"Why are they here?"

The question was out before she could control herself. The only good news was that other than Shadow no one else heard her.

Her bodyguard moved to stand next to her before he whispered the answer next to her ear, "Domenic has invited them. They will be staying here tonight and will celebrate Christmas tomorrow with you and your family."

Emily almost scrunched her nose as she did not like the answer that she was provided with. 

It was her very first Christmas with her brothers and she did not want to ruin her mood because of some matters that she could not solve.

"Em! Come over here. Let's see if Bianca can win against Mark or not." Jackson called out from the living room as he noticed her standing at the bottom of the stairs along with Shadow.

"Come on!" 

Shadow said as he started dragging her towards the living room where everyone was present.

Mark and Bianca were playing Chess and the environment was so intense as everyone waited for the winner as the game was in its last stage.

Emily moved to stand beside Mark who was intensely staring at the chessboard.

"Emmy, who are you rooting for? Is it Bianca or Mark?" Leo asked as he took a break from cheering the woman who had dared to challenge Mark, knowing that he was even better than a professional.

As Emily looked at everyone present around watching the game, she realized that other than Simon, everyone else was supporting Bianca.

Domenic and Sam were not present in the living room, while Daniel was busy in the kitchen.

Shadow had next to no interest in the intense game that was going on. The man had taken a seat next to the fireplace as he surfed through the magazines that were sitting on the small wooden table.

Emily took a comfortable seat on the armrest of the sofa on which Mark was sitting before she snaked her arms around his shoulders from behind.

She rested her chin on his right shoulder as she tried to make herself comfortable to watch the ending of the game.

"Ooooo....!" 

The hooting that everyone started as soon as she wordlessly showed her support towards Mark, was almost ear piercing.

"Sister Bee, you are now in trouble. Mark has the lucky charm in his support. Now it's very hard for you to win against him." 

Crist spoke as he walked to stand beside his little sister.

"Are you changing sides?" Leo asked him with raised eyebrows.

"I'll support the person whom my baby sis is supporting." Crist quickly defended himself as he patted Emily lightly on her head, making sure to not ruffle her perfectly combed hair.

"..."

Leo stared at Crist with surprised eyes but then within a blink, he too was standing behind Emily and Mark.

"You guys are really something!" 

Shadow muttered from his seat next to the fireplace as he shook his head after seeing the dramatic characters of Crist and Leo.

Emily was expecting for either Crist or Leo to send a remark in return. However, she was left surprised when neither of those two paid any attention to Shadow.

Her attention was pulled back to the game when she felt Mark shifting a little as he reached his hand out to play his turn.

Everyone watched in amazement as just with a single move, the game came to an end, and Mark ended up as the winner.

Bianca was not looking that happy as she complained about Mark played dirty in the starting.

Jackson, like the good mate that he was, tried to calm her down as he patted her shoulders and planted a soft kiss on her forehead, telling her that she gave a good competition to Mark.

Once again Emily felt a sick feeling waking up inside her as she recalled the memories of the previous night when they all attended the banquet.

She felt Shadow's gaze trained on her and when she turned her face to look in his direction, she found him staring directly back at her.

It was almost like he knew exactly what she was experiencing or thinking. As if he could read her like an open book.

"Thank you for supporting me." 

Her attention was pulled back towards her brother who moved her hands away from his shoulders so that he could turn around to face her.

Emily just shook her head lightly, making some of her loose curls bounce around. 

"Em, can we talk in private?" 

The sudden question surprised her, making her turn her head to look at Sam who was standing behind them along with Domenic by his side.

Emily had no idea how to answer. She definitely did not want to talk to him at the moment but she also did not want to be impolite to him. She was not looking forward to ruining the Christmas eve for everyone.

Just when she was pondering about how to reject him without creating any kind of a scene, her eyes landed on Domenic.

Her guardian brother was looking directly back at her. His green eyes held warmth and understanding in them.

And just by looking into his eyes, she knew exactly what he wanted her to do. She believed in him and she believed in his judgments.

Even though she had not clearly shared with anyone about what she saw the previous night, she could tell that Domenic and Shadow knew something about her discomfort and dilemma.

She recalled the conversation that she had with Shadow in the early morning. He had advised her to place her problem in front of those who had caused it so that she could find the answers that she was looking for.

Emily found herself standing up as she walked towards Sam. The doctor gave her a warm smile before he turned around and started walking towards the stairs.

The two of them walked in silence for less than three minutes before they arrived in front of the library.

By the time Emily took her seat on the comfortable sofas that were placed in the first section of the huge library, Bianca and Jackson also arrived.

She smartly chose to sit on the single sofa, not giving the others any chance to sit beside her.

But even then, she found Jackson sitting on the sofa that was placed right next to the one on which she was currently sitting.

She made sure to not look at any of them. Her eyes were trained on the creeper that was spread over the window sill and some of the empty bookshelves that were placed near the window.

"Em, relax. None of us are here to hurt you." 

She found Jàckson speaking to her in a soft voice as he hesitated to place his hand on her shoulder.

She did not speak nor looked at him. But she found herself relaxing a little at his voice.

"Domenic told us about how you saw me and Sammy together in the banquet. To be honest, I can't believe that we forgot to tell you about such an important thing. We have known each other for quite some time and I'm so surprised that we failed to tell you about something so important."

It was Bianca who spoke and as Emily finally dared to look at the woman, she found sadness filling her eyes.

"We actually never needed to explain our relationship to others before this. First, because not everyone's opinion mattered to us, and second because most of our close ones already knew about the bond that the three of us shares." 

Emily was as clueless about Sam's words as she ever could. Even though her mind tried its very best to progress exactly what he was implying, she could not understand exactly what kind of bond he was talking about.

"Do you guys share a special bond? I'm sorry if I'm skipping something important here. It's just...... I thought Bianca and Jackson are mates...but then......then at the banquet...."

Emily trailed off as she once again found her eyes staring at the beautiful leaves of the creeper.

This time, Jackson did not hesitate to place his hand over hers as he spoke softly, "Every single bond is special and precious. And we can understand that you are currently confused about everything. Even though you have been learning about the supernaturals, I'm sure you haven't studied anything about our bonds so far, right?"

Emily shook her head in reply to his question. It was true! She never found the need to explore the topic of bonds that the supernaturals shared.

Even though she had a bond with Rylan but she got to learn all that she needed to know about it from Rylan, Shane, Daniel, and Domenic.

Therefore, she never needed to research on the bonds or anything related to them.

"You don't need to be mad at the two of them. They are not cheating on me. The three of shares a special bond. Bianca is not only my mate, she's Sam's mate too."