Zion woke after a restless night.

Something was bothering him, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was.

Something had changed. Some minor energy had shifted.

Stretching his long body, he remembered his dreams had been about Akela. But then again, his dreams were usually about her, so that was habit by now. with a grunt he rolled out of bed and stretched again before dressing in running gear. He wasn't used to feeling this restless. especially when he had just woken up.

A quick brush of his teeth and a disgruntled frown at his own appearance in the mirror, was more a futile attempt at maintaining a routine than anything else. He had always hated looking in the mirror. Ever since he noticed the first whispers about his looks and noticed the sympathetic stares from the other pack members, he had avoided looking at himself.  He felt like less of a freak if he didn't see his own wolf-human-hybrid-weirdness.

But then Akela happened. And she called him cute. The memory of her fingers running through his fur and the look in her eyes when he smiled at her, made him feel wanted. As if, for the first time in his life he was... normal.

He looked into the mirror, trying to see what Akela might see.
Or more accurately...Trying to see what Akela wanted to see.
Diana had teased him a few times, hinting that Akela liked his eyes.
He didn't see it.
Dull, boring, brown.
He forced a smile towards his reflection, but all he saw was a dog grinning at him.
Why couldn't he look more like Abel? His brother's movie star looks was an eternal reminder of his own ugliness. Even Gerry, who was more ordinary looking, was a male model compared to the wolf-face in the mirror.

At least his body was well maintained. Zion recalled Akela's hormonal surge that time she walked in on him only wearing a towel. That in itself was motivation to continue working out.

He opened the door and stomped into the hallway, bumping into Abel, who came along the hallway at the same time.

Zion greeted his brother, frowning at his unkempt appearance.

"You look like hell!" Zion muttered.

Abel flashed him an ironically bright grin.

"Thanks, Zi. I look the way I imagine you feel!" Abel grumbled.

With a quick, but light punch to the shoulder, Zion left his brother to search for breakfast.

"Rough night?" Abel asked.

"Yeah..." Zion sighed.

"Me too... I kept feeling like I had these burns on my hands... you know the ones Akela had when she came here... and my dreams were all foggy and... concussed," Abel muttered.

"Concussed? You know that's a real injury, right? An actual brain damage?" Zion rolled his eyes at his brother's use of health terminology.

Abel stopped just outside the kitchen.

"I know that dumbass! I mean it felt like that time when I fell off the ladder and landed on my head and was all disoriented and.... concussed!" Abel said with an exasperated eye roll.

Zion shrugged, too restless and oddly disjointed himself to care beyond irritation.

His inability to identify why everything seemed to be happening a fraction of a second out of tune, or why he felt restless and dizzy, annoyed him.

He grabbed a sports bottle, filled it with water and grabbed a banana and a protein bar.

"I fucking need to shake this restlessness out of my system. I'm going for a workout," he told Abel, and by extension Diana who was eating her yoghurt at the table.

Before they could reply, Zion was out the door, leaving a cloud of bad mood behind.

Diana eyed the remaining brother with a suspicious squint.

"What did you do?" she asked.

"Nothing!" Abel exclaimed with a slightly offended frown.

"Did you call him fur-face again?" Diana frowned.

"NO!" Abel said.

"Did you tell him to back off Akela and let you charm your way into her pants again?" Diana squinted.

"No" Abel grumbled.

"What the hell did you do?" Diana asked.

Abel gave her a hard stare back.

"Why do you think I did something? HE practically smashed his door open. HE came out with a thundercloud over his head and HE then told me I looked like hell!" Abel ranted.

"Because it's Zi! And it's always you!" Diana sighed.

Abel rubbed his face with the heels of his hands.

"Look... I don't know if he stubbed his toe or had a nightmare.... He's just a dick this morning!" he huffed and went to get his cereal.

Diana gave him a long hard stare before releasing a slow breath.

"Fine. Zion is in a bad mood.... Which never happens.... And I want you to run patrol. Gerry said something about upping security," she said and rinsed her bowl out before walking out and in the direction of the training ground.

"Why the hell have they got it in for me today?" Abel muttered to himself while munching his breakfast, slowly, in case this tired feeling in his limbs meant a headache was coming.

It took a while, but eventually Abel returned home from patrols to find the house empty. Carefully, he stretched his mindlink to find Gerry doing paperwork, River taking a nap, Diana training the deltas and Zion running laps on the old dilapidated training ground. Archer didn't like them using it because that's where he had seen his father die, but just now, Zion was making a real effort to rip several young trees from the ground with their roots if they grew in his way.

Drawing a breath for courage, Abel decided to head that way. Zion was rarely in a bad mood, but when he was, he became the closest Abel had ever known to a bloodlust lycan on a full moon rampage.
It didn't happen often, the last time was when Ida broke his heart, and right now, Abel was worried. He had seen Zion go through crushes and be rejected. He had seen Zion swallow his hurt every full moon celebration and when the pack members called him a freak behind his back.

He had also seen Zion these last few months. He had seen how his back had straightened a bit every day and how every time they met Akela, or her name was mentioned, Zion would shrink in fear of rejection for a fraction of a second before straightening a little bit taller than before.

Abel had never seen his brother as confident as after that girl arrived.

And it broke his heart.

Because Abel knew, that if Kira died, or they failed to reunite Akela with her twin, He – for the first time of his life - would have to consider giving her up.

Because Zion needed her more.

Abel growled low in his throat at the thought. He tried pushing the mindlink with Akela, but met a dead end. Her mind was busy.

He had never met a girl as beautiful as her before. He laughter, although quite rare, was enough to make him feel happy. And her pure innocence, was refreshing. She didn't fawn over him. Or make him feel like a superstar. She called him out on his cockiness, and made him feel ordinary... especially if Zion was in the room.

With a reluctant sigh, Abel set out for the old training ground, ready to battle whatever demons Zion was fighting.

He arrived to see Zion trying to beat up an old log. His shirt was off and the wolf ears were aggressively pointed forwards.

"Zi," Abel said softly, to announce his arrival and watched his brother crumple into a heap.

In a flash, Abel was there with a hand on his older brother's shoulder.

"Gone... Abel... Akela is gone," Zion mumbled, his face set in a stony grimace to keep tears back.

"Not gone, Zion. I think she's tired or something else is occupying her mind," Abel said softly.

"No! I can't sense her thpughts at all!" Zion finally sobbed and fell even more into a painful heap.

Abel supressed the jolt of hopeful victory before he took a deep breath.

"Try again, Zi! She hasn't cut us out!" he said quietly, tentatively pushing his own link with Akela and feeling nothing but pain. Her emotions were faint, but full of worry, doubt and fear.

Zion's head shook from side to side.

"She's afraid. Something is wrong. But she keeps blocking me!" Zion whispered, his voice close to breaking.

Abel stopped his comforting rubbing of his brother's shoulder.

"So... she's not shut you out?" Abel asked but Zion nodded.

"You can feel her emotions, Zi... And you're telling me you usually have a mindlink with her...?" Abel whispered, realising the same second he said it that where he could only vaguely sense Akela's feelings, Zion was picking up her full range of emotions and the thoughts sent him. And she had actively blocked him from getting too close. She had chosen to block Zion, but the connection Abel felt was too faint for her to shut down.

Abel's heart thundered in his chest as his hand left Zion's shoulder.

"She's about to reject me... She's blocking me..." Zion shook his head, his face buried in his hands.

"Of course she's not, you idiot!" Abel sighed, feeling weirdly relaxed.

Zion turned around with the most hostile look on his face Abel had ever seen.

"I would block you too if you were this grumpy!" Abel grinned, the fog in his head was still there, but for some reason, it seemed far away.

"Seriously.... C'mon, Fur-face. Let's run it off!" Abel taunted. Deliberately, he was trying to distract his brother while trying to inore how his own chest felt constricted and open at the same time.

"You're an ass!" Zion grumbled and stood slowly to his feet looking around at the carnage around him.

Abel followed his gaze to the pile of young sapling trees in a pile and the gravel in heaps and dips where they had stood.

"They were in the running track...." Zion shrugged sheepishly.

Abel tilted his head.

"And I woke up in a bad mood..." the older brother admitted.

Abel lifted his eyebrows.

"And a few of the pack members were talking about me on my way here... " Zion sighed which made Abel growl.

"Who?" Abel asked.

Zion shrugged.

"Doesn't matter... I'm the pack freak. I might as well move into the old omega shacks. Not like there's a mate waiting for me..." Zion muttered.

"I wouldn't bet on it!" a confident voice said over ny the trail towards the village.

Both brothers looked up to see their father standing there looking serious.

"Akela has reconnected with her sister. Apparently her twin is out of the North stronghold and we need a plan. Go shower!" Archer told his sons.

Zion's posture perked a bit.

"You, mean... she's been linking her sister?" he asked.

Archer nodded and watched Zion's face contort in pain.

"All day?" Zion asked.

"Apparently..." Archer shrugged, looking confused.

"I'm sorry Akela... I'm so sorry!" Zion whispered.

Abel shook his head as he headed towards home.

"She blocked him, so he thought it was a rejection..." Abel explained to his father who's eyes were fixed on his second eldest son and the way he was rubbing his face.

"Of course he did..." Archer sighed.