Chapter 03

KARA

Twins.

Identical in almost every way.

I peered at them from beneath my thick eyelashes. They sat side by side, opposite me on the dining table. Orion engaged animatedly in conversation while Miles spoke the bare minimum.

Both were corded in muscles and stood easily at 6'2. Whereas Orion's emerald eyes sparked with mirth and warmth, Miles' eyes captured each shadow that flickered across his vision, holding it there until his penetrating gaze darkened.

Each had high cheekbones and razor-sharp jawlines peppered in a dark sprinkling of hair but only Miles had a nose that was slightly offset as if he had broken it on more than one occasion. Orion's full lips were constantly hitched up at the corners whereas Miles drew his into a thin line, giving him a grim and brooding demeanor.

"It's weird, isn't it?" Denver whispered behind his hand from the seat beside me.

The rest of the members who resided in this house had already been served their dinner. At the head of the table sat my father with my mother to his left and his beta, Denver's dad, to his right. I sat beside Ma and Denver beside me. The rest of the table was dedicated to our guests. Each Alpha had brought a total of three wolves with them. Each Alpha had left their Betas to run their respective packs.

"It's something," I deduced with a subtle shake of my head, "weird is putting this whole situation a little too lightly."

"Are we going to get a hint about the first game, Alpha Killian?" Orion's chirpy lilt commanded my attention.

My father's mouth twitched, "The first game will be held at sunset tomorrow. That is all I'll be sharing about the event."

"Keeping these games rather secretive are we?" Orion enjoyed this and the fact that he enjoyed it made my skin itch.

He was too thrilled to ruin someone's life just in the name of a game but had the gumption to want to be friendly with me. I genuinely hoped he lost the first game as I glared down at my bowl of three-bean soup.

"Are you looking forward to ascending as Luna?"

The question made my heart stop. My head whipped up with such force I was certain my neck muscles would be balking in its protest for the next two days. Miles met my flustered expression with a flippant eyebrow raise. He may not have used words but anyone could decipher the gesture: I don't have all day. That was what it meant.

Curling my fingers into tight fists beneath the table, I responded with as much disdain as one could muster, "Luna? I've been trained for that position my entire life. Unfortunately, I feel like I've outgrown that role years ago."

This topic's turn had Miles's interest sinking its claws into me. I felt the way my parents scowled at me—their eyes practically burning holes into my skull as I held Miles' gaze instead of bowing my head in a submissive display.

"Would you like my candor, Red Wolf?" The way Miles dropped his voice by a single octave shifted the room. Everyone and everything melted away leaving him to speak directly and only to me.

It was insane but I couldn't bring myself to acknowledge the others tucked around the table. Not when Miles beckoned me closer with a curl of his finger and my body unwittingly slid to the edge of my seat.

"I'm not sure I want it as much as you want to share it," I lied through my teeth.

Everyone wanted to know what was going through Miles' head. Even if they didn't want to admit it.

He blew out an amused breath, "I agree with you."

"You what?" My father's loud, incredulous tone was the stone to break the glass house which divided Miles and me from the rest of the table.

Miles casually placed his cutlery down and rested his elbows on the table. The stainless of his watch glittered against the warm yellow light from the chandelier above. My father may have been the one speaking to him but he directed his response to me.

"It's foolish. Who better to run a pack than someone who knows the inner workings of said pack? I think you'd fill an Alpha position exceptionally."

Narrowing my skeptical gaze into slits, I quizzed, "Are you trying to use reverse psychology on me or something?"

I didn't anticipate Miles' next set of words or the light chuckle that permeated the air and spilled from his parted lips.

"Many believe my brother and I divided our pack because we entered some sort of squabble. They believe that after my father died, he took over the pack and I was jealous."

We had digressed into territory that was far more personal than I was comfortable wandering into. I shuffled, my seat suddenly growing too hot beneath my ass as Miles continued to stare down his nose at me as if, what he shared, was meant to be profound information.

"Those rumors are exactly that. My father died and it was my mother who ran the pack, albeit without anyone knowing. To the world, Orion made the decisions with me as his Beta but, in reality, it was my mother who made the decisions with us as her Betas," his melancholy rippled off him in sullen waves, "it's just sad she had to pull all the strings from behind us. We were proud of her."

"You didn't resent her for not handing the pack down like she was expected to?" I challenged, finding the entire situation difficult to believe.

Orion swiftly answered, not skipping even a single heartbeat, "Resent her? She was an inspiration. The pack adored her. They knew who truly ran things. The pack has only been divided for the past 6 months, ever since she..." His sentence trailed until an audible gulp followed the bob of his Adam's apple.

"I'm sorry for your loss," I whispered quietly and Lex whimpered her sympathy in my mind.

"Why was the pack divided then?" My father, ever the insensitive asshole, failed to read the room and jumped at the chance to obtain a piece of information the rest of the world didn't have access to.

Orion scrubbed a hand over the stubble coating the angle of his jaw, "We may be twins, however, by pack laws I should rule since I'm older. It should have meant that I became stronger too."

"It became blatantly clear that we were equals and neither one of us wanted to co-Alpha the pack. We divided it straight down the middle and function as neighboring packs would," Miles completed the explanation Orion had begun.

This new information turned my revelation from earlier into an ache. I thought they were competing with one another like they were for their territory but that wasn't it. They weren't competing at all. This was their...civil...way of handling a dispute. It was remarkable. Alphas were prone to resulting to violence. It was the key to solving every problem. These two were smarter than that.

My train of thoughts derailed until the words were on a collision course, rolling off my tongue before I could hit the brakes, "Why did the two of you accept the invite to come here? More importantly, why did you accept to participate in a game where the prize is me?"

"I knew you weren't some meek little wolf accepting all of this, Red wolf. I just needed to see it for myself."

"I told you not to call me that," I snapped at Miles.

A wolfish grin peeled his lips apart until ivory-white teeth glinted. This was the first smile I witnessed Miles adorn and I wished to never see another smile of his again. It was sinister. Violent shivers left goosebumps in their wake and rattled my heart until the organ forgot to beat entirely.

"Although I agree with Miles, you should be able to lead this pack, this is just business. The pack can only go to one of us and we have to play and wed you in the process. You must know, neither Miles nor I would treat you as some ordinary Luna," Orion and Miles shared an indecipherable glance.

This was not at all how I thought this night would play out. I planned on moving forward with the plan to make myself seem undesirable by maybe falling asleep in my bowl of three-bean soup. Maybe I would have even thrown in snores and snorts for good measure while blaming my behavior on exhaustion.

Somehow, the rug I had set in place to pull from beneath their feet, was now pulled out from my own instead. These two encouraged my idea of taking over the pack and even implied that I would help make decisions with whichever one of them I ended up with.

I hid my grimace by tipping my chin down, "That still doesn't make me want to wed either one of you."

"Kara," Came my mother's chide, "this is a better life than any other alpha could offer you. Be more grateful."

"If you don't want to wed one of us, maybe you could wed us both," Orion mused as if my mother hadn't said a word.

"Pity that we sometimes have a problem sharing," Miles added, somehow finding this a perfectly acceptable idea.

"Excuse me?" I wanted my voice to sound stronger but it slipped out on an embarrassing shriek which was sore to even my ears. The chair scraped against the hardwood floors as I jolted to my feet, a whip of rage flailing out of me as I spat, "No. Just no. That's insane. I don't even want one of you, why on Earth would I want two?"

"I didn't mean—"

Before Orion could finish that sentence, my feet carried me out of the room with a storm brewing in its wake. My parents would have a fine amount to say about my behavior tonight.

This was just too much. Too much. So much. I couldn't breathe. From a walk, my legs kicked into second gear to a jog. Then, I was outright sprinting toward the pack house doors, throwing them open and leaping from the top step until Lex burst free with an agonizing howl.

I sunk my paws into the damp earth before taking off into the shadow depths of the forest. The burn in my muscles was a welcomed reprieve from the icy November breeze which wailed in my ears as I picked up speed.

In a week there would be a winner. In seven days I'd have a fiance.

"Is running away still off the table?" Lex's grumble echoed in my mind.

"And become a rogue?" That wasn't an option.

"I have a feeling this will all work out the way it's meant to in the end," the surety of her words washed over me like a wave kissing your ankles as it crashed onto the shore.

Leaping over a falling tree in my path before trotting to a stop at the edge of the cliff, I gritted, "And I have a feeling that everything is going to go downhill from here, Lex."