Chapter 5

The name

-Xabien-

Staying in my human form so that I can call Rat’s name, I scour the surrounding area with the others I sent to find him. The problem is, his scent is too faint. It rained early this morning, so there’s a chance he disappeared far earlier than expected, and then his scent was covered by the rain.

And then, I get a crazy idea. I branch off from the other wolves, so his scent won’t get tangled with theirs. Closing my eyes, I try and clear my head, think of only one thing. Rat. His blue eyes with silver flecks in, which dance beneath the sunlight.

His dirty fur, and the look of fierce determination in his eyes as consciousness faded from him, that first night we met.

In a way, I sort of wish that he was my mate. I respect him, I’m impressed by him, in a way I’ve never experienced before. If he was my mate, it’d give me the excuse to get to know him, the excuse to let him stay.

Shaking the thoughts from my head to return myself to the moment, I open my eyes, ready to try looking for him again. Except, this isn’t where I closed my eyes. Not even close. How did I get here? Did I just walk without realising?


Not that it matters, because Rat’s scent is stronger. Transforming part of my face a little so my sense of smell gets stronger, I close my eyes again, trusting my nose to lead me to him.

Peeking through one eye, I sigh in disappointment when there’s no Rat to be seen. Moving over to the river, I sit down on a large rock on the bank, rubbing my eyes. And then I smell something. Not Rat, but something way more concerning.

Blood.

Standing up hurriedly, I follow the scent all the way upstream until a little waterfall comes in to view. Inching closer, I go round the side of the stream of water, trying to avoid getting soaked by the waterfall if possible. Sure enough, there’s a small cave behind the waterfall, and an even stronger scent of blood.

It’s late afternoon now, and the sun is gently lowering itself beneath the horizon. That, combined with the dimness of the cave makes me very grateful for my night-vision.

Blinking for a moment so my eyes can adjust, I realise with a start that there’s a body in the cave with me. A human?

Cautiously stepping forwards, I reach out a hand to the human’s neck, to check for a pulse. As soon as my skin touches the body, a zip of electricity zaps through my arm, jolting through my whole body. But, surprisingly, it’s not an unpleasant feeling.

No. It’s warm, and light, and…comforting.

“Holy shit,” I whisper. I know what this is. Carefully, I pick up the body, placing my coat on him, and using my back to shield him from the waterfall’s spray. The remnants of the sun allow me to finally see the face of my mate- my Horatio.

He has dark grey hair, almost black, and four newly healed scars across his left eye. My breath hitches- that; this is a coincidence, right?

I quickly check for where the blood is coming from, and sigh when I see the mess of ripped stitches all down his right side.

He shifted too soon.

“Jesus Christ, Rat,” I whisper, clutching him to my body as I move as fast as I dare - he needs help, but I don’t want to hurt him in the process.

Eventually Myles follows my scent and meets us halfway, but I send him off again to let the pack healer know what happened and what we’ll need her to do. I also asked him to tell Harriet and Harli that I found him, and he’ll be ok now.

The cold wind bites into me, and I shiver without my coat on. At least Rat doesn’t seem cold - in fact, I’d probably be freezing right now if it weren’t for his body heat, which is keeping me nice and toasty.

Reaching the makeshift shelter, I’m glad to see that the pack healer is already here, as well as Rat’s family. Laying him down on the makeshift bed thing, everyone moves back so the healer can take a look at him.

“Broke his stitches. Nothing I can’t sort, however. Why would he try and shift so soon?” She asks, turning to Harriet and Harli. The older woman takes her son’s hand gently in her own, smoothing her thumb across the back of his hand.

“He probably had a nightmare…” Both the healer and I look at her quizzically - normally, if a werewolf is scared, going into their wolf form sets them at ease, not shifting to a human. Harriet catches our looks, smiling sadly as she pushes a strand of hair from Rat’s eyes, sadness streaking through her own as she looks at the scars over his eye.

“The time in our lives that was the safest, was just after Harli was born. We had a house and everything, living side-by-side with humans. We stayed in human form most of the time, and since then, being in this form has felt safer for him,” she explains, her voice thick with nostalgia.

Harli wraps her arms around her mother’s back, resting her head on Harriet’s shoulder. “Rat’s going to be ok, mum,” she whispers, kissing Harriet’s cheek.

“Why do you call him that?” I ask before I can stop myself. I mean, it’s not the most endearing nickname, although on him it is strangely fitting and cute. Harriet doesn’t take her eyes off Rat’s peacefully sleeping form - he didn’t pass out from blood loss or anything, it was simply the high state of anxiety, which caused his body to become exhausted once the adrenaline ran out.

“It’s a pet name…it started, because he always looked like a drowned rat, in his wolf form…I mean, we all did. And then, it just stuck for him. Plus, it’s part of his name anyway, so I don’t think he ever really minded. I don’t even remember the last time I called him anything other than Rat…” Harriet muses, smiling affectionately.

“Horatio,” I say quietly, sort of to myself. Harli and Harriet both look up at me, surprise evident in their eyes. “How do you know that’s his name?” Harriet asks, her gaze curious but not interrogative.

“I- I need to speak to him first, before I tell you. We still haven’t had a conversation,” I explain, not wanting to tell them he’s my mate, in case he plans on rejecting me right off the bat. If that happens, I don’t want his family to feel guilty, or like they are doing something wrong by staying here.

No matter what Rat thinks of the whole mate thing, I want him to know that he and his family are welcome to stay here, as long as they would like.

Although, him rejecting me would probably really hurt. I can’t even pretend like it wouldn’t matter to me, because it would. It really would. He matters to me. 

A/N yo it's me nev so in case you don't follow my insta, here's a pic of the drawing i did of horatio :)

drawing in all pen is scary as shit i can tell you that haha also don't judge my weird style it's been ages since i drew in this style

also i forgot about the scars on his neck :(((