by Elsa Aarden
Cecil went to have a seat. He pulled out a chair and sat at the table. “Rowan to.ld me to talk with his family,” Cecil said in a quiet tone.
“We’re his pack, not necessarily his family,” Gun said. “You can’t speak with his family.” He approached the table and took a seat as well.
Whatever that meant, Cecil only nodded. He flinched when Gun scowled at him. “W-What’s wrong?”
“How did you get Rowan’s scent on you?” Gun asked. “It’s faint, but I can smell it from here. It didn’t just rub off on you. It was intentional.”
Cecil rested his hand on his head, where Rowan had nuzzled him earlier. “I don’t know why. He said it’s for his fam—pack to know. Rowan also said that I’m important to him. Something about a mate. I still don’t understand what he meant.”
Gun stood, shoving his chair with the back of his knees. Cecil jolted at the chair clattering on the beige tile flooring. Gun paced out of the kitchen as he grumbled something under his breath.
Again, Cecil didn’t know what was going on. They made him feel as if he were the only one who didn’t know something. They didn’t bother to tell him everything either. He tried to follow Gun along the hallway, but Gun was gone. Cecil leaned back when another man came in his direction.
The man stopped, looking down on Cecil. “Gun just told me. The scent on you is my Alpha’s. Why?”
Why did they refer to Rowan as Alpha? Was that his middle name? “Rowan said it’s for his pack to know and said the word mate,” he answered with hesitation. “I explained this to Gun, and he left. I don’t know why. Is it a bad thing?”
“Who are you?” the man asked. “Are you pretending to be some sort of victim and lure in my Alpha? He would never put his scent on you and call you mate before telling his pack. You did something.”
Cecil stepped backward in the hallway when the massive man came closer. Being hit by him would break a few bones. “I’m not lying. I don’t know why he did that. He just said I’m important to him.” He raised his arms in front of his face when the man pointed at him. For a second there, he thought the man would hit him. If he showed anger, why didn’t he?
“Prove it,” he said. “I don’t know who you are or where you came from. All I know is that my Alpha is not a teenager. This is such a childish decision.”
“Please, ask him. I don’t know why.” Cecil walked backward until he hit the wall. He stumbled over the small cabinet and fell along with the flower vase. Everything broke to pieces under him.
The man scoffed. “See what you did? Now you need to pay for…”
Cecil followed the man’s line of sight and saw Rowan standing at the end of the hallway. He flinched when the large man took off running in the opposite direction. Rowan chased after him at an incredible speed. When they turned the corner into the kitchen, Cecil heard frightening growls. Things broke in the kitchen, and they created a loud ruckus. It was much louder compared to the times when his father had been the angriest.
“What happened?” Stella asked as she approached Cecil.
“They…” Cecil paused and managed to get up. He winced away as soon as he put his hand on a piece of broken porcelain. In his worry to check on Rowan, he got hurt. But he didn’t care. He clenched his bleeding hand and paced to the kitchen. When he peeked inside, Rowan and the other man were panting. They stood there, facing each other. While Rowan glared, the other wore an apologetic expression.
Stella walked into the kitchen. “Does anyone care to explain what’s going on here? You two made a mess in the kitchen. Landen, looks like you caused trouble again. Being in heat doesn’t mean you can behave however you want.”
In heat? Cecil tilted his head. The weather wasn’t hot. Had Landen been burned? “Can you please not fight?” he asked in a whisper.
Chapter Five
Rowan scowled at Landen. “Why do you think my scent is on him?”
Landen turned his head down. “Because he’s your mate, Alpha.”
“Why did you scare him, then?” Rowan asked. He had to be careful with his voice tone. Cecil was scared enough, and his hand was bleeding now.
“He’s human,” Landen said. “I didn’t know how to react to my Alpha’s mate being a human. I apologize, Alpha.”
Cecil came into the kitchen. “I was the one who broke those things. Sorry,” he said, averting his gaze.
In a matter of seconds, the pack members in the house came to see what they were doing.
“Cecil is my mate. Now all of you know why he has my scent on him. I thought I didn’t have to explain the obvious.”
“He’s so fragile, though,” Gun said from among the crowd. “Isn’t it better to wait for another mate to come along? There are plenty for an Alpha. More importantly, why didn’t you tell us anything? Did you think we would reject Cecil as your mate, or that we would keep quiet because of the scent? We’re supposed to not have these sorts of secrets in the pack.”
Rowan scowled, causing the pack to step aside from Gun. “Why are you suddenly deciding to question me?”
Gun held his head high. “You’re putting us in a bad position here, Alpha,” he said. “For an Alpha to truly be an Alpha, you must be trusted. It’s the same for the pack. What do you think the pack will believe if the Alpha hides something right in front of our faces? Or is it that you’re embarrassed to have a human mate? Are you embarrassed of Cecil?”
He didn’t know how to answer all those questions. Rowan switched his attention back to Cecil, whose hand was still bleeding. He wouldn’t dare use that as an obvious excuse to stop the conversation. An Alpha could never show weakness. He looked away when Cecil turned to him.
“I think there’s no need to continue this in front of everyone, for your sake, Alpha,” Gun said and walked away.
Rowan got a hold of Cecil’s wrist and chased Gun. “Wait,” he said. Gun stopped in his tracks. “I’m not going to stand here and pretend like everything is all right. Cecil is my mate, and I don’t want to wait for another to come by. I want it to be him. I did think that the pack would be against this. Any pack would want someone powerful to stand next to their Alpha.”
“If you’d gone with that from the start, this didn’t have to happen,” Gun said. He approached them, causing Cecil to hide behind Rowan. “You have been a capable Alpha since the beginning. The pack isn’t in need of someone strong to join us. We would only make a fuss if that were the case.”
Rowan looked over at the rest of the pack. They were agreeing with Gun. “If that’s the case, I’m going to need all of you to accept Cecil. What Landen did…”
“Don’t worry. He’s in heat right now. He didn’t mean it,” Stella said from the entrance of the kitchen. “Anyway, now that this is out of the way, we have to get back to work. Some of you are late to what you have to do. Move along. There’s nothing to see here.”
The pack dispersed. “Mia,” Rowan called as she was walking away. “Take a look at Cecil’s hand. It’s bleeding.”
“Of course. Cecil, let me see your hand.” Mia checked her medical bag. She was already on her way to work. “All of his blood test results will be ready by the end of today. I’m sure he’s fine.”
Rowan watched attentively as Mia treated Cecil. “Do you have the results to any of the tests?”
Mia nodded, wiping Cecil’s hand. “He doesn’t have any concerning diseases,” she answered. “I got off work before I could check all the results. You don’t need to worry. He only needs to upgrade his diet and exercise. He was in that house for far too long. It’s unfortunate, but he got his workouts done by running away from his father and dodging him.”
With Cecil’s hand treated, Rowan led Cecil back to his bedroom. “You haven’t said a word in a while.”
Cecil looked away. “I’m causing you trouble by being here.”
“I’m the one who caused trouble for myself,” Rowan said. He went to sit on the bed, and Cecil followed him. Perhaps his pack was right. Cecil was too fragile. The human did
n’t even know what a relationship was. Was he burying himself up to his neck by picking Cecil as his mate?
Cecil sat next to Rowan slowly. “Then, are you upset with me?”
Rowan sighed. “You haven’t done anything wrong, Cecil.” He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his thighs. There were many things that Cecil couldn’t understand. Cecil was like a difficult project yet to be started. He had no idea where to begin. “Cecil,” he said, switching his attention to him, “before your father became that way, were you ever happy?”
“Maybe when I was very young,” Cecil said in thought. “He was nice whenever we went outside, always near to the house. Father used to have a friend that worried about him, so he wanted to show his friend that we were happy. Just the two of us.”
With a nod, Rowan turned to Cecil. They could start from there. “When did your father stop letting you go outside?”
Cecil cast his head down. “When his friend started to ask if I had to go to school like the other kids,” he said. “At first, my father let me watch movies. I couldn’t understand when there were words, but I learned how to speak many new words. My father is a teacher and he talks a lot, so I also learned that way, too. Sometimes he talks to my mother, alone.”
Rowan felt a big weight fall off his shoulders. That meant Cecil had lived through movies. “If that’s the case, do you know how people interact? Do you know what it means to have a relationship?”
“I’m not that sure,” Cecil said, scratching the back of his neck. “Father only showed me horror movies. There were many with a lot of deaths and crime. I always took the side of the innocent people, so maybe…yes?”
Horror movies? Rowan was back to feeling helpless. How could any parent only show that sort of content to their child? Well, there was no surprise there. The man wanted to make Cecil become afraid of going outside, as well as getting used to violence. Instead of fighting back against Cecil’s father, he should have made the man pay for his actions. The guy had gone mad due to his girlfriend’s passing. He stared when Cecil moved closer to him.
“Why are you making that face?” Cecil asked quietly. “Is my answer wrong?”
Rowan barely changed his expression, but Cecil noticed it. “There is no right or wrong answer for this. I do have another question for you,” he said. “No matter what your background is like, what sort of person are you attracted to? If you don’t know what I mean by this, it’s when you want to be around someone because you like them in some way.”
Cecil took a moment to answer. As usual, he held the bottom hem of his shirt. “You.”
Rowan’s chest squeezed. For brief second, he lost his composure and let his mouth fall open. This was Cecil, though. The human most likely meant that he was Cecil’s aid. He couldn’t trick himself into believing that his mate was attracted to him the way he wanted. “That’s all right,” Rowan said mostly to himself. “Still, in what way?” He was asking too much from Cecil. He knew it.
“I feel alone when you’re not with me,” Cecil answered, looking away. “I feel like…you’re the good guy that gets together with the person you saved in the end. I don’t know how to explain feelings very well. My father never asks me about how I feel.”
Rowan looked at Cecil for a long moment. “Do you see yourself as that saved person?”
Cecil clenched the hem of his shirt again. “Maybe. That person is important to the good guy, and you said I’m important to you.” His words became gradually quieter, but Rowan heard it all.
“Do you know what they do when they start a relationship?” Rowan asked. He knew Cecil could be having a headache from thinking so much, but he had to ask. He needed to know if he had to find a different mate, as a last resort to letting Cecil go as one.
“Yes,” Cecil said, “they also kiss a lot and hug. I can say that I’m old enough to know exactly what that is.”
If this continued, they wouldn’t go straight to the point. Rowan stood and faced Cecil, who leaned back slightly. “Don’t feel pressured to answer. Cecil, do you know what a relationship between two individuals really is? Do you have any idea what kissing like that means?”
Cecil looked away and back up at Rowan. For a few seconds, Cecil remained quiet, as if gathering all the information he knew. “I think I know. When two people love each other, they want to do those things. I heard them talk about it on television, but I don’t understand all of it. I’ve never done these things, so I don’t know what it’s like. Why do you ask?”
“When you think about me, do you want to? This is not something you should do with everyone you care about.” He felt that he was questioning Cecil. The amount of pressure he was putting on Cecil could backfire. “You don’t have to answer. You’re not being forced to do anything, and I’m not your father.”
This time, Cecil didn’t say a word for a long while. Rowan didn’t budge and waited. Cecil was clearly uncomfortable, but this was an important matter for them.
“My answer is that I’m not completely sure. I need to understand first.”
That was fair. For the most part, he was glad Cecil chose to make his own decision. His mate didn’t believe he was being forced to say yes. “We have time to talk about this. There is still a lot you need to learn, so I’m going to respect your space.”
“That’s nice of you,” Cecil said with a quiet tone. “If you don’t mind, I have something to ask. I’ve always wanted to learn how to read. I was wondering if you could help me, only if you’re not too busy.”
Was this request because Cecil wanted to keep Rowan in sight? That couldn’t be. Cecil wasn’t the deceiving type to get what he wanted. Or was he? “I might have time tonight, after dinner. Until then, you can ask someone in the pack to teach you. Landen isn’t in any condition to help you, as you already know.”
“I’ll wait, then,” Cecil said with a nod. “Are you leaving now?”
“I was in the middle of solving a problem,” Rowan said. “Don’t be afraid to talk with the pack. They accept you now.”
Cecil nodded. “I’ll try. It didn’t go well the first time.”
Rowan pondered if he should approach Cecil to soothe his worries. He couldn’t always be around to keep Cecil in his bubble forever. Cecil had to burst that bubble on his own. “Call for me if you need anything. I won’t be too busy to check up on you, so don’t worry.”
Chapter Six
Cecil yawned, barely able to keep his head up. Shaking his head, he tried his best to stay awake.
“Cecil, are you getting tired?”
“I’m okay,” Cecil said under his breath. Gun had been teaching him how to read. He appreciated it, but his brain was frying after three hours of intense learning. “What’s next?”
Gun pointed at a word on a book. “Can you try to read this? I’ll let you rest after this. You’re doing great.”
Cecil scratched the back of his neck. He was about ready to fall asleep at the kitchen dinner table. Leaning closer, he squinted at the book. “Im…? Immedia— What’s this?” He put his finger under the letter. He had to think of what the word could be by how the beginning sounded. “Immediate. Yes, it’s that word.”
“You should go and get some sleep. You’re lucky—you’re a quick learner. We can continue tomorrow,” Gun said. He stood and closed the book. “Rowan must still be busy. He hasn’t checked on you yet.”
“I’m okay. We can keep reading more. If I’m bothering you, then we should stop now,” Cecil said.
Gun chuckled. “You’re almost falling asleep while you speak. Go to bed. I’m going to rest as well.”
Cecil nodded. “If you say so. I’m just going to…” He crossed his arms on the table and rested his head down. Closing his eyes brought him immense relief.
“Hey, you can’t sleep here. What if you catch a cold?” Gun held Cecil’s forearm and pulled him up. “Come on, it’s time to go.”
In a daze, Cecil went with Gun, looking down. “I think I need to sleep. Sorry.”
Gun
let out a laugh. “No need to apologize. I was the one who exhausted you.”
“You’re nice,” Cecil murmured. He turned his head up when Gun opened the door of Rowan’s bedroom. Cecil was a tad more alert as he took in Rowan’s scent. “Can I ask you something?”
“What is it?” Gun lifted the covers. He rested his hands on Cecil’s shoulders and sat him on the bed.
Cecil squeezed the bottom hem of his shirt. “What do you think of…Rowan?”
Gun raised a brow, and Cecil averted his gaze. “Well, he can be cold sometimes, but he’s a good guy at heart. He took a lot of us in and created a good pack system. I’d say that he can be a tricky guy, though. One moment he’s cold, but the other he’s more affectionate. It’s whatever he feels in certain situations.”
They kept talking about some sort of pack. Cecil’s curiosity took the best of him. “What is a pack? Is it the same as a family?”
“Depends on the pack system,” Gun answered. He glanced over his shoulder before he regarded Cecil again. “I don’t know when Rowan is going to tell you, but this might be the right moment. There’s still a lot of things you don’t know about in this world, after all.”
Cecil tilted his head. “You’re going to tell me something?”
Gun put the book on the nightstand and sat next to Cecil, his weight dipping the mattress. “Cecil, everyone in this house is special. There are other special people out there like us, as well. You’re tired, so I’ll make this short. Cecil, we are…wolves. The common term is werewolves, and that’s what we are. You’re not a wolf, and not everyone out there knows about us. That’s why we call you human sometimes.”
“But you look like a person,” Cecil said. What did Gun mean by wolves? As far as he knew, wolves looked like dogs. In the movies, wolves were always scary creatures.
“We’re still people. The difference is that we have another side to us,” Gun said. He raised his hand.
Cecil was wide awake as Gun’s hand grew fur. It turned into a large dog paw. “Amazing!” Cecil clenched his own hand, but he couldn’t do the same. He stared at Gun. “Can Rowan do this?”