𝐓𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐞 ⸙

2.26༊*·˚

Would he be able to go on adventures one day with Zayn? Would they visit other Packhouses, and go to the beach, or maybe even go camping? While the Southern Alpha was alive, Liam feared the only life he would live was behind the electric fence.

"No wonder Jaiden and the Southern Alpha were so cold. Being apart must have ruined them."

"Yes" Baela frowned. "That was one messed up relationship."

Liam picked a daisy flower and twiddled it between his fingers. "Do you think the Southern Alpha is rebuilding his pack?"

"Probably. I think he's working alongside Rogue wolves too. They're probably reporting to him every time they run through our territory to say that we're still cowering behind fences. I wished it looked that way, but we really are cowering."

Liam agreed, but fear rooted in the grounds of the Ethdellin Packhouse. Zayn had been so anxious and paranoid, he spilled that onto his wolves too.

Liam couldn't blame him for that, not after what the Southern Alpha had done. "What if the Rogues are the southern Alpha's pack? Then his pack has eyes everywhere without anyone paying much attention."

Baela stopped eating her ice cream, pausing her spoon mid-air. "That's a horrifying thought, but not implausible" She frowned deeper.

"Not implausible at all. I should phone other packs tonight to tell them to watch out for Rogues... Actually, no. Zayn can do that. He has to get back to normality, then the rest of the wolves will settle."

"I don't want him to rush and brush aside his emotions. I actually think he should take a step back from Alpha duties. He needs to find himself without the stress of it all."

Baela nodded along to his words. "Okay, if you think that would be best."

Liam was suddenly reminded of when he lived with his aunt and uncle, and how they belittled him so much, he believed his opinions were stupid and nobody would ever want to listen to him.

Baela had been a very good friend to him and listened and supported him. She was both Zayn and Liam's best friend and held them up when they needed support.

"How are you, Baela?" he asked, realising he had been too invested in his own life to think about hers.

"I'm okay," she smiled. "I'm feeling better each day. Though I miss Niall so much. Ever since I became Beta, we spent so much time together, I really got to know him." She smiled, then laughed and had to put her ice cream down to clutch her stomach.

"What?" Liam asked, smiling at her contagious laughter.

"I remember... -" Baela calmed herself, but talked with a grin. "I remember once when we sat outside to do paperwork together for finances, and he tried to kiss me.!"

"What!" Liam laughed too.

"I'll never forget the look on his face when I told him I was a lesbian."

"I bet he went as red as his hair."

"Oh, he did. But do you know what he did after that? He rushed off and wrote me a letter saying how sorry he was and slotted it under my door, like a pup. That poor man was so hopeless when it came to relationships."

Liam laughed hard at the thought of Sid running off after trying to kiss Baela and being rejected.

"But it made us closer as friends," Baela continued. "I realised any awkwardness between us went after that because he was no longer shy at the thought of asking me out."

Liam would've liked to see Niall's reaction of them talking about him this way. His smile then turned sad. "I didn't know pack members tried to date each other."

"Some do, but they never really last. Sometimes I wish we could all have mates, then I see how messy that would be for packs because we'd all end up intertwined and I can only think of the family fights."

"Do you think you'd date someone one day?" Liam asked, wanting to glance up to the third floor to see if Zayn was watching him from the bedroom, but he glued his eyes to the trees beyond the fence.

"Maybe when I'm older, but I like being single right now, especially with all this going on." Baela laid back in the grass. Clouds dotted her vision.

"Anyway, my main focus right now is you and Zayn."

Liam laid back too, and the sun peeked at him between the white clouds. He was silent for a moment, and of course, his thoughts drifted to his mate. "I think I'll sleep on my own again tonight. Then maybe l'll talk to him tomorrow."

"If I were you, I'd ignore him until he shows me actual change, but I have no idea what it feels like to be disconnected from a mate this way."

"It's agony sometimes," Liam admitted. "The pain wakes me up at night, and the loneliness. You know when you wake up from a nightmare and your heart is racing and you feel scared to be in a dark room, that's how it feels all the time, like constant fear that you're still in a nightmare and something will go wrong any minute. This separation feels so unnatural.!"

"This version of Zayn is unnatural and not really him. He's so damaged. I reckon he doesn't even know who he is"

"He doesn't. I think he's scared to be himself because he's so concerned about what others think of him. He's moulded himself into someone he thinks others expect him to be. I think he's been in his father's shadow a lot longer than two years."

"He has probably always been in it. I think it's time he starts to pave his own way because as far as Zayn is concerned, he will never be as good as his father because he's not him. He has to be himself, his own Alpha."

Liam and Baela looked at each other, and they held hands, squeezing each other at the sudden realisation that Zayn Malik was going to get help this time, now that they understood why he was so broken, and how he had ignored his problems and pretended like they didn't exist.

"We will find him," Liam said, more to himself.

"Won't we?"

"Yes, if he lets us in."

Liam looked back to the sky. Zayn had been so lost, he couldn't even let his mate see his true side. Liam had seen him vulnerable, and at ease, and angry, and sad, and embarrassed, and happy, but when tears covered Zayn's cheeks as he apologised, Liam had never seen him so honest, and so scared.