Sister, Sister

Nolan’s POV

My sister is going to be the death of me. “Breanna, why don’t you and Britton grab the whiskey, I’ll grab some ice cream, and little wolf, will you please come join us? I say, as I look up at her shocked, brilliant green eyes. She nods at me and begins her descent down the stairs to me. “Go ahead and sit in the lounge, Clara.. We will meet you there. I apologize for the outburst, I wasn’t expecting company, you see…”

Breanna is my little sister, she turns 18 in a month and is convinced that Britton is her mate. He is 21 and feels the same. My gut instinct is to be her protector without our parents here, but I have to allow her to make that choice. My biggest fear is that he will end up not being her mate, and they will both be heartbroken. The mate bond is held as sacred in our pack, and even if you have a chosen mate, most choose to forsake their chosen for the Luna gifted mate.. Not to mention the fact that we are triple hybrids, which she and I have only been able to hide thanks to our mother’s barrier spell around our pack territory. Luckily our mother acquired herbs for us that suppress the hybrid side when we shift, and we have a surplus of them in a greenhouse on my grounds.

There is so much that I am terrified to tell Clara, and I am wondering if I can.. She seems guarded in her own right. The game of 20 questions was a great ice breaker but it took everything in my power not to berate her with questions, to know all of her deepest secrets. From the moment I saw those green eyes through the glass, my heart was hers, but my secrets are suffocating.

I walk into the kitchen and see the two “love birds” grabbing four cartons of ice cream from the fridge. “I thought I put you two on whiskey duty?” I say with a smirk. Breanna chuckles and says, “I assumed you wanted to speak to us before we bombard.. Clara, is it? Your show of protection was interesting to see from a different point of view for once… not aimed towards me, but still putting poor Britton in your clutches. She raises her eyebrows and smirks at me.

“Britton, yes.. Sorry about that. When you imprint on your mate you will fully understand. We only just found each other and have been back on our territory for a few hours. I didn’t want to announce she was here yet so as not to overwhelm her.” I say.

“Overwhelm her, or are you still deciding whether or not to divulge things to her completely?” Breanna says.

“Not everyone is as forthcoming as you are Breanna, and Britton, if I find you ever betray our trust you will be eliminated.”

Britton nods in understanding and says, “I will never betray you. I know she is my mate, and two weeks from now, you will see it too.”

“We will see, won’t we? Anyways, there is a beautiful little wolf waiting for me in the other room. Grab the ice cream and let’s get going?” I say as I grab four spoons from the drawer.

I walk towards the lounge with them in tow and turn quickly around, almost forgetting to remind them, “Behave. It has been an incredibly long and exhausting day for her. We will need to go to bed earlier tonight. We have much to discuss tomorrow and I will have to hold a pack meeting to come up with an excuse for walking away from battle. I can only assume you heard something from Amelia or Stephen?”

Breanna and Britton look at each other, their arms intertwined at the elbow and each holding one end of the tray with their free hands. They smile at one another as if speaking their own language. Britton smiles at her before turning to me and says, “You know the leak was obviously Brooks. He can’t keep anything to himself. The first thing he did was come straight to my house to find Breanna and I, telling us we just had to come surprise you. We didn’t know what we were walking into but needed to come see what the fuss was about.” Breanna interrupts and says, “We couldn’t be happier for you. I know that you’ve waited a long time for this.”

I walk over and squeeze her shoulder and smile. I can barely mumble, “Thank you.” when Timothy walks out of the lounge beaming as if he’s imprinted on Amelia all over again.

Gods, the ice cream will be melted before I can even reach Clara at this point, the poor little wolf has been waiting for some time now. She must be irritated.

Timothy approaches and says, “She is truly a gem, Alpha Nolan. I brought her some biscuits from Amelia’s secret stash. I can’t wait to get to know her better.”

“Thank you, Timothy, I appreciate you and Amelia always taking care of everything, even before I can think of it. Please take the rest of the evening off, and Clara and I will be pleased to spend breakfast with you in the morning, should she agree.” I say.

Timothy is beaming and says, “I cannot wait. She has already asked that of me, Alpha. I intended to ask your permission. It appears we will be joining you for breakfast!” And he takes his leave to his and Amelia’s quarters.

I grab Breanna by the shoulder and she puts a hand on Britton’s, knowing to stop him before he is spotted by Clara.

“Brianna, I need you to reign in your ability while we are in there. As much as I’m desperate to know everything I can, I want her to trust us. We need mutual trust if we can make this mate bond work. I have been dying to meet my mate since before I came of age, but I have also been terrified because I knew I would have to share what we are.” I told her through the link.

She chuckles out loud and link both Britton and I, “WE will keep our abilities to ourselves for now, but I have a feeling we can trust her. I sensed something in her that felt familiar. And as far as my curiosity goes I won’t dig too deeply, but I want to know you can trust her before you go spilling secrets.” She finishes with a wink.

“She doesn’t even fully know what she is, so how can we be sure? Her grandmother is in the same coven mother was, and she knows but made it clear that Clara doesn’t. She told her she would give her all of the answers she has been looking for when we return to her pack. And then she gave her a packet of Angelica root telling her to use it to shift while she was here… I don’t know if she was hinting to me that she knows what we are or truly protecting her from herself. I don’t want to be the one to tell her in case my assumptions are wrong, and also it shouldn’t be us. It should be her grandmother to tell her, especially considering she knows everything and I would be hedging a guess.” I ramble on exasperatedly through the link.

Brianna chuckles and gives me a knowing smirk. “You haven’t rambled on like that in a while.. Not since you became Alpha anyways, Mr. Short Sweet Sentences and one word answers.”

Clara peeks her head around the corner and whispers, “Rambling through the link are we? I wasn’t sure I was that bad, but now you’ve confirmed it. I was wondering why it got so quiet around here. ”

Goddess, she is perfect. A tiny, gorgeous spitfire, made just for me. I crack a genuine smile at her and say, “Yeah, we were looking for a way to get rid of you so we grabbed four different types of ice cream to choose from, spoons only, no bowls allowed. I figured you couldn’t possibly be a glutton for delicious frozen punishment like we are and you’d run for the hills.”

Brianna and Britton burst into a fit of laughter and Brianna links her by the arm with her own, looking back at me and winking her now glowing blue eyes at me as she leads a clueless Clara to the lounge.

Britton knows, but so does everyone in our pack. They are sworn to secrecy, but most everyone here is like us, hybrids of one sort or another.The Hidden Moon pack is just that, hidden. It’s why I waited so long to attack the Evergreen Crest pack. We have our protective barriers, created when my father created this pack. They keep out anything Demonic, hybrid or not, so I at least know Clara isn’t a demon. But when she passed through the barrier, I couldn’t miss how her eyes opened wide, like she felt the magic. Maybe she is like me? Goddess, I can only hope. Our mates are supposed to be our equals and bring us to meet our best possible potential.

“Earth to Nolan!” Britton waves his hand in front of my face to bring me out of my trance like state. “Stop overthinking everything.” he whispers. “She is your mate for a reason. Just like I know your sister is mine. I can’t wait to be your annoying brother in law for life, Alpha.”

I give him a smirk, pat his back, HARD and say, “You’re not my brother in law, yet, Britton. And you better pray you are her true mate or I’ll break your legs for kissing my sister and getting her attached to you.”

He simply smiles and says, “I look forward to keeping my legs in tact and your sister on my arm.” as he runs into the lounge.

COWARD.

I walk into the lounge and she is on the edge of the long leather sectional with a knit blanket on her legs, a carton of pistachio ice cream in one hand, the spoon in the other, and a glass of whiskey in her lap. Her cheeks are rosy from the fireplace she is leaning as closely to as possible over the arm of the couch, a huge smile on her face, her eyes sparkling and her hair perfectly wavy and almost glittering down to her rib cage. She looks ethereal. I can’t tell if its from the mate bond, or if maybe, just maybe is her tribrid side showing… All I know is I can’t wait to be near her again, to smell that cinnamon and vanilla scent of hers, to feel the sparks from her touch, and to tell her she stole my favorite ice cream.

She hears my footfalls and looks at me, her eye contact so smoldering I can’t help but hope she feels the pull as strongly as I do. She smiles brightly and pats the couch next to her with her ice cream hand, beckoning me to sit next to her.

“Ah, so you are tempting me into sitting next to you with my favorite flavor are you?” I practically rasp, not breaking eye contact and trying to find the will to breathe looking at her beauty.

She blushes and says with her head lowered, “Oh.. its your favorite? I’m so sorry I took it. Its mine too, and people usually wouldn’t reach for pistachio first, so I took it not even thinking.”

I place my fingers under her chin and make her meet my eyes, “I’ll only forgive you this once, but I’ll be sure to keep it stocked at all times for the both of us.”

It took everything in my power to sound serious before I broke down and laugh harder than I have in a long time at the look of sheer terror in her eyes at the start of my sentence, only for her to snort laughing and cover her mouth and nose in embarrassment, dropping the ice cream and spoon in her lap, but managing not to spill drop of ice cream or whiskey.

“For someone so clumsy, you have a talent for not spilling.” Brianna says through a fit of giggles.

**I haven’t heard that laugh in a long time. She is perfect for you. Just as sarcastic and playful as I had hoped she would be** Brianna links.

**I’m starting to think so, too.** I link back.

Just as I take my seat next to my beautiful, spicy, little wolf and grab a bite of pistachio from her spoon before she can, Adam kicks the door to the house in, splintering the wood in a viciously dramatic fashion and leaps over the glass table, shattering everything in its wake.