Chapter 196: Found him?
Christian’s brow furrowed as he asked, “Found whom”.
“...Ashton, I think” Melanie hesitated before declaring.
Christian’s eyes widened to almost double of its original size. Just when he thought this day couldn’t get any crazier. “Wait... you sure?” He asked.
“Not 100%, no” Melanie shook her head. “See this” taking out her phone she showed him a picture that consisted of many wolves surrounding a gigantic black one. “I have this friend at Ice Fountain Pack from Alaska. I was planning to meet her this summer but she cancelled at the last minute. And she sent me this saying they were attacked by this wolf” Melanie explained.
Christian took the phone from her hand and examined closely including zooming in on the pic and everything. “He does kind of look like Ashton, but this one seems a bit...bigger” Christian mumbled.
“Maybe, he grew?” Melanie shrugged.
“I dunno,” he whispered. “He was almost done with his growing years”
.....
“But isn’t it possible?”She insisted, “Caleb always says that Ashton is alive and I know we dismiss that... but.... I think he does this knowing well that his mate is alive. I mean, one would really know when your mate dies right?” Melanie pursed her lips.
“Okay, let’s assume for a second that you’re right. Even if he is Ashton, what’s the point? How can we actually confirm it?” Christian posed.
“Here is the thing. They captured this wolf. They are still discussing what to do with him, and I don’t think I can prevent them from executing him” Melanie pursed her lips once more as Christian’s eyes widened.
“NO!” Christian panicked. “Why execute”?
“Like I said, he attacked them”. She shrugged meekly.
“I need to go there. Immediately. I am gonna contact the pack head and see if we can get them to hold off their rulings or anything” Christian declared.
“Should I... tell Caleb?” Melanie asked hesitantly.
“No,” Christian nodded. “He already misses Ashton a lot, and I don’t wanna give him false hope until I am 100% sure it’s Ashton. It crushes me to see his hope flickering away everytime our search party fails to find Ashton” Christian sighed.
“Don’t you think it will be helpful to bring Caleb along”? Melanie asked.
“Let me confirm if it’s Ashton or not. Maybe then I’ll call for him.” Christian mumbled. “Can you arrange tickets for me? I’ll see if I can contact the Alpha of Ice Fountain”.
On contacting the Alpha of the pack, he managed to convince him to wait for him to let him see the wolf first hand. He contemplated whether or not to tell them the truth but decided to go with, ‘A similar incident happened here, I want to verify something’. And as he guessed, it worked.
Melanie mailed him the tickets a few minutes later, according to which he was set to leave the next day. Even though he has left the pack boundaries quite often, the only time he travelled that far was the time when he flew with Sebastian for the investigation of worenzine.
This trip however will be made by him only, and he really hoped his rut didn’t screw things up. Staring at the tickets he thought, ‘now all I need is a convincing excuse for my abrupt departure.’
He spent a lot of time in the office trying to go through the history of the Ice Fountain pack. It was one of those packs that didn’t have much connection with theirs due to its distance. He researched not only the pack, but any evidence of such similar attacks.
He also went through multiple pictures of the wolf that the Alpha of the pack sent on their request. Amongst all the pictures one thing was constant. The urge to kill in those bold red eyes. Even though he was certain that Ashton was harmless, he knew that Ashton had it in him to be this vulgar.
And somehow in his heart he found himself with this conflicted feeling. He wanted that to be Ashton, and at the same time he didn’t. He wanted to trust his baby brother, to believe that Ashton is still out there. That Caleb was right to cling on to the hope all along. But those eyes somehow made him feel that it was not Ashton. That even if it was, the real him was lost somewhere. That finding Ashton in this form would be useless all over again.
Immersed in his own thoughts his eyes drifted off to the clock on the bystand. Turns out it was actually quite late and if he had to catch the early morning flight the next day he had to make it early. Deciding to call it a day he returned home. From a distance he could make out that the party was over and for some weird reason it brought him relief until the person he wanted to see last appeared in front of him.
“Sebastian?” Christian questioned him.
“Hi” Sebastian sighed awkwardly. “I was just... on my way home” he informed Christian.
“Yeah, me too,” Christian shrugged as well. He could sense there was some sort of tension, but he had no idea why.
“So... you are not getting married huh”? Sebastian attempted to make small talk.
“For now... Yeah” Christian chuckled. “But eventually, I will,” He declared. Christian fell into deep thought for a moment before saying, “I do have something to tell you though.”
“What?”
“I like you.” He declared making Sebastian freeze. ” And I don’t mean as a friend. I have romantic feelings for you”. He declared. He did a lot of crazy things today, why not just admit his feelings as well. The more he held on, the more burdensome it got anyways. When Sebastian tried to avoid his gaze, Christian frowned, “You knew that, didn’t you”?
“You confessed to me, while you were drunk,” Sebastian admitted honestly.
“I see” Christian chuckled, “Wait, drunk when? Yesterday?” He asked to which Sebastian nodded to clarify. “So, that’s why you were avoiding me” Christian whispered.
“Look, I... I am really... honored? I guess... that you feel like this about me... but I...” Sebastian fumbled with words as he found himself confused on what to say, or even confused upon what he felt for that matter.
“I know,” Christian declared, stopping him mid-rant. “I am not confessing because I want you to reciprocate. I am confessing to you to get a closure. I am sick of this crush now.” he chuckled. “It’s been really long, and I want to move on” Christian admitted with a smile while somehow he felt like insides were ripping him apart.
“How long?” Sebastian asked.
“Well... I am not exactly sure... but I guess since when we met” Christian shrugged. That caused Sebastian’s eyes to almost pop out of its sockets. “Yeah, it’s long. But like I said, I am trying to move on. And I want to do this right”. Sebastian, unsure of what to say, nodded awkwardly. “We are cool right? You and me? It won’t affect our friendship.”
“Yeah... totally” Sebastian assured.
“Good” Christian smiled. “I gotta go now, I will see you later then” and he disappeared leaving a very confused Sebastian on that very spot. What Sebastian failed to comprehend is why he couldn’t just downright reject him. Apart from not wanting to hurt him, why did it also feel...wrong?
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