Ivory

FOUR*

Four hours later the two of us walked up the front steps of the pack house to four very upset looking werewolves, one of which I had never met but could only assume was Talia's twin brother by how similar they looked. They had the same red hair and hazel eyes, but he looked as though he took more of the burden on whatever had happened between the two of them.

John and Zander looked at me with unreadable expressions and Parker looked bored out his mind. Did I expect anything less from the notorious beta? No, not in the least. I was actually surprised he was there at all.

As we approached with the car driver carrying a third of our bags, or should I say Talia's bags, I became a little self-conscious. I had left without telling anyone and was most likely in deep trouble with John and possibly Zander. The thing was, I didn't regret one second of it. Talia was awesome and absolutely adorable.

In the short hours that we had been shopping I had gotten to know her and vice versa.

She and her brother, Josh, had grown up rogues and their father had constantly abused them. The night they ran away their father he had tried to rape Natalia. Considering what has happened in her life she's been able to keep a smile on her face. I knew that if I had almost been raped I wouldn't be able to hold anything together. I would be a mess and probably want to kill myself.

The two of us had bonded and I was actually considering staying because of this girl, one of the rare I could actually call a friend. No one in my old pack had been nice to me like, except for Bryce's younger brother Austin. He was the only one in the pack had made an effort to make me feel a like someone was on my side. When others weren't looking he would send me smiles and on occasions he would talk to me. Austin was around the same age as Talia and they were alike in many ways.

"Conrad," John said to the driver carrying our bags with a steely voice, "take all the bags up to Natalia's room."

Conrad took the bags from Talia and I and disappeared into the house with an annoyed sigh. I would have loved to help him instead of him having to be the pack mule, but I was actually afraid that if I made a move to help John would begin to yell at me.

"Natalia," he continued in much the same tone, "you and Josh go and have some lunch. You are dismissed."

As she left, Talia sent me an apologetic look. A look that I knew far too well. The look that Austin had given me when he knew that his brother and mine were in a 'mood'. It was the look that told me that I was in deep shit.

And from the look on his face I was right. His gaze bored into me like a disapproving father, and I couldn't help but feel ashamed of myself. One of us should have taken the time to tell him where we were going before we left.

He said nothing as Zander and Parker turned around and walked through the doors of the pack house. We stared at each other for a few moments until I found my shoes far more interesting. At least they weren't staring at me like they were contemplating which way to kill me.

Finally, he sighed and began to talk after what felt like hours. "Do you have any idea what could have happened?" he asked.

I nodded, I knew exactly what could have happened if I had left the pack house on my own. The rest of the pack would signal me as a rogue and I would either go straight back to the dungeon or be immediately put to death. In the years at my old pack I had seen a great deal of rogue deaths, and it was absolutely painful to watch, if it hadn't been mandatory I most likely would have skipped every one of them.

He walked towards me and gently placed his hand on my shoulder. The heat that emanates from it was amazing, even for a werewolf. It was like a personal heater in his hand, and I absolutely loved it. His arm wrapped around my shoulder and I felt much shorter in comparison, since I only came up to his sternum.