Nightfall

seven

   The  next morning at school, much to Aurelia's irritation, he walked around visibly upset just like he had been when Elara was avoiding him.

   "I thought I told you to quit your sulking."

   "She made her choice, Aurelia."

   "I'm not sure you should have let her make the choice before we started our research." Aurelia rolled her eyes when he didn't act like he cared. She grabbed Bennett's wrist and muttered a spell, "Mutationem motus."

   Instead of his mood changing, a zap collected in her hand until she let go. Aurelia looked at Benjamin confused.

   "That's never happened before." Benjamin squeaked.

   "This is more than you just being sad. It's the imprint."

   "I don't know. Something has been feeling off since we left her house that night."

   "Why?"

   The bell chimed, interrupting their conversation and the three of them parted ways until lunch. Bennett found it difficult to focus during class. Halfway through the day, a dull pain sharpened throughout his body.  He did his best to not show it, but it became more excruciating as the day went on.

   During lunch, he met up with everyone as usual. He stared at the doors, waiting to see Elara come through.

   "Bennett, are you okay? What's the matter with you?" Aurelia nudged him.

   "Nothing," he groaned, trying to stifle the pain. "Where's Elara?"

   "That's odd. She hardly misses school... right?" Benjamin inquired.

   "W... We've got to find out... about this imprint. This hurts so much."

   "We can pick through the records in the town's library."

   "It's a start." Bennett dug his claws into his palms, the pain never truly subsided. "I'll ask Ruthie and Elliot to check on her house."

   Classes ended and the three of them took Aurelia's car to the town's library. She insisted on driving since Bennett wasn't well enough to drive on his own. They split to cover all of the records of families they knew to be werewolves. After a few hours, Bennett was starting to lose hope. Just then, Aurelia found a journal that seemed to have what they were looking for. She brought it over to Bennett who was slumped in his corner, trying to sift through his stack of files and boxes. The pain must be getting to him. She thought.

   "I found something."

   "Oh, good."

   "It's only a single journal entry, no name. I found it among the Perigords' records. They no longer have descendants here in town anymore."

   "Eh... one thing Aurelia," he looked at the journal and back at his friend with skeptical eyes. "This is just a bunch of scribbles! How can anyone read this?"

   "You're telling me you can't read the language of your ancestors?"

   "It's been a lost language for quite a few generations. Not even my parents understand it."

   Aurelia sighed, reading the journal to him. Magic helped her translate the language.

   "When a werewolf doesn't imprint with its own kind, imprinting upon a human instead, the werewolf immediately feels attached to their fated human mate. Similar signs occur as in regular werewolf to werewolf mating. However, the toll it takes may be different to each human. In time, the human begins to long for their werewolf, wanting their comfort in closer proximity. As such, the imprint affects both of them in the same way. The two need each other. Yet, nothing happens when two imprinting werewolves are kept from each other once the imprint is acknowledged.