A lot of people would judge me, I thought. I would judge someone in my situation too. It's not everyday that you simply decide to enter a stranger's car and head off to God knows where. I would love to do things on my own and not have to rely on a guy I just met but the truth was that I was clueless. We had found the piece of clothing but Sawn had kept onto it and fighting wasn't an option to get it back for now so after careful consideration the only way was to follow him. He was an investigator of the council after all and they were reliable, he was sent here to investigate my family's case so he should want to solve it as much as I do.
So foolish of me or not being here I decided to trust my gut and go with the flow, he seemed nice and he didn't feel like a threat. That was enough for now.
His car was comfortable, surely an expensive brand but the trucks back home were more preferable. They felt familiar while the beige leather of the seat I was sitting was hard and foreign underneath my skin.
Sawn drove carefully, and soon we were on the highway, heading towards the council. I didn't want to go there, mostly because I believed that we were wasting our time but he had insisted that he needed to report to them before taking any kind of action. With a sigh I had agreed, hoping that they would help us find a witch. You see, witches are not very fond of werewolves. In the war of the magical creatures of what humans considered as imaginary the witches were more fond of the vampires while we dwelled better with the fae. Those were pacts made thousands of years ago and now, from the moment you were born the hate was rooted inside you, a mysterious magic.
Werewolves and vampires of course did not get along, not the slightest. We were kind of putting up with each other, while for the last five hundred years a truce has been made to maintain peace. Supernatural hunters were becoming more and more powerful nowadays and a war between the supernaturals themselves was not a good idea. Nobody wanted to get extinct after all.
"What are you thinking about?" Sawn asked me. Some time had passed already, maybe even an hour and I hadn't said a word, lost deep in my thoughts.
"The natural order." I answered and he frowned, his eyes stuck on the road.
"Excuse me?"
"Well you see, the truce, the enemies, how things work, mates, packs, everything." I explained and he nodded.
"I see. I used to think about that too but I stopped."
"Why did you stop?"
"The world is too complicated, too dark, too brutal and honestly it depresses me. Thinking of the hatred, the blood…the more you think about it the more hopeless you become. It starts to eat you from the inside."
"You sound like you talk from experience."
"Do you know how you get recruited to the council?" he asked me and for a second I thought that his question was irrelevant but I still shook my head pointing out my ignorance. "A huge trauma, a shock, a disaster, a ruined life. People in the council do not belong in packs, they are all alone. Omegas or people like…us, who have lost everything."
"Wait, you have lost your pack too?" I asked him, my eyes widening and for a second he turned to look at me.
"Yes, years ago. I have forgotten how long ago exactly. There was a conflict between my pack and another. We tried to solve it but they attacked us, killed all of us. They were bigger than us, we were basically simply living our lives like farmers. Nothing special but they wanted our territory." he explained.
"Werewolves turning on each other…" I whispered surprised by the thought. All of my life I had believed that we operated like one, even if we were divided in packs we still were one species, one heart. That's what my father always taught me, he preached of peace but did it ever exist?
"That's why I do not like to think of the world. All of the things you know, the things you so strongly believe could crumble right before your eyes. So things like packs, mates, rules like that, I do not like them, I don't believe in them."
"How can you not believe in mates, or packs? They are our whole system of existing. The mate bond is in our blood, a part of us."
"It is just another way to tie you down. To tell you how to live your life, how to think and how to be." He sounded like a rebel, disappointed in the world he was born in, against every ounce of our existence but to me his words didn't make sense.
"You are against all that but you work for the council, the organization that makes sure this order is kept. It does not make sense to me." I explained and he scoffed, a grin on his face as his palms tightened the steering wheel. My eyes were focused on him, awaiting his response.
"They took me in when I had nothing, they gave me a place to live, money and they never asked me to be a part of a pack. They only wanted me to solve their cases, I might not look like it but I am smarter than you think, even though having to state it takes a lot of the statements sincerity. At least I am able to help people in a way, the system will never fall but at least they freed me from it in exchange for my skills. They even released me from my mate bond."
"What? They can do that?!"
"Well they certainly can." he told me with a giggle. "I will choose who to love. One day or maybe never. It doesn't matter for now."
Sawn almost sounded as if he didn't like being a werewolf. I had never thought about it. Our kind, it wasn't like the books. We didn't turn on a full moon and eat people, yes we were stronger under the moonlight mostly because of our deities but we were not huge dogs. We had claws, fangs, canines, we were strong and had good hearing and smell but we could always control it. Werewolves are prone to feeling extreme emotions, the exact opposite of vampires who the rumor has it they did not feel a thing but we learned how to control ourselves. That's what we were, living in big families, love written in the stars, I have always found it quite beautiful but now that I was listening to Sawn I realized that nothing was perfect, even if we saw it as such.
"Why are you taking me to the council Sawn?" I asked him.
"I am gonna have you join us." he told me calmly.