180 DAYS, AND YOU MAY LEAVE.

ARNOLD’S POV

I stared at the girl, my eyes widened. I was stunned by her audacity, if not for the fact that things were normal one minute and the next everything began to spiral. I had been in bed, finally getting ready to get some sleep after working hard all night and then Ryker had come in like the kill joy that he was and told me that there was something that needed attending to.

And that ‘thing’ that needed attending to was this girl, apparently.

“The fuck is going on here?” I muttered to my twin after the girl had just rejected the two of us in front of the entire park.

Ryker looked at me, his eyes gleaming. “Can’t you feel it? The mate bond is strong between us. We’ve found our mate, brother.”

I understood that. But what I didn’t understand was her rejecting us, humiliating us in front of the entire pack by just taking one look at us. Who did she think she is, as tattered and dirty as she was, that we would want her in the first place?

“Yeah, I know that,” I replied to Ryker, but my eyes were on the girl cowering at our feet. My voice began to rise. “But apparently she doesn’t think that we are good enough for her, does she? Tell me, how can someone so haggard possess such entitlement? Is—”

“Arnold stop it,” Ryker mildly chastised me like an older brother. Well, I guess that tracks because he’s a few minutes older than me. “Now is not the time for this. Kara, you and the others take her and freshen her up. Dress her up in something nice. Then arrange for a small dinner to be made for her in the main hall.”

Kara, the matronly wolf that had been an adult when we were boys bowed and snapped her fingers at the young girls under her. They escorted the girl out from the courtier and into the quarters.

“I think we need to talk,” I told Ryker. He rolled his eyes at me and followed me inside to the main hall. He knew me well enough to know what was on my mind.

“Do not tell me that you’re already taken with her,” I said immediately we were in the hall. “You can’t be taken with her.”

“I’m more concerned with why she rejected us though,” Ryker said, which was most definitely not what I was talking about. “I mean, she doesn’t knows us. It’s not... It’s not like she knows.”

I shut my eyes tight, blocking the memories that threatened to come bubbling up. “You know we’re not supposed to talk about that. Drop it, and answer my question.”

“You’re always so intense, brother. Try not to sound like you have a stick up your ass for once.”

“So you do like her. One look and you’re already taken with her? I can’t believe it. You don’t even know her.”

“Don’t you like her?” Ryker asked, raising an eyebrow. “You felt the bond the same as me, didn’t you?”

“We already have a mate for goodness’s sake. Selene is more than enough for the two of us—”

“But she’s not our true mate,” he cut in.

“Well thank goodness she rejected us anyway,” I shot him a smug look. “Nothing we can do about that now, is there?”

Ryker was about to respond when we both heard footsteps approaching. The girl entered the hall surrounded by Kara and the other maids. She was a lot cleaner than before, even though she still had that haunted look on her face. She refused to look at any of us in the eye.

Yes. She better be afraid of us.

“Hello there,” Ryker said to her in a tender voice. I wanted to gag. “Are you feeling better now?”

She didn’t respond. She just stared at the floor.

“What’s your name?” he tried again. “Where did you come from?”

Still no response from her. The silence in the hall stretched for close to a minute.

“It seems she’s gone voluntarily mute,” I say to Ryker, my voice dripping with acid. “She’s practically useless to us.”

“Kara, thank you for your help,” he said. “We’ll be fine here.”

Once Kara and the maids were gone, he said to the girl, “You’re free to sit. A meal is being prepared for you.”

She shuffled towards the chair nearest to her at the table and took a seat.

“At least we know she isn’t deaf,” I said. Ryker shot me a glare. I shrugged.

Ryker has always had a soft spot for strays, lost creatures, broken things. He liked to see if he could fix them, put them back together again. It was quite an admirable trait, but it could get very ridiculous and dangerous. There were people who would seek to take advantage of that kindness in him.

That was why he had me, the more logical and hot-headed brother to check his excesses and make sure he’s never taken advantage of. And he, in turn, checked my own excesses. Stopped me from going to far, doing too much. Like the last time.

I blinked, focusing on the girl.

“Listen,” Ryker said to the girl. “I know that you don’t want us. You don’t want to be mates with us, and I can quite understand that. You don’t know us. But it’s not in good form for you to just reject us like that, without any preamble. Don’t you think that there is a reason why we have the mate bond? I think you should give this a chance.

“So I propose that you stay here for six months just to get to know us better.”

I banged my hand loudly on the table. The sound boomed, making the girl jump and Ryker give me an irritated look.

“What is your problem?” he hissed at me.

“What is my problem? My problem?” My voice was rising. “You don’t even know who this bitch is. You don’t know if she’s good, or if she’s a spy, and you just want to let her stay here for six months? Are you out of your fucking mind?”

“I see nothing wrong with that. And besides, as I have already said earlier but it seems you refuse to hear, she’s our mate. Get that into you goddamn head. Will she be our mate if she was harmful to us?”

I shook my head in disbelief. “I sometimes wonder how you can be so naive.”

“What if I don’t like you after six months?”

The girl’s voice rang in the hall. We both turned to look at her, surprised. We were definitely not expecting her to say anything.

She was now staring at us directly, her eyes red and slightly puffy from tears, some tears streaked on her cheeks. Her hair was damp from her shower and she had on a slightly rumpled dress. I couldn’t deny, despite all my qualms about her, that she was beautiful. But those haunted eyes, the darkness behind them, they made me wary.

“If, after six months, you still don’t want us, then you are free to go,” Ryker said.

I remember thinking, This is going to be the most trying six months of my life. And it would turn out to be true.