Chapter 37

“What’s going on?” asked Kris.

“He attacked Sehun!” Kai practically shouting, jabbing a finger in Lay’s direction. Lay, who was still on the ground, gave no reaction.

Kris raised his eyebrows but gave no other obvious reaction. “He wouldn’t do that.”

“We saw him!” Kai exploding. He took a step forward but Suho’s hand on his chest made him pause.

“Kai, take Sehun home.”

“But-“

“Now.”

Kai’s lips pressed together tightly and he glared at Lay for a moment before turning to help Sehun up. Despite the tension still visible in his body he touched the maknae with gentleness and helped him to his feet. Sehun’s eyes were watery and his cheeks bright red.

“W-wait…” he said softly. Suho turned to him and his expression softened.

“It’s ok,” he said gently, almost too softly for the other pack to hear, “we’ll talk about it at home.”

“B-but…” He looked over at Lay but he was mostly obscured by the bodies of his pack members gathered around him. Kai managed to move him a few steps towards the door, leading him like he was in a trance.

Suho turned back to Kris, arms folded over his chest. “Well, what are you going to do with him?”

Kris growled. He didn’t like the way the other alpha was talkin to him. “I’m not going to do anything,” he said through gritted teeth, “until someone explains to me exactly what happened here.”

“What happened,” Suho replied with equal force, “was that we just walked in on him” – he jerked his head in Lay’s direction – “standing over our maknae with his pants down.”

Kris couldn’t hide his surprise. When they said attacked he had thought that Sehun and Lay had started the fight, however unlikely that seemed. He turned to look at the shamefaced Lay who was staring hard at the floor.

“You just better make sure he stays away from Sehun.”

Kris ignored him and turned to Chen instead. “Chen?”

He looked up in surprise.

“Did you see what happened?”

Chen nodded nervously.

“Tell me.”

He swallowed uncertainly. He didn’t really want to say what he had seen out loud. Lay and Sehun seemed embarrassed enough. “I… um…” He glanced up at Sehun who had stopped in the doorway, Kai’s hand still on his elbow ready to lead him away.

“Well, when Kai opened the door they were… I mean, they h-had just finished…” His voice dropped almost to a whisper. “Having .”

A muscle twitched in Kris’s jaw. He turned to Lay. “Is that true?”

It took Lay a couple of seconds to realise Kris was waiting for his reply. He nodded shamefully, keeping his head down. So many parts of his body ached but his heart worst of all. He didn’t want to see Sehun’s expression. He would let him pretend it was all his idea if he wanted, if it would protect him from Suho’s anger. He didn’t want to see Sehun get in trouble.

“How do you know Sehun didn’t want to have with him?” Kris asked the other leader.

Suho’s eyes flashed red. “We don’t have outside of our pack,” he said tightly. “Your wolves aren’t supposed to either. Sehun wouldn’t betray us.”

Xiumin and Luhan exchanged a panicked look that Xiumin was the first to break. He curled his hands into fists to hide their sudden trembling. If anyone had bothered to pay Luhan much attention at that moment they would have noticed something strange in his expression as he looked so longingly at his lover but luckily for him no one did. Everyone was focused on the two alphas and the way the air almost seemed to crackle between them.

“You’re accusing my pack member of something very serious,” said Kris in a dangerously low voice.

Suho took a step forward not scared at all to have Kris towering over him. “You just keep that filthy mutt away from him.”

Tao gave a warning growl. He was just half a step behind Kris and ready to attack the other leader at a moment’s notice. Chen looked around in panic. He could feel his body trembling, the wolf inside him scratching to get out again. He pushed it down as blood rushed in his ears.

“S-Suho…” Sehun, now looking a little less like he was about to burst into tears, was hovering in the doorway. Kai had moved in front of him protectively as soon as Tao had growled.

“Kai, take him home,” Suho repeated tightly.

Kai tried to take a hold of him again but Sehun shook his hand off. “Wait, it’s not his fault!”

All eyes were on him in a second and he stuttered under the sudden attention as he admitted, “I-I wanted him to.”

The atmosphere started to change. Relief swept over Kris’s pack members and Lay finally looked up. He caught sight of Sehun and gave him a shaky smile that the maknae didn’t even notice.

“You wanted…” Suho trailed off, confused.

“I’m sorry.”

The leader regained himself in a second. He squared his shoulders and said as calmly and firmly as he could manage, “Go home. We’ll talk about it there.”

“Yes, Suho.” Sehun hung his head and finally let a still shocked looking Kai him out.

“Keep him away from my maknae,” said Suho as he turned to follow them out. “In fact, I don’t want any of your pack near any of mine from now on.”

Chen looked back and forth between them with wide eyes. How was that supposed to work when he lived with Baekhyun and Chanyeol? Maybe they would hate him now because of what Lay had done. Luhan and Xiumin shared a terrified look too. Suddenly their situation had just become that much worse.

“Works fine for me,” Kris agreed. He glared at Suho as he walked away and then finally turned to Lay. He missed Xiumin turning to mouth, ‘I’m sorry’ at Luhan and the way Luhan stared desperately after him with his wide, Bambi eyes that made Xiumin want to run back and wrap his arms around him tightly.

As soon as the other pack were gone, Kris turned around, grabbed Lay by the arms and pulled him to his feet. Lay gave a little squeak of pain as his fingers obviously dug into an injury.

“What the hell did you think you were doing?” Kris hissed just in case the Exo pack could still hear.

“I’m sorry,” said Lay.

“How long has this been going on? Since you started tutoring him, or was that just an excuse?”

“N-no, it’s not like that. It just happened.”

“Did you even think about what I told you? Do my rules mean anything to you?” Kris shook him roughly and Lay screwed his eyes shut. He yelped when Kris pushed him back against the wall hard and the rest of the pack flinched.

“How could you do this to us?” His voice was rising now. “You’ve been lying to us and sneaking around behind our backs for weeks for some little puppy that doesn’t even know what he’s doing.”

Lay bit his bottom lip while Luhan gave Chen a panicked look. Chen ignored him. He wasn’t about to out Luhan’s relationship when Lay’s was busy causing so much trouble.

“I-I love him though,” said Lay.

“God damn it!” Kris slammed his hand against the wall by Lay’s head and made him jump.

“You should stop him,” Tao whispered urgently in Chen’s ear. He started in surprise and turned to him with wide eyes.

“Me?”

“You’re his mate,” Tao urged, giving him a little nudge, “he’ll listen to you. Trust me.”

Swallowing tightly, Chen stepped forward. “K-Kris?”

He reached up to wrap his hands gently around his boyfriend’s arm. He felt his muscles relax a little. “Please stop,” he whispered. “You’re hurting him.”

With a little growl Kris released Lay. He was still glaring at him as he said, “Tao, get my things and meet us back at home.”  Tao hurried to do as he was told. “Luhan, take Lay. We’ll catch up with you.”

Luhan reached out for his pack mate and shepherded him away with a gentle arm around his shoulders. Kris stood still, staring at nothing until they were gone. Chen shifted away, wondering if he had annoyed him even more by intervening.

Suddenly Kris sighed and turned to face him. His expression was defeated and worn out. “Chen?” he said cupping his face gently in his large hands. His boyfriend gave him a little smile.

“Are you ok? I know that was the first time you’ve shifted in a long time.”

Chen shrugged even though he still felt shaky. “I’m fine”

Kris kissed him and then wrapped him in a warm embrace. “Thank you.”

“For what?” he asked with a half laugh.

“For defending your pack mate, even if he did screw up.”

“But I didn’t know what I was doing,” Chen whispered against his shoulder. “I lost control.”

“That’s ok.” Kris kissed his head. “We can work on that now that you’re shifting again. I’ll take care of you.”

Chen squeezed Kris around the waist and felt some of the tension leave him. It felt like the cracks were showing in Kris’s pack but at least their relationship was more solid.

“Don’t be too hard on Lay,” said Chen. He leant back to look up at Kris imploringly. “You can’t help who you fall in love with.”

Kris sighed. “You really think they’re in love?”

“Would he risk his pack if they weren’t?”

Kris seemed to think about it for a minute and then leant in to hug Chen again. “I guess not. I just wish he could have trusted me instead of lying to us like this.”

Chen his back soothingly and kissed his cheek. “I know, baby.”

Taking a deep breath Kris straightened up and, with his arm still around Chen, they left together to deal with the fallout from Lay and Sehun’s illicit relationship.

This part took a little while to get done. What do you think?