“FUCK!” I scream, slamming my fist into the wall, punching a hole in it.  I don’t even realize that my hand is bleeding until Charlie wraps a towel around it.  I try to shake her off.  “Leave it.  It’ll heal in a few minutes.”  

 “Yeah, but we don’t need to get blood in the carpet,” she mutters.

 “Well, that was a fucking shit show,” Devin exhales a loud sigh.  His hands are fisted at his temples and his shoulders are slumped.

 Xander, looking much more human at this point, puts his hand on Devin’s shoulder.  “I’m sorry, Babe.  I didn’t mean to lose it like that.  If I hadn’t - “

 “He would have kept going,” I say, falling heavily onto one of the couches.  “He was angry and he just chose you to vent on.”

 “I know, but I feel like I made it worse.  I already knew about Dev and Brandon.  I just couldn’t handle hearing him say those awful things about Dev.”

 Devin turns into Xander’s body, wrapping his arms around his mate.  Xander immediately engulfs Devin in a hug and kisses his cheek.  “Thank you for defending me,” Devin says.

 “Always,” Xander says, placing a sweet kiss on Devin’s lips.  I can’t help but feel jealous at how close they are as mates, compared to what just happened with ours.

 Charlie comes over and sits on my lap.  I pull her close and bury my face in her neck.  She melts into my arms, her head leaning on mine.  We are both mourning the pain that our mate feels and the words that he said.  I can only hope that he said those words in anger and doesn’t truly believe him.

 “We really should have anticipated this reaction,” Charlie says, her lips moving across my temples.  “You know how he feels about secrets after all that went down with his parents and his coming out.”

 Xander looks at us quizzically.  “What do you mean?”

 “When Brandon was about 17, he had a boyfriend in his house.  His parents were supposed to be away with his little sister,” Devin begins, his voice a flat monotone.  “Brandon hadn’t told his family that he was gay…”

 Staring off into space and speaking into Charlie’s hair, I continue where he left off.  “They were going to drop his sister off at camp, but she had forgotten her sleeping bag.  They walked in and found them together in the living room.  It was...bad.  Brandon’s dad flew off the handle about how ‘no son of his was going to allow another male to fuck him up the ass’ and that ‘he better get this out of his system before he settles down for his mate so they could give the pack an heir.’  His mother just cried hysterically, asking how he was able to keep something like that a secret.  She just kept harping on how he could keep such a secret.”

“Well, that sounds like a fairly traumatic coming out.  I see why he hates secrets,” Xander says, his eyebrows up to his hairline in his shock.

“The worst part is, that was his last interaction with his mother and his sister.  They died in a car crash on the way to the camp.  Apparently, a semi ran a red light and hit them.  They died instantly,” Charlie finishes the sordid tale.

“Fuck…” Xander sighs out.  “Yeah, this is just a shity situation all around.”

“Yup,” Charlie says, popping the “p.”

“I think we need to go to bed,” Devin sighs.  “We aren’t going to fix this tonight.  He needs to blow off some steam, then we should be able to reason with him.”

“If nothing else, we know that he will understand soon enough,” I say.  “We just have to get through the next three days.”

Everyone nods and heads towards the door.

Out in the hall, I stop Devin and Xander.  “Hey guys.”

They turn, fatigue etched across their faces.

“Congratulations on your new titles and on finding your mate.  You are going to make us proud.”

Xander’s face breaks out in a smile and Devin pulls me into a hug.  “Thanks, man,” Devin says.  Before letting me go, he says, “He’ll come around, Zak.  You guys will have your second mate soon.”

“I hope you’re right, Dev,” I say.  I pat his back before turning and grabbing Charlie’s hand.  She curls herself into my arm and we walk slowly to our room.