Identical Alpha Twins and Silver Shackles

Chapter 17

I opened my eyes slowly and knew I wasn’t in the flower field anymore, the sensible part of my brain suspected I was never actually in the flower field but I could feel it, I could feel her in my head, in the strength and energy in my body. I had a wolf, Achelois, she had said I’d call her Angel and she was correct, I had been blessed with an Angel. I stretched my legs feeling all the muscles and tendons move and flex all the way down to my toes. I felt taller like I had grown in my sleep. My experimental movements woke the boys
and I laughed out loud when I saw the two giant Alphas half hanging off either side of my hospital bed, they looked ridiculous and how they had managed to fall asleep like that was anyone’s guess. My laughter had woken them both completely and they smiled down at me. They looked happy but there were undertones to their facial expressions, worry, sadness,
exhaustion and maybe guilt?
There was too much going on in their eyes for me to fully understand what they were thinking or feeling but I felt like I was feeling those emotions too. It felt like somehow their thoughts and feelings had become mine too. I was trying to sort it out in my head but it was too confusing so I focused instead on what I was physically feeling. Instead I tried to assess my body but even there I was met with an onslaught of information, at least this stuff made more sense. My arms, legs and waist felt tender, like a newly developed bruise, the skin in those areas felt tight and itchy but overall I felt better than I ever had. It was hard to describe but I had always felt disconnected from myself, like my body didn’t belong to me but now I could move, everything was under my control and it felt incredible, I felt invincible and actually, genuinely happy.
I smiled wider and more happily than I have ever done before. I looked up at my Mates to show them how I was feeling but they looked slightly different, like I’d been looking at them through parchment paper the whole time before. I could see every line and freckle on their faces, their eyes were beautiful to me before and now they were captivating, I’d never seen so many shades and variations of the colour brown before and the experience made me feel giddy with excitement.
I realised the world had opened up to me now, I could experience things the way I was always supposed to. I could give and receive hugs! I wasn’t used to much physical affection but the couple of times it had happened I had always had to be very careful that the person didn’t come into contact with the silver or that they discovered my restraints. Thinking back I could have let someone ‘accidentally’ discover them. I could have let someone help me but as stupid as it seemed now, I was always worried about my sisters, my perfect, beautiful, blessed sisters. I might have been tortured, broken, beaten and physically and mentally
abused but I was educated, I knew how to cook and clean and I could administer basic first-aid to myself and others. I knew when the time came I would be able to look after myself but my sisters were so pampered and mollycoddled. Our parents had led them to believe
they didn’t need an education or a job or to worry about anything, ever because they were destined for rich, strong Mates. They had been led to believe that they would have whole packs to cater for their needs just like our parents had but so far that hadn’t happened. The girls had celebrated their 21st birthday a couple of weeks ago and still hadn’t found their
Mate/s, despite lots of travelling and numerous parties in the hopes of finding them. I had given them as long as I had to find someone to look after them before our parents were imprisoned or potentially killed but now it was time for me to finally look after me. The twins
were just going to have to fend for themselves for the first time in their lives, assuming of course that they didn’t end up in jail for turning a blind eye to what our parents had been doing. I had always been really saddened with how willfully ignorant my sisters were, how quickly they believed the lies and how ready they were to hate me almost from the very start
of my life. I had been just 2 years old when the neglect and abuse started but I think my mum hated me from birth. The twins had gotten her and my dad a lot of attention when they were born, multiple births are rare among wolves as the more babies you have the harder it is to protect them from predators. So naturally our pack was fascinated with the birth of identical twin girls born just a year after the birth of our identical twin Alphas. Rumours and gossip had been rife at the time that my sisters were very likely the fated Mates of the twin boys (HA). The attention and interest, however, quickly drained away as the girls got older and by the time they were 2 most people had lost all interest in them. My parents decided to ask the Goddess for another pregnancy and it happened almost immediately. I don’t know if someone put the idea in my mum’s head or if she decided it by herself but she was adamant and told anyone who would listen that I was twin boys, despite her bump being small and
numerous people telling her it didn’t look like twins she somehow managed to convince my dad that he was going to have two sons to match his two daughters. When I was born I was neither a twin nor a boy which caused a great deal of disappointment, even among the people who had been certain that I wasn’t twins but no-one was as disappointed as my mum. She had been preparing herself to be the focus of the pack's attention again and she was livid that I had stopped that from happening. Almost as soon as I was born my mum started trying for another baby but after nearly 2 years with no luck mum had visited a pack doctor and been told her womb had shut down, she wouldn’t be having any more babies. Children, for wolves, were a gift from the Goddess and most wolves just accepted that they would get pregnant if or when they were supposed to, they would get pregnant as many
times as the Goddess wished it and have as many babies as they were destined to have, end of story. My mum however had not wanted to accept this and had become convinced that I was to blame for her infertility. She also convinced my dad and the twins of this, that I
had wounded her from the inside somehow and that I had done it on purpose. This is what I believe led to everything, ever, that went wrong in our house or for our family being my fault and it began 16 long years of Hell on Earth, 16 years that was hopefully coming to a close, hopefully now I could start fresh, healthy, whole and happy. I had been so lost in the past I had almost forgotten that I wasn’t alone in the room. In fact if
my time ‘in’ the flower field was anything to go by I’d never be alone again, not only did I have Angel but I also had my Mates and their Marks on my neck. Marking me, for whatever reason they had done it suggested they really, honestly didn’t plan on rejecting me, they actually wanted me!
I felt a sweep of an emotion I was only just starting to become familiar with as joy, happiness flooded through me and the energy from it caused me to spring off the bed, causing the twins to awkwardly collide in the middle where I had just left. Their confused faces and
random grumbling made me laugh, they were so cute that I let my new emotions take control and jumped back onto the bed to join them. I was so fast now, the movement and the speed made me feel dizzy and giggly. Both boys seemed utterly stunned by my sudden show off affection but they wrapped me up in their arms nonetheless.
“Princess”
Rio had a questioning, concerned tone to his voice and it drew me more to him, turning slightly so more of me faced him.
“Uh……………we need to talk about some…………….things that happened during the
procedure”
Rio now looked as nervous as he sounded
“It’s ok I know that you marked me while I was unconscious, I felt it when I woke up”
I wasn’t quite ready to tell them about the flower field or what I had received there, at least not until I could prove it. They looked surprised but quickly gathered themselves. They had clearly been quite tense about telling me but in truth it made me happy, they did want to be my Mates and true to their word they had done everything in their power to help me. I was loved, really, truly, happily for the first time in my life.
“There was something else too”
Rogan looked like he regretted changing the mood in the room but as I turned to him I realised how sad he looked now that the tension was gone, sad and a little guilty or worried.
“We are so incredibly happy that you are ok and aren’t angry with us for Marking you without your consent but there are some other things we need to tell you”
He looked so lost and the feelings of sadness were radiating from him. I had no idea how to deal with it so I did the only thing I’d want if I was feeling like that. I reached forward so I was almost flush with him and wrapped my arms around his waist, nuzzling my head onto his chest in what I hoped he would find a comforting gesture. He stiffened momentarily but
wrapped me in his arms too, he huffed a sigh and while I couldn’t see his face something told me he was crying.
“Our grandmother Marie, she…………passed away during the ‘procedure’”
Rogan’s voice was filled with regret but suddenly something Angel had said made sense, little loose ends were suddenly tying together. The research had all seemed to point to magic but they all stopped talking about it, Marie had appeared but no-one would say why? They had kept me in the dark so Marie wouldn’t get into trouble and so that I didn’t need to be
scared, or more scared than I had been. The old lady had cuddled me to sleep so that she could spell cast on me.
“Magic was the solution wasn’t it, Marie had magic and she used it on me? She passed due to the effort and cost of saving me, didn’t she?”
Both boys nodded their heads solemnly as though I was about to yell at them but my brain was suddenly making connections with everything that had happened, everything I’d been told and not told.
“Wait, where are your parents?”
I asked in a rush as a memory surfaced, they looked confused and a little concerned but Rio mind linked them and they appeared minutes later. Melissa looked like she had been crying for a while and Marcus, like his son’s just looked lost and helpless
“Lissa, I am so sorry for your loss, I can’t imagine how you are feeling and if this isn’t the right time please tell me but your mum, she left you, well all of you a letter, she asked me to read it when I woke up again. I was confused by the request but now I think maybe she
knew or suspected she wouldn’t be here, I think she knew this might kill her”
Melissa hiccupped through a sob but nodded for me to read the letter. Rogan shuffled for a second in the cabinet and handed me a thicker envelope than I had been expecting. I opened it carefully and the first thing that came out was a pile of photos, Melissa as a baby
all the way up to when she met Marcus, a couple of her pregnant with the twins and a few of Marie with each of them and all of them. I handed the photos carefully to Rio and tried not to cry, the feelings in the room were so mixed up and heavy that I was struggling to separate how I was feeling versus the feelings I was picking up from everyone else. I took a deep breath to calm myself as I removed the papers next. The sheaf of paper at the back of the main letter was thick but not quite as thick as I’d expected it to look, I carefully peeled the letter away from the rest to confirm my suspicions and regretfully passed Marcus, Marie’s Last Will and Testament. He gazed at the title and nodded glumly for me to start reading the letter

Dearest Mellie, Marcus and my beautiful grandbabies, I swore my whole life to protect and support you all, even if I had to do that from afar. If you are reading this then I did exactly that and I don’t regret a thing. I was diagnosed last year with a degenerative disease and I knew I wouldn’t make it to the end of next year. I have spent the last couple of months looking and hoping for a way to help you all or bless you all before I passed. I will admit to using magic to keep tabs on you all and I was there when the twins found their Mate. My
heart shattered for that poor girl and I knew I would give my life to better hers. I couldn’t possibly say all I have thought and felt for you all in a letter but I need you all to know that I knew what I was doing and how it would end for me. I also did enough research to ensure that my magic would in no way taint her, with no wolf the magic had nothing to take root in so
would have dispersed back into the earth once it had completed its task. I know the pack has its problems with magic and I would never do anything that would have endangered the girl, thankfully the pack I joined when I left is more open to magic. With their help I learnt what I needed to do and the more I learnt the more help I could be to their pack. I built myself quite
a reputation and with it a business and some assets. I have attached my Will to this letter with some instructions on what to do with each aspect of my business, the rest should be fairly simple to enact. I am sorry we didn’t have more time together my loves but know that I loved you and love you all unreservedly. Live your lives full of joy and kindness and know I will bless you whenever and however I can.
Goodbye my beautiful,
Love Mum, Marie and Grandma xxx

I barely made it to the end of the letter before sobbing, this time I knew the emotions were my own even if they mirrored those in the room. I looked at Marcus as he hugged his wife tightly, he gave me a nod in thanks before kissing his wife on the head. He either mind-linked his sons or they just knew but they both nodded as he steered Lissa out of the room leaving
us on our own again. I wanted to apologise to them for the loss of their grandma, the guilt was horrific but something told me they wouldn’t appreciate the thoughts behind it. Rio lent his head against mine as we all lay together, the physical contact made me feel a tiny bit better. I felt comforted that they were still interacting with me and didn’t seem to be holding
me responsible. Rio spoke as though he could read my thoughts, his voice was barely more than a whisper
“You didn’t ask her to do what she did, you didn’t even know what the plan was, she wanted it that way. We are all sad, of course we are but we didn’t really know her and because of her we have you. We will be sad for a bit but we are also ecstatically happy to have you”
I relaxed a little as the tension dissipated. I hadn’t realised how anxious I had been feeling about their reactions. We lay quietly all together for a while before I drifted into a nightmare fuelled sleep.