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Written and posted with permission from Leo_Todrius (who also provided the kickass thumbnail icon!)

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Lykos - Wild Things

Chapter 11 - Superliminality

Wyatt was lying on the bed of his hotel room, his eyes obstinately staring at the wall in front of him. Despite his best attempts, he couldn't shoo away the words pronounced by Jacob from his brain, as if they were a flock of hungry rapacious vultures and he was nothing but a corpse at their mercy.

I know Drake is strong, okay?, he thought, puffing his cheeks a bit like a pissed-off kid. I mean, even Talia recognized his power and listened to him, and she usually doesn't listen to anyone but herself... but he's my beta and my mate, right?

Wyatt didn't have an answer for that, and until some days before he wouldn't even need something like that... But now things were slightly - and irrevocably - different. Until they had been in Cerulean Falls, it was easier to ignore any doubt he could have on the matter: they were a small, loving pack, as tight as a group of werewolves could be... no questions asked, no answers needed.

The first time he and Drake had left the safety and the familiarity of their woods and their territory, however... yes, Wyatt realized as his hands tormented and crumpled the bed sheets: in hindsight, everything had started with that trip to Colorado... And especially with something the Russian wolf - Yom, right? - had told him and that Wyatt hadn't given that much importance, at least in the beginning.

It had happened right in the middle of their trip to Montana to escort former alpha Seamus to his new home at the wolf resort; the weather conditions were horrible to say the least, but lycans usually didn't have much trouble when it came to falling asleep while flying. Wyatt, however, had as always stubbornly refused to give in to drowsiness, and had resorted to focus on the stupid and shallow Nineties romantic comedy screened during the flight even though he couldn't stop yawning... At least until he had left a light tap on his shoulder.

"You can't sleep too, right?" Yom asked, his intense, piercing brown eyes staring at Wyatt. The Russian wolf looked a bit sad, although brooding was probably a more accurate description.

"More like I don't want to," Wyatt replied with a grin. "I mean, how could I miss the sight of Meg Ryan doing quirky stuff until she inevitably ends up with the love of her life?" He pointed at the screen with a small gesture of his head; since Yom didn't react in the least, Wyatt was quick to add: "Oh, by the way I was joking."

"You don't say," Yom replied in a deadpan tone.

Wyatt bit his lower lip. Tough crowd, huh? Well, it's understandable... His hand patted Yom's shoulder, very gently. "Miss 'em a lot, don't you?" he asked in a soft tone.

Yom stood silent for a bit, but then nodded. "I don't know, we've been a pack for less than two months, but... they're the most important part of my life, the best thing that ever happened to me. Since Marco accepted me, we haven't been apart for longer than a day. I started every day smelling them, feeling them, seeing them right there... my pack. It's killing me inside that I can't be with them... but I know this is necessary," he confessed in a pained whisper.

"I know how you feel," Wyatt replied with a gentle smile. He turned his head to the row of seats behind them: sitting opposite Richard with Seamus in the middle, like guards escorting a prisoner - which wasn't that far from the truth - was Drake: the three of them were snoring soundly, their heavy breathings mixing in a deep, resonant cacophony of rumbles. "Since the day I turned Drake into my beta, I've never been apart from him. He's my mate, my love and the person I want to spend my life with... I don't even dare to imagine how being separated by him would make me feel."

Yom nodded and the shadow of a smile appeared on his handsome face. "We're more alike than I thought."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Well, we both did something pretty reckless and turned a random guy on a whim, right?" Yom explained. "And when said person awakened as a wolf, we both realized that they were way stronger than we could imagine."

Wyatt looked at the Russian wolf, surprised. "You... really think so?" he asked after some seconds.

Yom's smile widened a bit. "You and I both saw how Marco and Drake interacted at the airport... They have the same nature: gentle, kind and charismatic, but their will is unbreakable." Yom's lips quirked into a bittersweet, lop sided grin, "I was wild before, careless and reckless. Being by Marco's side, I'm becoming better every day, learning who I really am. I'm sure it'll be the same for you, Wyatt."

Back in his hotel room, the young alpha rolled over the mattress, restless. Is that true?, he thought, his eyes burning. That I should accept who I am? Who Drake is? I mean, he's strong, and kind, and everyone loves him... but if he were to become the alpha, what would happen to me?

A light, almost timid knocking on the door stopped Wyatt's thoughts where they were, stuck in a murky swamp of anguish. "Hey, Wyatt... Are you in here?" Drake's voice sounded meek and concerned on the other side of the door. "May I come in?"

"Don't be shy, my dragon," Wyatt replied, although he was happy and relieved by the fact that his beta was there. "Come inside, I want some cuddles."

Drake opened the door and literally jumped on the bed like a big, silly mutt, licking and kissing Wyatt's face in pure happiness; his dark grey tail sprouted from his back and began to was in innocent joy. He was so full of love, passion and bliss that Wyatt felt tears wetting his own cheeks. "What... what happened, Drake?" he asked, hugging his beta and pulling him closer. "Are you alright?"

Drake tilted his head a bit. "I'm just... happy to see you. To be with my alpha and mate. Do you think it's strange?"

Wyatt shook his head. "Not at all. To be honest, I needed this... I mean, a moment just for the two of us."

Drake nodded. "Glad you see it the same way..." he murmured before he traced the line of Wyatt's neck with his still human tongue, sending a long, pleasant shiver down the alpha's spine. The young wolf murred, his toes and fingers twitching as claws appeared in place of his nails; as if he had been immersed into a gold, peaceful river, Wyatt let the changes flow through his body: new fur sprouted, teeth lengthened into fangs, ears developed points and a fat, plump, inviting sheath replaced his human penis. Wyatt panted, as his own tail snaked out of his pants.

"P-please, my dragon... I want to fuck so bad..." he moaned, his padded fingers caressing Drake's bushy sideburns and toying with his left ear.

Drake grinned and kissed Wyatt, his tongue brushing against the alpha's canines. "So no real difference from the usual, right?" he teased.

Wyatt frowned, pretending to be offended by the remark. "You mean you're tired of having sex with me?"

"Please," Drake smirked. "I could never grow tired of that. Although..."

"Although?" Wyatt repeated with a fox-like smile.

Drake's tail wagged timidly. "Well, you know, I thought we could try different things..."

"Ooooh, I'm all for different things!" the alpha exclaimed. "Do you already have something in mind?"

"Um..." Drake lowered his eyes as in shame. "There is something I still haven't done with you, and... You know, maybe we could try that, if you feel like doing it. I could even wear the sexy cowboy costume Clyde gave me."

Wyatt nuzzled his partner. "Come on, my dragon, don't be shy... We don't have secrets, right?" he whispered huskily before licking Drake's lips.

"Okay... well... I was wondering if just for once, you know, I could..." Drake murmured, his hands moving all over Wyatt's body. The younger wolf was appreciating the attention immensely... until, at least, he felt a clawed finger pushing against his pucker.

"H-hey!" Wyatt exclaimed, squirming and trying to escape Drake's grasp. "What are you doing?!"

Drake immediately stopped his timid attempts at violating his mate's asshole and stared at him in confusion. "Huh?" he murmured. "I'm sorry, Wyatt, I was just thinking that... well... m-maybe you would've liked that."

The golden alpha shook his head, his cheeks flushed and his eyes wide. "No, I... I really don't feel comfortable in doing that, my dragon. I'm sorry." It'd make me feel even weaker and more vulnerable, he said to himself. It would be like admitting that Jacob is right.

"Oh," Drake murmured in reply; he looked saddened and dejected, like a dog left outside in the rain during a thunderstorm clawing desperately at his owner's front door. "It's... well, it's just that... last month, when we were in Colorado, you and Liam did, um... well, you let him do that, right?"

Wyatt lowered his eyes for a moment. He's right. I can't deny that... He could feel his heart pounding against his ears, his breathing heavier and broken. "Yeah, b-but..." he mumbled. "That was because he had just become an alpha. He had just risen above his pack and his own twin brother... It seemed only natural for me to show him some respect as a visiting alpha."

"O-oh..." Drake murmured. It was quite impossible to understand if the expression on his face was meant to show disappointment or understanding. "So it was an alpha thing..." he added.

Wyatt, in the seconds that preceded Drake's next sentence, could feel his heart turn into a heavy, jagged block of ice. He's going to ask me that. He's going to ask me "So, what if I were an alpha too?", and I know a question like that will shatter me into pieces. His slender limbs spasmodically grabbed his beta's larger body. Please, my dragon, please... Don't leave me...

"Well, that can't be helped, then. I mean, I'm a beta after all."

Wyatt raised his eyes and stared at Drake, dumb-founded. "Huh?" was everything he was able to mutter.

Drake gave him a small smile. "I'm a beta and you're my alpha. You are the one who gave me the most amazing gift I could ever hope to receive, and the person I love the most in this world... So I trust you completely. As long as we can be together, I don't care about what we do in bed... That's not the important part. At all."

Wyatt curled up against Drake like a freezing puppy searching for some comfort; he felt fire all over his face and could even hear his own blood coursing through his arteries and veins. "I... I don't know what I could do if you weren't here with me, my dragon," he whispered.

Drake looked down at his alpha with worried eyes. "Are you alright, Wyatt? You're acting kind of weird."

Wyatt sniffed, but when he looked up again his eyes - despite still being a bit watery - were filled with relief and happiness. "No, don't worry. Everything is perfect now." A mischievous smile appeared on his lips, showing his pointy white fangs. "Now, why don't we have some fun together, Drake? I really want to ride my sexy cowboy..."

Ten minutes later, after Drake had donned his costume, the two werewolves were rolling on the big bed making out passionately and exploring each other's bodies as if that was their very first meeting; everything seemed perfect, at least to Wyatt; the young alpha sighed in bliss, basking in his newfound joy... and failing to notice the small but persistent spark of anxiety glimmering in the eyes of his partner.

***

"Come on, let's go back to the main hall..." Kaylee pleaded, her hands fidgeting nervously over her sketchbook. "There's no one here!"

Chance frowned, his right hand still raised in mid-air and curled into a fist. "But Xander said Dakota was surely here! What if something happened to her?" he added, giving an anxious glance to the closed door. The two young wolves were standing outside room 1038, and even though Chance had already knocked at least a dozen times, no one - neither Dakota nor someone else, had answered.

"Oh, come on, she's probably somewhere else!" Kaylee snorted. "Why she should be here anyway? It's four in the afternoon, she's probably having fun in the main hall with the others! Or maybe, I dunno, she went to grab a bite or something."

Chance, however, shook his head. "The freshest trace leading to this door is from at least one hour ago, and you know that exactly like I do," he said while sniffing around once again. "I'm sure she's in here, Kaylee..." The young werewolf's tail slithered outside his pants and tucked itself between his legs. "I'm sorry I dragged you in this, Kaylee, and I know this is really silly, but... Somewhat, I feel this is really important to me. But I can sense you're angry and nervous, so, um... I'm really sorry." The young man's voice, usually loud and boisterous, had devolved into a tiny whisper during the apology.

Kaylee shook her head while an annoyed sound escaped her lips, but she couldn't help but smile. "You're such an idiot, Chance..." she murmured in a fond tone while hugging her pack member.

The boy licked the side of her face before grinning. "The good kind of idiot?" he asked, hugging back.

"The best kind." Kaylee sighed, closed her eyes and looked like she was on the verge of saying something else, but she was cut short when finally the door of room 1038 opened.

"U-um... Sorry it took me so long... I heard you knocking but I didn't know if I should have opened... S-sorry..." Dakota was barely visible behind the ajar door, as if she was using the wooden panel as a shield against the outside world. The girl was wearing a large grey hoodie and a pair of short pants, and looked both sleepy and terrified.

"Hey!" Chance exclaimed, letting Kaylee go - much to her dismay - and waving his hand. "I wanted to talk to you, Dakota!"

"Huh? But why?" Now the strange timid girl looked confused, her fingers tormenting her partly unmade blond braid. "I m-mean, I don't know you... a-and I'm not and interesting person, s-so..."

"That's not true!" Chance interrupted her. "I noticed you from the very first time I saw you yesterday, Dakota... I'd love for us to become friends!" He had promised Xander to keep himself in check, after all, and he certainly didn't want to be beaten by Joy's temperamental head beta. "But seriously, since yesterday I couldn't stop thinking about you."

"He's telling the truth, by the way," Kaylee added with a small smirk. "But don't worry, despite his stalker tendencies he's not a bad guy at all!"

Chance stared at her with blazing irises. "Are you trying to help or what?"

"O-oh..." Dakota murmured, her husky voice reduced to an almost inaudible murmur, even though the skin of her cheeks had reddened a bit. "Really? Y-you guys wanted to see me?"

"To be honest, I'm only here to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid," Kaylee explained.

The girl on the other side of the door lowered her gaze. "I... I see..." she whispered as if she was on the verge of tears. "O-okay, don't worry, I..."

Kaylee shook her head frantically. "No, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" she exclaimed. "I wanted to see you too! Just, don't cry, please..."

Dakota managed to produce the tiniest of smiles. "T-thank you... Want to come inside?"

"With pleasure!" Chance replied, before realizing that maybe he had been too brash. "I mean, if it's not a problem for you."

"Oh, n-not at all!" Dakota said, her eyes finally lightening up a bit. "I hope you won't mind the mess..."

The inside of the room, however, wasn't particularly chaotic, with the exception of some clothing scattered here and there, clothing that clearly belonged to a man. "I share the room with Xander," Dakota explained succinctly. Her side of the room was pristine clean, however.

"With Xander?" Chance repeated, a bit taken aback. "Wouldn't it be better for you to be with Joy?"

Dakota, who had sat on her bed, tried to become as tiny as possible and shook her head, her green eyes wide and bulging. "Oh, n-no! J-Joy is my alpha, and I'm just a weak puppy... A-and anyway, I like Xander, he's... like a dad for me, especially s-since..." Dakota sighed a couple of times and her cute face crumpled a bit. "W-will you sit here with me? Please. I n-need to feel someone near..."

Chance and Kaylee exchanged a glance and nodded before taking a seat on the bed with Dakota in the middle. The girl wrapped her lithe arms around their backs and pulled them a bit closer; Kaylee started petting her hair with gentle fingers, adjusting her braid, while Chance nuzzled her tenderly. As they bonded with her, the two young werewolves could distinctly feel and hear and even smell the deep pain and anguish that Dakota harbored into her heart, and tried their best to make her feel better.

Five minutes later the three wolves were lying on the bed, with Dakota still in the middle; Chance and Kaylee were busy caressing her arms, kissing her cheeks and licking away her tears. Dakota kept crying in complete silence, her eyes lost in the depths of the ceiling; her pain - or at least some of it - was dripping into the world through her eyes to be collected and shared by Chance and Kaylee, so that her burden would be less heavy.

"Thank you..." she muttered after a while to the two werewolves, the faint shadow of a smile on her face. "I needed something like this. My pack members are all so kind and protective towards me, but we never bond physically because I'm much younger than they are, and well... I guess it would be awkward." Dakota let out a soft sight that sounded almost disappointed.

"Just so that we know, you're at least eighteen, right?" Chance asked out of the blue.

Dakota looked at him with puzzled eyes. "Y-yes. I know I look a bit younger, but I turned eighteen last month... why?"

"N-nah, it was just to be on the safe side..." Kaylee sent Chance a killer stare. "What?"

The girl sighed and resumed the cuddling session. "If you feel like telling us what's wrong, we're here. But no pressure whatsoever, okay?"

"O-okay..." Dakota turned her head and placed a quick, soft kiss on Kaylee's lips, a gesture that elicited a whimper from Chance. "Oh, s-sorry..." Dakota added, kissing the boy too. "Are you sure you want to know my story? It's not, um... It's not a happy one."

"Would sharing it make you feel better?" Chance asked in a surprisingly sympathetic tone.

Dakota gave a quick nod. "Y-yeah, I think so."

"Then it's settled," Kaylee said with a small smile.

"O-okay... B-but, w-well, it's still not t-that easy for me to remember that... So p-please be patient..." Dakota stumbled in her own words.

"Of course, take your time," the Asian girl went on.

"Um..." Dakota took a couple of deep, long sighs, but she managed to stabilize the rhythm of her breathing somehow. "W-well... It all began some months ago. I was... I was travelling with my family: mom, dad and my little sis. It was supposed to be our summer vacation, we were heading to Hawaii... And since our flight was very early in the morning, we were travelling to the airport in the middle of the night, when..." the girl shivered, and tears started falling down her cheeks and on the bed again. Chance and Kaylee pressed their bodies against hers, resting their heads on her shoulders without saying anything, letting their conjoined heartbeats speak for them.

After a couple of minutes, Dakota blurted out a single, confused sentence. "It was in the middle of the road."

"Huh?" Chance replied, a bit surprised. "What was?"

Dakota shuddered again. "At first, we thought it was a dog... Dad almost hit it, but he managed to brake in time. Maybe, if he had just run over it... But no point thinking about stuff like that, right?" The girl shook her head before continuing. "It was too big to be a dog... Too big to be anything that should be allowed to exist. Even my little sis, who was sleeping like a log, suddenly woke up and started crying. It doesn't matter how much I want to forget that night, I will always remember that... that thing. Its yellow fangs, shining ominously in the moonlight... its dark, drippy fur, that looked like it was made out of darkness itself... and most of all, its blood red eyes, blazing in absolute madness."

"A... a direwolf?!" Kaylee exclaimed, her almond-shaped eyes widened in horror. "You were attacked by a direwolf?!"

Dakota nodded. "It was... I..." The girl shook her head, unable to go on. "I'm sorry, I... I can't."

Chance and Kaylee hugged her once again. "Don't worry," the boy whispered. "We faced a direwolf some months ago, and even if it was a night of full moon I was terrified by it... I can't even imagine how it would be to encounter one as a human."

"So, did it..." Kaylee gulped. "Did it bit you?" She squirmed on the mattress, shifting uncomfortably. "I... I'm sorry, I mean, it's obvious that it bit you, it's just that, well... Someone getting turned into a werewolf by a direwolf is something you don't see every day, you'd be the first one I ever even knew about, and..."

"Kaylee. Enough." Chance's voice was firm and dry. The expression of abject terror once again filled the girl's features.

"Oh my god, Dakota, I'm so so sorry! I didn't mean to..." Dakota, however, despite the fact that her face looked like it was going to crumble into ruins any moment, still managed to shake her head.

"Don't worry... That's what alpha Joy... Well, that's what everyone in my pack said." Her expression, from sad and anguished, became bitter and somber so suddenly that Chance and Kaylee were taken aback by the change. "They treat me like I'm special, but the truth is, I hate all of this. I hate it."

"You mean... You hate being a werewolf?" Chance murmured, caressing Dakota's blond hair. He had reverted to a completely human form, even though he had slowly left the wolf out during the past several minutes. The girl stared at him in what appeared to be mild confusion, her huge green eyes glistening in tears.

"Um... I mean, don't get me wrong, being a werewolf is quite awesome, but... I'd gladly give up my powers, if only I could have my family back." Dakota shivered, her lithe body conforming against Chance's, while Kaylee - probably in a mute request for forgiveness - hugged her from behind. "I don't remember anything else from that night; my brain probably erased those memories by itself, and I'm really grateful for that. They found me in the wreckage of my car, nestled under the back of my mother's seat... Covered in blood, but strangely unharmed; my parents and my sister, however... they were gone. Except for the blood, I m-mean. To this day, I still don't know why I was the only one who got spared, if I was just lucky or if that thing was full after it... after it..." The words kept coming out of Dakota's mouth, just like the tears flowed down her cheeks. "One of the nurses of the hospital I was brought to was a keeper. She knew there was something strange with the so-called accident, especially since the bodies of three people don't vanish into thin air... so she called Joy to come and see me, and, well... I guess that's a happy ending of sorts, right?" Her broken, breathy voice had degenerated into an almost audible murmur that definitively shattered into sighs and wheezes.

Chance petted the girl, who had now pressed her head on his chest, and looked in silence at Kaylee over Dakota's hair, exchanging a meaningful glance with her; they tried to relax, to lull her with the beating of their hearts and the rhythm of their breathing. She's so broken and damaged... the young man thought, the expression on his face heavy and focused. Maybe that's the reason why I was feeling so attracted to her... She was crying for help in complete silence and I was the only one able to hear her. "Don't worry, Dakota..." he whispered. "We're not going anywhere. Take your time, okay?" Dakota barely nodded in reply. "It must have been tough... Come on, let everything out."

And she did. She cried, she screamed, and she even buried her fangs into the flesh of Chance's shoulder at one point - though the boy resisted stoically and didn't even flinch or try to push her away - all while Kaylee kept caressing her hair and telling her everything was going to be alright, even if it was a lie... or maybe precisely because it was a lie. After a while, Dakota gently pushed Chance away and looked up at him once again, her eyes reddened and swollen, but - for the first time since they had known her - also somewhat serene.

"Thank you," she whispered with the tiniest smile on her lips. "To the both of you," she added, glancing at Kaylee with gratitude.

"Feeling a bit better?" Chance asked, trying his best to reciprocate the smile. His shoulder had obviously healed itself already, though some drying blood still spotted his caramel skin. Dakota climbed off the bed and nodded again, her lips pursed in a somewhat dorky expression.

"Y-yeah... At least a bit." She nodded, as if she was trying to prove something to herself. "I think having you two near, sharing a physical bond... That's what I needed. My human part may like the attention, being treated like the puppy of the pack... But my wolf part has its needs, too."

"Well, I'm glad you feel that... Wait! Wh-what the hell are you doing, Dakota?!" Chance exclaimed, stuttering, the skin of his face suddenly as red as the blood on his shoulder. The girl, who was on the verge of taking off her pants, looked at him with a quizzical look, her head slightly tilted.

"Uh? W-well, um... I-it's just like I felt the sudden need to, um... Well, bond with you, as I said. I hope you don't mind..."

Chance shook his head with vehemence. After the story she told us, I seriously can't do that! It'd feel like I'm taking advantage of her! "No, Dakota, I mean... I'm flattered and all, but... I mean, you're a really cute girl and everything..."

"Girl?" Dakota replied with a giggle. She had now taken off both her hoodie and her pants, revealing a very flat chest and a noticeable bulge in her... well, his underwear. "I'm sorry, Chance, but I'm not exactly a girl."

For some long, really weird seconds no one talked, but Chance's eyes became progressively wide and bulging. "Wait...YOU'RE A GUY?!" he finally screamed.

Dakota scratched the back of his neck. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to trick you. I know I can look a little girly, but..."

"A little girly?! That's, like, the understatement of the century!" Chance replied, still in shock, although his rant was cut short by a delighted, high-pitched squeal let out by Kaylee.

"Oh my god, you're a trap! A real one!" The girl started caressing Dakota's flat chest, as if she couldn't believe it was really there. "I've always wanted to meet a guy who was girlier than I am, and finally I found one! This is so amazing!"

"Um... Thanks?" Dakota murmured in confusion, his green irises following Kaylee's every movement like a wounded antelope eyeing a lioness. "S-so... Well, d-do you guys want to, you know..." The feminine boy fidgeted a bit, his cheeks flushed.

Chance stood up, pulled Dakota closer and kissed him with tender passion, a gesture that of course sent Kaylee into fangirl overdrive. "If that's what you want, yes," he said. Maybe it was his brand new goatee, but the teenage horndog had swapped place - albeit momentarily, maybe? - with a more mature young man. "I promise I'll make you happy."

Dakota beamed him an awkward but disarmingly sincere smile. "I'll... um, I'll go wash myself, okay?" And before anyone could reply, he scampered into the bathroom and locked the door behind him.

Kaylee turned to face Chance with a grin that fell somewhere between the words "manic" and "relieved". "Well, that was unexpected!" she exclaimed. "I'm sorry she... I mean, he didn't turn out to be the person you were expecting..." she then added, though her smile didn't lose its Cheshire-like quality.

Chance, however, didn't seem to mind that much. "Heh, I still have plenty of time to find my life partner, after all," he replied with a serene expression. "So... Will you join us, Kaylee?"

"What? No, no, no," the Asian girl waved a hand into the air. "You guys have fun. I'll do what I like the most..." The dangerous, feverish light reappeared into her eyes as she lifted her notebook in front of her like a shield. "I'll take notes for my next few chapters, of course!"

Chance sighed, sitting back on the bed. "I knew that was going to happen..."

***

"Looks like you're searching for someone," a familiar voice made Drake turn around as he was marching down a corridor, sniffing around from time to time. Jacob was behind him, his arms crossed over his chest and an amused grin on his face.

"U-um... Hehe, you got me..." Drake murmured in embarrassment, scratching the nape of his neck. "Were you looking for someone too, Jacob?"

"Maybe," the alpha replied. "Or maybe not, I'm just wandering around... A convention like this is a good way to meet other werewolves, but sometimes I need to be alone with my thoughts."

Drake lowered his eyes for a moment, a pointed canine biting his lower lip. "Um, yeah, I... can totally understand that," he mumbled. After the tender moment he had shared with Wyatt, he had started to be plagued by doubts, especially about his mate's reaction when he had proposed the role reversal.

Jacob's face didn't lose his entertained expression. "So, Drake, who were you searching for? He asked in a nonchalant tone. "Your alpha, maybe?"

"Huh?" At the mere mention of Wyatt, Drake's wolf nature emerged of its own accord: his teeth honed into fangs, his eyes sparked golden and his ears grew long and triangular. "Oh, um... N-no, not really..." he murmured as his feral side disappeared as quickly as it had manifested itself. "I was searching for someone else, b-but... maybe you can help me, Jacob."

"Me?" the alpha looked surprised. "I mean, I'd be very glad to help you, but I'm not sure if I can. I'm not that good a pack leader, I'm afraid... You'd probably make a better job than I do, Drake."

"I'm perfectly content in being a beta, really," Drake dismissed the topic with a gesture of his hand, as if he was trying to swat a fastidious mosquito. Except according to my current instincts I'm not so sure about that anymore, apparently, he said to himself. Are you trying to tell me something, wolf? The beast in his heart, however, didn't feel like talking.

"Yeah, that's the same thing Wyatt said earlier today," Jacob replied in a casual tone. "Well, good for you, I guess... Being an alpha can be a real hassle sometimes."

"Huh?" Drake exclaimed in surprise. "That's the first time I hear an alpha saying something like that. Usually they are all, you know, very proud of their role." The young man then realized he had just said something that could have easily been interpreted as impolite. "Oh... S-sorry, Jacob, I didn't mean to..."

"It's alright, it's alright!" Jacob laughed it off. "I'm the first to admit I'm not the best alpha around! As strange as it may sound, things around Las Vegas are very quiet on the werewolf side, so I really don't have many opportunities to exercise my leadership!" The man chuckled, as if he found that amusing for some reason. "Not that I'm complaining, of course... I like my peaceful existence, I'm not cut for competing against other packs or something like that."

"Well, that doesn't sound that bad, if you ask me!" Drake replied in earnest. "I mean, a quiet life with my pack would be the best thing ever."

Jacob nodded. "I'm glad we agree on that, Drake. Many wolves seem to think that just because half of our being is feral, then we should fight over dominance like beasts, but why should we do that when we could enjoy our pack bonds in peace? I mean, I did tell you that we wolves should follow our instincts, right? But, of course, that doesn't mean we have to live like animals."

Drake smiled back. "You know, last night after what you said to me after the Battle of the Betas I was a bit angry towards you, but now I feel really bad about that... Can you forgive me?" he asked in a dorky tone.

"Sure thing, man," Jacob replied. "And I'm sorry I came across as an asshole... I shouldn't have asked my lily of the valley to fight in the first place, so it's not like you're the one to blame."

Drake lowered his gaze. "Um... to be honest, Jacob, that's the person I was looking for. Inori, I mean."

The alpha's expression, albeit still amused, shifted slightly and became more ambiguous and difficult to interpret: his brow furrowed a bit and the stare in his eyes was a tad more intense and focused. "Really? And why exactly do you want to see her? I'm afraid I cannot allow a rematch, it this is what you were hoping for: you've experienced first-hand that she can be... quite wild when it comes to fighting, and that's a big understatement."

"Oh, no, no!" Drake shook his head. "To be honest, I only wanted to talk to her for a bit... Last time I saw her, I didn't manage to tell her everything I wanted to before she walked away, so..."

"You mean last night?" Jacob interrupted him.

"No, it was... a couple hours ago, I think," Drake explained. "I stumbled into her in a corridor, she was acting, well... kinda weird. No offence meant, of course."

"None taken," Jacob reassured him. "I mean, I am the first one to admit that my lily of the valley is not the most normal werewolf around. Although it's strange, she usually tells me everything that happens to her..." Jacob looked unusually perturbed by that, so Drake shook his head again and tried to minimize the problem.

"I'm sure it's because it was nothing important!" he exclaimed. "I mean, we just talked for a bit and then she walked away. She probably didn't even remember about the encounter five minutes later."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Still..." Jacob sulked, turning his face towards the opposite side of the corridor. "So, Drake, tell me... What did you want to know about Inori? Maybe I can help you."

"Um..." Drake scratched the back of his neck as Kaylee's words echoed in his brain. "Oh, yeah. It's probably a silly question, but... Why does she have a Japanese name? She doesn't look that Japanese to me."

Jacob scratched the back of his hands for a moment. "You know, I don't think it's a silly question. If anything, it's surprisingly insightful." The alpha turned around again and stared at Drake with his unfathomable blue eyes. "Do you know the meaning of that word?"

Drake nodded. "It's 'prayer', right?

"Indeed," a small, satisfied smile appeared on Jacob's face. "I was the one who gave her that name, you know?"

Drake's eyes widened in shock. "You mean she's like your little sister or something?" Or his cousin, maybe... he added. They look nothing alike, after all.

"Oh, no, nothing like that!" Jacob chuckled. "As I said, she's my lily of the valley... I just happened to find her."

"You found her?" Drake repeated, slowly. "I'm... not sure if I'm following." Despite being the plainest and most normal looking alpha he had met at the convention - especially compared to the likes of Clyde and Felissa - he was by far the most difficult to understand.

"When I smelled her unique scent for the first time, a couple years ago, she had been living in the streets of Las Vegas for quite a while," Jacob explained. "She didn't have a house, nor a family, not even a name... At least not a name she could remember. She was so tiny and malnourished and dirty that the fact that she had managed to stay alive for so long was a miracle in itself... but despite all that, she has always had an incredible inner strength. So, when I looked at her cowering in an alleyway, looking at me with her big eyes with the same pleading expression of an abandoned puppy and a cascade of dark hair that made her look like an apparition straight out of an Asian ghost movie, well... the name Inori just popped up in my mind by itself, so to speak."

"So you... saved her life?" Drake murmured in admiration. "And... was she already a werewolf at the time, or did you offer her the bite?"

Jacob shook his head. "I managed to find her precisely because she was a werewolf, although of course I don't know whether or not she was born as one... She certainly doesn't remember."

I see... Well, I wasn't wrong after all... Jacob is a good guy!, Drake though, nodding to himself. "So, um... Do you think I can see her? I really don't like having unfinished business, so to speak."

Jacob shrugged. "Sure, no problem. Her room's just around the corridor... I'll show you the way. To be honest, I was heading there to check on her."

"Oh! Okay, thank you!" Drake replied with a huge smile. "I'm glad I found you, Jacob, I wouldn't have known where to go, otherwise..." The alpha, meanwhile, had already stopped in front of a door and had produced a key card. "Huh?" Drake muttered, frowning. "You have her key?"

Jacob turned his head to the side, his eyes half-open, giving him a fox-like expression. "Well, of course... I have to keep her under control, after all." The alpha sniffed the air once. "Can you already smell it, Drake? Take a deep breath..." Drake did as requested, and the familiar, intoxicating scent that Inori emanated found its way into his nose, making his brain slow down a bit and his blood flow towards his groin. "I'm pretty used to that," Jacob explained. "But it's intense, isn't it? You fought against it pretty well during the Battle of the Betas, Drake... Although, there's really no reason for you to do it this time."

"What do you mean?" Drake asked, a bit confused. But Jacob, instead of responding, opened the door of the room and pushed him inside.

The first things Drake's brain registered were the olfactory stimuli: Inori's smell was everywhere, stronger and more pervasive than ever, as if it had soaked into the furniture, the floor, the ceiling and the very walls; more than a scent, it was a mist, clouding the vision, the brain and the judgment of those entering the room. And on the bed, sprawled like a broken doll...

"You like, huh? You like it, bitch?" A gruff, mean-sounding voice hurt Drake's ears; one of the Latino young men who had been harassing Xander the day prior was standing naked in the middle of the room, his coal black tail swishing the air behind his toned ass, and his canine dick being pushed in and out Inori's mouth in a savage, forceful rhythm.

The girl looked even smaller and frailer, her pale limbs twitching and flailing as the male werewolf fucked her head mercilessly, while his brother was taking care of her bottom part, ramming her so hard that her groin area and the sheets under her skinny legs glistened with her own blood. He wasn't even talking, just grunting and growling like a lowly animal, fucking her with no care, no love and no passion, but only with brutal, disgusting glee.

"Hey, alpha! Tell 'em it's my turn now!" a blond, tall, jock-like werewolf groaned from a chair in a corner of the room. "Her stink's driving me crazy!" His pants were unbuttoned, and he was masturbating vigorously.

"Yeah!" Another well-built young man with an unpleasant and horny expression added, his underwear strained and the tapered tip of his dog dick partially visible through the white cloth, dampened by the copious precum. "I wanna fuck her pussy too!"

Jacob ignored them and turned towards Drake, a friendly smile still on his face. "Don't mind them, Drake. You can go next if you want to."

Drake's stare, however, didn't budge from the horrendous show taking place on the bed; there wasn't confusion in his mind, nor rage. A thin yet merciless web of ice had wrapped around his brain, cutting off his thought and leaving him as nothing but an empty silhouette in the shape of a person. He didn't even smell the tantalizing scent anymore. "What... what is happening here?" he asked, his voice as monotone and dull as that of a robot.

"Have you ever heard the word 'bourgeonal', Drake?" Jacob replied, completely evading his question. "It's an aromatic aldehyde... A chemical compound, if you want. It can be found in the lily of the valley, and as many other things coming from that tiny flower, it's poisonous... But that's not the reason why the bourgeonal is known. You see, that aldehyde has a really strange property: it attracts mammal sperm in a dramatic manner; it is literally the only known odor that affects males more than females. Well..." The alpha started pacing around the room, as if the rape scene in front of his eyes was an everyday occurrence to him. "What if there is a similar mutation among us werewolves? Something really rare, something that causes the affected individual to release a pheromone that is irresistible to the male members of our species? Shouldn't such a rare individual be called..." Jacob stopped in front of the two brothers fucking Inori's body, and he extended a hand, caressing the girl's cheek with his fingers in a way that was almost paternal and that made Drake want to vomit the content of his stomach. "...a lily of the valley? A precious, little flower?"

Drake didn't even realized he was moving: less than one second later, he was tearing Jacob away from Inori, his eyes blazing in gold, his fangs bare. "What. Are you. Doing. To her?" he spelled out, his fingertips ice cold, his legs crawling as if an entire anthill was trying to seize them. "Answer me."

Jacob tilted his head towards the shoulder a bit, without losing his sickeningly happy smile. "I thought I already did that, Drake. She is irresistible to male werewolves, even those who normally wouldn't be attracted to her. That's the kind of body she has... And as her alpha, it would be unfair of me not to share her with my pack," a brief gesture included the two Latino brothers and the two jocks jacking off in the corner of the room. "Or any other werewolf of my liking, for what matters. That's why I called you here."

"She... she's an omega." Drake murmured in disbelief. Inori looked so tiny and fragile, and her eyes so glazed and unresponsive as if she wasn't even alive but just an instrument of pleasure. "And you're raping her. You've been raping her for years."

Jacob's fingers traced a casual, almost annoyed gesture in the air. "Please, 'omega' is such an unpleasant word! Inori is my precious flower. And anyway, it's not rape if she enjoys it. You like the attention we give you, right, Inori?" The alpha lowered his eyes on the girl, and the beta next to hip stopped fucking her skull for a few seconds.

Inori coughed and spit mechanically some saliva and a mouthful of dense precum; her irises, dull and lifeless to the point they looked more rusted iron than gold, seemed to focus a bit. "Y-yeah..." she replied with a broken murmur. "S-sure, my alpha..." She turned her head a bit, and only in that moment she seemed to realize that Drake was also there; for a small, interminable moment her eyes grew wider and filled with tears... and then the Latino werewolf rudely pushed his dick back into her mouth as if nothing had happened.

Jacob turned around and flashed another smile to Drake. "See? No problem, right?"

Drake closed his hands into fists. He wanted to punch Jacob, to hurt him with his powerful claws, to dig his fangs into the alpha's throat and make his warm blood spray like a red geyser... At first, he thought it was his inner wolf speaking, before he realized - through the crimson fog of wrath - that it was actually his human half that wanted to kill Jacob. Calm down, his feral half suggested. It is five against one, and one of them is an alpha. You are strong, but I know you are not a fool. Drake diverted his gaze from the horrible scene, his lips nothing more than a pale line carved horizontally into his face; his wolf was right: as much as he wanted to tear Jacob apart, that certainly wasn't going to help Inori.

I'm sorry, Inori..., he thought, lowering his eyes: the girl still looked like an inanimate puppet, her conscience probably withdrawn deep inside her brain to escape the horror of what was happening to her. I will be back as soon as I can, I promise, he added, his stomach churning, before turning around and marching towards the door of the room without a word.

"Oh? Are you leaving?" Jacob exclaimed. "I thought you were interested in Inori."

"Yes, I'm leaving" Drake replied, without turning around. He was afraid he would've felt again the need to murder the alpha with his own hands if he had looked at his smile. He must be crazy, that's the only explanation, he managed to think despite the rage and the horror and the disgust. "I'm sorry, Jacob, but you're not the kind of person I imagined. Goodbye."

"Yeah, to be honest I'm disappointed too," Jacob replied, sounding a bit peeved. "I thought you were honest when you said that all werewolves should be wild and free... Oh, well." Drake could hear him turning towards his masturbating betas, talking to them as if he had never existed in the first place. "Well, guess you guys are next in line!"

Drake slammed the door of the room behind him, cutting off the howls of exultation. As he started to walk towards his own hotel room, and before the walking turned into running, tears of fury and impotence started running down his cheeks and leaving a faint, almost invisible trail on the carpeted floor behind him.

***

When Drake burst into the room, Wyatt was busy browsing through the channels of the hotel's TV; in seeing the furious expression in Drake's eyes - a white-hot, incandescent blaze - the alpha almost dropped the remote. "What's happening, my dragon?" he asked in concern. It was clear the rage of his beta wasn't directed towards him, but the sheer power of that feeling was enough to make the hair on his arms stand into attention. "I've never seen you so angry..."

"Punch me!" was Drake's response, a thunderous roar that made Wyatt's ears ring.

"What?" Wyatt murmured, more confused than ever. He still wasn't scared by his mate's sudden change in behavior, although he couldn't help but feeling something was very wrong: whatever had happened that turned Drake - his kind, gentle, goofy Drake - into a bloodthirsty beast had to be a truly terrible thing.

"Fucking punch me, okay?" Drake half-growled, half-screamed, before lunging over him. Wyatt, as fast as he could, closed his left hand into a fist and smashed it on his beta's nose. The sound of the bones snapping was sickening, and made the two werewolves freeze on the spot, their anger and fear completely forgotten for a moment... At least until a veritable torrent of blood started cascading down Drake's face.

"Oh, fuck..." Wyatt groaned, ripping the sheets from the bed and passing them to Drake. The beta, with a small noise of pain, pressed the cloth against his face, smearing his blood all over it. "What the hell, Drake?! You scared me to death!"

"Sorry..." Drake replied, lowering his eyes a bit. "But after what happened, I..." As the river of blood became a rivulet and then stopped altogether, and his bones started readjusting themselves, he succinctly described the horrible scene he had just witnessed. "How could I possibly stay calm after something like that?" he concluded, the knuckles of his hands white, his nails sunk into the flesh of his palms. If he had let the wolf out in that moment, he would've probably destroyed his own hands with his claws.

Wyatt sat on the bed, his forehead covered in sweat. "Y-yeah, it's understandable." His tongue clicked in barely contained annoyance. "I knew there was something fishy about that Jacob bastard... We should go and tell Joy about that, I don't want to see that fucker around next year."

"And how about Inori?" Drake asked with gritted teeth.

"How about her?" Wyatt repeated, looking a bit confused.

"I'm going to help her," the beta replied. "And I was hoping to have my alpha by my side."

Wyatt sighed and shook his head. "It's not that easy, my dragon... It's about..."

Blood started dripping from Drake's tightened hands, drawing scarlet constellations all over the floor. "It's about what?!" he snarled, his fangs lengthening, his eyes burning. "They're raping her! They've been raping her for years, just because of what she is! And you don't want to help me stop that?! What the hell!"

Wyatt rose back on his feet, his tail snaking out of his pants, his ears honing to points, his hind claws sinking in the parquet flooring. "It's about being an alpha!" he growled back. "I can't interfere with the matters of another pack like that! I know Jacob is an asshole and a monster and that Inori is most probably suffering, but... he is still her alpha. You have to understand that..."

"No." Drake lowered his eyes; his face betrayed his immense rage, but most of all his disappointment. "No, I don't understand, Wyatt. The only thing I understand is that you're acting like a complete hypocrite."

"What?!" Wyatt replied, his eyes going wide. "What do you..."

"Answer me, Wyatt," Drake interrupted him again. "When you rebelled against your sister, what did you..."

"Oh, come on, that's a completely different story!" Wyatt retorted. "First things first, I was a beta, and..."

"Exactly," Drake went on, implacable. "You were a beta, and you challenged your alpha because you thought she was wrong." He lifted a strong, bloody fist in front of his golden eyes. "Fight me, Wyatt."

The alpha shook his head, his eyes closed. This isn't happening, this isn't happening, he kept repeating inside his mind like a desperate mantra, as if he was trying to deny the very existence of Drake.

"You should let Drake do what he wants, my alpha." A voice resonated into the room, forcing Wyatt to open his eyes: standing in the threshold, Angela was looking at both of them, with Patrick right behind her. The young woman looked the same as always, and yet she was completely different: she was standing tall, her arms crossed over her chest, her voice still gentle and respectful but firm and hard as a blade of steel; as Angela stepped into the room, Wyatt realized that her eyes - instead of showing those ominous red speckles - were now uniformly golden... but it took him some seconds to realize that there was no scarf around her neck, the dark purple bruise for the world to see..

"Angela... you... Your neck..." he murmured, more confused than ever. What the fuck is happening?!, his brain screamed in impotence.

The young woman shook her head. "No more repressing memories. No more making myself weaker. And most of all, no more hiding." She crossed the whole room, grabbed Wyatt by a shoulder and placed a gentle kiss on his lips. "I love you, my alpha. I always have. And even if I know that you have a mate, I will keep on loving you anyway, if that is not a problem for you." The girl smiled, and the expression was nothing but sad. "I feel better, having said that, you know?"

"U-um..." Wyatt murmured. He glanced at Patrick, who just shrugged with a small grin on his face.

"Bernie saved me the first time, my adoptive parents saved me the second time... And you, my alpha, saved me the third time. I was weak, and lost, and scared... But you saved me anyway." Angela nodded. "That girl, Inori... She is like me. She is waiting for someone to save her. And Drake..." She turned around to face him. "He saved me the fourth and last time; he listened to me, he accepted everything about me, and he never judged me... But from now on, I will not need to be saved anymore. When the time comes, I will save myself."

"I..." Wyatt looked at Angela, desperately trying to avoid Drake's eyes. "I don't know what to say..."

"Say yes, then." Chance, with Kaylee in tow, had appeared right next to Patrick. "I heard everything, alpha... And I agree with Drake and Angela. We have the possibility to save someone, right? Well, I think we should do it!" The boy lowered his eyes and a small, mysterious smile appeared on his lips. "Just because it seems hopeless, it's not a good reason enough to give up, right? There's always the chance to save someone..."

The alpha lowered his eyes; his face was an indecipherable mask, and his teeth were tormenting the nail of his right pinky, so much so that blood started dripping down his finger. "I..." he was feeling the stares of his five packmates over him, and for a moment he asked themselves if he would ever find the strength to raise his head again. "I'm so sorry..." he murmured. "I was just... I mean..." Wyatt bit his lips. "What if something like that one day happens to my pack? What if someone decides I'm not a good alpha and tries to take one of you away from me?"

Drake's strong, sonorous laughter hurt his ears and heart for a moment, until Wyatt realized his beta wasn't laughing at him. "Wyatt, please... Don't be silly." Two fingers forced the alpha to raise his gaze: Drake was mere inches from his face, and there was no trace of the previous fury in his eyes. "Unlike Jacob, you're a great alpha."

Wyatt gulped, his bloodied fists trembling a bit, but he managed not to look away. "No, I'm not," he murmured. "You're right, my dragon... I'm a hypocrite. I didn't want to meddle with the affairs of other packs, but that won't make me a good or responsible alpha... Just a horrible person." His eyes shifted to Patrick, then Angela, then Chance and Kaylee. "Will you forgive me? All of you."

Drake smiled, showing his fangs. "Come on, let's show our silly alpha our forgiveness!" Before Wyatt could even realize it, his five betas were hugging him; they took him by surprise, so much so that he lost his balance and fell on the bed behind him, taking the other werewolves with him.

The sextet, a wriggling bundle of limbs and heads with Wyatt as its core, lied on the bed for some minutes, giggling quietly and enjoying each other's presence without saying anything; Wyatt, feeling the bodies of his betas pressed against his own, sighed in relief: the heartbeats couldn't lie, they weren't angry with him... They were happy, and calm, and strong; and some of them - Angela and Chance in particular - were stronger than ever before. I feel so stupid... he thought, basking in the warmth. "I love you, guys," he said. "You're the best pack someone could hope for."

"And you're the best alpha around," Drake replied, nuzzling against Wyatt's face with his bearded cheek. "It's not your fault that you're also an asshole," he then added in a joking tone.

"H-hey!" Wyatt exclaimed back, his cheeks red. "T-though... Well, maybe you're right, my dragon. Just a bit." The young alpha grinned a bit. "So... What you're gonna do? Talk to her?"

"No, don't think that'd work," Drake replied. "I'll try and beat some sense into her." Everyone else turned their eyes to stare at him in shock and disapproval. "Hey, it will be a regular match, just like the Battle of the Betas! Don't get me wrong!"

"Makes sense," Wyatt nodded. "Though... She managed to thrash you quite easily last time, my dragon. You'd need a good plan."

With a pensive look on his face, Drake licked his beard and the dark, now dried-up blood stuck in there; as if the taste of his own hemoglobin was somewhat revealing, a small glimmer appeared in his eyes. "Yeah... I think I have one."

(next chapter: The pride of the lily of the valley)