Accepting My Twin Mates

Evgeniya

The vampire stood far back, looking a little awkward, a little uncomfortable and very much fraught.

“Oh, yeah, Evva tittered nervously. “We were in the middle of a jailbreak and you got distracted!

I got distracted?! The nerve of that damn wolf. Her mental tail was still wafting around in arousal as she enticed her mates through their link.

“Holy shit..” Astennu began the sentence and Badru finished it in their twin synchronicity. “..You're a vampire?”

Bastiaan raised a brow at the most obvious statement that could be made, given the colours of his skin swirling clearly in the dim corridor. “Nothing much escapes your Alphas’ attention does it?"

“Yeah, they're total idiots and they're mine;" I upturned my face to each of them, fresh tears beginning to spring that I thought had run dry. Damn these pregnancy hormones.

I blew out my cheeks in a shaky breath and shook my head free before I was lulled back into my mates’ far too tempting bubble of sweet and spicy scents and ripples of tingles snaking from my palms upwards in a wave.

“Let's get the hell out of here,” I swallowed the thick lump that had risen and stuck in my throat. “Is it safe the way you came H

“Not anymore,” Catalina spoke hurriedly, backing us all away from the direction they had approached. “Adrian just mind- linked, there's wolves closing in. He's trying to find a new vantage point to look out for us."

“Adrian's here too?"

“He sure is," she wrapped me in a tight hug around my ribs. “We all came for you, mama loba (mama wolf).

This time, fat stinging tears tore through my eyes without mercy, a rage of hormones sending my mood in a wild direction. I had never cried so much in such a short span of time.

“Do any of you know another way out, uh,” Badru's mouth froze mid-sentence, realising he didn't know the names of my fellow escapees.

“Bastian,” the vampire indicated himself. “And the tattoos with the mouth is Diego. You are Astennu and Badru. Evie spoke of you often. Now please, for the love of the moon, can we proceed with our escape?”

I racked my brain for another way out and only one other route came to mind. I hadn't the first clue where it actually led, but I had seen one individual leave through it and never return, Marceau’s private dining room. Rolling my shoulder to relieve the ache settling in from the recoil of the rifle, I steadied my father's weight to spin our increased group around, undeterred that he tried to refuse help yet again. It was irritating seeing my stubborn streak reflected back at me in him.

“This is probably the worst idea ever, but there's a lot of that going around today," I elbowed my mates from taking my father from me.

Their hands needed to be free in case a fight descended upon us. I was two months pregnant and nearing the point where it would be dangerous for me to shift, my father was still a little faltering on his feet and Diego was both love-drunk, besotted and slashed open. Neither of the three of us were in any shape for a head-to-head fight.

Astennu and Badru eventually took the lead, responding to my directions along the disturbingly soundless cold concrete corridors. I noticed Catalina had sneaked the dart rifle I had dropped, carrying it a little too enthusiastically, and Bastiaan guarded our backs, lending a supportive hand as I contended somewhat under my father's size.

The door my directions led to was all too abhorrently familiar, having walked through it far too many times. The hinges rang a cringingly loud creak as they opened to the room, empty and devoid of any life.

“The door to the other side of the fireplace; I jutted my chin in its direction, steering my father around the dining table I knew he remembered and wanted to upend at the mere sight of it. And once he was done, it would be my turn to throw it through the window. “I don't know where it leads, but Finley left through it. So, I'm hoping, it's out”

“You saw him here?” A low growl rumbled from Astennu that raised the hairs on the backs of my arms and lowered the very temperature of the room.

“Yeah,” I eyed the door, my gaze slipping to the ground, the spot where I had almost watched my father die. ..I know... all of it”

“Us too," Badru whispered, a tight grimacing frown setting across his lips. He couldn't look at me and seemed to purposely avoid my dad's eyes.

“You are not your father,” my dad pushed away from me, steady and calm, placing a heavy palm on each of my mates’ shoulders. “You are your own men. You are good Alphas. I am proud to call you sem'ya... family. Now stop with your self-pity, be Alpha and lead."

slapping him lightly on the back, Badru half grinned, choking down a laugh. “Yes sir"

What lay on the other side of the door, a person none the wiser would never have guessed that the beautiful country-styled chalet was the front of a prison, a hell. Like the dining room, the rest of the ground floor was a wash of cream walls, rustic stone and dark carved wood. A beautiful and opulent home built on the sweat, blood and death of others, of people Marceau claimed to own.

“I don't like this” Bastiaan crept forward ahead with my mates. “It's too quiet”

“And where's that puta Francés (French b***h)?" Diego kept a secure arm around Catalina.

“You know what?" I huddled further into my father's side for reassurance. “I couldn't give less of s**t where he is or if he’s run off like a coward. I just want to go home...

I wanted to feel safe...

“And we can always track him down and barbecue his baguette later, Evva mentally nuzzled me, wanting her sense of security also.

Tentatively, Astennu and Badru opened the pair of large carved doors that led outside to the mountains I had only seen from the prison yard interior. In the light, I was sure it would be a sight to behold, but in the wee hours of a winter morning, it was a blanket of darkness, highlighted by the odd beam of moonlight filtering through the thick night clouds.

The air was thick with the tainted scent of blood and a hung silence beyond anything natural sliced through the pretty flickering of glowing snow, soiling its purity.

“Finally,” a sickeningly smug voice stepped forward from the shadows of the trees. “And here I thought I would have to go on a search for you, ma chérie.