My Stepbrother’s Secret Mate Chapter 03

My Stepbrother’s Secret Mate Chapter 03

The sight of them made me want to throw up.

But Ivan said, “You were single all through college, and then suddenly everything changed this year. So this is why. You found your fated mate. May the Moon Goddess bless your bond.”

Then he turned to Pallavi and praised Xander sincerely. “Xander is the most devoted werewolf I’ve ever met. You have no idea what he’s normally like. He’s a cold guy, and no matter how many pretty girls confessed to him, he never paid any attention. I never thought he’d be the first of all of us siblings to find his mate.”

Resting her chin on her hand, Pallavi smiled at Xander. “So you’re that popular.”

Ivan laughed. “He could write the book on dating.”

I thought about what Xander had been like when he was with me.

He had been patient and gentle, nothing like the boy he used to be when we were kids.

Even the smallest things I mentioned in passing, he remembered.

I was always forgetting to eat breakfast, so he started waking up early every day to make sandwiches and leave them quietly on my dorm windowsill.

And when no one was home, Xander used to pin me against the wall by the stairs and kiss my eyes and ears until I couldn’t get out a single complete sentence.

Later, Ivan said to me, “Xander is definitely dating someone. He’s been paying way more attention to how he looks lately, and he’s buying all kinds of gifts girls like. But every time I ask him, he won’t tell me anything. Does he even think of me as family? Sooner or later, I’m going to find out who his girlfriend is.”

I lowered my head without saying anything, my ears burning.

I even talked with Xander about when we should tell Ivan. If Ivan ever found out his sister was dating his brother, I had no idea how badly he would lose it.

Putting on a grave expression, Xander shook his head. “Ivan treasures you too much. The second he finds out, he’ll probably stab me with a silver dagger.”

I burst out laughing. “Then I’ll definitely come save you.”

None of us could have imagined that the closest Ivan ever came to the truth was the moment Xander cheated on me right in front of me.

Ivan was a sincere, foolish brother. He never noticed that something was off between Xander and me.

Xander blinked slowly and shot me a glance so subtle no one else would have caught it.

My face stayed calm, but inside, I felt numb. Only one thought remained.

We were over.

I wasn’t going to cling to a love that had been wrong from the start.

A brother never should have fallen for his sister in the first place.

Just then, Pallavi suddenly said, “Xander’s liked me for a long time.”

I looked up in surprise.

In a sweet voice, Pallavi said, “We met on a camping trip. At first I thought we were just friends, but then last year, on the summer solstice… that was the day we made it official.”

The moment I heard that, I went still as stone.

Pallavi’s voice kept echoing in my ears.

“That day, I got caught in a flash flood.”

“I was hurt and couldn’t walk anymore. I called out weakly. Then suddenly Xander appeared in the forest and started walking toward me. He was covered in mud, but I thought he was the most handsome werewolf in the world.”

“He carried me away, but the fog trapped us in the forest, so we had no choice but to find a dry place and spend the night there.”

“That night, we talked about the past. We talked about how we had both lost our parents in the Night War, and I was shocked by how much we had in common. We both had hearts that were sensitive, fragile, and easy to break.”

Ivan joked, “Those aren’t exactly the words people usually use for a warrior.”

Pallavi said, “That’s why you still haven’t found your mate. A mate isn’t just a blessing from the Moon Goddess. A mate is the one person who sees the real you and soothes the wounds in your heart.”

Grief clogged my throat so completely that I couldn’t say a single word.

Ivan said, “A lot happened on last year’s summer solstice. It was Valencia’s birthday too…”

Suddenly, Xander cut in with disgust in his voice. “Valencia is spoiled because you indulge her too much. That day, she lied and said she’d fallen off a cliff just to make me spend her birthday with her.”

“What?” Ivan said, clearly offended. “How can you blame her for that? She really did fall off a cliff that day. The pack’s warriors didn’t find her until two days later.”

The color drained from Xander’s face. Instinctively, he grabbed my hand.

“You were really hurt?”

I yanked my hand away and said nothing.

Xander continued, “That was still her own fault. She knew there’d been a flash flood in the nearby canyon. She never should’ve gone in and taken that risk.”

Ivan frowned. “She said she went in because she was trying to find a missing friend…”

“But when I asked what that friend’s name was, she wouldn’t tell me,” Ivan went on. “Valencia having a friend I don’t know about is pretty weird, don’t you think?”

A terrifying flash flood struck on last year’s summer solstice.

There was no signal anywhere in the pack. I couldn’t reach Xander, but I knew he was planning to go into the mountains to gather herbs, so I insisted on running into the forest anyway, even though my friend tried to stop me.

I accidentally fell off a cliff, and my legs were too badly hurt to move. Thankfully, my phone finally got enough signal to reach Xander. Fighting back tears, I asked if he had run into any danger, then told him I had fallen off a cliff and begged him to come find me. If our phones could connect, it meant we were very close to each other. I couldn’t wait another second to see him.

And Xander said, “Why can’t you look at the situation for what it is? There are people who need help more than you do. You’re such a spoiled brat, Valencia.”

Then he hung up and left me suffering alone below that cliff.

I thought he was only more worried about the warriors who had been hurt.

I never imagined that while I was helplessly waiting to be rescued, he was only a short distance away, talking with another woman all night long and even swearing an oath to her.