The Mouse and The Wolf - Chapter 45: Chapter 45

-Oliver-
I wasn't quite listening while Mrs. Bundt told her friends what was going on. She spoke hastily and skipped a lot of details, being careful with her words while we were listening. I... I tried my best to understand, but my headache was getting worse, if it was even possible, so I stopped trying.
Jaden stood between me and everyone else the entire time. I was stuck in the farmost corner of the living room staring at Arch who looked really sick. Jaden said he's a Diviner... Like I wasn't confused enough as it was... I suddenly wished I hadn't learned anything at all. I didn't want to know. It was too much. Way too much...
"Oliver?"
I looked up at Jaden, when he turned to face me. I waited for him to continue speaking, but it seemed like he wasn't going to. He looked slightly lost as well, and I hated the fact I couldn't feel what he was feeling anymore.
"I know this is a lot," he finally said, and placed his hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry you got dragged into this."
I didn't know what to say. I turned to look at the people around us. My kind. They were like me. I was like them, but still... I had always felt like I didn't belong anywhere, and now that feeling was much worse.
"You do belong," Jaden suddenly said quietly, and I looked back at him.
"You... Are you a mind reader?" I asked as a nervous joke.
"It's a werewolf thing," he said. "Remember? You're supposed to be my mate."
"So, you can still feel what I feel?" I asked.
"Yes, and I don't need an Echo for that," he said quietly. "You said it would be awesome if you had powers. What happened to that?"
"It's... surprisingly scary," I said slowly. "Is it too late to take back what I said?"
"A bit," he said with an apologetic smile. "But if it makes you feel any better, Spirit Walkers are respected creatures. You have thousand times more allies than you have enemies. Jack and whoever he's working with won't stand a chance. Besides, they'll have to get through us first."
"And this time we'll kick his ass," Tilly muttered.
"Why do you care?" I asked so quietly my voice was merely a whisper.
Jaden leaned closer to me. "Because for some reason, you were chosen to be with me, and I allowed it right there in the beginning. Right now, that's good enough reason for me."
I stared at him for a moment, before I suddenly felt the urge to hug him. His whole body stiffened when I wrapped my arms around his back, and rested my head against his chest. Why did I always feel much safer and stronger when he was next to me?
"Things will get better," he said and patted my back awkwardly. "Since we seem to be trapped in this house for today, we have plenty of time to talk."
I nodded, and pulled back to look up at him again. "Thank you. I think I'd have lost my mind without you guys..."
"Yeah, and who's fault is that...?" Jaden muttered, and glared at Mrs. Bundt, who was still talking with her friends.
"She did her best," I said quietly. "I don't blame her. There was no reason for her to give a damn about me – I was just a stranger to her, and still she did all that for me..." I looked at Mrs. Bundt as well. "It's not like she's my mom..."
All I really cared about was the fact that she cared about me. She had taken care of me for all these years, and I trusted her judgement. I couldn't remember much about being in the mental hospital, so I clearly wasn't in the right state of mind to learn about all this. Even now it was a struggle to let it all sink in without feeling panicky or wanting to escape from it all.
At that point I realized I was still hugging Jaden, so I stepped back and turned to look at Arch. Tilly was now sitting next to him, brushing his overly long mohawk slowly. He didn't look well at all.
"Is he going to be all right?" I asked, and Jaden let out a heavy sigh.
"It's really bad this time, so... I don't know..." he said.
"It doesn't look like a nice ability to have to be honest. I mean, how is that useful if he's too sick to fight or even get away from danger?" I asked.
"She said she hasn't met anyone who gets sick," Tilly muttered, using her sleeve to wipe off some of the sweat on Arch's face. "Maybe this isn't supposed to happen?"
"Yeah, that's what I've been thinking as well," Jaden said.
There was suddenly a knock on the door and we all turned to stare at it.
"It's us – let us in," I heard a woman's voice at the other side, and to my surprise, it was Jaden and Tilly who relaxed first.
"How did she know we're here?" Tilly spoke, while Mr. Bundt went to open the door.
"I sent a message to Alpha Rayleigh," Mrs. Bundt said, while a tall, short-haired woman stepped in, following Mr. Bundt towards us. She was wearing something that looked a lot like green leather armor that covered everything else except her head.
"When?" I asked. "I didn't see a phone?"
"Not that kind of message, dear," she said with a smile. "I asked a spirit to contact him."
"How is it possible," the tall woman said, stopping in front of Jaden, "that when there is someone in our pack getting involved with Walkers, it's you three."
"Huntress," Jaden bowed his head a little.
She turned her gray eyes towards Arch, and her already cold expression turned colder. "It's bad, isn't it?"
"Yes," Tilly said, and stood up as well, facing the woman. "Why are you here?"
"The alpha took his warriors and is heading to Thorns' land as we speak. He sent us to protect you," she said.
"Us?" Tilly repeated.
"My hunters," she said, and finally turned her eyes at me. "This is the boy?"
I shivered under her gaze, feeling smaller than ever before. I tried to stand straight and not look like a complete coward, but that woman was almost terrifying. But... there was something familiar in her aura.
"His name is Oliver," Tilly said. "Thorns were after him."
The woman stared at me for a moment, measuring me from head to toe, before she finally spoke, "You seem like you could use a big cup of hot chocolate. I'm Aurora."
Chocolate. She was Tilly's mother. That was why her aura was so familiar! She even looked a lot like her!
"They're going after Thorns?" Tilly asked her, and she nodded.
"I can't believe Thorns would stoop this low, but Thorn has never been a rational man," she sighed. "Inviting a Shadow Walker in our lands..."
"We will deal with him," Mrs. Bundt said. "Please – keep Oliver safe while we're gone. He's been through too much already."
"We will," Aurora said shortly. "Thank you for protecting our children," she added, bowing her head.
"I would never leave anyone in the hands of Shadow Walkers," Mrs. Bundt said. "Especially children."
Jaden coughed at that moment, and everyone turned to look at him – it was obvious he didn't actually have a cough.
"You let that shadow stay in Oliver," Jaden said before anyone could ask.
"I couldn't remove it on my own," Mrs. Bundt said with a sad voice. "All we could do was contain it while waiting for my friends to arrive."
"Sounds like an excuse," Jaden said, and I elbowed him on the side. "What?" he turned to look at me.
"I could have forced it out, but it would have torn Oliver's soul apart," Mrs. Bundt explained. "I wish I had been stronger... It was holding on way too tight."
'You don't seem to understand how fragile living souls are,' Annabelle spoke. 'You can't see how much damage the shadow caused to his spirit just by holding onto it. If we had removed it by force, his soul would now be broken into tiny pieces. The only thing we could do was destroy it, and even that left wounds that take a long time to heal.'
"How the hell did it even get inside Oliver? Don't act like you couldn't have prevented it from happening!" Jaden continued.
"There hasn't been a Shadow Walker in our lands in –" Mrs. Bundt tried to speak, but Jaden wouldn't let her continue.
"So you did nothing? You let it happen!"
"Jaden, stop," I said harshly, and he stepped back, looking at me in confusion. "You're being unfair. I'm fine. The shadow is gone, I survived, and instead of wasting our time blaming her for something she couldn't have foreseen, we should be doing something about the person who's actually responsible of all this."
Once I stopped talking, it was silent in the house for a couple of seconds, until Aurora moved.
"Smart kid," she nodded in approval and turned to look at Mrs. Bundt and the other Walkers. "Get going. Get rid of it. Me and my hunters will stay here, and we will make sure no one will lay a finger on the kids."
"Thank you," Mrs. Bundt said, and told her friends to get ready to leave, before she turned to look at us again. "We have called all the spirits in this town to protect you and this house. Not a single shadow can get past them."
"All the spirits?" I repeated.
"Look out the window," Mrs. Bundt smiled, and I walked to the nearest one.
I pulled the curtains away and stopped to stare at the sky. "You're... not kidding," I managed to breathe out when I saw hundreds of tiny blue balls flying around the house. "Is this... necessary?"
"I'm not taking any chances ever again," Mrs. Bundt said with a dark voice, and when I turned to look at her, she was already walking towards the door. "You can eat and use anything you want in the house. If I remember correctly, there's ingredients for hot chocolate as well," she spoke and turned to look at me. "Stay safe. All of you."
"You as well," Aurora said, and Mrs. Bundt nodded, gave me one last look, and stepped out of the house, leaving me alone with the werewolves.
I turned to look out of the window again, admiring the beauty of the blue lights in the sky, so it took me a moment to notice movement around the yard. Wolves. There was at least five of them, hiding under the bushes.
"We are safe here," Aurora spoke right behind me, making me jump. "Nothing can get past my hunters."
"I'm more worried about the others," I said truthfully.
"You mean our pack and the Spirit Walkers?" Aurora spoke. "We have dealt with Shadow Walkers before. They should be fine."
"You have?" I asked.
"It was almost two decades ago," she muttered, looking out of the window as well. "A small group of them tried to take this land, but we got rid of them."
"How?" I asked, and she let out a small chuckle, turning her back on me.
"Once you get them pinned in our realm, they're nothing but flesh and bone," she spoke. "And us werewolves are well equipped against flesh and bone."
One of the wolves outside was licking their lips, their sharp fangs glimmering under the blue light.
I shivered when I thought about what happened to those Shadow Walkers twenty years ago.