“Wow, hey man, what the hell happened?” Scott was suddenly there, standing in front of me, his throat bared in a submissive posture. His muscles were tense, the scent of fear quickly surrounding him. My hand itched to sink my claws into his flesh. To hurt him, anyone, everyone.

“Easy Reid.” Another voice, behind my back. I spun around and growled at Yuri for sneaking up on me. He was tense as well, not totally scared but worried. “Scott, get on your knees,” Yuri said softly, his eyes lowered, his head turning slowly to bare his throat for me. My jaw ached with the need to rip into him. The wolf in me howled for blood and with him came something dark, something so wicked it wouldn’t mind killing its family or friends.

The snow crunched as Scott fell to his knees oh so submissive. He whimpered as I looked at him hungrily. “No need for that Reid. You’re better than this.” Yuri came forward. I stared at him, ready to kill him the second he got too close. But before that could happen he fell to his knees as well. I grabbed him by his hair, jerking his head to the side to get better access to his throat before I got down and licked a line up his neck. I could feel his pulse right under the skin, the blood calling to me. A warm body pressed up against my back, shaking, whimpering. Scared, begging for protection. I wanted to turn around but up came Yuri’s hand holding me even closer to him. His scent was sharp from the training. It screamed pack, pack, pack, and I wanted to tear him to pieces. Instead, a whimper escaped me and I suddenly couldn’t catch my breath, feeling lost, unwanted, abandoned.

I wasn’t sure how, but Yuri and Scott somehow managed to get me up and moving towards Scott's house. It was a small cottage on the edge of the town. It had two floors but it wasn’t big by any means. They sat me down on the couch, giving me all the time I needed to rein in my wolf and chase away the darkness in my soul. It was hard but a cup of coffee later I could breathe again, claws, fangs, and glowing eyes fully gone.

“Damn, man, I haven’t seen you get this scary ever since we were twelve,” Scott said, still shaken in his chair across from me sipping his tea. Yuri sat next to me, so close, we touched. The warmth of his body and his scent helped me get control. Again. Damn. I had to be more careful.

“Yeah, that was the last time I saw you lose control before you left. What’s going on? Does this happen a lot?” Yuri asked, his worry touching.

“The last time I lost control was the month after I got kicked out,” I said, my muscles tensing again. But Yuri was there pressing against me, reminding me I wasn’t alone. “It’s this damn place, the memories, the people.” I sighed, shaking my head. “Maybe I should listen to Alistair and just leave… This isn’t working. The pack doesn’t trust me, I’ll be no help here…”

“Pff, please.” Scott scoffed then. “Like you could leave while Bran’s killer is still alive.”

“Yeah, and how the hell am I going to help when a single word can make me lose it?” I frowned, taking a sip of my coffee. “And Diego and Marc obviously have no instinct of self-preservation.”

“And you do?” Yuri raised an eyebrow at me. “I haven’t forgotten that you smelled like the Silver Heart pack when you came back yesterday.”

“They have no reason to kill me. I’m a lone wolf, there is nothing weird about Elliot, one of the Alphas of this city, inviting me for a chat,” I said. He was probably trying to distract me from thinking about all the wolves who hated me. I was glad for the change of subject.

“And what exactly did you chat about?” Scott asked, leaning forward in curiosity.

For a split second, I thought about lying. I wasn’t even sure why… It just felt like a betrayal even though it was just a chat. “He offered me a place in his pack,” I said. They were my friends, who else would I tell?

Now, they seemed truly shocked about that. I almost felt offended, that it seemed so unbelievable that someone could actually want me but… Yeah, it was that unbelievable. I got kicked out of my born pack, who could possibly want me if even my family couldn’t deal with me?

“And what did you say?” Scott found his voice first.

“That I’ll think about it,” I answered while sipping my coffee.

“What? Do… do you actually want to join them?” Yuri asked and there was hurt in his gaze, but he quickly hid it.

“Oh, Gods no.” I shook my head immediately. “That would never work. I guess I’m just not the pack type.” I said sadly.

“I highly doubt that.” He smiled at me. Before I could argue he continued. “It is a bit weird though, isn’t it? Why offer you a place now? Why not ask right when you got chased away?”

We all seriously thought about it for a second, but the only thing that came to mind was: “The Canadian packs… He said something about the other packs in Canada and Alaska, about them seeing that my father isn’t as strong as he was back in Scotland.”

“Why would the other packs matter?” Yuri seemed as confused as me, but Scott… Scott went all tense, biting his bottom lip. “What?” Yuri asked, noticing it too.

“I… I might have overheard Nikolai’s and Alpha’s talk…” He gulped nervously, curling in on himself.

“Well? What was it about?” I prompted him when he stayed quiet.

“I can’t, Katashi found me and made me promise to keep quiet,” he whimpered. Scott wasn’t a dominant wolf. Not by a long shot. He was somewhere in the middle of the pack hierarchy, so Katashi’s word was law, binding his wolf into obedience.

“Scotty, I command you to tell me.” I tried my best impression of Father; stone-cold face, emotionless hard voice, the no-nonsense tone… For a second he just stared at me and it took me a while to notice Yuri did the same. His expression was a complicated mix of emotions I couldn’t read. “What?” I asked.

“Please don’t ever do that again. That was scary,” Scott said as a shudder went through his body.

“What did you hear, Scott?” I rolled my eyes at him but decided to heed his advice for the future.

“Okay, okay… The alphas of the north, so Canada and Alaska, had this stupid meeting about the future or whatever,” he started explaining, still a bit nervous. “I don’t know the details, but for some reason, they want Alpha as the… well, the King of the North I guess,” he said, grinning at the reference. “They want him to become the Alpha of Alphas. They have been calling him every day for at least a month.”

Holy shit… I didn’t expect that. That was big. Technically hundred or so years ago, Father was the Alpha of Alphas in old England and the packs thrived under his rule. But then he left, showing everyone that Royalty wasn’t really that important to wolves. The packs that stayed in England easily prospered without Alistair’s iron-claw rule. Why would the North packs need it, or want it now?