20. Mr. Simon

Chapter twenty

Mr. Simon

*ARDEN*

T he night is way too short, and soon, I have to drag myself up to get some work done. Also, I want to meet Vander before he heads off to his club in school. I know he has a basketball practice scheduled for today. Aurelia gets up at the same time, equally tired.

"We look awesome." She chuckles. "Like we didn't sleep at all."

"You do look awesome," I say, glancing at her when she comes out of the bathroom. "I am a mess."

She brushes through my hair. "You look perfectly fine. I love that fresh-out-of-the-bed look on you."

"You are the first to say that," I say before frowning. "Well, technically, you are the first to see it."

Aurelia smiles brightly at me, revealing her perfect white teeth to me. Goddess, this woman is so beautiful, but it's not just that. She is smart and kind and understands me. She finds me funny… no one has ever done that. What did I ever do to deserve such a beautiful and amazing mate? She is the whole package. "Where are you off to? I thought you might want to sleep in."

"I will look in on Tori for a second and then head to training," she explains. "Eric told me that the royal elite guards are always training early in the morning. I can't miss that! And you?"

"I'm going to look for Vander and have some coffee with him," I say. It should feel awkward that she is off to train, and I'm basically taking a slow morning, but it doesn't. I guess in our future together we'll face a lot of differences compared to what's usually done. "Breakfast after your training?"

"Oh yes." She beams and wraps her arms around me to pull me into a swift kiss. "Pick me up?"

I nod, smiling when she grabs a few things from my room and dashes out the door. While Aurelia is at the training, I finally manage to find my brother. He is grabbing his breakfast from the cafeteria. "Vander," I say.

Vander's head whips around to face me, relief settling in his eyes. He grabs his bagel and hurries to me. I hug him. He doesn't cry, but I can feel his body trembling slightly. "It's going to be alright," I mutter. "We are going to be fine."

"How do you know that?"

"We have each other," I say quietly.

"You have your mate now," he says.

"Yes, but I also still have you."

"Arden." He draws back and grabs the bag with his bagel tighter. "Whatever you decide, please don't leave me behind."

"I will never just leave you behind, Vander," I say. "I will either take you with me or find another solution you will be happy with. You will always be my brother."

"I have heard Silverlake is a nice pack. I bet it's better there for me than here," he mutters before tears fill his eyes.

Oh shoot, I am bad at this. I never know how to console someone. "I—I will grab us some coffee," I blurt out. "Let's go for a walk, then."

He just nods. Relieved that I have something to do, I grab a frappuccino for him and a cappuccino for me. Then, we go for our walk, mostly in silence. It's a tad awkward, but Vander seems to be lost in his thoughts, and I have no idea how to break the silence.

"Do you think Dad loves us?" he finally asks the one question I can't answer.

"I… don't know," I admit. "I think at one point he did. When Mom was still alive…"

"Do you think Mom's death turned him into such an asshole?"

"Some people can deal with the loss of their mates," I mutter. "Others can't."

"It's a pity he never was able to see us as part of her," he says sadly.

I stay quiet, not sure what to say, cursing myself for going into this unprepared. But I have no book in my memory palace that will help me here. "We can't change the past," I say. "But we can try not to repeat our mistakes in the future. I won't let the situation escalate ever again."

"Do you think we can make up with Dad at some point?"

"I don't know," I say. "That's for each of us to decide individually."

"How do you do it?" he asks. "Dad always berated you and belittled you, but you are still so…" he pauses. "You don't seem to be hurt," he admits. "Don't get me wrong, I know you are… it's just…"

When I don't answer, he hurries to reassure me further. "I made you angry, didn't I? I didn't mean to, I swear. I just wanted to know how you were able to deal with it. I-"

"I'm not angry," I say. "I was just thinking."

"Oh."

"I think I stopped feeling anything for our father a long time ago," I say. "It made it easier to see him as my sperm donor rather than someone I can rely on."

"I'm not sure if I can do that," he mutters. "I wish I could, though."

"It's okay to still love him," I say. "And it's okay to hope that he will change."

"I don't even know what to feel anymore," Vander says quietly. "But I am glad I am here now. At least I can breathe here." He pauses. "I tried to call him, you know, but he wouldn't pick up."

Sadly, this doesn't surprise me, but I don't tell that to Vander. He is dealing with a lot right now, and I don't want his hopes completely crushed. "Is Léna coming?" I ask him.

His face instantly lights up. "Yes, is that okay?"

"Of course, she is welcome here anytime, as long as her parents know where she is."

"They are so nice," Vander tells me.

"You have met them already?"

"Yes, well, you know, she was adopted as a baby."

I nod. I heard it from Coralie when we were still dating.

"Her adoptive parents are so sweet, though. Her dad is a warrior, and her mom works in Paris as a teacher. And when she and I started dating, I wanted to introduce myself."

I'm actually a bit impressed by how smoothly he handled this. I'm not sure if I would have even thought about introducing myself. Talking about Léna has improved his mood tremendously, and we soon find our way to the training grounds.

I instantly spot Aurelia. Even in her lycan form, she instantly draws me in. "That's her," I whisper towards Vander.

"Shit," Vander says. "She is good."

Good is an understatement, and I find myself beaming with pride at seeing my mate easily owning her position on the battleground. Eric joins me and Vander on the sidelines and watches with us. "Didn't you join the training today?" I ask.

"No, I had a meeting but fortunately managed to cut it short." He grins. "They were all talking big before Aurelia joined them. Show-offs. I'm so glad to see her taking them down a peg. They needed it."

We watch the remainder of the training, and occasionally, I see how inhumanly fast Aurelia moves and reacts. I figure that's her gift. She did the same in her standoff, against the warriors my father commanded to attack her.

When the training is finished, everyone shifts back to their human form. Wolves don't mind the nudity normally, but when Aurelia has shifted back, revealing her beautiful slender body, her long legs, her tight ass, and boobs, everyone stares.

I feel myself getting annoyed at their blatant stares, but I don't want to appear like the toxic, overbearing boyfriend who protects his mate, especially since she is much stronger than I am. Aurelia reacts faster than me anyways. "If you're done looking at my ass, could you hand me my sweater?" she asks, annoyed.

The guys around her turn bright red at her calling them out, and one of them instantly grabs the sweater and tosses it at her.

That's when I see it. It's my sweater, one of those I only wear at night because it's oversized, even for me. She must have grabbed it before she left my room this morning. My chest swells with pride when I think about how my scent is engulfing her. My sweater covers her bum, and she confidently strides over towards me while ignoring everyone else. Cato pushes forward, putting his arm around her middle and pulling her closer into a kiss.

Let them see she is ours!

After taking a shower, Aurelia meets us in my office. She still wears my hoodie but is also dressed in jeans, now. I love that she is still wearing something with my scent on.

"Are you ready?" Leila asks when we are all about to start with our meeting. "Because I have news."

"Good news?" Gustave asks.

"Well, I'd say yes," she says.

I nod at her. "Tell us, please."

"Yesterday evening, I coincidentally—"

Emilien coughs.

"Alright, I dragged Emi into a bar, where I knew I would find Mr. Simon."

"Mr. Simon?" Zoé asks.

"The director of the orphanage Meg lived at. He is still leading it."

She certainly has our entire attention now because everyone looks at her in shock. "And?" Aurelia urges.

"I flirted a bit with him," she says. "Poor Emi had to pretend to be my brother. I basically kissed up to the man for half an hour before I said that a friend at college, Auri, and we are doing a paper about missing children… and about the failure of the authorities. Oh, if only I knew someone who could help us ," she says dramatically. "How desperate and lonely it had to be for schools and children's organizations to be faced with such dramatic incidents."

"Did he buy it?" I ask her.

"He didn't just buy it. He had a literal breakdown," she says. "I didn't know what to expect when I met him. There was no time for a background check, but he seems to really care for the children, and works together with several children's organizations, and does charity for children of abusive situations."

"I didn't know that either," I say, surprised. "I didn't even think about doing a background check on him."

"So, I was more open with him, too. I stuck to the story that Aurelia and I would be doing a paper but told him our research was more in depth and that the plan is to turn it into something bigger."

"Didn't he want to see any verification?" I ask.

"He did." She grins. "That's where Emi came in handy."

Emilien sighs slightly. "Yes, I'm just so great, but Leila actually has a student visa here and is attending university. I just had the documents."

"Do you always carry the necessary documents along?" Gustave asks, confused. "For Lady Leila, I mean?"

"I just know I need to be prepared," Emilien says. "She has a lot of ideas… and is very spontaneous."

"He wants to see us this afternoon," Leila says to Aurelia.

My mate raises her brows. "That's fast. He must have been enchanted by you."

"I did my best." Leila chuckles.

"This means we might just hear more about Meg," I muse.

"What should we watch out for?" Aurelia asks. She and Leila both grab their notebooks to take notes.

"Any written documents you can get is a plus, but I want something more personal. What kind of person was she? What did she like to do? Who was she? Was she scared of the dark, of thunderstorms? Was she an anxious child, a silent one, a loud one? How was she with the other kids and with the adults?" I pause. "And did someone visit her? In orphanages, they often have programs where students volunteer as older siblings or the elderly as surrogate grandparents. Did she have someone who showed interest in her?" I pause once more. "Did she visit places outside the orphanage? Such as a school… a hospital? Did she have friends? Anything that could lead us to an outsider."

"Anything else?" Leila asks. "How about photos?"

"Yes, anything you can get," I say. "Not just of Meg, but of the whole orphanage, starting from the moment she began to live there until she disappeared." I pause. "Oh, and of course, try to find out where she was last seen."

"Should we check for werewolves?" Aurelia asks.

"Yes." I nod.

"Do we know how she ended up there?" she asks.

"That's a good point," I say. "We don't know that yet."

We go through a few more points while Emilien tries to gather some articles, for Leila and Aurelia, where they can read up on the basics of victimology. There is not much time to prepare for the visit, but they are both smart and spontaneous women. I'm hoping for the best. Any information they get will be valuable.