𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐫 || 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐊𝐰𝐚𝐧

Chapter 18

Seungkwan wanted nothing more than to be back at the stables. Horses were easy.
People were complicated. But there he was, sitting on the floor of the nursery with Joshua and his four cubs as Seungkwan tried to get them dressed after their lunch. Tried being the operative word. The little ones did everything they could to escape: wriggled, shifted back and forth, and raced off across the room to hide. Joshua didn’t seem bothered, laughing at their antics as he tried to get the special shifter babygros onto them.

“I’m trying to get them used to wearing clothes,” he told Seungkwan. “And to associate clothing with staying in their human forms. That way, we can take them out more. Right now, they’re still a little young to have that kind of control.”

“I don’t think I’d manage one,” Seungkwan admitted. “Let alone four.”

“Four sounds daunting, I know. But it’s not just me and Seokmin. The whole pack is here to help. There’s always a pair of hands when I need them. The cubs are still pretty attached to me, but as they get older, they’ll spend more time with the others, and I’ll be able to get a bit more work done.” He smiled over at Seungkwan. “Speaking of work, Vernon says you’re having some legal trouble?”

“Not exactly,” Seungkwan hedged, reluctant to bring it up. There was so much he’d have to explain, so much that he felt he couldn’t say in front of Joshua.

The omega who was so with it, so together, that Seungkwan felt like an ignorant fool in comparison.

Joshua waited patiently for Seungkwan to continue, frowning a little at the continued silence.

“Kwan, believe me when I say that I’ve heard it all. Nothing you could say would shock me. Not if you told me you robbed a bank or killed someone or left a library fine unpaid.”

Seungkwan giggled at the last example, calming enough to admit, “Nothing like that. It’s… my contract, with my agent. Vernon thought I should talk to you about it.”

“You’re looking for a way out of it?”

Was he?

“I don’t know, I…” He wasn’t sure how much to say. Did Joshua need to know everything about what Stewart had said and done?

“You want to know your options,” Joshua surmised. “Sure, I can take a look. Can you email me a copy?”

Seungkwan pulled out his phone and sent it. Joshua slipped from the room to grab his tablet, returning to sit cross-legged on the floor, reading as he kept an eye on the kids. Seungkwan distracted himself playing with the cubs, sure this would all come to nothing.

“How long have you been on this contract?” Joshua asked suddenly.

“Um, since I was sixteen. Fifteen, actually. We fudged my age a bit. The terms changed a little when I turned eighteen, and again this year when I turned twenty-one.”

“Has anyone else ever looked this over? Did your parents have a lawyer check it, back when you first signed with Stewart?”

“I was in a group home,” Seungkwan admitted softly. “No parents. The…um… the carers helped me with the paperwork.”

“How did Stewart find you?” Joshua asked, his eyes still scanning the document. “Were you attending auditions? Casting calls? Linked with a modeling agency?”

“No, nothing like that. I never had any ambitions to act or model.”

“Then you were headhunted?” Joshua queried, looking up at him. “He spotted you on the street?”