The Alpha's Beta [BXB]

THE DRIVE FROM THE AIRPORT WAS DEFINETLY A NOSTALGIC ONE. Keanu hadn't got one of wink of sleep on the flight, so collapsing into the back of his sister's beat-up Toyota was a heaven-sent notion. It was then all too easy to fall asleep, lulled into the state by the warmth of the leather seat behind him and the white chatter of the radio. Keanu wasn't asleep, though, not really. He was just lucid enough to register the all-enveloping warmth holding him in, keeping him safe and the dappled light that flickered behind his close eyelids. The drive was indeed nostalgic in the way that Keanu could remember himself napping just like this, though years earlier, when he was still young and visiting their extended family in the Caribbean during the holidays. They would return to Crescent Point with his sister also sleeping peacefully beside him, bony collarbones knocking together whenever they went over a harsh speed-bump, causing them to wake up again- to the annoyance of their mother. Now, Keanu was seventeen, returning from not a two-week holiday in the Caribbean but a four-year stay in the finest treatment centre for werewolf genetic disorders the world has to offer, curtesy of the Alpha family. Being in the Moonee Crescent pack- one of the most established packs with ties to law and health, as well as being the childhood friend of the soon-to-be-crowned new Alpha certainly had its perks. But that didn't change the fact he would no longer become Beta- though Keanu's illness had been subdued with all of his treatment, he was still far weaker than the others. It didn't help that an Alpha and Beta had to have connection like no other, something that was formed through many years of kinship, the earlier teenage years being the most crucial… something Keanu wasn't there for. Arthur was Keanu's first everything- the first kid to approach him in that damn sandbox, his first friend, his first- Keanu felt his face burn- well, maybe he didn't want to go into that… The all-too present butterflies in his stomach kicked up a fuss at just the thought of it- very far away in a sheet-covered corner of his mind, there was a softly lined box, one that was filled with those memories- a damp, woody smell and eyes like clear skies, lips like tangerines and the crunch of redberries being eaten. Everything suddenly felt too hot, and Keanu shifted in his seat until his forehead was pressed up against cool of the glass. The point was, Arthur held a special place in Keanu's heart- don't dare ask where- and he would serve under him at any given moment if asked. The problem was, Arthur probably didn't even remember him- let alone how close they were or what they use to do- and there, he was spiralling again. Fan-f*****g-tastic. The whole metal body of the car rumbled under his feet, the only warning he got before the engine fizzled out. "We're here!" Leah announced in a far-too obnoxious manner for nine in the morning and Keanu barely could bring himself to stifle the groan that slipped out. Fan-f*****g-tastic.