Betrothed

Chapter 8: The Secrets We Keep

                                                                                   

Willow

Brayden was walking toward me with a smile painted on his face. I went looking for him and now he is walking right toward me. I don't know how to react when he reaches me, but until he does, I just watch him. I don't know what to tell him because I don't know how he will react. He was wearing a shirt and jeans. Why did I even come here? This was a bad idea! Without thinking anymore, I took a step backwards and slowly kept going backwards. He didn't seem to notice that I was doing this but soon he will. Until then, I was thinking about what to say and all I came up with was, "I came looking for you because I wanted to spend time with you."

Then again, I have the rest of my life to spend with him so that's just a dumb response.

Brayden was walking faster now. He was getting closer to me, and I couldn't walk backwards any faster. I had two decisions: run or face my problems. I am not one to face my problems especially when the problems have to deal with Brayden, my soon to be husband. I turned around and ran as fast as I could trying to use this time to my advantage and get as far ahead of him as I could.

I didn't look back, I kept running. I ran and it felt like I was flying. I turned and ran into the woods away from his family's territory, but I noticed something strange and stopped in my tracks.

I looked behind me and didn't see Brayden, yet which was good for me in the sense of me avoiding my problems, but now I had something else to worry about. I wasn't alone. I could smell a strange scent and I knew for a fact that it wasn't Brayden's. I couldn't tell which direction the weird smell was coming from, and usually I could figure out things like this, but the wind was blowing in all directions. I could not concentrate knowing that Brayden was going to find me soon. I didn't want to talk to him. At least not right now, my emotions are everywhere. Then again, he will be the only one that can help me in this situation, but also, I can fight really well on my own. Maybe with luck I will get out of this with just myself as a defensive strategy.

I stood in the woods watching and waiting for someone to jump out at me, but nothing happened for a while. I frequently looked around trying to find anything weird lurking next to me.

Ten minutes passed by, I stood quietly in the woods and smelt the same scent along with another familiar scent. Brayden's scent. He must have finally figured out that I went into the woods. I decided that I was going to face my problems plus I've been standing here so long and turning in circles. I don't remember which one is the way back to the trail I was on before I ran away from what I thought was a problem and instead made it into a real problem.

I sat down where I was and waited for Brayden to find me. A couple minutes passed and then I heard something behind me. I turned around expecting Brayden but instead I found myself face to face with a stranger. The stranger who was wearing jeans and a flannel with dark hair about the same color as mine with brown eyes just like mine stood there quietly with his wild brown hair blowing in the wind. I tried to figure out who he was but never came across him before this moment.

He must be from a non-royal pack because why else would I not know him. His eyes were looking at me, studying me from head-to-toe. I remained calm and studied the way he was standing. How he distributed his weight. I came to the conclusion that he wasn't here on purpose, but I am pretty sure that isn't true and that he has made up a plan already. I sat on the floor of the woods, trying to figure out how far away Brayden is and hoping that it was close. The stranger was propped up against a tree now. I focused on how he leaned against the tree trying to figure out where he is most vulnerable.

If you can find your opponent's weak spot, then you have already won the fight. The stranger was favoring his right leg, I could tell by the way he stood against the tree that it hurt. I looked around trying to find a sign of Brayden's arrival, but he wasn't near. I slowly tried to adjust the way I was sitting on the ground and when I did the stranger quickly reacted by getting on his feet and walking closer to me. I reacted by jumping to my feet and standing my ground. He compared my size to his and probably thought that he could easily win. Unaware that in the royal pack, we can shift whenever we want and are stronger.

He stopped and studied me, but it was too late. I already kicked his right leg out from underneath him. He fell to the ground, and I backed away.

"What do you want?" I asked the stranger.

He looked up at me grinding his teeth as he spoke, "I need to talk to you, Willow."

He held his leg trying not to show me that it hurt because he doesn't want me to know it's his weak spot. He stayed on the ground holding his right leg to his chest.

I looked at him in amusement, "Let me get this straight, you stood there for a half hour because you wanted to talk to me?" I laughed at the thought of him in pain because of me. "Why didn't you just say so then?"

He looked up at me, "It isn't that easy trying to figure out the words to say to your sister whom you've never met."

I stood there in shock not knowing what to do. As far as I know, I don't have any siblings. The thought of me having a brother made me want to burst into a happy dance or something. Not so sure though my excitement started to vanish when I realized something about this was not right. I don't know how to explain my feelings about this.

I smiled at him and reached down to help him up, "What's your name and how on Earth are you my brother? And if you're my brother then why aren't you living with us?"

After I helped him up, he favored his right leg again. If he is my brother, then why isn't he living with his family? Also, I never had a brother that I knew of, and he doesn't look older or younger than me. Oddly, he looks the same age as me.

He stood up straight and was a half inch taller than me and then favored his right leg again.

"My name is Romellow. I am your fraternal twin, and in our royal pack, Glisten, if there are any multiples then the plan, they created will not work to combine both royal packs. The last born gets sent away to a different pack, and I was born a minute after you. Willow, I'm your twin brother and I found out a couple of days ago from the alpha in my pack. He said that I needed to find you and warn you about the combining of the royal packs."

Romellow, my twin brother, looked at me with worry in his eyes.

"What will happen if I help combine the royal packs?" I was curious at what would happen if we combined the packs and scared to find out. Romellow stood there trying to find the right way to word the bad news. "Well, what's going to happen?" I asked him again, still trying to get the answer from him.

Romellow just stood there anticipating how to break the bad news.

He took a deep breath, "If you combine the royal packs, then the pack will grow stronger, and the next generation of the royal pack will be multiples. If that happens then all of the next generations will be identical and if their identical chaos will emerge. If you give birth to multiples, then you must kill all but one if they are identical. You can't have two of the same looking children because-" Romellow stopped for a second. "If you have two or more identical children then they will be stronger than all of us and also some will be a disgrace and bring death to us all."

Not really what I had in mind, but it made me wonder what Romellow was leaving out because he wasn't identical to me so why couldn't my parents keep him.