A/N: Thank you for 7k reads!!! <3
Minki was sitting on a fallen tree, outside of the cabin he was staying at with the other new members. Apparently, many new rogues reached this pack daily, although only a few actually passed the test. A few meters away from him was an older boy, writing on a notebook. From time to time, he'd steal glances at Minki before going back to writing. It was odd, surely, but Minki paid no mind to it. Afterall, many more things were on his mind that worried him. It was the calmness that lingered in the air after the Alpha's outburst due to the presence of intruders. After such a violent outburst, Minki expected the Alpha to strike as fast as possible and hunt them down. Instead, he grew calm and had been locked inside his office ever since. That information generated a growing anxiety in him; he felt that he was waiting for the ground to open under his feet.
A new presence joined him. The older boy was sitting next to Minki, looking at him up and down. Minki gave him a weird disgusted look – he didn't want to make any friends or have any company. Hopefully, he would get out of there soon.
"No need to look at me like I'm a creep. I just like studying the body" The boy said, picking up the notebook and showing it to Minki. "See... I'm just trying to figure out how face muscles flex in different ways, based on different perspectives."
That page in the notebook was full of random scribbles and doodles of different people in the pack. It was mostly just descriptions of their body movements. Truthfully, Minki understood nothing of them. Not because the drawings were bad, they were the most realistic thing he had ever seen. He just didn't know anything about anatomy, nor was he slightly interested in knowing. Therefore, after taking a quick glance, Minki nodded his head and turned around; letting his eyes focus on a group of men arguing in the distance.
"Well..." The boy sighed after closing his notebook. "You are new here too?"
Minki just nodded his head, not really paying attention to his new companion.
"So, you passed the test as well? Ah... you are probably a beta then?"
The affirmation sparked Minki's attention. It wasn't the assumption that he was a beta – it was correct and it was pretty notorious. What intrigued him was how his new companion called it a "test".
The boy was rather shocked at how fast Minki's head had turned to face him. Minki had a stern look on his face; revealing to the older boy that the information had somewhat shocked him.
"I'm Lucca. I'm a beta too"
He shyly introduced himself. Minki's flaring glare intimidated him deeply. He held out his hand for Minki to shake – it was in vain.
"The test" Minki straightforwardly asked. "How was your test like?"
"A fight. To the death. Same to you?"
"What do you mean about betas passing the test? What's the correlation?"
Lucca's eyes opened in shock which only caused Minki to become even more curious. Was this some sort of information that was obvious? The new companion swallowed the lump in his throat. He seemed fairly scared of saying it. Lucca kept on clutching the notebook with his hands, his eyes wide open. He looked around the pack, passing his eyes through every group. Minki was confused. Why was Lucca acting as if he had said something that he wasn't supposed to?
"You don't know..." Lucca leaned his head closer to Minki, whispering to his ear. "About the Alpha's diet?"
"Diet?"
Minki whispered back, more confused than ever. Lucca took another glance at his surroundings; Minki could tell that he was about to tell the little secret to him. However, the sound of a new commotion made the boys stop. It didn't only make them stop, it made Lucca cower in fear along with everyone else in that pack.
Marching proudly and confidently towards Minki and Lucca was the Alpha and Arne. Immediately, they stood up; the duo unaware of why the Alpha was striding their way. Minki swallowed the lump in his throat and he desperately hoped that the Alpha didn't notice how frightened he was by his presence.
"Minki, right?" The Alpha asked once he was face to face with the duo. Minki nodded his head rapidly. "Good. You two are coming with me in 2 days' time. We are going to give our intruders a warm welcome. So, be prepared!"
Then, they left; leaving Minki panicking and dreading the events to come.
‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾
Taehyung came dashing inside the pack house where Jin, Namjoon and Hoseok were at. The three boys' heads turned immediately once they heard the panicked breathing of their friend. Namjoon stood up, his heart beating furiously in his chest. They all waited with anxious and dreadful hearts for Taehyung to speak. Whatever news he was about to share, they wouldn't be good.
"He's going after them"
Taehyung said in between heavy breaths, sweat rolling down his forehead.
"After who?"
Hoseok asked, confused as he exchanged glances with the other people in the room.
"The people that invaded their territory." Taehyung replied quickly and, focusing his eyes on Namjoon, he let his worries out. "We need to do something Namjoon. We are not sure but Jungkook might be there. And if its Jungkook and that Alpha knows about it, and they end up meeting and being face to face after all those years! Jungkook will be slaughtered or even worse he might flip and just kil-"
"Nothing of that will happen"
Jin screamed as he slammed his hands on the wooden table aggressively. Taehyung faintly jolted at the sudden sound, surprised at Jin's reaction.
"How do we know that there's even a possibility that Jungkook is there?"
Hoseok asked since he knew nothing of the events that had happen a few days before. Jin threw a piercing glare at Taehyung, forbidding the boy from speaking. However, Namjoon decided to fill Hoseok in on their current situation.
"Minki reported to us a few days ago that someone had stepped into the territory and killed one of the members. The Alpha was angry, mostly due to the fact, one of these intruders had a scar on his cheek"
"Wait, wait" Hoseok replied, standing up from his seat and looking around the room. "Are we talking about the pack that attacked our patrol group? The one up north? THE pack?"
They all nodded their heads. Hoseok couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"That's the biggest and most powerful pack in the country. Jungkook wanted to send a spy so we could get information about them to somehow get an upper hand. And now, you are telling me there's a chance that it might be Jungkook and Hani that stepped into their territory. Which, consequently, is fueling even more this quarrel that those two have. Is he stupid?"
"It doesn't end there, Hoseok hyung" Taehyung said, walking towards the table. "This Alpha has a scar exactly like Jungkook's, according to Minki. And when we went to check on Daejung and Kkyu, Jungkook asked if an Alpha with a scar on his face had been involved"
"How did he know about the scar? They have never met each other, right? Sure, that they have been quarreling here and there but it's all because we and them are the biggest packs. It's just a political thing. Right?"
"It's not just a scar. It's a similar one." Taehyung emphasized, dropping his hands on the table. "And they know that the other has one, exactly the same. Which only means that they somehow know one another for quite a while. And judging by the way that they reacted to the existence of the other... I'm assuming it's not a good past."
"It's a scar that can only be done before they reach their wolf form. It was specifically done with something sharp that was hot. Hence, the scar being so prominent"
Namjoon added to which Jin sighed, already guessing where this conversation would head to.
"That means that they would know each other from childhood? And that the same person had done the scars to them? Or that one had given the other the scar?" Hoseok continued on brainstorming with everyone, yet, at that moment, realization hit him. His eyes shot up, almost jumping off his eye sockets and a terrifying chill went down his spine. "Do you think it's him? The one that got away?"
"Not only the one that got away, Hoseok." Jin, finally spoke, his hands supporting his head. "But also, the one that destroyed his life"
The room went quiet, dead silent. Still, inside their minds, each of the boys were debating ideas, sharing thoughts and fears, dreads and anxieties with their own self. They were disturbed, panicking, lost. It was if all of them were waiting for the answer to come falling out of the sky; telling them what to do, what to think. They couldn't help but feel frightened about the future to come. Each of them, had been in contact with Jungkook's new found determination after the attack. Now, more than ever, it seemed like the universe was moving its pieces and course towards creating a catastrophe.
"We need to do something"
Hoseok murmured, grabbing the boy's attention. Namjoon sighed from his place at the table as he grasped his blond hair in frustration.
"There's nothing that we can do. We cannot start a war over a speculation" Jin shouted. "Neither can we go there, the 6 of us, to rescue him!"
"It's Jungkook!" Namjoon screamed at him, hitting his hands on the table. "It's f*cking Jungkook! It's not a random pack member, Jin hyung! We can't let him put himself in a position like this! Jungkook might be strong but that doesn't mean that he's immortal."
"Namjoon, he chose to go there. It's his decision, his consequences. This has nothing to do with the pack. This is only Jungkook's and Jungkook's business only"
Violently, Jin got up from his seat at the table once he was done with his outburst. Calmly, with his hands in his pockets, he walked towards the door, ready to leave. However, Namjoon wasn't going to let him go that easily.
"In case you forgot" Namjoon spoke, his voice low and somber. "You chose to follow him. You chose to fight for him and to care for him. The same way he does to us"
Slowly, Jin turned around. His eyes glowed with anger at Namjoon's bold statement. His face hardened and, from his lips, fell words that would leave the whole group second guessing their decision.
"I chose to follow a strong Alpha. Not a boy obsessed with his revenge"
‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾
For some reason, Jungkook couldn't fall asleep that night. Something kept on bothering him, as if he had somehow forgotten something or as if there was something that he needed to do. His mind continuously drove his thoughts back to that throne and the hands on the wall. The place intrigued and lured him in – in some ways, almost convincing him that he belonged there.
Besides him, curled up against his torso, Hani was sleeping peacefully, which relieved The Alpha's worries. After finding her mother's name there, Hani had been distant the whole day. Too immersed in the memories, in the pain, in the sadness from that day. She, too, was confused like Jungkook. Both wondered how did her mother meet that pack, why and when she left or why, throughout all her life, she had never mentioned it. To Hani, the information just cleared one thing: the reason why her mother had so strongly believed that the tale was all a lie. She knew True Alphas. The tale was nothing more than just another over exaggeration of the birth of a True Alpha.
Jungkook thought about Hani's mother; how much of a mysterious figure she was growing more and more to be. Despite that, something else also occupied his mind. He wondered if she would have liked him. She had met other True Alphas, so, what would she think of Jungkook? Would she find him deserving of the title? Could she share some advices and stories with him?
Deciding that he needed some fresh air, The Alpha slowly disentangled Hani's body from his; she was clutching onto him tightly like a koala does to a tree. Amused at how strongly she refused to let go of him, Jungkook carefully tried to sneak out of her arms. Hani seemed to be complaining at him while still being half asleep. He smiled fondly at her and left a small kiss on her forehead, whispering to her that he would be back in a second.
As soon as the cold air hit his face, Jungkook started walking. He had to go back there again, so that his mind could give him some peace and let him sleep. Following the exact same trail that he had done in the afternoon, Jungkook went behind the waterfall. Luckily for him, the moonlight fell perfectly on that place, lighting it up. Jungkook walked in and immediately went towards the chair. He looked at it up and down, circled it, in search of some sort of answer or clue. At last, he gave up. His mind was so foggy that he forgot where he was sitting on – on that chair that resembled a throne.
It fit him perfectly as if it had been sculpted just for him. Staring at the forest, through the waterfall, Jungkook looked magical. With his bangs faintly covering his eyes, his body lean and tall as he sat on that sturdy throne, his eyes piercing into the distance, the red hand prints around him. The moon casted its light tenderly over her chosen one. The wind stopped blowing, the surrounding nature went quiet, the world stopped spinning – even the waterfall stopped running. Everything that lived in the Universe, had stopped to look at him. At that Alpha, that although was too blind to see, had more greatness and power in his little finger – than the world had in all its immensity. There, sitting on the throne, surrounded by those that had come before him, Jungkook looked huge. Bigger than the True Alphas that had come before him. Bigger than what he thought he could be. Bigger than the Moon Goddess ever expected him to become. That throne was his. It was exactly that what he failed to see.
You see, hidden, at the bottom of the throne, was the drawing of a black wolf. And those eyes that Hani had feared so much, were an exact representation of his. That place was where people had been waiting for him, pledging to follow him by leaving their hands on the wall. At last, he was there. But no pack had lived long enough to welcome him.
The Alpha turned around and his eyes landed on the pair of eyes that were staring into his. He got up and courageously, went towards them. Patiently, he trailed them with his eyes, noticing how they had been re-painted many times before which was odd. For as Jungkook knew, this pack had been gone for many years now. He raised his hands and, gently, he touched the red eyes. The painting was wet. Jungkook retraced his hand and allowed the moonlight to cast its light on the substance in his finger.
Blood and it was still fresh.