Brody saw them from across the gardens. He walked quickly through the tree’s and around the people who were scattered throughout the grassy area, probably celebrating the end of exams with their friends like Brody had planned to. The sun shone bright from above them, Brody was thankful for his choice of shorts and a shirt today instead of his usual jeans. The very slight breeze ran through Brody’s hair as he strode towards his friends.

Kayden looked up from the table, seeing Brody walking over to them. He sent Brody a wave, which he gladly returned.

Brody was glad for Kayden’s friendship in the recent weeks, the four of them had spent practically every day together, and Brody didn’t even want to think about how much he knew that he would miss Kayden and Lucy when they had to leave the camp.

Nate must have seen the action as he turned around from the picnic table, sending Brody one of those all too perfect smiles that warmed Brody’s heart.

‘How was your last exam?’ Lucy called out when he was close enough.

‘He probably got one hundred and ten percent,’ Nate smiled affectionately.

‘Shut up, you’re just jealous of me,’ Brody laughed, sitting down next to Nate. They both turned to look at Kayden and Lucy who were sitting on the other side of the picnic table.

‘Do you guys want to come back to my room after this?’ Lucy asked, ‘I’ve invited some of my friends to come play poker, it’s sure to be a great time,’ she smiled.

‘Strip poker?’ Kayden offered hopefully, but Lucy just laughed.

‘Yeah, you wish,’ she laughed, flicking her hair off of her shoulder. ‘What do you two say, are you up for it?’

Brody shook his head, ‘I have a lot of reading to do, and we only have another five days of camp,’ he told them. The small amount of time was looming over him.

Nate nudged his mate with his shoulder playfully, ‘Come on Brody, you’ve been reading in your free time for weeks. I’m sure you can take a few hours off.’

Brody knew that it was a harmless statement, but it hit him hard. Did Nate not understand how much this meant to him? Guilt hit Brody as he realised that maybe Nate didn’t understand because he didn’t know the whole truth, and that was Brody’s fault. Yet, even then, Brody had made it pretty clear that preparing to go back to his pack was really important to him.

‘No, I can’t,’ Brody shook his head again, this time with more resolve.

Kayden seemed confused, ‘It’s only one afternoon, why don’t you come for an hour or two?’

Brody huffed, ‘I’m going back to my room,’ he said as he stood up from the table. A voice in the back of his head told Brody that he was being insolent but he didn’t listen to it, too worked up. 

‘We were going to have lunch?’ Lucy reminded him.

‘I’m not hungry anymore,’ Brody told her simply.

In the corner of his eye he saw Nate had gathered his things to come with him, but Brody looked down at his mate, ‘I’ll see you later,’ he told him in a way that conveyed that it wasn’t a suggestion.

Nate looked up at him with a confused expression, ‘Can’t I come with you?’ he asked in surprise.

Brody understood his reaction, they had been joined at the hip for weeks, wherever one went, the other followed. Brody hadn’t ever asked for space from Nate, he had never needed it, but right now he felt as if being alone was all that he wanted.  

Brody shook his head, ‘I have stuff to do.’ He didn’t wait for Nate to reply, instead he turned on his heels and walked off towards the accommodation building.

He walked across one of the small roads and as his shoes hit the new terrain of the road a memory flashed back behind his eyes. It was a few weeks ago, the morning after everything had happened with Tye and Jace and he had been leaving the accommodation building when he saw them. Tye had tape over the bridge of his nose and the both of them looked at Brody with evil expressions as they were getting into a dark town car. Brody couldn’t contain his relief when he watched the high gates open for the car and it disappeared behind the wall, those two never to return to this camp.

He was pulled from his thoughts when he walked up to the door of the lobby and saw Lucas walking out of the same door. He didn’t really want to talk to anyone, but Lucas smiled at him and so Brody smiled back as best he could.

‘Good job in Wolf Combat the yesterday,’ Lucas smiled proudly at his mentor. ‘You did better than I expected.’

Brody had actually enjoyed the beginner’s combat class and had picked up quite a few skills, although he was nowhere near the skill level of Nate. 

‘Oh, wow, thanks for the compliment,’ Brody joked half-heartedly.

‘All good Professor,’ Lucas smirked, walking past him.

Brody kept walking, his feet just stepping onto the dark carpet of the lobby when his phone vibrated in the pocket of his dark shorts. His hand flew to the phone out of habit, and he opened up the message even though the idea of more communication with people sounded like an awful idea. He had things to do, books to read, things to learn.  

                Are you okay? I didn’t mean to upset you – Nate

Brody shoved the phone into his back pocket, getting into the elevator.

He knew that he overreacted, he knew that, but there was no time for poker games. This was one of the last chances that he would have to gain knowledge.  His pack house had a small library, but the books were short and old and the knowledge contained within their pages were limited to say the least. Here, he had the opportunity to reach out and find anything that would help him when he was to lead his pack. He had already created a plan for the pack’s restructuring to prevent rouge attacks, and a new training program for the young wolves in the pack. Brody felt much more prepared than he had when he had first arrived, but there were still pages to turn and notes to write, he hadn’t hit the finish line just yet.

The doors opened and he made his way to his room, shutting the door behind him. His room was a mess, between reading and spending time with Nate, he hadn’t had much time to clean. A pile of dirty clothing sat on the ground next to his bed, and Brody just kicked it to the side as he plopped himself down on the sheets of his bed.

On the other side of the bed, next to the wall, sat the pile of books which had gotten a lot smaller over the last few weeks. He had taken the ones that he had read already to the library and now only three books remained, two were of great contrast to the third. The first two were smaller, with pristine white pages that all lined up perfectly, the covers new and shiny. Beneath them was the book that he had gotten out weeks and weeks ago, but it had always sat on the bottom of the piles and he hoped that this library didn’t have some sort of late fee policy. It’s thick, work pages stuck out at different angles, some almost tattered, others in near alright condition.

He reached down and picked up the one on the top, hoping that it wouldn’t take him too long to get through the small amount of pages. He placed the book on the bed in front of him, opening the front cover to the first page.

The annoying sound of his phone ringing interrupted his thoughts and he groaned as he reached for it. He was expecting it to be one of his friends asking if he would reconsider coming to the poker game, or Nate calling to see if he could come over to his room, but instead, the caller ID said; Pack House in bolded letters.

He answered the phone quickly, his mind jumping to the worst, ‘Hello.’

‘Brody!’ his mother’s cheerful voice came through the phone and Brody breathed out a sigh. His mother wouldn’t sound like this if it was bad news.

‘Hi Mom,’ Brody smiled into the phone. ‘How is everything?’

‘Oh, fine honey, absolutely fine. You don’t need to worry about us, you hear?’ she told him, with just a little too much enthusiasm that made Brody worry just a tinge. His mother was the classic mother; she spent her days baking and making the pack house look perfect, and yet somehow she always found time for her family. She always had a level of energy that matched even the younger women in the pack even though she was in her mid-fifties. His parents had been one of the few to wait to have children.  

He missed her, he missed her a lot. 

‘Are you sure Mom? How’s Dad?’ Brody asked in a levelled voice.

‘Oh, you’re father is just fine,’ she assured him. ‘Now, are they feeding you enough over there?’ she asked. ‘I do hope that you are eating enough.’

Brody rolled his eyes fondly, ‘I eat constantly, I’ve gained thirty pounds in the last week alone. You’ll barley recognise me when I come home.’

His mother didn’t laugh, ‘Obesity is a serious issue in this county, young man.’

‘Sorry Ma,’ Brody tried to hide the smile from his tone.

‘Good.’

There was a silence that was far from awkward, and Brody wished to fill it with words of Nate. He wanted to tell his mother about his mate, about how much she would love him when she met him, but he didn’t. He couldn’t allow himself to tell her because that would bring his hopes up that they would be going back to his pack together sometime soon, and Brody had no idea what the future held for them, so he held his tongue.  

He decided to change the subject, ‘Can I talk to Dad?’ he asked. His mother had spoken to him every week since he had arrived at camp, but she always insisted his father was busy whenever he asked to hear from him.

‘Oh, Honey, your father is so busy with pack work right now,’ she told him.

Brody somehow didn’t believe her this time. ‘Mom, is he close to you? Can you just put him on for a moment?’ he pled.

There was a heavy silence before she spoke again, ‘Okay, I’ll put him on.’

He heard some rustling and the sound of his mother’s footsteps against the wooden floors of the pack house.

Brody waited patiently on the other end of the phone, his quiet breaths the only sound in the room. He wondered for a fear stricken moment why exactly his father had always seemed so busy with pack work when his mother called him.

‘Brody,’ his father greeted in his gruff voice.

‘Hi Dad,’ Brody sighed hearing his dad’s voice, knowing that he was okay. ‘How have you been? Have you been taking your meds? Have you been seeing your doctor?’

His father didn’t answer any of his questions. ‘Now, don’t you worry about me son,’ he said, but his voice sounded gruffer than the last time that they had talked, it sounded more strained with more of a wheeze in his words. ‘You just focus on-‘ his father coughed, ‘focus on having fun and doing the best you can at that camp. I know that,’ cough, ‘it would be hard to catch up, but if anyone could do it, you can.’

By the end of the sentence it seemed that the man had almost gotten out of breath.

Brody didn’t want to ask. He didn’t want to ask because he knew that the answer could be something that he didn’t want to hear. He really didn’t, but he did anyway because there was a part of him that had to know the answer. ‘Is it getting worse? Are you getting worse?’ he asked in a small voice, almost as if the words were too sinister and daunting to say out loud.

'Don’t you worry about your old man,’ his father replied. ‘I’ll give you back to your-‘ cough. ‘mother now.’

‘Okay Dad. I-I love you,’ Brody told him just as he had many times before, but there was an urgency to his words, an underlying feeling of worry that hung onto the phrase as if it could be the last time that his father got to hear it.

He heard rustling and soon enough his mother’s sweet voice came through the phone. ‘Sorry about your father, he’s just having a bad day. He usually sounds much better than that,’ she smiled through the phone, but Brody could tell from her voice that she was trying to cover up, that she was lying. He assumed that his father wasn’t just having a bad day, but that this had become his father’s normal and expected, and that was what his mother didn’t want him to know. He wanted to accuse her of lying. He wanted to tell her that he saw through the façade and he knew that it was getting worse, but he didn’t. She needed to believe what she was saying just as much as she wanted Brody to believe her.

‘I know Mom,’ he said. ‘I know.’

‘Okay, good,’ she replied with relief in her words. ‘Now, I’m sure you are very busy, so I’ll let you go. Have a good afternoon honey,’ she rushed and he wondered if she was holding back tears or if she was afraid that she would say something that would alert her son to the fact that things were not as peachy back home as she was trying to make him believe.  

‘Bye Mom,’ he said as he blinked back tears that were threatening to overflow. ‘I’ll see you soon.’

The phone went dead in his hand.

He just stared at it, unsure what to do now.

He took a few moments and pulled himself together, placing the phone down on the small bedside table next to him. He turned his attention back to the book, but he wasn’t really reading the words. He tried to, but he would read the start of the sentence and the end words would just turn into derailed trains of thoughts in his mind.

He looked up from his book when there was a knock on his door. He wiped stray tears from below his eyes as he got up and opened the door. He opened it slowly, not sure if he was ready to face whoever it was who stood on the other side of the wood.

‘Hey,’ Nate smiled widely. ‘I’m sorry about before- have you been crying?’

Brody shook his head, closing the door behind Nate as he walked into the room. Brody did reply in anything more than the head shake, instead opting to walk over to the bed and take his spot, Nate following and sitting in front of him, pushing the book out of his way carefully.

‘Yes you have. Was it something I said?’ Nate asked with worry practically dripping in his words. He leant forwards towards his boyfriend, as if being closer to him would give him an idea of what had been going on.

‘It’s nothing,’ Brody replied, leaning away slightly. ‘You didn’t do anything,’ he told him.

Nate just looked at him with a concerned expression, not saying anything. Brody could see that Nate wasn’t going to back down, so he looked down, hoping that by breaking eye contact he might stop the tears which were threatening to break the surface once again.

He then picked up the book from where Nate had slid it across the bed, reading from the second paragraph of the first page even though he didn’t remember one thing that was said in the first paragraph. It didn’t matter though, it wasn’t like he was really reading the second paragraph either, he was just looking at the words, his eyes following the swing of the letters on the page as a way to stop the gears in his mind from turning so quickly. Nate didn’t stop him from reading, he just sat with his legs tucked under him and watched his mate with a cautious expression.

Brody tried to read the words now, the feeling of Nate’s eyes on him becoming too much. He read a sentence or two but thoughts of his father came into his mind and tears dripped from his eyes onto the pristine pages of the hardcover book. He brushed his finger’s over the droplets, hoping that it would make them leave the pages, but it only spread the liquid more so that more of the page was marked. The page was being ruined, the pristine white pages that were filled with words were now marked by his tears, and seeing them there on the page just made more tears fall and land right near the others.

Brody fumed, why wouldn’t they just go away? How can he read with tears marking the pages?

He threw the book against the wall, the huge thud making Nate jump in his place, yet no word left his mouth. He felt guilt at the pit of his stomach for harming a book, but then a greater grief overcame him and he felt more tears leaving his eyes, the warm drops sliding down his cheeks. With no hardcover book to break their fall, the tears fell from his cheeks and onto the sheet below him, making darkened circles.

Nate opened his arms without a word leaving his lips and Brody practically flew into them, pressing his body up against his mate’s and hiding his tears in the dark fabric of Nate’s cotton shirt. Nate kept his arms close around Brody, one hand running soft fingers through his mate’s hair. The rhythmic pattern was the only thing that calmed Brody, slowing the tears little by little.  

Brody had been silent for a long time before he whispered out two words that broke his heart just as they left his lips, ‘He’s dying.’

Nate didn’t pull back or ask any questions, he just kept his fingers threaded in Brody’s hair until his mate pulled back himself.

Brody untangled himself from Nate, only pulling far enough away so that he could meet Nate’s gaze with puffy eyes. ‘My dad has lung cancer, he was practically fine when I left and he’s getting worse. Much worse,’ he told his mate in a broken voice. ‘Mom called and I asked to speak to him and he couldn’t even get out a whole sentence without coughing like he was dying,’ realisation hit his face, ‘and he is, he is dying.’

Nate stayed silent, his hand reaching down to squeeze Brody’s. Brody could see the mass of questions and worries held behind Nate's eyes but his mate didnt express them for the time being.

Brody continued, ‘That’s why I started camp in final year and not first, I had to because my dad doesn’t have that much time, and I have to take over if he dies,’ then the tears started again, just slowly at first, pooling under his eye and escaping in think stripes down the pale skin of his cheek. ‘When he dies. Not if, when.’

Brody expected Nate to be mad at him for keeping it a secret for so long, but instead Nate just pulled Brody closer and whispered; ‘I’m so sorry sweetheart, I’m so sorry,’ into his hair.

Brody let himself fall back into Nate’s hold and closed his eyes. Brody hadn't planned to tell Nate this until after camp, but the words had just left his mouth on their own accord. Brody didnt mind that he told Nate, in fact, as much as it hurt, it made him feel loved knowing that he could share his secrets with his mate.

Nate had never said such few words, and yet it was the best thing he could have done in Brody’s eyes.