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The Wolves - Ben Howard
When Tyler was born, he kept his eyes closed for almost a full day, when he finally opened them, they glowed the deepest red his parents had ever seen. They took three weeks before they faded to brown, but his parents knew what it meant. They knew their son was special.
Tyler was thirteen when he presented, the first full moon after his birthday brought a new experience. The first time he turned his mother had held his hand, wiping the sweat from his brow and making sure that she took away as much pain as possible.
He was a natural in his wolf form, he got the hang of shifting pretty quickly, he was faster, stronger and quieter than most of his friends. It lent itself easily to his basketball abilities, a hobby his mother had made him take up in order to use up his pent-up energy and strength without arousing suspicion.
In the lead-up to his fifteenth birthday, things changed. His wolf eyes which had been a light orange grew deeper and darker until they were the deep red his mother had seen after he was born. His friends quickly fell into a rhythm of following him around, doing things when he asked without protest in a way that confused him. The adults in the pack began whispering and Tyler shrunk in on himself. Some of the older kids made fun of him for his eyes, they were too red, too vibrant not like all the other alphas whose own eyes were a deep burnt orange. The pack leader had pulled Tyler aside a week before his sixteenth birthday and explained that he would present as an alpha, and that's where everything would change.
He was rare, special. A true alpha. One that was born to rule over others, a natural leader, all the wolves in the pack would start to look to him to lead, and when he was ready the pack would be his, even the current leader would have to follow him, but until such a time they would continue in the role.
As with any wolf presenting, the ritual is the same, a week stuck in wolf form, growing and evolving into their final form, eye colour finalising, fangs growing, their scent to other wolves changing, their aura shifting so that all other wolves knew their status with one glance. Tyler fell asleep like any other evening but when he awoke, he felt different, like he'd gone through a second bought of puberty. He was stronger than before, ripping the door handle off his bedroom door. His whole bed was torn to shreds by his claws while he'd been turned. His mother explained that he'd been out of it for a week, his siblings all remarking that he smelled bad, which he snapped about not having time to shower yet.
"Sweetie showering won't stop that, that's how alpha's smell." His mother teased, and he groaned. He never asked to be a leader, he never asked to be the freak alpha with red eyes instead of orange. Why couldn't they have been gold like an omega or even better icy blue like a beta.
"You stink." Dallon said, nose wrinkled as he had come around to visit. Dallon was one of the only pack members that hadn't treated him differently. His friends/classmates being the only other ones, although they had been the first to submit to his alpha nature, despite lots of them being alphas themselves.
"Ha ha, very funny." Tyler rolled his eyes before handing the omega a slice of pizza.
"That's a good thing." Dallon smirked, holding his hands up in defence, the pizza flopping sadly in his grip.
Tyler gave him an odd look.
"It means I don't want to sleep with you." Dallon laughed and Tyler shoved him.
"Jokes on you, I'm a catch." Tyler replied cockily, not believing a word of what he was saying.
It was the end of summer when things changed. Tyler had overheard Dallon arguing with the pack leader after one of the pack gatherings and that's when he'd learnt that being alpha was more than just telling people what to do.
"Dallon found his mate, but he's human, your age."
Tyler had simply stared in shock, unsure what to do with the information.
"His name is Brendon Urie, do you know him?" Dallon said and Tyler nodded slowly knowing him from his homeroom and math class.
Tyler hadn't understood what was truly going on until he'd been taken to Dallon's house, to find the omega curled around an unconscious Brendon who was sweating and whining in pain. They'd turned him.
Dallon assured him it wasn't him who had asked for this but he wasn't going to lose his mate. Tyler had helped how he could, the last two days being the worst. Turning humans was different, it wasn't the same with born wolves, their whole DNA had to change, it led to fevers and immense pain that only alphas and omegas could survive. If a human who wasn't destined to be one of those two classes was bitten they died. Humans didn't have a week long presenting period either, their presenting happened almost immediately and only lasted a day, emerging from a week of agony so painful they immediately forgot it as a fully grown alpha or omega wolf.
Dallon had helped Brendon to understand what happened to him, taught him all he could and at some point Brendon had developed feelings for him. Tyler talked him through the alpha aspects, helping when Dallon couldn't and indicting him into his pack, leading him to abandon his best friend Josh.
When he'd first come back to school Tyler had noticed Josh for the first time and it changed everything.
Josh had been questioning Brendon about why he'd disappeared for over a week and Brendon had seemed overwhelmed, not just with the questions he couldn't answer but also still adjusting to his enhanced senses. Tyler had called Brendon away and he smiled gratefully before scampering to his side.
Josh watched in anger and Tyler made eye contact with him and for the first time he noticed he looked different. When Tyler looked at people usually for a brief second he could see an aura that told him whether they were human or not, sometimes whether they had the potential to become alphas or omegas if turned but he usually ignored that. But Josh had been lit up like a Christmas tree, everything screaming in Tyler's mind telling him he was not any potential omega but the most important one. Tyler's heart stuttered in his chest but then Josh was giving him a filthy look and storming the other direction.
"It means he's your mate Tyler." Dallon explained, as he squished closer to Brendon on the couch.
"He can't be he hates me." Tyler scoffed, chugging his red bull as he watched Brendon and Michael play Mario kart.
"Josh couldn't hate anybody if he tried." Brendon snorted and everyone turned to look at him.
"Hey Bren you're pretty close with Josh, right? I have a plan...." Dallon said with a smirk.
Mostly the plan had been to get Josh to want to be friends with Tyler so he could figure out if he really was his mate. It led to a tiny bit of stalking (finding where he worked and watching him through his bedroom window were not Tyler's finest moments he'll be the first to admit) and lots of interrogating Brendon which wasn't very hard because Tyler only had to ask with his alpha voice and Brendon blabbed everything. Then from this information Tyler set about getting Josh to open up to him; buying him textbooks, going after him when he was having a breakdown, calling him to make sure he was alright was all instinctual for Tyler. It all felt right, like taking care of Josh was his purpose, so when Josh started showing the affection back Tyler had realised something.
The pack had already figured out that Josh was Tyler's other half, and he knew someone would try to turn him, and Tyler would never let Josh be taken away from his family like that. Turning was dangerous and painful and Tyler's whole body told him to protect the boy he loved from anyone who tried to harm him. He'd continue to fight and butt heads with every other alpha in his pack on this, for Josh. The best way to protect Josh was to make sure he never knew what was really going on, in case finding out got him hurt, humans weren't allowed to know they existed, it was safer for everyone.
And selfishly, Tyler wanted Josh in the dark because he was scared if he knew the truth, he would leave Tyler, and Tyler couldn't bear the separation, it would kill him. Dallon had warned that it could literally kill him as well.
Tyler had his suspicions about Spencer, hence why they had fought at school. As soon as he'd realised Spencer was missing from the pack meeting he had dragged Brendon to Josh's house. They'd almost reached the house when they saw the struggle, Brendon focusing on taking out Spencer, Tyler remaining human to protect his boyfriend.
And that's how he ended up, knelt in front of the boy he loved with every fibre of his being. Scared hazel eyes pleading for answers Tyler had promised never to have to spill. Covered in mud and blood and shaking like a leaf Josh had kissed him and Tyler felt the tiniest flicker of hope in his heart that maybe he wasn't about to lose the only thing that felt right, that kept his world spinning when everything else never made sense, never sat right. Josh made him a better alpha, and he'd not even realised. He toned down his anger, made him take charge, caused him to question his actions and pass this new ethics onto his impressionable pack-mates –no his pack.
But now his world was stock still outside and churning violently inside his stomach, his limbs freezing over because Josh lips weren't against his like an anchor, he was drifting out to sea without a life-jacket and Josh was saying, "Start talking, now."
So, he did. He told him everything.