A plate of chicken, gravy, potato mash and peas sat in front of him, with a glass of water sitting by his hand.

He hated peas, but he hated Clark's choice of white wine even more.

Sol was already regretting his decision. All he wanted was a beer to wash out the horrid taste of the lumpy, green substance in his mouth, but what he got was a formal dinner with his best friend Clark and his family, as well as the Alpha and Luna of the Lupine Woodland pack, and a few of the other high ranked wolves in the pack.

What Sol hated even more than terrible food and fancy wine was being around wolves; being around his own people.

This dinner was turning out to be even more uncomfortable than he thought it would be, and it hadn't even started yet.

He kept his eyes low, his gaze trained on his plate as he waited for the sound of cutlery hitting the plate. The Alpha always took the first bite.

Sol used to wait for his father to take the first bite. Today, he waited for a different man, one that had been staring at him since he walked into the room with his Luna on his arm.

Alpha Jeroen and Luna Melanie were an elderly couple who had been mated for more than thirty years. They didn't have any children of their own and couldn't bring themselves to adopt any, knowing that they would never be strong enough to take over the pack.

He had learnt all of that information from Clark, not that he wanted to know anyway. But Sol was very good at listening.

Thankfully, Sol didn't have to wait long before the whole table erupted with the sound of wolves talking and cutlery hitting the plate as they tucked into their dinner.

The female wolf nipped at his ankle from her spot by his feet on the ground, silently demanding that he give her more chicken. This was the second time that she had demanded more food, and Sol wasn't going to leave her hungry just because they were in someone else's territory.

She licked his hand in gratitude before turning back to her own plate of the ground. Sol smirked, that chicken wouldn't last long.

Keeping his head down, he ate his chicken and potatoes, but avoided the peas.

It seemed that he would be over indulging in desert that night.

-

Sol was wrong.

He didn't over indulge in desert. It was carrot cake with an extra helping of carrots in the middle. He liked carrots, but he didn't like cakes. He never had. Cakes were always sweet and sugary. Sol preferred sour and bitter.

Lucky for him, the wolf by his feet was more than happy to finish his piece for him.

Though she probably regretted that decision when she found herself lying his side on the ground outside, belly up. Sol shook his head, but couldn't stop the smirk that his lips pulled up in when she whined, her paws resting on her bloated stomach.

His grin only grew in size until his face hurt from smiling so much as his little God son, Gideon, ran up to the wolf and planted himself right on top of her. She whined, but playfully nipped at him when he just giggled and tapped her nose in response.

A shadow loomed over Sol as he watched the interaction between Gideon and the wolf.

It wasn't long before Clark sat down next to him, watching his son and the wolf too.

When Gideon grabbed the wolf's cheeks and tugged, Clark chuckled aloud before he turned to look at his best friend. "I'm glad you came today."

Sol nodded his head. "I'm glad I came too." He admitted honestly. Even though the dinner was awkward and the Alpha kept on staring at him, it felt good to see Clark again. He was the only family he had left. And if that meant that he would have to occasionally deal with other werewolves, Sol would make the sacrifice time and time again.

He really did miss hanging around with Clark like they used to when they were younger.

He was just glad that nothing had changed between them over the years. Well, a few things had changed -the main being that their previous pack had been destroyed, Clark become Beta, found his mate and then became a father- but he was just glad that he still had his best friend to lean on when he needed him.

Sol playfully punched Clark on the shoulder. "Thanks for inviting me for dinner. It was great."

Clark chuckled and punched him back, harder. Not that Sol was hurt; he had Alpha blood pumping through his veins. "No, it wasn't. You hated it. I saw you cringed when you got your plate." Clark threw his head back and laughed, and Sol couldn't help but join in. "I forgot to tell the cook to make you some sweetcorn instead."

"Having to deal with peas one night a week isn't going to kill me."

"I hope not, or I'll be out of a best friend."

Silence engulfed them as they watched the little boy play with the wolf. It seemed that she liked children.

"I really appreciate you coming here." Clark began, tearing his eyes away from his son and to Sol. "I know it isn't easy for you."

Sol nodded, but didn't say anything further. He just eyed a piece of lint that sat on his jeans. He didn't make any move to get rid of it though.

"Have you thought about joining a pack?" Clark asked suddenly.

Sol looked up from the ground, eying his friend, not sure where the conversation was going. He didn't say anything, and Clark took that as an opportunity to carry on.

"You know you're always welcome to join this pack?"

"Where is this coming from?"

Clark avoided both the question and direct eye contact. "With your skills and fighting technique, you could start off as warrior. I'm sure you could easy be promoted to head warrior within a month. You could see where it goes form there."

"Clark." Sol called him, his voice strong and demanding, yet quiet. "Where is this coming from?" He asked again, this time his voice demanding. His Alpha voice seeped between his words, forcing Clark to answer the question.

Sol didn't like using his Alpha tone to get what he wanted, but sometimes he just couldn't help himself.

"You know how the Alpha doesn't have any children?" Clark asked, pausing. He carried on when Sol nodded his head in confirmation. "He's going to hold a competition in a few months where wolves would battle each other and take a set of tests to determine who would be the best fit for the role."

"He's looking for someone to take over his pack?" Sol asked, surprised that Alpha Jeroen was thinking about having wolves fight for the position. There would be a lot of contestants, that was for sure.

Clark nodded.

"And he wants me to enter the competition?"

Clark nodded again.

"He wants you to take over the pack." Clark informed him, his tone light but his words heavy. He knew how his best friend felt about being around wolves, especially after having carried around the grief of surviving the massacre of his pack at such a young age, but he couldn't help but agree with Alpha Jeroen.

Sol would be the perfect fit.

"That's why he was staring at me all throughout dinner." Things were starting to add up.

"Yeah," Clark affirmed. "He wanted to suss out your personality."

"My father used to do that with new wolves." Sol said without thinking, almost as if his mouth had a mind of his own. He froze, knowing that he wouldn't be able to take the words back once they were said.

But maybe that wasn't such a bad thing.

Clark didn't say anything, but watched his friend in fascination. Sol never talked about his family, and Clark just assumed that the memories were too painful.

Yet here he was, opening up.

"He would watch them for weeks, maybe even months depending on the wolf. Sometimes a person's table manners and usual demeanour speak more than words."

Clark nodded, but didn't say anything in fear that Sol would just shut down again. It had happened before, just after the pack was destroyed. Sol had helped him find a pack and once he ensured that him and the few remaining wolves had managed to survive, he had left.

Clark hadn't seen him for nearly two years after that.

He didn't want that to happen again.

When Sol didn't say anything further, Clark sighed. "What else did your dad do?" He probed further, hoping that for once, his best friend would open up to him.

It felt like they were making more progress in that one evening than they had over the past decade.

Sol stared off into the distance, a small smile on his face as he spoke. "He would be gone before I woke up to train with the pack, but he always made sure that he made it back to take me to school. He always had lunch at the pack house, but spent dinners at our house with mum and I. He'd take Saturday mornings off. He'd make us breakfast and we'd watch movies until we got bored."

"He was a great Alpha." Sol said finally.

"You are too."

"I'm not an Alpha." Sol denied, though his argument was weak.

Clark jerked his thumb towards the female wolf giving his son a ride on her back. "You took her in when she had nowhere else to go. That makes you a good Alpha."

"That makes me a person."

Clark shook his head. "You treated her wounds as if she was your own. As if she was a pack member."

Sol bit his tongue, not that he had anything to say in his favour. Clark was right. Perhaps this was his wolf's way of having his own pack, even if his conscience didn't realise it.

Silence passed between the men as they stared off into the distance, both of them lost in their own thoughts.

"I'm not ready yet." Sol whispered quietly. Clark nodded his head in understanding.

Sol thought that he would never be ready to be an Alpha, but he found himself thinking about it more than when he was the Alpha's son.

-

Layla Knight

23.10.17