Mated to the Alpha Twins

Kade lunged at Alec, slashing his elongated nails across the soft flesh of his face. | snarled in sync with Alec, who was already

shifting before my eyes. | needed to do something, and fast. Another minute and I'd be lucky if | had one mate standing.

| wanted to glance at Tori and Sabine, who were both just as exposed as |, but | couldn't risk placing attention on them.

Instead, | did what any completely sane werewolf would do and ran.

| veered left into the forest, knowing | wouldn't make it very long or far. The goal wasn't to escape, but to get them away from the

twins, Tori and Sabine.

It was the exact opposite of what everyone had been telling me—that | was more important than everyone else, that | had to stay

alive and away from Marcus at all costs.

My chest was wracked with pain, because at the end of the day, | couldn't sit by and let the people | cared about d*e for me.

So here | was, running into the arms of the enemy.

Even as | heard the Assassin's snicker at my back, | couldn't bring myself to regret doing everything humanly possible to save

my mates.

If there was one thing | promised myself, it was that now | needed to be strong. Aurora, weak human daughter of Melissa, was

skin shed from my shoulders. There was room for nothing else—no one else, except for Luna Aurora.

| was knocked to the ground, shoved into the dirt just half a minute in. The taste of it filled my mouth, followed by a disgusting

grainy texture that crunched beneath my teeth. The gentle scent of gardenias and rose petals filled my nose, and | met the not-

so-gentle eyes of the Assassin. They were a deep, chocolate shade of brown that held rich undertones of caramel.

Even though | lacked the fighting skills of your typical Luna, | still had the reflexes.

| wrapped a hand around the leather-bound hilt of the silver blade currently hidden within my belt loop. | had no doubt the

Assassin had earned her nby writ of blood, but she had made the smistake everyone makes when they becthe

best at their trade; she beccomplacent, she underestimated me.

I'm positive she was told everything about me, that my abilities were the most dangerous aspect of my personality. | had no

formal training, no lifetat being raised a werewolf, but | now had a network of people dedicated to train me, to keepalive.

| wasn’t sure where | had found the sudden bout of brutality, or whether it had always lived within me, but | tore the blade from

my belt and jammed it into the first thing | could think of; her chocolate-colored eye.

The heart would have been the obvious choice, the easiest when it cto securing a k**I. Alec taughtthat going for the

obvious k**| wasn’t what you should do against a more skilled opponent. Surprise them, use your inexperience against them.

She hadn’t been expectingto a****k, much less something like her eye. Such a vital part, especially in her profession.

Metallic warmth splashed against my face, mixing with the dirt granules in my mouth, and the Assassin's furious howls grated my

ears. Instead of panicking and turning her attention to her gaping wound, she tore the knife from her eye and frantically ripped

her gloves off. | could still hear the sizzle from her flesh as the silver knife burned her skin, destroying any chances at healing her

wound.

Her b**e hands touched my skin before | had the chance to get away, and it was then | fully understood what her abilities were.

She didn’t just block magic, she fed on it; stole it from other white wolves.

Her touch made my blood run cold, my sweat freeze and breath cout in strained huffs. My veins were clogged with ice,

churning and scraping against my flesh as my heart continued pumping.

Her nails were digging into my skin, pinpricks of cold in a torrent of ice and snow.

“You f*****g b***h.” She hissed incoherently, so furious withthat | wondered if she'd just end my life here and now. | could feel

her spittle-or perhaps blood, misting across my face. “This is silverthis is f*****g silver! I'll never heal from this. I'm going to

[EE

“Assassin, you good?” Chaos’s husky voice sounded from a few feet away, jolly even as it made my hair stand. The Assassin let

go of me, and | gasped as the pressure had finally been lifted from my body. She snarled at Chaos, whose eyes widened in

genuine surprise. “Why in the f**k did you let her get the upper hand on you? Boss isn't gonna like this, Assassin. You better not

let this s***w up your rate.”

“I didn’t let her get the upper hand, and it won't s***w up s**t.” She hissed, sendinga look so full of venom that | thought |

might actually faint. “I can still k**I you just the f*****g same.”

| let out a grunt as a bony shoulder slammed into my gut, followed by the rancid scent of body odor as it flooded my nose. |

opened my eyes to see an upside-down version of the world, watching my hair as it trailed across the ground. | was slung over

the Hound's shoulder like meat, hauled deeper into the forest.

The world sloshed back and forth slowly, leaving doubles and triples of everything. With the blood rushing to my head, | could

hardly keep up with what | was seeing, so | decided to focus on what | heard instead.

“What did you do with her little mates?” The Assassin asked, sendinganother d***h and destruction filled look that over

lapped one another three times. | could still feel the cold rattling in my chest from where she had touchedwith her hands.

“Left them wounded real nice.” Chaos sighed unhappily, garnering my attention. “Didn’t have tto maul them the way | been

practicing, not with you screaming in the middle of a d**n invasion, making Hound drag my a*s through the f*****g woods.”

Relief flooded through me, washing sof that miserable cold. They were alive-which meant Tori and Sabine had to be alive

as well.

“She took my f*****g eye, Chaos.” The Assassin hissed, and for a moment | thought she might either m****r Chaos, or come

finish her work on me. “I'd like to see how well your little tricks work with one eye.”

“Y’know, | don’t see why our soul-eater here needs two eyes to work smagic.” Chaos commented in between whistling

sannoyingly repetitive tune. He cup behind the Hound and bent over, tilting his head so that he could lookin the

eye. His movie-star grin turned lopsided, giving him that perfect boy next door vibe—if the boy next door was a raging psychopath

with crimson eyes. “I call dibs on the brown one. | think I'll dry it like one of those little heads.”

“An eye for an eye.” The Assassin mused, and | hated this look of gentle contemplation even more.

My eyes fluttered once, and then twice before we had finally emerged from the forest. | knew | had to of blacked out at some

point because the sun was hanging precariously low in the sky, casting splashes of orange and yellow across the horizon.

“Shove her in the back.” The Assassin's voice grew louder in my ears, followed by the sound of a car door opening. Her form was

hazy at first, but cleared up the more | blinked. She was glancing down at her watch, tapping on the small screen. “We've got

fifteen minutes before the alpha and his b***h show up with the entire brigade.”

“I told boss those wolves weren't ready for real battle.” Chaos sighed tically, though | knew he wasn't upset over the lives

lost.

Another poorly thought-out plan flitted through my head. Fifteen minutes—if | could stall them for that long, then Mera and Isaiah

would show up. That had to be who they were talking about.

| groaned softly when | was tossed onto a cold leather seat, but quickly turned over and pushed myself into a sitting position. |

had limited time, and scoured the floor of the van for anything.

There were splotches of paint, and what | hoped wasn’t blood, along with plenty of dirt and little bits of trash. My fingers ached

when | felt a slightly bent nail beneath them. It was one of those large construction nails. Judging from the way my fingers stung,

there had to be spercentage of silver within the material. It was stuck under a small piece of plastic, protruding from the

floor.

Within seconds, the Hound slid into the front seat and the Assassin into the passenger. | wrapped my hand around the nail

tightly, trying not to look completely frazzled. My heartbeat could be heard throughout the van, but the fast-paced pattering

wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

My stomach clenched as the back door opened, just a few feet away from where | sat. Every muscle in my body tensed, coiled

and ready. Even my wolf, whose words of encouragement were all that keptgoing, waited withheld breath.

Chaos opened the door to the van, and when he was halfway through, I launched myself at him.

Either Chaos underestimatedmore than the Assassin, or he truly loved any excuse for a fight, because he tumbled to the

ground like he weighed less than the Hound. | rolled on top of him, jamming the nail as deep into his shoulder as | could whilst

clamoring forward.

His hand wrapped around my ankle, makingstumble when | should have already been running. Instinctively, | lashed out with

the sfoot he had grabbed and smashed my heel into his teeth. His grip loosened enough forto slip free, stumbling to my

feet and running forwards.

Before | barreled into the thick brush of the forest, my breaths labored and pained from the tiny dagger in my hip, | glanced back

to see Chaos’s beautiful, smiling face; both teeth and eyes crimson.

| counted the seconds in my head, lost track, and began counting again. Pain was a distant memory, burning the corners of my

awareness just enough to leave a dull ache. | couldn't feel the pain in my hip anymore, just this tearing sensation whenever |

moved strenuously-which was a lot at the moment. | had torn the knife out, almost doubling over when the silver coated handle

burned my hand.

Somehow, it made sense that Chaos would have a knife that harmed its user; to feel pain whilst inflicting it.

I spun on my heel, my eyes practically rolling as | heard Chaos’s joyful whooping fill the forest. It bounced from tree to tree,

echoing in every direction yet coming from seemingly nowhere. | continued turning, losing track of where | had been and where |

was going.

For the second tin what | would soon nthe worst day of my life, | was tackled to the ground. This tmy face was

pushed into the dirt, and | clenched my eyes shut to avoid getting anything in my eyes.

| was lifted from the ground, met with the smell of body odor and flowers.

“Tsk tsk, bad soul-eater.” Chaos’s voice was right by my ear, laughing loudly when | jerked my head away.

I wrenched open my eyes, wincing when they stung and itched from the dirt that was spread across my face. The Hound held