A human?

      "Wait for me, I'll be back in a second." The man leans in and pecks Seha's cheek, before flinging Celeste a look and disappearing into the thick, giant trees.

     "A human?" Seha asks when there's no trace of the other man, catching Celeste off guard. A human? Is she supposed to bob her head at this too like she did all this time and fall upon her head like a hurricane? 

     "Ah… I—" Celeste's wavering voice was cut off by Seha's soft sigh. His brown eyes suddenly have a warmness in them that Celeste failed to notice before. 

     "I don't hate humans like any other wolves but he definitely had a slight grudge against those." He said, rubbing a hand down his face. 

      "Why do you not hate them?" Celeste watched as Seha open his mouth to warp it around the words that are ready to slip out of his mouth. Celeste's anticipation picked up as he looked at Seha without blinking her eyes. Because who else doesn't hate humans? Celeste hated them, they had crawled into their land and broken a hell of hardship for them. Until that day she had a weird habit of scrunching her face in disgust whenever she hear someone utter the word human. 

      And she doesn't want to be known as a human. So she seals her mouth and stays mute. 

     "Ready to go?" The man, out of nowhere steps out of the wood with a white rabbit dangling down from his right hand which held the lifeless animal by its ears. The whiteness of its fur tainted scarlet around the neck from the blood dripping down the teeth mark. 

       "Yeah," Seha nodded, eyes traveling from Celeste up to his lover. Maybe mate? Werewolves have mates right? She had a faint memory of hearing about those enchanting tales.  

    They took two strides and now stand beside Celeste. The man jutted his arm out and motioned Celeste to walk with them. She heaves a sigh as she squinted her eyes close, nodding to herself. She got this. 

    They travel through the woods, efficiently avoiding the overgrown branches sticking out in their way like a sharp knife that can slice through their skin. Seha and his supposed mate walks and moves with ease which Celeste fails to obtain. Wincing every time her robe was scraped by a dead tree branch. 

     The more they walk, Celeste feels the more they get deep into the forest. She has been feeling this dread in the pit of her stomach and churning it that they're going to kill her without anyone knowing. 

     But then she has to fight. She will fight. She's a pure-blood vampire for nothing. 

     As she wills herself to face everything fate is going to throw her way. The thick, giant woods came into an opening. A sigh that Celete didn't know was trapped inside her slithers out of her mouth, relief flowing over her stiff body like cold water on a hot summer day. 

   They step down the pebbled path, holding on to the small plants and sticks to not slip and fall on their faces. 

     With the final foot being set on the pebble ground, they are fully out of the woods, out of the intimidating forest, much to Celeste's solace. 

     "We walk through the lane," Seha says, leading the way with his partner trailing behind Celeste like she was a prisoner being taken to the dungeon.  

     "We should better shift, then it won't take too long to get to the village." The man, Seha's alpha said. A cocky smirk, tugs at the corner of his lips as he looks at Celeste knowingly. 

     Now she wants to smack that shitty smirk away from his face. 

     Celeste watched as Seha rolled his eyes and smacked the man's shoulder. "Don't be ridiculous, Ayz." 

      "So you do know that she can't shift, that she isn't one among us." Ayz, the man who had been a mystery to Celeste said. Looking intensely at his mate. 

        Seha looks at him incredulously, rolling his eyes again as he looks away. "We walk to the village." 

      Ayz opened his mouth to protest, but it fell close as if the finality in Seha's voice itself made it shut. 

    Celeste's eyes travel around her surroundings as she walks with the two wolves, lingering on the fruitful trees and the greenness that carpeted the other side of the pebble path. Fascinating. It feels like another world. 

     In Atelah, she has seen sand more than grass. Grass and greenness have always been hard to see when Atelah is basking in golden. The sun was always at its peak and made the sand look like golden powder scattered across the ground. 

     "For the one who said was living here, you look utterly like an outsider visiting here for the first time in your life." Ayz mocks. But Celeste could not place the venom in his voice; it was just curious and playful. 

      Celeste blinked her eyes once then twice before closing her open mouth, realizing she had been looking around with her mouth agape. Her pale cheeks flushed with the blush creeping up her neck. 

      "Can you keep that mouth of yours shut until we get to the village, Ayz?" 

       Ayz heaves a sigh, "Fine."