The wolves near the border [SKZ fanfiction] | HanJisung

chapter 4

Peace has been returned to the pack. They haven't heard from the two female wolves for over two weeks now and there hasn't been time to check up on them with the fast preparations they have to make for the upcoming winter. It's mid autumn and there's a lot of work to do. From harvesting and foraging to stocking up enough wood to survive the cold days where they won't be able to get out.
Jisung is crushing the roasted nuts Hyunjin brought him to grind up into a fine powder they can use to bake different goods with. The roasting not only fills up the cave with a mouth watering smell, it also helps store it a lot longer.
Hyunjin is grunting while he slams down on the hard outer shells of the nuts to reveal their goodness inside.
"Hazelnuts are a lot easier to crack," he nags. "Do you think the tree near the river will give us some next year?"
Jisung snickers and shakes his head, thinking of the hazelnut tree they planted there the second year they lived here. Hyunjin was hyper fixated when he found out Jisung managed to get one growing out of a fallen nut in a pot they had laying around. They had planted the small tree near the river where they visited often to forage other nuts. Hyunjin hoped the tree would grow big and give them his beloved treats, but up until now the tree never bloomed or gave them the wanted nuts.
"If you hurry up with your tasks, we can ask Minho if he'll let us forage next time he travels up east. I know there are a few hazelnut trees over there which hopefully aren't raided by rodents then."
The beta hums happily and continues his task of crushing nuts.
They pipe up their heads when they hear Chan bark for their attention and tell them they have visitors when he walks into their cave.
Their alpha asks them to gather at the entrance - clothed if possible - and Jisung immediately knows which visitors they have. He drops his stuff and walks over the quickest to see the two female wolves walking up to their base with a slow trudge. A few meters in front of their cave they halt and both lower their heads and show their necks as a sign of submissiveness and respect to their pack leader.
The bigger one nudges against her sister to get help to remove the baskets from her back before hiding back behind her sister to transform and pull on a tunic which seems made in a hurry. It consists of patches of hide clearly from hunting smaller prey, but it does the job of covering up.
"Greetings," she says to them. "We wanted to visit to thank you again for your hospitality and to bring you these."
She drags the two large baskets she was carrying before and Jisung is impressed seeing how the female is still capable of lifting them even in her much smaller human form. One basket is filled to the brim with plums and in the other are a variety of items. Jisung recognizes the satchel of Felix he lost on the day they were attacked by the bear.
"While cleaning up around the fallen tree we managed to salvage some of your lost items. We also thought to bring over some plums as you were there to gather those, right? They're not all that juicy as the ones of that day, but we managed to find riper ones as well as unripe ones."
Minho takes over the basket and chirps happily seeing the variety in states of the plucked fruits.
"And my sister thought it would be a good idea to also offer you some of these," the female says while picking up a little package carefully wrapped in soft materials. "There's a lot of pheasants around our camp and normally they won't lay anymore this late in the season. But for whatever reason, we found some and thought to share the delicacy."
She gives the package to Changbin with utter care and the omega can't contain his happiness upon seeing the eggs.
"Again, thanks for the opportunity to stay."
Chan chuckles seeing the buzzing happiness of the two omegas in his pack and relaxes his alpha stance to show the two females he is more than content with their offers.
"No need to be so formal. Thank you for picking up our stuff and even mending it before returning it. I believe that satchel belongs to our youngest alpha. Oi! Felix! Get over here!"
Jisung shrieks with the loud call Chan gives to summon Felix who arrives from behind the cave. He has been chopping wood again and his upper body is glistening with a thin layer of sweat which shows through his shirt he unbuttoned completely to let off the warmth from his task.
The alpha has furrowed brows from being disturbed from his task and when he sees the two females his eyebrows lift before he wipes the sweat from his forehead and casually walks up to them.
Jisung must give it to him, the alpha looks undeniably attractive like this and when he jerks his head away from the mouthwatering alpha he sees the small female wolf has the same problem with looking away from the alpha. Something that isn't going unnoticed by the others around them.
The older female nudges against her sister who keeps staring and then huffs to grab the mended satchel out of the second basket to walk towards Felix to hand it to him.
"Nelaya tried to follow the old sewing pattern, but couldn't help making a few changes to make it more durable. I hope you don't mind."
Felix takes over the mended satchel and looks at it before looking up to the female in front of him. "Thanks," he mutters before looking at the female wolf to repeat his words.
"I like the embroidery," he says to her.
Jisung hears Seungmin snicker behind him and Hyunjin softly slaps the other, only to mouth the words 'whipped' to him.
Chan also witnesses the flustered exchange between his pack member and the two wolves and glances over to his omega mate who seems unaffected with the whole ordeal.
"How's the wound healing?" Minho remarks at the younger wolf.
The small female quickly ducks her head between her shoulders when she notices the pack Luna witnessed her ogling out one of her pack members and Minho chuckles to calm her down.
"The scratches are a little inflamed, but nothing worrisome," the other answers. "She still has to take it slowly. It got a good claw full at her tendons and those take time to heal."
Jisung's face scrunches thinking back at how the wound had looked when they fought the bear. The fact the omega wolf managed to not only run with an almost non functioning hind leg and managed to show no pain all the time tells him she's stronger than the eye sees. He now better understands their need to camp out instead of traveling and he softly pulls on the hem of his Luna's shirt. Minho understands what the younger omega asks and looks up to the two females.
"If you want, could we give you some ointment? It will soothe the skin and help with the inflammation."
The older female holds her hands up in refusal and tells them they don't need anything as they've given them so much already. When Minho tries to pressure them to just take some, the female instead asks for something else.
"We really thank you, but we won't use up any of your resources. Although... Can you maybe tell us if you know if a certain herb grows in these lands? It's called Jambu where we come from. It has clumps of yellow flowers with a red core on top and the leaves are jacked a little."
Minho racks his brain, but Jisung immediately knows what she's searching for.
"Toothache plant!" he yips whilst still pulling on his Luna's shirt. "I have some dried inside. It grows near the dunes."
The female exhales a little and Minho pats the lower part of Jisung's back to hurry him to get the jar out of their storage. Jisung runs off inside and comes back with the small pot filled with the dried flowers. He shows them to the female who shares a glance with her sister and gives him a thankful smile.
"Yes,that's what we're looking for. Is it possible for us to gather some at the mentioned place?"
Jisung looks over his shoulder to Minho and Chan who both nod at them. Jisung holds the jar in front of him without a word and waits for the female to take it from him. It stays silent for a moment when he sees the two look at each other before the older female scratches the nape of her neck awkwardly.
"Ehm, we thank you for the offer, but you know the dried flowers don't do anything, right?"
Jisung is taken aback by the remark and he hears both Felix and Jeonging snicker at him. Is she calling him stupid? He retracts his arms and hugs the jar against his chest.
"They do," he remarks, offended by the words and he can see how the female tries to stay calm.
"Euh, no, they don't," she says again whilst taking a step back. "The flowers only keep their properties for a month after you dry them. Those are practically useless now."
Her whole tone is soft, but Jisung feels the mocking underlying her words. He scoffs and takes a step back as well.
"Well, suit your own opinion," he jabs back.
Chan immediately steps in front of him and gives him a reprimanding glare. "I'm sorry for our youngest omega. He's rather proud of his botanical knowledge," he says while nudging him to back off.
The female looks at him with one lifted eyebrow before smiling back at their leader and telling him she takes no offense.
"I know how proud omega's can act when they have faith in their abilities. Even if they sometimes are off."
Jisung wants to open his mouth again at the clear mockery, but his pack Luna snickers at him and softly squeezes the glands in his neck to stay put. Oh he hates how his Luna knows exactly how hard to press to make him comply.
"Glad we can see eye to eye as alpha's," Chan chuckles.
"Y-yeah," the female replies with an uncertainty as Chan is obviously the stronger alpha out of the two.
"That reminds me, I believe we've heard your sister's name. But what can we call you?" his pack leader asks.
The female swallows dryly before pointing her hand towards herself and her sister. "I'm Heikin and this is my younger sister Nelaya. We're from a clan far away from here."
Chan raises an eyebrow and asks them if they would know their clan, but the female shakes her head.
"I don't think you'll ever have heard of them. Unless you ever traveled overseas?"
That sparks the curiosity of all of them.
"Overseas?" Hyunjin asks while Changbin follows him up with a similar questioning noise.
Chan hushes them and apologizes for his members. "They're a curious bunch."
He looks around them and halts at Felix who seems in thought and not following the conversation completely.
"Only one of us has been overseas, but that wasn't intentional."
He doesn't elaborate, but Jisung can tell both females glance over the young alpha in question who's still staring off in the distance.
They both nod and tell them about their clan thousands of kilometers away from here. "Our clan is called Smiths. Our homeland is a lot wetter than here and we're known for our inventive constructions. Especially those which take us over water. Or at least, the men are known for building them."
The younger sister, Nelaya's scent turns sour for a moment while Heikin nudges her to keep her from brooding.
"We were traveling with a bunch of them, but got separated after a storm."
Hence their traveling, Jisung thinks. They were probably trying to find their clan to get back home.
"We're sorry to hear that. You can call me Chan, by the way. I'm the leader of this pack. We have a bunch of clan names with us, but we use my home clan's name. The Bang's." He points over to Minho and Jeongin. "Those are my mates. Lee Minho and Yang Jeongin. Minho is my omega and pack Luna and Jeongin is our beta, the youngest in our pack."
Jeongin rolls his eyes and greets the two females with a small bow. "I may be the youngest, but at least I'm not the smallest," he giggles at Changbin who brings up his fist in the air.
"Hey! Show some respect to your elder!" he yells back at him.
"Yeah, they bicker a lot. Changbin is the latest addition to our pack and we're still struggling a little with the hierarchy within."
That's mildly said, Jisung scoffs to himself. When Changbin arrived, it had only taken him two seconds to claim his place in the pack as the second omega, leaving Jisung all the way down the line. Changbin had come from the Seo clan - a well known and wealthy pack far to the south of the continent- and was offered as a mate to Hyunjin and Seungmin when the two of them visited the clan to exchange their latest information of the inhibiting clans around. Changbin had been on the older side to be wed out as not many packs wanted a male omega, but Seungmin hadn't complained once, immediately fallen in love with the bulky omega. Hyunjin had accepted seeing his mate smitten with Changbin and although it took some time, the tall beta warmed up to the relentless flirting the omega let loose on him.
With his positioning in his former clan as the oldest unmated omega and therefore the wisest of the bunch, he had the urges to overtake any omega standing in his way. Minho had to fight the omega to protect his place as the pack Luna, but Jisung didn't need to make even the smallest attempt. Changbin had him on his back before he could blink with only one arm and it had been a humiliating display for Jisung.
He already had to accept that the youngest of the bunch, Jeongin, was above him in ranks as the beta of their leaders, but now he also had to recognize the newcomer as higher up. He became the pup of their pack and remained that way as he didn't bond with any other wolf. It took him some time to accept the new hierarchy, but eventually he grew accustomed to their babying.
Still the pack beta and second omega often snapped at each other. Most of the time as mere banter.

The two females left after everyone introduced themselves and they exchanged a few words before deciding to go back. Seungmin had poked Felix's side with a big smirk on his face when the alpha stared after them and Chan had to bark them back to work when the two broke out in a friendly fight to shut the other up.
Jisung had smiled at them before resuming his task grinding nuts and ignored the small yelps in the background when both younger alpha's got bitten to calm down by their pack alpha.
Later on when he crawled into his bed, arms exhausted from the intensive labor, he thought back to the visit of the two females and how the youngest one had stared at Felix. Jisung knew that stare. It was one he had a lot as well in the beginning. A weird kind of longing and recognizing the other as a potential mate. But in this case, those two would be compatible. There would be a real possibility. One Jisung never could have.
He had crouched up till his knees hit his chest and he could let himself fall back on his bed and tumble to the side. If only he could be like Changbin who knew right from the moment he presented as an omega that he didn't want pups. He had accepted it right from the get go and never developed the longing to have them. The same could not be said for Jisung. Did he muster up hope when he met the female wolves? Yes. But as soon as he heard their subgenders he knew he had no chance. There was almost nihil chance for an omega male and female to receive and when a beta or alpha would form a bond as well with them it was almost certain their genes would overpower Jisung's. Leaving him pupless in the end.
And the other female was an alpha. A dead end without a given. Alpha's always overpower the other genes.
Maybe he felt a little bit for her. It wasn't easy for him - a male omega with a child wish - but it couldn't be easy for a female alpha as well if she ever wanted pups. Only a stronger alpha could overpower her pheromones and impregnate her, but at least she didn't look like a strong alpha. It wasn't the nicest thought, calling another weak, but given the context he could only be jealous. She at least had more chances than he ever would.
Sleep didn't come to Jisung that night until the late hours.