The Boy and his Beast

23. Such a lonely cub

(Kellan's POV)

At first I'm not sure I've heard him correctly but he pushes away from my chest and gives me a tired look. His wonderful oceans are surrounded by red, swollen eyelids. 

"If that's what you want" I say and rummage my brain. How do you find a warewolf that's been missing for decades? 

"Her name is Maryam Lee. I went to the hospital where she left me, and apperently they knew who she was, they just couldn't find her" Benjamin tells me and moves to sit at the end of the bed. 

"Then we will find her" I say and get my laptop from the living room. Ben's face is focused and hopeful. I bet he doesn't want to be, but I can see it in his eyes. 

After several people-finding-websites I finally get a hit on a Maryam Lee in the right age and city where Ben was abandoned. We acquire an adress and a phone number to the company that owns the building. They say that she just dissapeard fifteen years ago, which is when Ben was left. But they also say that she sent her last payment from a post office in a city just a few hours away. 

At this Ben's blue eyes sparkle with hope. We call the post office but they can't give us any information. He drops his head in defeat. 

"Let me see if there is a Maryam Lee registered there" I comfort him and search. There is! There is an adress from five years ago, and it's only hours form here. I look at Ben. His face is that of total astonishment. 

After several hours in the car we finally ring the doorbell of the adress. Ben is shifting his weight and looking around franatically. I put my hand on his back but he flinches and gives me an apologetic look. I shake my head and is about to tell him how much I love him when the door opens. 

"Hello, lads. Do I know you or have you rung the wrong doorbell?" a middleaged man reeking of smoke asks. He's got a beard and doesn't seem to recognize Benjamin. It's not the right adress. 

"We are looking for Maryam Lee" I inform him and he rubs his beard. 

"Oh, yeah. She lived here before me. Hate to say so but she's passed. I got this apartment right after. Sorry, fellas" he tells us with a voice that isn't nearly sorry enough. I feel Ben go rigid next to me. I can't even hear him breathe. 

"Thank you" I mumble and turn to comfort my frozen boyfriend. 

"I don't know why you were looking for her but if there's something you want you should ask Susan upstairs. They were good friends, she tells me." At this Benjamin sucks in a small gasp and I hurridly thank the man to make him close the door. 

I half expect Ben to have fallen to the floor as I turn around but instead he's climbing the stairs with a speed I didn't know he had. It suddenly makes more sense how he escaped me before. 

As I follow him I breathe in his scent and let myself be enchanted by his smell. I want him so bad, and I want  him to be happy. I need this to go well.  

Ben doesn't say anything or even look at me as he waits after ringing her doorbell. I want to take his hand but I'm not sure he wants me to, so I decide to be there afterwards, when he breaks apart. 

Somehow I just know he will. 

The lady opening is around sixty and has a long ragged braid and three dogd calling for her from in the apartment. 

"Yes?" she asks and I'm just about to tell her the same thing I told the man downstairs. 

"We're looking for Maryam Lee. The man downstairs told us she's passed, but he said you knew her..." Ben speak, making it sound like a question.