Jyriah ran ahead of the group to distract Myranda - but when he got there, he saw Syrana with their baby sister, talking about who knew what.
"Well if it isn't my two favorite sisters in the entire world," he greeting with his arms wide open.
"...We're your only sisters," both Syrana and Myranda said unimpressed at the same time.
"That just means I'm right," he returned with a grin and walked up to the table they were sitting at.
"What brings you by? Joss get tired of your antics already?" Myranda half-asked and half-teased.
"I just wanted to see you two, and no - he likes my antics, thank you" Jyriah retorted defensively.
"Did you just have nothing to do? It's okay to be honest," Syrana asked with her own playful tone.
"You know, I can just leave if you're gonna be like that," he replied matter-of-factly.
"Okay...then go?" Myranda offered.
"Yeah - I mean if you have other plans, you should go enjoy them," Syrana implied with a jest.
"You're both mean. I have mean sisters," he said and faked a frown. "I'm going to go into your bed, and cry" he warned.
"Oh hey - speaking of mean - why didn't you give Syrana her jar of peanut butter?" Myranda interrogated, and leaned on her palm with an expression that waited for an answer.
"Oh..well..uh..." Jyriah started nervously.
"You ate it, didn't you?" The older sister accused.
"Something like that. I bragged about how good it was to a friend, we made a bet - and I won. It was for a good cause, I promise" he answered with delight and a pocket of lies.
"Well, now you have to go get more peanuts, and this time I'm not making any for you," the younger sister demanded more than stated.
"Hahah - no. I've got other things going on right now," he replied and pulled out a chair to sit between the two of them, as if to sever their alliance physically before they ganged up on him all night.
"You just said you have nothing to do," Myranda reminded him, clearly unimpressed and not buying his answer.
"Did you hear? Silas is going to become the next Lieutenant General now that Harbinger fired the last one for insubordination. We're going to get to live in the castle, and I can have you two over whenever I want. I'm so excited to finally give us all the good life like we always dreamed about," Syrana revealed to Jyriah with glittering golden eyes filled with hope.
"Uhh.. yeah.. I guess? There have been mumbles," Jyriah lied. He didn't want to involve Syrana in anything just in case she spilled something to Silas, even if by accident.
"He told me about it the other night. I figured we could also work on getting Metas to finally talk to Myranda. I'm going to walk right up to him, and demand he talk to our little sister, or I'll bug him every day for the rest of his life," Syrana swore and reached over to put her hand on Myranda's to support her.
"We'll get him to realize how great you are, don't you worry" she followed up and squeezed her hand.
If only Syrana and Myranda knew what Jyriah did. He so badly wanted to loop them into what was actually going on, but it was far too risky, and he promised his Alpha he wouldn't.
"I'd say congratulations to him, but I was already aware - so you can tell him for me," Jyriah grumbled.
"Oh, don't be like that - Silas is also doing this for all of us. He wants to give you a high position, and move you up to the higher tunnels, Myranda" Syrana assured them both, but neither of them looked excited or like they trusted what she said.
Silas' promises meant nothing to her siblings.
"...He won't let me be the royal baker? I've been after that job in my dreams for years," Myranda asked with a frown.
"Silas doesn't want you to have to worry about work. You can just be free to do what you like every day, and no one can tell you what to do - we both thought you'd like that," Syrana tried to sound convincing - but even she knew that Silas thought Myranda was nothing more than a burden.
"...Metas...I can smell him nearby," Myranda said suddenly off topic and stood to sniff the air.
"Oh? Maybe he's a level above or below - don't go looking for him, please. Let's not start trouble right now. I've got enough eyes on me," Jyriah told the truth, but omitted his other reason - so he didn't have to feel bad about it.
"I'll go with her and get in trouble - don't worry. She deserves an explanation - and if he comes by here, we're going to ask him - and you better help," Syrana warned.
"I am helping. I'm helping you two stay out of trouble. If he's down here its gotta be important. Can we not get on the bad side of royalty? Please?" He tried to distract them with excuses, but he knew better.
He had not planned on Syrana being here. He may have been the oldest, but she had always been in charge - and kept them all together. With Myranda now empowered, it was next to impossible this time to distract either of them.
He would have to break out the emergency tactic: memories.
"Well - I thought we could look through old Image Cubes (crystals that held pictures of memories from one's mind) and watch some old home memories of the good days," he offered.
Both of them looked very interested, but Myranda's eyes lost their sparkle of the lure he set out and shook her head. "No. I need to see Metas. I need to show him I'm still here."
"This is a terrible plan - and I wanted to look at memories, come on! Syri's baby milestones are on a few of them. Let's go watch," Jyriah tried again - but neither of his sisters budged.
"Oh come on, guys. This isn't a romance novel," he pleaded with a groan.
"Well today it is. You can help us, or get out of the way," Syrana offered and challenged her brother's white-blue eyes with her fiery gold ones.
"Syrana. Please. You may have Silas as your mate, but she and I could get into a lot of trouble" he used another excuse, but her glare was strong.
"No. You're not getting in the way of her happiness. No one is. Come on, Myri - we're going to stand right outside the shop and look him right in the eyes. If he can't even look back at you, then he's going to have a miserable life because I will make it that way," the older of the sisters promised with a deep violent undertone.
"You never make anything easy do you?" He retorted and tried to go for his last resort.
"Okay," he warned. "If you do this, though - I'm going to go find your stuffed animals and rip them to shreds as a wolf. I will shake them so hard that you won't be able to stitch them back together again. I mean it."
Myranda was steadfast, "Fine. I love Mr. Rags - but I need to see Metas more. Do your worst, big brother."
Jyriah smacked his head with his palm as the small group of soldiers that he recognized came down the curved stairs from above and surrounded Metas as though he were here on official, and very unhappy business. "For Goddess' sake... really?"
Now was her chance. Nothing would dissolve her goal to make him see her eyes - or really, for her to be able to see his. She tried to push Jyriah out of the way, but he was still much stronger than she was, and instead of being able to dart past him, he grabbed on to her waist.
If she could just push herself free, she could get to him. Myranda fought hard as she pulled herself towards the entrance where she could see Metas coming around the corner. It scratched her skin and broke a few of her nails, but after kicking her brother in the face a few times, she was able to break free and get to to the door handle to push it open.
He miscalculated Syrana's strength as he came up to grab her shirt and pull Myranda backwards, but when both of his sisters essentially pulled him in two directions, he lost grasp of his younger sister's shirt, and the lack of tension pushed her forwards and down onto the outside of the doors, where everyone looked at her - including Metas.