Look who's back and at 200,000 words!

I bet none of you expected it to be Wolf's arc. Remember, it's connected to the next one and you might be able to guess who it belongs to along the way. Also, this is a bit early to say, but this might be my favourite arc to date.

I have all ten chapters of this arc banked. I don't know how often they'll be up (maybe weekly) but you won't wait months like the previous arc.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf: Part One

Wolf nearly falls out of bed when he hears his mother screaming. His head slams on the ground and he groans, rolling on his back. Regaining consciousness, he blinks to fix his vision. He's seeing splotches of neon colours in the darkness which wasn't a good thing but there are worse things to attend to. Stars, he hopes he's not concussed.

His mother screamed and he has to defend the house.

Wolf scrambles onto his feet, searching for the nearest weapon. On his bed, he feels his math textbook. He must've fallen asleep while reading it. Whatever. It'll do. He grabs it and sneaks out of his room.

The screaming stops but Wolf tiptoes to the sound of his mom's voice. Once he reaches the living room, he sees Maha on the couch with all the lights on. She sees him, laughs loudly on the phone, and Wolf drops the textbook on his foot. When he curses, Maha shushes and curses him out in Hebrew (while covering the phone with her hand).

Wolf groans from the floor. He would've rather had his house broken into than this.

"Come here and talk to your aunts and uncles!" Maha yells at him.

"No thanks," Wolf responds, heading back to his room.

Not only is he tired but his foot hurts and his Hebrew isn't good enough to hold a conversation.

-o-

Cinder trudges down the stairs in her school uniform. She walks into the kitchen, grabbing an apple from the island's fruit bowl and chomping into it as she looks into the fridge for something to bring to school. Nothing. Whatever. She'll buy something on the drive if she has time.

When Cinder closes the fridge's doors, she turns around and sees Levana sitting at the island. Was she there the whole time? She didn't even say a greeting to Cinder when she walked in. If so, did she always have that studious face aimed right at her? Levana is usually sharp and coldly beautiful, but this was creeping her out. Cinder isn't sure if she should move because Levana hasn't even blinked.

Cinder takes the apple out of her mouth. "What are you doing?"

Still not a single blink. Levana stands up from her seat and walks over to Cinder. Her heels click against the floor until she stops right in front of her. Levana peers down at Cinder's face, holding her jaw and tilting her face to get a look at every angle or small freckle.

"Levana," Cinder states as she frees herself. "What was that?"

Levana finally blinks and smiles. "Have a good day at school."

Cinder drops her apple as Levana walks out of the kitchen. What just happened? Cinder takes a second before picking up the apple, debating on whether she should finish it, and choosing to leave it on the counter. She heads outside and locks the door. From the car, Winter starts the engine as Cinder climbs in.

"Is Levana okay?" Cinder asks as she buckles up.

"More than usual, I guess," Winter responds. "But we don't really have an okay to base it on."

Cinder can't argue with that. "She was being weird to me just now. Like, weirder than usual."

"Don't bother. She doesn't speak human."

Cinder laughs a little. "Maybe Levana kept us to keep a human appearance. Like so she could engage in that parenting conversation at cocktail parties and nobody would suspect."

Winter pulls out onto the streets. "Bold of you to assume she spoke about us at cocktail parties."

-o-

"Wolf."

No response.

"Wolf."

Still nothing.

"Wolf!"

Nothing.

Scarlet huffs, stopping in her steps in the middle of the school hallway. She's been crying Wolf's name ever since she walked into the building behind him. He wasn't wearing his headphones and held every door open for her so he knows that she's there. He was just ignoring her. But she jogs a little to catch up with him. This time, she runs up right in front of him, making him stop by holding his arms in place. That's when she notices the dark circles under his eyes.

"I'm tired," Wolf tells her.

"I can see," Scarlet responds. "What happened?"

"Mom was on the phone with relatives back home. They were screaming back and forth in Hebrew."

"Oh." Scarlet smiles a little. "Do you want to speak to me in Hebrew?"

"No."

Wolf continues waking and Scarlet matches his pace by his side.

"Come on," Scarlet nags. "I know you're a bit grouchy but it would be good practice."

"I have nothing to practice off of."

"Alright. When was the last time you spoke to your relatives?"

Wolf doesn't bring up how she just knows he didn't speak to them last night. Because why would he be grouchy if he did? He's said some hellos and happy birthdays, but never had a deep and meaningful conversation with anyone. He could barely name his aunts and uncles let alone cousins. It was hard for him to maintain a broken conversation because of the language barrier. Questions and answers lose their flow if there were translations in between.

"Not sure," Wolf responds.

"How come?" Scarlet asks.

"Because I sound like a disgrace. My Hebrew is so bad that my mother scolds me for losing my culture. Sometimes, she blames herself for not teaching it to me when I was young but she was so focused on getting settled here. Unlike you, I don't speak my language."

"Is it really your language if you can't speak it?"

Wolf bites down on his lips before walking off. Scarlet is about to stop him but she stops because she hates what she said. It felt bad leaving her mouth and created a bitter pit in her stomach.

"Wolf," Scarlet calls again as she starts following him the same way as before. She has a feeling that it will be the same pattern of crying his name and not getting a response. The only difference is that she deserves it this time.

Wolf didn't mean to ignore her this time but he needed a moment to think. It's crazy how much words can hurt although he knows that Scarlet didn't mean it that way. She has a point. The right ones in a particular order can cut souls and leave people feeling destitute. He wishes he could get his spades together. His spades are so un-together that he doesn't even know what his spades are. There's something cathartic about owning up to the truth although he didn't want it out there.

Scarlet speeds beside him. "Babe, are you mad at me?"

Wolf crosses his arms. "I'm not mad. I'm hugging myself."

"I'm sorry, Wolf."

"Don't worry about it."

"I will worry."

"Don't stress."

"I will stress."

And instead of crying out his name, she's apologizing. Wolf smiles because he can't stay mad at her. He loves her too much and is too tired to hold a grudge against her. But he isn't too tired to do this…

Wolf turns around and allows her to catch up. Before Scarlet could cry out another apology, he grabs her, holds her against the lockers, and roughly kisses her, dominating her. She hopes there was nothing important in her bag. Scarlet could feel his burning confusion through his lips showing that he's only certain in her right now. It's the same she felt before she disappeared to France. They needed a distraction and this … this is it.

Scarlet pushes him off for a second. "Babe, I'm serious. I'm sorry."

Wolf starts kissing her neck. "I am too."

Scarlet leans in to kiss him. "If you just start by appreciating that you're a human before narrowing down a specific culture, you will love yourself more."

"As long as I love you as well."

Scarlet smiles as they continue kissing but she can't get rid of the thought in the back of her mind. She'll have to consult her other Lunar friends when she's done here.

God, I missed writing Scarlet and Wolf. I've been staring at a picture of them that's one of my desktop wallpapers for way too long.

So I did the whole stay tuned and recap parts in the last arc but forgot that I stopped those so, they won't be here. It makes sense for the last arc since I posted those chapters very far apart (like, it took me half a year to finish that one since I didn't bank chapters). When I get to revamping this story, which I will at the end of this season, I'll remove them all.