The Last Spirit Wolf (Elena Norwood)

-Vera-

I sidestep Lucas, putting myself in the middle of him and the figure. I don't detect any hostility from it, so I take a couple of steps closer.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, my name is Vera, this is Lucas. We'll be leaving now, sorry for bothering you."

I turn around to leave, but before I can take a step the figure speaks,

"Ah," he sniffs the air, "a wolf?"

That stops me in my tracks. Now that I'm looking at him from up closer, I can tell that he's a man and, by the hue of his eyes, it is clear that he is blind.

He extends a hand and I cautiously approach to take it. I can feel Lucas behind me, tensing at the contact.

When my hand is in his, he quickly uses his other hand to flip it, revealing my palm. With his free hand, he uses his index figure to roam around my palm. My breathe catches due to the surprise, and for some reason it's hard to let it go. I'm a lot more anxious about this than I thought. We just got over the trial yesterday, I wouldn't want to do anything to jeopardize Noah and the others.

...

"And mated to a lycan," the old man says in surprise as he continues to scrutinize my palm, very interesting."Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.

He keeps looking at my palm though I'm certain he can't actually see it.

"Tell me, child, why have you not yet been marked by your mate?"

I don't answer him. I'm too stunned making sense of this old man to think of a reply. Lucas steps in and yanks my hand away from his,

"Well, we better get going now, her *mate* is waiting for her."

It's a decent excuse, but the old man sees right through it.

"Nonsense. This one came looking for answers, so I suggest you let her look for them. You are welcome into this library any time you want, wolf."

With that, the figure turns away, disappearing into a dark corner of the massive library.

I turn to Lucas.

"Thank you for the tour Lucas, I did come here looking to find... something... I don't know what yet, but this feels like the place to start."

He hesitates, looking at the dark corner where the old man disappeared. He turns to whisper to me,

"I have no idea who that was, but judging from the very old Council robe, I think that's the council member that has been missing for all these years; Council Member Elden."

He's visibly shaken by the encounter.

"Missing? But he's clearly here, you saw him too, didn't you?"

"That's exactly why I'm unsettled. V."

I understand where he's coming from, but this library is the only place in this entire castle where I can be alone without a chaperone.

"Lucas, It's fine, really. You think I can't take him if it came down to it? Besides, Noah's room isn't that far away, and I don't pass any areas where I'll encounter other lycans. I'll be fine, I promise."

He doesn't seem convince, but thankfully the reminder that I can in act take care of myself seems to ease him up a bit.

"Ok. I'll still be back for you in a couple of hours, or Noah will have my head. Scream if you need anything."

"Noted." I smiled at his protectiveness. He really is treating me like a sister.

Before turning towards the door, Lucas turns his face once again to the dark corner where Council Member Elden disappeared, visibly shivering.

"Old guy gives me the creeps," he mumbles to himself, and finally leaves.

After Lucas is gone, I take my time to walk through the rows and rows of books. Some of them are so far up that I can't even make out their names. I'm going to have to get a ladder if I intend on reaching any of them.

Some books here are merely track records of the territory's finances, economic records, census, etc. Others are about lycan history, and many others are, unsurprisingly, about war tactics. So far, I have no found anything about wolves or magic, which is what I'm genuinely interested in.

It was clear to me that the Pack House was very limited in this regard, except for Sofia's family records which she is no doubt sifting through right now. I thought maybe, just maybe, I'd get lucky here.

Hours pass and I have looked at all the books that I can reach, most of them boring me out of my mind. I already knew finding answers wasn't going to be easy, but I never imagined it would be a dead-end right from the beginning.

I close the last book I brought with me to one of the tables in the middle of the library, drawing a small cloud of dust from it, making me cough.

I'm at my wits' end.

All of these books seem to only hold very outdated accounting or administrative archives. Why even keep accounting records from two centuries ago? I'm surprised most of these books haven't succumbed to mold at this point with how neglected they have been. I let out a loud breathe, more like a sigh, when I hear someone behind me.

My skin begins to crawl. I am not here alone.