It was a couple of hours later, after Ashlyn and Micah had had a nice lunch of chips and beans, Micah couldn't cook anything more complex and wouldn't let Ashlyn anywhere near the kitchen, he said she was a guest and still recovering, that Rowan arrived, with Mark in tow.
“Hello again Ashlyn, would you like to sit?” Ashlyn slowly came out of her room, her arms around her middle. Micah was sat at one end of the corner sofa and Mark at the other, Ashlyn looked between them both and took the seat in the middle. Crossing her legs up onto the seat and pulling a blanket that smelt of the foresty, booky smell that she is now convinced comes from Micah, but for some strange makes her feel better and calmer, into her lap.
“I have to give you some difficult information.” Rowan continued with a smile as Micah shuffled a little closer. “As I’m sure you have realised by now, there is something a little different about you, it is not, like the humans would have you believe, something wrong or broken or something which can be treated or medicated away.” He paused here for a moment, looking nervous. Ashlyn was holding tightly to the blanket, Micah reached out to wrap an arm around her shoulders and she gently leant into his touch. “I’m not sure how best to tell you this Ashlyn, but you aren’t human. The things that you can do, the way you know things about people, the feelings you get and the visions you see, the nightmares you get occasionally, and we highly suspect there will be more, its… well, its magic Ashlyn. We don’t know for definite just yet exactly what species of magic user you are, but we promise you, we will find out, we are making arrangements for someone who can find out to come and meet you, when you are fully recovered and more comfortable here.” Mark had put his hand on Ashlyn's shoulder now too, she was looking rather pale.
“It’s ok Ash, everything will be fine. It’s not like your the only one. The whole world is full of things you never heard of before, its just because you grew up with humans and they ignore all of us.” Mark reassured her gently
Ashlyn looked up sharply, her eyes wide “Us? What do you mean us? Are you like me? A.. a… what was it?” She looked between the men hopefully
Rowan answered her “A magic user, but, no, not quite, we aren’t human, very few of the people you meet here are human” again he paused, looking over at Mark, clearly he hadn’t planned to blurt the whole truth out in one go this early, “We are lycanthropes, werewolves” he said eventually, watching Ashlyn carefully, as if she might try to run away.
Ashlyn burst out laughing, shaking her head “no, this isn’t real, magic and werewolves don’t exist. I’ll give you there something weird about me but I dunno, maybe I’m just a psychic or something. You guys must be some weird ass cult, but what do you want with me? You must have had me at-least 2 weeks for me to heal this much, the police will find me soon enough.” Micah growled lightly, tightening his hold on Ashlyn's shoulder as she tried to get free of him. “No one is going to take you away from me again”
“Ash, he’s telling the truth, magic, werewolves, vampires, fairies, demons, mermaids, apparently though I Havnt met any of them, there used to be dragons but no ones heard from them in years, pixies they are tricky little bastards and they hurt when they pull on your fur” Mark told her. His face deadly serious “its all true hun, everything the humans call fairy tales”
Ashlyn looked between the men in front her, shaking her head slowly. “No, no this can’t be right, I want to go home now please. Call someone to pick me up will you. You know where I should be, or you can call my social worker, he’s called Glenn Morris.” Ashlyn rattled off the number for Glenns office mobile, not having a mobile phone she had to know the phone number by heart. She managed to break Micah’s hold on her shoulders, or more likely Micah let her go, though she was still holding onto the blanket.
Micah knelt on the floor in front of her “baby, listen to me, ignore them, you know me, your body knows me even if your mind doesn’t. We are bonded together by the gods for a reason. You will know if I lie to you, you’ll feel it. And I’m telling you, to the best of my knowledge, absolutely nothing that has been said here is a lie. You’ve seen my wolf, you know Zander. That’s how we first met, at the fence. Let me prove it to you?”
Ashlyn, strangely enough, trusted him implicitly. She could feel that Micah believed everything he was saying. He believed everything that his father and mark had said. And he believed that he could prove it to Ashlyn. Could he really be the wolf on the fence though? The one she had been dreaming about? The one her brain seemed to consider hers despite the fact that it was clearly a wild animal? She was certainly smelling the same scent now as she did that day, but really? “Hold up….just wait a minute” she whispered. Pushing to her feet and pacing around the room. Micah looked towards his father desperately for help, Rowan didn't know how to help, he thought this was a rather good reaction compared to some.
“She’s not hit you yet or run away or tried to knock herself out waking herself up from a nightmare so I’d say we are doing pretty well” Rowan whispered to his son.
“Ash, you need some grounding? Start at the beginning. Tell us what you know to be true” Mark tried
Ashlyn crouched down in a corner, Mark moved to the back of the sofa, settling on the floor to look at her but giving her all the space she needs. “My name is Ashlyn Faye…. I’m 15 years old… I was at park view house because they said I’m crazy…. It was my birthday…. The car crashed… I don’t know what happened to Kelly or the others… I don’t know how I got here or where here is. It’s 2:17 in the afternoon and I don’t know the date” Ashlyn growled loudly “this is no good Mark! There’s more that I don’t know than I do!” She spat at him.
“Ok, its ok, I can answer some questions. It’s the 8th today, 8th of August 2021. Kelly got impaled on a tree branch in the crash so she had to have major surgery on her chest, she’s in the hospital in intensive care, shes still on a ventilator because of the damage to her ribs and one lung, but the doctors are confident that she will be ok in time.” Micah was looking rather guilty at this. He hadn’t counted on serious injuries like that and only hoped that Ashlyn didnt blame herself. “The other girls in the car were hurt but not too badly, all have already been discharged back to park view. There are some cuts that needed stitches, a couple of broken bones, scrapes and bruises.”
Mark was careful to keep his voice soft and calm as he spoke. Micah was getting the idea by now. He slowly came around and sat near Mark. “I pulled you out of the wrecked car with some help from other pack members, you can meet them when you are ready, if you like, or not, its your call. I wrapped you in a blanket because your clothes were all wet from the rain, there was a storm, I didn't want you to be cold, and I held you all the way back here. You are in Dark moon pack lands, we are based in a privately owned, very quiet and difficult to find section of the Yorkshire dales national park.” Ashlyn nodded, looking a little calmer now that she had some solid, undeniable facts.
“And you guys say your werewolves? Like cant touch silver, howling at the moon, going to run out of here on the full moon and kill everything you can find, and if you bite me I turn into one?”
All three men burst out laughing.
“Well I see the books got to you first Miss Faye” Rowan chuckled
Mark patted Micah on the shoulder and said “good luck dude, but at-least shes not trying to kill you with the kitchenware yet”
Micah sighed and shook his head a little “I can touch silver, I do howl, rather impressively if I do say so myself, but not at the moon, I can change when I like, I don’t need the full moon, and I have never killed more than a rabbit for food. You will not turn if I bite you, if my wolf form bit you, you would most likely die from blood loss. We are born not made. Hollywood has a lot to answer for, if only we could educate them all” Ashlyn still wasn't convinced, Micah could feel it through their bond. He sighed and looked over at her “still not convinced?” He didn't wait for her answer before he began to pull his jeans and top off. “Mark, might need you mate” he called to the man who was stood by the window, “but if you hurt her, I will skin you and wear your pelt as a coat” he threatens as Mark comes to sit by Ashlyn, who was watching proceedings warily. Rowan sat back in his chair waiting to see how things would play out and what else he might need to tell the girl. He had already decided to assign Mark as her guard, the two seemed to have a nice relationship and Micah was able to tolerate him near her.
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