Choleric

Chapter IV

The car ride was silent. Like something dark had fallen upon them, whispering in their ears and reminding them constantly that the other was near. But not in a good way. Celia shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She could not think of a way to communicate with this man. Everytime she opened her mouth to speak, no words came.

The silence seemed to only further jumble the words in her head. She could not even string a sentence together in her mind, let alone let it out into the world.

Trees whipped by as if running from the deadly silence trapped inside the car like the air within a balloon. And Celia was helpless to it, staring out the window she knew they had been driving for at least an hour, letting the tension build past extreme levels.

The dry, cracked dirt and winding paper bark trees have been replaced with thick ferns and luscious greenery. The air outside the car was thick but mixed comfortably with the gentle breeze, creating the perfect temperature for a summers day.

"Where does your territory stand?" Celia asked, cracking open the tension like a brick shattering glass.

"West," he replied curtly, eyes never leaving the dusty road.

"Will your father be there to greet us?" Her voice a pitch higher than usual. She knew it was mandatory for the males father to greet his sons mate at the territories entrance.

"My father is dead,"

Right, Celia thought. Glad I asked.

Taking a deep, steady breath she turned her focus back onto the rainforest flying by. Cassius's knuckles threatened to burst through his skin as he gripped tightly to the steering wheel, travelling the car 20 kilometres past the speed limit.

Baroon Pocket Dam was about three hours away and Cassius had a meeting in two. A meeting he could not miss under any circumstances. The old back roads made it impossible to travel any faster than seventy kilometres causing Cassius's jaw twitch in annoyance as the sun glared through the windscreen.

•§•

The old, dirt road cleared to bitumen and Celia looked around as the road weaved and ducked through the beautiful forest until she found herself at the very top of a hill, overlooking a large mass of water glittering in the sunshine and surrounded by seemingly untouched land, apart from the large dam wall in the far distance.

"This is it. The West pack territory," Cassius didn't waste a moment at the top of the hill before speeding down.

As they drove down the hill celia couldn't help but smile as trees created a tunnel and purple flowers seemed to litter the road like moths to a flame. The place was beautiful, almost mythical and completely different to how she imagined his territory could have possibly looked like.

"It's beautiful," she breathed. He scoffed and she caught his dark hair fly about his held slowly as he shook in disagreement.

"Beauty means nothing when it comes to survival. My territory is hidden within the mountains, the only way in and out is this road. The forest is too dense for a large pack of wolves to find their way around the territory successfully the first time and if they do, there are more places to hide than there are countries on this planet. Not only is my territory beautiful my dear. It's deadly," he stated calmly.

Celia's breath shook as it found its way out of her mouth. His voice, husky yet soft at the same time sent her stomach into flips and made her feel light as air. The tension seemed to be dwindling slightly as they neared his territory.

"It starts soon," he warned softly as the big four wheel drive cruised down the country road.

As soon as he said it she felt the air shift. It grew thicker, heavier until she had to fight to suck it into her lungs. Doubling forward she felt the ties between her old pack start to tear.

Celia wheezed as the pit of her stomach constricted, as if a fist had wrapped its hand around her and squeezed. Pins and needles crawled over her skin and her forehead began to sweat.

Groaning, Celia tried to breathe as the ties broke most painfully and new ones began to form. "Give me your hand," Cassius stated as one hand left the wheel without his gaze leaving the road.

She lifted her arm from her stomach and placed her sweat covered, shaking hand in his. His touch was warm and the pins and needles in her right arm slowly began to fade.

Cassius waited for the road to straighten out before grabbing the safety pin from within the cup holder and quickly scratching the sharp end into the soft flesh of her palm, beginning near the thumb and ending at her pinkie. She gasped slightly at the pain.

He did the same to himself without flinching before binding their cut hands together and mumbling words Celia could not catch. Slowly, she felt the air around her drop back to normal and she drew in a deep breath before sighing with relief.

Her shoulders slumped as the pain slowly drained away from her body and her brain adjusted to the new connection. Everything seemed to sound, smell and feel different. Not a large difference, but different none the less.

She felt connected to more people, she could feel each and every one of them in the back of her brain, reminding her she was now one of them. Her senses seemed to become sharper as she became more aware of her surroundings. Her guard was up, like everybody elses, but she could not fathom why.

"My pack is constantly on alert for dangers, it is how every pack should be. At first this will drain you but you should get used it," Cassius stated as if he were reading her mind.

"How many people are in your pack?" Celia asked, still trying to adjust to the changes.

"There was around four hundred when I left," he replied leaving Celia to ponder on what he had meant.

Minutes later the tree tunnel dispersed and a two story building made of wood and stone came into view. The stone seemed old enough to be from the medieval times, creating a home that looked fierce and impenetrable. Celia could imagine herself running her hands over the rough edges of the house, looking through the thick forest that surrounded it.

The four wheel drive screeched to halt before Cassius ripped the door open, jumped out and walked away in haste. Celia sat awkwardly in the car, both speechless and lost as she watched the only person she knew disappear into the distance.