Chapter 148 - I need a moment alone

HADRIAN

The roar of the river flowing beside us is loud and soothing at the same time. As a werewolf, we’re not so fond of large bodies of water. The water weighs us down and our paws are not made for swimming.

Nero is whining as we watch Emma sitting by the riverbank. We’re lying several feet away from her in the grass. We are trying to give her space and every inch away from her is agony.

Emma is quiet and her eyes are clouded in sadness. Her grief is clear and I can feel it reverberating in our chest. Alex didn't deserve to die, even though she did many things wrong. More and more lives are lost to this war and it needs to stop.

Emma is still covered in blood and the ends of her white hair are dipped in red. There are rips in her shirt from the slice of the knife. Even though there is no visible injury, my soul can still feel the pain. Her gaze is fixated on the streaming water of the river. Nero scuffles closer and I don’t stop him. We barely cross a foot before Emma speaks.

“I need a moment alone.” Her voice is devoid of the usual clarity and the melodic tingle.

I rise from the grass and cross the distance to her. I bury our nose in her neck and along her temple. Emma pats along the side of our head. Her small hand is cold as her touch seeps through our fur.

Her scent is hidden beneath the iron smell of blood. I want to wash her skin clean in the river until her beautiful scent resurfaces. It’s been too long since I smelled her pure intoxicity.

We pull back and give her the space that she asked for. We walk far enough that she cannot see us but we still have her in our line of sight. There is a metal taste lingering in our mouth. It’s the blood from when we sank our teeth into Dex’s shoulder. I push our body to the river and cleanse our mouth with the river water. The water is cold and I can feel it flow through our body.

“Can we talk?” Lucas asks behind us.

Water drips from our mouth as we turn towards him. “Sure.” We sit down and tower over him as we wait for him to speak his mind.

Lucas scratches the back of his neck as I wait for him to talk. “This would be easier if you would... you know… be human.”

*“We don’t have clothes.”* Nero says and it comes out in half a bark.

Lucas stands there for a second before he swings his arms in the air. “How am I supposed to understand you?”

*“Fine.”* I grumble which comes out in half a growl.

*“I think he does understand.”* Nero complaints.

I let our body shift from our wolf form into our naked human one. I take my time to complete my transformation. The grass is damp beneath my feet and the wind is colder as it blows over my bare skin. Without my fur the world seems colder in general. I rise to my full height before Lucas.

His eyes widen and flit down for the shortest of seconds before he averts his eyes. “Okay, so I did understand.” There’s a frown of confusion pulling at his brows.

“Sometimes you respond to Nero,” I tell him. There are very few people who can directly talk to our wolves without needing a mind link. The only one that I’m sure of who can do it is Cecile and she has a very strong wolf. She wouldn’t be able to do what she does if she didn’t.

“I do?” The frown only turns deeper. “Hmm, strange.”

I’ve thought many times about Emma with a wolf. My thoughts mostly surrounded the images of her white hair turning into snow-like fur. Would it be soft? Would it shine in the sunlight? There are legends of white wolves, but no one lives to remember if those legends were real. But I would also wonder how Emma’s abilities would develop if she had a wolf.

Now I wonder the same thing about Lucas.

“Sometimes I just think it’s just my imagination,” Lucas says with an awkward chuckle and a shrug. He lacks confidence in his abilities, which is understandable if all your life you were different from the rest. All his life he’s been ignored and I hate to admit that Emma took part in that.

We stand there and the silence stretches. “Was there something of value that you wanted to say?”

“Hey, I’m the one here that has to look at your dick,” Lucas says as he turns away from me and walks toward the car.

I look down at my resting cock. I know humans have more issues with open nakedness than werewolves. This is part of our nature and we don’t always have clothes with us after we shift. At any army base, naked bodies walk around without shame. I never had an issue with it until I found my mate. The idea of Emma walking naked around an army base sets my blood on fire and I want to attack the imaginary soldiers in my mind for looking.

I follow Lucas to the car and watch him pull a black backpack from the trunk. He throws the black backpack at me and I immediately recognize my own scent. These are the clothes I packed a few days ago. I quickly search for the items I need.

“We have to think about what to do now,” Lucas says while I pull a pair of jeans on.

I zip it up and go back to search for other necessary pieces of clothing. “Dex is planning on blowing up the tunnels.”

There’s a silence behind me for a few seconds. “You mean the ones under the city, right?”

I nod in agreement and pull a black T-shirt from the backpack.

“That’s not good,” Lucas mutters.

Finally, I pull a sweater from the backpack and zip it back up. “Every building will collapse. Thousands of people live there.” I say matter-of-factly and pull the basic t-shirt over my bare torso. A string of profanities sounds behind me and I turn to face him.

“I was actually thinking about how we were going to get Graciella home,” Lucas grumbles and his gaze turns to Graciella who is now talking to Emma. Her movements are sluggish, but she’s gaining back her strength.

“Now you’re telling me that we have to rescue a whole city?” Lucas clamors.

I grumble and nod. “And stop my father from waging this war.” I walk back to my position on the grass where I can watch Emma.

Graciella helps her get out of her tattered shirt and cleans it in the river. With the wet cloth, she helps Emma clean away the blood stains.

Lucas sits down on the grass next to me. “And we need to stay undetected by the army.”

Emma shivers and I can see goosebumps cover every inch of her skin. She crosses her arms over her chest and hunches over. The water from the river is clean but cold. My palms itch to go over to her and warm her up.

I turn my attention to Lucas because he’s right. We have to discuss what we’re going to do now. “Dex is injured, but knowing him it’s not going to stop him for long.”

Lucas gives me a skeptical look. “What does ‘injured’ mean?”

I think back to our rage in the factory. “Nero pierced the tendons in his shoulder.”

Lucas nods as he ponders. “So, a couple of weeks at most.”

Dex is tough for a human and surprisingly durable. The scars on his body prove his resilience. I don’t think that he’ll let his injuries weigh him down for long. Even if the average human would be out for months.

“At most,” I say in agreement. There are many issues to solve and many dangers to face. If I could do it all alone I would, but I can’t. “Can I ask you a favor?”

Lucas resumes his skeptical look. “That depends.”

“Do you mind getting Graciella home? She’s not wanted by the army. She deserves to go home.” I made a promise to Alpha Amadeus. I don’t want to drag Graciella further into our problems.

“What are you going to do about Dex? You know he won’t stop.”

Dex has the map of the city and enough information on werewolves according to Emma. His confidence is founded on solid ground. We didn’t have the chance to stop the jeeps. My guess is that he won’t just change his plans. This is his best shot to create the most damage. And he won’t need a large group to execute it.

I watch the stream of the river. The current is strong and the roar of water is soothing. The river originates all the way from the north, from the mountains of Septentrion. The river actually used to flow where Sanguinem lies before my great-grandfather decided to build the palace and the city of Sanguinem around it.

“I have an idea, but it requires me to get into the throne room.”