The Blood Moon Twins
Chapter 3

CAULDER

A sense of relief washed over me as Remy ran away. I knew she was a skilled fighter. She practiced harder and longer than everyone else our age, including myself. She knew how to fight and protect herself, and I knew she could easily take down one of these men, but I didn't want to risk my sister getting harmed in the process of the fight, especially when my parents always reminded me to keep an eye out for her.

I wailed on the man below me, punching him repeatedly. Anger flowed through me as his suggestive comment towards Remy played on repeat in my head. Filth like him didn't deserve to come out of this unscathed. I would have kept punching him, but I was pulled off of him by one of the other rogues. Wait, there was only one other rogue.

\tPanic filled me as I realized one of the bastards had escaped and gone after Remy. My fury had overtaken me, and I hadn't been paying attention to my surroundings. I quickly used my magic and shifted out of the grip of the rogue wolf. I kicked him in the back of the knee and sent him tumbling to the ground.

"What are you?" the rogue leader asked, wiping blood from his mouth. He stared up at me with sunken eyes and a crazed look in his face. There was a desperation in the way he looked at me, and for a moment, I felt sorry for the poor sap. Then his comment about my sister came back to my mind.

"What are you doing on our pack lands? This area is protected by Pack Aphelion." I created a purple ball of energy in my hand to add to my threat.

It was just one of the sorcerer's abilities I had cultivated over the years with my practice. I knew if I sent the magic weapon at this man, it could seriously harm him- if I wanted to. But that wasn't my place. I wasn't the alpha yet, and it wasn't my responsibility to decide who lived or died. Especially since we weren't eighteen yet, Remy and I were not allowed to fight, unless it was in self-defense or during training. I was sure I would face serious consequences if I did more damage to these men than was absolutely necessary. The man who followed the rogue leader looked terrified at my use of magic. Clearly, these men were not familiar with sorcerers, and they had never met a half-blooded sorcerer/werewolf. I planned on using this to my advantage to intimidate these men. "We are just here, looking for a pack to join. We lost our pack some time ago and have been wandering ever since," the leader muttered. His eyes darted off to the side, and he couldn't even face me as he lied through his teeth.

I laughed, reading this man like an open book. I was practically a walking lie detector. It was obvious this man had no interest in joining our pack. "I'm not stupid. Tell me what you are looking for now, and I might decide to spare you." The rogue leader laughed in response, surprising me. I fully expected him to quake at my threat.

"You're just a boy. We both know you are just buying time until your daddy gets here. Don't fool yourself." He laughed more, not even the slightest bit concerned about me.

"Boss, you better be careful. He's some kind of demon or something." The other one was still quivering at my threat, his eyes glued to the ball of magic I was holding. "Don't be stupid. It's just a parlor trick. He can't do nothing with that."

I clenched my teeth, frustrated by how little respect these men were giving me. I could take them out with ease if I so chose. I threw the ball of magic, hitting the ground next to the leader of the rogues on purpose. The ground sizzled next to him. That should have been a good enough warning to show him I was serious.

\tThe other rogue screamed in terror, crawling backwards to get as far away from me as possible, only stopping when he realized how close to the cliff he was.

\tThe leader, on the other hand, stood up and started walking towards me. "You don't scare me. You're still a child. I doubt you'll actually try to kill me."

\tHe was right. I wouldn't try to kill him, but he underestimated me and my training. I dropped to the ground and swept my leg out, knocking him to the ground. I dug my knee into his back.

\t"Tell me why you are here," I demanded, pressing my full weight into the knee on his back.

It"Like I would tell a brat like you anything."

\tSuddenly, I felt a sharp pain run through my thigh. I looked down and saw a dagger sticking out of my leg. Blood was starting to seep through my pants, but I wasn't too worried about the injury. It would heal with some proper care. I was more frustrated that I hadn't prepared for the attack.

\tA sudden growl from behind me made all three of us freeze. I knew that growl all too well, and when I looked behind me, I saw Mason's wolf hovering over us.

\t"Move," Mason ordered me, and I instantly complied, getting off the rogue, slower than I had anticipated due to the blade still in my thigh. The pain ran through my entire leg as I stood up.

\t"Remy is still out there by herself." I was worried that she was on her own.

\t"She's fine. I made sure of it."

\t"Are you going to tell my dad?" I swallowed hard. I had never been caught sneaking out before, and, of course, it happened when Remy was with me. I knew this wasn't going to go over well with our parents. \t"Too late," my father's voice said from behind me.

\t-

\tl sat in the living room next to Remy, waiting for our punishment to come. My leg was crudely wrapped with some bandages, and I would need more medical attention to fully address the wound. My werewolf healing abilities were hardly there, especially compared to other werewolves. I still healed faster than humans, but there was hardly a difference.

\tRemy sat next to me, and I could feel her shaking. She had never been in major trouble before, and neither had I, but for completely different reasons. Remy had never really done anything to break the rules before, while I was just skilled at not getting caught. Neither of us knew how our parents were going to react.

\tl looked down at my phone and checked the time. 12:01 AM. I looked over at Remy and smiled. "Happy birthday, Rem."

\tHer eyes widened as she checked her own phone. "Happy birthday, Cauldy! We are now officially adults." Her sullen demeanor seemed to brighten, which wasn't surprising. Our birthday was always one of her favorite days. She liked celebrating with other people, and she loved that she could celebrate the most special day with her best friend.

\tl wasn't as big of a fan of birthdays, but Remy was my best friend. Even though we were vastly different, she had always been there for me. She listened to me talk about my problems, and she was always the first one to make me smile when I felt down. So if she wanted a big, extravagant party, that was exactly what we did. I just hoped that the events of tonight wouldn't make our parents cancel our party. Remy had been looking forward to the day since the day after our seventeenth birthday.

\t"Do you know what you want your birthday wish to be this year?" Remy asked. She pulled her legs onto the couch with her, sitting cross-legged.

\t"Honestly, right now I am just hoping mom and dad will let us off easy. That would be perfect." My parents didn't really have a temper, but their looks of disappointment could chill a person to the bone.

\t"Me too, but I'm sure you'll be fine. You are the favorite child after all. But that's not my birthday wish. My wish is to replace someone who will look at me the way dad looks at mom." She was smiling as she looked at me, but her comment didn't go unnoticed. \t"You know mom and dad love us equally, right?" I never wanted Remy to feel like less than she was. Sometimes her low self-esteem made no sense to me. She was beautiful, loving, and fun. She deserved someone to treat her well, and anyone who didn't would get my fist in their face.

\tRemy waved her hand in the air. "Yeah, yeah, but I'm not special like you. They have all of these high hopes for the great person you'll be. A great warrior, a strong alpha, a skilled sorcerer."

\t"Want to trade places?" I half-laughed. A part of me didn't want to be the alpha. It was too much pressure and too many responsibilities. If I could hand the role over to Remy, I would in a heartbeat. \t"Only if."

\tFootsteps echoed down the hall, instantly dampening our mood. This was the moment I had been dreading since those rogues attacked. I looked over, and our father entered the room with Mason a step behind him. We had been ordered back to the pack house while they took care of the rogues. They stopped and sat in chairs across from us, and suddenly I felt like I was in an interrogation.

\t-

\tREMY

\tDad was angry. His face was calm and collected, but I could feel his frustration building. He sat there staring at us, and I shifted in my seat, anxious for the scolding that was sure to come out of his mouth.

\tFinally, he let out a sigh, and his entire body relaxed. "Do I want to know what you two were doing out there past curfew without a protection squad?"

\tl chewed on my lip, afraid to speak. What would he think of my silly reasoning? I just wanted to have one night of real adventure before I turned eighteen. Well, I definitely had an adventure tonight.

\t"It's my fault," Caulder said before I gathered the courage to speak. "I wanted to have a good run with Remy on the night of our birthday."

\tDad looked at Caulder with knowing eyes, but if he knew Caulder was lying, he didn't let on. "You're lucky Mason was nearby to step in. Those rogues could have killed you. I don't know what you were thinking. Do you know how many enemies there are out there?" \tCaulder puffed out his chest. "I had them handled just fine."

\t"And that wound bleeding on our couch?" Dad said, motioning to the place where Caulder had been stabbed.

\tl felt guilty that he had been hurt while I ran away. Even though he told me to run, I should have stayed with Caulder and helped him out. If I had been the one to get stabbed, I would have healed much faster. It was one of the few things I was good at compared to Caulder.

\t"It's nothing. It'll heal soon enough." Caulder acted like the injury wasn't serious, but I was sure it hurt more than he was willing to admit.

\t"Your mother won't see it that way," Dad said with a sigh.

\tMason chuckled. "You two are going to have fun explaining this to her."

\tl looked at him, shocked. "Mom doesn't know yet?"

\tDad shook his head. "No. I wanted you two to have the honor of telling her what happened yourselves."

\tl swallowed hard. If that was Dad's version of punishment, it was pretty effective. Mom wouldn't yell, but there was a good chance she would cry. That was somehow worse.

\t"Can't you just tell her? As a birthday present?" I tried to give him the puppy dog eyes. It normally worked when I was asking for something.

\tDad only chuckled. "Nice try, kiddo. I'm already going to be in trouble for not waking her up right away. This one is on you two."

\tl scrunched my nose. Maybe mom would give us a bit of a break since it was our birthday. I looked at Caulder, and he had the same fearful expression I was sure I had. It was one thing to be yelled at by our father, but upsetting mom felt like a gut wound. I would rather have her yell at me.

\tDad stood up and looked down at us. "Speaking of which, that's my cue to leave. I need to finish taking care of those rogues, anyway." He started walking away with Uncle Mason following behind him. He paused and looked back at us. "Oh and happy birthday. Welcome to adulthood."

\tHe slipped out of the room and seconds later, I heard the hurried footsteps of our panicked mother. Her face was pale as she rushed into the room. She had clearly just woken up, since her pajamas were bunched and her hair was still tangled. She ran over to us and threw her arms around us, holding us tightly.

\t"I can't believe you were attacked. Are you okay?" Her voice was on the edge of hysterics.

\t"We're fine, mom," Caulder insisted, trying to squirm out of her grasp.

\t"Caulder was stabbed in the leg," I said quickly. I ignored the glare Cauder was sending my way. I knew he didn't want to admit he was injured, but my mother had magic that could heal him, and he needed that help. We both had different abilities from our dual nature, and that was one he was missing.

\tMom pulled away, and her lips pulled tight as she inspected Caulder's leg. She placed her hand over the wound, and a light enveloped his legs, originating from her hands. The wound started to close under her magic. "What were you two thinking, sneaking out like that? Caulder, you should have known better than to put your sister in danger like that. If those rogues had gotten ahold of either of you-"

\t"I begged him to take me out," I quickly said. Caulder had already taken the blame for me once. I wasn't going to let him take the blame again. "And I can take care of myself. I'm the same age as Caulder. I don't need to be babied."

\tMom pulled back when she was finished healing Caulder. A sigh escaped her lips. "If you wanted to go for a run, you should have just asked. We could have had someone escort you. It would have been safer."

\t"We're not children anymore," Caulder said. "We shouldn't need escorts everywhere."

\t"It's not that I don't think you two are capable on your own, but this pack has many enemies. It's not safe for you to wander on your own, especially this late at night." She wasn't angry with us as she spoke, but I could feel her fear. I would much rather face dad's anger than this.

\t"Our pack hasn't been attacked in the time we've been alive. I don't understand why you keep saying we have all of these enemies," Caulder said. He stood up and tried out his newly healed leg.

\tMom just frowned. "One day you'll both understand. Your father and I have these rules in place for a reason."

\t"Why can't you tell us the reason for it now?" Caulder was visibly starting to get frustrated. He snuck out of the pack house all of the time, because he didn't agree with the rules. This wasn't the first time he had challenged them, but this was the first time I had seen him act this way with mom.

\tl grabbed his arm and looked at him pleadingly. "It's late, and we are just on edge. Now's probably not the time to talk about this." \t"Remy's right," Mom agreed.

\t"It's never the right time," Caulder muttered. He wasn't wrong. It wasn't unusual for us to get the "later" excuse from our parents.

\tMom stood up and adjusted her pajamas. "You two should get some sleep. You have a big day tomorrow. You know Scythe and Rie are going to have you getting ready pretty early for your party."

\tMy eyes brightened at her words. "Wait, we still get our party?" I was worried we were going to be grounded after what happened.

\tMom smiled. "Of course. While you shouldn't have been out there without a warrior with you, you stayed on the pack grounds, and you ran for help when needed. That's not enough to cancel your most important birthday party."

\tl jumped up and threw my arms around her, squealing with delight. "Thank you so much!" I let her go, and Caulder seemed to relax.

\t"Thanks, mom," Caulder said. "And sorry we worried you."

\tMom pulled us into another hug. "I'm just so glad my babies are safe. Get to bed, and oh... Happy birthday Remy and Caulder."