you were watching the staffs at the r&d lab when you heard another faint heartbeats approaching. and when it gets louder, with the rythm of his footsteps and his smell, you know he's near. you do not want to meet anyone, at the moment. you do not want to be asked about the decision that you're going to make for your mate and your pack. you're aware how your pack members are worried about their safety with two hunters in their territory right now, but you needed more time to think. you're not patronising their loyalties. you just needed more time to think.

"here you are," elijah said as he entered the r&d lab with clean wears on his body. he must've just finished with the pack trainings, looking at how worn he looked. "the pack is expecting you already with a decision this week. i hope you're not fooling them around anymore....alpha."

you gave elijah a look when he calls you alpha, though you know he's doing it out of respect especially in front of pack members because he doesn't want them to raise any issue, it sounds weird coming from his mouth, though you have to admit that you like it when he calls you alpha. that sense of proud when someone tells everyone who he belongs to, even though he's technically not yours since you've found your mate. and you know that you and elijah will never have that alpha-regular pack member relationship because he's involved in your life long before you were chosen to be the alpha of the pack.

"come here and take a look at these." you took one step to your right, giving elijah space to take a look on what you intended to show him. "this is a pretty damn strong poison they invented. no wonder johnson was barely alive when he got shot."

"yeah." for once, elijah felt scared. he gulped looking at the formula that contains wolfsbane and a few organic poisons that were known to stop a human's heart from beating. "remember when i said that hunters sometimes know more about supernatural creatures more than we do? i think this is even bigger."

"because they know to mix a few ingredients while other hunters might only put wolfsbane or silver in their bullet."

you and elijah observed more results the researchers from r&d lab obtained from sam and dean's bullets. from the formula – one that they broke them into smaller parts – they listed down all the informations they got: the origin of the ingredients, how to cook wolfsbane, duration for the poison to kick in inside a werewolf to die, different shades of poison leaves and the effects on a werewolf senses. hunters rarely uses foxglove in their bullets because the plant doesn't specifically kill a werewolf, but it does work on a human. it stops a human's heart just like nightshade.

elijah changed his focus on the reports to you, whose eyes are still glued on the article your pack researches prepared for you for presentation just now – a presentation that elijah rarely joins because it's not in his jobscope. and you know that he's much more needed at the cell. "i hope the healers found the cure sooner. i can't let the idea of these hunters going out with this kind of poison inside their bullet roam free inside my mind. lucky it was johnson who got shot and not–"

"no matter who got shot with these kinds of poison, is not lucky and dangerous, elijah. i saw the wound on johnson's stomach, it was ugly."

elijah has a habit of staring at your even though you're in people's sight, just like where you're standing right now. even though the researchers looked as if they're busy with their job, but you know they still watched you. "y/n, if you're not busy after this, may i take you on a walk? just for a while. i need to talk to you about something."

you nodded your head and followed elijah exited the r&d lab. he led you out of the building towards a clearing where you can see the pack house at the end of the opposite clearing. your heart felt heavy as you watched the pack house looking dull as if they know now to go out because there are powerful hunters in the pack cell. the parents didn't let their children play outside unlike they used to. they're only allowed for trainings with the pack warriors.

"do you mind telling me what you're thinking right now, y/n?" elijah asked. he caught you staring at the pack house. and he saw your smile faltered when a sudden thought came into your mind. he wanted to know about that thought.

"i just felt bad towards my pack members," you confessed, hugging yourself as you followed elijah walking at the clearing, though he was leading you both towards the pack house.

"do you want to explain to me why? i can't understand if you refused to tell me all about it." elijah smiled at you, knowing what his smile can do to you when you're stressed out. it happened back when you were trained to be an alpha. a shit tons of workload was dumped onto your shoulders and you will always try to find elijah to talk to him about it. you even told him how his smile calms you and your wolf.

you kept quiet, do not know how to express this. you're scared for your pack's safety, knowing that you have two powerful hunters in the cell. they do not have to, specifically, know how powerful they are, but the hunters' aura are enough to make everyone in the territory agitated. they cannot sit still. the parents didn't allow the kids to go out of pack house unless it's school or pack training. however, will they think differently if they know that oke of these powerful hunters is their alpha's mate? what are they going to think if you decided to keep them in the territory because one of them is your mate? what're going to say if you decided to keep them even if your mate wanted to reject you at first. it's a shame to an alpha if his/her mate rejected him/her!

"you have a decision yet?"

"oh, for moongoddess's sake! what is everyone asking me about my decision?" you raised your voice at him, tired of being asked the same question for days. steve, rick, gen, other elders are asking you the same question ever since you woke up after that incident during the interrogation. "i don't know yet, okay? i don't know! i feel like i'm keeping him for the sake of the bond, but i know it's not good for my pack's safety! but even if i reject him because he already rejected me, it won't do good to any of us because our bond is still strong!"

elijah watched you expressing your heart out calmly. "you do not want to get to know to him? i'd suggest you be his friend first. gain his trust and see if it can change his mind to not reject the bond. he has too much knowledge about our kind so it's going to be hard for you to make him accept you, but you can try, y/n. you won't know if you don't try."

"seriously? you're giving me this lectures now?" you raised your eyebrows at elijah. confused, he looked at you with any expression. "why are you suddenly–"

"it hurts. y/n, it hurts. you can blame me for wanting you to be happy with a man you barely know but destined to be together, but who am i to be compared to him, y/n? moongoddess chose this man for you. the least you can do it try to make it work for her."

you grabbed elijah's arm to stop him. you stepped in front of him and getting serious. your dark eyes met his dark ones and you love the feeling of warmth and secured when you looked into his eyes. "it's hurting me, too, elijah. i really wish it was you or wish we can change our fate, but this feelings– i don't have feelings for him, but this bond makes it impossible for me to stop feeling for him."

elijah stepped closer towards you and ran his finger on your face. he smiled as his eyes studied your feature as if wanting to admire them for as long as he can before it's too late. although there are still many girls out there who smells sweeter than you, but elijah loves the way you smell. sweet and calming and intoxicating. he remembers when he first smelled you, accidentally scented you because you smelled so nice. though he was having a bad day so he appreciated your sudden existence, but he made an apologising note towards you. and that's how you became friends with elijah.

"do me a favour and tell me everything what you feel about dean. just pretend that i don't have feelings for you because i don't want us to be apart just because of that stupid bond."

you closed the distance between you and elijah and hugged him, resting your head on his chest and listen to his steady heartbeat. you missed this. you missed spending the time with elijah. at the park, at the pack house, at your alpha house, in his car. everywhere you go with him seems perfect. you knew the reason why elijah stayed a way from you the first time he knew dean was your destined mate was because of this, but before he could move too far, steve called him back.

elijah was taking his time kissing your head when both of you suddenly heard dean's angry voice shouting for your name. "alpha!" he strode towards you. "alpha!"

"oh no!" you turned to face your front, watching dean striding towards you and elijah. though your back was facing him, but you got a protective stance towards him. you stood there ready to fight dean though your wolf was telling you to soothe him. he felt dean's rage, though you're not sure was towards you or elijah.

"stop. i'm okay." dean doesn't look like he heard you as he continued to approached you and elijah with an unbelieveable speed of a human. you heard dean's grunt deep inside his chest before he launched himself on top of elijah. "what the hell? dean!"

though dean could look like he can kill someone by merely looking at them, but elijah's strength was unmatch with dean's. he easily threw dean off his body, causing dean to fly and fell on the ground with a loud thud and you swore you heard a crack in dean's bones. you ran towards dean as elijah bared his fangs at your human mate. he growled.

"dean? hey, hey, you're okay. you're okay," you soothed your destined mate. you heard his fast heartbeat, and his low painfully whine as he writhed on the ground even with just one throw from elijah. you forced to let out your pheromones so that dean can calm down.

"alpha?!" you heard a familiar voice called you as he ran towards you, dean and elijah at the clearing. he was one of the cell guards, and by the look of his frown on his forehead, it was his shift to look after dean yet he escaped. "oh, alpha, i'm sorry. he–"

"how in the hell did this happen?! did you not lock the door?!" you screamed at him. your human voice may not be as loud as the roar of your wolf, but your pheromones were enough to make the whole pack members tense.

"something happening to him, alpha. he was trying to injure himself when i refused to opened the door," the guard explained. "i swear, alpha, i'm telling you the right thing."

you bared your nose as you inhale and exhale deeply. everything was happening so fast that you're not finding it making any sense or maybe you just need some times to think this through. dean was still barely calmed so you're still taking off your pheromones, but little did you know, even if you're doing it for dean, but elijah who was standing not far from you and dean, needed it as well. although he could smell anxiety, sadness and worriness mixed in your smell, but it still calms his nerve from the sudden attack of dean. his fangs slowly retracts into his gums, his claws retracted into his fingers leaving only nails. he fell to his knees as he steady his breathing.

"elijah–"

"paul, what's happening?" you heard rick asked the guard. "alpha? dean?"

even with dean on your lap, but you cannot help to watch elijah slowly pushed himself up and left the clearing.

* * *

steve and the pack elders, including you were bundled inside your office room at the pack house soon after you sent dean to the hospital wing for treatment. indeed of a help, one of the pack doctors who attended dean was there, too. as well as paul, who let dean go from his cell. elijah sat at the chair at the farthest corner of the room, wanting to be involved but not wanting to be involved.

"care to tell me what happened at the field just now?" steve asked as he looked at you directly into your eyes. "and you! why did you free dean from his cell?! what the hell were you thinking?! how could you not do your job right?!"

"it's not his fault, steve," gen tried to calm her beta down as you stood there watching steve letting his anger out. this rarely happens, but when it happens, you know it's for a good reason.

"the hell is not his fault! that hunter went aggressive! now the whole pack is scared! couldn't you feel it?!" steve returned to you. "alpha, don't you dare stay silent about this! it's your job to keep the pack members safety and now you blew it!"

steve stepped over the line and you had to do what you had to do with steve. you pushed steve to the wall, your arm on his throat, pinning him. your eyes went bright yellow and you showed your fangs to him. a deep growl rumbled inside your chest. elijah watched you, and though not saying anything his let out his pheromone so that you could calm down. it worked, but then gen said something to elijah.

"you shouldn't do that," gen whispered to him. "let her calm herself down. she needs to know how to calm herself down."

elijah knows gen was right and he quickly stopped releasing his alpha pheromone and you growled louder.

the pack doctor stepped forwards and said, "alpha, with all due respect, we're here to discuss what happened to dean and you. and i suggest we start with that soon."

"you say something like that again, i'll rip your throat. don't care if you're my beta or my bestfriend." you said through the grumble in your chest. you saw a slight smirk at the end of elijah's lips, probably happy to see make steve shut up. though it's not strange anymore since elijah and steve are not really good to each other.

steve glanced at elijah, seeing the smirk and rolled his eyes at him. he felt ashamed, and felt like taking this outside with elijah, but he knows it's not a professional thing to do. the pack members are scared enough when dean was being aggressive.

"alpha, as much as we want to blame paul for it, but i don't think it's paul's fault," the pack doctor said.

"alpha, what were you doing out alone with elijah?" gen asked that caused you to stop breathing and elijah to shift his focus from outside the window to gen. then both of you caught each other's eyes and everyone in the room look at you and elijah back and forth.

gen took a deep breath. she felt both sad and angry towards the both of you. "your thoughts and feelings effected dean in some way," gen said. "he doesn't know what he's doing. when you spend your time with elijah, dean's bond knows it's not him you're touching but another male and dean's inner went haywire. that's why he's acting up. he may not be feral, but as a human, that was aggressive enough."

"alpha, is there something you didn't tell us about your mate?" steve asked as he looked at you dead in the eyes, demanding answers. he knows something is not right when you started acting weird.

you refused to tell them dean was rejecting your bond even if almost all of them in the room saw what happened back when you interrogated him at the pack cell. though they thought dean was only saying it, actually doing it, but they wouldn't know because it was you who's feeling the rejection.

you took a deep breath and turned your body around, back-facing your higher rankers not wanting them to see how sad you look. your heart is crying. your eyes watering, but there's no way you could show that to them. you rested your hands on the table, supporting your weight. "what if i reject him?"

you could feel gen's mood change into anger. "the moongoddess chose you have a destined mate. the least you can do is try to make it work."

"i read somewhere it doesn't work on all werewolves," you said, returning to face your crowd when your eyes are dried and after you gained your confidence back. "i don't think it works on me either. and dean was vocal that he said he didn't want the bond because he hates commitments."

"you're not seriously thinking of doing it," gen said. "you know what's that going to do with you. the unbonding ceremony. you could lose everything you have now if you decided to do the unbonding ceremony. worst of all, you could get sick and there's no cure."

elijah was still keeping his silent as he watched the empty field outside. it used to be full with families with children to play outside around this time, but ever since the capturing of the hunters, nobody dared to go out as if other hunters are brave and strong enough to trespass the border. elijah missed seeing those children.

"alpha, elijah," gen said gaining attention from you and elijah. "i suggest you stop seeing each other."

your eyes quickly watered meanwhile elijah's face quickly showed a reaction of shock. steve, although he knows that that's the best way, but he also knows that you and elijah cannot be apart.