It's the one you've all been waiting for! Enjoy! 

Kane sat with his hands linked on the table in front of him. He kept his eyes cast down and not at either of the people at his side. Nora sat to his left, her legs pulled up so that her knees rested against the side of the table. Her anger still flowed through the bond, but now it was mixed with confusion. Kane took a quick glance at her and regretted it almost immediately. Her eyes were still red and puffy and she was staring at the wall with a blank look on her face.

Kane glanced to his other side, where Mason sat nervously. He was jumpy, flinching slightly every time the television in the next room made a sudden noise. Kane wanted to reach out to him, to tell him that it was going to be okay, but he didn't know that for sure, so he said nothing. His mother had instructed them to stay here, then Nora had joined them. His mother hadn't returned. It had been at least ten minutes of absolute silence between them. The only noise came from the show Grace was still watching.

Kane wanted to say something, but he didn't know what. His mother had said she had something to tell them. What was it? He didn't know what his parents were going to do. His mother had just found him cheating on his mate, the person he was supposed to be with forever. He had no doubt that his parents were upstairs, right then, talking about what a terrible mate he was.

He rested his head in his hands. His father was going to be so disappointed in him. Kane felt tears forming behind his closed eyes. He tried to push them back. He felt a hand on his back. It was Mason. He lifted his head and smiled a small smile at the boy. Even during all of this, Mason's presence was enough to reassure him.

He was about to reach over and grab his hand, but the thought of Nora seeing it was enough to stop the idea in its tracks.

"Am I getting kicked out of the house?" Nora asked suddenly.

Kane turned to her. "No?"

"Why are we having this family meeting then?" she asked. Nora nodded towards the other end of the table. "And, why exactly is he here?"

Kane sighed. There was no point in lying. "My mother knows about Mason and I."

"Your affair?" Nora spat out.

"Our...." Kane didn't know how to put it, "more than friendship relationship."

"It's not really an affair if you two were just friend mates," Mason spoke up.

"You don't get to decide that," Nora told him.

"You are the one who agreed to just be friends with him," Mason told her, "it's not my fault that you regret your choices now."

"Stop it," Kane said forcefully. "Both of you."

Nora spoke after only a few seconds of silence. "I still don't understand how you two are even able to touch without the bond breaking you apart."

"It doesn't hurt us, it hurts you," Kane admitted.

Nora stared at them with a shocked look on her face. "Last night," she spoke with realisation on her face, "happened because of you?"

Kane nodded. "Yes. I am so sorry, if I had known-"

"Last night was the most pain I have experienced in my entire life," she spat out at them, "and it was all because you couldn't keep it in your pants?"

Kane didn't know what to say. She was right.

"He didn't know," Mason told her. There was a sadness behind Mason's words. "He wouldn't have kissed me if he knew what would happen."

Nora shook her head in anger. "I don't know if I believe you."

"You really think that I would intentionally hurt you?" Kane asked. He hadn't been the best of mates but he never wanted to hurt Nora. She was his mate, but more than that, she was his friend. Even after everything, Kane still cared for her. "You really don't know me if you think I'm capable of that."

Nora shrugged. There was a glassiness to her eyes. "I guess I don't know you, then."

"That's bullshit," Mason told her. "Kane wouldn't do that. You know that's the truth."

Kane sighed. Nora really believed that he was that bad of a person.

It was then that Sebastian and Scarlett appeared in the doorway. The three of them all turned and looked at them, unsure of what was to happen next.

"Please keep your voices down, your sister is in the next room," Sebastian requested.

Scarlett took a seat opposite Kane and Sebastian came to sit next to her. Kane stared at his mother. He didn't want to have this conversation. He knew that his parents were going to be confused and disappointed, just how Kane felt. He wasn't sure if he could put into words something of an explanation.

"I know why we are having this meeting," Nora told Kane's parents. "We have been trying to fix this bond from the moment we found each other and there's nothing that will fix it. You two must know now the extent of this bond's problem."

His mother nodded slowly. "Yes. We have noticed that things between you two have been, well, more than strained."

"I don't want anyone to blame Mason for that either," Kane added. He knew how much Nora was blaming Mason, but it had nothing to do with him. Their bond was broken the moment they locked eyes. "There's something fundamentally wrong with our mate connection."

"We know," Sebastian told him.

Kane's gaze was caught by the sight of tears running down his mother's face. He shook his head. "Please don't be disappointed in me," he pled.

"I'm not. Not at all." Scarlett took a small breath. "I hope you can forgive me, I was only trying to help."

Kane glanced at his father. "What is she talking about?"

"We know why this has happened," he admitted.

"What?" Nora and Mason exclaimed in unison.

"No," Kane muttered. "You can't have, otherwise you would have told me before now."

"I couldn't," Scarlett told him. There was a guilt to her words that Kane couldn't accept. "I couldn't bring myself to tell you."

"Please hear us out," Sebastian told them. "This is more complicated than just the three of you."

"Tell me right now what you are talking about," Kane asked of them. He couldn't believe that his parents had known all along what the problem was and hadn't told him. He wondered if all of the events of the past couple of months could have been avoided.

Scarlett spoke, "When I was pregnant with you there was a virus that went through the packs. It killed a lot of people. Victor had just become the Alpha and at the height of it, he organised for a witch doctor to come to the pack to help us. Linda and I met with her." She ran her hands through her hair. "She was amazing, she healed a lot of people and gave us different herbs and powders to prevent it happening again. Except, the whole time she warned us that this wouldn't be the last tragedy to strike the pack. Linda and I had asked her what she meant, and she told us that in the coming decades we would experiences severe rouge attacks as well as extreme debt and hardship. I didn't believe her at first, but she convinced me."

Kane didn't understand how a witch doctors prediction had anything to do with he and Nora. He looked at his mother to keep going but she stopped. "Then what happened? What does that have to do with us?"

Scarlett shook her head. She couldn't get the words out.

"The witch doctor offered to cast a spell which would swap the mate of a powerful child in the pack with someone from a pack who could protect ours," Sebastian told them.

"No," Kane exclaimed. "Tell me that you didn't do it."

"She told me that you would never know!" Scarlett told him with desperation in her words. "You weren't even born, the connection couldn't have possibly had any impact on you yet!"

Kane felt like the world he knew was shattering around him. His mother, the person he was supposed to trust the most in the world, wasn't the person he thought she was.

"You were willing to sacrifice me because of some prophecy from a woman you didn't even know?"

"It's coming true, don't you see," Scarlett told him. "Nora's pack is the only thing keeping us afloat."

Nora spoke up. "Did you ever think of the consequences, of the lives you were ruining?" Nora asked her.

"You were never supposed to know," Scarlett whispered.

"You let her do this?" Kane asked his father. "You could have stopped her!"

"I didn't know until a few weeks ago," Sebastian admitted. He glanced over at his wife with sadness in his eyes. "Only Linda and your mother knew."

"You never told him?" Kane asked his mother.

She shook her head sadly. "It was just a swap. She told me that you wouldn't even notice she wasn't your intended mate. If I had known, I wouldn't have done it."

"I don't want your excuses," Kane told her. He lowered his face in his hands. "I can't talk to you right now."

Sebastian stood. "You guys need some time to process this. We will be outside okay, come out when you are ready." He helped his wife up and they walked out through the back doors, Scarlett crying into his side.

"I can't believe she did this," Kane murmured. He lifted his head. "Nora, I don't know what to say. We spent so long trying to force something that really was never meant to be."

"Kane, my mate is out there," Nora suddenly realised. "My true mate is somewhere out there and I could just pass him by and never know it's him."

Kane felt a hand in his own. He faced Mason. "Does this mean we could be mates?"

"I don't know," Kane admitted. "How can we know?"

"Maybe you are," Nora said. "I mean, the bond acts differently with you two. You tried to kiss Wyatt and it wouldn't even let you. It won't let you kiss me for very long either. Mason is the only one it lets you be with."

"Not exactly," Kane corrected her. "It hurts you."

"What if it hurts me because it knows that you're with your real mate? What if that's the bond between us in distress or something?"

"You could be right," Kane agreed.

A light bulb went off in Kane's head. He had been in love with Wyatt right up until the moment he had met Mason. Even when he had met Nora, his feelings for Wyatt hadn't changed, but the night of the party was when his feelings changed. It wasn't because of their near kiss, it was because he had found his true mate. Kane shook his head. How did he not notice before? "You are the reason I stopped being in love with Wyatt," he told Mason. "I spent this whole time trying to figure out what had changed, and it was you."

"Is that a good thing?" Mason asked.

"I think it means that we are mates."

"Well," Nora cut in, "if you kiss another boy you could see what the bond does. If it reacts the same way as with Wyatt you'll know for sure."

"Don't kiss another boy," Mason said with a smile.

"Okay."

"What do we do now?" Nora asked.

"Spells can be reversed, can't they?" Mason asked.

"Sometimes," Nora told him. "I've heard of it, but it's not exactly common."

"Well then we need to find this witch doctor," Kane told them. "We need this spell reversed."

Nora didn't seem hopeful. "We've been trying to track one down for weeks, what's the odds of us finding a woman that was here eighteen years ago?"

"We've got to try," Mason said. "If we really want to know who both of your true mates are, that's the only option."

Kane stood. "Let's ask my mother."

Kane led them outside where they found Kane's parents standing close together, their hands linked. Kane wondered how his father reacted when he found out what she had done. He loved her with everything he had. Kane had never seen his father truly upset with his mother. Did he see her decision as an act of love? As Kane thought about it, he understood why she may have seen it that way.

His parents saw them and turned to face them. He didn't miss the look of sadness of his mother's face, but he couldn't bring himself to forgive her yet. He wanted to forgive his mother, to tell her that he didn't hate her, but he was too mad. He couldn't pretend that he wasn't.

"I need to know how I can fix this," he said.

"There was no contingency plan," Scarlett admitted. "I've been trying to track her down for weeks and it wasn't until yesterday that I was able to get her location."

"You know where she is?" Nora asked. "Is she close by?"

"It's a few day's drive from here," she replied. "There's a remote pack close to where she lives, I was going to organise with them to visit and try to speak with her."

Kane looked at Nora. "We need to go. We have to see if she can reverse the spell."

"I'll go with you," Scarlett offered.

Kane shook his head. "This is something we need to do on our own."

"I don't think you two should drive all that way on your own," Sebastian said. "Driving through the middle of nowhere makes you a target for rouges."

"We will be fine," Kane told him. "I need to do this, Dad. Please don't stop me."

Sebastian seemed to think it over for a moment. "I will contact the nearby pack and organise for them to host you for a few nights. I will also find you a hotel to stay in on the way. You have to call me every few hours, too."

"I'm coming too," Mason added.

Kane turned to him. He didn't like the idea of Mason on the road, away from the walls of the pack. However, if they were right, this was his future too. He had the right to go. "Okay."

"Does he have to go?" Nora asked.

"Yes," Kane told her. "We are all in this together, whether you like it or not."

Nora looked away. She muttered something under her breath.

Kane looked at his father. "Can I ask, does Victor know?"

"Yes," Sebastian confirmed. "We had a meeting with Victor and Adam about it after I found out. It looked like your mate bond wasn't going to work out so we thought it was best that they knew."

"Adam knew?" Kane asked. "No. I don't believe you."

"Yes, I'm sorry darling," Scarlett told him. "He has known for a couple of weeks."

Kane couldn't believe them, he just couldn't. The Adam he knew would have told him. His best friend wouldn't have kept a secret like that from him. As the realisation slowly dawned over Kane, he breathed out an angry sigh. His best friend had watched him suffer for weeks and done nothing. His mother had known the truth the entire time. His father had sat back and watched him suffer. He was hit by the sudden realisation that he couldn't trust anyone anymore. 

Who guessed it?