Lahat ng Kabanata ng MARKED BY MY BROTHER’S BESTFRIEND: Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 39

~~ THORNE ~~“What did you just say?” I ask Elder Luke.He exhales slowly before he looks at me. “I said you have to get married to Tatiana. Thorne, she has to become your Luna.”I pause and look at him with narrowed eyes, trying to understand where all this is coming from.With the way Elder Luke keeps flexing his fingers, I'm sure something is wrong. Something happened to make him this agitated.“Why?” I ask him. “What happened?”He opens his mouth to talk, but closes it and lets out a shaky breath.“The Elders aren’t happy that you brought Aria.” He finally says. “I warned you, Thorne. You would have kept the girl somewhere else.”I snort and smile. “C'mon, Elder Luke. So this is what had you shaken up? The Elders can't do anything to me. Their duty is to advise, not tell me how to run my pack.”“You're wrong!” Elder Luke shoots back. “That is where you're wrong. According to the ancient laws, the elders have a veto power, Thorne.”The smile on my face fades into a frown instantly

~~ ARIA ~~“I’m going back to the human world,” I tell Mira.Her expression shifts immediately, worry creasing her forehead. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Aria.”“I know how it sounds.”“You could make a life here,” she says, leaning forward. “This is your world too. You’re a wolf, whether you’ve spent your years among humans or not.”“I know that,” I say, and I mean it. This isn’t about denying what I am. “It’s not because of Thorne, if that’s what you’re thinking.”She doesn’t answer, but the look on her face tells me that’s exactly what she was thinking.“I’m not safe here,” I continue. “Not with the elders circling, not with Alec’s threats hanging over my head. I need to figure things out on my own terms before I come back for good. So for now, I’ll wait. I’ll watch for the right moment to leave, when I’m sure Alec won’t catch wind of it and try to intercept me.”Mira doesn’t look happy about any of this. Her jaw tightens, and for a moment I think she might argue further. But

~~ ARIA ~~“My brother?” I ask Sophia, trying to understand how she could possibly be in touch with Alec.“Yes,” she says, holding out a folded note toward me.I glance at Mira. She shakes her head, a warning clear in her eyes, the same look she gives me whenever she thinks I’m about to do something reckless.Then I look back at Sophia, who offers a reassuring smile and nods, urging me to take it.Reluctantly, I reach out and accept the note, my fingers closing around it slowly, and the paper feeling heavier than it should.“How did you even come in contact with my brother? Have you been working for him this whole time?” The question comes out sharper than I intend, and it's laced with suspicion I can’t quite shake. After everything I’ve been through in this house, trust doesn’t come easily anymore.“No, nothing like that,” Sophia says quickly, shaking her head, her hands raised slightly as though to prove she means no harm. “My mother needed sunlight, and Alpha Thorne allowed us to

~~ ARIA ~~The note unfolds slowly in my trembling hands, and my eyes scan the words scrawled across the page.[Aria, you’re in danger. You haven’t taken your medication, the one administered to you every five years since childhood. If you continue going without it, the risk of you revealing what you truly are becomes dangerously high. Come home. The elders don’t approve of you staying under the roof of the man who murdered our mother. Aria, he killed our mother that night. I wouldn't have believed it either if I hadn't seen him do it with my two eyes. Call this number the moment you read this.]A phone number sits beneath the message, scrawled hastily as though he wrote it in a hurry.I freeze, staring at the paper as though the words might rearrange themselves into something that makes sense if I look hard enough.“What the hell,” I whisper, my voice barely audible even to myself.I read it again, slower this time, hoping I misunderstood something the first time through.But the wor