The Alpha's Favour

LXXV

The cool water around me felt like a jumpstart I didn't know I needed.

For a second I just wanted to be there. Pretend I was anywhere but where I was now.

But that was kind of hard to do when my entire body was tense and I didn't know how much time I even had left.

I heard someone's feet shuffling outside. I huffed and closed the water.

"You okay in there?" Roman's voice greeted me.

"Do you really need to stand guard?" I called back in a dry tone.

"Do you want a strange man to do it instead?" He shot back casually.

I rolled my eyes knowing he had a point.

I grabbed the towel he had given me and wrapped it around myself, walking over to where I had set my clothes.

We were in a little shed not too far from the camp. It had a toilet and a shower. I hadn't stopped to think how the Shadow pack wolves catered to their... er bathroom needs seeing as to how most seemed to prefer their wolf forms.

But there were some buildings scattered around the region. Small sheds, nothing too fancy but solid enough for a small family to live I guess.

They seemed abandoned but I guess the pack had been utilising them for some time now.

They were sort of nomads according to my mum. Never truly having a place to settle, always on the move, it seemed sad, really.

I picked up my pants and felt something solid and smooth. I swallowed hard when I realised that it was the vial still stashed in the inner pocket.

I looked at the wooden door as if someone could burst in and catch me.

Even the smallest dose could make a difference.

For Raphael and Nia and the rest. For Tristan...

I just had no clue how I was going to get it into Ornyx.

But I had to find a plan. Or at least stall enough for the Calvary Mikey said I should expect.

"Crystal!" Roman pounded on the door causing me to jump and almost drop the vial. "We don't have all day."

"I'm coming! Geez!" I yelled back.

I started dressing up quickly, carefully slipping on my pants so as to not break the vial.

When I walked out of the bathroom.

I found Roman setting a bowl of cereal before me.

He had also set a bowl of berries, an apple and three protein bars stacked together on the small table in what I guess was both a living room and a bed room.

"Bon appetite." He announced.

I looked out the window. The guards who had been standing there was no longer around.

"They just took a walk. They're still close by." Roman explained.

I couldn't help but think about the soldiers who had been guarding me and my family when Roman had infiltrated the pack.

Gone and dead. Just like that.

I couldn't look at Roman and think of him as the same boy I knew because of that. So I eyed him with caution as I stepped towards the table.

My stomach was actually grumbling and I regretted not cleaning up my plate last out of defiance.

I spooned the cereal wasting no time.