Elijah's POV
Oh, man…..
I could NOT think of a better, more romantic, more peaceful yet somehow simultaneously thrilling, more…..just overall completely PERFECT way to end our one year anniversary date night than this right here.
The brisk, cool chill of the late night air as it coursed through the fur of. My wolf form, the feel of Nico's touch as he gripped onto my back as I ran through the woods, on the way back to my house, the absolute pureness of the joy that was so obviously radiating off of him as we were both still riding off the adrenaline from the excitement that the idea of having been together for a full year brought with it.
It was the most wonderful combination of all of this that helped me to almost completely tune out the thoughts from the others in my pack that were, as usual, filling my head.
….Almost tuned them out…..and almost would soon turn to hardly at all when the mention of Nico's name, coming from the thoughts in Collete Littlesea's, caught my attention.
I decided to tune in even more when the name of some girl, who Collete's thoughts let on to be Nico's sister, came up.
Sister? I'd only ever heard him refer to Liz and Imogen as that, and Imogen was referred to very LOOSELY as that, given how explicit she tended be regarding her….beliefs about our kind.
Did he have a BLOOD sister that I wouldn't have known abou-
Suddenly, the brief and somewhat distant memory flashed across my mind, completely interrupting my previous train of thought
"..I don't really talk about having a sister that much, because she wasn't exactly on board with the whole gender thing." I suddenly remembered him saying.
So then, naturally, my next question was, how was this coming up between her and Liz if he'd hardly mentioned her to me? Had she tried to contact him recently? How'd she even know where he is…..or, better yet, what the hell could she even want from. him now?
I sighed internally. Questions for Collette…..and at a later time.
—-
—-
Right now, we were rapidly approaching the front of the house.
I quickly veered toward the side of it, to my usual spot for changing into a new set of clothes after having been running around in my wolf form.
Once I stopped, Nico left down from my back with the biggest grin spread across his face.
"God, what a night." He remarked, echoing exactly what I had been thinking during the whole ride back. "I'll give you some privacy to phase back and change back into your clothes. Meet me back in your room when you're done?"
I nodded and growled softly in agreement, to which he just smiled back at me again and reached his hand up to stroke the top of my head.
"Alright, see ya in a few then!"
—-
I watched up in silent awe as he took a running leap to fly all the way up to my second story bedroom window, as per usual, and let himself in.
After another couple of moments, i phased back into my human form and walked over to the tree which I'd left my fresh change of clothes next to and began to quickly slip into them.
Unbeknownst to me in my current distraction, however, Collete, herself, was running up to me, in her own human form, as if she'd either been looking for me or trying to catch up with me.
"Elijah!" She called out. "El- " She quickly raised a hand to her eyes to avert them when she saw that I was still only in my boxers. "Shit, sorry!"
"It's all good." I laughed, picking up my jeans and slipping into them. "What's up?"
"Elijah, I know you know that I know you were just in your wolf form….with Nico.."
"Well, considering this isnt exactly my bedroom I'm currently using as my changing room, I should hop you could put that together." I joked.
She sighed. "Elijah- "
"Yeah, I know what you're gonna say." I sighed. "How could I not?"
"Right, so…..that being said, can we talk?"
"Well, I…" I glanced up toward my window. "..I kinda told Nico I'd be right up, so I'm kinda trying not to keep him waiting. Is it important?"
"You know it is."
"Right, stupid question." I chuckled nervously.
She nodded with a quiet, mostly humorless chuckle of her own.
"So, when can you talk, then?"
"First thing tomorrow morning?" I asked. "Nico's got a big hunt planned with Liz tomorrow, so they'll be gone for most of the day. Will that do?"
"Just fine." She agreed with a half smile. "Thanks, El."
"Don't mention it."
"Well, I'll let you get back to him then. I don't wanna make you keep him waiting much longer either."
"Right, thanks." I chuckled, pulling my shirt on over my head. "See you tomorrow then?"
"Yeah, see ya."
And with that, she phased back into her wolf form and disappeared into the night.
When I got in the house and, eventually, finally got past Sam and his plethora of seemingly never ending questions about Nico and the details and how everything went, etc., I arrived at the bedroom, which I shared more days than not with Nico, to find him sat comfortably on my bed, with his copy of Stephen King's Christine opened up to about halfway into the book and propped up against his legs as he read it.
He looked up almost immediately, however, when he heard me come in.
"Hey you. Long time, no see." He teased.
"Very funny." I chuckled, sitting down on the bed next to him, as I took off my shoes. "So, how is Christine the, what is it now? 89th time around?"
"You are still a goddamned riot, babe." He laughed. "So, what did Collete wanna talk to you about that's so secretive that you have to wait til I'm not around to discuss?"
"Well, if you were really listening in that closely…" I teased. "...you would know that I only put off talking to her so I wouldn't keep you waiting."
"Oh, I heard. I just don't believe it." He teased back. "Kinda feels like an excuse."
"Ohh, does it, now?"
"Little bit, yeah." He smirked. "...especially since you are still not answering the question."
I rolled my eyes, as my mind raced to conjure up the fib that I was about to tell.
Thank God HE'S not the one in his little coven with telepathy.
"Alright, well, if you must know, it's just an overall private matter." I half fibbed. "Some girl she wants to ask out, and since you and i have Ben going out for a year, now, she just wants a little advice is all. I actually caught wind of the gist of it on the way back here, but didn't wanna say anything until she did."
Nico was snickering at the concept."You? About girls?"
"Yeah, I did tell her that you would probably be the better man for that department." I laughed. "But, you know, it's a pack thing. Nothing personal."
"Yeah, I get that." He chuckled, apparently accepting that explanation. "Alright, well, at least it'll give you something to do tomorrow."
"Exactly, God knows, I would've been lost on how to function without you for a whopping few hours, otherwise." I teased.
"Oh, you are just hilarious tonight." He laughed, playfully smacking my shoulder.
"Thank you, I try."
"It shows." He chuckled.
"Yeah, yeah. Alright then, smartass, you land on a movie you wanna watch yet?"
When the next morning eventually came around, I poured myself a hot serving of the coffee that Sam had left on the pot for me, into one of my favorite travel mugs and left the house, almost immediately after Nico had left, to go meet up with Collette.
—
—
She was already waiting for me when I arrived at our agreed upon meeting spot and looked up at me, giving me a smile, when she heard me approaching.
"Morning." She greeted. "How's the coffee this morning?"
"Energizing." I answered, taking another sip of it.
"I see." She chuckled at the response. "Anyway, thanks for making time for me so early, and on such short notice."
"Hey, what are pack members for?" I pointed out. "Seriously, don't mention it.
She gave an appreciative nod.
"...so, what's this about?" I asked. "I did hear, of course. I just only got the gist of it, I was pretty distracted last night."
From the look of her face, a grin that was much bigger than I'd realized must've snuck across my face.
"Understandably so." She beamed. "Congrat on the anniversary, by the way. I cant believe it's been a whole year already!"
"You're telling me." I laughed, still considerably giddy about the idea of it.
"Anyway, just wanted to talk to you in person about...well, the extent of whatever it was you heard in your wolf form, last night." She explained. "How much of it did you get, exactly?"
I shrugged. "Just something about Nico having a sister and her name and something about Liz being involved in it. I really wasn't paying all that much attention to it, honestly."
"Right…" She nodded. "...well, the rest of that iiiis that apparently this sister came around to his house a few days ago to drop off some wedding invitation for him." She put her hands up in a very I don't know, I swear kid of gesture. "I don't know how she found the place or even that Nico is even alive, and neither does Liz, and the main point I'm trying to get at here is that Liz has been mulling over whether or not she should even tell him, given the falling out he had with said sister, which means it'll obviously be on my mind, by association, and she's been on me to make sure you don't accidentally mention anything about it to Nico unless he brings it up first."
"Ohh, well, of course. I mean, that should go without saying...so to speak." I chuckled. "You know I won't."
"I know that." She sighed. "You know how I am though."
"Yeah, you always have been a bit of an over thinker….so to speak, of course."
"Yeah, and as much as I love Liz, she doesn't exactly help that."
"I understand." I chuckled. "For the foreseeable future, this stays between us."
She nodded. "Just us."
