1 - The Cabin In The Woods

Millan has been awake for at least a couple of hours when daylight peeks through the cracks of the old wooden door.

He hasn’t moved yet for two reasons.

One, his leg is killing him; the slightest shift to his position sends piercing pain through his whole body.

Second, and also most importantly, he can smell an alpha outside the cabin. The alpha knows Millan is in there. He is certain of it.

Why else would he have stayed outside, just meters away, immobile, for at least the two hours Millan has been awake?

He’s been thinking of a plan to get away unnoticed for all that time now and he hasn’t come up with anything good.

By the subtle and soft snoring sounds he’s been hearing for the two hours he’s been awake, Millan figures the alpha is asleep in his hideout. There lays his only chance.

He’ll try to get past the wolf without waking him.

A plan that is most likely to fail pathetically, but Millan can’t think of any other way. He sighs, trying to ignore the twist in his stomach and gets up.

As soon as he puts pressure on his bad leg though, he can’t help the cry of pain that escapes his lips.

“Fuck,” he mumbles between gritted teeth.

He knows the alpha, if he weren’t before, is now awake and fully aware of Millan's own consciousness.

The only slight opportunity he might have had is gone.

Even worse, he can smell him getting closer, approaching the cabin.

“Give me a damn break,” he mumbles while trying to get up and ignoring the incessant throbbing of his leg.

As a last resort, he looks around the four decaying walls for a suitable weapon to defend himself should it come to that. Unfortunately, the cabin is mostly empty, all he sees are empty cans of food he ate the night prior and mold.

Until his eyes land on a rusty wrench tossed in the corner, or maybe it’s a ratchet or a screwdriver, Millan doesn’t know.

And it’s completely irrelevant, focus damn it, he tells himself

He takes the tool thing-y and holds on to it as if it would actually help him defend himself. He can try and make it intimidating. He’s big on bluffing in those types of situations anyway.

By the time he’s ready to open the door, bag on his back and incredibly trivial weapon raised in one hand, he estimates the alpha is only a meter away from the door.

“I’m not coming out until you back off!” he yells, hoping it’ll give him the space to flee and knowing very well that if the alpha decides to push through the door, he’s done for.

He knows that with his leg, reasoning with the wolf is his only option. The problem is, that can only work if the aforementioned wolf is, in fact, reasonable.

There’s a pause in which both wolves stand still, weighing in their options.

“Come on…”, Millan mumbles to himself.

After too long in Millan's opinion, he senses the alpha finally backing off a few centimeters away. It’s not enough, but Millan will have to take it.

He opens the door and is greeted by a very imposing brown wolf that has nothing to do with the last pack.

The alpha standing before him is nothing short of majestic. Millan doesn’t get intimidated easily, but he does have to suppress his omega to avoid cowering away, back into the cabin.

By instinct or stupidity, he raises his oxidized construction tool higher.

*****

Andy’s first reaction is shock.

The omega is standing strong, defying him with his posture and his- woah, are those violet eyes?- as if ready to fight him if necessary with nothing but an old ratchet- or wrench?- and a wounded leg.

He also notices Millan's fear although it’s clear the latter tries to hide it. Even from the distance, the omega was obviously way smaller than him. He actually was smaller than any omega he had seen before.

He decides to shift back to his human form, thinking this would be less intimidating and prove that he had no intentions of hurting him.

“I’m not here to hurt you. I heard you were in pain during the night and I would like to get you some help, if that’s okay.”

Well that was easy, Millan thinks.

He normally has to con his way through help when he needs it.

Millan is taken aback by the kindness of the stranger. So much so that he has a hard time believing him, his thoughts always going straight to deception out of habit.

The alpha in front of him had caramel-brown hair and matching brown eyes, a buff body  that could probably snap him like a twig without much effort, and last but not the least, he was unsurprisingly taller than him.

Surely this magnificent alpha isn’t interested in mending a simple pariah’s wounds. He just doesn’t see the point here.

If he wanted to overpower Millan and take advantage of him, he would have done so by now.

He’ll just have to see how it plays out.

Andy notices the worry in the omega’s violet eyes so he adds,“I’m Andy, nice to meet you.”

He would extend his hand to shake the omega’s, but they’re so far away it would seem ridiculous. So he just stands there waiting for the smaller one to decide what he wants to do.

Millan looks at him warily. Truth is, he doesn’t see any other options than to follow the man. He does need help with his leg and he is in no state to flee either.

He’ll have to play nice and maybe he can get food and shelter out of it.

He decides to lower the wrench and try to smile, he knows it looks as forced as it feels, but he does his best nonetheless.

“I’m Millan. Nice to meet you too... I guess.” He shrugs, not knowing what to do with himself.

Andy apparently doesn’t either because they both stay still and stand there looking like idiots, with Millan still holding his pathetic excuse of a weapon.

“So like…”, Millan breaks the silence, “you said you’d help me with my leg?”

In truth, standing like that is getting difficult, the pain almost bringing tears to his eyes.

Andy sees the omega’s stance waver a bit.

“Oh, right, sorry.” Andy quickly moves to help Millan support his own weight.

As he almost run towards the omega, the closer he gets, the clearer it is that his assumptions were right.

The male omega really had clear violet eyes and is way smaller compared to the usual omega height. But damn, he was beautiful. Despite the dirt and scratches marring Millan, he was clearly beautiful.

With hair as black as night, cute-button nose, high cheekbones and plump, thin, pinkish lips, he was the most beautiful omega he had ever seen- though he look quite pale now.

So why did he become a rogue?

It was unthinkable as to why would a pack throw away an omega as innocent looking as the one in front of him.

Andy shook his head. Questions and probably answers will have to wait.

Millan's first instinct is to push the alpha away, not wanting to accept any help for something so stupid as walking.

As soon as he tries to take a step further on his own though, he reconsiders.

And so they walk, Millan taking support on Andy.

They walk for a few minutes before they realize this is going to take way too long. They have to get to the pack’s Headquarters which is closer to the South Border, on the other side of the territory, almost two hundred miles away.

With Millan's injury, they aren’t going much faster than an actual human being which is excruciatingly slow for both of them.

“Okay, so this is not working.” Andy says matter of factly.

Millan laughs breathily, embarrassed at his incompetence. “Yeah, no kidding.”

“Well, hop on then.” Andy says just before transforming to his wolf form.

He doesn’t give Millan any time to protest. The omega thinks he couldn’t be more humiliated, but he also thinks he doesn’t have a better option.

So he takes place on the huge alpha’s back, grabbing the fur behind his neck to steady himself.

The wolf looks back at Millan to make sure he’s well positioned before taking off.

Andy is one of the fastest wolves Millan has ever seen. He’s glad he didn’t have to run from him since, even without his injury, he’s pretty certain not even Millan would have been able to outrun the alpha.

It takes them a little less than two hours to cover the distance needed.

A lot less time then if they would have continued walking and Millan has a sympathetic thought for the insanely slow humans who’ll never know such speed.

Andy switches back to his human form right after Millan gets off his back.

Millan has seen many Headquarters in his roving life, but the Blayne’s takes his breath away.

The main house- more like a mansion- Millan thinks, is huge. They walk through the front lawn, Millan leaning heavily on Andy for support.

Calling it a front lawn doesn’t do it justice. It’s more like an enormous park to Millan with big open spaces, gardens and quantities of trees. Sounds of laughter and banter between pups playing can be heard all around and it honestly warms Millan's heart.

He’s never felt this sentiment of peace mixed with joy walking through a pack’s main house.

He tries not to imagine himself sitting on one of the benches, peacefully reading a book for the first time in his life, not caring about his next meal or potential attackers.

He tries not to dwell on the fact that this is not his reality and most likely will never be.

He ignores the pang in his heart while Andy takes him through the oversized doors.

Traditionally, and from the Headquarters Millan has seen in the past, the main house is reserved to the Alpha and their close relatives exclusively.

That’s why seeing the size of the place from the outside, Millan instantly thought the Alpha was surely a self-centered dick.

Now though, as he slowly discovers the interior, he realizes that there are an impossible amount of werewolves living there, going in and out of rooms, cooking in the kitchen, eating on the gigantic dinner table.

They pass a sort of living room where there are, again an impossible amount of werewolves, both in human form and in wolf form just playing games, laughing, chatting, reading, drawing.

Some of them are playing with pups on the floor.

Really, Millan thinks he walked into heaven. Unannounced and uninvited.

Which means he’s met with curious glances and whispers as he goes through different rooms, still leaning on Andy.

The more he’s surrounded by this pack’s happiness, the more he feels like shit.

Envy, doubts, fear of rejection all creep in on him. He tries to act confident and unperturbed as Andy sits him on a couch in one of the living areas next to a girl- beta- if Millan's nose guesses right, who’s reading a heavy looking book.

It’s so thick it could be a dictionary for all Millan knows.

“So, you can wait here, Weston is probably in his study,” Andy points to a nearby door. “I’ll check in with him and see what we can do. He’ll probably want to see you, so don’t stray too far.” Andy tells him.

Millan nods, puts his bag on the floor, between his legs and tries to act as if he belongs.

He probably looks as uncomfortable as he feels though.