^ Another picture of Ryland because his eyes give me LIFE

"You moved like honey in my dream last night. Yeah, some old fires were burning. You came near to me and you endeared to me, but you couldn't quite discern me."
~Fiona Apple, 'Slow Like Honey'

~~~

*Landon's POV*

Honey.

Suddenly my new favorite thing in the world.

The scent of honey and vanilla fills the air, intoxicating me. That delicious aroma matches the color of those beautiful almond-shaped eyes that are staring at me, holding me in my place.

It's enough to make Leo purr, which is a huge change from the fright that was in his voice only a few moments ago.

His voice? Leo fucking spoke! Whoever this guy is, his presence alone brought Leo out of hiding!

Who is this man? I know he's a wolf, but you would think he was a fucking honeybee or something with how much he reminds me of that sweet, golden liquid.

Every wolf has a unique scent that is recognized by other wolves. It makes it easier for us to track one another. But we also have another scent — one that is only detected by our mates. It's sweeter and stronger, and meant to draw us in. The scent of my mate just so happens to be more tantalizing than anything I've experience in my life, and I feel like I'm floating on air.

My.... my mate?

The feeling of his hands on my arms sends shock waves through my body, making me tremble. His bright honey eyes are shining with tears as he searches my face, as if memorizing every aspect of me. I do the same, taking in everything from his deep brown hair that looks almost silken, to his plump pink lips.

The honeybee dips his down to the crook of my neck, deeply inhaling my scent. I shiver, every single one of my instincts wanting to melt into his embrace.

Until he opens his mouth, and it's like someone threw a bucket of cold water on me.

"You're marked," he blurts. I inhale sharply and shove him away from me. Leo whines, and I have to clench my fists to keep myself from pulling him back to me.

"I already have a mate," I growl. The man stumbles backwards, eyes wide and body shaking. The look of confusion and pain in his stunning honey eyes sends a laceration of pain through my chest.

I want to comfort him, to erase that look of utter devastation from his face. But that's insane, right? I don't know this guy. This man... he's a stranger to me.

And then there's the fact that I already had a mate.
I know with every fiber of my being that Easton was my mate.

So why do I feel an undeniable tie to the gorgeous stranger before me?

"Ry!" A panicked voice snaps me out of my brief daze. A young man — probably around the same age as Xander — runs over to the strange beauty. The two share similar features, although the younger boy is shorter with softer features. "Are you okay? What's going on?"

The honeybee doesn't respond, just stares at the ground as tears slip down his round cheeks. The sight makes my entire body ache. Leo scratches at my mind, begging me to comfort him.

Please... don't cry...

The younger boy turns his attention towards me, his eyes glowing gold as he glares at me menacingly. "What did you do to my brother?"

His brother?

"I— I don't—" I stammer, not knowing what to say. What can I say? This is a situation I never ever imagined I would find myself in.

"Kai, enough," a woman's voice scolds the boy, whom I'm assuming is Kai. "Can't you see they're both shaken up? Give them some time to relax. They'll talk when they're ready."

I had completely forgotten that there was a third wolf present. The young woman is beautiful, with straight dark hair and tattoos adorning both her arms. She must be the larger grey wolf, which means Kai is the smaller brown wolf that tackled me.

"In the meantime," she continues. "We should find him some clothes."

My face flushes when I remember I'm completely naked, my clothing having been torn to shreds when I shifted. I throw my arms over myself in a feeble attempt to cover my bare form. Kai squeaks and ducks his head, his cheeks burning bright red.

The honeybee's head snaps up, but not in a lustful or perverse way. The sadness in his eyes is replaced with concern, and he quickly shrugs his suit jacket off and hands it to me. I hesitantly reach out and take it from him before putting it on. I discretely close my eyes for a second, breathing in his sweet scent that's ingrained in the fabric. When I reopen my eyes, he's holding his pants out to me, now stripped down to only his white button up, boxers, and what looks like a black choker. My blush deepens at the sight of him in his underwear, but I gratefully accept the clothing and cover myself.

Our eyes meet again, and I can see a thousand questions floating in his mind. He's as confused as I am, and he's just as terrified. For some reason, I find it comforting that I'm not the only one freaking out.

"We should talk," I choke out. He blinks, taken aback for a second before nodding his head.

He turns and mutters something in the woman's ear. She studies him for a second before nodding and grabbing Kai's wrist. Kai whines in protest, but he eventually concedes with a pout and follows the girl.

Once they're out of sight, the man turns to me again, the dark liquid gold in his eyes swirling with a hundred different emotions.
I really should ask his name... it's kind of weird that I can only refer to my mate as 'the man'.

"Er..." I start awkwardly. "I guess we should start with our names, yeah?"

To my surprise, he lets out a small chuckle. The heavenly sound sends a thrill through me. "Yeah, that would be a good place to start," he says with a shaky smile. "I'm Ryland. Ambrose."

"Landon. Grey," I say, mimicking him. Ryland's smile widens at that, his shoulders relaxing.

Ryland... it suits him.

"Okay, so.... elephant in the room," Ryland nervously fidgets with his fingers. "I'm pretty sure we're mates, which doesn't make sense considering we already have mates."

I nod my head before realization dawns on me, and my eyes widen. "Wait, we? You have a mate too?"

Ryland's eyes darken as he drops his gaze to the ground. "I did, but..."

"But what?" My heart pounds in my chest.

He raises his gaze to me, but it's different this time. It's guarded, scared. An internal conflict rages behind his eyes as he studies me before shaking his head.

"It's not important. What's important is the fact that we're mates. I mean, you feel the connection too, right? It's not just me? Please tell me it's not just me."

I shake my head, wanting to smile reassuringly but being held back by the painful knowledge that Easton was my mate. "No. It's not just you." Ryland breathes a sigh of relief, running a hand through his dark hair. My fingers twitch with the desire to reach out and discover if his hair is really as soft as it looks. I shake off the feeling before asking, "How is this possible? I've never heard of wolves having more than one mate. Have you?"

"No," Ryland admits. "We should talk to the elder of one of our packs. I'm sure they would know something. You must be in this pack, Silver Woods, right? We can go find the elder and talk to—"

"No!" I cut him off with wide eyes.

Ryland's brows furrow together. "Why not?"

Panic rises in my chest. He can't know. He can't know I'm a rogue, or why I'm a rogue. If he knew my pack forced me out... if he knew what happened to the last person who called himself my mate...

"Let's go to your pack," I say instead.

"But we're here anyway, wouldn't it be easier—"

"I want to see your pack," I say quickly, hoping I sound convincing enough. Part of me hates myself for not being truthful, but a much bigger part of me is terrified of what his reaction would be to finding out the truth. Would he reject me? Look at me with the same amount of disgust that other wolves have? I barely know him, but I already can't stand the thought of those honey-kissed eyes looking at me with contempt.

Ryland eyes me warily for a second before deciding not to push it, and nods his head. "Alright. I told Ronnie to take Kai and wait in the car. I'll let Ronnie know she needs to drive us to the pack."

His eyes glaze over, that dark gold becoming clouded as he accesses his mind link. I wait patiently until he's done and his eyes are refocused on me. Ryland leads the way out of the woods towards the pack house.

"I'm guessing Ronnie is the girl that was with you," I say as we walk. Ryland's plump lips stretch into a smile, and my heart flutters.

"That would be a correct guess," Ryland tells me. "Her name is Veronica, but we've called her Ronnie since we were kids."

"You guys have been friends for a long time then?"

Ryland nods. "Yup. Ronnie has been one of my best friends for about twenty years now."

"That's a long time." My eyebrows raise in surprise. I can't imagine being friends with someone for so long. Lucca is probably my oldest friend at this point, and I've only known the guy for three years. "How old are you exactly."

"Twenty-four. You?"

"Twenty-five."

"That's a relief," Ryland grins, and I look at him quizzically. "I may or may not have been slightly freaking out about you being much older than me. It's nice to know my mate is the same age as me."

My mate.

The words still send a chill up my spine, but whether it's in a thrilling or terrified manner, I'm not sure. All I know is the sooner we get to an elder and figure this thing out, the better.

We catch up to Ronnie and Kai, with Kai sitting in the backseat shouting something and Ronnie outside leaning against the car door. She stares at me but doesn't say anything, just tosses the keys to Ryland and climbs into the backseat with Kai.

Ryland rounds the car to the passenger side and opens the door before pausing and looking up at me awkwardly. It takes me a second to realize what he's doing, and I have a suppress a grin.

He's holding the door open for me.

I don't tease him for it though. He seems uncomfortable enough that he did it in the first place, so I just offer him a small smile and climb into the passenger seat.

"Finally!" Kai exclaims once we're all in the car. "Does anyone want to explain what's going on?"

"Uh...." Ryland looks through the rear view mirror at his brother. "This is Landon. He's.... my mate?"

It comes out like a question, but honestly I think that's completely warranted. Until we have a better idea of how this... mix-up happened, that is.

Kai's eyes bulge out of their sockets. "Your what!" He shrieks, making Ryland wince and Ronnie swat his arm.

"Kai!" Ryland scolds. Kai shrinks back in his seat sheepishly, and Ryland sighs. "We don't know either. We're going to go see Joan and figure out what's going on. We'll stop by the house first to change and drop you off. Ronnie, are you okay with staying with Kai for a bit?"

"Sure," Ronnie replies, and Kai's jaw drops.

"I'm not a child!"

"Kai, can you just—" Ryland stops himself to take a deep breath, obviously getting frustrated. "Please. Landon and I need to figure some stuff out and it'll make me feel better to know you're not home alone. Please, Kai?"

I understand his concern. I sensed it when Kai tackled me that he's an omega, and an unmarked one at that. If he was my brother, I would be just as worried about him being home alone.

Kai grumbles and crosses his arm but doesn't argue any further. Ryland's shoulders slump as his exhaustion rolls off of him, which makes me flinch. It's been a long time since I've been able to sense the emotions of a mate and it's... well frankly, it's pretty fucking weird.

"By the way," I start, causing all eyes to focus on me. "What pack are you with, anyway?"

"Oh! We're with the Crescent Sun Pack," Ryland answers. "I figured you knew since only two packs were invited to the coronation."

The coronation... Crescent Sun...

"Wait, you're from Roselyn's pack?" I ask.

"You know Lyn?" Ronnie leans forward and I slightly jump. It's the first time she's spoken to me directly.

I nod my head slowly and Ryland smiles widely.

"That's great! She'll be surprised to hear about all this, but I'm happy you already know each other. She's like a sister to me."

I fall silent, staring ahead at the road. The fact that Roselyn and Ryland are close causes a rock to settle in my stomach. Not only is he friends with the girl who took my place as Luna, but Roselyn also knows about what happened with Easton. She could tell Ryland... she could tell him about how my mate died, and how everyone blames me.

And then he'll turn his back on me.

Another person to leave me behind.

Another person to hate me and make me feel even more alone than I already am.

I think I'm gonna be sick.

~~~

It won't always be depressing like this, don't worry

It takes time to set the stage for happy hours. Both our boys have a lot of issues

We'll get to fluffier times soon enough ☺️

Let me know if you're liking it so far! Remember to comment and vote!

See you next time!
-Gumbie