Act 1 : 4

[mekachu04]

Living in the Heaps - packs are focused on survival first, comfort a distant thought that rarely made top five things needed for energy to be spent on. Kidd and Killer had gotten their foot hold in one of the fallen buildings by the old lighthouse when the last pack that laid claimed had died off - even if between the two they wouldn’t be able to defend a stake in the main building, they held their own on the old mechanics shop.

Maybe the split chemicals from the broken tower and the fumes of rot that roiled in the sea buried under the trash that covered the shore made it less appealing for other packs from testing the Pup’s territory.

But Kidd and Killer made their nest up in the broken mezzanine of the attached building, rusted staircase dismantled to build a somewhat sturdier ladder up into the little balcony. Papas fit in with them just right, and for three is was perfect.

Three of Papas’ heats later, and they have a dilemma. There is a stranger at the shore, bigger and older than all of them. An omega that smells so sad, staring out to where the sun reflects of the poisoned water of the sea, their face distance. Killer takes the plunge, approaching first. He’s a waif next to the other; an omega by smell, but as large as imposing as any alpha next to his teenager self.

Compo is twice Kidd’s age, and had failed once again to win an alpha’s attention. Their family pack is fed up, and they were not welcomed back this time. Compo is lost in every sense of the word, no where to turn.

So Killer brings them home.

Compo is too big for their pup nest - and they are very adamant that it would be inappropriate for them to enter one anyway. Papas looks uneasy at that, but with Killer and Kidd’s blessings, the two make an omega nest on the floor under the mezzanine.

Kidd finds it a delight, hanging over the edge - often upside down - to chat with them, while their little pack grows. Compo is much stronger than the rest of them - and they are knowledgeable about the Night Market that exists outside the city walls on the far shore. Kidd has a nose for good scrap, and soon they are loading Compo up with their treasures to sell.

The thought that Compo might rob them itches the back of Papas’ mind, but Kidd tells him not to worry. Compo is Pack.

Compo brings food and clothes and blankets with them when they return. Soon - the sad little shop with its broken windows and crumbling walls is a nice little home. The wind doesn’t bite, the sun doesn’t scorch, the rain can’t soak them bone deep anymore.

Then the girls arrive.

---

Genders are funny things - they don’t really matter, just a label taken from the fish and giant folk with their dimorphic genders from birth. Those folk had puberty but it didn’t change the gender, there was no presenting or uncertainty while waiting for it to happen, just emphasized the differences between them more. But the words had worked themselves into even Kutzk vernacular; boy and girl, he and she. They‘re just words, but in same measure they mean so much too, for those who make an effort to pick ones for themselves. Compo may have opted out, but the other three were all very comfortable being called boys.

They’d never really met people who felt the other way. Who dressed in bright colours and soft fabrics, and painted lips and carefully styled hair.

Not long before it was time to ring in the New Year - two strangers tried moving into the LightHouse - two 18 year old girls who introduced themselves to the Pack as a bonded pair who loved each other, and don't anyone dare try and split them up!

They had declared themselves bonded a few months back, but while Hop is an omega, Hip is not an alpha, but a beta, and neither of their packs saw the bonding as real, and demand the girls stop seeing each other. When Hop refuses an alpha replacement offered by her pack, the two ran away instead, realizing their packs will never stop trying to break them up.

Only an alpha and omega can bond the traditional way; alpha’s have a secretion in their mouths - a gland just for bonding that reacts to the gland on the back of an omega’s next. An alpha will only taste their omega as long as they are bonded, everything tinges with the reminder of the one they sworn themselves too. Bonded alpha’s will remark that it effects their sense of smell too, making other omegas smell off. Once bonded, an omega will smell like their mate, a mix of their own scent with the secretion left by a bond, a hands off to other alphas.

Betas and omega lack this gland in their mouths, no scent to leave on a bite. Betas and alphas lack the gland on the neck, no way to hold the smell of their bonded to seep into their own smell. The best they can do is rub - exchange oils like pack does. To wear tokens of a beloved as a claim, regularly scented to remain potent. Beta smells are weak, but that didn’t stop Hip from wearing wristbands regularly, constantly swapping them out for Hop to wear. For her then to wear hairbands scented by Hip.

They were a pair, sold as a set - do not separate.

Killer and Kidd could have chased them away - the girls claim of territory far to close to their own Pack. Instead, the boys opened the doors between them, inviting them to their growing pack, to join forces as one family.

And thus they became a pack of six.