Home Is Where the Heart Is

Chapter Ten

"You said you found him in the woods?"

Seokjin fidgeted his hands and glanced up at the clock. That was the fifth time he'd been asked that same question. Nearly thirty minutes since he'd been detained in the Welcome Center's small office for 'questioning' by the two police officers that had come to the scene when he called.

He didn't need additional anatomy to know they were hybrids. They'd happily announced their designations when they'd sat him down — an alpha lemur and a beta orangutan.

"Yes," Seokjin answered as firmly as he could without seeming pushy. The lessons from his lawyer were helpful outside of the courtroom, too. Who knew?

"Are you certain?"

Seokjin wanted to scream.

He didn't because he knew the rules. He was human. Of course, he knew the rules. Without any formal charges, he could only be detained, questioned, and interrogated for forty-five minutes. If he didn't move too quickly, speak too aggressively, or paint himself as guilty — it was forty-five minutes. He could do that.

Sixteen minutes thirty seconds to go.

"Yes, sir," Seokjin replied calmly, keeping his gaze fixed on the space between the two officers, re-reading a bulletin about New Year's hours for the eightieth time. "We found him in the woods."

Officer Beta Orangutan (he didn't remember their names, why would he?) leaned over in his chair. "Right, this 'we' being you and your alpha boyfriend?" The man snorted. "Your wolf alpha boyfriend? Who is conspicuously missing?"

Seokjin took in a slow breath.

No, he didn't know where Jeongguk was. Ten seconds after arriving at the parking lot, Seokjin realized putting the kids in the car wasn't an option. Jeongguk had the keys. They shared a lot of things — phone passwords, gaming devices, house keys — but the car was Jeongguk's own. Seokjin had never even considered having a key to the man's car.

Step one foiled, he'd steered them to the park's welcome center instead and called the police, as Jeongguk had told him to. He immediately called Jenna afterward because he was legally obligated to, for Hoseok. After thinking about it, he called Yugyeom, too. The man hadn't picked up, and honestly, Seokjin didn't even remember what he'd left in the voicemail, but he couldn't be strong enough to handle the twins, Hoseok, the police, and worry about Jeongguk at the same time. He needed help. Jeongguk was his boyfriend, and Yugyeom was his boyfriend's pack, and he — he just needed help.

The police had come first. They'd scented the air, frowned at him, asked for his identification, read his human classification, and only by the graces of Jimin bursting into tears the second Officer Alpha Lemur had touched him did they stop trying to throw him into the park office long enough for Jenna to show up.

She hadn't been happy. Downright pissed, if the steady state of her smile was any indication.

Taehyung had started wailing the moment he recognized who she was. Jimin had started screaming at her that they couldn't take Taehyung or him away because they were Seokjin's babies, and Hoseok — most likely overstimulated — started crying, too.

Seokjin didn't even know if they were still crying or not. He hadn't had a chance to soothe the kids or explain any of what was going on before he was tossed against a wall and cuffed, then dragged into the office for interrogation.

He'd cried. He'd begged for a few minutes to calm the kids. For six full minutes, he begged and sobbed until Officer Orangutan threw a book onto the desk hard enough to make Seokjin scream and sneered with a face full of hatred that humans are so emotional.