He gives a reluctant nod. “Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?”
“Well, two things. One, my bond with him is about a thousand times more strained right now than ours was then. And second, I was only acting that way because I thought you were him. Clearly, you’re two different people, and he had no control over what he did to me. You saw it in the dream.” Marcellus stiffens behind me with my words, and Marcus gives a scoff.
They start talking at the same time. Marcellus says, “He saw the dream too? That can’t be right, I only sent it to you,” while Marcus whines, “Please, he isn’t your mate. He doesn’t even have your mark.” How I was able to hear what they said over each other is beyond me. Especially when they said it with the same smooth voice.
Marcellus immediately replies to Marcus, “I’m not stupid. I obviously have it covered to protect both myself and Cecily from Silas.” He holds out his arm and removes the magic concealing the mark.
“Umm hey, yeah, I can probably help shed some light on things here,” Thea cuts in with her arm raised a bit. She gets varying looks from around the room, ranging from surprised to expectant. When no one says anything, she takes it as her cue to continue, “I’m not sure if you even remember meeting me, Marcus, it was so long ago, but before I came here, I went to the North Alpha’s residence, looking for Cecily. She had been missing for so long, and her parents were instructed to wait for things to be lined up perfectly for Cecily to come back on her own, blah, blah, blah. I wasn’t given such instructions, so I went looking for her on my own.
“I went to the North Alpha’s residence first and I met you, Marcus. You had no idea what I was talking about when I asked where Cecily was, and you had no mark. So that’s when I began to hunt down where Silas lived. For some reason, no one could give me an exact location. I kinda just lucked into one of his goons capturing me. Of course, I let them bring me in.
“That’s when I met Marcellus, and at first, I was confused at how he couldn’t remember me, when we had just met. I knew there wasn’t any magic being used as a glamour on him, so I looked into his fortune. There’s some seer blood in my line somewhere along the way. What I saw was the moment you two were born. Want to know what I saw?” She pauses for dramatic effect, bouncing on her toes. As if we wouldn’t want to know what she saw.
Marcus is just about at his wit’s end and snaps, “What?”
Thea just gives a smirk, finding joy in getting a rise out of him. “I saw him manipulating the pregnancy to where your mother went into labor early. Nobody had reason to expect twins. So Silas amended his original plan and took just one of you, so he could groom Marcellus here to be the perfect weapon of his choosing. Obviously, the plan didn’t work out the way he wanted it to. But, yeah... he wanted his evil minion to take over your life someday. Trippy stuff, huh?”
For fuck’s sake, Thea! She could’ve left the last part out. Marcus doesn’t need any help having doubts over his brother right now. Marcus, feeling overwhelmed, sits down on the narrow cot and puts his head in his hands.
Marcellus speaks up from behind me, “Why didn’t you ever tell me?” He sounds hurt, and from what I can tell, he and Thea have become close during their imprisonment.
“Well, where would the fun be in telling you ahead of time? It wouldn’t have done you any good,” she responds.
An indignant sound comes out of Marcellus. “A whole lot of heartache could’ve been avoided, for starters! I told you all about the imposter parading around as me trying to manipulate my mate. And yet you knew this whole time he was my twin? Rude, Thea! Fucking rude!”
“But then you wouldn’t have the bonding experience of learning about your twin together! See, I really did you a favor!” Oh, Thea...
Marcus finally gathers his thoughts. “My mother confessed to me once that she swore she was carrying twins, and would have named my brother William. Apparently, she actually did think about the possibility because twins run in the family. Silas was one.” Oh, thank the Fates! Maybe we won’t have to keep calling them by the same name!
“So what... you just expect me to start going by another name? Are you for real right now?” Surprisingly, Marcellus doesn’t have the biting anger in his voice to go along with his words. It’s more of a shock than anything else. He does have a point, though. Calling him by another name would be pretty weird, but not as weird as calling them both by the same name.
The longer he sits there, the more Marcus deflates, the fight flowing out of him. “Nah man, just sharing what our mom told me.” Aww, he totally just accepted his brother! I wish I could see what Marcellus—William?—looks like right now.
“You know, Marcellus never did feel like it fit quite right. As if I was slipping into someone else’s skin. I guess in a way, that’s actually true. Truth be told, I don’t want anything to do with Silas trying to taint my life, especially not with him giving me the same name as my brother in hopes I could take over his life in some nefarious plan. William, huh? Just the sound of it gives me the sense of something missing from my life, clicking into place.” He trails off, as if experimenting with the sound of the name his mother would’ve given him.
Marcus takes a breath and his mouth pops open like he wants to say something, but holds himself back, deciding against it. Gaining resolve, he continues on with his thought, “I know what it’s like to have areas of your life missing something vital. I’ve felt that way my whole life and... maybe one of those missing pieces is having my brother.”
The words cause the man behind me to stiffen. “Yeah, it seems like there could be some merit there.”
Before any conversations can continue, the cell door comes crashing open, banging against the wall.
Chapter 3
Cecily
Everyone in the room jumps with the sound of the door banging against the wall. Vines erupt out of nowhere, growing along the floor around me, which isn’t the most disturbing sight right now. Silas stands at the doorway. His face quickly turns a deep shade of red as his eyes dart around the cell. “Who was the last one in this cell? I need the incompetent idiot who left this cell unlocked to present themselves for their punishment immediately, as well as the dungeon locked down. Someone also needs to go check on my nephew and his guests to make sure they don’t discover what’s going on down here. I want Marcellus found immediately and put back in his cell. What are you doing just standing there? FUCKING MOVE!”
Silas storms off and the breath that I hadn’t even realized I was holding in whooshes out of my lungs. For a second there, I forgot all about my invisible soundproofed bubble protecting us. Fear instantly enveloped me at the thought of Silas finding us all here. My mate squeezes his arms around my waist and rubs a hand up and down my arm trying to soothe me.
“T, you should probably go get Stephen and lead our guys out of here. Be careful about it; there will be guards swarming the area inside and out searching for me. I’ll get these guys out of here and meet up with you.” The command in his voice reminds me of how he used to train all of his soldiers, and my thighs squeeze together. His cool, calm way of being able to lead others turns me on. Although it could just be the bond latching on to anything possible.
Thea jumps up and gives me a quick hug. “So glad to have you back, girl! See you soon, chicka!” Her goodbye is quick, and within the blink of an eye, she’s disappeared through the wall to follow through on her instructions.
Marcus looks over at us again, his gaze focused on his brother sitting behind me. “So did you settle on wanting to be called William?”
I feel William nodding his head. “Yeah. William already feels natural, which seems weird. All that talk can be picked up again later. We need to get out of here.” He taps a couple times on my legs to signal me to stand up. I think about his name change and find that William seems to flow more naturally for him, or maybe even Will.
“I suppose you can be in charge of getting us out of here for now, little bro,” Marcus says with a slight smirk.
