Silence rules inside the pack’s residence. It has been a while since the building was this quiet. With a lot of people living inside there wasn’t many times when the corridors were quiet, often being occupied by friends hanging out or by kids playing with their parents. But today you can’t hear even the lowest breath of a bug.

Today the temperature is nice. It’s a bit cold outside but the sun is still shining brightly on the sky. It’s a perfect day to go out and enjoy this little rest from the winter’s cold and cloudy weather. But that isn’t the reason why the entire pack is outside the residence.

There’s a duel starting in a few minutes. A duel that could change the fate of Namjoon’s pack and set them free from Sewon’s yoke.

A duel between the current pack’s leader, Kim Sewon, and the challenger Im Jaebum, son of a former alpha.

Sewon is already there, surrounded by his minions. They are face to face with Namjoon’s members, who stare at them with fury in their eyes. The entire pack has come to give his support and strength to Jaebum, except Bonnie who decided to stay at the nursery for obvious reasons.

The first rows are filled by Jaebum’s closest friends while the rest of the pack stays behind; but all of them share the same feelings: support and encouragement towards the only member brave enough to defy the alpha. They all yearn for freedom, for peace; for revenge towards the ones who damaged their pack and its leader.

Jaebum advances towards the crowd with Youngjae’s hand inside his. He doesn’t want to let it go until the last moment, needing Youngjae’s support more than anything else. As they approach their friends, Jaebum turns around to look at Youngjae, who smiles happily to him. The beautiful sight makes Jaebum smile in delight too before turning to look at his friends.

As he passes by them, all of them give him thumbs up and words of encouragement. When he reaches the end of the crowd he stands by Mark’s side, who gives him a small smile before linking their hands together. Jaebum stares defiantly at Sewon as Mark intertwines his fingers with Jinyoung’s, who at the same time holds Hoseok’s hand. Hoseok continues the chain of joined hands by linking his with Jimin’s meanwhile at the other side of Jaebum Youngjae links his hand with Yugyeom’s, who holds Shura’s hand. The girl intertwines his fingers with his brother who also joins his hand together with Seokjin’s. By Jimin’s side, Taehyung links his hand with Yoongi, who reaches behind to hold the hand of the person after him.

Sewon stares surprised at Namjoon’s pack all joining hands together. He quickly changes his face to pretend as if it didn’t affect him; but the sight in front of him is too intense to not be affected by it. Sewon’s minions also start to look disconcerted to their surroundings, feeling a bit threatened by the imposing sight in front of them.

After a few seconds more of silence and holding hands Jaebum frees his own from Mark’s hold, who looks at him and nods. Jaebum nods back before turning to look at Youngjae, who gives him a squeeze before smiling brightly to him. Jaebum mouths an ‘I love you’ before walking away without freeing Youngjae’s hand until they can be no longer together. Youngjae’s smile falls at that, but quickly reaches for Mark’s hand to hold it; showing to Sewon’s pack that no matter what, their pack will remain united.

“You showed up” Sewon says, breaking the deathly silence that surrounded them.

“I told you I wasn’t going to back off” Jaebum states solemnly.

Sewon smirks at him before taking a step closer.

“I’ll give you one last chance to retract” he says, “go home now or we’ll fight till death”.

Jaebum turns around and the crowd bows to him, showing their support. Jaebum searches for a certain pair of eyes that are staring intensely back at him. Youngjae nods slightly and Jaebum turns around with passion and determination burning in his eyes.

“I chose fighting till death” Jaebum claims, already challenging Sewon with his gaze.

“Till death then” Sewon says, removing his coat and throwing it to one of his minions.

Jaebum does the same but Youngjae is eager to approach him to hold the coat for him.

“You have this” Youngjae mutters to him, “but still please be careful. We don’t know the tricks this man could have at hand”.

“I know my love” Jaebum whispers back, running a hand through Youngjae’s cheek, “I’ll be fine, I promise”.

“I can’t lose you” Youngjae mutters.

They stare into each other eyes, feeling what the other feels in their own body. Youngjae feels the excitement and nervousness of Jaebum while Jaebum feels the worry and the love of Youngjae.

“You won’t lose me” Jaebum says before pushing Youngjae’s head with his hand to leave a kiss on his mate’s forehead.

There’s a series of squeals before Jaebum releases Youngjae, who smiles at him again and then returns to his previous spot between Mark and Yugyeom. Jaebum watches him doing so, and when Mark and Yugyeom link their hands together again with Youngjae he finally turns back, facing Sewon.

“Let’s end with this” Jaebum says defiantly to Sewon, adopting a fighting position.

“Come and get it” Sewon says, smirking at him.

Jaebum is the first one to move, throwing a fit towards his opponent. Sewon dodges it and attempts to return the movement but Jaebum catches him by the arm, pushing him aside. Sewon clicks his tongue in annoyance before aiming a kick towards Jaebum, who avoids it by bending down, kicking with his leg Sewon’s one. The alpha falls back on the ground, and Jaebum is quick to immobilize him by sitting on top of him. Then he starts throwing fierce punches to Sewon’s face repeatedly, barely allowing the other to breathe; but he misses Sewon’s free hands grabbing him by the collar of his shirt before pushing him aside. Sewon rolls then on top of him and aims to repeat what Jaebum did to his face; but Jaebum is wiser and covers his face with his forearms.

After the first failed punch, Jaebum hits Sewon straight in his face with his fist, making him loosen up his immobilization. Jaebum takes the opportunity and removes Sewon’s weight from his body, standing up and aiming to kick the fallen man. Sewon stops the attack and pulls from Jaebum’s leg, throwing him again to the floor. Jaebum rolls through the floor as Sewon attempts to kick him until he’s able to stand up in one jump. He then hits Sewon’s chest with his elbow, but his second hit is stopped by his rival, who throws a punch at him.

As the two men keep throwing fists and kicks to each other, Youngjae follows with his gaze every movement of Sewon. He doesn’t trust the other, not when he made Namjoon enter a comatose state and nobody knows how. He has to be Jaebum’s other eyes in case he shows any dirty trick that could put his mate in the same situation as their leader was in.

C’mon my love, Youngjae thinks, you’ve got this.

The message gets clear to Jaebum’s mind. He groans and kicks Sewon on the stomach when the other lowers his defense. Sewon grasps and aims a kick back to Jaebum but his attempt is in vain as Jaebum grabs him by his hair and throws him to the ground.

Namjoon’s pack erupts in cheers and growls. Jaebum walks besides the alpha as the other spits a mix of saliva and blood to the ground under him. The shouts and claps from the enemy’s pack infuriate him because it makes him feel as if he was losing.

At that exact moment Sewon realizes that he IS actually losing to Jaebum. He should have listened to Jeonghan when he said he shouldn’t underestimate Jaebum. The fact that he never fought against Jeonghan didn’t mean that he wasn’t strong. He’s now painfully aware of how much stronger Jaebum is in reality.

“Already given up?” Jaebum asks him mockingly.

Sewon balls his fists and forces his body to stand up. He needs to defeat this guy; Jaebum has become the spur of Namjoon’s pack rebellion against him and if he doesn’t erase him he is not going to have the pack under his absolute control never.

As he thinks of a way to attack Jaebum without being blocked his gaze falls upon the only boy that isn’t cheering and shouting. Choi Youngjae is staring intensely at him, as if he could melt the other with his eyes. He then remembers Jeonghan advising him that if he wants to damage Jaebum where it hurts the most he should go for Youngjae. He should have been smarter than his rival and have attacked his weak point before the duel. He now can’t hurt Youngjae and he can’t hurt Jaebum either.

Fortunately he still has his plan B.

He puts his left hand on his back, pretending as if he was hurt there to search inside his back pocket for the syringe he saved there earlier in case something went wrong. After making sure it isn’t broken he retreats his hand back to the front and smirks to Jaebum.

“Oh, please” he dramatically says, “we have just started”.

As he aims a punch towards Jaebum’s face, Youngjae stares even more suspiciously towards him. He’s not distracted by the cheering crowd around him or the enemy pack whispering to each other. His sole focus is Sewon for now.

Jaebum, he mutters in his mind, be careful. I’m almost sure he has something on his back.

After hearing Youngjae’s mental warning Jaebum frowns and pushes Sewon away from him.

What do you think it is? He asks his mate mentally, could it be a knife?

I don’t know but please be careful. I’ll keep an eye on him to find out.

Jaebum half smiles at Youngjae’s concern for his wellbeing before throwing a punch directly on Sewon’s stomach. The other avoids it and kicks Jaebum straight on the nose, destabilizing him. He doesn’t fall on the ground but he wobbles as he takes two steps away from his enemy. Sewon takes the chance and tackles Jaebum, bumping him against a tree. Jaebum growls at the pain on his back and aims a punch towards Sewon’s face, who dodges it and pushes Jaebum harder against the tree, making it wiggle.

The sudden movement elicits a satisfied smile on Sewon’s face, who repeats the action. He smiles even more as he hears the tree cracking up due to the force of the impacts, threatening to break and fall directly above Namjoon’s pack.

Jaebum catches Sewon’s idea and tries to push him away from him, but Sewon bumps his back against the tree again making him see stars. Sewon takes a few steps back before raising his fist. Jaebum doesn’t move as Sewon runs towards him but avoids it at the end, rolling to the floor. He’s sure the tree is not going to fall now, but unfortunately a branch comes off from it just centimeters away from his head.

He gets up and kicks the branch away without caring where it lands. He runs towards Sewon and punches him on the stomach, succeeding this time and sending him backwards. Jaebum grabs him by the collar of his shirt and bumps his head against the other with force. He releases the alpha, who wobbles back and almost trips over the branch Jaebum had previously kicked away.

He stares at the branch and then at the crowd at his side. A small smirk spreads through his face as he takes it from the ground and aims to smash it against Jaebum’s head. The latter stops the attack before it succeeds and pushes him back. Sewon throws himself desperately against Jaebum again; the action is so unexpected that Jaebum struggles to avoid it, turning on himself to finally kick his opponent’s arm. The force of the impact causes Sewon’s arm to release the branch, with such bad luck that it flies directly towards Youngjae’s face.

When Jaebum realizes it’s too late: the branch impacts against Youngjae’s face before he can divert it with his power. Mark and Yugyeom catch him before he falls to the ground and Jinyoung rushes to his side to heal him. Jaebum also attempts to run to him but suddenly an intense pain appears in his head making him groan.

“Don’t tell me…” Sewon mutters, smirking devilishly after realizing that Jaebum is stronger than before because he’s mated to Youngjae. “Don’t tell me you are mated to a human. You’re really a disgrace to our kind”.

Jaebum glares at him, still suffering from the headache and unable to move. Sewon’s smirk amplifies as he hits Jaebum’s abdomen with his knee and then elbows him in the back, making Jaebum fall to the ground. His vision starts to blur as his head makes contact with the land under him, and he feels Sewon placing a foot on his back preventing him from moving.

“Jaebum!”

His gaze shifts towards the voice calling him; that melodious voice that captivated him since the first time he heard it. He sees Youngjae kneeling down, staring at him with worried but hopeful eyes.

Jaebum I’m fine, he says through their mental link. Don’t worry about me, I’m not hurt. You have to get up.

Jaebum keeps staring at him as he tries to stand up, but Sewon’s foot on his back isn’t making it easy for him. If anything, the other has noticed his intentions and is putting even more pressure on him.

Get up, Jaebum!

Jaebum tries again with all his willpower; but he has only lifted his body a few centimeters from the ground when Sewon pushes him back to the floor.

Jaebum, the object on his back! He’s taking it out, I’m seeing it! It’s a syringe! He’s going to poison you, you have to get up!

Jaebum groans as Sewon’s feet nails painfully on his back. He sees all his friends’ worried faces staring at him. He sees Youngjae clenching his fists, and he feels the need of the younger to run to him and help him.

Jaebum.

Time seems to freeze as they stare into each other eyes. Jaebum desperately tries to find strength to move inside Youngjae’s eyes as his mate pleads to him to get up and fight for his live.

Youngjae is about to mouth something to him when he breaks the eye contact and stares above Jaebum. The latter watches terrified how Youngjae widens his eyes and feels fear possessing his entire body.

Jaebum you have to get up, now!

Jaebum turns his head slightly to see what has scared Youngjae so much and sees Sewon’s face grinning in pure delight as he holds a syringe in one of his