Chapter 2 | Flashback

Lux

My grandparents are coming in today.

From the moment I woke up today, I could feel Kai’s nervous energy. He loves our grandparents, but they don’t dote on him as much as they do me. I’m not sure if that’s because of my disability, the fact I’m a girl, and he’s a boy, or what, but he is always nervous when they come to visit.

He comes into my room right as I stood up and he mutters, “You should’ve linked me. I would’ve come in here.”

I chuckle, “Well, it’s not like I did anything other than stand up.”

“What do you want to wear today?” I can hear him as he rushes towards my closet and I ask, “What are you wearing?”

He responds, “I’m a bit more formal today. But dad said we’re also welcoming in an Alpha today, so I kind of have to dress up for that.”

“Are you wearing a crown?” I ask in a teasing manner. Anytime he dresses up, he typically wears a crown, and he hates that dang thing. He’s going to be a great King, I’m sure of it. But he hates dressing the part of a King.

He mutters, “Shut up, Lux.”

I giggle and say, “Pick out whatever you think is best for me.”

He brings me an outfit and tells me to get changed. I rush to my bathroom and while I’m in there, I can hear the boys join us. I find it funny how my room always becomes the hang out room before breakfast, but I know better than to complain about it. Besides, it’s one of my favorite things just getting to wake up and be around them immediately.

I walk out of the bathroom wearing the dress that Kai picked out for me. One of the boys rushes over to me to help me to my vanity. By the scent, I know that it’s Calvin, and a part of me wants to get on to them for being so overprotective. I know my bedroom like the back of my hand and it’s rare for me to trip or have issues in there, but I know they like to dote on me, so I remain quiet.

I notice that I’m a bit more on edge today, but I’m not sure why. Normally I don’t mind them trying to help me because I know they’re just being protective, but today I want to snap at their every move.

I hear Silas ask, “You alright, Lux? You’re frowning really hard.”

The rest of the boys murmur in agreement and I say, “Yeah, I’m fine. I just didn’t sleep well.” Immediately Kai mind links me, “More nightmares?”

I sigh as I ignore him and say, “I’m starving. Let’s head to breakfast.”

We all walk downstairs and as we walk; I can hear my grandparents being welcomed in. I can’t help but smile and as we reach the last step, Kai grabs my arm and leads me over to welcome all of our grandparents. My grandmas go on about how beautiful I look and how strong and handsome Kai is. I feel my grandpa Carter, the previous King and my mom’s biological father, slip me some money, something he has always done. Then my grandpa Rich, my mom’s adoptive father, wraps me up in an enormous hug, lifting me a bit off the ground.

Once he sets me down, I hear them all notice my friends, who are like their other grandchildren, and immediately they dote on them. Once they stop talking to Silas, he comes to my side and asks, “You want some coffee?”

I nod eagerly. He always knows just what I need, and he leads me away to the one thing that allows me to function well each day. He passes me the mug and as I bring the steamy cup of goodness to my lips; I take a sip. Even though it burns my tongue a little, I couldn’t resist. 

All the boys have learned how to make my coffee, but I swear Silas makes it the best. I don’t know what he does differently, but it makes him my favorite for coffee duty. He helps lead me to my seat and I hear as my parents come into the room and are immediately bombarded by our grandparents.

I wince slightly as all the people talking at once is hard to keep up with. Especially with my heightened hearing, I’m not sure who to listen to. I hear Silas say, “There are muffins for breakfast this morning. Do you want apple cinnamon or butterscotch?”

I know what he’s doing, and it makes me appreciate him even more. He knows by asking a question directly to me it helps my focus be on him and will help relieve my headache. I mutter, “One of each. Is there any protein?”

He chuckles, “Always. Eggs, bacon, sausage, whatcha want?”

“All the above.” I murmur as the headache seems to grow stronger. Sometimes I wish I could turn my hearing off. I can hear the surprise in his voice as he comments, “Hungry today, huh?”

I haven’t been eating as much lately. I can’t help it. The nightmares cause me to lose my appetite each morning, but I didn’t have a bad one last night and today I’m noticing how hungry I really am. 

I nod in response, and I hear as the rest of our family joins the table. Everyone is talking loudly because they’re excited about seeing one another and I honestly just want to go to my room and lie down.

Silas

Today is one of the days I feel terrible for Lux.

With all her grandparents here, everyone is talking loudly as they are making plans. Most of us kids are staying quiet or mumbling something to one another, but Lux is completely zoned in on her food, especially her coffee. Every once in a while, I see her wince slightly at the loudness of her family. 

All wolves have enhanced hearing, but I’ve always thought that Lux’s hearing might be even more advanced. There are times she can hear things I can’t and it’s something as small as like a leaf falling. I wonder if it’s because of her disability or if it’s part of her powers for being a gemstone wolf. 

As soon as she finishes her food, she mutters softly to me, “Are you done?”

I nod yes and then remember she can’t see me, and I say, “Yeah, I am. You want to go for a walk?”

She nods eagerly, “Through the gardens?”

I chuckle, “Whatever you want, sunshine.”

She smiles brightly at me, and I say, “We’re going to go for a walk.”

One of her grandmothers, Dani, says, “Lux when you come back, I was thinking we could do something. Just the two of us?”

She smiles as she nods, “Sounds great, Nana.”

She has a different nickname for each grandparent, but the grandmas I always mix up. Dani smiles at us and I swear I can hear all the grandmas gush about how cute we look. I love others can see it as well. I’m sure if I heard it then Lux did as well, but she says nothing about it. 

We walk to the gardens and take our time as we stroll. I say nothing because I can tell that she is enjoying the quiet, and that she is already a lot more relaxed than she was a few minutes ago. I can’t help but smile at her as I look at how effortlessly beautiful she is. She surprises me when she speaks up, “What do you want your mate to be like? Last time I asked you, we ended up focused on me. So, what do you want your mate to be like or look like?”

I chuckle, “I don’t care about looks, Lux.”

She shrugs, “I think everyone does to a certain degree. The only reason I don’t is because I can’t.”

I can’t help the laugh that slips out of my mouth, and I love it when she laughs along with me. After our fit of giggles is over, she says, “I’m serious, Silas. What do you want?”

I want her.

More than anything in this world, I want her to be mine. How does she not realize it? How can she not tell that this question kills me because I must think up some possibility of my mate not being her?

I say, “I don’t really know. I just want someone I can be myself with... someone that’s like my best friend.”

She says teasingly, “Sounds like you just want to be mated to me.”

She busts out laughing after she says that, and I can’t help the pain in my heart... I didn’t realize that it was such an absurd idea for her, and she is laughing like it is the most ludicrous idea in the world.

Suddenly her eyebrows furrow and she comments, “Your aura changed, what’s wrong?” 

“Nothing, just hard to think about my mate since I still haven’t found her yet.”

She shrugs, “You turned eighteen a few months ago... you have plenty of time to find her. Maybe you need to travel in order to find her. Oooh! Maybe we could all go visit mom and dad’s old pack. Uncle Zane and Aunt Lilly are there, and I bet they’d love to have us! And it would give us the opportunity to find our mates.”

I nod, “Not a bad idea, but we should wait till after your big birthday bash. There will be tons of packs visiting then. It wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of us found our mates.”

I notice her nose scrunches up in distaste at the idea of it and I chuckle, “Lux, having a mate is a good thing, you know.”

She lets out a huff as she nods, as if she’s trying to convince herself that I’m right. She says, “Let’s talk about something else. What does your wolf look like?”

I chuckle, “What do you mean?”

“Come on, Silas, you’ve always been like my eyes. You described how you look. I want to know what your wolf looks like!”

Her comment made me smile. I will be her eyes any day. I respond, “My fur is a reddish brown, just like my hair.”

“So, redwood?” She questions.

I chuckle, “Yeah, redwood. I don’t really have any distinct markings. Honestly, I’m a pretty plain wolf.”

She scoffs, “It’s hard to imagine you as plain. You’re one of my favorite people and my favorite people aren’t plain.”

I smirk at her, and she asks, “Silas, what do I look like? Am I pretty?”

“Ye-yeah, Lux, you’re beautiful. You have dark brown hair and dark brown is like... the scent of dark chocolate.”

She nods, and I continue, “Your eyes look like opals... which is a little harder to describe. Opals are primarily white, which is like marshmallows! But opals have hints of other colors in it, like blue and pink. You already know blue is kind of like the ocean and, well, pink is like roses!”

She nods and says, “Sounds... interesting. The chocolate and marshmallows make me think of hot chocolate or smores!”

I chuckle at her imagination and suddenly, I’m hit with a flashback.

We’re 8 years old. It’s the first snow of the season, so we all rushed outside to go play. Us boys being well, boys immediately started a snowball fight. Kai accidentally nailed Lux in the face, catching her off guard and making tears spring into her eyes.

She rushed inside, and her mom scolded her brother. I ran inside to go check on her and found her next to the fireplace as she wipes the tears from her eyes. I run to the kitchen and bring all the fixings for smores. All I knew was that I needed to help her feel better.

I rush over to her and say, “Hey Luxy.”

She sniffles and wraps her arms around her knees as she murmurs, “Hey Silas.”

I ask, “Are you okay?”

She huffs, “It’s not fair, Silas. You guys can see and play fun games! And I can’t! Why am I so weird?”

Her words pain me. She’s not weird. I say, “Hey, it’s okay, Luxy. We can still have fun inside.” 

She sniffles again as she asks, “How?”

“You want some smores?”

Her eyes light up at my words and I hand her the stick and help her put it near the fireplace. She tells me, “You’re my best friend, Silas.”

I grin, feeling proud of her words, and say, “You’re mine too, Luxy.”

I’m brought back to the present and I look at her. I forgot how I used to call her Luxy. She only let me call her that. If anyone else tried, she would yell at them. I wonder what made me special?

I ask, “Remember the time we made smores after Kai hit you in the face with the snowball?” 

She opens her mouth to respond, but her name gets called before she can answer me. She sighs sadly as she turns around and says, “Guess it’s time to be a princess. Thanks for hanging out with me, Silas. I always enjoy being around you. And yes, I remember. I decided that day that you were my bestest friend out of the four of you boys.”

My heart melts at her words, and I help lead her back to the house.