The Aurelia⎪✓

{13}

Quisling

(n.) a traitor

♡

Pulling my body out of the trance, I quickly walked inside the house. My clothes dripping wet and my heart racing, what happened out there was so unpredictable. Shocked was an understatement, this was more than shocked, it was also confused, sad, happy. It was everything and I couldn't deal with it. He made me feel so many things all at once, he both excited me and frustrated me. Was it possible to hate your mate, but be so painfully attracted to him at the same time?

"Holy shit, you look awful." Lilly's voice shocked me out of my little trance, she was looking at me from the kitchen. Glancing down at myself I saw how muddy my feet were, my clothes completely drenched from the rain, I probably looked like a drowned rat.

Nodding in agreement, "Yeah, the weather definitely did a number on me."

Her careful steps in my direction made me wary, something was definitely off with all of them. Hopefully she was confused about why she saw me out there, and that was all to it. My paranoia got the better of me though, the fear of them realizing who I truly was, was eating at me.

"Take a shower, girl. We're starting dinner and Alpha ordered everyone out of the house for the night, it's only the closest of us." She said with a small smile, ruining my paranoia word for word. Lilly was actually becoming important to me and it would kill me if she ended up hating me.

Accepting her suggestion, I hurried to my bathroom where I took a hot shower, rinsing all the mud and coldness from my skin. My soap was vanilla scented and that was a deliberate choice of mine in trying to confuse their senses. Hopefully, Arrax liked vanilla, since he couldn't smell me entirely.

After washing my hair I was done and stepped out again, the cold reaching me instantly. Usually, I would be slow to dry off, but for some reason I felt shivers of iciness run down my spine, and that alone was enough for me to quickly dry myself off. Grabbing my underwear I put them on, followed by my grey sweatpants and tight black top. Since it only was the closest of us at dinner, I just wanted to be comfortable.

As I left the bathroom Arrax's smell reached me and consumed my being, he was home again. Getting a grip with the shake of my head, I trudged downstairs to the others. Their voices were booming and bouncing off the walls in waves. They sounded angry. My steps down the stairs halted their argument and it made me even more suspicious.

"You can keep yelling, guys. Don't mind me." I said as Arrax, Grant, and Balto met my line of sight, Lilly was running around in the kitchen, so I decided to join her.

"What are they so mad about?" I asked her in a hushed voice, trying to keep it away from their ears.

Lilly shrugged her shoulders at me, while looking at the food in the oven. "I actually don't really know, they kept it from me. I could gather a rumor, apparently the Aurelia is among us, but Alpha doesn't want to believe it."

My heart skipped a beat, it felt like the air left my body and mocked me for not being able to breathe. The Aurelia is among us. But how could they know? I'd masked my smell, I hadn't made myself too visible to the public eye. Someone must be bluffing to seek out the true Aurelia and hopefully it wasn't Lilly and the others.

As if a switch turned on inside of me, I hid my feelings from her, trying to seem as indifferent as possible. Meeting her wary eyes, I hoped she wasn't conning me. "That sounds absolutely ridiculous, surely she would've killed someone by now." I lied, trying to feed into the hate they had for me.

Lilly nodded her head, "Yeah, I guess so. Unless she's smarter than we initially thought her out to be."

"Don't scare the girl, Lilly." Grant said with a small laugh as he entered the kitchen, he seemed perfectly normal and that eased my nerves slightly. "We don't know for sure yet, but we have our best men on the case so no need to worry."

His words were meant to be comforting, and then again, they were anything but. It was pathetic that my heart hammered out of my chest by the thought of them hating me, apparently they meant more to me than I'd care to admit. Had I just been a normal werewolf I probably already would've mated with Arrax, the pack would have seen me and wished for a Luna like me. My hopes of a normal life were ruined the day I was born an Aurelia.

It wasn't even because I was afraid of them, if they figured me out I still had my powers and could run away before they'd get to me. I was afraid though, afraid of losing them and Arrax, afraid of losing myself yet again if I had to live in the woods for more years. I'd finally found myself and what I liked about being in a group of sweet werewolves, it would be painful to remove myself from this.

"Dinner's ready!" Lilly announced at she placed the chicken on the table, I hadn't been aware of my surroundings, all of them had left and were seated in the living room ready to devour the deliciously smelling food.

Hurrying and joining them, I sat down in the only available seat right in front of Arrax. His eyes found mine and all air seemed to leave my body, it was incredible how affected I was even without any physical touching. He gave me a small smirk, making heat rise to my cheeks.

Pathetic, Aspen. Get yourself together already.

Trying to get ahold of myself I smiled at him and dug into the food. The evening kept going in a normal atmosphere all of us talking, laughing, enjoying the company. Finally I felt at home with others and that thought scared me more than it comforted me.