Oh god, Tyler thought. That is what’s happening.
As the boat hit a big swell, Tyler quickly put his hand to his mouth, feeling as though he might be sick. It was strange but he had never even considered the option of mating outside of his own species before. In fact, he hadn’t ever actually met many other kinds of shifters before, other than the matchmaker. He had always just assumed that he would end up mated to another bunny shifter. It had been expected of him after all. Now here he was, on his way to meet not just one mate, but two. He allowed himself a small smile at the fit his father was no doubt having from receiving the news from the matchmaker.
Tyler closed his eyes and let the salty air soothe his uneasy stomach. The cool wind on his face helped to distract him from the nausea. It also helped distract him from the fact that he had just agreed to spend the rest of his life living on a remote island with a bunch of total strangers. There was of course an out clause. No paperwork had been signed. It wasn’t as though Tyler was signing over ownership of himself to these wolves or anything. It was understood that there would be a two week, or a previously agreed upon time, before the actual mating took place. Usually they would meet in person at least once before agreeing to even that much. He wondered what the wolves made of his insistence on haste. If it weren’t for his rare ability to carry children then he knew no one would have taken him so soon. As it was, to shifters other than bunnies, Tyler’s rare ability made him hot property. Once mated there was no going back, not for shifters. If any of them should wish to back out before then, they could. No harm, no foul.
Tyler knew though, that unless they were absolute monsters, there would be no backing out for him. There would be nowhere for him to go if he didn’t stay there. His parents certainly wouldn’t take him back, at least not for long before they were pushing him on another bunny shifter, and he couldn’t afford the services of the mating agency on his own. There had been a few candidates for Tyler to choose from, thanks to his unusual capabilities. Most of them weren’t shy in admitting their reasoning for wanting him. It was quite disconcerting to think that they only wanted to mate with him so they could keep him like a brood mare. It was that very reason he had chosen the two wolves. Partly, because they looked like Norse gods and if he was going to have to sleep with someone then he was going to at least make sure he was attracted to them. The other reason was that they were already in love, and that was a deal breaker for them. They would have turned him down if he weren’t prepared to mate with both of them, which showed Tyler they were good people. He didn’t mind knowing that he would just be kept around to bear the alpha’s pups. At least in this situation he knew right away what he was getting into. It would be a mating of convenience, and once the pups were born, Tyler would mostly be left alone. At least, that’s what he assumed they wanted from him.
Once the salty air had worked its magic on him, Tyler blinked open his eyes and saw that the island had come into view. From the boat it looked as though it were at least four square miles, most of it made up of heavily wooded areas. There was a beach with a dock and a small group of people waiting for his arrival beside it. He swallowed thickly and took a few more deep breaths. He tried to squint to see if he could spot his future mates, but all the people there were tall and good-looking, so it was hard to tell them apart. Past the beach, Tyler could make out a row of buildings that looked like stores. He didn’t know how large the pack was but the island seemed to be mostly self-sufficient from what the matchmaker had told him.
“Oh god,” he muttered to himself as a horrifying thought hit him. “What if they’re like the Amish? What if they don’t have Wi-Fi?”
It was certainly colder there than it had been back in Oregon. It seemed as though it had been snowing recently on the island as there were chunks of rapidly melting ice littering the beach. The sun was out and the sky was clear of clouds but it was still pretty cold for mid-March. Tyler had only brought the few things he had packed to take with him to Portland when he and his parents went to meet with the mating agency. He hadn’t known that morning as they drove to the meeting that he would never be returning home. He desperately hoped that one of these beach front stores sold clothes, and that his intended mates wouldn’t mind loaning him money to buy a sweater or two. As it was, he was only wearing a Barbour jacket over a thin cotton shirt and he felt the chill seep through the thin layers.
“You must be someone important,” the captain said as they pulled into the dock. His eyes fixed on the ten or so people who were waiting for them.
“Not really,” Tyler replied. He scanned the entire beach and saw that there were several other people dotted about, as well as some people standing outside the stores, looking back at him as though eager to get a glimpse. He was pretty sure this was how horror films started. He considered, briefly, asking the captain to check back in a month to see if he had been cooked and eaten, but if that were the case then he was already screwed. He shook his head, annoyed by his overactive imagination. He was sure they were all lovely people.
He grabbed his bag while the captain got off to tether the boat to the dock. He turned around, ready to face his fate and get the meet and greet over with, but he started with a yelp when he saw two large men boarding the boat.
One of the men had blond hair that he had tied back in a loose ponytail at the base of his neck. He had blue eyes with slight laughter lines around them. He smiled at Tyler reassuringly and instantly it helped to calm down Tyler.
The other man was every bit as tall as the other one, which was tall even by Tyler’s standards. He had dark hair that was slightly wavy and much shorter than the other one. His eyes were the kind of green you only found in certain parts of the ocean, and he looked even more apprehensive than Tyler felt. They were both even better looking than they had been in their photos.
“Tyler,” the blond one greeted him, coming at him with his arms wide open for a hug. “I’m Finn. Welcome to Snövarg Island.”
Tyler went very still as the large man gently wrapped him in an embrace. It was nice how friendly he was being, and how genuinely happy he seemed to see him. He felt himself relax even further at the contact. If he was going to be stuck in an arranged mating then at least it was with people who were nice to him. The other one, however, simply held out his hand for Tyler to shake, making Finn roll his eyes.
“Eric,” the dark-haired man introduced himself with a nod of his head.
“Hello.” Tyler took the large hand that was being offered to him and was surprised by how nice and warm it felt. He looked up at the alpha and met his eyes. The two of them simply looked at each other for a long moment before Finn placed his hand on Tyler’s shoulder, breaking him out of it.
“We’re sorry about the welcoming committee. We did manage to talk them out of having the whole pack here waiting for you, as is tradition,” Finn explained. “However, Eric told them he was only going to introduce you to the elders, and then take you to your new home and let you get settled in.”
Tyler smiled gratefully at them both. “Okay good, ‘cos it’s colder than a witch’s tit out here.”
Eric raised his thick, black eyebrows at him, seemingly a little stunned that he had just said that. Finn, however, threw back his head and laughed.
“We wolves don’t get cold easily,” Finn told him as the three of them made their way off the boat. “Is it not the same for rabbit shifters?”
“Um, we actually prefer the term bunny shifters. At least, my warren always referred to ourselves that way,” Tyler explained. The three of them walked along the gangway and onto the dock. “And no, we feel the cold almost as much as a human would.”
There were eleven people lined up along the stony path that led to the storefront, all of them fairly old. As they came to stand in front of them, Eric removed his dark gray wind breaker and put it over Tyler’s shoulders, leaving himself in just a white, thin, cotton long-sleeved T-shirt that clung to his impressive muscles.
The bunny startled at
the unexpected kind gesture and offered him a small smile of thanks. The serious alpha merely nodded back at him.
“Elsa, may I introduce to you my other intended mate,” Eric said to the woman in front of them. She was in her late sixties, it seemed, and had kind blue eyes that made her look friendly. “Tyler, this is Finn’s grandmother and one of the elders of our pack.”
“Welcome, Tyler,” she said nicely as she gripped his hand in both of hers. Her Swedish accent was a little thicker than Eric’s and Finn’s, but he supposed that given her age she might not have been speaking English as long. When he had read their files he had been relieved to learn that his intended mates spoke English fluently. Though Tyler knew it wasn’t right to expect them to speak it all the time just to accommodate him, so he hoped that one of them would be prepared to give him lessons. Tyler smiled back at the old woman and thanked her. It was strange to think that in just two weeks’ time she would be his family.
As they moved along the line, Tyler was introduced to a few other more distant family members, as they mostly made up the group of elders.
Once he had shaken hands with the very last one of them, he turned to look at the other people who were standing around outside the stores and along the beach. They were all watching him with big grins on their faces. Well, all except for a few. There were a couple of women, who were standing together outside what looked like a tea shop. They were glaring at him intently. He made a mental note to remember to ask Finn and Eric who they were and what their problem was later.
As they walked the short distance from the beach to the place where Tyler would be staying, Finn put an arm around his shoulders. “I hope you’re hungry. Everyone has been cooking like mad to get things ready for tonight.”
“Tonight?” Tyler asked, already feeling suspicious.
“Yes, the elders have insisted on an official meeting with you and the rest of the pack. Everyone will be there,” Eric told him. “It is quite informal, though. More like a party really.”
Tyler looked ahead as he walked, taking in his surroundings. Once past the beach and the storefronts the island looked largely untouched. They made their way through a forest area which had a clear trail of wood chips to walk through with unlit lamps dotting the path. The tall, thin aspens around them looked very old and the grass, though patchily blanketed with melting snow, was still lush and full.
“It’s beautiful,” Tyler said out loud. “Like walking into a fairytale.”
For the first time since meeting him, Tyler saw Eric smile out of the corner of his eye. He was clearly pleased that his mate-to-be liked his new home.
“We like it,” Finn said. His arm was still draped casually over Tyler’s shoulder. It was a warm and comforting weight.
“So other than the stores back there, do you guys have anything else around here?” Tyler asked. He could hear the sounds of woodland creatures darting amongst the trees but they were so fast that he couldn’t see them, not in his human form anyway. The sky above them was clear and filled with the sounds of birds singing. He wasn’t sure where exactly they were taking him. He didn’t want to ask if he would be staying with them or if he would be given his own place. The truth was, he wasn’t sure which option he preferred.
“You see down there?” Finn asked, pointing down the trail to where it branched off into three separate pathways. “One leads to the town centre. We’ve got a hardware store, which we own, a library, a post office, and police station in one, a medical centre which is actually just a house, and a few other places. We’ll have to give you the full tour.”
Tyler smiled up at him. He liked the way Finn looked at him, giving him all of his attention, it made him feel warm inside. “I’d like that.”
He needed to snap himself out of it. Just because they were being nice to him and paying him lots of attention didn’t mean anything. If Tyler could end up with two good friends from this situation then he would be content with that. It was more than he had before anyway. His closest friends were people he played videogames with who he only knew by their gamer tags, all except one of them. One friend in particular, a guy named Jordan, was his general in his favourite fantasy war game set in space. He wondered if the guys in his platoon had noticed his absence at all. God, he really hoped they had Wi-Fi. It seemed like such a small thing in retrospect but those guys were the only contact outside of the warren that he had. He would actually miss them. He didn’t even have the game anymore, or the console he played it on. He was determined not to feel sad over a video game. He refused to be that big of a loser.
After walking for half a mile they reached a large house. It was like it had been built before the forest grew around it. Behind the house Tyler could see that they had reached the end of the island and that fifty feet or so from the house was a cliff with a sheer drop to the ocean below.
The house looked old, like it was the very first thing built on the island. Tyler wondered how long the wolves had lived there, or if perhaps they had always been there. The building looked pretty old, a couple of hundred years at least. Tyler made a mental note to learn more about the pack and his new home. As the alpha mate it was his duty to know these things, even if it was in name only.
The main structure of the house was an old stone-clad building that looked pretty simple as far as houses go, but it was clear that over the years extensions had been added to it. There was almost another entirely different house that had been built onto the back, giving it double the size, and a large wooden cabin-like section alongside them both. It should have looked strange but it all worked together. It looked homey and inviting.
“So this is where you live?” Tyler asked. He knew it was a dumb question. There was no way this massive house was just for him, but for once in his life he didn’t know what to say. He was very aware of how big these guys were and his mind was rife with thoughts of their mating night. Maybe getting knocked up every few years wouldn’t be so bad after all, he thought to himself as Eric stepped in front of him, giving Tyler a good look at his ass.
“This is home,” Eric replied as he opened the door and held it open for Tyler.
The front door opened up into a nice-sized hall with a polished pinewood floor and light cream walls. Everything was surprisingly modern. It was clear that they had redecorated recently.
For such a large house the place was pretty quiet. Tyler didn’t mind staying there with the two of them, if that was the plan. The truth was that he would rather that than live by himself out here. This way he would feel like more a part of the family and less like the person they only interacted with in order to breed.
He hoped they would allow him to act like a true alpha mate and help with the running of the pack. Tyler wanted to feel useful there and he found himself eager to find out what jobs he might get to do. His parents hadn’t allowed him to go to college. In fact, his oldest brother was the only one in the family who had been allowed any form of higher education. The warren liked to keep its members close and only those they deemed responsible enough not to get their heads turned by the outside world were allowed out in it.
Tyler felt a wave of excitement bubble up inside him as he wondered if his new mates would allow him to take online classes to better help the pack. He was actually pretty good with computers but it was all self-taught. His parents had been so clueless when it came to technology that all those hours he spent playing video games they had just assumed he was talking to himself.
Tyler peeked down the hall to the large archway that led to the lounge. He could see a big bookcase that spanned an entire wall and a huge wall-mounted TV above the fireplace. If Tyler could somehow get another console, his favourite game would look awesome hooked up to that bad boy. There were an assortment of cream-colored sofas that didn’t quite match but went together nonetheless. He wondered if they even got reception out there or if they just used it to watch DVDs.
“So is it just you two who live here?” he asked as he looked around
Finn
smirked at him and walked past them both to place Tyler’s bag at the foot of the stairs. “Hardly. There’s my grandma Elsa, who you just met, Eric’s eighteen-year-old sister Lisa, and their two nieces.”
“Wow, full house then,” Tyler said as he followed them both into the wooden cabin-like part of the house which had been turned into a long kitchen with a cosy seating area at the far end. He was surprised by how contemporary all the fixtures were. All the cabinets and appliances were state of the art. When he had heard he would be living on an island, a part of him had imagined it being a bit like Little House on the Prairie. He had been plagued with horrific visions of doing laundry in a bucket of cold water out in the yard. He didn’t know what he had been expecting exactly. His own warren had been remote and yet they still got satellite TV and a pretty decent internet connection.
“Coffee?” Finn asked before going over to the counter and starting up their fancy-looking espresso maker.
“Please,” Tyler replied gratefully. He had tried drinking some at the airport but it had tasted like crap. Tyler knew he probably should stop drinking the stuff. He was already a pretty hyper person as it was, but coffee was his only vice. A caffeine-deprived Tyler was way scarier than when he was jumping around in his seat. He really wasn’t ready for his mates-to-be to meet that side of him yet. That side tended to be much like a toddler crashing hard from a sugar rush.
“So this party tonight, should I be worried?” he asked as he parked himself down at the large matte-finished oak table with the chocolate-brown leather high back chairs. The neutral colors seemed to be a house-wide theme. It was nice and warm inside the house and it made Tyler begin to feel a little sleepy after his long journey. He shrugged off Eric’s wind breaker, turning his head to discreetly sniff it as he did. He got a pleasant shiver from the scent, a good sign for intended mates.
The Happily Ever After Mating Agency Presents Snövarg Island (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour ManLove) Page 3