The Alpha Twins of Red Moon

Five.

The wolves of black Forrest were out in force this morning. Everyone was in such a hurry they were practically tripping over themselves as they readied the packhouse for Red Moon’s arrival.

A horrible part of me wanted to wreck it all, but that wouldn’t change anything. All I would accomplish is getting the others in trouble. As a pack, we had one goal today, and that was to impress Red Moon as much as possible. I, on the other hand, had a vastly different goal. I was going to look so damn ugly that this Adam rejected me on the spot. It was immature, I know, but this was my best shot at this point. I could probably come up with a better plan if I had more time, which I can only assume is why my dad waited until the last possible minute to tell me.

My Father may have commanded me to accept this, but he never said that I had to act responsibly. As I sat on my soft stool in front of my handmade vanity mirror, I had one thought recurring. Okay, two, this room smelled like Mitchell. I still can not believe I gave him my virginity last night and that it had been so incredibly perfect. I didn’t regret having him again before he had to sneak back out the window this morning, even if it meant I had to scrub my skin red raw in the shower once he left just to rid me of his delectable scent.

The other was, why had my father not shared his plan with anyone until this morning? I mean, he told me yesterday, and his Beta Jordan definitely knew, but he only made the announcement to the rest of the pack this morning, surely this was something that had to be weeks if not longer in the making. Maybe he knew giving away the pack’s future Luna on a whim to someone who wasn’t even her mate would cause an uprising of some kind. Perhaps he was hoping to wow them with the red moon visit without giving them enough time to digest how they felt about all this, I hated him for it, but I guess it was a smart move.

Should I cut my bangs horribly? No, nothing permanent. I was still going to have to be introduced to Red Moon as the beta’s mate, and I didn’t want to look like a complete fool in front of my new pack should Adam actually accept me. Luckily only Adam and his Alphas were travelling here today. I know Alphas, red moon had recently handed over the title to the next in line, Twins Noah and Jace. As they were Identical twins, they shared the title.

That’s just how it was in our world. You see, the power of the next Alpha begins at conception before the egg even splits and the twins are formed. Hence they are both true Alphas and share the title. Fraternal twins were different; one was still conceived first; because of this, they were still technically the oldest, so only one of them got to be Alpha.

In the end, I settled for colouring in my teeth with eyeliner. It tasted horrible, and the colour smudged like you wouldn’t believe, but it did give my mouth a nice rotten look. I covered my face and neck until my collar bones disappeared into my shirt, the palest colour I could find. It made me look a little sickly. Which was perfect. I had to blend it just a smidge to make it look natural, but I think I did a good job.

From there, I carefully pencilled in the fullest, bushiest mono brow the world has ever seen. It looked so realistic. I loved it.

Then I dug out my old glasses, I hadn’t needed to wear them since my first shift almost three years ago when I turned seventeen, and I got my wolf. Luckily for me, at the time, I had the ridiculous notion that super large square glasses that appeared round at the edges gave me the cute nerdy girl next door vibe. They were way too big for my slim face and made my eyes look kind of buggy. They complemented the look perfectly.

I was wearing my old painting shirt, so of course, it was old, ugly and ratty. I had three quarter white pants on, and I tucked the shirt in and pulled the pants as high as they would go. I gave myself a quick once over in the Mirror. I looked positively horrendous, perfect.

Red Moon has just crossed our borders. I expect you in my office right now. My father linked me. I pulled on my lime green gumboots, and threw on the bright pink cardigan, with a huge sunflower sewn onto the front that my nana gave me for my birthday to complete the look and stormed down the hall towards my father's study.

Kali had been extra quiet this morning. She hasn’t said a single word to me since she blocked our connection when Mitchell came over last night. I hope she doesn’t shut me out forever. She only been gone a few hours and I already miss her presence terribly

I flung my father's door open. It was protocol to knock and wait until you were told to enter as a sign of respect to the Alpha but I didn’t care. Respect hah, I would laugh if it were funny, but he lost all the respect I had for him last night. Nineteen, almost twenty years of love, respect and family boom, GONE, in an instant. I had never thought it was possible, but here we were.

“Ally, what on earth are you wearing?” His face was so red I was worried he might actually burst. Could you get so angry you could combust? I guess we sort of did when we shifted out of anger. Huh never really thought of it like that before. I think, at least between Kali and me, I’m going to start referring to shifting as busting out now. It had a certain flair to it that I liked.

“It was important to me that I looked my best today daddy. So I got all dressed up. Do you like it?” I did my biggest, fakest Barbie doll smile, and just for the added effect, I twirled happily on the spot like a child, as if I really was proud of the way I had dressed. I guess in a way I was proud that I was taking some sort of stand against all of this.

“GO AND CLEAN YOURSELF UP NOW!” he was losing his temper a lot lately. It may not be very smart of me to keep pushing his buttons right now. Before I could say or do anything, however, Jared, my father’s beta, was at the door. My father must have already been expecting him because he walked straight into the room with three very large men on his heels.

'MATE. MATE. MATE!' Kali repeats the word rather excitedly over again in my head. Oh, thank goodness she was back.

Who Adam? Could I be that lucky?

All three men stared at me. The taller two were obviously the twins. They looked exactly alike and yet completely different. I couldn't place the look the twins were giving me. All I knew was that I liked the attention...

'Wait. Kali, is one of the twins my mate?' Hopefully, no one noticed that deep breath; I just had to smell him. I needed to know what their scent was. I could smell the most delectable scent of peanut butter and rich chocolate, like a delicious peanut butter cup.

'They are both mates.' Kali howls with joy. Surprised didn’t even begin to cover it. Did twins always share a mate? I had never heard of this before.

Suddenly the image of myself as I took one last look in the mirror comes to mind. NOOOOO, why did I have to play this silly little game with my father? I look like an i***t. I hope they don't reject me on the spot. I look ridiculous. This was the most crucial first impression of my entire life, and I was dressed like this? I had grey rotten looking teeth for crying out loud. Not to mention a sheet of copy paper had more colour. Is it possible for the ground to open up and swallow me whole? No? Well, that’s just not fair.

Does anyone else feel the tension in the room right now? I wanted to ask, but I knew better than to question an Alpha in front of a visiting Alpha.

What did this mean for Adam and me? Surely I didn't have to go through with mating him anymore. The twins wouldn’t just give their mate away, would they? It would be torture to see them every day but not have them.

Almost as if they were able to read my mind, one of the twins finally spoke up. I'm not sure which yet as they still haven't introduced themselves.

“It seems like there has been a change of plans.” his voice was like nothing I had ever heard before; it was deep and rough but somehow smooth and sexy at the same time, and it made the butterflies in my tummy flutter.

My father’s face blanched, and he shot me a dirty look like this was all my fault. He has no idea what’s actually going on, of course. Were the twins going to tell him that I was their mate?

“May we speak with you alone, alpha?” My other Mate’s voice was just as sexy as his brother’s. I wanted to be in the middle of a Noah and Jace sandwich. I wish it were me they wanted to be alone with.

“Ally, would you excuse us please?” My father gestures to the door. Kali is whining in the back of my mind. She doesn't want to leave her mates.

I'm sure we will see them later. I comfort her the best that I can. I didn't exactly want to leave my mates either, but I had already made a big enough fool out of myself, as it were. Why did I dress like this? I admonish myself.

You do look rather silly. Kali giggles. But mates think we look beautiful. That, I very much doubted.

Mates, plural. I can't believe I have two mates. Does that mean that it will hurt twice as much if they reject me? Being rejected by one mate was enough to kill some wolves. I don’t think I would survive it twice. What happens if only one rejected me? Could I still have the other? So many questions and no answers.

“You may leave as well, Adam.” the twins dismissed their beta as I left the room.

“So you must be Ally?” he asked me politely.

He was a handsome man. He had to be around 6”2 so pretty standard for a werewolf. He had rich dark brown hair that was a tad bit longer at the top than it was at the back and sides. By looking at him, you could tell he was extremely fit and spent a reasonable amount of time training. He was very muscly. I guess I didn't have anything against Adam, just what my father was trying to force me to do; I had no reason not to be polite with this man, especially since if the twins accepted me as their mate, then we would be a part of the same pack soon and as the twins’ Beta I'm sure we would see each other often.

“Yes, lovely to meet you.” I extended my hand to him, and he politely shook it.

“Nice outfit.” he smiles at me. “I especially like the gumboots.” I couldn’t help it. I burst out laughing, despite feeling incredibly embarrassed.

“I’m so sorry.” I manage to say in between fits of giggles. Maybe I should explain.

“I’m sorry, it’s just, I didn’t find out about all this until yesterday afternoon. I didn’t want to accept you as my mate, because I wanted to wait for my destined mate, but my father used his alpha command on me, and I was left without a choice. It seems silly now, but I was hoping that if I made myself as unattractive as I possibly could, then you might reject me, and I wouldn’t have to leave my home.” I stopped laughing as the sadness crept back in.

Adam came to an abrupt stop. He grabbed me gently by the shoulder and turned me to face him. His expression was unreadable. I didn’t like that.

“Excuse me? Did you say that you were commanded?” He asked.

He looked so incredibly angry with me all of a sudden. I guess I understood, he was being forced into this situation too, but at least he wasn’t trying to make it hard on me. I felt so guilty. I hope I hadn’t hurt his feelings. Surely he would understand. I hadn’t even met him, so although it may feel like I was rejecting him, I wasn’t. I would have dismissed the idea no matter who the chosen mate was. Maybe I should have explained myself better. This whole thing was wrong.

“Yes, but-” before I could even get another word in, he spun around and stormed straight back towards my father's office. Yikes.

I wondered what was going on in there, but I wasn’t about to make the mistake of following Adam to find out. I’m sure I will hear about it again later. Now that I was alone again, I made a sprint for my bedroom. I needed to clean myself up before the twins saw me again.

In seconds I had stripped these awful clothes. I chucked them straight into the bin. If the twins did accept me, I did not want any reminders of that extremely embarrassing first impression.

I flipped the shower on. The water always took a moment to heat up. While I waited, I scrubbed my teeth as clean as I could possibly get them. I took a good look at myself in the mirror. Wholly crap, I totally forgot about the monobrow.

I could practically feel Kali rolling around in my head, she was laughing so hard.

I’m not coming out of this room until I look better than I ever have before. I needed to put twice as much effort in as I usually would. I needed to erase the image of me in my gumboots and monobrow from their minds forever I told myself.