Chapter 77: The Forgotten Errand
The cool evening air hit Tobias as soon as he stepped out of Sam’s house. He hadn’t realized how tightly his shoulders had been drawn until the door shut behind him, cutting off her scent, her voice, and the lingering heat of their argunt. Or maybe not an argunt...whatever it was between them these days always walked the line between fire and ice.
A low whistle greeted him from the foot of the stairs.
"Well, well," Ronan drawled, leaning against the post like a cat who’d gotten into the cream. His grin stretched wide, full of teeth and mischief. "If it isn’t my future potential groom. What kept you so long? Did Sam tie you to a chair and interrogate you?"
Tobias rolled his eyes and brushed past him. "Don’t you have anything better to do? And what the fuck is future potential groom?"
"Exactly what it says. You have the potential to be a future groom since you’d be getting married to Sam."
Ronan fell into step beside him imdiately, his long strides matching Tobias’s without effort. "And regarding if I have anything better to do, not really. And I had to keep watching for you."
Tobias paused. "You told you were going to see one of your flings."
"And I did see her but then I rembered you, and seeing you get rejected by your mate is the highlight of my day."
Tobias shot him a warning look. "You’re a terrible friend."
"Correction," Ronan said, pointing at himself with mock solemnity. "I’m an excellent friend. I ca all the way out here to make sure you didn’t drown yourself in self-pity."
"But you just said you ca because seeing getting rejected gives you joy." Tobias interrupted him.
"Not in those explicit terms. But I also ca because I was worried and I was right to co. Look at you...alive...and scowling...She didn’t want to see you?" Ronan asked him.
Tobias sighed. "It’s not exactly that and I got to ask her to attend the festival with but..."
"She still wants nothing to do with you, at least not romantically." Ronan completed.
"Exactly." Tobias said and then after a pause, added. "Do you think she’ll co to the festival?"
"If Sam doesn’t want you, I’ll take you to the Festival myself."
Tobias chuckled. "You wouldn’t. You have to go see your brother and mother."
"And I will but my mother and brother wouldn’t like it if they knew one of my best friends needed and I ignored him." Ronan told him.
Tobias stared at him with a raised eyebrow, not believing a word from Ronan’s mouth.
"I’m serious. We could make a night of it. You, , Orion and that grumpy Lysander with so ale..." Ronan’s grin widened. "Maybe a few ladies who actually want you or ."
Tobias stopped walking just long enough to glare at him. "Are you done?"
"I am. And you may think this is a joke but if she doesn’t show up, rember that you have and Orion and also Lysander."
"And what do you think people will say when I spend the festival with you, they already talk because I spend too much ti with you guys who are older then add to the fact that my mate is also older than , I..."
"You know, there’s one thing I’ve learnt from Lysander since being his friend." Ronan told him.
"What’s that?" Tobias asked him.
"Ignore people. They’ll talk and will always talk. Hell, Lysander was for getting married to Brynhild because she’s blind. But he didn’t care. And you shouldn’t care either. You’ve been with us for years, my father practically raised you..."
"...you guys too." Tobias added.
"We only made you more notorious. But you get my point don’t you? Do what you love. Be with who you love and don’t focus on the talks. And to be sincere, I’m rooting for you and Sam, the moon goddess doesn’t make mistakes when she makes two people mates." Ronan said to him with a smile.
Tobias smiled back, feeling lighter. "Do...do you think I’d have the support from Orion and Lysander too? To pursue her?" He asked quietly.
Ronan laughed. "If you didn’t, then you’d never be able to even see her. Why do you think Orion sent her to the black market to check if you were okay?"
"You know..." Tobias began with a smile. "You’re not so much a terrible friend after all."
Ronan laughed lightly. "I never was. Now move your slow ass, we have a eting to attend."
They fell into a companionable silence, though Ronan’s grin never quite faded. The moon hung pale and swollen above the trees, and the lanterns lining the path flickered in the growing dusk. Ahead, the Council Hall lood, a massive stone structure whose carved doors were already open, warm light spilling out onto the steps.
Most of the elders were already seated when Tobias and Ronan slipped inside. Tobias scanned the room quickly. Mary sat near the far corner, her brows furrowed as she poured over a parchnt. Orion sat at the head of the table, one elbow propped on the table, while his fingers drumd a slow beat against the wood. The only empty chairs belonged to Eldric and Brynhild.
Tobias moved toward his usual seat beside Mary, nodding at her as he pulled the chair back. She didn’t look up from her parchnt, but he saw the faint quirk at the corner of her mouth.
Lysander spoke calmly. "Brynhild will not be present tonight given her condition, it’s advisable for her to remain away from anything stressful."
No one argued. Everyone knew Brynhild’s situation. It had sent an up roar through the pack the day she collapsed.
Orion turned in his seat, his sharp eyes locking on Ronan and Tobias. " Where’s Eldric? Did you guys not call him?"
Ronan imdiately found the parchnt in front of him fascinating. He tilted his head to the side, lips pursed as if deciphering a particularly complex sentence.
Tobias cleared his throat and coughed into his fist.
Orion’s brows lowered. "You forgot?" he asked Ronan.
Ronan kept staring at the parchnt for another second before slowly, sheepishly, he nodded.
Orion exhaled through his nose. "How," he said, voice flat, "did you forget, when I specifically sent you to Eldric’s ho?"
Tobias and Ronan glanced at each other, the unspoken don’t you dare say anything passing between them like lightning. Both of them turned away at the sa mont, pretending deep interest in nothing at all.
Around the table, the older mbers of the council chuckled.
Daniel, sitting two seats down, leaned back in his chair with a knowing smile. "I’d bet my sword you two didn’t even go to Eldric’s ho," he said. "My son probably dragged Tobias off sowhere else, maybe so unsuspecting woman’s ho and now you’re both pretending you forgot."
Ronan’s eyes flicked to Tobias, but he didn’t say anything. He kept his expression carefully neutral, one elbow propped on the table as if this conversation had nothing to do with him.
Orion noticed the exchange, his eyes narrowing. But he let it go, for now.
"I’ll send soone," he said at last. He pushed his chair back, walked out into the corridor, and summoned one of the guards. The sound of his low voice carried back into the hall for a mont before fading.
They waited.
Ten minutes. Twenty. Thirty. And there was still no sign of Eldric.
It wasn’t the first ti he’d pulled sothing like this. Everyone knew how Eldric and his mate, Jeffery, were always tangled up with each other, always late to everything that Eldric deed unimportant. He was particularly bored with these etings but they had decided to have it in the morning but given how they were swamped with work and arrangents for the festival, the eting had been pushed.
At last Orion returned, his face set in a grim line. "He’s not coming is he?" Orion asked and they all chuckled.
"We’ll begin without him," he said simply.
A sigh rippled through the room, but chairs shifted, parchnts were straightened, and the council settled.
Orion steepled his fingers. "The first matter," he said, "is the Festival of the Fallen. It begins tomorrow. We’ll go through the final touches and make sure all the remaining mbers are accounted for before nightfall."
Ronan leaned forward. "We’ll need more volunteers for night watch and preferably those that wouldn’t get drunk on duty."
Caspian chuckled. "That’s impossible. It’s the festival of the fallen, most people get drunk."
Mary spoke up for the first ti, her voice crisp. "I can do it."
"And how will you fight if sothing happens? You’d swing your hamr?" Tobias asked her.
"Do you want to see what my hamr can do?" She asked him.
Before they could start arguing, Orion spoke up. "And also, the last mbers of the pack will be coming in tonight against the festival."
"All rooms are available. Food accounted for and everything." Madam Tyler noted.
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