It was raining, plain and simple. Dark clouds covered the sky in a sheet of liquid gasses. Droplets of water fell to the ground quietly, and yet the sound of them all together made a loud patter to the ears of lycanthropes. The wind was dancing on the grounds, pulling the trees along with them like ladies asking for a dance. It seemed as if time had stopped for the sky to feed the vegetation down below.

Kelsi had been sitting in the dining room, playing with a small package of Pop-Tart that she had yet to touch. She was staring down at a notebook with the word “ADELPHUS” scribbled at the top. There were many notes on the Ulfric of the pack. Lists from his favorite time to go outside to how many times a month he clips his toenails and at what time of day. Even though Kelsi had all of this random information, though, she noticed that she had nothing on his past . . . at all.

As Kelsi tapped the end of her pen on the table, she realized that the only way to get the information was to illegally hack into city files and match them with the files of all the other cities in the world to see what she came up with. Then again, she could always ask. Kelsi looked out the window to Adelphus Beckett, who was sitting in a gazebo in his garden. She turned back and looked down at her notebook ‘10:47 a.m., sitting in the first chair to the right of the entrance of the gazebo in the back garden of the house.’ She wrote under this passage: ‘11:21 a.m., sitting in the first chair to the right of the entrance of the gazebo in the back garden of the house.’

Sighing, Kelsi made her decision to go out and ask him upright the questions that had been buzzing in her mind ever since she had joined the Puteulanus Luna Pack. Standing up from the chair, Kelsi threw the Pop-Tart and it’s rapper in the nearest trash can and walked down the hall and out the backdoor of the house. Rain pelted her as soon as she made it out there, and she was glad that she thought to start writing all of this down on a notebook and in pen.

Once the wolf made her way to the entrance of the gazebo, she knocked lightly on the side of the doorway into it, to tell Adelphus that she was here. “Sorry if I interrupted you. Do you have time? I have a few questions that have been wandering around in my mind, and I can’t stand it any longer not to have them answered,” she said, being a bit more blunt that she was actually trying to be. She didn’t want to come off to him as someone trying to get information out of him to sell him out or anything. She was a curious person, that was all, yet some people choose not to believe that.

Sitting in the gazebo and watching the rain as it fell over his zen garden, Adelphus took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, savouring the scent of rain and the sounds of it pattering along the ground. So relaxing...until a knock at the door and the presence of Kelsi getting closer that is.

Taking his hands from his knees he looked up at the young wolf and motioned for her to take a seat beside him on one of the cushions. There was a pot of steaming green tea before them on a small brazier and as always two cups incase he had guests. Pouring her a cup then one for himself, he placed the cup on a small mat before Kelsi then took a sip of his own tea before answering her.

"I always have time for my wolves, Kelsi. Ask away."

Kelsi smiled as she was ushered to sit beside her Ulfric. Light lit up her face as she thought that these questions might not sound too personal. He might have had a perfectly normal childhood, and Kelsi was just too scared to ask him about it. Of course, there was always the chance that the questions she was going to ask would offend him, and she would be pushed away. No, she didn’t want that. She wanted to find out the information she needs, but do it carefully. And that was something she wasn’t very good at succeeding in.

The wolf handed Kelsi a cup of green tea. As she thanked him and took the cup, she would feel the warmness of the tea inside heating up her body. She then took a sip of it, and realized that it this type of tea actually tasted very good. She took another sip and looked down at her notebook, pen poised for the ready of taking down notes if he felt like giving the information.

“Well,” she said, looking up at Adelphus and sighing. “I have a lot of information about almost everyone in this pack, and it helps me out if I need questions answered. Though, I have a lot of information about your day-to-day doings, I don’t have any information about what you were like, or what happened in your life before I came to the pack.” Kelsi twiddled her pen in her fingers. “Would you be willing to tell me?”

Smiling at Kelsi as he saw that she enjoyed the tea, Adelphus slid his hands into the sleeves of his kimono and waited patiently for her to ask what was on her mind. He had known about her almost compulsive data collecting on the Pack and knew that she liked to observe him practically all day every day, so he was mildly curious as to what more she could want to know.

When she finished talking he had a few minutes of silence, looking at Kelsi calmly as he thought on what she wanted. There were things in his past he was ashamed of, things he was proud of, and things only he knew. He didn't know how much Kelsi would want to know, but he wouldn't refuse a Pack member unless it was a very serious thing and he knew Kelsi's data collection was mainly sheer curiosity rather than for use against anybody she observed. Giving a soft sigh he smiled slightly then nodded, settling more comfortably on his cushion.

"Is there a certain part of my life you would like to know about, since coming to America or back when I was in Japan too?"

Kelsi beamed as her Ulfric nodded to her question of finding out about his past. She was so happy that she didn’t have to force it out of him, as she could be extremely persuasive when she wanted to be. At least, that’s what she thought. Kelsi uncapped her pen with her mouth and put the pad of paper in her lap. Looking up, the wolf thought about how she could ask for a complete and detailed story of his life from his point of view, without sounding too rude. Of course, she had already been a bit blunt with him today. What was wrong with a little more?

“Well,” Kelsi struggled for words, and rocked back and forth on her knees while doing so. She bit on the end of her pen and started down at the paper. She didn’t know how to start . . . at all! Suddenly, there was a flash of light, and thunder roared through the sky. Kelsi’s head popped up as she leaned on toward Adelphus. “I really just want to know everything!” she said, lips twitching a bit forcing a smile. “I don’t mean to be rude, but you’re the only pack member I don’t have any information about. I want to know things like . . . were you in a Japanese mafia? Did your father looks just like you? How old were you when you first punched someone?” she whispered effortlessly, and excitedly, not wanting wandering ears to hear their conversation.

Adelphus almost wanted to chuckle and pat Kelsi's head as she rocked on her knees and thought. So many questions and yet she did not have the words to ask them, it was sweet to watch. Or would of been had he not found himself strangely nervous about what she could ask. Of course, asking to know about everything didn't help, but he'd start with answering the specific questions she came up with for now.

"The mafia does not exist in Japan so I was not in it, my father and I do have similar looks yes, and I think I was 11 if memory serves."

Smiling at Kelsi, Adelphus waited for round two with his well known gentle patience in full force. Nervousness was something even the most distracted of his wolves could sense, and Kelsi would latch onto it in a heartbeat if she felt it.

Kelsi eyed Adelphus as he answered her questions one by one. She could feel something wandering around under his skin, and it wasn’t his wolf, yet more like a feeling of his wolf. She cleared her throat, quickly writing down every word that poured out of the Ulfric’s mouth. She smiled at both the second and the last answers. “Thanks.” she said, and finished the last word on the pad of paper. She stared the paper for a while, as if memorizing the contents of the questions and the answers that came after them.

She looked up again and put her chin in her hand, thinking again. She could feel this feeling through and through now. He was nervous, but nervous of what? Was he afraid Kelsi would ask the wrong question? Kelsi knew that it was horrible, but she now wanted to find out what those particular questions were and ask them straight away. Shaking her head, and putting on a fake smile, she started to think up more questions to ask him.

“Before you were bitten...” Kelsi started, choosing her words extremely carefully, as not to offend her alpha. “...did you ever see someone die?” she asked, putting the pen to her chin and tapping it there silently, looking at Adelphus with understanding and waiting for the answer that was soon to come.

Staring calmly at Kelsi, Adelphus' pulse slowed slightly as he thought. He hated to seem rude and knew that this answer would probably make her all the more curious, but he did not want to say anything until he truly had no choice. He would never lie or hold things back from his Pack, but he didn't have to out everything at once.

"Yes."

Kelsi smiled at the sincerely of his answer, and nodded as she quickly wrote down the word ‘yes’ on her pad of paper. She didn’t know whether she should press on, and ask who the person was, why they died, when they died, where they died, and the like. She wanted to know everything now that she knew that Adelphus had seen someone die. Somehow she didn’t think that it was his pet cat Snuffles, and that made her al the more curious about his life back in Japan.

The words spilled out of her before Kelsi could even contemplate how Adelphus would act to her questioning, “Were you the one that killed that person?” she asked. Kelsi then blinked, realizing what she had just said and looked down, blushing. “Sorry...” she whispered.

Adelphus smiled softly and inclined his head at Kelsi's reaction to her own slip of the tongue, her apology not needed in the face of her innocent curiosity. Once again he found himself wanting to draw this out. He wanted to get the chance to be around a Pack member, to let her get what she wanted, and keep some of the worse things about him out of public view all at once.

"I did not say how many people I had seen Kelsi, and do not worry. Curisotiy is a virtue at times, you just have to learn to make sure the nose you put into things is well protected at times. Not everybody enjoys curious people like I do."

Kelsi twiddled her thumbs together and nodded like a scolded child, looking up at Adelphus finally. She studied his face for any sign of lying.“Does that mean,” she started, still a bit unsure about herself since the slip of her tongue. “Does that mean that you’ve seen many people killed?” she asked finally. She felt a bit better after getting this out, and felt a bit more sure of herself whenever she spoke next.

“You weren’t the cause, though... right, Adelphus?” she asked, thinking that the information she was getting had to be some kind of bluff to make his life seem more interesting. Unless he had been in a war-... wait. Kelsi looked up. “Were you in a war?” she asked. She was trying to figure all of this out in her head. There was no way that Adelphus- kind, compassionate, calm, Ulfric Adelphus could be the person that he was shaping his past out to be... could he?

The look of shock and that of a scolded child on Kelsi's face made Adelphus want to hold her to him and sooth her, tell her that the world was not what he knew it was, keep her safe. She was so innocent and child-like still. He sat and stared quietly at Kelsi for a few minutes as he thought, then sighed and straightened his posture, head high. She wanted to know and he would tell her, he was her Ulfric and that was how it should be.

"I have seen more than I would like die, yes." here he paused a moment. He had to struggle to bring himself to say this outloud, to admit it after so many years of keeping it deep inside where it belonged, and now somebody wanted to know. "And I was involved in most of them, just as I was involved in wars. Of a sort."

A cold wind blew passed the two wolves conversing, and Kelsi shivered because of it. Her wolf enjoyed the cold, with snow and rain falling, and this was a different type of a shiver going through her body. She didn’t understand. Kelsi sat beside Adelphus in awe, listening to him as if he was her grandfather telling her about the day of old when he was a child. He said all of these interestingly horrible things with his head held high, as if it didn’t hurt him one bit to tell her what happened. She envied him for his composure while speaking of something so scary.

Rain started pattering down on the ground as Kelsi sat there, trying to think of what to say, what to ask. After all, her Ulfric had answered her question, and was probably waiting for her to say something else. Kelsi scolded herself for being in such a state of shock. She had thought that something like this would have come out during the questioning that she was doing to him, yet she had not prepared on how to act if it did. She sighed.

Kelsi waited a few moments before opening her mouth again. She had completely forgotten her pen and pad of paper, as everything that Adelphus was saying had an impact on her, and was being stored away in a special space of her mind that she left open for things that she feared she would ever forget. “Of a sort? What do you mean? Isn’t a war a war? Were there soldiers and the like? Were they your friends?” she asked innocently, not meaning to bombard him with questions so quickly after his telling her that he had killed a good number of people.

"I mean, Kelsi, that they were wars and yes they were soldiers in their own minds, and yes they were always battles fought for the same reasons that conventional wars are fought, but they were not wars like the gonverments start. Like countries start."

Traliing off slightly, Adelphus' eyes misted over as he thought, reliving some of the moments he was talking about so as to be able to better explain it.

"Have you ever felt so strongly about something that you would fight for it? You would do what is necessary to keep what you have and to do what others expect of you. The people who fought were soliders because they fought for what they believed in, but they were not the soldiers with uniforms and medals. They could be considered my friends yes. Some of them were, but others were just soldiers. Pawns in the bigger game, no matter how much I would wish it otherwise."

Kelsi nodded unconsciously as she listened to Adelphus’ story. She seemed to understand it perfectly, and yet she didn’t understand it at all. What did he mean by wars not fought by the government or by countries? Surely he didn’t mean gang wars like the ones she had heard of exist in large cities over territory and people and information. She just could not see her Ulfric in a war fought like that. It seemed too inhuman for him. Of course, she had no idea what went on in these wars, and so she had no room to talk.

Kelsi stared into the other wolf’s eyes are they started to look dazed and glazed over, as if he was looking right through her. He was remembering, Kelsi could tell, about something a long time ago in his life. She wanted to ask what he was thinking of, but stopped herself in fear of halting the story even more.

When asked about feeling strongly about something – something that she would fight for, Kelsi thought back to her family and things in her life that had seemed so normal to her until now. She was never very passionate about anything. At least, that’s what she collected. She might have believed in something and not known about it. Her mind was a maze with things like this. She was never sure about herself, and yet she nodded anyway.

Kelsi scooted closer to Adelphus, eager to hear more about it, like a small child to a fire on a cold winter’s night. She wanted to know more, and she hoped that the wolf in front of her wouldn’t stop there. “Tell me about your life,” she said simply, and yet the request held so much pain for Adelphus, she knew. She wanted to see just how passionate he was about giving her the information she needed, and about his previous life that he had so easily (or so she believed) he left it behind.

Blinking the haze from his eyes as Kelsi moved closer, Adelphus' wolf wanted to growl and tried in vain to make Adelphus stand and walk away from this. He could say no to her, he was Ulfric not her. Growling at Adelphus, he made a stand against the man for the first time in years, telling him that some things were not worth it, and despite honour and keepiing promises being important, things that hurt yourself should not be embraced and let in all the further to wound you more. Adelphus simply stared at his wolf, not saying a thing, until the wolf slumped down and resigned itself to the fact that Adelphus never went back on what he said he would do. He had promised Kelsi and he would not go back on that.

"Do you want me to start from the beginning or from the part that interests you the most from what I can gather from your questions?"

“I want to know everything.” Kelsi said simply, leaning back on her hands. She had not noticed the internal struggle between the wolf and her Ulfric, but she did realize that she might be pushing him to his breaking point. The last time she had made a dominant male upset was her father. She could not remember what it was about, but she had made him cry, and she never wanted to see that on the face of another that she looked up to, and defiantly not on Adelphus.

Kelsi glanced over at the zen garden that Adelphus had going in the back yard. As the rain fell, Kelsi could see the drops hit the stones and plants, making dark streaks down the stone. Everyone had dark streaks, and Kelsi shouldn’t be judging Adelphus for his. He had changed, Kelsi thought as she turned back to smiled at Adelphus.

Kelsi pulled up her legs so she could wrap her arms around her knees and set her chin on top of them. She was prepared to sit here for hours to get the information on Adelphus’ life like she hoped she would get. Her wolf – a small-framed timber wolf – as well got comfortable. She smiled at Adelphus and put a hand on his shoulder for comfort. “And so I think it would be easier if you would start from the beginning. Where were you born?” she asked. Maybe if they started with his childhood, the tension in the air would cease.

Restraining the jump that tried to come from Kelsi's hand on his shoulder, Adelphus looked at the young woman quietly then gave a slight smile, though his eyes remained sad. Taking a deep breath, he too looked out into the garden but his eyes remained focused on it, knowing that there would be times during his story that his eyes would hold something Kelsi might not like. At least that could wait until she specifically asked. His earlier childhood had been fine enough.

"I was born in Tokyo, the only son of Satoshi and Sayuri Tanaka. My real name is Ichiro Tanaka."

Kelsi’s smile ceased as Adelphus took a deep breath, getting ready to tell hi story to her. She removed her hand from his shoulder as he started to speak. His eyes were fixed on the zen garden, as hers had been not too long before, and yet he didn’t seem as if he wanted to look back at Kelsi. The young wolf girl understood, and allowed him to turn away from her while he told the story, and yet she felt a sense of pain, as if she had caused him too much grief.

The three names and the name of the city that Adelphus was born in were written down on the pad of paper by Kelsi’s hand. She had ceased in relying on her mind to remember all of the information she was about to receive, and had started on a new sheet of paper specifically for this conversation about his past life. “That’s a nice name,” Kelsi commented, trying to make Adelphus feel more at ease. “What was your childhood like? Did you have a nice family?” she asked, mentally pressing him on and on to further tell him about his life.

Turning his head slightly to look back at Kelsi as she made an attempt to soothe him by complimenting his name, he smiled slightly again then looked back out at the garden as he continued talking.

"My family meant well, they loved me, but my childhood was not perfect, no. By the age of 8 I was famous amongst my part of Tokyo for my musical ability and learning, I was in a year group at school three years senior to my age and was still high up in the class. I was the child prodigy that did not get a life save that which his parents thought was best, thought was nurturing his gift. I was happy for a while, but before I was even a young man I was already rebelling. As I told you earlier, I first punched somebody when I was 11. So in short my childhood was that of an unhappy but loved child."

Kelsi listened intently as Adelphus continued on with his life story. She smiled as he looked a bit more at least with telling her these things. She wrote down all of the information she needed, and even some information that she just thought would be funny to add to her collection into the pad of paper with her pen. She noted intently on ages and specific details that he seemed to want her to know about, and nodded when he paused.

“I think I’ll stop asking so many questions now,” she said, blushing and putting her pad of paper and her pen down. “I kind of just want you to tell me the things that you want to tell me. If you don’t want to tell all of this to me, then I can go back inside,” she said calmly. She did not want to get on the wrong side of the Ulfric because she was curious about his life. For all she knew, he could think of her as an information seller, and she didn’t want anyone to think of her as that.

How does one tell somebody who trusts you, who you promised to answer when she asked questions, that you don't really want to tell anybody ever again about this? Simple, he wouldn't.

"Kelsi, you came to me with questions. Ask them and I will answer them like I said I would."

Kelsi looked at Adelphus. Her eyes bore into him, wondering if he really wanted to answer these questions, or if he was hiding his own grief behind his masked face. It was always so hard to read what Adelphus was really thinking, and this was one of those times when Kelsi gave up and did as he asked – which was, as noted, most of the time anyway.

Kelsi pulled her knees back up to her chest and pulled her pad of paper and her pen back into her hands. “If you say so...” she said, writing down a few things on the paper. If he told her that it would be fine to ask more questions, then she would trust him to know what was best for both of them. She didn’t want to go off the deep end and make him feel like he had to tell her everything.

“So... I’m kind of curious... who did you punch? And why?” she asked. When she was a teenager, at the age of 14, she had punched someone for the first time. It was her younger brother, London. She had punched him because he dared her to. Of course, Adelphus’ reason had to have been much more intricate. It seemed as if his life was something from a movie now, and that Kelsi should be eating popcorn, wondering if he was going to live or not. Shaking her head, she poised her pen again. “What happened in your teenage years?” she asked, finally, after being lost in her own thoughts.

Nodding as Kelsi picked up her pen and paper again, Adelphus turned back to look out into his garden and took a breath slowly, centering himself so as to not appear so nervous.

"I punched an older boy called Ichido Nawasaki because he had insulted my mother's honour. He announced to the class that my mother was the daughter of a local whore who had spawned me after sleeping with the most disgusting business man in the city."

Adelphus' fists tightened slightly at the memory alone, the rage he had felt as a young boy on behalf of his mother returning to him now so that he clenched his fist to surpress it although the rest of his body showed no sign of his anger. As his skin was tensed a fine map of scars stretched and became visible on his hand, not normally visible because of their age.

"During my teen years I became more and more rebellious, shunning my music and lessons. I skipped out of school when possible and soon found myself in amongst the underground that is teenage drug users and drinkers, although I myself only smoked. I never lost enough sense to do drugs. I integrated myself into them, I made friends, I found a girl, and I joined the gang to which she was attached so that I could be with her. Similar to Pack behaviour there were fights to attain a higher position within the gang and Nitta was always behind me, urging me onwards. By the age of 17 I was running the largest and most hated street gang in Tokyo."

Her Ulfric had turned back to look at his garden yet again, a look of calmness piercing his features. Kelsi looks down at the white blankness of the new piece of paper, and started to write down all that came out of Adelphus’ mouth. She could see out of the corner of her eye his fists clenching at his sides. She knew that this must have been hard for him to tell her, especially since the topic that they were conversing over was the topic of physically assaulting another person. Her eyes trailed down his arm to his clenching fists to see a line of scars, a pattern against his pale skin.

Kelsi knew that the girl of which he was speaking of had to have had some importance to the story of his life, or else he would not have mentioned her in the first place. The question blurted out of her mouth, a fine questionable glance forming on her face. “What happened to the girl?” she asked, as yet another cold wind blew around the gazebo that they were sitting in. The rain had stopped only a few minutes before her question, during Adelphus’ story. Tear-like raindrops made flowers to droop, because of the weight.

Another question came up in her mind. Adelphus was an amazing Ulfric for this pack, and worked it like it was second right to him. He understood everything that went on, and yet it seemed to her that it was different that a gang. She couldn’t comprehend the similarities between both parties, and it was hard for her to think of him, still, as a part – let alone the leader – of the largest street gang in Tokyo. Guns, drugs, fast cars, and death were the only things that plagued her mind in the form of gangs. “What happened?” she asked finally, wanting to know what brought him from the top of Tokyo’s underground (if that even made any sense) to being a pack leader in Miami, nearly 7,500 miles from his home.

Seeing Kelsi's eyes on his hands, Adelphus looked down and realised what she was looking at, yanking his hands back inside his kimono sleeves in a blur of movement. He didn't think until after he had already moved that she would wonder about his actions, but the scars came later.

Bowing his head to stare at the ground, his eyes slightly blank, he spoke in a calm but quiet voice that threatened to be carried away by the storm. Trembling slightly, he turned to look Kelsi in the eyes for the next two answers.

"She died. As the leader and his girlfriend we were both open to threats from rival leaders and the police, and we managed to fight them off for a few years, but then our main rival came into our part of the city and without warning threw a grenade into the part of the abandoned subway we were in. Many of my gang were killed, including Nitta. I dug through the rubble to find her and held her as she died, then recalled those who had survived and went into hiding."

Looking down for a moment, Adelphus thought back to the scars on his hands. Digging through so much twisted metal and stone had caused the scars and yet to this day could not remember any sensation of pain, any notion of what it felt like to receive the wounds. Looking back up at Kelsi, he stiffened his back slightly and continued.

"After another year we had recovered to almost twice our original number, our wounds were all scars long healed, and yet in my rage at seeing the man who ordered the death of so many of my people, I ordered a search and destroy on his gang. We eliminated his gang although with heavy losses, and five of us faced him in the end out of two hundred."

Shuddering slightly, Adelphus wrapped himself tighter in his kimono and stopped, his voice too choked to carry on. He needed a few moments to think of what to do.

As Adelphus pulled his hands back into his kimono, Kelsi startled, and looked into Adelphus’s eyes, wondering why he felt the need to hide something from her when he was pouring his life onto a platter before her. It confused her that he wanted to pull back now, and realized that he must have felt uncomfortable with her looking at them. They really didn’t look all that bad, at least, that’s what Kelsi tried to tell herself.

As Adelphus looked at the ground, Kelsi cleared her throat and leaned on one leg to get more comfortable. It was clear that he had grown up in Japan, as she couldn’t see how he could sit in one position like that for so long. Kelsi looked down as well, noting the uncomfortable state of things in the gazebo as of now. She felt as if she didn’t want to be there now, and didn’t want to hear what was coming up next, as if she knew it deep down.

As she listened to what happened, Kelsi couldn’t help but stare into Adelphus’s eyes as he had done to her. She couldn’t look away when he was talking about something so serious. It was as if she could see the horrible memories in his eyes, and play them back over and over again to get the full detail of things. It was surreal. A grenade in a subway. Kelsi looked down from his eyes for a split second, swearing to herself. She could have sworn she heard the explosion in her head.

Adelphus straightened his back, and Kelsi did so as well, not wanting to offend him. She had a sense of respect for this man, and it had grown since this story had started. She had never known a life to be so frightening. Kelsi was sheltered most all her life, and she was known to be a bit innocent when it came to most things. All this talk of grenades, gangs, and mental wounds were making her eyes open to how things really were, and that they weren’t going to change.

Kelsi’s wolf had been growing immensely inside of her. Its emotions swelled up, and begged to come out of her mouth. She wanted to ask him how he felt and dive deeper into his feelings at that point in time, but she couldn’t find the voice. She could barely speak when the Ulfric started up again about the final fight of his two hundred in number.

Five to one. It looked to Kelsi as if the ending of this was easy to guess. The number in her head clicked logically that he had won. He had to have won, and that this man that he was talking about wasn’t as bad or as strong as Adelphus made him out to be. Doubt was one of the things that Kelsi rarely thought about. She was right, she knew. He had to have won the fight. He had to.

Kelsi was silent for a few moments to let her Ulfric think of what he wanted to say next. He was wrapped up in his kimono, and she had a thought that it wasn’t because of the cold wind that continued to blow passed the two of them. The rain had stopped, but the sky was littered with dark clouds, threatening to start up again. “What happened . . . after the fight?” she asked, breaking the silence with a barely audible whisper. “Who won?”

Raising his face to Kelsi as she spoke, the slightly lost look in his eyes vanishing steadily to be replaced by a slight coldness though it did not loose his gentle hint of a smile. He may of been telling her some harsh truths about himself, but he was still her Ulfric and trust between them was one of the things he valued so very much.

Licking his lips slowly to moisten his mouth, he slid his hands from inside his kimono and pressed his palms together, in a motion like praying, through his fingers pointed slightly towards the ground rather than to the heavens. She knew about the scars, he had no need to hide them now.

"I did."

Lowering his eyes for a moment, Adelphus did not feel the need to point out to Kelsi that he said 'I' as in one person out of five survived. It seemed obvious that that was what had happened.

"Unknown to us the other leader was a wolf, something some of us had heard of but did not believe in. I was one of them, until he partially shifted and decapitated two of my men in the first few moments of battle. The others died later one by one, unable to stay away from his claws or teeth, but I was more skilled than them. I think it was luck in part, for what hope does a human fighter have against a wolf without some assistance. He punched his claws through my stomach and bit into my shoulder, meaning to pull me apart at my centre, but I used a sword that happened to be silver though I did not know its properties, and decapitated him before pulling his claws out of my stomach. That was what made me a wolf."

Staring at Kelsi still, Adelphus seemed to suddenly relearn to breathe and his chest started moving, not realising he had held his breath towards the end of his story.

"In my quest for revenge before I killed the leader, I killed eighty three men Kelsi. It is not something I am proud of, and I would beg of you now, not as your Ulfric but as your friend, to never seek revenge. It takes you to places you should never hope to visit."

Kelsi’s eyes slid down Adelphus’ arms as he brought his hands out. She could see the scars fully now, and she wasn’t afraid to look at them. He wasn’t afraid of her seeing them, and she was glad that she needed not to hold back her curiosity from him. Not that she had been before, but there are times when you didn’t want to push another to their limits. Kelsi had heard about what he could do through his own lips, and she didn’t want to end up like any one person that he had encountered and not liked. It was scary to think of her Ulfric in this way, but it was the truth.

A smile graced Kelsi’s features as she learned about her Ulfric’s accomplishment. She had been right then, to think that Adelphus had won the fight. But then another idea hit her square in the chest, and her eyes lowered, along with her smile. He was the only one who survived the fight, he meant. She bit her lip unconsciously and listened to the story of the fight. Just thinking of one of her friends being pulled apart by the middle, being killed piece by piece, was just sickening to her. Tears burned in her eyes as she looked up, not realizing the fact. Clearing her throat, she made a calm expression.

If it had not been for her intense curiosity in what happened after the fight with the leader of the gang, Kelsi’s eyes would have surely betrayed her, leaking out tears. Thankfully, though, they had not, and a horrid question formed in her head like mist. What happened during his first change? Where did it happen, and was anyone there with him? Was he prepared? Did he know what to do? And worse of all . . . did he kill anyone? So many questions.

Her wolf howled inside of her with the confusion. Headache – surely. Kelsi raised a hand to her temple, pen just barely missing her ear. Her wolf wouldn’t shut up, and the questions that she needed to ask didn’t help, either. “What happened after that?” she asked, bundling all of the questions up into one. The headache pounded in her head, and she wanted to yell at her wolf to shut up. Lightening struck again, this time closer to the house than usual. Nothing was calm anymore.

Watching the smile appear then slowly fade from Kelsi's face Adelphus felt like he had lost something vital to him, something he valued so much. If his own Pack feared him or what he had done....no, Kelsi was not moving away, she still had questions. This was a good sign, even if he could see the confusion both she and her wolf were having, so many questions for one mind.

Moving forwards slightly Adelphus gently placed his hand on Kelsi's knee and let his energy drift over her more freely, giving her a chance to calm her wolf and get her thoughts in order so that she was not so confused. After a few minutes he removed his hand with a soft smile then settled back to his original position. He had more to answer and wouldn't let her down.

"I didn't know how to explain my wounds to a hospital without admitting that a wolf-like creature had inflicted them, something I thought would make me seem insane, so I went to ground. I found a back alley doctor who asked no questions and he patched up my wounds and I left the same night. I healed and was trying to recover the losses from my gang but my heart was no longer in it, I did not want to lead them anymore, so I got them reorganised under a new leader then left for a more rural section of Tokyo, away from everything I had grown up with. At the next full moon I had my first shift, I did not know what was happening but I had enough instinct to get myself to a large unpopulated area and I stayed there for the first week after I shifted back, not knowing how often it would happen or how or why. I didn't want to admit to myself that I was now like the man I had killed, but over time I learned control and came back to where I had been living. I learned all I know of wolves from myself and my own wolf, we have never argued or had to fight each other for I never resisted him from the beginning. At first because I didn't know how to but then because I knew he had enough sense to not be rash."

Pausing a moment, Adelphus gave a soft smile to Kelsi, still trying to appear as non-threatening as he could. He knew she was thinking of how capable he was at killing as a human let alone a wolf, and he did not want that.

"And now, four years after my first shift here we sit."

As Adelphus scooted closer to Kelsi, she could feel him lay a hand on her thigh. She shivered as she could feel the tension stuck in her head fade away. Even this, though, did not calm down her wolf. It continued to howl in her head, as if under unease of something. Looking back to Adelphus, a storm was raging in her eyes. She was determined to get the information she wanted no matter what. Now that there was no more noise in her head, she felt as if she was empty now.

She finally decided to listen quietly to his story. Of course he couldn’t go to a doctor, but how did he know about the underground doctor? And why did that doctor say nothing about the severe wounds and the hurt that he was in? She could understand his leaving, for he couldn’t stay after such a loss. Even contemplating the fact would leave him in mental terror. ‘Something like this shouldn’t be thrust upon someone as kind as the Ulfric’, she thought. It did, though, seem like her leader to think of the people of Tokyo’s safety before his and to keep them safe.

Though he had left the gang that he had been with for most of his life, Adelphus was still in the country of Japan. He had not mentioned how he had left the country yet, and Kelsi hoped that he wasn’t leading up to a bloodbath, and was trying to figure out a good way to put it. She didn’t think she could face another mental scene like the last with the same calmness that she had kept. Thunder roared across the sky as Kelsi looked down, realizing that she had missed most of the conversation, and had been doodling little symbols that had no meaning to her. He had skipped completely the time between his first change to now.

Kelsi sighed. “Why did you skip things? I know you didn’t just pop up here randomly. Did you take a ship here? Or a plane? Did you meet anyone important? Did anything tragic happen? Were there people that wanted to kill you chasing you? How old were you when you left? Did you intend on coming to Miami? Di- Oh . . . ” she blushed and rubbed the back of her neck. “Sorry . . . I was a bit carried away . . . ” she muttered, clearing her throat.

Blinking slightly at Kelsi's sigh, something far more forward than he would of expected from her, Adelphus waited patiently for the tirade of new questions to stop before taking a breath slowly and clenching his palms together.

"I had no money easily available to me so I started working on the docks with fishing boats and earned enough to get by on whilst I sorted through everything that had happened to me. I needed a chance to come to terms with it all and so I stayed there for a year and kept working, finally earning enough money to book a place on a boat to America. I landed in New York and from there went to the Japanese embassy and told them that I had no money with me, it was all in my bank back in Tokyo. Being who I was for so long I had plenty of money, so I took it all out via a transfer and left New York with all of my money with me. I heard about Miami not having a Pack and wanted to come here to see if there were any lone wolves I could speak to and see if being alone was as bad as it was for me. But, then I found Katt and the others and we grew into the Pack we are now. I did not come here looking for leadership, it fell on me, but I would not forsake this leadership for all the world. It means far more to me than the gang ever did."

Kelsi nodded as Adelphus started to speak again, this time remembering to take notes. She hadn’t meant to go off on the rampage that she had just gotten done with, and she hoped that the wolf leader in front of her wasn’t angry with her. Kelsi pictured in her head Adelphus on the Japanese docks, working for the money to be able to get out of the country. He said that he was able to sort through his feelings and everything that had happened to him, but it seemed to her that the docks would be the busiest place in Japan, other than the cities and the underground. After all, it was surrounded by water, and had many ships coming in and out.

Thinking about it, Kelsi placed in her head the way from Tokyo to New York. It was roughly 6,700 miles from there to New York. If he had gotten up the money to pay for a boat ride, then he would have left Tokyo and sailed on the Pacific Ocean, going through the Panama Canal, and then back up to reach his destination if he only went by a boat. He must have seen many things while on that boat ride. Kelsi had always thought of taking a boat ride, but had never gone through with her fantasy.

She smiled to herself, finishing writing down a last comment on the paper and looked up, a small smile gracing her features. It meant a lot to her to hear that their leader truly cared about the pack’s safety, and she trusted her life withing the claws of this Ulfric. Kelsi pulled her knees up to her chest and looked over her notes. She was surprised that she had not run out of ink. She had so much information on him now. “I don’t know what else to ask . . . ” she mumbled. Her wolf was still in a sense of unease beneath her skin, but she could not feel it much now. She wanted to keep asking questions, but she had no idea of what to ask.

Returning the small smile with a gentle one to show that all the questions weren't upsetting him, Adelphus watched Kelsi quietly, sensing the unease of her wolf and her thoughts trailing off in a thousand different directions. How the poor girl ever managed putting up with so many questions in her brain at once was beyond him.

"If you do not know what to ask then that means I have done what you asked and told you all you wanted to know, they are best when not forced anyway Kelsi."

Kelsi looked down into her lap and started playing with the nail on her thumb subconsciously. A smile formed on her face as she listened to Adelphus. Finally, she nodded. “I know . . . But I kind-of like it here. I like learning about you. It’s interesting,” she said. Her mind had suddenly gone empty. Without any questions to ask him, it seemed as if she couldn’t tell how she got them all out. Had she really asked everything that she wanted to? She didn’t know.

Suddenly, her mind jumped to a leap again, realizing that they had only talked about one time period of the Ulfric’s life. They had not even touched the present or the future. Kelsi flipped the pad of paper over for another clean sheet of notebook paper. “Do you mind talking about what you expect and hope to happen in your future?” she asked.

’Maybe he wanted to go back to Japan. Or maybe he wanted to move around the world some more, marry, have children, and become the worlds most renowned Ulfric of a pack. Would his thoughts on the future be that high? Or is Adelphus more of a long-term than a short-term thinker? Maybe he has goals for himself. If so, then what are they? What does he look forward to in his life?’ All these thoughts raced through Kelsi’s mind in the split of a second. She looked up to Adelphus, hoping that he had at least some idea of what he wanted in the future.

Almost letting his shoulders slump in defeat as Kelsi turned the page on her notebook and asked another question, Adelphus instead stretched out to hide any reaction and shook himself out, relaxing back into his sitting position with the same soft smile still present.

"I long ago learned not to expect anything from my future, fate has an interesting way of teaching people who think they can control everything in their lives a lesson. I learned that lesson early on, but I never stopped having hopes for what would come. Right now I am hoping to keep the Pack safe, to let it grow and flourish as a family, and to make sure that my life here is not wasted. I hope to one day return for a short while to Japan to see my father and visit my mother's grave, to tell them that I have made myself into what they hoped for me and so kept the cycle going, if a little altered. And I hope that our future as family will not be tainted by what you have learned."

Kelsi scolded herself in her mind as she saw the Ulfric stretch. He must be tired of her questions going on and on, and probably wanted to go inside sometime soon. She shouldn’t have asked another question, and allowed him to go inside, but something inside of her just wanted to know everything that he was thinking. She had a natural curiosity of things and people, but she had never been so interested in one person as she did toward Adelphus. He had such an interesting life, more interesting that Kelsi would have ever imagined, and she didn’t want to believe that it was some random story that he had made up. She wanted to know that he was telling the truth, which is why she kept pressing questions to him.

Kelsi shook her head at the end of Adelphus’ statement. She wasn’t at all afraid of her Ulfric, though she respected him with all her heart. If anything, this session with the wolf in front of her helped her to know that he would do anything to protect the pack. Kelsi nodded and closed her pad of paper, slipping the end of the pen in the spiral at the top. Looking up at her Ulfric, she smiled. “I’m sorry I kept you here so long. You must never want to have me ask a question to you ever again,” Kelsi said, chuckling. “It seems weird that I know all this stuff about you, now, but you don’t know much about me. I shouldn’t have asked, anyway.” Kelsi looked down again, playing with her thumbnail.

Chuckling in return to Kelsi's, Adelphus shook his head with a smile and settled more comfortably into the mat he was sitting on. Glancing out at the garden he saw that the rain was slowing slightly and scented the air, enjoying the fresh scent before turning back to Kelsi.

"Well there is a way to remedy that, as a return for answering all of your questions I can ask you some, then it is fair and you don't have to worry. Does that sound like a good deal Kelsi?"

As Adelphus looked out into the garden, so did Kelsi. She noticed what he had, that the rain had started to let out, and a small shimmer of light was coming from the sky now. The dark clouds that were once in the sky started to life up, turning into nothingness to let the light of the sun through. Kelsi smiled and turned back, happy that there would be no more sound effects coming from the sky from now on. It had been enough when Adelphus had been trying to explain his story.

Turning back to her Ulfric, Kelsi listened to his proposition. She was a bit surprised that someone with a history like Adelphus’ would even want to sit and listen to hers. Hers was the story of a female geek. She was normal, with a mother, father, and a two-year-old brother. There was nothing interesting in her life that would even step onto the scale that Adelphus’ story had been on, and she didn’t want to be made fun of. Though, she doubted that the wolf in front of her would.

Tumbling the thought around in her mind like a washing machine, Kelsi finally nodded her head to his suggestion. If he wanted to know about her, then she would tell him all he wanted to know. It couldn’t hurt, could it?

Smiling as Kelsi nodded her agreement, Adelphus knelt forwards and emptied the leaves out of the bottom of the teapot before reaching for fresh leaves, water and the whisk. Normally he would of gone through the traditional tea ceremony but he felt that Kelsi might find it slightly uncomfortable because she wouldn't know what to do. Though her tenacity for learning was strong.....

"Kelsi, have you ever taken part in a tea ceremony, and if not would you like to? I want to have a relax between the questions."