The Darkest Heir

Eighteen.

Dylan

Never in my life have I been so uncomfortable. The clothes that I had let Lecia talk me into wearing were really nice, but I had never worn anything so, well, mature before, so they made me feel off.

As I sat here waiting for Alpha Rogan to come and pick me up, I couldn’t help but go over how I ended up getting here.

After our little “talk” about going into the office, things seemed to move pretty quickly. Only a day had passed from the time I mentioned it to the time it was planned.

Before I knew it, I received a text saying that not only was I going to the city for the first time tomorrow, I was scheduled to meet my boss.

The most shocking part about it was that I wasn’t going alone, but I would be accompanied by the Alpha himself. His text was short, but had very strict instructions about what time he would pick me up and what the schedule looked like.

I probably read that message a hundred times before I ended up calling Lecia and completely freaking out.

The shriek that Lecia let out when I told her the news almost burst my eardrums, but I could tell that she was smiling just as widely as I was at that moment.

It was so nice having a friend. The last few days of my life have been so full of things I never thought I would experience.

By the time she had finally gotten through all of her shock and excitement, she immediately jumped into planning what I would wear for my “do or die meeting,” as she so kindly labeled it.

I had a shift that day, so she and I made plans for her to come over that night and help me figure out what I would wear, how I would do my hair, and she insisted she would teach me how to put on make-up.

All the excitement from my call with Lecia followed me into my shift. The time flew by so quickly and before I knew it, my time was almost up.

With only a few minutes left, I remembered that I needed to respond to the message that Roane had sent me. After double checking my message from Alpha Rogan, I messaged him what time to expect me tomorrow.

As I sent the message I felt a sudden flutter in my stomach because I was still so unsure as to why they wanted to see me, but Rae immediately began whispering words of encouragement.

My phone went off and I knew before checking it that it was Lecia telling me that she was on her way. I had told her what time my shift ended and I was sure that she was counting down the time before she could come over.

Before I was about to submit the last of my assignments for the day, the familiar ding of an incoming message sounded and a notification popped up on the screen.

The response from Roane was a voice message. I was so thrown off that I immediately clicked on it to hear what he had to say.

“I am eagerly awaiting the opportunity to finally meet the illustrious and illusive Dylan Solamier in the flesh. So until tomorrow, good evening.”

What the actual f*ck! Maybe I shouldn’t have listened to his message because now I had more than just flutters in my stomach, I had full on pterodactyls in there.

Quickly clocking out, I left the message open because I had to play it again for Lecia when she arrived.

Unable to calm myself, I spoke to Rae, “is it just me, or was that kinda weird? I mean that was weird, right?” I almost didn’t give her time to respond because the moment I asked the questions, I started responding to myself.

“Maybe he’s just excited to meet me right. I mean I have worked here for quite a while and I’ve never met anyone. That is probably really weird, right? Yeah, it’s just that this is a weird situation.”

Rae almost had to yell to get my attention,”Little one, please take a moment to breathe. Things will be okay.”

She was right, probably. I just needed to take a second to catch my breath and calm my nerves. I didn’t need to get into my head and let my emotions get the best of me.

Deciding to take a quick shower to see if that could help me calm my nerves, I texted Lecia to let her know that the door was unlocked for her and that she could just come right in.

I grabbed whatever was on the top of my hamper and practically ran for the shower. Jumping under the water before it even warmed up enough was probably not the best idea, but it helped me to focus a little better.

The warm water washed over me and I tried to imagine that all my worries and nerves were being washed away with it.

While I was standing in the shower just letting the water run down my face, I thought that I heard the door open. I figured that it was Lecia, so I tried to finish washing up as quickly as I could so that she wouldn’t have to wait for too long.

It probably took me about five minutes to finish. I dressed in some shorts and an oversized shirt and wrapped my hair up in a towel on the top of my head.

“Lecia, is that you” I called as I walked out of the bathroom, but there was no response. I went to the living room and looked around. I could have sworn that I heard the door open.

For some reason, Rae was on edge, but she didn’t and wouldn’t tell me what was bothering her. I brushed it off as my nerves rubbed off on her.

Grabbing my phone, I went into the kitchen to grab something to drink. The moment I was about to dial Lecia’s number, there was a loud knock on the door.

Thank goodness that I decided to shower because it had soothed all the nerve endings in my body and I bounded to the door to let Lecia in.

Surprise was probably written on my face when I opened the door to not just Lecia, who was holding an obscene amount of bags, but two young red-headed boys with piercing green eyes who had clothes draped across their outstretched arms.

“Dylan, these are my annoying, I mean adorable little brothers Cruz and Nico. Boys, this is my bestie Dylan.”

I wish that I had known that she was going to be introducing me to her brothers because then I would have worn something better, like a bra. Hopefully they hadn’t noticed how oddly I was standing to try to hide the fact that I wasn’t wearing one.

Both boys were making faces at Lecia’s poorly hidden jab at them, but when they greeted me they were so polite.

“It is a pleasure to meet you.”

“It’s nice to finally meet you Dylan.”

Though they were younger than me, we were practically the same height already and I had to admit that they were very handsome young men.

“Ugh yes it is really nice to meet you, I have heard so much about you both,” I gushed.

“Don’t believe a word of what Leelee says,” they responded in unison.

The laugh that escaped me was short and squeaky because I had tried to hold it in. I have read about how twins do things in perfect unison before, but hearing it first hand was great.

Realizing that they were still standing outside with all of their luggage, I welcomed them inside.

To my surprise, one of the many bags that Lecia was carrying contained a full three-course meal that her mother had prepared. “She said that she had to send food if you were going to have to suffer with all of her children for the evening.”

Even though I hadn’t met Lecia’s parents yet, I could tell that her mom was a really sweet person.

Her brothers were still standing in the middle of the living room and holding piles of clothes in their arms. “Oh my gosh, please put those on the couch and take a seat anywhere you’d like.”

Both boys walked over to the couch, but before they could dump their loads Lecia rushed them.

“Don’t you dare wrinkle those damn clothes!”

She made them follow her to my bedroom and she placed all of the clothes carefully on the bed.

I was a little nervous having all of them in my bedroom,it felt a little too intimate, but the second they had all the clothes down they met me back in the living room.

Lecia was so hyped up that she couldn’t do anything but pace back and forth around my little house.

Her brothers sat at my table and I could see them looking around and taking in my little house. I had to stop myself from outright gawking at them.

Being able to see the resemblance in the three of them, and watch their dynamic play out in front of me made me ache a little to not know what that feels like.

Shaking it off, I continued to unpack all of the food and plate it for the four of us. Lecia’s mom had sent over a caesar salad, grilled chicken and butter noodles, and a whole container of walnut brownies.

We talked while we ate and I got to know a lot more, not only about her brothers, but about Lecia. Even though the three of them bickered, the love they had for each other was obvious.

But the moment we had all finished eating, Lecia rushed me to my bedroom and slammed the door. She immediately categorized the clothes and had me start trying them all on.

Cruz and Nico were both judges and helped rate the outfits. After a while, it turned into a game where the three of them would rate the outfits on a scale from one to ten.

Finally, we had the outfits narrowed down to two and we were going to be moving on to the hair and make-up portion of the evening apparently.

Lecia was setting up her station on the table while I made some drinks for us all. When I was in the kitchen, one of Lecia’s brothers, I couldn’t tell them apart just yet, asked if anyone else lived here.

Even though I was a little taken off guard, I quickly responded to him, “no, why do you ask?”

Both boys looked at each other for a moment and I couldn’t tell if they were talking to each other or their wolves, but Lecia immediately jumped in.

“What’s going on with you two? Why would you ask something like that?”

Again Nico and Cruz seemed to be having a private conversation, but Lecia walked over and smacked them both on the heads.

“Hey, what the hell was that for,” they yelled in perfect sync. I brought the tea service to the living room and found a small section of the table to safely place it.

“It’s faint, like really faint, but there is another scent I’m picking up in here. Did you have a guest today?”

Thank goodness I had put the tea down because I would have probably dropped it if it had still been in my hands.

“What do you mean, I don’t smell anything, and neither did Rae?”

Lecia was sniffing so hard that it was almost funny, but Nico, I think, placed his hand on her arm to get her to stop.

“Do you want to call the patrols and have them come investigate,” he asked me.

Honestly, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I asked Rae if she smelled or sensed anything out of the ordinary, but she just said that she didn’t.

Lecia had her phone out, but I knew that if we called them, Alpha Rogan would not only make them all leave, he would shut down the pack lands, and our trip tomorrow.

I made a quick decision and asked, “would you all mind staying here with me tonight, and after my trip tomorrow, I’ll tell Alpha Rogan all about this and see what he wants to do then?”

Three sets of beautifully white teeth smiled up at me and all three nodded and responded with their agreement.

“Duh, of course.”

“Yeah sounds like fun.”

“I thought we were already planning to stay.”

I had to hold back my tears. Lecia rushed me and practically tackled me with the bear hug she wrapped me in.

We spent the rest of the night going over hair styles and, after a little bit of experimentation, decided on a minimal amount of make-up. By the time we had made a bed for her brothers and Lecia and I jumped in my bed, I had completely forgotten about the message I had wanted to show her.

The morning passed by so quickly and I found myself in a long sleeved button-up white blouse, underneath a burgundy pin stripe vest. I wore tapered black trousers and a pair of burgundy loafers because I could not walk in heels.

Lecia had applied mascara, lip gloss, and filled in my eyebrows, but kept my hair styled in an elegant bun with a braided headband. She and her brothers left about ten minutes before Alpha Rogan was supposed to show up, but not before they had given me a million compliments.

Nervous anxiety filled me, but I was as ready as I would ever be. I decided to wait in the living room for him. As I sat there, I asked Rae if she was excited about visiting the city.

She deliberated for a moment before she spoke, “Dylan, I need you to stay on your guard when we are there. Be aware of everything and everyone, especially Alpha Rogan. No matter what happens, remember I am always here with you.”

I had no time to process her words because the moment she stopped talking, I heard the tires of a car pull up outside.

Well, here goes nothing.