Time Suck [vampire! reader insert]

Chapter 15 [cold truth]

Before you knew it, you and Noah managed to tear through the forest and arrive at the werewolf hideout.

Noah pressed his lips together as he looked at the groups of werewolves that were scattered around the old lake. It was clearly their territory, the whole place reeked of the very particular scent that dogs carry. Some of them were in their human forms but an overwhelming majority were sitting around as animals, bodys relaxed but their ears were perked up. They knew they were here they just didn't show it. An unrecognizable scent.

What struck both of you the most was that the old lake in the middle of the hideout had a muddy brownish-green color to it, with piles of garbage stretched across the shore some if not most of it still floating in this water. The pollution was something you weren't able to take your eyes off of for a few good seconds until you saw a woman werewolf plunge her hands into it and retrieve a pair of ragged sweatpants. Despite the wet material practically falling apart in her hands she looked at it with a keen eye before folding it and taking it with her. All those clothes the wolf people were wearing were essentially trash, things that people threw away.

"Why is all that trash there?" Noah asked, gripping the side of your coat.

"Humans will usually throw their waste away in places with not a lot of people, like rivers and oceans." The white-haired werewolf Pius said, walking up to the both of you. "There is a way bigger pile of trash at the base of that hill, looks like they ran out of room and decided to throw the rest here."

You furrowed your eyebrows. "If this place is polluted than why are you still staying here?"

"We can still drink water from this lake, the other side is not as muddy as this one and some fishes still managed to survive."

"What? You shouldn't drink water from a lake that's this polluted even if it "looks better in some places"." You looked into the chief's son's miss-matched eyes with clear annoyance. You didn't mean to get so worked up but seeing young children amongst the werewolves who could potentially drink that water made you sick.

"This has been our land for years." The young male said in a cold tone. "We are staying here because of tradition, you cannot simply abandon what's yours because of small inconveniences."

"Those inconveniences may cost the lives of some of your people." You replied with an equal amount of coldness.

At your side, Noah began to think that he might just freeze over with the amount of hostility both of you radiated, how did it even come to this?

"With all respect, Quaesitor sanguis but this is our tradition, it doesn't help that I already disrespected it by allowing you onto our territory. Don't advocate for things you don't understand." The male collected himself letting out an annoyed exhale. "When you're ready to talk to my father come looking for me." He said before strolling away.

Groaning under your breath you walked over to the piles of waste spread out across the shore, your eyes mindlessly skeeming over the broken bottles, cans, and pieces of plastic.

"This...was something I didn't expect…" Noah breathed out making your gaze wander back to him. He was clearly shaken, fiddling with his fingers and looking around with caution at the werewolves that were seemingly paying you no attention.

"Well, …werewolves were always like that." You answered.

"Like what…?"

"Stubborn and single-minded." You murmured loudly enough so that only the boy could hear. Crouching down you picked up an old, rusted knife from the stack of garbage. "Back in the day creatures used to fight with each other a lot more, but since those days are over their aggressive and hostile behavior does them no good." Gripping the weapon by the wet wooden handle you weren't surprised to see it break apart in your hands, the aged blade falling back onto the mount of junk. "I'm surprised they let us in here, looks like that one time I helped the former chief has really paid off."