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gamerwoo · 1 year ago

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[Tales from the Pack] Soonyoung: Imperfect (Part Eleven)

Characters: Soonyoung x female reader

Genre/warnings: werewolf au, fantasy, angst, fluff at the end, they talk a lot about like rut and stuff but nothing happens, murder, suicide, lots of blood and gore, guns, mind control, lmk if i missed anything!!

Word count: 7,116

Summary: Soonyoung has always been desperate to find his mate, often going out into town at night to fill the void of imprinting that he craves so much. Then suddenly, you (quite literally) appear in front of him. He’d always dreamed and fantasized about what having his mate would be like, but the reality is nothing like he expected.

a/n: dialogue in bold is meant to be english and whenever soonyoung says reader’s name it’s meant to be reader’s surname

Previous | Next | Imperfect Masterlist

Kyung had stopped by the first day Soonyoung’s rut started just to let you know. It was only a couple days after you’d gone back with Hanbin to your old house, and the only thing you’d heard for the last two days was Jinyoung, Jaesang, and Hyojun making jokes about your mate’s situation that you could half understand.

You weren’t sure if it was because you knew it had started now, or if your instincts just knew, but it got harder for you to just stay home after Kyung went to visit.

The first day was pretty easy, but there was still a part of you that considered sneaking over despite what Soonyoung said. But your conversation with him -- and Kyung...and Joshua -- had you thinking: were you only feeling this way out of instinct, or did you really feel this way? Did you want to help him because you wanted to or because your instincts told you that you wanted to? You considered asking Rika, but you were also afraid that if you showed any interest in sneaking over that Hanbin would worry too much and make the boys take watch shifts or something.

Even though Jiung always very understanding and adamant that everyone in the pack could take care of themselves, no matter their gender or power or any circumstance, you were always ‘the baby’ along with Baekhan --and Minhun for the few days he was there. While Jiung and everyone else in the pack trusted you to take care of yourself and even others when needed, you always knew you were treated differently. More carefully. Like Baekhan, you were shy. You didn’t like new people and so your pack would step up and do it for you. It was partly why you took so long to even learn the language of the place you currently lived. You didn’t have any chance to try because you knew someone else would do it for you. But on top of that, you were the two that the pack was always most likely to jump in to save if you ever needed help. You were one of the middle members, but they treated you like the youngest. So you were sure if they sensed you were going to leave, Hanbin would surely make sure you couldn’t as to keep you safe.

So, you kept your thoughts to yourself.

Maybe your thoughts were making it harder, but you wanted to go even more the second day. You were starting to now silently consider your options for escape if you did decide to act on your wants. You knew your bedroom window was the best bet, but you also knew someone would no doubt hear you when you landed on the ground. You could try to jump to the tree and climb down, but you weren’t sure if they’d question hearing the leaves shake so suddenly. Maybe you could try sneaking downstairs after everyone went to sleep and exiting through one of those windows since the doors were kind of creaky lately. But someone would notice an open window, right?

‘What are you doing?’

Hearing Baekhan in your head made you jump. You knew he could hear thoughts, but that was never an issue for you since he couldn’t understand English. But you forgot that if you were visualizing something, he could see it.

When he saw you thinking about instances with past members of the pack the day before, he didn’t think anything of it. But now you were imagining yourself climbing out of windows? Obviously, that was suspicious.

‘Fuck off, Baek.’

‘You’ve learned more words than that,’ he chuckled.

You just ignored him and tried to distract yourself with reading instead.

By the third day, you were getting antsy. You were walking around downstairs just trying to find something to do. When you started getting questioned about that, you went back to your room and couldn’t manage to sit and be distracted. You found yourself reading the same paragraph of your book over and over again because you couldn’t focus on the page, and even trying to knit or draw wasn’t holding your attention. You were too fidgety.

You were going to go. You had decided.

Your eyes looked to the window. It was still broad daylight out, but maybe you could--

A knock on your door made you jump.

“Come in,” you replied, sounding painfully up to something.

The door opened, only to have a very unamused Baekhan standing in the hallway, staring at you with yellow eyes. After a moment of you saying nothing, he quirked a brow.

“Can you leave me alone?” you groaned.

‘Your pronunciation needs work.’

You sneered at him before rolling your eyes and telling him, “I’m trying. You don’t even know English.”

Baekhan gave you a questioning look before all you could see in your head was you sneaking out the window. Then you saw Seungcheol’s house -- your house. He was asking if that was your plan, probably.

“It’s none of your business,” you muttered, unable to meet his eyes as your cheeks heated up.

Suddenly, you were being bombarded with different scenarios. One where Hanbin caught you and reprimanded you. One where Seungcheol caught you and reprimanded you. Even one where you did happen to make it to the house with nobody in your way, but Soonyoung was made to look overly-feral in this scenario with bright red eyes and wild hair as he ran at you.

Baekhan stopped before Soonyoung reached you, and then shrugged when your eyes focused back on him.

You rolled your eyes and sighed. While you knew Soonyoung wouldn’t do anything malicious like what it seemed in Baekhan’s weird image, you knew he would still attack -- even if it wasn’t in a dangerous kind of way.

The youngest showed you a final scenario, but this was a memory. Hanbin was explaining the situation to the pack, stating that Soonyoung requested you to be kept away from him until his rut had ended. He was basically reminding you that this is what Soonyoung wanted and you shouldn’t go against him.

You knew he was right. Despite wanting to go see him, you knew you shouldn’t go against what he wanted. He’d probably blame himself for anything that would happen because of you showing up, even if you said you wanted to help. It didn’t matter what you wanted, it was about what he wanted.

‘Do you want to go to town?’

You met his eyes again. This time, Baekhan was looking at you with soft eyes and his signature small, shy smile.

Even though you and Baekhan were often considered the babies, you two rarely hung out together. Not only did he never talk, but he could never understand you. Even though his power was all about the mind, he couldn’t understand you if you thought in a language he didn’t understand. He had sometimes talked to you by showing you things, like he’d done now, but still, the two of you didn’t interact that often.

So the fact that he was offering to go to town with you as a distraction was actually really sweet. And, of course, the fact he didn’t snitch on you was also nice.

The opposite for you was happening to Soonyoung. Every day, things got a little bit easier. Only a little, though. By the third day, he was still a mess, but he seemed to be coherent longer and had more breaks in between.

Still, he had to be chained up, and for at least the first day, they had Soonyoung on consistent watch as per his request after the first incident. He had first tried to leave the house to get to you on the first day, and Joshua was the first to spot him and immediately go after him, not knowing where he was going but having a pretty good idea.

“Chan, get Soonyoung!” Josh had called as he raced out of the house after the rogue alpha.

It took a couple of seconds, but suddenly, a gust of wind blew by Josh before Soonyoung was tackled by the blur onto the ground. It only stayed that way for a second before Soonyoung threw Chan off of him, but it was enough to stall Soonyoung for Josh to get to him, and for other members of the pack to realize what was happening and race outside, too.

Josh tackled Soonyoung as soon as he tried to get up, pinning the alpha to the ground.

“I took a chunk out of one ear, and I can do the same to the other,” Soonyoung threatened.

“Relax, hornball,” Josh deadpanned, fighting to keep Soonyoung pinned down. “If you go to _____, you’re going to regret it later.”

But Soonyoung wasn’t listening. His instincts were fogging up his mind and he couldn’t think clearly. Had he could, he wouldn’t have attempted to use his powers to get Joshua off of him. His eyes glowed to life, a cold silver that signaled to Josh that his mind was about to no longer be his, but he still refused to move. Just as the healer’s arms started to shake, a translucent blue color appeared around him and he let out a breath of relief. Soonyoung’s eyes flickered to the side to see Wonwoo’s eyes focusing in on Joshua, so the alpha zeroed in on his new target.

Seungcheol got to him just in time to slap him across the face and snap him out of his power, and Wonwoo visibly relaxed. Joshua got up, allowing Seungcheol and Minghao to take Soonyoung under his arms and hoist him up. Seungcheol used one arm to hold onto Soonyoung, and the other to hold his head down so he couldn’t look at anyone to use his power.

After they’d gotten him chained up again and that wave had ended, Soonyoung weakly called out for whoever might be listening. By that time, Kyung, Hansol, and Jihoon had returned from Hanbin’s, so it was the latter who entered.

“Don’t let me get out again,” he panted. “Do whatever it takes.”

“Want us to set up a watch schedule?” Jihoon scoffed.

Soonyoung just nodded, “Whatever it takes.”

However, he only tried to escape one other time, and it was technically Jooyeon who caught him. He tried sneaking out through the window, which the ex-thief had tied a string to that would snap and ring a bell if it were opened. That would alert the wolves that Soonyoung was escaping so they could catch him.

The second trap, she never thought would actually work, but it did. And boy, did the pack have a laugh seeing Soonyoung hanging upside-down from one foot under a tree.

After that, he seemed to have stopped trying to escape. Maybe it was because his senses were slowly starting to come back to him, and maybe the waves were less intense. But either way, the pack started to think they could be more lax with their constant watches.

“Almost halfway over,” Seungcheol sighed, his head tilted back as he ran a hand through his hair.

“I think he’s one of the roughest ones we’ve dealt with,” Soomin nodded.

“Who knew he was so full of pent-up sex aggression,” Yeji snorted, only for almost everyone in the living room to raise their hands.

“Absolutely everyone,” Danbi chuckled. She let out a sigh afterwards and looked to Seungcheol. “We should’ve assumed how bad it would’ve gotten if he found his mate, though.”

“Well, in a perfect world, his werewolf mate would be perfectly suited to take whatever he can throw. Unfortunately, there’s a language barrier along with _____’s anxieties and overall shyness,” Seungcheol explained. “As we’ve discovered time and time again: the world isn’t perfect.”

Jooyeon entered the kitchen, having been upstairs in the shower after her turn to watch Soonyoung. She stopped when she noticed her mate lounging in a kitchen chair, still drying her dripping hair with a towel.

“Aren’t you supposed to be on watch, alpha?” she asked.

He shrugged and closed his eyes, seeming tired. He had a lot to deal with the last few days so it was understandable.

“He’s been fine,” he decided with a yawn. “He’ll still be fine if I rest my eyes a couple minutes.”

“You can rest your eyes sitting in front of his door, too,” she pointed out.

“Nobody wants to sit on a floor to sleep, Jooey,” Jun stated.

She rolled her eyes, “Yeah, nobody wants to sit on a wooden floor to sleep because a wooden chair is way more comfortable, right?”

“I let you take leave to shower and you’re complaining at me anyway?” Seungcheol asked, peeling an eye open to playfully glare at his mate.

“Isn’t my thing complaining?”

“Much less so lately,” Chan shrugged with a nod.

It was just as the conversation turned away from Soonyoung that the door to Soonyoung’s room burst open, sounding like it had completely splintered in half. All bodies sat up straighter for just a second as they listened to loud footsteps before everyone sprung into action. Soonyoung was already barreling out the door before Seungcheol could shout for Chan to catch up to him.

“Nice slacking, alpha,” Jooyeon said, side-eyeing Seungcheol.

He just slowly turned his head to glare down at her.

The Capitol was amusing enough. Since it was so large, there were plenty of places to go and walk around. Lots of parks, lots of markets, and lots of neighborhoods that were nice to just stroll around in. Jiung never taught the pack to steer clear of populated places because nobody within the Capitol ever asked about newcomers. Too many people lived in the Capitol to ever be fussy about people ‘not belonging’ in a neighborhood.

But with so much to do at the Capitol meant easily losing track of time. Typically, you and Baekhan would’ve thought that was fine. Plenty of people stayed out after dark to go wandering bars or to continue their shopping under fairy lights strung about the market or in trees.

“Curfew call!” guards began to bellow, hands cupped around their mouths.

As townsfolk began to hurry out of the market and to their houses, you and Baekhan paused and looked at each other in confusion.

“Curfew?” you asked.

You recognized the word. There was a time not too long after you’d joined the pack when Jiung set a curfew. Luka was murdered in the woods and Jiung was concerned for the safety of everyone else. You had no plans of leaving the house anyway, mourning the only other wolf you’d become close with in the pack, but you remembered Jiung saying the word over and over again, warning the wolves to remember the curfew.

Baekhan looked at you with a mix of confusion and worry. He didn’t seem to know there was curfew, either. The Capitol had never implemented a curfew. Why did they suddenly start now?

He didn’t let you hear his thought, but you knew Baekhan was panicking from the way his eyes started around and he started to get antsy. His shook his hands out at his sides like they were wet, swiveling his head like he was trying to find an out.

You placed a hand on his shoulder, “It’s okay.”

His brown eyes finally landed on you, still looking wide and scared. But he suddenly seemed to remember your power and relaxed, taking a deep breath and nodding.

The two of you start toward the direction of home, making sure to stay within the Capitol. If a guard saw the two of you sneaking off into the woods, it would be suspicious. You’d have to find a secluded area for you to use your power and then sneak out. Even though you knew you could get the two of you out, you still felt anxious. If a guard approached you, you weren’t sure if you’d be able to keep your cool and cover for you and the youngest member of the pack. You’d have to, though, since Baekhan was nonverbal. Everything rested on your shoulders.

Baekhan suddenly gripped your wrist and halted you. His eyes seemed to light up as his head perked up. He must’ve heard someone’s thoughts that he found to be important.

Wordlessly, he tugged you off to the east, and you let him without protest or even questioning it. He weaved between houses and short pathways behind them until he poked his head around a small alleyway between houses. You shuffled around him to look, already sensing whoever was back there was a werewolf. Your eyes found a man crouched down, eyes trained to the ground before his head suddenly snapped to the side and his eyes locked on yours. His hair was blonde and tied half-up. He slowly stood and he seemed to be only a few inches taller and a little thinner than Baekhan. He had full lips and sharp eyes that despite knowing you were just like him, seemed to study you warily.

“A-are you okay?” you asked shyly.

You didn’t quiet understand his reply, but using what words you caught, you assumed he wanted to go home but was unsure how to do so with the curfew. At least you weren’t the only ones who seemed taken off guard by the curfew thing.

The man suddenly took a startled step backwards, eyebrows furrowing but eyes widening.

“What was that?” he asked.

You assumed it was Baekhan as he started to approach. The man seemed to relax. You wished Baekhan would let you in on what he was saying, too, but he must’ve assumed you wouldn’t understand most of it anyway.

“I’m Hyunjin,” he said, looking between the two of you. He must’ve been informed of the language barrier. “What’s your name?”

Instead of replying with your name, you gave your surname as a reflex. Baekhan noticed the slip-up and looked at you with a smirk. You just jabbed him in the arm with your shoulder.

“Do you need help getting home?” you asked, changing the subject.

Hyunjin nodded toward Baekhan, “He said you can...disappear?”

At least this Hyunjin guy seemed to mostly know English. You could definitely have helped him even if he only knew Korean, but this made it way easier for you to communicate with him.

“I can turn invisible,” you nodded, and Hyunjin seemed to nod like you’d reminded him of the word he was trying to think of. “Just hang onto me and I can get all of us out of here.”

You held your hand out to him, and Hyunjin walked the rest of the steps toward you to gingerly take it. Then you held your hand palm-up for Baekhan, who slapped his hand into yours. With a tight grip on both boys for good measure, you disappeared from the rest of the world and traveled back up the alleyway and toward your destination.

Despite wanting to know more about Hyunjin, the three of you kept quiet as you led the way through the Capitol, silently walking by people going to their homes as well as guards keeping watch. Even after you were in the trees, you didn’t let go of the two until you had walked for another 10 minutes, and the two boys stayed silent for the same amount of time.

“I think we’re safe,” you declared with a sigh, letting them go.

“Thank you guys,” Hyunjin offered you both a warm smile. “I should’ve been more mindful of the time, but I got distracted helping this lost kid find their mom and next thing I know, the mom’s thanking me while the guards are calling curfew. I thought my ass was toast.”

Baekhan replayed his words in your head like a short movie so you knew what he was talking about.

“What is the curfew for?” you wondered slowly.

“It’s a new law implemented by the royal family,” he explained. “There’s apparently been an increase in werewolf sightings -- but I can guarantee it hasn’t been any of my brothers. We’re all so careful.”

When you saw the flash of the royal family, you didn’t even need the rest of the explanation. You should’ve just assumed it was another law they put in place. They were the one who outlawed werewolves, anyway. King Moon Yeongcheol, Queen Lee Eunjeong, and Princess Moon Chaerin. While the King and Queen made all the laws and oversaw the country, the Princess was in line for the throne and was to follow in her parents’ footsteps. Everyone knew who they were, even if they’d never seen them. Baekhan had only seen photos of the royal family, but you knew some of the pack had seen them in person.

You heard Baekhan’s question in your head, but you knew it was directed at Hyunjin. He just didn’t want to leave you out of the conversation this time.

‘How many other packs are around?’

Hyunjin scoffed, “You’d be surprised. A lot of strays, too.”

“Hyunjin,” you spoke up, “where do you live?”

He turned to point toward the northeast, “That way.”

‘We’ll walk you,’ Baekhan offered.

“You guys don’t have to, it’s seriously fine. I’ll be fine.”

But even with Jiung gone, it was still ingrained in you to help others. So the two of you insisted until Hyunjin sighed and agreed, saying maybe it would be nice for his brothers to make friends outside the pack. Something about protection in numbers, which you didn’t really believe in anymore but you wouldn’t burst his bubble.

“Our place is a little...obscure,” he explained, Baekhan making sure to show you pictures of anything he possibly could to translate. “Our house got burned down by hunters a while back so we’re living in a pretty strange place. It’s nice, though. They’d never find us. It’s this huge cleared out space underneath this giant old tree. Looks like something you’d read in some fairytale, honestly. But it fits us all, it hasn’t collapsed, and it’s hidden. But yeah, just...ignore all the dirt.”

You listened as Baekhan explained to Hyunjin what happened with Seungcheol’s old house and how that was how your first alpha got murdered. Hyunjin let out a soft gasp and gave his condolences, but Baekhan moved on to talk about how they were offered your old house as a place to live.

“Yeah, our two eldest members have been out trying to find a new home,” Hyunjin nodded slowly. “One of them is the alpha, so our third oldest is acting alpha for now. His name is Changbin. He’s like you guys. He has a power. Him, Felix, and Chan.”

“What can they do?” you wondered.

“Changbin can control earth, Felix can shapeshift into other animals, and Chan can take away pain. The only catch with Chan’s is it make him feel it instead.��

You sucked in a breath between your teeth as Baekhan scrunched up his nose.

“Ouch...” you muttered.

“It’s honestly so fitting for him,” he chuckled. “You’ll get it once you meet him. He’s the nicest guy you could ever meet.”

Hyunjin began to ramble about the seven other members of his pack, and you were vaguely catching on. Your thoughts were starting to wander back to Soonyoung anyway so you weren’t too focused either way.

But you were brought back to reality suddenly when you heard what sounded like a gunshot, followed by another, and then another. All three of you froze, turning to look toward where the sounds had come from.

Baekhan may have taken the lead when it came to conversing with Hyunjin, but he looked to you with fear now, hoping for you to have the answers this time.

‘You don’t think it’s...’ his question trailed off, not even wanting to say the word.

But it was. You could sense it. You knew Hyunjin sensed it, too.

“Come on,” Hyunjin said suddenly, already turning back and walking even faster now. “you guys can hide out at my place until it’s safe.”

He started jogging, and then sprinting, and the two of you were following on his heels, trying to get as far away from the werewolf hunters as you could as quickly as possible. You weren’t sure why they were in the woods -- if it they were somehow tipped off to your presence or if they were out there looking for one of the other werewolves Hyunjin claimed to be in the area -- but you weren’t sticking around to find out.

You wished maybe you weren’t going so fast. Then maybe you would’ve paid better attention. Maybe you would’ve caught a glimpse of shining silver buried underneath the leaves. Or maybe you wouldn’t have and it was inevitable. But there was no fixing your mistake once it was done.

You let out a loud yelp as you fell to the forest floor. Your ankle burned, not just from the sharp teeth of the trap that bit into your flesh, but from the sizzle of the silver it was made out of. You let out loud cries and whimpers, your body writhing from the pain as you were unable to escape it.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Hyunjin was frantic when him and Baekhan turned and got on their knees beside you to assess what had happened. He looked up at the younger wolf and worked to take off his shirt while he talked, stuffing it somewhat gently into your mouth to muffle your screams. “Just keep going the direction we were going until you hit the widest tree in the forest -- you can’t miss it. I’ll stay with her.”

You weren’t sure what was being said. You weren’t even sure if Baekhan was letting you hear his thoughts because all you could focus on was the extreme amount of pain you felt. It was the worst pain of your life. It made you feel dizzy and lightheaded. You’d never passed out but you were sure the pain would make you do just that.

“Are you sure?” you vaguely heard Hyunjin ask. Then he was scrambling to his feet. “I’ll come back with my pack, I promise.”

He took off, leaving you and Baekhan in the woods. You couldn’t hear his thoughts but you could tell his was frantic as you tried your best to roll over and look up at him. His eyes were filled with tears that you could barely see through your own.

It felt like the teeth of the trap were being pulled out, slowly and painfully. The burning ache was torture, but your attention managed to be captured. Baekhan let out a wild wail. You’d never heard him make any sort of noise, at least not that loud. But he was fully crying out and yelling, and you looked down to where he knelt by your ankle.

Eyes squeezed shut and biting down on his lip so hard it was bleeding, Baekhan was using his bare hands to pry the wolf trap open and off of your leg. His palms were being sliced between the teeth and his flesh sizzled from the silver, but he persisted until you could weakly pull your leg out. He quickly dropped the thing and let it clamp shut on itself, stained with your blood and his. Then he took the shirt from your mouth with shaky hands, tearing strips from it to bandage his own hands and then your ankle.

Wordlessly, he gathered you in his arms before he stood on shaky legs. He started off jogging, but managed to gather more speed. Maybe adrenaline was kicking in, but you were more thankful than you could ever express that the pup had done any of that for you.

You tried to focus and use your power. You wanted to protect the two of you as best as you could while Baekhan tried to run with you in the direction Hyunjin pointed him in, but it was hard to focus. The pain was unbearable and you seemed to be struggling to even stay awake. You felt dizzy and out of it. You felt like just going to sleep. You felt--

Suddenly, you and Baekhan were getting close to the ground until he crashed on top of your body with a thud. You let out a cry of pain as his full weight landed on you unexpectedly.

He was suddenly rolled off of you, and you heard angry yelling that you couldn’t understand because everything sounded like you were underwater now. Then you were being rolled over, a man pinning you down with his body and pointing a gun straight between your eyes. He was yelling something at you, his spit spraying your face. You couldn’t even react; couldn’t even struggle against him. You felt drained of all your energy.

But you thought of Soonyoung. You thought of him back at home and how you’d now never get the chance to do any of the things you wanted with him. You hardly even got to experience living with him, and now you’d get none of the other experiences you wanted.

You continued to stare up at the hunter, eyes half-open as you didn’t even register any of the words he quite literally spat at you. You couldn’t even be afraid of the imminent death you faced. All you could think of was Soonyoung, which oddly brought you comfort through the grogginess and pain you felt.

Suddenly, the man stopped, his eyes glowing a dull silver. Mechanically, his arm holding the gun bent to point it at his own temple before he pulled the trigger, falling the way the bullet shot through his skull. Your face was splattered with the warm, sticky liquid, but you couldn’t find it in yourself to care. You couldn’t even find the strength to be afraid.

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw a flash of brown. You managed to loll your head to the side to see a familiar wolf tackling the hunter that was on top of Baekhan while he was horrified from what his partner had done to himself. The wolf immediately tore into the man’s neck with his sharp teeth, and Baekhan sat up on his elbows with wide, fearfull eyes as he watched the scene. Then he looked to you, then behind you.

A shadow leaned over above you, and your eyes lazily looked up again. Soonyoung’s eyes met yours, going from a silver to blood red. He looked absolutely heartbroken, even upside-down. His warm hand cupped your cheek that was still stained with someone else’s blood, and you weakly leaned into his touch.

“The rest of the pack are on their way,” he promised you in a soft voice. “Don’t move and someone will get you. I’ll keep you safe.”

You half registered his words, but you had no plans on moving anyway. Soonyoung stood from his crouched position, and now you could see he was only wearing a pair of loose, thin shorts. He stood protectively in front of you, using his power to take over the minds of the rest of the hunters who were following behind the others as backup. Chan tackled two to three hunters at a time, and Baekhan got up and did his best to help. But the trio was beginning to get overpowered with the guns and weapons designed to subdue and kill them. Soonyoung was blindfolded, Chan was taken down with a net and had multiple hunters pointing guns and swords at him, and Baekhan was too easy to overpower with his wounds. His mind control powers were too weak when all he could focus on was the pain in his hands.

Just as things seemed bleak, a roar ripped through the forest. It wasn’t one like a werewolf, though. This one was deeper and more powerful. It shook your eardrums and even made you cringe a bit from how loud it was.

You swore you were hallucinating when you saw a lion leap over you and take out five hunters. Like Chan, he began tearing into them with his claws and sharp teeth, letting out roars in between as he attacked.

Then more wolves appeared from behind where you laid on the forest floor, helping to free Soonyoung, Chan, and Baekhan. A man with black hair and a fitted undershirt stepped into your view, curling his hands toward the ground and then toward the sky, his fingers turning into claws like he was scooping into sand. Large chunks of the ground rose up, and he pelted them at the hunters.

“_____!” you heard your name being cried out but you couldn’t move to see who it was.

Kyung skidded onto her knees beside you, searching your face and cupping it with warm hands, brushing hair that was stuck to your face with blood away. She looked like she wanted to cry.

“What happened?” she asked frantically. “Where’re you hurt?”

“L-leg...” you managed to croak out. “Trap...”

Her eyes scanned down and she saw your leg wrapped in cloth that was now soaked through with blood. She cursed under her breath and looked back to your face.

“Soonyoung’ll bring you home, okay?” she told you. “We’re gonna take care of these guys. You’re gonna be okay. He’ll bring you to Josh and you’ll be fine. Just hang on a little more, okay?”

“Baek, too?” you rasped.

She nodded quickly, not even asking why you’d mention him, “Of course.”

Just before she stood, you saw her eyes glow to a fiery orange. Large flames ignited in each of her hands before she stalked toward the fight.

You tried to listen to her. You tried to hang on a little longer. But you were so tired and your eyelids were getting heavier and heavier.

The treetops were the last things you saw, and the last thing you heard over the chaos was, “Help Baekhan! Get him out of here now!”

It felt like you were being carried. Your legs were dangling, and as you were beginning to come to, it hurt more and more every time your left leg swayed. You let out a soft whimper, not meaning to make any noise but you can’t help it.

“I know, baby,” you heard Soonyoung’s soft voice and it instantly made you feel warm. “I know it hurts. We’re almost to Shua, I promise.”

You were finally able to open your eyes, but they threatened to roll back again from just how exhausted you were. They focused up on Soonyoung who looked down at you and offered a small smile.

“Hey, _____,” he said almost casually.

“Where’s Baekhan?” you croaked.

“Coming,” he promised you. “He’s safe."

He had noticed how he was struggling and ordered his pack and the mystery pack to help him. Before he took you, he made sure someone would be bringing him to Joshua, so he was sure Baekhan wasn’t too far behind the two of you.

That at least made you feel better. You knew he was injured really bad. You weren’t sure how you’d ever make it up to him for what he did for you.

“So, you made friends?” he asked with a chuckle.

You were confused for a moment, and he could tell by the slight furrow in your brow.

“Hyunjin, right?” he asked. “His pack helped.”

Right, the lion. That’s what that must’ve been. And the guy who threw chunks of the earth. He had said two of them had earth and shapeshifting powers.

“Are they safe?” you asked.

Soonyoung hummed as he nodded and then laughed again and asked, “Can you be a little more worried about yourself?”

As if he wasn’t worried about you enough for the both of you. He sensed the danger as soon as you were in it and he bolted out of the house. He was lucky he could even manage to make any sense when Chan caught up to him and tackled him to the ground. The youngest shifted and Soonyoung got a ride from him to get to you faster while Chan managed to get in touch with Seokmin who wasn’t too far away in his wolf form.

He was even more lucky to find out that a pack closer to your location had come to help. Hyunjin had told his pack of the danger and they all immediately went to help. While Soonyoung felt grateful for them and wanted to show that gratitude, he assumed Seungcheol or Jihoon would speak with the pack further once the hunters were taken care of. Soonyoung’s main concern was getting you back home.

Once you’d made it to the house, you could see Joshua already waiting on the porch with Arinya by his side. As soon as Soonyoung made it into the clearing, Josh went inside and his mate turned to follow, stopping to look back at you again before scurrying off inside.

He knew to bring you upstairs so Joshua could get right to work. It was difficult healing silver wounds but he would do as much as he could. He warned you might have to go see a doctor but you never minded going to visit Minjee.

“Rika’s good with healing, too,” you yawned as warmth enveloped your ankle. “Not in the same way, obviously.”

“Obviously,” Joshua snorted, playfully rolling his eyes. “Y’know, as shitty as it is that you got hurt, I’m kinda glad Soonyoung didn’t just bust out of here in a lust-filled rage.”

Soonyoung just scowled down at him.

It wasn’t much later that Baekhan was being carried into the house. You could hear the commotion downstairs before you could hear footsteps coming up the steps. Kyung entered with Baekhan passed out in her arms, his lanky body limp and his eyes closed.

“Is he okay?” you immediately asked.

She nodded, “Just really exhausted. Silver wounds take a lot out of you, right?”

You just looked away in reply, knowing she already knew you knew the answer to that.

“Baby, could you get me some fresh bandages from the bathroom closet?” Joshua asked, looking away from his hands emitting warm light onto your wound to look up at his mate.

She quickly left the room before coming back and obediently handing him a pristine white wrap of bandages. You could see the wound wasn’t completely healed, but as Joshua already warned, the silver had burned into you pretty bad and you’d probably need more work that he couldn’t provide. So he wrapped it up now that it was at least cleaned, no longer bleeding, and less painful.

“Be careful on that leg, okay?” he warned as he stood up from where he’d taken a knee to heal your ankle.

“I got it,” Soonyoung assured him before scooping you up off the desk. “Thanks, doc.”

“Take it easy with her, Soonyoung!” he called after him as he took you out of Joshua’s room.

And to his own.

“Soonyoung?” your voice came out almost worried and unsure.

“Yes, baby?” he replied.

“What about...?” you trailed off, unsure of what wording to use to ask him of his rules before he’d sent you away. “Are you sure?”

He chuckled as he kicked the door shut behind him, “I can control myself. I’m far too worried about you to think about any of that stuff. Promise.”

As he laid you down on his bed, you heard someone giggle something from the other side of the wall, followed by a handful of snorts and more giggling. Soonyoung was pretty sure you didn’t catch what was said and he was thankful, because Junhui liked to point out that, “Sex might help her heal since you’ll be as close as possible!”

Soonyoung slammed on the wall to get his brother to shut up before he looked back down at you, “I’m gonna go get a washcloth and clean you up a bit, okay?”

“What?”

“Um... I’ll be right back.”

Then he left the room. He was only gone for a moment, coming back with a damp washcloth that he held in one hand, and then going over to his dresser. He opened it with his free hand and grabbed a clean shirt before he went back over to you. He put the washcloth on his nightstand and laid the shirt out on the bed before he guided you to sit up. He lifted your dirty shirt over your head before helping you maneuver out of your bloodied pants. You instinctively began to shrink in on yourself, bringing your knees in and covering your torso with your arms, but Soonyoung just chuckled.

“I need to practice more English,” he told you. “Then I can tell you how beautiful you are and you can understand.”

Your face felt hot but you let Soonyoung put his shirt on you without any more type of protest.

Despite seeing you almost completely naked, Soonyoung was able to ignore every instinct to pounce on you. His worry for your wellbeing made it easy. You almost died today. That was all he could think about right now. Rut be damned.

Once you had clean clothes on, he knelt on the bed and began gently wiping away the dried blood on your face and in your hair. Once you were mostly clean, he got up and changed his own shorts, facing away from you as he did so. Then he got into bed beside you, tucking you in and making sure you were comfortable.

“What was said earlier?” you asked him suddenly, still wondering why he had banged on the wall. “Why did you hit the wall?”

“Nothing,” he told you quickly. “I...don’t know...the words, anyway. Get some sleep.”

From outside the door, as Joshua passed by, you heard him say, “Jun said sex helps you heal faster. He might be right.”

Soonyoung sat up at the speed of light and yelled, “Shua!”

You let out a squeak, eyes wide as you asked quietly, “I-is that true...?”

“No,” Soonyoung stated again but then sputtered and said, “Well, maybe. I don’t know! It’s not-- We’re not-- I’m-- Ugh!”

“You sure you’re feeling okay, Soonie?” you heard Kyung giggle from outside the door.

He let out a huff and flopped back down in bed, “Will Hanbin let us live with him instead?”

You couldn’t help but feel a smile creep up on your own face as you turned your head to look at your mate, “So it does actually work?”

He groaned and threw his arm over his eyes, but he still tucked an arm around you and held you close, “Goodnight, _____.”

»»————-　　————-««

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exprimidordefresas · 4 years ago

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Today is a good day to be Chilean mierda. Let's go for a New constitution. Chile is the winner tonight and I'm so glad I got to be part of the people who voted for the new beginning.

P.D sorry for all the hashtag. I just want you to see what Chile did.

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woossexyponytail · 7 years ago

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Updates !!!

The nature of the beast.

Part 18 will be out 11th March, I’m carrying on with this for a while so it’s not finishing anytime soon.

Undead.

I’m going to start Wrighting chapter 4 Afterlife so that will be out soon.

Vampire Academy.

The next part of VA will be out soon I want to try to finish VA this month or at least at the beginning of April.

Requests.

I’ve got a couple of requests at the moment to do, if you have a request sent it to me anyway, when I have requests closed you can still send me something it just means it’s going to take awhile but if it’s open it mean it will be a week or so. I will get around to them eventually.

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to asked. ❤

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atiny-piratequeen · 3 years ago

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Kinktober '21 Masterlist

The following below is my 2021 Kinktober list~ I've chosen from prompts sent to me or paid commissions from folks for this upcoming October. Please note I write for readers of all gender identities so the x reader works below that arent specified will have more specifications when that actual work is posted. This post will function as the Masterlist post for Kinktober 2021 and will be updated as such when I post the works.

If you'd like to be tagged in a particular work, I urge you to fill out my taglist form (18+ for nsfw works...which these all are)

I also will be posting works between this account and my multi account @nocturne-overtures so I'll have a small key so you know which work is going where before it gets posted!

🏴‍☠️= works posted here @atiny-piratequeen

🌌=works posted over @nocturne-overtures

Camboy Yeosang x Sugar Daddy Jongho 🏴‍☠️

Polyteez Breeding + Plugging Seonghwa (Night Shift Verse/NS Ch.11)🏴‍☠️

OT8 Polyteez x Dominant Reader- Vibrator + Semi Public Play 🏴‍☠️

Soft Femdom Reader x Mingi- Voluntary Feminization, Body Worship, Toys 🏴‍☠️

Daddy Kink Minhyuk (BTOB) x Felix- Spanking and Cumming from Punishment 🌌

Feifei x Seonghwa-Maid Uniform🏴‍☠️ (RP Verse)

Seonghwa x Jongho/Whiro-Consentacle Tentacles (Against the Tide Verse) 🏴‍☠️

Dom Hwa x Sub Felix-Breeding Kink 🏴‍☠️

Han Jisung x Hyunjin-Ice Cube Insertion, Healing Bondage, Sensory Deprivation🌌

Dragon Seonghwa x Reader-Predator/Prey Kink, Chase Kink (Consensual Hunt and Find)🏴‍☠️

Male Reader x Submissive Hanse-Cockwarming + Orgasm Denial 🌌

Reader x Yeosang-, Mommy Kink, Public 🏴‍☠️

Mingi x San-Mutual Masturbation (All Eyes On Me:Fever Verse) 🏴‍☠️

Lucas x Jackson-Puppy Play, Leashes, Praise Kink 🌌

Suzuka x Bang Chan-Marking Kink (Against the Tide Verse) 🌌

Rowoon x Reader-Spanking + Body Worship 🌌

Kun x Reader- Blowjobs Under Table + Exhibitionism 🌌

OT8 Polyteez(Wooyoung Focused)-Panties + Nudes + Public + Teasing 🏴‍☠️

Chubby Cow Hybrid Reader x Yeosang-Lactation Kink 🏴‍☠️

Top AMAB Reader x Hongjoong-Knotting + Blindfolds 🏴‍☠️

FeiFei x Seonghwa-Cock Cage 🏴‍☠️ (RP Verse)

Yuta x Mark Lee-Teasing + Phone Sex + Toys 🌌

Sugar Daddy Taemin + Minho x Sugar Baby Mark Lee + Ten 🌌

Taemin x Lia-Soft, Bratty Sex 🌌(RP Verse)

Mean Dom Jongho x Gahyeon-Vibrators, Public Play, Crying, Subspace🏴‍☠️

Jaebeom x Jinyoung-Rough Sex, Possessiveness, Praise Kink, Light Punishment🌌

Dom Yunho x Submissive/Switch Reader-Power Switch, Dry Humping, Thigh Sex, Praise🏴‍☠️

Dom Wonho x Hongjoong + Wooyoung-Spanking, Degradation, Strength Kink, Size Kink (Night Shift Verse)🏴‍☠️

Submissive Yunho x Dominant Noona Reader-Puppy Play, Collars, Praise Kink, Degradation (Paid Commission) 🏴‍☠️

Vampire Jackson x Werewolf Big Matthew x Reader-Threesome, Double Penetration, Biting, Knotting (Paid Commission) 🌌

Whiro (Jongho) x Reader x Geb (Yunho)-Grab Bag Kinks ((there’s a fuckin lot)) (Against the Tide Verse) 🏴‍☠️

#fie writes #upcoming events #kinktober #kinktober 2021

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dazz-linglight · 3 years ago

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Requests are now OPEN.

Welcome to dazz-linglight.

I mostly write female reader, but you can specify if you want male reader. I'm not fond of writing full angst, but I can do mild angst with happy endings! I won't write: smut for underage idols, yandere or toxic relationships.

You can request imagines, reactions, send prompts and anything for the groups below! Also, feel free to ask about me if you're curious too. You can buy me a coffee

EXO (OT9) / GOT7 / Stray Kids / Monsta X / ATEEZ / ENHYPEN / JUST B / Seventeen.

Masterlist below: updated 02/06

Optional bias:

New year, new love

Strawberry & Champagne (fluff)

Comfort after a streesful day/ week

&TEAM:

First Kiss (Ta-ki)

EXO:

New Lipstick (Sehun)

First "I love you"

Promise me (Baekhyun)

Jealous Sehun

Mafia Baekhyun

Best friends to lovers (Baekhyun)

Jealous Chanyeol

GOT7:

Comforting the members (to post)

Enemies to lovers with Yugyeom

Mafia JB

Mafia GOT7

High school lovers

JB getting caught (suggestive)

Jealous reaction

Making out

Mafia Jinyoung

Skincare with Jinyoung

Stray Kids:

Comforting the members (to post)

Them confessing

High school lovers

2:56 Chan fluff

Jealous Felix (m!reader smut)

MONSTA X:

Matching onesies with I.M

First time with Kihyun

Minhyuk fluff

ATEEZ:

Seonghwa corruption kink | part 2 (to post)

A to Z NSFW with San

San hugging a crying fan

Birthday breakfast (oral with Yunho)

7:54p.m (dom!Yunho)

8:34 (Yunho smut)

MIST (Werewolf!Wooyoung)

BIRTHDAY BOY - JONGHO

Getting caught making out with Mingi

INCEPTION (Werewolf!San)

First "I love you" (Wooyoung)

Making out with Jongho

S/o has small hands (San, Seonghwa and Wooyoung)

22:34 Yunho fluff

A to Z NSFW Seonghwa

ENHYPEN:

Sunghoon nipple play

Nose kisses with Jungwon

The moon is beautiful, isn't it (fluffy Ni-ki)

Professor Jake smut

Soft!Dom Jay

First time with Sunghoon

NSFW A-Z Sunghoon

Dry humping Jay

Jay with oral fixation smut

Bad boy Jay smut

Doctor Yang Jungwon (fluff)

Birthday blurb for Sunoo

Smut with bestfriend Sunghoon

Couch sex with Jay

Athlete Jake and cheerleader reader smut

First time with Jay

Crack EN- hyung line

Public sex with Jay

Pool sex with Jay

Sucking Jake off while he's gaming

Bad boy Jay smut

Enemies to lovers Jay smut

Enemies to lovers Jay fluff

Enemies to lovers Jake

Jealous Sunghoon

Rough sex with Sunghoon

Hard dom Sunghoon

First "I love you" with Heeseung smut

NSFW A-Z Jay

Jealous Jay smut

Mafia hyung line

Dominant Heeseung

NSFW A-Z Heeseung

S/o with small titties (hyung line)

Hyung line mtl to do stuff in public

Too hot game with Heeseung

Jealous EN-

First "I love you" with Jay

Pillow fort with Jungwon

Jay taking care of sick s/o

First time with Jay

Making out with Jay

Jay giving you a massage (smut)

Skincare with Sunoo

Sunghoon getting caught (smut)

Getting caught with Heeseung, Jay and Jake

JUST B:

Keep Driving (Geonu)

Despacito (Bain)

Having an idol s/o

Sleepover with Sangwoo

Birthday gift - JM

Bain taking care of a sick s/o

Having a tall s/o

Bath with Bain

#linawritings #enhypen #exo #ateez #monsta x #just b #stray kids #wonho #ateez x reader #enhypen x reader #monsta x reader #exo x reader #just b imagines #wonho x reader #nct 127 reactions #wayv imagines

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smileysuh · 4 years ago

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SmileySuh to-do list

current wips bellow, includes my current work in progress followed by bullet points of requested and other dynamic plans :) all completed fics go to my masterlist and my date posted list :)

To be tagged when i post, fill out this google form, you can either be notified for all my future works, or works pertaining to specific groups :)

With the January 2022 roll out, this to do list has been mostly discontinued, to see whats coming next, check out the patreon plan in my enterance fee info post :)

My top Personal Works in Progress + their word count so far :)

Vouyerist/photographer Johnny - 300 words

rich boy John/Jae love triangle (*oc*) - 500 words

Haechan x Johnny’s fuck buddy - 1.3k words

Hyungwon/Changkyun x idol!reader - 1.8k words

Hyungwon angst - 2.5k words

Jealous Jinyoung - 700 words

Gym Trainer Yunho - 3.7k words

Stoner Meanie - 1.2k words

sticker world au - concept

✨ = requested :)

NCT

Switch final chapter ✨

yandere Johnhyuck part 2 ✨

frat Yuta ✨

frat Kun✨

Cam Baby group night- nct ✨

Cam Baby Yuta ✨

a/b/o doyoung ✨ - sneak peak here

a/b/o Yuta ✨

a/b/o Taeyong ✨

a/b/o johnjae ✨

a/b/o Jaehyun part 2✨

Invidious part 2✨

Dotae switch series part 2 ✨

the walking dead au ✨

nct 95 line✨

domestic doyoung

johnny/jaehyun/doyoung

jaehyun/taeyong

mafia doyoung

doyoung/jaehyun

johnny/taeyong

doyoung/haechan

haechan/hendery/jaehyun

johnny/mark/jaehyun

johnny/jaehyun/doyoung

MONSTAX

angst Hyungwon

Mafia Hyungwon

Hyungwon/Minhyuck

Hyungwon/Wonho

ATEEZ

Yungi

abo yungi

Cam Baby Yunho✨

STRAY KIDS

Werewolf Bang Chan

SEVENTEEN

Mingyu/The8 x2

the8/Vernon

GOT7

Jaebum/Jinyoung x2

Jinyoung/Jackson

single dad Jinyoung

Cam Baby Jackson wang ✨

BTS

namjoon/jimin

maknae line x2

best friend namjoon

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juleswolverton-hyde · 4 years ago

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Not by the Moon | 07

Genre: Smut, Romance, Strangers to Lovers, Drama, Tragedy, Werewolf AU, Supernatural AU, Bookshop AU

Pairing: Bookshop keeper!/Werewolf!JB x Reader

Warnings: A philosophical slant, (heavy) angst, Werewolf!Jaebeom being absolute hubby material, Werewolf!Jaebeom being awkward and (a bit of a) pervert, domestic fluff, talk of medication, apparently werewolves don’t like to wear clothes (what is my canon...), talk of life and death, mention of blood, mild swearing

Summary: Every story has a purpose or goal it is dedicated to, their authors at times going to great lengths to see the project they once started to completion. Nevertheless, the things the writers swore on to see their latest art piece to completion are static.

Unchanging.

None of them swore by the Moon nor Love because they can solely genuinely swear on all that changes like themselves.

And yet, a wolf in love foolishly swore by the moon.

That is when Time truly started ticking.

Author’s Note: This chapter is from Jaebeom’s POV.

Well, here it is, earlier and much longer than originally planned. It’s also a lot more tragic and philosophical than I intended it to be, but then again, what else can you expect from a tragedian fascinated by the human condition even as it is translated into the realm of the magical?

I think I just thought of the modern literary movement I might belong to: magic realism.

It’s a crying shame the Decadent Movement isn’t active anymore, though, because that one truly feels like a good fit for me both as an author and an individual. Ah well, c’est la vie.

Previous Chapter / Next chapter

Masterlist

There is nothing better for a wolf than being with its mate.

Well, there is one thing.

Having them completely at your mercy as you’re inside them.

I still don’t understand what the plastic wrapping is good for, but Jinyoung was very insistent on using it while we drove to the airport. And Y/N seemed glad I had whatever it is, her scent even betraying a hint of relief. However, one day, I hope she’ll tell me not to use it.

No, that’s not right. There’s a word for the… whatever it is.

A condom.

That’s the word.

I hope she’ll tell me not to use a condom. It doesn’t matter whether I’m in season or not, although the chances she’ll pup are higher if I am. I want pups with her, a little pack of our own. I want it to be our toddler running around the park, chasing its sibling. Then again, will I remain human long enough to see them grow up?

Will I even remember their birth on the day they’re born?

Will I still be here?

Or remain without a family, a proud bloodline?

I slowly open my eyes, blinking a few times to get used to the sunlight bathing the room in a warm golden hue, swallow hard and force myself to calm down. There is no use in contemplating this now, not this early in the day nor in our time together. What counts is that I’m here now with Y/N in my arms and we’re in her apartment somewhere.

A faint whiff of brine seeps in through the air cleaner filter above the window overlooking the city. A gull flies by and lands on the roof of the building opposite ours.

Sea. Rusted metal. Right, the old harbour.

A high-pitched noise, a disquiet hum followed by a sigh, makes my ears perk up. I look down at the lady sleeping on my chest, curled up and fingers balled into small fists similar to a bunny’s paws. More importantly, however, she’s perfectly alright and was only unconsciously trying to get more comfortable.

A breathless chuckle rises in my throat at the display. Y/N’s adorable even when she’s fast asleep, her lips parted yet not enough to allow drooling.

I, on the other hand, am another story. I don’t do it often, but I must have been so tired last night I triggered the habit. The finger I swipe over the corners of my mouth comes away wet both times.

Oh no, I didn’t drool on her, did I? Would she mind, though, if I explained it’s a sign I’m comfortable with her?

It isn’t hard to guess the answer to the question. She would beat me over the head, likely with a shoe, and say I’m not allowed to bite her at all anymore. Not even in the future.

In a hurry to discover whether I made the fatal mistake, I check her messy hair but keeping my movements controlled to not wake her up. Fortunately, there are no locks sticking together nor a trail running down over the side of her face.

With a deep sigh, I slump further down into the bed again and kiss her crown. However, I don’t go back to sleep despite the comfort of the sheets. Instead, I lift the lady’s head and gently put her down on the pillow as I get up, carefully calculating every movement like I do when hunting to make sure she won’t wake up or notice my absence in her unconscious state.

The faint smell of burned iron comes from somewhere when I rearrange the sheets to bundle Y/N up. My mouth dries up, throat blocked by something I can’t swallow as a familiar stench disturbs the morning happiness. Former intentions abandoned, I claw through the sheets to try and discover where the rank odour comes from.

Did I hurt her? Is she bleeding? Why is she bleeding? Where is it? Where’s the blood?

As suspected, the frantic search wakes the pretty lady. Propped up on an elbow, eyes half-closed and brows furrowed, she turns to me. “Jae, what-’’ she yawns, “What’re you doing?”

Barely has she asked the question or I find what I’ve been looking for.

On her side of the bed, between her thighs, is a puddle of dried blood.

Where did it come from? Did I… Did I do this?

I grab her by the shoulders and pull her close to check her condition, turning her this way and that as each thought grows more troubled. “Are you okay?” There’s nothing to see on the bare skin of her upper body. “Are you hurt?”

Maybe the wound is somewhere lower, on her hip or leg. I didn’t bite her last night. Right? I didn’t hurt her. At least, I don’t think I did. No. Surely the wolf- I wouldn’t harm her. I had enough control to prevent that from happening. Yes, that’s the case.

But then, with a fading mind, how much can I trust myself?

“Jaebeom, I’m fine. What are you- ah.” Y/N notices the spot of dark crimson when I pull the sheets completely off the bed and toss them aside. She lets out an incomprehensibly careless chuckle, evidently oblivious to the gravity of the situation.

“What are you giggling about? Y/N, you’re bleeding!” I bark, lost.

A small paw cups my cheek, her thumb caressing the skin in an attempt to calm me down. “You took my virginity. It’s natural to bleed a little when that happens.”

“Are you still in pain?” Even though it’s natural, surely it’s not without repercussions. Otherwise, the stain wouldn’t be there.

“No, I’m not, silly. I’m okay.” She kisses the tip of my nose when I let out a whine, unhappy with the response. Withal, a curious tone in her voice overtakes my own displeasure. “Are you?”

Why do you say it like that?

She sounds weird, hinting at something I’m supposed to find as obvious as she. Yet, I have no clue about what it can be. So, I tilt my head and stare blankly at her, waiting for an explanation. “I’m fine.”

My choice of words makes her visibly flinch despite the effort to hide it. The sleepiness which glazed her eyes evaporated, leaving them devoid of the amusement at my failure as a human. The recognizable sour note of anxiety creeps back into her scent, setting off alarm bells in my mind. “I’m alright. No pain. Happy to be here. Happy to wake up next to you.”

I rub her arms in a poor attempt to make her calm down, have her scent return to its spring-like fruitiness. She is supposed to smell like fresh fruit still hanging from the trees, yet to ripen. Not like fallen fruit beginning to decay in the summer sun.

“Okay,” is all she says in response before she pulls away, the absence of the warmth of her palm sending a cold shiver throughout my body.

The world always seems a little colder without her.

“Want breakfast?” A low grumble pierces the silence following the question, giving me enough of a response. And a reason to get my head, no, that’s not the idiom. To get my thoughts ordered. Organized. To get my thoughts in order? To think about… stuff. Last night. This. Everything. “Never mind. I’m making you breakfast. You have to eat.”

I stand up and head for the bathroom to first get rid of the weird plastic wrapping she put on me last night. Having thrown it in the bin there after a bit of an awkward struggle removing it, I move to the kitchen. Nevertheless, I don’t start preparing food right away. Instead, I pick up the grey hoodie I gave her from the bag between the sofa and chair facing the kitchen. I remember how she held it up to her nose, breathed in and basked in the scent.

My scent.

A fragment of last night’s memory.

I remember we had sex and that she told me I’m her first, but afterwards things are blurry.

Smell. I said something about how nicely she smells. Not really an original compliment since I’ve said it a lot already, but I can’t help but focus on it.

And then…

Then…

Then instinct took over because I let it, thinking I’d remain in control even though I let go a little. After all, I’ve learned enough to know how to deal with the wolf inside thanks to the rehabilitation procedure Jinyoung put me through and supervised. Since then, there’s been a healthy balance between human and beast in my mind.

Or, rather, there was one.

I think.

Another boundary to watch out for. I have to keep myself in check. No more experimenting.

Because to do so is to forget.

And I want to remember.

I stop absent-mindedly thumbing the piece of clothing, drape it over the armrest of the sofa and head into the kitchen to make breakfast. Unfortunately, the fridge quickly brings my plan to a halt, empty except for a pack of soy milk and a tray of eggs. The groceries Jinyoung and I got were only enough for dinner last night and there are no leftovers.

To be fair, she did just come back from a trip abroad. But still, is there really nothing to work with?

I sigh in defeat and grab the plant-based milk to pour it over the apple and cinnamon granola I find in the cupboard above the sink. At least it’s food and drink in one meal.

From the drawer next to the oven, I grab two spoons which I put into the bowls, grab the hoodie from the couch and return to the bedroom.

Y/N sits with her back turned to me, but flips around a little too fast for my liking once she hears my paws approaching. “Jaebeom?”

The terrible mixture of barely suppressed horror and genuine concern in her gaze has translated into her voice, which is cold and calculating. The sour note of anxiety hasn’t faded from her scent, creating a stone to sink to the bottom of my stomach because there’s only one thing that can be a distressing factor this early in the day.

Me.

Withal, the reason why she’s scared puzzles me since I haven’t done anything out of the ordinary. I’ve simply been me since I woke up.

Human.

Although, that’s me now.

Last night, I don’t know who or what I was though it isn’t hard to guess.

The pretty lady traces the deep indentation in the headboard of the bed with her fingers bent to resemble a claw. “Did you do this?”

Did- Did I? No. I- I don’t know. I was less strict with myself last night and don’t remember much, but surely I wasn’t gone enough to do this.

I hope.

I think.

I’m not sure.

But the reality provides the necessary evidence to repute any kind of denial I can offer.

I set the bowls down on the nightstand and crawl back on the bed to sit next to her. Gently, I nudge her hand aside to mimic her action, my own fingers perfectly fitting into the large gash. “I don’t know.”

A surge of violence shoots throughout my body, triggering the nagging feeling of a forgotten memory strong enough to knock the air out the lungs and split my skull with flashes of a memory. Nevertheless, the fragments pass by too fast to make sense of them and the mere attempt to do so worsens the headache. I flinch and scramble backwards with a paw- a hand pressed to my head as if I can thus suppress the pain. Yet, I remain unable to look at anything but the damage.

“I don’t know,” I repeat, my voice hardly louder than a scared whisper.

“I felt your skin move beneath my fingers last night,” Y/N starts, catching my attention with the timid response suggestive of requiring more explanation.

Exactly what I don’t have since I can’t even explain it myself.

This shouldn’t be happening.

“I think I did, at least,” she adds doubtfully on a shivery breath. The sourness sweetens to doubt instead of anxiety. Nonetheless, it’s still worrying she’s ill… uncomfortable.

“Did I-“ I swallow hard, forcing out the words describing my worst nightmare. “Did I transform?”

“Transform?’’ She briefly turns her gaze from me to the indentation, lips parted in an attempt to articulate a thought that’s dismissed with a headshake the second thereafter. Her attention returns to me, her expression slackened. ‘’What are you- What… No, you didn’t, but you looked far away. Retreated further into your own world, more so than you normally are.”

“That’s good,” I mumble, nodding as I, too, briefly return my attention to the claw mark. “Was human. Good.”

Still, need to talk to the weird-smelling intruder. Doctor. Friend. Name, his name. Jinyoung. Jesus, man, get yourself together. Your name is Im Jaebeom. You’re a twenty-eight old werewolf that- no, who runs a bookshop called Paper Souls. Jinyoung is your friend, doctor and supervisor appointed to you by... by... some organization.

“Jaebeom,” the pretty lady puts her hand on my shoulder, features softened instead of frozen and marred by fear, “have you taken your medication yet?”

The natural fruity undertone seems forced to be stronger.

You should be scared. I might have- I made that claw mark. Why treat me like a human? I’m a wolf.

“Me- Med-“ The strange word barely registers until a spark of humanity recalls its definition. “Medication. Pills. No, I- I haven’t.”

“Let me grab a glass of water and get them.”

She ruffles my hair, jumps off the bed and rushes out of the room. I listen to her bare feet lightly treading the floor as she moves on the other side of the wall, hurried steps going from the hallway, where she rummages in my coat for the rattling bottle of pills, to the kitchen. There, she opens a cupboard to grab a glass. The loud clinking of glass alongside the sour undertone in her scent indicates she almost accidentally caused several to fall out and break on the tiles. Fortunately, judging by the deep sigh of relief, Y/N could prevent it from happening.

She turns on the tab, fills the glass with water, turns the tab off and walks back into the room.

“There you go,” she says, handing me the small brown bottle and water.

The mattress dips a bit when she sits down next to me with one of the bowls filled with cereal in her hands. After stirring the spoon around like she is trying to evade something, Y/N finally takes a first careful bite. Nevertheless, she starts eating properly after I kiss her temple, which is an apparently effective form of encouragement. I have to remember that.

Quietly seated in the golden sunlight, we have our first breakfast together. I don’t mind her watching me as I’m taking my medication, measuring out the amount Jinyoung told me to take. Or, rather, as much as the label notes I should. Immediately my gag reflex is triggered when I put them in my mouth, the taste of bitter metal extremer than before so it’s like licking one of the rusted over buoys drifting in the harbour.

He’s increased the nightshade and silver. Damn, I think even the worst coffee tastes better than this.

“That bad?”

“Yep.” I open and close my mouth, nauseous due to the sickening taste lingering on my tongue. To prevent the bile rising in my throat from escaping, I gulp down the water. Unfortunately, it only washes down part of the bitterness.

She holds up a spoon with milk-soaked granola to feed to me, but I turn it down and shake my head. I might actually throw up if I eat anything right now.

Disappointment flashes across her face, though it’s gone in an instant as she puts her bowl down and stands up. “Hold on, I’ll be right back.”

“But... food,” I meekly offer and point at the half-empty bowl on the nightstand. She should put herself before me.

Because I’ll be fine.

“We’re missing something important. Coffee,” the bunny-like lady playfully responds before she bounces off again to the kitchen.

The pleasant and slightly sweet scent of instant cappuccino warms the apartment, replacing the sharp scent of frozen water alluding to hail later on in the day. It’s a little early in the year, but soon the first snows will fall.

Hopefully, she’ll move before then so we can spend Christmas in her cottage. Although, it doesn’t even have to be the holidays. I’d light a fire, drape a blanket over our shoulders and keep Y/N close to warm her with mine as we read and look at the snowfall.

Like a snowflake falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling before our eyes, so we pass through life. At this rate, I think the next snowfall might be the last I’ll see.

Consciously.

Meaningfully.

Like a human.

The snowflake will faintly fall on the man I am, descend on the husk I’m becoming, while she will continue living.

Without me.

The living and the dead.

I smile wistfully until the same shot of pain treks through me as when I tried to fill in the gaps of the fragmented memory. Folded in on myself, cold sweat on my skin and short of breath, I press my palms against my snout to push the agony away.

The pained groaning must have alarmed the pretty lady because she rushes to my side and pushes one of the mugs in her little paws… hands in mine. “Here, take a sip. The caffeine will help.”

As told, I nip at the hot beverage. Indeed, the cappuccino lessens the headache and cold shivers that ran down my spine and threatened to spread. Though I dislike instant coffee, it actually tastes good when she prepares it. I sigh in relief, blow on the coffee to cool it down, and slowly drink it while Y/N caresses my jaw and ear just the way I like it. At the same time, she comforts me with her soothing voice, murmuring words of solace and assurance as she sits down next to me again.

I could listen to you all day. Maybe I should ask you to read to me sometime. Although, not maybe. I’ll ask it later. Note to self, write a note on your phone to ask her to read to you. Also, make note of kissing her temple.

My reverie is broken up by a comment which rubs me the wrong way. “I have to go to the office later today-’’

“Already? You just got home.”

“They’re counting on me, Jae. Besides, I’m not that jet-lagged.”

“It’s not healthy. You should stay home. Rest,” I bark. Her eyes widen, taken aback by my bluntness.

She opens and closes her mouth, planning to say something yet deciding against it. Instead, she tugs my ear. “I’ll be fine. And you have your shop to look after, so let’s both work hard today.”

“Still,” I take another sip, “I don’t think you should go.”

“As long as I have caffeine, I should be able to manage. How about this? I’ll come to your shop as soon as I’m done with work and cook for us. We’ll have a cosy night in like we had last night.”

“Last night was ‘cosy’ indeed,” I murmur, hoping she catches on to what I’m alluding to.

“It was. I really liked it.” Her lashes flutter with the memories of last night, cheeks tinged pink. Unfortunately, the heartstopping girlish giggle is short-lived and becomes serious too soon. “But while I did, I think we shouldn’t do it again so soon.”

“Agreed,” I respond, mind occupied by the ripples of transformation and the splashes of pain wanting to remember something significant only communicated in incomprehensible flashes.

Distorted.

Like the memories of the forest.

I need to call Jinyoung. He needs to know.

“What shall we eat tonight?”

The change in subject is welcome, but also a confusing bridge to cross. How can humans go from severe to casual without a care? The aspect of communication has me furrow my brows as I try to work out the mech… work… nuts and bolts behind it. Nevertheless, I answer the question. “I thought you had a plan already.”

The corners of her mouth curl up into a cat-like grin. “I have no idea, so that’s why I’m asking you. You’re a better chef than I am.”

“I’m not that good,” I murmur, my ears lowered like a shy pup. “But I’d like something we can make together.”

“Pancakes?”

“Yes!’’ I bark, leaning in and grabbing the sheets to contain the excitement at cooking together. ‘’Yes, I’d like that!”

A flicker of doubt passes over her face, hesitant in the way she tends to be when it concerns food. However, a second later, she taps me on the nose with a content hum. “Pancakes it is.”

While Y/N showers, I clean the dishes and pull the sheets off of the bed so she can bring them to the laundry. Although, maybe I could do it myself. I’d have to text Jinyoung for instructions since he always does mine, but even then it shouldn’t be too difficult. Humans do laundry all the time. It’s part of their routine and if they can do it, so can I.

I hope.

As I’m making the bed and contemplating the process to get at least the blood stain out of the fabric, my mate walks back into the room. Her wet hair is bundled up in a towel that’s smaller than the one wrapped around her body. The addition of the scents of cherry blossoms and matcha to the blend of summer fruits drives me dizzy as she moves to the wardrobe.

I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t help looking as the towel falls to the floor to reveal her naked body. An appreciative growl unconsciously rises from my throat, a surge of heat culminating between my legs.

Just one more time. I’ll keep myself in check. Behave. I’ll behave.

“Jaebeom,” cheeks flushed, Y/N glances over her shoulder, “don’t even think about it.”

“Sorry,” I mumble as I shuffle to her side to help her put on her bra by closing the clasps. When they click in place, I place a kiss between her shoulder blades, feeling her shiver against my lips. “I know what we agreed on.”

I wrap my arms around her waist and let my head rest on her shoulder. Eyes closed, I try to keep a clear mind as she scratches me behind the ear.

“It’s not necessarily... that.” Her voice is light, wanting to move past the concerns of last night with humour. “It’s rather the thought I wouldn’t get to leave for the office at all if we go back to bed.”

“You’re right.” I decide to play along, if only to give us both some peace of mind. So, I bury my nose in the side of her neck, nuzzling her and earning myself a bird-like giggle that spreads a nice fuzzy feeling inside. “I wouldn’t let you go. We’d read the day away with coffee.”

“Tea, in your case. Doctor’s orders. I don’t want you bouncing around the place. You’re my calm, well, sort of calm bookish wolf. Not a supercharged husky.”

It’s a lame joke, but nevertheless makes me laugh.

“What will you wear today?” I ask, glancing at the clothes on the hangers.

Here and there, there’s a colourful item in the collection. Withal, the majority of the items are mono… one-toned... black and white items to be switched up with a dark-shaded checkered blouse.

My attention drifts to the long white dress with lemons. The fabric is on the thin side, which makes it suitable for summer or a warm spring.

I’d love to see you in that dress, if only just once.

She pouts her lips. “I was thinking about grey high-waisted jeans with a black button-up shirt and ankle boots.”

“Wear my hoodie,” I whine, upset my… my girlfriend. That sounds nice. My girlfriend. It makes me upset that my girlfriend doesn’t plan on wearing one of the things I gave her. “You like the grey one, right?”

“I do, but-’’

“Then wear it.”

She sighs, shakes her head and turns around to look up at me. “There’s something like a dress code at the office.”

“Don’t care.” I nudge her nose with mine, bark lowered to a woof to persuade her to go with my choice. “You’ll look better. More pretty.”

“If you put a pair of boxers on, I’ll wear the hoodie. Deal?”

“But they’re uncomfortable. I only wore them because Jinyoung told me to.”

“Then I won’t wear the hoodie.” Little devilish will-o’-the-wisps light up her eyes as the corners of her mouth curl up into a taunting grin. “Shame. Now my colleagues won’t get to see I have a boyfriend.”

The tables have flipped since I’m apparently not the only one who’s good at using their charms.

Nevertheless, reluctant to start a fight over this, I let out a compromising chuff. “Okay, fine.”

Humans and their clothes. I like yours, but you’d look even better in mine. Still, I’m only doing this because I want every male at your office and in the city to know you’re mine.

No matter what size they are, clothing is a thing I absolutely haven’t missed. Notwithstanding, to please my mate, I wriggle myself back into the tight short trousers and the loose pants to wear over them. Y/N gives me a warning look when she sees me fumbling with my shirt, hopefully missing out on the obvious clue I secretly hope she’ll let me off easy.

Of course she doesn’t.

“Yes, Jae, also the shirt,” she chastises me like a mother disciplines a rebellious pup. “And the shoes. You don’t want other people to call the cops after seeing a naked man in the streets.” Unaware of the fact I can hear her perfectly even as she mutters under her breath, she adds. ‘’Or me to pick you up at the police station because of it.’’

Amused by the funny image the fantastical scenario creates in my mind, I relent. “Yes, ma’am.”

Once we’re both dressed, Y/N makes way for the bathroom to do her makeup. Ignoring my protests it’s unnecessary since there’s nothing to hide or improve to make me love her more, she closes the door behind her and locks it.

There goes the plan of dragging her out of there by the collar to have her scratch my jaw and ear again instead. A much better way to pass the time, if you ask me.

In the meanwhile, I return to the bedroom to take a picture of the damage with my phone and send it to Jinyoung.

Jaebeom: We need to talk.

Immediately, I get a response.

Jinyoung: Yes, we absolutely do. Everything OK?

Jaebeom: Yes, Y/N is fine. Alive. A little shaken, but so am I. Well, we’re more than a little shaken. Fuck, Jinyoung, I don’t know what happened.

Jinyoung: I’ll drop by later today. I have to give a lecture in a bit and have to see a new patient afterwards. He’s going through the reintegration program right now and needs a little extra help.

Jaebeom: Help with what? What is he?

Jinyoung: A wolf. Not a standard case.

Jaebeom: Anything I can help with?

Jinyoung: I think you need to focus on yourself right now. I’ll be at the shop around two.

Footsteps disturb the silence, going from the bathroom to the hallway.

That was quick. Are females always this fast with applying their face?

It’s a funny phrase, ‘applying my face’. Also, it’s the argument the pretty lady used as the final word on the matter. But she already has a face so there’s no need to apply a second like some Greek god.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” Ears perked, I glance around the corner into the living room and in Y/N’s direction.

“Work?” she answers sheepishly, looking back at me with her head slightly tilted to the side. In her hands is the black trench coat she was about to put on.

Fortunately, she’s kept her makeup natural with a golden brown eyeshadow, a bit of a black line to accentuate her eyes and something to enhance her lashes. It’s a natural look which some of the female customers could learn from with their fake lips or chest that makes them reek of silicone and plastic. Their makeup, often overemphasizing their fake features, doesn’t add to their supposed charm. In fact, it makes me turn my snout away even faster if their attitude already hasn’t.

I’d never offer them coffee or want them around more than once.

But not her.

Not Y/N.

I can’t remember if she wore the same makeup when we met, but I vaguely recall a sense of calm and need for protection alongside a strange recognition. A connection that would make all the puzzle pieces of my life fit together.

The missing last piece.

“Not so fast.” I swiftly move to her side to kiss her forehead. No way I’m letting her go without giving her at least one more.

“There,” I pet her head, griggling and sweeping my tail triumphantly, “now you’re free to go.”

“I wouldn’t have gone without telling you, you know?” She stands on the tip of her toes to peck me on the lips, slightly swaying side to side to keep her balance.

So I lean forward to make it easier for her and chuckle against her lips. “Have a good day at work, Y/N.”

“You too, Jae.”

And with that, she puts on her coat, grabs her bag and opens the front door. She lingers in the doorway, waving half-heartedly as a final word of goodbye.

I wave back, faking a smile to see her off without worry.

Being human again isn’t so bad.

However, the deadline is another story.

The shop is as tranquil as it is on any other day. The quietness of unread words hangs between the shelves, the only noise to disrupt the silence being the rustle of a page being turned. Seated by the window as per usual, listening to the hail in the dim light, I read the time away, but whereas it’s normally a form of amusement and pleasure, it now functions in part to forget this morning’s discovery.

I didn’t mean to pry, but I inspected Y/N’s bookshelves before I left her apartment. There was the usual assortment of classics, but also a lot of Asian fiction, a genre I haven’t delved into too much yet. So, of course with the intention of returning it, I took Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami with me.

She must have read it recently because her fruity scent still lingers on the paper. The summer blend distracts me to the point that the movement of the hands of the clock pass unnoticed in the background.

Regardless of the appointed time, it’s half past two instead of two o’clock that Jinyoung comes in. In his one hand he holds a carrier with two paper cups, the sleeves on them decorated with the silhouette of a black wolf and the name of the café printed in vintage letters beneath the design, the letters spelling out Wolf’s. Judging by the scent, it’s tea the doctor has brought with him. Apple cinnamon for me, since that’s the only one I like, and rooibos for himself.

In his other hand, he holds his bag. One of the claps has either not been fastened before he left or came undone along the way. Whatever the reason, it’s clear he came here in a hurry.

“Sorry I’m late. Christian and I had a lot more to discuss than we thought.” Jinyoung stumbles inside, puts the tea and his bag on the counter, and turns around to lock the door and flip the sign so we can talk in private.

A hint of leather mixed with coffee and wood is mixed in with his own.

Male.

Threat.

Teeth gritted and jaw clenched, I make a mental note to myself to keep this scent away from Y/N. To keep this Christian away from her.

“Jaebeom,” the other male sighs. His tone holds a silent warning of being close to breaking some kind of boundary.

“What?” The answer rolls off the tongue as a growl rather than an actual question. Not that it matters since he must have had a lot worse to endure from me. Besides, it’s not him I’m pissed at so he’s safe.

Although, the wild undertone in his already peculiar personal blend alludes to the opposite.

Has he always smelled like this or is this new? He is human, but then why does my instinct tell me to watch out for him, that there’s more than to him? Strange.

“He’s no competition. I think he might have imprinted with my colleague, although neither he nor she might be aware of it.” He rolls his eyes. “The gods know whether Gráinne will do anything with it. I wonder if... no, I don’t think either of them told her anything.”

A grim wistfulness stains his voice, which ignites a curiosity about his colleague’s circumstances. Notwithstanding, that story will have to wait until another day and his willingness to tell me.

Still, I quickly fish my phone out of my pocket, open the notes app, and jot down a short reminder to ask about it at a later date.

“Anyway,” Jinyoung steps away from the door, hands me the cup with apple cinnamon tea, and gestures at the worn couch by the window overlooking the west side of the neighbourhood, “we’re here to talk about you. About the picture you sent.”

We move away from the counter to the sofa. A burst of hail spatters against the glass as we sit down.

I’m glad to have something to hold to conceal the shivers running through my body at the image of the claw mark mixed with the memory of what Y/N told me she felt. Or, rather, thought she felt although I’m certain she actually did feel the first ripples of transformation.

For a moment, we sit in silence as I mentally prepare myself for the conversation. Nipping on the tea with my shoulders curled over my chest, I try to reconstruct last night as best I can.

As much as my memory lets me.

To break the... something. There’s an idiom, no, a phrase? A saying.

I don’t know.

Not anymore.

To make it easier, likely noticing the struggle to say anything, Jinyoung speaks up. “There’s more than the photo. You’re leaving things out, things I need to know to help. What aren’t you telling me, Jaebeom?”

“Y/N-” I begin, my breath unsteady as I restart the sentence, “Y/N said she felt my skin move and if I try to remember last night, I can only recall fragments that give me a headache when I try to string them together. Which I can’t.”

He pales, frozen in place as the weird briny scent sours. “That shouldn’t-’’

“Shouldn’t happen,” I finish the remark.

A horrifying idea arises that sets the hairs on the back of my neck on end and has me nervously tapping my thumbs together as I try not to squeeze the cup in my paws. Nonetheless, voice a low woof bordering on a melancholic whine, I tell the doctor what’s on my mind. “I think the pills stopped working. Completely. I- I don’t think-’’

The world stops, shrinks, and strings my chest as tight as a string as I shrink within myself. Each thought evaporates as fast as the flashes in the wolf’s memory, incoherent if meant to be sensible at all.

The snow hasn’t even come.

I can’t leave her alone.

I don’t want to leave this life.

I don’t want to go just when being human again starts to get good.

I don’t want to be the old me again.

“I think so too,” Jinyoung agrees grimly. “If I increase the silver and nightshade or the doses it will kill you.”

He tilts his head to the side, eyes sharp with focus as he poses the question I’ve been wondering about myself. “Does she know what you are?”

I shake my head. I might be her weirdo wolf guy, but she’d never believe me if I told her what I really am. Besides, werewolves are the stuff of fiction these days.

We’re no longer seen as a real threat nor have the power and status we used to have in the days of yore. We are devoid of an identity acknowledged by humans.

But, if I don’t possess an identity, am I really here?

Alive?

Or dead like the wolf inside?

Paradise is calling, the song of the forest playing like a red thread through my broken memory.

Beckoning me home.

The woods are calling.

And I must not go.

Jinyoung’s new question pulls me out of my reverie, just in time before the train of thought would crash and burn. “Are you going to tell her?”

“No.” I take a sip of the sweet tea, to have a second of bliss and enjoy a new human pleasure.

Another happiness I discovered a little too late.

“Will you at least tell her about your meds?” Even though she’s seen me take them, Y/N doesn’t know what they’re for. But, then again, did she look at the label?

Regardless of whether she did or not, she’s perhaps not truly ignorant to the reason I have to take them. After all, she thinks they combat my amnesia, which is partially true. It’s a half-truth.

But the real reason is a secret I intend to keep.

“No,” I repeat, determined in my answer regardless of the world spinning out of control. “I won’t tell her.”

“She deserves that much, doesn’t she? She’s your girlfriend, Jay.’’ Although his features have softened, the doctor’s voice rises to a fierce bark as he reinforces his point. ‘’Your mate.”

“I can’t tell her,’’ I retort, my bark closer to a growl than a civilized answer. Tears brim on the edge of my lashes, obscuring my vision in spite of my attempts to blink them away. The vision of Y/N by herself in the snow, on her knees in the middle of the orchard, blocks my throat and makes breathing harder than it already was.

The vision changes to the image of a spring day close to summer, warm enough for her to wear the dress with the lemons. She’s seated in the same position between the trees which are now white and pink with blossom. However, whereas her belly was flat before, it’s now swollen, pregnant with pups.

My pups?

No, I have to stay here.

I have to survive the winter.

I have to be here if I ever change my mind and want to start a pack with her.

I must be here.

But the question is whether I actually can.

At this rate, I’m not sure.

I don’t know.

But I know enough to explain why I’m reluctant to tell my pretty lady anything. ‘’I can’t tell her, because the news will hurt her and I don’t want that. I don’t want to hurt her.”

Plus, what am I supposed to say? I’m a wolf that turned into a man and is slowly dying, going back to his old form in which it... he. Am human. In which he’ll be stuck until it- He! Am human! Until he dies?

“Y/N has to know about this, Jaebeom.’’ A hand on my shoulder makes me look up from the floor to the man next to me. ‘’How about I talk to her, tell her what you told me and discuss what our options are as well as a plan for the future?”

“You’re right.” I let out a mirthless griggle. “Fuck, I hate it when you are. But… But how will you… explain, uhm, explain… this- me! How will you explain me? What I am? For all she cares, werewolves are my- myth- fic-’’ I throw my head back, frustrated I can’t find the right word or properly speak.

Jinyoung gives me an encouraging squeeze, kindheartedly chuckling at my failure. “I know what you mean. Nobody comes into our world willingly or at least without a good reason. I think your... situation is enough of the latter for her to get involved too. She doesn’t have to join the branch, I’ll leave that up to her. But, if Y/N decides to believe me, or us for that matter, she’ll at least have a community to rely on when you, you know, you’re...”

“When I’m gone.’’ The hesitance to state the facts makes me grimace and my tone sharper than intended. ‘’We both know where this is heading so just say it.”

“Fine,’’ the doctor puts his hands up as if he’s at the risk of being shot ‘’when you’re gone.”

“What’ll happen to the shop?” I gesture around the paper paradise, changing the topic slightly. Books have been another treasure of humanity I will forever be grateful for, especially since I hopefully have created a legacy with them that’s worth keeping.

The doctor glances around, a somber expression on his face. “Either the university will keep it and maintain it as a potential workplace in the reintegration program or sell it off. I don’t know, real estate doesn’t fall within my jurisdiction.”

“Ah, I see.” I lower my head, gaze averted to the half-empty cup in my paws.

Funny how I once thought of making this a family business or to have at least my pup’s name on the spine of one of these books. If I ever had them, would they like to be a writer? Would Y/N tell them their absent father, I... I love... loved to read?

I force myself to forget the thought, swallow despite having a dry mouth, and shake my head. “Thank you. For wanting to tell her. She’ll come over tonight, so-’’

He holds up his hand to stop me. “I’ll text her so we can meet at a later date. She just returned from a business trip and had quite the evening with you. You two deserve a bit of rest.”

“But what if...”

It’s unlikely, but what if it happens again? What if I spin out of control tonight?

“Keep your temper in check and try to suppress your instinct,” Jinyoung answers matter-of-factly.

So, no sex.

Although the unspoken implication doesn’t come as a surprise, I can’t help but feel disappointed even though Y/N and I agreed on not doing it again so soon. Notwithstanding, it would be a lie to say I didn’t want to do it again this morning. But then there was the pool of blood and the amnesia that ruined our morning bliss.

All the same, flashes of what I do remember from last night replay in my mind.

They say once you’ve had a wolf, you never go back. Maybe because I won’t let you.

She looked beautiful, tears glistening in her eyes, equally as beautiful as her meek whimpers. She’s so small and fragile, easy to overpower.

To conquer.

“Your mind’s…. gutter again, isn’t it?” A groan sounds from somewhere on the side, distant like a faint echo

I was inside her.

In spite of the weird plastic, she felt nice.

Warm.

Wet.

I replay the image of her whimpering on the sheets as I looked down at her over and over. My hand on her cheek and Y/N keeping it in place. I should have used that second to dive down and worship her soft breasts more.

I could have bitten her there. Just a small bite on the side.

The snapping of a pair of fingers before my eyes interrupts the pleasant reverie. A bit offended, I snap around to growl at whoever took the pleasure of a cherished memory away.

Only to face Jinyoung, who sighs and looks down at the bulge in my pants before pursing his lips with an exasperated knowing expression as he looks up.

Scrambling to regain my composure and hardly remembering what he said, I answer as best I can. “No!”

“Then why are you drooling?”

#JB #Jaebeom #GOT7 #GOT7 smut #JB smut #GOT7 x Reader #Jaebeom x Reader #Jaebeom fanfiction #Jaebeom smut #GOT7 Werewolf AU #Werewolf AU #Werewolf!Jaebeom #Werewolf!JB

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jacksons-goddess-gaia · 4 years ago

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Wolf Rider~ Got7 Werewolf x Reader Chapter 1

❖ GOT7, Jinyoung x reader

❖ Series, Angst, Fluff, Werewolf AU, Alternate Universe AU

❖ TW: Blood, Gore, abuse, knives, guns, alcohol, kidnapping, violence, non major character death, and torture

❖ wc: 3488

❖ Tag List: @atiny-piratequeen @atiny-dazzlinglight @queen-of-himbos @angel0taiyo @storytimedragon @gettin-a-lil-hanse @kimnamshiks @wonderland-obsession

❖ Masterlist ❖

. ⋅˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ ⋅˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

I would love to hear what you guys think <3

. ⋅˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ ⋅˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

You huffed, gritting your teeth as you dragged yourself across the floor to the cage. The big black wolf growled low in its chest, though, it seemed less from warning you and more out of concern for your wellbeing. Nails tearing as they dug into the concrete floor, blood dripping down your leg as the movements caused your wounds to reopen. Your brow furrowed with pain, the tear-stained pathways cutting through the layer of dirt and grime that marred your beautiful face.

But you ignored him, dragging yourself to the edge of the cage, finally reaching the wolf who had been your companion in this hell hole for the last few nights; though how many nights had come to pass you didn’t know.

They had brought him in after you, jeering at him for falling into their hands so easily. When his sight landed upon you slumped against the wall he had broken loose. You had been fading in and out of consciousness at that moment, so you had only vague memories of him tearing apart three of the men as he placed himself between you and them. You had blacked out not long after waking up to an injured wolf watching you with helpless whimpers.

One of the men had dragged you to your feet, shaking you in his face, a knife pressed to your neck. The man's voice rose, yelling something about “her getting it” if he didn’t act like a good boy. You were too delirious, unable to understand how he expected the giant creature to understand him. As you opened your mouth to voice these doubts you could see the nearly human-like desperation and fear in the creature’s eyes as he whimpered, snarling as you were struck harshly in the stomach making you drop to the ground heaving and gasping for air. More words were exchanged as someone barked orders before you were dragged back to the other side of the basement they were keeping you in, throwing you into the wall to crumple down upon yourself in a heap upon the dirty floor.

Since then, you only saw them when they moved you. You would be forced upstairs and allowed to use the bathroom before they shoved you into a van riding to their next destination. Once there, they would throw you into the basement or shed with him, forcing him into his cage again with a simple threat towards you.

As if he understood, he never put up a fight ensuring your safety as he limped into the cage, injured, starved, and aching.

Many times you had protested this, protested the horrid chain they kept on the giant iron collar around his neck. The blows they delivered to him or the kicks and beer bottles they chucked at him and his cage. But he never reacted to them, not until they’d turn their torment upon you. It was one such game that had ended with your leg as it was now when you protested their taunting towards him with food. How you had become so brave in the face of your captors and imprisoners you knew not, but fury filled your veins with each word or action against the beautiful creature.

You wanted to protect him, as he had tried you. Protect him and free him from this horrible place even if it costs you everything. Thus why you provoked the man to turn his attention from the wolf to you despite the fear pounding in your chest.

His blows had nearly knocked you senseless, your lunch leaving your stomach and blood blossoming in your mouth as he split your lip and bruised your eye. Nothing compared, however the agony that seized you when he drove the knife deep into your thigh. This, at last, had drawn a scream from your lips as he had wanted, though it also drew a roar of rage from your friend and he threw himself against the bars of the cage.

This brought down the others to the room, they punished the wolf first, much to your cries to leave him alone. Watching you attempt to claw your way forward to them to stop them, the man laughed twisting his knife in your flesh before ripping it free. Your yells of agony whipped the wolf into a frenzy biting and throwing himself against the bars. Despite their attempts to keep him at bay with the electric probs and whips, it wasn’t until a man you didn’t recognize arrived that everything calmed down. Though beaten and injured the wolf never ceased his low growl at him, especially as he came near you; through your tear-filled and swelling eye, you couldn’t make out his face hidden by a mask and glasses.

The next few minutes you were bandaged, the cage was left alone finally and the man who had damaged you so badly had been killed. Shot by their boss before your very eyes, yet you felt no better. It seemed touching the merchandise as he called you was off the table.

You were once again left alone with a tray of food, saving your dinner you dragged yourself across the room.

“Here eat this.” You murmured to your protector offering him a kind smile as the horse-sized wolf just watched you in befuddlement. As your hand slipped through the bars you never wondered if he’d bite you. In fact, had he so chosen so, his giant jaws would have easily snapped your arm off in one bite.

The plate of cold sandwiches was barely a morsel for him and probably unappetizing, which seemed true as he tried to use his nose to nudge it back to you. But you shook your head.

“If we’re going to get you out of here you need your strength.” you urged him pushing it back closely. For some reason you didn’t feel the need to treat him like a normal animal, something inside you just believed he’d understand you. And as he rolled into a sitting position you knew he had. He snuffled you once through the cage and you smiled at the small whine of gratitude before he munched down on the sandwiches. Gosh, he looked so cute taking teeny tiny bites as though attempting to hold back in front of you. You giggled at the sight of a monstrous predator eating with manners. Grabbing the bars of the cage you hauled yourself up grimacing with pain as your leg seared with agony.

His sharp eyes missed none of it, stopping to look up at you, a low rumble of what you took to be concern leaving his chest. Leaning against the steel bars of his cage you grinned at him offering your hand up for him. Deep intelligent brown eyes glittered as he leaned forward to sniff you again softly before butting his head beneath your hand, eyes closing in bliss.

Never before had you felt such warmth, such deep connection with any other being as he put his head against your hand, his broad head rubbing against you and the bars of the cage.

Enveloping you in soft fur; the smell of pine trees, ocean, and mint hit you all at once. Your eyes fluttered shut as you found yourself leaning into him through the cage. Your arms were wrapped around his broad head and neck, face buried in his neck as you squeezed between the bars. From his earlier tantrum, they had bent, nearly enough for you to slip through completely if only you would turn your body slightly, not nearly enough for him though. However, that thought slipped your mind as a wonderous world of peace and happiness filled your mind and soul.

So much so you never realized the wolf's neck had suddenly become much smaller until a pair of arms wrapped around you.

Jerking your head up you were shocked to come face to face with the most handsome man you had ever laid eyes upon.

“Hello, Kitten.” had it not been for that warm fuzzy feeling still permeating your every sense you might have screamed at the naked man before you, looking at you with the most tender gaze. As though he had found all the stars in the sky and each was more beautiful and delicate than any creature known to man.

“Wha-” his thumb brushing over your lips sent shivers of pleasure down your spine; a shuddery gasp leaving your throat, tingles racing across the skin from his touch. The feel of his warm hand against your cheek nearly lulling you into closing your eyes, a tiny smile twitched at his lips.

“I don’t have time to explain right now. But I will, first I need you to close your eyes and hold on until I tell you to open them ok?” he murmured his face so close to yours you could feel his body heat radiating off him. You nodded before realizing suddenly you were sitting inside the cage, the bars you had been leaning against bent apart and nearly torn from their spots. The man looked pleased with your compliance, giving you a real smile that took your breath away. He was more beautiful than the moon as he grinned. “Good girl kitten. Now, remember to close your eyes and don’t open them no matter what.”

At his urging you complied, a fluttering feeling bouncing around your chest at the nickname and praise. The more sensible part of you wondered where he’d come from, not to mention what had happened to the bars or how you had ended up inside. But the feeling of his muscled form in your arms quelled all thoughts; within a moment you found yourself lifted up into the air upon something large and fluffy before the wind whipped your face.

Splintering wood crashed in your ears, and bounced off your skin. Men’s yells and the sounds of furniture and bullets flying caught your attention, but you squeezed your eyes tight, burying them in the soft fur beneath you as you surged forward into an unknown world of conflict and noise.

Minutes later you were out in the rain for only rain could it be soaking you in an instant, yet you felt no cold. The being beneath you radiating enough heat that you merely felt a coolness in the wet of your jacket and hair, wind wiping your face. The sound and feel of feet pounding against earth and tree surrounded you. The smell of rain mixing with that piney, mint-scented ocean spray you had smelt earlier. Only one word coming to mind, as you held on tight bounding through the endless night and far away from your prison.

__________________________________

A hair-raising howl broke you from near sleep hours later. Still perched upon his back you had nearly passed out, however, the howl had you springing awake. And accidentally breaking his rule too. At the sight of three giant wolves running alongside you eyes focused upon your form, you couldn't resist it. A scream ripped itself from your throat as you toppled from his back.

Hitting the ground at 40 miles an hour hurts. Hitting the ground in a forest doubly so, however hitting the ground from six feet up in the air, already severely injured was just pure agony. You toppled, rolled, and bounced before skidding to a stop covered in mud and nearly faint from pain. It felt like your leg had been ripped open all over again.That with the new cuts and bruises littering your body it was no wonder you laid dazed for a moment. Upon opening your eyes, the ringing dimmed in your ears and you wished you hadn’t opened them, to begin with. Three large wolves running straight at you. Lifting your arms over your face you screamed jumping with fright as soft wet black hair engulfed you. Pain richotted through your body as you were jostled, a horrible roaring snarl of a bark thundering above you. Seconds later all the sound ceased and you found warm strong hands lifting you up dragging you into a strong muscled chest.

“Kitten? HEy-HEY!” the hands trembled as that handsome face from before appeared above you, more afraid than before as he held you close. Long fingers pushing your wet and tangled hair from your face as you shivered from pain and cold.

“Kitten-”

For some reason the sight of his gorgeous brown eyes dark with worry and care, chiseled features dripping with rain, you broke down. Tears flooded your eyes as you tried and failed to speak. This combined with the chill quickly settling into your bones scared him more. He dragged you into him hiding your face in his shoulder.

“Shhh, it’s ok I’ve got you. Shhh.” he cooed in a pleading tone as the warmth of his bare skin seeped slowly through to you.

“Jiny-”

“You’re dead after this Yugyeom, dead.” The furious rumbling growl leaving this tender man surprised you as did the sound of three other apologetic voices. His tender voice returning, you could feel his lips move against your hair. “I’m going to carry you, it's just up here, just a few minutes I promise, hold on Kitten.”

Gritting your teeth you tried to suppress the scream of agony as he lifted you into his arms.

“I’ll carry her-” but the concerned voice merely received a snarl in return, his grip tightening around you. You were just conscious of a light ahead when you finally slipped into unconsciousness.

___________________________________

Warmth, soft comfortable warmth was the first thing registering to your senses. Its soft pillowy texture brushing against your skin like a caress. A warm pine fresh smell mingling with ocean waves filling your senses with relaxation as your muscles tensed and stretched. Slowly you opened your eyes to a wonderful golden light streaming in through off white sheer curtains. You were snuggled down into a ball surrounded by fluffy pillows and a soft duvet comforter. The room was definitely masculine, dark blue linens and carpeting with modern minimalistic furnishings. The men's suit jacket draped over a chair nearby enough to confirm this was a man's room.

In your attempt to sit up to better address where you were, pain came crashing down upon your soft kingdom.

Everything hurt in some way and degree, though nothing more than your thigh. Gingerly as every move hurt you slowly pulled yourself up into a sitting position. A horrifying discovery awaited you, someone had bandaged your wounds but upon doing so changed your clothes.

Panic set in as you hurriedly checked beneath the man's shirt and to your horror realized the underclothes were also not your own. Before you could truly send yourself down the road of totally freaking out, you wracked your brain. Taking deep breaths you recalled all that you could of the escape. You could bring up everything of your escape up until losing consciousness with fierce clarity, afterward though was a muddle.

Feint images as though through some thick haze came and went, chunks of time missing between the snippets of light. Blurred faces and a familiar voice fading in and out, pain, warmth, and a woman's scolding voice. Words of comfort and a hot bath then nothing.

The relief was foremost in your mind as you recalled the woman who had tended your injuries and bathed you. She must have been the one to have changed you, and while still embarrassing it was much better than the idea one of the blurry-faced men to have been the one. Your hair was dry plaited and smelled softly of lavender, a soothing and comforting smell. Taking in your surroundings more calmly now you could hear the low rumble of voices broken intermittently with laughter from somewhere outside the room's door.

Knowing there was no way your leg would support your weight to the doorway you gathered your courage together, checking to make sure the shirt was covering you, you swallowed before tentatively opening your lips.

“H-hey…” You wanted to shake your head at your weak cry barely loud enough to be considered talking let alone a call to reach whoever was out there.

Thus all the more surprising as the door opened with a bang like a canon.

“Kitten?!?” Before you knew what had happened the most handsome-faced man was before you eyes wide with concern, curved lips turned down in worry.

“Okay you’ve got to tell us is Kitten really your name?” At the cheerful, if dubious voice the man growled, turning his face away from you to glower at the smiling man.

“None of your business Jackson-”

“It’s Y/N. Y/n L/n.” His head spun back at your tentative voice expression softening.

“Y/n…” He marveled, and oh did the sound of your name on his tongue send burning heat to every part of your body, toes curling as a breathtaking smile crossed his lips. “Y/n l/n...it's beautiful it suits you.”

Color flushed to your cheeks causing you to wince breaking the spell his gaze had upon you as your eye throbbed.

“Knew her name wasn’t kitten. You owe me five bucks Bammie!” Cackled the boy by the door to another thinner young man staring at you curiously.

“Shut it.” Growled Jinyoung at them but his worried eyes never left you as your fingers felt at your swollen and tender eye.

“Don’t.” He murmured, long beautiful fingers reaching out and pulling your hands away from your face. His touch sent tingles of warmth through your skin banishing any residual pain as his warm fingers gently soothed the offending area. He was like a prince, so caring and perfect, every feature crafted by artists. A black shirt tucked into the front of his jeans hiding the muscled physique you had come only too close to and admired.

His well-put-together attire and beauty suddenly made you feel underdressed in the oversized long sleeve, and small PJ shorts hidden beneath the blankets.

“How bad is it?” You asked, for some reason suddenly even more embarrassed at your battered and bruised form in front of his princely self.

“Not bad-” but his beautiful voice was cut short by ‘Bammie’.

“It's like half a panda.” At his words, Jackson smacked him, while your jaw fell open in horror.

“See there's a mirror there!” Not seeming to learn his lesson pointed to the full-length mirror off to your left. Your Prince wasn’t fast enough to grab your face to stop you from looking at the open closet door. The sight was horrifying, your bottom lip was swollen and split, a shadow of a bruise and scrape over the one side of your jaw but your right eye and the area around it was deep purple and under your eye swollen.

You couldn’t resist the gasp sweater paws flying up to feel over the injuries.

“OUT!” Jinyoung snarled, while he chased them in his fury slamming the door behind them, you threw off the covers. The shirt just barely reached past the microscopic shorts, revealing the massive and blood-stained bandages wrapped tight around your thigh as well as another wrapping around your opposing calf. Both tinged red with blood, the rest of your legs speckled and blotched with scrapes and bruises. You could feel your arms were not much different.

“I’m so sorry.” Coming back to your side he looked down at your injuries with a face of guilt-filled agony. “I should have stopped sooner, warned you I just wanted to get you as far away-I’m so sorry.”

Looking over your injuries you shook your head.

“You told me to hold on and not to look, I messed up. This ugly-”

“You’re not ugly.” his voice was stern eyebrows instantly bunching together, he looked as though you had insulted him rather than yourself.

“I look-”

“Beautiful.” You would have laughed and told him not to try and make you feel better only the seriousness of his gaze as he looked down at your hands gently taking yours in his, had you at a loss for words. “A Princess.”

Then your heart exploded as he lifted your hands to his lips placing a soft kiss upon your knuckles.

“P-prin-” You couldn’t contain your spluttering as he turned that charming expression back on you.

“Without these…” His fingers brushed over the bruise with the gentlest of touches. “You’d be brighter than the moon. A goddess.”

“I- '' unable to meet the flustering intensity of his gaze, or know what to do with the blissful sensation of his touch you backtracked. Inhaling slow and deep you braced yourself for your next question. “So you’re a werewolf, right? Because that's the only thing that my mind can come up with for everything that's happened. Outside of hallucinating or insanity. ”

Sobering up instantly at your words he nodded, eyes watching you warily the dark brown swirling in thought.

“Are you scared?”

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gamerwoo · 4 years ago

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[Tales from the Pack] Hansol: Fire and Ice (Part Four)

Characters: Hansol x female reader

Genre/warnings: werewolf au, fantasy, angst, a little bit of fluff, lots of mentions of death

Word count: 2,962

Summary: You’ve always been one to let your emotions get the best of you – your power reflects that – and you’ve never been good at expressing them. That’s why you always thought you’d be awful with a mate, but you never thought things would be this awful.

a/n: things in bold are in english. also as y’all already know, kyung is half black so i included that bit in this part since the series is from her pov. i try to mostly avoid being that specific in reader inserts but oh well lmao

Previous | Next | Fire and Ice Masterlist

After waking up but before the funeral, the first thing that was brought to your attention were the injuries. Jooyeon’s neck was bruised and sore – Seungcheol couldn’t help but growl whenever he really stared at it, which was often because he couldn’t stop thinking about how someone tried to strangle his mate – most of the mates and wolves had cuts and scrapes, those in town had silver bullet wounds that had to heal, and there was Hansol with silver burned into his shoulders and arms. However, Hansol never once complained about the pain when he was with you. He’d grunt and whimper softly when he moved or did things or his clothes brushed against it, but he mostly kept his discomfort to himself.

The first thing you tried was Joshua’s healing, which he was already overexerting -- and soon, he was unable to use it at all. He was trying to quickly heal everybody’s silver injuries, but Hansol’s was the biggest one, and it was deeper than the others. There were faint grey veins in his back when he took off his shirt, and you could only imagine what it must’ve felt like. But you chose to try to ignore the strong instinct to stay beside your mate. Instead, you tried to help your pack and their mates with coping.

“Where’s Rin?” you asked Jinyoung as you entered the kitchen.

“She’s been hiding ever since the night we came home,” he replied, sipping from a mug of coffee. “I saw her run outside that night, but then she went invisible. I haven’t seen her since.”

You frowned. Other than Jiung, you were closest with Rin and Chanseong. With Chanseong gone and Rin hiding – you could sniff her out, but you didn’t want to blow her cover and upset her – you felt even more alone. Your inner wolf yearned to go back to Hansol and at least watch as Joshua tried to heal him, but you ignored that feeling yet again.

“I guess I’ll…find something else to do,” you shrugged.

Jinyoung sighed, setting his mug on the counter and putting a hand on your shoulder as you turned to go, “_____, you can’t keep doing this.”

“Doing what?”

“You’re just trying to distract yourself from Hansol.”

“No,” you snapped, scowling at the younger wolf, “I’m trying to be a good alpha.”

Jinyoung’s face fell, his grip loosening, “_____, I know you must feel it, too…”

“No, it’ll go away,” you stated surely. “I’m the alpha, so I’m staying here and acting like it. I’m not letting my pack down.”

“You’re not letting anybody down, _____. You’re being too hard on yourself. And you can’t say that you’d be letting down Jiung because we both know – we all know – that he would want you to go easier on yourself, too.”

“Shut up!” you snapped, pulling away from Jinyoung and staring at the floor. You took deep breaths as you felt your temper flaring up, the skin of your knuckles starting to spark. The last thing you wanted was to set the kitchen on fire. “Just…let me do what I need to, okay? This is how I want to do things.”

You heard Rin’s voice, but you didn’t see her, “It’s how she wants to cope.”

She appeared beside Jinyoung at the counter, though she shrunk behind him like she was hiding from somebody.

Jinyoung glanced over at her before looking back at you, “What did she say?”

Rika walked into the kitchen, an empty syringe in one hand, and her hands clad in gloves, “She says it’s how _____ chooses to cope. Personally, I agree. _____ is our alpha now and she should decide what she wants to do. We can’t baby her like Jiung did.”

“You can’t seriously believe that–”

“Jinyoung,” Rika barked, tossing the syringe in the garbage. “not now.”

“How’s Hansol?” Rin wondered quietly.

Rika sighed, wiping sweat from her forehead with the back of her arm, “Nothing’s working. I recommended a doctor in the town near their new house, and he said he’ll think about it.”

“Oh, Minjee?” you asked, ignoring the fact that the two girls were speaking English to each other. “She did well with Baekhan that one time.”

“And she’s affordable for the wolves who had a harder time blending in,” Rika chuckled. “I think she’ll be able to be of the best assistance for them if even Joshua’s powers aren’t healing Hansol.”

While Rika had to repeat what she had said to Rin in English, you went to walk out of the kitchen in search of something else to keep your brain busy since now all you could think of was Hansol’s injuries. However, Jinyoung stopped you once again.

“This isn’t over, _____,” he told you. “Their pack leaves tomorrow, and you’ll have to decide. We’re having a pack meeting tonight to discuss this.”

“Whatever,” you grumbled before shrugging him off and leaving the kitchen.

Seungcheol’s pack stayed for two days. Two days of preparations for a ceremony that would serve as a funeral for the fallen alpha. Two days of Hansol whimpering in pain whenever anybody touched his shoulders or the back of his arms. Two whole days of Joshua doing his best to heal everybody until he physically couldn’t use his power anymore. Two days of Soonyoung sniffing around your house, which you thought was weird, but it at least lessened the tension seeing his weird behavior.

The funeral was exactly what they expected, but they found out it was a funeral for two. You were the only one who knew that Chanseong had left, but you were too out of it to do anything about it at the time. When did manage to break the news to the pack, they seemed upset but not surprised. Nobody was surprised that Chanseong would do something like that since Jiung was dead. Outside of the pack, Chanseong had no other family.

Since there were no bodies to bury, memorials were created in the backyard. On wooden crosses that your pack had made, their names were engraved into them before they were put side-by-side in the dirt. Bang Jiung and Lee Chanseong – an alpha and his mate.

You were at least thankful that Seungcheol’s pack attended and listened attentively to what your pack had to say about your brother. You could feel eyes on you most of the time, though you assumed they were afraid that you would lose your cool like you had before. However, you just stared at the ground, dressed in all black like the rest of your pack, and said nothing.

Seungcheol’s pack also noticed that Rin was still missing -- well, she was there because the wolves could smell her, but she stayed invisible the whole time -- and everyone noticed that Hansol stood farthest away from the group. They figured Hansol wanted to still be here to pay his respects, but stood farther away since he was apparently the cause of all this in your eyes and in his own.

Once it was over, the three alphas ushered their own pack inside so that way Your pack could have some time alone to do whatever you needed to do. Suvi had turned to look at your pack right before entering the house and noticed Rin was suddenly there.

After the funeral, you still didn’t feel different -- you thought you might after waking up, too, but you didn’t. You weren’t sure if you’d even feel different after becoming the new alpha, but you thought maybe it would make you feel at least a little bit stronger or a little more sure of yourself. Instead, you just felt as broken as you did before. Nothing had changed.

You did feel something – an instinct that you already knew what it was – but you shoved that instinct down and tried to live up to the alpha you knew your brother would want you to be. Maybe if you really acted the part, you’d feel it – everyone would. At least, that’s all you could hope for.

Since you’d missed seeing Eunjin, you spent most of your time sitting beside her. Unlike the other mated couples, her and Seungkwan weren’t all over each other. They didn’t bother asking you about any of your problems, and you enjoyed listening to them talk about anything -- from things Eunjin was hearing, to Seungkwan just telling her old stories of the pack.

As they spoke about their different traditions from their home countries, you spoke up about one thing in particular, “That is something I never understood…”

“What?” Seungkwan asked, his hand wrapped around Eunjin’s tiny one.

“When Koreans marry, nobody takes the other’s surname,” you clarified, looking between the couple. “America’s the same way as Eunjin’s home country where if you and Eunjin got married, Eunjin would become Boo Eunjin. Then again, I guess getting married isn’t something werewolves do either, huh?”

“We are,” Yeji suddenly interjected, listening to the conversation.

“What?” Jihoon asked, being taken off guard by the suddenly remark by his mate, and making the others in the room chuckle.

You even cracked a small smile.

“We’re getting married,” she repeated, “…right?”

Quickly, Jihoon nodded, “If that’s what you want to do, then of course.”

“Good answer,” Wonwoo nodded, nudging his brother with his elbow.

“You’re such a sucker for her,” Soonyoung said teasingly, rolling his eyes.

Danbi looked to you, her soft smile growing wider when she looked at you like she was just trying to make you happy. Danbi was a cute girl.

“What about you, _____?” she asked. “Did you want to get married?”

You just shrugged, “I don’t know. I would fantasize about it a lot when I was a child but after living the life of a werewolf for so long and learning more of their customs, I don’t think I’d mind either way.”

“Where exactly are you from, _____?” Soomin inquired, leaning forward like she was genuinely interested.

“I’m from America, and I would visit once a year, but I don’t remember my birth parents,” you admitted with a shrug, your hands folding together in your lap. “My adoptive ones managed to save a picture of them, so I know what they looked like at least -- not that I care. But my mother was white and my father was black. Me and Ji– Um…I’m not as dark as my dad, but I’m darker than my mom, obviously.”

Eunjin looked at you with a hint of a smile on her pink lips as her wide blue eyes took you in, softly saying, “You’re really pretty, _____. I’ve always thought your hair was pretty, and you have a cute nose.”

“Thanks,” you could feel your cheeks heating up as you looked at your lap. You knew Eunjin was too genuine, so you knew she truly believed the comments she made about you. She was too sweet for this awful world.

“_____,” you heard Hanbin call you from the kitchen. You looked up to see him wave you over. “C’mon.”

You sighed, standing up, “I’ll talk to you guys later.”

“Okay!” Danbi chirped.

You walked out of the living room normally before dragging your feet through the kitchen. You knew why you were dreading this pack meeting but you tried to not let those reasons get to you. You were going to have to face the reality of the situation even if you didn’t want to. You could pretend as long as you wanted, but your instincts knew the truth – all of them knew the truth.

Hanbin held the back door open for you to walk out onto the wrap-around porch and down the steps to the backyard. You joined the group that had already formed around the large fire, standing around it to warm their faces and hands.

“Alright,” Jaesang spoke up once you and Hanbin had joined the group, “now that the alpha is here, we can start.”

You just stared down at your boot-clad feet.

“Have you made any decisions, _____?” Jimin wondered softly.

“I already told Jinyoung what I’m doing,” you grumbled.

Across the fire, you could hear Rika whispering translations to Rin.

“You shouldn’t–”

“Jinyoung,” Hanbin spoke up, placing a hand on your back, “let’s let _____ explain herself. What did you decide, _____?”

“I’m staying with my pack,” you stated, finally lifting your head to look at each member. “I’m going to be the alpha, and I’m going to do it well.”

“You do know that’s suicide, right?” Rin asked, her voice hard as her golden eyes glared at you. “You’re just going to kill yourself, and then you won’t be an alpha even if you–”

“Corinne,” Rika whispered harshly.

“At least I’m not playing hide-n-seek with the other pack!” you shouted, already getting worked up at Rin’s insinuation.

Rin’s cheeks flushed, and she averted her eyes to the fire.

“I vaguely got an idea of what Rin said,” Hyojun spoke up, his hands shoved into his pockets as his mate clung to one of his arms, “but I know she’s right. _____, if you deny Hansol, you’ll kill him and yourself. I’m not saying you should listen to us, but I think you should think this over a bit more. At least promise us that, yeah?”

You stared at Hyojun for a moment before instinctively looking up at Hanbin. Then your eyes flickered to the fire after realizing you were the alpha and you were to make your own decisions.

With a sigh, you nodded once, “I’ll think about it.”

“Thank you,” Hanbin nodded, sounding almost relieved and happy. “We’d rather have you out of the pack and safe, than in it and dead.”

Most of the pack brought their mates and themselves back inside, but you stayed outside by the fire. You stared deep into the flames, trying to sort through the maze of thoughts you had. You knew you’d be digging your own grave if you denied your mate since you had the same strong urges, but you hoped that pretending they didn’t exist would just make them go away. But at the same time, the wolf side of you just didn’t want to ignore those feelings.

You let out a groan, dropping your head into your hands. You had thought everyone had gone inside but you felt a strong arm tug you into their side, and you already knew who it was: Hanbin.

You weren’t sure how long you stayed outside to think in the quiet of the night, but Hanbin stood by you the entire time. All you could think as you stared into the fire that only reminded you of your own temper, was that Hanbin would make a better alpha than you ever could.

The pack was leaving around 7am, and your pack met them outside to say goodbye. Most of your pack shook hands with the others, some of the mates hugged the other mates. Soonyoung was still acting weird, but at this point, you figured that was just typical Soonyoung. You stayed toward the back, though, as you were supposed to make your official decision.

The entire time, you felt eyes on you. From your pack and theirs, but you mostly felt Hansol’s boring into you. You just kept your eyes on the ground, waiting for the inevitable.

“It’s been a pleasure meeting you and your pack,” Hanbin said, shaking hands with the three alphas, “and if you ever need anything else, just give us a shout.”

“Eunjin’s got that covered,” Seokmin joked.

Finally, Hanbin turned to you, waving you over. Your feet robotically moved one in front of the other, but the whole thing felt like a blur. You felt like you weren’t even in your own body.

“So, _____,” Hanbin put a warm hand on your shoulder, looking down at you.

But the one to ask the question wasn’t Hanbin.

“_____,” Hansol spoke up suddenly, his voice soft but capturing your attention easily. You looked at him as he walked over, though you could see the pain in his face he was trying to hide from his clothes moving against his injuries. He stopped in front of you, yellow eyes staring deeply into yours. “I know you hate me, and I know what I did is unforgivable. Despite everything that happened, I promise to work as hard as I have to to make you happy again. I don’t care if it takes me until I die, I swear I’ll make you happy someday. I’ll love you with my whole heart, and I’ll always take care of you. So…will you come with me and be my mate?”

Both packs were silent as you and Hansol looked at each other. Most of you – maybe all of you – was screaming to take his hand and let him lead you off to a new life. You knew even your own pack wanted you to go with him just so you’d be alive and be well taken care of because they knew Hansol would be able to keep you under control after what happened in the woods the other night. Nobody else in your pack could ever do what he could do. Nobody could ever keep you out of trouble like Hansol could. Nobody could even touch you when your powers were in use, but Hansol could easily.

But your lips parted to speak, and you barely whispered the word, “No.”

Then you turned away from the pack and made your way through your smaller one, going into the house and not sparing Hansol a second glance.

You were an alpha, just like Jiung, and you were going to be strong like him.

218 notes · View notes

wingsofkpop · 4 years ago

Text

Hiraeth - I.X: Was it Worth it in the End? Part Two

pairing(s): Hybrid!Im Jaebeom x Reader, Witch!Mark Tuan x Reader, Werewolf!Jackson Wang x Reader, Vampire!Park Jinyoung x Reader, Supernatural!Got7 x Reader

genre: Supernatual!AU, Dark Magic!AU, very heavy Angst, eventual Smut

warnings: Mature language, violence, explicit descriptions of fighting and injury, weapons, blood and gore, brief mention of a mutilated animal corpse, minor character death, description of trauma and mental illness, brief mention of suicide, mentions of murder, satanic themes and ritual, etc.

Trigger Warning: This chapter does contain graphic and explicit themes regarding violence, trauma, and death. Please do not read if this will harm you. This is your final warning.

word count: 10,6k

synopsis: How far are you willing to go to find out the truth about Moon Dye Bay?…

chapter directory

The nighttime is hushed, almost anxious as Minho maneuvers his way past gravestones and overgrown shrubbery. It’s almost like nature itself is too afraid of accidentally provoking the witch, sensing the torpedo of dark magic and violent sorrow stirring through his veins. He peers up at the crimson moon, grateful for the illumination it provides, and continues down his path—ignorant of the cold air bleeding into his flesh.

Minho knows this is probably not the best time for a visit, aware that his ex-covenmates are likely plotting some sort of mission to overthrow him, but he doesn’t care—he can’t care anymore. A part of him, the shameful, guilty part of his mind. actually hopes they will succeed, at least then, he would no longer have to endure the pain that comes with bearing this black magic. He can feel its poison rushing through his veins, seering his body from the inside out, killing his soul over and over and over again…

But isn’t this what he wanted? Revenge? Retribution? Minho performed that spell to hurt the very friends that hurt him—to hurt Mark, and he got his wish… so why does it feel like the world is caving in around him, swallowing him whole?

Once he reaches his destination, Minho collapses to his knees, unable to bear the weight of his burdens. His eyes burn with tears, but he doesn’t allow himself to cry. A silent gust of wind strokes his cheeks, painting his skin red with bitterness and anger. He welcomes the cold air, accepting the punishment, before lifting his hand to splay his fingers against the even colder surface of the headstone.

“I’m sorry…” Minho whimpers, “It didn’t have to be like this…”

The silence heightens his anguish—deepens the wounds in his heart.

If he could take it all back, he would… but he can’t.

“I wish you were here, noona…”

His murmur is lost to the wind, but it doesn’t matter. He climbs back to his feet before sparing one final glance at the burial place of his lost friend. After a deep inhale and a wordless goodbye, Minho turns and hastily begins back toward the mausoleum.

He was allowed this one moment of weakness—now he must get back to the horrible reality he manifested for himself.

☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾

“Can you be any more obvious…?”

Mark quickly awakens from his mindless trance, discovering, to his dismay, Dahyun looking down at him with a single raised, all-knowing eyebrow. He fakes a cough into his elbow before shrugging his shoulders, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You’re kidding me, right?... You literally haven’t taken your eyes off of her since we met up in the forest.”

Heat immediately rises to Mark’s cheeks. As if on instinct, his eyes trail back to his subject of interest, watching as you wipe the sweat from Jaebeom’s girlfriend’s forehead and neck before shifting to do the same to Felix. It’s such a simple action, but you somehow look so ethereal—almost like an angel sent from heaven.

He curses himself for his own cheesiness, then releases a defeated sigh.

“We got into a pretty big fight earlier.”

“Then don’t you think you should—I don’t know—talk to her instead of staring her down like a creep?”

“I think the last thing she wants to do is talk to me.” Mark drags a hand through his hair. “I… said some really stupid shit in the heat of the moment. She probably hates me.”

Dahyun scoffs, “God, you are such a fucking idiot.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It means you need to get your ass over there and apologize to that girl.”

Her harsh tone doesn’t falter beneath his glare, nor does her tenacious expression as the two proceed with their silent staring contest. After a minute or two, Dahyun breaks off the competition with a long, heavy sigh. Her eyes are soft when she looks back at him, and suddenly Mark finds the dried mud on his shoes a lot more interesting.

“Mark, anyone can see how much you care about her—how much she cares about you.” Even when a gentle hand caresses his shoulder, the witch keeps his attention to the floor. “(Y/N) could never hate you—no matter how much stupid shit you pull.” She snickers, “And you pull a lot of stupid shit, so that has to account for something.”

He can’t help the amused chuckle that falls from his own lips.

“Thanks, Dubu.” Mark says, tilting his head to finally meet the warmth of her gaze.

“She’s a good one—a really good one, Mark.” The wolf hums, “Don’t let it be your fear that pushes her away.” She doesn’t give him a chance to reply further, pacing to a nearby corner to join a conversing Bang Chan and Yugyeom.

Sparing the wolf trio one final glance, Mark musters up the remaining courage he has left and pushes from his perch against the kitchen countertop. He forces himself to walk in your direction—each step releasing more butterflies into the confines of his stomach. Once he reaches you, close enough to touch your turned back, he almost chickens out, content with spending the rest of the night watching you like hawk, but the sound of Felix’s breathy voice locks him in place:

“—Channie-hyung and I have always wanted to go to Chicago… Is-Is it as windy as they say?”

“Even windier.” You say with a laugh. “I can’t tell you how many scarves I lost, and don’t get me started on how freaking cold the winters are.”

Felix laughs too, although it resonates as more of a wheeze than anything.

You shrug, “It’s a gorgeous city though—probably my most favorite place I’ve ever lived.”

“Then why did you leave? If you loved it so much?”

Mark’s interest piques when he notices how your figure grows tense at the young boy’s croak. He’s heard his fair share of stories of your heartfelt time in the Windy City, but he never quite figured out why you ultimately decided to move to Moon Dye Bay. You’ve always been reluctant to reveal certain details from your past, especially regarding your time in the foster system, but even then Mark has been able to pry the worst memories from your brain.

This subject, however, has been a brick wall.

“Because I couldn’t stay.” You finally answer, “It’s complicated, but something happened and basically I—”

“(Y/N)?”

He silently cusses as Felix interrupts your explanation, but his annoyance dissipates at the panicked expression etched along the teenager’s sweaty face.

“What is it, Felix?” You shift your position on his bedside to better face the boy, leaning forward to place a gentle hand on his forehead. Mark can only imagine how hot the skin is to the touch.

Felix’s words crack as they leave his lips, slicing at the witch’s heart like a dagger:

“Am… Am I gonna die?”

“Of course not.” You immediately say, but Mark can sense the uneasiness in your tone. “Everyone is doing everything they can to help you, okay?... You’re gonna get through this, and one day you and your brother are gonna go see Chicago yourselves and try not to get blown away into the next century.”

Felix sleepily chuckles, “Thanks, (Y/N).”

“You should get some sleep.” The moment the command leaves your lips, Felix is already closing his eyes and diving headfirst into dreamland. Not wanting to startle you, Mark waits a couple seconds—partly to give you time to regain your composure, and partly to give himself time to think of what to say. However, he doesn’t have much of a choice when you suddenly turn, growing aware of his presence. A frown overtakes your face, and he instantly regrets ever leaving his countertop.

“Did you need something?”

“No—yes, I mean—shit.” Mark buries a hand in his tresses to tug at his roots, attempting to juggle between putting together the right spoken words and reminding his body to breathe. “(Y/N), I—”

“If you came to apologize, I don’t want to hear it.” He helplessly watches as you rise from the bed before tossing your used rag on a nearby table. “I think you made yourself pretty clear back at my apartment.”

“I shouldn’t have said what I said—” Before you can storm away, Mark latches his fingers around your wrist. “—please. Just give me a chance to explain.”

Your shoulders rise and fall in a heavy sigh, but you make no move to tear away from his grip and he takes it as a chance to continue:

“After my mom died, I was so fucking angry…” Mark notices your surprised gaze when you lift your head, but he doesn’t meet your eyes. “I was angry at the world, at her, at myself… and when my magic began to show up, things got a whole lot worse.” He shakes his head, “I thought about just ending it—jump into the bay or maybe drink myself to death—but then I met…”

“Then you met Jackson.”

“He taught me how to deal with the anger—to use it as a tool, not a weapon.” His eyes begin to burn at the countless memories that reel through his mind. “It was because of him I learned how to control my powers, and I was able to bring the coven together—hell, he was the one who told them to nominate me as Regent, which right now, seemed like the worst fucking decision on the planet.”

Mark takes a moment to blink away his tears before taking a seat on an empty cot. He still can’t find it in himself to glance at your face, keeping his eyes trained to the wooden flooring.

“But when Jackson had an idea, there was no stopping him.” He chuckles sarcastically, “The bastard was as stubborn as a goddamn mule.”

“What happened to Jackson, Mark?” Your voice is both a sweet lullaby and a screeching siren against his ears. “How did he die? Really?”

“The initial plan was to infuse enough magic into Jackson’s werewolf form so his venom would be lethal to the Primes, or at the very least, to Jinyoung. It all went smoothly in the beginning, I was able to channel enough power to complete the transformation… but something went wrong—

“—Jackson was different when he shifted. He was ruthless… He didn’t want to just kill the Primes—he wanted to slaughter every vampire along with those who protect the secrets of their existence… no matter if they were witch, werewolf, human—they all deserved to die…

“The combination of his determination and the bloodlust drove him fucking mad… If Jaebeom hadn’t ripped out his heart, there’s telling what he would have done—who he would have killed…”

Mark leans forward to rest his elbows on his knees, attempting to hide his shame beneath the curl of his bangs. “—Jaebeom may have dealt the final blow, but Jackson died because the dark magic I used turned him into a monster—he’s dead because of me…”

Silence encompasses the room like a vice grip to the throat. For a moment, Mark believes you left him, too disgusted and ashamed to even breathe the same air as him, but the entrance of your worn boots into his vision proves otherwise. The image is replaced by your face when you kneel in front of his broken figure, laying your hands over each bicep. He notices your touch is gentle, but not hesitant, and warm—always so warm.

“You can’t blame yourself for his death, Mark.” Mark doesn’t realize he’s crying until you wipe a tear from his cheek. “How could you have known what that spell would do? You couldn’t have—”

“Magic always comes with price—especially dark magic.” He whispers, unable to hold back more liquid sadness as it trails down his skin. “(Y/N), if I ever lost you the same way I lost Jackson, my mom, I—”

Mark’s voice cuts out into a sob, and once your arms wind around his form, he completely breaks, releasing every ounce of repressed sadness and despair and pain into the crook of your neck. He knows he’s selfish for melting into your embrace—for consuming your comfort like a demon expelled from the heavens—but he doesn’t care.

When you guide his eyes to meet your own, Mark can spot the glassiness of your own orbs in the artificial light—along with enough compassion and ardor to send another flood of tears down his face.

“I’m not going anywhere, okay?” You affirm, your tone unwavering and stern. “I’m here—and no matter how many times you fall, I’m gonna be here to pick you up…

“I’m here, Mark… Do you understand me?”

He nods with a sniffle, tightly squeezing your hands between his own.

“I’m sorry.”

You smile at his apology.

“I’m sorry too… for everything.”

“Just… No more secrets. For real, this time.”

“For real, this time.” Mark’s heart rate picks up when he suddenly notices how close his face is to yours. From this angle, he can count the constellations glistening within your eyes and map the delicate curves of your facial features. If he were to lean just an inch closer, just one tiny inch, his lips would be on your own—

“Sorry to interrupt, but we have an issue.” At Yugyeom’s statement, you and Mark immediately wrench away from one another, almost as if having been caught engaging in forbidden territory. Mark pretends he doesn’t miss the weight of your hands inside his own as he rises from the cot, making sure to put an appropriate amount of distance between his and your shoulders.

He clears his throat before humming, “What’s going on?”

“Chan wants to go and find Chaeyoung’s body.” Although Yugyeom’s face remains neutral, Mark can see the sadness lingering within his eyes at the mention of his fallen packmate. “He doesn’t remember exactly where she was, so him, Dahyun, and I are going to search the forest.”

You immediately shake your head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Sunrise isn’t for at least another hour, and we have no way of knowing Youngjae broke the curse yet.”

“I’m with (Y/N) on this one, Gyeom.” Mark agrees, “We’re safest here in the bunker.”

“We can’t just leave her out there. I mean, she—” Yugyeom cuts himself off with a heavy sigh, before continuing in a softer tone, “You know how it feels to lose someone, hyung… Chaeyoung is—was… our family.”

Mark takes a moment of silence to ponder, conflicted between his common sense and Yugyeom’s pleading gaze. As you said, sunrise is an hour away—but Youngjae, the coven and the Primes should have overthrown Minho by now, right? Plus, he literally blew Changbin’s head off with that shotgun. There’s no way his body could regenerate that quickly…

“We’re all staying together.” He finally says, moving toward the kitchenette to grab his weapon from its perch on the counter. “And if anything seems shady, it’s an immediate retreat.”

Yugyeom delivers a nod before heading off to gather the other wolves. Mark moves toward the bunker exit, but is stopped by your form. A heavy sigh cascades from his lips—just from your expression, he knows this conversation isn’t going to go his way.

“(Y/N)—”

“If you’re gonna tell me I can’t go with you, don’t even bother.”

He shakes his head, “It’s too dangerous…”

“If someone tells me that one more goddamn time—” He can’t help the tiny smile that spreads across his face at the sassy way you roll your eyes. And he doesn’t protest when you move to follow Dahyun up the ladder.

☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾

Youngjae inhales a deep breath, taking the moment to feel his lungs expand, before releasing the air in an even deeper exhale. Even with the relaxation attempt, his body remains tense and his thoughts disorderly. He can’t help but feel as if Minho is waiting somewhere in the darkness of the crypt, ready to pounce on him like a predator to its prey.

Would he toy with his catch first? Or would he skip the pleasantries and go right in for the kill?

A hand appears on his shoulder, wrenching Youngjae from his morbid daydream. He angles his head to meet Lia’s concerned gaze and immediately tries to mask his fear beneath an expression of indifference. Unsurprisingly, the female witch sees right through his facade:

“I’ve known you practically my whole life, Youngjae. Whatever it is, you can’t hide it from me.”

His shoulders sag in defeat as a sigh blows past his lips.

“I’m just… worried about Mark-hyung. He’s powerless out there.”

“Mark is smart—he’ll know what to do if he finds himself in trouble.”

“And if he doesn’t?... I-I mean, what if Minho or Changbin found him before he could warn the pack? He could be dead for all we know—”

Lia silences his desperate quip with a shake of her head, “You shouldn’t think like that right now—”

“What else am I supposed to do?” Youngjae runs a frustrated hand through his hair before gesturing toward the main exit of their underground penitentiary. “Even with yours and Jisung’s energy, I don’t have enough power to take down the barrier spell.”

“Help is on the way—”

“How do you know that for sure?”

Lia remains silent, simply continuing to stare at Youngjae. He feels almost uncomfortable beneath her gaze, resisting the urge to shrink back and become one with the shadows.

“I don’t know… but I have faith.” She murmurs after a brief moment. “We’ve lost a lot, but I still believe that we’ll all somehow manage to come out of this alive. You should try doing the same.”

With that, Lia leaves to speak with a dangerously quiet Jisung. Youngjae spares the pair a single glance before heading toward the crypt entryway. A single beam of moonlight illuminates the exit stairway, almost as if mocking him about his inability to escape the dingy prison.

Youngjae knows Lia is right—of course she’s right. Worrying about the possible pitfalls of this plan won’t help him, or Mark, or anyone. He can only pray that his mentor safely found his way out of the cemetery and is sending backup right this very moment.

He needs to have hope, if nothing else.

“What if we somehow lure Minho down here?” Youngjae’s thoughts quiet at Lia’s suggestion, angling his head to meet her gaze. “Technically Youngjae just needs to touch him to siphon his magic… so why don’t we bring him to us?”

“Minho-hyung won’t step past the barrier.” Jisung dissents, dragging his fingers through his already tousled hair. “He probably knows we’re planning something against him, so there’s no way he’ll believe whatever ruse we try to pull.”

“Then we have no choice. Youngjae, are you sure you can’t take down the spell?”

Youngjae sullenly shakes his head.

“Is there something else you can siphon? Maybe the crypt itself?”

“The crypt was built by humans.” He answers, “I can only draw power from the supernatural—”

“Then it’s a good thing my dear brother and I weren’t turned into superwolf bait.”

Youngjae, along with the other witches, nearly leaps a foot in the air at the sudden voice. He whirls around to face the stairwell, which to his surprise, is now occupied by the last person he ever expected to see:

Im Jaebeom.

Jisung chokes, scurrying backward into the shadows as the hybrid approaches the trio. After taking purchase against the doorway, he offers his signature sly smirk.

“Evening, Harry Potter and friends… Funny meeting you down here.”

“Now is not the time for games, hyung.” Youngjae breathes a sigh of relief as Jinyoung’s voice echoes throughout the stone walls. Seconds later, he comes hustling down the staircase before shoving Jaebeom out of the way. The vampire then peers into the crypt, his gaze burning with the determination of a man at war. “Is anyone hurt?”

“No. We’re okay.” Lia steps forward. “If you’re here, I’m guessing Mark reached the wolf pack?”

“Your guess is correct.” Jinyoung nods, placing a hand against the invisible doorway. “My brother and I will do everything we can to help disarm the rogue, but I think it’d be best to free you all first.”

Youngjae joins the conversation. “I can take down the barrier spell, but I’ll need to draw energy from one of you to do so.”

“Let’s do this quickly then.” Jinyoung goes to roll up the sleeve of his white shirt, but is halted by his immortal companion. Surprise filters through Youngjae’s veins as Jaebeom shrugs the leather jacket from his shoulders with a huff:

“With my luck, he’ll drain you dry and I’ll have to deal with this voodoo fucker myself. I think it’s best we use my energy—sorry not sorry.”

“Alright, then.” Youngjae hums, “I’ll need you to push through the barrier just enough that I can touch you… It’s gonna hurt. A lot.”

“Good thing I’m a sadomasochist.” Jaebeom snickers at his brother’s unamused expression, “Too much?”

“Move your hand through that goddamn barrier before I throw you to the superwolf myself.”

The hybrid rolls his eyes, but follows Jinyoung’s instructions and proceeds to force his limb past the invisible blockade. He remains silent, but Youngjae can spy the uncomfortable twitch of his eyebrow and the tension along his stone-cold features. Blood begins to bud along his knuckles like a patch of blooming roses before flowing down his pale skin the more he presses against the barrier.

The siphoner raises his hand in preparation. “Just a bit more.”

A mere couple seconds later, Youngjae feels Jaebeom’s bloody flesh brush against his own. The skin-to-skin contact is slight, but enough, allowing the hybrid’s energy to spread through his veins like wildfire. Youngjae almost cries in relief as the magic conquers his entire body—a new kind of hope sparking somewhere within his chest.

“Phasmatos Siprum… Emnis Abortum…” Youngjae murmurs, positioning both hands against the invisible wall. He feels it crumbling beneath his fingertips, unable to withstand the power flowing through his figure. “Fasila Quisa Exilum San… Fasila Quisa Exilum San…”

A proud grin stretches along his features as the barrier buckles, then completely shatters. With Lia and Jisung in tow, Youngjae beelines out of the crypt and into the stairwell where Jaebeom, who’s cleaning the crimson from his knuckles, and Jinyoung reside. The latter nods, which Youngjae is quick to return.

“‘Kay, they’re free… Now what?”

“Now we find Minho and end this once and for all.” Lia answers, not sparing the hybrid a glance as she dashes up the stairs. Youngjae and the rest of the group try to keep up with the female witch as best as they can, not faltering until they reach the surface. The cemetery is quiet when they emerge from the crypt, Youngjae notices—almost too quiet.

He takes a short moment to breathe in the fresh night air before turning to a tense Jinyoung, “I need to get close enough to siphon Minho’s magic to perform the counterspell. You think you and your brother can find me a way in?”

Jinyoung nods. “You can count on us.”

“Stay close…” Lia warns with a sigh, “I wouldn’t be surprised if the bastard already knows we’re free—”

Lightning suddenly strikes a mere few feet from where Lia is standing, earning a chorus of screams and surprised gasps from the witch trio. Youngjae watches as Jinyoung speeds forward, grabbing Lia just in time to avoid being burnt to a crisp by a second bolt. With Jisung at his side, Youngjae quickly takes shelter underneath the overhang of a nearby tomb as even more lightning bombards the earth. He surveys the area, searching for the perpetrator responsible for the weather abnormalities.

“Minho!...” Lia screeches from behind a large tree, her tone far less than friendly. “Quit being a fucking coward! Come out here and face us goddamnit!...”

Youngjae huddles closer to Jisung as the wind suddenly picks up, ripping at his hair and clothing like a vengeful spirit. He moves to speak to his younger companion, but his words die on his tongue as the subject of the hour waltzes into view. The heavy gusts don’t seem to affect him, though that’s no surprise since the wretched weather is his doing.

Minho smirks, “They say lightning never strikes one place twice… You must be really special then, Lia.”

“Oh fuck off! We’re tired of playing your stupid games!”

“This only ends one way, Minho—” Jinyoung says, cautiously moving from Lia’s side to approach the powerful witch. His steps, however, are halted by another vicious bolt of electricity. Youngjae attempts to make out Jaebeom’s form through the blurriness of his wind-induced tears, but the hybrid is nowhere to be found. “—so we can do it the easy way, or the hard way! The choice is yours!”

“Last I checked, this isn’t your fight, Prime.”

“It became my fight the moment you threatened my family and my friends!”

Minho snickers, “Trust me, I had every intention of ridding this town of you and your brother’s filth.”

“Was it also your intention to kill an innocent werewolf girl!?” Youngjae’s heart drops at the vampire’s following statement. “Son Chaeyoung is dead because of Changbin—because of you!”

“Every war has its casualties.”

“And what of Felix!? Will his death just be another trivial loss in your obsession for revenge!?”

This time, Youngjae notices the cockiness melt from Minho’s features into something akin to trepidation. The wailing of the wind picks up to a screech, nearly drowning out the dark-haired witch’s weak inquiry, “What are you talking about?”

“Felix was bitten… and is dying as we speak!” Jinyoung shakes his head frantically. “Do you believe he deserves this, Minho!? Do you believe Chaeyoung deserved to die!?... You can fix this—make this right!”

Minho remains silent, and for a moment, Youngjae wonders if the witch will actually come to his senses and call off this whole ordeal. But just as soon as it appeared, the pained look along his features transitions into something more sinister.

“We’re all gonna die someday, so what does it even fucking matter!?”

“Are you hearing yourself!?” Lia screams from behind a nearby tree, “Look what you’ve become, Minho! How would Nayeon see you right now!”

“Don’t bring her into this!” Minho’s hiss blends with the moans of the wind. Massive raindrops begin to pelt down against the earth, immediately soaking Youngjae to the bone. For the first time, he notices the dark witch’s position in relation to his own. Realistically, Youngjae can be at Minho’s side in mere milliseconds, before he has a chance to blink. If only he can get him to move a bit closer…

As if reading his thoughts, Jinyoung attempts to coax the witch another step forward.

“Please, Minho… I don’t wish to hurt you.”

The latter shakes his head with a chuckle. “It’s too fucking bad that you think you can.”

Minho raises his hand, harshly forcing the vampire down against the muddy earth. Youngjae watches in horror as Jinyoung’s limbs begin to contort and rearrange against his own will—the sound of cracking bones and the vampire’s pained groans filling his ears like a haunting melody. He forces his gaze away from the gruesome sight and prepares to advance on the dark witch, but Jisung stops him with a hand to his shoulder:

“Not yet, hyung.”

“But Jinyoung—”

“Trust me.” His eyes are wide with determination—Youngjae can’t remember a time he’s ever seen Jisung so fierce. “I have a plan. Wait here until my signal.”

Though filled with confusion, Youngjae does as the young witch requests and stays in place while Jisung himself carefully maneuvers his way through gravestones and buildings, attempting to remain out of sight. A sudden burst of lightning cracks through the atmosphere, and at first, Youngjae fears Jisung has been caught, but quickly realizes Minho has his sights set on another party:

“I was wondering when you’d join the fun—I looked forward to tearing your bitch-ass apart.”

“I would say I’m flattered, but I rather like my ass.” Jaebeom saunters across a nearby rooftop. In the midst of the storm, he almost reminds Youngjae of a superhero—or more likely in his case, the psychotic supervillain. “Look, you’ve had your fun, kid. Now I suggest you release my brother and cut out all this petty-teenage bullshit before I break your body in places you never thought possible.”

“That’s it?... And here I thought you’d want the antidote?”

Jaebeom’s face darkens.

“...So there is a cure?”

“Of course. Every spell has its loophole.” Minho finally lowers his hand, ceasing the painful reconstruction of Jinyoung’s skeleton. Youngjae watches in confusion as the former retracts something from his pocket—some sort of vial, it seems—and offers it toward the hybrid. “The blood which Changbin drank to turn—it’ll heal anyone fallen victim to his bite.”

“You better hand that over before I rip your teeth from your skull.” Jaebeom growls darkly, hopping down from his overhead perch.

The witch shakes his head, “Not so fast, Mr. Wolf… See, there was only so much left—enough to heal one lucky soul.”

“You’re a sick fucking bastard,” Jaebeom spits. “You wanted this to happen—”

“Your little bloodsucking girlfriend is dying, isn’t she?” Minho tosses the vial toward the hybrid, who effortlessly catches it between two trembling fingers. “If you want to save her life, then I suggest you go before the venom does its job.”

“Jaebeom-hyung, don’t—!” Jinyoung gasps, slithering across the muddy earth like an earthworm lost to the world.

“You know she doesn’t have much time—”

“We can’t do this without you—we need you!... I need you, hyung!”

Jaebeom, staring at the tiny container in his grasp, doesn’t reply to his incapacitated companion. Youngjae curses the smirk that spreads across Minho’s face—a sign of victory—and attempts to spot Jisung and Lia somewhere between the ferocious raindrops. He has no such luck, and instead decides to pray for a miracle instead.

“If you hadn’t fucked around with the few people I care about, I might have actually liked you.” Jaebeom murmurs with a sigh before tucking the vial into his pocket and sending the dark witch a malicious sneer. “Well isn’t that too fucking bad.”

Youngjae leaps almost ten feet in the air as lightning strikes for what seems like the millionth time, although this time, it’s inches from where Minho is standing. After searching the area, Youngjae discovers Lia and Jisung across the way, hands clasped, eyes bright with passion, uttering some sort of offensive charm. Minho attempts to sprint in the opposite direction, but Jaebeom easily tackles the witch before he can get far.

“Now Youngjae-hyung! Do it now!”

At Jisung’s cue, Youngjae takes off into the rain. The bitter feel of Mother Nature’s tears against his skin quickens his movements, wanting nothing more then to end this hurricane, both literally and figuratively, once and for all. He reaches Minho in what seems like hours and hurries to grab his wrist—but just like the tides during a storm, the tables quickly turn.

At the wave of Minho’s hand, Jaebeom goes flying across the cemetery, crashing into a stone statue and collapsing into the resulting rumble. White-hot pain spreads through Youngjae’s veins like a poison, freezing his muscles and immobilizing his limbs from any further movement. He collapses to the ground, where mud immediately clings to his clothing.

Minho rises to his feet before stepping on Youngjae’s hand with a cackle, “Don’t you fuckers get it!? I’m untouchable! You can’t fucking win!”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Minho…” Youngjae chuckles, curling his fingers around the tread of the dark witch’s boot. Minho realizes his mistake as soon as the former’s hand begins to glow, foolishly attempting to squirm from his touch.

Thunder roars in the distance as Youngjae grins in triumph:

“Because unlike you… we’re not alone.”

The last thing Youngjae sees before he loses consciousness is a flash of white and the bewildered face of the dark witch as he collapses beside him.

☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾

“I take it Mark apologized?...” You nearly leap out of your own skin at the sudden inquiry. With a less than agitated frown, you turn to acknowledge the culprit for your almost heart attack. If you didn’t know any better, you’d swear some of these supernaturals have powers of teleportation or something…

“Goddamnit, Dahyun. Not all of us have superwolf hearing.”

“Sorry, dearie. Force of habit.” The she-wolf offers an apologetic smile, moving forward to hook her arm with your own. She allows Yugyeom, Chan and Mark to gain a bit of distance ahead before repeating again, “So Mark…?”

“We both talked it out and apologized… so everything’s okay now.” You hum—the tiny fib leaving a bitter taste in your mouth.

Truthfully, your encounter with Mark left you conflicted. Of course, you’re more than glad he finally opened up about his past, and even more glad that he trusts you enough to reveal his lingering feelings of trauma, but there’s still a pretty big fucking elephant in the room—one involving his dead best friend and the fact you can talk to him beyond the grave.

You should have told him then and there—right after you promised to abolish all secrets—but something inside you couldn’t do it… and you don’t know why.

“Why are you so interested in Mark and I’s relationship anyway?” You utilize your curiosity as a distraction from the guilt breathing down your neck, angling your neck to peer at Dahyun’s side profile. “Is there… history between you two?”

“No, no—nothing like that. Mark and I have just known each other since we were kids. Our moms were close friends, so Mark, Yugyeom and I pretty much grew up together.”

“He never told me that.”

“Don’t take it personal, sweetheart. Mark doesn’t like to talk about his past—” Dahyun sighs, “—too many bad memories between his dad and the bullshit that happened with his mom. He’ll come around eventually… he just needs more time.”

“I know his mom passed when he was a teenager, but Mark never actually mentioned how she died…” You bite your lip, sending a curious glance to your wolf companion. “It’s really not fair to ask you, but—”

“Mark found her in their own kitchen with her entire throat ripped open.” Dahyun’s blunt answer leaves your throat dry, unable to speak another word if you wanted to. “The sheriff ruled it as an animal attack, but I’m sure you’re smart enough to figure out what really happened.”

Your heart sinks, and you choose not to say anything further.

“Dahyun! (Y/N)! Don’t get too far behind!” Chan’s voice echoes from somewhere up ahead. With the black of night beginning to fade, you can just make out his, Yugyeom, and Mark’s silhouettes a couple dozen feet away. Dahyun gives your forearm a gentle squeeze before releasing your conjoined limbs to catch up with her packmates. You do the same, meeting an armed Mark about halfway.

His eyes glitter with concern underneath the fading starlight.

“Everything okay…?”

“Yeah, Dahyun and I were just catching up.” You inhale a deep breath before releasing it in an even heavier exhale. “But there is something I need to talk to you about—about Jackson and the whole resurrection thing.”

Mark shakes his head, “You have every right to make your own decisions, (Y/N), but I wish you and Youngjae would have come to me.”

“I know that, but it was more complicated than that—” You try to gather your thoughts while also attempting to make sense of your words. “I couldn’t tell you because, well—because Jackson told—”

“Mark-hyung! We’ve got an issue!” Yugyeom’s warning immediately cuts off your explanation. Mark shoots you an apologetic glance before hurrying the two of you forward to join the wolf trio. It only takes seconds for you to distinguish the cause of the beta’s distress.

A deer carcass lays precariously on the forest floor, and albeit it’s practically torn to shreds, you can just make out a single word carved into its bloody flesh:

Die.

“Shit—we need to go. Now.”

“We’ve already come this far. Chae should be around here somewhere.” Chan ignores Mark’s directive, stepping over the animal corpse to traverse further through the forest. He barely takes a step before the witch is grabbing his wrist. “Let me go, hyung.”

“Don’t be an idiot.”

“Don’t tell me what to—”

“Shut the fuck up. Both of you.” Dahyun quietly hisses, “Listen.”

You try to do as the she-wolf says, but all that meets your ears is the combination of your own labored breathing and uneven pulse. Judging by the confused expression along Mark’s face, he’s probably dealing with the same situation.

“What is it?”

“We’re being watched.” Yugyeom answers Mark’s inquiry in a whisper. “Mark, you and (Y/N) need to find somewhere to hide right now—Chan, Dubu, get ready to fight—”

As soon as the command leaves Yugyeom’s lips, Mark takes you by the arm and drags you behind a broad tree trunk. You fish Jinyoung’s pocket knife from your pocket while Mark cocks his shotgun in preparation. Who knew the day would come that you’d actually be grateful for the presence of two dangerous weapons…

“If anything goes wrong—you run like hell, got it?”

You shake your head at Mark’s demand. “I’m not just going to leave you—”

“Yugyeom! Above you!” At Chan’s warning, you’re suddenly shoved to the ground by the witch, watching in horror as a deranged Changbin descends from the treetops onto the beta himself. His skin is a sickly ashen shade, and his black veins so prominent it would make a nurse weep. There’s no human emotion left inside his dark eyes as he strikes Yugyeom over and over again with his lengthy sharp talons, tearing open his skin like a birthday present—he’s a complete animal.

“Bin, stop!” Chan throws his arms around Changbin’s shoulders in an attempt to pull him from Yugyeom, winding a tight arm around his throat before thrusting a knee against his spine. “Think about what you’re doing!”

With Dahyun’s assistance, the two wolves manage to separate the dark wolf from that of Yugyeom’s wounded self. Even so, Changbin clearly does not appreciate being stolen away from his prey. He easily escapes from Chan’s hold, landing a couple heavy hits against the latter’s nose before shoving him to the ground. Dahyun takes the moment to strike, bringing the dark wolf to kneel with a harsh kick to his knee, but the action does minimal damage. Changbin punts the she-wolf a dozen feet away as if she weighs nothing. You wince as Dahyun connects with a nearby tree trunk with a vocal thud before dropping to the ground with no movements of rejoining the fight.

“Shit…” You curse to yourself, “They won’t be able to take him down by themselves—he’s too fucking strong.”

“Watch your ears.” You notice Mark aiming his gun toward the dark wolf, waiting for an opportunity with his finger on the trigger. At his discretion, you cover your ears just in time for him to fire a first and second shot. A ferocious growl echoes through the trees, spreading goosebumps across your flesh like wildfire.

You watch both Chan and Yugyeom take advantage of Changbin’s distraction. The alpha delivers a swift, yet heavy hit against his wounded shoulder while the beta goes for his legs. Similar to Dahyun, they manage to pin Changbin to the forest floor. For a moment, you almost believe the fight has concluded in your team’s favor—but the tides shift. In the blink of an eye, Chan is impaled with a large jagged branch and sent tumbling into some foliage whereas Yugyeom is dealt punch after strike after kick, unable to escape the barrage of Changbin’s wrath. He eventually, like the former two, collapses to the earth and makes no move to rise.

Changbin cracks his neck before stalking toward where you and your companion stand.

“Mark—”

“I got it!” Mark quickly feeds another couple shells into the shotgun barrel, cocks the weapon, then aims down sight. He manages to sink a bullet into your target’s abdomen, followed by another in his bicep, but Changbin merely releases an annoyed snarl and continues charging forward.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck—(Y/N), move!” You leap out of the way just in time to avoid a powerful strike. Changbin’s hand splinters the trunk of the tree, sending pieces of bark in every direction. A particular shard catches the bridge of your nose, causing blood to warmly cascade down your skin. You quickly wipe the liquid from your right eye, ignoring the nausea fluttering inside your gut, before focusing back on the situation at hand.

You look up in time to watch Mark swing his shotgun harshly against Changbin’s skull. Taking advantage of his disorientation, you rush forward to stab your pocket knife into the wolf’s back. Changbin practically roars in fury, angling backward to land a hit to your face before you have time to react. The force of his strike throws you to the ground, a sharp pain lingering in your left cheek.

“Don’t fucking touch her!” Mark throws himself against Changbin, delivering hit after hit to anything and anywhere. Still, Mark’s human strength does little to outbeat the dark wolf, and you watch in horror as Changbin effortlessly pins the witch against his chest with a bloody hand around his throat. You desperately search for something, anything, in hopes of saving Mark from whatever deadly fate awaits Changbin’s bloodlust, but fate doesn’t seem to be on your side.

“Changbin—please don’t do this!” You cry, praying to some type of deity that the wolf is sane enough to understand your words. Even so, your confidence is low, seeing as talking clearly had no effect during your last encounter, but you’re fresh out of options at this point. “You know this isn’t who you are!”

To your surprise, Changbin actually answers, “You don’t know anything about me.”

“Maybe not, but I know you don’t actually want to hurt anyone…” You cautiously rise to your feet with a shake of your head, wary of the tight hold Changbin currently has on Mark’s jugular. “Your thoughts are all sorts of fucked up right now because of the dark magic, so why don’t you just let Mark go and we can—”

“Don’t you fucking get it! This fucker—” He yanks at Mark with more force than necessary, “—took everything from me! He took my pack, my alpha—the only people I ever felt safe with!”

“I understand you—”

“No, you don’t!” Changbin wails, “You can’t even imagine how I feel! How fucking hard it is to wake up in a world you know you’ll never belong! How much it fucking hurts just to go on and pretend like everything’s normal when it’s fucking not!”

“Tell him it’s okay to feel angry—” You whirl your head around to find a seemingly exhausted, yet wild-eyed Jackson Wang at your side. “—but none of this was Mark’s fault.”

You’re mortified at first, having never encountered the ghost anywhere outside your bedroom—but whether it’s the desperation etched along his features, or the flush of purple that overtakes Mark’s complexion—you quickly transfer back to reality:

“Changbin, it’s perfectly normal to feel angry and cheated, but this wasn’t Mark’s fault—deep down, I think you know that.”

“What does it fucking matter anymore? I’m all alone anyways.” The pure agony etched along his face has your heart splitting in two.

You’ve never seen a creature so strong and so powerful look so… vulnerable.

“You said the exact same thing to me when we first met…” Jackson murmurs softly.

“You told Jackson you were alone at one point too…”

An obvious wave of tense silence washes through the forest, making the beat of your heart that much more prominent in your ears.

Changbin’s whisper is dark—dangerous. “How the fuck do you know that?”

“Because… Because he’s here, Changbin.” You say, your eyes meeting Mark’s as the words leave your tongue. “You’re not alone because Jackson is still here.”

You don’t know what kind of reaction you expected from your revelation, but it certainly is not the heinous laughter that spills from the dark wolf’s lips.

“You must have lost your goddamn mind… Jackson-hyung is dead!”

“Maybe physically, but his spirit still remains.”

“You mean—” You turn to discover a bewildered Yugyeom unsteadily leaning against a tree, “—his… ghost? You—You can see his ghost?”

You nod.

Changbin sneers with a low growl. “I don’t fucking believe you.”

“There’s a cliffside back along the bay about twenty miles from the lodge,” Jackson begins, his tone a blend of nostalgic and sorrowful. “Changbin and I used to go there to watch the full moon rise before we turned into our wolf forms… I-I’ve missed that so much…”

“You and Jackson would always watch the full moon rise on a cliff overlooking the bay before you transitioned,” You repeat. “He says he misses those moments with you…”

“Stop it!” Changbin frantically shakes his head, “You’re lying!”

“He’s here, Changbin… He’s really here.” You move forward again, more confidently this time, and raise your hands in a sympathetic gesture. “And the last thing he wants is for you to make the same mistakes he did, so please—let Mark go and let us help you…”

It’s as if time freezes for a moment. Changbin seems to fight a battle with himself—countless emotions rushing through his teary eyes. You watch the dark wolf glance toward an unconscious Dahyun and Chan, then to a silent Yugyeom, before finally setting his focus back to you. You can only pray your face reflects the hope swirling throughout your veins—pray that Changbin will do the right thing.

To your delight, the blackness of his veins gradually begin to fade and the sharp claws protruding from his fingertips recede. You don’t realize you’ve been holding your breath until Changbin finally retracts his hold from Mark’s neck. You’re quick to take the unsteady witch in your own arms before sending the now normal wolf a thankful smile.

“Thank you, Changbin…”

He nods shyly before wiping a couple tears from his cheeks. You watch as Yugyeom cautiously makes his way toward the younger boy, murmurs something, then tugs the latter into a tight embrace that pulls even more liquid sadness from his eyes. The sight has your heart melting into a puddle of warmth—the emotion doesn’t last though, not when Mark’s dark croak enters your ears:

“You… can see Jackson…”

You shrug sheepishly, “I wanted to tell you, but he said not to… He didn’t want to hurt you anymore than he already had.”

Mark remains silent. You try to search for his features for some kind of anger or disappointment, but are only awarded with his surface level blank stare. Worry flooding through your veins, you look to Jackson for any possible guidance, but the ghost merely shakes his head.

After a couple tense seconds or so, Mark finally murmurs, “Jack… I—I’m so sorry. For everything.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for.” Jackson says immediately, “If only I had listened to you, then maybe things would have played out different.”

“He says it wasn’t your fault—he should have listened to you.”

“We both made some pretty shitty mistakes.” Mark hums, “I miss you, man. So fucking much.”

You don’t wait for Jackson to reply, already knowing his answer.

“He misses you too, Mark. Just as much.”

“How is this even possible…?” You and Mark turn to find the shocked gaze of Yugyeom, who is closely followed by the despair of that belonging to Changbin. “Supernaturals can’t even see spirits, much less mortals…”

“We never exactly figured that out. Jackson said he felt drawn to me from the Other Side—he kind of just showed up in my bedroom the night after Mina and Momo died.”

“Any contact with the dead usually requires some sort of spell or medium.” Mark bites his lip in confusion. “I’ve never seen anything like this before, not even in any of my mother’s grimoires—”

“Jackson!” Your body grows rigid as Jackson suddenly collapses to the ground with a pained groan. You hurry forward, kneeling next to the man, and reach for his shoulder. The realization of his phantom existence hits you like a bag of bricks when your fingers phase through his form. You settle for calling his name again instead, “Jackson—what’s wrong?”

“What the hell is going on?” You hear Changbin stress from somewhere behind you, but your focus is completely on the ghost in question.

Jackson lifts his head with a gasp, revealing a line of blood dripping from his nose. “I-It’s the witches!... They know about our plans—they’re trying to force me back to the Other Side—”

“(Y/N)?”

You shake your head feverishly, “It’s, uh, it’s the witches on the Other Side—they don’t like Jackson crossing over, so they’re trying to bring him back…”

Mark nods. “Witches, dead or alive, will do anything to maintain the balance of nature.”

“(Y/N)—shit—I don’t have a lot of time—” Your chest tightens at the urgency behind Jackson’s words. “I know so much just went down, but—”

“Don’t worry, Jack. I won’t let you disappear again.” You affirm before climbing to your feet to face your new subject of interest. “Mark—I need you to perform the resurrection spell.”

“Woah, wait—” Mark shakes his head, “(Y/N), I can’ t—”

“If we don’t resurrect him now, then Jackson is gone forever!” Your warning spreads a new tension across the atmosphere, manifesting in the form of sullen and panicked expressions. “Please, Mark—we have a chance to bring him back!”

“I can’t do the spell because I don’t have any magic…” Your heart sinks at Mark’s revelation. “Minho absorbed all my magical energy back at the graveyard… I’m so sorry, Jackson…”

“Hold on, you told me that there’s different types of magic…” You push, “Can’t you draw energy from something? Like the forest, or the moon, or, or—”

“Or me.” You turn, discovering the speaker of the response to be none other than a determined Changbin. “Minho-hyung’s spell may be gone, but I can still feel the magical energy lingering through my body.”

Mark hesitates, “I-I don’t know if it will work… and if something goes wrong—”

“Do you want Jackson-hyung back or not?...”

A moment of silence passes after Changbin’s question. You keep an eye on a repeatedly wincing Jackson, and the other on the witch’s face, attempting to decipher his thoughts inside the glow of his gaze. For a moment, you wonder if Mark will even provide an answer, until the words finally leave his lips:

“Fuck the balance of nature. I’ll bring you back, Jackson—I promise.”

☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾

Jinyoung stares at the sun as it gradually rises past the horizon, bathing his skin in a warm, celebratory light. His gaze wavers across the cemetery to the notorious mausoleum, where he watches Lia and Jisung carefully assist a barely conscious Youngjae past the doorway. After this crazy night, the siphoner definitely deserves a good, long rest. Then again, so does everyone else.

He releases a heavy sigh before shifting away from the witch trio. After sparing one final glance to the sunrise, Jinyoung allows his feet to carry him through the early morning glow, past countless tombstones and other structures, and settles beside a second figure in front of a particular burial site. He silently reads the engravings along the headstone before addressing his companion without so much as a glimpse:

“I assumed you would be halfway back to the bunker by now.”

Jaebeom doesn’t respond, not that Jinyoung really expects him to. He peers at the hybrid through the corner of his eye, attempting to seek meaning beyond his blank features. Centuries later, Jinyoung still can’t predict the workings of Jaebeom’s inner thoughts. Especially when it comes to the situation at hand.

“Mark called. Changbin is no longer affected by Minho’s spell.” He explains, “They’re also preparing a ritual to resurrect Jackson Wang—”

“Tzuyu…?”

Jinyoung’s chest tightens as the name falls from Jaebeom’s lips.

“Their youngest, Ryujin, is looking after both her and Felix.”

“So she’s still alive…?”

“It seems so.”

A brief moment of silence passes between the pair. The earth grows brighter and brighter as the seconds roll by, reminding Jinyoung that time is a friend to no one.

“Hyung, did you… truly switch off your humanity?”

“I did, at first.” Jaebeom’s answer is quiet, and Jinyoung can detect the subtle hint of vulnerability hidden beneath his gruff tone. “But I guess I can never completely turn it off.”

“It’s alright to feel, hyung—be it anger… or passion… or fear…”

Jinyoung notices Jaebeom shift uncomfortably before glancing down at the glass vial in the palm of his hand. For once, he can actually distinguish the emotions present within the hybrid’s dark eyes. The knowledge only jabs at his heart.

“Everything is taken care of, right?”

“The night has ended, and Minho is safely sealed away in the crypt.” Jinyoung nods, “We live to see another day.”

He watches his companion tuck the precious vial into the pocket of his jeans before turning away from the headstone. Jinyoung is not sure where the urge comes from, but he abandons his perch, grabbing Jaebeom’s shoulder before he can leave the cemetery. He ignores the hybrid’s confused expression and pulls him into a tight embrace.

“Thank you for staying, hyung…” Jinyoung’s murmur is slightly muffled against the fabric of his jacket, but he knows his companion heard them loud and clear.

Jaebeom hesitates for a moment, clearly taken aback by the sudden act, but eventually winds his arms loosely around Jinyoung’s back with a gentle murmur of his own:

“You will always be my family, Jinyoung… Always and forever…”

☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾

“I’ve never used magic like this before, so I can’t promise this will work.” Mark glances to where he assumes Jackson’s spirit is located inside the white circle makeshifted out of a bag of flour Dahyun managed to find in a bunker cabinet, before glancing to the companion at his side. “You sure you’re up for this? It’ll feel like I’m literally sucking the life force out of your body…”

Changbin nods, “If it means bringing Jackson-hyung back.”

“Okay, then.” Mark turns to the surrounding crowd next, “In order to do this, I’ll need to lower the veil to the Other Side. This will create a temporary door that Jackson can pass through to physically enter our realm. Once he crosses over, he should become mortal again.”

“Seems easy enough.” Dahyun snickers, although the sound is dry and forced. “Anything else we need to know?”

“Whatever happens, do not enter the circle.” His eyes drift from the she-wolf to your silent form. As if sensing the scrutiny, your gaze connects with his own, and knowing he has your attention, Mark continues in a darker tone, “Just as spirits can pass into our realm, we can cross to the Other Side… so for the love of god, don’t do anything stupid.”

Your and Mark’s staring contest ceases when your head snapes toward the circle. Seconds later, you break the tense silence with a soft murmur, “Jackson says it’s getting worse. He can feel the witches trying to drag him back.”

“Then I guess that’s our cue.” He sighs before nodding toward the circle one last time, “I’m gonna do my best, Jack. Just hold on.”

With one final glance to the grimoire you gave him earlier, Mark inhales a deep breath and takes Changbin’s outstretched hand into his own. He closes his eyes, focusing every part of his brain on the electrifying sensation of the magical energy coursing through the wolf’s body. Bit by bit, he feels Changbin’s power bleeding into his own veins, awakening the slumbering supernatural nature of his soul. Once he’s sure enough he’s acquired enough magic, Mark opens his eyes and begins the incantation:

“Vita mortem, mortem vita est… Partis inferioris velum, partis inferioris ante illum vetum…” Almost instantly, the wind picks up while the air grows uncomfortably cold. He ignores the violent shivers wracking through his limbs and proceeds to repeat the words as the temperature continues to drop. With each spoken syllable, Mark’s head becomes dizzy and his flesh feels as if it’s being scorched off, but he continues.

No amount of pain could ever dull the hope of seeing his best friend alive once more.

“Holy shit—it’s actually working!”

Mark doesn’t realize he had shut his eyes until he opens them, nearly yelping in delight when he discovers the image of said friend standing in the center of the white circle. Jackson looks no different than the day he last saw him, and he can’t decide if he wants to laugh out of irony or burst into tears.

“The veil is down! I’m gonna start the spell to cross you over!” Mark yells over the howling of the wind, clutching Changbin’s hand tighter as he transitions to the next phase of the spell. “Ohto eestanay as vazat esvet ohnaz eespalit… Ohto eestanay as vazat esvet—fuck!”

A brutal force comes down against his head, almost resembling that of a punch, before spreading hot fire down his neck and to the rest of his body. Mark doubles over with a wheeze, attempting to fight against the painful sensations by grounding himself in Changbin’s touch. However, as soon as the first wave concludes, a second, even more excruciating one follows. He feels as if someone is trying to crush his brain—to kill him from the inside out.

“Mark-hyung! What’s wrong!?”

“It’s the witches!...” Mark is thankful that Jackson answers Yugyeom’s panicked inquiry, “They’re trying to break the spell!”

“Like… hell they will…” Mark hisses, righting himself with a pained groan before grabbing Changbin’s other hand. “I’m not going down without a fight—hold on!...”

He jumps back into the spell, weakening the manipulated pain through the absorption of more of the wolf’s energy. Borderline high off the power, he pushes everything he has into the ritual, determined to see it through to the end. After a minute that passes like a decade, Mark detects a shift in the atmosphere, indicating the near completion of the spell, and shouts:

“Jackson—get out of the circle! Get out now!”

As if in slow motion, Mark watches Jackson quickly move to escape the white border. But just as soon as his toe brushes the edge, he is wrenched away and lifted from the ground.

Dahyun cries, “What the hell is happening!?”

“They won’t let me cross over!” Jackson squirms and writhes, attempting to escape whatever invisible grip is holding him hostage. His efforts are futile, and he continues to rise higher and higher off of the ground.

“Hang on, Jack!” Mark releases Changbin’s hands and raises his own palms in Jackson’s direction. However, the same torturous pain from before returns once more, hitting his nerves like a sledgehammer to a brick wall, and throws him to the earth. “Shit—no! H-He has to pass through the circle!”

“(Y/N)! Don’t!”

Mark raises his gaze at Dahyun’s shriek, only to watch in horror as you rush past the flour boundary and grab hold of Jackson’s hand. A blinding light immediately erupts from your clasped palms, expanding through the area until all Mark can see is white.

After a long moment, his vision eventually returns, and he finds the forest completely silent. The temperature is no longer frigid, he notices, and the strain within his brain is gone. For a moment, Mark is filled with prowess, victorious at the fact he successfully carried out an ancient resurrection ritual, however, his triumph is temporary, especially when he notices your form laid motionless in Dahyun’s arms.

“(Y/N)—fuck!” Mark hurries to where you lay, stealing your figure from the she-wolf to cradle you in his own hold. “Shit, shit, shit—she’s not breathing! Fucking goddamnit!”

His panic only grows tenfold when he hears the murmur cascade from Dahyun’s lips:

“Mark… where’s Jackson?”

☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾ ☾

Jaebeom scales the final rung of the ladder before making his way toward the corner where the snoozing trio resides. He moves cautiously, mindful not to awaken the young werewolf caretaker, yet eventually finds himself perched on the edge of a familiar cot. His heart thunders inside his chest, and he cannot tell if it’s out of anxiety or hope. Though at this moment, Jaebeom can really care less to find out.

“It’s about time you showed up…” He winces at the broken husk of his companion’s voice, attempting to keep his expression as neutral as possible. “I thought you were actually going to leave me to die in the hands of a neurotic teenage wolf…”

Jaebeom doesn’t respond to her quip—he can’t find it in himself to do so.

Tzuyu raises an eyebrow, “What’s with the face? Did you take down the witch or not?”

“We did.” He hums, “The spell is broken.”

“Good thing—” The vampire pauses to cough, and the sound is like broken glass against his ears. “—you and your brother are safe for the eternity to come.”

“Tzuyu… I found the cure.”

“What are you waiting for then? My consent?” She snickers playfully, “We fuck for over a century and this is the most gentlemanly behavior I’ve ever seen from you, Beomie.”

Again, Jaebeom remains silent.

Recognizing the obvious tension in the room, Tzuyu’s face falls. “But… I guess it’s more complicated than that, hm?”

“There’s only enough for…” He’s unable to finish his sentence, not when his companion’s eyes are gazing at him with such sullenness and sympathy. Jaebeom has to look away for a moment, though the action does little to relieve the tightness of his chest.

“Ah, I see.” Tzuyu hums, glancing across the way to a slumbering Felix. Her pale lips twitch, as if attempting to upturn to a smile, but it instead appears as a weak grimace. “You know, I really never meant to hurt (Y/N)… or you.”

“Tzuyu—”

“I’ve known you for decades… but I’ve never seen you look at someone the way you look at her.” Another violent cough wracks through her body, expelling a mass of dark blood past her lips. Jaebeom is quick to wipe the splotch from her skin with the blanket, trying not to dwell on the fact that her skin is ice cold. “I’ll admit, I was jealous at first… I’ve always wanted someone to look at me like that…

“I know you’re afraid to care—to love, Jaebeom.” Tzuyu murmurs sadly, lifting a hand to rest against the hybrid’s cheek. “Especially someone like (Y/N)… and you’re right to. She’s too good… too human.

“One misstep and you could lose her forever.”

“I want to be selfish…” Jaebeom whispers, “I want to be selfish so fucking bad—”

“But you can’t be, Beom. Not with her.”

“Then let me be selfish with you.”

Tzuyu smiles.

“I’ve lived over three lifetimes, and he is barely a ways into his one—so you’re going to give the cure to that damn kid, Im Jaebeom.” He leans further into her touch as she caresses the apple of his cheek. “Promise me that you’ll stay away from her—to keep her safe?”

He nods.

“Good… Can you hold me for a moment? I’m cold.”

“I’ll hold you as long as you want me to.”

And so Jaebeom takes Tzuyu into his arms. However, it’s not until the vampire grows still does he allow a single tear to cascade from his eye, staining the bloodied bed sheets with the agony of a heart that has been broken too many times to count.

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