Under the Skin

Chapter 5

Jonah followed Alec out of the pack house. The boy was still holding onto the beta's hand as the latter led them out of the pack house and onto the main path. As they walked past cabins, He was curious and wanted to take a look around, but the heavy gazes he felt on him encouraged him to keep his head down.

He could hear them whisper among themselves, but even though his hearing allowed him to, he chose not to listen to what they were saying, knowing it would probably be nothing good. He subconsciously walked closer to Alec and tightened his hold on his hand. If Alec noticed, he didn't say anything. 

Soon enough, the space between the cabins built all over the camp began to increase and not long after there was nothing but trees surrounding them. Jonah tentatively raised his head now that they were away from people. 

The pair walked further into the forest as the terrain around them seemed to go uphill. At some point, the trees became more spaced out and revealed a small waterfall, curving and twisting between the rocks. There were stalictes which hung from some rocks set higher at the top of the waterfall, and the sun rays bounced off of them which made them gleam. The water looked clear blue, almost a pale green, and the sight overall made Jonah's mouth open slightly in wonder.

"Pretty isn't it?" Jonah didn't answer, and simply continued to stare in awe. 

Alec released his hand and motioned towards a rock which was free of snow where they could sit down. He couldn't help but smile when he saw Jonah close his eyes and tip his head back to feel the sun on his face. The warm beams of light were welcome at this time of the year when the cold seemed everywhere. 

"Why did you bring me here?" Alec stared at the waterfall with a content smile on his face.

"I thought you'd like it." Jonah couldn't help but be surprised. Although the beta had been nothing but nice, he had briefly thought Alec was bringing him into the woods because the alpha had ordered to kill him. It was hard for him to believe that someone deliberately wanted to make him happy.

"I do like it, it's very beautiful." Alec smiled brighter. 

"If you want, I can tell you about how we live. Do you know how wolf packs work?" The boy shook his head. Maybe his wolf had, but Jonah himself had never come across a group of werewolves before. He had only know they existed because the hunters often talked about them. 

"We'll start with the basics then. Do you know your secondary gender?" He could already tell by Jonah's expression that he didn't know what he was talking about.

"What's that?" 

"A secondary gender is kind of your status in the pack. When you reach maturity, you can either present as an omega, a beta or an alpha. An omega will present by having a heat. The name is kind of self explanatory since they feel really hot and they have the urge to mate. It last for a couple of days and comes back every month. An omega also has the ability to get pregnant even if they are male. Are you still following me?" Jonah nodded slightly, since he was a bit overwhelmed by all this information.

An alpha also go through the same thing, except we call it a rut. However, female alphas do not have the ability to get pregnant. As for betas, they don't have a heat or a rut, but their scent takes a unique tone that is different for each wolf. They are also less affected by hormones, so they help keep a balance in the pack. I'm a beta myself, the beta of the pack actually, and I help Thomas with decisions and make sure everyone is safe and well." 

Once he was done speaking, Alec noticed Jonah staring at him with wide eyes and chuckled. 

"Don't worry about getting everything right now. You'll understand once you start interacting with the others. I wanted to ask though, did you have your presentation? Because I noticed your scent still has that neutral milk scent that's associated with un-presented pups." The younger thought for a second, but he couldn't recall any event that resembled a heat or a rut, and he shook his head.