Chapter 12: We finally meet.

While Hui Zhong was unconscious due to the excessive bleeding from her wound, Marcel and the members from the Silver Forrest pack finally arrived on Jax’s territory after a long day of travelling, on foot for the members who could shift and car for those who could not shift.

Marcel’s POV

We finally arrived at the Crescent falls territory and shifted back before helping to bring the bags into the packhouse, we were greeted by a very pregnant Benjamin and he smiled before motioning for the members behind him to help us with bringing the bags in.

“Welcome to the Crescent Falls pack again Marcel, and the Silver Forrest pack. Do come in, it’s getting colder these few weeks, I’ve prepared some tea and assorted pastries to refresh yourselves,”

I give a slight nod to him and nod to the other two leaders, Liliana and Margret with their respective mates next to them. We were so fortunate with having such powerful leader’s as our allies, this would allow

For some reason, I was feeling very lethargic and had a small, unsettling pain on my right shoulder that didn’t seem to subside no matter how I tried to move it, so I decided to just brush it off for now and focused on my conversation with Benjamin.

“Thank you again Benjamin, I hope your husband doesn’t start getting angry over not letting you rest. That reminds me, where is Jax? Wasn’t he supposed to welcome us?” I asked while joining him on the couch as my members slowly poured into the packhouse, they began to have their own chitchats with the Crescent pack members.

“Well, he said there was an emergency, but wasn’t willing to tell me about it since he didn’t want me to get involved since I’m still in recovery from the kidnapping.”

Oh right, he had to be in care since he was kidnapped by the rogues. I partially forgotten why we were here in the first place. It was because we had to figure a new strategy to prevent rogues from coming into the territories of both packs, I shook my head to try refreshing my brain and nodded in response to him.

“Of course, it’s only natural that a wolf would protect its pups. Anyways, why not you go rest first? We’ll be done soon and will join you for some snacks.”

Benjamin nodded with a smile as turned around to chat with the members of my pack, most of them were relieved that both him and the pups were safe, I turned back to Eli and motioned for him and the other two to follow me out where there were still some bags and members who had yet to come into the house.

“Guys, I’m going to let Kyrion take over now. I know it’s sudden, but I really need this break so uh, yeah. I’ll put on my contacts first before he takes over.”

They nodded and went back to help the other’s as I took out the small box of blue contacts and put them on while I called out to Kyrion via our link. ‘Kyrion? You there? I hope you know what you’re doing alright?’

‘Yes Marcel, are you ready? I’m definitely ready, even though I can feel the lethargy from you. Now, just relax and take a good rest while I do the rest of the talking.’

I nodded and closed my eyes to ensure that the contacts were alright before taking a deep breath, allowing Kyrion to fully take control of my actions as I slipped into the back of my mind.

Kyrion’s POV

Opening my eyes, I could see everything around me, smell the breeze of the forest and most unexpectedly, I could smell our mate.

I walked back out to see the three of them smiling at me, they recognized that I was in control and Will handed me the file that Marcel had asked him to do on our mate last week. I handed the file back to him as my face was etched with confusion. There was an unsettling feeling in my chest but I couldn’t place a finger on it no matter how much I frowned or thought.

My thoughts must have been spoken out loud, or clearly written on my face for Will to approach me. Will, the one guy who never speaks until he is asked to, approached me before I spoke to him.

“Uhm Kyrion? Are you alright? You seem quite spooked after looking at the file, even though there’s barely information on it, just that she’s a retired surgeon and who her father was. I hope it’s enough for now, there wasn’t much information we could get, it’s like she barely existed.”

It showed that 1: I was potentially revealing that she was our mate. And 2: We, meaning Marcel and I, had something wrong going on in our soul. Not me particularly, but more of him. Since he was the one who reigned more control, I would usually agree and leave it as that, making me someone who doesn’t really think or feel much either.

Ever since Manuela betrayed us and chose to die to join Jason, Marcel shut off all sense of love from his mind and heart. I could feel the yearning that he wished to have with Hui Zhong, but I could also feel the wounds that never healed. It meant that he needed time to heal before accepting her and I just hoped she wouldn’t mind our issues for someone needed to help both of us out.

Though he shut his sense of feeling off, I did not. After all, we’re two separate beings with two separate personalities. And I’m a wolf too, which means that I have my feral side other than being civilized, I always tend to be feral it concerns people around us that I care for.

Honestly, I think I might be more emotional than Marcel and the fact that I have my feral side makes me want to claim our mate, to love her, and to treat her like the queen she deserves to be. Marcel doesn’t seem to agree with me yet though, but I’ll respect that for now until he is ready, then I can claim my mate with our mark. Blame the feral instincts if you want, but I truly love her as much as I did to Manuela,

“Kyrion? Are you there?” Will repeated his question again and this time, I responded with a nod before he sighed and shook his head.

“I’m fine, sorry for zoning out. I guess it’s probably because I haven’t taken control in human form before, I just need some time to get accustomed to it. Don’t worry.”

I assured with a smile, then went back to my nonchalant look while the three of them nodded and we walked out of the house to ensure the last of the baggage and our members were brought in. Will seemed not to be convinced by my answer however, and he asked again when the last few had entered the packhouse, ensuring that Eli and Howard had followed them in so that only the two of us would be talking and hearing each other’s words.

“Is it related to the woman you asked me to search? She’s you guys second mate isn’t she

?”

I don’t know what it is about that word mate, but it just stung me hard when he said it in a questioning way. I sighed and nodded as his features softened visibly, the creases in his forehead slowly disappearing and he patted my shoulder with a sense of affirmation, he handed me the file before he continued to speak.

“It makes sense now; I had been wondering for a while why’d you focus on someone whose father had played a part in our downfall when he promised to aid Jason. Turns out it was just your mate, but you both don’t seem to want to reject her. What is your plan exactly?”

“Well, we don’t intend to reject her yet, but I think Marcel needs help to move on slowly. He’s begun to accept it a little, but not moved on, because every night we have horrible nightmares of Manuela shooting himself to join Jason when Marcel ripped his head off. It’s painful when someone else takes your mate, but it’s worse when they willingly let someone else mark them and claim them, then choose to join them in death instead of their rightful mate.”

Will seemed to sympathize a little, he gave a small smile and nodded before giving me a slight hug, which surprised me a little since he hardly displayed emotion to people that were not his mate but I hugged him back as a sign of thanks.

“I see, then you guys take it slow and take your time. We are all so young, we don’t need to rush for a Luna, but you guys should take the first step to heal yourselves slowly alright?”

“Thanks, I’m glad you are supportive of this decision. But do me a favor and don’t tell the other’s first alright? I don’t want Eli to start going on and on about this and-“

Before I could continue however, our attention was diverted to a bunch of Crescent members running back to the house at lightning speed carrying a bunch of injured members, they were so fast that they did not notice us and just went ahead inside. Confused by the urgency, we decided to follow them and went back into the house where they had gotten the 2 pack doctors to treat the injured, I followed suit and got my pack doctors to help them out.

It was not till we saw the injured that I finally realised why I could smell my mate and why Marcel was feeling uncomfortable, she was the one who sustained the most injuries and I could smell her blood all over. I was feeling angry and had to restrain the urge to shift and attack the wolves who attacked my mate, but it would blow my cover and that was something I desperately wanted to avoid at all costs.

Will seemed to sense my unease as Jax was panicking over her, making me growl lowly as we walked out, he called for Jax to come and speak to us about the situation. Though he was reluctant to leave the injured and his mate, Benjamin assured him to join us outside as we waited for him.

“Hello Marcel and Will, I’m sorry I haven’t properly welcomed you guys yet due to the attack and injured you saw earlier, but welcome back to the Crescent Falls territory son.”

It took every bit of willpower in me to force out a small smile as I stuck my hand out with a slight nod in response to his warm, if rather late, welcome. Though I was dying to not let my feral side take over as I replied to him with the most amount of calmness I could muster at that point.

“Likewise, thank you Jax. What happened though? And why is there a human here?”

Will looked at me with a slightly surprised expression as I asked about Hui Zhong, or as much as my self-control would permit at that moment. It was difficult to ask something about someone that I was feeling conflicted about.

“Well, a few of the young betas and alphas ganged up on her, angry that I let her join our party because of her father. But they didn’t know that she was the one who saved Benjamin from the rogues. With that misunderstanding, they took it upon themselves to try to kill her for her …….‘misdeeds’. However, they didn’t know that she’s skilled in martial arts and she used that to her advantage, managing to hold them off for a while till the one who was thrown to the cells shifted and went for her shoulder. That’s why she was bleeding so badly.”

I growled and turned around to punch the trunk of the tree behind me in my anger, causing both to be a little startled. No doubt they were startled by my sudden shoot of anger at the disrespect to our mate, but I couldn’t openly admit since Marcel hadn’t accepted her yet.

“You alright Marcel? You seem pretty worked up over it, you’ve never met my friend before though, or have you? Even if you did, why would you?” He said with a raised eyebrow after regaining his composure, suspicious by my reaction to what happened to her.

The forest however, seemed agree with my sentiment as it remained eerily silent while carrying the echo of my growl through the area where we stood. She was clearly innocent of being a hunter, having become a doctor and travelling parts of the world incognito, so what was the ‘crime’ that she did?

“It’s nothing, but it disgusts me how young wolves take the safety and peace that they have for granted when we’ve fought so hard for it, and now they go around attacking humans? Don’t they know that they’ll be banished?!?.............Never mind about that, how long will she be out?”

“I should think for a few days, a week at most. But she will recover, Margaret’s healing her so she’ll live. But she needs plenty of rest and then she’ll be fine”.

A huge wave of relief washed over me as I regained my composure completely, relieved that our mate was alive and fine, injured but fine. I nodded and finally removed my hand from the tree trunk before making my way back into the house.

“That’s good, at least she won’t have life-threatening scars after that. I think we should go back in, since the weather is getting colder by the day and Benjamin misses you too, you should go spend time with your Luna. Keep me updated alright Jax?”

Jax nodded and entered first, hurrying to join his beloved mate while Will and I sat on the couch, feeling exhausted suddenly. Sensing my lethargy, he mind-linked the others to take over the settling of our members while I was just on the couch, trying to catch my breath.

“Alpha, do you wish to visit her? Eli said that the healers had sent them to the infirmary to recuperate, so you could spend some time with her there without having any awkward interactions.”

I nodded and got up, we made our way to the infirmary, where our beautiful mate was lying on the bed, sleeping soundly. I pulled out the nearest chair and sat on it, taking a sip of water from the bottle Will brought from the kitchen before I waved him off, giving a nod of assurance that he could go back to Marie and take a rest as we were all exhausted from the events of the day.

As Will excused himself quietly, I turned back and kept vigil over our mate, admiring her features while thinking of how much worse the outcome would’ve been if she didn’t make use of her skills to protect herself, this was trapping my attention for I loved having a partner who knew a move or two.

It was just one of the things I’ve come to enjoy whenever I watch Marcel do it as a form of stress relief, sparring in wolf or human form was a hobby that both of us shared and something I hoped we could enjoy with our mate when things would finally come together in the future, but just enjoy what was given in the present.

Perhaps it was the lethargy, or something else, but the effects of not sleeping for a full day came in one shot the moment I sat down. It was not a pleasant feeling as my body felt so heavy but perhaps this was a sign that I needed to rest, and I had some time for a nap before dinner, so why not?

I closed and soon fell asleep, thankful for the Moon Goddess’s mercy for letting us have and meet a second mate.