Time passed since his transformation; Thomas was still planted in place. Too distracted to let everything sink in. Never did he know that there were races outside fighting, fighting for the sake of loyalty and comradery, for peace they badly need.
He was shaken from the stinging frequency in his ears by the rapid rumblings in the southwest side of the house, beyond the lurking forest. "What did just happen?" He asked himself. Since the day this unusuality keeps on happening, Thomas has strongly struggled. The foreboding comes to its limits. He had changed, that's a fact; not into someone but into something, something never in his entire life would come.
There was another rumbling that broke Thomas in his whirlpool of thoughts. He heard cries, agonies and roaring of fighting back. He didn't waste any time and stormed out of the house, and there he saw the same of his kind, fighting against those dead, bloodsuckers. He roared loudly and fought the nearest one he could find.
"Clarice," Thomas called through a mind link, trying to contact. "Clarice," he called again and still had no response. "Clarice!" Thomas exclaimed with such authority, still concentrating on the ruthless fight. "Where the hell are you? Where's my mom?"
"Thomas," Clarice answered while sobbing. "I'm at your school's library… hiding. They got us… while escaping. I did what I could help, I was fighting back, but they're strong. Some of my race helped too, but they still…" Clarice explained.
"Are you alone?" Thomas said coldly, and ordered. "Go to the forest in front of the school's field. There's a secret hideout. Find the biggest tree with an enormous root, on its left side, there's a curtain-like foliage. Go pass through it, you'll find a meadow and on the very end across it, there's a cabin. Stay there and wait for me. But before that, get some clothes and money in my locker. Make sure no one's following you."
Thomas immediately concentrates back to fighting, cutting off Clarice. He tried his best to focus one after another.
"Enough!" a loud voice bombarded inside Thomas' mind, making him cringe, but didn't stop. "I said, enough!" Thomas heard it again.
"Listen to him, Thom," another voice said, making Thomas stop, letting go of the last blood sucker. "Who are you?" Thomas exclaimed.
"I am your wolf identity, you other half; every werewolf has one… And my name's Gilbert," it replied. "You have been claimed by an alpha. You must listen to him by your own will, or we must suffer."
Thomas growled, looking around, still absorbing what he had just known. "What do you mean?" He looked around again, surrounding him was a pack of werewolves. "Do they know who I am? If they are, why are they even doing here?"
The biggest one approached him and spoke through the mind link. "I am Octavian, the alpha," Octavian said with such authority. "A cousin of your father, Valentine; and this is the beta, Alexander," and continued. "You are one of us, the day you were born."
There was this anger rising from the inside pit of Thomas. There was a lot to take in, and it was dropped in just a day. He was still processing the events, the lies all his life, the changes, the information he thought was just a bedtime story her mother used to tell them.
"You will follow me whether you like it or not," Octavian spoke. "Your father entrusted you to me. You are my responsibility."
"No!" Thomas growled louder and bravely approached the alpha. "I belong to no one! I will not follow orders from anyone!" Thomas growled once again, much more authority than the alpha. "I belong to myself."
The whole pack was silently witnessing the two, waiting for the signal from the alpha. However, the beta slowly lost his control at how the rogue behaved as he was silently observing. The rogue addressing the alpha without respect, without thinking how they sacrificed to help, and being indecisively reckless. It got no sense of value. He was mad, and at the same time, he was stunned. He never met a rogue this strong, who growled with much authority, and whose body language who speaks more than any alpha he had met before. This rogues' one of a different kind, but he's sure that they're in one race; he's sure that it looks the same as they are, but he could sense there's much more, much more that even his wolf almost listened to its order. "Can you just be grateful we helped?" he growled, controlling his anger not to burst, and stepping out from the side.
"Who are you to order me?" Thomas' attention diverted to the beta, he stood up straightly.
"Do you have conscience?" The beta started, and continued when he noticed Thomas didn't answer. "Do you know how much of the pack got hurt? Do you know the reason why we're here, staying by your side, fighting? Do you know how many casualties your family brought to the world? You don't know because your family is so selfish and you are so in denial of what's in front of you. Just accept it!"
"That's enough, Maxwell!" The alpha growled, breaking through the tension. "I am willing to help you, Thomas." He looked intensely into Thomas's eyes; with all sincerity he could get. "As long as you're willing to get help, I'll be here. Personally, I am a family. You lived once in Aragon, in our house. Hope you'll find it in your memories."
Through the mind-link, Octavian ordered his pack to withdraw, and continued to speak to Thomas. "If you want to clear things, find us at 'The Láng Qún, a Chinatown in Santa Monica," and sprint to follow his pack.
Thomas was left alone in the cold, wet forest. He growled in frustration, unable to fix things that were once scattered through time. He didn't know who to trust anymore because even his parents had secrets, they had hidden all his life. He looked at his hands and feet and saw the evidence of one of the changes, he despised. He became an enormous monster, a monster he didn't trust to befriend.
* * *
"It's all my fault," Clarice continued sobbing. "I don't know if I can face him. Mom… I failed. They're dead, and it's all my fault."
It was past one a.m. when she arrived at the secret cabin Thomas had told her. Clarice was talking to her parents through the grimoire, sitting by the bed. She needed to let her parents update about her important responsibility, and also, she needed to lessen the baggage on her shoulders or she would explode any minute if she let it. She already told them everything.
"It's never your fault, Clar," Clarice's mother said. "You've done everything to help them. Maybe it's their fate." She heaved a sigh. "You've done enough. You helped Dena not be exposed to any Lilium, helped Thomas figure his true self, and you even helped in preventing this day into a lesser disaster than what you saw in the visions. You sacrificed a lot, just to change this day."
"But mom is it enough?" Clarice said, still sobbing. "Thomas hates me, he thought I did nothing to save aunt Lucy. What's worse is, I tried to regain his memories back, but I couldn't, like there's something preventing me. The Thomas I knew today is different from the Thomas I knew back at Aragon fourteen years had passed, from the Thomas I was chasing for the past five years living a normal life, different from the cousin I once knew."
* * *
Dawn is slowly leaving the sky when Thomas finally composes himself and runs to the secret cabin. He ran fast as he could, distancing himself away from areas where ordinary people could see him and hunt him down, as the runes' abilities lasted. He ran before the lurking forest of the little town he thought life was perfect, air's brushing his furs, the satisfying adrenaline rush within as he ran smoothly, and the feeling of floating while running like his feet had its own mind to sprint.
Thomas stopped when he arrived by the landmark, the enormous tree. Being skeptical, he looked around for someone who might follow him, looked for something suspicious. He carefully maneuvered around the area for several rounds in content that there's no one following him.
Satisfied, he entered the secret meadow after the curtains of foliage. There was this thin ribbon of trail across in the meadow in which he gratefully followed, or he wouldn't dare to risk wandering on his own out of the trail as he was afraid to ruin the beauty of the meadow in his state. The trail slowly got deeper and deeper as time passed by. He would go to the cabin every time he needed some space on his own, especially in those previous days experiencing odd in his body.
Thomas followed the trail as his anger slowly dropped as well as the temperature dropping as he got closer to the cabin. This made him wary and vigilant. He had known this place's range of temperature and it never dropped this low. He moved closer to the cabin, and his anger rose once again as he heard voices but he got hold of it. With the small amount of trust in Clarice that she was alone, he composed himself, and trying not to make noises he remained still by the porch, listening to the girl sobbing.
Thomas heard everything, he felt bad with the thought of accusing Clarice in his thoughts, but little did he know Clarice did all her might just to save him. Everything came too slowly to make sense. Everyone who had helped him is family.
The sun already rises, but Thomas stayed longer in his place waiting for Clarice to fall asleep. He couldn't face her at the moment. He felt sorry and terrible for the horrible things he had done.
When Thomas was sure that Clarice was sound asleep, he transformed back to his human form and entered inside, naked. There at the foyer, he saw the clothes he asked for, a pair of shoes by the rectangular floor mat as well as his stele and wand beside his clothes. A smile formed in his face, grateful. He immediately gathered all his stuff and changed.
The cabin felt occupied for the first time Thomas had found this place. He looked around - all the white cloths at the living area were being removed; the kitchen was stuffed with foods he didn't ask; by the dining area, there was a set of meals being prepared, waiting for him in which Thomas gladly ate. He walked towards the bedroom Clarice occupied, after devouring what she prepared, and sat beside her figure.
Clarice was sound asleep, the tiredness evident in her face, eyebrows quirked up. Thomas couldn't stop his affection towards the girl like something is pulling towards her, he stroked some strands of hair covering Clarice's face and kissed her forehead.
"Thank you."