Within The Bonds

Bonus Chapter 2

"He's not wrong though, a werewolf cake...really?" Liam looks at me with a look that is a mixture of disbelief and wonder.

"You can never go wrong with werewolves," I shrug and return my gaze to my phone.

"What's with you and your phone all of a sudden?" Liam asks, but I don't bother answering knowing that one of the other two will do it for me.

"She is counting down the time until her birthday," Noah tells him while passing Jack the fake webs and bats to he hung above the frames.

"But aren't you supposed to be in a meeting to debrief with dad and Xavier in about..." He looks down to examine his watch. "Now?" He adds quickly causing my eyes to at once.

Spring to my feet, I scurry out of the room paying no mind to Jack's remarks that earn him another smack from Noah and rush towards Xavier's study in anxiety-fueled strides.

I take in a deep breath before I enter knowing what awaits me on the other side of this door and metal preparing myself for it.

Exhaling softly I push open the door only to have my heart skip a beat. "Glad you could join us Astoria," Xavier says, visibly displeased by my late arrival.

"Sorry about that, time just flew by," I acknowledge with a sleepy smile. "Did I miss anything?" I add while trying my best to stop my cheeks from turning an even darker shade of crimson.

"I was just filling in the Genovese's on whatever you've already told us about...the incident," Xavier says beckoning me to the chair beside Sandro which causes me excitement and worries me at the same time.

'Does he know about us?'

'Did Sandro tell him?...No he wouldn't do that without discussing it with me first'

As paranoia courses my veins, I don't let it show on the outside and put up a neutral front.

"Hey," I whisper so softly that I myself could hear it.

"Hi," he replies accompanied by one of his infamous charming smilies that have the potential to uplift my day without fail.

'Don't you dare start blushing now Tori...don't just don't' I keep changing in my head as a remainder finding it extremely hard to keep up my façade.

"I was so relieved to hear you came out of that fine and even happier to see you well for myself now."

His mum says giving me a much-needed distraction from the slowly building up volcano of hormones that keep reminding me of how deep Sandor's eyes are or how incredibly well does the ink of his tattoos reflects against his skin tone.

'Dammit! I'm doing it again!'

Pulling myself out of my thoughts again, I offer Mrs.Genovese a small smile unsure of the response I'm supposed to give her.

'What do you say to something like that? Perhaps "thank you"?'

"Moving on, I need the two of you to take a moment to think and give us a complete detailed sequence of events that took place since Astoria left the hospital," Xavier says pulling me out of an awkward pause.

Alessandro and I exchange a look, while I stress over the number of details I need to exclude simultaneously trying not to blush when reminiscing them.

With one small breath, I being explaining everything, starting from the time I regained consciousness in that shitty cold cell in great detail.

Alessandro joins in soon after while the rest just sit there and listening, chiming in with any questions of clarification wherever they see fit.