Glück

"Glück" - berge

🎵 Egal was wir tun und was immer auch passiert / Wir finden unser Glück im Jetzt und Hier / Vielleicht wär's mal gut sich einfach glücklich zu schätzen🎵

"It means you're mine."

That phrase kept circling my mind over and over again, further ruining my sense of inner peace. I had no clue why Dominik would say that, nor did I have the faintest idea as to what it meant exactly.

I was his? His what though? His stepbrother? His least favorite person in the whole wide world? *Gasp! His next murder victim?!

Regardless of whatever the F his underlying motives are, all that I seemed to be able to conclude was that Dominik is strange. Point blank.

I mean, I could've sworn up and down that the guy hated my guts and didn't give two shits about me. Then he goes and lets me wear his hoodie so that I don't get too cold, and he drives me to the Wasgau where he buys my German SIM card and where he almost gets into fight with Erik. And then at the very tail end of that excursion, he claims that I'm his.

I was so caught up in trying to decipher this mystery that I was dead silent at the dinner table that evening. My fork pretty much just made little patterns in my mashed potatoes while I struggled to figure just what was going on in the Stubbe Household.

Even at the small dining room table that Alaric had, he sat at the head of it, acting as if it was symbolic of his position as head of the household. My dad sat to his right, just around the corner (the two of them were not being stealth at all as they played footsies under the table like damn teenagers). I sat next to Dad on his side, trying to pretend that I wasn't living in a crazy house. Finally, Dominik sat across the table from me. He was gnawing on his rare steak, having just stabbed a fork into it and going to town like a wild animal.

Every so often though, he'd glance up at me with his yellow eyes and the corner of his steak-juice covered mouth would pull up into a smirk— taunting me. He must've known that I was still mulling over his words from earlier, and he seemed to like seeing me squirm in my seat. What a bitch.

As soon as Dominik and I had returned from the Wasgau, I'd tried my hardest to avoid him like the plague. I'd watched TV, hid in my bedroom, or even had done some laundry. But no matter what I did, Alaric's house was smallish, so it was next to impossible to not have the dude somewhere within the vicinity. And I'd been too stunned to pry for some information, trying to come to terms with the horrifying fact that Dominik viewed me as his.

I mean, I could say something now, right here at the table. I could bring up the fact that Dominik called me his and that he was about to kill a Wasgau employee. Then Alaric and Dad would both be alerted to the young man's odd behavior. Then, who knows? Maybe he'll be kicked out and I'll be free from his strangeness. One can only hope.

But at the same time, my brain also told me that that'd be a terrible idea. After all, I hadn't seen Dad in seven years; hence, he'd had ample time to bond with Dominik as his stepson. Plus, Alaric was his biological dad, and he seemed to be the one who paid the bigger bills. Logic dictates that if push comes to shove, Dominik would have more pull here than I would. Shit.

Dominik glanced up at me from his half-eaten steak for the thousandth time, giving me one more smirk.

I scowled back in response.

"Maxie, you haven't touched your food," Dad commented, placing a hand on my forehead. "Are you feeling well?"

"I feel fine," I muttered, stabbing my fork into a carrot slice and taking a bite just to appease him.

Dad didn't buy it, his frown taking up the lower portion of his face. "Are you nervous about starting a new school tomorrow?" he pressed.

Well I'd be lying if I didn't admit that a brand new school in the middle of the school year wasn't a little nerve wracking, but no, that wasn't the reason for my silence. Still, how I was I supposed to bring up the fact that Alaric's son is a creep right in front of Alaric, who seems to have my father wrapped around his sausage finger?

"...yeah," I murmured.

At this, Dominik stopped his dog-like chomping on his steak which squirted out its pink juices like it was frickin' blood, and his thick eyebrows knitted together.

I wasn't technically one-hundred percent lying. What kind of person actually looks forward to going to a new school in a different country where they're not fluent in the language? Yeah, no one! Still, I was offered little solace by the fact that it'd take me out of the house for a few hours of the day, and thereby allowing me to avoid Dominik. Plus, I'm kinda good at school, as sad as that sounds.

"Aww, don't worry, Maxie," Dad cooed as he patted my back reassuringly. "You're a very bright and outgoing young man, you'll have no problems making friends at all. I'm sure of it."

I mean, that didn't really help me out back in Canada.

"And I've talked to the principal who's a very close, um, colleague of Alaric's and he's signed you up in classes where the teachers are proficient in English."

"'A colleague'?" I asked, cocking my eyebrow at Alaric. The dude worked in security, I thought. Why would he have some sort of connection to a high school?

Alaric avoided my gaze.

Dominik had completely stopped eating now and had set down his fork with a loud clang, seemingly gauging the situation. His yellow eyes kept darting to me, to Dad, to me, to Alaric, to me, to the scrutinizing glare I sent his father, to me, to his steak for a brief moment, to me (again), to the hand that my father kept on the back of my chair, and back to me.

The young man finally cleared his throat and stood up from the table. "I'll be right back," he announced, as if we cared. "I got you guys something at the Wasgau earlier." He disappeared down the hall and the sounds of his footsteps thumping upstairs echoed out.

Was it my SIM card? I'd been so focused on keep some major space between us that once we'd returned to the house, I hadn't had the opportunity to grab it from him.

Dad, God only knows why, decided to take this chance to say the world's most annoying thing ever. "I'm glad to see that you boys are getting along," he told me, giving me another pat on the shoulder.

I cringed.

"Dominik would be mad if I told you, but he was so down when you were gone. I can tell that having you back has really lifted his spirits," Dad continued.

Huh?

I set my fork down and turned to look at Dad with wide, confused eyes. "What?" I couldn't help but ask. I thought that Dominik didn't like me, but based off his cryptic declaration earlier today, maybe there was some sort of thing between us that I didn't understand yet. I'm putting my measly euro on that he's planning on killing me. I just hope it's fast at this point.

Alaric blushed and he avoided both mine and my Dad's eyes now.

Something's up, I know it. I may not know exactly what is lurking in the water here in Bedburg, but Alaric knows and I'm fairly sure that Dominik's behind it. And Dad is most likely too busy lusting over his Brawny Paper Towel-lookin' husband to notice. Ugh, simp. I know that most people would want to investigate and figure out what is afoot.

But hell no!

I do not want to uncover some potentially life threatening secret that will result in me dead! I've seen way too many horror movies to know that being nosey never works out in the end and only leads to trouble. Therefore, I was determined to avoid the problem altogether until I move out. I turn seventeen next week; that means that I only have one year of living here until I move out on my own. College is free in Germany, so I can easily go to school and get my degree and try to figure out how to survive all by myself where there'll be no Alaric or Dominik, or weird bullshit interrupting my inner peace!

Plus, who knows? Maybe I can snag a man at school and just have him take care of me? That would be nice. And said man should be bigger and stronger than Dominik so that he can kick his ass if he acts all weird to me again. Yeah!

On cue, Dominik returned to the dining room, an envelope in hand. His yellow eyes darted to me once more, the left corner of his mouth twitching upwards to form his annoying smirk for the billionth time!

"Dad, Paul," he said, forcing on a friendly smile that made me cringe at how fake he was being, "I know that I've caused you two some stress lately, so as my way of making it up to you, I got you a gift."

Wait, what? He's been causing them stress too? Was Alaric innocent in this whole thing, and Dominik was really the only pain in the ass under this roof? Whoa, I really owe Dad's man an apology if that's the case. And what did Dominik do to cause them stress? I know that I'd just spouted a whole bunch of stuff about not wanting to be nosey, but damn it! I like tea!

Dominik handed my father the envelope.

Dad moved closer to Alaric as he opened it, his eyes widening when he spotted what looked like two tickets in it. Whereas Dad stared in awe at the tiny pieces of paper he held, Alaric shot his son a look. It wasn't a look of anger or disappointment, just one that said, "Really?"

"Dominik," Dad breathed in surprise, "thank you so much. But... I don't know if we can accept this. I mean, Max just moved here and I really don't want him to be by himself."

"It was Max's idea," Dominik stated, puffing his chest out with pride.

"What...?" I wondered aloud as I looked at Dominik with a confused face.

Alaric didn't look like he bought the evident lie. "Max had the idea for you to buy me and Paul a three week Mediterranean Cruise?" he grilled. "That leaves... in four days?"

A three week cruise?!

Suddenly, the image of the flier with a cruise ship back at the customer desk at the Wasgau flickered into my mind. That was what Dominik was buying. He'd bought our dads a three week cruise in the damn Mediterranean for some reason! That would cause both of them to be out of the house for nearly a month!

However, the more I thought about it, the more I struggled to think of anything really that bad. I mean, I bet that Dominik had purchased them the tickets so that he could go off and do his own thing for a few weeks. Having the whole house to myself for three weeks wouldn't feel too out of the norm for me. After all, I've spent loads of time by myself back in Canada. If anything, I'd welcome it this time because it meant that I wouldn't have to deal with any weirdos. Okay!

"Nächste Woche ist Vollmond!" Alaric hissed between gritted teeth.

Dad's smile fell and he looked over at me for a moment, worry written all over his face.

Dominik noticed and cleared his throat. "You have my word that I will take very good care of Max," he told my dad, speaking in English this time. He then turned his gaze towards me. "I promise."

I'm... uh, I'm so confused.

Dad and Alaric looked at one another, having a telepathic conversation before finally smiling in tandem. They lovingly grabbed a hold of each other's hand before turning to face me and Dominik. "Thank you, Boys, really," Dad gushed.

Dominik, because he's a bitch, had the balls to walk up behind me and place his hand on my other shoulder. "It's our pleasure," he grinned, giving my shoulder a squeeze. It wasn't too tight, but it was enough to make me wince and wish that I could amputate it.

Something's wrong, I know it.

I have no idea what on earth is going on around here. The only clues that I have are that Dominik views me as his property or whatever, and that he seems keen on getting the adults out of the house. At first, I'd believed that he'd do his own thing but it's becoming crystal clear that he actually intends on us spending some sort of alone time together.

I think he's going to take this time to kill me, and then he's going to chop up my body into teeny tiny pieces before gnawing on my flesh like he did his steak! I'd love to say that I'd lived a good life, but damn it, I really didn't! This sucks ass!

The blood drained from my face as the sheer horror of what would be happening within four day's time: Dominik and I would be left alone with one another for three whole ass weeks. Oh, how could this get any worse?

"Well, I really appreciate this, Boys," Dad said happily as he looked back at the tickets. Then he turned his attention back to me. "Max, make sure you do everything Dominik says. He'll be in charge while we're gone."

Yep. It had just gotten worse. Shit.

At my father's words, I could feel Dominik tighten his grip on my shoulder. It didn't take a rocket scientist to extrapolate that the young man was wearing a shit-eating smirk of triumph right now. I'd just received orders from my parent that I had to listen to him.

I am going to die. It's official. I just hope that Emilia avenges me, but she'll probably be too busy livin' it up in Canada where she's safe from Dominik and his creepy 'tude!

But then an idea popped into my head. A dastardly, devious idea that would help me to draw a thick boundary line, thus illustrating where I stood on this whole ordeal. A truly genius, evil plan!

"Hey, Alaric, Dominik snores too loudly, so he needs your help setting up the couch for him to sleep on," I blurted, fighting hard to keep my own smile off my face.

Automatically, Dominik's grip tightened on shoulder even more. It wasn't painful, but it was enough to let me know that he'd hand me my ass later.

Alaric looked like he was trying to stifle his own laugh and he had to even cover his mouth with his hand. "Oh?" he chuckled. "Y-yeah, I can help him with that. Sure thing."

A low rumble sounded out from the man behind me, but whatever. Let him be mad for whatever reason. Like what, did he really really want to sleep in the same room as me? Or was this really about the fact that I was kicking him out of his own bedroom? Meh, it probably the second one... I hope.

I don't know though. I mean, Emilia did tell me to call her if Dominik gave me a hard time; and lo and behold: It was my second day in Germany and the dude was already giving me a migraine!

The rest of dinner was filled with awkward silence. Dominik, because he's Dominik, was pissed off and sent me a snarl from across the table as he finished off his steak. The man chewed with his mouth open, allowing me to see how his sharp teeth pierced into the bloody meat over and over again, most likely pretending that it was me. I just smiled back because I knew that it would irritate him. Alaric's eyes darted between me and his son, and he gulped loudly. Meanwhile, Dad, God bless him, blabbed on and on about how excited I must be to be going to a brand new school.

Was it childish of me to be so bratty towards Dominik? Probably. Was I going to stop? Nope!

In fact, even when I placed my plate into the dishwasher where he was placing his unused steak knife into it too, I couldn't hold back a smirk. "Have fun on the couch, Dominik," I giggled as I brushed past him. "I hope it doesn't hurt your back."

"Grrr..."

D-did that man growl at me? Like a dog? I turned around, cocking my eyebrow at him in confusion.

Dominik didn't waste any time with me and instead stomped off towards the living room so he could set up his bed, hehe.

My head held high, I practically skipped up the stairs, taking two at a time as I happily went to take over my stepbrother's room like I owned it. Come to think of it, I'm sort of surprised that he didn't beat my ass after stealing it from him. After all, if the roles were reversed, I would've been all too happy to let him have the couch again so that I wouldn't have to share my bedroom. Oh well, I guess he didn't think of it first. Not my problem!

After doing my hygiene routine and changing into my pajamas (which was really just a Pikachu t-shirt and some basketball shorts), I hopped into the bed and prepared to go to sleep.

I still didn't have my German SIM card since Dominik hadn't given it to me yet, and I'm willing to bet that he'll probably throw it in the garbage after tonight, so I just set my alarm for early in the morning and figured that I'd have to rough it tomorrow. It is what it is, I suppose. It'll just be the price for having this big bed all to my little self!

I settled underneath the covers and turned the TV on, switching the channel to some home improvement show from the UK since it was on one of the few channels in English available.

As I lied in the empty bed, my thoughts kept drifting to the fact that I'll be starting a brand new school tomorrow. Yes, I'm nervous. Who wouldn't be? A large part of me was fearful that I'd carry my loner status here to this new school that I'd had back in Canada. Mental images of eating by myself in the cafeteria or being one of the few guys who doesn't have any plans on a Friday night made me tremble.

Well, that and I also trembled because of how ice cold it was in this damn bed!

Honestly, lying down in Dominik's bed, I felt as if I might've as well have been lying out in the Arctic! It was ice cold, and I shivered nearly nonstop as I tried my best to warm up, but all to no avail. I don't know what it was, but a cold air seemed to blast directly at me like its sole life mission was to lower my core temp by several degrees! And it totally succeeded! Within minutes, my toes felt like they'd fall off at any moment and my fingers even shook. I tried to tuck them up into my armpits to warm them, but instead that made it feel like I was shoving popsicles on my pits.

"What the hell?" I shivered, my teeth chattering from this weird cold.

I got out of the bed and turned on the light so that I could triple check that the window was shut tightly closed. Sure it was cold and rainy outside, but the walls in Europe were significantly thicker than the ones back in Canada, so there was no reason as to why it felt like winter was creeping inside the house! Even the hardwood floor was chilly, making me wince when I placed my bare feet on it.

I wrapped my arms around my torso as I began to search around Dominik's bedroom for my hoodie or any sweats. Unfortunately, as I dug through my suitcase, they were nowhere to be found— did I leave them back home? I hope not!

I didn't want to be a creep and dig through Dominik's drawers to steal more of his hoodies, so I left the bedroom and tiptoed downstairs.

Back before Dad had moved into Alaric's, he'd kept spare linen in the laundry room. I remember that Alaric's laundry room is downstairs, so I figured that I should check there for any extra blankets so that I could make an attempt to warm myself up. Even as I went downstairs, the cold air in the house intensified, dropping to near zero.

Damn Alaric, pay the electric bill!

The tiny hairs on my arms and legs stood straight at attention as I shivered my way to the laundry room. I opened up the door and peeked inside, my stomach falling to the iced over floor when I couldn't see a single available blanket at all.

"Damn," I hissed under my breath.

"Looking for something?" Dominik's baritone jolted me from my search.

I jerked back and spun around, wincing at the large man who stood directly in front of me.

Dominik had his large arms crossed in front of his bare chest, his muscles seemingly flexing from the action. Again, our height difference was drastically shoved in my face over the sheer fact that my head barely came up to his hairy pectorals! Damn it, why didn't I grow much in seven years?! He was wearing just some basketball shorts that were tugged down far enough so that I could see that V-crevice that some guys get when they work out enough.

I frowned up at the guy, but instead of giving attitude, I figured that he could help me out. "Where are the blankets?" I asked him, gesturing at the empty laundry room. "My dad always kept the spares in here, I thought."

Dominik looked past me at the vacant room and mock-frowned. "Oh," he hummed. "Yeah, it looks like they're all gone... and it is pretty cold, isn't it?" He made a show of shivering, but even in the dark hallway I could see the gleam of light flickering off his exposed canine teeth indicating that he was smirking.

Plus, he shouldn't be too cold with his... um, body. I wasn't trying to gawk at it too much, but I just wanted to point out that the young man had muscles and ample body hair, so he should be warm, right? I mean, just from him standing within my vicinity, I could quite literally feel the waves of body heat radiating off of him.

For a brief millisecond, I halfheartedly considered— nope!

"Do you have a spare blanket I can borrow?" I asked him, not even waiting for the answer as I trudged into the living room. However, on the couch was the saddest single sheet that I've ever laid eyes on. It was a single-ply polycotton blend that was thinner than my t-shirt! "What the hell? How do you sleep with this?"

Dominik kept his arms crossed as he narrowed his eyes at me. "I do have a bed I usually use," he pointed out. "And if you'll recall, the couch's support is broken." He rubbed at his lower back, making a pained expression, but I could see the way the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.

He did kinda have a point there though.

I knew that the correct thing to do would be to give Dominik his bed back and for me to take the couch for the night; but no! Plus, if he really views me as his, then I'd say that it would be his duty to let me have the bed. It made sense in my tired, cold brain. Still, despite our beef, I wasn't completely heartless.

On cue, Dominik shivered but winced mid-movement to grab at his lower back once more.

"Fiiiine," I groaned, throwing my head back in exhaustion, "I'll take the damn couch. You can have your bed back." I gritted my teeth in annoyance at my owns words, not liking the taste of bitter defeat. However, it was freezing cold and all I wanted to do was lie down and get some sleep before my first day at a new school tomorrow. Despite how chilly it was indoors, I didn't want to be the reason for Dominik being in physical pain... even if he may deserve it. Plus, if push comes to shove, I could probably unzip the couch cushions and stuff myself in them to keep warm.

Even though he was victorious, Dominik didn't seem thrilled. In fact, it looked quite the opposite. His frown deepened and he had the nerve to roll his yellow eyes as he sighed loudly. "Son of a..." he muttered under his breath before snatching a hold of my wrist. "Here, we can help each other get warm."

"Dominik, this is how a lot of porn starts..."

"...yeah..."

He plopped himself down onto the sofa, tugging me down right beside him. Sure enough, I could see that one of the supports on the bottom was broken right in the middle causing a huge dip. This resulted in Dominik's heavier body making the dip drop which then caused my section of the cushion to raise suddenly, thus sending me careening into the other man.

My whole side was virtually thrusted against Dominik's, but the other guy didn't seem to mind. In fact, I could've sworn that he smiled— but his face when stone smooth in the blink of an eye.

"You feel really cold," he muttered in his deep voice, which vibrated me thanks to our physical proximity. He wrapped his heavy arm around my shoulders, pulling me in even closer to his warm body. With his free hand, he snatched the blanket and pulled it over the two of us, putting more of the thin fabric on my side. He then turned the TV on, the large screen illuminating the chilly living room.

My whole body tensed up in Dominik's hold. I've never been this close to another guy before— but as soon as that thought entered into my mind, I shook it away. Dominik is my stepbrother, he's not just some other guy. God only knows why, but he's just trying to be a nicer big brother and warm me up. I have no idea what his ulterior motives may be, but I'd be lying if I said that he wasn't the smallest bit comfortable.

Dominik was like my very own personal space heater. The man radiated warmth, and with me huddled against him and his arm around me, I was quickly starting to thaw out. I childishly scooted closer to the young man, to which he tightened his hold on me in response. And dare I say it, the dude was soft! Whoever coined the phrase "Rock Hard Muscles" was dead wrong because if anything, they made the guy feel all the more cuddly. And I swear he must've enjoyed it too because the more I huddled into him, the more he seemed to puff his chest out with pride and the tighter his hold on me grew.

Even after an hour of watching TV while huddled up next to Dominik, I didn't even notice that I'd begun to doze off.

I only realized it once I noticed that the show we'd been watching was already over, and that my head had been resting against Dominik's broad shoulder. I'd curled my legs up and was virtually cuddling the older guy as if he were a teddy bear.

"Oh, sorry," I mumbled as I tried to sit up. I'd been planning on just heading back upstairs to go to bed since I was now all nice and warm, not feeling cold whatsoever thanks to Dominik.

My stepbrother huffed and patted my head back down to his shoulder, keeping his hand there for a bit. "Get some rest, mein Hase," he whispered. "You have a big day tomorrow."

I wanted to argue, to go back upstairs so that I could sleep alone. But Dominik was so soft and cuddly, it was hard to say anything otherwise. As I huddled against him, my eyelids grew heavier by the second and it wasn't long until I was out.

In my sleep-induced haze, I could've sworn I felt something soft press against my forehead.

"Gute Nacht, meine Liebe. Morgen wird ein guter Tag, das verspreche ich. Ich liebe Dich."