What We Left Unsaid

“Zee, what the hell were you thinking?”

The guitarist looked up from where he was sitting on the roof of the house, a half-empty bottle of liquor hanging from his hands. He took in his alpha’s appearance as the burly man dropped down onto the shingled surface beside him, running his hands over his face and appearing every bit as exasperated by the whole ordeal as Zacky was. Silently, he handed over the bottle and allowed his friend to take a deep sip from it. “I don’t know,” he lied, his tone tired as he took the bottle back and twisted it around in his hands.

The larger man sighed, knowing his beta wasn’t being completely truthful, but not angered by it. He took a long look at the way his friend was drinking, and easily inferred what had happened the night before. “You were drunk, weren’t you?”

“I may have had a bit,” came the stiff reply.

“Was it a split-second thing, then? Did you even really think about it?”

“I fucking thought about it,” he bit back defensively.

“You guys hate each other! What could’ve possibly made you think, even for a second, that it was a good idea?” When the man in question only averted his gaze and dropped his head shamefully, Matt groaned, connecting the dots easily. “Goddamn it, you did it to spite her, didn’t you? Zee! You’re punishing yourself, you idiot! It’s not worth it!”

“You’re wrong,” he responded calmly, a dark smirk on his face as he lifted his head and met his friend’s gaze again. “It’s more than worth it, because not only does this fuck her over, but it fucks with every single one of those assholes from the old pack! Can you imagine their reactions when they find out that their precious little pureblood is now the filthy mutt’s mate? That’s why this is so much more than worth it!”

Matt’s eyes lit up in understanding, but at the same time he shook his head in disagreement. “Believe it or not, I have thought about that, but have you? I get where you’re coming from, Man, but did you really think that over? Yeah, you get to ‘show them’ and all that shit, but you know they’re going to try and kill the both of you now, right?”

The drunken man only shrugged, snorting at the very idea before taking another sip of the liquid courage, not that he needed it at all; his opinion would’ve been the same had he been sober. “Let them try. They’ve been trying for twenty-eight years, nothing will be different this time.”

The larger man almost hit him for his stupidity. “Yeah, something’s fucking different this time! This time they’ve got more of a reason to kill you; before your existence just annoyed them, now not only are you mated to practically a goddamn princess, but you also managed to take the goddamn princess that they already threatened to kill if she didn’t transfer over for a nice large sum of money to Alaric! We’re already dealing with the rogues trying to take our land, Zacky! We don’t have time to deal with this shit, too!”

“You just said so yourself, they would’ve killed her or sold her off to that fucking creep. Don’t blame me for getting that pack on our back, because you wouldn’t have let her go back to them anyways! You would’ve helped her escape or kept her in our pack and we still would’ve had to deal with this shit!”

“You’re damned right I would’ve! But the difference is, I wouldn’t have had her mated off to you, because there’s no fucking way to stop an attack from them now! Literally anything but her being mated to you would’ve been a hell of a lot safer!”

“What, now you’ve got a fucking problem with me not being better bred, Shads? Oh, that’s fucking rich, coming from you!”

Matt sighed, recognizing the defensive mindset his friend had been backed into, and instead of shouting back like he desperately wanted to, he only lifted a hand to calm his beta. “I’m sorry, you know I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just worried about both of you, Zach; I don’t want to see either of you get hurt... physically or emotionally.”

The Italian man seemed to mirror his friend’s moods, calming down as soon as he realized Matt had -- as soon as, in his mind, he didn’t feel like he had to defend himself. “Well, that won’t happen,” he stated in certainty. “We can handle the physical part, and you should know you don’t have to worry about emotional shit with either of us. That’s something she was actually right about: we don’t have to deal with any of the actual mate shit we’d otherwise have to deal with.”

“You’re already upset, Zee; you’re not fooling me. But forget about right now... what about down the road? Forget about the fact that you’ll have to figure out how you’re going to deal with her being in heat; what’s going to happen when one of you does decide you actually want a mate? I know you say you don’t ever want a mate, but that could change! Or, better yet, she might eventually want to have a mate and pups -- did you consider what would happen then?”

“She doesn’t want a mate either,” the guitarist stated confidently, before shrugging his shoulders, “and if she suddenly decided she wants one, then I guess she’ll be really fucking sorry that I’m the closest thing she’ll ever have to one.”

The larger man shook his head. “You don’t get it, Zach! It’s not as easy as that! She’s your mate now, and your wolf half knows that. It won’t be satisfied with just glaring at her from across the dining room table anymore! Even if you want nothing more to do with her than that, it will.”

“Matt, your wolf side wanted a mate, and you didn’t fight it. No part of me wants a mate, so it’s not going to be an issue.”

“That doesn’t matter,” the brunette stressed. “You can try to pretend it makes a difference, Zacky, but you’re going to have one hell of a time with it. Just wait a little while, see what happens.”

The black haired man rolled a shoulder in indifference, taking another deep sip of the alcohol and making a mental note to prove his friend wrong. As he handed off the bottle again, he stretched out his jaw in a yawn, his brows furrowing as the motion drew his attention to how uncomfortable his jaw still was. Flexing it again, he lifted a hand to rub at it.

“Is your jaw bothering you?”

Green eyes met hazel ones as the guitarist once again rolled a shoulder. “Brian must’ve landed a better blow than I thought,” he explained dismissively. “I’ll have to readjust it tomorrow if it’s not healing right.”

“I didn’t hear it break.”

“That’s because it’s not broken.”

“Then it should have healed by now. It’s bothering you right now?”

“No, it’s fucking bothering me yesterday!” snapped the irritable man as he gave his companion a pointed glare.

His friend didn’t seem to notice, thick eyebrows furrowing above narrowed hazel eyes. “How is it bothering you?”

“Dude, what the fuck is up with you? I got hit; it’s fucking healing. It’s not a big deal.”

“Sharp pain or discomfort?”

“It’s just not fucking comfortable, alright? It’s just a weird feeling, not any sharp pain, so it’s no big deal. Isn’t there something better to talk about than my goddamn jaw?”

“When did it first start bothering you?”

“I don’t fucking know!” the man responded, irritation growing as he huffed out a sigh and then took another deep sip from the bottle. “Since after I got punched in the jaw, maybe?”

“When you fought Ava?”

“I guess. What the hell are--”

“And it’s bothering you now?”

“That’s what I fucking said, isn’t it?!” he shouted and waved his hands in a frustrated gesture, somehow managing to not spill any liquor in the process. “Why are you so fucking interested in my goddamn jaw?”

“Because it shouldn’t be fucking bothering you unless you’re in a particularly instinctual mindset and you’re right next to your mate! This doesn’t make any sense!”

“Alright, what the hell are you talking about?”

The larger man sighed. “It feels almost like you’re teething or something, right? Like no matter what you do, you can’t get comfortable, like you need to be chewing on something?”

“Wait,” the black haired man said as he sent his alpha a bewildered look, “this has something to do with me marking Ava?”

Hazel eyes lit up at the question, causing the man’s confused expression to morph into one of consideration. “Maybe it has everything to do with that...” he said, more to himself than as an answer to the question.

“Matt, I’m going to fucking kill you if you don’t explain what the fuck you’re trying to say.”

“That feeling you’re having, it’s something that I’ve noticed since I mated with Kat,” the vocalist explained. “But it only ever happens when I’m with her and already more wolf than man; I don’t understand why it’s bothering you right now.”

“I don’t care about why,” the guitarist complained. “Just tell me how the fuck you get rid of it.” When his alpha only whistled and looked away, he let out a low groan. “What?”

“Start getting used to it, buddy,” he suggested with a laugh, “because I don’t foresee your mate wanting wanting to help you out with it.”

The guitarist frowned. “What do-- oh you have got to be kidding me, Shads! It won’t stop unless I mark her again?”

“That’s what you want between your jaws right now, Zee,” the brunette enlightened him with a pitying smile, chuckling softly at the sour look that was returned to him.

“That’s the last thing I want between my jaws.”

“Keep telling yourself that.”

Huffing out in irritation, the green-eyed man mulled over the suggested explanation for his discomfort. If his alpha was telling him the truth, which he didn’t doubt so much as hope that the man was mistaken, then things didn’t look to hot for him. His friend was right; his mate wasn’t going to be interested in doing anything of that nature with him, and, frankly, he wasn’t interested in spending any more time with her than he already had to, either. He could deal with the discomfort, he just wished that he didn’t have to. “Why is this even happening to me right now?”

The larger man laughed again. “I thought you weren’t interested in why, huh?” he mocked, before shrugging in response. “I don’t know, Zee, but the only thing I can think of is that maybe it’s directly related to our mates. Mine was turned, yours is one of the purest out there; maybe the intensity of the urge has everything to do with how concentrated the werewolf genes are in the pair.”

“Was,” the other man corrected with a twitch of his lips. “She was one of the purest out there.”

“Oh, give it a rest. Contrary to what the both of you seem to believe, her ranking in the eyes of the elitist bastards doesn’t change what’s in her blood. You get disowned from your family, it doesn’t make your genes any less the product of your parents’.”

Completely ignoring his friend’s argument, as he much preferred to believe that he had, in fact, changed her status, the black-haired man mulled over the idea. “Careful what you suggest,” he advised. “You’re making it sound like those bastards actually have an argument for claiming their superiority.”

With a snort and a roll of his eyes, Matt disagreed. “I’d say, under the circumstances, that it makes them inferior. But all of that is bullshit. I’m not trying to suggest that having more werewolf genes matters, just that it might affect instincts and whatnot. Different genes, different instincts.”

“So, what I’m getting from this, is that it is completely her fault that I can’t just get comfortable.”

“That’s your game plan, blame it on her?” the alpha asked as he arched up a brow. “It’s not her instincts that are making you want to mark her again, man; it’s yours.”

“Then it’s got nothing to do with our fucking mates, Matthew.”

Again, the larger man chuckled at his friend’s rashness and irritation. “Unless our instincts depend on who we choose as a mate. I mean, we already know that they do because you can sleep with a human without marking them but you have to mark a wolf...” Hazel eyes widened when the train of thought connected different dots in his mind. “And if this urge is stronger for you because of who you’re mated to, Zacky, that means that others probably will be too. She will go into heat eventually, you know.”

The guitarist sighed and closed his eyes slowly, trying his best to un-hear the suggestion before it really started to screw with his mind. “Thank you for the added things to worry about, Matthew. I was starting to think I’d run out.”

With an unapologetic grin, the man laughed. “I think I’m just going to stop worrying about the two of you,” he decided, smirking at the arched eyebrow he received in response. “Thinking about all of the better options you both had doesn’t change what’s been done, after all. And, to be completely honest, I think what happens next between the two of you is going to be the most entertaining thing in the fucking world, provided we all live long enough to see it.”