Chapter 20

Cobie was freaking out. 

He unconsciously takes a step backwards, almost hiding behind Erik. He gulped and tried not to fret.  Alpha Kaye's head was still on the table. His eyes and tongue were carved out, his lips parted like he had been beheaded mid-scream. 

"That's not all." Aetos says and before they could ask, he lifts up the hair covering Alpha Kaye's forehead. Cobie lets out a loud gasp and held onto Erik. Carved on the dead Alpha's forehead were the words.

Come out Come out.

"Oh my god." Cobie gasps, his eyes turning pure black, even the sclera. Erik looks away from the head on his table, he turns around and cups Cobie's face, a soft pang in his heart. He stares in shock at Cobie's eyes. He has seen them change into different colour, however, he hasn't seen Cobie's entire eyes turn. 

"Precious, I need you to calm down." 

"I...I am c-calm."

"And I'm Santa Claus." Erik retorts. "I need you to take deep breaths, like we practiced earlier." Erik says. He pulls Cobie closer and holds him tight. He softly rubs Cobie's back as he breath in through his mouth and out his nose. 

"You okay?"

Cobie nods. "I'm good." He says and pulls away from Erik. He moves past Erik to Alpha Kaye's head. He bends a little and examines the carving, the writing looked familiar. Cobie looks at his wrist. Despite the fact that it had healed, he could still see it. He looks away from his hand to Alpha Kaye's head.  It was definitely the same. He wouldn't, he couldn't forget it. 

It was the same.

Cobie wanted to scream. He wanted to grab tuffs of his hair and just...let go. He was tired, he just wanted one thing and that was Astir and everything in it. He had thought he had found his safe heaven but he had been wrong. They had found him. 

"Fuck this." Cobie snapped. He slammed his hand onto the table.

"Cobie..."

"He found me." Cobie says before he could stop himself. "He knows I'm in Astir." Cobie closes his eyes and bent his head a little as he sighed again. He had to leave. He has to pack up and jus-

"You're not going anywhere." Erik snapped, his voice breaking through Cobie's thoughts.  

"I will give you two a minute." Aetos says, finally speaking up from where he had been watching everything take place. Cobie turned around and stared at the Vampire. He watched the way the rays of sunlight gave Aetos a soft glow that made him look ethereal. The Vampire gives them a nod and was out of the room in the blink of an eye. Cobie's frown deepened when it finally clicks in his head. How in the name of everything holy was Aetos able to walk in the sun without turning into ashes? Regardless, he shouldn't care too much. He would be leaving Astir soon. He had to run, he had call them and tell them not to come anymore. Astir was no longer safe. 

"You are not going anywhere." Erik repeats. His voice strong and loud.

"Incase you haven't noticed! A member of your pack died! His head is sitting on your desk!" Cobie yells and gestured towards Erik's table. There was a small puddle of blood underneath. "He knows I'm here!" 

"You. Are. Not. Going. Anywhere."

"Erik i-"

"I swear to Serene, if you take one fucking step out of Astir, I will find you and I will make you regret it." Erik growled, his eyes turning red. Cobie doesn't back down, nor does he say another word. "We'll sort this out. I will sort this out." Erik says, he moved closer and placed both hands on Cobie's arms. "I will protect you with all my strength and fight for you till my last breath."

"Erik, I am tired." Cobie says, his voice cracked.

"Why don't you sit and I'll call for a meeting." Erik says as he led Cobie towards the couch. He helps Cobie seat and strokes his hair. "Alpha Kaye was the one who ratted you out. He was the one who let the Berserkers in during the guard shift at the border." 

Cobie who had been staring at the ceiling turned to look at Erik, his eyes turning from black to a bright red in anger. Erik takes his mate's hand in his.

"Karma got to him in the end." Cobie says as he pushed his free fingers through his hair. 

"I've called for Se Ju, Randall, Gabriel, Michel and the pack warriors." Erik says, his hand lightly squeezing Cobie's hand. "If you have any idea or any input, feel free to say anything during the meeting."

"We'll see."

"Good." Erik said, raising up their hands so he could press a kiss to it. 

"Would you go with me to the forest later on? I need to be with my guns for a while." Cobie asked, gnawing on his bottom lip afterwards.

"I'd love to."

Their conversation is cut short by a knock on the door. Erik doesn't look away from Cobie as he says come in. The door was pushed open and Gabriel, Se Ju and Aetos walk in. when Gabriel and Se Ju see the decapitated head on the table, their eyes widened. 

"What the fuck?" the shock evident in Gabriel's voice. Se Ju looked like he was about to keel over and throw up and Cobie could understand that. Erik doesn't leave his side and neither does Aetos who goes to stand on the other side of the couch. Pytor had come at night back then. Vampire shouldn't be walking under the sunlight, yet here was one who was soaking up the sunlight. He had been so lost in thought that he wasn't sure if Erik had replied to Gabriel's questioned. By the time he had snapped out of his thoughts, Randall and Michel were in the room along with ten other people. Five male Alphas, five female Alphas and ten Betas.  They were all staring at the head on Erik's table. 

"How the hell did we not smell this? How did we not feel his death?" one of the female Alphas asked and Cobie agrees with her questions.

"I know you all know Alpha Kaye was the one who let in the Berserkers, all of you know he had gone rogue. Immediately he stepped past our border, the link was cut off. He was no longer one of us." Erik spoke, his voice loud and strong.

"It doesn't smell because I had one of my friends cast something on it..." Aetos trails off, waving his hands in the general direction of Alpha Kaye's head. 

"It was part of the reason I had called for Pytor and Queen Freya." 

"My brother and I found out that a large amount of money had been sent to Alpha Kaye Edwards a few days before the attack on Astir." Aetos adds.

The room was silent as they listened to their Alpha and his friend talk. This was news to them. Erik had known this for a while and had been coming up with a solution with the elders. He didn't want to announce to the families of Astir that one of theirs had betrayed them.

"Why are we just hearing about this now?" Randall asked. 

The gender equality in Astir still startled Cobie somewhat. He knew a couple of Alphas who could slap Randall for speaking up without permission. Afterall he was an Omega. Erik doesn't even blink, he just answers the question head on. 

"I wanted to find everything out before coming to you all. I didn't want to disturb the peace in Astir, the peace we all built." Erik answered as honestly as he could. "I had simply thought he had gone rogue and never to be seen again."

"And yet..." one of the male Alpha warriors spoke up. 

Cobie sits up at that, he was ready to jump into any argument. Erik just squeezed his fingers and doesn't leave his side. 

"I spoke to the elders about it..."

"Those oldies?" someone sneers and Erik growled, his eyes flashing red. 

"Do I need to teach you respect?!" Erik snapped at the Alpha who visibly shrunk. "Those people you call oldies, were here before us. They had gone through a lot also and had a lot of good ideas to share." 

"What did they say we should do?" Aetos asked. He was leaning against the window pane, his hands shoved deep into his pocket. 

"They told me to get the Addonexus to bind Astir with his blood. To let the magic settle into our soil." 

Cobie couldn't believe his ears. He had heard of an Addonexus but he has never met one. He heard they aged three times slower than the average human and were. They were the master of shadows and elements and they could also control bones and blood. 

"There's an Addonexus here?" Cobie asked, the words flying out of his mouth before he could stop them.

"Yes. You actually know him too." 

Cobie frowned at that. He doubts it. If he had met an Addonexus he would know it, he thinks to himself. He only knew a handful of people in Astir and had met quite a few, so he couldn't exactly place who and he highly doubts it could be Gabriel or Randall.

"After that what? Our full moon is in a week, would Astir be safe during that?" Gabriel asked.

"Do you have any idea who killed him? Or carved those words?"

Erik doesn't look at Cobie, his eyes remained on his pack members. Cobie tried to breathe evenly, to keep his heart from giving them both away. He wasn't ready to tell people who was hunting for him. It might seem a bit selfish, but he just couldn't. Telling Erik had taken so much out of him that he doesn't think he could do it again. He needed a little time.

"It's whoever sent that money to Kaye." Erik replied, his breath even and his heart calm.

"How much was sent?" Another female Alpha asked. 

"A million."

The room falls silent at that. 

"Kaye had no family. Both parents died in a crash years ago and he was an only child. He only had a couple of friends among the pack because a lot of people didn't like his attitude." 

"I'll inform the rest of the pack this evening, after dinner." Erik says with a sigh.

"The security at the border needs to be tightened. Every outsider who comes into the city must be checked. All hotels, guest houses, B&B's and motels are to be checked too but not in a way that is obvious. We need to do this stealthily. I don't want Astirians to worry. Astir has always been a safe place and it's still a safe place. That is not going to change." 

"We'll increase the number of warriors stationed at the border. Once we've checked the visitors, we'll get back to you." Michel says and everyone nods in unison. Cobie notices the way everyone trusted Erik's words when he said Astir was safe. Like they knew, the Alpha would protect them.

Erik nods. "I will visit the elders tomorrow." He says. "Why don't you go home and I'll let you know if anything comes up." 

The warriors bow to Erik before walking out of the room, leaving Michel, Se Ju, Gabriel, Randall and Aetos in the room with Erik and Cobie. Cobie looks at the faces of everyone in the room. He knew five out of the six people gathered there. Gabriel was the first friend he had made in Astir, the first friend he had made in years. Randall had been the second, followed closely by the level-headed Beta, Michel, and the kind Han Se Ju. 

He looks away from them to the Alpha seated beside him. This man with the honey coloured hair and caramel brown eyes, this man who was sweet, caring and a lot cheesy. This man whose mood could flip in the blink of an eyes, this man who promised him protection, this man who felt like a safe place. This man who led thousands of wolves as their Alpha. As the Alpha of Alphas. This man who was his mate.

His heart picked up the pace as he stared at Erik. If he stayed, Erik was going to get hurt. If he stayed, all his friends were going to get hurt, if he stayed little Blue was going to get hurt.  Wouldn't it just be better if he left? Cobie thinks to himself, his gaze dropping from Erik to the ground. 

"You are not leaving."

"How do you even know if I was thinking about that?!" Cobie snapped. "You all are going to get hurt! Please let me go."

Erik shakes his head. "I don't care how many times I have to say it. I will keep saying it until it gets through to you. You are not leaving Astir. You are not leaving me. You are not leaving anyone behind. You said you were tired, you said you were afraid, you said you were tired of running. So don't run! Stay here. Tell me everything so we can find a way to stop whatever or whoever is coming. The only way to get over your fear is for you to face it." 

Cobie raises his gaze from the floor to Erik. "I nearly lost everything. I nearly lost everyone. I can't go through that again." 

"Not to interrupt." Se Ju says, his hands raised a bit as a sign of peace. "What is going on? What don't we know?"

"If there's something we should know, now is the right time to say it." Gabriel adds. 

Aetos doesn't say a word, Randall and Michel don't add and instead just nod their heads. Erik stared at them all before turning to Cobie. Cobie knew what Erik was silently asking and he shakes his head in response. Not yet. He had to think this through. 

"We'll inform you after we've." Erik says, raising his and Cobie's clasped hands. "talked about a couple of things." 

There was a tense moment of silence in the room before everyone nods. They leave one by one, even Aetos who murmured something about getting his dinner from his car. Once they were alone, Erik raised their hands and pressed a kiss to it. 

"Why don't you go and get your stuff and meet me in the garage? I'll take you to a place you can let loose." Erik said and Cobie nods. "We are going to talk."

"I know." 

"It doesn't have to be everything."

"I know." 

Erik pulled into the driveway of a small building. It was small, the walls were painted white and large windows with wooden shutters were on it. The front were lined with small pots of plants, each of them different colours. It reminded Cobie of his eyes. 

"Where are we?"

"Remember when I said I wanted to take you to my favourite place?"

"Yeah."

"This is it." Erik grinned. "Come on, I'll give you a tour." The Alpha said as he got down from the car. He grabs Cobie's duffle bag from the back of the car before joining him at the front. He leads the vet to the door, he pulls out the keys from his pocket with his free hand and unlocks the door. 

The inside looked so simple, yet so lovely. The walls were a soft cream colour, there was a huge glass table at the centre with a large glass vase with a bouquet of chrysanthemums in it. The entire building was just an open floor plan, designed like a sitting room. Different coloured couches were spaced out around the room, there was a large fridge by the north and a rocking chair to the south. 

"My mum used to bring me here as a child. She'd bring me here whenever my father got frustrated when I failed to shift. She'd come with one of her books and read it to me." Erik said, his voice soft and low. Cobie doesn't know what to say, this was the first time the Alpha was saying something about his family. 

"She'd sit down on the chair and just read."

"Why did you bring me here?" 

"As a child, this was the safest place to me. I could come here and just...be. I could talk and talk and talk and sometimes I'd just play around in the backyard." Erik said. He takes Cobie's hand in his and led him towards a wooden door, painted to blend with the wall. Erik leads Cobie out of the building and into the backyard. It was small, the grass was cut low and the tall trees stood in the background like tall shadows. It felt like Cobie had stepped into another world.

"You can let your bullets run free here." Erik says as he gently places Cobie's duffle bag on the grass. 

"You want to share this place with me?"

"I'm ready to share a lot of things with you." Erik replied honestly. 

Cobie doesn't know what to say, he stared at Erik and tried to come up with anything to say but there was nothing. He kneels down beside his duffle and unzips it. He pulls out two black Glock 17. He checks to see if they were loaded, he pulls out the silver bullets and replaced them with rubber bullets. He had a feeling he was going to need all the silver bullets he had. 

"How did you learn to shoot?" Erik asked as he watched Cobie.

"I took classes while I was in Germany ten years ago." Cobie replied, partially shocked at how easy it was to answer that question. "I wanted to learn how to protect myself." 

"That means you were fifteen."

"Yeah, I began running when I was fifteen." Cobie says. He stands up, the guns in his hands. "It wasn't scary. It was the first time I felt free. The only thing that scared me was being caught and taken back." Cobie adds, he stared at one of the trees in the distance and pulls the trigger. 

"You must have felt so lonely." 

"I didn't. I was just by myself. I hadn't had any interactions with anyone for a year before that, so I was used to being by myself. The only thing I had to hide were my eyes."

Erik walked closer to Cobie. "You don't have to run anymore. You don't have to hide those gems anymore." Erik says. He used his finger to gently turn Cobie's face to his. "We'll fight together."

"What if you get hurt?"

"I'll heal."

"Kaye didn't heal."

"Yeah but he didn't have you by his side, did he?" Erik asked. "We are mates. We are stronger together than apart."

Cobie stared at Erik. The Alpha was being honest. In his weeks in Astir, Cobie has never seen anyone like Erik. In his years of running, he has never met an Alpha like Erik. They were mates, he could feel it in his heart. It felt like he was pulled into Erik's glow, like the longer he stays by his side, he would shine just as bright as the Alpha. In his many years of running, Cobie has never found a place that felt safe, a place that felt like home. 

But after spending weeks in Astir, it felt like he has found the answers he hadn't known he had been looking for. He had found a place where it was always perfect and blue, a place where a man who says he'll protect him also calls home. Is this what it feels like when you're falling for someone? Cobie silently thought as he stared at Erik. The Alpha was waiting for his reply after laying everything on the table.

"I'll stay."

Erik grinned and pressed his lips to Cobie's for a few seconds before pulling back. 

"Tomorrow, we'll go and see the elders."

"Is that even allowed? They don't know me."

"I don't care. You are my mate, I'm not doing this without you." Erik says.

"Okay."

"Can you teach me how to use these? I've always wanted to learn." Erik asked as he pulls one of the Glock from Cobie's hand. Cobie stared at the Alpha with a raised brow. Erik just nods happily and raised the gun. 

"Okay. You just need to know five things." Cobie said, raising up five fingers. "One, all guns are always loaded. Two, never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy." Cobie said pointing at the muzzle of the gun so Erik would know what exactly the muzzle was. "Three, keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target." Cobie said, pointing at the tree in front of them. Erik listened intently and nods. 

"Four, be sure of your target and what is beyond it." Cobie says. "Lastly, always shoot with your dominant hand." he adds. He watched as Erik moved the gun from his left hand to his right and nods. 

"But you use two hands."

Cobie shakes his head at Erik. "That's because I've had years of... let's call it practice." Cobie said. "Okay. Eyes on the target and pull the trigger when you're sure you've got your eyes on the target. Do not jump or move before you shoot or you'll miss your target." 

That night, everywhere was tense and a heavy silence fell over Astir. The wolves had gathered in the back, all of them in their human form. They all listened silently as Erik had told them about Kaye's death, leaving out the part where the Alpha had betrayed them for money and the fact that the Alpha had been decapitated. Though many didn't like him, he was still a part of the pack. There was a long period of silence before Erik tells his pack, Alpha Kaye was with the Moon Goddess and their ancestors. Cobie was standing at Erik's right with Michel on the left. Everyone saw this, the moonlight gave the three a soft glow as they stood.

"He will be missed." Erik adds and gives a small bow. 

The pack members follow suit as they paid homeage to a friend, an acquaintance, a neighbour and a member of the pack.  

May his soul rest in peace.