calm and happy, like you have no issues and you just want to play, I warned him. Otherwise, he will shut down again. Pixie, he freaked out for some reason when I suggested you come. Can you stay shifted and hold the link?
“That’s fine,” I soothed. “We can just sit here.” I picked up one of the crayons, doodling on the paper. I kept my voice to a whisper, not wanting to distract the other pups. “I was never very good at coloring. Reading, sure, but art?” I snorted and shook my head as I drew a lousy stick figure type of wolf. “Nah, not my thing.” Owein’s eyes tracked my drawing, and the corner of his lips twitched even as another teardrop fell down his cheek. I glanced over at the movie as a song came on that the kids sang along with, pretending I didn’t see the tear. “Huh, I haven’t seen this one. Pretty good.”
There in five, Zev assured me.
Poor pup, Pixie whispered. Find out what’s wrong, Chann. I know you can. Her faith in me had me nearly glowing. I was so new to being omega, and yet she never let me falter, never expected I would fail in taking care of our pack.
The other kids are playing movie theater, eating snacks and watching something. Come in and steal their snacks or something. I gave him the heads-up, even as I focused on Owein. Don’t alert the guards either.
Hesitant, he picked up a crayon as well when I failed at making yet another wolf and began to swirl it around the paper. He was simply doodling, but I didn’t bother pointing it out as I hummed along to the song behind us now. I moved on from drawing wolves to drawing flowers and sighed as I failed as mightily at that as I did the wolves. “Yep, still can’t draw. You’d think that would change as a guy got older. Goes to show, you’re in line for omega, but you still can’t get art skills.” I shook my head dramatically as I watched him draw a pretty decent flower. “Hey now, that’s good,” I told him with a smile. “You’ve got some talent there.”
He shrugged, his face pinching up slightly, but I turned my eyes back to my own paper, leaving him to his own drawing as I heard the door open. Owein froze as Zev slipped inside. “Dang, you guys started a movie without me!”
“Shhh! It’s a theater!” Bella hissed at him. Zev made a show of tiptoeing over to her and taking a handful of candy from one of the bowls.
“Oh, awesome.” He didn’t even look in our direction, flopping down on his stomach and stealing the whole bowl of chocolate chips as the pups squealed and tugged on it while he sang along to the song that was on.
I winced, shaking my head. “Sorry he’s so loud,” I whispered.
“What?” Owein inquired, leaning in as the squeals got louder when Zev refused to release the chocolate.
I waved at him. “He always steals the candy.” Owein tugged on his ear, and I put a finger to my lips, waving conspiratorially for him to follow me.
“Sorry, is this better?” I asked when we were farther away. Owein eyed the distance, as if judging whether or not Zev would be able to hear us, and shrugged. I pointed to Zelda’s sitting room, and he slipped inside, blowing out a breath as he climbed onto the rocking chair before wrapping his arms around his legs. “Sorry we had to stop coloring.”
“’S okay,” Owein mumbled, pressing his face against his legs.
“Your stomach still hurt?” I questioned, settling onto the floor at his feet, knowing he’d feel better being higher up than I was. He tugged at his ear again, but kept his face pressed to his knees. “Owein, I meant what I said before. It’s my job to help you, but I can’t do that when you hide from me. If someone hurt you, I need you to tell me, pup.”
Sobs shook his body as he curled tighter in on himself, and my wolf pushed against my skin, wanting out to comfort the little boy, but I didn’t want to scare him further by touching him if that wasn’t what he wanted. “I’m bad,” he sobbed, rocking back and forth, the chair creaking with every move.
“Owein, no. Pup, come here.” I held my arms open, and I could see the debate running across his face when he lifted it