~~~7. A Doctor For Feelings.

"Grandma! Grandpa!"

Remus propped the phone against a stack of files on the desk, grinning at the screen.

“Guess what! Dad's new office looks so cool! There's a big window and a soft chair and—" He gasped, leaning closer to the camera. "There's a candy jar!"

Elara's laugh crackled through the speaker. "Just one piece, sweetheart. Don't spoil your appetite."

"I know." Remus spun, showing off the room. "Grandpa, guess what else. There's a park right outside!"

"That's so cool to know," Riven said, his gruff old voice cracking.

"Enjoy!" Elara cut in. "You won't miss home too much."

Remus' expression dulled. "Can you visit us? I miss you guys already."

"Of course we will," Riven said gently. "Soon."

Remus perked back up almost instantly, the way only a child could. "Grandma, do you think Rowan would've liked the office too?"

The room went quiet for half a second too long.

Elara's smile didn't waver, but something moved behind her eyes. "I think he would have loved the candy jar most of all."

At the desk, Evren's hand stilled over a folder.

It has already been five years already and that name still landed in his chest like a stone dropped inside a well—a small, private ache Remus said so lightly, the way children mention things they've been told gently enough to hold without understanding the weight of them.

"Remus," Evren called, his voice carefully soft. "Say bye to Grandma and Grandpa. We need to get set up before my first appointment.”

"Bye! Love you!" Remus chirped, blowing a kiss before thrusting the phone toward his father.

Evren took it just long enough to catch Elara's voice—breathe, sweetheart—before ending the call. He sat there a moment with his hand flat on the desk, waiting for his pulse to settle.

“Dad, what’s wrong?” Remus asked gently.

But Evren just looked around the office and his gaze finally landed on the name on the desk.

*This isn't for me,* he reminded himself. *This is for my son.*

“Let’s get ready for today.” He smiled at Remus.

The child nodded.

Moonless rose to his feet, turning on the air conditioner. Just then, he caught his reflection in the mirror.

His blue eyes were shining, though with an insistent coldness. His short blond curly hair with a sharp fade on the edges. His pink lips drawn tight around his mouth.

This was an appearance—not a disguise—he’s learnt to appreciate six years ago when everything he had ended.

Even his posture had changed—Average broad shoulders and a bit chopped up from the leaner body he had.

Moonless used to make himself small. Evren had learned to take up exactly as much space as a room required and not an inch more.

It had taken years to build this face. He intended to keep it.

A smile played on his lips before he returned to his seat. Remus was lying on the sofa, watching an AI series on his tab at the highest volume.

Evren shook his head before he stared at the morning's schedule on the desk. He flipped the cover page and scanned it. Then he stopped at the sight of the second name.

Patient: Alpha King Brayden Draven.

Referred by: Dr. Ash, Royal Physician.

Transferred from: Dr. Agastya (previous therapist).

Session: Weekly ‹Mandated›

His pulse spiked hard enough that he had to set the folder down.

He had known this pack would put them in the same rooms eventually—that was part of his agenda for coming back after all. He just hadn't expected it to be the second name on his very first day.

He smoothed a hand down his shirt, checked the mirror one more time, and reminded himself, slower this time: *He won't know you. Nobody knows you. You made sure of that.*

“Dr. Melbourne?”

A female voice called out gently from the outside.

Evren caught her face from the glass through the door. He rose to his feet and bowed.

“Come in.”

He turned to his son quickly. "Remus, baby, go sit at the front desk for me, okay?"

“Okay, Daddy.”

"Stay in the reception. Don't wander."

"I won't!"

He had his session with his patient and she left. He called Remus in but there was no response.

"Remus?"

Nothing again.

He walked out of the room and checked under the desk, the hallway, the bathroom, his pulse climbing with every empty room.

"Has anyone seen my son? Small, dark hair, blue eyes, probably still holding a ball—"

The receptionist shook her head. Evren was already running down the stairs, heading for the front doors.

Outside, in the garden beyond the clinic, the ball rolled free of Remus' foot and bounced to a stop against a polished boot.

Gina's hand shot toward her hip on instinct.

Brayden lifted a hand, stopping her. "It's a child, Gina."

He crouched, picked up the ball, and studied the boy jogging over to retrieve it. Something about him tugged at his chest, immediate and unexplainable.

"This yours?"

"Yeah! Sorry, mister." Remus took it back, grinning without a trace of fear.

"It's fine." Brayden's eyes lingered on him. "Shouldn't you be in school?"

"Just moved here. With my dad." Remus pointed toward the clinic. "He's a doctor for feelings."

Something flickered across Brayden's face. He had never had a reason to smile at a stranger's child before, and yet here he was, almost doing it.

"REMUS!"

The voice cracked across the garden, sharp with panic.

Remus' whole body went stiff. "Uh oh. That's my dad." His hands flew to his mouth. “And he sounds so mad. I brought the ball with me when he had warned me not to bring it to the office.”

Across the garden, Brayden saw a man running with his curly blond hair catching the light, breathing ragged, eyes locked on the boy.

"Remus, oh goddess—" Evren dropped to his knees and pulled him in, his hands shaking as they checked him over. "You scared me half to death."

"Sorry, Dad. I was just playing."

Evren held him tighter with his eyes shut, breathing him in like proof he was still there, still whole, still his and for one second, everything else in the world, the garden, the clinic, the name on the schedule upstairs, all of it disappeared into the small, steady heartbeat against his chest.

"Your Dad was just worried, Remus.” Brayden said, watching them from where he now stood.

Remus nodded against Evren's shoulder.

Slowly, rising up to his feet, still holding his son, Evren turned around. And found himself looking straight into the same icy-gray eyes he had fallen away from at the edge of a cliff, six years ago.

Evren gasped slightly.

However, nothing in Brayden's expression changed. No recognition. No hesitation. Just a King, mildly curious about a stranger's son.

Evren didn't know whether to feel relief or grief that his own reflection had won so completely.

"Thank you," he managed, his voice perfectly level, unlike the man who used to be Moonless. "I'm so sorry about this."

"No harm done." Brayden's gaze held his a beat longer than necessary, some current passing beneath the surface that he couldn't name. "He's a good kid."

Evren's arms tightened around Remus.

"He is," he said quietly. "He's everything. To me."

Behind them, Gina cleared her throat. "Alpha. Your appointment."

Brayden's brow lifted slightly, glancing toward the clinic doors. "Right."

Then he turned back to Evren. “Your son said you work here now. Shall we?” He gestured towards the clinic.

Evren's stomach dropped.

The session hadn't even started, yet he already knew it was going to be the longest hour of his new life.

And he wouldn’t let Brayden go without a new scar, same as he had suffered for years.

And that tattoo on Brayden’s chest, to Evren, was proof enough—the same ink, the same shape, burned into his memory from the man who once called him his favorite experiment.

As far as Evren was concerned, the truth had already been written on his skin.

And Brayden would pay for the sin of letting him lose his other son—Remus’ twin, Rowan.