Chapter 501-Facing My Mates

Chapter 501: 501-Facing My Mates

Verity:

Judging by the atmosphere inside, it seemed everyone was already expecting some serious drama.

The moment we walked in, my eyes landed on Jaguar and Theodore, who were sitting in the living room.

Both looked incredibly stressed, with glasses of wine on the table in front of them and an empty bottle beside them.

I took my time observing their expressions, trying to figure out what kind of situation we were about to walk into.

Theodore was the first to notice us.

He casually lifted his gaze, only to do a double take when he noticed me.

My heart skipped a beat.

I immediately tried to pull my hand free from Ragnar’s grip, but before I could manage it, Theodore slapped his palm against Jaguar’s thigh to get his attention.

Jaguar, who had been busy drinking, followed his brother’s stare.

The instant he spotted me, he shot to his feet.

"Verity!"

They both called my name almost simultaneously.

But there was something about their voices that unsettled me.

They weren’t merely shocked to see me.

There was something else beneath their surprise, something I couldn’t quite understand.

Their attention quickly shifted to Ragnar before dropping to our intertwined fingers.

"What the hell is going on? Where have you two been?" Jaguar demanded, taking a step toward us.

Theodore immediately caught his arm and tried pulling him back.

"What is happening here?" Theodore questioned, taking over the confrontation.

Not that he was helping matters. His voice was even louder than Jaguar’s.

I finally managed to slip my hand out of Ragnar’s, though it felt more like he’d deliberately loosened his grip to let me go.

I’d assumed they would think Ragnar had brought me back for them.

But judging by their reactions, they already seemed certain that wasn’t the case.

And that confused me even more.

What had happened during my absence that made them so suspicious of us?

"I think it’s time we let Verity decide what she wants to do next," Ragnar began.

His statement caught all three of us off guard.

If he’d at least given me a warning about what he intended to say, I might have known how to respond.

But Ragnar, being Ragnar, simply shifted slightly to the side so he could face me.

I nervously rubbed my palms together, struggling to understand where he was going with this.

"You mean she should choose between us?" Theodore asked, stepping forward.

He gestured between himself and Jaguar, making it clear he was talking about the two of them.

"Between her mates," Ragnar corrected him.

Theodore and Jaguar exchanged a glance before nodding.

"Exactly. Between us," Jaguar repeated, his tone noticeably harsher this time.

Ragnar raised an eyebrow at me.

And just like that, I understood what he was trying to tell me.

"Tell them what we felt last night."

The moment his words reached me, my heart nearly stopped.

Last night.

Of course.

There had been a full moon last night.

That was why Oswin had been taking me away.

He hadn’t simply wanted to mate with me. He’d intended to mark me, making me officially his.

And once he’d done that, he wouldn’t have cared what happened to my plans.

If Theodore or Jaguar had tried marking me afterward, they would have discovered Oswin’s mark, and everything I’d worked so hard for would’ve fallen apart.

The realization made my blood boil.

That fucking bastard.

"What do you mean? What did you feel?"

Theodore’s voice pulled me back to the present.

I forced myself to stop thinking about Oswin. There was no point dwelling on him anymore.

He’d already received his punishment.

"Verity, what the hell is he talking about?" Theodore yelled, his patience finally snapping.

"Yeah, how long is this nonsense going to continue?" Jaguar added, almost as though refusing to acknowledge what Ragnar had said would somehow make it untrue.

"First, tell me one thing. Where the hell did you two go together?" Jaguar demanded, pointing at both of us. "We went to your house to talk to you, but you weren’t there. Then we found out that..."

He broke off, and I noticed how heavily he was breathing, his chest rising and falling as he struggled to contain his anger.

"Calm down, Jaguar. We haven’t done anything wrong," Ragnar assured him, and for the first time since we’d arrived, I could hear genuine concern for his brothers in his voice.

"Calm down?" Jaguar repeated in disbelief. "How the fuck am I supposed to calm down when I’m finding out that our own mate has been involved with you too? And that she spent the entire night with you somewhere?"

He was so upset that he could barely get the words out, and for some reason, a sharp ache began spreading through my chest.

The mate bond.

I knew exactly what that pain meant.

One of my mates was hurting terribly, and the bond was making me feel it too.

It only grew worse when Theodore suddenly shook his head and stepped forward.

"People told us you’d been staying at her house when you claimed you were away on a mission. You were with her this whole time!" He pointed accusingly at me before turning his attention back to Ragnar. "And you knew how worried we were, yet you didn’t bother telling us!"

I secretly clenched my fists behind my back, digging my nails into my palms.

My anxiety was getting worse.

Three large men stood in front of me, raising their voices, and two of them were my mates, whose distress was making my chest ache.

Surely, they could feel the pain through our bond too, but they were so fucking furious that it hardly seemed to matter to them.

And what about me?

I was mated to both of them. Whatever they were feeling, I had to endure it from two different bonds, along with my own growing panic.

Standing between them brought back a fear I hadn’t felt in a long time.

For a moment, I felt like the same frightened girl they’d once called a fat pig, the one who used to shrink under their stares and tremble whenever they raised their voices.

"Wait."

Jaguar suddenly stopped, pressing a hand against his temple as though something had just occurred to him.