006 Part Of My Life

Menoetius was again thrown out of his own car the next day when they headed back to their city.

"Themis, you two can talk about your new assignment on the way home." Erebus left this sentence to the two reluctant kids before he took Menoetius car and drove away.

And now Menoetius was happy.

"So where do you want to start with?" Menoetius threw himself on the back of the driver's seat and pressed closed to Themis right after they got into the car.

"I'm not gonna be a part of this!" Themis was not in a good mood. "You can go and have fun yourself."

"But...It's our Lord's order..." Menoetius did always obey Erebus with no condition, but it doesn't mean he was not rooting for that order because he got to spend time with Themis.

"I--" Themis turned to yell, only to stopped all of a sudden and said: "Okay, I'll do it."

"Really? You are not being sarcastic, are you?" Menoetius didn't fully understand her sudden changing of attitude.

Werewolves mark their mate by instinct, JUST like how they choose their Alpha: it's not with an election, but through their common approval.

They didn't really know how it worked, but following that judgement had never being wrong in the whole history of werewolf.

That was why they say: mark was never wrong.

"I want to know what's so special about her." Themis replied with a trace of anger in her tone.

Only Tartarus had ever marked anyone among the Dim Patronus PLUS Erebus.

Themis didn't mark Erebus; she just felt such a pulling towards him that she thought it was love.

Naturally, she was jealous of this girl that came out of nowhere that Erebus had been caring for a lot.

They all took Erebus as the cold type. He didn't really open up to anyone.

While some of them had been in relationships not once but too many times, and they thought that as evidence that they knew love better than Erebus.

To those who knows themselves, a crush that doesn't last long is not love, and they won't let the right one gets away either.

So they only mark, when they are in love.

Erebus knew himself, and now, he needed to know more about Kitty...

After Erebus left her room last night, Kitty cried in the shower for hours before she finally felt like no tears was left in her and she was ready to un-pause her time.

She crawled back to bed all wet and fell asleep, only to woke up in pain again.

She took another shower to try to get herself together, not wanting anyone to see her messed up mind, but it was a poor job in front of Erebus.

He's too sentient.

"It's a beautiful city where we are heading to." Seeing Kitty gazing outside of the window with a sad face, Erebus spared her of the hardship to find her voice and calm. "It's where I work, for now."

He added "for now" before he even realized why he did that.

Of course he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, but he wanted her to have a say in where that life would be, too.

Then he realized that that won't be one of her concerns, yet.

"You work?" Kitty asked, curious.

She knew him only from the legends, that he was a god in wolf's form, protecting his people from all kinds of horrible things, but she thought that would be it, his "work".

"Yes, haha. We have to have a good cover-up identity, if we don't want to go around announcing ourselves as werewolves."

Erebus's smile was like sunshine and Kitty got lost in its warmth, not realizing the horrible stillness she felt yesterday when her everything was taken dispersed a bit.

"So what do you do?" Kitty tried to imagine a "normal work" for this man, but failed with empty brain. What could still be normal if this man does it?

"I own a bar." Erebus turned to check her reaction to his answer. Kitty rose her brows in understanding.

That's actually a pretty good coverup! Everyone knows him as a bar owner, but no one needs to see him all the time.

"I'd have chosen to be an artist, like a writer or something, as a coverup. So that no one needs to see me, all they need to see is my work." Kitty thought for a while and replied.

"Hmm, good choice. Is that what you want to be? A writer?" Erebus nodded at her choice.

"Noo..." Kitty laughed in self-mockery, "I only love reading. I like to communicate with others' minds in that way. But I'd go with different method if I were to express myself."

Erebus turned to look at her, for a while, and then turned to look at the road again.

"My guess would be painting." It didn't sound like a guess at all.

"How did you know?!" Kitty exclaimed with surprise.

"Because of your eyes." Erebus left a bait, knowing she would bite.

"What about them?" Kitty had no idea that eyes have anything to do with painting, except the fact that an artist needs them to see?

"They are too beautiful to ignore. If I see a pair of so beautiful eyes every day in the mirror, I'd want to share that beauty in some way, too. And what's a better way than painting, right? Words cannot do them the justice." Erebus grinned at her, but his eyes said serious admiring.

Her ears' tips went red again.

"I..." Kitty stuttered with no good answer. It was so not right for him to tease her like that!

Unless... She felt like he already knew her secret, which was that she was totally bewitched by him.

But he was a god!

Okay, not really a god, but still.

He was kind, and gentle, and mighty, and WAY out of her reach.

She didn't want to feel like being ungrateful and greedy to even think about the possibility of him liking her, right after he saved her from the street-- after that street was also ruined.

She shook her head as if that would drive her crazy crush out of there. But the flush in her cheeks had already given her away. Erebus let out a light chuckle, satisfied with her reaction.

"I haven't touched a brush in so long a time..." Kitty said with reminiscing in her tone, "Not since mom-- " She stopped abruptly again. She hadn't touched any of her memory of her mother in a long time too.

With an acuminous intuition, Erebus said it for her: "Your mom, she also paints?"

Kitty nodded without making a sound.

She cannot open her mouth without letting her tears fall. Upset at herself for being so negative and weak in front of a stranger, not to mention a stranger that she likes a lot.

Kitty took a deep breath and changed the subject abruptly: "Do I HAVE to go the orphanage in your city? I can take care of myself. I don't want to be captured... I mean, taken in..."

She ran from the orphanage that took her in because they were horrible to children there, and that was how she ended up hiding in an abandoned cabin in this small village.

After all, there were too many orphan and too little stuff to go with. She understood, but still, she wouldn't call that a home.

She hesitated but then looked up to Erebus again and continued before he could reply: "It's okay too if it means trouble to you. You might have to turn me in because of the law or something. It's okay."

Erebus squinted at her, somehow feeling like she was already planning her escape if he did that. Kitty shrugged and turned to look at outside of the window again. At least on this trip, she was still free.

"I was afraid you weren't gonna ask." Erebus said lazily, with that teasing tone again.

"Yeahhh, I know the drill too well." Kitty replied with a bitter smile, "I understand."

Erebus nodded with a relieved look:

"So you WOULD like to stay with us instead? That's great! I was worried."