Aidan grabbed Lauren's hand and pulled her out the front door. Together they both walked into the woods that bordered Beth's house, towards the general direction of Lauren's cabin and the pack's lair.
"Have you ever met the Council of Alphas?" Aidan asked after some thought.
"Oh, yes." Lauren replied. Then she added. "At your father's funeral."
"And what were they like to you?"
Lauren grimaced. "Oh, they're the worst. For some reason, they think humans are not worth their time in general." When Aidan raised an eyebrow, she continued. "During the funeral, they walked up to me. I guessed they thought I was something very special because I am Dr Makovsky's daughter. They were probably pissed too that I had invited humans like Axel and Beth to a strict werewolf ceremony. When Beth stood up to shake their hands, the bastards ignored her."
Aidan raised both eyebrows in surprise. "Oh!"
"I'd never disliked anyone as terribly as those men." Lauren shook her head. "Why do we need a Council of Alphas, anyway?"
They continued to trudge into the forest together, neither of them turning into their wolf forms. It was better to converse in human form.
After a few minutes of silent trudging, Aidan asked. "What's going on between you and Eric? I may or may not have eavesdropped and heard a few things."
Lauren stopped walking and glared at him. "What the heck? That was a private moment."
Aidan shrugged and laughed. "The fight between you guys was so...funny."
"I hate you." Lauren muttered and walked ahead of him.
Aidan laughed again: the sound seemed to bounce against the trees around and come back to her, ringing in her ears. She turned and saw him smiling at her widely. Her lips lifted in a small smile as she saw the mirth on his face. This was the Aidan she knew, the Aidan she had fallen in love with, not the shadow of a boy who had been around her these past few days.
"You told him you're a werewolf." Aidan said. It wasn't a question but an affirmation.
Lauren nodded and swallowed. "Yes. He hates me now. I'm such a bad friend."
"Not as bad as me." Aidan muttered and she looked at his face. All the mirth was gone now, as quickly as it had come.
She grabbed the hand of his hoodie and turned him to face her. "Oh, will you stop thinking about what Lia said? You're not a bad friend. You realised your errors and made corrections. I saw what happened in the laboratory, when your dad died. You have so much love in you, Aidan. Much more than the darkness. You never had someone to call your own for so many years, and that's why you made some choices that were not so good. I don't blame you for that."
"I don't feel worthy of all of this sometimes." He waved a hand to indicate the both of them. "I don't want to hurt you more than I have, because it'll kill me. Even I don't know what I'm capable of doing." He closed his eyes and chuckled bitterly. "I shock myself sometimes."
"Shut up, Aidan. Just shut up and don't think about these things. Everyone makes mistakes, and you're the better because you realised it and made amends." She said, looking at him. "And I love you." She added, and he opened his eyes in shock.
He took one step towards her. "Lauren, I—"
"Lauren? Aidan?" A voice called out, cutting him off. Robin appeared out of the trees and walked forward.
"Robin?" Lauren called in surprise. The woman looked different: thinner, more quiet. Her hair was even cut short, almost to the roots.
"Hey." The woman said, reaching them. "You're coming to see the Council, right?" When the both of them nodded, she turned and started walking.
Lauren walked up to her. "Robin, what happened?" She asked and touched her shoulder.
The woman flinched from the touch and looked at Lauren with wide eyes. "Wh—what?"
"Did something...did something happen?"
"Nothing, Lauren. Hurry up, or we'll miss them." She said, shrugging Lauren's hand off her shoulder, then walked forward.
"Her mate got killed." Aidan supplied. "In the battle at the laboratory. Hiram, his name was."
Lauren let out a soft "Oh!". She remembered the man Hiram and his twin brother Elias. She remembered his tall, muscular body and the tightly-coiled ropes of hair on his head, his full beard and the hint of a smile beneath them, the sparkle in his eyes whenever he spoke, the many times he'd assisted Lauren to rein in her boodlust, in her early years as a young werewolf.
Elias his brother had been much less kinder than him, more ready to slip into the darkness inside him. She remembered when he'd had a fight with someone in the pack because they were staring at him for too long. She didn't need to wonder how he was taking the death of his twin brother; she knew that he was probably faring off much worse than Robin. 
She reached for Aidan's hand and held it, and he gave her a reassuring squeeze. A sad despair was blossoming inside her. Just how many wolves had died on her account?
In a few minutes they got to the clearing among the woods that was the pack's lair. The hearth had been returned and a fire was raging in its middle. The wolves of the pack were standing around, and the whole pack was much quieter than Lauren remembered. They all seemed to have been subdued since the death of their alpha. 
She saw a few familiar faces and stepped forward. "Hey, guys. I'm back."
A few of them waved at her from the safety of the trees around, but none of them came forward to meet her. Even Emma, a small girl with closely cropped hair, whom Lauren had been on pretty good terms with before the battle, gave her a long cold glare, then continued whittling on a piece of wood.
An icy terror spread in her chest as she watched the cold welcome she was receiving. These were her lycan family. Why were they so cold to her?
And then she realised. Aidan was standing by her side, still holding her hand. Aidan, the betrayer. Aidan, the son of their alpha, who had probably killed Jacob for all they knew. Lia had most probably told them all about him.
A rustle came from the trees, and all the wolves suddenly stood at alert. It looked uniform, albeit unusual, like they recognised the rustle and something would happen if they didn't answer it. Before Lauren could wonder why they were all at alert, three men appeared from her right and walked forward. All well-suited, with identical annoying smiles on their faces.
The council of Alphas.
"Aidan Boris." The man in the middle called out. "So nice of you to honour our call."