Sister's and secrets

The house was quiet when Elara got home.

She dropped her bag by the door, slipped off her shoes, and stood in the small hallway for a moment just breathing. There was something about crossing that threshold every evening that unknotted something inside her chest — like her body recognized that it was finally safe to stop performing and just exist without anyone watching or judging or waiting for her to stumble.

She moved to the kitchen and filled a glass of water, leaning against the counter and staring out the small window above the sink. The sun was beginning its slow descent over the pack territory, painting the sky in shades of orange and pink that would have been beautiful if Elara had the energy left to appreciate them properly. She drank the water slowly and let the quiet of the house settle around her like a blanket.

She heard Lily's key in the front door twenty minutes later.

Her sister came in carrying two paper bags of groceries, her hair pulled into a messy knot on top of her head, her work jacket already half off one shoulder before she had fully cleared the doorway. Lily moved through life the way she did everything else — quickly, loudly, and with complete disregard for doing things in any particular order.

"Take one of these before I drop everything," Lily said by way of greeting, thrusting one of the bags toward Elara.

Elara took it and followed her into the kitchen. They unpacked in comfortable silence for a few minutes, moving around each other in the small space with the practiced ease of two people who had shared it for a long time. Lily put the kettle on without being asked. Elara folded the paper bags neatly and tucked them into the drawer where they kept such things.

"How was your day," Lily said. It came out more as a statement than a question the way it always did when Lily already suspected the answer was not good.

"Fine," Elara said.

Lily looked at her.

"It was fine Lily."

"You have that look on your face."

"I don't have a look."

"You absolutely have a look." Lily leaned back against the counter and crossed her arms. "The look where your face is completely blank and your jaw is doing that thing where it sits just slightly too tight. You've had that look since you were twelve years old and it has never once meant that things were fine."

Elara almost smiled despite herself. She turned and opened the cabinet to take out two mugs. "Cara was at my locker this morning."

The kitchen went quiet except for the kettle beginning to heat.

"What did she do," Lily said. Her voice had shifted. Still calm on the surface but with something harder underneath it.

"The usual." Elara set the mugs on the counter. "Nothing I haven't handled before."

"Elara."

"She knocked my bag over." Elara paused. "The photograph fell out."

She did not need to say which photograph. Lily knew. Lily's expression did something complicated and painful before she smoothed it out again. She reached over and put her hand over Elara's on the counter and squeezed once, firm and warm.

"I'm going to talk to Roman about her," Lily said quietly.

"Please don't." Elara turned to look at her. "It will only make things worse. You know how Cara is. If she thinks I went running to someone she'll make my life impossible."

Lily looked like she wanted to argue. She pressed her lips together instead and poured the hot water into the mugs when the kettle clicked off. They took their tea to the small table by the window and sat across from each other the way they had done a thousand times before on a thousand evenings exactly like this one.

For a while neither of them said anything. The evening light moved slowly across the table between them.

"I came of age last week," Elara said eventually. She had not planned to say it. It just came out, quiet and almost shy, like something she had been carrying around in her pocket and had finally decided to set down.

Lily looked up from her mug. "I know," she said softly.

"My wolf is restless." Elara wrapped both hands around her mug and stared into it. "I can feel her all the time now. She wants—" She stopped and shook her head slightly.

"A mate," Lily finished gently.

Elara nodded without looking up.

Lily was quiet for a moment. When she spoke her voice was careful and full of a tenderness that made Elara's chest ache a little. "There is nothing wrong with wanting that. It is the most natural thing in the world for a wolf your age."

"I know that." Elara finally looked up. "I just—" She paused, searching for the right words. "What if the Moon Goddess doesn't think I deserve one. What if being an omega means—"

"Stop." Lily's voice was firm but not unkind. "Don't finish that sentence. The Moon Goddess does not rank her blessings by pack hierarchy. Selene chooses mates based on something far deeper than whether someone is an alpha or an omega and you know that."

"Knowing it and feeling it are different things."

"I know they are." Lily reached across the table. "But I need you to hold onto the knowing on the days when the feeling tries to convince you otherwise. Can you do that?"

Elara looked at her sister — at the fierceness in her eyes and the steadiness in her voice and the way she had always, always shown up. Even on the worst days. Even when she was exhausted and stretched thin herself. Lily had never once let Elara face anything completely alone.

"Yes," Elara said quietly. "I can do that."

Lily squeezed her hand and let go. She picked up her mug and leaned back in her chair. "Roman mentioned there is a pack party this weekend," she said, her tone shifting to something lighter and deliberately casual.

Elara raised an eyebrow. "No."

"I haven't even said anything yet."

"You have that look on your face," Elara said. "The one where you've already decided something and you're just working out how to present it so I'll agree."

Lily grinned. It was bright and completely unrepentant. "You should come."

"Lily."

"It would be good for you. Fresh air. Good food. A chance to be somewhere that isn't school or this kitchen."

"A pack party means pack people," Elara said. "Pack people mean ranks. Ranks mean I spend the entire evening being reminded of exactly where I sit in the hierarchy and I come home feeling worse than when I left."

"Or," Lily said, holding up one finger, "you come with me, stay close, let Roman's presence keep anyone from bothering you, eat good food, and maybe — just maybe — something good happens."

Elara looked at her sister for a long moment.

"I'll think about it," she said finally.

Lily's grin widened as she had already won.

And honestly, Elara thought as she looked away to hide her own reluctant smile, she probably had.