On A Stormy Night

Ch. 18 The Sad Wizard

Elena

I woke up to my alarm blaring at 5 o’clock. I reached over Liam’s head, careful not to wake him up, and turned it off. My phone started ringing and I quickly got up to answer it.

“Hello,” I said groggily.

“Good morning,” a cheerful voice responded from the other end of the line.

“Morning,” I said with a yawn, before slowly stretching my arms into the air. 

“I just thought I’d make sure you were awake, I’d hate for you to be late on your first day,” Alec said.

“Thank you, I really appreciate it. I gotta jump in the shower though.”

“Yeah, I figured you wouldn’t have much time to talk. What time are you thinking about leaving?”

“Six, probably,” I answered, digging through my clothes for something to wear.

“Okay. I’ll send someone to your room to keep an eye on Liam until he wakes up, then he can go and play with the other children.”

“Thanks, he seemed happy playing with them yesterday. Hopefully he’ll make some friends,” I said smiling to myself. “Well I have to go so I can get in the shower.”

“K, not that you need it but good luck. I know you’ll do awesome. Oh, and I’ll have a car waiting out front to drive you to work since you don’t have one.”

“Thank you, I hadn’t even thought of that,” I said shaking my head. “Will I see you when I get off?”

“Of course! I’ll most likely pick you up myself,” he said, sounding a little distracted.

“Okay,” I said shyly.

“See you then,” he said, before hanging up.

I laid my phone down, finally selected some clothes, and jumped in the shower. I was towel drying my hair when I heard a quiet knock on the door. I threw my towel on the bathroom floor and went to answer it. It was a woman I recognized from the playroom yesterday.

“Good morning,” I said politely and stepped aside to let her in.

“Good morning Luna! I’m Daphne, Alpha said you needed me to watch Liam while you go to work?” She asked.

“Yes, that would be great. Are you the one that watched him before?” I asked, wanting to know a little about her.

“Yes ma’am. He’s a delightful little boy,” she said with a smile and a nod.

“You can just call me Elena,” I said blushing, a little embarrassed at being called ma’am. “Thank you for taking care of him before, and now.”

“Oh, of course Luna! Anything you need!” She said with a genuine smile.

I smiled at her then walked over and kissed Liam on the forehead. I thanked her again, told her I’d see her later, and went downstairs. I stopped by the kitchen and grabbed a banana and a mug of coffee before going to meet my ride. It was a  black SUV. There was an older man standing beside the passenger side door. He looked a little familiar to me, but he must just have one of those faces because there was no way I knew him. He opened the door and patiently waited for me to get into the car.

"Hello Luna, I'll be driving you to work,” he said.

"Hi, you can just call me Elena. I was wondering, if it’s possible, tomorrow could I drive myself? I just hate to bother you with something that I could do,” I said blushing.

"I'm sorry, but the Alpha wants me to do it. It’s really no bother,” he said, before closing my door and walking around to get in the driver's seat.

"I guess I’ll just have to talk to him about it then. It’s ridiculous for you to have to waste your time, I’m sure there are more important things for you to do,” I said, glancing out the window to take in the scenery. “Oh, what's your name by the way?" I asked, turning back to look at him. 

We had some time and might as well have a small chat. It would also help calm my first day jitters which were even worse because it was my first actual job. I’d just recently graduated from college and finished my internship before we moved.

"My name’s Fredrick. There's no need for that miss. I truly don't mind, I have nothing else to do,” he said, looking over at me smiling.

"If it's no problem then I guess it's alright for now, but I'm still going to bring it up to Alec. Well Fredrick since we have time to chat, I was wondering what it’s like to live in a pack?" 

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm not from this pack. I just live near here with my wife and son,” he explained.

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, "I don't understand, you're not in this pack? Then why are you here? And how do you know about them? Are you like an outside werewolf? What would they call that? Isn't-," in my curiosity I babbled my questions one right after the other. 

I didn’t stop to think that I might’ve been asking too much at once. Until I was interrupted with an, "Ahem.”

"Whoa miss, I'm sorry. That’s a lot of questions you want me to answer, and some of them I'm afraid I can't answer right now,” he said with a chuckle. 

I looked down at my hands a bit embarrassed.

"Sorry, I tend to get excited when I'm curious about something,” I whispered apologetically.

"It's fine, my son is just like you when it comes to curiosity. How about this. I'll answer a few today, and a few tomorrow, and so on and so forth?" He said with a smile.

I don't know why but I had the sudden urge to hug him. Which confused me why on Earth would I want to hug a complete stranger? I asked myself. I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head. I must be going crazy with everything going on.

I smiled, "Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. You must have some questions for me too, right? It's only fair, if I ask a question, you should ask one too,” I said, as we stopped at a red light.

He turned to look at me and asked,"What was your childhood like? Did you have friends? Well of course you had friends,” he said answering his own question with a shake of his head. I laughed at his silliness.

"I guess my childhood wasn't perfect, but I did have amazing adopted parents," I said with a smile. The atmosphere in the car drastically changed, it became quite tense. It was kind of scary.

"Um, is everything ok? Did I say something wrong?" I asked in a small voice, suddenly the atmosphere changed again.

"Sorry I shouldn't have scared you like that. It's just, when I heard you were adopted it made me a little mad,” he said, his voice full of sadness.

"It's fine, but I don't know why you would be upset about it,” I said, a little confused.

"Well you see, I had a daughter who was taken away from me, and it makes me think of her,” he said.

“Why’s that?”

“Well, I guess I just don’t understand how someone could take aw—, I mean give away something so precious,” he said, appearing a little teary eyed.

“I’m sorry Fredrick.” 

We rode the rest of the way in silence. It was only about ten minutes, but it was a sad ten minutes.