Chapter 45: Chapter 44 - Auden

Tuesday 22 December

~*Auden’s POV*~

“Auden? Do you have some time to talk?”

I looked up from my sandwich to find Nat standing at my table, looking distraught. “Sure.” I looked around the dining hall, noticing the number of people still eating lunch. “Want to come to my office?”

Nat nodded.

I gathered my things and led her down the hall. “Let me just call the medical centre so they know where I am.” I motioned to the couch in my office, then shut the office door while I called.

Once I was done, I settled myself in the chair opposite Nat and studied her. “What’s up?”

“What does it sound like when you’re talking to your wolf?”

I sat back and narrowed my eyes at her. “Uh… Why do you ask?”

“Because I was just in my apartment with Bells, and I swear to God, I heard another voice. But we were the only two people there.”

A slow grin spread over my face. “Sounds about right.” Finally, we were getting somewhere!

“I’m not going mad?” Nat was wringing her hands in her lap like her life depended on it.

I leaned forward and placed a hand over hers to try to settle her anxiety. “Not at all.” I smiled kindly at her. “We knew this was coming, Nat. It’s okay. This is all totally normal.”

Her eyes were as big as saucers as she stared at me. “The voice just said that you smell different. Does that mean anything to you?”

My mouth dropped open, and I froze. I pulled my hand from hers. “It does…” I blinked, not knowing how to respond. It had been a very long time since anyone had picked up on that. “Um…”

“The voice also says that it’s glad that you gave me refuge and help.” She tilted her head. “Don’t get me wrong, Auden, I’m totally happy that you helped me, but what is the voice referring to?”

I grinned. That one, at least, I could answer easily. “You were repeating those words when we picked you up.” I thought back. “Technically, you were repeating ‘run’, ‘refuge’ and ‘help’, but I know what she means. Your wolf is just telling me she remembers me.”

I peered into Nat’s eyes, letting my wolf forward. I noticed Nat jump when she noticed my eyes start glowing. “It’s okay, Nat. Give me a minute here, yeah?”

“Okay,” she said, but I could tell that she was still unsure. I grasped her hands again.

“Can you sense her wolf, Kenzie?”

I felt Kenzie focus; every one of her senses immediately trained on Nat.

“She’s there, but she’s struggling. It’s like there’s some sort of barrier that’s still in her way.” She shook her head. “It’s weakening, but damn, it’s strong.”

Hm… I wonder… “Nat? Can you remember anything from before Matlock yet?”

“No.” She stared into my eyes.

“That could explain the barrier, Kenzie. Her amnesia is probably still blocking her wolf.”

“I’m not getting that, Auden. This doesn’t feel medical.”

I frowned. That made no sense. It had to be medical. What else could it be?

“What do you mean it doesn’t feel medical?” Nat asked, still gazing into my eyes.

Once more I let her hands go, but this time it was like I was dropping a hot potato. What the fuck? Had she just heard Kenzie?

My eyes must have conveyed my shock, as Nat leaned forward, grabbing my hands. “Auden? What do you mean, this doesn’t feel medical??” Her eyes begged me to explain.

I pulled my hands away from her, my mouth open in alarm. This shouldn’t be happening. Our wolves couldn’t communicate in human form because she wasn’t a pack member. Even if she was, it was our wolves that communicated with each other, not our human sides. It was always Kenzie who communicated with other wolves, like Takeshi’s wolf Kairu, and then she’d relay the message to me. How the hell was she doing this when her wolf was still behind the barrier?

“Auden?” Nat began panicking. “What’s wrong?”

“Kenzie, can you talk to her wolf?”

“I can sense her, but she’s not pack. I wouldn’t be able to talk to her wolf even if I wanted to.”

That’s what I thought. I gulped. “Nothing’s wrong, Nat. You’ve just surprised me, is all.” I blinked as I tried to gather my thoughts. “Uh… To answer your question, from a medical standpoint–“

“The voice says that we’re focusing on the wrong thing,” said Nat, cutting me off. She stared off into the middle distance. “Well, I don’t know what else to call you. You haven’t introduced yourself. How am I supposed to know what your name is?”

Despite my reservations, I grinned. Nat’s wolf sounded like a firecracker.

“Okay, fine.” She paused. “Nice to meet you too, Alex.” She focused on me and shrugged. “She said her name is Alex.”

I laughed. “I gathered that.” Looking into her eyes again, I made a concerted effort to be civil. “Hi Alex. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

Nat paused, cocking her head to one side. It never got old watching someone learn to communicate with their wolf for the first time, although I’d never had someone as old as Nat do so before.

“Why are you talking in riddles? I don’t understand.” She frowned. “Of course, you understand. It’d be nice if you could clue me in.” Another pause. “What do you mean I don’t need to know yet?!”

I started laughing. I couldn’t help myself. Just like her, Nat’s wolf was going to be a fascinating wolf to get to know.

Nat stared at me. “What? What’s so funny?”

I tried to swallow my laughter. “It’s just hilarious watching you talk with your wolf. You don’t have to talk out loud when you communicate with her, but it’s damn entertaining as a spectator, I must admit.”

Nat flushed. “Sorry.”

“Oh, don’t be! Cody was exactly the same,” I said. “It took her three weeks to get used to talking to Roux in her head instead of out loud.”

Nat groaned. “Oh, great. Is that what I have to look forward to?” She brought her hands to her cheeks and looked at me with dismay.

I grinned at her. “You’ll be fine. I get the distinct impression that you have more control over yourself than Cody did when she was sixteen.”

Nat closed her eyes in relief as she sighed. “Thank God.” She tilted her head to the side, just like she was listening to someone, then frowned. “Alex says to tell you that you need to contact your mystic friend. The one with the magpie.” She opened her eyes and looked at me. “She says to stop putting it off. Apparently, you’d know what that means?”

The grin I had so cheerfully sported fell from my face. How on earth did she know about that? “Yeah.” I swallowed nervously. “Yeah, I know what Alex means.”

We both looked at the door when a knock sounded.

“It’s Bells,” said Nat after a pause. “He wants to talk to you about something.”

I frowned. “How…?”

Shrugging, Nat glanced at me, then back at the door. “Alex told me.”

Still frowning, I got up to answer the door. Who the hell was this wolf? Sure enough, Bells was waiting when I opened the door, just as Alex had predicted.

“Told you,” Nat muttered, getting up. I stared at her in amazement.

“Auden? Could I talk to you when you’ve finished with Nat?” Bells asked.

I blinked, looking back and forth between Bells and Nat in disbelief, with my mouth open in shock. What the actual fuck was going on here?

“It’s okay,” Nat said quietly as she went past me and kissed Bells on the lips. “I’m done here.”

Bells leaned into Nat’s kiss and wrapped an arm around her waist. “Are you sure?”

Nat nodded. “Yup. My wolf is here.”

A huge smile broke out on Bells’ face. “That’s brilliant! What’s her name?”

“Alex.” She turned back to me. “She wants to remind you of what she said. She said it’s urgent that you don’t put it off any longer.”

Bells’ smile froze. “What?”

Nat faced him again and shrugged. “I don’t know. She’s speaking in riddles, but won’t tell me what she means.” She brought a hand up to cup his face. “And she keeps calling me ‘kid’ for some reason.” She rolled her eyes.

Again, Bells leaned into her palm, closing his eyes briefly.

“You go on, talk to Auden about what you need to. I’ll go find Cody.” Nat kissed him one more time before letting him go. “Come and find us when you’re done.” She patted him on the bum, then walked away.

“Interesting girlfriend you have there, Bells,” I said, as we both watched her walk away.

“You’re telling me,” he murmured, affection dripping from his tone.

I frowned, thinking about how the emergence of Alex was going to shape their growing relationship. Something told me that there were rough waters ahead for these two. I motioned to my now empty office to get Bells moving. “How can I help, Bells? What do you need to talk to me about?”

He tore his eyes from Nat’s retreating figure and looked at me with what I could only describe as fear. “I need to talk to you about Tatum.”

I tilted my head in confusion. “Okay… Come on in.”

~~~

I closed the door, thinking about what Bells had just told me. How had no-one noticed what was happening between him and Tatum? We’d had issues with wolves before, the twins that we’d sent to Konstantine being the most recent example, but never anything like this.

“Your youngest is hiding things from you. Your eldest doesn’t realise what they’ve set into motion.”

I jumped and placed my hand over my heart. “Dear Goddess…”

“Not quite,” Nahi said, laughing softly. She stepped through the door from my office’s private courtyard, her magpie familiar, Gidja, on her bare shoulder eyeing me warily. “Hello, sister.”

I scowled. “I told you not to call me that.”

She shrugged. “Doesn’t change the facts.”

“Facts that you manipulated to suit your needs.”

A tiny smile graced her face, but she remained silent. She slowly wandered around the office, lightly touching some of the small sculptures placed around the room.

“I didn’t call for you.” I sat down on the sofa. It looked like Alex was wrong about one thing: Nahi had obviously grown tired of waiting for me to contact her and had taken matters into her own hands.

“No,” she said, stopping in front of the scenic painting on the opposite wall of the courtyard doors. “But your desperation did.”

“Again with the riddles?” I crossed my legs. “Why can’t we ever have a normal conversation?”

“If you didn’t keep putting off seeing me, we wouldn’t have to trade in riddles.”

I sighed. “What do you want, Nahi?”

She stopped and turned to face me, Gidja jumping off Nahi’s shoulder to land on one of the small sculptures. “So bold.”

“Simply trying to get to the point.”

“You’re overdue.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “I’m aware of that.”

“And yet you stay away.” Sweeping her hair from behind her, she settled her naked body into the chair opposite me. “Why?”

I picked at the lint on my knee. “I figured the tune-up could wait.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “You have an obligation. You agreed.”

I glared at her and pointed my finger at her in accusation. “You neglected to provide all the terms.”

Nahi held my stare. Her voice dropped dangerously low, her grey eyes turning icy. “I told you what I could at the time.”

“What utter bullshit. You knew exactly what was going to happen.” I poured every bit of resentment I felt into my words.

“Auden, I swear to you, I did not.” She closed her eyes briefly and sighed. “We’ve all done things we regret.”

Turning my face to the side, I leaned my elbow on the armrest and let my chin rest on my hand. “Ain’t that the truth,” I muttered. I let the silence drag out between us, resigned to the knowledge that eventually Nahi would get what she came for. She always did.

Gidja hopped off the small sculpture and glided across the room to land on my knee. She tilted her head at me and puffed her feathers.

“Oh, don’t give me that,” I said.

Gidja tilted her head the other way, then let out a short song. When she finished, she stared at me.

“Fine.” I held my finger out to gently stroke her chest. “I never could say no to you, you cheeky thing.” When she’d had enough, she hopped onto my finger so I could sit her on my shoulder. I looked at Nahi, resignation showing in my whole body. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

She nodded once and rose effortlessly from the chair. As she took two steps over to me, I uncrossed my legs to let her straddle my lap. She brought her hands up to my cheeks and held me as I wrapped my arms around her waist to hold her in place. I could see the lines and dots appear on her skin as she leaned in to lock her lips with mine.

I felt our bodies warm as the energy transfer between us started. A low buzzing sound filled the air, thickening into something physical, before reverberating around the small room, bouncing off each wall, and slamming into us, heating us further.

Closing my eyes as the energy swirled around us, my hands drifted up her back, under the dreadlocks that fell haphazardly from her head, and pulled her body closer to mine. Everywhere our skin touched vibrated with the power Nahi exuded, so much more powerful than it had been the first time we had done this.

Slowly, the low buzzing sound grew louder, becoming almost deafening. A bright light burst out from us for only a second, and when the light faded, the buzzing also receded. When silence fell in the room once more, Nahi pulled her lips from mine, but kept hold of my face, studying me with her now shimmering, dark lilac eyes.

Nodding once, she climbed off me and walked towards the courtyard, whistling a short melody. Gidja took flight from my shoulder to land on Nahi’s head.

I remained on the sofa, unable for the moment to move anything other than my mouth and my eyes. “One last question before you leave, if I may?” My eyes followed her progress across the room. “What you said when you arrived. What did you mean? My youngest and my eldest? I’ve only got one.”

Gidja let out a squawk as Nahi paused, turning to study me. “Do you?” They stepped through the doorway to the private courtyard and promptly disappeared.