I ignore them, and when Avril Lavigne’s, I Fell in Love with the Devil comes on, I turn off my earphones and let it play through my phone, singing along. I can tell that as the song comes to an end, the girls are gearing up to say something snarky. Sam Tinnesz, Far From Home, comes on, and I keep my focus on my work as more of the guys join us.
CHAPTER FIVE
Declan
I can hear my badass baby sister singing on the deck, and she is a badass to be able to use her skills as she did on me in the gym; I’m so proud of her, but it still scares me shitless, I just want to wrap her in bubble wrap and hide her in a tower, but my baby sister is not the princess type.
The song brings my mind to my best friend, who’s undercover at the moment with only his shadows as a backup; I can't believe he's Ember’s Mate; I’m happy because I trust him with her life, I know the type of person he is, but at the same time she’s my little sister and 'shudder' yeah, yuck, don't want to think about that, I rub the base of my back, I’m all bruised up from where Ember slammed me to the mats. Good job, it won’t hurt for long, vampires heal fast.
She’s right I should have checked, she’s not survived all these years being a flower fairy, the thought of her as a kid gives me images of her in dirt covered dungarees wielding a slingshot or a baseball bat, riding on Dex or Levi’ back so she’s not left out, the idea of her wearing a tutu and fairy wings like the other girls did when we were growing up is laughable, wonder if I can talk her into it for Halloween.
I grab a coffee and head to the deck; where two flower fairies stand there sneering at my sister; I know she can look after herself, but I’ve noticed she still gets self-conscious and puts herself down; I want to murder every person in her past that told her she was broken and worthless, like I said, I know she can look after herself but I want her to know I have her back every time even if that is her mouthing off to royal demons, which we stillneed an explanation off.
“You need to find something else to occupy your time; I think you've woken all the bears from hibernation with your squawking,” Blondie says; as if she timed it, three of our bears come out yawning and sit drinking their morning coffees, Ember chuckles at the three as they put their coffees down and dig into their oatmeal with berries and honey. 'Talk about stereotyping ha-ha.'
“Yeah, and your doodles belong in the kiddy box”, the other girl simpers; Em just hums, still shading her work and sipping her tea; she doesn't care what they think, yet when one of the guys react like they don't like her work she shuts down, the sketches of the people from her past were amazing, enough that we have facial recognition on most of them.
“You need to watch yourself, too. My older sister will be home from college soon, and she won’t like you trying to move in on what’s hers! Even if it’s only trying as you won’t get far, our guys don't like fat ugly humans” The dark-haired girl tries to be intimidating, but she really isn't and knowing Ember's first meeting with Saint was him shifted and very pissed off I wouldn't imagine even a pissed of Bas shifted and roaring in her face would bother her, Guns ‘n’ Roses November Rain comes on one of dads favourites on Karaoke nights, not that he can carry a tune and Embers head bobs as she hums along.
“Yeah, my sister has already texted me for info as she thought it was her place to answer my sister's fiancés phone when she called him,” Blondie's statement makes Ember freeze and play with the bracelet Saint gave her; she closes her sketch pad, placing it on the shelf behind her, before frowning at her empty mug, then stands.
“The only person's phone but my own I’ve answered was one of my marked mates,” Ember twists slightly, keeping the girls in view, but she looks at me, again showing that she knows how to survive, and that even without me announcing I’m here, she knew, which means some of her supe senses are better than a humans
“Is Saint engaged to Lila? I threw his phone at you after I answered, so I could get my goodbye kiss!” she got the wrong name on purpose; she’s also putting a bit of an airhead persona on; she is anything but, and it’s hard not to laugh, she's even doing the head tilt and hair twirl thing, J is hiding his face as he’s laughing so hard.
“No, he's not, other than a few one-night stands with some humans he's never dated,” I know I’m not breaking that unspoken bro code, as we are all either virgins or have only been with a few humans or in Devin and Darby’s case, each other.
“Come on, Charlotte, we will just make sure we have front-row tickets when Lisa and Shannon come to kick her ass for touching Saint and Paxton.” The dark-haired girl tries to giggle, but it's more like a broken dog squeaky toy.
“You’re right, Beatrice, we might have to treat ourselves to a little popcorn to watch with, but not a lot; we wouldn't want to get fat and disgusting like the fake ginger,” I walk over to my sister, putting an arm over her shoulder, as they strut away like they are on a fashion show,
“You know everything they said is bullshit, right?” I ask; she sighs.
“Yeah, I know it will be fun if their sisters do try to fight me; think I got a chance?” she chuckles and looks up at me with her eyelashes fluttering
“Maybe. Lisa has had proper training; she’s currently part of our unit”, I reply, and she just hums, grabs her mug and moves to head inside. “Love you, baby sister”,I say in Gaelic; I started using it more when Darby moved in, but now mostly with my siblings. I never learned the language. Dad, Liam and Nate think it has to do with my Bio dad, but I have never wanted to investigate it. It confused the hell out of them when I would randomly start yelling in a language none of them knew until a visiting shifter recognised the language.
“I love you too, big brother”She pats my chest over my heart, and I try not to blub like a little girl, not only at the Brother comment that I have been waiting 17 years for from my sister, but also thefact she does it in Gaelic, I look round and see most of the guys relax as she heads inside and they all start to talk about random stuff happening at school. I have another coffee, soaking up the time with my siblings and extended family, before I head offto get some work done.
Ember
After the boys head off to school, I swing by the kitchen, sticking the meat in the oven to slowly roast. Elise used to use slow cookers, but we don’t have ones big enough; Alma showed me how she cooks the joints, so it works similarly to a slow cooker.
Miles and I then head into his room to watch Braveheart. We quickly upload the new mate contracts that came in and set the camera feed up on the tablet so we can watch from the warmth. We talk a little about Miles’ mates and I show him the photo Bram sent this morning which he gets flustered over before setting as his phone background, Miles is such a sweetie but I’m glad he’s not like the omegas in books that submits as soon as an Alpha walks in the room, he asks me to add a dragon claw to the bracelet I made him, that Bram gave to him and he also passed me a braid made from Bram, Dex and Levi's Hair/Fur but he was more shy of that one I just smiled and got it sorted so he could put it back on before anything got too uncomfortable. Some guy comes over and tries to pull the projector screen over, kicking the supports and everything before he storms off towards the pack house and then we hear yelling, we just burst out laughing and text the guys on the group chat to check the feed, we didn't see who it was as his back was to the camera, but it wouldn't take a lot to find out.
Eventually, Miles pulls out his laptop and works on his college work; he decides to do online courses, so he isn't a lone Omega on campus. He goes in twice a month to discuss his work with his professors, and one of the guys goes with him, normally Trent or Xander.
I crack on getting color and more images done, and we stop every now and then for food, drink and singing to the songs and quoting lines from the films 'there can only be one' is one of the main and 'It’s my Ireland' which we do in crappy accents on purpose by the time the guys get home Miles is up to date on his work, and I have 10 images, Darby is confused when we burstout laughing and crack the 'It’s my Ireland' at him with poor imitations of his amazing accent he clocks on its something to do with a film when Declan who has a lighter accent than Darby 'no idea why as he grew up on pack lands' started joining in when him, Trent and Marcus moaned as they would have watched them with us.
“Did you get stuff done or just eat cookies in bed all day, kitten?” Brayden asks Miles, who blushes, so I smack Brayden’s arm,
“We got loads done”, I pass my sketch pad to Devin. Miles is talking to Bray about one of his projects. He wants to be a personal stylist when he graduates, but not just clothes; he wants to be someone you hire to give your closet and home a new lease of life. He's also decided I’m going to be his test dummy 'joy’.
At lunch, I came down and got all the veg done, and some of the desserts, but Alma, who had done a stock take, cleaned her pantry and sorted her fresh herbs out, was bored, so she said she would do the grunt work, I head to the kitchen to show her how to do the Yorkshire pudding batter, but unfortunately she’s playing castle guard to the kitchen now the guys are home.
“Note to self, don’t have more than one access point to a kitchen when I get my own place” Trick and Bram are currently trying to quality check the desserts, and I just heard motorbikes, so it’s about to get worse. Alma makes an exasperated noise as Pops and Paxton fill another doorway with the Hounds at their back, empowering my inner Nonna, I stand with my feet spread and hands on my hips.
“If anyone but me or Alma steps foot in this kitchen, they will get toast for dinner, not roast! Now go!” The hounds move like pups caught rolling in mud at Nonna’s old threat after all suffering through it in the past; Paxton double takes on their reaction, and 'smart lad’ he follows suit when he realises even Pops scampered.
