Feral Lust (Feral Souls Series - I) (18+) [Currently Editing]

eight.

Elliot's brain was buzzing with a series of events that had taken place. He could not fully comprehend what he had seen or heard. He wanted to think of it as a hallucination, but that would mean he was losing his sanity. He knew that could hardly be the case in this world as anything was possible here. As a human, he would have ignored the incidents or maybe even gotten help but given the recent circumstances, he couldn't.

Elliot had decided to wake up earlier than usual, to be received by Elder Zachariah and still make it to his training in time.

At that moment, he was walking towards the Elder's place through the village when he saw some of his fellow patrolling werewolves coming back to their homes; to their mates after shifting.

A surge of jealousy passed through him but he didn't let it overcome him. Finding a mate was nowhere in his priority list at the moment. All he wanted was to be able to shift without turning feral and talk to Elders about the familiar stranger.

"Elder Zachariah," he knocked on the door and went inside once he heard the Elder permitting him to come in.

"Elliot, I was going to summon you. What brings you here?" He asked in his authoritative voice which held a bit of concern in it.

After Elliot had recounted about his encounter with the blurred man, the Elder did not reply immediately. If it wasn't for his blinking eyes, Elliot would have thought that the Elder was sleeping with his eyes open, the way he used to when classes at high school got boring. The thought made him long for the simple life he had back then, for Lea.

After a long moment of mind-numbing silence, the Elder spoke up, "that person, you said sounded familiar to you, right?" To that, Elliot gave a swift nod.

"Were you able to recognize the said person by his scent? Or any minute detail that could lead us to him?" The Elder inquired as Elliot shook his head.
"That person had no scent and had the stealth of a leopard. Unfortunately, for some reason, my vision got blurred while he was around." He answered dubiously. He was desperate to come onto a conclusion, desperate for someone to tell him that he wasn't losing his hold on reality so the next few words that the Elder spoke were like a symphony to his ears.

"No Elliot, you are not going insane. While this matter has to be discussed with the others, I will personally recommend you to escalate your training. If any of what that stranger said is true, then you have to brace yourself for what's in the future for you." Elliot was listening intently, hanging on to each word that left the Elder's lips. But he couldn't grasp around the fact that why that stranger would talk about a certain 'her'. Was he talking about his mother? Or was it about someone else?

With such thoughts in mind, Elliot went back to the woods which looked scarier at that time of the day. But he didn't care. He was not going to dissipate any other second. He couldn't put the lives of his family or anyone in danger only because he was too big of a chicken to go through the pain of shifting. People trusted him, and he was going to live up to their expectations; to his father's expectations.

That day, Elliot gave his all and then some, while training. Beginning with shifting, Elliot went with the newest litter of pups to the big hall behind Elder Rian's house. Six trainees were presided over by Elder Cliamain. Out of the other five wolves, two were little cherub boys while the other three were girls.

To Elliot, it was embarrassing to train at something so basic that even the pups could perform smoothly whereas he failed at it, every day.

"You're pushing yourself too hard, Elliot," the Elder guided, "let it come to you naturally; try to let loose."

That was one of the biggest concerns for him; letting loose. How could he when so much was riding on him? The expectations of his family, the part he was to play to avenge his girl, how could he even think about letting loose at harrowing times like these?