Wolfsrudel = Wolf Pack
Leitwolf = lit. Leading Wolf; Alpha
Seelenverwandte = Soulmate
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[Photo of Dominik]
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"Vielleicht Verliebt" - Leolixl
🎵 Ich frag dich: "Sehen wir uns wieder?" / Auch wenn ich da selber keine Antwort seh / Vielleicht wär'n wir jetzt verliebt / Doch du lebst gefühlt am anderen Ende der Welt / Vielleicht wär'n wir verliebt / Und das mit uns wär was das für immer hält 🎵
"...and we have to come, why?" Emilia groaned from the passenger seat as Dad drove us to Alaric's house. She had her feet propped up on the dashboard as she typed away on her phone, already complaining to her bestie about this lame dinner party we had to tag along on.
"Alaric said that he wanted the two of you there," Dad said, gesturing at her and me. "He's a really nice guy, so please do this for me. And remember our deal? You do this and you have my permission to go to Frankfurt tomorrow."
Frankfurt was a larger city that was about a two hour train ride away, and there was a lot of shopping places there, so Emilia had practically begged Dad for him to let her go there with her friend, Sofia.
"Fine," Emilia agreed, positioning her long black hair on the side to block her view of our father.
"But take Max with you," Dad added, making my sister wince. "Alaric has something planned for us tomorrow, and I don't want him home alone."
Emilia just glared at me through the rearview mirror and I already knew she was thinking up ways to ditch me.
"And speaking of whom, Max, you remembered your inhaler?" Dad asked.
"Yeah," I mumbled, patting it through my pocket to double check.
Two weeks had already passed since Dad and I had ran into Alaric at the Wasgau, and ever since then Dad and the guy had been stuck to each other like glue. Nearly every night Dad would go on a date with Alaric, leaving me and Emilia at home. However, he didn't know that Emilia would leave to go hang out with her friends, practically ditching me and leaving me all myself. I know that I should be happy that Dad is finally moving on and that he's having a good time with someone who treats him well, but I was starting to get annoyed that my Summer Vacation quality time with Dad was getting snatched away from me. Emilia and I live with Mom in Vancouver, Canada. Yeah, it's pretty far from Bedburg, Germany, so I don't get to see Dad as much I want to.
I didn't want to complain too much because I didn't want to look like some little boy who needs his daddy all the time, but I was getting really irked by all the time Dad's been spending with Alaric and thereby ignoring me. I mean, Emilia and I were only able to see him for a few months out of the year, and we head back to Canada in a couple days...
I guess I just miss my dad, which seems weird to say because he's literally sitting in the same vehicle as me.
Not wanting to stir the pot, I just kept my lips pursed shut in the backseat. Instead I stared out the window, trying to get a view of the forest that we drove by, but the nighttime darkness was making it hard to get a good view. There were a lot of clouds out, covering up the moon and making the outside pitch black.
The rest of the ride was spent in silence, the struggling radio trying to maintain reception being the only noise. The massive trees on either side of the road ruined the connection and made it feel like we were being swallowed by the forest, making me sink further into my seat. I didn't like being out in the forest in this part of town, especially after hearing all the legends of Der Werwolf von Bedburg.
Bedburg is unfortunately infamous for one of its past inhabitants, Peter Stubbe, who in the late 1500's was executed for murdering and (in some cases) eating people. Dad had told me the story one night, saying that the town of Bedburg (where we freakin' live) had been plagued by strange animal deaths, in which farmers would walk out to their fields and see the farm animals massacred with their insides on the outside. It eventually escalated to several of the townspeople disappearing, and people began to fear that a werewolf was around. Eventually a few of the townspeople had tried to capture the werewolf, and had even managed to trap it, but it had bitten off its left hand in order to escape. Fingers were pointed at Peter because he was missing his left hand too. He later confessed to killing and eating at least thirteen children, including his own son whose brain he ate, and countless adults. His reasoning being that he was a werewolf with the ability to transform into the likeness of a greedy, devouring wolf, strong and mighty, with eyes great and large, which in the night sparkled like brands of fire; a mouth great and wide, with most sharp and cruel teeth; a huge body and mighty paws. He was executed on Halloween in 1589, and after being skinned and torn apart was burnt because apparently fire was the only sure way to kill a werewolf.
To be honest, I don't quite know what to make of the story.
On the one hand, Bedburg has really cashed in on the whole werewolf history that it holds. Even the town's tourist website promotes the Werwolf-Wanderweg which is a hiking trail that cuts through the forest and promises that it is the same trail that Peter Stubbe traversed during his mayhem, including the site of his home. Plus, almost every tourist shop sells werewolf masks or has a silhouette of the monster on every article of clothing.
However, on the other hand, technically speaking the government officially ruled that the murders were caused by a werewolf. That, and wolf sightings have been increasing in Germany in recent years.
Just to be safe, I locked my door.
The paved road turned into a gravel one that was really bumpy on the car's shoddy shocks, stretching down through the trees until we pulled up to a tiny looking mini-village that existed in the forest. The subsection of Bedburg honestly wasn't too bad looking. Small, single-story homes were scattered throughout. The lawns were all neatly manicured, with the greenest grass that put Dad's lawn to shame. The windows were all blacked out; and I could see a community pool in the center of the commune. There weren't too many houses though— I think probably about twenty to thirty.
We drove towards the back end of the little village, and Dad pulled up in front of the last house on the left, one that had white paneling all over it. Since it was towards the edge, it was situated right next to the beginning of the forest that stretched out towards the mountains in the distance. The house looked a little bit bigger than most— come to think of it, it was the biggest and the only two story.
"Where's the fences to keep the animals out?" Emilia asked, trying hard to hide her disgust, but failing miserably as she scrunched up her nose at the sight of the large forest that surrounded the entire neighborhood. Yeah, now that she mentioned it, there weren't any fences at all at any of the homes. It was as if everyone shared a front and backyard, allowing the forest to connect with it, without fear of a wild bear or wolf literally wrecking house.
Dad shrugged his thin shoulders as he parked the car. "Alaric's, uh, very into nature," he muttered before turned to face us. "Make sure you two behave yourselves. And don't ask too many questions. And please be nice to his son, Dominik."
"Why can't we ask questions?" Emilia countered.
"Why do we have to be nice?" I added.
Dad just huffed and led us up the walkway, carrying the large platter of biscuits that we'd made earlier today (and that he didn't notice I'd snuck a few on the car ride here).
We didn't even reach the front door before it opened up, revealing Alaric who was smiling from ear to ear. "Herzliches Willkommen!" he cheerfully announced, holding out his arms in some grand gesture that only caused his tight flannel to stretch even more over his huge muscles. His eyes honed in on Dad and even in the dark nighttime I could see the blush that formed beneath his beard.
He hurried over and wrapped my father into one of the tightest hugs I've ever seen, before turning to face Emilia and me.
"Hey there, Max!" he grinned down at me. "It's good to see you again."
Maybe I'm a little shy or maybe it's the fact that this man was such a giant, I just gave a small smile. "Hallo," I mumbled.
"And this is my oldest, Emilia," Dad introduced my sister to him.
"Nett Sie kennenzulernen," Emilia said as she gave the large man one of her fake smiles that she uses at the fast food restaurants to get more chips. She's not fooling anyone with her so-called manners!
"You don't have to be so formal with me," Alaric chuckled... oh, so I guess he fell for it. "But come in, please! Everyone else is in the backyard. They're really excited to meet all of you."
They are? What kind of sad, boring people would be excited to meet me?
I was mulling over the obvious lie that Alaric had told us so I didn't pay too much attention to his home as we were led through it. From what I did notice, it was very rustic, giving off the feeling of one of those wintery log cabins, with the exception of the massive TV mounted on the wall. We trailed behind the giant until he led us through a sliding glass door to the backyard... I mean, without a fence, why didn't we just walk around the house?
The backyard was nothing more than just a large green field that met with the small community's surrounding forest. There was a long picnic table (the longest that I've ever seen in real life) that wasn't too far from the house. It was covered with tea lights and platters of food, a majority of it looking meat-based. Seriously, there were mountains of food that looked like they could feed armies of men, as opposed to the forty or so people who were sitting and standing around in the yard. Affixed to stakes that were sticking up out of the ground were bright Christmas lights, illuminating the backyard in a golden hue. I'd been under the impression that this was supposed to be some sort of barbecue, but based on the décor and incredible feast, I felt more like I was at a wedding reception.
I looked up at Emilia, who appeared just as confused as I did, and we took a little step closer to each other.
A whole series of introductions began. Person after person greeted us, welcoming us to the... Wolfsrudel? Sure I may spend a lot of time in Germany, but I don't consider myself to be one-hundred percent fluent. Therefore, I struggled here and there to make sense of what a lot of Alaric's friends were saying. I tried to take cues from my sister, but even she seemed a little lost. Regardless, I made sure to be as polite as Dad had asked me to be, taking extra care to smile and offer my hand for a customary shake— although no one accepted it. In fact, everyone was taking weird care not to touch us for some reason... which was made even stranger by the fact that Alaric had patted both mine and Emilia's shoulders for an uncomfortably long time. Speaking of Alaric, I began to notice how polite his friends were with him. They kept using the formal "Sie" when speaking to him, despite him telling my sixteen year old sister that it wasn't necessary when she did it with him. I don't know how long Alaric has lived here or how long he's been friends with these people, but they all seemed to regard him with the highest honor, taking time to use respectful formalities and to not look him directly in his yellow eyes.
And speaking of yellow eyes, were they on sale or something? Every single person here, my family aside, had piercing yellow eyes! I started to feel out of place with my plain green ones, making me wish I'd brought sunglasses to hide them.
Eventually the greetings started to simmer down and I foolishly took this as a sign that the confusion was going to go away. However, I was dead wrong when Alaric told us that the food was almost ready, leading us again towards the table. At the far end of the long picnic table were two vacant seats, and Alaric pulled one out for my father, who blushed a little as he took it. On my dad's side, around the corner of the table, Alaric pulled out a seat for Emilia and then to her right, a seat for me.
Alaric returned to the free chair at the head of the table that was right next to my dad and sat down. Directly across from Emilia was another free seat, and right next to that and across from me sat down a man whose height rivaled Alaric's, yet he wasn't as muscled. Sure this guy was athletic in his own right, but it just seemed as if Dad's new boyfriend was both taller and wider than everyone else here. This new guy offered my sister and me a warm smile as the rest of the partygoers took their apparently assigned seats.
"Hallo," he nicely greeted us. "Ich bin Lukas. I am Alaric's second in command. If you shall need anything, feel free to ask me, bitte." His English had a much heavier accent, letting me know that he probably preferred to communicate in German. I was wondering what he meant by his position, but luckily Emilia wasn't as shy as I am.
"Second in command for what?" she pressed, and I could see Alaric tense up the slightest bit.
"At our business," the evident boss interjected, narrowing his yellow eyes at the other man for a moment before taking a look around the table. "Wo ist mein Sohn?"
"Er sagte, er wolle nicht kommen," Lukas answered with a sympathetic expression on his face.
What? If I had known that we simply had to say that we didn't want to come to this thing in order to get out of it, then I would've have greatly considered doing so. I mean, at first when Dad had told me that I was going to go with him to Alaric's for a barbecue, I was semi-excited. However, now thanks to all the confusion from the awkward behavior of the attendees and the cryptic undertones of the adults, I kind of wished I'd stayed home.
A large vein popped out on Alaric's forehead and he stood up from his seat, roaring out loudly, "Dominik! Komm jetzt her!" His booming voice was so deep and so full of power that it rattled the dishes on the table. Several of the guests (myself included) shrank down into their seats at the sheer anger and power behind the giant's command for his son to get over here to the picnic table.
Whoever this Dominik guy was must've had his own impressive set of lungs because an annoyed groan echoed out over the area. After a few seconds, the back sliding glass door of Alaric's house slammed open and a shadowy figure stomped its way outside and over to the table, not even bothering to close the door shut behind it.
The closer the figure approached and came into the golden light from the strung up Christmas lights, the more I was able to see that it was a boy, probably around Emilia's age based on the peach fuzz that was on his upper lip. His dirty blond hair was crazy atop his head, looking like he'd been jostled out of a nap from Alaric's booming voice. Obviously this Dominik was his son because he seemed to share the same facial features as the older man, except instead of looking jolly and happy-go-lucky, this guy seemed to be pissed off. He wore a plain white t-shirt that seemed to be too small for him, as was evident by how tight it was. I think the guy must've been an athlete at his school wherever he goes because there wasn't an ounce of fat on him, and instead he looked like a whipcord of toned muscle like the football players on TV. Again, and I don't know if it's because of Alaric's dominant genes, but this guy was one of the taller males in the group.
The guy took the empty seat that was closer to Alaric on the other side of the table from where I sat, a scowl etched onto his face.
Alaric rolled his yellow eyes, letting out a low sigh. "This is my son, Dominik," Alaric introduced the angsty teenager. "Please excuse his tardiness, you know how fourteen year olds can be."
The grumpy guy, Dominik, just huffed.
Dad bit down on his lower lip nervously, but shook it off. "Dominik," he smiled at him. "These are my kids, Emilia and Max."
Emilia, who has told me before that the best way to deal with someone who has a bad attitude is to match it exactly, just gave a huff of her own.
I tried to huff, but I accidentally choked on my spit and began to cough so badly that the random person on my right handed me a water bottle.
Dad pinched the skin above his nose and Alaric placed a hand on his shoulder. The latter shook everything off and addressed the rest of the partygoers in German, giving a long speech that I only understood bits and pieces of. From what I could gather, he was thanking the large group of people for attending, telling them to keep an eye out for us... for some reason?
I looked around in confusion, noting how the large group at the rest of the picnic table hang onto every word that Alaric said. I know that he'd mentioned that he and Lukas apparently worked at some business, so I guess Alaric had to have been the CEO or something high up like that. And, uh, everyone here was his employee? Given the other children here, it had to have been some family-oriented company picnic thing. It was actually a little neat seeing all the masses of yellow eyes directed down the table, and I couldn't help but admire the way the golden lights made them shimmer like how our neighbor's dog's eyes does when I take pictures of him with the flash on.
I kept examining the rest of the table during Alaric's speech, glancing back towards him and Dominik. The teenage boy was still looking mad, glaring down at his lap, his jaw clenched tightly. He must've sensed me not-so sneakily staring because he looked upwards and met my gaze, making me jerk back in my seat.
The moment Dominik's yellow eyes met my green eyes, his hard look of anger evaporated. The guy's nostrils flared and he sharply inhaled, a small rumbling growl sounding out from his direction. His eyes widened for a moment before narrowing again, laser focusing on me only. His pissed off expression returned with much more intensity, making me squirm uncomfortably in my seat. I tried to look anywhere else besides Dominik's direction, but no matter where I looked, I could feel the guy's glare burning holes into my forehead.
"...Seelenverwandte," Alaric finished up his speech, ending with a phrase that I didn't know the meaning of. He raised his glass that contained some kind of bubbly alcohol. "Prost!"
"Prost!" the crowd repeated, holding up their own glasses to cheers to whatever the giant had been babbling about.
After that, everyone began to hungrily gobble up the piles of food that were on the serving platters in the center of the long table... well, everyone except for Dominik, who continued to stare at me. I tried to focus on how good the piece of chicken that I'd received was, but all I could concentrate on was the pair of heated yellow eyes from the guy across the table. His eyebrows were furrowed and his upper lip was curling over his teeth, letting me catch a glimpse of his really big teeth. Seriously, he had huge canines that looked scary sharp. I don't what I did to make Dominik apparently hate me, but it seemed as if he wanted nothing more than to kick my butt right here, right now.
"Why do you keep staring at my brother?" Emilia, God bless her, asked the creepy guy, punctuating her question with her trademark eyebrow raise.
Dominik snapped out of whatever anger-induced trance he was in, pursing his lips into a thin line and ignoring her question, but every so often his yellow eyes would dart over towards me, only to quickly look away when I glanced back.
Alaric paused for a moment and looked at his son, a calculating glance on his face.
My dad, who wanted to be the peacemaker, cleared his throat. "Um, Dominik," he said, "Emilia is taking Max to Frankfurt tomorrow. Why don't you go too? It'll be a fun time."
The glare my sister gave Dad put Dominik's heated stare to shame.
Dominik was quiet for a brief moment, taking one last glance at me. "Fine," he growled, his voice rough and gravelly. He then shoved himself away from the picnic table and stomped his heavy feet back to the house.
Alaric rubbed the back of his neck, trying to laugh the situation away. "Oh don't mind him," he nervously chuckled, but the way his own brow was furrowed kind of ruined his spiel. "Teenagers, hormones, ya know? I'm sure you all will have a fun time in Frankfurt tomorrow. And Max, you let me know if he behaves, ja?"
I just nodded, unsure of what was going on. It was then that I noticed that Lukas and the woman who I assume is his wife were both giving me the same pity-filled look that Alaric had just given me. In fact, a whole lot of the other partygoers were stealing glances of me, some of them looking at me with pity, others looking really happy for some reason. I don't understand one bit of it.
All I do know, however, is that Dominik is freakin' weird.