Cheers for rotten luck.
The wolf continued snarling, drool dangling from the side of its massive jaw. As I stood my ground, Xander was already going into one of the bedrooms.
The wolf and I locked gazes and there was something familiar about this creature. Was he or she a wolf from our pack?
Xander soon emerges from the bedroom with a fresh set of guy’s clothes and paced quickly to the wolf that was too big to fit through the door.
And here I thought I gained weight.
My brother shut the door behind him, leaving me alone in the cabin. Well, that was weird.
“She needs to know,” I heard faintly. Sometimes I’m really glad I have these heightened senses, they’re always useful for eavesdropping.
I heard another person sighing, and decided to inch nearer towards the door to hear them clearer. Like a ninja, I stealth-walked to the door and pressed my ear against it.
“It’s okay Xander, she has to know the truth, and I won’t deny my reputation.” I heard my dad’s voice. Was he referring to what Xander told me?
I pressed my ear onto the door harder this time, straining to hear something, anything.
Rotten luck seemed to stick with me, because the door flew open, hitting me to the ground. “Who the hell opens a door so roughly?” I muttered while rubbing my sore bottom. Déjà vu!
“I know you’ve been eavesdropping, my love,” My father cooed and extended an arm out to me, which I nervously grabbed and stood up.
“So, it’s true? That you’re a ruthless and scary person?” I arched an eyebrow, and my dad just broke out in a laugh, before nodding slightly.
“Anyways, I came here to tell you that you had me worried. You can’t just wander around at night Am.” He pouted cutely and I was starting to wonder if that man was the infamous Alpha Kole.
“Oh… But this place is too cool to resist, you know!” I covered up my main reason of being here; escaping from them.
“Then you can stay here for the night with your brother. Be back at the house tomorrow morning! I have plans for your afternoon, alright?” My father mused and I nodded stiffly.
With that, my dad walked out the door, closing it behind him.
A few moments later, there was a ripping sounds and a loud howl echoed, even the window panes vibrated vigorously. My heart thudded and a shudder ran down my spine.
Then the silence returned.
I realised another thing, my brother was staring at me the whole time, an amused expression plastered on his face, and his smirk completed the ‘I’m-a-douche’ look.
Just kidding, it made him even hotter.
As I trudged into one of the bedrooms, Xander followed.
“You’re not going to sleep on the same bed as me, are you?” I groaned, yet internally I was slapping myself for saying that.
“I’m your kind brother who wants to protect his kid sister from the big bad wolf,” He mocked in a high-pitched girly voice.
That made me roll my eyes, he made me wonder who the kid sister really was.
I then slid under the covers, exhausted from the earlier events. My eyelid twitched at the thought of tomorrow. It was going to be something big, I just knew.
On the brink of drifting off to sleep, I felt the other side of the king-sized bed sink which made me smile unconsciously.
▲
It was probably the first night I slept peacefully without any wolves jumping out from nowhere. I snuggled up into my warm bolster and it hugged me close.
Only after a few minutes of silence did I realise that my bolster wasn’t supposed to hug me. I stirred, my eyelids fluttering open slowly, noting that sunlight was pouring into the room.
I tried to stretch, but something was amiss. That was when I found out that my bolster was in fact Xander, and we were snuggled up so closely, nobody would think of us as siblings.
My head was buried in his chest, our legs were intertwined and his arms were wrapped tightly around my waist. Talk about comfy.
“Um… Xander?” I croaked nervously, willing myself to get out of his embrace.
Instead of letting me go like a thoughtful brother would, he pressed himself closer (if that was possible) and his grip around my waist tightened.
As much as I wanted to stay there and enjoy his non-sibling affection time, I wanted to stay away from him. The last thing I needed was to fall for my own brother. The concept of it was disgusting.
I glanced up at his sleeping face, his signature smirk plastered on his face. He wasn’t sleeping at all, unless he could sleep with a smirk on, which takes a lot of skill.
“Xander,” I hissed menacingly, “Let go.” But instead of sounding fierce, I sounded like a rat pleading for cheese. I blushed in embarrassment.
He looked down at me with a certain gleam in his eyes, but they suddenly hardened. In a swift movement, he was no longer beside me, and was standing up from the bed.
My heart pounded suddenly, as if it was missing being embraced by Xander.
I ignored the craving to be near my brother and slowly inched out of bed, my muscles recovered and ready to fight off anything.
“It’s nearing noon, get some clothes from here, freshen up and we’ll leave for home,” Xander’s muffled voice stated from inside a walk-in closet.
When he said ‘home’, I couldn’t help but think about my foster parents and so I decided to ask Xander.
“Hey Xan, what happened to my foster parents?” I asked coolly as I paced into the closet and settled for a cooling pair of summer shorts and an oversized tee.
From my peripheral vision, I could see my brother gawking at me. “You want the truth?” He gulped.
My mind was filled with gruesome images of what might have happened to them.
“Never mind then, I don’t want to know.”
I quickly ran into the bathroom and found some female undergarments. They seem new, but I had my second thoughts on those. Nevertheless, I did need a fresh set of undergarments.
Quickly, I stepped into the shower and wasted no time in it. Just the thought of meeting my dad made me pumped up and nervous at the same time.
When I emerged from the bathroom, Xander was already out of the other shower and clad in all his half-naked glory and dark denim jeans. He was busy ruffling his hair with a towel, and it took me more than a few moments to regain control of my limbs.
My face remained blank when I heard his chuckle; I was too busy getting that image of him out of my mind to no avail, of course.
“Lead the way, Xan.” I muttered while throwing my dirty laundry in a basket nearby that had the sign ‘I eat laundry, feed me laundry!’
He gladly nodded and proceeded out the cabin door while putting on a casual white shirt, with me trailing behind. The only noise was the light chirping of the birds in the forest lining the sides of the gravel path which crunched under my bare feet. I didn’t even realised I hadn’t worn shoes when I escaped from the house last night.
“How far is the house from here?” I whined, quite uncomfortable about the jagged gravel stones.
“Quite,” Xander mumbled and suddenly stopped walking, looking down at my bare feet, “Here.” He grinned and took off his slip-ons.
“Wouldn’t your feet hurt too?” I worriedly snapped, but he flashed me a smirk, as usual.
He shook his head and started walking once again while I put on his comfortable yet huge slip-ons. I ran up to his side and we continued our walk back to the house.
Sometimes I would catch him stealing glances at me, but I ignored him and carried on. However, after ten minutes of it, I couldn’t tolerate it anymore.
“What? Why are you staring? Your constant stares are going to burn a hole in my cheek damn it!” I growled lowly.
“Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed?” He teased, and I knew he had a double-meaning to that. My cheeks flared up like fireballs and I looked away, not wanting to complain anymore.
After several minutes of more silence, I spotted the back of the mansion, and the window I escaped from was already visible.
“Finally,” I clapped my hands cheerily and rushed to the entrance. To my amazement, there was a huge fountain just outside the double doors.
I hurriedly pushed open the door, finding my way to the kitchen while Xander… Well, I didn’t know where he went but I could care less about that.
“Pierce!” I exclaimed and the surprised chef turned to face me, breaking out in a grin immediately.
“I’ll make you my signature pancakes and scrambled eggs, just wait outside.” He mused, as if he read my mind.
Delighted, I headed out to the dining table and took a seat. Just then, my dad and Xander came down from the stairs and proceeded to sit with me.
“Mornnoon Dad,” I piqued, unsure whether it was already noon. He raised an eyebrow at me and replied, “Mornnoon to you too Am,”
▲
I covered up the huge burp that erupted from my throat and glared at Xander because he started snickering.
“Am, you know you’re my daughter and all,” My dad started with his Alpha tone, and I tensed up.
“Yeah,”
“I need you to attend meetings with Xander and I,” He went straight to the point, and I nodded reluctantly.
“I don’t have to do anything besides nod and stay awake, right?” I jokingly asked and my dad nodded, his fatherly smile returning to his face.
“Okay.”
▲
We had to drive to town, which was not far, just down a really not-gentle hill which our house was located on.
It wasn’t the slope that was the reason I was clutching onto the cushion of my seat, but at the speed that Xander was driving.
He offered to drive us there instead of having a chauffeur doing it, and he led us straight to his sleek, black Camaro Convertible.
The speed was well-off the limit, but my dad wasn’t doing anything about it, he was simply enjoying the wind. Or more like tornado.
I opted to change the summer shorts for a pair of skinny jeans and red flats that my dad apparently bought when Xander and I was staying in the cabin. On hindsight, I didn’t regret my decision.
When we got to the Town Hall, everyone was dressed formally, some men with business suits on and ladies with dresses. Even Xander was wearing a black button up shirt with those jeans from earlier on.
My dad led the way to a huge conference room and I look practically feel the gazes on us. There was utter silence in the beginning before people slowly broke out in whispers.
“Alpha Kole’s daughter is back…”
“Oh my, look at how much she has grown!”
I hated too much attention, so I hung my head low and bit my lip. Xander sensed my tenseness and tried to ease me by draping his arm over my shoulder, bringing me closer to him.
The scent of his light cologne almost drove me out of my sane self, but my muscles did ease themselves. I wanted to ask Xander about that static power thingy he keeps doing to me but as I was opening my mouth to ask, we reached the conference room.
A long oak table was in the centre, with middle-aged men with their wives seated at the sides and one huge chair at the end of the table was left empty, along with two other regular seats in front of it.
“Mr Kole,” They greeted formally in unison and I was taken aback by the volume of their voices combined. My dad simply nodded and proceeded to his seat, and Xander led me to my seat before taking his seat on the opposite of mine.
“As you have seen, my daughter, Amaryllis is back,” My dad’s voice boomed and they started clapping, their gazes on me.
I felt small under their judging eyes, and I forced a smile at them. They looked like people with a high position here in the pack, with their wise outlook and sophisticated dressing.
However, there was a guy near the other end of the table that would at first glance, blend in with the others. I observed him closely as something in my gut twisted. It wasn’t a good feeling.
He almost immediately caught my stare, and smirked. The stranger wasn’t middle-aged; he looked around Xander’s age, with straight and well-kept blonde hair that fell to his hazel eyes.
What’s with guys and smirking?
There and then, I realised that my brother was also staring at him, or more like glaring.
Something in my mind told me that this wasn’t the last time I was going to see his face.
★★
Yay for this chapter! I hope you enjoyed reading it. Remember to vote / comment if you can! ^_^
Instead of studying for my major exam tomorrow, I stayed up to write this. *No regrets, (;
P/S This chapter goes out to Randomlolly. She's a really sweet person and she made my week. I don't know how much to thank her. So anyways, do check out her story, it has a super unique story-line that I'm already hooked on. Thank you sooooooo much x ∞
♥