Running with Wolves Ch. 20

Pushing her feelings down as best she could, Augustine swung her feet out of bed and changed from her pajamas to workout clothes. The entire process, even one so basic, drained her before she could even put on her shoes. She just sat on her bed, staring at the rainbow tennis shoes lying on the floor between her feet.

A knock on the door startled Augustine, setting her heart pounding as her wolf into an alert position. She stayed frozen until another set of bangs and a loud "Siiiiiis?!" reverberated through the door. Sighing, her heart was still thudding loudly in her ears as Augustine got up to let her baby brother into her room. "Hey, lil' pup. What's going on?"

Langdon, the youngest of the four brothers, smiled up at his sister. He was the sweetest and most gentle of her brothers, something she recognized as being an early Omega trait, but it was the thing that gave him a special place in his sister's heart. His bright strawberry blond hair was a mess on top of his head, and he laughed when she began to straighten it. "No! Sis, no! Mama says come out!" Langdon grabbed her brushing hand and tried to pull his sister out of her bedroom. She laughed at the antics, but it was only superficial. The joyous sound never reached her eyes.

"Hold on, hold on. I need to grab my shoes." Augustine watched as her brother eagerly volunteered to do the task for her and proudly marched into the living room with his haul. He then proceeded to help her put them on.

Langdon's task didn't go unnoticed by his three other brothers. "I wanna help!" Soon, four tiny hands were shoving and pulling Augustine's feet into her shoes. She did her best to guide them, getting them to agree to allowing the smaller litter mates to get them on her then the older pair could tie her laces. Working together they managed to get them on the wrong feet with two basic knots instead of bows, but they were proud nonetheless.

"Alright clan, time to wash up for dinner. You know the drill. Hup, hup, hup!" Aries shooed her little ones out of the room. Augustine began working on righting her shoes as her mother stirred the soup on the stove. "You haven't come out all day. I was worried you had forgotten about the training this evening."

Augustine sighed heavily. "I never forget my training days, mom, I don't see why today would be any different."

Aries shrugged. "Well with everything that happened I wouldn't have been surprised. Do you know when you will be back?"

"Probably not till early morning. We are running the drills in a night scenario. You know how Clay is, always preparing for the worst case."

"Hmm, yes I do." Turning off the stove, the pause between them extended. "You know, I haven't gotten the chance to tell you how proud I am of you for last night."

Augustine snorted. "Proud? What's there to be proud of? I did what I was told, and when I didn't I learned my lesson." Before her mother could respond, she was up and walking out the door. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Half way down the hall, guilt started to sink in. Augustine wasn't sure what had come over her. Just the mention of the Run and she had snapped at her mom for no reason. She was definitely on edge, something that would not bode well during her training.

Glancing at a clock on the wall, Augustine realized there was still almost 40 minutes before she was to meet with her year mates. That would give her just enough time to make a quick stop. The thought actually did something to lift her mood, and she ran so she could spend as much time as she could with Ben.

Jogging to the Alpha Wing was no easy task, but she was glad for the distraction of the run. She waved to Pearl, who stood guard as usual, who simply nodded back. It was odd for her not to great her friend more warmly, and she looked somewhat put out about something. Augustine made a mental to talk with her on her way back out.

Weaving through the hallway, Augustine's smile became genuine as she spotted her mate's door. It was closed, as usual, so she wasn't able to hear what was going on inside. She knocked lightly, not wanting to startle any of the humans or Dominic in his newly turned state. As the door opened, Augustine was assaulted by a rush of scents.

Ben was the first thing she noticed. He had opened the door for her, his thick build taking up much of the doorway. The cloud that had been chasing her through the Den finally lifted and she felt she was able to breathe without effort. His scent coated her nose briefly, blocking out any other scent. As she admired her mate's tight green T-shirt that matched his eyes, other scents began to filter in. Her brain quickly sorted them, identifying the ones she expected and flagging the ones she didn't.

Pulling her eyes off of Ben briefly, she could just make out the backs of Storm and Thunder's heads as they sat on either side of Samantha. It seemed there were more guests than her tonight.

"Hey. What are you doing here?" Ben's words were blunt, but his eyes were bright with emotion. The dark green took Augustine's breath away for a moment, making her have to force out her voice.

"I, um, was on my way for a training session and thought I would stop by. I'm not intruding, am I?"

For a moment, Ben didn't move, only stared. Augustine was worried she actually was intruding somehow and went to apologize, but whatever Ben had been thinking about finally passed and he moved out of the doorway so she could enter. She smiled big at him, and she heard him inhale sharply.

Walking into the circle of furniture, Augustine took note of those present. The twins had Samantha wedged tightly between them, Penny their focus as they offered her a toy. Across from them was Garrett, his cool grey eyes drooping as he dozed on the couch. Flint was close by, discussing some video on his laptop with Jarod. The scene was oddly balanced into a feeling of family and comfort, even though most of these individually hadn't known each other for barely a month. A sharp pang of jealously shot through her, but she was quick to snuff it out. Now was not the time to be brought down by such thoughts. Besides, once they noticed she was there, they all greeted her with a measure of warmth.

"Augustine, it's good to see you." Samantha handed her baby off the Storm so she could get up and embrace the newcomer. Augustine was surprised by the sudden affection, but not opposed to it. She responded fully to the contact. "How are you? You should be resting after last night." Samantha pulled back, giving the much taller blond a worried, motherly look. It made Augustine chuckle.

"Be careful, Sam. Your mommy is showing."

Having meant the comment to be humorous, she wasn't expecting Samantha to cringe back and scowl as if in pain. Behind her were two low growls from the twins. They were barely audible, meant as a warning for upsetting their mate. Augustine instantly backed off.

"Please don't call me that. I... lived with someone who used that nickname." Samantha seemed to have to physically shake off whatever had come over her, but as soon as she did it was all smiles. "Sorry, I guess that was some of my trauma showing."

Augustine, already nervous from Storm and Thunder's reactions, felt her heart sink with guilt. "I'm so sorry, Samantha, I had no idea. Please forgive me..."

Samantha reached out and grasped Augustine's hand, squeezing it tightly. "I'm fine, I promise. You had no way of knowing that would upset me and you didn't mean anything by it. Don't worry about it." She gave one last squeeze before turning back and reached out for her baby. "Well, I think it's about time we get you in for a bath, huh my Lucky Penny?"

Storm smiled as he lifted up his charge. Penny gurgled happily and her tiny covered feet kicked through the air as her mom took her. "Thank you both. Will we see you tomorrow?"

As their conversation carried on, Augustine began to slowly back away from the room. She felt incredibly guilty for hurting Samantha, and the reaction from the twins had put her on edge. All she wanted to do was curl up into a ball and disappear.

Her progress was halted by a wall of warmth she bumped into. Startled she looked behind her to come eye to eye with her mate. Seeing him instantly calmed her nerves. She sighed and leaned into him, drawing on his energy to sooth her soul.

Without warning the warmth was gone and Ben was taking a step back. Augustine's instant response was to assume she had taken a step too far and went to apologize, but before she could his big hand encompassed hers and he began to lead her into his room, away from the rest of the group. He quietly guided her inside and shut the door, eclipsing them in darkness.

"Ben?" The lights blinded Augustine as they flickered on. She stood blind for a moment, blinking until the spots cleared from her sight. When she could finally see again, her mate was standing directly in front of her, his dark green eyes brooding as they watched her.

"What's wrong?"

"Huh?" Augustine was still a little flustered, so she wasn't quick to grasp what he was talking about.

"What's wrong? Why are you here?" Ben asked once more. His agitated response did nothing for her nerves.

Augustine buckled in on herself. "Um, I, just wanted to come and see you is all. Do you not want me too?"

In an instant, Ben seemed to deflate and calm down. "Oh. No, it's not that. It's just... Dominic had some sort of episode and I figured you were out there watching him."

"Something happened to Dominic?" Now that he mentioned it, she hadn't seen the Alpha of their pack out in the sitting room. She also hadn't scented Misty anywhere.

Ben shrugged, but it was obvious he wasn't happy about whatever had happened. "Yeah, his wolf took over, or some shit, and he was fighting it. He was taken outside and we haven't seen him since."

"Oh. Well uh, I haven't been out of my room all day so I hadn't heard about it. Don't worry though: stuff like this is normal for wolves that have been turned. I'm sure he's fine."

"So they aren't going to put him down?" The fear and pain in Ben's voice had Augustine's wolf instantly on edge. How dare anyone put an idea like that in his head.

"No! Of course not, Ben. The pack would never do that. Putting a wolf down only happens if they have gone feral and right now that would be very unlikely for Dominic. His human mind is too strong and developed to be completely taken over by his wolf instincts for very long. I'm sure he will be fine." She tried to convey conviction in her words but it sounded weak to her. Even so, it seemed to settle Ben. He sighed, letting out a gust of air.

"Thank God."

The silence that followed was an awkward one. Neither spoke as the dead air between them grew thicker with each passing second.

"So, um." Ben attempted to bring the conversation back to life. "Why are you here, then? Just to see me?"

Augustine nodded. "Yeah. I was on my way to training and thought I could come and see you." Feeling as if she were being assumptive, Augustine attempted to back pedal. "Of course, if you don't want me to be coming by here for a while that's fine. I've caused a lot of problems for your pack over the past week, and with everything that happened with Lark I can understand why you might need some space. I'm sorry for intruding, I'll just go-"

As she made for the door his warm hand from before stopped her in her tracks. She was unable to force herself of to disengage from it; her body and wolf unwilling to part from the touch they so craved. She gave in easily, leaning into the touch.

"You don't have to go. I mean unless you want to, but if you want to stay you can. It's not like I have anything else to do."

Normally, Augustine would have had been able to interpret the underlying meaning beneath Ben's words; see the invitation, the true desires he wasn't able to say directly. But her nerves were shot. Listening to his back and forth, all she could hear was how he did not care one way or another. Unable to push back her sudden insecurity over the situation, Augustine fell on the side of self deprecation and assumed the worst. 'He must not really want to see me. He just doesn't want to be rude.' Oddly enough, her wolf agreed with her.

"I'm sorry. I actually really should be going. Clay doesn't tolerate tardiness and it's going to take me some time to get there." As much as she hated doing it, Augustine pulled out of Ben's grasp and darted out the bedroom door and through the sitting room. Behind her she could hear Samantha try and say goodbye.

As she made her way through the halls, Augustine's thoughts continued to spiral out of control. At first she believed Ben was just unappreciative of her uninvited visit, but soon it became much more than that. She even managed to convince herself that the problems she caused for her Destined were unforgivable to him. After all, she hijacked his room, attacked Jarod, caused all of the problems with Lark that they were dragged into; she had created quite a mess. All the progress that had been made between them was now overshadowed by her guilt and self-doubt.

By the time Augustine made it to the gathering spot for the training she was fighting back tears. She would have to prove to her Destined, to everyone, that she was worthy again. Even if she had to bleed and break to do it, she would prove she was worthy to be a member of the pack.