Chapter 12

When we got back to the house what I expected was not what I got. I expected to see an empty house, not... not Dalia and Leif making out on the couch, his hand up her shirt.2

"GET THE HELL OFF MY SISTER YOU CREEP!" Jonah stormed up to Leif and before Leif could move, Jonah pulled him off of Dalia. "She's not your mate!" Jonah yelled in Leif's face, slamming him against the wall, shaking the picture next to them.

Dalia pulled Jonah off of him, rolling her eyes dramatically. "Oh shut up Jonah, you're just not team Lelia." She said, annoyed, but chuckling.2

"I'm not saying it again, GRACIE IS SEVEN!" Arlis yelled and the entire room shut up. "Leif, you need to leave." Leif didn't move, he was too startled. "I SAID GET OUT!" He snarled and Leif ran from the house, slamming the door shut behind him.

Dalia widened her eyes. "Honestly, Arlis, it's not a big deal." Those were the wrong words to say, apparently.

The back of Arlis's neck started sprouting hair, his fingers were elongating and I found that I was taking steps back.

"KONRAD IS COMING BACK!" He yelled. "There! There it is!" He tugged at his hair, pacing around the kitchen. That's why he was so mad. The car ride here was silent, not even a single bicker. And now he could let it out. Not a good thing.

He threw the glass bowl of fruit across the kitchen, slamming against the fridge and making all of us jump.

"Kate, do something." Melloni panicked, her eyes wild with fear.

What could I do? OH! That thing in the job title description. That thing. "I don't know how to do that thing." I muttered to her, and she gave me a confused look.

"What thing?" She asked as Arlis began shifting in the kitchen, slowly. Why was he shifting slowly?

"CALMING HIM! DO IT!" Constance yelled.

Fuck I didn't know how to do that.

I walked to him and closed my eyes, refusing to watch his bones break slowly. I licked my lips in a scared type of anticipation. "Arlis." I whispered. "Arlis please calm down." The bones shifting grew slower until it was silence. "Arlis, Baby, please calm down."

I opened my eyes to see him curled into a ball as a human, his clothes ripped and barely hanging on him. He was shuddering as he cried silently. I felt a tear slip from my face as the ripped clothes fell away on his back, revealing white scars running down him like stripes.

I flipped him over to face me and his eyes were running.

I wiped my own crying eyes and laid on his chest. He brought me closer to him and kissed the top of my head. "If I die, take care of our pack." He said it so quietly, so gently, so fearful, that I realized that he was serious. He thought that if it came to it, he would die.

I looked up at him. "Why are you..." I couldn't even ask the question.

He kissed my forehead, still crying. "Because I'll kill myself before Konrad takes me again." He shuddered out and held me tighter, his arms wrapped around me as he pulled me tighter to him.2

"Arlis... do you want me to call Becker?" Constance asked, leaning down next to us. "You have people here that can help you deal with this, Arlis. You'll always have me, and Kate, and your family. You're not alone." She said, her eyes mirroring his,

Arlis nodded, wiping his face. "Thank you, Constance." He wiped my face with his palms. "I only trust the people in this room plus Becker. Nobody else needs to know about this." I thought about Chleo and his parents, but didn't say anything.

Constance nodded. "Of course." She walked away, and I realized that that was the kindest I had ever seen her.

"I'm uh... I'm going to go find mom and dad, see what's happening." Dalia left through the door, not offering anything else to say.

"I'll go... set these clothes up. Come on, Jonah." Melloni grabbed Jonah's hand and tugged him up the stairs to the guest room, or maybe Arlis's room.

I ran my hand through his hair, not surprised to find that it was softer than downy. "What did he do?" I couldn't help but ask.

I shouldn't have asked. It was a dumb question. He closed his eyes in remembrance. "We can't... I told you about silver." He started anyways, even though he clearly didn't want to talk about it. "We can't touch silver?"

I looked up at the silver chandelier. "Yeah."

"At the beginning of 1837, I was visited by Becker and Constance with the message that I was a descendent of the first ever werewolf to kill a Salem witch, that only my blood could kill a Salem Of The Old Witch." He licked his lips, gaining composure. "They made the Hunters, they are... the most powerful supernaturals in existence. Becker is the last one. It was him and his mom but his father, Konrad, grew jealous of their magic. Out of jealousy and greed, Konrad killed his wife and sucked in her magic through a special dagger."

I gasped as my heart fell for Becker, the man who nobody, at least those who really knew him, had bad things to say about.

"Becker was the only one who could kill Konrad, and only with my blood. Kasparov had tried to kill Konrad many times and always failed. Konrad killed Constance's mom too." Arlis was, at this point, trying so hard not to cry that his eyes were red and his face looked like it was burning.2

"Becker escaped his father, but Konrad found him. Becker scared him off and then came to me for help. I turned them down because I had heard about Konrad and nobody wanted to fight him. Especially not with just some 95 year old witch and a Hunter who just wanted to be feared. Children in the Supernatural world, shoot I was a child in the Supernatural world. I was barely 115.

And then Konrad found me. He liked the idea of keeping the strongest supernaturals on a leash, to himself. Power move.

He took me, Kasparov, and a Queen named Seralphira." He cleared his throat and softly banged the back of his head against the cabinet.

"It's okay, you don't have to... continue." I said, fearing for the very sanity of him.

He gave me a sad, half hearted smile. "No... I need to talk about it. After a couple days of starvation and low amounts of sleep, he stripped me of my clothes and held a silver blade against my back. I was just going to end it, but something... something held me back. I wasn't ready to give up. He took me to a bathroom," He gulped, shutting his eyes. "And he filled the tub halfway with water, and then poured the other half in with silver shavings. He forced me to lay in it and so... I did. I did because I was weak and powerless. He didn't know who I was at that point, that my blood would end him.2

"I stayed in the silver filled tub for a week, dying, begging, crying... just complete pain. And I couldn't move because everything was dead to me.

"Someone came in one day, Kasparov I think, and brought me a plate of food. He pulled me out of the water and forced me to eat.

"But we got caught. Konrad came in and laughed as he tore my back up with a silver belt. And then it was back to the silver bath where I couldn't heal.

"Constance and Becker came in, pulled me out, washed me off. And then fed me. An hour later, Becker stabbed me in the back. Literally. Constance has the dagger in her belt loop as we speak. I let them, though. They needed my blood.2

"Us three fought Konrad, because Kasparov we thought was dead. And we killed Konrad. He had almost killed us, all three of us... and Becker risked his life to pull a spell that nobody could do... he only did it because the time was right and we were all going to die anyways.4

"As Konrad died he told us each something, something we didn't know about ourselves. About each other. And it made me go Rogue.

"I went off the rails for... two months? Of just non stop killing. Constance and Becker pulled me out again." He shut his eyes tightly, finally done with his story.2

I wrapped my arms around his neck, kissing his temple. "That won't happen again."

He shook his head. "God I hope not."

***

We had sat on the floor of the kitchen in an uncomfortable position, but a comfortable silence, for nearly an hour.

Nobody came downstairs, nobody walked into the house, and Constance didn't come back.

Finally, Arlis moved his leg and tried to stand up. He looked like a baby deer taking their first steps. "I say, we go catch something to eat, yea?"

The back of my mind questioned his tense of the word "catch" but I let it slide, praying that he didn't mean that literally. "I'd never turn down food." Plus the only thing I remembered eating was Taco Bell after we left the mall. And that was like... two and a half hours ago.

He smirked as he helped me up. "Jone! Mel! You guys hungry!?" He yelled, looking up. Nobody replied. Again, he yelled up to them, but again came no reply. "Probably sleeping." He rolled his eyes and I raised an eyebrow up at him.

"Shouldn't you uh... change." I gestured to his ripped clothing.

He tugged his shirt off and my breath caught in my throat. I did not need a hot shirtless guy standing in front of me. Sure I wanted it, but I didn't need it.

"You do know that as a werewolf you'll have seen half the pack naked, right?" He asks, smiling at my flustered face. "Sometimes you just forget you come back naked after a shift."

I looked at the floor. "Pfft.... really?" I looked up and he was standing less than a foot in front of me. I took a step back and he followed my footing, like a less elegant version of the waltz. I took another step back and he took one forwards.

He looked down and took a deep breath through his nose. "Yeah but... those are the accidents. When I see you for the first time, it won't be an accident." He leaned in and I leaned forward to meet him, but I touched air. I opened my eyes and he was five feet away, the sunset shining through the window behind him. "Now that, Love, is how you tease."2

He bent over, flexing his back, as he picked up his fallen shirt and threw it in the trash. He winked at me before walking up the stairs to change.

I finally let out the breath I didn't realize I was holding. Apparently I had multiple people to take notes off of. My... dare I say boyfriend... being one of them.

I looked down at my own clothes and realized that I should probably change too, considering I was still in the jeans that were too tight and the hoodie that reminded me of a comfortable hobo.

I walked up the steps, walking to the guest bedroom. The bags were on the floor, all empty, and laying on one of the bottom bunks was a large blonde wolf, his head poked up and staring up at me.

"Oh hi umm... Jonah." I was talking to a dog. No, I was talking to a Wolf.

Jonah's wolf yawned and then laid his head back down. I looked up at the top bunk to see Melloni passed out, her hair falling around her like a dark waterfall. I smiled as I realized that Jonah was guarding her.

I dug in the drawers and realized that she knew my pants size. It couldn't have been that hard to guess, but she was on point. Someone needed to go into the fashion industry. I picked out a pair of black jeans and a long sleeve red shirt with the neck cut out, leaving a choker type neck-piece. Not really my type, but what did I expect? It was still cute.

I walked out of the bedroom and knocked on Arlis's bedroom door, or what I assumed was his bedroom, and he answered fairly quickly. "Is there a bathroom?"

He raised his eyebrows. "No. We do all our business outside like wolves." I widened my eyes and he chuckled. "There's one downstairs, you saw me use it."

Oh yeah, I'm an idiot. I nodded and smiled at him. "Do we have time to take a shower?"

He opened the door fully to reveal himself in just a towel around his hips. "Wanna join? I'm taking one in here."2

Yes. Yes I very much wanted to join. "No... I'm good. I'll just... take one down..." My eyes stopped at his v-line and I swear I almost drooled. "DOWNSTAIRS!" I yelled and covered my mouth. "Down those... I'll see... I'ma just go." I pointed with my thumb behind me and he laughed. I took a step back and almost tripped, but I held my ground. "I'm okay... I'm a shower." I widened my eyes as he laughed. "I'M TAKING A SHOWER!" I yelled.3

"Just... just go. You're making it worse." He laughed and I spun around, shaking my head at myself.

I walked downstairs and into the bathroom, mentally slapping myself.

I'm a shower? Come on Kate. Since when did people, a guy at that, intimidate you.

Oh but if that was his way of intimidation, he could intimidate me anytime.

I shut the bathroom door behind me and hid my face between my hand. Who could be that embarrassing.

I looked in the mirror in my own insanity and nearly screeched like a banshee. I looked like a hobo, sweatshirt or no sweatshirt. Why did I go out into public like this. And more than that, what did Arlis see in me. I couldn't look past the way I looked like I just crawled out of my own grave after being buried. And to top it off I told him I was a shower.

I took a deep breath and stripped. He probably thought that was cute? I mean I like Josh off of Being Human and he mocks up his words up all the time. Bonus, he's a werewolf on the show. And...

"Ugh. Just stop, Kate. Just stop." I leaned into the shower and turned it on, waiting for it to heat up. Maybe I'd burn the embarrassment off of me.

I slipped under the water and nearly moaned at the hot drops sliding down my back. I didn't know how much I needed this. I ran my hands over my back, the silkiness of it, and that made it all real.

A wolf flashed in front of my eyes, a deep black wolf with yellow teeth. I turned the water up higher, refusing to think of Jacobi's evil smirk or Damon's killer claws. I was dead. I should have been dead. I should've died long before I made my crawl to Arlis. So why didn't I?

I shut my eyes and pushed the thoughts away, using the sauna like room to drown my stress in. I had enough to deal with besides the past. I had the future to worry about, and the present.

I washed my hair and reluctantly got out, drying myself off and changing faster than normal. Everything seemed to be going fast. Well... so be it. Maybe I needed change.

I walked out, scrunching my long hair into the towel to dry it off as much as I could. A familiar song came from the surround sound in the house.

I smiled, walking quickly to the bathroom to hang up my towel. I walked back out and Arlis was smiling at me.

"What?" I asked, humming along to Nine In The Afternoon by Panic! At The Disco.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me closer to him. "Nothing much... just happy you're here." He started singing along to the music, pulling me in circles, one hand on my waist and the other holding my hand.

I laughed and leaned my head back, swaying to the upbeat of the song. The sun was set now, but it felt nice, dancing at night. Why have the sun when you could have the stars?1

His smile mirrored mine and his hair was still wet, and little droplets hit my face. I leaned into his chest, laughing. He ran his hand through my hair, swaying as the song switched to something by Ed Sheeran, but I didn't care to think of the title. Perfect? Thinking Out Loud? Photograph? At this point the only thing that mattered was us.

"Glad to know you have a good sense in music." He chuckled, tipping me down like you see in the movies. "I'd hate to have to educate you on the subject."

"You can educate me in something else." I whispered in his ear and his face grew red in adoration and hungry lust.

"Oh yeah? And what's that." Apparently I could tease now, because he was playing off of me like a cello.

I went to answer but the bell rang, and he dropped me onto the floor with a loud bang, making me hit the back of my head on the hardwood flooring. "Agh."

He widened his mouth and helped me up. "I am so sorry. I just was... umm... startled. I'm so sorry." He kissed my forehead and ran to the door, opening it and welcoming in a woman.

A woman who was scowling at him. "Oh don't stop on my account! If I was ruining a moment you should have locked me out." Iris set down two plates of food on the counter, an odd hatred in her personality.

Arlis shook his head. "No, no it's fine. What's wrong?" He asked, concerned.

She looked frantically from me to Arlis. "Alpha Rylee is here and he's demanding to speak to you. He has Chleo and Sammy." She was calm despite the raging storm built inside her.

Arlis grabbed a knife from the kitchen, the silver burning his skin for a moment before he grabbed the handle. "I'll kill him."

He started to walk out the door but I grabbed his shoulder. "Hey! No, you can't just barge in there, he might-"

"I'll do whatever the hell I want." He growled at me and grabbed something from under the kitchen table, literally it seemed like it was taped under the table.

"Then I'm going with you." I demanded, grabbing his arm. "This is my pack too now, and I might be new, but I understand what family is."

He seemed at war with himself but in the end he nodded. "Fine. But stay close. Alpha Rylee has mind games and he just loves to play them."

I grabbed a jacket, not sure whos, off of the coat rack and followed Arlis down the steps.

"I'LL BRING THE ENCHILADAS!" Iris yelled from behind us, and I smiled. "If it comes too it, Arlis, kill him." She said, making fists so tight, I bet it would leave little crescents in her palm.2

"I'll kill him even if he gives me a reason not too." He threatened.

My gut told me something was wrong, but not with Alpha Rylee... with Arlis. I didn't say anything as we walked in the dark, twigs breaking under my bare feet. We'd figure it out when we got there.