Orphic (#1 in the Hajar series)

twenty-four

The young woman slapped him on the arm harshly, "I'm so sorry about him. Don't mind his manners, or rather, lack thereof." The man glared at her snide remark in the form of a backhanded apology.

The young woman took a step towards Farah, to which she moved one back. She could feel the eyes of Israfil's wolf burning into the side of her head with its silver porcelain gaze. "Who are you?" Farah asked slowly, her voice cracking from dehydration. 

"And why aren't you completely freaking out like I am right now?" The way Farah looked was the watered down version of what was going on inside her head. While her exterior appeared relatively calm, a tornado of emotions and thoughts blew through her head, making it throb.

"I'm Lacey," The young woman smiled, "That's Alexander." She gestured to the man alongside her. "We came with Israfil," She motioned to the wolf, "To find you. We've been searching for three days."

"Three days too many," Alexander muttered under his breath, appearing unbothered and slightly irritated.

Lacey sent him a menacing look that had his mouth snapping shut, "Alexander, I'm growing tired of your stinky ass attitude." Her voice raised, "And I'm about three seconds from reaching down your throat and pulling out your big intestine to skip rope with it. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all because you're on my last nerve right now and this poor girl is traumatized out of her damn mind." she snapped.

He frowned at her, "You're the one who dragged me out here because, for some reason, you still want to be friends with him-"

Farah was too exhausted to listen to their bickering any longer. Biliousness still swamped her stomach with a stronger urge to throw up. She hated that Israfil was still in his wolf form, refusing to shift out of his dark fur and exchange it for clothes and a comforting embrace.

But something was off with him. Farah would've expected him to change so he could speak to her the first chance he could, trying to break her out of her shell like he always did, but there was something aggravated and unsaid about the way he was peering at her through those porcelain disks. Something almost unforgiving, as if he still couldn't piece together the fact that she had even left in the first place. He knew it would be too much to bear if he came to terms with the realization, so he decided not to, to deny the truth as much as he could, in hopes it wouldn't hurt him or her in the end.

And then, in one swift moment, the wolf stood up from its crouched position to its full towering height and went behind a dumpster to pick up clothes in its mouth. She watched with parted lips as it trotted down the alleyway, around a corner where Israfil's returned two minutes later, fully dressed.

He stood in all of his Levitan, dark archangel beauty that would've caught her eyes from miles away. Israfil's jaw was set tight, the outline of his jaw more defined with an emotion and the shadowing of the alleyway, his lips full and swollen from biting them because of concern and eyes still the same shade of supernatural whiteish silver, splashes of ice blue cerulean at the bottom. "Let's go," His voice was gruff and deep.

As if not acknowledging her presence, Israfil turned his back on her and began to walk, not waiting for her to catch up or to talk to her. And somehow, that hurt a lot more than any yelling or scolding he could ever do. Since he had met Farah he had always given her his undivided attention, and to have that pulled from underneath her left an almost shocking feel to it. She felt naked, open and bare to the world without his eyes looking over her at all times to make her okay, and in a way, not having that cast a more uncanny feeling than not having him there at all.

Lacey and Alexander put their argument on hold and followed after Israfil, while Farah walked forwards towards him, trying to catch his regard, but to no avail. "Israfil?" She said his name quietly, but he kept walking, guiding her and the rest of the group towards his rented Audi. "Israfil?" She called out again, tugging on her lip.

Again, he paid no mind to her, but Farah could see the tense muscles in his back.

The walk to the car was still a little bit of a distance, and Farah sensed he was in no mood for talking to her at that given moment. It hurt, admittedly, but she knew full well that she had lost his trust after running off like that. She couldn't help but feel ashamed- he had given her anything she ever could've needed, all free of charge, only for her to practically throw it on the ground and spit on it.  So she got the message and shuffled back, moving closer to Lacey. 

Lacey offered her a pretty smile, perfect white teeth and all, completely genuine. "Hey," She said, "How are you holding up? Still need to throw up?" There was no mocking in her last comment, it seemed as if she was genuinely concerned about Farah's wellbeing, and that made her confused. They were strangers, why did she care whether Farah was okay or not?

Farah shook her head, "I'm still a little shaken up," She muttered, "He's ignoring me." She didn't mean to let it happen, but sadness crept into her tone.

Lacey, sensing that Farah wasn't comfortable talking about Israfil around another male, she nodded at Alexander for him to walk ahead, closer to Israfil. He gave her a glare, but listened nonetheless, and began to shuffle forward. "Be nice, Alex." She warned him.

He gave her a mischevious grin, "You know I won't."

"I'm serious, he's been through a lot." Lacey narrowed her eyes, "Please."

He sighed, "Fine." And with that, the tall Alpha began to walk off, leaving Farah and Lacey to walk together in privacy. 

"He's ignoring at you because he's angry," Lacey said softly, gaze transfixed on Farah. "He's upset that you would endanger yourself by running off like that. His power and wealth are sought after by many lycans, having a mate is a way for people to manipulate him. Had that rogue gotten to you, he could've held you captive and done Goddess knows what so he could get what he wants from Israfil." She reasoned.

Farah thought about it for a moment.

"I'm telling you," Lacey chuckled, "There is so much love in him for you, I can sense it. He doesn't chase after just anyone for three days," She said jokingly, nudging Farah's shoulder. Noticing her adamantly dejected demeanor, she decided now wasn't the time for poking fun. "You're lucky to have someone who instantly treats you amazingly," She said quietly.

Farah frowned, "Does Alexander not treat you well?" She recounted their argument a few minutes ago. 

Lacey shook her head, "Yeah, now he does. Treats me like a goddamn Queen. It wasn't always that way though. I had met him thinking I was human when I was actually a lycan as well, and I managed to accidentally stumble on his territory trying to escape my abusive father. It wasn't until after he told me about werewolves, and then it was discovered that we were mates." She explained.

"I found out that he was having some sex with another girl, did some buck wild bitch shit to her, and I got put in segregation for two months because of it. My stubborn ass didn't eat the entire time until it was almost too late. I was on the verge of death when he realized that I hadn't been eating my meals and I had to be taken to the hospital."

She fiddled with her fingers, "I lived with him after that, he said I didn't have a choice because he needed to watch over me and make sure I was okay. He was a dick for a while after that, had occurrences where he acted like he cared, but he still cheated." She inhaled sharply as if it were still hard to recollect it all.  

"But at some point, we were okay. We found love where we shouldn't have, as fucked as it is. I forgave his ass way too easily, forgot all the bad things that had happened because I was desperate for him, he was everything I wanted and hated in men. But he's proven himself since then."

Lacey's green eyes reflected the stars, "Some may say I was stupid for him, and for that, I agree. I'm aware how fucked up we were, but I didn't care. To everyone else, he's this scary Alpha but to me, he's the kindest person I've ever met, but he has too much pride to show it to anyone else." She murmured the last part, a ghost of a smile on her lips, almost apologetic, "I'm sorry about how he acts towards you, don't take it personally."

Farah remembered what she had said earlier, "Love?" The word was quiet on her lips, "Do you think Israfil loves me?"

"There isn't a doubt in my mind that tells me otherwise."