Chapter 56
epting My Twin Mates Chapter 56
Chapter 56 – Little Wolves?
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Astennu
Evie’s father?!
Both Badru and I stared at each other, in aplete loss for words.
‘This could be a trap,’ Aasim stood rigid and alert. ‘How the hell did he find her? If he even is her
father.’
‘I don’t know, but until we figure this out, we deal with this ourselves.’
Thest thing we needed was our own father overreacting to a rogue at our borders and attacking him.
‘The guy, how’s he acting? Do you need backup?’ Badru reached out to Damian.
‘He’s huge, but he’s been very peaceful so far,’ he seemed to hesitate a moment longer, second-
guessing whether to air his opinion or not. ‘I don’t think he’s lying about being Evie’s father. There are
way too many simrities, and not just physical… you’ll see when you get here.’
‘Just keep him there and if you need backup, say the word,’ and with that, I dropped the link.
“This feels all kinds of suspicious,” my brother huffed the obvious as we broke out into a full-on sprint.
“Tell me about it. Even if this guy is telling the truth, where the f**k has he been?” I panted, swallowing
hard. “What if he’s the one Evie’s mother was running from?”
“If he is, he’s about to meet our fists,” Badru snarled, holding back a branch for me.
We closed in on the southeastern border within 20 minutes, our blood thick with adrenaline at the
prospect of the imminent confrontation. The Yakama reservation borders weren’t too far from our
location; had he wandered through their territory? We really needed to press n’s wan Family
Elder to allow our pack to patrol their borders more in the future.
Badru caught the scent on the air at the same time as I did, the smell of mountainous air and not from
thendscape of our pack. It wasced with a strong musky edge, stronger than what I had ever smelt
on a wolf. Evie, too, had a slightly stronger edge to her scent now that she had fully shifted. Her spiced
vani aroma caused a huge struggle within me and my wolf to contain ourselves. This musky
mountain scent had to be the rogue iming to be her father.
The three figures became apparent against the snow-sttered clearing, dotted by evergreens and firs.
Damian, I recognised instantly and it was a struggle to repress the low growl, rumbling at the back of
my throat. If Evie could move on from her issues with him, then so could I and Badru… with some
concentrated effort. The second figure must have been his patrol partner.
The final figure couldn’t be missed from a mile away.
He was huge.
He stood with his back to us where we approached downwards from a rocky incline, vaulting over a
craggy edge tond on the lower forest level. Long dark blond hair trailed down his back and when he
turned, I was floored. His eyes were like looking into those of Evie’s, an identical swirl of stormy grey
and dark blue. The features were uncanny, even hidden under a thick dark blond beard. He was a
much more masculine version of Evie.
‘There is no way, on this, is that guy not her father,’ my wolf uttered, stunned.
My eyes wandered to the jagged deep-red scar that ran from just under his left cheek, cutting through
his beard where no hair grew and down his neck, disappearing under the cor of a threadbare
sweater and scruffy coat.
The cause of the scar was clear, silver. Nothing else could leave such a mark. Only, this was worse
than any silver scar I had seen. It was as though the skin had melted on contact, leaving a heavily
puckered and irregr line, somewhat hidden by his beard.
The man caught my trailing eyes and turned his head to hide it, a brief look of embarrassment seeping
into his expression. For some reason, that look triggered a wave of guilt rippling through me and, I
could sense, through Badru too.
“Alphas,” Damian dipped his head in respect and his patrolpanion bared his neck.
‘Head off on your route as normal, but keep this to yourself for now,’ my twin instructed.
‘We’re only on a volunteer shift, so we can hang back if you need us to, just in case,’ Damian offered.
‘No, keep on your patrol. I don’t want anything looking out of ce yet till we question the guy
ourselves. We both know what will happen if our father catches a whiff of this,’ I nodded to Damian and
his partner. ‘If we need you, you won’t be too far.’
The two ambled away, ncing back over their shoulders, leaving Badru and alone with who I could
confidently say was Evie’s father.
I sensed no Alpha aura from him and this only added to the list that stumped me. He stood roughly an
inch taller than my brother and me, making him around 6’10. I doubted his huge build was due to his
layered clothing either.
“My daughter, she is here. You will take me to her,” he stated in a deep, heavily thick, Russian ent.
He wasn’t demanding, his tone wasn’t aggressive. However, it was clear from his stance, he would not
ept ‘no’ as an answer.
“For starters, who the hell are you?” Badru drew straight to the point, unwilling to give up anything yet.
“Konstantin,” he revealed his name without a second of hesitation and I could feel from the steady, but
elevated, vibrations of his pulse, he was telling the truth. “Evgeniya, she is here, I sense her. She
shifted, yes?”
Evgeniya? I mouthed silently to my twin beside me.
The name sent a ripple of longing over me. I could taste the name on my tongue and it drove me
insane.
Evie’s real name… Evgeniya. Like her, perfection.
The name had the same effect on Badru. I felt the identical shudder down his spine.
“I have searched 23 years for her,” his breathingboured, his throat bobbing with emotion. “Youe.
We go to her now.”
He strode past us without a single care or invitation, heading with quick steps into our pack territory in
what I knew to be our mate’s direction. He must have been following his bond, a bond now
strengthened due to Evie, or Evgeniya’s, shift.
“Hey! Now, just wait!” I barked, pressing my aura and making it clear my words were amand.
I expected him to bare his neck at my aura ring, to heed mymand and stop. He didn’t. Instead,
he simplyughed gently, as a parent would to a pup being ridiculous.
“Your Alpha auras do not work on lycans, little wolves.”
“Did he just call us little wolves?!” My brother didn’t know whether to be pissed or impressed.
“I did,” this Konstantin called over his shoulder. “Now,e. You waste time.”
He was blunt.
He held nothing back.
And he couldn’t give less of a s**t that we were Alphas…
‘…Evie suddenly makes total sense,’ Aasim finished my thoughts.
“You can’t just waltz into our pack,” Badru rushed to catch up, standing in front of his path to halt his
advancement. “How do we know you’re not a risk?!”
Konstantin squared his shoulders without a hint of intimidation, gesturing to the surrounding forest. “Do
you see an army? Do you see weapons? If I am risk, you arrest. If not, we go,” and he punctuated his
near-order with a slicing motion of his hand towards the direction of his intended course.
‘I swear, our mate is his clone,’ my wolf was still as stunned as I felt. ‘He isn’t dangerous. I can feel it.
He’s telling the truth.’
My wolf may have been convinced, and I was inclined to trust his instincts, but I needed more from this
man first before I fully believed him.
“How exactly do you know your daughter is here?” I came to stand by Badru, intentionally leaving
Evie’s name out and guarding her identity fiercely.
“I felt our blood bond pull two days ago. She has shifted, you cannot tell me no,” his face suddenly fell
with a sadness I could almost feel. “I have always sensed her… but I never knew where to look. I came
here 23 years ago… looking for her, hoping someone good had found her, but I was turned away.”
Badru and I nced at each other instantly, “was it an Alpha that turned you away?” My brother asked
the question bubbling on my tongue too.
“Yes, your father? Since you are Alpha also?”
“Alpha Isaac… yeah,” I answered.
‘That thing we figured dad was hiding?’ Badru side-nced at me. ‘I’m willing to bet my newly
recovered desserts, Konstantin is what he was hiding.’
‘But why? Why would he hide that Evie’s father came looking?’
“Who are you to my daughter?” The man eyed us up and down. “You know Evgeniya, I see. You
defend her.”
“Evie? Yeah, we know her,” Badru admitted, giving Konstantin at least something.
“Evie?… That is what my Heather whispered to her always.”
“Heather?” I repeated the name.
“Her mother… my mate,” a far-off longing filled his eyes, cut with incredible pain and loss. He mumbled
a word, but it must have been in Russian and beyond my understanding. “You are my daughter’s
mates, yes? I see the look in your eyes when you say her name.”
“Yes,” there was no use in hiding it. This man was not about to ept any lies.
“Two Alpha wolves… hmph. I suppose that is simr to a single lycan male,” he gave us both an
appraising look and stepped around us in his mission to find his daughter.
“Hey!” Badru attempted and failed to stand in his path again. “Level with us, at least. How, under the
moon, did any of this happen?”
“What does ‘level’ mean?” Konstantin turned and raised a brow.
“It means to be honest, tell us what happened. Who attacked your mate? How were you separated?” I
fell in step beside the man. It was obviously a pointless endeavour in trying to stop him.
“This is something for my solnyshko to hear first. Not her mates.”
‘s**t, one of us needs to give Evie a heads up!’ Badru grabbed my arm to gain my attention.
‘Yeah, this is gonna be a gut shot for her.’
‘Let’s be honest, you make the best first impression,’ Badru’s shoulders slumped a little. ‘You walk with
Konstantin, I guess, and I’ll go ahead and try to prepare Evie.’
My brother ran off, choosing to stay in his human form. It was good thinking on his part. We had no
spare clothing with us and this bizarre run-in with our apparent father-inw was awkward enough
without either of us being naked to add the cherry on top.
I hadn’t a clue what I expected of Evie’s father, or even that we would ever meet. I had expected the
worst. A man demanding we hand her over or we would face the same consequences as her mother.
What I hadn’t expected was this. A man who looked as though he had spent his entire life in the wilds
and had suffered more loss than anyone ever should in a single lifetime.
“So…” I awkwardly tried to start a conversation, remembering the Russian term he used for Evie.
“What does sul-niss-ker mean?”
I cringed internally,pletely butchering the pronunciation. And Badru said I would make the best first
impression, why? Although, if he had been here in my ce, he would have badgered the man about
Evie, where she came from, who attacked them and what happened to the lycan pack, undeterred that
Konstantin had just said he wanted to tell everything to Evie first. Badru would have probably pissed
him off thoroughly before they made it a mile and I would have likely found my twin stuffed in a tree
hollow.
Konstantin’s deep chuckle reverberated through his chest, so I took it as a sign he wasn’t offended by
my clumsy artiction.
“SOL-nysh-kuh,” he repeated, slower, for my benefit. “It means sunshine… Evgeniya was always my
light… she was so tinyst time I held her,” he nced down at his hands as if reliving a memory he
yed over and over. “Tell me, she is grown well?”
‘She’s grown into the sexiest she-wolf alive,’ Aasim licked his lips, leaving me to deal with the physical
side of his excitement. ‘But maybe don’t put it into those words exactly to her father.’
“She’s a real strong woman, I think you’d be proud,” a genuine smile crept onto my face. “I can see a
lot of simrities between you and her.”
“And, she is happy here?”
An unintentionally loaded question. How to begin answering that without incurring his wrath?
“Evie… she’s not unhappy. I won’t lie to you, this pack hasn’t been good to her. Rogues generally aren’t
weed here and it’s because of my parents’ influence. Me and my brother weren’t the best to her
growing up, either. It’s taken a while for her to ept us. But we’re doing our best to make amends and
we’re trying to better our pack, to break it out of its old ways.”
Konstantin abruptly stopped his quick pace, pping a heavy hand on my shoulder. My instincts kicked
in instantly, bracing myself for a fight. However, he held that long appraising look in his eye again, one
that searched much deeper than anything superficial.
“A good Alpha knows their mistakes and admits them. They see what is best for pack, even when pack
does not. This is you. You and your brother are good Alpha, despite you have not told me your names.
That is being bad Alpha, little wolf,” he smirked beneath his beard, like he was yfully scolding a pup.
“Oh,” a heat flushed through my face in embarrassment. “I’m Astennu Rolfe, and my brother is Badru.”
“Konstantin Bdin, of staya Ognennoy Gory,” he grasped my forearm in a tight grip which I copied,
assuming it was a custom of his people. “Fire Mountain pack.”
“Fire Mountain?”
“Yes, we had many, uh, vulkan,” he seemed to struggle to find the right English word.
“Volcanoes?”
“Yes, volcano. I remember them well as young boy,” I was sure I could see a hint of a fond smile under
his bushy dark blond beard.
Under the mass of hair and dirt that aged him on the surface, underneath, he didn’t look any older than
50 for a wolf. Whether lycans aged differently, I had no clue; this would be another question to add to
my ever-growing list. If the lycan pack vanished over 30 years ago, he would’ve been in his teens. He
may have not even shifted at the time.
“How is it that lycans don’t react to an Alpha aura?” I questioned. “Is ours not strong enough?”
“Lycans have no Alpha by blood. Our pack selected our strongest and most honourable wolf to lead as
Alpha. Over the years, our race lost submission to auras,” he exhaled a short humourless and bitter
laugh. “It came as quite a shock to Heather’s Alpha.”
“Evie’s mother wasn’t a lycan?” I almost missed a step and caught the tip of my boot on a fallen
branch. Thank goddess, I managed to recover smoothly.
“No,” was all he answered, keeping to his word that Evie, and only Evie, would hear his story first.
So Evie, was in fact, half lycan?
‘If this guy doesn’t want us around when he speaks to Evie, I’m gonna explode,’ my wolf was fit for
bursting with mounting questions, as was I.
For the rest of our walk, I managed to keep up a conversation with only the odd moment of heavy
silence. I had tried to apologise on my father’s behalf for turning him away all those years ago. He had
been told no she-wolf or pup had been to their borders and to ask some other pack. Konstantin held no
animosity towards either my brother or me for our father’s actions, though he did seem highly
untrusting of being within a pack again. My parents had no trust in rogues and Evie’s father had little
trust for a pack. When they met, and they would, especially my dad, tensions were going to be
explosive.
My bond with my twin pulled, as it did with my mate. The pulsating tremors rumbling down my spine
and through my chest whenever Evie grew nearer, or began to wake, were my personal drug. Much
like her vani scent that the breeze carried over to me. I salivated on the muted notes, alone; if I was
ever without it, I would be a man without oxygen.
On the other side of the sparse rocky clearing, Evie burst through from the treeline with Badru. She
looked to be heaving for breath with a sheen of sweat across her brow from running here. Konstantin
had stopped dead in his tracks, staring unblinkingly at the young woman who would have been a
swaddled newborn pup thest time he saw her.
“Solnyshko…” he whispered, his voice breaking.