Chapter 6 : Absurd

*Charlotte*

I covered my mouth with my hands, cutting off my tense scream which echoed around the empty road in the forest around us, still covered with bodies either unconscious or dead, that I was too afraid to check.

Alexander shook his head and all at once his long snout and sharp teeth morphed back to its normal handsome shape. He gave me a piercing look, a scowl on his face as he grabbed my wrist.

“Yes, I know, scary, scary monster. Just shut up and get in,” He dragged me over to the car where I was still silently in shock, stumbling after him like a baby deer just trying to find its legs. I flinched as he roughly pulled the car door open and shoved me inside rudely.

He luckily waited to slam the door after me until my foot was inside, but I still felt the force of the slam against my knee as I huddled in the passenger seat, trembling uncontrollably. I wasn’t even sure what I was most afraid of - Alexander, who had just maybe slaughtered a bunch of people, or the criminals that were now either dead or dying on the ground.

Was it still murder if you killed someone who was threatening you? Wasn’t it self-defense? Alexander had given them plenty of warning to walk away, and they had still chosen to go after him.

Did that mean the creditor was dead too?

Was I really free?

Alexander got into the driver's seat, still scowling like the world had offended him on a personal level, but I supposed having me scream in his face might’ve soured his mood a bit.

The car rumbled to life just as he turned to me and I flinched, an automatic response at this point when I saw someone angry. He scowled even deeper, and I gnawed on my bottom lip, hanging my head in shame as I refused to meet his eyes.

“I’m not a monster,” Alexander bit out begrudgingly.

I whipped my head up, blinking in surprise. Was that what he had decided to lead with? That’s what he was worried about?

“I… No, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to scream, there were just so many teeth and all the bodies and guns-” Tears poured out of my eyes as I rambled, trying to explain the jumbled mess that were my emotions on this night, but Alexander only sent me a scathing glare and I fell silent.

God, I was so pathetic. I couldn’t even explain myself properly to him and after all he’d done to help me tonight. I didn’t deserve any of it.

The silence was tense between us, the lingering awkwardness enough that I glanced out the window, wanting to throw myself out a couple times, but thankfully, Alexander took pity on me as we drove off deeper into the woods.

“I’m a werewolf,” He explained, roughly, “We’re not monsters, we’re beings created by the Moon Goddess. We can transform freely between human and wolf shape, though most of us do not get our wolves until we are eighteen years old. We live in packs away from the human world, though we do our best to blend in as best we can. My father is the Alpha of the Dragon Wing Pack, Alpha Finnley, like the leader or king of your world My mother is the Luna, Diana. That makes me his heir and future Alpha.”

I blinked rapidly, staring at the endless dark road ahead of us. I wondered, briefly, if being a werewolf meant he could see much farther out into the darkness than I could. If he retained the sense of smell or hearing canines had, which was said to be ten times stronger than humans.

Did that mean he could smell me right now?

I discreetly leaned over to sniff at my still-tattered uniform and winced as the smell of smoke and alcohol hit me like a freight train. If it was noticeable to me, then…

I blushed in shame, sinking lower in my seat as I tried to keep to myself even more, but as my thoughts turned from him being some supernatural creature to what he had said about his father, my eyes widened.

“Didn’t you say your father was an old friend of my father?” I asked in alarm.

His hands on the steering wheel clenched tightly and I could see his jaw set as he stubbornly stared blankly out of the car, no answer forthcoming.

I shut my mouth, not wanting to piss him off any more than I already had, though I did wonder if his temper had something to do with his supernatural form. Maybe all werewolves were as rude and brutish as he was?

As I thought about my father, the kind, funny man who’d cared for me but had been gullible to a fault, too willing to give out what little precious resources we had, the one who had been confined to a wheelchair for the last ten years of my life…

It was hard to believe that man had anything to do with werewolves or any supernatural creatures. That led me to think that if werewolves, something I had believed was a myth, were real, then were other supernatural beings?

Were vampires and fairies real too?

“So we’re heading to your… wolf pack?” I tilted my head, utterly unsure of what to call it as I glanced at him hesitantly.

He snorted, the look of distaste on his face vanishing for a moment as he eyed me across from him. I didn’t know what I said that he thought was so funny but clearly, to him, it was hilarious.

“If you want to call it that,” He said coolly.

I had no idea whether it was the right choice to go to his pack or not, but I didn’t really have a better choice in mind, so I nodded stiffly, sinking into the leather seats of the car as I went quiet. My mind, however, was whirling to life with possibilities, imagination stretching as I tried to imagine what the hell a wolf pack of werewolves would look like.

He called it Dragon Wing, so maybe they lived on a mountain or deep within the jungle with a huge rock that looked like a dragon maybe. Did they live in the forest like in a massive cave where all of them could fit together or maybe in tree houses intertwined together by log bridges?

I think I saw that in a movie a long time ago.

How many of them were there, I wondered, and how did they take care of their food necessities? Did they go hunting by themselves, roasting whatever birds or small animals they could catch, or were they like real wolves in the wild who hunted big game and then feasted on it all week?

Who’s to say they even cooked it?

Did they just gather around to eat the raw meat and drink its blood like wild animals? The image of Alexander’s long snout, teeth dripping with the red liquid, sent a shiver down my spine.

What about me? I wasn’t a werewolf, I was just a human girl, barely an adult. I didn’t have razor-sharp teeth to tear into raw meat or sharp claws to take down moose or deer for dinner. I was squeamish about killing the spiders that lived with us back at the bar.

Even if they taught me how to hunt, something which was laughable considering I was small and thin enough to look like a tree could knock me over, I doubted I had the stomach to kill something small and fluffy and cute like a bunny rabbit.

The more I thought about it, the more stressed I became.

He said they lived away from human societies, so did that mean I was going to be surrounded by a bunch of werewolves, not a human in sight? What if they were biased against humans and decided I wasn’t good enough to be in their pack?

I didn’t know Alexander’s father, and I still doubted that he was actually friends with my father, what with all the revelations I’d had today. But if a group of werewolves went after me, would they even try to protect me?

I’m sure their pack was more important than some orphan girl picked up from the wrong side of town. One who couldn’t even feed herself or fight back in the slightest. I was a doormat compared to the abilities Alexander had just displayed.

What would they do to me if they decided it wasn’t worth keeping me? Kick me out and leave me to fend for myself in the middle of a forest? Or worse… Keep me as a reserve food for when they need a little midnight snack?

I paled, glancing over at Alexander from the corner of my eye. I trembled like a leaf, my body feeling cold all over as I thought about the kind of danger I could possibly be in. Alexander raised an eyebrow at me, looking very confused from the wary glance I sent him but I only nibbled on my bottom lip, not caring how I destroyed it.

So lost in my thoughts, I nearly missed it as Alexander said lowly, “We’re here.” And I snapped to attention. The woods around us cleared up, spreading and dispersing until we entered a huge wooden gate, the doors wide open.

I saw a few people posted by the gate, not even checking us as they waved us through and I was surprised that they looked like any kind of normal everyday guards you’d see on the street, uniformed and utterly boring.

As we passed through the gates, I realized how utterly foolish I had been to think they lived in a cave or treehouse.

Dragon Wing, I learned, was a whole ass city.

My mouth dropped as the street lights illuminated the town roads, people walking the streets without fear, and as we passed the bright neon lights of a movie theater, proudly displaying movies I hadn’t heard of, a shopping mall which was filled to the brim with cars, grocery stores, a hospital, and even a college campus.

My mouth dropped as we passed more and more people, each looking utterly normal as can be until we passed by a few wolves just walking along the streets, playfully tossing in parking lots like it was utterly normal. I even saw a few people with ears poking out of their heads or tails wagging behind them as they excitedly greeted others.

I was still in shock, utterly baffled by how normal this all looked- just like a regular human town or city. As we pulled off the main streets I saw something looming in the shadows ahead. If I was shocked at the werewolf city, then I was utterly astonished by the sight of a fucking castle ahead of us.

We crossed what looked like a drawbridge, what sounded like a river down below before we dead-ass parked in front of the circular driveway, perfectly cut hedges and bushes surrounded the glorious luxurious castle.

“This is home,” Alexander said simply, and I stared at him in disbelief as he shut off the car, getting out. I couldn’t do anything but follow him nervously, knees knocking together in both fear and shock.

What kind of family lived in a castle just as majestic as Buckingham Palace? But then it registered as I remembered Alexander’s words.

‘Like a king,’ He’d said.

Well fuck.

I followed Alexander warily, realizing now that I was practically talking to a prince and now we were about to meet the King of the werewolf world. I had no idea what I was about to walk into.

Because surely, the king of the werewolves hadn’t called an ordinary orphaned human girl here out of the kindness of his heart.

That would be absurd.