Chapter 40

Chapter 40

-Farley-

I didn't like the idea, but I'm not sure many did. Pax had been fidgeting throughout the entire conversation. I kept my eye on him as I walked through the room and greeted people. The children had grown significantly since I had last seen them, though I guess I couldn't call them children anymore. They're just a little bit younger than me, about five years or so.

We left the building in groups of five to seem less suspicious and to make sure that there weren't any lingering threats. I held Pax's hand as we strolled down the street with Rowan, Iris, Clementine, and Caspian behind us. Iris had her arm wrapped around Rowan for about five minutes, but soon gave up and limped slowly.

"Is the house big enough?" Clementine asked worriedly. She had been asking questions since we had left. "Surely, there's somewhere else. We could sort something out."

"Well, our house won't really work," Rowan grumbled. His tone lowered whenever he talked about his childhood home. "It's just two rooms."

"It might help," Iris said softly. "More room is more room. We don't have to go there."

The reason that the twins stayed with their aunt was because their parents had been sentenced to jail seven years ago. According to the twins, they knew nothing about it and their parents were loving people. This was also recited by Clementine, but she was far less confident in her statement.

"There isn't anything left in the house," Clementine pointed out. "Everything's in storage or at my house."

Their family was pretty well-off considering everything that happened and the fact that they're werewolves with no permanent day-job. They owned several houses and had a substantial amount of family savings. I know that Iris wants to get a normal job, and that Rowan would rather run around the Earth than to get one.

"Only if they're comfortable with it," Rowan muttered.

"I'm sure my parents would be able to offer a roof too," I said as we rounded onto our street.

I glanced over to Pax, who was staring at the pavement. I nudged him a little, but he didn't look up. "Are you okay?"

He hummed and nodded. "Yeah," his voice wavered. "Are you?"

I narrowed my eyes at him, but he didn't notice. I sighed and squeezed his hand. "Yeah, just very stressed." I swung our hands back and forth, hoping to at least a smile would twitch onto his lips.

He just shook his head and continued to walk until we were at our house. Aiden, Ralph, Harlow, Karim, and Emerson stood at the end of the street, waiting for us to open the house.

Our neighbours weren't too nosy, but they would definitely notice and question why strangers were entering our house whilst we weren't there.

"Nice place," Emerson complimented as she looked around the living room. "I appreciate the aesthetic."

"Thank you," Clementine replied with a smile. "I put a lot of effort into it."

Rowan snorted and helped Iris sit on the settee and put her legs up.

"I'll be right back," Pax told me before leaving the room and heading upstairs. His footsteps were silent, as though he didn't want anyone to notice his absence. I leant against the wall and observed the conversation, quite similar to how Karim was acting actually.

I was worried about Pax; he'd been rather silent since we were attacked. He had been getting better at talking and showing his opinions over the past month, I'd hate for the progress to be lost. His absence made me even more worried. What was he doing? I didn't know the answers, but I wasn't going to bug him to find out. I felt coldness in my stomach, a sort of fear which I couldn't explain. It had been there all day, but it hadn't gone away despite being somewhere safe.

"That's fixable," Moss said from the doorway.

I jumped in surprise; I hadn't heard the front door open.

"The back door?" Harlow asked with a small grin on his face. "You went through the extra effort to break in instead of using the door?"

Moss nodded. "I wanted to assess the damage."

Harlow shook his head, but an impressed glimmer shone in his eyes.

"The others will also be coming through the back door," Moss informed. "There's a lot less people back there."

That was very obvious, backs of houses tended to connect to other backs of houses. As long as nobody was out gardening at eleven in the evening, we were alright.

"I'm guessing it'll take a while to fix?" Clementine asked grumpily. The back door wasn't the only mess that had been created by the wolf attack: the kitchen was almost completely destroyed. We were lucky there wasn't a fire.

"I'll be able to do it tomorrow," Moss informed. "I'd recommend one without glass."

Clementine pouted.

"I'm going to check on Pax," I announced and left the room before I received any replies.

I found Pax huddled in the corner of our room. It was odd to call it that, since Rowan still slept here too, but I guess it did turn into the three of us sharing a room. It was a fact Rowan constantly brought up.

"Hey," I said quietly and joined him, making sure our knees were touching so he could tell where exactly I was. "You're not okay."

Pax shook his head. He was facing forward, his unfocused eyes staring straight ahead.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked. I didn't want to be too pushy.

I admit that ever since the night in the tunnels, my emotions for Pax had grown stronger. We hadn't kissed yet; we had barely hugged. He wasn't a fragile person, but I never knew what could panic him. The suggestion of a date earlier was a joke, but one that I wanted to take seriously. He didn't seem to take it as a joke either.

"Everything is because of me," Pax muttered, bringing my attention back to the present. "You getting kidnapped was because of me, the door being broken, people being in danger."

I shook my head. "Stop it, that's not healthy," I said and wrapped an arm around him. "If it weren't for you, we wouldn't know who killed Alora and why. We wouldn't have another member of the family either."

Pax sighed and bit his lip. "And that doesn't make up for the fact any of your lives could've been lost. Iris' leg-"

"-Will heal in time," I interrupted. "She'll have a cool story to tell about her bravery, and an excuse to do more studying." I knew that I could potentially be dousing him with toxic positivity, but I wanted to show him the positive sides as well. "Nobody's dead or on the brink."

Pax hugged his knees tighter, inching closer to me. "That doesn't stop me from feeling bad." His head was very close to my shoulder now. I was begging for it to just drop there, for me to comfort him more.

"I hope that you start to see them though," I said. "The reasons why you being here has made our lives better."

He turned towards me, or rather up at me. "You're saying Iris having a cool looking scar is a reason why I made your lives better?"

I opened my mouth and made a few unsure noises. "Well, I didn't mean it like that," I said. "I meant that we have a new member of the family. Don't look at me like that. You knew what I meant."

Pax cracked a smile. "I do."

The room fell into silence again. This time it was a peaceful and comfortable one. It was occasionally broken by the chatter from downstairs.

"We should go down," I said hesitantly. I didn't want to leave Pax's side; it was rather comfortable on the floor.

"We should," Pax replied, but he didn't make any move to get up either.

"Yes, you should," Rowan's voice came from the door. "Or at least into the passage, there's too many people in the living room." Rowan's head poked through the doorway, and he was staring straight at us.

"That's precisely why we're up here," I informed him.

"Is that so? Looks like you're having some snuggle time." Rowan smirked and entered the room. "Mind if I join? You know, if it's such a casual thing."

Pax's shoulders tensed and his back straightened.

"I do," I said and stood up, keeping Pax's hand in mine as I did so to help him up.

"You're not meant to say that yet," Rowan teased. He was already heading back out the door. "They brought pizza."

My stomach grumbled and I wondered how I missed the mouth-watering smell coming from downstairs.

"Pizza is definitely a convincing reason to go downstairs," I replied with a smile. "Knowing wolves, we best go down now."

"It's the humans you gotta watch out for," Rowan joked.

After our rather cold and small tea of pizza, we went to bed. There was a person on every inch of clean space that remained in the house. My parents called me just after tea, announcing that they were alright and happy to allow some people to stay with them. Those who went over were those from Karim's pack, as it made sense to keep the packs complete.

We didn't get a lot of sleep that night, after passing out from exhaustion for three hours or so, I was awake and staring at my clock, watching the numbers change.

Pax couldn't sleep very well either, he woke up with a start every half an hour or so, but then he eventually fell asleep after calming down. '

The birds started to sing at around seven am. The sky wasn't exactly bright at that moment, but I decided to get up and ready anyway. I creeped down the stairs and waved at Beaumont, who was scavenging through the kitchen cabinets and the fridge.

I thought it was best to leave him to it.

I shuffled past him and went through the broken door. And out to the back garden It had been destroyed through the fight. Our shed was missing a wall and everything it contained was thrown about the garden like a bomb had exploded inside. There were surprisingly some rats scurrying across the ground. I'm very shocked that they remained and were still alive after the wolves' claws made such an impact on the place.

It would take a lot of cleaning and rebuilding. Nothing that couldn't be done by us, but it would take a lot of effort and materials.

I leant on the doorframe and pondered potential new garden designs until a knock vibrated through my skill. I turned to see Beaumont gesturing for me to come inside.

"Have the first pick of breakfast," he said with a hopeful smile.

My eyes widened at the amount of food which was presented to me. "Wow, that looks really good," I complimented.

Beaumont rocked on his heels. "Thank you. Hope you enjoy," he said.

I felt odd having him cook for me in a place which I considered my own house. It wasn't' something that we discussed, only that I knew he enjoyed cooking. I think Caspian had given the pack full reign over the living room and kitchen. It was something I admired about him. Werewolves wouldn't usually be that welcoming.

I had to fetch Pax for breakfast. I was beginning to understand that he wasn't at all comfortable with big crowds. He hadn't been in such a crowd since we met. The most crowded place he had been in was a bus, and even then, I was unsure if he could tell just how many people were on it.

We sat outside with the rest of my pack whilst the others stayed inside. Aiden and Ralph had their breakfast in the kitchen, so we weren't worried about being spontaneously attacked.

"So," Rowan started. "I found another article. I was scrolling through my phone last night and I didn't want to wake anyone up."

I narrowed my eyes. He knew that I was awake last night. It was impossible not to be able to tell if someone in the same room as you was sleeping or not, given the rhythm of breath and potential snores were a sure giveaway.

"What was it about?" Pax asked whilst shuffling his feet on the gravel.

"A black wolf being found," Rowan responded.

"Another one?" Clementine asked. "This isn't the first one we've came across."

Rowan shook his head. "No, ever since the discovery of more black wolves, there's been about one a week pronounced dead."

Pax's shoulders tensed and he bit his lip.

I sent Rowan a warning look. "Are these on the black web? Or just in general?" I asked. It could've been some humans just wanting to mess around.

"The first one," Rowan responded.

"I told you not to go on that late at night," Iris scolded. "They can find out where we live through that."

Rowan shrugged. "They haven't done it before."

Iris rolled her eyes and folded her arms. I agreed with her. That didn't mean that they wouldn't start now.

"So, what are they doing with the wolves?" Caspian asked. "Don't tell me they're selling them."

Rowan nodded with a grimace. "Yeah, though none of them are really black wolves." He paused but then continued as silence consumed us. "They're just wolves which had been dyed black."

"Why didn't we think of that?" I questioned. "That would've gotten Kian off our backs." My words felt somewhat poisonous now. Kian was off our back. He was off our back because he was betrayed and killed.

"That's not important now," Caspian said. "Let's just hope the humans don't stumble across it and go searching for black wolves. There's a reason why they're nearly extinct."

"What's that?" Pax asked.

Before anyone could answer, Rowan's phone buzzed. His screen lit up, showing a red notification covering a group photo of us. Those little things made my heart feel warm. Rowan was a fun-loving guy who made jokes every hour, but he did have a sentimental side.

"That doesn't look normal," Iris observed. "Is it from one of your sites?"

Rowan nodded with a frown. "Yeah, there's a new article been added." After he started to scroll for a few minutes his eyes became wider and his hand trembled. "I thought you said Pax's parents were dead?" he asked Caspian.

"They are," Caspian responded defensively, strengthening his posture. "What would make you think otherwise?"

Pax's hands had clenched into fists and his arm linked mine.

"There's an article about them being captured," Rowan responded. "With a live feed."

Hello lovelies!

...ngl you guys almost ended up with chapter 43 instead of 40...I must be tireddddd

My question of the chapter is, what is your preferred form of outdoor wear?

I know it's a strange question, but I'm near constantly in hoodies whenever I'm out, so I would say that for me. I really don't mean shoes, but I suppose it could be interpretated that way as well-in which case I like the boots which were made for me because my ankles highly dislike existing :D