Christian (bxb) (Part three for Arlo)

Restless minds

(Jaxon)

Ever since Christian told us he wanted to give us a chance, Shylo had been acting wild in my head. My wolf’s usually calm and collected, but lately, he couldn’t seem to relax.

Every little thing made him growl like he was on edge about something we hadn’t figured out yet.

I was used to Shylo being the voice of reason, but now he was just restless, pacing around in my mind like he couldn’t sit still. I tried to talk him down.

'What’s wrong with you? We’ve got this. No need to freak out.' But Shylo didn’t seem to care about what I was saying.

He was too busy stirring up worry, reminding me of all the things that could go wrong.

He kept bringing up every risk, every possible danger, like it was all about to crash down on us.

That wasn’t the way I saw it. Sure, Christian had given us a chance, but he had also opened up to us in a way that felt… like we could make something of this.

But I wasn’t going to ignore the fact that things weren’t going to be perfect right away.

The idea of Christian still not having his wolf weighed heavy on all of us, especially Greyson.

He was always the protector, always looking out for the pack, and Christian was vulnerable without his wolf. It was eating at him.

But even with that, he’d agreed to give Christian space, to let him figure things out on his own. That meant a lot.

Mason, always the calm one, had been the one to help balance the situation.

He had this way of knowing exactly what to say to make things feel manageable like there was always a solution, even when things felt uncertain.

But it still felt like we were walking a tightrope. And the last thing I wanted was for Christian to feel like we were pushing him into something he wasn’t ready for.

I looked at Greyson and Mason, my mind racing with what we could do next.

“We need to talk to Dad,” I said quietly, breaking the silence between us. Greyson turned his head toward me, his brow furrowed.

“You think Dad can help us?” Greyson asked, his voice low. I nodded.

“He’s been through enough, right? He’s dealt with struggles and seen the worst of it. Maybe he’ll have some advice on how to handle all this. And Father, too, I mean. He’s got his past with Dad, and we don’t want to repeat those mistakes.” Mason gave a small nod, understanding where I was coming from.

“Yeah. We need to make sure we’re not doing the same thing they did. We can’t go down that road.” Greyson’s jaw tightened like he wasn’t sure about it. I could see the hesitation in his eyes.

It wasn’t easy to admit that our fathers had been through things that weren’t always easy to talk about. But it was something we needed to do.

“We’ll talk to them,” Mason said.

“But we have to be careful. It’s not going to be easy.” Later that afternoon, we made our way to Dad and Father's room. I could feel the tension building with every step we took.

Neither of our dads had ever really sat us down and talked about their past—not in a way that helped us understand what they’d been through. We had our suspicions, but nothing concrete.

We knocked on the door, and Dad was the first to greet us. His face softened when he saw us, and he stepped aside to let us in.

“Boys, what’s going on?” Dad asked, his voice warm, but I could see the concern in his eyes. I glanced at Greyson, who had his arms crossed, his face serious.

“Dad, we need to talk to you about something,” Greyson said, his voice tight.

Dad raised an eyebrow but nodded for us to continue. Mason cleared his throat, glancing at me, then at our dad.

“We’ve been thinking a lot about what’s going on with Christian. And we think it’s time to ask about... well, about how things were between you and Father. We don’t want to make the same mistakes you two did.” There was a moment of silence before Dad’s face turned hard, a flash of something unreadable in his eyes.

He looked at each of us, thinking about whether he should say anything.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to start here, but I’m not going to let you cause trouble between me and your father.” Greyson opened his mouth to speak, but I raised a hand, stepping forward.

“We’re not trying to start anything. We’re trying to learn, Dad. We want to make sure we don’t screw this up with Christian.” There was a long pause, and then Dad sighed, rubbing a hand over his face.

“Look, I’m not going to sugarcoat it for you. Your father and I had our issues. But the thing is, we’ve worked through them. You boys are the product of that, and I’ll be damned if I let you fall into the same mistakes.” I took a deep breath, trying to understand what he was saying.

“So what do we do now? How do we make sure we don’t end up treating Christian the wrong way?” Dad looked at us, his eyes sharp, but there was a softness in them too.

“You need to let him be who he is. Don’t try to force him into anything. Let him figure himself out. And you need to support him, not smother him. Be there when he asks, but don’t push.” Mason nodded, taking in the words.

“And what about the rest? The stuff that’s harder to talk about?” Dad’s face hardened again.

“The only way to move forward is to confront your demons. You can’t bury them and hope they’ll stay gone. It won’t work that way.” The room was heavy with his words, and I felt the weight of them sink in.

I didn’t know if we’d ever be able to do everything right, but hearing Dad say that—hearing him acknowledge our need for guidance—it was a start.

“Thanks, Dad,” Greyson said quietly, his voice softer than usual.

Dad gave a small nod, turning to leave the room. But just before he disappeared around the corner, he stopped.

“And remember this: You can’t control everything. You’ll mess up. Just own it when you do, and keep moving forward. That’s all you can do.” I exhaled, feeling a little lighter after that. But there was still a lot left to figure out. Mason put a hand on my shoulder.

“Let’s talk to Father,” He suggested.

We walked over to Father’s office, and he was sitting at his desk, his face serious as always. He didn’t ask us to sit, but he looked up when we entered.

“What is it?” Greyson spoke first.

“Father, we need to ask you something. About your past with Dad. We want to make sure we don’t make the same mistakes in our relationships.” his gaze hardened.

“I’ve already said enough about that.” He replied.

“We just want your advice,” I added quickly.

“How do we avoid treating Christian the way you and Dad treated each other?” Dad’s face was hard for a moment before he let out a long breath, sitting back in his chair.

“You boys are asking the right questions. The truth is, the mistakes we made weren’t just about us. They were about how we didn’t listen to each other. How we didn’t communicate.” He wasn’t just talking about the past; he was giving us a warning for the future.

“I’ll tell you this,” Jacob continued, his voice quieter now.

“Don’t ever think you can control someone else. Especially not someone like Christian. Let him grow at his own pace. And if he needs space, give it to him. And if you mess up—own it.” Greyson and Mason exchanged glances, and I could tell we were all thinking the same thing. It was going to be hard, but we had to keep moving forward.

“I’m sorry,” Greyson said.

“I didn’t mean to stir things up. We just wanted to understand.” Dad gave him a small nod.

“It’s alright. Just make sure you remember what I said.” Father replied. We hugged him and left the office.

I don't know if we had done the wrong thing because of their reactions, but hopefully, we didn't cause any problems between them.