Oops! My Twin Alphas Claimed Me

Chapter 14: Bran

Chapter 14: Bran

I met Bran properly three days after the incident with Thorne, when Ryker dragged him into the training yard with the easy, unthinking affection of a man greeting a brother rather than a subordinate.

"Elara, this reckless i***t is Bran," Ryker said, cuffing the younger warrior lightly on the back of the head as he said it. "Grew up half-feral in these halls right alongside Ash and me. If either of us ever needed someone stupid enough to follow us into trouble, it was him."

"Charming introduction," Bran said, grinning, unbothered by the insult in a way that told me it was old, comfortable ground between them. He was younger than the twins by a few years, lean where they were built broad, with an easy, open face that made him look younger still. He bowed his head toward me with more genuine warmth than half the pack had managed since the festival. "Luna. It's an honor. Truly."

"Please," I said. "Elara is fine. I'm still getting used to the other word."

"Give it time," Bran said easily. "I've known these two idiots since we were pups learning to shift, and even I still forget sometimes that they run half this territory now." He glanced between Ryker and Ash, something fond and unguarded in his expression. "Feels like yesterday Ryker broke his arm trying to prove he could out-climb Ash in the eastern woods."

"I won that climb," Ryker said.

"You fell out of the tree," Bran said.

"After I reached the top."

Ash huffed something that might have been a laugh, shaking his head. "He's not wrong, for once. You landed on your face."

The easy banter between the three of them eased something in my chest I hadn't realized was tense, a glimpse of who Ryker and Ash had been before crowns and rivalries and prophecies had settled onto their shoulders, back when they were simply boys with a friend reckless enough to keep pace with them.

"Bran's been running patrols along the northern border since the Shadowfang skirmish," Ash explained to me. "Good instincts. Sharp eyes. If anyone's going to notice trouble creeping toward us before it arrives, it'll be him."

"High praise," Bran said, though something flickered briefly behind his easy smile there and gone so fast I almost convinced myself I'd imagined it. "I'll try to live up to it."

We spent the better part of an hour in the training yard together, Bran folding easily into my lessons with Thorne, sparring with an energy that felt more like play than the grim seriousness the older Beta usually brought to our sessions. He was good, quick, clever, willing to let me land a hit or two just to build my confidence in a way that felt generous rather than condescending.

"You're better than the rumors give you credit for," he said, catching his breath after I managed to knock the practice blade from his hand for the first time. "Most of the pack still talks about you like you're made of glass."

"Most of the pack hasn't spent two weeks getting thrown around a training yard," I said, breathless but pleased despite the ache already blooming in my shoulders.

"Fair point." He handed the blade back, studying me with something curious and a little more serious than his easy grin usually allowed. "For what it's worth, I don't think the Moon makes mistakes. Whatever the elders whisper. I've seen what real weakness looks like, and it's never worn the face of someone willing to keep getting back up."

Something about the sincerity in it caught me off guard, warm and unexpected from someone I'd known less than an hour. "That's kind of you to say."

"Not kindness. Just honesty." He shrugged, glancing toward the mansion for a moment, something unreadable crossing his face before he shook it off and turned back to me with his easy smile restored. "Anyway. I should get back to patrol before Thorne decides I'm slacking off flirting with the Luna instead of doing my job."

"Is that what this was?" I asked, amused despite myself.

"Absolutely not," Bran said, already backing away with an exaggerated look of innocence. "I have far too much respect for Ryker's temper to flirt with his mate in front of him."

"Smart man," Ryker called after him, though there was genuine warmth in it, the kind reserved for someone trusted completely.

I watched Bran head off toward the northern gate, his easy stride carrying him quickly out of the yard, and thought nothing more of the strange flicker I'd caught behind his smile chalking it up to the same restless unease that had settled over the entire pack since the Shadowfang attack.

It would be a long while yet before I learned to recognize that flicker for what it truly was.

"He's a good man," Ash said later, as we walked back toward the mansion, sensing perhaps that I was still turning the encounter over in my mind. "One of the only ones who never treated either of us differently once we became Alpha instead of just brothers. Ryker trusts him with things he wouldn't trust most warriors twice his rank."

"He seems kind," I agreed, and meant it, even as some small, quiet part of me filed away that flicker of unease for later, unable yet to name why it wouldn't quite let me go.