"Hey look - raspberries!" Myranda trilled out with half her body buried in a thick set of bushes.
"Mmmmhm..." Jyriah replied flatly.
"Stop being such a whinge bag and come help me collect some. I can make something nice for breakfast to make the bread taste better," Myranda called out to him.
"You know what? No." Jyriah answered and crossed his arms.
"What's your fucking problem!?" she replied heatedly.
"You're hiding something from me! No one trusts me with my own emotions. I know I can be a little hot-headed - but this is ridiculous. This is just fucking wrong. We're supposed to be a team, we're supposed to count on each other, and here you are omitting truths," Jyriah exploded and threw his hands in the air as he spoke.
"Jyriah - you attacked Metas over him hurting my feelings... How do you think you'd react to something worse happening to myself or Syrana?" she replied steadily.
"I can handle it! You have Metas now, and as much as I hate him, Syrana has Silas. I just want to be in the loop of whatever it is you're planning..." he argued.
"No, you can't. Jyriah, I know you too well to accept you'd just ignore bad news and not act on it. You're too protective of us to be able to let go of the situation," she retorted.
"Well if it's that bad, then maybe I should do something" he shouted and then turned his back to her.
"Jyriah. Please - for once in your life, will you just trust me? I know it's hard. I know I'm much much younger than you and Syrana -- but I'm not an invalid, and I'm not stupid," Myranda stood up for herself with a strength in her voice that Jyriah had never heard.
It made him turn his head to acknowledge her.
"The best way for you to help, is to stay at your post, and play dumb. You can soak up so much information if you just do that," she informed him.
She had more to say, but a crack of a fallen branch echoed through the leaves, and both siblings chose their lycan forms for protection.
"Did you hear that?" Jyriah asked through their 'sniff system'.
"Yeah. It sounded like it came from the west," Myranda replied in kind.
"Let's lay low here for a bit," the eldest suggested and lowered himself into the thick greenery that the raspberries provided.
Myranda agreed and she too lowered her belly to the ground, and hoped the scent of the leaves and berries would help mask their scent.
"This is stupid..." they heard one voice complain out.
"Yeah - who cares if they're in the woods? Besides, I'm not sure why Silas was made Alpha without any kind of fight - he should have to fight Metas - that's the rule" the second answered.
"He's just there because he's the golden boy, nepotism and all that" the first male said and then laughed. "What kind of Alpha takes the throne without so much as taking on a single challenger?"
"Who's going to challenge him? You? Me? Some random person Harbinger will poison or kill in their sleep?" the second male replied, and reached out to push his friend playfully.
"Yeah, yeah. At least his mate is hot..."
Jyriah and Myranda looked to each other and squinted their eyes in disapproval for him speaking in such a disrespectful way about their sister.
"She really is hot. Way too good for Silas, that's for sure."
The siblings who were still looking at each other nodded and agreed with the second sentiment.
"I hear her sister's hideous, though. Weird that Metas would run off with someone like that. I mean, if I'm going to have to run away with a female, she'd have to be beautiful. I couldn't stand it otherwise."
Jyriah's knee-jerk reaction was to tense his body up as though he were going to pounce, but Myranda shook her head, which made the bushes move a little.
"Hey, did you hear that?"
"It was probably just a rabbit or something."
"Should we check it out?"
"Pfft. No. I don't even care about this. What's in it for us? Nothing. Why bother doing anything for them when they're just going to take all the credit."
"Great logic - poor attitude."
"Well then you go and check it out if your attitude is so fuckin' great."
"Fine."
They could hear the footsteps grow closer, and the person coming towards them was also sniffing the air curiously. As he got closer, their heartbeats pounded simultaneously, and they traded frightened expressions.
'Go get Metas. I'm going to chase them off' Myranda conveyed as quietly as she could through her nose.
Before the male could get any closer - or Jyriah could protest, Myranda jumped out and frightened both soldiers. She growled and barked out in warning. If they saw Jyriah, they'd probably rat him out. Being that she was already a fugitive, it didn't matter if they saw her.
"Hey - get back here!"
Myranda wasn't sure who screamed at her, and it didn't matter. What was important was how fast she could maneuver through the trees to keep from getting caught.
Their paws could be heard hitting dead leaves and breaking stems as they followed her rather closely - but not close enough to catch her. She was much faster than they were, and she was loving it.
With luck, she could trick them into an area where Silas was known to put out silver traps, and they'd get grabbed by one. They had just insulted her looks - so their pain was of no concern to her.
Myranda had never really been a very lucky person, but she hoped into the wind, that for the first time her luck would be great, and her pursuants could get a taste of silver in their systems. Her best tactic was to keep rushing into the den of danger.