~ Chapter Twenty-Eight ~

The bed was empty, but I could tell someone had slept there at some point last night. An eerie silence rang through the pack, through the house, infecting my pleasant memories from the previous night. I lay in bed for a short while staring at the ceiling, dissecting every small detail since my mind had become conscious, but I came up with nothing that was particularly concerning, so I got out of bed and went for a shower. My hair, though fun while it lasted, was restrained back into a bushy bun on top of my head, and I wore a typical pair of leggings and a loose shirt that would be easy to take off - for training's sake.

Remembering Leanne's orders, I went downstairs intending on having some breakfast. Dylan and Xanthe sat in the kitchen, sipping coffee, their under eyes darkened like they hadn't slept. I paused in the doorway to stare at them strangely, but they hardly had the energy to look up at me. "You guys okay?"

Dylan met my eyes and looked away again, before suddenly doing a double take. He back-handed Xanthe's forearm, causing both of them to fling upright as if they'd been caught doing something wrong. He tried to smile at me, but I was too weirded out to notice.

"Um, Dylan? Have you been infected by a zombie bite or something?"

Xanthe laughed painfully quietly. "A zombie bite! I wish."

"It's got nothing to do with zombies," Dylan grumbled, avoiding my eyes. "We just didn't get any sleep last night."

"We?" I echoed.

They looked at each other with wide eyes.

"Oh no, that sounds bad, doesn't it?" Xanthe murmured to herself as she collapsed onto her own arms. Dylan copied her, both of their brunette heads peeking at me. I ignored them, heading for the refrigerator - since I assumed it *wasn't* what I thought it was, so it probably wasn't very interesting.

"I promise you we aren't together in any way," Dylan explained, "but our rooms are really close and there was this bird outside the window on the back wall that kept chirping all through the night. It was *so* annoying. I gave up on sleeping."

"Ugh! Tell me about it!" Xanthe agreed. "Honestly, I've never wanted to hurt an animal in my life, but that bird can rot in hell. It was not late enough for it to be making those noises, and it couldn't even do it closer to a room that mattered."

"A room that mattered?" I questioned, circling to a seat.

"You know, like yours, so it could annoy Dimitri."

I pressed my lips together, and both Dylan and Xanthe turned away from me again toward their mugs. I watched how they drank slowly, as if they were trying to act casual, when all I could see was guilt. But I didn't know what - or who - the guilt was for.

"So, the reason you're both zombie-like," I started, "is because of a bird screeching through the night?"

They nodded simultaneously, and even though I didn't believe them, I ignored it.

"Right. Well, I know a thing or two about that. At my old pack" - Dylan quickly sipped his coffee - "there was this little boy, Jake. About a year ago, he would scream all through the night, it was horrible. Kept everyone in the entire house up. Of course, it wasn't until that all pretty much stopped that I figured out what's wrong with him."

Xanthe leaned forward. "What was it?"

I smiled sweetly at them. "Tell me why you were really awake all night and I will."

She exchanged a glance with Dylan, biting her lip, clutching her coffee tightly. Neither of them made a move to say anything, so I shrugged and started to turn away. But then Dylan excitedly reached his hand out for me, a begging look on his face, and I smiled this time in amusement. "Okay, okay. Jake was - and still is - growing at an immensely fast pace. The last I saw him, I concluded it would only be a couple of months, if that, before his first shift."

"How old is he?" Dylan asked.

"Four."

"Four?!" they answered at the same time.

"I wasn't even eighteen when I first shifted," Xanthe complained. "I mean, come on, *four*? How unfair is that?"

I chuckled to myself. "Yeah, it's pretty crazy. I'm pretty certain he'll shift before his next birthday, but I don't exactly see him anymore so I'll probably never know." A wave of sadness flowed over me as I thought about how I would never get to watch such an amazing medical story end, and no matter how much I wanted to, I could never, ever return to my old pack to check on anybody else, either. It was killing me inside, although I didn't miss the place I'd been forced into completely. It had always been easy there, always comfortable. I was being told what to do so I didn't even have the burden of making my own decisions, and now, it felt like I wasn't just making decisions for myself. 'Rock and Stone''s awful new song started playing in my head, reminding me of the previous night, and of my mate, whom I had yet to see since we got back.

"Dylan, Xanthe." I spoke in a firm, authoritative voice. "What really happened last night?" Xanthe stared at me for a moment in thought, her eyes glazed over, while Dylan deliberated staring down at his coffee. I knew deep down that they weren't going to tell me because they didn't yet respect my position in the pack - mostly because we hadn't established that position just yet. I waited and waited for either of them to speak, but neither did. Then the kitchen door opened, revealing Dimitri and a string of tired-looking warriors - including himself and Jessica.

"Alpha." Dylan sounded relieved.

"Hey, Erika," Maeve greeted quietly as she walked past me. I gave her a brief smile, more focused on my mate as he dug in the refrigerator ahead of everyone else.

"You guys smell horrible," Xanthe commented dramatically.

"Yeah, like rain," Dylan agreed. He and Jessica exchanged a quick nod.

I turned my body toward Dimitri as he slipped out of the crowd of wolves, circling around the island toward me. I examined his entire body, from his hair to his - I found - bare feet. He looked a little bit muddy and wet, which would explain the rain, not that I had heard anything last night, and he seemed to be almost as tired as everyone else. His lips were pressed together in a tight, non-revealing, stoic expression, as he came to a stop just next to me. I wrinkled my nose, and he flashed the tiniest smile he could manage.

"Alpha shit kept me busy last night," he told me diplomatically, taking Dylan's coffee - without any kind of resistance. A pleasant waft of the smell drifted into my nose, freeing me from the horrible wet stench that covered all of the warriors.

"I watched something else alone," I replied in a similar, detached tone, as I looked away from him. "It was kinda shit but it sent me to sleep."

His hand touched the base of my back. "That's good." I felt him bringing his face down close to mine, caressing my cheek with his nose. His arms slithered slowly around my waist from behind, holding me, and he tucked in tighter. He barely parted his lips over my skin, which sent me instantly crazy for him. I twisted my head, and he silently obliged, attaching our lips, grasping my hips, completely lost in our own world. I felt something more than just the bond and tension in the kiss, something like desperation, fear, anxiety; it was all coming from him, radiating from his body, and I leaned backward to try to help him. My hands wrapped around the back of his over my stomach, my shoulder rubbing at his chest. Being twisted in half wasn't comfortable, but neither was the stool, and I wasn't about to get up because of that.

But, unfortunately for us, there were other people in the room - specifically, Jessica Francis.

"TRAINING" - Dimitri and I tore apart at the sound of Jessica's screaming voice down our ears, and for a moment I thought I might be deaf - "is going to happen in a few minutes. Get to eating if you aren't already."

I couldn't help but glare at Jess as she casually walked away toward the sink. Dimitri let go of me and kissed my shoulder, which covered up the previous smell of coffee in an instant. I sighed, lifting my shirt up to my nose. "Ugh, now I smell like-" I stopped.

"Like rain?" Xanthe questioned quietly, but I wasn't looking at her.

My brows furrowed and I sniffed again, this time in the air, before they deepened. I tilted my head upward, sniffing for the scent I'd caught on myself, and realised that it had come from Dimitri. The trail led right up to his chest, and he stared down at me, his eyes guarded, intense. I inhaled deeply, ignoring his scent, the wet smell, and weirdly the smell of chocolate, until I finally realised something.

"I *know* that scent," I growled, glaring at him.

The room had already fallen silent.

"Dimitri, why do you smell like my childhood friend?"

Dimitri gulped subtly, a shift of his throat, and then he took a tiny step toward me.

"Why do you smell like her?" I demanded again as a waft of her scent contaminated my nose.

"Erika..." He paused to look for help over my shoulder, then shook his head. "Because Nola's dead, Erika."

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