"Olivia!"

My peace was disrupted by the screech of a familiar and young voice.

I slowly opened my eyes, silently admiring the beautiful evening sky before turning my attention to the panting and quickly approaching Alec.

Behind him, holding his hand and practically being dragged along, was the man who I suspected to be his father.

"Alec." I said softly, voice hoarse after not speaking for so long, and because I was thirsty. Alec smiled brightly up at me, his cheeks rosy with glee and he released his father's hand, stumbling forward through the snow until he and I stood only a couple inches apart.

"I wanted to find you yesterday," Alec said. "After I came here. But my pa said that you were probably tired."

I looked to the man behind him, the hat which he'd adorned on his head now gone, and was being twisted in his hands. I could feel his gaze linger on the scar on my cheek, but then his eyes averted away, first to my eyes, but then settled on my shoulder.

I frowned at that; it almost appeared as if he was either shy, or extremely frightened. I smiled humorlessly as I took in the tall, broad shouldered man. It was definitely most likely to be the former.

"I want to thank you for saving my boy." The man finally spoke, and my head lifted in surprise at his soft and quiet voice. "Alec told me that you allowed him to stay in your home at Corozal and protected him."

The man's eyes suddenly seemed to shine, and I quickly came to realize that it was because of tears. He looked away, coughing as he attempted to hide this from Alec and myself.

It was completely obvious that this man was still struggling with the death of his partner, and the thought of losing his son was devastating to him.

"What is your name?" I asked, keeping my voice gentle. The man cleared his throat, blinking rapidly as he fought back tears. His son moved closer to him, but his father gave him a disgruntled look that made him pause; he evidently did not want to be comforted.

"It's Victor." The man said, voice still low and I frowned as he continued to not make eye-contact with me.

I glanced at Alec, noticing the increasing worry on his young face as he continued to stare at his father, but he averted gaze to me when I offered,

"Victor, if you'd like, I can seek out someone you can talk to if you're struggling to-"

"It's fine." Victor dismissed my words, twisting his hat once more and lifting it to place it back on his head, hiding his dark brown hair.

He took hold of Alec's arm firmly and finally met my eyes, his smile sad despite his efforts for it not to be. "I just wanted to say my thanks for what you did. I'll see you around."

Alec's eyebrows puckered, and any protests he had died on his lips when he looked behind me. My body stiffened immediately as I watched the males walk away hurriedly, and I turned as heavy footsteps sounded from behind me.

I easily saw a handful of lycans, each carrying sacks which dripped with dark blood, leaving a trail behind them as they walked towards me.

I noticed the lack of clothing on both males and females; the males were shirtless, and some chests were recently and deeply scratched but before my eyes, the skin was slowly stitching back together, healing effortlessly.

Some of the female lycans wore little materials to hide their upper body, whilst others adorned long dark dresses that hugged their various figures. A strange, almost baffling haughty confidence could be seen in their body language and expressions as they walked smoothly over snow, seeming to glide over it.

Heads lowered only for a few seconds in greeting as they each passed me, and I returned the gesture, which amused them. Lips lifted into smiles, and low whispers were exchanged before they continued on their way to the Heathcliff pack.

I knew that the majority of them had been from the pack, since I had seen them throughout the time I'd been in Heathcliff weeks ago and recently.

My eyes lowered to the sacks in their hands just before they furthered into the woods, and many images of dead animals were conjured up into my mind as I looked to the blood on the snow nearby.

"Someone will be having a feast tonight." I dryly spoke to myself, taking several steps backwards as I decided that I'd be returning back to sit on the tree stump to wallow in silence once more.

But my back hit into a chest, and a muscled arm wrapped around my stomach, steadying me. Warm breath tickled the nape of my neck as he exhaled, the arm around me tightening only briefly before I was released.

I moved to face Hannes, and gave him an unimpressed look.

"I didn't hear you approach." I admitted begrudgingly, walking around his tall body until I was seated. I shuddered at the coldness of the tree stump, shifting around slightly as I attempted to find a comfortable angle.

"You were distracted." Hannes told me. I noticed his almost worryingly deeply concentrated gaze as he looked down at me and I tilted my head in question at his gaze, but after a long moment he looked away.

I hadn't seen Hannes since this morning at breakfast, and I'd spent most of the afternoon and the beginning of the evening reading in the bedroom before making myself a sandwich to eat, which the cooks protested against when they'd caught sight of me doing it. After I spoke a few polite yet curt words to them, they acquiesced however.

I'd eaten the sandwich whilst leaving the home, and had walked through the woods until I found the area in which I now sat in.

Silence fell between Hannes and I as I admired the setting sun, and when I peaked several glances at the Alpha, the deeply concentrated look in his eyes had yet to vanish.

In fact, it didn't seem as if he was even paying attention to the view, but was captured by many thoughts.

My own mind turned from the sky and Hannes and went to our conversation earlier instead, in which he'd apologized.

I had not been surprised by his words, and had known every since I saw the guilty expression on his face in the Ragged Cave after Athena had confirmed my words that his next act would have been to apologize for what he'd stated.

And like I'd told Hannes, I had not been hurt by what he'd said. I had been disappointed more than anything else at that time. Hannes had clearly and deeply trusted his aunt. Nonetheless, I appreciated his apology for jumping to conclusions.

After Hannes had left this morning, I had thought about some of my own beliefs, and reflected on the times in which I too had came to some conclusions or made decisions that at times were not thought through properly.

I snorted quietly to myself. My decision to go to Corozal probably fell into one of those not thought through decisions.

Hannes turned at the noise I'd made, narrowed, and slightly suspicious eyes on me as I stood. I casted a look towards the blood still covering the snow.

"Had you joined them? The people who clearly came from hunting, I mean." I asked, hefting the coat I'd found in the closet in the room in which I was staying in further up my shoulders.

Snow trickled from it, and I watched them briefly before looking back at Hannes, who had yet to answer me.

His penetrating stare swept over me.

"No." He grunted, looked behind me and then steadily met my eyes. "Will you be returning back to the house now?"

At my nod, Hannes' upper lip curled slightly, until his fangs were showing. "You should find your way back easily. Just follow the blood."

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

By the time I reached the houses, the sky had darkened significantly. I released a long sigh once I stepped into the warm house, and rubbed a hand across my face, feeling tired yet hungry.

I ate dinner in the dining room prepared by one of the cooks alone and found myself staring at the empty space on the cabinet more than twice as I slowly consumed my meal, the faint sounds of the flames crackling from a nearby fireplace the only noises other than my spoon hitting the rim of my bowl filled with soup.

As I by-passed the cooks and cleaned up my bowl, light briefly flashed in the direction of where I stood.

I narrowed my eyes through the window above the sink, catching sight of familiar persons draped in dark clothes and then Athena, who stood out like a sore thumb in her light blue sundress.

Her gloved fingers grasped a book which the Elders were clearly reading. A flashlight was in Declan's hands, and he was swinging it back and forth slowly as he read on.

Athena's honey eyes darkened as they skipped over each face of the Elder, and when they nodded simultaneously, she snapped the red book closed.

Feeling that I was perhaps intruding on something private, I finished off the cleaning of my bowl and retreated into the bedroom.

That night, although I did find myself feeling extremely tired, I could not sleep. And this time, I knew it was not because of any terrible thoughts or memories, yet I feared to admit to myself what it was, at first.

But then, very reluctantly, I allowed my thoughts to drift back to the few times in which I'd heard discussions of lycans and humans who were mates.

The bond between humans and lycans when they are mates develop just as rapidly as it would between two lycans, and I knew that it was the bond that was now keeping me up now, urging me to find Hannes, to be near him.

This pull had consumed my mind completely, and I grasped at my twists in frustration, throat tingling as I heaved several breaths.

Any attempts at sleeping were useless, and despite my best efforts, I began to contemplate my choices after tossing aside the sheets and standing in the middle of the bedroom.

My head felt hot, sweaty and my eyes were stinging terribly as I glared towards my closed door. The house was quiet, and I'd heard Hannes' voice hours ago, before he'd retired to bed. My fingers curled around the satin pajama pants I wore, and then unfurled as I racked my mind.

Nerves pooled in the pit of my stomach as I found myself finally gathering a blanket from my bed, and gripping it with one hand, left the bedroom, the door creaking making me wince before I slipped through.

I walked down the short hallway, until I stood before Hannes' door and almost immediately, I felt the heaviness which had rested in my chest slowly leave.

I could feel the tension in my body slacken now that I was closer to Hannes than previously, and I lowered myself to my knees on the wooden floor, eyes already slowly closing before I shifted my body so I rested my back on the wall beside his door, shifting the blanket so it covered my legs.

The beautiful feeling of relief seemed to rain over me and the faint sound of a door clicking open had been the last thing I'd heard before I fell asleep.