Chapter 121: Exposed.

"Bryce, come on. It wasn’t that bad. We were just making a jo..." Vincent started as he entered the house behind him, but he stopped abruptly at the door, the rest of his words catching in his throat.

Dave followed close behind, carrying what remained of the groceries.

"Who’s this?" he asked.

"Alpha Vincent, long time no see," Agatha said as she rose from the couch.

Vincent immediately stepped forward and regarded her with the respect, setting down what he was carrying before greeting her.

"We didn’t expect you. Is there a problem?"

"No," Agatha answered calmly. "I had promised Bryce I’d pass by to check on him and the baby."

Her gaze shifted toward Bryce, who was standing a few steps away.

"Well then, make yourself comfortable," Vincent said.

Agatha, however, did not move.

Instead, she looked between the three of them with an expression that revealed very little. Vincent watched her carefully, and the longer she stared at them like that, the more certain he became that her visit was not solely about checking on Bryce and the baby.

She had come for another reason too.

The relationship between the three of them.

The way she was looking at them made that clear.

"I can already feel it," Agatha said. "The baby is already forming strongly because of your pheromones and the power within Bryce. Although, Bryce, you’re not eating well?"

Bryce’s expression shifted slightly.

"Starving yourself and the newly formed baby? It needs those nutrients from you. Only the pheromones are not enough."

None of them had told her that Bryce had barely been eating.

Somehow, she already knew.

She always did.

Bryce glanced toward Vincent and Dave, both of whom were now looking at him. He had spent most of the day avoiding food because of the nausea.

"Also," Agatha continued, "I wanted to know if you both are ready for the task back at home next full moon. It is already approaching."

She paused briefly before turning her attention toward Vincent.

"Alpha Vincent?"

"I’ll know when the time comes," Vincent answered rigidly.

"There’s no backing out of it. They need you. If possible, it would have been better if we had you there now."

Vincent did not answer.

He had no desire to say the wrong thing in front of Agatha. There was still anger inside him over being exiled, and although he was willing to return, that did not mean everything surrounding his exile had suddenly become easy for him to accept.

Agatha did not press him.

Instead, she turned toward Bryce.

"Can you control your powers now?"

"Yeah," Bryce answered.

Even as he said it, however, he was not entirely certain.

The power inside him was enormous, and he had only touched a fraction of what he knew it could do. He was still learning what was possible and where the limits of his abilities actually were.

Agatha closed her fingers around nothing, then opened it again, a piece of paper rested on her palm.

"Burn this up," she said, her voice low as her eyes returned to Bryce.

Bryce stared at her, stunned.

He could make something burn with these powers? He didn’t known that.

Still, one thing had become clear to him since his powers had awakened. All he needed was his mind and his concentration. Once he understood what he wanted to happen, the power responded.

If he had been able to create illusions inside the minds of Dave’s family, then what was truly impossible for him now?

"Are you going to hold it as it burns?" he asked.

"Yes," Agatha answered.

Bryce said nothing else.

He closed his eyes briefly, reaching for the deepest parts of himself. He gathered his concentration, focusing on the power that seemed to exist beyond anything he had previously understood.

Then he opened his eyes.

Purple and gold mingled within them as his gaze fixed on the paper in Agatha’s hand.

He concentrated on exactly what he wanted to happen.

Almost immediately, the paper began to burn.

The flames consumed it, spreading across the sheet until Agatha let it fall onto the floor.

Bryce smiled faintly.

Agatha smiled too.

That smile made Bryce’s own grow wider because there was something in it that he understood immediately.

She was proud of him.

The realization warmed him more than the display of his power itself.

Agatha sighed as she looked between the two of them.

"I believe we’re already ready. So I’ll just be waiting for you the day before the full moon night," she said. "I’ll be on my way heading back now."

She turned and started toward the door.

But Bryce spoke immediately.

"Stop pretending you have nothing to say about this, Agatha."

She stopped.

Bryce gestured between himself, Vincent, and Dave.

"I know you know about it, and you definitely have something to say about it."

His voice carried a seriousness that made it clear he was not asking out of simple curiosity.

Suddenly, Agatha became the one person whose opinion about their relationship he genuinely wanted to hear.

He needed to know what she thought.

"Well..." Agatha started, then paused.

Bryce’s anxiety rose, and so did Vincent’s.

Neither of them seemed to know what she was about to say, and that brief hesitation only made the uncertainty worse.

"As long as it doesn’t disrupt the duties you have," Agatha finally said. "That was what the Moon Goddess said about it."

She continued calmly.

"In her opinion, she is glad that Alpha Vincent is back to the person she knew before, being kind to others despite what it takes him. And while things have taken an unexpected turn, especially with Dave growing attraction and affection toward Vincent, she only hopes the complications between the three of you don’t affect anything."

The reaction was immediate.

Vincent, Bryce, and Dave’s eyes widened at once.

Dave visibly panicked.

Vincent turned toward him, his expression suddenly carrying several emotions at once.

Bryce stared in dread.

"What are you talking about?" Dave asked Agatha immediately.

"I... I know you people can spot everything, and you’re always right about them, but this time you actually got it wrong. My attraction toward Bryce, not Vincent."

He explained it far too clumsily and far too much.

Instead of making things clearer, the unnecessary explanation only made him sound even more suspicious.

Dave turned toward Bryce desperately, clearly needing his help.

Bryce immediately reached for Agatha through their minds.

He told her to take back what she had said.

Vincent did not know about Dave’s feelings toward him, and they would rather keep it that way, at least for now.

Agatha understood.

"Sorry," she corrected. "I meant Dave’s strong attraction toward Bryce, which makes it impossible to simply leave him behind just because the two of you are mates. We hope your decision to have a three-person relationship will not affect anything that is waiting upon you to deal with."

The tension in Vincent’s face eased.

But in its place came something that looked almost like disappointment, and it disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared, leaving Bryce uncertain whether he had truly seen it.

Agatha finally left.

The door closed behind her, and the three of them were left together with the tension her words had created.

Bryce did everything he could to dissolve it.

They eventually gathered in the kitchen, where the groceries they had bought earlier were finally put to use.

They pulled up the recipe Bryce had downloaded and began following the instructions step by step.

Bryce could cook, but he was not particularly good at it.

That became obvious almost immediately.

Still, he spent most of the time making sure Vincent did not discover the truth about Dave’s cooking ability.

Instead, whenever Vincent looked uncertainly toward Dave or seemed about to ask something, Bryce found a way to keep the process moving without revealing the truth.

The kitchen gradually became a mess.

Ingredients ended up scattered across the counters, utensils were used and left wherever there happened to be space, and their repeated attempts to follow the recipe did not always produce the results they expected.

At first, the tension from Agatha’s visit remained between them.

None of them seemed willing to bring it up again.

But as they continued trying to prepare the food, the awkwardness slowly began to fade.

A failed attempt at one part of the recipe led to laughter.

Another mistake brought even more.

Eventually, the kitchen was filled with laughter instead of the tension that had followed Agatha’s departure.

They kept trying until, after all the attempts, adjustments, and the mess they had created, they finally managed to make the food.

It was not perfect.

It did not need to be.

They had made it themselves.

Later, when the day had finally come to an end, the three of them went to bed together.