Lure To The Woods

XVII

We were both sat on the comfortable grey corner-sofa. We had been sat here for the last five minutes, Xavier trying to work out how best to start this conversation. I was trying to be patient, since this seemed pretty hard for him, but all of the silence was making my mind run a mile a minute.

"I guess I'll start by telling you why the elders didn't want you to know. See, this business isn't actually a business. Think of it as a community, although everyone here calls it a 'pack'. Everyone who 'works' for this business, actually just belongs to this community. We all live here, but there's people in charge in order to protect the people. That person used to be my father, but the role was passed onto me recently.

"I'm still trying to get used to the role, so I'm not doing a fantastic job. Plus, we have rivals- people who don't like this community. I was so focused on getting to know you and getting used to being in charge of a whole community, that I was lapse on security. Due to this, a community member died. I still feel terrible, but her family blame the killer, not me. Since then, security has been greatly improved. I learnt my lesson and I'm going to protect every single one of them as best as I can." Xavier started, clearly dumbing it down so that I could understand.

I was pretty relieved that Xavier wasn't actually in a gang, like I had expected, but this was still pretty vague. I kind of knew he wasn't in a gang the second I saw the forest homes since it's not exactly the kind of setting you'd find a deadly gang living in.

"That doesn't explain why the elders didn't want me to know." I pointed out.

"Don't take it the wrong way, but they thought that you wouldn't make a good co-leader to the community. They knew that if I got romantically involved with you, then you would become what the pack call a 'Luna'. That just means that you'd help me run the place, but it's a pretty important role." Xavier winced, making me slightly embarrassed.

"They thought I'd be bad at it?" I urged for him to explain why.

"The drinking, drugs, rebellion. They're old fashioned. I knew that you would be perfect at it and I told them that, but they're stubborn. It wasn't all down to that, though. They thought that me having a partner would give our enemies an advantage, since you'd be my weak spot. This is why I was hesitant about telling you, Cameron. It puts you in danger, but I realised so does not telling you. There was one other reason too..." Xavier trailed off, wringing his hands nervously.

"Be completely honest with me, Xavier." I pleaded, having enough of the vague talk of 'communities'.

"They don't think that you'd take my secret well. They think that you being human means you'd freak out and put us all in danger." Xavier revealed, making my brow furrow instantly.

"Human?" I repeated incredulously, wondering what the hell he was getting at.

"Cameron, I'm going to say this as clearly as I can, but you can't run or it'll make him nervous. Promise me you'll sit still?" He pleaded, I nodded silently, "I'm a werewolf."

My mouth dropped open, looking at him in shock. Did he really just try and say he was a werewolf? I stood up, rage filling my body. He thought that he could drag me all the way out here, just to feed me lies about mythical creatures? Was he taking the piss this entire time? I felt my eyes well up with angry tears, my fists clenching. 

"If you're going to mock me to my face, you could have done it in the fucking park." I spat, hurt and betray filling every crevice of my body.

"I'm telling the truth! I brought you here so that I could prove it. You promised not to run- it'll make my wolf nervous if you do. Just stay calm and I'll answer any questions afterwards." Xavier was desperate, pleading with me to hear him out.