When Sebastian woke again, the truck had come to a stop outside of the Kingsley residence. Edmund helped him carefully down from the truck bed since he was still drowsy. But the moment that they were both on the ground, Daisy practically tackled them.

“You’re okay!”

Edmund blinked in surprise. “Yeah, kiddo, we’re good. Are you?”

“We felt something over the pack link.” Luke explained as he timidly walked over. “You guys are really okay?”

“We’re all pretty tired, but I think that other than that we’re whole and healthy.” Seb answered. “What exactly did you guys feel?”

“Pain, fear,” Luke halfheartedly shrugged, “it wasn’t completely clear but we were worried.”

“I think we need to talk about what happened.” Persephone declared. “Because after hearing Hayden’s side of the story, it looks like something very significant happened tonight.”

With that foreboding announcement, everyone headed inside to the dining room for yet another meeting. Everyone seemed to have shown up for this one. Michael, Elsie, Terrance, Joel, Collin, Kit, Victoria, Aurora, Sora, Lupesh, Kurt, Obsidian, Nick, Emily, Garret, Lydia, Persephone, Hayden, Daisy, Luke, Edmund, and Sebastian.

That was a lot of people and Seb felt proud of himself for remembering all those new names – or at least he hopes he remembered all of them correctly.

The dining room almost felt full – which was saying something considering the size of it. The table seated fifteen people on each side – there weren’t that many chairs down here of course, but they’d found the extras in the attic.

As Sebastian half listened to Hayden explaining her perspective of events to everyone, he wondered if this would be how it felt once their pack expanded. The Kingsley house was really big, as if it had been built to house a huge pack-like family. Maybe it had.

Sebastian found himself lost in thought over this idea. Along with the cuddle pile he had found himself apart of – Edmund pressed against his right side, Daisy sitting on his lap, and Luke pressed on his left – it was getting harder and harder to bay attention to what everyone was talking about. He was so warm, and tired, and comfortable-

And then Persephone said Edmund stepped into the path of the leviathan’s boiling water attack.

“You what?!”

Daisy squeaked in surprise and Luke flinched at how loud Sebastian had yelled. Seb reassuringly patted the younger teen’s hand, even as he glared daggers at his boyfriend.

Ed looked a bit bashful. “I… didn’t realise…”

“That you put yourself into the line of danger.”

“That I’d done anything. My memory is blank.”

“Wait, what? What do you mean it’s blank?”

“I kind of blacked out between seeing that the leviathan was aiming for you and realising I was standing in the river.”

“The river?”

“Okay, that’s something else strange. You really don’t remember anything, Edmund? Even now?” Hayden inquired.

“No.” Seeing Hayden and Persephone exchange a glance, Ed tensed. “Is that a bad thing?”

Hayden pursed her lips. “It’s complicated. Sebastian, how are your own memories from the, um, transformation?”

“Fine, more or less. They’re still jumbled, but so much was happening all at once, so I think my brain was just overwhelmed.”

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“Maybe something similar happened with Edmund’s memories. After the water hit him, we were all terrified – we didn’t know what to do. But then, when the leviathan’s water ran out, he looked fine. Better than fine, really, he was huge. About the size that Hayden described Sebastian to be.” Persephone explained.

“So they both turned into direwolves and fought against the leviathan.” Emily thought aloud.

“Direwolves?” Edmund asked, but his question was overlooked as Hayden declared.

“More than that. They linked across planes. It was their combined efforts that killed the leviathan.”

“It’s dead?” Obsidian questioned, raising a doubtful eyebrow. “That’s impossible.”

“When Sebastian returned to his human form, that was one of the first things he told me. Considering he was getting magical help from the spirits in the spirit realm, I think it’s entirely possible.” Hayden declared.

“That’s a good thing though, right? We wanted to get rid of the leviathan.” Garret pointed out.

“Yes, but this is something that has never been done in remembered history. We have no idea what might happen, if anything will be affected, or if the whole thing will just become a forgotten event.” Nick explained.

“Likely, the supernatural community will look for answers. Anyone who isn’t human would have been able to tell that the storm tonight wasn’t natural.” Lydia stated.

“What does that mean for us?” Sebastian inquired.

Persephone sighed. “We don’t know.”

If the tension in the room were a physical thing, then Sebastian was sure even his mother’s sword would have trouble cutting through it. The uncertainties of everything had them all on edge. Seb himself had a hundred and one worst case scenarios running through his mind.

But then Edmund stood up. “Whatever happens, will deal with it when it happens. If we really don’t know anything, then let's rather not dwell on it. This fight has been hard on us all – even those who stayed away from the chaos – so we should take time to rest and celebrate. We had a victory tonight at least, after all.”

Garret nodded supportively. “Who wants food? I know I’m hungry after all of that.”

“Food sounds good. So long as you’re not cooking dad.”

“Hey!”

As everyone laughed at that small interaction, the tension in the room evaporated, and what had been a meeting turned into a party. They ended up just eating sandwiches and leftovers from the fridge, but none of them went hungry. There was juice and soda, and games and conversation. It was possibly the most lively event that Sebastian had been to in a while.

Somewhere in the middle of the party though, he found a quiet moment where he and Edmund had slipped away to the kitchen. Well, Seb had gone after Ed once he noticed that his boyfriend was missing from the festivities. He found him sitting on the kitchen counter, resting his head against the wall behind him.

He looked peaceful. He could probably hear everything that was happening in the house from here, but it wasn’t overwhelming him the way that the loudness of school sometimes did. Sebastian slotted himself between Edmund's legs and smiled up at him.

“Hey.”

Ed looked down and smiled back at him. “Hi.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Just… listening and thinking.”

“Yeah? What about?”

Edmund shrugged. “Everything.”

Sebastian frowned. “Weren’t you the one who said we should take this time to relax and not think?”

“Well, yeah, but I was thinking good things, really.”

“Like what?”

“Like about the refugee pack.” Edmund admitted. “When they get here, things are going to be a lot livelier. A lot more like this.”

“I was thinking of that earlier too. Your house has a whole lot of room, but everyone all together might make it a bit cramped.”

“Still think we can do this?”

“I really do. You’ve been acting like a good leader during this whole situation. Especially tonight when tension was high in the meeting.” Sebastian pointed out.

“Having a whole pack here full time isn’t going to be like that though.” Edmund countered. “I’m still learning about being an alpha, you’re training your magic, the Emporium is busier than ever, we’re helping Obsidian with their whole dragon training thing, Daisy’s going to have to go to school, and we still have to help Luke and figure out what’s the situation with that Patricia woman–”

“Hey.” Sebastian softly interrupted, taking both Ed’s hands into his. “Don’t forget to breathe.”

Edmund closed his eyes and took a moment to do exactly that.

“We’ll figure it out.”

“It’s a lot.”

“But we’ll manage. Especially if we’re doing this together. We did something that everyone thought was impossible tonight. Everything else? Like you said, we can deal with it as it comes. We’re going to be okay, Eddie.”

Edmund opened his eyes. “No matter what?”

“No matter what.”

And for that moment, nothing else mattered. The rest of the world seemed to fade away as Sebastian focused on Edmund, and the kiss they were sharing. It was still as incredible as the first one. They hadn’t been together that long, but Seb was sure this kind of magic would never fade. Just like their promise to each other, it was here to stay.

No matter what…