Her Twin Mates (Book 2 of Wolfsong) [Preview]

An Old Friend

Before either of us could say anything, Melody spoke in a quiet voice. "I could never hate you, Preston. I thought you hated me too."

"I could never hate you, Melody," Preston protested weakly. "I tried to check on you whenever the gang visited your house, and I convinced Mom to get me a tutor so I could jump a year in school too. At first, she resisted, but I convinced her by saying I would be in the same year as the twins and Vance. I even tried to be- never mind, it doesn't matter."

Melody and Preston fell into an uncomfortable silence and right when I finally had enough Preston whispered, "Wilbur misses you." It was like someone flipped a switch because Melody lit up, a warm smile curling her lips with delight shining in her eyes. I wish she'd look at us like that.

"Wilbur is okay?" Melody asked breathlessly. In all our years living with her, I never saw her this happy or excited and jealousy surged within me because some other male got this reaction from my mate.

"Better than okay. I have a jar from each harvest that I saved for you, just in case, you know," Preston admitted shyly while rubbing the back of his neck. He slowly stood, and Melody threw herself at him after setting Skarr down to cry quietly into his chest. "I promised I'd take care of him," he soothed gently, stroking her hair and my hackles rose.

Knowing he once saw her in a romantic way had me wanting to rip my mate out of his arms and beat the living shit out of him. But my wolf snarled with fury and I barely bit back my cry of surprise. 'You will not touch that boy, or I will ensure you regret it. Then I'll let Skarr play with you,' my wolf promised in a dark, chilling voice.

"I love you," Preston sighed, "but I know you'll never love me that way, not now that you found your mates. But, if you give me time, I'm sure I can work on turning my love into the love of friends, I love you so I'll take whatever I can get. I promise I won't let anyone keep me away ever again. Can we go back to being best friends? I'd say just friends but you'll never accept that, and you deserve better anyway."

"Bestest," Melody sniffled, and he smiled so tenderly that I swallowed hard, sensing Asher's discomfort and guilt too. Had we not come into her life, Melody and Preston could very well have been a committed couple right now, completely in love and happy. Words couldn't describe how much that hurt. We not only took her friend away but possibly her first love too. I was also jealous, so very jealous, that he once had the potential of receiving her love which is all I wanted.

"Would you like to see Wilbur later? We should take your Dad too since he helped us plant him and all," Preston murmured, and Melody giggled, slowly raising her head to look at him, practically glowing with happiness.

"I would love too, I've missed him, but I didn't dare try to visit. I was afraid the twins would burn him or chop him down or that you would if you saw me there and remembered how much I loved him. I forced myself to forget about him because I knew if I didn't, I might accidentally mention him or find myself there," Melody whispered shyly with pain in her eyes.

"What the hell is Wilbur?" Asher finally asked impatiently, and Preston chuckled with a warmth that didn't reach his eyes while he stared at us. A low growl rose in my throat at the knowledge that out of everyone in our kitten's life this was the one person who could steal her heart from us.

"A peach tree," Melody answered softly with a grimace as if she were afraid we'd mock her. Instead, I raised an eyebrow and waited for her to continue. "In Kindergarten, we were given the task of planting a tree with our class partner and adult supervision. I was reading Charlotte's Web and helping Preston with it, so we decided to name our tree Wilbur. Dad helped us plant him on Preston's property because he had more time to devote to our sapling since Mom was sick at the time." Melody's voice grew more and more quiet until it died and I closed my eyes in pain.