Twice Marked: The Alpha Twins’ Mate

### Aurora

I always thought I’d forget the pain someday. That time would soften it, maybe even erase it. But time never helped me not when every single day of my life in this pack was a fresh wound.

I wasn’t always the ghost girl they ignored or barked orders at. Once, I was the daughter of the Beta. Once, I was someone. But that all ended the night my father disappeared branded a traitor and coward, the man who abandoned the pack when it needed him most.

They said he sold us out to rogues.

They said he ran with his tail tucked between his legs.

They said he left us all to die.

No one cared to ask why. No one cared that my mother, his mate, collapsed days later and never got back up. She died of heartbreak. I was left with nothing but whispered rumors, narrowed eyes, and the weight of sins I didn’t commit.

I was ten years old when the Alpha demoted me to a maid.

Since then, my world shrank to the back halls of the pack house, the cold tile under my knees as I scrubbed bloodstains from training room floors, the burn of grease on my hands from cleaning the kitchen after everyone else had eaten. I was invisible unless someone needed something. Or unless I’d made a mistake.

I woke up before dawn every day. No alarm needed. My body had learned to rise with the sun or earlier because being late meant punishment. And when the alpha was in one of his moods, punishment meant bruises I had to hide.

Kaden and Kael. The Alpha’s perfect sons. Born into glory and trained for power. They were my age, but it felt like we came from different worlds.

They had everything. I had dust and silence.

At school, they never touched me. That would’ve caused a scandal. But they let the others do their dirty work. They’d laugh when I tripped or when someone “accidentally” spilled juice on my threadbare clothes. They watched when my locker was trashed or my books shredded. They didn’t bully me outright they didn’t have to. Their silence gave everyone else permission.

And at home, where no one could see? Their cruelty didn’t need permission.

They called me “Trash Girl.” “Beta’s Curse.”

They pulled on my hair when they passed by me and would laugh.

Sometimes they just didn’t call me anything at all. Just snapped their fingers and pointed at what they wanted.

And when I took it to them, they’d pull my hair and laugh when I winced.

I hated them.

I hated their perfect hair, their smug smiles, the way they made the girls swoon with a glance while I carried laundry baskets heavier than I was. I hated that they got to live in a world that worshipped them while I got spit on.

Because of them I had to cut my hair short just so the pulling could stop.

But today…

Today, I turned eighteen.

I was finally allowed to leave. That was the promise. One of the few things the Alpha ever said directly to me.

“When you come of age, you can go. Until then, you work.”

I clung to those words like a lifeline.

I was finally going to be free.

At midnight, I shifted for the first time.

It hurt! Moon, it hurt like hell. My bones cracked, my skin burned, and my screams echoed through the forest. But when it was over, I stood tall on four legs.

Then I walked over to a creek and looked in.

My wolf was beautiful, fur white and smooth, eyes blue like gems and power humming beneath my paws. My wolf was strong. And she felt free.

We ran. For hours, we ran in the forest free and without care.

When I returned, the sun was just beginning to rise. I slipped through the back door, careful not to wake anyone. I still had chores to finish before the birthday feast tonight. The twins’ birthday. My birthday too, though no one would remember.

They never did.

No cake. No gifts. Just more work. While they were showered in praise and presents, I was usually elbows-deep in dishwater or carrying heavy trays of food into a ballroom full of people who didn’t even know my name.

But this year, it didn’t matter. Because I was leaving. Tonight.

I climbed the stairs up to my little attic room, more of a storage space really, just to rest for a moment before starting the day’s preparations. As I reached the third floor landing, a scent hit me like a punch to the gut.

Cinnamon. And coffee.

It curled around me, rich and warm and far too enticing. My wolf growled low in my chest, pacing.

Mate.

Mate? Here? Who?

I shook my head and rushed the rest of the way up, slamming my door shut behind me. I tried to drown the scent in the cold water of my shower, but my wolf was already agitated, already stirred.

This can’t be happening. And who could it be?

They would reject me for sure was what kept ringing in my mind.

I decided to skip the sleep, dressed quickly and went back down to start my duties, hoping the work will drown my thoughts.

By midday, I was sent on errands and avoided the twins entirely, grateful they were out shopping for the party. I could breathe. Think. And not get teased while my head was filled with thoughts of the rejection to come. I could at least pretend everything was still under control.

What I didn’t know was that while I was gone, they had come back and followed the scent I left behind.

Straight to my room.

# Kaden

We had just gotten home from shopping when the scent hit us like a ton of bricks.

Mate!

We dumped the bags in the living room on the ground floor and started following the scent quickly around the house.

We had been told we would most likely share a mate due to the fact that we were identical twins, same egg just in different places type of thing.

But it wasn’t something I really thought about until now.

Kael and I followed the scent upstairs to the last floor of the house.

The Attic!

“It can’t be,” I whispered, frozen at the top of the attic stairs.

Kael didn’t respond. He pushed past me and opened the door gently.

“Kael… It’s her” I said in a low tone.

He was staring at the small space in disbelief, at the mattress that barely looked like it could hold a body, the peeling walls, the single cracked window.

And the scent. Her scent.

Sweet. Inviting. A perfect blend of freshly baked chocolate cookies and something softer, something uniquely her.

I felt my knees weaken. “She’s going to reject us, man.”

Kael’s eyes were glassy. He didn’t speak. Just stared at her small, crumpled blanket on the bed.

“She lives here?” he whispered finally. “This is where she’s been all this time?”

I knelt beside the bed and touched it like it might vanish. “How did she manage to survive here all this while?.”

“Our father will never approve of her,” Kael said.

“We need to find her,” I replied standing up. “Now. She’s eighteen today too. If she leaves—”

“We lose her.”

## Aurora

I had managed to escape the twins for the rest of the day.

I walked into my room after the preparations were done and the scent hit me again. Cinnamon and Coffee. It was thick in the air.

‘Mate was here’ Limeria my wolf said In my mind.

Which means I should prepare for the rejection if I ever saw him tonight before leaving.

The night had fallen. The pack house glowed with lights and laughter. The ballroom was filled to the brim, Alphas from other regions, pack warriors, nobles, and wannabes.

I didn’t care.

My bag was packed and hidden in the woods. I just wanted one last look. Not out of sentiment but out of spite.

One last look at all these faces. One last goodbye to this hateful place.

I slipped through the crowd unseen, like I always had, until I spotted them.

The twins.

Standing tall beside their father, being introduced to a visiting Alpha. Their smiles were charming. Their presence magnetic.

And then I smelled it.

Cinnamon and coffee.

The same scent from earlier.

Mate!

No!

From across the room, their heads snapped in my direction.

Our eyes locked.

Oh, Moon Goddess, no.

My heart slammed against my ribs. My wolf howled in my head. I turned and ran, out the back doors, into the cold night air.

But they were faster.

They caught up to me just outside the pack house, breathless, eyes wide with panic.

“Aurora, please, wait!”

I didn’t.

“I reject you both!” I shouted.

The words tore from my throat like broken glass, slicing through the night and through our bond.

They staggered, clutching their chests. The pain hit all three of us like a lightning bolt, but I didn’t flinch. I stood tall even as tears welled in my eyes.

Please, don’t cry. Don’t cry.

“Please…” Kaden’s voice cracked as he stepped forward.

His hand reached for mine, and when it touched me, electricity shot up my arm. My wolf howled again, torn and bleeding from the severed connection.

“We’re sorry,” he whispered. “We’ve changed. We’ll prove it to you. Just give us a chance.”

I looked him in the eyes, those same eyes that once looked down on me with mockery.

“Yeah,” I said, pulling my hand away, “well, I’ve changed too.”

And then I ran.

Away from the pack.

Away from them.

Toward my freedom.

Even if it meant running with a shattered heart.