Chapter 20

The little boy stares at me dumbfounded—as he should—for a few seconds. Both of his arms fall limp as he opens his mouth before asking, “What? What do you mean by that?”
“Exactly what you heard,” I reply with a little less patience than I should.
He looks down at his skinny little body as if he’s trying to understand what’s going on inside him. “My head is pounding, and my own senses overwhelmed me,” he says before stumbling backward once more, but he doesn’t fall because I’m still holding his bony shoulders.
“Careful, boy!”
His little hand rises, and he holds my forearm tightly as if to lead himself back to his senses. “I believe you. I can feel the changes in my body,” he says. His green eyes look up at me.” I... I’m going to turn like that big wolf that attacked those people?”
“How old are you?”
“Nine,” he responds, his chin trembling.
“Well, werewolves usually have their first shifting at the age of ten. But since you weren’t born a werewolf and you’re close to turning ten, your wolf might come sooner,” I explain to him, but then my eyes run over his frail body. “Uhm, I don’t think that’s going to be your case. You’re too small and thin to get a wolf so young. You’re homeless, right?”
Suddenly, the little boy lets go of my forearm, and he lets out a small indignant grunt. “Of course, I’m not! My mother takes very good care of me for your information!”
I force my face not to crack a laugh at his outrage. “From the looks of you, it doesn’t look like she’s doing an outstanding job.”
“Don’t talk about my mother like that!” He snaps even more upset, and I lower myself to his height.
“Listen here, kid,” I say firmly, placing a hand on his shoulder again. “You’re a werewolf now, and sooner or later, you’re going to meet your wolf. You need to be safe in a pack, come with me—”
The boy tries to take my hand off his shoulder with a force that almost surprises me for his size, but he fails to move me at all. Still, I immediately pull my hand away when I see that’s what he wants.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” he says with a firmness that completely contradicts the vulnerability and pain evident on his face. “I want to go home! My mother will worry sick if she doesn’t find me.”
“Wait! What were you doing out on the street so late” I ask, confused.
“None of your business!” he answers petulantly, crossing his arms. “For all I know, you can just be friends with the person who did this to me!”
“What? For fucks sake!” I run my hand on my face. The nerve of this little boy! “You need help! You just got turned, you need support!”
“Thank you for your help, but I’d rather go home now! Please let me go home.” He takes a step back, but I still can smell his fear... of me. Oh, Fuck!
But then I smell something else, too.
A faint but sweet smell that stands out amidst this rotten smell of rogues and blood.
This smell is the same as Alicent’s. I discreetly brush my nose against my clothing to take a sniff. Yep, this sweet scent must be coming from me because I fucked her. There’s no way this stinky boy has Alicent’s scent.
“Okay, kid. If that’s what you want... Get in the car, I’ll take you home.”
“No need!” Azrael raises his eyebrows, even more frightened than before. “I live right around this street. You don’t need to come with me.”
“I insist,” I say firmly. “You’ve been through a lot.”
“Please, no! I live just around the corner. I’m not that far from my house. I don’t want you to come along with me. I don’t want to put my mother in danger. I’d rather go alone, please.” His scent of fear grows stronger.
That’s interesting. His fear isn’t because I’m near him. It’s because he thinks I’ll somehow attack his mother. This kid is something! I’ll give him that.
I take a deep breath. Whatever! I’ll follow him without him even noticing. “Okay. Go home then,” I finally say and his shoulders relax in relief. “Go!” I command loudly and he gets startled before running off into a narrow street without looking back.
I’m about to go after him when I see Vi’s car approaching.
I glance in the direction the kid dashed off, but he’s no longer in my line of sight. Fuck! I should go after him.
Vi parks the car and waste no time in stepping out of it. “What did I miss?”
Then Jordan, her stupid mate and also my stupid Gamma, gets out of the car. “What happened here?” he asks with a strange, surprised tone, looking around. “It stinks like hell!” he covers his nose with his hand.
“No shit!” I murmur impatiently.
I look at Vi, and there’s no need for me to ask because she answers me right away through mindlink. ‘Be nice to him. He said he wanted to come with me to help.’
“There are two people who are dead over there,” Jordan points out as if he’s just discovered something impressive.
“Check it out and see if you can find any helpful info, Jord!” Vi says in a softer voice.
He snaps his gaze at her as if she has requested him to trim the grass in the yard using just blunt scissors.
“Can you do that?” I ask him.
He shifts his eyes to me, with a certain awareness in his gaze at my tone, “Yes,” he answers.
“Then why are you still here?” I spit.
Immediately, a whoosh of Jordan’s footsteps is heard, and Vi rolls her eyes.
‘Really?’ she says through mindlink. ‘That’s you being nice? Ian, he is my mate and your Gamma!’ but then she says aloud, “Did you make it here in time?” She looks at the blood trail I saw earlier, probably coming to the same conclusion I did.
“No—”
Vi interrupts me, “If you had come quickly when I...”
My little sister keeps talking and talking, and I’m reminded once again of my main objective. The moment it dawns on me that Alicent is still in my apartment, so I swiftly reach for my phone and give Shawn a call, who answers on the very first ring.
“Shawn, go to my place and tell the woman who’s there to leave.”
I should have woken her up and sent her away before I left, but I just couldn’t because I didn’t have time and also because... she looked right sleeping there.
I’d worry about this thought in the morning. But screw it. She needs to leave before I get there.
“Umm, actually, she already left, Alpha. She left a little while ago,” Shawn answers from the other end.
“What?” I snap. *Did she leave without even waiting for me?*
“I asked her if she’d like me to call an Uber, but she said she was fine,” Shawn says, his voice exuding joy as if he remembered the interaction with her. “She’s really nice—”
I stifle the growl, trying to escape my chest and end the fucking call.
That woman had gotten under my skin momentarily like no one else had before.
She left.
Well, she did exactly what I asked.
It is better that way. Yep. I need to move on from this stupid night and go back to living the cold, lonely life I’ve been living for the past several years.
It is just better this way.
It is definitely better.
Absolutely.
Part of me already knew that I would never see her again, and it’s better this way so I can focus on my only goal, which is to break this fucking curse. Alicent would only get in the way of my plan.
Except for the entire search for clues and evidence of what happened on that dark street and then making my way back home, the only thing I could see in my mind was her heart-shaped face and those long, dark eyelashes framing those oddly right meadow green eyes.