The Shadow Twin

Chapter 10 - How do they know her?

----Kayden POV----

After Leigh woke up and after she pretty much yelled at me in front of my family, I had to get out of there. My Wolf where going crazy and that was driving me insane. I was storming down the halls when I ran into Ryder, my oldest brother.

“Where’s the fire?” He gave me an amused smile and I growled at him.

“I sense that you could need a distraction, so how about you help me check the grounds for more threats or leads?” I nodded and followed him outside, where we headed directly for the woods. We stopped running, when we hit the border of the castle ground and Ryder pulled the hidden knife out of his boot and started throwing it up and down, grabbing it by the handle every time.

“What are the odds that the Rouge Wolf belongs to the Darkmoon Walkers? I mean we have had a truce for years so why show up know?” Ryder asked, breaking the silence for the first time since we sat out on this task. I continued to scan our surroundings, looking for anything out of place.

“Tanies has never been afraid to rip up the old wounds and start a war with us. He and his sons don’t back down from a fight, but you are right. It’s troublesome that their Wolfs are showing up on our territory after so many years. So why on earth are they pocking their head out now after so many years?” He shrugged at my questions and started spinning the knife around on the palm of his left hand, which was something he did, when he was pondering over stuff in his head, and I welcomed the silence. My Wolf had calmed down a bit and I was finally able to think straight again. His need to be near Leigh became stronger every time I looked at her and her faint scent sent my senses on overdrive. Out here in the woods, I where still able to smell her and it was a pain in the ass. The same could be said about my Wolf’s need to have her close and to Mark her. His lust for her was undeniable, but I didn’t know what to do about it. Sheila was my Mate, and I was not going to f**k it up, by giving in to my Wolf’s weird desire for someone else. He would come to love Sheila, just like I did. He had to.

“Your Wolf is smitten with her, isn’t he?” Ryder’s voice broke me out of my train of thought and back to the woods.

“What are you taking about?” He raised an eyebrow at me, while spinning the knife on the other palm now.

“Your Wolf likes Leigh and not just a little bit.” He turned to face me, and I had no choice, so I stopped walking and came face to face with him. Him saying her name got my Wolf stirring in my mind.

“Why would you think that?” He gave me a half smile and stopped spinning the knife around.

“Because you get all possessive and aggressive when she’s around. Just like an attached Wolf would react.” He put the knife back in his boot and looked back at me. I decided to level with him, maybe he had some advice to give.

“He is and I don’t get it. She’s just a weak human, yet he still finds her strong. Sheila is our Mate, so it doesn’t matter what he thinks about Leigh. Sheila is the one we are supposed to be with and that’s final.

“Hmmm.” Was the only response I got back, and it was kind of pissing me off. Here I was, telling him the truth about what was going on within me and all he had to say was hmmm. He got a blank expression and I waited until it disappeared to turn to him once again.

“What’s wrong?” I asked him and he gave me a puzzled look.

“Not sure, but Rylee told me to come back quick. Something about intruders at the front gate.” With that I turned and ran back as fast as I could. Ryder was matching my pace and we didn’t stop running until we came to the main hall.

“Where’s Princess Leigh?” Someone asked as I was running up to the door and when I saw who it was, I growled. Without thinking I pushed my way to the front and starred down the four Darkmoon Walkers Pack members, that were standing around a pile of my unconscious guards.

“What does the Darkmoon want with the Princess?” I made sure to show them my displeasure through my voice and I felt the people behind me shift around.

“That’s none of your goddamn business.” The lowest, that wasn’t that much shorter than the tallest, growled deeply. I knew their names, but I had absolutely no idea of who was who. The four brothers were pretty identical to one another and only small difference in their appearance where the only way to tell them apart. Something I hadn’t learned and didn’t intend to.

“Just show her to us and we will leave.” The guy next to the one that just spoke ordered me. His eyes were scanning the crowd behind me and came to a halt just above my shoulder. The recognition in his eyes was immediate. The other three looked in the same direction and I intuitively knew that they were looking at Leigh.

“Leigh.” They sounded breathless as they spoke her name and they took a step forward at the same time. I stepped in front of them, trying to get their attention before taking a couple steps down the stairs and towards them.

“Don’t you dare come any closer.” The threat where evident in my voice and they all looked at me.

“Or what?” The tallest one growled. A rush of anger hit me, and I was seconds away from ripping their heads off. I heard movement behind me, and the four men looked up, ignoring me as their eyes landed on something or someone else. The need to rip their heads off became stronger as the realization that they were staring at Leigh became clear to me.

“You can see me now, so please leave before it comes to blows. I don’t want anybody to get hurt over me.” Leigh’s voice held no apparent emotion, to indicate what she was thinking, but something then happened behind me that caused the men to step forward.

“Do Tanais know you are here and risking starting a full-blown war with us?” My father stopped them in their tracks with his words. They tensed and looked past me, before taking a step back. The looks on their faces telling everybody that, Tanais didn’t know their whereabouts. A pleasant surprise and something we might be able to use.

“This is far from over Carr’s.” The tallest one said while shifting his stare across the rows, and landed on someone behind me, someone that soften his stare a bit. If he didn’t stop looking at Leigh, I would rip his head off and the same could be said about his brothers. I didn’t like the way they looked at her and my Wolf were agreeing with me.

“You better take good care of her… Or else we will be back for her.” The lowest followed his words up with a dead glare in my direction and the last part, where not much louder than a whisper, but I heard it perfectly. They then turned on their heel and walked out of the front gates, just like that. My family exhaled so strong that you would think that they had been holding their breath all this time, which they must likely had.