He didn’t want to wait. He didn’t want to.

For months, months he’d been lingering around these trees, practically sprouting roots himself as he waited and waited and waited for Rook to return, and the return again. Oh, yes, the Lyall did seem different upon his second homecoming. He had built them a nice den and Veho was just starting to think that maybe, [/i]maybe[/i], the younger wolf really meant when he said he was going to change.

And oh, he changed alright.

“I wish you’d ‘ave told me--”

Veho did not hear the rest of whatever the beta had to say, blood roaring in his ears. The bulky male whirled, ears flattened against his crown. “I wish you would have told me,” he snarled, fire bursting to life behind moonlit eyes. “I had to hear from Oula, wielding the information like a weapon that Amaryllis was pregnant. We had spoken when you still stank of her – and you did not tell me then. No one in this pack tells me a damn thing.”

And that would have to change. But especially egregious was the female alpha and his own mate keeping secrets. Perhaps they intended to tell him eventually – but how long were they going to wait after Lily’s sent changed? He wasn’t stupid. “How many times are you going to be sorry, Rook? How many times must I forgive you?”

He wanted to scream. Howl and roar and scream until he didn’t have a voice left. At least he would be heard – or feel heard, at the very least. But that wasn’t entirely fair. Rook was listening, at least in the physical sense, and that was more than any other member of the pack had given him in recent months. But it wasn’t everything. For months, he had neglected his own heart, ignoring it until the rot had become so great it had started to spread throughout the rest of his body. Everything ached.

For perhaps only the second time in his life, Veho Macieo had no idea how to fix the illness running through him.

“You can’t come back if you’re dead,” he finally croaked. “You disappear and I do not know. The worst could happen and I do not know. I cannot leave the pack or the children because there is no one else.” And if something happened to Rook-- He would never know, instead left to wonder and wait, like a widow hoping her husband would come back from sea. “I do not want to be alone.”

We’ll see.

Rook could make all the promises he wanted. Until the alpha left and returned and found his mate still waiting here, he would withhold judgment. It would not be the first promise the man had broken, be it unintentionally or otherwise. His ears laid back as he huffed, ears laid back against his skull. For all that the beta’s behavior was subordinate, appeasing, some corner of his mind continued to whisper dark, hurtful things.

That it wouldn’t end. That it would be like the last year. That whatever they once had was lost, and no matter what Veho did, it would not come back. It was lost to him.

Like Oula. Like Oula and Joan and Felix. The family he wanted – ruined – lost.

Veho huffed and shook himself violently, a blanket of snow falling around his legs. He could not continue to linger here. He had to get his son ready for his adventure, and he had to... Well, get Ophelia ready. Make sure Nineva knew what to do and had what she needed. The time for emotional warfare on himself would be when he returned. “I will see you in one moon, Rook.”

Hopefully. For better or for worse.

“Until then, behave.”