30

I looked at the open living room with a stunned look and didn't know what to think or feel at this sight.

Everything was a total mess. Nothing was in its previous place and due to the fact that there were also various groceries lying around here, it smelled so unpleasant that I had to put my hand in front of my nose to protect myself from throwing up on the dark carpet.

"Is your aunt always this messy?" asked Jamal, who sat down on the kitchen counter and looked around with raised eyebrows. This idiot probably didn't realize the seriousness of the situation, but I knew immediately that something very bad must have happened. Gloria would never have let her house deteriorate like this... It doesn't matter if I disappeared without a trace or not...

"No! It's not!", I replied irritably and quickly walked past him through the hallway to look at the remaining rooms of the house under high tension, but in contrast to the living room, all of them were still clean and were properly prepared.

At least something...

Slightly panicked, I started to search Gloria's closet in the bedroom to find anything revealing about her whereabouts, although I didn't even know what exactly I was looking for. I just hoped for a clue to at least be able to guess where she was, but I found absolutely nothing and this uncertainty slowly but surely tightened my throat more and more, so that my breathing only slipped jerkily over my lips.

"Would you like me to help you with something?" I heard Keno ask quietly behind me, dropping a pile of laundry from the closet on the floor and then staring at him with wide eyes. Of course I blamed him for everything, because after all he had kidnapped me! He alone was the reason why I wasn't with Gloria... Why I didn't know at that moment what had happened...

But I took several deep breaths, shook my head slightly, and absentmindedly rummaged through the closets while listening to Keno's footsteps, who presumably rejoined Jamal in the living room.

Why didn't I yell at him? Why didn't I blame him?

Well... After our previous conversation and realizing I was compulsively attached to him, I didn't want to have such a discussion at a moment when I was already not thinking straight. All the chaos in my mind was just too much and now a fight with keno... unthinkable. I would probably rip his head off otherwise...

But for basically forcing me to leave Gloria here alone, he'd get an announcement from me...

"Aria?" he suddenly called me from the living room and immediately I dropped some clothes from my hand again to run as fast as I could into the living room, but although I was hoping to see Gloria, there was someone else there, who shouldn't have shown up here even though I missed him.

"Pasqua," I breathed almost out of breath and took a closer look at the blond beau. A silly smirk broke out on my lips, because apparently nothing had changed here this week. As always, he wore his light-colored shirt neatly tucked into his jeans and had his blond hair styled to one side. It felt like an eternity since I'd escaped from the Deer Park, so just looking at him made me forget everything around me for a moment.

That's exactly why he looked at him a bit too long, because just before I could take my eyes off him, Keno suddenly growled loudly next to me, so that Pasqua looked at him completely irritated and took a step back.

"Um, Keno!", I quickly turned to my companion, because I could clearly see how he tightened his chest under the dark shirt and how his hands clenched into fists...

Stupid alpha posturing!

"Can we talk for a moment?" I continued, but it was Pasqua who didn't seem to want to wait any longer for answers.

"Aria, what's all this about?! Where have you been?! I was really worried!", he babbled straight away and, despite Jamal and Keno, came up to me and hugged me tightly.

If he knew what kind of guys were standing right next to us... He probably wouldn't have dared to enter the house, but for him there were only two guys who happened to be standing with the girl he'd been growing up with knew.

My eyes fell on Keno, lost in my thoughts, who looked like he was in a trance and seemed like he was looking straight through me, completely out of control of his mind. That look from him scared me... well, not me personally, more that Pasqua was about to become wolf fodder and I could hardly imagine his wolf attacking him with the prospect of me in his arms another man was standing.

When he fortunately broke the hug again, I glanced into his eyes and thought about how often I had wished for him to be near, but now he suddenly seemed so pale to me. His smell no longer fascinated me, nor his charisma...

I thought it was weird not being attracted to him at all in a week, but then I put it on my mark and suddenly realized that Pasqua was now staring at the crook of my neck, too, wide-eyed.

"Aria!" he wanted to say something about the now blue wound, but I immediately shook my head and grabbed his shoulders to shake him slightly.

"Listen to me!" I pleaded, and when he shifted his gaze from my neck to my eyes again, I took a deep breath. "I had to go! I'm sorry, but that's not important now! It's much more important if you know where Gloria is!"

"Gloria?" Pasqua repeated, glancing over at Keno and Jamal, then back to staring at me. "We all assumed she was gone with you."

"So she's been gone for a week too?"

I was just about to take my hands off his shoulders dejectedly when he grabbed one of my hands and squeezed it tightly, but his worried gesture didn't last long because Keno suddenly took a quick step in front of me and looked down angrily at Pasqua while he wide eyes and let go of my hand at the same moment.

"Fuck off now," Keno growled and I immediately jerked him around by his shoulder, causing me to realize with horror that his irises were only a deep black...

Keno was no longer there and its wolf would not spare any competitor, I was sure of that and now it was up to me alone to defuse this situation.

"Pasqua," I addressed the blonde and walked past him out the front door, where he followed me after one last, anxious look at keno.

"You have to go. Someday I'll explain everything to you calmly, but not today!"

"Aria! I'm definitely not going! What are these guys? Are they blackmailing you?"

I couldn't help but roll my eyes and glanced over my shoulder inside, where Jamal and Keno both stood side by side like predators, staring at Pasqua like he was a chicken about to be snatched.

"Of course not! These are friends."

"Friends?" Pasqua asked almost hysterically and turned around again where we then watched as Jamal stuck his nose straight up and seemed to smell something.

"Yes, friends," I replied quietly and could hardly believe what I was saying.

"I knew it!" Pasqua suddenly said superiorly and grinned stupidly, which didn't fit the situation or him in general at all. I kept staring at him, irritated by his oddly good mood, waiting for him to add something else, but he just kept smirking stupidly.

"What did you know?" I then wanted to know, still confused and with folded arms and felt Keno's eyes on me while I even heard his wolf growl loudly. I ignored all of that though and just focused on the blonde in front of me.

"That you're different," he said out of nowhere, looking me up and down. "You're the wolf of the forest, aren't you?"

Oh fuck....