Claimed by the Wild Ones (Book 1, The Transcendent Series)

Chapter 2: The Raven

Alana paced up and down the kitchen, taking a gulp of her third cup of coffee while Julia sat in a daze as she looked out to the backyard, taking in the apple tree's skeletal-like branches that were beginning to bud. Julia's ears rang as she traced her fingers on her cold glass of water, dulling out Alana's hysterical voice.  The two sheets of paper lay in the middle of the table, indent marks on both of them from the grip of Alana's hand. The sunset light streamed in and hit the screens of their iPhones reflecting its gaze on the sky-blue dining room walls.

"Earth to Julia," she snapped, clapping her hands together to get her attention.

Alana's hand went to her hip as Julia looked up at her, the colour still drained from her face. "Well," Alana waited for a response and when she didn't get one her head shook from side to side as her eyes widened, "You haven't even been listening," she exclaimed.

Julia battled the feeling of nausea as she brushed her auburn hair away from her face, "I'm sorry...this is just a lot to process."

"We need to find them."

"What," Julia stammered, her hand flying in the air and knocking over the glass of water drenching the edges of the adoption orders. "Shit!" She cursed under her breath as she shot out of her chair trying to save the papers while Alana ran to the phones that were too close for comfort to the water.

"It's a good thing we took photos of them when we did! I'm going to get a tablecloth," Alana stated as she dropped their phones on the marble kitchen counter and got a cloth from the white cabinet. Throwing it, Julia caught it with one hand while in the other she held the soaked papers.

"Can you take these," Julia snapped, waving the papers back and forth.

"Fine."

"Thanks," Julia mumbled turning around as she wiped away the water. Her shoulders stiffened as she felt her sister's gaze on her.

It was silent again till Alana persisted a second time "we need to find them Julia—or at the very least find out what happened to them. What if they died when we were babies? What if they're still alive somewhere? What if we have other siblings out there?"

What if we aren't really sisters, Julia tried to suppress the thought, but it washed over her making her shoulders heavy. Their mother had always told her that she had gotten her looks from her side while Alana had gotten her's from their father's. Before this morning, it had all made sense at the time.

Continuing to wipe the dry table, Julia shook her head to shake off the thought, "If they are then why haven't they contacted us huh?" Silence was her response. "I don't want to go looking for someone who probably—if they are still alive—gave us up. What if we were taken away because they were unfit parents? They," her voice faltered, "mom and dad must have had their reasons for not telling us."

Alana set the papers by the phones now, coming up behind Julia until she was face to face with her, her hands on the wooden chair. Her eyebrow was raised as she peered at her sister through squinted eyes, "We had a right to know Julia. Why are you not angrier with them? About this whole situation? Did you know?" She accused, her pitch getting higher with each question.

Julia head snapped up and blurted, "What? No! Of course not Alana! I think I would have mentioned something if I had known." She paused, trying to sort out her emotions but the gut wrenching feeling of betrayal and grief over the truth and her parents remained. "It just—it just feels wrong looking for our rea—for our biological parents so soon after mom and dad died—like—like we're betraying them in some way."

Alana turned her back to her sister and looked at the paper, looking over the smudged address of the organization, not wanting to admit her own deep feelings. "They still should have told us... who even are we?" Her voice wavered as her question hung like a heavy fog in the air, her fingers dug into the chair.