Silver Lining

****☽***

(Ah, angst)

"There you are: I thought you would be in the dining room but then I smelled lavender near the front door and assumed- Well, I assumed you..."

Felix's gaze dulls some, looking away from the eldest werewolf with a downward tug to his features. 'Went home?' The omega surmises bitterly, refraining from commenting you took that option from me a while ago.

Chan frowns, nibbling on his bottom lip. "I... I did tell you that you could go to the village whenever you wanted but... but I would prefer if I went with you-"

The silvernette shakes their head with a small huff, disappointed that Chan would even consider the possibility of Felix going back to the very same place that turned against him in a blink of an eye, the place he watched go from angry yells to horrified screams as rain pounded down upon blood soaked ground and the injured omega could only run for his life with his dying father-figure on his back and- He wards off the memory. He won't go back, can't; even when Lee is well enough to return, Felix knows deep in his heart that the human man will always be safer without him... Happier without him. Felix's place is the wilderness: where the other beasts reside. The upstairs apartment he spent the majority of his life in stopped being his home as soon as those riots began...

'Didn't.'

"Oh." A rather wary furrow of Chan's brow followed, "So if you didn't go to the village, then..?"

Felix's mood only continued to sour, pushing himself up from the chair by Lee's bed and sending a glare at the older. 'Porch.'

The brunette sighed, expression appearing rather exhausted and resigned. "Felix, I told you I'd consider bringing you along on the pack hunts; I'm really trying here, alright? But you can't just go into the woods on your own like that-"

'Didn't.'

The alpha was clearly not convinced but muttered anyway, "But if you did, I don't ever want you to do that again without out my permission-"

'Why?' The omega demanded, fists clenching at his sides with the implication that Chan didn't believe him, that Chan is scolding him as if he is some dumb weak pup that hasn't lived his entire life answering to no one but himself. You are not my alpha, why would I ever need your permission?

"You know exactly why," the eldest hissed, eyes narrowing in irritation at the silvernette's stubbornness, "There are ferals, Felix; there is a turf war going on with this territory sandwiched right in the middle! The last thing I need is for you or anyone else in my pack running out there by themselves and getting hurt!"

'Changbin run!'

"He runs with me; that's different-"

'Minho run!'

"Well he is always accompanied by either Sung or Hyunjin-"

'Jeongin run! Jeongin pup!'

"Innie goes with Seungmin! There's a difference because they are not lone and vulnerable-" The older goes still at his choice of words, knowing he messed up as soon as they left his mouth and Felix's expression twists from vexed to utterly livid.

"Vulnerable? Vulnerable?!" The omega's raspy and cracking voice shouts, lips raised in a threatening manner.

"No! No, I'm sorry, it wasn't supposed to come out that way! I- Omegas, they just have a different smell than other wolves, okay? You'll be a more obvious target, the ferals will be more drawn to you; that's all that I meant!"

'Send with me! You say no!'

"I- I said I would consider-"

'Excuses!'

"It's complicated and I have my reasons," Chan scowls, "You don't understand, Lix; you're not-"

'Give reason!' The silvernette snarls, grabbing the alpha by the shirt and yanking him forward angrily, 'Tell why! Tell me!'

"Because I can't send my pack out with an ignorant, lone, and unmated omega!" Chan yells back angrily, hands grabbing Felix by the wrists and yanking his sweatshirt free from the silvernette's hold, "If you go out there, no matter who you are with, you're practically asking for some feral to come and claim you with little concern towards any who may stop them! And I won't let my pack get hurt in a means to please you, regardless of how much I fucking care about you and want you to be happy here; I am alpha and pack comes first and if that means I have to keep you in this house for not only your own safety by theirs too, then I will!"

Furious tears well in crystal blue orbs, body shaking in both rage and fear at how small Felix feels, at how powerless they are to the older's grip. "You're not my alpha," he spats, voice low and unsteady and only becoming worse at the look of utter heartbreak that flashes across Chan's face, "N-Not my pack. No control over m-me."

He begins stepping away, eyes scrunched to hide the other werewolf's expression, water cascading down his cheeks at the violent tremble of Chan's fingers as they slowly release his wrists. "Y-You watch: I leave, n-never come back." The omega makes it to the door, mumbling with one last defiant glare in the alpha's direction, "C-Can't stop me."