Greta had given August a t-shirt, zip up hoodie, and sweatpants, and August made note of one more reason to adore the peachy-haired girl. She was like an instant sister who knew what would be most comfortable.
After slipping the dry clothes on, August looked in the mirror for the first ti in a month. She almost didn't recognize herself. Her face was thinner and pale save for the recent flush from being so close to Grae. But her eyes… August gasped.
"August, are you okay?" Greta called, but Grae rushed right in without waiting for her reply. She noticed he had changed into dry clothes as well.
"What is it?" He grabbed her lightly around the waist and spun her to face him so he could look her over.
"My eyes…" She turned back to the mirror and leaned closer, pulling the skin below her eye to see the eyeball more completely. At first she thought it was the reflection of the amber filants in the lightbulbs, but no—her eyes were other-worldly. The irises were a sparkly crown of gold amidst her regular blue.
"Were they not like that before?" he asked as his sister appeared behind them.
"No. No, not even close," she leaned back and felt him against her, his hands still holding her lightly. She looked at his reflection in the mirror that stared back at her. At that mont the gold shimred deeply. She caught it out of the corner of her vision and gasped again, leaning back in to look.
"Wow, I think my eyes like you," she said in awe as if they were a distinct entity from herself, unaware of how it sounded until it was too late.
Grae laughed lightly, tilting an eyebrow to her reflection. "Yeah, I kind of wondered about that."
She glanced back at him and his sister in the mirror. Her face turned a deeper shade of pink, and she noticed this in the mirror as well. 'I might as well have a blinking neon sign on my face,' she thought.
"What's happening to ?" she asked, turning around to face the brother-sister duo.
Greta stepped forward and hooked August's arm in hers, patting her lightly on the arm with her other hand. "Co. Let's check your vitals and we'll fill you in on what we know."
A short ti later, they found August's vitals were all stable and August had heard about the university's clandestine pandemic-related experintation. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, shaking her head in disbelief. "What were they going to do with ?" Her face paled. "Did my parents know?"
Grae and his sister exchanged a look, wondering about the pace at which they should unfold the rest of what she had yet to hear.
"We don't know," Greta said honestly.
"How did you find ?" August looked at Grae, "The forest was so empty," she swallowed rembering.
Grae paused, considering his phrasing for a mont. "I caught your… scent."
"My scent?"
He nodded but said nothing more.
August thought back to when Marius had entered the room. It made her nauseous. She could still taste his blood in her mouth, and she squeezed her eyes closed at the mory.
"M—Marius," she gulped, pushing back the fluid rising in her throat, "he said so things." And thought so things. She shuddered involuntarily. Greta ca to sit next to her on the bed and took August's hand in both of hers, squeezing it lightly. "He called you a monster." She looked up at Grae curiously. "What did he an?"
Grae's dark eyebrows dipped together in thought before his gaze returned to her, sweeping over her face. How would she react? A couple beats too long had passed since her question, and worry started to prick her eyes. He would just have to say it.
"We're lycans," he breathed the last word. When her expression didn't change, he tried again. "Like… werewolves."
Werewolves. August frowned. "You change into a wolf?" she scoffed, clearly not believing him. He nodded. She looked at Greta at her side who had a soft expression on her face. "Both of you?" Greta smiled slightly and nodded. Then August gasped, and one of her hands flew up to cover her mouth. "The animal. In the forest. The one chasing …" and her eyes fixed on Grae in disbelief.
"I wasn't trying to scare you," he gulped and looked at his feet.
"You—you bit ," she whispered, and her eyes had started to water.
"No—no, I was just removing the tracker," he said hoarsely. "I was only trying to help."
August stood up from the bed and retreated to the large window looking out at a cross-section of trees. How far up were they? Like Alice, sohow she had tumbled through the forest into another reality. Surely she should be dead.
If werewolves exist… She crossed her arms defensively at the ludicrous thought. Then what else is out there? Isn't the evil in humanity enough? She caught the reflection of her burning eyes in the glass. "What am I then?" She whispered, her heart shuddering in fear. Grae and Greta looked at each other again.
Grae walked over to stand behind her, resting his palms on her shoulders before running them down the length of her arms and embracing her. He breathed into her hair, "It seems you are my soulmate, August." The answer was not what she expected and seed equally as ludicrous, but his voice kindled a surprising warmth in her again. And his touch, his embrace… It was like ho.
"Soulmates," she whispered again, watching how her eyes burned in response to the word. She had never believed in such a thing. Her parents were divorced and her stepfather was abusive. Where was her mother's soulmate? She wasn't even sure about the whole idea of "soul" in the first place. But sowhere she understood that whatever this was with Grae was different, and it was the reason she was alive.
"What does that an?" she asked quietly.
Once again, Grae faced the challenge of distilling sothing so much larger than himself into words. Greta had always been the talkative one—the one with all the answers. He sighed softly with August's head tucked under his chin, rembering how his mother had explained it to him when he was young.
"It ans… our souls recognize one another as partners," he interlaced his fingers with hers. "It ans we are mutually entangled in the very fabric of the universe itself. We are a story told together with one voice," he turned her around gently to face him, his expression soft and searching hers. Suddenly he didn't need to search for the explanation. It was there in her eyes.
"It's an oath that doesn't need to be spoken, because it binds two beings together with a force that no one can deny or break. And were I to mark you here," he paused, pushing back her sweatshirt and running his fingers over the curve of her neck, "we would be even more intimately connected—sensing each other's thoughts and feelings."
Goosebumps arose on the spot he touched. He could see her delicate light hairs sticking up, and suddenly his mouth began to water. He let her damp hair fall back, hiding it from view.
"Mark ?" she whispered the question. Like a branding? Her eyebrows furrowed.
An uneasy smile spread across Grae's face, and he sighed. "Don't worry. I won't do anything like that unless you want to."
August felt her mouth go dry. "Oh—okay."
His dark eyes had consud her again as he gazed down at her, and she felt her stomach trill. She had never witnessed sothing like he was describing, but for so reason she wanted to believe him. Her body already did, it seed, because it lit up like a Christmas tree when he so much as looked her way.
She wondered if the soulmate thing had sothing to do with the aura she saw around Grae during her fevers. It had seed to gravitate toward her, and it gave her the impulse and strength to overco Marius.
As she opened her mouth to ask Grae about this, a phone rang in the other room. Greta retrieved it, handing it to him as he stepped away from August.
"Hello?" His voice was different on the phone—deeper and intimidating. August shivered at the authority it held. "She is now, yes," his eyes narrowed into the air. "I understand." He ended the call and glanced at Greta.
"They already know she is awake?" Greta asked, incredulous.
He nodded. "They want to see us first thing tomorrow," he sighed, tossing his phone on the bed.
"Who is they?" August asked slowly, sensing this was not a good thing.
"The pack's council of elders. They are our governing body, you could say. And they are eager to et you," Grae sighed. "I wish we had more ti. There are so more things I need to explain to you before we see them."
August nodded, crossing her arms in front of her as if bracing herself for more, but her stomach growled loudly.
"But let's get you sothing to eat first, you poor thing.. You must be starving!" Greta hurried to her side and hooked one of her arms again, leading her out of the room.
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