The Human Among Wolves (Aurora) novel Chapter 411

Chapter 411

Aurora

Zayn had been gone for maybe an hour.

Long enough that the quiet inside the house had started to feel heavy.

I was still sitting on the couch exactly where he had left me, my legs tucked slightly beneath me while my eyes kept drifting back toward the front door every few minutes like I expected it to open at any second. The fire in the fireplace had burned lower now, the flames softer than before, casting slow moving shadows across the walls while the rest of the house remained silent.

Too silent.

Every little sound seemed louder than it should have been. The faint ticking of the clock on the wall. The occasional crack from the wood in the fireplace. Even the wind brushing softly against the windows outside.

And beneath all of that-

the bond.

It had quieted after the earlier surge of pain, but the faint thread of it still lingered somewhere deep in my chest like a distant echo, reminding me that Kael was still out there somewhere across the world doing something reckless.

I stared at the door again.

Still closed.

I exhaled slowly.

Just as I was about to stand up and pace the room again, I heard it.

The low sound of a car engine pulling up outside.

My head lifted instantly.

The engine shut off.

A car door slammed.

A few seconds later the front door opened and Zayn stepped inside.

He was carrying three large grocery bags.

I blinked at him.

For a moment neither of us spoke.

Snow clung to the shoulders of his jacket and melted slowly as he stepped further inside, pushing the door shut behind him with his foot before walking

toward the kitchen.

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I watched him.

“…Were you grocery shopping,” I asked slowly, “or calling Kael?”

Zayn dropped the bags onto the kitchen counter with a dull thud before glancing back at me.

“Both.”

He shrugged out of his jacket, tossing it over the back of a chair before starting to pull things out of the bags.

“You haven’t eaten,” he said casually. “And there was literally nothing in this place except a bottle of water and stale crackers, so I stopped at the small

supermarket down the road.”

He pulled out a loaf of bread, a few containers, some fruit, and set them on the counter one by one.

“And before you ask,” he added without looking at me, “yes, Kael is fine.”

The words made my chest tighten slightly with relief.

But the next sentence made me sit up straighter.

“He just fought a vampire,” Zayn finished, like he was mentioning the weather, “but he’s alive.”

“A vampire!?”

The words left my mouth louder than I intended.

Zayn winced slightly and looked over his shoulder at me.

“Yes.”

“You’re saying that way too casually.”

He shrugged again.

“It’s Kael.”

“That’s not reassuring!”

I pushed myself up from the couch and walked toward the kitchen, my arms crossing instinctively over my chest as I stated at him.

“He fought a vampire?”

“Apparently.”

“And he’s just… fine?”

“More or less.”

Zayn grabbed two glasses from the cabinet and set them on the counter before pouring water into one of them.

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“He tracked down one of the buyers from the auction,” he explained, sliding the glass toward me. “A vampire named Lazarus Sidorov. The guy bought one of

the girls and decided to keep her in a penthouse in Moscow.”

My stomach twisted slightly.

“And Kael just… walked in there?”

“Pretty much.”

I stared at him.

“You’re kidding.”

“I wish I was.”

He leaned against the counter slightly, folding his arms while watching me.

“He found the girl,” Zayn continued. “But the vampire came back while they were trying to get her out.”

“That’s when the fight happened.”

The faint echo of pain I had felt earlier suddenly made a lot more sense.

My hand pressed unconsciously against my chest.

“That’s what I felt,” I murmured.

Zayn’s eyes flicked briefly to the movement before returning to my face.

“Yeah.”

“And you’re telling me he’s fine?”

“He sounded fine.”

“Sounded?”

Zayn lifted a shoulder.

“He had a couple bruised ribs.”

I blinked.

“A couple?”

“And maybe a cracked one.”

My eyes widened.

“Zayn!”

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“What?”

“That’s not fine!”

“He also decapitated the vampire,” Zayn added casually, like that balanced things out.

I stared at him.

“…He what?”

“Cut his head off.”

For a second I just stood there trying to process that sentence.

Then I exhaled slowly.

“Of course he did.”

Zayn gave a small snort.

“Exactly.”

He turned back toward the counter and started unpacking the rest of the bags.

“Anyway,” he said, pushing a container of food toward me, “he rescued the girl and they’re staying in some miserable motel while he continues hunting the

rest of the buyers.”

My stomach twisted again.

“The other girls…”

“He’s trying to find them.”

I nodded slowly.

For a moment neither of us spoke.

Then I looked back at the groceries scattered across the counter.

“You bought a lot of food.”

Zayn glanced at it.

“You’re half Lycan.”

“So?”

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