The sun was setting by the time Professor Jayen gathered us up and had us board a bus to take us back to the school. He told Lil, Lib, Danial, and I that we were actually the first two groups to make it back to the sanctuary all together before we boarded the bus. The ride back was in complete silence. It seamed to take forever. For the most part everyone had their own seat, Lil took the bench seat in the back so naturally I sat near her. I wanted to talk with Hadden on our way back, I had a lot of questions to ask him, but he sat in the very front of the bus with Danial and a few of the other wolves in their pack. When we got back to our dorms it was close to midnight, as we exited the bus I thanked the driver who nodded in response before closing the door and driving off.
We all made our way to our rooms quietly, as I got to my room, I glanced over at Bex making eye contact. She waved and said goodnight before entering her room and closing the door behind her. I smiled to myself, as I looked over at Lil. Her face had an indescribable look to it, as if she was in such a deep troubling thought, her eyes were back to the purple I’d seen earlier that day. I watched her for a few moments before speaking up, “Hey Lil? Meet me in my room after you get ready for bed, I would like to talk about something real quick.” I smiled as I spoke hoping to hide my worry for her.
She seamed to snap out of her thoughts when I spoke, and looked over at me, she responded quietly “Alrighty, I’ll meet you in twenty or so.” As she walked through her room’s door.
I grabbed my pajamas and my shower kit and headed off to the showers quickly. As I walked into the boys bathroom, I saw Hadden standing in front of the lockers. He’s shirt was already off and he was struggling with something he had on his wrist. I walked up next to him to get into a locker. As I got up there I noticed the bracelet on his wrist looked a lot like Lil’s collar.
Hadden noticed me staring as his bracelet, he then said “If you think it looks like Lilla’s collar you’d be spot on. When she made her collar, she made me this bracelet. Shitty thing is. It’s hard as fuck to get this thing off of me.” He sounded slightly agitated at the bracelet.
“Let me help you.” I said taking his wrist in my hands and taking off the bracelet, “It’s the same latch as Lil’s collar.”
‘Thanks, Lilla found out I had a hard time controlling my rut, so she made this little thing for me as a gift when we were little.” He smiled as he spoke, reminiscing in his past.
“How did she figure something like that out?”
“Oh… we’ll she was there when I had my first one. It was pretty rough. Luckily Ryinth and Asher were there and helped us both to the hospital.” Hadden explained.
“Why did she have to go the the hospital? If you were the one in rut of course.” I asked handing the bracelet to him.
“Ah, cause she had her first heat and that’s what triggered my rut. We were really young so neither of us really knew what was going on. And once my rut hit, Asher had started dragging me off and Ryinth did the same to Lilla.” He said, putting the bracelet gently in his locker.
“Well that explains it. Thanks.” I started getting undressed and putting my stuff in the locker, before I spun around and asked “Can I ask you one more thing Hadden?”
He was just about to walk into the shower as I spoke, “Uh… sure?”
“How long have you and Lil and everybody known each other?” I almost yelled a little as I spoke.
There was a moment or two of silence before Hadden said anything in response, “Well I believe since we were about six or so, so about ten years I guess. I lived down the street from her parents place. So in a way I guess you could say we grew up together.” He chuckled as he spoke.
“So you look at her as a younger sister?”
“Well who knows the answer to that one.” He said chuckling as he got into the shower.
I stood there puzzled for a few minutes before getting undressed and taking my shower, I kept thinking about what he had just said. What does he mean by who knows? Wouldn’t he know? Or does he truly not know how he views her? I have way to many questions for him. By the time I got out of the shower he had already left. I got dressed quickly and headed for my room.
When I got back to my room, Lil was already inside waiting for me. She was sitting at my desk looking over some papers. I closed my door, and put my towel and shower kit away before taking a seat on my bed. The awkward silence between us was agonizing. We sat there for ten minutes before I got the nerve up to speak.
“What happened out there?”
Lil turned around almost looking shocked, we sat in silence for a few minutes.
“What exactly do you mean by that?” She asked right back.
“Well, you hid all that stalking and heat inducers from me. You transformed! Your brothers were here! I mean you didn’t tell me anything. Do you know how worried I have been this past week? I didn’t know where you were, why you couldn’t be here for anything, you’ve practically been a ghost this whole week. Just messages, and magically knowing what was going on, and all the treats that you made and I’m guessing had Brighten deliver. What is going on?” I was practically screaming at the end. I was more worked up then I thought.
She sat there looking shocked again, and took a deep breath before responding “Ummm okay, so…” she paused thinking it over, “I didn’t tell you cause I didn’t want you to worry so much and I didn’t want to put too much on your shoulders.”
“You made me worry even more when you disappeared for a whole week!” I interrupted.
“I see that now…” she pushed hair out of her face before continuing, “Listen. I never meant for it to get out of hand like it did. I honestly thought Astro was gonna tell me I was crazy and just being paranoid. But then he didn’t. And it kinda freaked me out a wee bit. I mean… can you really blame me? I didn’t really know who I could turn to. And I kinda figured that the walls had ears at that point.” The expression on her face was something I never thought I would see. She was blatantly scared. “And I didn’t want you or the pack to get dragged into it and be used as pieces against me. Or get hurt! Or worse!” Tears started forming in her eyes as she spoke, her eyes a sliver blue.
I wrapped her up in my arms and just held her there. I didn’t, even for a second, think about what she was going through right now. Lil’s in heat, it’s late, she just saw her brothers almost get killed over her, and I just yelled at her. “It’s okay, shhhhh. Everyone’s alright, we got the bad guys. It’s alright.” I ran my fingers through her hair and spoke softly, “I understand, okay? We can always talk about this again later. Let’s head off to bed and try to get some sleep, okay?” I could feel her nod her head in response. I held on for a few more moments before releasing her.
Lil smiled softly as she got up, grabbed the papers, and left through the back door, into the hallway, and through her dorm door. I let out a sigh before locking my front door and climbing into bed. I laid there for a few moments thinking out what had happened today. It seamed like it went by so fast. And so much information was spilled. My brain was having a hard time keeping up with it all. I rolled over and fell into a deep sleep.
…
When I woke up in the morning Bex was sitting on the end of my bed playing on her phone. I quickly sat up, calling out to her “Why are you in my room!”
She looked over at me unamused, “Guys he’s awake.”
I looked around and saw Winnie leaning up against my door, Arbid sitting on the floor, and Zander leaning on my closet door. I sat there puzzled for a moment, “Why are you guys in my bedroom?” I asked.
“Well… we know you spoke with Lilith last night. And we wanna know what the hell is going on.” Winnie said bluntly, crossing her arms and huffing.
“We are asking politely Juniper, if you don’t wanna tell us we understand, we were worried about Lilli too.” Arbid said rolling his eyes at Winnie.
Zander walked over to me, bending at his waist so look me in the eye, “But, we do need to know if anything has happened or if we have done something wrong. I mean what is up with all of this? And I heard you and Hadden talking last night in the showers. What’s up with all of this secrecy?” He started nudging me.
Still sitting in my bed, I was getting riled up. Waking up with everyone in my room, pestering me, and now nudging me. It’s to early for this. I shoved Zander back and got up out of bed, I whispered “Get out.” Everyone stared at me unmoved, “I said get out!”
The door opened and there stood Lil, “Umm okay?”
I froze, “Not you damn it!” I rubbed the back of my head.
“I was just checking in, the festival starts in twenty minutes, so I thought we could all head there together before my shift at the stand starts and everything.” Lil’s hand still rested on the door handle.
“Is your heat over?” Zander asked “Otherwise it’s not safe-“
“Of course it is, otherwise I wouldn’t be here in the first place.” Lil snapped back, putting her hands on her hips.
“Everyone get out. I need to change if we are going to go to the festival all together.” I said pushing everyone out.
After I got them all out, I changed out of my pajamas and stepped out of my room, locking the door behind me. “Let’s go.”
We walked out of the dorms and headed to the field. The walk was quite in the beginning but quickly changed when Zander and Bex started talking about the festival activities. When we arrived at the field, I spotted Lib and Hadden calling out for them to join our party. For the majority or the morning we had a blast, eating the stands food, competing in some of the tournaments. As we were walking down one of the aisles, a familiar voice called out to us.
“Hey! Lil! Ryinth! Hadden! Guys!”
I looked over in the direction of the voice and saw Asher and Brighten, we started heading towards them.
“Hey guys! How’s the stand going?What even is your stand?” Lil asked as soon as we got close.
“Well it’s going pretty good so far.” Brighten responded smiling broadly.
“We’re doing a photo booth stand!” Asher said pumping his fist in the air, “Wanna give it a try?”
Before we could answer, they started shoving us onto the platform. They rearranged us. And told us to smile. I was put right behind Lil and next to Hadden. After they took our picture, they said it would be ready in a couple of hours and we could pick it up then.
Once we got out of the stand Lil checked her phone, then said she had to head off and cover her shift. After saying her see ya later, she disappeared into the crowd.
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