Alpha & Omega // Ateez // P.SH

- 26 -

Sunwoo and Livv, in the winter:

When you only have each other, the closeness can be suffocating, but it can also be exactly what you need. For Livv and Sunwoo this was an opportunity to really feel what had grown in both of them. Livv had loved Sunwoo since she joined the pack. Hongjoong had taken her in when she was expelled from her own pack, only 15 years old. He had asked no questions and had let her into his pack where she could earn love and care. And Livv really earned that. There wasn't a more caring person on this planet, Sunwoo was certain of that.

That was part of the reason why Sunwoo had waited so long to show Livv that her feelings were mutual. Two female wolves couldn't make pups together. Livv deserved to be a mother, more than anyone. She had so much to give. She would give any pup a loving upbringing, she'd be the perfect mother. Of course, in a pack they would be around pups, but Livv never becoming a mother, that was almost too painful to accept.

But Livv loved Sunwoo, more than anything. And Sunwoo, she worshipped Livv. They belonged together. They felt that when they finally got together. When Livv was strong enough, they mated. Now they were bound for life. Nothing could have felt more right.

They spent a few weeks with Sunwoo's family, resting, but it felt wrong to stay too long. The commotion from the city was getting too close to them. As they left Livv's family they planned to go west, then north, with Ellinor's forest as their primary goal. Then chance brought them down a different lane.

The two wolves were light on their feet. That is how they managed to get away from an ambush as they tried to pass by the city on the westside. They were chased for a long time, until they went east instead. They didn't know the eastside very well, it was an area that had been controlled på rebels for a long time, even humans stayed away from it. When Hongjoong's pack had patrolled the city, they stayed away from this area. It was dangerous getting close to the edges of this suburb, everyone knew that. But the war raging the city had changed everything. Many of those who earlier lived on the eastside had now left. Some to the city, many were spread around the lands.

As Livv and Sunwoo ran on quiet paws through the streets outside the city wall, they were very attentive.

«Someone is here,» Livv said in their link.

«Yes, but they are no threat to us,» Sunwoo agreed. She felt how someone were hiding in the shadows, but they only felt fright, no hostility.

«Young ones, right?»

«I think so, yes.»

They kept going down the empty streets, feeling how they were followed by eyes they couldn't see. Still, they weren't scared. It was almost like the area felt safer than ever, in spite of the war just inside of the city walls.

«Someone is up ahead,» Sunwoo suddenly said. «They are blocking the way.»

«But in a... friendly way?» Livv looked at Sunwoo with curious eyes, they didn't know what to make of it.

«Maybe they want us to take a different route? Not get too close to where they're living?»

The two of them stopped and tried to feel what the wolves in front of them wanted. They jolted as one of the wolves shifted. It was a little girl, and she hid behind the other wolf.

Livv did the same thing, she didn't care about Sunwoo's warning. When she had shifted she kneeled and Sunwoo stood in front of her to hide her naked body.

«Hi,» Livv shouted. «Do you need help?»

«Are you adults?» the little girl asked.

«Yes, we're adults. Do you need adults?»