Chapter 82

Chapter 82: Black and White

New rules were implemented soon following the incident. Like a tracker system that would help them identify their location. Numerous CCTV cameras were put in the whole area to make sure nothing goes unnoticed. In fact, they even opened the old kindergarten school, which would actually serve as a safehouse for the vagabond omegas.

Following the retrieval of the omegas, any new incidents didn’t occur for a very long time. Few months had passed, but unlike last time, the security measures remained top notch as if all of that happened yesterday. The summer break was over, and following the opening of schools, the security arrangements needed to be modified, especially since most of the omegas who were at risk were the school going ones.

Speaking of which, following the incident, Mrs Parker was invited to live with them within the pack boundaries, along with her ‘human’ son. While initially reluctant, Ashton convinced him that it was for the best, and since he was good at hiding, he would manage. She finally agreed on the terms that it will be a temporary move, thus keeping the house near the woods still under her name. She thought that during his rut, or anything related to his wolf, Ashton could use that place all to himself .

Caleb, as promised, spent a lot of time training the omegas. While initially it was just Ava and Ariel, when his brother found out about this arrangement he proposed to their father for the same. Many members of their pack, predominantly the Alphas and a very few Dom-betas were against this, although not everyone expressed their objections, the majority voted ‘agreed’ for the training session.

Here however, since all of them were omegas, many thought it would be unfair for an alpha to teach them, (at least that’s what Caleb was to them) and requested a beta on the job. Since it became a joint training session, Caleb had less time to meet Ashton. Days would go by when he didn’t see him, and with the mark and his accelerating feelings for the other, it was kind of hard for him to spend days without even a simple glimpse of the other.

Meanwhile, Ashton kept having really confusing feelings for Caleb. Many a times he felt a strong pull towards him which could be an effect of the marking. Even if they haven’t established their relationship like that, the mark demanded a mate bond. When Ashton marked him, he imagined that he would be able to handle it, however it was proving to be much more difficult.

For example, he found himself staring at Caleb for an inappropriate amount of time. He even got caught by Caleb, so he brushed it off by saying that he had something on his face, which wasn’t really that hard cause some days he had minor bruises due to the effect of training.

.....

He did miss seeing him in the school once his junior year began. On top of it, Caleb’s absence did have a negative impact on the school. The bullying in general had increased by quite a disturbing amount. Whenever Ashton found someone, he tried to fight them without giving away his secret, but it was still hard. It was as if the bullies were there all along but hiding due to Caleb.

He wanted to abandon the soccer team, due to Dylan Pyrce, the new jerk leader, who was also an Sub-Alpha of a neighboring pack. Now that Matt was not here anymore, he was elected de-facto for the time being. He used to think Matt was irritating, but turns out he was far better than this jerk, taking advantage of his position to harass his teammates. In fact, despite hating useless responsibilities, he decided to run for Captain during the tryouts.

Their coach was much more impressed by Ashton than he was with Dylan, also, even he was aware of how nasty Dylan could be, making Ashton a much more favorable choice. When Ashton won the position, he decided to give up his job, due to having much less time with soccer and studies. Mrs Meyers was sad to let him go, but after all it couldn’t be helped. Before Dylan could attack Ashton, in a very subtle way he let him and his lackeys know that he was quite close with Caleb. Even in his absence his name was feared.

A lot changed during the past few months, and everyone was still getting adjusted to the new normal. Therefore, to take a break, Ashton decided to head towards his old house after his school one day. He missed living there, free of constant fear of getting discovered. What he didn’t expect was to see Caleb there, bringing back those confusing feelings once more.

“Why are you here”? asked Ashton, trying to hide his fluster.

“I was patrolling nearby, what about you”? Caleb asked back.

“All by yourself”? Ashton asked skeptically.

“Yeah, wolves rarely come here, since no one actually lives here”. Caleb shrugged. “But I still thought I should check it out, once in a while”. He shrugged.

“I come here, time to time.” Ashton said with a flat face. He wasn’t entirely convinced with Caleb’s words and very suspicious of the other’s true motives.

“Which is why, it’s important that I check out from time to time. You aren’t exactly the fighter in wolf form” Caleb teased him.

Rolling his eyes, Ashton got inside his house and without any invitation, Caleb followed him with a satisfied smirk. “So? What brings you here”? Caleb pestered.

Ashton considered for a moment, whether or not he should tell him, ultimately decided to tell him. “I haven’t shifted in a long time. I need to shift”. He was waiting for a scared expression, or not any expression at all, but Caleb gave him an amused expression instead. “Why are you smiling”? Ashton asked him skeptically.

“Well, I have only seen you in your wolf form once, thanks to your secret keeping. Of course I am excited”! Caleb said in a matter-of-factly manner.

“You are weird,” Ashton mumbled. He put his stuff on the house and looked nearby if anyone else apart from the two of them were present there or not. It was part of his whole pre-shift routine, and Caleb watched his antics carefully, getting further amused by him as the minutes passed by.

He stood in the yard, taking deep breaths as he prepared himself for the pain of bone breaking. With time wolves are supposed to get used to it, but his shiftings were way too limited for it to apply to him. At first, his face morphed gradually, producing a snout and growing fur, along with whole body. Like a click, he jumped into the air, completed his transformation mid air and landed on the ground as the pitch black wolf.

In the afternoon daylight, the view was much clearer to Caleb, and thus he found himself admiring the magnificent majestic beast. In their wolf forms Caleb was probably almost half of this original size, which made him frown for a moment, but it clicked with him that maybe he can still talk to the wolf.

[How are you feeling?] Linking, Caleb asked Ashton.

Turning his giant head around he looked at Caleb, [Wow, I love how tiny you look now that I am in my wolf form] Ashton teased. Caleb chuckled at that, before deciding to shift as well. Indeed Caleb had a harder time looking up to his face now. He hated his wolf’s tiny form, which only seemed tiny next to Ashton.

Standing face to face, even with their disproportionate sizes, they displayed the perfect opposite of the colour pallette. A Pitch black wolf and a Snow white wolf, as if the famous Yin Yang of ancient cultures. An onlooker could definitely tell exactly how suited they were for each other.

Caleb, not letting the size bother him any more asked, [Wanna fight me?] Ashton could literally feel the smirk on the wolves face, even if it wasn’t as prominent in the wolf form.

[Are you sure?] Ashton asked cautiously. The white wolf nodded his head vigorously. [Go ahead, attack me first!] He challenged further.

Letting out a large growl Ashton pounced on him, but before he could actually reach Caleb, he managed to slip away. Before Ashton could react, Caleb made his move, scratching through his thick skin over his flank, earning him a painful growl from Ashton. It hasn’t been even a minute yet and Caleb had already managed to injure him. Ashton wondered how long he would last in an actual battle, especially if he fought against many wolves. What if sheer strength doesn’t prove to be that much helpful.

Failure didn’t sit well with him, and determined to get the other, Ashton tried a couple more times, but each time Caleb managed to slip out and or twice he ended up hurting him. Caleb didn’t really enjoy seeing Ashton in pain. On the contrary, everytime Ashton let out a muffled shriek, his heart twitched knowing well enough that the pain had to be that significant to make Ashton wince, let alone let out groan in pain.

All Caleb wanted was to convince Ashton to take training. Even if he never wanted to be part of this world of wolves, he could never change the fact that he was a wolf himself. Knowing how to fight was more important for him regarding defensive purposes. With that in mind he continued their somewhat playful fight until the sun went down.