Jaxon went to the sink to rinse his face, flinching when he heard someone come in behind him.
"Okay, no… there are enough bathrooms for us all." He pointed out tartly, darting away when Leon decided to respond with a tickle attack.
He left soon after and Jaxon finished up in the bathroom, absently, he wondered how dinner would go.
He was yet to tell Leon or Darian about what had happened, it was quite a delicate matter, besides even Ethan didn't seem troubled by it.
He would just have to keep an eye out, maybe he could convince Ethan to come back with them.
He couldn't promise such an important position as the one he had here but there were two successful Packs in Pine Creeks and both Lunas' did not cheat on their mates.
They started for the dining hall and for the first time, he noticed how quiet Darian and Leon were.
They bickered all the time so this stood out easily, with a furrow in his brow, he watched them closely.
"Is something wrong?" Darian noticed him staring.
Jaxon shook his head.
He was probably overthinking it, he hadn't spent this much time around the both of them in a stretch before. It would be worrisome if they fought all the time.
The dining hall was filling up when they made their appearance, Head Warrior Theo immediately calling them over to the head of the table where sedats had already been reserved for them,
Jaxon chose to sit beside Ethan, Luna Brie sitting nearest to him at the Head of the table beside her husband.
Theo was seated on his other side with Darian and Leon across from him, he barely paid attention to them though, his sharp gaze fixed on Brie who avoided his gaze just as steadfastly.
On the other side of the table, Darian stared down at Ethan darkly, it didn't help that he gave every bit of his attention to Jaxon while Leon sat stiffly beside him, hoping the dinner was over soon.
Although they had exchanged greetings after he first came in, Ethan hadn't acted any stranger than usual so it was most likely that the small talk never happened.
Even better was the fact that Ethan seemed past what had happened earlier, after their meeting.
Alpha Noah, unaware of all of the intricacies of the drama going on under his very nose, was politely keeping up with conversations around him.
Head Warrior Theo had successfully managed to keep the rebellion of Chase out of the Alpha's ears and sat nervously at the table, hoping that no one blurted it out to the Alpha.
It wouldn't adversely affect him, it would just put another blot on his already scratched image.
Nobody might outrightly mention it but if the Alpha had to call in external help to help his Head Warrior deal with his men, it was hard to save face after that.
What he didn't know was that there was no need to worry, Leon gave very little fucks about their social hierarchy, he was just there to do his job and dip.
Darian cared even less and Jaxon had pretty much forgotten about it, not that he knew much about it to begin with.
"I can't believe it took me so long to ask about Shana, how's that little spitfire?" Ethan asked conversationally, his entire attention on Jaxon.
Jaxon looked away from his Luna watching for the first time to beam at him. "Can't blame you, we've barely had enough time to catch up, we should do that sometime." He decided.
Across the table, Darian's sour expression soured even further.
Leon was distracted with cutting up food, paying no attention so he didn't notice Darian and Ethan glancing briefly at his direction at almost the same time.
"And that little spitfire isn't so little anymore." He corrected him. "She's easily as tall as I am, is mated and has a kid." He listed off.
Ethan gaped at this. "What? That's not right... You let your teenage sister have a child?"
Jaxon frowned. "Well, technically, Ruby is adopted but Shana is twenty-two."
Ethan just took a shaky sip of water. "I forgot that everyone's ageing too, I should really come visit..." He trailed off at this point, his eyes going wide. "Wait! If you're the Head Beta and Leon's the Head Warrior, does that mean Ian is now the Alpha? Or is it still Alpha Everett?" He asked curiously.
"Actually-" Jaxon chuckled nervously. "It's Virgil."
He choked on his water at this but recovered quickly enough. "That's actually not so far off considering he's an Alpha but still how did you all get him to lead the Pack?"
"I'll have to admit his mate played a huge factor-"
"They're all mated??" Ethan cut him off, disbelief clear on his face.
"Technically it's just my younger sister and Leon's younger brother..."
"That's all of them..." Ethan trailed off all by himself this time.
This would have been a perfect time to make a lighthearted joke about their younger siblings getting mated before them but the mating marks sitting on Jaxon's neck were loud enough.
He hadn't said a single word about it mostly because he didn't want to know and also because he hoped it wouldn't work out.
Brie had told him that the marks were a fairly new addition and things didn't seem to be rosy between them.
He would just have to make his move before the mating was completed.
Darian picked at his food while watching Jaxie animatedly talked endlessly with Ethan, he had been too caught up with watching and loathing their interaction to pay attention to anything else.
"Could you pass the salt?"
A voice broke into his head space, his first thought was to turn to Theo but something wasn't right, that voice was too familiar.
He turned to Leon instead. "Why are you using that informal tone?"
Leon blinked. "What? I wasn't... I was just being polite." He countered.
"You're doing it again." Darian pointed out, raising a brow.
A vein ticked on Leon's neck. "Pass me the salt for fuck's sake, why do you have to make such a big deal about it?"
"I passed the salt a while ago." Darian said calmly, smiling slightly.
While Leon looked just about ready to pop.