Fates | Book 2 ✔️

[26]

I look at my brother who continues to pick at his nails. It is as if I didn't exist. Like his sole purpose was not to come find me and ruin everything I have built in a matter of minutes. I lick my lips and walk towards him, making sure to keep a good distance just in case. Even though we are blood, he never treated me as such. I was always that other brother. The one whom he despised. 

"Little brother... you disobey me and throw everything I have done for you out into the wind." 

I take note of his black hair and maroon eyes. They both look much darker than they ever have before. His complexion was very much the same pale color as anyone from the clan. It is another difference that made me stick out like a sore thumb. I look nothing like them. 

"I told you before and I will tell you again, I want nothing more to do with the clan. I do not want to be a part of it any longer."

Xavier laughs.

"Who said you had a choice?"

"You do not own me. You do not control me."

"I gave you a new life," Xavier murmurs.

"One that I did not want! You nearly ruined everything for me!"

"Is that so?" Xavier presses a thumb to his lip before looking away from me. "I thought I had done you a favor. Nevertheless, we are in quite a predicament."

"I do not care," I hiss, but that does nothing but coax him forward. 

"Little brother--" 

I smack his hand away from me the moment I see him trying to outstretch it towards me. 

"You have something that I want... and I have something that you want."

"My birthright? Take it. I do not want it. I want nothing more to do with the clan. You can have it all. Just-- Just leave me be."

"That I do not care for."

"Then what is it--"

"Must there be a reason? Sometimes, many times, I just like to see you suffer." 

I see his eyes cut from me to the packhouse, grinning all the while.

"Why didn't you tell your little wolfie going to a place full of people who want to eat him was not a good idea? You cannot seem to even solve your own problems, so you hand them off to someone else, hm?"

My hands clench into fists. 

"But do not worry. I did not lay a single finger on him. I promise." 

"You are distracting me..." I look around feeling the presence of others like me looming closer. 

"Just come back with me. Leave this all behind and come back with me."

"It does not seem like you are giving me a choice in the matter," I mumble.

"Have I ever given you a choice before?"

"Xavier, what do you want?"

Xavier's eyes cut to the side before he brings them back and smiles. 

"Do you know why I have always wanted what you had?"

I swallow.

"It is because I envied you. I was jealous but, at the same time, I was irritated by you. You never knew what treasures you had until they were taken from you. Your mother for one. She doted on you and loved you even more than herself and yet you were so ashamed of her." Xavier shakes his head. "So ashamed that even when she was at her deathbed you never came. Not even once."