David stood in the middle of the clearing, a few feet away from the small cabin. Fire danced across his skin, jumping from hand to hand in a playful manner.

Kai sat at a wooden table behind him, reading a book, while slowly sipping his tea. It was the third day at casa de Kai and there was already such a huge improvement with his control and what he could do. On Friday night after Kai had left he had immediately texted his friends, Bryce and Naomi, letting them know that he was leaving the next day and wasn't sure when he would be back.

The next day had was woken up by a large blast so loud that he shot out of bed and tumbled to the floor. When his sleep induced mind registered the bits of colorful pieces of paper that were falling all around him, he looked up to see his friends with party hats on their heads singing happy birthday. Bryce held a large confetti cannon and Naomi, a stack of pancakes with lit candles on top.

Partick had also come over that morning and to his and his friends' surprise, had brought a birthday present for him.

He smiled, remembering Patrick's bashful demeanor as he handed him the gift and wished him a happy early birthday. David had gasped when he unwrapped it. It was a copy of a book that he had, had his eyes on for so long. "Oh my god! No way! H-how did you know?"

Patrick rubbed his neck, "I know how much you like to read and I remember hearing you mention wanting this book once or twice. I wasn't sure if you had already gotten your hands on a copy already, so I'm really glad you like it."

David bit his lip and looked up at the taller boy, his cheeks were dusted pink, "I love it. Thank you, Patrick" Patrick smiled at him which made David bite even harder into his lip to prevent himself from smiling like an idiot. "You're welcome. Happy early birthday, David."

When Partick had asked to trade phone numbers, David had miserably failed to play it cool. Either Patrick hadn't noticed or he just didn't comment on it; most likely the latter.

David had still been standing there, staring in the direction Patrick had left in, his phone clutched tightly to his chest. Bryce had shuffled closer to his side before nudging his side and began wiggling his eyebrows suggestively and with that David's blush returned ten folds, "Oh shut up!" he said pushing his laughing friend away from him.

"Focus David-" Kai's voice brought him back to the present, "-you're getting lost in thought. You're supposed to be focusing on the fire in your hands. I really don't want my home to go up in flames."

David rolled his eyes but did what he was told before speaking, "You and I both know that your house is fireproof."

He had learned that fact on the first day there during his lesson. He watched in bewilderment as the flames licked at the side of the cabin but it had refused to catch flame even though it was made of wood. "Are you purposely trying to set my home on fire?" Kai had asked with humor in his voice as he watched as David stood there unmoving, instead of trying to put the flames out.

"Yes, that may be, but it will still smell like smoke." Kai chuckled.

---

"Eight days. Eight fucking days! Where the hell is he?!"

James watched in concern as his best friend and leader paced back and forth in his office. He was a mess, but rightfully so. He had found out that the man, Kai, was Sebastian's mate the same day he had. "The patrol that's keeping watch still haven't heard or seen anything. The only thing we know is that he's not home."

Sebastian's wolf whimpered, hearing that they still had no clue where his mate was. It had been a little over a week since the last time they had seen Kai.

He had gotten over the initial shock of having another man as a mate. Whenever he had pictured his mate in the past he had always thought of a woman, but now it was like the female population didn't even exist. All he could think of was his green-eyed adonis. Kai.

When he had made it home he wanted to kick himself for not trying hard enough to get to know his mate, hell, he had hardly even talked to him! He had just gotten scolded like a pup and ran away with his tail tucked between his legs.

He went back every day this last week in hopes of talking to Kai or even getting just a glips of him, but it was like Kai had just vanished. Gone without a trace and no promise that he would ever return. That thought alone hurt more than he wanted to admit. He doesn't even know the man but he was already utterly and without a doubt, whipped.

"We can circle the perimeter of his house again, make sure that we didn't miss anything. Hopefully, we can catch on to a scent that may give us any clues to where he went."

A knock on the door halted their conversation. Not a minute after Sebastian gave the go-ahead to enter, his third, Myer, and an elderly woman, Harriet Green, walked into his office.

"Mrs. Green, how can I help you? Is everything alright?"

"Oh, yes Alpha, everything's fine."

Myer helped the elderly woman down into the empty chair right next to the beta and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Alpha, it's actually Mrs. Green who may be able to help you. I think you'll be surprised to hear what Mrs. Green just told me."

Everyone turned to look at the elderly woman, "Go ahead, Mrs. Green."

"Well, I was just in my way to take one of my cherry pies out to Kai. I had told him that I would the last time that I was over before Myer stopped me and told me to come into your office."

"What!?!" James yelled out.

"When did you go?" Sebastian said, ignoring his friend's outburst. He was now sitting at the edge of his seat, ready to beg this woman for all the information she held if needed.

"Well, a group of us have already gone over twice now. We went the day after you guys found his home to welcome him to the neighborhood sometime around hmmm.... six? And the second time was on Thursday."

"That's impossible." James couldn't believe it, "We've been over there every day ourselves. We have people stationed on every side of that cabin and they haven't seen anyone come in or out!"

"You had people watching the cabin and you didn't see us? That really doesn't make any sense. I guess that's the reason Myer was so persistent that I come to talk to you about this."

"What time did you go on Thursday?"

"We went right after breakfast, but we didn't stay long. Kai said that he had something to do. He told us that he wasn't sure how long he would be gone for but that he would most definitely be back by today."

"That's no-hey! Sebastian!"

Sebastian was already out the door. Obviously, he could see how the whole thing with his pack going over unseen, unscented, while he had people watching over the cabin was a mystery that he should have pondered with his beta, delta, and gamma, but all he could think about was that Kai was home and he needed to see him.