Chapter 8

I cleared my throat and gestured to the doorway that led us into the hall, "follow me, I'll show you where you'll be staying and get you cleaned up."

I lead him out into the hall and directly up the stairs, wary of his eyes that were drilling into my back. So creepy...

Once up the stairs, I turned the corner and opened the very first door to my left and entered.

I spread my arms wide, "this is your room for the time being, the bathroom is literally next door."

Axil entered the room behind me, finally removing his gaze as he eyed everything in the room in curiosity. From the bed that stood in the middle of the room covered in dark red and white sheets to the dresser on the sides and the white silky curtains that blew from the wind and revealed the windows.

Something told me he's never seen most of these things before. I walked up to the bed and patted it, explaining, "this is a bed. We use it to sleep on. It's very soft and comfy so you don't have to worry about having bad sleeps. These are pillows. They are made from cotton and is for you to rest your head on while you sleep. It helps to keep your head elevated and just right. You'll probably end up having an amazing sleep."

I moved on to the dresser and opened one of the drawers, "this is a dresser, this is where you store your clothes and personal items," I stiffened as he came up beside me. He pointed at our reflections that were showed in the mirror attached to the dresser, his head tilted to the side.

He looked like a dirty old hobo standing next to me.

"That's a mirror. It shows our reflection whenever we look into it. Just like when you look into a puddle of water or a river and you see yourself, the mirror is an enhanced version of that."

Axil frowned and turned to gaze at me, his gruff voice hitting my ears and churning my insides, making my body a little heated, "I'm sorry I'm not as presentable as you are."

I forced a laugh and stepped away nervously, waving a hand dismissively, "don't worry about it. I, myself could use a nice warm bubble bath right now."

After explaining everything that was in the bedroom, I lead him next door to the bathroom. Once we were inside the small room, I made sure to keep my distance and explained how everything went.

"This is the toilet," I felt my face get heated as I stuttered, "you lift this cover up and you see the water inside? When you want to pee or have a number 2, you sit down, and you do it. Then you use this tissue here... we call this toilet paper and wipe off any excess muck that might be left over. It's to clean your as- I mean butt or whatever. Then when everything is finished now, you pull this lever and boom! the disaster has disappeared," I pulled the lever to demonstrate as we watched as the toilet got flushed.

I turned to raise a brow at him, "do you get it, or should I explain it again?"

His beard twitched slightly as if he wanted to smile, "I understand, continue."

"Ok... so next is the shower. This one isn't that hard. This is where you get cleaned up from all that dirt you got on you. You see that head thingy? that's where the water comes out of and in order for that to happen, you have to turn this lever. If you want the water to be hot, you turn left, if you want it to be cold, you turn right."

"How does the water get here? There are no rivers close by." he asked curiously.

I glanced at him, "we get water through pipes that run underground and through the walls of our houses."

"What are pipes?"

I contemplated for a while as my mind came up blank, "pipes are basically round metals that can travel water from any water source to an entire town or neighbourhood... you know what? Let's leave the hard questions for Liza. She explains better than I do."

Axil rubbed his neck sheepishly, "I'm sorry for the trouble."

I waved it away, "no problem, just happy to help." A lie.

"If it makes you feel any better, I think your explanations are very helpful," he reassured.

My lips twitched slightly as I started to explain again. I explained how to work the sink and told him what most the necessities were used for such as the soap, the shampoo, and the rag. Then I took a fresh white towel out of the drawer and gave it to him.

"Use this to dry your skin once you're done with the shower."

As soon as I finished, I closed the door and left, only to pause for a second before opening the door again. Axil stood in the same spot where I left him, gazing at the door... well now me intensely.

I pointed at the doorknob, "this knob is to open and close doors. You see this little thingy on the knob? It's called a lock. When you twist it this way," I twisted it right, "the door locks itself and no one could enter the room, which gives you privacy. If you want to unlock the door and come back out, you turn it left, got it?"

Axil nodded then turned around to the shower.

I took that as my cue to leave and left.

I gazed down at my dirty outfit and grimaced, deciding to clean myself up before Axil was done with his shower.

I grabbed my towel that was in my room and took out a comfy black t-shirt that drowned my body and some knee length denim jeans. I used the bathroom that was downstairs to take a quick shower and wash up. Once I was finished and felt refreshed, I went into the living room to curl up on the couch and turn on the TV.

It didn't take long before I heard the faint sound of someone descending the stairs.

I turned my head around and absentmindedly called out, "Liz should be home so- holy shit!" my eyes accidentally went lower than they were supposed to, startling me into turning my face away as it heated against my caramel cheeks.

I fiddled with my fingers nervously as I tried to keep the image out of my head, "something you should know is that in this era, you can't walk around the place naked. We're always covered unless we're alone in our home. You can't be naked in public... or in front of me and Liza."

"I'm sorry, since we turned so often into our wolves, my people and I are accustomed to nudity," Axil apologized, coming to sit on the chair opposite me... this time with the towel wrapped around his lower half instead of his head.

My shoulders slouched in relief as I could finally let my eyes roam... not that I wanted to watch him or anything.

Axil turned his gaze to the television curiously, "what is that?"

I looked at the TV with furrowed eyebrows, wondering how I was going to explain this to him but then gave up. I took up the remote and turned the TV off.

"Its nothing. I'll let Liza explain it to you when she comes back, that one's a little out of my expertise," or in other words... I was too lazy to think of a good explanation.

Axil nodded in understanding.

I kept my gaze on the floor as I asked, "so what's your story? Why were you turned to stone? Did you do something bad?"

I could practically feel the tension strengthening in the air as he acknowledged my question.

He spoke through gritted teeth, "my pack was betrayed by our Beta, the second in command under the Alpha, who's basically the leader of the pack."

I nodded in understanding, "I've already read about your ranks, I know how it goes."

Axil sighed, "It was basically our fault in all honesty... we pushed him over the edge."

I glanced up to see his eyes nostalgic and deep in thought as he relived the memories of his past.

"His name was Dexter, and he was my Uncle. In the year of 1827, my uncle met his mate, Tianna on one of our expeditions into the human territory. She was a witch, but she wasn't a good witch. She studied dark magic and used members of our packs for her cruel experiments. My uncle was madly in love with her, and we were all happy for him, so we accepted Tianna with open arms and gave them both a loving home in the pack as our way of wishing them a happy future together."

"It didn't take long before we realized that members of our pack were slowly going missing. We were confused because there was no trail and the victim's family had no leads as to why the victims would want to run away. My uncle knew what Tianna was doing and by the time we had found out it was already a year later. My father was furious. He demanded an explanation from his brother, who simply shrugged it off as if those lives weren't the very people he swore to protect," Axil's voice deepened in what I assumed was rage as he related his story to me.

"It was like his love blinded him and warped his sense of right and wrong. I watched my loving Uncle turn into a void piece of shit who didn't give a damn about us anymore. It was troubling... what a bond like theirs could do to a person," he glanced up at me intensely before straying his eyes away, "we tried to talk sense into him, to get him to stop Tianna from killing our people but he just wouldn't see reason. My father had no choice. He had to make a decision, and he chose our people over his own flesh and blood."

I nodded my head in understanding. I would've probably done the same thing as well.

"My Uncle and his mate were banished from our pack, which was a light punishment in my opinion but Dexter didn't see it that way. I guess us pushing him away was the driving factor that caused him to snap. He used Tianna to create an army for himself... hellhounds."