Page 64 of Pixie Problems
“But you guys look nothing like each other,” Rhys said.
“Okay, guys, getting back to the story,” I said, trying to get everyone back on track.
They looked at me again and nodded, and Waylen picked up the narrative. “We found out later that you’d just left Montana and were on the run. At that point all we knew is that the pack was after you. We thought you were an enemy of the pack.”
Callum had picked up his shake but was messing with the straw without drinking from it, pulling it out a little, and pushing it back in. He was still nervous. I felt bad for him. He seemed to be the more fragile of the two.
“Only the officers and Hux knew the reasons the pack was tracking you, and they didn’t share it with the rest of the pack,” Waylen said. “By the time we’d gotten to Moonhaven, a few of the pack had deserted, claiming they didn’t feel right about what was happening and wanted no part in it, but Callum and I were new and still confused.”
“But as the officers of the pack started attacking us, starving us, and playing mental warfare games with us, we started realizing that we’d made a terrible mistake.”
“But by then it was too late,” Callum whispered. “Hux has a piece of magic he bought off a warlock. He calls it his loyalty stone. It’s just a glowing blue rock, but after he puts a drop of your blood on the stone, and it absorbs it, you can’t leave him. It’s physically impossible.”
“Wait,” Finn said. “There’s so many things wrong with that statement. There isn’t any magic that creates a leash between alpha and pack member. It’s a bond, but just like any bond, it can be broken.”
Waylen shrugged. “We’ve seen it and felt it with our own eyes.”
“Then how did you two escape?” I asked.
Waylen and Callum looked at each other, and then at me. “There’s some kind of magical bond between Waylen and I. I wasn’t joking when I said we think we’re twins. We think it fooled the stone into only taking half of our essences. It was difficult to escape—it was painful, like a tether was digging into our bones and snapping them when we went too far from the pack—but it was possible if Waylen and I were together. Each of us had tried to escape separately, but we couldn’t.”
Waylen nodded, swallowing. “We’re stronger together.”
“It’s going to make finding our mates really difficult,” Callum whispered, his cheeks pinkening.
Waylen laughed. “Yup. Maybe our mates are twins?”
I laughed. Boys would be boys.
August seemed fascinated. “Do you guys hear each other’s thoughts?”
Both of them nodded.
Whoah. I hadn’t been expecting that. I glanced at August. “Any idea why? I mean, I guess they could be from the same family, since they both don’t know their families, but even family members don’t have that.”
“Pack members can speak to each other telepathically,” Finn said. He glanced from one teen to the other. “But you guys are saying you could speak telepathically before you became pack members?”
They nodded.
“Twin souls,” August said softly, and then he stepped away, and made a phone call.
Minutes later, Draven showed up. He looked a bit better than the last time I’d seen him. He was wearing track pants and a long-sleeved shirt. He was clean-shaven, and his eyes looked like they had a little bit of life in them today. Either he was still flying high from Roark’s blood, or he was using another source again.
Good. One less person to worry about.
Mesmer manned the door to my shop, folding his massive arms over his chest, and looking around as if he suspected every single person on the street beyond was going to try to shank him and that he’d like to see them try.
I laughed. I was really starting to love that gargoyle.
Draven nodded at the adults in the room, and then sat on the table in front of the teens after August moved their trash away. Waylen looked at the bags longingly as August dumped them. Cy noted the look and sighed, palming his keys, and leaving the shop again. I grinned. Cy was a softy. “Bring me back tacos!” I yelled to him. I knew he could still hear me. Shifter hearing was among the best.
Rhys squeezed me. “Nothing for the rest of us?”
I shrugged. “Cy loves me best. You guys are just addendums to my pixie magnificence.”
Finn gave me a look that said he would exact retribution at a later time, and Rhys laughed.
Draven spoke quietly with the guys for a few moments, and then drew Rhys, Finn and I into my office in the back. We all found a seat. Draven looked at me. “Can you tell me how they are physically?”
