Elliott yawned as he was exhausted and tried to sleep but he was restless as his thoughts did not seem to rest. What would the coven do know? Could Idris be trusted? Was Ronan alright? Was he still a threat? Was Blake out of danger? Who has pulled the strings in the dark? What was their goal?

Silvergale growled for his mind not appreciating him disturbing her sleep. Elliott groaned and rolled over to his side. He heard someone enter the room but did not react as he recognized the smell of the cologne.

Joshua seems to stumble a bit as he came closer. The smell of alcohol hit Elliott’s nose.

“Are you awake, mon Cheri?”

“I am now,” Elliott muttered with a groan and sat up only to be met of Joshua’s unfocused gaze. “And what is the reason for your intoxicated state.”

“Whiskey… A lot of it,” Joshua said while showing a focused expression. He clearly had a hard time speaking English in his state.

“I know how you become drunk. I want to know why you are drinking in this situation. The witches have released Fingal Keir sending the shifters into a frenzy. Blake almost got killed. Ronan is still out there and more than one wolf is questioning my leadership,” Elliott silenced before groaning. ”Never mind, this is a great time to be drinking.”

“Exactement, mon amour,” Joshua said and held out a glass of whiskey to Elliott who sighed and gulped it down in one go under Joshua’s cheery encouragement.

“Where did you even find-“ Elliott silenced once more. “It’s Kai’s, isn’t it?”

“Ouais, le crétin did not even cacher his pinter well,” Joshua chuckled not even realizing that he mixed French and English.

“Yeah, he still hides it in his sofa. Has done so ever since he was a teenager,” Elliott muttered and took another glass. Starting to feel all his exhaustion coming onto him at once. He sighed and put away the glass before laying down on his pillow with his hands over his head and closed his eyes. The alcohol sure did the trick to make him relax.

Elliott soon felt a weight upon him and opened his eyes to meet Joshua’s brown ones as he had laid himself above him with a smirk.

“Looking good, mon cheri. Especially your beaux yeux.”

Elliott felt his heart speed up as Joshua leaned in closer but soon realized what was going on and pushed off Joshua who fell to the floor with a thud.

“Aïe,” groaned Joshua and sat up leaning his forehead against Elliott’s bed before looking up at him in confusion. “N’est pas d’humeur?”

Elliott stared at him before sighing in defeat. “Sorry, I did mean to overreact. I just-“

“Like someone else? peut-être that justicar. Quel que soit son nom est.”

Elliott did not catch all that but did recognize the word Justicar. “Not the justicar. Well, he is not the problem at least.”

Joshua once again crawled up into Elliott’s bed but this time he curled up beside him. He laid on his said and raised his upper body by leaning on his arm. “Am I the problem then?”

“Not really, at least not at much as me. I am the problem.”

Joshua let out a snort. “The excuse in any breakup.”

Elliott frowned at him for a while before asking the question. “Then are we dating?”

“I assumed that was obvious. I always take you out and buys you dinner.”

“You take me out for work and buys me fast food.”

“I would take you out to a wonderful French cuisine but I have yet to find an authentic one in Britain,” Joshua said with sarcasm dripping from his voice.

“You flirt with everyone and have taken out a multitude of people to dinner,” Elliott pointed out while Joshua considered his words.

“Have I?”

“Yes.”

“I haven’t tried to kiss anyone of them though.”

“Your bar is not very high, is it?”

Joshua just gave him a smirk. “Well, since it wasn’t obvious. I want you, mon cheri. I even broke Ronan’s nose for you. Though you haven’t told me why you hate him so much. I just know that he hurt you.”

Elliott looked up and stared at a spot in the sealing refusing to meet Joshua’s gaze. Almost like he was afraid that he would see his secret. He let out a sigh and turned around towards Joshua who waited patiently for Elliott to continue.

“I might… Have a secret.”

“Might? Or do you have one.”

“Well, it is technically not a secret. I just don’t talk about it to other people.”

“That is a secret, mon amour. Why haven’t you spoken about it?”

Elliott bit his lips and looked down. Was he ready? What would Joshua think? His fear won and he decided to withhold some information. There was no need for Joshua to know everything at once.

“I decided to spend a semester away from the valley when I was young. No older than Jaxon, I traveled to another pack’s turf. The Walsh pack. Ronan was my dorm mate. We did not get along. He saw me as a rival.”

“Is that all? It seems a tad immature to hate attack someone for being rival when you were kids.”

Elliott shook his head. “I… I did something. Something that sends Ronan over the edge. Something he cannot forgive.”

“What exactly?”

“Something foolish.”

“Elliott…”

“Let’s just say that at night I wanted to be someone else than Elliott Price and hid my identity. We met at night. He did not recognize me. I did not tell him.”

“And?”

“And we fell in love.”

Joshua let out a growl and Elliott rolled his eyes. He was no better than Jaxon.

“Let me guess. He found out who you are and hated you for lying.”

“Well, technically yes but… No, let’s just leave it at that. He was right to be angry. I made a mistake,” Elliott muttered.

“When I was sixteen, I slept with my best friend’s girlfriend.”

“What?” Elliott stared at Joshua.

“I did not know that she dated my best friend. She did not tell me. When my best friend told me I did not apologize as his girlfriend and I was in love. At least I thought so. Turns out she just wanted him to be jealous and used me. I lost a best friend because of a girl who clearly never wanted something else but an easy lay. A mistake,” said Elliott and rubbed his neck awkwardly. “I was young a dumb. That doesn’t mean that I was a bad kid. I just made a silly decision that cost me dearly. That is what being human is like.”

“But-“

“No, mon cheri. This is not an argument. It is simply fact. We make mistakes. What’s important is if we can learn from then. Evolve. And do better next time.”

Elliott stared at Joshua before grinning. “When did you become so wise?”

“I was always wise. I just pull it out for special occasions. Or for special people.”

“And all it took was a bottle of whiskey.”

“Ah, mon cheri. It was three.”

*****

“Oh, finally lost the tail, aye, Aeron,” laughed Jaxon who saw Aeron running towards them while staring at his surroundings.

“Damn, that girl can track. I had to run at least three times around campus before I lost her,” muttered Aeron.

“So you are still dating her?” Haley asked.

“Of course, she is a darling. If a tad overbearing. It’s nice being fuzzed about sometimes but my locker is constantly filled with cookies and love letters. I mean how does she even get into my locker,” muttered Aeron.

“Seems like squirrel shifter is quite handy with lockpicking,” said Hadrien while all four of them started to walk towards the Price’s turfs.

“And in bed, the girl is-“

“Seriously, do we need to know that?” Jaxon groaned.

“You are just jealous that you don’t get any tail from your boy,” Aeron huffed.

“I don’t need to. Just looking at Blake makes me excited,” Jaxon said with a dreamy look on his face.

All three stared at him and Jaxon frowned. “What?”

“We really didn’t need to know how you get your game on,” muttered Aeron. Haley and Hadrien chuckled.

“I didn’t mean it like that!”

“Sure you don’t. Anyway, I am not the only one getting some,” Aeron said with a meaningful look towards Hadrien.

“Eh?” Jaxon looked over at Hadrien who looked like they talked about the weather. “Who?”

“An Asian golden cat. Alex Lloyd has been sneaking in and out of Hadrien’s room.”

“Seriously? Alex?” Jaxon muttered thinking of the nasty cat.

“Don’t be silly. He just sleeps over,” Hadrien said with a shrug.

“And why is he sleeping over?” Haley asked.

“He says that he prefers to sleep in my bed as it is warmer.”

Aeron rolled his eyes at that. “If you don’t shag that it’s your fault. He practically lay himself bare for you. Or-“

Aeron gave Hadrien a smirk.”Do you prefer someone with boobs?”

“I heard they are called women,” Haley said sarcastically.

“How would you know? Do your Macrae have a secret?”

“Nope, he is all boy but I grew up in a household with three sisters. If I would describe them as walking boobs I would be killed,” Haley said casually.

“Bloody hell. Three of them. I feel you man,” Aeron said with what seems to be actual sympathy. If he could show that empathy to other people he would surely be less of an ass.

Jaxon was just about to tell him off when he noticed that Haley had stopped.

“What is it?” Jaxon asked and looked at the direction that Haley looked at. There was only darkness. Silence laid thick as no animal even dared to make a sound like they could sense the four wolves moving through the forest.

“Do you hear that?” Haley grew rigid when a distant cry for help echoed.

“Who is out in the forest at this time?” Aeron muttered.

Haley sniffed the air with caution before growling. “Blood!”

Then both Jaxon and Hadrien felt the same scent. Mark Rowe. Without a second thought, both Jaxon and Hadrien ran towards the yell. Aeron cursed behind them as he followed with Haley at their heels.

Hadrien threw himself at the profile that he recognized as one of Rowe’s goons. He fell him one punch and went over to the next one who was standing above a familiar fellow. It was the new Head Druid. Matthew Nottingwood was covered in bruises and tears streamed down his eyes as Hadrien threw the guy off him.

“Are you okay?” Jaxon asked and tried to help him up but Matthew just threw him off and his eyes darted all over the place.

“Where is he?”

“Where is who?”

“My son! Where is my boy?”

Jaxon started to sniff the air and focus on another scent. He paled as he realized that the blood scent did not come from Matthew. It was from someone else and it was a lot of it. He followed the scent and soon saw it.

Rowe sat pale and covered in blood over a tiny body so twisted that it was unrecognizable. Rowe looked up at Jaxon with wild eyes so frightened that he looked like a puppy, not a wolf. Nightmane growled from Jaxon’s mind and so did he as he threw himself at Rowe who was thrown into a tree.

With a few stumbling steps he started to run. Aeron ran past Jaxon and followed Rowe but Haley stopped at the body. He stammered something incohesive before turning around and throw up. Jaxon could not blame him. He wanted to do the same.

“Is that-“ Hadrien was not able to finish the sentence and just cursed in French before taking up the chase on Mark Rowe.

“Lewis?” Matthew’s voice cut threw the heavy atmosphere and Jaxon grimaced as a wail erupted from the Head Druid. “My boy!”

The broken man ran towards the tiny body with stumbling steps and Jaxon closed his eyes to keep out the horrifying sight but could not shut off his ears from the father’s crying. Without thinking he let out a sorrowful howl towards the dark sky. A howl that Haley echoed and send shivers through all that heard it as wolves replied with the same sad tone.

Tonight, all of the Price pack cried for the father that lost his son.