Pack Order (closed Mitsuo, Cornix)

It had been a good week since the nurses had allowed her to leave. Cora would have already left sooner but they were rather insistant on keeping her bedbound. Horrible. She had felt better quite soon once she had gotten her will to live back. Instead of taking a horse like she would have before she had now taken a carriage to travel back to their headquarters. It made sense, she after all had Mortimer with her. While she had managed at some points to carry him on the horse she was anyway not too keen on doing that right now.
Cora had found a good way to keep Nec and Vex from talking. She had started training, not much, but throwing knives was more about accuracy than strength. It also kept the nurses out of her room. They somehow did not appreciate it when a knife hit their funny little white hats and stuck them to the wall behind them. Odd.
Cora bumped Mortimer's nose and he bit it slightly. Not to hurt her, just playfully. "Let's go...only two hours then we should be there."
He barked. He knew her so well, always had the right thing to say. He was quite the smart pup. She grinned at him and she could have sworn he did the same. Of course he did. It was like a telepathic connection between them, her fourth personality. Or...she sighed. Cora had a vague feeling that...something had changed. So far she had not experienced it much. Only...when thinking about killing someone...it was weird and she could not grasp it yet. Mortimer licked her hand and she stopped thinking about it.
"I will be fine. We will be fine."

Once she had arrived at the pack's HQ she was greeted by a bunch of her soldiers. This was the first time that even her Betas had seen her...or atleast three of the four she had. She was still convinced that one had visited her, watched over her constantly. Ludwig stormed towards her, wanting to help her down from the cart.
"No it's fine. I am not that weak", she grinned and hugged him.
"Wha-what happened?"
She smiled at him, "It's fine.", Ludwig did not want her to avoid the question but respected her choice for now. After all the other Alphas would probably react worse.
"Where is the Snake? Renn?", Cora asked while getting a bag out of the back of the cart. Ludwig made a gesture to one of her soldiers and he disappeared, obviously fetching Renn.
"He has been a good Alpha. Harsher than you are. But he kept everything under control. Watched out that the other Alphas did not get...you know...he just watched out."
Cora nodded, "I know."

Renn had just carefully exited a room, checking that the corridor was empty before stepping out and shutting the door behind him, letting out a relieved sigh.

Until he was interrupted by a soldier, whom he was sure came from Cora's division. Strange.
The Snake watched the soldier approached with a harsh stare.

The soldier started with a cough to clear his throat.
"Miss Wolf has requested to see you."

Renn's facial expression softened, "oh, ssssshe's back, is she? Must have forgotten in all the chaosssss. Well, let's not keep her waiting."

The Snake mad a gesture with his hand to show that the soldier should lead the way, which they did after a curt nod.
Walking down the corridors to the entrance of the headquarters, Renn could not stop adjusting bits of his appearance. He was doing this to try and make him look less overworked than he actually was.
König messed with his hair, making look more like his usual fluff instead of the birds' nest he woke up with.
He also rubbed his eyes and adjusted his coat to sit on his shoulders properly.

As he stepped out of the headquarters, he yawned. Renn then took a moment to put on his usual snake smile and greeted Cora with a mocking wave as he walked over to her, followed by a "yoohoo!"

"Welcome home little wolfy! You asssssked to see me?"

Cora was reliefed when she saw Renn. He was there. He was not gone on some mission. That was good, she would have one of the Alphas with her now, to...watch her back while she was still rather vulnerable, even though she tried not to seem like that.
She made the same mocking wave back to him. Idiot. Cora started grinning as he approached her, she was more glad to see him than she would have liked to admit. He looked a bit tired, maybe not as tired as he was while they were in the hospital, but still tired. She really had to take the work back from him.

"Welcome home little wolfy! You asssssked to see me?", he said with a grin on his face.
Cora just raised one eyebrow at him, "Yohoo? What are you? Drunk?", her face was as serious as it could be before she started grinning again, "Just kidding."

She sighed and started walking towards the HQ, "I have met with one of my Betas and she has gotten me up to date on most things. There is supposed to be a mission to take back Trost.", she stopped, "Oh. I am not even sure if you knew that part...I guess that one was a bit confidential...who cares.", Cora sighed.
'They trusted you', she suddenly heard, as if someone had whispered it in her ear. Was that? What? Cora quickly turned around to see but noone apart from Renn was there. She ran her hand through her hair, taking a deep breath and hit her palm against her forehead a few times, leaving a red spot.

Once they had entered the building, Cora made sure no one was around and then proceeded to pull Renn into the next storage room, closing the door behind them. The sides were stuffed with mostly cloth, probably bed sheets or something. There was barely enough space for one person, let alone for two tall people. Cora stayed as far away as possible to not make him feel uncomfortable.
"We needed some privacy.", she said and looked at him for a second, "You look tired.", she smiled briefly before getting to what she wanted to discuss, "I heard the others were up to something. Ludwig told me, but he was vague, insisting that it was better if you told me and such.", scratches her head, "Are things going that bad? That he was too afraid to tell me? Or did he just think that you could tell me better?", she spoke fast, cutting down the space usually left between words to make it easier to understand, "What are they planning? Do I have to watch my back? I mean, I anyway have to, it makes sense but do I have to watch out way more than usual. Esspecially given that-", she stopped and took a breath. Cora closed her eyes, "I am sorry, I am talking too much...I am just incre-incredibly anxious. I-I have been away for so long a-and there...there are so-so many men here...", her voice broke and her last words were quiet. She held her head with her hands and pushed her seven remaining fingers into her scalp before calming down more again and giving Renn a weak smile.
"I am sorry, you should not have had to witness that. What I meant was: could you bring me up to date as much as possible? Concerning the Alphas, I know the rest.", she said with a calm voice while simultaneously ripping out the threads holding one of her wounds on her arm together.

Renn rolled his eyes when he was accused of being drunk. He wished, would've made everything a lot easier and more fun to handle.

The Snake brushed off the Trost mission information. It wasn't information meant for him and, although he was curious as to the dangers and thrills it may hold, he was behind on his 3DMG practice because of trying to keep things in order when the female Alpha was away.
That and non eof his men were trained to use the gear, either which meant he would have no squad to back him up.
Sure he was a psychopath but he wasn't suicidal.

While Renn was checklisting off the reasons why he wouldn't be able to go to Trost, he was also watching Cora smack her head a few times with a curious frown.
"Thissss... isn't going to be a new thing now, is it?"
He chirped at the occurrence, jokingly.

The two Alphas entered the building together and their, what appeared to be, aimless walking took an immediate detour into what must have been the crampest closet the headquarters had to offer.

Before König could even question what was happening, Cora started ranting questions of what the other Alphas had been up to. Renn mentally cursed Ludwig, he told the Beta not to tell Cora about the Alphas.
The Snake sighed.

"You're obviously still not well. I don't mean that as an insult, I mean that as a fact. Why don't you take some time to settle in first and then I'll let you know what's been going on. For now, I'll clear some things up."

König coughed, flicking through his mind on what to start with. Eventually, he began again.
"Yes, I'm tired. Unfortunately you immediately saw through my perfect disguise of trying not to be tired. It's not the pressure of work, that's for sure. I've been fine and your division has been surprisingly cooperative. I'm tired because of the other Alphas, mainly Layne but Driscoll hasn't been much help. Gillian, the coward, kept out of the way for the most part... however he did try to assist me from time to time. I wouldn't allow him to, though."

Renn tried stretching as much as he possibly could in the small room, without hitting Cora. His bones still felt stiff from his rough sleeping. At one point, when he stretched, he immediately recoiled with a hiss and wincing in pain.

"Damn. That hurts, still. Ugh."
Renn, remembering Cora was still there, quickly recovered and moved on like nothing happened.
"Yeah, so... Layne. I know he knows I'm hiding something. So he's been giving me a hard time by snooping around and watching me closely, hoping I'll make a mistake and hell be able to find out what. Of course, he doesn't know that I know that he knows and therefore he hasn't been able to find out much more than that. In fact, he only knows something is up because I made a mistake."

The Snake laughed in spite of the mentioned Alpha. His laugh abruptly became a cough as he grasped his left ribs but he was still laughing between pain filled wheezes nonetheless.

"And Driscolls been Driscoll, usual dumb grunt who doesn't think about what he's doing."

Renn stood back up, still holding his ribs.
"Other than that, nothing new."
He gave a genuine smile.

Cora nodded to what he said, still plucking out threads. It hurt pleasantly and gave her a rest from Nec and Vex. Layne it was then? What had he been trying to figure out about Renn? Layne had always been a rather secretive one, while Cora never disliked him as much as Driscoll she certainly trusted him less. He was smarter, more mischievous. More of a backstabber than attacking you right away, unlike Driscoll. Driscoll was the straight forward 'let's beat the shit out of him guy' while Layne was the 'let's use advanced interogation methods' guy.

Renn winced and Cora just stared at him. Why was he wincing? The rest of his words kind of only passed through her mind, Nec taking note. He would update her later. It was good to have a fractured mind!
"Hiding?", she asked with Nec's raspy voice while Cora stared at him, not paying too much attention. He laughed, winced in pain and continued laughing. Cora continued mustering him, analyzing the way he moved, where he put his hands and all that.

"Other than that, nothing new", he said, smiling at her. Cora smiled back, more like a friendly gesture than anything before her facial expression drooped down into a serious one again.
She reached out and grabbed the end of his shirt but was quickly greeted with Renn's hand pushing hers away. She grabbed his hand and got that one away from her own. They struggled against each other a bit, Cora not listening to what Renn was saying if he was saying anything.
"For fuck's sake, Renn!", she said loudly and grabbed one of the towels next to her throwing it into his face, "I already know you are hurt! You can't hide that anymore! You winced too much earlier for me to not notice it!"
Cora finally managed to get a hold of his shirt, lifting it up. His whole left side was blueish yellow. A few abrasions. By the looks of it probably a broken rib or two. However in between the brutal bruising you could see a few select cuts and burn marks.

"Shit.", Cora said quietly and lifted his shirt up a bit more to see the rest of his wounds. She shook her head slowly and eventually let his shirt fall back down. She frowned at Renn, still shaking her head, "I am not okay? Me? I? Look at yourself...You...", she grabbed the end of his shirt again, pulling it down a little to fix its position.
"You could have told me, you know? You can trust me...", she patted down the fur on his coat. Cora moved on her tip toes, staring at the side of his head, "Your ear as well?"

She sighed again and took a deep breath, "Do-Don't tell me that I am not okay, while...I just have voices in my head. My head. You are hurt all over....you could have told me...", her voice quiet with a both sad and somewhat accusing undertone.

Renn huffed and tugged down on his shirt, making sure his torso was definitely covered.

"Look, I'm fine. This is all just part of being an Alpha. It's not big deal how much I'm hurt, Cora. I'm not the only one who's pretending to look okay, Driscoll and Layne are too. I got them back, it's all sorted."

The Snake only now had pulled the towel off of his face, crunching it in a ball and dropping it on the floor.
"Look, I didn't want you to worry about... this... when you have a lot to worry about yourself, first. Besides, I had it under control. It's just... I know you're not fine, either, so don't pretend like you are. Obviously, you're still recovering which you've made quite clear by showing that you're anxious to be back. The Cora I know wasn't ever anxious... or she didn't show it at least. That must mean we're dealing with a new Cora."

He poked her shoulder in a playful manner, returning to his genuine smile.
"Don't worry about Layne and Driscoll, either. As I said, I got them back, so they're probably as bad as I am, still. Then, when we're all fully recovered, I'll have your back to help fend 'em off. No big deal."

Renn looked around the closet, finally taking in how small it truly was.
"Now, is that all we have to discuss? This is quite a cramped room so I'd like to get out of here as soon as possible."

Renn explained himself to her. While he had some good points she disagreed with others. Yes, Alphas were kind of in a constant state of being hurt but that did not mean that he had to get himself beaten up or tortured by them. They had never done that to Cora, so far. She wondered why...was it because they saw her as frail? Was it because she was a woman? She doubted it. Nec doubted it. Vex doubted it. After all Cora proudly saw herself more manly than any of the other Alphas. Or...atleast most of them. And...that was before...they had locked her up in a cellar. Before...showing her that...she was in fact one. She swallowed that line of thought down.

Renn poked her shoulder, smiling at her. Cora smiled back, it was good to see him smile, and not a fake one either. So Layne and Driscoll were bad off themselves as well? Interesting. That was quite the useful information.
He complained about the size of the room. True, it was probably one of the smallest there were in the headquarters. Still. It served its purpose quite well.
Cora got closer to Renn and hugged him briefly, "Now it's even more cramped. I am sorry for this, I am just so glad to have one person here that I trust."

Trust? You should not trust anyone. That is not healthy. You should know that!
I don't know what he said but I really really want food. Why could you not go into a storage room with something edible?

She let him go again and put her ear onto the door. Once she had made sure there was no one outside she opened it and left.
"Let's go. Ludwig told me there would be a meeting anyway. At...well food. When he told me there was still quite some time, but...we were...well.", she smiled, "It's best if we go right now, if you don't mind that."

Cora swung open the doors to the dining room and went towards her designated space in between Driscoll and Layne, while Renn would be seated between Layne and Gillian. Why was Layne in the middle and seemed like the most important one out of the five? Well he was the oldest, was he not?
She looked at him, he did have some bruises on his face and other areas. And as always he was wearing his stupid mask to hide the scars on his jaw. Cora went towards the table and Layne watched her closely, or well her mouth. She just stared back and then eventually sat down.

"Welcome home.", Layne said ironically while Gillian said the exact same thing but with a very cheerful voice, genuinly happy to see her. He greeted Renn in the same fashion.

Renn didn't expect a hug and took a hesitant moment before he reacted to it but patting Cora gently on the back.
He would never be used to hugs, even when he has received more than someone would think.
Cora then mentioned the fact that she has someone she trusts. Him. She trusts him? This made König doubt himself a little bit. He knew where he wanted to go and what he may have to do to get there. Could he hurt her, though? Especially now?

The Snake was quick to lock up these thoughts in a place of his mind where he could ignore them. He returned to have a chirpy look as Cora let go and stepped away from the hug. The female Alpha then explained how she had heard of a meeting from her favourite Beta.

"Ah, yes, the meeting. It honestly slipped my mind. I wasn't planning on going but... you're here now, so I guess I'll tolerate useless talk for a while."

Cora had made sure that no one was outside by putting here ear to the door and listening, which Renn had thought was strange. Sure, he would've done the same but... did Cora always do this? He had it in his mind that she never cared of being caught for such a situation like this one.

The door was soon opened and both had exited the small room, much to Renn's relief.
Walkung down the corridors of the headquarters, the two Alphas were making their way to the mess hall. On the way there, they had passed a door to a room Renn had been in earlier.
The Snake stared at the door as he walked by but the soon returned his attention to Cora, before looking back to the direction he was walking.
He figured, or at least he hoped, that the room the two just walked by was empty.

The doors to the dining area appeared in view and, once they got close enough, Cora swung them wide open. Renn plastered his snake like grin to his face.
He followed Cora, who he assumed was enjoying being back... or trying to appear to, to the main table where the Alphas sit.

The Snake took up his normal seat between Layne and Gillian, the latter of which greeted both Cora and Renn in a nice fashion.

"Sssssure. Anyway, sorry for being late... you all know how I like to do thingsssss in my own time. I also had to take a moment to debate if I should have bunked thissss meeting or not. I figured I should at leassssst grace you with my presence."
A harsh and cocky greeting was made by König, showing that all that happened in the previous week did not affect him mentally and thus he was not intimidated by the others. He was playing it like a game.

Renn started grabbing a bit of dried meat and some bread, making his normal dry sandwich which he has for breakfast. As he did this, he and Layne kept charing glances, both of them using their eyes to say to the other, "I know".

Cora happily took a sandwich in front of her. It had been a while since she had eaten anything, on their journey most of the food she had given to Mortimer, she could not let him starve after all! It would have been horrible of her to eat and he would not have gotten anything. She started munching on one while ignoring the stares of Driscoll next to her.
He continued staring for a while and eventually got bored of Cora not reacting.
"What happened to you? I guess that top secret mission of yours kind of went bad, eh?"
She shrug her shoulders and continued to speak with bread still in her mouth, "Nope. Just a new haircut."
"Stop bullshitting. You made a mistake and got yourself...I don't know. Look at that fucking scar on your mouth. That was intentional, something like that does not happen during battle.", grabbed her hand, "You are missing fingers!", he laughed and Cora pulled her arm back forefully before taking a fork and stabbing it as deep as she could into his leg, dangerously close to his crotch.
"Don't. Touch. Me.", she whispered, but loud enough for all the Alphas to hear it, "No. I did not fuck up my mission. It was a trap."
Cora pulled the fork out again and Driscoll inhaled sharply. She threw the fork onto his plate and continued munching.

Layne just watched and eventually asked everyone to listen.
"Now that...we are all gathered again...Driscoll...you wanted to ask something?"
Driscoll nodded and angrily stared at Cora, "I want us to expand. I usually woud not ask before I did this...but I mistrust all of you here and one of you", he looked over to Gillian, "Made a huge fuss about it. We should think about human smuggling more, slave trading. You can make a good amount of money for that. People pay alot for pretty wives."
Cora sighed, "The military is our contractor. We are making enough money off of that by being at their service. If you start smuggling women we could lose that contract."
He scoffed, "You are the only one involved in that. All of us aren't! Only you are making money from it."
Cora shook her head, "First of all: Gillian is getting involved as well, he is allowed my men to train his. You could as well. Secondly most of the money I make with that is free to use by all of you if you use it for the pack. Not for yourself."
They started arguing back and forth. At first they did keep it professional until both of them started insulting each other. It was a surprise that they could contain each other for more than a few sentences anyway.
Layne turned towards Renn and Gillian, "Your opinion? Any more opinions? Want to change anything?", he said, his voice cold and rather bored by the whole discussion.

Renn was doing his best to ignore everyone at the table, staring straight ahead and deep ing thought. He only snapped back into reality when Layne drew the attention to Driscoll wanting to say something.

The Snake, who has had previous weeks of experience of Driscoll wanting to say something, could already guess what it was. Therefore, he prematurely rolled his eyes and took another vicious bite out of his sandwich.

"I want us to expand. I usually woud not ask before I did this...but I mistrust all of you here and one of you.. made a huge fuss about it. We should think about human smuggling more, slave trading. You can make a good amount of money for that. People pay alot for pretty wives."

And there it was. It occurred to Renn that he should probably thank Gillian for letting him know what Driscoll was going to do. Or did he already do that? Whatever, it's not important anyway.

König sighed and turned to Layne.
"Look what you've done."

The Snake couldn't bare to hear the useless back and forths and decided to ignore them, making it become background noise to his ears.
That was when Layne asked the dumbest questions Renn had ever heard.
"Your opinion? Any more opinions? Want to change anything?"

Renn gave him a bored but judging look, as if the half-masked alpha was stupid.
"I agreed to working with the military and ssssso did Gillian, which is why we are. I also agreed to move into a joined headquartersssss... and so did Gillian... which is why we have. So, you already know our opinionssssss and we've already change what we wanted to change."

Renn then proceeded to get up from his seat with any annoyed expression.
"Now if you'll excussssse me."

Renn walked just further up the table to stand above both Cora and Driscoll before punching Driscoll Square in the jaw to knock him out of his seat, in one fluid motion.
"When will you get it through that thick ssssssskull of yours that the work for the military is more important! It paysssss more! Also, we are working for the military as a mercenary group! You get that? G r o u p... group! Meaning we're all involved, ya tree sssssstump."

The argueing suddenly took a steep curve as Driscoll was punched off his chair. Oh well. Guess Cora was out now. She started chuckling quietly at Renn's insult while Driscoll did not want to stand up. His back seemingly hurt. Or some other part. Oh well, that was great.
He grunted if in pain or out of frustration or both was not tellable.
"You all don't understand how much women pay.", he said quietly in between grunts. Oh. So it was out of pain.
Cora stared at him, "Well I guess we got this settled. Layne...any other things? To add or the likewise."

Layne looked at her, then at Renn and then back at her, "I would like to know where you have been. What mission. We should not keep secrets from each other.", he said bluntly.
Cora started laughing, "Oh really. What? You are kidding, right? You are the most secretive out of all of us, you don't even show us your whole face.", she said and pulled down the piece of leather he had wrapped around the lower half of his face. Turns out it was not just a scar like she had, the skin over his left side of his jaw was missing, just the teeth and bone were visible. Yeap, definitly more gruesome than hers.
"Now we can talk about secrets.", she said coldly, not intimidated or touched be his looks a single bit.

Layne's face was full of anger and he grabbed her by her shirt and threw her onto the table. He pinned her hands above her head with one of his and held her. If Renn would try to intervene Driscoll would hold him away.
"I know why they cut your face. Because you talk about things you don't know about. Because you constantly talk as if you are better than anyone here. You are weaker than any of us four! You are a woman. I can guess what else they did to you. Do you want us to do the same?", he said quietly a grin on his face.
Cora started panicking and passed out pretty quickly, while Vex took over.
"Woman?", his voice was not as raspy as Nec's was but certainly manly enough on its own, "Woman you call us? We are mostly men in her head. Why do you think we made it this far?"
Layne let go a bit, confused by the sudden change of voice. While he technically knew about her other personalities he had never had any of them talking to him directly.
Vex used the moment and kicked him as hard as he could between the legs, making Layne fall to the ground. Vex stood up and dusted himself off, seemingly disgusted by Layne touching him. As he was about to give him another kick he screamed and held his head. The scream was closer to the one an animal had.
Vex whimpered and sat down as Nec took over. He sighed and excused himself.
"I am sorry. I guess the meeting is over now?", he asked coldly and stood up once again, fixing the sleeves of his coat. He went towards Renn and pulled him down to her level so he could whisper in his ear comfortably, "Cora's passed out. We will go to our room. She might want to hear what happened from you, she does not trust us right now.", he nodded and walked out of the room, fixing his hair.

Renn was about to have another shot at Driscoll for not changing his mind until Cora redirected back to the meeting. Such action dug the situation into a worse state as Layne wanted secrets to be spilled.
König was quite relieved that Layne didn't mention what he suspects of the Snake. That would have made things difficult for the albino Alpha.

Cora, who wasn't taking shit all of a sudden, pulled down Laynes mask which revealed a more gruesome injury then Renn expected. This didn't disturb Renn nor did he see Layne differently, however his curiosity peaked.

Suddenly Layne had pinned Cora the table and König had to turn his full attention to the two to hear what was being said.
"I can guess what else they did to you. Do you want us to do the same?"

The Snake took a step forward, which allowed Driscoll am opening to grab him by the arm. Bad idea. Renn went to give Driscoll a taste of his elbow but the Alpha brute predicted the move and grabbed it, quickly reversing the move into a lock hold.

Renn struggled for a moment until he witnessed Vex come out to play, giving Layne a hard kick tit he groin and letting him fall to the floor.
The Snake was frustrated and perplexed, not having the chance to witness Cora's other personalities until now.

Then Vex, not that Renn knew, gave a scream before recovering with another different voice.
After the new voice had apologised for creating a disturbance, they headed over to König and got Driscoll to lower him so they could whisper in his ear.
"Cora's passed out. We will go to our room. She might want to hear what happened from you, she does not trust us right now."

The Snake scoffed at Nec, "I don't blame her."

Renn then watched Nec walk away to go to Cora's chambers. After Cora's body left the room, silence followed to fill the space.

Renn was first to break the silence.
"Well, the meeting issssss over. So, Driscoll, if you could kindly releassssse me?"

Driscoll let go of Renn, grunted and left the dining room, closely followed by Gillian.
As the two left, Renn stared after them with his usual sinister grin, however, he soon turned his attention to Layne, who was still getting to his feet and grunting in pain.

"Oh, good, you're ssssssstill here! Well, I think we should have a little chat, sssssshouldn't we?"
Renn stepped closer to Layne, who was back in his feet, and gave him a kick to the stomach sending the older Alpha back down to the floor.

Nec closed the door behind them and locked it. They let themselves fall onto the bed and sighed. Cora was still passed out, they could disappear away into her mind, hide. But then her body would just lie around lifeless in her bed. Nothing they wanted. Or if she did not pass out fully and just hid somewhere in the back of her mind she would just sit there, shivering and still completly vulnerable. Maybe even more so. There was no way that Nec would disappear. Apart from that...he could finally do some useful things. Like...tidy up. He stood up and started rearranging stuff in her room. Or his. Them.

Nec stood in front of the mirror and played around with his hair until it fit what he liked more. Finally he looked more male. He really disliked being inside a female body sometimes. But...it was not like Cora was all too girlish either. She might look like one but using all the woman exclusive parts...nope. No fan of that.

Cora slowly woke up. "Hey there, sleeping beauty", he mockingly said and continued playing with his hair.
Oh damn. I passed out?
"Yes, you did.", he said coldly and turned around to make the bed.
What happened?
"Vex took over. Your...white friend will tell you. Why do you even trust anyone in this house?"
He is alright. He is a good guy...or atleast...I think he is. He got me out of that hell hole.
"No need to trust anyone."

Someone knocked on the door and Nec took a look through a small hole in the door to see who it was. Renn. That was okay. He unlocked it and opened it, making a welcoming gesture for him to enter and possibly sit down on either chair or bed.
Nec locked the door and then sat down on the bed.
"I will let Cora take over in a second. Before that though. If you want to tell me something privately that one guy in her head should know but not the others, aka Cora, you can tell me now. And secondly she might be a bit...alarmed or anxious.", he smiled in the best way he could but it would have looked better if someone would have just pulled the sides of his mouth up to make a forceful smile.

Renn started making his way towards Cora's chambers. He enjoyed his therapy session with Layne a little too much and lost track of time a bit.
Unfortunately, the Snake didn't get off scratch free and took a few beatings himself, however, that was to be expected as he was against a fellow Alpha.

König grumbled his way down the corridors. One day, he was going to stitch the mask of Layne's right onto his face. One day, he's going to lop off Driscoll's favorable hand. One day, he'll stab Gillian in the back. More importantly, one day... he'll be king.

The passing thoughts of anger left as quickly as they went. Today went spiraling downwards too fast for the albino Alpha and he had just come from dealing with one problem, straight to walking to deal with the next problem.

Cora's other personalities.
The Snake didn't hate them because he knew them. No. He hated them because he didn't know them. That means he didn't know how they act or what they're like... and Renn hated that. He needed to know. Just in case. He had to make sure he would have no possible threats in the future.

He stopped abruptly outside Cora's door and took a moment. No need to barge in, that would be unwise. He knocked, carefully, and waited. An unlocking sound was heard and the door opened.

König didn't waste time and entered the room, not taking any seat that was offered. He stood, folded his arms and stared at whoever was controlling the body.

"I will let Cora take over in a second. Before that though. If you want to tell me something privately that one guy in her head should know but not the others, aka Cora, you can tell me now. And secondly, she might be a bit...alarmed or anxious."
A gross smile followed.

Renn scowled.
"I have nothing to say to you," he spat out with venom, "whoever you are. Just give me Cora."

What Renn hated the most was that he didn't know how these personalities treated Cora. They could be treating her badly, abusing her mental health or worse. Sure, he heard complaints but never anything with enough detail to figure out what was going on.
At least, this is what he thought but he was actually lying to himself.
What he hated most was that he can't help her.

Nec raised an eyebrow and stared at him, "Fine.", Nec did not know if Renn was aware that he and Vex could hear everything they talked. If they wanted to, of course. Unlike her other personalities, Cora herself was not capable of keeping them out. She could only keep Vex uninformed by reading something, he was illiterate.

Nec disappeared, but not before giving Renn another weird smile and an awkward wave. Cora took over, her breathing still a bit heavy. She ran her hand through her hair, making it go in all directions but the ones Nec had carefully put them in before.
She looked up and saw Renn, Cora quickly moved as far away as possible from him, pressing her back against the wall.
"Oh for fuck's sake.", she said quietly in between breaths, "I- Nec did not let me know what was happening. I did not know you had entered the room", she relaxed a bit and looked at Renn.
"I am sorry you had to witness that."

Cora just stared onto the wall on the opposite side of her for a bit. Would...would Layne...would Layne really do that? Would he do the same things those men had done? He certainly meant that. Cora started getting more and more anxious. Her breath got heavier again. "No...no...I don't...I don't want to go through that again!", she started crying and held her head before bumping it against the wall behind her. She did it again, this time harder. And once again before she fell down sideways, pressing her hands onto her ears as if that would stop her from hearing thoughts.
She wimpered quietly.
"You know what they did...you know it...", Vex said quietly before the voice turned raspy, "And once again you will not do anything."
"I could not...", Cora cried quietly again. She looked over to the side and saw Renn. Cora gathered all the willpower she had and sat up again, taking her pillow and pressing it against her body. She started rocking back and forth until she had herself more under control. Still shaking a bit, but doing her best to not completly break down again.
"I am sorry, Renn...I am so sorry...I am sorry", she continued saying quietly, tears still flowing down her face.

Renn stood silent with his harsh state. Pain. Anger. Sorrow. Was that guilt? He wasn't really sure what he was meant to feel. Empty. Or at least, that's what he became.

"No...no...I don't...I don't want to go through that again!"
Cora started worrying and breaking down.
Renn assumed this was about Layne and what he suggested he would do.

"Idiot. What did I say at the hospital?"
König started, his glare never changing.
"I'm here... I've got you... no one can hurt you now."
A pause.
"I'll stay as long as you want me to."

The Snake walked oer to Cora and was about to gently place a hand on her head. Until the other personalities spoke. Renn didn't know which was which... but he was sure both of them spoke... and what they said made him hate them.

"I'm not going to shout or snap... because I'm here to protect Cora. However, I swear... that if you blame her for what's happened... you must be the dumbest 'things' ever to exist. One day, I hope to whatever God there may be that I get to punch one, if not both, of you."

Renn slowly kneeled infront of Cora, trying to look her in the eye.
"I shouldn't have let you be alone with such dangerous consequences. Especially knowing that that 'Auth' had something to do with it. So feel free to blame me, ok pup?"
The albino Alpha gave a soft smile.
"You shouldn't be the one apologising."

Cora smiled at Renn and wiped away the tears. He seemed quite mad at Nec and Vex. He had not seen much and he already was this mad at them. He also was mad at Auth. Most certainly for the fact that the mission she had been on with him was what got her captured in the first place. He confused her a bit by saying that he would be the one to blame. How? He had had nothing to do with it. He just got her out of that hell hole and visited her at the hospital, cared for her, watched out. And now even scolded 2/3 of her she did not appreciate much lately.

She took his hand and held it tightly with both of hers. She stared at his knuckles, which were a bit red and had a few abrasions, probably from punching Driscoll. Cora mustered him and found a few newly added bruises. Or blood on his clothing.
"You...", she sighed and leaned forward, almost hitting her head against his as she pulled out a first aid kit from under the bed.
She put it on the bed next to her and patted the spot on the opposite side, "Come sit down. I will patch you up. And...don't be ashamed of taking your shirt off now. You have seen me naked and at my worst point in life. I will never see you as vulnerable as you have seen me.", she smiled at him.

"Come sit down. I will patch you up. And...don't be ashamed of taking your shirt off now. You have seen me naked and at my worst point in life. I will never see you as vulnerable as you have seen me."

At least Cora seemed to have stabilised herself, that was good.
Renn didn't accept the offer, instead just looking at the first aid kit for a short moment.
"Dont worry about me. There's no need for that. Im not ashamed of being shirtless... nor am I ashamed of my wounds, they will heal. We can move on from our injuries, they can make us wiser and stronger. Don't let time define you."

Renn wasn't saying this for himself, he wanted to show Cora that no matter what happened to either of them, they'll be the same people.
König sat down next to Cora but didn't remove his shirt, he just looked to face her.
"If you don't heal from this quickly, our training together will be delayed more... that means I won't be able to kick your ass."
The Snake joked.

"Seriously, though. You're Cora and nothings going to change that. You're strong, you're stubborn and you can easily show you're better than letting this get to you. You have to."
Everything has an underlying reason. Or did it? Renn wasn't quite sure anymore. He thought it did. He didn't actually care about Cora being heed did he? He just wants her back in the game to use her, just like everyone else.

Or was it... that she seemed familiar? Similar to the one person he's so close to? Sure, they didn't look similar... but they both have unwavering determination and a strong sense of doing good. They also both trusted him.
The Snake decided to cut this line of thinking before he got too tangled up in it.

Cora frowned at him as he declined her patching him up, but quickly stopped doing so as he started talking.
She thought about him saying that wounds should not define you. But some did. Like the scar on their backs that they shared. It defined them, because it showed that both of them were part of the pack. It also showed that both of them were capable of being leaders and withstanding vast amounts of pain. But he probably did not mean in this way, he probably meant that they should not define you in a negative way. He was more than right about that. Just because Cora was now missing fingers should not make her unable to do certain things, or somehow change her character. She should not mourn her lost fingers for too long. Yes, they were to be mourned, esspecially the way they had been treated, but the mourning had to stop.

Cora chuckled as he talked about fighting with her, she bumped his shoulder and grinned, but did not reply. She would have loved to start fighting more with him. But right now was really not the time and both of them should really be less rough with each other. They needed some time to recover.

Not letting...this get to her? She was pretty sure what he referred to when he said 'this', but did not dare to ask about it. He was right. This was technically just another injury. And she was still Cora. She was not broken or ruined in any way. It was just another scar on her body. A small thing that would not affect her deeply...or would it?
The problem was...that she was scared of the same thing happening again to her. She did not want...she did not want them to do the same things again. Cutting her back? Sure. Yes, it would be incredibly painful. But still...it would be less bad. Less...taking away from her dignity. If she got another cut, another whiplash, another finger removed. All those only took parts of her body. Not her mind.

Cora took a deep breath and leaned her head on Renn's shoulder. "I...I will take some time till I am over that. And...Nec and Vex are not helping either.", she lifted her head again and leaned back, grabbing her pillow again to hug it. "They are constantly reminding me. And...", she stopped and laughed awkwardly, "I should stop. This will just bother you. I can't just tell you the problems I am having. We are both Alphas, and from my experience there is not a single one of us that is good at dealing with mental problems", she smiled, "Anyway. You are still hurt. And while I understood what you meant, and I agree with it. I should not let it take the upper hand...and just...I will try to stick to what you said. But I disagree with you just sitting here hurt. I think we both have learned to patch others up through the years. But we also both know that it is not the easiest to do it, let's say on your back.", she put the pillow away again and stared at him, waiting for him to agree. As he finally did she helped him out of his shirt and started cleaning his wounds. She carefully plucked threads of his shirt and other dirt out of his wounds and stitched cuts together.