Chapter 9

My eyes widened in disbelief as my mouth dropped open, "hellhounds!? Like the ones that were created by Hades? God of the Underworld?"

Axil nodded gravely, his eyes flashing with pain briefly before he willed it away.

I've read this in an old history book when I was about nine years old, I think. Wolves were basically the living version of a hellhound. When a wolf dies, their soul is sent to the underworld. Hades saw the potential in their souls and created his own version, which he called hellhounds.

Witches were basically the balance between life and death, the gatekeeper between portals and the link between good and evil. If a witch was powerful enough, she could manage to open a portal from our world into the underworld... but that was some serious black magic type shit. It was strictly forbidden because of the effect it left on the soul, turning the witch who cast the spell completely evil to the core. I shuddered just thinking of it...

Was she out of her mind!?

"Not only did she summon a bunch of hellhounds as their puppets, she summoned the demon of stone and venom, Medusa."

"Holy mother of all things crazy," I breathed, positive that my eyes couldn't get any larger. "Medusa!? The Medusa!?"

"That was one powerful witch," I acknowledged.

Axil grimaced, "sadly she was. We thought we could win the battle at first but when Medusa appeared, it all went downhill for us. All of our allying packs turned their backs on us, and we had no witches in our corner to fight for us. We were truly defenceless."

Sympathy churned in my stomach as I gazed at his helpless eyes. None of this was his fault. Witches who chose the path of ruin were unstable and dangerous. As wolves, they had no idea what they were dealing with.

"I'm so sorry for what you've been through," I sincerely apologized.

A bitter smile tugged at his lips as he shook his head, "the most agonizing part of it all is knowing that my people are out there right now, trapped and suffering beneath stone while I'm out here free and helpless."

"You're not helpless. You're doing the best you can in a situation like this. Besides... you managed to find a witch, didn't you? I'll find a way to free your people, I promise," the words left my mouth before I could think them through and I cringed, mentally scolding myself for making a promise I wasn't sure I could keep.

Axil watched me closely, peering at the inner turmoil that was raging in me. He said two simple words that managed to warm themselves around my heart and strengthen my resolve to help as best as I could.

"Thank you."

I smiled at him, "thank me after I've figured out how to free your people."

He shook his head, "nonetheless, you deserve my thanks even if you weren't able to help."

His meaning was clear.

I furrowed my brows in confusion. Why was he so sure that I was the one that freed him?

Axil turned his eyes to stare at the wall with much fascination, leaving me even more confused as I wondered what the hell he was doing.

"A...c... car is right in front of your home, it just stopped... I think."

Realization dawned on me that he was just listening in on the car engine as it drove into our garage. That was one hell of a hearing.

"It's probably Liza coming back with your supplies, finally." I got up from my seat and dusted off the invisible dust off of my clothing, "I'll go help her, stay here."

Axil nodded and watched me as I left, causing my stomach to twist in knots at his searching gaze. Why was he always staring at me?

As soon as I reached out to open the door, it opened on itself, a pile of bags immediately being shoved into my face as Liza struggled through the door with them.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed, quickly taking a few bags from her to ease the weight, "you could've just called me for help y'know," I muttered as her face finally came into view.

Liza rolled her eyes, "I can handle a few bags Ms. Witch."

I raised an eyebrow at her and could literally sense the tension that was lingering in the air. I mentally sighed. Liza wasn't over my keeping this secret from her, not that I was surprised really... but still, I knew for a fact that she was dying to get me alone with her to speak her mind.

Which means that I had to avoid being alone with her for as long as I could!

"Axil is waiting in the living room, let's go," I said, leading her into the house and back to Axil.

Liza beamed at him when she saw him, "Alright, wolf boy! It's time for your makeover! I'm guessing Ezzy already got you settled in so I'm about to get you blended in."

She dumped the bags on the floor and clapped her hands in excitement.

I rolled my eyes at her enthusiasm and dumped the bags I had on the floor as well. I went back to curl myself up on the sofa and watched as Liza ravaged through the bags, muttering to herself.

"Shaver... shaver... where did I put that thing?"

I glanced over at Axil who stared at Liza curiously, probably wondering what she was doing.

A sigh escaped my lips and I suddenly felt fatigue as the events that occurred today flashed before my eyes. I was tired, my head was slightly throbbing and my body felt weak.

My eyes began to droop.

"So... Axil, why were you trapped under stone? Who did it?" Liza asked as she continued looking through her stuff.

As Axil began to retell his story again, I found myself dozing off to the sound of his deep voice as it lulled me to sleep.

***

When I finally woke up, it was bright outside... which confused me because I remembered the sky darkening before I fell asleep.

Don't tell me I had slept through the entire night?

Did that mean that I missed out on Liza's makeover of Axil?

And why was I in my room?

I groaned and shielded my eyes from the sun that shone through my bedroom window. Sluggishly turning to my side and cuddling deeper into bed. Why I got there wasn't important at the moment, I just wanted to sleep more. My eyes were burning and closing them was their only salvation.

Five more minutes... just five more minutes then I'll face the world of responsibilities on my shoulders.

My belly grumbled.

I groaned and rolled over onto my back, squinting up at the ceiling gloomily.

My limbs felt heavy as if they didn't want me to start moving anytime soon, they just wanted me to lay there... do nothing... ah that sounded so nice.

My belly grumbled again.

"I heard you the first time dammit." I grumbled and rubbed my tummy. It felt like I hadn't eaten in ages.

I sat up in bed and stretched my hands above my head, hearing the relieving crack from my shoulders before sighing.

I got up off the bed and looked down at myself to see that I was still wearing my clothes from yesterday. At least they didn't change me.

An image of Axil flashed before my eyes and I quickly shook away the image, frowning. Why did I feel like he was going to be more trouble than he's worth?

My belly grumbled again, bringing me back from my thoughts.

I covered my mouth as I yawned and left my room to head down to the kitchen. I rubbed at my aching head and pulled out the rubber band that held my hair up into one, running my hand through them to undo some of the knots and leaving them out in an afro, relieved that the pressure was lifted. It always happened when I slept with my hair up like that.

I smelled the scent of fried eggs and bacon just before I entered the kitchen, causing my belly to groan again.

I met Liza behind the stove as she continued making breakfast. I sat on the stool behind the counter with a yawn and mumbled, "morning."

Liza threw a glance over her shoulder before turning back to her cooking, "morning! you slept well."

"As well as can be. Sorry I fell asleep on you guys, did you get any sleep?"

She hummed, "yeah about five hours. I stayed up with Axil all night fixing him up."

I eyed the bacons on the plate next to her hungrily, "and by fixing you mean?"

Liza turned and threw me a grin, singing, "makeover."

I deadpanned, "Don't tell me you put makeup on the poor guy?"

Liza rolled her eyes and went to dump out the eggs onto a plate, "Of course not. I just shaved all that excess hair he had going on. Dude looked like a freaking caveman."

I chuckled and nodded. He really did look like a caveman.

The toaster pinged, signalling that the bread was finished. Liza took out the bread and placed two onto the plate of eggs and bacon before passing it to me. I mumbled a thanks and dug right in. Liza turned back to place more bread into the toaster.

"I gotta admit though, he is one handsome mother fucker under all that hair. I swear to god my heart almost gave out when I saw him like damn girl, even my kitty tingled."

I rolled my eyes at her exaggerated description, already accustomed to her fangirling moment over good looking guys.

I changed the subject, "where is he anyway?"

Liza shrugged, "he's up in his room. I already called him down for breakfast, so he'll be down soon."

I nodded and chewed on my bread, "that's good," then the kitchen fell in silence as Liza finished up and placed her and Axil's plate on the counter as well. She poured out some orange juice into three glasses and handed one to me.

"Thanks," I said just as I glimpsed someone in the corner of my eyes.

"Good morning," his voiced travelled through the room and wrapped itself around my body, causing me to tense up slightly as the butterflies in my stomach erupted.

"Morning," I muttered, taking a glance at him as he entered the kitchen. I couldn't help the double take I did as I fully turned my gaze to him.

Wow.

For the first time ever, Liza wasn't exaggerating.

All that excess hair was just covering a defined jawline and plump lips but now that his entire face was visible, I knew that his looks would get a lot of attention from girls. His light brown eyes sparkled and complimented his brown complexion, leading way for his straight and pointed nose then down to those very kissable lips. Liza shaved his hair right off but left a slight trim on it, not that he wouldn't look good bald anyway but what I liked to see was the slight waves that formed in his hair. It was cute.

I wouldn't exaggerate and say that he's the most handsome man I've ever met but he sure as hell was attractive.

He was so handsome and refined even though he was simply dressed in some grey sweatpants and a white t-shirt. The shirt and pants even looked like they were a little too tight on him, which I wasn't surprised for since we didn't know his size yet and I doubted he knew his size either.

He made me look like the unruly one just by standing in the same room as me.

My lips were parted in surprise and my gaze was trained to his as he watched me intensely.

"Oh."