When the gods go to war, it's their people who suffer.
The moon was the most benevolent of them until they took everything from her. Vengeance turned her into the instrument of destruction, now those who destroyed her have to give her back what the...
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"Being part of a pack won't be so hard, right?" Ben asked for what seemed to be the hundredth time. "We get new threads, don't have to worry about our next meal and best of all no crazy wolves using us for target practice or something worse.
Cade didn't answer, he'd replied his brother the first dozen or so times and now knew better. Ben just wanted to convince himself being here was a good thing, that he had a choice in staying.
Sure they could leave. If they wanted the deaths of more people on their consciences. Even knowing Lola's abilities she'd freaked him out with her foretelling. Nothing like the certainty of doom rising up from your own soul to convince you.
"Dude, just put more clothes in your basket." He told his pacing brother.
Brother. Cade got a thrill everytime he thought of that. He'd always wanted siblings, especially a brother. He didn't question how they were brothers, couldn't care less, well maybe he cared in the 'what had the moon goddess done to them' sense. Otherwise he was cool with it, more than.
Ben swiveled Cade's chair to face him, placing his hands on the armrests. "And how the heck do we get from being insignificant to having the fate of many lives in our hands?" He demanded.
"We won the genetic jackpot." Cade deadpanned.
"I'm serious here Cade."
"Well, so am I," he ran his hand throuh his hair, realising he needed to cut it. It was one thing to be thought of as pretty - not a good discription for a guy - and quite another to have the long hair to go with it. "Did you not notice how alike we look despite being of different races?"
"Trying not to think about that." Ben replied as he straightened to resume his pacing.
Cade was suprised by that. He'd been wondering about it since the moon goddess had declared them siblings. Before, he hadn't even noticed the resemblance. It was as if they took after a shared parent, the same square jaw, round tipped nose and high cheekbones. He and Ben just had more musculine versions.
"Dude, you just asked how we got to be so significant." He argued.
His brother stopped pacing then threw his hands up in frustration. "Of course I wonder! I mean I almost charred all the alpha bloods just by losing my temper. Who does that? And something tells me whatever we are, we're different in a big way. I just want to take a few minutes, days, whatever, to pretend I'm normal."
Cade nodded. "I get that."
"Yeah," Ben sat back down, his face showing discormfort. "So back to online shopping."
Cade continued scrolling through the jeans selection, he'd never had unlimited funds to work with and didn't know how much to get. Who knew having money at your disposal would be stressful? And what was an 'adequate wardrobe' anyway?
"It's not like I want to be part of a pack," Cade volunteered. "I've always been a bit of a loner, you know. Like you I grew up without a pack. I don't know how to be a part of one, to have so many people mentally linked to me." He hadn't wanted to confess his concern but he was freaking out about tomorrow's ceremony.
"Right?" Ben agreed as he added a pair of Jordans to his cart. "I wonder why she did that though."
"Did what?"
"Had you, Rya, Lola and I raised outside the packs. Shouldn't we have lost our minds or something?"
One of the reasons wolves congregated around a strong Alpha was because they slowly lost their minds without that stability. Something about the alpha bloods helped to prevent the fracturing of the wolf and human identities.
Rouges were wolves who for some reason - probably inherent madness - decided they were better off without one, those against the establishment and the banished weres. Inevitably they lost their minds and started attacking humans and mythkind alike.
Cade hadn't known that. Nor had his siblings. Sad thing was, there were so many runaways. Kids like them who had a rough life and decided being unaligned was better than what they had.
"I guess there're some perks to being raised by the goddess." He replied.
"You buying into all that?" Ben sounded a bit skeptical, though he continued adding stuff to his cart.
"Kinda makes sense when you think about it."
Silence reigned as they concentrated on their shopping. They'd elected to fo it online instead of wasting time hoping from one store to another and dealing with countless pushy people. The service would deliver overnight and since the pack already used them Cade and Ben wouldn't need to do more than order.
"Okay, I'm done here." Ben pushed away from his desk.
They shared a suite, one with an open plan that consisted of a living room, kitchen, dinette and a small office space holding their two desks. Best of all it had two ensuite bedrooms so they never had to fight over bathroom time. All in all it was more luxury than either of them were used to.
"We can grab some food before we have to meet the Delta." Cade agreed as he looked at his new watch. The pack had had a few boxed ones lying around. Apparently teenage boys were notorious for losing the damn things.
Since the day after their arrival, Ben and Cade had been under the Delta's watch. He was a strict man, responsible for the training of the pack, maintaning discipline and was the first tier of pack law. Cade and Ben knew the were wanted to see for himself that they could be trusted. Wanted to ensure they knew every aspect of the pack laws and see what they were made of.
Which was why he'd left pack training to his seconds and spend his days with the pair of brothers. While Cade took it as a necessity, Ben seemed to soak in all the steady warrior had to offer, especially the combat.
"Hey," Ben said with uncharacteristic gravity. "Any moment having so many minds around you becomes too much we'll bail, no matter the consequences." He stated.
A lump formed on Cade's throat. He knew he'd never be okay with leaving now. Asking Nia to leave her mate was a non starter and he already had too much guilt over the packs the Lunar had destroyed for them to want more blood on him. He knew Ben wouldn't want it either, which made the offer that much more.
"Yeah." He agreed, his voice deeper than normal.
*
Okay so Cade's chapter was way too long so I had to split it.
