WILD

forty nine

Orion absentmindedly walked back to Lorena's house after his meeting with Carter.

He was surprised that they hit it off so well, and it seemed that the other young alpha needed a friend. If there was one thing he learned from being in a place of power, it's that there was a certain type of permanent loneliness that came along with it.

He passed by the training courts, watching some of the young pups practice their techniques. He laughed to himself as a distracted kid waved in his direction and was scolded by their instructor for not paying attention.

Speaking of scolding...

He knew Lorena was most likely going to tear him apart the second he entered the house for taking her laxative pills away, and he was almost dreading the conversation they were going to have to have. Regardless, he felt like he had done the right thing. She was doing unnecessary damage to her body, and if he truly cared for her, which he did, he couldn't just sit by idly.

He walked up the porch steps and opened the door. He was met with a quiet house, save for some music lightly playing from the kitchen. He sighed and walked towards the kitchen where Lorena was reading a book at the table.

He tapped on the wall to get her attention before entering.

Lorena perked up at the noise and when she saw Orion, she grinned. "Hey. I put some food in the microwave for you."

Orion smiled and walked over to where she was sitting, kissing her on her forehead before making his way to the microwave. "Thanks, sweetheart."

Lorena blushed, but went back to her book as Orion went around the kitchen getting his food together.

When he sat down and dug in, he expected Lorena to pop off on him then, but she just continued reading until he finished his meal.

When he finished, he took a sip of water and asked, "What are you reading?"

"Lord of the Flies."

Orion scrunched his nose up at that. "I hated that book as a kid."

Lorena laughed. "Really, why?"

"C'mon, you know why. That book was barbaric. I'm surprised they even force young kids to read that."

The Luna rolled her eyes playfully. "Oh come on. We're werewolves. This is nothing compared to what we've seen."

He shrugged. "Fair. But I still hate it." Orion pouted slightly as the memories of reading that book as a child came back to him. He was traumatized and didn't sleep for weeks, wondering how humans could be so horrible when left to their own devices.

If only little Orion knew what was in store for him years down the line...

Lorena giggled at Orion's pouty face and kissed him on the lips before sitting back down and going back to reading. "You're cute."

Orion blushed and took out his phone, trying to call Max and see how things were going back home, but he wasn't able to get through. "The service really does suck here."

"You get used to it. It's really a 50/50 chance of your call going through. Carter's working on getting us better internet, though." Lorena dog-eared the page she was on and shut it. "Speaking of, how was your meeting this morning?"

Orion sat back in the chair and put his phone back in his pocket. "It was great. Carter is a really cool guy. We talked about a lot, but mainly just about alpha stuff, you know? It's not everyday you get to speak to alphas that aren't super overprotective and hostile towards other alphas. So it was nice."