Chapter 49: Discussion with the twins

We all took our seats, and my mother began questioning the twins about how they have been since the last time she saw them. Lyanna wasn’t much of a talker, so Kaela was left to entertain my mother’s brash questions.

Soon the Roran entered the room, and it was as if the air itself changed in his presence. From the look on his face, I could tell that he was in a sour mood. There were a few more people standing behind him, including his wife.

“Lisa, Paul, come with me. I need to talk about something.”

My mother and father looked at each other, puzzled, before getting up.

“Is everything alright?”

Roran stared at her, and a quiet coldness enveloped the room.

“We should talk somewhere else,” he grumbled before walking off, forcing my mother and the others to chase behind him.

“What crawled up his ass?” Derrick asked. He didn’t seem pleased at how Roran spoke to our mother.

His remark caused Lyanna to glare at him coldly.

“Watch your tongue. Don’t forget your place just because you’re Aunt Lisa’s son.”

The two of them glared at each other.

“Lyanna, I’m sure he didn’t mean it that way,” Kaela said, scrambling to ease the tension between the two.

“How else would he mean it?”

“Tsk! I’m leaving. Call me if there is anything important, Liam,” Derrick said as he went upstairs toward his room.

Kaela watched Derrick leave with a sad face. It looked like she was a genuinely kind person.

“Don’t mind him,” Allison said, trying to ease the girl’s worry. “He’s the type to be brood on a family trip.”

Her words made Kaela smile.

“Don’t mind Lyanna either. She admires our father a lot; that’s why she might seem defensive of him.”

“Stop telling strangers about me,” Lyanna snapped.

“They aren’t strangers; they are our cousins. Can’t you try to be a little bit nicer?”

Lyanna didn’t say anything back; instead, she frowned and hissed her teeth. The differences between the two were astounding.

“Well, since we are cousins, I would like to know a bit more about you girls,” Allison said.

“Oh, me too. I would love to know about you guys too,” Kaela said before turning her eyes to Isabella. “For example, I don’t remember aunt Lisa mentioning anything about you.”

“Oh, that’s because she just recently joined our pack,” Allison answered. “She was Liam’s friend before.”

For some reason, Kaela’s eyes sparkled when she heard that.

“Oh, is he your fated mate?! I haven’t found my fated mate yet, so I’m a bit jealous.”

“She’s not—”

“I’m not his mate!”

Isabella shot the idea down before I could get a chance to.

“Oh,” Kaela sunk back into her seat. “I’m sorry for making assumptions,” she said, bowing her head as she apologized. “I’m so sorry!”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” Allison said, trying to calm her. That was when her sister Lyanna spoke up.

“She always goes crazy when the topic of fated mates comes up.”

“It’s not just me; everyone our age does. You’re the only one not interested in finding the person you would spend your life with.”

When the conversation was brought up, I realized Allison had a bashful look on her face. I understood her feelings, at least. She was 25 and still hadn’t found her fated mate. Hearing someone younger than her talk about such things with such excitement must’ve caused her to feel a bit embarrassed.

As for me, my whole existence was so strange that I didn’t even know if I had a fated mate, and if I did, I hoped I never met them.

“How do you know when someone is your fated mate?” Isabella asked. Her face was flushed red, but her gaze had a curiosity to it.

Kaela looked at the embarrassed girl and smiled.

“You just know. The moment you lock eyes with that person, you’ll know that they are the one you’re meant to be with,” she said, practically swooning.

Personally, I found the concept a bit foolish. You lock eyes with a stranger, and for some universal law, you’re supposed to spend the rest of your life with that person. It sounded like a hastle.

“Though for werewolves who have been turned, it’s a bit different. They have the ability to choose who their fated mate is.”

Isabella’s face got even more flushed when she heard that and it seemed she even had more questions to ask.

“So what’s the point of having a fated mate?”

“Well, for one, your connection with the moon grows stronger. Your overall power as a werewolf will get a significant boost, and you’ll also gain access to your wolf form without a full moon the more your bond with your fated mate increases. And whatever children you and your fated mate have will be stronger than the previous generation, and they’ll have a high probability of being born with powerful traits.”

“Oh, I understand, so that’s why it’s so important for werewolves to find their fated mates,” Isabella said.

“Yes, but it’s not that easy. Only about 30% of werewolves manage to find their fated mate since they can be any werewolf from any pack. Our family, though, has been successful in finding our fated mates.”

“That was until aunt Lisa decided to marry a human,” Lyanna mumbled, causing Kaela to scramble to cover for her again.

“It’s not just because of Auntie. You see, our pack has been a traditional one. But things are changing since different monsters started to show up. The world is changing, so we must learn to adapt. I can’t go into much detail, but let’s just say that the next generation to get married might not be fated mates.”

I couldn’t say that I got what Kaela was alluding to, but it made sense for things to change in accordance with the world itself. Sticking to traditions in times like these would only get you killed.

“Is that why your father was acting like that a few moments ago?”

The moment I asked that question, Kaela’s expression seemed to soften a bit.

“It’s part of it, yes. I’m not sure if I should tell you this, but I guess you’ll find this out sooner or later. The reason for my father’s irritable mood is that we are under threat from a different pack.”

“I see, that explains why your brother was so on edge yesterday. Why he attacked us, I mean.”

“Yes, that’s why. My father left the village yesterday to negotiate a type of deal with them. He left my brother in charge. So when my brother heard that there was a group of unknown werewolves near our village, he thought that the other pack was planning to ambush us while our father was away. I guess that’s why he acted so unkindly towards you guys.”

“I take it the negotiations didn’t go well?” I asked.

Kaela shook her head.

“No, they didn’t. They never do. The pack we’re up against, they’re… different.”

“They are a pack of savages, that’s what they are!” Lyanna grumbled, clearly irritated, so much so that her eyes were glowing yellow. “They call themselves the Nyx Pack. Originally, they made their home far north in the mountains, but a few weeks back, they started attacking the smaller packs in the area. Eventually, they managed to beat the other packs into submission and increased their numbers by forcing the other packs to join forces with them. We are the only pack that hasn’t given in to them yet.”

The Nyx Pack, huh? Sounds like trouble. I originally thought that by joining up with a bigger pack, we would be getting ourselves out of trouble, but it seems we were wrong.

“Also,” Lyanna said while staring at me intently, “tomorrow is the day you’ll be assigned roles in the pack, so be ready.”

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