[AN: All questions about Xander's mental state will be answered by the sequel. That's right, I said it. Sequel.

Chapter Four

Tor was, at that particular moment, kicking stones in the parking lot. He was bored. He wanted to run and hunt with his pack, and he really didn't feel safe without his alpha here. Stupid Heidi. Stupid Rhonda. Stupid Kyle.

Stupid Xander—

No! Ow. Owowowowow. Tor felt like his head was splitting in two. He shouldn't think bad things about alpha. Alpha would take care of him. Alpha would keep him safe. He held himself tightly, solid like a tree, just until the pain passed.

He was getting a bit annoyed, actually. He'd been waiting in this parking lot for two hours and no one had so much as sniffed out the door. They were all probably having sex. Oh god. What if they were all having sex together? He wouldn't mind it so much if they hadn't just left him STANDING in the freaking PARKING LOT!

He growled and kicked another rock.

And what was with alpha choosing Kyle, anyway? Tor really hoped that it wasn't just a proximity thing. Not that he was particularly pining for Xander or anything. He just would have liked to be an option at least.

Stupid Kyle.

It was probably just the fact that he was odd man out that was dragging him down. Kyle had Xander, and the wonder twins had each other, which was so totally not fair. Seriously. Why was he the one left high and dry by all of this?

He could just leave. He could just walk out of the parking lot, grab his car, and leave them here. Stranded. He should do that. He should so totally do that. But he wasn't. God he was such a little bitch.

Maybe he could go get them? Except if they were having sex, and let's be honest, what else would those four be doing, that would be really awkward. Well, not if he found Heidi and Rhonda. That would be hot, but they would probably hit him in a not-fun way. Walking in on Xander and Kyle on the other hand.

Ew. Not that they weren't both very attractive guys and all, but Xander was alpha. It would be like the time he walking in on his parents when he was nine.

Tor scowled and decided to kick a car tired instead of a rock. That was before his dad left and his mom started to look tired all the time. His big sister Josie and he tried to help her out as much as they could, but there was only so much they could do. He really hated his father. You didn't run out on your pack like that.

Which was, of course, ultimately why he was still standing in that stupid parking lot. This sucked.

A rock clattered nearby. A rock that Tor didn't kick. He whipped around and sniffed the air. Alpha!

Xander was walking by, about thirty-feet away, but he didn't see Tor. He didn't even look up. Tor growled. He might not be Kyle, but he was still an important member of the pack. He jogged over to Xander and jumped in front of him.

"Hey man, what's up?" Tor didn't smile but he did look at Xander meaningfully.

Xander didn't respond exactly as Tor expected he would.

"You. Help me find my mate." Xander had stopped and stood now, glaring. Tor felt the sudden urge to grovel.

"You lost Kyle?"

"They took Kyle."

"So where is he?"

"Inside. Near the library."

"How do you know that?"

"I can feel him. We're going."

"Feel him how?"

"NOW!" Xander growled and grabbed Tor by the shirtfront. Tor stumbled to catch up with his torso. Okay. So maybe he should avoid pissing off the cave-alpha for a while.

Xander wasn't letting go of his shirt. He really liked this shirt.

Tor actually had to think about this for a minute. He supposed that was okay, it wasn't like he needed his brain to move. But if Xander was here, and Kyle was still inside, and Xander had somehow "lost" Kyle, did that mean they didn't have sex?

And why did he still feel safe, even when he was being dragged along by an angry alpha?

Tor's time for rumination was up as they hit the school entrance. He had to admire Xander's focus, but it was kind of on the creepy side. Xander put him down and stalked over to the doors. Tor felt recognition skittering at the edges of his consciousness. He ignored it and followed his alpha.

The halls of Sunnydale High were deserted, not a recalcitrant student or a straggling teacher in sight. Tor snuck along behind Xander, his nose filled with disinfectant and sweat and nice clean alpha smell. He was, in fact, so caught up in smelling that he nearly crashed right into Xander, which would not have helped anything…

He looked at Xander's face. It was tense, focused on something just past the edge of his senses. Tor held his breath and tried to "reach out with his feelings". Okay, so he could feel a gaping maw of evil energy about a hundred feet to the north, and that was just disconcerting! But he couldn't feel anything that would be of a particular interest to Xander, unless he had a Kyle homing beacon or something equally weird.

Oh.

That would make sense, the Kyle homing beacon thing. It would explain why they were here, particularly, instead of still in the parking lot. Tor reached out with "The Force" and tried to sense Kyle. He couldn't feel much, nothing like the swirly blackness of that other hole, but just a little ways away, he cold feel Kyle. It was faint, but there. Hopefully Xander could feel him better.

Just out of curiosity, he peeled his eyes open and looked over in the direction he had sensed the evil. His eyes tracked down the hall and landed on the doors to the Library. Weird. He was going to check up on that later.

He watched Xander for a sign of what they would do now. Xander twitched a little bit, focused more, then snapped out of it, looking over at Tor instead. He looked significantly in the direction of Kyle, motioned at the two of them, and pointed.

Apparently they weren't going to use their words.

They stalked over to Kyle's classroom and stood outside the door. What was this, some kind of kooky hostage situation?

He looked over at the grim expression on Xander's face. Yeah. It probably was. He took a deep breath and prepared to go in.

Which is exactly when all hell broke loose.

"Xander! Tor!" Heidi's screech rang out through the empty halls as she ran up, hair sweaty and face flushed. "I got my backpack!"

The door to the room swung open from the inside, and the red-head of Willow Rosenberg popped out, only to be popped back in by his alpha's fist.

Rhonda ran up, also sweaty. "Ready to go, guys?"

Seriously, couldn't they see that this was a bad time?

Xander growled and stalked into the room. Tor glared at the two girls and followed. Of all of the times for them to stop having sex, they had to pick now, didn't they. Seriously.

Heidi and Rhonda must have decided this was more interesting than more sex, because they followed him as he stepped over the insensate Willow body on the floor.

The scene inside the room was…interesting, to say the very least. Xander stood in the center, growling in a way that promised some serious pain to whomever had taken his mate. Behind him skulked his reasonably faithful pack, and directly across the room, tied to a chair, and looking mighty happy to see them was Kyle. The only things standing between the alpha and his mate were the librarian and Buffy the Bitchy Blonde, both armed with crossbows.

Crossbows? So it was some kind of weird ye olde hostage situation?

"I should have known you'd trick me," said the librarian, and, really, that was just weird. What was he doing here?

"I told you, Giles," said Bitchy, "not Xander."

What was she talking about? Sure, he was all Cave-Xander, but Tor would be able to smell if this wasn't his alpha. This was the right Xander.

"You took my mate," snarled Xander.

Aww, it was almost cute how that statement made Kyle blush.

The librarian stammered a bit. "Your mate?"

Tor let off a high cackle as Kyle turned a beautiful shade of mauve.

Xander glared more. "Let him go."

Okay, Tor might not be the sharpest crayon in the box, but even he could see that those two weren't going to let Kyle go. You don't tie someone to a chair and then let them go just because the angry boyfriend shows up.

Heehee. Dirty.

And, apparently, they were going to fight now. Xander rushed the blonde before she could get a shot off, so Tor followed his example and tackled the school librarian. He was pretty sure this was borderline illegal, and could get him kicked out of school, but alpha was always right, so Tor jumped and landed in a pile of limbs, the crossbow point getting very friendly with his navel.

He grabbed it and flung it away before it could get friendlier. Unfortunately, when it hit the ground it went off, shooting an arrow right into the exposed calf of Rhonda, who had been watching the fracas with glee. She howled in pain, and the librarian used Tor's distraction to cuff him across the face. He retaliated with a head butt.

Over on the other side of the room, Xander and Buffy had entered into an all out death match. Seriously, it was like watching American Gladiators up close, not that Tor would ever admit to watching that show (or the action figures hidden under his bed). They were hitting each other with anything to hand, from trashcans to desks to their fists, which ultimately seemed to be the most effective.

Tor decided enough was enough. He knocked out the librarian (it only took a few more punches) and raced over to Kyle.

Sometimes, you had to use desperate measures, and the only way to get alpha to notice anything was to dangle Kyle in front of his nose. He grabbed his knife (thank god for the criminal lifestyle) and hacked through the ropes. Damn these things were thick. He grimaced. Still, Kyle was freed and that was enough to get them out.

"Alpha! Let's go!" he yelled at the blur of fists in the corner. Slowly Xander emerged and pushed Buffy back down.

Tor looked around. Okay, they were mostly here and accounted for. Alpha was still being weird, and Kyle's legs were asleep, but that wasn't bad. He may have shot Rhonda in the leg, but she seemed okay-ish.

Heidi was glaring at him. He might want to avoid the lesbians for a while.

They all started hobbling out the door, until a certain redhead sat up and looked around.

"What's going on?" said Willow.

Tor considered it an act of kindness when he knocked her out again.