Tasting

48–Meet My Brothers. 

Nora: 

We settled into his car, and despite my insistence that Natalya sit in the passenger seat, Brody wouldn’t allow it. He made me sit up front with him while Natalya took the backseat. 

“Natalya, do you want me to pull over near the woods so that you can. shift and heal yourself?” Brody suggested, not giving it much thought. I turned slightly to see Natalya struggling to come up with an excuse. 

“My wolf is a bit timid. She only emerged once, and that was when my life was in real danger,” she said in a gentle voice, fabricating a lie. I felt sorry for her. 

She wasn’t lying for personal gain; she was simply trying to survive. And I had witnessed the brutality of others towards omegas tonight. 

“Yeah, she just snapped that day.” I quickly added. “Leaving her in the woods might not be the best idea.” I nodded in agreement with my own suggestion and noticed Natalya exhale a sigh of relief. Since no one knew the whole truth, they didn’t catch onto those subtle cues from her, but I did, quite keenly. 

“Oh, that’s peculiar. I’m an alpha, and trust me, I’ve never encountered or heard of a wolf behaving like that,” he remarked, once again. sounding harmless. 

“You’d be surprised,” I commented cautiously, “I mean, mutations. happen every now and then, or new creatures are formed by the Moon Goddess,” I added, biting my tongue simultaneously. 

11:25 

Meet My brothers. 

“Hmm! What about your wolf, Nora?” he questioned, and I held my breath. 

“My wolf hasn’t awakened yet,” I answered, and as soon as he briefly turned to look at me, I turned my head to the other side, gazing out of the window. 

“I mean, are you doing anything to help her emerge?” he persisted. 

I didn’t want to delve into my wolf, so I began fidgeting with my fingers until a distracting topic came to mind. 

“Natalya, have you given him the address to your building?” I turned entirely to her, successfully changing the subject. 

“There won’t be any need. I’m actually familiar with this pack like the back of my hand,” he smiled, shaking his head as if silently calling me ‘stupid‘. 

“Oh! How’s that? I thought alphas grew up in their own packs,” I 

noticed the smile fading from his lips momentarily before he shifted his mood again. 

“I was sent to the boarding school here,” he answered, and then an awkward silence enveloped us as none of us had anything to add to his statement. For an alpha to be sent to another pack’s boarding school for training wasn’t an ideal characterization of someone’s character. But who was I to judge someone, right? 

“Oh! You don’t have to take me home tonight,” this time, it was Natalya who spoke up. 

“Really? Where do you plan to stay for the night then?” I was surprised, so I turned and faced towards the back. 

“Your home,” she shrugged, smiling, while my heart sank in my chest. 

11250 

I bet Brody noticed something was odd because a friend wouldn’t react so indifferently to her friend inviting herself over to her home. 

“Really? Oh my Goddess, wow!” I had to give a reaction because last time when I hesitated, Natalya seemed very upset. 

“You seem so happy.” Natalya’s eyes shimmered as she watched me perform. 

“I am.” I clapped my hands and then sat straight in the seat, looking the other way to drop the fake smile. 

That would mean she would get to see the brothers mistreating me tonight. 

The rest of the ride was spent in silence, but just as we neared the mansion, it started hailing. 

“Oh! Shoot. I guess my plan to come here worked in our favor, or else you two would have been stuck in the mountains,” Natalya 

commented, and for the first time since she announced her idea to come to my mansion, I genuinely liked it. 

Brody parked the car in the underground parking spot to avoid damage. to his car while I got out to help Natalya slip out of the car. 

“Thank you,” I lowered my body to speak with Brody, who nodded with a faint smile on his lips, “are you going to wait here?” 

“Yeah, it’s no problem. I’ll wait for the hailing to stop and then I’ll be on my way,” he waved his hand to dismiss my worries, but it didn’t work. 

I straightened my back and then bit my bottom lip, a bad habit of mine. I had a lot going on in my mind. I was afraid of Natalya finding the brothers mistreating me, so if I invited Brody inside, he would witness. 

it all as well. 

I filled my checks with air and then let it out at once, making up my mind. 

Screw my reputation, I couldn’t be selfish enough to leave him here. 

“Brody! Why don’t you come inside, and maybe I can make you some coffee?” I leaned over his window again and used a much softer tone. I didn’t mean to flirt with him, but he was kinda cute, and the way he was sitting with his hands still stretched out and his fingers tapping onto the steering wheel kind of made me a little shy. 

“Umm-,” he looked at the staircase that would lead to the first floor of the mansion, and then after much thinking, he nodded his head. 

“Okay, thanks for inviting me in,” he smiled and got out of the car. Natalya seemed to be doing pretty well hopping her way in, but we made sure to give her support. 

As soon as we entered the mansion and were about to pass the living room, I realized that all four brothers were wide awake and doing some work assigned to them by their father. While Brody didn’t stop to look over at them, I noticed them. 

The first one to raise his head and look almost like he had seen a ghost was none other than Ryker. His face said it all. He didn’t look too pleased having strangers walk into their mansion. He stared at me and then at Brody and his jaw clenched, 

76 BAT