Chapter 4

• RAYMOND
• “Oh, heck no”. I shouted. There was no way that bitch had to be our mate. Not just one of us but all of us? This had to be a joke or maybe a prank.
• “Ray, I think it's undeniable and also, keep your voice down before father hears us and comes up here. He's not supposed to know we're here, remember?” I glared at Richard who glared back at me.
• I looked away, sighing. So much for having brothers who had nearly the same personality as you.
• The scent was still in the air and it was clearly doing things to all of us. This was too crazy to be coincidental. Finding out whom our mate was the night she ran away and it being the stupid daughter of our crazy step mother? Yeah, right. Those stuff only happen in sitcoms, something I really don't fancy.
• “What do we do now? We're no closer to knowing where she could be than when we came in a few minutes ago.” Raven snapped, reminding us of why we had been here. I quickly looked around from where I stood, scanning for anything odd or different but nothing stood out immediately. I had been in the room several times but not enough to know what it looked like normally. I was mostly in here to bully her, a favorite past time of mine.
• “There's a window open”. Raven noted as we all shuffled towards it. There was the possibility that she could have gotten out from here but the walls were high and too smooth to be climbed down from, which meant she had either jumped and probably shattered all of her bones or she had left another way. Personally, I preferred the first option.
• “She didn't leave in a haste though. That much can be gathered”. Richard observed and we all nodded. The room was tidy, everything put in their proper places. Most of her stuff were still here other than a few pieces of clothing, judging by the gap in the open wardrobe.
• She must have taken a small bag since two pairs of shoes were missing too. I knew that because I had hit her with one of her shoes before and had subconsciously memorized how many there had been.
• “Well, she can't survive with what she has with her. She is poor, has no friends and it's cold. She'd be back in a few hours or at worst, show up battered in a few days. I don't know why Dad is bothering us with this though. He should be glad he doesn't have to deal with that”. The thought of her growing up here with us left a bitter taste in my mouth that I couldn't wait to get rid of.
• “Let's leave the house. We'd sleep somewhere overnight and come back to tell Dad we had searched everywhere. That way, it would be more believable that we looked for her”. Ryan suggested and I shook my head.
• “We'll sleep in the car. We don't want to look too rested and arouse suspicions. You know how Dad can be when he's fixated. You should work on your ability to tell lies, Ry. You're usually the first person he smelled out and you mustn't ruin this for us”. He nodded sheepishly but had an hardened look in his eyes and I knew we would be fine.
• With one last look around, we all filed out of the room and quietly left the house to our cars. All we had to do was kill time and walk into the house very early in the morning, looking like we had stayed up all night looking for her and feeling sorry that we hadn't. Easy.
• I got into my car and took out my phone, swiping through dating apps. It had been a while since I had any action and it was beginning to get to me. I was absentmindedly scrolling through when I got distracted by my thoughts.
• What the hell had happened in that room?
• I hadn't wanted to consider the possibility that Bella of all girls was our mate. She's only a little past sixteen for fuck’s sake. That had to be against mating rules or some shit.
• Would that have happened if she was still in the house?
• We had been staying with her for a weeks now and something like that had never happened and it had me wondering if her running away was a catalyst.
• I knew it was weird that none of us had found out mates at this age but a teen? And a stupid bratty bitch at that? Heck no.
• I could only hope for her sake that she stayed lost or dead because I would kill her myself if I ever found her. I would make sure she died before she could ever get a chance of accepting to be our mate, which is what I know the stupid bitch would do since she had been nothing but a whore.
• I had seen the way she had looked at us. She tried to hide the obvious attraction but I could smell it coming off her. Had she known she was our mates? I doubted it though. She wouldn't have until she had turned eighteen.
• If she was still alive, I guess we would have to find her and kill her off before she turned that age.
• I shook my head, trying to get her off my mind. She wasn't worth any of my thoughts. I continued to scroll through the app again but got bored, none of the people on there holding my interest for more than three seconds.
• Sighing, I dropped my phone and rubbed my hand across my face. Might as well get some shut eye if going home was out of the plan.
• Cranking the seat so it was almost vertical, I laid back and and closed my eyes, falling asleep to the image of Bella behind my eyelids.
• It took a while to fall asleep but when I did, I fell into a dream.
• “Please, let me go”. Her voice echoed through my mind as I watched her bloodied body crawl away from me.
• I was holding a crowbar, which I must have hit her with, hence all the blood. Her leg was in an unnatural angle which meant it was broken. For some reason, that gave me a thrill. Hurting her made me happy.
• “You don't get it, do you? I won't stop until you're dead”. I laughed harder when she started sobbing. She stopped struggling to leave and looked like she had accepted her fate. I was going to kill her and no crawling away would stop it.
• I raised my hand to hit her with the bar when I bolted up from the car seat. I looked around to see Richard who must have been trying to get me to wake up.
• The sun was beginning to come up, letting me know that my seemingly short sleep had been a long one. I must have projected my thoughts into my dream even though I never got the satisfaction of seeing her dead before me.
• I rolled down the windows. “Morning”. I yawned, still tired and needing to sleep but I knew I wouldn't be able to do that for a while since we had to go home to deal with our father.
• “Let's go back”. Richard said as he turned to go to his car.
• “Wait”. I called out as an idea formed in my head. With this, we wouldn't have to deal with Dad asking us to go look for her again.
• He turned back with a questioning expression on his face and I knew he had only a few minutes on him before he got aggressive. He usually was like that when he hadn't gotten enough sleep.
• “I have an idea”. I said as I got out of my car. I motioned for Raven and Ryan to come closer and when they did, I spoke.
• After explaining my plans to them, they shook their heads. “How the fuck would you expect that to fly with the old man? You know how scrutinizing he can be”.
• “Yeah, I know. But he would have no choice but to believe us. Not if we present him with evidence”. They all looked at me like I had gone mad. “I'll get it. All you have to do is follow the fucking plan. Okay?”
• They looked at each other and then at me before shrugging. “Fine.”
• I asked them to wait a few minutes before I headed back into the house. I sneaked back into her room, grabbing what I needed before rushing back.
• After less than half an hour, we were ready and we left for the house.
• Father stood in the living room, looking so broken I was almost tempted to call off the plan but I knew he wouldn't let us be otherwise.
• He turned when he felt our presence. “Well?” He asked as he looked beyond us but seeing no one.
• I stopped forward and stretched my hands towards him, a piece of clothing laying in them, covered in blood and roughed up in several places.
• With the sincerest expression I could muster, I spoke to him. “I'm so sorry, Dad, but she's dead. This is all we could find of her”.
• And I watched as my father crumbled.