Chapter 2

Darian made his way down the hallway on the second floor, itchy and craving a bath. Patrol had gone well enough, there might be a little issue with wild coyotes on the south border but it wasn't something he and Leo hadn't handled before.

His thoughts were occupied with cleaning out the dust and grit from his skin that he nearly ran into someone around the next turn.

Agnes.

A boisterous, elderly werewolf who always seemed to know what was happening.

"Darian?" She called in surprise, cutting off his quiet apologies for nearly bumping into her.

"Good thing I found you, it saved me from having to go up all those flights of stairs…" She started to ramble like she was talking to her child.

It was astonishing to Darian, he wanted to look intimidating, basked in his ability to look overwhelmingly threatening without even trying as a matter of fact but it just went over the little, old woman's head.

With visible effort, he forced himself to listen to her, it was his job, sort of and also if he did not attend to it, it would be taken to Jaxon.

He would rather pet sit Agnes's hamster than let that happen.

"...I overheard Yvonne say something about Leon fixing her heater…" Here she broke off from her narrative and started to talk about something else. "I mean, she did tell me earlier today that the heaters in their wing stopped working and I didn't believe her because you know, it's Yvonne…"

Darian just stood helplessly, listening without a choice. "Ma'am could you tell me exactly what is wrong?" He asked as politely as he could manage, he probably came off as cold but he was too busy convincing himself to not run to the stairs that led to the third floor and jump off it.

"Nonsense." Agnes tittered. "I keep telling you, Darian, I'm not that old, just Agnes will do fine." She corrected with a coy smile, adjusting her soft bun with a couple taps.

But that wasn't what Darian wanted to know, "Alright… Agnes." He said hesitantly. "Now please tell me what is wrong, if it's about the heaters, I'm sure a plumber will be sent over in no time." He tried to reassure her, anything to let her let go of him.

"That is the problem, there is a plumber fixing it already." She replied earnestly.

Darian tried hard to not let his irritation show on his face. "I don't see how that is a problem, Agnes." He said in a dry voice.

"Oh, I assure you it is." She insisted. "You see, Yvonne said that Leon was the one fixing it and I was like, 'Leon? The Head Warrior and the Alpha's older brother who also has a twin brother?' And Yvonne went like 'Of course, is there any other Leon in our Pack House?' But I needed her to be sure you see because she definitely couldn't be talking about the Leon I know." She finally stopped to take a break.

And continued right after. "I watched that wolf grow and he sure as hell doesn't know how to fix heaters."

Darian took an involuntary deep breath with her when she came to the end of her tirade, he had long lost interest as soon as he heard Leon's name but he knew that Agnes would hound him till he checked up on him.

"Fine, I'll peek in on him to make sure he's not using Yvonne's dead body to clog up the pipes." He quipped sarcastically.

"The Pack House would probably be better off then." Agnes muttered under her breath, pale eyes cold and sharp.

Darian's eyes widened a fraction, maybe he had been a little quick to judge her.

He was also done with making small talk so now that he had a reason to ghost on the conversation, he did, taking a different turn that would lead him to Yvonne's apartment that apparently housed Leon instead of the one that would lead him closer to taking a fucking shower and to Jaxon.

He rapped on the door when he got to it, relieved when Agnes was nowhere to be found, unlike with him, the fiesty, old lady kept her distance from Leon, understandable, Darian felt the same way.

The door swung open immediately after to reveal a sopping wet and harried-looking Leon - well that was an image that would be burned into his mind.

The Head Warrior and his superior stared back at him with wide, striking blue eyes that narrowed into something else.

His gold hair was plastered to his face, cut long to his jaw in front and practically shaved at the back, Darian kept his eyes fixed on Leon's face, noticing that all of his piercings were out for the first time since he met the werewolf.

It didn't matter if they were woken up at some godforsaken hour of the night, the psychopath always had his piercings on him.

"I see you're not dead." Darian noted coldly, already turning around to hightail it out of there.

He did not want to know about what the fuck the Head Warrior was up to and believe him when he said he didn't give a fuck.

"Wait! D!" Leon called him before he could hurry off.

Darian cursed inaudibly but turned around, the toned werewolf could still wipe the ground with his face two out of three times, it would be best to just hear him out.

It was a stunner for Darian to turn around and find Leon looking at him sheepishly, and at a loss for words, Leon always had something to say.

"What is…" he started to ask impatiently when something caught his attention.

His jaw dropped, his gaze following as his eyes trailed all the way into the house as far as he could see then he looked back to where Leon was standing.

"Is that water?" He asked in shock, giving the blond Beta a look of disbelief.

Leon rubbed a hand over the back of his wet neck, his shirt sticking to his upper body. "I might have fucked up." He admitted.

"You fucking fucked up, idiot…" Darian plunged into a rant.

He didn't get all his words out because Leon tugged him inside, slamming the door behind them.

Now they were both ankle deep in rapidly rising water, Darian was backed up against the door, Leon in his soaking wet glory pressed up against him.

Darian only stood this position for a couple seconds before he swapped their positions, slamming Leon against the door, harder than necessary, his eyes flashing a harsh silver as he bared his fangs at him.

"Fuck, why do you have to drag me into your mess?" Darian cursed miserably, stepping away as fast as he had brought them together.

Leon's icy blue eyes darkened considerably, his body shifting slightly, this made Darian go on high alert, watching the Head Warrior with sharp eyes.

All of the tension dropped out of Leon's shoulders and he averted his gaze. "Because I don't have anyone else." He grumbled, pushing his wet hair away from his face.

Darian's facial expression did not shift. "Bullshit." He countered calmly.

"Alright, fine." Leon agreed, pushing up and away from the door, prowling elegantly over the wet floor, long limbs moving with grace. "I don't want Cherry to find out." He said steadily, going in the direction of the source of the water like Darian had already agreed to help him.

Darian gritted his teeth, he hated that nickname for Jaxon.

"Anyway…" he added, taking off his wet shirt and turning around to face Darian. "...what's important now is if you can fix the leak…"

"Leak?" Darian repeated mockingly. "The entire apartment is drowning, what did you do? Take an axe to the pipes?"

"You standing around there yammering isn't going to fix things."

Darian raised a brow at this.

"Fine." Leon deflated. "What do you want?"

Darian mused on this for a while, Leo must really not want Jaxon to find out about this mess and he could understand that, it was just that the Head Warrior never made himself vulnerable, especially not to Darian.

"I'll tell you later, show me your fuck up." He agreed quickly, his mind was already made up because naturally, Jaxon would be made to clean up the Head Warrior's mess but he liked to see the cold and unruffled werewolf squirm.

"You're never gonna let me live this down are you?" Leon muttered, lifting his left hand up to push his hair out of his face again, it was covered from his shoulder blade to his fingertips in tattoos.

"You should be more worried about me deciding to tell Jaxon." He advised him, taking off his shirt as well, he would so hate to walk up the stairs in sopping wet clothes.

His physique was a sharp contrast from Leon's, it was obvious enough that they were both very fit but while Leon's torso was on the slender side, Darian's muscles were clean cut, his skin free of tattoos, save for the Warrior's brand that was inked on his side.

"You promised…" Leon started to recall…

"I never made any promises." He was quick to point out. "Now show me where the fuck shit is going down or we are going to be up to our neck in water."

"Fine." Leon agreed in a hard voice and Darian made a mental note to watch his back, the Head Warrior was quite dangerous.

"Tell me, where's Yvonne? She's still alive right?" He asked when they started their journey, wading to the bathroom.

Leon cut a vicious glare over his shoulder at him.

Darian would take that as a yes.