Chapter 3: The Pack Feast
The stag turned on the spit, its skin crisping to a deep bronze, fat dripping into the flames with a persistent, angry hiss. The scent was overwhelming: rich, gamey, a trophy rendered into sustenance. Dusk bled into the clearing, long shadows stretching from the pines like grasping fingers.
Leonid leaned against the rough bark of an ancient oak, apart from the long tables fashioned from split logs. A cigarette burned low between his knuckles, the ember a tiny, watchful eye in the gathering gloom. His gaze was fixed, unblinking, on the center of the murmuring crowd.
Jennie sat between Jisoo and Rosé on a bench, a pool of quiet amidst the pack's boisterous energy. Jisoo was tuning a small wooden flute, her brow furrowed in comic concentration, while Rosé leaned into her side, whispering something that made them both giggle. But Jennie’s posture was a study in deliberate indifference. She picked at a splinter on the table, her dark hair a curtain shielding her face from the wrong side of the firelight.
Kai was holding court near the roasting pit, a long, wicked-looking knife in his hand. He laughed too loudly at his own jokes, his eyes scanning, always scanning, until they settled. He carved a thick, succulent slice from the haunch, the meat steaming in the cool air. With exaggerated ceremony, he placed it on a wooden platter and carried it around the table.The chatter dulled to a murmur. Minho, seated with Karina, watched with a grim set to his mouth. Karina’s eyes flicked between Kai and Jennie, her expression pinched.
“For the most beautiful omega in the clearing,” Kai announced, his voice carrying too far. He set the platter down in front of Jennie with a solid thunk.“The first and finest cut. You need to keep your strength up.” His smile was all teeth.Jennie didn’t look at the meat. She didn’t look at him. She finally lifted her head, and her gaze sliced through the smoke and twilight, finding Leonid’s shadowed form against the tree. A tiny, almost imperceptible smile touched her lips—a private signal.Then she turned to Rosé.“Trade me your berries? I’m not really in the mood for stag tonight.”
Rosé, bless her, didn’t miss a beat.“Oh, absolutely. I hate berries.” She swapped her small bowl of wild blueberries for the lavish platter.Kai’s smile froze, then cracked at the edges. The insult was elegant, surgical. He’d been dismissed not with a snarl, but with a fruit preference.A ripple of awkward silence spread.
Trying to salvage his bruised ego, Kai straightened up, clapping his hands together.“Suit yourself.Maybe you’re right. Some omegas are just too delicate for real meat. Better suited to… gathering.” He let out a forced laugh, looking around for support. “Pretty little things, best kept nearby where they can’t get into trouble, yeah?”
The air changed.The statement hung, ugly and thick. Jisoo’s hands stilled on her flute.Minho pushed his plate away.John and Mina exchanged uncomfortable glances.
From the shadows, Leonid took a final drag of his cigarette, the ember flaring brightly before he dropped it, crushing it under his boot heel.He didn’t move forward. He simply pushed himself off the tree and stood to his full height, a silhouette of contained power.
But it was Jennie who moved first.
She stood up from the bench, her movement fluid and unnervingly calm.She picked up the wooden platter bearing the slice of stag. Her feline eyes, reflecting the firelight, held no anger.They were blank, almost curious.
She walked around the table toward Kai.He puffed his chest out, misinterpreting her approach as concession.
“See?Coming to your senses,” he began, his voice condescending.
Jennie didn’t speak.When she was an arm’s length away, she tilted the platter. The slab of hot, juicy meat slid off smoothly and landed with a wet, heavy slap directly on the tops of Kai’s clean boots.Gasps circled the fire. Karina made a small, distressed sound.Kai looked down, stunned, grease seeping into his leather laces. “You little—”
“You talk too much, Kai,” Jennie said, her voice a low, pleasant melody that carried to everyone.“And you listen not at all.I don’t want your food. I don’t want your words.” She took a half-step closer, leaning in so only he could hear the ice in her next words. “The next thing you offer me, I might just shove down your throat.”
Before he could react, she turned her back on him, a clear, brutal dismissal. She began walking, not back to the table, but across the clearing toward the waiting darkness where Leonid stood.Kai’s face purpled with rage and humiliation. He shook the meat from his boot, splattering nearby pack members.“You disrespect me? You disrespect this pack?” he roared, taking a step after her.That’s when Leonid moved.
He didn’t run.He simply stepped into the firelight, meeting Jennie halfway. He didn’t touch her, didn’t shield her. He just fell into step beside her, turning them both to face the seething alpha.His posture was relaxed, his hands loose at his sides. But his presence was an absolute barrier.
“She answered you,” Leonid said, his voice calm and clear, cutting through Kai’s sputtering.“You offered.She declined. That’s the end of it.”
“The end of it?This bitch just—” Kai snarled.
Leonid’s eyes flashed.A low, visceral sound, more vibration than noise, emanated from his chest. It wasn’t a growl of challenge, but a promise of annihilation so profound it silenced the crickets in the trees.“Finish that sentence,” Leonid invited softly. “Please.”
The entire pack was frozen, caught between the two alphas.Minho had risen to his feet, ready but reluctant. Jisoo held her flute like a weapon.
Kai’s fists clenched, his body trembling with the urge to shift, to fight. He looked from Leonid’s impassive face to Jennie’s eerie calm, to the ring of watching pack members. He saw no support, only wary anticipation.He was outmatched, and he knew it. The fragile ego shattered behind his eyes.With a final, venomous glare, he spat into the dirt near their feet. “This isn’t over.”
“It is for tonight,” Leonid stated. He placed a hand on the small of Jennie’s back, a gesture of utter normality amidst the tension, and guided her away from the fire, back toward the path to their tent.
As they melted into the tree line, the pack slowly exhaled. The only sound was the crackle of the fire and the lonely, mournful note Jisoo finally played on her flute—a sound that seemed to echo the deep, gathering rift now cracking through the heart of the Claw Pack.