Chapter 7

At Darian’s name, Ian went quiet, he was not surprised to hear the other Warrior's name.

Leon deflated at Ian’s reaction, scrubbing his face with a hand. "What's with that face?" He asked tiredly, settling back on the bench.

Ian shrugged, hesitant to speak. "Well, it's no secret, you and Darian that is and honestly I've been dreading the moment it would come to this… but…" Ian trailed off, suddenly busy with watching the sun make its way to the other end of the sky.

"But what?" Leon cut him a glare, frowning when he noticed his twin avoiding his gaze.

"Don't you think that you and Darian’s reaction to each other is a bit abrasive? I mean it's not the first time two people have shown interest in the same person but your dislike for each other is a bit disconcerting."

Leon's frown changed to an unimpressed look. "I've not ripped out his neck yet, I'm being very nice thank you very much."

Ian just sighed. "Whatever." He took out his phone, his eyes widening a fraction. "Oh yeah, where the fuck did you keep your phone?" He suddenly rounded on his brother.

Leon was startled. "What? It's with me." He affirms, putting a hand down his front pockets.

He had stopped by his apartment to shower and change so he was in new clothes, sweatpants and a loose shirt.

"Then you might want to actually use it, you know I hate it when your 'Playthings' have to call me." He half scolded Leon. "Anyway, you might want to get down there, one of them has been blowing off my phone all day trying to reach you."

He turned around to leave, done with the conversation. "Oh and yeah, tell them to lose my number." He swept out.

Leon wasn't even bothered because it was Ian, Ian never judged him even when he was being an absolute fool.

"Wait! You couldn't even tell their gender?" He called after him."

Ian stopped, taking a deep breath. "Bold of you to assume that I listened long enough to confirm that."

"Fuck." Leon cursed under his breath when he finally took out his phone to see endless missed calls and texts that had become spam at that point.

"Make sure to come back in time for dinner, we're having dinner with the others today."

Leon perked up at this, he would get to see Jaxon.

That was enough to fix his ruined mood.

"Sure." He muttered, getting to his feet.

He checked his phone one more time as he made his way down the hallway, the number wasn't saved on his phone so he couldn't tell who it was, not that he cared.

He deleted all the texts without even sparing them a glance, he wasn’t being cruel.

As a matter of fact, he had been quite clear when he cut all ties with them.

This wasn't a strange occurrence as every now and then, one drifted back thinking that they were important enough to change his mind. They weren't.

Some were wise enough to leave when his disinterest was apparent but then there were some like this, who he had to go and physically remove from his Playhouse.

He hurried down the stairs, it was just late afternoon but missing out on dinner with Jaxon was exactly the kind of thing that would make him go batshit.

He got into his car and drove down to his apartment which he had converted to what it was now.

His dad hadn't known about it and he wasn't about to tell him, it wasn’t that he was scared of his father’s reaction…

Well, maybe he would have been when he first got it, he was barely eighteen but just to spare his dad the heartache.

Well, his old man wasn't around anymore, not that he ever really paid attention to what his children did.

It was a roomy cottage house, far enough from the residential parts of Pine Creek to provide privacy and far enough from the woods so that wandering Werewolves on a run didn’t bump into it.

He pulled out of the rocky, uneven road and parked his truck in front, stepping down.

The door swung open at his arrival, some girl hurrying down the front stairs in full lingerie even though it was cold out.

Leon's face hardened instantly, his bored expression changing to one of upset.

"How did you get in?" He asked in a cold voice, stopping her in her tracks.

The Werewolf looked up with wide blue eyes, her black hair a satin curtain around her bare shoulders.

"I-I… I did… that's not important, Sir, aren't you happy to see me…"

He cut off her syrupy words with a cold glare. "I decide what's important and I won't repeat myself again, how the fuck did you get in?"

She jumped slightly at his harsh tone, stepping backwards when it was clear that he wasn't pleased by her presence.

"I-I had a spare key made." She whispered, looking stricken.

Wise enough to not add that she not only had to pay a huge sum of money to get it done but had also brought the locksmith to the cottage, violating a clause of their agreement.

Silently, Leon put out a hand, palm up and quickly the brunette stepped forward to place the keys in his hand.

"You know what to do." He dismissed her, getting back in his car.

Tires squealed as he drove off, she should have known better, he couldn't even remember her name, he never bothered to learn it.

They knew what they were getting into so it wasn't like he was cruel but he hadn't been with anyone in his Playhouse for over a year, he truly hoped they would have gotten the message by now.

Only Ian knew that he had cut off all ties with all of his previous Playthings, he didn’t care what people thought of him except Jaxon.

But there was no conversation that created the perfect atmosphere for him to come up to Cherry and go like… "Hey, I um, stopped fucking around with everything that walks, wanna go on a date sometime?"

He dropped his head briefly on the steering wheel, a thought coming to his head.

He should call Mae to check up on Jaxon… shit, he should have done that since.

The call rang a couple times before he got put through.

"He…"

"Lemme guess, you're also looking for my mate." Shana's dry voice cut him off.

Leon gulped at this, someone else had called asking for Mae? Darian, it had to be.

"Yeah." He accepted without mincing words.

"Well, Ian also called asking for her and that was after she left for the Pack House after getting a call from there, wanna tell me what the hell's going on?"

"Nope." Leon answered immediately, hanging up.

Why was he even surprised? It was impossible to see Jaxie and not want to take care of him.

He could understand it but that didn't mean he had to stand it.

~*~

Mae drove down to the Pack House with a frown, her hair gathered up into two Dutch braids.

It was strange enough getting a call from Darian but she had never heard the Werewolf sound so unsettled, it made her almost panic because only world level catastrophes seemed to ruffle him so it meant that something was terribly wrong.

He had asked a favor for her to check up on Jaxon and also, strangely, keep it from his sister.

Well, that wasn't a promise as she had plainly told him because if there was something wrong with the Head Beta, it wasn't her place to keep it from his sister.

She had already gone halfway before she realised that she had left her phone back at home but it wasn't like she was expecting any important calls.

Her mate could handle any calls that came in anyway, right then all she could think about was Jaxon.

She parked in the lot, stepping out to see Dale driving in at the same time, Dream and Hayden in the car.

"Mae! Hi!" Hayden called excitedly, Dream waving behind him.

She waited impatiently, a smile on her face as they hurried over, Dale coming behind them, drowning in shopping bags.

"Hi, you guys." She beamed at them, giving them quick hugs. "You didn't have to park here just to meet me." She lightly scolded them.

She had been expecting them to park on the lot of Dale's Pack House, the Alpha floors of both Pack Houses were interconnected so that would have been the best option.

"Nonsense, there's no difference." Dream insisted. "Plus, you think we would give up the chance to see you…"

Luckily, socialising was brief because Dale started to whine about the bags being too heavy and she managed to escape at that distraction.

She beelined straight for the top floor, long accustomed to the path that led to Jaxon's apartment from how often she came to give him potions to help with his insomnia because drugs made him feel miserable and did little to help his nasty sleeping habits.

Gently, she knocked on the door, it was a surprise in itself for him not to be at his office while the sun was still up.

It was a very welcome change but it made her worry all the more, was something terribly wrong?

There was no response to her knock and her panic skyrocketed, the door was locked when she checked and she might have figured that maybe he wasn't around if Darian hadn't affirmed it.

He had given her a spare key simply because she was more or less his personal doctor and physiotherapist but she had hoped she wouldn't have to use it.

'Well, here goes nothing' she thought to herself, slipping in the key.