Tao woke up and cringed instantly at the itchy, too-warm feeling his skin had taken on sometime during the night. His heat, which was a two-sometimes three-day condition, hit tomorrow full swing. That didn't stop him from starting to feel the effects a day before.

“Maybe I shouldn’t go to school today...” He mumbled, tossing and turning in his sheets.

But today he had the one teacher who hated him. If Tao missed, his professor would try to use it as a reason for Tao to be kicked out of the class. Tao only knew this because it had happened before when that class occurred on the full moon. No matter how much Tao hated that teacher, he didn’t want “kicked out of class” on his record.

Forcing himself out of bed, Tao stumbled towards the bathroom and took a cold shower. Relief flowed from the cool jet of water, but the feeling disappeared as soon as it had came. By the time he had dried himself off and dressed, the feeling was back again.

This was one of those times when Tao cursed the day he was born a wolf. Changes; he could deal with those. Packs; he could avoid most pretty easily. Loneliness; well he never felt the urge for a family anyways.

But heats? Heats got to him. The desperate want to be touched that left him shuddering at even the slightest touch, that made crowded bus rides make his pheromones go wild. It turned him into a whimpering mess and it wasn’t just plain annoying, it dealt a huge blow to his pride. And since he had refused to let anyone touch him or even near him during his heats for the past 20 years, heats had become more frequent and exaggerated, to the point where two years ago, he had been forced to lock himself in the “hold” down below to make sure he wouldn’t try to jump the mailman.

To have anyone find him in that state would be mortifying, not only to him but to the other person as well.

Another thing to add to the endless reasons why he despised heats, the pheromones. The god-be-damned pheromones that told every wolf in the area that he was in heat, and he was desperate. He had countless wolves knocking at his door every heat, who he ignored no matter how much the wolf in him was screaming for him to let them in and invite them straight to his bed.

Tao went downstairs and forced himself to eat an apple, but that was the most he could handle. He put on a black cloth surgical face mask with a skeleton design and thanked the gods for the millionth time that he lived in Korea. If he lived somewhere else, the mask may be misunderstood, but here, everyone would assume he was sick.

In truth, it was to cover his face if he passed a beta or (god forbid) an alpha. The mask would hide a blush that Tao would certainly have, especially if the other wolf was in heat as well.

Tao put on his shoes and walked out the door, praying that nothing dramatic would happen.

Of course his prayers weren’t heard.

~~~

"Suho, where are we going?" Kris asked.

"Local wolf bar." Suho replied, leading the other alpha down the street. Kris had been called by Suho to go on a short trip, who was he to refuse the alpha?

"But wouldn't it be..." Kris trailed off, thinking of the wounds sustained while fighting to get the territory they owned now.

"City is neutral ground, and so is the bar. The woods are split into territories and certain apartment buildings are territories too." Shuo explained.

"What if you have a friend who lives in a claimed building?" Kris asked, thinking of the wolves in their pack who were more social and going to college.

"Only wolves live in claimed buildings," Suho replied, "and if your friend is one of the pack, you might be allowed in." He paused. "We're here."

Suho led Kris down a staircase to a door, where he knocked.

A small opening on the door slid open. "What do you want?"

Suho bared his teeth, sharpening them. The man nodded. "C'mon in."

The bar was rather empty, which made sense since it was a Tuesday afternoon. Most wolves mixes with humans, going to jobs and schools. A few stray wolves were on the dance floor, moving along to the beat. The bartender was drying a couple glasses, glancing up when the two alphas approached.

"What can I get you?" She asked, putting down the cup.

"Information." Suho replied.

She laughed. "You're direct." She leaned over the bar a bit, grinning. "New in town?"

Suho raised an eyebrow, wondering why she hadn't started spewing out everything she knew. He took a quick sniff of the air around her.

"They only hire hybrids and alphas here," the girl explained, "so no staff can get ordered around by some alpha robber lunatic." She rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, my name's Minzy. I'm a hybrid. What do you need to know?"

"Everything."

So Minzy started talking.

Suho up the information. Most powerful male packs were SuJu, Big Bang, and SHINee, in that order. SNSD was a powerful all-girl pack, along with a few others he had forgotten. Minzy was part of a sort of "pack" of hybrids they called 2NE1.

"Any questions?" She asked when she finished.

"Yeah, one." Kris spoke up, jerking his head towards the dance floor. "What's up with them?"

Suho glanced over his shoulder. The wolves on the floor had stopped dancing, all staring at the door intently.

Minzy took a sniff of the air. "Ah, the smell of romance." She chuckled. "There's this omega in town. No one really knows their face or gender, but that's not important. The thing is, this omega gets their heat once every two months and they smell divine."

"You'll catch scent of the omega tomorrow. No doubt about it. Wolves here basically have this omega's heat cycle imprinted in their brains, so they're more sensitive to it."

"No one's mated this omega?" Kris asked, watching as the stares turned away from the door and back to dancing.

"Nope." Minzy popped the 'p'. "Whoever this omega is locks themselves up, lets no one touch them, doesn't open the door to wolves at all. Not even other omegas." She said. "That's why no one knows his face."

Suho glanced at her. A silence descended over the three. Suho broke it. "You've seen this omega, haven't you?"

"Why do you think that?" Minzy asked.

"Because you said 'his' instead of 'their'." Minzy smirked at Suho's comment.

"You caught me," she admitted, "he lives in the apartment across from my friend. They're pretty good friends, well, as close to friends you can get with that guy." Minzy rolled her eyes.

"Can you introduce me?" Kris asked, curious. The girl who lived across from the wolf they had chased last night had said a similar thing.

"Not during his heat," was Minzy's answer.

"After?"

"Still a no." Minzy replied. "He's not going to let anyone into his house that he doesn't already know."

"What about his mate?" Suho asked, genuinely curious.

"Well, whoever his mate is, they either haven't arrived or are really good at ignoring him. So I have no idea."

Kris thought for a while. "I want to talk to him."

Minzy smirked. "Good luck."

~~~

Tao reached his class room without much difficulty. A beta had followed him for a while, but Tao cut through a couple alleys, wound around a couple side streets, and the beta left him alone.

He sat down and pulled out his notebook, flipping it open to a random page. Glancing up, it was impossible to ignore the way his teacher, Mr. Yang, was glaring heatedly at him. Tao rolled his eyes and looked back down to his notebook, doodling in the margins of last week’s notes. Footsteps approached his desk.

“Why do you have a mask on?” Tao peered up at his professor, raising an eyebrow.

“Because I have a cold and didn’t want to get anyone else. I knew missing would make it hard for me to get notes on what I missed.” Tao replied, eyes lowering to his notebook.

“If you’re sick, why are you here?” Mr. Yang continued. Tao could feel the glare at the back of his skull but didn’t lift his head.

“I told you already. Now class is about to start, can I please work in peace?”

A/N:  Update: Because all of need a little bit of sassy Tao in our lives. I just posted the extra scene there!
Hi, I know I said I would post this yesterday, but plans changed so I'm not leaving until Wednesday! I won't be able to post another chapter within that amout of time,so don't expect one until at most a week from tomorrow.
OH MY GOD I LOVE YOU GUYS I DO NOT DESERVE THIS MANY VIEWS AND SUBS AND ILY THANK YOU
BACK ON TOPIC
What did you think of this chapter? If you're itching for Tao and Kris to meet already, you're like my beta, who is about to strangle me for having a really slow build.... I like slow builds though, so hang in there and it'll happen eventually! *evil laughter in background*
Please review!!