Akela was almost unable to eat her share of her pizza in peace. Two lycan men sat either side of her, waiting on her and competing to refill her drink and offer another slice as soon as the last bite was gone.
A hard pit in Akela's stomach forced the joy of having driven a car away.
Ameer had taken his family home while the rest of them had gone to do their homework.
By the time Abel placed a fifth slice on her plate Akela had enough.

"No thank you!" She said firmly, pushing the plate away.

"You have to eat!" Abel insisted pushing the plate back in front of her.

"She said she was full..." Zion said grabbing the slice for himself, but Abel grabbed it out of his hand before he could take a bite.

"Get your own. That's Akela's!" Abel nearly growled.
The pizza slice was nearly slapped down on Akela's plate.

"She said she was full!" Zion growled back, making Akela shrink between them.

"Yes. But as her mate I will not let another man take her food!" Abel growled.

"Your mate?" Zion laughed darkly.

"My! Mate!" Abel growled viciously.

"A mate respects her wishes. She said she was full!" Zion snarled.

Between the two of them, Akela had slumped into her seat.

"My mate, my responsibility! Butt out!" Abel shot at his brother.

"She is not your anything! She's my mate and I won't let you bully her!" Zion replied back.

The two of them stared at each other with rumbling growls building and hatred lightning in their eyes.

Akela felt tears burning.
Taking a rapid breath she sat up, nearly headbutting both sides of the standoff above her.

"Enough!" She hissed between clenched teeth.

Both brothers sat back in surprise.

"I swear to the moon goddess! I will reject the both of you!" She snarled, hot tears bursting.

Immediately Zion gasped as if he'd been punched and grabbed her hand. Akela wrenched it loose and looked directly at him.

"Don't touch me!" She snapped and turned to Abel.

"That goes for you as well!" She practically spat towards his hand which was about to reach for her.

Angrily she pushed the chair back with a screech.

"You are brothers!" She snapped. Both men started standing up but were both practically pushed back down with a single glance from Akela.

"I will not have you fight over me. And I will not let you make my choices for me!" She said, her voice quivering through her tight throat.

"But..." Abel started.

"Akela..." Zion tried.

Both of them sounded submissive. Akela watched them steal hateful looks at each other. Their growls were audible with each look at each other.

"This is your fault!" Abel growled at Zion who snarled back with pure undiluted rage raising his shoulders.

Abel looked ready to shift and resolve the argument when Akela gave an enraged howl.

In a fury, she shifted into her wolf and leapt over the table and out of the house with two men calling for her.

Behind her, the sound of two men accusing each other faded as she ran into the woods.
She ran to the edge of the territory and followed the full perimeter around at full speed until she felt her adrenaline burn out. Desperate, she shifted and let the hot tears spill on the ground.
She felt uneasy about being the cause of a split between brothers.
She hated being the cause of their arguments.

"Kira! I need you here. You always know what to do! They are destroying me," She thought at maximum force, aware that her pack also picked it up.

Slowly the sobs and tears mellowed enough for her to sense the cold spring air on her skin. She shifted, revelling in how her thick fur warmed her up.

Slowly she trudged around the perimeter again until she felt strong enough to face her two mates again.

Back at Grange's house she shifted and dressed before returning to the house, ready to give the two idiots a talking to about family and priorities.

She walked in to find Aimee laughing at Hunter's dodgy singing. A karaoke game was playing on the TV and Hunter was belting out some old rock tune.

"Akela!" Abel smiled at her and waved her over to sit with him and Zion.

Zion looked at her with a thoughtful smile.

"We freaked you out, huh?" He asked.

Akela nodded, fighting her tears again. The two brothers looked on edge, but they no longer looked or felt angry. Instead she picked up a worry about her from Abel and a deep dark regret from Zion.

"You don't know how lucky you are! You have your parents and Gerry and each other and all of this pack on top of your own pack," she said sadly, shaking her head.

"It's your family too!" Abel said.

Akela looked between them.

"Don't fight over me... I'm not worth you hating each other," she sniffed.

Abel's eyebrows shot up in a smile.

"I would never hate Abel!" Zion grinned at the other side of her and Abel nodded along.

"It's just... Zion's my big brother. And we've shared everything. Secrets, sorrows. Laughter. And now we have to share you," Abel said seriously.

"But you can't be shared... not like a blanket, or a chocolate bar..." Zion smiled.

Akela nodded.

Abel looked at his brother, who looked up to meet his eyes and both smiled.

"It's hard, knowing I'll might have to see the girl I've fallen in love with, mated to the one other person I love more than anything," Zion said quietly.

Akela whipped her head around to stare at him in surprise.

Zion was sat there, looking sheepish while picking at a thread of his jeans.

Slowly he raised his eyes to hers, looking frightened and exited and nervous all at once. His doggie ears were one straigth up and the other folded to show submission. In their link she felt his heartbeat.

"While Zion is ready to hand over his whole heart... I'm more at the stage where I trust the truth of connection..." Abel smirked.

Akela looked at him, still in surprise.

"I like you, Akela. I really do... And I feel all kinds of mushy and weird, which I've never felt before..." Abel smiled.

Akela sat there slack jawed looking between the two brothers, so alike yet so different. On one side, a cute puppy wore his apologetic, begging face. On the other side, Abel was looking serious, his symetrical human face, even more handsome now that he looked sincere and without any charming layers.

They were both there, with her, in their true selves.

"But... why?" she asked, unable to get over that they both had said they wanted to be with her.

"Because you're kind, and not conceited despite looking like hot-damn... and you care," Abel said, a charmer smile playing on his lips.

"Because... being with you makes me feel complete," Zion said quietly.

"Zion!" Abel frowned.

"What?" Zion asked back.

"Do you have to be so.... sappy?" Abel frowned again.

"Yep... " Zion grinned, back to his playful puppy self.

Abel rolled his eyes before focusing back on Akela.

"Point being... One of us will have to see you with the other one," he said.

"And both of us want you to be happy!" Zion added.

Akela looked between them again.

"We're sorry for upsetting you... It's just... hard seeing you with Abel while knowing you're everything I've ever wanted," he continued.

Akela drew another shaky breath at the emotions in his voice.

"Please don't fight anymore?" she whispered, slightly overwhelmed by the look in Zion's eyes, and unable to look away from him.

"Abel is my brother. I want him to have the best of everything. I just don't know if I can let him have you..." Zion mumbled.

"Exactly... I want Zion to be happy... and I know he'd be happy with you, but at the same time, the thought of not having the bond with you anymore is painful," Abel agreed.

"But we won't fight anymore," Zion promised and Abel nodded.

"Good. I know that siblings fight, and I sometimes wish Kira was here just so I could scream at her for something stupid. But I miss her so much. And I don't want to be why you two are fighting," she said.

Abel and Zion both smiled and nodded.

"Just one little thing..." Abel said.

"Okay?" Akela asked.

"When you choose. When you find out who your true mate is..." Zion said.

"Could you... please... Not reject the other one?" Abel completed the request.

"Okay. I can agree to that," Akela agreed.

"Good. Because... I love my brother and wouldn't want him to suffer like that..." Abel said with a half smirk towards Zion.

"As if she's going to choose you..." Zion teased back.

"Well... duh!" Abel grinned with a gestue to his body.

"Conceited ass!" Zion rolled his eyes and grinned at Akela.

Her lips tugged up into a half smile at their nonsense.

Over by the games console Hunter and Aimee was looking for the next tune.

"Battle time?" Zion asked with a nod.

"You're on!" Abel laughed and stood with his brother.

"Out of the way amateurs," Abel grinned at Hunter and grabbed the controller to select a song while Zion got both microphones ready.

"Hopefully this should make ot clear that I'm your true mate," Zion winked at Akela who couldn't help laughing at the two of them and their brotherly playful standoff.

Aimee came and sat next to Akela.

"This should be fun... they are so competitive!" she chuckled.

"They are a nightmare," Akela sighed.

"And they both think they are in love with you..." Aimee winked.

"So they say..." Akela huffed.

Aimee studied the two men as they bumped shoulders and played around while the intro to Bruno Mars' Locked out of Heaven started playing.

"Oh... this is going to be so cheezy!" Hunter groaned as the two grown lycans jumped around and sang, surprisingly well coordinated and in a well rehearsed harmony.

"Zion can sing?" Akela frowned at his weirdly out of tune singing.

"I'd say he sings better than Abel, but yeah. He kinda sings like wolves howl..." Hunter laughed as the two brothers started doing little weird dance moves to imitate Bruno in the video to go with the lyrics on screen.