Twin Flames by Lexi Ander Read Free Book Online Page B

loss of both touch and tribe because of my handicap. It wasn't that I minded touch now, because maybe I was just as touch starved as Ushna, but the avoidance had become habit for us. I hadn't meant Ushna to suffer along with me.
    I couldn't help but feel ashamed I hadn't noticed the signs in my friend. Tentatively, Ushna took my hand in his and I felt his whole body shudder. Goddess, he smelled so good. Clean and male and something more that was solely Ushna. I tightened my arm around him, bringing him closer until our legs touched and then entwined.
    "Ushna?"
"Yeah, Tristan?"
"Have you ever thought about finding your Flame?" Ushna went still under my arm, "My Flame died,"
    he replied in an anguished whisper.
Shocked, I tried to remember if I'd known who
Ushna's Bashert had been. I couldn't come up with an
answer. Who? When?
"Ushna, I'm so sorry." Now I was the one not
breathing. I hadn't meant to cause Ushna pain. Tonight was
bad enough without adding my careless meddling. "My parents are the only ones who know." He
exhaled raggedly. I knew that loss, the pain he was feeling.
"It was a long time ago." Ushna's voice was barely audible,
"We were both just boys when we knew and right after
puberty… he died."
I'd known Ushna all of my life. I'd grown up with
him. We'd been pups together. I didn't remember anyone
who would've… oh crap.
My tongue stuck to the roof my mouth when I
whispered, "Brian?"
Ushna didn't have to say anything, his silence was
answer enough. Brian, Ushna, Gregori, Stan, and Jory had been my best of friends. If one of us got in trouble, we were all in trouble. We were inseparable and thought we'd grow
up to be great warriors.
I'd known Brian and Ushna were closer to each
other than to the rest of us. They were neighbors. It made
sense they spent more time together. It didn't bother the rest
of us; it was just how things were.
The summer I was eleven years old, all of us within
a week of each other went through our first change. It was
new and exciting. We had the arrogance of the very young.
We thought we'd moved from being children to adults. We
were moving up in the tribe to bigger and better things. Being the overconfident boys we were, we decided
to go for a run together, even though Alpha Rory had
forbidden us to go out without supervision. We didn't want
to wait for an adult to escort us. We believed we were men,
almost warriors, and we could defend ourselves. We felt
safe on our land and the change was exhilarating,
intoxicating even.
We had no idea of all the things that could go
wrong.
We'd been running for an hour or so, playing and
chasing each other like pups, when we heard the first shot.
At the time I didn't know what the noise was. I'd never
heard gunfire before. We stood there looking around, trying to figure out what was wrong. The second shot grazed my
flank.
I would never forget the pain or the heat of the
bullet that furrowed into me. I rolled and in my terror, I
started running for home with everyone coming up behind
me. The third shot made me run that much faster. I didn't, no I couldn't, think about anything other
than getting back to the safety of my tribe. When I saw
Alpha Rory in wolf form coming toward us, I would've
gladly taken any punishment for disobeying his orders just
to be safe with my alpha. I stopped and changed back to
human form when I reached him, instantly baring my neck
in submission. I was crying and babbled hysterically about
the hunter shooting at us.
It was Gregori who pointed out Ushna and Brian
weren't with us. Alpha Rory howled with fury into the night
sky, his call for help echoing in the dark. I felt the power of
the alpha wash over me in a fierce wave. If I hadn't already
been prone, it would've knocked me down. As it was, it
held me to the forest floor for several long seconds before
Rory took off in the direction we'd come from. Warriors I
hadn't seen or scented materialized out of the shadows of
the trees and followed the alpha in pursuit of the lost