Chapter 57

Accepting My Twin Mates Chapter 57 Chapter 57 – Папа?

Evie I chewed through my piece of rye toast, topped with the last of my cheese omelette, reading over everything Astennu and Badru had given me on the tablet. Lucy had sat perched over my shoulder, reading out to Tamlyn as I ate breakfast, trying to digest everything; the food and the information.

How does a pack of wolves that walk around on two legs, stay hidden, then suddenly come out to the world and then vanish?

‘Kamchatka peninsula isn’t exactly local to anything,’ Evva sighed, straining to make sense of things as my finger ran along the map image on the screen. ‘Who exactly would spot them out there? The reindeer?’

‘True… but I wonder what made them go into hiding and why did they stop hiding?’

Aside from a few human populations, there were no other pack settlements east of the Ural Mountains of Russia. The peninsula’s landscape was dominated by volcanoes, active volcanoes. They could have stayed hidden forever and the world may never have known they ever existed; outside of the myths and rumours, that is.

As I finished my last slice of toast, Lucy took the plate from me, busying herself tidying up. She did this when she was stressed.

“How did you like it? I tried making the eggs with some different flavours this time,” and she began rambling about the cheeses she had used.

“Lucy,” I grabbed her hand to stop her. “They were perfect, just like everything you make.”

She had come to my room with breakfast, not long after the twins had left. The omelettes had smelt like heaven. Every scent held a slightly sharper edge now that I was beginning to pick up on all the nuances, as my senses settled into place. Lucy said she was doing fine, but she looked on edge. A permanent crinkle was etched across her forehead and she seemed to flinch at sudden movements.

In 24 hours of being unconscious from shifting, I had missed so much. She may have been free of the mate bond and a mate that was unworthy of her, but what had it truly cost?

“Can we see?” Lucy’s eyes flitted down to the blurred picture of what was thought to be a lycan. “Your wolf?”

Tamlyn snorted, “yeah, just whip it out, miss lycan.”

“I suppose, but not here. Evva gets a little big,” I eyed the ceiling of my small room. “Let’s head out to the forest.”

Out in the woods at the back of the pack house, I began to strip. Lucy instantly turned her head, muttering about nakedness. She had to be the most prudish werewolf I had ever met when it came to nudity. I handed my clothes to Tamlyn to hang onto while I prepared myself for the shift, praying it wouldn’t be as bad as the first.

It wasn’t, but neither was it pleasant or easy. This time, it was akin to having my limbs slowly torn off, rather than the addition of my skin set alight in flames and thousands of searing needles puncturing my bones.

Evva took control over our wolf form once we stood, stretching and shaking out our fur, loosening our muscles. Our breathing came out in deep grunts, resonating from deep in our chest.

“That had better be your wolf breathing,” Tamlyn commented at the sound.

Lucy steadily cracked an eye open and her jaw along with it when she saw us. “Oh my goddess!”

Evva slowly pirouetted on the tip of our toe, giving our audience the show it deserved, as she put it, despite the fact that there was only Lucy to see it.

“What! Come on, describe,” Tamlyn rattled her arm.

She stepped forward with her hand out as Lucy described our appearance, her finger sliding up and down our fur.

‘Whoa, hey,’ we jerked away from her hand when she inadvertently dropped lower. ‘Save that for Suzanna at home.’

“We should all go for a run together,” Lucy’s face lit up.

“Shoot, I’m down,” Tamlyn used her cane to guide herself to the nearby tree and hung my clothing over the low branch, along with hers.

I closed my eyes for Lucy’s benefit, so she could shift to her strawberry russet wolf, Lobelia, and I heard Tamlyn shift to her wolf, Tomoe. Poor Lobelia, her tiny wolf looked like a little stuffie next to Evva.

Tomoe’s glossy black wolf was quite larger, but still dwarfed by us.

We took off into the surrounding forest, keeping our pace to match Lucy’s small wolf. She wasn’t the fastest, but she was agile enough to cope with the craggy terrain our path led. Tomoe and Tamlyn gripped the tip of our tail’s fur when we reached the steeper and more uneven inclines. I finally felt like a real wolf, instead of feeling like I was an imposter. To not just run with my mates, but to run with my friends, just as other wolves did.

Lobelia and Lucy were starting to slow, so we decided to head back. Being an Omega, she hadn’t the stamina to keep up for too long.

‘Evie?! Where are you?’ Badru called out suddenly.

‘Heading back to the pack house? I just went for a run with Lucy and Tam.’

Wasn’t he on patrol with his brother? He didn’t sound as though he was hopping on the mind-link to check in. He sounded agitated.

‘When you get there, stay there and wait for me. I’m coming to get you.’

A wave of panic crashed down my spine. Were we in danger?

‘I can feel your panic,’ he quickly added. ‘Don’t worry. It’s nothing bad. It’s about as opposite as bad as you can get.’

Back by the tree we had hung our clothes on, I had barely pulled my hoodie over my head when I felt the familiar tingles play across my temples and dance along my neck. As my head poked out the hole, a pair of strong arms swept me off my feet, Badru, crashing his lips to mine in a kiss so deep, my tongue was almost stolen from my mouth.

‘Wow,’ Evva muttered in a daze. ‘That was a Gone With The Wind level dramatic entrance.’

“Oh goddess, get a room, you two. I can hear the suction,” Tamlyn wrinkled her nose and clapped her hands over her ears.

“Come with me,” he whispered. “There’s no other way to say this. There’s a man that came to our borders. His name is Konstantin, he’s on his way with Aste… he’s your father.”

Evva awkwardly laughed in my mind, ‘where’s the punchline?’

“How can you be sure? What if-” Lucy began.

“He’s for real.” Badru cut in. “A thirty-second conversation was all we needed… you look and sound a lot like him, minus the beard and thick Russian accent.”

I couldn’t even take in his joke, focused solely on two words, my father. There had always been this lingering pull that something was out there. I had always assumed it was my wolf, that I was waiting for her and that was all.

“What are you waiting for?! Go!” Lucy shoved me, smacking my ass.

‘Take as much time as you need Ru, Evie. I’ll take over Lucy’s security if she requires it and any of yours and Aste’s duties so you’re left undisturbed,’ Tamlyn mind-linked us in private.

‘Thanks, Tam,’ Badru glanced over his shoulder, but my feet were on autopilot, guiding me in a direction I knew instinctively.

I broke out into a run, ignoring any fatigue from my completed run, following the feeling I now had a name to. The trees blurred past in hues of browns, greens and white from the snow. I knew Badru followed closely, pulling me out of the path of branches I was blind to in my single-minded objective.

I burst through into a clearing, rocky crags lining one side. And on the far side, stood two figures, recognised for two very different reasons. One was Astennu, and my heart skipped a beat as it always did when he was near. The other? A deep profound recognition took hold; my wolf’s spirit identifying his… our father. I didn’t need anyone to tell me otherwise.

I saw his lips move and a whisper of a word carried on the breeze along with his scent, solnyshko and heartwarming smell of the mountains. Both were an echo of some beautiful memory. I couldn’t blink as I drew nearer, afraid if I did, the vision of the man in front of me would vanish.

The same dark blond hair, a shade darker than mine, flowed down his shoulders. Under a pair of thick eyebrows, my eyes were reflected back at me, in identical hues of grey and blue. I could see the hint of a scar that ran down the left side of his face, not that I cared or focused on something so trivial to me.

My heart hammered and threatened to spill from my chest as I drew nearer. He stood rooted to the spot, our eyes never once dropping the other’s intense gaze. I stopped before him, continuing to stare up into a pair of eyes I couldn’t remember yet never forget.

“Evgeniya,” he whispered, my father whispered, his heavy Russian accent apparent all the same.

My bottom lip quivered and the first tear slipped, followed by another, as he raised a trembling hand to my cheek, brushing his knuckles against my skin.

Evgeniya…

‘Our name,’ Evva croaked, a missing puzzle piece falling into place for the two of us.

The pads of his thumbs wiped under my eyes, even though the shimmer in his was just as strong, his tears disappearing into his beard.

“Moye solnyshko… my sunshine, my beautiful girl,” he rested his forehead against mine, nuzzling against me just as I had seen so many parents do to their pups.

His huge arms engulfed me, wrapping around my back and he peppered my hairline with kisses. It was the sort of safety that I had always wanted, one I never thought I would ever experience. Not the security that came from a mate. That, I already had, twice over. This was the security only a parent could give.

“H-how did you know?” I spluttered.

“I felt our bond grow,” he tilted my chin up to him. “When your wolf…” he paused, in anticipation of her name.

“Evva.”

“Kirill,” he indicted himself. “When she appeared for you, I knew it would only be matter of time till you shifted.”

“So… it is normal for lycans to get their wolf before they shift?” I sniffled, wiping at my nose.

“Da (yes), to prepare our bodies in weeks before. As you have felt, lycan shift is not pleasant,” his brows furrowed deeply, most likely remembering his own shift.

‘It was a bag of d***s, is what,’ Evva grumbled.

“Here. I have waited 23 years to give this,” my father opened his coat, looking for an inside pocket, and retrieved something shiny and silver-coloured. A locket? “It was your mother’s.”

I turned it over in my hands, spotting the stamp for white gold. Flipping it over, I noticed three words delicately, but somewhat crudely, carved into the surface.

Евгения вереск Константин “Those are our names,” his thumb traced the top line. “Yours.” He traced the bottom line next. “Mine.”

The middle name, his thumb lingered on. “And your mother, Heather, moye tsvetochek, my little flower.”

I popped the locket open, finding a single picture inside. It was a little faded, but it didn’t detract from the beautiful woman it depicted with shiny ginger hair and pale hazel eyes. Her name, Heather, suited her well. There were a few similar features we shared; the same mouth as mine and the same nose.

“Do you want to come back to the pack house?” Astennu interjected and, for a brief moment, I had completely forgotten we weren’t alone. “We’ll get you the best room, get you cleaned up, and maybe have something to eat.”

“Pack house?” My father looked wary, not suspicious of the offer, but of the place.

“You’ll be our guest. No one is about to question it,” Badru backed him up.

“My last time in a pack house did not end well,” he stared down at the picture of my mother.

“Please?” I gripped the locket with him. “I want to know everything.”

“How can I say no?” He gripped my chin, tugging it playfully. “Well?” He turned to my mates. “Lead the way, volchata.”

“That means little wolves, doesn’t it?” Astennu sighed, an almost invisible quirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.

“It does,” my father flashed a teasing smile under his beard.

“That’s not gonna be the last time we hear it either, is it?” Badru tagged on.

“It is not.”

“How much bonding time did you three have before I got here?” I looked between them.

“Enough,” my father chuckled, patting my back.

‘A rogue calling a pair of Alphas little wolves,’ Evva cackled. ‘We didn’t fall far from this tree.’

‘We really didn’t,’ I looked up at the man that was my father, seeing the same blunt and straight-spoken attitude that had given me a reputation in the pack.

“You know English pretty well,” I made conversation as we headed back.

“Your mother taught me,” a wistful sigh escaped his lips. “I did not understand her at the start, she did not understand me. But I knew I liked her,” a deep chuckle rumbled in his chest. “I was not as affected by mate bond as your mother was. She said I was a hard one to win over.”

I saw the identical look cross over both twins’ faces. Badru fought back his burst of laughter and Astennu side-eyed me with a huge grin.

‘Oh f**k off looking at me like that!’ I snapped, practically hearing their thoughts.

‘The moon goddess, straight up, hit copy and paste with you,’ Astennu’s hand brushed against mine.

“But why is that?” Badru asked. “Do you feel it differently, or, what?”

“Pheromones,” my father kept his gaze forward as we walked and tapped the side of his nose. “Lycans produce more. Volchata (little wolves) should not be lazy and hope bond will do all their work.”

‘Where has this guy been all our lives?’ Evva was already devoted to the man she knew nothing about, other than he shared our love of teasing our mates.

I didn’t know where he had been or what had kept us apart, but I was determined to find out.

The pristine white wood of the pack house exterior came into view as we cleared the treeline and it was clear from my father’s face, he wasn’t happy to step into one.

“What is it about packs that you’re against?”

He glanced down at me, his eyes sweeping over my face.

“They use, with no care.”

“No one here is gonna try and use you or make you do anything,” Astennu stood beside him and it was the first time I had gauged just how built my father was in comparison to an Alpha. These lycan genes weren’t playing around.

“Wolves who destroyed my home said same words. And Heather’s Alpha wanted to use our bond to make me fight for him,” this was the first time I had seen his eyes take on such a hard edge as he stared down my mates. “You, I trust… your father, I do not.”

‘What don’t I know?’ I looked between Badru and Astennu.

‘He hasn’t spoken yet about what’s happened to him… but he came looking for you as a baby and our dad turned him away, saying there hadn’t been any pups found,’ a small growl rumbled in Astennu’s chest.

‘I don’t know why he lied, but we will get the truth out of our dad, once we get yours settled,’ Badru gripped my hand.

They led us around to the main entrance and up to the arched porch supported on white carved wooden posts depicting spiralling wolves.

“We mind-linked the staff on the way here and they got a great room set up for you-” Astennu’s boot had barely made contact with the first step of the staircase when my father froze, a deep, menacing rumble vibrated the air.

“You!” He bellowed and I followed his line of sight… straight to Alpha Isaac coming down the wide hallway from his office.

And the recognition was instant on the Alpha’s face.