"How has it been?

Noah looks up at me from where he is busy watching our boyfriends cutting down our Christmas trees. The snow is coming down pretty hard, already half a foot on the ground. It adds to the appeal of the Christmas season, but all I want to do is get inside already, bundled next to the fire.

He shrugs. "She's different than what I was expecting, but nice. I don't know. Mom was upset at first. For some reason, he thought I was going to start calling her Mom and seeing her as another parent." He pauses, gloved hands resting on his stomach. "We talked for a bit. She showed me this really tattered picture of her mate. H-He looks a lot like me."

"He must have been handsome," I murmur, giving him a small smile.

He nods, returning the smile, albeit a little shaky. "He was." He sighs. "I asked why she left me behind, why she didn't want me."

"Noah," I murmur, wrapping a hand around him.

He leans against my shoulder, both of us taking comfort in one another.

"What did she say?"

"That it wasn't about her not wanting me. She wasn't in the right state of mind to be a mother, and she saw how wonderful Mom and Dad treated me. She knew I would be in good hands."

"I can't ever imagine doing that," I whisper, "but that was pretty selfless of her. I'm sure many other people would have tried to take you back from your parents, just because you were blood-related to them."

"Exactly." He snorts then. "After talking with Ellen, I had to go back and talk to Mom, reassure him that I really do see him as my mom and that no one can ever replace him. He just started crying and wouldn't stop hugging me for an hour."

"Sounds like Micah."

The crunch of a tree hitting snow causes both of us to look over at the two alphas. Beckett is currently trying to pull the tree, while Rowan wears a pleased smile, saw in hand. They had been at it for nearly half-an-hour, both trying to figure out the best way to cut down the trees.

"Finally," Noah says, going over to his mate. "My toes feel like they are about to freeze off."

He tries to grab onto the tree, but Beckett just shoots him a look, pulling the tree away from his mate. Noah rolls his eyes, holding up his hands, but it is impossible to miss the small smile on his face.

"Ready?" I call out to Rowan.

"The beast has been tamed," he says, grabbing onto the tree and pulling it over to me. We are about a quarter of a mile away from our tents, so it is a bit of a trudge to get home. The snow is coming down even thicker by the time we make it home, and I just sit back on the bed as I watch Rowan try to set up the five-foot tree in the makeshift holder he had rigged earlier this morning.

It takes him nearly ten minutes of wrangling, since he won't let me get up to help. Even when I just tried to hold the tree for him so it made it easier for him to scree in the base, he had just looked at me with narrowed eyes, refusing to do anything.

Eventually, I had thrown my hands up and gone to change into some comfier clothing before sitting on the bed.

"There," Rowan huffs, pulling himself up from where he was laying under the tree. "It's up." He has a satisfied smile on his face, pine needles stuck in his hair.

Pushing myself up from the bed, I walk over to stand next to him. The tree isn't much, a few strange branches, but it is cute. The only decorations we have for it so far are the pine cones Gwen, Noah, and I had found before the initial snowfall.

Together, we manage to make the pine cones on the tree look decent. Satisfied, we both go to sit on the chair in front of the fire. Rowan pulls me onto his lap, hand coming to rest on my stomach.

"Come on, baby girl," he murmurs, hand rubbing against my bump. "Daddy has been waiting very patiently for you, you know."

She stays still, not moving. This is how it has been the past few weeks. Despite the fact that I am halfway through my pregnancy, Rowan still hasn't felt the baby kick. Every time she gives a particularly strong movement, I call Rowan over, but he always just misses it. To say that he is frustrated would be an understatement.

"Just wait until we have been sitting here for a while, then she will start to move."

Rowan just huffs but doesn't move his hand from my stomach the entire time we are sitting there. Eventually, I have to stand up, my legs cramping from sitting so long. Rowan protests the movement, clearly wanting me to stay on his lap, but I just shake my head.

"Your daughter is in a weird position today. Sitting down is making my legs feel tingly."

"A good tingly?" he asks, pulling me in between his legs.

Rolling my eyes, I look down at him. "No not a good tingly. The tingle that makes me feel like there are a million ants crawling all over me."

He holds me close, pressing a soft kiss on my stomach before finally letting me slip away. The rest of the day passes like this, the both of us reveling in our laziness.

With such heavy snow, our patrol hasn't been able to go out. It is too dangerous. Besides, the humans are just as affected- if not more so- by the cold as us, so there has been nothing from them recently.

But people in the village are getting restless. It is easy to feel trapped in here, especially since our only exits are blocked by snow or ice. Add in the fact that it is a full moon tonight and the wolves are getting restless. I'm just grateful that tonight isn't a heat moon. Wolves don't like to ever feel trapped, but especially not when they are in heat or rut.

Noah and Beckett come over for dinner, along with Avery. Nik is having dinner with Henry, Rosalie and her family. They have been trying to split their time evenly between their two sons, but it has been difficult. Even more so since Rowan moved out. Henry refuses to talk to his brother, and Rosalie starts to cry when she sees him. It's disconcerting to see my friend that way. Rosalie had always been so strong, not running away from anything. But she is near hysterics every time I see her now, eyes always glued to my stomach before she sprints away.

Shaking my head, I pull myself from my thoughts, smiling as I watch Avery come into the tent. He immediately comes over to me, pulling me into a tight hug.

"Matty, how are you feeling?"

Smiling, I wrap my arms around him. "Fine. Tired and hungry, but besides that, I've been fine."

He pulls back, looking down at my stomach. "Can I?"

Nodding, I grab his hand, pressing it on the place where the baby was just kicking. Of course, she stops as soon as she feels someone pressing back. Avery keeps his hand there for a while before he finally lets it fall away.

"Sorry," I tell him, giving him a sheepish smile. "She is very shy already."

"Now you know how I feel," Rowan says from where he is currently hunched over the fire, carefully cooking the meat and veggies that we are having for dinner.

Avery just laughs before going to sit down on one of the chairs. "Rowan and Henry were always moving when I was pregnant. It seemed like as soon as one stopped the other would start. Got practically no sleep the last half of my pregnancy."

He clears his throat then, and immediately dread settles in my stomach. "Speaking of your brother, Rowan, how have you been feeling?"

Rowan pulls the griddle off the fire, setting it down on a rock to cool. "What do you mean?" he asks, brows wrinkled in confusion.

"Rosalie and Henry have been a little off lately. I talked to Taylor and Alpha Seren and they seem convinced it has something to do with their wolves." He sighs, hand rubbing against his face. "So, I want to know how your wolf has been. I-I don't want any of you getting hurt if something happens."

Rowan sits back, but the nonchalance he is trying to convey is overridden by the tension in his body. "It is still pretty strong, but now my wolf is half wanting me to be with my mates and half wants me to be with Matty."

Avery waves his hand for Rowan to explain further when he stops speaking.

He gives a small shake of his head. "It's hard to explain. It's like, when I am with Matty, my wolf is content. But when I am away from him, my wolf wants me to find Rosalie and Henry. The only time I actually feel in control of myself is when I am with Matty."

That explains the hovering, and it makes something inside me twist. Biting my lip, I try to keep my face neutral, but the worried look Rowan shoots me tells me that I didn't succeed.

Avery nods his head, sitting back in the chair. "So, you are going through the same thing as Rosalie and Henry, but Matty is keeping you from acting on it."

A choked sound comes from me, and I turn away from them. The quilt from before bubbles up inside me, trying to spill over. The past few months have been spent trying to get over this guilt. But I can't help it. Knowing that I am partial if not completely responsible for the actions of my three pack mates.

"You're keeping him in control, Matty," Avery says, voice soft.

Reluctantly, I look back over at the two of them. Rowan is already walking over to me, joining me on the bed, wrapping his arm around me. Avery is watching us with soft, knowing eyes.

"What do you mean?" I ask, finally allowing myself to relax into Rowan's warmth.

Avery sighs again. "I have to be honest, I am not quite sure. What you guys have is a unique situation."

"You got that right," a familiar voice says from the doorway.

Shocked, I watch as Noah and Beckett ducked inside the tent, stomping the snow off their boots. Beckett sits down in the only chair left to sit, pulling Noah to sit on his lap. Noah rolls his eyes in exasperation but allows his mate to pull him close, setting his hand on the slight bump.

He looks over at me. "I've been reading those books that you didn't want. It talked a lot about the mate bond, but it barely had anything about the situation your in. I found one tiny reference, like this big," he holds his fingers about two inches apart, "about a shared mate between twins, and one of the twins ends up with someone else.

"It's because you guys are fraternal." He has an excited smile on his face, as he nods at Rowan. "You and Henry are fraternal twins. While you guys technically have the same mate- Rosalie- he is the one with the true bond with her. But your wolves are confused, because they think they are supposed to have the same mate. You shared the same womb, so apparently this impacts the whole mate thing." He waves his hand around, "Honestly, I didn't understand what they were trying to say there.

"But it did say that if the bond isn't solidified or broken, then your wolves will go crazy. Because they feel the bond. Until something happens to the bond, you will lose control. The only reason Rowan isn't feeling the effects as strongly anymore is because Matty is pregnant. While you're around Matty, it acknowledges him as a potential partner, but when you are away, it is still going to seek your mates."

"So how do we break this mate bond or whatever?" Rowan asks, pulling me close to him. "I don't want to feel this draw to them for my whole life. I just want the ability to be happy with my family."

The smile falls away from Noah's face. "I haven't found that part out yet." His lips turn down into a frown. "The books are so difficult to decipher. It takes me ten times as long to figure out what the authors were trying to say."

"Give me a few," I tell him, "I'll help. I should have been helping you long ago. I-I'm sorry."

His head tilts to the side, a small smile on his face. "I understand why you didn't want to, Matty." He gets up from Beckett's lap, the alpha reluctant to let him go, and walks over to me. "And I think we could get this whole situation figured out even faster if you help now." He bends down, pulling me into a tight hug.

His familiar scent helps to calm me even more, and I find myself smiling.

"Thanks so much, Noah."

He just hums before pulling away. "Now, let's eat. I'm starving."

"You just finished off the rest of our jerky."

Noah just shoots his mate a narrowed-eye look. "Well, your baby is hungry, Beckett. Do you want me to starve him?"

Wisely, Beckett stays quiet, not remarking one time on his mate's portions as we sit around the fire eating dinner.