"Let go of me Lowell!"
He gave me an irritated look as he pulled me after him. "What are you going to do huh?"
I was baffled for a moment as I fought to keep up with him. "I'll talk to you about this later." I said in an icy voice.
There was a slight irritable exhale. "Fine." But it didn't sound fine. By how he knew I wasn't afraid of a good rant, it was necessary for people to be told where they went wrong before they could improve, and making a scene and dragging me out of the party was exactly the type of behaviour that was completely unacceptable.
"Take me back, now!" I insisted, pulling my arm.
"He's a grown man, he can handle himself!"
"Yes but he's human!" I argued. "You know Bazile, you know this can't end well!"
He glared at me. "So what do you want me to do? Ask Weston to babysit you while I cuff him down in silver?"
I cocked my head as slowly as one can while being marched down the road. "I don't need anyone babysitting me, I'm older than you."
"Then act like it!"
"You- I- You act like it!" I felt childish even having this conversation, but there was no one else in the world that could drag it out of me like him.
"No you." He snapped, I couldn't imagine a more childish response if I tried.
"Lowell!"
"Max!"
I frowned, breathless, what on earth was I supposed to say here.
"Jeff needs my help, if you don't let me-" I tried to yank my arm away. "If you don't let me go right now I won't let you into my house from now on!"
He blinked, eyes wide for a moment as he looked back, genuinely startled, and I immediately felt bad, not just because I knew that would offend him but because I did not, at all, want to forbid him from entering my house, I wanted to wake up next to him and go to sleep next to him, but I was running out of things to threaten him with.
He narrowed his eyes, suddenly stopping and stepping in front of me. "Do it." He dared me. "Lay down the law."
"You... can't..." I stared back at him, my resolve too flaky to begin with to actually say the words when I knew they would be a lie. "If I..."
I saw the relief in his eyes as he eventually scoffed.
I clicked my tongue and scowled as he returned back to pulling me after him. "I will stand still right now! I'll sit down until you let me go back!"
He didn't stop, falter or slow down but continued to march forwards. "You can either walk or be carried, those are your options."
I stared at him like he was mad, but he either he couldn't see me or he was great at ignoring me.
I was about to struggle again but the minute I tried we walked into a busy street, busy in the sense that in both directions you could see at least two people walking past, and that was enough for me to feel muted and flushed.
"I'm going to go back the minute you let go!" I hissed quietly.
"Then I won't let you go..."
[Lowell's POV]
Of course I couldn't take him back to the pack house because my father finding out that Max had gone to this party would be almost as bad as him finding out I'd had to chase him down to get him back. Max had asked me in front of him so he would immediately know that Max going was, essentially to him, a challenge to my authority.
Max had no idea how hard I'd worked to reign in the biggest smack of that snivelling little bitches lifetime. The way he ratted on Max somehow managed to make me more annoyed at him than Max for being his infuriatingly dignified but naïve self.
That was it, that was how to describe Max, somehow incredibly clever and yet still naïve. I felt like he was perfect prey for someone like Weston, who looked like they got a thrill out of feeling like they were the one controlling the situation, in a mind fuckery type of way.
I sounded like a kid, I didn't care, I was angry for multiple reasons and if Max wanted to sit me down and tell me off for two hours I'd do it right back at him.
I didn't even ask him about the guy he brought with him to the party, I could feel literal steam coming out of my fucking ears.
Maybe the anger casually over spilling was the reason he didn't fight me as much as I knew he could have, especially when it came to his friend.
I still didn't know what to make of that. It was possible to get a false positive right? Maybe once Bazile caught him and checked out his scent he would realise he wasn't his mate after all. Jeffrey had probably only run because, well because apparently the guy really fucking hated wolves.
If they were mates...
I cringed. Alpha Griffith would be in for a surprise. Both sons, no heirs, and both mates to their sons from the same bread and butter. Maybe Jeffrey would surprise us, kneel when he was supposed to and keep his eyes down, learn how to bow properly unlike Max who jerked his head forward and looked proud of himself, somehow I couldn't imagine that, not even one aspect of it, and I didn't even know Jeffrey like that.
Fact was I didn't see that in Jeffrey and I didn't want to have to pin down Bazile and force him not to try 'training' the man. Bazile had learnt from my father and my father was a great example of what not to do.
I wasn't fucked up enough to say it to his face but if he hadn't forced her to leave she'd still be alive so yeah, he was responsible for her death, I'd still have a fucking mother if he wasn't such an insecure bitch.
That said he was a powerful insecure bitch, and finally reaching Max's house I was not thrilled to see a familiar black Bentley sitting just a few paces from his house, the same model as the chauffeur's car. I shouldn't have been worried but I was, I didn't need any more ridiculous shit happening in one day.
I marched Max to his house and he, with an unhealthy red tinge to his face, opened the door for us and let himself be directed inside.
Was I slightly worried about the tongue lashing I would get, no doubt over a cup of tea forcefully shoved in my direction as a matter of apparently well enforced hospitality? Somewhat.
Fact was I had more to throw back at him so I was ready for it even as I gingerly took off my shoes and watched as he worked ahead of me, storming to the kitchen to fill the kettle, and then probably cook the water with his anger.
[Max's POV]
Lowell was clever enough to keep his distance when we got inside the house. Yes, I would have to explain myself before I could properly get into rebuking every one of his actions, but ultimately I was furious enough that nothing would stop me from jumping on him the moment he got close.
Before I even managed to put the kettle on, however, I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard a noise coming from the floor upstairs, a sort of creaking thud, it sounded like a footstep.
I looked down the hall and saw Lowell, half radiating anger, half sulking, deep in thought as he watched me with blazing eyes.
I frowned at him angrily.
I wasn't entirely sure why I chose not to say anything to him, maybe I'd caught on somehow, subconsciously. I put the kettle on and marched past Lowell.
"Sit down." I ordered as I moved past him.
He eyed me as I moved but moved toward the sofa, still watching me. "Where are you going?"
"To change my clothes." I replied curtly, hurrying up the stairs.
"If you run I'll know!" He shouted from downstairs.
Well hopefully he'd also notice if I suddenly got mauled by a werewolf who was hiding upstairs in my house, that or a stray fox.
I listened carefully as I walked down the hallway very slowly, I wasn't trying to be discreet, if there was someone there then they would have heard us yelling as I went up the stairs.
I heard the slightest rustle from one room, so quiet that it could have easily been in my head, but regardless I opened the spare bedroom door as slowly as possible. Not frightened or anything, just uneasy.
"Max..."
My eyes flew wide. "Jeff-" I shut myself up immediately, glanced behind me quickly to make certain Lowell hadn't somehow noiselessly followed me and was looming behind and I stepped in fast and shut the door.
"What are you doing?" I exclaimed, shocked.
Jeffrey looked a state. His hair should have been too short to look the state that it was, his jacket hanging on a chair his shirt had come loose from his trousers and he looked flushed and more nervous than I could ever recall seeing him before.
"Max I'm in trouble." He told me breathlessly, running a palm over his hair.
"I saw..." I replied uneasily, speaking quietly, glancing back at the door. "I tried to go back to help you, Lowell was dragging me out of the door around the time it happened."
He shook his hand, sitting down on the bed and putting his head in his palms briefly. "You don't understand..."
I frowned, a little anxious. "What don't I understand?"
He swallowed, breathing hard. "Oh my god..." He rubbed his temples. "I think I'm- I think I'm-" He was panicking, I rushed the two steps it took to get to him and put my arm around his shoulder as I sat down.
"Jeff?" I asked him warily, worried. I'd never seen him so anxious before.
"I think I'm his- his uh... you know..." He swallowed.
I observed him oddly. "His mate."
He blinked at me. "Y- Yes... You got that from-"
"From the way you ran..." I replied with a slightly uncomfortable humour. "And the way he chased you."
Jeff exhaled shakily. "Why..." He looked at me, his eyes wide. "Why?"
"Why are you his mate?"
He nodded just barely, looking forwards and not at me.
I frowned. "I'm still trying to digest a lot of things here. One being that you even knew that werewolves existed, part of me is ready to accuse you of being a bad friend for not telling me, and the other being that you're mated to Lowell's abhorrent- ab-..." I stumbled over my words, realising my mistake too late. "Mated to Lowell's brother. And now I'm not totally... ah... sure why you ran?"
"You aren't sure why I ran?" He asked me, the height of puzzlement on his face.
I shifted awkwardly. "Well, I mean, that guy, uh, Bazile, I mean he's not the nicest of chaps, but ah, I didn't think you knew that."
"I didn't- Well I don't know that, that's not-"
"Then what is it... the fact that he's a werewolf?"
"Of course!" He exclaimed. "Max I've already told you, Lowell might be a slight improvement on your regular werewolf but for the love of god man they have a completely different culture to us and frankly theirs is disturbing!"
"I mean- Maybe we can work things out..."
"No!" He snapped at me. "And- And it's not- It's not just that!"
He aired his shirt aggressively, I hugged his shoulder a bit tighter.
His face was flushed, more so than I'd ever seen on him before, his eyes full of anxiety. My worry for him was increasing, and I watched him with overly attentive eyes by accident.
He near wheezed.
"Max... I'm asexual... what does this mean for me?"
I went still, my eyes slowly growing wide.
Jesus, I hadn't even thought about that.
"Uh..."
What... What did that mean?
Bazile... He couldn't possibly be asexual.
I was only halfway into processing that thought when I heard Lowell's footsteps going up the stairs.
"Max?" He called me, his low voice somewhat irritable.
I panicked and bounced up onto my feat, my arms flailing about for a second.
"Will he tell on me?" Jeffrey asked. "I just need you to hide me for a few days!"
"I- I don't-" Of course he bloody would, Lowell would be too caught up in the fact that they were soulmates, like us, and therefor convinced that their relationship would work out. Plus the fact that he arrived with Bazile concerned me, the idea that they were getting along somehow was a little unnerving. "Dammit."
Jeffrey looked at me, slightly frazzled. "What do I do?" He whispered.
"Hide under the bed!" I told him.
"My scent-"
"Yes yes, you stayed here last night. Hide!" I snapped after having told him the excuse I would give Lowell.
Jeffrey hurriedly, and fairly awkwardly, struggled to hide himself under the bed which had pull out drawers installed under it and therefor less space than the usual bed, I wasn't even sure how he made it underneath.
"Max-" Lowell called again, having gone into my room and realised I wasn't in there, but was cut off as I slammed the door open and marched out, trying to slow down my breathing.
"Right. I believe we had some things to talk about."
"Why were you in there." He asked flatly, his eyes suspicious.
"I was looking for my comb." I snapped at him. That was a fair excuse, I was always looking for my comb.
"How would it get in the spare bedroom."
That was a good point.
"Jeffrey might have used it, he stayed here last night."
"He did?" He blinked. "What?"
"Don't act like that, I wasn't here last night."
"That makes it weirder."
"No it doesn't, I asked him to take care of some things and he had to go very late after work, naturally he would want to sleep."
Lowell frowned.
I was a genius, it was settled.
Although ultimately I knew well there was no way to get out of this conundrum without being scathed, we were headed toward a brick wall, and fast, trying to slow down didn't change that fact.
"I thought I told you to sit down. You can boil the tea."
He grunted. "Thanks for being given this important opportunity."
"Teabags before the water!" I told him as he moved back down the stairs.
He ignored me, turning his head only just enough to give me the barest hint of a suspicious side eye, those dark intelligent eyes scrutinising me from an angle.
I shifted uncomfortably as I opened the door to my room. It was all enough to give me heart palpitations...
[A/N] Warm warm hugs to my supporters on Patreon, this is a Wattpad exclusive but is free to read because my patrons support me. （' ˘ ｀ ）♡
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