Chapter Nine

It took me some time to muster the courage to lift my head and hand up to greet everyone. I waved at them and muttered a barely audible 'hello'. Much to my surprise, a lot of them started smiling at me instantly and few of them even waved back, including the kids in the queues.

I couldn't help but smile wide when the youngest kid in the front gave me a toothless smile. I waved back at him and soon he started walking toward me. His legs wobbled every few every few steps, even though he was practicing with the rest of them as if he had been doing it for a long time.

I took a few steps forward without realizing every time he looked like he was about to trip. Despite my worries, he managed to reach me without any issue. I bent down and smiled looking at his missing front tooth.

He rested his hands over my bent knees and leaned forward. "Tobi." He said and pointed to himself.

Mimicking him, I said my name and pointed at myself too.

He giggled and it had to be the most comforting sound I've ever heard. My own smile widened when he caught my hand in between both of his and started pulling me forward. I had to bend my back to keep my hand held between his when I got up and started following him.

He took me to the queued up kids in the middle and introduced me to each of them. He pointed at each kid he introduced and said their name before pointing to me and saying my name. By the time we were done, all the kids had a bright smile on their faces and I'd heard my name being said enough times to last me a lifetime.

"Are you Marco's friend?" One of them - a teenage boy asked all of a sudden.

The question caught me off guard. Since I arrived the only other person I had been around beside grandma was him, but that was only because he kept coming over and now he had dragged me here to see Nicolas. It didn't seem like we were hanging out because we wanted to.

"Of course he is." Marco replied, halting my train of thoughts. He walked toward us and stood beside me, draping his arm over my shoulder again.

I looked down at Tobi and saw him staring at Marco's arm intensely. I ruffled his short blonde hair but instead of smiling he just continued looking. Just as I was about to ask him what was the matter, he suddenly hugged my leg.

His head rested against the side of my thigh while his hand tightened against my knee. When he lowered his head and nudged it against my leg, I started ruffling his hair again.

"Aww, Tobias likes you." Marco cooed beside my ear. "If only everyone was as honest as him." He shook his head and I saw him looking at Nicolas from the corner of my eyes.

When I looked over at Nicolas, he seemed to be in a glaring match with Marco. Neither of them seemed to want to look away any time soon. I elbowed Marco in the stomach to get his attention and stop glaring at Nicolas.

"I am disturbing their training. I'm gonna go." I whispered to him and tried to get his arm off me, even though he still hadn't stopped glaring.

When my shoulder was no longer suffering under his heavy arm, I bent down to look at Tobias and freed my leg out of his hold. "I need to go."

Tobias instantly pouted and shook his head. "No."

I tousled his hair and said, "I'll come visit you whenever you're free."

"No." He repeated and grabbed my hand in his.

I blindly reached for Marco's hand beside me and pulled him down. "Help me." I grumbled when I felt him crouch down on the spot.

"You can wait if you want. He'll be done soon." An unfamiliar voice said from my side.

I yelped and fell backward in shock. I looked to my side and saw Nicolas crouching down in place of Marco. It was the first time I had heard his voice and to think I had heard it from such a close distance. Our thighs were touching, that's how close I was sitting beside him until I landed on my butt.

His eyes roamed all over me and stopped on the ground between us. When I looked down, I realized that I was still holding his hand from when I had pulled him down. His gaze on our hands made me panic and I let go of his hand quickly.

I didn't look at him when I stood up abruptly and pointed to the boundary of the clearing. "I'll wait there."

I darted back to trees I was standing against before Tobias pulled me to the middle and settled down on the ground. Even though I couldn't muster enough courage to look up until I heard Nicolas ordering everyone to queue up and resume their training, I waited for them to finish.

After that, I struggled not to stare at Nicolas, not enough to get noticed by him I hoped. I knew I was failing miserably when I didn't even notice Marco walking over and sitting beside me. He had to nudge me a few times to announce his presence. I was embarrassed beyond words after that.

I tried harder to keep my eyes off him, but there was no way I could've succeeded, not when he continued to pace around right in front of me. Instead of practicing on his own like before, he chose to demonstrate different punches to the queued kids. If I didn't know any better, I would've thought that he was doing it intentionally.

"Do you guys have super hearing too?" I asked, accepting my defeat. There was no way I could stop myself from staring blatantly at him any longer.

"Yeah."

I sighed and lowered my head to rest my chin on my knees. "Can..." I trailed off before mustering enough courage to continue. "Can they hear us?" I asked as quietly as I possibly could.

Marco chuckled and nodded. "We learn to block out noise at a very young age and only focus on what's important. But the way you ran away from their Alpha, I bet most of them wanna know what's going on with you two."

I groaned in frustration and buried my face between my arms, on top of my knees. I closed my eyes and focused to calm my racing heart. At this point, I was sure he must have felt my eyes on him. Just the thought of it was enough to make me want to hide somewhere and never be seen again.

"Aren't you gonna practice?" I asked after a while when Marco just stayed seated beside me.

"You can't get rid of me that easily." Marco bumped his side with mine. "If Nicolas wanted me there, he would have said so."

I hummed in reply and moved my head to stare ahead. "You seem like the Beta of this pack.".

"That's because I am." He snorted. "I honestly can't decide if it's a good thing that you already know so much or not."

I shrugged and moved my eyes to focus on Tobias. The innocent smile on his face was replaced with a look of concentration while he practiced the punches - Nicolas taught him - with others. "It is what it is."

Nicolas had finally gone back to the side and was once again practicing with the padded post there. "Why's he practicing alone?"

"He's going to kill me for saying this but," he moved himself closer to my side to continue. "He's showing off, probably without realizing."

"Without realizing?" I asked without taking my eyes off him, mesmerized with the way he moved.

"Yeah. It's in our instinct to try and woo our mate." He turned to stare at me. "I'm sure you've realized by now what you two are."

I nodded. The thought was present in the back of my mind since I saw him again, but I was trying not to acknowledge it. Now his revelation forced me to ponder over it.

If we really were mates, what did it mean for us?

"He doesn't seem too happy with it." I said, examining the fierce expression he was directing at the post.

"How can you say that? You haven't even tried to talk to him, or even looked at him for more than a few seconds." He sounded disappointed. "It might sound harsh, but you can't expect him to fall at your feet just with a look, mate or not."

It did sound harsh. I wasn't expecting Nicolas to do so, at least not consciously. Maybe there was a part of my subconscious mind which harboured such expectations and was directing my thoughts and actions without me realising. If so, I needed to get rid of it.

"It's not that. It's just- I can barely look at him without feeling like I'm gonna pass out. He doesn't seem much affected."

"He can't deny that he is attracted to you, but rather than relying on the bond and letting yourself go, wouldn't you rather take control and get to know him first?" He moved his gaze toward the sky and just stared at the clouds passing by. "Just like how you humans crave for a soulmate like ours, we, too, can crave for your kinda love. Where nothing is certain and everything just depends on how much two people want to be with each other."

"As a human, haven't you always expected such love?" Despite his voice getting lower and lower, I could hear each word clearly. And each word whacked some sense into me. I was finally starting to understand what he meant.

"Thank you." I whispered, expressing my gratitude sincerely.

Other than thanking him I honestly couldn't think of anything else to say, not when I still needed to get my thoughts in order. I understood what he meant, but I had to think over what he had said before I messed everything up without realising it.

"I've to go. I'll see you tomorrow. Apologize to Tobias for me." I didn't wait for Marco to say anything. I got up and dusted my pants before turning around and walking back home.

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