Yeri woke up hungry. Famished, starving, ravenous, a whole slough of words that could more adequately describe her level of hunger came to mind as she slowly stretched under the covers. Covers? How ed up did she get last night that she couldn’t even remember going home? Joy must have helped her get back and into bed.

No.

This wasn’t Joy’s scent around her.

It was Seulgi’s.

And in fact, Seulgi’s scent was just about the only thing familiar to her here, she realized with a start. She bolted upright, barely missing the bottom of the bunk bed right above her. This wasn’t Seulgi’s house, but she was wearing Seulgi’s hoodie… and nothing else.

Yeri had always been strangely sensitive to the smells of her friends and their homes, but here she caught nothing but a confusion of strangers and the dust of disuse mixed in the air. She glanced around warily, noting that she seemed to be in some small, one-room rustic cabin, with rough wooden walls and well-worn furniture, all illuminated by overcast light effusing through a window half-covered in condensation.

There was a pair of jeans and a thin t-shirt she didn’t recognize draped over the footboard of the bed she was in, and upon noticing them, she finally began to panic.

What exactly did she do last night? Or rather, who…? Someone small, by the looks of the clothes. She didn’t even entertain the possibility of Seulgi, despite wearing her hoodie, but she couldn’t reconcile her current situation to any cohesive narrative from the night before. She couldn’t see her own clothes laying anywhere about the tiny cabin and huffed in growing frustration as she grabbed the stranger’s clothes and quickly dressed herself.

No underclothes, but she could worry about that later. She pulled Seulgi’s hoodie back on over the t-shirt, desperately hoping its rightful owner was somewhere nearby- and where were her shoes? Where was she?!

“Seul?” she called out once, though it was obvious she was the only person in this one-roomed cabin. Glancing through the fogged window she could see other buildings nearby - more cabins. It looked like a campground of some sort. At least that meant there might be signs, and possibly someone who could drive her back to town.

If she was anywhere near town anymore. Or if she was even still in the state. She was mad suddenly. Whoever took her clothes had also managed to take her phone, her cash, her license, her keys... She stalked over to the door, prepared to throw it open violently and march right down to the management office when the knob turned in her hand the pulled out of her grip, opening from the outside.

Yeri stepped back, just as surprised as the visitor who towered over her in the doorway. It was a woman much taller than herself, perhaps taller than Joy even, with wild dark hair that clung to her forehead and face from the mist. She gave Yeri an impossibly wide smile, just as warm as it was unnerving, and spread her arms to pull Yeri into a hug.

“Uh-?!” was all Yeri could gasp as the woman squeezed her tightly.

“Good morning! Welcome! Did you sleep well?” she began at a rapid-fire pace as she pulled away and took Yeri’s shoulders in her hands. “You found the clothes, good. It’s all we had in your size. Oh! You’re so small and cute! Are you hungry? I bet you’re hungry. Can I walk you to breakfast? You should eat before we talk to Yeeun anyway-”

Yeri shook out of her grip and backed up a pace. “I’m sorry but… who are you?” This woman seemed kind - overly so - but Yeri wasn’t sure she was in the mood to follow a stranger around an unknown campsite after waking up practically and with no memories of the night before. She needed to get home.

The woman rolled her eyes and smiled. “Of course.” She pointed at herself. “Sunmi. And you’re Yeri, I already know,” she said with a wink and held up her hand.

“You know me already?” Maybe she had drunkenly introduced herself last night? She didn’t feel hungover though. No upset stomach, anyway. She blinked at Sunmi’s still-raised hand. “What are you doing?”

Sunmi’s smile faltered. “O-oh, it’s nothing… just a high five. Anyway, breakfast! I’m sure you’re starving after everything. Come on!” She took Yeri by the wrist and pulled her out of the cabin and into the cold, damp morning air.

It wasn’t exactly a campsite like she had imagined from her glance through the window: there were a series of lodges and cabins like her own, but it almost looked more like a ranger’s station than a tourist stop, though the old pickup trucks and SUVs parked here and there bore no identifiable markings. The buildings formed a semi-circle around a wide gravel clearing at the edge of the woods and faced a massive lake, its slate-grey surface still and ominously quiet.

Not just a lake, but the Lake, Yeri realized. She stopped so suddenly, she accidentally pulled right out of Sunmi’s grasp and the older woman glanced back at her questioningly. Yeri looked pale and frightened, and Sunmi followed her stare to the rocky shore with a knowing frown.

“You’re at the cairn,” Sunmi said in a more sober tone. “This is the Sept of the Sacred Shore.” She walked back to stand next to Yeri, petting her hair comfortingly. “It’s not as frightening as it seems, though, I promise.”

Yeri looked like she was about to bolt or faint, Sunmi wasn’t sure which, so she took the liberty to loop the girl’s arm through hers as she began to lead her towards the longhouse, the largest of the buildings in the cluster. “I know you have a lot of questions, but you really do need to eat first. You can ask me anything you’d like once we get some food.” It wouldn’t do to have her succumb to another frenzy out of hunger.

Yeri let herself be led along, though she felt the need to keep one eye on the Lake as she followed. The moment she would glance away, she could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, though perhaps it was just her fight or flight instinct being triggered by this utterly confusing situation she found herself in.

How had she ended up at the Lake with this odd woman? And more worrisome, Sunmi was one of them. The Sept of the Sacred Shore… a name she hadn’t heard since Taeyeon had left home. What a nightmare.

“I-I need to borrow a phone… I need to make a call,” Yeri stammered as they neared the longhouse.

Sunmi gave Yeri’s arm a brief squeeze, and this time her wide smile didn’t quite meet her eyes. “After breakfast,” she continued to insist. “I think you’ll want to hear what we have to say, first.”

+++

10 missed calls.

29 messages.

2 voicemails.

Seulgi sat on a bench outside of the 24-hour supermarket, too exhausted to do anything more than stare at the notifications on her lockscreen. The senders consisted of a mix of practically every person she had ever had even a casual friendship with in this town, though the calls were mostly from her mother. She scrolled through the texts, reading the previews with a mute expression, checking the timestamps and starting to form a list in her mind of which of her friends were still alive.

She paused over one name in particular and finally unlocked her phone, quickly punching in her passcode.

Joy: [ I made it home. Just tell me ur ok. ]

Joy: [ Seul please. I don’t want to call ur house but I will if u don’t answer. ]

Joy: [ I can’t lose you too ]

Seulgi immediately began typing her reply: [ I’m safe. I’m back in town. They took Yeri…| ]

She paused. [ I’m safe. I’m back in town. Yeri’s safe too. They took her to the Lake. Can I come over later? Are you home? ] She hit send and leaned back on the bench against the side of the building, letting her head rest against the dirty illuminated sign.

“...eulgi…?!” Seulgi heard what sounded like her name being called mixed in with the dragging noise of the automatic doors to the store. “Oh my god, Seulgi!” Krystal called again as she squeezed through the doors, in too much of a hurry to wait for them to open.

“Are you off?” Seulgi asked as she slowly stood up, but Krystal immediately crushed her in a tight hug, the name tag pinned to her uniform digging painfully into Seulgi’s collarbone.

“Did you get my messages? Are you hurt?” she pulled away and looked into Seulgi’s face. “Oh, my god, Seulgi… you look awful.”

“Thanks,” Seulgi answered with a weak smile. “I’m fine. Can you drive me home? I’m too tired to walk back to my car.”

“...Yeah,” Krystal answered hesitantly, unsure whether or not Seulgi should really go home, or to the hospital to get checked out. “Yeah, okay, let’s go…”

Seulgi sat heavily in the passenger’s seat of Krystal’s old subaru and immediately flicked the radio off as the car started. Krystal glanced at her as she waited for the light at the end of the grocery store’s parking lot.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked again; she didn’t mean physically this time. “Joy’s looking for you…”

“I know. I texted her. I’m so tired,” Seulgi answered haltingly. She could barely think after everything she went through last night and this morning. “I need to shower, then go to the police station.”

“The station?” Krystal began before stopping herself. Of course the station. Then that meant… “Did they come? Taeyeon and the others?” Krystal asked quietly. With her music off, the silence felt deafening as she waited for Seulgi to answer. She could hear the faint whirring of the worn belts in her engine, and the thundering clicking of her blinker as they drove out of town towards Seulgi’s small neighborhood up in the hills.

“Not Taeyeon,” Seulgi answered thoughtfully. She hadn’t known Taeyeon very well since she was several years younger than her, but she knew Krystal was slightly more familiar with them. “It was someone named Irene, and Jisoo… and Wendy, I think,” she offered, vaguely wondering if any of those names rang a bell with Krystal, but Seulgi caught her shrug out of the corner of her eye.

Krystal kept her eyes on the road as they wound up into the trees, her thoughts wandering in the following silence. Now that she knew Seulgi was safe, that feeling of guilt she had fought with throughout her graveyard shift at the grocery store came back to her with a crushing force. If she had gotten the night off like she had requested, she would have been at the party with everyone else. If she had called out sick like the others had tried to coerce her to do, she might be dead.

What did they call it? Survivor’s guilt?

She reached over and put her hand on Seulgi’s briefly, but soon retrieved it to shift gears, hearing her old car groan as they drove up an incline. “So they took her to the Lake?”

Seulgi nodded. “What’s it like?” she asked as she gazed out the window, the trees passing by in a blur.

“At the Lake?”

“Yeah.”

+++

“Keep it coming,” Sunmi said with a small smile as Wendy brought out yet another plate of eggs and sausages.

“Coffee?” Wendy asked as she began walking back towards the kitchen.

“Please,” Sunmi answered gratefully.

Even on a good day Yeri had never been one to turn down a free meal, but as soon as she had entered the cafeteria-like longhouse and caught whiff of the different scents wafting out of the kitchen, she finally decided to take Sunmi’s advice and fill up first before heading back to town.

Sunmi watched Yeri devour plate after plate with her chin in her hands. She was thankful that the other members of the sept were giving them space, spread out at the other long dining tables. These kinds of conversations were never easy.

“So, is my sister here?” Yeri asked around a mouthful of eggs. She didn’t even raise her eyes from her plate. None of her nightmares were complete without her older sister making an appearance.

Sunmi sighed inwardly. “We’re looking for her. She’s around here somewhere.” It wasn’t like Taeyeon to wander off, so no one really knew where to even begin the search. “At the very least, she’ll meet us up at the training grounds.”

“Training grounds?” Yeri asked suspiciously, wiping . Normally she preferred sweet things like pancakes if the option were available, but she looked around for that girl Wendy, seeing if she could ask for more sausages. She was having such an unusual craving for meat.

Sunmi frowned. How to put this. “It’s important that you understand how to control your anger right away. We don’t want any more… accidents. And we can help teach you how to transform at will.” Speaking of which, where was Yubin? Where was anyone? Why was it the minute there was finally some work to be done, everyone suddenly disappeared?

Yeri carefully set her fork down on her plate with a distant expression. She barely registered Wendy coming back with two cups of coffee for them. Transformation. So that was it, then. That’s why she was here. It had finally happened. “I thought I was too old,” was all Yeri said, her stare fixed to her lap. Once her 17th birthday had come and gone, she had been sure that she was finally safe. That she was normal. It wasn’t fair.

Sunmi held out her hands on the table, beseeching Yeri to seek comfort in them, but Yeri ignored the gesture. “Sometimes people don’t turn all the way up until they’re in their early 20s… it happens. I’m sorry,” she said sympathetically. The anxiety of going through puberty and young adulthood as Kinfolk was almost as intense as the life of a Garou itself. The threat of turning was constant; the risk to everyone around you was always just one tense argument or one slighted ego away.

Yeri was growing more distraught with every passing moment. Just what had she done last night? She had heard too many stories about others turning - her own family relatives especially - to think that it had happened without any consequences. Had it happened at the party? Is that why she couldn’t remember anything?

“It’s going to be okay,” Sunmi tried to placate. “You’re with us now, and we’re going to take care of you.” A few white lies in Yeri’s time of need. Yeeun had trusted her with this job for a reason.

Yeri looked up at her with wide eyes. “I… I can’t go home.” It was a statement more than a question.

Sunmi shook her head sadly, but before she could answer, Hyoyeon sat heavily beside Yeri and tugged the plate with its unfinished food towards herself. “Sorry pup, but no. Trust me, after what you did last night, they won’t want you back.”

‘Indelicate’ was the word that came to mind as Sunmi watched Hyoyeon help herself to Yeri’s breakfast. Well, they didn’t call her ‘Ironpaws’ because she was soft-spoken.

+++

Krystal stood in Seulgi’s living room while the latter showered, but she waited only long enough to hear the water turn on before she began to discreetly pick up. Seulgi’s house wasn’t dirty, per se, but the Kangs had been living there for many years, and the slow processes of time had overtaken Seulgi’s mom’s best attempts at upkeep.

But it wasn’t the stray cobwebs strung up in the corners of the room, nor the layers of dust on top of the television that Krystal took a moment to tidy. Not the months-old magazines stacked on the arm of the faded couch or the shoes Seulgi had accidentally kicked halfway across the living room floor as she had tiredly stumbled inside, no, it was the nine empty cans of beer discarded here and there about the room that she quietly gathered and took into the kitchen.

She saw three more cans waiting for her next to the sink, making two full six-packs. A personal best, if this was all from last night, Krystal noted. She sighed and began to rinse them out one by one before putting them in the recycling bin, joining the glass bottles of various sizes and proofs waiting to be taken out to the end of the driveway.

“What are you doing?” Seulgi asked as she came out of the bathroom in her mom’s old terry cloth bathrobe, patting her hair dry with a towel. She knew what Krystal was doing; it was more her way of subtly asking her to stop.

“Nothing,” Krystal answered, deliberately finishing her self-assigned task without looking up.

Seulgi watched her for another moment, but then gave up and headed to her room to dress, too tired to fight her best friend. She passed her parents’ bedroom on her way down the hall, and heard the quiet snoring of her dad through the closed door. It only increased her embarrassment and if she wasn’t still exhausted, she probably would have woken him up.

But she and Krystal would be leaving again soon, anyway. It wasn’t worth it, not to her, and apparently not to him. She thought about the missed calls from her mom she had received last night and wondered how much she had already heard about the party. She should make a point of stopping by the library after going down to the station, just to check in with her.

Her dad, however, could sleep.

+++

“Is Irene in here with you?” Yeeun asked, and Wendy nearly knocked a pan off the stove in surprise. The sept alpha leaned languidly in the open backdoor of the hot kitchen, watching Wendy cook with a lazy gaze. It was no wonder Wendy hadn’t noticed her approach, what with the pungent smell of sausages and coffee filling the room.

Wendy nodded towards the walk-in pantry. “She’s in there, why?”

Yeeun gave her a wink and pushed off the doorframe. “When you’re done playing house, I’ve got something I need you two to do for me.”

Wendy obediently wound down her work on the stove, shutting off the burners and plating what she had already prepared. No one had asked her to cook breakfast, of course, but being one of the newest members of the sept, in the youngest pack, she felt somewhat duty-bound to make herself useful to her elders. She did put on one last pot of coffee, however, before she scooted off to go find Irene. If the other members of the sept wanted breakfast, they would have to make it themselves.

“Irene?” Wendy called into the dim pantry, finally spotting Irene comparing the labels of different brands of flour.

“What?” Irene answered, still reading.

“Yeeun wants to talk to us.”

Irene immediately put both sacks back on the shelf. “What about?”

Wendy shrugged and backed up, letting Irene out. “No clue. Maybe it’s about last night?”

Irene said nothing more as she walked over to the alpha. The alpha of the alphas.

Yeeun had helped herself to a small sausage link while she waited and she spoke around it when she saw Wendy return with Irene. “Great. So Irene,” she began, then paused to swallow. “You sent some kid from the party back to town to tell them about the mess?”

Irene blinked at her. “Yes? I mean, she didn’t look like a ‘kid’. She seemed close to Wendy’s age.”

There was a pause while Yeeun thought her next words over carefully. She liked Irene, she really did. The youngest alpha was duly obedient and listened to her well, but it seemed she still had a lot to learn about how to manage their relations with the local Kinfolk. “Okay. Well, just to make sure that kid was able to get the message to the sheriff, I’d like you and Wendy to go follow up. We can’t leave that mess in the forest, or have the families wondering what happened to their children. You think you can do that for me?”

It wasn’t a question. It was an order. Irene nodded with a serious expression. She wasn’t being scolded, but she felt a little embarrassed just the same. At the time, she hadn’t thought it wise to venture into town by herself, but now that she had completed the first part of her task - retrieving the new pup - she could see why it might be prudent to ensure that the aftermath of Yeri’s frenzy was also being dealt with. And she would feel more comfortable with Wendy at her side.

Yeeun saw she wasn’t going to get any questions, so she smiled. “Good. Leave Jisoo here. We don’t need her antics while you’re trying to run damage control. Make sure the sheriff understands what to tell the non-Kinfolk in town, too, got it? No bad press.”

No bad press for an incident with a death toll in the double digits. Irene understood perfectly. Yeeun gave her a thumbs up and turned to grab another sausage. “This alpha stuff’s fun, huh?” she mused. “You’ll get used to it. I wouldn’t send you if I didn’t trust you to do a good job, so just be careful, alright?”

“Alright,” Irene finally responded, realizing she hadn’t said much throughout the whole exchange. She was already thinking ahead to walking into that police station, with all those armed officers, and how she would need to get them to listen to her while she told them exactly what to tell the grieving families and prying press about the victims.

Yeeun wanted to say something like ‘lighten up,’ seeing Irene’s dark expression, but this really was one of the worst parts about belonging to a sept with an entire town to protect. Theirs was a thankless job, but hopefully the older, wiser Kinfolk would be a little understanding.

And forgiving.

“I’ll drive?” Wendy asked over the crunch of gravel underfoot as they left the longhouse, and Irene nodded, already walking over to the old silver pickup truck she and the girls used for their long-distance excursions. It was more incognito than walking into town, all the way down the main drag to the police station. They didn’t need any more trouble than they already had on their plate.

Wendy settled into the driver’s seat and started them on their drive, already humming along to the first top 40 song that came on the radio. A long night was beginning to turn into a long day, and she prayed that they’d be able to keep the radio signal all the way into town.