Chapter 39

There was something warm in Lay’s bed and it had its arms wrapped around him. Slowly he came to his senses and recognised his alpha’s scent. He shifted and blinked in the pale morning sun. Kris’s nose nuzzled against his hair and he gave a content sigh.

“Kris?” His voice was thick with sleep.

Blearily the leader came awake. “Hey,” he said roughly.

Lay couldn’t think of anything to say. Last night he had caused so much trouble and Kris had been so mad. He had let Lay go to bed hungry and only let him out once to use the bathroom before they all went to bed. Lay had been alone in his room then and had assumed Kris would sleep elsewhere. He definitely hadn’t expected to wake up to morning snuggles.

Gentle fingers traced the bare skin of his arm. “You’ve caused so much trouble,” said Kris softly.

Lay swallowed. “I know.”

“I thought out of everyone I could trust you the most.”

“You can,” Lay insisted desperately. Kris looked down at him with an unreadable expression.

“You lied to all of us and broke my rules, as well as Suho’s.”

Lay closed his eyes. He didn’t need reminding of what he had done wrong.

“Do you really love him?”

He swallowed and nodded. Kris sighed.

“I understand that,” he said. “I’m not angry you’re in love, I just wish you had gone about it differently.”

“I know,” Lay whispered, “but we were scared how everyone would react.”

“Well, you got your answer.” He kissed Lay’s head to take some of the anger out of his words.

“What’s going to happen now?” Lay dared to ask.

“I have to punish you,” Kris said after a pause.

Lay already knew that so he said nothing.

“And I haven’t decided about Sehun. I’ll have to talk to Suho.”

“You will?” Lay twisted to look up at him. He knew he shouldn’t get his hopes up but his heart beat a little faster at the idea that he might not have totally lost him.

“Stay here today,” ordered Kris, getting up. “I don’t need you going into school and seeing anyone from their pack today.”

Lay understood. At least he didn’t have to put up with schoolwork on top of everything else that was going on. He didn’t want to face everyone else’s curious stares though so he decided to stay in bed until everyone else had gone out. While he waited he reached for his phone, hoping that Sehun had finally replied to him but there was nothing new. Sighing, he slumped back down in his bed.

“Hi!” Luhan wrapped his arms around Xiumin as soon as he saw him. They had already had to sit through a very awkward first lesson with Kris, pretending they weren’t texting back and forth and constantly stealing glances at each other. Finally Luhan had escaped his alpha, saying he needed a book from the library, and now here he was with Xiumin.

“How are things at your place?” he asked.

“Tense. Sehun isn’t in school today and Suho’s still really pissed at him.”

“Is everyone else mad too?”

“More shocked, really. Kai’s mad but I think it’s mostly because Sehun didn’t tell him. They’re so close.”

Luhan sighed and leant down to rest his head on his partner’s shoulder. Xiumin held him gently.

“Will Suho make him leave?”

“I hope not.” Xiumin was quiet for a little while before saying, “He’s really protective of Sehun. He doesn’t want him to get hurt.”

“Then he should be happy he’s with Lay. He’s like, the gentlest, kindest person ever.”

Xiumin smiled and made Luhan lift his head so he could kiss him. “How’s your pack doing?”

“Shocked but we’re holding it together. Kris has been surprisingly calm about it today. Chen talked to him, I guess. He has a way of calming him down.”

With a heavy sigh, Xiumin approached the question they had both been avoiding. “What do we tell them about us? They’re only going to be more angry the longer we leave it.”

Luhan looked down. “I know,” he said softly, “but maybe we should let them deal with this stuff first. I don’t want either of our packs to fall apart.”

Nodding, Xiumin agreed. For now they would go back to keeping quiet and make sure they were doubly careful about meeting up. Once they knew how their alphas were going to deal with the situation then they could make their next move.

Immediately after school, Kris decided to go and see Suho. They needed to talk this out and he wasn’t about to have all the blame be put on Lay. He reached the top of the stairs and paused. Chen had already beaten him there and was standing with Suho at the door to the Exo dorm.

“Just, please,” Chen was saying, “it’s really not that bad.”

“They broke my rules and Kris’s, Chen.”

“But they’re in love.”

“That doesn’t matter. They didn’t need to sneak around behind our backs and lie to everyone.”

“Sometimes people don’t know how to talk about things like that because they’re scared of how other people will react.”

“Is that why you never told Kris what we were doing?”

Chen’s mouth fell open and he stuttered, “Th-that’s not the same.”

“Did you tell him?”

“No but-“

“Why not?”

“You know why. I just wanted to know what I was doing for him.”

“You could have asked him to teach you.”

“Asked me what?”

Chen almost jumped a mile when Kris finally made his presence felt and he instantly knew from the look on his face that he wasn’t happy. He reached for his hand but found himself shaken off. Kris’s expression was cold, closed off.

“What have you been doing behind my back exactly?”

Sorry this part is so short but it's getting late and I need sleep 9and hopefully some nice Exo dreams)

Let me know if you like it xoxo