More to Love

Chapter 4

Changbin's POV

The trio arrived back at their new home, still getting used to the new route, the new place, but with better security they certainly felt safer and more comfortable. Felix no longer continuously glanced over his shoulder, ensuring they weren't followed. Hyunjin was only biting his nails every once in a while, which was most definitely an improvement. While Changbin himself was no longer constantly tense, the unease melting from his shoulders the closer to their home they got.

"Jagi, I'm home!"

He bellowed out in an amused tone. With a grin on his face, he brought the little to go box into the living room where he found his mate, Han, sat beside Minho watching some sort of drama. Changbin took note of the scent patches on the man's neck and wrists with a grimace. He didn't like knowing one of his mates was so stressed, he felt the need to hide his scent even within his own home, so it wouldn't bother the rest of them.

Hopefully it wasn't a coincidence that Y/N had received a call around the same time Chan had mentioned having a meeting. They all had seen how Han reacted to her scent and how he had been acting ever since. Maybe seeing her again would do him some good. He could always take him back to that café too. Even if she wasn't their surrogate, having a new friend would be nice and he was aware all three of them had at least enjoyed the time they spent with her that afternoon.

"Hey Hannie, we got you a little something."

The man turned his attention from the TV to him before glancing down to the package in his hands as he handed it over.

"Hey Lixie, do you want to grab a fork?"

With a hum in confirmation from the blonde alpha, Changbin plopped down onto the couch beside him, watching as Han opened the container and Bin smiled to himself as the other man's eyes lit up at the sight of the cheesecake.

"Oooohhh cheesecake!"

He set the container on his lap, doing small little excited claps with his hands before Felix reached over the couch, handing him a fork. The boys chuckled as they watched him shove an absurdly large bite in his mouth, his cheeks puffed up as he chewed before he stopped suddenly, staring down at the cheesecake.

"Something wrong?" Felix looked between Han, and the cheesecake in his lap. Without looking up at either of them, he spoke up, his words muffled by the food stuffed in his cheeks.

"This is got to be the best I've ever had.  Where did you get this?"

They laughed as they watched him shovel more in. Changbin gave Han's knee a pat with a pleased smile on his face.

"Lixie, Hyunnie, and I went to a café near here. We could probably take you tomorrow if you want?" Felix smirked, and leaned over the back of the couch, giving a teasing smile to Han as he spoke up.

"Pretty sure there's another reason you'd want to go though."

Han just stared at the man, tilting his head to the side with the fork in his mouth, giving a silent question in response.

"Y/N works there and she is the one that made that cheesecake you like so much."

He stared at Felix for a moment before looking down at the now empty container. He set the container and fork on the coffee table before him, turning his attention to Changbin.

"You saw Y/N? You talked to her?"

He gave him a smile as he nodded. "Yeah, she sat with us on her break. Seemed pretty cool, sweet. She is a stay too, but like an actual stay, not what we dealt with last week."

Han shifted his gaze from them back down to his lap. Changbin wrapped his arm around his shoulders, pulling him into his side and into a hug. "Do you want to talk about it? About what you're feeling?"

He watched as Han let out a sigh, shrugging his shoulders. The alpha gave the man a soft smile as he leaned his head against his shoulder.

"I don't even know where to start. I don't understand why her scent so heavily affected me, why I miss it, crave it."

His eyes shifted to the patches on man's neck. "And what would your scent tell us right now?" He was curious, wondering if maybe his assumption was right. With a deep sigh that turned into a bit of whine, Han spoke again.

"It would tell you I'm anxious, on edge, sad, confused."

Thinking on it for a moment, he laid his head to rest against Hans. "And none of that, you feel is because of the other situation? That you don't feel safe? It's only directed towards her and not having her scent near?" The other man give a small, sheepish nod. "If your alpha is that hung up on her scent from one interaction, it kind of sounds like the beginnings of an imprint."

All heads in the room snap towards him in that moment.

"Seriously?"
"That doesn't typically happen often with adults though."
"Are you sure?"
"But..but-"

Everyone spoke at once, even Hyunjin who had just joined them, their words overlapping into a jumbled mess. He did his best to try to calm everyone down, but it didn't really work all that well.

"Look, I'm not saying that it's happening. I'm just... it's a possibility. Okay? Now, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a romantic thing or even that you want her as part of the pack it just means that she would be someone that your alpha is comfortable with and she's your safe space. Again though, we don't know for sure that's what's happening here, but we are going to want to talk to Chan about this because imprint or not, you are affected heavily by her scent, and that might have an effect on who we end up choosing for a surrogate."

He took Han's hand in his, rubbing his thumb over the back of his hand.

"Let's just wait for Chan to get home and we can all sit down and have a conversation. There's no need to get too worked up about a situation that may or may not be happening. Still, if you would like to see her again I'm sure any of us would be happy to go with you up to the café. Maybe seeing her again will give you an answer for what's going on."

The others all grow quiet, unsure what to say. Changbin just lets out a groan, knowing he likely only made the situation worse.

A few hours later, Chan walked in through the front door and was immediately bombarded by Changbin. He pulled his pack alpha off to the side, into another separate room. He then tried to explain the situation at hand far too fast for the older man to catch on, who got him to stop and then start back over. Taking a deep, calming breath, he tried again.

"Han is craving her scent, his alpha is anxious that she's not around, so I made a bad decision to imply that he was possibly in the beginning stages of imprinting on her and now he is freaking out."

Chan stared at him wide-eyed unsure what to do or say in this moment.

"A few of us went to a nearby café and saw her there. Turns out she works there. She seemed nice, we chatted for a bit."

Once again, the older man simply stared at him, this time, his mouth hung open slightly, clearly just trying to absorb all the information given at once.

"So yeah that's been our day. Was your day any better? The meeting go ok?"

He watched Chan run his hand down his face, letting out a deep sigh before tilting his head back and staring at the ceiling.

"It was fine, just more meetings about the next comeback, and then I worked in the studio for a little while, nothing real big."

Confused, he looked at Chan with the tilt of his head.

"So you didn't go meet with her?"

Even more confused, Chan glanced to him once more, raising an eyebrow in question.

"No, why would you think I'd be meeting with her?"

With a sigh and a pout, Changbin shuffled his feet back and forth.

"Because, if you didn't, that means someone else called and requested to meet with her as a possible client." He kicked his feet as he looked down at the floor with a huff. "It means we might have lost her as a possible surrogate."