The Wolf and the Natural ✔️

~•23•~

Arlis winced as he stood up from the couch, grabbing his healing stomach. "Ugh. Regretting that entire fight right about now."

I nodded. "You did what you had to do." I replied courteously, helping him up from the couch.

Earlier I had tried to just get him to continue laying down and for me to do all his duties, but that turned into an argument resulting in me curled up in his arms on the couch and him saying that he'd mark me again if I tried to take away his manliness by doing all his errands.

I oh so wanted to try and take away his manliness. Just for the euphoria of being marked again. But now... now just wasn't the time.

He walked to the bar and stumbled forward, licking his lips as he downed another glass of water.

He wrinkled his nose and rubbed his temples. "I can't believe you let me fight him." He leaned against the bar.

"I did not let you. In fact I remember specifically telling you that you shouldn't but..." I trailed off and rolled my eyes. "Are we going to talk about what Haley said?"

"Yeah are we going to talk about what Haley said? All you did was flip me off." She sat on the opposite couch from where me and Arlis were sitting, her hair all over the place from the many times she ran her hand through it.

Papers were spread out in front of us, some from our pack and some from hers.

I had to admit, I almost wanted to hate her. But she was too bubbly for that. Not a Dalia bubbly where she was happy but also shielded. Or a Melloni bubbly where her bubble was thorny and easily petty. But like an actual bubble where she popped easy and floated around and brought joy to everything.

People came in and left. Jonah and Melloni stopped by for a couple minutes before leaving, a glass of wine and candles was left behind them as a present to us.

Leif came by with Maddie, both freshly marked and reeking of a smell I had never smelled. At least not that strongly. Everyone laughed at me when I brought it up but nobody would tell me what it was. Of course, shortly after that little joke on me I realized what it was.

Dalia and Travis stopped by once again and Dalia congratulated us on me being marked, something Dalia had forget to do earlier today.

But now, the sun was down and everything was quiet. We had been quiet for hours now. The TV played quietly, it was Saturday night and all that was on was Christmas movies.

Rudolph the red nosed reindeer played softly on the television as a blizzard raged outside, the cabin creaking every once in a while from the wind.

The fireplace was lit and the lights were all off. At a glance it was picture perfect. I was with someone I didn't ever want to leave, I was happy, and friends came by to check on us.

But in depth, the picture was very morbid. Arlis was healing from a near death experience. Our friend (the most powerful witch on the planet) has apparently gone Rogue in the witchy way, a new word to me but a familiar concept; dividus is the word the Witches used when one of them went Rogue. When they're witchy, demonic, animalistic, powerful side too control and their human side had no control over them. When their power overcame their body.

Along side that, Haley was now an orphan and had to learn everything about how to be an Alpha (I was supposed to be learning too). And I say "supposed" to be learning, because I wasn't paying attention.

I was too busy thinking about my parents and how worried sick they were. I'd been in the pack for nearly a month. It didn't seem like that long, but days either droned on here or past like a blink. The Christmas movies made me think of my mom and Chance, we used to stay up late and watch them. And the music reminded me of my dad, we used to sing all the songs together.