A/N: Hello, everyone! Apologies for the colossal wait. I've had a multitude of projects IRL and finals are this week. I know it's been a while since I've updated, but I hope you enjoy this chapter. Thank you so much for hanging in there. I hope it was worth the wait!

……..

Sonic paced in front of his doorless shack when he finally returned after daybreak. Shadow's words echoed through his mind, and he couldn't get them out.

A good alpha talks to his pack.

Sonic never really considered himself an "alpha." Sure, he led the team against Eggman, and the others sometimes deferred to him when they couldn't make a decision, but it was never anything official. Alpha was a title, and the blue blur had never been one for those. They always reminded him of that stuck-up Lady Walrus.

Sonic sighed. Shadow did have a point though. He couldn't keep his friends in the dark forever. Maybe they could even help him fix this mess. Tails was smart, and Amy knew almost everything about archeology. And if worse came to worst, Knuckles was strong enough to hold him back, and Sticks could, and probably already had, devised a number of traps and restraints to keep him from hurting other people.

He just wished he could remember the fight with Shadow. Why were they fighting in the first place? What tipped him over the edge? Sonic prided himself in his emotional restraint, so what could have caused him to snap so easily?

His sneakers scuffed too loudly on the wooden floor as he walked inside, and he was surprised that a certain two-tailed kit hadn't tackled him to the ground yet. In fact, his hut felt too still and too quiet.

Tails's coffee maker wasn't bubbling, and there was no rustling of bedsheets to suggest that his little brother was still asleep. The fur along Sonic's arms and neck raised, and he had to consciously fight the effort to flare his quills.

He lightly padded into the middle of the main room, slowly circling the tree that stabilized his shack. Then he quietly searched Tails's room, and just as he suspected, the kit wasn't there.

Where did his brother go?

Panic coursed through his body, spiking his heart rate as he dashed through the house, searching for his brother. When he couldn't find him, Sonic raced to the workshop. The large sliding door stood open, and he poured more power into his step.

Tails would never leave his shop open for just anyone to walk in. He always locked it at night, even if he was inside working. Sonic had drilled that habit into him a long time ago.

"Tails!" he called, skidding into the workshop, emerald eyes darting around the massive room for any sign of the kit. But only blueprint-laden planning boards, metal tables, and dormant machinery greeted him.

"Tails?" he tried again, while searching the workshop from top to bottom. Still no answer, and Sonic's panic began to steadily climb higher.

He stood in the middle of the room, shifting his weight back and forth but with no clear direction. It was too early for most of the shops in town to be open, so he couldn't be there. And Tails had promised him last night that he would head straight home after he finished tinkering. The blue blur needed to think clearly about this if he was going to find his brother.

Sonic took a deep breath through his nose and immediately coughed. A weird blend of motor oil, mints, and the unmistakable scent of fox blasted his nose. But at the same time, he could sense exactly how long it had been since Tails was in the workshop, and Sonic could almost feel where the kit had been going.

A scent trail. Maybe these freaky new powers could be useful after all?

Sonic dashed out of the workshop, not bothering to lock it as he followed the trail back to the shack. Without looking up, he circled the inside of the house before going back outside, where three more distinct scents met Tails.

Baked goods, perfume, and flowery shampoo.

Dried sweat, saltwater, and dirt.

Wild berries, tree bark, and more dirt.

Tails had met with the rest of the gang, and they had gone back into the woods. But for how long? It had taken Sonic a good minute to find the trail in the first place, suggesting it had been several hours already. If they hadn't come back by now, his sleep-deprived yet active mind started coming up with terrifying scenarios for the possible reason why.

Sonic's shoes kicked up sand from the beach as he raced into the jungle, head tilted slightly to keep track of his friends' scents in the sudden bombardment of blooming flora. At the same time though, he couldn't help but worry about why they had gone into the jungle in the first place.

Were they looking for him? That seemed unlikely. Tails knew about his love of night runs, especially when the weather was warm and the sky was clear like last night. And he came back late enough times in the past for the kit to know not to wait up for him.

The events of last night, or rather his lack of memory of the events of last night, nagged at him. He got in a fight with Shadow and, according to the Black Arm alpha, had gone completely wild. They shouted at each other enough during their usual fights; he didn't want to think how loud it would get if they started fighting like true animals, and he couldn't remember exactly how far away he was from the shack when the fight finally did end.

But had Tails somehow heard them and got worried, why hadn't he just called? He liked to think that it could have snapped him out of whatever trance he'd been in, though that was a little too optimistic even by his standards. Sonic looked down at his wrist, and he simultaneously slowed to a halt. His communicator was missing.

Tails wouldn't have been able to reach him last night. And if the fight was close enough for the fox to worry, then the kit probably assumed the worse when he didn't pick up. And if even the blue blur himself couldn't answer, then that explained why Tails called backup before leaving.

Sonic honestly felt kinda proud that his little brother didn't go running into the jungle to look for him by himself. Tails used to get into so much trouble trying to follow him into dangerous areas alone. And where was the sentimental streak coming from?!

He grit his teeth and purposefully continued running, focusing on tracking everyone down and nothing else. His pack—team! team—should have come back to the town by now, but the strengthening scent suggested that they were still out here, and he was getting close.

"Tails!" he risked, "Amy! Knuckles! Sticks! Can any of you hear me?"

His ears swiveled back and forth as he strained to listen for a reply. He called again after a few moments of silence, picking up the pace, and this time he thought he heard Amy's voice call back.

"Sonic! Is that you?"

At her voice, Sonic vanished into a blue streak of speed, reappearing seconds later in front of four very tired, worried, yet relieved friends. His shoulders sagged in relief, and he absently ran a hand through his quills. Finding them took far longer than it should have, but seeing them here, alive, made something possessive inside him click. For the moment though, he was just happy they hadn't been attacked by some wild predator.

His emerald eyes landed on Tails.

"You're okay," he breathed and pulled the kit into a tight embrace. Tails struggled in his grip, confused and greatly concerned. Sonic didn't exactly do hugs.

"Sonic! Where were you? Are you okay? Where have you—"

Sonic pushed the kit at arm's length, and Tails was surprised by the amount of fire in his brother's eyes.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again."

"Scare you?" he asked incredulously, "You scared me! Where did you even go?"

A good alpha talks to his pack.

"Listen, I promise I'll explain everything later, but we need to get back home. This isn't exactly the best place. I'm sorry I worried you guys," he added while not-so-subtly urging them back the way they came.

A new scent reached his hypersensitive nose, and Sonic pushed them along faster. The fur on the back of his neck rose. Something had found them.

"Sonic, what's going on?" Amy pressed, "You're not usually like this. And besides, we've been out all night. Why don't we just sit down for a minute and talk about this?"

Sticks brandished her wooden spear. "In this part of the jungle? No way! There's all kinds of things just waitin' to eat ya, or kidnap ya, or maul ya just for the sake of it."

"Thank you for that vivid image," Tails grumbled sarcastically.

"Wait," Knuckles wondered, "Why would something try to kidnap us in the middle of the jungle?"

"Now is really not the time, guys," Sonic snapped, eyes darting around the clearing as his paranoia spiked.

Tails stopped, even dug his heels into the dirt when Sonic tried to bodily push him to keep going. But his older brother was acting way weirder than usual, and he needed to know why.

"Tails," Sonic drew out, but the kitsune would have none of it.

Tails crossed his arms. "No, not until you at least give us something to work with. You ran off in the middle of the night without explanation and didn't even bother to answer my calls—"

Sonic waved his bare arm. "I lost my communicator!"

"It was built to survive your speed! So, how did you lose it?"

A growl rumbled lowly, mostly hidden by the team's noisy chatter, but Sonic caught it all the same. The azure hedgehog spun around, ignoring the question and forcing Tails behind him.

"Sonic—"

"Shh!" he ordered back, ears twitching.

Sonic looked straight ahead, and his eyes narrowed as a shadow stalked along the thick tree limbs above.

"You can't hide from me," he whispered, his eyes unknowingly shining a darker shade of green. He waited, daring the predator watching them to make the first move. The new, darker side of him hinted it would be the creature's last.

Tails curled his namesakes in front of him, and the team fell into a suffocating silence. Their leader has morphed from panicked but slightly normal to unnaturally still and poised for a fight.

"Is it Eggman?" Amy whispered. Sonic sometimes had a sixth sense for their enemy's ploys, and she hoped it was just that.

Sonic's quills flared and hardened defensively, and everyone took a step back. He lowered his head from looking up at the tree line to the jungle floor as if he just watched something jump down. They could barely hear his reply through the growl in his throat.

"No."

A non-sentient jaguar stalked into the clearing, its gaze set on the blue hedgehog. Sonic let the growl build in his throat, warning it not to take a step closer. The big cat held his gaze and growled back in a challenge.

Something from Sticks's jungle lessons floated into Sonic's mind. Jaguars had no natural predators. They were the apex, and since this one wasn't in Black Arms territory, it had been left unchallenged. Well, until Sonic entered the scene.

And it had been caught before it could properly ambush them, but Sonic got the sense that the big cat didn't care. Adaption was part of the game after all.

Sonic slowly lifted his arms to make himself look larger and to shield his friends at the same time. This wasn't like an Eggman raid where they could pummel it to scrap. Sonic didn't want them anywhere near this thing, and he would do anything to ensure that.

He growled again, this time loud enough for his friends to hear, but the jaguar lowered its body to the ground to pounce. He glared. Absolutely not.

Sonic took half a step forward and roared at an unnatural strength. His canines extended and the tips of his quills turned ashen gray as the Werehog surfaced—riled and possessive.

The big cat froze, and when Sonic took another step forward, it bolted back into the jungle. The blue hedgehog resisted the urge to chase after it, and instead he slowly turned to face his teammates. His canines shrank back, and the gray fur slowly faded back to royal blue.

"So, uh," he chuckled nervously, "About that skeleton in the cave."