Shades of a Warrior's Soul

Ch 11 - Seb

Once Katherine and Doc were gone, Mom suggested Mika and I head to the cabin for a few days. She could see how haunted Mika looked as he processed through everything that had happened the last few days.

"We'll let Doc know you two needed a few days to come to terms with the truth of the matter." Dad added, sharing a look with Mom. That the Brother Pact we'd made, altering the lives of so many, was for naught? That if Mikhail had listened to his gut when something told him Darcy was a right fit but she wasn't the perfect fit and to not mate her fully, we wouldn't be here right now? I'd heard the thought more than a handful of times since we'd met Kat, always lingering at the back of his mind.

"Get out of my fucking head." Mika snarled, shoving away from the table. "It's bad enough we've had to share everything major in life, and now we've got to share a mate too." He turned to stalk off, and I rose from my chair with a snarl to follow him.

"Let him go." Dad ordered when I rounded the corner of the table. I paused, took a few deep breathes. "I think you two should travel separately to the cabin, as well. Invite your Brother Warriors, have a bonfire. We need the two of you to come back whole again, Seb. If there are cracks between the two of you, everything else you build will crumble."

I shoved a handful of random shit into a duffel and headed out without a word to anyone. Mom came down the front steps as I put the Jeep into drive.

"Something to eat for the road." She offered as she sat the bag in the front seat. She hooked it into the seatbelt so it wouldn't fly out. I'd taken the doors off last week for a wash and hadn't bothered to put them back on. "Please be careful and let me know when you arrive."

"I will, Mother." She offered a sad little smile before she wandered slowly back up the steps. I caught her watching me in the rearview as I headed down the driveway. Everything would change, now – for our family, for our Clan. And it all rested on whether or not I could convince my brother to stay and fight for this, for a future with this stranger we'd both craved from the moment we met her.

I stopped halfway to see what Mom had packed. I scarfed the sandwich and potato wedges down while I called John Paolo.

"What's up?"

"Meet me at the cabin."

"When?"

"As soon as possible."

"Everyone?"

"Anyone who's available." Between the seven of them, not all would be able to drop everything and come. They would just have to link in at some point to hear everything.

I got to the cabin nearly an hour and a half later and parked near the lake. I'd stopped at the last store before leaving the town about fifteen minutes ago and got some beer. I'd grabbed a handful of cases, knowing the guys wouldn't think to stop on short notice. They'd need something when they arrived.

"Seb." I nodded at Mika's greeting as he slid into the front seat. I threw my seat belt off just in case he wanted to throw punches instead of talk. I'd finished off a six pack and the sun had set by the time he'd arrived. He didn't look entirely sober himself. "Look, man, you're my brother. We've shared a lot in life, but girls never happened to be one of those things. That was the one thing I got to keep for myself, and now it's the one thing we're required to share. Do you really think this will work out, long term? And have you even asked her what she thinks about this? She passes for a human, Seb. She knows nothing of our kind, of the customs and severity of our decisions."

"We don't have to share her." On the way over, I'd had a lot to think about. Mikhail had lost a mate, he knew what it felt like to be fully tied to someone. "You and Kat can consummate the mating, and I'll take a life-mate."