Chapter 27: Uncle

Chapter 27: Chapter 27: Uncle

Azura stood there in the hallway like an abandoned grocery bag, watching the spot where Selena had vanished into the eldritch abyss of pack politics.

Well. That was... unhelpful.

She had come here with one simple mission: stalk Selena until she was convinced the girl no longer held a grudge, confirm her repentance was accepted, and then go home and take a nap. Simple. Clean. Efficient.

But now? She wasn’t sure if she had succeeded, failed, or accidentally signed up for a cult. Instead of answers, she had more questions. Instead of relief, she had a vague sense of dread. She had somehow triggered a side quest where Selena looked at her like she was a stray puppy that needed adopting, and now there was a mysterious "I’ll take care of it" hanging over her head like a sword of Damocles made of confusion.

Did I succeed? Did I fail? Why did she look at me like I was her responsibility? I’M OLDER THAN HER. I SHOULD BE THE ONE TAKING RESPONSIBILITY—WAIT, NO, I DON’T WANT RESPONSIBILITY EITHER.

She walked through the mansion hallways, completely lost in thought, replaying the conversation in her head like a broken record. She didn’t notice the scenery changing. She didn’t notice the cold air hitting her face. She didn’t notice she had walked for a full twenty minutes until she found herself standing in the middle of the training grounds.

Oh. I’m here. How. Why. When.

Before she could process her own teleportation-like journey, a shrill voice cut through the air like a knife through butter—if that butter was also on fire and screaming her name.

"AZURAAAAAA!!!"

A tall, red-haired woman came barreling toward her at what could only be described as "aggressive hug speed," closing the distance like a missile locked onto its target. Azura had approximately 0.2 seconds to register the approaching disaster before—

SQUEEZE!

The woman wrapped her arms around Azura in a hug so tight it compressed her lungs like an accordion.

"Azura! Vincent told me you were sick! I tried to mind-link you last night but you didn’t answer! And your pho—"

She pulled back, her eyes suddenly sharp.

"Wait. Why can’t I smell Cora on you?"

Her face shifted from concern to alarm.

"What HAPPENED?! You have to tell me EVERYTHING! The rumors, the sickness, the missing wolf—spill it all! Come on, we’re going somewhere private!"

And just like that, Azura was grabbed by the wrist and dragged across the training grounds like a sack of potatoes with legs.

She didn’t know this woman.

She didn’t know her name.

She didn’t know if she was friend, foe, or some kind of chaotic neutral gremlin who just really liked hugging strangers.

But one thing was certain: her day was not getting any less confusing.

*

*

*

Meanwhile, in a luxury hotel in the human city—far enough from the pack that no one could hear Azura’s existential crisis—two men stood in the hallway like statues guarding a museum exhibit of "things that make no sense."

One of them—Noah—was pacing back and forth like a man waiting for a kidney transplant. The other—Oliver—kept checking his watch, then the doors, then his watch, then the doors, as if expecting time to suddenly change its mind and make the doors open.

"The Alphas still haven’t woken up," Noah said, his pacing reaching Olympic speed-walking levels.

"None of them have come out."

Oliver sighed. "And they’ve all been blocking the mind link since last night! I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Alpha Caesar and Alpha Caelian—those two are chaotic gremlins who do whatever they want—but even Alpha Caelus?! THE Caelus?! The man who schedules his bathroom breaks?! He’s blocking us too?!"

Noah stopped pacing and rounded on Oliver like a prosecutor confronting a witness.

"Oliver. You were with them last night. You accompanied the alphas to kidnap that girl. What actually happened? Why did the mission fail? And why did they come back to the hotel looking like they’d seen the ghost of their own future regrets?!"

Oliver shifted uncomfortably. He looked at Noah with the thousand-yard stare of a man who had seen things.

"Well... I’m confused myself..."

He paused.

"I just know it has something to do with... boobs."

Noah stared at him.

"..."

"...huh?"

"Boobs, Noah. Big ones. They were a... complicating factor."

"BOOBS WERE A COMPLICATING FACTOR IN A KIDNAPPING MISSION?"

"Don’t look at me! I’m just as confused as you are!"

Before Noah could demand a more coherent explanation—or possibly file a formal complaint with the universe—all three doors opened simultaneously.

Click.

Click.

Click.

From the middle door, Caelus emerged first. He looked serious. Composed. His posture was perfect, his expression unreadable, his suit immaculate. The only sign that anything was wrong was the deep exhaustion in his eyes, as if he’d spent the entire night fighting a war in his own head and lost.

Caelian stepped out of his room next, letting out a heavy sigh that carried the weight of a thousand ruined flirtatious encounters. His usual charm was nowhere to be found. He looked like a man who had just discovered that even winning wasn’t winning anymore.

And then there was Caesar.

Caesar walked out of his room like a zombie who had just been reanimated from a particularly disappointing grave. His hair was a disaster. His shirt was half-untucked. His eyes were vacant, staring into the middle distance as if he was still processing something his brain refused to accept.

Oliver and Noah exchanged a look of pure "we are not paid enough for this."

"Uh... Alphas," Oliver said carefully, "you’re finally awake."

Caelian rubbed his temples, observing the expressions on his Beta and Gamma with weary resignation.

"With faces like that, something must be wrong. What is it? Spit it out."

Oliver answered quickly, as if ripping off a bandage.

"Alphas, your uncle has been waiting for you in a private room at the restaurant for a while now."

The effect was immediate.

All three triplets snapped to attention like soldiers caught slacking off by their drill sergeant.

Caesar stopped shuffling like a zombie. Caelian’s eyes widened. Even Caelus, who almost never showed emotion, seemed to stiffen slightly.

Without a word, they started walking toward the elevator, moving with the urgency of men who had just been told their tax audit was starting early.

"Why does Uncle know we’re here?" Caelian grumbled, pressing the elevator button repeatedly as if that would make it arrive faster. "And why does he want to eat with us all of a sudden? We didn’t sign up for a family brunch!"

Caelus adjusted his collar with practiced calm, though the slight tension in his jaw betrayed him.

"I called him last night. I asked him to meet when he had free time while he was still in this territory. I didn’t expect him to respond so quickly."

Caelian let out a long, defeated sigh.

"...You really work fast, don’t you? Couldn’t you have waited until AFTER I had coffee? Or therapy? Or a decade of solitude?"

The elevator doors opened. The five of them stepped inside, and the doors slid shut, carrying them down toward a brunch meeting that was sure to be colder than the Siberian tundra.