The Blood Moon Twins
Chapter 14

CAULDER

\tl found myself nodding off as I sat in front of a plate of freshly made french toast. After the conversation with my mother, I wasn't able to fall asleep. It was just a lot to process, and I spent most of the night lying in bed with my eyes wide open. I had to figure out a way to fix everything, even though my mother told me not to worry about it, because she was handling it.

\tIt was hard not to worry about it, though. Remy was my sister, and if my mother had been truly able to handle everything, Remy wouldn't have been attacked yesterday. I think my mother had made too light of the subject, and I wasn't sure if it was because she didn't realize how bad it was or if she didn't want me to realize how bad it was. The worry-lines on her face told me it was the former, which made it hard not to overanalyze everything.

\t"You look like hell," Harper said as she approached my table.

\tMy eyes snapped fully open as I looked over at her. She was still in her pajamas, and it made my heart race. She was too damn adorable in her little shorts. "Thanks for the compliment. I didn't sleep much." \tHarper slid into the booth next to me and placed a cup of burning coffee in front of me. "That's clear. Where did you disappear to last night?"

\tl grabbed the coffee and started to sip it. It was bitter against my tongue, just the way I liked it, and I took in the fresh scent. Nothing was better than the smell of coffee in the morning. "I couldn't fall asleep, so I decided to sleep in my bed, thinking it would help." \t"I take it that didn't work," Harper teased. She bumped my shoulder with hers and looked up at me with a smile.

\tShe was being playful and fun, and it made my heart flutter. I was still tired, but it was more bearable with Harper by my side. "I never got back to sleep. Too much on my mind, ya know?"

\t"Do you want to talk about it?" Harper sipped her own coffee that was practically white with how much cream and sugar she added.

\tYes. I wanted to talk about it more than anything, but I had made a promise to my mother. I agreed to not say a word about what she told me until the time was right. She promised she would tell Remy, but she didn't want to freak her out unnecessarily. I still thought Remy deserved to know, but I promised to keep it a secret anyway. It already felt like a bad idea. The idea of keeping it to myself was already eating away at me.

\t"I'm just worried about Remy." It was vague, but it wasn't a lie.

\tHarper grabbed my forearm. "I know. It's pretty scary that something came after her, but your parents won't let it happen again. Neither will mine. And Remy is strong. She can take care of herself."

\t"I hope all of that is true." My mother promised she had a plan, and she would figure out how to protect Remy. We were her world, and I knew she would take a bullet for either Remy or myself if it came down to it. For my entire childhood, I had never felt anything but love from my parents. Even if I felt the pressure of being the future alpha from them, they had always gone above and beyond as parents, and I had never felt neglected. I knew my mother wouldn't ask me to keep this a secret if she didn't have a good reason for

it.

\t"Are you busy tomorrow?" Harper was looking up at me, waiting for an answer.

\tl blinked a few times, realizing I had been spacing out, and my eyes were now dry. "Not really."

\tHarper chewed on her lip. "I was thinking maybe we could go on a date or something. If you want, that is."

\tl could hear her heart pounding like crazy, and she was nervous. She was so cute when she was nervous. My mind shifted gears at her proposition, and suddenly all I could think about was her. I leaned in, and her eyes widened as I closed the distance. \t"You want to go on a date with me?" I was a little surprised she was the one to suggest the date. She seemed so hesitant to even hold my hand last night, so I wasn't sure what had changed.

\tShe twisted her hair between her fingers and looked down. "Only if you want to."

\tl grabbed her chin and gently guided her gaze to my eyes. "I would love to go on a date. Do you have anything you would want to do in particular?" She shook her head. "Perfect. I'll plan the whole thing." This was my chance to show her what it would be like to actually date me.

\t-

\tALPHA MARK

\t"Are you sure it was a good idea to tell Caulder everything? Won't he just tell Remy?" I was exhausted from the past twenty-four hours. My pack was threatened, and my child was targeted last night. I hadn't been able to sleep for a moment as I tried to figure out what to do. As alpha, it was my responsibility to protect my pack from whatever happened, but I always felt inferior when it came to magical threats. That was Adira's forte.

\tAdira paced back and forth in our room. She hadn't slept much either. "I don't know. I don't know what the right move is for any of this. We were supposed to have fixed this years ago before our children came into the world, and now Remy is facing the same thing I did. It wasn't supposed to be like this."

\tl moved over and pulled her into my arms. She was on the verge of hysterics, and I knew my touch would calm her down. I stroked her hair, and I could feel her body soften against mine. "I know. This isn't how it was supposed to be, but we raised two incredible children who can take care of themselves, and we're stronger than when we had to face it. Whatever happens, we'll get through it as a family."

\t"She's going to hate us when she replaces out the truth," Adira whispered into my chest.

\t"She'll understand we were just doing what we could to protect her. She'll forgive us one day."

\tRemy was an amazing child. She almost always did as she was told, and she worked hard, even though she could have gotten away with an easy life. She never took the easy road, and she helped out whenever she could. She did have a temper that flared on occasion, but I hadn't seen that flair in years. No matter what happened, Remy was strong and loving. I refused to believe that some prophecy would ever change that about her.

\t-

\tREMY

\tl was ready to pull out my hair as I tried to read the book Ginger had given me. The book had been written in middle English, which made it nearly impossible to understand. Shakespeare was enough of a struggle to get through, and this was somehow much worse. Adding scientific terms to strange words I already couldn't understand made it feel like I was reading a foreign language.

\tFrustrated, I slammed the book shut and leaned back in my chair. I had been holed up in the study almost the entire day trying to read the book to get some insight into this vision I had. If it was a vision. Ginger hadn't confirmed that bit for me, but she implied it was possible. However, seeing a vision of a blood moon meant little to nothing to me without more context.

\tl had done some research on the internet about total lunar eclipses before I even tried to dig into the book, and I found out they happened every two to three years. The next blood moon wasn't supposed to happen for almost six months, so if what I saw was actually a vision, I had some time to figure out what it meant exactly. Surely it wasn't simply about a total lunar eclipse.

\tl opened my eyes when I heard footsteps echoing in the hallway, making their way towards me. My gaze shifted to the door just as I saw my mom walk through the doorway.

\t"Remy," she said, a little surprised. "There you are. I've been looking for you all day."

\tl grabbed the book and pulled it into my lap. "I know."

\tCaulder had told me earlier that Mom wanted to see me, but I didn't care. I was still mad at her for the way she sent me to my room like I was a child.

\tShe frowned, stopping a few feet away from me. "Can we talk?"

\tl shrugged, trying to slip the book to my side subtly. I didn't really want to discuss my vision with her right now, even if she could give me some insight into it. I doubted she could tell me anything that Ginger couldn't, though.

\tShe moved deeper into the room and sat in the chair across from me. "I know you're mad at me, and I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have talked to you like that, but I was stressed from everything that happened, and when I saw Winslow, I snapped a little. I shouldn't have taken it out on you."

\tMy armor started to melt a little. It was hard for me to stay mad, which could be frustrating. Sometimes I wanted to stay mad, but more often than not, my anger melted into guilt. Plus, my mom was genuinely apologizing to me. "What did Winslow want?" \tMy mom shifted in her seat. She twisted her fingers together. "He was here to check out what happened, since it was magic related."

\tl could tell there was more to the story than she was saying, but I knew she wasn't saying it for a reason. "He knew my name. Have I met him before?" Something about his presence felt familiar to me, but I couldn't replace a memory with him in it.

\t"You met him as a baby, but I told him not to come to the pack house after that." I could feel the tension in her voice, and I knew there was so much to the story, but she was skillfully dancing around the subject. Clearly, there was something she didn't want me to know. I hadn't decided if it was worth prying yet.

\t"Then why did he come yesterday?" I didn't want to let go of the subject. If this had to do with whatever came after me yesterday, I wanted to know more.

\tl could see her calculating her next words carefully. "That thing that attacked the party escaped from the Council of Magic. Winslow was here to make sure everything was handled properly." \t"But we don't live by the rules of the council. Why would they show up at the pack house without permission?"

\t"Remy, it's all been handled. You don't need to worry about it." Her voice was sharp, and I knew she was done with talking about this, but I wasn't done. There were still too many questions. \t"That thing came after me specifically. I think it wanted something from me," I said. I opened my mouth to tell her about hearing it call my name, but she quickly cut me off.

\t"It's not something you have to worry about. We've taken care of it, so you are safe. I know it was scary, and it ruined your big night, but it's all over now," my mom said. She forced a smile onto her face.

\tSomething stirred inside of me, and something was telling me she was lying to my face. She had always looked out for me, but I felt uneasy with the way my mom hid behind a fake smile at this moment. I knew she was hiding something from me, and it made my stomach twist.

\t"It's not over with," Raven whispered in my head. Raven had been silent since my party, and I hadn't been able to have a real conversation with her yet. It was like she used all of her energy to give me these warnings before disappearing again.

\tl smiled and stood up, deciding it wasn't worth telling my mom about my vision or anything else I experienced that night. "Okay, I won't worry about it anymore," I lied with a light smile on my face. This was far from over for me. I was determined to replace out the truth one way or another.