Chapter 22
I spent the majority of the evening fidgeting. Hours passed and a restlessness itched at my limbs. I had a hard time sitting still in the small room.
Julien had pulled the cot from the hut I had stayed in the previous night into this one.
Three beds perfectly lined up a few feet in front of the door. I sat in the middle one, tapping my feet on the dirt floor as I gripped the edge of the homemade bed.
Julien was on another one, leaned against the wall with his legs sprawled across the mattress, writing in a notebook. His demeanor was calm and collected, a trait I wish I had right now.
I was instructed not to leave until told to do so. Julien said it was for my protection, so Grayson couldn’t snatch me while his back was turned.
The others still hadn’t returned and my heart raced with anticipation. The room was starting to feel stuffy and closed in.
"Where did you find a notebook?" I asked, wanting a distraction.
His attention didn’t leave his writing as he answered. "I had it with me when I arrived."
Now the satchel around his chest made sense, he had things that were important to him, things that never left his side.
"What do you write?"
A smile crossed his lips, "anything that sparks my interest. "
"What sparks your interest now?"
His eyes finally glanced up from his book and my stomach tingled at the look he gave me. "You."
"Can you read it to me?"
He seemed to hesitate for a moment before settling himself into his bed like he was about to read a bedtime story.
"She cried out in desperation
As the aurora found its home
She wanted her reparation
To bring them to her catacomb."
I mulled over his poem for awhile. "It’s...dark" I told him. "It’s about me?"
He nodded shyly. "It’s a work in progress. It’s about what happened earlier."
I had expected his poem to be about something sweet like comparing me to a flower but instead he was describing the damage I had done. Thoughts of Jax laying on the ground, his arm bent the wrong way while Marek held his head in his hands flashed through my mind.
"I just wanted them to stop. I didn’t mean to, I don’t even know how I..." I couldn’t finish and Julien leaned towards me, taking my hand in his.
"Hey, it’s ok." His tone was comforting and soft, making me feel a little less guilty. "Us werewolves are tougher than we look, and we look pretty tough."
I smiled at that, his world still so new to me.
"Does it hurt? When you change?"
He shook his head. "Nope."
"Did you always know you were a werewolf?" I asked.
"Yeah. I was born into a pack, though. You’re family, they never told you anything of your origins?"
My mother knew, if she hadn’t she wouldn’t have hid us away. The part that confused me the most was that my father wasn’t human. He carried himself like a predator, as though the moon knew him and treasured him deeply.
"I was hidden away, my mother didn’t want this life for me."
"Yet it found you anyway," he said, finishing my thought.
I told him about my childhood and how I was raised. I spent hours telling him stories while he listened intently. Reminiscing made me feel whole again, like a part of me that’s been lost had resurfaced.
I confided about the day my father arrived and my trip overseas. I told him about Grayson’s home and the failed Binding Rite. Julien didn’t ask questions or interrupt, he just let me tell my story. Grayson wasn’t one for deep conversations and it felt so nice to have someone to talk to that truly listened.
"...then you guys showed up and stopped him." I said, finishing my story on the beach where they first captured Grayson.
He let out a puff of air, "Well, some things make more sense now." He was sitting on the edge of his bed now, face to face with me. There was a small gold fleck in his bright blue eyes, like a freckle against the pool of color.
"Wait for a minute?" He asked with a finger raised. Standing, he sifted through his bag searching for something.
Finding it and closing it in his palm he sat next to me on my bed. "When I arrived here, I was on a boat."
"You crashed just like I did?"
"Crashed would be a curious way to put it. We were crossing the sea, headed towards Europe when we hit something in the water, something none of us could see. It nearly tore the boat in half. Marek and I were able to find pieces of wood to hold onto while everything sank around us. Soon the pieces of wood sank too."
Julien had a gloss to his eyes and I wanted to ask how many others had been on the boat with him but couldn’t find the courage. It was obvious the memory he was conjuring was one of pain and I sat as still as I could so he could finish his story.
"We floated for what felt like days, then suddenly the island was right there. Like it had been there the entire time."
There was an awe in the way he spoke about this place that I could feel too, there was a power here.
"I’ve walked that beach every day since I arrived and have never found anything to wash ashore. Same with the others, no boat or plane parts. No trash or luggage, or any evidence that there’s a world outside of this one, Only people have arrived here with the things they carried with them. For years. That is until you showed up."
Curiosity flared at this. He reached his closed hand out and, grasping my hand in his, turned his palm over to drop the mystery object into mine.
"It was the same day that Dominic saw you in that glade. He and Marek continued to scout the two of you while Jax and I were sent to find where you arrived. Your scent tracked us back to the beach where we found this. I figured it belonged to you but was waiting for the right time to ask."
He moved his hand away and I stared down at the necklace in my hand. "My mother’s locket?" I had assumed it had been lost on the plane. It was wrapped around my wrist when the crash happened and it disappeared before I arrived on the beach.
Tears welled in my eyes and I hugged Julien. At first, his hands were outstretched awkwardly, then he wrapped his arms around me, giving me a gentle squeeze. This was the only part of my mother I had and he brought it back to me. A piece of my heart lost and now returned.
Something stirred his attention and he let go of me. "They’re back." He said. I put the necklace on and hid it underneath my shirt. Then stood with him to greet the others. They looked exhausted and still battered from their morning fighting but otherwise unharmed.
Dominic looked angrier than ever and I hid behind Julien as he passed to his hut. Jax approached me, my pants extending from his uninjured arm. He looked proud of himself, like he was the true savior of the day and I thanked him before pulling them on, happy to not be so exposed to these men anymore.
We didn’t ask any questions, the answers obvious in the air, and the men went about their normal routine for making dinner. I went to sit by the fire pit and elevate my ankle on the bench. Marek joined me after lighting the fire.
"No sign of him." He told me in a hushed voice. It sounded odd coming from his deep, beast-like voice. "I doubt we’ll find him at all."
He winked at me, making me wonder what exactly happened throughout their day.
I knew he was trying to comfort me but I felt unsettled. I hated the constant threat of no control and the even greater threat of violence at every corner.
Dinner was a fresh salad with shellfish and crabapples. They were treating me, I realized. The food was brought to me by Jax, Marek laid a pelt blanket across my lap, Julien produced the most delicious glass of wine. They were waiting on me, hand and foot. The way I had hoped I would be treated in Grayson’s castle, only to be sorely disappointed.
They all sat around me by the fire, ignoring the benches further away. Their words were gentle and their movements slow and deliberate. I think they felt bad for me, that or my sudden burst of power earlier had made them afraid of me.
Dominic was the one exception to either theory. He sat far away, quiet in his solitude.Julien spoke of my childhood as a normal kid and the others joined in asking what it was like. They shared stories of their own and I pictured each one as innocent children, Marek as a young pup touching my heart the most compared to his large size.
I had spent my whole life trying to fit into a world I didn’t belong in and now, sitting around a campfire telling stories of happier times, I saw I wasn’t alone. The thing I was afraid of, being discarded for being my true self, was exactly why each of them were here.
They each had a story. A life beyond this one, and they found belonging in each other’s company. A place where they were free. The only question was...could I have the same thing?