Mate Mysteries

Chapter 17

Krey looked the old man up and down with narrowed eyes. He wore a green tartan shirt under a dark blue fleece gilet and dark blue jeans and walking boots caped in mud. He had a comely face for an old man and warm brown eyes that heavily creased at the sides from years of laughter, but Daniel wasn't smiling now. He looked at Krey curiously, but his hand gripped the stick hard enough for his knuckles to whiten.

"How would you know anything about this?" Krey asked blankly. The sun was rising and peeked at him through the gaps in the trees, melting the morning dew.

"Because I knew your father rather well."

Krey didn't expect that. "Impossible. I would've known."

Daniel then laughed and his sheepdog danced around him wagging her tail. "How would you have known? You were as absent from his life as he was from yours."

Krey was stunned, then a little dubious. "How did you know my father?"

"He bought milk and eggs from me for years. My daughters often delivered to your institute. Sometimes, your father would come to collect them himself. You trade with someone for so long, you eventually make small talk until you know each other enough to ask about their life. Your father was hesitant of me at first, but trust is not built in a day, is it?" Daniel's deep-set eyes glanced around them. "I have a farm to run, and the trees listen out here. Let's go."

Daniel whistled at Esther and she stared at Krey with a pointed tail. Krey ignored her as Daniel walked away with a giant stick in his hand and a secret Krey felt slipping through his fingers. "Wait," he said boldly. Daniel didn't wait, so Krey stormed after him. "You said you knew about the Southern Alpha. How?"

"We talk at my farm or not at all."

Krey weight up his options. He couldn't go back to the Packhouse, not yet. He couldn't lie on the woodland floor waiting for the cruel world to swallow him up in a cruel way. Krey had to think about Pip, and Sid, and the devastation he caused. Krey's heart twisted with pain and he grimaced. Sid died for him. What a waste of a life.

Krey followed the farmer and occasionally growled at Esther to make her leave his side. Daniel looked at him oddly when he did but chose not to comment.

The farm soon broke through the trees. A collection of brick houses and barns with triangle roofs sat on the edge of the forest. The windows were small and square with rows of flowers spilling from each windowsill. Stone walls marked the perimeter, and Krey guessed the farm had run in Daniel's family for many generations. They passed a stable with two horses and they stirred anxiously as Krey neared them.

All the while, Daniel eyed him suspiciously, and Krey realised they were just as wary as each other. What the fuck am I doing following a human like this? Krey should be trying to fix his mess, but he couldn't yet face the chaos.

Daniel led Krey in between a tractor and a seated lawnmower before reaching a white wooden crooked door. A black horseshoe knocker was crookedly in the middle. Daniel pushed it open and disappeared inside. Krey hesitated. He had followed Daniel to avoid his own problems. He doubted an old man could be a threat, and he did want to know what he knew, so he ducked under the door.

Daniel sat on a brown leather chair by the small square window. Krey stood awkwardly, looking around. Long black beams ran along the ceiling. The walls were painted a blue-green colour and a patterned rug that looked centuries-old covered the creaking floorboards. Photographs of various sizes hung randomly around the walls and a vase of yellow flowers sat by the open breeze, wafting the sweet smell to Krey's werewolf senses.

The scent reminded him of Pip, and his heart ached. "Tell me what you know about the Southern Alpha."

Daniel gestured to the opposite brown chair, and Krey eventually sat to lessen the tension in his injured leg.