The Choice
Chapter 3

Kieran

My twin brothers, Connor and Conrad, and I were about to stop by the training grounds to get in a light workout before dinner when my parents replace us before I could get outside.

“Ah, just the boys I need. We’re about to make dinner but realized that we don’t have any fresh meat. Why don’t the two of you go on a hunt and replace us something.” My mom, while an amazing chef normally does the hunting herself, but I guess she wanted some muscle tonight. I can see why my dad fell for her. Stunning brown eyes and brunette, soft wavy hair

“I suppose mom. What kind of meat are you thinking? Elk, deer, turkey, quail, rabbit?”

“Elk, deer or turkey is fine. Thanks for the help. I’ll be in the kitchen making sides while you hunt.” I sigh and remember the workout I wanted to do, but I don’t like to say no to mom when she needs help.

“Alright, we’ll see what we can do.” We kiss her cheek and start heading out the door. We both shift to our wolves to make it easier to replace food. My wolf is a brownish black, and my Connor’s is a grayish silver with swirls of black and Conrad’s is a black wolf with a gray mask on his face. I’m so focused on my hunt when I get the strangest scent. Something floral… something fall-like? Ugh! What is it? It’s messing up my hunt!

“Dude you smell that??” I mind link my brother, Connor, seeing if it’s just me or if I’m going nuts.

“Yeah what is that?” Well, at least I’m not crazy. It smells the strongest to me, but at least they can smell it a little so I’m not totally crazy.

“I have no idea! It’s messing with the animals!” Animals were scattering everywhere making it hard to catch one for dinner. It was driving Conrad nuts; he couldn’t get anything yet. He’s the more impulsive of the two twins.

“What if it’s a person??” Connor asks worriedly. Oh, no it’s pretty cold out tonight so anyone out here without proper clothes… it wouldn’t be good for them.

“Who would be in the middle of nowhere??” I ask Connor, annoyed.

“I don’t know! Let’s go check it out, make sure whoever it is, is ok.” Connor would want to check it out. He’s the head doctor at our local hospital with my sister, Mia.

“What about dinner!? I’m getting hungry!” Conrad complained. I was getting hungry too, but as alpha I wanted to make sure whoever was out there was safe from this cold weather. Fall is coming soon and the summer warm days are numbered.

“We’ll get the hunt later, this person could need help!” Connor has always been the helpful twin so when he went to med school I wasn’t surprised.

“Fine, you softy… but in your defense I agree with you.” We run towards the smell and it smells like one of the ladies fall scented candles they like to light. Star anise, cinnamon and clove. It reminds me of pie baking. I see a young lady in a dress in the middle of a flower field, well what’s left of the flowers. I feel like I’ve known her forever, but this random young lady could be my mate!

“Mine!” She screams and runs away but I grab her by the waist trying to look at her better.

“Who are you?? Please don’t eat me!” She screams at me hiding behind a tree. I can hear her crying.

“I’m not going to eat you. Don’t be scared, I’m here to help!” I try to make my voice sound so genuine like I actually wanted to help, and I do. If she really is my mate, then heck yeah I want to help! She started to say something but from exhaustion and shock she passed out. I grab her by her waist before she hits the ground.

“Let’s get her to the hospital, get her checked out and make sure she needs nothing serious. Also, we can ask Mia or Raven to borrow some clothes for the time being. We’ll have to get her some of her own clothes sometime. We take her to the hospital in a VIP room, change her out of her ballgown and give her one of Mia’s old nightgowns that she didn’t mind giving us. The nurses change her to give her some privacy. Once the nurses are done changing her, one lets Connor and I know they’re ready for us to come in. A couple of minutes later, Mia comes running in.

“Alright, what do we got?” Mia asks her nurse team seriously. To be honest, I don’t see Connor and Mia so serious.

“Unknown female, unknown age. Found in the woods in a ballgown. We tried to talk to her, but she was shocked, scared and worried that we were going to eat her.” We chuckle at that last comment.

“So she was just randomly there?” She asks me.

“Yeah, it was weird…” I answered her.

“Interesting… well we’ll monitor her overnight, just to make sure she has nothing seriously wrong with her. Hopefully she’ll wake up in the morning, but I’ll mind link you if anything changes. If you want to stay, the chair turns into a pull out lounge chair type thing and I can get you a pillow and blanket.” Mia is an amazing doctor with Connor and I’m very proud of them. Now the big question is who the heck is she, how did she get in the woods, and what is she doing here? I’ve been to enough parties to know that only royalty have enough money to have a ball gown like this. It’s a beautiful dress, and it looked beautiful on her, but seeing her in a simple nightgown she’s just as beautiful.

It wasn’t a comfortable night’s sleep, but luckily it was an uneventful night. Soon I hear Mia knock on the door to check in.

“Hey, how was she?” I rub the sleep out of my eyes to adjust to the sunlight.

“Well, first off the chair could be more comfortable, but it was an uneventful night. She slept peacefully.”

“Always a good thing. I’m pretty sure she just passed out from shock and scared. Now we just wait for her to wake up.”

“I don’t like waiting…” I pout a little...

“I know you don’t, especially with the possibility of her being your mate.” I perk up when she says that.

“What, how did you-” I’m shocked that she’d jump to that conclusion.

“Look, the guy only stays behind if she’s his mate…” Dang it...sometimes I don’t like her job.

“Alright ya got me. When we first found her, she smelled like one of your fall candles. Star anise, cinnamon and clove. The others could smell it too, but not as strong so I figured I could smell her the strongest. Also, when she looked at me it was like she had the look of surprise, so maybe she could smell my scent.”

“We’ll figure that out when she’s awake.”

“Hopefully that’s soon. If not, then we’ll try to wake her ourselves.” I take a deep breath and just watch over her again.