Call of the Wild

11 *~* shattering of the beta

Wyatt was ready.

Or he thought he was ready. But climbing the wooden ladder into the werepups' main pit house, things felt eerie. All he could think about was waking up, tied to a tree trunk, a knife clean through his palm, and a refreshing breeze on his bald head. Stabbing him was one thing, but to cut - no, completely shave - his beautiful, always-perfect hair was unforgivable.

"Fuck this," Wyatt clambered down the ladder.

"There is no way you're getting out of this, so don't even try" Willa grumbled, arms folded. Even in the complete darkness of the tunnels, he could see the thin slits of her yellow eyes.

"Fine, but I'm not going to the pit. The east entrance-"

"-don't start making demands-"

"-they'll be waiting for me as soon as I open the hatch! There's no way in hell I'm about to walk into an ambush; if I come in the east entrance, I'll be able to see every single threat. And there will be threats."

Willa rolled her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Wyatt. What happened the last time, won't happen again."

"How can you be sure?" Wyatt tugged on a white lock of hair. "They cut my hair!-"

"As you've said a thousand times-"

"You'd be saying it two thousand times if they cut yours."

Willa smirked. She started past the ladder. "But they would never do that because, unlike you, they love me."

"Which is confusing as fuck, since I'm the fun one and you're the serious one." Wyatt walked behind her, grew tired of it, and sped up so they walked down the tunnel shoulder-to-shoulder. It was somewhat comforting that even after everything that had been said the other day, the two of them could still argue as usual.

Could still act as though nothing was wrong.

Could still pretend that Wyatt wasn't losing his fucking mind.

Willa glanced at him, stared, then her mouth quirked up. "That could be because someone probably - most likely - told them a lot of great stories about us when we were younger."

"I assume all those stories include me doing something embarrassing and stupid."

"Ah, who knows?"

Wyatt chuckled, and couldn't shake the feeling that maybe she was just trying to make him happy because she knew if she was cold to him - as had he expected her to be when fetching him earlier - then it might set him off and he would change.

But, no, that couldn't be it. Because she didn't know anything about that. Nothing. She had no idea.

She-did-not-know.

Willa was just being her normal self.

Or felt guilty for calling him a coward and wanted to apologize instead of thinking angry thoughts about him and stewing on if she really should apologize and coming up with lists of why she should or shouldn't - as she was wont to do.

So no apologies.

"Why are you acting like this?" Wyatt said, tilting his head in Willa's direction. "I know you're pissed at me and disappointed in me, and normally you'd be ignoring me or telling me to shut up, but you're not."

"So? I can be nice to you. When I want to be."

"Yeah, just so nice, all the time," Wyatt said, "but you took away my Beta status because you're worried for the pack and what I did-what you think I did- so you're angry at me as the Alpha, not my sister." He tried not to dwell on the 'Alpha' status for too long.