When Sam stopped sobbing into Hunter's shoulder, he sat down at the other end of the living room, avoiding eye contact with Margo and Anthony. Mixed emotions flared inside him. Anger, sadness, confusion. These only scratched the surface. Deep down, there was an entire house on fire from things he hadn't felt in a long time.

Hunter sat with him, trying not to glare at his parents but a deep wound of hatred was building up inside of him. They wouldn't joke about something so serious, but why have they decided to blurt the truth now, especially after they've lived under the same roof for six thousand years.

"The shoebox," Anthony mumbled, and Margo leaned forwards to hand it to Sam, who fought hard not to snatch it from her grip. "Look inside it."

Sam lifted the lid to see documents and a photograph taken by a Polaroid. He watched Hunter hold the picture, examining it with a deepening frown.

"I've seen this before," Hunter said. In the picture, a younger looking Margo sat on what looked like a hospital bed, holding two newborn babies in each arm, both wrapped in white cotton blankets with purple hats and gloves.

"You once sneaked into our room when you were little. I caught you sitting on the floor, ready to draw all over Sams birth certificate with my lipstick," Margo said, shivering at the memory of how she yelled at Hunter until he cried.

"I did wonder why you were holding two children. I guess I was too young to understand." Hunter passed the picture to Sam, glancing at what else was in the box, apart from his birth certificate. A tiny purple hat from the picture was there, along with only one glove and a small wristband with the name Samuel. R on the side in blue ink. Hunter watched Sam's eyes well up with another round of tears. "I just- I don't get any of this." Hunter stood up and started pacing. "I don't get why this even had to be a secret. Why didn't you tell us we were brothers?"

"Is-Is it because I'm not an Alpha?" Sam asked, desperately wiping his tears away so he could see Margo and Anthony's reaction. They looked horrified that he asked.

"Of course it wasn't! We love you both equally-"

"Then why give him away?" Hunter's tone was cold and blunt. He didn't care. "Why give him to those people? Then tell everyone they were his parents?"

"Because-" Anthony rubbed his forehead, thinking of unwanted memories. "Sit down Hunter. I'll tell you both everything from the very beginning. It'll take a while."

Hunter threw himself on the couch, not attempting to hide his outrage. "Start talking because my temper is about to snap."

The air was thick and tense. It was like an invisible fog filled the room, clinging to everyone's skin. Sam felt suffocated, but Hunter's immediate acceptance was keeping him together.

"A week before you both were born, Margo and I were looking after Ryan and Naomi's baby." Sam flinched at the mention of his parent's names. "Their child was only a month old, and just like any new parents, they wanted one night off, so Margo and I said we'd look after their baby girl for the night. At the time, Naomi and Ryan were our closest friends. They were almost like family to us, and we couldn't wait to have our children grow up together. They knew we were having twins and we knew your genders, and we had already picked your names. We were so excited to have twins, even though it would be hard to juggle two babies without previous experience, which is why we wanted to look after their newborn for a night. We needed all the experience we could get." Anthony stared at one spot on the floor as he spoke, almost as if he was reliving the one day that changed their lives forever. "That night, Naomi came over with Tilly, which was their child's name." Hunter noticed how his dad spoke about their daughter with past tenses and a shiver ran down his spine. "We put Tilly in one of the cots we got for you boys, and everything was going so well." Anthony dropped his head, feeling the familiar lump of guilt forming in the back of his throat. He opened his mouth to continue, but he couldn't bring himself to talk.

"I was due to go into labour in a weeks time," Margo said, taking her husband's hands and squeezing them tight. "So I fell asleep quite early in the evening only to be shaken awake by Anthony in the early hours of the morning. I'll never forget the fear in his eyes." Margo's lip trembled, but she continued because her son's had to know. "Anthony pulled me up and stared so hard, I thought he saw straight through me. I asked what was wrong and he told me that Tilly wasn't breathing-" Margo's voice cracked, and she took a moment to compose herself, but just like her husband, her mind was thrown back to that awful night. "We rushed into the bedroom, and there she was, lying quietly in he crib. Anyone would think she was sleeping, she looked so peaceful. But her scent was different and sour. I haven't smelt many dead bodies in my time. That smell, it could only mean one thing. Tilly had died in her sleep."

Hunter and Sam were engrossed in the story. The sombre room had a miserable atmosphere, getting heavier like a weight crushing everyone's hearts.

"We broke down," Margo continued. "Of course, that was after we called the wolf doctors and sent Anthony's Beta wolf to get Ryan and Naomi. The entire night felt like one horrible nightmare, especially when we had to tell Naomi and Ryan that their child had died from cot death. I've never heard such a heartfelt cry, and they blamed us. They told us that it was our fault and our negligence resulted in Tilly's death, not sudden infant death syndrome. They spent days and days without sleeping obsessing over her death, trying to prove that we had somehow killed her. They needed someone to blame, but there was nothing. Sometimes babies just die in their sleep, and there's nothing anyone can do." Margo's face was soaked with tears, but she barely noticed. "Her funeral was a day before I gave birth. It had been the worst week of our lives. We barely slept, ate, talked. Ryan was in our home when we got back from the hospital with you boys. He had destroyed our house, invaded our rooms and tore everything apart. Ryan started to threaten us, daring to tell people that we were murderers and killed their daughter. He looked insane. His hair was a mess, his eyes were wide and bloodshot. Anthony called on his pack for protection, but Ryan threatened us with a knife before they came to our aid. He said that we didn't deserve two children, we didn't even deserve one. It was when he talked about getting his revenge that we feared for your lives."

Hunter sank into the couch as he listened, carefully and silently, not wanting to interrupt until they said all they needed to say.

"Ryan eventually dropped the knife when grief got the better of him. He cried and begged to hold Sam. He said he just needed the weight of a baby in his arms, to pretend for just a moment that it was Tilly. And after all, Ryan was our best friend, and I had known him all my life. I trusted him, and we felt like we owed them the world because their daughter died in our home, under our care. Even though there was nothing we could have done to prevent Tilly's death, we still felt so incredibly responsible."

"So you let Ryan hold Sam?" Hunter whispered, realising that Ryan never gave him back.

"We did, and as soon as Sam was in his arms, Naomi ran through the door and held a knife to Sam's throat, threatening to kill him if we didn't make an Alpha oath, swearing on our souls that Sam could be theirs, they could raise him and act like he was their son. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. There was no way I would just give up my child like that, but Naomi pressed the blade against Sam's throat until it started to bleed and he started to cry. You were only two days old." Anthony wiped away his tears. "Only two days old," he whispered, feeling the sorrow spilling from his every pore. "I knew then that they meant it. They would kill you if we didn't make an oath. We- We had no choice." Anthony covered his face and started to cry.

"Once an Alpha oath is set, it's unbreakable, even in death," Margo said in a toneless voice, too tired to feed her emotion. "To make an Alpha oath, the two Alpha's have to hold hands in their human form and continue holding paws when they transition into a wolf. Then their claws cut each other and let their blood mix together. With one lick of the mixed blood, a mind-link opens and the oath is shared through thoughts and sealed with a howl. Anthony agreed to give Ryan and Naomi full custody of Sam, only if they promised never to physically hurt him, to raise him with unconditional love and care, and he could still be heavily involved in Hunter's life. We had permission to see him every day. They also promised to keep their house within a one-mile radius of us, no matter where we lived so Sam could always be in our lives. Then Ryan made us promise that Sam could never know the truth. Anthony almost broke the oath, but Naomi still had the knife to Sam's throat. He had to go through with it, we had no other choice." Margo clenched her jaw. The anger she felt that day compared to no other feeling. "And just like that, Sam, you no longer belonged to us as far as they were concerned. We tried so hard to guide you and pretend like everything was fine. Anthony's pack watched over you and the house you stayed in every day and every night. The biggest regret we made was not specifying their abusive ways. They promised to never physically hurt you, but they didn't promise to never mentally hurt you."

Sam forgot how long it had been since he blinked. his heart thumped loud, his blood straining to circuit his body. He wasn't even sure if he continued to breathe. "That's why I always felt like they never truly loved me," he whispered. "I replaced what they should have had, but it wasn't the same."

Hunter very slowly sat forward, staring at his mother with eyes that didn't truly look at her. "When you said that the oath is unbreakable even in death, what does that mean? And what would happen if you did break it?"

"The legend says that the God of truth is responsible for giving punishments to those who break the oath, and with no Gods around, death seemed like the only logical punishment. fate works in terrible ways, and we started to believe that Tilly's death was our fault and we didn't deserve Sam, he deserved better parents, you both did." Margo couldn't bear to see the hatred in her son's gaze. "And it's rumoured that because there were no Gods around, then the oath can never be undone, even if the Alpha's who made the oath both died. We thought that Sam would never be able to know the truth, not until your grandmother said that we should tell you. We knew then that it was an old legend and the curse would surely end in death."

"You should've risked it. Sam had the right to know. The Gods have been around for thousands of years now."

"Something terrible could have happened to our family, or we could have died, and you would have been left with no parents."

"Then so be it." Hunter's icy tone pierced Margo like a shard of glass cutting through her gut. He was livid and had no room to process what he was saying. "At least we would've had each other, and we would've known the truth." Hunter stood up, grasping Sam's wrist to make him stand too. He held his hand out to his father, and for the first time, Hunter felt no love towards them, not one single drop. "Give me the key. We're leaving. Don't think for one second that I pardon any of your lies. I will never forgive you for this."