"Looking good, brother. I'm liking our odds of getting lucky this week," alfie grinned at finley. Finley snorted with amusement, as his fraternal twin looked in the window of his pickup truck and ran his fingers through his thick brown hair to tousle it. He was freshly shaved and showered, and wearing a splash of cologne, along with his favorite jeans and a black t-shirt.
"She's here," finley whispered, a strange tingle running down him. "Don't know who—but when we see her, we'll know."
Alfie paused, his grin faltering a little. "Seriously, finley? You're getting that feeling again? Is it something with the blood claws pack trying something, or something else?" He knew his brother's sixth sense was rarely ever in error.
Finley shook his head, a restless energy buzzing beneath his skin. "It's different this time. It feels… momentous. Like someone's crossing through the shard illegally, or something is about to shift in our world. And it feels connected to her. We've been waiting for her and don't even know it yet."
Alfie tried to lighten the mood, though a flicker of unease crossed his face. "Well, they'll talk to me." Alfie winked at him. "Since I'm the good-looking one."
The two of them were physically very similar, actually, with finley an inch shorter than alfie's 6'3", and both of them had the broad shouldered, muscular build typical of an alpha. Alfie did have plenty more women, though, because he was always the ladies' man, and finley was just the quiet, reserved type. Yes, he would send women his brother's way when he wasn't in the mood, and alfie never said no.
"Isn't that convincing. I'd like to see some sexy little thing bring you down a notch or two." Finley got in to the passenger seat of the pickup truck.
When hell freezes over. There ain't no woman alive who don't want a piece of this." Alfie stuck his thumb toward himself, then climbed behind the wheel and slipped in the key. He had taken a sidetrack to the spellectricity depot that morning to make sure their pickup truck was plenty charged.
Their mother, who was standing outside of their house talking to one of their farm hands, waved at them cheerfully as they drove off. Alfie and finley waved back, and alfie gave the horn a quick honk before heading down the dirt driveway to the main road.
"I hope the blood claws pack doesn't try to pull any crap while we're gone this week." Finley glanced back over his shoulder.
The pack of blood claws had previously owned the land adjacent to theirs, and with the previous alpha pair of the pack having retired a couple of years ago, their sons had taken over the land and were hell-bent on trouble. Trying to fight the beacon claws park's property lines in court, trespassing, not to mention the sheep and cattle that'd been disappearing from the beacon claws park herds and flocks…
We've got all hands out on our property line patrolling, for the entire week. My dads will take care of it if those dickwads move," alfie shrugged. "Relax. You're worrying too much.".
That was true. Alfie was definitely the bad influence out of the two of them. That's why alfie was the one who'd had broken bones and concussions for their whole childhood. "What's the worst that could happen?" was his catchphrase. Finley was pretty sure that alfie was responsible for half of their mother's gray hair.
"I hope we'll really be lucky," finley said, making his way to the festival. "I hope we'll find her at last."
"Sure we will. Eventually. We'll recognize it when it's the right one. In the meantime, this isn't really aching work, is it?"
Finley grinned at him. "No. It does not suck. Well, sometimes there's sucking."
And licking. And biting." Charter smiled, probably remembering last year, and the year before that, and.
"It's just that we've been coming for five years. I thought we would have found the one by now." Finley held back a sigh. He liked sex, and the apparently endless sea of willing, ravenous female flesh had been enjoyable at first, but now he wanted better. He'd talked to enough twin alphas who'd found their own eternally connected pair at the festival. He'd watched how it changed them in some little way, seen the new shine of happiness and contentment spreading over their skin.
He wanted it for himself and his brother. He wanted to know that feeling of completeness, that sense of ultimate belonging.
"Look, mr. romantic, it's not like we can force it. We need to make sure she's the right one. Forever is a very long time. It'll happen, and in the meantime, just enjoy yourself."
"Yeah, yeah." Finley sighed and settled in to his seat.
It had taken them a two hour drive to the festival. They'd gotten an early morning start so they could beat the crowds, but apparently hundreds of other human females and alpha pairs had the same idea. Fortunately, the convoy of trucks and cars and vans was crawling along fairly fast, and before they knew it, the guards at the entrance to the festival had allowed them through.
They took the highway to the massive parking lot, which was already a quarter full. They smiled at some of the shifters climbing out of their trucks and cars, and alfie flashed giant, flirtatious smiles at the sea of gorgeous female humanity that were standing around.
"Let's get checked in and get this party started," alfie said. Finley nodded. This was the frustrating part; they had to stand in line for a long time at the check-in, where there was a queue of mages waiting to ensure all unmated females and all unmated alphas were at the festival where necessary. There were already hundreds of other alpha pairs there, from all around the west coast. Same thing was happening in the northwest, southwest, middle of the country, east coast.all around the country, alphas were off to the annual claiming festival where they'd be getting their freak on and hopefully finding their forever partner.
After they'd given the mage their names, and they'd both pressed their hands on a glowing piece of paper to check their identity, they then headed off towards their assigned cabin, cabin 237.
They strolled past booths and booths of merchandise, and picnic areas, and outdoor bars, and snack vendors, and crowds of eager women and alphas already greeting and laughing in pairs. The scent of searing burgers, cotton candy, and roasting ears of corn wafted across finley's nose. Glad he'd bought fat wads of cash with him.
Bands were preparing on stages. Buskers pushed through the crowd, selling their wares. Love charms, beauty charms, necklaces, hair clips, posies of flowers…there was a whole market going on here, doing serious shopping. There was the scent of pheromones hanging in the air. Alfie swung back his head and gave a lusty, howling yell, and half a dozen other alphas joined him, and females simpered and giggled and fluttered eyelashes.