A Duet of Wolves and Sparrows

Chapter Fifteen

Alex and Sovereign didn't end up having much of a problem moving into Hazel's spare bedroom. They had plenty of space in there for what they had brought with them and Sovereign didn't really own anything of his own other than the clothes he had already been wearing. 

At first, they ended up having to sleep on a mattress that Mrs Blackwood had helped them bring over. It was the same one from Alex's bedroom at his parents' house. That arrangement lasted about a week before his mother was able to dismantle and bring over his bedframe to go along with it. It had been awkward and tense attempting to get all of Alex's stuff out of his old bedroom and  into his new one with his father hanging around angrily and glaring at them as they worked. 

It was a mystery to them how he could still possibly think that he was in any way in the right in this situation. Perhaps he knew that he was wrong and felt that he was too deep into his opinions to suddenly have a change of heart. Or, perhaps he really was so stuck in his current attitude that he couldn't see the major errors in his judgements. Either way, what he was doing to his own son and his son's partner was unacceptable and frankly, difficult to forgive.

One thing was for sure in that situation, and it was that both Alex and Sovereign deserved much better than the treatment that they were receiving. 

Once their bed had been assembled again and it had been set up adjacent to the window and the wardrobe that had come along with the room when Hazel had first moved in, it felt much more like home. It was somewhere that felt as though it belonged to them, that they didn't have to constantly worry about outstaying their welcome or to worry about someone looking over their shoulders and judging their every move. 

It was nice for Hazel, too, to have them around. It made the house feel a lot less empty having two friends to share her space with. Of course, it did take a while to grow accustomed to having two men living in her house, but they were both polite and tidy, they did their fair share of the chores and kept things neat and clean. 

Hazel's favourite time however, was when they would all cook together and sit down at the table or in the lounge to eat together. It felt so wonderfully refreshing to have people to share her time with and to bond with in a way that she never had the opportunity to growing up. She was sure that Sovereign felt the same way too.

She noticed after the first two weeks that he was slowly opening up to them more and more, that he was growing more comfortable around them. It was really something that she felt honoured to bare witness to as he started coming out of his shell bit by bit and trusting them with more of himself.

He was quite stoic and withdrawn to begin with, which was more than understandable given his past, but when he grew to feel more comfortable with Alex and Hazel, he started showing more of the personality that he had kept hidden for so long. 

He would join in with them when they joked around with each other, laugh more freely around them and his sarcastic, snarky sense of humour began to show itself bit by bit. Of course, he was still a very private person, but despite that fact, he would occasionally divulge little pieces of information about himself or about his past and they would make sure to listen and be understanding and attentive whenever he did.

All the while, Mrs Blackwood was working tirelessly with the council to set up a meeting with every member and resident. They would need the whole pack to work together and that meant getting everyone involved. Mr Blackwood on the other hand, was seemingly working on attempting to turn the townsfolk against Sovereign and vilifying him to them. All it did was make things harder for everyone while Mrs Blackwood tried to rally everyone together to make an informed decision on what to do about the neighbouring pack.

Eventually, she managed to set an official date at the town hall for an emergency meeting, mandatory for everyone to attend. She made leaflets too, and hand-delivered them to every home. She was really pulling out all the stops to make it happen and not being able to help, Hazel, Luna, Alex and Sovereign all found themselves incredibly thankful for her tireless efforts and hard work. 

In return, they hosted dinner quite frequently for her, so that she didn't have to worry about cooking at the end of the day, and Alex would still go back to the farm to do a reduced set of daily duties so that she wouldn't have to worry about the extra work piling up.

Luna and Hazel would work together too, baking and cooking most of their meals, though Alex did help out as frequently as he could and Sovereign pitched in by doing all the dishes. Progress was slow, but it was to be expected. Hopefully, once the meeting could be held, something would finally be able to start happening. They couldn't ignore the possible threat of the neighbouring pack forever.

By the time that the council had finally managed to get a date sorted for everyone to attend Mrs Blackwood's meeting, three weeks had passed them by and Sovereign's accelerated healing had him already able to walk again without his crutches.

The scars on his back were fully scarred over and the stitches had dissolved. He was well on the mend and it was nice for the rest of them to see him able to walk around and help out with some of the more strenuous tasks without flinching or wincing anymore. He and Alex seemed to be getting closer too, bit by bit and it seeing them being able to act like a normal couple was heart-warming.

Normal wasn't really something they had a lot of for the past few weeks. Everything was up in the air with the council meeting just around the corner, Alex's dad acting like he'd gone completely off the rails and the threat of a possible attack from the neighbouring pack looming over them. The dinners they had, the splitting up of chores, being able to relax together every once in a while; those were the things that kept them all going, kept them grounded and eased their worries.

Floss had been a god-send too, always greeting them with her happy, fluffy face and her wagging tail, ready to cheer them up and lift their spirits whenever they saw her. Taking her for her daily walks was probably the highlight of Hazel's day. 

It was that time of day again, on a Wednesday and Hazel had just gotten Floss ready or their daily outing. The day before, she had allowed Sovereign to take Floss for her walks in her place, so she was looking forward to getting back to doing it herself.

It was worth missing a day though, seeing how much more relaxed Sovereign had looked upon returning home. She had gotten used to having him and Alex in the spare room fairly quickly. It was nice having the company and it felt as though she had found a real family.

As Hazel was about to leave with Floss through the back door, Alex called to her from the spiral staircase behind her.

"Hey, Hazel, you going for the walk now?" He asked.

"Yeah, just heading out for a walk around one of the woodland trails out back." She replied, looking back at him.

"Do you know when you'll be back? Sovereign and I were thinking of making lunch for everyone today." He said.

"We'll probably be about forty-five minutes, give or take. It's really nice of you guys to make lunch, what are we having?" Hazel questioned.

"Probably just some sandwiches. Neither one of us is exactly much of a master chef, but I know I can make a mean BLT." Alex joked.

"Alright, sounds good to me, I know I'm definitely going to be hungry after this walk. A chicken and avocado sandwich would be great for me." Hazel requested.

"Of course, on the seeded brown bread, right?" Alex asked.

"Of course. You know me so well." Hazel replied with a smile and with that, Alex headed into the kitchen.

Hazel turned back to the glass door, sliding it open and headed out onto the decking, sliding it closed again behind her. Floss was looking up at her eagerly when she turned to the steps, tugging at her lead impatiently. 

"Don't worry, I'm coming, we're going now." Hazel said, amused. "We're going for a nice look walk today."

"Woof!" Was the reply she got from the excited and restless Samoyed. 

Without further ado, they headed out through the grass and into the trees, through a little wooden gate that lead onto one of the smaller trails, a turn-off from one of the main paths. It was a pleasant day, the sun warm, but gentle as it filtered through the leaves, making dancing patterns across the ground. The walked leisurely down the path to the main trail, twigs and leaves crunching and snapping under foot. 

Hazel really loved the forest, it was so vast and so beautiful. She loved the smell of the bark and soil, the green leaves, pine, oak and the little flowers that grew along the forest floor. 

They walked for the first twenty minutes, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere and the distant sound of a small river that lead into the lake in the glade. They didn't go to the lake though, follow the main trail instead since Hazel didn't want to get distracted and return home later than expected. She was looking forward to eating the lunch that Alex and Sovereign would prepare, and seeing Luna again, since her shift at the barn would be finished by the time she was due to return.

Hazel stopped briefly, to let Floss off of her lead to sniff around the trees and watched after her rom a distance, enjoying the feeling of being out in nature. Only after a few minutes passed did she realise that something was off. 

She paused for a moment and realised what it was that was causing the prickling feeling that fluttered up her spine.

The birds had stopped singing.

Everything was eerily silent, too quiet for a forest full of birds and squirrels and bugs.

Growing tense, Hazel beckoned Floss over to herself, she called her name and Floss came bounding over, her paws scuffling against the ground suddenly sounding as though it was making far too much noise. Something was definitely amiss and she didn't want to stick around too long to figure out what it was. Even Floss seemed a little on edge, her ears twitching around as if listening for something that only she could hear.

"Come on Floss, we're going to head back early. Sorry to cut things short, but it doesn't feel safe anymore." Hazel whispered as she crouched down to reattach Floss' lead to her collar.

Hazel stood quickly and walked briskly back down the trail, the way that they had come. The feeling of being watched by something never left her as she made her way hurriedly down the path. It reminded her chillingly of being followed down a dark alley in the city, that knowledge that something was behind you and all it had was ill intent. 

Every moment that passed, the feeling of paranoia increased, along with the urge to nip between the trees and take a short-cut off the trail, but she knew she shouldn't, knew that the safest was to get back would be to follow the marked paths. This wasn't a low-budget horror movie and she wasn't about to cut corners like the protagonist's friend who gets picked off by the monster.

She managed to get ten minutes down the path again when she heard growling coming from behind her. She swallowed thickly as she kept going, knowing that it was most likely some members of that neighbouring pack trying to follow her or even planning to attack her. She knew that if they really wanted to kill her then it wouldn't even be a challenge for them. 

She started running, Floss taking off next to her, keeping pace a few steps ahead of her and she could hear the growling moving around her, coming up closer behind her even as she sped up. She knew that she couldn't outrun them. 

"What do you want?" She shouted into the air. "I don't know why you're coming after me, but you should really leave me alone!"

Hazel knew that her request was most likely completely futile, but she didn't have anything else hat she could do and she didn't want to be attacked, didn't want to die. She had too much to live for, too much to do, too much to say, too much left to accomplish.

Suddenly, a large grey wolf leapt out from behind the line of trees, growling dangerously at her, maw pulled back into a threatening snarl. Hazel stumbled back in fear, barley managing to save herself from falling backwards onto the ground. Another large wolf followed the first and as it landed back down, it shifted into its human form. It was a tall woman with dark skin and long, braided black hair pulled back behind her shoulders. She had a sharp look in her eyes and a low tone to her voice when she spoke.

"You. You are a part of this town's pack, are you not?" She questioned darkly.

"I am." She replied, words coming out sounding a lot more self-assured than she felt. "What do you want with me?"

"A member of your pack came and injured two or our own, unprovoked. We have come for him." The woman explained, impatiently.

"Unprovoked? I don't know what your pack members told you, but it certainly wasn't unprovoked. He was protecting his Moon. If he hadn't intervened, they would have murdered his mate." Hazel said, starting to feel frustrated.

"His Moon? Why would members of our pack have reason to fight him over his Moon? It is forbidden." She replied, voice taking on a confused edge as she raised one of her eyebrows.

"His Moon used to be a lone Alpha. I believe, from what I know, that he was passing through your territory when he was attacked by members of your pack. When Alex heard the howls of pain, he knew it was his Moon and ran into the woods to protect him." Hazel explained, wary that these people would be unpredictable. She hoped that this was all just a misunderstanding, that they could clear the air without anyone getting hurt.

"An Alpha? An Alpha Moon? That's near unheard of." She said, brows furrowed.

"If you give me your word that you won't harm them, I can take you to my home and you can meet them for yourself. I don't know everything about Moon Wolves, but I have gathered that Alpha-Alpha mates are uncommon... please before you guys do anything rash, just hear their side of the story. We don't want any bad blood between our packs and I hope we can agree that there's already been too much bloodshed over this." Hazel offered. 

"I think I can agree to that. As long as none of your people make a move to threaten us, we will not harm anyone. We came here to threaten you, but now I want to get to the bottom of this." The lady replied and Hazel mentally sighed in relief.

With that, Hazel gestured for them to follow her and tried not to let her nerves show as she lead them back to her home. This could have all been a huge mistake, she knew that she could be leading actively hostile wolves and showing them where she lived, but she also couldn't pass up or ruin the chance to get through this peacefully. 

Hazel tried to steady her heart as they approached the back of her house and she gestured for them to follow her to the doorway. 

"Your friend might have to transform if they want to come inside. I don't think the doorway is quite big enough to accommodate them." Hazel said to the lady, whose name she still didn't know.

The woman nodded to her companion, who hesitated, but reluctantly transformed into their human form. In place of the wolf, stood a man, shorter than the woman, with tan skin, dyed silver hair and brown eyes. Hazel, quickly opened the glass door and as soon as she let Floss off of her leash, she darted into the house, barking and looking for the others.

"Come in, you can take a seat in here. I'll get the others." Hazel said and the two gave her a curt nod and went to sit in the wicker chairs, opposite the spiral staircase.

Hazel walked hastily into the kitchen, where Alex and Sovereign had been making lunch. They were both tense, obviously having heard or smelled the new wolves in the house. The looked at her tensely, questioningly, so she didn't waste any time in telling them what had happened.

"They're from the neighbouring pack. Apparently they got a different story from their pack members than what actually happened. They're here to hear your side of things, they're willing to hear you guys out." Hazel explained and though still on guard, the two of them seemed to relax a little bit. "They're waiting in the other room."

"Alright, we shouldn't waste time. We'll go through now. Will you come with us, Hazel?" Sovereign asked, surprising Hazel a little bit.

"You want me there?" She questioned.

"Yes. You.. were one of the first people to really make me feel welcome and I would be more comfortable if you were there." He replied.

"Of course, I'll be there for you, both of you." Hazel agreed easily, looking between the two of them.

"Thanks, Hazel. Well, lets do this." Alex said and made the first move to meet their unexpected guests.

When they walked into the room, Sovereign slightly behind Alex and Hazel off to the side by the stairs, the woman, who seemed to be the leader between the two of them, stood to greet them.

"I am Aiysha. This is Oliver. I am the daughter of the leader of our pack and I was sent to scout the borders and put some fear into anyone I encountered. Our pack-mates said that you attacked them unprovoked, but your friend here says that that was a lie. I want the truth." The woman, Aiysha, said.

"I'm Alex and this is Sovereign. I fought with your pack-mates to protect him from them. I head howls and picked up on Sovereign's scent from the forest border and I couldn't stand by while he was in danger. When I arrived, he was already heavily injured and they were attacking him three-on-one." Alex explained.

"You. Why were they attacking you?" She asked, brows furrowed as she directed the question at Sovereign.

"Before Alex, I had lived the majority of my life as a rogue Alpha. I was passing through your territory, planning on stopping through Fernwood before moving on, when they leapt out of the bushes and chased me for about a mile before catching me and making their attack. I assumed you were one of the packs that are strict about not letting anyone pass through." Sovereign answered.

"I already knew that Sovereign was my Moon from his scent, so when I got there, I did everything to protect him from them. One of them transformed and I tried to tell him that Sovereign is my Moon, my mate, but he didn't seem to care and ordered the others to attack again." Alex added.

Aiysha seemed to mull that over for a while, taking in the new information. Obviously, it conflicted with whatever her pack members had told her, though they had no way of knowing exactly how much their version of things differed unless she said something.

"And you two, you are Sol and Moon? But you are both Alphas?" She asked.

"It's not conventional. But fate doesn't lie." Sovereign replied. "We don't want any trouble from your pack, we just want to live in peace."

"Aiysha, it seems that they are being truthful." Oliver said, leaning toward Aiysha and she held up her hand to quiet him.

"It is a law in our pack, a strict one, that no fated mate may be harmed on our turf. That our people so easily ignored such a sacred rule is hard to digest, but unfortunate as it is, it does happen." She paused to let out a frustrated sigh. "We usually try to stop rogues from passing through, but it is not something that we strictly enforce. The moment they knew you were mates, they should have backed off. We've had a peace agreement with your pack for years. You must wish for their heads. I know that if my own mate were harmed, I would happily tear the throats from those responsible."

"We just want to put this behind us... we don't want any fighting between our packs. We just want to go back to how things were before all of this happened. I won't lie, I am still angered by how Sovereign was attacked so ruthlessly, but making him happy is more important than any grudge. It has been...a stressful few weeks. After he was gravely injured in that fight, my father sought to cause him further harm, almost killed him in the process, blaming him for the tensions between our packs." Alex replied.

"I see... it is gracious of you to not want revenge on those who harmed you. I would not be so forgiving in your position." Aiysha said, considering Alex's words.

"I have never known a peaceful life, I simply wish or one now that I have finally found my Sol... something I never thought I would be lucky enough to have." Sovereign replied, shifting a little closer to Alex. 

"We have much to discuss with my father and the pack elders. I suggest we hold a meeting of our two packs in order to decide what is to be done about those in our pack who have wronged you. The fact that you are lenient may save them from a harsher punishment, but they must still face the consequences of their actions." Aisha informed.

"We have a town meeting planned soon, perhaps we should use that time to hold a meeting of the two packs." Hazel suggested from where she had been standing behind them.

"That is agreeable. You can give us the date and time and we will coordinate with our leaders." Aiysha nods in her agreement.

Alex then tells both Aiysha and Oliver of the date and time that Mrs Blackwood had managed to organise the town meeting. He explained to them where the town hall was and the two of them were soon on their way, back to their pack's territory.

Once they had gone, it was as though the tension had flooded from the room. Everyone relaxed and seemed to let out a collective sigh of relief. That had definitely been enough stress for one day. 

"So then." Alex said. "I think it's time for lunch."

"Agreed." Hazel replied and the three of them returned to the kitchen to eat.

It was around fifteen minutes later when Luna and Mrs Blackwood arrived at the door and let themselves in. The two of them must have noticed the odd atmosphere around them or perhaps they could smell some remnant or lingering scent from their two surprise visitors, because the first thing they did upon seeing everyone was to ask them what had happened while they were gone.

And so, they explained what had happened with the members of their neighbouring pack, allowing Hazel to fill in what had happened to her in the forest first. By the end of it, Luna and Mrs Blackwood were both sitting by the kitchen island in silence, processing.

In the end, it was Mrs Blackwood who spoke up first.

"That was it then... they heard your side, realised what really happened that day and asked for a meeting to decide how to punish the members of their own pack?" She asked.

"That's right. It was their pack leader's daughter who explained that attacking Sovereign once they knew he and Alex were mates was a violation of an important one of their laws." Hazel said.

"I see. Yes, attacking a Moon Wolf's Sol or Moon is outlawed for most packs, or at the very least, it's considered taboo." Mrs Blackwood confirmed. "It's good to know that we will have a more positive use for that time slot I organised for us at the town hall."

It was set, then. Knowing that there was nothing more that they could really do before the day of the meeting, they sat together and finished eating the lunch that Alex and Sovereign had prepared. Come the start of the following week, they would know for certain what would become of this conflict between them and their neighbouring Moon Wolves.