HAH! I wrote two chapters in two days! I am applauding myself right now. 

Also please don't get used to this XD 

Chapter fifteen: The forest night is full of revelations

Mingyu kept an eye on the persons on the ground, counting the number of shadows he saw moving around in the dark. Another whistle left his lips, into the air, followed by multiple short ones. It was a simple system. The first whistle meant that he would tell others how many intruders he had seen, after that he used different whistles. A really short one meant one, a quick double without pause meant ten. The other Grenhil members only needed to count with him. You always had to start with your tens and after that the ones. Right now he counted twelve persons but it was possible that more were out of his sight.

The sound that he made didn’t stay unnoticed by the people below him. The nightly forest sounds had been eerily quiet tonight and this kind of whistle did instantly stick out against the owl that he heard in the distance. His leg started to twitch since he had been holding his position in the tree for too long. ‘Just a bit longer…’ He told himself in a silent mantra which he hoped would distract himself from his leg slowly dying beneath his own weight.

His coat and hood still provided shelter for him but the sounds had let to the persons underneath him to start searching the trees for the source of the sound. It wouldn’t be long before they would notice the huge lump that sat high above them. But the silence provided no cover for Mingyu to move around. He had to hope that the others would react if the situation became too dangerous.

As if on cue his comrades started whistling from the west. The wait was over.

Another howl screeched through the night but it wasn’t the same one from before. It was someone Mingyu didn’t recognize.

---

“They really couldn’t wait any longer?”

Jeonghan looked up to see Seungcheol looming over him. A bit startled  he scrambled to sit up straight almost knocking the other person in the head with his own because of the quick movement. It took him a bit of time before the question dawned on him.

“Jihoon has always been a bit impulsive. Soonyoung seems like him in that regard. Besides I don’t think it would’ve done us any good to keep that agitated alpha around for longer than necessary. Jihoon knows the forest better than anyone…” With that Jeonghan intended to put a halt the conversation but Seungcheol had other plans.

“What if he gets attacked again? He can’t handle that, but now we won’t be around to help.”

Jeonghan just scoffed at him. “You really don’t listen well to others…”

“Pardon me?”

“Remember what we told you about our strongest pack member being the leader of the Grenhil pack. We weren’t kidding.”

Seungcheol raised an eyebrow in disbelieve. “He pounced on him and he would do it again.”

“Pffff…” Jeonghan hit him in the shoulder. “I would like to see him try. Jihoon will win. If not on pure power he will at least outsmart that bundle of muscles.”

For his graceful appearance the omega sure packed a nasty punch. Seungcheol rubbed the spot that Jeonghan just hit with a unamused face. “That bundle of muscles will kill him. I can’t believe that your pack just leaves omegas helpless like that.”

The next moment Seungcheol was face to face with the earth. He felt his heart beating louder in his chest as his arm was held tightly behind his back by Jeonghan as the latter gritted through his teeth. “You alphas are all the same. Stupid. Idiots. If you had listened you would’ve known that Jihoon has beaten the little alpha boy before.” With another push Seungcheol found himself tasting the dirt now as Jeonghan scoffed behind him and let him go. “Tsk alphas.”

It sounded so honestly annoyed that Seungcheol simply couldn’t find it in himself to be mad at Jeonghan. Rather the rubbed his jaw with his hand and spit out the remainders of sand in his mouth as he stared at the omega that was leaving towards the others. Something had triggered the omega but he didn’t know what…

Even from his position he could hear Jeonghan continuously mumble about alphas and how Mingyu was some kind of happy exception to the rule. He decided to get up and walked after the omega trying to help him out with clearing out their little encampment. Whenever his eyes moved up to look at the beautiful man in front of him he felt a little pang in his chest and he wondered what it was. Meanwhile Jeonghan simply ignored his presence altogether. Seemingly still brooding about something.

---  

When he felt the other didn’t pay attention to him Jeonghan let his eyes shift to the side to glance over at Seungcheol. The small spark was still there every time he looked at the other. How the stupid alpha hadn’t noticed annoyed him more than he liked to admit. The thoughts kept spinning through his head as he moved around folding his sleeping bag and loading his bag onto his own horse. He had known for years now… It had happened instantly the first time they visited Strenyard.

“Jihoon do you really think we can do this?” Mingyu was nervously fidgeting around on his horse as he rode next to their carriage. “Maybe we should just leave it be…”

Surprisingly Jihoon smiled patiently at the giant. “We can do it. Better yet, we have to do this. Strenyard has more than enough metal. Besides that they have some interesting herbs that I would like to see for myself. They might be useful in the future. Just because a new alpha took over doesn’t mean our trading partner is gone.”

The news had reached them last week. The old alpha of the Strenyard pack had died of old age surrounded by his family. A young alpha had taken over and the first reports were positive. The people seemed to like the man quite a lot so Jihoon figured that he should be competent enough. Which led to him insisting they had to travel to Strenyard. The sooner they informed the leader about their presence the better.

The simple wooden outer wall of Strenyard came into their view. Seungkwan almost squealed next to Jeonghan who was holding the reins of the horses in his hand. Shaking his head at the younger ones he himself also felt a bit anxious.

Grenhil had been trading with Strenyard for years. Disguising themselves by trading animal furs on the weekly market. Their real goods however were the diamonds that Jihoon and Jeonghan carried with them in small pockets. Today Seokmin and Seungkwan would man their market stand as Jeonghan, Jihoon and Mingyu would arrange a meeting with the newly appointed leader of the Strenyard pack.

The audience was promptly granted by the townhall guard that still recognized them from their last visits. Jeonghan and Jihoon had taken over this job from the previous leader of the Grenhil pack more than a year ago. Before that the old man had taken them on this journey multiple times to learn them the ropes of the trade. But most of all to show them the importance of secrecy. The old man had died and with that a new generation had taken over the reins of the Grenhil pack. Jihoon had been chosen by their people to be the new pack leader and others had been appointed to the counsel positions afterwards. The newest additions had been Seungkwan and Chan who had only joined the counsel last month. This was the first change in power in the Strenyard pack for all of them. The old counsel members had given them their trust to do the trading themselves.

“Jihoonie,” Jeonghan was the only one that could get away with calling Jihoon by the nickname, “Do you have any special plans for this talk?”

“Not really, let’s see what he does first. My guess