Although they hadn't agreed on an exact plan (again), the moment they walked into the living room together and Angie's gaze immediately curled to Lola, Evan knew he was going to have the toughest challenge, and he carefully made his way over to Aiden.
For a moment there was a deathly silence in the living room, as if no one dared to react before Lola and Aiden did, while also letting the wolves do it their way.
"What the hell," Aiden's words were something between a whisper and a scream. "Are you telling me it's Evan and Angie?" He turned his head to either side, looking at their friends, but no one answered him.
"Angie's in front of Lola and Evan's in front of you, Aiden," Ryan revealed, and the two wolves stood right in front of their friends, still far enough to not overwhelm them but close enough that they could reach out to them.
Evan made eye contact with the blonde in front of him, though he knew his wolf eyes were more intense than his real ones, and for a moment he summoned gold into them, showing that he was indeed a supernatural being.
"This can't be right," Aiden murmured, but he still didn't break eye contact with the wolf in front of him, as if hypnotised by his eyes.
Evan didn't know if it was a bad thing, but he didn't take his eyes off him either and carefully moved to the ground, lying down so he looked as small as possible and resting his snout on his paws.
"You're so cute." Lola's voice sounded enthusiastic, and as pleased as Evan was by that, he didn't dare break his concentration to see how his friend was doing.
"You can touch him if you want, Aiden," Ryan instructed him gently, and Evan was as grateful as he could be for his mate at the moment.
Aiden, however, gave no indication that he had heard his words, instead continuing to just stare silently into the wolf's eyes without any movement.
"And I thought my reaction was bad," Rory echoed. His tone sounded quite amused, still giving Evan hope.
Even his words didn't shake Aiden out of his trance, though, so Evan decided to take a chance and cautiously crawled over to him, still lying down.
"Can you change back?" The blonde finally spoke up, and it wasn't clear from his tone what he was thinking. His request caught Evan off guard, however, and he had no idea what to do, as he had no desire to be naked in front of everyone.
"He didn't shift in front of you before, because he has to strip naked in order to do that. If he changes back now, he won't be wearing any clothes," Ryan explained, moving closer to the pair so Evan could see him through his peripheral vision.
Aiden seemed to consider his words, his brow furrowing and his lips curling into a tight line. Then he simply nodded silently and averted his gaze to look at Ryan to his left.
"Are you a werewolf too?" he asked bluntly, and since Aiden curled his gaze towards him, Evan allowed himself to do the same.
"I am," Ryan answered him honestly, his eyes turning to a glowing gold. Aiden just watched in silence again, not letting on what he thought about it. This time, however, Lola inserted herself into the conversation and distracted Evan.
"Oh, so you're a cute werewolf couple." She sounded thrilled by this revelation and overall was taking the situation much better than Evan had expected. But with Lola's penchant for romance, no matter if it was books, fan fiction, or series, he had no idea why he was surprised.
Aiden's eyes suddenly curled back to Evan, and this time it was he whose gaze was almost overwhelming. Evan, however, was ready to persevere no matter what.
"Can we step outside for a moment?" he asked suddenly, and Evan's wolf automatically wagged his tail in agreement, not realising Aiden didn't understand him.
"When he wags his tail, it means yes," Ryan quickly interpreted, realising it too.
Aiden nodded his head that he understood and then stood up. Evan automatically did the same and followed him, keeping enough distance that he wouldn't be uncomfortable, and that's how they reached Josh's backyard. Evan expected the blonde man to automatically sit down somewhere, but he just froze at a random spot and lowered his gaze to the ground.
Unfortunately, Evan couldn't address him in this form to see what was going on so he did the next best thing. He barked at him.
Aiden jerked in alarm as he hadn't expected it, but it served its purpose as he made eye contact with him again. "I'm sorry, E," were his words when he finally spoke, and Evan tilted his head to the side in confusion.
The blonde's entire stance was uncertain, and as Evan focused on the details, he noticed how his fists were clenched and how his shoulders were unnaturally stiff. He couldn't remember if he'd ever seen his friend like this, but he didn't like it. He couldn't do anything about it, though, as he still wasn't sure if he could approach him.
"I'm sorry, E," he repeated the same words, but this time his tone sounded different, and Evan could tell exactly what was behind it since he knew what his own voice sounded like when he was holding back tears.
This time he didn't think about keeping a safe distance and stepped closer, brushing against Aiden's legs in a comforting gesture.
It was obviously this moment they'd both been waiting for and just as he was keeping a safe distance, Aiden was doing the same. Now, however, there was nothing stopping him from squatting down and running his hand into the grey fur.
"I feel so awful, E," he said, his voice shaking. "I'm so terribly sorry about everything." On the one hand, Evan understood why he was apologising, but he had no idea what had provoked such a reaction. He was confused, but he couldn't voice it in this form. So he had no choice but to wait to see what Aiden would say next.
"You were my best friend, and I couldn't handle the change. I treated you ho-horribly. I'm s-so terribly s-sorry." When Evan looked up at his face, what he'd suspected was confirmed. Aiden couldn't hold back the tears any longer.
"I didn't know how to make it right, so... so I continued to avoid you while missing you s-so terribly. I'm an idiot," he continued despite his tears. Evan tapped his snout against his chin in return, the way (obnoxious) cats did when they tried to comfort their owners. Aiden chuckled at the gesture despite his tears and stroked Evan's head with his other hand.
"I don't know if you can forgive me..." he began, but Evan immediately wagged his tail to let him know he had no problem with that. Aiden chuckled again, though it sounded muffled due to the tears in his voice.
"I'm so terribly sorry about all of this, E. I let you down and you still decided to trust me with something so big. I... Thank you." His voice trailed off towards the end, but Evan was close enough to catch his words. He now regretted that he wasn't in human form to return them, and though he considered it, he still had no desire to find himself naked, so he had to express his feelings as a wolf. So he pressed closer to Aiden, leaning all his weight against him, and the blonde thankfully understood what he was trying to do and gently hugged him back.
"You're so fluffy." Aiden chuckled into his fur. Then he was quiet but still didn't let the wolf out of his grip. It took a few moments before he decided to let him go, but before he did, he added one last thing: "I promise I won't let you down again."
Evan barked in response as he couldn't answer any other way, but apparently, that was enough for Aiden as a smile finally appeared on his face. Even though Evan couldn't give him a proper answer and they'd probably have to repeat this conversation later, something had still changed between the two of them and finally there wasn't an awkward atmosphere reigning between them.
"You probably want to go back inside, but I'm not sure I want Angie to see me like this," Aiden remarked, pointing to his face, which clearly showed that he'd been crying. Evan mentally agreed with him, knowing that Angie could have made the situation even worse, but Aiden had the advantage of the fact that she couldn't talk at the moment, so he had nothing to worry about. He explained it simply, gently taking his pant leg in his teeth and tugging on it, pulling him towards the door.
"Okay, okay, I'm coming." The blonde raised his hands in the air in a sign of surrender and laughed at Evan's little ploy.
The moment they crossed the threshold of the living room together and appeared in the line of sight of their friends, all attention turned to the two of them, and it was clear that everyone was eagerly awaiting their return. Aiden paced nervously, not enjoying the spotlight, so Evan decided to handle the situation in his own way.
Angie didn't have a chance to react when the grey wolf ran at her, and the moment he lunged at her, they both rolled across the carpet several times. It didn't take long for her to recover, however, and she snapped her teeth at him in a warning gesture, but Evan made nothing of it and nipped at her ear, then immediately jumped up and ran away, knowing she'd be right at his heels.
"I have a feeling we should have moved outside," Josh declared, although his voice sounded amused. After all, his living room wasn't big enough for two unnaturally large wolves and a bunch of teenagers.
"We can still do that. But without the ball," Michael replied, and although he sounded annoyed, he was out of luck, for there were still enough witnesses in the room who remembered him chasing after the yellow ball, just to prove that he was the fastest of the wolves present.
"Oh, really?" Rory turned to him with an amused smile, to which Michael responded with a roll of his eyes.
Evan barely listened to the rest of their conversation, too busy running away from his friend, but eventually, he got tired of it, and instead of dodging her again, he jumped over her and made his way to his mate's lap. And Ryan, as usual, welcomed him with open arms.