"Levi," Dad says from over his shoulder while moving swiftly through the halls. "Follow them discreetly and see where they go," He finishes while Peter and I scramble to keep up with him, Levi falls back without a single question, running back the way we came.

I look across at Peter, guilt forming within my chest when I find him shaking slightly as he tries to keep up with dad's fast pace, I offer him my hand and he takes it quickly with a grateful smile.

Peter was not equipped for the fuckery that was about to go down.

Though Peter was an omega, he was still my older brother and that never changed in my eyes. Even as the years passed and we all outgrew him and became stronger, he was still my big brother and I would help him in whatever way I knew how to. Even if that was just holding his hand to assure him that he was safe.

I do a quick mental recap of our team, shoulders sagging slightly when I'm quickly reminded that we were the physically weaker team. But that didn't matter, I remind myself hastily.

It wasn't about strength, this was a mental one not a physical one.

I knew that our team, on paper, didn't seem like the stronger of the two, because in all honesty, we weren't. Damon and Josey plus a guy the size of Jay with my lunatic father, fuck that. I would rather shoot myself than go against that fucked up line up.

But, they acted rather than thinking. Dad was a thinker and he was mated long enough to Pops to know how to destroy him. We may take more physical hits throughout the weekend, but dad would make sure we came out on top in the end.

I was happy to be used as his pawn because I knew he'd come out on top in the end.

Dad keeps up his rushed pace, his movements swift, and fluid like water, knowing his was going against a clock. He was moving with confidence as if he wasn't fazed in the slightest that in only a few hours our home would become a battlefield.

But dad wasn't really fazed by much so that wasn't much of a surprise.

I pull myself from my thoughts when I realize that we were heading towards Peter's room. Frowning, I follow dad inside, watching with a lack of understanding when he shuts the door gently behind us.

"Why are we in Peter's room?" I ask curiously as he leads us through Peter's stacks of books and into his bathroom.

"I've been preparing for this for quite some time," Dad says with a small smile as he heads straight to Peter's cabinets, opening them and moving a stack of containers into the center of the large, white bathroom.

I glance back at Peter for an explanation but he looked just as confused as I felt and also a little ticked to see his perfectly organized world be altered in the slightest. Peter was a neat freak like that.

"I had to set up base somewhere your father wouldn't look." He explains as he kneels down to pull at a mat, underneath laid a latch and lock. The lock shatters within dad's fists, the broken remains falling to the tiled floors, allowing him to open the latch and small covering revealing a stairwell.

"But Peter's room is the most obvious place for you to put something," I argue as I follow him down the stairs after Peter.

"Exactly." He says from somewhere in the darkroom. "Your father would think it too obvious as well, which makes it perfect."

Peter whimpers as he curls himself into me, I wrap an arm around him and jump only a little when a ray of lights, lining the ceiling suddenly come on. Partnering with them, an arrangement of several television screens suddenly come on, illuminating the space entirely. I look around numbly at the room full of monitors and bulletin boards filled with pictures of the family and perfectly, crafted notes.

My jaw drops open when I study the monitors enough to confirm that they were displaying every square inch of the house, from top to bottom. My eyes dart around the screen, finding a visual of my bedroom, the kitchen, the gaming room, our parents' room. Everything.

"I've never used these before today, but I set them up knowing I'd need them now," Dad says as he slides into the empty chair in front of the many keyboards and screens. "Your father probably has been preparing this for years, but so have I."

"D-Dad I-I'm scared," Peter mumbles, still curled into my side as he surveyed the room with blatant fear, his eyes quickly filling as the seconds ticked by.

"You have absolutely nothing to be fearful of Peter," Dad assures him as he bends down to tug at a draw, pulling out several, stuffed folders. "Once you don't leave the house, you'll be perfectly fine."

"That's the plan, stay inside for the entire weekend?" I ask unsurely.

Dad stops his movements to turn towards us, he offers us a small smile that does nothing to ease the anxiety in Peter's veins or the thick tension that'd been spreading since we started this war.

"Outside this house, your father can pull anything. He's too impulsive to predict what he can do, that does for the house as well," He says with a sigh, eyebrows pulling together as if truly angered by that fact. "But here, in the house, we can control them and use the upper hand we have."

Before I could argue against that or ask for an explanation about exactly what that upper hand was, rushed steps filled my ears making me stiffen with automatic alert. I relax instantly when I find Levi walking into the room with a wide grin as he examined the room.

"They've gone somewhere underground almost at the end of the pack lands, I'm guessing to something like this," Levi says as he gestures around. "It was a gamble but I knew you'd be prepared as well, if not more prepared."

Dad smiles at this, pride showing clearly through his eyes as he turns slightly in his chair. He surveys us each before taking a breath, his face clearing to that serious one he used when telling me that hiding his salmon wasn't funny.

It most definitely was funny to watch him and Damon freak out, demanding I told them where I hid it. Too worked up to realize it was already seasoned, cooked and in my stomach

"We are going up against our favorite people in this world." Dad begins sounding genuinely sad. "But for the next few days, they aren't those people. They are imposters and we will be treating them as such."

"B-But papa g-"

"He's not your papa Peter," Dad says cutting Peter off before he could make us all feel guilty with whatever he was going to say.

It would most definitely be some fond memory of something Pops did that'd make us go soft and we couldn't have any of that shit now.

"Papa has files just like these about you," Dad says gesturing to his own folders. "This is serious Peter and I need you to be a good boy for me, because you're our best weapon in this."

Peter's lips tremble as he tries to say the word weapon but it was like his pure mind couldn't even bear to do that much.

"No one expects you to do anything in this Peter," Levi says before Peter could faint. "So, therefore, anything you do would never be anticipated."

- Peter says through the link, making sure to direct his words specifically to the people in this room. He had a habit of switching to the link whenever he couldn't physically speak, whether out of fear or joy, it varied.

"You won't, we will," I say quickly with a big grin that made him smile a little. Not because he liked the idea but my smiles always made him a little happier. "I think dad just wants to use you in some places to give us the openings we need."

I look to dad for confirmation and he nods with a look of pride. I revel in the silent praise and rub at Peter's shoulders a little more to help soothe him into a state of peace.

"And on the other side, their biggest weapon is Jayson," Levi says suddenly making me freeze as I look up at him.

"What?"

"Jayson has the strength to carry out whatever their messed up minds can come up with," Levi explains with a deep frown I knew was caused by something mate related I couldn't possibly understand. "Not to mention, his time away from society makes him innocent. We naturally put our guards down around him so they'll try to use that."

"I raised such intelligent children," Dad whispers as if forgetting that we were in the room for a moment.

"So how do we see their attacks coming?" I ask uncomfortably.

I didn't like the thought of Jayson doing something bad. I knew he had done a lot of bad stuff before but that was when he didn't really know who he was. Jayson was really nice, only a few levels short of Peter kind of nice. I couldn't really imagine him doing something mean.

"It's pretty simple actually," Dad says as he turns back to the monitors. "Think of this, there's never been anything that has happened to the bunnies before. If Damon comes to you Peter telling you that Mr.Fluff ran away, what do you do?"

"L-Look for M-Mr.Fluff!" Peter exclaims in the way he did, which wasn't so much of a shout as it was a high pitched groan with a little huff at the end.

"No," Dad says before expanding the screen that showed Damon's room, displaying the two bunnies on his bed. "You don't go because why would your bunny run away now of all times. It's a trap, Peter."

"So if things that wouldn't usually happen, happen.." Levi begins.

"Don't fall for it." I finish and Dad nods as he turns to face us once more.

"The kitchen isn't on fire, even if they say so and you smell smoke. Your friend isn't mad at you, it's a trap. You must assume that anything out of the ordinary is a trap." Dad says as he surveys us. "I'll need you to be careful with what you eat Hagen, Peter don't follow anything bunny related okay? And Levi, nothing is wrong with Caspar."

We all nod our understanding, as he hands us each a folder.

"I'm assigning you each a target for the weekend, those who will be easiest for you to target." He explains quickly.

I open mine and grimace when I see a picture of Jayson. His file wasn't particularly big but it wasn't small either. The largest was the one in dad's hands followed easily by Peter's. I look up at him catching his gaze as he raises a brow in question.

"The big guy," I answer with a weak smile.

"Your twin." He replies as he gestures to the almost empty folder.

"Josey is a biggest threat on that team since we know the least about her," Dad says with a deep frown that said he wasn't happy to have to admit that. But it wasn't as if he was a bad parent, Josey just liked to keep shit to herself. "I think the simplest pranks will work on her, anything too complex she'll see through."

I look down at Peter, peering into his hands only to pull back with a wince when I find a picture of Damon in there.

Damon and Peter weren't as close as Damon was to Levi, but they were close enough that I knew Peter wouldn't want to do anything to Damon that would upset him... so anything.

"Your target isn't the only person you can prank if you see an opening for anyone else take it," Dad explains as he skims through his own folder with a smile. "The assigned ones are just the easiest for you. The pages are listed with pranks and the instructions on how to carry them out. If you have any of your own, feel free to improvise, my job is just to make this as smooth as possible for you all."

"What about Aunt Katty?" Levi asks, glancing over at me for a brief moment that was too long. "She'd definitely on Po's side."

"I know," Dad says as he gently closes his folder, eyes following his moving fingers for a moment longer before he looks up at me. "We'll need an Amorenia of our own to get through this."

"I'll call Uncle Apollos." I retort, tone humorless as they all stare at me.

"We'll need the help," Levi argues making my jaw tick. "And he will help us for you."

Hell no

Hell yes! - Zyair retorts, prancing around happily at the thought of Nikola. I groan at his eagerness, trying to push him away but he wasn't going anywhere. Call him! Call him!

"I'd rather lose," I say honestly, shrugging when dad stares at me as if I'd slapped him.

"P-Please H-Hagen," Peter whispers against me, fingers tugging at the bottom of my shirt even though he was looking at the floor. "I-It'll b-be s-safer."

Fuck! Only a monster could say no to Peter.

"Fine. Whatever, fuck." I groan angrily as I bury my face into my stupid folder. Focusing on the grape section instead of their obvious relief at my compliance. "Let's start setting up the traps before they get back."

We spread out then, moving around the house to litter the house with silent traps that'd destroy them from the inside out. There were the ones that didn't take too much time like cling foil under the toilet seat, itching powder over Josey's sheets and dousing the entire entryway of the house with oil.

Then the more fucked ones that we couldn't get through without laughing like helping Peter put a shitton of pink glitter on his ceiling fan. That one was great because for one, Damon hated pink and two, Peter couldn't stop giggling the whole time I held him up to pour the stuff over. He agreed to that prank, knowing it wouldn't hurt Damon and was actually having fun with it.

Levi and I, however, didn't take Peter with us when we snatched up Blaze for a later prank. For a bunny, it was surprisingly hard to try and capture him. The fucker put up one hell of a fight against us, somehow wiggling through our hands and diving into a pile of Damon's close, camouflaging himself amongst all the black.

We eventually lured him out with a trail of Damon's clothes which led him to where we needed to keep him hidden until the time was right.

I finished the rest of my own tasks before locking myself in my room and taking a deep breath knowing I couldn't put off the inevitable for much longer.

- I admit to a way too-pleased Zyair.

That's why you're doing it - Zyair replies smugly.

- I say for what must've been the billionth time.

Well, you'll have to get over that because he's your mate - Z says with his typical response.

Some things you just know and feel, these are one of those things - He replies softly. Don't deny you don't feel the pull because I know you do.

- I reply with a frown.

Aren't humans supposed to stop being babies at a certain age? - Z retorts through his laughter. The longer you put this off, the worse it'll be.

Zyair fades with that, leaving me to fend on my own. I sigh heavily, looking straight into my mirror. I could almost always tell when Nikola was watching me, he left signs that let me know if I looked for them. I knew he wasn't now and sighed again knowing I'd have to use words for this.

"Nikola." I groan angrily, folding my arms as I stare at my reflection.

Not even a full minute passes before the mirror seems to liquify, the substance not spilling from its frame as it ripples for a few moments. His foot comes out first before the rest of his body follows, the mirror returns to its natural state as Nikola jumps down and stands in front of me.

He stares at me, olive eyes studying me through his neutral expression. He seemed unphased and uninterested but I caught the way his eyes seemed to glimmer in their cage as he took me in from head to two.

"Do I have to say it?" I ask, getting straight to the point. "You already know what I want."

"You mean the prank war that's making my mom laugh like a maniac, yeah I know what you want." He admits with the smallest hint of a smile. "I still want to hear you say it."

My right eye twitches slightly at that, I clench my fist at my side to tame myself knowing he was just trying to bait me. He'd kept his distance ever since Levi talked to Aunty K for me. To ask him of a favor meant releaving him of his little promise to stay away, at least for a period of time.

"I need your help." I manage after a moment, teeth grinding when he smiled a little in response. "It would be greatly appreciated if you helped us out on this."

"I'm sure it would be." He replies simply making my sink my teeth into my cheek to silence a growl.

"I would really appreciate it if you helped me out here Nikola." I smile at the way his little tough persona fell away when I said his name. It always made him sort of crumble.

"On one condition." He says raising a finger.

I drop my head back with a louder groan, disappointed to find him still smiling when I looked back at him.

"You let me take you on a date the night before I turn eighteen." He says, olive eyes holding mine prison. I frown at the strange request, brain-racking to try and come up with a possible reason for it.

"Why?" I ask, narrowing my eyes as I try to look for the hole in this request.

He doesn't reply, ignoring my question as he waits for a reply for his own request. I sigh once more before nodding, praying to Goddess his little obsession with me would wear off by that time.

"Fine, whatever," I say as I close my eyes. "Date before you turn eighteen, cool."

Goddess help me...

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