Chapter 4: The Morning Call
Alice woke to the buzz of her phone vibrating against the floor somewhere beneath a discarded tangle of clothes and blanket. Her arm moved before her brain fully caught up, blindly reaching over the edge of the mattress, fingers sweeping through fabric until they closed around the cold rectangle of glass. She pulled it to her ear without opening her eyes.
"Hello?"
"Happy birthday." The voice was rough with sleep on the other end, gravelly in that way that always reminded her of home.
She grunted, pressing the phone closer to her ear as she sank deeper into the warmth surrounding her. "You too."
Silence. Then a huff of laughter. "Love you. Bye."
"Love you too. Bye."
The call ended. She let the phone slip from her fingers, letting it thud softly against the carpet, and tried to burrow back into the heat at her back and the heat at her front, but something was shaking—no, not shaking. Growling.
The low rumble vibrated against her spine, and she felt the possessive tightening of an arm around her waist. Kai's voice came out rough and edged with barely restrained suspicion.
"Who was that?"
Alice sighed, not opening her eyes. She nestled deeper into the tangle of limbs, pressing her face into the crook of Alek's shoulder, inhaling the lingering scent of expensive cologne and something colder underneath. Her body ached in ways she'd never experienced before, a pleasant soreness that made her want to stay exactly where she was for the next several hours.
"Twin brother," she mumbled into Alek's skin.
The arm around her waist loosened slightly. Then tightened again.
"Twin brother?" Alek's voice was silken with curiosity, that calculated interest she was beginning to recognize. "We are learning so much about you, little fish. Never met him. He around?"
Alice groaned, pressing her forehead against his collarbone. "No. He's in the USC."
The silence that followed was different. Sharper. The kind of quiet that preceded something she couldn't predict. She cracked one eye open just enough to see Kai propping himself up on one elbow, his amber eyes wide and fixed on her in the dim morning light that filtered through the thin curtains.
"The United Supernatural Corps?" Kai's voice had gone flat. "The fucking super military?"
She sighed, the sound long and heavy with resignation. "Yes. He joined as soon as he turned eighteen. He says he's partnered with a wraith whose name is fittingly Ghost. Good guy. British. Huge apparently, like six-foot-eight."
Kai stared at her. Alek stared at her. She closed her eyes again, burrowing between them like a small animal seeking warmth and safety and, most importantly, the absence of further questions.
"Now hush," she muttered, her voice already slurring with incoming sleep. "It's still sleeping time."
But sleep didn't come. Not immediately. Because she could feel the weight of their gazes on her, could sense the silent communication passing between them over her head—a wolf and a vampire trading glances that spoke of complications they hadn't anticipated. She kept her eyes closed, kept her breathing steady, but she was aware of the shift in the air, the recalibration happening in real time.
Kai's voice came low, barely above a whisper, but she heard it anyway. "She's got a twin in the USC."
"I heard," Alek replied, equally soft. "With a wraith partner."
"And she didn't think to mention this."
"She didn't think to mention a lot of things." Alek's fingers began to trace lazy patterns on Alice's shoulder, and she shivered despite herself. "Our little fish is full of surprises."
She opened her eyes then, glaring up at him with half-lidded exhaustion. "I'm trying to sleep."
Alek's smile was slow, dangerous, and impossibly fond. "I know, little fish. But you can't expect us to learn you have military connections and simply go back to sleep."
"Watch me."
Kai snorted, the tension in his shoulders easing just a fraction. He lowered himself back down, his arm reclaiming its place around her waist, pulling her flush against him. "Your twin a wolf?"
"Human. Like me." She yawned. "But he's got other things going on. The USC doesn't just take anyone."
"What does he do there?" Alek's question was casual, but there was nothing casual about the way he asked it. The weight behind the words was immense—a vampire who'd lived through centuries of political maneuvering and supernatural warfare, calculating the implications of a human soldier's position within the most elite fighting force their world had ever known.
Alice sighed, giving up on sleep for the moment. "He's in special operations. Can't tell me much about it. Just that he's got the highest kill count in his division and that Ghost is the only one who can keep up with him."
Kai's grip tightened fractionally. "Kill count?"
"He's been at war since he was eighteen. Dad signed him up as soon as the recruiters came calling." Her voice had gone soft, a note of something complicated threading through the words. "He's good at what he does. He says it's what he was meant for. I don't ask too many questions because I don't want answers I won't like."
Alek was quiet for a long moment. Then he pressed a kiss to her forehead, his lips cool against her skin. "You're full of secrets, little fish. But we have time."
"Time?" She blinked up at him.
"We have all the time in the world to learn every single one of them." His smile was gentle, but there was something underneath it—a promise, a vow, a claim.
Kai pressed his face into her hair, inhaling deep, and she felt his voice rumble through his chest and into her back. "And we're not going anywhere, baby. You're stuck with us now."
"I'm not stuck with anyone," she murmured, but there was no heat in it. Just exhaustion and contentment and something she wasn't ready to name.
"Sleep," Kai said, his hand settling over her hip in a gesture that was possessive and protective at once. "We'll talk about your secret military twin later."
She grumbled something unintelligible, but she didn't fight it. Her eyelids were already growing heavy, the warmth around her pulling her back under. Just before she slipped into unconsciousness, she heard Alek's voice, quiet enough that she might have imagined it.
"A twin in the USC. A wraith partner. And she never said a word. This one is going to be impossible to predict."
"Good," Kai replied, equally soft. "Keeps things interesting."
"Indeed. Happy birthday to us, I suppose."
Alice's lips curved into a small smile against Alek's shoulder. And she let sleep claim her, sandwiched between a wolf and a vampire who were both already learning the shape of her secrets.
The locket sat on the floor beside the bed, its silver surface catching the pale morning light. The tiny hand-painted jellyfish inside seemed to pulse faintly, as if it were alive—as if it were watching.
Alek noticed it. He didn't say anything, but he noticed.
And in the quiet of that cramped dorm room, with Alice's twin brother's call still echoing in the air and the implications of the USC settling between them like a stone dropped into still water, he began to formulate questions he intended to ask her later—when she was awake, when she was alert, when she couldn't laugh it off and fall back asleep.
But for now, he let her rest.
For now, he let the warmth of her settle into his cold bones and wondered, for the first time in decades, what it might feel like to be truly human.
The morning stretched on, golden and quiet and full of secrets waiting to be uncovered. And when Alice finally stirred again, blinking awake to find both of them watching her with patient, hungry eyes, she knew that her birthday was far from over.
"What?" she mumbled, her voice rough with sleep.
Kai smirked. "Happy birthday, baby."
Alek's smile was softer, but no less intense. "We have plans for you."
And Alice, pinned between them, naked and sore and impossibly cherished, found herself smiling back—a slow, genuine curve of her lips that reached her dark eyes.
"Good," she said. "Because I have questions."
"Only questions?" Kai's brow arched.
"Stories too. Secrets." She sat up slowly, stretching her arms above her head. "Fair exchange is fair trade. You want to know about me, I want to know about you. All of it."
They exchanged glances again, and this time she could read them easier—a shared understanding, a mutual decision. They were all in, then.
"Deal," Alek said.
Kai nodded, a grin tugging at his lips. "Deal."
Alice looked between them, feeling the weight of the moment settle around her. The locket on the floor seemed to pulse with warmth, and she knew—somehow, impossibly—that this was only the beginning.
Everything was about to get a lot more complicated.
And for the first time, she was ready for it.