Rob's P.O.V.
I stood by my locker, pulling out my books for the next class I had, which was maths, ughhhhh, while chatting to Preston. He was kicking a piece of paper along the floor, having been bored out of his mind because he had just spent 2 hours in English, his most boring class.
Most of the Pack was there, Lachlan was the only one who wasn't there, he had been kept in after class because he had been "disrupting" everyone, even though he had just been pointing out that the teacher was telling us absolute bullshit.
"Oi! Do you mind you fucking idiot!" I turned around to see an older boy shoving Mitch against the wall, Mitch apparently having accidently stumbled into him.
"HEY!" Jerome yelled, immediately jumping to his best friends aid and defending him. "Leave him alone!"
Jerome's yelling brought all of the guys friends attention to us and they jumped to his aid, backing Jerome and Mitch back towards the three of us. I slammed my locker shut and then turned to help my friends, Preston doing the same. Vikk hesitated but I smiled at him, reassuring him that he was going to be okay.
Mitch was flustered and red, clearly not meaning to have bumped into the guy. He was clumsy and tended to bump into things whether he meant it or not, so there had been several instances before when he had nudged someone, but normally they didn't react this violently.
One of the guys went to throw a punch at Jerome but just before his fist hit, Lachlan came up behind him and caught his hand. He looked terrifying, his eyes were flashing violently and he had this darkness about him that I had never seen before.
"Don't-" He growled, throwing the kid up against the lockers- "even think about hurting my friends. Ever."
Although he was trying to calm the situation down his actions simply riled everyone up, sending several others in a frenzy and they started to get visibly angry.
Lachlan tensed, I could see him curling his hands into fists and he was trying not to shift. I knew anger and violence bought out the instinct to shift in all of us and I could Jerome was fighting the urge too, he had his eyes to the ground and he was clenching a jaw.
I let out a guttural growl in the back of my throat and Vikk took my hand, knowing that I was on the verge of shifting and revealing my true form.
And then everything snapped.
One of the kids moved forwards and aimed a punch at Mitch, the one he thought had started it all, even though he was hiding a little behind Jerome. The punch was about to hit when Lachlan jumped in front of him, the punch hitting his chest.
"You should not have done that." He growled and I knew at once what was going to happen.
All of the other kids jumped at Lachlan and he growled, his fingers unfurling and a low howl escaping from his mouth. He shifted within seconds, and rather than the tall blonde spitfire that had been standing there seconds before, there was so a blonde wolf, snarling and ready to pounce.
There was yells of terror and shrieks of pain when, with one fell swoop, Lachlan knocked them all over with his tail and snarled, standing up on his hind legs so he was taller than all of them.
"RUN!!!" One them yelled and they all fled the hall, leaving us in stunned silence for a few seconds.
"Oh my Lord Lachlan..." I whispered, panic flaring in my heart as the wolf came back towards me. "We have to go!! NOW!!"
With no second thoughts all of us shifted, knowing that now our cover was blown so we had to run as far away as we could. The small wolf with midnight black fur, the littlest and by far the most agile of the group, little Vikk, took the lead as we ran through the halls and then out into the forest behind the school.
I looked over at the others while we ran, the tiny midnight black wolf that was Vikk, the golden blonde one with longer legs than any of ours, whose fur caught the sun and almost seemed to glow, Lachlan, the bacca-esqe, dark brown wolf with a large snout that was Jerome, the one whose fur seemed to have orange undertones, appearing like fire in the night that was Preston and the one whose fur was a mixture of black and reddish-ginger hair, Mitch.
We were all running at full speed, needing to get as far away as possible before someone worked out that we were shapeshifters. I looked down at my paws and my fur which was normally grey or closer to white,had some sky blue undertones that came out in the dark, almost making me glow in the dim light.
When we stopped Lachlan, his fur dim, his ears flat on his head and his tail tucked between his legs, drew himself away from the group, probably waiting for us to start yelling at him for blowing our cover. We had been there for over a year and it was a stupid fight that got us outed.
He was scared, I could tell. He was acting submissively, keeping his head lowered to the ground and when we shifted back into our human forms he curled up on the ground and covered his head with his arms, ignoring all of us. Vikk crawled over to his side and tried to talk to him but he just tried to ignore us.
"Lachlan?" I said, a little scared. "Please, talk to us. We don't blame you."
Lachlan's P.O.V.
I buried my head in my arms, thoughts racing through my head. They would blame me, they would hate me for blowing their cover, they would leave me or just straight up abandon me when I slept. All of those thoughts raced around my brain and I just couldn't stop them.
I almost started crying because I was so freaking emotional and just... unstable and falling apart and just an emotional wreck. I bit on my fingernails and just hoped that everything would be alright, even though I thought it wouldn't be.
"Lachlan?" Rob whispered, crawling closer to me. "Please, talk to us. We don't blame you."
I just covered my head and stayed curled up, not wanting to face him. I smiled a little when I felt a snout nudging my arm and looked up to see Jerome in his wolf form pushing himself up against me, licking my face with his tongue.
I spluttered and hit him away but he was replaced by Vikk, who jumped on top of me in his wolf form and rolled me over, making me laugh and giggle. I shrieked as some of the others started tickling me or licking me again, all in their wolf forms.
This pretty much forced me to shift back into my wolf form, in which I was much more comfortable, so I quickly relaxed as the others surrounded me, tickling me and just trying to get me to admit that it wasn't my fault.
"Alright! Alright! I believe you!" I shrieked, waving my paws around in the air.
They stopped after a few seconds, most of them lying down at my side and Vikk managed to push himself into my neck fur and curl up beside me. Mitch and Jerome were behind me, I could feel Mitch's slow breathing on my back and Rob and Preston were in front of me, on the other side of Vikk, curled up together tightly.
"You okay Lachy?" Vikk whispered, nuzzling his snout into my neck.
"Yeah." I sighed. "I'm sorry that I ruined our hiding." I mumbled and Vikk glared at me, sniffing.
"It wasn't your fault Lachlan!" He whisper-yelled, nosing his way around my fur. "You couldn't help it, you wanted to protect us and I don't blame you for that! You protected us."
He whispered the last part and then both of us shifted back into human form, where we could be closer and hold each other less awkwardly. His fingers clung to my sweatshirt and he kept me close, making sure the I was looking at him before continuing to speak.
"Lachlan, trust me. You did what you felt you needed to and even if that revealed us, you protected us. We don't care and you know we would have done the same." I nuzzled closer to him but listened to him, knowing that he was probably right. Any of the others would have done it if it was me in the firing line and revealed themselves, so the more I thought about it the more I felt okay.
"Yeah.... yeah I guess. You guys would have done the same." Vikk smiled, nudging my arm to make me lift it up so he could slide underneath it.
"See, you're getting it. It's not your fault." I smiled and just closed my eyes, ready for sleep.
"Thanks Vikk." I mumbled. "Night."
"Night." He whispered back. "See you in the morning."
