Part of the Promise (Book 3 in the 'Part of' Series)

Chapter 25 A Proposal

Chapter 25 A proposal

Harlow's POV

I hated this, every word increased my anxiety. Karim and Emi were next to me but it was still causing my breathing to remain uneven. The talk of fighting and going against the enemy head on was terrifying. I didn't input anything into the conversation, letting the voices around me pile up until I felt like I was drowning in them.

I hadn't noticed the room go silent, I hadn't noticed people leaving until Karim nudged me slightly. "It's time to eat," he said with a concerned expression. "Are you alright?" I nodded unconvincingly.

"He's probably hungry," Emi said cheekily, "I know I am." Karim shook his head and shooed her off. She didn't move an inch. We were sitting in the children's playroom that was connected to the living room. There wasn't enough floor space in the living room alone for everyone. It reminded me of Christmas coming early. Aiden and I used to go to our cousin's house for a big family get-together. That didn't happen anymore, since it was too crowded.

"Meeting more packs is going to be terrifying," Karim mumbled to me as he sighed. "I'll be Finlay Thompson's son." He rested his head on his fist.

Emi scoffed lightly. "How do you think I feel? I'm a Reilly. I'm practically one of the bad guys." She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, sticking her nose in the air. Their bickering was entertaining but not at all comforting.

"And I'm a cousin to the worst Reilly of all," Karim joked back. I stayed silent between the two cousins, nervously picking at a thread on my jumper. Food was soon brought to us and the rest of the evening went by in practically silence. Ashton talked to the pack for quite a while, messaging his wife and making sure their pack was alright every now and again. Other than that, it was completely normal.

The next day was anything but normal. Neva and Ashton were up at the crack of dawn, heading off to get their train. They had promised to try their best to get contact with other werewolves who could've been targeted by Travis and inform them of our plan. Emi and Karim were some help in that, they used the knowledge they had picked up from eavesdropping to inform them where to look.

It was the weekend so I didn't have much to do. I had completed my homework rather early in the day. Emi and Karim were also with me the entire time. It felt odd now, being in the packhouse on a weekend after being in school showed me how little there was to do, I was starting to miss school.

I stayed outside the majority of the time, the wolves came and went due to the training schedule. It was one on one sessions with Moss. Moss felt more like a general in an army when it comes to training, he seemed to be the one who took charge of it. That made more sense why he was the one to offer me training.

Training was still happening, it didn't get any easier but I could feel myself becoming stronger. I had to tell Karim about it when he saw me sneaking out of the living room.

"Harlow?" Aidens tuck his head around the door. "I've been looking for you everywhere," he huffed and stomped over. "Ralph wanted to talk to us." I furrowed my eyebrows and stood up, Karim shifted slightly.

"What for?" Emi asked, folding her arms. "Taking our precious Harlow, it's not on." Aiden chuckled in surprise. He still hadn't really had a lot of time to get to know my friend, so he chuckled and choked in surprise many times.

"You two can come too." The three of us slowly followed him into the house and up to Ralph's office.

"Does he sleep in here?" Karim had a serious expression on his face. "Seems like whenever we see him, he's' in here." I couldn't disagree with that, Ralph spent more time in his office than anywhere else.

"No," Aiden said simply with a light blush on his cheeks. Emi and I shared a smirk. "Anyway, Hi." He opened the office door and waved at Ralph, who also had a smirk on his face.

"I don't think sleeping in here would be very comfortable." Aiden shook his head at his partner before going to lean against a bookcase. "I just wanted to...propose something." Karim crossed his arms nad nodded.

"That something is?" Emi asked after a long moment of silence. Ralph stood up from behind his desk and walked around it.

"I was wondering, if you would prefer to take over Dean's cabin?" The question was rather sudden. My anxiety spiked at the thought of not being around so many people. It was mainly due to the fact that we wouldn't be able to defend ourselves. "You don't have to, of course." He fiddled with his hands.

"I want to," Karim said quickly. "I would like that a lot, it'd be a little less cramped and nobody would think that we're there." I saw his point, I looked towards Emi with a raised eyebrow.

"If we could move it a little closer, we would," Ralph said calmly. "The thought came to us last night, when we had visitors who couldn't really stay too comfortably." He shifted from foot to foot again. "It might be easier to spread out over two places, it might also be safer."

Emi nodded lightly. "I'm cool with whatever Karim wants to do," she said with a shrug. "I agree that it's a bit crowded," all that was left, was my decision.

"Well," I paused slightly and bit my lip. "I wouldn't mind living in the cabin. Though we'd be coming up here a lot." Aiden nodded enthusiastically.

"Everyday," he said boldly. "It's for sleeping and living arrangements, you'd still be coming here far too often." We chuckled at his wording.

That afternoon was spent going to the cabin and making it more livable. There were two bedrooms, one smaller than the other, a kitchen, a bathroom and a living room. It was much smaller than the packhouse, but it seemed bigger then when we were last here. It couldn't be considered a packhouse of any sort anymore. The separation that I had found in the walls suggested it was partially destroyed before it was built up again.

It was about a forty-five minute walk from the packhouse to the cabin, it wasn't too tiring since it was mostly downhill but it would be a little irritating going back. Ralph, Hollis, Rhodes and Randall were helping us. After one of our many pack meetings, we had decided it'd be safer to travel in groups.

"Got my cabin, goy my boys, I'm all set," Emi said as she put her arms around my neck and Karim's upper arms with a grin.

"Home sweet home."