The Alpha Twins and their Runaway Witch

30

August and Alex were walking. Endlessly walking around the border that they were no longer able to cross without extreme pain and nausea. Mapping out the area of the city that had become off limits to them. Alex was growing more cranky with every step.

Alex had thought endlessly chasing an uncatchable target had been frustrating. Then he had thought knowing he was in the same city as his Goddess intended mate was torture. Now knowing she probably fucked a demon every single night, and let vampires pay to feed from her and she was untraceable was more than he could handle.

August was very worried about his brother's mood. His frustrations were radiating from him, creating an aura of unpleasant around him. Even humans who had they had crossed paths with moved out of Alex's way. Giving a wide birth around him. At least August was assuming they were human, he knew Lumi and Cassi had learned to hide their nature. They could have passed some hidden supernaturals, but August felt like Alex's bad mood was so strong even humans one and all knew to stay out of his way.

They had made it almost back to where they had started, mapped out the entire area that Binh had banned them from. Thanking Lumi for the extra intelligence. It was not an insignificant area that had been walled off from them. A dense centre city neighbourhood, near the university. Their mate could be practically on top of them inside that wall before they would be able to feel her.

Then she was.

It had all happened so quickly. No one had any time to think or make a smart choice. Their mate, in all her glory had burst from a dead end side street right in front of them. Wearing a belted flannel coat, and a cloche hat like she was trying to be unseen. She had veritably crashed into both of them.

Alex and August were both immediately overwhelmed with her scent and presence. There she was. Right in front of them. Undeniable and real. Filling their lungs with the scent of burning pine. She was smoke and earth and everything August and Alex wanted. The force that held their lives bound to earth. Felt the sparks as her hand and fingers touched their skin. Pushing them away. Fear in her eyes, radiating from her in thick waves.

No one was expecting her to scream out in fear with such an intense volume as a fire ball ignited from her hands. Flying towards Alex and August.

Ariel had turned and run back down exactly where she had come from. The moment she had seen fire emerge from nowhere. She was gone. Running with all the speed and fear she had the day she had first escaped Gisella.

Her fear had been so strong, so visceral. She had not even registered that she had summoned a fireball as she turned to run as fast as her body could possibly manage. Thankfully, any delay in her attempt to flee was granted easily as the sheltered alpha twins took stock of what had just happened to them.

She had burned them and then run from them. Though immediately in the moment that did not seem like the worst part of the story, She kept running as long as she could. Long past the point where it hurt. If they were shifters and thought she was their mate, then they would kidnap her. Take her away again. Chain her down and never let her leave while they used her to breed an army of soliders for their pack.

Their mate took off like a gun fired. August had stayed with his brother as the fireball burned. It only lasted a second. The fire burned out, Alex was left with his eyebrows, eye lashes and all of his hair burned off, Alex was a different person than the one he had woken up as this morning. August had no idea what to say to his vain, hair obsessed brother was left as bald as an egg on every part of his head.

August watched in shock as his brother moved his fingertips over his head. Singed and burnt hair ash blowing away on the wind. "Is it bad?" Alex asked August who could not close his slack jaw as he looked at a perfectly bald Alex. Alex had kept his hair long since he was nine. This was strange. His brother looked like an alien, though August had to marvel that the fireball had not burned his skin anywhere.

August had no idea how to answer his brother's question. "It's not good." He admitted. Cause it was definitely going to make Alex feel a lot of things when he saw what their certainly shared mate had done to him. "I think our mate is a witch." August said. She certainly wasn't a demon, there wasn't the burnt nutty fire smell that all the succubi and incubi had at Rose Gold Resort carried. Everyone said demons smelled burnt. Their mate wasn't burnt smelling. Just a little smokey like memories of the best camping trip Aspen and Caspian had taken the boys on when they were young.

August heard his father's words in his head. Fire witches often had strong power. She had brought forth a fireball from nothing, that had only burned hair without burning skin. Their witch was kind, had strength, and was far more than either he or his brother had given her credit for when they had looked at her in the diner.

She had run deeper into the demon controlled area of the city. The space they were no longer welcome to travel freely. August moved to try and follow her and was rewarded with a burning feeling under his skin that grew worse with every single step he took. After four steps, he had turned back. Looking at his hands in shock, expecting to see them on fire like Alex's hair or blistering black burns. His skin was unblemished and unharmed.

The ward against them did not mess around. They knew where she was. Knew what she was to them. They just could not follow her where she was hiding. It was torture like the twins had never known. They had never once ever had to work or wait for what they wanted. Their lives had been easy, nothing bad had happened to them. They had been raised in a large loving family, had never known what it was to go without.

They needed to regroup and consider a different plan of attack to woo their mate. Barging past the barrier spell and chasing her down were not an option. Alex was going to need a moment when he saw what had happened to his hair. There wasn't anything reflective nearby. Just matte concrete walls.

It was going to be very very bad when Alex saw that he was hairless from the shoulders up. "We should go home today. We're not prepared for any of this." What was the point of all the lessons, all the training, all the work they had done to be the best alpha wolves they could be to be rendered so useless when it counted.