He winced visibly as a mark came to marr his flesh, and he listened intently to the name called forth after his own.
"Antonio Carriedo!" The more than slightly elderly woman's voice called out as it seemed to wrinkle with the name that she had called out.
"Here!" An older boy called out which meant that he was getting one of the 'unmatchables.'
That meant that as he expected that no one really liked him here.
He watched as the woman grabbed the other boy's wrist to mark the tan flesh.
"Hola!" Antonio called out after his loud, puppy like yelp from the pain of being marked with your mate.
"Ciao." Romano growled out as he stalked away.
His older mate caught up easily with his longer strides.
"We are mates! Isn't thay great?" Antonio chirped from right beside his much more irritable mate.
"I don't want to be mated with a defective mate, and stop acting like you want to be my mate!" Romano growled as he watched the smile fall off the other man's face.
"I don't want to be your mate; I wanted to be Emma's." Antonio admitted relunctantly, but yet the expected words still stung and seemingly left a gaping hole in the younger's chest.
Romano continued forward towards his home with the older boy following him with ease.
"Lovi! I hear that they are going to call Luddy down to be mated!" Tears streamed down the face of Romano's younger brother as he worried over the upcoming event; he was a year too young to be mated, but his older friend was a year past his mating as he was a special case due to losing his brother the day last year that his father died.
Feliciano and Ludwig had a secret and forbidden relationship of the romantic variety.
"Don't call me that!" Romano snarled as he was worried that someone would hear; Lovino wasn't his name meant that he could get in trouble if he pretended that it was.
"We need to hurry up!" Feli squealed at his brother.
He sighed, "I am not leaving you and the Potato Bastard alone together. Do I still have a bag packed?" Romano asked his younger brother.
"Si." The younger and unmarked brother ran in to the house.
"I'm going with you." Antonio pressed.
Mates had difficulty being separated from each other for very long periods of time, so his insistence made sense.
"We might find Emma." Antonio stated once he felt like Romano agreed with him.
"Why are you so determined to find her?" Romano grumbled; it hurt that even his mate didn't want him.
"I love her, but she ran away with her older brother when we were kids." He sounded so sad.
Romano refused to show how painful it was to be rejected by his very own mate.
Feliciano ran out of the house, carrying a bag.
"Luddy will be here soon; he's still packing. Is your mate coming?" Feliciano explained then asked.
"Yeah." Romano sighed.
Antonio hurriedly left to grab his own things after he packed them.
The Pull drew the two together for the first time causing Romano to feel anxious while his mate was away, and for Antonio to rush back as quickly as he could.
Ludwig had arrived just after Antonio did.
"Who's he?" Ludwig asked in his naturally deep voice.
"He's Fratello's mate, Antonio." Feli chirped as if this was a perfectly normal situation.
"Your brother was just mated today?" He seemed surprised.
"Si. He's a year older than me." Feliciano chimed in easily after all most people just assumed that they were twins.
Antonio mused, "You're supposed to be mated next year then."
"Yeah." Feliciano spoke sadly.
The pack that they were a part of had a mixed view on the mating ritual; others hated it, because it got in the way of real love and binded people together while they were still so young.
Others praised it as they couldn't imagine life with out it as well as it proved to produce more children and longer lasting relationships; it was also orderly, and ensured that your loved ones would get married and have kids of their own.
Feliciano had to have been part of the group that hated having his mate chosen for him.
He had never initially intended to break the rules, but as he got older, he began to fall for his best friend who had around the same time fallen for him; they eventually realized that they could never be each other's mate.