Chapter 387-Mine Too

Theodore:

I had no idea what had gotten into my brother.

Maybe seeing Verity dressed like that had done something to him. I honestly couldn’t tell, because suddenly he was acting far more aggressive than usual, almost the way I acted whenever I was around her.

But it made no sense for him to behave that way.

Then he did something completely unhinged.

He pulled Verity closer, and right in front of me, she ended up pressed almost completely against his chest.

Neither of them moved away.

I just stood there, staring at them.

"Hey!" I protested, irritated by the way he had dragged her toward him, but neither of them reacted.

The way Verity was looking into his eyes made jealousy burn through me.

"Step away from her. That’s inappropriate," I finally snapped, reaching between them and pulling Verity away because what the hell were they doing?

The moment I separated them, I noticed the strange look Verity gave him.

Both of them looked shocked.

I couldn’t understand why she was staring at him like that, but I hated it.

"What is going on?" I asked, trying to get her attention back on me.

Why was she looking at my brother like that?

"That is crazy," Jaguar murmured, catching me completely off guard.

"What is crazy?" I demanded.

Verity covered her mouth as if she were in shock.

The way both of them were behaving was starting to make me anxious.

"Will one of you please tell me what happened?" I asked, looking between them.

Jaguar was smiling widely now.

There was something unsettling about that smile, as though he had just discovered something completely unexpected, something incredibly important to him.

"You know what just happened?" Jaguar finally said.

"What? That’s what I’ve been asking both of you. What is going on?"

I wanted to direct the question at Verity. After all, she had been standing so close to my brother and staring at him like that, so part of me felt like she owed me an explanation.

But I didn’t want to be that kind of man, the kind who tried to control her.

So I turned back to my brother.

Jaguar ran a hand through his hair as he paced in small steps, and with every one, his smile seemed to grow.

"I felt the mate bond with her." He looked directly at Verity. "She’s my mate. Verity, you’re my mate."

I couldn’t even describe what I felt after hearing that.

It was as though my breath stopped completely, followed by my heart.

Verity’s eyes widened too, and the corners slowly began to redden as if she were about to cry.

"What is he saying, Verity?" I asked her instead.

She looked at me with a strange expression, almost guilty.

"No. That can’t be true. You didn’t feel the mate bond with him, did you?" I asked, moving toward her.

Before I could get any closer, Jaguar stepped between us.

"What’s going on? Why are you so shocked about this?" he demanded. "Aren’t you happy for me? Do you remember how long we’ve been waiting to find our fated mates? I finally found mine, so why do you look so upset?"

It was almost as if he could already sense something was wrong. Instead of focusing on Verity, most of his attention had shifted to my reaction.

"It’s true," Verity finally said, pulling our attention away from each other. "I just felt the mate bond with him. I don’t understand how that’s possible."

She looked at Jaguar, whose happiness immediately faded into confusion.

"What do you mean, how is that possible? Why wouldn’t it be?" he asked. "I mean, I like you. I’ve liked you for a while. And isn’t it a good thing that we’re mates?"

Just when I thought the night couldn’t get any worse, my brother admitted that he liked her.

Right in front of me.

"What? You like her?" I asked Jaguar before turning to Verity. "And you knew about this?"

Verity buried her face in her hands.

"I don’t understand what’s so shocking about it," Jaguar said, still watching me with the same confused expression.

"The thing is, you shouldn’t be mates with her."

I said it.

I finally said it.

"What?" Jaguar stared at me. "What are you talking about? Have you lost your mind?"

I kept my eyes on Verity.

She wasn’t saying much, so I reached for her arm and pulled her closer.

"What the fuck do you know?" Jaguar snapped.

Before he could move toward us, I drew Verity even closer to my chest.

"Verity, tell me this is a lie. Tell me you didn’t feel the mate bond with him," I demanded.

Then I felt Jaguar’s hand clamp tightly around my arm as he tried to pull me away from her.

Instead of letting Verity go, I held her closer and leaned toward her, intending to kiss her and claim her as mine.

I didn’t care if my brother had felt a mate bond with her. It was wrong. It shouldn’t have happened.

The Moon Goddess had to be mistaken.

While a hundred different emotions rushed through me, something suddenly struck deep inside my chest.

Verity gasped too, but it wasn’t from shock.

It was pain, though not the kind either of us had been feeling before. This was something entirely different.

For a moment, everything around us seemed to slow down.

All I could hear was her heartbeat blending with mine, and then I felt it.

A connection forming between us.

Verity’s eyes widened even more as my wolf reacted strongly inside me and spoke one unmistakable word.

’Mate.’

The moment I heard it, I didn’t even know whether to feel happy or completely confused.

This was everything I had wanted.

Ever since finding out only moments ago that Verity was Jaguar’s mate, I had been consumed by one thought: there had to be some way to prove it was a mistake. There was no possible way she could share a mate bond with him.

But now that I had felt the bond myself, I was even more confused.

"What are you doing? Did you not hear what I just said? She’s my mate!"

Jaguar grabbed my arm and finally pulled me away from her.

We faced each other, with Verity standing behind him.

I straightened, glaring back at my brother.

"And she’s mine too!" I shouted with complete certainty.