Chapter 31

"Does that make you uncomfortable?" Krey asked.

Pip nodded. "I don't know why."

"It's because we don't exist in human lives, well, you think we don't."

"Human lives," Pip repeated. "T-That sounded weird."

"And werewolf didn't?" Krey thought Pip would at least smile, but his lips didn't even move, Krey would know because he kept staring at his mouth. Pip seemed to go a shade lighter. He already looked unwell. "Are you okay?"

Pip wrapped arms around himself. "I haven't really slept."

"Because of what you saw?"

Pip nodded.

"I'm sorry. I would have told you eventually, but I didn't want you to find out that way." Krey would have preferred to tell Pip when they were comfortable with each other, and Pip was used to seeing wolves. Krey had lived in a fantasy. Nothing ever went his way.

"I-Is this your secret?" Pip asked. "The one you wanted to tell me but didn't think I was ready."

"Yes. I was right not to tell you."

Pip agreed. Seeing Krey transform had messed with his head. Pip started breathing slowly. In... out. In... out.

"Is it hard to believe, even though you saw it?" Krey asked, observing Pip carefully. He didn't want him to faint.

"I keep pinching myself." Pip looked at the red mark on his wrist. "I just- I never- I can't believe you- you're..." The more Pip thought about werewolves existing, the louder his thoughts shouted that his mind was lying.

"I don't really expect you to be okay with this." Krey wanted to move closer. If Pip edged away, his heart would cave. "But I hope it doesn't drive you away."

Pip thought back to the kisses they shared. He liked Krey. What he saw in the woods shook him to the core, but deep down, Pip's feelings for Krey wouldn't let his secret scare him off. Time would help.

"Why are you... like that?" Pip asked. "I mean, w-why do you have a wolf?"

Krey looked around again. Nobody paid them any attention because they spoke so quietly. "Why do you not have a wolf?"

Pip sighed. The edges of his lips curled towards a smile. "I was born without one."

"And I was born with one."

Pip stopped feeling so tense. Krey was the same person he was before, answering questions with questions.

"Some humans assume we're cursed. I find that insulting," Krey grumbled. "Are you cursed because you don't have a wolf?"

"I... don't think so."

"Exactly. We just are who we are." Krey crossed his arms with a single nod and a frown.

Pip admitted he thought Krey was the strange one. Pip would even admit that he thought transforming into a wolf wasn't natural. Now he knew how cruel his thoughts were.

"I'm sorry for the way I acted," Pip whispered. "And f-for avoiding you. It just really shocked me."

Krey sat up straighter, frowning harder. "You don't have to apologise."

"I do." Pip fidgeted. If Krey knew what happened to his parents, he would understand Pip's fear.

They sat in silence again. Krey stared at Pip, wondering what other questions were coming up his throat. Krey hadn't expected Pip to be relatively okay with him being a werewolf. Krey had expected some tears and a little more panic.

Before Pip arrived, Krey was convinced that he wouldn't show. For a human, Pip took the news well. Humans were born into a world where his kind was fiction, make-believe, mythical. If Krey were in Pip's situation, he might have reacted the same way.

"Pip," Krey said, glancing around. "Do you want to talk somewhere else? I'm just worried someone will hear this."

Pip, now feeling much better about the situation, nodded, though he didn't want to go into the woods with Krey. "Do you want to come to my house?"

"What about your family?"

"They're out tonight with my cousins."

"Okay, then." Krey was beyond excited. He would get to put his scent all over Pip's house.

Their walk through Crescent Town was quiet. Krey, every opportunity, brushed against Pip's arm. His heart jolted each time he felt Pip's coat against him.

That morning, Krey was scared that Pip wouldn't want to see him again. Now, they were back at the start, awkward and unsure of how to act around each other.

Pip took the lead up the cracked garden path. He unlocked the front door and held it open for Krey. I'm inviting a werewolf into my house.

Krey carefully stepped into the hallway, looking around. The corridor had a homely feel, with dark wood floors, a coat stand, a shoe wrack and a few photographs hanging on the cream coloured wall. Krey noted that not a single picture featured Pip.

Krey followed Pip's actions and took his shoes off. Pip led Krey up the stairs and down the corridor. Pip's room was the last door on the left.

Pip's scent was everywhere. Krey could smell it seeping from underneath the door. When Pip entered his bedroom, Krey had to gulp back his emotions. Pip's scent wafted in his face like an oven door opening with freshly baked cookies inside.

Pip's scent was everything Krey's wolf wanted.

Krey was going to march to Pip's bed and sit on it to mix scents, but he looked around Pip's room first, which was unusually bare.

"Have you lived here long?" Krey asked. One book was on the shelf, a small chest of drawers rested against the back wall next to his bed. Not a single thing decorated the walls. No posters or pictures or art, the walls were white and bare.

There was a neatly stacked pile of papers and folders on Pip's desk and a pen. That was the content of his bedroom.

"I've lived here for seven years," Pip said, clasping his hands and looking around.

"I thought you'd have more books," Krey said, walking to the shelf and looking at the only book in the room. It was a children's book, old and well-used.

"I used to have more," Pip mumbled. "A-Anyway, can I ask questions now?"

Krey nodded and took the opportunity to sit on Pip's small single bed. It creaked under him. He wanted to shift to his wolf and roll all over the duvet.

"Um, can I ask about the institute?" Pip asked, sitting crossed legged on the windowsill.

"Ask what you want." Krey linked his fingers, prepared to answer anything if it would make Pip trust him more.

"Is everyone in the institute- w-werewolves?"

"Yes."

"Is Francis one?"

"Yes."

Pip fiddled with his hoody sleeves. "What does it mean to be a werewolf?" Krey frowned, so Pip added, "I mean, what makes us so different apart from- apart from you having a wolf?"

"I can see better, smell better, hear better. We're stronger, and even in our human forms, we have wolf instincts. So, if I saw a rabbit, I'd want to hunt it."

"You don't eat people?"

Krey scoffed at such a question. "This is not a Grimm's Fairy Tale."

"You know those tales?"

"Pip, I'm part human too. Your way of life is integrated with ours."

"How?"

"We have emotion. We find ridiculous stuff funny, we watch films, we play board games, my parents read me bedtime stories when I was little, including little red riding hood. We like wearing clothes that show off our personality. We also eat a ridiculous amount of chocolate."

"Do you like chocolate?"

"Yes."

Pip frowned quizzically. "Does the moon affect you?"

"Yes, but we don't go running into the woods on a full moon, unable to control our wolves. Our wolves just need to be out for a little longer."

"And your wolf... I saw your wolf the other day, didn't I?"

Krey nodded. "I-" he almost said that he felt something was wrong, but Pip didn't know they were mates. "I was in the woods already, and I could smell your scent and your fear, which isn't a weird thing among werewolves. We can smell a lot of your emotions."

Pip raised a brow, Krey's heart skipped a beat.

"You scared away Mark, then came back and pretended you didn't know anything."

"I couldn't tell you I was the wolf you just saw because I made you cry. I knew you couldn't handle knowing about werewolves."

Pip pursed his lips and pulled his knees up to his chest. "Um, c-can I ask about why you- um, why you kissed me." Their eyes connected. "Shouldn't werewolves... mingle with their own kind?"

"Some do," Krey replied, and his pupils grew, "until we find a mate." Krey's palms were a little sweaty. He was nervous about telling Pip about their bond.

"O-Oh," Pip stuttered, and his cheeks darkened in shade. He thought the mate thing was a myth too. Pip didn't really understand the importance of a mate and what it meant to werewolves. "And now- are you, um, mingling or looking for a mate?"

They both held their breath as though the air had been sucked from the room. Krey knew that his reply was costly. Pip deserved to know the truth, and there might not be a better opportunity to tell him. "I'm sitting with my mate now," he said.

Pip's response was a little delayed until he realised what Krey was saying. He leaned forward so quickly; he almost fell off the windowsill. "Me!" he squeaked with wide blue eyes.

"Yes."

Pip's blush spread across his freckly nose. "I- what- a mate is- am I-" Pip took a breath so he could get his words out in the right order. "A mate to you is- like a mate." Pip scratched the back of his head. "I mean, not like a friend, but like- a mate."

Krey hummed a low note, amused by Pip's blabbering embarrassment.

"Why me?" Pip asked.

Krey didn't have to think hard. "My soul chose you." Pip looked a little confused. "A mate, to a werewolf, is very special because we-" Krey sighed and allowed his nerves to disperse when the air slowly left his lungs. "Because we mate for life."