Shadows That Bleed

by YamiYugiPuzzleshipper

Pure-Bloods are said to be myths, not even well-known within stories. "A specialized genetic coding of the moon and the dire," their spoken lore proclaims. They are creatures beyond the power of mortality, gifted by the gods themselves. Known as the Eternal Ones, their existence once extinguished, resurrection foretells a powerful omen.

25. Comforts

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh

Update schedule: Every other day (no update on June 2nd)

Chapter Warnings: Mentions of Death, Blood, DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF DEAD BODIES (the girl was pregnant), Character Deaths, Wolves Fighting, Yugi and Yami Fighting, Innuendos, Mention of Foursome

I'm pretty sure I forgot to put this in the last couple of chapters, but if there are any really odd misplaced or misspelled words, it's because I've typed the last few chapters on my phone (chapter twenty and further) and my autocorrect is a butt. Like, last chapter several times "in" was "on" and once or twice "Yugi" became "Yugo" or "Yami" was "Yumi" or anything of that nature. So, if it's really bad, feel free to point it out if you want. If you don't care to, don't bother. There's no obligation. I just wanted you guys to know in case it's something that's glaringly obvious and kind of terrible.

Anyways, so there are four characters who die this chapter. The first is the pregnant girl. It doesn't go too far into description about it, honestly. I say it's detailed but it's not too terrible? Anyways, if you want to skip the description of it, read to "What if it was a stranger he didn't know?" and then use Ctrl + F to find the phrase "Who could possibly…?" Past that point you should actually be safe to keep reading. It gets mentioned a few times afterwards but not in detail.

As for the three wolves, you find out more about them later in the story. Why they were there, why they killed her, who did what and how and why. Every death has a reason in this story, by the way. They come up more frequently as the story goes along and often end up explained later than they take place (and for good reason).

Chapter XXV: Comforts

Work Log Entry XXV: June, 1998

June 11

So far, he has been healthy and none of his systems have declined. His state of being is as consistent as it would have had he gone through the process of a normal birthing. He has not changed back as of yet.

We are still hopeful that all of our efforts were not in vain and he will survive.

That Project A.T.E.M. will be and remain a success.

June 20

The boss has lost all patience.

"Atem" is to be tested upon immediately.

June 26

He is the perfect prototype of a Pure-Blood werewolf. His vitals are stronger than even those of a healthy Full-Blood. And his mind is far more advanced than the two years he has been alive.

His behavior has grown adaptive and he reacts to both stimulants of that of a human boy and a wolf pup. His DNA and RNA are solely that of a wild, unclassified species of wolf despite his human shell.

Even when we bled him this morning, it came out as the blood of an extinct supernatural wolf.

"That's where persistence comes in," Yugi said easily, casting him a lazy grin. The blond rolled his eyes, but there was a ghost of a smile on his lips. The amusement was nearly nonexistent, however, because of the weight of the death which still held his shoulders bare. The small teen looked away again quickly. It was too painful to see Jonouchi's usually lively face and kind eyes filled with such immense ache. "That's why you double check and sometimes triple check if you feel like you need to."

Jonuchi was hardly paying attention and they both knew it. But it still made Yugi's stomach drop and his heart ache further. He knew in his situation he would have skipped school, ducked out for a week at the very least. But Jonouchi didn't have that luxury.

If he went home, he was basically alone. His dad could be there with him, but he was almost always drunk. They both knew it held away some of the guilt from his job as a cop, the weight of his own self-imposed thoughts of "I could have saved them" no matter the circumstances.

And, if he was home with him, more likely than not it would never feel that way to Jonouchi. Because, when he was drunk, he was mostly quiet. Although, on especially bad cases, he lashed out and beat the blond until he was all but unable to get up again, curled up on the floor in a fetal position.

He thought the silence would kill him more than the beatings this time around.

Yugi couldn't imagine what he would have done in that situation. Visiting made him sick at times, because he knew what happened on those worse nights. And his dad was always so keen on showing himself to be much more than he was or ever could be.

"I… Fuck, I'm so sorry, Katsuya," he blurted out before he could think any better of it. His eyes snapped to his again, the other boy stiffening in his seat. For a moment neither of them moved and Yugi tasted blood in his mouth as his heart leaped in his throat. He shivered and the brown eyes he knew so well, flecked with hazel around the pupils and the tiniest specks of gold around the middle, met his with deadly frustration.

For a moment they remained as they were. No one moved. Yugi wondered if they were even breathing anymore. Jonouchi stared at him, unblinking and sharp in gaze. Both of them studied each other until Yugi quickly looked away, breath stuttering in his lungs.

Jonouchi didn't have to say the words. The smaller boy was on his feet immediately. He snatched the bag off the floor and tossed it over his right shoulder, hesitating for only a moment. His eyes flickered towards him only momentarily once more as he started to walk towards the door.

Yugi turned around again to face him fully. "I didn't know her all that well. And I…I get the feeling that you truly didn't either. And I'm so sorry about that, Katsuya," he whispered softly. "And I have no idea what you're going through."

He started to get up, but Yugi had already thrown the apartment door open and trotted out. Jonouchi considered for only a moment to take off and follow him, to at least walk him back to his house. But the thought died away again almost immediately.

After that surprising combo he had done just two days before, he had no doubt he could handle anything that came his way.

Yugi felt sick as he started through the doors of the apartment building. Unlike Jonouchi, he was not sure that he could make it home without some kind of confrontation happening. He was not certain that his walk home would be a safe thing.

And it was only further highlighted by the resounding sensation that someone was watching him. As he strode across the sidewalk down the street towards the end of the streak of buildings, he felt it. It was as if his skin were tingling, the hairs on the back of his neck rising. It was the way his fingers twitched and his spine began to ache with its rigidity. His throat ached and his heart pounded within it. His breath came out in slight gasps and he felt almost sickened further by the idea.

Yes, there had to be someone.

But he couldn't sense them.

Even when he had turned around earlier that day before school and pretended to be facing that direction while on the phone, there had been no clue. There had not been a single whiff of scent. Nor a noise to indicate breathing or walking. He had no idea where this sensation came from when he couldn't pinpoint the source, but it alarmed him all the same. And he knew better than to ignore that.

So he did not understand. He was confused and disoriented by it all. The paranoia ate at him every step of the way. And it had begun long since to irritate him. It was frustrating and it pissed him off. It sent him further on edge than ever before. He did not know what to do with himself in the case that he was being followed either. The thought terrified him beyond his own understanding.

What happened if he was being stalked? And what was the meaning behind it then? Would it be with the intention to put him through all that Shizuka had been?

Or might it somehow be worse?

He did not think even what Yami had warned him of hunters doing could be worse than what she had been faced with. Being experimented on bested being used as half of a puppy mill.

Or, at least he considered it to.

But then, even if he was used as the second half of a mill, he wasn't the one who would go through the worst effects of it.

Would they attack and chase and kidnap him as he had assumed them readily capable of? Would they mutilate him and destroy him and all sense of identity he had?

His thoughts flashed for a moment.

Was Code Name Atem a true identity? Was there really a wolf out there who had been birthed under such horrid circumstances with the pain of being struck with constant experiments? Yugi could not fathom much of an existence above the underground with the treatment she had told him he must have gone through. With that in mind, he did not assume to think that she truly had the fullest idea of what he'd been through, but it still made sense to him. He understood.

And he highly doubted that any person put through such hateful treatment could ever react and spend time as easily as another person. When it came to regular Domino dwellers, they would stick out terribly. No one would have been able to mistake them for anything but a horribly abused person, with measures of toxicity that they could not deny upon first glance.

Yet, the only person Yugi had come to know like that—for those brief few minutes before Yami had come—was now dead. Bakura had been vicious and dangerous, willing to kill and maim as he needed to, even as he displayed mercy in small amounts. So to think that he had truly killed him at that moment, that another wolf would come along with a similar ruthlessness, made him dizzy. He almost swayed but then shoved the idea aside.

Since then he had not seen a single wolf he thought as capable of being the one Shizuka had spoken of. No, he did not assume Code Name Atem to be some kind of legendary wolf by any means. But he thought his personality would have to coincidence much more with that of a vicious killer.

The experiments had to have left him more violent, more likely to kill, than ever.

It would have skewed his views on life…

He wondered at his night terrors for a moment, thoughtful as he tilted his head in consideration. He had had those dreams all his life. Yet, his mom and grandpa and dad had helped him through them. It would be impossible for him to be Code Name Atem by any means.

He cut through the woods after a moment, towards the cemetery. In the trees he was more likely to lose the person following him. But he was also more likely to run into his other fear, the idea that the corpses might make his mouth water as the rabbit seemingly so long ago had. He blinked and swallowed hard, but ignored the effort his mind made to push him towards the image of the rabbit in the woods. He pushed away the smell, so sickeningly sweet and mouthwatering, with such power as to make him nearly tremble. He almost wished to lick his lips for that small second.

But Yugi ignored such a discouraging urge and hurried to carry himself forward faster. His feet were all but bursting in the snow, the ice cracking and popping beneath his feet. Frozen limbs from shorter plants snapped against his sneakers and the buds of several plants dropped and crackled beneath his weight. He couldn't hear a single animal and his mind struggled to coax for him yet another answer that he had not been expecting.

He had failed to hear any animals the day before either.

He halted and his stomach clenched.

Yesterday he had run across a werewolf, as was cleared of doubt by the smell of wolfsbane. He did not know what had happened to Ryuzaki, whether he was bitten or born with the disease or if he had asked to be bitten or was infected against his will. He did not know if he had been snatched up and dragged away somewhere. And he still lacked the knowledge of if he was a lycanthrope or a hellhound.

But he recognized the silence now.

It was that of animals acknowledging the more unnatural presence of a predatory animal beyond their imagination. They had fallen silent so that they would not be noticed.

But did that also mean that they were responding to him that way? Yugi cringed. If they were, then how was he meant to know of another being close?

He sighed softly, glancing around slowly. Something was off, however. Something was terribly, irreparably wrong. In his head he could not fathom what it might be, but there was something and it made his marrow cold.

Even as he continued forward he could not shake the fear which came over him now. His stomach twisted harder and he tilted his head uncomfortably as the air grew thick enough around him that he felt he was wading through shallow water. He narrowed his eyes and glanced about himself again. Something was unnaturally wrong at the moment; it went beyond his presence or even that of Ryuzaki before him.

He could not place it, but he knew it was there somewhere. But the direction it came from, the fear which it wrought, was something else entirely. He paced and then turned, spinning on his heel.

But to go back meant he might be followed more noticeably and what if the attempt to double back as he had the day before did not work a second time?

Someone must have seen him leave the hospital or something and so they had begun to trail him.

Or maybe it was because they sought to kidnap him and—

He pushed the thought away. No, he wouldn't consider that train of thought any further.

Even if Yami was right and hunters did those kinds of things, surely he wouldn't be the first on their list, right?

Yugi was hardly even slightly the best wolf. If they wanted to breed, then obviously going for a more experienced wolf would be the best route. Although, the fact that he was considering this was beyond him.

He shook his head and rolled his eyes, not bothering to look around again.

He needed to relax. Maybe someone wasn't even following him. And, even if they were, they had to know that he knew they were there. And if that was true, then what would they do to rectify that idea? Because they had to also realize he was smart enough to avoid them as he had before, that he knew to double back and flee as necessary.

So, would they take that as a reason to send another wolf in what he assumed had to be their third attempt? The two wolves during his first Change and Bakura… There had to be some kind of connection between them. There was no doubt in his mind that no such coincidence existed. Even if Yami had not said the same beforehand, he would have assumed such a reality.

He stepped forward, then slipped. His foot tangled in the dead remains of a fern. His body jerked and he crashed face first into the earth. The snow cushioned much of the force he would have originally felt. The white crystals were far more forgiving than the earth beneath.

Yugi huffed, blinking his eyes open and drawing in a deep breath. He could scent nothing but ice, too cold and frosted for him to truly describe. He pushed his arms outwards, tugging them to his sides, and pulled himself gracelessly to a sitting position. He didn't have to bother with appearances here. He was in the middle of the woods, alone.

He dusted his pants off, glancing at his shoe. The thin tendrils of browned plant were still latched to his sneaker. He sighed, settling back on his weight, and grabbed at the remains of withered fern. He tugged it away, the stems so frozen that they snapped like toothpicks between his fingers. He frowned, dropping them aside, and then pulled himself to a standing position.

At first he failed to notice it. He was so annoyed by his own lack of attention and being thrown onto his stomach that it occupied his mind too fully. But then he blinked. A thought occurred to him that something smelled harshly. And the scent curled in his lungs enough to make him blink and then stiffen. He smelled blood.

It was older than Shizuka's had been when he'd stepped into the hospital room, but it was there all the same. And it quickly knotted within his nose and threatened once again to suffocate him as if he were somehow a great and terrible threat to it.

Yugi looked about himself now, his body instinctively recoiling at the thought of another death to be seen in front of him. He breathed in deeply, groaning deep in his chest, and turned back the way he had come. He could go back. Or, if he continued forward…

It was a primal curiosity which made him choose. Without much further thought, he turned away again. He could see no blood there. As he came forward a few more steps, the smell clenched upon his senses. His heart began to pound, his own blood roaring in his ears.

Was it an animal?

Or a person?

He blinked, then faltered. A splattering of blood sprayed the snow in front of him. He supposed it was the lack of dusting earlier that day that allowed it to remain visible. The new flakes falling in front of him at the moment would completely cover it soon enough.

He felt his stomach clench further but could not fight away the instinct to investigate. He did not know if his wonder and disgust were human or canine. Both of them were extremely curious by nature, though he was not used to such a powerful pull despite the dread in his body.

Yugi looked forward in the snow. There was a large gash in the dune, a dip so wide and abrupt that it made him falter. He glanced around once, then turned back. He knew it could only correspond to a body being dragged, even if the blood was not so visible here. The wound must have been opposite the position it was pulled in. Or so shallow that it had not bled enough at that moment.

He walked alongside it, unable to bring himself to disturb it by moving across it. His eyes flickered about and his body felt dizzy as he considered turning back again. Would it truly be so bad to avoid sating his curiosity for once? So often he gave in to the urge to see and explore things, even when he had no true right to…

He still could not make his feet stop moving. With a blink, head still spinning, he made his way further down the slope. It was a strange sensation to be led more fully by his instincts than this. It was nothing he truly understood at the moment, which made him feel even worse than before. He narrowed his eyes and crept forward, slow and cautious, and his stomach dropped as he faltered once more.

There was a clump of bright red that bordered orange in shade and he felt as if he needed to turn tail again. Oh gods, there were only two people he knew of with that color hair.

What if it was a stranger he didn't know?

Would that make things better or so much worse?

He stepped forward again. It was either going to be Chono, his math teacher, or the recent winner of the beauty pageant, Kaoruko Himekoji. If it was someone he knew, it would have to be one of them. If it was someone he did not, it could easily be anyone. He almost laughed at the thought.

He shook his head slightly. Domino City was not the largest city ever. In fact, it was smaller than most. The odds of him not knowing who it was were all but nonexistent.

Yet, as he came towards the body and stopped short, he felt it impossible that he could possibly have known this girl. With her body so heavily defiled, her belly torn and gutted, her ribs opened and her organs further exposed, he almost could not recognize her. He could almost pretend she was a stranger to him. But even the bruises along her thighs and wrists, the cuts along her throat and the splashes of bright red across the white, did not stop him from recognition. Her broken limbs, the way her shoulders had both been pulled out of place, her arms shattered and the bone showing, did not pause his anxious mind.

Yugi hissed and his heart ached as he looked further along. Her stomach had been gutted, her insides completely dragged out. And, lying several feet away, entangled in frozen intestines, frozen blue in the cold, were four small forms. They were covered in black, with purplish cores and hints of bright red along the edges.

He doubled over, his breakfast spilling from his throat. The acid burned so harshly it caused him to fall to his knees. He was shaking when the second wave came over him. He choked and sputtered and his body jerked. For a moment he feared he might change, gasping and hissing, as the spasms grew sharper and he puked once more. But the accompanying rush of heat and the horrid sense of pain did not come. Nothing elongated beneath his skin and his body did not shake so violently that he collapsed further.

But there were tears streaming down his face and he swore they burned even as they froze against his skin. He turned to look at her again, choked, and then burst into more violent tears.

Who…?

Who could possibly…?

He gasped and choked again. He raised a hand to rub at his mouth and his teeth caught the fabric of his jacket. He gasped, shuddering, and drew in such a small breath he thought he was suffocating. He drew another portion of fabric forward between his teeth. His tongue felt swollen. His mouth was too dry. He choked and cried harder. He was shaking more than ever before.

Oh gods, who in their right mind would ever think it was okay to do that?

He shivered and turned away again quickly. He didn't need to look at her again. If he saw them again he would break down further. And he didn't know that he had such a liberty at the moment. He was in the open, sobbing so loudly he was sure he could be heard for miles, and if he was not careful, whatever had done this to her might find its way to him.

But it didn't seem like something had done this.

It was too graceful, the way they had displayed the bodies.

No, someone had thought it would be fun to do.

No animal was capable of this but a human.

Yugi shuddered and spat into the snow, then moved to grasp at the earth. The smell of his vomit burned his nose so harshly he could not detect the blood. He shivered again, then dragged his legs to brace his weight. He pressed into the toes of his sneakers, bracing himself, and used his arms to push himself into a standing position.

Immediately his eyes shot towards the trees further in front of him. If he kept his focus on them, he wouldn't take another look. And his body had nothing more to expel. He couldn't stand about and allow himself to puke and further exhaust himself. If he did that, he was sure he would lose his mind by all means.

He bit back a pathetic and insincere apology to the poor girl. His horror and panic would render it nothing but an attempt to save himself from the mounting guilt. His mind spiraled.

How long had she been there?

Had anyone else seen her?

Who would have done this?

Was this connected to Shizuka?

Yugi took a shaky step forward, legs wobbling beneath his weight. He nearly collapsed. But somehow he held himself upright. His balance tottered but he stayed standing. He gasped and his throat burned. He couldn't smell for his nose ached too much. He could do nothing but sputter again. When he blinked, his vision blurred.

Who…?

He shook his head and stumbled another step. His movements were stiff. He felt as if he had been frozen at some point. He was dizzy. His head spun. His eyes burned harshly. He could not breathe properly. His shoulders were still wracked with sobs. He was shaking too hard to see straight. He thought he was going to puke again, but there was nothing left. He sobbed quietly, but it too was beginning to die inside of him.

Were they still nearby? Was there anyway that they could be? What if they turned around and attacked him now?

Self-preservation was rapidly pushing away his grief. The sorrow he felt hammered in his chest, but it did not falter his instinct to save himself now. He could not meet a similar ending to her. He would not allow it.

His body pushed forward, a sense of power coursing through it. Energy he had not truly known himself to possess began to make his blood push faster. It quivered in each of his veins and invigorated his worn muscles. He was too hot to feel the numbness that had formerly crept over him. His feet were moving again, faster than before. He felt as if he were almost running now.

The sensation of his spine tightening was all the warning he received. He immediately froze, then spun around in a jerk. A flash of silver fur streaked in his vision. Bright eyes burning opalescent teal peered at him.

White teeth chomped at his leg. He lashed out immediately. The blow momentarily stunned the wolf. As before, he did not think about it. His left leg caught it in another kick. The blow sent it staggering.

It tossed its head back and forth. A sickly smell like vomit came to him. Its jaws were frothing. The earthy stench came from far away. He backed up a step, eyes widening. The wolf's maw was coated in vile yellow and bright red. Saliva fell in chunks of foaming white.

Yugi stared blankly, the adrenaline spiking further. His fight or flight made his muscles seize. Logic said to race for it. Instinct said to beat it into submission. His more human mind, beyond this primal touch, pleaded to run. His animalistic side said never to turn his back. He was caught and staring.

The wolf launched itself. He reacted a second too late. Teeth caught his shoulder. He hissed. They tumbled into the snow. He ground his teeth together. The wolf jerked its head. His shoulder wrenched. He struggled to move his arm and catch its throat. He bent the limb, then pushed outwards. His forearm forced it back slightly.

The muscles in his shoulder protested. But he did not release his defense. He narrowed his eyes. His heart raced faster. His stomach dropped. His head was pounding. The roaring in his ears grew more abundant. He punched upwards with his free hand.

The wolf yelped, releasing him. It staggered back again. Yugi kicked upwards. The wolf hit the snow on its side. He struggled to stand. The beast was up again. He cursed. The animal flung itself at him. He tried to sidestep. But the wolf was prepared.

His muscles must have given him away. The teeth snapped deep into his flank. He yelped. His body jerked with pain. But another part of him lashed out. His knee caught its chest.

It snarled, then choked. It jerked away at the second blow. A bone had snapped. He blinked stupidly. The wolf puked. He took off running immediately.

He heard it begin to give chase. But then it gagged and puked again. He panted, side burning and throbbing. His head was dizzy again. He wanted to puke but could not. He did not glance back and instead ran faster.

He knew the woods well enough. He also knew the graveyard. There were sewer entrances. If he dropped into one, it would cover his scent and he could find the one that led to his house.

He hoped his lycanthropy would aid in that some way. Because he had no idea how he was meant to use the passages.

Yugi found one of the mausoleums, recognizing the stained glass design of an owl. He skidded, the snow spraying the air. He gasped and hissed again. His side was coated in blood. The shirt and jacket was drenched along the bottoms. His jeans were becoming sticky. He bore his teeth, eyes flickering first to the cut and then to his surroundings.

A shape came at him. He ducked. The only thing to tell him it wasn't the one back there was the direction. He could still hear it hacking. The broken rib and its infliction had slowed it down further. His instincts told him to run now. But where was a mystery. With the cold, the mausoleum was frozen shut, the lock too icy to pick. He'd need something to heat it with, to use to pry it open.

And he had nothing.

He ground his teeth together further. His stomach burned. The newcomer was mostly solid brown, like chocolate. The fur came in soft tufts of gray where it was shedding. Its eyes were blown, completely black, pupils swallowing any former color there. Along its forehead was a hideous, wondrous streak of bright silver-white.

The color tugged at his senses. He'd seen it before. The wolf snarled. Teeth gleamed at him. The ears pricked forward. Its tail rose, wagging. The eyes flashed with hatred. He shivered. It was mocking him. Of course it was.

Yugi drew in a breath, more than slightly annoyed.

Now what?

The terrain wasn't something he knew all too well. The snow covered a lot of potential pitfalls. If he was not careful, between the two wolves, he would end up like Kaoroku. He braced himself.

It was the most he could do. The adrenaline was still roaring in his ears. He wasn't prepared to lash out, however. His balance was too precarious. He hadn't noticed the position before. But he was standing on a jagged stone and the sides were too steep.

He'd end up on his ass if he went about kicking. And if he did not kick, his reach would be too limited. If he could make it leap, he could dive or sidestep. But every plan was risky.

Yugi could have screamed for all the panic which welled up inside of him. The other wolf was coming.

He could hear it as well now.

The smell of wolfsbane, too, made it obvious.

He shuddered. The two wolves stood to his front and side, snarling. Their teeth chomped. Saliva fell from the newcomer's maw in stringy chunks. Blood and bile burned the air.

He shifted his weight to keep his footing. If he ducked again, he could brace—

He froze. He did not turn his head. But he heard it now as well. Something else—another wolf—was coming towards them. He felt his stomach drop. They had cornered him.

They were using the mausoleum to keep him pinned. The newcomer would come from his free flank. It was a classic strategy among hunting wolves.

When they tried to kill or chase away bears, they did something similar…

He bore his teeth. He was so screwed.

A screaming noise curled through the air. All three forgot their positions. Their heads snapped towards the noise. Teeth chomped. The scream grew louder. A snarl bit at the air. There was a scrambling noise. The two wolves tore off towards the sound.

Yugi was not sure what to do for a moment. He stood, staring into the distance. But he could not tell where they had gone. And the noise only escalated. He took the distraction with care. Immediately he turned and surveyed the lock on the door behind him. As expected, he would need some kind of source of heat to get past the ice.

He looked into the trees, glancing once away from himself, and then took off. The noise was that of snarls and yelps now. He could not hear anything coming after him. He continued running. He crashed into the undergrowth with such noise he almost panicked. It crackled and snapped, the air so still it seemed to come from all around him.

He stopped, trying to think straight. Maybe if he moved slower... Or perhaps he could use the trees. He was not sure that they would follow him. He turned his head, angling it upward. He could try to stick it out until they grew tired.

But how did he know that they ever truly would?

Yugi screamed. Teeth tore into his shoulder and tossed him backwards. He lashed out, kicking and punching. The wolf snarled and tossed its head. The movement made his entire body swing in the ice. He nearly cried out again. He bore his teeth. The wolf snarled louder. He turned his head towards it. He punched again.

The brown wolf released his shoulder. The teeth caught his wrist, tearing through the skin. He cried out, furious. Who the hell was this wolf? And why had they come after him? Was he the one that had killed her?

"You piece of shit," he spat, unable to stop himself. He went to smack it but the wolf tugged hard. The momentum threw him onto his stomach. He hissed through his teeth. This one, eyes burning into his, was not the least bit weakened. Unlike its companion, its health was at its fullest.

Yugi was not sure what he could do against a healthy wolf. He still tried to pull himself into a sitting position, however. But with another tug, he fell back again. He ground his teeth together. His fingers sought around him for any kind of weapon in the snow. Maybe he could lash out fast enough and catch it on the side of the head with something.

The silver wolf was coming now. Its mouth was lined with blood. Its eyes were terribly unfocused. It heaved and gasped, then staggered. It fell muzzle-first into the snow, then struggled to its feet again. The wolf holding him snarled. It snapped its teeth in response, silver fur rising. Its eyes flashed hideously. It licked its jaws at him.

Yugi snarled low in his throat. His body jerked with tension. His muscles clenched and ached beneath his skin. His side burned and tingled. His shoulder was throbbing painfully. He almost could not move his arm any more. It hurt so much it made stars appear behind his eyes.

The third of their pack came forward. It was dark black, a fur color so deep it looked blue. Where the snow melted against the coarse strands it had turned almost royal in shade. The long limbs were a deep, chocolate brown shade. He shivered. Dark blue eyes bore into his, glittering with something like laughter. But he could see that it was bleeding from a cut in its shoulder. The blood splattered in the snow.

Why was it wounded? Had the humans it was with attacked it before it had come across him? Was that what the screaming had been? Maybe they had injected it with wolfsbane as well?

He stared at the three of them.

The looks on their faces, the way they all bore their teeth in leers, gave him recognition. He nearly shook with disgust and horror.

The silver was Haga, the bug fanatic. Those eyes were the same he'd been annoyed by more than once when they had butted heads at one point or another. How many times had they argued upon crossing paths in biochemistry because of Haga's fascination with bugs and Yugi's desire to get through class rather than have that same two-hour-long conversation that Ryuzaki had managed upon talking about Jurassic Park? Beside him, the brown wolf was, in fact, Ryuzaki, that same boy who so often had argued about dinosaurs and given them fun facts about the movies and fossils. Something had begun to snap in him around the beginning of the year, however, and Yugi wondered now if perhaps this was it. The black wolf with the dark chocolate brown legs and bluish coat, he realized, was Kajiki Ryota. He was an ocean enthusiast, going so far as to once give a twenty-four minute presentation on just jellyfish and the electric eel. Yugi and his friends had interacted with him on scarce occasions.

Yugi bore his teeth. "How nice," he grumbled, the undertone of his words a sneer. "My classmates are all killing each other."

He gripped at the snow. His shoulder was shot with pain. He swallowed away a pathetic whimper. The ache was agonizing. He wanted to puke again.

An image flashed in his head. He blinked, eyes widening. Haga was looking beyond him. And the shape in the image which sprang in his head was a great black wolf. The pupils were too dilated to see the color of the irises. But the muzzle was too large to be mistaken for a regular wolf.

Yugi laughed, sputtering and choking on the noise.

Haga turned on him. Bloody froth dripped from his jaws. His own form, mangled and left in the straw, blood smeared about in an ocean of red, came to him. He could almost taste the bile and blood. He could almost picture that brilliant white-coated forest. His vision was splattered briefly with three sets of eyes.

The wolf chomped his teeth, shattering the image, and Yugi laughed a little harder.

"What are you waiting for then?" he sneered. "Go ahead and kill me!"

Ryota ignored him, baring his teeth at Haga. Kaoroku flashed in his mind and Yugi shuddered. So Haga had killed her. The silver wolf snapped his teeth and licked his lips. Ryuzaki growled softly and tugged on his arm. His eyes bore into his angrily. The large black wolf flashed in his mind again. Yugi sneered at him, lips pulling into a wide smirk.

The three of them startled. They each unconsciously jerked back several steps. Yugi immediately pushed himself into an upright position. His stomach clenched. The three of them looked to spring at him but faltered. They swapped anxious looks, snarling and snapping. Images flashed in blurs, streaks of black and red and white. He could not see them clearly but he didn't truly care to either.

"Yami," he whispered.

The wolves turned their heads in unison to look at him again. He smirked at them and struggled to his feet. His side was burning too harshly to keep his weight. He staggered and nearly collapsed. The canines growled and wagged their tails.

Yugi snarled low in his throat in response, baring his teeth. Their only reaction was to wag their tails faster, snarling loudly. He wondered if this was what it felt like to truly be prey in the face of hungry wolves.

He braced himself and wondered at the idea of a weapon once more. There had to be something, right? Because, as much as he knew he was there, Yami was not within sight. And he had no idea how close or far he was.

Where had he gone? And why? Had he decided to leave him? Maybe he thought to let him learn a lesson from them somehow?

He bore his teeth. He didn't think Yami would do that. Even as Ryota leaped for his face, he did not truly believe it. He prepared himself to throw them backwards and try to kick him beyond them. But the opportunity never came.

Ryota was hit so hard he went flying into Haga. They both cried out and rolled several feet. They landed in a tangle of limbs. And, infuriated, they then turned on each other. Both of them bared their teeth at each other. They snarled and snapped and cried out in clear distress.

Yugi blinked and let out a breath. "Yami," he said again, relieved enough to almost reach out and hug him. The black wolf shot him a look of bright red eyes, then turned on Ryuzaki.

The brown canine was staring at them, an almost contemplative expression on his face. But then his lips wrinkled and his mouth opened to show his teeth. His ears were pricked, his fur in a bristle, his tail raised. He snarled low and long, then licked his jaws and stepped forward.

Yami did not waste his time with posturing. His threat was known. He had declared it before. He simply threw himself forward. His opponent yelped and dodged his teeth. But his shoulder slammed into his ribs. And Ryuzaki fell back with a huff.

Yugi looked at Ryota and Haga but the two were still attacking each other. Their disgust and distrust of each other made it impossible for them to look away from the tasks of punishing each other.

Yugi turned to his shoulder and then the ground. He still needed a weapon, whether his shoulder was screwed or not. He needed at least something. He needed protection of some kind.

His shoulder was a mess of torn fabric and bright red blood where it welled from a very clear wound. The cuts were deep and long, almost a mirror of the one that Ushio had left there. But it was cleaner and his head was clear. Unlike then, he wasn't panicked and shaking.

And he hadn't fled so that his head could be crushed against the brick wall of an alleyway. He bore his teeth again. Pain rippled along his flank. But he didn't have time to look at that one too.

Instead he turned away completely to the snow and dug about the white ice. He shoveled at it as the snarling grew desperate and then peaked at a high pitch burdened with pain. He jerked and his head snapped around.

Ryuzaki was pinned, kicking at Yami. The black wolf simply tossed his head and sent him flailing. He cried again but the dark canine ignored the sound.

Ryota and Haga, however, stopped short. They scrambled to their feet. Haga was staggering and he looked physically overwhelmed with exhaustion. But, somehow, he still came forward with Ryota. Yami bore his teeth at them and bristled faintly. But beyond that he did not move. He did not attempt to shield himself as they sprang at him.

Yugi froze, then trembled, and spun back to his task. He had to find something. He had to get a rock or a thick branch—anything. Yami was strong but not invulnerable and to let him go against three wolves at once was nothing he could allow to happen. His stomach clenched and he hurried his movements to dig through for the earth underneath.

He had never realized how thick the snowfall had been until that moment. He trembled and the snarling grew to a symphony so hateful it made his insides feel molten. He gasped and hissed and struggled not to look over his shoulder again.

If they were hurting Yami and he had risked his life for him yet again, Yugi needed to be useful rather than the hindrance he had before.

He grasped finally at a stone. It was wide and long but not too thick. Yet it was frozen into the earth and his nails chipped and broke as he struggled to grasp at its edges. He dug again, searching for a way to properly grip it. The sound of the dirt grinding and separating made his skin crawl.

He ignored the noise and pulled harder. His shoulder ached and bled more freely. He could feel it, hot and coiling with his faltering energy. And it dripped and dragged itself downwards towards the blade beneath. It trailed in immense rivulets, burning him as it began to spread towards the gaping wound on his side. He pulled harder and the muscles wrenched.

He panted and tugged again. The muscles in his arms corded and throbbed. The wolves were still snarling and snapping. One of them screamed. Yugi nearly looked back again. But he had to convince himself not to, that it could not have been Yami. He pushed the thought into his head that it did not sound like him. He focused on that even as his body jerked with a painful spasm for his efforts.

Finally, the stone gave way. The dirt flung into the air. Yugi fell backwards and lay there for a moment. He couldn't breathe properly for a moment. The weight of exhaustion pushed on his senses too fully.

He wondered, somewhere in the back of his mind, if this was what they had all felt like.

Was this what death felt like?

Mere exhaustion and the oncoming blanket of darkness?

He jerked and threw himself onto his side. The movement wrenched his wound. He scrambled to sit up, ignoring the flare of pain. His heart rushed within his ears. He panted and hissed with pain. His vision was fuzzy around the edges again. He felt as if his lungs were too knotted to draw any substantial air in.

Yet, he scrambled for his feet again. His legs gave out beneath him for a moment. Then, miraculously, they straightened to hold his weight.

Yugi looked at the wolves. Ryota and Yami were blurs of dark shadows, splattered and flecked with blood. Their teeth were stained red and their jaws wide open. Their tongues were coated with the metallic liquid. A clump of bluish fur fell from Yami's mouth as he snarled and chomped his teeth.

Yugi trembled, then looked at Haga and Ryuzaki. Both were down for the moment. They were panting, struggling around wheezing breaths. Yami had done a considerable amount of damage to them both. He'd torn their cheeks open and slathered their faces in wounds. Blood fell into their eyes and Haga's left ear was completely missing. Their sides were both clipped visibly, blood leaking from deep wounds.

Yet somehow Ryota was holding his own. Even as Yami charged and knocked him about. He seemed to heal almost instantly. Barely a blink of time seemed to pass. And the larger wolf was growing tired now.

His movements had slowed and his snarl was more infuriated than challenging. He no longer seemed as sure of the win he must have secured in his head.

Yugi watched them for a moment, then moved forward again. The stone wasn't heavy now that he was no longer trying to pull it from the ground. He still did not know how long he could manage it with the wounds, however. Yami had failed to notice him. Ryota was too distracted by the larger male.

He shifted his grip, squaring his fingers along the expanse of it. His palms cupped the harsh edges along the bottom. He waited a moment. Then he snuck a step closer.

Now Yami noticed him. His red eyes flickered to him, then back. He snarled and snapped. Ryota lunged for him. Yugi waited until the last second. Then he swung.

He almost expected to miss. They had been moving so fast he had assumed himself unable to contribute to this fight. But the rock seemed to explode with the impact. Shards of frozen sand and clumps of dirt and snow scattered in clouds of dark red and gray.

Yugi staggered, the collision winding him. His hands trembled. His grip fell from the stone for a moment. But then his fingers clenched. They caught the stone again before it could fall into the snow.

Ryota had hit the ground a few feet away. His eyes were rolling, his body jerking. But then he rolled onto his feet. Yami tilted his head and shot forward. But the wolf was focused elsewhere. The speed Yami himself used came second to the brown-legged wolf. He propelled himself straight at Yugi.

The small teen yelped as they fell back into the snow. He felt his teeth cut through his tongue. He swallowed a mouthful of blood. The canine snapped his teeth at his throat. Yugi pivoted his weight slightly, just enough to knee the wolf.

The sharp snap of his limb in the other's gut made Ryota snarl. His teeth clipped the air. His incisors nipped the skin of his throat. But Yugi only needed a moment.

When he kicked again, the wolf jerked. Yugi flipped the rock in his hand, the edges cutting his fingers. Then he thrust with the stone between his fingers.

The bones cracked and broke. Ryota snarled and snapped but his teeth clicked. His eyes grew wide, the whites swallowing away the blacks. The pupils began to constrict, then recede to pinpricks. His body convulsed. His blood was hot and sticky as it splattered onto Yugi's body. His paws scrabbled. His skin twitched and his claws stretched and gripped at nothing. He gasped and choked.

He shuddered, then slumped. His weight, despite his thin frame, was heavy enough to immobilize the small teen. Yugi gasped, angling his head back, and the world blurred in white and then spikes of jutting black shadows. He could not bring himself to shrug the body off.

Yami did it for him. A handful of seconds passed. Then the weight shifted. It was brought away with a single jerk of the larger canine's head. Yugi sputtered, drawing in a deep breath. His eyes flickered immediately to the other boy.

"Yami," he whispered again, blinking at him. The wolf paused, face streaked with liquid. His eyes were curious but also sympathetic, as if he understood the horror Yugi felt at the moment. He did not wag his tail nor regard him for much longer, however.

Instead the black wolf allowed the carcass to drop from his jaws before taking off. He leaped over Yugi's frozen form before he could even blink again.

A scream came up. Yugi jerked and his head snapped to the side. Yami had captured Haga by the flank. When he tossed his head, the smaller wolf fell into the snow. His eyes were wide, dilated and fearful. The whites were rolling. Yet, the black wolf simply struck for his throat.

The attack made Ryuzaki, a few feet away, run faster with his tail between his legs. Haga cried out again, only for it to end in gurgling. Yami had tossed his head again. Blood sprayed in heavy rivulets across the snow. The black wolf did not pause.

Immediately he took off after the fleeing canine.

"Yami, no!" Yugi cried in a loud voice, horrified. He had torn Haga's throat out. He was going to kill Ryuzaki. "Yami, please, stop!"

But, if anything, the protests made him all the more violent.

Yami sprang upon Ryuzaki with the precision of a predator too graceful and keen to truly exist. He knocked him aside with a blow to the shoulder. The brown wolf was sent rolling, crying out. Immediately his paws shot out to push his attacker away. But Yami closed in on him.

His teeth caught his face, above and below his eye. He snarled and jerked his head. Ryuzaki kicked out. Yami twisted his head. The smaller wolf was thrown onto his side. He was still pinned, but he tried to pull himself to his feet regardless.

It took maneuvering, but he managed to place his feet beneath him. He pushed upwards, a struggle to gain his footing.

Miraculously, Yami allowed this. But Yugi, as he struggled to his own feet and tried again to protest, knew why it was. He stumbled forward a step, hand braced against his side, and screamed, "Yami, stop! Please!"

The wolf ignored him as he had before. But, instead of catching Ryuzaki by the throat as he thought Yami would, his teeth came for his spine. The cracking noise was like gunfire. Ryuzaki screamed so loudly that it made Yugi quake. His mouth opened and closed. The chocolate wolf flailed his front legs but his back would not respond. He cried again, eyes wide with fear.

Yami released him, then circled. He put his face towards the other's, the two of them glaring. The pain in the downed wolf's eyes did nothing to produce sympathy for his predicament. Instead, it infuriated him further. But he did not react for a moment. Rather, he lowered his jaw further, blood dripping from his jaws.

Yugi was screaming again. But he could not find it in himself to care for his pleas. In this bleak world of white, sprinkled so heavily with red, the wolf did not care to think of mercy.

His tongue was stained with blood. And the taste of wolfsbane and hatred made his vision speck with a haze of black anger. He bore his teeth and snarled softly.

Though Yami did not care to make him suffer, the intensity of his hatred did not release him to do with him as he had Haga.

So he allowed the saliva to drip from his jaws and he snarled lower in his throat. Ryuzaki glared up at him, but he could do nothing more. The weight of his head was too much or a strain for his neck. He growled but did not bother to wrinkle his muzzle even.

A sense of clarity swam upon his senses. Ryuzaki stank of the humans. He, like Haga and Ryota, must have been experimented on. No doubt he had suffered just as hideously as they.

The scars were just barely visible along his muzzle, a bright line of hideous pink tearing upon the calloused tissue of his nose.

Yami peered at him and wondered; for what could the humans have wanted with them? Why would they have released them?

He did not attempt to ask, however. Yugi was slow in his journey to them, but he was still coming. Yami opened his jaws, snapped them shut on his scruff, and tossed his head. Ryuzaki whimpered, but the noise cut short. His neck snapped loudly. His body fell limp. But Yami did not trust this. Werewolves played dead so well they sometimes forgot they were alive.

He caught his jaw, tilting his head back, and then tore through the expanse of his neck. The blood came in drizzles, the lack of circulation leaving it to puddle in the snow rather than spew as Haga's had.

Yami watched him for a long minute. He could detect nothing but his and Yugi's heartbeats in the frozen forest. He could not, however, tear his eyes away from the form in front of him. His dead, glassy gaze bore into him. It was with clarity and disgust that he recognized the accusations rolling within his dead glare.

He turned away, fur shuddering. Then he raised his head. Yugi had collapsed in the snow a few feet away. He sat with his arms behind his back, his head lowered. He could see the faint rise and fall of his thin shoulders.

Yami cautiously took a step towards him, lowering his chin towards the snow. He slunk forward, knowing the other would release his wrath on him. But maybe if he appeared smaller, gentler, it might take the edge off.

He doubted it and the cynical hatred which flared in him made him pause. Stubborn frustration made him straighten his posture. Very clearly, with a set path, he came forward.

Yugi could be as angry as he wished. But he was still his alpha, not a slobbering, desperate omega. Or a beta looking for approval. He was the strength between them, the very core of power to be possessed, and he hated Yugi for making him feel smaller and weaker than ever.

He stopped a few steps away from him. He did not bother to announce himself, and Yugi trembled as he knew him to be there as well. The silence grew taut between them. The seconds stretched like a withered rubber band. Yami moved about himself to stretch into a position lying down.

His shoulder flared and his side ached. His ear burned where the skin had been split. His back leg tingled. Yet, he did not bother to respond to the silence. Instead he laid his chin on his legs and relaxed there. His body ached but drew familiarity from the cold air. And the chill cushioned his pain. The seconds passed. A thin, but beautiful trill of energy, buzzing and warming him, crept along his wounds. He closed his eyes.

It was a good ten minutes before Yugi finally responded to his presence there. Yami opened his eyes when he heard the rustle of fabric which announced he had come to raise his head and look at him. He, too, raised his head.

Their eyes caught and the intensity of anger which wracked them both shook them for the smallest of seconds. To look each other in the eyes so directly was a challenge which neither could fully ignore.

So neither lowered their gaze. And soon, both were trembling with mounting aggression. Yami was the first to sit up, to pull his weight away. But he was too angry to look away. And he felt the tension causing the healing to halt along his face. The cuts began to burn.

"You just had to kill them, didn't you?" Yugi spat in a low voice full of distress. "They were fleeing! You could have let them go! But you must have wanted to kill them!"

Yami flicked an ear. The silence was deafening but for the shaky tempo of Yugi's heart speeding up. His own was like a war drum as he bore his teeth. I did what I had to, he snapped without a second thought. They were going to kill you.

"Once Ryota was gone, they were running away, Yami!"

Yes, and have you any idea where they might have gone? Do you think it was coincidence that the silver one smelled of wolfsbane? Foolish boy, there's no way that he would not have been able to lead the humans back. And then what? he fired back.

"We could have run just like they were doing! We didn't have to kill them!"

They knew you. That's why their names came so naturally to you. And do you think it would have taken them a second thought to turn the humans on you? If you were captured, do you truly think yourself capable of escape?

"Fuck you, Yami!" he snarled. "You didn't have to do that! We don't know that they would have done that! We could have caught them ourselves! We could have taken them somewhere, restrained them. The clinic—"

The clinic? So you would have your mother and grandfather endangered simply because you do not wish to kill? he snarled, baring his teeth. You fool! You would rather have them die and me as well than color your hands red!

Yugi gaped at him, mouth snapping shut twice but falling open once more. He trembled, then lashed out with his hand. He caught Yami upside the head and the wolf snarled, backing up slightly. "I would never wish that! Fuck you! You have no idea what you're even talking about!"

I do not know? I, the one who fought them off for you, I do not know? Let me explain something to you, for I believe you may be confused, he sneered, shifting forward to put his muzzle inches from Yugi's face. The small teen stiffened but did not pull away, the two of them still glaring furiously. Just because you would rather pretend yourself free of killing, that is what must be done at times! Our survival was not painted in friendship and peace treaties. Humans have persecuted and hunted us for centuries. And war between packs break out at times when things are too rough and strained. Death follows the paws of every werewolf in existence. Because our species came from it! And you, you did not hesitate when it came to killing Bakura. And you did not when you stabbed Ryota minutes ago. You are a fool if you think otherwise—

This time the impact was pronounced with a heavy thud. Yami swayed, eyes widening, and then his lips drew back. Yugi lashed out again, but teeth caught his wrist. The skin shredded as if brandished against a knife.

He yelped, then punched him in the nose. Yami wrinkled the muscle back, released his hand, and shot forward. They hit the ground, Yugi gripping at the fur along his throat. The wolf brandished his teeth against his forehead. The teen hissed and blood dripped in a red film upon his eyes.

He spat at him. The wolf latched his teeth in his cheek, beneath his right eye. Infuriated, Yugi kicked at him. Yami's paw came up. His claws pressed into the hollow of his clavicle. He kicked again. Yami pressed his weight into the attack.

Yugi gasped and blinked wide eyes. Above him, head angled towards his so closely, he could see Yami blinking his right eye furiously. It was as if he, too, were hindered by blood. And, when he breathed, a hideous wheezing met his ears. His eyes were wide, distressed as if something had just occurred to him, and his mouth opened.

He pulled abruptly away from him, circling with his head lowered. His fur was bristling, his eyes blazing. He tossed his head slightly and pawed at his forehead as if it were bleeding as Yugi's was.

Yugi hesitated, then began to sit up. They looked at each other again. Yami bore his teeth and the human tilted his head. He let out a small growl, then turned and paced the opposite direction.

He did not leave the vicinity of him, mere feet away as if he expected another to appear and threaten his life. The black wolf hissed through his teeth, the wheezing long gone. He tossed his head again, then pawed at his forehead. His blinking grew more intense for a moment, then faded.

It took Yugi only a second to realize the wound had stopped bleeding. He faltered. His wound had stopped bleeding. Yami had never been inflicted on the forehead.

He stayed there, frozen and confused. His voice cracked and his body trembled as he whispered, "Yami…"

The wolf swung his head to look at him. Alarm drenched every inch of his body as he looked about them with wide eyes. His ears pricked, fur bristling. His shoulders grew rigid and his tail rose for a brief second. But he did not smell or see anything and the tension made his body ache too much. So he forced it away and turned back to him in confusion.

Yugi shivered, but could not put to words the sudden certainty that slammed through his bones. When Yami had attacked him, he'd hurt himself as well.

Somehow, in some way, he had felt the pain Yugi had. And the testament was more truthful than ever in the way his weight was carefully balanced on three legs rather than four.

He drew in a deep breath, then lowered his eyes. He was not inclined to apologize at the moment, feeling shaken and small. But he did the best thing he could think to. He reached a hand out, holding it palm up so that Yami knew there was nothing there, and muttered, "Let me see your legs. I want to see if they've healed anymore."

Yami hesitated for what felt like a lifetime. He had the impulse to deny him this, as surely it would alert him to just how much worse they were getting and the fact that both had reopened. But Yugi looked up, and his soft features were cloaked with apology and his eyes shone with desperation.

The way he peered at him made the wolf uneasy, and he hesitated a moment more before slowly moving forward. It was with the single greatest sense of trepidation he had ever come to know that he placed a paw in his palm.

Yami could not bring himself to look as Yugi held his paw in a tender grip. Instead, his eyes lowered to the snow and his attention drifted elsewhere. They would heal. He just hadn't been eating well enough or even getting enough food to bother to speed up the process.

Still, they would heal.

He simply had to wait.

Yugi ran his fingers over the length of his leg, startled when Yami jerked gently, head turning back to him in distress. The sensation must have been too painful for him to continue, because the small teen knew now that it was open again.

The blood was all over his fingers.

And he had a feeling that no matter how gentle he had just been, he'd opened it further.

"I'm sorry."

Yami merely blinked at him, then angled his face to lick at the cut on his forehead. He turned away again immediately, pulling his paw out of his slackened grip. Yugi's forehead tingled gently, a combination of the smoothness of his tongue and the chill where the frost met his blood.

He wished more than anything that he had something to make him feel better.

He wanted any way to be able to help him and soothe some of the ache in his weary body.

But, instead, what came out of his mouth was a soft, "Did you see Kaokuro?" in a weak voice as he looked at him with wide eyes.

Yami blinked and turned to him slowly. His ears flickered about them for a moment. Then he focused intently on him. The girl, he said with certainty, with the pups.

Yugi trembled. "Yeah," he breathed out shakily. He looked at him, both desperate for answers and to hide away from them. "Do you…? I mean, was it…?"

Yami flicked an ear. His expression bordered one of vivid disdain. The silver one. His scent was all over her. But the brown one was covered in her blood at one point as well. But then, they all did something beyond killing her. They were involved in the final state…

He bit his lip. "How can someone do that though, Yami? I don't understand…"

Yami looked at him for a long time. There were a million things which came to mind to tell him in response. He could tell him the fact that it was probably experimentation, or just the more psychotic nature which dwelled in most everyone's personalities. He could say that perhaps it was pack mentality, that one got it into his head and the other two followed. He could say it was more because of human influence, the way they had inflicted Haga with wolfsbane. The effects of such exposure were things that he could not feasibly tell him in one sitting.

But the more he looked at him, the further away his words dropped and his potential answers slid from his grasp. Instead, he paced towards him, moving to press his face into his chest. Yugi immediately grabbed him, pulling him impossibly closer, fingers sinking into the coarse guard hairs of his pelt. He stroked at the softer downy layer beneath, tucking his chin against the fur along his neck.

The black wolf remained there for a few long minutes, allowing himself to be embraced in what felt like the most natural and yet unnatural thing he had ever come upon in his life. He kept his eyes closed, every instinct in his body rebelling such an action, and then finally pulled back to look at him. Yugi ruffled his hair along his shoulders, eyes still glassy but his tears subsided. Yami tilted his head, then ran his tongue along his cheek before backing up a few steps.

His pelt shuddered along his body for a moment. He had never known the ability to give or seek comfort with such certainty as that moment. It hurt to take and give as he had. But he did not turn away from him, nor truly pull beyond easy reach. The large canine turned his head, looking about them slowly.

"They… Jonouchi had a little sister."

Yami turned back, mind jogging to catch up with this new statement. Jonouchi was his blond best friend, the one he had seen in the snow. Yes, he remembered him. He had said that Yami looked like a dog from that restaurant, the one that he had met Yugi at that night. He fought for the name for a moment, then flicked an ear. Yes, Burger World; that was the name.

Yugi sighed, drawing his knees to his chest and wrapping his arms around them. "She was… She had been experimented on by those people—the ones who wanted to bring the Pure-Blood back. They had done a lot of things to her, but she was blind from it all." He paused, watching as he processed this information and studied him with something of a blank expression. "I went to visit her recently. And she… Someone had killed her. They'd ripped her head from her shoulders. There was blood everywhere…"

Yami tilted his head. Her head had been ripped from her shoulders?

"They'd hit her head into the glass, fractured it slightly. There was blood everywhere, Yami. The entire room looked like…" That river from our dream, it looked like the river from our dream. He swallowed thickly. "It was terrible. And… Then Haga and Ryota and Ryuzaki, they did something so similar with Kaoruko. They… Neither of them deserved that."

He frowned at him, ears flicking about them for a moment. It is not about what one deserves, Yugi. Werewolves and humans… Sometimes, it is more about how well one can defend themselves against the abuse another wishes to inflict upon them, he said softly, shaking his head. Sometimes it is because one wants to do it and will not stop until they have.

Yugi shuddered. "But they were both… Yami, I heard the nurses talking about Shizuka when I left when I first met her. They said she was pregnant, that somehow the baby was surviving despite how emaciated and weak she was." He opened and closed his mouth, shaking head and trembling. "How can someone just… Just do that?"

Yami studied him for a moment longer, then looked away. I do not know, he admitted. But it…it has happened. And I am sorry for it. But…there is nothing we can do to change it.

Yugi stayed quiet, feeling sick to his stomach for a moment. He wanted to snap at him, but the idea was so draining. And it was not as if he wasn't right. He couldn't go back and reverse her death somehow. Besides, he himself had to worry about being caught and killed at this rate. He still had to worry about the cameras at the hospital. Why had no one come to find him yet?

Why had no one pulled him in for questioning?

Why had no one demanded his head on a stick?

Had the cameras gone down before he had gotten there?

Had someone intentionally tampered with the equipment?

Was it all just to hunt him down and use him for breeding or skin him for a pretty penny?

Was it more than that?

Was it because he was…?

He shivered again.

"I just… Do you think it might have to do with Code Name Atem?" he finally asked, licking his lips and then stiffening. Yami froze in place, then turned his head slowly and stared at him with wide, confused eyes. "Do you think there's any way…?"

He looked at him intently for several long minutes. No, he finally replied, his voice hollow and ringing with a cold edge, I do not. The only similarity between these two deaths is that they were brutal. But many deaths are harsh enough to make one wake in the middle of the night with screams in their lungs. You forget, no one is sure that Code Name Atem ever truly existed. Jonouchi's sister told you as much. As far as if it might have to do with her captors and their attempts to resurrect the Pure-Bloods, I will not rule such a thing out.

Yugi could not help but feel winded as he looked at him. There was so much conflict and disdain and discomfort in his eyes. And his body was rigid, as if he thought he might need to flee at any moment. The look in his eyes had grown blank as he watched him, his expression dropping with exhausted wariness. They looked at each other for a minute longer.

He searched his face for a moment, dizzy and sickened.

"Okay," he said quietly. "You're probably right…"

Yami nodded so keenly that the bones in his neck ground loudly together. He was too tense. Yugi wondered if he expected someone else to come there for them.

He sighed softly, offering him a weak smile. "Let's go home, okay?" he muttered, looking at the wolf as he visibly startled at the words. "I'll redo your bandages too."

---

Yugi paused, stomach clenching. He'd never smelled something so intoxicating and rich. It was not quite unnatural, but it certainly bordered it. It was a mixture of things, like what he sometimes thought Yami to be whenever he woke up and the other had moved away and only his smell remained. He was of snow and moonlight, of fresh pine needles and something almost like the chill in the air. Sometimes his smell mixed with that of aspen trees and fresh leaves touched gently by autumn, with traces of sunlight and the warmest breeze. But Yugi had come to notice that it only really seemed to be on rare occasions and he still had yet to figure out why his scent was not always constant.

This smell, however, was like that of blooming cherry blossoms, crisping leaves, fresh water, and dappled sunlight. It was so soft and yet it rushed into his lungs and desperately swirled there, dancing and drawing at his attention. It was impossible, now that he considered it, focusing on it for only a moment, to think of anything else. He could not push it entirely from his mind and the effects of it made his belly feel oddly warm as he walked forward again.

He hesitated, only because of what had happened the day before. After he and Yami had gone home, the red-eyed wolf had lay beside him for the better part of the day, fell asleep there, and only moved away when he had needed to get up for school. Since breakfast, Yugi had honestly been looking forward to getting the chance to talk to him some more. Because, despite his hesitations, Yami had a lot of knowledge he could share with him.

And the smaller teen was growing somewhat desperate to consider that he might need that. After what he had seen of Shizuka and Kaokuro, and dreamed about the fight with Ryota, of how he had stabbed him with the stone, he was shaken.

And he needed answers.

He needed them more than anything.

But this scent drew at his attention and he could not stop himself from following. Despite the fact that it set him several feet off the sidewalk he was traversing, he could not turn away. He kept his nose to the air, sniffing deeply and fighting the urge to lick his lips and move faster.

He walked around a small fence, chain links that housed a small dog which sat rigid inside its doghouse. It was too terrified to move at the touch of his very presence and he frowned slightly as he looked at it. Animals normally turned and tried to attack him. The silence and the way it quaked unnerved him violently.

Yet, he could not help but keep moving. Whatever it was that held such a smell made him shiver. It was beyond anything he had initially stumbled upon before. The combination made his head spin. He swallowed thickly, mouth watering, and then hesitated.

The clearing in front of him was a small garden. It was a community one, where everyone basically planted whatever they wanted when the warm seasons came. Due to the snow, the plants were withered and buried.

But the area was wide enough that someone could easily spot him if they wanted to.

And that was nerve-wracking.

Was it a trap?

Yugi sniffed harder. But he could not fully scent anything beyond that heady smell. He shivered and looked around.

"Well, aren't you a young one?"

He spun, snarling low in his throat. Fear bloomed in his gut and his heart began to pound. His side and shoulder throbbed with a sense of phantom pain for a split second. The wounds had healed overnight, as had much of Yami's, and Yugi found himself so tense that now his body jerked and twitched where he had been formerly wounded. The voice was soft, raspy around the edges, but more husky than anything else. Yet, it was soothing, alluring, and the way it curled was beautiful as it rolled with energy. He shivered. The effect of it was almost as heady as the scent itself.

"No need to snarl," the voice cooed. Yugi stiffened, head snapping back and forth in order to catch the source of her voice. He didn't see anyone near him, but when he angled his head up, eyes sharpened with power, the small teen caught sight of the girl. Or, he supposed he should call her a woman, because she was definitely not a teenager anymore.

She was a bombshell, blonde with long hair that fell in waves around her flawless heart-shaped face. She was perhaps a good foot taller than him, reaching towards six feet in height. Her eyes were sharp in design, almond but wide with long lashes that framed a dark violet gaze that reminded him of African amethysts like his own. She had curves for miles, long legs and wide hips with a large chest and thin swan-like neck.

Had he not been so alarmed, he might have been mesmerized. But, standing in front of her, with those violet eyes burning into his, he felt only defensive. He stepped back, lips curling back further when she came forward. He snarled low in his throat, then louder when she failed to heed his warning.

At the more aggressive note she wrinkled her nose and stopped a few feet away. There, she cocked her right hip, crossed her arms, and raised a brow in slight challenge and amusement.

"A pretty thing like you shouldn't be growling like that," she snorted, her lush mouth curling into a smirk on the right side. She tipped her head to the left, grinning at him a bit more as she studied him. When she looked him up and down, he almost felt sick yet so incredibly excited by her attention that it made him dizzy. He felt his face flush from the attention; he had never gotten so aroused so easily before in his life. "Put your teeth away. You came to me, not the other way around, cutie."

Yugi stiffened a little, then shook his head. His voice came out somewhat small, more amazed and winded than anything else. "You, uh…w-werewolf, right?" he breathed out, eyes widening faintly at the stupidity in his own tone. He nearly cringed.

She winked at him playfully, voice coming out salacious as she purred, "What other creature would be this beautiful?"

He barely suppressed the shiver coming through him. His lungs were tight and his heart still pounding. He bit his tongue and snarled again instinctively when she stepped forward.

She rolled her eyes, lips still quirked with amusement. "You're a mean little thing," she teased, putting her hand on her cocked hip and raising a finger to her lips in puzzlement. "Oh, a high school student, huh? Well, I know for sure that you can't be a hellhound. You're much too cute."

Yugi flushed and then frowned at her. "Do hellhounds not…? I mean, are they unattractive or…?" he muttered, feeling his cheeks grow hotter as she eyed him for a moment. His mind scrabbled for footing and some soft-spoken thought chimed in with, Valon is handsome…Girls used to almost worship the ground he walked on in middle school…

"Not quite," she stated easily, purring softly, "but lycanthropes are much more stable so, naturally, why go for the hellhound when your own subspecies knows how to act? Besides, no werewolf that I've ever known of has been ugly."

He stared at her for a moment. He could easily imagine that she'd seen and experienced a lot with other wolves. The thought made him flush harder. He felt like he was strangling himself now.

"You blush so easily! And, amazingly, you're not mated yet," she laughed, clasping her hands and leaning forward to look at him more closely. He was so startled by his own thoughts, his cheeks so inflamed, that he missed it when her hand moved. Her fingers pinched gently at his skin and he startled, eyes wide with shock. "What's your name, beautiful?"

He shivered, then growled low in his throat. "Y-Yugi," he managed to breathe out with darkened eyes. "And you are?"

She pursed her lips, smiling almost as if she were thinking to press a kiss to his lips at any moment. But then she stopped, pulling away, and crossed her arms with a wider smile than ever. "You can call me Mai," she said easily, watching him through hooded eyes. She examined him again, violet gaze lit with laughter and warmth. "Yugi, hmm? Cute name for a little button like you."

He bristled, but it was more embarrassment than alarm by any means. He flushed again, backing up a step. She raised a brow, then smirked wider. She seemed to realize, but she had enough grace not to bother to mention it.

He stared at her for a long moment. "What, um… What kind of wolf are you? You smell…really…funny," he muttered, feeling almost sickened by his own words. She burst out laughing and, like her voice, it was both rough around the edges and gorgeous as it flowed out of her smiling mouth. He shivered. "I mean…"

"No, I know what you mean, cutie. I smell more wolf than I do human. It's normal for a wolf of my type," she said with sparkling eyes. She leaned forward again, pinching his cheek before he could even think to stop her. He flushed and swatted at her arm but missed as she pulled back. "I'm probably the most ancient breed of wolf remaining."

Yugi felt his eyes stretch wide. "Ancient?" he asked, blinking stupidly.

"Well, since the Pure-Bloods are gone, my species is the strongest now."

He furrowed his brows. "What do you mean?"

"You truly are a precious, naive little thing, aren't you, Yugi?" She stared at him, her eyes boring into his, and the tilt of her head became somewhat predatory as her mouth curled into a wider smirk. "I'm a Full-Blood."

He felt too stupid, embarrassed beyond his own belief, to ask what that was. Somehow her pointing out of his lack of knowledge pertaining to such things made him feel weaker than ever.

"That's crap and you know it, Mai," a new voice snorted. Yugi spun around with a startled snarl, but the newcomer approaching them heeded him no notice. "You know as well as I do that Code Name Atem has been created. And he's somewhere nearby. You sense him too."

Mai pursed her lips and rolled her eyes upwards but smirked after a moment. "I know no such thing," she snickered. "All I know is that I'm a Full-Blood and you are not. So, actually, what I say tends to hold more weight than you."

The newcomer pretended to flinch, then rubbed his chest and flicked his tongue at her. "Not most of the time," he snickered.

Yugi felt his eyes grow wide and his face heat further than ever. His skin burned and his heart began to pound harder. His head was throbbing and light, dizzy with shock. Oh gods, they were bed mates. His cheeks began to burn somehow more. He backed up a step, neither of them noticing his movement.

"Oh, please, Otogi, when we're in bed, you still refer to me as top dog," she purred with a smirk, reaching over to tap his cheek with her long fingers. "As it should be, don't you think?"

Yugi nearly covered his face with shame. The images that burst in his head were going to be the death of him. At any moment, the heat would make his entire body catch on fire and they'd wonder why he had spontaneously combusted. He needed to stop looking at those magazines and especially the tapes Jonouchi allowed him to borrow.

"As long as you remember who's on top," Otogi shot back in a silky tone.

Yugi backed up again, lowering his head. How the hell had he wound up in this situation? Yet, somehow, shamefully, a sense of awkward arousal spiked through his blood. The words made his mouth dry and his skin entirely too hot. The blood was too divided, giving him a rush. He breathed in once, but his excitement made it hard to keep from wheezing. A small whimper bit at the back of his mind but he refused it.

He shifted his legs to get rid of some of the friction, wondering if he could tug the front of his jacket down to cover his tightened pants.

But he couldn't get rid of the smell in his nose and the way she purred. And his mind had immediately pounced upon the idea of her body writhing and the little noises she probably made. Or maybe she screamed and the way her voice shattered afterwards could bring her partner to their knees. Maybe she panted and clawed at their back and split skin and they got to lick the salty sweat from the deep indent of her collarbone—

Shit!

Yugi shoved his hands into his pockets but froze as a new sound entered his ears. Footsteps, small and soft and nearly inaudible. But there was such light weight to press them into the gravel and the icy grass that he almost could not tell they were even there. The direction they came from was the same Otogi had come. He turned his head, eyes wide, and wondered for a moment if it was a trap.

Could it be one?

Was he going to have a hunter capture him and Mai? Maybe it would be a bargaining chip for his own life?

Any sense of amusement and perverse thoughts swept away. The reality of such a possibility made his skin crawl. He wouldn't have done something so stupid in such plain sight, right? He wouldn't have led some stupid hunters there in order to keep his own skin, right?

Yami had said lycanthropes acted more like a pack. Surely messing around and sleeping with Mai constituted Otogi considering her as part of his pack, right? Yugi's stomach coiled. His heart began to leap into his throat. His eyes were too wide, his face too stricken to be ignored.

They did not notice him exactly, looking at each other as they continued to bicker softly. He watched from his peripheral as Otogi kissed the edge of her mouth. It was genuine affection, almost like wolves in the wild, their courting rituals, but he could not tell if perhaps it was a game between the two of them.

He felt dizzy for a moment.

"You okay, cutie?" Mai asked, voice sincere in its worry. He looked at her, eyes wild and confused, and tossed his head slightly back and forth. She furrowed her brows and the raven-haired boy beside her frowned.

"Are you going to puke?" he asked with his head tilted. The very thought made him frown. If the boy was going to be sick over just banter and a kiss, there was a lot wrong with his disease. He raised a brow. Normally wolves embraced their sexuality without a second thought.

Yugi shook his head. His eyes snapped to the spot he had come into the garden. He stiffened, eyes sharpening, and felt sicker than before as he looked at the street. But there was something far more comfortable and beautiful, like a second skin or a well-worn shirt. He blinked wide eyes, tilting his head further. That sensation…

His face lit up with a grin. He knew who it was coming now. He felt his entire body fall into a more relaxed state and his eyes lit with relief.

Otogi turned his head, confused, and then froze. There was something stirring at the edge of his consciousness. There was a ripple, almost like something brushing against his skin. It reached through his layers of clothing and stroked with long, soft fingers. He blinked stupidly, eyes on Mai for a moment. Her bewildered expression mirrored his own.

The sensation which came upon them was an immense and docile power. It was like being approached by a hellhound when it came in its ghostly form, shimmering shapes and glowing eyes. But it was more solid and the strength came in a deeper brushstroke than their own.

"How do you know Code Name Atem is near here?" Yugi asked quietly, furrowing his brows as he turned to them.

Otogi shot him a strange look. "Any wolf can sense a stronger one. It's in their scents and the way they feel when they approach." He glanced at him more fully but his eyes were still searching for this newcomer Yugi seemed to know so well. "Any lycanthrope can sense him. We're all connected to him."

He frowned. "Do you have an idea who it is?"

The raven-haired teen paused for a moment. Mai blinked and looked at the small boy as well. "No," he admitted, glancing at her sideways. The joke had left her eyes long ago and she looked almost frustrated by the idea. "No, I don't. But I do know he's somewhere here. And if he's not in Domino City now, then he was very recently."

Yugi frowned more noticeably. "Oh." He paused, studying them for a moment. Neither failed to notice how upset he seemed to have heard such words. He looked almost distressed by the idea of their lack of knowledge. But his eyes lit up again and the curve of his mouth became a wide, schoolboy grin. "Hey."

They both stopped short. Otogi nearly cursed. He'd become so caught in the conversation he'd forgotten to keep his eyes out for the other wolf approaching. He, like Mai beside him, spun to face this newcomer. The movements did nothing to make the werewolf halt. His eyes bore into them, steady, predatory, with such strength that they both nearly cowered back. His expression was blank, his eyes sharp and keen, observing them. He nodded only faintly to Yugi, gaze caught on them.

"Did I interrupt?"

Mai nearly squirmed. His voice was damaged but the pitch of it was strong enough to make her insides curl and her heart pound. She fought the urge to lick her lips and tilt her head to expose her neck. She could almost feel him, somewhere deep inside of her, as if he were stroking her very core with his slender fingers.

Yugi smiled faintly. "No," he said calmly, a statement that lingered partially between the truth and a lie. He watched him as he continued studying them, then gently touched his shoulder with his fingers. The reaction was instantaneous; Yami's head turned to him before he even caught the fibers of the black hoodie he was wearing. "What are you doing out here?"

Yami tilted his head. "Am I not meant to be out here?" he asked with narrowed eyes. He glanced at the other two lycanthropes, eyes wary and expression blank. "You were taking a while to get home. I didn't know if something had happened like it had yesterday or not."

Yugi blinked, at first startled, and then openly grateful. He had not expected Yami to come out to check on him and ensure nothing was wrong. But it made him smile nonetheless as he looked at him. "Nope, nothing like that. I just wound up running into a couple of other wolves."

His red eyes flickered over them again. Otogi and Mai both tilted their heads curiously at his arrival. "I see," he muttered, drawing the words out for a moment. His nose was working and his chin had tipped slightly upwards. His eyes flickered and caught on the two wolves more fully.

"That's Mai and that's Otogi," Yugi announced, gesturing to them each as he looked at Yami and felt his lips quirk further. The taller teen was acting even more territorial now than he had with Valon in the clinic. The idea made him blink, lips tugging into what would be an insolent grin if he was not careful. He tilted his head. He had no idea what it was that a Full-Blood was, but he figured he might. "Mai is a Full-Blood."

Yami spared him a sideways glance. "And Otogi is a Half-Blood," he stated easily. He searched Mai's face for a moment. Something about her scent, the strength of it, made him somewhat tense. "But you seem rather strong, a bit more powerful than the average Full-Blood."

She raised a brow at him, then frowned. "It's not from the experiments, if that's what you're thinking. I come from a long line of Full-Blood wolves," she replied, narrowing her eyes faintly. "But, what are you? I've never experienced anything like you before."

Yami bristled. Yugi turned his head and looked between them closely. Otogi gave them all a curious glance, his lips beginning to pull slightly upwards into a grin of amusement. "A Full-Blood, same as you, though my lineage is perhaps purer than even yours," the red-eyed teen snapped in a cold tone. "Now, Mai, Otogi, what is it that you found so necessary to say that has kept Yugi here so long?"

The smallest teen furrowed his brows. "Yami, they didn't keep me here. I was just talking to them," he muttered, frowning deeply at the other boy who did not bother to so much as glance in his direction. He hesitated, because something about the way Yami held himself set his marrow ablaze.

The way Yami looked at them, the way he studied them, made Yugi uncomfortable, and that made him turn to them with an expression which he did not think they could read. He himself was unsure if he was bewildered by the frost in the other boy's tone or if it was a new and abrupt flood of suspicion. He looked between them slowly.

"The mountains," the taller boy stated with his head tilted, red eyes boring into Mai's with such power and certainty that she faltered in surprise for the briefest of moments. When she shook her head in bewilderment, he narrowed his eyes and studied her more pointedly. "You are part of the pack in the mountains."

She blinked, startled, and then gave him a wide grin full of mischief. "Honey, if you were so eager to get to know me, you didn't have to hide and spy on me," she teased. Yugi flushed but Yami merely curled his lip as if the very idea offended him somehow in a way that he could not ignore. "I would have taken you for a spin anytime."

He did not respond, lip still curled, eyes caught on hers.

"I would have to be crazy to deny myself something as tasty and beautiful as you," she continued, that grin stretching wider. "Of course, with the way you're looking at me, I can tell you would need a few minutes to catch up. Mm, I could teach you everything you ever needed to know."

Otogi was snickering, licking his lips at the prospect. His teal eyes glimmered, a deep and meaningful light entering them for the smallest of seconds. He smirked and Yami bore his teeth more noticeably now. His bristle had caused his shoulders to rise in a slight defensive position.

Both of the wolves looked at him with mirroring leers. The lust was apparent to Yugi and his face twisted into a slight scowl before he could stop himself.

"Oh please, Yugi, don't look at me like that," the blonde teased, licking her lips as she turned her dark violet eyes on him. Her lashes were long, spidery, curling at the ends and highlighting the color in the way that would have made his breath catch earlier. "I can teach you too. We could all do it. You, me, Yami, and maybe even Otogi if he could behave himself."

Yami bristled at the sound of his name coming to him in her voice. It made his skin crawl and he almost imagined that his flesh might grow to harbor welts. The thought made his eyes grow wide, the pupils dilating with abrupt horror.

She laughed and clasped her hands together, smirking widely. "Oh, you beautiful boys," she purred, "the things I could teach you."

Otogi smirked. "Oh, I'll definitely behave myself for this."

Yugi stiffened and then looked at Yami with something of a horrified expression. Something occurred to him, a wild and disconcerting thought. Oh gods, they were… A foursome…? And three males with one female? And not once did they even pause…?

"No reason to be nervous, Yami," Mai continued, nearly laughing at the way he stared back at her. "I'll take great care of you."

"No," he spat, in a voice that curled upwards and pushed forward with a strength and energy like that of rolling thunder, "you will not. In fact, you will leave such conversation alone as it has nothing to do with you."

The power in his tone made them all freeze. Yugi felt his muscles lock in place completely, eyes widening drastically as they shot to Yami. Mai startled and her eyes grew dilated, her body flinching back. Otogi lowered his head, turning his body slightly away from him as if he were invoking some sense of challenge in even facing them completely. Both of them lowered their eyes, keeping them far from either boy in front of them. But Yugi could hardly take his eyes off the furious tremble which gripped his red-eyed companion.

Yami's head turned to him abruptly, eyes sharp and gleaming with disdain. "I do not know about you, but I grow tired of this conversation," he growled, voice low and lacking room for argument. "I am going back to your house."

Yugi blinked, startled by the ferocity as he stared blankly for a moment. He could not fathom the way Yami stared at him, with such anger that it nearly bordered hatred.

"Now, if you wish to join me, do so now. Otherwise, you shall find your way back on your own."

Yugi blinked stupidly again, then swallowed thickly as he glanced at the other two wolves. Both seemed to have recovered for the most part, eyes wide as they looked between them.

"Yeah, okay, let's go home," he muttered, nodding slightly as he turned to Yami once more. He would have offered a smile to help him calm some of the frustration but the warning was clear in his eyes. He wanted away from them. And he would abandon him there to find his own way back if he had to. He would not be mollified as long as they were within the same area as him.

He gave the other two a small smile in passing. "Bye, Mai, Otogi," he murmured softly, turning back to Yami quickly. "See you around."

Mai and Otogi swapped looks, mirroring questioning looks crossing their faces. "Yeah, we'll see you," the raven-haired teen stated calmly, eyes cutting to Yami as he bowed his head slightly. It was almost instinctive, or perhaps respectful, and Yugi saw Yami nod in response before turning away completely.

Yugi was on his tail immediately, both of them heading for the street and the intersection without a glance back. Had either of them turned, however, they would have seen both werewolves watching them with mirroring stunned expressions. They might have even heard it when Mai whispered, "What the hell was that? I've never felt anything like it."

Otogi shot her a look of pure bafflement. "Neither have I." He paused for a split second. "It was…so strong."

The she-wolf bit her lip. "And did you notice the connection between them? Yami bit him. You can tell. He has too similar an energy to him for it to be anything else."

He nodded. "Yeah, but I don't think he could do that." For a moment they looked at each other and Otogi rubbed the back of his head. Both of them frowned and looked away again awkwardly; neither of them was sure that Yami couldn't. And, if they were truthful with themselves, they felt Yugi might have that same strength inside of him somewhere.

"So, what do we do?"

Mai narrowed her eyes. Yami and Yugi were smears of color long gone down the street. The two of them were running, and she thought maybe she heard a hint of laughter on the wind.

"We can't tell the pack." She tilted her head towards him. "I think we need to watch them, maybe make sure nothing happens to them. But we can't tell the others. Mother will lose her mind if she hears of a potential wolf, let alone two. And you know the uproar that will be caused from it."

Otogi nodded and looked at her for a moment. "As far as the pack is concerned, neither Yami nor Yugi exist. And we'll keep it that way until something changes."

She nodded. "Exactly."

They both waited until they could no longer see either form in the distance. The smears of color were gone around the corner as they watched for their disappearance. They both looked sideways at each other, then away again. Otogi was smirking but Mai was troubled by it all.

Okay, so what they're talking about at the end of the chapter, when they're watching Yugi and Yami run off, is that Yami biting Yugi should not have made Yugi so strong a lycanthrope. They mention that Yugi could have the same power as Yami, which you'll find out more about later. But, to sum it up, it's more in the way the two use their wolves, how often they trust their senses, and the way they hold themselves.

Yami is much more wolf than Yugi, holds himself in a more dangerous way than Yugi does, and when his temper flares, it comes to the surface. Yugi, on the other hand, is quieter, is somewhat skittish when he's startled (which sometimes causes him to act out instinctively as he did with Jonouchi last chapter, which means the lycanthropy comes to the surface), and doesn't like to use his second form.

So, because of this, they can tell Yami bit Yugi, but they think that Yugi could be potentially as strong as Yami (because Yugi only snarled and didn't lash out, they didn't truly get a read on him) and do not understand how that could have happened due to the lycanthrope hierarchy (Pure-Blood, Full-Blood, Half-Blood, Quarter-Blood). The fact that Yami says he is a Full-Blood and bit Yugi who seems just as powerful is a cause for alarm and bewilderment.

Oh! And the term "mother" is what they all call the pack leader, who you'll meet in a little while. It's not because she's the mother of both Otogi and Mai. I realized at like one in the morning before I fell asleep that that could be taken the wrong way.