Chapter 17

Liam's POV:

Milo could be very clingy, as I'd learned.

It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, really. I adored that side of him, which I knew only came out when he felt safe, enveloped in my embrace. However, it did make leaving his house significantly more difficult- even leaving his side for a moment would cause him to whine and look at me with betrayal in his gaze.

I was pondering the pros and cons of trying to wriggle my way out of the way we were sitting- myself sitting normally on his couch, him with his legs over my lap, his arms embracing me as he tucked his head into the crevice between my head and neck- to go get a glass of water when he woke up.

Oh, did I not mention that he was asleep? Yeah, I had also learned that he was a very light sleeper and would wake up if Bubbles brushed his foot with her feathers. Because that didn't complicate things at all.

"Where are you going?" he asked in a groggy voice, reaching up to rub his eye so that he could guilt-trip me with his gaze alone. I sighed.

"I was just going to go get a glass of water," I replied, moving his legs off of mine. "Do you want anything to drink?"

"No," he sighed as I stood, wrapping the blanket that had been around us tighter onto himself like a burrito. I passed him a small smile and bent to kiss his forehead lightly, which he grumbled at, pulling Bubbles up next to him as he picked up the book he'd been reading earlier. I left the room with a soft smile on my face.

He reminded me of a baby koala.

Small, cuddly, but with long claws he wouldn't hesitate to turn on you.

Well, Milo didn't really have literal claws, but the way he'd withhold his affection was pretty similar, so I made the comparison anyway.

I grabbed a plastic glass from the cupboard and turned to the sink to fill it. My throat was dry so I gulped down the liquid the moment the glass was full. When I had finished the cup, I filled it up again, taking more time with the second dose of water.

Liam, a voice called in my head, the unexpectedness of it causing me to nearly sputter out the water. It was just my father calling through the pack link, so I shouldn't have been that jumpy- I guess it was my quiet afternoon with Milo that had kind of made me unnecessarily unexpecting of the link.

What? I shot back after a moment, taking another sip of my water.

You know the vampires that killed Milo's family?

I retook my seat next to Milo, frowning deeply. I didn't know they were vampires, but yeah?

"Who're you talking to?" Milo asked quietly, poking my cheek.

"My dad," I whispered in response, getting a nod of understanding before my mate turned back to his book.

What would you say to some revenge?

I'm listening? I replied carefully.

Eva has been tracking their movements for a few months using motion-tracking devices and other shit. Don't ask, I didn't so I couldn't tell you. The coven seems to go between seven hideouts around the state, one of which we're assuming is their lair because they spend the most time there. But, if her calculations are correct, they should be in the one closest to us right now through two days from now.

And you want to go kill some of the parasites, yeah? I asked, beginning to smile at the idea.

If you're up for it.

When do we leave?

Tomorrow morning. You won't be going to school for tomorrow, at least.

Sounds good. I'll come home for dinner in a half hour.

Okay. Your mom's making pizza.

"Why are you smiling?" Milo asked the moment my eyes became unclouded, his confusion apparent.

"Mom's making pizza for dinner," I replied without even thinking about telling the truth. If he would only freak out and make me promise not to go kick some vampire ass, it wasn't worth it. They had hurt him, and they would pay.

Even if I wasn't the one doing the actual killing part because, let's face it, delivering death made me very uncomfortable.

Milo didn't question me, though, and just hummed in response, cuddling into my side again. "When do you have to go home?" he asked, closing his eyes and pressing his face onto my arm.

Baby koala, I thought affectionately.

"Half hour," I replied out loud.

"Mmm. Hey, Liam?"

"What?" I asked with a smile.

"I'm sorry that I didn't like you in the beginning," he sighed, opening his eyes to look at me, piercing me with his apologetic stare. "I was kinda rude to you and you didn't deserve it. You were just trying to be nice."

"It's okay, no hard feelings."

"I'm still sorry."

"I know you are, but it was a weird situation and I think we both handled it well. Plus, we're cuddling like this now, so everything must've turned out okay," I pointed out, referring to our close position.

Milo blushed and moved off of me. I wished I could ask him to stay close, but he only did that when he didn't feel embarrassed, so I had no one to blame but myself.

Typical.

"Come on, I didn't mean it like that," I groaned out despite knowing it wouldn't change anything.

"Shouldn't have mentioned it in the first place," he muttered in reply, scooting to the other end of the couch and picking up his book again. Bubbles climbed into his lap and he began to stroke her feathers.

"Damn chicken," I grumbled, but there was no bite behind my words.

"Language," he commented.

"I'm gonna get going, don't wanna miss pizza night," I said to him with a glance at the clock. It was nearing time for me to leave, anyway.

"Have fun."

"Don't forget to eat the pasta salad I brought over earlier, mister," I told him sternly, provoking a groan from my mate.

"Maybe not... all of it," he commented, chewing on his lip as he took a not-so-subtle glance at the refrigerator and made a face.

"Some," I bargained.

"Some," he agreed, so waving goodbye and blowing an exaggerated kiss in his direction, I left through the front door and began walking home.

Half of a portion of pasta salad is better than no pasta salad, I thought to myself as I made my way down the winding path and eventually onto the streets of the pack. Goddess, I love pasta salad.

Milo had been making progress with eating, he really had, and it was a miracle to see.

"Hey, Liam," Paisley called to me as I entered our house through the side door, bounding over to see me. "I haven't seen you yet today. You got up super early to go see Milo, right?" Her excitement was contagious, and I found myself smiling along.

"I did," I nodded. "We talked about when I move in with him."

"I'm so sad you're leaving," she mumbled, but the smile still in her voice overruled the sadness in her tone.

"It's not like I'm leaving the pack," I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, but you won't come eat dinner with us anymore!"

"I definitely will come eat dinner with you all the time, because Mom's pizza is to die for."

Paisley giggled and I smiled, happy to have relieved my sister's sadness for the moment.

Just then, Mom appeared in the doorway with a frown. "Paisley, I told you to go do your homework," she sighed at my sister. Paisley made a face before running upstairs, but I knew her well enough to know she was most definitely not going to go do her homework. Then my mom's attention turned to me. "Come on in, Liam, help me set the table."

"Okay," I agreed, kicking my shoes off.

"I heard you're going to accompany your father to the vampire hideout tomorrow?" she asked with an arched eyebrow as I took four porcelain plates from the cupboard. "No, take out two more, Grandpa Robert and Grandma Adeline are coming to eat with us."

"Possible vampire hideout," I corrected as I grabbed two more plates. "The pack will be extra secure, I'm guessing? In case they know we're coming?"

"All security measures in place with the alpha, beta, and quite a few warriors gone," she nodded along. "Your Uncle Nolan and I are even going to town for the day to watch over the schools."

My stomach turned at the thought of the vampires attacking us at such a public place, but not only that, a public place with my mate inside.

As well as Paisley and Caleb and Julie and Sage and everyone else, of course.

"Sounds good."

We lapsed into silence, but only a few moments later, that silence was shattered by my Grandma Adeline entering through the front door with a flourish, Grandpa Robert at her heels. "Where are my grandkids?" she asked loudly.

I grinned at her. "Hi, Grandma. How was your tour of Egypt?" My grandparents had gone off for a vacation for the past few weeks, so this was probably a 'yay, you're back' sort of dinner.

"It was lovely, thank you, Liam," she said dramatically, stepping up to wrap me in a hug. When she pulled back, she frowned. "That boy still not coming home with you?"

"No, Grandma," I said through a smile.

"Hmph. Well, I'll meet him someday, I guess. I'm not ready to be a great-grandma!"

With that, she left to go find Paisley.

"Don't mind her, son," Grandpa Robert said as he took some of the plates to the dining room, where I was arranging forks and trying to remember what side of the plate they were supposed to go on. "She's just upset she's getting older, that's all."

I nodded, smiling.

My grandparents visiting were a great distraction, but my mind seemed really determined to entrance me instead with images of Milo I'd committed to memory. Milo smiling, Milo talking, Milo laughing.

This was the Milo I was saving by not telling him about the attack on the vampires, I told myself sternly. This was the Milo I was trying to protect.

That was when I realized I hadn't told him I wouldn't be at school tomorrow and remembered how much he tended to freak out over that sort of thing.

-

I was pleasantly surprised by the turnout the next day.

Dad had told me previously that he had left it up to the warriors if they wanted to stay and sleep in or help out, since it was more of an extracurricular activity than anything. Still, out of the approximately two hundred warriors our pack had, there was a cluster of about fifty who had decided to come, which was much more than I'd expected, given the circumstances.

It was four in the morning and I was tired. No doubt everyone else was, too.

However, our pack wasn't the only one who decided to help out. Alpha Clarissa of the Northlight Pack had arrived with her ten strongest warriors, who had all merged seamlessly into our pack and were joking around and talking like family.

"Hey Liam," the alpha I'd known since I was young said as she stood next to me.

"Hi," I replied, looking over to where the sun would rise in a few hours.

"How's Milo doing?"

I was surprised she remembered his name, as I'd only mentioned him once, but I nodded. "Pretty good, all things considered. Still no sign of your mate?"

She shook her head, beaming. "I found him a while back but we're taking things slow, just dates for now, I haven't told him about the werewolf-sharing-a-soul bit yet."

"I wish you the best of luck," I said to her seriously, but she laughed at me anyway, swatting my hand away.

"Today we're here to protect your mate, so we're gonna focus on that and kick some serious vampire ass."

"Sounds like a plan," I joked.

Dad called everyone to attention by a clap of his hands, causing the entire group to die down. "Thank you all for coming out this morning," he started loudly, not being very mindful of the fact that he was in the center of the park surrounded by houses with toddlers and other forms of children.

Think you could ask your dad to quiet down? Julie asked in my mind, her words groggy with sleep, but I just sent her a mental shrug and cut off our link for the moment, returning my gaze to my father.

"Today we're going to go and see if we can kill some vampires who, a while ago, decided to snack upon some of our fellow packmates. Let's make them pay!" he yelled, pumping a fist into the air. Cheers resounded at his words.

"The plan of attack is as follows," Aunt Eva shouted before reading names off. I didn't pay much attention until I heard my name and turned to Clarissa with a confused look. She groaned at me but complied.

"You're in group C, which will lead the main attack into the building once the inevitable guards stationed along the outside are taken care of," she whispered to me, "just follow your father and you'll be fine."

I nodded at her in thanks as Dad called out the order and we all shifted into our wolf forms. Despite my wolf being relatively large when compared to the rest of my pack, Clarissa's big black wolf was large even to me. She gave me a wolfy grin when she caught my gaze and I rolled my eyes in response.

It was kind of disorienting, not being able to communicate with some of the wolves surrounding me as we started to run through the forest, especially Clarissa, who stayed by my side as we ran.

Are we going in wolf forms or human forms? I asked my father through our personal link.

If you had been listening you would know the answer, he remarked, but his words held no bite. To answer your question, wolf form until we get close enough for the kill and have hopefully paralysed them for the moment. Use the wooden stake I gave you if you get close enough.

Will do, I promised before cutting off our link, sighing, and letting myself relax as my muscles pushed me further into the dark forest.

Dad had us shift back when we were still a few miles out from the building for last-minute instructions, since Clarissa's pack didn't share the same link we all did.

"Group A, you flank the left, Group B to the right, take care of the guards on the outside and the vampires should be easy," he said calmly despite the hearts that were pounding all around me. "If we're lucky, they're all in their coffins already and this should be easy."

"For our packs!" Aunt Eva shouted, raising a fist to the sky as a sort of battle cry. The gesture was imitated by some around me, but most looked tired. When not even I humored her, she caught my gaze with an eye roll.

"Good luck, everyone," Dad said. "Get into positions and we'll charge at half past six. Groups A and B, you have five minutes before Group C starts in. Everyone got it?"

Cheers did resound this time and I smiled to be in the midst of so many people ready for war.

Everyone left to find their positions and I was left, standing in the middle of a smaller group. Dad caught my eye and began to weave his way through the pack members over to me.

"Ready?" he asked, his blatant excitement showing in his tone.

I nodded in response. "This isn't the first time I've done this, Dad," I reminded him at his worried expression.

"It's also been about nine months since your last time," he said in rebuttal, but his heart wasn't in the argument so I let it drop.

"Hey Dad?" I asked nearly five minutes later, causing his gaze to turn to me once more.

"Hmm?"

"If we finish up here early, do I have to go to school?"

"Nope. If we finish and we're not all dead, you and I are going straight back home to prove to your mother that we're fine. As long as you promise to do your homework," he quickly added.

I groaned; I had been planning to skip it and just ask Sage for his notes. "Fine."

Before long, it was time to charge, and I shifted quickly, trying to shove every thought except for hateful ones from my mind.

These are who hurt Milo. They want to hurt him again. They don't care who they hurt.

I just hoped that Milo was faring okay at school without me, and I hoped that he wouldn't find out where I had gone before I could be home to tell him (and apologize) myself.

--

~2.8k words

Liam and Milo give me serotonin

What do you thing- Is Liam making a mistake?

hope you enjoyed this update, sorry it's a day later than usual, i completely forgot with school and everything

-bloom