Michael P.O.V

Charlie must've been exhausted, but at least he was somewhere safe and with his parents. Nothing bad could happen to him then.

I sigh and let my phone fall onto my chest. This was really going to be one hell of a week. At least Charlie was out of danger, that was one thing that I had going for me.

My dad never knocks. He never has and probably never will for as long as he lives. He just barges into my bedroom and stares at me as I lay in bed.

"Where's your human friend?" he asks, putting extra emphasis on the word friend.

I sit up onto the edge of my bed. My father's irritation only continued to radiate into the room.

"You mean my boyfriend, Charlie? He's with his parents," I correct him.

If he were a cartoon character, I'd swear steam would blow out of his ears. I couldn't tell what upset him more: dating a human, or dating a human boy.

"You're not going to be with a human, Michael. You're putting the entire pack in danger!" he growls.

"Everything was perfectly fine before James attacked him!" Now I was letting my emotions get the better of me. "James would've killed him. Then you'd have a dead human rotting in a fucking barn to try and explain. Did you ever think of that?"

My anger was enough to make my father back down, despite him being the alpha. I felt my own skin start to burn with rage.

"If you think James is anywhere close to capable of being a pack master, then by all means, disown me! Cast me out and say that you only have one son. I don't care." I stood before him now, matching my father's height and symbolically showing that we were on an even playing field. "But we both know you won't do that because you know that James is too selfish to take care of the pack. So get off your fucking high-horse and just accept the fact that I am in love with Charlie!"

It was then that my father did something that he had never done before when I gave him attitude. He actually seemed to grin, like he was proud. Though the grin was just barely visible, it meant something.

"Save that energy for battling your brother," he then warns, his small grin now gone as he turned and left my room.

As soon as he's gone, I let out a deep exhale. Subconsciously I had been holding my breath, expecting some sort of hit for the attitude I gave him. Instead, it seems he respected the fact that I would confront him directly. Or maybe he's just becoming aware of his age and realized it would be difficult to take on a much younger wolf. 

This is a start. This is me getting my foot in the door to being accepted. Now I need to turn my focus towards James and the upcoming full moon. It's less than one day away now and James still hasn't been found. Knowing my brother, he'll most likely show up at the last possible second in an attempt to get some sort of rise out of everyone.

I go to my window and shove my fingers through the blinds. The moon isn't hardly visible through the dense clouds, but I know by tomorrow night that it will be perfectly visible and ready to crown the new pack master.

The night is long and dead quiet. I can't take my mind off of Charlie. He's safe on a great vacation with his parents and yet I can't stop a gut feeling that he's still in danger. As foolish as it seems, I decide to check around Charlie's house. If anything were to be suspicious, I could try to fix it before Charlie got back.

To avoid waking my dad, I carefully step around the edges of the floorboards where they're less likely to creek and groan. Once I'm outside however, it's a completely different story. I climb into my pickup and turn the ignition, letting the engine roar to life.

The drive to Charlie's house is quiet. There's no traffic, since it's nearly four in the morning. Ten minutes of quiet later, I pull into Charlie's driveway. The porch light is on, which I find strange, but then again, it could've been left on by mistake or be on a timer.

I step out and walk up to the door. The living room is dark. That's a good sign. I start to walk around the property. I don't see any lights, until I get to the back of the house. I can see light coming from Charlie's window.

"What the hell?" I mumble to myself.

That couldn't be right. My brain began trying to find a reasonable explanation. Maybe Charlie just left his light on by accident when we left. No. He wouldn't do that. I couldn't leave it unchecked.

I walk back around to the front of the house. The front door is locked when I try to open it; that's a relief. Again, I walk around the side of the house. As I walk, I think about the back door. I couldn't remember seeing Charlie lock it. I walk up to the sliding-glass door and give a firm tug on the handle. To my surprise, it opens.

"Unbelievable," I grumble.

I step into the house quietly. I listen for a moment for any sign of movement. After a good minute, I pull the door closed. I head over to the staircase and carefully make my way up. Charlie's door was visible from the stairs and I could see a bit of light pouring from the gap where the bottom of the door met the floor. No one should be in there.

I reach the door and open it without hesitation and I'm shocked by what I see.

"Charlie!?"

He's sitting in bed with a book on his lap. Of course when I open the door, he jumps and tosses his book aside.

"Michael!" I can hear the surprise in his voice. "What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? I could ask you the same question." I stare him down.

Charlie better have a good fucking explanation for this one.