Chapter 14

Emely

What on earth was he thinking? What if something were to happen? The very fact that he kept acting so carelessly, without even fearing my father's consequences, infuriated me.

With my arms crossed, I stood in front of my uncle Alarik, who not only taught at this university, but was also responsible for all the confusion in the administration. As the goddamn director!

At 41 years old, he was far younger than father and was ranked below him. So, it was damn well not his right to make such decisions. Especially not behind Father's back.

I slammed one hand on the table. This one shook as menacingly as my mood.

"Emely, please calm down. It's just a room reassignment. What's going to happen?", he replied, relaxed.

What was going to happen? What was wrong with him?!

"I'm sleeping under the same roof with witches ! If Father knew!"

It made me so angry. And then it was those arrogant Blair cousins, of all people , and goddamn Vivienna Westcode !

"But he doesn't know," Alarik returned, shrugging his shoulders, and buttoned the second-to-last button of his white shirt, which he had just put on because, as usual, he had shown up here a little late with coffee stains on his other shirt.

He paced around the desk that belonged to his large office, which was flooded with light through the magnificent window. One had an excellent view of campus activity from this tower, which certainly had its advantages.

I looked at my uncle with a tense jaw. How could he just go behind Dad's back like that?

Stunned, I stared at him and clenched my hands into fists so that I could feel my sharp fingernails on the taut skin.

"They're just Quatura. After all, when you meet them on the street, you don't jump on them right away," he just said with a laugh, stroking his short brown curls that made him look even younger.

Alarik had never had a girlfriend, let alone a wife, although it felt like every second one was flirting with him. I had always suspected that it was because there were hardly any female Senseque, or that he didn't have the heart to leave the pack for a human, for a short time. But in that moment, he proved once again how much he didn't care about the pack.

It was a fact that witches, or Quatura , whatever they called themselves, were our competitors for this town. And that would never change. For them, we were inferior animals who could not control themselves and ate other living beings. But they were not one bit better. According to the stories, there were even some among them who had turned to a dark side some time ago and had taken human lives. Such a thing would not happen to us. Not as part of a pack, under the rules of the Code. The Code , the breaking of which had serious consequences.

Just then, I wondered if Alarik had ever broken the Code. I quickly pushed the thought away. He was still my uncle. Even if he almost dug his own grave sometimes.

"Why do you always think so well of them?" I asked, unimpressed.

"Because they're just like us."

If there was anything these crazy people weren't at all, it was like us .

His words sounded like he was harboring sympathy. But he wasn't allowed to, and he wouldn't. After all, that was one of the many rules the Blairs and Westcodes had laid down for their damned peaceful coexistence . And now sharing a house with their offspring didn't make it any easier. On the contrary. It was one of those many gray areas.

I knew for a fact that the witches didn't want to live peacefully with us at all. They were trying to buy more and more forest from us, but they were playing with the wrong ones. In addition, there were those ridiculous rumors that the Bexleys spread about us. Father would never sell the hospital, not to anyone. And we weren't broke, at least not if Alarik ran the university like a sensible director and didn't make all the students de-register on the first day of the semester with his messy organization.

An idea came to me.

"Can't you assign me to another house?"

I looked pleadingly at Alarik, and when he glanced up, I could see his thoughtful expression. But to my disappointment, he shook his head.

"It's too late for that now."

"But..."

"I can't just throw any other girls out of their rooms. You know exactly how unfair that would be."

Yet there was something much bigger at stake. I couldn't even imagine all the things that could happen.

"At least try it, Emely. Quatura don't bite."

There it was again... That amused grin.

Very amusing . I couldn't smile because I was serious. I wanted to get out of there somehow. I had to find another way, perhaps resort to more radical measures. The thought was tempting, and let's admit it, I could think of a few things I could do....

A knock on the door snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Come in!" Alarik shouted, and we both looked at the door, where two guys with laptops I didn't recognize appeared. Probably five-semester students from the IT-security team where my best friend usually worked, but he was abroad this semester.

"We'll continue talking later," my uncle said, directed at me, and welcomed the two of them.

Annoyed, I left the office without closing the door.

I didn't like at all how he didn't care. Father would have understood the problem, and I got the feeling that he really didn't know anything about this disaster.

This was our territory, and here we could damn well decide what the witches did. These spawns of hell were not going to mess up my life. I had to take things into my own hands. And I already knew how.

All the frustration inside me wanted to burst out, but the campus was definitely the wrong place to transform.

My feet carried me across the soft forest floor and as I drew in the fresh air I immediately felt better. I had been running for half the morning. That was exactly what I had needed.

On principle, I hadn't turned since the chance of running into any hikers or hunters was high.

Even though my father had enforced that no one went hunting here, there were still the one or other illegal fanatics in town.And let's not forget all the life-weary reporters from the Blairville Daily . Just three days ago I had almost run into one of them in wolf form.

I stopped when I heard a crack behind me.

I was about to turn around and investigate the area, but it was already too late when Julian appeared from between the trees and jumped straight at me.

We collided, and both landed on the forest floor with a thud. His upper body had become more massive and defined.

Embarrassed that that was the first thing I had noticed, I pressed my hands against him.

"Julian!" it escaped me in shock, and he immediately pushed off of me.

I jumped up, unwilling to look like I had nothing better to do on my first day at Vanderwood than wallow in the dirt.

"I'm sorry..."

He sounded confused, and I was overcome with an uneasy feeling that something was wrong. He ran his hands over his clothes, looked at me scrutinizingly, and then around.

"What are you doing here? What's going on?" I asked.

Julian was pacing back and forth. He looked like he had seen a ghost.

"I'm at a lodge with your brother."

I looked at him, uncomprehending.

"Are you serious?"

"What?" It sounded like an accusation.

"You're going running because you got put in a room with Nash?" I had to laugh.

"You know he hates me," Julian murmured, annoyed, and sat down against a thick moss-covered tree that softly supported his back as he slid down.

"He doesn't hate you. He's just suspicious because you haven't joined the pack yet."

"His problem."

"Julian..." I sighed.

Julian was truly a complex case. And he had been ever since I knew him.

I settled down next to him.

"I'm in a room with witches," I added, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, looking up into the dense treetops. It seemed so peaceful out here, and I could feel the forest. My home.

"I'd love to switch now," Julian just laughed.

I snapped my eyes open and punched him in the side.

"Hey!"

He grinned at me, and I couldn't help but laugh.

It was good to see him like that. How long had it been since he had smiled in my presence?

"They're witches. You know the rules."

"So, what? I've lived among them half my life. This would hardly make a difference. And besides... A couple of pretty girls. Who says no?"

His grin widened as I boxed him another time in horror.

He wasn't really the playboy that my twin brother was, and he was once again making his jokes, even though I knew he could have had just as many dates. But Julian wasn't thinking about such things. His thoughts were elsewhere. Since the incident.

His father had been having some disagreements with my father after all the drama, and had moved to town as a result. Of course, right in the witches' territory, where we had nothing to say. So, the Bardots had been able to perfectly evade our rules and the codex until today.

If I had to live there with the witches, I would explode.

"How do you manage it?"

Julian looked at me. I noticed that his eyes still had that gleam in them. However, not as intense as back then.

Julian shrugged his shoulders. "It's a place like any other."

I turned away from him, and my gaze slid into the void.

"You're moving in hostile territory."

"Emely... Could you please stop talking about territories all the time?"

"If only it were that simple..."

Julian jumped up. He was still looking at me, but mentally he slipped away.

"Maybe we really are making it way too hard for ourselves. All the rules, the hostilities, and this flaunting of who's better..."

I couldn't help but look up at him, uncomprehending.

"That's part of the rules. Otherwise, everyone would do what they want."

In my mind, I began to imagine all that could happen without those rules. We would no longer be able to live in safety and undetected. A life on the run, like that of our ancestors. No home, the fear of being murdered every day by our bloodthirsty arch-enemies....

"Don't they already do that anyway?" Julian laughed out, running his hand through his brown hair in a way that made it look even messier.

"No."

Determined, I jumped up and patted the dirt off my clothes. Somehow, everything I did made me look like a freaking forest.

"There's an order that dictates exactly your behavior. Out there, some brutal Alpha who isn't as patient as Father would have just taken you into his pack. And if you hadn't wanted that..." I broke off the sentence, not wanting to imagine what the other packs did to those who defied their orders.

Julian must have noticed my concern because he came over to me now and put his hands on my shoulders. His look sent a shiver down my spine.

Up close, I could see his eyes even better. The green was not only dominant, but shimmered through the incoming light. It felt familiar.

"Emely..." he whispered softly. "I'm here, in Blairville... and not out there."

I fell silent.

He was right. We were safe here. For now.

Slowly he took his hands from me again, and I immediately felt the cold where they had been until just a moment ago. It was the same cold I had felt in the last weeks and months of his absence.

I had been looking for explanations. And the only one who had given them to me had been my twin brother. My stomach tightened painfully at the thoughts of our last conversation, a few days ago in the woods behind our house.

"I have to go," Julian said, and I just nodded silently.

Julian was here and that was progress. Nash couldn't always be right. This time, the point would go to Finn.

I looked at Julian, who had already walked a few feet.

"Wait...I'm coming with you!"

My words seemed to surprise him because he turned and looked at me with a searching gaze. But then, very slowly, a grin appeared on his face – the way I used to know him – the way it felt good, and I returned it.

"Let's see if you're still this slow, Bardot!"

Then I started to sprint.