Chapter 78: Chapter 78

Azraiel played the clip on his laptop for the fifth time. Matt and Katya had come a few minutes ago and handed him the recordings from the cameras he placed at the eastern border. One of the cameras perfectly captured those creatures.

But it wasn’t helping them much.

The clip started with no one in the scene and stayed like that for a few seconds, but then they appeared. Five wolves, all of different color came out of the bushes, their eyes gleaming red. They were standing at the lake, not too exposed but behind some large trees. They kept staring across the lake, not moving, not doing anything, just standing there looking across the lake, presumably at Charlotte.

They stayed right there all the time that Azraiel and Charlotte were at the lake. They didn’t try to attack them nor did they call out for more wolves. But a few minutes later, there was a commotion. Two small wolves appeared from behind the bush and tried to move forward. Two bigger wolves held them down by the neck to prevent them from exposing them. It looked like the smaller wolves were trying to move towards Charlotte and the bigger ones were preventing them from doing so. And then just a minute later, the younger wolves stopped struggling and went still, and then within seconds, they vanished. Gone!

Azraiel clicked on another clip and played the two simultaneously. The other clip showed Azraiel and Charlotte on the screen on the other end of the lake. The wolves appeared within seconds of Charlotte reaching the lake and stayed there for the whole time. The smaller wolves appeared just before he shifted into human and they disappeared right when he instructed Matt and Kira to move towards them, to let them know that he was aware of their presence. But, Matt and Kira were still pretty far from them and if they sensed his men from such a distance, then these wolves surely have a few traits of werewolves.

The most disturbing thing about this was the way they disappeared. Sure, he knew that the one who escaped his warriors too vanished like this but watching them disappear into thin air just made it more surreal. Could it be that these wolves are using witchcraft and the only reason they can’t enter his pack is because it’s protected with magic?

But what do they want with Charlotte?

Frustrated at the lack of answer, he shut his laptop down and looked at his team present in the room. Matt and Kira had already seen the clip and Theo had watched it too when he first played it. They were all aware of the situation at hand and yet none seem to know what to make out of this.

“They are not trying to harm her.” Matt said quietly, looked at Azraiel.

Azraiel nodded in agreement, “They aren’t. They even saved her on the day she got bitten. Even Kira’s vision showed that they weren’t trying to hurt her. But..But that’s the thing I just don’t understand...” Azraiel paused, his brows furrowing in confusion.

“Why did they say you’d keep her safe?” Theo completed his sentence looking at the table in concentration. “Could it be that they knew she was your mate?” Theo blurted.

“M..Mate?” Kira questioned, her eyes wide in disbelief and Azraiel gave Theo ‘the look’. Theo just shrugged unapologetically. “She’d know anyhow!” He mindlinked Azraiel.

Azraiel looked at her and cleared his throat. “uh..yes, Kira. Charlotte is my mate.”

She opened and closed her mouth a few times and then settled on “Oh…wow! Um, Congratulations then.” Her face was still painted in shock and Azraiel couldn’t blame her. No one thought he’d find his mate.

Azraiel muttered a quick thanks and turned to Theo. “How could they know that I was her mate?”

Theo shrugged. “I don’t know. But think about this, even if they wanted to save her, they could have taken Charlotte with her instead of dropping her off near our borders unless…” Theo hesitated, “Unless they knew that you’d be able to take better care of her than them.”

Azraiel nodded.

“This still doesn’t make any sense.” Matt shaked his head. “Our pack is the biggest one in Rysterbia. Everyone knows we don’t welcome strangers easily, then why the hell would they leave her to us?”

“I think Theo is right.” It was Kira who spoke this time. Azraiel nodded her to go on. “I don’t know how they knew about this, or even suspected it, since you know until now, it has been believed that Truebloods don’t have mates. But, somehow they knew. They knew that we wouldn’t be able to harm her even if we wanted to, because she is our Luna.” She paused and then said thoughtfully, “The main question is HOW?”

Azraiel nodded and closed his eyes briefly. No one said a word knowing that he was thinking. After a few minutes, he opened his eyes and picked up his pen. He took a blank page and started writing while everyone in the room looked at each other bewildered.

Theo even stood up a bit to peek at what Azraiel was writing.

Within a minute Azraiel was done. He pressed the seal of his pack on the paper and put it in an envelope along with a few blank pages and a pen, closing it with a wax seal and stamping the pack seal on it. He pushed the envelope toward Matt. “Here, put it amongst the trees where we saw those wolves across the lake. Make sure that the camera covers the area where you put this.” Azraiel instructed Matt.

“What’s this?” Theo asked curiously.

Azraiel inhaled audibly. “I think we all are sure that they aren’t trying to cause any harm, so it wouldn’t hurt to have friendly chat, would it?”

***************

Charlotte was sitting in her room waiting for Azraiel. Her wolf has been screaming in excitement ever since she met his wolf. She has been ranting about how amazing and wonderful he is and how she couldn’t wait to meet him in person. Honestly, Charlotte was getting bored of hearing the same thing for about three hours now. Sure, she loo loved his wolf but she couldn’t feel the mate bond like her wolf and it sucked.

Charlotte put down the book she was reading when she heard the door open.

Azraiel entered the room with a tired smile and walked up to her. Charlotte closed her eyes as he leaned down and first kissed her forehead and then her lips.

“Have you eaten?” She asked.

“Yeah.” Azraiel nodded and pulled out his clothes from the closet. “I’ll be back.” He said and went inside the washroom. She didn’t have to wait for long as he walked out now dressed in more comfortable clothes and plopped on the bed.

“Come here.” He put the pillow against the headboard of the bed and opened his arms for her. Charlotte shifted quickly so that she was partly lying partly sitting and put her head on his chest. She felt him press a soft kiss on the crown of her head.

“I have to tell you something.” She heard him say, so she glanced at his face expectantly.

“There is a reason why I took you to the lake today when I could have just shown you my wolf in the backyard.” At that, Charlotte sat up a bit, her head now leaning on his shoulder and facing him.

“I had a feeling that the wolves with red eyes, they get attracted to your presence. I wanted to confirm it. Since the last time they were seen at the lake, I put cameras all around there to see if they’d come.” He paused and Charlotte could see the answer on his face.

“They came?” Charlotte was sitting completely now, her body facing him.

“Yeah.” Azraiel nodded. “But they vanished just like the last time.”

Charlotte looked down in her lap, her brows furrowing. Are they a hybrid between wolves and witches?

“Are you angry?” she looked up when she heard his ask.

He was looking at her with guilt plastered on his face. Why would I be angry?

She smiled hesitantly, not aware if she should be angry or not. “I am not angry.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, he released a breath and closed his eyes. “Thank God! I was afraid you’ll be angry at me for using you as a bait for luring them in.”

Oh…! Should she be angry about it?

She shaked her head. “No. I know you’d never put me in danger deliberately. If you ever thought for a second that they could hurt me or that you wouldn’t be able to protect me, then you’d never take me there.”

Her words brought him immense relief that was clearly visible on his face.

“But…” She narrowed her eyes at him “We need to make some rules.”

“Rules?” He arched his brows.

“Yes, Rules.” She said and picked up her diary and a pen. “We need rules so that we can have an amazing relationship.” She nodded at herself, satisfied that she come up with this but when she looked at her mate, he looked like he was controlling his laughter…

And…

Failing miserably.

“Rule 1: As your mate and the Luna of the pack, I need to know what’s going on. I don’t want to be the last one to know about things here.” She wrote it down and looked up at him to see his reaction.

“You are right.” He nodded. “I am sorry. From now on, you’ll be the first to know everything as soon as it occurs.”

“Hmm, Good. Rule 2: Dinner only at home. You have to stop working overtime and come home for dinner, no matter what. You know, Ayleen misses you too.” She said softly, aware that he loved her sister so much.

His eyes turned soft at her name. “I know. I love her too.” He softly said and then nodded. “Okay. Dinner at home. Always.”

“Great!” Charlotte beamed, this is a great start.

“Rule 3: If anything is troubling us, we have to share it with each other.” Charlotte saw him hesitate before saying “Agreed” and immediately knew that he will be the first one to break this rule.

“Rule 4: Whenever we argue, we’d try to solve it between us, not letting anyone come between us.”

“That’s a great rule but I doubt we’d ever disagree.” He said smiling at her.

“Oh, we will argue.” He sat up at that.

“What makes you say that?” His face now sober.

“Just a feeling.” She bit her lip to not let that smile slide. He didn’t say anything but continued watching her.

“Rule 5: We’ll let go of each other if we become toxic for each other or...others.” She said, a lump forming in her throat.

“No.” He straight out refused and Charlotte looked up at his face to see it set in a stubborn one.

He knows what I am talking about.

“I’ll never let you go.” His words sounded like a promise.

She looked into his eyes, seeing the fear of choosing between his pack and her and she didn’t want to see it. She didn’t want to put him in a situation where he’d have to choose.

“Hey! You are an Alpha before you are my mate.” She said softly, taking his hand in hers.

“I know...” He squeezed her hand. “and I am telling you that I am capable of protecting both you and my pack.” He kissed her hand.

“I know that. I trust you on that…” She spoke up, her voice shaking a bit, “But please, please promise me, that if you ever have to choose between me and your pack, you’ll choose your pack.”

“I’ll promise no such thing.” He leaned toward her, his nose almost touching hers. “But I know one thing, just like me my pack would never let you go, even if you want them to.” He brushed her nose with his and she smiled through the tears brimming in her eyes.

“Let’s change the rule.” He said, his breath invading her senses. “Rule 5: We’ll always be together, forever with each other, with and behind our pack.” He was looking in her eyes.

Charlotte couldn’t utter a word, so she sealed the agreement with a deep kiss, pouring her love and gratefulness all in that one moment and promising herself that she’ll try her best to follow Rule 5, both hers and his.