My friends always told me about how they dreamed of marvellous things - meeting their crush, winning the lottery, becoming a superhero, and visiting paradisal destinations.

When I dreamt, it was as if my brain just put the most random and wackiest of topics together, and made a highlight reel of them. Tonight, I had a dream that I was a pufferfish floating around in an ocean of Jello. For some reason, I was trying to complete a scavenger hunt, and random objects floated aimlessly around the green liquid. My friend's faces kept popping up out of nowhere, trying to talk to me.

"Bennett," a disembodied voice called out to me. I turned my head, trying to pinpoint the exact origin, but the words seemed to be coming from all around me.

"Yeah?" I called in response.

"Bennett, are you there?"

"Yeah, I'm here!"

It sounded a lot like my dad.

'BENNETT!'

I jolted awake from my dream, looking around me confusedly. Where was I? This definitely wasn't my room.

Looking over, I could see Frankie, who was curled up in a ball on his side. I had fallen asleep at the foot of his bed after spending the night with him. Sitting up, I rubbed my eyes and stretched out my limbs. Oddly enough, I had never felt so well-rested in my life.

'Ben? Are you there?'

I had been completely unaware of my father's attempts to contact me.

'Hey, dad. I'm here.'

'Where are you?' The Alpha demanded. 'Your bed is empty and you haven't been answering my calls all morning!'

I checked the clock, where it read 9:21.

'I know. I was just out checking on Frankie.'

'Just the person I have been meaning to ask you about. I need to speak with him.'

'Why?'

'Just bring him to my office, son,' he said seriously. 'Everything will be okay.'

My father disconnected from the mindlink, and for the next few moments, I sat in bed, contemplating. After a little while, I felt completely energized and pumped up to start a new day.

"Good morning!" I said happily, but he only made a small noise of protest and buried himself under the covers.

"We're going to see the Alpha soon. You have to get up."

"Iwannasleepfor5moreminutes."

"Yeah, but those 5 minutes never really turn out to be 5 minutes, though." I shook his shoulder impatiently. "Come on! My dad doesn't like to be kept waiting."

"Remind me to never let you stay over again."

I chuckled. "Don't worry, I'll be back. I'm always around. Anyway, Frankie, I'm serious, we have to get up. I'll even have the cooks prepare your favourite food, too. What do you want? Eggs? Bacon? Pancakes?"

"All I want is for you to leave me alone," he grumbled.

"That's not on the menu. Now, let's go! Morning! Sunshine! Up and at them!"

After a lot of groaning and complaining, I finally managed to drag the miserable werewolf out of bed and into the cafeteria. He wouldn't tell me his favourite food, so I took the liberty of requesting all of the most popular breakfast foods so he could have some selection.

As soon as we arrived at the cafeteria, his eyes widened at the selection. There was a waffle station, a crepe station, pancakes, toast, cereal, eggs - I had practically requested a luxury breakfast.

"Take whatever you want," I insisted as he looked around.

"What?"

"Anything you want. It's my treat for this morning."

"Why...why are you treating me out so much?" Frankie looked at me with a confused expression on his face.

"Just take the opportunity for free food, Frankie. Look, we've got freshly squeezed orange juice. Care to have some?"

Frankie reluctantly settled on a small piece of toast, scrambled eggs, and orange juice. Upon sitting at one of the tables, I tried to engage in some polite conversation with him, talking about the weather and evening mentioning my dream.

"Are you always this cheerful in the morning?"

"Yes, yes I am," I said proudly.

"Well, can you stop?"

"Afraid not. Now, eat up. How's the food? Do you like it? Is anything overcooked?"

Frankie only resorted to ignoring me, which didn't stop me from being upbeat. While I toned down on my pushiness, finally understanding that he didn't respond well to it, I did the talking for the both of us. I could tell he was secretly relieved to have my voice fill up the void of silence between us.

Shortly after we finished eating, we swung on over to my father's study. Not only was he there, but someone else was standing beside him.

"You're back," I looked at Nic, surprised to see him here. I thought he would be gone for the rest of the week. I opened my mouth to introduce Frankie to him, but Nic beat me to it.

"I see we have a guest with us," Nic stated kindly, but I could tell he was ready to go into Alpha mode if necessary. His voice was carefully controlled, with a facade of kindness. This was Nic's serious voice, so I knew he meant business.

"Yeah. Nic, this Frankie. He's...a rogue that we've temporarily taken in. Frankie, this is my older brother, Nic."

My brother only raised my eyebrows at me, as Frankie stayed rooted in the spot, his expression cold as ever. He didn't say anything about me describing him as a rogue, so I supposed he was finally owning up to the truth - he hadn't been associated with a pack when I first discovered him. Still, there was something fishy about his situation.

"How was your trip?" I asked, trying to diffuse the evident tension. "Was the meeting okay?"

"It went well. We discussed the geographical positioning and demographics of the biggest packs in Ontario and Quebec. There will be a few territorial changes here and there, but ours hasn't been affected."

"That's good," I said.

"So, from which pack are you originally?" Nic asked Frankie, who only twitched as the Alpha-to-be began grilling him with questions. I knew Frankie wasn't going to answer - I couldn't even get him to tell me what types of foods he liked, there was no way he was going to tell us which pack he came from, for some odd reason.

"I asked you a question," Nic repeated himself, but there was a threatening tone underneath his kindness. "Can I know which pack you're from?"

"Just a small, random one from a long time ago. I don't remember the name," Frankie muttered.

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

"Do you have any friends or family?"

"None," Frankie said, although I knew for a fact he was lying about that detail, as I remembered seeing the photo from his night table.

"Are you sure about that?" His voice was growing dangerously impatient, and I knew I was going to have to step in before Nic pushed him too far.

"Nic, it's okay, I've got everything under control," I intervened. "He's a bit on the quiet side, just give him some space and time, alright?"

'I got this. Trust me, I've tried to get him to open up. I'm working on it, but it's going to take time.' I mindlinked the second part to him separately, and he nodded, seemingly satisfied.

"Very well, I trust your word, then. Well, I hope you have a nice temporary stay here, Frankie. You two may leave."