Chapter 56

Pip thought back to when he was eleven years old. He thought back to the time his parents died.

His parents went on a camping trip with Marks parents. For once, they didn't bring Mark and Pip, who at the time, were good friends because their parents were good friends.

The night Pip's parents died, and Mark's father died, they were both sleeping at Mark's grandparents' house.

Pip had woken up before Mark on a Sunday morning, who slept with his feet in Pip's face. Pip remembered hearing sobs outside the kitchen. Pip was an awkward child and lingered at the door for long enough to hear the words he would never forget. "Wolves," Mark's granddad said in a grieving rage. "They ate them whole. I'll bet all I have. Wolves killed them!" Mark's granddad slammed his fists on the table while his wife buried her face in tissues. "You can't tell me that a wild dog ate everything, even the bones?" The old man fell into his chair with a heart crushing whimper. "How will we tell that soft boy Pippor that his parents were eaten by damn wolves!"

Pip cringed at the memory, and the memories that happened after that. Pip didn't cry a single tear when he was officially told about his parents. He was so shocked, he sat in silence for days, not able to say a single word or eat or drink. Mark had cried and clung to his mother when she finally came home, injured, and not mentally present, but alive.

Pip had nobody to hug. People thought he was weird that he didn't cry, but he thought he had to be strong, and he knew crying wouldn't bring back his parents.

When he moved into his aunt and uncles house, and returned to school, Mark turned on him. He blamed Pip's parents for his father's death because Pip's parents were the ones to invite Mark's parents and pushed for one last camping trip before the end of summer.

Everyone seemed to forget that Pip lost his parents too because Mark was so loud about his father and how Pip's parents were to blame. At the time, Pip couldn't understand that Mark was a grieving boy and desperately needing someone to blame. Still, if Pip had understood grief better, it wouldn't make any of it hurt any less.

The day Mark turned on him was the day Pip cried, and he felt better for letting his emotions out. From that day on, he cried himself to sleep most nights until people started to ignore Pip, and he could move on without hearing rumours of wolves, hearing who was to blame, and being talked about at school.

By then, Mark had mixed himself with different people, bullies, and turned into a bully himself. Pip not only grieved for his parents, but for the friend he lost.

The moon ventured behind the clouds, darkening the woods around Pip and Mark. Pip never thought they would be sat together after all these years of torment, running from the beasts that tore them apart in the first place.

"We should keep going." Pip's legs had stiffened, but he would run for as long as it took to be safe. He rubbed his hands together as Mark stood too. "I-I think we ran five miles, maybe four."

"We should run a few more at least." Mark looked to the tracks they already made and decided that they should stop running in such a straight line. The snow was covering their tracks, but not quick enough for them to be truly lost.

They ran for 30 more minutes. Pip was warm and still able to go on, but Mark hadn't spent years of running like Pip and had to stop to catch his breath.

"You run... too fast," Mark panted, holding his side.

"You have to be fast to not get caught," Pip mumbled, eyeing his bully.

Mark's face tightened, but he didn't snap back like he usually would. They walked for a while in silence, listening to the snow crunching under their feet because it was the only sound around them, thankfully. Pip might have had a nervous breakdown if he heard rustling in the bushes.

"S-So um, werewolves," Pip said, and Mark crossed his arms over his chest. Pip wished he still had his blazer. Snowflakes were making his clothes damp. Cold seeped through his layers. "When did you meet Victoria?" If he didn't talk about something, the darkness and the silence would slowly drive him insane.

"About a month ago. I was travelling with some friends back home and the car broke down right outside the shadow Packhouse. I thought it was some grand hotel, so we all banged on the gates for help. Victoria came out to help us. Well, she knew about me already because of that weird dream thing they have, otherwise they would've ignored us." Mark peered down at Pip. "They really hate humans."

Pip rubbed his arms and asked, "When did Victoria tell you about the whole, um werewolf thing?"

"About a week after we met. She invited me back to the Packhouse. I thought she was just looking for some fun or whatever, but when I went, they locked everything behind me, the gate, the doors, then shoved me into a room with a black wolf. I um, I fainted three times. The wolf just sat there every time I woke up. When I finally calmed down enough, the wolf changed into Victoria. She explained everything to me, you know, about wolves and mates and their world. It took me about a week to kind of accept it. I was allowed home once to pack my things and tell me grandparents about Victoria being my girlfriend, I couldn't tell them anything else."

"Was your granddad suspicious?" Pip asked.

"I don't think so. He moved in with my gran a week after knowing her. He knows what love can do to a person."

If Krey wasn't a werewolf, Pip would have waited at least a year before even thinking about living together. Pip hated rushing into things in case they ended up being the wrong decision. With Krey and the institute, he didn't have a choice.

"And your mum," Pip said carefully. "Does she-"

"Don't even go there." Mark's demeanour changed in an instant. "Do you really think I'm stupid enough to tell my mother, the person who survived a wolf attack, that I'm mated to a werewolf and living in a house full of them?"

"I-I wasn't, um, I was only going to ask if she knew about Victoria." Pip stood further away from him as they walked.

"She's too fucked up to know that I'm even gone."

The atmosphere tensed. Pip started to feel cold, and scared again of the woods around him, and the person he was with. "I'm sorry that-"

"You should be fucking sorry. You parents are the reason my mum's a mess." Mark stormed ahead.

He turned back into the person Pip had known for seven years, his bully.

They walked another mile in silence. Pip thought about asking him more questions about Victoria and whether they had connected the bond, Mark seemed to like talking about her. Pip couldn't bring himself to speak. Mark would only yell at him, and Pip couldn't deal with that on top of everything else.

Eventually, they fell side by side, walking glumly and slowly as the snow deepened. Pip's feet were numb. His hands were numb. His face felt stiff when he frowned. He looked up to the trees. If they had to hide and wait to be rescued, maybe climbing a tree and sitting out of the snow would be the best option.

The thought of being in the woods all night churned Pip's stomach. He was already so cold, he couldn't stop his teeth from chattering, or his body from shivering until his muscles hurt.

"We should run again," Pip said when a gust of wind made his eyes water. Mark ignored him, and Pip thought about how far he would get if he was on his own. Then he thought about how frightened Mark would be if Pip just left him. Mark had made Pip's life hell for the past seven years, yet Pip couldn't bring himself to be unkind. Don't stoop to his level, Debra had once told Pip when he thought about putting mayonnaise in Mark's coffee when he was being infuriatingly difficult at the café.

Don't be cruel, he reminded himself. That's not who you are. Pip stuck with Mark, feeling more and more tired by the minute, and freezing by the time they heard something other than their own footsteps.

"What was that?" Mark looked all around them, staring with wide beady eyes.

Pip stopped walking too and listened. He didn't have to strain his ears to hear what sounded like distant galloping. His heart burst to flames. "Wolves?" he whispered.

"Oh no, no, no, no." Mark gripped his face and jumped about frantically. "This is not how I die."

Mark's panic made Pip panic. He looked at the trees again as the sound of crunching snow grew louder. "C-Can wolves climb trees?" he asked.

That questioned seemed to push Mark into a state of extreme horror. He darted left and right, trying to climb any tree he could see in the darkness.

Pip silently freaked out too, looking around and squinting his eyes to see further, but he had looked too hard. Mark yelped at Pip's sharp gasp.

"What?" Mark hissed.

Pip pointed a trembling finger south, and they both looked down a slope at two pairs of glowing eyes looking back, one pair red and one pair silver.

"Wolves," they whispered in unison. Pip was prepared to run for his life, but Mark grabbed his arms and pushed him with all his force. Pip fell down the slope, rolling in the snow, bumping his body off the solid ground underneath.

Pip curled into a coughing ball as the sound of Mark's running footsteps faded in the opposite direction. Pip covered his head, scared to even open his eyes, convinced that two snarling wolves would be standing over him.

Pip heard no noise, and soon felt something warm on the back of his neck.

At first, Pip thought the warmth was the breath of the wolf before it sank teeth into his skin, but only wetness came after the warmth, which moved to his hands covering his face.

The wolf was licking Pip, and Pip suddenly wondered if the wolf was black and brown. He had seen red eyes in the distance. Krey's wolf had red eyes.

Slowly, Pip peeked through a gap in his fingers, and the moon shone through a gap in the clouds at the same time, lighting the woods enough for Pip to see the wolf's large face staring down at him, a wolf with one black ear and one brown ear.