Marcellus internally battled his wolf who wanted to rise to the surface and show Justas Constantine that he knew exactly what fucking time it was, even going as far as to squeeze his eyes shut as he breathed heavily, his hands fisting and unfisting as he attempted to reign both himself and his wolf in.
After a few moments of pin drop silence, Marcellus opened his eyes and stared back at both wolves who now stood in front of him, dressed in their respective pyjamas with their heads bowed in submission, afraid of angering their Alpha anymore than they had already done.
While neither him or his wolf appreciated the less than respectful greeting that he had just received, the rational part of him understood that Justas meant no harm and in his sleepy state, hadn’t realised that it was him behind the door.
“Justas, Raphael, I apologise for waking you up this late but can I come in?” He forced the words out of his mouth, his wolf demanding an apology instead of giving one but Marcellus ignored him.
The sooner they moved past this, the sooner he would be able to get some answers.
“Alpha?” Raphael sounded from within the room as Justas opened the door wider and allowed him in, speechless with wide, fearful eyes after having screamed at the Alpha.
“I’m so sorry, Alpha!” The apology rolled off his tongue at rapid speed as Justas bowed his head and bared the side of his neck in submission. “I didn’t mean to raise my voice at you as I didn’t realise it was you behind the door. I’ll accept whatever punishment you see fit.”
Marcellus pursed his lips and watched them both carefully, happy with their respectful acknowledge and the sign of submission, that being enough to satisfy his wolf for now as there were more pressing matters at hand.
“There’s no need for a punishment.” He murmured quietly, and nodded to indicate that neither of them needed to bare their neck to him anymore.
Justas gulped and as they both looked up at him, he inched closer toward his mate, taking a subtle step in front of Raphael in a need to protect.
Marcellus respected that. He would have done the same if he and his mate were in the same situation. But alas, that wouldn’t be possible until he actually discovered his mate.
“Thank you, Alpha.” He murmured quietly, gratefulness shining in his eyes.
“You smell weird again.” He stated simply as he continued glancing around the room, not really looking at them, almost as if suspecting for his mate to jump out from a cupboard or from under the bed.
The worst thing was that Marcellus himself knew just how crazy he both sounded and appeared.
Justas opened his mouth and then closed it again, at a momentary loss for words while Raphael just frowned in confusion from behind his mate.
“Alpha?” Raphael dared to sound in question, a wary look on his eyes, almost as if he expected the Alpha to lunge at him for merely questioning him.
With how strange he was acting; Marcellus didn’t blame him for thinking that way. If he didn’t have the mystery of his mate hanging over his head, he probably would have laughed at the serious, sort of constipated look on both of their faces but instead, he frowned harder and exhaled deeply.
“I went to the hospital today but couldn’t sense out that scent from yesterday.” Marcellus murmured quietly, purposely leaving out the part where he had been searching for his mate. “I thought perhaps the rogue had left the territory but I can smell it on you again.”
Justas frowned slightly and glanced at his mate from over his shoulder, silently mind linking.
“We were at the school today?” Raphael offered, though his statement came out as more of a question, almost as if he was asking the Alpha for confirmation.
“Which school?” He asked quietly as there were two high schools which pack wolves attended, one North of the pack and the other South, both in neutral territories which included wolves from other packs as well as humans.
“South.” Justas answered as he turned back to face the Alpha. “Could the rogue be a student there?”
Marcellus frowned before pursing his lips.
First our mate was at the hospital, and now she’s in high school?
That means that she’s either human or she’s from The Red Howler pack.
It also means that she isn’t older than eighteen.
Marcellus and his wolf weren’t quite sure with how they felt about that but for now, they needed to focus on finding her first.
“Possibly.” He hummed quietly, more so to his wolf than to the two wolves in front of him.
He wasn’t making any sense and he knew that, but Marcellus needed answers and he needed them yesterday. Unfortunately for Justas and Raphael, it appeared that they were the only ones that could provide him with them.
“Should we be worried about this rogue, Alpha?”
“No.”
Even more confused than he was before, Marcellus turned around without any explanation and headed out of their room.
Justas and Raphael held their breath as they watched their Alpha leave abruptly, even going as far as to scramble toward the doorframe and peer into the hallway to watch him go, wonder and confusion swirling around in their eyes, but he was already gone.