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“Alright. I’ll start then.” I really didn’t mind telling her more about myself and Ban. On the contrary, I was thrilled she was interested. “I was born the Alpha’s son. I had just one sister, Hanny.” My voice broke when I mentioned her. I took a deep breath though and continued. “Ban wasn’t from the main branch of the family, and he was eight years older than me. He was assigned to Hanny and I as a playmate, but he was also supposed to act as a guard to us. His parents had protected the Alphas for years, and so it was decided that their only child should follow in their footsteps.”
“Is Hanny older or younger than you?” Daphne’s expression and voice were full of genuine curiosity.
“Younger than me by two years,” I replied.
“Esteban, didn’t you mind being a guard to Gabriel and Hanny from a young age? It’s a heavy burden to carry for a child.” Daphne directed her question at Ban.
He scratched the back of his head. “At first I thought of the assignment as an honor and tried to keep an emotional distance from the Alpha’s children. They were, after all, higher in the sleuth’s hierarchy than I was and the Torres clan was more structured than Santuario. This village was a family, and the Torres were like a well-oiled machine.”
“Wasn’t that an uncomfortable way for you to live?”
“No, as long as everyone stuck to their place, life was good. Aren’t the sleuths on the mainland the same?” Esteban answered Daphne with a question of his own.
Our mate looked sad for a moment. “They are, or at least the one I grew up in was like that. The Alpha’s word was the most sacred thing of all. Everyone had to know their place too. Different branches of the main family weren’t equally important.” She looked off in the distance then shook her head, willing herself to return to the present. The topic of her previous sleuth seemed to be difficult for her. “Santuario is a really wonderful place. It’s like a family. I’ve never been in such a sleuth before.”
My heart grew at hearing my mate’s praise. “Thank you. We worked hard to make the clan a good place to live.”
“And you succeeded. I’ve been here for only a week, and I can see how well you’ve done.” Daphne smiled.
I treasured each time that joyous expression appeared on her face. I longed to be the cause of it. I wished she would smile more often and the more time she spent in Santuario, the more easily her smiles came. When Daphne had first arrived here, she had looked so lost and uncomfortable. Now she could relax enough to smile. That expression of hers was a wonderful gift.
“Either way, Gabriel didn’t let me keep my distance from Hanny and himself. We grew close together, the three of us.” Esteban smiled fondly when he recalled the times we had played together. “But when Hanny was a teenager, she started to grow apart from us. We were still dear friends, but my relationship with her wasn’t the same as with Gabriel.”
“That’s because the bond we have is unusually close. It’s not very common for two people to be able to coexist with each other peacefully enough to be able to rule together as Alphas. In our early years we built a relationship of trust between us. Hanny realized she wouldn’t be able to be as close to us as we were to each other, so she distanced herself,” I explained.
Ban nodded. “It is as you say. We were friends with Hanny, but you and I are true partners.”
“Do you ever fight over the important decisions about the sleuth? You’re both Alphas, so you have strong personalities. I can’t help but think that reaching an agreement must be difficult sometimes,” Daphne said.
I laughed out loud. “We never show the village if there’s discord between us. To the sleuth we are one-minded when it comes to every matter but you should see us at home.”
“Sometimes a few choice words fly.” Esteban put a hand on my shoulder. I appreciated his closeness. “We argue, though we never raise our voices at each other. There are some topics difficult enough that making a decision is a process.”
“We’ve also learned to understand each other without needing to use words at all. So if we’re making a decision on the fly, we can just communicate our feelings to each other through our gazes. That mutual understanding helps us display a unified front.” Of course once a mate joins us, we’ll have the bond to be able to communicate through. That connection would bring us even closer to each other and make Alpha duties easier as well.
“I was curious about something else. When the island became a prison, the Torres family took up jobs as wardens. Did you work in that profession?” Daphne asked.
“Yes, I was the second-in-command to my father, even though I was 18 when we started accepting convicts,” I explained. “It wasn’t exactly a cheerful job because the prisoners often caused problems, but my position didn’t include much contact with them. The people who were sent to Isla Paraiso were the worst criminals of Venezuela.”
Ban grasped my shoulder then took his hand away. “While Gabriel’s job was to assist his father with paperwork and running the prison island, mine was the gritty work of guarding the transfers of convicts from the docks to the facilities. Sometimes my job involved fighting. We needed to keep a firm hand with the criminals at all times, and violence seemed to be the only thing most of them understood. That said, I appreciate the fact that Gabriel took care of the paperwork for so many years. Now he’s the one responsible for that part of ruling Santuario.”
“Wouldn’t want to do math, would you?” I joked, even though I knew the answer.
“Goddess protect me from touching any documents,” Ban laughed. “Every day I thank her that I don't have to do any accounting.”
Daphne smiled, seeing our merry exchange. All this time she had been listening to us intently. I was glad she was so curious about our pasts but I was curious about hers as well.
I didn’t know if she would close up on me again if I asked her to tell me more about herself but before I could stop him, Esteban asked her the question that was on my mind. “So, Daphne, would you mind telling us your story?”
Chapter Fourteen
Esteban
Daphne shifted from foot to foot, looking a bit uncomfortable with my question.
“If you don’t want to talk-“ I started saying, but she shook her head.
“No, I would like to share who I am with you two but I’m not sure what to say,” she bit her lip.
