Once Leo eventually reached the pack house, a 20-minute walk later, he combed a hand through his dark hair and walked into the massive wooden structure.
When he entered, he found Ivan waiting at the door, dressed in a navy blue suit that was void of any imperfections. Like always.
Ivan looked up at him in disdain. His light blond hair was slightly long, falling in a tangled mess over his forehead and almost touching his dark, forest-green eyes.
The blond glanced down at the warn-out black watch on his wrist. "Wow. 45 minutes late, that's a new record."
Leo placed a hand on his heart and gave him a mocking smile. "Aww, it's so sweet that you noticed."
His eyes fluttered to a thin roll of papers that was tightly grasped in Ivan's hands. The notes.
Ivan gestured to a spot behind Leo and the faint ghost of a smirk overcame his features. "And I wasn't the only one."
Leo turned and saw his dad engaged in a heated conversation with Amirah's mom — the Beta of their pack. He would deal with that later, but right now, he had more important things to do. He turned back to the other boy.
"I....." He realised that he didn't know what he had been planning to say "Fuck off." He finally said in response.
"Very mature response. How old are you, five?"
He quickly grabbed the papers Ivan was holding, scrunching them up in the process. "Yeah, five months older than you which means I'm taking this, thank you."
"What the fu—"
"Boys, is this really the time?" Leo heard his mother call behind them as she passed them in a hurry, causing both of them to pause.
They straightened and turned away from each other until she was once again out of sight.
Ivan gave him a blank stare and crossed his arms over his chest. "Give them back. Your inability to sort out your life isn't my problem."
His face was as cool and inscrutable as ever, but the pale skin on his neck was turning a very subtle shade of pink.
Leo wondered how long he could keep this going before the other boy's entire skin was the shade of a tomato.
"And I said thank you, didn't I?" Leo replied with an innocent shrug.
Ivan glared at him. "I'm going to slit your throat one day."
"Mhm... might be too high for you. Can you even reach?"
"Wanna find out?".
"Fuck you."
Ivan said nothing in reply and walked past Leo out of the pack house. "Have fun with that."
Leo watched his retreating figure with a scowl.
Infuriating. That was the only word Leo could use to describe Ivan Piotrowski.
The boy who never smiled, who argued with him like it was the oxygen he needed to survive. Who walked around with a stick so far up his ass Leo swore you could see it in his throat when he talked.
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He never fought back.... not in the way it mattered anyway. Never long enough for Leo to ever see him truly lose his temper, but that never stopped Leo from trying. Pushing his buttons, annoying him in the most efficient ways possible to see what made him tick. They had known each other for almost their entire lives and Leo was still searching.
He spotted his father in the corner of the large room —now with his mom— probably speaking about the meeting he didn't know anything about.
He did, however, know that the meeting was starting soon. He glanced down at the crumpled papers in his hands.
'Territorial Dispute: Night Crawlers v Fiery Moons'
His pack, the "Moons", and their neighbouring pack —Ivan's pack, the "Crawlers" had been at war for over 50 years, fighting over a small piece of neutral territory between the two packs discovered over 200 years prior by two warriors. The warriors were from both packs, so the two Alphas at the time fought over who would be able to rightfully claim the land, and now, after 200 years and 3 minor wars, his dad, the current Alpha of their pack, had carried on the endless fighting for a truthfully glorified patch of dirt.
It sounded kind of stupid and pointless to Leo. But he wasn't about to tell his dad any of that, so he took a deep breath and followed his dad into the meeting room.
The walls of the large room were a dark blue colour, with 2 medium-sized windows bringing in a few meagre streams of light on each side. A large oval-shaped mahogany table was situated in the middle of the room, surrounded by 9 matching chairs.
The seats were reserved only for the highest powers of each pack during pack relations. Two Alphas, two Lunas, two Betas, two Deltas and one Elder (It was beyond him why Elders felt the need to invite themselves to pack meetings like they actually contributed to anything).
And there was occasionally a seat for himself during "bring your kid to work days". Like today.
The room, like the radiating atmosphere, was cold and quiet. Hostile.
A description which also matched the many faces staring up at him as he entered the room and sat beside his father at the head of the table. His mom, who was already seated on his other side, gave him an encouraging smile before reclaiming her serious expression again.
The Alpha of the other pack was already seated directly opposite his father. Just like his dad, the other Alpha was surrounded by his beta, delta, luna and elder on either side of him. Along with their children.
Leo recognised the Alpha and Delta's kids from his high school. Ivan's two best friends. Ivan was sitting beside his own dad, the Beta of his pack. He was glancing at Leo as he sat down, green eyes swimming with pure hatred.
Leo gave a long sigh. He was the only kid from his pack that could make it. Amirah had quickly declined (lucky Beta kids), and the Delta of their pack didn't have any children.
"Before we begin. I'm sure that we can agree that any information discussed here is not to be discussed with anyone else outside of this room." The other Alpha started, and the meeting began.
After the meeting, Leo waited for most of the people to exit the packhouse, then stood as inconspicuously as possible near the kitchen door. He was trying to find Ivan, but the green-eyed boy had yet to emerge from the sea of people still rolling out of the large double doors.
And sure maybe he did occasionally go in and out of the kitchen to chat it up with the kitchen staff and wasn't completely focused on the task at hand, but he knew he would've seen him.
Leo's hand drifted to his pants. The letter was a looming weight in his front pocket.
After a long time, he finally found the other boy. Ivan's green eyes were focused intensely on his friends as they animatedly engaged in conversation. Ivan wasn't saying anything. He was just standing there, not smiling or anything because Ivan wasn't capable of smiling. But he did occasionally frown down at his phone.
Leo sighed, pacing around the small area. He had been standing in the corner of the room near the kitchen door like — for lack of a better word— a stalker, waiting for Ivan to be alone. The blond-haired boy had been surrounded by his friends for the last forty minutes and it clearly didn't look like he'd be done any time soon.
What more could they possibly have to say to each other? At this rate, Leo would be standing there all day, and he definitely recalled seeing a few people glancing at him weirdly at the thirty-minute mark, so he needed to get this over with.
He grabbed the letter from his pocket and stared at it. All he'd have to do was give Ivan this letter, then everything would be fine. That was it. Simple
Leo glanced down at his ink-stained hands and shook his head. No— not simple. Definitely not simple.
He crumpled the letter into a ball and shoved it back into his pocket. Jesus, what was he even doing? This had been a dumb idea.
In the corner of his eye, Leo saw Ivan turn to one of his friends and they all turned around, getting ready to go downstairs. Suddenly, Ivan glanced up from his phone, his gaze sweeping around the room, before finally landing on Leo.
Shit
Leo's eyes quickly darted to the kitchen door beside him, and when he looked back up, he could see the back of Ivan's retreating figure, walking towards the exit.
