In the morning, Lan Zhan sat up in a panic after noticing that the omega was not next to him. He quickly walked out of the room and hurried downstairs and went to the living room first. But after seeing neither Wei Ying nor his father there, Lan Zhan went over to the kitchen. As soon as he entered the door, his eyes were already fixed on the kitchen counter, there were 2 almost empty tea cups and 2 plates filled with fresh and sliced fruits.
Just as Lan Zhan approached the kitchen counter, the back door opened and Nie Mingjue entered. Nie Mingjue greeted his son with a cheerful smile.
"Good morning my son. I didn't think you would sleep that long."
"Do you know where Wei Ying is?" said Lan Zhan as he stood in front of his father.
"Yes, he's out in the garden right now, sitting by the cherry blossom tree. After I assured him that the garden was safe and that no one, especially no alpha would dare step foot in this area, Wei Ying bravely ventured out into the fresh air."
"How long has Wei Ying been awake?" asked Lan Zhan as he stepped to the sink and looked at the omega through the window.
"Barely an hour ago."
After a short silence, Lan Zhan turned to his father.
"Dad, please can you please take care of him, while I'm gone? I want to go away for a while and find out some information about his parents. ... Oh, but before I go, I'm gonna change my clothes. I don't want others to smell Wei Ying's scent on my clothes." said Lan Zhan, then headed out of the kitchen.
"Wait, Lan Zh- ... What? What did you just say?" asked the old alpha in surprise.
"Wei Ying had a nightmare last night. The only way I could get him to sleep back was by lying down next to him on the bed. Then I pulled him over to me to reassure him. But that was all that happened." admitted Lan Zhan frankly.
"Ah-Hm. ... Oh, so ... that explains why I could smell his scent on you when you walked past me just now. ... Apparently your idea helped him, Wei Ying seemed much more rested this morning than yesterday." Nie Mingjue observed.
"Mn, I'm glad." said a pleased Lan Zhan, hiding his happiness.
"You'd better leave soon, because if Wei Ying finds out that you're awake, he won't let you go alone."
"Okay. ...And dad, ...then I'll ask you again to take great care of Wei Ying."
"I will. But then, you take care of yourself too, Lan Zhan. Remember, there's an omega waiting for you again. .. Don't hurt him by worrying about you for days, fearing that you might not come back." said Nie Mingjue seriously.
"I won't. .. I promise."
With that, Lan Zhan turned and hurried up the stairs to change his clothes, while Nie Mingjue went back into the garden to keep an eye on the omega. After Lan Zhan was done, he went back to the kitchen and watched Wei Ying at one of the windows. He was then listening intently, interested as Nie Mingjue told him a story during their walk.
"I'll be back to you soon." thought Lan Zhan.
Lan Zhan turned and walked out of the kitchen, then walked down the hall and out the front door. He pulled up his hood and set off.
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While Lan Zhan had just left his father's territory and was on his way to gather information, preferably unobtrusively, during which time another alpha did the same. He was standing at the door of an old beta couple's house in a small town nearby.
The elderly beta couple (whom Wei Ying had also met in the woods earlier) stood a little nervously in front of the alpha man. The alpha's appearance and demeanor were equally menacing and dangerous, his dark red clothes were decorated with black and silver ornaments. He held a sword at his waist, his eye glaring fiercely at the beta he was speaking to.
While the men were talking, the old woman went into the kitchen and pretended to put away the plates. But she often glanced out of the corner of her eye towards the front door.
"I heard recently that you were in the woods and you met someone there, ... an omega, right?" asked the alpha.
The beta man nodded nervously at first.
"Yes, sir."
"Tell me more about that person. Tell me everything." said the alpha calmly, but his voice was still threatening.
"He seemed to be lost. He was young, very friendly, but shy. He looked a little depressed, .. maybe he was sick."
"What did you mean by that?" the alpha stepped closer to the beta.
"Maybe he was injured? Did you see any signs of that on him?" asked the alpha impatiently. The elderly beta could only speak after a short pause. But before he could do so, the alpha spoke again.
"Is he hurt?" asked the alpha again.
Then the woman stepped up beside her mate.
"No, he didn't mean it that way, sir." - replied the elderly beta woman quickly, in place of her mate. - "Nevertheless, we offered him to come with us, because we would welcome him into our home and help him."
"But unfortunately, he has repeatedly refused our offer and has moved on." replied but this time again the beta male.
"And exactly how many days ago did that happen?" the alpha continued to question the betas.
"Just 2 or 3 days ago. He was walking towards a small waterfall."
The alpha turned away from them, then cursed in anger. As soon as he managed to control himself a little, he looked back at the two betas.
"Is there anything else you can tell me?" the alpha asked quietly, but audibly irritated.
"No sir."
The alpha then stormed off without any response.
The elderly couple immediately closed and locked the door. They breathed a sigh of relief and sat down on the sofa and cuddled in each other's arms to reassure each other.
"I am very worried about that little omega. I'm beginning to feel that we did the wrong thing when we told him that we saw that omega." said the elderly woman.
"I thought about that too, but his voice was so threatening, .. and I didn't want to upset him, .. even more."
"Don't mention it. I can still smell the coldness and strong scent of him while he was here. So he must have been a rare strong alpha."
"There's no doubt about it." replied the beta male.
They both continued to sit in silence, hoping that they would not encounter a dangerous alpha for a long time.
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Nie Mingjue and Wei Ying spent the morning outside in the garden. But in the afternoon they went back to the house, as the weather had changed; the bright sunshine was covered by dark clouds. After that, a thunderstorm soon arrived. As time went on and the afternoon was approaching evening, the omega began to become more and more tense. Wei Ying began to worry more and more about the alpha.
Wei Ying went upstairs and into the room. He took several clothes from the closet that the alpha had worn before, then he took them down to the living room and placed them in the window seat. As soon as he was done, he sat down among the clothes and then covered himself up. Then Wei Ying sat by the window and waited to see when Lan Zhan would return to the house. Sometimes he'd just watch for raindrops coming down the window.
It wasn't long before Wei Ying heard Nie Mingjue calling him.
"Wei Ying, ... I was just..." the old alpha suddenly fell silent.
Nie Mingjue had barely entered the living room when he stopped. For a while, he was just staring at the pile of clothes and pillows that omega had built in front of the window seat. Then he quickly realized what it all meant. Even though Nie Mingjue was an alpha, he respected Wei Ying, and he even knew how risky it would be for him to disturb a nesting omega. Then it's enough for Nie Mingjue to take one wrong step. Because Nie Mingjue experienced this when he disturbed his mate for the first and last time and went to her nest without permission.
"... will you let me into the ... room?" asked the alpha cautiously.
Wei Ying nodded after a moment's hesitation, giving the alpha permission to let him near the nest.
"Are you feeling alright, Wei Ying?" asked Nie Mingjue as he slowly approached the omega and watched his reaction.
"I also ask, because one of the reasons an omega nests is when he/she is about to get into heat, and not just when he/she is sad or restless." remarked the elderly alpha.
"I'm rather restless." - said the omega sorrowfully. - "Shouldn't Lan Zhan have returned a few hours ago? I am very worried about him."
"You don't have to worry about him, he's strong enough to defend himself. You can believe he's done this to us a lot of times in the past. .. Lan Zhan left without a word, and then came home only hours, or sometimes days later. Then he always received punishment and yelling from his mother, .. and then, of course, from me too." said Nie Mingjue.
Meanwhile, Nie Mingjue felt that the the omega's scent did not become stronger or sweeter, but rather duller, slightly bitterer. From this, Nie Mingjue could easily tell that the omega was not nesting because of his upcoming heat. However, Nie Mingjue has not yet completely ruled out the danger of this.
"Just a moment." said the old alpha.
Nie Mingjue left the room and returned moments later with a cup of tea. He went to the omega and handed him the medicine and the cup of tea. Wei Ying didn't even need to ask, because the alpha answered him immediately.
"It's just a suppressant, ... just to be safe." Nie Mingjue reassured the confused omega.
"Oh. .." - the omega took the medicine, after which he drank a few sips of the tea. - "Thank you for taking care of this." said Wei Ying with a faint smile.
"No problem." said the elderly alpha, then reached for the glass.
Nie Mingjue saw the long faint scars on the forearms of Wei Ying, which were not completely covered by his slid-up upper cloth.
"Wei Ying ... ?" - asked Nie Mingjue after he put the glass down on the small coffee table. - "That accident you mentioned yesterday, ... does it have anything to do with your scars on your arm?"
Hearing this, Wei Ying glanced at his hand, then quickly pulled down the sleeve of his shirt. He then looked back slowly at the window, visibly a little ashamed.
"Yes, that has something to do with it. ... But that was a long time ago." said Wei Ying, somewhat quietly.
"Do you want to talk about it?" asked Nie Mingjue.
Wei Ying was reluctant for a brief moment. But finally he decided to tell Nie Mingjue all that had happened to him on the day of his accident.
"This .. accident, .... I think it happened three or four years ago. One day, my brother and I joined Wen Chao and Wen Qing for a little hiking. They said that they found a cave in the forest where many believe there are many ghosts. Wen Chao offered to lead me there. But the cave was not very close, nor was the road to it without danger. There was also a deep lake and a huge waterfall, outside the sharp and slippery rocks. So my parents ended up letting me go only with my brother, Hua Cheng."
The omega sighed a little, and then continued.
"So, after my brother agreed to accompany me, we set off with Wen Chao and Wen Qing. But since it started raining along the way, it slowed us down a bit. Because of this, by the time we arrived at the cave, it was already evening. .. Since it was already dark and cold, so after a while, Wen Qing and Hua Cheng advised us to turn around and go home. But Wen Chao insisted that if it had taken so long for us to get there, we should at least go into the cave and hoping to see or hear something. Although my brother objected to the idea, neither Wen Chao, nor I listened to him. At first, Wen Chao tried to make his way across the rocky ground to the cave entrance, and I recklessly followed him. We had just taken a few steps on the rocks in front of the lake when Wen Chao suddenly saw something that scared him. He stepped back, and as I was behind him, he pushed me. Because of that, I lost my balance and my feet slipped on the wet stones. Wen Chao turned around and he caught one of my arms, ... but moments later, I still fell into the lake. .. When I fell into the water, I felt that I hit not only my hand but also my head on one of the stones. After that, I lost consciousness. That was the last memory I had of that day. ... When I woke up, I was home again, and my parents were sitting by my bed. They told me that I hadn't recovered for weeks." said Wei Ying.
Wei Ying recalled part of his past when everything changed, not just his life, but the life of his family, all in one moment, all in one night.
"And they or your brother didn't talk about what happened after you briefly fell into a coma? .. Anyway, speaking of him, where was your brother, when the Wen pack attacked you and your parents? Because you didn't mention him yesterday, only your parents." asked Nie Mingjue.
"Hua Cheng was not at home at the time. I haven't seen my brother or Wen Chao since my accident. I asked my parents about it several times, but they only said that he had simply left, shortly after he brought me home. He hasn't contacted me since. ..."
Wei Ying turned his head away from the old alpha and looked out through the raindrop-covered glass.
"He also went away like Lan Zhan. .. Without any words." Wei Ying added in thought.
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Thank you for reading! I hope you liked it! 💛✨