Chapter 27

Chapter 27

-Pax-

I went to the gym with Farley the next day since he had work. It was a lot less nerve-wrecking then it had been the first day. I only had mild issues when it came to anxiety. I wasn't sure if Farley had noticed that I had such anxieties on the first day. I hadn't needed to hide them before, but they could've just been passed as being overwhelmed with the new world I had been introduced to.

According to Farley, I'm pretty strong. It was surprising since I had never done anything to work on my strength, maybe it was something that Kian did with the rest of the pack. I had also been told that my speed was one of my greatest skills, but I already knew that.

It was the evening of the studying day when we were all sat in the living room, eating something which tasted like strange potatoes and meat. I couldn't put my finger on what the ingredients were, other than the carrots and peas that Farley had to help me gather. Peas were one of the most inconvenient foods to eat, but they were very tasty.

"You missed one," Iris huffed as she pointed to a pea on the floor.

"How do you know that I missed one?" Rowan retaliated. "Maybe Farley missed one the other day when he rudely woke me up."

Clementine snorted. "Give your sister some credit Rowan. She can tell the difference between a frozen pea and a cooked one."

"But it's been there a while. It might not be frozen anymore."

The chatter was drowned out by a sharp knock on the door. The room fell into a still silence. There was still a bit of sun coming in through the window, so it wasn't dark out yet.

"Stay here," Caspian said and his footsteps faded further away from me.

I found myself shuffling closer to Farley. He had been a source of comfort for me over the past week or so. He was a little bit of home, the good piece. His very presence reminded me of the smell the forest created, the fresh and deep tones of trees and dirt. He reminded me of the cool water which fell from the waterfall, which splashed my feet when I hung my legs over the bridge.

Not a sound came out of the room we were in. The keys to the front door chimed with the jostling of unlocking the door.

"Ralph?" Caspian asked as though his breath had been taken away from him. "Aiden? That was quick."

"Our apologies for the sudden visit," a deep voice said. "It's just the two of us, we were in town and got your email a bit late. So we came to see if there's any way we can help at the moment."

"That's fine, that's great." Cool air met my face, the living room door had been opened. "Everyone, this is Ralph and Aiden. They're from the Quartvear pack."

My mouth grew dry at the thought of meeting more werewolves, who probably knew the meaning of being a black wolf. I had heard of the two gentlemen from both Farley and Kian; both tales varied significantly. Kian told the tale of two men who were completely out of their depth and relied on everyone else to fight their battles for them. Farley's take on the two was kinder; they stood up for their relationship and the rights of werewolves all over the country.

"Pleasure to meet you all," a different voice spoke, one which was less deep and more energetic. The later voice must be Aiden, whilst the former must be Ralph. I found the tale of Aiden and Ralph to be very fascinating, it's not often one hears about a human and a werewolf being together. However, I had only heard the tale once or twice in my lifetime.

"This is Rowan, Iris, Clementine, Farley, and I think you may be able to recognise Pax," Caspian introduced.

I wanted to wave, or smile, do something. I wanted to give a friendly introduction, but my limbs were frozen out of sheer shyness.

"Awe, he reminds me of Oran," Aiden commented. I didn't know who that was, but the high pitched tone told me it was a good thing. "It's nice to meet you all."

"And you," Iris said. "It's an honour to meet you, I've read and heard so much."

Ralph gave a chuckle. "Yes, I'm sure there's quite a bit of literature on us and what happened several years ago."

I couldn't do the maths correctly, but they would be at least forty years old now, as I'm nearing eighteen. "We personally cannot help a great deal with your situation," Aiden said with a sigh. "But we might be able to help in other ways. Your situation is quite different to ours, we were able to reach out to others we could trust. I'm unsure who that would be in this case."

That was basically telling us that we were practically alone. How do we even know that we could trust them? They could just be lying to us in order to get inside information, which we probably don't have.

"So, that leaves us where we were before?" Rowan asked. "That's not put us any more forward." His words started to slow and become muffled, like his voice couldn't reach me.

"Well, we'll try our best," Aiden answered. "It's surprising what you can accomplish when you have the right people on board."

"We're on your side, having experienced the result of misfortune due to simply being born." A warm hand was placed on my shoulder. "Though the situation was rather different, it still bubbled down to the same thing."

"I don't think he knows the story," Farley said with a hint of hardness in his voice. "Care to summarise?"

Aiden cleared his throat. "Well, I was born under a wolf moon. That's one of the reasons which confirmed that I was Ralph's soulmate, of sorts. I mean, that didn't mean for certain it was me, but it was one of the best possibilities." A moment of silence followed his words.

"I am the son of a beta, and only alphas have mates. That's how it was confirmed that I would be going into the alpha role," Ralph explained. "I'm sorry, but what's the roles in your pack?"

I was assuming that Ralph addressed Caspian. "We have more of a dynamic pack when it comes to roles. We haven't really allocated anything."

Ralph hummed, it wasn't a judgmental sound, but one of contemplation. "I guess with so few pack members, t's not needed."

"How many members do you have in your pack?" Iris asked. I had to hide a smile at her tone, she had a certain tone whenever she was talking about studying or learning.

"There's around fifteen of us?" Ralph's voice lacked confidence. "Not including Karim's pack, which is small but growing."

"Yeah, they have a mini pack back home. It's something not a lot of people know about," Aiden explained.

"Kinda like us," Rowan said in a happy tone. "Though ours keeps growing, not that I mind." I felt that jab at me, but I found it difficult to take what he said seriously.

"No harm done," I reassured. "So, what can we do? Faking my death would probably be one of the top options."

"That's a pretty good idea," Clementine said after a moment of thought. "I like it, could get messy."

"Faking a murder takes more than just...that," Iris said with a chuckle. "You'd need to vanish off the face of the earth, they'll look into it and try to find out what happens. We could get into serious trouble."

"But this is the werewolf community, trouble means getting your head bitten off," argued Rowan.

"Well, it depends on who your enemy is." Ralph's voice wasn't as clear as it had been earlier, maybe he was facing away from me now. "Kian must have known, he's not the type to take people in, especially those who he can't understand or control."

I could feel the words that he wasn't saying. 'Especially those who are of no use to him', or something similar in relation to my sight. I'd been surprised with each and every encounter I had where someone didn't mention my sight, or at least ask about it.

"I thought not," Caspian said quietly. "We should try and find out why he would take you in when you were younger. He must have known something."

"I don't know how you could find that out," I told them. "I didn't know I was a black wolf until a month ago."

"We'll-" Aiden was interrupted by a loud sound of something that sounded like music, but annoying. "Sorry, I'll go take this."

His footsteps rushed out of the room and into the passage. I heard a strange sounding voice joining him, but I couldn't tell what it was saying. It was remarkably similar to how Farley's parents sounded the first time I talked to them.

"Ralph, we should go," Aiden said after a while of awkward silence. "We've apparently missed the hotel room service and have to verify that we're here."

Rowan huffed and shook his head. "I don't understand hotels," he said before clapping his hands lightly. "We'll dos some research...Aiden will do some research tonight and we'll try to let you know what we find tomorrow morning."

My heart had lifted like pressure had been taken off it, I didn't know why. It was a strange feeling that I experienced when people left. It wasn't sad, nor was it happiness.

"We'll see you tomorrow then, have a safe trip to your hotel," Caspian said.

I lifted my hand to wave them goodbye whilst everyone else gave their varieties of farewells.

Just have to wait until tomorrow, I suppose.

We didn't have the opportunity to talk to Ralph and Aiden the next day, personally that is. Farley was meant to be at work, meaning that I was given the option of accompanying him or staying at the house. I chose the former. Even though there were plenty of chances any one of them could've killed me in the past few days, I was still uncomfortable being with any of them by myself. I joined Farley and Kelsey at the gym, interacting with some customers who are becoming familiar to me. Mary had offered me one of her 'legendary' toffees when we were on the bus, which lived up to their name.

I had nearly forgotten about all of my worries until we rounded the corner onto the street with Farley's house on it. It was then I remembered that Aiden and Ralph had been discussing strategies to make sure I would stay alive. They'd been giving Caspian contacts and advice from various points of the werewolf world. They had been discussing my future, without me.

Guilt made my chest cold. I was letting everyone make the decisions for me instead of doing it myself.

"Are you okay?" Farley asked. I hadn't realised that I had stopped walking. Farley had a hand on my shoulder, his surprisingly cold hand refreshing on my warm skin. "You look distracted. I don't think it's best to walk whilst distracted."

I shook my head. "It's not," I agreed. "I just feel bad for going to work with you. I might've missed some pretty important things, or wasn't there to give some needed information."

Farley moved so that he was in front of me and put his other hand on my free shoulder. "I'm sure it's all okay. We're not completely separated from them; we can still let them know if there's anything we find." He squeezed my shoulders. "We can keep walking if you'd like? We don't have to go straight home."

I shook my head and bit my lip. "Maybe later? After we've gotten rid of this pit of guilt in my stomach. Then we'll see." It would be nice to have a bit of a group outing.

"Can do," he said. His hand slid down my shoulder to the crook of my elbow. "Still want me to guide you? Or do you want to try this on your own?"

I wanted to try it on my own, but I knew that I would miss the feeling of his hand guiding me. When being led by someone, you can't just feel their hand and forearm. You can feel how steady they are, how quick their steps are, and how they held themself as a person.

When we arrived at Farley's house, we were immediately met by Rowan.

"I've been so bored," he exclaimed. "I've been sat in the living room the entire day, listening to them go on and on about history and prophecy and a whole bunch of rubbish."

"I heard that!" Iris' voice exclaimed from above me. "It was a great conversation."

Rowan didn't make any noise in response. "Caspian and Clementine gotta talk to you two. I think Iris and I know pretty much everything that's been said." His heels hit the floor a few times. "But hurry up, will you?"

I was led into the living room as Farley muttered. "He needs a life." I didn't know if he meant that he was getting annoyed by Rowan, or if he felt sad that Rowan thought we were the most interesting things in the house.

"Did you have a good day at work?" Clementine asked from near the fireplace. She must be sitting on one of the meditation cushions. "We have."

"The social butterfly was satisfied for the day," Caspian said.

"Yeah, it was fine. Didn't have to clean up any sick and got to teach a new class," Farley informed. He was still holding onto my arm as he led us over to the seat by the window. "I've been a little distracted all day."

"How about you, Pax?" Caspian asked.

Startled with being addressed, I stuttered out an "it was alright. I did some pretty fun exercises with the class."

"He's getting stronger," Farley teased and leant into me. "So, other than being social, what did you discuss today?"

"Well, it wasn't the most fruitful of conversations." Caspian's voice was small and muffled. "We can discuss everything with you, over a cup of tea." He was already walking towards the door.

"That doesn't sound good," Farley whispered to me.

HELLO AND THANK YOU FOR READING!

Okay, so the question of the day is a bit more self-focused than I usually do.

But, is this the first book of mine that you've read? This is because Ralph and Aiden are my beloved characters from the 'Part of' trilogy! I was just curious if this would be anyone's first introduction to them!