The Betrayed won't Lie Low (discontinued)

Chapter 18

"Do you know where she is?" Aurelia said softly.

Xander turned his head to look at her. "Yes."

"Could you tell me please?"

"No." Xander resumed his pacing. "If she isn't given space, what you say won't get to her at all. Believe me, I've tried before."

Aurelia fidgeted on the chair she was sitting on. "But..."

"You should wait until she apologizes to you. It shouldn't be the other way around. You've done nothing wrong."

"I haven't?" Aurelia looked at him. The expression on her face made him wince as he saw it out of the corner of his eye.

He breathed a deep sigh. "Maybe it is because of your age, but you don't understand that Nyx... Nyx is just different."

"My age?" Aurelia furrowed her eyebrows. "What does my age have to do with anything?"

"Well..." Xander looked reluctant to say it. "You are quite literally a child."

Aurelia frowned. "Then, how old is Nyx?"

"She's the same age as me, so twenty-one. And Laurelyn is twenty-eight."

"Oh... I don't think I knew that."

Xander shrugged. "Well, I didn't tell you since you didn't ask."

"Xander... Why does Nyx bear such a grudge towards humans?"

Xander gave her a mild look. "I don't know, maybe because both our parents were killed by humans?"

Aurelia winced.

There was a moment of silence.

"Do you really think you are human?" Xander asked.

"I don't know... maybe," Aurelia replied. "Why?"

Xander gave her a glance as he sat on the chair opposite of her. "When a wolf-shifter goes into some kind of traumatic experience when they haven't shifted into a human for their first time - that's, when they have just been born for a while, their wolf nature is sealed and they immediately... they just shift into a human. It's happened before; your case isn't special, just rather uncommon. Eventually, they will be able to shift into their wolf again."

Aurelia's eyes filled with curiousity. "Is there a time limit to how long I have to shift?"

"No," Xander replied. "And that's the problem. You could get your shifting powers back tomorrow, or you could get them on your eightieth birthday, or you might not recover them before you die... You get the point?"

"Well, yeah..." Aurelia sighed. "Isn't there any way to speed it up?"

Xander shrugged. "Maybe. I mean... there are probably books and research on this in a pack's library - I recall seeing some back in Silver Fall. Except I'm pretty sure that there aren't many packs who would let us, as rogues, into their territory."

"Oh, that's... true..." Aurelia frowned. "So we can't do anything?"

"Well..." Xander thought for a moment. "Nyx has probably read everything in the library. I'm pretty sure she has every form of whatever memory that thing is called..."

"What?"

"Phtographic memory, echoic memory... um. I don't remember if there's another one, well, I don't remember what else there is."

"What?"

"Uhh..." Xander rushed to the bookshelf against the white wall. It was made of mahogany. "Whose room is this?" he asked distractedly as he scanned the row of books for a dictionary, noticing the claw marks on the walls.

Aurelia swallowed as she realized the answer to his question. "...Mom..."

Xander looked up from the blue dictionary in his hands. "What? Lu - oh. Your human mother."

"Yeah... her..." A tear fell from Aurelia's eye. "I miss her."

"Is she..."

"Dead? Yeah." Aurelia breathed out. "So is Dad."

Xander winced, not knowing what to say. "Oh! Here it is. Photographic memory is a sensory memory related to sight and..." He flipped through the pages. "Echoic memory is also a sensory memory, related to auditory memory."

"I don't understand half of that," Aurelia said, and stopped. "Ugh, honestly, never mind."

"Alright...?" Xander thought for a moment. "Well, you probably will get your wolf part around by the time you turn eighteen, seeing as you are a royal wolf-shifter; you probably have good blood. Besides, the Luna, your mother, was born in war, you should be strong."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"She was born on the battleground back then, in the first war between the humans and the wolf-shifters. Aurelia, you said Nyx told you... the alpha confined her?"

"Yes..." Aurelia replied hesitantly.

Xander frowned. "I never knew that, but... that explains it."

"Explains it? Explains what?"

"I was seven when Aurelios claimed her. I don't remember that clearly, but her personality... It was definitely different from now."

"Really? What was she like?" Aurelia was slightly interested.

"Mm... Like fire," Xander replied. "Ask Laura. She probably remembers better."

"Laurelyn? Where is she anyway?"

"Probably the roof. She likes high places. She was there when the Hunter attacked too."

"What?!" Aurelia yelled. "When what?!"

"Wait, we never told you?!" Xander realized.

"Huh?! Told me what, Xander?!"

Xander sighed. "The Hunter came for you when you were unconscious. I think. Laurelyn saw - well, heard - him and attacked him, and... she let him run away. Because she's... playing with him. She could have killed him, but she didn't, and honestly, I think this was the best opportunity to do it. We might never get another chance as good as that one was."

"Oh..."

"Sorry. I... shouldn't talk about killing him."

"No, I..." A heavy breath escaped Aurelia's lips. "I have to get over it anyway... Besides, I-I guess he d-deserves to die..."

Xander looked at her, a perplexed look on his face. "I mean, I don't disagree with that, but... a young girl like you shouldn't be thinking of something like that. You should be in school with friends like a human child..."

"Do wolf-shifters not go to school?" Aurelia asked curiously.

"Well, they do... but it's... different."

"How different?"

Xander shrugged. "I don't know how to explain. You'd get it if you went to a wolf-shifter school."

"Okay..." Aurelia watched as Xander put the dictionary back in its place. "Hey... about the training and rogue-hunting that you guys mentioned, when will it start?"

Xander though for a moment. "Well... we can start now, if you'd like."