Wolf & Witch III: Oracle's Path

Ch. 10

Sean knew better than to hope that the morning sun finding its way through the blinds on Kaid's bedroom window meant it wasn't bitterly cold out. Just the thought of the chill made him tuck in a little further under the heavy comforter that had been put on the bed for him. Kaid didn't sleep under it himself. The wolf claimed he'd get too warm.

He rolled over, stretching out his hand, reaching for the horizontal strips of light, disturbing the tiny particles drifting in the air that they made visible. He could hear Trevor talking from the dining room and, obviously, Kaid was up.

"...They were wrong?" Sean mused to himself, as the thought occurred to him. And the more he thought about it, the more it made sense.

Witches were the ones more in tune with energy. With magic. Witches were the ones who could actively draw on and manipulate it.

Tobias had even said himself that wolves, the kind that made up the pack at least, were widely considered magical creatures. Their existence, by nature, involved the use of magic, but it was performed on an instinctual level.

Like breathing, it was something they did but they couldn't perform magic or manipulate energy in the way that witches do...

Sean was actually pretty stunned at himself. He hadn't even had any tea, or coffee, or breakfast yet. Why his brain was suddenly linking things up, amidst the hangover of his emotions from yesterday's breakup, was beyond him, but he was suddenly pretty excited about it.

It should've probably been the most obvious conclusion from the beginning... That the wolves had a considerable sway over them, not the other way around.

The werewolves were walking, breathing, sources of magical energy...only unlike a ley line, grimoire, or some other imbued artifact, they had emotions and personalities.

How would being around one not affect a witch?

With a fling of the comforter, Sean was up and scrambling about to get dressed. He wanted to talk to Anna and Trevor about his theory. Maybe they could test it. Maybe he could even text–well, call–Tobias about their findings. Sean was sure Mr. Beaumont would be interested.

He paused upon hearing the metallic jitter of the makeshift necklace he'd tucked into the front pocket of his backpack... Dakota's ring and a chain borrowed from Kaiden's jewelry stash. He'd taken it off before his shower last night, and now he debated whether or not he should put it back on. He was pretty sure Kaiden might have noticed him wearing it already. And even though he hadn't said anything about it, Sean decided to leave it where it was. Dakota had been right. There was a lot of nuance to being a respectful pack mate that Sean still didn't understand. He'd already screwed things up a lot with Nate. He wanted to be a good boyfriend of course, but more than that, Sean wanted to do everything he could to be a respectful mate to Kaid too. 

Once he was dressed, Sean made the bed, though it didn't come out quite as nice as when Kaid had made it, and ventured out into the rest of the house, greeted by the smell of fried bacon and crisp, buttery toast.

"Honestly, you're probably one of the safest here," Kaiden said as he turned off the stove and brought a tray over to the table.

"Really?" Trevor looked surprised by that. After all, being a tiny orange tabby in the middle of a pack of wolves didn't sound like a power move.

"Pack law is pretty clear. You only engage someone in the same form. So, you can't fight someone in their human form using your wolf form. Meaning, if someone wanted to mess with Sean or Anna, they couldn't do it as wolves. They have to be on even footing, in human form. But..." Kaiden trailed off allowing Trevor to finish.