Twin Wolves Prophecy

Snow pressed soft against the windowpane, dusting the pines outside until they looked like they'd been dipped in powdered sugar. Timbertown got like this every Feburary, the kind of cold that seeped through the orphanage walls no matter how many quilts Mother Teressa piled on the beds. I liked it, though. There was something about a frosty night, with the heavy boughs groaning under fresh powder and the sharp, pine-scented chill biting at the glass, that made the whole world feel blanketed and still.

Down the hall I could hear the last of the little ones settling, the creak of Father Ben's footsteps as he checked each room, the low murmur of his voice reading the tail end of a bedtime story. The whole place smelled like bar soap and the leftover beef stew from dinner, a smell I'd known my whole life and never once minded.

I sat at my desk with my tip jar turned upside down, coins and crumpled bills spread out in front of me like a puzzle I was trying to solve for the hundredth time. Twenty-three dollars and forty cents tonight. Not bad for a Tuesday shift at Maggie's Place. I added it to the little notebook where I kept my running total, chewing on the end of my pencil while I did the math in my head.

Nine months. That's all I had left before I turned eighteen, then I would have to go to Omega housing, whether I was ready or not. Omega housing wasn't much, just a small room with a bed, and a dresser, but it was mine to earn, and I intended to walk in there with enough saved up that I wouldn't have to scrape by my first winter alone. I underlined the total twice, like that might make the number bigger.

The bedroom door banged open before I could finish the thought, and a gust of cold air rolled in ahead of my sister.

"You will not believe what I heard on the way home," Sasha announced, already shrugging out of her coat. She let it drop straight onto the floor, frost still clinging to the collar, and kicked off her heels beside it.

"Hello to you too," I said, dropping my pencil down. Sasha is being dramatic, again.

"Sabrina, focus. This is important." She flopped onto her bed, honey-blonde hair fanning out across her pillow, and stared up at the ceiling like she was picturing something glorious painted there. "The Alpha heirs are turning eighteen next month. Jackson and Jason Timbers. And guess what?"

"They're turning eighteen," I said.

She threw a pillow at my head. I caught it, mostly out of reflex.

"The whole pack is invited to their birthday party. At the Pack House. Every single Omega, warrior, merchant, everybody." Her eyes were bright, sparkling with that fierce, hungry look she got whenever she pictured herself at the center of attention. She leaned forward, gripping the edge of the mattress with both hands. "Do you realize what this means for me? This is my moment to walk straight through those front doors and make them see what they've been missing. I wasn't made to sit in the background of this pack forever, Sabrina. I'm going to make sure Jackson and Jason look at me and see their future, not just another face in the crowd."

"Is that confirmed?" I asked. "Or is it a rumor you heard from somebody who heard it from somebody else?" I asked her a little annoyed.

Sasha waved a hand like the distinction didn't matter. "It's happening. Everyone's talking about it. Mona at the boutique said her cousin works at the Pack House and saw the guest list start getting drawn up. Sabrina, this is our chance."

"Our chance for what, exactly?" I asked her confused.

She sat up, tucking her legs beneath her, and looked at me like I'd asked something painfully obvious. "To be noticed. Jackson and Jason are going to be there, unmated, dancing with every eligible girl in the State of Colorado. I've taken Luna lessons with Jill Timbers since I was fifteen. I know how to carry myself in that world. I know which fork to use and how to curtsy without looking like I'm bowing to a king. I could be Luna one day, Sabrina. Do you understand how close that is?" She had a madness in her eyes when she looked at me.

I did understand, or at least I understood that she believed it with her whole chest. Sasha had wanted to be somebody important for as long as I could remember, long before either of us had any idea what that would actually take. She'd finished high school two years early just to get out into the world faster, landed herself a secretary job at some fancy law firm outside pack borders, and now drove herself to work in a little red sports car she'd bought used but bragged like it was brand new. Her closet was full of designer labels that were knock offs. If you looked close enough at the stitching, but from across a ballroom, who would know the difference?

"So," she said, clapping her hands together, "we're going dress shopping this weekend. I already know which boutiques carry the good stuff. We'll need shoes too, and I still need to figure out what I'm doing with my hair." She started pacing the floor.

I groaned and let my head fall back against my chair. "Sasha, I work Saturday. Double shift. Maggie needs me for the lunch rush and then again for dinner."

"Call in sick."

"I'm not calling in sick so I can watch you try on forty dresses and pick the first one anyway."

"It's not the first one, it's the tenth one, there's a difference," she said, entirely serious, and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Besides, don't you want a nice dress for the party? Even if nobody notices you, you still need to look decent standing next to me." She pointed out her picturesque figure. My sister could be a model if she wanted to be.

"I have nine more months until I need Omega housing furniture and I have exactly this much saved." I held up my notebook so she could see the number, though I doubted it would mean anything to her. "I don't have room in my budget for a dress I'll wear one night to stand in a corner while you dance with Alpha heirs I'll probably never even speak to." I felt defeated before I even got started.

Sasha rolled her eyes so hard I was surprised they didn't get stuck that way. "You are the only girl in this entire pack who could be handed an invitation to the party of the year and turn it into a math problem." She sighed at me in frustration. 

"It's not a math problem, it's survival," I said, but I was smiling a little, because that was just how it went between us. She dreamed in ballrooms and mate bonds, and I dreamed in savings accounts and a roof that was mine to keep the frost off of.

She flopped back onto her bed with a dramatic sigh, already scrolling through something on her phone, probably pictures of dresses she had no intention of actually buying. I turned back to my notebook, back to the numbers that made sense to me, and let her chatter about hemlines and hairstyles fade into the comfortable, familiar background noise it had always been. Whatever happened at that party next month, I figured it had very little to do with me.