Chapter 75

When Pip woke the next morning, Krey was still on top of him, sleeping softly. Krey's face was as calm as Pip had ever seen him with no scowls, and no tight jaw.

Pip yawned silently, and remembered he had a neck brace on when he couldn't roll onto his side and curl up against Krey. He was warm under the duvet but was desperate for the toilet. Pip stared at the bathroom with no door, blushing at the thought of Krey standing naked in the doorway.

He liked Krey's confidence. Pip wished he could be that confident about the way he looked. The way he caught Krey staring at him sometimes did make Pip feel good about himself.

He tried to worm his way off the bed, but his actions weren't smooth, not with Krey's head on his shoulder and a brace around his neck. Krey stirred. He was heavy on top of Pip, but warm.

Pip glanced back to the bathroom and tried once more to slide from underneath Krey. When he was almost out, Krey gripped his arm, staring up at him with sleepy brown eyes. "Where?" he mumbled, too tired to form a sentence.

"Just the bathroom," Pip whispered. Krey's eyelids were shut before he even finished his words. Pip got up when Krey rolled over and buried his face into the cushion.

Pip was quick and stared at himself in the mirror as he washed his hands. His right cheek was a little red from being smacked. Bruises circled the dressing on his forehead. Krey was in the process of rubbing his eyes when he returned to the bed. "Morning." Pip smiled when Krey looked him up and down.

Krey sat up without taking his eyes off him. "Sleep well?"

"Yes."

Krey ruffled the grey streak in his hair, then flopped back down. "Today is going to be... busy."

"With talking about southern wolves?"

"That, and fixing this shit hole of a Packhouse."

"You don't have to do that right away."

"No, but I don't want to see blood everywhere on my way to breakfast either."

Pip agreed. He pulled on his neck brace and yawned. The air was freezing, and Pip was cold as soon as he left the duvet, so he crawled back under the covers, wishing Krey would lie on top of him again, but Krey stood and stretched.

"I need to arrange a meeting." Krey eyed Pip pulling the duvet to his chin. "You should rest today."

"So should you."

"Alpha's don't rest." Krey dressed in black ripped jeans, and a well-fitted black t-shirt with his classic wolf's head knitted into the left side of his chest. He bent down to kiss his mate. "I don't know how long I'll be in meetings and stuff."

"It's fine," Pip whispered, flustered after a simple head-kiss. "I-I might sleep more."

"You can lock the door behind me if you want."

Pip watched him leave. He rubbed his chest as Krey walked away. I feel him leaving. Pip still compared his feelings to how he felt before he met the werewolf. They were lonely feelings. Even when Pip wasn't thinking of Krey, he was in the back of his mind, always.

Pip pulled the duvet to his nose. The fabric smelt of Krey's musky and earthy scent. Pip was starting to need the smell.

He tried for almost two hours to fall back to sleep. Every time Pip slightly drifted off, his body wanted him to turn onto his side, but the neck brace dug into him uncomfortably.

Eventually, he got up and peeked down the hallway, eager to look for the medic. Pip still wore his green tartan pyjama's and Krey's black hoodie that drowned him. Southern wolves had thrown his clothes to the stone yard below, so Pip couldn't yet change. He slipped on his yellow converse and stepped into the long corridor.

Makena's bedroom door was closed. The silence made Pip anxious. He didn't know the layout of the institute and doubted he would remember his way to the ground floor, let alone the medic room.

Pip tugged on his neck brace. He wanted it off desperately enough to venture on his own. He hurried down the warn carpet, stopping by the stairwell. Pip froze when a guard stood on the other side of the door. He wanted to turn and run, but his heels dug stubbornly into the floor.

I can't be scared forever. This is my home now.

Pip opened the door and smiled timidly at the guard, who gave him a greeting nod. Pip rushed down the wooden steps that creaked under almost every step. He passed the second floor, then the first, until he peeked his head into the corridor of the ground floor.

Pip looked left and right. He knew left was the direction of the canteen, but he had no idea where the first aid room was and what direction to take.

Pip went right, stopping in front of a huge pool of blood that had dried into the dirty carpet. Pip cautiously stepped around it in mild horror. So many wolves had died a few days ago. Pip tried not to think about it and continued down the corridor.

The patterned wallpaper was suffocating, and most of it ripped at the corners. No wonder Krey wants to redecorate.

Pip felt like he walked for ages without seeing another person, until he turned a corner and almost walked into a man carrying two big buckets of warm soapy water.

"Careful," the middle-aged man scolded until he saw who had almost walked into him. "Oh." He bowed his head. "Hello."

Pip smiled, pulling sleeves over his hands to fiddle with the material. "Hello."

"You're in the Omega quarters. Are you lost?"

"Um, y-yes. I'm looking for the first-aid room." Pip pursed his lips awkwardly.

"Oh, you're almost there. Go down this corridor, turn left, and the door is the first one on your right. It has a red cross on the front. You can't miss it."

"Thank you." Pip stepped out of the guys way and waited until he turned the corner before jogging to the other end of the corridor. He felt like he was in a hotel with all the white doors in a row.

One door was open as Pip hurried by. He glanced in as he did, seeing a double bed, a desk, a door slightly ajar to an en-suite bathroom, a TV, games console, a big stack of DVDs, and books. Pip noticed how the Omega rooms were much nicer than the Sea Claw Packhouse ones with their creaky single beds, small desk and bare rooms with a toilet miles away from the bedrooms.

Pip liked how the Omega rooms were just as nice as Krey's room.

He soon reached the first-aid room and the Omega Medic was already there. She triple-checked that he had no pain in his neck or back before taking off the brace. Pip rubbed where it had covered his skin, glad to be able to move his head back and forth.

The Medic checked his forehead wound and put on a new large dressing. As she fiddled with sticking it to his forehead, Sid waved a green casted arm at him from the other side of the room. "Pip, hey! How are you doing?"

"Good." Pip smiled sympathetically at his casted arms. "How are you?"

"A little fed up of not being able to do anything. I'll get the casts off tomorrow though. Francis insisted on me resting instead of joining the meeting. I'm totally fine, I've only broken my arms."

Pip chuckled and approached the bed. Sid had more than just broken arms. His face was heavily bruised, and he had a bandage all around his head, holding thick dressing to what Pip guessed was a very bad head wound. "What happened after I passed out in the library?"

"Well, I tried to carry you from the library, but werewolves were around the building. I fought as hard as I could to get us away from there. Too many wolves were punching me. I guess they followed us from the previous beach town when we were near that Packhouse." Sid shrugged. "At least we're okay. Once the pack has settled, Krey's going to give that Alpha who caught us a nice surprise."

Pip didn't want to know what Krey had in store for her. "Do you think we'll find the Southern Alpha?"

"Eventually, but his plan didn't work to overthrow the North. He'll be hiding somewhere, plotting something else, but don't let that trouble you. He's weak and lost a lot of pack members."

Pip nodded to reassure himself. "Do you think Krey's meeting will be long?"

"He'll be in and out of meetings all day. He has a lot to discuss and arrange for different Omega's. The building needs more protection, and cleaning, or better yet, completely redecorated. We need to train more wolves for the Medic position, and we need to check that no stories have surfaced about a very large group of wolves running through the woods."

"Sounds busy." Pip was starting to realise what being an Alpha meant. Krey had to give orders and direction to his pack otherwise the pack would crumble. The wheel could never stop turning. "I'll leave him to his, uh, Alpha duties."

"Feel free to visit me later. I'm so bored."

"I will," Pip grinned, leaving the first-aid room with a bounce to his step. On his way to the canteen, Pip had to stop someone and ask for help with directions. The more smiles he received, the braver he felt.

When he found the corridor with the staircase, more wolves were leaving the canteen after breakfast. Almost everyone smiled, said hello, and a few even stopped Pip to ask how he was feeling.

Pip started to feel less like an intruder when the werewolves acted like he belonged there, instead of staring at him like he was dangerous mould that had grown overnight.

The canteen doors were propped open. Pip heard the noise of conversations before he entered. He paused, a little uneasy, hoping that nobody noticed him entering. Pip smelt different to them, and he was shorter than everyone in the building.

He peeked into the large canteen. His eyes found a table in the middle, and instantly, his anxieties stripped away at the sight of so many books.

Pip stepped into the room, eyes round with curiosity.

Stacks and stacks of books were pilled up on one of the lunch tables. A few werewolves were looking through them while another was dropping off another big box. When they saw Pip, they all nudged each other, chuckling at his adored expression.

"Pippor," a woman said with short blond hair and a wild grin. She quickly blocked his view. "Don't ask us what these books are for, Alpha Krey said to keep it a-"

"He said nothing," interjected another werewolf. "Alpha Krey said absolutely nothing. Pip, you can take any book in return for your silence about ever seeing this mound of books."

Pip arched a brow, confused by their secrecy, but he was so desperate to hold a book that he couldn't resist approaching a table full of them. He looked through a few and picked one up about vampires.

"See, I told you he'd like the fiction books," Pip heard someone whisper. He fought back a grin.

"S-So, I'm not allowed to, um, to know what these books are for?"

"No," many werewolves said in unison.

Pip chuckled, connecting his gaze with many amused ones. "I'll take this then," he said quietly, looking at the book in his hands. "A-And I'll pretend I haven't seen um... that." Pip gestured to the table.

He then left the canteen, wanting to find a warm and quiet spot to dive into the pages of another universe, just for a little while.