"Hah?" Bryce furrowed his brows. "Why would we—"
"Yes!" King pushed him back, emitting a desperate chuckle.
"We apologize, so very greatly. Now, how about we all just leave, and let everyone go back to their business and have their fun?" King's speech became less controlled, and he crept back bit by bit, dragging his monkeyish cousin, who was still throwing daggers with the redhead, and badly wishing that the werewolves would get lost already.
The man's gaze darted down on him, noticing.
King gulped. "That's a great idea, don't you think so?"
It only made the latter scowl.
"Well, It was all nice meeting you, sirs. Buh-bye." King swiftly turned around, only taking a couple of steps when a tight grip curled around his arm.
"Where are you going? We're not yet done, kid," Kain huffed.
King bit back his lips from crisply dropping the f word, mentally chanting warding off spells. He was good at brawling, but the guy in front of him looked like freaking Greek demigod, Hercules. Not to mention, he looked older and more packed with beef. Face basher, he remembered Stan's advice convincingly. If it ever comes to a fight, oh, he could probably kiss his face goodbye, which King was confident that wouldn't happen. Not in here, though.
Another hand wrapped just relatively besides Kain's grip on King's wrist. Their grip felt like how a blood pressure monitor's cuff would squeeze when it reaches point 180, except it was stuck at that point, and he felt like his hand was being squeezed off.
"Kain, let's not scare the youngsters, shall we?" Yusef told his brother.
King frowned at them, feeling uncomfortable when his hand felt like going numb. He tried to budge his hand off of their double-grip, but it wouldn't. The two alphas' heads darted to his direction, staring with predatory eyes when they noticed his need to escape.
King pursed his lips. "You can let go now—"
"Hi," Yusef beamed, knocking off Kain's grip, much to the other guy's annoyance and irritation, and piloting King's hand for a shake.
"Um... hi?" King forced out. Was he supposed to say hi in this situation, he asked himself as he threw an unbelieving gaze at the man.
"Nice to meet you." the other added, flashing a charming princely smile on him.
King forced out a desperate laugh. "You know, I'd really like to say the same. But it's kinda hard when you tried to... chase us before," he drew out gently, barely coating his tone of mockery, but he managed.
"Oh," Yusef exclaimed, his eyes rounding. "I'm sorry about what happened before. We just wanted to say hi."
Bullshit! King mentally screeched. Though, the words that left his lips afterward were the opposite:
"That's cool." A forced laugh rolled out of his stiffening mouth. "Can I, uh, ask you a question, sir?."
"Hmm?" the man's dark blue eyes never left his.
"Can I have my hand back now?"
"Sure." Yusef brushed his fingertips against the back of King's hand before letting go.
A chill ran down on the latter's spine, and he immediately withdrew his hand back on his side. King knitted his brows together, watching the man's face that somehow drew from an ethereal smile to a demonic grin. King mentally withheld himself from running away.
The man's charming smile drew back. He turned his head towards Bryce and smiled.
"Nice to meet you too. I'm Yusef."
"Bryce... sir." the burly kid shook his hand with a dumbfounded look on his face, shocked and disbelieving.
Yusef turned his head at Pandora, reaching out his hand for a handshake, but Pandora reacted by leaning back, defensively. She still hadn't forgotten what happened before.
Yusef blinked but kept his smile intact. "Look, I'm really sorry about before. Don't take it personally. I just wanted to," his eyes trailed at the corner as he stared at the brown-haired boy, whose brows were furrowed, "get some answers."
Pandora's eyes darted back at him and King. She was starting to understand things.
King forced a laugh. "If that's that, may we now excuse ourselves? We really need to go—"
"Oh, we're actually looking for you," Yusef added, a small arch smile playing on one corner of his lips.
King gulped. "Why would you, uh, be looking for me, sir?"
"Please, just call me Yusef." The man laughed. "And prior to your first question, we have something to discuss with King Hugh. With you actually, if you don't mind."
"Why me?"
Yusef and Kain stared at each other, one with a barbaric mood and the other with a sort of two-sided edge.
"Well, there's something we have to talk about that concerns you," Yusef explained.
King's hands were covered with cold sweat. He stared at blank space, planning his alphabetical plans if things ever takes on a wrong turn. Yusef suppressed to chuckle at his apparent reaction.
"You wouldn't mind it if we come, would you, Alpha Yusef?" Pandora suggested, confidently keeping her eyes directly on the werewolf.
"Well, if it makes you all feel better, why not? Though you'll have to leave us to talk with your King first."
"Can we say no?" King forged a strained, small laugh.
Yusef chuckled at him, but his dark eyes gave away his response—no.
———
King kept fidgeting on the camelback sofa, winking rather than blinking. His heart pounded against his chest as he discreetly stared at the two alphas who was discoursing relatively with each other. They left him in a private room with the gold and cream scheme with none other but them.
Kain was sitting with both arms outstretched on the backrest with one leg on top of his other thigh. The other was also sitting in a laid back gesture, though less bold. Yusef suddenly turned his head to King and smiled, and King drew his head down, feeling heat erode like lava up to his face.
He shakily grabbed the water in front of him, which was offered to them when they came in on the room, drank, and choked. He began hacking a cough.
"Careful." Yusef chuckled.
"Idiot," Kain uttered.
King barely held himself from throwing the glass at him. Yusef poked his brother with the cap of his shoes, and they exchanged meaningful eyes.
"Relax," Yusef turned his head back at King. "we're not going to do anything."
"It's not like I'm not trying to," King gently snapped with pursed lips.
Yusef chuckled, eyeing him with amusement.
Then Hugh came in, together with Zachary. King should have felt relieved, but he felt like another layer of rocks had just buried him. He slightly shook his legs, cold sweat forming on his forehead. Was he in trouble?
"Sorry for making you all wait," Hugh said, sitting on the sofa near King.
"Not at all, King Hugh," Yusef replied.
There was an awkward silence that shifted around them afterward. No one knew how to start, so King instantly threw what he was gravely thinking earlier:
"Uh, did I do something wrong? I'm in trouble, aren't I?"
Yusef chuckled, quite enjoying the boy's anxiousness opposite of what he was trying to comfort earlier.
Hugh shook his head. "Relax, King. You're not. Don't worry." he shushed, but his tone seemed force, and that just made King more uncomfortable than what the latter had intended to do.
"Though specifically, you are in a different sense," Yusef added, and King's expression turned to that of being spirited away. Yusef was really enjoying his reactions. "I'm just kidding."
Hugh cleared his throat. "Well, for starters, you're probably acquainted with the three alphas of the Lykaois pack now, aren't you?"
King stared one by one at the three. There was Kain, who seemed like he was trying to murder him using his eyes. There was Yusef, who King had already distinguished as a wolf in a sheep's clothing. Then there was Zachary, who, for a reason, brought him ease. He seemed composed and chill, unlike the two other men who were eyeing him like he was a piece of meat or a punching bag.
"I am," King said.
"Then, I guess introductions are unnecessary now, is it?"
"... No." he just wanted them to get to the point already, cause the more they dragged it in, the more he felt like running away by that only window on the corner.
"If I'm not in trouble, then... what concern could it be for me to be specifically summoned by..." the three dogs, he did not include.
The awkwardness zoomed up. King hardly could swallow the ball of knot stuck in his throat.
"Just to get familiar and less uncomfortable with each other, I think we should personally introduce ourselves. My name is Zachary."
"And I'm Yusef." The man winked at him.
"Why do we have to do this?" Kain complained.
"Kain, just do it."
He groaned and stared at King with an almost mocking gaze. "You can call me Kain, boy."
King forced a smile with his stiff lips. Who cares, he thought. Then there was silence again.
Hugh cleared his throat. "Now listen, King," He stared at King with a nervous smile as well, trying to comfort him when he wasn't even comfortable himself. "I know it'll be hard to believe what this is all about. But you have to know otherwise."
"It's an essential compound for us werewolves," Yusef added with a helpless smile.
"Truthfully, we have no control over it, and it's unfortunate that someone who's probably unwilling, like you, to have to be a part of it." Zachary examined him with an expressionless look.
"I don't really get what you're pointing at. Can you just, you know, tell it immediately?" King fidgeted with his hands.
The others' gazes trailed at his face. No one was smiling, and everyone was staring at him like they were drilling a point on his skull that wouldn't just get through.
"Because I'm not going to lie, you guys are killing me with this cliffhanger, like, you guys kept pointing something, but then drifts off away from it," King drew out in one deep breath. "So, what is it?"
Zachary let out a small sigh, shrugged his shoulder, and uttered:
"You are our m—"
Screams pierced through the air. King would have believed it was all a part of the party if it didn't sound like blood-curdling shrieks.