Page 60 of Shifter Omegaverse AU

“Like I had to hold on to you as tightly as I could and never let go again,” Ray finished for him.

“Wow,” Milo said, sliding their hands under their thighs, inadvertently pulling their leg away from Rowan’s. “Rowan and I actually found out at two seperate times. It’s a long story, but basically, I touched Rowan by accident first, and then he touched me by accident later, and ba da bing ba da boom, fated mates, dating, first date, first ki—”

Milo squeaked and tried to pull their head back inside their dress, but the low neckline made it virtually impossible. Since they were still sitting on their hands, they ended up burying their face in their shoulder.

Rowan didn’t care one way or another if Milo shared that they'd had their first kiss. Ray, on the other hand, looked like he was seeing the sun rise for the first time. “Milo, that’s so amazing!”

A soft, sweet smell came from his end of the couch, almost like sun-warmed feathers but with a distinct mammalian undertone. The way it mixed with Ruben’s floral, airy scent made it feel not quite homey, but maybe nostalgic?

Rowan’s hawk clacked his beak together, and Rowan realized it was the same way Troy smelled, minus the alpha pheromones.

It was the scent of his family’s mates.

“Have you already mated?” Rowan asked, trying and failing to keep his tone level.

Rowan’s hawk kee-awwed right as Milo jerked upright, nearly toppling out of their seat. Rowan thrust his leg out, catching Milo on the side of the thigh and pushing them back onto their chair.

“We haven’t mated yet. We wanted to tell you both first,” Ray said, threading his fingers with Ruben’s. “Have you mated?”

“No,” Milo said, folding their dislodged hands in their lap. “We haven’t talked about it yet. We were going to talk more after strawberry picking.”

“Oh…sorry,” Ray mumbled, his ears drooping.

Ruben pulled him somehow even closer. “Ray thought it was important to talk to you today because we’re probably going to mate in the next week or two before I head out for recruitment.”

Ruben had been recruited to join a national traveling orchestra before he even finished college. He’d played all over the country and in a few other countries, but he’d moved back here the same year Rowan took over Riley’s company. He was currently in a different branch of the national orchestra that stuck mostly to this and the surrounding states, but every so often he would volunteer to go on recruiting trips like the one that had recruited him.

“That seems pretty fast,” Rowan said, right as Milo let out a soft huff of breath.

“You travel for work?” they asked. “Is that something you’ve talked about with Ray?”

Ray’s ears pressed back against his head. “We talked the entire night and most of this morning. Before either of you asks, I know about Ruben’s dating history, and I know that he travels a lot, but unlike Andrew, who was only traveling as far as Milo’s diner and apartment, I trust Ruben when he says he has recruitment trips planned.”

Milo inhaled sharply, but Ruben quickly jumped in. “We talked about Andrew and some of Ray’s concerns, and I showed him all my plane tickets and hotel reservations to reassure him. Everything is very above board.”

Rowan’s head was spinning, not quite as violently as the night before, but strong enough that he barely noticed when Milo pulled their leg away again.

Was there still a chance this could all fall apart? Denying a fated mate bond was a hundred times worse than a regular breakup, and breaking the bond after mating was probably a hundred times worse than that. There would be no cordial family gatherings or casual hangouts after something like that.

Two of Rowan’s board members had broken a mate bond and had their mate marks removed. They had attempted to attend a board meeting together almost six months later and had both shifted right there on the boardroom table, snarling and hissing at each other as if no time had passed at all. Their split hadn’t been amicable, but the pain he’d seen on both their human faces before they shifted seemed to be universal for broken mate bonds. He absolutely didn’t want to see his brother go through that, but he also didn’t want Ray or Milo to have to suffer along with him.

A week or two didn’t seem like enough time to learn each other’s favorite foods, let alone decide if they were going to spend their lives together. Ray had been betrayed before, though, so perhaps he had been the one to suggest mating before Ruben shipped off for recruitment. Was there any way they would be amenable to a longer timeline? Was it horrible of Rowan to want that for his own benefit? And for Milo’s?

“That sounds like a solid start,” Milo said, their voice tight. “Genuinely, I’m so happy for you both, and it seems like you’re having some good conversations, but you’ve literally known each other for less than a day.”

Thank the gods, despite all Milo’s eccentricities, they seemed to have a level head when it came to Ray.

“I know, and I know I don’t have the best track record, but this is different,” Ray said.

Milo breathed out through their nose before standing up. They barely had to incline their head towards the door before Ray scrambled to his feet. If Rowan had tried to do that with Ruben, he would’ve had to send up signal flares to get the message across. The two friends seemed to always be on the same wavelength, or at least close to it.

Rowan wasn’t sure if he had a strong enough relationship with Ruben to question his decisions like that, let alone request a private conference in the hallway. That became painfully apparent as Milo’s front door closed, and the room fell painfully silent.

Ruben crossed his ankle over his knee, gazing across the room at Rowan expectantly. Rowan’s hawk gave a sharp cry, as if he was also expecting Rowan to do something completely out of character, like actually confront his brother about his antics.

Obviously, that wasn’t going to happen.

The silence stretched between them, reminiscent of the almost decade of distance they’d overcome, but just like back then, Rowan didn’t know how to cross it. Finally, Ruben shrugged and pulled out his phone, seemingly as nonplussed as ever. His only tell, one he’d had his entire life, was the way his right ring finger began tapping the back of his phone.