Chained To Fate

Chapter 2

Jared Pov

    “Boys! Breakfast! Don’t make me come get you!” I groaned, pulling the pillow over my head as the sound of my mom’s voice echoed up the house from the loudspeaker she always used. I swear, just because she’s the wife to the second in command in the pack doesn’t mean she has to be this way at home. I get enough of it at practice. Then, of course, on that cue, loud emo music starts pounding from the joined bedroom through the shared bathroom. I groaned again, sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as I tried to ignore it. Every damn morning Easton blasted that crap, but I couldn’t complain, there was no point. Dad worked in the morning, leaving us with mom every morning, and Easton was mom’s favorite.

    I could hear his side of the bathroom door open and close, telling me he left and I could go in. Sure, it shouldn’t matter. We’re twin brothers, even though we looked nothing alike. Even still, it mattered. I stood up and went into the bathroom, turning on the water and taking a quick shower, knowing Easton would complain if I took too long since he liked to take morning showers also. I finished fast, turning off the water and drying myself off, wrapping a towel around my waist as I rubbed the steam from the mirror, staring at myself with a sigh. Black bedroom hair, hanging in my eyes no matter what I did to it. The kind of hair that women went up to me and ran their fingers through, desperation in their eyes as they threw themselves at me. My eyes, icy blue, piercing, and handsome. I knew what they said about me, how they all stared at me. If it wasn’t for my title, it was for my popularity, my athletic nature, and my appearance. I couldn’t help it, I flexed, watching the way my six-pack bulged, the muscles expanding under my skin, showing off my tight muscular body.

    I sighed, smirking at my reflection as I walked out the bathroom door, grabbing clothes. Casual light blue jeans, brown belt, black shirt with short sleeves to show off my arms. I was popular, the captain of the football team. I had to dress my best, look my best, try my best. Because not only was I the most popular in my college, I was also the oldest twin, making me the heir of the second in charge of the pack. Beta, the Beta heir. I had a lot riding on me, all of the pressure, and I couldn’t let anything distract me. I walked back into the bathroom, not paying attention to the sound of the shower being turned off, or the swish of the curtain being pulled back. I walked back into the bathroom and jolted in shock, the dirty towel in my hand falling to the floor as I stared wide-eyed at Easton. His hair was ash blond, wild, and sticking out everywhere. It normally hung in his eyes worse than mine, though he styled it that way. His eyes, it’s been a while since I’ve seen them. He stared at me with wide eyes, confused by my reaction no doubt. Light green eyes, shining, piercing into me. I shuddered, my eyes greedily sliding down his body. Lean, not an ounce of fat, but barely any muscle either. While I was over six-foot, he was a good five-foot-eight inch or five-foot-nine inches. He had a towel wrapped around his waist, but that wasn’t enough to stop me from imagining what was underneath. “Are you going to just leave that on the floor? I’ll tell mom, I don’t want her to think I did it.” Easton said, breaking me out of my stupor.

    I sighed, running my fingers through my hair as I dragged my eyes away from him, trying to hide the light pink color to my cheeks. Yeah, that’s why I tried to avoid being in the bathroom with him. There was something wrong with me. I picked up the towel as he walked over to the mirror, wiping at it and brushing through his hair. I stared at his back, the curves of his shoulder blades jutted out. It started years ago, when we were thirteen. I walked in on him with a laptop in his lap, his hand wrapped around himself, and a moan that escaped his mouth. I couldn’t stop replaying the sound in my mind, the way he looked, his head thrown back and his eyes rolling into his head, I couldn’t stop seeing it. Then, I wanted to be the one to do it to him. After that, I tried to avoid him, at all costs, because it wasn’t right. I wasn’t right. He was my f*****g twin brother. I flung the towel at his back, surprising him as he turned around, glaring at me. “What the f**k, Jared?” He yelled, the hairbrush in his pale hand gripped tightly. That was another thing that was different about us. He was pale, while I was tanned. Though, that was probably because I was always outside, training in some way or another, while he was usually off hiding in the shadows, doing whatever emo kids did.

    “What? Going to go tell mommy?” I asked, mocking him. He growled at me, his eyes darkening slightly as he picked up the towel, shoving it at me. “Momma’s boy,” I whispered, catching the hairbrush as he chucked it at me as well.

    “f**k you, Jared!” He growled, walking out of the bathroom and slamming the door so hard I flinched. Almost instantly I could hear it, mom’s voice carrying up the stairs again with that damn bullhorn asking what was going on. I sighed, grabbing my backpack and books, making sure I had my uniform for football practice. Looks like I’ll be skipping breakfast again, I wasn’t about to deal with mom this morning. I waited a good few minutes, gathering more things, absently throwing them in the bag and repacking it, trying to avoid him. Of course, no such luck for me.

    I nearly plowed into Easton when he walked out the door at the same time I did. “Watch it, East,” I said to him, glaring down at him. He was decked out in black, as usual. Black baggy Tripp pants, black and white converses. A tight black shirt that showed his body outline in a way that made me want to rip it off of him. The only color he had on him was his ash-blond hair and his bright green eyes. Otherwise, the black was everywhere, even a black beanie he had shoved over his head. I couldn’t understand why he felt the need to dress like this, but I had to admit, it looked good on him. No, bad thought Jared. Stop it.

    “f**k you, Jared.” He said, glaring at me in his oh so cheerful way. He was like a tiny Chihuahua. Yappy, barky, and tiny; and of course, adorably cute in a psychotic way. I sighed, following behind him. The day just started and all I wanted to do was go to bed. No, I had to stop thinking like this. I had responsibilities to take care of.

    “What was with the banging?” Mom asked as we walked into the kitchen. I ignored her packing my lunch as fast as I could, ignoring the way Easton’s lunch was packed and prepared already on the counter with freaking childish hearts drawn on the side.

    “Nothing, mom. Jared being a dick.” Easton said, telling on me the way I knew he would. I sighed, rolling my eyes. I could feel it, their stares on my back. Easton’s little smirk, knowing that I was going to be in trouble, and Mom’s annoyed one, her eyes piercing into me. She looked just like Easton. Her long ash-blond hair, her cheekbones high and accented like his, and her doll-like porcelain face, just like his. Easton had dad’s light green eyes, and me? I didn’t really have anything. Mom had hazel eyes, so maybe my blue came from that? Dad swears up and down he looked just like me when he was my age, but I haven’t seen any pictures. There was a fire in the house a year before we were born, and a lot of things were destroyed, along with photo albums of mom and dad when they were kids.

    “I didn’t do s**t,” I grumbled, ignoring the growl coming from mom. I continued to ignore her, knowing there wasn’t much she could do, not anymore. I was almost twenty now, she stopped being able to tell me what to do when I turned eighteen. If it wasn’t for the rules of the pack, she’d have most likely kicked me out already. I turned around, grabbing a soda out of the fridge and slipping it into my backpack. “I’m leaving early,” I announced to them.

    Only Easton looked up, his eyes barely visible under his long blond bangs as he stared at me before I walked away. I could hear her, mom complaining about how ungrateful I was, and how if only Easton had been older he’d be the next in charge instead. She hated the fact it was me, but that didn’t surprise me, she hated me anyway. I opened the door and stepped outside, taking a deep breath as I tried to calm down my frustration. I couldn’t think about this. I had so many more important things to do. “Jared!” I paused, turning to the side of the house with wide eyes as my father jogged over to me.

    Despite the fact that our parents are in their forties, they looked good. Then again, we were werewolves, we didn’t age the same. Sure, we died when we were around one hundred like humans, if we lived that long, but werewolves were different than humans in an exotic way. Our bodies were always pristine, in shape, because of the constant attacks from other packs and rogues and vampires. But besides that, we didn’t get blemishes, we didn’t need glasses or contacts. It was just genetics, beast genetics. Wolves didn’t need glasses, why would we? We were part wolves, after all. “Hey, dad. What are you doing here?” I asked, grinning at him.

    My dad was the complete opposite of my mom. He doted on me more than Easton, and always stuck by me. If it wasn’t for the fact that mom and dad were mates, bonded for life, they’d have probably divorced because of me and Easton. After a while, they stopped arguing about it. Mom used to tell dad constantly that I wasn’t her son, she couldn’t feel like she was my mother, and she thought I was someone else’s child. Dad would yell at her, especially since I was so young and she didn’t seem to care that I heard, but he would argue the same about Easton. His disappointment in his son that barely trained, hung around emo kids, was different. In the end, they stopped fighting, realizing it wasn’t worth it. We were family, whether they liked it or not. Easton and I just ended up getting used to the fact that Dad preferred me, and mom preferred him. We used to be pretty close, understanding the fact that no matter what our parents thought we knew we were siblings and we didn’t care. That is, until I realized my feelings for Easton. Then I pushed him away, and he’s hated me ever since. “Just running back in to grab something for Alpha John.” He said with a grin, running his fingers through his sweaty hair. It was a darker blond, but the length of it was around the same as mine.

    I nodded, smiling at him. It honestly made the annoyance from this morning fade away seeing him as he patted me on the back. “Cool. See you later, dad.” I said, knowing he wouldn’t miss my practice. He was always there, every practice and every game, no matter what was going on.

    He grinned, raising his hand to his eyebrow and saluting me as he opened the door. “Wouldn’t miss it, Jared. I’m proud of you.” He said with a smile, walking inside. I smiled, heading to my car, pulling out my phone to see the millions of missed texts from everyone in school. I grinned, shaking my head as I put the car in drive and started to head to school. Just another day, same as always.