Gage

“Gage, who was that?” Orion asked, crossing his arms and tucking them under his armpits for warmth. “How was he able to break through the border?” 

“I dunno, I think it’s because of the full moon. Maeve did warn me about it.” I got off of my knees and brushed the dirt off of them, turning back to my love. His nose scrunched up, and he swallowed. I stomped a couple of times on the dirt-covered hex bag that strengthened the border.

“What if it was a hunter?” Orion tried to theorize. The sweet omega paced back and forth on our porch. 

“Love, if it were a hunter, they would have tried harder,” I replied, stepping up on the porch. “It’s back up anyways. We’re safe.” 

My mate held his hands out for me, silently asking me to embrace him. I could tell it shook him up that someone almost breached Maeve’s border. Orion was a cat shifter—nothing like the goddess putting a cat and a dog together. When he held his hands out like that, I knew he wanted to scent me, and he wanted me to comfort him. 

The last time someone breached the border, it was a hunter trying to track Maeve down, and if she weren’t as powerful as she was, Orion and I would have been a casualty of that affair. This time it felt different, I couldn’t feel the hostility, but we couldn’t take the chance. 

I embraced my feline shifter, and he rubbed his face against my chest, trying to soothe himself and the little kitten inside of him. Though, Orion would probably argue and tell me that his cat was a fierce cat who could claw through his enemies. When in reality, the most I’ve seen him catch is a mouse, and maybe every once in a while, he would manage to catch a fly. 

Orion was Maeve’s cat before I was even brought into her own little sanctuary. She was a powerful witch that could dimension shift from one to the other. The border that had gone down was one she had to the human world, another was to the witching world, and there was more that I didn’t quite know, and she told me it was a bit too much for me to know anyhow. 

When Orion and I first met, of course, like a dog and a cat, we’d argue over stupid things, toys, what we wanted for dinner, and even Maeve’s teaching lessons. Orion was able to learn more things about Maeve’s witchy things because he was her familiar and would typically travel with her. He was born from her previous familiar that had passed giving birth to him, leaving a little kitten behind for Maeve to take care of. 

I was a different story all on my own, I had memories of my parents, I had two dads, and one of my dads was an omega like Orion. My dad had started bleeding heavily when he was giving birth to my sibling, and I remembered that night was weird. My aunt watched me while my papa had gone out to see if he could get help, but they didn’t come back for days. And this man– he came into our cabin and tore my aunt apart right in front of me. That alone was too much for a child to see. He called himself my father, which, even if he was, didn’t mean anything. 

Maeve saved me from him, and she wiped my memory of what happened until she knew I could handle everything mentally. When I was gifted my memory back, I wanted to find my dad and papa, but by that time, my life had taken a different turn, and I found out that Orion was my mate. I knew that if I wanted to, I could look for them myself, but leaving behind Orion was not something I wanted to do.

When I turned 18 was when I found out the feline shifter was my mate. Orion and I were raised much like siblings, even though he was a year older than me. He didn’t have one of those ‘freaky werewolf bonds,’ as he had put it, with me. It was rough the first few years because, biologically, we weren’t meant to be. 

It went from one day of us trying to be as far apart as possible to the mere thought of being away from him pained me. To say the least, it was an adjustment that neither of us wanted. But the wolf inside of me was another story, he was a big baby who wanted nothing more than to have the kitten snuggle up with us. But then things started to fall into place, and when we sealed the bond with one another. 

Now, we’re inseparable, I couldn’t imagine my life without him. 

He clung to me, and I kissed the top of his head. 

“We’re safe, everything will be okay.” My pink-haired omega looked up at me with his beautiful golden eyes. 

“I can’t believe someone was able to breach the border.” He said. 

“I will let Maeve know. Maybe she’ll come home quicker.” I replied. “Now, let's get back in; you’re only in a robe right now. You have to be cold.” I gripped his pink robe. “Why do things always happen when we’re trying to do stuff,” I grumbled, making the omega laugh. 

“It’s almost like the goddess wants to play games with us.” His voice was melodious. “My adrenaline is still running, which probably explains why I’m not feeling cold.”

“Then let’s go back in and burn off some of that adrenaline you have,” I growled, smacking his ass. I still thought of him as the most beautiful being my eyes had met in my 29 years of life. Our love was still as fresh and new as it was 11 years prior. 

“Babe, you and I both know Maeve is going to come home because she felt the breach.” He replied in a matter-of-fact tone. 

“Why do you always have to be right?” I grumbled. 

“It’s in my nature,” he pointed to his eyes. Aside from his future, he could see almost everything in time as a familiar. In hindsight, that was annoying as fuck too. Especially when it came to arguments or anything of that nature. “Trust me, love, as much as I would love to be fucked right now, I don’t want her to see us like that one time. Remember, she threatened to turn you into a toad.” He shook his head and made a grossed-out sound. “I love you, but I don’t think I’d be able to handle you as a toad. I can hardly deal with the fact you’re a mutt.” 

“Hey, I thought you said you’d stop calling me that.” I frowned. 

“Eh,” He shrugged. “You’re at least my mutt.” He teased, trying to get a rise out of me. 

“You’re a brat.” I rolled my eyes. 

“The one and only.” He chuckled cheekily. 

— — — 

It didn’t take long for Maeve to appear in the living room of the cabin. Her lovely red hair was pulled up in a messy bun, she looked annoyed even to be there. Which wasn’t too shocking, she loved us, but she loved and her independence even more. She loved spending time between dimensions and doing other things. She only left this house because she wanted to give Orion and I privacy. But she knew we would be able to protect the house from all of her life's hard work. She had her versions of powerful spells and other hard-to-obtain ingredients to powerful spells. It was the only reason why the border needed to be kept up and protected. 

The only people who could actually see it at all times were Orion, her, and I. To find out that someone was able to see it in the moonlight made things a bit dangerous. 

She turned her icy gaze toward me. “The hex bag was used?” She raised one of her neatly groomed eyebrows at me. 

“Someone was able to breach the border,” I replied. “Their hand penetrated it to where we could see it.” 

She didn’t even hesitate. She went to investigate where I had buried the hex bag. Then she opened the clear border up a little bit and peered out of it. 

“There are markings right where the bag was buried.” She said, shuffling her foot over the dirt in front of where I had buried the hex bag. “Can you shift?” She asked me. 

I did as she asked, knowing she wanted me to inspect the markings on the ground. When my nose made contact with the dirt, I could smell the scent of the wolf that had made the markings. It smelled of honey and lavender, and I was strangely drawn to the smell. Much like I was drawn to Orion’s orange and pine scent. 

Confused, I shifted back. 

“It’s a wolf. But there’s something weird about his scent.” I said.