The next morning, Hongjoong wakes up bright and early to take a shower before heading to sparring practice. After his shower, he dresses himself and makes his way to the sparring room, his hair still wet.

Hongjoong tries to shake his hair out a bit and Jongho scoffs from behind him, "Dude, what the fuck?" He pushes him from behind, "You got water all over me. Ugh, gross..." Jongho curses and pushes past him to go into the room, brushing his arms off. The water from Hongjoong's hair stays on him, making him smell slightly like ginger and it makes a disgusted look appear on his face.

"Not today, Jongho," Hongjoong says when he walks past him, looking at him as he goes in. He shakes his head angrily and walks in right behind Jongho. He can't be doing this today. Not with the Park's watching over this practice.

Daesung has all the alphas line up next to their sparring partner, so that means Hongjoong and Jongho are beside each other — trying very hard to keep their comments about one another to themselves. Beside Daesung, stands Park Gyungho and his two sons Dohyon and Seonghwa.

Jongho feels a deep aching in his lower stomach at the sight of Seonghwa, finding him immensely attractive at this moment. The Park's omega. Jongho whips his head away, back to Hongjoong and focuses his attention on him instead. This has to go away soon, he really needs to talk to his mother about this.

"This is Park Gyungho and his two sons, as I'm sure you all know. I invited them to see how promising you young alphas are," Daesung states, and all of the alphas nod and bow in respect toward the Park family.

"It's an honor to view your all's sparring practice this morning. Let's see how our most powerful pack is coming along, shall we?" Gyungho says, motioning his hand toward the first pair he sees.

Hongjoong and Jongho, of course.

Daesung gives the two boys a knowing look before they walked to the middle of the room. Their eyes are incredibly intense as they look at one another, each going to one side so they'll be equal distance apart when they shift. Hongjoong takes a deep breath before they both shift into their wolves, their robes pooling on the floor below them.

"Spar," Daesung says. Their cue to begin.

The two large wolves lunge at each other immediately after hearing the phrase, already at each other's throats as usual, but they keep it clean. They don't spar as dirty as they normally do... yet.

Hongjoong wrestles Jongho to the ground after a bit, but Jongho quickly turns the tables once again. Just like always, they're neck and neck. Jongho gets angrier and angrier as he realizes it's going to turn into another tie. Jongho knows he's in the midst of his rut and his mother had given him suppressants for it, but the aggressiveness is still coming through strong/ His eyes narrow. He needs to show everyone how powerful he can really be.

Jongho uses all of his force and grabs Hongjoong by his neck with his teeth. Hongjoong's eyes widen as he realizes what Jongho is about to do. It's against the rules. He's not quick enough and isn't sure how to counter this attack within the rules, so Jongho flings Hongjoong across the room. Hongjoong feels the impact as his body hits the floor of the room and he's overcome by his own rage and charges back to Jongho quickly.

Fuck the rules.

Hongjoong jumps onto Jongho, slamming him into the floor as the two of them destroy each other.

"Enough."

They're too distracted to hear their head alpha demand them to stop, continuing to rip one another apart. Their faces are bleeding and their bodies aren't in much better shape.

"ENOUGH," Daesung yells in the darkest voice the two of them have ever heard.

This gets them to freeze, falling away from each other, realizing what they've just done in front of their guests. They both keep their heads down in shame as they stand up to face their alpha.

"Leave. Now. I'll talk to you two after practice," Daesung says, trying to keep his voice calm in front of the Park family.

Hongjoong and Jongho both nod and shift back into their human bodies. Their bodies are completely bruised up and their faces are slashed open, dripping with blood. They turn around and pick up their robes before going to the back into the sauna in silence.

Hongjoong cleans the blood coming down his face in the mirror of the sauna room. He can't believe he just did that. He promised himself he wouldn't let Jongho get to him again, but he couldn't... He grits his teeth together and slams his fist into the counter, "Dammit... Why couldn't you just cool it for one day, Jongho?" Hongjoong asks in a demanding voice, not even turning around to look at him.

Jongho clenches his fists angrily when he hears Hongjoong's words and sits down on the bench. He doesn't know why he snapped like he did back there. His fingernails dig into his palms because he knows he's only lying to himself. He knows why he did it. He wanted to beat Hongjoong for once and he still couldn't. They still came out as equals.

"I'm so fucking tired of you..." Jongho admits, "I hate that we're of the same strength and I wanted to show off just how powerful I am."

Hongjoong scoffs at his honesty and shakes his head, turning around and looking at his rival, "And now you've gotten us both in trouble. And! We're both fucked physically, so thanks. He's not going to let us spar for at least a week with these bruises," Hongjoong crosses his arms over his reddish bruised chest, some blood still leaking out of the wounds on his face even after cleaning them.

"I know I fucked up, okay? I know, Hongjoong," Jongho curses at himself once again.

"Your face is covered in your own blood," Hongjoong says, a low chuckle coming from his mouth.

Jongho hums and gets up, going over to the counter where Hongjoong is to see how red his face is.

From the blood, of course.

Jongho glances over at Hongjoong with narrowing eyes, "You really messed me up, huh?" He turns on the faucet and begins to splash water on his face, the sink becoming covered in red.

"Not as bad as you messed me up," Hongjoong stretches his arms up, his back cracking as he stretches. He winces at the pain from the bruises all over his body when he stretches, his muscles feeling like they're tearing apart.

Jongho chuckles, going and sitting beside Hongjoong after he finishes cleaning off his face, the slashes being more visible now that it's clean.

They sit there relaxing in silence for a while. This must be the longest time they've ever sat in silence with one another without saying something hateful. It must be because they both know how badly they messed up out there in front of everyone. They know they're going to get it... And here it is.

Daesung opens the door to the sauna rather aggressively and sees the two reckless idiots just sitting there, "Get up."

Hongjoong and Jongho startle when the sauna door opens up, immediately standing up at Daesung's demands.

Daesung just laughs at them when he goes up, inspecting their bodies and faces, "Seems you two did a number on each other, huh?" Daesung's voice goes dark, the laughter disappearing, "Right in front of Park Gyungho and his sons, at that..."

Hongjoong and Jongho stiffly bow towards their head alpha, showing how apologetic they are.

"Kim Hongjoong, Choi Jongho. This is the final straw. You two are going to stop this damned fighting once and for all, and I know just the way to get you two to try and find peace with one another," Daesung continues, a slightly evil smile coming across his face, "I won't let you cause any more trouble while the Park family is here, so you two are staying here in the training building for the night."

Jongho stands up straight with a surprised look on his face, his eyes wide, "Daesung--" He starts, but is interrupted.

"If I come by tomorrow and you two are still at each other's throats, you'll stay another day, and another day. You get the gist, right, boys?" Daesung crosses his arms, with a straight look on his face to show them just how serious he is.

Hongjoong's mouth was hanging open, not knowing what to say at the situation they've found themselves in because of their actions.

Daesung gets closer to the two boys, pointing his finger at both of their chests, "And if I find out either of you leaves this building... There will be no chance for you to acquire my position."

Hongjoong and Jongho stand their speechless for a few moments before they eventually nod, showing that they understand.

"Speak."

"I understand," they say in unison.

Daesung looks the boys up and down before slamming the sauna door back shut and leaving the training building with all of the other alphas.

Jongho tries to contain his anger over having to stay here with Hongjoong, going and sitting back down to try and cool himself down. He takes a few slow deep breaths, but Hongjoong's ginger scent keeps invading his nostrils, "Can you leave?" Jongho asks in an irritated tone of voice.

Hongjoong rubs the back of his head, having a massive headache from the fight, "Leave? I'm trying to relax here too, you know."

"You stink," Jongho growls.

"That's literally impossible. I showered just this morning. Don't you remember the whole incident before we came in?" Hongjoong sits down across from Jongho, glancing over at him as he speaks.

"Ugh, your scent. It's horrible," Jongho lies, just wanting to get him out of the sauna.

Hongjoong smirks, "I've never heard someone say that about my scent before. People usually quite like it," He boasts, crossing his arms and legs and resting back against the wall, closing his eyes, "You'll have to get over it if we have to spend a whole night together."

"Don't remind me," Jongho mutters as he gets up, having to leave to get away from Hongjoong before he gets riled up again, "I'll leave, then."

Hongjoong watches as Jongho gets up, grabbing ahold of his towel around his waist so it doesn't fall, then he leaves the sauna room leaving Hongjoong all by himself. He prefers it this way. He can finally have some peace. He does wonder, however, why do they fight so hard against each other? Of course, they're rivals in becoming the head alpha over Nightshade, but sometimes the fighting just seems excessive -- especially recently.

Jongho leaves and goes down the hallway where the various rooms are, going into one of the resting rooms and dressing himself. Why are his suppressants so damn weak? He's going to have to tell his mother to get stronger ones. It must be because he's getting older and stronger -- that's what his mother was telling him when she noticed the signs of him going into his rut. He's been a lot more on-edge and then will suddenly flip and be laying on the couch with his mother watching a film.

Jongho sits down on the mattress and puts his head into his hands as he tries to level his breathing, wishing he could go home. Does he really have to become friends with Hongjoong? Why can't Daesung just understand why they're fighting so hard for this? Jongho sighs and lays back, staring up at the ceiling.

A few minutes later, Jongho is startled when the door to the resting room he's in opens, peeking one of his eyes open to see Hongjoong coming in with still just his towel around his hips. Jongho's wolf perks up as he gazes at the water -- or maybe it's sweat -- dripping down Hongjoong's chest.

Jongho furrows his brow and shakes his head. What the hell? He internally curses at his wolf for letting even one of those thoughts enter his mind.

"Ah, sorry. I didn't know you were in this room," Hongjoong says, going to turn around and leave the room, but he's stopped by Jongho's sudden words.

"It's fine. This is the only room with beds, you know... This is probably another reason Daesung is making us stay here. For bonding time, or whatever," Jongho groans, turning on his side so he doesn't have to look at his rival.

Hongjoong hums, one hand holding up his towel as he goes to the other side of the room where there's another bed and he changes into his casual clothing, "Yeah... So, do you think he will let us leave in the morning?" He asks as he lowers himself down onto the mattress, glad to be resting his beaten-up body on a nice bed.

Jongho chokes out a laugh, "Oh hell no, we will be here at least two. He wouldn't believe us after just one night, but we can still fake like we're buds in the morning."

"I'm a pretty good actor, so I think we could get out of it early."

Jongho pulls the covers up to his chin, "Yeah, yeah... We'll see about that."

End of Chapter Eight