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Note 1:
Some clearance for the ranking system of Hellhounds and how it works with their transformation levels (cerberus/orthrus/hellhound)
There are three actual ranks, alpha, beta and omega, which contain about 95% of the hellhound population. The remaining 5% are the dogheads, who are not allowed to be on any rank, they are put reportedly out of the system because of preconceptions of them not being able to handle anything but being the lowest beings and something akin to slaves, just because they cannot transform.
Hellhounds are born to their ranks (the same way like being a child of a king makes you a royal and being a child of a peasant makes you a peasant), but any of them (of the 95%) can go between ranks. For example, Derek was a born beta before he elevated to an alpha. He could have chosen to remain as a beta, or relegate to an omega if he had felt so. He can move between the ranks as he wants to, but not effortlessly, because the process needs certain rituals.
A ritual can be transferred from other of the rank he wants to be by changing blood with an omega or with a beta in a peaceful gesture, or killing an alpha. The last one is gruesome but it’s something that has been left from the old times. The ritual can also be performed by the Alpha Hound, where they bite the hellhound and give them their own blood. This can be assimilated with a king/queen knighting a person / taking the knight title away. Peter was a beta whom had this performance with Laura, so he could be an alpha too. It’s not recommended to move straight from an omega to an alpha (or other way), as it can do weird things to your brain. It’s good to be even a day or two as a beta before the final ritual, but usually a hellhound waits for a few years before taking another step in rank, so it would go smoothly as possible. It’s not documented, but after moving in a rank (up or down) certain hormones activate/ deactivate in the hellhounds body and brain, so hellhounds will know how to respond to them (for example: will they bow their heads for an alpha or shake hands with a beta or touch the shoulder of an omega, or just ignore a doghead).
Cerberus/ orthrus/ hellhound (referred as COH status from this point), these are the levels which show the hellhounds ability to change, to transform. This is something that a hellhound has from the birth, as it is genetic. It cannot be changed, like you cannot change your blood group or the colour of your eyes.
Because the ranking system is somewhat fluid, it has little to do with the person’s COH status. Even if there’s no actual scientific surveillance, it’s a static that common hellhounds are more usually than not omegas, orthruses are betas and cerberuses are alphas.
A hellhound-leveled is a hellhound who can transform from a humanoid-form to a hound. Boyd is a hellhound, who was born as an omega, but who has worked his way through to be a beta and is at the moment working to be an alpha someday.
An orthrus can transform from a humanoid to a hound and to a great two-headed hound. Erica is a beta orthrus; she has the highest chances to move in between ranks if she wants to. The chance of her cubs being orthrus/beta is very likely (hellhounds tend to be the same rank/COH-status their mothers are), but because of latent and hidden genes there is a change that they can be any mix of the rank/COH-status.
A cerberus can transform from a humanoid to a hound, two-headed, and a monstrous three-headed hound. Isaac is a beta cerberus, thus making him being more likely to access the rank of an alpha (which is the reason Derek put him in charge of that one pack) and being a great leader someday (that is a false statement which hellhounds tend to ignore; being a high ranked and able to transform as you please do not equal as a great leader who cares for their pack).
Laura is a born alpha and a cerberus, and this made her the heir of the previous Alpha Hound, outranking Peter who is older and born beta (and Derek who is a born beta too). Laura is probably the only one with dogheads who cannot move in between alpha/beta/omega (ABO-ranks) ranks because she is the Alpha Hound. Giving away the title would mean her death, because you can only become the Alpha Hound by the death of the previous (as a side note, if you are going to kill the Alpha Hound, they have to die from your bite to the neck, or the title will move to their heir by blood). This is a shitty thing because sometimes she’d like to have a holiday and just be an omega for a while.
Dogheads are said to be of not having the gene that allows transforming, so they are stuck to be dog/wolf-headed humanoids. Scott is a one, and he’s soon starting to realize that some pompous ass in the past was wrong about some things concerning the dogheads…