Double update! Make sure you read chapter 35 first!

There was always a bittersweet feeling that accompanied me whenever it was time to move. It followed me during my time in foster care when I switched packs, and now that I was leaving Oakwood. Well, I'd technically already left Oakwood and though I didn't stay there for an insanely long period, I still was going to miss the strange town.

Memories from my first day replayed in my mind. It was funny to think that at first, I didn't even know the way to my house. Now, I knew the path like the back of my hand.

As I followed it, I thought back to Callie showing me the way. A small smile broke out on my face when the familiar building came into view.

I walked toward it and pushed open the door, however, rather than head up to my apartment, I decided to make a pit stop. I hit the button for Reuben's floor. This would be the first time since I left that we saw each other and honestly, I was a little nervous. It was one thing to talk over the phone, but it was another to do it in person.

The elevator door opened and I stepped out of it and walked down the hall. When I reached his room, I paused and took a deep breath. It was just Reuben.

I raised my hand, knocked on the door, and waited. There was a long pause which made me question if he was home or not. I was about to turn away, but the door was pulled open at the last second. Reuben stood in front of me with a messy head of hair and a confused expression on his face.

"Eli?"

"Hi, Reub—what in the goddess happened to your apartment?!"

The sudden rise in my tone made him wince. My eyes drifted behind him to where a large hole in the wall was.

"Calm down," he told me.

"What happened?" I repeated the question.

"There was an...incident," he vaguely replied.

"Incident? Are you okay?!"

"Eli, breathe. I'm fine," he said with a soft expression.

"What kind of 'incident' caused all this?" I couldn't help but ask as I entered the house and looked around.

Reuben shrugged which was enough to make me pause. Something was wrong.

"Reuben?"

"It's nothing, Eli. It's already been dealt with."

"It's not nothing! Your apartment looks like a demolition site!" I argued and his eyes turned away from me. "What aren't you telling me?"

Reuben frowned. "You aren't going to drop this, are you?" I shook my head and he sighed. "I had an...unexpected visitor a while back. A very angry visitor here to see Fen."

I let the words sink in for a moment. A visitor here to see Fen?

"They did all of this?" I questioned and he nodded.

Fen wasn't everyone's best friend, but there weren't many people I could think of that'd leave this much damage behind no matter what issues they had with him. In fact, there was only one person.

"I'm going to kill him!" Reuben jumped at my outburst. "Nixon, right? His name was Nixon?"

Reuben didn't respond, but he didn't have to. I already knew the answer.

"Eli, calm down. He was trying to—"

"I don't care what he was trying to do," I interrupted him. "Not only did he lie to me, he basically turned your home into a wreckage site and Goddess knows what else!"

I specifically told him to let Nolan handle Fen and he ignored me. "Going to visit Nolan" my butt! That was his excuse to come to Oakwood without me knowing. I'm sure of it.

"Eli," Reuben's hand rested on my shoulder. "Calm down. What's done is done. I don't need you blowing a fuse over this."

I was far from calm, but I could tell by his expression that Reuben didn't want to talk about it anymore, so I exhaled and took one look around.

"I'll make him replace everything," I promised.

Reuben hummed in acknowledgment. "Now, why don't you tell me why you're actually here."

"Right," I nodded and bit my lip. "I'm leaving Oakwood for good. I'm returning to my pack so I came to grab the rest of my stuff."

There was a long stretch of silence before he reacted. His hand ran through his hair and he shook his head.

"It's stupid. You technically already left, but somehow, now that you're actually saying it, the words hurt more," he muttered.

"Reu..." My hand finds its way to his and I intertwine them. Before, he would've pulled away, but this time he didn't. His grip tightened if anything. "You know me leaving Oakwood doesn't mean we're done, right? We can make it work."

"I know," he told me. "Do you want help packing up?"

I could tell that he wasn't completely okay, but I also knew that pushing him would get me nowhere, so I simply nodded.

"Let me get my shoes," he unlinked our hands and disappeared into the back. I stared at the direction he'd left for a moment before taking a look around the apartment again and made a mental note to scold Nixon the next time I saw him.

Reuben reemerged and the two of us exited his apartment and got on the elevator
to mine. While we were inside, his hand found its way back to mine. We stayed like that the full ride up and even when we got off the elevator. It was only when we were in front of my door that we separated so I could unlock it.

Once we were inside, I took another look around and smiled softly. "I'm actually going to miss this place."

I remembered being with Cronan; Reuben and I's kiss; I remembered it all.

The boxes from when I first arrived were still there, so I pulled them out and handed one to Reuben. "Let's get started."

And that's exactly what we did. The two of us moved from room to room, filling up the boxes with my items. Reuben occasionally stopped to examine something and ask questions, but for the most part, we stayed on task. It was only when we were working on the bedroom that he stopped and took a seat. I turned to see that he had a picture in his hand from my childhood. It was of Nixon and I. It was a photo from one of my first birthdays in the pack. Written in the corner in bold letters was, "Happy Birthday, Elias!"

"You know, you never did tell me why you don't like your full name," Reuben said.

"Out of all the questions, that's the one you want to ask?" I replied teasingly.

"You don't have to answer it—"

"I'm just messing with you. It's fine," I took a seat beside him. "You remember how I told you I grew up in the system right?" Reuben nodded. "Well, I went through a lot of foster homes before I was finally adopted. They were all different from each other in some way or another, but one thing they all had in common was the way they told me they didn't want me. It was always some variation of, 'We're sorry, Elias'. I guess as time went on, I started to hate my name. It felt like a bad omen of sorts. Whenever it was said, not long after something bad happened."

Like George and Lola's car crash.

Reuben frowned at that. "So you started going by just Eli?"

I nodded. "It was kind of like my way of having a fresh start after I got adopted. If Elias brought bad luck then Eli would be my good luck charm." Though, that hadn't exactly been going well in the past few months. "I know it's a little stupid, but—"

"It's not stupid," he interrupted. "It clearly means a lot to you, so it's not stupid."

"Thanks," I said to him with a smile. "I had a really close friend who used to call me Eli. That's where it started. His name was Mathias, we were practically brothers, but an accident happened and I haven't seen him since."

Reuben squeezed my hand. "Have you thought about trying to find him?"

I had, but honestly, I wasn't sure if he'd even want to see me. It'd been years since we saw each other. I was sure we'd both changed.

I didn't say this to Reuben though. Instead, I abruptly stood up and pulled him with me. "Come on, I want to see Cronan before I leave."

If Reuben wanted to call me out on my obvious change in topic, he didn't. He simply nodded and allowed me to pull him out of the apartment and to the next door.

I knocked on the door loudly with a grin on my face. Reuben's eyes were focused on me, but I didn't acknowledge them. The door is pulled open and Cronan's blue eyes come into view, but that's not what catches my attention. His hair was disheveled, his shirt partially unbuttoned, and his belt undone, but my grin only fell once I caught a whiff of scent clinging to him.

"Eli?" Cronan said as he attempted to fix his shirt, but I was no longer focused on him. I managed to push my way into the apartment and sitting on the couch, in just as bad of a state as Cronan, was Fen. He stared at me but said nothing. I glanced back at Cronan and my eyes immediately dropped to the obvious hickey forming on his neck...in the area where a mate mark would be.

"Eli?" Reuben pushed past Cronan and started to reach for me. His brows knitted together when he saw who was sitting on the couch. "Fen? What are you doing here?"

"How do you know each other?" Cronan asked Reuben.

"That's what I was going to ask you."

I turned my attention back to Fen and before Cronan and Reuben could start arguing, I said, "They're mates."

AN: And Eli finally finds out!