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

You can find his profile and awesome stories here: www.furaffinity.net/user/leotodrius

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Lykos - Wild Things

Chapter 12 - The pride of the lily of the valley

Chance yawned, showing canines that were too long and pointy to belong to a normal human. As always when he was sleepy, it was difficult for him to keep his wolf in check. "It's four o' clock in the morning..." he mumbled, putting a chair next to a row of its identical twins.

"Uh uh," Kaylee slurred next to him, moving slowly and a bit sluggishly, as if she was a zombie instead of a lycanthrope. "I didn't even know four in the morning actually existed..."

Angela walked behind the two of them and ruffled their hair with her hands, a big smile on her face. "Come on, it is for a good cause. And when you have done your part in setting up the ring, you can rest like Patrick." The young woman nodded at her mate, who was sleeping on a chair in the middle of the party hall, a beatific expression on his round face. If it wasn't for his beard, he would've looked like a giant baby.

"Oh, god, he's so cute..." Kaylee exclaimed after one of her trademark squeals. She quickly put down the chair she was carrying and rushed to him, brushing her nose against his; when he opened his eyes, she placed a kiss on his cheeks, that almost immediately became red.

Angela nodded, looking at the two of them with a quiet, deep joy in her eyes. "Yeah. He is..." She then turned around to face the fifth and last occupant of the room. "Are you ready, Drake?" She asked him, her voice shifting into a more serious tone.

The beta, whose eyes were lost in the distance, jerked a bit in hearing her voice, but then nodded. "Yeah. At least I guess."

Angela shook her head with a knowing smile on her lips. "No, you are ready. I am sure of it... There is no way you are not ready for this."

Drake stared back at her as is he was looking at her for the first time in his life. "How could you change so much in just one day, Angela? You are... completely different than before."

"Please, do not be silly, Drake," she replied, before extending a slender, elegant finger and bopping him on the nose. "I am still me, just less weak than I was before. Sometimes, not much is needed to trigger a change, no matter how big... As you know, a bite may be enough." Angela giggled. "A sentence, a word, even a simple gesture... You only have to find the right way to unlock someone's heart."

"Speaking of unlocking," Chance intervened. "How does Wyatt plan on opening the door to Inori's room if Jacob has the only key?"

"Just like he opened the door of the party hall, I guess," Drake replied.

Then teenage werewolf scratched his small goatee, pensive. "Yeah... How the hell did he open the door, now that I think about it?"

"Because I can pick locks." Wyatt, standing on the threshold, showed the claws of his left hand to Chance with a bored expression on his face. "Seriously, how many times do I have to tell you guys?"

"Except these doors have magnetic keys," Chance retorted.

The alpha sighed and flexed his fingers again, making his claws disappear and reappear. "Don't make me say that again," he warned.

"So... How did you do that, then?"

"If you think I'm going to reveal you my secret, you're a fool," Wyatt replied with a grin.

Finally, Angela stepped between the two of them. "You can discuss the matter some other time," she said in a calm tone, though her eyes were full of disapproval. "Have you brought Inori?"

"Yes. I am here." The creepy girl slipped into the room with her trademark immaculate dress on, her emotionless mask still in place, her voice a screamed whisper, low and at the same time perfectly clear. When her eyes scanned the hall and finally stopped on Drake, she didn't even blink. "Your alpha told me you wanted to see me."

She doesn't remember I was there? Drake thought, taking a few uncertain steps towards her. Was she too far gone in that moment? Her heartbeat, when Drake focused on it, sounded normal and didn't betray any emotion. "I didn't hope you would've actually come," he said, scratching the back of his neck. "I thought you alpha had the key of your room."

Inori stood silent for some long seconds, so much so that Drake thought she wasn't going to answer him. "Jacob has the key of my room," she repeated. "That doesn't mean I can't go outside if someone opens the door. He never said anything about that."

"Oh. Good." Drake replied, a bit taken aback: Inori was behaving like a robot, taking the words of her alpha as direct, albeit strictly literal orders. Of course, he wasn't going to complain about that: plan B would have been to go and beat the hell out of Jacob and his pack, something that he was really glad to be able to avoid... at least for the time being.

"Since I can easily open the door of her room again, she came here willingly," Wyatt explained, once again raising his claws for the people around him to see.

"Okay, we got it, you can pick locks! ...and also magnetic locks, apparently," Chance grumbled.

"I'm sure you can guess why I wanted you here," Drake told Inori in the meantime.

The girl didn't even nod. "You want a rematch," she murmured, her dark irises lingering over the ring made out of chairs. "Even though I don't see any reason why."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Drake asked back.

Inori moved her deep unfathomable eyes to meet Drake's. "Even though I defeated you last time, you don't look like the kind of person who would hold a grudge. Still, if you want to fight against me so badly, then be it... Though I will not hold back, just like last time. Is that alright for you?"

Drake took off his shoes and his shirt and stepped into the ring, from where he stared at the girl with the most determined expression he could muster in that moment (which, admittedly, perhaps wasn't the most convincing one). "I won't hold back, either. I'll give all I've got, and I hope you'll do the same."

The girl looked at him and slipped out of her dress, revealing a sports bra and a pair of shorts, the same style of clothing she had been wearing during their first match. "I still don't understand why we are doing this," she said before jumping into the perimeter of the ring. There was a subtle but intense sourness trapped in the corner of her eyes and in the shape of her lips. "Are you trying to humiliate me?"

Drake tilted his head on the side. "Um... What do you mean?"

Inori took a couple of step forward, bringing herself closer; before Drake could realized, he had inhaled deeply, but the peculiar scent of the girl - the bourgeonal, as Jacob had called it - was almost imperceptible unless she was in her wolfman form. "You were there," she murmured. "You saw me... with my pack. That is who... no, what I am." Inori lowered her eyes. "It would be better if you'd just leave me alone. For the both of us."

Drake had to suppress the instinctive need to run to Inori, hug her and tell her everything was going to be okay; instead he smiled at her, trying to look as friendly as possible. "Okay, how about that? If you win the match, I'll leave you alone. I won't try to talk to you, or to approach you in any other way... Is that alright?"

Inori nodded, after a brief moment of consideration. "And should you win?"

"You will listen to what I have to say. That's all I ask," Drake replied.

The girl kept staring at him, her black eyes half of an inch wider. "That's... Not what I was expecting," she admitted.

"Huh?" Drake scratched his hair in confusion.

"I thought..." Her irises darted around, touching Drake's pack members one by one before returning to him. "I thought you wanted what any other male werewolf wants from me."

Drake took a couple of steps back, his face pale and livid under the beard; images flashed in his mind: blood on white sheets, unresponsive eyes filling with tears, a horribly cheerful smile... "I will never do something like that to you, Inori. Believe me."

Inori sighed, a sound that was nothing more than the heartbeat of a tiny mouse. "I'm sorry, but I cannot believe you. That's not something that I can control... Or that you can resist. I'm sure you remember what happened during our first fight."

Drake nodded. "That's why I have the perfect countermeasure ready. What you do... Well, what your body does, it's connected to smell, am I right?"

"Yes," Inori replied, looking a bit taken aback by the question. "That's why it only has effect on werewolves... Why are you asking?"

Drake smiled back at her. "Well, it's easy. You see..." The young man curled his right hand into a fist and smashed it against his nose at full force; an explosion of orange and red pain obliterated his brain for a couple of seconds, while a waterfall of blood bedraggled his chest and pants. "FUGH!" he shouted, uselessly flapping his hand in the air. "DAD HURD LIGE HELL!"

"Yeah, my dragon... A bit less strength next time, maybe?" Wyatt grinned from outside the ring. Just like Drake had suggested, they were keeping some distance from the chairs, in order not to fell under Inori's unwitting charm.

"W-what..." Drake, despite the pain covering his face like a white-hot mask made out of molten lava, managed to lower his stare: Inori was staring at him with her eyes as wide and round as coins. After a few seconds, Drake realized it was the very first time the girl had displayed any kind of intense emotion. "W-why did you do something like that?"

The young man did his best to strike a fighting pose. I have to hurry... I certainly don't want to punch myself a second time if I can help it, he thought. "Gome on, Inori, show be whad you gan do," he said, his voice distorted by the pain and the broken nose.

Drake's words were enough to make the surprise on Inori's face disappear: she once again took her trademark distant and aloof expression, and her wolfgirl form blossomed from her body. "As you wish," she murmured, before jumping forward, her claws glistening sinisterly under the lights of the party hall. Drake let out a yelp, and manage to take a half-step on the right before the quintet of small deadly scythes sliced the air where his face had been less than a second before.

Shit, Drake thought while crouching a bit to get ready to face the girl's second assault. Even without those pheromones messing with my mind, she still is awfully fast! He couldn't even finish that thought before Inori jumped at him again; this time her claws managed to connect, carving thin parallel lines of pain in the skin of his left cheek and mangling his ear into something barely recognizable. Drake roared and jumped to his right again, before moving back a couple of steps; his face hurt like hell, but the new wounds had at least slowed down the regeneration of his broken nose. He couldn't focus on his current situation too much, though, because Inori was already lunging at him for the third time.

Despite the fact that Inori was so incredibly fast and agile, while Drake barely managed to get out of the way in time not to get his chest stabbed by her vicious claws, he took a second to look at his opponent, and he couldn't help but feel admiration and awe in the way her long braid of black hair swished through the air, contrasting beautifully with the silver of her tail; the feverish determination in her golden eyes, the killer instinct of a true beast of prey; her slender, thin, light body that made her look like a fox more than a wolf; her claws, curved and deadly like small scimitars.

In a word, she was beautiful. But not - Drake realized while he dodged another lunge - in the shallow, sexual sense inspired by her pheromones, the only kind of beauty Jacob seemed able to notice in her... It was more like she was a work of art, something that should have been protected, cherished and cared for, even though she was clearly more than able to protect herself. That's right, Drake thought, a small smile dawning on his lips. I want to protect her.

Inori, who was on the verge of attacking him for the fifth time, stopped right in the middle of the arena and stared at him with burning eyes. "Why are you smiling?" she asked, and despite the fury in her irises, her voice was still almost robotic.

Drake shook his head. "Sorry, just a random thought. Shall we continue?"

Inori looked back at him for some long seconds. "You promised me you wouldn't have held back, and yet you're just dodging my attacks. Why?" Now, more than enraged, she seemed hurtful and betrayed behind her impassive mask.

"I'm not holding back, but that doesn't mean I want to fight to the death either," Drake replied, giving her a friendly grin. "There are things I want to tell you if I win, remember? I can't do that if I kill you," he added in a joking tone that was apparently wasted on Inori.

"Stop underestimating me, Drake, or you will end up regretting it," the girl said... and then, with no further warning, she dashed towards him once again. Her claws drew blood for the second time, cutting Drake's skin just below his pecs without managing to go deep enough to damage the muscles; still, Drake's vision was tinged crimson in sudden pain, and air escaped from his lungs.

"Wow... T-that hurt!" he exclaimed nonetheless, managing to conjure yet another smile, albeit a weak and uncertain one. "Nice blow, Inori!" he even raised a clawed thumb in her direction.

"Stop... Stop making fun of me!" Inori replied, her fury finally starting to crack her icy facade a bit; Drake noticed she was even panting a little.

"I'm not making fun of you," Drake replied in a calm tone. "I honestly think you're very good at fighting... It's a shame you don't do that more often."

"What do you mean?" Inori growled, her eyes angrily narrowed.

"You should fight back, Inori," Drake replied. "You should have done that long ago."

"Shut your mouth, shut your mouth!" the girl exclaimed, moving to attack once again. This time, however, Drake surprised her; the bigger werewolf brought out his own claws and lunged forward, his muscled body strong and imposing. Inori's eyes widened for a moment, and though she managed to dodge the blow with ease, the look of shock on her face was so unexpected it even made Drake himself flinch for a moment.

No, I can't hesitate now, he thought, trying to gather all his determination. Even though they were silent and standing at a safe distance from the ring, Drake knew that his pack members were looking at him and cheering from the bottom of their hearts. Patrick, Angela, Chance, Kaylee, and Wyatt especially... There was no way he could disappoint them.

You want me to be serious, Inori? Drake thought, letting his inner wolf flow more freely: his smile evolved into a grin full of fangs, his bodily fur became more prominent, and the various cuts and bruises - not to mention his broken nose - started repairing themselves at an alarming rate. I have to finish this quick, he realized as his superior sense of smell once again caught the venomous and intoxicating scent given off by Inori. He avoided another attack and slashed back at his opponent, managing to shred the ribbon that kept Inori's braid into place; as the girl darted away, her long black hair began to unfurl, turning into a dark mane that floated behind her like a cape.

Inori's attacks became faster, more savage and desperate. She was using all the energies of her small body in order to win that fight: more than a ninja performing an assassination, she was looking more and more like a real fox trying to defend her territory for a wolf... a wolf that, unfortunately for her, was gaining the upper hand with every passing second.

I'm sorry, Inori, I didn't want to hurt you, Drake thought despite having just scratched the girl's left arm near the shoulder socket, corrupting the purity of her pale skin with the dark redness of blood. But I think I understand you, even though I don't know you that well... You'll never accept the loss unless I beat you fair and square, right?

The two werewolves kept prancing around, lunging at each other and avoiding each other's claws for some minutes. Drake was even forced to break his own nose a second time - although at least he put less strength in the punch - when he realized Inori's bourgeonal was starting to cloud his judgementand make him desire the lithe, slender body of his opponent. The young man was panting and wheezing, dry blood mixing with fur and sweat to create a matted mess on his athletic chest. Wow... This is much harder than I thought...

Inori, however, looked even worse: her face was paler than ever, her eyes wide and round like those of an owl, and she was clearly short of stamina, so much so that Drake could even hear her hands trembling... and yet, she wasn't giving up; if anything, her attacks were getting more vicious, more determined, as if her life depended on the outcome of that match.

Why is she so bent at winning? Drake said to himself. Her like sucks, he alpha is a horrible person and she's raped multiple times on a daily basis... So why?

Because that is the only thing she knows, another voice in his brain - not the wolf, though, even if it did sound similar - answered. Her existence is horrible and full of pain, sadness and humiliation, and even though she suffers every day and the only kind of love she has any memory of is a lie... It's still the only love she remembers, and that's why she's defending that lie so fiercely. And there's only one thing you can do, Drake...

Drake nodded. Inori was staring at him, staring at him with her burning eyes, her killer instinct still untamed; even after everything that had happened during that fight, she still looked ready to rip Drake's heart out of his chest. Come, Inori. Come at me, he thought. I'm waiting for you.

As is Inori had heard the voice in Drake's head, she let out a low snarl and ran towards him with her claws bare, her arms wide and her fingers stretched. Her stance was full of openings, and Drake - even if he was now exhausted too - could have easily escaped her attack, but that was not his intention. He stood firm, right in front of Inori, and when she finally was at arm's reach, ready to deliver her blow, he did the only thing he could have done in such a situation.

He hugged her.

"Wh-what are you doing?!" Inori screamed in surprise. She tried to scratch Drake's arms, to push him away, to claw at his face... but Drake didn't let her go, even when she almost managed to squirm away. "Let me go, Drake!"

"No," he replied, simply. "I... don't want to. I want to keep you close, for as long as I can."

Inori stopped thrashing immediately. She raised her head in the slowest gesture, her eyes full of confusion and suspicion and sadness and rage and... yeah, there was even a glimmer of hope in there too, even though it was almost invisible. Almost. "What are you talking about?" she asked, her voice a tiny whisper as if she was afraid to ask that question, and even more afraid to hear the answer.

Drake felt the need to scratch the back of his head, but since he couldn't, his cheeks went red under his beard. "Well, it's just... that. I mean, I'm not doing it because I'm pitying you or because I want to save you, or... no, actually that's why I'm doing this, because I want to save you, and... I mean, Inori, you're strong and your force of will is incredible and you suffered so much and... I think you deserve better, okay?" Drake took a deep breath, while noticing that Inori's face was more puzzled than ever.

"What do you want, Drake? Are you trying to make fun of me?" she asked in a tense voice. "If this is what you wanted to tell me, you still haven't defeated me, so..."

"Yeah, this is what I wanted to tell you!" Drake interrupted her. "Jacob is a monster, and you..." His words degenerated into a pained yelp as Inori buried her hind claws in the skin of his feet.

"Don't you dare, Drake," she hissed. "Don't you even dare talking about my alpha like that." The girl looked pissed off, her mask of supreme indifference now almost completely shattered, revealing the small but powerful and spirited beast beneath... and that made Drake angry too.

"He is a monster alright!" he screamed at her in frustration. "He forces you to do horrible things, even though you're clearly stronger than he is, and much better, and..." Drake stuttered and stopped talking while wrath left place to sadness. "Why... Why did you stay with him? All these years, suffering in silence... why?"

"Because he saved me, Drake." Inori's voice was earnest, and definitive like a death sentence. "I had nothing, and Jacob at least gave me something. I owe him my life..."

"No." Drake shook his head. His wolf side was disappearing quietly, retreating into the depths of his soul until only his human body remained behind. "You are wonderful and unique, Inori; you're worth one million Jacobs, and you owe him nothing."

This time, it was Inori's turn to shake her head and let her wolf go. Drake had never seen her so small and lost. "You don't understand, Drake. If I leave Jacob, I'll have nothing again. I'll be alone, and that's... that's something I cannot stand. Not anymore."

"Why don't you just join another pack, then?" Drake proposed, but Inori shook her head again.

"And who would want me? I'm nothing but damaged goods..." The girl lowered her stare. "You won the match, Drake. I resign. Can you let me go now? I want to go back to my room." Her voice had returned to the usual monotone, robot-like tone, her mask of sorrow and impassivity covering her face once again.

Fuck, I'm losing her, Drake said to himself. Words aren't gonna work with her, so what can I... wait, she never actually experienced what love is, right? The young man, hugged Inori a bit tighter, until her head was lying against his chest. "Listen," he said.

And she did. The entire room fell into silence, and the only thing Drake could hear was the beating of his own heart against his eardrums... and, after a while, the soft and feeble weeping of Inori. Drake closed his eyes and pulled the girl a little closer; he was so focused on Inori that he didn't even realize that his pack had stepped inside the ring, at least until he felt Wyatt's arm wrapping around his back, and the alpha's face nuzzling against his own. One by one, his friends joined the hug, their seven hearts beating as one for the first time.

"Welcome home, Inori," Wyatt murmured, with a soft smile on his face.

"T-thank you..." Inori's voice was barely audible, but the other wolves could hear it crystal clear. "Thank you, thank you..."

"Who would have thought this?" Angela whispered in a maternal tone while caressing Inori's long silky mane. "We came here to have some fun, and we managed to find a new packmate..." she stopped petting the other girl's hair for a second, her expression turning pensive. "Are you okay with this, Inori? Sorry if we didn't ask beforehand."

Inori turned to face her, her wide and full of innocent surprise. No one probably had ever asked her if something was okay for her, Drake realized. They just took what they wanted from her without her consent, again and again and again...

"Yes," she replied. Just three letters, but the voice that had pronounced them already sounded different than before; all of a sudden Inori looked stronger, more determined... and freer. "Although..." her eyes went sour and dark in a split moment. "Jacob won't like this. He will never let me go."

What followed those words was a sound so out of place that it took Drake's brain some seconds to properly recognize it: Wyatt had just burst into a sonorous laughter. "He will never let you go? Please," he said when everyone, Inori included, turned to face him with shocked stares. "I'm your alpha now. Leave that to me."

***

The morning after, when Wyatt's pack walked inside the party hall, they found themselves surrounded by buzzing voices and nervous stares all around. Drake's eyes browsed all over the crowd and spotted Jacob apparently discussing something in quite the animated way with Joy, Clyde, Felissa and Hyun-woo, his pack members right behind him. Drake let out a long, dull growl as his teeth started developing into fangs, but he managed to stop the involuntary transformation when Wyatt casually brushed the back of his hand against his own. "Calm down, my dragon," he said, a funny look in his chestnut eyes. "Let me handle this, okay? You're a bit too much emotionally invested at the moment."

Drake nodded. "Y-yeah... You're right. What do you plan to do?"

Wyatt shrugged. "Well, of course I will beat that fucker to a pulp... That's what you would do too, right?" He replied in the same voice one would've used to talk about a birthday party. Before Drake could respond, though, the young alpha took a couple of steps forward and jumped right in the middle of the small circle of people with a killer smile on his face. "So? What's the matter, guys?" he asked in a pleasant, silky tone. "Seems like something serious happened while I wasn't around."

Jacob's eyes, however, seemed to completely bypass Wyatt; they began to scan the crowd until they found Drake, and narrowed in suspicion. "My dear lily of the valley has disappeared, as I was just explaining." He finally told Wyatt. "I guess you can't be of any help finding her, right, Wyatt?"

Wyatt's flashy smile turned into a smirk. "Oh, no, Jacob, on the contrary. I know exactly where she is... Want to come in, Inori?" he added while gesturing towards the double doors of the party hall; each and every werewolf in the room turned around to look at the girl walking into the room, a scene that reminded Drake of all those countless high school romantic comedies where the main girl, at the beginning of the final act, arrived at the prom completely changed a wearing a brand new dress... which, in a way, wasn't that far from the truth.

Indeed, Inori wasn't donning her usual pure white nightgown-like dress that had made her look like a vengeful spirit out of some Asian horror flick, even though - thanks to the blazer and skirt she had borrowed from Kaylee - she was basically a dead ringer for a Japanese high schooler. Her hair, no longer restrained into a braid, were free to fall on her shoulders and back, giving her a mysterious but not creepy charm; her expression was still rigid and doll-like, but there wa a bit more color on her cheeks and into her eyes, and she even looked a bit nervous while she stepped inside.

Of course, not everyone seemed impressed by the makeover. "Is this some kind of joke?" Jacob spat out, darting alternatively at Drake and Wyatt. "I don't think I gave you the permission to lend her clothes, nor I gave her the permission to accept them. She," Jacob pointed at Inori with what looked like an accusatory finger. "is not my lily of the valley."

"You are right." Everybody turned at once towards the doors, this time with really surprised stares: Inori's eyes were fixed into Jacob's her face unfathomable, her tone firm. "I'm not your lily of the valley. Not anymore."

Jacob's expression was that of someone who had just been hit with a zinc bucket right on the temple: his eyes bulged and his lips opened and closed as if he was on the verge of vomiting breakfast. "What... what are you talking about? Of course your are, Inori, don't be silly. You..." He once again stared at Drake first and then Wyatt, murderous intent clearly visible in his eyes. "You've been coerced by those two, right? What did they tell, you, Inori? That you are strong and special and that you should be free to do whatever you want? Well, I'm sorry to break that illusion, but I'm still your alpha; I saved your life, I gave you a home and a name, and that's how you repay me?"

"Well, you and your pack of perverts routinely abused of her for the past few years, I guess that counterweights a bit," Wyatt observed in a casual, carefree tone and the smile of someone who was telling the funniest joke ever... and in seeing him so calm and in control, even Drake started to relax a bit.

Jacob shrugged. "So what? She is a member of my pack, right?" He looked around at the alphas reunited in the hall as if he was asking for their opinion on the matter. "The fact that another alpha is trying to meddle with my decisions is something I frankly consider offensive." His eyes moved to Joy. "I thought this convention was an opportunity to socialize among packs, I didn't come here to be insulted," he spat out.

Joy hesitated for a moment, before she looked at Wyatt with a look of guilt on her face. "Well, as much as I hate saying this, he is right... I mean, Inori is a member of his pack."

Wyatt, however, shook his head. "And yet, she clearly said 'I'm not your lily of the valley anymore'... am I right?" Just behind Joy, like an impromptu Greek choir, Clyde, Felissa and Hyun-woo nodded at once. "If she voluntarily leaves her pack and joins a new one, Jacob won't have authority over her anymore."

A slow, small smile appeared on Joy's face. "Well, that's indeed true."

Jacob, however, let out a long, mocking, cruel laughter. "And who would accept someone like her in their pack, Wyatt? You?"

Wyatt crossed his slender but muscular arms over his chest and faced Jacob. "Precisely. And Inori agrees with me... am I right?" Inori, her face strained and pale, still nodded with conviction.

Jacob growled, his head slightly lowered in an attempt to make himself look more menacing. "He can't do that!" he exclaimed, looking at the crowd around him. "He's trying to rob me of my beloved flower!"

"Why don't we settle the issue with a fight, Jacob? Let our claws decide who's in the right," Wyatt proposed. "Would that be okay, Joy? I know it's asking a lot, but would you allow for a Battle of the Alphas? Just this once?"

The woman frowned, her deep dark eyes lost in thought. "Yes," she finally deliberated. "After all, I'm afraid this would be the only way to settle the issue once and for all. Ladies and gentlemen?" She then addressed the crowd of werewolves. "Let's take some steps back, okay? We have to make some room for the fighters."

"W-what?!" Jacob exclaimed while turning around and noticing with clear dismay that all the other wolves - including his own betas - were following Joy's order. "But... this isn't right! She is mine!"

"Well, let's see if that's true," Wyatt replied, flicking his right hand and making his claws appear in a gesture that was graceful and deadly in equal parts.

"You..." Jacob's eyes sparked gold in fury and bloodlust. "I'll fucking kill you!" He snarled. "You and that fucking beta of yours!" Drake felt a tiny shiver down his spine.

Wyatt, unperturbed by the death threat, just stood in the middle of the ring with a jolly expression on his face. "You know what, Jacob? I'd love to see you try."

Jacob let out a roar - a quite impressive one, to be honest - and lunged forward, trying to viciously claw at Wyatt's throat; the other alpha, however, just took a casual step back and easily avoided the attack. "You're really underestimating me, Jacob... Do you think that kind of amateurish move would work on me? Come on!"

Why does he have to brag? Drake thought after a brief sigh. Well, I guess he wouldn't be himself if he didn't... The young man felt a hand grabbing his t-shirt gently, and lowered his eyes: Inori was right next to him, looking at the fight with a nervous but determined expression on her face. "Don't worry," Drake muttered to her. "He's fighting for you."

"I know," Inori nodded. "It's just... weird. Why is he doing something like that for me?" The girl looks up, her eyes a bit watery. "Why did you decide to save me from him? You all barely know me."

Drake, for a moment, stared at Wyatt - who was still taunting a very pissed-off Jacob - and a small smile appeared on his face. "Well, because it was the right thing to do," he said, feeling Patrick's hand on his shoulder. Angela stepped forward right behind Inori, while the two pups sat on the floor next to her and looked up at her with friendly grins on their faces. "And, well, because you're one of us now, and that's what good packmates do, right? They defend each other and stand up for each other."

"Come on, Jacob, this is getting seriously boring!" Wyatt said to his opponent after having avoided another attack without even breaking a sweat. "Care to show me what you can do? I mean, you're supposed to be an alpha, right? So why are you fighting like an old lady? Do you need a five minutes break? Some green tea, perhaps, or maybe a shoulder massage?"

"Stop... fucking... with... me!" Jacob roared while punctuating every word with a blow... None of them, however, managed to hit Wyatt; the younger alpha didn't even seem to make an effort to avoid Jacob's assaults; it was more like he was dancing around his opponent, or even more accurately playing a game of tag with him, even though Jacob was clearly bent at disemboweling him.

"Don't worry, Jacob, I'd never fuck with you," Wyatt grinned at him, his fangs glistening under the bright lights of the party hall. "To be honest, you're not my kind of guy, so I guess it would be better just to remain friends... Or maybe not, since you're a horrible and pathetic excuse for a person anyway."

"Do you think it is wise for Wyatt to taunt Jacob like that?" Angela asked Drake. "He looks very... pissed off." She did her best to look serious, but her lips were trying to hide a grin without much success.

"Well, Wyatt knows what he's doing... Or at least I think," Kaylee replied; she was sketching something on her notebook, maybe inspired by the fight scene in front of her eyes for an illustration for her endless fanfiction. "What do you say, Drake?"

"Come on, girls! We should have some faith in our alpha! Right, big bro?" Chance exclaimed, staring at Drake in expectation.

Why is everyone asking for my opinion? Drake wondered. Have I become some sort of head beta during the night or something? "U-um..." the young man scratched the back of his neck, as usual. "Yeah, you're right, Chance. Wyatt will never lose." A big smile appeared on his face. "There's absolutely no way that could happen."

Meanwhile, the fight was advancing at the same strange, unbalanced pace: Jacob's behavior was degenerating, his screams now nothing more than unarticulated grunts and roars, his claws slashing through the air, his breath heavy and liquid. Wyatt, on the other hand, was pirouetting around him under the party hall lights: he didn't look tired, not even a droplet of sweat tarnishing his forehead; he too wasn't talking anymore, his constant stream of mockery halted: after all, just being able to avoid each and every slash was fuel enough for Jacob's rage. Even the crowd of werewolves around the two opponents - who had looked worried in the beginning - was now quite interested in the match, and some of them were even cheering for Wyatt. The only exception were of course Jacob's betas, who looked more nervous and unsure about what to do with every passing minute.

It's as if everyone has already decided who the winner is going to be, Drake pondered. The wolves seemed more excited now, as if they were witnessing some grand and secret show; even Clyde was eyeing at Wyatt with bated breath. Guess that's the reason why alphas aren't allowed to fight against each other... The stakes are a bit too high. The man lowered his eyes and stared at Inori's head from above. Although, I'm glad she was my opponent in the Battle of the Betas... I would've never been able to meet her otherwise.

An audible sigh came from the center of the ring, capturing everyone's attention in an instant: Wyatt had just dodged the nth punch and was staring at Jacob with a look of absolute pity. "Seriously, that's all you can do? Guess I set my expectations a bit too high... And with 'a bit' I mean a lot. Well, there's no real point in dragging this pathetic show for much longer..."

The young alpha moved almost too fast for Drake's eyes to follow: before he had even finished pronouncing the last word, he had darted forward and buried his first in Jacob's abdomen, just below his rib cage. Jacob let out a surprised mewl before his eyes bulged wide in pain. "See? That's how you punch someone," Wyatt grinned. "Why don't you try now? I mean, I showed you how it's done, right? Although, I have to admit I'm a very bad teacher."

Jacob stared at him with eyes burning in hatred, but he was clearly still feeling the effects of the punch and only managed to take half a step towards his opponent. "Y-you..."

Wyatt turned towards Joy, looking at her with a big smile on his face. "Um... What do you say, boss? I don't think he'll give up, and I certainly don't want to kill him, despite the fact that I'd probably do the world a favor by doing so... How should we settle this?"

"What... bullshit... is... that?" Jacob growled, still advancing towards his opponent at a snail's pace. "Of course... I won't give up..."

"No, Jacob. You will." Drake didn't even realize Inori was gone until he saw her in the middle of the ring, facing her former alpha with no fear nor hesitation. She looked so small in front of him, but it was the kind of smallness a mongoose displays when it's facing a cobra. "Wyatt is stronger than you are. You should just accept that."

"And if I don't?" Jacob sneered at her.

Inori took another step forward. "Then I will fight you," she calmly declared. "And unlike him, I won't be merciful."

Even if Jacob was still unsteady because of Wyatt's fist, he still let out the most sarcastic, venom-dripping, derisive laughter Drake had ever heard. "You? Do you really think you can face an alpha?"

The entire crowd waited in complete silence for Inori's answer. "I am the lily of the valley, Jacob. I managed to poison a dragon two days ago... Do you think I would have problems dealing with a mere mutt?"

Inori's boast had a huge effect, though perhaps not the one she had expected: completely oblivious of his previous opponent, Jacob let out a vicious snarl and lunged for his former beta, a murderous glint in his golden eyes that were acquiring some sinister, reddish shades of rust and copper, ready to rip the girl's throat. Drake's muscles tensed, and he prepare himself to step forward in order to at least push Inori out of the way...

Until, with an almost casual movement, Xander emerged from the crowd of people and punched Jacob right in the groin. "Fuckin' dick," the short bearded man snorted as Jacob collapsed in front of him with a surprised whimper of pain. "You alright, miss?" he then asked, turning towards Inori with a huge reassuring smile nestled in the middle of his dense facial fur.

"Y-yeah..." Even Inori, in such a situation, looked surprised. "That was..."

Meanwhile, right behind Xander, Jacob was already getting back on his feet. Maybe he had too much adrenaline coursing through his body to feel too much pain, but it didn't look like his killer instinct had been damaged that much by that second punch. Drake and some other wolves let out cries of warning towards Joy's head beta... but, as it turned out, there was no real danger to begin with.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, sir," claws that were clearly much longer and sharper than those of the majority of werewolves closed around the soft skin of Jacob's throat in a gentle, almost intimate gesture. "People might get hurt," Dakota, who had appeared behind the enraged alpha without almost anyone noticing, looked at him from behind his shoulder with an uncanny, unsettling smile on his delicate and effeminate face before licking Jacob's ear in a languid gesture. "Especially you."

"Not to mention, you know, that something worse could happen to your other betas. Just saying!" Clyde chimed in; he, Joy, Hyun-woo and Felissa were now standing right behind the rest of Jacob's packmates, who looked appropriately scared.

A long moment of tense silence followed, as Jacob's murdering intent slowly evaporated from his eyes; what was left behind was a much more terrible and disconcerting feeling, at least from his point of view: the idea that he had just been defeated in such an utter and complete way that he had lost all the power he had ever had over Inori in a single second, and that there was nothing he could do to get her back. Drake, for the briefest instant, almost felt sorry for him... almost.

In the end, Jacob shifted back to his human form with a grimace on his face, as if the change had suddenly become painful to him; without even looking in Inori's general direction, he pushed away Dakota and Xander and started strolling towards the exit with the crowd splitting in half to let him walk away. "This is bullshit," he growled to nobody in particular, before adding: "We are leaving." His four betas, however, didn't move a step: they stared at each other, clearly unsure on what to do. "I said: we. Are. Leaving," Jacob repeated in a bloodthirsty snarl, and finally his pack scampered behind him.

"Let's not invite them anymore, okay?" Hyun-woo snarked after Jacob had left the hall, eliciting some laughter from the werewolves around him.

"Nice job, you guys," Wyatt said to Dakota and Xander as the rest of the crowd scattered around, now that the show was over. "Though I have this nagging feeling he completely forgot about my existence halfway through the match... oh, well," he concluded before getting assaulted by his pack members, who pulled him into a group hug.

"Wow, that was awesome!" Kaylee exclaimed. "You defeated him with a single punch! That was the kind of climax the fifth arc of my fanfiction needed!"

Wyatt shrugged, even though he was pleased by the compliment. "Hey, I'm your alpha, I have a reputation to uphold!"

Patrick stopped hugging Angela and Drake's backs to gesture something. "Patrick said it was the coolest thing he has ever seen you do, my alpha," Angela translated for him.

"T-that's not true!" Wyatt replied, looking flustered. "I did other cool things, you know! Like, um... how about that time I challenged Talia?"

"Patrick wasn't part of the pack at the time," Chance grinned.

"Oh. Then, well..."

"Hey, um..." Drake intervened. "I think we are forgetting someone." The six wolves turned their heads to stare at Inori, who was standing right where she had faced Jacob; the girl looked back at them with a strange, uneven mixture of emotions on her pale face, her eyes watery and her lips pursed.

Wyatt smiled back at her. "Oh, come on, what are you doing there? This can't be a real group hug if you don't join us!"

It took Inori some seconds to come closer and hug Wyatt and Drake, burying her face between the two of them and sobbing softly. The two male werewolves looked at each other, and a weird, unexpected feeling bloomed in Drake's mind, a mixture of happiness and relief and pride he had never felt before; he placed his hand over the girl's head, and Wyatt did the same, their fingers brushing against each other. I wonder..., Drake thought as he leaned over, his forehead touching Wyatt's, their eyes closed, their mouths distended into genuine smiles. Is this how it feels, to be a dad?

***

One by one, the various pack that had attended the convention started to leave the hotel one after the other, but not before one last meat-centered lunch together (except, of course, for Jacob and his remaining betas, who had disappeared without nobody noticing nor missing them) "It's a bit sad watching everyone go," Joy commented with a melancholic look on her face; John, always faithful to his self-appointed role of her personal butler, appeared alongside her with an immaculate handkerchief ready. "I should probably start the preparations for next year already."

"You mean you won't be at Comic-Con this year?" Felissa asked in a dejected tone. That day, she was wearing a white shirt and a simple blue gown, her blond mane compressed in an elaborate hairdo kept into place by a purple ribbon on the back. She was carrying around a different sword sheath, a wide one with blue, white and golden decorations all over its smooth surface.

"Of course not," Joy's smile was so strained it bordered into the expression of a serial killer. "You already tricked me once..." The woman shivered visibly. "The stench of sweat and cheap deodorant in that hellish place was unbearable..."

"You know, it's a bit sad we have to leave this place..." Drake was meanwhile say9ing to his packmates in the opposite corner of the party hall. "I mean, I wasn't sure about this convention, and the only things we actually did had been talking and eating, after all... But it was really fun! And we wouldn't have met Inori otherwise," he added, ruffling the girl's raven hair in a tender gesture. Inori raised her head and gave him a tiny, tentative smile.

"Oh, hey, speaking of which," Wyatt intervened. "Are you okay with the name 'Inori' after all? I mean, you're starting a new life anyway, so... It's up to you. You can choose whatever name you want."

Inori stared at him with her head slightly cocked towards a shoulder: it was like she hadn't really considered the issue until that very moment. After some seconds, however, she shook her head. "No. Even if it was Jacob who gave it to me, Inori is still my name, and it's a symbol of who I am: all these years I've been muttering a silent prayer, even if I myself didn't even realize that... And yet, someone heard it loud and clear anyway."

"Hey guys!" Dakota and Xander, who were carrying around a broom and a giant trash bag in order to clean the mess left around the party hall, approached Wyatt's pack. The young androgynous boy appeared to be particularly interested in Chance and Kaylee, and stood in front of the two teenagers with a hesitant face and flushed cheeks. "So, um... leaving already?" he murmured in a sad tone. "I'm going to miss you guys..."

"Awww..." Kaylee whispered in reply before hugging him tight; the gesture caught Dakota by surprise and made him lose grip on the broom, that fell on the floor with a dull thud. "Why don't you come visit us during the summer holidays? I'm sure Wyatt will agree. Right, Chance?"

"Uh? Y-yeah!" Chance exclaimed, looking a bit bewildered. He stared at Dakota in awe and suspicion, as if he was fully expecting the slender and effeminate boy to lunge at his throat in one clean and bloody swoop like an assassin. "S-sorry, Dakota. It's just that, well... what you did before was... a bit unexpected."

Dakota lowered his green melancholic eyes and looked on the verge of crying. "I'm sorry for that," he whispered in a sullen tone. "I guess it's b-because I was bitten by a direwolf, so sometimes I have those, um... 'savage' moments. But don't worry, Chance, I can keep them under control! ...well, most of the time."

"That's... reassuring," Chance replied, but after the briefest moment of doubt he decided to trust his friend and hugged him alongside Kaylee. "Let's keep in touch, okay?"

Wyatt, in the meantime, had been approached and assaulted by an overexcited - well, really not more than the usual - Joy, who had hugged him from the side and was brushing her ample bosom against his shoulder in a joking way. "Awww, I'm going to miss you a lot, little Wyatt!" she mused. "Maybe I'll come and visit you guys with my entire pack instead of just letting Dakota come by himself."

"What?!" Wyatt half-screamed, half-groaned in protest.

"Or they could come to Comic-Con with me since you don't want to," Felissa intervened, grabbing Wyatt's free arm and trying to pull him closer, as if he were a plush the two women were fighting for. "And don't worry about the costumes, I'll find you some myself."

"For the last time: I. Do. Not. Cosplay. Okay?" Wyatt cried in exasperation.

Drake, who was staring at the bizarre show with a slight grin on his face, pondering whether or not he should have intervened to rescue his mate from the two female alphas, was distracted by a discreet coughing. "You did a great job, Drake." The young man lowered his gaze to meet the azure eyes of Xander, who was looking at him with a big smile nestled in the middle of his bushy beard. "Wyatt too, of course. You both showed that asshole who's boss."

"Oh... Um, thanks?" Drake replied, a little embarrassed. "Can I ask you something, though? Since you have much more experience in, you know... being a beta and stuff."

"Sure. What's the matter?"

"It's a bit, um... a bit complicated, for me." Drake confessed. "This whole werewolf hierarchy, I mean." As usual, he started scratching the back of his neck. "Do you think I went a little overboard with what I did? I mean, from the point of view of, you know, our species? I basically stole a beta from another alpha, after all."

Xander scoffed at that, his stare getting darker and his pursed lips disappearing under his copper red moustache. "Bullshit," was his curt reply. "I know what many people say, that the matters of a pack are to be solved inside a pack... That's why my alpha had to say what she said. But you wanna know what I think? Fuck that. That can only work if a pack is made out of good people." For a moment, Xander looked like he was pondering whether or not to spit on the floor to further prove his point. "As I said, you two did a great job, and that's the only thing that matters. And besides..." His eyes became mellower, almost tender. "That Inori reminds me of Dakota, at least a bit. If I had known about her, I would've punched that asshole in the nuts way earlier."

"He's right, you know," Drake raised his gaze and looked around, a bit perplexed; it took him some seconds to realize that the one who was speaking to him was Hyun-woo. The strange, aloof alpha was still a mystery to him, and the fact that he was speaking to him of his own volition was a bit disconcerting.

"People tend to equate a pack to a body and its alpha to the head... And that's true, in a way," Hyun-woo said, accompanying those words with a casual, off-handed gesture of his hand. "On the other hand, that's a very simplistic way to describe how a pack works, not to mention ultimately incorrect, because that would imply that only an alpha has the ability and the right to change his or her own pack... Which is something your own alpha - and many others here, for what matters - has already proven wrong."

"You mean... because they were beta once?" Drake asked when it became clear - after some seconds of awkward silence - that Hyun-woo was waiting for him to say something.

The Asian alpha nodded. "Or omegas. Well, at least in my case."

"Really?" Drake exclaimed, a bit surprised. His pack didn't have an actual omega, though the pups were probably the closest thing to one, but Drake knew from what Angela and Wyatt had told him that an omega was basically the pack bitch, its weakest member... a concept Drake wasn't very comfortable with.

"Really," Hyun-woo replied in a deadpan tone. "But, well, one day I simply decided that I didn't like being considered the last in line anymore, so I trained in secret and then kicked asses right to the top. So, the truth is: every member of a pack, no matter how weak they may look, have the power to change it forever."

"And why are you telling me this?" Drake asked. When he realized that remark could have come off as rude, he got flustered and his ear tips turned fiery crimson. "U-um, I mean... I appreciated the fact that you told me that, but why me?"

Hyun-woo lowered his striped scarf, uncovering the bottom half of his face. Now that Drake could see him clearly, he realized that the alpha in front of him was almost like a Korean version of Wyatt. "Consider it a reward of sorts for what you've done for that girl and for your packmates in general." He smiled, a long, slow, laborious process that put into motion facial muscles he clearly wasn't that accustomed to using that often... and yet, the resulting expression made his face shine: it was gentle, sincere, honest, the kind of smile that managed to brighten even the grumpiest and sourest looking person. It was, in other words, a smile that could make you fall in love on the spot, a smile worth fighting for, maybe even dying for. The same kind of smile Wyatt has, Drake said to himself as a warm ball of happiness hovered in the center of his chest. And the smile I hope Inori will have some day.

And then, Hyun-woo's smile was gone: it had took him some long moments to conjure such a fleeting and perfect work of art, but only half an eye blink to make it disappear. The alpha hid his chin and mouth again under his scarf, his bushy eyebrows fixed in their perpetual scowl. "Don't tell anyone I did that, okay? Especially to Felissa," he mumbled through the fabric.

"What do you mean?" Drake asked back, a vague grin on his lips. "Your words? Or maybe... that?"

Hyun-woo's disgruntlement intensified tenfold. "Yeah. Especially... that."

***

"Why do we have to go home already?" Kaylee grumbled while pulling her small suitcase. Wyatt's pack was right in the middle of the chaotic, aggressive maelstrom of people that was the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, a small of safe island in an ocean of noise and faces. "It seems like yesterday that we came here!"

"Well, technically it was the day before yesterday," Chance pinpointed. "And you're only complaining because you don't want to go to school tomorrow."

Kaylee crossed her eyes in disgust as the septet avoided a band of girl scouts parading through the airport hall. "Still five months because high school will finally end once and for all..."

"You can try to study in the meantime, you know. It's not gonna hurt you," Chance snarked.

"Oh, hey! Look! That's Clyde and his guys, right?" Drake exclaimed at a much higher tone than he should have normally used, trying to avoid a fight between the pups. He and Wyatt were walking in front of the group, with Inori between them, her hands grabbing their shirts in a firm grip. She had barely said anything after they had left the hotel, but her body language had been crystal clear: she didn't want to let them go, in fear that they might disappear into thin air if she had. From time to time, Wyatt and Drake caressed her head or her cheek with their free hands, and she replied with the tiniest smile of relief. "I wonder if Clyde will be on our flight too," Drake wondered.

"Why should he?" Wyatt replied in a tone that sounded too bored and detached to be authentic. "There's a flight for Los Angeles in less than an hour."

"Are you sure you don't want to go and say goodbye?" Drake asked. Wyatt, however, snorted in disdain.

"Yeah, 'cause I know what would happen: he will ask you and Patrick to visit them and most probably try to stick his cigar-stinking tongue into your mouth, all while barely acknowledging my existence." The young alpha grunted. "And yeah, in case you're wondering, I'm envious."

Drake grinned. "Well, don't worry..." he leaned his head against Wyatt's ear and added in a whisper. "I will be your personal leather man tonight."

Wyatt's face burned crimson. "H-hey! Don't say something like that when the kid's around!" he stammered.

"The kid?" Drake replied in confusion; Wyatt, however, was looking at Inori now.

"Don't listen to what your father says, he doesn't know when to shut up." Wyatt then eyed at Drake with a serious expression. "I'm the mother, anyway."

"Um... sure, but why?"

"Well, have you seen my family? Total matriarchy. And since I'm the one who's in charge..."

Drake shook his head, still with a big smirk on his face. "Inori, don't listen to your mother, he's weird."

The girl looked up, first at Wyatt, then at Drake with undecipherable eyes. "Is this some kind of strange thing between the two of you? Because I don't get it."

Wyatt sighed. "Sorry about that, Inori... We went a bit overboard."

The girl, however, shook her head, the smallest shadow of a smile on her lips. "I just said I don't get it, I didn't tell you to stop."

After some more wandering around, the pack finally found the right boarding gate... only to discover that their flight had been delayed by an hour. "Well, that's just precious," Wyatt snarked.

"Hey, at least they haven't canceled it," Drake observed. "Remember what happened in Colorado?"

Wyatt frowned. "Yeah, I wouldn't want to be forced to fly with Clyde and his merry men. I bet they are all loud and rowdy even at ten thousand feet."

"That's not what I meant at all, but... sure, let's go with that," Drake conceded with a grin.

"Hey guys! Come here!" Angela and Patrick had managed to reserve an entire row of chairs for the pack to rest on. The two were already sitting close to each other, holding their hands, Angela slightly leaning against the larger body of her partner, who was looking at her with adoring eyes. "Since we have to wait a bit longer, it's better to at least be a bit more comfortable."

Wyatt, Inori and Drake sat down next to Patrick, with the girl still firmly in the middle, while Chance and Kaylee took the two empty seats at Angela's left. The seven werewolves looked at each other, their eyes slowly browsing their other packmates as small smiles appeared on their faces; seven sighs of relief escaped almost at once from their lips, and seven backs relaxed against the chairs. It was a brief, fleeting fragment of peace in the middle of the chaotic labyrinth of people all around them, but it was enough for them to realize that they were together, that they had each other and that - at least there, at least then - everything was alright.

"Say, Inori, do you want something to drink?" Drake asked a couple of minutes later.

His new packmate looked up to him with a weirded out expression on her face. "Do I?" she repeated, as if she herself had no way to know whether she was thirsty or not. "Yes, I think I do. Can I... Can I have a coke, please? I have always wanted to try one, but my alph... I mean, Jacob," a tiny grimace crossed her face, and when she resumed talking, her voice was more subdued and sounded almost guilty. "He said that flowers only need water to grow and be pure."

"Well, fuck Jacob," Wyatt replied. "From now on, you can drink coke whenever you want, Inori."

"I really do not think that would be good for her health, my alpha," Angela observed with an amused smile.

"Thanks, Wyatt," Inori replied, looking at him with dead-serious eyes and a voice full of sincere gratitude. "But I just want to try it once. I don't even know if I'll like it, after all."

"I'll go get you one, then," Drake said. He tried to get up, but Inori's hand seemed not to want to let him go. The girl alternatively gazed from him to Wyatt and back, her expression confused and worried in equal parts.

Wyatt nodded, a gentle smile on his face. "Go with him. I promise I'll still be here when you come back. Okay?"

"You know, Drake..." Inori said some minutes later, as they were waiting in line to pay for her coke. The girl was staring at the cold can in her hands as if it had contained all the mysteries of the universe. "When I first saw Wyatt, I didn't have that high an opinion of him."

Drake grinned. "You and me both. I mean, first he refused to help me even if one of my legs was broken, and then he basically threatened me to let me die in a hole... so, well, I really wanted to punch him in the face at that time."

"Personally, I thought he looked and smelled weak," Inori explained. "But I was wrong. I mean, after I saw him humiliate Jacob like that, without even trying... I finally understood why he is an alpha." The girl gulped, her fingers clutching the can. "But please, do not tell him I said such a disrespectful thing."

Drake's grin widened a little bit. "I swear."

As the two of them walked back to the airport gate, Inori was the first to notice that something had changed. "Drake, look. There's that weird exhibitionist alpha."

Drake knitted his eyebrows in confusion, but followed the direction of Inori's gaze: and, indeed, Clyde was towering right in front of Wyatt, his beefy arms crossed and an overly amused expression on his face; he was still dressed from head to toe in leather, but he had at least had the decency to put a jacket on. Behind him, ever the inseparable trio, stood Gordon, Eddie and Solomon.

"Hey, here comes our MVP!" Clyde exclaimed when he noticed that Drake was coming closer. "We were waiting for you. Right, boys?" His head betas nodded at once.

"Oh, um... hey Clyde!" Drake smiled back at him; his eyes, however, were focused on Wyatt, who was standing in front of the much bigger alpha with an unreadable expression on his face. "Waiting for your plane, too?"

Clyde, before answering, circled Drake's shoulder with his meaty bicep and pulled him closer; Drake's nostrils were instantly full of cologne, worn leather and overpowering masculinity. "Yeah. And since I hate waiting without doing anything, I was thinking that maybe we could find some place around here to have some fun in the meantime... You know, as a goodbye gift."

Drake got free of Clyde's embrace and gave him a polite smile. "Thanks for the offer, but I'd like to spend some time with my pack now," he replied. "Me and Wyatt have..."

Clyde grunted, interrupting him with a dismissive gesture of his hand. "Nah, I'm sure Wyatt wouldn't mind. Right, little guy?" He looked at the other alpha with a very condescending stare before going on. "I mean, you can spend all the time you want with him, but what about me? I..."

This time, it was Drake who interrupted the other werewolf. "Clyde, I'm sorry, but you're acting like a real asshole. Could you please stop?" He said in a perfectly controlled tone.

Despite the chaos of the airport, an uncomfortable bubble of tense silence enclosed the two packs before bursting. "...I'm sorry, what?" Drake murmured in an incredulous voice, his blue eyes round and wide.

Drake nodded, his face now serious. "I get it, you're not attracted to Wyatt... but don't you dare belittling him like that. He's my alpha, and he has proven his strength well enough in front of everyone, so I think you should pay him some respect, because he surely as hell deserves some. Also, I'm not that horny or desperate to want to spend more time than needed in a dirty bathroom stall, thank you very much." A new smile appeared on his face after his brief lecture was over. "I hope you understand my point."

Behind Clyde, Solomon was staring at Drake with his eyes bulging in shock, Eddie was grinning from ear to ear and Gordon was having a hard time driving away a fit of laughter. The leather clad alpha did his best not to stutter and looked at Drake before shaking his head. "I... man, I'm really sorry, guys. You're right, Drake, I was an asshole." Clyde took a step towards Wyatt. "And... yeah, you did a great job against that guy, this morning. Can you forgive me?"

Wyatt's tongue clicked. "Hey, it's not like I was angry with you or something, you know," he replied in a dry tone. "And that's what you always do anyway, Clyde: first you treat me like a kid, and then you apologize." The young alpha shrugged, but his eyes - behind the glasses - looked a bit hurt. "I'm used to that already. So why do you even bother apologizing?"

Clyde took another half step towards him and brushed the side of his index finger over the beard right under his nose in a clumsy gesture. "Mh. Guess you're right. Well, then..." And then, he lowered his head and placed a kiss on Wyatt's mouth. Chance and Kaylee let out a double gasp of surprise as the kiss got deeper and more intense, even though ultimately it only lasted a handful of seconds. "Here. A token of appreciation," Clyde joked after his lips parted from Wyatt's. "But do not expect more than this, okay?"

Wyatt, still dazed, didn't even try and attempt a reply, but Clyde caught the shocked stare of an old woman who was pulling a suitcase that was half her height and who had stopped dead on her tracks to witness the brief frenching session. "Want to taste a real man too, lady?" Clyde grinned. The woman let out a choked sound and scampered away at a speed that was indeed remarkable for someone who was clearly well into her eighties and who was carrying around a huge suitcase to boot.

A smooth, affected young female voice announced from the speakers that the gate for the 4:10 flight to Los Angeles had just started boarding. Both Clyde and his three betas raised their gazes to the ceiling, and Drake could almost see their ears perk. "Come on, let's go. Better find out the rest of the guys," the alpha said before grabbing Drake's right hand to shake it. "See you soon, hopefully," he added in a friendly tone, but he couldn't refrain from winking lewdly, while Gordon, Eddie and Solomon were busy giving a group hug to a surprised and overjoyed Patrick.

The quartet of werewolves had already disappeared in the crowd before someone talked again: Inori, who had spent the previous minutes slowly and methodically sipping her coke through a colorful straw, raised her dark eyes and stared at her new alpha with curiosity and the faintest hint of bewilderment. "Are you okay, Wyatt?"

The young man just stood there on the spot with his mouth hanging half-open, at least until Drake put a finger under his chin and closed it. "Yeah, don't worry, Inori... He's more than okay", he said with a cheeky grin.

***

"Hello? Drake, is that you?" A smile appeared on Drake's face; even if he had been far away from home for the past half a year, it felt really good to hear a familiar voice from his past.

"Hey, mom, of course it's me!" The flight to Meadows Field has been postponed again because of "technical issues"... although, according to some of the other passengers, it was because a crew member had discovered a suspicious box on the plane that could or could not contain a bomb, which was something that - considering the recent strain of airport attacks against werewolves - could totally be true. Forced to wait for yet another hour and a half, Drake had decided that he could as well call home. "How are you? And dad?"

"Everything's great here!" her mother exclaimed, carefree as always. She, too, was clearly pleased to hear her son's voice. "So, how's your job doing? We barely had any time to talk when you came here for Christmas!"

"Hehe, um... Sorry about that." He had gone home last month both on his and Wyatt's parents' insistence ("You haven't seen your mother and your father since you came here, Drake. Now be a good son and go spend some time with them," Cordelia had declared, and as always her word was final) but he had returned back to Cerulean Falls right after lunch; being that far away from his pack for the first time in months had left him with a gaping, painful void in his chest, as if he had been shot right between the lungs; only when he had heard Wyatt's voice and smelled his scent again, he had felt good. "But yeah, everything's going great here, too. Richard... I mean, mister Underhill is teaching me a lot of useful stuff about the job." Especially how to refine my new and improved sense of smell, he added mentally. His parents didn't know about his change, of course, and he didn't plan to tell them he was a werewolf - or that he was dating another man, for what mattered - anytime soon... They had been shocked enough when they had seen him sporting a full beard, after all. "It's the kind of stuff you can only learn on the field, so I'm really grateful to him," he added, hoping that such a vague explanation would still satisfy her.

At the other end of the line, his mother let out a brief chuckle. "That's good to hear," she replied in a quiet tone.

What followed was a few seconds of weird, almost uncomfortable silence; Drake struggled with his own brain to find something else - anything else - to say, but his mind was a blank slate, a black hole, tabula rasa. "I..." he tried, but no second word followed.

"There's something you want to tell me, right?" It wasn't a question, just a statement masked as one; his mother's voice sounded calm, a bit curious and had a distinct and peculiar shade of tenderness Drake had rarely heard in recent times.

"W-what do you mean?" Drake murmured, stuttering a bit.

"I'm your mother, Drake. It comes with the job," the woman chuckled again. "So... Do you want to talk about it? I promise I won't get angry, unless it's about drugs. It's not about drugs, right?"

"What?! No! It's..." Drake exclaimed in return. A groan raised from his right and something warm pressed against his side, before starting to snore gently. Drake lowered his eyes and a tiny smile dawned on his face; when the second delay had been announced, Patrick, Angela and the pups had decided to take a walk around the airport to pass the time, but Wyatt, Drake and Inori had opted to stay there to look after the luggage, mostly because the girl - despite having had her first coke ever - looked weary and sleepy, and she clearly preferred to stay close to them than wandering around an unfamiliar place. She had fallen asleep after a handful of minutes, nestled among the two of them, a serious but serene expression on her face... And now, apparently, Wyatt had dozed off too: the young alpha was resting his head over Inori's, and his arm circled around her as if he was trying to shield her from the world while his hand was clutched on Drake's shirt. He was snoring gently, and Drake's heart at how cute and peaceful that simple scene was.

"Drake? Are you still there?" Drake's mom voice, a bit worried, broke the enchantment and brought her son back to the reality of the airport. "I can still hear the background noises, but I stopped hearing your voice at some point."

"U-uh, yeah, sorry, mom!" the young man stuttered. "I j-just got distracted, that's all!"

"Where are you, anyway? A shopping mall?"

"Mh? No, it's an airport. I'm in Phoenix now."

"Phoenix?" her mother repeated, spelling the two syllables very slowly, as if she wasn't sure 'Phoenix' was a real word. "Why are you there? Helping mister Underhill on some assignment?"

"No, not really... I came here with mister Underhill's son and his friends. We had a short trip together," Drake explained, still trying to be as vague as possible.

"Oh, I see... And are you and mister Underhill's son close?" his mother asked.

You can't even imagine how close we are, Drake grinned. "Well, yeah, he's a good guy. A bit of a smartass, maybe, but he's strong and reliable... Definitely someone you can count on." He once again lowered his gaze over the sleeping Wyatt and Inori, and his grin turned into a sweet smile.

"That's good to hear, and I'm glad you managed to make some friends there, too," his mother replied. In the background, the loud noise of a door opening and excited voices reach Drake's ears. "Oh, the Jacksons are here already! We're going out for a drink and then we'll try that new Lebanese restaurant downtown. But before I go, Drake..."

"Yes, mom?" For a moment - just a moment, but it was enough - Drake felt a sharp, deep pang of melancholy in his chest.

"I may not know much about your new life, but... I'm glad that you're happy, Drake," her mother said, her voice slightly emotional.

Drake leaned on his right until his forehead brushed against Wyatt's, and the young alpha - as if he somehow knew who had just touched him without even waking up - smiled in his sleep. Between the two of them, Inori sighed gently and curled her tiny body against Drake's side, using his right pec as a pillow. Drake closed his eyes and, for a long moment, he basked in the simple joy of listening to the murmur of his packmates' conjoined heartbeats. "Yeah," he whispered. "I'm glad too."

(next chapter: Songs from a younger world)