Chapter 11 The Sister Problem
Ysara POV
My phone buzzed against the nightstand like it was trying to crawl off and escape.
I wiped my face, still tangled in the robe, and still surrounded by four supernatural disasters arguing quietly about wards and assassins and exiled psychopaths.
The screen lit up.
LILA: How the hell did Mom get moved to the top of the list? Ysa...she’s next in line for a heart. WHAT DID YOU DO!?
A tremor slid through my chest. I typed back fast.
ME: I took care of it.
Delivered. Read instantly. Shit.
LILA: We need to talk. Right. Now.
I exhaled sharply. “Of course we do. Fucking perfect timing.”
Rafe looked over, concerned. “What’s wrong, little witch?”
“Sibling crisis,” I muttered. “Level twelve.”
The phone buzzed again.
LILA: Where are you? I’m checking your location.
“Fuck fuck fuck....turn off, TURN OFF,” I hissed, tapping frantically, but she saw it before I could kill the setting.
LILA:…You’re at work? At the tower?? I’m right up the road. I’m coming.
I groaned so hard it came from the bottom of my soul. “Guys, we have a problem. Incoming. Sister shaped. Zero idea about any of this.”
All four men froze like I’d just announced a nuclear strike.
Wyatt’s golden eyes widened. “She’s coming here?”
“Yes,” I snapped. “Here. To your skyscraper. To your private penthouse. While I’m wearing a fucking robe and smelling like a harem.”
Darken muttered, “This is suboptimal.”
Kalesh flicked his braid. “We could hide...”
“No,” I cut in. “She’s going to want answers. And she can smell bullshit like a bloodhound on Adderall.”
Rafe opened and closed his mouth like he was trying to find the least offensive truth. “We should… discuss whether she is also supernatural.”
“Right,” I said, nodding quickly. “Yes. That. Maybe she’s magical too? That would help. A lot.”
Silence. All four men exchanged that look. The one that says we don’t want to hurt you but this is going to hurt.
Wyatt stepped forward slowly. “Ysara… it’s unlikely.”
My stomach flipped. “Unlikely?”
Darken softened. “Ravelyns are never raised with humans unless something catastrophic happened. The fact that you were placed there means...”
Kalesh finished quietly, “Your sister is probably not your blood.”
The floor dropped out from underneath me.
“No,” I whispered. “No, that… that can’t be.”
Rafe reached for me. “Ysa...”
“They would have told me!” My voice cracked high and wild. “They would have told me I wasn’t theirs! They would have....someone would have....oh my god, why didn’t they tell me!?”
My chest collapsed, and everything folding inward. Rage. Grief. Confusion. Betrayal. It all detonated at once, sharp and overwhelming, and my magic spasmed with it.
I didn’t sob. I screamed. It ripped out of me before I could stop it. Years of being too much. Years of being the strange one. Years of thinking something was wrong with me, not wrong with the story I’d been given.
I folded to my knees, shaking.
“They lied to me,” I choked out. “My entire life. They lied. All this time I thought I didn’t belong because I was broken and fucked up and too intense and...god....my mom held me like I was hers...my dad treated me like....why didn’t they tell me?”
Warmth surrounded me. Wyatt’s hands cupped my shoulders from behind, steady and grounding. Rafe knelt in front of me, with his forehead pressed to mine in silent apology. Kalesh wrapped his arms around my waist, murmuring soft fae words that vibrated with comfort. Darken rested a hand against my back, and his demonic aura was calm, and protective.
“You are not broken,” Rafe whispered.
“You were loved,” Wyatt added.
“You were hidden,” Darken said. “For good reason.”
“You belong,” Kalesh finished, brushing his thumb against my cheek. “With us.”
I cried harder. I hated crying in front of people. It made me feel naked and unarmored. But they didn’t flinch. Didn’t pull away. Didn’t try to silence me or fix me or diminish what I felt.
They just held me while I shattered. And for the first time in my whole life…I didn’t feel alone in the breaking.
Finally, breathless, with my eyes swollen, I wiped my face with the sleeve of my robe.
“Okay,” I croaked. “I’ll deal with the adoption identity crisis later. Right now we need to figure out how to stop Lila from walking in here and seeing… all of this.”
Rafe sighed. “We can stall her.”
Wyatt checked the elevator feed. “Or… we have thirty seconds.”
Kalesh cursed. “Your sister is fast.”
I groaned and pulled myself to my feet.
“Boys,” I said, tying my robe tighter, “welcome to the fucking family.”
The elevator dinged. And Lila’s voice echoed through the penthouse.
“Ysa? Why is your location at a billionaire wolf penthouse?!”
\~~~~~
Lila Hartwell POV
Is This Porn or a Cult?
I stepped out of the elevator expecting… I don’t know. Maybe Ysara buried under paperwork. Maybe Ysara crying into a latte. Maybe Ysara hiding in a supply closet having a full meltdown, which was honestly her brand.
What I did not expect was…This. I stopped dead, and my jaw was hanging so low it nearly hit the marble floor.
“Ysa…?” I croaked. “What in...what the actual....what am I even looking at?”
My sister stood in the middle of the most absurdly luxurious penthouse I had ever seen in my life, wrapped in nothing but a silky black robe that left way too little to the imagination. Her hair was wild. Her cheeks were flushed. She looked like she’d been hit by a truck named Afterglow.
But that wasn’t even the shocking part. The shocking part was the four men standing around her.
Correction: four stupid hot, not human looking men who looked like they'd been pulled from a forbidden Pinterest board titled: “If Greek gods had OnlyFans.”
One had wild golden eyes and muscles sculpted by what I can only assume was divine intervention. Another had sleek silver eyes and the kind of jawline you could cut diamonds with. Then there was a tall, shadowy guy with ink-black tattoos curling up his throat like a secret in motion. And finally… a man with luminous markings, dark hair braided neatly, and the kind of sharp, beautiful face that said he definitely had a knife hidden somewhere on his person.
All of them were half-dressed. All of them were staring at me. All of them looked like trouble.
“What the…” I waved my hands at the group wildly. “What the actual fuck is happening here?!”
Ysara gave me a tight smile that did nothing to calm my cardiac arrest.
“Lila, hey. So… this looks weird....”
“Weird?” I shrieked. “Ysa, you’re standing in a billionaire penthouse wearing lingerie and surrounded by four men who look like a calendar shoot for ‘Things That Will Ruin Your Life.’”
I looked at the men again. Jesus Christ. They were so stupidly attractive it felt offensive.
“Who,” I demanded, pointing at each of them, “are these… these… Marvel rejects? Are they even real? Why are they perfect? Is this a dream? Am I dead?”
The golden-eyed one stepped forward slowly, with his palms up, like I was a skittish animal.
“Lila,” he said gently, and his voice was deep enough to reverberate in my ribs. “I’m Wyatt. This is my twin, Rafe.” He gestured to the silver-eyed god in boxer briefs. “The others are Darken and Kalesh. And before you panic...”
“Before I panic?” I squeaked. “Sir, I am already PANICKED.”
Ysara groaned behind me. “Can you… just let him talk?”
Wyatt cleared his throat, giving me a smile that belonged in a toothpaste commercial. This was ridiculous.
“So,” he continued slowly, “we’re not exactly… human.”
I stared. I blinked hard.
“…Excuse me?”
“You’re excused,” he said politely.
I blinked harder. “That wasn’t...Why.... I.... WHAT?!”
He lifted his hands again like he wished he had cue cards.
“We’re supernatural,” he explained. “Lycans. Fae. Demon-blooded. And Ysara has recently discovered she’s....”
I burst out laughing. Like, ugly laughing. Laughing so hard I wheezed.
“Oh my god, STOP. Ysara, tell me you didn’t pay these dudes to prank me. Because I swear this has to be a joke. This is a Netflix limited series waiting to happen. This is....this is....”
I cut off when I noticed no one else was laughing. All four men were staring at me with unnervingly earnest expressions. Ysara’s face was flushed, not from embarrassment, but from panic.
“Wait,” I said slowly, and my chest tightened. “You’re… serious?”
Wyatt nodded.
Darken murmured, “Completely.”
Kalesh tilted his head, studying me like a curious hawk. “Your disbelief is understandable. Humans prefer their worlds to remain small.”
Rafe sighed. “We don’t have time to ease you into this gently, unfortunately.”
I looked at my sister. Ysara Hartwell, chaos queen, drama gremlin, sex-positive menace, hot mess expressed as a person.
She wasn’t joking.
“Ysa,” I said softly. “Is this for real? Like… actually real?”
She swallowed hard, and her eyes shimmered a little.
“Yeah,” she whispered. “It’s fucking real.”
My heart stumbled. “You’re… you’re really not human?”
Another nod.
“You’re really mixed up with these…” I gestured weakly at the four absurdly gorgeous creatures “…supernatural Abercrombie catalog rejects?”
“Yeah,” she said again.
I sat down on the nearest couch like my knees had given out. “Holy shit.”
Wyatt hesitated, then stepped closer. “We’re not here to hurt her. Or you.”
Rafe folded his arms. “We’re trying to protect her.”
Kalesh added softly, “She is hunted.”
Darken finished, “And she is ours to defend.”
My breath hitched.
“Oh my god,” I whispered. “This is real. All of it. My sister is actually… magical? Dangerous people are after her? And you four are...what...her boyfriends?”
“Yes,” three of them said.
“No,” Wyatt said at the same time.
Ysara groaned. “Oh my god, can you all be normal for two seconds?!”
They all stopped talking instantly. It was the funniest thing I’d seen in my life.
“Ysara,” I said slowly, swallowing. “You said you took care of Mom’s transplant stuff. Did these....did THEY do it?”
All four men nodded. My chest squeezed hard, the air leaving me. A part of me wanted to freak out. Another part wanted to cry. A third part wanted to ask Darken if he was single, because holy shit. But mostly… I looked at my sister.
She looked scared. She looked overwhelmed. She looked like she’d been carrying the world for so long that she couldn’t tell what was hers and what wasn’t anymore.
“Ysa,” I whispered. “Come here.”
She walked into my arms and collapsed against me with a shaky breath.
“I’m still me,” she whispered.
“I know,” I said softly. “And I’m still your sister. Even if the world just got a hell of a lot weirder.”
Behind us, one of the men let out a sigh of relief.
I ignored them. I held my sister. Because magic or not....She was mine....and I was hers.
.....and nothing supernatural could ever change that.