Identical Alpha Twins and Silver Shackles

Chapter 4

I came around quickly after fainting feeling a lot less disorientated than I would normally feel after similar incidents. Rogan was kneeling beside me and I could feel his strong arm supporting my shoulders. I did a quick assessment of my head and back and decided that he must have caught me as I fell since there was no obvious pain.
"ARE THOSE SILVER?!"
His voice was loud and startling after my moment of quiet reflection but it was also oddly calming and soothing, maybe I had hit my head. I slowly nodded in answer to his question but I could see more chasing themselves through his facial expression ‘who’, ‘why’, ‘when’, ‘how’, ‘why didn’t she tell anyone’ ‘why didn’t she run’. He seemed to be struggling with which question to ask first or maybe he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answers. He studied me critically while slowly shaking his head. It looked like he made a decision about me at the same time he realised he needed his brother. I watched as his eyes glazed
over and felt my fear begin to claw at my chest as from the floor above we could hear running footsteps heading in our direction.
“Calm little pup, no more fainting, it is just my brother I asked him to join us”
I knew that however, I’d known that the second the mind link started. It was also exactly why I was panicking.
“Where is she, who is she, has she accepted, is she hot?”
These questions were rattled off in quick succession as Rio ran full speed towards us, only stopping inches before he would have stood on my legs. Rio, like his brother, was tall, olive skinned, dark haired and dark eyed but while Rogan was authoritative, he was still
approachable and could be kind if the situation called for it. Rio was just a flirt, boisterous and chaotic and quick to anger. His full name wasn’t even Rio it was Riordan but you faced imminent and painful death if you even considered calling him that, not even his many and ever revolving contingent of girlfriends were allowed to use his ‘formal’ name. I have never and would never call Rio anything other than Alpha. I was almost as scared of him as I was of my so-called family.
My heart rate accelerated again to almost danger levels as Rio moved suddenly into a crouch and began to sniff me. Given the years of abuse and neglect, 7 years of being sealed into an article of clothing which had never been removed, being poisoned by
Wolfsbane and silver for the majority of my life and that I was currently utterly terrified, I didn’t want to try to imagine the combination of smells he was inhaling. I was suddenly horrifically self conscious, a feeling not helped when a second later Rio asked
“Are you sure, she smells off, like something is wrong or weird?”
The question was directed at Rogan but it hurt me nonetheless. I pulled myself into a huddle and hid my face on my legs as I wrapped my arms around my knees and tried not to cry.
“Yes I’m sure and don’t be so cruel”
Rogan chastised his brother, sounding genuinely angry at him. Rogan reached down and with strong hands on my upper arms he pulled me into a standing position as he too stood up.
“You are ok little one, please don’t hide from us we want to and are going to help you”
Rogan’s voice was careful,soft and gentle but there was a different layer to it. It sounded like he was in pain, like my fear was causing him actual pain. I didn’t want to be responsible for someone else's pain but I was scared, not of him but I was terrified of Rio. Would it hurt Rogan to know I was scared of his twin, would he change his mind about helping me. I looked past Rogan to where Rio was standing slightly behind and to the side of us looking perplexed and slightly hurt.
“Do I frighten you little one?”
Rio looked questioningly at me confirming my suspicion that my avoidance of him was hurting his feelings.
“We don’t have time for this right now”
Rogan interrupted our staring contest with his normal authoritative tone but his eyes shifted between his brother and I like he was more interested in avoiding whatever conversation we were all going to need to have if I confirmed that I was scared of Rio.
“We have about a minute before this hallway is flooded with students moving between classes and I would really like to take her to the pack hospital and get a doctor to assess her”
His tone suggested he shouldn’t be argued with but Rio spoke up anyway
“No, she goes to our hospital no-one will bother her there”
Rio was firm and stared his brother down as he said it. They both looked at me like they could hear my heart rate decreasing. I had been close to panicking again at the idea of going to the pack hospital, everyone knows everyone there and everyone talks. The thought of
going to their private hospital sat much comfier with me which was obviously evident to them as Rogan suddenly swung me up into his arms and ran me out of the school building as the bell rang to signal the end of class. The breath I’d caught seconds before knowing I wasn’t being taken to a very public hospital vanished from my lungs as the twins ran full speed across the car park with me bouncing around in Rogans arms. They arrived simultaneously at a beautiful, sleek black car. Rio opened the back door on the driver’s side and Rogan settled me gently onto the seat of the cleanest, most spacious car interior I’d ever seen. I could feel my chest aching and realised I was still holding my breath. I began gulping air like it was a liquid. I knew if I stopped for even a second to think about what I had just done or what I was currently doing I’d have a panic attack that I might not actually recover from. Instead I placed my scruffy head of hair very self consciously against the beautiful headrest, trying not to think about when the last time I’d been allowed to wash my hair was, and attempted to match my breathing to the deep thrum of the engine below me. I closed my eyes as we pulled away from the school and focussed on breathing in and out. At some point I drifted into an exhausted sleep.