The Ripple Effect

It had been three weeks since I found out who was Rein’s father, and I stuck by my resolve to not tell Orion. Knowing his girlfriend had been raped by his own brother, knowing that his new son was actually another nephew, would tear him apart. And I wouldn’t do that to him, especially not over something that was all in the past.

But there was something that did bother me: Orion’s secret was hereditary, so it ran in his family. With his brother being Rein’s father… Didn’t that mean Rein also had the same secret? On the first day we met, Orion had said I didn’t know something about Rein. Surely this was it. But how would he know if he didn’t know that his brother was Rein’s biological father?

I wasn’t able to think much more about it because Orion stirred into consciousness. The telltale sign was that he always sighed into my neck, smiled against the skin, and tightened his grip around my waist. Then he said the inevitable—

“Good morning, Sophie. Sleep well?” he asked, kissing my shoulder thoughtfully.

“Of course,” I murmured, flipping around in his arms and meeting him for a quick kiss.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this—” He gestured about the large bedroom that used to be his parents’ “—but maybe I don’t ever want to.”

“Did your mother take the boys?” I asked with a yawn, fighting to keep my eyes open as he smiled softly at me.

“They’re at her house. So what do you want to do today?”

“Don’t you have work or something?”

“It's... a loose form of the word. We could go for a nice walk? Introduce you to more people.”

“My head is still spinning from all of the faces from yesterday!”

“Then… We could go for a nice walk, alone,” he whispered, grinning as he kissed me. “I know a beautiful place not too far from here.”

“Mmm,” I groaned in delight, smiling up at him. “Better get ready fast, then.”

He smiled brilliantly before rushing into the closet. I dressed in the bathroom, jumping into my dress as quickly as I could. Orion held out an arm for me, which I took while grinning like a little girl.

“I love showing off my beautiful woman to the world,” he whispered in my ear, closing the door softly behind us.

It was amazing how people always seemed to spot us and how they stopped everything to bow or curtsy in greeting. I always asked him about it, but he just shrugged and wriggled past the question. Whenever he did that, I knew it was about his secret.

Speaking of secrets, I hadn’t seen Rex in a while—since I moved in with Orion two weeks ago, actually. Maybe he was just pleased with the turn of events and did not see a need to interfere? Or maybe he was plotting something?

I leaned closer to Orion, choosing not to dwell. Things were finally becoming normal, and I was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. To have a family again… It meant the world to me. That was why it was hard for to relax, I decided; that was why I had been worried over Rein and Jonathan even when I was at the school with them: I needed to protect what was mine, what I had lost so many years ago.

I would not give up my boys for anything. This Sophie was not the same weakling that had been taken down so easily seven years ago: that Sophie wasn’t a mother.

I glanced up at Orion, but he was watching me in deep thought.

That Sophie also didn’t have him to watch over.

“Whenever I look at you, you have this burning determination in your eyes,” he murmured, smiling softly. “I can’t help but wish I was a mind-reader.”

I smiled. No, I would not give up this man or Brian or Rein and Jonathan. The only way someone would take them was if they stepped over my dead body.

“You’ll just have to keep dreaming, then; my thoughts are not for public consumption.”

He growled playfully, like he had begun to do a lot lately. Actually, I was able to get more out of our conversations when he growled rather than his words; his body and the subconscious sounds past his lips were easy to read, far easier to read than his riddle-laden sentences. I had actually started mimicking him involuntarily, reciprocating the soft rumbling rather than “Is that so?” or growling my displeasure at him instead of saying, “I dare you to try!” It just seemed simpler.

When we reached the small clearing inside the dense forest that surrounded Orion’s village, Orion pulled me to him and nuzzled his face against my neck. His lips curved upward into a delighted grin.

“What are you so giddy about?” I muttered, embracing him regardless. We hardly got any time alone: it was always his neighbours poking around, his parents stopping by to shower the kids with gifts, or the kids demanding our every instant. Never any time.

“We’re never alone,” he told me, mirroring my thoughts. “But right now, well, it took two minutes to walk here. We have at least two minutes before someone finds us, as I see it.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

He just grinned more, pulling me closer as I rested my cheek to his chest. I could feel his chin resting on the crown of my head.

“You know,” he began, but all I could really hear was the heartbeat that matched my own, “Maybe you didn’t notice that all but two of the rooms are vacant in that big house.”

I chuckled; figures, we’re here alone and all he can think to talk about is the very boys from which we were hiding.

“They’re little boys, let them share a room until they’re sick of each other.”

He laughed. “I suppose.” But then there was silence.

“Orion… Why are we really here?”

His body stiffened, but then he rolled his shoulders and forced himself into relaxing. “Reason? Why should there have to be a reason?”

“This is stupid.”

I pushed away from him. There was a reason we were never alone: I hated not having the boys in my sight, and I could only somewhat forget about that nagging thought of “What if?” when Orion was waffling and distracting me. But no, this surely had to do with his secret, a secret I hated.

“Sophie, don’t!”

I stared at the tight hand that restrained my wrist. My eyes narrowed, and I snarled at him.

“Just wait here with me, okay? Please,” he whimpered, closing the foot of distance between us. His eyes were jittery, bouncing and shaking all over the place. Then, he cast a flitting glance toward the way we had come before quickly looking back to me. “Sophie, I beg you.”

“This secret of yours…sounds increasingly dangerous,” I warned him in a low voice reminiscent of a warning growl. My hand wrenched from his grasp, and his eyes flickered to that intense gaze. Oh, so he didn’t like when I took charge? Too bad for him.

“Sophie,” he warned in that hoarse voice, taking a menacing step toward me.

“I don’t know what the deal is here, but I won’t just sit idly by and let you harm my boys, Rex.”

He grinned a toothy grin, and I swallowed a gulp at the sight of such vicious incisors. His hand reached toward me, his claws grazing my skin ever so slightly and sending damnable chills up my spine. I clenched my teeth; I was not supposed to be turned on for crying out loud! I was supposed to be fierce, a protector—not some hormonal teenager all over again!

“He seems to think I’m dangerous, at least,” Rex rasped, suddenly catching my hand and jerking me forward with a quick snap that sent me stumbling. My body was pulled flush against him, and his arms left no room for negotiation on the subject. “Damn fool if I ever saw one. Wouldn’t you agree, my dear?”

“He told me to not trust you,” I breathed, hating how I couldn’t think of committing such a tragic act—to listen to reason and Orion and pull myself hastily from these arms.

“Yes, I told him there would be hell to pay for that. But I don’t care to think about him now, not even though the brat is screaming in my ear right now.” Rex growled to himself then, but his jovial yet devious smirk soon returned. “He can do nothing, and he knows it.”

“Then… Tell me why I’m here.”

He stiffened, and a look crossed his eyes as he paled. Did he fear Orion? Ridiculous!

“Please,” I breathed, my hand trailing lightly up his chest until I caressed his jaw. “You said you know what I need, and Orion still hasn’t given it to me. What do I need, Rex?”

He shuddered, his eyes hooding even more, if possible, as he gripped my hand tightly, trapping it against his skin.

“You will be the end of me, Regina,” he choked, his voice quivering as my thumb rubbed gentle circles along his neck. “He says I am hasty… But you need it just as bad as we do!”

“Be a good boy and tell me what that is that we both need so desperately.”

“You are such a minx,” he breathed, leaning closer toward me as his hungry eyes drifted in what was surely an attempt to absorb every inch of me.

His claws dug uncomfortably into my hips as his grip tightened, but I ignored the dull pain and nodded fervently; he was going to tell me what Orion would take to his grave if given the choice.

“You are mine,” he rumbled, tangling his fingers in my hair and jerking me towards him for a less-than-gentle kiss. He tore himself from me, however, as his eyes zeroed-in on my neck.

“Please,” I whimpered, encouraging the gaze. I needed this, whatever this was! “Help me.”

He nodded with equal fervour, all but lunging at me. But then there was a shrill cry that made my blood run cold and all colour flee from my face. Rex was forced back to the shadows in that instant.

“Rein!”