The Alpha Twins Can't Have Me

Chapter 11: Forbidden

Juniper POV

The twins hesitated. Draven shot me a disbelieving glance.

"You can help them? What are you going to do?" he scoffed. "Feed them chocolate cake?"

"If it helped them, I would," I said sincerely, "but I doubt in this case it would do much good. Put them down already, unless you want them to die before we make it back to the packhouse."

Malakai was the first to oblige, carefully placing down his warrior and stepping back, a curious glint in his eyes.

Draven watched me suspiciously.

I knelt and studied the man carefully. He was littered in bruises; drugs was racing through his bloodstream, and the boar had done quite a number on him.

I placed a gentle hand on the man's chest.

Warmth spread through my palm. A bright light appeared. I closed my eyes and focused, picturing the man's wounds slowly healing.

The light grew stronger. I could feel its power coursing through me.

Malakai made a strangled sound.

The warmth vanished, and I opened my eyes to observe my handiwork.

The warrior was as good as new. He blinked his eyes open and looked up in a daze.

Draven was standing with his mouth agape.

"Put the man down already!" I barked, and he jolted, immediately placing the other wounded warrior on the floor.

The healed one sat up, looking over at his comrade with wide eyes.

I knelt once more and allowed the healing power to course through my body.

I finished and then sat, breathing heavily.

The warriors eyed one another and then looked towards Draven and Malakai for an explanation.

"Seoul, Johnathon, care to explain what happened to both of you?" Draven's voice was dark.

"I don't know, Alpha," Seoul stammered. "One moment I was guarding your door, and the next, I was fighting off an angry boar and unable to shift. I can't remember anything else."

"Same," Johnathon blurted out, rubbing the back of his neck and looking lost. "I can't explain it."

"A few more minutes with that aggressive boar and he would have made you both into mincemeat. He wasn't happy you trespassed on his territory," I muttered tiredly.

The warriors eyed me warily.

Reaper whined and jumped into my lap. I held him, the warriors instinctively backing away in fear.

I rolled my eyes.

"Go and get checked out in the infirmary. As for what happened just now, not a single word is to be spoken, is that clear?" Malakai snarled.

The warriors quickly nodded and left, shooting me one last puzzled look over their shoulders.

"What the f**k was that?" Draven demanded, "How exactly did you manage to heal them, Juniper?"

I looked at him with an innocent expression.

"I prayed."

"That was not prayer," he shouted, running a hand through his hair in exasperation.

"Voodoo magic."

"Juniper," Malakai sighed, "that was not voodoo magic."

"The dark arts."

"Try again."

"Sorcery."

"Can you be serious for once?" Draven demanded.

"I am being serious. Why do you care so much anyway? Oh, I know," I narrowed my eyes at them, "you're planning on using this knowledge to exploit my gift now, aren't you?"

"We would never," Malakai protested, "but how did you even know you could do something like this, whatever this is?"

"I don't know what it is exactly," I sighed and shrugged my shoulders. "As for how I realized. Have you ever fallen from a very tall tree and broken your leg?" I asked as they stared at me. "It's extremely painful. I injured my leg so severely that I couldn't walk on it, let alone have any hope of getting back to my packhouse without assistance. I could have crawled, but that seemed like a lot of work, "I wrinkled my nose, "and so, my magic just showed up. I healed myself, and I've been able to do it ever since."

"Who else knows?"

"Just you two and the warriors just now. My parents don't know, and neither does Caelan. I mean, if my mother realized I had such a gift, she would auction me like some damn prize just to get top dollar for me. It was safer to keep it to myself."

"Besides, unless my family was dead or dying, I had no interest in healing them. Their suffering was the only highlight in my life," I said unrepentantly.

"One time, my mother got the flu so bad she was bedridden for weeks. It was the best thing ever," I enthused. "I could do whatever I wanted, and she couldn't stop me. I can still remember how pissed off she was when she found out I'd replaced all the paintings in the house with caricature drawings instead. Hers was a particularly flattering one of her face combined with a horse's ass. She grounded me for a week for that one. Totally worth it though," I finished cheerfully.

Silence.

"So you never healed your family members?" Malakai said slowly.

"Duh. Do you think my mother would be deserving? Besides, I had no interest in becoming some sort of guinea pig in a laboratory."

"Holy s**t," Malakai uttered, "Juniper, do you even know what this means?"

"Yeah, I can pretty much heal anything so long as I don't die. I once flung myself off a ledge to see how long it would take me to heal those kinds of injuries. Turns out it only took a few minutes," I commented wryly, "awesome, right?"

Silence.

"You threw yourself off a ledge?"

"Yep, and a tree. It was an experiment."

"One that could have killed you," Malakai said, glaring at me.

"No pain, no gain."

I stood up slowly, swaying lightly on my feet. Malakai gripped my arm, his eyebrows narrowed in concern.

"What's wrong with you?" he demanded fiercely.

"Healing takes a lot of energy," I said drowsily, "so I get tired and have to rest afterward."

Reaper sprang to the ground and wagged his little tail.

I looked despondently at the packhouse in the distance. Why did it have to be so far away? Why must I suffer the indignity of walking back like a snail in rush hour?

Malakai sighed and picked me up as though reading my mind.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and snuggled against him.

"Until we learn more about this magic gift of yours," he growled, beginning to walk with me in his arms, "you're to keep it to yourself. If somebody discovers your secret, you could become a target."

Reaper darted after us.

Draven followed behind, lost in contemplation.

For once he wasn't making sarcastic remarks or acting like a wounded bull.

Interesting.

"I wasn't exactly planning a big announcement of it," I said, annoyed. "Do you think I want to be taken advantage of or used?"

"I'm just trying to protect you."

"I need sustenance," I whimpered, changing the subject, "my body needs to recover and it can't without food."

I made myself as dramatic as possible without expending unnecessary energy.

They fell for it. Or at least Malakai did.

What a sweetheart. A naive sweetheart.

"What do you need?" Malakai was instantly alert. "Protein bars? Granola? Protein? Hydralytes?"

I stared at him with open hostility.

"Do I look like a rabbit to you? Protein bars, granola," I scowled, "are you trying to starve me?"

That food sounded about as tasty as a Brussels sprout drenched in tomato sauce.

Utterly disgusting and an offense to one's senses.

"Well then, what do you want?"

I grinned.

I had him right where I wanted him.

"Anything?" I purred, batting my eyelashes at him and attempting to look as adorable as possible.

Not that it took much. I was naturally adorable.

"Anything. You need to nourish your body properly," he said assuredly.

"Yes," I nodded agreeably, my eyes beginning to sparkle, "I do. My body requires a lot of nourishment," I emphasized.

"Anything, princess."

"Chocolate cake," I said without hesitation.

"Chocolate cake?" Malakai repeated dumbly. "That's not quite what I expected..."

"And chocolate mousse. Chocolate ice cream and chocolate croissants," I beamed.

Chocolate heaven. If I died from sugar overdose, then it was a death worthwhile.

"That's a lot of sugar," Malakai was appalled.

Health freak.

"You said anything. Besides, it takes a lot of calories to get my body back to normal," I pouted.

I was without shame.

A girl has to use everything she has to her advantage. It was the rules, and I was the queen of exaggeration.

Lies. I just wasn't passing up an opportunity to get my hands on cake.

"That makes sense, I guess," Malakai said thoughtfully, "still, that much sugar..." he still sounded doubtful.

"I can handle it," I said confidently, "trust me, this amount of sugar is nothing to me."

It turned out, in fact, that my body could not quite handle it as much as I had expected.

Even I, a sugar addict, could still be affected when consuming it in excess.