the dark forest - yunsanhwas (ghouly) (2024)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Wooyoung’s breath tore in and out of his chest as he galloped through the chill air. The morning dew still left on the grass surrounding the Greater Wall coated his paws, making them collect mud. He would have to be careful not to leave a trail making his way home or else he was screwed.

But it was worth it. Running in his wolf form, occasionally giving chase to a hare or, on special occasions, a deer, was one of the few treasured joys in his life. Of course, he could only indulge himself in the middle of the night (as he was now), or else put himself at even greater risk of being caught by the Wall’s guards. They patrolled the Greater and Inner Walls day and night, but so far could not make out Wooyoung’s night-dark wolf form when sunlight was absent. And so, here he was, running free in the only place where he could fully transform without fear: outside the Greater Wall which kept his family and friends safe from the Dark Forest.

Everyone inside the wall was afraid of the Dark Forest. Even Wooyoung, who risked going beyond the Wall’s protection, never crossed the threshold of the forest during his runs. Just the sight of that treeline sent shivers up his spine- massive trees towering menacingly, interposed by an inky black that seems to have weight to it. That’s why it had always been called the Dark Forest- the canopy of entangled branches was said to completely block out the sunlight even at peak midday. And then there were the rumors of a crooked magic threaded through every root, leaf, vine, or river.

Wooyoung didn’t believe those rumors.

Mostly.

A blinding flash suddenly swallowed Wooyoung’s vision completely.

“There he is! Catch him!”

Wooyoung gasped and tried to keep sprinting forward, hoping to gain his eyesight quickly enough to get ahead of the guards who were no doubt on his tail at this very moment.

And then there was a wire around his neck, pulling him backwards with a tight yank. Wooyoung let out a pained yelp and couldn’t help from sprawling backwards helplessly.

“Bind him!”

He heard this just before more wires cinched around his front and back legs.

This was very bad news. Wooyoung could feel his adrenaline-infused heartbeat throughout his entire body.

“Nice one fellas, the captain’s gonna buy us all a round of drinks tonight.” This was said by a man who then reached down, lifted Wooyoung up, and unceremoniously dropped him into a metal crate atop a plain wooden wagon. Wooyoung immediately freaked out being enclosed in such a small space- he bucked and yowled before he could control himself, but it just elicited laughs from the surrounding men and women.

“I would try and get used to it, sweetcheeks, because cages are all you’re gonna be seeing for a while.” Snickers scattered across the small crowd that had gathered to see the new catch.

Wooyoung had heard stories of what had happened to people caught shifting.

He was a dead man if he shifted back to his human form.

And then he was being carted off towards the Wall, towards a “home” that never felt like home, and a destiny that seemed to be growing darker every second he approached it.

---

Wooyoung was thrown into a dank dungeon far below what the sun’s rays touched. There were a few other people in the same cell as him, and they were all huddled into themselves, some crying, sniffling, wailing, and some remaining completely silent (in a manner that, honestly, spooked Wooyoung out more than the wailing).

Everyone but the silent few had gasped and shuffled away from Wooyoung when he was first thrown in. Wooyoung wondered if the silent folks were used to seeing shifted people down here. Up above, it was illegal to shift at all, even in the privacy of your own home. Maybe there were more people getting caught shifting than he originally thought. Or maybe those people had just seen something so dark it took away their capacity to care about a lost wolf tossed into a dungeon.

Wooyoung layed there, legs tied and chafing, for what felt like days. There was no light down there to tell the time from; the only thing keeping any pace of time was the guards patrol every thirty (? Wooyoung still wasn’t sure) minutes. Wooyoung’s back, hips, and shoulders screamed from being forced in an unnatural position for so long, so much that he found himself falling into crying spouts every now and then. He had no way of moving toward the bucket in the corner of the room, leaving him with no option but to piss himself laying on the floor.

Worst of all was the thirst and hunger, though. The first few days, his stomach growled and ached, but after that it grew more and more into a black pit of pain centered above his abdomen. He became dizzy and delirious. There were some moments where he would forget himself and almost shift back into human form, and then catch himself with a sudden burst of adrenaline and clarity.

Wooyoung’s days became a dark blur of pain, disgust, and fear. He wondered what his mother and brother would think of him if they could see him like this, in wolf form and clinging to the edge of survival. Surely, they were worried that he hadn’t come home yet. He knew his brother knew about him sneaking out in the middle of the night to go run and hunt, but he had never stayed out past sunrise before. He wondered if he would ever get to see his family again.

And then, one day, a guard stopped outside the door to his cell instead of walking past it like they usually did for patrols.

Wooyoung didn’t even flinch at the change, he was so gone.

“Alright you filthy mut, you’re coming with us.” The guard turned a key in the cell door and swung it open, walking inside before reaching down and throwing Wooyoung over his shoulder.

“Holy f*ck, he smells like sh*t!” Wooyoung vaguely basked in the small win that if he had to be forced to this level of filth, then they had to deal with it too.

They walked and walked through twisting hallways and staircases until they abruptly stopped before a nondescript wooden door. The guard not carrying Wooyoung reached for his keys and unlocked the door, swinging it open before they all walked inside. Wooyoung felt the guard shifting to put him down and then- slam- he was dropped onto the floor. Quickly, the guard with the key went and locked Wooyoung’s neck wire to a metal anchor attached to the wall. He let out a small whimper, to which the guard who had carried him responded by kicking him in the ribcage harshly.

“This is what you get, nasty f*cking shifter.” He paused and stared at Wooyoung before spitting at him and leaving the room.

Wooyoung wasn’t surprised. To the people living on the Inside (inside the great Wall encircling the small nation of Tersivia), shifting was on par with the black magic of the Dark Forest. Some people spread the word that anyone who could shift were all dark witches and wizards.

Wooyoung wondered for the millionth time if he was the only one who enjoyed the feeling of being free with his wolf as much as he did. He couldn’t be the only one caught shifting, but they had never publicized it if they had caught anyone else.

After what felt like thirty minutes, the door opened again and an older man wearing the finer clothes of a noble person entered the room.

“It seems you’re not going to make this easier on us are you?” He said in a bored tone, before walking to the desk at the far end of the room.

Wooyoung watched him pull out a small briefcase from a drawer in the desk. “Often, people will shift back once they’ve missed enough meals but I guess this just isn’t my week to catch a break, eh?”

Then he pulled a syringe out of the briefcase. Wooyoung couldn’t help but to jerk against his restraint again.

“Starting to regret not shifting back for us?”

The man walked over, grabbed the top of Wooyoung’s head, and pulled it back to expose his neck. Then, after squeezing a small amount of whatever liquid was in that syringe out, he stuck it into Wooyoung’s neck and injected the entire vial.

Immediately, sparks of pain lit up Wooyoung’s entire body, sparks which quickly turned to flames.

Wooyoung barely registered the man using a wire cutter to free his front and back legs.

The flames were burning his skin, melting it, slowly, starting from his neck and then crawling throughout the rest of his body. It went on for who knows how long, until Wooyoung lay slack against the wall, nothing but the wire around his neck holding him up.

Except now. Wooyoung looked down, shocked. He was in human form. They had found a way to force him to shift out of wolf form.

“That wasn’t so hard, now was it?” The man said, showing a tight smile, “Now we’ll be able to find where you’re from, and if you have any mut friends of yours that like to go around breaking the same rules you do.” The man clapped Wooyoung on the shoulder.

Eventually, the man left and brought in an older woman who seemed to take a sketch of his face. Wooyoung knew he was found out. They would show his face around the nation advertising the finding of a lost boy and his mother would no doubt answer the call. Then they would keep a close eye on anyone who had seemed close to him. After that, Wooyoung had no idea what they’d do with him. Keep him in the dungeon for the rest of his life?

That seemed to be the case, as Wooyoung was brought back to his cell after the face sketch was complete. There, they tossed a threadbare pair of shorts at him (he had been naked since shifting back), then sealed another round of wires around his wrists. This time, at least, they had left his legs free, so he could sit in a somewhat comfortable position and use the “restroom” like the others. Eventually, they gave him a bowl half filled with porridge and a cup of water to drink.

And then one day, one of the men in their cage-- one of the few who were always silent, never moving-- leaned over and actually said something to Wooyoung directly.

“They’re gonna transfer you to the prison of your hometown.”

Wooyoung was beyond shocked to hear the man’s voice at all. Plus, in this darkness he couldn’t make any features of the man’s face out, and he could barely hear the whisper the man spoke in-- guards were always right down the hall.

“You gotta make a run for it when they’re moving you between the jail and the transfer wagon.”

“What?” Wooyoung was still too dizzy from hunger to fully grasp this guy’s meaning.

“There’ll be a small opening and you just gotta run for the trees, man, just run for the trees. It’s your only chance.”

“Wha-”

“Hey! Who’s talking in there?!” A guard who was approaching with a lamp hurried and gave them all a once-over. Everyone remained perfectly silent and still.

The guard warily gave up in favor of his original task, going to open the cell door again.

“Alright, mut, it’s your lucky day.”

What? Now?

The guard reached down and hefted Wooyoung up on his feet. Wooyoung was still weak and dizzy, and stumbled a bit, making the guard hiss in annoyance.

And then the guard started walking him up numerous staircases, making this and that turn, until eventually they came out to an opening that seemed to be one of the few wall openings that fed from the outside of the Wall to its inside.

However, there was a large metal gate blocking the way outside. Wooyoung’s heart dropped to his feet. There was no way he could get through the bars of that gate. He was going to be stuck in a cell for the rest of his life. If he was lucky.

And then there was movement and sound from the otherside.

“Help! We caught another one! Hurry, we can’t keep him down alone!”

The guards around him except for one rushed to the gate to look at who was calling for help. Upon seeing two men barely holding onto the wolf between them, the guards called out for the gate to be lifted, and quickly.

Wooyoung was racked by what he had heard from the man in their cell. Was this his last chance at escaping a life of imprisonment or death? Was the Dark Forest actually a better bet than imprisonment or death? Wooyoung had never heard of anyone who went out into the Dark Forest and returned. All the tales of people entering the Dark Forest usually ended in them being maimed by wild animals or mutilated by ancient evil forest magic.

But then Wooyoung thought.

f*ck it.

And just as the guard near him was about to bring his attention back to Wooyoung, Wooyoung jumped into wolf form and immediately sprinted as fast as he could towards the Dark Forest. Because if Wooyoung knew one thing it was this: wolves are faster than humans.

Chapter 2

Chapter Text

Wooyoung ran and ran until his muscles started to seize in objection. He knew he wouldn’t be able to sprint for very long after rotting in a cell for what felt like two weeks. He hadn’t heard anyone behind him since he passed the tree line into the forest. This wasn’t surprising, he doubted anyone- even the Greater Wall’s guards- would step foot in the forest he was now barreling deep into.

It was starting to get dark. He couldn’t tell if the tree canopy overhead had started to block out the sun or if sunset was upon him. Both options raised the fur on the back of his neck.

Wooyoung figured he was safe enough (from the guards at least) and slowed down at the sight of a small river curving through the gnarled trees. He needed a drink of water. He needed food too, and figured he would probably have to hunt soon to stay alive out here. Luckily, he had some experience hunting small game on the outskirts of the forest. He didn’t love the taste of raw meat but knew he didn’t have much of a choice anymore.

For the thousandth time in the last two weeks, Wooyoung missed his mom’s cooking.

He paused by the bank of the river and carefully lowered his head to lap at the gentle current passing by. He could barely hold himself up- his legs all shook profusely from exhaustion. When he was done, he decided he might as well lay down and get some rest before trying to hunt in his weakened state. He walked for about fifteen minutes before sighting a gorgeous magnolia tree- one of Wooyoung’s favorites- with a perfect patch of grass right at its base. Wooyoung trotted over and immediately curled up under the tree.

For a while, Wooyoung had trouble closing his eyes. He could just barely feel as if something was watching him. Every time he would drift off the feeling would suddenly spring up again and he would become alert. He even got up once, to walk around and check the nearby trees and bushes, but came up empty handed. He wondered if it was all just his paranoia as he curled up once again, this time resolutely deciding that he would get some sleep. And although it took a while, he did pass into a fitful slumber.

---

When Wooyoung woke up, he felt like he had only gotten maybe thirty minutes of sleep. He felt horrible- still exhausted and shaky, and his hunger again howling inside his feeble body.

Immediately, however, Wooyoung became fully alert and still.

He felt someone looking at him.

Not just a little, but in a way that sent him right into fight or flight mode as he lay there.

He carefully opened his eyes and could barely stop himself from screaming out at what he saw.

There, standing in a patch of bushes not thirty feet away, was what Wooyoung could only call a monster.

The thing was tall, pitch black, with long pointed claws at the end of its hands. Most of the creature’s body seemed to unnaturally fade into the shadows surrounding it- it was like it pulled nearby darkness toward it in an attempt to hide.

The worst part, though, were its eyes. Long, pitch black pupils pointed right at him. They were shaped unlike any eyes Wooyoung had ever seen- like a normal eye had melted down the thing’s face. It didn’t blink.

In response to Wooyoung sighting it, the thing opened its mouth in a wide smile full of sharp black-stained teeth.

Wooyoung didn’t hesitate but jumped straight into another sprint. His body protested loudly but the adrenaline in his system allowed him to ignore it for now. He was running faster than he had ever ran in his life, he was sure.

Still, he could hear the thing right behind him as he ran, not letting up for even a moment.

Wooyoung briefly snagged one of his paws on a vine and in that short pause felt the monster’s claws slash deep wounds into his lower back.

He yowled in pain, but kept running and running, until eventually, the noises behind him stopped following him.

He still continued to run until he had gone some twenty minutes without the sound of anything behind him, and then he skidded to a stop, falling onto the floor a heap of lifeless meat. At this point, if the monster was still there, he could eat him. Wooyoung couldn’t run anymore and he was sure the blood loss from his wounds was seeping away his final reserves of strength.

There, on the floor of the Dark Forest, Wooyoung felt himself slip into oblivion.

---

“I can’t scent him at all.”

“He must be on suppressants.”

“We have to get him to Seonghwa, quick.”

Wooyoung came in and out of consciousness, hearing bits of a conversation that felt like a dream.

In a far away way, Wooyoung felt himself get picked up by a stranger. He wondered if the guards had found him again. Before he could protest the action, however, he slipped again into the sweet slumber that had taken him over before.

---

Wooyoung woke up to the smell of flowers, feeling like he hadn’t moved in decades. He tried moving his body and was met with sore muscles everywhere. He wearily opened his eyes and became immediately awake upon seeing what surrounded him.

Around him were tightly stretched walls of thick canvas encircling him in what seemed to be a tent structure. The canvas squares were secured to what looked like thick tree branches and ended at a floor of wooden planks. There were little paper lanterns interspersed on the wall in a pleasing arrangement, and tables covered in bottles and bundles of various oils, liquids, and plant matter. Tied up dried flowers hung from almost every spare section of branch that was visible.

Wooyoung had no idea where he was.

He was laying- still in wolf form- on a twin bed to the side of the room. When he went to move, pain suddenly screamed from his lower back. He could feel the crinkling of bandages wrapped around him there, itchy and not helping with the pain one bit.

“Oh, you’re awake?”

Wooyoung stilled.

Carefully moving as to not disturb his wounds, Wooyoung turned to see a man sitting in a chair at a carefully organized desk (the whole place was neatly organized- every bottle and bundle had a label and seemed to have a proper place to be. Even the dried flowers were organized from least to most dried as they went around the room). The man was beautiful, with full lips and sparkly dark eyes.

“My name’s Seonghwa. I've been treating your wounds. My pack found you out in the woods and brought you to me. How are you feeling?”

Wooyoung stayed silent, unsure of whether he could trust this guy. When Seonghwa realized he wasn’t going to shift back to say anything, he sighed.

“I’m sure you’ve been through a lot. It would be a big help if we could talk about how you got that wound on your back, plus treating it would be easier if you shifted back. I promise I’m only here to help you, and that no harm will come to you if you shift back here. I’ve left some clothes on the corner of the bed. Let me go get you some food.”

At that, the man got up and walked through a flap in the far wall of the room. In the brief moment when the flap was open, all Wooyoung could see was black peppered with the same little lanterns he found here in this room. He wondered where he was. Was this place inside the Walls? He had never seen a place like this before, seemingly built into a tree. And anyways, trees didn’t grow this big on the Inside.

So he must still be in the forest. Never in a million years would he have predicted to find such a sophisticated living arrangement in the Dark Forest. He wondered if there were other tents like this nearby, and how many people like Seonghwa lived in them. And what were all these vials and bundles for? Was seonghwa a potions crafter? Was he planning on poisoning Wooyoung after he had gotten the information he needed? However, Wooyoung realized if he was planning on poisoning him, he likely wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of bandaging his wounds.

Wooyoung realized he needed some answers of his own. He decided to shift back.

He was hesitant to switch into his human form for some reason, but shifted back anyways before Seonghwa could come back.

He put on the clothes left at the corner of the bed- linen pants and a simple tunic, and did a big stretch. He’d never been in his wolf for such extended periods of time, he had missed the feeling of arms and opposable thumbs.

Just as he was about to get nervous waiting so long, Seonghwa re-entered the room with a tray topped with bread, cheese, a cup of what he assumed was water, and a steaming bowl of what looked like stew. Seonghwa pulled over a side table close to the bed before laying the tray on it in front of Wooyoung. The food smelled incredible and Wooyoung’s stomach gave a hearty gurgle in response. Seonghwa chuckled at the sound. Wooyoung shot him a somewhat annoyed expression.

But first.

“You… you try it first.” Wooyoung said, still a little concerned about the poisoning idea.

Seonghwa didn’t flinch but took the spoon and swallowed a good amount of the stew in one go, as if he understood why Wooyoung would be hesitant.

Wooyoung took that as proof enough, and dug into the food in front of him. The bread was fresh with a thick crust and a soft, fluffy middle. The cheese paired well with the stew, which was a lovely mix of meat, carrots, and potatoes. Wooyoung groaned in pleasure at his first decent meal in weeks. Seonghwa smiled at this.

Seonghwa kindly waited until Wooyoung was finished with his meal to start interrogating him.

“So… how did you end up laying on the floor of the Dark Forest, half-starved, with cuff wounds on your wrists and ankles and scratch wounds on your back?”

Wooyoung looked at his wrists. They were black and purple with scabbing-over lines of dark red interspersed. They hurt whenever Wooyoung moved his arms. He had almost forgotten about them as the days went by but realized now that they would be strange sight to see without context.

“I ran away from Tersivia.”

Seonghwa nodded, saddened by the discussion at hand but happy to be getting a response out of the strange boy.

“And they're the ones who cuffed you?”

Wooyoung nodded.

“And the scratches on your back?”

Wooyoung shivered at the memory.

“There was this thing. It was tall and dark with long pupils and sharp claws. It chased after me.”

Seonghwa’s face paled when he heard Wooyoung mention the long pupils. Wooyoung continued, noting the recognition,

“We’re safe here. What you saw was a Horror. They roam the dark parts of the forest looking for prey. The one you saw was a dangerous one, we only have a few surviving stories of encounters with them. There are a few more dangerous than that, and many less so. Some horrors are nothing more than a large spider you could flick away. It was important you told me this, as you likely have some of its venom still in your wounds, keeping them from healing properly. I’ll make a salve to counter its effects right away.”

Wooyoung heart sped up at the mention of venom. He hoped he could trust this Seonghwa’s salves. He hoped he could trust this guy’s words at all.

Wooyoung decided to try getting some answers of his own.

“Where… am I?”

Seonghwa paused with a conflicted expression over his face, like he didn’t know how to answer.

“You’re in a safe place. You’re with my pack. We found you laying on the ground, dying, and brought you back here to get you safe…”

Seonghwa’s tone grew soft,

“Do you have anywhere to go?”

Wooyoung was struck by the question more than he had expected.

No. He didn’t. He felt tears well up at the corner of his eyes. He lowered his head.

“That’s alright, most people we find in the forest are from Tersivia with nowhere to go.”

Seonghwa looked like he desperately wanted to hug or soothe Wooyoung in some way. Wooyoung appreciated him keeping his distance, despite the fact that he would love nothing more in this world than a good hug at that moment.

“Wooyoung… I’m sorry to ask this… but have you been off your suppressants for a month or so?”

Wooyoung was stunned out of his sadness. Oh my god. His suppressants. He had completely forgotten about them. What was he supposed to do in the middle of the woods without his suppressants?

“It’s only been a little over two weeks I think.” Wooyoung said.

Seonghwa sighed with a relief that Wooyoung definitely did not feel,

“Okay then we have about two more weeks til it starts wearing off.”

Wooyoung looked at him with wide eyes.

Until it wore off?

Was this man crazy?

No one in Tersivia was allowed to go off of their suppressants. It was as natural as eating, taking your suppressants every morning, starting right when you began to present. Wooyoung (everyone, really) had heard the horror stories of people intentionally skipping their doses for a month. That they became swept up in their basest emotions, that pain took over their bodies if they didn’t submit to their most dire instincts. It had sounded painful, uncontrollable, even dangerous. These stories were passed down by teachers and parents in an attempt to scare their kids away from skipping any doses out of curiosity, but Wooyoung wondered if there wasn’t something more insidious at play.

“I’ve never been off my suppressants before.” Wooyoung's voice sounded hollow.

“I know. It’s going to be okay. None of us take them here and we’ve taken care of many people through their first rut or heat. Do you know if you’re an omega, or…?”

“I’m an omega.” Wooyoung said, remembering the day he had presented. His father seemed disappointed not to have an alpha son like him, but his mother had happily teased him about grandchildren.

Then it struck Wooyoung. Did he say none of them took suppressants?

“How many of you don’t take suppressants?”

“All one thousand and eight of us.”

Wooyoung’s head spun.

One thousand and eight people lived here…

Seonghwa looked worried,

“You might want to lay down again, your body’s still exhausted from all the healing it’s been doing.”

“How long was I out?”

“About three days.”

Three days. And Wooyoung did still feel weak.

“Let me see outside,” Wooyoung said, slowly getting on his unsteady feet.

“Oh I don’t know if that’s the best-”

“I need to know where I am right now.” Wooyoung’s voice was decisive.

Seonghwa relented and offered his arm to help Wooyoung walk over to the tent flap he had disappeared through before. Wooyoung reached over and pulled the flap aside.

And indeed he was not ready. All around him were tent-like houses built into towering trees, each glowing with little balls of light of various sizes. There were rope bridges connecting this tent to that one, and rope ladders leading down to a city of wooden and stone buildings on the ground floor. It was an enormous community of tree houses and ground houses, intertwined with various bridges and walkways. A little ways over was a great clearing with seating surrounding it. Wooyoung pointed to it.

“What’s that?”

“That’s our communal arena. We sometimes host great feasts there. Sometimes people will put on performances. Mostly our leaders communicate important information to the rest of the pack.”

“Who’re your leaders?” Wooyoung gulped. He would need to make a good impression if he was going to manage to snag a spot in this community.

Was that what he wanted? It was definitely the safer solution to his situation, but he wasn’t sure about the whole suppressants thing. How did everyone go about their daily business with their base instincts taking over all the time?

“Well, I’m Head Omega, Park Seonghwa, nice to meet you.” Seonghwa reached out his spare hand to shake Wooyoung’s, even while he was holding him up.

“And soon you will meet our Head Alpha, Kim Hongjoong, and our Head Beta, Jeong Yunho.”

Seonghwa paused, noticing the sweat on Wooyoung’s brow.

“But for now, you need your rest. It’s time for you to lay back down.”

Wooyoung couldn’t protest, feeling overwhelmed by everything he had learned in the last thirty minutes. He obediently (for once) went back to his bed and snuggled up under the covers.

“I’ll wake you up when it’s time for breakfast, okay?”

Seonghwa brushed Wooyoung’s hair back from his forehead in a comforting gesture and just as he was about to take his hand away, Wooyoung grabbed it.

“Thank you. For everything.” Wooyoung said, and he meant it- he might’ve been dead without Seonghwa’s help.

The older boy smiled wide and nodded, then got up and left Wooyoung to his slumber.

Chapter 3

Chapter Text

Wooyoung woke up the next day to the distinct smell of roses. He thought this was a bit odd, figuring as he couldn’t see any roses in the room, even after he checked all the various bundles placed here and there. He was sure he smelled roses, though. He was caught wondering about this by Seonghwa tapping on the wooden branch near the entrance to the room,

“Time for a change of bandages~”

Wooyoung groaned.

“Come in.”

Seonghwa entered looking apologetic.

“Sorry about this.”

Wooyoung snorted.

“No, I should be thanking you.”

He took off his shirt and laid on the bed on his stomach. He felt Seonghwa slowly peel the used bandages off of him, then start applying a salve to the wound. Wooyoung hissed when he touched a particularly sensitive spot, and Seonghwa quickly apologized again. Wooyoung thought Seonghwa was an angel for doing all this for him.

Not that he would ever tell him that.

Soon, the bandage was set, and Seonghwa was pressing tape to its edges to secure it, patting it with a sense of completion.

“All done!”

Wooyoung got back up and put his shirt back on. He looked at Seonghwa expectantly.

“So, what’s on the agenda for today?” He had a feeling Seonghwa liked agendas.

Seonghwa looked at him carefully,

“I was thinking, if you’re up for it, you could come eat breakfast with the rest of the pack. It’s totally fine if not though! I can just bring your breakfast up here for you, if you want.”

Wooyoung hesitated. He was beyond nervous to go out in front of all these new people, people who lived completely different lives than Wooyoung had ever imagined. He was sure he wouldn’t fit in, someone who had never had a heat before and who only shifted rarely. He would be a domesticated dog amongst wolves.

But. There was also a small part of him that was excited to meet new people. People who maybe understood the joy of shifting like he did. He wondered if the food they ate for breakfast would be strange.

“I’ll go with you. No use putting off the inevitable.”

“Okay!” Seonghwa looked excited, “everyone will be completely polite and kind, I promise.”

There was an unspoken or else.

Before they left, Seonghwa gave him a change of clothes, the same pants and a tunic, except this tunic had a v-cut which nicely showed off Wooyoung’s collar bone. Wooyoung wondered if this was an intentional move by Seonghwa or if the goddess just decided to smile on him today. Either way, he had his battle armor.

When Wooyoung stepped outside, he was surprised again by how dark it was. It wasn’t night-darkness, some of the sunrise managed to get through this particular canopy, but it was still a darker mid-morning than Wooyoung was used to. He appreciated the little lights that floated around the place, giving the entire forest a glowy vibe that helped ease the oppression of the darkness.

“What are these little balls of light?” Wooyoung asked Seonghwa as they made their way down a rope ladder to ground level.

“We’ll… get to that. Later today. It’s a bit complicated.”

Wooyoung pouted at Seonghwa, both of them now on the ground, and Seonghwa just laughed and ruffled his hair. Wooyoung shrieked,

“Hey! My first impression on your pack and you’re gonna give me a bad hair day?!”

Seonghwa gave in and started to help Wooyoung put his hair back in place. Wooyoung realized he liked having Seonghwa dote on him. He was such a warm, comforting soul, Wooyoung felt lucky to meet him during such an overwhelming time in his life. For some reason, Wooyoung could have sworn he smelled the scent of roses again.

“Now we all usually eat our meals in the Mess Hall,” Seonghwa said, motioning to a large stone and brick building adjacent to the communal arena he had pointed out last night. It was large and square, definitely big enough for all one thousand and eight of them to get their bellies full at the same time.

Right when they were about to enter the Mess Hall, Wooyoung reached over and took Seonghwa’s hand in his. He was gonna need some support to get through this. Seonghwa squeezed his hand, and pulled open the doors.

There were rows upon rows of tables with people of all ages surrounding them. As Wooyoung expected, people stopped to stare whenever they noticed Seonghwa had brought a new face in. Seonghwa smiled and greeted each of them, and Wooyoung felt a tiny pinch of envy for his popularity. He hoped he fit in that well some day.

Seonghwa led him through the line that passed through the various food stations and Wooyoung was glad to see they ate the same breakfast as anyone he knew- oatmeal, eggs, biscuits, toasted bread with butter or jam, a variety of grilled savory meats.

Wooyoung piled his plate with food along with Seonghwa (after a little pout that he had to let go of the other’s hand in order to do so), and then together they walked over to a free space at a table to the side of the large room. Wooyoung was glad to not be sitting in the center of all the action; this was the largest crown he had ever been in.

And then a group of guys sat down next to and in front of him and Seonghwa.

“And I’m sure you can guess when all this was,” the guys continued their discussion, oblivious to the new face in the group.

“Right before his rut?” This from a tall guy with attractive dyed-blue hair.

Then from a shorter, intense looking one, “Right before his rut.” The three guys all groaned at the same time.

“It’s like he’s a child.” This from the last guy, handsome and broad-shouldered in a way that caught Wooyoung’s (admittedly hard to catch) attention. Wooyoung felt himself become hyper aware of himself in his presence.

“You’re telling me. Now imagine being in charge of his well being.”

“Hongjoong,” Seonghwa said to the intense looking one, “Yunho,” to the tall one, “San,” to the broad-shouldered one, “we have a guest at the table today.”

At that they all immediately pinned their wide-eyed gazes on Wooyoung, who politely bowed his head to them.

Wooyoung realized they probably didn’t notice him because they couldn’t scent him.

Yet.

“Hi, I’m Kim Hongjoong,” the boy reached out to shake Wooyoung’s hand from his position on the other side of Seonghwa, “nice to meet you, what’s your name?”

Wooyoung tucked his hair behind his ear,

“Jeong Wooyoung.”

The tall one got up from his seat across the table and reached his hand out for a handshake as well, “I’m Jeong Yunho,” The boy said with a charismatic smile.

Wooyoung looked over at the final boy- San, if he heard correctly- expectantly. But the boy just stared back at Wooyoung in a trance. Yunho shouldered him, knocking him back into the moment.

“Oh! Of course! I’m Choi San.” Yunho snickered as Wooyoung and San exchanged a handshake between them. At the touch of their hands, Wooyoung felt electricity spark through his body. For a moment, their eyes met and neither of them let go of the other’s hand.

“Is this your first time out of the nurses tent?” Yunho asked, hiding a smirk as he interrupted whatever was going on between Wooyoung and San.

Wooyoung let go of San’s hand, feeling something inside himself wither at the loss of contact, and nodded his head.

“How do you like it? Isn’t it beautiful here? I couldn’t get enough of it when I first ended up here.”

“Is it usual for people to just end up here?” Wooyoung said, half joking.

“Well, yeah, actually, a lot of people here are runaways from Tersivia. We all ran away for our own reasons, but eventually each of us just… ended up here.”

“Most people living here were born here, though,” Seonghwa chimed in.

“How did this place even begin?” Wooyoung asked.

Yunho answered, “It all started long ago when a group of people ran away together and formed a pack, sure that they could survive the forest if they worked together.”

“Eventually, they met up with other runaways they found in the forest, and people kept joining and helping the pack’s efforts until.. here we are.” Seonghwa said before linking hands with Hongjoong and rubbing his finger across the back of his hand, a fond look on his face.

“You all must be so proud of this place.” Wooyoung said, “I definitely didn’t expect to see a community living this well in the forest. Especially with those, what did you call them, horrors?”

At the mention of horrors, the group fell a little silent.

“Yeah, Horrors,” Yunho said, “Luckily, they mostly stay away from sources of light, so they don’t bother us much here.”

Again, a reference to the lights that floated all around the place. Wooyoung couldn’t figure out what they were. They didn’t look like lightbulbs or torches…

“In the beginning, everyone had to fight off the horrors themselves, though,” San said.

Wooyoung looked at them all, shocked,

“You mean people actually fought the thing that chased me?”

“We still do.” San said, puffing out his chest a bit. Wooyoung would have rolled his eyes if he wasn’t so taken aback.

“You what?”

“Yeah, on our expeditions outside the pack grounds, they’re a hell of a nuisance.” This from Yunho.

“Expeditions?” Wooyoung understood that to some extent they couldn’t spend all their time within the pack grounds, but still. They intentionally left this safe space to go out into the forest where that thing was?

“Yeah, we’re trying to find another nation like Tersivia or another pack like ours,” said San, pride in his voice.

“We haven’t succeeded yet,” said Hongjoong.

“But we have found proof that another pack could exist!”

“That was just a torn shirt on the ground, San, it easily could have been leftover from a runaway we didn’t get to in time.”

San sulked a little and mumbled to himself, leading Yunho to wrap an arm around him.

Hongjoong, however, ignored him, saying, “We also go out to hunt and collect various plants and animal matter, which we more often than not sell to people we have on the Inside.”

“Of Tersivia?” Wooyoung was surprised yet again.

Hongoong nodded, “A lot of the medicines and suppressants they use are made from organic material that only grows deep in the forest. That’s how we managed to get our hands on things like the plumbing that keeps our baths and toilets working- through trade.”

Wooyoung was impressed. A part of him hoped this meant he might be able to get a letter to his mother on the Inside, but he kept this to himself for now. They were already being so generous.

A little while later, three other people joined them, who Wooyoung learned were named Kang Yeosang, Song Mingi, and Choi Jongho. They each offered sweet introductions, Yeosang even going as far as to sit next to Wooyoung.

Wooyoung enjoyed listening to this group talk about their daily lives together. It made him feel like he was a part of something. Something in the air felt a little oppressive, though, but Wooyoung just couldn’t put his finger on it. He wondered if it was some surplus claustrophobia from his time in a cell. He tried taking a deep breath to clear his head, and returned to the conversation at hand.

“There’s no way she’s gonna accept that as a courting gift from him,” said Mingi.

“But she has to! He’s completely oblivious! He thinks it’s a great idea,” retorted Jongho.

“God Joo-hyuk doesn’t have a romantic bone in his body,” said Seonghwa with a look on his face like he was done with this Joo-hyuk character.

“Seriously,” said Hongjoong.

Wooyoung wondered what a courting gift was, but figured he could guess by the name.

“Do people give a lot of courting gifts here?” Wooyoung wondered aloud.

Yunho answered, “It’s pretty common, but it can still be a pretty big deal.”

Wooyoung looked to Seonghwa curiously, to which the older replied, “Especially when an alpha is giving a gift to an omega, it’s really important whether the gift is accepted or not. Not accepting a gift is like crossing someone out of your romantic future with black ink. It’s a big hit to their alpha pride.” Seonghwa said this last part in a mocking tone, eliciting a few “hey!”s from certain members of the group.

Including San, Wooyoung noted in the back of his head.

So San was an alpha. Wooyoung felt his heart rate increase.

Interesting.

The group continued to argue over what constituted a decent courting gift until they were all finished with their meals.

Hongjoong let out a deep breath then looked over at Wooyoung. “It’s about time you got a tour of the pack grounds! Are you up for it?”

“Yeah!” Wooyoung said excitedly.

Seonhwa led them over to the tray disposal station, where they would be washed and used again for lunch, and then outside into the semi-daylight. Wooyoung was glad to be in the fresh air.

Then Wooyoung paused, now realizing why the air had felt so stuffy in the Mess Hall.

Wooyoung was starting to scent other people. He felt his heart speed up in his chest. It was starting. He was beginning to smell other people’s scents and it was already becoming a little overwhelming. And, oh god.

Did this mean others could scent him?

Wooyoung pulled Seonghwa aside as they were walking over to the small school at the corner of the grounds.

“Seonghwa, do I smell?”

“Do you smell? No, I don’t think so. Do you want to take a bath? We can arrange that.”

“No, like can you smell… my scent.” Wooyoung couldn’t help the light blush that shaded his face.

Seonghwa caught on, “Oh! Oh, no, it’s not noticeable yet. Why, are you scenting us?”

Wooyoung nodded, still a little embarrassed to admit it.

“Ahh that’s so exciting!” Seonghwa did a little jump up and down, then noticed Wooyoung’s distress, “Ohhh okay then, okay. Everything’s gonna be okay, it’ll just take a little while to get used to it. You might even like it,” Seonghwa said with a wink.

Wooyoung swatted Seonghwa on the arms until they were both laughing.

---

The course of the tour took the trio- Hongjoong, Seonghwa and Wooyoung (the rest had left the group with waves goodbye)- from the schoolhouse (where they saw Mingi again) to the farms (where they saw Yunho), the blacksmith (where they saw Jongho), the kitchen (where they saw Yeosang), the carpenter’s garage, the weaver’s hut, the laundry room, the library, and the bathhouse. They weaved through so many buildings, Wooyoung knew he would still have to ask directions to find anything after this.

This also gave Wooyoung a chance to admire the nature surrounding them. The weather here must lean towards the warm and humid side because a lot of the flora here was wide, shiny, and green. Vines curved around everywhere and moss crawled up damp-dark tree trunks. Small flowers peppered the grass wherever people hadn’t worn in foot paths and large, graceful flowers showed off their beauty from bushes and trees alike. You could hear pretty birdsound near constantly and bees and butterflies danced in the air around concentrations of flowers.

Wooyoung thought this was one aspect of this wild life change he could definitely appreciate.

All the while they were going about their tour, Hongjoong was going over the rules of the pack.

First, no violence amongst pack members was allowed. Hongjoong made a point to note that this was more of a problem amongst their alphas and explained how it was part of his job to make sure the alphas of the community were managing their instincts well. Wooyoung wondered at how one person could manage so many alphas by themselves.

Second, everyone does some sort of job for the pack in exchange for protection and food. Hongjoong asked if there was anywhere in particular Wooyoung would want to work.

“The kitchen! If possible. I used to help my mom cook all the time, I love it.”

“We can totally get you set up in the kitchen. Da-hyun will love to have an extra pair of hands helping out around there,” Hongjoong said with a smile.

Third, don’t leave the grounds without permission of your Head Leader.

“We let people leave if they truly want to, we just want to minimize the number of people disappearing without a trace. This way, we at least know what happened to you if you don’t come back. Plus, this gives us the time to send you off with a trained escort if possible.”

“An escort?”

“Yes, we have many people trained in fighting off horrors. San, who you met before? He’s in charge of training them, actually.”

Wooyoung tried not to look too interested in this, but failed miserably, noticeably perking up at the mention of the older boy. Seonghwa saw this and raised his eyebrows in entertainment. Wooyoung pushed his shoulder and looked the other way while Seonghwa laughed.

Fourth, no heat or rut sex without consent given prior to said heat or rut.

Hongjoong didn’t have an ounce of embarrassment saying this, although Wooyoung felt himself avoiding eye contact.

“People make a lot of decisions they regret when they’re having a heat or a rut. We just want to keep everyone here as safe as possible.”

The rest of the rules were not as serious: leave areas as clean as when you arrived (especially in the bathhouse and the bathrooms), attend all Pack Meetings, go to your Head Leader if you have any requests or know of any serious rule breaking.

Finally, they ended their tour by going over the areas where alphas, betas, and omegas slept separately. Each area had a myriad of tent-rooms built up and up a section of trees, connected to each other by winding stairs, rope ladders and rope bridges. There was a main dormitory building sitting at the base of each treehouse-hub. The alphas were cloistered near the Northern section of the grounds, the betas on the East, and the omegas to the South.

When they stopped at the base of the omega section, Seonghwa turned to Wooyoung,

“Now you can pick any open room to have as your own. We currently have five open tents, and lots of open rooms in the dormitory.”

Wooyoung found himself a little overwhelmed by the decision. This new life of his was moving too fast. Just the other day he was sharing a bedroom with his little brother.

They toured each of the five tents and a few rooms, but Wooyoung ended up choosing whatever was closest to Seonghwa’s, which ended up being a tent about fifty feet off the ground with a view overlooking the communal arena.

Inside the tent was a bed, a dresser with a mirror, a night stand, and an armoire. He was a little nervous to live in a treehouse at first, but he could feel how stable the wooden base was as he walked across it. Plus the stain of the wood was a gorgeous brown-black color. The craftsmanship was impressive. Not a single staircase squeaked as he walked up and down them.

Next, Seonghwa brought him to the weaver’s room to pick out some bedding (he chose a duvet cover with little bumblebees embroidered onto it) and clothes to put in his new room. After that they returned to the nurse’s tent (where he had woken up this morning) to change Wooyoung’s bandages.

Seonghwa’s salves were no joke, the pain of his injury was already fading away. He found himself insisting on helping out in the kitchen for dinner when Seonghwa offered that he spend the rest of the day resting.

There was a part of Wooyoung that registered that maybe he was continuing to distract himself so that he wouldn’t have to confront all the grief that was building up inside of him. He could feel it heavy and building in the back of his mind.

Da-hyun was a tough, kind older omega who took to Wooyoung immediately. She set him to peeling more potatoes than he had ever seen in his life. By the time he was done, his hands were sore, but he felt the nice kind of exhaustion that comes from a good day's work. Plus, he got to spend more time with Yeosang, who also worked in the kitchens. The boy was so polite and kind, there seemed to be a sort of purity about him.

He was, however, getting more and more sensitive to people’s scents. It was starting to distract him, he’d almost cut himself a few times during peeling when a scent had taken his attention away. There were some people whose scents he immediately liked (like Yeosang’s sweet amber and sugar scent), and some with scents that made him sure they would never get along. Yeosang had to hold back laughing at Wooyoung’s obvious stank face in response to certain foul-smelling people passing too close to him.

Plus, the scents made him feel a certain way. Some scents would enter his awareness and he would feel his mood take a turn towards joy, or boredom, or sadness. It was strange, like the feelings weren’t his own, but they would fill him up and pull him towards a certain valence of emotion.

Weird. Life off of suppressants… weird.

Seonghwa came in to check on him at the end of his shift,

“Everything go okay?”

“Yep! Just trying to get used to this scenting thing,” Wooyoung said, following Seonghwa out of the kitchen, “How did you get through it when you first came here?”

Seonghwa looked into the distance as they made their way towards the Mess Hall (which was attached to the kitchen) to take their final meal of the day.

“It mostly just took time. I asked the Head Omega at the time so many questions. I arrived here when I was quite young, so the Head Omega then basically raised me,” Seonghwa’s expression turned warm.

Wooyoung wondered if that meant Seonghwa ran away when he was just a kid, “Where are they now?”

“She lives with the Council of Elders in their dormitory next to the schoolhouse.”

“Council of Elders?”

“Yes, Hongjoong should have mentioned it to you, but everyone who’s age passes fifty-five becomes a member of the Council of Elders. The council helps the Head Leaders guide the pack and make important decisions. We like to keep our Head Leaders younger, but with a council of those with more life experience to help them out. That way you get a nice balance of the old and the new, which we value in this pack.”

Wooyoung and Seonghwa arrived at the table before the others again. Above the smell of their food, Wooyoung smelled roses.

Wooyoung gasped and looked at Seonghwa,

“You smell like roses!”

Seonghwa looked a little embarrassed,

“I hear that sometimes, yeah.”

“Sorry, I’ve just been wondering what that smell was all day!”

“You’re starting to smell like oranges.”

Wooyoung’s eyes went wide.

“You can smell me?”

“Yeah, a little bit now. There’s something underneath the oranges I can’t make out though.”

Wooyoung felt himself freaking out a little bit. He smelled like oranges. He loved oranges.

Just then, the rest of the crew began showing up, first Jongho, then Hongjoong and San, then Yunho and Yeosang, then Mingi.

Each time one of them arrived, he would give Wooyoung an odd look. He immediately worried that he smelled bad, but they would just turn their attention back to their food or the conversation at hand and that would be it.

That is, except for San, who kept glancing at Wooyoung whenever he thought the other wasn’t looking. Which meant that Wooyoung spent the entire meal aware of San’s eyes on him. It made him feel electric. It made him want to play a game.

He could barely catch San’s scent, something dewy and rich and lovely that made his eyes want to roll into the back of his head. He felt an excited feeling at the center of his heart light up. He wanted to smell more of it. He wanted to lean into San’s neck and-

and he wasn’t sure what else he wanted. Just that he needed to be closer, needed to wrap himself up in San’s arms and see where their instincts took them.

Wooyoung briefly noted to himself that if this is how San’s scent made him feel already. Then he was maybe majorly f*cked.

Other than San’s, he managed to catch just a little bit of everyone else’s scents, especially the stronger notes: coffee for Jognho, cinnamon for Hongjoong, lavender for Mingi, each one filling him with a warm feeling, like home.

The scenting made it hard for Wooyoung to concentrate on the discussion at hand. He felt vulnerable in a way he hadn’t experienced before, his scent open for anyone around him to smell and judge. He missed the safety of his suppressants and wondered how he’d adapt if this just got more and more intense from here.

He wondered if San liked his scent as much as he liked his.

Soon, they finished their meals and got ready to head back to their tents. Before Wooyoung could grab Seonghwa’s arm to have him walk him back to the Omega living arrangements, San spoke up saying,

“I’ll walk you there. If, you know, you’d be interested. In that.”

Mingi and Jongho hid their smiles but Wooyoung just felt his heart do a flip.

“Yeah, that’d be… nice.” Wooyoung gave him a coy smile.

As the rest of the group split apart to go to the alpha and beta sections, San and Wooyoung set off to the southern end of the grounds. Wooyoung tried to pay attention to where they were going, to build up a map in his head of his surroundings, but all he could focus on was the alpha by his side.

“I’m sure it’s really overwhelming, this being your first real day here.”

“Yeah,” Wooyoung started, not feeling as bad anymore for some reason, “I’m having a hard time getting used to all the scents surrounding me. Plus now I’m worried all the time about how I smell,” Wooyoung joked.

There was a small pause between the two of them.

“Your scent is wonderful.” San said in a low voice, turning his head to fix Wooyoung with a dark gaze.

Wooyoung gulped and felt his cheeks go warm.

“Thanks…” Wooyoung said softly. He didn’t know what to say in response to that. Should he compliment San’s scent? He didn’t know the social norms of this place and could feel himself fumbling-

“Have you decided on where you want to work?” San said, saving the moment (Wooyoung thanked the heavens).

Wooyoung lit up immediately, “The kitchen! I’m hoping Da-Hyun will let me help out with deciding recipes one day.”

“I’m sure you can make that happen,” San said, catching Wooyoung’s contagious enthusiasm.

“Where do you work?”

San pushed his hair back with his hand. Wooyoung definitely did not notice this and think it was a very hot gesture.

“I mostly teach personal defense, y’know, training people to protect themselves from horrors if they leave the pack grounds, but I also run errands for Hongjoong now and then. That dude is mad busy, so I like to lighten his load where I can.”

“Have you ever… fought a horror before?”

“Yeah, more than a few, actually. I got the scars to prove it,” he said, pulling down his shirt collar to reveal a pale, jagged line crossing over his collarbone and onto his pectoral. Wooyoung stared a little longer than he needed to, suppressing the urge to reach out and touch it.

“I heard you saw the one with the long pupils. That’s a nasty one, and fast too. You’re lucky to have outran it like you did. Honestly, it was probably scared off by our lights nearby, we didn’t find you far off from the pack grounds at all.”

“You were there when I was found?” This was news to Wooyoung.

San scratched his neck and looked at the ground, “I was the one who carried you back here.”

Wooyoung felt his eyes go wide. Those arms, carrying him?

“Thank you. I owe you one. And whoever else was there when you all found me.”

“I might hold you to that.” San said slyly.

I hope you do. Wooyoung thought to himself.

“Oh!” San said suddenly, pausing at the intersection of two worn-down paths.

“I know where we can stop and get you an extra pillow. So that you can have something to cuddle, when you sleep? I hear things like that can really help omegas out when they’re feeling out of place or homesick.”

At first Wooyoung was about to wave off the suggestion, thinking that he’d never needed anything to hold to fall asleep before, so why go to the trouble now.

But when he really thought about it, cuddling felt like exactly what he needed most in the world right then.

He felt himself almost tear up at the thought, not sure if these were his omega instincts kicking in or just the grief.

Either way, he nodded, “Yes please.”

San walked them over to the Omega area, but instead of taking the stairs, he went straight to a door on the side of the dormitory and knocked. Soon, the door opened, revealing a gorgeous boy wearing a comfy matching set of tunic and pants and spectacles.

“Oh, San? What are you doing here? You know you’re not supposed to be this close to the dormitory.”

“Sorry,” San made a little prayer gesture, his two hands pressed together, “I just wanted to get an extra pillow for our new pack member.”

Wooyoung and the strange boy made eye contact. Wooyoung bowed lightly, “If it wouldn’t be a bother.”

The boy smiled widely. “Not a bother at all! Being the Residential Assistant of an omega dormitory means being the veritable king of pillows and blankets,” the boy said with a bit of flair. “My name’s Yeonjun, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you.” Wooyoung bowed again.

As the boy left to go fetch them a pillow, San looked over at Wooyoung.

“It’s because omegas like to nest, that’s why he’s the king of pillows and blankets. It’s an omega instinct.”

Ahh. Wooyoung nodded, grateful for the context. San gave a warm smile in response.

When Yeonjun returned, he had multiple pillows of various sizes and a few extra blankets as well, “Take your pick.”

Soon Wooyoung and San were carefully balancing Wooyoung’s selection of pillows in their arms as they made their way up the staircase. Technically, San wasn’t allowed to encroach this far into the omega’s living area, which he had whispered to Wooyoung conspiratorially before starting to climb the steps. Wooyoung had giggled, following his partner in crime.

When they arrived at the front flap to Wooyoung’s room, San stopped, looking at Wooyoung expectantly.

“You can go in,” Wooyoung said shyly.

San stared at him for a moment then looked away, an uncontrollable smile seeming to take over his face. He took a deep breath, then parted the flap and entered, Wooyoung following.

They both dumped the mess of pillows and blankets onto Wooyoung’s new bed. Something deep in Wooyoung really did feel better to have the comfort items in what was supposed to be his new home. He felt the urge to make the space his.

“So, I’ll, uh, see you tomorrow.” San said, stumbling over his words a little bit.

Wooyoung nodded happily, “Yes! Definitely.”

They both paused and looked at each other, not sure what to do.

In this enclosed space, San’s scent was the most potent Wooyoung had experienced yet. He could smell it clearly: rain, the smell of the forest after it rains. A faint trace of eucalyptus and a robust musk for the base note.

Wooyoung felt like he was in heaven, breathing in that scent. He felt his eyelids lower; it was intoxicating.

“Anyways, bye!” Wooyoung was startled back into reality by San’s interjection. Had he just stood there taking in San’s scent like a moron?

The alpha left before Wooyoung could get out his own goodbye.

Oh god. He had made a fool of himself.

He resolved to start being more careful around San in the future.

Now that the alpha was gone, Wooyoung looked around at his empty room, feeling the homesickness start to creep back into his heart.

Everything was changing so fast, he had barely had time to grieve the family and life he had known up to now. He wanted to go back to his old room and lay down forever. He wanted to hug his parents and brother.

He wanted to stop feeling like such an outsider.

He finally gave into the feelings that had been building in his chest and cried it all out, well into the night.

Chapter 4

Chapter Text

Wooyoung woke up to a puffy face from crying all night. The catharsis was well needed but left him feeling a little hollow on the inside. Eclipsing that, however, was a strong urge to snuggle into someone, almost an ache. From deep inside he felt something whining out about his isolated state. Just another new instinct for him to get used to, now that his suppressants weren’t keeping his inner wolf down anymore. He rolled over in bed, pulling his duvet over himself in protest of the morning.

The only thing that eventually got him out of bed was the idea of a nice long bath. He grabbed his towel and headed to the bathhouse, but almost tripped over something when he pushed the flap aside to leave his room.

In front of the “door” to his home was a small pile of items. Wooyoung crouched down to get a closer look and found two furs, a bouquet of daisies and baby’s breath, and a long box that when opened, revealed a silver necklace with a shiny pearl pendant hanging from it.

What were these? He stared blankly at the pile until it hit him.

Oh.

Were these courting gifts?

Wooyoung looked around him, nervous someone might be watching his reaction to the offerings.

When he was sure no one was watching him, he picked up his presents and brought them into his room. When inside, he placed the flowers on his nightstand and laid the fur at the foot of his bed. It helped make the room feel a bit more lived-in, which he appreciated. He wondered if he could get a vase to put the flowers in somehow. After some consideration, he decided to put on the necklace for the day. There was a not-so-small part of Wooyoung that was giddy to receive the attention of secret admirers. He left for the bathhouse with a renewed spring in his step.

As Wooyoung left the enclosed space of his room, he immediately noticed that he was, again, far more sensitive to the scents around him. It was a sensation overload that made his head reel. He could barely hold back his responses to the scents that came in and out of his awareness, flinching and relaxing back and forth as he made his way across the grounds. It made him self-conscious as he tried to hide his various reactions from everyone around him.

Wooyoung imagined that his scent must be much more potent today as well, as people openly stared at him as he passed by. He figured a new scent entering the pack must not happen that often. He felt a little nervous at the attention, but held his head up high.

A few times during his walk over, he saw shifted people trotting along this way and that. He was going to have to get used to seeing people casually shifted like that, Wooyoung thought happily. It felt nice. It felt free.

He did have to ask directions at one point during his trip, but eventually Wooyoung was entering the omega section of the bathhouse, a large wooden structure surrounded on each side by elephant ear plants. He headed to the selection of private bathrooms, each with their own tub, and went about choosing one and filling it with room-temperature water. He sighed in relief as he soaped his body up, careful of his wounds, releasing all the tension that had been building inside of him. For a while, he lay back and enjoyed some time to himself where the only scent was the lavender-vanilla bar soap they had given him earlier the day before.

When he was suitably pruny, he finally got out and dried off his skin, then dressed in the change of clothes he had brought with him, taking care to dry off his new necklace so it wouldn’t rust. He was leaving the bathhouse to go back to his room when nearly ran head-on into San, who was leaving the bathhouse at the same time.

San’s hair was tousled, wet, and falling in his face. His skin glowed from the recent bath, and his scent. The opening notes were crisp and fresh like dewy forest grass in the morning, followed by a heavy musk undertone that did things to Wooyoung’s body. He was sure his pupils dilated in response.

San was also shirtless.

Wooyoung’s eyes flashed down San’s body for a second before resolutely sticking to San’s eyes. It was still enough to notice how fit the boy was, especially those arms.

“Oh! Wooyoung. Good morning!” San said, caught off guard, “Everything alright? Need any help getting back to your dorms?”

Focus on his words, Wooyoung, focus!

“Oh, no, I’m alright.”

“Ah, okay then,” San’s eyes flicked to Wooyoung’s neck, “oh, that’s a nice necklace.”

“Thanks!” Wooyoung said, preening a little, “It was given to me this morning.”

San froze, eyes trained on the necklace, “Someone gave it to you this morning?”

Wooyoung hesitated at San’s response, “Yeah, along with some other stuff.”

“What other stuff?” San said, eyes still on the necklace.

“A fur, some flowers.”

“And you accepted them?”

“Well, I couldn’t just leave them outside my door.” Wooyoung said, nervous at San’s focused attention.

“Yeah, I guess,” San said, looking away now. There was an awkward pause. “I guess I’ll see you at breakfast then,” he said with a clipped smile. He then walked off in the direction of the alpha rooms.

Wooyoung stared after him, a little dubstruck at his behavior.

What was that?

Was it weird for him to have taken his gifts into his room? It had felt like the natural course of action at the time. He figured he’d bring it up with Seonghwa to make sure, though, in case he was missing some obscure social cue.

Wooyoung quickly returned home to drop off his dirty clothes and then headed to the Mess Hall for breakfast. After piling his tray with food, he headed to their normal spot on the side of the hall, where the whole group was already sitting, enjoying their meal.

Wooyoung took a free spot next to Seonghwa, everyone turning to greet him (everyone except for San, Wooyoung noted). Upon saying good morning, Seonghwa immediately zoned in on Wooyoung’s neck.

“Oh,” a look of surprise passed over his face, “Where’d you get that?”

“It was left at my doorstep this morning,” Wooyoung said.

Seonghwa’s eyebrows shot up, “And you’re just wearing it? Do you know who gave it to you?”

Wooyoung paused. That was a good question.

“No… I got some flowers and a fur, too. Is that weird?”

“It’s not weird to get courting gifts left at your door, but so soon after you arrived here is a little…” Seonghwa trailed off, looking like he definitely did not approve.

“It means you’re hot sh*t,” Mingi said, holding a hand up for a high five.

Wooyoung giggled, feeling just a tiny bit proud, and returned the high five while Seonghwa gave them both a withering look.

Yunho spoke up, “You should definitely find out who sent you those gifts before you go wearing them like that, though.”

“Yeah, wearing the necklace like that… it’s like declaring your intent to date whoever gave it to you. Someone might get the wrong idea.” Seonghwa said (and did his eyes flash over to San?).

Wooyoung gulped, “Oh. f*ck.” Wooyoung didn’t know it’d be taken that seriously. He tried to hide the necklace behind his shirt collar, hoping no one would notice before he had time to return it back to the original box lying in his room.

Wooyoung felt eyes on him and looked up to see San staring at him before quickly looking away.

What was up with him?

“Don’t forget, there’s a pack meeting tonight”, Hongjoong said to the group.

Yeosang smiled at Wooyoung, “It’ll be your first pack meeting.”

Wooyoung watched the group give each other conspiratorial glances.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing,” Yeosang said, the rest grinning.

Wooyoung squinted his eyes at everyone, “Oh, I get it, don’t tell the new kid, very clever.”

“There’s also a feast coming up soon, we’ll have to get you some new clothes for that,” Seonghwa said, a small smile still gracing his lips.

“A feast?”

“Yeah, we have a full moon coming up, we always have a feast on the full moon,” Jongho supplied.

Wooyoung was excited at the idea of fancy new clothes, although he wasn’t sure he was up for a party. He was still struck with homesickness whenever he was alone. Sitting here with this group of friends, though, that homesickness seemed so far away.

---

Wooyoung was crossing the grounds to the nurses tent with Seonghwa after breakfast, when he brought up San’s weird behavior from earlier.

“Was it really that weird of me to accept the gifts? Should I have just left them out on my doorstep? Because that feels weirder, to me.”

“It’s not strange for someone to accept courting gifts from a stranger. And although it is a bit much to immediately wear the necklace out, I have a feeling that wasn’t why San acted like that.” Seonghwa said this, ending with a smirk.

“Why do you think he would act that way?”

Seonghwa looked at Wooyoung, smirk still in place, “Methinks the man is jealous.”

“Jealous?!” Wooyoung squealed, “Of what?”

“Because of the necklace, silly! San’s alpha instincts are really strong, there’s no way he could just accept someone wearing another person’s courting gift, if he was interested himself.”

Wooyoung looked off to the side, considering it.

San did get all terse with him right after he had noticed the necklace. Maybe seeing Wooyoung with another person’s necklace on him had rubbed San the wrong way.

Wooyoung felt a blush creep over his cheeks. Seonghwa must have noticed because he started to laugh,

“The boy’s got it bad for you, doesn’t he?”

Wooyoung swatted Seonghwa’s arm excitedly, “Shhh! No he doesn’t, be quiet.” Seonghwa just laughed more in response, singing,

“San and Wooyoung, sitting in a tree, K I S S I-”

Wooyoung started to try and tackle him to the ground, quiet-screaming “What if someone hears you, you fiend! He could be anywhere!”

Wooyoung eventually managed to get Seonghwa to stop teasing him long enough for them to make it to the nurse’s tent. Once there, there was a man waiting for Seonghwa to give him some cold medicine for his young son. San waited patiently for Seonghwa to take care of him before lying down on the bed for another change of bandages. His wounds still ached, but they felt a bit better than yesterday. Seonghwa also applied some ointment to his wrist wounds (from being tied up inside the Wall), which Wooyoung appreciated.

Away from the hustle and bustle of pack life, Wooyoung felt his mood dip, his grief coming back in a small wave. In response, he could have sworn he felt comfort coming over to him from Seonghwa’s direction.

“Are you.. calming me down?”

“Yeah, I could feel you were a little distressed. I hope you don’t mind, our inner wolves can release calming pheromones to help soothe the other wolves around us.”

“No, not at all, I think that’s amazing.” There was a lot more to being one with your wolf instincts than he originally assumed.

“There’s also something really important I need to discuss with you now, actually.”

Wooyoung perked up, curious, “What’s up?”

“Well…” Seonghwa looked like he didn’t know where to start,

“You know how people in Tersivia talk about how the Dark Forest is made up of black magic?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, it’s true.”

Wooyoung wasn’t too surprised by this, especially after seeing that horror the other day.

“Magic flows in every aspect of the forest, actually, and it’s not all dark magic either. But the thing is, sometimes we can change after being exposed to the forest’s magic for a certain amount of time. So you might start experiencing… weird… changes that are completely separate from adapting to your normal wolf instincts.”

Wooyoung didn’t quite follow, “What kind of changes do you mean?”

“Like me, for example, I heal. But I don’t just practice medicine, I conduct magic into the potions and salves I make, and they become more powerful because of it. So the salve I use on your back wounds, for example, isn’t just potent because of good ingredients, but because I’m able to infuse magical properties into the various mixtures I make. I only noticed this increase in potency once I joined this pack in the forest.”

Wooyoung nodded, trying to take this all in, “Okay…”

“And the lights floating everywhere? San can make those with his hands. He can capture small effects, and sometimes matter itself, and re-conjure them up wherever he chooses.”

Now that had Wooyoung’s head spinning.

“I know it’s a lot to take in. But it’s important you know, in case you start developing some power of your own.”

“How would I know if I was developing something?”

“Honestly, the only way to find out is to carefully watch what you do and see if anything strange starts happening.”

Wooyoung didn’t quite know what to do with this information. All the changes he was going through felt strange to him, he wasn’t sure how he’d be able to tell the difference between normal wolf weird and magic-seeping-into-your-body-and-soul weird.

Everything was changing so fast.

Seonghwa sensed Wooyoung’s overwhelm and sat down next to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

“Everything’s gonna be okay. We can figure it out together.” Wooyoung felt him release calming pheromones again, and relaxed into them. After a while, Wooyoung pulled Seonghwa down onto the bed and curled up into his side. Seonghwa chuckled and said, “I was wondering when the need for cuddles was going to get to you. It takes over every omega eventually.”

“You’re an omega too, right?”

“Yep. I was the only one in our little group before you got here.”

“Who else is an alpha?”

“Soon you’ll be able to tell from scent alone. Jongho, Hongjoong, and San are alphas. Only San’s instincts are really strong, though.”

San’s instincts. Wooyoung would have to take a trip back to his room to deposit the necklace before lunch.

Unless.

Wooyoung felt a grinch-like smile take over his face.

Maybe he would just keep the necklace on. Just through lunchtime. See how San’s alpha instincts were affected.

Maybe he would have a little fun.

“You look like you’re plotting world domination right now.”

“I’m just thinking I might keep wearing this necklace for the rest of the day after all.”

Seonghwa looked perplexed for a moment and then it hit him,

“Oh, you’re bad,” he said, shaking his head, “that’s just… wow…”

Wooyoung just smiled cutely and snuggled closer into Seonghwa’s frame.

---

Wooyoung and Seonghwa cuddled until it was time for lunch. They walked over in peaceful silence. Once there, Wooyoung tried not to smile as he noticed San’s attention once again go straight to his neck. He watched the alpha still and then continue to eat his meal stiffly, pointedly not looking in Wooyoung’s direction the entire time. Yunho laughed at his behavior every now and then, Wooyoung all the while pretending to be oblivious. San’s scent was noticeably more musky than dewy, with a slight bitter, burnt element to it that wasn’t very pleasant.

San didn’t just seem upset. He seemed mad.

Wooyoung ate up getting this type of reaction out of someone who usually seemed so chipper.

Plus, he didn’t hate the idea of San punishing him for his naughty behavior…

Lunch continued like this, with everyone sending San contained smiles or half-worried looks every time a particularly burnt note would exude from him, until they were all finished eating. Wooyoung walked back to his treehouse room to rest until the pack meeting that night. He didn’t have a schedule for when he needed to work in the kitchens yet and used that to his advantage, deciding to take a break this one time.

Once home he took a deep breath of nearly-scentless air and felt his shoulders relax in response. He just wanted to lie down for a while before he went to the pack meeting, where there would certainly be lots of scents in the air and lots of staring at the new kid.

He thought of what Seonghwa had said about developing powers, about his power to heal and San’s power to conjure, until he had fallen into an afternoon nap.

---

Wooyoung woke up to a bell ringing throughout the pack grounds. He figured this was the signal that the pack meeting was about to be at hand. Wooyoung quickly got up, ran a hand through his hair, and made to leave for the meeting before he was late. He jogged over to the communal arena, where he could see a large group of people was beginning to gather on the benches. He managed to find Mingi, Yeosang, Jongho, and San all sitting together and joined them. Upon seeing San, Wooyoung almost stopped in his tracks. f*ck. He still had the necklace on, had forgotten to take it off in his rush to make it to the meeting on time. Wooyoung didn’t want to actually send whoever had sent this to him the message that he was interested. He wondered if he should take it off and just hold it in his hands, but didn’t want to drop it and lose it in case he could return it to whoever had left it for him. Soon, everyone was gathered, except for the Council of Elders, San noticed, and Hongjoong was clearing his throat to get everyone’s attention.

And to Wooyoung’s misfortune, the first thing out of Hongjoong’s mouth was,

“Now, everyone, let's welcome our newest member, Mr. Jung Wooyoung,” he motioned to Wooyoung to stand, which he did, giving a small wave to the crowd.

Everyone clapped and cheered for Wooyoung, and it would have been a nice moment if he wasn’t advertising being some stranger’s beau to the whole pack on accident.

Wooyoung sat down once the moment was over, not even daring a glance at San. He had meant to tease him, not to outright reject him.

Hongjoong continued onto the rest of the meeting’s agenda. First he talked of a “Skylight Project”, saying they were going to start taking volunteers and to speak with your Head Leader if you were interested in any way. He continued,

“And for anyone who doesn’t know, our Skylight Project is an initiative to cut away parts of the canopy hanging over the pack grounds, to finally let some regular sunlight in. We’re taking volunteers both to climb up the central trees of the grounds and saw off branches, and to help catch falling branches on their way down. We have the necessary equipment for both of these tasks and now just need volunteers to get this project underway.”

There was a round of applause from those gathered in response to that. Wooyoung could imagine how much they must miss the sunlight after so long without it. It was throwing Wooyoung off, if he was being honest, after just a few days.

Next, he spoke of preparations for a feast, which was apparently one week away. He told people to submit their food and allergy requests to Da-hyun as soon as possible, and mentioned some information for those who wanted to perform for the celebrations.

After that were a few short notices, reminders about keeping areas clean, until Hongjoong came to the last matter at hand. He looked around with a grin and a light tension filled the air around Wooyoung.

“And now for the initiation rite of our newest member, Wooyoung, would you please come up?”

Wooyoung blanched. He wanted him to what now?

Wooyoung stood up and approached the front of the audience.

Hongjoong held up a wooden stick, painted in a variety of colors.

“Here we have the initiation stick. It’s your job to keep it away from us.”

Wooyoung stared at Hongjoong blankly, about to ask a question, and then Hongjoong said, “Remember everyone, there will be changes of clothes in your dormitories,” and then he shifted, walking towards Wooyoung, making him back away.

A few others in the crown also shifted and approached Wooyoung until he understood what was happening.

He had to keep the stick away.

Before he could lose any more ground, he shifted into his wolf form in mid-air, rushing away from the great crowd into the twisting turns of the pack’s premises. He turned this way and that, hoping to lose the people he could hear running right behind him. The sound of what was likely hundreds of people chasing after him sent adrenaline through his system. He felt excitement pound through his heart in his chest as he sprinted within an inch of his life. He was not going to give the stick up easily.

He took a quick turn when he started to recognize the area he was in and used an awkward jump around a set of stairs to bottleneck the crowd following him. He snickered in triumph, but could still hear people running behind him. All of a sudden, he heard a howl erupt from one of the members chasing him about ten feet away. This howl was infectious, and spread throughout the grounds gradually, each wolf adding their voice to the chorus until everyone was howling together. Wooyoung took this chance and howled around the stick in his mouth with all his might. It felt amazing to howl in unison with a pack, better than all his excursions outside the Wall back home combined. Eventually, Wooyoung ran out of energy and only a dozen or so people were still chasing him. Wooyoung slowed down to claim victory when a gray-brown wolf ran right into him, tumbling him over and then standing over him. The wolf then bent over, mouth to Wooyoung’s neck, biting the necklace there and pulling hard at it, breaking the chain. The necklace fell to the ground.

Wooyoung was shocked, but could tell who this wolf was by his scent.

Rainy soil and a sexy heavy musk note.

San.

Wooyoung shook San off his body now that his objective had been satisfied, the necklace destroyed and off Wooyoung’s neck. San yelped and nosed at Wooyoung’s neck playfully before trotting off to the alpha dorms, likely to change back into some clothes. Most people’s shirts hadn’t ripped off due to shifting, but they had had to leave their pants in the communal arena. Wooyoung headed towards the omega dormitory to grab some pants as well, gleefully going over to hug Seonghwa once he saw him already there,

“That was so much fun!”

Seonghwa hugged him back,

“I know, right? We all love the initiation.”

Many of the other omegas there made a point to go up to Wooyoung and introduce themselves, offering hugs and saying that if Wooyoung ever needed anything, to not hesitate to ask. Wooyoung almost teared up at how nice everyone was being. All the people who introduced themselves had nice smells and Wooyoung felt a warm, excited energy fill him up upon meeting them. Yeonjun came by and gave him a hug at some point as well, asking if everything went alright with the pillows and blankets.

He was starting to see how he could build a home here.

He was leaving to eat dinner at the Mess Hall, when he saw San waiting outside the omega’s dormitories. Wooyoung and Seonghwa exchanged glances.

“I’ll leave this one to you,” Seonghwa said immediately, then left for the Mess Hall by himself.

Wooyoung walked over to San, “What’s up?”

“Sorry for tackling you like that earlier,” San said, looking straight into Wooyoung’s eyes,

“It wasn’t cool of me and I have no excuse.”

Wooyoung was about to say how he understood and wasn’t offended at all, when San stuck his hand out into the air between them.

Wooyoung looked down to see San holding a long box with a delicate design painted on the outside.

He sucked in a breath at the sight.

“Instead of that necklace… wear this one,” San said, giving Wooyoung a serious look that made his stomach fill with butterflies.

Wooyoung took the box and opened it, gasping again at what he saw inside.

Inside was a shiny silver necklace with the most gorgeous stone Wooyoung had ever seen hanging on it as a pendant. The gem was opalescent white with shocks of blue, orange, green, and yellow glittering throughout.

“It’s a fire opal,” San said.

“It’s beautiful,” Wooyoung whispered.

San motioned toward the box in Wooyoung’s hands, “May I?”

Wooyoung nodded gently, feeling his heartbeat kick up its tempo in response to San’s words.

San carefully reached in the box, took the necklace out, and walked over behind Wooyoung, where he reached over Wooyoung to place the necklace on his neck. Wooyoung could feel San’s fingers trace across the skin of his neck as he pulled the ends of the chain together and clasped them behind him.

“There,” San said, right behind Wooyoung, “Beautiful.”

San didn’t draw his fingertips away from Wooyoung’s neck immediately, but traced his fingers a little ways down as he pulled his hands back towards himself.

The hairs at the base of Wooyoung’s neck stood up.

Wooyoung turned around to face San again.

“If anyone ever gives you another gift…” San said, voice low but careful,

“Don’t accept it.”

Wooyoung felt a warm, glowy smile stretch across his face, which he hid by looking down at the ground. He nodded,

“Okay.”

San motioned for them to walk towards the Mess Hall, and they made their way there, each hiding a small smile from the other.

Chapter 5

Chapter Text

After the necklace, San got into the habit of giving Wooyoung gifts before dinner. The day after he gave Wooyoung the necklace, he gave Wooyoung a fur blanket to replace the fur he had received initially. Wooyoung happily donated the original fur to Yeonjun’s collection of Miscellaneous Nesting Materials.

Then, San gave him a rose made of exquisite cotton and silk fabrics,

“It’ll never die, this way,” he had said upon giving it.

Wooyoung treasured the rose and got Seonghwa to find him a thin glass vase to put it in. He kept it on his nightstand.

Wooyoung didn’t expect another gift, but again saw San waiting for him outside the omega dormitory before dinner, where he had given Wooyoung all his gifts before. Seonghwa squeezed his hand and then left to go to the Mess Hall by himself.

“You can’t possibly have another gift,” Wooyoung said, walking up to the alpha.

San smiled, “Are you unhappy with your gifts?”

Wooyoung couldn’t help but smile in return; he shook his head.

San pulled a large bundle out from behind his back, handing it to Wooyoung.

Wooyoung looked at the bundle, realizing it was a swath of fabric folded up. The fabric was lush, dark and red, reflecting the glowy lights around them in a shimmering, multicolor iridescence. It was the color of blood. It matched the fire opal necklace perfectly.

Wooyoung loved it. He didn’t know what to do with it, but it was exactly Wooyoung’s taste.

“I thought you could ask the weavers to make you a shirt for the feast in this fabric.”

A shirt in this fabric would be stunning.

“I don’t know how to thank you enough for this,” Wooyoung said, at a loss for words.

“Just save me a dance, at the feast?” San said, looking into Wooyoung’s eyes.

Wooyoung held his gaze for as long as he could before he had to look away.

“Okay, deal.” He said.

They both paused as they always did after San gave Wooyoung a gift, the tension building. Wooyoung felt a wave of nervousness flow through him. He asked San if he would mind waiting while he deposited the fabric up in his room real quick.

Once Wooyoung was back, they walked together to the Mess Hall. They were silent for a while and Wooyoung wondered if San was also scrambling for something to say. He felt a wave of anxiety.

Eventually, San spoke up, “Did you ever go to dances where you lived before here?”

“Yeah, I would dance at festivals and bonfires. It usually helped that there’d be wine or ale around to drink, though.”

“I get that, it can be so hard to get into it at first-”

“but then it’s so fun once you get used to it!”

“Exactly!”

Wooyoung liked being around San- he felt like they were always on the same page about what mattered.

“What kind of music do y’all play around here?”

“We have some people who play guitar and some who play the drums. You'll be hearing Mingi play the guitar at the feast for sure. His songs are always a big hit…” then San said, carefully, “Did Seonghwa tell you about how the lights around here are made?”

Wooyoung responded, “Yes… he said you make them. It’s true, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I do. And Mingi’s like that, but with music. When he plays his guitar you can really get absorbed in listening to it, it has, like, trance-like effects.”

“Ahh,” Wooyoung nodded, “I see, ” so the magic of the forest had touched Mingi as well.

Wooyoung continued after a pause, “Can I see you… make one of them? The lights, I mean.”

San looked around before walking over to the side of a building where less people would see them.

“Are you not allowed to show me?”

“Nah, I just don’t want to attract a lot of attention,” San replied.

Then, San cupped his hands as if they were holding a ball between them. He focused on the space between his hands until, before Wooyoung’s eyes, a small ball of light began to grow between his palms. Eventually, he released the ball and it remained where it was, floating static in space, giving off an other-worldly warm glow.

“I can only conjure what I capture, and this I capture from some of the few lightbulbs we trade for from Tersivia.”

“You just capture the light and you can put it anywhere?”

“Yeah, basically. It doesn’t last forever, but I usually get a few charges out of each capture. I can also capture water effects and some matter,”

“Here,” San lightly grabbed Wooyoung’s hand and placed it so it was outstretched, palm upwards. San then cupped his palms around the space above Wooyoung’s palm until soon, a pile of soil formed on Wooyoung’s outstretched hand. Slowly, a small green seedling began to sprout from the pile of soil, curling up and out of Wooyoung’s palm until a small patch of white flowers began to blossom.

“Whoa!” Wooyoung was watching magic, real magic, happen in front of his eyes.

“You’re amazing.” Wooyoung said, right to San’s face.

“Seonghwa’s the amazing one, he can actually heal people. I just make a few lights here and there.”

“But your lights are so important around here! They’re the only thing keeping people sane without the sun, for real.” Wooyoung tried to impress the coolness of San’s gift upon him,

“Plus you just made a flower bloom out of my hand, San.”

“It’s jasmine, like your scent,” San said with a shy smile.

Wooyoung, still awestruck at seeing a flower bloom in his palm, was briefly distracted by the mention of his scent.

“I smell like jasmine?”

San’s voice was low, “You smell like oranges, with jasmine and honey underneath. It’s perfect.”

Perfect.

Wooyoung blushed.

He had really been hoping San liked his scent.

He said it was perfect.

“You don’t smell too bad, yourself.” Wooyoung replied.

“What do I smell like to you?”

“Like the forest soil after it rains, sometimes with eucalyptus but always with this musky undertone.”

“Do you… like it?”

Wooyoung’s face went hot. Even he knew this was a sensitive subject to be talking about. One’s scent was, in a way, the most vulnerable thing about them.

“Yeah,” was all Wooyoung could manage to get out. He noticed San’s scent grow stronger, pleasure laced throughout. Wooyoung felt himself grow a little hot and heavy in response. For a moment both of them stared at the ground.

After a while, San cleared his voice, “We should get going or we’ll miss dinner.”

“Oh! Right, of course,” Wooyoung said, depositing his flower on the side of the path they were on, then both continuing on their way to the Mess Hall.

Everyone gave the couple knowing looks when they arrived there together, Yunho elbowing San in the side when Wooyoung wasn’t looking and Seonghwa shooting Wooyoung kissy faces everytime San wasn’t looking.

Wooyoung, filled with the warm feeling of a new home, enjoyed his dinner as his friends talked about preparations for the feast coming up. Mingi apparently played at every feast, but was still nervous every time, which Wooyoung thought was cute. Seonghwa, Hongjoong, and Yunho, reasonably, were not allowed to drink because they had to play chaperone as Head Leaders.

Wooyoung found himself looking forward to the feast more with every passing moment.

---

The following day, Wooyoung walked over to the Weaver’s Tent early in the morning to see if he could get a shirt made in time for the feast. He walked up to one of the workers there and asked if there was any possibility that they could squeeze him in.

The lady looked like she was about to turn him down, when her eyes caught on the fabric in his hands.

“Can I see that?” She said.

“Of course,” Wooyoung handed over the fabric.

The woman admired the fabric, holding up at different angles to see how the lights played off of it. She hesitated for a moment, then said, “I think we can make it work.”

Wooyoung sagged in relief, “Thank you so much, it means a lot to me.”

The woman looked at Wooyoung, a look of understanding lighting in her eyes, “Oh, it’s your first feast, too, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Wooyoung said sheepishly.

“Of course you’d wanna look good then, I understand. What kind of design did you have in mind?”

Wooyoung answered confidently, “Maybe something that would show off my collarbones and shoulders?”

The seamstress gave him a knowing look before sketching out a sleeveless top with pretty beaded sheer cutouts, “This look okay?”

“It looks great!” Wooyoung enthused. The top was better than what he’d expected. He didn’t mind showing some skin.

The seamstress took Wooyoung’s measurements quickly and professionally, “Alright, we’ll have it ready for pick-up the afternoon before the feast, okay?”

“Perfect.” Wooyoung said with a smile.

On his way out of the Weaver’s Tent, Wooyoung figured he would stop by the Nurse’s Tent and maybe steal some cuddles before his shift helping out with lunch. He had received his schedule the day before, and he worked lunch and dinner shifts five days a week, with two days off.

When he arrived at the Nurse’s Tent, he found Seonghwa mashing a mixture of herbs and oils together with a pestle and mortar. He sighed; no cuddles if Seonghwa was working. He still jumped onto the patient’s bed and got comfy, to which Seonghwa gave him a flat look.

“So, question,” Wooyoung said.

“Shoot.”

“Where do you and Hongjoong go to sleep every night if you aren't allowed in the alpha’s living arrangements?”

“Ahh. There are rentable houses scattered over the grounds for mixed sub-gender… canoodling,” Wooyoung snorted. “We call them Inns.”

“Why have everyone separate in the first place?”

“Well, at first it was because we didn’t have enough space to give everyone a house of their own. Then, it became clear that it was helpful for omegas to have a safe space to go into their heats, where there would definitely be no alphas around, and the opposite goes for alphas. Our betas don’t necessarily benefit from it, and anyone is allowed in their rooms anyways. But, for when we have someone helping someone else with their heat or rut, we have the Inns for them to use, whenever. They’re also used for cuddling and whatnot. We do, of course, have homes available for mated couples as well.”

“Is Hongjoong your mate?”

Seonghwa sputtered, “No! I mean, no…” Seonghwa seemed to be recalculating.

“Do you wanna be mates?” Wooyoung said with a sh*t-eating grin.

“Shut up!” Seonghwa said, hyperfocusing on swirling the pestle in the mortar. His ears went pink.

Wooyoung giggled. Seonghwa and Hongjoong were cute. They always took care of each other. On more than one occasion, Wooyoung had seen Seonghwa hand Hongjoong potions for hydration and nutrient supplementation, and Hongjoong was always asking Seongha if he was handling his Head Omega responsibilities well.

Wooyoung wondered if he would ever have a mate. He wondered when his first heat was going to happen, if he would ever have someone “help” him through it (whatever that entailed). There was still a lot for him to experience here, so much it made his head spin from overwhelm.

He figured the best he could do would be to take it one day at a time.

---

The days until the feast passed slowly, Wooyoung going to his shifts dutifully, learning his way around the kitchens. After much cajoling, Da-Hyun agreed to try Wooyoung’s special recipe for cookies (oatmeal, dark chocolate, rosemary and cinnamon), and was surprised to find that they were excellent. She agreed to put them in the rotation of desserts, to Wooyoung’s immense satisfaction.

One day, Wooyoung was waiting for San to walk him home after dinner when a young man walked up to him.

“Hi,” Wooyoung said, thinking this was another person coming to welcome him into the pack.

“Hi there,” the guy said, “My name’s Ban Sook.”

Wooyoung nodded.

“I’m the one who gave you that necklace you wore to the pack meeting.”

Oh.

“Oh, I’m sorry, but I think I may have sent mixed messages. I didn’t mean to wear your necklace to the pack meeting, it was an accident.”

“I can’t believe you wore it all around the pack like that. There was a little bit of my scent that got on you. It was super hot.”

Wooyoung paused. Did he not hear him?

“I don’t think you get what I’m saying-”

“Save me a dance at the feast okay?” Ban Sook interrupted, before backing away with a wave. Wooyoung went to protest, when San appeared in front of him, looking off at the boy retreating.

“What did that guy want?”

Wooyoung considered telling San, but figured it would probably only upset him to know the truth.

“Just a guy welcoming me to the pack.” Wooyoung lied.

San still looked out in the direction the guy had left in with an unhappy look on his face. Wooyoung watched him shrug it off, moving to walk with Wooyoung towards the omega’s section again.

“Did you manage to get a shirt made of that fabric I gave you?”

“Yes! It’ll be ready tomorrow, right before the feast. I’m nervous, I hope it looks good,” Wooyoung confessed.

“It’ll look gorgeous, I’m sure,” San said in a low voice. It was soothing to Wooyoung’s ears.

“Thanks…” Wooyoung said, unable to stop a shy smile taking over his face. He was always smiling around San, he couldn’t help it.

They kept walking in peaceful silence. Wooyoung liked these quiet moments with San, where he always felt excited, but safe.

Wooyoung had an idea. He steeled himself. Then, he slowly reached over and interlaced his hand with San’s. He immediately smelled San’s scent fill the air around them, strong and heady. Wooyoung felt his nerves sparkle throughout his body. When he took a deep breath of San’s scent, he could feel the blood in his body go towards his crotch in response. It affected him more than anything he had experienced before in all his messing around and experimenting. He was worried he would trip, he was so distracted by it.

They arrived at the omega dormitory all too soon.

“Here we are,” San said, making no move to drop Wooyoung’s hand.

Instead, they stood there a moment, looking into each other’s eyes.

San carefully unlaced their fingers, which made Wooyoung almost whine in protest, before taking Wooyoung’s hand and carefully lifting it to his face.

The scent gland on his wrist was right under San’s nose.

He was giving Wooyoung a dark, serious look.

“May I?”

Wooyoung felt his heart do backflips in his chest.

Was he asking to scent him?

Wooyoung nodded shyly, to which San let out a small growl before delicately rubbing his nose over Wooyoung’s wrist, taking in a deep breath. He took his time with it, looking completely entranced in the process. Wooyoung was sensitive there; it tickled a little bit.

He then took Wooyoung’s hand and brought it up to his neck, keeping his eyes locked on Wooyoung’s. He slowly went to rub Wooyoung’s wrist against the scent gland at his neck. He paused before going ahead with it, making sure Wooyoung was okay with the movement. When Wooyoung didn’t pull his hand away, San gave into his instincts. He rubbed the hand against his neck, making a low sound in the back of his throat. He moved Wooyoung’s hand over his ear, up and down his face, reveling in Wooyoung’s scent, until he paused with his lips over Wooyoung’s wrist, eyes making contact once again.

Wooyoung was sure his pupils were blown wide, his eyelids lowered. San’s scent was coming off in waves, intoxicating and enticing. Wooyoung felt he could moan at the scent alone.

He didn’t make any move to take his hand away as San slowly pressed a kiss to the inside of Wooyoung’s wrist. Wooyoung felt alive, with electricity zipping up his arms and down his back. He wanted to be closer.

San dropped Wooyoung’s hand then, and they both stood there in silence, looking at each other until smiles slowly spread across each of their faces.

Wooyoung spoke up, “I’ll go on up, now.”

“Yeah,” San replied.

Wooyoung didn’t make a move to leave, making San’s smile grow even wider.

“Okay, I’ll go,” Wooyoung said before actually heading for the staircase this time. He paused at the base, whipping his head back to look at San again, making the older laugh. He continued, then turned around again after a few feet. Part of him was checking to make sure San was actually real. He could hear San chuckling as he finally pushed aside the flap to his room.

Wooyoung walked immediately to his bed, shoving his head into a pillow and quiet-screaming his lungs out. He hit his bed a few times in excitement.

He didn’t know where this thing with San was heading. But he knew he liked it.

---

There was a buzz in the air on the day of the feast. Everyone’s scents, even the ones Wooyoung couldn't stomach, had a happy tilt to them. Wooyoung almost skipped to the Mess Hall for breakfast.

When Wooyoung arrived, only Yeosang, Mingi, and Jongho were sitting there. They all gave Wooyoung looks when he sat down to eat with them.

“What?” Wooyoung said, wary.

Yeosang hid a smile behind his hand, Jongho tried to hide his smile by focusing on his food.

Mingi spoke up, “So you and San have really been getting to know each other, huh?”

Wooyoung froze. “Maybe… What do you have to say about it?”

Mingi snorted, “Well lets just say you smell like you’ve been getting to know each other.”

Wooyoung turned red.

Did he smell like San?

He didn’t know San scenting his wrist would last this long. He figured it might not even last more than a few minutes.

Did that mean everyone who came near him could smell San’s scent on him? Wooyoung fought the urge to go hide.

When Hongjoong and Seonghwa arrived, Hongjoong did a double take at Wooyoung. Seonghwa’s eyebrows raised, looking at Wooyoung before breaking out in a grin.

Wooyoung was having a hard time eating his oatmeal.

Fortunately, when Yunho and San arrived, they didn’t make any outright gestures at Wooyoung’s scent. Wooyoung imagined Yunho probably already noticed San smelling like him and expected Wooyoung to smell the same.

Wooyoung went to look at San accusatorily, but upon seeing the alpha’s bright smile, Wooyoung felt the look die on his face.

Everyone seemed to be looking forward to the feast except for Hongjoong, who groaned about his chaperone duties,

“A fight always breaks out at these things, I swear.”

Seonghwa turned to Wooyoung, “He’s the one who has to break up any fights between alphas around here.”

Wooyoung gave an impressed look.

The rest of breakfast passed with everyone talking animatedly about the feast. Wooyoung left for the bathhouses while he still had some time to clean himself up before his shifts. While bathing, he wondered if he was washing San’s scent off of him, and felt a part of his heart clench in protest at the idea.

Did he actually like that he smelled like the alpha?

He didn’t know what to do with that information.

Wooyoung felt a thrill of excitement as he made his way through his dinner shift in the kitchens. There was a lot of work to be done, with preparations for the feast fully underway. Wooyoung was in charge of whipping up a variety of sauces for the roasted chickens that would be served en masse. Alongside that would be plates of cheese and meats, trays of freshly cut fruits, stuffed mushrooms, veggie and meat skewers, and fresh fruit tarts and pies. There would also be barrels of ale and wine to accompany the food.

Wooyoung couldn’t tell if he still smelled like San, and it made him a little self-conscious as he worked.

In between the lunch and dinner shifts, Wooyoung made his way over to the Weaver’s Tent to pick up his new shirt. When he got there, the tailors were clearly rushing through a bunch of orders, sweat on their foreheads and lines of clothes with tags hanging on racks.

Wooyoung waited until he caught the attention of one of them, who quickly came over,

“Name for your order?”

“Uh, Wooyoung.”

The woman disappeared into the lines of clothes, then came out with the shirt on a hanger, covered with a fabric gown cover.

“Here you go, just bring the gown cover and hanger back when you’re done, please.”

“Of course!”

Wooyoung eagerly walked home, excited to see how the shirt turned out. He took the winding staircase two at a time.

When he was alone in his room, he carefully removed the gown cover from the hanger, revealing the shirt within.

The shirt was a deep jewel-toned red color, sewn into a sort of tank top with a v-shaped neckline. The straps were wide but not so much that they would cover his shoulders, about one and a half inches. There were curling cutouts in the shirt where only a sheer fabric and glittery, beaded designs covered the skin.

It was gorgeous, more so than he could have imagined.

Soon, it was time for Wooyoung to go to the kitchens again, where he was helping butcher meat for the skewers. Next to him was Yeosang, who was on veggie duty.

Wooyoung took his chance to ask what he had been wondering,

“Hey Yeosang?”

Yeosang looked over from his chopping, “Yeah?”

Wooyoung lowered his voice, “Do I… still smell like San?”

Yeosang paused and took a breath in, considering it.

“Only a little bit, now. It was way worse this morning.”

Wooyoung relaxed a bit. He could accept that.

Yeosang looked over at him, “Did you two really scent each other?”

Wooyoung was a little embarrassed, “Just my wrist.”

Yeosang nodded, then paused, before saying, “San’s a good guy. His instincts are intense. But he’s a good guy.”

Wooyoung felt himself smile a fond smile, “Yeah, I think he is, too.” He wasn’t sure about these “intense instincts” people kept bringing up; San seemed almost docile to Wooyoung.

Wooyoung hurried home after his kitchen shift. He was worried he would smell like meat at the feast after having worked with it for so long, and wished he had the fragrances he had managed to get his hands on back in his old home. Wooyoung realized this place probably didn’t use fragrances at all, with so much of their communication and interactions depending on scents. He hoped his scent overpowered the meat smell, he’d much rather smell like oranges.

Wooyoung took some time to wipe black eyeshadow he had borrowed from Seonghwa over his eyelids, looking into his dresser mirror as he carefully applied the dark powder.

He picked out a pair of tight, black pants to go with his shirt. He put his shirt on and looked in the mirror.

The deep red of the shirt made his skin look like it glowed from within. His outfit hugged him in all the right places. Wooyoung felt dangerous. A smile passed over his face.

He hurried off to the communal arena, joining the traffic flowing there, everyone dressed up for the occasion.

When Wooyoung arrived, he saw three great bonfires interspersed throughout the center of the arena, with long tables pulled around the edges where the bleachers were. The tables were now being piled with food.

Some of the lights hanging around the arena had been extinguished, and some now shone in colors of blue, red, and green. The result was a darker, moodier glow. It made Wooyoung feel like he was in another world.

He could hear the discordant sound of drums and guitars being tuned.

He saw Seonghwa and Hongjoong huddled together nearby, and walked over.

“Wooyoung,” Seonghwa said, smiling and pulling Wooyoung in for a hug. Wooyoung hugged back, giggling.

Wooyoung went and got some food for himself, seeing the rest of the crew had joined Hongjoong and Seonghwa in the intervening time.

He glanced at San to see him wearing a black, collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up to show off his forearms. Wooyoung then pointedly did not look at San.

You promised him a dance, Wooyoung thought to himself.

He focused on the food on his plate to keep him from thinking too hard about it.

On the stage at the center of the arena, an older woman finished setting up her guitar and started playing for the crowd.

Wooyoung spoke to the rest of the group, “I thought Mingi was going to be playing?”

“Mingi comes on once most people have stopped eating,” Yunho said, “He plays better for when you want people to dance.”

Wooyoung quickly finished eating, eager to get some wine in him before the dancing started. He had finished eating and had just deposited his plate in the collection bins at the far corner of the open space, when he reached for the pendant at his neck. He felt nothing there.

Oh no.

He had forgotten San’s necklace. He had taken it off for his bath earlier and forgot to put it back on.

Wooyoung looked around; people were still finishing their food. Wooyoung had time.

He decided to quickly run back to his room, put the necklace on, and come back. He didn’t want to risk sending a sign of rejection to San again. Plus it really did complete the outfit he was wearing.

Luckily, Wooyoung knew the path to his room by heart at this point. He arrived at his home (fairly quickly for someone going against the flow of traffic now), picked the necklace up off his dresser, and clasped it around his neck.

He was walking down his staircase when he noticed a shadowy figure blocking off the end of the path back to the communal arena. Behind Wooyoung was a dead end.

“Hey there, sweet thing,” a voice said, triggering Wooyoung’s memory.

That was Ban Sook. The guy who had given him the first necklace. Had he followed him home?

Wooyoung got a bad feeling in his gut. He tried to figure out how to get around this guy and make it out to where more people were around.

When Wooyoung tried to go around Ban Sook, the guy moved into Wooyoung’s way, blocking him again. The guy had good reflexes. He tried to move and was blocked again, until Ban Sook had him pinned in the corner where the omega’s dormitory ended in a dense patch of trees. He wasn’t able to move past Ban Sook, even when he tried to, more forcefully, push Ban Sook’s arms out of the way.

“Let me go back to the feast,” he said, annoyed and a little scared.

“It wasn’t very friendly of you to wear my necklace around all day and then suddenly switch over to someone else,” Ban Sook said. His breath reeked of alcohol. His scent was bitter, smelling like the acrid potions they used back at home to clean rust and calcium deposits. The scent surrounded him, filling all of Wooyoung’s senses. It made Wooyoung want to barf.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize what I was doing, I didn’t mean to lead you on.”

“Oh, whatever,” Ban Sook slurred, “of course you’re a tease, look at you, dressed like that.” Wooyoung was starting to feel claustrophobic.

“I’m sorr-”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. What are you gonna do for me?” Spittle flew out of Ban Sook’s mouth as he spoke, hitting Wooyoung in the face.

“If you could just let me go back to the fe-”

“No!” He said harshly and full of spite. Wooyoung panicked a little.

“I bet if I scent you here and now, your little alpha friend won’t want you anymore,” he grabbed Wooyoung’s arms and held them by his side, reaching over to rub his nose at the crook of Wooyoung’s neck.

Wooyoung tried and tried to break his arms out of Ban Sook’s grasp, “Let go of me- let go-”

But he couldn’t stop Ban Sook from rubbing his nose up and down Wooyoung’s neck.

“Stop!” Wooyoung yelled, full panicking now. He really did not want to smell like this guy. It felt disgusting. It felt wrong. Wooyoung was starting to tear up when he heard a low voice nearby snarl,

“Get your hands off of him.”

Ban Sook was suddenly tackled to the side by a growling figure.

Wooyoung yelled out in shock then looked over only to become more shocked.

Sitting on Ban Sook’s chest, punching him in the face, was San.

It took Wooyoung a few seconds taking in the sight before he jumped into action, trying to get San to stop punching. Ban Sook was struggling from underneath him, trying to flip the power dynamic. San never let him, however, keeping his arms pinned with his legs. He didn’t hold back on his punches at all, each hit landing with a sickening smack. He either ignored or didn’t hear Wooyoung’s pleas for him to stop.

San pulled Ban Sook’s head up by his hair, getting ready to slam it down on the ground, and paused, growling right into his face, “If you f*cking touch him again, I’ll kill you. Do you understand me?”

Ban Sook tried to garble some words out, “I’m shorry, pwease,”

“Stop it right now,” A booming voice came from the other end of the path. Wooyoung looked over, and saw Hongjoong standing in the glow of one of the red floating lights.

Upon hearing his voice, Wooyoung felt himself immediately sink to his knees. Without a choice, all three people in the clearing bowed down to Hongjoong’s command.

“San, what do you think you’re doing?” Hongjoong said, sounding surprised and furious.

“He was forcing himself on Wooyoung,” San said, voice still low, grumbly, and serious, “he was scenting him without consent.”

Hongjoong looked at Ban Sook, who was groaning with his face pressed into the ground. He was either too drunk or too injured to defend himself from the accusation. Blood leaked from his nose and his lips had multiple gashes.

“Ban Sook, come with me,” Hongjoong said, “San, you take care of Wooyoung. Bring him to Seonghwa later if he needs it,” his voice took on a more serious note, “Then meet with me first thing tomorrow morning.”

San nodded.

Hongjoong walked over to where Ban Sook lay, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him up. “C’mon, let's get these injuries checked out.” Eventually, Hongjoong had him standing up straight, supporting him as they walked off towards the alpha dormitory.

Once he was gone, San carefully made his way over to where Wooyoung was,

“Are you okay?” San asked in a gentle voice.

Wooyoung felt tears well in his eyes. He looked down and shook his head.

San sat down next to him, careful not to touch him,

“Do you wanna talk about it?”

Wooyoung felt a jumble of conflicting emotions. But one question held prime importance,

“I smell like him, don’t I?”

San didn’t say anything until Wooyoung looked up at him,

“It won’t last forever,” Wooyoung felt sick to his stomach, “Do you want to go take a bath?”

“Will that make the scent go away?”

“It’ll make most of the scent go away.”

It wasn’t enough, but it was something. Wooyoung nodded and stood up, “Let’s go.”

San and Wooyoung were quiet on the walk over to the bathhouse. Wooyoung didn’t really want to talk, but didn’t want to be alone either, and so was appreciative of San’s quiet accompaniment.

When they arrived at the bathhouse, Wooyoung turned to San,

“You don’t mind waiting?”

San shook his head and hands “no” in response, “Not at all. Take all the time you need.”

Once Wooyoung was inside, he slowly walked to the nearest bath and began to fill it. He couldn’t find it in him to rush, even knowing San was waiting for him outside. He scrubbed his neck and wrists with soap until they were red and sore. He felt like he would go crazy if he couldn’t get the nasty smell off of him. After a final scrub, he got out, dried himself off with one of the towels they had stocked there, and dressed back in his party clothes again.

The first thing he said to San when he got out was, “Okay. How do I smell?”

San sniffed the air, then hesitated.

“You smell better!”

“Just better?”

“Well…”

Wooyoung dropped so he was crouching on the ground with his hands covering his face. He could feel himself tear up and let out a frustrated sound,

“I just need his smell off.”

San paused, “If you want it gone right now…”

Wooyoung looked up with hope in his eyes. Anything.

“... I could scent you instead.”

There was a moment where Wooyoung just stared at San, processing what he’d just heard.

“Of course, I understand if that’s literally the last thing you would want right now, I just wanted to bring it up in case-”

Wooyoung reached out and grabbed San’s wrist, then stood up. He wasn’t sure how to do this right, so he just tried to follow his instincts.

He lined his nose up with the scent gland there and took in a deep breath. Immediately San’s scent had Wooyoung’s knees going weak. It was such a gorgeous scent, Wooyoung couldn’t get enough of it. He pressed his nose, rubbing his face into San’s wrist, letting out a pleased hum. San growled lowly in response. Soon, Wooyoung was lifting San’s wrist to rub it at his neck until he was lost in the process, daydreaming about how their scents would blend perfectly together. All thoughts of removing Ban Sook’s scent started to feel distant.

It felt so good to scent San. He wanted more of it. He kissed at San’s wrist, eliciting another low, grumbling sound from the alpha, making him almost moan in response.

Wooyoung stopped, looking up into San’s eyes. His pretty fox eyes were dark and enticing. Wooyoung traced his fingers up San’s arm and said, with a little bit of a whine to it,

“More.”

San took a deep breath.

Wooyoung waited patiently as San slowly lifted a finger, put it under his chin, and turned his head to expose his neck.

San leaned in until his breath tickled the space beneath Wooyoung’s ear.

“Say please.”

Wooyoung couldn’t help but to expose his neck even more for San. He then reached up and grabbed San’s shirt, pulling San closer to him. He wanted to put on a show.

“Please,” Wooyoung said, straight from the heart.

San hummed in approval then moved his nose up and down Wooyoung’s neck, making the latter gasp at the sensation. It sent tingles down his spine. He curled his hands tighter in San’s shirt. San stroked against his neck with more pressure,

“You’re so beautiful.”

Wooyoung was intoxicated; San’s words filled him with pleasure. Wooyoung threaded his fingers in San’s hair from the back of his head.

San opened his mouth at Wooyoung’s neck and started to place nips along the skin there, making Wooyoung giggle. Then, San started kissing and sucking at the crook of his neck, his hands going to Wooyoung’s hips, rubbing up and down his sides, squeezing his butt.

Wooyoung’s breathing hitched. He wanted to scent San back. He reached his head over and started kissing San’s neck in return, occasionally running his nose lightly over the scent gland there. San moaned lowly, hands clenching at Wooyoung’s waist now.

Wooyoung brought his head around so that they were standing nose to nose, mouths a few centimeters apart. Wooyoung paused, looking into San’s eyes. Then he smiled wickedly, breaking out of San’s grasp easily to put a little distance between them.

He had to admit it to himself: he was a little bit of a tease.

“I feel way better now,” Wooyoung said, “Thanks.” It was true-- he felt okay again.

San gave Wooyoung a lethal gaze. He looked like he wanted to eat Wooyoung alive.

Then he took in a sharp breath, pushing his hair back with his hand.

“Anytime,” he said, back to his regular voice.

“Let’s go back to the feast,” Wooyoung said, “I need a glass of wine.”

Chapter 6

Chapter Text

When Wooyoung and San make it back to the party, everything is in full swing. Children and their parents dance around one of the bonfires, all of which are massive, while the rest are encircled by adults of varying ages. A lot of people are dancing, more than Wooyoung expected. He figures this is what around a thousand people look like gathered together. Wooyoung heads over to the wine barrel, where he fills a cup for San and him both. And then, a little while later, he fills up two more, because f*ck Ban Sook, Wooyoung wants to end this night on a good note. Wooyoung almost regrets this because within moments after finishing his second glass, San is red-in-the-face tipsy. Wooyoung is feeling a bit of a buzz himself and they giggle to each other in the way that only two drunk people can.

“Let’s dance!” San says to Wooyoung, pulling him by the arm toward the dance floor.

Everyone’s scents intermingling is a lot for Wooyoung, but he finds himself starting to use that sense as a guiding light, telling him who’s in a good mood, who he would most vibe with. San leads Wooyoung through the crowd, until they find a little pocket where Yunho, Yeosang, and Jongho are jumping and swaying to the beat. The group greets them excitedly and exchanges a round of drunken hugs, and then they’re all moving to the beat, arranged in a circle so that they're all looking at each other. Every now and then Yunho will freestyle dance in the center of the circle and everyone will cheer him on.

Wooyoung looks over and sees Mingi jamming on his guitar, a group of people using drums to accompany him. Wooyoung thinks he can tell Mingi’s magic working on him. The music pulls you into it, until it’s all you can focus on, and then you’ll snap out of it, just to be lulled back in again. When you’re lulled in, it’s like you’re bewitched- all you want to do is sing and dance to the melody, and when you give into that urge- immense gratification. Somehow, Mingi’s magic had amplified the sound of what he was playing as well- Wooyoung could see people two hundred feet away dancing in time to his playing.

Wooyoung also was starting to feel the way he seems to always feel around crowds these days. He can feel his emotions being pulled this way and that, with no reason or rhyme to the vacillations. One moment he’ll be mesmerized in the throes of the song, the next he’ll feel an emptiness inside that refuses to be filled. Maybe this is what happens when you mix magic with alcohol.

At some point in the night, they all, excluding Yunho, down another glass of wine (or beer, in Yeosang’s case). They cheers to a full moon that they cannot see, and return to the “dancefloor” when they’re finished. Dancing around a bonfire makes the shimmer of Wooyoung’s new shirt sparkle delicately. It makes Wooyoung feel like showing off.

Wooyoung, San, Yeosang, Jongho, and Yunho dance until the drum players are too tired to play anymore. Everyone with children has already gone home, only a few hundred people still moving to the sound of Mingi’s guitar. The tables of food have been reduced to scraps that some unlucky soul was going to have to clean tomorrow morning.

Suddenly, Mingi changes tune and starts to play a slow, wistful melody, a sound like blossoming flowers. It takes Wooyoung’s breath away. Wooyoung can’t help but close his eyes to take in the sound, and when he opens them, only San is standing in front of him. San’s cheeks are pink from the alcohol.

“It’s beautiful.” Wooyoung says to him, along with, “where did the others go?”

“I think they went to get a last drink before the barrels run out,” San replied.

“Ah...” Wooyoung could barely pay attention over the enchanting music.

There was a long pause. Wooyoung felt adrenaline drip into his bloodstream bit by bit.

“Would you… like to dance?” San asked, hand held out, looking like he was trying to seem as sober as possible. It was very endearing.

Wooyoung took his hand and moved closer, putting his other hand on San’s shoulder. The sheer width of San’s shoulders was intimidating this close up (which Wooyoung very much did not mind).

For a while they swayed like they were at church camp- a good amount of space between them. The music and the alcohol had its way, however, and soon Wooyoung, in an act of bravery, was leaning his head on San’s shoulder, their fronts pressed against each other.

San’s scent grew sweeter in response. Wooyoung was sure his did as well.

They rocked back and forth, holding each other, allowing their thoughts to be consumed by the melody. Wooyoung tried to fully relax into it, but couldn’t get his heart rate to calm down. He was legitimately worried San might feel its hasty tempo through his sternum. They were just so close.

“You look beautiful in that shirt,” San said in a gentle voice, out of nowhere.

Wooyoung nuzzled into San’s neck, scenting him lightly.

“That’s right,” San said in response, his fingertips tracing over Wooyoung’s back.

San always knew how to make Wooyoung feel safe and excited at the same time. It brought back bad memories from past relationships where he didn’t feel safe at all.

Wooyoung wanted to kiss San, but after remembering his ex, he faltered. He wasn’t sure he was ready to jump into a serious relationship after the way the last one had ended. And he was still reeling from how his life had changed over the last few weeks.

San could sense his sudden tensing up, maybe even smell the stress in his scent, “Is everything okay?”

Wooyoung hesitated, “I think I’m just ready to go to sleep, actually.” It wasn’t a lie, at least.

San looked a little disappointed, but still offered to walk Wooyoung home. Wooyoung’s inner wolf whined- it wanted to reassure San that he hadn’t done anything wrong.

The silence on the way back was more awkward than usual.

“So, you have these every month?” Wooyoung tried.

“Yeah, every full moon. The next one’s gonna be a little different though, it’s the night of an eclipse.”

“Does that make it special?”

“Yeah, our instincts are heightened. Our powers are, too. The dancing can get a little… intense.”

It sounded like fun to Wooyoung.

Then, Wooyoung remembered something he had wanted to ask San,

“Hey, can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“How did you discover your conjuring ability?”

San smiled, “I was holding out my hands to warm them by a fire, when suddenly I produced a mini fire between my palms.”

“That must’ve been insane.”

“It totally freaked me out,” San laughed, “and it took me a while to understand how it works. I’m still not sure of all my limitations.”

“I hope I develop a cool power like yours.” Wooyoung said, longingly.

“Be careful what you wish for. Some abilities are more of a hassle than they’re worth.”

“Would you trade your power for another one?”

“No,” San said immediately, “conjuring is rad as hell,” Wooyoung rolled his eyes, “But think about telepathy or divination. It can be a heavy burden to bear.”

Wooyoung considered it and thought San was probably right, “Does anyone in the pack have telepathy?” Wooyoung thought it would be wild if someone did.

“Yeah, he helps with our communications with Tersivia, actually. With him, we can tell if they’re lying or planning some sort of ambush.”

Wooyoung looked off, wide-eyed, into the distance. He really did have to be careful what he wished for.

“You have some amazing people in this pack, huh?”

San looked at him, “We. You’re one of us, now.”

For some reason, that remark put a little bit of stress on Wooyoung’s shoulders.

They had arrived at the omega dormitory. There was an awkward empty moment where neither of them knew what to do.

“Well, goodbye!” Wooyoung said, cringing internally.

San returned an equally lame “Goodbye!” and then Wooyoung was climbing up a rope ladder this time (he liked to mix things up now and then), soon entering his room, out of breath.

Wooyoung cursed himself for not having better social graces as he slumped, face-first, into his bed. His inner wolf was pouting a bit at the alpha’s absence, at being alone in a room with no one to cuddle. Wooyoung instinctively fixed the pillows and blankets until they were just right. He never used to do that before. It was like scratching a particularly bothersome itch.

He was happy to strip himself of the clothes he was wearing, as he was sure they still smelled at least somewhat like Ban Sook. He hoped his bed would smell like San after sleeping in it tonight. Then he remembered his ex and the reasons why he didn’t get his goodnight kiss earlier like he had wanted.

He went and put on some fresh pajamas, brushed his teeth with the bucket of fresh water in his room, and went to bed trying not to think of the past.

---

The next morning, San woke up to a sinking feeling in his stomach.

He needed to go talk to Hongjoong.

He was sure the older alpha was going to be beyond pissed with him. San sighed.

After seeing what Ban Sook was doing to Wooyoung, San had just seen red and let his instincts take over. He didn’t regret it, either, no matter how much community service Hongjoong assigned him.

Then, he thought about Wooyoung. He could feel himself involuntarily start to smile.

He had met the prettiest omega he was likely ever going to meet again. He had accepted his gifts San thought with delight.

Then he remembered last night. The way Wooyoung’s scent had turned sour. The way a strange, stiff feeling had filled San up with no warning, like a ghost walking through him.

Had he done something wrong? He wondered if he had gotten too drunk, done something stupid without noticing. He rolled onto his side and wallowed a bit in his doldrums, wishing for the umpteenth time that Wooyoung was there, next to him, in his bed where he could make sure he was safe and satisfied.

He eventually groaned and pulled himself out of bed. Any longer and he’d piss Hongjoong off even more.

He headed to the inn where Hongjoong basically had a standing rental. It was pretty much Hongjoong and Seonghwa’s home before they officially mated and could start living in one of the permanent residences on the grounds.

San knocked as remorsefully as he could, trying to pacify the looming beast.

Seonghwa opened the door, and upon seeing San gave him a mother-disappointed-in-her-son expression, “Hongjoong! It’s San.”

Seonghwa opened the door wider for San to enter, closing it behind him. He could see Seonhwa was busy making coffee as Hongjoong sat at his desk going over papers.

San took a seat on the couch in the living room, which the kitchen opened up to. Hongjoong’s desk was a little ways off, in the corner of the room.

“Twelve weeks clean up duty. Starting today.” Was all that Hongjoong said, coming over to sit on the adjacent loveseat.

San looked taken aback. That was way longer than he expected. But, he swallowed his protests, returning with a terse nod, “Okay.”

“Why do I get the feeling that even if I gave you a year of clean up duty, you’d never regret what you did?”

San shrugged his shoulders, “What he was doing was bad.”

“And that makes sending a man to the nurse’s tent for stitches okay?”

San winced. Seonghwa hated stitching people up the most. He looked over at Seonghwa and said, honestly, “Sorry.”

Seonghwa tsked lightly, but still brought San a hot cup of coffee. He smacked San on the back of the head, not so much as to hurt him,

“Don’t do it again. Control yourself next time.”

San nodded, “I won’t.” He thought to himself, as long as people keep their hands off of Wooyoung.

“What did Ban Sook get?” San asked, still angry at the bastard.

“Sanitation duty. One year.”

San grumbled a little. It was one of the harsher punishments Hongjoong could have handed out- it was a huge hit to an alpha’s pride to have to clean other people’s sh*t up. Plus it was hard labor. But San still had a hard time letting it go.

“It’s his first offense, San, what else could I do? Kick him right out to die by horror? Give fuel to all the rumors that I show favoritism towards you and the rest?”

San knew he couldn’t. But still.

“I know. But you smelled Wooyoung’s scent last night when we found him. Ban Sook hurt him. It just… it sucks.”

Hongjoong nodded, “Agreed,” then after a moment, “Well, he’s not getting kicked out of the pack just yet, so control yourself when you see him around the grounds, okay?”

San nodded the affirmative, breathing out a sigh of relief on the inside. Hongjoong was way less mad than he had feared. Which was great, because when Hongjoong got mad, things got scary.

“Good. Now I need you to come over here and look over these volunteers for the Skylight Project.”

---

Wooyoung debated over whether he should keep wearing the necklace San had given him like he had been.

He couldn’t stop thinking about things with San ending up like they did with his ex. How things had started off happy and bright, hot and heavy, and then turned into coercion, and mean little comments, and cruel words said in a too-loud voice.

He couldn’t stop thinking about the way that relationship had made Wooyoung smaller, and quieter, and way less himself. It had taken months to get the spark back in his eyes.

He didn’t want that to happen again.

He decided to take the necklace off and bring up the issue with Yeosang at their shift that day. If after that, he decided to wear the necklace, he could easily stop by his room before heading to lunch.

“Do not suddenly stop wearing the necklace unless you’re sure you don’t want to date him,” Yeosang had said immediately upon Wooyoung broaching the topic. All the people nearby, who were unintentionally eavesdropping, nodded in agreement. The kitchens had grown into a sort of chat-circle at this point, a bunch of them teasing him for walking in smelling so much like San this morning.

“Like really sure. Like, if you think there’s any chance of romance, keep wearing that necklace.”

“Okay! okay, I get it, it’s a big deal.”

“It is a big deal,” a nearby omega, Lee Minho, replied stoically, “Especially after you wore that other necklace around like that. I’ve met plenty of alphas who wouldn’t have gone near you after that.”

Yeosang nodded vigorously.

“Okay, I get it, I get it, I’ll put it back on.”

The chat circle seemed appeased at that, and continued onto their next victim,

“So, Minho, did we see you dancing with Jisung last night?” Wooyoung daydreamed as they interrogated the poor omega.

The social cues between people’s inner wolves involved a lot of symbolism, Wooyoung was starting to notice. A necklace was never just a necklace. He wondered what other symbols he had been sending out unintentionally.

He was on his way out of the kitchens to run up to his room real quick when the world granted him the worst luck possible.

Just as he was crossing the entrance path to the Mess Hall, he ran right into San.

sh*t. He wasn’t wearing the necklace. f*ck. Maybe he wouldn’t notice.

San’s eyes perked up upon seeing Wooyoung, “Hey where’re you going? Lunch is this way,” he motioned towards the opposite direction down the path.

“Just have to go to my room to… freshen up.”

“Oh, okay,” and then San’s eyes slid down Wooyoung’s face to stop at his neck.

Before San could register what he was seeing, Wooyoung blurted out, “I’ll be back soon!” and rushed off, hoping San didn’t have the time to notice the necklace’s absence.

---

He had stopped wearing his necklace.

San walked into the Mess Hall like a robot, feeling empty inside.

Why had he stopped wearing his necklace?

He must know what that means by now, San thought. But maybe. Maybe there was a perfectly fair explanation other than a complete rejection of San’s advances.

San couldn’t help but think of the night before, when Wooyoung’s scent had turned sour and they just suddenly seemed not to click anymore.

San brought his food to the table and sat down amongst the normal crew. When he arrived, everyone looked at him with concerned expressions.

Yunho spoke, “Bro, what’s wrong? You reek.”

San tried not to sound as hollow-scared as he felt, “He took off my necklace.”

“Necklace? Oh, you mean Wooyoung?”

The group gave each other side glances at this.

Yeosang face-palmed, “I wouldn’t worry about that, San”

“You think?”

“I’m pretty sure he’s about to show up any minute wearing your necklace.”

San’s heart gave a jump of hope.

“Oh… okay. If you say so.” Sn breathed a sigh of relief, but.

There was a small part of him still worried, his inner wolf unable to let it go: why had he taken off the necklace in the first place?

---

When Wooyoung arrived, he was indeed wearing the fire opal necklace. He glanced at San to see if he was visibly distressed, but saw no such sign on his face. He hoped that was a good sign. No one mentioned anything about the necklace, chatting about the upcoming Skylight Project instead.

“It’s coming up soon, we’re thinking of starting in a couple days.” Hongjoong informed the group.

Seonghwa wiggled up and down in his seat, “I’m so excited. I haven’t seen the sunlight in forever.” Wooyoung could relate- it was starting to get maddening, everything only cycling between what normally would be the light of twilight and the dark of midnight.

“Have you considered volunteering?” Yunho asked Wooyoung, “Me and San are gonna help climb and cut.”

Wooyoung thought about it, “I’m not sure I can climb that well. Is it safe?”

“We have someone who can make people float,” Hongjoong supplied, “We’ll be tying ropes to people and guiding them to the right branches to cut. So, it should be relatively safe. We’ve been practicing floating objects of human size and weight for months now and all tests have turned out just fine.”

“That sounds fun!” Wooyoung said, surprised, “I’ll volunteer for sure.”

When they’re all leaving to go to their various afternoon shifts, San walks up to Wooyoung.

“Any chance you’re free about an hour or so after dinner tonight? There’s something I wanna show you.”

It seemed like San didn’t feel particularly rejected over the necklace issue, but there was something off about his scent that, Wooyoung worried, belied his true feelings.

“Yeah! Definitely!” Wooyoung enthused a little too hard, trying to make up for any hard feelings.

“Okay, see you then,” San said with a small smile.

When Wooyoung goes to his dinner shift, he tells the group assembled there of his tragic necklace-less run-in with San. They respond with a chorus of “Oh noooo”’s and “f*ck”’s, agreeing that that was just the worst bad luck. Yeosang shook his head solemnly the entire time. Wooyoung was happy to be making more friends here.

Wooyoung’s shift and dinner pass by slowly, Wooyoung eager to somehow make things right with San tonight. As soon as dinner is over, he runs home to take a quick bath and brush his teeth in preparation.

Wooyoung is arranging his semi-dry hair in the mirror when a knock comes from the opening to his room. Wooyoung jumps up and pulls the flap aside.

“Alright, Captain, where are we headed?”

“First, to the kitchens!” San says with an excited energy.

They walk over to the kitchens, going around to the rear of the building . There, San walks up to a back entrance that Wooyoung had never noticed before. San holds a finger up to his lips with a sly smile, then pulls a silver key out of his pocket, going to unlock the door. It opens easily for him. San then signals for Wooyoung to wait a moment, disappearing inside. When he returns a few minutes later, he’s holding a bottle of what could only be some sort of alcoholic beverage.

“Someone’s got the hook up,” Wooyoung says quietly, impressed.

San smiles sneakily at him, then holds out his hand. Wooyoung takes it, and then San is guiding him throughout the grounds again, everything dark with little floating bursts of light here and there. The color had been switched back to a warm white and Wooyoung wonders if San had to change each one by himself every month for the feasts.

Soon they arrive at the widest base of a tree Wooyoung has ever seen. Disappearing up into the branches above is a sturdy-looking rope ladder.

“The climb is pretty long, so brace yourself. I’ll go first.”

Then he starts to climb, after storing the bottle in a netted crossbody bag he had brought, bundled up in his pocket. Wooyoung quickly follows after him.

The climb is long, terrifyingly so. They reach a height where a fall would be fatal and then they keep going. Wooyoung wonders if one just gets immune to heights after living in this pack long enough.

After too many minutes of climbing, Wooyoung sees a large wooden platform above them, safely secured on two large, protruding tree limbs. The ladder leads right up to it and soon San is hefting himself onto the platform with a grunted out, “Here we go.”

San turns to help Wooyoung up until they are both standing, safe on the platform, a little out of breath.

Wooyoung turns to get a look at where he’s at, but stops in his tracks at the sight of the view the platform has of the ground below. The entire camp is visible from up here, lush with green and dark, near-black browns, with small, gleaming dots of light sprinkled throughout.

There was no light up here, though. He could only see a vague outline of the features of San’s face.

“What is this place?” Wooyoung said, ensorcelled by the view.

“It’s a watchtower some Head Leaders had built forever ago, to have an easy way to get an overview of the pack without having to walk the entire range of the grounds. We don’t use it too much anymore, though, and only a few people know it exists. Hongjoong told me this is where he comes to drink sometimes and I eventually got into the same habit. The view is unbeatable. Oh! And before I forget,”

San walked to the edge of the platform and crouched down to do something Wooyoung couldn’t see. Then, a small candle flame lit up on the floor in between San’s outstretched palms. He then repeated this all around the perimeter of the platform, every five inches or so, until a sort of guardrail of flickering candlelight had been constructed.

“This way we won't accidentally walk off of it, plus we’ll be able to actually see each other.”

San’s face glowed in the light.

“Let’s crack this bad boy open,” San said, waving the large bottle in the air.

“What is it?”

“More wine,” San said, taking the first drink.

“Hell yeah,” Wooyoung returned, taking a big swig after San. They passed it back and forth like that, chatting about the taste of the wine and their preferences between various alcohols, until each of them was warm in the face.

“So, what were you doing after dinner that we had to wait for?” Wooyoung said, starting to feel the alcohol in his system.

San groaned, “Clean up duty. Every day after dinner for the next twelve weeks.”

“Twelve weeks?” Wooyoung was surprised, “For what you did to Ban Sook last night?”

“Yep,” San said, moving to sit against the side of the large tree, “But I’d still do it, even if I could go back in time.”

Wooyoung smiled at that. He joined San in sitting down.

San continued in a gentler tone, “How are you, by the way? Doing okay?”

Wooyoung nodded, “I still feel a wave of grossness every now and then, and I’m a little scared to walk the grounds alone at night, but mostly I’m okay. I think. Being locked up in the jail left me in a much worse state; I think I’ll be claustrophobic forever now. If you showed me a loop of handcuffing wire, I’d probably break down into hysterics.”

“So no tying your hands up… noted.” San said, delivering the innuendo with a dark look.

Wooyoung stuttered, “Well, if I really trusted the person… I don’t know. Who knows. Maybe it could work out.” He avoided San’s eyes and took another drink.

“What have you been helping Hongjoong with, recently?” Wooyoung said, to change the subject.

“Oh, just organizing the plans for Project Skylight and a pretty lengthy excursion that’s coming up.”

“You’ll be going out into the woods?” Wooyoung’s wolf did not like that, he had the urge to grab San and not let him go.

“Yep! Gotta get some elderflower, red dandelion, coppertail snake venom. Seonghwa needs more materials and we have an exchange with Tersivian diplomats coming up. We’re hoping to get some new pipes and tools to help modernize our infrastructure.”

Wooyoung’s wolf huffed in response. As if that was a good enough reason to go risking his life like that.

“That’s awesome,” Wooyoung said, pointedly ignoring his wolf’s childishness.

“Can I ask you something weird?” San says, out of the blue, a little pink in the face.

“Of course,” Wooyoung replied.

“Is there a reason you took off your necklace earlier today? Maybe to take a bath?”

Wooyoung hesitated. f*ck. He probably couldn’t get away with a lie. He was a horrible liar normally and that was with people who couldn’t literally smell the changes in his disposition.

A larger (and growing larger by the minute) part of Wooyoung just wanted to tell the truth and be done with it. He wasn’t sure how much that might hurt San’s feelings, though, especially with all the social cues he’d missed up til now.

“Sorry if that’s weird to you, it probably doesn’t mean anything,” San started to say.

“Honest answer?”

“Honest answer.”

“I started thinking about my ex and got a little overwhelmed by how fast this is moving. I don’t want things to end up like they did last time I dated someone.”

“Bad relationship?”

“Bad guy. He seemed like a good guy at first, but towards the end… not so much.”

San looked at him with surprisingly sober eyes for how pink his cheeks were, “That sucks. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I’m pretty much healed by now. But yeah, earlier I got scared like ‘what if San turns out like him’ and took off the necklace without thinking it through. I tried to put it back on before you noticed but then you ran into me at the Mess Hall.”

“Ah. I get it. Thanks for telling me the truth.” He paused, then said, “Just so you know, whatever pace feels good to you.. that’s what I want. If you ever need a breather, just let me know and I can give you some space.”

Wooyoung felt warm and a little giddy on the inside, “Thanks. That means a lot.”

Then, Wooyoung couldn’t help his curiosity, “Have you ever dated anyone before?”

San broke into a smile and turned his face away “Oh god… are you sure you wanna know?”

Wooyoung jumped up and down where he was sitting, “Spill, spill, spill, spill!”

“Ugh” San made a face like he was looking for someone to save him, “I dated a girl once, maybe six months ago.”

“From the pack?”

“From the pack.”

“And? How did it end? Tell me the gory details.” Wooyoung was properly tipsy now, putting his hand on San’s arm and shaking him a little in excitement.

“She fell in love with someone else while we were courting. Not two months after she dumped me, they had their mating ceremony. I showed up and got too drunk and made a mildly embarrassing mess of myself, then never talked to her again.”

“What did you do at the wedding?” Wooyoung needed an explanation.

“Let’s just say I ended up taking my shirt off.”

“Oh, San. No.”

“Yeah. Now, we avoid each other as much as we can.”

“That’s gotta be tough with only a thousand people around.”

“You have no idea,” San whined, looking up into the night sky, “It’s so annoying.”

Wooyoung giggled, which made San giggle until they were both laughing like it was their first time drinking. Eventually, Wooyoung said “Damn, that’s rough. I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s okay,” San said, making eye contact with Wooyoung, “I’ve met someone way better anyways.”

Wooyoung felt sparks run through his veins. How was San always doing this to him?

“Better how?” Wooyoung said coyly.

“Well, he’s far more beautiful…” San said smiling, then more seriously, “He’s more clever, and more fun, and talking to him feels as easy as breathing.”

Wooyoung could smell the desire in San’s scent, could feel it reflected in himself.

“Your necklace looks perfect in this light,” San slowly reached up and took the pendant between his fingers, twisting it to see how it reflected the candle light. There was a pause, then San said, a bit shyly,

“I like you a lot.”

Wooyoung felt his heart rate increase.

“I like you too.” Wooyoung tried to sound as genuine as he could through the alcohol stupor.

“Even though you took off the necklace?” Wooyoung could smell the insecurity and fear simmering inside San as he said it.

“I won’t take it off again.” He looked San in the eyes, “Promise. I honestly didn’t realize it would be a big insult, I’m still getting used to all the new rules that go along with our instincts,” he said sheepishly.

San had leaned in close to Wooyoung to hold his pendant, but had not moved back. Wooyoung felt his fingers leave the pendant so that one of his fingernails could trace up Wooyoung’s neck, along his jawline, then back down his neck and down his arm. Wooyoung felt tingles all over his body.

“Do you know how beautiful you are?” San said.

Wooyoung felt an unstoppable smile bloom on his face as he looked away. Then he gasped as San traced his finger back up his arm and neck, until it was tangled in Wooyoung’s hair. San moved his face closer to Wooyoung’s, until their lips were an inch apart. He looked Wooyoung in the eyes, asking permission. Wooyoung made an almost imperceptible nod, and then San was gently pressing their lips together. He pulled away for a breath then leaned forward again for another, more eager kiss. Wooyoung felt magical. The sensation of their lips touching was bliss. Wooyoung followed his desire and swung his leg over San’s lap, so that he was straddling the alpha, their crotches pressed together. San groaned in response, his hands going to grab at Wooyoung’s waist.

Wooyoung curled his hands into San’s shirt collar and leaned in for his own kiss. It was shy at first, a slow movement of skin against skin, then greedy, kissing him over and over until they were both out of breath. He let his instincts take over, reaching his head down to suck at the base of San’s neck where it was most sensitive. San tightened his grip on Wooyoung, then moved his hands down to squeeze Wooyoung’s butt.

“f*ck, Woo.”

Wooyoung purred at the nickname, then transitioned to scenting San without holding back, breathing in at San’s neck and pressing his nose there, leaving little pecks now and then. He could feel San growing hard.

“You make me feel amazing.” Wooyoung said. Wooyoung grabbed San’s wrists and rubbed the scent glands there against the sides of his face. He wanted to be completely wrapped up in the alpha.

His alpha, his inner wolf wanted to say. Wooyoung would’ve been embarrassed about that if he wasn’t so distracted.

When Wooyoung was done with San’s wrists, San threaded both of his hands in Wooyoung’s hair and brought him forward for another kiss, opening his mouth in an attempt to get Wooyoung to open his. When their tongues met for the first time, San moaned lowly in the back of his throat. He moved his hands to knead Wooyoung’s butt again, gripping it and pushing their crotches together, the rough movement making them both moan in response.

Then Wooyoung felt something wet in his pants that he had never felt before. He froze.

He had heard of this but was not ready for the reality. Wooyoung felt panic rise in his chest.

“What’s wrong? Did I do something?” San asked.

Wooyoung, humiliated, hid his face in San’s neck. He could feel the slick drip out of him, and knew without needing to be told that San could smell it on him.

“Love, if you don’t tell me, I can’t help,” San said in a calm voice.

Wooyoung was detonating on the spot. He felt gross and smelly and dirty. He didn’t know how to say what he needed to say out loud.

“I’m… wet.” Wooyoung hoped that was enough.

San paused, then said carefully, “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. It’s a good thing, baby.” Wooyoung felt him release calming pheromones and tried to give into them.

A part of Wooyoung felt like crying. He felt like he couldn’t control his body at all. He felt ugly. San stroked the back of Wooyoung’s head, “It’s all good, baby, I love it.”

Wooyoung giggled at that, which San jumped on, “I do!” then he said lowly into the crook of Wooyoung’s neck, “I wanna stick my face in it.”

Now that made Wooyoung feel a little bit better.

“You do?”

San nuzzled into Wooyoung, “I really really do. I wanna make it mine.”

Wooyoung threw his arms around San’s shoulders, “Okay.”

San just hugged him until Wooyoung pulled away.

“I need to change my clothes, but I’m too drunk to climb down that ladder”

“Yeah, I didn’t really think through the fact that we would have to wait up here until we were sober. Hongjoong and I will usually just sleep up here until we’re good enough to go down.”

Wooyoung didn’t love the idea of sleeping in his own mess, but realized he didn’t have any choice. He lay down on his back looking up at the canopy above, then to his amazement…

“San! Look!”

There was the smallest opening in the canopy above, where the nearly-full moon was shining its inimitable light.

“Whoa! I’ve never seen that before. The timing would have to be perfect.”

They both lay there, taking in the view for a long time. Wooyoung was close to sleep when he felt a hand reach out and intertwine its fingers with his own. Wooyoung felt sweetness fill his heart. They fell asleep like that, hands interlaced for only the moon to see.

Chapter 7

Chapter Text

When Wooyoung woke up, he was curled up into San with his head on San’s shoulder. San was still asleep, his face placid in the candlelight still flickering around them. Wooyoung detached himself from San’s side carefully, trying not to wake San up. He didn’t quite manage it, however, and soon San was stirring, eyes opening and blearily taking in his surroundings. Wooyoung sat up and stretched. He could still feel the dried slick from last night on his undergarments, making him want a bath as soon as possible.

San joined Wooyoung in sitting up, rubbing at his face to drive the sleepiness away.

“Good morning sleepyhead.” Wooyoung said, smiling.

“G’morning” San mumbled, not unhappily.

“You good to climb down? I gotta shower.”

San nods, “I’m good to go,” and then stands, offering a hand to help Wooyoung up. Wooyung takes it, and has a hard time letting go once he’s standing.

“Did you sleep well?” San asked, with real concern in his voice.

Wooyoung nods, smiling, “Thanks for showing me this place.”

“Of course. I actually have somewhere else to show you the next time you have a day off.”

“I’m free today and tomorrow?”

“Later today, then?” Wooyoung wondered if San wanted to spend all his time with Wooyoung like he wanted to spend all his time with San.

“Let’s do it.”

San then motioned for Wooyoung to go first down the ladder. They carefully made their way to the ground, hyper-focused on not falling to their death.

Wooyoung had no idea what time it was without the clock next to his bed or the sunlight to give him a clue. He figured it must be breakfast time based on how many people were walking around.

As they crossed the grounds, Wooyoung became self-conscious of the dried slick he carried with him. Were people glancing at him because they could smell it on him?

San gave him a strange look.

“What?”

San shook his head, “Nothing.”

Soon, they had arrived at the omega dorms for Wooyoung to get a clean change of clothes. They shyly waved goodbye to each other, agreeing to see each other at lunch.

Wooyoung went to grab his clothes and soon was soaking in the relaxing lavender-vanilla bath he had been yearning for. He wondered if he would leak slick every time he got turned on like that. He had a lot of questions about being an omega, and there was only one person he knew he could go to regarding them.

Once Wooyoung was clean and dressed, he made his way to the Nurse’s Tent to see Seonghwa.

Fortunately, Seonghwa wasn’t seeing any patients when Wooyoung arrived. Wooyoung opened the flap after knocking on a nearby support branch to see the other tidying up his workplace.

“Wooyoung,” Seonghwa said, then a small mischievous smile crossed his face, “we didn’t see you at breakfast today.”

Wooyoung figured San probably smelled like him and gave away their night together. Wooyoung sat down on the patients’ bed near where Seonghwa was sitting at his desk. Seonghwa got him to roll over so he could change his bandages.

“I actually have some questions about that…”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. So last night. I was with San. And we were…” Wooyoung’s body flooded with embarrassment for what he was about to say, “doing things. And I liked it. A lot.”

Seonghwa nodded along, listening attentively.

“And I kind of… got wet… all over myself,” Wooyoung cringed, “and it was a lot for me. So I wanted to know if there’s anything else I should expect like that. And I wanna know about heats.”

Seonghwa finished changing his bandages, looking flustered at the intimacy of the topic Wooyoung had breached.

“Well, when omegas are turned on, their scent gets stronger, they release mating pheromones, their heart rate increases, blood goes to their genitals, and they secrete slick to prepare for intercourse.”

“Anything else? I just don’t want to be surprised by anything.”

“Nope, I think that’s pretty much it. We can purr sometimes when we feel particularly safe and happy.”

“Okay… and what about heats?” Wooyoung avoided eye contact.

“So heats generally start with an omega becoming more emotionally sensitive. Their scent grows stronger, they get the urge to nest, they can get over-protective of their mate, they can go in and out of fevers, they start releasing slick pretty much non-stop, and they feel the intense desire for skin to skin contact and intercourse. The desire can be so intense that they lose control over themselves. That’s why usually an omega will either have a partner or friend help them through a heat, to make sure they don’t go out and elicit cuddles from a complete stranger.”

It was close to what Wooyoung had heard rumors about back in Tersivia. He didn’t realize there was an explicitly sexual element to it, though…

“So, when you talk about a partner ‘helping’ someone through a heat… you’re talking about sex?”

“A lot of the time, yes, but a friend can help a friend out with just cuddles and make it through okay.”

Wooyoung nodded silently to himself.

Seonghwa continued, “It gets more intense if an alpha helps an omega during their heat. It’s intense if an alpha is even nearby when an omega goes into heat. Their instincts can make them respond… sexually… even if they weren’t interested in each other at all before the heat began. In general, an alpha’s instincts will make them want to help an omega in heat with anything they need, regardless of their preexisting relationship. That’s why one of our rules is no heat sex without prior consent. Otherwise, things can get pretty complicated.”

Wooyoung tried to take that in.

“And I’m probably going to go into heat… any day now.”

Seonghwa looked like he wanted to say sorry, but just nodded.

Wooyoung laid down on the bed, and pulled the pillow over his face, groaning into it.

Seonghwa sighed and joined Wooyoung on the bed, wrapping his arms around him for comfort, “It’s gonna be okay. You get used to it after the first few times.”

“I wish I had been used to it last night. I totally ruined the moment by freaking out over the whole slick situation.” Wooyoung spoke this into the pillow.

Seonghwa nuzzled his head into Wooyoung’s shoulder in reassurance, “I’m sure sure San understands,” then, after a pause,

“You and San are getting close pretty fast.”

Wooyoung thought about San and felt warmth fill his veins. He was about to respond when he heard Seonghwa gasp.

Seonghwa sat up and moved the pillow off Wooyoung’s face.

“I think you’re sending emotions.” Seonghwa said.

Wooyoung paused, unsure what he meant, “What?”

“Your power. I think you can send your emotions to the people around you.”

Wooyoung sat up immediately.

“I’ve been noticing it a lot over the past few days and I’m sure I felt it just now. A switch from embarrassed to something sweet when I mentioned you and San. I’m sure of it.”

Wooyoung considered this and started to freak out a little.

Seonghwa’s eyes widened again, “There it is! Another change!.”

Wooyoung's first response was to reject his power completely- he didn’t know how to protect his feelings from being broadcasted to whoever was around him. It made him feel defenseless.

“You can’t tell anyone,” Wooyoung said suddenly, with a serious expression on his face.

Seonghwa paused, “Well, I have to tell Hongjoong and Yunho. The Head Leaders have to know.”

Wooyoung tsked in frustration, “Okay, but only them. Pinky promise.”

Seonghwa linked pinkies with Wooyoung in agreement. “I’m sure you’ll be able to control it one day, and you’ll be able to send only the feelings you want.”

“Do you really think so?” Seonghwa could hear the anxiety plain in Wooyoung’s voice.

“Definitely. I used to have to guess at when I was infusing healing properties and now I can do it on command. Plus, San had to practice forever to figure out how to choose what he captures with his conjuring power. Everyone I know with a power had to practice to learn how to do it when they wanted to.”

Wooyoung felt a little relieved, and wondered if Seonghwa could feel it. Still, Seonghwa released calming pheromones, which Wooyoung appreciated.

“I think I also receive emotions.” Wooyoung said, in a quiet voice.

Seonghwa’s eyebrows shot up, “Really?”

“Yeah, it’s really noticeable when I’m in crowds. I thought it was just because I was new to being around scents but this makes more sense when I think about it.”

“Can you feel what I’m feeling right now?” Seonghwa asked.

Wooyoung tried to feel what Seonghwa was feeling, but didn’t receive much of anything.

“I think the emotion needs to be a strong, genuine one for me to feel it.”

Seonghwa mused, “I wonder if you’ll get more sensitive to small emotions as time goes on.” He continued, “I think you should tell San about this if you plan on continuing to see him.”

Wooyoung was silent. He knew Seonghwa was right.

“Yeah, I agree. I’ll tell him later today.”

---

Soon it was lunch and Wooyoung departed for the Mess Hall a little early, particularly hungry since he had skipped breakfast. He filled his plate with a salad and two sandwiches and headed over to their normal spot for lunch.

The crew arrived one by one, each of them leaving the spot next to Wooyoung open for San to take when he arrived.

They all chatted about Project Skylight starting the next day, teasing Mingi for being too scared of heights to volunteer for the cutting. He smiled along with the teasing, knowing it wasn’t real taunting deep down.

Yunho asked San if he’d be down to play some cards with him after lunch- it was also his day off. San turned him down, saying slyly,

“I’m actually taking Wooyoung to… that place.”

The other members all perked up at that,

“Oh, awesome,” from Yeosang.

“You’ll love it, Wooyoung,” said Seonghwa.

“Now don’t give anything away,” San said, “I want it to be a surprise.”

Wooyoung looked at them all suspiciously, but let it go. He was excited to see what this “place” was.

Soon, they were finishing up lunch and heading out either to their second shifts of the day or out to find something to do with their free time.

Wooyoung walked over to San and gave him an expectant look, “So, where are we headed?”

“Did you bring your walking shoes? It’s a bit of a trek.”

Wooyoung nodded.

“Good, then let's head out.” San led Wooyoung Northwest to the upper corner of the grounds, and then went to step beyond the treeline there. Wooyoung looked surprised,

“Are you sure we can leave the grounds?”

“It should be safe for a few-hundred feet perimeter around the grounds, the horrors don’t like going anywhere near the light. You may see a few tiny horrors though, but they shouldn’t be able to do much harm.”

Wooyoung joined San in crossing the treeline, the atmosphere instantly growing darker and more ominous. Wooyoung stayed close to San, just in case.

They walked for about fifteen minutes in one direction, San holding a glowing ball in his hand to help guide their way. Wooyoung could barely keep from tripping in the low lighting. Soon, the atmosphere started to grow lighter and lighter as they walked forward, until Wooyoung noticed light coming from the other side of a line of trees just ahead.

Wooyoung looked at San, confused. They couldn’t be at the edge of the forest yet, that was miles and miles away. San just smiled and walked forward, eventually crossing into the light beyond the trees, holding out his hand for Wooyoung to join him.

Wooyoung took San’s hand and crossed into the light, saying a quiet “oh my god” when he fully emerged on the other side.

With about a two-hundred feet radius, a gorgeous valley extended out in front of them. The valley was covered in flowers, over every square inch. He could see bunnies hopping here and there, and bees and butterflies flitted all around. There were a few small fruit trees scattered about. The scent was heavenly.

Most importantly, however, was that there was actual sunlight here. Wooyoung looked up and was shocked- he could actually see the sky. Blue, with white clouds streaked across it here and there. And in the middle of it all shone the sun. Wooyoung didn’t realize how much he had missed it. The warmth of it, the light of it. He looked over to San for an explanation.

“We come here whenever the lack of sunlight gets to be too much.”

Wooyoung went back to looking at all the different varieties of flowers here, “Why didn’t you build your settlement here in the first place?”

“Well, the tale goes that the original leaders didn’t want to kill all these flowers and ruin the only spot of good magic they had encountered in the forest up to then. I think they knew deep down that Project Skylight was gonna be possible one day. Either way, they chose to build near enough to it so that we could come here whenever we needed to refresh our minds.”

San motioned out over the valley to where you could see a few people sitting under the fruit trees or running around in wolf form.

“It’s beautiful.” Wooyoung said, still in awe.

“Yeah. I always think about how shocked people in Tersivia would be to know this place existed here.”

“Have you found any other places like this during your excursions?” Wooyoung was hopeful.

“We found an enchanted subterranean lake once,” San replied.

“Enchanted?”

“Yeah, there were fish in the water that sang a tune that made you want to swim in the lake forever. It was actually Yunho who noticed it in time and managed to get Mingi to play louder than the fishes, releasing us from their spell.”

“Holy sh*t.”

“I know, right?”

“Those excursions are pretty dangerous, huh?” Wooyoung said, a deep part of him becoming very uncomfortable with San joining these excursions.

“We take a lot of measures to stay as safe as possible,” San reassured him.

Wooyoung wasn’t convinced, but decided to let it go for now.

“Do you wanna hunt?” San said, out of the blue.

“Hunt?”

“Yeah, I was thinking we could see who could catch the most rabbits. We wouldn’t kill them, just catch them in our jaws and let them go. It’s a game a lot of us play when we come out here.”

Wooyoung looked out and noticed that was what the other wolves in the valley were probably doing.

It sounded fun.

“Okay, let’s do it. But no hard feelings if you lose,” Wooyoung said with a smile, before jumping into his wolf form immediately, trying to get the jump on San.

“Hey!” San said quickly, before shifting himself, and then the game was on. Wooyoung ran as fast as he could, picking up rabbits in his jaws and counting them to himself. He chased and chased until he was completely out of breath, having to stop and take in deep lungfuls. He looked around to see San also taking a breather. Wooyoung walked over, thinking this was a good time to compare their scores, until he noticed a slight movement about seventy feet ahead of him. He looked up and noticed a deer standing just past the treeline, in the forest. He then looked over to find San looking back at him curiously. Wooyoung motioned to the deer with his snout, offering a new competition.

Whoever gets the deer first, wins.

Wooyoung pounced into action, San quickly following him, each gaining on the other back and forth, approaching the treeline rapidly. The deer belatedly noticed the two wolves, and got a late start in running away, but knew the terrain better than either of them. The deer zigged and zagged through the trees, Wooyoung and San having a hard time following it in the dark, on uneven ground. They chased the deer for about ten minutes, until Wooyoung scored a lucky turn and got the deer by the neck, them bother toppling over into a pile. The deer played dead, and Wooyoung let it go, having no intentions of actually killing it.

He looked around to cheer at San in success, but saw nothing but dark forest surrounding him. He grew nervous, cursing himself for going so far into the darkness without noticing it. He howled, hoping San could find him that way. He soon heard another howl in response, presumably San, and they both howled back and forth, moving closer to one another, until Wooyoung broke through some bushes to where he could hear San howling on the other side-

except when Wooyoung passed through the bushes in front of him, there was no wolf to be found.

Instead, there was a hulking shadowy figure made of gleaming, black spikes. From out of its teeth-laden mouth, a perfect imitation of a howl came. It had eyes like a shark that you could barely see in its dark frame, and it lunged at Wooyoung the moment Wooyoung realized he had been tricked.

Wooyoung yelped and turned around, running in the opposite direction as fast as he could. He wasn’t sure this was the right direction to run to get back to the valley, but he had no choice but to stick with it. He howled out, hoping someone might hear him and howl out in response. Luckily, he heard a faint sound of howling to his left, and he course-corrected until he was barreling right towards it. He heard a cry of anguish from the monster behind him, in between the nasty wet breaths it would take. Wooyoung felt needles stab into the skin of his back, and he cried out in pain. The creature grabbed at Wooyoung’s shirt and almost managed to stop him, but Wooyoung slipped out of his shirt at the last minute and ran ahead. Just as he was sure he was about to cross into sunlight any minute now, he almost crashed head-first into San. San snarled and jumped up, creating a blinding explosion of light with his paws. The creature screeched and hissed, not wanting to abandon its prey, but eventually giving into its nature and skulking away from the light.

San immediately ran up to Wooyoung and whined, licking him in the face. Wooyoung wanted to fall down and be carried to the Nurse’s Tent, but didn’t want that to be San’s first encounter with him naked, so he toughed it out and limped over to where his pants lay in the valley. The other wolves in the valley came over to nuzzle at him when he appeared. He must have caused a bit of a scene with all the howling.

Eventually they made it to their pants, shifted, and got dressed again.

San was immediately hyper-attentive, “Are you okay? Do those barbs hurt? We gotta get you to Seonghwa’s.”

“I’m okay, I’m fine. Let’s just go, these things hurt like hell.”

San supported Wooyoung as they made their way through the forest, back to the grounds.

“I must’ve ran too far, I ended up back in their territory.”

San was quiet, “That wasn’t their territory. That thing had no right being that close to the valley…”

Wooyoung joined in San’s silence. That couldn’t be a good sign.

When they made it to the Nurse’s Tent, Seonghwa was overwhelmed by worry, then quickly snapped into Nurse Mode. Wooyoung felt it happen. Seonghwa laid Wooyoung on his stomach on the bed, then went to collect the various vials and plants he would need to work his magic. San hovered nearby in the room, refusing to leave even when Seonghwa insisted.

Seonghwa made a pained expression when he saw the state of Wooyoung’s back, “Some of these landed where you hadn’t yet healed from the other attack. It might cause some scarring.”

Wooyoung thought that was just his luck.

“This is gonna hurt a bit,” Seonghwa said before pulling each barb out of Wooyoung’s back. Wooyoung cried out in pain at each one. San, seemingly uncontrollably, growled at Seonghwa each time.

“Leave, now.” Seonghwa said, serious this time. San looked like he was willing to fight to stay there. After a long moment, however, he complied, probably aware that he couldn’t control himself enough to be of any help. Seonghwa sighed when he left, and went back to work.

Soon, Seonghwa was dabbing ointment over the wounds and bandaging him up again. “Right when you were really starting to heal, too, what a shame.”

Wooyoung groaned in agreement. He hoped this didn’t become a pattern.

“First the long-eyed one, then the barbed one, that’s just the worst luck as far as horrors go.” Seonghwa looked like he wanted to cuddle Wooyoung. Wooyoung could feel the other’s worry. “What were you doing in the dark part of the forest in the first place?”

Wooyoung tried not to look too sheepish, “We were chasing a deer to see who could catch it first. San says we didn’t go too far though, that the horror is the one who got too close.”

Seonghwa was quiet at that, looking perturbed.

“Well I’m done here,” he said, “I might as well go let San in before he loses his mind.”

Wooyoung thought that was an exaggeration, until Seonghwa opened the flap to the tent and San rushed up to Wooyoung and grabbed his hand,

“Are you okay? Was Seonghwa too rough with you? How long do you think it’ll take for you to recover? I’m so sorry I lost sight of you in the forest. It’s all my fault.”

Wooyoung felt a wave of contrition sweep over him. Wooyoung put his hand over San’s,

“It’s not your fault. I’m the one who got too excited and went too far into the darkness like that. I’m okay now, they still sting, but they should heal in a few weeks.” Then, after answering San’s questions, “I guess I’m not helping out with Project Skylight after all”

San looked a little guilty at that, “I’m kind of glad you won’t be up in the sky risking your life like that, actually.”

Wooyoung responded, annoyed, “but it’s okay for you to do it while I lay around unable to help you? And then you go on these oh-so-important ‘excursions’?” Wooyoung flicked his forehead, “Bad alpha.”

San had to smile at that, even if his forehead hurt, “So, you worry about me.”

“Of course I worry!” Wooyoung went to flick his forehead again, but San dodged it, laughing.

Wooyoung felt a spark of joy fill his body and remembered his newfound power.

“San, there’s something I gotta tell you,” Wooyoung said, sitting up in bed so that he was looking at the other.

“Shoot.”

“I know what my power is.”

San’s eyes widened and his eyebrows raised, “What is it?”

“I can send and receive emotions with other people. Right now it’s only strong, genuine emotions, though.”

San looked at him with wide eyes, “I knew it!”

Now it was Wooyoung’s turn to be surprised, “You knew?”

“I noticed feeling certain things whenever I was around you, and they always seemed to align with how you felt in the moment. I felt embarrassed when you were last night, when there was definitely no reason for me to be embarrassed myself.” San nodded to himself, “So, you receive them as well? Does that mean if my emotion is real and powerful enough, you’ll feel it?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“That’s amazing”

“It’ll be a lot more amazing when I learn how to control it. I gotta start practicing as soon as possible, before everyone notices me sending my emotions to them without a filter”

“Wanna practice with me?” San said, looking Wooyoung in the eyes.

Wooyoung was taken by surprise, “Sure! But how do we…” Wooyoung realized San’s insinuation. Wooyoung looked away to hide the blush that came over his face.

San moved to sit on the bed, next to Wooyoung. He used a finger to move Wooyoung’s head so that they were facing each other. He moved so that their faces were inches apart, “Do you wanna…?”

Wooyoung nodded.

San crossed the distance and pressed his lips to Wooyoung’s. They both made noses in the back of their throats. Wooyoung could feel his own desire but was unsure if some of that desire was San’s. He tried mentally to close himself off from San, and was shocked to feel some aspects of the desire he was feeling disappear. It was still more desire than he had ever felt, but still. They both separated and looked at each other,

“It worked!” Wooyoung said.

“I felt it too!” San replied.

Wooyoung focused on their being a wall between him and San and felt some of the joy he had been feeling disappear. They both looked at each other in triumph again.

“Wooyoung, you’re amazing.”

Wooyoung rolled his eyes and smacked his arm, unsure how to respond to that. He then looked at San, still not too far away, and leaned in to kiss him again. The kiss was slow and soft and mesmerizing, making the hair on the back of Wooyoung’s neck rise. He felt San open his mouth and lick at Wooyoung’s lips, asking him to open his mouth as well. He did, and soon their tongues were touching as they kissed, making Wooyoung moan in response. Wooyoung sucked on San’s tongue, eliciting a similar sound from the alpha. He felt San move his hand to grasp Wooyoung’s hip, rubbing circles there with his thumb. He then moved his hand up Wooyoung’s stomach to play with his nipples, making Wooyoung gasp. He felt a little bit of slick leak out of him.

“Now, practice,” San said in a husky voice.

Wooyoung whined, but tried to put up a wall between him and San. His inner wolf did not like that, and resisted to the end. Eventually, Wooyoung felt the minimization of the desire he was feeling and knew he had succeeded. It didn’t so much as lessen the amount of desire as it lessened the complexity of the desire he was feeling. Interesting.

After Wooyoung had succeeded, San went right back to kissing him, now visibly hard in his pants. He pushed Wooyoung so that he was lying down on his back,

“Does that hurt?”

Wooyoung shook his head. San grabbed both of Wooyoung’s hands and put them above his head, holding them there with one hand. Wooyoung’s pulse increased, remembering his time spent with his hands literally tied above him, but he felt safe enough with San doing it that it only excited him.

San kissed down Wooyoung’s neck until he was hovering over his scent gland,

“If I bit you here, we’d be mates for life.”

Wooyoung shivered. He’d heard of mating bonds before. A part of him wanted San to do it.

Instead San looked Wooyoung in the eyes and said, “Don’t move,” then he removed his hands from Wooyoung’s wrists to busy them pushing Wooyoung's shirt up his chest. When Wooyoung’s nipples were revealed, San bent down to suck on one of them. Wooyoung felt himself grow hard at the sensation. He wanted to tangle his hands in San’s hair but kept them held above him, wanting, for once, to be obedient.

San kissed down Wooyoung’s stomach, looking up at him through his eyelashes. When he got to Wooyoung’s erection, he mouthed at his head through the fabric of his pants, making Wooyoung hiss and squirm under the attention.

San said in a dark voice, “I can tell you want more y’know?”

Wooyoung whined, a little embarrassed.

“If I couldn’t tell it from your scent, I’d be able to tell it from your power.”

San looked him in the eyes, face right next to his dick, finger tracing up its length, still through the fabric of his pants,

“What do you want your alpha to do?”

Wooyoung whined louder, unsure how to ask for what he wanted. He felt delightfully helpless under San’s ministrations.

“Use your words, baby.”

Wooyoung blushed, “I want you to finger me,” he said shyly.

“Say please,” San said, not unkindly.

“Please, finger me,” Wooyoung said, trying to send as much of his desire at once to San.

San instantly responded, looking surprised, “Did you do that?”

Wooyoung nodded. San reached up to kiss him again on the lips, and then on the neck, “I can’t believe I make you feel like that.”

San pulled Wooyoung’s pants down, then slid them off his pretty legs, dropping them down on the floor. San bent one of Wooyoung’s legs up to give him access to his most private area, then reached his hand down there, rubbing the wet rim of his entrance in circles.

Wooyoung made a noise of arousal, arching his back involuntarily. San used his second hand to collect some slick, and then rub up and down on Wooyoung’s head. Wooyoung jumped in response, looking San in the eyes.

“Feels okay?” San asked.

Wooyoung was sure San would have noticed if he had felt anything other than pleasure, but still,

“Feels great.”

San smiled, then pushed his finger in deeper, curving it to hit that sensitive spot on the inside.

“Oh my god,” Wooyoung said.

“There you go, baby, just like that. Make some noise for me.”

San was f*cking into him with his finger, making waves of pleasure course through him over and over again. He also didn’t let up on stroking the head of his penis, both of which were making Wooyoung feel closer and closer to going over the edge.

“Aren’t you my good omega, opening up for me. You look so gorgeous like this.”

Wooyoung arched his back and stretched his neck, whining cutely for San, wanting to look good for him.

“That’s right, put on a show for me, baby, you’re so perfect.”

Wooyoung was about to come. He looked up at San, knowing exactly what to say,

“Please,” He said as innocently as he could, “please let me come.”

San smiled, “Go ahead baby, let it all out, let me see,” and then Wooyoung was coming all over San’s hand and his own stomach, slick soaking the bed beneath them. Seonghwa was going to be pissed at them.

San gently stroked Wooyoung until he was completely spent, all the while saying comforting words. When he was done, he got up, to Wooyoung’s protests, to go get a tissue. He found one, cleaned up Wooyoung’s stomach, then laid down to cuddle with Wooyoung, who was feeling clingy after his org*sm.

“Don’t leave,” Wooyoung said, pouting a little.

San smiled, running his fingers through Wooyoung’s hair, “I’m not going anywhere.”

Wooyoung spoke up at one point, “Hey San?”

“Yeah?”

“I want you to help me through my heat… when it comes. If you want to.”

San’s eyes widened as he looked at Wooyoung, “Are you sure?”

Wooyoung nodded and cuddled into the alpha, “I’m sure. Is that something… you’d be interested in?”

San leaned up to nip at Wooyoung’s ear, “Of course I’m interested.” He nuzzled into Wooyoung’s neck, making the younger giggle, “Try and stop me.”

Eventually, Wooyoung got up and put his pants back on. When Hongjoong and Seonghwa arrived with Wooyoung’s dinner, Seonghwa was suitably upset,

“I’m gonna have to air this mattress out for a week! Do you have any idea what a hassle that’s gonna be? You better be willing to help out.” Wooyoung and San kept apologizing until Seonghwa had gotten it out of his system, Hongjoong rubbing his hand in his to help get him to calm down.

Eventually, Seonghwa kicked them out of the Nurse’s Tent, telling them to get some sleep. San walked Wooyoung back to the omega dorm, kissing his forehead goodnight when they had to part ways. Wooyoung’s inner wolf practically screamed at being parted from San, and Wooyoung was embarrassed to think San likely felt that.

“I’ll see you as soon as we wake up, okay?” San said.

Wooyoung pouted, but nodded, and slumped his way up to his room. When there, he cuddled with the fur San had given him, imagining it was the alpha himself by his side.

Chapter 8

Chapter Text

The next day, San was waiting outside of the omega dormitory to walk Wooyoung to breakfast. They walked there hand in hand, each smiling little smiles the entire way. When they arrived, everyone expressed their concern for Wooyoung, asking if he was okay.

“I’m okay, it just stings like a mother f*cker.”

“How far into the dark did you guys go?” Jongho asked.

San responded, “Only maybe a hundred fifty feet away from the valley! It wasn’t too far at all.”

The group went silent, giving each other meaningful looks. Wooyoung felt fear creep into his heart.

“Are you still going on that excursion?” Yeosang asked Hongjoong.

“Yes, there have been no changes to the plan. We have the route mapped out, we’ll be exploring some new areas and returning to some of the usual places.”

An ominous silence hung over the group.

Wooyoung wished he could go, to watch over San and make sure he didn’t do anything unsafe. His inner wolf pouted.

After breakfast, Wooyoung headed to the Nurse’s Tent with Seonghwa to get his bandages changed.

On the way there, Wooyoung asked, “How do you deal with Hongjoong going on those excursions? It’s already driving me insane.”

“You mean because it’s unsafe?”

“Yeah! It’s terrifying.”

Seonghwa sighed, “It’s honestly touch and go for me too. Some times are worse than others. I’ve been dreading him going on this upcoming one ever since that horror you encountered came that close to the valley.”

“And you just let him go?”

“I have no choice. Neither does Hongjoong. We need those plants to keep this entire operation running. Mostly, I just remind myself that nothing terrible has happened yet and they’ve been doing this for years. If you count all the excursions made by past Head Leaders before, it’s actually not as dangerous as it seems. Especially with San there to conjure some light. Hongjoong’s power works against them a little, too.”

Wooyoung realized he didn’t know most of their group’s powers yet, “What is Hongjoong’s power?”

“When he commands people to do something, they can’t resist. He would already be able to do that as Head Alpha of this pack, but with his power he can do it to anyone, even animals. Even horrors.”

“Whoa,” Wooyoung said, remembering that time with Ban Sook, when Hongjoong commanded them all to stop what they were doing.

Soon they arrived at the Nurse’s Tent and Seonghwa changed Wooyoung’s bandages.

“Did you tell Hongjoong about my powers?” Wooyoung was curious.

“Yes. He’s really interested to see how they develop. He’ll probably be informing Yunho about them sometime later today.”

Wooyoung nodded, “I told San.”

“And he took it alright?”

“Yeah, he took it wonderfully. We even practiced putting up walls between us to block off the sending and receiving.”

“Ooo, that sounds fun.”

“Wanna try?”

“Yeah!” Seonghwa sat up straighter and looked at Wooyoung.

“The emotion has to be strong, so think of something impactful.” Wooyoung smiled a little to himself then added, “Think of Hongjoong.”

Seonghwa’s ears went red, but soon Wooyoung felt a sweet, warm feeling fill his chest. It made him want to cuddle someone. He smiled, but tried blocking it off. It was hard blocking off such a nice feeling, but eventually he felt it disperse.

“Okay, I did it. I felt it, then blocked it off.”

Seonghwa looked a little embarrassed to ask, “What did it feel like?”

“Like love.” Wooyoung said, simply. Seonghwa looked away at that, then noticed the clock next to the (recently replaced, thanks to Wooyoung) bed, “Project Skylight’s about to start, did you wanna go join them?”

“I thought I’d be too hurt to help?”

“You’re too hurt to go up into the air, but you could still help from the ground if you’re up for it.”

Wooyoung was definitely up for it; he didn’t want to spend the entire day resting in his bed. “Let’s go!” He said.

Seonghwa guided them over to where a bunch of people had gathered at the southern end of the grounds. Hongjoong stood at the front of the crowd, seemingly waiting for everyone to arrive. After about ten minutes, when around twenty people had arrived (mostly people who looked to be in their twenties), Hongjoong cleared his voice to get everyone’s attention.

“Okay, first, let’s go over the assigned partners…” He then read off a list, where each pair had one cutter, who would be floated up into the air to cut the branches, and one guide, who would use a long length of rope to guide the cutter to the next branches that needed to be cut.

Wooyoung crossed his fingers, hoping to be paired with San, but when the list was read off, he turned out to be paired with Yunho. Yunho walked over to him and gave him a high-five and an excited smile once their names were called. San ended up being paired with an alpha named Changbin, who walked over and greeted San like they were old friends. Wooyoung gave him a suspicious glance.

Next on the task list, each of the cutters had to master tying a special knot that could handle falling tree branches. In order to keep branches from falling down onto their buildings, one would swing a length of rope over a higher branch, then tightly secure one end of the rope to the branch being cut, so that when it fell it would just swing in the air at the end of the length of rope. The rope’s other end would be secured tightly to the base of the tree itself, and people would gently lower the branch to the ground with this rope after it had been cut.

While Yunho and San got busy practicing rope tying, Wooyoung went over to Changbin to introduce himself. The other greeted him politely, giving a small bow.

“So, how do you know San?” Wooyoung asked, trying hard not to interrogate the guy who would be leading his lover about by some rope for the foreseeable future.

Changbin smiled, “We both help out Hongjoong a lot. San often accompanies us on diplomacy missions for safety reasons.”

Diplomacy missions… Wooyoung quieted his voice and gave Changbin a conspiratorial look, “Are you the guy who can read minds?”

Changbin’s eyes widened and he looked around to see if anyone was listening in on them,

“No one’s supposed to know about that,” he said, looking like he didn’t want to be having this conversation. Wooyoung smiled a grinch-like smile,

“So you are.”

Changbin rubbed his hands over his face, lightly exasperated.

Wooyoung then paused. “Wait. Does that mean you can read my mind right now?” He felt his anxiety increasing involuntarily at the idea.

“No. I don’t do it unless I have to. It’s really way more of a hassle than it seems at first.”

Wooyoung nodded empathetically, “Yeah, my power kind of spies on people too,” Wooyoung felt that if he knew about Changbin’s power, it was only fair to share about his own, “I’m only now learning how to control it so I don’t cross any boundaries.”

Changbin looked curious, “What’s your power?”

“Well, don’t tell anyone, but I can send and receive emotions. Only strong emotions as of right now, though.”

“What emotion am I feeling right now?”

Wooyoung tried to feel it as hard as he could, but nothing registered.

“Hmm, I’m not getting anything. You might not be feeling anything powerfully enough.”

Changbin looked like he was thinking hard, then said, “Okay how about now?”

Wooyoung didn’t have to focus before it hit him, clear as day, “Frustration, definitely.”

Changbin thought to himself some more, then said, “How about now?”

Wooyoung attuned himself to the other and felt something icky in his guts. He made a face, “Aw, gross. That’s anxiety.”

Changbin laughed, surprised to see Wooyoung correctly guess his conjured emotions on the spot, “Whoa! That’s wicked. I can see how that would suck before you could control it, though, I feel for you.”

Wooyoung wanted to groan but settled for a deep sigh, “It’s alright, I’ll figure it out eventually. How long did it take you to control yours?”

“It took about six months before it really gave me some peace of mind. Having practiced for years now, though, it’s totally second nature. It was really rough in the beginning, though.”

Wooyoung thought that made sense. Hearing the thoughts of everyone around you without a filter? No thanks.

It seemed like the last of the cutters had mastered the knot to Hongjoong’s liking then, as they moved on to the next stage of the project.

Hongjoong decided San and Changbin should go first, with everyone watching how to go about it correctly. First, Hongjoong put a harness on San, tying that harness with a long length of rope to the base of the nearest tree. Then he tied a second length of rope to San, giving the other end to Changbin. Then, he handed San the end of a length of rope and a fancy motorized saw-blade that he must have gotten from trade with Tersivia. Wooyoung hadn’t seen a motor since he was inside the Walls. Finally, Hongjoong had a sweet girl named Jiwoo hold her hands on San for a moment, after which San started to gently float up into the air. He looked at everyone, amazed, as he continued to slowly rise. As he got higher and higher, nervous laughter started to escape him.

Wooyoung’s stomach dropped. He looked to Changbin, saying loudly so he could hear, “Be extra careful!”

Soon San was at the first branch they wanted to cut, and Hongjoong ordered (in a normal, non-commanding voice) “Okay, now, stop!”

Changbin pulled on his rope so that San stopped in mid air. He tried to pull gently here and there to center San on the branch just right, but ended up slapping San against the tree a few times by accident. Wooyoung yelled at him, unable to stop himself, “Hey! Watch it!” Changbin sweated, trying to focus on what he was doing.

This happened a few times, until Changbin retorted to Wooyoung, “Alright! I’m trying my best! Aish…”

The duo continued to bicker back and forth over Changbin’s guiding technique until San was lined up perfectly with the branch in question. San tied the length of rope he had brought up with him to the branch, knotting it just like Hongjoong had taught him. Then, he finally began to cut, dust and small chunks of wood raining down from where he worked. It took about fifteen minutes to get all the way through the branch, which fell heavily then swung widely on the length of rope San had attached to it.

The group cheered, along with a sizable portion of the pack which had gathered to watch Project Skylight proceed from a safe distance.

Soon, all of the partners were working, one in the air, one on the ground, with Hongjoong orchestrating each moving part. There was a rotating crowd of members of the pack who came by to watch the progression of the project out of curiosity. They occasionally cheered as a branch would fall, giving the cutters a well-needed boost in motivation. The work was slow and sweaty, especially on those who were doing the cutting. Wooyoung got distracted watching San wipe sweat off his face with the bottom of his shirt and ran Yunho right into the branch they were focusing on. Yunho yelled out a “Hey!” and Changbin took his chance to follow up with “Not so easy, huh?”

Wooyoung and Changbin started to quibble again until Hongjoong eventually pleaded for them to stop, “Cut it out, please, you’re giving me a headache.”

They continued this work, taking a short break for lunch, until it was late in the evening and time for dinner. San and Yunho collapsed onto the bench where they sat to eat, exhausted. They hadn’t had time to shower but were too hungry to care. Dinner was a hot curry with chicken and vegetables, with a dessert of fresh fruit and whipped cream.

San was walking Wooyoung to the omega dorms, when Wooyoung asked, “And you’re sure you’re good with Changbin as a partner? I’m sure I can get it switched if I hound Hongjoong long enough-”

“No, Changbin is great.” San said reassuringly, “Plus Yunho needs you. I think everything’s going really smoothly, actually. It’s wild it’s finally happening.”

Wooyoung couldn’t compare his experience of a few weeks without sun to San’s few years without it, “Why’d it take you all so long to start the project, anyways?”

“Well, Jiwoo’s a relatively new addition to the pack. And after that, it took a while to get the motorized saws from Tersivia. We only got them recently.”

Wooyoung nodded, happy to be having this idle chit chat with San. The time for them to part came all too soon.

Wooyoung didn’t let go of San’s hand when he went to pull away.

San gave him a curious expression, waiting for Wooyoung to speak.

“Can we sleep together tonight?” Wooyoung asked, a little nervous to be voicing his desires like that.

“I know you’re tired so we can really just fall asleep.” Wooyoung quickly added, “I just don’t wanna sleep alone again.”

“You wanna go get the keys to an inn?” San said, energy perking up, but still a little shy.

“Can we?”

“For sure! We just have to go visit Hoseok for the keys. First, you’ll probably wanna get a change of clothes from your dorm.”

Wooyoung quickly visited his room and collected what he would need to spend the night, then scampered back down to where San was waiting. San led Wooyoung in a new direction across the grounds, a renewed spring in his step. Wooyoung followed him, taking a moment to appreciate the bougainvilleas and rose bushes and winding ivy he passed by on their way. The low lighting gave the trek a lush feeling of adventure.

Soon they arrived at a squat house, San going up to the door and giving it a few knocks. A beautiful boy opened the door. Wooyoung had worried about bothering someone this late in the day, but the boy, Hoseok, didn’t look at all disgruntled.

“Could I get a key?” San asked.

“Of course!” Hoseok quickly looked at the wall next to the door, eyes going over what must have been an arrangement of keys, before choosing one and handing it to San. “Lucky Number 108! Just bring it back when you’re done,” he said with a smile. San and Wooyoung agreed and both bowed goodbye, before heading to the collection of inns clustered around the Western side of the grounds.

They had to search a little bit before they came upon a small cabin with a small front porch and cute little chimney sitting on top. Carved in curving script into a wooden plaque read “108”.

“Here wo go”, San unlocked the door with the key and swung it open, standing to the side to let Wooyoung in first. Before he closed the door behind them, he made a few multicolored lights and dispersed them around the room, shrouding the place in a warm mood lighting that made Wooyoung feel excited.

“I’m gonna run to the bathhouses and wash up real quick,” San said, “I’ll be right back, I’m leaving the key with you.”

Wooyoung snooped around the house while San was gone, going through a bathroom, a bedroom, and a small kitchen where there were materials to make coffee and tea. There was a fireplace in the living room across from a worn-in couch.

Wooyoung got started making some herbal tea for him and San, going out to a clean water station to collect some water for the night. He was still nervous going out alone at night, after what happened with Ban Sook.

By the time the tea had cooled enough that one could drink it, San had arrived, his hair wet from his bath. Being in an enclosed space with him, Wooyoung was quickly surrounded by San’s scent. It had a fresh note to it which Wooyoung loved, he almost felt like he could purr in response.

“Here, have some tea,” Wooyoung brought San’s cup over to the couch, where they both sat, sipping on the warm concoction. Between the tea and San’s scent, Wooyoung should have been feeling serene, but an innocent part of him was still nervous about “going to bed” with San.

San chuckled and Wooyoung looked at him.

“What?”

“I can feel you’re nervous.”

Wooyoung, flustered, tried to block off sending his feelings to San.

San smiled at Wooyoung, “You’re cute.”

Wooyoung lightly punched San in the arm.

“How is your back? Do you need to get your bandages changed?” San didn’t hide the concern plain in his voice. Wooyoung wondered if his alpha instincts made him worry like his omega ones did. If San was hurt.. Wooyoung couldn’t imagine how he would react.

Wooyoung shook his head. He probably could have gotten his bandages changed now, but he didn’t want to go all the way over to the Nurse’s Tent when things were so cozy here, “They still sting, but it’s not so bad. And I can get them changed in the morning.”

San looked like he might argue for him to go now, but ultimately elected to let it go.

Wooyoung decided to ask something that had been on his mind for a while now, “Is it really that unheard of for the horror to have come that close to the valley?”

San nodded, “They never would have come that close before.” He paused, then said in a quiet voice, “The truth is, attacks have been getting closer and closer to our lit areas and we don’t know why.”

Wooyoung didn’t like the sound of that. He gulped.

“I’m sure it’ll be okay,” San said, trying to soothe him.

When they had finished their tea, San took their cups and cleaned them in a basin in the kitchen, putting them off to the side to dry.

“You ready to sleep?” San turned back around to Wooyoung.

Wooyoung’s eyes had already drifted shut, with his head lolling back against the top of the couch. Even though he hadn’t cut branches earlier, he had still exercised a lot in spite of his wounds. San came over and brushed Wooyoung’s hair out of his face, “Let’s go to bed, sleepyhead.”

They both quickly brushed their teeth, then put on some pajamas that they had brought with them. Wooyoung’s heartbeat was starting to race.

San moved all the lights out of the bedroom, then came back in to join Wooyoung in getting into the bed. It was firm yet soft, with a few blankets piled on top. Wooyoung found himself missing his usual blankets in a strong urge that could only be his nesting instincts. He tried to cuddle into the ones here anyways.

Wooyoung’s first contact with San under the blankets made him want to gasp. Touching each other without seeing each other felt so intimate. San snuggled up to Wooyoung so that they were spooning each other, one of San’s arms draped over Wooyoung’s frame.

Wooyoung was hyper-aware of every point where San’s body touched his own. He felt San lean forward and kiss his neck, climbing up until Wooyoung turned his head so they could press their lips together. Wooyoung made a contented sound at the back of his throat.

“I thought you were too tired?” Wooyoung said, only inches away from San’s face.

“I’m never too tired for you.” San ran his hand up Wooyoung’s shirt to flick at his nipple. Wooyoung arched his back, whining a little. Wooyoung could feel San’s desire as well as scent it in the air.

San busied himself kissing Wooyoung’s neck, moving his hand down until he felt Wooyoung, who was already half-hard, through his pants. Wooyoung gasped at the first touch, turning his head so that they could kiss deeply and slowly.

“I love when you touch me,” Wooyoung murmured between kisses. San hummed darkly in response.

Wooyoung felt slick start leaking out of him. San smelled it and groaned. He reached over with his hand to collect some slick, then stuck it inside the front of Wooyoung’s pants to stroke him directly. Wooyoung moaned at the sensation, whispering, “Don’t stop.”

San kept stroking him at the same pace, moving his other hand to rub circles at Wooyoung’s entrance, asking, “Do you want me here?”

Wooyoung couldn’t help but nod his head, “Yes,” Then, remembering San, “Please.”

San sucked on the crook of Wooyoung’s neck, hard, while he pressed his finger into Wooyoung harshly. Wooyoung jumped at the sudden pleasure, but San didn’t let up, pushing in and out without holding back. Wooyoung moaned out at the sensation, and kept moaning as San got closer to his sweet spot with each thrust.

San felt Wooyoung’s spikes in pleasure in reaction to what he was doing. “So we like things a little rough,” San said into Wooyoung’s neck. It was so close to Wooyoung’s ear that it sent shivers down his spine.

Wooyoung nodded, lost in pleasure, wanting to give some to San somehow. He reached back behind him to feel at San’s length through his pants. San made a low sound in his chest and Wooyoung felt his pleasure spike a little in response.

“Just like that.”

Wooyoung moved to his ass, where he pulled San’s hand away just long enough for him to collect some slick of his own. He went back and started stroking San behind him as best he could. San continued stroking him while fingering him, and Wooyoung felt himself getting closer and closer to the edge. San started hitting right where it felt the best and Wooyoung started to see stars,

Wooyoung knew he needed to ask permission, “I’m gonna, Im gonna-”

“Do it for me, baby, show me.” And then Wooyoung was coming, shaking and spasming in Sans’s arms until he went limp. He took a moment to bask in the feel-good chemicals that ran through his body, but then extracted himself from San’s embrace to pull at his arms until San was sitting at the edge of the bed.

San looked curiously at Wooyoung until Wooyoung got on his knees on the floor between San’s legs. Then San’s mouth opened in understanding, then awe,

“Are you sure?” He asked.

Wooyoung nodded, then asked, nuzzling his face into the erection pushing against San’s pants, “Do you want?”

San brushed Wooyoung’s hair back with a gentle caress and then nodded, “Hell yeah”.

Wooyoung pulled San’s pants down until they were around just one of his ankles on the floor.

Wooyoung, looking straight at San, sucked the head of San’s dick into his mouth. San gasped, a crude “f*ck” escaping his lips. Wooyoung enjoyed playing with the tip for a few minutes, licking hard at the bundle of nerves right underneath the head, which he then swirled his tongue around. San’s gaze was fixated on Wooyoung’s movements, his jaw slack. Wooyoung tried bobbing his head down as far as he could, enjoying the gagging reflex it triggered now and then. Saliva pooled in his mouth in reaction and started to drip down onto the floor, making lewd sounds as he continued his movements. He could feel how good this made San feel, making him strive to go deeper and deeper with each bob.

“Holy, f*ck, Wooyoung,” San started to involuntarily curse and mumble exclamations in response.

Then Wooyoung grabbed San’s hands and placed them on the back of his head. He looked at San meaningfully, the head of his penis still in his wet mouth.

San looked hesitant at first, but then Wooyoung started going down on his length in encouragement, blinking up at him as prettily as he could.

“Oh, my god,” San curled his hands in Wooyoung’s hair, pushing Wooyoung farther down onto his dick. He then stood up and started f*cking into Wooyoung’s throat as deeply as he could, letting out a string of “f*ck”s uncontrollably. Wooyoung loved the feeling of his thrusts, loved the intensity of the moment. He imagined he probably wouldn't have been able to take it so deep if he wasn’t feeling San’s pleasure course through him every thrust. They continued like that, San enjoying Wooyoung’s throat like it was his own f*ck toy, getting high off of the squelching sounds it made and the way saliva ran heavily from Wooyoung’s mouth onto the floor.

They made eye contact and San let out a prolonged, strained groan, then saying, “god, you look perfect like that.”

Perfect. He had called him perfect again. A deep part of Wooyoung that lived off praise started to preen at that, encouraging him to take a deep breath through his nose so he could hold out a little longer. This was helpful as San’s thrusts were gradually becoming jerkier and less restrained as he approached org*sm. He could hardly hold himself back from taking Wooyoung exactly like he wanted, and Wooyoung found himself wanting to be taken hard and fast, with nothing held back.

San was hitting short, deep thrusts into Wooyoung’s mouth, making the other gag over and over, when with a loud groan, he started coming down Wooyoung’s throat. Wooyoung would have hated the feeling of swallowing cum if it weren’t for the absolute tidal wave of pleasure that ran over him during San’s org*sm. His eyes rolled back in his head and he truly felt like the perfect toy San had treated him as. When San was done, he pulled out and dropped to his knees, taking Wooyoung in his arms.

“f*ck… f*ck. Are you okay? That was a lot.”

Wooyoung nodded into San’s neck, enjoying the post-org*sm wave of pleasure, “Feeling pleasure over the link helps a lot.”

“Yeah I’ve been feeling your org*sms over the link… it’s unbelievable.”

Wooyoung just nodded again, quickly becoming too tired for conversation.

“You were so good for me, you know that right? That was mind blowing. You were perfect.” San said, combing his fingers through Wooyoung’s hair. “You know you can tell me if that was too much right?” San wanted to make absolutely sure that Wooyoung was comfortable with everything that had happened.

Wooyoung kept nodding, “Thank you, I know,” he needed to go to bed, “sleep now.”

San laughed and supported Wooyoung in getting back up onto the bed. He crawled over clumsily, which only made San look at him in adoration. They immediately went back to spooning once under the covers, San pulling Wooyoung into his chest and making a satisfied sound. Sans hand entwined with Wooyoung’s at Wooyoung’s chest as Wooyoung’s wolf purred happily at not sleeping alone for once.

Chapter 9

Chapter Text

When Wooyoung wakes up, he’s surrounded by San’s arms and scent. He takes a deep breath, stretching himself like a cat. San mumbles something and holds Wooyoung closer, snuggling his face into the back of Wooyoung’s neck. It tickles a little and Wooyoung giggles. He pulls Sans hands up to his face and kisses his knuckles.

“Did you sleep okay?” San speaks into Wooyoung’s neck.

Wooyoung hums the affirmative, “Did you?”

“Better than I have in a long time.”

Wooyoung finds himself agreeing. It’s the first time his inner wolf had felt so satisfied with his sleeping arrangements. Now if only he could sleep with San in a bed of his own…

“We need to get our own place,” Wooyoung says sleepily, not thinking through the implications of saying such a thing.

San laughs at this. “Nesting instincts getting to ya?”

Wooyoung groans and rolls over so that he’s resting his head on San’s shoulder, with San laying on his back. He nestles into San’s side, throwing his arm over San’s chest and entangling their legs.

“Maybe a little.” Wooyoung thinks for a moment, then asks, “Would you mind giving me one of your blankets?” Wooyoung looks away, a little embarrassed to ask, but really wanting something of San’s to nuzzle in his bed.

San is absorbed in playing with Wooyoung’s hair. He says, seriously, “It’d be an honor to have a token of mine in your nest.”

They cuddle like that for a while, each falling into and out of sleep now and then. Wooyoung likes watching San’s sleeping face, holding back a giggle when he notices San drooling. San traces patterns on Wooyoung’s arm, the sensation lulling the younger into and out of slumber.

“You always touch me right,” Wooyoung says, voice cutely garbled by sleepiness. He can feel San’s wolf preen at the compliment and almost rolls his eyes.

Instead he makes grabby hands in the direction of the kitchen, “Water. Want some.”

San huffs a breath out, then sighs and moves to get out of bed, “alright, but you’re making coffee then.”

San quickly brings his spoiled prince a glass of water, then goes to brush his teeth in the basin in the bathroom. When he’s done, he drags a complaining Wooyoung out into the kitchen to make some coffee. As Wooyoung gets to work, San moves to stand behind him, putting his hands on Wooyoung’s waist.

Wooyoung can feel San’s morning wood press against his ass. He not-so-subtly moves his butt to grind against the erection, smiling mischievously when San says darkly,

“Careful.”

Wooyoung doesn’t stop pressing his ass against him, and soon he can feel second-hand pleasure coursing through his veins.

“It’s crazy, what you do to me,” San says into his neck, starting to kiss the skin there. San starts moving with Wooyoung, them both grinding against each other now, San groaning at the feeling. He reaches his hand around to palm at Wooyoung through his pants, making a moan escape Wooyoung’s lips. Wooyoung feels himself start to produce slick.

San teeths at Wooyoung’s scent gland, and says in a growly voice, “I could take you here and now.”

Wooyoung turns around and reaches up to whisper into San’s ear, “Punish me.”

San lets out a “f*ck yes,” then pushes Wooyoung’s neck until Wooyoung has is face down on the kitchen counter, ass up for San to have his way with.

San unbuttons Wooyoung’s pants and strips them off of him, pulling them down to the floor.

He then stands up and unbuttons his own pants, taking his erection and lining it up with Wooyoung’s entrance.

“You want it rough, baby?”

Wooyoung nods his head vigorously. San starts to push inside without preparation, holding back just enough so he doesn’t hurt Wooyoung too much. Wooyoung cries out when the tip suddenly slides fully inside of him, making him feel so full.

San pulls it out and pops it back in over and over, making Wooyoung gasp and move his hands about, looking for something to hold onto.

San goes back to stroking Wooyoung as he presses in and out, and that paired with the feelings he’s pawning off of San turn him on enough to produce more slick.

“There you go,” San says, stroking hard and fast on the tip of Wooyoung’s dick as he presses in deeper and deeper, “Take it all, just like that.”

Wooyoung’s completely overwhelmed in the best way, moaning and making shocked noises repeatedly. Every time he focuses on the handjob he’s getting, he gets more wet and San slips in a little deeper. It feels amazing and Wooyoung doesn’t want it to end, wants to know deep down that this is what he deserves for being such a little slu*t.

San finally gets all the way in, slowly moving himself in to the hilt, then pulling out, enjoying the prolonged strokes. San groans in pleasure, then pulls his hand back and spanks Wooyoung, again and again, on the same spot, until the skin there is tinged pink and red. It makes Wooyoung jump and gasp, sending tingles of pleasure-laced pain across his skin.

San stops easing himself in and starts f*cking into Wooyoung, hard but not so fast yet, hands going around Wooyoung’s neck and pulling back. Wooyoung chokes lightly and clenches his ass involuntarily, making San moan out in appreciation. Wooyoung feels a spike of pleasure that drowns out any of the associated pain. Soon, Wooyoung adapts to the positioning and San is sliding all the way into him, hitting right at that special spot inside of him.

“f*ck, right there, right there, please” Wooyoung whines out.

“Don’t you come until I’m done with you.” San says in a harsh voice, making the hairs on Wooyoung’s body stand on end.

San uses him like that for a while, pulling out and waiting every time he gets close to org*sm, then pushing in again and f*cking himself almost to completion. He’ll pull tight at Wooyoung’s neck, enjoying the way it makes Wooyoung’s ass tighten and clench in response. He takes his time, thoroughly enjoying himself. Wooyoung is focusing entirely on not coming, even when San keeps hitting that wonderful sweet spot inside him that makes him see stars.

“God, you’re so pretty with your back arched like that.” San says, out of breath from f*cking for so long. His thrusts start becoming more jumpy and spasmodic, and then he says,

“Come when I do.”

Wooyoung whines and nods his head, finally allowing himself to fully chase the feeling building up, waiting to push him over the edge.

San starts f*cking him like he doesn’t care how Wooyoung feels, like he’s just taking what he wants.

“Oh, f*ck, yes,” he said, groaning when he comes, hard, in Wooyoung’s ass. Wooyoung feels San’s flush of pleasure push him over the edge, making him squirm and convulse, still pulled back by his neck.

When San is done milking his org*sm for all it was worth, he finally pulls out of Wooyoung. Wooyoung gasps, his inner wolf immediately complaining at the loss of fullness. They both stand there, tired from the exertion, taking deep breaths. San slowly wraps his arms around Wooyoung. They stand there for a while, basking in the after-glow of org*sm.

Eventually, San speaks up in a quiet voice, “You really do like it rough, right? You’re not just doing this because I like it?” Wooyoung could feel some creeping guilt coming from San.

Wooyoung turns around and cups San’s face in his palms.

“I more than like it. I want you to take me farther than I’ve ever been before. You don’t have anything to feel guilty about.” Wooyoung’s eyes flick up and down San’s face, “Do you want to agree on a safe word just in case?”

They bicker back and forth over what would be considered a good safe word, San recommending fruit names and Wooyoung turning them down for being “too silly”. They ultimately settle on “horseshoe” as their new safe word.

“Now I need a bath.” Wooyoung says, feeling properly gross after two f*ck sessions without bathing.

San hesitates a moment then says, “Can I join you?”

Wooyoung blushes, “Yeah, if you want.”

Wooyoung slowly moves his pants up and finishes making their cups of coffee, San still wrapped around him and snuggling him from behind.

They leave their coffee to cool down while they bathe, and head out for the bathhouse. This time Wooyoung chooses one of the larger tubs so that they could both fit inside, quickly moving to fill it up since it would take longer.

Wooyoung goes to remove his shirt, but San stops him, saying, “Let me.”

Wooyoung thinks this is a little weird but lets San pull his shirt off of him, putting it off to the side. Then San is unbuttoning his pants and sliding them off, along with his underwear.

Wooyoung squints his eyes suspiciously, “Is this some sort of alpha instinct thing?”

San scratches the back of his neck, “Well, yeah, I guess it is. Any form of taking care of an omega is pretty second nature to an alpha. You don’t know how hard it is not to feed you your food at mealtimes. Or cut your meat for you. Or make sure you’re not skipping your vegetables.”

Wooyoung’s eyes widen. He should have figured all of that came with the territory of being an alpha, but hearing it from San still surprises him.

San looks a little sheepish, “Bathing you counts, too.”

Wooyoung smiles, happy for San to be easing his alpha instincts with him of all people. He reaches over and stops the bath from filling up, then starts to get in.

They align themselves so that Wooyoung is sitting with his back facing San. San takes the soap bar from Wooyoung and starts lathering it up in his hands, going to wash Wooyoung’s body from head to toe with it.

“I love the way your bath soap blends with your scent,” San says quietly.

“Thanks.” Wooyoung is sure his ears are tinged red. Being bathed by someone else is a very new feeling for him. It’s very intimate. When San gets to his dick, his back wounds, and then his entrance, he cleans there carefully and gently, moving forward to kiss Wooyoung on the back of his shoulders.

When he’s all done, he uses a large vase to pour water over Wooyoung’s head to rinse him all the way off. Before he gets up to leave however, he attacks Wooyoung with tickles, making the younger scream out and accidentally fart in response. San could not contain his laughter at this, chuckling nonstop even as Wooyoung smacks him repeatedly yelling, embarrassed, “That was your fault! Yours!”

When Wooyoung stops hitting him, San just pulls him into a hug, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek, “Cute.”

Wooyoung grumbles, still not fully forgiving San, but letting the older dry him off with a towel, taking extra care not to dry Wooyoung’s hair too roughly. San then unfolds Wooyoung’s change of clothes and pulls them onto Wooyoung’s squeaky-clean body. When he’s done, he takes a step back to appreciate his work, saying “Perfect.”

Wooyoung rolls his eyes, but feels a giddy feeling fill his chest. He holds San’s hand as they exit the bathhouse.

When they arrive back at cabin 108, they finally have their coffees and leave to go to the Nurse’s Tent (since they had, no so unfortunately, missed breakfast). Luckily this was a day off for Project Skylight or they’d be in huge trouble.

San insists on watching over Seonghwa’s shoulder as he changes Wooyoung’s bandages. Seonghwa sighs, a little put-out, but ultimately allows him to watch.

When lunch finally arrives, Wooyoung, San, and Seonghwa get there first. Wooyoung and San, starving, scarf down their vegetable soup and buttered freshly-baked bread as each member of their little group joins them. Soon, they’re all chit-chatting and Wooyoung is basking in a warm, homey feeling he had never felt before, even when he was living back inside the walls of Tersivia. He smiles to himself, grateful that, even with all the scary and overwhelming things he had to go through, everything turned out the way they did.

Chapter 10

Chapter Text

About a week passed by with Project Skylight continuing according to Hongjoong’s plans. Slowly, light started shining on the forest floor where the project was proceeding, moving gradually from the southern part of the grounds up in a counterclockwise rotation. Wooyoung figured the flora here would no longer need to subsist on magic alone anymore.

Wooyung was getting used to living with San in cabin 108, neither one of them proposing that they return the key and sleep with their respective sub-genders. They teased each other for having morning breath (or morning wood) every morning and cuddled each other to sleep every night. Wooyoung felt like his old life was years behind him, and found that he didn’t miss it all that much.

He did, however, still feel the need to let his family know he’s okay, but kept this need to himself for now, waiting until he saw his chance.

What Wooyoung was dreading, however, was the excursion San, Hongjoong, and some others were going on. It was on the morning of the start of that excursion that Wooyoung woke up, curled into San with his head on San’s shoulder.

He blinked away his sleepiness, yawning as he cuddled more into San’s warm frame.

“Good morning sleepyhead,” San said in a sweet voice.

Wooyoung looked up at him, dazed and getting his bearings until he realized what day it was. He wrapped his arms around San tightly.

“Don’t leaveee.” He whined. San breathed out a laugh and brushed his fingers through Wooyoung’s hair.

“It’s gonna be okay. It’ll only take a week or so, promise.”

“I can’t believe I’m just going to let you go out into the forest.”

“We’ve done it dozens of times by now, and nothing too bad has ever happened. Now let’s get going, we have to leave early or Hongjoong will complain.”

Wooyoung didn’t let go of San for a while, not until San tickled him, making him release his grasp. Then, San was out of the bed and pulling Wooyoung along with him. When they were both standing in front of each other, San wrapped his arms around Wooyoung and released some calming pheromones.

“It’s gonna be okay. Thanks for being so brave. This trip is really important for the pack, we all appreciate it.”

Wooyoung just groaned in response. “Yeah, yeah.”

San smiled and rubbed Wooyoung’s upper back, “Alright, now let’s go eat!”

They traveled to the Mess Hall, where only the beginnings of breakfast had been laid out for the taking. Wooyoung grabbed a banana and buttered some toast. San made himself a big bowl of oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar. The only other people in the Mess Hall were those who were also going on the trip, including Hongjoong and Seonghwa. Instead of sitting in their usual places, everyone sat in a group near the back of the hall.

While they ate, Hongjoong went over the agenda of the outing, referencing some caves, a lake, and a tall hill they needed to visit over the next couple of days. The members who were joining him nodded like this was all to be expected.

San said to Wooyoung, “I wish you could see the lake we go to, the water is crystal clear and you can see all sorts of fish swimming in it.”

They finished breakfast all too soon. Wooyoung tried to block his growing dread from leaking into everybody’s feelings (to seeming success, since San didn’t give him any concerned looks).

When breakfast was over, each of the members going on the excursion left to go organize the pack they were bringing with them on the trip. Wooyoung couldn’t follow San into the alpha living arrangements so he just went to wait with Seonghwa at the northern end of the grounds, where they would see the leaving members off. The ones leaving on the excursion arrived one by one, some with partners seeing them off, each carrying a large pack of provisions.

When they were leaving, San grabbed Wooyoung’s hands and kissed his knuckles, then leaned in and gave him butterfly kisses. Wooyoung couldn’t help but try and play it cool, avoiding eye contact, “Alright then, get going, see you when you get back.”

San saw right through him, “I’ll see you soon.” Then he let go of Wooyoung’s hands and the group started crossing the threshold into the forest proper. San waved the whole way, until Wooyoung couldn’t see him anymore.

And then they were gone.

Wooyoung’s stomach dropped and then he felt a hand slipping into his own. He looked up, surprised to see Seonghwa was the one who reached out to hold his hand.

“We’ll get through this together. You have to go help with the Project, but feel free to come visit me if it starts getting to you.”

Wooyoung felt his heart clench. He was so lucky to have a friend like Seonghwa in his life now.

When Wooyoung went to help with Project Skylight, Yunho asked if he would mind taking over his role cutting the branches so that he could focus on taking over leadership of the project. Since Hongjoong was gone, Yunho was his next-in-command. Wooyoung’s wounds were healed enough by then that it was okay for him to go through the exertion, so he agreed, happy to have something to distract him from worrying.

Yunho taught him the special knot that all the cutters needed to know, and then Wooyoung was slipping into a harness with a rope attached to it. Changbin was going to be his guide, which made Wooyoung smile. He had really come around to like the guy.

Wooyoung wondered how San would react to another alpha controlling his health and safety like this and snickered mischievously.

He quickly realized cutting branches was a challenging, terrifying occupation. As soon as he floated above thirty feet, his heart started hammering in his chest. He could feel adrenaline drip into his system. Changbin laughed at the face Wooyoung was making, reminding him he wasn’t even halfway there yet. Wooyoung steeled himself and told Changbin to focus on steering him correctly. They bickered as Changbin tried to line him up with the first branch, Wooyoung willing to swear he was slapping him into the side of the tree on purpose. Changbin’s laughter every time this happened did not help to clear his name.

Once he was finally standing on the branch to be cut, he tied his length of rope around it and got started cutting. It was way harder to use the motorized saw than it seemed. Because you were floating, you had to manipulate your weight in just the right way against the side of the tree to get the saw to actually carve into the wood. Once he got started, however, he made quick work of it, getting into a comfortable flow with Changbin, moving from one branch to the next according to Yunho’s instruction.

By the time the day’s work was done, Wooyoung was drenched in sweat, his arms like limp noodles from all their hard work. He walked to the Mess Hall for dinner with Changbin and Yunho, chatting about all the progress they had made that day.

“So we don’t have to work tomorrow, right?” Changbin asked.

“Nope,” Yunho replied, “It’s staggered so that each group of people works one day, then has one day off, then works again.”

“Then we should play some cards after dinner!” Changbin offered.

Yunho and Wooyoung gave each other interested looks,

“Hell yeah.”

“Let’s do it.”

“Can we bring our friend Seonghwa?” Wooyoung asked, remembering that he, too, would likely appreciate the distraction.

“Of course, I’ll bring a friend of mine too.”

“Let’s meet up here in front of the Mess Hall after dinner, okay?”

They agreed and went to dinner separately, each having their own packs-within-a-pack to get to. Wooyoung told Seonghwa about the card game, and the rest of their group complained, wanting to be invited too.

“Yeah, you and San never play with us anymore since you started getting intimate with each other,” Mingi teased, making Wooyoung turn red and jump at him, trying to cover his mouth. Mingi just laughed and dodged.

“Alright, alright, you guys can join! I’m sure it won’t be a problem. Just be nice to Changbin and his friend!” Wooyoung said like a mother hen.

When they all finished dinner and went to wait at the front of the Mess Hall, they found Changbin already there with a doe-eyed man that Wooyoung recognized from earlier that morning. He had been there to send off one of the other members leaving with Hongjoong and San. Wooyoung introduced himself to him, learning the pretty boy’s name was Felix.

“Are you also here because you had to send your partner off on a terrifying mission in the forest?” Wooyoung said, hoping to forge a connection with this new person.

Felix looked a little taken aback but then said, like he had been battling with it all day, “Yes.”

Wooyoung patted his shoulder, “Welcome to the club, me and Seonghwa are the same.”

“It sucks,” Seonghwa said.

“It really does,” Felix agreed.

“Alrighty, then let's go find a free space at the dinner tables to play cards,” Wooyoung said to the group in general.

They headed inside and found a patch of free benches near the front of the Mess Hall. They arranged themselves with four people on each side of the table, everyone taking a moment to introduce themselves to Changbin and Felix.

They settled on playing Bullsh*t first, Mingi immediately losing over and over again to the point where he had so many cards he was drunk on the power of knowing who was lying and who wasn’t. Yeosang surprised Wooyoung with how well he lied, and Wooyoung made a point not to get on his bad side in the future. After a few rounds, Yunho looked around mischievously,

“How would we like to make this… a drinking game?”

Wooyoung felt the flame of competition fill his veins, “I’m in,” he said immediately.

“I’m in” Jongho said.

“Raise your hands if you’re in,” Yunho said, a giddy excitement in his voice.

Everyone raised their hands except for Felix and Yeosang, who both, after looking at each other, slowly raised their hands to join the rest. “Excellent,” Yunho said before disappearing off into the kitchens. He returned with a few bottles of wine, Wooyoung surprised to see he could balance that many in his arms like that.

They continued playing with the rule that every time one was caught lying, they would have to chug a cup of wine. Wooyoung, Seonghwa, Yunho, and Jongho’s competitive sides started to show before the drinking even began, and after it had started, it reached new heights. Whenever a move would go their way they would hoot out loud in triumph, and whenever a move would go against them they would talk loudly of “foul play”. Mingi got caught lying too many times too early on and soon he had to sit out to save himself from drinking any more wine. Yunho was winning more than anyone, taking gulps of wine whenever he wanted to instead of only when he was caught lying.

Soon they were all drunk, laughing and hanging on each other’s shoulders, card game forgotten and to the side. Everyone pestered Seonghwa to talk about Hongjoong’s secret soft side. At first Seonghwa dodged the questions but soon he was going on and on about how Hongjoong lets him have the right side of the bed, even though he also prefers it, and how he’s always interested in how Seonghwa’s day went, even when it’s boring. How he always works late into the night to make sure the pack runs smoothly for everyone.

Seonghwa looked longingly into the distance, “I miss him.”

“Booo” Yunho and Jongho booed, “Too sad,” Yunho said.

“I think it’s about time we head out,” Changbin said, a tipsy Felix’s head lolling against his shoulder.

“But we had fun!” Felix said, pointing a finger into the air, “we should do this again sometime.”

Everyone agreed and got up to go their own ways. Seonghwa and Wooyoung waved goodnight to everyone as they went to make their way to the omega living arrangements, hand in hand. They were still tipsy and giggled, joking to each other about how competitive Jongho and Yunho had been, how drunk Mingi had gotten immediately, and how scarily composed Yeosang had been throughout the whole game.

“You think he’s so pure but then.. wham! He’s a cold blooded killer.”

“For reallllll.” Seonghwa laughed.

When they arrived, Wooyoung pouted, shaking Seonghwa’s hand back and forth, “I don’t wanna sleep aloneee,” he grabbed Seonghwa’s hand in both of his own, “Can we sleep next to each other?”

Seonghwa, red-faced from drinking, pulled Wooyoung into a hug, “Of course! Your place or mine?”

“Mine!” Wooyoung said, smiling cheekily.

Seonghwa went to pinch Wooyoung with an “Aish”, but Wooyoung scampered away with a scream. Seonghwa put a finger to his mouth “Shhh, people are sleeping. Lead the way.”

Wooyoung climbed the winding staircase with Seonghwa following behind him. Wooyoung opened the flap to his room, surprised to note that it didn’t smell as much like San as he was worried it would. He immediately flopped down onto the bed, suddenly remembering he needed to take a bath. He groaned. It would have to wait until tomorrow.

“Sorry if I smell like ass the whole night, I forgot to take a bath after cutting branches.”

Seonghwa made a disgusted look with his face that he couldn’t hide, then sighed, “You’re lucky you’re so loveable, you know that?”

Wooyoung smiled his cutest smile, “Yep!”

Seonghwa joined him on the bed, getting under the covers and rolling over to face away from Wooyoung. He curled up into a little ball which Wooyoung found immensely adorable.

Wooyoung scooched over and wrapped his arms around Seonghwa so that he was sort-of spooning him from behind. He didn’t press his whole body against the other, but did rest his forehead between the other’s shoulder blades.

Unbeknownst to each other, they both smiled.

Wooyoung and Seonghwa got through the next few days like that, Seonghwa focusing on work, Wooyoung focusing on Project Skylight, and both of them cuddling until they fell asleep. As time went on, they got more and more comfortable with skinship until they were jumping on each other, leaning on each other, and hugging each other from behind, just because.

Even when he was being a brat, Seonghwa would just roll his eyes or smack/pinch him playfully, and Wooyoung started to really appreciate what a warm, accepting presence the older one was.

Wooyoung was laying on the patient’s bed in the Nurse’s Tent watching Seonghwa work (as he had gotten into the habit of doing during his free days since San left) when he said, seriously, “Thank you for always being so nice to me.”

Seonghwa looked at him with wide eyes. “Of course. I’m happy to.”

“It’s thanks to you that I met San and the rest, and feel like I have a family now, so really. Thanks.” Wooyoung looked away, his sincerity getting to be too much for him to handle straight-faced. Seonghwa looked at him, also a little awkward at the frankness of the moment, but mostly with a face filled with love, “You know I-”

Suddenly, someone rushed into the room. “Seonghwa we need your help,” Someone said in a deadly serious voice, and Wooyoung immediately realized they were carrying someone to the patient’s bed where he was laying. He got up and off the bed as quickly as he could. Seonghwa got up and said in an equally serious voice, “What happened?”

But before Wooyoung could hear what the man was saying in response, he froze.

On the patient’s bed lay San, covered in cuts and bruises, blood pouring from a wound at the side of his head.