Check-Mate

9. Home

Chain Pov

What should I do? 

My smiley isn't smiling at me anymore. It had been two days since I got back home, and my dear cousin hadn't even given me a single smile.

I know I had scared the shit out of him the other day when he wasn't able to get in touch with me. But can you blame me? If anyone needs to get the blame, it should be my stupid heat.

"What's going on between you two?" Mom asks as she clears up the plates. "I haven't seen you two talk ever since you two got here."

What should I say? My little one is mad at me and the reason... Hell no! I would never tell Mom the real reason. She will ban me from getting out of the house if she finds out that I hooked up with an enigma.

I help her clear the table. "He is just mad that we couldn't come back together." 

Lying to mom is really difficult. She always catches me when I do. But oddly this time, Mom just hums and continues with her work.

"Mom, can I help you do the dishes?" I don't want to risk starting a conversation on this topic.

"No. Just place those dishes inside the dishwasher" Mom says looking at her phone. She seems busy, maybe it's something from work.

"Psst psst," I hear a noise from behind the pillar. I turn to see that it is Dad calling me secretly. He looks vigilant, wanting to avoid being caught by Mom.

I quickly placed the dishes inside the dishwasher and slipped to the corridor where Dad was waiting for me.

"You little brat," Dad smacks me as soon as I get near him. "Why didn't you leave a text to your phi when you were going on a trip with your friends? You know that dump kid waited for you the whole day in the airport and when he finally got here, your mom gave him an earful."

I scratch my head. I don't know how to answer that question. I can't possibly tell Dad that I was busy getting screwed that I forgot about everything else, right? "But mom seemed chill when I came home."

That was really fishy. Normally, she would have grilled me inside out for not coming back home for so many days. Yet this time, she didn't even ask me for a reason. All the excuses that I had cooked up in my mind on the way back home, had gone in vain.

"Of course she wouldn't. We told her that you had some last-minute group project that you had to submit, and you were staying back for that." Dad says with a sly smile.

That explains it. Mom would never be mad as long as it is something related to academics. "Thanks, Dad"

"It wasn't me. It was your phi. Go makeup with him. Or else none of us are going to get to eat his cooking this break." Dad pitifully rubs his tummy "I had been waiting a whole semester for him to come back and cook. Now, he wouldn't step inside the kitchen because he is mad at you."

That is a major problem. Warm hasn't cooked anything since we came back. Just like Dad, I have also been dying to taste his cooking. But he wouldn't cook as he is mad at me, the primary consumer of his food.

"I will talk it out Dad" I assure him, after all, food matters more than anything else.

"Here, take this" Dad places a book like something. 

I take a closer look and realize that it is a recipe organizer. Warm has always wanted one. He is going to love it.

"Go give it to him and tell him that you got this for him," Dad says.

"Thank you, Dad" I hug him tightly.

"Get off me," He says without even pushing me away. "Stop acting clingy as if you are a pup."

"But, didn't you say that I and Warm will always be your pups?" I ask with a pout.

"Who wants a pup who is taller than him?" Dad is a few inches shorter than me.

"I will always love you, Dad. Even if you are shorter than me" I tease him.

I get a smack on my biceps again.

"Go find someone else to love. I should probably start looking for partners for you. You are old enough to be married off."

Would it be wrong of me if I rolled my eyes at the statement? I mean, I know that I am an omega and an unmated one at that. But I am still a guy. I want to explore my options a bit before settling for someone for the rest of my life. I don't understand why Mom and Dad don't feel the same way.

"You remember Nancy, that girl who sat next to you in middle school? She gave birth to her second child yesterday. I heard it was a baby boy. I wonder when I am going get to hold a grandchild of my own."

Here he goes again. Do you know how many times I have wished that all my classmates turned infertile? Every single time they had a child, my mom and dad would bring up the topic of finding a mate and settling down.

I know things aren't the same for humans and werewolves and we werewolves tend to find mates as soon as we hit our puberty. But I don't want to find a mate. I mean, I haven't found anyone whom I feel interested in.

Well, except the one I spent the past few days with. But in the end, he too couldn't be counted as he is an enigma, and I am a possessive shit who wouldn't like to share my mate with anyone else. Mating with an enigma is out of the question for me even though he is so hot and good-looking.

I know, I must look like a lovestruck fool to you now. But seriously, he was dishy, as the British say. You would have understood it if you met him in person.

I would have considered asking him to be my mate if he wasn't an enigma. Sigh.

"What are you daydreaming about?" I get flicked on my forehead by Dad. "Here I am talking about your future and your mind is elsewhere."

"Dad, do you even realize that you are being like those gossipy aunties in our neighborhood who have nothing better to do than gossip about others?" I can't actually blame my Dad for being like this as our pack is a female-majority pack.

You can already guess the amount of gossip that would go around in such a case.

Flash news, men gossip too. But subtly compared to women. 

I know Dad got the nagging part from those women who raised him.

Dad is giving me that look. Haha. I have successfully triggered him. I need to slip away from here before he whacks me. "Dad" I try to smile "I just remembered that I have some urgent work to do." 

With that, I run upstairs without looking back.

I can hear Dad calling out for me to stop but I won't. I love my butt. I don't want it to take punishment for my reckless tongue.

Let me tell you a secret about Dad. He hates it when he is compared to women. He used to be a really pretty guy during his school days (Guess where Warm got his adorable looks from. Not from Mom, I say) and used to be teased a lot by his male classmates. He is kind of traumatized by it and me telling him that he was like those aunties only triggered his memories. Me and my stupid mouth.