So I wrote the majority of this chapter to you were good to me by Jeremy Zucker and Chelsea Cutler. You do not have to listen to it for the chapter, but I do think certain scenes go well with the song. So I’m putting it here for those who like songs while reading and again down below for those with different devices.

——

Damon’s P.O.V

Nuzzling into Will’s neck, I close my eyes and press delicate kisses to the open plain of his collar, lathering the skin with love while he breathed against me, taking in deep slow breathes in a pattern that faltered and sped up the moment I stopped.

We’d been glued together like this for hours, our bodies huddled close while we watched the landscape resting beyond the window, the rich green grass now perfectly illuminated by the risen sun.

Will usually preferred to hold me when we were together like this, he’d always liked it best when we slept like that and it’d be a lie if I said that I felt any different on the subject. But when we made it into the bed after what happened this morning, Will had begged me to hold him, and I had. I’d wrapped my arms around him, and I’d held him close to my chest, the hand he’d rested over my own hadn’t moved an inch since.

“How much did you hear last night,” Will whispers into the stagnant room, his eyes never shifting from the window opposite us.

“Towards the end, when she threatened you,” I admit, hating the way the words made him tense in my hold.

I hadn’t heard much of what had gone on between Will and that woman. I’d woken suddenly by the weight of Will’s fear that dragged me from my dreams and barely given me a moment to open my eyes before I was on my feet and looking for him. It’d been instinctual, so much so that I’d found my way to him without much thought of my path. When I’d found him, the words I’d heard were explanation enough of what was causing him such distress.

“I will drag you there myself if I have to William,”

Just remembering those cruel words that come from a voice so twisted it might as well have been laced with poison, made my spirit ripple with a fury that demanded to be released, and it would. After what I’d heard, there was nothing in all the realms that could stop me from ensuring that that woman felt real pain, the type that never went away.

Will said I couldn’t kill her, fine, I wouldn’t. I’d make her wish that I could instead.

“She wants us all to have breakfast with her and father today.” Will states, his tone neutral in a way that didn’t match how stiff he was against me. I press another kiss just below Will’s ear, desperate to comfort him even just a little.

Breakfast with Will’s parents sounded like a trial run of hell that came with hors d’oeuvres. I’d already interacted enough with his birth giver to know that she was a vermin, which made it hard to imagine that his father was any better than his wife.

A meal with the pair of them wasn’t something I wanted and I knew it wasn’t what Will wanted either, but reminding him of that wouldn’t do him any good. I could tell Will as many times as I liked that he didn’t have to do a thing they said, but at the end of the day, Will already knew that and the final decision was his to make.

So, I reply with what seemed best, “what are we going to do?”

Will releases a strained breath, the hand he had over mine tightening before he managed another reply, “we’re going to go to the breakfast and then we’re getting out of here, we’ll spend the afternoon out in the city.”

“Like tourists?” I question, my nose wrinkling without permission.

“San Francisco is far better than my parents,” Will says with confidence, looking away from the window for the first time to glance at me with a small smile, “we’ll have a good time, just the two of us… and Mekhi, if he wants to come.”

“I highly doubt Mekhi would voluntarily spend time with others, but I don’t mind asking him.”

Will nods at that, his smile slowly falling away until there was nothing left of it at all, “What is it?” I question, pressing a finger under his chin to bring his gaze back to mine.

Turning within my arms, Will hugs me with his arms and entangles our legs until it was hard to find the point where he ended and I began. With his face in my chest, Will tried to slow his breaths but they were speeding up without his permission, forcing him to cling to tighter and tighter as his anxiety rose like a vile thing set to destroy.

“Will,” I breathe out gently, barely managing to keep a whine of distress out as his pain came back so close to the way he’d been when I’d found him this morning. He wasn’t trembling quite so fiercely, but every now and again a violent shiver would rush through him and he’d try to get even close to me, but there was no space left between us.

“Mother doesn’t only want me to have breakfast with father,” He confides in a murmur so quiet I had to strain my ears to pick up on the words, “she wants me to have lunch as well, with the Haynes…w-with Liam.”

Those last two words broke apart as Will held onto me as if we were falling, as if we were being pulled apart even though there was nothing in this room besides the two of us.

The words set off a wild blend of emotions throughout me, all far too strong for me to find a handle on a single one. There was an instinctually rush to protect Will, one that urged me to shift and guard my mate with the velocity of a wronged rogue. Then there was the blind rage that made it hard to think whenever I heard the name, Liam. I didn’t know who the Haynes were, but I knew the name Liam, and that was a name I’d associated with death since the first time Will had mentioned his former best friend.

Liam was the one who’d betrayed Will’s trust, the one that had hurt him so deeply, the one who’d been involved in whatever incident left my mate almost blind. I didn’t know the details, but I knew what that man made Will feel, I could feel it in my own veins and it was something rotten, something that made me panic in a way that made it hard to keep Theo down.

Liam would die, that was something I wouldn’t leave up to Will.

“You are not going to that lunch,” I bite out before wincing slightly at how murderous my words sounded to my own ears, but somehow it made Will relax into me.

“That’s why we’ll leave after the breakfast,” Will explains, his voice trembling just a little, “get out before mother has a chance to sink her claws in.”

I nod, unable to get any words out while I thought of this world of monsters that Will had come from, somehow escaping far kinder than those around him. He’d been raised by parents that had hated him from the moment he was born, befriended by those who’d only caused him pain and trauma in the end and somehow… somehow he still smiled, Will still smiled on his good days and he was kind, good in a way that others generally weren’t. He’d survived somehow and it twisted me inside out to think of what would’ve happened if he hadn’t left this place.

Theo was right… murder was far too kind for these people, suffering was in order.

I’ve got suggestions – Theo pipes in readily, a mental list already compiled. I say we cripple her from the waist down, or her entire body. I’m also quite keen on poisoning her, causing severe brain damage that turns her into a basket case. I’m also open to ripping her arms and legs from her body, I believe leaving her in such a state would drive her to insanity. I’m very keen on performing an attack at night in our wolf form, I’m more than happy to do it myself, I think I’d be better at ensuring that I left her vital parts alone. If none of those work for you, I’ve got a few ideas which would require Mekhi’s help but they’re far worse.

I like the crippling, but I think letting you have at her during the night sounds like more fun – I reply and Theo notes my response down amongst his own preferences.

“You’re growling,” Will comments with the smallest hint of a smile to his words. I immediately clap my mouth shut to silence the sound, I hadn’t even realised that I was doing it or that my canines had dropped on their own.

Bloodthirsty wasn’t even the right word to describe how I felt just then.

“I plan to kill him,” I announce honestly, I never lied to Will and even if he’d argue, I planned to put an end to this Liam before we left this wretched place.

Will releases the smallest huff before he finally looks up at me, his blue eyes glimmering with tears that hadn’t quite escaped them, but there was a wetness to his cheeks that made my heart ache. I pull more of his weight onto me, and Will comes easy, raising a hand to my cheek once we were settled again. He simply rests the palm there, warm and soft and everything Will, and then he strokes the skin gently, his eyes searching mine like a puzzle he couldn’t quite work out.

I hold his gaze, trying to piece him together as well. genuinely found it hard to understand why Will was so against me hurting those who’d hurt him, it seemed only right to me, and I was sure it would to anyone who knew Will even a little.

My Will. My Beautiful Will who had bright blue eyes, my optimistic Will who held more hope than any warrior I knew, my Will.. who now looked so exhausted, so hurt. There were bags forming under his eyes that weren’t nearly as bright as they were meant to be, they were dull, full with more pain than I knew what to do with, and it burned me to not be able to do anything that would make it go away.

They were hurting him, hurting my Will and there was no way I’d let anyone get away with such a thing.

“Damon, if I’m being honest with you, there is nothing I want more in this world than for that boy to die,” Will says calmly, his words sure and firm, his eyes never leaving mine. “The only reason I’m saying no, is because I don’t want you to kill him.”

“Why not?” It comes out more as I plead than a question, like I was begging Will to just see it the way I was so that I could put an end to the source of his sufferings.

I tried, I really tried to understand Will’s reasoning but it was hopeless. If anyone should kill him, it should be me. He’d hurt my mate and revenge was in order, there were no two ways about it. Even dad would agree with me there, the elders too, it was just how things worked for mates.

“We’ve been working for months to turn you away from all that violence,” Will explains with pleading eyes, “you haven’t hurt anyone or anything since that day you told me everything and I am so fucking proud of you for fighting it. I know it hasn’t been easy. I know there were times when even having me there wasn’t enough, but you fought through it.”

I look down for a moment, my jaws clenching with reluctance to accept the truth in Will’s words but it was spreading through me regardless. There had been many nights where things had been particularly hard, nights when I’d wanted to wash away all the bad so I could just be happy but that wasn’t possible and accepting that was far harder than I wanted to admit.

It’d been hard, the type of hard that made just breathing seem like an impossible task, but we’d gotten through it together.

Will lifts my face for our eyes to meet again, he holds my gaze, the corner of his lips turning up just a little before he continues, “what kind of mate would I be if, after all of that, I tell you to throw it all away, to throw all of your work -our work- away, because of him. That’s not fair Damon.”

“I don’t care if it’s not fair,” I reply exasperatedly, “I don’t care about any of that. That man hurt you, these people have hurt you, that is all that matters.”

“Damon,” Will starts but I don’t let him continue.

“I am an alpha Will,” I say, my fingers clenching around his just a little tighter, “a werewolf. There isn’t a scenario for me where I spend the rest of my life without ending a life, whether or not I want to. Packs will challenge us in the future and I’ll have to defend our rank, hunters may attack and I’d have to protect the pack -whatever the cost, even hunts on a full moon. Will, there is no way I can avoid that part of me forever.”

Slipping my fingers over Will’s, I keep his small palm just where it was, “what you’ve helped me do is to limit it to that, the necessary. I won’t hurt anyone anymore because I’m hurt, you’ve helped me fight that part of me, and I’m forever grateful to you for it. But this, this is different Will.

They hurt you, he hurt you, and they deserve to be hurt in return. You’re my mate Will, and I want to protect you, but before even that, you are the man that I love,” Will’s gaze softens at those words as he holds my steady gaze, “I won’t let anyone get away with hurting you, ever. So if you’re worried about me, don’t be, just… just let me kill the bastard.”

Despite my words, Will smiles just a little as he rubs my cheek below my hand, his eyes never leaving mine as silence minutes ticked on between us, “let me think about it,” he replies softly, the words grating on his tongue as if he didn’t want to let them free, “I don’t want us making any rash decisions, I don’t want you doing anything rash so just let me think about it.”

Permission to kill – Theo translates immediately. I see that as permission to kill.

I wanted to argue further, to keep pressing until Will gave in but he was already dealing with so much, I didn’t want him to have to worry about me too. So, I nod my head reluctantly and bring his palm to my lips for a gentle kiss, a silent promise to keep him safe for the rest of his days.

As I gentle settle our hands between us, Will tips his head up to press our lips together, shocks ripple through me at the soothing caress as we kiss in the quiet morning light, basking in the warmth of each other and the sun. When we pull away, Will’s eyes looked a little less haunted and a little lighter, but I could still feel his fear pumping its way through our veins, “we have to get out of bed soon.”

Knowing he was referring to the hellish breakfast, I groan uncomfortably and Will groans just a little in response.

I don’t bother asking how his mother would react to us not going to the lunch, for one I already knew and besides, I didn’t care if it’d piss her off, she could take it up with my talons when she came to complain. For now, I just nodded and checked the time on my phone to see just how much longer we could enjoy the time away from his so-called parents.

We had enough time that I rolled onto my back before pulling the blankets over our heads so Will could hide himself away against me. It seemed to be all Will needed because the moment the covers were up, he melted into me and his tight grip loosened for the first time since we’d returned to bed.

———–

“Anything we should know going in?” Mekhi asks the second we start the walk from the guest house to the main one. I bite my lip to stop myself from telling him that he probably should’ve asked Will that before we left the guest house.

I glance towards Will but it was in vain since he was walking ahead of the two of us, something that was both comforting and unnerving. I liked that Will was taking the lead but the distance we had to keep in front of others made my heart squeeze with discomfort. But I knew it was necessary, so I kept my distance and relaxed my fruitless worries with thoughts of soon having Will all to myself again.

It helped to walk beside Mekhi, his loyalty to the two of us bolstered my confidence whilst silently settling my nerves just a little.

“They’re assholes,” Will supplies almost jokingly and to my surprise, Mekhi actually smiles a little bit, “father’s extremely homophobic and mother’s his robot.”

“Sounds familiar,” Mekhi mutters under his breath.

“I’m sorry if they say something offensive,” Will adds and when neither of us replies, the walk continues any more shared words. Which wasn’t really that bad, I was never one for talking too much, plus there wasn’t much to say when we all knew what we were walking into, or at least I hoped that I did.

It was times like this that I’d wished that Will had told me more, that he’d been just a little more open with me so that I wouldn’t be going in so blind now that I was here in the thick of it with him. But Will was doing the best he could and that was all I could really ask of him.

We were still a little way from the back of the main house when I spotted the first set of maids waiting at the door, with perfect posture and forced smiles, while the gardeners tended silently to the hedges all around the house. They all looked so miserable a sight which made my fingers itch. That was a piece of the human world I doubted I’d ever understand, how people were forced to do jobs they didn’t enjoy for their entire lives. In packs, you were given the role that suited you best and if you didn’t like it, there was always someone ready to help you find one that you would.

Packs were a unit and all the cogs couldn’t work if one wasn’t in its proper place, or at least, that’s how they were supposed to work traditionally.

When we meet them, they each greet us all in turn before leading us into the massive manor. While we walked silently, I tried to memorise every visible detail on our path, if things went south on Will’s birthday, getting him out quickly would be my biggest priority. Not to mention, knowing where an unused room was wouldn’t hurt when it came time for me to silently decapitate a head or two.

By the time we made it to a large dining room, I’d formed a rough mental map of the path we’d used and logged it to my memory. The room we entered was monstrous in size, not only because of the high ceilings but the length of the dining table that could probably cater to twenty on each side.

Though it was supposed to be no more than five of us at breakfast, each place was set with plates, bowls and tinier bowls. But to one end of the table, where Will’s monstress was approaching from, rested all the food that had been prepared for this late breakfast, and from what I could see, there had about seven of every type of breakfast food there was in the book.

I had to swallow to stop myself from drooling a little.

“Good morning dear,” William’s birth giver greets him with a large smile that matched the one she’d worn when I’d found her this morning, “and Damon and – Mekhi, was it – as well, I hope you find everything to your liking.”

My grumbling stomach wanted me to survey the food one more time, but I was having a hard time drawing my eyes away from the predator that was approaching us with a new accessory that wasn’t jewellery.

While she wore a sleek black dress that was fitted to her like her clothes yesterday, there was a black cast to match it that helped her cradle her right arm to her chest. With the way she carried herself, one might have thought that it was meant to be there, but seeing as it wasn’t there the last time I’d seen her, I doubted it was.

“On my way back last night I had a bad fall going up the stairs,” She explains in answer to what I assumed was our blatant staring. She managed to sound mournful about the whole thing, as if she’d lost her arm entirely instead of only damaging it, “it’s a bad break but the doctors said it should be healed within two months, maybe a little longer.”

“A bad fall?” Will repeats, sounding very suspicious as well as pleased.

“Yes,” she confirms with a sigh as she narrows her eyes at him for just a moment before she looked to me and Mekhi with another false smile, “it was like I’d missed several stairs, I’m not sure how.”

“You’ve got to be really careful at night,” Mekhi says beside me. I glance at him with tightening eyes while he fabricates an expression of genuine sympathy and concern. But Mekhi was part of the pack, we shared a link and I could feel the abundant glee and pride running through his veins, “bad accidents can happen if you’re not.” He finishes, his eyes sparkling for barely a second.

This sly son of a bitch…

“Well, I’ve learned my lesson about paying more attention to where I’m going, especially at night.” She replies obliviously taking flight with Mekhi’s fake concern, “now come sit with me, your father should be down any minute, William.”

Did you break her arm? – I ask through the link while we follow behind Will and his begetter.

She fell, she broke it herself – Mekhi replies cooly while he slides into the seat opposite me.

Okay, did you help her fall Mekhi? – I ask instead, barely managing to hold back my smile as I sneaked a glance at him.

Mekhi meets my gaze with the smallest of smiles – Yes. Yes, I did. And she’s damn lucky that that’s all I helped her do.

Mekhi!!!! – I cheer into the link, my voice taking on that tone pop’s did when he was in the arena and one of the warriors beat another in a pack challenge. I fucking love you Mekhi! – I declare which makes him chuckle out loud, he quickly covers it with a cough though but there was no way he was hiding the smile stretching across his lips.

“The food looks really good mam,” Mekhi explains when Will and his ‘mother’ glance across at us.

“I’m glad to hear it,” She replies with another one of her sickly sweet smiles.

Before she had the chance to say anymore, the doors we’d entered only moments ago, opened once more allowing a tall, older-looking man to walk through.

This man had blue eyes identical to the ones I loved, except his were cold as ice and slightly muddied like something dark had crawled in there and messed it up. But they were still Will’s eyes, and they belonged to this man who looked older than Will said he’d be, his black hair peppered with incoming greys that made him look odd. His strides carried all the confidence of a self-appointed alpha and his stiff back made it seem like there was a ruler pressed to his spine under his dark suit.

Will’s mother immediately stood to greet her husband with a brighter smile than any I’d ever seen her give to Will… Will who was sinking a little lower into his chair, his body stiffening and caving into itself while the man grew closer and closer to him.

So this was him, the man of this wretched household… Will’s father.

————-

William’s P.O.V

“Good morning,” Father greets. His heavy voice makes me flinch, I hoped that he didn’t see it.

Damon’s and Mekhi’s responses were fuzzy to my ears while I stared down at my lap, the only sounds that registered to me were the confident, smooth steps from father’s polished shoes while he walked further into the room, each calculated step bringing him closer to me.

Long instilled lessons told me to sit straighter, to stand respectfully as mother had, but the deep rotted fear that was in me for far longer kept me plastered to my seat.

At the borderlines of my blurred vision, I could see father pulling out mother’s chair for her, tucking her in place like he’d done a thousand times over when guest were present. Mother preened at the foreign attention, I couldn’t see her, but in my mind’s eye, I could clearly see how the action pleased her.

Once mother was in place, father headed to his own seat at the head of the table, the one which awaited him on my left side. With every step he took, my heart pounded against my chest, beating with the ferocity of a wild animal that was being cornered.

Lifting my head slightly, I try to get a look of Damon who sat beside me, meaning to calm myself with a glimpse of him, but all I saw was the distance that rested between us which only made me anxiety spike.

“William,” Father calls, his tone harsh in a way that made my name sound like a command. I look at him immediately, instincts forcing my body to respond to him even while my mind screamed against it.

A swirl of blue eyes that matched the ones I saw in the mirror every day had me locked in their vision, and quickly my mind worked with memories to press the puzzle pieces of father’s face into place until all I could see was father standing there, looking at me with the same disdain he carried every morning when he laid eyes on me.

Standing behind his chair, he looked larger than life, larger than me and that always scared me, especially when he used that strength on me. But what made my hands shake was the downcast eyebrows, forming deep indents in his forehead to make room for his neverending disapproval, his tight lips turned down and worn with aggression.

I told myself not to cry, told myself to keep it all down, but here was father with all his mirth, disguised under alien pleasure and suddenly, listening to what I told myself was becoming far too difficult.

“It’s good to have you home with us, William,” Father says before he pulls his chair out and takes his seat, “things haven’t been quite the same without you.”

I thought back onto what things had been like in the months before Liam had ruined my life, I’d remembered them to be the nicest they’d ever been in this house. Father was far too pleased with my friendship with Liam to comment on how close we were, how close he always preached boys shouldn’t be, and when father was pleased, so was Mother.

So life had been good.

“A fucking faggot for a son.”

Life had been what I’d mistaken to be good.

“Its good to be home father,” I manage on my second attempt, but my words still came with an audible tremor.

I wanted to be strong, to face him with the same surety I’d possessed when facing Mother. But sitting here, in the same chair I’d taken for all my years while we’d eaten together in the ways families were supposed to, made that task become especially hard. How could I be strong when every time I sat here I felt just as weak as he thought me to be?

In seconds, all the confidence I’d had in myself vanished to make room for the boy I’d been all my life, the one who tried to please the permanently unsatisfied.

“You’ve been gone for far too long son,” father continues, his tone taking on a fondness that I didn’t think he held for anyone, “I was quite… disappointed when your mother said that you wouldn’t be able to attend the Haynes’ celebration for Liam.” In the silence that lingers my heart stops, awaiting his next words like permission to breathe. Calmly keeping me on the edge of his own flames, father undoes his cloth napkin before smoothening it over his lap, “but you’re here now, and you’ve brought friends.”

With that, father quickly adjusted his attention to Damon and Mekhi who were slowly covering their own laps with the thick napkins, hesitantly mimicking the actions of mother and father.

And just like that, father had cast me aside with the efficiency of a man forced to withstand a strenuous task, talking to his son was apparently that task. He’d done what he was supposed to, speak to me, express some sort of sadness at my absence and he’d swiftly moved on, to a safer more prosperous area that didn’t include his gay offspring.

I felt both relieved and broken. I wanted to only feel relieved, but that pain that came with that type of rejection never eased, no matter how often I endured it.

“So you two are old friends of William’s?” Father carries on, with a loose gesture of his hand for the workers to start plating our food. They work around us quickly and quietly, the ones near me careful to avoid touching me. “Did you also attend Carson’s with him or was it from another institute?”

“I attended Carson’s as well, though I was a year above Will,” Mekhi replies smoothly, his actions and words coming as easy as mother’s. With a small nod, she makes a hum of approval before looking to Damon, awaiting his response that would either please her or disappoint her.

Damon seemed to linger on a response as if he wanted to give the perfect one, but each second he wasted thinking was tipping the skills against his favour. I’d been just about to jump in with an answer for him when Mekhi supplied another, “Will and I met Damon through Liam.”

My body goes stone cold, that sick name sounding wrong from Mekhi’s lips, and it’d come so suddenly that I couldn’t help but feel something like betrayal twist inside of me while my skin bumped with discomfort. I hadn’t told Mekhi about Liam, whatever he knew about him he’d heard when I’d spoken to mother, and though I knew that, I didn’t expect it to use it here.

I just hoped that he wouldn’t use all of what he’d heard.

I look towards him, hoping against all hell that he saw the open plea in my face, but even as I studied him, he seemed just as calm as he always did. Like all of this was familiar, easy work that he knew how to mould, and I didn’t know how to feel about that.

Damon on the other hand, I could hear the groans of the wooden armrest which he gripped firmly with both hands. Raw angry splintered our link making my fingers twitch with the need to cover his hands with my own, but I quickly lock my fingers together before I could do something so stupid.

“Is that so?” Father questions, his tone taken on an air of genuine intrigue as both he and mother focus all their attention on Damon. After all, another possible link to the Haynes family could only be a good thing.

Damon’s gaze lingers on Mekhi while he nods his head stiffly before he quickly picks up his knife and fork, filling his mouth with a piece of hashbrowns before he’d be required a verbal answer.

“Well, isn’t this a small world,” Mother comments cheerfully before she takes a sip of her tea, “we’ve known the Haynes for many years so I’m surprised that we haven’t crossed paths with your family before. Remind me dear, what did you say your family name was?”

Damon stops his chewing and swallows slowly, his gaze shifting to me and then Mekhi and then back at my parents before he hazards a ‘Heil’. It was one name, said very calmly and very carefully, but it was all it took to make both father and mother lose their grip on their own utensils.

(A/N – they aren’t hunters)

I frown with my blatant confusion as I look at the pair struggle to maintain absolute composure, on the outside it seemed quite subtle but to me, someone who’d witnessed their best acts, they were suddenly all over the place. Father seemed genuinely scared and mother seemed like she’d have a panic attack which made absolutely no sense when Heil was a name that carried no weight in our world. In the supernatural world, it definitely did, I’d learned that over the months I’d been with Damon, but it shouldn’t have stunned them more than the Haynes’ name would.

“Is that a problem?” Damon asks with a sharpness to his voice that made it impossible for me not to rest a palm on his leg under the table.

Damon had constructed a very firm lid on his emotions, but that lid could easily go flying when somehow disrespected his pack or his family, and right now, to him, it sounded like Father was disrespecting both.

“N-No,” Mother scrabble out quickly, while she awkwardly tries to balance her broken arm, “not at all. We were only surprised since William hadn’t mentioned how you all met is all.”

Of course, it was my fault, what wasn’t my fault.

“Is your family coming to the celebrations as well?” Mother asks sounding almost hopeful in that way she got when she thought she could climb even higher on the social ladder.

“Unfortunately it’s just me,” Damon replies and the mirth was clear in his voice.

The conversation was stunned for a little while by that, Damon’s displeasure enough to silence mother’s chattering and his apparent status, enough to make it acceptable. In all of it, I still felt confused, first with Mekhi’s sudden claims and my parents’ reaction to the name Heil.

None of it made sense.

But I much preferred untangling this jumble than the knots that I’d wrapped myself in by coming to this breakfast, thinking myself far more prepared than I truly was. If it was only mother, I’m sure I could’ve bared it, but father’s presence impacted me in a way I’d thought I’d broken.

Which only made it far more terrifying to imagine what it’d be like to see Liam again.

Damon’s hand discreetly moves to cover mine, giving it a gentle squeeze that sent a wave of peace threw me before he let me go and I withdrew my hand back to my side. Looking up, father and mother seemed stiff and hesitant while Mekhi’s posture looked far more relaxed than anyone in this house should be. Which again, made no sense but I was sure that we’d all unravel it once we were in the safety on the guest house, behind Mekhi’s wards.

“So William, how have you been these last few months in – remind me what the name of that town was?” Mother says with a guilty chuckle, using me in an attempt to rekindle the conversation.

“Wolfshedge.” I respond and keeping my own chuckle down was hard when I knew the irony of that particular name, “and they’ve been really good mother. Thank you for asking.”

“Come on William, give us a little more than that,” Father encourages with an actual smile, the type I longed for my entire life but now that I was receiving it, I only felt more uneased.

I suppose that was the point in the conversation where I would tell her about my job with Blue, my time with Sassy and how I’d met Damon, how we’d fallen in love under the pretence of love. In another life, in a good household where I had parents who cared about me, who truly wanted to know about the many months I’d been without them, I suppose this would be the time that I’d tell her all of that.

“Well, I got a job and I made some new friends, it’s really nothing interesting,” I manage before I take desperate gulps of my water to cut off further conversation. When no other questions come, I focus on the food before me in an effort to enjoy at least one thing about this meal.

“William moved away last fall,” Mother explains to Mekhi and Damon as if they were children, “we’ve been so worried about him but he’s wanted to set out all on his own.”

Tightening my grip on my knife, I focus my thoughts on cutting my pork sausage into small pieces. Focusing my mind of that was far easier than focusing my mind on the utter bullshit she’d just let spew from her lips.

“I wanted him to stay home, get involved in the family business, but there’s no changing this mind when its decided,” Father agrees with a set of heavy laughter that only mother joined into.

I stop my cutting, shutting my eyes tightly to guard myself against the rush of pain and misery that tried to invade my body.

“I don’t think you understand Karen, I will not stay here once that boy is there,” Father had spike seriously to mother, “until that fucking fairy leaves my house, I’ll find somewhere else to live.”

“A trait he gets from me,” Father continues with fondness I didn’t know, “I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad one.”

“I think it’s a good one,” Damon replies, his familiar voice easing the death grip I had around my knife and fork. I fill my mouth with some food and focus on chewing it, that was simple, chewing was simple. “I’ve only known Will for a short time, but when he puts his mind to something, he doesn’t change it. Even if that means he’s got to suffer the whole way through, he’ll see it through to the end.”

I wasn’t sure if Father would read between those lines but I could and I sure Mekhi would too. This was all horrible, sitting here with my mother who’d found many ways to torture me mentally and my father who’d sometimes punish me physically, it was hell and I was living it. But Damon knew that I’d continue to live it until this weekend was over and there was nothing left for mother and father to even hurt again.

No wasteful breakfasts.

No family business.

No point of influence.

No place in society.

No friends or allies.

Nothing but whatever remained in the rumble I’d make of their reputations and their lives.

“That is true,” Mother replies proudly, smiling at me with a full showcase of her serpent teeth, “we couldn’t be prouder of our William.”

I smile back because that was the right thing to do, the only thing to do and then I continue eating my food.

With the conversation open once again, mother and father drifted back to Mekhi and Damon, but when Damon showed very little enthusiasm to entertaining them, they focused on Mekhi who seemed to sing the same songs.

At first, I’d been worried about him but I realised now that he was playing his part, his role in all of this and he was doing it far better than I was.

There was only surety in his every response, calculated placement of details that led mother and father down the paths he created like rats to cheese and I couldn’t help but be eternally grateful that Mekhi had come to help us navigate this labyrinth this weekend.

It seemed like all was well, or as well as they could be, and though I waited for some horrible thing to happen, it didn’t. There were no cruel words that flew openly, no surprises to make this whole charade crumble and Damon managed to sound almost pleasant at some points.

If I was being honest with myself, I half expected Mother to pull off some elaborate plan that kept us in the house in a sort of lockdown until the Haynes came, but there was none of that.

In fact, there was less and less mention of the Haynes as time passed on, and when it came time for Father to go to work, neither mother nor he attempted to corner me with any more threats. Instead, he kissed mother goodbye and shared parting words with the rest of us before leaving the way he came.

After that, we only remained in Mother’s company for a few more minutes, before we too left. Still, I kept myself alert while we made our way through the house, Damon and Mekhi seemed to have the same idea because neither of them chanced a word until we were back in the guest house and Mekhi gave the telling nod that all was well.

“That was… strange,” Damon says as he pulls me into his arms, squeezing me so tightly I wheezed.

“It was,” I agree, or I try to, the words came out like a rasp instead. “Something was a little off with them.”

It wasn’t as if things had been perfect because they hadn’t, Father and Mother had played the role of dutiful parents well and it left a gaping wound in my chest that I’d thought I’d longed closed. But that was something I’d have to cover up for now and revisit when we were back in the pack, somewhere I knew was safe enough that I could lick my wounds in peace.

“I’m fucking exhausted,” Mekhi groans as he sinks down onto one of the bottom steps with a thud. Both Damon and I looked towards him in question, all I could make out was his lazy posture with the way he stretched his figure out like a cat before rubbing at his shaved head like a genie lamp.

“Did you…?” I start but don’t quite manage to finish as I try to put in an ending that referred to his magical side. “Were you… like… using spells in there? On them?” That seemed safe enough.

“Why do you think they reacted to Damon’s name the way they did?” Mekhi replies before he groans again like someone with a bad headache. It looked like he was trying to melt into the stairwell with the way he shifted his body, his hands still doing their methodical rubbing.

“I figured you were doing something, I just can’t figure out what,” Damon replies as he finally loosens his treacherous grip on me, but to my pleasure, he doesn’t let me go completely.

“My strongest spells deal with the mind,” Mekhi supplies in a drawl, “I can put things in someone’s mind, for a time, adjust details and lead a train of thought the way I want it – if I focus hard enough. I don’t do it often because,” he gestures quickly at his head, “but there was no way we were getting through that without it.”

I kind of just stare at Mekhi. Blinking every now and again while I stared blankly at him, my overused brain finding it hard to think right now. In every way, what he said made sense but in many other ways, it kind of didn’t.

Mekhi and I had shared a conversation the night before, and yes, it had been nice, and yes, I hoped for w friendship with him in the future, but it was hard to think that that was enough to make Mekhi do so much for me. He was supposed to protect us this weekend if needed, to keep Damon’s head straight he wasn’t supposed to be fighting our battles for us, and at the cost of his own wellbeing.

As far as I knew Mekhi hadn’t signed up for any of that.

“I made the name Heil mean something important in their minds,” Mekhi carries on, either not noticing our stunned reactions or pointedly choosing to ignore them, “they see Damon as someone to please, which eliminates the probability of them saying something to offend his alpha genes. With Damon knocked out, I just had to keep their attention on me, so I made myself charming in their eyes and that’s why they wouldn’t stop talking to me.”

Mekhi said the last part as if it physically hurt him and with the way he looked, I was sure that it did.

“With their attention on me and the rest of Damon, it made sure that you Will got the least of it,” Mekhi explains with a softer tone that sounded a bit remorseful, “if that was a wrong play on my end then I’m sorry. It just seemed like the best solution considering.”

I manage to shake my head, not wanting Mekhi to feel bad at all when he’d so casually expressed going above and beyond for me in a way that I never imagined another beside Damon would, in a way those you trusted with your whole life would.

Despite that minute shake of the head, the staring continues and through it, silence since Mekhi had nothing else to say. Damon seemed to be just as stunned as I felt, his expression open with nothing hidden for his friend to misinterpret. Only then did Mekhi seem to take note of our staring as he looked up to us, dropping his hands down from his head to rest beside him.

“You didn’t have to do that Mekhi,” Damon manages after some time.

“No I didn’t but at the same time, I think I did.” He replies with a little huff of frustration. “Those two had some fucked up shit spinning in their heads, things they planned to say to throw Will off, make him easier to manipulate and control. If I didn’t step in, I think you would’ve killed them.”

“So I’ll say it again,” Damon chuffs, sounding a little playful this time, “you didn’t have to do that.” I nudge him quickly but Damon doesn’t react in any other way but a mischievous grin, “I’m allowed to feel sad about missing a prime chance to kill your parents.”

“Sure,” I reply dryly.

“But seriously Mekhi, you’ve already done so much for us,” Damon starts again, “I mean first breaking her arm and now this, I’m grateful for you help and support but if it’s going to hurt you, then you don’t have to do it.”

“You broke her arm?!” I exclaim with bulging eyes.

“She fell.” Mekhi amends.

“He made her fall,” Damon supplies like the perfect snitch.

“I don’t see how I’m guilty here,” Mekhi says with the slightest of shrugs.

“You’re not. I don’t think you are, or you’re not to me.” I state quickly, offering him a smile of my own, “I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was secretly celebrating when I saw her arm, so even though it’s a little fucked up, thank you Mekhi… for making my mother fall.”

Mekhi nods, a small smile creeping on his lips to match mine when Damon juts in, “so Mekhi’s allowed to do fucked up shit but I can’t.”

“Damon,”

“I’m just saying, I would’ve torn off the entire arm if you let me.” Damon huffs under his breath like an upset infant. Still smiling, I wrap my arms around his waist and pull him a little closer, sending love through our link until he stopped pouting and let himself melt into me.

Once I had my mate sedated with my affections, I return some of my attention to Mekhi, who was still groaning with new mutterings to himself, “what we’re trying to say overall is thank you Mekhi. Without you, I think this weekend would be a far worse shitshow, so thank you for looking out for me, for both of us. I’m really happy that Damon had a friend like you.”

Mekhi’s grin grew just a little wider as he looked at me, preening – in his own way – like Damon did when I complimented his knives. “I can genuinely say that it’s been a pleasure,” Mekhi manages through clenched teeth, “now I’m going to crash for the rest of the day, if you guys leave me alone, I’ll be very grateful.”

Mekhi drags himself to his feet and slowly makes his way up the stairs, taking them one at a time while he leaned heavily against the wall. When Damon tried to help he grumbled something about being fine before he continued on silently.

We watch him go until he’s at the top of the stairs and out of sight, only then does Damon pull me to him for a blinding kiss that genuinely makes my head go blank. Sighing into it, I wrap my arms around his neck and revel in the feel of his skin which I’d been denied for the majority of the morning.

“It was so hard to keep my hands off of you,” Damon grumbles against my lips before he kisses me again. “Should we head off to play tourists now or do you want to relax for a bit?” Damon asks before he kisses me deeply again, swallowing any chance of a reply. “We can stay in, just for a little while.”

Sweeping me off my feet, Damon rushes up the stairs and to our bedroom, the decision apparently made despite my lack of input. But I didn’t mind, the large smile on my face was a testament to that because any time I spent with Damon made the world seem a little less cruel. And truthfully, I could use a little bit of that with what I knew was in store for us.

I couldn’t avoid Liam forever. Mother and father wouldn’t have it, but even worse than that, he wouldn’t.

———————-

8563 words…this chapter was fucking long and it was just breakfast.

L M F A O, that makes me laugh almost as much as Will’s mother’s name being Karen does.

Thoughts??????????

What did we think of Damon’s POV? Of Will’s reaction to his father and of Mekhi’s helping hand???

I don’t feel like I’ve met the father strangely enough and I guess that makes sense since we didn’t really see him, just his persona. Which is so dead in my head, like I felt like I was writing about someone random. I’m actually really excited to write a scene between him and Will though I’m sure I’ll cry.

Originally, this chapter was supposed to go down the road where Will’s mother invited the Haynes to come to breakfast and Will walked in and they were there. And then Mekhi helped get him out and then Damon and Liam had a conversation and idk after that.

I really liked that idea, still do, but I wasn’t sure how to write it and it seemed far too chaotic whenever I tried to construct it in my mind. Because every way I put it, I saw Damon killing Liam once he said something about what he did to Will and that just can’t work for the plot.

Soooo instead we’re doing this, but don’t worry, Damon and Liam will have a conversation on their own in the coming chapters, just once it’s in public or Mekhi is close by lol.

Anyway, through all that I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter you got. I’ve been constructing it for the last 3 or 4 days. If you’re on my Instagram you saw how I was working on it every night. I’m happy with the result and I hope you guys are too.

Vote up and comment your thoughts, you know I love hearing from you.

I think I’ll be updating Master next, I’m still very intrigued to see what happens in the next chapter.

Until next time,
Byeeeeee Humanssssssssssss.