The Game Of Quadruplet Mates
Chapter 21

"Hey, Jeremy-" The words d i e d on my lips as I saw his expression.

No more were the bright baby blue eyes I was so fond of. In its place were dark eyes and a face that could kill.

Just when I thought he was going to shout at me, he turned away, walking quickly out of the dining room.

"The Alpha is expecting you." He coldly says, not bothering to wait for me.

I bid the girls a quick goodbye and chased after the seething Beta. "Wait, Jeremy,"

He doesn't stop, nearly sprinting out the front door.

With a speed I didn't know I had, I caught him just as he was about to wrench the door off of its hinges. My hand tightens around his shirt sleeve. "Why are you suddenly so upset?"

His eyes, black as the night, stared down at my neck... at my mark and I felt as though there wasn't enough air in my lungs.

Oh.

That's why.

The things that the girls said earlier come back to me then. How they said that Jeremy had told everyone he was taking a mate, how he took her bracelet and never returned it, how he said she would be his mate at the end of the weekend. But he came home without one.

Helplessly, I watched as I saw the anger melt into sadness... defeat. I try to reach for him but he pulls away.

"It's none of my business," He says with a shake of his head.

"Jeremy," I began, not knowing how to continue. "Let's talk about this."

"What happened, happened. I made my decision. I should learn to live with it." Jeremy says dismissively, trying to put more space between us.

I could only frown, feeling like I was being given pieces of a puzzle that I couldn't figure out. "What are you saying? You're upset..."

His teeth ground together in a frightening way. "I'm upset with how quickly you mated with him, how quickly you allowed yourself to be marked when I made sure to give you time and,"

"He's my mate." I said, interrupting him.

Jeremy flinched, a look of utter pain all over his face. "He wasn't your mate two days ago."

"I suppose that's how it works." I explained weakly. "You were there. You saw him claim me and you did nothing."

The pain seemed to double as he leaned against the wall, holding himself. "So I shouldn't have waited, is that what you're saying?"

"No." I scrambled for what to say but failed miserably as always. "I just meant that Ajax is my mate."

Something about this triggered him. "I know that. You think I don't know that? He was the one that stopped me from-"

"From what?" When he doesn't respond, I try to go near him. "From what, Jeremy?

His throat bops as he steps away. "Nothing. Let's get you to your mate."

I wanted to go back. I wanted to hear what he had to say... what Ajax stopped him from doing. "But Jeremy,"

"Don't make it more difficult than it already is. Please, June." He pleaded softly. "I can't handle this right now."

Seeing the state of him, I stopped and let out a breath. "I'm sorry. I won't push anymore."

A loud kind of silence came between us and it was so unlike us that it hurt. How did something so beautiful, so happy turn into something so sad, so miserable? There was always something to talk about with Jeremy. It was always bright like sunshine with us. With him. Not anymore.

I'm thankful for the distraction as we walked out of the house. The silence fades away with the chirping birds flying over us and the calming sounds of the rushing waterfall drown away the heavy feeling in my heart. High above the blue, very blue sky, the sun shines bright, the clouds white and puffy. All around me the lush green nature danced with the soft breeze, encasing us in this beautiful world far away from everyone else.

I quietly followed behind Jeremy, who was at least a few feet away from me. He had his head down and did not look up once. I try not to let this get to me and focus on my surroundings instead.

The pathways leading to the town were empty with everyone probably already at the venue where the announcement would be made, but I saw the gist of their calm lives with the smell of food in the air, fresh laundry that was hung from a window and the remnants of smoke from chimneys.

"Has he given you a tour yet?" Jeremy's quiet voice asked.

I nodded, eyes wide with surprise that he was speaking to me. "He has."

He seemed to be pondering over something. "There's a lake with a swing in the east. Have you seen it?"

The mention of a lake makes my stomach flip, but I know he means nothing by it. In the Assembly, the lake was where I always was, even before Jeremy. "No."

"I think you'll like it." Jeremy stops, deep in thought. "Maybe I'll show you when we're both... better."

I couldn't help but smile. "Okay."

The silence that came next was comfortable and I welcomed the peace that came with it. However, it didn't last long because I started to hear a low murmur from a distance.

"We're here?" I asked, looking around. From what I could tell, we were at the center of town, a wide circular space in the heart of the nameless pack.

"Yes." He says, sounding detached once more. "The Alpha is coming to get you here."

I could hear them louder now, a good few hundred people, and my nerves started to get the best of me.

"June?" Jeremy turned to me, his face marred with worry. "You can do it. This won't be like the Games. This is your home now. It will be just like home."

I bit my lower lip anxiously. "What if they hate me? What if I'm not what they expected?"

"I'm sure they'll welcome you with open arms, June." He says with such certainty. "I was from the city pack, related to the very ones that destroyed homes and took away their lives, yet they still accepted me. What more a sweet, beautiful girl that only has love to give?"

There was something about the comfort of a first love, a fleeting crush that made everything feel better instantly. Because that's what Jeremy is. A crush, a first love, my first love.

He was the one I saw first, the one I first sought out and... my first kiss.

But that's when it becomes fleeting.

A memory.

A dream that's long gone.

It's silly because it was barely a weekend yet it felt longer with him. It felt more.

"Thank you." I whispered because there were no other words to say.

His hand reaches out to me and just as I feel his warmth on me. My mark starts to burn and I take a step back only to feel my back pressed against a hard muscular chest.

I know who it is without needing to look.

Jeremy drops his hand, forcing a smile. "Alpha,"

"Jeremy," The deep baritone of my mate acknowledged back. A large firm hand rests on my shoulder then. "Thank you for bringing my mate to me. You know you're the only one I can fully trust with her."

The heavy meaning in Ajax's words makes me look up at him and, as always, his expression gives nothing away, a wall of stone keeping everything out of sight. If not for the tightness of his jaw, I would think he meant it by his words or maybe he did. It was hard to tell with Ajax.

Jeremy only smiles wider but it doesn't make it to his eyes. "Of course, Alpha."

And as if nothing happened, as if words weren't said, Jeremy bowed his head low to me.

"Luna," He stepped to the side, giving us the space to walk as he left for a different route.

Without another word, Ajax places his arm around me and guides me to the center of town where the nameless pack waits. "You haven't changed your mind have you?"

Startled by his question, I stiffened, glancing up at him. Big molten amber eyes shined bright with repressed emotions. "Ajax,"

His jaw clenched. "Answer the question."

I couldn't help but think... what did he stop Jeremy from doing?

How did he stop it?

Will I ever know?

Should I know?

Following my instincts, I reached for his face, cupping his bearded cheeks. "No."

The darkness in his eyes doesn't easily subside. "I don't plan on sharing you, June, and I don't care who I trample along the way to make sure of that."

It wasn't a threat. It was a reminder.

He pulls me close, worry so very clear in his amber eyes. It was the first emotion to break out from his stone expression. "June, I need to know that I won't lose you." My foolish, foolish heart.

I do not understand how it seems to respond to both of them in such different ways.

"You won't." I swore to him, to the mark on my neck, to the healing wound on my finger that claimed me to him, to the amber eyes that had followed me for much longer than I realized.

Ajax lets out a breath that he's been holding and then leans down to place a long kiss on my forehead. "Time to show the pack who they're new boss is."

I lift an eyebrow, a squeeze in my heart making it difficult to fake a smile. "New? Was there someone else before me?"

He also lifts an eyebrow. "Me? As the Luna, you outrank me now. All your orders go first before mine. At least that's how I want it."

"Oh," I said dumbly.

"What did you think it was? Are you perhaps..." He stared at me with a small smile playing at his lips. "Jealous? Is my little mate jealous?"

I don't respond. Too red in the face to speak.

Ajax leans down to press his lips on my ear and whispers a low: "Admit it. Tell me you're jealous."

My heart fluttering from his close proximity and his husky voice that both chills and burns me, I take him by surprise by facing him. Our noses are pressed together and our lips a mere breath away from each other. Making sure to copy his low voice, I whispered back: "Do I have anything to be jealous of?"

My pulse quickens, waiting in anticipation for his answer.

Suddenly, I'm on a wall, pressed against it by a body that was pure muscle. Ajax is on my neck, his lips sucking on my mark and making me gasp and shake. The shocks that went through my body were like a lightning bolt coursing through me and I couldn't keep myself up, my knees were too weak. If not for Ajax's hands on my waist gripping me steadily in place, I would already be on the floor.

"Only you, June. Only you." His hot breath fanned my skin, making my skin prickle and my eyes roll back. "If you knew just how much..." He doesn't finish his words, his tongue making a home in my mark.

Thank goodness Jeremy was nowhere in sight, probably already at the center of town, because if he saw this... if he heard the sounds I was making...

We were getting carried away. Continuing this, out in public too, would- oh. Using his tongue and sharp teeth, he goes down my neck, claiming every part of me that he could reach.

A sharp cough makes me jump out of my skin, trying desperately to distance myself from Ajax, who does not stop as easily as I did. He continued to pepper me with kisses, keeping me in place.

Ajax and his monstrous body blocked my line of sight so I couldn't very well see who was there.

"Alpha,"

I felt myself shrink.

It was Jeremy.

I couldn't see him.

But it was Jeremy.

I would know his voice anywhere.

"They're waiting."

Placing one final kiss on my mark, Ajax finally pulls away. A mask of stone was already on his face, unreadable and impossible to crack if not for his blackened eyes. "I thought you went ahead." "I did..." Jeremy wasn't as hard to read, his face tight and his eyes red rimmed. "But people were asking for you, so I thought,"

"Thank you, Jeremy." Ajax says quickly, and if I didn't know better, Ajax also wasn't aware that Jeremy had returned. Maybe I was just imagining it, but I think he's guilty of being caught with me.

Or maybe I'm just overthinking things like always.

Or maybe he saw the same heartbroken look on Jeremy's face.

They seemed to be close and, from how Jeremy spoke of Ajax, they sounded like a team, a good team, though I haven't seen them interact much since I arrived. I just hope it's not because of the situation we were in. I would hate for Jeremy to lose his relationship with his Alpha, who he obviously looks up to.

Ajax licks his lips and uses his thumb to wipe mine. "Ready?"

I let out a breath, clearing my throat and giving myself a little shake. "Ready."

The Alpha of the nameless pack, the mountain dwellers, the monsters of our monsters, takes my hand in his and tugs me forward, to his world, to his pack, to the people that he is responsible for- that I will be responsible for too. I do not know what I was expecting, but as we left the path we were walking on and came out to the center of town, I did not expect to see so many faces.

Hundreds.

Thousands.

Several thousand.

A sea of them.

They were more than I ever thought possible and they were all looking at me. The center of town could barely fit them, all of them shoulder to shoulder, and clearly waiting for us.

My first thought was that I didn't belong here. Every single one of the people that had gathered was tall, lean and muscular, an all too familiar edge to them. The edge that made them the nameless pack. Even the children that were in front or sitting atop their parents' shoulders looked battle ready and there I was... tiny and getting tinier.

I have never enjoyed being the center of attention. Mostly because I was never the center of attention. I was forgettable and I was good at being forgettable.

But now, hundreds, thousands, countless eyes stared at me, and I wasn't so forgettable anymore.

Ajax takes the lead, sensing my uneasiness, stepping forward and gathering all the attention on him. And on his mark. Everyone seemed to stare at it with both horror and wonder, because it is unheard of for a man to be marked in this day and age. Worse, when it's a powerful Alpha and Ajax wasn't even hiding it, he didn't bother covering it. He flaunted it for his entire pack to see.

Regardless of what they thought, it didn't take long for everyone to bow low, murmuring their greetings. "You must all know by now that I have chosen a mate."

His words echoed through the town, through the entire valley, and it was strong, unwavering and confident. An Alpha.

It wasn't flattering words and charming smiles like the city pack Alpha. No. Ajax was much different... more commanding and it showed that he had earned his position rather than bought it.

Ajax glanced at me, unsmiling, but his amber eyes were softer, gentler. "June is your Luna and I expect everyone to show her great respect."

The rest of the pack stared at me inquisitively, looking me up and down, searching my face as if looking for something, looking for a reason why I, a small little girl from the farm pack, could ever mate and mark their Alpha.

Despite all the obvious questions in their eyes, they all bowed respectfully, without saying a word.

Still, this greeting is leagues warmer than what I've experienced in the past. Curiosity and guarded expression are far more welcoming than disgust and immediate loathing.

If they think I'm not good enough for their Alpha, they do not show it. Or maybe it's because they trust him enough to choose his mate, the Luna of their pack. Whatever it is, no negativity is shown to me. All stiff courteousness and mild tolerance. Ajax, being Ajax, clenches his jaw and sends a warning that shakes the crowd. "Try anything otherwise and I will personally see to your execution."

He was serious and they knew that.

Still, they stared, their gazes heavy, trying to probably see what their Alpha saw in me.

In the sea of eyes that tried to see my soul, there were blue ones that were familiar and kind. Jeremy smiled from the front of the crowd, nodding to me encouragingly. His eyes still glowed with pain but he fought it away, doing his best to make me comfortable. But I also noticed one other pair of eyes, the one standing near Jeremy. While everyone was curiously looking at me, some excited, some trying to get a feel of what I was like, she... for those eyes were of a girl, stared at me with a look that I had never quite seen before on another girl.

Jealousy.

In the Games, the girls were angry at me, seething from envy, but it was never this kind of jealousy... and never this raw.

She held my stare, testing me and pushing me to my limits and though every part of me wanted to look away, to cower behind Ajax, I didn't. I stand strong, staring back.

To my surprise, she looks away first and before Ajax can finish his introduction of me, slips away.

My eyes followed after her, watching her dark brown hair blowing against the wind. She was really pretty. Her eyes glowed brown, almost like caramel, and her skin was so tan like she spent much of her time outdoors. A little on the smaller side and almost exactly like my built, but fiercer, so much fiercer than me.

She turned before disappearing, her eyes on me... on my neck.

And I wondered if Ajax was lying, if there was someone before me.

Because right now, she was looking at me not with anger or hate but with a look like I had stolen something from her and it was ripping her apart.

Glancing back at Ajax, he didn't seem to notice her, answering a question that someone from the crowd asked. I wasn't listening enough to know exactly what they were talking about, but when I saw Jeremy again, his eyes were wide, as if caught.

So was it Jeremy? Or was it Ajax?

The lingering stare on my neck said Ajax.

He lied to you. My inner voice spoke. There was someone else.

I pushed the words away, forcing a smile as I stood beside Ajax who was still talking to his people. Well, they talked and he listened, adding only a few words here and there.

Through all this, he keeps his arm around me, keeping me close. This surprises many of his pack members, all gaping up at us like they aren't used to seeing their Alpha so touchy with another.

This comforts me but not enough to forget her.

Whoever 'her' is.