Coyote Alpha

Response to TTH Challenge 408 - A Fun Day at the Zoo...Or not

Blatantly ripping off the Halloween theme challenge here.

How would the Season 1 episode "The Pack" have ended, had Xander and the other students been possessed by another animal spirit instead of the Hyena.

Pretty much anything goes, Lion, Eagle, Snake, Tortoise or Hare, Rat, Cat, Bat or something entirely different you choose.

Just as you, the author, choose if Xander retains any of the spirit. it's personality or abilities after the spell is broken, and what the consequences of that may be.

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Title: Coyote Alpha 1/?

Author: Greywizard

E-Mail: grey.wizard@verizon.net

Rating: G for this chapter, maybe R later for violence and some language. I'm not sure yet, but definitely not much worse than the show.

Disclaimer: They all belong to Crack-Head Joss and ME. Deal with it. I have.

Category: B/X, W/X and D/X friendship.

Summery: An alternate S1 version of 'The Pack.'

Time Frame: Through Season One, episode 6, 'The Pack.'

Spoilers: None

Character Bashing: None.

Feedback: Of course!

Archiving: If you want to archive this, just let me know where, please.

Author's Notes 1: As I was reading the first chapter of Tjin Ohiy Tur's story 'What Pack?', inspiration hit me (don't worry, it didn't do any damage). I don't get plot-bunnies, I get plot-Pit Bulls, and I felt compelled to start on this little distraction because it kept nipping at my heels until I stopped ignoring it. (The fact that my Muse (who usually looks like Jami Gertz in a green string bikini) was throwing small chunks of raw liver around my feet probably didn't help the situation any, either.) Anyway, thanks, Tjin, for the idea of what might have occurred if Dawn was also hanging around with the Scoobies when Xander got in touch with his 'inner animal.'

Author's Notes 2: Dawn is only two years younger than Buffy in this AU.

Author's Note 3: Many thanks to Bill Haden and Merlin for beta-ing this so quickly for me.

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Coyote Alpha



As he and Dawn headed down the shaded tarmac path leading to 'The Dog House,' which was currently housing part of UC Sunnydale's "Creatures of the American Southwest" exhibition, Xander began wondering whether the younger Summers sister's statement that Buffy and Willow had suggested they go on ahead without them was a completely accurate account of the girls' conversation while he had been getting the four of them their sodas and munchies in the zoo's snack bar.

Maybe he was being overly suspicious, but it seemed just a bit out of character for his two best buds to ditch him and Dawn and arrange to meet them later, especially with the way Mrs. Summers had emphasized to both girls that she expected them to be pleasant and civil to each other while on the trip.

Looking ahead, he noticed Kyle and his three fellow juvenile delinquent wannabes, Rhonda, Tor and Heidi, moving to block their way.

"Oh, look. It's Xander Harris and his friend, the other Summers loser," he sneered loudly as the other three snickered at the approaching twosome.

"Oops!" Xander exclaimed, as he suddenly seemed to trip on the tarmac and lose his grip on one of the large sodas he was carrying. The cup flew through the air and impacted on the sneering blonde, soaking him completely and making his companions burst into laughter at the abrupt reversal of fortune that had just occurred.

"What are you, Harris, some kind of spastic or something?" the seething and soaked goon demanded angrily as he pawed ineffectually at his shirt

"Oh, gee, I'm so sorry, Kyle!" the taller brunet apologized insincerely, his mouth quirked in a wide grin as he surveyed the damage his 'clumsiness' had done. Seeing Dawn open her mouth, he quickly nudged her with his elbow for her to keep quiet.

"I'm just so clumsy sometimes, I can't believe it," he said as he and Dawn moved on past the sputtering would-be tough guy. "But look on the bright side, man," he pointed out. "The root beer goes so nicely with your shirt."

Kyle's companions continued to laugh as the pair continued on their way, leaving the loudmouth glaring after them.

"Careful, Kyle! With the way your luck's running today, Summers might beat you up!" Xander and Dawn could hear Rhoda warning her boyfriend as the two of them walked away, matching grins on their faces.

"Amazingly good timing for your clumsiness, Xander," Dawn observed, trying not to laugh as she glanced up at him.

"What can I say, Miss Summers?" he grinned back at her. "Sometimes, you just get lucky."

"So, just how lucky do you think you might get today, Xander?" the younger brunette asked in an all too innocent tone of voice, leaning in a little closer as she looked up at him with an ingenuous expression in her large blue eyes.

The founding Scooby Gang member choked on the mouthful of Coke he had been swallowing and almost tripped over his own feet upon hearing Dawn's question, and he managed to avoid answering for the next few seconds as he gasped for breath.

Fate seemed to be a bit ambivalent about her feelings for the tall brunet that day, as he was rescued from further attempts at responding by the interruption of another female voice.

"He'd better consider the answer to that question *very* carefully if he wants all his bits and pieces to remain intact, Dawn," a glaring Buffy announced as she and Willow joined the two brunettes by one of the benches outside the wildlife exhibition building.

"You can't go around threatening people all the time just 'cause you're the Slayer, Buffy," Dawn snapped, her expression at seeing the other two girls joining them not one of happiness.

"Oh, I wasn't threatening Xander," Buffy smiled in what the sole male figure present considered a quite definitely evil manner. "I wouldn't even consider touching him, let alone doing anything to him, Dawn.

"I'd just mention the conversation to Mom," she said, delivering her coup-de-grace with all the finesse of a surgeon using a scalpel.

As Dawn opened her mouth to say something that Xander figured would most probably incite a small to medium apocalypse, the male Scooby desperately searched the area for some means of escape, his eyes lighting up with relief as he saw the group of figures duck underneath the yellow barricade tape and enter the closed-off entrance of 'The Dog House'.

"Uhm, excuse me, but I think I better go extract Lance from his association with the fugitives from the ape house he just went in there with. This job doesn't require actual slaying, Buffy, so you can stay here and enjoy the weather," he babbled quickly before practically running off towards the door Kyle's group had used.

Staring after the retreating brunet, Buffy commented doubtfully, "Don't you think we should follow?"

"Kyle and those guys are jerks, but they're all talk. Mostly," Willow noted.

Reconsidering, Buffy said, "Why don't we..."

"Yeah, why don't we?" Willow immediately agreed, as Dawn snorted with disgust.

"Has all the hair dye seeped in and finally affected your brain or something, Buffy?" she asked scornfully.

"Xander helps you fight vampires and other demons every night, things that are four times as strong as he is, and you think he needs help dealing with those losers? What color is the sky in your little version of reality, Buffy?" she snarked as she followed the other two as they ducked under the tape and started in, only to be caught in the act by a zookeeper.

"Okay, hold it! Hold it! Are you people blind, or are you just illiterate? Because coyotes are very quick to prey on the weak!"

"Oh, w-we were just gonna take..." Buffy began, before the zookeeper interrupted.

"You're not going in there. Anyone that does is in a world of trouble."

"No, no one's going in there," Willow readily agreed, as she, Dawn and Buffy backed out of the entrance foyer.

"Why is it off-limits?" Dawn demanded, looking to keep the zookeeper occupied and distracted from entering before Xander and the others could sneak out.

"It's a quarantine. These coyotes just came in from the Rocky Mountains; they're part of a pack that was captured for preying on cattle, so keep out," he explained, as he cocked an eye at the three girls. "Even if you hear them call your name."

"What are you talking about?" Buffy asked.

"Native American legends say that coyotes are capable of understanding human speech. They follow humans around by day, learning their names. And then at night, when the campfire dies, they call out to a person. Once they separate him, the pack attacks and devours them. Just like that!" he snapped his fingers.

***

Inside 'The Dog House,' Xander saw that Kyle and the others had torn through more tape blocking the way in and were now pressing Lance against the bars separating the coyotes from the viewing public as he struggled against them.

"Ow! Stop it! It's not funny!" he heard the terrified youth half-scream, as the others pressed him further back, bending him over the top rail of the fence enclosing the coyotes.

"Why don't you pick on somebody your own species?" the angry-eyed brunet glared at the would-be tough guys, as he rushed in and pulled their arms away from Lance, letting the smaller teen scramble away, his frantic actions smearing the intricate design marked on the floor before the coyotes habitat.

"What? Are *you* gonna get in my face?" Kyle sneered at the interfering good Samaritan, confident with the knowledge that his companions were present to back him up.

The coyotes abruptly growled loudly as they watched the confrontation before them, attracting Xander, Kyle and the others' attention. Suddenly, the coyotes' eyes flashed emerald green, and all five teenagers staggered momentarily, shaking their heads as if in a daze.

***

The Bronze

Later that night

"I thought Xander would be here by now," Willow commented as she searched the club's shadowed areas looking for him.

"Hmm, that'd make him on time. We couldn't have that!" Buffy observed rather complacently as she carried her Coke and croissant over to one of the numerous small tables filling the area around the dance floor.

"Did he seem upset at all on the bus back from the zoo?"

"About what?" the blonde asked curiously.

"I dunno. He was quiet."

"I didn't notice anything," Buffy told her as they sat down. "But then again, I'm not as hyperaware of him as, oh, say, for example, you."

"Hyperaware?"

"Well, I'm not constantly monitoring his health, his moods, his blood pressure..." the Slayer suggested with a small grin.

"130 over 80!" Willow grinned back.

"You got it bad, girl!" Buffy commented.

"He makes my head go tingly. You know what I mean?"

"I dimly recall."

"But it hasn't happened to you lately?"

"Not of late."

"Not even for a dangerous and mysterious older man whose leather jacket you're wearing right now?"

"Goes with the shoes!" Buffy protested in mock annoyance.

"Come on! Angel pushes your buttons. You know he does," the redhead declared firmly.

"I suppose some girls might find him good looking..." the Slayer admitted. Seeing the look she got from Willow, Buffy sighed and added, "...if they have eyes.

"Alright, he's a honey, but... it's just... he's never around, and when he is, all he wants to do is talk about vampires, and... I, I just can't have a relationship..." she continued morosely.

Willow, seeing Xander, interrupted. "There he is!"

"Angel?"

"Xander!"

Willow frowned as her childhood friend moved smoothly through the club, clearly checking out a girl he passed on the way.

What upset the redhead even more was the way the girl stared after Xander, clearly checking him out.

"Girls!" he greeted his friends with a small smile as he moved to stand next to their table.

"Boy!" Buffy snarked back at him, feeling a bit off-center as he merely stood and stared at the two of them.

There had been something about the way her friend had been moving that made her look at him...differently. He had sorta... flowed...as he moved, with a kind of grace and an ease of movement that he hadn't had, before... It was... interesting... Maybe Willow was right to enjoy the view...

"Sorry I'm late, I... just forgot that we were gonna be here," he said, his eyes flicking around the dark interior as though on a constant, unconscious watch for anything out of the ordinary.

"Xander, you still want me to help you with geometry tomorrow?" Willow asked, trying to break the uncomfortable silence that seemed to pervade the area around them. "We can work after class..."

"Yeah, sounds good to me, Wills," he agreed, his eyes never stopping in their circuit for more than an instant.

As he continued to scan the area, he leaned in slightly towards Buffy and sniffed her hair in an almost absentminded manner.

"Okay, now what?" Buffy demanded, obviously a bit wigged by her friend's behavior, not to mention the insinuation that she might be smelly.

"You took a bath."

"Yeah. I -I often do. I'm actually known for it," Buffy answered, her brow furrowed with concern at Xander's very non-typical behavior. Even considering it was the goofy brunet, he was acting strange.

"That's okay," he reassured her, as Willow and Buffy exchanged another 'look.'

"And the weird behavior award goes to..." Buffy announced, trying to regain control of a situation that was clearly headed towards Rod Serling-country.

"Oh, great. It's the winged monkeys," Buffy said, seeing Xander seem to bristle slightly and looking over her shoulder to see Kyle and the others come in and almost immediately head towards their table.

Xander merely stared at them as they approached, all four newcomers intent on the table, or possibly its occupants.

Kyle stopped at the table and glanced at both girls appraisingly before he and Xander locked eyes, while Tor, Rhonda and Heidi kept several feet back and watched.

Willow and Buffy exchanged another glance as the two males held their stares, but this look definitely held more concern, verging on worry, in it as they tried to figure out exactly what was going on.

The tension broke a moment later as Kyle finally looked away, and all of the strangely-acting teens all seemed to relax slightly.

"Mine. Now leave."

Xander's low-voiced statement was barely audible to Willow, but the steel she heard in it was unmistakable. She remembered the first time she heard it - it had been in second grade when some bullies were messing with her. That voice, she remembered, had stopped them cold. Kyle glanced over at the brunet one more time, before turning and leading his companions away to another table, where they began to hassle the current occupants.

"What was all that about?" Buffy demanded, recovering from the little shiver that had gone up and down her spine as she looked at the tall brunet whose gaze was now once again roaming the club.

"They decided that they didn't want the table after all," Xander told her enigmatically, and refused to expand on his comment as he sat between them, his back to the wall.

***

"Alright, it's raining, all regular gym classes have been postponed, so you know what that means," Coach Harrold announced jovially as he held up a large rubber ball, "dodgeball! Now, for those of you that may have forgotten, the rules are as follows: you dodge."

He tossed the ball in his hand to Buffy, as he blew his whistle, and the two groups moved back from center court. He tossed several more balls onto the court, then whistled again and the ball throwing commenced.

Xander was standing to the left side and a few feet forward of Willow, with Buffy reflexively mirroring his position on the redhead's other side, a position that had become second nature from the last two months of patrolling the Hellmouth at night.

Reaching out and catching a ball aimed at Willow, he whipped it back as quickly as it had come at the person who threw it, nailing his first victim, Heidi, and eliciting a yip of surprise and pain from her at the unexpectedly rapid return attack.

Kyle, Tor and Rhonda all immediately glanced over towards the brunette, who was staring at Xander with a combination of hurt and resentment as she slunk off the floor, and all three's eyes narrowed in anger. Each snatched a ball, either from the floor or from someone nearby holding one, and fired it towards the tall brunet who was staring back at them, an equally dark expression on his face.

Once again almost casually catching the ball hurtling towards him with one hand, Xander used it to bat the second one away and uttered a short, "Buff!" before swaying to the side, letting the third pass by him with inches to spare.

Buffy, meanwhile, had picked up on his cue and threw the ball she had caught at the pack members, easily hitting Tor as he, Rhonda and Kyle had focused their attention on Xander. Acting in concert, the two quickly eliminated Rhonda and Kyle by double-teaming against them, the first shot by one forcing the target to dodge into the path of the second's attack.

The coach was obviously enjoying the game from his position on the sidelines, letting out a small chuckle of delight each time a student was hit and clapping his hands at especially hard hits.

"God, this game is brutal. I love it!" he muttered to himself, a wide smile on his face. He even let out a loud laugh when Willow was hit and knocked to the floor while off-balance from dodging another ball, calling out, "Nice hit, Fleming!" to the student responsible.

Unfortunately for the corpulent phys-ed teacher, he completely missed the expression of fury Xander threw at him as he helped Willow climb back to her feet and watched her leave the floor, rubbing the large red mark on her arm where the ball had hit.

Grabbing two balls from the floor, Xander quickly moved several feet forward and to the side, taking up a precise position before nodding to Buffy, who was also eying Willow's assailant with a dire look that was making the boy think twice about his decision to take advantage of the redhead's inattention.

Rapidly firing both balls one after the other, Xander smiled as Fleming dodged out of the way of his first shot and was hit by Buffy's ball just above his right ankle, neatly taking him off his feet, just as he had intended with the distraction, while Xander's second shot seemingly went wild, hurtling wide of the boy's position and ricocheting off two of the gym's walls, before smashing into the side of Coach Harrold's head and knocking him off the bleacher and onto the gym floor.

"Oops, sorry about that, Coach," the tall brunet called, the barest hint of a smirk on his face as he watched the coach dazedly climb to his feet, an expression of dazed bewilderment on the teacher's face as he tried to figure out what had happened, "but like you said, this game is brutal. And accidents do happen."

Coming up beside him Buffy didn't even try to hide her smile at Xander's 'accidental' throw. She just admired the geometry of his shot and again reminded herself never to play pool with Xander for money.

"Come on, guys," he said as he walked off the floor, his arm curled protectively around Willow's shoulders as Buffy flanked the redhead on the opposite side, fussing over the already forming bruise on the hacker's arm. "Looks like all the fun's done now."

***