Minho was floating in a shimmering river of memories—his, if he wasn’t mistaken. They weren’t his from his time on Earth, but rather clips of the life he’d had as the wolf. A life he, until now, never knew existed.

It was amazing at the same time very strange to be seeing his life as if it wasn’t his own. Minho saw himself as a pup, traipsing through the woods on the heels of a hulking beast he identified as his father. He watched through heavy lidded eyes as that pup grew and grew and grew until he dwarfed his father. He happily out fought and out ran the old wolf with his ever increasing size and strength. He felt a knife pierce his gut when he saw that old dog die two days after his fifteenth moon, his very last act being to nuzzle into the fur of his pup before his final breath rattled around his rib cage.

Minho whimpered pathetically as he watched his life unfold after his dad passed. He had been so scared, so alone. He was barely old enough to be on his own, and he certainly hadn’t been prepared for it. He’d been in danger so many times, nearly lost his life every other day it seemed, but his disheartened self still trudged on. Minho was almost awed when that shivering rat of a wolf finally found it in himself to grow, muscles filling out nicely once he reached his maximum height. He had become quite the intimidating creature. No longer was he afraid, and he prowled the woods with such confidence that only a hand full of wolves had ever dared try to test their luck against his power.

He was still alone though, Minho noticed. Always alone. The wolf never hung around anywhere too long, wandering through numerous mountains, swamps, grasslands, and forests. It wasn’t until his twentieth moon, five years after his father’s passing, that the wolf seemed to find a reason to stick around.

While stalking through a little forest one morning, he stumbled upon a small group of wolves in their human skins bathing in a stream. Two male omegas, one male alpha. They were quite surprised to see him, to say the least. The alpha was quick to jump in front of the bare omegas, growling threateningly at Minho even though he was still in his human form. Minho was sure he could take him, but he was too busy staring in fasciation at the omegas behind him, the lithe one in particular, to give the alpha the time of day.

Minho frowned at this memory, wondering how this mighty beast was so easily floored by a pretty face. But there he was, tail swaying gently behind him as he admired the man’s remarkably violet eyes and rosy lips. The man’s pale skin flushed a lovely shade of pink when he realized he was being ogled, and the instantaneous anger that radiated from the slight man at being eyed like piece of meat had that big monster swooning. The little omega had been spitting death threats at the wolf when the beast decided it was in love. Minho tried to scoff at the absurdity of it all, but felt too drugged to do anything but silently observe.

The last memories Minho saw were of the wolf watching his new found infatuation from a distance, vowing to have his little love one of these days if it was the last thing he did. Minho cringed inwardly at all of the sugar his wolf was evidently made of and wondered for a brief second if he would also love this man as his wolf did when he finally woke up.

Seemingly wanting to find out itself, fate suddenly released its hold on Minho. Leaving the stream of his wolf’s past felt almost like breaking through a barrier of water as he was left to free fall to the ground below. Minho’s body remained limp, his sleepy eyes unimpressed by the ground that he was quickly approaching. Minho didn’t even squeak when he hit the ground head first. He just… woke up.

~~~

Minho hadn’t known how he would come to in his new world, but he certainly hadn’t thought it would be something of an event. He was able to smell the beings around him before he actually saw them, and he quickly concluded with a disgusted scrunch of his sensitive nose that they had an aroma akin to the warthog pit at the zoo.

Blinking the black from his eyes, Minho first saw the shininess of silver manacles biting into the skin of his wrists. His eyes weren’t so trained in the art of metal analysis that he could determine such a detail at first glance, or even the second, but the wolf had mentioned in his dream that the story of werewolves came to Earth through a time lapse in their different dimensions. It was only logical to assume that the restraints were silver if the burning flesh of his wrists were any indication.

Dragging his eyes away from the angry red meat being stripped cell-by-cell, Minho looked up into the multicolored irises of his unhygienic captors. His eyes were unpleasantly surprised to find that they all looked just about as good as they smelled.  Many had hair so filthy they were turning into poorly kept dreads, and it was quite possible that a bird had literally laid a nest in some of them. Beards were tangled and littered with particles of food, leaves, twigs, and a rusty looking crust. They were covered in dirt, grime, and, dear God, a few even looked slimy.

Shuddering in disgust, Minho leaned his head away from them in a rather futile attempt to escape their decaying scent. If they didn’t kill him, their putrid bodies surely would.

“Look!” A particularly revolting looking man with crazy gold eyes cackled much too loudly. His teeth were severely yellowed and crooked. “The mere sight of us makes him cower. Such a smart boy!”

The entire congregation of maybe fifty or so men and women agreed with hearty laughs, releasing green bits of phlegm in the general direction of Minho and, dear Jesus, he all but screamed when some of it almost landed on him.

“Hardly,” Minho hissed, breathing through his mouth because he couldn’t stand the stench any longer. “I just can’t take whatever it is you all are reeking of. My God, did you guys roll in a pile a carcasses?”

Now that shut them up. Laughs were replaced by affronted glares, but Minho only glared back. You didn’t get to smell like a rotting body and also take offence when someone mention it. He just woke up and their moldy clothes were giving him a headache. He reserved the right to be cranky, not them.

“Your muzzle sure are loose for someone in your position,” the yellow-eyed man spat through those treacherously crooked snaggleteeth.

Glancing back at his wrists, Minho felt a powerful rise in his chest. Shifting just beneath his olive skin was his wolf, proud and ready for a challenge.

Silver is but an irritation to our superior strength, the wolf said with more matter-oh-fact-ness than cockiness. Rip these binds from our wrists and see their bravado for what it really is.

Minho didn’t see a good reason to endure the agitation any longer, so he dug his newly formed claws (his fingernails were no longer blunt and short, but now rather long and sharp) between the metal and his skin, and ripped the shackle hugging his left wrist clean off. He halted momentarily to stare in awe at what he’d just done before he was clawing at the other shackle, shattering it just as easy as the first. Rubbing his slightly raw wrists, Minho marveled at how they were already healing before his very eyes. Minho smirked in the faces of his bewildered audience. Take that, you filthy packrats.

“H-How is that possible?” A women screeched, pointing a finger at Minho accusingly. “He must be some sort of freakish mutations!”

“Hey!” Minho frowned, pushing to his feet. “That’s totally an uncool thing to say. Didn’t your umma teach you manners?”

Looking warily at him, they all spoke of his weird speech and how it must be the result of brain damage. They weren’t lacking in the drama department, so at least that was something.

“Well I, for one, think he’s quite fascinating,” a voice suddenly piped up, attracting Minho’s full attention. A man a bit shorter than him with a pretty face but a strong air of power radiating from his lithe frame made his way through the crowd to get closer to Minho. It wasn’t hard to recognize him as the man that the wolf had nearly squared off with over an omega.  Bright emerald eyes settled under coal black hair inspected him intently, and Minho nearly sobbed in relief when this man turned out to be exponentially cleaner than his acquaintances. His hair was well kept, his teeth we so much cleaner than everyone else’s, and Minho would even dare to say that he smelled pleasant.    

“Such icy blue eyes,” the man mused with a chuckle. “An uncommon color nowadays.”

Minho nearly interjected with an, “Uh, my eyes are brown,” but swallowed the statement when he recalled how blue the wolf’s eyes had been in his dream. Were his eyes now blue as well?

“My name is Taemin,” he introduced himself with a small inclination of his head. “And what may we call you?”

“Minho,” he mumbled, looking over Taemin’s shoulders at the rank- ers behind him. They were crowding in closer, an action his nose did not appreciate at all.

“Minho,” Taemin repeated, rolling it over his tongue as if he were tasting it. “Well then, Minho, would you like to come with us to meet our alpha? If he likes you he may let you join the pack.”

Things were certainly happening fast, too fast for him to really wrap his head around, but that’s how it was in the wild, wasn’t it? Like a newborn wildebeest, he needed to pop and walk if he had any chance of living.

Minho, the wolf said softly in his head. It will take time for you to learn how to control my half of you, and, in the meantime, we will be very vulnerable. Be wary of these wolves—most of them are… sickening people.

Considering his wolf’s warning thoughtfully—he woke up shackled so there was definitely truth to his words—Minho accepted Taemin’s offer. 

“I don’t have anywhere else to go,” Minho shrugged nonchalantly. “May as well.”

Taemin regarded Minho with his prudent orbs before spinning on his heel and leading Minho through the throng of nauseating people. They followed behind rather cautiously, staying a good fifteen feet back from Minho and Taemin.

“You seem so careless,” Taemin said, looking straight ahead at the vast amount of trees as he spoke. “Talking so freely, trailing beside me as if you aren’t potentially walking into a trap. Why so courageous?”

Snorting, Minho looked at his feet, noticing his legs were still clad in his sleepwear from Earth.

“I’m not courageous,” he said to the ground. “I’m just don’t want to die today.”

“Yet you insulted the others so bravely.”

“There is a big difference between being brave and being stupidly critical.”

Giving Minho a weird look, Taemin just shook his head at him.

“Even now you appear to be fearless. I don’t believe you’re giving yourself enough credit.”

“I am scared,” Minho whispered in hopes that the others wouldn’t hear. “But I have bigger problems than being afraid.”

“Mm, with mating season coming up, I suppose all of us do,” Taemin sighed solemnly.

There it was again. Mating season. The wolf had mention it as well, and it was starting to itch in Minho’s mind.

“What’s the big deal with mating season, anyway?” Minho inquired.

It was almost humorous how scandalized Taemin looked. Minho may as well have just out a purple egg with the face Taemin was giving him. 

“What’s the deal? Survival! Continuing the bloodline!” Taemin said with dramatic conviction. “Protecting the ones you care for from a horrid future,” Taemin tacked on softly, snapping his eyes to the path in front of them again.

“But why do I care?”

“You’re an alpha!” Taemin exclaimed as if that made everything clear. “Your job is to win an omega and start a family to sustain our species.”

Was it just Minho, or did something about that statement sound a little off?

 “What do you mean win an omega?”

“You’ve never left your den, have you?” Taemin huffed.

“That does not answer my question.”

“I mean exactly what I said,” Taemin rolled his eyes. “Omegas are needed, but also scarce. There isn’t enough to go around, so alphas must fight for the right to breed them. The alpha who rises up as the strongest gets his pick of the omegas, and then the next strongest, and the next strongest until no more omegas remain.”

Even with his wolf’s memories gradually surfacing in his brain, the concept of winning other people seemed so primal to Minho. They spoke like humans, they quaked like humans, but on the inside… well, Minho had the feeling that they were quite a bit different. Minho didn’t know if he would ever be able to fully understand this world.

“That’s kind of barbaric, don’t you think?” Minho asked offhandedly, shocking Taemin. “What happens if the omega refuses? What about, I don’t know, love and all that sappy bull?”

“The omega cannot refuse,” Taemin muttered with a pained expression. “They are, by all rights, property of the alpha who has chosen them. And I’m not sure I’ve ever heard the word ‘love’ before.”

Love is a human concept, Minho. It was a construct created to glorify ‘mate’ as humans aren’t too enthralled by the idea of being an animal. It is not a known idea here, nor would it be significant if it was.   

“It’s… it’s nothing,” Minho sighed, not about to go into a speech about the many meanings of love. “But do I really have to compete for someone?”

“You’re an alpha. You can do whatever you want.”

Ah. Minho supposed he should be grateful that he wasn’t an omega, but being an alpha almost left him feeling just as sour inside. 

“May I suggest that, since you seem so concerned with the wellbeing’s of the omegas,” Taemin continued, pushing tree branches out of the way and ignoring the shrubbery scratching up his legs. “That you do attempt to win one? It seems like a noble decision to make.”

“How is snatching a person’s right to choose in any way noble?”

“You win by—” Taemin began but was cut short by raucous laughter and cheers. Minho could almost see Taemin’s ears perk forward as he zeroed in on the source.

In all the weirdness of their conversation, Minho hadn’t even noticed that the trees had thinned considerably and they were approaching a large village situated at the bottom of the tall hill they were on. Minho could make out a circled crowd in the center from their viewpoint. Just what we needed: more dirty people. The group that had been keeping their distance got excited and ran past Minho and Taemin to join in on whatever was happening. If only their putrid sent hadn’t wafted up Minho’s nose.   

“What’s going on?” Minho asked Taemin, but the other alpha had stopped in his tracks to better squint down the hill and make out the scene. Minho nearly jumped out of his skin when a ferocious snarl sounded all the way up to them from the village. Taemin, on the other hand, wasted no time tearing down the hill as soon as the sound touched his ears.

Stumbling to catch up, Minho tried to ask Taemin what was wrong, but the boy just kept pushing his legs to go faster. Minho could be wrong, but he was almost positive that Taemin’s otherwise pretty face had morphed into an ugly visage of unadulterated rage.

They made it to the crowd in no time, Taemin shoving through the throng of bodies to get to the center. Minho followed closely behind, barely dogging the bodies Taemin knocked to the ground in his quest to get to the middle of the crowd.

Finally breaking free, Minho was able to see what was happening, and it was definitely something he wished he hadn’t. 

At the center of attention was five people: two men and three women. The wolf in Minho started to panic when he identified Kibum as one of the men being harassed, throwing his human counterpart’s emotions into chaos as well. The elder four, looking to all be in their late early twenties, were snarling and snapping at all the different hands reaching for them, hands that were ripping at clothes and touching places they shouldn’t. The youngest, a little girl who couldn’t have been any older than thirteen, was sobbing from her place in their protective circle.  

The other man, the shorter of the two with incredibly large violet eyes, was trying desperately to yank a hand away from his crotch without letting anyone touch the girl when Taemin barreled into his attacker with a feral sound cracking from his throat. Taemin took the man out in two seconds flat and was positioned in a defensive stance to protect the short male from the wolves still coming at him.  

What disturbed Minho the most wasn’t the fact these people were essentially getting gang-banged. What was truly terrifying was that Taemin was literally the only one trying to help them. The rest of the crowd was cackling away and yelling things of encouragement to the people trying to molest the poor omegas in the middle.

All of a sudden a sobbed shriek vibrated harshly in Minho’s ears and he watched in horror as the little girl was torn away from her protectors and thrown into the hands of two very large, very lecherous looking middle-aged men. Kibum tried to retrieve her but was knocked to the ground easily by the two men grabbing on to her body.

Minho hadn’t even realized he was charging forward until he was already right in front of the men. It wasn’t the smartest move, but Minho couldn’t stop himself. On top of lacking the capacity to watch a little girl get , Minho was also instinctually inclined to protect Kibum from any kind of danger.

He couldn’t shift, not yet, so he did the next best thing and socked one of the men right in the jaw. The man went flying backwards like a ragdoll and Minho used the small window of confusion to rip the tiny girl from the man still trying to figure out where the hell his buddy had gone. Minho had both the little girl and Kibum, who had just gotten to his feet, in his arms, holding on for dear life because no one was just going to watch a foreign man take their omegas.

Minho didn’t need enhanced senses to know that people were coming at him from behind. It was all written on Kibum’s eyes, which had a clear view over Minho’s shoulder.

Pain. Never before had Minho felt such an excruciating sense of pain. It was a burning, ripping pain that sliced down his back as someone dug their claws into the meat on Minho’s dorsal side and cut the flesh like a poorly trained butcher. Minho screamed in complete and utter agony, feeling thick, sticky blood spill down his back to make a pool on the ground. He didn’t let the omegas go, though. He wouldn’t. Not even when they started tearing red stained chunks from his arms.

“What are you doing?” Kibum hissed, eyes wide and scared. “Who are you?”

Minho was having a hard time breathing, so all he could really do was look at Kibum. It seemed to be enough, though.

“You!” Kibum gasped, recognizing the unnatural blue and silver of Minho’s eyes. “You’re the one who’s been trailing me for the past two moons. You are not pack! You mustn’t get involved.”

Was he really going to try and have this discussion now? Minho was literally claws deep into this mess, he couldn’t just walk the out of it.

“Shut up,” Minho wheezed through his suffering. “Don’t be ungrateful… when I’m bleeding out for you.”

Things were getting hazy now. The blood loss was finally getting to him. If something didn’t happen soon, Minho was sure he would bleed out in front of all these strangers. Kind of embarrassing, really.

As his the universe itself was listening, Minho felt claws retract from his back and the incessant pulling stop. He was allowed the opportunity to fall against Kibum as dead wait, panting into his shoulder and being no help at keeping himself up.

Someone was talking. It was loud and commanding, but Minho couldn’t hear it all too well. He couldn’t see much either anymore if he was being honest. Or smell anything. Or feel anything…

This really had been one hell of a day. One hell of an hour, if you wanted to be technical. Any day that ended in collapsing in less than an hour after waking up couldn’t be called anything less.   

A/N: Guess who, even after more than a whole ing year, has every intention of finishing this story? It has been nearly a year and a half since I posted the prolouge, but I'm still going to finsih it. Hopefully it doesn't take another year and a half to post the next chapter :P Good thing this story is going to be a max of five chapters if things go as planned(more like three with a prolouge and epilouge).

A 'moon' is equivelent to a year in this story. I'm going to call a month a 'moon cycle,' so don't get confused.

Thanks for reading. And thank you to anyone who is still here for this story after such a long time XD