11. Brother from another mother

Aleida’s POV

I wake up alone in my bedroom. The light dazzles me. It’s warm under the covers, but at the same time, I feel cold inside. I’ve had nightmares during the night, and I’m all sweaty. The bed moves when I sit up. I rub my eyes before getting up on shaky legs. For some reason, I can hardly stand today. My legs hurt and sting from the inside.

“Miliano?” I call. “Milo?”

Someone stomps the stairs when he or she hurries up; the door opens with such force that it slams into the wall. He looks frantically around before he looks down on the floor and sees me.

“My little one, what are you doing down there?” he asks and lifts me.

“I tried to walk to the bathroom, but my legs hurt badly today. I just wanted to shower...”

“I’ll help you fill up the jacuzzi, and then you can take a nice long bath; how does that sound?”

I nod, smiling up at him. He nuzzles my neck before putting me down in the wheelchair. With the muscles of my arms, I successfully move the wheelchair to my wardrobe. I pick out a pair of denim shorts and a white sleeveless shirt that I fold together to put on my lap. A pair of white lace ballerina shoes, undergarments, and a grayish cardigan is probably a good thing to bring as well. I roll out of the closet and close the door after me. The balcony door is open, and the sun kisses my skin. The heat rises when the rays of the sun meet my body, a calm spreads within me. When I feel sparks in my shoulders, I know it’s Miliano.

“Are you ready, my little one?” he asks, I nod, and he lifts me.

Once in the bathroom, he says that I can bathe for as long as I want and that when I finish, we have a visitor downstairs. With those words, he leaves and closes the door. My clothes land in a pile on the floor when I take them off quickly and sink into the warm water. My body gratefully welcomes the heat; the muscles begin to relax. I let out a satisfied moan and slide even further down the jacuzzi. The smell of bubblegum and lollipops fills the room; I smile at that. It’s a little cute that he has bath foam with candy scent; wondering if he uses it himself or if he saved it for his mate? And who is this mysterious visitor? After I have washed my body and washed my hair, I get up out of the jacuzzi. The water flows down the drain, and I begin to dry myself. A jar of body butter is on the sink; it’s probably Miliano who pulled it out for me when he was in here earlier. When I’ve hydrated my body with the ointment, I put on my light pink underwear. I look at my body in the bathroom mirror, and I suffer from how it looks. My injured olive skin, after all the beatings over the years. I can’t stop myself when I let out an involuntary sob. In my head, the voices begin to say derogatory names I’ve been told over the years, echoing inside my head. I sink along the wall and rock myself.

“Please, stop,” I whisper to no one special because it’s just me there.

I sit there until my tears are over and my panic attack disappears. On shaky legs, I stand up to get dressed. I have made an effort, and the goddess will know that I have tried to push away all the emotions and start living correctly; I have repeatedly told myself that everything is fine, but nothing is acceptable... It’s never going to be all right again; I know that now. I am damaged goods, and they will all shortly see that too. It’s only a matter of time until Miliano leaves me; he deserves someone better than me, someone, who can give him what he needs. I lean against the walls as I move down the hallway towards the stairs.But I know that I can’t go down the stairs myself, which is why I sit down and slide down the steps, one by one—my butt stings by every impact. I continue to fight, and as I approach the last staircase, I feel the joy that I managed to get all the way myself! In the previous stairway, I slide down too quickly and land with an “ow”. Everyone in the room turns to me and looks astounded. Miliano hurries up from the couch and runs up to me.

“Hey, baby girl, why didn’t you call me? You can barely walk, and then you decide to get down here alone? It’s a five-story house, Aleida!”

I casually shrug my shoulders and give him an offended look.

“I can handle myself.”

He tries to help me up with an anxious look, and for some reason, it makes me angry.

“I said, I can do it myself!” I exclaim; he looks hurt and backs away.

“Why don’t you let me help you? Can someone here help you? We don’t want you to get hurt.”

“It’s a little late for that now, isn’t it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, ten years of assault, starvation, and mismanagement in general. It eventually shapes you.”

They’re all looking at me with open mouths and wide eyes. When the hell did I become this cynical? I growl at my body when it fights against me while I rise to stagger up to an armchair and throw myself into it. My breaths are heavy, and my head is spinning. With a sigh, I start talking.

“I’m sorry, Milo, it’s just that I’m used to taking a shit and taking care of myself. When someone else helps me, it becomes a defense mechanism because I know that either the person who helped me or I will have to pay for it. I’ve been taking care of myself for thirteen years and gone through hell on earth with a smile. I have had to fight for my survival only since I was a child. So when I say that I can handle it myself, then I can. If I need help, like this morning, I’m going to ask for help. But please, respect that I have to do things myself,” I say and look down at my hands.

Miliano rises from his seat and lifts me before he places me in his lap. This time it’s me who nuzzles his neck. It feels weird; I don’t usually do that. He freezes for a second and looks at me.

“Did you see what you did there?”

“Yeah? Sorry, I don’t know why I...”

“No, no! That’s one of the first signs that your wolf is in there. You obviously can growl too; I think soon you will have her with you,” he says and kisses my forehead.

Someone clears their throat, and I jump from the sound. I had forgotten that it was more people in the room.

“Well, that was sugary cute,” Jason says and laughs.

I haven’t accepted that he’s my brother yet, but the thought begins to settle down within me. In any case, I feel a strong need to throw a pillow, so that’s what I do.

“Ow, what the fuck?! Where the hell are you hiding your muscles? That really hurt,” he says, amused, and caress his cheek.

“Maybe you’re just weak,” I say, smirking at him.

“Ouch, that must have hurt your ego, baby brother,” a voice says behind me.

I stand up and turn around very slowly; I gasp when I see it. This man standing in front of me is an exact copy of me. We have the same dark hair and the same facial features. He looks shocked when he looks at me like he’s trying to memorize every little detail of what I look like. Now everyone else in the room begins to see it, too; we might as well have been able to be twins, which is impossible because we have different moms. The only difference is that his eyes are forest green instead of cerulean blue as mine and that he’s a man, except that everything is the same.

“H-how are we looking exactly alike?” I stutter.

He doesn’t say anything, just looking at me with an open mouth. I don’t know why I do, but I felt a strong need to touch his arm. When I do, I can feel our bond inside me.

“I remember you...” I whisper. “You... You were at my school when I was a kid. You pushed me into the mud when you wanted the swing I used!”

He frowns and tries to remember. Suddenly, the shining of his face, in surprise, and he recognizes me.

“I remember that! I was full of guilt, but when I tried to apologize, I could see a man I thought was your dad pull you into a car. I was too afraid to walk up to you. Before he drove away, I could see how he hit you. You looked at me with pleading eyes, and I tried to run after the car, but I couldn’t,” he says sadly.

“That was not my dad... That was my alpha.”

He looks at me, angry and confused.

“An alpha is not supposed to hurt his pack members!”

“Well, tell that to him.”

“I remember that day, I thought about that girl for many years, but I could never imagine that it was you, my baby sister,” he caresses my cheek. “What happened to you?”

I sigh and back away.

“That, my good sir, is a story for another day,” I say and sit down on the floor.

The others look at me like I have lost my mind. I push my body over the floor out in the kitchen. When I finally arrive, I take a small bottle of juice from the fridge and do precisely the same thing back out in the living room. They are still looking at me. I proudly hold up my juice bottle, and Miliano laughs at me.

“You are one of a kind.”

“And don’t you forget it,” I say and smirk while all four of them are smiling at me.

“So... What’s your name?” I ask my oldest brother.

“I’m Nathan,” he smiles.

“Well, hello, Nathan, I’m Aleida.”

“Why can’t you walk?” he asks me sternly.

My head drops in a sign of submission. I whimper, and everyone can hear it.

“Why the hell do you submit to me? I’m your brother, and you’re an alpha.”

I don’t dare to look at him. I just keep on sitting on the floor, playing with my bottle. I can see that Miliano walks up to him and whispers something. Nathan looks with horror at me before he says:

“I’m really sorry, Aleida...”

I keep my mouth shut. Miliano pulls me up from the floor, and I don’t know why it hurts, but my leg makes me scream. Everyone rush forward to me.

“What is wrong, luna?”

Nathan looks at me with shock once again.

“Luna?” he asks.

“She’s my mate,” Miliano states, and Nathans’s mouth forms an ‘o’.

“What is it that hurt, baby girl?” Miliano asks me.

I point to my leg, and he gasps when he sees it. The veins in my leg are becoming black. I scream out in pain when the pain moves towards my head instead.

“Aleida? Aleida, stay here with me, talk to me about what is happening?”

I feel her presence.

“She’s here...” I whimper, terrified of going back to my mental prison.

“Who is here?”

“She’s trying to go inside my head!” I scream out in pure agony.

It dawns on Killian, Miliano, and Jason, but Nathan doesn’t understand a thing.

“Can someone explain to me what the hell is going on with my baby sister?”

“It’s a force that is trying to imprison her in her mind again. This happened a few days ago, and we had to give her a sedative. It’s a girl Miliano rejected because she was not his true mate,” Killian explains.

“What’s this girl’s name?” he asks, looking pale.

“Hailey.”

“Oh, no...”

“What?”

“I, Miliano, and Jason have rejected this girl. Somehow she snapped when we told her that we only wanted to find our sister and didn’t care about anything else. Hailey must have found out that we’re her brothers. It looks like she is out for revenge, and Aleida is the one who is going to suffer,” he says, panicked.

“No, I won’t allow it, I...”

“Enough!” I scream at them. “Sorry that I raised my voice at you, but I need to concentrate.”

I close my eyes, trying to figure out if someone or something is inside my mind.

Well, you’re not alone in here, darling.

I jump and scream when I hear it.

“Aleida, who is it?”

Don’t be afraid; my name is Lisa. I’m your wolf, and I will do everything in my power to protect you.

“Aleida! What is happening?”

“I-she...”

“What?”

“I think I found my wolf.”