But He's My Brother?

1. Sibling Rivalry

It's my 18th birthday in a weeks time, I know it's an occasion to be happy over however I can't help but feel slight apprehension. The anxiety is building up everyday, 

"Everything will change" I think out loud, exhaling a long deep breath. I fall on to my bed with a soft thud, and bury my face into my silk comforter, the material feeling cold against my skin. 

"Too many thoughts" I murmur painfully in to my bed and hold on to my head firmly with both hands to relieve some of the tension and pressure . As I am in the midst of a small breakdown,  I hear my brother Samuel aggressively knock on my door, the heavy pounding gives me a scare, making me jump up from my bed reflexively.

"Can't you bloody hear? Mum has been calling you for the past ten minutes!" he shouts out in a deafening, angry voice, I instinctively retaliate because of his furious tone.

"No need to shout! I didn't intentionally ignore her, I couldn't hear her!" I raise my voice to match his tone.

"Don't you dare raise your voice at me!" He replies, sounding even more hostile and more like our mother than a eighteen year old boy. This was our daily routine, I don't think a day has gone by without either of us arguing, thankfully it has never resorted to physical violence, but I always feel like I am one fuse short of exploding and giving him a heavy beating.

"Back off before I tell Mum!" I say quickly before opening the door to glare at him. He takes a second to look at me and scowl before stalking off into his room. I close my door and sigh with relief that our battle for today is over, it gets tiring when you argue nearly everyday.

I guess I need to provide a little backstory to why our relationship is so aggressive. Samuel is 10 months older than me, yes mum got pregnant with me a month after Samuel's birth,  It's surprising to me that she got pregnant so quickly because most Werewolves decide to wait at least five months to a year before conceiving again as Werewolf pregnancies are apparently one of the hardest and most painful processes a She-Wolf can endure. Anyway going back to our relationship,  I always heard that it is quite normal for siblings of close age proximity to harbour some rivalry and resentment, I mean I have personally seen it with my friends and their brothers, but I do think our relationship is worse than others. We have always hated each other, since I came out of the womb to be more precise. But it's nothing that I dwell on for too long because it has unfortunately become the norm in our family, even mum and dad are getting used to it.

Back to the present, so I have my birthday party next week. It's actually a very important day for me because my body will finally possess the scent of a Wolf. I have not yet shifted, but that is only because females don't get their Wolf until after their 18th birthday, it's a lengthy process and has a few steps before completion. I wouldn't say that I'm entirely thrilled to be experiencing all of these changes because I heard the transition is difficult and painful, however I am excited to finally get my Wolf.

I absentmindedly open my bedroom door and make my way downstairs, eager to diminish some of the thoughts surrounding my birthday and transition as it is giving me anxiety, I finally remember the reason for going downstairs as I recall Mum calling me earlier. I make my way to the kitchen and sit down on the stool adjacent to the counter-top.

"You were calling me before?" I ask mum nonchalantly, grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl and biting into it.

"Yes after a million tries, you come down. I think I need to take you to the doctor for a hearing check up" she replies sardonically.

"Not you too mum, Samuel was giving me an ear-load before, I get it, okay?!" I respond quite exasperated as I was not ready for yet another verbal match but with my mother. She views my reply with slight contempt as I could see her expression changing to a scorn, however as quickly as she is about to tell me off she changes the subject.

"I want you to go pick up your dress from the shop before 5 pm, I have a few errands to run today so I won't be able to make the long journey, you'll have to take your brother cause the shop is far, knowing you I'm sure you'll get lost with public transport!" she chuckles towards the end.

As soon as the last few sentences leave my Mum's mouth, I involuntarily yelp and shake my head erratically.

"NO NO NO, I am not going with Samuel! We'll kill each other and anyway he won't agree to come anyway, its fine, I can find it myself" I quickly respond, eager to assure her that I will be okay on my own.

"Darling, it takes an hour and half by car, can you imagine how long it will take with a train? Too long! And knowing you, you will one hundred percent get lost and I can't account for a missing child before your birthday, your brother is taking you and that is final" she tries to reply sternly but I can see the softness in her eyes as she is too well aware of our fragmented relationship.

"Why did you have to buy the dress from Harringrey, it's miles away, I could have bought a dress of my own choosing from here" I sullenly reply.

"If it was up to you, you would have gone wearing a shirt and trousers, you need to look your utmost best, this party is the best opportunity for you to find your Mate, don't you want to look amazing for him?" Mum replies almost defensively.

"And the dress is one of a kind, I want you to stand out and that beautiful dress will guarantee it!" Mum tries reasoning with me. We already had this discussion once before because I could not believe that mum travelled that far and spent huge amounts of money on a dress that I would wear for only one day. 

"Mum don't, I would rather not discuss mates...they depress me" I reply pensively after catching on to the first part of her sentence, one of the factors of becoming eighteen is that your Wolf scent is finally ingrained in your body but the downside of it, well for me at least is that it means you will find your mate because they are now able to sense your scent and likewise you are gifted the same quality of being able to sense them too. Everyone around the same age as me is living the delusion that finding your Mate is the best thing in the world, but I have heard too often of mates taking advantage of their female counterparts, I do not want to be put in a similar position and become a part of that statistic. As I'm consumed by my thoughts, Samuel suddenly comes into my peripheral view.

"I'll be waiting in the car, I'm giving you five mins to get ready," he says before disappearing through the front door, I'm momentarily stunned by the fact that he actually agreed to take me and then realise I only have five minutes to change into decent clothes and leave the house, deciding against panicking I turn to Mum to vent out my frustrations.

"He is so infuriating" I turn to her and sigh loudly.

"How did you even get the imbecile to agree" I continue with my tirade as I slowly make my ascent up the stairs.

"No insulting your brother Elisa, he is actually taking you, you should be thankful towards him" Mum replies sternly, pointing a finger at me,  before resuming. 

"I didn't really have to try, just told him that it's far away and it's not safe for a girl like you to go on her own" she pauses for a second "you know your brother doesn't hate you, he cares for you" she adds as an afterthought to reassure me of this non-existent love .

I scoff and roll my eyes, "cares for me" I say my thoughts out loud "What a load of Bull" and finally make my way up the stairs to get changed for the dreadful hour and a half car journey.

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Hi, this is my first EVER story...I'm sure there are tons of mistake and spelling errors but please stay with me! I know it sounds like an incest story atm lol but trust me it will veer into a different direction soon, just bear with me. 

Btw, a lot of the towns and places will be made up cause I can't deal with researching actual towns and places ;')