King's puffy rebellious eyes wanted to shut down on him. He slapped himself. He wanted to sleep. But given a chance, he'll just probably lay there in his bed, staring at the blank cream canvas in the ceiling until night creeps into his room. Just like what happened yesterday, the same reason as to why he was late for training today.
... Training.
King scratched his head, thinking he'd see that sunburned Dude again.
After finishing their last drill, King haunched to ground, regathering his energy. He rubbed his eyes and yawned. The clouds were a bit darker today, and they seemed to hang low in the sky. King took an involuntary whiff, smelling earth and compost hit his nose harder than usual.
Suddenly, his thoughts drew back to Zacharias again. Yes, that was what—or actually who—was bothering him until post-midnight hours.
King kept on analyzing something over and over again. It was the fact that he started harboring feelings for Zac—
King inwardly screamed and burrowed his head between his legs.
Don't be wronged; he didn't hate the thought. Call it embarrassment. King was also troubled by a couple of reasons, reasons that made and didn't make sense at the same time.
One, Zacharias is a werewolf. Not that it made an essential connection, but it was probably because Zach is an alpha—ruler of the pack, the top of the pyramid, the cream of the crop, the corps d'elite, and let's stop with that. Whoever will stand beside Zach would be just as important as he is. And King didn't fancy that, probably because he's normally laidback, and being plastered on the forehead with one of the highest responsibilities for a werefolk is a no-go. Plus, him maneuvering something is probably like rewinding Titanic. He might not crash into an iceberg, but pretty sure he'll crash into something similar. Something that'll possibly cause a foreboding imminent disaster. And that leads to King's last thought:
An alpha dating a guy is probably unfavorable to, if not all, maybe most of his members. Maybe. Or it could be a half. Or even a few.
King stared at the grass, spotting an earthworm who was minding its own business. It wiggled when he gently poked it with a small stick.
... Dating a guy, huh?
King propped his chin on his knees. Now that he thought about it, he didn't really fret about genders when it comes to dating. King is a free person. He didn't bother about others, or more like he just respected them for themselves. And he respected his. And King admits, he did found some guys cute. But is it because Zacharias was a bit different from his preference that he got conflicted before?
King poked the ground. Well, he likes Zach, that's the thing.
He stared at the same earthworm again. "... I am his mate, right?" He didn't really expect the worm to reply.
Before a small smile could take a peak on his lips, his eyebrows went first. King's brain did the screaming for him again, and he burrowed his face between his legs, pulling on his curls next.
Was he thinking of dating Zach? Yes, he was!
King slapped himself again. "This is so not like you, you freaking idio—"
"What the hell are you doing?"
The werecat froze. He blinked, and raised his head a bit, analyzing the dark flipflops and steel-toed feet right in front of him.
Crap.
King slowly looked up with an automatically annoyed grimace, finding Kain, who was looking down at him with his handsome yet unamused, and still arrogant face.
King cleared his throat. He fixed his expression, sported a deadpanned look, before bouncing to his haunches. He grumbled when he didn't reach Kain's height.
The alpha crossed his arms, one tattooed, against his broad chest. "You know, you were late, Mr. Stefan," he said with a mocking tone. "Did Zach kept you companied too last night?"
King stared at him in disbelief, all triggered symptoms ticked and showing on his expression before he huffed and reverted his face to neutrality. "I don't know. Maybe?" he answered. King learned to ignore and play cool at statements that obviously called for trouble. But it seems like Kain is willing to abuse some stuff.
The alpha hummed and rolled his neck. "Five laps," he said, massaging a shoulder afterward.
King's frown returned. "What—"
"Run for five laps."
"Wait, you gotta be kidding m—"
"Six laps." Kain smirked at him.
"What the heck, dud—"
"Seven laps."
"Argh!" King sprinted away. With the man far from his radar, the werecat breathed out a snort. Yeah, right. Like he'll run those laps.
Suddenly, his thoughts jumped to another platform.
Right, just like Zacharias, Kain said he was his mate too. The man never directly admitted, though. He even seemed like he was ruling it out like it was a curse. Like King was a curse.
King snorted. He might have changed his mind and started to like Zach, but he'll never, ever like Kain. Over his dead body.
Kain, on the other hand, cracked his knuckles and looked at the sky. He looked for the usual glare of the sun that had hidden away behind dark heavy clouds. Looks like he needed to fetch the brat back.
"You should stop bullying him," uttered a small voice besides Kain. The alpha turned his head to the right, then down to find Wendy, looking at him with her round bright blue eyes. "You're going to regret it if you keep going on like that, you know?" Wendy added.
Kain didn't reply. He just smirked at her and went on to trail the brat. Wendy shook her head.
After King's supposedly second lap only, turned four, cold droplets started to kiss his beige skin. Each frigid kiss turned into pitterpatters that glossed the earth. And the more he ran, the more he got wet. Even though it wasn't that heavy, he still cringed at the chill that rushed through his body.
King spat a curse. He likes rains for bedtime reasons but hates rains for other reasons. One of them was that he hated getting wet. You can refer to the second episode.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?"
"Gah!" King jumped. He turned around, catching Kain again, who ran a hand through his also damp raven-black hair. King threw a mix of disbelief, suspicion glare, and an im-in-trouble stance. "Why are you here?!"
"Taking shortcuts, huh, brat?"
King averted his gaze and gulped.
The alpha moved towards the werecat. He glanced at the sky again, though his expression looked like he didn't give a crap about the weather. "You're still on your first lap. get back to the stronghold and continue the others tomorrow."
"Wait. What? No way—"
"Nothing counts if you dont follow the trail, Mr. Stefan. Sad." With a snarky grin, Kain patted King's face. The werecat, taking none of it, slapped his hand away. Kain looked taken aback.
King snorted, glaring at the alpha this time. "No way," he huffed, running back to the trail and deciding to ignore Kain.
"You little— Fine! Go for ten while you're at it!" Kain yelled at the fleeting figure.
"Will do!" King hummed against the beating rain, trying to annoy the alpha, which he succeeded in.
But little did he know, the jokes on him.
Now King regretted that day.
Two days passed since then, and the youngsters continued the training. However, the sky was ominous. Really ominous. Heavier and darker than the once before. Just King's luck, he also happened to be sporting a runny nose, a pounding head, and a burning body that was oddly cold in his inwards. King grumbled.
"Hey, are you okay?" With an audible smack, Wendy's palm swerved and smacked King in the forehead. King's felt like his head was going to split.
Just before King could protest, Wendy gasped and reeled her hand back. "Dude, you're hot!"
King massaged his forehead. "Thank you?"
Wendy smacked him again.
"Ouch! Stop—"
"Dude, what the hell are you thinking going into training. You have to go back," Wendy hissed.
King kneaded his forehead again. "I'm fine. I'm just a bit tired. It'll get better," he sniffled.
King's a werecat. He heals better than a human. What could go wrong? He thought. He didn't know he was an unfortunate protagonist of an evil author.
"Pfft," Wendy exclaimed right in front of him, unintentionally spitting small bits of saliva at his face while she did.
"What th—"
"You expect me to believe you?"
King glared at ger after wiping off the spittle in his face with the neck of his shirt.
"You're going back, Mister." Wendy flipped her tongue out and dashed towards Dragnea, who was leading the trail in the front.
"That crazy..." King stopped moving, eyeing Wendy as she disappeared like the wind. He took a step to the side, letting the others pass through him. Suddenly, he felt the urge to go to a bathroom. The werecat swerved out of the trail.
At first, small water pellets dropped down on land. But without even five seconds later, the pellets turned into a rain of painless bullets. Lightning and thunders followed. There were shrieks as the sky poured down on them.
Kain and Dragnea decided to stop the training.
"All right. Round up and fall in line!" Dragnea commanded. The group followed, most of them unconsciously held a hand above their head, hoping it'll hinder the pour of water on them that streamed from the heavens above. "Is everyone here?"
Knowing that they're about to head back, Wendy held back from telling Dragnea or her older cousin, Kain, about excusing King. So she waited until the werecat catches up to the line. However, the people behind them earlier was already there. But King wasn't.
"Again, Is everyone her—"
"Someone's missing!" Wendy yelled against the violent beat of the rain.
"What?"
"King is missing!"
Kain's face darkened. "Fuck," quietly snapped the alpha. That brat again.
Seconds passed, and King still wasn't there. The rain continued to pour. Irritated and impatient at waiting, Kain said, "Lead them and go back to the stronghold. I'll get the brat."
The others complied and started moving towards the direction to their fortress while Kain headed back to the opposite trail.
"Shit," King hissed when the rain drenched him from head to toe in a sharp matter of seven seconds. He briefly looked up, spotting lightning in the distance before it crackled into a horrendous boom.
This is so not his lucky day. He groaned and spat another curse when his head felt like it was going to split again. It looks like Wendy did the right thing in calling him off the training today. He heaved and leaned a hand at a tree for support.
King purchased the bit of the energy that was left on him and was just about to zip his pants close when someone yelled:
"Oi!"
Startled out of his wits, King made a wrong step and lost his balance through a block of mud.
"Oi! Look out!" Kain roared at him. But it was already too late.
As if the bad luck wasn't enough for today, there happened to be a towering rampart of stone beside King.
In short, King fell off of a cliff.