Back To You

Chapter 12

After his ordeal with Emerie, Aidan found that he still wasn't let off the hook. He had just finished showering and was towel drying his hair when another series of knocks alerted him to someone at the door. This time, it was Alfie who came looking for him to let him know that a welcome dinner was being held in the dining hall for the witch's delegation and that all were welcome to attend, provided they dressed formally.

When Aidan sheepishly replied that he didn't own any proper attire, the werewolf gave him a cheeky grin. "I'll lend you something," he said while leading Aidan to his room one floor up. Half an hour later, Alfie was finally done dressing him up in a crisp white Oxford shirt tucked into navy blue trousers and topped with a matching suit jacket. He had also forced Aidan to wear a rather pricey-looking watch, its watch face a unique rose gold shade with complimenting black leather straps that looked like it was at least a year's worth of Aidan's doctorate researcher wages.

"How do you afford these things," Aidan couldn't help muttering out loud.

Alfie flashed a smile before saying offhand, "You could say there are perks with being born a supernatural. Most of us have time on our side to grow our fortunes. My family owns a multinational chain of coffeehouses worldwide. I'm dripping in coffee money. See what I did there? Dripping, coffee, heh heh."

Aidan's eyes widened while he almost instinctively began salivating at the word coffee.

Alfie looked him up and down before giving him the thumbs-up sign, "Who knew you'd clean up this nicely! Very presentable and an added boost to match that handsome face of yours. You'll have admirers fawning over you in seconds."

Aidan winced. He wasn't much of a people person, and the only conversation he wanted was with Emilia, and even then, only because he needed to know if she was the one Lannetta told him to find. He groaned inwardly. Why was he even doing what Lannetta asked of him?

"Aren't you gonna get ready?" Aidan frowned at the jeans and T-shirt-clad wolf.

"Sorry mate, I'm not going, and neither are Anita and Gavin." Aidan looked at the other man, dumbfounded, and received a smirk in return. Aidan gasped and then yelled in exasperation, "Why didn't you say so before?! I don't want to go!"

The werewolf explained, "We've all been rostered for security duty this evening. Gavin wasn't supposed to be on duty, but I think Emerie didn't want to let him off the hook for revealing werewolf secrets to humans without authorisation. As punishment, he'll probably be on night duty for the next few months."

Alfie chuckled darkly before adding, "I'd say he's gotten a pretty lenient punishment. If it were Tyler, well..." Alfie didn't bother finishing his sentence. "I was gutted when I'd gotten my roster earlier in the week, but someone's gotta do the job, and of course, with my shite luck, it had to be me. But don't you worry, Anita is helping your friend Hailey get dressed, so you won't be alone."

Aidan wasn't any happier. "I still don't wanna."

"Don't be an arse. You abso-bloody-lootely have to go." Alfie didn't give him a chance to back down, physically shoving him out of the room and dragging him to the castle keep before handing Aidan over to the care of some of his werewolf friends with a parting "take care of him" request.

His new acquaintances warmly chatted with him while leading the way to the dining area. Upon entering, Aidan was awed by how different the place looked. Gone was the dining set in the middle of the hall, replaced instead with smaller round tables. Most of the guests were still mingling, enjoying the rare opportunity to meet people from other parts of the world.

Aidan looked around for Hailey but couldn't find her in the crowd. Instead, his roaming eyes found Emilia in the furthest corner of the hall from him. Without thinking, he made a beeline her way but abruptly stopped. Wouldn't it seem weird if he were to walk through the crowd directly to her, if not downright suspicious? He needed to be discreet. Inhaling deeply, he knew the only way was to dawdle amongst the guests and to move as naturally as possible towards the witch.