Chapter 7 7

“Eve..” My mom sighs. Pinching the bridge of her nose as though she has a stress headache beginning, and I want to smother my sister into silence. This isn’t a new complaint.

“No, really, mom? What future…. the one where we’re suffocated with over-protection and our option in life is to find a mate that befits children of the Alpha and go on to reproduce forever more….. that’s it for us, in this little bubble of safety... As a femme, I’m not even next in line for Alpha; our baby uncle is. Even though I’m the firstborn and the most powerful, he’s the one with a penis…. He’s not even full-blood but noooo…. Lunas carry the lineage, so of course, Rema had a boy, and you didn’t, so the fates reverted it to her second born. Limited by rules and boundaries where even my own powers have been tied down, so I cannot use them to their full extent….. We’re prisoners who have to obey, and this isn’t a life….. What if I wanted more?.... What if I wanted to see the world, become something great…not be bound by a mate and pups and a domestic life of hell? What if I wanted to be the Alpha?!”

“Stop it. Stop overreacting and making out that this is some horrible existence. You don’t know how lucky we are to live with privilege and safety. There are packs out there who barely scrape by in the human world and have to live as animals to be able to eat.” I jump to my parents' defense, knowing that everything they do for us is born of love and protection, and that we have a nice life. We want for nothing. Even if our world is small and we are held close, it's because we are the daughters of the Alpha. We have to be protected. She has no idea how much we have.

They fought to give us this, and she’s throwing it all back in their faces.

“Eve…. You know why…. we bound your power because you couldn’t control them. For the safety of everyone, but mostly yourself. They’re stronger than you are, and you hurt so many children and animals when you didn’t mean to. We had no choice.” My mom steps toward her to try to pull her to face her, but Eve stamps away and kicks the chair by the window out of the way. Her temper flares, revealing the constant dark anger she holds inside.

Simon side-eyes me with a grimace, and Maisie curls up smaller, hating being here to witness this. Acting like a coy kitten caught in the sights of a big, bad dog. Toya lifts her chin and stares at me with a wide-eyed nod toward my sister to translate, ‘Why is she always such a bitch?’ and I shake my head and shrug.

I don’t know either.

Toya is my best friend, and I can tell just by looking what she’s thinking.

“I was a baby…I had no idea what I was doing, but what about now? I’m better at controlling it. I’ve learned so much…. so when is that Witch coming back to unbind me?” She spits venom, rage growing even though she's the one who should be submissively groveling for what she did today, what we all did today. She’s the only one who seems to have forgotten why we are lined up in here awaiting execution.

We’re all grounded indefinitely and have to face the wrath of Meadow, as well as Dad and Maisie's and Simon’s parents. Rema too. We’re all being marched back to the valley and cutting our vacation short. Tomorrow, we will get chewed out by everyone who is waiting their turn to tell us off.

“She’s not. Your binding lasts until your 21st birthday, when we believe you will have reached sufficient maturity to manage it effectively. From the age of 18, they will come to you a little at a time until you can fully harness them at 21. That is how she bound you. That’s what we deemed best, and that's why you need to continue taking your lessons with the Shaman and your grandfather on how to harness what you have. Just as Eden takes lessons with your father, Rema, and the shaman to harness what she has. God knows you don’t let me help you with our shared gifts.”

“Twenty-one!!!! God damn, Twenty-one…. That’s forever away… how can you do that to me?” Eve screams at my mom, a burst of anger and frustration, because she has almost another decade to wait on something she seems to think she needs so badly. She is never satisfied with how strong she already is or with abilities that surpass those of our parents and even Rema. She has no idea how dangerous she could be. Or is? She isn't emotionally stable enough to have that much power.

“For your safety as well as that of others… Don’t raise your voice at me, young lady.” My mother's cool and patient manner stiffens, and a hint of red in her eyes warns us all that, as loving and gentle as she is, she's a force to be reckoned with. My mom may use her powers sparingly, but she's always been a badass when needed. My dad is fiery and sometimes shouty, but my mom is the really scary one, with her gentle, stubborn nature. I know she can whoop my dad’s ass if she wants to, so we would have no chance.

“Why do you want them so bad anyway? We’re twelve years old and have so much to learn…what do you need them for? We go to school, see our friends, and live in a pretty stable place.” I've never understood her craving to have them. How can she miss something she’s never had full use of? She has no idea what having them all will be like; she just thinks she does.

What will she do with them? We have nothing in this life that warrants needing such power.

Look at me…I have nothing compared to her.

Just a healing ability and occasional visions. I never wolved, and I have never felt my wolf growing restless to be let out; it's like she doesn’t exist inside of me at all. I have no inkling that I even have any wolf inside me; maybe my sister got it all, and I got just Witch. Nothing but a witch.

I have no telekinesis, like my mom, or the ability to siphon power from others. I have no amazing, magical gift, and being a healer is pretty redundant in a race that can self-heal. Other than kids having the odd boo-boo until they, too, turn, I have no purpose here.

“You wouldn’t understand…you have no idea what it is like to have a part of you held down and kept from you. The constant yearning to be let loose. You’re weak with zero ability.” She spits my way, always aiming her anger at me and her nastiness. Since birth, I have been my sister's punching bag, and sometimes, I genuinely believe she doesn’t like me. She acts as if she might even hate me at times.

I'm so used to it now, it means nothing more than a slight heaviness on my soul, sliding down to nestle among the three million other tiny cuts she has given me with her words. I think I grow more numb every year.

I used to wonder if all siblings were this way or just us, and I shrug at her, letting her words slide over me like water off a duck's back. I know that reaction is what she wants, and I stopped giving it to her long ago.

Maybe that’s why she has gotten so much fiercer toward me since we grew up.

“Don’t you dare.” My mom grabs her wrist and tugs her back harshly, dampening my sister's spirit with a real show of anger from the normally calm parent. It zaps the air with a sting, making all of us shuffle to stand taller and straighter. Luna, in a bad mood, can make everyone feel it.

“Your sister has way more gifts than you give her credit for, and many years to enjoy childhood before she should worry about turning. Don’t you dare tear her down and insult her. You didn’t do anything to turn early or inherit more than her, so don’t act like you achieved something she hasn’t. You got it by sheer chance…. a roll of the dice in the gene pool. Having your powers bound is no hardship…. trust me, I know. I went eighteen years without mine, and it did me no harm, really. Now, what you should be thinking about is how to grovel to your dad and make up for tonight before he confines you to your room until you turn twenty-one. You have no idea how angry he is; we are. How foolish this was, and how, once again, you dragged your sister and her friends into your ill-conceived plans. Grow up, Eve…this right here is exactly why we bound you until twenty-one. This spoiled brat behavior does not fly with me, young lady, and I don’t want to see another ounce more of it.