I force my stiff body to stand up and quickly head for the bathroom locking myself in there. I ignore the boys at they knock on both my bedroom door and bathroom door.
“Angel…” It’s Tyler. I pause in the shower, listening as he rests his head against the other side of the door. “I’m sorry about earlier… I’m so proud of you, for shifting.” I stand silently for another minute before I finally hear his footsteps as he starts walking away.
I take my time having a steamy hot shower contemplating everything that has happened over the past twenty four hours. Once I’ve washed the emotion of the day away, I change into a pair of shorts and a comfortable shirt.
These days I’m barely able to look at myself in the mirror. I keep imagining seeing my beaten broken face when I look at my reflection. Instead when I look in the mirror today, none of the scars can be seen, my eyes are back to their normal shade of bluey green. I brush my wet hair and stick it into a bun, preparing myself to head downstairs to await all the questions that I know will be coming my way.
I leave my room, looking left and right. I don’t sense the twins anywhere near; I’m thankful that the bond we share enables me to tell if they’re near or far. I do however smell something in the air. I raise my nose to try and catch the delicious scent.
Pancakes.
My stomach growls as I smell the yummy goodness. I follow the scent towards the kitchen, noticing how quiet the house is all of a sudden. I find a plate of freshly made pancakes covered in cinnamon on the counter and grab one.
Hearing a noise coming from the back of the house, I make my way down the passage towards the humming sound. I step out onto the porch and there sitting on the steps sits a familiar face.
“Greg!” I yell with a mouth full of pancake. He turns his head around then stands up. I smile as he jogs up to me, pulls me into his arms, then swings me around chuckling against my collar bone. I know I’m stiff in his arms; I’m still not too comfortable being touched. But I manage to hold on as he does his thing, hoping he doesn’t sense my discomfort.
“Lexi! I was wondering when I would see you. I’ve been here for some time now,” he says, still holding me tight.
“Put. Her. Down. Now!”
Greg drops me and I stumble turning to face a scary looking Tyler glowering at Greg. Greg is a big guy, but the twins are much taller and broader than him. He tries to pull me behind him in a protective stance but stops suddenly when he hears growling behind us.
“Touch her again and I’ll rip your god damn hands off,” Talon spits.
Greg immediately pauses, looking down at me with uncertainty.
“What the hell is wrong with you two?” I ask.
“No Lexi!” Talon spits my name. “What is wrong with you?”
I growl at the use of my old name. Greg backs away and raises an eyebrow in confusion. I don’t ever want to be referred to as Lexi again, but I’ll have to explain that to him another time.
“You want his hands all over you, is that it?” Talon asks through our mate link still glaring at Greg behind me.
I need to learn how to control our link, I don’t want anyone inside my head; I have too many secrets I need to keep hidden.
“I will teach you everything you need to know, Angel. Don’t let their words hurt you. They’re in pain and their wolves are punishing them, they’re taking it out on you.” Faith’s voice echoes reassurance.
“He’s probably one of the many men you’ve been stringing along. Isn’t he?” Tyler links back in disgust. I can hear my wolf whimpering from within me because of the way our mates are speaking to us.
“Out of interest, just how long is this list Lexi? What number were we?” Talon continues. Greg obviously isn’t included in our link, but he stands perfectly still watching as we communicate to each other without actually saying the words out loud.
“Remember when you told us that we needed to start treating people better? You said that one day we’d meet our mate and she probably wouldn’t like the people we were. Guess you should’ve listened to your own advice,” Tyler sniggers.
Since when did Tyler turn into such a dick? He was always the sweet one, I inwardly think.
I don’t bother to respond, truth is I have nothing left to say. Maybe I do deserve all of this, maybe I don’t… I don’t know. What I do know is that I’ve never been this harsh to either of them. I would never want to cause them pain, I would never intentionally do anything to hurt them.
“Yeah... I should’ve…” I whisper out loud, forcing myself to calm my anger. I look back up between the two boys and give them a sad smile. “You two better get back to your girls.”