“Luna.”

Jungsoo smiled as the familiar face walked into his shop. On her hip was a young boy, same button nose and full smile as his mother. He wiggled down off her hip and to the ground the moment he saw Jungsoo and ran across the shop and into the salamander’s open arms . “And my little Henry! Look how big you’ve gotten!”

Luna sighed and leaned against the counter as Henry giggled into Jungsoo’s neck. “He’s been asking all week. When are we going to see Uncle Jungsoo? Mommy, when?  And don’t think I don’t know it’s because you gave him that toad when I told him no last time.”

“Ah,” Jungsoo said sheepishly, “that toad.”

“Yes, that toad. He put it in one of my pots and filled it with water and said ‘Mommy, frogs need water to stay wet’ when I caught him.”

Jungsoo winced and glanced at Henry who was nodding at his own childlike words of wisdom.

“None the less, he was going to drive me insane if I didn’t stop by, so here we are!”

Jungsoo smiled and placed Henry on the counter. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a purple druse agate stone and watched Henry marvel over the pretty colors before he handed it to him. “How are things with you and Big Henry?”

Luna smiled shyly. “Wonderful. No small thanks to you. It really worked; the bark. He tells me every day just how in love with my scent he is.”

“Well, I told you, you are special and it would take the right wolf to see that, right? I’m just glad that you are happy. Kibum was asking about you the other day.”
“Ah! Was he? How is he doing? And his friend? Minho? And am I hearing things correctly? Minho is Prae’s new Alpha Beta? I couldn’t go to the festival because Henry's mother is visiting. ”

Jungsoo beamed. “He is. He is. His father would be proud.”

Luna smile withered a bit and she turned for the big window that looked out of the shop and over the grassland flats. “My father told me stories about our former leaders and the night of the savage moon. It wasn’t much, just that Yunkyum and Minjung loved Minho a lot. Nobody truly knows what happened.” Luna turned to him. “He says that you were there? What happened?”

Jungsoo frowned.

He frowned because he knew he could never tell Luna, or anyone, what really happened in the weeks after Yunyum stepped down and Minjung took his place. He could never explain Minjung and Yunkyum’s positions. Their decisions.  He could never tell their stories.

He could never honor them the way they deserved.




The Night of The Savage Moon

“How long will it take us to get in place?” Minjung asked as she looked out over the small council room of Golden Shield.  It was empty save the two of them.
The walls were decorated with the clan’s accomplishments; architecture, counseling, goodwill and humanitarian excellence. Nothing about the strength or battle prowess. Nothing about bravery.

Julien secured the straps of her hardboiled leather chest guard with a soft grunt. “The main battalion is waiting. I instructed them to sit outside of the borders as not to alarm any of the townspeople. We will meet up with them as we head towards Blue Crescent lands.”

Minjung lips pressed together in a thin line. “No, better plan. Send a messenger. We’ll have the remaining guard travel to the far and north sides of the lake.” She turned towards the battle table with the map spread across it. “Have them advanced from their position to here–the east side of the forest. I’ll take half of the Golden Shields north, Siwon will take the bulk to the eastern border of the lake. That way we have them surrounded on three sides. They can’t go south without running into the Lark’s River and trapping themselves.”

Julien frowned as he fastened the last buckled on his mate’s armor. “I don’t like that idea.”

“And why not, “ Minjung asked as she pulled her hair high off her shoulders and pinned it into a tight ball at the top of her head.

“Because I don’t like the idea of being separated from you.”

“Julien, it’s war. Now is not the time to be –“

“–worried about you? Yes, this is war, and yes a lot is at stake but I have this sick feeling in the bottom of my stomach that won’t go away. So excuse me for being concerned.”

Minjung stared down at the map one last time with a sigh before turning to her mate. “I wasn’t going to say worried. I was going to say distracted. I don’t want you out there with those animals, distracted. I want you to come home to me and I’d feel like if you were hurt because you were thinking about me instead of the fight.”

She grabbed his hands and held them to her chin, muzzling them with her eyes closed. “Thank you.”

Julien frown softened as he looked down at her. “For what? Being sentimental?”

Minjung laughed. “Yeah, that but…for your help, for your council. The fact that you have shown so much concern for my family. Minho really looks up to you, you know? I can’t tell you how much I love you for it. “

“They are my family too, Minjung. You’re my family. I will fight for what’s mine. I’m just sorry we couldn’t ask for my father’s help. The Artic Wolf Clan would have been very useful tonight.”

Minjung hummed in agreement before she reached up on the tips of her toes and kissed her mate’s chin. In return, Julien laid his forehead against hers and for a long moment, they didn’t say anything, just reveled in the other’s scent and presence.

“Do you know that I knew you were spying on me? Up north? Before we met formally?”

Minjung’s face pinched. “Spying on you?” she scoffed. “Be serious.”

“Deny it all you want, woman. But you’re the reason I started bathing in the lake more often…because I knew you were watching.”

“I wasn’t watching. I was observing. I’d heard all of these things about you and to be completely honest, I believed none of it. They spoke of this tall, handsome, white wolf with his broad shoulders and ridiculously good looks and I thought it was the most absurd thing I’d ever heard. No one is that good looking.”

“And? Did I live up to their tales?”

“No, you’re a wart.”

Julien laughed. “A wart you say? Is that why you stuck around for three more months watching me bathe every morning?”

“Yes. You’re a ridiculously good looking, broad shoulder… amazing wart.” Minjung paused for a second. “Hey! So if you knew, you bumping into me at the market…”

“Was on purpose.”

“You sneaky little–“

“It’s because I knew. I knew it was going to be you the moment I saw your head peeking over the bushes. Call it an innate sense of kismet. That if you decided you weren’t going to ask my father for the alliance, I was going to come to you. Travel half the earth for you. I would have done it. I would have done anything.”

Minjung sighed and tugged him closer. “Julien…”

The sound of a throat clearing behind them broke them apart. It was Shindong. “I apologize but Yunkyum and Siwon are asking for the two of you to address the Golden Shields. It is time.” He paused with a reverent bow before leaving.

Minjung pouted, which prompted Julien to kiss her. “Let’s make a bet,” she said.  Her lips twisted into a playful smirked when a thick brow rose at her. “Last one home…has to listen to shifter disputes all next week.”

Julien scoffed. “You say that like you were listening to them to begin with.” Minjung face pulled a look of mock indignation and Julien rolled his eyes. “Whoever comes back home last does all of the chores, all of them, even,” he said with a pointed look, ”fetching milk from Zhou Mi’s evil cow.”

“Geez, you are so boring. Deal,” she said, kissing Julien one last time before turning towards the main hall, him right on her heels.

The main hall was used to hold meetings, a place for Wheph leadership to listen to formal disputes and hold fertility balls such as the LudiFlora Gala. It was usually lively with debate and laughter. Tonight it was reflective and somber. Minjung and Julien took to the small rostrum at the front of the hall and waited for the quiet murmurs to die down. Everyone in front of them was dressed in the same fashion as her: hardboiled leather, hair pulled back and serious faces. On the shoulder of each was a golden triskelion, the insignia of the Golden Shields. Sitting on rostrum below them was Yunkyum, Siwon and Shindong.

Minjung nodded. Everyone was here.

She took one step forward and watched as every head bowed in respect. By the time they’d raised their heads, Minjung was smiling at them.

“I know a lot of you are used to a different face before you. One that kind of looks like mine, but older and scruffier,” she said as she looked at her father. He grinned back. “But in order to gain the trust of the Artic Wolves, should we need them in the future, it was decided last moon that I step forward as Alpha of Wheph. Together, with my mate, my father, Siwon and Shindong, we have brought you here to help us in our fight against the Blue Crescents.” Minjung glanced at her mate and he nodded back. When she looked back over the crowd, her face had hardened.

“The Blue Crescents have infiltrated this village, have dishonored the memory of my mother Danye. They have attacked your leaders and they attempted to assassinate the Golden Son of this village, Minho. We will not let them continue their tyranny over us. The Mandate of Zion was a plea for help but it was not intended for them to rule over us as if we are their dogs. We will not let them rest. We will hunt them down and we will gut them out. Are you with me?”

There was one solid sound as their fists hit their chest but Minjung wasn’t satisfied. “I SAID ARE YOU WITH ME?” she bellowed across the hall.

The noise in the town hall pitched, to fist hitting chests and voices howling in agreement.

Julien took a step forward as the noise quieted down.  He held up the map of the new battle strategy. “Shall we begin?”




Minjung crouched low to the ground and sniffed, trying to root out any foreign smells from the olfa they’d erected to block out their scent. It was cold and a cloud of condense air fogged with her every breath.

“Toggo is with them,” she said as she stood, dusting her pants off. “We have to do this tonight and we have to do this right the first time. He will be distracted from Sunku’s death anniversary.” She looked over her shoulder to her father. She opened to say something along the lines of letting him take command because that was his place, because no matter what her title was, she was still young, still so much more naive and unseasoned as him. She was still his little girl but she didn’t want to appear weak in front of him, or the other Golden Shields, so she didn’t. She inhaled a nice long breath, and exhaled, letting her anxiety go with it. They were going to be successful. Everything was going to be okay. They would protect Minho.

The olfa stretched out in a green mist half circle around the Blue Crescent compound. The compoud was oddly shaped in its attempt to blend in and if you didn’t know what you were looking for, you’d missed it. But you couldn’t hide it from everyone.

Their problem would not be the tall spiked timber walls or the sentry rotation. Those would be easy to overcome. Walls could be climbed and sentries could be killed in silence. It was the elite fighting force within those walls.  Although their numbers were low, The Blue Crescents were mercenaries by trade. Their skills outranked even Wheph’s best fighters (Siwon, Ryeowook and Donghae). Luckily, Wheph had their entire army behind them. It would be a good vicious match.
Concentrating on the sentry rotation, Minjung listened intently for Siwon and Julien’s signals that they were in place. She hoped it was soon. The olfa was strong but it couldn’t block out the scent of hundreds for very long.  The moon was bright tonight, but the thicket covering them only allowed slivers of it to cast down on them. They had the darkness on their side as well. They had ever advantage.

Minjung glanced up at the moon through the branches and closed her eyes for a moment. She tried to reach out to Julien through their bond but pulled back at the last moment. She remembered her vow not to be a distraction to him but she couldn’t lie to herself. Julien was right; she wanted him by her side at that moment. They were brilliant when they fought side by side. More powerful, more in sync.

Their shared energy was something to behold. Tonight that chain was broken in an effort to be more tactical.

An eerie low howl caught her attention and her eyes opened. The signal! Her fist clenched. They would be together soon enough.

“Drop the olfa.”

The Beta to her left smashed the urn the embers of the olfa were burning in and the green mist dissipated. It would only be seconds before the next sentry rounded the corner. Minjung felt the others begin to shift behind her. Some shifted into their wolf forms, other shifted into Lycans. For her, she stayed in her human form.

She wanted to look into Toggo’s eyes when she killed him. Wanted her face to be the last thing he ever saw.

Do it right the first time.

She would.

Minjung channeled all of her energy to her center.

“ATTACK!!!” Minjung’s guttural battlecry echoed over the canopy of trees as she leapt forward through the woods.




Minho stared at the ceiling in Kibum’s bedroom from the pallet of wool and cotton the older boy had thrown at him before he climbed in his bed and went to sleep. Minho sulked and turned over. He’d been here a week and was frankly getting tired of it. The wool as itchy and his pillow was lumpy. He missed his bed, he missed his house, and he missed his family.

Kibum was snoring quietly in the corner, a bare leg hanging over the edge of his bed. The fireplace in Kibum’s room had hiked the temperature and he wondered how Kibum could sleep. It was unbearably hot and there was no escaping the heat. He’d open a window but he didn’t want to hear Kibum’s ing. Yet it was something else that bothered him ,even as he tried to blame it on the heat. Something that buzzed under his skin, something that made him uneasy and irritable. He was restless.

Something is wrong.

He sat up and shuffled back until he was leaning against the wall. Above his head bright beams from the moon shone through the panes of the window and casted Kibum’s room in a pale white light. The full moon. It has to be the full moon. 

Silently, Minho pushed the covers off of him, stood and walked to the other side of the room where Kibum had sat a pitcher of water. He poured himself a glass and drowned it, wetting his parched throat. The Salamander had been away on a trip for the last three days. He’d left in a hurry, a satchel full of supplies and white strips of cotton. A strong smelling salve wafted from the bag as he shut his bedroom door. He kissed Kibum on the forehead, ruffled Minho’s hair and sprinted out the door without an explanation.

Salamander’s was on the far side of town and far from the borders of the forest. It edged the flatlands that separated Wheph from Durkhai and the only thing that was visible in the rows and rows of grass was the large twin statues of Heechul and Hangeng. It was quiet on this side of town. Jungsoo’s neighbors kept to themselves, only venturing out to visit the market up the street. At night it was a void of silence. It was driving Minho crazy.

Or maybe it was the unease that wouldn’t go away.

Sighing, he walked back to his pallet. There wasn’t anything he could do about the silence. Go to sleep, he told himself. Tomorrow will be here before you know it.

He settled in his covers, his side away from the fire and closed his eyes. He was just slipping back to sleep when…
 

Minho’s eyes flew open. That was Minjung’s voice. He looked around in the room’s darkness. Nothing. The only thing he could hear was his heart thudding in his chest and the sound of wood crackling in the fireplace.

“Stop being ridiculous,” he murmured before he closed his eyes again.

Minho shook his head and refused to open his eyes. His mind was playing a cruel trick on him. He couldn’t hear Minjung’s voice. He couldn’t hear his father’s voice. He squeezed them shut and grabbed the edge of the cover and pulled it over his head.
 

Minho shot up. That was Julien’s voice. There’s no way. But the sound of their voices echoed in his head. It doesn’t make sense!  But Minho didn’t care, he didn’t care that it wasn’t possible, he didn’t care that he would be scolded for his actions. He didn’t care. He didn’t.

He threw the covers back once again, stood and rushed over to Kibum, mouth wide open with sleep, and shook him awake. Kibum shoved him off and rolled over but that didn’t deter Minho. He pulled his covers off him, sunk his hands in Kibum’s night shirt and yanked him up right.

“Wha–“ Kibum looked around, confused. “What the hell, Minho! What do you want? I’m sleep!”

Minho took a second to inhale deeply, to make sure he wasn’t about to sound crazy. “Something is wrong…with my family. I have to go back home.”

Kibum took a second to look at him before rolling his eyes and falling back into the bed. “Go back to sleep. You were probably dreaming…like I was before you woke me,“ he muttered.

“I wasn’t dreaming!  I can feel it, deep in my chest. My stomach is rolling like I’m going to throw up!” By the time Minho was done, his voice had pitched into hysterics and Kibum started to look rightfully concerned. He sat back up and stared at Minho.

“Okay, okay,” Kibum said as he rubbed Minho’s arm in an attempt to calm him down. “You feel like your family is in danger. What do you want to do?”
Minho shook his head. “I don’t know. I just now I have to go. Now.”




It took an hour to travel the few miles between Kibum’s house and Minho’s. What they found when they got there aggravated  Minho’s fears.

A crescent of people stood outside of his house and he and Kibum had to fight through the throng to get to his front door. The first person Minho spotted was Siwon. He was shirtless and a long gash across his chest glistened with blood. Ryeowook was beside him watching a healer thread a needle to close up a cut along his cheek.

Minho rushed up to Siwon, whose face looked like thunder, like he was full of rage. The moment Siwon saw him, however, the rage melted away. It was replaced by a myriad of emotions; confusion, realization, shock.

There were loud shouts coming out from inside of his house. Minho, alarmed, turned towards it but Siwon place d a firm hand on his shoulder. “Minho? What are you doing here?”

Minho shrugged his hand off and looked around frantically. “What happened to you? Why are all these people here?”

Siwon mouth pinched in a hard line, silent and Minho wanted to punch him.

Siwon’s silence didn’t stop him, however. “Where is my sister? Where’s Julien? Where’s my Father?” he yelled. At the mention of his name, a silver head of hair came to the front door and the look of shock on Siwon’s face mirrored on his face.

“Minho!” Julien croaked. His shirt was spotted with blood and his face was wet with tears.

Julien looked like he wanted to say something, looked like something was weighing so heavy on his heart that the words would just spill out of his mouth. Minho wanted to know what. He wanted to know who was screaming, why the screams sounded like Minjung’s. He wanted to know why Julien was crying. He wanted to know about the blood. He wanted someone…anyone to tell him something so the horrible thoughts in his head would go away.

Instead, Julien turned to Siwon. “Take him. He can’t be here right now.” His voice was weary and depleted. He sounded so hollow.

Minho looked at Julien in confusion, his brows furrowed and his mind blank of what Julien could mean by ‘take him away.’ Away from what? He was needed here. He needed to know! Before he could open his mouth to say just that, Siwon was scooping low and throwing Minho over his shoulder. The townspeople gasped and Minho looked down at him like he’d lost his mind.

 “Put me down!” Minho thrashed in his arms “That is my home! You’ve got no right! Put me down! ”

He screamed and kicked as the townspeople cleared a path for their council leader. Siwon crossed the street and ducked behind a house, carrying Minho as if he weighed nothing, as if the kicks and punches across his back were nothing but a bother from the wind. Siwon swung the door of a storage shed at the back of the house open and placed Minho down gently, holding his arms at his side just in case tried to run.

“Minho, listen to me. You have to hide here. You can’t be seen.”

Minho huffed in anger, the heated breaths from his mouth fluttering his bangs across his forehead, throwing condensed puffs into the air. “And why not!”

“I’m not authorized to tell you.”

Minho’s jaw clenched and he puffed out his chest. “I am the Golden Son of this village! The brother of the Alpha of Wheph,” he said through clenched teeth. “I am giving you the authorization!”

Siwon looked troubled by this, and for a moment, Minho thought he’d broken through to Siwon’s utmost sense of loyalty, but he almost screamed when Siwon’s lips set together in a firm line.

“You were supposed to be at Salamanders.  We should have posted guards there,” he said to himself more than to Minho.

“Mighty, Jesu! Why won’t you tell me what is going on!”

Siwon ignored him, instead spending his time shuffling around the shed. He reached behind a few barrel of rice to pull out a stiff cotton covering. He balled it up and more or less shoved it under Minho’s . “There is going to be a guard outside of this door for the time being. If you hear anything, anything that sounds strange, call for her. She’ll be there in a flash. I have to get back to your family. Please don’t try leave.”

“Siwon, wait! Please! Tell me!”

And then he was gone. Minho waited a moment before he rushed the door, dipping his shoulder for leverage but it wouldn’t budge. He wanted to rip his head back and scream, to scream that he just wanted to see his family, to scream that he was an adult, that they didn’t have the right to treat him like a child. But the fear in Siwon’s eyes stopped him. Something was going on, something big and terrible and he slid to the floor. He felt himself gag on fear and only stopped himself from vomiting by reluctantly taking a seat, closing his eyes and mediating. Siwon wouldn’t steer him wrong.

He would wait. He just wanted the terrible feeling to go away.




Kibum stood in the Choi’s living room, his hands shaking, his feet to the ground as if roots were wrapped around his ankles as he watched his father. Strewn over the floor were thick strips of cotton that used to be white but were now were red, soaked with blood. A basin of water filled with muddy pink water was to Jungsoo’s right, a row of medical instruments to his right. Behind him was the jar of strong smelling salve Kibum’d smelt right before his father rushed out of their house.

Kibum felt a sob slip between his lips and he rushed to cover his mouth. He blinked as hard as he could to stop the tears. But he couldn’t, he couldn’t stop them and they rushed down his face in hot streams.

Someone slipped past him, Shindong, and placed a hand on his father’s shoulder.

“There’s nothing else you can do, ‘Soo. Come…let me wash your hands. Please you’re going to make yourself sick.”

Kibum had never seen his father cry before. Not once. Not when his wife died, not when Kibum ran away and got lost in the forest for two days, not when he held Minho’s body, feverish and on the verge of death…not once. But as Shindong picked his father up from the floor and as his father collapsed into Shindong’s arms, did Kibum see his father cry for the first time.

He understood his tears. His father couldn’t save his friend and he couldn’t save the Alpha leader of their village.

In front of Jungsoo on two cots laid the bodies of Choi Yunkyum and Choi Minjung. The wound just below Yunkyum’s heart had been cleaned as much as possible, but Yunkyum had died in battle and there was nothing Jungsoo could have done to save him. Minjung had been brought in alive, gasping as air leaked in and out of chest wounds left from a litany of arrows.

Kibum had walked right after Siwon had dragged Minho away. He watched over his father’s shoulder as Jungsoo tended to Minjung’s wounds, stitching and repairing what he could. Once Jungsoo was done, Julien was by her side, opening their bond to its limit, flooding the room with pure energy in an attempt lessen her pain, to take some of the pain on himself, to help her body heal. He hugged her to his chest, drenching his shirt in her blood. At one point, Donghae and two others had to drag Julien away and force him to close the bond to prevent him from killing himself when Jungsoo realized the bond wasn’t working.

She made Siwon promise to find Toggo and  kill him with a blood vow scribbled in slow painful on the floor. Minjung had called for her father, even in death she called for him, raspy breaths that washed over her lips in bloody bubbles. She screamed for Julien, so loud and so powerful that everyone in the house had to cover their ears, to the point that her voice cracked.

Her last words were her brother’s name.  ‘Protect Minho. Please.’

Kibum had seen it all. Had seen why people crowded around the Choi’s house. Understood why Siwon had rushed off with Minho in tow. Understood why Minho had been stashed away across town at his house to begin with.

And now he had to go and tell his friend, his brother that…

Siwon reentered the house, his face ashen as Sungmin, a distant cousin of Yunkyum, pulled a white sheet over Yunkyum and Minjung’s bodies. Siwon avoided looking at the display of reverence and instead marched up to Kibum. He placed a sturdy hand on his shoulder and looked down at him with an exhaustion Kibum couldn’t imagine.

“I’m sure you’re very confused right now,” Siwon said, his voice cracking.

Kibum’s bottom lip trembled and he fought it because he was the ranking wolf in his house and he couldn’t cry, wasn’t supposed to cry. He couldn’t let his father see his tears. He had to be strong for his father who was bent over the Choi’s kitchen basin, sobbing as Shindong patiently washed the blood from his hands. Instead he nodded.

“The Blue Crescents killed Minjung. They killed Yunkyum. And they tried to kill Minho,” Siwon said quietly.

“He told me…about the attack in the woods last year,” Kibum whispered.

“They were going to try again, in two weeks’ time but we found out and attacked them before they could attack us. Minjung was brilliant–I’ve never seen her fight like that before. Her plan worked and we overtook their entire camp. We won, Kibum. We really did. Imagine that. Us. Wheph. But as we were putting them to the sword, Toggo, Minho’s uncle, and his right hand, Jungmo, broke free. We raced after him, me, Minjung, Yunkyum, and Julien but… it was a trap. I don’t know what happened. Toggo attacked Yunkyum from behind, and stabbed him. Minjung dashed into the clearing and Toggo ran off as she did. She was trying to pull him out and into the safety of the trees when–“ Siwon paused and he rubbed his eyes as if he might cry. “They shot her down. It was terrible. It was so unfair…”

Siwon screwed his eyes shut and pushed the heel of his hand to the bridge of his nose. “I need you. You’re the only one who can tell Minho. They are going to raise him up to Alpha leader tomorrow and he’ll have to know why. Can you do it?”




Kibum trembled with his task and he felt his heart thud painfully in his chest. He was going to be sick. The only thing stopping him from turning and running until he was at his house was that he knew Siwon was right, that Minho deserved to know and he was the only one who could tell him.

Slowly, he made his way out of the house, pushing the image of Yunkyum and Minjung out of his mind. He crossed the street, now deserted of confused townspeople, and before he knew it, he was standing in front of the shed. When the makeshift guard, a young woman who looked confused and battle tired, saw him she silently moved to the side and opened the door.

The moment Kibum was inside the shed, Minho rushed at him, throwing his arms around his shoulders.

“Kibum! Kibum, you’re here! I was so scared! They wouldn’t tell me anything! All I could hear was screaming and nobody–Kibum? Kibum what’s wrong?”

Kibum couldn’t help it. He started to cry, his body sagging against Minho’s and he threw his arms around Minho’s middle, squeezing out all of the grief he could manage.

Minho stiffened and lowered his arms from around Kibum. “Kibum. What’s wrong? You’re scaring me.”

“It’s–it’s…” Kibum tried to concentrate but he felt his body was locking up. He inhaled a large breath and closed his eyes. “It’s your father…your sister.”

Kibum felt Minho’s warmth leave as he held him away from him. His voice was unreasonably and eerily calm. “What happened? I know you’re going to tell me because you’re the only one who would tell me. Where is my father? Where is my sister?”

“They are–”                                                                                   
       
Minho smiled, faintly, as if he wasn’t expecting any kind of bad news.“ It’s okay. You can tell me.”

“I can’t…I can’t!”

The smile melted away and anger crossed Minho’s face. He jerked Kibum once, hard. “TELL ME!”

“They’re gone, Minho,” Kibum said through a choked sob. “They are gone.”

Minho was silent for a moment, not moving, not reacting before he started to laugh.

“Be real, Kibum.  It’s not a time to joke around. My father is the smartest, most fearsome shifter in this clan. My sister is the strongest. There’s no way they are dead. Go back out there and find out what really happened.”

“But Minho–“

“Get out of my face! Don’t come back until you’re ready to tell me the truth!”

“Minho!” Kibum shouted as his friend shoved him towards the door. “Minho! Listen to me!”

“Get out, Kibum! Get out! Get out!” Minho shoved him one last time and Kibum yelped as he slammed against the door. Kibum shoulder stung as he slid to the floor but he knew Minho was hurting more than his shoulder ever could, even if he didn’t realize it yet. Minho marched away, his head held high and his back rigid and Kibum knew Minho was shutting down.

“They are going to make you Alpha leader tomorrow!” Kibum yelled from the floor. That stopped Minho in his tracks.  “Julien turned it down. He said it should go to Minjung’s heir. That’s you.”

Kibum held out his hand. Clutched in his fingers was the heavy blood red triskelion seal Minjung used to sign her documents with. The only person who should have that was Minjung…

Minho looked up slowly from the triskelion, his eyes roving over Kibum’s face, looking for a lie, looking for anything. When he didn’t find it, when he realized that Kibum was telling the absolute truth, Minho’s knees buckled under him. “No.”

Minho’s knees hit the dirt floor and he wrapped his hands around his middle. “No…No! NO!”

Kibum watched, shocked, as a deep red began to seep into Minho’s eyes. “Minho?”

“No,” Minho whined over and over again, his voice growing deeper and darker with every word uttered. “Caleo, no…”

Kibum frowned. “Who’s Caleo?”

Suddenly, Minho ripped his head back and Kibum was terrified. Minho’s canine began to slip passed his lips and were dripping with saliva. His eyes flashed red then gold. Minho stood to his full height, the sorrow still on his face, but anger, fire hot anger coexisted with the pain, contorting Minho’s face into one Kibum couldn’t recognize.

Kibum took a step forward, scared for himself, yes, but more scared for his friend. “Minho, please. What’s wrong?”  He reached out to him when Minho shrank away.

“Run…”

Kibum’s brows furrowed. “What?”

“RUN!” he roared. “GET AWAY FROM ME! RUN!”

Kibum’s mind caught up and he understood what was happening. He back-peddled out of the shed, tripping over things as he tried to get out.  He slammed the door behind him and the guard, noticing the uproar, raced over.

“What–‘ she asked.

“Caleo,” Kibum whispered.  It was the name of Minho’s wolf. “Minho lost control of his wolf.”

The guard’s eyes widened in shock and she rushed to shove the wooden latched closed. She did it just in time as Minho roared. Moments later he was slamming against the door, rocking he entire shed.

“Sta–stay here I’m going to go get Siwon!” the guard yelled as she took off.

Kibum stood on the other side of the door, eyes wide as Minho continued to slam him body into it. The fear drained from his body the more he listened, listened as Minho ran into the door again and again, his wolf not strong enough to break it down. Listened as the roars and growls broke down into sobs and whimpers. Kibum slid down the grass and placed his hand up against the door.

“Minho,” Kibum whispered. The door vibrated violently under his hand. “I’m so sorry.”

Dust rained down on his head as Minho ran into the door again. “I’m so sorry.”
 

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Caleo is latin for fire. Which seemed fitting, right?
Ofla is a play on olfactory...which means to smell.

A:N: The character guide is here. Thiis point in the story is a safe place to check it ^_^