Thicket

Ellis

She dropped her head to my shoulder as Wilder let out a huff behind us, a chuckle as she just groaned.

Rolling my eyes at our ever-dramatic mate, I began to slow, seeing a dirt path widening as we got closer to her home.

"He's your brother," She softly whispered. Wilder bristling beside me. We know he's our brother, he's our future Alpha, its why it made being angry at him so much harder. But our beasts were angry, angry that he got to do what they had been longing for since before they even heard of mates.

Sure, the two middle brothers of the White-Moon family had previous flings, but nothing ever within the range of being serious. It was mainly with human girls as most Lycan females and males kept themselves for their mates. Everyone in the family reprimanded the two but Bexley. She believed that what we were doing was part of our plan.

She was the only one who ever got the two of us behind our fake facades.

Wilders beast snapped at me through our link as to not scare our mate as our mind was going down a dangerous path.

Stop. We must come to turns with Bex. He tried to be stern, but the hurt still laced through his voice. Another façade.

"If I had a family I wouldn't ever be mad at them, no matter what." Olympia sighed wistfully. This time I had been paying attention, not missing it when she spoke.

Wilder pushed himself to go faster, gently nudging her arm with his snout, not trusting our taloned hands. She giggled, unwrapping an arm from around me to shift further away from him.

"I know, I know." She settled back down on my back, her fingers mindlessly dragging her nails through my fur. "You are my family now; the pack is my family. But I was alone for a long time," Her voice drifted off as she was sucked into her own memories.

Wilder and I slowed to a walk as the house came into view, well not exactly a house. Perhaps the word cottage Mia used was a better explanation. The small wooden building was hidden well within the trees, if it weren't for the path leading to it then I don't know if anyone would have been able to spot it at a first glance.

The bungalow was quite small as well, barely looking as if it would even have a bedroom. Olympia slid from my back as Wilder and I shifted back, quickly slipping on the clothes our mate had set on the ground for us from the bag she carried on her back.

"This is where you live?" Wilders' voice was dripping with concern as Mias' lips pulled up into a sad smile.

"Lived," She gently reminded him as we stepped into the creaky house, almost as if one puff of air could blow it down.

The inside was just as how I had assumed it would be, small. Everything all in one room, with a closet of a room that must have been used as a bathroom in the corner. A tiny fridge and stove were all that made up of the kitchen, a sink sitting on a counter between them. The space was mainly taken up by a loveseat couch with a coffee table sitting in front of it.

My heart panged, Wilder, wincing as he felt it. No wonder she was in awe of the place we called home now. She had been living here for who knows how long.

We had gotten brief snippets of her life, her parents were never around, leaving her here for hours at a time. When her parents finally did come back they were always screaming at each other before one of them stormed out, angry until they would come back drunk and even more furious as the anger had been left to brew under the influence of alcohol.

They would flaunt their affairs, brining them back as the other would get angry, screaming at them, all while she usually hid under the cabinet under the sink. The place she lived for a long majority of her life.

She didn't move to sit on the couch, instead opting for standing. My beast longed to reach out to her as he wasn't sure what was going through her head right now.

"Mia," Wilder hesitantly said, but she just turned to the chest in the corner of the room. Easy to miss unless it was pointed out and began to pack up the meager belongings within it.

A few pairs of clothes, thick bound books, little vials that she carefully wrapped up.

One thing stood out to me though, there were no plants. No flowers, no green that she loved so much. Nothing lively in this house that seemed to suck the life from our previously overjoyed mate.

She sighed heavily when she turned, laying the now bulky bag on the ground. "I don't think the people I knew as my parents were my parents."

She shook her head sadly before correcting herself, "Scratch that, I know that they weren't my parents. My," She cut off, looking at the couch for a long moment. "Mother told me that she shouldn't have taken me from her cousin, who then up and disappeared. But she was infertile, so she thought she wanted a kid. She didn't." She deadpanned, both wilder and I were frozen in our spots as we tried to let the information sink in.

"They died when I was 7, I was sent to an orphanage. I knew I was different, I knew something about the way I looked at things in life were odd. My mother never let me forget it, I think she had an inkling that I had the potential to be a witch, just as her cousin was." She shifted on her feet nervously. "I didn't have anyone to help me, I went through the system struggling until I landed with a vampire couple, they said they could smell it in my blood."

My beast was interested in the longing in her voice. "They taught me everything I know now, they even brought in an old witch friend who helped me find my calling and tell me how to keep my magic strong and alive, by using it."

"Where are the vampires now?" My voice was soft as her watery eyes met mine.

"Dead," Her lips barely moved as she whispered. "Slaughtered by their coven for harboring a witch child. The woman hid me under the cabinet in the kitchen, I was 16 then. When they left after burning their remains I came back here, I couldn't go back into the system after that. They thought I burned with them." She looked up, those green eyes vibrant as a tear slid down her cheek.

"I wish I was normal for you both, but I'm honestly now." Her voice cracked as my feet carried me forward as I wrapped her in my arms, unable to stay away from her any longer. Wilder ran his hand up her back as he spoke.

"If you haven't noticed yet love, were Lycans. Not your definition of normal." His light voice caused her to snort on a watery laugh.

"I suppose you're right." Olympia cracked a smile before grabbing the bag, walking from the house not giving it another look as she turned to Wilder. "I do believe it's your turn to carry the damsel."

He grinned, walking forward to pick her up in his arms before a distant howl was heard in the distance. The both of us froze as Mia watched on worried. Straining my hearing I would hear two beasts, running through the forest in a chase.

Growling low in my throat, I shifted on the spot as a pained yelp carried through the trees. A yelp that I had heard plenty of times during training.

Wilder wasn't far behind me, dashing after me, with Olympia draped in his arms, his talons lightly piercing her thighs as the scent of her blood staining the air had me snarling at my brother, angry that he was hurting our mate.

But another pained howl had us rushing forward, Wilder making sure his talons weren't anywhere near our mates' untainted skin as we rushed to save our older brother, who had so often been the one to save us.

I suppose its time to return the favor.