Chapter 50

-Farley-

We couldn't find him and he didn't come back. We searched the majority of the night. It felt like all we were doing had been searching for Pax over the previous few days. It was starting to get under my skin. I knew it was necessary for him to run away, but when around thirty allies can't find the person you've just had a date with, it was disheartening.

The anxious thoughts about whether or not that was our first and last date didn't leave my mind. I wanted to hold him in my arms and talk about nonsense with him. I was missing him.

"You're killing me," Iris muttered as she sat beside me on the settee. "Have you heard from anyone else recently?"

I looked at her with the grumpiest look I could muster, which wasn't too different from my current facial expression. "Who would I be talking to?" I asked her. "We didn't give Pax a phone or anything."

"Yeah, but we have thirty wolves looking all over for him, where we can get to him." She put her hand on my shoulder,. "I bet nobody's looking inside houses."

I raised an eyebrow. "You want me to break into people's houses?" I asked slowly. This girl was getting madder by the minute. Rowan still wasn't making any progress, so it was understandable that she'd be somehow trying to distract herself, but I didn't think that breaking and entering would have been a first choice.

"No!" She hit my arm. "Not in broad daylight."

It was only when she said that did I notice the sun was starting to rise.

"Just ask around," she finished.

I opened my mouth to reply but a knock came from the door.

Harlow looked up from his seat and his eyes met mine. "Maybe Caspian should open it?" he suggested. "Or at least someone who lives here, and is able to fight."

"I'll go get him," I announced and left the room. As I was passing the front door, I caught the faintest of images through the stained glass. "Iris, come here," I called back into the living room and opened the front door.

The sight before me was very humorous. If it hadn't been for the fact we had been searching all night for him, I would've laughed. Pax had a deep frown on his face and sunglasses on his nose. His shoulders were slumped and he held onto Kelsey for support.

Kelsey, being much shorter than him, looked like she was struggling to keep him upright. "I believe this little pup belongs to you?" Kelsey asked with a grin.

"Don't say it like that," Pax whined and red crawled up his neck. "That makes me sound like I'm a dog who got lost on the street."

"You did get lost on the street," Kelsey argued. "Now, please take him."

I stepped down and put his arm around my shoulders and lifted him into the house. "What could've happened for you to be like this?" I asked. "You weren't injured when you left."

"He's not," Kelsey informed. "He's got a hangover."

Those words were more shocking than any injury could be. I didn't expect to ever see Pax drunk, nevermind hung over, anytime soon.

"What happened?" I asked Kelsey. "Please tell me you didn't actually find him on the street like this."

Kelsey shook her head. "I'll let Pax tell you. I've got to go to work." Kelsey backed away.

"But, okay," Pax began to argue but then just shrugged his shoulders. "Thank you!" he said loudly and waved.

"Have fun nursing that," Kelsey told him before giving me a thumbs-up. "I'll check on you guys later."

I shook my head as soon as she was out of sight and looked at the pitiful being which is Pax. "I think everyone in the house heard." I smirked as I was proven right, there were people hanging over the upstairs railing. "Come on, into the living room."

Pax and I sat in our usual chair by the window, except Pax was turned away from the light.

"You got drunk?" Randall asked with a grin. "Dude, that's iconic."

"That's stupid," Moss corrected. "What would've happened if someone found you?"

"Kelsey found me," Pax replied. "If a wolf found me, then, I'd just have to fight the best I could with what I have. I wasn't technically drunk though."

"High tolerance doesn't mean less suffering," Caspian pointed out. "You're not going to be too happy over the next few days."

Pax shrugged. "My fault, I'll deal with it." He sighed and rested his head against my shoulder. "She knows about werewolves."

The room was full of awkward silence until Harlow spoke up, "she was at the gym though, right? I would suspect that she knew about the wolves."

Pax nodded, his hair tickling my neck. "Yeah, but she knew about it beforehand."

"How does she know?" I asked and tilted my head towards him. His eyes were still covered by the black lenses, but I could see his dark eyelashes from my viewpoint.

"Apparently Mary told her?" Pax answered as though it was a question. "Technically, Mary didn't tell her, Kelsey's grandparents told her because Mary's husband was a wolf. She claims to be descended from wolves."

"That's not something too unusual," Beaumont shrugged.

"It is for humans," I told him. "Was she drunk?"

"Yes," Pax said simply.

"That'll be one reason why Mary knows so much," Iris said and ruffled her hair, flipping her fringe to the other side. She always messed with her hair when she was anxious. I was surprised that the floor wasn't covered in thin red hairs.

"Yup," I replied. "I wonder if my parents knew them. They're pretty close to Mary."

"It's likely," Caspian said. "I think that we should try and settle this once and for all."

Everyone's head turned to him. He was leaning on the table across the room. His hair was slightly in his face and his eyes were dark. "We've been hurt too many times and we've nearly lost a few of our pack members."

"But what could we do?" Iris asked. "We've already came up with loads of ideas, and we've always been taken by surprise. We're always the ones getting attacked or trapped."

"This time, it'll be them,." Clementine interrupted, a look similar to Caspian's on her face. "He's right."

"Of course you'd say he's right," I muttered under my breath, but nobody paid me any mind. That was apart from Pax, who turned and raised an eyebrow at me.

"How could we trap an entire pack's worth of people? Or two packs worth? Or three?" Carme asked, her voice rising with each number. "Much less fight them."

"We can't," Ralph answered. "Not how we stand right now. We barely made it out of the last one, not all of our pack was intact by the end of it."

"That wasn't because we died fighting though," Karim pointed out. "We made a mistake and we lost someone because of it. We didn't fight or show dominance in any way. We let them walk over us."

Emi put a hand on his shoulder and turned to Caspian. "I think that we should ambush them, but I also think that we don't have enough people."

"There would be over sixty wolves if we were to fight them now," Moss informed.

"Then we should go on foot," Iris suggested. "We won't be able to gather enough people without the information leaking back to Daphne and hte others. We wouldn't be able to have the advantage of surprise."

"I'm not sure that we even have that," I added. "We should try and beat them at their own game. Figure out what's close to them, and show up with teeth and claws."

"Farley, that's a bit too much," Clementine scolded.

"How is it too much?" I asked quickly. My free hand was curled into a fist. I knew that I was beginning to lose my temper, but I couldn't help it. I stood up. "We can't even go outside without the fear of being ambushed. We can't stay in our home either because they'll just dive through the window. They think that we're weak because we're a small pack, so let's prove them wrong."

"Yes,. but how?" Carme asked. "We can't all just ambush them. Even if we do it one pack at a time, there'll be word that we've acted."

"We shouldn't wait to be attacked," Ralph announced. "We should prepare for an attack. If we act first,then Pax would be in more danger. We would be seen as the ones to start the fight."

I hated that he had a point. If we put a toe out of line, Pax would be the one blamed for it.

"How do we prepare?" Caspian asked after running his hands down his face. "We don't have the resources-"

"We don't need resources," Moss interrupted. "What we need is space and people. Karim, could you send some of your pack out to find people? They're going to be the ones who aren't recognised."

Karim nodded and gave a mock salute. "They're still in Quartvear, so it should be easier." He got his shone out and started to text.

"We're gonna need someone to stay with Rowan," Iris interrupted. "I don't want-"

"I think Abilene would be in her element there," Ralph said with a smile. "She's the caretaker of our pack. I'm sure she'd be happy to watch over him."

Iris nodded hesitantly, but she had a small smile on her face and didn't argue.

"We need to do as much thinking as we can, I know that it's hard for some of you, but we need to gather info about Daphne and Yam."

"I can tell you all I know about Daphne, again," Pax said and raised his hand. "THere should've been some things at the house, right?"

A few members of the pack nodded. Hollis pulled out a book from his bag. "I think that this belonged to her, or someone else there. Definitely a woman's." He handed the book to Pax.

With a small sniff and a scrunching of his nose, Pax announced, "it's Rosary's." He held it out again for someone to take it. "There'll be some gossip in there."

"I think that's all we can do for now," Moss said awkwardly. "Good morning everyone."

Pax and I were sitting on the floor of the girl's room. I rested my back against Clementine's bed and Pax had his against Iris'. We didn't want to go into our room due to Rowan, who was still recovering from the poison and injuries he'd endured. Abilene had been more than happy to keep an eye on him, as long as she was still able to keep an eye on the younger members of her own pack.

"So, you went to a club?" I asked Pax teasingly as I nudged his foot with ym own.

His cheeks turned pink and he reached up to cover them. "Be quiet," he muttered. "I'm in pain."

I shook my head with a small grin. "Yeah, and we went searching all night for you and you were nowhere to be found."

"Isn't that a good thing though?" he asked after some hesitation. His voice sounded hopeful. He was using the same excuse that we had been using in order to make ourselves feel better. "It wasn't on purpose," he said quieter.

"I know it wasn't," I said in a similar tone and volume. "You just worried us. You could've ran into different dangers at the club. It's not just wolves that you have to keep an eye out for."

"I'm aware." He sighed as though he was a teenager getting scolded by his parents. "At least I ran into Kelsey pretty early on. I stayed with her all night. I didn't even bump into anyone else."

I frowned. "She was drinking alone?" Concern for my friend started to feel like a tie being pulled too tight around my neck. "I'm tired of being concerned." I let the top of my body fall onto the floor, my legs stretched to cover Pax's and my arms were splayed out like a starfish.

Pax gave a week chuckle. "Hello there." He gave the back of my calf a small pat. "Yeah, she said she wanted to forget what happened at the gym, I think."

I sighed and let my head bang against the floor. "I hope this works." I groaned and resisted the urge to hit the floor with my fists like a toddler having a tantrum.

"What? That your head would break through the floor?" Pax asked with a chuckle.

I gave his leg a small kick and rolled over. The white ceiling, which held a few dents, offered no entertainment. So, I moved further down until Pax was in my view. "Hello," I said

He lifted his right hand, which brushed against my hair. He jumped in surprise, but after a moment, he put his hand back on my head. "Hello. Are you comfortable there?"

I shuffled in his lap for emphasis. "Not really, but I have a nice view."

He spluttered out a laugh and stroked my hair. "Your hair's very curly," he stated. "You know, after people are no longer trying to kill me, what are we going to do?"

I hummed quietly, wanting Pax to elaborate.

"Well, I did technically very unexpectedly show up at your house and start living here. I don't have any qualifications so I can't do much. I can't do much anyway-"

I zoned out as he started to ramble. I couldn't imagine a world where he wasn't living with us anymore. The thought alone felt odd and it made my stomach feel cold. The thought of him putting himself down and thinking he's useless also added to the feeling.

"Stop," I interrupted his ramblings. I put my arm around his neck and pulled him down to look at me. "You're being cruel to yourself. You can do plenty of things and we can cross the bridge when it comes to it."

He gave me a wobbly smile, and I realised that there was tears running down his cheeks.

I sat up and turned to face him, wiping his tears away with my thumb. "You know, you can talk to me, right?"

He nodded and his lips quivered. He looked like he was going to burst at any moment. A small whiney noise came from the back of his throat, the best of a confirmation he could muster.

I couldn't resist the urge to hug him. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and let him bury his head into my chest. As soon as his face hit the fabric of my shirt, tears and sobs erupted and his body started to shake. The sound made tears come to my own eyes as it echoed inside my head.

He was practically sitting on my lap as he wrapped his arms around me and squeezed tight.

This was a moment which I was dreading. I didn't know it, but I felt like I had beenw waiting for something to happen for months and it finally came to fruition. Pax had always been so strong, I was waiting for him to show me how much he was hurting and how stressed he was. Who wouldn't be? He's being hunted down because of his genetics and has a group of people surrounding him who he hardly knew, people who he had to rely on.

After a few minutes of him sobbing, he started to quieten down. The rest of the house had become quiet too. I was sure that everybody could hear the unleashing of emotions.

"Are you alright?" I whispered as he sniffled. I reached behind me and grabbed one of Iris' tissues.

He still hadn't let his arms fall from around my stomach. He let out the same noise as he had earlier, this time the noise got stuck in his throat. "Here." I held the tissue out to him, which he slowly took with his right hand and started to clean his face.

"Sorry," he mumbled into the tissue. His hair was a mess and his eyes were now red with irritation.

"I don't think the tissue can hear you," I joked light-heartedly. "There's really nothing that you should be sorry for. You can cry if you'd like to."

"Yeah but, I cried into your shoulder." He poked the wet patch on my shirt. "I'm sure I'm just a disaster."

I shook my head with a sigh and put my hand on his cheek again, just as I did when I was wiping his tears. "Pax, you're not a disaster. You're reacting to your situation after bottling it up for months. Crying is alright."

He inhaled deeply and then did something I didn't expect.

He raised his hand to my cheek and pulled me closer. He touched his lips to mine softly in a small peck. It was so light I thought that I had imagined it. The tingling sensation was the only proof that it had actually happened.

He pulled back a second later and looked down. His cheeks were bright red and his hands were now ripping up the tissue in his lap.

I blinked a few times before leaning forward and kissing him. I had to make sure that was actually what happened. He couldn't just pull away after such a short time. I felt the need to confirm that it actually happened, that he wouldn't just pull away immediately with a disgusted face.

I rested my hand on his shoulder and when we pulled away, I stared into his puffy eyes. He probably couldn't see me, but I didn't care at that moment as I took in all fo the emotions that we had both just felt.

"Hey guy-" Iris' voice came from the doorway before she cut herself off.

My cheeks turned red and I rested my forehead on Pax's. The door was right in the middle of the two beds, giving her a perfect view of the two of us.

"Sorry for interrupting, we're heading out." The door closed as quietly as it had opened.

I couldn't help but chuckle. "Congratulations, Pax. You have experienced one of the pinnacle teenage experiences. Having a parent walk into your room whilst you're kissing someone."

Pax was like a statue. He looked clueless and adorable at the same time. His lips parted and sealed themselves, and then parted again. "You kissed me," he pointed out. "You-"

"I did," I confirmed. "But you also kissed me."

He nodded, his throat making that noise of confirmation again. This time, there wasn't a wobble in the noise or any trace of tears. A smile spread across his lips and he took a deep breath. "Yeah, I did."

Hello lovelies!
Oh wow, we're up to chapter 50- I honestly can't believe it!
Thank you guys so so much for reading, I appreciate every vote, comment and read <3

The question of the chapter is; what do you guys want to see in my next book?
I do have a few drafts of stories already written, being halfway through a vampirexwitch book that I'm really looking forward to sharing! -but it's going to be a long one :D So I'm waiting until this book is finished before I think about updating that one. But there would be two updates of that a week! -Replacing Blue Magic and ITEOTW :D