Just as the two neared Hongbin's house, they stopped. 

"What's that smell?" Taekwoon slowly asked. 

Hongbin nervously swallowed as the scent of copper hit his nostrils. "Blood," he realized.

The two ran into the house to find it in pieces. 

Chairs were overturned, tables were broken, ceramic and glass lay in pieces all over the floor. The carpet lay in shreds and there were deep scratches in the walls. In the living room, the coffee table was broken and Hongbin's cake lay face down on the floor, icing and candles lying nearby.

As Hongbin slowly walked through the house, taking in the disaster, he stepped on something and heard a sound like glass cracking. Stepping back and looking down, he found a photo frame on the floor.

He bent down and picked it up, turning it over to see what photo it was.

His eyes widened when he found a picture of their entire pack. Him, Taekwoon and Wonsik stood in the front, making playful faces while their parents stood behind them, Taekwoon's mother holding up Taejin who also held up a peace sign to match her brother's. They were happy, without a care in the world.

This photo now had the biggest crack in the glass he had seen, and it went through the middle of the photo, effectively separating the three boys from the rest.

Taekwoon came up behind him and his mouth dropped when he saw the state of the picture.

The two looked at each other and continued picking up the blood trail.

They found blood splats leading to the outside where the scent was nearly overwhelming. Hongbin paused and placed his hand on the door nob. 

"Are we sure we want to see this?" he slowly asked.

Taekwoon's eyes held intense fear as he shook his head. "No," he said. "We don't want to see this."

"We can still turn away," Hongbin suggested. "We can go away and pretend this never happened."

Taekwoon took a deep breath, trying to keep the tremble out of his voice. "Open the door."

Hongbin slowly pressed down on the handle and pushed the door open, and virtually right in front of them were two bodies.

They were the bodies of a woman and a young girl.

They were slathered with blood, their clothes shredded and their bodies covered with deep gashes as they lay in a pool of blood together. The young girl was still tightly holding onto the woman's hand, dried blood sitting on their skin. Their eyes were open and glassy, what looked like a translucent film over the eyeballs.

Taekwoon dropped to his knees, his eyes never leaving the bodies of his mother and sister. His shaking hand slowly inched towards their interlocked fingers, lightly scraping over the sheet of dried liquid.

He tightly closed his eyes, the emotions taking as he let out a roar of anguish.

He then broke down beside his family, the tears wetting their corpses. 

Hongbin, filled with dread and fear, followed the scent trail to the edge of the woods, where he came across his worst nightmare.

On the soft soil lay the bodies of two wolves, one black and the other one a dark grey. Their fur was matted with blood and dirt, and their teeth had droplets of blood on them. They lay motionless, eyes closed, mouths open and tongues lolling out.

Hongbin leaned down, running a shivering hand through the grey wolf's fur. "You tried to fight, didn't you?" he asked softly, his voice choking up.  

He could feel the sharpening of his senses, he could hear every whisper of the leaves, every movement of the trees, he could hear Taekwoon in the background, and could also catch the voices of Wonsik and Sanghyuk. 

He tightly gripped the grey wolf's fur as he leaned down and buried his face in the blood soaked coat. 

With the bodies of his dead parents next to him, his friend's mourning cries in his ears and the world slowly crumbling down around him, Hongbin let out a soft "Mom," before letting his tears fall.

It was during the early hours of the morning that Taekwoon, Wonsik and Sanghyuk, sleep-deprived and hopeless, slowly pulled themselves to Hongbin, who still lay next to his parents.

When they arrived, he slowly opened one swollen eye just to let them know that while he wasn't dead yet, he sure would like to be.

"Did they try to fight?" Taekwoon asked, his voice devoid of feeling.

Hongbin nodded slightly. 

"Looks like she tried the hardest," Wonsik commented.

Hongbin nodded again. 

"What did you expect?" Taekwoon asked. "She is the Alpha."

"Was," Hongbin suddenly spoke up, his voice barely a whisper, but the others still managed to hear him. "Not is, was."

Before Sanghyuk could make a statement asking who and what was going on, he caught himself, instead taking in a deep breath. "I'm sorry..."

"For what?" Hongbin asked, never taking his eyes off his mother's body.

"I lost my mother too today," Sanghyuk said, then choked up. "I lost my family."

"And we lost our pack," Wonsik said, turning to look at Taekwoon and Hongbin, the former standing still with soulless eyes, the latter lying beside the bodies of two massive wolves, almost lifeless, with the movement of his eyes the only indication that he was still alive.

"What should we do?" Wonsik asked, directing the question to the elder. 

"Hm?" he hummed.

"I'm pretty sure this isn't the end," Wonsik explained. "From what I remember, hellhounds tend to go on a killing spree if they start on one. If they've taken our families, then I don't think they'll just up and leave like that."

Hongbin didn't bother to answer. Taekwoon sighed.

"Hongbin," he said. "I lost the two women in my life who truly gave me meaning. I want nothing more to wallow in sorrow, in fact, all I want to do is go back." He rubbed his eyes. "But I have to agree with Wonsik. You need to do something."

"Why should I do anything?" Hongbin asked.

"Huh?" Wonsik asked.

"Why should I bother to do anything?" Hongbin repeated himself. "If the hellhounds kill us, let them."

Wonsik gave a harsh chuckle. "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I was talking to Lee Hongbin, not some soulless shell of a man."

Hongbin raised his eyes to him. "What do you mean?"

"I forgot who we were following all this time," Wonsik said. "Oh, yeah, that's you."

Hongbin stayed silent, his eyes dark and void. 

Taekwoon, still visibly slouching, nodded. "With the Alpha dead, you're the only one we can turn to, Hongbin," he said.

"Why?" Hongbin asked. "Is it because I'm an Alpha too?"

"Yes," Taekwoon and Wonsik said at the same time.

"What if I didn't want to be?" Hongbin asked. "I don't want to be an Alpha."

"I didn't know you could change your energy signature to fit your needs," Wonsik said.

"Like it or not, Hongbin, you're the only one who can do something about this," Taekwoon said. He gestured to the bloodbath that had just happened. 

"Are you going to let more innocent people die just because you lost your pack or are you going to do something?"