The Alpha Twins and their Runaway Witch

46

Ariel and Binh had just parked at the unused work station parking lot in front of a now closed quarry for rock and fill mining. Absolutely nothing larger than a clump of dandelions was available to burn or catch fire. It was perfect.

Ariel would have never have admitted it on her own, but she was desperate to try and test her power. She felt like she was about to explode with everything she was holding back. Trying to manage her mental health after everything she had been through and was still healing from.

She had been learning a lot from her book. She could feel the magic in her. She wanted to see it. Know the exact strength now burning through her veins. It called to her, wanted to be used. It had not been possible at the hospital to do any magic, and Ariel had quickly mastered any skills that could be safely tested from a bed.

"Tomorrow, let's replace what I burned in your apartment, fifty-fifty?" Ariel offered while they were alone. "I don't want things to ever be uneven between us okay?" She asked the demon, the first person since her mother had left her behind that she had ever felt safe enough around to allow trust to develop.

Binh nodded. "I would love to go house shopping with you." meaning it. She had probably never been to the ubiquitous home goods store, and the scale of consumer options was something to behold. The silence stretched between them while they waited for the twins to arrive.

"I can really try anything I want out here?" Ariel asked Binh. Wanting to be certain that there was no one around that could inadvertently be harmed.

Binh nodded. "The previous owner mined everything they could within the allotment decades ago. It's been abandoned and unusable ever since." Now it was all Binh's and any on the land save those he had invited were trespassing.

A technicality that would make anything that happened next hopefully manageable. Binh had followed the rules, as soon as he was certain what Ariel was, he had submitted the applications to have this area designated for firearms weapons testing.

Binh heard the unmistakable rumbling as the twins motorcycles made their presence known. Binh saw Ariel tense up as her less sensitive ears also registered the sound. "I'm nervous to see them." Ariel admitted to Binh.

Binh nodded. "A fair feeling to have, you will be safe." Binh promised her, moving to exit the vehicle, getting her wheelchair from the trunk. Helping Ariel move from the car onto the wheelchair, being careful of her broken arm and leg.

Just as she was settled into her chair as comfortably as could be managed, The deafening sound of the bike engines stopped as August and Alex arrived, parked their machines and dismounted, taking off their helmets. Moving in sync. August ran his hand through his shaggy hair fluffing it back up after being pressed under the helmet. Alex went to shake his head, like he would have to loosen and free his pony tail. Except there was nothing but the gentle night breeze over his bare head, and the itchy feeling under his skin as the hair was slowly regrowing.

Three Hours Past Midnight made his presence known with a loud percussive caw, before he landed on the arm rest of the wheelchair, Ariel reached over with her good hand to scratch the bird on the head. The bird was positively glaring at the wolf brothers, making sure that they both saw and knew without a doubt that their mate clearly preferred the bird's company to theirs.

"Jenny?" August tried, unable to cope any longer being envious of the attention a raven was getting. "I tried to call the restaurant a few times, a server name Beth-Ann said your name was Jenny?" He and his wolf were both desperate to learn if that was her real name. Needed to know the name of their beloved as soon as possible.

Alex and August were both enraptured as she smiled at August's attempt to break through her walls. She pulled her good hand back, the raven hopped up to perch on her wrist, before she helped elegantly toss the bird into the air, to keep watch August assumed. If her familiar was a raven then she was gifted with eyes in the air. Thankful that Papa's Caspian and Aspen had tried so hard to instill an appreciation and knowledge in them.

Her smile was a funny one, her emotional scent unfamiliar and complicated to both Alex and August. "Jenny is good enough for now." She told both Alex and August, letting them both know for certain that it was not her actual name. Binh was smiling at her. He knew her real name, both wolves were certain of it.

It wasn't fair, they had been bound to this woman by a goddess. Her voice was so small in the open rocky landscape. It was the first them they had heard her voice up close. Not ragged and broken immediately after having a breathing tube removed. Not the scared gasp of surprise. The first time she spoke to them, she had teased them. August immediately saw how all their pieces were supposed to fit together.

August fell in love with the insanely strong woman who could still stink a little of fear, while holding herself steady and teasing him with the promise that even her name was going to be something he needed to prove himself worthy of learning.

August swung his arm in a wide quick arc. His closed fist landing square in his brother's chest. He had felt Alex catch on that she had made a joke at their expense. Start to get too hot under the collar. His damn temper was going to be the death of either August from exhaustion, or their mate when he pushed her too far.

August knocked Alex straight over his heart, knocking the wind from this brother's lungs, and causing a moment where his heart beat of out sync before his wolf corrected the rhythm. August slammed into his brother's head again. She is teasing us! This is good. Just fucking behave for once.

Once Alex's mind caught up with everyone else, his lungs both functioning and all chambers of his heart working together once again. "Sorry. I'm just-" Alex tried to explain with his words for everyone to hear.

August nodded, certain his brother just needed a reminder to relax and be less uptight, now that they had got that stumble out of the way, everything should be ok. August and Alex looked at their mate. She was smiling at them, and in the dark abandoned parking lot, she was the sun shining bright just for them.

Except it was the demon's face she looked towards for reassurance, not theirs. The demon nodded at her, smiling as he held on to the handles of her wheelchair. "I um-" She started to speak, looking once again towards the demon. "I um haven't had a chance to test out my magic..." She told them. They were wolves. They had already been burned by her fire. "Also, I am sorry about the hair." Another look towards the demon. It was hard to think straight with both of them so close to her.

Each look towards the demon had been making Alex more and more jealous. Until she had looked directly at him, and apologized for his hair. Then his mouth was working before his brain again. "You're too old for a new witch?" August's fingers slapped him in the back of his head. Binh stifled a chuckle at their display and Ariel didn't know how to answer the question hanging in their air.

Binh took control. "You have lived sheltered lives, expand your minds boys." Turning their mate around in her wheelchair, wheeling her down the path towards the high straight walled cliffs of the quarry. "Come along boys, guard each end and stand back, I think she will need the room." Alex took off at a full run to get to the far side of the abandoned quarry while Binh steadily wheeled Ariel towards the middle, where the space was the most open.

The twins jumped to do as asked. Eager to see what her magic would be like. Three Hours Past Midnight took flight from Ariel. Circling around the area, doing what he could to help protect Ariel. Excited to finally, truly learn just how strong she was now that she had finally manifested, accepted her gift and was ready to test it.

Alex quickly made it to the far side. August stayed at the entrance. Both watched as the demon leaned down to whisper something in her ear, before he too, ran away from the center of the artificial canyon. Her heart and mind were quieter with the twins at a safer distance.  Ariel took a deep breath once Binh was a safe distance away. Closing her eyes. She let her magic in. It was a tsunami that flooded into her.