CHAPTER SIXTEEN: CONSISTENT LIES.

CONSISTENT LIES.

By the time I got back to my grandparents’ mansion, my brain felt like mashed potatoes someone had forgotten on a stove and let burn at the edges.

The whole walk home, I couldn’t get his face out of my head.

I’m your brother.

Brother.

BROTHER. You’re supposed to be dead!

The word ricocheted inside my skull like it had no intention of calming down ever again.

I slammed the front door shut behind me harder than necessary. The echo rattled through the hallway.

My wolf, who’d been prickling against my consciousness ever since the guy said that stupid, stupid sentence, paced restlessly inside me.

He can’t be my brother, I thought desperately.

I kicked my boots off (they flew in two different directions because apparently coordination was not my gift today) and stalked through the hallway with all the grace of a sleep-deprived gremlin.

I needed answers.

NOW.

And I wasn’t going to get them from the pack elders. Or the smiling demons pretending the rogue attacks were a fever dream.

No.

I needed Matteo -- Alpha, grandfather, keeper of uncomfortable truths and unfortunately… he was home.

The door to his study was open. That alone freaked me out. In the little while I’ve been here, I’ve noticed that my grandfather never left the door to his study open. That room was practically his cave. If he was Batman, that room was the Batcave, except instead of gadgets, he had paperwork and bad coffee.

He sat behind his massive oak desk, reading something with an intensity usually reserved for existential crises or tax documents.

His silver hair was slightly mussed, like he’d been running his hand through it all morning. His sleeves were rolled up. A pen rested behind his ear making him seemingly tired.

Not physically.

But in that way my father mirrored when I became the wolfless mutt and the girl who got rejected by the Alpha’s kid.

I hovered in the doorway hoping he’d notice me. I didn’t want to seem like I was intruding on his time but he didn’t look up so I knocked gently, like someone who was not seconds away from imploding.

His head lifted slowly.

“Emily,” he said, a smile rising on his face, lifting his wrinkles from his face.

I took a deep breath, it came out shaky. “Hi.”

His eyes softened. “Come in.”

I stepped inside, closing the door behind me. The soft click felt like suspense in a scary movie somehow.

He gestured to the chair across from him. “Sit.”

I did, folding my hands in my lap so he wouldn’t see them shaking.

For a long moment, Matteo simply studied me in a quiet, assessing way. The kind that made me feel seen and poked at the same time.

“What’s troubling you?” he asked finally.

Where do I begin?

The gaslighting? The rogue attack no one remembers? The ceremony where I smiled so hard my cheeks nearly split? The wolf who refuses to speak half the time? Or the guy who walked up to me and casually dropped a bombshell?

“Oh, nothing,” I said with a smile so brittle it could shatter. “Just the usual identity crisis.”

His eyebrow lifted. “Emily.”

Okay. That didn’t work.

I leaned back slowly, exhaled shakily, and whispered, “Someone said they’re my brother.”

Matteo froze.

Not visibly, not dramatically. But something in the air changed. Subtle. Sharp.

His gaze deepened, like he was peeling back layers of me to read something beneath my skin.

“Who?” he asked quietly.

I swallowed. “I don’t know. He came up to me at the ceremony.”

His eyes narrowed. “Describe him.”

“Tall. Eyes that resemble mine with heavily tanned skin, he looks like he’s in his early twenties though, Smiling face to make me nervous.”

Matteo closed his eyes for a brief second—like he recognized the description, then shrugged his shoulder.

My heart thumped painfully. “Is it true?” I whispered. “Is he my parent’s child?”

He didn’t answer at first.

Instead, he stood. That alone terrified me. Matteo rarely stood during conversations unless the situation required full Alpha attention.

He moved to the window, resting a hand on the sill as he stared outside. Birds flew past lazily. Nothing urgent out there. Everything urgent in here.

When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet.

“Emily… there are things you were never told.”

My throat tightened. “So it’s true?”

His jaw flexed. “What he believes may not align with what is real.”

“That is such a cryptic old-man answer,” I snapped before I could stop myself.

A grin spread across his face, “I’m indeed old, so perhaps.”

I leaned forward, heart hammering. “Grandpa, please. I’m tired. I’m confused. People are acting like I hallucinated an entire attack last week. My wolf won’t talk to me half the time. Bella’s avoiding me. Grandma is… acting gentle but weird. And now someone claims to be my brother. I need you to stop being cryptic and tell me the truth.”

Silence.

Matteo slowly turned to face me fully.

“You were never supposed to be dragged back into this world so abruptly,” he said. “We thought we had more time. For you. For everything.”

“That’s not an answer.”

He exhaled, long and heavy, like I’d asked him to move a mountain.

“There was a child,” he began. “Before you were born. A boy.”

My breath caught.

He continued, “But he did not remain with us. Circumstances made it impossible. Dangerous. He was kept elsewhere for his protection.”

My voice cracked. “So he is my brother.”

Matteo’s eyes met mine.

“There are truths,” he said carefully, “and then there are stories others believe. And sometimes those stories become their truths.”

“That is NOT a no.”

“No,” Matteo admitted softly. “It is not.”

My pulse turned into thunder.

“So he’s my brother,” I whispered.

My grandfather didn’t confirm, he didn’t deny either, he just watched me with a heavy, knowing sadness that made my wolf whimper softly in my chest.

Which was worse. It was SO much worse.

I pressed a shaky hand to my forehead. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

“It was not safe.”

“Safe from what?”

“There are forces in this world that would kill a child like you,” Matteo said quietly. “And a child like him.”

Chills ran down my spine.

“What forces?” I demanded.

His eyes flickered just once.

“Not today,” he said firmly.

“What do you mean ‘not today’? Matteo, someone just walked up to me and claimed to share my blood!”

He held up a calming hand. “Emily, listen—”

“No!” My voice cracked. “Why can’t anyone just tell me the truth instead of letting me walk around like a confused goat?”

His expression softened again. “Because you are not ready for all of it. Not yet.”

I stared at him, stunned.

Not ready?

I’d survived bullying, emotional torture, rogue attacks—as far as my mind knew—and the pack’s collective gaslighting.

What else could possibly—

A knock on the study door cut through the tension.

“Alpha?” a warrior called. “There's someone at the entrance asking for the young lady.”

Matteo stiffened. “Who?”

The warrior hesitated. “He says… he’s her family.”

My blood ran cold.

Matteo shot me a sharp, protective, Alpha-like look.

“Emily,” he spoke quietly, “stay here.”

My wolf growled.

I stood up, “No.”

“Emily dear, ---”

But I was already moving toward the door, heart pounding, refusing to stay put when my entire world was unraveling.

I pulled the study door open—

And standing in the mansion foyer, staring directly at me was the same guy from the ceremony.

My supposed brother.

This time he wasn’t smiling.