A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Wholly uninterested in all this relationship business, the now twelve-year-old, first-ranked Alice was getting impatient, because Erik had promised her something: not only would she get to strike a blow against Aria, Victor's boss, but she'd also get to fight in a real battle.

With everyone's attention now on her, Seraphina seemed to only now truly realize her existence. "Who's the pipsqueak?" she asked curiously, before suddenly turning horrified. "Wait, she's not a part of this harem thing, right?!"

Unfortunately for her, after just settling everyone down a little again, this comment once again caused the group to glare at her.

"Pipsqueak?!" Alice exclaimed furiously, and with clearly defined priorities. She changed into her wereverine form threateningly, despite knowing there was nothing she could do.

Erik looked at Seraphina with the first genuine anger he'd shown her. "Of course not! Who the fuck do you think I am?!" he snarled, as a shiver of disgust travelled through his spine.

Over the past year, he'd slowly come to see Alice as more than just a student, or a stray he'd picked up somewhere. She was becoming more like an adoptive daughter.

Although he'd yet to do anything with that knowledge, partly because he didn't know how Alice felt about it. He'd been partially responsible for her biological father's death, after all. It felt wrong to offer her adoption now.

But that was an issue for another time.

Right now, seeing the others glaring at her, Erik's vehement denial, and Alice's wrong priorities, caused Seraphina to purse her lips and fold her arms in front of her chest.

"Don't pretend like it would have been so impossible," she grumbled stubbornly. "There's plenty of terrible people out there, and I don't actually know you all that well yet."

She'd already apologized once, and she wasn't going to do it again so soon after. It was mostly just Emily who caused her to back down before, anyway.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Regardless, it was clear that she still seemed insistent on finding faults with Erik wherever she could, something that neither Erik nor Elora failed to notice.

She claimed not to know him that well yet, but there was no way she didn't realize he could have done far worse to her a year ago. Plus, just before, she automatically assumed Erik wouldn't do anything to her, clearly showing she had some idea of his character.

But that begged the question, why was she so insistent on finding fault with him?

"I think she's a lot like Emily was at first," Elora mused inside his mind. "She's probably trying to deny her own interest in you with aggression and hostility." Then, she giggled a little, "I'd love to see what lies beneath that upper layer of denial. Emily proved to be pretty interesting."

Erik mentally smirked a little when he remembered the fun process of guiding Emily out of her denial shell. But then he shook his head in amusement and answered his partner, "I doubt there's a masochist hiding under there like there was with Emily."

Elora pursed her lips with a slight smile, "Maybe not, but she still has a powerful affinity, is a vampire who can easily be strengthened through your blood, and has a Councillor for a father. Making her fall for you, and turning into one of your wives, would be beneficial for us."

Her lips curled into a knowing smirk, "Besides, you can't tell me you're not interested in her. She's prideful, powerful, loyal, talented, and beautiful. Totally your type." Then she giggled, "I'm sure she has a great many suiters back in the Council, wouldn't it be great to take her away from them?"

Elora painted quite the enticing picture, and Erik couldn't deny she was right, but there was one problem, which caused him to sigh with regret, "You're right, of course… but I won't have time. We're out of here by tomorrow evening, and that's not enough time."

At that point, Elora started chuckling in the way she did when she was scheming against someone. A sound that Erik actually found one of the most attractive things about his first wife—he loved when she started plotting.

Elora's told him her plan, which was short and to the point, but should still accomplish their goal.

As always, their conversation only took a few seconds, which meant the initial shock and outrage over Seraphina's comment only just passed.

With his previous anger abated, Erik now chuckled at an indignant Alice who was still glaring at Seraphina over the pipsqueak comment, rather than anything else.

To calm her down a little, he walked over and started petting her furry head. Immediately, the transformed wereverine's lips curled into a satisfied smile, despite still looking offended.

"Little Alice here is my student," a calmer Erik now explained to Seraphina. "I promised her she'd be allowed to fight today after a year of training with me."

Then he turned to Alice with a raised eyebrow, "But only close to me, right?"

"Yeah, yeah," Alice pouted, before finally losing her indignant expression, turned her glare away from Seraphina, and looking at Erik with excitement sparkling in her eyes. "So, when are we getting started?!"

Erik chuckled indulgently, "We won't be fighting until tomorrow, remember? Today we're just here for recon."

Ignoring the frustrated groan coming from Alice with a small grin, Erik turned back to Seraphina. "So, Katya mentioned you had already started scouting ahead. Care to fill us in?"

To which the vampire sighed, "Right…" and then turned around while waving them along, "Come on. I'll show you what we're dealing with."

* * *

For the next few hours, Seraphina showed them the surroundings of Bamburgh, and the mostly restored defensive walls of the Bamburgh castle.

Of course, had those walls been their unaltered, pre-awakening walls, they would have provided no obstacle at all to this group of second rankers. But unfortunately, it came as no surprise that this Councillor had made sure to fortify his home with sigils and other defensive measures.

There was also a veritable army of first rankers stationed there, along with a small group of second rankers.

All-in-all, it looked like a place that would be hard to take for just five second-rankers and a first ranker, which was why Seraphina reacted with shock at Erik's plan.

"What do you mean frontal assault?!" she exclaimed with a slack jaw.