Free A Healing Love by Shara Azod Page B

once and for all.
    Yes, now that he considered it, he was very, very glad Gleb was dead. And even gladder it hadn’t been his beloved uncle or favorite cousin who had ended his mangy hide. For far too long this house had lived with the horror of being betrayed by one of their own. Ilya and Ivan had felt it just as deeply, but wholly differently from everyone else.
    “Do you feel as if a weight has been lifted?” Ivan whispered, his voice for his twin’s ears only.
    “Yes and no.”
    No one had ever treated him and Ivan as any less than a member of this family. Not even after Uncle Valeri’s mate had been slaughtered. By rights, they could have been turned out to fend for themselves, but it hadn’t even been considered. Uncle Valeri had pulled them closer, as always treating them as if they had been his sons all along.
    But the ghost of Gleb had always been there. Yes, the ghost was gone, but his deeds would always remain. So what was left for his sons? Yes, this was their home, their family, but neither of them felt as if they really belonged. At least, not yet.
    “Come.” Ivan sighed, nodding toward the side door. “No point in putting this conversation off any longer.”
    His brother was right. This was something he had been dreading, but something they both knew was coming. Following his brother, Ilya cast one more look over his shoulder. They were finally happy. Whole. It was something both he and Ivan had longed for.
    “You know we have to leave,” Ivan stated as soon as they were out of earshot of the house.
    Ilya didn’t answer right away. Instead his eyes traveled across a seemingly endless sea of white and green. Beautiful country this was. A wild place, just like the animals that dwelt inside them. This would always be home in a way. It just didn’t feel like home right now.
    “We don’t have to.” A lie, Ilya knew, but he felt if he didn’t say it, it would be denying the happiness they had both known here, despite it all.
    “No, we don't have to. We can stay and live off our uncle’s largess. We can pretend out mother hadn’t killed herself because she was horrified at whom she mated. We can pretend our father didn’t try to destroy those we love.” Ivan pulled no punches. He never had. HIs brother was forever the realist. “Or we can go make our own way. Prove ourselves as males worthy, and perhaps come back with a mate of our own.”
    That was just it. A mate of their own. One mate. Two of them.
    Whether forged by tragedy, or whether it was a consequence of the twin bond, Ilya and Ivan had always known there would only be one woman between them. It was not unheard of exactly, but had never been done in the Teegr line. After having the first psychopath also in their direct bloodline, neither wanted to push the love of family so far, especially as they literally had nothing of their own.
    So much water under the bridge, and yet, they still had so far to go. The only thing they could do to feel like worthy males in their own right was to go. At least for a while. They needed to stand on their own, find their own destiny, then rejoin their family as more than the offspring of a renegade.
    “Do we at least say goodbye?” Ilya’s heart ached, but Ivan was right. This was the right thing to do.
    “No. This is not goodbye. One day we will return. That I swear.”
    And they would. When the time was right.