2. Thirty- two

We lay on Ethan's bed, face to face, within touching distance but not touching. It looked like neither of us had any plans of going to sleep at night because even though we had "gone to bed", we hadn't slept yet.

I hadn't given much thought about accepting Ethan's offer about sleeping, I had just placed my hand into his, and low-key I was glad I did. A week ago, I definitely wouldn't have felt comfortable lying with another man in his bed but I didn't feel uncomfortable or strange right now. 

It didn't feel the same as lying with Harper, it just felt different. A very good difference.

"So, why did you punch Adam when you met him the first time?" I asked and laughed as I mentally pictured him punching Adam.

He laughed with me and casually ran his hand through his messy bed hair. "After I came to know that rogues were involved in my mate's disappearance, my hate for them grew. I couldn't handle being with them at first. So, when I was introduced to Adam at a random college party by a friend, I grew furious. He instantly knew that I was a wolf too. He hadn't found Emily then. Anyway, in my misplaced rage, I punched him."

I eyed him as he told me about their past. It was weird how good friends they were now. "It's ironical, though. You became the very thing you hated, a rogue." 

"Yeah, I know." He chuckled and looked into my eyes.

"How did you become friends then?" I hastily asked, afraid and uneasy because of the possible growing tension between us.

"Well, we kept running into each other at different places and I thought it wasn't wise to punch every time I saw him. So, we called a truce. Then he found your sister and moved into this apartment. We started running into each other more and we gradually became friends. Though, it wasn't until I told him that Emily could mark him too that we became the best of buds."

I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion because I remembered I meant to ask how a human mate marks a werewolf. No one in Harper's pack had mentioned any such thing and I thought it was impossible to do so. "I thought a human couldn't mark his/her werewolf mate?" This was the first time I had seen something like this.

"Yeah, it's not something everyone knows but when marking is done by both the mates, the mate bond becomes stronger and reliable."

"How is it even possible? I mean, werewolves have sharp canines, which explains how they'll be able to pierce human skin but humans don't have that." 

Ethan chuckled. "If the werewolf mate marks their human mate on a full moon night, then for the next seven full moon nights, the human mate can get the ability to mark their werewolf counterpart. To get this ability, the werewolf mate has to bite and pierce their mark on the human mate in the middle of mating, which leads to the elongation of the human mate temporarily. These elongated canines last for several hours and are magical. They can only be changed once in a lifetime and the human can then mark their werewolf mate."

Wow, this was too much information. How had I never heard of it? Did Harper not know about this? Otherwise, I’m sure he would have told me because who wouldn't want to be marked by their mate in return?

"How do you know all this stuff? I mean, I don't think my friends even know about this." I stated as I took in the information he had just spewed out. I subconsciously stored it in some part of my brain where I knew I would be able to access it at some later date. 

Ethan looked away for a minute as if he was recollecting some thoughts. "I told you that I was going to be the alpha of the Domi Hills pack, right?" I nodded, I remembered him telling me that.

"See, I don't know if you know this but there are special wolves on each of the six hospitable continents. They are believed to be the direct descendants of the moon goddess, which explains why their fur is completely white."

My eyes widened in surprise. He was talking about white wolves. I just didn't know the white wolves; I was mated to one of them but he didn't know that yet. I didn't interrupt him though, eager for all the information he was giving me.

He must have taken my surprise another way because he just laughed. "In ancient times, the white wolves were crowned kings of the continents and ruled over very large stretches of lands and their most trustworthy companions were their scroll keepers. These scroll keepers were magical in their way because they not only were in charge of the royal library but also retained a large amount of information about magic and nature. They were like these huge bodies of knowledge and they knew almost everything and could retain any information in their mind they deemed was necessary. They also acted as the king's advisors and were their closest companions. Slowly, the idea of kingdoms became outdated and people revolted to have more freedom. This change was inevitable because there couldn't be kings still when the humans were forming their government. So, anyway, the white wolves decided to resolve the kingdoms and monarchy and established packs, with the hierarchy that we see today, with the condition that all the other packs would report back to the white alphas, thus indirectly making them alphas of alphas. When the white alphas set up their packs, they ordered their scroll keepers to go to the farthest land possible and set up their packs, so that the alphas could still see over their subjects. All the werewolves worshipped the white alphas and obeyed all the rules set by them. Over time, the descendants of the white alphas lost contact with the descendants of the scroll keepers. So, centuries later, the white alphas are still considered as the alphas of alphas while the packs of scroll keepers faded away in legend."

The white wolves and the scroll keepers? Wow! This seemed like some ancient legend or something. It was really interesting to know about the history of the werewolves like this. I looked at Ethan as he started to speak again.

"I come from the pack of the scroll keepers." He paused as if waiting to let that sink in. "As the first-born son, I am the legendary scroll keeper to the present white alpha of this continent, who must have taken over his alpha position by now."

I gulped uneasily. He was talking about the white wolf on this continent, which meant that he was talking about Harper. I didn't tell him that, though, I was going to let him speak now and going to tell him everything later.

"So, anyway I have all the ancient knowledge that the normal werewolves don't have about rituals and terms which have long been forgotten. I would have regained my full potential as the scroll keeper if I had taken over the position as the alpha of my pack but that didn't happen."

I knew which circumstances he was talking about, the depressing death of this mate, which led him to leave the pack and move across the country.

"The firstborn of the scroll keepers always take an oath, which demands to always help the current white wolf of our time, if he ever needs help. To this day, we still believe the white wolves to be our superiors, like every other pack, and live to serve them. I need not be the alpha of my pack to stay true to my oath."

I eyed him carefully and processed all the information he gave me. I gasped as a revelation shook me. "You coming here wasn't a coincidence, wasn't it?"

Ethan looked surprised for a minute as if he didn't expect this question. I was a little surprised because I didn't expect myself to deduce this from everything that he had told me.

"No, I didn't come to this part of the country on a whim, Zara. I came here because this was the closest, I could get to the pack of the white wolf, without being murdered for being a rogue. I had a feeling I would be needed to come good on my oath, so I came here."

My breathing grew shallow for a few minutes as I finally understood what he meant. He believed that something big would happen which would lead him to stay true to his oath. Was something big coming? Was Harper in danger?

I opened my mouth to say something but before I could utter a single word, Ethan, who had been eyeing me cautiously spoke. "You know the white wolves, don't you?"

"Yes", I whispered. I had no idea if I could trust Ethan to tell him that I was mated to Harper, the white wolf of his time, to whom he had sworn to serve, as he says. Everything he could have told me could be complete bullshit and I wouldn't even know where I could double-check it. So, instead, I told him what I could, keeping the whole truth from him. "I live there. My family lives there." 

"Oh!" Ethan said, breaking the intense eye contact with me, and looked around his dorm room before sighing.

"Ethan, can I ask you something?" I asked tentatively.

His eyes softened as he looked at me and nodded gently. 

"I told you I came here because I had a nightmare, right?" I asked as the images of my horrible nightmare flashed behind my eyes.

He nodded again, sensing the change in my mood. "I don't ever want to feel that way. That helpless." I choked and even though I thought I was done with crying for the night, a tear slid down my cheek. 

Ethan pulled me close to him and put his arms around me. I put my head on his chest and cried silently. His hand went up and down my back to calm me down and I had no idea why I had become so emotional all of a sudden.

I leaned back a little to look Ethan in his eyes and said what I wanted to say to him all along. "Promise me you'll teach me how to fight. I need to learn because I never want to feel that way again." 

Ethan held me right in his arms. "I will help you. I promise." He knew how I felt, he knew that I wouldn't feel comfortable anywhere if I didn't have the confidence that I was safe. I couldn't possibly have someone attached to me at all times so needed to learn how to fight if I wanted the guts to walk down the road by myself.

And maybe, these skills would come in handy some other way too.