Chapter Fourteen

Sitting around in bed, taking in the sunshine from the large floor-to-ceiling window, lounging and enjoying each other's presence, but as soon as Luna and Hazel received the messages from Alex in their group chat, they packed up some snacks, Hazel got Floss ready for a walk and they headed out to the farm. 

"I hope they'll both be alright! I'm excited to meet Sovereign, but I wish it was under better circumstances." Hazel said as they walked.

"I'm hoping that your presence will be of comfort, Hazel. He's most likely feeling like an outsider right now. I think knowing that you're accepted and you're a human might make him feel a bit more secure in his place with us." Luna replied.

"Yeah, I guess since I know what it's like to come into this from the outside. I didn't really know anything about you guys until recently. I still want to keep learning more about Moon Wolves, your customs, history and unique culture. You've all been so accommodating towards me so far... I don't get why Sovereign is being treated so differently... I would have thought he'd be treated better than me considering he's a Moon Wolf too and I'm a human." Hazel said, confused and sympathetic.

"I know... it doesn't make much sense to me either. I mean, I know that they would all love and accept you. Even if you weren't so sweet and lovely, your grandparents were the most caring people I've met. I didn't know them well, but I knew that they were respected and loved. I think perhaps your familial connection to the pack helped you with Alex's parents, and the rest of the town. Sovereign doesn't have that." Luna explained. 

"I suppose you're right. We better make him feel extra welcome when we get there." Hazel said cheerfully, before clocking on to the  middle part of Luna's explanation. "Wait. Is everyone in the town a Moon Wolf? Are they all a part of your pack?" She asked.

Luna laughed lightly at her girlfriend's surprise. "Yeah, most of the villages and towns in Bleydh Forest are inhabited by different packs. We stay hidden well here, especially since we spend the majority of our time as humans. Of course, there are some of us who prefer to stay in wolf form, but they're few and far between." 

"Wow... it's kind of strange to think that there's all of this right under everyone's noses, hidden in plain sight... well hidden in the middle of a vast expansive forest." Hazel replied. 

Luna chuckled as they continued on, not too far from their destination once they got into the centre of the town. They walked as quickly as they could to the farm, not wanting to have Alex and Sovereign wait too long for them. From the message that they got, it sounded like things were going incredibly badly, to the point that Alex's dad had intentionally harmed Sovereign when he was already badly injured.

It was confusing to Luna. She had always thought of Mr Blackwood like a second father figure. He was normally a kind man with a lot of compassion for others and to her, it didn't make sense for him to turn his back on his son and harm his own son's mate like that. It wasn't normal for him to be so callous towards others and she was determined to get to the root of it. If it really was just as simple as him being prejudiced against Sovereign for being a rogue alpha, then she didn't know if she could ever think of him the same way again.

When they arrived, the front door was open and Mrs Blackwood was waiting for them. It seemed like Mr Blackwood was out tending to the farm. She welcomed them in with a hug and an extra cuddle for Floss, who was all too happy for the attention. 

She led them into the kitchen first, offering Floss some water and asking them to take a seat for a moment so that she could talk to them.

"So, seeing as you're here, I'm guessing that Alex has asked you over to meet Sovereign." She said.

"Yes, he texted us earlier and we decided to come over right away. I don't know what happened between everyone, but he told us that Mr Blackwood hurt Sovereign?" Hazel said, looking for confirmation or some kind of elaboration. 

"Yes... it was... well, I don't know what it was, but it was bad. He did hurt Sovereign. That poor boy has been through far too much already in his short life, the last thing I expected of my husband was this... this torture. Towards our son's mate no less... I just... please make sure you take care of him and make him feel welcomed... he needs to know that he has a home with us now." Mrs Blackwood implored. 

"Of course!" Hazel replied. "If there's too much trouble from Mr Blackwood, or it becomes unsafe for them here, they're welcome to take the spare room in my house. There's more than enough space for the both of them."

Mrs Blackwood softened at that, giving Hazel an affectionate look. "You're a sweet girl, Hazel. I think we're all very lucky to have you with us now. I'm glad that you are Luna's Moon. You know... you are just like your grandmother, Hazel. Sometimes it's a little uncanny. Anyways, you girls better head on upstairs." she said, ushering them over to the stairs.

Luna and Hazel made their way up, Floss still in tow and made their way to Alex's bedroom. When they were ate the door, Luna knocked gently.

"Hello? Alex, Sovereign? It's me, Luna, and I'm with Hazel and Floss." She said through the door.

"We brought additional snacks and a very fluffy doggo." Hazel added.

"You can come in." Came Alex's reply and so the stepped into the room, closing the door again behind them.

The first thing that Hazel noticed was that Sovereign looked incredibly worn out, physically and emotionally. After what Hazel had heard of what happened from Luna, Alex and Mrs Blackwood, she couldn't say she blamed him for it. He had really been through a hell of a lot in a short period of time. He must have been feeling incredibly hurt, stressed and uncomfortable through it all. 

Before she could even greet the new addition to their friend group, Floss was bounding onto the bed and into Sovereign's lap, excitedly wagging her tail, but somehow managing to avoid upsetting his injured leg. What was truly endearing though, wasn't just Sovereign greeting Floss with affectionate hands in her fur, it was the look of pure adoration on Alex's face as he looked at Sovereign smiling as he interacted with Floss. 

Sovereign had this reserved happiness on his face that even Luna was relieved at. It might have been the first time he had smiled so genuinely in front of them and they all wanted to see more of it. Alex was absolutely smitten and the girls felt an overwhelming need to stand by the two boys and protect that smile. Hazel herself wasn't sure what drove such a feeling for someone she had only just met and hadn't even spoken to, but it was there nonetheless. 

"Well, Floss definitely likes you and that makes you good in my books." Hazel said, drawing Sovereign's attention. "I'm Hazel by the way, I'm Luna's Moon." she introduced and could spot Luna blushing furiously in her peripherals. 

"It's good to meet you. I'm Sovereign." He replied, voice much deeper than she had been expecting. It was low and smooth like molasses. "You're the human girl, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm not a Moon Wolf like you guys, but my grandfather was. I moved here a couple of months ago to get away from my terrible family." She replied, her tone light and casual.

"I'm sorry. I know what it's like to have a bad family." Sovereign said, looking away from her.

"That's okay though, I've learnt that DNA isn't everything,  you can choose your family for yourself, fill it full of people who really care for you." She replied with an encouraging smile. 

"Thank you for coming guys, it's really good to see you." Alex said and gestured for them to sit somewhere. 

Hazel ended up taking the desk chair while Luna made herself comfortable on the floor next to her. They got out the snacks and drinks and spread them out so everyone could just choose what they wanted from the pile. 

They sat together like that for hours, talking and asking each other things, just taking some time to get to know each other, to know Sovereign and to let him get to know them too. By the late afternoon they were all laughing and joking around, though Sovereign was still decidedly much quieter, but he did seem a lot more confident.

It would have been odd to see an Alpha behaving in such a subdued way, but there was something about Sovereign that matched up to his name. There was a fierceness behind his cold eyes that would send chills down your spine had they been glaring instead of relaxed. Hazel thought to herself briefly that she wouldn't want to be one of the people on his bad side. He was moving quite a bit more comfortably that she would have expected for someone who just broke their leg and got that many stitches. She supposed that it must have been the healing factor that they all had as Moon Wolves. 

Oh the perks of being supernatural. 

Their pleasant conversation was broken, however, by Mr Blackwood crashing into the room, eyes darting between them, face sneering and furious. He heaved a few breather and pointed his anger at Sovereign.

"You! This is all because of you! You lead them here! You turned them against us!" He screamed, shocking all of them, especially Hazel who had never even heard the man raise his voice before.

"What are you talking about? Get out of my room, dad." Alex replied, voice even but stern.

"Shut your mouth, boy! You have no idea what you've brought into this house! This mongrel has lead our neighbouring pack to our borders! They're prowling, scoping it! They're preparing to come for him and I for one, am not interested in putting this whole town at risk, our whole pack, for one mangy, pathetic excuse for an alpha!" Mr Blackwood screamed again and before anyone knew what was happening, Floss was leaping off of the bed with a whimper and Sovereign was standing in his wolf form, face pulled back into a ferocious snarl.

Straight away, Mr Blackwood turned pale, trying not to look as though he was wavering. He straightened into a defensive stance and tried to put on an air of nonchalance at Sovereign's transformation. 

"See, this rat can't even deal with anything without shifting, threatening your own father, Alex. See him for what he is. He isn't worth protecting! He isn't worth risking everyone else's safety! He's nothing but bad news! I won't have him under my roof a second longer and if you don't get rid of him, I'll force you both out!" He yelled at Alex and Sovereign moved to block Alex from his father, growling lowly.

"You're kicking me out of my own home then?" Alex said, in a mix of disbelief and resignation. "Because I'm not giving up my Moon for anything and I'm certain the rest of the village will protect him too. If I have to fight the neighbouring pack then so be it. I'll even fight you if I have to."

"What? You're putting your family in danger!" Mr Blackwood went red in the face as he spat out his words.

"No. I am protecting my family. Now, kindly get out of my room. I'm going to pack my bags immediately and we are going to leave. You are going to stand aside and let us go." Alex said with a dangerous calmness.

"Hah! And where will you do, Alex?" His father asked.

"They're going to come and stay with me." Hazel spoke up, gaining the attention of the room, enough that even Sovereign looked to her with a softened expression. "I have a spacious spare room that I'll happily give to them."

"Hazel, you don't know what you're doing." Mr Blackwood said, somewhat condescendingly.

"I know exactly what I'm doing. They're my friends, they're my pack now and I'm going to look out for them. I may be a normal human, but  Luna is my Sol and I'm her Moon, so I'm in this too." Hazel replied. 

"Hazel... thank you." Alex says, pleasantly surprised and grateful.

"Cornelius Blackwood, what on Earth do you think you're doing screaming at our guests?" Mrs Blackwood asked sternly from behind her husband. "Leave them alone. What is wrong with you? Why must you be this way? Sovereign has done nothing wrong! He's done nothing worthy of your disgusting behaviour! I feel like I don't even know you anymore!" 

"Sweetheart, listen. They're endangering us all!" Mr Blackwood responded shortly.

"No! The neighbouring pack are the ones threatening us! Threatening our child's Moon! We should be protecting them, not attacking them! You are the one who is endangering them right now! Have you gone so blind that you can't see that you're tearing our family apart! They would be safer at Hazel's house because the only thing putting them in danger here is you!" Mrs Blackwood finished. 

They were all silent for a moment. Hazel hadn't expected things to get so serious and heated while they were all there. Floss was curled into her side, looking defensive with her mouth pulled up in a snarl. Sovereign looked determined, still in his wolf form. He was massive like that, all thick black fur, pointy teeth and claws. 

His wolf form was bigger than Luna's, he was almost too big for the bed that he was standing on. How anything could best him in a fight was beyond her. She could understand why his attackers would need to have numbers on their side in order to best him in combat. Even with his heavy injuries, he looked ready to fight anyone who came at him and it was obvious then, that he had probably been forced to fend for his life in an injured state before. 

It was tense in the room, the silence stretching out for what felt like a lifetime. Hazel felt a lot of sympathy for her friends. Mrs Blackwood was having to defend her child against her husband, Alex was having to sacrifice his family life for his Moon and Sovereign was stuck being the target of not only the entirety of a neighbouring pack, but also one of his Sol's parents. He was stuck in the eye of the storm and Hazel knew what it was like to be stuck somewhere like that, with everyone telling you what to do, making every problem your fault and not being willing to hear you out or listen to you.

The worst part of all of this was that it wasn't Sovereign's fault at all, it was nobody's fault, it was all just down to circumstance and some bad luck here and there. Sovereign, from what she could gather, had survived a lot out there, he must have to have made it for so long on his own. Now he finally found his other half and there was still all of this turmoil. 

Hazel resolved to herself that she would do everything in her power to make him feel welcome, to stand up for him and be in his corner to defend him whenever she could. 

"Well, I think we should pack up and get going." Hazel said softly. "Fighting won't change anything, it will only turn us against each other in a time when we all need to be a united front. I'm going to take the boys home to mine, give you some time to cool off and think, then we can have a calm discussion on what to do about the other pack, preferably including a meeting with all the pack members in the town." 

"That might have been the most level-headed thing that's been suggested in the last several days, Hazel. I agree with you. I think we need to wait and call a town meeting once everything has settled down. This isn't something we should hide from them. We should decide what to do as a whole pack." Mrs Blackwood agreed.

"Fine. Just get that mangy mutt out of my house." Mr Blackwood said, storming out of the room and down the stairs, the sound of a door slamming echoing from somewhere near the back of the house.

With Mr Blackwood out of the vicinity, Sovereign transformed back into his human form and Alex placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. The raven-haired man looked exhausted, truly drained in all aspects. He sighed heavily, downcast. It wasn't a good look on him and Hazel honestly wished that there was something more than she could do.

Alex was seething with rage at the things his father had said, but  he was holding himself back in order to comfort Sovereign. It was admirable that he was able to stay relatively calm in the face of everything that had happened, of everything that had been said.

"He's wrong, you know. You've done nothing wrong. None of this is your fault and no one blames you for what happened. My husband is completely on his own in his misguided and nasty opinions. You're family to me now, family to us all and we will protect you and welcome you. You're practically my son-in-law now after all." Mrs Blackwood said in that motherly way that she had perfected. 

"She's right. He may not approve, but the rest of us want you to stay. We'll fight for it." Hazel added.

"That's right. You have the rest of us in your corner. We're here for you Sovereign." Luna said, nodding along resolutely.

"I... thank you... thank you all. I'm sorry for being a burden to you. I've brought you all so much trouble." Sovereign apologised, looking to the floor. 

"You're not a burden, we will never see you that way." Hazel tried to reassure him. 

"She's right. We care about you, you could never be a burden, least of all to me. If you think I'm letting anything get between us now that I finally found you, finally have you in my life... you couldn't be more wrong." Alex said.

"But, Alex, you don't even know me... not really. None of this feels real... I've been alone for most of my life. I don't... I don't like this feeling of being weak. I'm used to taking care of myself." Sovereign replied.

"But I want to know you! If we weren't compatible or if this was wrong then fate wouldn't have brought us together, wouldn't have made us Sol and Moon. No one likes feeling weak. I know that you're strong, it's obvious just from looking at you. Don't let my dad get in your head." Alex pleaded, taking hold of Sovereign's hands.

"I... I just don't know what to think or feel. This is all too much. I can't do this, Alex. I should leave, take the threat away." Sovereign replied shakily. 

"Sovereign, my Moon, listen to me, please. I want you to stay with me. Please, please stay with me. I just got to meet you. Don't... don't go, please." Alex implored.

"I don't want to go, I do want to stay and get to know you, but these circumstances... the consequences of me sticking around are too much... it's too dangerous. As much as I want to be selfish, I can't." Sovereign said, and Alex looked like he was trying to hold back tears.

"Sovereign, please. None of this is your fault, none of this is because of you. Please, take a chance on me, Sovereign. Let me protect you, give me a chance to prove that you can be safe with me, that you can stay here. Because I can't give you up, not now, not ever. If you go, then I'm coming with you." Alex said, trying to look Sovereign in the eyes.

"Alex..." Sovereign looked up to meet his gaze and his own softened. "You... you can't leave all this behind just for me... you have too much to lose."

"I have too much to lose if I let you go." Alex replied quickly, not leaving a second's room for doubt.

"Go with Alex and stay with Hazel, son. The rest of us here don't want to lose you either. My son shouldn't have to lose his Moon and I shouldn't have to lose my future son in law. But, you also shouldn't have to lose your Sol, your new pack." Mrs Blackwood interjected, quietly, but with a strong certainty and sincerity.

"You see. None of us want to see you go. You don't have to do this alone anymore, I promise. Whether you leave or not, I'm coming along for the ride. So, what do you say? Give me a chance? Give us a chance?" Alex asked, never breaking his eye contact with Sovereign.

"Okay... okay... if... if you're sure, I... I want you, Alex. I want this. I want us. I'm just... I'm just scared, scared that me being here will really put you all in danger. I don't want to ruin this." Sovereign relented, looking even more tired than he had before, but there was a new glimmer of hope in his eyes too.

"You won't." Alex said and took a moment before continuing. "Can I... can I kiss you?" He asked.

There was a moment of silence that passed through the room, Hazel and Luna quietly moving to the door and out with Mrs Blackwood. It had all but faded away for Alex and Sovereign though, the two of them had barely noticed, but had both mentally thanked them for the privacy.

Sovereign paused to take a long look into Alex eyes, searching for any kind of hesitancy, but all he found there was the opposite. He had never been looked at with such unbridled affection before, never been asked for something as intimate as a kiss with such innocence. It threw him, but it was something that he could get used to, something that he really wanted to get used to.

"Yes." He whispered.

With his consent, Alex leaned forward, breaching the distance between them and gently, their lips met. It was soft, full of care and emotion and something so light and pure that was blossoming like the first flowers of Spring after a cold and ruthless Winter. 

They moved together, Alex's hands finding home against Sovereign's waist and Sovereign's moving to hold Alex's face between them. They closed whatever gap was left, pulling each other closer until they were left flush against each other. 

Sovereign sighed blissfully into it, tilting his head ever so slightly further to the side for a better angle, one that would allow them to become closer still. It was like everything had slotted perfectly into frame, as though something that had once been fuzzy was finally coming into focus. It was perfect, more so than Sovereign ever could have dreamed it would be.

When they finally parted, they stayed close, locked in each other's embrace. They looked at each other, took everything in and Alex leaned forward to place another fleeting kiss on Sovereign's lips before resting his head on the man's shoulder. As he did, Sovereign moved one of his hands to the back of Alex's head, to run his fingers through his hair. They were holding each other, hugging and Sovereign felt overwhelmed for completely different reasons than he had done before.

"Lets go to Hazel's." Sovereign said, breaking their comfortable silence. "I'll stay with you."

"You mean it?" Alex asked, looking up at him, hopefully and Sovereign's heart melted just a little at that.

"I mean it. I'll stay with you, Alex. I trust you... and I believe you." He confirmed.

"Thank you. I'll take good care of you." Alex promised.

"I'll take good care of you too." Sovereign replied, holding Alex a little closer.

They stood there together for a while longer, neither of them willing to let the other go just yet. Their emotions were running high, but there was a calmness that had begun to settle over it. It all seemed steadier. They were in this together, for better or for worse. Sovereign was doing his best to let it sink in, that he didn't have to be alone anymore, that he didn't have to be afraid, that he could trust Alex, that he could keep Alex, hold onto him if he wanted to. And he did, he did want to. Whether it would all work out for the best... only time would tell.