Through the day, Zayn phoned northern packs who all agreed that they would start questioning any Rogue wolves who stormed through their territory.
Some packs were more eager to be violent towards the Rogues. Zayn was glad Liam wasn't in his office to hear what they had in store for captured them.
Zayn knew better than to question another Alpha about their methods, but he would take a calmer approach and capture Rogues for questioning, nothing else. Old Zayn would have loved to watch them squirm under his gaze, or even a clawed paw.
When he was done phoning packs, he searched for his mate to stop his mind from spiralling in his lonely office. Every time he passed his mother's bedroom, he paused just to catch her scent.
He hoped she could come home soon, though he doubted she would be back for months.
He followed Liam's scent through the building and of course, up to the attic. He opened the creaky wooden door and peered up the narrow staircase to the library.
Liam's sweet scent met his nose and Zayn ran fingers along fairy lights that wrapped around the bannister.
Liam's humming was bliss to his ears. Zayn took his shoes off next to Liam's passive aggressive note about not making the floors dirty. Zayn looked around, but Liam wasn't in his immediate view, so he tiptoed towards the many rows of bookshelves.
Zayn once thought Liam would only need a bookshelf or two, but he ploughed through books faster than Zayn could get through one chapter. Now, Liam had eight bookshelves stretching through the large attic Zayn found Liam on the step ladder
ladder with one leg over the top step.
He had a book in each hand and was reading the blurbs. Zayn adored his small concentrated frown, and the tip of his tongue that sometimes peeked from his lips when he focused.
Liam hadn't seen his boyfriend lingering by the narrow space between bookshelves. He was too invested in what he was reading, so when Zayn smirked to himself and yelled "Liam!" in his best bold Alpha voice, Liam's spirit almost left his body.
The books flew from his grip and he leapt from the tall stepladder. Liam tried to cling on but missed.
"Shit" Zayn hissed, hurrying to catch him.
Liam's head thumped Zayn's shoulder before he was caught in Zayn's strong arms. Liam clutched onto him with a breath trapped in his lungs.
They looked at each other with big round eyes. Zayn then smirked again. "Startled?"
"Just a bit!"
Zayn lowered Liam's feet to the floor and aggressively clasped his round cheeks. "I have a job for you."
"Other than making me fall to my death?"
"You were 3 feet above the floor."
"Yeah well." Liam scrunched his nose and held Zayn's waist, "that would've hurt."
"Good thing I caught you then." Zayn ruffled his brown wavy hair before connecting fingers around the back of Liam's neck. He leaned closer, and his eyes locked on Liam's lips. "So, this job."
"What is it?" Liam subconsciously leaned into him.
"I phoned the Alpha of the Blade Pack earlier, the one with the human mate. She was fine with you talking to her mate about the bond."
"Really?" Liam's eyes gleamed.
"Yes. We can do that now... unless you're busy with your books? Or not in a talking mood?"
Liam was less awkward than he was two years ago, but he still fidgeted from attention.
"No, we can call them now." Liam grinned and his eyes crinkled.
"You sure? You seemed pretty invested in that book you threw."
Zayn slightly tilted his head, tempting Liam's lips with a light graze of his own.
Liam's heart stumbled on a thump. Zayn spoke soft when he was so close. The deep grumble was soothing. He had a sudden craving to close his eyes and listen to Zayn reading to him with that same rich voice.
"I didn't throw it. You frightened it from my grip." Liam slowly looked around his face. Zayn's handsome features stirred passionate emotion. "And I'm sure."
He could relax with Zayn later. He hoped they relaxed later. Affection didn't come and go, it stacked until they took care of it. Liam had never been in love before Zayn came along with the bond, so he wasnt sure if his feelings were abnormal or average. But he did love Zayn with all his heart, that was clear enough for him.
Zayn's office was cold when they arrived. The window was wide open, and the blinds were wonky to block part of the sun. Zayn had obviously been glaring outside as he phoned packs. He was always irritated and blunter than usual when he had to call people. If they could see his stone expression, they wouldn't reply.
He pulled the window, so it was less ajar and let Liam sit on his comfortable leather chair. He leaned against the desk next to him, watching Liam cross his legs and drag the chair closer to the desk.
Zayn phoned the Blade Pack and a woman's voice answered.
"Camila?" Zayn asked.
"Yes, this is she," the voice replied. "Zayn?"
"Yes.!"
"We have been expecting your call. Is your mate there with you?"
"Yes."
"Hello, Zayn's mate."
Liam quickly cleared his throat. "Hello, C-Camila."
Zayn's heart throbbed at his sudden shyness, reminding him of that timid Liam he had met in Ethdellin Town. Liam wasn't timid around Zayn anymore, though with others, Liam was sometimes afraid to be himself in case he was rejected the way he was rejected all his life.
"I'm Liam," he continued.
"So, I understand you have some questions for me about the bond" the voice said.
"Yes," Liam leaned closer to the phone. "I wanted to ask about how the bond um, affected you. Um.." Liam fiddled with his sleeves and glanced to Zayn.
"Has the bond affected you spiritually?" Zayn asked.
"Yes, more than I thought it would."
"In what ways?" Zayn replied.
Liam wished they could meet them and talk face to face. Zayn wouldn't risk traveling three hours, even if it was further up north.
"Well, before I met Renay, I wasn't very spiritual. I was pretty single minded and closed off from that part of life. I didn't know about werewolves before Renay. Has that been hard for you, Liam?" Camila asked.
"It was to begin with. Sometimes I would dream about werewolves and wake up to expect everything else to bea dream too."
Camila laughed. "Yes. I felt that way too for many months. So, about the bond. Yes, it affected me firstly with other wolves. You become very aware of your own mate. You feel them approaching and you notice how their wolf feels different to their human forms. Tell me Liam, can you recognise when Zayn is in his wolf form or human form even when you are not together?"
"Yes"
"How?"
"Um, Zayn feels more sporadic in his wolf form."
"Renay feels that way too, and she feels lighter as if her wolf form opens her up inside."
Liam found himself agreeing. He hadn't thought about those differences before.
"Now tell me something else Liam" the voice said, sterner than before. "Do you have nightmares?"
"Yeah, quite frequently."
"About the same things?"
"Yes."
There was a pause on the other end.
"You're being told something important. Dreams are a big gateway for human mates. Werewolves are complex and being connected to them gives us complexity too. Pay attention to your dreams and your gut feelings. By having a bond, you have a gateway into the werewolf world spiritually. Overtime, you will learn to understand, but just know that you can talk to me anytime. Being in the werewolf world can be a lonely place for a human. Zayn, are you still there?"
"Yes." Zayn stopped staring intently at Liam and turned towards the phone.
"I understand that another member of your family has a human mate, someone in the Shadow Pack?"
"Louis has a human mate," Zayn mumbled.
"Is it possible for Liam to talk with his human mate too?"
"No. Louis' mate is a prick."
Camila chuckled lightly when Liam agreed.
"Shame. Humans who know about the wolves really should stick together. Anyway Liam, do you have more questions?"
"Um, is there anything I can do about figuring out what my dreams mean?"
"Do they wake you up a lot?"
"Yeah."
Camila hummed thoughtfully. "Have a dream journal. Try to write in it every day. You'll see similarities in your dreams and those messages will come through for you. Also, your intuition and dreams will revolve around your mate, which makes sense as you are bonded to them. Whatever your soul is telling you is important and will help your mate. I dream all the time about Renay and ways to solve her issues. Some dreams can be very cryptic and may even take months to decipher. As long as you record them somehow, you'll figure them out eventually."
"I'll do that right away" Liam said eagerly, already thinking about his past dreams and whether he could remember them enough to write every detail down. "Thank you so much Camila."
"No problem Liam. Call if you have more questions. I must go now. Thank you for phoning"
"Thank you for talking to me" Liam beamed, and the phone line died. He leaned back in the chair and Zayn scooted along the desk to stand in front of him.
"So, you're my clairvoyant now?" Zayn asked.
Liam looked up. Zayn's eyes gleamed with entertainment.
"You don't find this weird?"
Zayn shrugged. "It's kinda endearing."
"That I have nightmares for you?"
Zayn rolled his eyes and leaned over Liam with hands on either side of the chair. "That we are linked this strongly. These dreams are you subconsciously trying to help."
Passion from earlier swirled deeply in Liam's stomach as Zayn's face hovered centimetres from his own. Zayn's pupils bloomed in his alluring eyes. Liam smoothed fingers through the grey streak at the front of Zayn's hair.
"I suppose, I just love you that much."
Zayn's lips curled towards a smile. "I love you too."
Liam raised his head a little. Zayn's nose warmed his cheek and their lips touched.
The silence that fell between them was a moment of intense kissing. After only thirty seconds, hands embedded into hair, heat flushed faces until Zayn parted for long enough to ask, "Bedroom?"
"Yes," Liam breathed before Zayn lifted him from the seat and his legs wrapped around Zayn's waist. Zayn turned rather clumsily and Liam's foot knocked something on the windowsill. They heard a crash only seconds later.
Zayn, with Liam in his arms, peered from the window to see a wooden lamp he had already broken by knocking off the same windowsill.
Liam peered too, grimacing, expecting shattered wood and the old lamp scattered on the stone yard in unfixable bits.
One side had completely broken off. "Oh no," Liam sighed after Zayn put him down.
"I hope we can glue it.." he stuck his head further from the window, narrowing his eyes.
"What's that?" he asked, pointing. "It looks like there's paper inside."
They faced each other and Zayn frowned.
"You don't think it could be the lost papers from the journal, do you?" he asked.
Together, they bolted from the room to get to the lamp before anyone else.
Baela was crouched by the lamp by the time they stumbled onto the stone yard. She was inspecting it sadly and opened her mouth to scold Zayn about being more careful.
"Wait!" Zayn growled before she could speak and stomped towards her. "Don't touch anything."
Baela shuffled away as Zayn crouched to inspect what happened. The side of the lamp was splintered and snapped through the keyhole that Zayn had never noticed before. The Keyhole looked as though it matched a certain key Liam found a few weeks ago. The opposite side of the lamp was chipped and lost a screw. Zayn didn't care about the damage, he only cared about the crumpled paper stuffed inside.
He glanced around to make sure no prying eyes watched them and infolded the paper.
"What does it say?" Liam asked with hands on Zayn's shoulders, leaning over him to see for himself. There was only one piece of paper in the lamp, with very little words on it, and not enough to match a journal.
However, the small handwriting matched Zayn's fathers. Liam struggled to read it at first, but when he did, the short sentence shocked him.
Zayn and Liam gaped at the paper until Baela asked what it said.
Zayn wasn't sure she would understand, but he read aloud anyway.
"It says..." he took his time to read slowly, making sure he was reading the right words. "Daniel has the missing pages."