Lone Wolf | SIRIUS BLACK

Chapter Fifty Three

|    W H E N     T H E Y     F A L L |

July, 1997

THERE WERE stone cottages, dappled greys and beiges, set around the perimeter of a circular meadow. This wasn't what I envisioned when I thought of how werewolves lived, with flower boxes teeming with fresh cut wildflowers and brightly painted front doors; plum purple, sunset orange, robin's egg blue.

Rhea's hand was still in mine, pulling me along, toward the house in the centre; hers.  It was no bigger or fancier than the others, nothing more than one floor with one end designated for the kitchen and small living room and the other for the bedroom and bathroom.  They actually had—

"I see you're surprised by our indoor plumbing."  Rhea was leaning against the archway separating the two sides of the cottage from each other, her expression warm when she looked upon me.

Old Cassie would've shrunk back, believing herself undeserving of compassion, but as new and improved Cassandra, I just returned her smile. "I didn't think you went against a tree but..."

"I get it. You were—" Rhea stopped to correct herself, "are a witch, as well as the werewolf. Your knowledge about each isn't extensive."

"Not particularly." I admitted, threading my fingers together before pulling them apart. It was a calming mechanism Remus practised, along with eating lots of chocolate, and although it didn't completely soothe the nerves fluttering inside of me, the reminder of him was enough to relax me.

Rhea nodded, now looking half absent from our conversation, and she looked over her shoulder back to the kitchen. "You've come a long way, would you like something to eat?"

The sudden, grumbling roar of my stomach told her enough. "Do you have anything with chocolate?"

~

As it turned out, while Rhea didn't have chocolate stocking her pantry shelves, Gabriel did. That made me like him a little more, although he was still pretty arrogant.

But, I had fallen for the personification of arrogance, so I wasn't really the best judge (not that I would tell Gabriel that).

After I was done wolfing down a four course meal — a nice balance of meat to fruits and vegetables, much to my surprise — Rhea informed me the werewolf council was gathering. I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that there were packs of werewolves, even though I had had my own makeshift pack with Remus, James, Sirius and Peter. A werewolf council was enough to spin me into an anxious episode, but I was mellowed by all of the chocolate I'd eaten.

"You've stated your case," Rhea explained to me as we walked through the forest to the meeting spot, a clearing nearby.  "You may have to make it again, though.  I will do my best to convince everyone but you are still foreign to them."

She looked pointedly at the wand I carried strapped to my hip.  I hadn't questioned bringing it to the gathering.  "None of them were wizard-kind before they were transformed?"

"That's not it.  Many of them don't wish to relive their past.  Like you, they have been pushed to the outskirts, vilified for a curse they have no control over."