Chapter 176. Dodging a Bullet

Aurora’s POV

I don’t know how to answer him.

Panic claws in my gut as I realize that in my happiness of reuniting with my brother…I had forgotten about the bigger picture…about the fact that our entangled history is much more complicated for me to explain, especially to a five year old child who wasn’t ready to hear about the complexities.

What can I possibly tell him? How can I possibly explain to him that these people…that the ‘new guests’ in the pack…were my half-siblings?

The words sit on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t bring myself to say them. Riley is watching me, his blue eyes so much like our mother’s, filled with quiet expectation. And maybe that’s what makes it worse. He doesn’t know—he has no idea about the truth that has weighed on my shoulders for the past few days. He doesn’t know that we’re more than what he assumes us to be, that the blood running through our veins is the same, tangled in a history neither of us asked for.

I sh