LIAM
It was evening, Mom had mind-linked me to stop by only for me to realise she had tricked me.
"Me alone with her?" I asked, looking at the little pumpkin.
"She’s a good girl, Liam." Mom said dismissively.
Dad smirked.
"Yup, a real angel." He added, not sounding very convincing. "We could do this tomorrow?"
"No baby, we are going." Mom said firmly.
They were going to visit some lone wolves who lived near our pack territory. Considering the murder, Mom and Dad decided to check in on them, and here I was stuck with my little sister Azura - Aunty Indy’s girl that Mom carried.
"Wiyam, I be good." She blinked those large blue eyes as she assured me.
No, that was an alarm bell right there. No kid who says they will be good will be good… and I had seen the devil, Dante. Kids were scary… Don’t mess with them.
"So, since you're visiting a few elderly wolves… you should be home by eleven?" I asked.
Mom smirked.
"Yes, hopefully. Relax Liam but I do think we will be back before eleven. It's only six pm now." She said, glancing at the clock on the wall.
"Anything I need to know…"
"No, just keep her away from the sugary stuff. There’s pizza in the oven. It should be done in twenty minutes. Eat, get her ready for bed, tell her a story, then she should knock off." Mom said, grabbing her jacket before meeting Azura with a hug and kisses.
The fact that it had been just me and my twin, Kiara, growing up; we didn’t have younger siblings, so seeing Mom like this was strange. Not to mention, I wasn’t here for Azura’s entire three years of life.
Was she really going to sleep? Didn’t look like it…
"Oh yeah Liam, Raven was saying she wanted to move to the packhouse, get something sorted for her. I was going to tell you earlier, but then with everything that happened last night, I wasn’t in the right headspace." Mom said, just when she was about to step outside.
"Sure." I said, emotionlessly.
Raven at the packhouse? Fuck, that’s where I was staying… I couldn’t deal with this, not when just looking at her made me want to go over to her and claim her as mine.
Once the door shut after Mom and Dad, I looked at the little girl who now had her finger shoved up her nose.
"Don’t do that. It's gross." I said, crouching down in front of her.
"Do what?" She said, taking her finger out of her nose and… fuck!
She ate it!
"Azura, pumpkin, you don’t eat that."
"Eat what?" She asked.
Did she not realise what she had just did?
"Ok, let’s wash your hands…"
She frowned as I tugged her to the kitchen. Goddess kids were gross.
"I washed my hands after I went to the toilet, Wiyam."
"Yeah, but you were picking your bogeys." I said, lifting her onto the worktop.
"Oh, they're tasty." She giggled.
I cringed. Were we this disgusting as kids?
"Alright, how about we get the pizza and watch a movie while you eat?" I suggested.
Hopefully, she’ll fall asleep in the process. I took a tray out, grabbing what we needed before taking the pizza out.
"Wiyam, can I have Coca-Cola?" She asked, as I took a can from the fridge for myself.
I’m sure Mom said no sugar…
"Aren’t you too little?"
"No, I'm allowed half a can." She said, looking up at me with those large eyes of hers.
That’s true. We were werewolves. I guess pups were more tolerant to caffeine how adults would be to alcohol and stuff.
"Ah. Ok." I shrugged, grabbing another one and placing it on the tray before carrying it to the living room.
Placing the food down, I put a slice on her plate and asked what she wanted to watch on TV.
"I watch… that!" She pointed at a show and I put it on for her. Sitting back, we began eating and my mind wandered to Raven and what she had said earlier. It was hard seeing her, yet all I wanted was to see her all the fucking time. The urge to just pull her into my arms and tell her to fucking accept me and me alone was so damn strong. But I didn’t really deserve that, not after how I shut her out for the last three years.
‘What are the autopsy results? Anything yet?’ I asked Zack through the link.
‘Poison, but the traces are so light we barely picked them up.’
"Wiyam, coke!"
I opened the can, putting a straw into it for her as I held it out to her distractedly.
‘Of? What did it include?’
‘They still working on that, but there were traces of silver and wolfsbane mixed in too.’
‘Get pictures of the mutilation, exact time of death, and whatever else you can before returning the body to the family…’
‘So soon?’ Zack sounded surprised.
‘His parents wanted him back... If we can’t get any more information from him, then it's best we accept their wishes. There were a few scents around him, I’ll question those wolves tomorrow.’
‘Ok Alpha.’
I closed the link to see Azura sucking on the straw-like there was no tomorrow.
Shit, how much did she have? I pulled the can out of her iron grip to see it was practically empty.
Well, fuck.
"That was tasty." She said in awe, shivering from the fizziness, before she gave me a big smile. "I love coke."
A sliver of doubt entered my mind, and I wondered was she really allowed it?
I got the answer to that ten minutes later…
"I want to go out! Let's go for a walk, Wiyam!"
She was hyper and acting like a rabid dog right now.
"Wiyam!" She pulled at my sleeve before biting it and pulling my arm. "Out!"
"Mom said bed, Azura." I said, about to pick her up when she tensed and I could hear her pounding heart.
Shit, she was going to cry!
"Ok fine, let’s go for a walk."
Seriously, I hope this wore her out, I guess I couldn’t really complain. What idiot gives a kid coke just because they said they are allowed it..? Me. That’s who.
Two hours later, Azura still had not settled down. She was beyond upset, crying and asking for Mom. I did text Mom, who said they had a little way to go, but thanks to an accident they were in the midst of a traffic jam, and they couldn’t really abandon the car.
At first, Azura had been happy and running around, but then she started getting upset, and now she was out of control.
"I want Mama!" She was now screaming in my arms.
Damn kids were loud.
"Look Azura, how about we go back home-"
"MAMA!!!"
Fuck! My ears were going to burst.
She was trying to escape my hold, hitting my shoulder as she cried. If Mom saw the state she was in, she was going to castrate me.
"Need help?" Raven’s sexy voice came from behind me.
My heart skipped a fucking beat as I turned towards her. As much as I wanted to refuse her help, I couldn’t handle the pup in my arms.
I didn’t reply, watching her. Her eyes weren’t on me but on Azura, giving her a gentle smile, although she was crying too much to even pay attention. With Raven, she always had that smile on her face. You wouldn’t think she had snapped at me in my office earlier by the look of her now, but it was one of the things I loved about her most growing up.
She had been a lot smaller than Kiara, but she always held her hand, taking care of her, making sure she never stumbled or hurt herself. Raven had always been tiny, but the size of her heart was fucking huge. She always held such a positive and loving energy around herself that even when I sensed her sadness, it would be accompanied by the biggest smile.
She began walking over to us and I looked her over appreciatively. She looked good in an oversize off-shoulder knitted jumper dress, that draped off one shoulder, and she wore thigh-high boots underneath.
I couldn’t fucking speak, trying not to look at her thighs that were drawing my attention.
"Eyes up here, Westwood."
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the double update! Please do vote if you liked the chapters. ♡
RAVEN Staying in was suffocating, so I did what I did best: I jumped out of the window and left. I was enjoying the fresh air; it was slightly chilly, but nothing that would affect us werewolves. I wrapped my arms around myself while walking along, glad I wore my suede thigh high boots. I was just walking around the edge of the trees when I heard someone crying hysterically. A child at that. Concerned, I followed the sound only to find Liam wrestling a very upset Azura. Her face was a dark pink and she looked distraught. "Need help?" I asked without thinking. He stiffened before turning to me sharply. Goddess, he was so annoyingly handsome… Even while wrestling an angry, red-faced, little cute chibi. My stomach fluttered nervously, feeling undressed under his intense, sharp gaze that still threw me off. It was like he was a stranger I didn’t recognise. His eyes were burning into me, I saw them darken when they fell on my bare thighs. T
RAVEN The moment those sparks rushed through me; my eyes blazed as I looked at the man beneath me. "And this is an even nicer punch!" I growled quietly, before punching him square in the nose. The sickening crunch as I broke it satisfied me. How dare he! I jumped off of him, resisting the urge to kick him in the balls, and instead kicked his knee, hard! How dare he! Grabbing my boots, I turned and stormed down the stairs. My heart was thundering with a hundred emotions, but above all, I felt angry. How could he ignore me for three years and think he could just start flirting with me? Nope, not happening. I am not a pushover. I will not- "Raven!" He grabbed my arm just as I reached the front door, and I was annoyed to see he had put his nose back in place. "Don’t touch me, Liam." I hissed, yanking free. "I’m fucking sorry." He said, raising his hands in surrender. "That was out of line." He looked
Damon I said it, the reason behind the guilt that had been fucking consuming me since she returned... I needed to tell her anyway. Her porcelain doll-like face stayed in its perfect mask, yet I could feel her pain, hear her racing heart and see the way her fingers trembled ever so slightly on that donut. Her eyes, which were so fucking unique and perfect, looked at me, but there was no hatred there. Dammit I fucking hurt her… I'm fucking sorry, Raven. "Raven?" I whispered closing the gap between us, but she suddenly snapped out of it, despite her erratic heartbeat. "Thanks for telling me. Do you have anything else to say?" She asked with a blank face. I frowned, slightly concerned. Shit, I didn’t know what to say… Fuck it. I stepped closer, pulling her tightly into my arms. I didn’t care if the donut went everywhere, I just needed to tell her I'm fucking sorry. Her fresh floral scent and the beating of her heart soothed
RAVEN Shit, I was running late! Last night I hadn’t been able to sleep properly and I was paying for it now! I ran down the stairs three at a time, jumping down the final six and was about to rush to the door when Dad stepped out of the living room. "This is a house and I would appreciate you treating it like one." He said curtly. "I'm getting late, sorry!" I said hurrying to the kitchen and going to the fridge to grab a water bottle. I was about to reach for one when Dad snapped the fridge shut, missing my fingers by inches. I moved back, my heart skipping a beat as I looked at Dad, who was staring at me with a cold glare on his face. I glanced at Mom who turned her back on me and busied herself with making breakfast. "This is my house and as long as you are living under my roof, you will obey my rules and that includes letting boys into your room." "Ok." I didn’t have time for this, I needed to ask Liam or Uncle El wh
RAVEN I wasn’t expecting that. No matter if she did know, I still wasn’t expecting her to apologise to me. More than that, did that mean Damon had told her? "I just want you to know we have ended things." She said twisting one of the several delicate rings she wore on her fingers. I didn’t know what to say, our situation as a whole, was a mess. "I don’t know why you two aren’t together, but he is a really selfless, caring person. He’ll treat you great." She smiled. Come on, I was the queen of fake smiles and I could see right through hers. She was in pain thanks to that dimwit and here she was telling me that Damon was good enough for me. I felt sad for her. I know the mate bond played a part for me, but I also know that love without the bond existed. It was what I had felt for Liam for years. I was scared he’d find his mate. "One bird to another, men are idiots." I said with a crooked smile. She frowned for a second befo
RAVEN Liam had told Taylor and me to return to the party whilst he and Zack dealt with the body. Damon had gone off to see if there were any traces or anything left behind. Although we returned to the lively party with upbeat songs playing, I still felt glum. ‘So... You know about Zack and I.’ Taylor said through the link as he passed me a beer bottle. I looked at him and nodded. ‘Why haven’t you gone public or accepted the bond?’ I asked, unable to resist. Taylor looked pained; his eyes were fixed on a spot in the distance. ‘Zack doesn’t want anyone to know yet, he said he needs time.’ Well, even I was surprised that they were mates, but now that I knew, I could just see how perfect they could be. I stepped up to Taylor and hugged him tightly. ‘I'm here if you need to talk. I know you have a lot going on, yet you’re still smiling.’ ‘Isn’t that what you do to?’ He asked softly, looking down at me, concer
RAVEN Brother? I couldn’t focus on Dad. I was confused, what brother? "…useless, unwanted... Just leave, I don’t want to see you here…" I looked at Mom, who looked upset but I didn’t know what to make of it. "What brother?" I asked. "Like you need to know." Dad spat. So, he wasn’t going to discuss it, fine. "Ok… Don’t tell me. I'm out." I said, grabbing the first of my two suitcases and carrying them out. Dad picked up the next two and tossed them out. I heard something break, and with it, it felt like something inside of me was breaking. Mom just stood there whilst Dad was just raging with anger. "I never knew I had a brother… and clearly you guys don’t want to tell me so fine. But I do want to say one thing before I go… You said you lost your son because of me… I'm sorry for that, even though I have no idea what I have done, but I hope you do realise you are also losing the only child you do ha
RAVEN My heart pounded as I stared up at him, his words ringing in my ears. Liam loved me… Yes, although I had a connection with both him and Damon even before the bond, I had loved Liam for far longer... Until Damon’s father had passed away. Then I began to spend that time with Damon and I realised he too was special. But now that the bond was there, I needed to do this the right way... Even if Damon had been able to move on in my absence, I wasn’t him, I needed to discuss stuff first… It stung painfully. "Liam... Can I ask you something?" I asked, pulling out of his hold. He didn’t reply, but I knew I had his attention. "In the three years, we were apart... Have you…I mean, I know we weren’t together, but was there anyone?" I asked quietly. I don’t know why I asked, the fear that he may have, would crush me. I needed something, some sign that at least someone wanted me. My parents clearly regretted having me, my mates didn’t