🩶 CHAPTER THREE — The Weight of Destiny
1050 Words
Alex
Dad arrived the next morning just as the sun split through the gray Irish clouds, his expression warm but tense as he spotted me waiting outside the school lab. What he didn’t expect — what none of us ever expected — was Riley standing beside me, mirroring my features like a second reflection brought to life.
He froze.
For a heartbeat, nobody breathed.
“A-Alex…?” he said, voice tight.
“Right here, Dad.” My hands shook as I handed him the results Mason had picked up for us. “Before you say anything… just look.”
He opened the envelope.
A gasp tore from him. The paper nearly slipped from his fingers.
“You’re… twins.” His voice cracked. “My God.”
Riley swallowed hard. “I—yes, sir. I’m Riley Falls.”
Dad blinked away tears and shook his head. “No more ‘sir.’ Call me David. Please.”
Her lips trembled.
Then he said the words that changed everything.
“Riley… would you be okay with us adopting you? Bringing you home? You deserve a family — a real one. And I’d like to be part of that, if you’ll let me.”
Riley looked at me, eyes filling with cautious hope.
The kind of hope that hurts.
“I… I think I would like that very much… David.”
His relief was immediate and overwhelming. He pulled us both into a trembling embrace.
“You’re family now. Both of you. And I will never let either of you be alone again.”
Riley broke. Quietly. Softly. Beautifully.
Just like I broke the night they first brought me home.
—
By late afternoon, paperwork was signed. Court records updated. Riley Falls became Riley McKinnley. My twin. My sister. My other half.
She moved into my dorm room that evening — two beds, two desks, two girls who hadn’t known they’d been missing a piece of themselves until now.
But destiny wasn’t done with us.
Not even close.
⸻
Riley
By 5 PM, we were all gathered in my new dorm room — me, Alex, and Mason. Alex sat cross-legged on her bed, her eyes bright with excitement as I unpacked the small bag of things I’d brought from the reformatory. Mason leaned against the wall, arms crossed, but his gaze kept flickering between us — torn, confused, overwhelmed.
“Pizza?” Alex asked, already reaching for her phone. “Hawaiian?”
“That’s my favorite!” I blurted, surprised.
She smiled. “Mine too.”
Mason raised a brow. “You two even eat the same weird toppings.”
We all laughed as the pizza arrived and we dug in, swapping stories about childhoods we never got to share. But beneath every laugh, beneath every stolen glance…
the tension simmered.
Mason’s eyes lingered on me longer than they should have.
But I could feel how they were drawn to Alex too.
And Alex…
She was trying so hard to pretend she didn’t feel the same pull.
My heart tightened painfully.
I had never had anything of my own — not love, not family, not belonging.
And now even the mate bond, the one thing fated for me, was tangled in something too complex to understand.
I didn’t want to hurt her.
My sister.
My twin.
But every time Mason’s gaze met mine, something ancient tugged at me.
Something inevitable.
After a long moment, Alex stood abruptly.
“I… I’m going to the library for a bit.”
Her voice was too bright. Too controlled.
Something inside me cracked.
—
Riley
When Alex left, the room felt smaller.
Mason shifted closer, uncertainty flickering in his amber eyes. “Are you okay?”
“No,” I whispered. “Are you?”
He didn’t answer.
His fingers brushed mine — tentative, questioning. A spark shot through me.
I closed my eyes.
He closed the distance.
And then his lips were on mine, warm, soft, devastating.
The mate bond roared to life between us.
Fierce. Unforgiving.
Something so powerful it terrified me.
I kissed him back because I couldn’t breathe otherwise.
But then—
The door opened.
And Alex stood there.
Her bag dangled from her fingers. Her face drained of color. Her eyes glittered with betrayal so raw it made my chest ache.
She dropped the bag.
And she ran.
My heart shattered.
“Alex!”
But she was gone before I could move.
⸻
Alex
I ran until my lungs burned.
Until the tears blurred the world.
Until the scent of pine and old paper told me I’d reached the library.
I collapsed between the shelves, clutching my bag to my chest as a sob broke free.
My mate.
My first real connection.
And my sister’s lips had been on his.
The injustice of it tore through me.
“Why?” I hissed, slamming a book onto the table.
“The Moon Goddess couldn’t give me one thing? One person of my own?!”
A sharp pain lanced through my skull.
“It’s because you and Riley are special,” a voice whispered inside my head — my wolf, finally speaking.
“Special?” I spat. “So special we have to share the same mate?”
“We need someone powerful. Mason is the only one strong enough. The Moon Goddess has chosen.”
“I don’t care!” I screamed silently into the bond.
“I want someone to love me — ME — not both of us!”
Anger surged, hot and wild.
The moon outside the skylight glowed brighter.
My vision blurred.
My bones ached.
“Then answer me!” I cried to the heavens.
“Why were we abandoned? What happened to our parents?! Why must we suffer for destinies we didn’t choose?!”
Something inside me broke loose.
Heat exploded from my palms.
The air rippled.
Flames burst across the wooden shelves.
I stumbled backward, shifting before I realized what was happening — my first transition, violent and agonizing, destiny ripping through me like a storm.
I shifted back, collapsing naked on the cold floor, trembling.
The library burned around me.
“Oh no…” I whispered hoarsely. “Did I… did I do that?”
The world spun.
Smoke filled my lungs.
And everything went black.
- Writer
