"He's a lot worse," Lottie said worriedly. A heavy silence followed her words. Tristan could feel the tension in the room.
"He just needs time..." Ada finally said with a sad tone. Tristan was staring at the window as he tried to calm his wolf. He felt antsy.
"Can you give him something?" Cal asked. Lottie's eyes were suddenly on Tristan, he felt it. He didn't return her look.
"Yes, but it would be temporary. He will just be numb." Lottie said with a frown.
"The other Alphas cannot see him like this, especially not Arthur or Cecil; they would see his weakness as an opportunity," Sawyer said firmly. Tristan grit his teeth.
Dammit...
"Will it work by tomorrow?" Cal asked. Lottie was still staring at him, almost judgmentally. Tristan had a feeling what her look was about.
"Yes, if I give him a large enough dose. The question is whether he will agree to take it, you know our father and his stubbornness." Lottie said as she looked at Cal.
"What are you going to give him?" Sawyer asked.
"Ama," Lottie said, and her gaze once again shifted to him. Tristan met her gaze this time.
"What would it do to him?" Grady asked.
"I told you, numb all his emotions, especially his wolf." Lottie said.
"And what kind of side effects?" Dena asked. Tristan was feeling more and more uneasy.
"It varies. Some have mild issues, others more serious." Lottie said.
"Worst case scenario then," Sawyer added.
"He could be numbed permanently, have a personality change, anger mostly, but that's more if it's taken long term. Short-term use shouldn't have anything significant happen. But I'm also not sure what this large of a dose will do; I've never had to dose for an Alpha wolf before either..." Lottie said with an uncertain tone. A brief silence followed. Tristan looked at his mother. She seemed deeply contemplative.
"Do we have any other options?" Jay asked.
"The early death of a gifted isn't something we have a lot of study with, especially not for an Alpha. This is the only thing I can think to try." Lottie said as she cast a saddened look at their mother.
"We tried to have him take it back home, he refused. I feel like he is willingly punishing himself." Ada said with a distressed tone. Tristan focused on his mother. She looked worn and sad.
"Maybe he will be more willing now. Especially knowing the other Alphas will see him this way." Sawyer suggested. Ada sighed deeply.
"I don't know... he doesn't see it. He thinks we were all overreacting when we tried to talk to him." Ada said.
"Then we don't give him the option," Sawyer said with a hard tone. Nearly all eyes were on him.
"It's only for tomorrow... then we can figure something else out," Sawyer said. Lottie looked deeply uncomfortable.
"I'm not going to drug my father... my Alpha, without his consent," Lottie growled. Tristan glanced back to the window. They were still in the pack house dining hall. The walls were insulated and soundproof. It was to double as their meeting room.
"I'll talk to him... and try to convince him to try it," Tristan spoke up.
"Fine... but if you can't, we have to give it to him anyway," Sawyer said as he looked to Ada. Tristan looked at his mother as well, but her eyes were on Sawyer.
She looked deeply troubled, but she gave him a slight nod.
It was silent for a moment. The air felt tense.
"Now... if you could all leave us, I need a word with my son," Ada said with a firm tone Tristan knew all too well. He felt the eyes of all his siblings, but no one lingered. They all left.
As the door clanged shut, another tense silence followed. It felt like almost a minute had passed before his mother finally spoke.
"You insult me," Ada said with a hard tone. Tristan expected this.
"I raised you better than this. You really would choose to scoff at all my teachings?" Ada growled.
"It's not like that-" He began.
"Then explain." Ada interrupted with that hard tone he knew all too well. He felt the fury of his mother in the look she was giving him, and the wolf inside him flinched slightly reacting to hers.
She was both his mother and his Alpha. His wolf would always recognize her authority.
"I'm sure dad already told you everything," Tristan said with an even tone.
"I want to hear it from you." Ada said harshly. Tristan stared at her for a moment, before he had to look away to gather his thoughts. He was expecting this interrogation, and yet he still somehow felt unprepared.
His mother had a way of doing that to him.
"I don't think I can ever look at her without seeing her father." Tristan began; it was the first of many things. Ada stared at him judgmentally hard.
"And that's it?" Ada growled. Tristan couldn't help the annoyance that was building.
"No. You have not met her... you have not seen her. She's... damaged. I don't know if she can ever recover from everything she's gone through. She's far from Alpha worthy and father can't even look at her without hatred. How am I to fix her and run a pack?" Tristan growled.
A brief moment of tense silence followed. His mother's hard gaze stayed on him the entire time.
"You do it with patience.... and love. She is your gifted. Fate has chosen this course for you for a reason. Ten of those females you sent home to us had mates in our pack. And unlike you, the acceptance they received from their males has already done wonders for their healing in just these past two weeks. We hope the ones we are sending back to their birth packs may be so lucky." Ada said.
Tristan glanced away from her. A dash of guilt spiked through him, and the image of the distress on Lo's face surfaced in his memory.
But in that same moment the thought of those females... and of Alik purposely taking marked wolves and keeping from their gifted... how many lives he had ruined, spiked his anger.
"You are stubborn my son, I know because you got it from both of us, but your mate is a gift, something incredibly special you will never get again... and Tris, it will be devastating to you as well if you don't leave your chosen and accept her. It will kill you inside, slowly." Ada said.
Tristan had already decided on not staying with Emma long term... he couldn't. It just wasn't possible. His wolf would never let him. If this last week had shown him anything that had been made blatantly clear to him. So he didn't understand why her words were agitating him so much.
He felt restless. Angry.
"What about the treaty? We can't break it now." Tristan said firmly.
"You can barely stand Emma now, can't you? Don't deny it, I saw it." Ada said. Tristan grit his teeth and looked out the window.
Was he so obvious?
"No, but..." Tristan said.
"There is no 'but.' Emma was always far too arrogant for her own good. Almost untrainable. I truly began to fear for our pack with her as our future Alpha female. I did everything I could to undo the habits of her upbringing, but it was proving fruitless. She is manipulative and self-serving, two traits that do not belong in the mother of a pack.
I tolerated it because your father and you were so set on this course, but now it's time to send her back home. We will deal with the treaty fallout if that's what happens.
I never fully trusted Arthur. Something always felt off about that whole situation, but you and your father wouldn't listen. You have been so lost to this revenge crusade." Ada said firmly. Tristan looked away from her. He felt the anger inside him growing.
Everything she was saying was hard to swallow. How could everything have turned upside down in just two weeks?
And why was she telling him all of this now? Of all times?
...but as he thought back... he realized maybe she had tried to tell him, and he wouldn't listen... he was set on the path that would get him the revenge he craved above all else. He didn't care what he had to do to get it. Mating Emma seemed to be a small sacrifice to gain the ability to do it.
Now he couldn't help but feel strange about the whole thing.
It went silent for a time as Tristan stewed in her words. He finally looked back at her face. They stared at each other for a long tense moment.
And that's when the thought that had been deeply bothering him came to the surface, especially as his gaze trailed down to her neck, where the fading mate mark was now barely visible.
It felt wrong...
In that moment, the question burning inside him involuntarily came out.
"What would you have done if she had lived?" Tristan asked.
A heavy silence followed as his mother seemed to be carefully gathering her words before she slowly smiled...
Tristan didn't expect that.
"So quickly you've forgotten that I, too, lost a mate. It took me years to even be comfortable with living day to day. I know the devastation your father is going through right now, and I didn't have the added guilt of knowing my mate was being horribly abused for years. He blames himself." Ada said. She let a brief pause follow, before she took a slow breath.
"Of course, I would have stepped back and let your father have what I always wanted. I knew he had a fated somewhere out there, I'd been preparing myself since the moment we mated that he may someday find her.
I will always respect him, and I would have been happy for even the few years of his love that I received, and he gave me you, and all your siblings, I couldn't ask for more.
I would have wished them happiness." Ada said. Tristan stared at her oddly, but there was only truth in her manner.
... how would she have been okay with that? She studied his face for a moment, before she smiled again, as if knowingly.
"When we met, your father was patient with me, he won me over slowly, even with the complications of our situation. I was broken too. So I have every intention of being patient with him, and helping him through this... just like he helped me.
Just like you should be helping your mate.
In truth, I didn't think I'd ever grow to love him... but I did, right before you were born, I thought... my life is content. And then I held you in my arms, and when I saw that little mark of fate, my heart felt so much joy. My mother and I worried you would be born without a gifted..." Ada said. Tristan stared at his mother. He'd never heard her talk like this before.
"I knew then your stubborn father would fill your head with stories of the mark being nonsense... I knew his stance on it, so I was determined to find your mate. I sent a sketch of your mark to every woodland pack, I showed it through the years to every parent who had a marked little female. But I never found her. I knew she wouldn't be in the woodlands.
I suspected she'd be among the mountain, desert, or even the ocean side wolves... and that saddened me, because for centuries, we have so rarely been able to come to mating agreements with those packs, even for fated mates.
I've always maintained it's the stubbornness of all these Alphas that are truly destroying our most precious gift... because fewer and fewer mates are finding each other, and less and less are born with marks because of it.
It was for this reason that I didn't push harder that you not mate Emma. I thought briefly... I had found contentment with a chosen, and Emma was a polite and pretty female upon first meeting. I was also uncertain if you'd ever meet your gifted... but I know now that was all a mistake.
Your gifted is precious Tristan, your reasoning for not accepting her is flawed, and you will come to see that. I want this for you. What both your father and I couldn't have...
When we leave, I will be taking her back with me so that I may start working with her, and the next time you see her... I expect you to behave much better than what I've heard. She is the rightful Alpha female, and I fully intend to prepare her for that role. I raised you better then this." Ada growled.
The angry surge of his wolf at hearing she would be taken from him wasn't as hard this time. His mother's angry glare softened the reaction of it.
"Father-" Tristan began.
"I'm well aware, and you further insult me by thinking I am unable to protect your gifted. She will be safe with me. You can rest easy." Ada said. His wolf still didn't like the idea of her being that far away from him. His fur side still didn't understand how complicated this was.
"After the meeting tomorrow, I plan to move the families back until we are sure the Varga stragglers aren't a threat to the land. We will leave enough males to get things up and running smoothly since I know there is much still needing done, and you will remain here to oversee things, just as you wished.
Emma is no longer welcome in Lykaia, she and her pack mates can stay here with you until you find it in yourself to send her back home. Is that understood?" Ada said firmly.
Tristan studied his mother's expression. She was all Alpha in that moment. Not that it would be an issue anyway. He knew Emma had no intention of returning with his mother.
Tristan felt the heaviness of stress pile further upon him. He needed to talk to his father and figure out the best way to cut ties with Eyolf that wouldn't immediately lead to war.
But Tristan knew better than to argue with her. He just gave her a nod to appease her.
"Good, now walk me to the clinic. I wish to meet your gifted." She said firmly.
-
Lo sat at the window staring out at the trees. She still felt tense, even hours later. Edith sat beside her, but hadn't said anything for some time.
"Do you want more tea?" Grace spoke from the kitchen. Lo didn't respond, she just kept her focus out the window.
The emotions inside her felt jumbled. She didn't want to speak.
"No, we're fine," Edith said. Lo felt her studying eyes on her. Lo ignored her.
"Lo, look at me." Edith said firmly. Lo pursed her lips hard and continued to stare out the window for some time, before she finally forced herself to glance over at her.
"Are you okay?" Edith asked. Lo stared at her concerned eyes.
No.
"Yes," Lo said anyway. But how could she be?
Her mate's father wanted to kill her. He hated her.
Her mate didn't want her... but strangely still felt the need to protect her.
It was confusing, and she felt like it hurt more than if he'd just leave her alone completely.
Why couldn't he just leave her alone?
The concern in his eyes was haunting her now. Like she was getting small tastes of how it should be, but never truly getting it.
It felt even more cruel in a way.
She hated how much it warmed her inside every time he seemed to do something even remotely caring, but when he inevitably turned on her again it felt even worse, even colder somehow.
Even as sheltered as she was, she knew this wasn't healthy...
The door opened, and Edith glanced over. Lo just looked out the window again. She had no interest in interaction. She was still trying to calm herself down.
She felt shaky.
"Alpha is coming," Etta said as she carried in bags.
Lo's breath caught. Edith immediately grabbed her hand in an effort to calm her.
"Alpha Ada?" Edith corrected her.
"Yes, I caught her and Tristan's scent not far behind me." Etta said as she placed things on the counter to put away. Lo felt the tension increasing in her body.
She dreaded facing either of them.
Edith patted her hand almost dismissively.
"I'm sorry for my brother, but his mate will be nothing like that. She wishes to know you as a daughter, and feels the same as all of us that your fated is being a fool. We need to get you joined to the pack, she's eager for that as well. It will help your wolf. It's not healthy to feel so afraid all the time." Edith said.
Lo couldn't argue with her words. Not that she felt particularly uneasy around them now, but that wasn't the same with the others. She knew she was nervous; she couldn't help it.
Being a lone wolf was not in their nature.
Being pack would add a layer of comfort she was lacking, and she felt her restless inner wolf perk up at the thought.
Edith stood and moved to open the door the moment they heard their footsteps, and Lo finally caught their scents. She felt her inner nervousness spike, and she didn't even fully understand why she felt so nervous.
And she certainly didn't want to see Tristan again. Lo abruptly stood from her chair and glanced toward the back room. As they neared the clinic Lo nearly took a step toward it, fully intending on locking herself in, when she noticed Tristan's footsteps veer off in a different direction.
A moment later, those heavy footsteps turned to paws, and they began to quickly fade into the distance. Lo felt some of the tightly wound tension in her body relax.
"Ada, I was about to bring her to the pack house," Edith said in a warm yet slightly apologetic tone. Lo's hands immediately went to fidget with the fabric at her waist and she quickly downcast her eyes as the female stepped through the door. Lo could feel her Alpha presence, this female was clearly from her own ancestral line of Alphas.
Ada moved right for her, and with a delicate finger beneath her chin, guided her face upward.
"Eyes up, my son's mate looks down to no one," Ada said with a warm motherly smile. Lo stared at her in surprise, before Ada gently cupped her cheeks and leaned in to plant a soft kiss on her forehead.
Lo stood there, frozen. This was the chosen mate of her mother's gifted. Lo's mother would have stolen her place....
Lo didn't know what she expected, but she didn't expect this...
Some of the fear that had built inside her dissipated. Especially as she began to gently caress her cheek with a thumb. Lo met her studying eyes and they stared at each other for a moment.
"My my, you are a beauty. Look at those eyes." Ada said admiringly.
"I told you." Edith chuckled.
"But we need to bring some life back into these cheeks," Ada said as she patted her once more before turning to Grace.
"Some tea, please." She said with a smile before she sat herself down on a chair at the table. Lo just stood there frozen. The shock of the moment had yet to wear off.
Should she sit?
She'd never been in the presence of an alpha female before...
"I hope it's all right with you, but you and I will be spending a lot of time together. Once this meeting nonsense is over, I will be taking you back with me." Ada said. Lo's gaze immediately went to Edith. Edith just smiled and nodded.
"Sit sweetheart, you have nothing to fear," Edith said as she gestured for the chair. Lo reluctantly listened.
"Now... tell me about yourself. Leave out no details, I want to know everything." Ada said.
-
Tristan ran the territory to relieve some aggravation and to wait for Lottie to prepare the ama. He met her outside of the pack house to retrieve it. They didn't say a word to each other. He half expected a lecture, but she just handed it to him and left.
Tristan took a slow breath and glanced off toward the forest in search. It took him a moment, but he found his father's trail. With some reluctance, he shifted back and followed his scent to the burnt remains of his mate's old house.
He should have known he'd be there...
Tristan shifted back to skin as he approached his father who stood holding a bottle that smelled strongly of alcohol.
The wolven people had a stronger constitution than humans; it would take a fatally high alcohol content for a human to even get them drunk. They often made their own, and by the hard smell, his father was clearly was drinking wolf-made alcohol.
And his father never drank. He was always a very self-controlled wolf in temperament. So it was disturbing for Tris on more than one level to see him this way.
His father did not acknowledge him. He just stood, staring at the broken pieces of the house. Ash and soot were still heavy in the air.
Tristan approached him slowly, the twigs snapping beneath his feet sounded oddly loud in the heavy silence that settled around them. He decided he would not to be the first to speak, but his father remained silent for some time, he just kept taking long swigs of the bottle as he stared at the burned out house.
And it was just when Tris thought he had no intention to speak, that he finally broke the silence.
"Who made the decision to do this?" He spoke with a hint of hard anger in his tone. His words were slightly slurred. It just disturbed Tristan more.
"I did," Tristan said firmly, he was not going to let Sawyer take the fall for it now that he could see how truly angry he was. His father's jaw tensed, his hand on the bottle clenched so hard Tristan was sure it would shatter.
He seemed to be struggling to control his anger.
"I thought it best," Tristan said firmly. His father still didn't look at him.
The silence felt oddly loud as they stood there beside each other. The birds weren't even chirping in that area of the woods.
"Your mother had words with you I assume." He said just as coldly and just as slurred.
"Yes," Tristan answered.
"Hm.." His father grunted in a half-annoyed, half-darkly amused way.
"My mother always told me to wait to mate until I was thirty, so I can be sure I wouldn't find her, I thought the mark was a joke... I ignored her, because your mother captivated me. I never truly believed in all that fate bullshit, but your mother, she did. She said it felt like her heart was ripped out when he died...." Ivan said as he took another long drink. Tristan eyed the bottle. Tristan had half a mind to snatch it from him and break it, but he didn't.
His father looked unstable.
How much more could possibly be in there? And how many had he already downed? Tristan looked beside him. Two bottles lay discarded there.
The small sac of ama suddenly felt heavier in his clenched hand.
Tristan observed his father hard, his tone was strange. Nothing about this was sitting right with him. He truly didn't sound like himself.
"When your mother and I mated she said she could never truly love me. Even after she was pregnant with you, she always told me when I found my mate, she was prepared what would happen. She would encourage it, because something so precious shouldn't be wasted..." Ivan spoke with pain in his voice now. Tristan felt the emotion. His father had taken a turn.
It was unsettling him even more.
"Shortly before you were born, I received a mountain wolf messenger. Frid had requested a meeting..." Ivan finally continued. Tristan felt the shock of his words. He'd never heard of this before. Not once.
Frid? Everyone knew his name, but few outside the mountain packs had ever met him.
He ruled over the Unba. They were a mighty pack, incredibly powerful. They nearly owned the whole damn mountain range. The rest of the mountain packs looked to Frid. He was practically the sovereign leader of all the winter wolves. The Alpha to their Alphas.
"I was surprised, but not impressed. I had become a proud foolish bastard. The messenger had mentioned how his daughter had not found her mate in the mountain packs, and they were requesting a formal meeting to see if her mate belonged to ours.
The mountain wolves had been so reclusive. We had never exchanged before. But I suppose because it was his daughter, he made an exception.
The mountain wolves believed in allowing their gifted to grow up together. They often sought to find their pup's gifted early.
But being the foolish male I was then... I kept pushing his visit back in favor of things that seem so trivial now... In truth... I was a bit resentful that the mountain wolves always acted superior to us...
Then we had you and Elly, and life took on another realm of busy. When I finally got around to returning Frid's messages, I was told his daughter went missing." Ivan said. Tristan was watching his father now with a growing sense of alarm.
It was starting to dawn on him where this story was leading...
"Frid's only daughter had been kidnapped. They asked for my help, as they were sure she was in the woodlands somewhere..." Ivan said. He spoke colder now, his words clearer, but Tris could see his eyes were taking on a more and more haunted look.
"I could have, I had the time, I had the resources, but instead, I lied. I said we had obligations and couldn't. In my head, it was just one little female of an arrogant pack who thought themselves above us woodlanders. What did she matter to me?" Ivan said with a hint of pain in his voice toward the end.
"I thought that..." Ivan spoke again in a haunted tone. His eyes dilated somewhat, and he took another long hard drink, tipping the bottle up all the way before tossing it with the other empty ones.
"She was thirteen when captured.. apparently she had become overcome with wanderlust. Wanting to visit the woodland packs..." Ivan said. Tristan was still struggling to wrap his mind around what he was trying to say.
Surely he wasn't going to say what he thought he was going to...
"Why? Why did it only affect her? I don't understand why I never felt that... the deep need to find her. So many others feel it..." He said in that same haunted tone before he went silent.
Tristan tried to wrap his mind around what he had just told him. There was so much chaos the night they raided the Varga he hadn't even thought to analyze Neve's scent. He should have recognized it sooner in Lo. But he just thought his wolf was biased because of what she was to him...
"I hadn't known it was him at the time who was attacking packs... no one had known who it was. His scent had faded by the time I got there. I just offered my condolences to Frid... but I brushed it off as not my business.
I even coldly thought it had been her own fault. They had told me she was rebellious and had been outside their territory when caught. I thought it was her father's fault for not teaching her better. I didn't want to get involved..." Ivan spoke with a range of emotions, but his tone was severely pain laden.
"If I hadn't been such a fool.... I could have met her then... I would have known of her... I would have waited for her. I could have saved her from all the pain she suffered. I could have... I could have had her. She would have been mine...." Ivan spoke with a broken voice toward the end.
Tristan could barely breathe.
Lo was the daughter of two Alpha bloodlines. It hit him hard, then. How the hell was that disgustingly submissive female related to Frid? Of all the wolves out there...
The fact that her blood, even as angry as it made him, appealed to his wolf so much made a lot more sense now.
Tristan's eyes went to his father again.
"She was the first one that bastard kidnapped after I let him go. Fate has a way of being cruel with her justice. I should have killed that boy. I shouldn't have let mercy blind me." Ivan said, and he suddenly looked like he was going to be sick. His hands went to his knees and he hunched down.
"If I hadn't convinced my father to spare that boy, none of this would of happened, he wouldn't have kidnapped her..." Ivan said as he took a deep breath. It looked as if breathing had become painful for him.
"...you know, if I met her, I wouldn't have cared that your mother was pregnant. I would have left you both to be with her. It's that strong... I love you son, but you can't resist that pull. You would have been second, to every pup I had with her." Ivan said, but his words were souring more.
"The spirits have a way of punishing us. My mother always told me, that those who have difficulty finding their mates... there is a lesson they need to learn. Patience is what she told me. She said not to mate, because it creates a messy situation with many causalities when a mated chosen finds their fated.
I brushed that off. I never thought I could be that tempted by a female. I thought I couldn't possibly want to throw everything I built away for a pretty face.... And yet I felt every ounce of that and more. And I barely even got to touch her alive..." Ivan spoke with a truly haunted tone now. His eyes had focused on a still smoldering piece of wood amongst the wreckage.
"I regret not being able to show Neve how sorry I was. Maybe you're a better male then me, sticking by your chosen, but... I can't help but think you are worse, so much worse... to throw your gift away like that.
I know what I said... and I know how hypocritical I'm being, because I still can't stand to look at that female... I want her gone... it angers my wolf to even know she exists...
But I'm not fool enough not to know she was made for you, in every way. Your prefect match. Your ideal female." Ivan said, his gaze still focused forward.
"I heard from other males... she would be your everything... in every way. Your thoughts... feelings, all shared. You would never be more in synch with another living being. Your wants are her wants, everything you like, she likes.
And nothing could compare to what it would feel like, no other female would compare. She would fit you like a glove, like a perfect fucking puzzle piece.
Being with her would ruin you for all others... you'd never even want to look at another once you've bedded her, because she would be everything you ever wanted and didn't know you wanted." Ivan said. Tristan immediately felt uncomfortable. What the hell was he saying?
"Stop talking; you're drunk." Tristan growled.
"I speak truth. Even in that tiny moment I held her, I knew everything they'd said was true. I knew she was the only one I wanted, the only one I would have ever wanted. It's an all consuming want... she is your everything, and the thought of ever hurting her is unbearable.
I loved your mother, I truly did.... But now I feel nothing for her. I can barely look at her, knowing I had foolishly forsaken my mate for her. It hurts. So fucking much. I would have cherished her until my dying days. I lost my chance to ever be happy, because of my foolishness." Ivan said as he fumbled and grabbed for another bottle.
Tris found everything he was saying hard to swallow. What the hell happened to his proud powerful father? A female did this?
Tris's thoughts went immediately to the scraggly child back at the clinic. Made for him? He didn't find her even the slightest bit attractive. She was an awkward small wolf with sunken eyes... She looked sickly. He had never known a full grown female wolf to be so short. He had no desire for her at all.
But...
Attraction or not, the overwhelming protectiveness was still there, the need to keep her near him. To shelter her...
Yet he is the one who hurt her the most.
Tristan shoved that thought away and looked back at his father as he stumbled a moment before he sat back onto the ground. The bottle in his hand skitted away. Tristan observed him hard, it was clear he'd need help getting back to the pack house. He could barely walk.
His father started to blindly reach for the bottle. Tristan looked down at his feet where the bottle slowed its roll. Most of the alcohol had sloshed out, but some remained.
Just enough...
Tristan grabbed it and didn't let himself think too much. He would deal with his guilt later... He quickly dumped the powder into the bottle, swirled it once, and handed it to his father before he had a chance to second-guess himself.
He father immediately downed the whole thing.
"... come on, let's get you home," Tristan said as he leaned down to shoulder his weight.