Chapter Eleven
Kaden's POV

Two hours later, after returning from the forest, I found myself in Jacobi's room. He white-knuckled his bed as I yanked the blanket away, and as I gripped him by the scruff of the neck, the metal legs groaned against the hardwood floors. He struggled so much that I had to snap his clenched fingers away from the headrest.

He looked like the grim reaper had rejected him for death. Sweat matted his hair against his pasty skin, and his eyes were dulled, staring lifelessly as I hauled him across the room. 'Jesus, Jacobi.' I grunted, shoving him into the bathroom and twisting the knob so jets of cold water pulsed from the showerhead. 'You've got ten minutes.'

I stood in the room, disgusted by the state he'd gotten into. The laundry hamper was piled with clothes so high the lid sat upright, caught between the wall and the mountain of washing. His pillow was stained with drool, the white now splotched with seeps of yellow and brown.

I ripped the bedsheets from his mattress and tossed them onto the precipice, flinging crumpled clothes across the room, mild disgust fueling my need for cleanliness. I had an outfit laid out for him and most of the rubbish cleaned up before he stumbled from the bathroom, hardly awake, in a zombified state of consciousness.

'What do you remember?'

He groaned, massaging his temples with tense fingers. Pain pinched at his nerves, and he undoubtedly felt like someone had wrapped their hand around his brain and squeezed. 'Not much.' He mumbled. 'I remember dancing with Inna and Wells. I think Barbie Girl was playing.'

'I missed that.'

'I know.' He sighed into the mattress, his whole body going slack. 'You left with her just before, and it all gets a little blurry.'

I clenched the edge of his desk, rocking forward in tandem with the pain that constricted my chest. Air wheezed out of my lungs, dizzying my head. 'I didn't leave with anyone.'

'I'm not stupid, Kaden.' He squinted through one eye, his face scrunching with pain. 'She left, and then you followed her like a lost puppy. It may have taken you half an hour to follow her, but I know what happened. I can put two and two together.'

Rasping for air, I was overpowered by the sudden need to hold her. The need to make sure she was safe seized me, flushing my body with heat. 'Did anybody else notice?'

'No one else knows what I do.'

The air trickled back into my lungs, relief slowly inflating my chest. My fingers twitched, reeling to hold onto her. I ignored the shudder of dread that brushed down my spine and dug the heel of my palm into the cheap-plywood desk.

'I didn't expect to see her.'

Jacobi peeled himself from the mattress, clutching his head tightly as he grasped for a silver sleeve of ibuprofen at the top of the drawer by his bed. The packet was half crumpled; I watched as he shot back the last four tablets, and I felt the dry chalkiness of the tablets in my throat as he winced, tossing the foil towards the bin across the room. 'I wasn't expecting her either. She told me she wasn't coming.'

'I'm not upset that she came, she'll always be welcome on pack lands, but I'm worried that Rylan might know more than we think. I froze when I saw her, and he didn't ask me a single question about why.'

'Serves you right. It would be best if you told him years ago that he's part of your Concilio. He has a right to know.'

'Too many people know already.'

He snorted, lifting himself from the mattress with a groan. He shuffled towards the door, holding it open for me. 'One and two.' He gestured between us. 'That's not too many.'

'Sometimes, I wish I didn't even know.'

'What happened with your Mum-'

Pain seared my blood, and I bared my teeth. 'I don't want to talk about it.'

He caught me by the shoulder, roughly turning me, so I was forced to look at him. I snarled, tearing away from him. His face puckered, and a little of his bravo wilted away. 'What happened won't happen again.'

'You don't know that.' I growled, pacing forward.

Tension ricocheted through my body, my pulse racing as I cornered him against the hallway wall.

Angered heat drowned my senses, and my nails bit into the hollow palm of my hand.

I trembled. The effort to keep my fist at my side rather than driving it into the wall clouded my sight.

'Her safety is everything!'

'You think I don't know that!' Jacobi shouted, bowing his head submissively as a growl rumbled at the back of my throat. 'She's my best friend, Kaden. I know how important she is.'

My head dropped, pressing my chin against my chest as I stumbled back against the opposite wall. The hallway closed in on me, inch by inch, and I couldn't lift my eyes to catch his, my throat thick with anguish. 'I'm sorry.' I swallowed the swollen lump in my throat, my head spinning as I let the wall take my weight. 'I shouldn't have reacted like that.'

'No shit.' Jacobi shifted his weight skittishly, his smile uneasy as he watched me collapse in front of him. 'You're lucky we did this here and not in the community hall.'

I laughed shakily, crouching against the wall as frustrated tears burned my eyes. Defeat threatened to knock me to the floor, and my voice was small when I spoke my fears aloud. 'I don't know what to do.'

He placed a rough hand on my shoulder, ignoring how my voice cracked. 'Keep doing what you're doing. Just three more months, and then we will be finished with school. You can tell her everything then.'

I threaded my hands through my hair, knotting it into fists as I focused on breathing. Jacobi waited patiently, giving me time. 'The pack is expecting me to name you in my Concilio.'

'Are you going to?'

I nodded stiffly and closed my eyes tightly, counting my breaths. 'I trust you, Jacobi. Everything you've done over the years has shown me how loyal you can be and that you'd do anything for the safety of this pack. You've spent years proving it, over and over. I'd be stupid not to ask you.'

'Okay.'

I lifted my head, an exhausted laugh brushing past my lips. 'Okay?'

He shrugged, helping me up. 'Well, I've known I'd get the position for years. You wouldn't let just anyone protect her.' He kept his grip on my hand for a moment longer than necessary, saying without words that he would be there for me when I needed him the most. 'We should go. We're going to be late.'

The community hall was teeming with werewolves. The community came together in a brilliant flash of ethnic diversity to celebrate the cultures of our pack. My father seemed to be at the centre of the crowd, circling the large hall. Every so often, laughter would spark in the room as he chased a pup, weaving in and out of the masses, and a silent reverence followed it as he bumped his head affectionately against the older werewolves.

No one enjoyed admitting it, but they watched their Alpha as he worked the room, focusing on him like they were the planets and he was the sun.

Over on the carpet, by the TV, my Aunt read an old werewolf's fable to a group of children and their mothers. Pups spilled from her lap as she turned the pages, her laughter rising above the joyous conversations to capture the interests of those around her, with just as much of a gravitational pull as my father.

The children hung onto every word of their Luna, and I envied them for their youthful innocence, wishing I could have had moments, sitting by the Luna's feet as she sang high praises for the old stories.

A group of young teenagers had gathered around me, and they were animatedly arguing about the score of their soccer game. I listened with mild rapture as they threw points back at each other, displaying a heated case for me to judge.

I'd just come to my decision when the doors swept open. Etta doubled over, panting, framed by the doors. Her shirt was torn, and her dishevelled hair was matted with blood that wasn't hers. She stared into the room, unblinking. Her mouth hung open with no words coming out.

No one moved, stunned by her sudden entrance. 'It... I... Arlo.' She wheezed, stretching out a trembling hand to the nearest werewolf. She didn't reach them, and they circled her, rippling like a stone had been dropped into water. 'It's Arlo.'