Who We Become

CHAPTER TWO

DUNCAN

"You are, my fire." Luke started to sing as he came into the office. I dropped everything I was doing and joined in, using my pen as a microphone.

"The one, desire."

"Believe, when I say." He jumped onto one of the chairs on the other side of my desk, I quickly did the same as I sang the next line.

"I want it that way."

"Tell me why" We yelled together and laughed.

"When are we going to grow up?" I asked, "We're 24 but still act like we're 12." We both stepped off our chairs and sat down in them.

"Never. Not even a ma-" He paused sadly. "A mate could stop me."

"Are you still worrying about that? You need to have more faith in the Moon Goddess. She will give you the perfect mate, and you'll love her when you meet her." I said trying to make him feel better but it looked like I only made it worse.

He cleared his throat and looked at the closed door nervously. "That's the thing, Duncan. I'm worried my mate will be a she." He paused for a second before taking a deep breath and straightening his back. "I'm gay."

I was shocked, to say the least. I had known Lukas my entire life and had no idea. "I-is that even possible? I mean, I thought werewolves were all about having pups?" I leaned forward to rest my elbows on my knees and hold my hands together.

"All I know is that when my wolf talks about our mate he doesn't say 'she'. He says 'he'." He said putting his head in his hands. "I'm so confused, Duncan. What am I gonna do? What is the pack going to think about having a gay Beta? What are the elders gonna think?"

"Hey," I said firmly as I put my hand on his shoulder. "You have nothing to be ashamed of. If your wolf knows that your mate is male and is okay with it then we know that the Moon Goddess made no mistake. You let me handle the elders. When the time is right, that is. I love you man, but they still kinda scare me."

He laughed and nodded, "Believe me, I am in no rush." He looked relieved, his brown hair was a mess and his blue-gray eyes has tears in them.

"So what made you stop by? You normally avoid the whole house like the plague when I'm trying to get work done." I said as I got up from my chair to sit at my desk.

"I had a few things I wanted to run by you, yeah."  He said. "First off, Madison is still running around claiming to be your mate."

"My goddess! We went on one date in middle school. That was over ten years ago. We didn't even hold hands!" I complained while throwing my hands up. "I only went because Ma said I needed more friends."

"Don't get me wrong, I love your mom but I was clearly all you needed. I mean look at how you turned out?"

I thought back to not even fifteen minutes ago when we were dancing like fools to the Backstreet Boys. "Yeah. Perfectly fine."

"Also our bet! I think I finally found an artist that you don't know of and won't like right away. He's showing at Cloud's gallery tomorrow night. You in?"

About two months before we had talked about how I liked almost every artist I saw and knew pretty much every artist. I tried my best to learn the names of the up-and-coming ones, but sometimes one or two would slip through the cracks.

Art had always been the one thing to make me feel normal. When I looked at it, I wasn't an alpha or a werewolf. I was just a person looking at something someone made with their own hands and hard work.

Don't get me wrong, I love being me. I would be nowhere without my wolf, Rae. Sometimes, it was hard growing up. I didn't have Rae until I was 12. By then everyone already had their groups.

Making friends was hard when I couldn't talk to them about my life. It's pretty hard to get people to like you when you can't have sleepovers or stay at their house.

Why did I just make friends with packmates? Because I was the Alpha's son, people treated me differently. They always stopped talking when I came near them. I understood why, Daniel Wood was a cruel man, alpha, and father. He only ever wanted me to train and study. He thought spending time with the pack would make me weak - that friends would make me weak. Thankfully he was fine with Luke but that was only because he's my beta.

My ma was the only one to ever get my father to listen to him. Which was always amusing to watch because she was 4'11" and he was 6'6".

"I'm telling you, that bet was pointless to make. Do you even remember what you get if you win?" I asked as I pulled out a request form from a pack member. It said that they needed to move into a new house because they were pregnant with triplets. "Remind me to send gift basket P to the Waters, please."

"The Waters are having a pup?" He asked, I nodded and held up three fingers. "Oh wow." he got up and went to the whiteboard next to my desk to write it down. "As for our bet, I get the satisfaction of knowing I was right and you were wrong."

I rolled my eyes at him. "So are you up for an Art showing tomorrow or not?" He asked.

"Hell yeah, I'm in. Do you even need to ask?"

⋉⋊

That night I laid awake in my bed Rae was restless.

Would you please stop that? I asked as I turned to stare at the ceiling.

Do you really think the only reason you like art was that it made you feel normal? He snapped at me which was weird, we were normally very friendly toward each other.

What's that supposed to mean?

The only reason I've endured every art show, every art class, and every gross-smelling paint bottle was for one reason. He was panting angrily in my head by then. It was because art is going to be how we meet our mate. And then he was gone.

I quickly sat up in shock. WHAT?