Revenge of the Twins

Prologue

The smell of a beautiful sunrise woke me, dancing around the quiet room. I lifted my head to peak out the window and noticed that we were still lit by the moon, but the sun was quickly on its tail. I let my shoulders relax as I took a moment to breathe in the fresh air, staring at the scene outside—it was like a painting.

"Ella," I tested, gauging how easily she was to wake. "Hey, Ella!" I whispered closer to her. I wanted to go for a run before heading back to the pack. I suddenly felt keyed up and jittery all over, I had a lot of energy that I needed to burn off before we went home, and I would need to burn it off. Remembering the ceremony made my stomach churn—I needed to move.

I could go alone, but things were much more fun when I had my twin with me. Ella hated morning runs, or anything that really pulled her away from all her brooding seriousness. We may have been almost completely genetically and physically identical, but we certainly made up for that lack with our differences in personality.

I pulled my face over Ella's and blew air on her face, wondering if it would stir her. Nothing. "Ella..." I drew her name out, hitting every syllable longer than normal. "Please!"

"What the heck could you possibly want." She shoved her hand in my face and pushed me back to my side of the tent. We had decided to get away and go camping before our "Coming of Age" ceremony, and, though, I promised to respect her sleeping schedule—it was just so nice out!

"A run—come on! A run!" I bounced up on all fours, my tail practically wiggling, as if I had already shifted into my wolf form.

"A freaking run?" Ella huffed and lifted up to peek out the mesh tent window. "For goodness sakes, Emma, it's still dark out even! What is it, like four AM?"

"I don't know, we left our phones at home." I smiled. She looked at me—no glared at me and then threw her pillow directly for my face, knocking me back the slightest bit. "Hey!" I squealed.

"Your pep sickens me." Ella said, but she sat up straighter and moved her arms into the air, stretching. With a yawn, she looked back at me, slightly more awake and no trace of any annoyance. "A run, hey?"

"A run." I smiled back at her. "It might be our last chance as single, un-mated wolves to run together."

"Ha-ha." She said flatly. "Just because we are of age to find our mates, doesn't mean we will. Some people live years without finding them."

"Some people never find their mates." I said, in my best sour, gloomy Ella accent. "It doesn't change the fact that this is a big day, Ells! Things are gonna change, and I just wanna run with my big, old sister before they do."

"Hey!" She swatted at me. "First of all, I'm two, three minutes older than you! And things aren't gonna change, Em, even if one of us does find our mate today, or any other day... it's still me and you, kid." She nudged at me.

"'Kid,' so you admit you're the old fart here?" I smiled at her, teasingly. The truth was, I was a bit afraid. What if Ella found her mate today—or worse, what if we went to one of those mating ceremonies in another pack, and she found him there.

What if we were separated? I had never faced a single day without her, and now our impromptu camping trip started to feel like a closing to an era. The end of the only chapter I had ever written—I thought you weren't supposed to know when the end was? But here I was, reading the last few pages of our childhood, completely aware. I met my eyes back to Ella's, and I knew she could see it on my face.

"Come on, let's go." She moved past me, and before I was out of the tent, she was shifting. I followed suit quickly undressing. Our wolves were also identical, and much like our human forms. We were both a light blonde, with deep brown eyes, and we were large. Larger than most female wolves—sturdy, as my father had always said, sturdy and strong.

We were strong, and we knew it. Capable of so much more than we had been doing in our last 18 years. Our parents often awed at us, and commented on how, if we had been boys, we would have been immediately taken to fight. They also warned us of our strength, if the wrong person saw us, we would be in trouble. Women didn't fight; women were protected.

"Hey," Ella nudged me and spoke through our mind link. "Happy birthday."

"Happy birthday." I snorted playfully, and nipped at her fur, dashing off before she could nip me back. I felt her following me in pursuit. I was running so fast that it took a minute for the smell to hit me, but when it did, I stopped cold. Ella skidded beside me, but quickly snapped to attention.

She smelled it, too. We looked at each other before running off in the direction of our pack, our home, not slowing until we were at the edge of our town. I stood looking at my home, bolted to the ground and completely still both in my stance and in my mind.

The smell of blood, the smell of death, it filled the air coating the entire town. It was all I could focus on, until I let my brain process the sight before me, complete and total destruction. Bodies. Bodies everywhere. A chill ran through my entire being as I tried to process the scene before me.

Were we attacked? I asked myself, blankly, accepting the pieces of the puzzle in front of me and ordering them to make sense. We were attacked.

We were attacked. Mom. Where was my mom, where was dad? Before I could move, a loud whimper rang in the air and pierced my entire body. I jerked to my right, seeing my sister with her stomach lowered completely to the ground nudging a body.

She whimpered again, a sound that broke my soul and tightened my entire body at the same time. I came to her side, expecting the worst. Expecting to see my father, my mother.

It was just a boy. A completely mangled boy—he had been dead for hours and by the look of him, he put up a heck of fight, but was killed quickly enough that he didn't have time to shift. I didn't recognize him.

"Mate." I heard in my head.