Fate's Pawn: Twin Moons

Chapter Two: Orchid and Lapis

I wasn’t that far away from the schoolyard when my best friend joined me. She bumped her hip against mine as she hugged me and glanced behind us. “How did they like ol’ Mossy?”

“You shouldn’t be so rude, Orchid,” I chided.

She shrugged flipping her long blonde hair over her shoulder. “Well, she shouldn’t be such a b***h to you.” She said it with a smile but it sent a jolt through me.

“You already know why she does, why most of them do.” I looked down at the ground for a moment before I continued to move. “It doesn’t matter, I don’t get to be part of the pack much longer anyway.”

“I wish I could go with you. Quinn is something else, have you seen him? He’s exactly what I’d want in my very own personal alpha, woof.”

“Could you not?” I shuddered. “It’s bad enough that I’m being forced to go there to destroy a pack, I don’t want to think about what he’ll most likely do to me after the prophecy comes to pass. It doesn’t matter what he looks like, all alphas are the same, evil, self-serving, despicable.”

“Lapis might not be though.”

I tried to not roll my eyes, I did. Orchid had been crazy about my brother ever since we were children. At the time I think it was the only reason she had become friends with me, she must have thought she would find some secret in if she was best friends with the one day leader’s twin sister. Oh, how wrong she had been. Still, I appreciated that she had actually become my friend, I just wish she had gotten over the whole obsession with my brother, he was not worth it.

‘Hey!’ Of course, Ivy would have something to say about that thought. ‘That is your future leader, and you will pay respect!’ Her voice rang through my head and I winced.

‘What are you going to do when we’re part of another pack? How will your loyalty split then?’ I loved to torment her with questions like this when she got under my skin. She was honor-bound to obey the pack, but if she was part of another pack then those rules applied there as well even if us being sent there was a way to just destroy the other group. I really think she’s too stupid sometimes to realize that it’s basically our death that we’re walking into.

‘It doesn’t matter if we survive or not, it matters that we live and die by the code of the pack.’

Orchid wrinkled her nose. “Is Ivy giving you a hard time again? It’s too bad you’re not like me and Sunflower. We get along just perfectly.” She flushed. “We’re kind of like Lazuli and Lapis. Just two beings that want and feel the same things stuck in the same body, like two perfectly matched souls.”

Ivy had stopped ranting enough to take notice of Orchid and even she was rolling her eyes with me. We both loathed the idea of being matched souls. “Anyway,” I interrupted. “We have to get prepared. Have you decided on your strategy yet on the race?”

Orchid shook her head. “I haven’t thought about it much. I doubt any of the males will shoot for me if I’m last and…” She blushed and smiled at me. “If I’m last, that could give you a little bit more time, right?”

Ugh, this girl could be so cute. I resisted the urge to hug her, hard. Ivy was just rolling her eyes at me of course but at least she didn’t go off on a full-on rant. “Listen, I don’t want you to try to get last so I have extra time. I’ll make sure to do as well as I can, and no matter what, you race hard. I don’t care if you don’t think the others will be after you. You know as well as I do our fate if we’re last, and it won’t be fun.”

“But-”

I shook my head. “No, Orchid, you’re not throwing the race.” I nodded as she wilted. This was better than her getting raped by some wannabe alpha. “You know the best route to take?”

She shook her head. “No, not really. I figured I’d try to stay higher.”

That could work. Staying high could keep her out of sight of some of the others. “That might work best for you, just be careful of any traps.”

She turned those worried eyes my way again. We both knew the reality of the situation. I would likely be targeted. My pack was obsessed with making me suffer. Coming in last in the race and having no time to escape the males would be heaven to them. They would love nothing more than for me to be degraded and taken before I was sold off to the other pack.

But I was equally determined to not let that happen. “I’ll be fine, Orchid. I just have to make sure that I get as big of a head start as I can before Ivy takes over. I’m not sure if she’s willing to give it her all and I don’t want to depend on her.”

‘I would rather not depend on you either. If the pack wishes us to lose, then we should lose, period. There is no shame in bending to the will of the majority.’

I grit my teeth but chose to not answer her this time. I would just make sure that I went above and beyond on my part of the race, and I was going to try something I hadn’t attempted before, something that I couldn’t even think about because if Ivy found out the game would be over. “You stay high, keep moving. Don’t let the other women trip you up or trap you, you’ll be fine, Orchid. I know you will.”

She smiled at me and it warmed me up inside. “Thanks, Hazel. I really would have gone last if it helped you though.”

“And I would have found something to smack you with for being so stupid after I got kicked out of the pack for killing whoever tries to just take you,” I replied right back to her. “I’m not about to let my best friend suffer for me. Besides, wouldn’t it be kind of hard to get Lapis’s attention if you did that?”

She nodded. She stopped walking beside me and her pretty green eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. Oh great, just what I needed to make this day even better. “Hi,” she squeaked so softly that no one could possibly hear her.

“Hazel,” my brother greeted me with a sharp nod. His black hair ruffled in the wind and his piercing gold eyes, the one thing we shared, studied me. “I take it you’re preparing for the race?” His lips twitched. “Maybe you should give up now and throw yourself on the mercy of the pack. I don’t imagine you’re going to get very far.”

“I won’t just let myself be used,” I spat back.

His face darkened as he looked away. “Well, we’ll see about that, sister. You know the ones in the hunt with me, right? I’ve heard them talking.” He looked at me then, actually looked me into the eyes and made contact. “I hope you’re right because you’re going to be a target.”

I wanted to demand why he was telling me this now. We weren’t friends, we barely knew each other at this point. He had the best of everything from the time we could toddle around, while I was always left behind, the unwanted one. “Why are you telling me?” Oh, I guessed I was going to demand it after all. If this was a trick, I needed to figure it out and fast.

He looked away from me again. “You’re leaving us soon.” The confidence and cockiness of the alpha to be wasn’t as present in him today. “I don’t want your final days to be just more pain and suffering.”

I could hear Orchid swooning from where I stood. Everything he was saying was just strengthening the whole prince charming thing for her. “My whole life has been that, brother. Maybe you should worry more about your part in the hunt and what kind of leader you’re going to be.”

Lazuli growled at me and Ivy was having a panic attack. I ignored both as I glared at him. Lapis, on the other hand, wasn’t on the same page as his wolf. “I’m going to be an entirely different alpha than what we have now.” He nodded at me. “For what it’s worth, Hazel, good luck. Oh, and Ivy, I order you to not sabotage her.”

‘What!’ Ivy was freaking out now. It was rare enough for Lapis to talk to me but for him to order Ivy was unheard of. I had to wonder if he had a terrible accident and had hit his head or something. He was not himself at all.

‘You heard him, Ivy, you have to actually do your best this time. That's your future alpha and you will obey him, remember?’

She growled at me, oh man did she growl. But I felt it as she bowed her head to him. At least she wouldn’t be able to sabotage me flat out, but that didn’t mean I would be able to do this without trouble. All of the females besides Orchid were going to try to make me fail in the Great Race, and in the Great Hunt, the males were determined to make me suffer. I would still have to try my hardest to come out in one piece after all this.