Chapter 20

Accepting My Twin Mates Chapter 20 Chapter 20 – Does A Day Make A Difference?

Evie I awoke next to Lucy. She looked so peaceful, an easy expression softening her face. I hoped wherever Finley was, he was suffering and was in turmoil. He deserved it and more.

Astennu and Badru… they never hesitated in the slightest. When I asked them, or rather snapped at them, to watch out for Finley heading anywhere near the kitchens, they did and they protected Lucy without question.

‘And they threatened him,’ Evva gruffled. ‘Maybe they don’t share a brain cell after all.’

‘High praise coming from you.’

‘Speaking of wingus and dingus, we should shake a leg and go pretend to take them breakfast,’ she yawned.

I stretched a little, trying not to jostle my friend. She needed the rest and I hoped she wasn’t putting on a brave face when she said she was fine. I crept to the door, slowly turning the knob…

‘Good luck,’ I heard her sing-song voice fill my mind.

Her eyes were closed but there was a tiny smirk playing across her lips. I grabbed one of the pillows discarded on the floor and hurled it at her.

“Rude!” She squeaked.

“What? It’s a throw pillow,” I stuck out the tip of my tongue at her, playfully, and exited her room before she could launch it back at me.

I shook my head, hearing the soft thud on the door, having narrowly avoided her retaliation. I went to my cold room and, after putting the heater on, I took a quick shower, making sure to wear a thick-knit turtleneck to hide my marking sites this time and put my hair up into two low buns. I made my way to the kitchens, reaching out to the twins along the way.

‘Am I ok to come up?’ I tried to keep my thoughts level. It wasn’t as though I was asking for permission.

I just didn’t want to show up, kick the door down and find one of them bare-ass… I had already seen enough of those heavenly… muscular… posteriors.

‘Huh?’ Badru’s voice was first to respond, sounding as though he had just been startled awake.

‘We’re awake and in my room,’ Astennu replied, amused. ‘I’ve tried nudging him awake for the last ten minutes. He hears your voice once and he sits bolt upright in the bed,’ I could tell that this little divulgence was strictly mind-linked between the two of us.

‘You were right. That one is a total nugget,’ Evva snuffled in her laughter, affectionate laughter.

And the oldest one I was finding was sweet as a peanut, like a little goober.

‘Is there anything, in particular, you’d like to eat?’ While I wasn’t happy about waiting upon those two in the slightest, I also didn’t exactly want to bring them something they’d hate either.

‘No, just you…’ Astennu mind-linked softly, making my face heat at the insinuation of his words. At least that was until he must have realised what he had said and quickly corrected himself, rambling profusely. ‘I mean, we’re not bothered about what we eat! We only want you. I mean your presence!

We only care about you being here… just to talk… nothing else…’

‘Astennu? You’re blabbering. I know what you meant,’ I chuckled to myself, still feeling the heat in my face. I had already been hunted by the big bad wolves. How long before they devoured me?

‘…We’ll see you soon,’ he sheepishly cut the link. I was guessing he was glad he hadn’t included his brother in his rambling stint.

‘Nugget and the goober as our mates… I’m beginning to wonder if we did something wrong in a past life,’ Evva shook her head, not admitting that she found them completely endearing when they weren’t trying and were just showing their true side.

As I passed through the pack dining hall, I listened out for any whispers around. Trying to remain subtle and unobtrusive last night had been more difficult than I anticipated. There was no talk of anyone noticing something going on with the twins, except that they looked somewhat distracted. I did, unfortunately, hear whispers of my display with Finley; some saying he had it coming, some saying I was probably going to be exiled from the pack for attacking the future Beta. They would be the ones in for a shock. Astennu and Badru had better sort that whole situation out with their parents; Finley was not coming out of this like some victim.

‘They’re not making you work after you slaved away all evening are they?’ Tamlyn mind-linked, just as I was about to enter the door to the kitchen.

I looked around, spotting her just off in the corner sitting at a table. I wandered over, taking up a seat at her otherwise empty table and stole a rasher of her bacon, feeling my stomach grumble a little.

‘You’re in turmoil, so I’m gonna let that slide,’ her eyes narrowed in my general direction at my pilfering.

‘I’m having the talk and I was just grabbing some breakfast as an excuse to go to their room.’

‘Well, kindly, refrain from stealing mine,’ she slid her plate further away from me. ‘I’ll be in a meeting with them this afternoon, so if I smell tears, I’ll know how it went.’

‘You don’t know if Janet is hovering about in the kitchens, do you?’ I asked, glancing towards the door with a grimace. If I could avoid her today, it could only be a bonus.

‘I haven’t heard anyone screaming all morning, so you’re probably safe,’ she quietly teetered in laughter. ‘That woman really knows how to hold a grudge.’

My brows furrowed in confusion. I knew there was something, I just didn’t know what. But Tamlyn sure seemed to know. ‘What do you mean?’

‘When you narked on her to the Luna. Didn’t you know?’ She said, as though it should be obvious.

‘No!’ I thought Luna Qamar had completely dismissed me.

‘Well s**t! I thought you knew why Janet’s an insufferable b***h to you. Luna Qamar had a word but she never found any evidence.’

Whenever I was on laundry duty, I always checked pockets of clothes before they were loaded into the machines. Some members that lived in the accommodation quarters did their own laundry, but some had it sent out to us if they didn’t have time. If I ever found money or items, I bagged and tagged it so it could be sent back to the owner along with the clean laundry. Though I had no evidence, I suspected that a few of the others, including Janet, were taking the money instead of handing it over. It was only a few dollars here and there, but it was still wrong to be stealing from pack members; even if they were dumb enough to not check their own pockets in the first place. I had gone to the Luna with my concerns and I thought I had been brushed off; she had said no one else had come to her with any such concerns before and had asked what proof I possessed. I had none. Janet had served as the head housekeeper for over 20 years and I was, well, me.

“If you come back to me with this, you had better have some evidence if you’re going to accuse any upstanding member of this pack,” is what I had been told.

I knew from how she addressed me what word she wanted to use instead.

Rogue.

How dare a rogue accuse anyone of stealing. By my status as a rogue-born, I was already a miscreant, like I was condemned as a criminal without having done wrong.

It appeared I wasn’t as ‘brushed off’ as I thought I was.

I was tempted to accept the role of being the future Luna purely so I could look Janet in the eye and watch as she s**t a brick over her future in the pack.

‘While I would love to kick her from the pack, it would be highly satisfying to keep her around and in a constant state of fear,’ Evva mused.

‘Isn’t that a little petty?’

‘Sometimes petty is a valid response,’ she argued.

I said goodbye to Tamlyn, wanting to get this part over with. It wouldn’t be the first time I had taken a tray of breakfast away with me, so nothing would look out of sorts in my behaviour. I loaded up a serving platter with some cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon, seeing as I had developed a hankering after stealing Tamlyn’s, a large French press of fresh coffee, and I risked a bowl of yoghurt, nuts and fruit, since it was one of my favourites.

With my tray in hand, I made my way to the Alpha wing, praying I didn’t run into anyone. My phone pinged with a message and, balancing the tray on a single hand, I dug my phone out of my pocket to see it was a message from Adrian.

Adrian | Sorry I didn’t say goodbye, we left kinda early this morning. Plus, I needed a swift exit. Have a feeling your boys want to murder me.

Me | How bad did you make it?

Adrian | I may have teased them a little last night. Astennu in particular seems to be planning on where to bury me. Have fun giving them hell, and have fun with the other thing too.

The wink emoji he added at the end made me frown. What did he know?

Me | Now I’m suspicious.

Adrian | I’m not ruining the surprise, but I know you’ll handle it.

He added several cry-laughing emojis.

f**k that guy! And his teasing, too.

Me | All right then, keep your secrets.

And I attached a Frodo meme to the message, returning my phone to my back pocket.

‘You don’t need to knock, ammar. You can come in whenever you want,’ Astennu mind-linked completely out of the blue with no context whatsoever.

What in the hell was he talking about? Why were all the wolf males being weird today? And what did ‘ammar’ mean?

‘Knock? What the f**k are you talking about?’ I replied a little snappily, but I received no reply so it couldn’t have been anything important.

I entered the Alpha wing of the twins’ home, closing the door behind me, and made my way up to the first-floor landing where Astennu’s room was located. Being back here, I could laugh. Yesterday, I was in complete denial and leaping out of a window rather than facing my mates. What a difference a day makes.

As I approached his door, the only way I could describe the peculiarity was that the atmosphere felt off.

I recognised the auras of the twins, each was distinct to me, like their touch. But there was another I wasn’t familiar with, another Alpha’s aura that radiated its power; the air holding a natural crackle to it that announced their presence.

I didn’t have time to question it any further as the door was yanked open, followed by angry words and a shimmering pale pink blur came crashing into me. The tray in my hands upended, coating me and the pink blur in the breakfast contents. The familiar feeling of yoghurt dripped down my skin… I was officially done with this form of dairy.

Maybe this was just my thing now, to be covered in breakfast food.