Chapter 8:

In the family room, Sly and I were going to try to work on our "sibling" bond. I hope fate realizes that I am not its little pawn. The rebellious side of me or the side that came out from being around Marcus does not want to learn anything about Sly for the purpose of this world. Then the family side of me wants to know more about my brother. My heart does not know what to do.

As he talked, I tried my best to understand him and get to know him, but he would not open. He was very sheltered, and I could feel that he did not like this anymore than my beast side. We both did not like what we were dealt in this life. When we finally were able to bring ourselves to talk, our eyes would change to a different color. I could see in Sly's eyes… the same eyes as me and my mom… the eyes that showed everything, that every time we were going to talk about it there was a golden hue, but then instantly it turned to white with black specks. We were both having a struggle with what to do. "There is the good and the bad," I said as Sly shook his head in agreement. "What do we do?"

"Well, we can just sit here," he said with a head tilt of disagreement. "Or we can try to get away?" he said with a smirk.

"I like that idea," I said, as we decided a way to both get out of this situation.

After a little bit of thinking and planning silently, we decided that if we say we need a change of scenery we might be able to get out of it. So, we left out the back door of the family room and entered the kitchen. "Where are you going?" Donny said, as we tried to sneak behind him.

"We needed a change of scenery," Sly said, looking at me with a twitch in his left eye.

"Okay, well food is almost ready," Donny said.

"Okay," Sly said as we turned to the back door and walked outside. Once we got outside, we went our different directions. Sly went for a run and I stayed and walked around the back of the house, thinking about what was going on.

"Heads up, Kenny!" hollered someone a way away from me.

Then out of nowhere, Kenny comes running into me and I go flying back toward the house. I would have hit if Kenny had not caught me.

"Sorry, Eve," he said with a slight bow. "I didn't see you there. John was supposed to tell me if I was going to run into anything but obviously, he did not do a good job at that." Kenny gave John a nasty look, who chuckled at the comment.

"It is okay. What are you guys doing anyway? I didn't think I saw anything flying over here," I said as Evan and John came walking over.

"Oh, we are just running for a race to build up our stamina for the nighttime training and the next battle for a new alpha," replied John, standing with his arms crossed and puffing out his chest.

"Oh, that sounds fun. Can I join?" I asked, wanting to be distracted.

"I don't know, Eve. It could be dangerous, and we don't want to hurt you on your first day of nighttime training," answered Evan with a concerned look on his face.

"It will be alright, bro. Eve can watch us for a little bit, and if she thinks she can handle it she can join us, but maybe we could get Sly in on this too. How does that sound, Eve?" asked John.

"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea, John. You guys are not going to take it easy on me because I am a girl are you," I said sarcastically.

"Of course not; we are going to treat you like any other beast there is," replied Kenny with a lot of sarcasm.

"Fine," said Evan with a frustrated face on. "I am going to go and get Sly. We need to keep everyone included in this."

"Okay, Eve. Why not for the first little bit you just sit there and observe before you go in, because it could get dangerous. Kenny, shall we give a demonstration?" John asked, throwing an arm around Kenny's shoulder.

"Okay, dude," replied Kenny with a smirk as he removed John's arm from his shoulder.

And with that, they both took off their shirts and began to wrestle each other, getting all sorts of dirty. The way that they moved their bodies made it look like they were doing a violent dance to see who had the biggest muscles and who had the best tactics.

In my opinion, I thought that Kenny had the best muscles that were about twice as big as John's. However, John had the best strategies in battle. It was as if he were able to predict every move before Kenny gave them. I was getting so lost in the fight that I did not even hear Evan or Sly walk up behind me.

"They are pretty good, aren't they?" asked Sly, almost making me jump out of my skin. He sat down next to me with a heavy sigh.

"Yeah, they are really good. Kenny is stronger, but John knows his moves before even Kenny knows them... Are all of you like this good and can have your own strengths?" I asked with a puzzled look on my face.

"Heck yeah, we are!" yelled Kenny from the fight, "But I think that Johnny Boy, here has a little more energy today compared to normal."

"Oh, shut up, Kenny. You have more energy, and it looks like you have been working out a lot more today compared to normal." John replied as he took Kenny's move down by slightly shifting to the left.

"Okay, that is enough out of the two of you. Why don't we try and do some stamina before one of you gets hurt? And I bet Eve here is getting tired of the two of you trying to show off," explained Evan with disgust.

"Fine," they both said with a hint of sadness. They each came over to us and whipped their sweat and dirt off with their shirts. I kept trying to keep my eyes to the ground as they flexed their muscles, but it was hard.

After they calmed down a bit, we all went for a run around the property for about an hour before Kenny decided it would be good to keep on fighting. As we went back to the backyard, Kenny, John, and Evan began to fight again. As the boys fought, Sly and I were just sitting there waiting for some entertainment.

"This reminds me of back in Kansas. All the adults were trying to impress Mom by their muscles and all the boys showing off their muscles to the girls. I never had that luxury; I was blind to the spotlight. And everyone knew I had a boyfriend."

"That may be true, Eve. I bet most of them were trying to show off to you, but you were too stupid to see that… just like here with these guys. But I get you, that is kind of how it is for me at school. All the girls flock over me and I try to get away, but they are always around me. I see Kenny, John, and Evan try to get the girls attention. They would try to get some action, but the girls never seem to be interested in them," he laughed at his comment.

Thinking about it, I could see that. They do not exactly seem friendless and for some reason Sly is easier to talk to when not forced to talk.

Feeling a warm feeling on my arms and seeing a golden light coming from Sly, I felt as if I needed to try again with this sibling bond. I turned to Sly and asked, "What was it like to transform for the first time? Does it get better the more times you transform? And what do you look like in wolf form?"

"I will answer your questions if you answer mine."

"Deal. Mine first though," I said, trying not to sound spoiled.

"Okay. For me, my first time was when I was nine. Dad told me everything about it and ways how to prepare, but it still hurt like hell. No one can tell you what it is like because it is too painful to describe. Luckily, it gets better and becomes less scary. And I look pretty much the opposite of you. I am black as night with silver ends and bright white eyes. That is why everyone calls me the night…" he said with a smirk. "Now my turn… Was this really your first time transforming, what was Kansas like, and what was Mom like?"

"Yes, this was my first time. I had no idea I was a beast... or a witch, for that matter… I did not even know that they were real. I thought they were just things that came out of story books. For Kansas, it is very unpredictable with the weather and the people in it are even more crazy… or at least the people in Baldsville. They even elected a terrible human as their mayor," I said with a chuckle. "And Mom was… she was awesome. She always made sure everyone else's needs were met before she took care of herself. She acted like she was the sweetest lady in the room… which she was. Then she never complained or showed any weakness about anything. She kind of reminds me of you minus the whole factor that she cared about people."

"I care about people; just not you," he said jokingly.

"Oh, that is a nice brotherly sign of affection," I said, shoving him over. And with that, we both started laughing and shoving each other.

"What is going on over here?" boomed Marcus out of nowhere. He sounded a little irritated or angry.

"Nothing. Kenny, John, and Evan were wrestling, while Eve and I were talking," Sly said with big puppy dog eyes.

"Well, good," he said, clearing his throat.

"It is time to eat!" Donny yelled from the kitchen door.

"You can get back to this after we eat," Marcus commanded as Sly bowed his head.

I looked at Sly and said, "I don't understand why you bow down to him like that. Why do you do that?"

Sly looked over to me and simply said, "He is my alpha. You will understand one day."

We headed up to the house and into the dining room, where Donny had the table set up with turkey, potatoes, and green beans ready to be eaten.

Everyone started to gobble down food… even me. Then Marcus began to talk. "Eve, tonight you will begin with your beast powers and in the morning… hopefully… the witches will be here to help with those powers. Sly, you will also be doing the witch power training, too. So, once we are done eating, Eve, Sly, Brian, and George will go outside and begin getting you used to the beast form. Then we will begin training you with the powers, okay?"

"Yes, Sir. And umm… What time are we going to get done tonight? I like my sleep. Mom used to always say that I sleep like the dead and if you try to wake me up...you will die," I said jokingly.

"We will get done around 10:30, then you go to sleep at 11:00, get up at 5:00, and eat breakfast at 5:30. That is the schedule. We would give you more time, but we have to get you used to it before school starts in two months, and it could take a while," explained Marcus.

"Looking forward to this," I said, receiving a nasty look from Marcus. I rolled my eyes as I stared at the massive amount of food in front of me.