Dusk Rising

Eighteen.

Dylan

The girl standing in front of me looked petite, gave me the impression as if she was younger than me, but the way she spoke and carried herself in the living area moments ago screamed otherwise.

She had told me that her name was Kali and she seemed very nice, I mean she had come here with all of these gifts and clothes for me after all.

After coming into the room with me, she closed the door, introduced herself, and then she began to show me all of the things that she had brought for me.

It seemed that Tristan had tasked her with buying me a few items that I would need for the next day or so. She said that he would be buying me the rest of my wardrobe together so that I made sure to get the things that I liked.

As I had walked into the massive bathroom to get changed into the clothes, I couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea that this was my life now. That I would be living here with my brother.

Could I really do this? Walk away from Blood Mist and completely start a new here? But as soon as the thoughts entered my mind, I felt the pang in my chest and I had to clamp down on those emotions.

Rae had already jumped in and tried soothing me, and this time I let her words try to sink in and take root because I did not know how much longer I could do this on my own.

Relax little one. You can take this at your own pace, no one will rush you or force you into anything any longer.

Taking a few deep breaths, I walked towards the large vanity and quickly washed my face. I had just taken a shower, but the cool splash helped to calm my racing thoughts a bit.

For a moment, I stood there looking at myself in the mirror and though I had the plush robe and massive towel wrapped around my head, I could see subtle changes in my features.

Pulling the towel down, I let my hair fall. Damp strands of my auburn hair fell along my back and shoulders, but a few fell along my face and I couldn’t help but notice that that seemed to have changed a bit to.

Turning away from the mirror, I went over to the counter where I had placed two of the bags of clothes and began to pull out the bra and panties first.

Kali had picked simple, but good quality clothes and as I put them on I could tell just by the feel of them that they were expensive.

The simple black underwear set was nicer and definitely more expensive than anything I owned put together. So when I pulled out the clothes, I decided to go with the simplest outfit of the bunch.

Black leggings, a white shirt with a cool logo that seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place, and thick fluffy socks.

Kali had brought me two pairs of shoes, or a pair of black combat looking boots and a pair of really expensive sneakers, but I had a thing about socks and pajamas so I went with the socks, I thought it looked cute.

Without going back to the mirror, I ran my hands through my hair quickly and braided it back into one long single braid. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it would help keep my entire shirt from getting soaked until my hair dried.

To my surprise, Kali had waited inside the room for me and when I came out I saw her take in my appearance and make a subtle intake of breathe when I walked out.

A bit self conscious, I turned to see if maybe I smelled bad, I mean I had just showered, but no everyone liked the scent of coconut. But as I sniffed myself I recalled that the deodorant she had brought for me had a similar fragrance.

Rae spoke up again, chuckling this time, you do not smell precious girl, at least not in the way you think. She is a wolf, an omega, and she is finally scenting us.

Quickly turning back to Kali, I saw a slight flush on her cheeks, and noticed that she was looking away from me. “Uh, thank you so much for the clothes. These are really great.”

And to my surprise, she bowed her head towards me instead of replying, turned on her heal, and then asked. “May I escort you to the living area, ma’am?”

Ma’am? Where did that come from. A little taken off guard, I couldn’t help but just stand there looking like, well, an i***t, for a few seconds until I saw the redness in her cheeks get a little darker.

She was still bowing slightly, but her head was facing the the floor, feeling awkward, I walked over to her and tapped her on the shoulder, “no worries, let’s go,” and started walking towards the door.

But right before I reached to open it, I turned to her quickly, “oh, and you can just call me Dylan.” We had made eye contact then since I had turned to her so quickly and I saw the red in her cheeks flame almost crimson before I turned and opened the door.

The tension in the atmosphere was almost palpable and when I opened the door I was a bit surprised to the Nico sitting across from the strange man and Tristan standing close beside him.

All eyes were on me and it had made me a bit self conscious, but I walked swiftly over to Nico, but something told me that this man was here to see me, so I quickly said hello as I made my way to the couch.

As I sat, a thought filled my head and I gave a soft wave, but the. moment I did it, I felt even more self conscious then I had before. The couch was so comfortable, and it let that help ease me into whatever would happen next.

I noticed a soft click, as I turned and saw Kali walk out the door and I made a mental note to talk to Tristan about what had happened in the room earlier, that was super weird. And why would she call me ma’am when she was probably older than me.

Looking back to the other guest, I noticed that something felt familiar about his appearance, but I didn’t like the way that he was looking at me.

Thankfully, Tristan seemed not to like it either and he made the introductions quickly as he made he way over to where I sat on the big comfy couch.

“Dylan, this is Ezra, he is one of the alpha’s of Silver Moon pack. Oh, and he is Roane’s uncle.”

It was like a light bulb clicked and I suddenly saw the resemblance, but there was something about this man that felt much different than Mr. Winters, especially the way he was looking at me now.

Tristan sat beside me, and I had the sudden urge to reach out and grab his hand, but I stopped myself when I saw the silvery haze fall over Alpha Ezra’s eyes.

At first I thought that Tristan was linking with him, but when I glanced up at him, I saw that his stare, while directed toward Ezra was clear.

Tritan seemed to be losing patience with this man, and they began arguing back and forth with each other, but I wasn’t paying much attention. I was beginning to feel a little anxious.

And things didn’t get better when I finally did focus on their little back and forth banter and heard what the Alpha said next.

“Calm down Tristan, I was just taken aback at her beauty. She will make a fine,” “shut it,” Tristan spoke up then and I felt the tremor roll over his body. “Not another word!”

Placing my hand atop his, I tried linking with him again to try to get him to calm down. Regardless of what this man was saying, it was his friend’s uncle so he didn’t want to do anything that would cause them to fight like me and Lecia.

But before I could tell him anything, another unexpected guest showed up, but this time, he wasn’t here to just chit-chat. Micah came in with news of a visitor, but when he said that they were here to see me, I felt Rae go on full alert.

Unfortunately, instead of saying anything else, Micah just turned and walked towards the elevator. Tristan placed his other hand atop mine and I knew that he was about to tell me to stay put, but Ezra jumped up and cut him off.

“Don’t you dare make her stay here. We will take her down and see who dares to come here unannounced.” And that’s when I saw it, a flash of light blue streaked through his eyes and I felt the dominance roll off him.

This man was an alpha like Rogan, but I could instantly tell that he was very different. Nico was up and on his feet before I was, and when I turned to him, he just nodded at me and smiled.

A strange mixture of emotions filled me and I didn’t know how to describe all that I was feeling. Never had I felt this value before and I didn’t really know what to do with these emotions, so I just got up and followed Ezra out the door.

Tristan walked to my side and I saw that Micah was standing at the elevator doors and he held them open for us.

When we were all inside, Micah commented, “nice footwear,” softly in my direction and I felt my cheeks heat as I realized that I had walked out in my fuzzy black and white socks.

“She will not be leaving the lobby so it is fine if she wears that,” Tristan, but in, but it was Ezra’s laugh that eased the flutter of nerves I was feeling.

I had no idea who would have come here to seek me out, let alone who even knew that I existed outside of Blood Mist and I couldn’t think of anyone who would care, but then I did and that was bad.

Unable to say his name, but not being able to keep myself from thinking it, my heart had given a little flip flop as I considered the possibility that it could be ‘him’.

No. No. I couldn’t let myself even think of this, but it was already too late. I wished that Rae could just wipe the traitorous thoughts out of my mind, but I knew it didn’t work like that.

These elevators were really fast, and before I knew it, we were down in the lobby and greeted by four armed guards the moment the doors slid open.

Many others were in the lobby, but when I took a deep breath to steady my heart and breathing, I found that the four men that stood nearest us were all wolves.

It was funny how I had been able to suddenly pick up on these things all of a sudden when I couldn’t tell any of these things before, but I had to push that to the back of my mind.

People were all talking suddenly, to Tristan, to Micah, and even to Ezra, but Nico and I seemed to just be standing there almost like bystanders.

I was about to walk closer to him when I felt two large hands reach out and grab each of my shoulders. Shocked by the sudden contact, I turned first to my right and then to my left and saw Micah and Tristan.

Alarms rang through my head. Was this person bad or had they come here to harm me in some way? Maybe it was someone from Blood Mist or gods. Maybe it was Rogan himself?

I shouldn’t have come down with Tristan. I should have stayed in the suite where it was safe. But then Micah leaned in and whispered, “it’s okay Dylan, none of us will ever let anything hurt you.”

And while I knew he was whispering to me, I also knew that every wolf both in here and out there had probably heard him loud and clear because as I looked around I saw nods and winks from them all.

The next breath I took in was deeper than the last because there was a flood of emotions that were filling me as I took it all in.

Micah’s hand left my shoulder after he gave it a soft squeeze, but Tristan pulled me closer to him and wrapped his arm around both my shoulders as we walked out of the elevator together.

An older blonde gentleman was the first to walk over towards us, and I noticed that he bent his head in a slight bow towards Tristan and myself before he stood and began speaking.

“The man had been moved to the small meeting room around the corner. He showed up outside of the second perimeter fence about ten minutes ago, in his wolf form, sir.”

Before Tristan responded, I couldn’t help myself and practically screamed at him, “what is his name, did he give you his name?” For a moment, all the sounds and voices all stopped.

I wasn’t sure if it was because they hadn’t expected me to ask anything or because I was in no place to ask, but I saw the blonde man look at Tristan, the flash of silver haze come and go, and then look back towards me.

Tristan answered me as he led me off, and I felt Nico come up right beside me as the guards began to lead us down one of the small hallways towards the rear of the building.

“He did not give his name, but he said that he was from Blood Mist and that he would not speak to anyone but you.”

And damn my traitorous heart, because again it flipped and flopped at the possibility that it just might be him. At that moment, I wished for Lecia to be with me and Nico.

Whoever was here, even though they asked for me, may be someone close to them and they should both be here to see them.

Or they could be someone sent by Rogan, Rae whispered and I felt her trying to scent the air to pick up signs of who had come.

Da*n it, she was right. How had I not thought about that? Rogan had taken me for a reason when I was a child, so I’m sure that he will not give up on finding me so easily.

I wasn’t sure if Tristan sensed my anxiety, but he gave a tight squeeze on my shoulder as we continued to walk towards the guarded room at the end of the little hall.

This building was way bigger than I had thought, and I made another note to start exploring it with Nico and Lecia as soon as we made up.

A tall, dark-skinned man had walked out of the room right as we approached, and when he closed the door, he also bowed his head towards me and Tristan.

He immediately gave off the scent of feeling that all of the other wolves had, but when he spoke aloud to us, there was a hint of an accent that I found so intriguing it temporarily distracted my thoughts.

“He is unarmed and has been given a tranquilizer in his water to keep him from being able to shift. Nothing was found upon the search either, sir.”

The word tranquilizer felt off the second I had heard the man say it, but I knew that this was just another security precaution that seemed common practice.

Wolves are large and extremely strong creatures. Even in our human forms, depending on the strength of our wolves, we can have heightened abilities, but in our wolf forms we were extremely strong.

Tristan nodded towards him, “Thank you Reg,” before the man looked towards me and then did a quick double take before backing slowly towards the wall, but he never took his gaze away from me.

Ezra walked quickly down the hall towards us and I had almost forgotten that he was here until he pushed himself right through our little group and stood in front of the door.

I noticed that Tristan and him were the same height, but Tristan seemed to have a bit of a larger build than the older man. But Ezra didn’t give me much time to finish making my mental comparisons.

“Well, how do you want to play this? We all go in at once, or do we go in first and see who the hell it is?” Even though Ezra looked between me and Tristan, I knew he was waiting for his decision and not my own.

Not wanting to let him choose for me, I slid my hand over his and linked with him.

“I want to, no I need to go in with you, but if something is wrong, I will leave immediately.”

Tristan’s face was looking towards mine and I saw the little silver haze appear and then dissolve quickly, but just nodded at me before announcing.

“We will go in together, but if something is wrong, you will take her out and leave them to Micah and myself.”

Ezra nodded and said to him while looking at me, “so she can control that to huh,” before he turned the handle and opened the door.

The room wasn’t dark the way it is in the movies when the police hold suspects, it was bright and warm and welcoming. There was a large table with chairs, and even a couch along one wall.

But I felt my heart seize when Ezra had the door fully open and the man who sat at the end of the long table looked up and the eyes I stared into were not red, but gray.