Last Female Sypher and Her Brother's Friends novel Chapter 22

Last Female Sypher and Her Brother’s Friends

Chapter 22

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“My fight had to be different. I know you would have wished that I would come back. That I would have told

you, and in your fantasy world, we could have figured it out together.” She rolls her eyes. “I was turning into

a wolf, Aria.”

The words drop between us like stones.

She freezes.

I continue, quieter now.

“Not metaphorically. Not emotionally. Literally. The first time it happened, all I could remember was pain.

When I woke up, I was in a forest, covered in blood, with dead rabbits around me. Then everything changed.

The fevers came, the noise, the smells, and this voice. A voice that wasn’t mine but was, that had a will that

could be contrary to mine. And on the second shift, I almost killed someone.”

I step closer, lowering my voice. “I would have if Ronan hadn’t found me and stopped me.”

Her eyes widen slightly.

“He explained what I was. Gave me a place in his pack and showed me what I had to do to keep you safe.

There are real monsters out there,” I continue. “Not just men with bad intentions. Things worse than that

and the truth is, I could have never been able to save you then. I had to get stronger if I was ever going to

be able to protect my family. So I left.”

My wolf growls low in agreement.

I swallow hard. “I couldn’t risk bringing that back here, leading anything back because of a mistake I might

make. Not to you. Not to Mom.”

Aria looks away.

The kitchen goes quiet except for the wind rattling the broken window.

“I thought you didn’t care,” she whispers.

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Chapter 22

That hits harder than anything else she’s said.

My chest tightens painfully.

“I cared too much.”

She wipes at her cheek quickly, annoyed at herself.

“Well,” she mutters, “that’s great to hear eight years later.”

Fair.

I nod slowly.

“You’re right. I should’ve found a way to tell you.”

My wolf huffs. You were barely surviving.

Aria sighs and leans against the counter across from me.

“So what now?” she asks. “You’re a wolf. I’m apparently the sister of a supernatural creature.”

I smirk slightly.

“Technically, I’m a shifter.”

“That makes it so much less weird.”

I chuckle.

She studies me for a moment.

Then her expression softens a little.

“We’re going to need time,” she says finally.

“Yeah.”

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Chapter 22

“A lot of it.”

“Not like we have anything else to do.”

She gestures vaguely at me. “It’s not just the whole ‘sprouting hair and howling at the moon‘ thing.”

“I do not howl at the moon.”

My wolf perks up. Yes, we do.

Whose side are you on?

Aria shakes her head. “You’re basically a stranger now.”

That hurts.

But she’s not wrong.

“I’d like to fix that,” I say quietly.

She nods slowly. “I want that to.”

It’s not forgiveness.

But it’s a start.

Aria pushes away from the counter and starts wandering back toward the living room.

“Come on,” she says. “Let’s finish looking around.”

We move through the house slowly.

Every room hits like a memory bomb.

The hallway where we used to race toy cars.

The wall where Mom marked our heights every birthday.

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Chapter 22

My bedroom door hangs half open.

I don’t go inside.

Some things are better left alone.

Aria pauses near the fireplace in the living room.

“Wait.”

Her voice sharpens.

I turn immediately.

“What?”

She kneels near the hearth.

“There’s something here.”

I step closer.

Inside the fireplace is a messy stack of papers.

Some are burned halfway.

Others were barely touched by flame.

My wolf growls softly. Why would the humans not notice it?

Aria pulls one free carefully. “What the hell…”

I crouch beside her.

The papers are official–looking.

Forms.

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Chapter 22

Lists.

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Names.

Lots of names.

“What is this?” she asks.

I pull out my phone and start snapping photos.

“Don’t know yet.”

She flips another page.

“Why would someone try to burn this?”

“Good question.”

More names.

Dozens of them.

My wolf’s instincts prickle. Something is not adding up.

I type a quick note into my phone and save the photos.

“I’ll send this to Ronan,” I say.

Aria looks up.

I continue typing. “And Marcus will probably dig into the names.”

“Marcus?”

“Tech genius.”

Aria stares at me.

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Chapter 22

“You’ve really built an entire wolf support system while I was gone.”

“Pretty much.”

She gestures to the papers.

“Still doesn’t explain why someone tried to burn these.”

I shake my head.

“I don’t know.”

But something about this feels deliberate.

Calculated.

Aria stands and dusts off her hands.

“Maybe whoever attacked Mom didn’t want this found.”

“Maybe.”