𝑯𝒆𝒓 𝑷𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 ( Rewritten )

Chapter 12- Kaito

I see exactly how big this pack population is while Ivy gives her speech about the games. It was huge. I don't have anything other references other than the small group of rogues to base pack life on, but if this is the normal size of all packs, how do they manage all of them?

What I wasn't necessarily expecting was Ivy to introduce me to the pack tonight. I thought I had more time, and I felt a surge of panic for the first time that I could remember since the accident. I felt Ivy squeeze my hand and took a breath before squeezing back and focusing on her touch opting to ignore the commotion from the audience.

I looked at Ivy's uncle in confusion when he starts clapping but my gaze lasted only a moment until the audience joined in. Ivy starts talking again and I couldn't help but take in every detail of her beautiful face as she smiled. 

Her smile was something I'd fight to see every single day.

When the pack meeting was over, Ivy and I walked back to the pack house taking just as much time as we did to get there. We weren't in a rush.

Ivy had explained what game day would be like tomorrow on the way to the meeting. There were several games going on throughout the day. Most of them were children-oriented, but adults had their own games.  There were dozens of teams in each of the men, women, and children's portions of the pack. The kids made their own teams, but the adults had teams assigned based on skills to balance it out. Each female team had a shape as a team name and each male team had a color. The kids collectively played games that they choose to play from a list and the adult teams were scheduled for different sports at certain times.

Ivy wasn't telling me what games were for tomorrow wanting them to be a surprise.  I rolled my eyes lightheartedly remembering how she was so excited. I hated surprises but I wasn't going to tell her that. I wasn't going to ruin her enthusiasm.

When we made it to the pack house, it was a little after dark and we migrated towards the bedroom. My skin was itching for a shower so I grabbed some clothes.

"I'm gonna shower, Ive. You can sleep if you want." I waited at the bathroom door for her to acknowledge what I said.

"I have some more planning for tomorrow so I'm actually gonna head to the office," she said and I nodded walking into the bathroom to shower.

After my too-long shower, I left the bathroom in a pair of shorts and a regular gray t-shirt thanks to Ivy's uncle. He had delivered some clothes earlier today. He didn't know my sizes so he explained that he just got casual comfortable clothes that would stretch if needed.

Ivy still hadn't come back from the office and I caught myself letting out a sigh. It's been maybe a week and there's only been one or two nights we went to bed at the same time. I couldn't rationalize my emotions, but that made me a little upset. I wanted her to fall asleep and wake up with me every night.

It must be the mate bond.

I lay in bed debating going to the office and asking her to come to bed, but I decide not to. She's the alpha. She has things to do. If she has worked, this is just something I'm going to have to get used to.

I rolled over and closed my eyes after hearing a growl from Tony. He had been there and was very vocal about his opinion on everything. He hated it. His job -our job- was to hurt people and get whatever our rogue leader wanted. Not to fall for some girl we met a week ago. I ignored most of it, but he was adamant I knew.

I closed my eyes and willed myself to go to sleep.

When I opened my eyes, I jerked into leaning on my arms gasping for breath. I could feel sweat dripping down my face again and rushed to wipe it off with my shirt before I felt a hand on my arm and jumped back.

It was just Ivy. She had changed into a thin shirt and some shorts and was laying in the bed next to me leaning over to look at me. "Kai, are you alright?" she asked.

I nodded despite feeling very not alright. "Fine. Just... a weird dream." I wiped my face with my shirt again and got up and stepped into the bathroom. I felt like I had just run a marathon and my skin was itchy. I splashed some water on my face and she appeared in the doorway.

"Kai, what's going on?" I could hear the worry in her voice and I felt my heart shatter. She can't know if it is going to make her worry.

I dry my face and look back at her with a smile. "I'm fine. Just a weird nightmare I can't explain. You know like the ones that would be silly if it weren't for the fear they give dream you? I'm alright."

She didn't seem to buy my lie, but nodded anyways and points at my shirt. "You might wanna change."

I looked down and realize I had sweat through a lot of my shirt during the nightmare. I pull the shirt off without thinking about anything other than how gross it suddenly felt. I tossed it into the hamper outside the bathroom and grabbed another.

"Are you okay enough to go back to bed?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm just gonna head outside for a little. Get some fresh air. You go back to sleep, I'll be back." I slide on my shoes and walk out the front door. I didn't hear Ivy follow me and was appreciative of that. Tomorrow was going to get everything out of my system.

This was all probably because I hadn't been playing any sports in a couple of weeks. It's hard to play sports when you're running from people that you once considered friends trying to kill you. That thought triggered the memory in the woods.

They obviously knew I was here. That was going to put everyone here in danger. I felt the urge to run surface from the depths of my mind. I've been running since the incident. From other packs, from the human cops when I fucked around with the lacrosse team, and now the only "family" I had that is now hell-bent on me going back to them or dying trying to refuse.

I let out a deep breath to calm that desire but it didn't work. I felt Tony laughing at my attempt and stood up again to walk to the bedroom again. Ivy was mostly asleep. She apparently tried staying awake but didn't have the energy.  I lay down beside her and glance at the clock.

Three-thirty.

We had at least three more hours before we had to wake up and start Game Day. I closed my eyes and turned my head towards my shoulder to relax a bit.

I shot them open again when I felt someone's arms wrap around me. In her tired haze, Ivy had wrapped one of her arms around my arm, and the other draped over my chest. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest and realized there was no way I was getting any more

I lay there motionless until Ivy woke up around eight o'clock. She tiredly groaned and rolled back to her side  of the  bed stretching and I smiled a little looking at her, "Morning."

"Morning." We lay together in silence for a little until she jerked up excitement now replacing the sleepiness she had before.

"It's Game Day!" She jumped up getting ready and followed her with a gentle smile.

Despite my lack of sleep I knew today was going to be fun.

Final rough edit on 12.28.2023