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Twenty: Cookie

Twenty: Cookie

First, there was staticky silence. And then, shortly after, a small 'boop' as the call disconnected. Wren pulled the phone away from his ear, looking at the screen in bewilderment, a small part of him panicking that his dad had hung up because he couldn't handle the news. Although, Wren's fears were quickly assuaged as his phone rang – only this time it was a video call.

Shit. Wren's dad was way better at sniffing out lies when he could see Wren's face. Wren had only a second to compose himself, sitting up straight and smoothing out his expression before hitting the button to accept the call.

Wren's dad came into view first. He was a rather pretty omega still, even now at forty-five. He had soft blond hair that was currently sticking up like wet duck feathers on his head, piercing light gray eyes that Wren had inherited from him, and full lips that were currently twisted down in a suspicious scowl.

Wren's father appeared right over his dad's shoulder, having to bend almost at the waist to get in the frame with him. Wren had gotten his height and his hair from his father. People often commented on how much he took after his father whenever they were in public together, though where Wren's eyes were gray, his father's were a deep ocean blue, and a few days' worth of beard coated his jaw.

Bare rafters lit by warm yellow light behind them told Wren they were in the basement, meaning Wren's dad had probably been hard at work renovating the space under the stairs into a storage closet. Or maybe he was repainting the handrail. Wren couldn't keep track of his projects.

"I'm going to need you to say that one more time," Wren's dad said slowly. "I heard what you said, but it came out of your mouth, so I must be wrong."

Wren gulped. "I said, I'm in an Entanglement with someone," he repeated softly. The lie tasted sour on his tongue. And sure, technically it wasn't a lie, but Wren was omitting the fact that the Entanglement was a business proposal more than a real relationship. Although honestly, the fact that Wren was in an Entanglement was shocking in itself simply because the vast majority of people didn't bother with them nowadays. If Wren had simply said he had a boyfriend, his parents' reaction probably wouldn't be quite so dramatic.

Entanglements were archaic, rigid, and a practice pretty much exclusively maintained by the obscenely wealthy. And they were almost always entered with the intention of marriage, meaning telling your parents you were in an Entanglement was essentially the same as saying you were engaged. Considering that Wren's parents hadn't even heard a peep about Wren even being interested in someone before now, of course they were going to be shocked.

"Yeah, that's what I thought you said," Wren's dad muttered, and then fell silent, obviously lost for words, so Wren's father shifted more into the frame.

"When did this happen?" he asked, uncharacteristically serious. Wren's father had always been a little goofy. He was the soft parent between the two of them to be sure, but now, Wren shuddered a little because his father looked a little bit murderous. Not towards Wren, no.

Vincent, on the other hand, may have gained a new enemy.

Wren's parents had always been fiercely protective of Wren. It was why Wren had had so little exposure to alphas growing up.

"Um. He asked me a few days ago. But we've been seeing each other for about three months." This was a blatant lie, but Wren knew that his parents would never accept an Entanglement he was in unless he and Vincent had already been dating for a significant amount of time. And he also knew, unfortunately, that it was going to hurt his parents' feelings immensely that he hadn't told them about the 'relationship' right when it began. Still, even knowing that, it still made some part of him cringe up inside when his dad's lips twitched, eyebrows furrowing a bit, clearly hurt.