Bear with me for another quick Elijah chapter lol while I try to figure out where I was going with Emma and the gang. I had something in mind before that I've forgotten about. I'm sorry that there's a lot more dialogue than description/action, I wrote this one in a hurry.
Ashe was telling Tess a story about when we went fishing as kids while I looked around the room. I didn't notice them when we came in, but along the opposite wall were werewolves in wolf form. Most were sleeping, and a handful were eating food from plates that were on the floor near them. I shook in disgust, I never liked how much my pack embraced their wolf side. It had been several years now since I had changed.
I thought about the last time I could have changed. It was when Tess told me about the baby. I was putting away groceries I'd just bought and saw Tess walk by out of the corner of my eye. I didn't think anything of it until she passed by a second time. I cleared my throat the third time she did it.
"You're pacing," I commented. "Did Roger do something?"
Roger was Tess' current tenant. A half demon with extreme paranoia. He spent the majority of the time hiding in his room upstairs.
"I know," Tess replied. "He didn't."
Her tone made me nervous. Something was up. My insecurities jumped out, was Tess unhappy with me? Was she trying to politely kick me out or something?
"Why are you pacing?" I set down the box of pasta that was in my hands and turned to face her directly.
"Because I need to tell you something but I don't know how you'll react."
I felt my shoulder twitch. She was going to leave me.
"Don't tell me then," I tried to suggest it calmly but my worry showed through.
Tess chuckled and walked up to me, taking my hand. "I kind of have to tell you."
I rolled my shoulder trying to get rid of the muscle twitch.
"Elijah," she said. "You eventually wanted kids right?"
In mid shrug I realized what she was trying to say. My eyes got wide and I stepped back from her, letting go of her hand.
"Are you saying?" I couldn't finish the question.
Tess nodded with a mix of emotions on her face. She looked saddened by my sudden distance, she looked like she wanted to smile but couldn't until she knew how I felt. The problem though was my brain stopped working. I couldn't comprehend what was going on. I didn't know how I felt.
My shoulder jerked and sent a wave of pain down my back.
"I uh I need some air real quick," I said hurriedly and rushed out the front door before she responded.
I shut the door and grabbed on to the porch railing. My breathing quickened. Why was I panicking? She wasn't leaving me. And her news was good news. Right? I felt sick to my stomach. I let go of the railing and dropped onto the bench, putting my head between my knees. It was good news? I hoped.
"Elijah?" Tess said softly. I hadn't heard her come outside.
She set a hand on my twitching shoulder and I jumped.
"Don't touch me," I growled and pulled away from her.
The muscles in my chest tightened, making it hard to breathe. My body felt like it was going numb. Tess ignored me and sat beside me, setting her hand on my hand.
"Breathe, just focus on breathing," she said softly.
We sat in the silence until I felt more in control of myself.
"You're alright," Tess said, a statement not a question.
I chuckled.
"What?" She asked. I could hear the relief in her voice at hearing me laugh.
I waited until the muscle spasm in my back stopped before answering.
"You want to know why I panicked?" I said lift my head.
Tess nodded, though confused. To her the answer was what she told me. Which, yes, that was making me panic but that was half of it.
"I thought you were pacing and nervous because you were breaking up with me."
She raised her eyebrows in surprise and shook her head. "You were way off."
"Elijah?" Fingers snapped in front of my face. Tess and Ashe brought me back to reality.
"Hm?" I blinked.
"Where'd you go?" Ashe asked.
I shook my head, "None of your business."
The perfect brotherly response to get her off my back. I didn't need to rehash the argument of not
wanting to change. There was no way we would ever be on the same page. Ashe was just like the rest of the pack, totally fine with the change and enjoying spending time as a wolf. It disgusted me.
I realized they both had finished their food while I'd been off in my thoughts. I didn't feel very hungry anymore. I decided to flip the topic onto Ashe, "So Ashe. Seeing anyone?"
She looked at me, "Why?"
I shrugged, "You got to ask me questions. I think its fair I do the same."
Ashe took a sip of her water before responding.
"No actually, I'm not. Making sure that everything runs smoothly around here has taken up the majority of my time."
"No offense," Tess chimed in. "But what could you be so busy with as an alpha here? There's no conflict with other packs or outsiders, you're in the middle of nowhere."
Ashe rolled her eyes, "I wouldn't expect a lone wolf to understand how much responsibility a pack is. No matter how far away the nearest rival pack is, there's still conflict."
Now I was intrigued. They had conflict with Emma's pack even though they were so far apart?
"What conflict?" I asked.
Ashe rolled her eyes like she wasn't supposed to be discussing it.
"If you have to know. The other pack in the state has been becoming increasingly aggressive with their territory lines. They've been traveling closer and closer to us."
Tess raised an eyebrow, "But they're hours away, why does it matter if they expand? It's not like they're at your doorstep."
"We worry if we don't intervene, they will be at our doorstep soon," Ashe leaned back in her chair. "Our pack may be a little out of the norm since we dabble in a little magic now and again, but these werewolves are far more aggressive than the average pack. I don't have the numbers to fight them off if they decide to make a move first."
I could tell Tess was having a hard time wrapping her head around why the packs couldn't just ignore each other.
"You've always got to try to have the upper hand out here," I said to her. "If you don't protect yourself, you'll be crushed before you know what happened."
"It just seems silly not to sit down with a representative from each pack and work out some sort of agreement," Tess said.
Ashe nodded, "Our grandfather tried that once with the leader of the other pack. It began a war that lasted for two years. Simply because not all pack members agreed with what the leaders agreed on. You can't make everyone happy so you might as well fight to be on top."
Tess shook her and it made me smile. I was honestly glad to see that she wasn't understanding the craziness of these werewolves too.
