Chapter 19

Leo's pov

"Lyra!" Seb called his sister, setting up the breakfast table.

"You too, come and sit," he said, avoiding my eyes. I assume it's because of our shenanigans last night. This has become a habit each time we get intimate, he avoids eye contact at all costs and goes red if we accidentally make one which is totally contrary to the person I have known last night.

With a sigh, I made my way to the table and sat on my assigned chair. "Are we really doing this again?" I ask him, pointing between us.

He stops picking up the plate and gives me a look before replying, "I don't know what you are talking about." Making me snort. Oh! We are totally doing this.

My hands snake around his torso and he stills at my touch. Before he could protest I had him caged against the kitchen counter "You don't know?" my question is merely a whisper as my lips reach his ear. He shivers in response to that encouraging me more and my lips land on the sweet spot behind his ears earning a moan in response.

Scandalised by his own reaction, he raises his hand to push at my chest, but I beat his reflexes by catching his hand to pin it above his head. "I think you know." That made him finally lift his and look into his eyes.

I forgot how to breathe for a second. the morning sunlight fell on the side of his face making the brownish hue in his eyes glisten with gold strokes. His soft wavy curls are shining a different brown, and his ever so inviting lips practically beg me to kiss him, and I take the cue, leaning in.

"Choco chip muffins?" a cheerful voice shouts and Seb is already extricating him from my hold, breaking our moment.

"you can only have them after breakfast," Sebastian says to his sister taking the muffins away from her.

Her adorably cheerful eyes dull at his condition and he sternly looks at her but melts right away as she gives him a pleading look. "Okay! Fine, you can have one now."

I join them at the table with a lively Lyra greeting me and a very shy-looking Seb. I lightly tap on his hand trying to gain his attention making his lovely brown eyes dart up at me, finally meeting mine. I signal him to get closer and he obliges.

"I want a muffin too" I ask and his eyes go comically wide. He clears his throat quickly recovering from it and hands me one as I look at him with a teasing grin. "Syrup?" I point to the bottle, and he raises his eyebrow.

"You don't like syrup." He states pressing me with a curious look.

"I might have developed a taste for really sweet things these days." I reply gazing momentarily at his lips earning me a kick on my shin under the table. I grin triumphantly satisfied with the flabbergasted look on his face even though it resulted in him ignoring me for the rest of the meal.

"Leo said he will show me around the pack." I turn my attention to their conversation at the mention of my name. " I did." I confirm quickly joining in and Seb nods his head agreeing to it.

It is a rather sunny day, and our spirits are high as we walk through the pack after our breakfast. We walked side by side with a jumpy Lyra just a few inches ahead of us, as she gazed at the surroundings in awe. She occasionally looked back at her brother talking about the things she noticed. Sebastian looked just as enamoured seeing his sister's enthusiasm, his eyes crinkling as he laughed at her antics.

Not being able to help it anymore, I took his hand in mine expecting him to shake it off but to my surprise he intertwined his fingers with mine as we continued our morning stroll.

Soon we reached the place I wanted to take them to, the pack school. Lyra frowns as soon as the school comes into view. "Why are we at school on the weekend?" she adorably asks.

Sebastian instantly answers to tease his sister "We figured you need extra classes." Making her pout. I decide to chime in before it escalates to one of their banters "Not really" I glance at him once before turning to Lyra to say, "we are here to play."

"Really?" she exclaims, and I lead her towards the swing nearby followed by his unimpressed brother.

She gets on the swing cheerfully and starts playing as we cautiously watch over her, "you want to play as well?" I ask, earning a look from him. "He is scared of swings." His sister says getting down from the swing and I turn to him with an amusing smirk. "I just don't like them." He defends himself while dusting something off her clothes.

"No, he likes them, but he is scared of them because he fell down once" Lyra chuckles embarrassing her brother even further and a faint grin form on my face.

"Who even told you that?" Seb retorts, his face nearly mortified.

"Mom did." She replies, confirming the fact.

He lets out a frustrated sigh before turning to me and hiding his face in my arms. Adorable. I pat his back trying to soothe his embarrassment. "It was in third grade." He adds more information to the said incident earning another chuckle from me.

" You trust me? " I take his hand, dragging him to the swing despite his protests.

"Ready? " I whisper in his ear and he clutches the chains of the swing for his dear life along with his poor eyes forcibly shut. I drag the swing back only a little before releasing it to set it into motion.

Seb's demeanor relaxes after a few rounds and he starts grinning like a child, enjoying the swing. His sister joins him on the swing and they both played like that for a while.

The sound of the school van gains my attention and I take big strides towards the main gate to welcome the cheerful group of kids and their teacher. "Alpha!" The teacher greets me politely, looking around to make sure the kids are behaving. I silently point to Lyra who is already looking at the other kids with her big curious eyes and she strides towards her with a smile.

"what's happening?" Seb asks, an amused smile gracing his features.

When I suggested lyra should go to the school in our pack, you said I should ask her myself. So, I thought now might be a good chance." I say hesitantly reading his expression, I still don't know if Seb was ever serious about that conversation, we had in the middle of the night, but it is something I seriously considered. That way Seb can be at peace if his family stayed here.

His features turn confused for a moment before fitting back into a surprised one, "you remember?" he

asks.

"I do." I reply, rubbing the back of my neck and he hums in response. Soon his hand finds mine and he gets up taking me with him. I follow him curiously until he stops when we are finally in an empty classroom. He puts an end to the curiosity by sealing my lips with his and a deep chuckle leaves my mouth before deepening the kiss.

"Thank you." He whispers against my lips, parting our kiss as his eyes glistened with tears. In return I cup his cheeks, his radiant skin warm under my touch and he leans into it like an eager kitten making me curse under my breath before diving in for another searing kiss. After a heated make out session, we finally got back to the playground to see the kids are already set, playing various games

Lyra seemed hesitant for the first half an hour carefully observing the kids from a distance, as she chewed on her lips, a habit she shared with her brother. Soon she joined them in a game, blending in easily with her cheerful attitude. When they were playing in the sand under the shade guarding her from the afternoon sun, I approached her

"So do you like this school?" I ask, lowering myself to her level.

She nods happily.

"You want to go to this school, from now on?"

"But Rogue's kids can't go to pack school." She says, and my mind freezes at her words, I try to look for any signs of playfulness on her face, but she blinks blankly at me, genuine confusion etched on her adorable features.

Rogue's kids, the words reverb in my ears making use of the hollow of my mind with no coherent thoughts. "What do yo-" She is already running off with her friend when I can finally form a relevant sentence to ask.

The temperature of my blood raises with the instilled hate I felt at the mention of the word. We were trained from our births to hate rogues as they were considered as the abominations in our world more so than the hunters, it might sound extreme but that's how it is.

Rogues are the people who abandon their packs and live their lives on their own defying the morals of the pack. As someone who prides themselves as non-judgemental, even I couldn't fathom their motives despite not having any personal interactions with them and to hear that word come out of her innocent mouth is appalling.

"Leonard!"

I responded to my name being called from a distance and started moving towards the source with reluctant steps as my mind refused to move on from the word Rogue.

______________________

The living room is set with a dimmed light paired with the conjuring bliss of the evening. Some old movie is playing on the screen consuming my mate's attention, leaving only his delicate fingers running through my hair in an absent-minded manner, to my pleasure. With my head in his lap and his caressing fingers in my hair, washing away the tiredness from the day, I have nothing to complain about, except the pestering thoughts in my mind.

"You seem lost in thought." Seb comments, his ministrations on my hair coming to a halt. A set of curious brown eyes are peering down at me when I open mine accompanied by a bleary sigh. I sit up and turn my body to face him, he mirrors my position until we are completely facing each other.

"Lyra, is she asleep?" I asked, glancing at the door of her bedroom. He hums in response, his concerned eyes locked onto mine. goddess! this is harder than I thought. Bracing myself again, I started my talk "When I asked Lyra about changing her school, she said..." I glanced at him once to make sure he was following.

After making sure he is, I continued "She said something about rogue's kids not attending pack schools." I felt him wince at the words more than I saw upon completing the sentence. The colour from his face paled and his bright eyes are now filled with worry.

"Seb!" I raise my hand to caress his cheek, but he cowers from it with an action of turning his head. My own heart sweats in worry at his reaction and my wolf grunts at me to make him feel right but he is already speaking up before I can do so. "She must be joking,must have.... picked up that word somewhere" he says, without mirth. "You know how kids are!" he continues with a calm tone contradicting the beads of sweat on his forehead.

"I know." Is the only reply I can muster and a faint colour returns to his face.

"let's call it a night, I'm tired" he pats my shoulder before retrieving himself from the couch, taking the warmth with him and suddenly I was sitting there alone in the coldness as my heart sored.

A part of me regretted it, regretted the idea to bring it up with no further caution considering Sebs crippling anxiety but another part felt entitled, entitled to know every part of mate's life and the loudest part of me just wanted to follow my mate and scoop him in an embrace, tell him whatever it is, doesn't matter at all and guard him from the vices of the world. I do none of that.

It is already deep into the night when I finally entered our bedroom, my eyes immediately caught the sight of Seb lying on his side of the bed. He was facing the other side with his blanket pooled at his waist as his chest slowly raised and fell in a steady rhythm indicating he was asleep.

Taking a deep sigh I walked to the bed and got in carefully from my side. the moonlight from the window gently cast on the side of his face making his features look relaxed unlike his face during our previous encounter. My eyes slowly travelled to the curve of his neck and then to his slender hands gently clutching the pillow, taking in his figure hungrily that has nothing to do with physical desire.

I moved my pillow close to his before laying my head and facing his back, every muscle in my body ached with urge to pull him to my to my arms and cradle his head but the prospects of him rejecting my touch are very likely as much as I avoided to dwell on the subject.

There's a voice in my head that wondered if all the progress we made is already lost and what happens tomorrow when we wake up. I slowly closed my eyes dreading the said tomorrow to come, praying to the Goddess to never let it come until I felt his touch on my arm making me jolt open my eyes.

Seb sleepily moved towards me, and I quickly arranged my body to accommodate his, his groggy voice mumbled something about feeling cold. I pull him to my chest, so his head nestles in the crook of my neck before looping my arms around his torso, he responds to it by nuzzling closer and throwing his leg over my hip making me let out a chuckle. I close my eyes again, more blissfully this time.

Not everything is lost after all.

A/N: OMG OUR BOOK HIT 30K ALREADY, I WOULD LOVE TO THANK Y'ALL FIRST FOR ALL THE SUPPORT AND LOVE.

Here's the new chapter I have been working on. I hope you enjoy this and the upcoming ones. This is again a crucial chapter regarding the revelations that are to come so brace yourselves.

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Will be back with few more chapters. Love y'all.