Archive of Our Own

The sun rises with the screeching sound of a wyvern flying across the sky, effectively silencing any and every activity on the ground. Fear is tangible, and it’s bitter on Minho’s tongue. 

The same wyvern flies over their small little town every single morning, shadowing the entire vicinity each time it flies under the sun, big enough to cause an eclipse for the short five seconds it takes to fly from wherever it was to wherever it needs to get to. There is no rider, as far as Minho knows, and it hasn’t attacked since its first appearance over a year ago. 

It doesn’t breathe fire, at least this particular one and at least not yet, but the people know the kind of damage one could inflict upon a small town like his own. It’s too small to even be called a town. A sanctuary, almost, housing fifty people who had survived the chase. The last ten years have been difficult; so many deaths, so much blood, too many losses Minho doesn’t even want to start thinking about. Ending the last day of high school while the city was being attacked by otherworldly beings was not something Minho had ever thought would ever happen to him. Yet here he is, ten years later. A survivor of the apocalypse.

His house had been absolutely demolished when Minho had gotten out of the sea of bodies trying to get away from the city, his alpha parents killed, his cats nowhere to be seen. The only reason he had survived was Changbin’s kind parents offering space for him to tag along, his only surviving neighbours. A week later, the intruders had taken over the entire planet, flying wyverns across countries and destroying cities in fire and blood. They came from an entirely different solar system, almost an entirely different universe. Minho learned of Arhaj, a planet nobody knew about until they were invaded, a planet full of shapeshifting creatures who came to earth in their human forms and tore through the people in the shape of giant wolves. Some of them flew on wyvernback. 

Two weeks later, their self-proclaimed king showed himself. He had a goal and a message for the people; earth had become his to rule and he wished to rebuild. 

It has been a long decade. 

“I really don’t think you should go alone,” Changbin says as he gently pats the horse’s back, holding onto the bag of necessities Minho usually brings with him for supplies. “I can’t leave Jisung while he’s down with this fever and Seungmin’s broken his ankle.”

Minho tries not to show his annoyance, taking the bag from the alpha anyway. “I know the routes, Bin. It’ll be quick in and out. Jisung needs the medicine, right? And Seungmin’s not sleeping because of his ankle. I’ll be fine.”

He attaches the bag to his belt before hoisting himself up onto the saddle, patting the horse’s neck and adjusting his hat. It would be a hot day out, undoubtedly. The summer sun can be cruel. And Minho has a sentimental attachment to the only earthly possession he managed to bring with him before he left; the ridiculous cowboy hat his mother had gotten for him for halloween when he was fifteen. It still fits. 

“Don’t go too far,” Changbin tells him, using his alpha command only because he knows Minho wouldn’t disobey one when he hears it. He wouldn’t, really, at least not when he knows Changbin can still sense him. “I mean it, Minho hyung. We can’t afford to lose you. Just- Not you, hyung.”

Minho smiles at this. He may despise the use of alpha command that Changbin picks up when he’s desperate, but he knows it’s because Changbin is desperate. As pack alpha, at least of their small pack living amongst other small packs, Changbin works hard to keep them safe, to keep them within the sanctuary so that they could survive. Minho would never jeopardise their position, but he also knows there isn’t much to retrieve from spots they have all been going to for supply hunting. 

He can promise to stay close, but going a little farther would have to do. It would help them in the long run. 

“I’ll be back before dawn,” Minho promises with a nod of his head, slapping the horse’s rear to start it into a trot. 

Changbin calls out from behind him, “Come back before the sun sets!”

Minho simply waves him off as he passes through the gate of their small sanctuary, out into the wilderness. Hunting and looting for supplies alone is never a good idea, but Minho is the only one in the pack healthy enough to go out. Their four member pack shouldn’t even be considered a pack, but the four of them have gotten close over the years and no one else in the sanctuary has come out to express any need for their small groups to be made into a whole pack, so they remain separate. 

There are a total of fifty people in the sanctuary, more than half of them omegas like Minho himself. It’s first found by an older pack, who had almost closed the gates on them that fateful day, but the kind omega leader had chosen to let them in. Surviving within the sanctuary is not easy; it’s every pack for themselves and it goes unsaid, but no one would sacrifice what ration of food they have if a pack goes hungry. 

It is, however, better than having to survive outside. 

Changbin would usually go with Seungmin on their trips out, and Minho likes to tag along because he can’t trust the two to find anything useful. He would let Jisung come with, but the omega’s tendency to trip over his own two feet have time and again proven as an enemy attractor so Minho suggested Jisung would be of better use looking after the small cabin they share in the sanctuary. 

Seungmin’s accident had almost been a fatal one. He and Changbin had gone out to hunt almost a week ago and Minho had to stay to help with Jisung’s fever. Somehow the one time that Minho was absent, the two alphas managed to catch the attention of a boar. A boar from earth would make a good meal. A boar that came all the way from Arhaj would make a dessert out of both alphas. They barely managed to escape, their run leading to Seungmin breaking his ankle. 

Minho is no doctor, but the years spent tending to his own wounds and the pack’s has instilled him with enough knowledge to know that Seungmin will not be out to hunt for a long time.

That’s okay, though. All things considered, Minho does like being out of the sanctuary from time to time. It’s not to get fresh air; there’s scarcely anything fresh since the Arhajians took over the planet. Everywhere stings of rot, combined with the sickeningly sweet scent of their wyverns and that odd animal musk that radiates off the alien animals makes for an awful stench. The air reeks of it. Minho misses the smell of rain. 

Armed with his set of bow and arrow and a dagger latched to his belt, Minho sets out slowly. The usual path is marked by carvings on the trees Changbin had taken the time to do. It leads the path straight towards what was once a mall, a few fast food restaurants and a gas station. They have all been abandoned at some point and going back to the same place means there is likely nothing left to take, but it’s safe and Changbin wants Minho to stay on the marked road. 

Except the last time Minho had gone out with the alphas for supplies, he’d seen an opening. It’s barely visible to the naked eye and Minho would have missed it if he hadn’t seen the hare slip through the treeline, just big enough for a man his size to slip through. 

It could be nothing. It could just be a little crawl space. A little cave, maybe. Perhaps even a den for small but dangerous animals and Minho probably shouldn’t let his curiosity take precedence, but it has been two weeks and it gnaws in his brain that he should at least check it out. 

He yips to get the horse to go from a slow trot to a gallop as soon as he’s confident no one is on his trail. The horse, a male that they collectively agreed to name Mr. Nobody, is a black steed with a white stripe down his muzzle, found tied to a pole near an abandoned farmhouse they were passing by on their way out of an infested town five years ago. The roads have long been abandoned; any vehicle that runs on motor is no use now that higher-ranked Arhajians fly on wyvernback, while the civilians and lower ranked populace travel by foot or by horseback. 

Horses from hell, Seungmin likes to call them. Hellhorses, more commonly known by earthlings; often black with a mane on literal fire and all-seeing hollowed eyes. Their hooves are twice as big as a stallion’s and you could hear their hoofbeat from a mile away, like a nightmare creeping up in your peaceful sleep. Their riders are most often soldiers or at least a Arhajian with a position in their idea of military. So, naturally, you don’t want to hear a hellhorse coming. 

But the Arhajians don’t go deep enough into the forest to find their sanctuary, so it’s important that whoever leaves the safety of it don’t leave their trail behind for the Arhajians to find. 

Leaving their marked path is a risk Minho would have to take. There is an endless possibility that he could find something worth finding out there, something that could help the pack, that could possibly change his life. Ten years of loss and ruin, and Minho still believes the world could still be saved. 

He halts Mr. Nobody to a stop once he recognises the spot he had found two weeks ago, heart racing with a hopeful wish that it isn’t just a small opening to nothing beyond. He secures Mr. Nobody to a tree, patting his neck and whispering a quiet promise that he would be back soon. The horse wouldn’t fit through the small space and Minho needs to be quiet anyway. 

He brings his weapons with him in case he needs to use them, dropping to his knees once he finds the opening and having to remove his hat as he starts to crawl through it. He plummets into momentary darkness as soon as he’s inside, pricked by thorns and grazing skin against sharp branches. He fights back the urge to hiss in pain as he pushes forward, deeper and deeper into the compact bushes until his palms miss the ground and he stumbles, rolling downhill and falling flat onto his back. 

When he opens his eyes, it’s to the sun blaring right into his face. He becomes aware that there are no trees, no coverage of any greenery from the sun, and he scrambles up onto his knees and rises to his feet in panic. His surroundings are a stark contrast to where he was three minutes ago. Where he would usually be in the safety net of the treeline within the forest, Minho is standing in the middle of an open space, his feet digging into sand. 

He breathes hard, taking in the view, the clearer air and quiet sky. He turns around to see where he had fallen from and from where he stands, Minho could see the steep land that goes uphill, leading to thick, impenetrable forest with towering trees. The plantation surrounding it looks almost like a border, as if to keep things out of where it’s safe. 

Minho is no longer under the protection of that border. 

Fuck, he cusses low under his breath. He bends to pick up the hat he’d dropped, making sure he’s still armed before he grabs a wooden stick that had fallen with him to shove it into the sand, a small marking for when he returns later. Climbing up that steep hill would be a work out, but Minho thinks he’s capable. 

He turns back around to study what he’s about to go into and realises it isn’t a desert, per se, but an entirely abandoned beach. He’s far away from the water but close enough to hear it splashing as waves crash against the shore. Minho smiles as he tries to regulate his breathing, admiring the view that’s been stolen from him for so long. He wonders if the waters are safe to swim in or if the Arhajians have poisoned it too. 

He ignores the shoreline for now and makes his way over to the boardwalk. There are shops lining along the boardwalk, which is a good start for Minho to take. This place looks completely void of people and Arhajians, which means he has to be extra careful and look out for surprises. There could possibly be Arhaj creatures lurking around too. Their reptiles are known to stay close to water and Minho doesn’t even want to start thinking about their giant critters. 

Far behind these beachfront stores, Minho could make out fallen buildings, skyscrapers that used to be offices and apartments. He wonders just how deep the forest is to keep the sanctuary safe, wonders if they had purposely bordered the forest so no one gets out into this abandoned city. His pack must have come from the other side to not have noticed and they have never gone this far out. 

But the city would have to wait to be explored. 

A glance at his wristwatch tells him it’s almost noon and the sun is at its highest. He has to move quickly, in case he bumps into other earthlings or worse, civilian Arhajians. The military shapeshifters follow a certain rule, at the very least, but their civilians don’t care for laws and Minho certainly doesn’t want to get caught by one. He definitely doesn’t want to encounter the hybrid ones that used to roam the streets, half man and half wolf, as if cursed with being stuck. 

If not them, then it’s the Arhaj animals and other creatures. Some of them are humanoid in form, but with the mentality of a mammal. Most of them are out to eat and earthlings aren’t entirely off their diet. Smaller towns are prone to be their nesting spots, and the people have been pushed to live in forests, at least the ones who have survived the apocalypse. 

Most of them, though, in hopes of better lives and security, have decided to follow the rule of the Arhaj king. The majority that makes up entire cities of those people are omegas, marrying themselves off to Arhajian alphas to build a new earth, a new planet ruled by the king. Minho would rather die. 

As omega, Minho’s sense of smell is an advantage. The alphas of earth cannot smell an omega’s pheromones, though they could still sense when an omega is in heat. Minho’s ability to sniff out something amiss is truly something he uses to keep them safe, to be aware of everything around them. For now, this place is clear of any potential threat, so Minho sets out to work. 

He goes into the first shop along the boardwalk. The front door is unlocked, likely because the owner had abandoned it when the Arhajians first came to earth. Upon entering the shop, Minho learns that it’s a souvenir store, displaying tote bags that say ‘I love Busan’, stocked up on keychains and keepsakes Minho doesn’t find the use for. Still, he goes further into the backroom to see what he can find. 

Inside the storeroom of some sort, he’s startled with a jump by his own reflection in the mirror that greets him as soon as he opens the door. He takes a single look at himself, dressed in all black, a stolen vest and jacket and a pair of jeans he had looted from a wardrobe in an abandoned house not too long ago. His dark hair is a little grown and he thinks it’s time for another trim. He’s fit, for someone living in a world that’s hardly habitable, and if you ignore the bags under his eyes then he’s considered healthy-looking. Besides, there really isn’t much to do besides keeping the sanctuary livable and working out. 

The storeroom stinks of mold. There’s a plastic bowl on the small table, a handbag and a few packs of tissue paper. Minho rummages through the bag and finds a wallet in it, ignoring the cards and taking the wad of cash even though money is not of much use these days. There’s nothing else to take, however, so he steals four keychains off the display table and slips them inside his bag before moving onto the next shop.

The next couple of stores are the same. They are mostly shops selling souvenirs for tourists and Minho scans through some of them but lingers in a clothes shop to grab a couple of t-shirts and pants for the pack and himself. He tries not to take too many things at once, in the case that he needs to make a run for it. Maybe next time he will take Changbin here with him.

The last few shops seem to be food stalls, which feels like a jackpot, because the canned foods on the shelves are fully stocked and untouched. Minho makes a small noise of victory as he goes inside and starts packing up the food he finds. Most of them are probably outdated, but canned foods usually last longer than their expiry dates and he can only hope these are edible. He stuffs them into his bag and moves on to the next shop, where he finds bottled salt and sugar, a few more spices he hadn’t had the luxury to enjoy in a few years now. 

He cusses when he drops a plastic bottle of paprika, freezing in place for a moment in case it had attracted unwanted company. When he thinks it’s safe to move, Minho crouches down to pick it up. It’s then that something shiny glimmers from under the shelf and, against his better judgment, Minho reaches to pick it up.

It’s a ring. 

It’s just a simple band, really, but it’s shiny like it’s newly polished and at the centre sits an unfamiliar symbol. It looks like a barren tree of some sort. It’s pretty and vintage and Minho shouldn’t keep it but he thinks Jisung would absolutely love to keep it in his collection so he smiles to himself and slips it onto his pointer finger.

The familiar screech of a wyvern has him gasping in shock and his surprise knocks him onto his ass. It’s too close for it to be good. His panic builds too quickly for his body to register it, brain gears spinning overtime just to think and it doesn’t even matter that his tailbone stings from the force of his fall. He moves to get to his feet but the sound of an unfamiliar voice coming from behind him gets an embarrassing surprised cry out of Minho. 

“It’s not nice to steal someone else’s food, you know?”

Minho half expects it to be another earthling; he’d stolen from their stash and he’s about to face horrible consequences, but when he looks up to see who had spoken, there’s no doubt that his fate is far worse than death. 

It’s a fucking Arhajian.

It’s obviously a male and it’s obviously not an earthling, because his eyes are silver, almost white, and his hair matches the colour, with thin black strips framing his face. It’s styled back and tucked behind his ear, long enough to reach his nape. When he smiles, his sharp canines press against his plush bottom lip. There’s a dimple on his cheek. He’s dressed in black too, though his fabric looks much more expensive than Minho’s. He’s covered up to his neck and wears a long coat as an outer layer, as if it isn’t summer and the sun isn’t killing him. 

It isn’t, Minho blatantly remembers; Arhajians don’t feel heat. They walk through fire and fly on wyvernback. This creature could look like a winter runway model in the middle of July and somehow that pisses Minho off even more. 

Minho wants to say it’s not nice to steal someone else’s planet in response to the Arhajian’s comment, but he doesn’t see how that would benefit him. His nose crinkles at the onslaught of nutmeg and orange blossom scent that’s radiating off the creature, too overpowering and overwhelmingly alpha. 

“If you’re gonna kill me, please make it quick.” 

The Arhajian blinks at him, and then he laughs. 

Minho frowns up at the creature, at the eerily human sound of his laughter. It doesn’t go with his inhuman features. He looks like he’d come straight out of the fantasy books Minho used to read as a kid. He’d expected his laugh to sound just as alien. 

“I’m not killing you,” the creature says, offering a hand out for Minho to take. “I’m gonna need my ring back though.”

Minho’s gaze flicks down to the ring he’d put on and he’s never in his life moved as quickly as he does when he takes it off and raises it to the Arhajian. Instead of taking the ring, the creature circles a hand around his wrist and lifts him up to his feet with ease, his strength clearly surpassing Minho’s. 

Instinctively, like any sane earthling, Minho steps back even though his arm remains outstretched so the Arhajian could take his ring back. The creature looks amused as he holds out his hand, palm up, and Minho drops the ring onto it. 

The shapeshifter tilts his head after putting the ring back onto his finger, as if questioning as he leans a little closer and inhales. It makes Minho’s heart beat a little quicker. “Is that ozone in your scent? Jasmine? Rosewood. Ah, orris too. That’s interesting. I’ve never met an omega that smells like you.”

Minho can’t smell himself so he couldn’t confirm it even if he wanted to, not that he does. Why would he let one of them figure out his scent anyway? But now he knows an Arhajian alpha has the same sense of smell as earthling omegas and now the chances of him never getting caught by one has slimmed to zero. He’s never encountered one this close, and that’s probably why he’s still alive, but that might change soon. 

“Don’t take me back to the capital,” Minho manages to croak out almost pathetically. He should have listened to Changbin and stuck to their usual route. Now his pack won’t be fed and Minho would die, or worse: become this Arhajian’s omega wife. He can’t think of a fate worse than that. “Please.”

“Chan!” Another voice joins them, distant and faint but clear enough for Minho to catch. He assumes it’s the creature’s name, by the way he reacts to it. Chan. 

Chan reaches forward and Minho jumps back, ready to fight, but the shapeshifting wolf simply smiles at him and grabs something off the shelf behind Minho. He hands it over with a wolfish grin and says, “Personal favourite. For you.”

He shoves it into Minho’s hand and then he walks out the front door. Stunned into silence, Minho follows him quietly, making sure to stay hidden from sight. Outside on the open beach, he sees the same wyvern that’s been flying across his sanctuary. Its size is almost as big and wide as the beach, dark scales make up its entire body. Its front limbs are attached to its wings, black claws digging into sand and its strong, thick tail swings at its back, waiting. When it turns his head, Minho sees its hollowed eyes, lit by an internal blue fire. Its horns are as black and sharp as its claws, wings almost double its body length. 

It opens its mouth and the same screech fills the entire space. 

Mesmerised by this sight, so close Minho thinks he’s dreaming, he stays crouched behind the window and watches as the Arhajian, Chan, walks up to the wyvern and only then does he notice three other Arhajians waiting for Chan. They are all dressed similarly, black clothes covering their necks and a long coat to complement their look. Two of them are white-haired, long enough to touch their waists, while the other one has shorter black hair. All of their eyes flash silver whenever they glance back at the shop Minho is in. 

Chan looks back and meets Minho’s gaze. He doesn’t do or say anything that gives away Minho’s location to his companions but he makes sure Minho is looking as he climbs onto the wyvern’s back and it flaps its wings to bring them up into the air. Minho breathes only after his three companions are gone too, each one on their own wyvern, smaller but still as terrifying. 

And then Minho runs. 

-

The personal favourite that Chan placed in his hand turns out to be canned peaches. Minho gets back to the sanctuary well before the sun is down, which surprises Changbin, but if the alpha wondered why he was flushed red from running, he didn’t ask. 

The experience feels surreal and Minho can’t find it in himself to say a word about it to his pack. He can’t find the words to speak at all, so he spends the next couple hours cooped up in his room trying to articulate what the fuck just happened to him. He goes back outside and hands the wad of cash to Changbin and tells him he found a spot. The alpha will surely pull him away tonight to ask his questions, but for now he goes to the shops and buys the pack fresh meat for dinner and necessary medicine to treat Seungmin’s ankle. 

Jisung is absolutely delighted with the amount of food Minho brought back. He keeps the canned peach in his room for some unknown reason, wanting to enjoy it for himself when everyone else is asleep and he’s alone. For now, though, he helps Jisung with cooking the pack a meal. Well, he cooks, mostly, on a pot above the wood and fire they lit up with a lighter while Jisung sits on the floor and organises the bottles of seasoning Minho stole at the beach. 

“You smell different,” Jisung says as he gets up to place the bottles onto the counter, shoving his face into Minho’s neck for a sniff. “Is that nutmeg? Orange?”

Minho freezes momentarily, his brain gears turning at a mile an hour as he tries to think of something. Chan didn’t even get close enough for his scent to latch onto Minho, so why is Jisung able to sniff him out? Minho clears his throat and when his eyes catch the bottle of nutmeg in the pile, he reaches to pick it up to show Jisung, as if it’s obviously from there.

“Must have spilled some on me,” He explains with a shrug of his shoulders, scooping a spoonful of gravy to taste. It’s by far the best thing he’s ever made. “Oh, this is good.”

Jisung, easily distracted, perks up as he goes for a taste too. His already round eyes widen as the flavour bursts on his tongue and he takes another spoonful just to leave the kitchen so he could feed it to Seungmin. Relieved that Jisung is off his neck, Minho makes a mental note to take a shower after dinner is cooked. The last thing he wants is for other omegas to start sniffing out his tampered scent, and Minho isn’t quite ready to share his newfound supply market with the rest of the sanctuary. 

After his shower, Jisung sets the table up for dinner and Changbin returns home with more medicine just in time for them to eat together. Seungmin is faring a little better after taking some painkillers for his ankle, but he’s stuck on a wheelchair for now, trying to refill Jisung’s plate while the omega reaches to spoon feed him. 

While the four of them are tight as a pack, Minho is much too aware that both Changbin and Seungmin share a special bond and the two of them have taken Jisung as their omega. Minho is okay with this, really. He loves all three of them with every fiber of his being, but there hasn’t been anything romantic on his part, and even though the three are in some sort of a relationship, they have never casted Minho aside. 

They work well together. Two years after escaping their infected town, Changbin’s parents fell sick and passed, leaving only the two of them to continue on their endless journey. Along the way, they had met Seungmin, abandoned by his own pack because of an injury and Minho had willingly welcomed him to join them. It takes another three years of just the three of them before they met Jisung, alone and in heat and so small. It was also Minho who had suggested taking him in, and Changbin and Seungmin had agreed after thorough discussion. 

It has been the four of them for five whole years now. They had only stopped traveling for a year, after the sanctuary’s leader, Taeyong, decided to take them in last year. Minho can’t say he doesn’t miss the constant travel, living as a nomad, but being able to settle down feels nice. 

Minho is seated now on a chopped off tree trunk in front of their shared cabin, melting wax on top of live fire to make into candles since they’re quickly running out and getting anything done in the dark is futile. Electricity runs on limited power where they are, so Taeyong sets a rule that it should only be used when absolutely necessary. 

He’s pouring melted wax into animal-shaped silicone molds that he found some time ago when Changbin joins him, carrying with him a bunch of wooden sticks and his favourite dagger, likely to work on carving out his spears for hunting fishes by the lake. 

“Where did you go today, hyung?” Changbin asks casually, just as Minho expected. “You came back early and brought so many things. Did something happen?”

Minho considers telling Changbin about the abandoned beach, about the shops he found there, the Arhajian that caught him red handed, but Changbin is a good alpha and his protectiveness would make him stop Minho from going out again. That just can’t do because Minho wants to go back. 

“I just found a new place,” He says as honestly as he could, focusing more on pouring wax into the mold. “It’s not too far away but I didn’t bring enough bags to get more things and I didn’t want to tire out Mr. Nobody.”

Changbin considers this for a moment but he falls silent for a long time, simply carving out the wood in his hand. Minho thinks about going back tomorrow, but the chances of Changbin letting him go is slim. There’s really no reason to, especially since Minho had brought home a lot of things, but there’s a gnawing feeling in his chest that tells him he should go back. 

“I’m going back tomorrow,” He blurts out even though the voice in his head tells him not to. He waits for a response and when Changbin simply looks at him, Minho clears his throat. “I didn’t finish scouting. There might be things we could really use and I don’t want to risk anyone else finding them before me.”

“Okay,” Changbin nods, “I can go with you.”

“I can go alone,” Minho says a little too quickly before he clears his throat again. “I mean, someone should take care of Jisung at home, and I’m familiar with the place, so let me.”

Changbin stops carving, placing the spear down and he looks like he might say something, maybe stop Minho from going anywhere for the next two weeks, but then he says, “Okay. Back before sundown, though.”

Minho smiles and nods, holding back whatever emotion his heart is regulating that would explain the way he wants to cheer. He shouldn’t be this excited about going back out to a place that might be infested, if not by Arhajian beasts then those Arhajian alphas, which is technically worse than having to deal with mindless beasts. But Chan had let him go, hadn’t he?

After making about two more spears, Changbin tells Minho he’s heading to bed and reminds him not to stay up too late. By this time, his candles are half dried and hardened, so he decides to wait a little bit more for them to be completely done. It’s dark out and the wind makes a whistling noise that used to scare Minho when he was younger and paranoid. Now he sits with it, letting the breeze blow into his face, blowing his dark hair in whichever direction. 

It’s chilly, but not too cold that he would need another layer of clothing. He’s dressed in a hoodie big enough to be cozy and it’s probably just about the perfect temperature for a good sleep, but Minho stays outside just for a moment longer. The sanctuary is quiet and the children they have are all likely tucked into bed. The silence is something Minho is so used to that the slightest sound of leaves rustling has him on edge.

No one goes past the gate after sundown and no one is allowed behind the treeline. Minho’s breathing quickens as he grows hyperfocused on what might be lurking and watching. His human eyes can’t possibly make out anything in the dark but he squints and focuses at a particular spot beyond the trees where he had heard the noise. 

There, standing within the shadow of night, is a pair of silver eyes. 

Minho jumps back, ready to leap and call for help, but those eyes move with him until its body steps into the light and Minho sees a wolf. 

Too large to be a normal wolf, too human to be just an animal. Minho stops breathing.

It doesn’t growl or make any sound at all. It looks right at Minho, observing, watching, sniffing the air like it’s trying to learn the environment, to memorise the sanctuary’s nook and cranny. It registers a little slowly that it must be a shapeshifter; a Arhajian has found the opening to their safe space and now they will have to go on the run again. 

Minho should tell someone. He should call Changbin and have the alpha chase it away, maybe tell Taeyong and his leading pack that their sanctuary has been compromised. But then the breeze blows in his face again and Minho catches a whiff of nutmeg and orange blossom, of sage and oakmass. 

Chan. 

It makes sense for it to be the very creature Minho met a few hours ago. The wolf’s eyes are silver like Chan’s, his fur pale, the moon casting a silverish glow to his greyish coat, just like Chan’s hair. For the second time today, Minho finds himself questioning if he should be afraid. Every fibre of his being tells him he should be, but his heart has its own voice, and it says there’s nothing to be afraid of. 

As if proving his point, the wolf drops something from its jaw and pushes it forward with its snout before he retreats back into the darkness. It takes Minho another five minutes to move again and once he’s certain the wolf wouldn’t be there to snatch him into the forest, Minho approaches to see what it had left behind. 

He crouches to poke at the heap of fur on the ground and rises to his feet again as he lifts it up to get a better look. It’s a fur coat in the same shade of grey that the wolf has and Chan must have heavily scented it because it smells of nutmeg and orange. Minho considers for a moment before pressing his face into the soft fur, inhaling the heady scent and nuzzling it against his cheek before he pulls away and blinks, staring at the coat with a smile curling at his lips.

He looks around him to see if anyone had seen what he’d seen but finds that he’s alone. He should probably leave the coat on the ground, maybe toss it further into the forest. He’s not familiar with how Arhajians go about things, but it’s common knowledge that alphas are meant to provide their omegas with living necessities; like food, or fur coats to keep them warm. 

But those are things an alpha does for his mate, or when he tries to court an omega he’s caught interest in. Minho knows taking it means he’s accepting a Arhajian’s courtship offer. It goes against everything he’s believed in, everything his pack has fought for but his body is reacting the way it has never reacted before and he could feel the embarrassing discomfort between his legs that’s telling of his own interest, of his omega’s natural response to an alpha it likes. 

It’s the nature of things, an inner voice whispers to him, and for the first time in his life, Minho understands why those omegas chose to live in the capital; their bodies had simply chosen their mates and their mates just happened to be Arhajian.

-

He doesn’t go back the next day, or the day after that. He’s nervous, somehow. Leaving the coat isn’t an option because he has had the best sleep in ten years after adding it to his nest, but accepting it means he’s willingly letting Chan court him and he barely knows the guy! Said guy being an otherworldly creature and a part of a group of perpetrators that has made his life a living hell is also a big, massive reason not to accept it. 

And if he does anyway, what would he tell his pack? What would Changbin say? Would he kick Minho out? Would Minho have to live in the capital like all of those omegas he looked down upon for choosing to mate with the enemy?

With these fears instilled in his brain, Minho keeps the coat safe in his nest and doesn’t allow anyone within his safe space. An omega’s nest is sacred, even in a pack as small as theirs, and if he doesn’t give them the permission to enter then they would respect it. His coat would remain a secret. 

A week passes without any more sightings of the wolf, though Chan stays in his thoughts for every waking moment and visits him in his dreams. Every morning, his black-scaled wyvern flies over the sanctuary and Minho wonders if Chan stays on wyvernback sometimes to look down at him from high up in the sky. 

When Changbin asks if Minho plans to go back out there, he tells the alpha he will when he’s ready. But one week becomes two, and Seungmin isn’t getting any better. His bad ankle has gotten worse; the skin that tore when his bone broke through looks infected, maybe even tampered with whatever dirt that must have stuck to his wounds on his way back. The money Minho found is of no use if their medicinal supply doesn’t even have what Seungmin needs. Minho would have to travel out again or tell Changbin where the beach is, and the latter just isn’t ideal. 

He rides out just after dawn, when the sun has just risen and the air is still cool. Minho forgoes the coat, leaving it behind in his nest and locking his door so nobody tries to go in. He couldn’t find any clean t-shirt to wear so he grabs the first thing he finds in his bundle, which happens to be a black shirt and a black blazer in case he stays out too late and the beach becomes cold. He doesn’t forget his hat, somehow convinced that having it on his person would make everything better. 

Changbin offers to go with him, but Minho tells him to stay by Seungmin’s side. 

Mr. Nobody seems to remember the route for some unknown reason, because he slows to a trot the closer they are to the opening, which Minho had completely forgotten to mark in his haste to get back to camp. Somehow Mr. Nobody knows exactly where it is. Minho treats him with a carrot and a pet to his muzzle before he slips into the crawl space. 

Like last time, Minho misses the step and rolls downhill once again, this time falling in a heap onto his left arm. It hurts like he’s broken it, but when he gets up onto his knees and tries to move his arm, it follows his muscle, which means he hasn't broken a bone. Thank god. 

He shakes out the soreness and bends his elbow just to test out his movement as he rises up to his feet. He picks up his hat and is about to put it back on when he finally notices what’s sitting on the open beach; Chan’s black wyvern. 

And it’s staring right at him. 

Minho stays frozen in place, wondering if this is the end for him. Would he be bathed in blue fire the moment he moves a muscle? Would eating him even taste like anything for a monster as big as this wyvern? He loves Seungmin and he would die for that alpha but he hopes Seungmin lights up a lantern every year to celebrate his sacrifice. Fuck. 

The wyvern seems to be resting, on its belly and loafing like a cat while its wings flap slow and casual against the wind. It watches as Minho moves, its eyes ablazed with blue fire and Minho can’t be certain that it has its attention on him, but he could feel its stare. Minho crosses the boardwalk to reach the last few shops and he probably should slip into one of them to get away from the wyvern, as pointless as it may be, but instead he stays rooted in place as he stares at the creature. 

It’s not the most hideous creature he has ever seen. He had fought something far more vile last year when he had gone out for supplies and got caught in a nest of something so unfathomably ugly, Minho still remembers its face if he closes his eyes. It had been a hybrid of a bull-headed creature that’s somehow merged with the body of an ape. Its face was mangled and half formed, flesh and tissue exposed, an eyeball missing and its jaw opened almost as wide as its head.

Defeating it was pure luck on Minho’s side; he’d acted on impulse in an attempt to get it away from chasing Jisung and he had climbed onto its back and cut through its throat. Monster or not, Minho learned, nothing survives without a head. 

This wyvern is almost beautiful in its own way, if monsters could be beautiful. It feels surreal to be looking into its bottomless eyes and still be alive, but Minho is breathing and the wyvern looks at peace, like a cat enjoying the sun. 

It’s the most unreal thing Minho has ever said. 

He jumps back in surprise when the creature moves, ready to make a run for it as it turns its head and opens its mouth. Its jaw unhinges, showing off possibly thousands of razor sharp teeth, and Minho realises belatedly that it’s yawning. 

Feeling silly for being so jumpy, Minho laughs softly to himself, muttering quietly. “You are one ugly motherfucker.”

“That’s not very nice,” A voice comes out of absolutely nowhere, effectively scaring Minho once again. 

He grips onto the railing of the boardwalk to break his fall, nearly slipping onto his ass again like the first time Chan startled him. He cusses, the words coming out of him instinctively, “Fuck! You really should stop scaring me.”

Chan offers him a wolfish grin, absolutely unapologetic as he approaches, closing the distance between them and engulfing Minho in the scent of nutmeg and a hint of grapefruit. Minho tries not to back away, thinking doing so would offend the Arhajian, even though he shouldn’t care whether or not he offends their kind. Chan’s smile falters and his eyebrows cinch into a frown. 

“Your coat,” Chan says, “You’re not wearing?”

His accent slips, Minho notices. It’s nothing he recognises, just has a weird lilt to it that must be because his common language isn’t something from earth. Realisation dawns on Chan’s features and Minho quickly realises that Chan must think he had rejected the coat he gifted him with. Minho is sweating. His hair is matted to his forehead and he must look gross, which is unfair because he doesn’t think Chan sweats at all.

“It’s hot,” He tells the shapeshifter, gesturing towards himself and then flushing when Chan’s gaze drops to his chest, the buttons of his shirt undone. “I can’t wear the coat or I’ll die.”

Chan seems to take a moment to understand this before a sheepish look crosses his features. “I’m sorry. I forget your kind aren’t immune to heat. But, you accepted my gift? I sewed it myself.”

“That’s your fur?” Minho asks out of curiosity and Chan looks almost sheepish as he nods. It makes sense now why the coat smells like him, even after the weeks that had passed. They really should talk about this, however. Minho can’t believe he’s about to have this conversation with the enemy. “Do you really think it’s normal to court someone you don’t even know? You don’t even know my name!”

Chan blinks, “What is your name?”

Minho’s lips part to speak and then closes. He clears his throat. “I’m Minho.”

“My name is Chan,” The alpha says with a dimpled smile, his long coat fluttering behind him in the wind. “We know each other’s names. Is it normal for you now?”

Oh, he has a headache. Minho’s brain feels like it might explode. “I think your idea of courting is different from mine. We are literally different species. I- I’m human and you’re-”

“I am from Arhaj, yes,” Chan nods his head, still wearing an amused smile. “But I like you, I like your face. You’re a very pretty omega, Minho.”

Heat spreads at Minho’s cheeks, sure to redden his ears. He doesn’t think the word pretty is befitting of him, and he has never heard anyone describe him as pretty, but hearing it from Chan, who is undoubtedly and otherworldly beautiful, makes his heart feel a little warm. Minho should scold himself for nearly folding over simple sweet words. He runs fingers through his damp hair and groans inwardly. He feels sticky with sweat and how Chan still finds him pretty is beyond him. 

His omega is all too-welcoming, though, too accepting, the way it preens and craves to be closer. Minho shouldn’t fight it, but Minho also has the rational mind and does the thinking for them for as long as he’s been alive. “You and I are from different worlds. You can’t court me because there is no future for us. I won’t live in the capital with you. I have a pack, my own family. And- I don’t even know you.”

He expects Chan to be angry, maybe shift into his wolf form and actually eat Minho, but Chan simply nods his head, his lips still stretched into a smile. “Where I’m from, two mates can be together and learn about each other along the way. We offer a part of us to a potential mate, like the coat, and hope it’s accepted. My alpha tells me you are my mate. Does your omega not tell you the same?”

It does. Minho knows it does, but Minho also knows the consequences, the sacrifices he would have to make if he followed his omega’s intuitions. “Well, where I’m from, two people get to know each other before they decide whether or not they like each other. And even then, it would take a long time to know if we are good enough for each other to be mates.”

Chan lets out a chuckle, though he does nod his head in understanding. “Your people practice strangely, Minho, but I wouldn’t mind spending time with you so you would know me enough to want to be my mate.”

Minho’s lips part again and then he huffs. Saying no is already difficult as it is, especially now that his omega is adamant that he act on these bodily reactions. He wonders just how exactly to explain to Chan that whatever connection he wants them to end up with is entirely forbidden. Minho would never leave his pack to live in the capital with a Arhajian mate, and he doubts Chan would leave his luxuries for Minho. 

Chan seems to be able to sense his distress, however, because he changes the subject when he speaks again. “You came out here for something. Is there anything I can do to help?”

A beat of silence passes between them as Minho considers just how open he should be with Chan. Telling him what he needs would be too much information on his injured packmate, but if Chan has been out here for a while then he might have an inkling on how to cure Seungmin. 

At last, Minho decides saving Seungmin’s life is far more important than anything else. “My friend isn’t recovering from his broken ankle. I think it’s infected. I just need to find something that might kill the infection so he can start to heal.”

“Did his bone cut through?” Chan asks seriously and when Minho nods his head, the Arhajian presses his lips together before he nods to himself and gestures for Minho to wait. 

He watches as Chan jogs up to his wyvern and then it’s too far away to see what he’s doing. Minho is too nervous to follow, to be closer to the giant creature. It could eat Minho even if Chan tells him not to. It could even eat Chan if it wants to, so Minho decides it would do good if he goes to find possible supplies in one of the shops instead. 

He avoids the shop that Chan first found him in and breaks into the next one. It seems to be a convenience store once, which also feels like a jackpot to Minho, because like all the other shops, it’s been left untouched. With a smile on his lips, Minho retrieves all the small bags he stuffed into his satchel and sets out to grab all the things he needs. 

He beelines towards the first aid aisle, picking up as many boxes of painkillers as he could, antiseptic, bandaids and ointments. He stuffs an extra bag full of more canned food, chicken and tuna and even fruits. The snack aisle looks absolutely tempting, even though the packets and boxes are covered in cobwebs and dust, but those don’t have a long shelf life and Minho doubts any of it is edible now after ten years since the world ended. 

Still, he checks them out just to remember his younger days. He smiles as he picks up each one and stares longingly at the pictures and design; a chocolate bar he didn’t appreciate enough, a pepero box he wished he’d had when his schoolmate had offered it to him that very last day, a packet of candy his mother used to get for him as a reward for passing his spelling tests. He tears open the packet just out of curiosity and pockets a few pieces of the candy into his blazer. 

The bell rings when the front door opens and Minho looks up to see Chan walk in. Out of instinct, he looks out the window to see that the wyvern is still resting and there is no trace of the other three that Minho saw two weeks ago. 

“Those are awful,” Chan says as he picks up one of the candies from the shelf, clicking his tongue. 

Minho is beyond offended. It was his favourite candy. “It didn’t use to be. It was good before it expired.”

Chan’s smile widens, as if making Minho angry tickles him. “I think it didn’t expire until a year after we came. Maybe I just don’t like it?”

After we came. Right, Minho thinks. A year after they destroyed Minho’s entire world, quite literally. He feels that familiar tinge of anger in his chest, one he has tried to temper down for years and years. He hates being angry, because all the emotions accumulated within his chest usually leave him in tears and Minho hasn’t cried in a long time. 

“Were you the first ones that came?” He asks, blinking back the burn in his eyes as he turns to look at Chan. He doesn’t know if he should be angry, or if it's ten years too late to do anything about it. 

Chan looks solemn, his scent soured as he nods. “I was one of the first that came to stop the king, yes. There were not many of us, though, as you can tell.”

Oh. Minho blinks, trying to understand what Chan is telling him. It’s news to him that there had been an effort to stop the invasion, at least on their part. Minho knows the earth’s military and government had come together to try but even the modern weapons couldn’t take down giant wyverns and horrific monsters tearing through the cities. 

“I didn’t know there were some of you that tried to stop it,” He admits aloud, his voice coming off softer than he’d intended. “Your friends the other day… They are your pack?”

Chan nods again, “We are the only ones left. There were about ten of us. It wasn’t enough to start a rebellion, but our leader said it would be worth trying.”

“Why?” Minho asks, curiosity peaking.

“Arhaj is a beautiful planet,” Chan explains and his smile reminds Minho of that same nostalgic longing he feels looking at his childhood snacks. “The sky is always yellow and we have three moons that stay and protect us. Nalvur, the king, was angry at the moons for taking his right as a deity. He had a massive group of followers who would give up lives for his cause. So when he discovered the portal to earth, he came with intentions to take over, to be his own god. Me and my people tried to stop him, but we were greatly outnumbered, even though our wyverns were stronger and bigger than his troops’.”

Minho listens and lets this new information register in his brain. “You said- Does Arhaj still exist?”

“I would like to think so.”

“Why don’t you go back?” 

Chan smiled almost sadly at Minho, “Nalvur destroyed the portals as soon as the last of his troops came to earth. We couldn’t get help and we couldn’t get out.”

Minho’s heart squeezes a little, pained over someone else’s sorrow. “You’ve been stuck here for ten years.”

“Not a fate as terrible as yours,” Chan says but his voice carries remorse, as if he himself had planned the invasion. He looks as though he has more to say but he perks up at nothing, likely sensing something Minho couldn’t see, hear or smell. He slips a hand inside his coat and retrieves a small pouch, taking Minho’s hand to place it in his palm. “For your friend. Just a sprinkle over his wound.”

Minho frowns as he looks down at his hand, the black cloth made into a pouch that feels warm in his palms. When he looks up at Chan, his silver eyes turn into bottomless blacks for a few seconds, causing Minho to jump in surprise. “Your eyes-”

Chan shakes his head, “I will tell you more when we see each other again, Minho. You must hurry. Take the wyvernscale with you but use it wisely. Balance is imperative, remember that.”

He doesn’t get to say a word before Chan is ushering him out of the store, the bells ringing as they exit and Minho nearly trips over his own feet as the Arhajian gives him a gentle shove. He looks stern, his black eyes a mirror of the wyvern now standing on its hind legs, screeching into the air. Panic stops Minho from asking any more questions as he takes off into a run, the small bundle of wyvernscale dust warm in his hands. 

Minho doesn’t look back until he’s uphill again, one foot into the opening that would take him back to camp. He glances to see that the wyvern is in the air now, blue fire streaming straight from its throat. He can’t see what it's firing at but there’s another sound coming from the abandoned city, too shrill to be a wyvern, too loud to be a small creature. 

He wonders if Chan fights in the form of his human features or if he turns into the wolf that gave Minho his coat. 

It’s just before sundown that Minho reaches their cabin, choosing to go on foot instead of adding too much weight on Mr. Nobody, who he lets carry the bags of canned food and medicine. Minho keeps the small pouch in his pocket, warm against his leg and by the time he walks through the gate of the sanctuary, it feels as though it's burned a mark into his skin. 

He passes by the gatekeeper on duty, who happens to be Jungwoo, a member of Taeyong’s pack. They’re the same age and had gone to the same elementary school together so meeting again earlier this year had felt like something hopeful. Jungwoo nods at him in greeting after closing the gate, approaching in that nosy but friendly way he does as he checks out what’s inside the bags Minho brought home. 

“Where are you even getting this good stuff?” He asks as he picks up one of the canned fruits Minho took from the shelves. “I haven’t had these in years.”

Minho smiles, exhausted from his walk as he leads Mr. Nobody towards their cabin, his words teasing. “You can have that, Jungwoo. But don’t tell anyone else or they’ll all start to like me.”

Jungwoo scoffs and waves him away with a quiet thanks and Minho is more than happy to head home. There are a total of fifteen cabins in this closed space, one just big enough to house three or four people, and he’s pretty sure it used to be rented out for school camps back then. They had built up walls around the place to keep things out and there are talks about building a ceiling protection so anything with wings can’t get inside.

He’s just let Mr. Nobody off his saddle when he hears the thump coming from inside the house and Minho is quick to move, climbing up the steps to the porch and opening the door. He sees Jisung hovering over Seungmin on the floor and his thought immediately goes to the pouch in his pocket. Seungmin is groaning in pain and Jisung is close to tears so Minho does the first thing he could think of. 

“Move, Jisung,” He tells the other omega as gently as he could, taking the bundled powder from his pocket and carefully untying the knot. He hears Jisung ask what it is but Minho has no time to talk, not when Seungmin is crying when he hasn’t cried in years, not when his ankle looks the worst it’s been since he had broken and fractured it. 

He remembers Chan telling him that a sprinkle of it would be enough, so Minho unwraps the bandage around Seungmin’s leg and grabs a pinch of the powder to scatter it over the wound. Nothing happens in the next thirty seconds and he doesn’t see the magical sparkles he had expected to see, but Seungmin stops whimpering, blinking in confusion as he stares at his leg. 

“Hyung, what-?” Seungmin wipes at his nose and tries to move his ankle, gasping when it rotates the way it should. 

Minho finds himself grinning at this miracle and then he watches as the wound stitches back up, the cells and tissues healing in real time and the redness around the wound fades into the colour of his skin. Seungmin is completely healed. 

“What did you use on him?” Jisung asks, his voice a quiet wonder, awed and in disbelief. 

Minho looks down at the powder in the bundle, black like the wyvern at the beach and belatedly realises that Chan did this for him. He looks up at Jisung and then at an equally surprised Seungmin before he catches a whiff of Changbin’s scent and turns to see that the alpha is also at the door. He can’t help the smile that forms on his lips. 

“Minho, what was that?” Changbin asks. 

Minho pockets it again, his voice just loud enough for his pack to hear. “Wyvernscale.”

-

The downside to magical healing is that the people will ask questions Minho can’t answer. 

When the rest of the sanctuary notices that Seungmin is walking perfectly normal again, they start to ask what exactly Minho had used to heal him. He hates to lie but he simply cannot tell them it’s wyvernscale without having to tell them about Chan and the supply spot he’d found all on his own. He may be selfish for this, but Minho thinks he’s allowed to be. 

He tells them it was just something he found while hunting for supplies and had used it all up because he didn’t know if it would work. They probably don’t believe him, but Minho stands his ground on this story he’d made up. He would keep this sliver of hope for himself, at least for now. 

With Seungmin healed, Minho knows the three of them want to spend the night together. They’re allowed intimacy, of course, but Minho doesn’t want to be in his room next to theirs and listen to them the entire night. They don’t say it but Minho knows his pack, so he takes the initiative to get out of the cabin and enjoy the night by the fire outside. 

He grabs his fur coat with him since the night has grown a little cold, a book he has reread for the fifth time, and logs of wood so he could set up his fire. He doesn’t like doing it out front where the other packs could see him, so he opts for the small space behind the cabin where he’s secluded from the rest of the sanctuary. 

Starting the fire only takes him a minute and before long it’s big enough to keep him warm, the light just bright enough so he could read in the dark. He sits himself on a foldable lounge chair they’d found during one of their supply runs, making himself comfortable as he leans back to enjoy the night while his pack mates, well, mate. It makes him feel just a little lonely. 

Reading makes him sleepy, however, and he’s rereading this page for the tenth time when a rustling in the wooded area catches his attention. Minho freezes in his chair, closing his book as he stares into the darkness of the forest. Unlike the first time, Minho isn’t afraid. If anything, he’s hoping to see Chan. 

When the pair of silver eyes appear between the trees, Minho wraps the coat tighter around himself and holds a hand out as if to invite the wolf closer. His large paws rustle up the dried leaves on the ground and Minho smiles as he steps out from within the shadow. Chan is bigger than any wolves Minho has ever seen, standing just a breadth shorter than Minho is at full height. He limps a little as he walks and Minho realises he must have gotten hurt in his fight. 

“You’re hurt,” He says aloud, just enough for Chan to hear him and he’s about to get up to see if he could find something to remedy it when Chan makes a whimpering sound and nudges Minho back down with his muzzle. Figuring he would be even warmer against Chan’s wolf, he gets up anyway and puts the chair aside so he could sit on the ground, leaning back against Chan’s warm body. 

His nose is damp when it brushes against Minho’s palm, laid on his belly now as he nuzzles against Minho’s fur coat. And then Minho hears it, a whisper in his conscience as if Chan is speaking to him. 

Why are you sad?

Minho blinks, eyes wide as his head turns to meet Chan’s silver eyes. Telepathic communication has so far only existed in fiction, but Minho should have known it’s the most normal thing to happen, considering the world is overtaken by alien shapeshifting wolves and his best friend has just been healed by wyvernscale. Still, it amuses him so much that he can’t help but laugh. 

“Is that you speaking to me?”

I cannot speak in this form, so yes, the wolf bumps his nose against Minho’s hand again and starts to make a soft, pleased purring when Minho starts rubbing along his muzzle. You’re sad.

Minho hums, leaning back so he could snuggle up against the wolf’s giant neck as he opens his book again. “I’m not sad. I’m just a little lonely.”

Chan’s head moves towards the cabin and he sniffs the air before shaking his head, likely smelling what the other three of his pack members are up to, causing Minho to laugh. Chan huffs and lays his chin down onto the back of his paws. Minho hums to himself, hugging the book to his chest as he snuggles up against Chan’s thick coat of fur. 

He falls asleep feeling a little less lonely and a lot more warm, dreaming of wolves and dragons and a silver-eyed alpha with a dimpled smile.

-

“Why did nobody go to the beach?” Minho asks as he draws random shapes into the sand beneath him. It’s warm from the sun but the wind that comes with the ocean waves gives him a cool breeze, and it drowns him with Chan’s nutmeg and orange scent. “It was untouched when I first came here.”

Meeting Chan has become some sort of a routine for Minho. He’s seated on the sand by the beach now, two months after he’d used the wyvernscale on Seungmin’s ankle, with Chan next to him and the wyvern behind them. He doesn’t get to go out to the beach as often, maybe only once a week, so getting to see Chan in person is rare, but Chan shows up in his wolf form at least three times a week. His nights have become something Minho looks forward to. They don’t talk as much as he’d like, but staying warm by Chan’s thick coat of fur feels nice and sometimes he lets Chan tell him stories of Arhaj through their telepathic connection. If the pack is wondering why he likes staying out late behind the cabin, they never ask. 

He had also learned at some point that the wyvern has a name and that it’s a female who has birthed many wyvern babies back in Arhaj. Her name is Malena and Chan is soul-bonded to the creature in ways Minho has yet to understand. The ring Minho had found that first day keeps Chan and Malena connected, keeps him bound to the wyvern like master and pet, except Chan is adamant Malena has more power than he does. 

Chan smiles now as he nods towards Malena, who is sunbathing behind them like a cat on a Sunday. He laughs softly before he speaks up, “She’s not the friendliest creature. One tends to avoid a place where a wyvern likes to enjoy the sun.”

A giggle slips past Minho’s lips, bumping his shoulder against Chan’s. “She hasn’t tried to eat me.”

“She knows before I do that you are my mate,” Chan tells him, his own lips curled into a teasing smile. “But even if you aren’t, Malena doesn’t eat humans. She goes for bigger creatures. They keep her full for a couple of days.”

“Like the one that hurt you? That night you came to see me?”

Chan nods, “It was a herlua, but I think you would know it as a chimera. It was the biggest one I’d ever seen.”

He only vaguely knows what a chimera is, and that’s only because he has had so much time to read, but it sounds like something he’s glad he never encountered before. He’s happy, more than anything, that Chan had survived it. “I’m glad you’re okay, Chan-ah.”

The Arhajian turns his head then and Minho realises just how close they are sitting, because Chan’s face is merely inches away from him. Chan smiles, his canines exposed as he raises a hand to run fingers through Minho’s hair, gentle and soft. “Malena took care of it, mostly. It got me pretty good though.”

Minho leans into the touch, his body growing familiar with Chan’s warmth. “Does wyvernscale work on you like it did with Seungmin?”

“Mm, not quite,” Chan shakes his head and drops his hand to his lap. Minho tries not to mourn it. “Malena is a part of me, to put it simply. When I took one of her scales, I was also taking a part of me, which was why my eyes did a funny thing, I’m sure you noticed. But wyvernscale dust doesn't heal me like it heals humans. We usually have a healer for that.”

He likes listening to Chan. Minho realises at some point that Chan might be lying about every single thing he has ever told Minho, but he genuinely likes listening to Chan talk. He asks him his many questions and Chan answers every single one of them patiently. There is always a smile or remorse for what Minho’s people had to go through. But Chan talks and talks and talks and Minho listens to every single word. 

He lays back on the sand now and stretches, just because he’s been sitting for a while and his back is killing him, but Chan mirrors the act by laying down next to him and they are so close their shoulders are touching. Chan is warm against him, and the water tickles his feet as it kisses the shore. The orange sun is setting beyond the horizon and the sound of Malena’s breathing reminds him of the white noise he used to listen to. Minho thinks this is the most peaceful he has felt since the world ended ten years ago.

He turns his head to look at the Arhajian, who also turns and meets his gaze. Chan is so otherworldly handsome, sculpted by the moons of his planet and Minho feels insane for wanting. He doesn’t know what he wants, but he wants. He leans closer then but only to roll over so he’s half on top of the alpha, cheek pressed against his shoulder as Chan’s arm goes around him. Chan feels as comfortable as his wolf form feels whenever Minho leans in to snuggle. 

“Malena flies over the sanctuary every day,” He brings up, finally, his curiosity getting the best of him. “Do you watch over me even then?”

Chan hums, fingers giving Minho’s hip a squeeze. “Yes. Malena’s presence keeps the other monsters away. We knew there were people there, and we wanted to keep all of you safe. I’ve only just joined her recently, though. I wanted to see you under the light of the sun too.”

Heat spreads at Minho’s cheeks, warming his ears, and it promptly reminds him that whatever relationship they want to have will only exist in the dark, or in this open but abandoned place, where it’s only the two of them. It somehow makes him both happy and sad at the same time. Minho stays close to Chan, warm against his firm body and he buries his face into the soft tuft of hair at his nape. He inhales Chan’s scent, closing his eyes and letting himself relax in the moment. 

“Do you see me?” He asks, his voice soft against Chan’s neck. “When you’re on Malena’s back every morning, do you find me on the ground?”

“I only see you,” Chan confesses, his voice a deep rumble within his chest. “When I’m in the sky, your light is the brightest and there’s always a pink glow to you that separates you from the others.”

Intrigued, Minho raises his head and rests upon his elbow to look down at Chan’s handsome face. “Like my aura colours? What do the others look like?”

“Aura?” Chan questions, likely not understanding it, but he doesn’t press and answers the question anyway. “It’s hard to see much of anything when you’re high up. My eyesight is not as great as Malena’s. I can spot enemies and beasts to slay, but when it’s just a group of humans, they look like black spots and I don’t focus too much or it takes away my ability to see. But you’re a pink light that’s hard to miss and when I do find you, I focus. Sometimes you were just standing out in front of your cabin.”

Minho laughs, thinking it must be odd to Chan to see him standing there doing nothing, but Minho likes to bask in the morning air and watch as the people of the sanctuary wake up to start their day. He also likes catching the sight of the wyvern flying on top of them, even before he knew it was Chan’s. He sits up then, resting back upon his palms. “You must think I’m silly.”

“I think you’re beautiful,” Chan says, unabashed and always honest. Minho learns Chan has never shied away from speaking his mind. He sits up as well and presses a kiss onto Minho’s shoulder before a hand comes up to run the pads of his fingers down Minho’s bare arm, awed and intrigued, bringing a shiver out of the omega. “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

The smile on Minho’s lips stretches on and on until his cheeks sting and he feels warm all over. He should probably stop seeing Chan altogether, put an end to this budding connection that doesn’t seem to have any good outcome besides selfish desires, but every morning Minho wakes up wishing Chan was there. Every morning he rouses from his nest and wishes Chan was sleeping in it next to him. 

It feels so easy to let himself feel, to let himself succumb to his emotions, to his body’s attractions, but a conscience inside himself reminds him that Chan would never be welcomed into his pack and Minho doesn’t belong in Chan’s. He hangs his head between his shoulders to school his features, to stop the smile that’s threatening to etch itself onto his lips forever. 

“You should stop trying to woo me, Chan-ah,” He says quietly though he couldn’t put a bite to his words, sounding soft instead. “We are friends, right? We can stay friends, can’t we?”

Chan considers this, but he allows space between them before he nods his head. “Friends. We can be friends.”

Minho senses the change in his scent, and immediately the mood sours. He sounds harsh, but he knows he’s asking the real questions. “In what world do you think we’d belong together, really? I will not live in the capital and you are not welcome in my sanctuary.”

“You will not be living in the capital because I do not live there,” Chan reasons, sounding a little sad before he shakes his head and offers Minho a smile. “But we can be friends, Minho, if that’s what you want.”

He rises to his feet and then offers Minho his hand. Minho looks up at him, squinting as the sun threatens to blind him before he takes Chan’s hand to pull himself up. “Is there a monster coming?”

Chan laughs, shaking his head. “No. I want to show you something. Come with me.”

Minho thinks he should probably consider the kind of harm someone like Chan could inflict on him. He’s stronger, has the ability to turn into a massive wolf, has a wyvern as his mode of transport and for a best friend. Chan isn’t even human and Minho really shouldn’t be trusting him blindly, but he smiles anyway and he lets Chan take his hand to pull him along. If he dies tonight, he hopes his pack mates aren’t too sad about it.

He has to break into a slow jog to keep up with Chan as the Arhajian tugs him by his hand, running up until they’re standing so close to Malena Minho could feel the heat against his own body. He wonders if touching her would burn, but then she flattens her front limb that is attached to her wing and Chan climbs onto it before turning to once again offer his hand.

Minho can hardly believe this is happening. He blinks up at Chan, questioning this moment, wondering if he’s dreaming, wondering if he would wake up as soon as he is on the wyvern’s back. Chan’s smile widens and his voice is kind and reassuring when he speaks. 

“I will keep you safe.”

Minho believes him, so he takes his hand and lets himself be pulled up, aided in his climb onto wyvernback. He’s not dressed appropriately for dragon riding, but when will one ever be dressed appropriately for dragon riding, really? He loses his balance when Malena rises to her hind legs but Chan keeps him steady. There isn’t any saddle like he puts on Mr. Nobody, so the wyvern's hard scales graze against Minho’s legs, rough against his palms. It’s surprisingly cool against his skin. He’s so high up even before they take off and he thinks this must be the craziest thing Minho has ever done. 

With Chan seated behind him, Minho is secured in place, Chan’s chest a steady support against his back. Excitement pricks at his skin like a slow build up that eventually swells up in his chest and by the time Malena does her pre-flight screech, Minho is grinning from ear to ear. 

“Tell her to take us into the air,” Chan tells him, hands firmly gripping Minho’s waist, “Say ‘nuorei’.”

Minho looks back at Chan once before he tests it on his tongue. Once, too soft. He tries again, louder. “Nuorei, Malena.”

And then the wyvern screeches, loud and deafening, and takes off into the sky. 

The sudden movement has Minho tumbling forward and he probably would have fallen had Chan not held him as tightly. It takes a moment for it to finally register that he’s literally flying and when it does, Minho finds himself laughing with joy. The wind is harsh on his face and Malena feels cool against his leg, but Chan keeps him secured in place and Minho has never felt so free. 

Malena takes them over the ocean instead of the city, flying across an endless canvas of blue. They fly for a long time, swooping between clouds and passing by strange Arhajian birds Minho has never seen before. Malena’s strong wings take them higher than Minho thought possible, going above the clouds and then dipping low, and Minho giggles from the thrill of it. It’s almost impossible to see Chan in their position, but he could feel the grin stretching at Chan’s lips that mirror his own. 

The wyvern slows down after some time and she flies close to the water beneath them, just high enough that the flaps of her wings don’t break the surface. Chan’s arm is circled around Minho’s waist, keeping him close to his chest and he taps at Minho’s thigh for his attention before he points downwards.

“Look,” Chan whispers.

Minho looks where Chan is pointing and in the water he sees a couple of humpback whales. They’re relatively smaller than Minho thought they would be so he assumes these are calves or at least young ones that have yet grown into their full sizes. He is high up, however, so they might be bigger than they look from this height. Still, Minho has never seen whales this close. 

Just then, something far larger surfaces through the water, at least three times the size of those whales, a sea creature Minho is certain isn’t from earth. There are three of them, all shaped similar to the mammals, but with stone-looking skin, either from built-up corals or they are just made of hard rock, Minho isn’t certain. There are horns protruding from the tops of their heads and he gasps when they circle the whale calves, fearing for their lives. 

But the calves don’t look alarmed. The water is clear enough that Minho could see them swim around the Arhajian creatures, almost playful, like they are simply enjoying the time with friends. Minho doesn’t know anything about whale behaviours, but anyone with eyes could see that they aren’t in danger. 

He looks back at Chan for some kind of explanation and Chan simply smiles at him as the Arhajian beasts sing a song that stretches for miles, a hollowing sound that is more beautiful than terrifying. “Life at sea is far more peaceful. An earthling mammal can live with Arhajian beasts and not fear for its life. These whales and the rokifti are friends. If we’re lucky, we’d even see a querul, the sea wyverns. Sometimes they would mate and there would be no society to judge them, to condemn the life they make.”

Minho continues to watch the whales swim with those giant creatures, the rokifti, as Chan had called them and a part of him wishes he could see a the sea wyverns Chan mentioned. There is something beautiful in the glides of their swim, in harmony, co-habitants in a world that is mostly made up of water. The ocean is so vast and they could have been predator and prey, but they’d chosen to live as friends, as life partners. 

“We could be friends forever, Minho,” Chan says as Malena flies back towards the shore. “But you know we are meant to be more and if the beasts could do it, then we could do it too.”

-

This week has turned out to be absolutely insane; by the time Friday rolls around, Minho has been on wyvernback and Jisung is pregnant. 

Unlike Jisung, Minho can’t tell the pack about getting to ride the wyvern. And unlike Minho, Jisung gets to tell everyone about the baby growing in his belly. Minho is truly, genuinely happy for him, but he can’t ignore that bitter jealousy in the pit of his stomach over Jisung’s luck. Two mates to love and care for him, to hold him at night when it’s the darkest and he misses everything he used to have, a baby on the way and the entire sanctuary emotional over the miracle life has blessed Jisung with. 

Minho is filled with guilt for even feeling jealous. He should be happy for Jisung, and he is to a certain extent, but when he lays in his nest at night, he stares up at the hole in the ceiling and thinks about how alone he has been, even with the pack around him. He thinks about Chan, and the world of differences between them, and how everyone he loves would probably cast him out for finding happiness with someone they think is the enemy. 

Chan is the enemy, at least Minho should consider him one, but he has somehow found comfort in Chan’s company, in the friendship they had built, in the connection Minho knows goes beyond platonic. In the quiet of his room, lit up only by the faint light of the candles around him, Minho wishes Chan is in his nest to hold him, to love him, to remind him he isn’t alone. 

The week after, Minho goes to find Chan before the sun even rises and doesn’t tell Changbin where he’d gone. There’s a desperate need within himself to let Chan know that he doesn’t care who Chan is, that he wants to be more than just friends, and it may be one of his most impulsive acts, but Minho doesn’t want to spend another night wondering if he would ever be happy. 

He doesn’t take Mr. Nobody with him and by the time he reaches the beach, the sun is up. Summer is gone and the air has cooled. In the distance, Minho thinks he hears the songs of the rokifti. It’s quiet. Malena is nowhere in sight and Minho can’t smell Chan anywhere. 

He waits on the sand, from high tides to low, watching as the sun goes up and up until it begins to set and the beach is bathed in its orange glow. He waits until the night becomes too cold and the moon shines against the black water. There is no monster, no Malena, no Chan. 

Minho refuses to believe what his gut is telling him, that Chan doesn’t want to be friends, that he had abandoned all hopes and went about his own way. Chan is beautiful and exotic and belongs to an entirely different plane of existence and Minho is simply human. Chan could find a mate all the way across the world and never have to think about Minho again. 

Still, even with these thoughts, Minho waits. He makes a simple nest in one of the shops, using beach towels as pillows and blankets, smelling faintly of Chan likely from the amount of time the wolf stays here. One day becomes two and then three. By the fourth day, Minho rises with the sun and decides he shouldn’t worry his pack mates for too long. 

He’s surprised when he gets back to camp to find out that people have been taking turns and going rounds for a search party. When he shows up at the gate, he sees a distraught Changbin and an angry Seungmin, as well as Taeyong and a few others. Their scents burn his nose and if Minho isn’t convinced that Chan has left, he would rejoice over being important enough that his pack would look for him. 

He should have known that from the start. His emotions have made him naive and stupid, doubtful over how much his pack loves and values him. Even so, Minho wishes for co-existence. He wants to wake up in the morning with his mate and join the rest of the pack for breakfast. But this sanctuary would tie Chan up like a witch during the witch trials and Malena would burn the entire camp down to the ground for even touching Chan. 

Seungmin’s anger stems from his concern, Minho knows this, but it goes into his ear and out the other. He ignores everyone and their questions, ignores Jisung’s worried cries and simply hugs him apologetically before he finds his nest and buries himself under layers and layers of blanket and his fur coat. 

Tomorrow he will rise again and be a functioning human in the community, because life goes on, but tonight he will cry his heart out. 

-

Winter hits its full force in December. It snows heavily uphill, especially at camp, and Minho is forced to be up early every morning to help clear the path so Jisung has less chance to trip or slip against the slippery ground. His bump has started to show and it is the most gratifying feeling, to be present during Jisung’s most important journey and in the months that followed after finding out he’s pregnant, Minho has been the one to fuss over him more than his mates. 

Malena hasn’t flown above their camp for over three months now since Minho last saw her. The people had wondered and Minho would have rejoiced if only he never knew who rides the wyvern. Malena’s absence is only a loud reminder that Chan is also gone. He doesn’t go back to the beach to find out and Chan’s wolf never shows up at night. 

It feels as though they had never met. 

It stings a little. He wishes they have a way to communicate but he doubts Chan would know how to even use a phone if phones still work. Minho wakes before the sunrise every morning, waits a little longer for Malena to show up and when she doesn’t, he goes to shovel snow and then starts making breakfast for the pack. Working helps distract him, but the nights are cold and quiet and he lingers outside just to catch a glimpse of silver eyes in the dark. 

Minho is just out front shoveling more snow off the pathway when Jisung decides to join him. In his layers of clothes, they can hardly make out his small baby bump and he’s only twenty weeks in so the pregnant waddle hasn’t set. Minho stops shoveling to hold out a steady hand anyway in case Jisung trips, as he’s prone to, blinking in question as to why Jisung is out here instead of having his breakfast. 

“It’s a little warm today, isn’t it?” Jisung asks as he looks around them, his breath coming in visible puffs from the cold. The camp is starting to rise with the sun and Minho could hear as people start to chop more wood for the fire, the clanging of pots in kitchens and the children giggling as they make their way over to Taeyong’s for lessons. 

Minho himself is dressed in layers. He doesn’t wear the fur coat for fear Chan’s scent would fade too soon, but he’s put on a thick jacket on top of his tank top and hoodie, gloved hands gripping around the wooden handle of the shovel. He thinks it’s the coldest it has been, so he’s not certain what Jisung meant. 

“It’s going to get colder,” He tells the younger omega, staying close just because he might need to help Jisung out. “You should get inside and have your breakfast.”

Jisung hums, “Have Binnie and Minnie gone out for supplies?”

“Mhm,” Minho nods, placing the shovel aside. “They brought Mr. Nobody with him. They should be back before dark.”

When Jisung goes quiet, Minho looks up to see him smiling to himself, a hand splayed over his belly and Minho can’t help the way his own lips curl into a smile. Whatever jealousy he once felt is gone, replaced with the motherly instinct to protect his pack, to care for Jisung and their baby, even though Minho’s blood doesn’t run in its veins. Pack is family, he knows this. This pack is the only thing he has and if he needs to, Minho would protect it with his life. 

“You don’t smell like nutmeg and orange anymore, hyung,” Jisung says suddenly, his eyes sad as they find Minho’s. “Are you okay?”

Minho blinks at this question, feeling that sudden rock in his throat he didn’t expect to form. He looks away before Jisung could catch sight of the tears pooling in his eyes and he blinks rapidly as he clears his throat. “Yeah, I’m okay. Seasonal depression? It’s cold and gloomy.”

“You loved winter before this,” Jisung states simply but he’s always looking away, admiring the sky and not expecting a response. 

Minho looks up too and it’s exactly when he does that he hears Malena’s familiar screech and then the wyvern is flying across the sky. Minho doesn’t realise he’s stopped breathing until his chest starts to constrict, begging for air. 

Chan. 

Jisung smiles, “It’s back! It’s been forever since I last saw her.”

Minho can’t breathe. He should calm down and collect his composure and not act like a clingy child seeing their favourite person after ages apart, but instead Minho acts and doesn’t think. Three months of nothing and he needs to see that Chan is still alive and breathing. 

“Jisung? Hey, Sungie. Please stay inside until Changbin and Seungmin are back, okay? Listen to me.” Minho says as he leans to press a kiss to Jisung’s forehead briefly before he takes off into a run, ignoring whatever Jisung calls out behind him. 

All he knows is that he needs to see Chan. 

It’s cold and the snow is almost ankle deep outside the sanctuary, making his journey that much harder. He can’t run as fast as he wants to and Mr. Nobody is out helping Changbin and Seungmin, so Minho is left to go on foot. He should wait it out, he should stay with Jisung and maybe let the snow melt a little before he ventures out, but Malena is back and that means Chan is back and three months have felt too long. 

He doesn’t know how much longer it takes for him to get there but he presses forward even when his knees buckle from the cold, falling onto his hands. He crawls just to keep moving, his fingers numb from being buried in the snow even with his gloves on, but he doesn’t let it stop him. Eventually, Minho finds the opening to the beach and he doesn’t hesitate to slip through, doesn’t bother to make sure he doesn’t miss a step until he misses it and he tumbles down the sandy hill. 

Minho falls upon the flatter surface in a heap, groaning at the pain from the impact. He’s quick to move, however, scrambling up to his knees so he could take a look around him. The beach is… the same as he had left it that night Chan showed him the rokifti. It isn’t snowing here but the cold is present and the sun hides behind the clouds. It feels as though he had stepped through an entirely different portal. He sniffles, nose feeling numb and lips chapped as he rises to his feet. 

In the distance, Malena screeches as she flaps her wings and settles on the ground. Minho feels a smile curl at his lips and he takes off into another run towards the wyvern, slower with weaker legs, hoping Chan would be there, hoping Chan hadn’t abandoned him like his guts told him he did. 

Minho can’t see anything but sand and the wyvern even as he gets closer. His run slows down and his heart pounds against his chest, gaze scanning through Malena’s giant legs until, finally, a familiar figure walks out from behind the wyvern. It’s undeniably Chan and Minho knows this in the way his heart lurches at the sight of him, the way he’s quickly drowned in the scent of Chan’s nutmeg and orange blossom and a hint of grapefruit when the wind blows in his direction. 

“Chan-ah!”

He calls out without a thought, his lips stretched into a grin as he picks up his pace, his run slowing into a jog from how tired his legs feel. Chan doesn’t hear him the first time, so he calls him again and the Arhajian turns his head to find him. His own lips widen into a smile and then Chan is jogging towards him too, arms opened in invitation. He feels so far away. 

They meet each other halfway. Minho crashes against Chan’s firm chest and Chan’s arms engulf him tightly, pulling him even closer. Minho buries his face into Chan’s neck to breathe him in, feeling all the icicles that have frozen inside his body melt at the warmth of Chan’s presence, Chan’s entire existence. In this moment, Minho doesn’t care that he is human and Chan is not. Chan could take him to live at sea, and Minho would follow. He would follow Chan anywhere. 

“Minho,” Chan says finally, his voice deeper than Minho remembers it, and his palms are warm as they cup Minho’s cheeks so their eyes could meet. Minho shamelessly rubs his cheek against Chan’s palm, like a silly little cat, and if he could purr then he would have. Chan laughs, “My pretty. You’re so cold. Let me warm you up.

Chan tries to move away but Minho stops him, shaking his head before he wraps his arms around the Arhajian and tucks his face into his neck again. He belatedly realises just how dramatic this is, how cinematic almost, how he had reacted to Chan going away as people would, as if they had been great lovers separated by force. Minho wants to laugh and cry at the same time. Chan seems to share the same sentiment, however, because he holds Minho tighter than he ever has and he kisses into Minho’s hair to breathe him in.

Behind them, Malena makes a sound and Minho lets go of Chan only to look up at the wyvern. He can’t tell if she’s looking at him, not from where he stands anyway but he steps forward to try and greet her, except Chan stops him with a hand curled around Minho’s wrist. “Not now, Minho-yah. She’s a little unpredictable. She was hurt in battle.”

“Battle?” Minho frowns as he looks back at Chan, slipping his hand into the wolf’s instead of letting go. “Was that where you were?”

Chan nods his head but he doesn’t immediately explain, lacing his fingers with Minho’s and leading them towards one of the empty shops, next to where Minho had set up his small nest three months ago. There are seats in this one, likely a cafe previously, and Chan sits him down onto one of the couches lining up against the wall. Minho scoots closer just to feel Chan’s warmth and the Arhajian takes both Minho’s  hands to keep them warm in his own.

“I was called to fight, to answer your question,” Chan says after a moment of quiet, casually holding Minho’s hand and toying with his fingers. “I would have come sooner but my rut fever hit and I had to stay away for a while longer. I’m sorry, Minho.”

Oh. Minho feels a hot flush spread across his cheeks and to his ears, realising that the grapefruit in Chan’s scent must stem from the lingering rut he had just gotten out of. He should be angry but finds he couldn’t feel any anger, not when he’d been convinced that Chan left because he wanted to stay friends. “I thought you left because I said we couldn’t be more than friends.”

Chan blinks at him and then laughs, “I wouldn’t leave you even if you told me you’d kill me. You are silly, after all.” He sighs, dimples punched into his cheeks as his free hand comes up to caress a thumb over Minho’s cheek. “And still so beautiful.”

You’re beautiful, Minho thinks, and Chan really is. His silver eyes are softer whenever they’re looking into Minho’s brown ones. His hair has grown a little longer but he remains the wolf-cut hairstyle Minho knows was once trending around the world. It looks good on Chan. It makes him look like a wolf even in his human form. Minho shakes his head to focus, clearing his throat. “You said there was a battle?”

“Yes,” Chan clicks his tongue, sighing again. “There was- conflict? With the matriarch of Ahnrar.”

“With the what?”

Chan laughs, “Let me put it simply. When we Arhajians came here on earth, our close neighbouring planet was aware of it, and some of them were sent to follow us. They’re called the Ahnrar and they’re made quite a home here on earth, since none of us can go back. But I think they’ve had some misunderstanding with the king, Nalvur, so now they’ve called me to help defeat the king’s troops trying to take over the Ahnrar’s territory. For now, the king has called back his troops but they’re staying alert in case he tries again.”

This registers slowly; all Minho pieces together is that Chan has been fighting possible monsters and got lucky enough to come back in one piece. His brain simply refuses to make sense of the entirely different species Chan just mentioned, though he wonders briefly how they must look like. Minho is tired, suddenly, but at the same time filled with the need to fuss over his alpha. 

His alpha. The thought makes his stomach swirl. 

“Were you scared?” He asks after the silence stretches on, his own hand coming up to hold Chan’s cheek. 

Chan smiles, turning his head to kiss Minho’s palm. “I was only scared I wouldn’t get to see you again.”

Minho’s smile widens and he leans in closer, “Did you miss me?”

“I thought of you every second of the day.”

“Even in your rut?” Minho blinks, letting his gaze drop onto Chan’s lips momentarily before they flicker back up into his eyes. He probably shouldn’t know. His omega would be too pleased, too wanting to not react. “Did you think of me?”

“Especially during my rut,” Chan confesses, looking almost embarrassed after he says it. “Do friends do that, Minho?”

Minho doesn’t want to be friends. “I don’t want to be friends.”

Chan blinks, confusion crossing his features and he’s about to retract his hand but Minho holds it tighter. “So we are not even friends?”

His heart is racing so fast in his chest he thinks it might shoot up his throat. Minho swallows and he’s once again drowned in Chan’s pheromones, in his nutmeg and orange scent. “Kiss me, Chan-ah?”

Realisation dawns on Chan and visibly so. vMinho watches as his frown melts into a smile and it takes no time at all for Chan to surge forward, to curl a hand around the side of Minho’s neck to pull him closer. He gasps into the kiss as soon as their lips meet, electrifying and life changing, the way Chan’s mouth slots against his own like perfect puzzle pieces. Minho melts into it, letting Chan guide him, letting himself fall limp in Chan’s hold as their mouths move together. 

They kiss and kiss and kiss until Minho doesn’t know where he ends and Chan begins. The alpha tastes of something sweet, addicting and inviting and Minho doesn’t fight it as Chan’s hands curl around his waist and guide him to straddle his lap. It’s so easy to collapse against him, to let him take what he pleases, and Minho thinks he would cry if Chan stops kissing him. 

Chan’s body feels firm and strong against Minho’s, and his hands aren’t shy to explore, to feel up against hard muscles and strong abdomen and the idea of Chan using his core strength to take what Minho is willing to give makes him so, so wet. It should be embarrassing how much slick he’s producing from kissing alone, but his underwear feels damp, sliding just the right way against him as he rolls his hips. Once, twice and he doesn’t dare go for a third time just from how good it feels. 

It’s Minho who has to break the kiss, his lungs complaining from lack of air and he stills his hips right where he could feel Chan is hard in his slacks. Minho huffs out a soft laugh, giddy from the thrill of it, the rush of pleasure that’s making his heart pump a little faster. Chan is smiling up at him, plump lips reddened from their kiss and silver eyes flashing with mirth. 

His hands feel strong around Minho’s waist and he thinks he needs to find a better word for it because he’s lost count just how many times he’s called Chan strong, but whatever. Chan leans up again to press a softer kiss onto his lips, smiling as he speaks against them. “Too much?”

Minho chases him for another kiss, addicted now that he’s had a taste, and he continues to press a few more onto Chan’s mouth. He pulls away again with a soft moan, licking at his lips as he contemplates being honest. It’s embarrassing to admit, but Minho’s never had the experience. “I’ve never- You’d be my first, Chan-ah.”

Instead of the surprise he expects Chan to react with, the wolf simply smiles and nods his head, big hands sliding up and down Minho’s side in a way that soothes and relaxes him. “We don’t have to do anything. I’ll wait. Whenever you’re ready.”

Saying he doesn’t want to be pounded into right now would be a straight up lie, but Minho knows he isn’t entirely ready. That, and Chan isn’t human to begin with. He doesn’t know if he comes in the same package human alphas do, doesn’t know if he would be able to take it even with the amount of slick that’s still leaking out of him. And he would want his first to be special. Minho is just romantic like that. 

He sighs and leans close to press his forehead against Chan’s before he shifts to bury his face into his neck. “I’ve missed you. Tell me about the battle.”

So Chan does. 

-

The battle of Ahnrar was a bloody mess, according to Chan, who showed off his new battle scar that goes across his chest from a claw of a creature called the yaxi’il. Minho has never heard of it but Chan described it as a humanoid figure, most often a female, with a head of a dog and claws of a hawk. Chan claims it’s barely a graze but he needed stitches anyway so he doesn’t walk around with a gaping wound. He moves about like he’s immortal and Minho wonders if he is. 

Apparently the battle went on for a month and a half, and they took another month to recuperate and heal. Chan stayed on the island that used to be a greek land Minho recognises by name, helping out with the wounded and making sure the king didn’t send any ambush attack. When he had gotten back to his place, his rut had hit out of a sudden and it lasted a week. That was two weeks before he flew back out to the beach. 

Minho was interrogated when he got back to camp that night. Jisung didn’t ask, but Seungmin grilled him for answers while Changbin tried to cool him down. Minho was too happy to see Chan again to let it sour his mood. Eventually Seungmin had apologised for sounding harsh, said he was only worried Minho would get hurt and wondered once again why Minho wouldn’t tell them where he’d gone. 

He would, if only the beach isn’t his very own sanctuary. Seungmin scented him that night before bed in his way of apology and asked one last time why Minho couldn’t trust them enough to share. He went to bed without saying another word. 

Out of the three of them, only Seungmin is offended that Minho keeps this secret. Changbin doesn’t ask and Jisung seems to have built some kind of sixth sense and keeps speaking as if he knows Minho has a secret boyfriend. Is that what Chan is, though? It makes Minho’s stomach do weird little flips at the thought. 

He had a boyfriend once, at sixteen and being courted by a cute, recently presented alpha schoolmate he had a crush on since the first day of high school. His name was Youngho and they hadn’t gone further than innocent kisses before they’d broken up because the alpha had planned their entire lives together, including how many kids he was expecting Minho to carry (five!). Youngho was one of the first people the monsters killed in front of Minho. He had nightmares about Youngho’s mangled face for weeks after that. 

Minho doesn’t forget, but it doesn’t haunt his sleep. Nothing really does anymore, especially now that he has Chan in mind and every time he goes to sleep, Minho dreams of creating a life with the alpha, having his kids, building their very own sanctuary. When his fur coat no longer smells like Chan, he takes it out to wrap it around Chan’s wolf form when he comes to visit at night just so his scent would linger long after he’s gone by the time the sun rises. 

And Chan visits a lot. It’s been two weeks since his return and Minho has bundled up in thick layers of clothing and his fur coat just so he could sleep by the fire outside snuggled against Chan’s wolf. He makes sure to go out only when he’s certain the pack is asleep and tonight is like every night since Chan came home; warmed from the fire and his layers, reading another book he had picked up and sitting on the ground with his back against Chan’s large torso. 

He should probably be inside, but Chan does a good job of keeping him warm and Minho thinks he hasn’t been this warm since it started snowing heavily. He flips to another page of his book, invested in these new characters he’s never read about before. It isn’t something he would usually pick up, but the concept of falling in love with a creature entirely different from what you are has greatly piqued his interest, for obvious reasons. ‘The Shape of Water’ by Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus probably isn’t the best one out there, but Minho is interested in it anyway.

When his eyes grow tired from reading, Minho closes the book and hugs it to his chest, resting his head back against the soft furs of Chan’s torso. He turns to look at the wolf, his chin resting upon his large paw. Minho smiles, enamoured by how similar Chan and his wolf forms look. “Chan-ah.”

The wolf raises his head to look at him, leaning to bump his nose against Minho’s cheek. Yes, my pretty?

“Do you think Elisa is weird for falling in love with a creature?” He asks, reaching a hand out to scratch behind Chan’s ear. “He’s totally ugly, by the way. I think. He’s amphibious, so he’s sort of like a sea creature too.”

Chan considers this with a tilt of his head. Are you in love with a sea creature?

Minho giggles, shaking his head. “No, silly. I was just wondering if, you know, it makes me an outcast if I ever find myself falling in love with- Well, with someone that isn’t human.”

I don’t think asking a monster this question is the answer you need, Minho, Chan says, resting his head down onto his paw again. 

“You’re not a monster,” Minho quickly says, needing Chan to know that he doesn’t see him as such. 

The wolf makes a grunting sound and closes his eyes. No one should be outcast for feeling love.

Minho hums, leaning back again to softly pet Chan's coat, admiring him fondly. His silver fur is laced with black ones that add shadow to his coat, large paw always gentle when it taps at Minho’s knee to wake him, and his voice in Minho’s head is always soft and kind. Minho wonders what he would be like during his rut. Would he still be gentle? He doesn’t think any alpha would be gentle in rut. Would Chan hurt him? Would he be rough? Would he rock Minho’s world from how well he knows how to use his cock? 

His thoughts have strayed a little too far and now he could feel that same discomfort between his legs, dampening his underwear. He squirms, squeezing his thighs together for some pressure and relief and clearing his throat as he tries to think of everything else but Chan and what Chan would be like in his rut. It’s hard not to, though. Minho may be a virgin and he has never spent his heats with anyone, but he’s not entirely innocent. He knows things, has felt them, especially during his heats, and knowing he has someone this close, someone who has openly expressed his desire for Minho, he can’t help but think. 

He has half the mind to slip a hand inside his trousers and relieve some of that ache, but it feels wrong to touch himself out here in the open, with Chan in his wolf body. God, Minho is so filthy. Has Chan ever-

I’m gonna have to leave if you finish that thought, Minho, Chan says with a keening sound coming from within his throat. 

Minho flushes red at the realisation that Chan could hear his thought process, that Chan could smell the slick leaking out of him, but instead of stopping, Minho presses on, curious. “Would you?”

Chan huffs through his nose. He knows exactly what Minho is asking. It would hurt you. 

His shoulders slump in disappointment, some sick part of him hoping Chan would take him in his truest form. “What about during your rut? Do you spend it as a human?”

Never as a human, Chan says, his head moving to nudge Minho’s knee with his muzzle, prompting him to keep his legs together. But for you, I will. 

Minho frowns, “What if I want you as you are?”

Chan nuzzles against him, licking a stripe up his cheek with his wide tongue and making Minho giggle as he tries to dodge. It’s bed time, pretty. The sun is rising soon. 

“Mm, fine,” Minho picks his book up and rises to his feet, his arms raised as he stretches his back. “I’ll prepare myself for you, Chan-ah. Next time we see each other again, you can have me in whatever form you show up as.”

He knows he’s teasing and Chan is well affected. Minho giggles and presses a kiss onto the wolf’s head before he makes his way back into the cabin. When he turns around again, Chan is up on all fours, so tall now that he’s up, watching him and Minho smiles as Chan howls up at the moon, the very first time he’s made his presence known this close to the sanctuary. 

The door to the cabin opens and Changbin is out in his sleep clothes, blinking hard to see through the night. He’s surprised to see Minho outside but he goes to check if the omega is hurt anyway, turning him around and checking for wounds. 

“Was that a wolf?” Changbin asks after he’s certain Minho is okay, looking into the treeline where Chan was. The wolf is long gone. “Did you see it?”

Minho fights a smile and shakes his head. “I didn’t see anything. Go back to sleep, Binnie. You have to go hunting tomorrow.”

-

Minho decides that if he wants something to happen the next time he sees Chan in person again, he should probably be prepared and there’s no better person than Jisung to teach him. He’s pregnant, so he ought to know a thing or two, right? With Changbin and Seungmin out to hunt, there is no better time than now to get Jisung to help him out. He’s not entirely sure how Jisung could help, but he figures the younger omega could give him a pointer or two. 

Jisung is crocheting a doll for his baby on his favourite chair when Minho leaves his nest to find him. He looks up to smile at Minho before his focus is back on his handiwork. While Minho had busied himself with reading and taking up some of the alphas’ responsibilities, Jisung had taken up sewing and crocheting, though he still isn’t so good at cooking. It’s okay, though, because Minho likes cooking for the pack. 

“Sungie,” Minho calls as plops himself down onto the floor by Jisung’s feet, just because the couch is too far away for this conversation to go. “I have something to ask you.”

Jisung’s eyes widened, putting his needles down. “Ask me?”

“Yes,” Minho clears his throat, suddenly nervously. He did not think through what he’s supposed to say. “Um, I assume you have some experience considering the baby you’re having, so- I guess? I’m wondering if you could, you know, help hyung out.”

Jisung’s confusion quickly turns into realisation and his smile is teasing as he puts aside his needles and half done crochet doll. “You met someone? Do we trust him?”

Minho waves it off, “Doesn’t matter who it is, Han-ah. I just- I’ve never- I don’t wanna make a fool of myself when I do get the chance to.”

“Okay, okay. Okay,” Jisung straightens up and takes Minho’s hands, his lips stretched into a grin that makes his cheeks puff up, clearly more excited about this than Minho is. “What do you wanna know?”

Fuck. Minho doesn’t know what he wants to know. He wants to know something, obviously, but where should he even start? What if he tries something and Chan thinks he looks silly instead of sexy? Minho clears his throat, ears burning. “I guess, uh- How do you- Like, what do you do to get them interested in you?”

Jisung frowns, “How is he not already interested in you?”

Minho makes a soft disgruntled sound. “He is. I promise he is. I just don’t know how to be, I don’t know, sexy? How do you make him feel good and not be bad at it?”

“Listen, hyung,” Jisung sighs softly, giving Minho’s hands a squeeze. “Your first time might not be perfect. It’s okay not to know anything and let it go with the flow. Protection is important and make sure he doesn’t mate-bite you before you’re ready for that.”

Minho stares at him, “Sungie, I know all of that.”

Jisung giggles, “Okay, fine. They like it when you give them head. That’s a blowjob, by the way. And it goes like this.”

Jisung clearly doesn’t do anything to demonstrate it physically, but Minho learns a lot. Even pregnant, Jisung gets on his knees pretty easily, showing Minho what alphas like when they’re on their knees and have cock down their throat. Jisung’s lessons feel silly and they mostly end up in a giggling mess as Minho tries to mimic whatever Jisung showed him; expressions and sounds and how you should look up at your alpha while you’re sucking him off. 

It’s mostly things Minho already knows from the few amateur porn he watches or the rated books he reads from time to time. Jisung tells him to always be prepared, to shave if he wants to and not if he doesn’t. He says it’s important to stretch and loosen up no matter how much slick he produces, because it could hurt and make it less pleasant, and Jisung wants Minho’s first time to be good. 

After, when the alphas are back and Minho and Jisung start on cooking their dinner, Jisung asks him once if he would ever introduce his secret boyfriend. Minho wonders if Jisung would be the only one who would not outcast him even if he knows who Chan is. He wishes he is brave enough to tell the younger omega all about Chan, Malena, the wolf that comes to visit every night to keep him company. Maybe someday, Minho thinks, and hopes his pack would still have his back.

That night he falls asleep and dreams of Chan, of his strong hands and arms, his piercing silver eyes and dimpled smile. He dreams of Chan’s body against his own, Chan’s lips, kissing him everywhere, and he watches as dream Chan transforms into his true form and takes Minho like he’s meant to; mounted and submissive, all for his alpha to take.

-

The next time Minho sees Chan at the beach, he’s more than ready. Chan still visits him nightly, but they mostly keep each other warm and talk about their days. Minho avoids thinking about the dreams he’s been having, especially with Chan around, but only because he wants to keep his fantasies for this special day. If things go smoothly, Minho might just lose his virginity. 

He doesn’t think he has ever been so nervous. Jisung’s reminder not to let Chan bite his mating mark onto him is loud in the back of his head, but Minho thinks he wouldn’t mind it at all. The weather isn’t so harsh now as December slowly comes to pass but Minho still makes sure to put on his fur coat when he leaves this morning. He doesn’t take Mr. Nobody with him, just in case he ends up staying at the beach for a couple of days. 

He shaves, just enough to look presentable, and he brushes his teeth twice, skips breakfast just in case. By the time he reaches the beach, slightly out of breath but the cold keeping him cool, Chan is already there with Malena. Minho takes his time walking the stretch of sand towards the Arhajian, nervous and excited all at the same time. He’s wearing a single layer beneath his fur coat, but his nervousness makes him warm and he thinks his ears have permanently turned red. 

Chan turns to look at him, a smile already on his face, and Minho wonders how he should tell the alpha that he’s ready. He should have practised it, should have run things over in his head on how he should go about it, and now he’s getting closer and closer and Chan’s scent is blowing into his face and Minho doesn’t know what to say. 

The alpha opens his arms out in invitation as soon as Minho is close, wrapping them around him as he falls right against his chest, home at last. Minho makes a pleased sound as he inhales Chan’s scent, his own arms winding around the alpha’s waist and when they pull away just enough to look at each other, Chan’s smile widens and Minho leans to kiss him. 

It’s so easy to just melt into Chan, to let his mouth move along the alpha’s, softly, languidly, as if they have all the time in the world. Minho is putty in Chan’s hold, liquid in all the places life has hardened him, and Chan tastes like sugary sweetness, like eating ice cream on a hot summer day and sipping hot soup when the cold pricks at your skin. He sighs softly against Chan’s mouth, pliant in his hold, and his hands come up to curl around the front of Chan’s shirt just so his arms are trapped between them. It makes him feel smaller, makes him feel safe, happy.

“I have a surprise for you,” Chan whispers, smiling against Minho’s lips as he pulls away to take both of Minho’s hands in his own. 

He blinks, a smile curling at his lips as Chan pulls him towards the shops. “A surprise?”

“Mhm,” Chan hums, flashing Minho a sharp canine as he grins at him. “I made it just for you.”

Thrumming with excitement now, Minho is smiling so much his cheeks are hurting, picking up his pace so he could catch up with Chan. They head towards the last shop that was once a cafe and with their fingers laced, Chan opens the door to lead them inside. Instead of the seats that had once been there, the interior has completely changed into what looks like a bedroom.

Minho gasps in surprise, taking in the sight of the couches Chan had put together to make a large bed. He’s covered them up with layers of fluffy fur blankets and equally fluffy pillows, and there are night stands on each side Minho doesn’t know where Chan had gotten from. The window that used to be by the wall is covered with a whole mahogany wardrobe and there is a single dining table complete with dining chairs on the other side of the room. The kitchen remains a kitchen, divided from the rest of the space by the counter Minho could see himself using to prepare for dinner.  

He looks at Chan, his heart pounding in his chest and he doesn’t know what to say but to kiss him again. Chan laughs into his mouth but kisses him back, arms winding around Minho’s frame as he closes the door behind them. He hums, pressing another kiss onto his forehead. “Surprise, my pretty.”

Minho glances back at the room again, his cheeks aching from his grinning. “You are out of this world, Chan-ah. This is so pretty. Another gift for me?”

Chan makes a pleased noise as he leans to nose along Minho’s neck, pressing a kiss onto the soft flesh there while he keeps his arms wrapped around Minho’s waist. “It’s as close to a house as I can get you. And I didn’t want you to sleep on the sand every time you’re here.”

There’s a giggle that leaves him as his arm goes around Chan’s shoulders and he hums as the alpha continues to press kisses onto his neck. “I love it. Did you base it on something you’d seen before?”

“IKEA catalogue?” Chan laughs, turning Minho in his arms so he could kiss him again. “It was from twelve years ago. I had trouble choosing which theme you’d like the most, believe me.”

Minho mirrors his laugh, finding it absolutely endearing that Chan would do this for him. He wonders what his home back in Arhaj looks like but that’s a story for another time. Minho left his sanctuary today with one thing in mind and getting gifted an entire place they could call their own has made him even more determined. He doesn’t say anything else but continues to kiss Chan, deeper this time, hungrier and with a need he hopes Chan could pick up without Minho saying anything.

And he does, because Chan reads him like an open book. His hands curl around Minho’s waist as they kiss, licking into Minho’s mouth to taste him as he backs the omega up until he falls back onto their makeshift bed. Minho scoots back without breaking their kiss, letting Chan crawl over him and gasping when Chan’s skillful mouth finds his jaw and kisses his way down his neck. A moan escapes him as the wolf sucks a mark into his skin, the moan Chan swallows when he kisses Minho again while deft hands work on removing the fur coat off Minho’s body.

He nearly forgets what he had wanted to do and promptly remembers it when Chan makes a move to kiss down his chest, eager mouth trailing over his clothed abdomen until Minho stops him. Chan looks up, alert and ready to stop whenever Minho wants him to. At his questioning look, Minho offers him a shy smile before he moves, rolling out from under the alpha and shoving him so Chan lays on his back instead. He straddles Chan’s hips and leans down to kiss him, soft and teasing.

“I have a surprise for you too,” He whispers against Chan’s lips, pressing a few more kisses onto the plump pair before he lets his mouth press over his jaw, along his neck and his entire body thrums with pleasure at the sound of Chan’s moans. 

He’s nervous, but he lets the adrenaline rush lead his every move, fingers pushing up Chan’s top and letting the alpha remove it to gift Minho with the sight of his body, the ridges of muscles and defined chest, and Minho has to squeeze his thighs around Chan’s hips from how he throbs between his legs. Chan sits up and Minho’s momentarily distracted by how close they are, how Chan’s mouth is right there and Minho just has to lean his head to kiss him. So he does.

Chan’s fingers come up to curl around his throat and Minho gasps into his mouth, his hips rolling on their own accord, grinding down against where he could feel Chan is rock hard. His underwear is drenched with slick, uncomfortable against his core but also makes for a delicious slide against Chan’s clothed cock. Minho wants a taste, however, so his own needy cunt will have to wait. 

He pulls away with a soft moan, and it must be ungraceful the way he moves to get between Chan’s legs but he’s eager and his mouth is watering. Chan distracts him again by kissing his mouth while Minho works open his trouser button and zipper, lifting his hips so Minho could tug his pants down and off his hips. Minho moans again, dazed from the kiss but his focus moves from Chan’s mouth to his cock, the fat tip poking out from the waistline of his underwear. 

Minho blinks, watching as Chan removes his boxers to free his hard shaft and he freezes for a second, growing needier just from the sight of it, his cunt throbbing in his pants. He flickers his gaze upwards, meeting Chan’s, and he makes sure the alpha is watching as his lips part and he flicks his tongue over the slit of his cock before he closes his mouth around the fat tip. Chan groans and Minho’s eyes roll back from the taste alone, taking more of the alpha into his mouth and hollowing his cheeks to suck at the shaft as his eyes open again to find Chan’s gaze once more. 

He’s never found the appeal in this before, but now with Chan’s cock in his mouth, teasing down his throat, Minho doesn’t think he would find anything else hotter than this is. He moans around the mouthful, bobbing his head, taking Chan’s fat cock deeper and deeper down his throat until he starts to gag and has to pull off with a pop, tears spilling down his cheeks as he gasps for air.

“You feel so good,” Chan whispers, barely able to speak, and his fingers curl around a lock of Minho’s hair to guide him back down. “Go on, pretty, you’re doing so good for me.”

Minho preens at the praise, his omega more than happy to please, and even teary-eyed he takes Chan back into his mouth and continues to suck him off. He gets lost in the pleasure of it, slurping noisily around Chan’s cock and letting drool seep down his chin as the alpha guides the bobs of his head, filling the room with the sounds of his moans and the wet squelches of his cock fucking into Minho’s throat. 

He feels thoroughly and deliciously used by the time Chan pulls him off his cock, mouth swollen and jaw aching and he’s all too pliant when the alpha rolls them over so Minho is on his back this time. There’s a whine that leaves him as Chan removes his top and his pants, leaving him naked and needy against the fur blankets on their newly made bed. Minho an hour ago would be too shy to take his clothes off, but right now he needs Chan to touch him, to make him feel good.

His gaze meets Chan’s as the alpha hovers above him, feeling over the moon and as if he’s stepping on clouds when Chan leans down to kiss him so softly, so gently, as if Minho is made of glass and he’s trying not to break him. Chan smiles, kissing along his jaw, brushing lips over his neck and licking over his scent glad before those plump lips travel to his chest. Chan kisses like he’s painting on a canvas, like Minho is his to colour with marks. His mouth finds Minho’s nipple and he suckles at the bud before doing the same with the other, eliciting a moan out of the omega, his back arching off the cushions from pleasure. 

“You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Chan says as his mouth moves along Minho’s sternum to his shoulder, kissing a path along his arm down to his fingers. He turns his hand over so he could kiss his palm, the inner side of his wrist and back up his forearm like he’s worshipping his entire being. “I’ve never seen anything, anyone quite like you.”

It feels like a dream. Minho thinks he’s lost his ability to stay grounded, his brain floating within the clouds, and every kiss Chan paints him with makes him feel seen, wanted, needed. Loved. He gasps as Chan kisses his tummy, the soft flesh he’s never gotten the chance to get rid of. It’s never been an insecurity but Minho feels that flare of relief and pride that Chan kisses his tummy softer than he has the rest of him. 

“My mate,” Chan brushes his lips over Minho’s hipbones, into the dip of his thighs, forcing him to spread his legs apart to accommodate the alpha between them. Chan lays comfortably on his stomach, hooking Minho’s thighs over his shoulders and he kisses where Minho is wettest. 

It brings a gasp out of him, the simplest brush of his lips, his heart racing against his chest as Minho fights hard to keep his eyes open so he could watch. Chan’s tongue comes next, flattening against his cunt and he licks a fat stripe between his folds, stimulating Minho’s swollen clit in a single swipe of his tongue and Minho arches his back in response. It feels so good, the rush of pleasure that consumes him, building to the peak as Chan repeats the act. Minho pants, pleasure coiling in his belly as Chan laps at his clit, swirling his tongue over and around the nub before he sucks it into his mouth and Minho shatters. 

“Oh my god, Chan- Oh, Chan.” Minho sobs from the pleasure, his legs threatening to close around Chan’s head as he cums, thighs quaking, toes curling. His hands reach down to grip Chan's hair, to stop him or keep him in place, Minho doesn’t know. All he knows is that it feels good. 

Chan doesn’t stop entirely, but he shows mercy by slowing down, keeping his gaze locked to Minho’s as he licks around his cunt, collecting his juices onto his tongue and Minho watches as he spits it back out onto his pussy. Minho’s hips twitch, breathless as Chan raises a hand to rub the mess of spit and slick all over his sensitive cunt. His eyes roll back from the stimulation, so wet against Chan’s fingers and he gasps and moans as the alpha quickens his pace, rubbing the pads of his digits from side to side until Minho cums again, this time in embarrassing streams that squirts out of him. 

He shakes and Chan cups his palm over his cunt, kissing his wet thigh before his hand slides against his sensitive pussy. Minho is still shaking as the alpha traps his throbbing clit between his forefinger and middle one, moving in an up and down motion that further stimulates Minho. It’s slow and torturous and Minho is crying, needing more, and he whines when Chan retracts his hand only to replace it with his mouth.  

“Fuck,” Minho sobs, chest heaving and back arching once again as Chan sucks his clit, flattening his wide tongue over it in delicious swipes that drives Minho crazy, hips rolling to meet each swipe of his wet muscle. “Please, alpha- I want- Want you inside me. Please.”

Chan doesn’t stop, mouth latched onto Minho’s cunt as his tongue stimulates him, licking over his clit over and over and over again until another orgasm hits him and Minho trembles, his body pulling back from oversensitivity and he squeezes his legs together, face buried in the soft blankets as he shakes from his orgasm. All the times he’s touched himself has never felt so insanely good. 

“I got you, hey,” Chan rises to his knees, easily rolling Minho onto his back once again and spreading his legs. He’s smiling, face wet with Minho’s slick and cum, and his hands caress gently along Minho’s thighs, soothing the tremor in them. “You did so good, my pretty. You made alpha feel so good.”

Minho thinks it’s the other way round. He’s done the bare minimum, had cock in his mouth for five minutes and got sent to heaven more times than he could count. He takes the praise anyway, his body lax, a slow smile curling at his lips as he watches the alpha. “You are insane. I think I’m dead.”

Chan laughs, shaking his head as he tugs Minho forward so easily, hands curled around the bend of his knees to pull him close and hooking his legs over Chan’s hips. The alpha leans down and steals a kiss on Minho’s lips. “You’re alive, my sweet. Did that feel good?”

“Yes,” Minho nods, already a little breathless from the kiss and he gasps when he feels Chan’s cock brush against his cunt. He whines, desperate to feel him inside. “Please. More.”

“Anything you want,” Chan whispers before he straightens up and curls a hand around his cock, rubbing the fat tip between Minho’s folds and against his clit. 

Minho’s toes curl at the stimulation, gasping each time Chan’s cockhead bumps against his nub. He grows wetter and wetter, until Chan’s cock slips and slides against his pussy and Minho is so, so horny it hurts. He sobs in frustration and then Chan is slapping his heavy cock against his clit once, twice and Minho cums at the third slap. 

He shakes from it too but doesn’t have the time to calm down before Chan is pushing into him, thick, veiny cock breaching past his small, virgin hole. It stings but the slide in feels so deliriously amazing. Chan distracts him from any discomfort by rubbing his thumb over his clit, pushing deeper and deeper until he’s buried to the hilt before he pulls out and Minho lifts his head to see red coating Chan’s cock, the proof of his deflowering. Chan rubs his clit harder just as he fucks back inside, going so deep Minho could feel him in his guts. 

Chan starts to fuck him then, hands curled around Minho’s hips as he snaps his own to fuck in and out of Minho’s cunt. He’s so big Minho feels stretched from the inside out, each slide inside producing the filthiest squelch that fills the room. Minho can’t quite believe he’s being fucked, his body jostled back with each thrust, the slide in and out of his cunt so overwhelmingly good. 

“Oh, Channie,” Minho sobs as Chan’s cock buries deep inside and he pulls out only to slam back in. Minho cries out from the force, an arm reaching up to rake his nails down Chan’s firm chest as his other hand goes to rub at his clit. “Chan- Oh my god- Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Don’t stop, Chan-ah. Please.”

Chan doesn’t stop. Instead his pace quickens, hips thrusting fast as he fucks into Minho’s body, his own lips parted as moans spill past the pair and Minho’s vision starts to blur as his eyes roll back, each slide along his walls sending him closer and closer towards yet another climax. Chan leans down so his entire body covers Minho, face buried into Minho’s neck as he continues to grind his hips, to fuck deeper into the omega. 

Minho whines, feeling Chan’s arms wrap around his waist to hold him up, to hold him closer and there’s that unmistakable feeling of his knot bumping against Minho’s cunt. He gasps as he digs his nails into Chan’s back, the pleasure of his taking so good, so insanely amazing that Minho needs more. Chan grunts into his neck, his thrusts growing sloppy, knot growing each time he fills Minho up. 

“Fuck, baby,” Chan groans, the sound sending more tingles down Minho’s spine and making his pussy throb. He clenches around Chan’s cock and the alpha keens. “Minho-”

“Knot me,” Minho nods frantically, desperate for it, his own hips moving to get Chan to knot him. “Give me your knot, alpha. Please.”

Chan cusses again and Minho catches a series of words he doesn’t understand, the language Chan speaks back in his home planet and then his knot catches, slips out in the most delicious stretch before it pops inside again and Chan locks them together with a long moan, spilling inside Minho. He sobs from the pleasure of it, seeking his own release and when Chan doesn’t stop grinding, emptying inside Minho, the stimulation against his clit pushes him over the edge one final time. 

Minho is shaking as he comes down from his high, trying to catch his breath and holding onto Chan so tightly, as if the alpha would disappear if he so much as loosens his hold. His eyes open to the sight of an unfamiliar ceiling and Minho promptly remembers that he isn’t home, that he’s in a bed that his alpha made for them. Chan’s cock pulses inside him, and his knot keeps him exceptionally full, plugs all the cum Chan spilled inside him. He closes his eyes again, feels a smile creep at his lips as he nuzzles against Chan’s shoulder. 

The Arhajian kisses along his neck, licking over his scent gland before his head lifts and he’s looking down at Minho, whose eyes shoot open again to meet his gaze. Chan kisses him and asks against his lips, “You smell different. I think you’re in heat, my love.”

Minho feels it only then, the familiar cold shiver that runs through his body, the cramp forming in his belly. His heat fever has yet to settle completely, but he feels it. Minho groans, hiding his face into Chan’s shoulder. “I think you might have triggered it. It wasn’t due til like, next month.”

Chan laughs, leans down to kiss his neck and then his face, finally meeting his lips again. “I’ll take good care of you.”

Minho doesn’t doubt it for a second. 

-

Minho misses having a phone. He wonders if his pack mates are panicking again or if they’d believed him when he said he would be fine being gone for a couple of days. He hopes Jisung knows to some extent, enough for him to assure the alphas that Minho is simply out to spend time with a secret lover, but he also hopes Jisung would string up a pretty white lie so Changbin and Seungmin won’t be interrogating Minho. 

His heat goes on for about three days and Chan doesn’t leave his side except to bring him food and water. He’s lost count the number of times Chan had knotted him, the insane amount of cum the alpha has stuffed him with. It’d be a miracle if Minho doesn’t end up pupped. The idea of it makes the butterflies in his belly swoop and go crazy. He blames it on his post-heat state of mind. A clear headed Minho knows having kids isn’t ideal in this world. 

Minho’s stamina and libido clearly intensified by a million during his heat, but Chan matches his energy without complaint. He wonders, besides his possible immortality, if Chan ever gets tired at all. He’s never seen Chan break a sweat, and though he does get out of breath from exertion, Chan is always ready to go again, to keep Minho sated with his knot. 

He knows these are things he should already know about Chan before he lets him in his pants, but Minho’s a believer of romance and Chan has given him so many reasons to trust him. He lays down now on his bed of furs, his heat fever broken but his cunt still throbbing from having Chan fuck him one more time. Minho pants, a little breathless from his orgasm, his brain over the clouds and limbs putty. There’s a smile on his lips as Chan shifts to roll off him, draping the blanket over his nether region and it slips off his leg anyway when he moves it. 

“You look thoroughly fucked, my love,” Chan laughs, staying on his belly as he reaches up to brush Minho’s hair back. “You okay?”

He’s leaking slick and Chan’s cum. He feels thoroughly fucked and it’s possibly the best thing he’s ever experienced. Minho snickers, turning his head to meet Chan’s silver eyes and he reaches to touch his face. He’s so unreal. “You fucked me so good, alpha.”

Chan’s scent flares at the praise and he dips his head to press open-mouthed kisses along Minho’s hip, moving so he could drape an arm around his waist. “You took me so good, my pretty little omega.”

Minho preens, his smile turning shy, as if he hasn’t been bred over and over again in the last three days. “Don’t you get tired, Chan-ah? Is that an Arhaj alpha thing?”

“Mm, our energy is almost triple a human alpha’s,” Chan explains, gaze soft as he looks at Minho. “And when we do get tired, we regain it by going back to our true form.”

“Your wolf?” Minho asks and when Chan nods, he prods further. “Can all of you transform into your human forms?”

Chan traces invisible patterns over Minho’s tummy, his canines flashing when he smiles. “Not all of us. The ones who join the military learn the skill from our deities, back in Arhaj, but some civilians don’t go through the right process and that’s why you see deformed humans roaming the streets. You have seen them, I presume?”

Minho thinks about the monsters that roamed his street, when the world first ended. He nods his head, curiosity peaking. “Why don’t they just go back to their true forms?”

“They can’t,” Chan says simply and explains. “The military is blessed by the deities, but civilians aren’t supposed to be able to do this and since they did it without the blessings, they’re stuck in their incomplete human forms. It’s a punishment, in a way, but most of them have built their own communities here on earth and they’re very loyal to Nalvur because he encouraged their decisions, and in return he has their absolute loyalty. We call them the entori; abominations.”

Minho hums, processing this new information and while it’s interesting, his mind focuses on one thing. “You’re saying you were all born a wolf?”

Chan smiles again, kissing Minho’s hand. “Back home, our kind is called ulif. We were the top of the hierarchy, the creatures with the highest mental intelligence. The deities, the moon goddesses, decided the highest of us should be able to hold a more humanoid form, but only for those with great purpose. I was born a pup, yes.”

This brings a smile to Minho’s lips. “Can you die?”

“Only by another Arhajian, and my mate.”

Minho blinks, raising his upper body up by his elbows. This is definitely news to him. “Why would your mate kill you?”

Chan leans up to kiss Minho again, prompting him to lay back against the soft pillows. He melts right into it, pliant once again and blinking as he smiles up at Chan, who gazes fondly at him while he explains. “Sometimes we get hurt but it’s not enough to kill us and there’s nothing to heal us. When the pain is too much to bear, we could ask our mate to end our lives.”

“That’s-” Minho feels his heart clench, the idea of Chan begging him to end his life something he doesn’t think he would survive. He blinks back the sudden tears pooling in his eyes, and they fall down his temples anyway. “I’d never be able to do that.”

“Hey,” Chan smiles, fond as he uses the pad of his thumb to wipe at his tears. “I’ll never put you in that position. There’s a saying in Arhaj, it’s a promise between mates when they officially mate. Meir ufki laiken sen diavi wun yier. It loosely translates to ‘my soul lives and dies with you’, and it’s a promise we bring to our next lives.”

Minho’s smile returns, feeling so many emotions but mainly warmth and love over this sentiment. His hand reaches up to brush fingers softly over Chan’s cheek, adoring and endeared, and Minho’s eyes flutter shut when the alpha kisses him again. Minho hums, softened by the affection. “You believe in reincarnation?”

“I believe my soul was made for you,” Chan confesses, his voice softer, a little quieter. “It doesn’t make sense for me to find someone else when I am meant for you, and you for me.”

“You are such a romantic,” Minho sighs dreamily, his smile beginning to hurt his cheeks. His teeth sink into the plush of his lower lip, humming softly as he gently nudges at Chan’s shoulders, eyes closing. “You should eat me out again. Show me how much your soul is meant for me.”

Chan laughs and Minho giggles, watching as the alpha flicks the blanket away and spreads Minho’s legs before he latches his mouth to his cunt. Chan shows him how much he means it three more times.

-

He has to go back to the sanctuary, unfortunately, because Chan isn’t his mate yet and it feels wrong to abandon the only family he has left behind. As much as he loves staying with Chan, Minho would miss his pack too much to be without them forever. The worst thing that could happen is that Minho would have to choose between his pack and his mate, but that’s for future Minho to worry about. 

For now, he basks in the moment. 

Because his scent is still laced with post-heat, Chan insists on walking him home. He couldn’t risk being out in the open in his human form, however, so Chan walks with him now as a wolf, standing almost as tall as Minho as they make their way back to camp. Minho stays close, following Chan’s route within the trees, the path Chan usually takes when he sneaks into camp to visit Minho at night. There’s no clear path to follow, even in bright daylight, but Minho trusts Chan to lead the way. 

Minho is draped in his fur coat and the pants he came with, his heart full and warm, body sated and his head clear. It’s the happiest he has been in the last ten years, hopeful and lost in the moment. He wants so badly to tell Jisung all about his time with Chan and he could only hope his friend wouldn’t judge him too badly. 

He doesn’t know how much further to go until he reaches camp, but Chan has stopped walking, alert and ears perked up as if he’s trying to catch whatever he heard. Minho pauses with him, looking around them to see if there’s anything or anyone. He should have brought a weapon with him but up until this moment, ironically, Minho had forgotten all the dangers this world is ruined with. 

Stay behind me, Minho, Chan says, his body tense as he sniffs the air. 

It comes out of nowhere. A two-headed creature with four arms comes charging at them with a speed that rivals a large cat. Minho’s surprise has him knocked back onto the ground and he’s frozen in place as the creature lurches towards him. Chan has it by its torso before it could get to Minho, clamped between his jaw and shaken as if he’s trying to tear the creature apart. Minho belatedly makes out the deformed human head that’s attached to its wolf head, fur coating its humanoid body and the hybrid of paws and human fingers. 

It’s an entori, he realises, the Arhaj civilian cursed with its deformity. It’s strong, successfully freeing itself from Chan’s lock, and it uses its arms to wrap around Chan’s throat. Minho panics, scrambling up to his feet so he could help Chan somehow. He doesn’t know how. The entori is bigger than him, definitely stronger than he is, and Minho doesn’t have a weapon. 

He does the only thing he could think of. As the entori tries to choke Chan and their two bodies roll across the ground, Minho jumps onto the back of the creature and does the same. His arm wraps around its human head, locking in, and he squeezes as hard as he could until the entori releases Chan. It shrugs Minho off its back, dropping him onto the ground and momentarily stunning Minho from the impact. When he refocuses, the creature is charging at him, so close to grabbing his leg as he scoots back before Chan’s jaw catches its head and rips it clean off its body. 

The creature stands frozen in front of Minho before the body slowly falls in a heap, splattering blood onto Minho’s face. He pants, trying to catch his breath as he stares at the headless body of the entori not even five feet away from him. Minho wipes frantically at the blood on his face, and then he feels Chan’s muzzle nudge at his cheek, rough tongue cleaning the sticky residue off his skin. 

The wolf whines, sniffing at Minho’s body, searching for possible injuries. Minho isn’t afraid, he realises. He feels relief and he feels the rush of adrenaline he used to back when the pack was on their own and they occasionally had to fight monsters to stay alive. He finds himself smiling, still breathless, but victorious over their win as he leans his head against Chan’s shoulder. 

It wanted you, Chan says, clearly not finding the win as victorious as Minho takes it. He growls, strong muzzle nudging at Minho’s chest until he’s shoved onto his back. It smelled you and wanted to claim you, Minho. I should have laid my mark on you. I should have claimed you. 

Call Minho sick and crazy, but the way Chan’s nose starts poking at his belly, starts to nudge his legs apart makes Minho hot around his collar. He feels the way he starts to slick up, feels the way his heartbeat quickens in his chest and all Minho wants is to be claimed. Chan is massive in his true form, casting a shadow over Minho now that he’s on his back and Minho wants to know how it feels to be taken by him, by the wolf Chan was born to be. 

He swallows, nervous but wanting, his pussy already throbbing in his pants. “Claim me,” He says, “You’ve protected what’s yours so you should claim me, alpha.”

Chan growls again and then his sharp teeth nip at Minho’s pants before he noses against his clothed cunt. Minho moans, hands quickly moving to shove his pants off his hips, kicking the pair aside and then spreading his legs like he’s still in heat. He wants Chan. His blood is pumping fast in his veins and he’s wet for his alpha and he wants. He’s desperate for it. 

The wolf noses at his wet cunt and Minho gasps, slick pouring out of him as he reaches down to spread his pussy lips apart. He’s still red from Chan’s cock this morning, still stretched and loose, and he rubs at his clit and exposes it to the wolf, inviting him. “Take. Claim it. It’s yours.”

Chan makes a sound in his throat before his tongue slips out and he licks a broad stripe from Minho’s asshole to his pussy, the rough texture adding a delicious stimulation against his clit. Minho cries out in pleasure, his body shaking and when Chan licks one more time, Minho cums. He tries to close his legs but Chan’s paw is strong where he presses against his thigh, keeping Minho spread as he licks his pussy. Minho cums again when Chan continues to slurp at his cunt, whining for the alpha to keep going even as he tries to close his legs. 

He’s shaking by the time Chan deems it enough, breathing hard as he watches Chan move closer, hovering above him in all his silver glory. Minho’s cunt throbs and he gasps when he feels Chan’s wolf cock nudge against his clit, pushes against his hole. He’s bigger than when in his human form but it’s wet with precum and it slides into Minho with ease. 

“Fuck,” Minho cries, filled up with so much cock, and he reaches up to curl fingers into Chan’s furry coat, sobbing as Chan begins fucking into him. 

Minho arches his back and lets his legs fall apart, taking every thrust of Chan’s wolf cock without a fight, shameless in the way he moans and begs for Chan to keep going, to claim him, to mate him. Chan is animalistic as he takes and takes and takes, growling into Minho’s neck, teeth nipping at his skin. Minho moans, his omega desperate for a mark, and he doesn’t know how many times he’d cummed, just that he wants. 

When Chan’s cock slips out from how wet he is, Minho takes the opportunity to move, to shift onto his front and holds his hips up so he could present. Chan pushes back into him with ease and the angle feels better, his pleasure intensified as Chan mounts him like the omega he’s meant to be. His eyes roll back, his cries silent as Chan scruffs him on the back of his neck with his teeth. Chan’s knot starts to catch and he wastes no time in pushing all the way inside him, locking them together as his knot pops and he spills thick and heavy inside Minho. 

“Oh, Oh, please, Channie!” Minho gasps as he feels the sting of Chan’s teeth in his neck and he cums as soon as the wolf bites into his flesh, claiming him. He shakes, eyes rolling back and pussy pulsating around Chan’s knot as Chan growls against his skin, keeping him locked in place as if he could even move. 

He must have blacked out at some point, but Minho wakes up with Chan draped around him, keeping him warm. The sun is low in the sky, likely setting soon and his neck is sore. Minho groans, his entire body complaining and he smells of blood and slick and cum. He badly needs a shower, and to come up with an excuse to tell the pack just what the fuck happened to him. 

Chan nudges at his arm with his nose, and Minho turns to look at him, finding his silver eyes and his fur matted with blood. He smiles, hissing when he turns his head and it stings. His hand comes up to touch his neck and he sees that he’s no longer bleeding but his skin is raised, and there’s clearly a wound in his flesh. Unlike the usual mate mark by a human alpha, Minho knows there’s a puncture wound in the shape of Chan’s canines on the side of his neck and halfway around the back where Chan had scruffed him. 

It hurts, but Minho can’t help the way his heartbeat accelerates at the idea of carrying this mark with him for the rest of his life. He sighs, exhausted as he leans back against the softness of Chan’s fur, his lips curling into a smile. “My pack will have so many questions.”

I can answer them for you, Chan says, guilt in his voice as he nuzzles Minho’s cheek. I’m so sorry, my pretty. I got out of control.

Minho grins, leaning to bury his face into Chan’s neck. “Don’t be. I’m not. My soul lives and dies with you, remember?”

Chan whimpers but he licks Minho’s hand and he says, Meir ufki laiken sen diavi wun yier.

And Minho believes every word. 

-

He does get home, eventually. Chan leads him right through the trees, to the campfire Minho built for their nightly cuddles before Chan scents him and leaves. He’s lucky in the sense that everyone is already safe inside their homes since the sun is down and when he shows up at the front porch, it’s Seungmin who opens the door. It’s not ideal, since Seungmin worries more than Changbin and Jisung and tends to get angry whenever Minho isn’t careful, but it is nice to see him, so Minho smiles.

“Where have you been?” Seungmin asks in a whisper-shout as he ushers Minho inside, brows furrowing while he closes the door and looks Minho over. “Hyung, your neck.”

Minho raises a hand to cover the wound, heat spreading across his cheeks and his ears. He wraps the fur coat tighter around him, suddenly cold. “Can we talk in the morning, Minnie? I’m exhausted.”

Seungmin is shaking his head, coming closer into Minho’s personal space to check the mark Minho now carries. “No, we should take a look at that. Where’s the wyvernscale powder you brought home the other day? We should use that before it gets infected.”

“Seungmin, I’m okay,” Minho tries to assure the young alpha, wishing he could hide out in his nest because he is exhausted and he would love to get some sleep. “I just got- hurt, a little, but it’s nothing to worry about.”

The alpha stares at him before he clears his throat, “Is this about your secret boyfriend? I didn’t want to assume but Jisung is oddly calm about your secret rendezvous so it’s obvious he knows something that he wouldn’t tell us. Is this guy from another pack? Is he hurting you? You know it’s not safe out there. And there’s talk about you smelling like a wyvern, hyung. The sanctuary is reconsidering your stay here.”

Minho blinks, surprised at this news. “What? You wouldn’t let them kick me out, would you?”

“Of course not,” Seungmin walks him towards his room, stopping at his door. “But the omegas are saying you smell a lot like the fires of a wyvern, hyung. Please tell me it’s nothing to worry about.”

Minho doesn’t want to lie, but he is tired and he doesn’t want to think about anything. “It’s really nothing, Min. I’ll be more careful, okay?”

Seungmin considers him for a second. “That looks like a mating mark. And if it is, it doesn’t look human to me.”

Subconsciously, Minho tightens his coat around himself, covering his marks and the red and blues Chan had painted on his skin from their time together. He simply flashes Seungmin another smile, hoping the alpha would drop it for now. “Goodnight, Seungmin. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Seungmin doesn’t stop him when he goes into his room and closes the door. He drops onto his nest, trying to find comfort where he has built it, but all Minho wants is the bed of furs Chan had made him.

-

In hindsight, Minho should have known that not all good things last. Good things, most of the time, never do. You would think Minho of all people would have learned his lesson, after a whole apocalypse and ten years down the road. He’s too hopeful, he thinks, and his tendency to romanticise life even after the world ended has led him here. 

The sun is barely up when he hears it; the thunderous hoofbeat of the hellhorses. 

It startles him awake, groggy from sleep and his brain convinced it’s a lingering nightmare clinging to his waking mind. But the sounds grow louder and then he hears the panicked commotion outside the cabin and Minho moves as quickly as he could. He throws on a decent pair of clothes and leaves the room to find Jisung first. The pregnant omega is already awake, clinging onto Seungmin, the two of them looking up at him as soon as he steps out of the room.

Just then, Changbin rushes into the cabin, his scent potent with ire and urge. “We have to go. Now. Grab only what you need. Minho, help Jisung. The Arhajians are coming.”

They’ve been found. Minho moves with every sense of urgency he could muster, grabbing a bag to stuff only the things they need; weapons, a few canned foods to supply them for as long as possible. Jisung grabs the crochet doll he’s been working on, a hand wrapped tightly around Minho’s wrist so they never separate. His pace has slowed down the bigger his belly grows but fear has him moving as quickly as his feet could take him. Minho makes sure, even in haste, that Jisung is careful. 

With his bag in hand and Jisung in another, Minho moves quickly towards the front door. His plan is to get Jisung on Mr. Nobody so they could move faster, and his mind goes straight to the beach, where he knows they would be safer if the Arhajian soldiers don’t catch up to them. He grabs his bow and fastens his back quiver, and he’s about to step through the door when he hears the screams, the screech of the hellhorses and the howl of a wolf too large for it not to be an Arhajian shapeshifter. 

“Through the back,” Minho urges, ushering Jisung towards their back door. “Quickly, Han-ah.”

Seungmin and Changbin move to follow them towards the back as well, and Minho thinks being housed closest to the forest would put them at an advantage, but the moment he pokes his head out to look at the spot where he had set up the campfire to get warm with Chan, there is an entori stepping out from behind the treeline. Minho cusses, pulling Jisung back before they could step out.

It dawns on him that they might have found them because Minho had led them right into the sanctuary. He’s left too many traces, he doesn’t even remember what happened to that headless body of the entori that attacked him and Chan. His mind is working overtime as he tries to think, to come up with a way they could leave the sanctuary unscathed. 

There are more screams outside, the sounds of children crying, and Minho wonders how many of them have succumbed to the ambush. It feels like the end of the world all over again.

“We need a plan,” Minho says as he locks the back door, even though he knows the entori could easily break in. “I know a path through the woods to a safer place, Bin. But I think we’re surrounded.”

Seungmin grips at his weapon, the curved blade he’s carried with him for a long time. “We could take that one out, right? Two against one?”

Minho shakes his head, “I don’t think it’s alone.”

He moves away from the back door, quick steps taking him towards the front where he peeks through the window to get a look at what they would have to deal with. There are at least four Arhajian soldiers on hellhorses that he could see, but amongst them Minho spots the very creature Chan was telling him about. The yaxi’il, he remembers Chan telling him, the female humanoid with a dog head and claws. It stands at least eight feet tall and Minho thinks it’s cruel to drop a nuclear bomb in a town with less than a hundred people. The soldiers alone could wipe out their entire sanctuary.

Some of the cabins are already on fire, the sounds of the people screaming growing louder as he backs away from the window. His heart clenches in his chest, his vision blurred with tears as guilt eats away at his conscience, and he has half the mind to step outside and try to kill them himself. The four of them jump at the sound of the door breaking at the back and Minho pulls Jisung towards him as the entori growls at them. 

Unlike the one from yesterday, this one is a little smaller. Its human head is only half-formed, lolled to the side like dead meat, and its wolf head growls at them with sharp teeth and mangled jaw. It has three arms, and strong human legs that start to charge at them. Changbin is the first to move, using his spear to strike at the monster. 

Minho doesn’t wait to see the outcome. He grabs Jisung and heads for the door while Seungmin goes to help Changbin. They step out of the cabin to the sight of their people getting their heads sliced through, bodies laying in bloody pools as the yaxi’il wails, the sound a haunting cry Minho knows would stay with him in his sleep. He’s momentarily stunned at what is unfolding before him. He sees the alphas try to fight the soldiers, sees the omegas carry their young in an attempt to flee. 

The entire sanctuary is burning and there’s not a single wyvern in sight. 

“Hyung,” Jisung whispers next to him. He isn’t crying like Minho expects him to, but there’s a quiet resolve in his eyes, as though he’s accepted the fate that lies before him. 

Minho gives his hand a squeeze, “It’s okay, Han-ah. I promise.”

He knows he can’t promise to keep Jisung safe, not when he doesn’t know if he would even live through this, but if Jisung goes, Minho is going with him. 

His heart is beating fast against his chest, knowing he would have to fight for their lives no matter how pointless it feels. He lets go of Jisung’s hand to pick up his bow, grabbing an arrow from the back quiver to aim a shot at an entori that’s coming towards them. He’s no expert, but experience and practice gets him a perfect shot and the creature falls when the arrow goes into the middle of its forehead. 

He loses track of his surroundings but keeps his focus on keeping Jisung safe, shooting down two more entoris and going over to retrieve his arrows. He doesn’t know where Changbin and Seungmin had gone, but he hopes they would meet again sooner than later. The sanctuary is in chaos; there are people running away, but Minho sees Taeyong charging at the enemy, sees more packs fighting off the entoris that keep coming. In his haste to take down as many of them as he could, vision compromised by smoke and dust, Minho doesn’t see it until he bumps right into the yaxi’il.

The force is hard enough to knock him down onto his ass and then Minho finds himself looking up at the creature. It wails at him, sharp canines and drool spitting from its mouth and as it raises its arm with the talons of a hawk, Minho thinks about Chan. How unfortunate that he’s gotten a taste of happiness, what little of it, only for his life to end so soon. Still, Minho refuses to go out without a fight. He struggles to grab his bow and he’s about to aim at the creature when a familiar silver shadow flies across and takes the yaxi’il down with it.

Chan. 

There is the sound of a wyvern’s screech that drowns every other noise in the sanctuary and then a shadow blankets across the entire place. Minho looks up to see Malena, tailed by three other wyverns smaller than her. There’s no time to rejoice, but Minho allows a smile on his lips. 

He scrambles up to his feet and grabs his weapon, running through the crowd and bodies to look for Jisung again. He’s relieved when he sees that both Changbin and Seungmin are with him and he doesn’t know how many others he could save, but his pack is priority. He takes Jisung’s hand when he reaches them, Changbin pulling him into a brief hug, his relief apparent and Seungmin gives his shoulder a squeeze. There is blood and soot on their faces but neither of them look harmed. 

“Come with me,” Minho tells them, tugging at Jisung’s hand. “We gotta go. Where’s Mr. Nobody? Can you walk, Han-ah?”

Jisung nods, his eyes swollen from crying. “I can walk. Hyung, is that-?”

Minho glances back at where he sees Chan ripping off another entori’s head and Minho’s heart swells with pride. That is his alpha, and he isn’t ashamed to admit it. “Yes, that’s my mate. We have to keep moving, okay?”

“I’ll get as many people as I can,” Changbin says, ushering for them to go. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Minho wants to tell him to stop, to just go with them, but there is no time to stop Changbin or linger. The gate is the only way out and with everyone in battle, the opening to slip through is there. He promptly remembers the pouch of wyvernscale he’d left behind and a part of him knows he should go back for it. He grabs Seungmin’s arm, whispering just loud enough for the alpha to hear. “Get Jisung through the gate and to the path we take for supplies. I left something behind.”

Seungmin says something but Minho doesn’t wait to hear it, already moving back towards their cabin. He manages to dodge and slip through unnoticed, sneaking into the cabin and his room where he grabs the pouch of wyvernscale. He pockets it and is about to make a run for it when he sees the cowboy hat on his nest, laid right next to the fur coat Chan gave him. 

It probably is a stupid way to go, but Minho goes back for them. He grabs the hat and the coat just as something crashes through the window of his room. It’s another Arhajian wolf, black fur and red eyes as it snarls at him and lunges. Minho jumps back and trips, falling for the nth time with a cry and his arm goes up to shield his face from the wolf. It sinks its teeth into his forearm, engulfing Minho in a searing pain that has him screaming to tears.

When the pressure lifts and Minho sees Chan shoving the black wolf off him, the Arhajian’s fangs tear through his flesh, ripping a long gash along his forearm. The pain is blinding and all Minho sees is red; red on his arm, red dripping into his coat, red drenching his pants. 

Minho, Chan returns to him, nose bumping against Minho’s side to get him to move. Go, Minho. Please. His tongue comes out to lick a stripe over the wound and Minho screams in pain, sobbing as tears spill down his cheeks. His hand is shaking but his entire arm is quickly growing numb the more Chan licks and cleans at the deep gash. 

The wolf bumps his nose against Minho’s side again, pleading. Go, please. Stay alive. Stay alive or I die with you.

Minho sniffles but he’s quick to remember how dire the situation is. He nods and he grabs the coat and the hat and makes sure the pouch of wyvernscale is still in his pocket as he rises back to his feet. His arm tingles, the pain slowly returning. He takes one more look at Chan and curls a hand around the ruff of Chan’s fur, pressing their foreheads together.

“Meir ufki laiken sen diavi wun yier.”

-

Losing so much blood has slowed Minho down, but he manages to slip through the treeline and find his way out of the forest towards their routine path, hoping with all his heart that Seungmin and Jisung had made it there. Leaving Chan behind is the hardest thing Minho has had to do, but staying would only make things more difficult. The sanctuary is burning as he leaves it, and he doesn’t turn back as he clutches his bad arm to his chest and finds his footing.

Malena flies over him, singing her wyvern song but Minho doesn’t look up, doesn’t want to know what she’s singing for. Has Chan won the fight for them? Has Chan lost? Is he laying in his own pool of blood, heaving for his last breath, while Minho is running away from it all? He shakes his head, trying to get rid of the images his brain has conjured to torment himself, and Minho can’t help the sob that leaves him. So many emotions all at once, but he can’t cry until he knows his pack is safe.

His fall from the shock of the black wolf’s attack must have sprained his ankle because he can’t put his full weight on it without it hurting, so Minho limps until he finds Seungmin, hiding away within their routine path that Minho has walked countless times during their supply runs. Relief washes over him when he sees Jisung is there too and that Changbin had found them first, bringing with him about ten other survivors. Minho wonders how many more of this they would have to survive.

“Hyung!” Changbin calls as soon as he sees Minho, running up towards him to help. 

Minho collapses against Changbin’s chest as soon as he reaches him, the pain of his arm at full force again and his ankle tender. Changbin tries to carry him but Minho shakes his head, “We have to go. You have to follow me.”

Changbin bends to carry him anyway, “You tell me the way and I will bring us.”

So Minho directs, and the pack follows. Changbin takes them to where the opening to the beach is and he looks skeptical when Minho explains that they could go through the hole. Annoyed, he struggles to get off Changbin’s arms and nearly sprains his other ankle in the process. He decides showing them would be the only way for it to work, so Minho drops onto his hands and knees and goes through the opening. 

Muscle memory has him moving without needing to see and like always, Minho rolls downhill and lands on his bad arm. He cries out in pain before covering his mouth to muffle his whimpers, not wanting to attract any more of the enemy and jeopardise their only safe space currently. He struggles to rise to his feet, looking up the hill in hopes that someone had followed. A minute goes by and then two. Minho is starting to panic until he sees Seungmin emerge from the bushes and rolls unceremoniously down the sandy hill.

He helps Seungmin up, turning to see that more of them have followed. Jisung is second to last, and Minho is quick to catch him before he could land on his poor baby. After Jisung, Changbin joins them. There is no time to recuperate, not when they could still be in danger, so Minho leads them into the room Chan had prepared for him. 

It’s spacious enough for all of them to fit and only when they are shielded with a ceiling and a door does Minho see some of them relax. He’s breathless, riddled with anxiety and drowning in pain, and when he sees the unmade bed of furs that holds so many fond memories with Chan, Minho can’t help but collapse onto the soft surface.

And then he lets himself cry.

-

The wyvernscale dust doesn’t do its work as efficiently as it had when Minho used it on Seungmin, though he doesn’t blame Seungmin’s panic when he accidentally poured nearly half of the pouch onto the gnarly gash. Unlike Seungmin’s completely healed wound and ankle, the ones on Minho’s arm burn. It sizzles and melts the skin around the deep gashes, and Minho is crying as Jisung quickly dusts off the remaining powder on his skin. It doesn’t heal him completely or at all, and Minho remembers Chan’s warning to use just a sprinkle of it. It stopped his bleeding, at least, and he doesn’t know how he’s alive after the burn. Changbin ends up wrapping Minho’s arm in whatever medical kit they find in the convenience store. 

While Jisung and Seungmin tend to the wounded with wyvernscale, now aware of how much they should use, Minho braves himself to leave the room, feeling suffocated by the amount of people in his safe space but knowing they need to stay close together. His heart aches, longing for Chan’s presence, hoping his mate had come out of the battle alive. The beach is eerily quiet, filled with just the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. There isn’t a single wyvern in the sky, which means Malena is on the ground. He hopes it’s to devour those evil Arhajians that attacked them in their sleep. 

It must have been hours since they had gotten out. The sun is slowly setting and the wind is cold against his skin. Minho stares up at the sky, his energy drained with the throb in his arm, praying to the deities Chan never stopped talking about to please bring Chan back to him. He begs and begs and there is nothing but the silence in the air and it hurts. Minho has never hurt like this. His knees sink into the sand and he cries, clutching at his chest where his heart is because it aches. He pleads to no one in particular for Chan’s return. 

Changbin tries to get him inside, but Minho refuses. He stays outside watching the water, wrapped in the fur coat Chan gifted to him so many months ago. The sun has disappeared beneath the horizon and the moon hangs up above him. It’s dark and the waters are black. Minho is cold and empty, his mating mark throbbing in the way that makes him worry. At some point, Jisung comes to keep him company and they sit on the sand in silence. Minho has half the mind to eat the wyvernscale if it means it would take away the ache and worry in his heart, but he knows it would burn right through his throat instead.

The wyverns’ cries wake him in the middle of his slumber late into the night. Minho startles awake at the sound of Malena’s familiar screech and he’s scrambling up to his feet, tripping over the sand as he searches the sky. There are four of them in the sky, circling the beach, Malena being the biggest of them. Minho stands back as each one lands onto the sand and he sees the three Arhajians he saw once the first time he found the beach climb off their wyverns. Minho is only focused on Malena, gaze searching for Chan’s silver hair. 

His heart swells when he finally, finally, sees Chan and Minho take off into a run, ignoring the sound of Changbin’s call, ignoring the extreme pain on his arm. The rest of them must have woken up too from the wyverns’ arrival, but Minho doesn’t turn to check, letting his feet take him all the way to his mate. Chan is alive, his omega rejoices, cries in gratitude. His alpha is well. 

There are no words to explain the completeness he feels as soon as he is in Chan’s arms again. He’s warm and strong and he cradles Minho close to his chest, takes Minho’s face in his palms and kisses him. Soft, gentle, the only home Minho needs. Their foreheads press together and Minho breathes Chan in, all the fear and ache in his body washed away by his scent alone. 

“Chan,” Someone calls through the sound of the wind and the waves, breaking their moment, and Minho turns to see it’s one of Chan’s Arhajian companions. He’s taller than Chan and the other two, white hair kept half in a braid and the other half flowing, long enough to touch his waist. His silver eyes are a little dark, almost fox-like, lips full as he regards Minho. “Your hand, Chan.”

Minho looks down at Chan’s hand, at the reddened bandage wrapped around his left fist and he realises in horror that Chan has lost almost half of his fingers. Minho gasps, shaky hands coming up to inspect it. His ring finger and pinky are sliced right off along with almost half of his palm, leaving only the first three digits intact. He’s still bleeding, if the way Minho’s hand comes off sticky red from where he had touched the bandage. 

“I’m okay,” Chan tries to assure him, ushering him away from the wyverns and the water and towards land. “Felix is a healer. He will stop the bleeding. Let him take a look at your arm too.”

Noticing the way Minho is limping from his sprained ankle, Chan bends to hook his arm under Minho’s knees and lifts him into his arms. Minho doesn’t fight it, simply buries his face into Chan’s neck, breathing him in and thanking the universe that Chan is still with him. 

“You, set up a fire,” He hears one of the Arhajians speak as soon as they are closer to the boardwalk. 

He looks up to see one of the surviving alphas hurry away as Chan places him down again. Minho gets a good look at the Arhajians now. The tall one is speaking to the one with the dark hair in hushed whispers while another light-haired Arhajian sinks onto his knees where the alpha places whatever wood he found to start a fire. He assumes that is the healer, Felix as Chan had referred to him. Felix, like Chan, is beautifully out of this world. His hair is long, yellowish tint compared to the other’s white hair, flowing freely with the wind. When he looks up at Chan, his eyes are wide and blue, and the freckles across his cheeks and nose glows, like stars in the sky.

Minho watches as Chan sinks to his knees in front of Felix, holding his hand out and letting the healer hold it above the fire. Malena sings a haunting screech into the air as Felix mutters words Minho doesn’t understand. Chan hisses in pain and Minho wants to reach for him, but the dark haired Arhajian places a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

They’re told to give Chan and Felix space and the crowd disperses, though they linger in the back, curious and afraid all at the same time. Minho can bet none of them have truly been up close with Arhajians, and like Minho himself, they are awestruck by the otherworldly beauty these creatures carry with them. 

“You must be Minho,” The dark haired Arhajian speaks up, stealing Minho’s attention from Felix and Chan. He smiles and Minho sees a dimple that reminds him of Chan’s. He looks even more like a fox than the taller one does, charming but soft at the same time. “I’m Jeongin. Chan talks about you all the time.”

Minho softens, the tension in his shoulders slowly ebbing away. “Does he?”

Jeongin nods, “He says you have mated. Is that true?”

One of Minho’s hands comes up to subconsciously touch the mating mark on his neck and Jeongin’s gaze falls onto it, eyes widening just a bit. Minho frowns, warmth spreading at his cheeks. He realises he never had that shower he needed and he hasn’t gotten the chance to look at his mark in the mirror. “We have. Does it look bad?”

The Arhajian looks away to find the taller one, who joins them and pays no mind to Minho’s personal space as he crowds against him and tilts his chin up, studying the mark. He scoffs, a small smile on his lips. “He mated you in his true form.”

“Classic Chan,” Jeongin mutters, sounding amused. He smiles at Minho once again, “This is Hyunjin. He is our Scout.”

Minho isn’t familiar with the term and his curiosity always gets the best of him. “Scout?”

The tall one, Hyunjin, dips his head in a bow. “Pleasure to finally meet you, Minho. I am the Scout, yes. I roam the skies and make sure no enemy is close. I apologise for not seeing them come.”

“It was a trick,” Jeongin explains, “We were blindsided, and the soldiers slipped through our watch.”

Minho swallows, trying not to think of the people they’d lost. “What about you? Felix is the healer and Hyunjin is scout. What about you?”

“I am a Seer,” Jeongin says, his smile smaller now. “My abilities haven’t been of use on this planet, however.”

Figuring it’s a sensitive topic Minho probably shouldn’t pry, he glances at Chan, curious because Chan has never mentioned this. “What about Chan?”

“Hunter.” It’s Hyunjin that supplies this, a proud smile on his lips. “Best one out of all of us.”

“Chan will be okay,” Jeongin assures Minho, saving him from having to say anything because, truthfully, Minho doesn’t know how to respond to all of this. “If anything, it’s a battle scar he will wear proudly.”

Minho looks at Chan still on the sand, his hand held in Felix’s smaller ones as the healer continues to chant foreign words he assumes is part of the process. Minho has never believed in spiritual healers, or witches, but the world has ended twice for Minho and he will believe everything his eyes could see. 

“Minho?”

He turns to see Changbin and his pack, likely waiting for some kind of an explanation. Minho reluctantly leaves the Arhajians to do what they must, limping his way over to where Jisung is sitting with a blanket around him, leaning against Seungmin. The three of them look exhausted but unharmed. Minho lets Changbin help him sit down on the bench along the boardwalk next to Jisung and they don’t say anything for a long time until Jisung does.

“I knew you were a freak but I didn’t know you were that kind of freak,” Jisung says and Minho’s heart drops at first, at least until he sees that Jisung is smiling at him. “You let a wolf mate you?”

Minho can’t help the laugh that escapes him. It feels surreal to be laughing at all and while his heart aches for the people they lost, Minho is glad his pack is here and so is Chan. He looks at Chan now, who must have finished with the healing, because he’s looking back to find Minho. Their eyes meet and Minho smiles. “I let my alpha mate me.”

“Technically, he’s an alien,” Seungmin adds, leaning back against the bench. “I used to read about this on the internet. This is classified monsterfucking. Hyung, you’re a monsterfucker.”

Changbin laughs, “Are we looking at half alien babies in the future?”

Minho stretches his arms up, hissing at the tenderness of the wound on his neck and the painful sting on his arm. He doesn’t want to think about the future, but his mark tingles, and he flushes at the memory of getting that mark he now carries. Minho smiles and leans to rest his head onto Jisung’s shoulder. “I would have ten of his children, if he wants to.”

Jisung scoffs, “Try being pregnant first.”

-

Without having to say it, after Felix heals Minho’s arm enough for it to scar with a gnarly burn mark over the gash, everyone else seems to know that the cafe turned bedroom is Minho’s, because all of them claim the other shops to settle down in. Minho is glad, and as selfish as this sounds, that bed is his nest and no one else should be in it. Still, Minho makes sure everyone is comfortable and warm. He gets Chan to push an extra couch into the store next door so Jisung could sleep in it and while Jisung sleeps, Minho watches as Changbin and Seungmin talk to Chan in soft voices so they don’t wake Jisung.

For the first time, Minho knows what it feels like to see both his pack and his mate get along. He doesn’t know what they’re talking about, but he smiles anyway, because Chan is smiling and Changbin is squeezing Chan’s shoulder like they’ve known each other all their lives.

It’s quiet again when Minho finally leaves Jisung to sleep. The other three Arhajians have left, leaving Minho with Chan alone again, finally. He steals a bottle of shampoo and body wash from the convenience store and strips down to nothing before he dips into the water, ignoring all the possibilities that it may not be entirely safe. The water is cold, but Minho uses the chance to wash all the blood and grime and soot off his skin. He lathers shampoo in his hair and rinses it off with sea water. He hasn’t felt so fresh in what feels like ages.

At some point while Minho soaks in the water, he hears Chan come up behind him and he turns to see the wolf in all his naked glory. Beautiful, Minho thinks, as Chan dips into the water as well to join him. He smiles as Chan’s arms wind around him from behind, tilts his head just enough to let Chan kiss his mark, still fresh and burning from the saltwater. 

He holds Chan’s arms to keep them around him, basking in the cold breeze and warmed from Chan’s body heat. There’s a lot to unpack, so many things to think through and talk about. The people are expecting him, somehow, to lead, since Taeyong didn’t make it out alive. He has no idea where they could go, but for now he simply relaxes in his alpha’s hold, lets his mate shower him in kisses.

Minho takes Chan’s hand, the one now missing his two fingers. He’s abandoned the bandage after Felix closed the open wound, and Minho’s heart aches looking at it. He holds it up and presses a kiss onto Chan’s palm, holding back the tears that threaten to spill. “I was so scared they would take you away from me.”

Chan tightens his arm around Minho, pressing a kiss to his earlobe. “I was scared they’d taken you away from me. I thought I was too late.”

“I- I think it was my fault,” Minho hiccups in his attempt to hold back his tears. Now that he’s alone with Chan, safe and in the hands of someone he trusts, Minho could feel all the emotions come crashing. His heart feels heavy. It aches for the people whose lives are lost, for Taeyong and Jungwoo and everyone who fought and died. They were never close, but he had lived within the same space as them for over a year now. Minho stares up at the moon and he hopes they forgive him. “I left too many trails and led them straight to where it was supposed to be safe.”

“No, Minho,” Chan urges, holding him tighter, his lips brushing over his bare shoulder. “It’s not your fault. They would have found it anyway. The king sent troops out to find these secret places. Nowhere is safe. It’s not your fault.”

Minho lets himself cry again, the guilt almost too much to bear and he feels no relief knowing it isn’t his fault. He sobs, turning in Chan’s arms so he could bury his face into the alpha’s neck, so Chan could hold him closer, tighter, as he cries into his chest. Chan presses his kiss into Minho’s wet hair and he lets Minho cry for as long as he needs to. He brings Minho out of the water some time later, covers him with his fur coat and takes Minho back to his nest.

He doesn’t bother putting on any clothes as he climbs into his bed of furs, reaching out for Chan to join him. The alpha does so happily and Minho snuggles up against his side, letting Chan’s arm wind around his shoulders as he rests his cheek upon Chan’s chest. He’s exhausted, but sleep isn’t coming, so Minho simply lays there and basks in the soft kisses Chan presses onto the top of his head. 

“What happens next, Chan-ah?” Minho asks quietly, his voice soft as he whispers it against Chan’s skin. “We can’t stay here anymore, can we?”

Chan hums, fingers toying with Minho’s now dry hair. “We’ll have to leave. There’s somewhere I know is pretty safe at the moment. We’ll have to be on wyvernback to get there.”

Minho lifts his head to meet Chan’s eyes. “You would do that for all of us?”

“Of course I would,” Chan frowns before he softens, dimples showing as he smiles and shifts, rolling Minho onto his back and slotting his lips over the omega’s in another kiss. “Your people are my people, Minho. Hyunjin, Felix and Jeongin will help too.”

Minho chases for another kiss, wanting Chan to know just how much he appreciates this. “Where will we go?”

“An island up north,” Chan tells him, fingertips tracing over Minho’s bare chest. “It’s big enough for all of us. Malena can’t stay, of course. She’s too big and she has her own nest. Her kids will stay with her.”

“Her kids?” Minho prompts, curious. “The other wyverns?”

Chan hums, a smile on his lips as he moves to press his lips to Minho’s forehead. It travels down his cheek, to his lips, and Minho parts them to welcome Chan’s tongue inside his mouth. He lets Chan kiss him, taste him, and he gasps as Chan slips himself between his legs, notches the head of his cock into Minho’s cunt and takes him under the layers of fur. It feels like sorrow and loss and love at the same time, and Minho muffles his cry into Chan’s neck as he spasms and cums around his cock. 

-

The people are too nervous to get on wyvernback. Minho understands, of course. They don’t have the foolish curiosity he does that got him here in the first place and it’s valid that they don’t trust the very creatures that brought their world to ruins, even if Malena and her wyvern kids hadn’t been the ones to burn through their cities. 

They don’t have the time to spare, however. Every second that ticks is a risk they are facing with getting ambushed again, and Minho doesn’t want to lose another person, not on his watch. Hyunjin tells them there are Arhajian guards doing patrol too close for comfort, and more yaxi’il creatures that are roaming with them. Minho desperately needs the people to move. 

Jisung is more than happy to fly, so his pack really isn’t the problem. It’s the other ten survivors of the sanctuary that’s skeptical, some of them even suggesting they go separate ways. He should probably let them go if they wish, but his guilty conscience makes him desperate to make sure he gets to save every single one of them. They would never survive the claws of a yaxi’il without Chan and the Arhajians. 

“You need to understand how important it is that we leave,” Minho is saying as the people gather around him. He could almost hear the thunderous hoofbeat of the hellhorses, but it might just be his paranoia. “They will get you and they will kill you. Please, just trust me and we go to a place they won’t find us for a while.”

One of the alphas from the group steps forward, “We understand the danger, Minho, but some of us would rather die by the hands of the monster than be fooled into following these high ranks Arhajians. For all we know, they’d be feeding us into the mouths of an even greater monster.”

Minho finds offence in the alpha’s accusation, because Chan is his mate, and the disrespect feels tangible. “You have no gratitude for what my mate has done for all of us back at the sanctuary. We would all be dead if he wasn’t there.”

“Some of us already are,” Someone else speaks up and Minho recognises him as Haechan from Taeyong’s pack. “Our pack alpha and luna are gone. Jungwoo is gone. How do we trust you when you could have been the one who exposed us to the enemy? How could we trust you when you’ve gone and tied yourself up with a fucking shifter, just like the rest of them?”

This starts a murmur amongst the crowd as they whisper within themselves, considering Haechan’s words. Minho knows Chan said the king is pushing out every survivor and non follower there is from hiding, but he can’t help the way his heart clenches at the very thought that people have died because of him. He thinks about the entori that attacked them in the woods and he wonders if that’s how the Arhajian guards found them. 

“Everyone, please calm down,” Changbin steps out when he sees that Minho has gone quiet. “Our Minho is simply trying to help us. There are more of them coming and this land isn’t safe anymore. If you’re willing to stay and find out for yourselves, then go ahead. The offer still stands, but we must leave in the next hour.”

Changbin curls a hand around Minho’s elbow to guide him away and Seungmin and Jisung follow while the other packs discuss within themselves. Minho looks up at the sky, at Malena flying so high up she looks like a large bird. Chan has gone to make sure the island is habitable and Minho has only one job, and that is to get everyone to agree with them. 

Seungmin sighs, “They’ve never really liked us, huh?”

“We were still new to the sanctuary,” Changbin reasons, picking up the bag of supplies he’d collected from the convenience store. “Minho hyung, you do know it’s not your fault?”

Minho blinks and nods, feeling a throb start to form behind his eyes, an impending headache he wishes would go away. High up in the sky, Malena screeches her song and dips low before disappearing behind the horizon. Minho knows that means Chan will return soon, and he sighs, glancing back at the group of people he wishes he could save but has no control over. He raises a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose, easing some of the ache there before he walks away from the rest of them. 

He waits for Chan near the shore, letting the waves crash against his feet and he closes his eyes to breathe in the air. It isn’t the same as the ocean breeze used to be ten years ago and the air still reeks of decay and that sweet musk of the wyverns that have made a home out of the planet, but Minho has gained a new perspective. He doesn’t feel it’s right to view the world differently now, just because his heart belongs to Chan, but a part of him knows he would go to the ends of the earth for his mate if he ever has to. Let the people accuse him of sleeping with the enemy or betraying his own kind. Minho would probably have done it if Chan asked him.

But Chan didn’t.. Chan would never ask him to do such vile things. Chan is good, and Minho knows this in his heart. If the people refuse Chan’s help, then Minho can do nothing more.

A shadow casts over him and he opens his eyes to see that Malena is back, making her descent. She lands on the sand, effectively quieting everyone else, who must still be wary of her presence. Minho stays rooted in place, watching as Chan climbs off the wyvern and makes his way over. He wears his black, a sweater beneath his long coat, gloved hands to match his military boots. Minho allows a smile on his lips when Chan reaches him and it’s all too easy to lean into his hold, to let Chan press a kiss to his temple and take his hand.

“They’re not willing to come,” Chan says this matter-of-factly, already knowing the matter at hand. He must have considered this but he doesn’t seem as wrought as Minho feels. “It’s alright, my love. We will circle back daily in case they change their minds.”

Minho glances back at them, catching a few speaking in hushed whispers, clearly about Minho and Chan. He clenches his jaw, “They have free will. If they decide to stay then I can’t force them to go. Is it ready?”

Chan nods, a hand on the small of Minho’s back. “I will take you there first, and your pack, before everyone else.”

“No,” Minho shakes his head, giving Chan’s arm a squeeze. “They already think it’s a trap and they don’t trust me. They think I’m betraying them.”

Just then, the alpha who had spoken earlier comes forward again. Unlike Haechan, he doesn’t sound as hostile. “Minho, we’ve made a decision as a group. Some of us have decided to go with you, but my pack remains. As well as Haechan’s.”

Chan looks between them before he decides to speak, “We respect your decision. But please, if you change your minds, don’t hesitate to reach out.”

The alpha looks quizzically at Chan, “And how do we do that?”

“Look up at the sky,” Chan tells him, “My wyvern breathes blue. Hide if you see red.”

The other alpha considers this for a moment and holds out his hand, a smile on his lips. When Chan takes it for a brief shake, he says, “I’m Mingyu. I appreciate your help.”

Out of the ten survivors, only four of them decide to follow Minho. He watches as Mingyu’s pack of four and Haechan’s two pack up their things and start a journey into the city, despite Hyunjin’s warning that the Arhajian guards are on patrol and Chan’s reminder that there are monsters out there they cannot even begin to fathom. His heart sinks over the gut feeling in his belly that they might not even make it out to see another sunrise, but Chan kisses his shoulder and tells him they have to go.

Jisung and Seungmin ride with Jeongin, while Changbin and the pack of four divide between themselves, half with Hyunjin and the other half with Felix. Malena is meant to carry most of them, but since Mingyu and Haechan decided against it, she flies now with only Chan and Minho on her back. Minho stays behind Chan, arms around his waist and he glances one last time down at the beach, growing smaller and smaller the higher they go. 

He feels seventeen again, when the world ended for the first time, and he has to leave behind the home he’s known all his life. Minho closes his eyes and tightens his arms around Chan, pressing his forehead against his back to keep himself from succumbing into his emotions. When he hears the wail of a yaxi’il from down below, Minho’s entire body jerks and his head turns on instinct to look, but Chan has a hand on his knee and he squeezes, stealing Minho’s attention away.

“Don’t look,” Chan says, so Minho doesn’t.

-

The island is small, but sufficient. It clearly used to be a floating village above the water, holding about six wooden houses, each big enough for a family of three. There are scarcely any trees, no forest to hide in, no forest to hunt within. They would have to rely on sea life for food and would have to travel by boat for wood to start fires. There is less chance they would face another ambush without seeing the enemy coming, but it’s still so new on what kind of monsters would come from the water, or if they would someday wake up to the island burning with wyvern fire. 

Minho can’t complain. It’s far from the mainland, even farther from the capital, and Malena and her younglings will be roaming the skies to keep intruders away. Technically, the island is the safest place for them to be. Sea monsters would be a problem, but Chan assures him he’s made good allies with the rokiftis and they would protect their territory with their lives. They’re also massive, at least the last time Minho had seen them, so he doubts there aren’t that very many sea monsters as big as they are to pose as a threat.

Jisung is also getting closer to his due date. He’s so round now that the baby is close to popping out and he doesn’t stop complaining over the smallest thing. He can’t eat fish if it’s overcooked, he doesn’t like his food with salt, he cries when Seungmin goes and cries again when Changbin goes, so they have to stay with him for as long as possible. Minho is amused, more than anything, and glad that Chan hasn’t shoved him into the same fate, even though he thinks he would be over the moon if he is ever with child. 

He spends the last couple of months getting used to new routines. His floating house sits at the edge of the boardwalk, the first one next to the dock, and it’s big and spacious enough for Minho to build his nest in one of the rooms, have his own living room and a kitchen. Chan had gone back to the beach to grab all of his fur blankets and Minho managed to rebuild his nest, a little something he could keep from the life he knew before. 

His arm wound is gnarly mark that’s a constant reminder of what happened that night. Each time he remembers the screams, the cries of the children they didn’t get to save, Minho finds solace in looking at the mate mark Chan left on his neck. It grounds him somehow, keeps his thoughts from wandering too far, and reminds Minho of all the things he still has, things he’s lucky enough to keep.

Chan expresses his displeasure in letting Minho go out to hunt, especially since they don’t really have to now with limited resources, and Minho is more than happy to stay home and keep an eye out for Jisung, in case of early labour. He does help Seungmin out with fishing from time to time, and like he’d gotten good with his bow and arrow from experience, he is getting good at fishing too.

The air out here feels fresher, smells almost like the ocean breeze he used to know. He guesses it’s because they are far away from land and the destruction the Arhajian king has caused. With the rokiftis guarding their territory and the wyverns roaming their sky, it almost feels as though the world is renewed. Minho has no complaints. He thinks he might actually like the change.

The floating house he has claimed for himself was fully furnished when he first landed on the island. It was abandoned, of course, but most of the things inside had been intact. He assumes it used to be a small water village, abandoned when they were first invaded, but left untouched afterwards. It’s a surprise no one has found the place, but that might be because Hyunjin, Felix and Jeongin live close by and their wyverns keep most people and monsters away. 

Minho is outside airing out his laundry when he hears Malena’s call, signalling Chan’s return. Lately the alpha has gone out to hunt for food so Minho and their small group of people don’t have to survive solely on fishes and sea life. Changbin tags along sometimes, but on days where Jisung desperately needs him to stay, like today, the alpha stays on land.

Finishing up with hanging the clothes he needs to dry, Minho abandons his laundry basket to get inside the house, where he makes sure to look at himself in the mirror so he at least looks decent enough to welcome his alpha home. Chan has never asked for him to, but lately Minho has a need to look pretty for him, especially when Chan comes home from a hunt. 

His dark hair has gotten a little long, the ends of it curling against his nape and his fringe is falling over his eyes. Minho a year ago would probably make Jisung help him with a haircut, but ever since Chan told him he’s so pretty like this, Minho swears not to touch the scissors. He smiles at his own reflection, happy with the choice of clothes he’d picked out to wear; a pale yellow cardigan on top of a white shirt and a pair of jeans Felix had brought for him a couple of weeks ago. It’s hardly the right clothes to wear but it’s rare that Minho feels as pretty as he does now.

He leaves the house to greet Chan, who has just gotten off Malena and is climbing up onto the docks. He looks up and there’s an immediate smile as soon as he sees Minho, a dimple in his cheek and silver eyes flashing. Minho is always happy to see his mate and he doesn’t hide the little skip in his steps as he closes the distance between them. 

Chan’s arm winds around Minho’s waist to pull him close and they share a soft, lingering kiss. Chan has only been gone since the sun rose this morning, but Minho already misses him. He feels a different kind of attached lately, almost clingy, and he shows it by deepening the kiss and breathing in Chan’s scent deeply. His nutmeg and orange blossom is potent after a long day of work and Minho especially loves it when it’s strong like this. It makes his mouth water.

“You’re glowing, my love,” Chan says as he presses a kiss into Minho’s hair, his smile blinding. “Did something good happen while I was gone?”

Minho warms, shaking his head. “Nothing. I’m just happy to see you.”

“You’d be happier to know Felix is hosting dinner tonight,” Chan grins, leading Minho away from the dock. “We caught plenty today and Felix thought it would be nice to have dinner together, with the whole pack.”

“He knows how to cook?”

Chan nods, a smile playing at his lips. “Oh yeah, Felix is a great cook.”

-

Felix really is a great cook. 

Dinner goes splendidly and Minho is stuffed by the time it’s over and the people have started lounging around to chat after thanking Felix for cooking their dinner. They held it outside along the boardwalk and made sure to not make it so extravagant that it would attract unwanted guests, but it felt lively and Minho is buzzing by the time some of them bid them goodnight. 

Jeongin is immersed in a conversation with Seungmin and Felix has stuck himself to Hyunjin as they both listen to Jisung and Changbin talk. This feels like pack, like family, and Minho gazes at them fondly while he’s seated on the blanket Chan has splayed out for them on the dock. There are so many stars in the sky and Minho could see Malena flying across and into the clouds. 

He lays back onto the pillows Chan brought out for them, far enough from the rest of the pack to enjoy this time just the two of them. He’s comfortable, drowsy from the amount of food he’s had and Chan is playing with his fingers, touching him everywhere and anywhere he could reach. He smiles up at the alpha, who returns it with a dimpled one as he leans to press a kiss onto Minho’s lips. 

Chan moves to situate himself between Minho’s legs, laying on his belly as Minho sits up again, a hand coming up to card fingers through Chan’s silver hair. He’s warm and he makes Minho feel full inside, complete and whole. Minho lets Chan lean closer, enough to bury his face into Minho’s tummy, pressing a kiss there with a soft hum. “You smell different.”

“Different how?” Minho asks softly, his mind light and almost carefree. “Bad different?”

Chan shakes his head, both his hands coming up to curl around Minho’s waist. “Good different. You smell like… Like Jisung. Like baby.”

Minho laughs, not entirely sure what Chan means. “Baby?”

“Yeah,” Chan looks up at him, his smile widening as he sits up again, letting an excited laugh spill from his lips. “Minho, I think you might be-”

A cry from behind them has Minho startled, interrupting Chan from what he was about to say. They both look up to see Seungmin hurrying towards Jisung and Minho moves without any second thought. Chan follows behind him and when Minho gets to his best friend, Jisung is groaning, his hands clutching at his belly and he’s sitting in a pool of liquid.

It’s time, he thinks; Jisung is in labour. 

Minho glances at Chan, at what Chan has just implied, and it makes sense why he’s wanted to look pretty, why he’s gotten clingy to his alpha. Even as he shoos the alphas away so he could help Jisung deliver his baby, Minho is smiling, fighting the urge to touch his own belly, to check if he really does have a baby inside him. 

Jisung has a baby girl. Minho, bloodied hands and teary face after he places the baby into Jisung’s arms, looks up at his mate, at the alpha he would never have guessed would be his, the alpha he never knew he would find, and they share a smile. Chan tugs him close, ignoring the blood, ignoring everything else as he pulls Minho into a kiss. 

Minho melts right into it, fingers curling around the front of Chan’s clothes and he lets the alpha lick into his mouth, lets him taste before they part and their foreheads press together. Chan cups his cheeks in his hands, “I love you, Minho.”

I love you. I love you. I love you. Minho hears the sounds of Jisung sobbing, the cheers of Changbin’s joy, the sweet whispers of Seungmin claiming that he’s a father, the little cry of the baby who has just joined their pack. Minho kisses Chan again, hoping with all his heart that he would be as blessed. “I love you, Chan-ah.”

Chan smiles, strong arms curling around Minho and he whispers the words that have remained true, ingrained into Minho’s brain and memory forever. 

“Meir ufki laiken sen diavi wun yier.”

END.