The Alpha And His Abused Mate (#Wattys2016)

Ohana

Morgan above
"River?" I asked quietly. We had been in the car for at least ten minutes and I had just realized we were still in our gym clothes.
"Yes, Ellie."
"Where are we going. I may be new but this does not look like the way to get ice cream."
"Do you really want to go out in public in your gym clothes?"
"Not really," I replied. I mean our gym clothes consisted of a plain grey shirt and shorts. Personally, it looked like we were teenagers who had no sense of fashion.
"That's what I thought, so Alex and Morgan are on their way to my house with our stuff and all of us will go out."

"To get ice cream?" I asked hopefully. River chuckled and smiled at me, which caused me to smile back at him. The rest of the car ride was silent until River decided to say "When's your birthday?"

"March sixteenth, nineteen ninety-nine. Yours?"

"December the ninth nineteen ninety-eight, same as Alex's."

"You guys are twins right?"

"Unfortunately yes I am twins with that idiot."

"Fraternal or Identical?"

"Identical." That would make sense because they look like the same people. They shared the same hair and eye color, but from what I had seen they had different personalities. Alex was more laid back and chill, but River was more go go go, and he had everything planned out. But I mean I had just met them like six hours ago so I can't really say anything.

"What sports do you play?"

"Football. I'm the captain. You?"

"Does marching band count?"

"Why wouldn't it, I mean you do as much work as the football team."

"Really? Most guys would say marching band is nerdy. So thanks."

"Well, it just so happens that this guy is in marching band." River said while smiling.

"You play in percussion don't you?"

"Yeah, and you're an Alto. Aren't you?" He said while looking my way.

"How did you know?"

"You look like a type of girl that has to prove someone wrong, and I just met you and I can tell that you're driven. You have willpower." That made me blush so hard. It was the nicest thing anyone had said to me in a really long time.

"Thanks, River."

"No problem. Now you want to know how else I know you play that?"

"How?"

"Alex told me." My mouth opened and I hit him on the shoulder. He was laughing really hard and I joined in at some point too. It was fun with him I felt like I could be myself. Not someone who wasn't allowed to have fun and was scared to go to sleep, because they may not wake up. That's what I feared some nights, that if I went to sleep, Craig would come in during the night and I wouldn't wake up.

We reached River's 'house' a couple of minutes later. It was more like a mansion. There were woods surrounding it and where there weren't any trees it looked like the land could go on forever.

"Close your mouth you'll catch flies." River walked over to my side and opened the door and by the time I exited my mouth was still wide open.

"It's gigantic!"

"Is it?" I looked at River and gave him the 'Are-you-flipping-kidding-me-look'. He looked nervous I don't know why though, I would be proud if I lived here.

"Do you and Alex live here alone?"He shook his head.

"No. My other siblings Colby, Parker, and Bella live here. Not to mention Morgan and some other people." I nodded,  I didn't want to pry but curiosity got the best of me.

"Where are your parents?" His face went pale, and he bit his lip, and I automatically felt bad.

"I'm sorry River I didn't me-" He cut me off with the wave of his hand.

"You deserve to know."

"Well technically you don't have to tell me anything cause we just met, I'm like a complete stranger." That brought a small smile to his face, but I still felt really bad.

"They died when Alex and I were fifteen." Now that...that made me feel super bad. Like what kind of person have I turned into.

"River I'm really sor-" He cut me off again. I'm going to have to teach this boy manners later.

"Please don't give me your pity, I've dealt with that for three years. It's great to know that people actually care but after a while, it gets to be too much. It's legit all you hear." You could hear the sadness in his voice, I don't know how you could take care of three other people all by yourself.

"But hey we got through it, I mean I basically had to be both parents since Alex is an idiot and an asshole sometimes, well most of the time, but that's all good." I don't know how he could take this so lightly,  he made it seem like this was no big deal. He had the ability to make any depressing conversation, at least a little happier.

I shook my head and we made our way into the house, and as we entered I saw pictures on the wall of River and Alex along with a couple of other people who I assumed were his siblings.

"Hey, you wanna go see Bella?" River questioned me. I nodded my head and we walked up the stairs, and into a light green kids room.

"Wiver!" A small girl with chocolate brown hair came charging over to where we were standing.

"Ay baby girl." River picked the girl up and spun her around as she erupted into giggles. It was at that moment that I realized that this was what real family looked like. This was true happiness.