7

"Mother!" exclaimed Tyler, horrified: "When I do something with my mate is none of your business. Just let that be my concern and you, as my mother, should understand that I'm not my father!" His mother's look was somewhere between amazement and anger.

I got queasy when she started growling like a rabid dog. But Tyler held back and growled himself, like a possessed one.

I tried not to move so as not to draw their attention. Holding my breath as shallow as possible and praying inwardly that I wouldn't have to sneeze.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw another person enter the room. Tyler stopped growling, his mother also calmed down.

A hopefully inconspicuous sideways glance told me who the person was, Tyler's father, the alpha of this pack. This went to his companion, pulled her to him and stroked his hands over her body.

"Dad, maybe you could..." Tyler started, but was stopped by a growl of "Get out!" interrupted by his father.

A little overwhelmed with the whole thing, I looked at Tyler. He looked briefly at me and then briefly at his parents. He took my hand, pulled me past his parents, who were getting more and more busy with each other, grabbed the bag and almost hastily left the room with me.

When we got to the stairs, we could hear loud moans. I looked at Tyler with wide eyes. Was that really happening?

Tyler just gave me an apologetic look and shrugged.

Without him saying a word to me we went downstairs and left the house. Now and then he would glance at me, but we walked on in silence. Because he didn't pull me behind him like the last time, I got the opportunity to look around.

There was not a dying soul to be seen far and wide. The lack of other houses, on the other hand, was quickly explained by a look over the shoulder.

I had imagined the building we came from to be big, but what I saw was more like megalomania lived out. Also, with the best will in the world, one could not call it beautiful. It reminded me of the blocks from my hometown. The only difference was that the buildings there were taller and occupied a much smaller area. It almost killed you.

"Lily," Tyler drew my attention. "Things can get a little turbulent going on and you might get scared or not want to do something, but I hope you believe me when I say that I mean you will be careful."

I didn't really understand why he was telling me just now. While Tyler had stressed before that I should trust him, he obviously believed it would make me feel better. It gave me a rather bad feeling.

It didn't get any better because we were heading straight for a forest. I have never seen such a large number of trees in my life. As a human you actually spent your whole life in the cities sealed off by the werewolves. There were parks and green spaces, but nothing compared to this.

I must have stopped because Tyler grabbed my hand and eyed me.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly, rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb. It was almost cute how he cared for me, considering he was a werewolf and could kill me in under a second "I ordered my thoughts.

Such a person couldn't be cute, could he? Although Tyler actually made a different, positive impression on me. Oh

damn! What was I thinking and feeling? Why was it all so confusing ?

At some point, the environment we had been walking through just passed me. All the impressions of the first few minutes in the forest flooded my brain. All I was able to do was keep an eye on Tyler to keep up with him.

He almost didn't seem to care about our surroundings. He followed a path I couldn't see and carried the bag loosely over one shoulder.

We walked for hours without him saying anything. My feet hurt and I was thirsty. I didn't know by any stretch of the imagination how much longer I could go on.

But Tyler wasn't as oblivious to his surroundings as it seemed to me.

For no reason I could see, he stopped and turned to face me.

"We're staying here tonight. Are you ok with that?”

I looked around a little skeptically. There was no apparent reason for me to stay right now and not half a kilometer earlier. But I didn't care now and sat with my back against a tree Tyler

crouched down a little away from me, looking a little worried.

"I know you're exhausted from walking and I'd like to make it more comfortable for you, but I'm afraid that wouldn't be for you." I looked

at him questioningly. What did he mean by that? At the moment it would be me I would rather have anything, anything, than just walk like today.

"Well, I would have to transform myself for that. Then I could carry you and we would be faster."

Did he really say that? He would have to transform to do that...

Into a werewolf...

A huge beast...

"Your look says it all. We better leave that and take care of the topic another time.", Tyler said to me quietly and in a calm voice. He stretched his right arm in my direction and almost imperceptibly stroked my

cheek something to eat. I'll be right back."

He got up and started to disappear between the trees and bushes. Just before he was out of sight, he turned to me briefly and finally disappeared into the green of the forest.

Now I was sitting here alone in the forest and I got a little cold. What could I do now? Actually, I just wanted to rest and not take another step, but something inside me wouldn't let me be.

Maybe I should make myself useful so it doesn't get stuck with Tyler. But he also said I should wait here for him. But what should happen if I stayed close?

After a moment's thought, I decided that getting some wood for a fire would be the most sensible thing to do. I got up and went in search of wood.

Some time had passed and I had managed to collect a small pile of dry wood. I had just come back with an armful of wood when Tyler reappeared from between the bushes. In his left hand dangled the remains of a skinned animal without a head.

As he approached, he let his eyes wander over the small stack of wood and then smiled at me in a friendly way. He overcame the last distance to me and gave me an innocent kiss on the cheek.

To be honest I liked these attentions from him more and more. What is there between us no longer seemed to come from him alone. And the fact that he was the reason why I couldn't see my sister anymore seemed to be less and less important to me.