The den was as big as he remembered. The twisting of the tree bark around huge boulders and rocks sanded down from the constant usage. The open tree balcony let in the bright sun that Zed had missed from the towering trees. Honestly, it was pretty fucking cool to be standing at the entrance.
Willa had immediately stopped Wyatt at the front, dragging him away from prying eyes, sounding none too enthralled on an outsider being in the den. Wyatt seemed to argue with her, using a hushed shout between the two.
Zed was frozen in place, the werewolves that had resided inside decided that staring at the zombie was much more entertaining than their play fights and conversations.
Willa gave an audible huff and waved Wyatt off, who in turn gave a yell of triumph. He returned to Zed, placing a hand on Zed's shoulder. The rest of the wolves continued their games, as if they were snapped into focus from a spell. How strange.
"Sorry about that, Willa didn't really plan on any visitors after the night of Prawn," the wolf gave a wave of his hand as he led Zed to a rock seat, slightly away from the rest of the pack. "However, I love having visitors. Don't let the others scare you, they won't try anything."
Despite Wyatt's reassurance, Zed still felt extremely unsafe in the den. He would like to think he trusted Wyatt, but his initial feelings on the wolf from their first meeting still rubbed him the wrong way.
Arms wrapped around Zed's stomach, he squawked in protest as he was lifted into the air, the attacker residing behind him.
"Zed!" A sweet voice squealed.
He was roughly placed back down on the rock, with Wynter grinning widely down at him. Wyatt was laughing, trying to turn away and conceal his amusement of the situation.
"Wynter! It's nice to be welcomed so warmly, but did you have to-to like-" Zed stuttered, having found that he's being embarrassed quite a lot as of lately.
"Manhandle you?" Wyatt provided helpfully.
"I'm just glad to see someone come visit us since the incident. I'm happy to know that we have such a nice friend." Wynter clasped her hands together, taking a seat beside him. "So, what brings you to our casa?"
"I came to drop by and see how you guys were. I should head back, I don't want to intrude on any pack bonding time, or whatever you do in your free time." Zed stood up, but Wynter and Wyatt grabbed at his hands in protest.
"You should help me with reading! Willa assigned us to pick through all these old lore books and such. It's so boring with Wyatt, he doesn't have my sense of humor!" Wynter pleaded as Wyatt looked offended.
"I am not boring. I was the life of the party at Prawn, did you not see my dance moves?" Wyatt let go of his hand to demonstrate a vague break dance move. Zed laughed as Wynter looked on in horror.
"My point is proven, please join us!" The she-wolf turned back to him, and who was he to deny a damsel in distress (even though she could pummel him if she wanted to)?
"Sure, I've got time."
Zed was introduced to their library, which he would have never guessed to be so huge. It reminded him of the bookcases from Beauty and the Beast, the wolves detested that story. He saw a carved boulder table, the top completely flat and the sides shaved in, with smaller rock 'chairs' sat beside it. Several books splayed open on the top, he assumed they were the books that the trio were going to go through.
"This many books?" Zed asked as he took a seat. Wyatt nodded solemnly.
"She wants us to be thorough, and to not worry the members of the pack that haven't heard about the fight." Wynter shrugged and began reading.
"Look for anything about werewolf abnormalities, or werewolf spells." Wyatt told him and followed suit with his reading.
"Alright," he mumbled, shooting a quick text to his dad about his whereabouts. He probably should have done that earlier.
They had idle chatter in between the turning of pages, but for the most part, they were reading. Zed was finding absolutely jack-shit in his books, along with Wynter and Wyatt. Zed was going to speak up and say he had to go, when Wyatt jumped up.
"A witch!" he exclaimed, but didn't elaborate, leaving Wynter and Zed staring at him blankly.
He rolled his eyes as he turned the book in their direction, pointing a claw at a paragraph.
Although witches may tend to have familiars, many hold a natural dislike towards supernatural or magical creatures coming from animal backgrounds or those who are an animal in themselves. A few witches have even been known to hunt animals for sport, or hold them as trophies.
Popular animals include:
Dragons
Wendigos
Griffins
Werewolves
Witches especially enjoyed cursing or casting spells on werewolves. Since they have a human and an animal side, they particularly liked watching them suffer with another burden. Others would keep the wolves as slaves or trophies of strength.
Wynter and Zed looked up to Wyatt, who held a triumphant grin.
"A witch is trying to make us her slave?" Wynter deadpanned, giving a strong expression of disgust.
"We don't know what she's done or trying to do, but it's definitely not in favor of us." Wyatt frowned, bookmarking the page and closing it. "I say we've done an excellent job, why don't we take a little break?"
"Oh yeah! We're doing nails!" Wynter declared, already racing out of the room to fetch supplies.
Wyatt snatched Zed's hand, examining the plain nails, then making a click of disapproval. "Your nails aren't doing too hot, don't worry, we'll fix them right up," he winked.
He was going to disagree, saying that they'd get ruined, but Wynter and Wyatt were already seated on either side of him, beginning their manicure. Zed sighed in defeat, hopefully it didn't take long.
Zed would admit, his nails looked pretty good. The dark green was dulled, without shine. Wynter said it was called matte.
Wyatt touched up Wynter's nails, and then insisted that Zed try painting his. Of course Zed refused, very adamant on the fact that he would butcher them horribly. Wyatt didn't mind, smiling as Zed painted on his finger, unable to keep in line with his cuticles.
They all laughed at his nails, Wyatt couldn't stop staring at them, his face full of glee. Zed hadn't painted nails before, so there's a first for everything.
"Wait till, Willa sees this. She'll throw a cow. Literally." Wynter giggled.
"Till I see what?" Willa strode into the room, looking at the table.
Wyatt held up his drying nails, the purple paint chipping around the edges of the nail. Willa looked like she was going to faint.
"Wyatt! What have you done?!" She seized the beta's hand before dropping it, exasperated. "Tell me you at least got something done, since you had time to fool around."
"Yep! We actually found out that your solo wolf issue was due to a witch." Zed said.
Willa's exasperated look formed into a scowl. "A witch? And you guys are messing around? Witches are serious business, they cast spells like it's nothing. I can't believe I didn't figure this out beforehand." She pinched the bridge of her nose.
The jovial mood in the room dissipated, leaving the Alpha's consuming cloud of worry and frustration.
"It's getting late, I should probably head out." Zed sensed the tension and did not want to stick around to see the end results.
"I can walk you home," Wyatt made a move to stand up, but Zed held up a hand to stop him.
"Nah, I can find my way, thanks for having me." Zed waved them goodbye, Wynter offered a smile, and Wyatt gave a dejected wave. He felt Willa's eyes on his back all the way until he made it out of the den.
He didn't know why Willa's mood had switched so fast. He understands that some situations need to be addressed, but they were just having a small break. Zed didn't see the harm in that. He looked up to the sky, noticing the moon beginning to surface, the sliver of daylight on the opposite side.
Learning his lesson from earlier, he got out his phone, following a GPS back to his home and inputting the location of the den on his map. He was happy to return to his house with a wonderful smell wafting through the air, his father and sister smiling as he sat down at the table.
Seeing his family so happy, he couldn't help but return the smile.