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Chapter 21: "You came."
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2024-10-29 19:42:56
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Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 22: "Deal."
Ryan's pov.“She has a fever that should break soon, and she looks malnourished. Has the lady been eating anything lately, Mr Ryan?”I take a glance at the doctor before looking away again and shaking my head.“No, she hasn’t.”The doctor nods and there’s a dead silence that reigns in the room again.Layla passed out shortly after she came out of the room and into my arms….MThere’s a strangeness to that, and there’s a strangeness to her. Why would she say she'd been waiting for me when she has her mates right outside her door?“She seemed really disoriented and hot when she came out of her room this morning. Is there any reason for that?”I don’t know why the question pops into my head, it just does. But I follow it. I follow it and I wait for the doctor’s response. His reply is simple.“Is her mate around by any chance?”I incline my head lightly to glance at the two men resting against the wall by the far corner of the room. I asked them not to come near because of Layla. They loo
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 23: "The one thing i'd want from you is the truth."
Layla’s pov.I wake up with a clear head and a lucid mind, and almost immediately I can tell that I have done something stupid.Not just stupid, but something that is such a blatant betrayal of all I have been trying to do ever since Damien and Alek were brought in by Ryan.I ran over to them. Instead of away.The scene plays back in my mind like a tape and I lie here, watching it like someone who’s been spellbound to and cursing under my breath at the reality of all this.I try to get up, but then the mate bond flares almost immediately and Damien and Alek barge into the room. My walls are up immediately.I feel the look on my face go cold, ice cold, and then Ryan comes in, looking more calm and composed than the other two, but also equal parts worried.Ryan walks past them and stops a few feet away from me, a good distance away that he’s not too far, but he’s also not too close.“How are you feeling Layla?” Ryan’s voice is cold.Almost on cue, I remember the words I had said to him
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 24: "Are you okay, Layla?"
I do not give Ryan a direct answer and he does not press me for one.He tells me he can wait. He WIll wait, until I decide to let the truth of it come out.He leaves and so do Damien and Alek. I am left with myself, and my thoughts, and the worst thing is that I find myself thinking of a lot of things. Things that for once are not related to plans of escape, or ending it all.I think of what Ryan has just said now and what that could mean for me. He says they’ve changed.But how true can that be? How can they have changed? And why now? Why at this moment?Alek’s statement about the moon goddess having her reasons for reopening our mate bond comes back to me and I scoff at it because where was she when all the horrible things were happening?Where was she when I was here, suffering horrors more than I could say, more than I could bear.?Where was she?A blaring silence is my only response.I can’t hear anything else except for the silence. Even Fey keeps quiet.Lunch and dinner ar
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 25: "He gave the first blow."
Damien’s pov.The mate bond flares, and I do not care if she is with him or if they are meant to be having a private discussion right now. The mate bond flares so strong that I cannot stop myself from storming out there and going after my mate, because that’s what she is.She is mine, and I will always protect what’s mine.Alek catches me on the way and as he watches me dash past, he issues a light warning into my head, “Brother.” I hear the tone of his voice.I know what he means by saying that, but he’s always been the weaker one. He’s always been the one more open to negotiations. A true Alpha does not negotiate, not in the face of their instincts.I locate my mate, and she’s with him, in the gardens, a hand braced against a pillar and her breathing coming hard and fast, fast enough that I can hear it.She’s hyperventilating.The voice of the Earl heir reaches my ears as he asks, “Are you okay, Layla?”But I'm already on my way to them, the need in my bones too strong a thing to
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 26: "You take on Ryan. I'll handle your brother."
Layla’s pov.Alek stands as he’s always stood, always by the side, never fully involving himself in any of these things, while I stand with a bewildered expression, wondering how this could have happened.Or why it could have happened, because wasn’t I just with Ryan half an hour ago?Didn’t we just speak?Both of them are glaring at each other, wounds already healing rapidly. There are little cuts on their faces though, some bruises here and there, and with each look I take I know that they are not going to clean themselves up.They’re just going to leave the blood on their faces and glare at each other all day. “How did this even happen?”I want to slap myself mentally because I said I wouldn't ask this question. I promised myself I wouldn't get myself involved, but I can't wrap my head around it so I have to ask.Both of them dart brave glances at each other, and then those glances become full-on stares, and in a split second they’re glaring at each other, low growls emanating fro
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 27: "Come back with us, Layla."
Layla’s pov.Damien is surprised when I come to him.There’s a tinge of disbelief leaking into his purple eyes and he looks away almost as fast as he looks at me. The next time he looks at me, there’s a determined glint there now.I can almost imagine the words running through his head right now.~An Alpha does not cower.An Alpha does not feel shame.An Alpha does not feel regret, or remorse.~I find myself feeling a bit sad for Damien, just a brief flash of pity before it’s gone. The memory of the rejection comes back again, but with that memory comes a lot of other memories.Memories I had locked up before, not wanting to let them surface. I remember how hard his father was on him. He and Alek.I remember how he would be the one bearing the brunt of most of the pain. How he would protect Alek, and how that turned his expression stonier, his heart colder.I can’t say I understand who Damien is right now, but I know a bit of who he was, and that might have shaped who he is, so as b
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 28: "You look tame, brother."
Alek is chortling as he looks at Damien’s face. Damien looks softer with the band-aids on him. It’s a new look on him, and I can't say that band-aids are a fashion statement, not that I know of, but Damien looks like he can pull it off.“You look tame, brother.”Alek smiles wide, showing his teeth and I have to look away from him too because his smile, it’s something.Then there’s Ryan, who I want to avoid looking at, because just like Damien he’s covered in a number of band-aids, but his are not solely on his face. They’re on the side of his arms too, and while he looks like he’s okay and doesn’t care about them, I'm sure they hurt and he’s not taking too well to them.Damien looks tame.Ryan looks wild.And Alek looks like he’s having the time of his life.“I’ll be out in the gardens if anyone needs me.” I get up and make my exit as briskly as I can because sitting in the same room as all three of them does something to me I don’t think I can wrap my head around right now. There’s
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 29: "Then how do we trust them?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~ “He won’t like that. Men don’t like that.”I try to smear butter onto my toast and keep a straight mind on what Breanne is saying. My cheeks are flaming. My heart is pounding.“Men like a challenge, they like an easier challenge more but trust me, at the end of the day, those who put up the longer challenges always win out.They’re the more exciting ones.”She stops and then her voice comes again,“Are you even listening to me, Layla?”Breanne sounds like she’s already tired and exhausted with me already so I put on one of my most pitiful faces, making puppy eyes as I turn to look at her. Her expression changes immediately, like a person trapped in the spell of a particular image, and while I realize that image is me, she bursts into a light chuckle the next second.“Okay, that was very good, but no need to look so pitiful in front of him.” I pause and Breanne pauses too, looking at my expression and chuckling before she sidles closer,“You ARE doing this because of him,
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Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 38: "Layla."
38: Alek doesn’t ask me weird questions anymore and I feel thankful for that. There would have been a limit to my answers and once I passed that limit, I’m not sure I wouldn’t have snapped at him.Right now though, there’s something else on my mind, something more pressing.How do I…deal with all this?I know that sounds incredibly vague but it’s still what’s on my mind. Today is the first day of 120 days I need to be around Damien and Alek.Alek just said he and Damien came into the city to track down someone who’s been giving the pack trouble, and even though I have no idea who that might be, I want to assume that it will take up most of their time.This trial we’re having is for them to see if they can get me to come over to them, but for me, it’s a way to fulfill a simple formality. I don’t think Damien and Alek can ever change.Sure. I might have thought that yesterday, but today, I feel differently.The images of Damien I caught while in his wolf form as he hunted still flash p
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 37: "Jennie."
“Is Ryan being rude to you?”I find that I haven't really forgotten how to ride. It just feels like it’s a memory I locked up for a while, and which is now taking some time to come back open. I try to keep my hands to myself, and not in my hair aiming to get out the twigs and leaves that have taken root in it.My horse shot me right into the copse of trees on the Earl mansion grounds.Alek dangles the reins in his hands lightly so I can return my attention to him and I do. He’s helping me lead the horse now, so I have to pay him some attention at least, I respond to his unanswered question,“Why should that be any of your concerns?”I sound like I just got told my favorite cat died.“Because there was tension between you two earlier today?”And in response to that, I look up to meet Alek’s eyes in a gesture that I hope shows I do not appreciate whatever it is he’s doing right now, and he looks away, shrugging and clearing his throat. The air between us grows awkward even before he sp
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 36: "Trouble in Paradise?"
Alek’s voice is an annoying presence when it enters my head,“Trouble in paradise?”But I ignore him. He sidles up closer to me, and this time he asks verbally, clearly seeing I don’t like how he speaks into my mind,“Trouble in paradise Layla?”Alek’s voice is a husky soft thing and I take it in, letting myself breathe a bit before shaking my head and responding to him calmly,“What paradise?”Alek chuckles and out of instinct, a smile lines my lips. I wipe that smile away immediately because it’s obvious I'm letting their joint effect influence me too much. The task in front of me is what I should focus on right now, and I do, trying to clear my head as I look at the stables.Ryan is gone like I asked.Damien is somewhere behind, and I don't know if he’s behind trying to talk to Ryan, or if he’s behind because he’s trying to figure out where he can get what we’ll need for hunting. Absentmindedly I ask,“Is Damien still…”I catch myself before I can complete the statement but Alek
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 35: "I can hear whatever you have to say later."
Layla’s pov.Alek and Damien are waiting for me by the time I get back to my room and something in me squirms at the sight of them. I did not think they’d be here so I was not ready for them. I still am not, and for some reason, I feel it’s because of what happened just now with Ryan.I frown because what even happened with Ryan?The confusion that question brings to my heart is brief, and yet it plagues me in an odd way. Damien’s voice interrupts my thoughts and I snap my head to him as he asks in his deep baritone again,“Are you okay, Layla?”Ryan’s voice echoes in my mind as he asks me that same question and I shake my head just to get it out. That felt like deja vu just now, and there’s no need for anything like that.I feel Damien’s and Alek’s gazes fixed on me and I decide I have to take some deep breaths, just to get this choking feeling out of my heart.They watch me close my eyes and take those deep breaths.They watch me as I try to stabilize this strange pounding in my hea
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 34: "I took care of it."
Ryan’s pov. Layla is standing outside my door when I open it and I can see it in her eyes. She’s caught me.She caught me red-handed, And while I don't want to let her know if that affects me, I know it does.There’s a stilted kind of hurt in her green eyes, and then it seems she gathers herself rapidly, pulling on a brave face and giving me the kind of look that tells me she understands this game, she’s brought herself to understand it for a while now and she’s done all that for a reason. Her eyes tell me if I want to screw half the population of the help in the mansion, then I can. If I want to have more girlfriends that she can count on the fingers of her hand, then I can too. She’s not going to stop me. It’s not like we had an agreement that I wouldn't take my fun where I could find it.Somehow that makes the reality of all this even more depressing, because as much as I can, I’d like her to know it’s not like that. This was just a one-time thing, but before I can even formulate
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 33: "You remember."
Damien is the first to show up at my door the next day.I feel surprise run through me when I open the door to meet his face, and he also looks surprised when he sees me, all dressed up, all ready for whatever the day might bring. He swallows awkwardly, and then he drops a statement,“You forgot this outside yesterday.”I frown, lost at first as to what he might mean, then I look at what’s in his hands and I see it’s a bracelet. My bracelet.How…I snatch it back almost selfishly, because this is one of those things I do not joke with. How did it even get outside?Damien huffs, a sound that I think is laced with amusement, and I recollect myself immediately because this isn’t what I'm meant to be doing. I’m not meant to be grabbing things so greedily. I should show them I am as in control of myself as I need to be.“Thank you.” The words, thankfully come out sincere, and also aloof at the same time. I clear my throat and go on, “I didn’t know I'd taken it out yesterday.I must have fo
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 32.
Layla’s pov.I am left alone and the moment I get to my room, I close the door and crumple right behind it - my heart pounding in my chest and my breath coming in decidedly short bursts.I don’t know why I feel like this. Or why this even affects me, yet I can't get the image of their faces out of my head, and I wonder if I'm not in over my head.Ryan and Damien seem to have made up, and if they have then I'm guessing he’s going to be helping them in… wooing me, or getting me to trust them. I suspect he’s doing that already, and I know Ryan.Ryan does not do anything that does not benefit him first, and this is a game we’re all playing - a sly game, and to succeed, I have to be as smart as they are. If not smarter.I go through all Breanne said to me earlier again and I recount the points in my head.Men do not like an easy woman, or sometimes they do, depending on the type of man, but to be on the safer side, be the difficult type.I tuck that away in my mind and move on to the next
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 31: The line has been drawn.
Ryan’s pov.Layla leaves and we are plunged into silence again.Damien sits to my far right, by the window and nursing an astrology book, Alek sits to my far left, nursing a book on music and musical chords.I am also with a book, because I couldn't bear to sit here without anything to do when they came in, yet when I look at the book in my hands, I see that it isn’t one I like.I never really liked books.My father never really liked them either. My mother did, and she almost taught me to, but when she died, my father killed it.Alek and Damien seem like people who like to read, genuinely like to read, and I guess with reading comes silence, and so they have been silent.They have been silent ever since we came here, but right now I can feel the tension in the air. Layla is gone now, probably back to her room.She’s announced that she has agreed to stay for four months, the way I had asked her to agree to it, yet something feels bitter in me at the fact that she is actually giving th
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 30: "Ryan gets the truth."
I go back into the manor to look for them.The strangeness of this action feels like ice on my skin, because two days ago, if anyone had asked me what I would be doing at this moment, I'd have said I'd still be in my room, not doing anything and waiting to die from hunger or lack of sunlight.Yet here I am, looking for the same three people I consider the current punishment the world is dealing to me.Their scent fills the whole place….It’s almost like everywhere I step foot, there’s a slight fragrance that tells me Damien has been here, Alek has been there,Ryan has been… literally everywhere in this house.I find them in one of the relaxation rooms, and the moment I come in, all three of them snap their heads to me. It’s an eerie sight, but it becomes less eerie when I feel the mate bond pulsing. Damien and Alek must have sensed me, and Ryan… must have heard my footsteps.They’re reading books.They each have a book in hand, and the sight of it makes me feel something squirm in me
