Fire And Ice

Chapter 68 - The Palace

Natalia's P. O. V

My chest heaved as I looked around at the crowd, the sound of my own heartbeat rushing in my ears muffling their cheers.

Marjorie announced me as the winner then promptly released my hand, shooting me a curious look as she glanced at her red palm.

With the adrenaline from the fight, my skin must have heated up. I shot her an apologetic look as I tried to calm myself down. I was just grateful that I hadn't set anything or anyone on fire.

Before I knew it, Kaesha and I were sitting at a table, attending to the small queue of Werewolves wanting to join our pack.

"We need to do something about your wounds." Kaesha insisted, for the fifth time after I'd explained what our pack was going to be doing to the seventh person.

"I'm fine." I groaned, "I heal quickly. Besides, it's good for them to see me in this state, to know that I'll get bloody and dirty if I need to."

She sighed, then put on a smile to attend to the next person in line.

By the end of the day, we'd gotten nine upfront signups, seven people who vowed to join once the new members were fully settled and gave their feedback after a month, and thirteen willing to seriously consider joining by the end of the year. Daniel and Daniella had been among the thirteen, stating that they'd enjoyed the fight and would like to serve under a 'scrappy Alpha' like me, in their words. Eyepatch had joined upfront, which surprised me for some reason.

I noticed that a girl with light brown skin, thick curly hair and a determined expression had marched over to the table, after having what had seemed like a heated discussion with Timothy in the distance, expressing her very poignant desire to join after a month.

One glance at Hailey, who'd tried her best to look aloof and like she wasn't watching, told me that our new pack may be in for some drama somewhere down the line.

"This is Timothy, a founding member of our pack." I told the group of twenty-nine that had expressed interest, "For those of you joining immediately, I'll organise to have a shuttle bus drive you to our pack in three days. That should be enough time to get your things together and say your goodbyes. I'll let Timothy describe the meetup point. As for those that want to join after a month, I'll let you all come to a decision on the date you want to be picked up. You can contact either Kaesha, Timothy, or myself with the date. If any of you can accompany those joining now to the meeting point, it'll be better, so you can guide the rest when a month passes."

Two people volunteered, one of them being the girl from earlier, so I continued, "And for the last category, those that'll join as time goes on. If you'd like for a bus to be sent for you too, you'll need to be six joining at a time. Otherwise, the location can be given to you and you'll unfortunately have to make your way there on your own." I smiled, "With all that being said, welcome to the Vengar Sanguine Pack."

By the time Timothy had finished describing their meetup location in great detail and we'd fully introduced ourselves to everyone, night had fallen, so we spent the night in the Sanctuary.

I finally allowed Kaesha to take a look at my injuries, and while she didn't heal them fully, she did get them to the point where they didn't sting. After that, we freshened up and were knocked out for the night, each of us exhausted in our own ways.

When the next morning came, we were up bright and early, and after we'd said our goodbyes, we set out. The journey back both dragged on and flew by, and by the time we were crossing the threshold of the house, none of us were particularly chatty. We each shuffled to do our own things, Hailey passing out on the couch, Timothy dropping into his bed without bothering to close his bedroom door, Kaesha going off to, in her words, "soak away the journey" in a bath that I eventually had to wake her from and me sinking to the ground in my own room after organizing the bus over the phone. I fell asleep like that, with my head lolled to the side and my phone in my hand, sitting on the floor.