Chapter 36

“Come on, you’ve almost got it.”

Chen closed his eyes and tried to reach further inside himself. He could feel the wolf just out of reach. With a heavy exhale he gave up. “I can’t.”

Suho held out a bottle of water. “You’re getting closer. I can feel it.”

Chen drank greedily before screwing the top back on and handing the bottle back. “I just can’t do the last little bit. It feels like it’s going to overwhelm me if I let it out.”

“I’m here, remember? I’ll make sure you don’t do anything bad.”

“But what if you can’t stop me?”

“Are you doubting my abilities as an alpha?”

“No, no, no, of course not.”

Suho laughed at Chen’s reaction. “I’m kidding. Come on, let’s call it a day.”

Chen stood up thankfully, working the stiffness out of his back and legs. They had been sitting still for a long time. He grabbed his bag from a nearby table and slung it over his shoulder.

“I have to go pick up Xiumin from the gym,” said Suho. “He says there’s something he wants to talk about. You okay walking home?”

“Actually I’m supposed to be meeting Kris. He has basketball training tonight.”

“I guess we’re going the same way then.”

They walked together in silence for a little while before Chen thought to ask, “How’s Kyungsoo?”

Suho sighed and shook his head. “A mess. He feels guilty about what happened to Baekhyun and I had to punish him for it but I think Kai’s helping him get over it.”

“They’re together again?”

“Who knows? They’re talking. That’s a start.”

Chen worried his bottom lip. He wanted Kai and Kyungsoo to make up but he still felt bad for Baekhyun. His friend hadn’t been to school since he got hurt and Chanyeol had stayed off too to baby him. It was cute really.

“Do you think Baekhyun and Chanyeol will forgive him?” Suho asked after a pause.

“Baekhyun will. He’s just embarrassed about it, I think.”

“And Chanyeol?”

“He’s really protective of Baekhyun, right?”

Suho managed a smile. “He’s a shadow alpha. Maybe he’ll have his own pack one day.”

“No, he loves your pack. He would never leave.”

“He would for Baekhyun.”

Chen’s cheeks turned warm. He wondered if Kris felt that way about him. A little part of him thought that maybe he did. Suddenly he felt anxious to see him again.

“You ready for this?”

Xiumin took a deep breath and puffed out his cheeks. Luhan somehow resisted the urge to pinch them.

“We don’t have to do it tonight,” he told him.

“No, we agreed. Suho’s a fair alpha. He’ll hear us out.”

Luhan stepped forward and took his lover’s hands in his own. He kissed his cheek. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

They had met after school to spend some time together since Suho and Kris were both busy. It had calmed both of their nerves and reminded them why they were doing this in the first place. Xiumin wrapped his arms around Luhan’s waist and rested his head on his shoulder even though they were in a corridor and anyone could catch them. After tonight it wouldn’t matter anymore.

“We should get going,” said Luhan. “Suho will be at the gym soon and we should catch him before Kris comes out of practice.”

They had already arranged to meet up there before they remembered the other alpha had basketball practice. With any luck they could get Suho away before Kris came out. In order to do that they would actually have to be in the right place at the right time though so they started to make a move, hands held together between them.

“Hey, where are you guys going?”

Suho and Chen turned around to see Kai hurrying to catch up with them.

“The gym. Why?”

He reached their side. “I was supposed to meet Sehun at the library but he’s not there. He’s not answering any of my messages either.”

“Really?” Suho frowned. “That’s odd. Maybe he just forgot.”

“He was supposed to be studying with Lay hyung.” Kai checked his phone again but he still had no new messages. If Sehun had forgotten about him and gone home already he was going to have to punish him.

“Well, we’re just meeting up with Xiumin and Kris then we’re going home.”

Kai nodded. “Didn’t know Xiumin had soccer today.”

“He doesn’t,” said Suho, “but he just sent me this message saying he wants to see me there.”

“Weird.”

“Maybe he’s doing extra training,” suggested Chen. “Luhan hyung does sometimes. Practices penalties or something.”

They continued on in silence to the gym where they hung around in the corridor outside. Chen rocked back on his heels. Kai was leaning against the doors of the storage room when he suddenly pulled a confused expression.

“Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” asked Suho.

Kai stood still. If he had been in his wolf form his ears would have been standing upright. “It sounds like someone’s in here.”

He turned to push open the door to the gym’s storage room and froze. Chen hurried forward to see what was happening just as a growl rumbled up through Kai’s body. His jaw dropped at the sight of a shocked Lay standing over Sehun as he zipped his pants up. Sehun meanwhile was on his knees, head resting on a stack of mats and his pants still half hanging off him.

“Get your hands off him!” Kai lunged forward, shifting in a rush of black fur. He leapt for Lay just as Sehun looked up and bowled him over. Suddenly everything was a flurry of wolf fur, Lay’s brown and grey and Kai’s a dark black. They growled and snapped at each other as Sehun pulled up his pants.

“Kai! Stop.”

“Get off him,” shouted Chen. Lay yelped as Kai pinned him to the ground and bit his leg. Something swelled up inside Chen and for once he didn’t try and push it back down. His wolf exploded out of him as he shifted and suddenly he was on four paws and bounding towards the chaos that was Lay and Kai’s bodies. He plunged in, snapping at anything that had black fur.

From a distance he could make out a lot of shouting and suddenly more bodies were on top of him. He attacked anything that moved, not knowing who was trying to help him and who wasn’t. There was a flash of white and he recognised Suho who was pulling Kai out of the warring pile of wolves. Suddenly teeth clamped firmly on the scruff of his neck and he felt himself pulled away from whoever he had been standing on. He gave a growl and received a fiercer one in return. A scent filled his nose that seemed awfully familiar and he slowly went limp. Kris held onto him until he was sure he had his full submission.

Glancing around, Chen saw that the others had shifted back. Lay was shaking and breathing heavily, Kai was still glaring at him from beside a very serious faced Suho and Sehun’s eyes were full of tears. Luhan and Xiumin had appeared from somewhere too and were each standing by their respective leaders, sharing a worried look. Tao was the last in the room. He was standing with his pack too, expression unreadable.

“Come on, Chen,” said Kris softly.

He glanced up to see that kris had shifted back too. He was still in his basketball shorts. He and Tao must have been in the changing room next door when they heard the commotion. He a gentle hand through Chen’s brown-grey fur.

“It’s ok. I’m here.”

Chen closed his eyes and tried to calm himself. Slowly he felt himself return to normal and when he opened his eyes again it was to find himself being collected into Kris’s safe arms. He held him tightly for a second.

“Can you stand?” he whispered.

Chen nodded. He wasn’t really sure he could but there was a situation that needed to be dealt with so he forced himself up anyway. Shakily he leant on Kris and looked around at the others in the room. The air seemed to crackle with tension.

Oh, this wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all. What the hell had Lay been doing to Sehun?

Ahhhh they finally got caught. In a pretty embarassing way too.

How do you think everyone's going to react?