Alpha's Girl

{23. Don't Leave Me}

"Well, I guess I'll just pick up where I left off," he said as he shifted on the hard bed. "So after I triggered my wolf and shifted for the first time, I was terrified. I was afraid of myself and my new strengths, and I was definitely scared of my anger and what that could mean for those around me. Mom tried helping me navigate through the confusing hierarchy that makes up our world, however, I still felt alone and out of control. School became hell, more so than usual. My senses would constantly be overloaded: sounds, smells, sights, and anger, my God, my anger was constantly getting the best of me. It was torture hiding it from everyone, especially from you since we told each other everything."

He gave my hand a squeeze in the darkness. It was crazy thinking that the boy I'd grown up with, who'd fight the monsters in the darkness, was struggling with these things and I hadn't even known. I tried to convince myself that it was purely because I was young and even my wildest daydreams couldn't have pointed me in this direction: that we had wolves in our DNA. I still couldn't help but feel guilty.

"So, fast forward a bit and Alexander came of age to start searching for his mate–which is usually between the ages of sixteen and eighteen, twenty-one is usually the longest us wolves wait until we kind of give up which is kind of stupid because there are literally millions of us in the world and we're each looking for one specific person, but it's whatever–"

"You better mind how you talk about mates and stuff because your future in-laws are literally the Moon Goddess and God."

Kaden scoffed. "Okay, whatever. The Goddess and God are in the astral realm and I doubt our problems are worth their time. They don't even care about us. So, I'll believe it when I see it."

I raised a brow at him though I knew he likely wouldn't see it in the dark. "You're pretty critical of them, aren't you?"

"I have to be. I'm not like the people who blindly worship and follow their gods. I ask questions, I have critiques. Doing so is a sign of growth."

I hummed in response, unable to say anything else.

"So once Alexander was of age, mom...she knew. She just knew. I don't know how else to describe it. So, she made a stupid decision that she thought was the only option at the time: she took us into the woods away from civilization. She thought that connecting us with nature would do...I don't know, but she made the mistake of taking us to a place that allowed our scents to stand out. In the city, our scents were masked to some extent. Because we were around so many people, our scents were a bit diffused and weaker than they were when we were out in the open since there were so many other people and things around us. But by taking us away from all of those diffusers for a lack of a better word, she basically put a target on our backs, does that make sense?"

I nodded. "It's like the pack mentality, right? Or kinda the opposite: you're weaker when you're alone but you're stronger with a pack, and you have a bigger chance of being targeted when you're alone than when you're with others."

He nodded. "Basically. Well, fast forward to the night I supposedly 'died': a few days before that, mom had told me about her promise to the Ronens and that since you were 'of age' that wolves usually present themselves, we had to be very careful. Somehow, and I still don't know how, Alexander caught your scent. Even though you weren't a wolf in any way, shape, or form, he'd managed to catch your scent and he was coming after you. I don't know how to explain it, but I felt this sharp pull in my chest as he was getting nearer, probably because I was indirectly roped into the blood promise since mom hadn't known she was pregnant with twins. And, since we're twins, our scents are identical and remain as such until we eventually complete the mating process. Our mates can differentiate us because our connection to them is deeper than a scent, but to Alexander, all he had to go off of was your scent and eventually the pull you'll develop. So, when they came for us, I decided that since I indirectly brought this upon us, it was my job to end it, or at least prolong it until mom could come up with a different solution to protect you."