Soul Mates

Chapter 9

Mary-Katheryn

Panic.

That's the first thing my mind does after hearing that voice.

Maybe Dominic has found me already. But I thought I took every precaution. And my running is pretty fast. Or...

Wait what day is it? Can Alpha's shift yet. I try to remember the position of the moon when I was still outside, but the moon doesn't show being near the full moon days. So how did he find me so fast?

I need to find a way out of here. To get as far away from Dominic as possible. But how do I leave now?

He probably has people outside waiting to catch me if I run again.

In view of that thought I pick my head up intending to pacify him while looking for a way out of here. A gasp escapes my mouth at what I find when I pick my head up.

"How is this possible?" I ask myself as I look around the room. "I thought... But it can't be... There was no-one... How can this be?" I thought I was being careful.

I thought I checked for heartbeats, scents and movements but here I am looking at at-least 10 wolves who are staring right at me too. Who are they? How come I couldn't hear their heartbeats from outside?

"Stop talking to yourself, I asked you who you are? And how the hell did you get in here?" The same guy asks a little agitated now.

"I... I'm... I..." Keep it together just answer their questions. I take a deep breath and open my mouth. "My name is Mary-Katheryn Dlamini. And I just wanted a place to hide and sleep so I came to this house thinking it was abandoned. I'm sorry to intrude, but can I stay here tonight." I look at them anxiously. "I'll make sure I'm out of here by sun up. Please I just need to rest a little and I'm out." I rush through my words as I speak. Pleading with my eyes as I look at them.

"No, you need to leave right now." The man says pointing at the door.

I look at him pleadingly. "Please, I promise to be out by-"

"She can stay!" A voice says to my right. I look at my saving grace to see a woman, maybe in her late 30's or early 40's. She looks so composed and beautiful, and she's staring at me with the first kind eyes I've seen in this place.

"No!" The man's voice rings out. And I flinch because it's so loud. "What if-".

"Have faith Jacob, combisa Ubuntu bakho. Udzinga lusito. Now, will someone find her a room." She says and I didn't know what she said in that other language, but I think it helped, because big man on campus is not telling me to leave anymore. Oh but he sure does look pissed at whatever she said to him.

"Oh, I don't need a-" I try to say but she talks over me.

"Non of that child." She says smiling at me. "You can stay as long as you want. This place is protected, and not just anyone can get in." She says that looking pointedly at Jacob. "So feel free to stay with us." She turns and starts to leave.

"Thank you. Thank you so much ma'am. You have no idea how much I appreciate your hospitality." I said to the woman who took pity on me.

"My pleasure love. Now go rest up, I want to talk to you in the morning." She says and indicates to one of the other people in the room. "Show her to one of the empty rooms Nokwazi."

"Yes ma'am." A girl who looks to be about 18 years indicates for me to follow her. "Follow me please." She then walks up the stairs, and I follow her. As we walk I feel eyes on me and turn to see Jacob giving me a hard stare.

I turn and hurry to catch up with Nokwazi. She leads me through a long hallway that looks like it has no end. As we walk, I see that not each door is the same. They change color or design. As if you are walking on the street looking at doors of different houses.

You would think the house full of different doors that don't seem to show any kind of pattern would look weird. But the doors actually make it look more individualized.

As we walk I ask Nokwazi a few questions to clarify the questions running through my mind. "So what is the name of this pack? I don't think I've ever heard of it before."

She keeps on walking and doesn't answer me. I try again, "How come I couldn't smell all the wolves in this house while I was outside?" She still ignored me and kept on walking.

"Why-" she suddenly stopped.

"This is going to be your room. Good night." She says and starts to walk away.

"Wait, wait, wait. Just please answer this one thing and I won't ask again." She stops and looks at me with eyes saying, she may or may not answer me.

"Okay, okay just answer me this. Who is the Alpha of this pack?" She looks at me straight in the eyes.

"Our Alpha is Jacob." She then walks away and leaves me to go into the room alone.

Shit! The one who doesn't want me here is the Alpha of this pack. Meaning I truly do need to leave at the crack of dawn.

I turn and open the door to the room I'll be sleeping in and stop right in my tracks and look around. "This can't be." I whisper to myself, looking around the room. Seeing the room I sleep in at home. I take a step back and look where Nokwazi disappeared. Trying to see if someone is trying to pull a fast one on me. How did they get my room right if they didn't even know I was going to stay here. The freakin Alpha even wanted to throw me out.

Are they trying to pull one over on me? Or is this for real? I step inside going to my desk to find that the book bag I left at Dominic's in a hurry is there leaning against my desk on the floor. I go and open it and search through my books to see if it really is my bag or just a copy.

I go through every book with growing frustration, because this is totally my bag. Fatigue takes the better of me as my body sways on my crouching position. I stand up and see a piece of paper fall to the ground I turn a little and pick it up.

Wherever you are hiding I will find you.

Dominic

My fatigue instantly clears up and I look around the room again. Where the hell did that come from? I go around the room searching every nook and cranny to see if there is something else out of place. After what felt like hours nothing else is out of place and I fall on the bed to see if I can actually sleep.

I toss and turn the whole night with no avail. I keep thinking about the note I found in my school bag that was supposed to be at Dominic's house. How did it come to be here, and where is here?

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Oh God. What now?

The knocking continues. I get up and go to answer it. "Hello, I came for the 5am wake-up call. Shower and come downstairs." The same girl from last night says. As she turns I stop her.

"Hey wait. Nokwazi right? Can you please help me out here."

She nods and says "If I can." I motion her inside and close the door.

I motion to the whole room and look at her. She looks at me too and lifts her eye brows. As if saying what about it.

"How come the room looks like this?"

She lifts her shoulders up and down. "I don't know. Don't like it?" She says as she turns to the door to leave again.

I grab her arm and turn her around. "What do you mean you don't know? How can you not know? Why does it look like this?" She looks at me and looks down at where I grabbed her arm. "Guess I grabbed you too harshly." I say rubbing her arm as I let go. "Sorry 'bout that. But I still need answers about this room."

She turned around and as I went to grab her again she said "The only answers you will get will come from the Alpha of this pack, and since I'm not him... See you downstairs." She says and closes the door.

I take the quickest shower in my life. Using my own bathing products I might add. And head downstairs to leave this place and it's freaky secrets.

I look around the front door corridor and see no-one and run to the door. "Leaving us so soon?"

******

Jason

It's been a whole week of nothing, and Blaze has been no help what-so-ever. Since we reached Ibadan he has done nothing to help us reach Lagos the nearest city with an airport that can take us back to South Africa. But at least we are not sleeping on the streets. Abayomi helped us get jobs and find good places to sleep. As I said before humans are the nicest species on this planet, when humans are involved good things always come from it.

So while I've been saving money to get us back home, Blaze has been drinking it every night. He almost got both of us fired with his excess drinking. I don't get what he is doing drinking like this because we have to go back to South Africa.

I have to find out if my family is okay. Find out if Sipho is okay.

And if...

And if... she's alright.

I want to leave this place and find my Mate. I know that with her by my side everything will be alright again. Which is why I need to leave Lagos like pronto and that brings me back to the unhelpful Blaze.

I hear a sound as if someone fell on the door. "Hey open up in there!" Speak of the devil. Here he is drunk again waiting for me to open the door to the apartment I rent because we could do the sharing thing but like I said, how can you share money with a drunk. All he ever seems to do is drink all his paycheck away.

I just have to talk to him or cut my losses, because I really have to go home.

Opening the door I see him slumped on the floor with his head hanging. He looks up with his blood shot red eyes. I start to pick him up. "You know if you want us to go back home, you're gonna have to be more helpful." I say closing the door behind us while helping him walk to the couch.

"I need to go back, and if you don't want to, that's your issue but I feel like MK needs me. Like she's in some sort of trouble. And if I reach home and find her harmed because you are stalling me. There will be hell to pay." I say dropping him on the couch.

His face contorts a little into concentration. "Who is MK?" He says like he knows the name and trying to remember what it means.

I look at him with contempt, because I could already be with her if it wasn't for his excess drinking. "My Mate." I say and turn to leave. "But what do you care. You probably won't remember this conversation tomorrow." I keep on leaving and hear him mumble something when I reach the door to my room.

"What was that?" I say distractedly entering my room.

"Nothing. Just that I have a sister named MK. I sure wish they were still alive." He says and I smell the sorrow increasing in the room.

I go to him, seeing a little what would drive him to drink. "Sorry for your loss man, but you can't keep drinking your sorrow away. You have to take back your life and live it to the fullest. I'm sure your sister would not be happy to see you wasting away like this." I pat him on the back and prepare to leave.

"Without them, only my mother is left and she's the Alpha's puppet" I think about that for a minute. He can't be. I would feel it if MK was dead so maybe we are not talking about the same people.

"So which pack do you come from?" Just to make sure we are not talking about the same people.

"The Dlamini Wolves Clan." I breath a sigh of relief, because I don't want to think of my Mate as dead.

"You smell relieved. Why?" He says still looking down.

"Not to be disrespectful or anything, but what you were saying began to ring true to my situation, so I'm glad it's not my Mate you were talking about. But I am sorry about your family." I say and he nodded.

We stay in silence for a bit then I had to ask. "What happened to your family?"

He looks up at me with sad red and brown eyes. "Well 4 years ago my father's Beta put a spell on my father's car. It went down the nearest cliff with my father still inside. We didn't know that it was him, he was always loyal to my father." He looks down and starts fidgeting his hands around. "I never would have suspected him for it you know. Then near my 18th birthday he started acting crazy. Beating my mom. Secretly of course. But when I found out I told him that I was taking back the pack and he was to leave my family alone."

He gets up and starts pacing. "You know what he does? He goes and sells off my sisters for an alliance with a dark pack. And when I go to confront him, he puts me in chains and kills my family for the fun of it." He looks down at his hands and stops pacing.

"I never even had the chance to save them." He falls to the ground on his knees, hands to his bent head and starts sobbing. "He played me a tape of their screams as he slaughtered them. I still can't get Mary-Rose's screams out of my head."

Mary-Rose???

*****

Combisa Ubuntu bakho = show your humanity.

Udzinga lusito = she needs help.