Sehun completely blanched at the words spoken by Hyunseung. He remembered what had happened the last time and he did not wish to repeat something like that. His wounds on the skin of his back were healed but the pink jagged scars were still in place.

He sealed his lips tightly, trying hard not to let any sound pass through them and showing the alpha in front of him that he would not let himself be intimidated by the wolf. He really thought that he wasn’t being too successful on that aspect, he was positive that the fear was showing on his eyes, that it was almost palpable, but he kept tightening his lips, even if it was just to prove he would be hard to break.

Hyunseung smirked at the beta, sharp teeth making an appearance and turning the overall image that much more frightening. He opened the cage where Sehun was staying and yanked the male forward, freeing him from the chains with such brutality that he actually hurt Sehun, who forced himself not to scream.

Chanyeol’s eyes were incandescent with rage, shinning in every possible and imaginable color, angry at the mistreatment that Sehun was being subjected to: no person should be treated like this and least of all, Sehun, who was actually something that he supposed he could call friend.

The noise seemed to have some effect on Baekhyun who stirred on the floor, where he was lying unconscious. He let out a small sound, barely even noticeable if not for the enhanced hearing of the wolves.

Hyunseung moved his head to look at the berserker, trying to see if the other had gained consciousness before smirking a little in Sehun and Chanyeol’s direction when he noticed that he hadn’t.

“Seems that your friend is out for the count at the moment! He will be awake soon, either by himself or with a little help, don’t you worry.”

With a erse smile on his lips, he pulled Sehun’s hair and tried to grab the young beta out of his prison cell by dragging him.

The young beta resisted, of course he would, since he didn’t really want to repeat the beating that Hyunseung laid upon him. Despite the strength that he was doing by forcing his feet into the ground, Sehun couldn’t help but to be pulled by the other’s obvious strength.

Chanyeol watched, from the corner of his eyes, Baekhyun responding to the small pained sounds that Sehun was desperately trying to contain. He could see him moving slightly as if he was waking up from sleep, drowsily and sluggishly, which was something that only him seemed to be noticed.

He had never had a confirmation, but Chanyeol sincerely thought that Baekhyun might’ve been courting Sehun or something. All of his life, he saw how detached his brother seemed to be of any relation that wasn’t between himself or Jongin and now seeing him act like this? So very soft and protective of the male? Baekhyun had to be attracted to Sehun and with serious intentions of claiming the beta as his mate. It was only more obvious now, as he saw Baekhyun respond to Sehun’s pain and distress even in his unconscious state.

Chanyeol didn’t notice that he had completely averted his eyes from Sehun when he heard a loud smack fill the air, making him turn his eyes back on the beta to see him covering his nose with his hands, blood oozing from between his fingers, while he tried desperately not to make any sound.

“Oh did I break your nose when I let you fall?” asked Hyunseung in a sweet tone that didn’t do anything to disguise the malice in his voice. “Sorry!”

The alpha, not happy enough with breaking Sehun’s nose, or at least damaging it enough, grabbed the younger by his neck, allowing his claws to pierce the skin.

This time Sehun couldn’t help but to yelp in pain, feeling as the sharp nails dug themselves into the soft flesh of his neck, no doubt puncturing the skin and leaving it bleeding.

Chanyeol was angry and allowed himself to growl at the other male, letting him know that if he would get his hands on him, there would be hell to pay. However, his growls were completely muffled by another set of growls.

He looked over to his brother, seeing his multicolored eyes opened and looking at the scene before him, completely irate, growling in such a deep way that Chanyeol swore he felt the vibrations beneath his skin.

Hyunseung didn’t notice Baekhyun opening his eyes, much less the sitting position that the male adopted, he was absolutely immersed in hurting Sehun, who let out a gasp when he felt the claws sinking in deeper.

The younger man tried to fight Hyunseung; he moved and sunk his fingers on the other’s hands, trying to remove himself from the alpha’s grasp. It hurt and, while he rationally thought that it would do more damage than not, the pain began to be too much for him to bear.

Hyunseung felt the beta’s nails, which weren’t even morphing into claw shape, digging into the back of his hands and, feeling particularly petty and in a mood to make Sehun’s life a living hell, he pushed Sehun’s head, once more into the floor, finally making the beta let out a howl of pain, little tear gathering at the corners of his eyes and white noise ringing on his ears very loudly.

“You little !” gritted out Hyunseung, looking at the marks on the back of his hand: little crescents formed by Sehun’s neatly trimmed nails. “I should’ve…”

He abruptly stopped when he heard the loud noise that begun inundating the small basement like space where he had imprisoned the three wolves. It was loud, really loud and his head turned from side to side, trying to figure out the source of the sound since it seemed to come from every way, reverberating from the wall an enrapturing him the sound.

It didn’t take him a lot of time to understand that the sound came from Baekhyun’s sitting form. It was impossible not to, the man’s presence was suddenly suffocating, seemingly larger than life and Baekhyun wasn’t even a very tall person, he was the shortest of the four of them actually, but the he seemed so intimidating that Hyunseung let go of Sehun, suddenly shocked by the now conscious male sudden dominant attitude.

Chanyeol was observing quietly, not even fazed by the unsuspecting situation. He admitted that he was a little shocked at seeing his brother literally rise from the figurative dead and just being so intense. He was fully into berserker mode, that much Chanyeol knew, what he didn’t expect was this transformation being triggered by someone other than Jongin.

Sehun couldn’t really see: his eyes were squinting with the pain and there was blood all over his face, pouring like a fountain from his nose. He felt the atmosphere change: that much he had sensed, however he couldn’t exactly understand why until he opened, or rather forced himself to open an eye to the maximum he could without the image blurred.

He saw Baekhyun, the man had stood up from the small cage he had been locked into, looking worse for the wear, battered and exhausted, with glowing eyes, and Sehun was momentarily stunned at how bright they were glowing, incensed by a pure, unaltered hate, fixed in Hyunseung form.

Sehun was flabbergasted; minutes ago Baekhyun was lying on the floor, completely passed out, strenuous beating and the lack of proper food, medical assistance and sleep proving to be the right combination to send the man into such state and now, there he was, standing tall and proud, much like a god sent from above. How could that be possible? He would imagine that had to do with his berserker rank but…heck, Sehun had no words to describe what he was seeing and, honestly, he didn’t have words to describe how he was feeling about it either.

“You were unconscious!” protested Hyunseung, as if the thought of an awake and standing Baekhyun was truly offensive.

Baekhyun didn’t answer, not that anyone expected him to; instead, he approached the iron bars that separated him from Hyunseung. He carefully placed his hands on the bars, staring at Hyunseung with such a murderous gaze that even the alpha was beginning to get intimidated, even though he tried to cover it with a false sense of bravado.

“What are you doing little pup?” he asked mocking Baekhyun, his voice betraying him a little in the end and making his voice tremble. “Do you really think you do anything?”

He finished his sentence by giving a slap on the back of Sehun’s head, who was sitting right next to him, a hand trying to suppress the blood coming from his nose in rivulets.

It wasn’t a forceful slap, not by a mile, merely a form of conditioning by Hyunseung, who was trying to calm Baekhyun down using Sehun, stating clearly that he could harm the younger man if he tried to do anything, but Sehun still let a small sound of pain go out of his lips at the hand hitting his head make all of cranium hurt.

Baekhyun’s eyes jumped from Hyunseung form to the male on the floor, letting his multicolored eyes fall into Sehun’s own. The emotions behind the glow switched in a snap of fingers, changing from hate from something much softer and benign that Sehun couldn’t really name; no one had ever looked at him in that light.

The glowing eyes seemed to perambulate through all of him, including his soul, accessing his state and looking for something, Sehun didn’t know what, in him. His own eyes were completely transfixed by the swirling colors fluctuating on the beautiful eyes staring at him; they were truly enchanting and Sehun wasn’t sure how to react. Should he even look at them so intently and not even blink?

Baekhyun seemed to find whatever he was looking for on Sehun because he averted his eyes, once again to Hyunseung, finally allowing Sehun to blink. The stare he directed at Hyunseung went back to his cold and hating form as soon as the other’s male figure burned itself on his retinas.

“What are you staring at mongrel?” asked Hyunseung and Sehun was absolutely delighted at the note of uncertainty that he heard on the other’s voice; the alpha was getting more and more unsettled by the other behavior.

Once again, Baekhyun opted for silence, not giving Hyunseung the pleasure of hearing voice and making him more and more unsettled by the second; everyone in that room could see the change of his behavior no matter how much the other tried to disguise his nervousness.

“Are you going to beat me up for messing up your friend? Because it seems that you are in a predicament were, let’s see, oh yeah, you can’t!”

He was taunting Baekhyun, who didn’t really rise to the bait, until he smacked Sehun again and Baekhyun quiet and calm behavior took a torn for the worse, in Hyunseung’s perspective, but good in Chanyeol’s and Sehun’s.

The knuckles on Baekhyun’s hands become increasingly white and Sehun noticed the strength that he was putting on the iron bars. Sehun wasn’t sure but he thought that Baekhyun was…? No, it couldn’t be!

“Are you really trying to break the iron bars with your hands? That is stupid on you! Those cells were specifically made for wolves such as ourselves, it will not break that easily.”

That was when Baekhyun finally spoke, voice raspy and low, growly and so incredibly menacing that everyone got shivers.

“Don’t be so sure.”

With clench of both hands the iron bars, they begun to bend under the force applied to them and ultimately creating such a space between them that Baekhyun, even though he was kind of muscular, managed to get through and get near a very caught off guard Hyunseung.

He leaned over the face of the alpha, putting them inches apart from each other, before whispering in such an eerie that Hyunseung became legitimately scared,

“Surprise.”

Sehun shivered a little when he felt the cold air of the night hitting his face. It felt good to smell the familiar scent nature all around him, reminding him of life and joy, momentarily forgetting that he had just escaped from a cell and was currently being helped by Chanyeol and Baekhyun who were supporting his weight. Apparently, as he was smacked into the floor the second time, his foot got hurt while he tried to brace himself in hopes that it would prevent adding more injuries to his already tired self.

It also momentarily made him forget about how Baekhyun had managed to completely destroy Hyunseung in a matter of minutes. It had been so shocking to Sehun to see the man who had hurt him and looked so strong, being absolutely eviscerated by Baekhyun.

He had taken the opportunity, as Baekhyun… well, while he killed Hyunseung, to free Chanyeol and the male explained him briefly that Baekhyun had hit what they called, between themselves, the rage point, where they destroyed everything ahead of them until they felt like what they were trying to protect was safe again.

Baekhyun looked like a cold hard assassin, if Sehun was to speak the truth, killing the alpha without any mercy and so easily but the beta couldn’t say that he felt sorry, which made him feel a little strange, since he wasn’t used to hating someone to the point he’d be okay with his death.

Hyunseung had dropped dead in a matter of minutes, vacant eyes staring at the sky with an expression of regret that Sehun found ironic, to say the least, and Baekhyun had approached them, the veil of rage that what compelled him to kill the one threating them completely gone, making him look much softer and approachable despite the blood that was painting the man’s whole front.

Baekhyun approached slowly, as if he was afraid of Sehun’s reaction: the beta could see how uncertain Baekhyun was about Sehun’s reaction to the scene that just occurred, but the younger only beckoned him closer, allowing the older male to fuss over him briefly.

There was sense of relief on everybody’s part when they felt Baekhyun calming down, his entire self was beginning to tranquilize itself as he checked on Sehun and Chanyeol. If Chanyeol noticed that his brother spent a lot less time checking him for injuries, he made no comment, opting for a little mischievous smile that Baekhyun opted to ignore.

Sehun’s nose, much to their surprise, wasn’t actually broke but rather damage and the bruising was already spreading to the area surrounding the man’s nose, which would give the impression of terrific black eyes later on.

“Are you okay to walk?” asked Baekhyun lowly, only to Sehun’s ears.

“Not really.” Managed to say the beta, grinding his teeth against each other when he poked his own foot with his fingers, noting how swollen it was. “It’s not broken, it’s just a sprain but it’s not healing as fast as I would like.”

“Understandable,” commented Chanyeol with a low hum, squatting to inspect the injury. “Your body is in a really bad condition in general and it must be difficult for it to know where to focus and the energy to heal everything. In this condition not even wolf speed healing would help you; what you need is a good night sleep for it to kick in. Probably food too; food would help immensely.”

Baekhyun nodded at his brother’s words, knowing fairly well that Sehun did, in fact, need the rest in order for his body to begun healing. Sehun cursed a little is own body: what good speed healing did even your body refused to cooperate with it.

“What it is imperative at the moment is for us to get out of here!” stated Sehun, shaking his head to get rid of his own thoughts for a moment and focus on more important things.

“That would be almost impossible.” Replied Chanyeol with a small smile, one that was not as happy as Sehun would hope.

It made the beta confused: they had escaped the cells and were crouched between two huts, they only needed to run to the forest, in direction of the river, and they would be okay.

“What Chanyeol is trying to say is that we are completely surrounded by wolves and the chances of us getting out of here, escape, are very low.” Explained Baekhyun with a sigh.

Sehun was confused once more: Baekhyun had just killed a man and managed to free them all from the cells single handedly, even after a few days of imprisonment, where they went starving and sleepless, taking beating as if they were a normal day occurrence, why couldn’t they do a tiny effort now?

As if he had read the thoughts on Sehun’s head, Chanyeol offered the explanation that the beta needed.

“It’s not that we don’t want to but they knew we escaped from the moment we came out into the open. They know where we are and they are coming for us. They will also find us sooner or later: I can guarantee you that it will happen; the only reason why they didn’t find us yet it because smells are harder to identify in the proximity of nature, the other smells will confuse you and distract you from your purpose. However, they will come and we will have to fight them and maybe, if we are lucky, we are able to escape then. Baekhyun could reach rage point again but it’s impossible; he is in worse condition of the three of us and his body is really shutting down. He’s too weak and raging like that only made him more tired.”

Sehun looked alarmed at Baekhyun, who was crouching on the floor next to him with a strange smile on his lips. The man really did seem worse for the wear with a lot of bruises on his body and such a haggard expression that Sehun felt really guilty for expecting the man to play the rescuer when he was clearly he a state where he shouldn’t even consider the hypothesis much less do something.

“Sorry…” mumbled Baekhyun running a hand through his hair, frustrated at the lack of help that he could offer in this moment,

Sehun cleaned his hand the best he could, trying to wipe the blood from it onto the material of his trousers a little, before grabbing Baekhyun’s hand and giving it a little squeeze, smiling at the male when he looked at his way, ignoring the pain that it provoked, when he pulled muscles in his face that he shouldn’t.

He tried to let Baekhyun know that he didn’t blame him for anything and warn him that he shouldn’t apologize, not when he did the very best he could, nor ever. Baekhyun seemed to understand what the beta was trying to do because he smiled a little on the other’s direction. It was a faint thing, barely a pull of the lips and it was not a fully happy smile but it was better than nothing and it made Sehun feel slightly less guilty.

“I would really like to help but I would never been able to reach such state.” Confessed Chanyeol with a frown on his face. “It’s not easy for a wolf, or a berserker in this case, to reach a point where he voluntarily turns into … well, an assassin. Contrary to popular belief, berserker wolves are not violent or quarrelsome; we are actually very peaceful creatures our purpose is mainly to guarantee the protection and the wellbeing of the Oracle that we take care of but somewhere along the course of History I think that our image was slightly distorted. When people began to pursue and see Oracles as threats was when he became a little more brutal. The fact that we have superior senses when compared to other common wolves only served to portrait us as beasts.”

Sehun could perfectly believe in the words Chanyeol was telling him: neither him nor Baekhyun were ever much violent with him; sure there were moments were they might’ve been more abrasive or rough but those happened when they had met for the first time, born out of lack of knowledge that they possessed towards the other and also the normal suspicion on both parts against the other given to their status. Chanyeol might’ve been a little rougher but Sehun knew that was just the male personality and his past experiences, it had nothing to do with the fact that he was a berserk.

He felt a little saddened when he remembered that all of this situation could’ve been easily avoided if people were a little more open minded, listened to others more and bothered to know them before starting stupid wars.

“How far away are they from us?” asked Sehun in a low voice to both males, just in case that anyone was near; just because he had the knowledge that he was going to he caught again, didn’t mean that he hadn’t the faith that he could escape.

“They are in the area; a little to our left.” Stated Chanyeol, looking in the said direction. “I believe they found our trail. It’s a matter of long seconds to few minutes, really.”

At that point Sehun was losing all of the faith of getting out of there safely and that feeling only intensified when Baekhyun sat down, the strength in his legs disappearing.

“I talked to Seungwan.” Remembered Baekhyun suddenly, talking in a very low tone of voice; it was unexpected and both Sehun and Chanyeol turned to look at him with some level of disorientation painted on their face.

“Why are you bringing that up?” asked Chanyeol.

“She talked something about us holding a little more until Yifan and Junmyeon came, I assume that they are your Alpha and his mate?”

“Yes, they are.” Confirmed Sehun.

“She told me to wait until they came to divulge what we found about the Council; she said everything would be okay then and that we had to wait.”

“Do you think that she knows what’s going to happen?” asked Sehun feeling hopeful again.

“She knows something. She is something, that much if for sure. I am just not sure what.”

“Jongin didn’t see any of these situations, which is very strange. It’s strange that Jongin seemed to have much lesser visions nowadays. He used to have at least more than two dozens of visions on a week and now it doesn’t even reach ten on a week. I don’t know what’s going with him.” Commented Chanyeol scratching his head in a gesture that seemed much younger than Chanyeol used to portrait himself: Chanyeol used to behave himself in a very mature way all of the time.

“True.” Agreed Baekhyun nodding his head, eyes almost closed, as the exhaustion began to settle as the adrenaline left his body.

“I have to admit that it’s rather strange just be here talking when we know that people are looking for us to possibly harm us, if not kill us.” Stated Sehun laying himself on the ground. “This situation is weird enough ever we discover you guys but sitting here idly while they are coming takes the cake.”

“Ironic isn’t it?”

Sehun hummed and opted to lie down on the floor next to Baekhyun while Chanyeol sat a little away from there, simply staring at the starry sky above them.

It really was a strange situation and an amusing one: being the prey and yet not moving a muscle to move.

“Baekhyun.” Called Sehun in a whisper, turning his head to look at the older wolf at his side, who hummed in reply.

“Do you think we are going to survive this?” he asked, knowing that the other male would not sugarcoat anything for him.

“I want to say yes, that we will but I can’t know for sure. For all that we know the people coming might kill us on sight.”

Sehun stood quite while hearing that; it was a quite the punch on the stomach thinking about the prospect of death but, on the other hand, it was refreshing and reassuring to know what could come of them.

“I don’t want to die.” Confessed the younger of the two, making Baekhyun open both of his eyes to look at him, brown eyes looking soft and so very unreadable.

“Fear of dying?”

“No.” replied Sehun shaking his head and spreading dirty into his hair as moved it around the soil. “I just feel that I have so much more to live, I want to see many more things, know more of the world and understand it. Meeting you was an actual eye opening, it led me to understand that there is much more out there that I don’t know and I really want to. I want to understand to world and help everyone find balance and their place around here. I want for minorities to stop being discriminated by helping spreading the truth about them. It has become a recent dream and …”

The beta stopped and let out a sigh. Baekhyun understood what the other felt, he had many dreams as he was growing up and not many had come true and that was something overwhelming.

“Hold on tight to your dream.” Told him Baekhyun with a slight smile playing on his lips. “I cannot promise that everyone is getting out of this alive but I can promise you that I’ll try my best to protect you and your dream. I’ll protect it.”

Sehun felt his heart burst at the words proffered by the other male. They were reassuring and helped him calm down immensely knowing that someone was there for him, that someone would protect him and worried that much for him.

He bit his lips. He felt overwhelmed and the affection was threatening to devour him and consume his own being. Never would he imagine that someone was willing to give so much for him.

Without much though he pulled himself up, leaning on his elbows and turned his head to the side meeting Baekhyun’s lips and kissing them.

They weren’t full lips but they felt pillowy and soft and they slid and pulled against his in the sweetest way possible, making Sehun’s heart burst once again, the affection flooding through him like a warm blanket on a cold night. He felt a wave of relief when Baekhyun responded to the kiss and moved forward to deepen it.

He kept it short and sweet, a good memory to take to the grave, full of feelings and not a superficial thing like he had seen many people do throughout his life, namely Tao, who was a true flirt.

Sehun opened his eyes and found himself drawn to Baekhyun’s own eyes, looking at him with such a reverent expression that Sehun wondered how he had missed it. It was so soft and so loving that he felt himself lost in that expression. He could spend hours gazing at it and never tire from it.

However, as always, good things were often ephemeral and he hated and feared, in equal proportion, hearing Chanyeol’s voice barking a warning.

“They are here.”

A/N: Hello everyone, how have you been doing? I hope that everyone is doing well! This week, I was able to get in touch with my creative flair and everything flew from my mind to the figurative pages. And now, sooner than ever, here it is the new chapter. Let's recap what happen: Hyunseung is evil, he basically tried to beat Sehun up but he forgot that there were two berserkers in the room. One of them flipped and... well, ended him. They managed to run but not outrun the Council members who are chasing them. THEY FINALLY KISSED! How happy are you about it? On the next chapters, things are going to be explained and a lot of important events will happen... be ready for it and ready your hearts even more.
I hope you liked this chapter, if so, please don't forget to tell me so through a comment or a message! I'll reply to you as soon as I can, as always. Upvote and subscribe if you really enjoyed it and stay tuned fro the next chapter!
As always, I wish that you are safe and healthy, that you love yourself, love others and allow others to love you as well, and BE HAPPY! ALWAYS!
Have a fantastic week, without any stress whatsoever and lots of fun!
Lots of love,
<3