Chapter 2

ChapterTwo

Embarrassment was like a never-ending nightmare for me, it kept coming back in waves even till an hour or two later. My cheeks would heat up and I would have to bury my face in my pillow just to let out loud screams. From my guess, the guy had left around three p.m., which meant me and Aunt Audra were the only ones in the house but I was still nervous to go out.

It wasn’t until dinnertime that Audra called my name from somewhere at the bottom of the stairs, I twisted my door open and found her smiling up at me. "Come on, it’s time for dinner darling," she told me and I smiled softly. Maybe it wasn’t that awkward.

I slipped my feet into the extra pair of slides she had kept for me and rushed downstairs. Aunt Audra had her back to me, her blonde hair was curly and a stark contrast to my straight black locks, but they seemed around the same length as mine.

"Hi," I chirped, quickly slotting my legs behind the dining table. She had served me a hearty portion of pasta.

"Good evening," she sighs happily and takes a seat opposite me while I dug my fork into the pasta. "How are you liking it here?"

I shrug at her question, mouth full of food.

"Great, what about you? How have things been with you?"

My question barely urges a hum out of her and it makes me worry if I should’ve respected the distance in our relationship even more. Soon, she starts speaking and I let out a breath of relief.

"I’ve been well- Ah, we really should’ve had this conversation a few days back." She laughs. "I’m sorry kiddo, you must’ve been bored by yourself but the town is safe, you can go make friends."

"It’s fine, really. I’m good by myself." I smile. Aunt Audra only smiles and gets back to her dinner. My brows clash together as the words ’Pack’ and ’Alpha’ enter my mind again after her mention of the previous few days. What exactly could Pack and Alpha mean?

"I’ve been wondering," I began slowly. "And I’m sorry to be such an intruder, but I happened to over-hear a bit of your conversation with your ’guests’."

Audra stiffens in her place, shoulders tensing and the fork tighter in her grip. There was this thing about me, through the years of trauma I had lived, I had managed to grow tough enough to confront people.

Sure, I was bad at making friends.

If someone dared to badmouth me or the only friend I had, they would be sure to get an earful from me. Some could say I was intimidating.

"W-What did you hear?" Aunt asks, an obviously fake sweet smile painted on her face as she tried to hide her concern behind it.

I rolled my tongue in my mouth and pushed the plate away.

"Something like ’Alpha’ and ’Pack’. What do these mean?" I ask and her mouth pops open as if she had just now realized something but Audra was quick to shake out of it.

"Oh, it’s nothing you should be worrying about." Her eyes glint as if to convince me of her lie and words. I tried to object but Aunt Audra had already moved on from the topic. "Anyway, I think I should head up to bed. Summer is a tiring time, you know?"

I could only nod while she did her dishes, humming and questioning about other things probably just to dodge the ’Alpha’ topic. A few minutes later, the lady lovingly kissed my head goodnight and disappeared to the left passage beside the staircase. The curtains to the entrance of her door whooshed and I squinted as hard as possible to check if she was still there before letting out a breath of relief.

"It couldn’t be anything that important anyway," I told myself. After washing the dishes and turning the extra lights off, I walked back to the guest room on the first floor. Once again, I stopped in front of the attic and groaned at how embarrassing the afternoon had been.

"So, have you recovered enough to come up with an answer?" I mocked the blonde’s deep baritone, eyes rolling and tongue out while stomping back into my room. Thankfully, Audra’s room was far enough for her to not notice any of my movements.

The slightly open window let in a soft breeze that immediately made me forget all sense of shame. I smiled and pushed it out all the way. The best part about the town were the nights. The sky was always so much more beautiful than that in the city and it made my shoulders slump in a relaxing way.

"Maybe I should get done with that assignment, too," I muttered to myself once my head was all clear. Picking up a rubber band from the nightstand, I swept my hair back and got to work facing the window and its breeze. The assignments weren’t that tough, it was just a lot of workloads.

The trees outside were rustling in complete sync and it was the only sound I could hear for a long time. It was when I finished the worksheet from this afternoon that I decided to take another break and ended up standing at the window sill again.

There was the crack of a tree’s branch breaking. When it happened the first time, I had assumed it was just because of the wind. Surely, the wind wouldn’t step on twigs and branches thrice, right? I trained my eyes lower and squinted to make out if anybody was there-

Oh.

A shiver racked down my spine and fear spiked in my heart. There was a man, clad in black clothes probably to camouflage with the woods in the background. I could feel his eyes on me. My fingers tightened around the sill on both sides till my knuckles turned white but before I could check further to see his face, he pulled his hood up and he was gone.

Just like a gush of wind- he just disappeared.

"Who in hell’s name are you?" I gritted spitefully, searching closer and closer only to be met with disappointment. He wasn’t there anymore! For a whole minute, I stood there, shocked and shaking as I remembered how intensely he was staring at me before panic coursed through me.

I took in greedy fits of air and slammed the window shut. The echo of its wood meeting the glass pane echoed through the attic, too. Had I woken up Aunt Audra too? And more importantly, was that a good thing or bad? Good, definitely. She was the only one here to help.

My feet trudged around the wire of the laptop’s charger, which thankfully wasn’t attached to the device, and I ended up falling back onto the bed, still with my chest heaving up and down. I don’t remember much after that. My guess was that I probably slept through the night.

My head thrummed loudly in my dream. A tree branch, the color black, and the damn humid smell of mud echoed in my mind as I ran through the woods. I didn’t know why I was running. It felt necessary, especially when the very next moment, I had heard a loud predatory snarl behind me, and alas—there it was.

A black wolf, pitch-black fur, and the same deep pupils stared at me like I was a meal for him. I whimpered loud and scared while looking back at him with blurry eyes. There was a wicked feel to everything, the time, the place, the colors. Before I could realize it, I was pinned down by the huge animal, ready to get devoured whole.

I screamed, tried to fight back, but he was way too powerful than me. The wolf bared his teeth, old blood dried deep in the gums and I screamed out loud before he could bite down on my neck. When I finally shot my eyes open, it was around noon, the front of my top was wet with sweat and a triggering mud-like smell lingered in the room.

It pulled a sniffle out of me. I knew nobody could’ve gotten into Aunt Audra’s house.

I was safe.

Right?

Shaking my head to clear it of all negative thoughts, I decided to take a shower before heading down. The house was eerily quiet and the slight creaks of the wooden floor beneath my feet alarmed me. There wasn’t even the sound of fans or air conditioners working outside the guest room. The attic was locked up, as I had expected.

Maybe Aunt Audra left to do something? Why didn’t she tell me, then?

It all cleared up when I walked to the refrigerator to grab milk for my instant coffee. Despite having a long night’s sleep, if one could call it that, I felt like I hadn’t slept at all. My bones ached to the core. There was a neon yellow note stuck on top of the fridge with a watermelon magnet. I placed one finger on it and tried to make out Aunt Audra’s handwriting.

’Good morning sweetie, I tried waking you up before going but you seemed tired, so I’m writing this note. I have a meeting with the man who once came to the house before and will try to be back by evening. The pancakes on the table are all yours. Eat well!’

I released a chuckle at the smiley she had drawn at the bottom of the note and was about to dig right into the food she had prepared but the bell to the house rang. Sighing, I placed the fork in my hand back on the table and rounded it to make it to the front door.

I was expecting the mailman as he often came around this time to deliver some confidential documents to Aunt that she signed for. It was like clockwork, there was definitely something behind the scenes of these meetings and mails that I couldn’t figure out.

However, as soon as I opened the door, I was left stumped once again. The same man from yesterday afternoon was standing before me, wearing a white shirt paired with blue jeans and a pair of sunglasses sitting low on his nose bridge. I gulped.

Of course, he was here to visit Audra.

There is this thing about cute boys that makes smart girls really stupid and that’s exactly what was happening to me as he leaned against the doorframe with a smug smirk on his lips.

"I- Good afternoon," I said softly. The boy looked me up and down

"Good afternoon, cute thing." He smiled and I almost doubled in shyness. "May I come in?"

"Sure," I replied, half smiling too. "Aunt Audra’s not home, though."

"That’s okay," he mumbled, stepping beside me to enter the house and I sucked in a breath at the close proximity. "I’m not here to see her today."