Wolfgrove Academy

Chapter 4

Wren shifts uncomfortably under the piercing gaze of three men, four whole years of words unspoken, of feelings unvented, so much left in the air. When she left, she was directly taken from the Principal Saunders office, there wasn't a chance for long winded goodbyes, there was no promise to keep in touch or even working out a way to accomplish such a feat. There was nothing, there was a brief glance at three boys that were sitting in the waiting room as she was marched past. Three boys that looked just as disheveled as she did.

The blame was placed solely on her. She was the fall guy for all of it.

Three boys who heard exactly what happened within the room, were powerless to stop it back then, it didn’t matter how much they pleaded with the principal, with their parents. All three of them had to watch their friend being taken away for something that she never did.

Zero is finally the one to break the stunned silence.

"Wren, what are you doing here?"

Wren smiles nervously, smoothing her skirt with her sweaty hand.

"Don’t tell me you don’t want me here?"

Zero’s violet eyes widen as he stands, unfurling his full height, closing the distance between them in two steps. His eyes look her up and down. There is a silent question in his eyes as Wren takes the final step to close the distance to nothing, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist, he smiles, the tension leaving his body, a sigh of relief as he wraps her body in his large arms. Zero’s face drops down, running his nose through her hair, taking in her scent. His blonde hair appears to be even lighter next to the pitch black of her hair. His light layer of stubble catching in her soft hair.

"It is not like that at all, Wren. I really thought that I would never see you again, that we would never see you again"

Wren pulls away, a hand running down Zero’s shirt clad chest, feeling his firm muscles under her fingers, the heat, confirming that he is real, that this is not just a dream. Her voice is barely a whisper.

"I am back to stay"

Zero’s eyes light up, the dull violet orbs brighten to vivid as he stares at her, while he saw the uniform he didn’t dare to dream such things. His fingers gently caress her soft hair, he needs to know this is real as much as she does. It hasn’t been the same without her. He hasn’t been the same, struggling to find the positivity that was so easy when she was close.

"To go here? With us? Again? Like it was?"

Zero gestures to the canvas on the wall. It signified the best of times. The photo was only taken a few days before the incident. It was when they were at their closest but it was the pinnacle of contentment and Wren just nods.

"Just like it was"

Her heart beats hard as she looks around the room. Everything is the same but the occupants are so different. Zero moves back, he wants to stay with her, but he also needs a little time to process. This is the shock of a lifetime.

Wren looks around Zero’s body to Griffin. Griffin looks straight back at her, his maroon hair is obscuring one eye, but he pushes it back, he wants to see her, just listening to her in this short time. She sounds the same, the way it feels to have her around it all feels the same. His emerald eyes meet hers. He didn’t imagine it after the first look it was true. His eyes didn't deceive him. There is no anger there, there is no hatred, there is something else that he can’t put his finger on but he stands before he even knows what he is doing, he is drawn to her as much as he ever was, all these years, and nothing has changed.

Griffin’s steps aren’t as confident as Zero’s. It takes him minutes to cover the small distance, his cautious approach has an element of self-preservation in it. He watches her. As soon as he sees anything, he will back away fast and not allow himself to go through that type of rejection.

All the imagined feelings don’t happen and before he knows it he is standing right in front of her. She is taller now, but so is he. The height difference is the same as it was back then, maybe even slightly more exaggerated.

He is looking at her at such a close distance, her lips look the same as they did back then, the first lips he ever kissed. It was so brief, barely a touch, yet it has stuck in his memories, burned in his heart as his first love.

Wren just looks at his handsome face. He is the only one of the three that is cleanly shaven. He always had a younger looking face than the rest. He was the last one of the three to get the growth spurt, so for a while he was the baby of the group. Now his features have matured, his skin looks just as soft, her fingers itch to reach out and touch it, but she refrains, her voice is gentle, her azure eyes searching his face, for some sort of reaction. He has never been so hesitant in front of her, maybe at the very beginning, she took so long to make him comfortable at the start, she doesn’t want it to be like that again, she doesn’t want to have to win his trust again. It was so hard to gain the first time she doesn't know if she could be successful a second time, to teach him that all he learned in his early years wasn’t as real as he thought it was.

"I am back Griffin. Are you happy?"

Griffin moves forward the last small step, his large hand cupping her cheek, her skin is just as soft as it was back then, Wren leans into his touch, her hair brushing against his fingers, her eyes on him. His hand slides around from her cheek to the back of her neck, dragging her face into his expansive chest in one strong movement, the tension dropping from his body as she embraces him. He has so much to say, but for now this is enough. He wraps her in his embrace, feeling his protection surround her once more.

It is just the same, even more so, he can feel his wolf do something it has never done before. His wolf takes to the girl, he will protect her, he will do better than he did last time.

Last time he failed, he will never do that again. This is his second chance, something that he thought would never happen. He holds her that little bit tighter, as if he is trying to pull her into his body, all those years of missed contact, all those years of comfort that he could never get off another, he tries to make up for it all in one embrace.

"Words cannot describe how happy I am Wren"

The strong mans voice breaks for the first time since that day. This time it is different, it is emotions of relief instead of the desperation it was back then. Wren laughs into his chest even though all she feels like doing is shedding tears. This is just as she was expecting the reunion to be, it was all that she could have hoped for, it was all she could have dreamed of.

Just as the heat from Zero's skin reassured her, the strength of Griffin’s embrace is enough to tell her that this is all real.

"You don't need to tell me, I can feel it"

Griffin smiles into her soft hair, her scent surrounds him, crashing all the walls that he has built.

"Too tight?"

Wren nuzzles into his expensive chest.

"No, it is just perfect"

Griffin finally steps away when Zero places a hand on his shoulder, but his emerald eyes don't leave her for a moment.

All those years of trying desperately to forget her, trying to make him believe that there was nothing there, that her influence on him was detrimental. That the sense of belonging that he felt when she was there was all in his imagination. It was never false, it was always real, it all comes rushing back the split second she walked into the room. There was always something there and maybe there always will be.

Wren looks around Griffin to Steele. She doesn't shy away from taking in his handsome face this time, she doesn’t pause at the scar like she did before, the scar doesn’t detract from his handsomeness at all. Just giving him an even more rugged vibe, that, coupled with the thick layer of dark brown stubble over his chin wrapping around his perfectly shaped lips makes him look as mysterious as ever.

He always had the look of a brooding badboy and now even more so.

If Griffin feels guilt towards Wren, then the person that Wren feels the most guilt towards is Steele, so she looks directly at him, meeting his slate gray eyes. Her fingers running along the pleat of her skirt just watching him waiting for his response to her return. If there is one that would hate her, it would be Steele.

Steele stands up from the sofa without a single word, closing the distance between the two, wrapping his arms around her and lifting her feet directly off the ground.

His eyes are just as she remembers holding an intensity. She would never think it possible for a fourteen-year-old. They are so much deeper, so much wiser now that he has moved into adulthood. She can feel his strength, everything is the same with Steele, he was always her pillar of strength. Just as Griffin was her comfort and Zero was her laughter.

Wren feels as Steele's nose travels through her hair, sliding ever so gently over the skin of her neck before burying his face in the crook of her shoulder.

"Welcome back to Wolfgrove Academy Wren. Nothing has been the same without you here"