“Hello, Mr Westin; he's kept it to himself that I have a biological family that has been looking for me; this is my Twin brother” Ember smiles at the now angry man and turns to follow Ren
“Jameson has to have known; there were too many times that we were close to finding you”, Declan states as he and Bas appear behind us. We hear yelling as the door clicks shut behind the new guy. I turn to Ember
“Why did he call you Emily? Mickey G did something similar!” I ask as we head to the family room.
“Huh? Oh! Jameson would change my name regularly so that teachers and other social workers couldn’t track me; Emily, Emerson, Emilia, and even Ashley would become my name on school records.” She looks at her feet
“Lily and Dan spent ages searching for all my records to help me graduate”, I hear Declan grumble as he leaves to answer his phone call.
“Sister, as you’re not going to school, you will be doing self-defence with one of us at least three times a week!” She stares at his retreating back with an eyebrow raised; it’s something we all do, and it makes me chuckle at the family brow-ha-ha.
We head out to the lake, and after a few minutes of trying to decide what to do, those of us who can shift do. We all go for a hike in the woods, Levi doesn’t come out often, Dex is my more dominant wolf but Levi pushes to the front today, I headbutt Ember and then lay down so she can climb on my back, I get a beaming smile right before she jumps on, Once she is settled I give a yip then sprint off towards the meadow, it’s not coveredin heather like in our dreams but hopefully she will remember it, the feel of my twin on my back is both foreign and familiar. I feel my wolves whimper with the loss of what could have been growing up, but we have her now. And I am never letting my sister go.
CHAPTER TWO
Ember
5:30 am the following day, and I’m dragged out of my cocoon between Ren and Creed by my Grumpy big brother. He flung workout gear at me and told me to be in the gym in five minutes; after getting lost, as I had no idea where the gym was, it was more like ten minutes. And fuck me. Big Bro became a boot camp drill instructor. We started with a warm-up by walking on the treadmill, followed by some stretches before getting into the proper workout.
“Right, I’m going to start you off with a full body workout so I can assess your form and strength,” Dec said with a clipboard in hand,
“You’ll be starting with pull-ups, don’t worry if you can’t do any, even some of the biggest guys can’t do a single one. Then we’ll move onto some push-ups, deadlifts, squats, and finally we might finish with some dumbbells and core work.”
Just as I’m finishing my last set of dumbbell rows, Dec calls over Trent.
“Up next is cardio, most people will go back to the treadmill for this, but we prefer to spar with each other. It keeps us sharp, and it allows us to pass on techniques and knowledge. We don’t follow any particular martial arts, except Ren, purely because each of us has a different skill set in our unshifted form; however, we do have some basics and scenarios that I’d like to start with. Trent will be your sparring partner; he will show you some basics while I assess you.” Dec states, then spends the next twenty minutes explaining how to do the moves and what heexpects from my size, blah, blah, blah. He then tells Trent to grab me from behind so I can go dead weight and drop, sweep my leg and knock Trent off balance so I have time to run.
As Trent steps up behind me, he grabs me, one arm around my waist and the other going over my mouth. I mumble
“Sorry, Trent” As I drop like I’m meant to, I grab the prop knife from his thigh holster, not that I was instructed to do that; instead of swinging my leg to knock him over, I jump up and with a bounce on my toes I throw a roundhouse kick, the bounce helps me get the extra height I need cause I’m a squidget, I know it looks odd without looking in the mirror, I swing round to a stunned Declan and do the leg sweep on him, so he lands flat on his back I press the prop knife to his throat and grab mine from the forearm sheath and press it to his groin.
“Your first mistake,Brother Dear, was thinking I had no training after everything I’ve been through. My first lesson was from Ren when I was five, and that was when I learned to put my bounce into a roundhouse so I could reach his face. Pops then taught me some stuff, and then Dan stepped up and taught me weapons. Next time, ask before presuming that a small female knows nothing; it will save you some embarrassment in the future.” I pat his cheek with the prop blade, stand and sheath my own, as Trent groans, someone starts to clap, and someone else full-belly laughs.
I turn to see Dad and Uncle Luc in the doorway.
“Well said, baby girl. Can we talk?” I nod and follow Dad as Uncle Luc starts heckling Dec behind us!
“Jameson is gone; I’ve already got Silas tracking his phone to see who he contacts. He tried to talk us into handing you over as you manipulated the results, and you can't be mine as you are only human; otherwise, he would have known sooner, etc, etc; it all set off my internal alarms.” Dad tells me that Jameson left around Midnight and tried everything he could to get them to hand me over, minus monetary bribes.
“When he drove me to the Lennox Pack, he muttered something about Inferno, but he refused to take me there a few years ago,” I say, knowing what the place is. I’m so thankful I didn’t end up there; Dad seems to stumble, not just over his feet but also over how to reply to my statement; we made our way to his office, and Uncle Nic is there when we arrive, with a stack of papers.
“Unfortunately, when we made the announcement, no one took us seriously, so we will be doing a lot of naming and shaming during the next pack meet. Ren took a photo of your mate marks as a whole, but can we get individuals? Some have claimed they noticed their mark on your back, and now they are making demands for mating you!” I nod and turn, lifting my shirt and sports bra at the back
“So, they are demanding to be mated to a broken shifter, even if I am your daughter. They want to use me as a stepping stone and want compensation for being linked to me!” I ask, but know the answer; they both seem angry and upset at my acceptance of all of it
“You might want to talk to Ren as he showed the others my marks and led me to believe a few of them are potentially matches.” I hear ten clicks of the camera before I pull my top and bra back into place.
We sit for a while, laughing about some of the demands for mating me. There is a mixture of everything: money, property, certain positions within the pack, daughters or sisters having to mate my brothers, other females being brought in to be used for Ren to get a non-defective Heir, and yes, those are the words that were used. Everything got put in specific piles. In the end, I requested that Nic and Dad let me sort them, and I would sort something out as he had enough to deal with; by the time I called it quits, it was time for evening meal, and I asked Darby if I could talk with him after dinner, to help with my plan.
Darby
Ember asking to talk to me shouldn't be as nerve-racking as I currently feel. She’s my mate, but I’ve not spoken to her yet. I tried to talk to Devin about it, but he shuts down like he did when we were kids in the group home. My breath catching as she smiles at me.
“I just need to grab some stuff. Can you meet me in the seating nook on our floor?” I give her an affirmative nod and look back at my plate, knowing the guys are looking at me for answers.
I finish up and pat Devin on the shoulder; as I pass, I don’t rush, even though part of me wants to run. I take the stairs and focus on calming myself and my Dragon as I go to meet Ember without looking at anyone else. I can't answer their questions as I have no idea what she wants to talk to me about. I reach the nook, and she’s sitting on the floor with stacks of papers all over the coffee table.
“Hey, so you remember Nic announced that anyone submitting contract requests for mating to anyone in the pack house will be named and shamed?” She finally looks up at me, done sorting her piles; I have no idea how she knew it was me. I perch on the pouffe next to her.
