after rain (the grass is greener) [1/?]
Title: after rain (the grass is greener)
Pairing: girl!Kyungsoo/Kris, side!Baekyeol, side!Layhan
Rating: PG-13 this chapter, NC-17 in the future
Length: 3,529
Summary: Every hundredth new moon, each pack must give their Alpha’s firstborn child over as a gift to the High Pack to show loyalty. Kyungsoo is the eldest daughter of the Colfax pack’s Alpha who does not want to be parted from her family, but fate has different ideas for her.
Warnings (this chapter): briefly referenced sexual abuse, very mild sexual situations, briefly mentioned death
Notes: this is my first time writing fanfic in like two years so bear with me. unbetaed, but definitely looking for one. crossposted to aff and ao3.
Kyungsoo woke to a familiar hand shaking her shoulder. When her eyes opened, it was not to the usual sight of sunlight filtering in through the thatched roof of the hut she lived in with her family, but to complete darkness. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the darkness in the room, and she looked over to see her mother. The sight of her face comfortingly normal but the hopeless, empty look in her amber eyes (the same color as Kyungsoo’s own) was horribly unsettling. Kyungsoo’s voice was weaker than she’d hoped for it to be when she opened her mouth to speak.
“Mother? What’s going on?”
The hand on her shoulder squeezed once and then released her, and the warm honey of her mother’s voice filled her ears. “Happy birthday, my sweetling. I’m sorry for waking you, but we have precious little time to talk.”
The sky outside was just beginning to turn to a dusky kind of blue, though sunrise was still a while away. Her mother sat on the side of Kyungsoo’s bed, and Kyungsoo sat up to join her, still rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “You didn’t answer my question.”
A soft sigh pulled itself from the older woman’s throat and she ran a hand through her salt-and-pepper hair, looking at the wall on the opposite side of the room instead of at her oldest daughter. “We are different, my dear. Different from anyone else in this pack.” It was true. Each and every member of the Colfax pack had eyes the color of moss - truegreen, they called them. But Kyungsoo and her mother had eyes like molten gold, always catching stares from the other pack members wherever they went but no one ever said anything to them as they were the mate and child of the Alpha.
There was a pregnant pause before the older woman began to speak again. “You were just ten one hundred new moons ago and I prayed with all my heart that the stars would align in this way and take you away from here, but now that it is happening I do not want to give you up.”
It took Kyungsoo’s mind a few moments to process what her mother was saying, but when she did her voice came out higher than usual. “I don’t-“ She was shushed by her mother. “I don’t understand. One hundred new moons… am I being given away?” The answer she received was a silent nod.
She felt like the world had fallen away beneath her feet. This was the only home she had ever known. She’d never even been outside of Colfax’s camp without an escort. How was she supposed to leave behind her entire life, and with less than a day’s notice? She tried to be angry that she wasn’t warned, but all she could feel was a weight in her stomach and an angry hand squeezing her heart.
They sat in silence for what seemed like the longest time, until the sunlight started to shine through into the small room. Her mother’s voice broke the silence. “We must prepare you for the ceremony, dear one. Tradition states that you must bathe in the river and sit vigil until sunset.”
Kyungsoo was in a haze as her mother led her down to the river that flowed along their pack’s borders. It was late November so the water was cold but Kyungsoo hardly even noticed. Her mind was elsewhere and her body was on autopilot as the chilly waters rushed over her skin and swept her wavy, chocolate brown hair out behind her. The females of Colfax were not permitted to cut their hair until they came of age, nor were they allowed to wear their hair free-flowing until they were mated, so her hair, which reached down past the small of her back, was normally bound up tightly in braids. Her dark hair and curvy figure, like her eyes, were somewhat of an anomaly in her pack. Most of the women of her pack were thin and wiry in every way, with light blonde hair that made them beautiful and imposing in the same way that a glacier is. But Kyungsoo was made of soft curves and delicate proportions; full breasts, wide hips, and thick thighs that she’d always been self-conscious of.
Once her entire body had been submerged and rubbed clean, she climbed out of the river, shivering with cold, and her mother wrapped her a large towel. She allowed her mother to guide her back to their hut, by which time she was almost completely dry except for her hair. A set of simple clothes was placed in her arms which Kyungsoo put on in what felt like slow motion. Once she was dressed, she dimly felt the familiar touch of her mother binding her hair back into its many complicated braids and pinning it up. The closer she got to the end of the day and her life as she knew it, the more surreal it all felt.
Finally, she was guided to the center of camp where she would sit, motionless and silent, until the sun set over the horizon. She had donned the traditional clothes given to her, a simple tan tunic and a pair of deep green leggings, the colors each representing her pack’s values: tan for tradition and green for purity, called so in reference to the truegreen eyes of the purebred members of Colfax. She felt dozens of eyes on her as she knelt by the fire and pressed her palms to the ground, head bowed as her mother had instructed her before she’d left their hut for the last time.
Her mind wandered as she tried to imagine a life without her mother and father. True, she and her mother were quietly scorned by the other members of the pack and were ignored whenever possible, but she had come to know these people and couldn’t bear the thought of never seeing any of them again. Hours passed and eventually everything around her faded away and she could no longer see, feel, or hear any of the everyday things that went on around their camp’s center, left alone only with her thoughts.
Colfax had not given up one of their own in the exchange for hundreds of years. Their Alphas over the centuries had purposefully timed the arrival of children and had even, in some extreme cases, killed their own young if they knew the child would be of age during an Exchange year while they were heading the pack. All of this was to keep Colfax blood within the pack, anything to prevent polluting their genetics.
One more day and Kyungsoo would have been fine. Had the new moon come a day earlier, she would still be seventeen and safe, rather than sitting vigil and preparing herself to abandon her home. She didn’t even know what was in store for her. No one truly did, since no one sent away had ever come back. There were whispers among the pack that she was being sent away to act as a slave to the High pack and used for whatever purpose they deemed fit. Others said that the ones given away in the Exchange were bred forcibly by their alphas and killed if they failed to bear a son. Still more rumors said that she would be used as a sacrifice and burned as a tribute to strange gods.
These thoughts were all horrifying and she tried to shake them off, but only managed to push them to the back of her head for later when a hand landed on her shoulder. She opened her eyes to darkness, just the fading light of day still left in the sky, and her heart dropped into her stomach. The hours had passed far too quickly.
Her bones ached from being in one position for too long, but she ignored their stiffness and stood, brushing dirt from her legs and turning to face her mother and father. They both had sadness in their eyes, amber and truegreen alike, and reached out to embrace her as she stood to her full height. Though her mother had no words to give through her tears, her father’s gruff voice was like a balm to her aching heart.
“Daughter, I will look to the stars every night in the hopes that we will be looking at the same skies. Will you do the same for me, so that when I see the North Star in the sky I can know that you are there too, looking and remembering us?”
She stepped forward and threw her arms around her parents tightly, feeling them return her embrace as well. A soft sob forced its way out of her throat. “Of course I will, Father. And I will return. If I must, I will die before I stop trying to return to you.” A pair of sad smiles was her only answer.
From now on, she knew the rest was up to her and her alone, and she turned her back on her home, walking into the treeline surrounding their camp and leaving it all behind.
------
It was midnight. She’d reached the clearing about an hour ago, the one the pack leaders gathered in when it was time to make decisions involving all of them. It was large, with an ancient tree right in the middle of it, towering over everything and shading the area. She had been the first to arrive and had sat down under the tree, perched on one of the roots that rose high from the ground because of its sheer size.
In a short time, another girl had arrived, wearing an outfit similar to hers but her tunic was a dark purple and the leggings were a cream color that was now dirty from her journey into the forest. Her long, black hair was swept to one side and the other had hair that was shaven close to her head. Her eyes were a curious shade of silvery gray that Kyungsoo had never seen before. To Kyungsoo, who had only ever been surrounded by the light-haired, green-eyed people of Colfax, the girl was an exotic beauty.
Sehun, as Kyungsoo soon learned her name was, was fairly quiet, but she managed to learn that she was a beta from the Farthing pack to the east and that she was just as upset about leaving her family and pack.
Not long after Sehun had shown up, another appeared on the edge of the clearing, a boy this time, wearing dark red and gray and hailing from the Fendrake pack about two miles north of Kyungsoo’s. He was pleasant enough to talk to, mild mannered as most omegas were, but his presence unnerved her slightly. Male omegas were almost as rare as female alphas in her pack, meaning that they almost never happened.
Luhan had been the last to show up, a stark contrast to their quiet gathering when she stomped into the clearing wearing blue and yellow and muttering about what nonsense all of this was and plopped herself down next to Sehun, who automatically scooted away. For a moment, Kyungsoo thought she was just a particularly feisty beta, but the wind shifted and brought a scent that was very distinctly alpha to her nose.
And of course, Luhan just had to take an interest in Kyungsoo, which meant that she got her ear talked off by the alpha that was like none had ever seen before. She was from the southern Araway pack and had been torn away from her pack in the middle of a border conflict. To Kyungsoo, her frustration was silly - alpha or not, what pack in their right minds would allow a female to be involved in any type of fight?
She tuned Luhan out the rest of the time they were there, but in all honesty, she was glad for the company. Only the three others here with her understood properly what she was feeling and thinking. And though Luhan was loud, most of her concerns were Kyungsoo’s own, worrying if she’d ever see her family again, worrying about what was going to happen to them, worrying over whether or not she’d even live to see the next new moon.
Time passed in this fashion until midnight came, and brought two visitors with it. The person to speak first was the woman, whose voice was warm and husky and inviting in a way that Kyungsoo hadn’t expected from someone so slight. “If you are all ready to go, then we will be your escorts to your new home.”
It surprised Kyungsoo that the High pack would send omegas to come fetch them, let alone a male omega. At first, she thought she had to be wrong, but the thick, sweet scent coming from both of them was undeniable.
What didn’t surprise her was Luhan’s outrage, in typical alpha fashion. “Why should we go with you?” she demanded, placing her thin frame between the newcomers and Kyungsoo. “There are four of us and two of you, we could easily leave.”
The male omega moved for the first time since his arrival in the clearing and Kyungsoo got to witness something she had never seen before, something that would have ended in blood in her home pack: an omega challenging an alpha. The smell of pheromones grew cloyingly thick in the air. She was positive that the omega would break down first, as he should have, but after a few tense moments of absolute silence, Luhan whimpered and dropped her gaze, her expression just as baffled as Kyungsoo’s own.
“We have not brought you here to harm you.” His voice was softer than she had expected for someone who had practically brought an alpha to her knees, almost tender, and brought his fist to his chest in the universal gesture of an oath. Another pause and Luhan bowed her head, blonde hair fanning out on either side of her face as she pressed one open palm to her own chest. Acceptance.
They allowed themselves to be led from the clearing and into the forest, going even farther from Kyungsoo’s home. Luhan remained quiet the entire journey, seemingly stunned into good behavior. As they walked, they learned that their female guide was named Junmyeon and the male was Yixing. They were told that once they arrived, they would be greeted by their new pack and would have to introduce themselves and meet the Alpha of Alphas.
This unnerved Kyungsoo. Even as the daughter of the Alpha in her own pack, she was required to drop her eyes when addressing the other alphas, and had she not been his daughter she would have been expected to bow from the waist each time he passed her. What was the proper way to address this Alpha of Alphas, the one who made all other Alphas bow down before them? She supposed she would follow the lead of the others.
The walk passed more quickly than she would have liked, and soon they were lined up before the members of the High pack, backs to the blazing fire at the center of the camp. She was at the end of the line with Chanyeol beside her, and Sehun and Luhan respectively next to him. There was the slight white noise of excited chatter, and as she looked out at the crowd of people she could see the excitement in their eyes. She even saw a couple of people push forward to the edge of the group and train their excited eyes on her. Kyungsoo couldn’t help but notice that their amber eyes were of similar color to her own.
Two people stepped forward from the line, passing through the crowd easily as people made a path for them and a hush spread out over the clearing. One was a girl, quite small but she looked strong. Her caramel hair was loose and hanging around her shoulders in a way that would have been sacrilege in her home pack. She stood with the utmost confidence beside the tall man next to her, who was the one who really drew Kyungsoo’s attention.
His hair was dirty blond and his eyes were a piercing shade of blue that Kyungsoo would later swear hadn’t made her a bit weak in the knees. He was wearing all black like the girl beside him, and his clothing was tight enough that Kyungsoo had been able to see the lithe muscles underneath moving as he stepped forward. There was no way that this wasn’t the Alpha of Alphas, and she assumed that the girl beside him was his mate.
He stepped forward, and Kyungsoo had to fight the urge to bow since she saw that no one else was. “I am Yifan, second-in-command of the High pack and Speaker for the clans. As you introduce yourself before your Alpha and your new pack, you will be welcomed into the arms of those who came before you, of your home packs, and they will be the ones responsible for taking care of you while you settle into your new lives here.” He resumed his place beside the woman he’d walked forward with, but she soon stepped up.
“My name is Baekhyun, Alpha of Alphas, Peacemaker, and Daughter of the Moon.”
The Alpha was a woman? And not only just an Alpha, the Alpha of all Alphas. Kyungsoo’s mind was reeling, trying to comprehend this information. This slight girl who would have been no more than a harlot in her home pack had more power than her own father.
The Alpha gestured for Luhan to step forward. She did, and introduced herself in the way that they’d been instructed by their guides just before reaching the camp. “Luhan. Alpha. Araway.” There was a large, roaring cheer from one section of the crowd before a grinning boy with short red hair pushed his way to the front and opened his arms in the girl’s direction.
“Luhan of clan Araway! Welcome home!” he cried, and then Luhan was running toward him, laughing and embracing him tightly, and soon she lost sight of Luhan as she was enveloped into the small group.
Sehun stepped up next. “Sehun. Beta. Farthing.”
Junmyeon, who had been their guide, stepped forward from the small group of excited people, much smaller than the group that had accepted Luhan into their ranks. “Sehun of clan Farthing, welcome home.” She was embraced once she reached the group that awaited her, though with much less vigor than Luhan.
Next was Chanyeol. “Chanyeol. Omega. Fendrake.”
The Alpha smiled and gestured to the group behind her that was much quieter than any of the others had been, but was far larger. “Chanyeol of clan Fendrake, welcome home.”
And then it was just Kyungsoo. She took a deep breath and stepped forward. She saw the grins from the people she’d noticed earlier with eyes like her own and watched as they seemed to argue over who got to welcome her. But she knew that she would not be welcomed, not as the others had.
“Kyungsoo. Omega. Colfax.”
There was dead silence for a couple of moments, and then an uproar of sound as people chattered, and Kyungsoo looked into a sea of confused faces. A raised hand from Baekhyun silenced the crowd. She nodded to the man beside her - Yifan, her second - and he strode forward quickly until he was mere inches from her.
Kyungsoo trembled as the warm musk of his purely alpha scent washed over her and nearly pulled her under. On instinct, her head fell back and a short whimper left her lips. Submitting. She saw his eyes flash, and she thought he was going to yank her back by her hair as the alphas of her own pack would have done, but he merely brought one hand to the back of her head as he bent down, nose tracing across her skin from collarbone to jawline as he inhaled her scent. She swallowed nervously and would have dropped to her knees right there had she not been petrified with shock.
He took a step back, blue eyes boring into her own even as he called out to the rest of the pack. “It is true, she is of Colfax blood.” More shocked whispering filtered around the crowd.
“Who will claim her?” Baekhyun called out, hushing the crowd once more, and dead silence filled the air. “Will no one accept her as their own?” Still more silence followed, and then a single voice broke through the air.
“Yukom will claim her.” Yifan had been the one to speak. There were a few shouts of outrage from the crowd and Yifan rounded on what was assumedly his home pack group. “I said, Yukom will claim her who has no kin, and we shall not allow prejudice to cloud our judgment.” They fell silent once again, and Yifan turned back to her.
“Kyungsoo of clan Colfax, welcome to clan Yukom. Welcome home.”