"Oh... I see." Riley was the first to react after a horrified Horace had shared - with my encouragement - his new secret in my eldest brother's living room.

And what a secret it was!

My new friend had not only discovered that his mate was human, but also that they were a boy... And my best friend. If Horace hadn't been panicking when we'd snuck into that empty classroom yesterday and he'd told me he'd just recognized Billy, I would've fist-pumped the air. My two friends together... Possibly.

Billy was straight.

And yet Horace had recognized him as his mate so maybe Billy was bi and hadn't realized it yet?

That was, of course, only one of Horace's problems.

The other was his father. His very pureblood-oriented, no-homos-allowed father.

No wonder Horace looked like he was about to go into a mental breakdown.

He was currently curled up shaking on the sofa; I was perched on the armrest and rubbing his back.

Horace had so far managed to hide his discovery from Jasper by feigning he was sick; in his current state with his pale skin and sweat constantly coating his forehead, it wasn't a difficult to achieve task even with his poor lying skills. But he had to tell someone about this, someone other than me, someone who had the experience of recognizing their mate, as that was something I couldn't help him with.

Horace was afraid to tell his mom as he felt he'd only burden her with the knowledge; she'd hate to keep a secret from her husband and she'd be upset that her son was suffering.

Naturally, I had suggested that Horace should speak with Rhys and Riley. They had, after all, been through the whole experience of a gay shifter recognizing his mate in a human who didn't know we existed. There were some differences, of course: Rhys was older, comfortable in his sexuality and supported by his family while Horace was still in his mid-teens, had a father who berated him about everything and who was a homophobe - or at least didn't approve of gay people - and also, Horace had never been attracted to a guy. He had never been attracted to a girl either, but he'd always thought it was because he'd been too shy to get to know any girls well.

So yeah, the boy had a variety of foods overflowing on his plate.

At least there was no serial killer roaming through town; it was the only thing that was better in his situation than back when Rhys had met Riley.

"Do you want me to talk to your father?" Keri asked. I'd suggested Horace also told her about Billy; she was our leader after all and his blood relative. Besides, I sometimes had the suspicion that she had a crush on a certain human.

"By the Spirits, no!" Horace vehemently shook his head, his eyes bulging. "I don't want him to know."

"Horace," my brother leaned towards us and put a hand on the boy's knee, "you'll have to tell him at some point."

"It's true." Keri nodded. "Being apart from your mate..."

She pursed her lips and for a few seconds there was silence between the five of us. She then took a deep breath, looked Horace straight in the eye and went on:

"I recognized Callum as my mate years ago. I thought that with his way of living and the way he behaved, and the way I thought he felt about shifters, he wasn't a good choice, that he'd somehow hinder the pack, so I stayed quiet about it. I didn't tell anyone, and I've been in agony ever since. I can't stay in the same room as him without wanting to touch him, and kiss him, and for him to hold me..." Her voice had been strong until this part, but now it faltered. She cleared her throat and went on:

"It isn't healthy. It's driving me insane. The mate bond isn't something you can fight, Horace. You'll have to give Billy a chance. He might surprise you."

"It happened to us." Riley smiled gently at Rhys and scooted even closer to him on their couch; my brother took his mate's hand and kissed it.

"I had to be careful how much I told Riley, but in the end, it worked out," my brother said.

"And I'd been wrong about Callum," Keri spoke up again. "He doesn't hate shifters; he just needed some time to get used to the idea that we exist. And there are so many good things about him - how loyal he is, how he cares about others - that I... Now that I look back on how I behaved, I... I think I was an idiot not to give him a chance sooner."

She snorted, her eyes on the hands that fidgeted in her lap, and then muttered:

"And apparently it took me trying to convince someone else to give their human mate a chance for me to admit all this." She looked up at Horace again. "Human or not, they are our mates; we must have faith in the Great Spirits and pursue these relationships."

Rhys and Riley both smiled at her while I gaped, happy that yes, our Alpha had a mate, and surprised that I'd only guessed she had a crush on Callum instead of realizing it was way more than that. Horace was still. No more trembling, no more fidgeting, but I wasn't sure the lack of movement was a good thing.

"But Billy is a boy," he finally whispered.

I almost groaned. Why did that even matter?

Aside from fear of Jasper's reaction, of course.

"You really felt nothing for him before your birthday?" Riley asked.

"No," was Horace's first reply, then he bit his lip. "I mean, I liked him before I reached the Age of Recognition, but I think it was just as a friend. I was happy when he texted me, and when he spoke to me at school and when he praised me after a soccer game."

Maybe a little bit too happy, I thought as I recalled Horace's reactions to Billy. Back then I'd put it down to Horace being shy and not used to hanging out with people - especially human people - his age, but now I wasn't so sure. He seemed more affected by Billy's praises than when I complimented him on his goal keeping skills.

"What I don't understand," my friend began to wring his hands again, "is how come I didn't recognize him at school on Thursday? That's when my birthday was. But it wasn't until Friday morning that..." He trailed off and he didn't need to finish for us to know what he meant.

"Because you were born in the afternoon so you were still fifteen when you saw him in school on Thursday," Keri supplied.

"You mean, it's not only the day, but also the hour I was born at that counts?" Both of us were surprised by this new little morsel of knowledge and given Riley's inquisitive look, so was he.

"Sometimes," Rhys said.

"Like everything else about the mate bond: it's complicated," Keri added. "Some people claim they feel a slight buzz around their mates on the day they reach the Age of Recognition and that that buzz grows and amplifies as the exact time they were born at approaches. Others claim that they could be standing right next to their mate just as usual and then suddenly, at the time they were born, the feelings hit them all at once."

"But...What does that mean for me and Billy?" Horace glanced at me for answers or for comfort, I wasn't sure; I was only able to provide the latter, so I squeezed his shoulder.

"Does it mean that our bond isn't strong or that we were not supposed to be paired together?" He went on.

"No one has noticed a correlation between whether or not you'd felt a buzz before you turned sixteen and the strength and effectiveness of the bond." Keri smiled reassuringly. "And shifters have done research in that area, so I think it's safe to say that your bond will be as healthy as the average mate bond."

"And not those few occasions when the bond proves to be detrimental?" Horace questioned again.

"We are almost never paired with people who aren't suitable for us, you know that," I intervened calmly.

"But it happens," my friend muttered.

"That's what I first thought when I met Callum, but as I said before: I was wrong about him."

"Besides, it's Billy we are talking about," I butted in again. "Kind, good-natured, I-love-to-help-people Billy; why wouldn't you be a good match?"

Horace opened his mouth, but I added before he could speak:

"And don't say because he's a boy."

"How about because he's human then?" Horace asked. "He doesn't even know we exist. And he's straight. And my father doesn't like humans or gay people. And as his only son, he expects me to have children and continue the family line, a pureblood, shifter line."

"I know you care about your father," I squeezed his shoulder again, "but he's an asshole and you shouldn't allow him to dictate your life."

"And we are talking about something that will change the rest of your life," Keri put in. "You can't spend it in misery, just so you could please Jasper."

"But..." For a moment I thought Horace would contradict her, but instead he murmured an 'I know'.

"Good." I patted him on the back and grinned at him.

"And you have our support," Rhys smiled at him. "The whole pack will be behind you."

"Just not my family." Horace's voice was filled with pain.

"Your mom will," Keri corrected. "Jada wouldn't turn her back on you, Horace."

"But supporting me would mean she'd have to go against dad; don't you see that?"

My heart sank as tears began forming in my friend's eyes.

"She'll have to pick sides." Horace's voice cracked.

Riley got up and returned moments later with a box of paper tissues. I kept rubbing Horace's back, only pausing to allow him to blow his nose after he'd dabbed away the tears that were falling from his reddened eyes.

"I don't want to break my family apart." His voice was hoarse. "And that's only one of the problems! What is Billy doesn't fall in love with me? Or worse: that he does and then he finds out what I am and he leaves me?"

I snuck a glance at Rhys; he'd been tortured by the same questions before he'd revealed to Riley that he wasn't human.

"And what happens to Billy then?" Horace went on, reaching for another tissue to blow his nose again. "When he knows about us, but doesn't accept us? They aren't going to lock him up, right?"

"No, no." Keri jumped out of her sofa and kneeled before Horace's. "No. No one is locking Billy up. The Sentinels have other methods to deal with humans who find out about us."

"Like what?" Horace managed to rasp out before I asked the same question.

Keri turned to Rhys and that was when I knew that the answer wasn't a pleasant one. My brother cleared his throat and glanced at Riley before he replied:

"There are some Gifteds who can alter or block memories. It's not common practice and these Gifteds always have to have permission to use their Gift on someone since... Well, you are messing with someone's brain. They'd be erasing or changing something you'd been through."

"The law is very strict about using this only to protect the supernatural community from being discovered," Keri added.

"Was I going to get my memories of you erased if I'd turned you down?" Riley's quiet voice was aimed at my brother whose face was contorted with guilt.

"Perhaps. The Sentinels would've observed you and if they'd concluded you knowing of our existence wasn't a threat, then that would've been all. If they'd thought that you might expose us though..."

Rhys gulped, his voice weak when he continued:

"I'm sorry, Riley. It's..."

"To protect the community," his mate cut him off with a small smile. "I understand. I don't ever want to forget anything about you, but if I was in your shoes and everyone I cared for was at risk, then... Then I'd do the same. I'd contact the Sentinels and have the human's memory erased. Or altered, or whatever."

Rhys let out a long breath, his shoulders sagging with relief as he lovingly gazed into his mates eyes before he leaned down and gave Riley a slow, gentle kiss on the lips.

"You are the best mate a shifter could have, you know that, right?" He murmured as he drew Riley sideways into his arms and kissed him again, this time on top on his head.

"I want this." Horace's steady voice surprised us. "I want what the two of you have. I'm just afraid that people would get hurt if I try to get it. My parents, Billy, me... I can't see a way for all of us to get what we want. Even if by some miracle Billy and I end up together, my father might never speak to me again and mom would be torn between being loyal to her mate and his wishes, and being a supportive parent. I just..." His voice adopted the raspy inflection again. "I just can't see it working out."

"Horace..." I started, but he raised a hand to quiet me.

"But I realize I need to do something. That I can't just wait for things to happen."

Keri reached out with a tissue and wiped away the renewed stream of tears from his cheek.

"So I'm going to try to get close to Billy. To make him... Care for me. And then I'll tell him what we are and that he's my mate."

"I could tell him." I suggested. "About what we are, I mean. I've always wanted to tell him. And once he knows about us, and gets used to the idea, you'll tell him you recognized him."

Hope flickered in Horace's eyes for the first time since Friday morning.

"You'd do that?" He asked, squeezing my hand, probably without realizing he was doing it.

"Sure." I shrugged. "As I said, I've always wanted to do it."

"You'll have to find the right way and time though," Rhys pointed out. "You can't just blurt it out when you go to school on Monday."

I rolled my eyes.

"I can be rash, but I'm not that reckless, bro."

"And there has to be an adult present," Keri noted. "You are too young to do this without supervision. They could hide so Billy doesn't know that they are there, but someone has to be with you."

"I'll do it," my brother offered and I grinned again. It looked like everyone was on board with the idea and we were even forming a plan.

"And if Billy needs to talk to a human after, he can come over and talk to me," Riley suggested.

Yep. That was definitely a good addition to the plan.

"But we have to inform the Sentinels first," Keri took lead again. "We need get their permission to tell Billy."

"Do you think they'd say no?" Horace sounded worried and that was somehow a good thing; it showed he wanted Billy to know about us.

"He is your mate, so they won't deny us telling him we exist. He is very young though, so you might need to wait a couple of years."

"Oh." The one word that spilled out of Horace's mouth perfectly voiced both of our disappointment. For years I'd wanted to share with my best friend what I was, and now that he could actually join our community, that desire had only intensified.

"The mate bond is a powerful thing though, so they'd give permission as soon as they are sure Billy is mature enough to handle this," Keri, who was still on her knees, attempted to reassure Horace again. "And Billy is a smart and open-minded kid, so you probably won't have to wait long. I know it will be difficult, but we need to time this right. For the sake of the pack and for Billy himself."

"I know." Horace sighed. "And then what? What happens when we get permission?"

"Well," Keri looked up at me. "Rhys and a Sentinel pair would hide somewhere where they could observe Billy as Kennedy tells him about us. If things go well, the Sentinels will still have Billy under observation for a while to make sure everything is indeed alright. After that, it will be up to you to tell him you are destined to be together."

"Maybe don't phrase it like that though," I suggested. "It sounds like some huge responsibility."

"And if things don't go well?" Horace asked quietly.

"Then what I told Riley." It was my brother who answered this time. "If he refuses you, but it doesn't seem like he'd out us to the human population, then that's that; if it looks like he'd tell, they'd get into his mind and he won't remember us."

"At all or just what we are?" Horace's voice shook.

"The more memories he has with us, the harder it will be for the Sentinels to erase or change them," Keri said. "It would be easier to just make him forget what we are, but not forget that we exist. Not to mention that they'd have to make everyone in town forget about us too, otherwise it would be strange that only one person can't recollect ever meeting us."

"So we can still be friends?" Horace inquired, his hands clutched together. "He wouldn't know about shifters or that he's my mate, but he'd still recognize me and be my friend?"

"Yes." Keri confirmed, her voice sad. "You could still be friends."

Just friends, with someone you love - she didn't have to say that part, but we all knew the sad truth.

We fell quiet again after that, giving Horace time to attempt to clear up the mess in his mind. Eventually, he spoke, his tone almost steady:

"Alright then. Let's do it. Call the Sentinels and tell them what is going on. When we get their permission to reveal ourselves to Billy, I'll speak with dad. I think it's best that I did it myself."

Keri nodded.

"So..." I cleared my throat. "Do you think you'll be able to handle being around Billy now?"

It was a reasonable question to pose. Horace had, after all, left school early on Friday just to avoid running into his mate after he'd recognized him.
"I'll have to. I mean, we go to school together. Why?"

I wasn't sure how he'd react to what I was about to say next, but I had to tell him.

"'Cause he kind of helped me organize your surprise birthday party that we are throwing you tomorrow."

Astonishment, gratitude, horror... Yeah, they were all written plainly on Horace's face. It would be an odd birthday party to say the least, and that was if we even held it.

Right now, I wasn't so sure that we would.

Wow! This chapter is almost twice as long as the average chapter I post. I hope you didn't find it too lengthy and enjoyed it. If you liked it, please give it a VOTE!

Okay, so: this is the last Horace-oriented chapter (for this book); it's time to go back to Keri and Callum. And yes, you will see more of Horace in Sentiments & Reason; it's just that the focus won't be on him.

As for the second (humans-included) birthday party: do you want it to happen and would you be interested in reading about it if I posted it as a one-shot?

Also: what do you think about Kennedy breaking the news to Billy that the Bullets are shifters and leaving Horace only to tell the human about them being mates?

Also also: the Sentinels and their procedures.
Do you think it's fair that you have to notify them before you reveal yourself as a supernatural being to a human?

Do you think it's fair that they'd erase or alter human memories to keep the supernatural world a secret?

Have a great time wattpadding and thank you for supporting my stories with your votes and comments!