Warning: Not proofread yet. It's reaaally late and I'm reaaally sleepy, but I wanted to post it as soon as possible. 

Another thing, I don't think this is entirely necessary to say but, just in case... I know many writers use italics only for thoughts or dreams or things like that. Not in this case, though. I use italics just when I need to emphasize a word or a sentence for some reason.^^

Enjoy!!

Chapter 2

“Are you going to the club? Again?” Suho asked with a disapproving look in his eyes. “You already went yesterday, and the day before…” his look now purely disapproving. “You need to SLEEP, Jongin”

Kai could understand the unease in his beta. Working all day and going to the club in the night wasn’t something advisable long term, but…he had to find that person, thought Kai as he took his stuff from his desk to shove them into the backpack he used to go to work.

Since the moment he smelt that scent he couldn’t think of anything else, day and night it was his one and only thought. He had gone to the club two nights in a row with only one idea.

To find it.

But to no avail.

The first night the only thing he could find was a fragile trace of the scent in a tall and kind of muscular waiter with big round eyes who was carrying a tray full of glasses towards the VIP area. The scent was there, but so poor he had to hug the guy to properly catch it, leaving the man a bit downfownded.

 It had been a bitter sensation to pass his home threshold with the same hollow pain in his chest that he had been experiencing since that night, that he knew it’d keep him up until morning. The cool thing about being a Wolf is that you could actually know who your person is, the moment you see them, or smell it in this case. It was very much convenient that, unlike fully humans, they didn’t need to worry about things like Is the one? Will they love me back? Those questions were out of the book for Wolfs, they know they will. Well, you could say that if your future partner is human, cause it’s not common but still happened, the loving back thing would be rather different than with their own breed. It wasn’t. On the rare occasions a Wolf was predestinated to a human, the human in question almost always returned their feelings back, because who in their right minds would refuse such unconditional love…

However, on the downside…life without your mate is a living hell. Truly. If you find your mate, your other half and they, for whatever circumstance, do not love you back (a very rare case, only 1% or 2 % of the cases, mostly Wolf-human cases), you will live half a life. The hollow feeling won’t ever disappear. You can still love another one (a mild love but love in the end), live in a relationship with another person… though not many wolves had really succeeded in this chosen path, because is unfair to your partner to be mourning for your mate all day long.. Unfair and really difficult for the partner so they usually end up finishing the relationship anyway.

Kai had sighed at the thought. Closing the front door and entering his once warmth and perfect house, feeling like going into a cavern. A big and empty cavern.

He needed to try again. And again.

The next day hadn’t been any better. Another employee had seemed to emit that scent, he also had to get quite close, and contrary to his thoughts, the guy had blushed furiously and told him, needlessly, that he wasn’t into guys.

It was frustrating, but kind of encouraging. That person works here, Kai thought. The possibility of some customer getting so close that their scent bleeds into their clothes or skin was, not inexistent, as the little red-dressed woman proved, but improbable to happen more than once. So that person must be a member of the staff. When this thought got into his occupied mind, his only purpose was to sneak into the private areas. Kitchen, storage rooms, anywhere…the thing was he was constantly and kindly suggested to get out and enjoy your night in the dancefloor. The owner was a complete but he knew how to take care of his employees, that, Kai could admit it.  He once thought about asking him about his employees but…What could he ask? Hey, look, I’m looking for someone who smells extremely well, like something fresh and like desire, can you bring them to me, please? He’d be handcuffed in five minutes.

Of course, that was a good thing... except for Kai. It was true that the government knew about the existence of Wolfs but the need of being secretive about their breed was well known around the Wolf community. One of the main jobs of an Alpha was to secure his or her packs so to not draw unwanted attention (as Suho kindly reminded him). This wasn’t doing his hunt any easier. The constant reminder of being cautious about everything was driving him mad. He needed to find him, but he couldn’t use all of his power to do it, and certainly not in his mate’s workplace (that would be a poor presentation of himself). But overall, his high sense of smell, really useful in tracking things down it was backfiring him in the club. The great amount and overpowering mixed of scent was doing nearly impossible to distingue a particular one, even one as pure and alluring as his mate’s.

That night he was trying again. Yesterday, while wandering around the corridors in the private areas he had noticed the scent all over the place, slightly but sure. His heart had gone wild but yet again he had found nothing. !

“I need to know Suho…” said Kai, after zipping close the backpack and looking towards his beta across the desk. “That person is mine. You know how this is.”

Suho sighted. Yes, he knew. It didn’t happen to the Betas in the same way as the Alphas, with their overdeveloped senses and their double amount of possessiveness than other wolfs. But he did remember the constant ache of not having your mate near you. Having their scent lingering on your skin or in the fabric of your clothes and not being able to get near them to smell them closer, and starting to long being surrounded by the scent that was incredibly comforting and the only thing that allows your heart to keep beating. To Kai it had to be a living hell, to have noticed it, to know it was near, out there and not being able to find it. Suho could not want to imagine what that could be for an Alpha.

“Jongin, you know I’m always trying to see it your way, but truly, it has been three days with almost no sleep at all, you don’t eat, you hadn’t had hardly any work done…” Suho sighted again.”Have you been able to talk to Sehun? You told me he knows people working there”

“He isn’t coming back until Saturday and that brat isn’t answering my phone” growled Kai, frustrated. The guy had been staying in a God-knew-where country hotel for a work trip for the last two days, in one of those where you go to relax and enter in contact with mother nature so you can establish good connections with your coworkers and learn how not piss your boss off. That sounds fun until you have to contact them, no phone, no wifi, no nothing. Great.

“Ok, well, try not to get arrested, ok?” said Suho tiredly.

Kai smirked sadly and waved goodbye to his friend.

The amount of dancers that night was astonishing. A human tide filled the dance floor, and even the VIP area was unusually crowded. There were people, drunk people in fact, anywhere. Looking around, Kai saw the posters with the famous name of a Dj explaining it. That night Kai was dressed to not stand out, with plain jeans and a black shirt that allowed him to blend with the shadows.

Or at least that’s what Kai actually thought. (Cause let’s be honest for a moment here…Kai in a black shirt and well fit jeans…come on!) the women were looking at him, elbowing their friends so not to miss out the monument passing by. Men were also aware of him, some of them looked at Kai with desire, most of them with envy and even a few with pure hatred.

But Kai had no intentions on being held up by anything that wasn’t founding that person, even if that meant having his nose bleeding for the sting.

He entered the man’s bathroom, nothing. He walked around the dancefloor, in case some of the waiters were gathering up glasses or bottles or whatever the employees did there... nothing. He went to the bar, he got rid of two women, a very bold young girl (for god’s sake) and a man, he turned down three free drinks aaaand…nothing.

At some point, he tried to get into one of the storage rooms, but a commotion of shred glasses in, what appeared to be, the kitchen filled the corridor in seconds and a bouncer suggested him once again to go dancing elsewhere. The irresistible need to overpower the guy and just storm inside and turn the club upside down was nearly unbearable.

Downhearted, Kai sat on the last stool at the counter, with his back pressed against the wall and ask the barman for anything but make it double. The strong mixture of scents was overwhelming and the only thing he rested to do was to bury his nose inside his whiskey on the rocks so as not die of nose pain when he smelled it.

The scent.

Stronger than ever, there it was…behind the bar. He dropped the glass on the counter, spilling the ice on it and stood up to see better. The guy that had brought him the shot was talking with another dude with cat eyes that was drying his hand with a dishcloth, frowning and pointing with his thumb towards the door behind the counter. Behind them, a woman with an impressive cleavage was serving two astonishingly colourful cocktails that must taste like rainbow dung. Following his nose, he went towards the guys.

His heart was galloping inside his chest, the hope clawing his guts as the scent was getting stronger…Must be him!! 

He made a sign at the barman to get him near him. He dropped the dishcloth, formed a beautiful smile and stopped in front of Kai, which was almost decided to jump over the counter and bury his nose in the barman’s neck.

“Good night. What do you want to drink tonight?” said the man amicably.

“It’s really you?” asked Kai stupidly.

“Excuse me?” the barman leaned over the bar as if he had not heard the question correctly and as he approached, Kai noticed two things.

The first was that the scent was heavenly stronger on him.

The second was that the scent did not belong to the guy. At all.

The conclusions rushed through his mind. That man had been near his mate. Very very close to his mate. Too damn much close. Only one thing could leave that kind of trace and Kai’s blood was at the boiling point only thinking about his mate being that intimate with someone else, doing with another person the things he would beg on his knees to be able to do.

The smart option it would have been, maybe, to ask the guy surreptitiously about any partner or fling or trying to wheedle information about the other employees out of him.

But Kai was seeing red.

“Where are they? Who are they? ” inquired Kai, adding a low growl.

“I beg your pardon?” asked the barman, with an eyebrow up in the sky, looking at his coworker that was checking Kai up.

“Is your mate? Or you’re single?”

Clearly, the barman was pretending to be deaf, cause it was impossible that Kai wouldn’t have made himself understood at this point. He needed to know NOW.

 He took the front of the guy’s shirt in his fist and got him so close that the waist of the barman went over the counter, leaving his feet dangling behind him.

“Hey! What are you doing? Let me go!!” say the barman alarmed.

“Where is she? Is a he? Is your mate? Your partner? No? Who is the person you are ing with?” growled Kai, reason lost.

“What are you talking about? Who? Let me go! Soji call someone! ! Let me GO!”

Minseok couldn’t believe what was happening there. This guy was a regular customer, everyone knew him by sight. He was a playboy and a hella good dancer but he was never rude or violent with any of the other customer or the staff. This was going too far.

“ off ! What are you doing dude! I’m with no one and even if I was, it’s not your ing business!!” Minseok was not a person likely to swear nor had the inclination to be violent, but he knew how to handle drunken scumbags if necessary. In just one blow he managed to take the hand’s guy off his shirt, shredding the fabric, so strong the grip was.

 Kai didn’t know how he got to his place, to say the truth. His mind was like stuffed with cotton wool. He knew he talked to Suho at one point, while the manager was scolding the guy for swearing at a customer. He explained the situation to his beta and after he let his friend convinced him that, in fact, were other ways to have someone scent mingled with yours (other than it is) so strongly and hearing the barman assuring his boss that Kai was mad cause he was with anyone (not that the boss really cared about that one), the relief was so powerful that his senses went to Defcon 5 to sitting in the living room with your grandma so fast that his legs wobble a bit.

He knew, of course, how possessive Wolfs were about their mates, especially if the mating wasn’t finished yet, but he never realized how far an Alpha could go. He had been really ready to slit he throat of that guy, God! He needed sleep.

When the manager was talking about fire the barman for swearing and molesting customers and some other bull, Kai made up an excuse about being drunk and that it wasn’t a fight at all but a misunderstanding and made a beeline towards the bathroom to wash his face with very cold water.

In the end, it was Suho who took him in a taxi and sent him home, making sure to give Kai very few reasonable reproaches that went straight through Kai’s mind.

****

It wasn’t until Friday morning when he could talk to Sehun. It seems that finally one of his messages had gone through the reception or wherever he was calling while Sehun didn’t answer his phone and received an answer call at ing 6 am in the morning.

“Dude, where the did you went?” was the salute from Kai, growling between his blue sheets and pressing his thumb and index finger against his eyeballs.

“Look we don’t get service in hell, what can I say?” Sehun sighed. “Everything’s ok? Is something going on? They tell me you called like a hundred times? What’s up? Anyone dying?”

“Yeah me, you brat. Look I need your help with something” Kai said, leaning his back against the wooding headboard. “Who you know at the club? You said you knew a hyung or something there, right? ”

“Well yeah, I know a few of them, why?” ask Sehun, while voices near them were getting louder, as a group of chatting people getting near him, making difficult to hear him over the static of the line.

“I need to find someone working there but I couldn’t find them yet, I need…I don’t know, intelligence from inside”

“Who? Who are you trying to find?” asked Sehun in a business-like manner.

“Dude, I don’t know…I just caught a scent the other day and I know it has to be from someone working there but I haven’t been able to meet them.” He could describe the scent perfectly, with all its layers and flavours, but he didn’t know anything suitable for any human. “I don’t know if is she or he, no age, no name, no physical features…nothing. Just a clean and fresh scent, with touches of honey and strawberries at the end…”

“Well that’s a lot of help,” said Sehun pretty sarcastically. Kai could almost see him rolling his eyes. “Have you tried tracking the scent in the employees?”

“Yes, Sehun. I’ve tried.  I even went at the opening time, so I could set them apart, but no one had that scent. What kind of Alpha you think are you talking with?” growled Kai.

“Yeah yeah, oh mighty Alpha.” The screeching noise on the line and a girl squeaking near Sehun almost got Kai cringing at the sound. He heard Sehun talking with someone through the line and coming back to the conversation. “Hey I need to go, they're taking us to go hiking and see the deers in the woods. Imagine it, a Wolf sightseeing the ing deers, they’ll be lucky if I don’t cause a stampede. Try talking to Baekhyun or Kyungsoo hyung, maybe they can help you.”

“Baekhwhat and who else?”  Asked Kai as the static noise was growing louder.

“Don’t ask the manag… he doesn't li… tsiders” said Sehun

“Dude, say it again, it sounds like it’s breaking up” Kai replied, trying to be heard over the noise of the line and the chatting sound in the background.

“See yo…morrow.”

“Sehun! Se…” Kai growled frustrated over the beeping sound of the finished call.

He got up the bed, dragging his feet on the floor toward the shower feeling like anything and everything was against him. Many Wolfs had found their mates easily, just a whiff in their general direction and boom! Congratulations for your mating! Why it had to be so difficult for him? It wasn’t enough that his mate most surely would be human? (He acknowledged this fact the moment he realised his mate worked at the club) Why couldn’t he be like the others? Like Suho for instance, who mated his very best friend at the moment the pheromones started to kick up? Taking a deep sight Kai stepped into the shower and he started to get ready for a new long day.

***

When he got into the club that night, he was tired. As tired as anyone could be. Kai knew he will not be able to rest well until he knew at least who his mate was. To see his or her face, to be able to look them in the eyes and tell them I’m here for you and probably they wouldn’t know just yet but they were there just for him as well. Knowing that was a bit comforting.

The music was deafening, as he liked it. Not these days though. Tonight he won’t be wandering around the club trying to find someone who may be even not there at all. He will look for help, as Sehun told him.

“Baek...something, Baekjoon or Baekjung?”

“You mean Baekhyun?” asked the woman behind the bar.

“Yes! Him! Where can I find him?” asked Kai, trying to seem harmless. Unless he was mistaken this woman was the one who was behind the counter when he... kind of...almost attacked that guy the other night. Thought today she seemed to be betting her money on her legs rather than her cleavage.

“He has storage duty tonight, but you can’t go there... I’ll tell him you’re looking for him, your name is?” She asked with a cautious look in her smokey eyes.

“Tell him I’m Sehun’s friend” better be safe than sorry...

“Ok” she took a couple of orders from customers and she headed to the kitchen through the door behind the counter.

While he kept waiting, Kai took in the surroundings. Tonight was slightly less crowd for a Friday night so there were a couple free stools beside him, he sat in one and turned around with his back against the bar facing the crowd, glad that the mixed scent tonight wasn’t as unbearable as other days.

A few minutes later a hand on his shoulder made him turned around again.

“He said he will come as soon as he finishes. Would you like anything to drink while you wait?” the girl asked in her bartender mode.

“Thanks, Whiskey will do,” Kai said before leaving the bill at the counter.

Another few minutes had past when someone sat down beside his stool. A big bearded man, with a few tattoos on his arm, big enough that his sleeve couldn’t cover them entirely.

Kai wasn’t fond of tattoos, he didn’t hate them, but it wasn’t a common thing in Seul, less in the Wolf community, where the ability to heal a bit faster than humans prevent the ink to settle properly and it usually left a messy trace of black on the skin. The man ones were beautifully made, though a tad old fashion for his taste. A heart, a skull, a pair of wings...the sort of thing you would see in a street gang or in jail. Kai chuckle to himself, ashamed of his prejudice.

The man took notice of him and raised an eyebrow as a question.

“Fine tattoos, man,” said Kai raising his glass, kind of apologetic for staring.

“Thanks” mutter the man

Wow, that’s what you get for being nice to people you don’t know. Kai thought as the man took his shot in a gulp and got up from his stool.

 “Were you looking for me?” a voice said near him.

Kai turned around once more to face a short man, maybe a couple years older than him, skinny and with a very pleasant and friendly smile in his face, which didn’t entirely reach his eyes.

“Are you Baekhyun? I'm Kai,  I’m friend with Sehun-”

“I know who you are, not by name though, but you are a regular in the VIP section, don’t you?” Baekhyun cut him with a small smirk. “I heard you had a misunderstanding with Minseok hyung a couple of nights ago? And you were at the back door yesterday when we were opening, right?”

“Well, yeah.” Answered Kai, impress about how much this man was aware of. “You see, I’m looking for someone...a ... friend of a friend of mine” explained Kai, making up the first excuse he came up with “he told me that person worked here and he told me to say hi for him... a mean, as I’m a regular customer and all that. Sehun told me you could help me.”

Kai knew this was a very poor story to tell, but he didn’t want to lose the chance to find out something for asking anything weird or being intrusive.

“Oook,” said Baekhyun, clearly not sure about buying this tale or not. “yeah, sure, I can call them for you ...the name is?”

Kai had to think fast here, he knew that person wasn’t yesterday at the club, or at least didn’t enter at the same time as the others.

“Oh yeah, he told me but I can’t remember it, but I think he told me his friend had Thursdays off?” said Kai making a blind guess and praying God that made any kind of sense to Baekhyun.

“Thursdays off? Mmh...That must be Kyungsoo, he has classes very early in the mornings on Fridays I think...” Baekhyun was talking to himself, but Kai had another name now. Maybe...

“Yeah, it must be him, I think the name sounds familiar! Where can I found him?”

“Oh, he was talking to Jongdae and Minho hyung before, I think he was going to the back alley” answered Baekhyun pointing with his right thumb behind him.

“Thank you,” said Kai, standing up at once and disappearing from sight.

“How many people are looking for Kyungsoo today...” mutter Baekhyun to himself remembering the relative of Kyungsoo, a bearded man, who had asked him his whereabouts in his way to the counter to meet Kai. 

***

Kai, knowing now a name, and with the made-up excuse and with a free pass to be looking for a friend, Baekhyun told me to come this way, shoved himself into the private corridor, walking calmly with his heart jumping inside his chest and the unmistakable feeling of hope in his guts.

He had taken the wrong turn twice, when he saw the door, at the end of the corridor, painted in black, with a green emergency exit sign at the top. He took the first step when he stopped in his track.

The scent again. Strong. Unusually strong.

He nearly tripped over his own feet due to the fierce need of being near it, and when he put a hand in the door, he smelled another thing.

Blood.

And fear. Acrid in his nostrils. The mere thought about the possibility of this smell coming from his mate almost put him on his knees.  He started to breathe heavily, his own heart pumping blood through his veins so powerfully that everything else went blank. His hearing amplified, his sense of balance quite different than usual, making him bend his back a bit and his fingers curving themselves as if they were the claws his ancestors used to have.

He opened the door carefully but quickly. Crouching himself on the concrete of that black alley as he closed the door, assessing the scene in front of his eyes.

The tattooed man from before was leaning over a small guy, with big round and fearful eyes, with blood in his elbow. The world stopped at that moment. It was him. Kyungsoo. At last. Everything around disappeared as he took in the features of his soon-to-be-mate. Or at least that was what it would have happened if the smell of fear and that patch of blood wasn’t there, blinding him. He took a deep breath, dismissing the rotten smell of the dustbins, and the sweaty scent which he recognised was from the bearded man and what he got was the acrid smell of fear and the only scent that could make his heart beat. Fresh, mint, honey, desire, love, happiness and so much more.

At the very moment that man put a hand on his mate, with his blood boiling in his veins, only seeing the face of his mate he secured his right foot and propelled himself towards the man with only one thought. To kill.

**************************

Sorry! no Kaisoo yet...I hope you enjoyed Kai's point of view. At least he knows now. It was so obvious...Kai just needed to ask me! or you...We would tell him right away, wouldn't you?^^

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments

I'm really struggling with my English here, so please, if someone could help me beta-read this mess...

Thanks!! 

See you soon!!