The room is dead silent when he stops talking. One side of his face is encased in the moonlight that floods in. The hollows of his cheeks are completely on display, as well as his heavy eyelashes that cast their own shadows.
He leans into me speedi...
"In the end, the world always wins. That's just the way of things."
― Khaled Hosseini, "The Kite Runner"
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His heart is here, so she would have to be here too.
Her heart will find a home here, so she would have to be here.
They would raise and nurture this pack.
These were a few phrases that she repeated in her head, over and over, so that her feet moved in front of each other. She hadn't eaten for quite some time but could feel bile rising in her throat. Her stomach turning at the thought of meeting them.
When she tried to descend from the car, her knees buckled and she fell to her knees. Before Caleb or Clark could see her, she dusted off her knees and picked herself up.
"Everybody is asleep right now so we have to be quiet." Caleb said as the walked on the dirt path and into the night.
The pack was situated within a thick forest that descended on a mountain. At the base of the large, ever-expanding mountain was Stagnum Ignis, which Alex tried desperately not to look at any longer. The narrow path was not difficult to follow in the dark - Alex's eyes were adjusting to her new blood.
"At 8:30? Everyone is alseep at half past eight?" Alex turned her body to dodge an extended branch.
"We run in cycles and sleep in cycles older than any Lycan can remember. Its thought that when the first of our kind began to bond our souls to wolves, that we retained our human traditions. Many cultures slept, like us, in tune with our circadian rhythm and because of studying this so intensely we discovered that there are two distinct natural sleep periods. Watch your foot Alpha." Clark grabbed Alex's elbow and lifted her up when she stumbled.
"What was I saying? Oh, yes, the sleep periods. Yes, so humans found that there exists, naturally, two distinct four hour sleeping periods," Clark moved closer to Alex so that he could speak quietly to her, "so they would sleep from 8 to 12 and then again from 2 to six. In between would be a social gathering period. And we follow this tradition to this day. Right now we are in Cycle 1, the only wolves awake aren't in their skin and are on watch. At 12 we run together as a pack and have discussion or whatever - I usually take this time to study again. Then there is Cycle 2 until 6."
"Wow," Alex swallows her nerves and this information, "that actually really interesting."
"Or overrated." Caleb says, his eyes darting to Alex's. She doesn't feel desire surprisingly, part of her was angered by him. He had said little to her since they got into the car and even know as they ascended the mountain to the pack. Clark had to urge him to talk and he had hardly shown Alex respect as an Alpha.
