Chapter 10. Minseok's Darkness

Luhan sat silently at the breakfast table and Minseok patted his back comfortingly, the others were all busy with making plans and only Lay sat with them at the table, "you guys are mates now?" Lay eyed the bite mark on Minseok's neck.

Minseok blushed and covered it with his hand, "y... yeah," he stuttered.

Lay smiled warmly, "good for you, but you may want to hide it from the others, at least until we find Kris."

Luhan winced as he heard the name and Lay looked at him apologetically, Minseok squeezed his hand and Luhan relaxed slightly. "... We'll find him, I promise," Lay smiled softly.

"I'm gonna get some fresh air," Minseok sighed.

Lay nodded and Minseok walked away from the others, he grabbed Luhan's hoodie and pulled it over himself protectively. He stepped out of the house and wandered across the icy terrain, the Tree of Life was slowly gaining back its territory, Minseok smiled and looked up at the clear blue sky. He hadn't told the others, but he too was once part of a pack, Minseok knew it was time he remembered...

"Minseok? That's your name right?" The alpha female grinned.

He growled as she purred his name and she smirked, "you're a fighter then?"

Minseok stayed silent, "you don't talk much either," she sneered, "now tell me... why are your fur and eyes so irregular?"

Minseok bared his teeth at her and she became impatient, "tell me what you are!"

"I am what makes your weak heart beat, I am what allows the trees and plants to grow, I am what your pack call the Great Snow Wolf" he growled.

The alpha female paused, "you? The Snow Angel? But you're an omega, I can sense it."

"I may be an omega but I could easily take down an entire pack of alphas," Minseok spat.

"Then how did my pack capture you so easily?" She laughed mockingly.

"because they are innocents, if I wanted to, I could break out of here, but you foolish wolves don't deserve to witness my divine powers," Minseok grinned.

"you're just making stories up, if you truly are the angel, then where are your wings?" The alpha female paced around the room as she observed him.

Minseok's eyes darted nervously, "I... I don't have wings."

"Then you can't be the great snow wolf of legend, fool," she smirked. "Take him down to the others, they can decide what do do with him," she spoke to a guard beside the door.

The wolf roughly grabbed Minseok but he did not resist for fear of losing control of his power, he was carried through the long abandoned castle, that served as her pack's home, until he was flung to the ground. He saw a brown furred wolf standing over him, "what's your name?" He asked.

"Minseok," he growled as he pushed himself off the ground..

"I'm Key, nice to meet you," he smiled, "I'm gonna show you around."

"I'm not staying, trust me," Minseok huffed.

"Amber threw you down here, so that means you have to join our pack," Key shrugged.

"I'm not going to join some random pack that I just happen to have been captured by!" He growled.

Key sighed, "what's your status?"

Minseok groaned, "I'm an omega."

"Really? You don't look like one, you look more like an alpha, and your fur and eyes are so... powerful looking," Key tilted his head.

"trust me, I'm a lot stronger than you think I am, even if I am an omega," Minseok stood up to his full height.

Unlike his human form, his wolf height was far taller than most other wolves, his human height was much smaller that many of the other humans. Key was very small standing beside Minseok and his jaw hung down slightly, "are you sure you're an omega?"

Minseok nodded and Key shrugged, "follow me, and I'll show you the layout, you can meet the others too!"

Minseok lifted his hand to the sky and created a light snowfall, he held a snowflake in his palm and pressed it gently against his heart, he felt his pulse and smiled softly. "Just let me keep going for a little longer, Luhan needs me..." he whispered.

The wind whistled and picked up slightly, "hyung..." a frail voice spoke behind him.

Minseok turned around and saw Sehun with tears streaming down his face, "is... is what Lay said true?" He whimpered.

Minseok sighed sadly and hugged Sehun, holding him close, "hyung... your heartbeat... it's so weak..."

Sehun clung to Minseok and he his hair gently, "don't worry about me Sehunnie, go and take care of the others for me, yeah?"

Sehun shook his head and held on tighter, "no! I need to make sure you're okay!"

Minseok chuckled, "please? I'll be fine, I'm pretty tough for an old man!"

Sehun laughed and wiped away his tears, "okay then, just don't do anything stupid."

He watched as Sehun walked back to the house, he felt something dampening his face and realised that a single tear was rolling down his cheek before falling onto his hand and freezing. He was crying.

Key walked into his friend's room and saw that Minseok was wide awake and staring up at the stars, it had been almost a year since he had joined their pack and was well respected, but Key had noticed that Minseok never seemed to get a wink of sleep. "Minseok?..." he whispered.

"Key!?" he jumped.

"Sorry if I suprised you," Key giggled, "what are you doing?"

Minseok paused, "I'm... thinking about someone."

"someone? You actually like someone? Who is she?" He perked up and sat beside Minseok.

"His name is Luhan," Minseok sighed.

"Oh, a boy then? I'm cool with that," he smiled, "is he thinking of you?"

"... he won't remember me... his memory was taken after our pack discovered that we were mates... he got turned human, because of me..." Minseok's eyes grew watery.

Key patted his back reassuringly, "if you two are truly meant to be, then the elementals will find a way to bring you back together."

Minseok smiled weakly, "you think so?"

Key grinned, "I know so..."

Minseok looked up at the blue sky, "why? Tell me why you brought him back to me?"

No reply came to him, "tell me why you brought him back now? When our love will be impossible!" He yelled.

Tears were streaming endlessly down his face, "tell me why! Tell me why!" He sobbed.

Minseok fell onto his knees, "tell me..." he breathed.

The snow grew heavier and blanketed the ground, the sky had turned grey quickly and any inch of blue had been blotted out, "why did you choose me?..." Minseok whispered, "and why did you choose him?..."

Minseok felt a powerful pain in his chest and sighed, his ancient powers were growing weaker as he had not used it in many years. It was time to use them once more, he needed answers...

Key gripped Minseok's hand tightly and dragged him through the castle, "we're under attack!" He yelled.

The other wolves in the pack heard and Minho ran up to them, "are you sure Key? Who's attacking?"

"... Dragons," Key growled.

"But... there's no way we could land a hit on them!" Minho had fear visible in his eyes.

Minseok clenched his fists, "I could..." he spoke quietly.

Minho looked over at him, "no wolf can out match a dragon Minseok."

"Just, get as many wolves as you can to shelter, I... I don't want to hurt any of you..." Minseok charged away from them.

"Where are you going?! Are you crazy?!" Key yelled after him.

Minho grabbed Key's hand and led him away and into the darkest reaches of the castle, gathering wolves as they went, "he knows what he's doing, he isn't what everyone thinks he is," Minho sighed.

Minseok ran out of the safety of the castle walls and his eyes widened when he saw the huge amount of dragons circling them in the sky, Amber was battling with an all too familiar dragon that was laughing at her desperate attempts to claw away his armour of shadow purple scales. He lashed out his tail and sent her flying until she hit the stone wall, his attention was directed to Minseok now, "ah! It has been a long time Life Breather! How have you been?" He grinned.

"Why do you care Orochi?" Minseok sneered.

Orochi chuckled, "why does it sound so much better when you say it?"

Minseok growled, "you'll never be as powerful as your father, even if you share the same name."

"But you forget Minseok," he laughed, "it's your father's name too."

"Leave Orochi, you have no place here!" Minseok held back his rage.

"But brother, I have great power, you and I could rule over the wolves and dragons," he smirked.

"I am not your brother! We may have the same father but our mothers were different," Minseok roared.

"and now they are both dead... we share the loss of our parents, our blood," Orochi sighed.

Minseok paused as he saw genuine hurt in his half brother's eyes, "that dosen't mean you can kill innocents!" He gave him a saddened look.

"This land was once our father's, I have come to reclaim it," Orochi sneered.

Minseok felt power coarsing through his veins, "I have the blood of a dragon and the blood of a wolf, but I was given a gift from our father that he found you unworthy of, I will show it to you now..."

Minseok felt the familiar feeling of ice stinging his skin and its chill coarsing through his veins, his white fur had glowing markings on it of each element that existed, the 12 great forces that kept the worlds alive. His right eye was golden, like his mother's and Xiumin's, and his left eye was completely dark with a magma texture in it like his father's. "What is this!?" Orochi roared.

Minseok felt the great power seep into his shoulders and an intense pain pushed him to the ground as two bones began to grow rapidly out of his back, the right one grew pure white feathers and developed into a huge angelic wing with icy blue tones at the end of each feather. The left one created a bony, skeletal structure with muscles attached to each bone, dark purple scales grew over the bones and muscle. Then, a thick, crimson, leathery wing membrane grew and formed a draconic wing on his left. Minseok's voice had become deep and powerful, "you have failed to become as strong as your brother Orochi," he grinned menacingly.

Orochi hissed and swiped at Minseok, but was swiftly dodged, "how about we take this batttle to the air?" Minseok chuckled.

Orochi watched as his brother spread his wings and took off into the sky, he followed quickly in pusuit. Minseok had vanished in the clouds and Orochi flew around looking for him, "come out coward!" He growled.

Something shot past him and cut a huge gash through his scales, he roared with pain and scanned the area around him furiously. He spotted Minseok and flew towards him, the two locked claws and cut each others flesh without letting go of each other. Minseok swung Orochi away from him and flew up into the sky, he positioned himself in front of the sun so that the dragon couldn't see him. He tucked his wings around himself and fell down upon Orochi, opening his wings at the last second and he caught the dragon off guard. The two plummeted to the ground, Minseok had Orochi below him and gripped his neck as they fell, on contact with the ground, Orochi was crushed and broke Minseok's fall. 

Amber stared at him with fear and desperately tried to escape back into the castle before being pinned down by Minseok, "you're a monster!" She growled before he broke her neck and silenced her.

That day, any wolf or dragon who was not taken into shelter was brutally massacred by Minseok, and the last wolf he killed spoke to him with words that haunted him forever.

"I thought you were supposed to give life, not take it!...

The Tree of Life chose wrong, you should have been chosen by the Tree of Death!

You can kill me now, but when you die, I wan't it to be in the worst possible way!..."

Minseok flew up into the sky, his ancient power was trying to overcome him but he thought of Luhan and how his heart beat so fast when he was near, he thought of how the doe eyed boy looked after him and wanted to protect him. It was a comfort to himself, and he thought that maybe...

Luhan could help him destroy his darkness once and for all.

Minseok smiled and looked at the sun, its blinding light shone down on him and he thought of how its beauty was easily outmatched by his mate.

By Luhan,

Minseok's solution to everything...

A/N  We hit 1000 reads... *dances like a boss*

THANK YOU SO MUCH! I really appreciate everyone who has read my story so far, thank you. I will hopefully update of the 25th as a christmas gift from me to you guys. Thank you again :)

EXOdarkwolf