Tao was beginning to panic slightly as he stood in front of the entire group. Even from an outsider’s point of view it was easy to tell, from the stance of the ten boys watching him, who was in charge. Suho was sat in the centre, Xiumin, Baekhyun, Chen and D.O were all crouched protectively behind him while Lay and Chanyeol flanked his left with Kai and Sehun to his right. Luhan was, as always, sat at the leader’s feet, not really paying attention to what was happening around him, the only one not looking like he was about to attack Tao. The boys usually didn’t pay much attention to their leader but in situations like these they all knew better than to mess around. The teen flinched a little as Suho sent a ball of freezing cold water flying towards him, it missed by about an inch and Tao knew if the leader had wanted to hit him, he would have.

“How stupid are you Tao?” The power in Suho’s voice rang through the room, causing some of the boys surrounding him to shrink back in their stances a little. Feeling more than a little uncomfortable Tao took a deep breath and a small step forwards, now was not the time to display fear.

“What was I supposed to do? He didn’t freeze with the others” The group tensed up at hearing Tao’s answer, all did their best to avoid eye contact with him or Suho as the leader slowly rose from his seat and stepped towards Tao. The air seemed to shift around him as he moved, his grace overshadowed by the fear he installed in the group. Tao stood his ground keeping his breathing steady he reminded himself that he’d done the right thing. The leader stood in front of him, a small smirk on his face and knowing what was about to happen Tao closed his eyes and accepted the punishment. The sound of the back of Suho’s hand coming into contact with Tao’s cheek echoed in the room as the teen stumbled to the floor, instinctively letting out a growl of anger Tao tensed up and glared up at Suho, regretting the subconscious decision immediately as Baekhyun and Chanyeol ran forwards and crouched protectively at their leader’s feet, snarling at Tao. Suho’s voice was calm and soothing as he spoke to the two boys at his feet, touching their shoulders to gain their attention the leader smiled sweetly at the pair. “It’s ok, Tao knows what has to happen.” Fully aware of the movement of the other boys Tao rose to a defensive position and tried to keep track of where each of them was going. The slap was for his disrespect, the group attack was his punishment for bringing an outsider here, to their safe house. The teen knew he had to accept the pending attack, but nothing said he had to take it lying down.

Tao kept his eyes locked on the leader once the others had stopped moving, Chanyeol and Baekhyun had left his side to join the rest in surrounding Tao, all crouched over or on all fours like Tao so the leader towered above them. Suho turned his back on Tao, knowing the boy wouldn’t take a cheap shot and attack him from behind and joined the others to complete the circle they had formed around Tao. There was a moment of silence as Suho lowered himself to an aggressive stance, the group waited for him to start the attack, he snarled a little sadistically and once the sound was released the entire circle began letting low, dangerous growls melt into the space around them.

Kai was the first to enter the circle, he approached Tao slowly, fully aware of what the teen was capable of and circled around him a little, Tao locked eyes with him and let out a short growl of his own. A warning. Leaping forwards Kai pushed Tao to the ground and pinned him down, holding the boy’s wrists above his head. Tao glared up at him and quickly kicked with as much strength as possible sending Kai back to the outskirts of the circle. Tao didn’t have the chance to celebrate his success as D.O jumped towards him, he dragged his nails over Tao’s right cheek, breaking the skin easily. Feeling his own blood dampen his face Tao growled with more demand than before and tackled D.O across the room, slamming the boy into the back wall with all the power he had. It was Xiumin’s howl that snapped Tao’s attention back to the other boys as they ran towards him full speed. The teen managed to dodge passed the attacks of Xiumin, Suhun and Chen but Luhan threw a vicious punch that caught his shoulder and sent him straight into Suho’s attack. The older boy pushed Tao into the corner of the room and in seconds the group had surrounded him again. Baekhyun attacked again, this time ramming his shoulder into Tao’s gut causing the teen to topple to the ground, winded. The chorus of growls grew louder as Lay stalked forwards and pulled Tao to his feet, dragging his nails over the fresh wounds on Tao’s cheek and adding another long think scratch from the corner of Tao’s eye to his jaw.

Getting his breath back Tao pushed his way through the group and out of the corner, he hunched over defensively again and pushed a weak snarl towards the boys. Suho scoffed at him and locked eyes with Sehun for a moment and gave a small nod to the boy. Tao caught on fast enough and lowered himself to the ground as quickly as possible, not quite getting low enough before Sehun sent a heavy gust of wind at him, raising Tao off the ground and sending him flying into a wall. Knowing that he would be judged on how much of the attack he could handle Tao spit out the blood in his mouth and shakily pushed himself onto his knees. His breathing was heavy and he could feel the bruises forming on his back, legs and chest but he still had some fight in him. The group watched as the teen feebly made his way to his feet and tensed up again, glaring at them all one-by-one. Looking at Suho the group waited to see if they were done attacking, not wanting to hurt their friend anymore, but quickly re-assumed their offensive positions as the leader bared his teeth at Tao, eyes narrowing at the teen. Luhan was the first to step out this time and deciding he needed to do more than just protect himself Tao charged at him. The two collided in the middle of the room and both tumbled to the floor, Luhan snarled and viciously bit Tao’s shoulder, the boy let out a cry of pain before returning the attack by pinning Luhan to the ground and raising his hand to claw at the boy. His wrist was caught midair by Lay who pushed Tao away and protectively crouched over Luhan rather than attack. Suhun’s attack was fiercer now that Luhan had been threatened as he sent Tao flying across the room for the second time. Tao tried to push himself off the ground again but didn’t have the strength anymore, his breath was coming in short pants and each pant sent a ripple of pain through his body. He managed to roll himself onto his back and turn to face the boys, all but Luhan and Lay who were having a small fight of their own now that Lay was doing everything he could to stop Luhan going back to the fight, they were still prowling around offensively, glaring at Tao.

A loud growl from the other side of the room tore everyone’s attention away from Tao to the now open door. The boy that had caught Tao ran through the group and crouched over Tao protectively, making himself look at big as possible whilst covering as much of the teen as he could.

The group stared at him, confused, and dropped their animalistic stances.