t w e n t y  -  o n e
u n e x p e c t e d
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dedicated to bitchmafia for the incredible cover above ❤️ thank you xx

BACON SIZZLED AS it hit the frying pan, sending a meaty aroma whirling into the air and up into Tia's nose. She stood at the top of the stairs, wearing a long black t-shirt, and a pair of her torn leggings, contemplating whether to go down to the luxurious kitchen or not. The bags under her eyes were enough to tell any of the vampires passing her by that she hadn't been able to sleep. Guilt gnawed at the pit of her stomach, as though something was trying to eat its way out. She didn't know if she could face Connor after the way she had verbally hurt him last night.

Tia took a deep breath, and filled her lungs with oxygen until her head was spinning. Tentatively, she walked down the steps and entered the grand kitchen. The room was as high as the grand ball two doors down the hallway, and the cold white marble floors made Tia's feet tingle through her socks. The kitchen was large, alike every other room in the mansion, and sported an ebony marble island with a sink sunk into the material. The lights had been switched off, allowing the natural sunlight to brighten the room from the wide windows composing the far wall. Tia heard voices from around the corner of the open plan living space, a half-wall in between herself and their words.

Eretria diverted her eyes as she spotted Connor stirring the bacon in the frying pan, an egg packet resting beside his pale arm. The woman backed away, hoping that he hadn't heard her, but his body stiffened as soon as he detected her presence.

"Thought I'd cook you breakfast," Connor murmured, shifting the bacon one more time before turning around. His sleeplessness mirrored Tia's exactly, contorting his face until it looked as though he was in pain. Yet, in a loose fitting grey shirt and matching sweatpants, Tia felt everything she had felt last night rush back into her mind. "To say sorry."

Tia walked up to him gently, her fingers tickling the box of eggs as they rested on the side. "I should be the one apologising," She replied quietly. "I shouldn't have-"

Connor raised a finger to Tia's bare lips. "I was being arrogant," he replied with a smile. "It's in my nature. And I'm sorry."

The woman bit her lip playfully, her guilt dissipating in the blink of an eye. "You never apologise. I'll take it," she beamed, the tiredness evaporating from her body. She leant in to press a tentative kiss on Connor's lips, glad to feel the sparks ignite across her body once more. Her stomach was warm as she moved in until her body was pressed tightly against the alpha's.

The stench of burning meat made Tia scrunch her nose in disgust, and she pulled away swiftly to shove the pan off the stove. It clattered against the box of eggs, tipping it over the surface. The woman's heart jumped to her throat as a single egg smashed onto the floor.

"That was your fault," Tia panted, reinstating the oxygen that had been deprived from her by the kiss. Her lips tingled, wanting more. "Since when could you cook anyway?"

Connor narrowed his ocean eyes, frowning. "Since this five minutes ago."

"Well," Eretria said, fluttering her eye lashes as she stepped over the cracked yellow yolk of the egg to near the alpha. "It's the thought that counts. You apologised, which is a first."

"That's not the only reason I cooked you breakfast, Tia."

Deep down, Tia knew that he wouldn't have cooked her breakfast without a proper reason. But the apology had been genuine, and his later comment was unexpected.

"I call that burnt," Tia retorted to try and keep her disappointment at bay. "Not cooked."

"Yeah, yeah," Connor waved a hand and placed it on the small of Tia's back. "Just don't freak out."

"About what?"

The tall man guided Tia from the kitchen, leaving the bacon fizzing in the pan. It was smothered with black, as though it were charcoal. Eretria's stomach grumbled ravenously, but she would rather starve than eat something Connor had attempted to cook.

Tia kept her eyes glued to Connor's face to map his facial expressions, searching for a hint. However, the male werewolf kept his face empty of emotion and propelled her into the dining area where vampires and werewolves were already seated.

Colton smiled morbidly at his best friend, who happened to be nearest to her, and as far away from Daniel that he could possibly sit. Sofia studied her nails, shoulders slouched as though she was waiting for something to entertain her. But it was the fourth person that caught Eretria's attention – and her breath.

She had expected him to be bruised and slathered with blood – she had expected him to be dead. But instead, the male seated at the head of the table was immaculately dressed without a scratch on his body. His pitch-black hair was slicked back with too much grease, making it appear recently washed. The black suit complemented the twenty-three-year-old's ice-cold irises. They bit into Tia's bones like frostbite as she dared to make contact with the boy she thought she had lost. After all, they had spent the last two weeks searching for him.

Eretria walked up to the man trying not to trip over her wavering feet. Even the air smelled of death and decay as she came within inches. Her animal instincts kicked in, thirsting for blood. "Ethan," Tia addressed.

The man before her bowed his head as the Mexican slipped behind the chair. "Eretria."

Eretria somewhat smiled, but her blood was boiling inside her veins. Suddenly, her hand found Ethan's head, and slammed it down on the table before grabbing him by his crusted tresses and pulling his head back until it was stopped by the headrest of the chair. Tia grabbed her knife from her leg, and placed it at the base of the werewolf's neck. Agony ebbed through her fingertips as her claws threatened to break the skin. Her eyes were already glowing silver, the fury pulsing through her unlike anything she had ever experienced.

Now with her father gone, she could hurt his precious son without consequences.

"See, I told you she wouldn't like this," Daniel stated, seeming unamused at the scene before him.

"Point proven," Connor hissed. He carefully trod towards the girl with liquid silver for eyes, but she growled to keep him away.

Eretria snarled at the crowd of unblinking supernatural creatures before her, feeling her heartbeat slow as the knife pressed further into Ethan's pastel neck. She didn't realise Ethan was chuckling his signature sinister laugh under her fingers holding the blade were vibrating.

"I was more expecting a loving embrace, but sure, I guess this will do," Ethan laughed, only making Tia grow angrier.

Connor shot the man a death stare. "What the hell are you doing? Don't provoke her."

Ethan shrugged. He life was hanging in the balance, and Eretria was disgusted that he didn't even care. "So what? she's not going to kill me," his icicle eyes glanced up through the cracks in his coal-dust lashes. "Are you sister?"

Tia gulped down the lump stuck in her throat, and removed the knife from the man's neck. Yet, she slammed his head against the table once more for good measure. He deserved it, she told herself.

"Don't you dare say my name, arsehole," Tia hissed through her teeth. With one final breath, her fingers released the soft material of Ethan's black suit.

Ethan pouted. "That," he stated, pointing a finger around the table and making eye contact with the creatures eyeing him suspiciously, "Is an improvement."

"Shut the fuck up, fucktard," Tia deadpanned whilst resuming her position beside Connor. His hand wound around her back and gripped her waist like an impenetrable vice. Only then did she feel safe, yet her skin continuously prickled with unease being in the same room as her alleged brother. She had once loved him, even through the pretending. She had once thought he would become the strongest alpha in Armour Heights. And she had once broken out of a jail cell to see him. Eretria was no longer that woman, and she was glad.

Connor leant into the woman he had between his arms. "I thought you said your brother was dead," he whispered.

"He is. Ethan's my arsehole of an adoptive brother."

Ethan raised a brow. "You know I can hear everything you say?" He enquired with a broad smirk that hid his horrendously yellow teeth – they were the only flaw Tia had ever found with the handsome man. "And what is it with you two? Like ew. Get your hands off her, mate."

Eretria rolled her eyes, recollecting the numerous times she had tried to bring boys back home to the pack house from school or a party, and he had scared them away with typically evil threats. She remembered the time when he did manage to cut one of her love interests so badly he had gone to hospital afterwards, and lost a pint of blood. At the time, she thought he was being overprotective, but as she turned seventeen, she knew the only reason was that Alpha Jasper wanted her untouched for the mate he would marry her off to.

"What are you doing here, Ethan?" Tia demanded. She folded her arms across her chest instinctively.

"It has something to do with our father, actually, Ti," Ethan said gleefully.

Eretria pounded her fist against the table, making Sofia jump as she sat next to the Alpha of the Claw Pack's son. "You do not get to call me that, dickhead."

"Wow, you're pulling out all of the insults today."

Connor noticed the woman's fury as she balled her hands into fists. He was quick to clasp her hand in his own, using a thumb to sooth her as she stood unblinking at her brother.

"I don't want to talk about our father," Tia hissed. "You could've killed our pack, for all I know. Jared said it was Colton, and let's face it, he'd never hurt a fly."

"Hey!" Colton chimed.

The woman shot him a tantalizing stare, the ground between them falling away into darkness. "Why so silent, Ethan? Something you'd like to tell us?"

Ethan scratched nervously at his palms with his free hands. "It wasn't me, Ti, if that's what you're saying. Which brings us back onto the subject of our father-"

"Your father."

Ethan flapped a hand in her face, uncaring. "Yeah, whatever. But if you need to know, our father killed our pack. At least, I think because I don't know why anyone else would," He muttered, turning paler with each resounding word. "He didn't want me to become alpha, that much I guessed ever since he announced it a year ago. He's always hated to age law, and I guess the pack did hate him too. He fled after to ceremony without touching the food, and I followed him. I mean, I smelt the wolf's bane, but it was too late. We're always given food last out of courtesy for our pack members, so I couldn't warn them in time, and their sense of smell is so shit, they didn't know they'd been poisoned 'til they were dead. Kind of sad, really. Don't you think that makes sense?"

Tia couldn't believe she was agreeing with the cruel werewolf, but she nodded her head nonetheless. It was true that Jasper had to retire from his position because he was nearing the forty-year-old alpha age limit. And it was true that alphas had more acute senses than any of the lower ranked wolves.

"Tia, Jasper is planning an attack tomorrow," Ethan continued. "On Jared's pack during the full moon celebration, where he will be declared Alpha."

The mention of the man's name turned Eretria's vision red, and Connor felt his legs grow weak beneath him. He took a seat before he toppled to the ground.

"If you think we're going to help Jared of all fucking people, you have us mistaken," Eretria murmured on the brink of tears. Her neck throbbed, the muscle remembering the exact location where he had snapped the bone.

"Jasper's going to kill him," Ethan pressed.

"And?" The brunette pursed her lips until they were white. "Does it look like I give a shit? He tried to kill Connor. He was going to force himself on me. He killed the Fang pack. That man is the definition of evil."

"Anyone else get the feeling that evil people's names begin with J and A?" Colton questioned deliriously. His eyes were half shut, effortlessly denoting his boredom of the conversation. Alike his best friend, he had grown up under the shadow of Jasper and knew the cruelty of the man's actions within the pack. Any werewolf from the other four packs were oblivious to his barbarism.

Ethan tutted and rose from his chair without permission. "Ti, if Jasper kills Jared, he will control the Obsidian Pack, and he's already gathered the survivors of the Fang pack. He's in league with some of the vampire clans, and if he kills Jared, he will control the city, and that's what he's always wanted. You know he will only kill and maim when he's in charge, and I may not have a heart, but that's wrong. I ran from him as soon as I found out what he was planning."

Tia resented the male stood before her, but there was truth woven with his lies. "You're lying," she said, nonetheless.

"Do you think I would've come here on my own accord otherwise?"

"Actually," Sofia interrupted, unaffected by Ethan's handsome smile. "How did you know where we were?"

Ethan's notorious chuckle entered the still air once more, and split it apart like a knife. "You seriously think this whole time we haven't be watching you? God, Tia, you're more stupid than I thought."

"Fuck you," Tia snarled like a feral animal, her hand clasping Connor's so tightly he was wincing in pain.

"Yeah, fuck you too," Ethan retorted with a swipe of his greasy locks. Tia wanted to shove his ego down his throat until he choked. "I try and do something good for once, and I get this? This 'good guy' thing is so difficult, God."

"We never said no," Daniel replied, his fingers interlinked as he thought. It was as though Tia could see the cogs clicking in his brain. "Ethan's right. If we don't stop Jasper now, we won't be able to stop him later. We have to kill him."

Eretria rolled her mocha eyes. "As long as I get to kill Jared, I'm not complaining."

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ITS OK TIA AND CONNOR ARE BACK N BETTER THAN EVER I MEAN THE COOKING BREAKFAST CLICHE HAD TO COME IN SOMEHOW ;)

What does everyone think of my boy Ethan?? I kinda love him but hate him at the same time 😂 any suggestions for who should play him for the cast?

Hope you enjoyed!!! Thank you for reading, and I'm excited for the next chapter (it will be lengthy and it will have lots and lots of action + a touch of death so watch out 😉 )

Lotte xx