Chapter 21: The Mysterious Employer
1063 Words
POV: Thelma
I woke up in a bed so soft it felt like clouds. For a moment, I forgot where I was. Forgot everything except the warmth and comfort surrounding me. Then memory crashed back, and I bolted upright with a gasp.
The room was beautiful. Sunlight streamed through gauzy curtains, illuminating elegant furniture and walls painted in calming blues and greens. Nothing like a prison cell. Nothing like what I expected from a captor.
"You're awake." The voice came from a chair near the window. Selene, no, she'd called herself Luna. My aunt Luna sat watching me with those familiar eyes. "How do you feel?"
"Like I've been poisoned and kidnapped." I swung my legs off the bed, testing my strength. The silver burns on my wrists were bandaged with something that smelled like healing herbs. "What do you want from me?"
"Direct. I like that." She stood and moved closer, her movements graceful and controlled. "You look so much like Catherine. My sister would be proud of the fighter you've become."
The mention of my mother made my chest ache. "Don't talk about her like you knew her. Like you cared."
"But I did know her." Luna's voice held genuine pain. "She was my older sister. My protector. My best friend. When they killed her and James, they tore my heart out."
I studied her face, searching for lies. The mate bond with Xavier had taught me to read emotions, and what I felt from Luna was complicated. Grief. Anger. Love. But underneath it all, something harder. Something calculating.
"If you cared so much, where were you when they murdered my parents?" I demanded. "Where were you when I was raised by their killers? When I was poisoned and tortured and used?"
Luna's expression darkened. "I was building an army. Gathering resources. Planning revenge." She moved to the window, looking out at what I now saw was a thriving pack territory. "That night, twenty-three years ago, I was away on a mission for your father. By the time I got back, the compound was burning. Your parents were dead. And you..." She turned back to me. "You were gone. Damien told everyone you'd died in the fire."
"But you knew better."
"I suspected." She crossed her arms. "James had told me once that if anything happened to him, I should look for his children. Children. Plural. That's when I knew there was more to the story."
My heart stopped. "What do you mean, children?"
Luna's smile was sad. "You had a twin brother, Thelma. Born minutes after you. James and Catherine kept his existence secret from everyone except me."
The room spun. A brother. I had a brother.
"Where?" The word came out as a whisper. "Where is he?"
"Close." Luna walked to the door and opened it. "I've been raising him. Protecting him. Training him." She paused. "Preparing him for the day we'd find you and take back what was stolen from us."
A young man entered the room, and I couldn't breathe. He had my eyes, our father's eyes, the same golden amber. The same dark hair, though his was shorter. The same sharp features. Looking at him was like looking in a mirror that showed me who I could have been if I'd been born male.
"Thelma," Luna said formally, "meet your twin brother, Theo."
Theo stared at me with an expression I couldn't read. Not joy. Not relief. Something colder.
"Hi," I managed, my voice shaking. "I'm, I can't believe we're really.."
"Twins," he said flatly. "Yes. I've known about you my whole life."
The coldness in his voice made me flinch. "You knew about me?"
"Aunt Luna told me everything." He moved into the room but kept his distance, like I was something dangerous. "How our parents died. How you were taken by the coalition. How you were raised by the very people who murdered our family."
"I didn't know," I said desperately. "They lied to me. I only found out the truth recently.."
"And yet you lived with them." His voice was sharp. "For twenty-three years, you called Marcus 'father' and Elena 'mother.' You played happy family with our parents' murderers."
"I was a baby!" Tears burned my eyes. "I didn't have a choice!"
"We all have choices." Theo's hands clenched into fists. "You could have died rather than dishonor our parents' memory by living with their killers."
"That's enough, Theo," Luna said quietly, but she didn't move to comfort me. She just watched, like this was some kind of test.
"Is it?" Theo turned his glare on her. "You told me we needed her. That we couldn't complete the revenge without her. But you never said I had to like it. You never said I had to forgive her for.."
"For surviving?" I interrupted, anger finally cutting through my shock. "For being a baby who was stolen and lied to? For not magically knowing the truth when everyone around me was working to hide it?"
"For being weak," Theo shot back. "Aunt Luna said you were engaged to Neon. That you were going to become Luna of the Tee pack. That sounds like you were pretty comfortable in your fake life."
"You don't know anything about my life!" Power crackled around my hands, responding to my emotions. "I was drugged. Poisoned. Kept away from my wolf. They were planning to steal my abilities and kill me!"
"But you didn't die," Theo said coldly. "You escaped. You found a mate. You got your happy ending while the rest of us spent twenty-three years in hiding, planning, fighting just to survive."
"Happy ending?" I laughed bitterly. "My mate was sent to seduce and kill me. Everyone I've ever trusted has betrayed me. I've died once and come back only to find more enemies. If this is a happy ending, I'd hate to see what tragedy looks like."
That seemed to surprise him. Some of the coldness cracked, showing confusion underneath. "You died?"
"The Moon Goddess sent me back." I met his eyes, letting him see the truth in mine. "I lived an entire life where they succeeded. Where Yvonne took my place, and I was poisoned during the Luna ceremony. I died in front of everyone, alone and betrayed. The Goddess gave me a second chance to change things."
Theo looked at Luna. "Is that possible?"
- Writer
