Twinned Flame

Who Is She?

Hugo is handed a piece of paper by one of the field hands.

“Sally, 12 arrows, 106 points;” “Allen, 12 arrows, 109 points;” “Jakob, 9 arrows, 61 points.”

“Rosanna, 5 arrows, 50 points,” “Lawrence, 14 arrows, 114 points,” “Wesley, 12 arrows, 108 points.”

“Elsa, 13 arrows, 88 points,” “Sylvie, 15 arrows, 119 points.”

Sylvie hung her head to smile at herself, she had won. She looked up towards Hugo, but the silence from her own pack, the harsh whispers that instead filled the stadium made her eyes instinctively water. She looked towards the crowd, faces she didn’t recognize, people who had never met her but knew of her. She could feel their dislike for her; she looked at the recruits who all but shuffled away grumbling. She bit her lip, 25 years of distrust wasn’t going to change just because she could shoot a couple arrows.

“That’s Sylvie for the win!” Hugo shouts, a smile on his face. Sylvie, despite her feelings, still steps up and bows low to the crowd.

“Exceptional archery display, wouldn’t you say?” He gestures toward the crowd, clapping enthusiastically. The response is halfhearted, he swings his arm out, motioning to the Alphas box.

“Alpha Braxton, any words for our archers?” Hugo asks. Braxton stands over the murmuring crowd with a smile.

“I am in awe at the talent displayed here on our first assessment! Congratulations to each of you.” He keeps it simple, meeting Sylvie’s eye. His smile broadens and she frowns,

“Of course,” she thinks to herself. She almost expected it to be different, especially after Hugo’s warning earlier, but when the acknowledgment didn’t come, it still hurt just the same.

Back in the spectators’ box, Braxton sits down as Hugo begins announcing the next assessment when Alpha Justin leans over to him.

“What’s the deal with the she-wolf who won?” he asked, eyeing the crowd. He watched as older woman and men made gagging movements while pointing over to her.

“Her name is Sylvie; she was a rogue pup my father found during the Uprising 25 years ago. He spotted her next to the corpse of what he assumed was her mother,” Braxton explained, looking down at Sylvie as she packed up her archery equipment and stood off by herself as the second assessment began.

“My father took pity, but being of rogue blood, it was hard to integrate her into the pack. Some pack mates still have a hard time accepting her,” Braxton explained. Alpha Justin didn’t seem to understand.

“You called her rogue blood, is that enough for twenty-five years of resentment? To a whelp no less,” Justin questioned, Braxton looked at him sideways but kept an even expression.

“Some fears are hard to quell when the scars never truly fade,” Braxton said, looking back at the recruits on the field. The assessment of strength, recruits stepped up to perform two lifts within a standard weight category. A snatch lift, and a clean and jerk lift of a barbell. Justin turned in his seat to better face Braxton,

“That can be understandable, but a pup didn’t start that war. How do we even know if the mother was a rogue and not just a casualty?” Justin probed. Braxton turned to him, lips curled.

"Lawrence pulling into the lead!" Hugo called from the field pulling Braxton's focus.

“You know, blood ceremonies, it's tricky when pack approval is so low,” he said with a shrug. Justin chose to simply nod along before turning back to the current match. Braxton leaned close to whisper as applause erupted in the arena.

“Additionally, this might just be what she needs to show the pack what she is made of, don’t you think?” Braxton asked. The closeness made Justin's skin crawl. He normally isn’t a man to lose his composure over such a person, but his instincts have been firing off warning alarms all day.

“25 years and they still haven’t accepted her?” Vincent asked in his mind link with his brother, as they applauded along,

“This pack gets increasingly suspicious. It looks like Justice may even agree,” Damien said, looking over at Sylvie. Her features were striking even from so high above her, dark black hair pulled into a small ponytail, an athletic build but still holding the feminine softness in the curves. She carried herself like someone who’d spent her whole life being looked down upon but trying desperately to show off her skill.

“She’s pretty hot for a rogue,” Damien inquired, her eyes were bright blue, even from this distance. She was dressed in tight black shorts and a tank top, a body harness with a matching garter cage harness, attached were small pouches that he could only assume had meniscal personal items. She moved deliberately, each step almost calculated to assess her situation. Did she not want to be seen? Vincent nudged his brother in the ribs, causing him to wince and glare at him.

“You’re ridiculous,” he said, rolling his eyes. Damien chuckled.

“But you agree with me,” Vincent frowned, for he had to admit his brother was right, she was rather attractive. He wouldn’t let him know that though,

“Her parents died during the war and all you can muster up is a ‘She’s hot,’” Vincent voiced, and Damien’s eyes widened at that thought,

“You’re right, that’s unfair to her,” Damien said, surprising Vincent,

“I’ll think more with my upstairs,” Damien said with a grin, and Vincent nudged him in the rips again, making him wince. The noise caught Braxton’s attention, and they both offered him only a nod.

“So how many matches are we expecting to see today?” Alpha Justin asked, drawing the two brothers back into the conversation. He was trying to ease the tension rising in the air.

“There are a total of 5 assessments. Not every recruit will be in every one though,” Braxton explained. Justin nodded along and Braxton stood to give another speech about the winner. When he finished, Hugo directed everyone’s attention to the marksmen's area, explaining that each recruit had 10 minutes to fire their entire 15-round magazine at the moving targets.

“Psst big brothers,” Damien and Vincent looked down at their sister Jenny. Raphael and she were staring intently at the two.

“Yes, little sister?”

“Can I learn archery too?” Jenny asked, turning back to the field and pointing over and Sylvie.

“Can she teach me? Can I shoot targets too? Can I have that harness? Can I meet her? I want to shoot bad wolves too!” Jenny rattled off, bouncing in her seat. The twins were taken aback by the sudden onslaught of questions. They didn’t know which ones they would be able to answer first.

“Isn’t she awesome!” Jenny beamed, turning back to face the field watching as Sylvie was approaching the shooting range.

“I’m old enough to learn, aren’t I? Ralphie can learn with me!” Jenny continued, grabbing onto Raphael’s arm and giving it a shake. He glared at her,

“I don’t want to shoot some stupid bow; I’d rather shoot a gun!” He grumbled in the link causing the twins to chuckle.

“Bows are slow and stupid, learn yourself,” Raphael shot at Jenny. She turned to face him, sticking her tongue out,

“They’re a lot quieter than your guns, how are you supposed to sneak anywhere?” Jenny shot back,

“I don’t need to sneak when it’ll only take one shot cause that’s all I’ll need,” Raphael shot back. Braxton cast them another glance when Jenny’s excessive movements caught his attention. They gave him another nod, as Damien pulled Jenny into his lap to settle her down. Jenny noticed his stare and leaned into Damien's chest like she was trying to phase through him to get away.

“Creepy” The four siblings thought simultaneously.

"Wesley with 62 points!" Hugo announced, “Next recruit, step up!” Sylvie stepped up and the spectators box went quiet again to observe. Sylvie stood in front of the table, a magazine and Glock lay separately on the table. Five moving targets being pulled back and forth by field hands moved in front of her, the closest being 21 feet then spacing until reaching the fifth target 75 feet away.

Sylvie felt the weight of the entire arena’s eyes on her at that moment. Overlapping whispers of her pack mingled together with those from the visiting ones. Were they finally noticing her? Was it a good thing they were?

“Focus Sylvie. Just focus” Sylvie squeezed her eyes shot, she felt like she was being swallowed into the earth.

“Mark set, begin!”

Sylvie grabbed the magazine and popped it into the Glock. Her finger outside the trigger guard, she inserted the muzzle into the clearing trap until it clicked. She gripped the slide in an overhand grip and pulled back sharply to load the first round into the chamber. She planted her feet, raised the gun and took a breath. She fired off her first round, the next one automatically loading into the chamber, and she heard the ‘ting’ of the bullet hitting the metal sheet housing the scoring paper.

She tried to cancel out all the noise, firing her rounds one after another, a rapid fire of ‘ting, ting, ting’ could be heard over the discontent of the recruits standing behind her.

“Show off.” “She’s only going after the easiest ones.” “I’m still better than her.” She bit her lip,

“Don’t get distracted, breath, breath, breath” Sylvie thought to herself, when a

“Nice shot!” from the crowd caught her attention when the last bullet left, and she clicked the trigger to confirm. She popped the mag and looked towards the crowd in disbelief, trying to find the person who was cheering for her.

“Sylvie with 98!” Hugo cheered, she turned towards Hugo, and he prompted her to bow. She obliged and even gave the crowd a slight wave as she stepped back from the table. She walks back over to her equipment, leaning against the wall and taking deep breaths to calm her racing heart.

“Will she be in the remaining assessments?” Beta Jessica asked, “She seems very gifted.” Jessica could hear the discussion from her own visiting pack mates in the crowd praising her. She thought she’d make an excellent pack member, perhaps she could recruit her.

“She’s only marked for three out of the five,” Braxton admitted.

“She is trained on each assessment, but excels on the three,” Braxton continued,

“We allow each recruit to settle into what they believe their strengths are, some are required to train in multiple things, but not all,” he explained. Jessica nodded along, she went to speak when her father tapped his cane on the ground.

“How can you allow such a rogue to attend an assessment like this? Skill or no skill, a wolf with no blood ties will abandon the pack with convenient” Gene pipped up with a ‘bah’ at the other's interest in Sylvie.

“Skill means nothing when not put to use,” Gene bickered. Jessica rolled her eyes at her father and his archaic thinking. She wasn’t surprised at all by his display.

“Come now, Alpha Windsor, times are changing!” Alpha Justin boasted cheerily. Gene shot him a look.

“A mere wolf these days could be alpha of a pack with enough backing,” Justin laughed.

“If it wasn’t for Miles here, being a banger of a mentor, who knows. He might have been running Smokehill pack!” He continued to jest, nudging Beta Miles in the side. Miles smiled at him when an eye roll. Alpha Gene’s loud grumbled ‘gah’ had Alpha Justin laughing louder, trying to ease the rising tension around them.

“Have you ever leased a recruit to other packs?” Vincent asked, drawing the conversation to him.

“What do you mean?” Braxton asked, turning to face the much larger Alpha. He breaks into his usual smile,

“Like lease them to another pack to train and mentor their own recruits. Or give private lessons to young heirs?” Vincent clarified. Braxton stared at him for a long moment before glancing at his brother. His smile stretched, as realization of Vincents actual wants dawned on him.

“I’m just saying, if your pack is so renowned for their warrior and garrison training, why not assist packs in fortifying their own?” He said with a shrug, trying to lighten the conversational tone. Braxton turned back to the field, he knew the Stones didn’t want some recruit, they wanted Sylvie. His eyes twitched as he forced his smile wider,

“I find it easier to fill out a pack’s entire guard instead of training them,” Braxton said, standing abruptly. He faced each Alpha and Beta in the box. The air thickened around them, even some individuals in the crowd looked over to see what was happening.

“If you’ll excuse me, Alphas, Betas, I’m going to pop out for a second,” Braxton turned to leave the box and his smile instantly dropped into a neutral expression, causing Raphael, who was closest to the exit, to climb into his brother’s lap. Braxton exited, with his Beta Aelis in tow.

“I’m not the only one who thinks that dude is the creepiest mother fucker on the planet, right?” Justin said when he was out of sight.

“He definitely worries me,” Jessica said,

“How can you smile like that with such darkness hiding underneath?”