The Blue Wolf
Chapter 11

Once she left, I got up, using all the strength I had. It was painful to even walk. But I went into the washroom that was attached to the room. I locked the door, out of paranoia.

Once I got in there. I saw that my black tights, black thermal shirt, socks, navy blue sweater, and bra were all hanging up on one of the shower racks. A pair of new grey slip-on shoes in my size were placed near one of the baskets.

I stripped the clothes I was in and looked at my face and naked body in the mirror. I had bruises all over my thighs, arms, calves, and shoulders. The stitches on the right side of my jaw were beginning to dissolve. I took the bandage off of where William bit me and started crying when I saw the wound. There were two puncture marks from Will’s teeth, and although they weren’t big, they were quite deep.

I had b***d all over my body, which I guessed came from my neck after I passed out. When I touched the spot with my fingers it stung badly. I turned on the shower and after about ten seconds stepped in. When the water hit my jaw and neck, I hissed in pain. I quickly washed my body and shampooed my hair, but didn’t care to condition it, which was not a good idea but I was beyond thinking how I normally did.

I dried myself, with a big fluffy towel, and put on my clean clothes. I threw my dirty ones in the laundry hamper in the washroom.

When I sullenly walk back into the room. A girl about my height, with long dirty blond hair and blue eyes, is laying on the bed, thinking about something. I immediately recognize her from that night.

I cleared my throat. She turned her head towards my way, still laying down, then she got up. She walked up to me confidently and stuck her hand out. “Hey, I’m Sophie Accardi, the dickheads sister.”

I shook her hand reluctantly. She then moved away from me and sat on the grey sofa seat. “Sooo how bad does it hurt?” Probably bad hey? Loren is human, and she said it hurt bad. And since you are still human. It must be killer. Yeah. Anyways. I mean what can I say?” Guys a dickhead.”

I looked at her kind of amused “Will’s your brother?” She scrunched up her nose in disgust and said “Yes unwantedly, I told my parents when I was five to give him up for adoption but they didn’t listen to me. Now, look what we have to deal with Arabella.”

I laughed “You’re serious?” She said, “Oh yes, like a heart attack.” I said, “Why did he have to hurt me?” She looked at me sympathetically. Then I lied “I don’t feel any different. Other than a sharp pain where he attacked me.”

The truth was, as soon as I woke up, I felt completely different. All that kept coming to my mind was how attractive Will is, how I loved the sound of his voice saying my name, or how he laughed. His sexy smirk. The way his eyes look more green than blue sometimes. I felt the complete buzz of love. Also, I could hear him in my mind. But I wasn’t going to admit any of that. I wasn’t going to end up like poor Loren.

Sophie said “Like I said, my girl, he’s a dickhead. She crossed her leg over her other one in a very relaxed manner and put her hands on the arms of the grey sofa seat. She looked funny like that. I went over to the bed and sat down with my back against the frame.”

I couldn’t think of what to say. Sophie suddenly said “Soooo…Arabella, do you have any questions, other than why you can’t leave? You already know, Willy won’t let you go.” I immediately thought of that name that had been bothering me.

I said “Yeah I do have one question. Who’s Erika? And what’s the story with her? And why did Will compare me to her on the phone?” Sophie’s bored expression turned into a comic one. She answered right away “Ahhhhhh Yes Erika….. that f*****g bitch. Well, this is quite a long story. Are you up for it?” I nod my head at Sophie. It’s not like I have anything better to do.

Sophie says “But I am gonna have to call up some backup for this story, is that okay?” I say “As long as it’s not Will.” She waves her hand and says “Oh no no no, not that asshat, I’m calling the other asshat Mike. The nicer one.” I laugh “Okay.”

Sophie shifts her body towards me “Mike, my assistant will be here shortly. But until then I’ll tell the story.” I smile and say “Alright, I’m listening.”

Sophie takes a deep dramatic breath before beginning “Okay let’s see, so….hmmm, oh yes, so the first time we all saw this thot was at our annual fall party, you just missed it, we have at on the 10th of September each year. It’s been going on forever, it’s an old tradition, bla bla bla, mostly all it is, you and everyone we invite dress all fancy, get drunk and then in the morning everyone leaves. There’s like dancing, like fancy dancing, like waltzing and stuff, and dinner and yeah. Anyways, so our beloved Alpha…… Will, he caught eyes with a woman at the beginning of the night and this woman was his mate.”

Then Sophie paused for a few seconds and said “Are you following Ara?” I said “Yes and then?” Sophie gave me a mischievous smile “So Will took me, our brother Nico and my assistant who you’ll meet shortly, into his office and told us that he just saw his mate. I and Nico were ecstatic about it. Michael was happy but a tiny bit paranoid.”

We both hear the door click and we see Michael walk into the room, with a water bottle in his hand. He closes the door then makes his way towards me. He sticks out his hand to me and says “Hey I’m Mike.” I shake his hand and say “Arabella.” Then he tells Sophie “Go seat on the bed, let me have this chair.” Sophie gets up and says “Ok only because it’s your room.”

Michael says “So where are we?” Sophie climbs on the bed and yawns dramatically, while putting her head in my lap, which makes me laugh because I’ve never seen this level of comfortability in anyone. She says “When Will brought us to the office. You tell it from there.”

Michael starts now “So by the end of the night Willam had told his parents the news too. Erika was from a small pack not too far away from here, and her parents seemed like simple people. Keyword SEEMED. Erika and he had talked and kissed in the garden. Yes, we know very Taylor Swift Love Story Esq” Sophie rolled her eyes.”

And by the morning William had told Erika to move in with him.” My eyes went wide. Michael chuckled amused ” Yes Ara, that’s how fast romance works in this world. Anyways cut to a month later, and Will and Erika are all lovey-dovey but I had suspicions about her from the beginning. To me, she just seemed weird, and like a lot of her stories wouldn’t add up in my opinion.”

“So one day when no one was in William’s house, and Will was off grounds, on some business, I hid under her bed, with my phone, to record her saying anything shady or just any weird occurrence to happen. And…..luck was on my side that day because when she sat on her bed and dialed a number then started speaking I heard her say, and this is the quote, these are the exact words ( No Maggie, I mean like they’ve all totally fallen for it, I don’t know if it’s my acting or the way we choreographed everything from the beginning. But they really think I’m William’s mate. Our beloved friend’s witch must be powerful. The spell must have been done perfectly, ’cause so far no one suspected a thing.)

As my eyes went wide in shock, I said “No way?” Michael said “Hold on though Luna, there’s more, then I heard her say and recorded (Well no, they do have a witch here. Yeah she would be able to take the charms off. But that’s only if she knew I wasn’t Will’s mate. Anyways I gotta go, I’m going dress shopping. Love you. Bye.)

I look into Michael’s eyes, completely interested and tuned in now, I realize I’m behaving the same way I do when I watch a good mystery film and when I look towards Sophie, she’s already looking at me amused, I focus all my attention to Michael again.

He seems as though he’s trying to remember the events after that moment accurately. When he doesn’t say anything for about ten seconds, my impatience kicks in “Dude you’re killing me here, what happened after that? What did you do?” Sophie laughs lightly.

Michael crosses his arms before answering me with a serious expression: “Well the thing was, by this point, Will and Erika had already had their ceremony booked. I mean, literally, everyone was invited. Even relatives from other parts of the world. So it was a tricky decision for me.”

He takes a sip out of his water bottle, then screws the cap back on before continuing “Also because of the dark spell, William believed he was madly in love. And let me tell you Ara, that spell, for a dark witch to prepare and execute must have cost something sick. I’m talking like grotesque. Like something so bad that someone should be thrown into jail for it, for the rest of their life.”

Then he paused again. OMG, what the hell was with this guy and these dramatic pauses? I did a carry-on signal with my hand while saying irritatedly “So then Michael?….what happened?” An expression appeared on Michael’s face that I couldn’t read, as he said “Well the next part was really bad. In the weeks leading up to the moment that I hid in Erika’s room and heard her say all those things to her friend, that solidified all my theories that William had been calling me crazy and paranoid for; Will had gotten irritated by me constantly questioning about Erika, and so the topic wasn’t up for discussion anymore.”

Sophie huffed loudly, still laying there, on my lap, both I and Michael looked her way, Michael said “What? you brat?” Sophie rolled her eyes “Mike you literally take forever to tell a f*****g story. I don’t know how Loren deals with you.” Michael smiles and turns his head looking towards me “Luna would you like me to continue the story?” I nod my head gently.

Sophie got off the bed annoyed and before stepping out of the room she looked back to me and said “Don’t worry, I’m not mad Ara, I’ve just heard this story a million times. And I hate talking about that rotten bitch anyway. I’ll be back in a bit.” A tiny bit of fear crept up in me to be left alone in a room with Michael who I had only met not too long ago but I said “Okay, come back.”

I turned my attention back to Michael. Michael was now sitting with his legs crossed on the seat, the way kids do in kindergarten, during storytime. I suddenly got the feeling from Michael that he wasn’t as creepy as I thought. In fact, he wasn’t creepy at all.

Plus in my example, I was the kid listening to the story. Michael half-smiled at me “So the most logical thing I could think of doing at the moment was going straight to our pack witch, Simonetta, addressing this issue to her and asking her if she could undo the spell immediately, then once I did that I went to Will’s parents.”

I thought to myself (I wish I had popcorn.) It occurred to me at this moment, why was I taking such an interest in this story about Will? As much as I tried to convince myself I didn’t. The truth was I wanted to know more about him, and that freaked me out.

Michael pulled me out of my deep thoughts “Hey you okay?” I said, “Yes continue.” Michael cleared his throat lightly “Will’s parents were utterly devastated, Nico and Sophie were both furious, and wanted to kill Erika. All four of them and I spent the night helping Simonetta undo the spell.”

I suddenly asked “How do you even help a witch if you’re not a witch yourself? Like do you just support her while she performs the spell?” The corners of Michaels’ lips started turning up, and he said in an amused tone “Well you know like….bringing whatever ingredients she needed, or tools, herbs, specific flowers from the mountains, tree bark, lots of weird things.” I nodded feeling stupid with the question that I blurted out, but at the same time how am I supposed to know anything about real-life witches?”

Michael saw me look embarrassed and said “Don’t feel stupid, I grew up with all of this, and to this day there are lots of things I don’t even have the

comprehension to begin understanding.”

I looked up at him “Really?” He smiled goofily “Yeah really. Too many things.” I smiled back at him: “So then what happened?”

“When Will woke up the next morning he was no longer under the spell, but he was incredibly confused…I found him…..”

I interrupted Michael “Holy shit don’t tell me this story ends with William killing his fiancé in their bed or something.” Michael laughs a light laugh and shakes his head lightly. “No Luna, I feel like you watch too many movies or something.” I laugh too as if I’ve been sitting around joking with werewolves all my life. I laugh harder now just at the absurdity of my situation. And my laugh makes Michael start again. When we catch our breath I say “Okay so then….?”

He says “Right, so then I found him in his office, the morning after the spell or whatever you want to call had been completely broken. He was pacing back and forth. I told him to sit down and hear me out. Will was really confused and he’s not usually someone who listens to anybody ordering him around, especially being Alpha and all. But he was so vulnerable, plus I’m his best friend so I guess that’s why he cooperated with me. I started by telling him how I found out. Then I told him how I went to Simonetta to ask her to break the spell, then about all of us helping her all night.”

Michael made a strange sound and grimaced all of a sudden like he was in pain. I asked with genuine concern in my voice “Are you okay?” His expression was normal again as he said “Yeah it’s just, thinking of the memory I’m telling you about. It brings me back a lot of pain. I’ve never seen Will so hurt. Maybe that’s why Sophie walked out. It’s a bad memory for all of us.”

I asked, “Like the memory of you telling him all that?” Michael breathes in deeply, straightens his back, and crosses his arms “Yes, I hadn’t seen Will cry since he was twelve years old before that moment, but he just sat there as tears went down his eyes, saying nothing. I asked him once he wiped his last tear, what he wanted to do? He said to notify every person invited to the ceremony, that it’s off, to notify every pack we knew or that knew us, that this woman was someone pretending to be his mate. To tell the Council about it. And to have Erika questioned. And if she gives no answers, to be tortured until she answers. He also apologized to me, for not trusting me. I told him it wasn’t his fault. Which it wasn’t, he was under a spell.”

I took all this in and said “And who tortured her?” Michael gave me a fierce look and I knew it. I gasped “Sophie?” Michael nodded. I asked, “Wait hold on, then what happened?” Michael’s face turned into an uncomfortable expression as he said “I mean are you sure you wanna know?” I looked at him like he was crazy and said in a comic tone “Well yes obviously I wanna know the rest of the Tale of Will and Erika.”

Michael’s expression remained heavy: “Before I walked out of his office that day after he gave me the orders on everything he wanted me to do, he told me (If I ever find my true mate. I’m never letting her out of my sight.) A clear panic rose in my chest from this comment but I tried to play it off like I didn’t care. “No man, I mean like what happened with Erika after that?”

Michael said “Ohhh. Yeah with her, Sophie didn’t have to torture her much at all, she admitted that she just wanted to be the Luna of one of the strongest packs in the world at the time. And that she was willing to do anything to achieve that delusional goal. Her parents supported her delusions. They weren’t a very strong pack, to begin with anyway, but after the news of this woman who lied about being William’s mate went around, they completely fell. And went into hiding. We let her parents take her. And we tracked down the witch who executed the spell, and the council had her killed. That’s it. The end of the Tale, as you said it. William got over it after that and focused all his attention on his Pack, and no matter how much the people around him told him to just choose a mate, he never agreed with them, he always said he’d find her someday.”

I nodded irritated at that, while I felt like other questions were jumping around in my mind. I guess Michael noticed this. “Anything else you wanna ask Luna?” I said, “So you’re like 100% telling me, William will never let me go?” Michael said “Yes, he won’t. If you somehow escape, he’ll find you, but I highly doubt you’ll wanna escape once you’ve shifted into your wolf, you’ll understand everything, only then.” I don’t even have the energy to argue anymore so I say “Okay, well thanks for telling me the story.” Michael gets up and says “No problem “Arabella. Sophie will be back in here in about five minutes.”