Infernal

13.

After fifteen minutes of walking, Alaric had led us to a huge clearing that was in front of the forest. From where we were, I could see Elijah and Adam standing, at the bottom of an area of higher ground. Alaric and I walked up to them, hand in hand. It felt normal to hold his hand but at the same time, we hadn't shown affection like this to anyone.

"You couldn't have picked better timing?" Elijah asked, raising an eyebrow. Alaric chuckled lowly and shrugged his shoulders.  Elijah was dressed in a smart casual way, just as Alaric was. I hadn't seen him in a few days and his hair looked even shorter than before. Was he the type of male to stop his hair from growing longer than his extremely short style?

"It's about time I introduced Valerie," Alaric shrugged before turning to Adam to greet him.

What surprised me about Adam was that he was dressed in shorts and a white tank top. His bulging muscles were showing clearly and for some reason, he was covered in dirt; from head to toe. He caught me staring at him and smiled sheepishly.

"Young wolves don't always fight fair," he said with a humorous glint in his eyes.

"Were you in the middle of training?" I found myself asking.

"Yes."

"I'm sorry..." I started to say before I saw Adam hold his hand up.

"It's fine, this introduction has been long overdue."

Elijah and Adam continued to converse with Alaric, I didn't pay much attention to what they were saying, instead, I focused on calming myself down. I was worried and scared for a number of reasons, the major one being that ten thousand wolves were going to see a weak wolf with purple eyes. The reaction to my eyes was what I was dreading the most and for once I wished that I had my brown contacts on. As well as that, I probably looked as plain as a piece of paper. Alaric didn't even give me a chance to change my clothes and I was only dressed in an oversized t-shirt and black leggings. It wasn't anything fancy or anything special, compared to Alaric who dressed as if he had just walked off a runway. I had no makeup on, which wasn't necessary regardless, but I would've liked to have made an effort with my appearance.

Crowds of people soon began to pile in, I had never seen so many people in my life before. How on Earth did Alaric lead this amount of wolves? When he had told me that there were ten thousand of them under his care, I had completely forgotten that children and the elderly were also included in that number. Some females held young babies and toddlers in their arms and it made me smile seeing them hold their young children.

I looked up to the sky, the clouds were merging with one another as the sky became an ombre effect of peachy pink tones. The sun had started to set, giving the atmosphere a peaceful feel to it. I hadn't seen the sky look so beautiful from the outside before, whenever I did see the sunset or the sky turn different colours it was always from my old bedroom window.

A few more crowds of people arrived, they piled into the clearing area standing in line with one another. Alaric stood strong beside me, waiting for the remaining wolves to turn up. Just below us stood Dean and nine other people, they must have been the Deltas of the pack. Dean waved at me and I returned it with a small wave of my own. My eyes scanned the unfamiliar nine people, who also looked at me in interest. It seemed that Dean was the youngest Delta, as the others all seemed in their thirties or even forties.

"That's everyone, " I heard Alaric say, I looked up to his see his face. I could feel my nerves eating through my veins.

"Just relax, don't be shy," he said comfortingly. That was easier said than done.

Alaric turned to stand straight in front of his pack, which didn't look like a pack. Instead, it looked more like his own constituency.

"ATTENTION!" Alaric boomed loudly, his voice silenced every single individual, shaking the ground slightly.