Daniel
    
    
    “Harry, please come with us," Lucinda calls to the other alpha of the family and they both lead me to a room alone.
    
    Now I figure this is what Lucinda wanted to tell me last night, that Oli is back. 
    
    I'm thankful she didn't tell me last night because I probably would have spent all night fighting the urge to go to his room and pick up where we left off.
    
    “What we're about to tell you is very critical,” Harry begins and takes a deep breath as Lucinda prepares to speak, “So we sent Clara on a made-up errand.”
    
    “What?” I ask, starting to get anxious. My neck hairs stand up as I smell the stress in them, “What's going on, did Frank die?”
    
    “No, it's not that," Lucinda answers, "It has to do with Oliver, but I need you to stay calm. And don't get angry.”
    
    Oh, shït. 
    
    I think I know where this is going.
    
    “He told you about us," I guess and they share a look. They obviously already knew.
    
    “Yeah, basically. He told us how you were playing around with him for months and then decided to get engaged to Clara," Harry lets out, crossing his arms and making me feel a strong guilt I haven't felt in a while. I look down at my hands. 
    
    I’ve avoided thinking about this for years. 
    
    “That's what Oliver said? That I was playing with him?” I ask through the lump in my throat, "That's not really true.”
    
    “Oliver said way worse," Lucinda answers. She’s shaking, trying to contain herself, "He said some things that left me speechless because I know for a fact you were courting Clara during that time, so I would love to know why in the fück you were fücking my little brother and courting my little sister at the same time.” 
    
    I always knew this moment would happen, but I never imagined it would be four years later. Without Oliver present. I already forgot everything I had planned to say when the time came to confess. 
    
    “The only thing I can say for myself is that I wasn't playing with either of them, not really," I start, not taking my eyes off my fingers because I can't meet Lucinda and Harry's gazes. Two exemplary alphas who would never do what I did, “My father spent my whole life telling me I would marry Clara Taffy. That was the plan. You know him, you know he always wanted to be part of the Taffys, to be connected to Frank.”
    
    “Aha," Lucinda replies, crossing her arms and trying to kill me with her eyes when I look up at her. Lucinda is extremely protective of her siblings, I always figured this kind of thing would happen once she found out. Well, I also figured she'd challenge me to a fight, but that can still happen, “Where does it come into this story that you deflowered my eighteen year old baby brother?”
    
    “Fück, Lucinda. Stop talking about that," I groan and raise a hand to carve my eyes, trying to keep the memories out of my head, "I never planned that. I met Oliver on the football field and we became friends. Real friends. He was sixteen, I was twenty-one. We played football, ran through the woods together… There was absolutely nothing between us, I always thought he would be an alpha. The plan to woo Clara still stood as it always had.”
    
    And then Oliver had the audacity to present as an omega when he turned eighteen, ruining absolutely everything in my life and giving me the best five months in my entire existence.  
    
    “And when was it that you decided to cheat on Clara with her little brother?” Harry asks and my fists clench in anger. I hate the fact that it looks like that. Like I cheated on either of them.
    
    “I never decided shit,” I exclaim starting to feel upset, but I take a breath and calm down, “When Oliver presented as omega, our wolves decided they wanted to be together. We were compatible. And I was twenty-three years old. I wasn't a kid, but I was young and I had never felt that kind of attraction to someone before. I had no way of refusing, I couldn't.”
    
    “For months, you couldn't control your urges. Or change the fücking plan or something. Anything,” Lucinda complains, shaking her head. And I can only nod because she's right. 
    
    It’s not like we had sëx once. Or twice. Or three times. Oliver and I were together almost every day for five months and I never did anything about it. 
    
    “My father had planned my engagement to Clara from the beginning of that year. He bought the ring and everything," I continue, feeling a lump building in my throat as I think about how I let a frustrated beta move my life to his advantage, "I never said anything to Oliver.” 
    
    “You let him think he had a chance with you," Harry says, looking disappointed, and my face starts to burn. He doesn't know the worst part, how Oliver confessed his feelings to me and I had to ignore him, “That's horrible, Daniel. Cruel even. I still can’t believe you were capable of doing something like that.”
    
    “I know," I whisper, unable to deny how much of a shït I am, "I couldn't tell him. I tried several times, but Oli was so in love with me. I couldn't break his heart.”
    
    “But you did it anyway, Daniel. Jesus Christ," Lucinda complains, shaking her head like she can’t believe my stupidity, "And that's not the worst of it. It's not even what we have to discuss with you. Oliver is completely over it, okay? He's here with his new boyfriend. What...”
    
    “What?” I interrupt, my whole body suddenly freezing. “Who?”
    
    I know all the alphas in the clan in his age group. If he's been secretly dating any of them, I'm going to—
    
    “The human next to him," Harry answers, unable to keep the disdain out of his voice. 
    
    “A human?” I repeat, slowly. That's not possible. 
    
    “Daniel, that's not the point," Lucinda says, snapping her fingers in my face to regain my attention, "Listen to me. Oliver left here the day of your engagement.”
    
    “I know that," I growl at her, unable to help myself. I don't like to remember it. 
    
    “You don't know shït, dumbfück!” Lucinda growls back and Harry steps between us, "Oliver was pregnant when he left. And now he has a kid that’s yours. Laurie. He's down there.”
    
    For a second everything around me seems to stop, even the discomposed face of the alpha who is yelling at me. 
    
    What she's telling me can't be possible because Oliver wouldn't do that. He wouldn't hide something so important from me. He wouldn't have ignored me for years if he had a child. Our child. It's not possible.
    
    “Daniel, snap out of it," Harry waves a hand in front of my eyes to get my attention, "Laurie is down there playing with our kids right now. And we're giving you the courtesy of letting you know in private before the gossip explodes. You need to tell your wife, she needs to hear it from you.”
    
    With that, the two alphas walk out of the room and leave me alone. Alone with just my thoughts and a bomb the size of the universe. 
    
    I get out of bed and start walking around the room trying to make sense of it all. 
     
    Oliver is back. My son is down there. My wife has to find out about all of this. And all that while my father-in-law is fighting for his life in the hospital and there are some wild wolves that could attack at any moment. 
    
    I don't know how much time passes, but I open the door and walk out of the room with slow, uncertain steps. If I go downstairs and see a kid named Laurie, this will all be real and that means I have a shït storm coming for me. 
    
    I walk down the stairs carefully, everyone is downstairs. 
    
    “Where is he?” I ask quietly when I get to the table where everyone is sitting, but I don't see any new kid.
    
    “Laurie!” Robert shouts towards the yard and a couple of seconds later, I hear someone running towards the house. And then a little pup with long dark hair and green eyes, just like Oliver's, comes in. 
    
    “Yes?” he asks and everyone moves their eyes from him to me, "Where's my daddy?”
    
    Oh, gosh. I wish I knew.
    
    “He's not here yet, but come here," Robert calls to him and then gives me a look to come over too. My whole body feels numb and I'm breaking out in a cold sweat, but I do as he says, “This is Daniel, go take a walk with him.”
    
    The boy looks up at me and doesn't look at all happy about this, but he listens and comes over to me. I can only walk outside to get away from all the gossiping eyes. Once we are away from everyone, I stop and lower myself to my knees on the ground, face to face with Laurie.
    
    My son. I have a son.
    
    “Who are you?” he asks.
    
    “My name is Daniel," I answer, unable to take my eyes off him. He looks just like me. 
    
    I made him. Holy cow, it’s incredible. 
    
    I move a little closer and bury my nose in his head, feeling the knot in my stomach grow more prominent as I can smell that without a doubt, this child is mine. My family. Mine to protect and love forever. 
    
    I want to tell him I'm his father, but I don't know if I should do that or if it will only make Oliver hate me more, so I just raise a hand to wipe my wet eyes and give my son a smile.
    
    For almost ten minutes, I stand there in the yard with Laurie playing with a ball and unable to stop looking at him. 
    
    Unable to stop asking myself how Oliver was able to hide this from me. How he could run away from the only place where he is safe and loved, to put himself in danger every day with my son, without me having any idea of what was going on.
    
    I want to be angry with him, but I know I don't have a shred of right. 
    
    When a car comes to the house, the hairs on my arms stand up and I know it's Oliver. No one but him has achieved this kind of reaction in my body, in my entire life. Only him.
    
    “Your daddy's home," I tell Laurie when I hear that Oliver is already in the house and we both return. This time as soon as I see him, I force myself to move my eyes just enough to notice the human next to him, holding his hand.