you ok?” Jax asked softly, his voice pulling Orion’s beautiful eyes over to us.

They were filled with unshed tears. Ones that as soon as he tilted his head streamed down his face. Seeing them hurt deeply and all I wanted to do was wipe them away forever.

“What’s wrong, little one?” Jax asked softly moving his hand a little closer to Orion’s. His hands wanting to do the same as mine and wipe away his sadness.

“You stood up for me against Kinder. Why would you do that? He is going to beat me so bad when I go home!!” he sobbed/smiled/laughed. Was he really, ok? Was he having a panic attack?

“Are you sure you’re, ok?” I asked him curiously worried about him. What had we done?!

He shook his head and sighed, “He really will hurt me, but I don’t care anymore. It’s not like he can hurt me anymore than he already has.” Orion breathed out softly. Like he was just accepting the coming pain from Kinder. That angered me so much.

“You are not going near him anymore Orion. He won’t touch you again.” I said seriously getting a squeak from him and a sharp look from my twin. I knew I was in trouble. I knew his name already and Jax didn’t.

Orion just shook his head and rolled over, away from us. “I know you don’t want an Omega as a Mate. You have already broken my heart by sticking up for me and showing me kindness, Jace. Please Don’t make your rejection of me worse.” He said through the tears that I knew were streaming from his little eyes.

I knew he had recognized us. Little brat.

Wait!! What?!?!

“Rejection!!??” Jaxson and I shouted in total shock getting him to flinch and curl in on himself. As if waiting for us to reject him right then.

“Orion, sweetheart, why on earth would we reject you!?!” I demanded as Jax turned to glare at me again. He did not like how familiar I was with our Mate. Not that I was all that familiar with the little thing on the bed. I had only seen him once and remembered his name because I always thought he looked just like one of the little stars in the Orion’s belt he had been named for. I had seen him once before only because I had gone to Kinder’s house in search of some kind of shoulder to lean on. Jax had been busy searching for Orion and I was too depressed to notice him.

“Oh, come on Jace. I heard you and Kin that night.” He whimpered softly, his words slamming right into my chest. Pain and hurt filling me instantly with his words.

I knew exactly the night he was talking about. The night I swore I would never accept an Omega as my Mate. I was angry at Jax because he was being obsessive about replaceing our little Omega and it had really gotten to me that night for some reason. I was being ignored and I had started to feel left behind and I hated it. Like I was never going to be enough no matter what I did.

I had gone over to talk with Kin about it and blow off some steam, I had never meant for Orion to hear any of that. I never knew he was even close to us to hear all of that.

“That has nothing to do with you and everything to do with me.” I said owning up to my self-doubt.

“Leave me alone.” Orion whimpered softly, trying to make himself as small as possible on the bed.

Jax grabbed me by my hair, getting a very unmanly whimper from me as he yanked me from the room, softly closing the door behind us before slamming me against the wall, a low menacing snarl ripping from his chest.

“What that fuck was that!” he growled at me harshly. His eyes were the deep gold of Lysander’s. He was that angry over this.

“I knew about Orion. I had no idea he was our Mate though. He’s Kin’s youngest brother although as you can see Kin won’t willingly admit that.” I said pulling Jax’s arm away enough for me to breathe. “If I had known Rion was ours, do you fucking think I would have hidden that!!” I growled, offended that he would think I could keep something like this from him. I would have taken Orion from his home the millisecond I knew he was ours had I known sooner.

Jax sighed and set me down, “Well, he hates us now. What are we supposed to do? We can’t let him go back to that house where Kinder is.” He said seriously. No shit. Kinder will kill Orion given the opportunity.

I was thinking about that, Rion would never let us come near him again right now. He was too upset. That’s when I spotted that little female from earlier that was trying to help him from the floor before Jax and I had taken over. I tapped Jax on his shoulder and pointed at her, she was just leaving the girls bathroom and she was wearing a very worried look on her face. They had to be close, it was on her face earlier when she wanted to argue with us.

Jax took off after her, stopping her to say a few things before he had her nodding happily and they were both walking back toward me. “This is Cassie, she is Orion’s best friend and she is a Beta as well. She has been trying to keep an eye out for our little Omega while we were not able to so, she should be commended for her efforts don’t you think Jace?” he said looking at me pointedly, almost daring me to ignore his implied statement.

I smiled at him, Jax was going to replace Kinder with Cassie and it was going to piss everyone off. I loved him so fucking much. “Cassie, can you do us a huge favor?” I asked, pleading with the smaller female. Hoping she would at least hear us out.

“Are you going to continue to act like an ass toward my best friend?” she asked, her voice filled with sass as she looked at us both seriously. Damn, this girl had balls.

We both held our hands up and Jax pointed to me “He was the one who started all of this not me. I don’t even know what was said.” He said throwing me under the proverbial bus of shit. Thank you twin brother.

Turn about it fair play asshole.

“Actually Jaxson, everything that was said that night, you know the one our beautiful Mate is so pissed off about right now, is because of you.” I said rolling my eyes at him and pushing his shoulder.

Cassie sighed and growled a little, “Regardless, children. Orion has been having a really hard time and the two of you popping up like this now is not going to help.” She said getting our undivided attention. “He was almost free of them.” She whispered to herself mostly.

“What do you mean?” I asked curiously, not liking the tone of her voice.

“Orion, has not been doing very well and not just at home.” Cassie admitted, sadness in her pale blue eyes as she began to explain everything to us in harsh detail. It had not been something we had ever been expecting to hear and it was going to be ending very fucking soon. This was not going to be done in my Pack without punishment.

These people were going to pay.