POV - Alpha Carlisle/Kyas
Alpha Carlisle
They came to him.
At first, no one moved. Then, from the back, a man stood up. "I deserve an apology! You made a fool of my Alpha, so you made a fool of me!"
Kyas didn't blink. "Yes, I did, Evan!" He shouted to the back. "I do owe you an apology, but I can't see you way back there. Join me here, please?"
The room watched Evan stomp forward. He stopped inches from Kyas. "What do you have to say to me?" Evan said, breathing hard.
Kyas looked at him wide-eyed. "You. Are. Amazing." He said, catching Evan off guard. "This pack is lucky to have someone as passionate as you to defend us and I'm sorry I made you feel less than that with my actions." He placed his hand on Evan's shoulder. "You didn't deserve that."
Everyone held their breath to see what Evan would do. He suddenly pulled Kyas into a hug and said "Thanks, Kyas, I needed that."
Kyas hugged him back. "I know you did Evan. I won't ever do that to you again." Kyas said.
And then people started coming forward. Each one talked to Kyas, and each one got an individual, special apology. He knew them. He knew what each one wanted or needed from him. He addressed them by name. He faked nothing, he didn't rush a single one. You could even tell that some of them had had deeper contact with him, through the pack link, because his expression changed slightly when he saw them, his voice slightly more confident. It was so subtle though, you had to be watching him to see it.
This was Kyas in his element. He was amazing to watch. This was the lifeblood of what Kyas was, his passion. I am so proud of him.
For me, the best part was touch. He needed it. I now knew that Kyas had rarely ever experienced positive touching, outside my room with Ruby and me. A hand on the arm, a pat on the back, a friendly bump on the shoulder, a high five, a fist bump. But he GAVE those types of touches. Exactly how they needed it, to make them at ease. Kyas, the invisible boy trapped in his wolf, made them feel seen and heard. And they were returning that to him.
Soon, the last apology was made, but people didn't leave. With an ease as smooth as silk, conversation moved on to other things. Kyas asked about the results of chores, after people's children, pets, hobbies. I just couldn't stop watching it all, Kyas was PART of the pack, and loved every second.
Someone said something to him and he belted out a laugh and then glanced at me watching him. He grinned big and wide - Alive - and spread his arms wide like he did in my office. I smiled back. Pack bonds, he was forging his own with them.
He then turned his attention back to the speaker. After a while, they convinced him to walk with them. I took Ruby's hand, looked around for Elias, but didn't see him, and headed back to the packhouse.
Kyas
I…have fallen in love. Completely, wholeheartedly, fiercely - with my Wolfpack. And with that, came a new feeling, a shift in my sense of self that fully connected with them. A determination and conviction that I had never felt before on such an intense level. I knew it then, I would do anything for them.
I never knew how awesome it would be to walk in the middle of my pack, the one with all the relationships I had seen forged and fell in love with over the ghost years. I mean, the connection through the mind links had been - are - great, but... they see me. I couldn't get enough.
As the night wore on though, people became tired and sought out their beds, so I returned to the packhouse. I headed up to Elias' room to return his shoes. His voice from a dark corner startled me.
"Where's my apology?" He said.
Something... odd happened. I felt a strange emotion that I struggled to place.
"What apology? Elias, that was your promise, the one I made for you and kept, that I just spent my whole night apologizing for." I reminded him.
"How about not knocking when you come into MY room? How about not asking to wear MY clothes. You seem to just love using MY things." He said.
The feeling got more intense.
"Elias... you know I don't have my own room or clothes here, we've both spent five years pretending I don't exist." I said.
"Well, you've got a Ton of new friends, now, go take stuff from them. You can't have my things anymore. Stay out of my room and keep your hands off my stuff. I'm tired of you taking what's mine." He sneered.
Another notch up, and I finally placed the emotion. Anger. I'm angry. At Elias. I also realized he wasn't talking about his room or his clothes. He was talking about Papa.
I spoke without thinking.
"You know, someone should have taught you how to share your toys, and how to recognize what things belong to you and what doesn't. I haven't taken a thing from you, which you would know if you answered a damn pack link once in a while. You'll get your precious clothes back tomorrow." I told him.
I shoved the shoes into his chest, pushing him back a step. "And here's your shoes. I'm sorry I didn't realize how jealous you were over your things. It won't happen again." I said.
I stormed out of his room, slamming the door, and headed for Papa's office. The feeling hadn't stopped, I was still angry. I let it rage a bit.
Alpha Carlisle
I had decided to go to my office and wait for Kyas. Ask him how he felt and get a measure on if he was making progress on what the counsel and I were hoping this type of interaction with the pack would do.
I was startled to hear a door slam somewhere upstairs. Not long after, the air seemed to shift a bit, becoming heavier, like when a storm is coming, and then it walked right into my office. I was shocked - it was Kyas.
He stormed over to my desk, placed both hands on it and glared at me. He was barely controlled lightning in a bottle.
"I need my own room." He said. "And apparently my own everything else."
I got up and walked around my desk.
"Ok, we can talk about that, but first, you need to calm down." I said.
"I don't know how." He said. "I've never felt like this before."
"Alright, first try your wolf, sometimes they can help." I said.
"Chaos did what he said. He went to sleep and blocked everything. " He told me.
"Okay, then let's take some deep breaths, and count slowly to ten." I offered.
He did but then shook his head. "It's not working, Papa, I keep thinking about what made me angry and get angry all over again." He said.
"Ok, then let's try distraction. Think of something else. Something that makes you happy. Think about the pack bonds you made tonight." I tried.
That worked. I watched the tension bleed out of him, and pulled him into a hug. He hugged me back, but didn't cry. "There you go, son, keep thinking about that until you can tell me what happened without getting angry again. When you can, step back, but until then, I'm going to keep you here, ok?"
He nodded against my upper chest. Goddess, when did he get so tall? I waited while his breathing and heartbeat went from slow to fast numerous times before he gave a big sigh and settled. After another minute or so, he stepped back.
"Better?" I asked.
"Yeah." He said. "Papa, I've never been that mad, never at all! I wanted to hit something...someone."
"Why didn't you? I asked, leading him.
"Because I also didn't want to, and the part that didn't want to was stronger than the one that did." He said.
"Kyas, you might find yourself mad again, frankly, I hope you do, because it takes practice to control anger, and it's important to learn. Just remember that if the part that wants to hurt someone is ever stronger, you can't let it outweigh reason, and do something you can't take back. Walk away, shift and take a run, hit a pillow, anything else. Anger can change one of those beautiful bonds you have to something ugly." I advised him.
He nodded. "Like with Elias."
It wasn't a question. "Can you tell me what happened?"
He told me about the issue in Elias' room, and I took a moment to think before I responded.
My first thought was to march up to Elias myself and pound some sense into the pup, but that... would probably do more harm than good.
My next thought was that this situation may actually be helpful. Kyas felt that Elias was being unfair, which he was, but for the first time, it actually EFFECTED Kyas. It touched him in a way no other injustice he has suffered ever had.
I made my decision.
"I think I want to help you with Elias, but I don't think I should. If Elias is feeling jealous over me, then my interception would make that worse, not better. I have to let you and Elias work this out on your own." I said.
"But, this one's different. I'm not sure what to do with it." He said.
"Of course it is, it's your brother and it's intense and its also unjustified, but that's another reason that it's important for you to handle it. So you can learn what to do if it happens again." I told him.
"Okay. " He said quietly.
"However, there is a way I can help. I can get you your own room and clothes. You can have the one on the other side of mine, where your Mama used to sleep. We can put some things in there to make Chaos comfortable too." I said.
"Really?" He said, getting excited.
"Yeah, and besides. It'll give me a better place to ground Chaos to besides my office." I laughed.
He chuckled too, and then his time was up, and he shifted.
"A thunderstorm raining cactus, huh? You weren't kidding." I told Chaos.
'Why do I feel like I missed something important?' He asked.