The Twin Alphas’ Fated Mate
Fate of the Forsaken Brother Chapter 19

~Aubrey~

Everything hurts. I can't move my body because of all the pain. What happened to me? One minute, I was with Kai and Kaden's little brothers. Next, all I see is darkness.

I groan as I try to roll over from my back. It feels like I'm lying on concrete. I manage to get to my side and I open my eyes to look around. I'm in some sort of dimly lit cell. I slowly sit up.

"Aubrey? Are you awake?" I hear a small voice say. I look around but don't see anyone. Just then, one of the twins comes into view in the cell across from mine. Crap, they were taken too? I think it's Blake talking, but it's not very bright so I can't be sure.

"Aubrey, thank goddess you're finally awake! Is your head okay? You were bleeding for a while. I tried to wake you up but nothing worked. Rhett is still out." Blake says to me.

"Okay. It's alright. How long was I out for?" I ask.

"I don't really know. It feels like it's been days, but it probably hasn't. They've only come down once since I've been up, but I pretended I was still asleep." Blake says.

"Good. That was smart thinking." I say, moving towards the cell door. "How's Rhett?"

"I don't think he's doing very good. He's breathing weirdly." Blake says, looking at his twin. "Weird how?"

"It's very shallow like he's struggling. Aubrey, I'm scared. Wolfsbane is lethal to people who have their wolves. Rhett and I don't have ours. I know I woke up, but what if he doesn't?" Blake says, his voice shaky.

"Okay, Blake. Calm down. We will get through this. You don't have to worry." I say, trying to comfort him. I hear him sniffling and move closer to the cell door. "Hey, look at me." I say to him. Blake looks over at me and I see how red his eyes were. I feel so bad he was awake all alone for goddess knows how long. He was probably terrified. "It's okay to be worried about Rhett. It's okay to be scared. Hell, I'm scared. I have no idea where we are or who took us. But what I do know is that Kaden and Maxton will not let these guys get away with it. They will come for us and help us. Until then, we have to be strong. For ourselves and for Rhett. You can still be scared about the situation, but we have to push through because we will make it out of here." I say to him. Blake wipes his tears and nods.

"All of us?" He says, looking down at his twin. I look at Rhett as well, how shallow his chest is moving, how eerily still he is. Being a nurse, I know what dying of wolfsbane looks like. Rhett needs medical attention immediately.

"I hope so." I say quietly.

A little while later, a loud bang causes me to jolt up from where I'm lying. I guess I must have fallen asleep again. I sit up and look over at Blake. He's rubbing his eyes. He must've been sleeping too.

I hear someone walking down the hall towards us. I can't see them because of the walls, but their steps are heavy and it's damp down here. Suddenly, a man comes into view and I recognize him immediately.

"I know you. You were at Alpha Austen's alpha ceremony. You pulled Kaden to the side." I say to him.

"Ah, I'm so glad you remember me dear. Let me introduce myself. I'm Alpha Jerald of Black Creek. I'm sorry it had to be this way, but my nephew simply will not comply with what I need from him." Jerald says to me. I glare at him.

"I know exactly what you want from him. He doesn't want to be the alpha of this rogue pack. He wants a normal life with his family." I say.

"I am his family dear. But you are not." Jerald says.

"I'm his mate. I understand why you took me, but why did you take them? They're children and have no reason to be here." I say pointing at the twins. Jerald looks over at the cell the twins are in, glancing down at Rhett.

"I guess they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. They were never part of the plan, but from my understanding, they were with you at the time we came for you." Jerald says.

"Rhett is dying from the wolfsbane you gave us. He needs help now. At least get him a doctor." I say, pleading with him. Jerald sighs.

"I'm sorry my dear. That won't be happening. You see, I brought you here because Kaden will be alpha. But he needs a strong Luna. Someone who is aligned with our pack's beliefs to keep him on the right track. You are not it. I have already chosen a suitor for Kaden and she is not happy about your mating, but this can be fixed. I did warn him not to get too close to you. I would have preferred it if he had just rejected you, but since you are marked, you need to be done away with. Tomorrow night, you will be publicly executed to prove to the pack you will not be their Luna. I cannot have any loose ends, so, since the children got caught up in all this, they will face the same fate. If the boy dies before then, so be it." Jerald says to me. My mouth hangs open at him. I stand up and move close to the cell door so that he can hear what I'm about to say loud and clear.

"You're going to kill us? Do you seriously think Kaden would ever join you after this? It's not only me right now. It's those kids. Kaden loves them like they're his brothers. They are his brothers. Taking me out of the equation, he would never forgive you for killing them, or even allowing one of them to die when you could've helped him. They are his family, not you." I say, knuckles turning white from how hard I'm gripping the bars.

"He can be persuaded, don't you worry about that." Jerald smirks at me before turning around and leaving. I look over at Blake and he's hyperventalating.

"Blake, calm down. You'll pass out if you keep doing that. Put your head between your knees and breathe." I say calmly. Blake nods and does as I say. "Just breathe Blake." I say again, but that time was more for me than him. Tomorrow night. That doesn't give Kaden a lot of time to find us. I don't think Rhett has that long, either. I can't even help him because we're separated and Blake is in no shape to perform medical procedures. He wouldn't even know what to look for and it's way too dark in here to see properly. Everything is so f****d right now! No, I need to calm down. I'm no good to the twins if I freak out too.

I sit down and look over at the twins. How are we going to get out of this? They can't fight for themselves and I am only one person. I can't protect us all. I close my eyes and lean my head

back.

Please, Kaden, find us before it's too late.

~Maxton~

The morning after Aubrey and my brothers were taken was a s**t storm. Everyone now knew they were gone and the pack was conflicted. Some people were mad and blamed Kaden for the twins missing, but others are realizing his place here now. It's a weird shift, but one I'm glad of. Too many people heard Kaden yell at Dakota and heard him call himself beta, so by now, everyone must know I chose him. And they will probably soon figure out Devin is my gamma. I just hope the pack will respect this. I was hoping to announce it closer to the time I take over the pack to avoid a lot of backlash, but the rogue pack really threw our plans out of wack. And now we have Ivan to worry about.

I'm sitting with my dad, Arthur and his beta, Jack, in my dad's office, going over what the scouts could find when a knock on the door makes us all look up.

"Come in." My dad calls and Oliver, one of the warriors and Jack's brother, comes into the room, followed by his daughter Ava. When she comes into the room, I stop. Ava smells like peaches and baby powder. It's so weird but it smells so good. When our eyes lock, Rosco jumps around

in my head.

"Mate! Mate! We got a second chance mate!" Rosco yips in my head.

Ava freezes and doesn't say anything. She's holding a tray of food. She works part time in the kitchen with her mom, so she probably brought this food up for us. She quickly comes over to the desk and places the tray down, bowing her head to us.

"The wife thought you guys would like something to eat since you weren't at breakfast." Oliver

says to us.

"Tell her I said thank you." My dad says and turns back to his work. Ava rushes out of the room and Oliver closes the door. I stand up suddenly, my dad and Jack giving me weird looks.

"I, uh...need to use the bathroom. I'll be back." I say and leave the room quickly. I see Ava and her dad walking away. I call to her and she and Oliver turns back to look at me. She's so beautiful. I never noticed it before. I mean, I knew she was attractive, but this is different. I grew up with Ava, sort of. We went to the same school and had classes together. She was always kind and caring for people. She was one of the few at school who didn't say anything mean to Devin and Kaden. I even heard her tell her friends off a couple of times for it. She's not a mean person and I knew she didn't like people who were. She's the opposite of Penny, thinking about others before herself. Ava would be an amazing Luna to this pack.

I jog over to her and Oliver looks at me.

"Is there something wrong, Alpha Maxton?" Oliver asks.

"Uh, no, I just wanted to thank Ava for the food." I say. That was dumb, she didn't even make it.

"You go on ahead, dad. I haven't really talked to Alpha Maxton since before he left for training. Lots to catch up on." Ava smiles at her dad.

"Well, don't take up too much of his time. There's work to be done. His brothers are missing" Oliver said before bowing to me and walking away. Ava turns back to me.

"You don't have to say anything. You have a lot going on right now with your brothers and Kaden's mate gone. I understand." Ava says to me when her dad is out of earshot. "It's not that I don't want a mate. I do and I want to talk to you about this and tell you some

things that have happened, but this is horrible timing. I want to be happy about this, but there's so many crappy things happening right now." I say to her as tears prick at my eyes. All the emotions are just now coming to me. "My baby brothers are gone and I don't even know if they're alive or not. They got hit with wolfsbane and they're still kids. They can't handle it like

we can."

Tears start streaming down my face as I'm talking and Ava moves to wipe them. Her fingers on my skin just feel right. This bond feels warmer than with Penny. This must be what Kaden was talking about. It didn't feel right the first time. But this, this feels right.

"It's okay. You can let it all out with me, I won't judge you. I know you must be terrified for them." Ava whispers to me. I look her in the eyes before pulling her into me. I need to hug her. She wraps her arms around me and hugs me tightly, rubbing my back.

"You're my second chance mate." I say quietly into her hair. Ava stops for a minute. "I met

Penny a couple weeks ago when Kaden, Devin and I went to Austen's alpha ceremony. She was from Blue Ridge, the alpha's daughter. Everything was fine at first, but then she told me she didn't want to be marked, to move with me or be Luna. She got really nasty and spun a bunch of lies to her dad about me telling her she was not good enough, which was all not true. I was just having a hard time understanding why she wanted me as a mate, but didn't want to be with me. I rejected her and she caused a big scene, saying I was hurting her, but how can I be with someone who doesn't want to be with me? She just wanted to say she had a mate, but didn't actually want me. She was being selfish and I couldn't do it. Her dad had to alpha command her to accept my rejection because she refused to accept it and we had to go home. That's just another s**t situation that's recently happened." I tell Ava. She doesn't move for a second, but then starts rubbing my back again.

"Thank you for telling me. I know we barely know each other. We weren't really friends when we were kids, but we knew of each other. But I want to be with you because you're my mate. And I already live here, so you don't have to worry about that." She says and I laugh.

"And what about being Luna? Cause that kind of comes with being my mate." I say, looking

down at her.

"Well, no one can do it better than Luna Mercury, but I'm sure she can teach her her ways." Ava says. I can't help but smile at her.

"She's the best teacher." I say. Ava laughs and that sound is just...amazing. I want to hear her

laugh all the time. Ava smiles at me and I lean into her, pressing my lips gently to her nose. I

feel the sparks on my skin where our bodies are touching and it feels so much stronger than with Penny. Ava's my true mate, that I know.

"I would love to just stay here with you, but I need to get back. Can you come to my room

later?" I ask her. Ava nods. "Okay, I'll see you later." I kiss her cheek and jog back to my dad's office, pumping my fist in the air as I hear her giggle. This has been the highlight of my day. Goddess, I can't wait to see her again. But first, I need to find my brothers and Kaden's mate.