CHAPTER 256: PRIVATE TIME

When Felix had first come to the Bloodmoon Pack and had tea with Kade’s parents, he had thought that their meeting had dragged on forever, feeling much, much longer than it had lasted.

Well, he felt about it differently now. In comparison to the lunch with Wilder, it felt like that tea time had passed by in the blink of an eye! Truly, ever since he had come to the pack, he had been forced to over and over again rethink his perception of time.

But everything, good or bad, has to come to an end eventually, and so did the welcome lunch.

"It was nice talking to you," Einar said, getting up from his seat. "I’m sure you must be tired after the road. My Luna’s assistant will take you to your room now so that you can get some rest. We will discuss other issues another day."

By ’other issues,’ he naturally meant Jared and Felix. That’s the reason why Wilder had come to visit the Bloodmoon Pack in the first place. There was no need to rush it, though, since the Alpha would be staying in the pack house for a week.

"It was nice talking to you too," Wilder returned the pleasantries, before turning his eyes to Felix. "However, if possible, I would prefer for Felix to be the one to show me to my room. It’s been so long, and I missed my son very much. I would like to spend time with him in private."

’Missed very much?’ Yeah, right! He had ignored Felix even when they had been living under the same roof, and after he had left the pack house to do who knows what, even before Felix had run away, they had never contacted him.

Not that Felix complained. He also hadn’t missed the man, and had no interest in getting in touch with him. Aside from perhaps getting the answers to a few questions that kept bothering him.

Einar glanced at Felix, checking his reaction. If Felix didn’t want to, then it was possible for him to reject Wilder’s request, using Felix’s non-existent duties as an excuse... But Felix met his gaze, and after a moment of hesitation, he nodded his head.

He had to have a one-on-one conversation with his father sooner or later. And from his experience, postponing difficult conversations wouldn’t make any difference. No matter how long he delayed it, trying to ’prepare himself’, once it came to it, his mind would go blank anyway, and he would forget everything he had planned to say.

So, why not just do it now, and get it over with?

"Alright," Einar agreed. "Felix, would you accompany your father?"

"Yes, of course."

"I will come as well..." Kade tried to say, reaching out to Felix, but his father almost instantly shut him down.

"Kade, you come to the office with me. We have business to discuss." His tone was calm, but hearing his father’s voice, Kade’s face immediately grew serious. It wasn’t uncommon for them to discuss the pack’s issues together - they did it almost every day, in fact, at least when Kade was in the pack house, as Einar was preparing Kade for succession, and wanted his son to be up-to-date with all the events, and ready to smoothly take over if anything happened to him. They had a close call because of the curse a few months prior, after all - but they didn’t have any meeting planned for the next few days, because Kade wanted to pay extra attention to Felix while Wilder was staying in their pack house, to make sure that the Omega was alright. If Einar was calling him in for a meeting now...

Then it wasn’t hard to guess what it was for. He wanted to discuss Wilder, and everything the Alpha had said about Felix, in particular Felix’s health... Kade had gone to the Moonhill Pack before to obtain detailed information about the Omega from their spy, so if anything that Wilder had said was true, he had to have already been aware of it.

And yet, he hadn’t reported it. That was unacceptable.

Kade also knew that. Which is why he nervously glanced over at Felix, now concerned both about his future cute little mate, and also himself a bit. Feeling his gaze on him, Felix met his eyes...

And just nodded his head lightly. ’I’m fine, don’t worry about it,’ was what he was trying to say.

How could Kade be so easily reassured? Of course he couldn’t, not when he knew that Felix and his father had never had a good relationship, and that Wilder clearly wasn’t on their side. There was nothing he could do at the moment, though, so he just gave Wilder a fake polite smile.

"It was nice to meet you, Sir," he said. "I have to go now, but I hope we will have a chance to talk more later."

"Ah, yes," Wilder nodded at him in return, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. It seemed that he didn’t care much about talking to Kade.

Well, it shouldn’t be surprising. If he didn’t want Felix to marry into the Bloodmoon Pack, then there was no need for him to bother with their heir too much. It was still better for him to act polite, to maintain peaceful, or at least non-hostile, relations between their respective packs, since Kade would take over the Bloodmoon Pack as a leader one day... But at least for the time being, Kade’s power and influence were limited. No matter what he wanted, he would have to go along with whatever his father decided, so Wilder only had to focus his negotiation efforts on Einar and Lorelei.

With this, the conversation was officially over (for now), and everyone went their ways, Einar, Lorelei, and Kade leaving the guest house to go to Einar’s office to discuss ’business’ - that is, considering all the talk during the lunch, most likely Felix’s past health issues. Even Felix was aware of it, but unlike Kade, he didn’t really care. He had no intentions of becoming the future Luna, after all. As long as Kade’s parents didn’t chase him out of the pack right away, he would be fine - while Wilder and Felix went to the guest room that Einar had prepared for Wilder. Led by Lorelei’s assistant, because while Einar had agreed to let Felix take his father there, Felix didn’t know which room it was yet, so how could he possibly go alone?

Wilder’s room was on the top floor, as it turned out. One of the best guest rooms available, even better than the room that Jared had stayed in, even though that had already been above the status of the Moonhill Pack. Probably because Wilder was the father of their potential future Luna, or maybe because he was more experienced, and thus wouldn’t be so easy to intimidate as Jared had been, so they chose a more flattering tactic to deal with the Alpha.

...Felix couldn’t help but wonder if they would still do it if they had known about his ’uncertain health’. But it didn’t matter all that much, all things considered.

"This is your room," the assistant opened the door, letting them into a spacious, elegant suite. Wilder’s luggage was already there, standing at the foot of the bed. One of the guards must have carried it here while they were having lunch. "Please make yourself comfortable. Is there anything else you need?"

"No, thank you, I’m alright," Wilder barely glanced around, before turning back to the assistant. Although the room was much better than any of the bedrooms at the Moonhill Pack’s pack house, he didn’t show much interest, as if this level of comfort was to be expected.

"I understand. There’s a phone on the nightstand. Please give us a call if you have any requests. I will leave you alone now," the assistant bowed her head, and excused herself, closing the door behind her. Her energetic footsteps sounded out in the hallway, quickly growing more and more distant, before completely disappearing.

But even then, Wilder didn’t say anything. He didn’t even look at Felix. He just walked over to the sofa, and took a seat, lazily scanning his surroundings with his eyes. He seemed to be just bored, casually looking, but there was a sharp glint hidden deep underneath it all.

He was being vigilant.

"Are you going to just stand there?" After what felt like an hour, he finally turned his attention to Felix, who was still standing right by the door, as if he was glued to that spot. "Come, take a seat."

Felix didn’t want to. Still, it wasn’t the most comfortable position to have a serious conversation, standing half a room apart, so eventually, he forced his feet to move. Step by step, he approached the sofa opposite his father, and heavily plopped down on the plush seat.

Then, as if he had been holding those words at the end of his tongue since forever, he suddenly blurted out, "I want to ask about my mother."