Condemned Mates (Destined Mates Book 2)

by James Wolfe

  I really couldn’t believe it, either. All these years, and I’d never once doubted that Sam had really believed he was my mate. How could I have lived in such close proximity to him all this time and not have realized the truth?

  I knew how… because he wasn’t my mate. I didn’t truly understand him. And we were as distant as two people could be for living under the same roof.

  “Our whole lives are about finding our mates,” Sam explained, “so when I thought about the fact that I didn’t know mine… yes, okay? I was terrified to be alone.”

  I couldn’t even blame him for that. When I’d realized I was unhappy with Sam, hadn’t I decided I’d rather be unhappy with him than unhappy alone? Anyone was better than being alone.

  “Do you realize what you’ve done?!” Sam’s other father asked. “Look at the way you’ve torn everyone apart! Look how complicated you have made things for Cecil finding his own mate!”

  Sam had tears in his eyes as he looked at me. “Cecil, I’m so sorry. I really, really am. I thought a hundred times of admitting the truth, but every time I was scared to be without you. I really do care about you, and… if I’d known you’d found your mate, I would have stepped aside completely. I’m so sorry for what I’ve done…”

  “I forgive you!” I said quickly, and everyone looked at me oddly. “Really, it’s okay.”

  “How can you say that?” Sam asked. “My dad is right. Look at the mistakes I’ve made, look at how I’ve complicated our lives…”

  “Sure, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” I told him. “I think things happened just the way they were supposed to happen. I think all of this, including us being together when we shouldn’t have been, I believe it was fate.”

  “How can it be?” he asked. “You could’ve been happy with your mate all these years if I wouldn’t have told that atrocious lie—”

  “But could I have been?” I cut him off. “Because, before you, I had no interest in humans. Before you, I was just obsessed with finding my mate, and I thought I’d find it in another werewolf. Yes, our relationship did make me unhappy, but that’s the only reason I sought out escape. It’s the only reason I joined the export team. If I wasn’t with you, I never would have done that. It’s the fact that we were together that brought me to Lyle in the first place. And now that I’ve met him… I can’t imagine life without him. He’s my everything, and you helped bring him to me. For that, I will be grateful forever.”

  He looked at me suspiciously. “You just… really forgive me, then?”

  “I really, really do,” I said, as I pulled him in for a hug. A friendly one, of course, before I turned to my fathers.

  “Do you still have no interest in meeting my mate?” I asked them.

  The father who had just yelled at me a moment ago pulled me in for a hug. “I’m sorry, son. If I’d known… well, of course we would love to meet him.”

  “Good,” I said nonchalantly, “because he’s kind of part of the family already.”

  “Of course he is, if he’s your mate,” my other father added.

  “Not just because of that,” I said.

  “What else?” he questioned.

  “Because he’s already pregnant.”

  Both of my fathers’ jaws dropped. “You’re… you’re having a child?!” one asked excitedly.

  “We’ll be grandparents?!” the other grinned.

  ‘Yes, you will be,” I said, as they pulled me in for a hug.

  Caught up in the joy of the moment and the relief of the truth coming out, I had neglected to pay attention to Sam and his fathers. His dads’ facial expressions had both softened, but they still seemed sad. Sam looked downright depressed.

  My fathers had gained a son and a grandchild; they were adding to their family, but Sam’s parents had just lost a family member. One they loved very deeply, I might add. And I still loved them, too.

  And I still loved Sam, albeit in a completely different way than I loved Lyle.

  I put my hand on his shoulder. “This isn’t forever, Sam,” I said to him. “If I’ve learned anything from this whole experience, it’s that unhappiness does not last forever. I know you are confused and lonely now, but… it won’t always be that way. Things are going to get better. You are going to find your mate. I know he’s out there for you.”

  He nodded and forced a smile. “Don’t worry about me,” he said. “I’ve taken enough from you already. I’m not going to take any joy from you on what is a fantastic day. Congratulations on becoming a father.”

  I believed he genuinely meant it.

  “Thank you,” I said softly.

  “We should go,” one of Sam’s dads said as he pulled me in for a hug. “Congratulations, kiddo. We look forward to meeting your mate, too.”

  “We’ll come get Sam’s things later,” his other dad added, as he also hugged me. “We just need to talk in the meantime as a family.”

  “I understand completely,” I told him. “I’ll talk to you guys later?”

  “Of course,” Sam smiled at me.

  After they left, and it was just my dads and I, they smiled at me, too.

  “What?” I asked.

  “What are you waiting for?!” one laughed at me. “We want to meet this mate of yours!”

  And with a grin, I set off to get him.

  10

  Lyle

  “Breakfast is ready!” I heard Cecil call from down the hall.

  I rolled over slowly, as I always had to these days. My stomach was the size of a bowling ball, and getting around was a little more complicated than it had used to be. But I was learning to make it work.

  It had only been a few months since I’d become pregnant, but pregnancy was a lot faster in Cecil’s species than it was in humans. This was nice because it meant I had to deal with pregnancy symptoms for a shorter amount of time, but difficult in that it meant we had less time to prepare.

  And my god, did we barely have any time to prepare.

  Regardless, though, I really felt ready to have this baby with Cecil. Every day, I felt more ready. He not only made me incredibly, deliriously happy, but he also seemed to understand me so well.

  After the drama with Sam, I’d been worried I wasn’t going to fit into the village well. Or, rather, that the village wouldn’t fit in with me, but nothing could have been further from the truth.

  Everyone had been so incredibly nice to me, especially Cecil’s family. His parents had welcomed me in to their life with open arms and excitement about being grandparents.

  Which I absolutely loved considering, I had no relationship with my parents anymore. I was so glad that, not only were my children going to get the loving parents that I’d never gotten to have, but they would also be adored by their grandparents. This baby was going to get more love than it’d know what to do with.

  And I personally felt more love than I knew what to do with, too.

  Cecil spoiled me at basically every opportunity. He’d been doing all the cooking and cleaning to make sure that I didn’t have to lift a finger.

  I was surprised how easily I’d slid into this relaxed lifestyle after living the high-powered work life. This was a lot more simplistic. I had basically all the leisure time in the world, and I didn’t mind it. Not now that I had Cecil around to keep me company.

  We spent our time together relaxing. Reading, eating home-cooked meals, walking around the village so I could meet new people, and talking into the wee hours of the morning. Every night we swore to ourselves we’d go to bed early, because Cecil wanted me to get as much sleep as possible before the baby came, but every night we ended up staying late anyway.

  We couldn’t help ourselves! It felt like there was so much to learn about each other, so many things to catch up on. And, even after months of constant talking, I never felt like I knew enough about him. I had a feeling I was never going to feel like I knew enough about him. We could be seventy and have spoken our whole lives, and I’d probably still find him endlessly
interesting.

  “Good morning, babe,” I said, as I walked into the kitchen. As I leaned to sit down on my chair at the kitchen table, I felt a sharp pain on my right side. “Shit!” I mumbled, as I grabbed my side.

  Cecil whipped around instantly. “What?!” he gasped. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing, relax!” I laughed. “I lay on my side wrong all night. I’ve got muscle cramps.”

  He smiled as he handed me a plate of eggs and bacon. “Good, you scared me there for a moment.”

  “I hate to break it to you babe, but you scare yourself every moment. I mean, seriously, do you ever not overreact to me feeling, like, anything?”

  He laughed. “What can I say? I am protective of you. You should appreciate it!”

  “And I do,” I told him, “but hopefully some of that over-protectiveness will get pushed on to our child once he’s here, and I won’t have to bear the burden of all the attention myself.”

  I couldn't describe what a wonderful feeling it was to know that I was carrying our child inside me. I didn't even care about the pain or the bad sleep. Every time his little feet kicked at me, I knew it was worth it. I found myself constantly holding my belly, talking to him in a gentle voice.

  Cecil talked to him a lot, too. We wanted him to know the both of us as his fathers and be used to both of our voices once he arrived. So, during our late night chats, Cecil would lie on my lap so that the baby caught all of our conversations.

  I took a bite of the eggs. “Oh, babe, these are perfect! You’ve outdone yourself!” I said, as I scarfed down a few more bites.

  He laughed. “Honey, it’s eggs. I’m pretty sure it’s the pregnancy hormones that are making them extra delicious, because I know it couldn’t possibly be my skill.”

  “I totally think it is, though—” I stopped in the middle of my sentence and dropped my fork, both my hands flying to the middle of my stomach as another muscle cramp rolled through me. But this one was much more intense.

  “Baby!” Cecil’s hands flew to my stomach, too, as I moaned in pain.

  “Ow, god, that fucking hurts!” I murmured. “Oh… but I think it’s passing,” I said, as I felt some relief. I immediately picked my fork back up and started eating again.

  But Cecil continued to stare at me like a deer in the headlights.

  “What?” I asked.

  “How can you be eating right now?!” he asked incredulously.

  I shrugged. “I’m always starving in the morning, you know that. Why wouldn’t I be eating?”

  “Come on, stand up, we've gotta go!” he said, as he rushed into the bedroom.

  “Go?! Go where? It’s like seven in the morning!” I called out to him, totally confused, but still stuffing my face with food.

  “Lyle, babe, you’re in labor!”

  My jaw dropped. “No, no, that was just muscle cramps,” I told him. “Seriously, relax, it’s nothing.”

  “Uh huh,” he said, as he grabbed his jacket and my go-bag, “and I’m pretty sure you’re about to have another ‘muscle cramp’ in a minute here.”

  I brushed him off, attempting to push the anxiety of possibly giving birth out of my head as I continued to eat. But when another cramp rolled through me just a minute later, I knew he must have been right.

  “Oh my god, Cecil, I think we’re really having a baby!” I shouted. Not entirely excitedly, either. If anything, my voice sounded scared.

  “Hey, hey, hey!” he said, as he wrapped his arms around me. “We can do this. This is fine, we’re prepared for this, right? We’ve talked about it.”

  And we had talked about it, as well as gone to a lot of doctors’ visits, but, all of a sudden, none of that seemed like enough. Suddenly, I felt extremely ill-prepared.

  “I’m scared,” I told him.

  He put his hand on my cheek, and that offered some level of comfort. “Baby, I’m here for you. I’m going to be there every step of the way. I am not going to let anything happen to you. And soon, we’re going to have a baby in our arms. We’re going to be the fathers of a beautiful son, and that’s what you need to focus on. We’re finally going to meet our son.”

  He was right. That was what I needed to focus on. I was desperate to meet our son after incubating him for several months. I wanted desperately to know him…

  And any pain I had to endure to make that a possibility would be completely worth it.

  I smiled at Cecil. "Okay, let’s do this. Let’s go meet our son.”

  He planted a long, passionate kiss on my lips. “Let’s go meet our son.”

  And as he took my hand and walked me out the front door, I couldn’t help but feel like I was stepping in to a whole new life. Today was the first day I’d be a father. Today was the day I’d start my family with Cecil. It felt serious and monumental and amazing…

  And I was still scared, but I was ready. I could handle any amount of fear with Cecil by my side. He was always my rock, and I knew he’d be my rock through this, too. I loved him so deeply. I’d had the same feeling that my life had been about to monumentally shift when I’d met him, and it had shifted for the better. So, I knew this would, too.

  And I couldn’t wait for our new lives to finally begin.

  Epilogue

  Cecil

  Our son, Timothy, played outside with a friend from down the street. They were kicking a ball back and forth, laughing as they did, when Lyle walked up behind me.

  “Watching Tim?” he asked.

  “Yep, he’s getting really close to the neighbor kid.”

  He nudged me. “Oooh, how cute, do you think they’ll grow up and fall in loveee?” he said in a sing-song voice.

  “I don’t know, but don’t insinuate it as a possibility to him!” I responded. “We know what happens when you try to push two men together who don’t belong together.”

  “Yep, they end up finding their soulmates at the farmers’ market several years later,” he teased.

  I laughed. “Okay, so, it worked out for us, but that doesn’t mean it will work out for everyone.”

  “It worked out for Sam, too, from what I hear.”

  I no longer saw Sam. Only a few months after I’d met Lyle, he’d ended up leaving our village. Which really didn’t happen all that often. But, occasionally, someone moved to the village of another tribe.

  I think it had just been too much for him to be here. After everyone had found out that we’d separated and I had a new human mate, there had been a lot of questions. We’d tried to avoid them as long as possible, but eventually Sam had just come out and told the truth… that we had never truly been mates, and it had all started with his lie.

  This had made village-goers welcome Lyle with open arms, but Sam had ended up getting a little shunned. We thought of finding our mates as a sacred act, and, in many peoples’ eyes, he’d defiled it.

  I never believed that, though. And I had done my best to support him through everything. But, I understood his desire to leave and start fresh. If I’d been him, I would have probably done the same.

  We fell out of contact, probably for the best considering our situation. But our fathers still spoke. His dads had moved with him to the new village, and apparently their whole family was doing well. I didn’t know much more than that. I hoped one day we’d get to have a reunion, but I wanted it to be on Sam’s terms… when he was ready. But I’d always consider him a friend, and I’d always be thankful to him for leading me to Lyle.

  We had a great life, Lyle and me. We had our occasional arguments, like any couple did, but we worked through them. And there were the difficulties that came with raising a child, but I think we handled that fairly well, too. At least, Tim seemed pretty happy and well-adjusted.

  “Are your parents still going to take him tonight?” Lyle asked me. “I was really hoping for some alone time tonight. Ideally some sexy alone time.”

  I laughed. Admittedly, our sex life had devolved a lot since having a kid. We pretty much only got the opportunity when my
Dad’s babysat, which, thankfully, was usually once a week at least. They were very involved grandfathers, which both Lyle and I greatly appreciated.

  “Yeah, they’re going to pick him up pretty soon.”

  “Good, then I can finally have you all to myself,” he said, as he kissed my cheek. “What do you want for dinner?”

  “I was going to cook for you, actually. And it’s a surprise.”

  He grinned. “Sounds good to me.”

  It wasn’t a surprise. He knew that, whenever I said I was going to cook for him, it was going to be his favorite, chicken parmesan.

  We had become a predictable old couple over the last five years. I could hardly remember the young man I’d been when I’d met him, back when things had been new and thrilling.

  But I didn’t mind that they weren’t exciting now. On the contrary, I loved our life now so much more. I enjoyed the quiet comfort of having someone around with whom I felt totally comfortable. In all my years with Sam, I’d never had that. We’d never reached a point of true comfort. How could we have? We hadn’t been meant to be.

  meant to be.

  With Lyle, it was different. He and Tim had become my family. I loved my fathers dearly, of course, but I loved them so differently than I loved Tim and Lyle. And I was so grateful for the way our lives had turned out.

  “Tim!” I called out the window. “Your grandparents will be here any minute! Come on inside!”

  “Okay, Daddy!” he yelled out in his high-pitched five-year-old voice. He was the most adorable creature I’d ever seen. “Bye, John!” he said, giving his friend a hug before running along inside.

  He ran into Lyle’s arms. “Are you excited to see your grandpas tonight?!” Lyle asked.

  “Yes! Papa said he had new games!” he said cheerfully.

  “That’s fantastic! I was hoping to play a new game with daddy, too, while you were away!” he teased.

  “Lyle!” I shouted out in admonishment.