I went back and finished my bath, Suzan came inside with me and fell back asleep. But as soon as I came out of the bath she woke up and used the toilet.

I prepared 2 omelettes for us but we had nothing else to eat along with it, so both of us just convinced our crying hearts that it was enough food for breakfast.

Suddenly I heard people outside. The pack was probably here, I saw them far away arguing at the top of their lungs as they walked here.

“I’m telling you this is the Exact location she sent me!”, a girl with red hair and fair skin argued. She must be Arina.

Sam argued back with a ridiculed expression, “why would anyone live here! It’s a century-old rundown house.”

“That’s exactly what Suzan said! Selene lives in an inhabitable place!”, shouted Arina Hitting her palm with the fingers of another hand.

They continued their argument and I walked outside to the deck of my house, but both of them were so busy that they didn’t notice me. A young boy, probably 17-18 years old, finally noticed me and pointed towards me.

“Look there she is! Arina was right, you lose your bet sam”, said the young boy with a mischievous face.

Both Arina and Sam looked at me and I waved at them, they came running towards me. And Arina jumped up the broken stairs while Sam didn’t notice them being broken, and he tripped, barely holding himself up.

My hand covered my mouth trying to keep my laughter as unnoticeable as possible.

“Ahem…Be careful!” I said suppressing my laughter.

“I am fine,” He straightened himself as if nothing happened, “Why do you live here Selene?” Sam inquired.

I rubbed my neck embarrassed, “It’s kind of my inheritance.”

“Waaahhhhh, why would your parents give you such an inheritance?” Arina ridiculed.

“This actually attacked during ‘the great war of the outskirts’ decades ago, I guess that’s why the house is in shambles!” My mind tried to remember a part of my life that was buried away with my cold childhood memories.

“Oh, sorry to hear that”, said Sam as if he knew exactly how serious the consequences of the war were. Most of our generation knew as the war took place around the time we were born.

But Arina had a different curiosity on her face, “So are you a Warchild? Just like Channing!”

My jaw dropped on how to answer that, Warchild were the special breeds as a result of stupid ritual. There were only five Warchilds who were smuggled out of the kingdom in an attempt to save their innocent lives. But very little is known to the general public about the truth of that common surname, which only five people in the entire kingdom owned.

I looked at Arina and replied laughing a bit, “Not really, I have my mom and dad with me. They just didn’t accompany me here, to Winterwells”

The young boy I saw earlier spoke curiously, “Do Warchild surnames have an origin?”

Arina immediately beamed up as if it was her subject of passion, “During the great war of the outskirts, all the five villages surrounding kingdom Adalolpha tried to rise and revolutionise. But some scheming ministers from the king’s court tricked the villages into going against one another, that my boy is THE GREAT WAR OF THE OUTSKIRTS!”

The young boy looked confused at her and asked again, “But what do you mean by Warchild? Isn’t Channing a Warchild, but his father isn’t!”

“Yes, yes!” Said Arian, going crazy to explain further, I could tell that history is her favourite subject. The amount of passion oozing out of her was making me excited. She continued,

“During the war, villages attacked each other, it was a cruel massacre. A lot of parents died, so did their babies. It was a gruesome time to have lived in! But the families of Alpha from all the villages snuck their babies out of the kingdom overnight, no one knows yet who that noble person was who had saved those few innocent souls. After the war was over he brought the babies back here, returning them to their respective homelands. No one knew who these babies belonged to so the village elders adopted them and decided to name them as Warchilds with honour!”

I could totally see twinkles in her eyes as she talked about the history, it was way more gruesome than how Arian explained it, but this was enough to explain the young boy’s question.

The young boy also looked interested as he went on hearing more and more, not stopping Arina at all.

“And do you know why Warchild’s are considered special?” Jumped Arina, not being able to stop herself, it somehow reminded me of my childhood days when I would read books and run to my mother to explain something interesting I learned that day. But I guess her love for me was only till she had a son.

“The system of marriage during those days was mmmm bmbbmm..”, Arina’s mumbles suddenly took my attention.

“Alright that’s enough for today”, said Sam covering Arina’s mouth, “Everyone is already tired because of a sleepless night, let them at least take some rest you antiquity freak.”

Everyone had a little laugh looking at them as Arina tried to get out of Sam’s hold and he dragged her inside my rundown house like a hostage while her words struggled to be set free. I might ask the entire story from her later.

I looked at the young boy who was a bit bummed by that half information, he had dark skin colour exactly like Sam. I gave him a light pat on his back, “If you like to hear so much about history I’ll recommend you some books, I have read a lot of them!”

“No thanks”, he said embarrassed totally going red in my presence, “I don’t like to read, I can hear all I want!… and umm…” he tried to find his words just to speak them out fast for me to understand immediately, “I’ll ask the rest from sister Arina later”, and he ran off inside the house.

I chuckled at his shyness, pursing my lips with wide eyes, it made me feel like I was getting older than I actually am.

Turning around to face everyone I bowed apologetically, “I’m sorry we caused you trouble last night and sorry for this cramped place for you to crash after that. I don’t really have any breakfast left, sorry about that as well. Please come inside and make yourself comfortable, if possible at home”

“You are fine, it is all that matters!”, said a blonde guy.

Another guy who looked exactly the same as the previous one but with a beanie and baggy eyes joined in, “Ya Selene, your safety was our only concern. And don’t worry about the breakfast Sam made us bring it along, he is the MOMMY of our pack”

Everyone laughed at his comment and it kind of relieved me, I should get at least the lower level of this house fixed up. I didn’t mind inviting them to my condo but for future purposes, I had a genuine feeling that everyone would be crashing here pretty often.

I believe this was only half of the pack, as the number of members I saw at the court were a lot more. But with half of them here, my once precious bedroom was now jam-packed.

I guess the other members still hate me, I will have to start with their trust first if I want the pack on my side. After all, my mission started with gaining these people’s trust.

But that can wait for some time, all that I cared about was a stomach full of breakfast right now.

There were about 20 people in my bedroom right now, but they weren’t cramped at all. It was as if this was their normal, seeing them so comfortable made me comfortable. They already felt at home and it made me feel like a part of them.

I barely knew 2-3 people from among them but it already felt like sitting with my family. The lustres of the palace felt nothing in front of this environment, there was nothing I wanted more than to be a part of this.

Suddenly Suzan’s stomach sent out a whale call when there was a pin drop silence and everyone burst out laughing.

She shrugged and explained, “We barely had anything to eat here.”

Sam put a hand on her shoulder and said, “We bought double the food for you and Selene so eat up”

Suzan jumped out of the bed and sat down crossing her legs ready to be served, I giggled and sat down as well with everyone else. It was a bit awkward as I didn’t know most of them, but they had already counted me as one of them.

Sam distributed the food packages to everyone and we all had our breakfast in a cramped yet comfortable place, making fun of each other like a huge family. This is the family I would die for, this is the family I would live for!