It was the third night in a row I had heard the door creak open and then softly shut around the midnight curfew bell. Where was Twill sneaking off to?
I got up and quickly tugged on my boots trying to track him, but staying far enough back he would hopefully not sense me. He wasn't heading towards our usual pub where we met Eve most nights. He luckily didn't seem to notice he was being followed as he neared the stables close to the connecting wall of the Inner City. There was one other figure standing outside facing towards us so I quickly darted into an alley out of site where I could still spot them. They talked for several moments before Twill approached where I was hid away.
"Sasha, why did you follow me?" he scowled.
"To make sure you weren't doin' anything stup-"
Before I could finish, he grabbed my wrist and started back towards our hut. I dug my heels in, but the mud kept making my feet slip.
"Twill please talk to me," I begged.
"Keep your voice down,�� he growled. "We will talk at home."
The Keltcher were usually patrolling this time of night enforcing their curfew. With their rogue like leather armor, it was hard to near impossible to hear them coming until it was too late. I allowed him to half drag me home with his longer stride thanks to him being more wolf than man.
Once we were home, he locked the door and removed his cloak.
"Where have you been going the last few nights?" I asked after a few moments when he made it clear he wasn't going to explain without me pressing him.
He sat on his cot and started to remove his boots. "What I should have done at home when the alpha tried to engage you to Lance out of spite."
His voice was full of pain and regret. Twill had raised me much on his own when our father had been killed in a hunter's trap and our mother a few years later of a heart issue while I was still a young pup. I vaguely remembered our mother. Our father had died before I was born. We were one of the few families that had both parents instead of a missing demon father.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm doing something to protect you."
Lance was the pack's furniture maker and had been a good man once. He hadn't always been a drunk, but losing his wife and his two pups in a brush fire that had pushed us out of our settlement deep in the forest before I was born changed him. The alpha betrothed me to him out of spite when he realized his son and I were in love. That's when I fell out of grace. Twill did nothing when I was told the news- not till he had caught up to me when I had met Eve.
"Twill-"
"Please," he begged. "Let me do this for you. I failed you once. I will not do it again."
"What are you doing exactly?"
"Quinn is allowing me to join his ban."
"No!"
He didn't say anything for a few moments as if he didn't hear me.
"All you're going to do is get yourself killed, Twill. Why can't you just let the Guardian's handle this?"
"Because even they can't help us! Eve, your own friend, can only do so much, Sasha," he said bitterly. "I'm doing this for you- to give you a home safe to be in- to walk without fear. Why can you not understand that?"
He walked over to me and wrapped me in his arms. It was then I realized I was crying.
"Please don't cry. I'll be safe- I will keep us safe. Okay?"
"Let me join," I pleaded. "I'm not a pup anymore."
"No," he said pulling me away from him; his hands like steel irons on my shoulders.
"Twill, please!"
"You are helping already."
"How?"
He kissed my forehead. "By staying safe and being friends with Eve."
I sighed he was so stubborn. When would he see I wasn't a pup anymore that he needed to protect?
"Now lets get some rest alright?"
He let go of me and I sat down on my cot and got ready for bed. Once we were both ready, I pulled the curtain shut by my cot and fell into a fitful sleep.