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Ember

4 years old

Jameson ushers me out of my 'room,' and I use that term loosely as it is a closet with a sleeping bag on an old comforter on the floor and a broken bookcase. He puts me in the back of his car, and we drive for four hours.

When we arrived, I’m so hungry and thirsty, he got a burger halfway, but I wasn’t allowed to as I had been bad. I’m not sure what I did, but I probably breathed the wrong way.

We arrived as the moon rose in the sky. It was another blood moon, the same as the one I was born under, or so I read in one of Cook’s magazines.

The Pack Alpha and Luna are in the main hall with visitors, so I’m quickly ushered into a bedroom and told they will deal with me in the morning. I pull the desk chair over to the window because I don’t want to make the pretty room dirty or crumple the couch.

The room is bigger than the dorm back at the group home, a huge bed in the center I would have to take a running jump to get on as it is high off the floor and has frilly cream trim on the top, flowery bedding with ruffles around the edges with loads of matching cushions, the dark wooden frame is paired with side tables and lamps with tassels hanging from the shades, there are two other doors I’m not sure what is behind them, a couch and two matching chairs sit in the window, then a desk that had the chair, that I’m now curled up on. The walls have textured floral paper; the floors are wooden, but large patterned rugs sit between them and the various pieces of furniture, and heavy dark brown curtains frame each window.

My one shower a week was supposed to be tomorrow, so I’m definitely not sitting on anything other than this chair, I hope I don’t dirty it. I fall asleep watching the moon rise, and the sky darken, but I wake to the noise of snuffling and a language I don’t understand. It is definitely a boy I can hear, but I only hear one voice. I stay on the chair as still as possible and try to keep my breathing slow so I don’t anger the voice.

“ Brother, come back.” Peeking my eyes open a little; I can’t really see anything except a tiny bit of floor in front of me. I can still hear the sniffing noise. Jameson called this place a Pack. Wolves live in packs; I wonder if that’s what I can hear sniffing!

“You're going to get us in trouble! Again!” The voice didn’t sound angry; it was only annoyed. I stay where I am, not moving, peeking as little as possible, then nearly scream when a wide-eyed furry face pops up in front of me.

Two fluffy white paws are on the front of my chair, and a fluffy face with two white fox ears and a pair of big lilac eyes are looking at me full of curiosity.

The problem was that something was wrong with the physical view. What I could see and what my sight showed me was different.

The fox before me just looked like an Arctic fox, but my sight showed the same fox but with more tails, the white I could see swishing behind him. There should also be a yellow one, a dark purple one, and a grey/blue one, but they were blurred like how I saw the wolves, bears, and demons at the group home.

Before I have a chance to figure out why he doesn’t look right, he flinches as the voice barks out a closer-to-angry demand, “Who are you?” I frowned at the fox, not understanding the language or how he spoke it.

The fox goes back down on all fours as the voice sounds again.

“Answer me!” This time, a strange feeling brushed over me as the boy who spoke steps into my line of sight speaks. The feeling tickles me, so I giggle. This makes the fox tilt his head, and the boy frown, the boy sighs.

“ Shift back , brother.” This time I understand him, as he finishes speaking, the fox turns into a boy who smiles up at me but stays crossed-legged on the floor.

The boy who had been speaking goes over and turns on the bedside light.

I needed names, or this would be confusing even in my head.

The Fox boy is smaller and has almond-shaped eyes and pitch-black hair. His eyes seemed to change color but are always full of mischief. The boy who spoke, I can see his wolf; he has brown hair that darkens towards the tips to an inky black that I can only see when the light catches it just right. His build is bigger than the fox, but they looked similar, as if they were brothers, maybe?

While I was still taking notes about their appearance , the wolf speaks again, and this time, I understand everything .

“Who are you?” I blink at him and then answer with new questions.

“What language did you speak before? Can you teach me? Are you brothers?”The fox on the floor smiles and starts to bounce in his seat, then answers me.

“Yes, we're twins. I take after Hahaoya, and he takes after our father. It’s Japanese, and Hahaoya

would probably be best to teach you, but don’t speak it to father as he gets angry!” The fox frowns, takes a breath, and then speaks rapidly,

“My name is Jenson, and my grumpy twin is Ren! What’s your name? You smell odd!”Jenson stops talking, smiling at me. I blink and then looks at his twin.

“Hahaoya?” Ren, who is still frowning at his brother with his arms crossed, looks up at me.

“It means mother.” He says with a sigh, then turns a stern look upon me.

“Are you going to answer the rest of our questions?” Again, I just blink at him and then realize I’d ignored everything they asked while I was in their home. I shrink in on myself and mumble out an answer.

“Sorry, my name is Ember. My social worker dropped me off and told me that the Alpha and Luna would deal with me later!” I keep my head down and take a breath. I can see Jenson lean forward and try to catch my gaze, but I don’t look up, and then I answer the other question I was asked.

“I’m nothing! Jameson says I’m broken, but I’m just an odd human, nothing more. That’s why I smell odd.” I hear a growl rise in Ren’s chest, and my head snaps up to look wide-eyed at him as he growls out.

“Don’t say that! You're not broken!” Jenson steps next to him and smiles .

“You're just odd like me.” He looks so happy about the statement as Ren mumbles something that sounded like

“That’s not a compliment, brother!” The sun was starting to rise when Ren wanders out of the room and returns with a pile of clothes.

“Here! These are ours that don’t fit anymore, get washed up, and we will get some breakfast.” He hands me the clothes as Jenson shows me the bathroom.

“Meet us in the hall in 10 minutes.” The boys disappear out of the room.

Eight minutes later, and yes, I was counting in my head, I was standing in the hall in a pair of boys’ boxers, baggy sweats, a joker T-shirt, a hoodie with sleeves that I had to roll up, and fluffy purple socks with baseball bats on. I finger-combed my hair and put in pigtail braids or at least I did my best.

The boys step out of what I’m guessing are their rooms a little down the hall, I follow them down to a kitchen. There were loads of people rushing around, but an older lady smiles fondly at the boys as they sit in a booth-like area, like what I saw through the food place windows from SJ’s car.

“We eat here when the pack has visitors, as Father prefers us to be out of sight, so we don’t embarrass him,” Ren informs me as the lady brings over two glasses of apple juice and one chocolate milk. She places the apple juice in front of Ren and I, and the milk goes to Jenson. We all say thank you, and she again smiles fondly at the boys.

Her focus switches to me, and I see her sniff the air and look at me, confused. Her wolf shrugs at her, and the confused look quickly passes, as she smiles at me.

“My name is Margo, and I’m the housekeeper for the main house. If you need anything, let me know, or if these two try to get you in trouble,” she states with a snicker.

Ren scoffs, and Jenson tries to pull off an innocent look but fails. He’s about to say something when a beautiful lady walks in.

She has long black hair in a braid going all the way down her back, a pair of boho-type pants, and a matching flowing long-sleeved tunic. She floats, is the only way to describe it, over to us and then, in what I now know is rapid Japanese, talks to the boys while trying to smooth out Ren’s wild hair and wipe the chocolate moustache off Jenson. Once she seems pleased with their answers and gives up trying to correct their appearance, she turns to me.

“Hello, my name’s Ainu. You can call me Mama Lou if you want, just like the boys’ half-brother does.” She smiles again as Margo fills the table with more food than I’ve ever seen.

Ren and Jenson all but pounce as I try to curb the hunger pains. I know I’m not allowed to eat until the supes are finished and only if there are leftovers, so I sip my apple juice. I notice Ainu watching me with a confused and worried look, which Ren also notices, and stops eating, looking from my empty plate to me, to the food, and back to my empty plate.

He frowns, then seems to have an internal debate while watching me, then proceeds to plop two slices of buttered toast, three sausages, four bacon slices, and two pancakes on my plate, and then says with a grunted growl.

“EAT”

I felt that strange feeling brush over me again, but I manage not to giggle this time. Ainu smiles proudly at her Sons as Jenson hands me the jug of Syrup that he was all but drinking out of.

While we finished eating, Ainu explains that she was the Pack Luna and that I would meet her mate, the Alpha once the guests left. She also tells me that she is 6 months pregnant, which has both the boys bouncing with excitement. They both want a baby sister as they already have two half-brothers. I’m not sure what that means, but unlike the fond look Ainu gives when they speak about Xander, she looks like she sucked a lemon when Decimus is mentioned. It was the most welcome and cared for I’ve ever felt, but that soon changes when I’m presented to Alpha Gerald Firefall.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS? THAT WEASELLY CUNT PROMISED A VIABLE, MOULDABLE FEMALE THAT CAN BE TRAINED AND brOKEN IN TO BE THE PERFECT DOCILE MATE FOR MY HEIR, AND HE SENDS A WORTHLESS HUMAN THAT’S NOT EVEN WORTH WHAT IS BETWEEN HER FUCKING LEGS! GET THE BITCH OUT OF MY SIGHT!”. Spit was going everywhere as the red-faced Alpha yelled at no one in particular. Ainu looks horrified, and Ren quickly grabs my hand and drags me away before the Alpha can lash out more.

Jenson looks like he is going to be sick, and we can still hear the Alpha bellowing out hateful comments from behind us.

They take me through the woods until we reach a lake with a meadow around it. Jenson shifts and starts hopping around and playing, his four tails swishing behind him. His body starts off grey/blue in colour but swiftly changes to deep purple as he bounces onto Ren’s back, tackling him to the floor, which makes Ren shift, and they start to play fight.

Not long after, Ainu arrives with Xander, who is four years older than us. His mom is a nurse, so he spends a lot of time with Ainu; he also shifts, and the other two go from being competitors to being on the same team and taking down their big brother.

I help Ainu lay the picnic blanket down and start laying out the food they have brought with them. Nobody mentions the Alpha or what he said. We play, and Ainu reads quietly for what feels like a few hours while the three brothers and I run around the lake.

It’s the first time I have seen a shifted shifter, and I have to ask why Ren’s Wolf is so much larger than Xanders even though there is a four-year difference, Ainu explains that Alphas tend to be larger and because of evolution and Alphas need to survive to adulthood, they grow quicker to avoid being killed so they can’t usurp their pack Alpha. Xander is a similar size to a natural wolf, his head level with Ren’s shoulder, which is what he will grow to be, whereas Ren will grow a lot bigger; Jenson’s Kitsune is currently the size of a natural Fox, but he will grow to the size Xander is, maybe bigger depending on his power level. The boys even let me ride on their backs when I start to get tired, so I don’t miss out.

When Ainu calls to say we need to head home, we realize it has not been a few hours, but the whole day, as the sun is starting to set, we eat dinner in the kitchen again. The boys thought it was best to keep me away from the Alpha for a while.

A few months later, Ren and I are down at the stream with Ainu and Xander’s mom, Lenny. Lenny is an odd name for a girl, but apparently, it’s short for something. Lenny had a one-night stand with Gerald before he met Ainu, who is his fated mate, which is how Xander is the boy's half-brother, same dad but different moms.

We were all helping Ainu dye some fabric to make baby things. Lenny came as Ainu isn’t moving as well now that she’s huge ‘Jenson’s description, not mine.’ I’m sat drawing in a notepad until I need to help next. I hear a noise and look up to see Candice walking down the steps towards the stream.

She’s a beta wolf who insists on killer heels and full makeup 24/7. The night before Ainu arrived with her father, who was visiting packs to find her mate, the pack had a big bonfire and party, the Alpha ‘just in case he met his mate and couldn’t deflower any more virgins’ held a competition, the unmated females lined up and took a ride to see who could make him cum the most in a 30-minute session, all this was done out in the open where everyone including Xander could see it.

The next day, Gerald met Ainu. They were mated immediately and spent the next month locked in his room until he was sure she was pregnant. By then, Candice had found out that she was Pregnant. She spent the next few months trying to convince Gerald to take her as a mate and have Ainu for breeding while going around telling anyone who would listen that’s what was going to happen.

She had Decimus at 7 and a half months, which made him the older Alpha to Ren, who was born two months later. Unlike Xander, though, Gerald didn’t claim Decimus, so he didn’t get the Alphas name or become Heir.

As you can imagine, that didn’t go down well with Candice, and her efforts to get attention and recognition steadily got worse, but back to today’s drama.

As she makes it down to the stream, rocking on her heels on the pebble covered floor, she moves to walk over to Lenny, grabbing one of the bags filled with wet fabric and swings it towards Lenny, hitting her in the back.

Lenny falls hitting her head on one of the rocks in the stream bed, as blood starts to flow down the stream. Xander dashed straight to his mom, but as Ainu begins to follow him, Candice swings the bag at her. She lands with a yell, her hands going straight to her stomach.

Candice swings the bag a third time and slams Ainu in the face, throwing her head back with a thud to the stream bed smacking her head on the rocks too.

Ren pounces on Candice, shifting in the process and pinning her to the floor with his jaws around her throat, a constant growl vibrating through his wolf body. Some of the pack overhear the yelling and come to be nosey. On realizing their Luna was bleeding, they rush to help, taking Ainu to the Pack hospital, Lenny unfortunately was pronounced dead at the scene.

As Candice is dragged away to the containment cells, she yells to be unhanded, as now the weak Kitsune is out of the way; she will now be Luna and her son, the Alpha’s Heir. No one is really listening to her, though; their focus is on the Pack Luna.

After getting confirmation that Ainu was doing okay, but the fall brought on the birth and the baby might not make it; the Alpha went straight to the cells and snapped Candice’s neck, then told his enforcers to drop her off at the local human crematorium and pay them off to get rid of her, to dispose of the ashes down a drain for all he cared.

While Ainu was giving birth, Ren and Jenson are pacing. I just sit with Xander, holding his hand. He didn’t seem to acknowledge what has been said, and the shock seemed to be stopping him from crying.

Aimi was born at 4 pounds 6 ounces. She was a squishy little thing but just as pretty as Mama Lou. She was born through an emergency C-section as Mama Lou was still unconscious, but they needed Aimi to be born, or they would have lost her.

Mama Lou woke up, and all the Alpha did was nod at Aimi, kiss Ainu’s forehead, and then leave. Mama Lou was then moved to her room, where she sat propped up with pillows, feeding baby Aimi.

Ren, Jenson, Xander, and I all sat on the bed; I’m sketching. Ren and Jenson are on either side of Mama Lou, and that’s what I draw. I then draw one of Xander and his mum sitting with Ainu as it should have been, which he says thank you for when he sees. We all get to have a little hold of Baby Aimi. All of us but Xander are worried we will hurt her, but he was able to hold Ren and Jenson, so it's not his first cuddle with a baby.

Xander had recovered his mom’s phone, and he takes some photos. Somehow, we managed to get a selfie with all of us. Mama Lou sits and tells us stories while Jenson is curled up in his shifted form with baby Aimi curled up in his tails.

Two hours after Mama Lou woke up, she was changing baby Aimi’ diaper, ‘yuck’, when she calls for the doctor.

We all quickly move off the bed and to the sitting area. Baby Aimi makes a choking noise and then stops breathing for 45 minutes. The doctor tries to get her to breathe again, but then he calls her time of death. He turns to his Luna and drops to his knees in our worry for baby Aimi; we hadn’t realized that Mama Lou had also stopped breathing.

Her lips are blue, and her skin is so pale that it looks like she is made of wax.

Xander and Ren brake into mournful howls. Jenson buries his face in my neck, his hair turning grey/blue as I feel tears drip onto my neck and run down my face.

That night, we hide in Xander’s room. The Alpha goes on a rampage and kills 70 people of all ages. His head enforcer took a stand and tranquillized him before he killed more. Margo explains all this the following day over breakfast and tells us that when your bonded-fated mate dies, most will go feral or die from heartbreak.

The next day, a raft is made of wood, and Mama Lou dressed in a traditional Japanese Kimono and is laid on the raft. Baby Aimi is wrapped in another Kimono and laid on Ainu’s chest, some cherry blossom branches are laid on them before they are pushed into the lake. When they are around the middle of the pack-lined lake, Xander shoots a flaming arrow at the raft and sets it alight, sending Mama Lou and baby Aimi off to the Moon Goddess; the Alpha isn’t there. So, Ren was the head of the ceremony as the pack heir, and there is a small service for Lenny but nothing else.

The four of us learn very quickly to stay out of the Alpha’s way and be as invisible as possible.

During his training to take over the pack, the only one he paid attention to is Ren. Jenson seems to make him angrier, as he looks so much like his mother that it was best Gerald didn’t have the reminder. He acknowledged Xander’s presence, but that was it. Decimus was sent to a shifter version of military school.