Hyde returned to the living room and kitchen area to see his dad setting up the table and his mom finishing the sandwiches. Dione looked up with a frown. “Where’s Rune?”

“Eh,” Hyde began as he approached the kitchen counter. “He’s not coming for lunch.”

“Why? Did we spook him?”

Fallon hummed. “Maybe he thought you were a bit much. You kinda spooked Warlon, too, at first.”

“I only wanna be friendly.”

“No, no, no,” Hyde interrupted. “It’s nothing personal. He’s feeling a bit overwhelmed, that’s all.”

“By me?” Dione asked, worried.

“No, he—” Hyde sighed, considering what to say. “I don’t know if he’d be okay with me telling you this, but… he lost his parents when he was young. The whole family time thing, it triggered him a bit.”

Both his parents stared at him, not knowing what to say.

“Oh, dear,” Dione spoke up. “I’m so sorry.”

Hyde shook his head. “Don’t be, you didn’t know. He’ll be fine, he just needs some space.”

“Does he have family?”

“He does, but not his parents.”

Dione nodded. “Okay, that’s good.”

She looked down at the sandwiches and took a deep breath. “On that cheerful note, lunch is ready.”

“Right.”

She handed Hyde two plates and grabbed one herself. They walked around the counter to the dining table where Fallon was standing. They placed the plates on the table.

Dione and Fallon sat next to each other, Hyde across from them. The same way they always did, like Hyde had never been gone.

“So, you’ve been away for a while,” Dione stated the obvious while both Hyde and Fallon grabbed their sandwich and took a bite. Hyde glanced at her and hummed in confirmation with his mouth full. She huffed and glanced at both of them. “What, are you father and son or something?”

Fallon swallowed his bite. “You’re the one that always decides to start conversations right as we’re about to eat. Can’t you talk about that any other time of day?”

“Having a meal together isn’t only sitting together when you’re all silently eating, it’s to spend time with each other.”

“Do you need food as an excuse to talk to your family?”

Hyde emptied his mouth and chuckled.

“Oh, boys,” Dione sighed. “You came back a few hours ago and you’re already teaming up on me?”

“Fine, Mom,” Hyde gave in. “What do you wanna talk about?”

“I wanted to know what you’ve been up to while you were away.” She finally took a bite of her sandwich.

Hyde shrugged. “For the vast majority of the time, not much. I was staying in a village, a few hours away on the other side of the forest. I guess I was like an investigator there? People always asked me to find things for them, because I was the only werewolf—young werewolf, anyway. It’s mostly elderly people there.”

“You’ve been helping the elderly find their stuff? Aww,” Dione teased.

“I didn’t want to, but then they’d start complaining that I had to ‘do my part in the community.’ And every time, I thought: ‘I don’t want to be in this community, anyway,’ ” Hyde complained. He took a grumpy bite.

“When did it become more interesting?” Fallon asked.

Hyde swallowed. “When Rune came to the village, two months ago. He had a similar problem, wanting to go home but not being able to for whatever reason. I helped him be able to do so, and now he gave me the push I needed.”

Dione smiled. “You do seem very fond of him.”

Hyde shyly smiled, too. “Yeah, we haven’t been apart since we met.”

Fallon raised his eyebrow. “Hasn’t he gone home yet, then?”

“He has, I went with him. We came back this morning.”

“Oh, you’ve quickly gone from one to the other, then,” Dione pointed out.

Hyde nodded. “Yeah. He thought, since we were on that momentum anyway, might as well come here right now, too.”

Dione’s eyes widened as she realised something. “Wait, he’s from the far north.”

“Yeah?”

“How long did you have to travel?”

“Three days.” Hyde nonchalantly took a bite as if that meant nothing to him. Fallon and Dione both stared at him. Hyde shrugged.

“You spent the last three days on a train?” Fallon asked, bewildered.

“It doesn’t feel like much when you’re with someone you can have fun with.”

“You sound like a good match. But I’m sure your body is gonna love sleeping in a normal bed, tonight.” Dione smiled.

Hyde chuckled.

“Speaking of beds, where do you think Rune should sleep?”

“Is there still a bed in Tay’s old room?”

“Well, yes—”

“Then there.”

Dione thought it over, considering whether she should press further. She nodded. “Okay.”

They had all finished eating. Hyde sighed and looked into the direction of the stairs. He turned back to his parents. “I should go check on him.”

Dione smiled again. “Go ahead. We’ll clean up.”

Hyde nodded and stood up. He looked at his mom. “And thanks. It was great, getting to eat your food again.”

“Aww.” Dione put her hand above her heart. “Of course, honey. I’ll make you more whenever you’d like.”

Hyde chuckled. “Okay.” He left to go upstairs again.

Dione stood up and started gathering the plates as Fallon watched him go. He got up too and began cleaning the rest of the cutlery. He went to the sink and left them in there. He glanced at his wife as she was wiping the table. “Are you trying to set them up or something?”

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

Dione turned to him. “Huh?”

“First you’re so insistent about Rune joining us, despite him declining several times. Then you say they’re a ‘good match’. And then you imply they should sleep in the same bed. Why are you doing that?”

Dione shrugged. “I thought a little push wouldn’t hurt.”

Fallon sighed. “My mother tried to do that too, with us. I know how annoying it is.”

“Well, it worked, didn’t it? We’re still married.”

Fallon huffed and folded his arms. He leaned back against the counter. “No thanks to her. If anything, she slowed it down.”

Dione raised her eyebrow. “Why?”

“Because, she kept pushing me—and you—to do things I wasn’t comfortable with, yet. It only made me want to avoid it more.” He walked closer to her while she stood at the sink, about to do the dishes. “So, keep out of their relationship. If they want to be together, it’ll grow by itself. They’re clearly capable of growing closer by themselves, no need for you to rush it.”

Dione sighed deeply. “Okay, fine. I’ll stay out of it.”

Fallon put his hands on her hips before rubbing his face into the crook of her neck and hugging her waist. “I don’t mean I’m not happy to be with you, I just wish she’d let me do it at my own pace.”

Dione leaned her head against his and smiled. She let out a content hum as she pet the side of his head. “I know, you overgrown puppy.” She kissed his temple.

She grabbed a sponge and tossed it into his face, making him flinch off her. “Now help me with the dishes.”

Hyde was met with Rune sitting cross-legged on his bed, flipping through a seemingly old book he’d apparently found somewhere. “What are you doing?”

Rune flinched and looked at him. “Definitely not flipping through your childhood drawings.”

Hyde sighed as he shook his head and sat next to him. He glanced at the stack of games, they had been moved around.

“Do you still draw?” Rune asked without taking his eyes off the colourful scribbles.

“No—well, I guess I doodle in my notebook sometimes. My mom tried to get me into it, cause she draws and my grandma did too. My dad’s mom. But I never had any more interest in it than any other child.”

Rune hummed. “What hobbies do you have? You write in that notebook a lot, but other than that—what do you write in there, anyway? I don’t think I’ve asked before, have I?”

“Oh, it’s like a journal. I write my thoughts in it, so they leave my mind, like you said,” Hyde grinned.

Rune breathed out a chuckle.

“I don’t do it as often anymore, lately. I guess because I have you to talk to, now.”

Rune smiled at him.

Hyde moved closer to him. “How you doing?”

“I’m fine, don’t worry.”

“Had enough time to process your feelings?”

“I don’t know if I processed anything, but creeping through your childhood bedroom was a great distraction.”

Hyde glared. Rune snickered and leaned against him.

----------------------------------------

“Hyde!”

Hyde jumped towards the door, away from his conversation with Rune. Tayen ran inside, dragging a young man with her into the living room. She halted in front of Hyde with a big smile, panting. She gestured to the man behind her. “Meet Warlon.”

Hyde examined Warlon. He had short, wavy, black hair; pale skin; patchy, black stubble on his jaw—Hyde guessed he shaved often; and the lightest, ice blue eyes he had ever seen. He was muscular and around the same height as Hyde.

“Hey,” Warlon spoke up and Hyde realised he had been staring.

Hyde awkwardly smiled. “Hi. I’m Hyde.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Have you?”

“Well, duh,” Tayen intervened. “Why wouldn’t I tell my husband about my brother?” She gestured to Rune. “I’m sure you’ve told him about me, too.”

Hyde glanced at Rune for a moment before squinting as he thought of the implications of that comparison.

“Yeah,” Rune confirmed.

“Good things, I hope?” Tayen asked.

Rune let out a high-pitched hum. “Mostly.”

Tayen gave Hyde a dirty look. Hyde ignored it and asked Warlon, “So, you’re alpha, now?”

Warlon rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, I am.”

“Do you like it?”

Warlon shrugged. “It’s fine, I guess.” He squinted at Hyde. “Would you want the position back?”

“Definitely not.” Hyde hummed in thought. “Is there a meeting soon?”

“This evening.”

“Can I tag along?” Hyde noticed both Tayen and Rune giving him surprised looks. “I want to see what I’m missing out on.”

“Yeah, sure,” Warlon answered. “I don’t know how all the members are going to react to your return, though. Especially since they were never told why you left.”

Hyde dismissively shrugged. “They’d find out I’m back sooner or later.”

“What are they actually like, these meetings?”

“There’s nothing going on lately, so it’s more like a social gathering. People chat with their friends and such.”

The sun had gone down. Hyde and Warlon were on their way to the building where they always held their meetings.

“Do you have any friends to talk to, there?” Hyde wondered.

Warlon shook his head. “They don’t like me very much. But I can’t not go, I’m supposed to lead the whole thing.”

Hyde raised his eyebrow. “Why don’t they like you?”

“They expected you to be the next alpha, not some random guy from the west.”

“You’re from the west?”

“Yes.”

“How’d you and Tayen meet?”

“She went on a trip to the city I lived in, five years ago.”

Hyde frowned in thought. “So, the only reason they don’t like you, is because they’re pissy I didn’t want anything to do with them?”

Warlon shrugged. “I don’t think they know you never wanted the position. But, they’ve been losing respect for the alpha for years now.”

“What, why?”

Warlon looked beside him at Hyde. “Do you know how they treated your father?”

“I—maybe?”

“They always demanded things from him, especially when he wanted to be left alone. After you left, all they cared about was finding you or whoever took you, cause you couldn’t possibly have left on your own accord. They didn’t care he was injured, or for the emotional toll it had on him that his son vanished.

“And before that, after his father was killed, they wouldn’t let him grieve in peace, they didn’t seem to care their alpha died to protect them. All they wanted was to make your dad take revenge on whoever killed him. And they called him a coward for not wanting to kill someone, too.”

Hyde stared at him in disbelief. “What the hell? I knew they didn’t leave him alone after my grandad died, but goddamn.”

Warlon frowned. “Yeah.”

They arrived at the building. Chatter could be heard from the outside. Warlon frowned at the door before grabbing the door handle and pushing it down. Hyde followed him inside, his stomach twisted. Had this been a good idea?

They walked through the groups of people conversing with each other, surrounding standing-tables with snacks and drinks. Some stopped to stare at Hyde. He tensed up; he’d been noticed. They arrived at a regular table in the middle of the big room.

“This is usually where we plan things, if there are things to plan,” Warlon told him.

“Right,” Hyde replied as he uncomfortably looked around.

“Think they’ve noticed you?”

Hyde huffed. “Pretty sure.”

“No one’s said anything, yet.”

“Don’t jinx it.”

Warlon chuckled.

“Hyde? Is that you?”

Hyde flinched and looked beside him to see a man around his thirties. He glared back at Warlon. “See?” he whispered. He turned back to the man with a sigh. “Perhaps.”

“Where’ve you been? Are you back to finally claim your rightful place as alpha?”

“No!” Hyde took a step back and tensed his shoulders. “No, I’m not.”

The man looked confused. “Why not?”

“I don’t want to. I never have. So, leave me alone.”

The man scoffed. “But—you’re supposed to be alpha, not this random dude!” He gestured at Warlon.

“Alright, that’s enough!” Warlon snapped. He leaned into the man. “Whether you like it or not, I’m alpha now and I’ve had enough of your disrespect! One more word from you and you’re banned from the meetings for the next six months, you hear me?!” he finished with a threatening glow in his eyes.

The man glared at him, then huffed and walked away.

Warlon took a deep breath and rubbed his face.

Hyde frowned at him. “Do you have to deal with that a lot?”

“All the time. It’s like running a high-school club sometimes.”

“You know no one’s forcing you to do this, right? You can leave.”

Warlon tensed. “Oh—no, it’s alright. I’ve only been alpha for a year, they’ll come around. Probably.”

“They didn’t with my dad, it seems.”

“Well, who else will do it, then?”

Hyde shrugged. “Tayen?”

Warlon squinted his eyes. “Would they be okay with a female alpha? If she wanted it.”

“Before my grandfather, my grandmother’s mother was the alpha. So, they might not make a big fuss over it.”

Warlon sighed and shook his head. “I wouldn’t want to put this all on her. It’s not exactly the safest occupation. But they’d probably like her more than me, cause she is from your bloodline.”

Hyde raised his eyebrow. “Bloodline?”

“They also don’t like me because I’m not from your bloodline.”

“Well, that’s stupid. My grandfather wasn’t from the previous alpha’s bloodline either, and they seem to remember him pretty fondly.” Hyde folded his arms with angry brows. “Which they better, he got murdered for them.”

“Yeah. I think they were hoping you would be an alpha they’d like, since they were stuck with your dad for so long and they always thought he was too passive and uninterested.”

“Was he?”

“From what I’ve heard, he rarely attended meetings. If there were small problems, he wanted to wait for them to blow over. He never cared for anyone in the pack.”

“I mean, after how they treated him when he first became alpha, and the reason he became it so young in the first place, I don’t blame him. Plus, he’s never liked crowds, of course he’d rather sit at home with his family than be here.”

“I don’t think he had the right personality for it, but they were stuck with him for thirty years. He told me they were hopeful for you. You were more energetic and confrontational.”

Hyde let out a quick laugh. “Confrontational? I spent six years avoiding my family!”

Warlon shrugged. “That’s the impression they seemed to have gotten.”

Hyde thought back to his time in Enath, when he had asked Night why she was mad. And what he had told Rune about his teenaged self. He hummed. “I guess I can be,” he mumbled.

Warlon looked around, no one seemed interested in them anymore. They must’ve all overheard Hyde shouting he doesn’t want the alpha position. “Let’s go home, doesn’t seem like we’re needed anymore.”

Hyde nodded. “Fine by me.”