Page 78 of An Empress of Fire & Steel

The Amethyst Palace.

The Ashdale forest was strangely calm, most of it a glittering glaze of frost.Breighly had always preferred summer solstice as opposed to winter. It meant she could wear less clothes when shifting between her wolven form, which she was currently in as she watched over her woods. Summer also meant the singing of birds could be heard, the shuffling of grass parting for other animals like the gentle deer or the curious fox that liked to graze in heat. Breighly particularly liked the buzzing of the humble worker bee as she searched flowers to collect nectar from. It was a summer melody, and she would pretend to hear it as she stalked through the desolate trees, ignoring the crunching of the solid ground. Summer also meant that she could have more time under the sun, rather than the moon, which had sent her into a batch of craziness lately.

Well, not just lately.

Always.

Her father and brothers always scorned her for blaming the moon for her bad behaviour, but her “bad behaviour” had become more frequent recently, and she didn’t need to be under the moon for it to occur. So maybe it wasn’t just the moon. But she would blame it anyway.

Her bad behaviour took many forms too. The constant urge to disobey any order from her alpha, sneaking out after hours, offering specials in La Luna that were not agreed with the pack, getting blindingly drunk and kissing everything in sight.

It was getting ridiculous.

A pang of guilt struck through her. She knew she shouldn’t act the way she did, but it was the only thing that subsided the pain for a little while.

She ignored that ache in her chest as her powerful wolf form prowled back through the forest to the family cottage, where she could already see Roman waiting for her. She sighed before quickly shifting back into her human form. Stretching out her muscles that always seemed a lot smaller and tighter after she transformed, she stalked up the wooden stairs to her home.

“I can see you went patrolling without me.” Roman’s dark eyes narrowed in on her face. They were exactly the same shape and colour as hers, as were his cheekbones and chin. But he was stretches taller than her, and she tried not to look at him as he spoke.

“Again.” He crossed his arms over his chest and his dark blonde hair rustled in the icy breeze.

“Yeah, well, I had to clear my mind and I couldn’t listen to you whining the full patrol.” Her feet sounded harsh on the wood as she stomped up the last few steps. Roman took the loose shirt from his own back and handed her it, looking away. She quickly shrugged it over her almost naked body and folded her hands around her waist. Even though she had the heated blood of a wolf, the winter chill ran through her human skin and dug into her bones. It wasn’t like this when she was under the protection of her wolfy fur. Sometimes she wondered if she should just stay in wolf form and run and run until she ended up somewhere else entirely.

Roman turned to her. “You never used to patrol without me.”

Pain lingered on his features for a second before his chest puffed out, just like Waylen’s did when he was angry, and just like Eli’s had too. A stabbing pain cut through her heart at the thought of her fallen brother. But since her heart had turned to stone just after his death, she decided she was going to push it down until she could breathe again.

“Yeah, well now I like to patrol alone,” she spoke so sharply that she had to hide her own flinching at the sound of her voice. She pushed past her brother who had only entered this world two minutes before her. Since that moment, they had never been apart… until recently.

“You weren’t alone a few nights ago,” Roman shot his words at her back, and it almost hit like a dart, right on the vital killing spot on the spine. She halted as he continued, “So, I am guessing that you're just picking and choosing when you want to be alone.”

She turned, facing him, as irritation grew thick in her veins. Normally, Roman was the only one in the world who didn’t annoy her. Tonight, the Gods were making an exception for him.

“What did you just say?” She pulled her lip back over her sharp teeth.

His eyes narrowed in on her face again, making him look more wolf than human. “You heard me. I am not going to repeat myself.”

In her mind, she had already thrown a punch in his direction, but somehow, her body wasn’t in the mood for a fight, which was irregular. When you grew up with three older brothers and your father was the alpha of the pack, you had to learn how to kick ass from a pretty young age.

“If you are going to make any more spiteful remarks towards me, I would suggest you be brave enough to say them to my face.” She opened the door to the large cottage that had been in her family generations, swinging it so hard that her elbow cracked. “In case you haven’t picked up on my mood through our twin telepathy, I am severely irritated.”

“Is that because you keep fucking hunters?” He cut deep.

She flinched.

“Shut your Godsdamned mouth and stay out of my business,” she roared, slamming the cottage door behind her.

She heard the door reopen and stomping feet came in behind her, hard and fast. “It’s pretty difficult to stay out of your business when I have the room next door to you,” he growled, catching up to her in a snappy second. “You hear everything. Vanadey didn’t grant me powerful hearing so that I could listen to what you did the other night.”

She hadn’t seen her twin since she had thrown that inked hunter out in the morning dew, and Roman had been so angry with her when he had awoken that he hadn’t spoken to her at all at dinner. So she had shifted, and hadn’t been in human form since. She had just lived in the woods, running, hunting, and star gazing, when the weather allowed it. She’d been doing anything she could to not face her brother, her cottage, her room.

She swung to face him now. “Maybe you should get a fucking life, Roman, then you’d stay out of mine.” She powered through the short hallway to her room, hoping he would split off to his.

He didn’t.

“I have a life,” he snapped, walking after her. “And you used to be in it.”

She turned to see him standing in the threshold of her room, almost reaching the wooden beams overhead.

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