CHAPTER 2: TWINS RECOGNITION
730 Words
Zane’s pov
The weariness of the week-long contract negotiation dissolved the instant the front door opened. The scent hit me first—clean cotton, something wild, something profoundly ours.
I froze. My mind, trained for security threats and hidden motives, immediately analyzed the source. It was coming from upstairs.
Then, I looked up.
Standing at the banister was the girl from the club. Her eyes, wide and startled, mirrored the shock I felt in my gut. Our Mate. Here. Standing right in our father’s house.
I felt Zakk tense beside me. We didn't need words; the mate bond was like an open nerve between us. He felt the same overwhelming pull, the same furious realization that fate had dropped our shared destiny into the most socially disastrous situation imaginable.
"Zakk, Zane, this is Andre, Sarah's daughter."
I managed to deliver a smooth, polite greeting. My wolf was screaming, Claim her now, but my human conditioning, my sense of duty to my father, held the leash tight. I saw the flash of recognition in her eyes when I spoke, confirming she remembered the kiss. She clearly hadn't known I was Henry's son.
But before I could formulate a strategy, she was gone, fleeing back into her room as if the sight of us had physically repelled her.
"Zakk," I muttered under my breath, my voice flat as Henry led us to the stairs.
"I felt it," Zakk replied instantly, his gaze following the path she took. "She's active. And she's running."
"She’s afraid of the connection. We can't push her," I warned.
Zakk smirked, a sharp, dangerous tilt of his mouth. "Of course we can, Zane. She's bonded to us. Running only makes the chase more interesting." He effortlessly picked up his bags and started up the stairs, radiating a possessive calm that was far more intimidating than my own restrained tension.
ZAKK
I took a breath just as I passed the door she had just slammed shut. The scent was intoxicating and maddeningly frustrating.
She knew. The mate bond, even through the thin membrane of her humanity, was reaching out. She was terrified of it, terrified of us. That initial flicker of recognition in her eyes was confirmation that she remembered the anonymous heat of the club, but now that the man was her 'step-brother,' she was in full flight mode.
In the hallway, I dropped my duffel bag and turned to face Zane.
"We have a problem," I said, though I didn't see it as a problem, but rather a delicious challenge.
"The problem is timing," Zane countered, rubbing the back of his neck, already stressed. "We can't tell Father, we can't tell Sarah, and we certainly can't corner her. We have to be subtle."
"Subtle?" I scoffed, moving toward the connecting door that separated our rooms. "Subtlety is a waste of a mate. She's running because she thinks she should run. She doesn't know what the bond is. We need to show her."
Zane grabbed my shoulder, forcing me to stop. "We are not going to terrify her into a relationship, Zakk. She’s only twenty-one. She just lost her father. We have to let her adjust to the family before we unleash the wolf."
"Fine," I conceded, my eyes glinting with annoyance. "But if she won't come to us, we will force her to acknowledge us in the open. Every time she tries to look away, she’ll be looking straight into her future."
I saw the reluctant acceptance in Zane’s stance. He was the protector, the cautious one. I was the claimant, the aggressor. That’s why we were perfect halves. We would approach her from opposite directions, giving her no escape.
"Tonight is dinner," I reminded Zane, a slow, predatory smile spreading across my face. "Let's see how well she can avoid us when we're trapped at the same table."
I pushed open the connecting door and went into my room, already planning where I would sit. The game had begun, and the rules were simple: Our House, Our Secret would start with breaking down Andre's wall of denial, one carefully placed flirtation at a time.
The tension is perfectly established, with Zane as the cautious protector and Zakk as the assertive aggressor.
- Writer
