f i f t y - t w o

                                    

                                          
WHEN I ENTERED THE KITCHEN... Anna was sitting at the dining table, staring intently at the surface of it. She seemed so deep in her thoughts; I doubted that she noticed my presence.
                          
"Hey," I called gently, making her snap out of her trance. "What's wrong, Anna?" 
                          
"Nothing," she replied immediately. It wasn't nothing I didn't have to be an expert to know that...
                          
But she wasn't alone. 
                          
With the rate that the Bronze Pack had grown at, we were at a disadvantage. If we couldn't overpower them, we would be faced with undeniable defeat.
                          
"So... what happened with the safe place?" I asked, changing the topic and taking the seat opposite her.
                          
"From what Blayze told West and I about the location of the Bronze Pack, we tried to find shelter as far from it as we could," she explained. "We found a series of large caves in the South and checked if it was stable enough for the pack."
                          
"What about wild animals?" 
                          
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that," she answered. "Even in human form, animals sense Werewolves as threats. And so, most animals have left Gray Valley."
                          
When I thought about it, I realised that I hadn't seen birds or any other animals (besides wolves) since I arrived in Gray Valley.
                          
"Where's Martyn and Bryan?"
                          
"They didn't come home last night," she told me. "But I was on the phone with Bryan this morning and he told me that they're following my scent to take the other Gray Wolves to the safe place. They'll be back here before sunset."
                          
"By Luna," I groaned, burying my face in my hands. I had forgot the most important thing, because there was so much on my mind. I had completely forgotten about evacuating the pack members from there homes.
                          
"You look like you didn't get much sleep."
                          
"Yeah, not really..." I admitted, pulling my hands away from my face. "I had a lot to think about."
                          
"How about I leave you alone for a while?" She stood up and smiled at me. "I'll let you get some rest."
                          
The moment she disappeared through the door, I sensed that I wasn't alone in the room. Someone had been there all along, I was just too exhausted to sense their presence.
                          
Before I could even get prepared to counter whoever it was, I saw him emerge from behind the curtains.
                          
"Liam?" He was the last one that I had expected to be there. "What are you doing?"
                          
"I-I just..." He glanced at me from across the room; his eyes deep in grief.
                          
Seeing him with such a pained expression, made me lose all reason. I didn't even realise that I was moving, until he was in my arms... Until his icy tears burnt my skin.
                          
"I j-just want to apologise." His voice was so faint; I could barely hear his words. "Ever since I found out about the Soulmate Curse, I've had n-no control over my feelings. My own emotions turned against me and... A-and morphed into anger, blinding me from seeing what really mattered."
                          
"That's just how we are, Liam," I told him. "We're Gray Wolves; emotions are our weakness. There's no way we can change how it affects us." 
                          
For almost an entire minute, we were both silent.
                          
"It's because of my mother," he murmured, pulling away from me. "She's the reason why I hated Blayze Walker."
                          
It didn't make any sense to me. His mother had left, before he had even known her... So how did she change the way that Liam felt about Blayze?
                          
"Melanie Lachowski, my mother, was never part of our pack," he went on. "She ran away from her pack, after a she discovered that her father killed her mate."
                          
"That can't be right," I stared up at him. "West killed your father..."
                          
"It was West," he replied. "My grandfather didn't kill my father... He killed my mother's mate."
                          
"Which means..." Everything was starting to come together.
                          
"My parents were never Soulmates." 
                          
"Then why did they have you?"
                          
"My father's mate passed away, years before my mother arrived in Gray Valley," he answered. "As you know, Alpha Wesley was close friends with my father and your mother, Liana, befriended my mother almost immediately. Your parents convinced them to go out and they started to like each other; they had me. But then... There feelings weren't enough. My mother couldn't forget her mate or stop loving him. So she left... She left me before I even knew her." 
                          
"I don't understand..." My voice trailed off. "What does this have to do with Blayze?"
                          
"My mother's Soulmate was a Brown Wolf," he whispered. "I was just afraid... Afraid that you would leave me for a Brown Wolf - just like she did. Then, somehow my fear turned into anger and-"
                          
"Liam, I'm your Soulmate... And I'll accept all your flaws and fears - no matter what they are."
                          
"Weslyn..." He paused and lifted his hand to trace the scar that ran along my cheek. I took a sharp intake of breath, as my skin tingled from his touch. "I love you."
                          
"Can I ask you something?" 
                          
"What is it?"
                          
Silence surrounded us, again, and this time, I was the one who broke it.
                          
"Will you stop my fear from becoming reality?"
                          
"I didn't think you were afraid of anything." He drew his hand away, but the sensation still lingered. "And beside... Stopping fear is impossible."
                          
"We're all afraid of something, William Moonstone... I'm just afraid of losing you."