Chapter6 Step-Brothers

Fifteen Years Earlier

A man was standing on the corner of the street yelling at passing pedestrians and traffic whilst brandishing a sign: "do YOU Want a Wolf at your Front Door?" His face was contorted with his rage, and his spittle foamed at the corner of his mouth, the animalistic expression at odds with the neat suit and tie that he wore.

From the interior of the car, what he yelled could not be heard, but Harper pressed her face against the window and watched him in fascinated horror as their car paused at the traffic lights.

"It's a big change," Harper's mother Stephanie said for possibly the hundredth time. She hadn't noticed the man as she had opened her compact mirror and was fussing with her face and hair again nervously. Seeing her mother flustered only added to Harper's sense of dread. "A new home, a new pack, and a new family. But it is important we do this, Harper. For our pack, for the future of werewolves."

"I understand," Harper replied. Understanding and liking were two very different things, however, she thought sulkily.

Her mother had made a political match with the alpha of the neighbouring pack, and so now Harper had to leave the only home she had ever known, her family, her school, her friends, and her pack, to live with a strange werewolf and his two almost adult sons.

"We can do this, Harper," Stephanie said with a warm smile. "We can."

The car pulled off the road and paused at the gate, with the driver rolling down his window to identify them and Harper and Stephanie slid over the rear seat to look out the window as the limousine began a slow crawl towards a house.

"A bit wow, eh?" Stephanie said with a wide smile at Harper.

It was the grandest house that Harper had ever seen with rolling lawns and little garden walks and… "Look, mum, a bridge!" Harper exclaimed over the pretty little arched walkway over a pond. "do you think that there is goldfish?"

"Who knows?" Stephanie was relieved that Harper was showing some enthusiasm. "Now, remember your manners, like we discussed."

"Yes, mum."

The car pulled up before the front of the house and Harper could see three men standing on the porch. Well, she amended as one stepped forward, one man and two teenaged boys. The driver opened the door and Stephanie and Harper stepped out.

The man had sad eyes, Harper thought. His face was sculpted into hardness, his cheeks hollowing beneath high cheekbones and his strong jaw shaded by stubble. He was very tall, and very broad shoulders, strong and lean, and wore jeans and a flannelette shirt that was rolled up to his elbows showing a tattoo on his forearm.

'stephanie Patterson," he said as he stepped forward, his hands cupping Harper's mother's elbows as he brushed a kiss over each of her cheeks. "I thank you for making the journey."

'my pack thanks you for your acceptance," Stephanie replied breathlessly a blush rising in her cheeks as he released her and stepped back. "And this is Harper," she placed her hand between Harper's shoulder blades. "Harper, say hello to Mr Hemming."

'mr Hemming seems very formal," the tall man's smile was kind and went with his sad eyes and not his hard face, Harper thought. "Why don't we start with Connery, and see how we go from there?" He suggested.

"That's very kind," Stephanie murmured. "What do you say, Harper?" She prompted.

"It's nice to meet you Mr… Connery," Harper said by rote. "Are there fish in your pond?"

Both adults chuckled, unified in parental indulgence, their eyes meeting and their gazes warming.

"Your pond, too, now," Connery Hemming told her. "And yes, there are lots of eternally hungry fish in that pond. Why don't we get Dorian and Gwyn to take you to feed them, whilst your mother and I get acquainted?" He turned and gestured forward the two boys.

They were almost as tall as him, but coltish with it, all long limbs that were only just beginning to build the muscle to accompany the length of bone. Their dark hair contrasted with their blue eyes, and their skin was golden-brown from the sun, their teeth flashing white in cheerful grins.

"Hi Ms Patterson," one of them said to Stephanie. "I'm Dorian, and this is Gwyn."

"Hi," the second boy was shyer, his hair falling into his eyes, his hands in his pockets and his shoulders hunched.

"It's lovely to meet you both," Stephanie's voice was warm. "Harper has always wanted an older brother," she said confidingly. "And now she has two. Isn't she lucky?"

"Aw, mum," Harper blushed ferociously, intimidated by the older, and, by comparison, very sophisticated pair, clinging to her mother's hand and pressing up against her side.

"Come on," Dorian offered his hand. "We'll take you to see the fish."

"Go on, Harper," Stephanie encouraged when Harper hesitated. "I'll be right here."

"We'll show you how you can get them to suck on your fingers," Dorian added. Like his father, his smile was kind, Harper thought, though his true-blue eyes did not hold the sadness of his sire.

She released her mother and took his hand. 'really?" She asked him. "They don't bite?"

"Not at all. Trust me," he said reassuringly as he began to lead her away from the house towards the bridge, Gwyn falling into step on her other side. "Gwyn and I will take care of you."