Chapter 2

After that night, I could not sleep well for days. Shame wrapped around me like a shell. I started keeping my distance from both.

My friend Romy was furious when she found out.

I looked down. "It is over now. I have decided. I will just keep my distance."

My compatibility score was too high. Only I could comfort them during their heat cycles. Their status in the Guard gave me a comfortable life. It was just an exchange.

"Will you still make the herbal broth for them?"

I thought about it. "Yes." It was something I had to do.

Romy hesitated for a long time, then finally said, "But do you not think it is unfair to give them the same when one of them treats you differently?"

Fair.

Brennan and Callum were twin werewolves. My match data had peaked with both at the same time. It was a rare case. I had been called in for a special meeting. The official told me, "In a household with two werewolves, balance is everything. When the scales tilt, the whole family falls apart. You are the pivot point. Every choice you make will disrupt the stability between them."

I believed that. So I made everything double. Two bowls of herbal broth. Two gifts. Even the dried meat in their lunch boxes had to be counted equally. I thought if I was fair enough, I could hold everything together.

Romy looked at my confused face and said gently, "Callum was the one who hurt you that night, right? Brennan did nothing wrong."

I nodded. Brennan had not said anything bad to me. He had even punched Callum for me. I looked down at my ankle. It had healed by then. Brennan had knelt in front of me that night and wrapped it carefully. He apologized for Callum. But Callum was the one who had hurt me. Brennan had nothing to do with it.

"Exactly," Romy said. "They treat you completely differently, but they get the same herbal broth and the same gifts. Is that fair to Brennan, the one who is good to you?"

I opened my mouth to argue, but nothing came out.

Later that night, I lay awake thinking.

I remembered when I was a child at the human care center. One time, I helped a volunteer hand out winter blankets. The other children were playing. In the end, everyone got the same gray blanket. But mine had intact edges. No fraying. No fading. I thought it was just luck.

Later, I found out the volunteer had set aside the best one for me on purpose. As she left, she paused at the door and said softly, "Good children deserve better. That is what is fair."

The official's words and the volunteer's words fought in my head. In the end, the volunteer won.

Good children deserve more.

The herbal broth was just the start. In the evenings, I no longer sat squarely in the middle. I moved closer to Brennan and put more space between myself and Callum. I stopped saying good morning to Callum. I only smiled at Brennan. When I had questions, I asked Brennan. When I went out, I held his arm.

At first, I was nervous. Breaking the habit of being fair made me uneasy. But soon I realized the change was not as bad as I feared.

Brennan was cold, but he never made me feel uncomfortable. When I sat beside him, he naturally held my wrist and asked if I was hungry. When I said good morning, he answered right away and asked how I slept.

After I stopped clinging to Callum, I never got pushed off the couch again. I did not get ignored when I said good morning. I was not left behind at the Guard compound because he was embarrassed to be seen with a human.

But the atmosphere in the house grew strange. I kept feeling eyes on my back. When I turned, Callum was always staring at the tactical reports spread across the coffee table. The Guard's mission briefings were printed on thick paper. He held a pen, and the map in front of him was covered in marks.

He caught me looking and said, "Can you even read this? It is classified."

Before, I would have taken it as an invitation and gone over to him. Now I just shook my head and did not bother.

Brennan came out of the hallway with a jacket over his shoulder. I followed him to the door. Lately, I had been going to the training grounds to watch him practice. Sometimes he taught me basic moves during breaks. Just as we reached the door, a loud thud came from behind us.

I turned. Callum had slammed the stack of reports onto the table. Pages scattered everywhere, some sliding onto the floor. He sat there, hand still on the table, watching Brennan bend down to tie my shoelaces.

A cold smile crossed his face.

"Brennan, since when do pureblood werewolves tie shoes for a human? You act like you actually like her."