Violet Ashes: The Blood Ridge Alpha - Chapter 60: Chapter 60

I ran. I shifted, took my backpack, and the bean bag chair. I've been home for almost two hours. Baby and Pepper watched me turn off all the lights and run up to my room like a madwoman. My wolf is a lot smaller than most, so it's easier to wiggle out of places big wolves can't get into.
I've been running around this city since I was four and could jump out of the second story of the packhouse without getting hurt. I created code 00267. It meant the alpha's daughter had jumped out of her window again and was terrorizing the city. Now they use it when one of us is being brought in by the patrol. It's died down a lot since I left.
"Are you okay?" Pepper asks when I come down after a quick shower.
"Yeah, just playing a game with Alpha Barnes," I laugh. "What are you guys up to?"
When the two of them look up at me, I can see how bloodshot their eyes are. They immediately look away.
"Hanging out," Pepper shrugs.
"Are you guys hungry?" I ask.
"Sure," the two of them say in unison.
Fuck. This is one of those big sister moments. Dammit. I am about to be the biggest hypocrite of all time. At her age, let's just say that I don't remember a lot of it because I too was high off my ass.
I serve the agua chiles I left marinating before leaving this morning. I get between them, placing the two bowls on the coffee table. When they sit up, I spin around, grabbing them by the throat.
"You two assholes better not be doing that shit in my house and I hope for both your sakes that you're not doing this shit before class," I shove them back on to the couch. "Are we understood?"
"Yes, Luna," the two of them croak.
"Great. Try this. I learned to make them in Cali." I take a handful of chips and sit between them. "What are we watching?"
"We're watching the Falling In Reverse show from Dallas," Baby breathes out heavily.
The show starts, and they eat. As soon as the show is over, the two of them go into the room they're sharing. Verona comes over and takes a chip out of my hand as I scroll through the guide to find something new to watch.
"Thats was-"
"If you say harsh, I am going to stuff a handful of spicy shrimps down your pants," I glare at her.
"Not what I was going to say. I thought you were going to ask to join them," she snorts. "Thank you for scaring Peppy."
"Do you think I should ask for it, so we can smoke it in the greenhouse?" I whisper. She smirks and nods. I stand up and head to their room. "Bet."
"Yeah?" Baby answers the door when I tap on it. I hold out my hand, and she groans. She walks back into the room and returns with a huge bag.
"Seriously? Where did you even get this from?" I look between them. The two of them look away, and I know they're not going to tell me. I open the bag and take a handful. "Don't smoke this shit here. Keep it somewhere your brothers can't sniff it out. You both know those assholes are blood hounds."
"You could have just asked," Baby takes the bag.
"I'm serious. I know I can't stop you from doing this, but the less you use, the better. I like to go to sleep with this. That's what it's intended for."
"Me too," she says quietly. "It helps me focus when I'm working, too."
"No, you find a better way to silence this shit. You can get hurt. I'll work on your morning routine the same way I did with your brother. You can't be smoking and working with power tools."
"Me too?" Pepper asks.
"You can join us, but she's a princess, Pepper. Her wolf needs more to settle down in the mornings. Don't feel bad if you can't keep up. They surpassed me a long time ago. Get some rest. We'll be up at four,"
The two of them groan when I head back. Verona follows me into the lift and we go up to the rooftop. A smile crosses my lips when I see how much she's already done. We head over to the working station, where she has a couple of pretty flowers waiting to be cleaned up and assigned a place.
"Like it so far?" she asks.
"Yeah," I say, looking around. "I don't know if I would have been able to get anything done any time soon."
"You have a really great system installed. Roman has been teaching me how to work the humidity in the different sections. He's such a girl's guy."
"He is. Baby is very opinionated, and he's raised her since they were kids. I met them the year after I left. I try to help them as much as I can. They're good kids."
"It's hard to believe he's twenty-three. How long have they been alone?"
"Six years, but even before that. You know how rogues can be."
"I'm glad they found you," she says as she rolls up the joint. She gets serious, and for some reason, it feels like there's tension in the air.
"You can talk to me about anything. You know that, right?" I step up beside her. She glances at me and shrugs.
"They talk about you in a way that even if you had stayed with us, we never could. To us, you were the troublemaker. You always made shit so difficult. And then you left. Suddenly, you're the missing piece.
"It was so easy to blame you for all the bad shit that happened before and when you were gone we had to learn the hard way that you did all of that to keep us out of harms way. I don't know how hard it was out there for you, and I know that you're never going to tell me. You closed yourself away from us since Mom died, and it hurts to see that you opened up to people who were complete strangers."
I scratch the back of my ear because, while that's true now. It wasn't always. I had to keep things to myself because I don't think they'll understand. It's the way we were raised. I've done things with my team that they can never imagine. Things that go against everything we believe in.
"If you really want to know, I can tell you. I just need you to understand that you'll never see me the same after. Everything we learned growing up, I threw it away—all of it. The morals we were taught became optional.
"I sought control and power over what's right and what's wrong. They speak about me the way they do because we became a family when everyone who was supposed to love us turned their backs on us. We've been to hell and back. It's a bond that I don't think you guys will ever be able to understand. It's not about us being blood. We kept one another alive in places crafted for us to burn in."