CHAPTER 267: EXPLANATIONS

Generous streams of warm water flowed down Felix’s body, before disappearing into the drain on the floor, carrying all the soap and dirt away. Although he and Cael had rinsed themselves in the creek before returning to the pack house, their initial disguise had been just too good, too throughout. The mud and the moss stubbornly stuck to their fur, so much so that a small, lazy creek wasn’t enough to wash it off so easily. They could have gone to the lake, but that was a bit further away, and Cael could tell that Felix was hardly in the mood to continue exploring the forest... And it’s not like returning a bit dirty was anything unusual. The changing rooms had showers with a whole selection of showers and shampoos for a reason.

They didn’t discuss what they had overheard at all, not even after they turned into their human forms. Cael had only cast Felix a few surreptitious glances, but he didn’t ask anything. Felix didn’t say anything either. Although he was a bit uncomfortable with everything that Cael had been able to hear... It wasn’t that big of a deal, all things considered. Cael was Kade’s trusted person, he would surely know to keep his mind shut. And Felix...

Felix had more pressing things to worry about.

That is, the mysterious condition he and his mother, and potentially also Vivi, were suffering from.

Allegedly. It could also be that Wilder had only said it to convince Kade not to get in the way. Since Kade genuinely cared for Felix, if he thought that it was for Felix’s sake, he would likely be more willing to cooperate...

Of course, that was just a guess. Felix’s mother had truly been sickly and weak, and it was something that ran in her family, so it wasn’t unbelievable that it might be some mysterious illness... The doctors hadn’t noticed anything, but human medicine had its limitations. There were diseases that the doctors still couldn’t diagnose or cure, even when it came to humans, let alone werewolves! Only werewolves were researching werewolves, and the number of werewolf doctors was limited. Felix wasn’t very knowledgeable on the matter, but it wasn’t hard to guess that when it came to the illnesses specific to the supernatural creatures, the research and knowledge were still probably even more lacking.

It was lacking, but not completely non-existent. There were werewolves conducting scientific research. Perhaps, during his travels, Felix’s father had been able to meet with a werewolf doctor familiar with his mother’s disease, and thus had been able to obtain a remedy...

Honestly, it wasn’t an implausible explanation. If there was anything that confused Felix about it (aside from the fact that Wilder had gone so far as to look for anyone who might be able to help with his condition, when he had never shown even a sliver of care towards him or his mother), that would be the fact that his father hadn’t mention it to him at all... If he truly had a remedy, why didn’t he use it to lure Felix to the Moonhill Pack?

Felix let out a sigh, and ran his finger through his hair, checking if all the conditioner had been washed off properly, before turning off the water. Cael must have already finished his shower a while ago, because he was left alone in the steamy shower room... Now that he thought about it, he seemed to recall Cael saying something to him a few minutes earlier, but he had been so lost in his thoughts that he failed to properly register it.

Well, whatever. Felix just let out another sigh, and reached to grab the towel to wipe himself, his thoughts drifting away again, as he started to consider all the possible reasons as to why his father hadn’t told him about that supposed remedy... With the most likely cause being the fact that Felix had cut their conversation short, practically fleeing from the guest room, as he was unable to keep his emotions under control, or the fact that he suspected that the room was bugged. It was one thing to mention in to Kade deep in the forest, when they were alone, and when nothing else seemed to work, and another in the guest room, where he didn’t even know how many people might be listening to him...

In the end, all that it boiled down to was that Wilder was trying to use his and Vivi’s health as an excuse. And Felix couldn’t just leave it like that. First, he had to discuss it with Kade, and then...

And then he didn’t know what. The best solution would be to use the truth spell on his father to figure out if he was telling the truth or not, but for that, they would need to drag him to the forest again. It would be too risky to do it in the guest room, where there were listening devices. Even Kade had brought him so deep into the forest to have a conversation...

Rubbing the towel against his head to dry his hair, Felix stepped into the changing room, and he almost instantly stopped in place.

"I thought you already left," he said, blinking, as he stared at the white-haired Omega sitting on one of the benches.

"Hmm? I told you I will wait for you here," Cael smiled in response, acting as if nothing had happened. Or, rather, as if they had just had a nice run in the forest, nothing more. "Let’s have lunch together!"

"I..." Felix didn’t feel like it. Although running around did make him a bit hungry, he still had no appetite. His stomach was now all tied up in knots from all the worries he had on his mind. And he most certainly didn’t feel like going anywhere with a lot of people around. But...

If he skipped the meal, Kade would probably freak out about it, especially after the conversation he had just had with Wilder. And that would be even harder to deal with...

So, Felix let out yet another sigh, and he said, pulling his jumper over his head, "Alright. Let’s go together, then."