Free Web NovelChapter 120: A Step Closer
"How indeed..." I bit the inside of my mouth in frustration.
How lovely. Apparently, my opinions of my father could still sink lower. Not only was my father an utterly terrible father, he was also a shitty alpha and a traitor to the werewolf race. Truly, there was no role he had not failed at. It was almost miraculous, the way he lived his life determined to be the utmost scumbag he could be.
Unfortunately, I shared half his bloodline. Disgusting. My mother must have been severely addled when she chose my father the first time.
"So all this time... you were getting rid of werewolf packs that allied themselves with vampires?" I asked, just to make sure. I didn’t want to think the worst of Damon, but there was a chance, however slim, that he was merely wiping packs off the map because they didn’t like the look of him.
Damon nodded. "That, and those that deliberately went against Fangborne. Us werewolves must be united in the face of a common threat."
I snorted quietly. It was funny how Damon had all but forgotten I was a human for him to use the word ’us’. But I still had something I did not understand.
"How did you create ice?" I asked, my mind easily recalling the ice spear in Damon’s hand when he strolled out to meet us. I was certain Ironclaw wasn’t keeping ice sculptures in their meeting room for Damon to steal, which meant Damon must have somehow created it, as ludicrous as it sounded.
My alpha mate, the walking ice machine. If he wasn’t a werewolf, he’d be a hot commodity in summer.
"I certainly didn’t hallucinate that part, right?" I addressed Elijah at the end before I realized that with Elijah’s injuries, the one most likely to hallucinate would be him. Elijah’s eyes were drowsy as his body was slowly but surely healing, yet he jolted awake at being addressed.
"What? Yes? No? I don’t know?" Elijah rapidly replied, like an inattentive school kid who was randomly firing answers after being caught by a teacher. A red flush crawled up his face as he realized how ridiculous he sounded. "Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention."
"Never mind, it’s fine." I sighed, and Damon and I traded amused glances. Now that I thought about it, this must have been the longest time we talked without raised voices or hurt feelings.
"Just focus on healing," Damon ordered quietly, and Elijah closed his eyes, nestling back into the blankets like a baby.
"So... the ice?" I prompted.
"That’s a long story for another day," Damon said, stopping the train of conversation with his words.
Suddenly, I could sense the briefest tinge of sorrow and the bitter tinge of grief, as though I had licked a dried orange peel.
Whatever deity above gave Damon his powers, they must have hurt him greatly. After all, there were no gifts given freely to supernatural creatures. Suddenly, I felt the strongest urge to hug him close to comfort him, but that felt too intimate. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
Even if we were fated mates who had already slept together, it still felt strange to hug Damon unprompted!
Instead, I settled for brushing the back of my hand against his own. He looked down in surprise, his eyes widening at the tiny, uncharacteristic gesture of comfort. I felt my ears heat up at the tender look in his eyes, and I hurriedly turned my gaze away to focus on Elijah, who was fast asleep on the bed, letting out tiny snuffling noises all the while.
A wellspring of hope sprung within me. It belonged to Damon. I half-expected him to push matters, but to my surprise, he merely mirrored my own move, brushing the back of his hand against mine before stepping away.
"It’s best for you to hear it from Blaise too," Damon said. My mouth fell open in surprise. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
"Blaise has these... abilities too?" I didn’t know what else to call them. Was it magic or a mutation? Blaise had made zero mention of any extra supernatural abilities when we were mated. It was vaguely hurtful― did he think I would hate him for it?
Or was he afraid I might use him as a portable fridge?
"You can say that," Damon shrugged. "We are twins, after all. I have what Blaise lacks, and vice versa. Yet, our gifts are very similar."
"Such cryptic words," I shook my head. Damon said a lot, but most of it didn’t make much sense.
"You’ll learn more about us in the future," Damon said simply. "Now, we have all the time in the world to get to know each other."
***
After a day or two, the doctor and Damon had deemed Elijah fit enough to travel back to Fangborne. Technically, it would be best for Elijah to rest a few more days, but Damon didn’t want us to linger in Ironclaw for any longer than necessary.
He had tried to sniff out Petral’s whereabouts on Ironclaw’s grounds, but the trail had gone cold. Interrogations had also led to limited success since the werewolves that did know about Petral’s existence were all buried in the ground along with their former Alpha.
Damon wasted no time in driving all of us back, not letting Elijah take the wheel despite his protests, which was probably for the best since Elijah still had a tendency to tear through his stitches when he got excited.
Elijah had insisted he could still drive, but then he had fallen asleep within the first hour. His body required more energy than usual to heal itself after the ordeal, and being in a foreign pack didn’t make it easy for Elijah to rest as much as he liked.
Damon and I once again exchanged fond looks as we watched Elijah snore in the backseat, his mouth lolling open as drool collected on the side of his lips.
The rest of the drive was spent in companionable silence. I never thought that this was actually possible between Damon and I. We have arrived at a point where we could get along fine as friends, if not as lovers.
Would wonders ever cease?
We arrived in Fangborne with no fanfare, and we quickly deposited Elijah under Nicole’s tender care. Nicole greeted us, but there was a damper on her usual enthusiasm.
"What’s wrong?" Damon asked.
Nicole bit her lip and frowned. "It’s Blaise. He’s not healing as fast as I would like."
