Two new works added to my "The Strength of the Wolf is the Pack" series in two days! Fingers crossed the streak continues! (though that's highly likely, considering it's been caused by me watching all of Teen Wolf over again and I only just reached season three, hehe)

I hope you enjoy!

The title is taken from Rudyard Kipling's "The Law of the Jungle", with "jungle" changed to "desert".

I do not own Teen Wolf or Percy Jackson.

Nico di Angelo grumbled to himself as he trekked through the desert, moving around sand dunes. He had tried to shadow travel from Camp Jupiter to Camp Half-Blood, but something had pulled him off course. He didn't know where he was, and all attempts to shadow travel away had failed. Whatever had dragged him to this desert didn't want him to leave, and -

Nico let out a yelp that he would forever deny and dodged to the side to avoid a sword - was that a samurai sword?! - from making a debilitating blow that, while it wouldn't kill him, would leave him at his attacker's mercy. Summoning his own sword from his ring, he backed away into a defensive position. "Who are you, and why have you come to the territory of the skin walkers?" she growled, and the sound of her voice jolted something deep within him, that his soul had nearly forgotten.

Instead of letting his jaw drop open, Nico blurted, "McCall Pack!"

His attacker - an Asian teenage girl, the son of Hades noted - pulled up abruptly and lowered her sword so that it rested by her side. "We have a pack bond," she realized. "An old one, but it's there. How? If you left the pack, no bond would remain whatsoever - it doesn't fade so that it's nearly gone, only to snap back when you talk to another pack member."

"I was temporarily adopted into the McCall Pack for a few days," Nico offered. "Scott scent marked me, but I didn't realize he also formed a bond."

The girl frowned. "Scent marking doesn't create bonds, though. But I suppose, if you already had a close familiar bond with someone in the pack, and then the alpha marked you as pack, and then you became close with the rest of the pack… that could create a kind of half bond that fades the longer you go without contact with the pack, only to snap back into place the moment you contacted them again."

Nico blinked and shrugged. He knew next to nothing about werewolf packs and their bonds, and he wasn't going to pretend to be an expert. Although… "Is it possible for the bond to want to be realized, and pull me in the direction of the closest pack member?"

Now it was the girl's turn to blink. "You came here by accident?" A pause, and then, "What are you, anyway? Considering your lack of pack bond knowledge, I'm assuming you aren't a werewolf."

The son of Hades shook his head, "I'm a demigod, and I was trying to travel through the shadows from California to New York when they pulled me to about a mile from here… Um… what are you? What are you doing this far from your pack?"

"I'm complicated - a kitsune skin walker - which is why I'm out here instead of in Beacon Hills. I was losing control, and I had to take it back. I'll stay here for as long as it takes to do so, and maybe someday I'll be able to return to my pack. My name is Kira, by the way."

"Nico."

With the exchange of stories and names done, the two studied each other. Noting he still had his sword out, the son of Hades turned it back into his ring. Its disappearance jolted the thunder kitsune, who in turn sheathed her sword. Pulling up her hood, she turned to go, obviously dismissing him as a threat and letting him go. But…

"Wait!" Nico blurted, causing her to pause - but not turn back. "If you have a message for Scott, or any of the others, I can pass it on. It's the least I can do."

Unseen by the demigod, Kira smiled softly and sadly. "Tell them… tell them I'm ok. Tell them I'm surviving, and thriving. Tell them I miss them and love them, and the feelings they send down the bond… I get them." And then she walked away, wind whirling sand about her for a second, and then she was gone. A moment later, and so was Nico, carefully repeating her message over and over again in his head so that when he got to Beacon Hills, the words were exactly hers.

I hope you enjoyed! Please review, and feel free to give me any ideas you'd like to see in this verse.