Chapter Twelve

Trist suggested that I should spend the rest of the night with him.

“In a friend way,” he quickly added.

Even though I was much calmer now, I still did not want to risk interacting with Luca again, so I accepted Trist’s offer and followed him to the inn.

It was a good sleep. The bed was comfortable enough and was the perfect width so that we could both lie there without touching. It was warm under the fur blankets, and I fell asleep almost instantly.

I woke-up just before dawn. Trist had rolled over at some point and draped his arm over my chest. I didn’t want to disturb him, but I wanted to leave before the rest of the pack woke-up. I lifted his arm gently, and tried to quietly slip out of the bed but it was futile. Trist’s arm twitched slightly before I put it back down. I glanced at his face and realised that his eyes were cracked open, watching me.

“What are you doing? It’s too early,” he grumbled.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

Trist suddenly sat up, looking more alert.

“Are you sneaking out?”

“Sort of,” I admitted. “I was hoping to leave before everybody else wakes up. I don’t want them to realise that I spent the night here.”

“This again!” Trist groaned, slapping a hand over his forehead and collapsing back onto the bed. “I really don’t understand why you want to avoid being seen with me.”

“It’s because of people like Mr. Pine…” I answered, my cheeks heating slightly. I really did not want to have to explain it, but I didn’t want anymore misunderstandings between us.

“So because Mr. Pine is a jerk, you don’t want to be friends with me?”

“We are friends!” I insisted. “ It’s just, if the pack knows that they’ll probably think less of you.”

“Why? Because they think that you’re weak?”

I turned away from him, too embarrassed to answer.

“I told you before, I don’t mind. I can deal with it,” Trist said.

“…But, I’m scared,” I said while looking at the wall. “I’m scared that you’ll be hurt. And I’m scared that someone will hurt me, to hurt you.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Trist sit up again with a grave expression on his face.

“You need to trust me more. I won’t let anyone hurt either of us. If anyone threatens you, then I’ll destroy them.”

“All right…” I replied hesitantly, turning back around to face him.

For a moment, I considered telling Trist about what Luca had said the previous night. He had threatened me. I could get Trist to deal with it all, but Luca was still my brother. I didn’t want him to get hurt. I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. So I stayed silent.

“Listen, about yesterday…” Trist began.

“You don’t have to say anything!” I quickly cut him off. “I was wrong to blame you.”

“No, you weren’t…” Trist replied. “I should have been more careful. As the alpha, I need to be more aware of these sorts of things. I’m sorry.”

“And I need to do more to help you. I’m sorry too.”

“Ok. Well, now that is all sorted you should lie back down. It’s still too early.”

“…But—” I tried to argue, however Trist had grabbed hold of my wrist and tugged me back towards the bed. I tripped over my own feet and fell on top of the mattress. When I felt the soft pillow and the warm blankets, I suddenly realised just how exhausted I still was. I couldn’t convince my body to sit back up, and my eyes shut of their own accord.

“Sorry,” Trist said, clearly more amused than sorry.

“No, you’re not,” I mumbled.

Distantly, I heard him chuckling and then felt the weight of a blanket drape over me. Then my consciousness faded as I fell back to sleep.

When I next woke-up, sunlight was spilling through the curtains and Trist was gone. I was a bit annoyed that he had just left after he had chided me for trying to sneak-off earlier, but I couldn’t deny that I had needed the sleep.

I left Trist’s room and cautiously made my way towards the stairs. Of course, I had the bad luck of running into Mr. Thyme.

“Pip? What are you doing here? I thought that you weren’t interested in working the mornings?” he asked.

‘I’m not! I was just… umm… looking for Trist,” I awkwardly explained.

Mr. Thyme gave me an odd look.

“The patrol just returned, so he’s gone to the hall to debrief them. You should have passed him on your way here…”

“Oh, darn! I must have just missed him! Thanks Mr. Thyme!” I chuckled awkwardly and quickly rushed the rest of the way down the stairs, hoping that Mr. Thyme hadn’t been able to see my burning cheeks.

I walked over to the hall and found Trist talking with a bunch of other people, including Luca. I did a quick little bow then brushed past the group, intending to go and hide in my room, but then I felt something strange through the bond.

Trist was nervous.

I paused and turned around. Trist looked fine. He was listening intently to Jay, who had just returned from patrol. And Luca was behaving himself, though he was scowling. Everything seemed to be under control, but then Trist looked at me and I felt a jolt through our bond, like a plea.

“Hey, Trist!” I called out awkwardly.

All eyes turned to look at me, and I broke out into a sweat.

“You were looking for me, weren’t you?” I bravely continued, doing my best not to wilt.

“Oh… yes! I wanted to speak with you,” said Trist, finally seeming to catch on to the fact that I was trying to help him.

“Is here good? Or we could quickly go to my room?” I offered.

“All right, let’s go to your room,” he broke away from the group, feigning urgency and I began to rush up the stairs.

“Sorry, this won’t take long,” Trist quickly apologised to the group. I tried my best not to wonder what they were all thinking as Trist followed after me.

Once we were in my room, I shut the door firmly behind us.

“Wow, you have a lot of books,” said Trist as he looked around.

“I got them for the pack. They’re mostly about plants and medicines, but nobody else seemed interested in them so I just keep them in my room. But that’s not important. What’s going on?”

“It’s this,” Trist said, brandishing a fancy looking scroll. “The patrol brought it back from the human village and I don’t know how to read.”

“Oh, ok!” I took the scroll from him and began to unfurl it. “But your parents were human, weren’t they? Why didn’t they teach you?”

“My father thought that we didn’t need to live like humans anymore, so he rejected human inventions like writing.”

“Sounds stupid…” I trailed off as I began to read the scroll.

“What’s it say?” Trist asked, hovering anxiously.

“The village elder has requested that you pay him a visit. There’s some sort of trouble in the village.”

“What? Now?”

“Apparently it’s urgent. You’ll have to go in wolf form because of the snow.”

I could feel the panic rising in Trist, so I rushed to explain, “you can leave my father in charge of the pack. I’ll come with you because I’m good with humans. And you should bring two others for protection.”

“Right, ok,” Trist replied, somewhat dazed.

“Now, go downstairs and explain that to everyone,” I said as I handed back the scroll. “And don’t worry about not being able to read. I can teach you and we can keep it a secret so that the pack doesn’t find out.”

As Trist made his way back downstairs, I couldn’t help feeling proud of myself. There was no more anxiety echoing through our bond. I seemed to finally be getting a hold of this soulmate thing.