| Sëenige Pack - Pack Town

"Had a nice chat?" I flinched at the sudden voice, looking up to see Ricky leaning against the wall beside me "Where's Eze?" I questioned, ignoring his question. He leaned off the wall, making his way to me, "I told her I'd wait for you so she went downstairs." I grumbled under my breath as he draped his heavy arm around my shoulder and guided us down the steps.

"You never answered my question." He said as we made our way down. I shrugged off his arm and walked ahead of him, yet again ignoring his question as he speed walked to catch up with me "Is that him?" He questioned, preventing me from walking by standing directly in front of me "Is that your mate?"

I snorted, quickly silencing myself when I noticed the pointed look he was giving me, "He's not even human" I pointed out with an arched brow. "It wouldn't be the first time someone was mated to a human." He answered back, not at all letting up on the conversation.

"He's not my mate Ricky." He squinted his eyes, looking into my eyes, searching for any hint of a lie and I guess he didn't find one because seconds later he was moving out the way and allowing me to pass. "You don't have to be so protective." I said, patting his shoulder as I passed him.

"You know I can't help it." He replied, following close behind me as we finally reached the bottom floor. I scoffed, "What would you even do if it was him, he's an alpha. He could kill you ricardo." I glanced back at him, noticing how his eyes got dangerously dark; He didn't reply after that, just continued walking silently behind me.

"There y'all are." Eze beamed, walking towards us as we made our way into the kitchen; she smiled at me, frowning when she noticed Ricky's sour mood "Is he okay?" She questioned, whispering so only I would hear but I'm sure he heard as well, she's not the best at whispering.

I glanced back at Ricky who was silently leaning against a nearby wall, it was pretty obvious he was upset by the was his jaw clenched in on itself and his brows stayed permanently furrowed together. "He's fine." I looked back to her as she also looked away from him to me "We gonna head out or..?"

"Oh! Yeah my bad, follow me." I did as she said, glancing back to make sure Ricky was as well as I followed her out the door located on the side of the pack house. We kept going straight and I immediately noticed we were heading down the same path I had just seen Zane go down moments before. "So what were the two of you talking about?"

I arched a brow at her question, turning my attention from the never ending maze of trees to her seemingly awkward expression, "Me and Ricky?" I questioned, genuinely confused on why she needed to know what we spoke about or why she even cared in the first place.

She let out an awkward laugh as she avoided my eyes, "You and Kyle." She corrected, causing me to relax as a small grin formed on my face. Should I tell her the truth? I feel like it might get him in trouble though...

"Nothing important." I replied, ignoring as she glanced at me with knowing eyes "Nothing important?" She repeated "Yeah, nothing important. Just how we would go about setting up some type of COD tournament to see who's the best." I answered, mentally patting myself on the back for my amazing ability to think of a quick and believable lie on the spot.

She gave me a questioning look that I promptly ignored, "Where are we heading?" We both turned behind us to look at Ricky who was a few steps behind us. I tried my best to hold in my laughter as I noticed he was still pouting, I could tell by the way he was purposefully taking slow steps so he wouldn't be walking beside us and the fact that he had his hands deep in his pockets.

"We're going to my pack town." Eze answered, turning so she was face to face with him as well as walking backwards. "Aren't most pack towns built around the pack house with the house at the center?" He questioned further. "Yeah, but our ancestors felt that separating the pack town to a more secluded area in the forest was safer than having it near the house. Since that is usually the place rouges and other packs attack first."

Ricky nodded his head in understanding as I took the time to enjoy my surroundings; I love the woods, not just because I'm technically a wolf. The fact that it was both beautiful and yet dangerous fascinated me in a way nothing else had ever been able to. I love the way the trees acted as a sanctuary for creatures while becoming an endless dark maze for other, more weaker and unfamiliar ones.

"Stefan, wait!" Just as I heard Eze's concerned voice I became frozen in my spot when a wolf suddenly jumped in front of me, baring its teeth as it took a defensive position. Ricky rushed in front of me growling back at the wolf but not shifting, probably already knowing the distance left no room for shifting especially since his wolf's main priority was to protect me.

Eze jumped in between the wolf and Ricky, holding her hands up towards both of them "Hey hey, calm down everything is okay." She spoke slowly as she looked at Ricky who continued to stare past her at the wolf "Stand down Abeo." She commanded, turning to look at the wolf; The wolf looked up at her, continuing its menacing stare before slowly sitting up straight and bowing its head.

Eze visibly relaxed at the wolf's actions, she put her hands down as the wolf stopped his bowing, "Abeo, this is Ades' mate." I peeked around Ricky at my introduction, making direct eye contact with the wolf as he took a slow step forward. Eze stepped to the side allowing him to come closer but Ricky stayed planted in front of me, growling once the wolf was directly in front of us.

The wolf halted its movement looking to the side at Ricky who continued to let out low warning growls. I glanced between both the wolf and Ricky as they continued their staring contest before making the rash decision to come out from behind Ricky. Both their eyes immediately moved to me at my movement, neither of them made any moves as I made my way to the wolf, which was quite surprising on Ricky's part.

I stiffened as the wolf came closer, I watched as he subtly sniffed the air pausing for a moment before the front half of his body was once again going down in a bowing motion but this time in front of me. He stood up after a few seconds, looking at Eze as his eyes slightly glazed over, "Okay well let's continue." Eze spoke, sending Ricky a nervous glance just as the wolfs eyes focused again.

We continued our walk down the dirt path but this time with the wolf following from close behind. Ricky walked right beside me as Eze kept talking to him about random things but I could tell he wasn't listening, his shoulders were tense and all his senses were focused solely on the wolf behind us.

Moments later we were walking up to a large gate, in front of the gate was a tall dark skinned man; His hair wasn't in dreads like everyone else's seemed to be but instead were put into multiple long and thin twists, with one twist being a dark red, that were then put into a large braid that hung off his left shoulder, "Luna." The man greeted, bowing his head in respect.

I gave an awkward nod as he stood up straight, flinching when the wolf behind us suddenly took off into the woods, "Don't mind him Luna, he's just going to shift so he looks more... presentable." I hummed in reply, slightly rocking on my feet as I looked back to Eze.

Eze quickly stepped in front of me, earning a bow of her own from the male, "Hello Luke, has anything interesting happened today?" She questioned once he was standing straight.

"Everything's been uneventful so far." He answered, glancing to the side as another male stepped from out the trees and stood beside him. This guy was also dark skinned and his hair was also in twists but his twists were bigger and instead of his hair being put into a braid it was in a large bun with lots of different accessories hanging off every twist. "Alpha Ade.." he started, glancing at me and Ricky before looking back at Eze "..did come by earlier this morning to help train the other warriors, but besides that nothing much has happened."

The man with the bun bowed his head towards Eze and I once Luke had finished speaking, "It's a pleasure to meet you Luna, I'd like to apologize for my previous reaction. I'm ashamed to say I didn't know who you were." He leaned back up and I once again just nodded awkwardly; I mean what am I supposed to do? I'm not used to this treatment and I'm sure Ade didn't want anyone knowing we are mates.

"This is Abeo." Eze introduced as he gave a small smile, placing both his hands neatly behind his back "He is our head warrior and one of our many trainers." She continued. This time, after deciding I had given enough awkward nods to last a lifetime, I gave a small smile back in return.

"And as you might already know, this is Luke, his mate. He's second in command over our warriors and our lead trainer." I looked between the two as she mentioned their relationship. I hadn't noticed it before but ever since he stepped out the trees Abeo had kept a subtle but firm defensive position in front of Luke. He was slightly to the side of him but anyone who was paying enough attention could tell the protectiveness he hid in his stance.

Something that was equally if not more clear was that Ricky was the reasoning behind his stance, it was very obvious that even after the misunderstanding from earlier was cleared there was still some sort of tension between the two wolves. Rickys' eyes stayed glued to him and even though Abeo wasn't out right staring back at him, he did glance a few times, holding eye contact with him before eventually looking away again.

I nudged the side of Rickys' shoulder, giving him a look when he stopped his aggressive staring to glance in my direction. "Do you know if Ade made it back from Duncdrow?" Eze questioned, Ricky perked up at the mention of Ade; His eyes squinted and his brows furrowed letting me know he was definitely starting to put two and two together about just who exactly my mate was. I'm not sure that's a good idea though.

"I'm not sure, we recently switched to this post after finishing up with afternoon training." Luke stated, stepping forward despite his mates obvious disapproval with him getting close to us, and by us I mean Ricky specifically. "Would you like us to check?" He continued, glancing at Abeo as he halted his movements.

Eze closed her eyes as she quickly shook her head in reply, "No, that's alright." Luke nodded his head in understanding as his eyes slowly glazed over, focusing moments later right as the gates to the town started to open. "It was a pleasure meeting you Luna." They said one final time as we passed by them, receiving nothing from me but another head nod and awkward smile.

We continued to walk along the dirt path, this time on the other side of the gate "Well they seemed nice." Ricky hummed after moments of uncomfortable silence. He didn't seem genuine when he spoke but I guess Eze didn't notice his tone because she answered back in her usual excited one "If you think they're nice you should meet their pups!"

"Pups?" He repeated, quirking his brow in fake interest "Yeah! They have two small pups, a three year old girl and a five year old boy." She exclaimed, obviously very fond of the two "Luke's actually pregnant right now with their third pup but try and keep it a secret." She said in a hushed tone despite there being no one around us.

"Why?" I questioned, only semi interested in the conversation "Well he hasn't told Abeo yet, he tends to get extremely overprotective and Luke doesn't want to risk being taken off the guarding schedule yet." She explained.

"You seem to know a lot about them." Ricky inquired from beside me. "Well our pack is a very tight knit pack; Everyone knows everyone. I'm also the daughter of the former alpha, I was quite literally required to know everything about everyone." She shrugged her shoulders, her lips slightly pursing upwards as she did so.

As we kept walking farther into the woods I noticed the dirt path slowly starting to change until we were eventually walking on an actual sidewalk and though the abundance of trees never left from around us, buildings and houses started to appear from in between them. The town perfectly blended into the environment in a way that showed its existence while at the same time allowing nature to continue being, well, nature.

Me and Ricky followed behind Eze as she showed us around her packs town; She took us to different shops where we mostly did nothing but window shop. At one point we stopped at a diner most well known for its sweets, that's where we met Lukes' mother; She's a sweet older lady who like most wolves looked extremely youthful for her age and had little to no wrinkles at all.

We decided to eat at the diner as we took a small break from our walking tour that seemed to be taking all day. When we finished our small lunch we left with free desserts that we tried to pay for multiple times before giving up after being scolded by the older she wolf. We picked up ice cream along the way to go with our different desserts; Ricky didn't really like his cake which was a chocolate fudge cake so I offered to eat it and gave him nothing in return.

What? He doesn't even like sweets...

Our tour ended at one of the many parks, the park had a small children's playground, a path for walking, and a bunch of benches to sit on; Truthfully this is probably the biggest park I've ever been to.

We didn't do much when we got to the park, Eze got dragged away by a couple of the pack pups to play and me and Ricky watched amusingly from the safety of our bench as they roughly tackled and grabbed at her wolf form.

Ricky laughed as he watched one of the small pups nip at the back of Ezes leg for the 50th time, "I gotta hand it to him.. your mate as a pretty great pack." I could feel my heart swell at the compliment, and if my mate wasn't such an asshole the fact that my best friend had just accepted and even complimented his pack would've had an even greater effect on me.

I hummed in reply, leaning my head onto his shoulder as I looked past the scene in front of us and towards the horizon; Watching as the oranges, yellows, and dark blues and purples of the sky painted the trees and provided much needed light to the ever growing dark woods surrounding us. I closed my eyes as I breathed in the cool outside air, enjoying the slight chill the cold breeze gave as it hit the exposed skin of my face.

And as I sat there with my eyes closed, listening to the loud and contagious giggles coming from the pups; I imagined my place in the pack. I imagined how it would feel to know every pack member and to have every member know me as well. I imagined how it would feel to be asked to play by the pups I watched grow, and I imagined how it would feel to watch them play with pups of my own.

I opened my eyes as I felt a hand wipe at my cheek, looking up to see Ricky looking back down at me. "It's okay, you can cry puppy." My mouth slightly parted and I could feel the tears slip out my eyes as I slowly buried my face into the side of his chest. I took in shaky breaths as I silently cried into the side of who, for a long time, has been my one and only friend. My brother.

and just like he always had, he let me.