He could hear his own breathing, his heartbeat, every time he swallowed saliva, everything. His eyes are still red, he is drenched in sweat, his hands shaking.

This is what happens when your son, whom you haven't even met yet, is about to die; when your best friend, who married you, who gave you all those things that he never gave to anyone, that you never got from anyone, is about to die too. When your very future is about to die and it's not enough that you did everything you could for them, it's not... because you know there's always that one thing that you could have done; like not going to the river and just following the road, passing by the school and, most certainly, getting the scent of intruders; like not going to the river and letting yourself be driven by ghosts of the past, by hopes of things that cannot be anymore; like accepting your life the way it is, the way it was.

Now, Yifan doesn't like to cry in front of others, he doesn't want that, looking weak. But here he is, listening to his own heartbeat, he is crying in front of a bunch of strangers in the hospital hall, hopeless and useless. His body is shaking and if someone could read his mind, that person would know that the alfa needs a hug. A hug that won't be enough because he wants one of those hugs that Joonmyeon gives to him in the morning before going to work, those hugs that smell like brown sugar and home. He can't even remember that other hug, that one that he thought he had been waiting for.

He tries to gain some composure because he is with Zitao who is only looking at him and not knowing what the to do. He sits up straight and hears a paper crumple, it's the letter that Mi gave him before leaving. It's dirty and bloody and he takes it out. What is this? 

"...I swear I didn't know of your feelings before that ceremony. I've only learnt about them recently, after a conversation with her mother..." reads one part. "I discovered the reason for many things that I didn't understand about her, about us. I have accepted that she doesn't love me, maybe never will, and that we are not animals. That the human heart can't be trapped by the wolf..." said another. "My last wish, my final decision is that you keep her and let our children have a father...". What? "I know that your feelings for her are alive. You are an alfa and you have the right to take more than one mate..." WHAT?

He can't continue, he closes his eyes, breathes... Mi is giving him Fei, he is saying that he can just have her. He feels like more of a coward now. He should have gone for her years ago, when he became of age, he should've gone there to fight the alfa, do the proper thing, but he didn't do that nor this. Now, it's too late for everything, time won't come back. If Joonmyeon and their baby dies, he won't have anything in his heart, nothing more to give. Why would he want another mate?

All the pain turns into anger. He stands up. Zitao looks at him but doesn't dare to speak. He leaves the hospital.

------------------------------------

Hangeng sniffs the air looking for his mate. A knock on the wood alerts him. He finds the small door on the floor.

"General!" With a loud roar, he opens the door. The screams of the children fill the house, the angry soldier doesn't care and growls some more. He grabs Junhui by the arm and pulls him into a hug; tight, strong, new. "Are you okay?" He asks, desperately sniffing his mate all over, no signs of another wolf.

"Yes, yes..." Junhui answers basking in the attention that he's being given. "Help them." It's Changmin who comes to aid the people in the basement.

"Who are you?!"

"He helped us, Alfa." Junhui answers trying to free himself from his mate. He does. "Come hyung, they won't hurt you." He reaches for the boy and the children.

In the light, they look worse; the kids are too thin, the boy's robes are hanging loosely, all of them are dirty, all of them have bruises and dirty nails. Hyunchul has one lip cut, maybe infected. The kids cling to him in fear and keep on silently crying. Changmin kneels down to talk to them.

"It's okay, we won't hurt you." The little boy nods. He smells like the wolf they just captured. "What's your name?" The child looks up to his father who nods at him.

"Injun..." Changmin smiles at him and pulls his hand out waiting for a hand shake. The child slowly gives him his own hand; small, bony, wounded, dirty.

"Nice to meet you." A growl sounds throughout the house and the kid tries to hide in his father's robe, the other does the same.

"Stay away! They are mine!" The angry wolf screams. Changmin stands up.

"Take him out of here, now!" Then he is back to the kids. "Like I said, it's okay. I won't hurt you and won't let anyone hurt you... Hen Li!" Another guy appears, it's General Choi's son, another doctor. "This is my friend, he is a doctor. He wants to see if you guys are okay." He tells the children. Injun lets go of his father's robe but not the other boy.

"Mika, go with him." The tired voice of the father says. "I'll go with you too." The omega boy wouldn't stop looking up his father.

"Mika? That's a pretty name, right doctor?" Changmin asked Hen Li.

"Yes it is, Alfa, and a pretty little boy too." He said trying to caress the kid's cheek. They were alfa and beta, and it's pretty hard for an omega to resist either of them so he gives into the touch.

"Aww, you are so sweet, come with us. We are gonna check on appa, your brother and uncle Junhui. Where can we go?"

"There's a room upstairs." As they started to move, they noticed a limp on the father, he hardly made it upstairs. Junhui had to help him.

--------------------------

"Can I see your leg?" The doctor asked Injun, the boy showed him, theres a lump under the knee. "Does it hurt?"

"No, Appa cured me." He smiled proudly.

"Injunie hyung... flew... Appa angry." Little Mika explained. The doctor turned to look at the father.

"Appa made Appa cry. Injunie said, 'no Appa!' But he was sooo angry, like this..." he said as he puffed his cheeks and frowned with his knitted eyebrows.

"I see. Appa did a very good job"

"Injunie hyung... was pirate with wooden leg!" Mika was cheering, his brother smiled.

"When we get to the community, I will show you a machine that will show me your bones"

"Really?"

"Yes, and I will show you your leg." Mika gasped.

"Does it hurt?"

"No, it doesn't."

Mika wasn't so wounded unlike his brother but both of them were not properly developed, they might need years of vitamins to even be able to go to school.

"Now, why don't you go with Uncle Junhui so I can check your appa, mhmm?" The kids nodded. "Ask the general for the supplies, there's milk and food. Feed them, please." He ordered. Junhui looked at the boy before leaving.

"Tell him everything they did to you."