Accepting My Twin Mates by Unwise Owl

Accepting My Twin Mates Chapter 75

Chapter 72 – Evie?

Astennu

Our father’s dour expression hadn’t let up since we set foot in the training centre yard, his hands clasped tightly behind his back and surveying over the warriors assembling. During winter, we would hold sessions both outside and in. It wasn’t as though a threat would come exclusively on a balmy day with perfect wind conditions. So we tried to train in as many weather conditions as possible.

Aside from saying good morning with a curt nod, he hadn’t said another word. We had had our share of disagreements in the past, but he hadn’t been this bull-headed over his stance before. I understood he held his prejudices over rogues because of what had happened to my mother; I understood, but I didn’t agree, not by a long shot. It all came down to reputation again with him; he didn’t want to admit he was wrong and have others know he surrendered. In his eyes, it was a sign of weakness.

What made the tension worse between us, was the lack of a buffer. Kate wouldn’t be attending training for a while and Tamlyn would be somewhere on the other side of the pack, running her trackers through their scent drills.

So here we were left, alone with our grouch of a father.

Who didn’t love endless hours of awkward silence and an atmosphere so tense it could be sliced like a taut rope?

‘Focus on tonight,’ Aasim breathed in and out, attempting some form of meditation to keep himself from bursting. ‘We’re getting marked!’

Just the notion, the anticipation of Evie sinking her canines into my neck, marking me as hers forever and experiencing our souls entwine, permanently binding us in a way that only death could break…

‘Bi sharafak (seriously, dude),’ Badru back-handed my chest, drawing me out of my thoughts. ‘Head in the game, ‘akh (bro). This is usually you telling me.’

My head whipped up to see my father staring my way, expectant and irritated, the entire training yard of warriors quiet and waiting.

‘Are you here, or are you elsewhere?’ His jaw ticked and the vein on the side of his temple drummed in a matching beat. “Astennu, care to lead our warriors through their warm-ups?”

I had completely zoned out in front of everyone with a dopey smile plastered on my face, spread from ear to ear.

‘My bad,’ my wolf pleaded guilty, raising his paws in the air. ‘It’s just… I can’t get my mind off of our mate. It feels like we need to be with her.’

‘It’s both our bad… I know what you mean.’

Evie was beginning to concern me that we had returned too early. She had complained of a stomach ache that had begun this morning, waving off breakfast. My mate wasn’t one to pass up on food, but she swore it was simply nerves over her impending rendezvous with my mother alone. If it continued, I didn’t care how much she protested, even if I had to toss her over my shoulder like a caveman, she was going to the pack clinic.

Our warm-ups pushed on, the biting breeze losing its sting as our muscles and bodies prepared for the rigours to come. To get our blood pumping, I decided on a short but steep incline run, just for an hour or so to put our first class of elite warriors through their paces. Our father nodded his approval, bringing up the rear to our group so no one was left behind.

It was interesting to sense the faint emotions trickling through our bond with Evie. An emotion of embarrassment here and there, no doubt from her characteristic blunt and brusque manner of speaking. She was so adorably awkward in situations where she had to try and act polite and genteel, neither of which were words in her vocabulary. The odd flash of sympathy sparked in our bond, which I hoped meant our mother was opening up to our mate and vice versa.

But what I was unprepared for was a sudden burst of discomfort, a sense of vulnerability.

The unpleasantness was enough to stop me in my tracks, just as I was leaping over the craggy sharp incline of our run; Badru, too, stopped abruptly.

Something wasn’t right.

Our group gathered around us in a stop, wondering why we suddenly seemed out of it and had come to a grinding halt.

‘Evie?’ My twin and I mind-linked in unison, but it was as though we were reaching out into a void.

‘I don’t feel r-’

faint, so distant and small. Yet, it hit with the force of a sledgehammer nonetheless. The sense of our bond fading, slashed my insides apart. It was the same feeling I experienced when Evie fell asleep,

mouth. The

shared a look for a split-second, no words needing to

at a flat-out speed, skidding down most of the trail we had sprinted up just minutes ago. I was cursing myself for suggesting we start our session with a run. I had added at least thirty minutes from what it could have been had we stayed in

were unresponsive, we had no clue what threat was lurking and the last thing we needed was pack members getting hurt trying to help. Badru ordered for patrols to remain at their posts and report anything suspect, no matter how trivial it may seem. Nothing had been reported, but

Tamlyn’s voice cut across the racket of mind-links coming through. ‘But we’re on the other side of the

leaf litter and rocks as our paws connected with the flatter terrain, bolting around

one day we needed

followed by my father. Four warriors were already on the scene, one holding the door open for us to rush inside and instructing us upstairs. Two she-wolf warriors waited for us, one inspecting the table contents,

sliding to my mother’s

his

her speech slurred. If it weren’t for my father holding her head up, she wouldn’t have the ability. A red mark lined her wrists and a cut

didn’t recognise lay on her side in a recovery position. Her scent was simple without the werewolf musky edge, so she must have been a human pack member. A small trickle of blood seeped from her temple

person missing…

held my mother spoke. “There was no one else here when we arrived. We’ve checked the Luna and she looks uninjured, but an ambulance is on the way for her and the poor young girl, there,” she nodded down to the floor where the waitress lay. “We think it was

on the table rolled on its edge, the liquid running and dripping to the wooden floor.

moving to wear our mate’s scent was thickest on the floor. She had collapsed at this spot.

of trackers are only a few minutes out,” the warrior by the table informed us, pouring the tea contents into a bottle. “We’re hoping they can pick up what we can’t. There’s no other scents around except something chemically, so we think whoever is responsible was wearing a scent cover and used it on the future Luna to hide their escape. Her scent starts to vanish by the window. We… we didn’t know whether to try and follow

hands, her grip tightening and loosening on the bottle in her hands, worried whether

raised his wolf’s head to settle her fears and then addressed me directly. ‘We need to get on the trail before we lose any more time. You heard Tam,

attention back to our father. ‘Stay and coordinate the others when

I followed my twin, leaping out of the open window

out onto the back of the establishment, away from any eyes of the pack, and faced part of the surrounding forest. The scent of an exhaust lingered in the air, but we were on the edge of the commercial district of the town. The smell could be from any number of cars, wafting over from patrons’ or delivery vehicles in the area. The path around the building had been shovelled for snow, as had the small parking lot, the small drive for goods deliveries and the sidewalk, meaning there were no tacks

My brother called over, his wolf nosing on the edge of the forest

tire tracks from an off-road vehicle imprinted into the snow and mud, leading eastward through the woods to avoid the

a few warriors following, but they would soon fall behind, unable to match our speed. Neither my

the eastern patrol on our borders, receiving a reply almost immediately

be more than a few minutes old,’ the patrol reported. ‘They lead onto the Yakama Reservation.

borders secure,’ my twin instructed, knowing the best way to proceed in an emergency. ‘We’re

halted and sped around me. My running seemed never-ending, yet everything was growing more distant. Aasim was solely focused on two things: willing our bond to awaken with Evie and Evva, and

none of it would happen. A sick and gut-wrenching despair was firmly beginning to root itself

stop us, so we knew they had nothing more to share. The dense overhang of evergreen firs around would dampen and mask most sounds and the perpetrator’s exit had been timed perfectly between the gaps in the patrol groups. Whoever did this, had knowledge of our routes, schedules and

hand since he was thrown from our pack… there was one name that rang in my head incessantly, and from his growing wrathful disquiet, the

hand in this, there wouldn’t

before setting foot on their land, as a sign of respect. But with our

resistance on these lands. The wiccan Family here were out-and-out pacifists. They didn’t have patrols or guards or warriors. Their focus was tending their land, preserving the nature that flourished around them. Notions of violence and war were a world away from

ahead on every bound of our stride. I was first to stumble onto the quiet road that intersected the forest, mud overspilling on the tarmac where the vehicle had slid onto its surface. Just ahead of us was a dilapidated shack, half caved in and on its way to being reclaimed by nature. The

shifted as we neared, yanking the nearest