Chapter Five: the new girl

Chapter five

Atlas POV

I didn’t expect the girl to be that pretty, yet here she was even in her grief shining in her beauty. Her soft hazel eyes looked vulnerable and her lips were chapped and in a thin line every time I stepped inside the room to give her food to eat. She looked like she’ll rather be anywhere and I made the off comment about seeing the gardens if she ate her food.

When she started crying I did expect a nervous breakdown, but she was doing it right in front of me. she had lost her adoptive parents in the past week and she was in a strange place, it was normal that she shed a tear or two but when I pulled her into me my heart raced a thousand times more.

Her scent put me at ease and I liked that she leaned on me, I wanted to brush her hair but as usual, my brother showed up.

“What in the world is going on here?” Laila pulled away from me like I was a hot stove and my lips spread in a soft smirk directed at my brother.

“Nothing that is your business.” She snapped at him and I chuckled. Ares sent me a glare that got me to quieten down.

“Still as snarky as ever,” Ares didn’t bother to hide his discomfort. “Why aren’t you eating? Ayesha reported to me-“

“Can you stop keeping tabs on me like I’m a freaking time bomb?” she paced back to the window ignoring his burning glare at the back of her head.

“She was about to eat Ares,” I informed my brother who closed his eyes for a brief moment and let out a deep sigh.

“Now I’m not sure I want to.” she spat and his jaw tightened, he didn’t like being opposed by anyone.

“You would do no such thing, you are going to eat whether you like it or not or you’re never leaving this place.” He threatened, I might be his twin brother but I could tell that Ares wasn’t joking and this was the time. Laila shouldn’t push his buttons any more but she had other plans, she turned to his face and with fire in her eyes she said.

“You can’t and won’t tell me what to do just because you feel entitled to helping me,”

“You are a lousy brat!”

“And you’re a cocky asshole who has his head way up his ass.” She snapped back, Ares's jaw tightened and his fist clenched in anger. I should step in.

“That’s enough, both of you need to take a breather and time apart.” I turned to Ares and mouthed. “Leave I’ll take it from here,” he replied with a deep grunt and retreated, slamming the door right behind him.

“Urgh- I don’t get how he’s so infuriating,” she groaned in irritation and paced around the room. “He is an arrogant bastard that has n-“

“Hey, easy now. He’s not that bad.” She glared at me and I nodded. “Look, Ares can be “ I skimmed through the words in my mind for something appropriate.

“Difficult.” She completed with her hand in the air in a dramatic rise.

“How about we focus on getting energy to scream at Ares some more than scream at Ares on an empty stomach.”

“i-ho-“ Laila stammered as I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Eat now and we can talk about how infuriating he is later, okay?” I bargained and she stared at me her mind running on wheels.

“Fine.”

That’s my girl.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Laila POV

“What is the pack?” I asked as we strolled past flowers in the large nursery. I had seen a variety of flowers I never imagined existed. I stopped in front of a deep purple flower with blue tracing around the edges.

“We call it the Purple orchid-“

“You mean the deep blue orchid. Its been wrongly named due to the major colour yet there is no one colour as it changes from blue to purple depending on the time of the day.” I corrected while I dazed off in the flower in front of me.

“You sure know your stuff,” Atlas said watching me check out the flowers.

“The pack?” I reminded him.

“It’s a family, our family.”

“You mean a werewolf family, then that means im an outcast.” I glanced up at him.

“No, you’re not. You have wolf genes just like us.”

“and I am yet to transform into one, my-“ I air quoted. “SUPPOSED gene, I am not one of you.”

“You are Laila, you have everything we do, and as for your transformation we just need to take advantage of the right time.” Our eyes locked for a few seconds and I turned away first.

“Let me just explain some basics to you.” I rose to my feet and dusted my hands together. “We have a hierarchy down here, in the werewolf world. We have the common pups, which are the growing kids who are not yet fit for battle, we have the warriors- they have trained werewolves who protect the pack, although it is been made compulsory for everyone old enough to train regardless.”

“Does that mean I will train?”

“If you want to defeat Morgana you’ll have to and hard.” He answered calmly, he tucked his hands in his pocket as we walked down a path with a lot of trees.

“We have the omega, gamma, beta, and then the Alpha.”

“Which if I guess right is Ares.” He chuckled at my deduction and turned to me with a small smile.

“Yeah-“

“What about you? Aren’t you supposed to be an Alpha too? Maybe like a co-alpha, does that work? How does it work?”

“I am not an alpha, I stepped down for my brother to claim the position, I mean it fits him anyway.” He shrugged. “He’s better for the position, he’s strict and everything an Alpha should be.”

“If it's all his qualities then that’s a red flag for all alphas, I mean shouldn’t they be understanding and down to earth? How would the rest of the people he’s leading get to respect him when he's being a complete asshole.” I muttered with an eye roll and a gentle kick at the sand.

“I’ll ignore what you just said.” He stated ushering me forward as we crossed a little waterway. “Besides, when it comes to running a pack you need the fearsome and strict qualities but notwithstanding Ares can be kind-“ I sent him a look with my brows raised at him.

“But you don’t expect me to believe all you have to say about your brother because I’ve seen him-“

“You can't make deductions in one week Laila.” I remained where I was and admired the yellow flowers up ahead.

“Whatever,” there was nothing that would make me change my mind about Ares.

Atlas and I continued walking while he told me more about the pack, he halted when we reached a large apartment-like building, it was larger than where I stayed in and it had more windows but a large double door.

“Here is the pack house.”

Two men were standing out with a woman who was coming from the opposite side, when her eyes landed on us she broke out into a smile.

“Atlas.” She walked up to us, I took in her appearance. Her hair was short in a pixie cut that framed her small round face, her upturned hazel eyes were bright yet sharp, and her lashes were full and long that you didn’t need to squint to see them. She had a tall athletic build that fit into the cargo pants and black tank top she wore.

“Rebecca,” Atlas responded with a bright smile and a hug that I think lasted way too long. Rebecca turned to me with her cherry smile still on her face.

“You must be the new girl-“ My brow furrowed at the title. They had heard about me already? “Hi, I’m Rebecca, it's nice to finally meet the white wolf.”

“Right, uh- the name is Laila, not the new girl or the white wolf. I’ll prefer to be referred to me by my name and not by titles.” I said as warmly as possible, Rebecca nodded ignoring the tardiness in my voice.

“Right, sorry. Nobody was willing to give us a name and Ayesha was being as difficult as always, she didn’t even want us talking about her in the pack house-“ she crossed her arms over her chest as she complained to Atlas.

“Well it's probably for the best because we don’t need people hogging over Laila, she's going to get overwhelmed.” He said like I wasn’t standing next to him.

“I’m sure I can handle myself, thank you very much.”

“Not in this packed house, it's difficult to keep people out of your business and the white wolf is like walking in a hunter's trap.” I frowned, what kind of place is this?

“I’ll just have to avoid them, I won’t talk or do anything.” Rebecca and Atlas stared at me like I’d lost my mind.

“you have no idea of what you’re talking about, you don’t get that much privacy here unless you’re staying at the other house where Alpha Ares is-“ she paused and her eyes beamed in excitement.

“You’ve been staying there for a while that means you get to see the Alpha most times don’t you?” she asked with so much enthusiasm. I turned to Atlas wondering what her excitement is for.

“Unfortunately, I’ve been in the same building with that asshole,” I muttered under my breath and Rebecca stared at me with wide eyes.

“Did you just call Alpha Ares an asshole?” she whisper yelling at me, “You don’t get to do that anywhere or you’ll be thrown into the cell for blasphemy.” My eyes widened, there was no way she was telling the truth. I turned to Atlas whose jaw had hardened and eyes were looking someplace else.

“You’re kidding, I’ve-“

“That’s enough Rebecca, we’ll see you later during dinner.” Rebecca waved us goodbye and Atlas and I retreated to the other house.

“She’s bluffing, right? What Rebecca said about blasphemy- I mean it can't be true, I’ve been saying it more times than I can count-“ Atlas didn’t look at me. Oh.

“Look don’t worry over trivial things such as what you did or didn’t do. What should matter to you is training.” He said softly, we were standing outside my room door.

“Right, training.” My face fell and my eyes dimmed. It was the reason I was going to stay, to get better and know how to harness my powers. Atlas's fingers touched the base of my chin making me look up at him.

“I know it’s a bit difficult accepting what you have to do now but I’ll always be here if you need someone.” He assured me and I nodded. That night I couldn’t sleep and ended up watching the stars in the sky while my mind envisioned me standing over Morgana’s limp body.