Alpha & Omega // Ateez // P.SH

- 6 -

Ellinor slept for more than 24 hours. Yunho brought her food several times, but the only answers he got from her were mumbling. She ate nothing. Hongjoong stopped by in the evening, but he quickly realized there wasn't much point in talking to her yet. She was exhausted.

Not until the next day did she start to wake up. She accepted the food Yunho had made her, ate well, drank water and seemed much more alert.

«It's good to see you getting better,» Yunho smiled warmly at her.

«Thank you, Yunho.» She smiled back at the beta that had been so kind to her this week she had been staying in their basement. «I owe all of you so much. You, more than anyone.»

«Tomorrow the door will open. Are you ready?»

«I think so.»

«Are you nervous?»

«Yes.»

«Why?»

«Seonghwa.»

«He is one of the kindest, mildest alphas I have ever met. I don't think you need to be scared of him.»

«But he feels I once belonged to him. He says he doesn't think that way any more, but I can't see a mark on him.»

«No, he doesn't have a mate,» Yunho confirmed. «But I don't think Seonghwa is the kind of alpha that would force himself on anyone. Not now that your Time is over.»

She nodded, but he got the feeling she wasn't certain this was the case.

«Eat, sweetie. I'll be back at lunch.»

«Thank you, Yunho,» she said again.

The next morning she woke up really early. She could feel change would happen really soon. It was scary. Thankfully her body was getting back to normal. Yunhos food had given her her strength back, and she was almost back to being herself again. Almost, but not quite.

Seonghwa was the reason for her unease. Something had been calling her to the city. At first she had thought it was this pack. It felt so right that this is where she hid during her Time. But suddenly there was Seonghwa. The man she had run away from so many years ago. She didn't understand him. Yunho said he was mild and a good man, but she could detect a huge strength within his beautiful body. Damn it, he was too pretty to have such powers, it would be a lethal combination.

Ellinor almost jumped through the roof when there was a tiny «click» from the door and it slid ajar. She had even had the thought that they might never let her out. No-one would ever know if they had just kept her in the cell. No-one would ever miss her. But now the door was open. 

Now what? Should she wait for her hosts to come get her? Should she change into her own clothes? Yunho had taken them to clean them, and now she didn't know where they were.

She couldn't wait for more than a minute. She put on an extra hoodie Yunho had given her, stepped into her shoes and slowly pushed the door of the cell open. For some reason she tried to not make a sound on her way up the stairs. She half expected to find the door locked, but it wasn't.

She heard talking and laughing for further down the hall, but they all became silent as she came closer. They could smell her, like she could smell them. She could smell a pregnant omega, but she didn't know which one yet. She could feel someone being anxious, and others just happy. She could feel and smell a lot. Too much to register. It was a long time since she had been around so many wolves at once, it was threatening to overwhelm her. Still, she didn't stop until she was standing in the kitchen. Around a huge table alphas and omegas were seated eating breakfast, and a beta was running around trying to do everything and anything, looking really happy to do so.

«Ellinor!» Yunho said. «Good morning! Come have breakfast. You can sit with Joongie. Everyone, time to introduce yourselves.»

Yunho was like a mother figure for the entire pack, no-one even considered protesting. They all said their names, one after the other. Some of them she had met before, specifically when they came storming down the stairs to the basement when she first arrived at the house. Others she hadn't met before. Sunwoo smiled with a lifted eyebrow, clearly flirting, and Ellinor pretended not to see it.

«Hi,» Ellinor said as everyone had introduced themselves. «I'm Ellinor. I hope I haven't been too much of a nuisance this week.»

«Just make sure to have an alpha before your next Time arrives because this was insufferable.»

«Yeosang!»

Ellinor felt Yunhos hand on her shoulder, it made her jump. When was the last time anyone touched her? «Don't mind Yeo, he's not quite as mean as he likes to pretend he is.»

«He's just cranky because he haven't slept much this last week,» someone laughed.

«Oh, I'm sorry, have I kept you awake?» Ellinor looked slightly shocked.

«Their partners have kept them awake,» Yunho said. «Alphas tend to get inspired when...»

Ellinor blushed, but the others just laughed and teased each other over the table. She wasn't used to this kind of open and accepting atmosphere. In her home they never spoke of such things. Maybe it was because her mother died when Ellinor were young, it wasn't something her father felt comfortable talking about. Or maybe it was the entire clan that had that kind of attitude. But here everyone was laughing, and as soon as Ellinor had food on her plate and started eating, she kind of melted into the group. No one seemed to notice her anymore. Or most of them, at least.

«Ellinor, could we speak in my office?» Hongjoong said as they finished breakfast.

«Yes, of course, alpha,» she said and immediately followed him. She didn't meet anyones eyes, but Yunho squeezed her should again before cleaning off the table. He had help from Mingi and Seonghwa.

«Sit,» Hongjoong said and nodded towards the big chair by the window. He himself sat in his comfy office chair, leaning back and looking out the window.

«Did you get a chance to think since we last spoke?» he asked. «About your future plans?»

«I have been thinking, but my reason and my wolf disagrees.»

He nodded his head, he knew exactly what she meant. «What does your reason say?»

«To go back to the woods. There is nothing in the city that I neither want nor need.»

«And your wolf?»

«That there is something here that I cannot leave behind.»

«And what is that?»

«I'm not sure yet, alpha.»

Hongjoong let out a sigh, thinking. Ellinor didn't get impatient, the calm atmosphere in this room was quite soothing. The walls were filled with bookcases full of books, there were knowledge and wisdom.

«If you want to stay for a while, you can,» he finally said. «I'll give you time to think and feel, to try to figure out what you need. If at some point you decide you want to join our pack, that should be possible.»

«Thank you, alpha,» she said, bowing her head. «That is more than I deserve.»

«Everyone deserves a chance, don't you think?»

«Even those who caused a war?»

«Even those. And I don't think you need to take full responsibility, there probably was a lot brewing under the surface even before you ran away.»

«But I ruined a lot for one of your packs members.»

«Seonghwa agrees that we should offer you the chance to stay.»

She looked at her hands. «Thank you, I humbly accept this opportunity. Put me to work wherever it's needed. I want to make myself useful.»

«Thank you, we will. Still, these first days I'd like for you to observe and find your place here. Yunho will show you your room and how things work around here.»

«Thank you, alpha.»

«You can call me Hongjoong.»