For a moment, I expect he might say something, but then, his eyes lose focus and he growls so loudly and suddenly that I jump.
Andrei doesn’t appear angry, and I don’t feel any intense negative aura radiating from him either. However, he isn’t exactly in the moment either. I assume he is busy reliving some memory, one he most likely doesn’t like. I reach up, tugging on his hand, and his eyes refocus.
Andrei shakes his head, while I try to understand what is going on, but it’s clear he won’t tell me. What worries me is the fear I feel ripple through our bond. It’s odd, but again, something he doesn’t want to discuss. As much as I hate it, I need to drop it.
“Are you going to plant her flowers?” I ask him, ignoring the feeling that keeps seeping into me through the bond.
I wait for a moment, but since he doesn’t answer, I get to work digging a small hole next to her grave. I don’t want to disturb the other things on it, and there isn’t much room left for more.
“Here, I will do it, you will get dirty,” Andrei blurts out and kneels beside me. He gets to work immediately and pulls more dirt out of the small hole I dug.
I hand him the pot of lavender, and he takes it, pushing it in the hole. “Angie liked lavender,” he explains, and I nod as my eyes set on another lavender plant, on the other side of the grave, that someone has already planted.
I unscrew the water bottle’s lid and hand it to him. While Andrei waters the plants, I carefully wipe her headstone with the cloth. Angie’s gravestone looks like it is regularly cleaned and maintained by her family.
“Her family was all from this pack?” I ask Andrei. I’m not sure why, but I want to find out more about the mate Andrei lost. For some reason, I have this urge to somehow get closer to her, even though we have never met each other and never would.
“Yeah, aside from her parents, Angie had five brothers. All from this pack. She had an aunt too, but I never met her,” Andrei adds, and I nod as I sit beside him.
“Argh! Angie hated those flowers; they always made her sneeze,” he growls, pointing to some gardenias on the grave next to hers.
I don’t offer him any input or ask more questions. Andrei needs time to spend closer to her, and he will talk whenever he sees fit. Be it here, or when we go back to his house.
“Lavender was her favorite. Oh, and pink roses,” he offers, patting the soil down and watering the lavender again. I feel a slight tug at the corner of my lips. It’s so nice to know that Angie was so loved, the people who cared about her still remember the small details about her.
“What’s your favorite flower?” Andrei asks me, catching me off guard. This question is the last thing I expect to escape his lips. And yet, as surprised as I am, he casually sits back and rearranges some of the things on her grave that have fallen over.
“Some would call it a weed.” I chuckle, and he raises an eyebrow at me.
“What is it, then?” He presses, visibly growing curious about it.
“Dandelions,” I answer with a smile across my lips. Just thinking about the yellow wonder of nature always makes me feel warm inside.
While I allow myself to picture the flower that has always made me happy, Andrei shakes his head. “That is because it is a weed” He chuckles, and I shove his shoulder. “Why dandelions?”
I glance at him and quickly avert my gaze to look into the distance. “Because they’re an unwanted rogue plant that grows freely, yet still flowers despite being hated by everyone that calls it a weed, a pest to nature.” I explain.
It’s not that I chose my words specifically to upset Andrei or hit a weak spot, but it’s too late to take the words back, and his smile fades from his lips. I really didn’t mean to upset him.
I just really love that exact thing about the dandelions – no one can control where they pop up.
“I still remember how much my father hated them. When I was a kid, he used to pull them out of the lawn. Sometimes, he went as far as to give everyone a lecture about how they ruined his grass.” I tell him with a chuckle.
“So you did live in a community before being rogue” Andrei asks, skillfully changing the topic.
But I welcome the change and nod. “Yeah, in a way I would say. We were never a part of any pack, but for a while, we lived amongst the human communities. Well, until a pack caught us and kicked us out of there. After that, we moved around everywhere and even joined a few rogue camps. But we never stayed around one place for long. Well, until those rogues caught us and killed my dad.” The last few words leave me in a whisper, and all of a sudden, I don’t welcome the change of the topic anymore.
I would rather speak of rogue flowers than recall how actual rogues killed off my family.
“Well, you never have to worry about that again. You have a home now, you just have to put up with me,” Andrei jokes and he laughs at his own words.
“Yeah, okay, you aren’t that bad.” I grumble and he stands.
Andrei smiles as he offers me both hands, and I take them, letting him pull me up. He bends down, grabs the empty box off the ground, grabs my hand in his, and laces his fingers through mine. Our hands are covered in dirt as we walk back to the car. Andrei stops next to a trash bin and discards the empty box.
“Hold your hands out,” he says, and I do. Andrei pours water on them, so I can wash them. I do the same for him, and once the bottle is empty, I toss it in the bin.