ADYEN

     "It's freezing out here."

     "Well, it is an ice castle," I said, making Len stop in his tracks. He turned his head, grinning at me before sharply looking away. I hadn't checked the weather when I had booked tickets, and I hadn't considered what walking around an ice palace for three hours would be like under minus twelve degrees.

     Despite Len's complaints he seemed to be taking it well and was moving about and staring at sculptures. We were both wearing thick pants, socks, and a rarity—gloves, scarves, and hats.

A grin made its way to my face as I followed Len around. He kept stopping and taking pictures. Maybe he was going to print them? I noticed he did that a lot, judging from all the posters on his wall.

You should tell him soon. A voice echoed in my head, and I licked my lips, blinking back the flakes of snow that had gotten on my eyelashes. I was going to tell him.

Sooner or later...

I had been telling myself that for half a day, starting from when Len and I met up at the bus stop, to when we ate fish and chips before heading out to the ice castles. I would open my mouth to start a conversation in that direction, but Len would say something that would make it bad timing, or I would stall so much that I pushed it to the back of my mind for later.

     "Do you want to go on the slide?" Len asked, bringing me out of my thoughts. I stared at him, not saying anything as I walked up until I was standing right beside him. Some LED lights were installed behind the ice structure, so it flashed purple, green, and blue.

     "Pretty, isn't it?" Len muttered, edging close to me so that our arms were rubbing.

     "Y-yeah," I managed, even though my heart rate had gone up, and the insides of my stomach were in knots.

     We stood in silence for a while, looking at the blinking LED lights as the voices of other people at punt invaded our space. Len let out a sigh, but I didn't look up to meet his eyes until he nudged me with his elbow.

     "What?" I asked, confused as to why he had such a stern look on his face.

     "I just—" he started, pausing before letting out another sigh. "I just thought about us, is all."

     I raised a confused brow. "Us."

     Len shrugged, looking down at the floor. "We're dating, right?" he mumbled under his breath.

     My face warmed up, and so did my chest. "Y-yeah." I licked my ice-dry lips. "Didn't you think we were before?"

      Len adjusted the black winter hat on his head. "Well, we talked about being mates and going slow, but we never directly talked about, you know..." He stopped there, giving me a look that said I should know what he was talking about.

     All he had said was true. We did just talk about testing the waters and taking things slow. "Yeah," I finally said after the extended pause.

     We both stood in silence for a bit, and I felt that Len was deep in thought just like me. I was having a hard time finding my words, but it was a needed conversation.

     I glanced at Len from the side of my eyes, noting how my heart did that annoying skipping. I wanted to be closer to him—kiss him, all that stuff, but instead, I reached out my gloved hands for his, squeezing them as he looked on at me in confusion.

     "We're boyfriends," I stated. They were just words, but they lifted a weight from my shoulders. "We're together and we're serious..." I was more speaking into the future on those points, but Len seemed to understand. He grinned at me, looking from side to side before stealing a quick kiss.

     "Thanks," he muttered when he took his lips for mine. I raised a brow, not quite sure what he was thanking me for.

     "I've been wanting to talk to my family back home about us, but I didn't want to do that when I wasn't sure."

     My mouth went dry for a bit. The mention of family reminded me about what I had wanted to tell Len, but I had gotten caught up in making things between us official.

     "Oh." It wasn't the greatest response, but it was the only word my head could come up with to fill the void.

     Len's eyes narrowed at me. "Is something wrong?"

     "No." I shook my head. "I just remembered that I wanted to tell you something, is all," I mumbled, not being able to meet his eyes.

     "What?" he asked, reaching out to cup my chin before making me look up at him. "Is it something bad?"

     I sucked on my teeth, shrugging. "I guess it's how you interpret it?"

     There was a pause, and then Len hummed, taking his hand off my face before moving to grab my shoulder. "Let's find somewhere private," he whispered into my ear as he squeezed my hand. I nodded, letting him tug me along—we walked for a few minutes before getting to the bleachers for the ice rink just outside the ice palace grounds. There were a few people who walked in to get their stuff or change, but apart from that we were alone in the small building with stone floors stained with muddy snow dragged in by shoes.

     "You can tell me anytime now..." Len trailed, pointing to the fact that we had been sitting on the wobbly bench for over fifteen minutes. I chuckled—it was a nervous laugh, filled with panic. I wasn't even sure what I was worried about. Maybe I was a tad frightened about Len being mad that I hadn't told him sooner. Him worrying about my safety since Naylan hadn't made the best first impression? Whatever it was, it gave me a sick feeling in my stomach, and I hated it.

     "Anytime now," Len said, reaching out to grab my hand before settling out joined hands on his left knee. "I'm a bit worried about how you're acting," he added, rubbing his thumb over my knuckles. We had taken off our scarves and gloves when we got into the heated building. They were sitting beside Len on the bench as if they were also an audience to what I had to say.

     "You know, the werewolf you saw me with..." I started to mumble, rubbing my fingers through my curls. "He's my brother."

     "What—?" His voice seemed to hang in the air, and I swallowed the spit in my mouth, maintaining eye contact with him. Len was frowning, but he didn't look angry, more confused.

     "How would you know that? You can't sense human bonds like other wolves."

     "The memory thing you told me was probably just my body trying to remember stuff from a past life. Apparently, it's just a plain memory..." I trailed, remembering that I hadn't told him what I had been dreaming about, and only that I had dreams. "He said my name right, I spoke to my mother, and I'm thinking of going out of the province to meet her soon—probably in the summer." The words were pouring out of me now, and Len just looked at me without saying anything for a while.

     The silence was starting to get to me, so I started to ramble. "I don't know, maybe you're right and they're just both trying to kidnap me—"

     "Adyen, it's okay." Len sounded so sure of that, but the look on his face told a different story. "I think... I think we can figure things out together. I'll follow you—try and keep you safe even though he's an alpha and I'll probably not be able to do much..." he trailed off, frowning at something in the distance.

     "You said he's your brother?"

     I nodded, holding my face. "Yeah."

     "You don't look alike."

     "Different dads," I said, shrugging. It was still weird getting to learn about my family through Naylan. It almost felt like I was listening to someone tell me a story of myself. It was a weird feeling—having someone know more about your background than you.

      "Alright, can I meet him then?" Len asked, and I nodded. Naylan had been wanting to see my mate up close. He had also apologized for staring back at the pizza place, he was just shocked to have sensed me and my mate there.

     "Adyen," Len started, squeezing my hand.

     "Hmm?"

     "Let's promise to tell each other everything from now on."

     I nodded, not saying a word. If we were going to make our future work, we had to rely on each other.

     "Do you want to tell Georgiou and Leigh about your brother, or do you want to hold that off?" Len asked.

     "Hold it off," I said, nibbling on my thumbnail as I stared at the wet floor. "After you talk to him and we figure things out."

     "That makes sense," Len said, humming. I stared at his profile, raising a brow when a small smile broke on his lips.

     "Are you doing anything for summer break? Are you taking classes?" he asked me.

     "No," I said. "Why?"

     Len's expression shifted a bit. He looked shyer. "Well, I'm going home for the summer break. Do you want to go to Alberta with me?" he asked, and I sucked on my teeth.

     Gosh, I wanted to. Looking at Len's notes and hearing him talk about his family had me curious.

      "Train tickets are expensive..." I trailed, letting out a small sigh. I wanted to go. I can't express how much... but I wanted to put it out in the open that I didn't think I could afford it.

     "I could pay for us both if I have Georgiou give me money for working about a bit," Len said, smiling. "Gosh, I'm already thinking about how fun it would be. The food. I get to run around in my wolf form and ditch this dumb meat suit. Hey, do you like horse riding?"

      I just smiled, listening to him ramble on about home. There wasn't that tinge of jealousy I often felt when people talked about their parents back in high school. Rather, I felt that I could relate to him. Len, Naylan, my mum, Leigh—I did have a family now, and I was grateful.