Chapter 8

Alexander POV:

When Mom went down and Avery barked orders, no one listened, as I expected. Without thinking much, I shouted, "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!! ARE YOU REALLY OKAY WITH LETTING THE MOTHER OF FOUR CHILDREN DIE??? TWO OF WHICH ARE JUST NOW DEVELOPING THEIR WOLVES! YOU KNOW THAT'S HOW ROGUES ARE CREATED RIGHT?! SO GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND HELP OUR MOTHER!!!"

At first, everyone looked at me like I was insane, even my wolf howled in my head for disrespecting a room full of Alphas, but I didn't care one bit. My mother's life was on the line and I was not going to let her die."WELL?!" That finally lit a fire under their grouchy asses and they began following my brother's instructions. When I looked to the side, I saw Katelyn trembling with Lydan in her arms. I couldn't see her eyes since she refused to take her bangs out of her face, but I knew she was watching Mom.

"Mom will be okay." I comforted Katelyn like it was my job. Ever since mom went into a coma the first time, Katelyn and I have become inseparable. She's more a part of the family now than she was before. She would come to me with nightmares, or ask Avery to help her change Lydan's diapers. Katelyn didn't know what to do without mom, so she decided that she wanted to take mom's place even though she was so young. She was terrible at it.

Katelyn looked at me like she didn't believe me, and I couldn't blame her. What is Mom never woke up this time? "It's going to be okay." I doubled down, "Avery is helping her."

"Avery is 11!"

"And you are 5! Stop acting like everything falls on your shoulders!" She froze at that but I knew it needed to be said. There was nothing I could do to comfort her now that is was out there.

"Mom isn't here... and Dad is dead! Someone has to take over!"

"And it does not have to be you. Mom is right there. look at her, Avery is using everything he knows. and look at all the people helping." I had to look myself, to prove to myself that our mother will be fine. The man that was grabbing her hand... he looked so sad. But more than that, he looked like the man I saw in the mirror every morning. The man I saw in my twin brother. With them standing side by side? The resemblance was clear. "Katelyn, I'll be right back, would you like me to take Lydan?"

"No..."

"Alright." I got up and made my way to the mystery man. "You." I looked at him, "We need to talk."

His eyes flickered around the room as if searching for something, an exit maybe. "Yeah, sure." I lead him to the balcony, away from the chaos of what was happening.

"So kiddo... Your name is Alexander?"

"That's right. And my twin brother in there is Avery. What's your name? So my wolf can stop calling you mystery man."

"I like Mystery Man." He laughed, loud and boyish, definitely not alpha material. "Anyways my name is Donivan."

"Why do we look alike?" I asked, cutting straight to the chase. "And I know stuff about genetics. I more so mean how. Were you and my mom mates? Before Jasper?"

He snorted woefully, "Jasper stole your mother from me. He's an alpha. I'm not. So I couldn't fight for her even though we were fated. I didn't know she was pregnant, otherwise I never would have handed her over. I should have laid down my life, I think about it every night."

I pointed to his neck, "You moved on quickly. That seems old."

"This... is a story for another time."

"Is she kind? Like my Mama?"

"She was, yeah." Was... right. It makes sense, mates are constantly refreshing their marks of claim. If the mark is old, she's either dead, or they've gone their separate ways already.

"Alex! Alex!" I turned my head to my brother, who had a grin bright enough to shame the sun, "Mama's back!"