When Silas woke up for breakfast the next morning, he’d arrived home from the party at around three that morning, and was now up again at nine, he wasn’t really expecting there to be a child sitting at the dining table too. The kid was probably around ten, and when Silas walked into the room, they both stopped in their tracks to size each other up. He wondered for a moment if he should say hi or something, but his half-brother beat him to it. “Mom, are you sure this is my brother and you’re not lying to me about adopting an orphan?”

“Ethan!” Elizabeth screeched, but Silas had to laugh. “Do you have something against orphans?”

“No,” Ethan crossed his arms over his chest defensively, “I just think it’s convenient she’s never talked about you before, and then suddenly you’re here and you look nothing like us.”

“I look like my dad, and it’s not my fault she’s ashamed of her other kids.” He sat down at the table though he wasn’t particularly hungry, reveling in their horrified looks.

“I’m not ashamed, Silas. Is that how you really feel?” She looked genuinely sad.

Good.

He shrugged, deciding against continuing to taunt her. Getting kicked out on his first day would defeat the entire purpose of being here. “So, I’ve noticed that you don’t have a fireplace here. Can I make a firepit in your backyard?”

“For what?” Jayson asked, glancing toward his son then giving him a warning look. The kid didn’t know, then.

“I like to burn things.” He supplied, unsure of why he took the pyromaniac route. Couldn’t he have just said he liked s’mores or something?

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

It had been a long day. His parents had shown up just after breakfast, and they had helped him get his room put together. The guest room would become his for the upcoming months, it was moderately sized, but not nearly big enough to hold all of his spell books and potion vials and such. They made it work though and stuffed what didn’t fit in his closet. Jayson agreed to help him build some shelves to help store some of his stuff.

After that, he had to say goodbye to his parents. He’d never actually been away from them for longer than a week at a time, and he could tell Michael was upset. Even if he hadn’t been there for his entire childhood, nine years was still a long time to be in his life. He even let Michael hug him for once, and he thought the human was going to burst into tears. He started rambling then reminding him to call and keep them updated. With his dad it was a little more awkward if that was even possible. His dad just patted him on the shoulder and told him to behave. This worked well, because if he had hugged Silas or something he wouldn’t know how to react.

After they had left, he decided to go for a walk, not really wanting to be around his new housemates. It was late into the evening, fortunately, because it was much cooler than it would have been during midday. He wound up in the middle of the forest that surrounded the town, using the mountain range as a guide. Birds and bugs alike flitted about, and the whine of cicadas were loud and annoying in his ears. He would need to invest in some more summer clothing, because his black jeans just weren’t cutting it.

Silas wasn’t searching for anything in particular, nor was he really paying attention, that is, until he felt himself stepping over an invisible barrier. Immediately, the hairs on his arms stood up and his heartbeat accelerated.

He was in something’s territory.

Seconds later, a twig snapped behind him. He forced himself to stay calm, to act like he was oblivious, trying to gauge how many there were. He couldn’t tell, but whatever they were, they seemed to be surrounding him. It was sort of like he was being hunted.

How exciting.

His fingers twitched as he walked, his mana swirling just beneath the surface. It was an exhilarating feeling, if he was being honest. He liked feeling powerful. There was another rustle of a bush beside him, this time much, much closer.

He turned suddenly with his arm and hand outstretched, unleashing a pulse of dark energy in a wide arc behind him. He enjoyed the surprised growls and injured whines as he got a look at what had been following him. Wolves. He didn’t have much experience with the animal, but even he could tell they were much to large to be normal.

“Are the big bad wolves trying to eat me?” He questioned, stamping his foot on the ground and manifesting a circle of blue flames around him. The flames weren’t particularly dangerous, it was just a neat little party trick Nyx had taught him, but the Lycans didn’t need to know that. “Had I known werewolves were in this area, I would have worn my red cloak.” Most of them had recovered from their shock, and were now circling around him, snarling and snapping at the flames.

There were seven in total, and he had no chance of being able to fend them off on his own. Besides there had to be more- wolves were much like cockroaches, if you saw one, there was likely a whole nest of them not far off. This meant he would need to negotiate, unfortunately. Definitely not his favorite method.

“You’re not going to tear me apart limb-by-limb for an honest mistake, are you? There’d be hell to pay.” He warned, even if as a Necromancer he wasn’t apart of a coven, and he’d be long dead before anyone found out. “Take me to your Alpha.” He proposed, and they reacted like that was an outlandish idea.

Deeper, louder growls and strange yipping noises erupted in a chorus, and Silas wearily prepared himself for a fight. He couldn’t just shadow travel home, not without risking the humans he was currently staying with. So, flight wasn’t an option.

Which was why he was really surprised when one, who seemed to be the leader of this group, shifted back into a human. It happened so fast he didn’t have time to comprehend it, he was just suddenly looking at a very large, very naked man.

Silas tried to keep his eyes up.

“Why would we do that, witch?” The man spat, crossing his arms over his broad chest. How could he talk so seriously when he was completely nude? This must be common for wolves.

“Because…” He racked his mind for something, anything that might get him out of this, but then his eyes slipped, and he caught sight of the elephant trunk between the man’s thighs. He swallowed thickly as his mind went completely blank.

“How old are you, kid?” The wolf asked suddenly, and Silas managed to tear his eyes away from the man’s dick.

“Uhm, I’m sixteen.” He answered, hoping that his face wasn’t too red.

The man groaned like this entire thing was an inconvenience for him, “Come on. You better not be lying to us, witch.”

He began walking off then, and Silas had no choice but to let the fire cease and hope that no wolves attacked him as he followed.