drifting from town to town was a life you took to far too easily. you’d stay in one place for a short period of time only to move on to the next village in need of a witch. then, one wrong move and you’re stuck dealing with lee minho and his wolf pack.
playlist | part I | part III
pairing: werewolf!lee know x witch!reader
genre: fantasy, comedy, angst, fluff, werewolf au
warnings: blood/gore, magic/witchcraft, threats, violence, manipulation, threats of war, corrupt government, mentions/depictions of scars, depictions of panic attacks, an oc used for villainy purposes, i.n is kind of an asshole for a while, mentions of ruts and heats, smut (fingering, oral, marking, slight voyeurism, dirty talk, praise kink, lee know being possessive, slight edging and orgasm denial, unprotected sex (wrap it up people), missionary, counter sex, light choking)
wc: 6.6k
small particles of light drift in from the window in the your room, rousing you from your slumber. the wind rustling the trees just beyond the panes of glass almost lulls you back to sleep, the warmth of an arm draped over your waist enough to make you lift your head. your eyes blink open and you're greeted by a head of dark hair nestled into the crook of your shoulder. confusion takes over and you blink again, but nobody is there. a sleep heavy huff escapes you, your head hitting the pillow hard. a hand comes up to rub at your face. it's been a couple of weeks since your meltdown in the apothecary and nobody had been able to get much out of you about what had happened. the tension from that day still weighs heavily on everyone. felix had told you what happened between the youngest members of the pack and guilt clawed at your throat from the rift your arrival had created. when you went to chan about it, he'd waved you a tired smile and said the issue would likely blow over, joking they'd be back to terrorize everyone worse than before. you don't know if you believe him, but you have hope in his words. despite your faith, the tension is still killing you. the stress of the day in town has you pulling away from the pack. you've been holed up in your home, using samhain preparations as a weak cover to keep the wolves from prying into your head. even minho had been kept at bay.
you hoist yourself out of bed, the cold wood beneath your feet sending a shiver down your spine. fall is around the corner and the weather reflects that. the sun is shining, but storm clouds in the distance roll closer by the minute. you think about the potential properties rain water would have under the light of tonight's full moon in order to escape the storm brewing in your mind. you stand and shift your weight onto your better leg, compensating for your aggravated injured ankle. your legs move you through your domicile like a ghost. the kitchen is in shambles. wormwood roots hang in the window to be dried by the heat of the sun while hawthorn berry residue splatters the floorboards. it almost reminds you of the time you blew up a cauldron with a potion and you had to spend weeks cleaning slime from the rafters of… no. now's not the time to reminisce. you busy yourself with making breakfast instead. before you know it, you're starting another project to distract from the swirling thoughts.
you don't realize that the sun has gone down until a knock at your front door breaks your concentration. "yn," chan calls from the other side of the door, "we're heading out now. we'll be back in the morning, so just… just get some sleep, yeah?" chan lingers on the other side of the door for longer than he should before sighing through his nose, whispering faintly to someone as he leaves. you let the breath you're holding out and grasp the edge of your kitchen table, a hand coming to cover your eyes. the sound of thunder shakes your home when your hand removes itself from your face, a bolt of lightning illuminating the sticky residue of pumpkin guts that you had just smeared on your face. the scent of petrichor weasels it's way into your nostrils, minho's image lingering in your mind. rain pounds gently on the roof and you take it as a sign for a break. and maybe a bath wouldn't hurt either.
minho is restless from where he lay atop the covers on his bed, the light of the full moon still managing to peak through the storm clouds and onto his sharp features. he didn't go with the pack tonight despite this full moon being the last one before it would disappear until the blood moon at summer's end. but, he didn't want to risk leaving you by yourself. rain taps gently on his bedroom window, making minho roll over onto his side. his thoughts drift and a swell on emotions over takes him. he's worried for you, you haven't been the same since that day in town. minho can tell whatever transpired in the apothecary lingers in your mind, making your smile fade. he's angry at himself for letting you out of his sight to selfishly purchase the jewelry you had admired at that first stall. his glowing blue irises flicker over to where the item sits on his desk, still wrapped in cloth to prevent tarnish. he growls in frustration to himself before sitting up, hands roughly pulling at his scalp. minho stands and takes quick strides towards the door. he needs to clear his head before his thoughts consume him.
the lake is warm compared to the rain thickened air around it, making goosebumps prick at the skin along your shoulders. you sit against a tall rock a few feet from the lake shore, eyes locked on the moon keeping watch above you. the night is quiet. there's no humming of insects or squawking of ravens, only silence and the occasional distant howl of wolves. so, when there's soft splashing coming from the shore, it pierces the stillness that had settled between you and the moon. you move to peer around the rock you're settled behind, hands gliding over the surface of its hard shell. your eyes widen when you see minho on the opposite side, chest bare as the water reaches just barely above his hip bones. your face feels hot suddenly and you're quick to move your gaze away, a blush curling up your neck and into your cheeks. water splashing grabs minho's attention, freezing him in place. "who's there?" he calls out to the source, muscles tense in case he needs to defend himself. minutes pass before your head starts to peek out from behind the rock, making minho relax. his eyes trail down from the muscles in your neck to your collar bone, the runes there on your skin emitting a faint glow from the moonlight. he wonders what the supple flesh around the area would like with his mark. his body moves towards you without him realizing it, his tongue darting out to wet his lips. "is this okay?" his voice cracks slightly in nervousness and he hopes you don't notice. and if you do, you don't say anything. instead, you give a nod, eyes lingering on his lips. the two of you move in unison over to the rock you had previously been sat against. you both sit there in tentative silence before you turn your head to look at minho. you study his face as if you'd forget it the second he turned his back. a hand reaches up to his cheek before you can stop it. his own hand rests over the back of yours, his eyes closing when he leans into your touch. a soft, content hum vibrates through minho's throat before his eye lids slowly open to look into your own. "i know," you say cryptically after a while, "i know we are bound by the moon's light."
warmth blooms in minho's chest. he almost doesn't believe your words. you know. you know and now there's nothing holding him back from loving you openly. minho starts to close the distance between you two, your hand falling away from his face. he stops short, eyes beckoning you to meet him halfway. you comply, your face inches from his. your breaths mingle together in the air. "you are mine and i am yours," he whispers, heart full, "can i kiss you?" you give him a shy smile and nod. minho's hands comes up to hold the side of your jaw, his lips brushing yours. the kiss is tender and raw, turbulent emotions subsiding from both of your minds the longer his soft lips linger on yours. his lips slot against yours perfectly when minho kisses you a second time, fingers slipping down to your waist to pull you closer. your own hands rest on his chest only to wrap around his neck when the kiss is deepened, minho's tongue asking permission to enter your mouth with a flick to your bottom lip. you oblige and the muscle tangles with your own. minho can't help, but pull you impossibly closer. it's almost like he's trying to mold the two of you into one being. soon, you both have to break the kiss for air, a single string of saliva connecting you. you breathe heavily, but minho's lips don't stop. they find purchase on the pulse at your neck. his teeth nip little red marks into the skin there, making quiet gasp and moan tumble from your kiss bitten lips.
a smirk plays on the wolf's face for a moment before he latches onto a particularly sensitive spot below your ear, leaving a purple bruise to blossom on your skin. "mine," minho mutters under his ragged breathing, maneuvering the both of you, so that your back is against the rock. it's smooth, cold surface sends a shiver down your spine, one leg hooking onto minho's hip naturally. he holds it there for you before diving in for another heated kiss, thumb rubbing gentle circles into the side of your thigh. that same hand moves higher to grip your ass cheek before moving back to set your leg down. he parts your legs with his knee and his hand moves to your clit, the pads of his fingers against the bundle of nerves sending a shiver down your spine. his other hand moves to the base of your throat to put pressure there, not enough to hurt you but enough to ground you. his lips move again from your lips, to your chin, then down your jaw. he nips at the skin there lightly while his fingers begin to rub gentle circles on your clit. the quiet moans he earns from you only encourage minho to keep going. "you have no idea how long i've waited to kiss you, my love," minho whispers the confession like a secret, lips skipping down to your collar bone, "to taste you like this." another purple mark is left on your skin and a finger slides gently into your folds. you gasp, unsure if it's in response to his words or the gentle pace he sets with his fingers plunging in and out of your aching cunt. he adds a second finger into you after a while and you have to bite your lip to prevent a filthy noise from coming out of your mouth. minho chuckles in response, "don't be shy, baby. let the moon hear you. let me show her you're mine." your hips rock with in time with your lover's fingers, his mouth back on yours to swallow the moans he wanted to hear from you. you clench around his fingers a few times, a knot forming in your abdomen. you whine when minho retracts his hand, making you feel suddenly empty without him inside you. he chuckles, giving your lips a peck, "patience, baby boy." you place your forehead on his collar bone, hands braced on his shoulders when he starts to push his cock into your sensitive cunt. "you're taking me so well, baby," he mumbles through gritted teeth. you feel so good wrapped around him like this, his cock twitching faintly inside you when he bottoms out. you let out a shaky breath once you've adjusted to him and he guides your legs around his hips, your back digging further into the rock behind you. the new position only buries him deeper inside of you, making your head roll back. open mouthed kisses are strategically placed along your neck and jaw before minho slides almost completely out of you. he snaps his hips into you suddenly, a loud moan ripping from your throat. a chuckle rumbles under your hand on his chest, your mate's lips brushing the shell of you ear, "that's it, baby boy. you’re doing so well." you let out a whimper at his words before minho rocks his hips into you again. his pace is steady as he kisses your lips again. the velvety walls of your cunt flutter around minho's cock as the knot in your stomach begins to return. you pull him closer to you when you feel your climax approaching. "i'm- fuck, i'm close, baby. come with me, god, please come with me," minho moans desperately in your ear. you pull your head up from his shoulder and your labored breathing becomes one with his, before your lips capture his own. your moans harmonize with his as the coil in both of your bellies finally snaps. minho swears he hears his name fall from your lips, your walls fluttering around him as he spills inside you. he kisses you deeply again, whispering sweet nothings between the space where your lips meet.
the rain subsides as morning sun rays part the storm clouds above. your naked bodies are tangled together between the soft sheets of minho's bed. minho is already awake and his fingers ghost over the various rune scars that surround the marks he'd left on your chest, occasionally placing his lips against your collar bones and neck with feather light kisses. a sleepy sigh escapes as you start to come to consciousness and minho smiles softly, placing a final good morning peck on your lips. an eye cracks open and a smile is immediately on your lips at the image of minho's hair sticking up in various directions. you’re left you unsure if it's sticking up that way from sleep or your illicit activities in the lake last night. you lean in and kiss minho's lips again, soft giggles resonating from both of you once you pull away. "good morning, love," he smiles at you, voice hoarse from sleep, "did you sleep well?" you nod at him. "good, i'm glad," he hums, a hand bringing your knuckles to his lips for a few kisses. he gets up from the bed soon after and you whine at the loss of contact, making him chuckle, "wait here. i want to give you something." minho crosses the room in a few swift strides before he's back under the covers with you, a small, wrapped package in his hands. "what's that?" you quiz him when he extends it out for you to take. you do so, fingers delicately moving the fabric away. two familiar circlets stare back at you once you unwrap them and your eyes shoot immediately to minho, heart swelling at his sweet gesture. "you didn't have to," you tell him. "no, i didn't, but i couldn't get your disappointed pout out of my head," he hums, kissing your temple. you grasp onto the bracelet from the set before taking hold of his right hand. you attach the bracelet to his wrist there, the charms on the gold band jingling lightly. "what're you doing?" he chuckles, "these are for you." "you heard the shop keep. they're partners, like us," you tell him, kissing his lips once before putting the anklet on your left foot, "two halves of one whole." a smile plays on both of your lips at your words before you lay back under the covers. you duck your head into the crook of minho's neck, lips attaching to the sun kissed skin there. minho lets out a quiet moan and it only spurs you to add a few more to his growing collection of possessive hickeys. you look up at him, mimicking his words from last night, "mine." minho smirks at you before you tuck your head into his chest. the rise and fall of his breathing begins to lull you into a sense of peace.
laughter echoes from outside suddenly, the rest of the pack now home from their night under the moon. neither of you move from your spots on the bed, minho muttering something about avoiding questions. once their voices quiet down, a knock on his front door echoes through his home. the wolf sighs and gets up, quickly throwing on a random pair of pants. chan greets him on the other side of the door. the alpha's eyes linger on the marks around minho's collar bone for a second too long before he holds up the sopping wet pile of clothes he picked up from the lake. "forget something?" chan teases lightly. minho snatches the clothes from chan quickly, ears bright red. the eldest chuckles, "i'll make a late breakfast." "thanks," minho nods curtly and his eyes dart to the floor, shyly. "hey," chan grabs his attention, "did you claim him?" minho shakes his head in response. "then don't fuck this up, yeah?" chan chuckles. minho nods again, a small smile gracing his features. "now get back to him," chan claps minho on the shoulder, "and i swear if i hear any suspicious noises near the pack house at all, you're sleeping in the forest for at least a week." "he's too quiet for that," minho quips, making chan grab the bridge of his nose. "i did not need to know that, i didn't want to know that, you're a freak," chan mutters, turning around to head back down the steps of minho's house, "an absolute freak." minho chuckles and shuts the door, looking through the soaked clothes the eldest alpha gave him. he finds both your clothes and his own within the mix of sopping wet fabric. you emerge from minho’s bed room a few moments later, one of his shirts hanging loosely off your shoulders. "cats out of the bag?" you ask minho. "more like the wolf," he jokes, making you snort. the two of you hang up your clothes in the sun to dry before minho picks you up and tosses you over his shoulder to take you back to his bedroom. he lays you gently on the covers before flopping on top of you. you giggle at his antics and let your fingers absentmindedly explore the muscles on his back.
it's only a couple of hours later that you begin to smell the most amazing breakfast being cooked by the pack's head alpha. you emerge from minho's home first, clothes now dry. minho follows you out the door, ignoring the stares his bruised neck was getting. you, on the other hand, were glad that your cloak covered most of your own blemished neck. jisung whistles at the marks as you two wander closer, but nobody says anything when jeongin emerges from his home. you and minho sit down beside each other and you feel the immediate heat of jeongin's glare once he spots the hickeys littered across minho's neck. the tension is back and you think you might vomit from it. "c'mon, people," chan calls from the kitchen window of the pack house, "breakfast isn't gonna eat itself!" you stand just as everyone else does before a hand grabs your own, preventing you from moving towards the smell of bacon and eggs. minho gives you a soft smile, "sit. i'll get you a plate." your heart swells and you nod, sitting back down. the wolves pile into the pack house, their conversations quieter than they usually are. hyunjin leans into felix's side to whisper something about a new patch of sunflowers he found while changbin comments on minho's neck, earning himself a light smack on the arm by your lover. despite minho's request for you to stay seated, you stand anyways and wander over to your house, wanting to grab a book to read while you eat. you're hoping it will assist you in ignoring the conflict everyone else was ignoring, too. you swipe a random tome from your bookshelf before quickly returning to your seat outside. flipping open the first page, your breath hitches when you realize you'd picked up the moon goddess and her children. you don't want to read this book. it has been giving you goosebumps since the first night it had come home with you, the note in the margins still making you feel faint. but, it was too late now. minho and changbin had now emerged from the pack house, both having two plates in their hands. minho extends your plate to you and you take it from him. setting it in your lap to pick at with one hand, your other flips open the pages of your book again, a slight tremble in your fingers. minho sits back down beside you, his knee brushing yours almost comfortingly. you read silently for a while, anxiety building at how detailed this book is about the moon goddess' history and her complicated history between werewolves and humans.
suddenly, your reading is interrupted by a head on your shoulder and jisung's voice beside your ear. "why are you reading a children's book?" you jump slightly and he apologizes with a small cackle, moving away when minho raises an eyebrow at his proximity to you. "it's not a children's story," you tell him before you look back down at the book, "or at least this version isn't…" everyone can see the shake in your hands when you sign that last bit, making hyunjin and felix share a strained look between them. "what do you mean?" seungmin inquires, a genuinely curious look on his face. you hesitate, trying to find the right words to explain, before minho takes the book from you and tucks it under his leg out of your reach. "questions about books later, food first," he lightly scolds the two of you, giving you a knowing look. you sigh in relief, glad minho picked up on your hesitation, and take a bite of your eggs. jeongin scoffs from his spot across from the two of you and minho puts his fork down, glaring over at the youngest. "what?" minho almost growls at him. "nothing," jeongin feigns ignorance, "i just didn't realize that yn being mute also meant he needed to be babied." "yang jeongin, watch your tone," changbin scolds. "you're toeing a dangerous line right now, kid," minho warns, the grip on his plate nearly shattering it. you place a hand on your mate's arm and he begins to relax. "i think we've all been toeing a line since he got here," jeongin mutters and now its your turn to glare at the youngest, finally fed up with how he's been treating you. "what's that supposed to mean?" you ask him. "it means that i don't trust you. my instincts are telling me there's something about you that is dangerous," jeongin snaps, "so, until you either leave or get killed, i refuse to accept you as part of our pack."
the room is frozen at jeongin's words, a pang of hurt spreads through your chest. changbin's jaw is set angrily while jisung beside him looks like he's about to cry. hyunjin stares at jeongin dumbfounded and felix is staring at you worriedly. seungmin looks like he's about to punch his brother, but someone else beats him to it. the second eldest tackles jeongin to the ground, teeth bared and eyes glowing an angry blue. the youngest growls back at him, his own irises now crimson, when minho punches him across his cheek. changbin rushes over to pull minho off jeongin as seungmin scrambles away from the chaos. felix calls for the eldest of their pack, hyunjin grabbing felix’s waist to move them both away from the two scuffling wolves. jisung is quick to move you back before jumping in to help pry the two wolves apart. jeongin grabs at minho's shirt as changbin tries to pry the two apart, his fingernails suddenly as sharp as claws and leaving marks on minho's skin. chan is thundering down the steps of the pack house not long after that. "hey! that's enough!" chan yells, but the command falls on deaf ears. minho somehow manages to get out of changbin's hold, then it's jeongin's turn to tackle minho. the two wolves tumble to the ground again, jeongin's fist raised in the air to punch minho.
"ENOUGH!"
the sound of your voice makes everyone freeze in place, eight pairs of wide eyes shift to where you now stand. you hadn't meant to speak. but in the heat of the moment, in the fear of watching the two fight each other had caught you off guard. you had used your voice on instinct and now the price must be paid. you stare back at the pack with a look of horror before your throat begins to burn. nobody moves, the sound of your voice still sending shockwaves through them at varying degrees. the burn is intense, making you claw at your throat as a coughing fit starts up. "yn?" felix whispers, brows knit together in both confusion and concern for you. the scent of copper fill the wolf pack's noses when you let out a strangled cough, crimson splattering onto the green vegetation under foot. the irritation in your throat only intensifies from there, the burning transforming into an unbearable level of agony. you cover your mouth with a hand, crumbling to your feet and gasping for relief. it only comes when you collapse onto your side, blood dripping from the corner of your mouth. "yn!" minho shoves jeongin off him and scrambles to his feet. your mate is quick to place your head in his lap once he reaches you, but keeps you on your side to make sure you don’t choke on any of the blood in your throat.
the sun is beginning to go down when you wake next, the white walls of the main pack house staring back at you. your throat is sore from the rebound of your curse. your hand comes up to rub at your face while you sit up. you register hushed voices coming from down the hall inside chan's office. you stand as silently as you can and make your way towards the hushed argument, ears tuning into the hushed argument on the other side of the cracked door.
"we don't know that, changbin," felix sighs.
"it does make the most sense," hyunjin comments, "the girl at the apothecary did say a lot of witches and warlocks are being contracted by the king right now."
"so what? we let him stay?" jeongin interjects.
minho growls at the boy in response, "watch it, yang jeongin. just because you think your alpha instincts are right doesn't mean you have the experience to use them correctly."
a growl sounds from jeongin before chan steps in, "would you two knock it off?" chan sighs at the two as they glare at each other. you don't wait to listen to the rest of it, body already moving to leave the home. your heart beats in your ears and you feel numb when you step outside, stumbling slightly through the front door of your abode.
"we don't have enough information yet to make the decision for him to stay or leave," chan continues, leaning forward in his desk chair, "we need to talk to yn."
"and let him lie to our faces again?" seungmin scoffs from his seat beside the window. minho growls at seungmin now, "weren't you just yelling at jeongin a few weeks ago for how he was treating yn?" "that was before the witch let us believe he couldn't speak. now i'm not so sure jeongin was wrong to distrust him."
"enough! i don't need any more fights breaking out today between stubborn wolves," chan snaps, standing to his full height in order to get his point across, "you're forgetting that 'that witch' is minho's mate." the room quiets at the eldest alpha's authoritative tone. chan sighs for what feels like the millionth time today, "we wait for yn to wake up and explain, then we make our decision. as a pack." minho huffs slightly and exits the office, his shoulder bumping into jeongin's as he leaves.
the second minho is out of that office, the tension in his shoulders subsides almost instantly. he's still angry, yes, but he's more worried about you than anything else. minho's eyes dart down the hall to the room you're resting in and his legs begin to take him towards it. he knocks lightly on the door, just in case you've already woken up. there's silence and he opens the door. his blood runs cold when he sees your empty bed, heart pounding rapidly beneath his chest. minho bolts down the hall, nearly running over hyunjin in the process. "hey!" hyunjin calls after the wolf only for the slam of the front door to be minho's response.
minho checks the last place he saw you - his own home. but, he finds it empty. he curses under his breath, the palm of his hand slamming into a nearby wall, before he takes off towards your home. he doesn't knock when he reaches the door, opting to just fling it open. his eyes scan your living room, finding it and the kitchen empty. a jingling catches his attention from the hall leading to your bedroom and he rushes towards it. your bedroom door is cracked, but it doesn't do much to quell his panic. he pushes the slab of wood open. he spots the top of your head behind the desk between the books there. his panic fades slightly, but something is still off. minho moves to you without thinking, ignoring the half filled satchel on the desk. he kneels down to your level when he spots the way your knees curl close to your chest. resting atop your knee caps, your head is cradled by your arms.
minho moves to sit against the wall, legs outstretched in front of him, "d'ya wanna talk about it?" he keeps his tone of voice even in an attempt to soothe whatever storm is brewing in your mind. seconds drag on for what feels like hours before you lift your head. minho's heart clenches at the tear tracks on your cheeks, his hand already moving to wipe them away with the pad of his thumb. "i'm cursed," you sign to him, "that's why i can't…" the words die in your hands, painful memories dancing behind your eyes. minho stays silent, letting you gather your thoughts before asking questions or jumping to conclusions. "i haven't been completely truthful with you or the pack. the night you found me, the king's guard chasing me, it's because i…" you hesitate. "i used to be one of the king's advisors. two years ago, a warlock managed to worm her way into the king's circle. she manipulated many people to get there, including the king himself. i discovered a plot constructed by her to curse the king… make him her puppet. when i found out her plans, she cursed me. any words i utter only cause me pain. so, yes, i did lie about talking, but i was trying to protect you in case…" tears prick at the corners of your eyes again and you screw your eye lids shut, swallowing hard. the rest of your explanation dies when you start to sob, painful memories forcefully brought to the forefront of your mind.
rage builds in minho's chest while he listens to your story. not at you, but at the warlock who's made your life a living hell. a growl threatens to spill from his lips, but he forces it back down his throat. his knuckles are white from where they've balled into themselves, eyes flickering back open to your crying form. minho pulls you closer into his side. one hand lays gently around your waist while the other buries your cries into the crook of his neck. your mate rocks the two of you back and forth gently until your sobs turn to hiccups, his fingers wiping away the remaining tears in your eyes. "i understand why," minho's voice breaks as he speaks once you're calm, "but, everyone else needs to hear the rest of this first." you nod in understanding. you don't tell your lover, but you're expecting the worst. after all, being cursed doesn't bring you fortunate endings.
chan's office is neat. the white walls match the exterior of the house, baby blues and midnight blacks accent the room. the sandy color of the top of chan's desk is littered with various pieces of parchment and writing utensils. it fits chan's personality well, you think, but this isn't the time for you to dwell on the interior designs of chan's office. seven pairs of wolven eyes glare at you, their sharp irises analyzing every movement and waiver of your hands as you explain your story to them. you see seungmin narrowing in on every detail you sign while hyunjin, felix, changbin, and jisung study your facial expressions. you notice felix's eyebrows knit together when he spots the streaks on your cheeks. jeongin is careful to analyze your body language as if he's looking for something that would give away the rouse he thinks you've set up for them. the eldest of the pack, however, is staring past all that. chan stares directly into your eyes as you tell your story. he watches the way your eyes dart down to your hands nervously while recalling your escape from the castle, the way the light behind your eyes flares brighter at the mention of your days as the king's advisor before dimming when you mention the guidelines of your curse.
when your story finishes, a pit forms in your stomach. no one moves or says anything for a while before chan, ever the diplomat of the group, finally opens his mouth to speak. "thank you for being honest with us." "it only took two months," jeongin mutters from else where in the room, earning a pointed look from changbin. "this doesn't undo the trust you've broken with us," chan continues, ignoring the youngest in order to avoid an argument. "i didn't lie to deceive you," you offer the alpha, "i lied because i didn't think i'd stick around long enough for it to matter. i didn't expect..." you trail off, your relationship with your mate coming to the forefront of your mind. chan's eyes soften as if knowing where your thoughts were at. your hands tighten for a moment before you continue, "i didn't expect to fall in love - regardless of my bonds with minho. i didn't expect to fall in love with the forest here, with each and every one of you, with the moon, with... with minho. you all have shown me more than any book could, so if this is the last time we speak, i want to be honest with you. it's the least i could do for everything you've done for me." "you say that like we're kicking you out," felix whimpers from where he sits beside chan. "it is a possibility now that you know i am a fugitive of the king," you reason with him. "it is, but, until we make a decision about whether or not you can stay permanently, you are welcome to make the choice to stay temporarily on your own," chan says, relaxing back in his desk chair. hyunjin and felix let out sighs of relief and changbin gives a knowing smirk before turning his attention out the window to where minho is pacing around the front yard. seungmin only nods in understanding, subtly nudging his brother who turns away sourly. chan nods for you to leave for the time being and you do, hands shaking as they shut the door. the pit in your stomach quells, but doesn't leave when you exit the pack house.
minho's head shoots up when he hears the front door close, stilling his repetitive walk in front of the house. "they're still deciding," you inform him, taking a seat on the bottom front step to the porch. "we could run away together," minho confesses suddenly. you stare at him, mouth agape in shock. "minho, no," you quickly tell him, "you have a life here. you have a pack that loves and cares for you. i'm not letting you leave this behind." "i don't care. if they won't accept you, then i'm not welcome here either." you sigh heavily, hands rubbing at your face in frustration. "minho, i refuse to let that happen. they love and care for you just as much as i do. if they don't want me here, i will go, but i'm not going to let you throw away everything you know and love just to be with me." "but-!" minho's lips suddenly slam shut when he goes to protest, your glare making it clear this wasn't something you were willing to argue with him about. he sighs heavily and takes a seat beside you, "fine. we wait for the verdict." the two of you sit in silence for a few moments before minho takes hold of your hand, his thumb rubbing anxious circles into the back of it.
hours pass by with the two of you sitting in apprehensive silence on the front porch, fingers tangled between one another while your shoulders brush whenever one of you shifts. minho can't fully hear the conversation happening inside the home, only catching occasional snippets of his pack's arguing.
"...understand, but we can't..."
"...jeongin, you need..."
"...supposed to trust..."
"...hyunjin saw how..."
"...magic can't always..."
"...the treaty can't help..."
minho's grip on your hand tightens slightly with every raised voice. you pick up on it after a while, laying your head on minho's tense shoulders, and he relaxes under your touch. a shaky sigh escapes through minho's nose after a while before his head turns towards the door just before it opens. the both of you stand as the rest of the pack of stray kids emerges from the entry way. chan stares at the two of you for a beat too long for your liking, his tongue darting out to wet his lips before he speaks, "sorry to keep you both waiting so long. we had to weigh everything out. yn, with a vote of six to one, you can stay." a sigh of relief you didn't know you were holding escapes your chest before it returns with the head alpha's next words, his diplomatic tone never once wavering, "but, you have two conditions. one, regain the trust of those who are still upset at you." you nod at him enthusiastically. "two, you have to be truthful with us from here on out. no more secrets, no more hiding things." you nod again, glad you and chan were already on the same page. "lastly," chan speaks again, interrupting your thoughts, "though this isn't a condition, i do think it's in everyone's interest that we speak about what this means for everyone. the treaty between wolves and the kingdom is fragile and, with the added knowledge someone is looking for you, we don't know what this means for our pack much less the packs around us." "chan, if i may," you sign in response to the blonde, equally as diplomatic as he's being - old habits die hard, you suppose. chan's hand comes up to stop you, "but, not today. we can have that conversation a different day. focus on your conditions first and then we can talk." you nod and minho's hand squeezes yours supportively.
you were just a quiet college kid looking out for your friends, so why is your past haunting you like a ghost three years later?
wc: 13k + 3 ss
you chuckle slightly at the text exchange between your friends. the bass of the song playing vibrates your beat up mitsubishi's frame slightly. you slide your phone into one of the cupholders and turn up the song playing, fingers shaking slightly in excitement. you're playing with fire being here on the track in broad daylight, though you're doubtful anybody would be around to see you on a wednesday afternoon. you take a breath before you step on the gas pedal with everything you've got, tires screeching on the asphalt as you take off.
"why are you dragging us to the track at one in the afternoon again?" changbin whines from his spot in the back of hyunjin's car. hyunjin opens his mouth to respond, but minho beats him to it, "because hyunjin thinks ghost messed with his car." a pout forms on hyunjin's lips for a moment before he speaks, "i swear it's driving better than it did before he had it." "that makes no sense," changbin protests, "if ghost is back to racing, wouldn't he fuck with it to keep you from winning against him?" "i dunno," chan interjects, "i don't think ghost is that type of guy. in all the years i've raced against him, i've never seen him mess with anybody off the track. he's kept to himself. if anything, he seemed pissed off when someone's car was visibly fucked up." the conversation lulls when the four men come over the hill to the racing track. the black bentley rolls to a stop, the groups eyes trailing the lone car already on there. "great minds think alike, i guess," minho chuckles, "but, who is that? i don't recognize the car." chan squints through the sun reflecting off the windshield of the mitsubishi, the silhouette of it's driver escaping his memories. it wasn't until the car took a turn a little too hard and suddenly started driving backwards for a bit before flipping back around on another turn that it clicked in all four boys heads who was driving. "you're joking," hyunjin squeaks out incredulously.
a loud pop suddenly sounds from the mitsubishi and you slam on the breaks of your car, stopping the car. you curse under your breath as you put the gear shift in park, white puffs of smoke seeping out from under the hood of your car. your driver's side door opens with a loud squeak while you turn off the engine and remove the keys from the ignition. "'in perfect condition' my ass," you mutter as you pop the hood open. your eyes catch movement just as you're about to dive into the internal parts of the car. a familiar black bentley sits at the top of the hill above the track and four boys are spilling out of the car's interior. you sigh heavily through your nose and duck down behind the hood, trying to keep your face hidden. you mentally calculated just how much time you had to fix your car and dip out before the boys reached you - two minutes at most. your hands work as fast as they can to find the part that blew, your heart pounding against your ribs.
"hey, need some help?" changbin yells out to you when his feet hit the bottom of the hill, a grin spread wide across his face. you don't respond as you continue to work on the broken part. it doesn't take long after that for the four to surround your broken down vehicle. minho and changbin hang back towards the bumper as chan and hyunjin circle around the sides of your car. "cat got your tongue, ghost?" minho teases you, smirking slightly at his joke. changbin smacks his arm slightly. "no, but your boyfriend has yours," you quip back at him, making changbin and chan howl with laughter. "see?! i told you!" changbin grins, nudging minho's arm. "he's not my boyfriend," minho mutters, ears and neck red in embarrassment as he tucks his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "whatever you say," you shake your head at the blatant lie. "well, i didn't get to see this side of you the other night," hyunjin smirks, leaning against your driver's side door with one arm. "i didn't get to see him at all when he dropped off your car, hyunjin," chan comments as he, too, leans on your passenger door with his forearms, "your nickname precedes you." "if you're here about the car, i can assure you, i gave it to you better than i received it," you interject, finally managing to fix the part in your engine that caught. "nah," chan laughs, "coincidentally, we were going to test your upgrades. we're not stalking you." "who said anything about stalking?" you scoff. your now dusty hands grip the edge of the hood of your car, slamming it shut with a loud clang.
hyunjin's breath catches in his throat when he sees your face. you're stunning. the way your lips curves so elegantly makes hyunjin wonder if the heaven's sculpted you like the greeks sculpted their gods' statues, the intensity behind quiet eyes making hyunjin's heart race when they catch his. you quirk an eyebrow up at him and he looks down to his feet for a moment. chan's eyes flick from you to hyunjin then back to you. a small smirk gracing his heart shaped lips for a moment before he hides it, turning to you, "so, this is what the infamous ghost looks like." "unfortunately," you sigh, lifting a leg to sit slightly on the hood of your car. "'unfortunately'?" changbin parrots you, curiously. "there's a reason i've never shown my face, beef cake," you tease changbin, crossing your arms over your chest. hyunjin gulps slightly, his mind wandering to explicit places about your chest. minho's voice shakes hyunjin from his unholy thoughts, "is that also why everybody thought you were dead for three years?"
you sigh through your nose and a tense silence settles over the five of you. hyunjin can see you searching your thoughts for the appropriate response to minho's blunt inquiry, your eyebrows twitching as if deciding what the correct emotion to convey here was. "sorry," you finally decide your words, coolly, "that's information for level three friends. and, considering i don't even know your names, you're level zero friends." "you know my name. am i at least level one?" hyunjin flirts with you, making changbin roll his eyes. "cheeky, but no," you grin at the artist, making him pout slightly. your eyes can't help, but linger on his plush lips. "why not?" he practically whines at you. "you don't know my name," you tell him simply. "why don't we all introduce ourselves then?" chan placates you, holding a hand out to you, "i'm bang chan." you shake his hand, but say nothing. "minho, but i'm sure jisung told you that," the second eldest nods to you. "you know he called you 'lee know', not minho," you hum curiously at him. "that's my bettor name," he shrugs back to you. "i'm changbin," the buff male next to minho interjects, saluting you lazily with two fingers, "didn't take the infamous ghost for a beater car kinda guy." the four boys stare at you in suspense when you only nod at them. you're debating giving them a fake name for a moment before you decide there's no point. they've already seen your face and know you're friends with jisung and seungmin. "yn," you finally respond, "don't underestimate beater cars. my original racing car was a beater." "there's no way a beater car beat chan fifty-three times," minho scoffs. you turn your attention to the mentioned boy, his ears red as he rubs the back of his neck. you narrow your eyes slightly at him before his face clicks in your head, "fifty-six, actually." "you... you remember?" chan gapes at you. you don't give him a direct answer as you stand up straight, your leg tingling slightly from having started to fall asleep, "this has been great guys, but seungmin will nag my ear off if i'm late for class."
you round your car to where hyunjin blocks your door. his hazel irises stare into yours, a dangerous tension you don't dare label sparking between the two of you. "leaving so soon? don't you want to stay and see your work on my car being put to use?" he smirks at you, teasingly. "considering i blew something in my engine and i have the wrath of my friends breathing down my neck, unfortunately, i have to," you tell him, head cocking to the side as if sizing him up, "plus, i've already seen my work being put to use." you two stand there for a second too long before hyunjin steps away from your car door. you get in and turn the key, the engine taking longer than you would have liked to turn over. you're about to drive off when hyunjin leans into your window with a grin.
hello! :0 i am unsure lol i moved at the beginning of this month which has slowed my writing stuff down and then i’ve been travelling to see my ldr partner so that doesnt help either uhhh i’m gonna try to write some when i get back/on my plane ride home but tldr its being worked on. it is a Beast of a chapter tho
you were just a quiet college kid looking out for your friends, so why is your past haunting you like a ghost three years later?
wc: 483 + 2 ss
rain beats down on the windshield of the black bentley as you drive down various side streets to your destination, music playing quietly over the radio. when you turn down the street the house is on, you turn off the headlights in an attempt to not alert the home's occupants of your arrival. it's well past midnight, but you don't want to take your chances. you pull the car into the drive way and turn off the engine. a heavy sigh escapes past your lips. you'd spent all week on the bentley's repairs. though the body work only took you three days, you had gotten a little over excited by the things you could do to make this car run a little better. you had added a plethora of upgrades to the bentley's supercharger, turbo, and ecu. you were actually very proud of the work you had done, making you feel a little disappointed this wasn't your car.
you pop the door open and stand out of the vehicle, hands moving to shut the door as quietly as you can. you cringe slightly when the door shuts louder than you intended, eyes flicking to the darkened windows of the house. you let out the breath you'd subconsciously held when no lights turn on inside, the muscles in your shoulders relaxing. you move towards the front door, keys swinging quietly around your index finger on one hand while the other moves your face mask over your face more. you hang the keys from the door handle on the screen door of the home before you make your way down the driveway and onto the street.
chan's eyes burn from the light of his laptop, the track he's editing making his head hurt. the australian sighs heavily and sits back in his desk chair, a hand coming up to cover his eyes. a car door closing outside his window catches his ears after a moment of silence. chan furrows his brows - minho won't be home from his shift at the bar for another hour and it's no where near the time changbin gets up to head to the gym. hyunjin's car is still mia, too. chan stands and makes his way over to his bed room door. he takes in the closed doors of the rest of his roommate's rooms before heading down the stairs towards the front door. to chan's surprise, hyunjin's black bentley greets him on the other side of the slab of wood. he turns the handle of the screen door and the clattering of keys on pavement catches him off guard. chan picks up the keys on the ground before jogging down the driveway to try and catch ghost before he's gone. however, the racer's nickname proves to be true. the street is empty by the time chan gets to the end of the sidewalk, making him curse under his breath.
you were just a quiet college kid looking out for your friends, so why is your past haunting you like a ghost three years later?
wc: 346 + 6 ss
buzzing. annoying buzzing from the phone somewhere in your bedding is what wakes you up. a few tired huffs escape your lips while a hand fishes around blindly for the source of the obnoxious vibrating. you retrieve the item and pull it from its spot beneath your pillow, eyes cracking open just as the screen illuminates your face. you flinch at the bright light before letting your eyes adjust enough to turn down your screen's brightness. you groan at the time first, the numbers of ten in the morning reflecting back to you. then you spot the wall of notifications from none other than han jisung. you sigh and place the phone on your chest, a hand coming to rub at your eyes. memories of the race last night flood your mind. the oddinary, mingyu at the bar, the adrenalin from getting behind the wheel again, revealing ghost is still alive, the pretty boy with the handsome face who's bentley you accidentally stole.
fuck, the bentley.
you're sitting up in a panic, mind wandering to the black modded bentley at your uncle's junk yard. you sigh when you remember covering it with a spare tarp that had been lying around near where you'd parked it. another buzz from your phone knocks you out of your groggy jog down memory lane. you roll your eyes at jisung's texts, fingers beginning to draft a response.
a small, humorless chuckle escapes your lips. as much as you were teasing your friend, you were mostly just trying to get him to stop asking questions. your hand rubs at one of the scars along your chest, the marred skin ached at your touch. "it's going to rain later," you mutter to yourself absentmindedly. you're starting to regret picking up a shift at the tattoo shop tonight. you sigh and rip the covers off your legs, standing up and moving towards your kitchen for a quick breakfast. you head to the junkyard after eating your food, wanting to get ahead start on fixing the bentley you'd stole before the rain set in.
drifting from town to town was a life you took to far too easily. you’d stay in one place for a short period of time only to move on to the next village in need of a witch. then, one wrong move and you’re stuck dealing with lee minho and his wolf pack.
playlist | part II | part III
pairing: werewolf!lee know x witch!reader
genre: fantasy, comedy, angst, fluff, werewolf au
warnings: blood/gore, magic/witchcraft, threats, violence, manipulation, threats of war, corrupt government, mentions/depictions of scars, depictions of panic attacks, an oc used for villainy purposes, i.n is kind of an asshole for a while, mentions of ruts and heats, smut (fingering, oral, marking, slight voyeurism, dirty talk, praise kink, lee know being possessive, slight edging and orgasm denial, unprotected sex (wrap it up people), missionary, counter sex, light choking)
wc: 14.4k
adrenaline coursed through your veins, various flora and fauna blurring past your vision. the pain of bare feet on tree roots and rocks barely registering as you dart between tree trunks that had taken root in this forest long before even you were born. the cloak around you whipped in the wind as shouts and screams echoed behind you, forcing you to move faster around the terrain. arrows suddenly whip past your head, arms coming up in an attempt to shield yourself from their stinging tips. an arrow grazes past your hip and sends a spark of pain across your skin while knocking you off balance, legs slipping out from under you and sending you tumbling down a hill. you scramble to your feet at the bottom as the sounds of soldiers' shouts draw near, ignoring the screaming in your lungs.
you're only a few feet into your sprint when searing pain radiating from your ankle forces you to join the fallen leaves on the forest floor. you bite your tongue to keep the scream bubbling in your throat down, eyes darting to the bear trap now latched to your foot. ice floods your veins in panic, your nimble fingers attempting to wretch yourself free from the metal teeth of the trap while the kings guard draw ever closer.
"over here!" a guard shouts to his companions from behind you, dangerously close. your head snaps up in time to see him charging straight towards you, arm held high above his head as the blade of his sword reflects the light of the full moon over head. your bloodied hands lift up, magic dancing just below the skin of your finger tips, before a blur of white and gray tackles the guard. the magic curling at your fingertips dissipates while high pitched howls, gruff growls, and thunderous barks pierce your ears. screams from your pursuers are quick to follow the cacophony of animalistic sounds encompassing you.
you realize now that you had crossed into werewolf territory. you knew they were in the area not far from your cottage, but you hadn't realized their borders spanned this far into the woods. somehow, in the commotion of the wolf pack's hunting chorus, you had managed to drag yourself behind a tree, chest heaving with spent energy. your adrenaline high was fading now, the pain in your ankle and hip worsening in the next moments of silence. black dots threaten the edges of your vision while you catch your breath, fingernails digging into the skin of your palm in an attempt to keep you from succumbing to unconsciousness. rustling branches from a bush of witch hazel a few feet in front of you cuts through the silenced forest. icy blue irises meet your own as a massive wolf the color of night steps out from the pointed branches. the moment they do, a spark of fire ignites from somewhere within your chest and your breath hitches. through blurry vision, you watch the wolf stop only a few feet from you before your world goes dark.
the smell of musk and earth hits your nostrils when you wake next, flinching slightly when rays from the sun greet your corneas. a soft groan escapes your dry throat while a hand comes up to rub at your face. flashes of memories from before your unwelcomed slumber has you shooting up from where you lay, eyes darting around frantically. you're not in your cottage on the edge of the forest, yet your eyes find some of your belongings in a neat pile beside the door of the room.
the room's cedar walls are carved with designs of the stars and, near the floorboards, tribal designs of two wolves can be found where the walls meet. the door to the room has a crescent moon burned into its face, allowing you to wonder little about where you are. the furniture in the room is simple compared to the carvings on the walls. shelves and cupboards line a couple of the walls while a desk sits in the corner, its chair currently set beside your bed with a basket of healing herbs and tinctures resting in it.
pain from your ankle throbs suddenly through your observation of the room, breaking through your thoughts. you grasp the bedsheets that had been strewn over you in your slumber, quickly tossing them off of you. your ankle is wrapped in strips of white cloth that have large dots of crimson where your injury lays beneath. blood is smeared on your ripped pant leg near where the bear trap caught you and you begin checking the rest of you. you find more bandages on your hip where the soldier's arrow had grazed the skin there, the cloth of your once white shirt now untucked from where you had previously had it. at least whoever treated your injuries did so with decency for your unconscious state.
the sound of a door shutting without care echoes from somewhere else in the home, snapping you from your thoughts. the lilting voice of a man outside teases whoever had just entered while you grab your cloak from off the bed post near the head of the bed. a set of footsteps echo down the hallway to your room as you pull the hood of the cloak over your head to hide your features.
"checking on him again?" a melodic voice snickers from elsewhere in the house. you prepare a quick force spell just as the doorknob turns.
"shut up, i'm changing his bandages," the male outside your room huffs, features turned down the hall to his companion. dark irises meet yours when he opens the door, that same spark from last time igniting deep in your chest and your breath hitches. the male before you freezes in the door way, eyes flashing a familiar icy blue hue for a moment. the world around you blurs as if the two of you were the only ones in it before refocusing when your force spell goes haywire. forcing the man in the doorway to duck, your magic slices through the decorative pots on the wall behind him. the shattering of pottery catches the attention of the other occupant in the house.
"minho?!" they yell in concern, footsteps thundering through the home. the one in the doorway - minho - just sighs with a roll of his eyes and enters the room like you hadn't nearly decapitated him seconds ago. you eye minho warily as he walks towards you and you move yourself back into the corner of the bed. his hands are already moving around the herb basket next to you when his blonde companion reaches the doorway with a look of concern. the blonde's hand rests on the doorway while his gaze darts between the two of you, anxiously.
minho moves the basket off the chair before sitting in it. he offers up the medical tincture in his hand so you can see what's inside the bottle, words of comfort to his companions leaving his lips, "i'm fine, chan. you worry too much." a sigh of relief exits the blonde in the doorway before the front door bangs open and closed again, multiple voices now echoing off the walls.
"the fuck was that noise?!"
"is everyone okay?!"
"what happened?!"
"i'll deal with them while you handle that," chan huffs to minho before turning towards the six boys currently in the other room. "yah!" chan yells to them as he closes the door to the room, leaving you and minho alone together. minho recaptures your attention when you catch him moving to sit on the edge of the chair. one hand holds out the bottle of liquid medicine for you to hold while the other hovers over your wounded ankle. his gaze catches yours under your hood in an attempt at asking permission to touch you without breaking the silence that had settled over the room. your eyes search his for any ill intent, anxiety about what burns in your chest when you look at him still lingering in the back of your mind. you nod slowly after weighing your options and shift your leg a little closer to his hovering hand, your fingers cautiously taking the tincture from him.
minho begins to unwrap the bloodied bandages around your ankle, his cool fingers brushing your skin and making you hiss under your breath. he stills and a soft "sorry" falls from his lips before he continues his ministrations. once the bandage is off, the dark haired male leans over to the herb basket again to retrieve something else. a clean, white cloth is produced before he gingerly takes the tincture back from you. minho uncorks the potion and the scent of turmeric, calendula, and yarrow hits your nostrils before he puts some of the concoction to the cloth. "this is going to sting, okay?" minho's voice is just barely above a whisper as if he were afraid you'd bolt if he was any louder. and, to be fair, you're not sure if he's wrong right now.
a whimper slips past your lips when the cloth touches the swollen skin around your ankle and your grip tightens into the sheets below you. minho cleans the wound as quickly and thoroughly as he can, trying to ignore the ache in his chest every time you gasp or hiss in pain under your breath. a quiet crash followed by chan yelling can be heard somewhere off in another part of the house. a relieved sigh leaves you when he sets your ankle down gently on the bed and minho leans back into the basket, looking for some clean bandages to rewrap your wound with. you take this moment to study his features. minho is handsome - his jawline is strong in a way that reminds you of the warriors written about in your favorite ancient literature while his lips make you think the moon goddess sculpted them herself. another round of boisterous bickering can be heard from elsewhere in the house before someone shushes the source.
minho's gaze moves to meet yours when he feels you staring at him, but you're quick to move your line of sight back to your wounded ankle, pretending you weren't just admiring him. you miss the smirk that plays on his lips for a second before his expression is neutral once again. his hands are quick to wrap up your ankle. a loud yelp and more scolding sounds a bit closer to your door before it's moved deeper into the house. minho sits back in his chair once his hands still and his eyes glance down to your side where your arrow wound is. you shake your head at him and he notes how your jaw tightens when you do so. he sighs through his nose, but nods in silent understanding.
"no! hyunjin! changbin!" chan scolds from down the hall again before your door is swung open by two figures. you react out of instinct and let another force spell whip towards the two. luckily, they duck and another mark is added to the wall behind them, the scent of magic suddenly making the air thick. you hear whispers of "not the wall!" and "he's a witch!" from down the hall. the figure on the right stands slowly first, the ribbon tying some of his long, raven colored hair back now loosening its grip on the strands. his lanky figure is draped in simple, but elegant clothes. if you didn't know you were in werewolf territory, you would have thought he were of noble blood. his cohort, a stockier male in a sleeveless shirt and flowy pants, stood next with his mouth agape in shock.
"what the hell was that?!" the muscular one yells in disbelief. chan is quick to grab the back of his shirt, pulling the male back slightly with a yelp. "i believe that was clearly you scaring the poor kid, changbin!" changbin is quick to try and escape chan's hold on his shirt only to be caught in a headlock by what you're starting to realize is their alpha.
"how were we supposed to know he was gonna throw magic at us?!" the princely male defends his companion boldly only to shrink under chan's gaze. "hyunjin, just shut up before you make it worse for me," changbin chokes out from between chan's bicep. they stay like that for a moment before chan lets changbin go, shoving him into hyunjin who instinctually yelps. "go," chan sighs, hands on his hips before he turns his attention to minho, "you, too."
"but-" minho begins to protest before chan holds his hand up. "no, go. you can talk to him afterwards." minho gives you one last look before he looks back at the blonde with a determined fire in his eyes. chan sighs again, but relents, "at least move, so i can sit down." a small smile tugs at the corners of minho's lips for a second before he stands, allowing chan to take the seat beside your bed instead. minho shifts slightly to lean on the door frame, allowing the other six wolves from the living room to peer into the room now.
"sorry 'bout those two," chan chuckles to you, a hand sheepishly rubbing at the back of his neck, "they mean well, they're just… enthusiastic." chan ignores the quiet whine from changbin as silence settles over you, stretching for longer than it should.
"what's the matter? wolf got your tongue?" one of the younger looking wolves quips from the doorway. this wolf has streaks of blonde in his dark brown hair that match one of the other wolves and it makes you wonder if the two are related somehow. the rest of the pack starts howling with laughter at seungmin's words despite the glares from both chan and minho. "kim seungmin, i swear-" minho growls at the perpetrator before being cut off by the second youngest. "what? i was trying to ease the tension. it's not like he's actually…" seungmin trails off when he notices you staring at him instead of laughing.
"…no way, you can't speak, can you." it's not a question, but you shake your head anyways. the rest of the pack are quick to turn against seungmin, suddenly yelling at him about how insensitive his joke was while chan's face falls into his hand with a soft smack. minho shifts to stand, looking like he's going to swing at seungmin at any second. the chaotic scene draws a small chuckle from your chest that allows minho to relax back against the doorway, effectively preventing the younger wolf's punishment.
"hang on, i think there's some parchment in the other room," another wolf comments before scurrying off to look for the item. he returns moments later with the parchment and a writing quill in hand, entering the room with light footsteps while you observe him carefully. this one, similar to chan, is blonde, but his shoulders are not nearly as wide as his alpha's. you note that the freckles adorning his cheeks look similar to the constellations etched into the walls of the room. he offers you the items you need and you tentatively take them, using the wall to scrawl on the blank paper before showing it to them.
"thank you for treating my wounds."
minho's gaze softens as he reads your words before he feels an elbow from jisung beside him, drawing his attention. jisung gives the older wolf a quick wiggle of his eyebrows which makes minho half heartedly swat him away. the younger cackles to himself quietly at the reaction. chan ignores them and continues, his demeanor shifting when his face gets serious. he leans forward in the chair, "you're welcome. but i have to ask, why were you being chased by the king's guard? the peace treaty between wolves and the empire is still new and the tension between us and them is still a… delicate situation." your gaze drops from chan to the parchment in your lap. you know very well how fresh those wounds are. you take a moment before you lift the paper again.
"i was searching for some ingredients for a spell when they found me. they tried to rob me, so i ran." it's a weak lie, you know that, but you can't risk them knowing the truth. a protective growl emanates deep from minho's chest at your words, making you look at him. his face was still as neutral as it was when he was treating your wounds, but you catch how his nostrils flare angrily. chan clicks his tongue in disappointment for a moment and your heart pounds in your ears. he sits back in the chair, arms now crossing over his chest. "why does that not surprise me," chan comments under his breath, making you relax. "you're welcome to stay with us until you've healed up," chan smiles at you, his alpha mask slipping away now before he turns towards the door, "felix, hyunjin, why don't you show…" he trails off, realizing you never mentioned your name. you fumble with your inked quill clumsily for a moment before writing your name hastily on the parchment, something that has the tiniest of smiles slip onto minho's face.
"yn. why don't you two show yn around a bit?" chan finishes after reading your name aloud, "i'm chan, by the way." he reaches out to shake your hand which you hesitantly take. the tension in the room melts away before the rest of the boys file into the room now to greet you. "i'm jisung!" the boy who had elbowed minho earlier grins at you, "let me know if minho hyung is an asshole and i'll whip him into shape."
"says the one who got scared by a lizard the other day," minho shoots back from his spot in the doorway with chan now beside him. "that lizard was huge!" jisung defends before he's nudged out of the way by seungmin.
"anyways, i'm seungmin and the moody one over there is jeongin," the boy points to the younger one behind him who's glaring at you, "sorry, by the way, for the distasteful joke." you let out a quiet, breathy laugh and respond on your paper, "it's okay. you didn't know." seungmin sheepishly stares at the paper a moment before he's being picked up.
"yeah, yeah, yeah, you're very sorry, now move," changbin grins impatiently, practically tossing seungmin into jeongin behind him with a yelp from the youngest, "i'm changbin! let me know if you need anything heavy moved." you tilt your head quizzically at the muscle man to which he just laughs like he knows something you don't before he's tackled to the floor by jeongin and seungmin in revenge. hyunjin steps over the three wrestling wolves as he approaches you with a kind smile, "i'm hyunjin. you won't have a dull moment while you're staying here, if you couldn't tell."
"you make that sound like a bad thing," the boy who handed you the parchment and quill earlier chimed in, a smile pulling at his freckled cheeks, "i'm felix. it's nice to meet you, yn! hyunjin and i are the ones showing you around."
"take the wrestling outside!" chan suddenly cuts in to scold the three on the ground. jeongin and seungmin cackle when they remove themselves from changbin, the pair of wolves rushing out of the room with the older one hot on their heels. jisung laughs after them as he, too, exits the room after the trio.
"shall we go?" felix drew your attention back to your conversation. you look at felix questioningly, curious as to how you'd move given your current ankle injury. felix's grin widens before he lowers himself to the ground, his back to you. hyunjin sidles up next to him with his hand out stretched towards you. you hesitate for a moment. "your chariot awaits," hyunjin jokes, sensing the hesitation, before you take his hand and gingerly moved from your corner to the edge of the bed. felix gently grips your thighs and gingerly helps you onto his back, lifting you up from the bed once your arms were secured safely around his neck. the two almost immediately start yapping to you about how much they know you'll end up liking the place. minho moves to follow after the three of you, ready to accompany you on your tour of the grounds.
the weight of chan's hand on his shoulder stops him and chan shaking his head when minho looks back at him. "we need to talk."
"oh, i guess you haven't seen the rest of this house, huh?" hyunjin hummed absent mindedly as the three of you moved down the hallway. you shook your head in response, eyes trailing across the living room. it was small, but cozy. there's a coffee table in the center of the room that has all manner of books strewn about its surface. a couch stood near by with a soft checkered blanket neatly folded over the back of it while the sun beat down on its cushions. clearly, it had been placed there with the idea of sunning whoever laid on its surface in mind. your eyes wander the open floor layout to the kitchen, cooking utensils and various pots and pans hanging above the wash basin. a plain, wooden dining table isn't far from the counter top against the kitchen wall, a set of nine chairs sat around it. it was simple, but it told a story. behind the kitchen stood four floor to ceiling windows etched with different colors, a screen door nestled between the panes of stained glass. overgrown foliage and varying crops stick into view from the quick glance you caught from behind the door, a gentle breeze rattling the wooden frame as if beckoning you to tend to whatever interesting plants lay behind it. but, you were being escorted out the front door before you could try to get felix or hyunjin's attention to ask about it.
the sun is high in the sky when you, hyunjin, and felix step out of the house sat nestled between two massive oak trees. you assume it's likely some time in the afternoon based on the positioning of the blazing ball in the sky. and your assumption is correct when you hear jisung yelling something off in the distance about going out to catch some deer with changbin for lunch.
there are a total of eight other houses forming a circle in the clearing around you. each building has its own personality to it and has a varying amount of floors. there's one home with an easel in it's front yard, a weathered stool not too far from it. another with a rope hammock hanging from the branch of a tree near the balcony of it's second story. some of the houses stick to just a single story while others have two. one house, however, bears three stories on its foundation and a wrap around porch. it has enough room to house all eight pack members and still have room for eight more. in the middle of all the homes is a makeshift firepit with eight different seats settled around it. hyunjin's proud voice breaks you from your observations when he points to the house next door, the one with the easel and stool outside. "that house is mine. we're neighbors, so don't hesitate to stop by if you need help with anything." despite hyunjin's words, you can't help but catch the guarded tone that comes out and you know he doesn't really mean the help he offers. it's a formality, not an invitation. there is no trust in his voice, but you nod anyways.
the duo banter a bit as they walk along the path beside your temporary home, felix weaving tales of misadventures the pack have had together. occasionally, felix has to readjust you from the spot on his back to ensure you don't fall off while he moves. it's a ten minute walk to your next destination - the lake. it's massive when it comes into view and you're shocked you hadn't stumbled upon it the night prior, before your run in with the king's guard. at the end of the worn path lies a pair of alcoves that cradle the shore line. as you get closer, you realize that while the main alcoves are natural, but there are smaller ledges within that are man made. they have all manner of soaps and perfumes slotted between the dirt.
"this is the last stop of our encampment," felix grins at you, "all wolves need a good bath with a view, so we figured this side of the lake was the perfect spot for both." you nod in understanding, a soft smile pulling at your lips. "it's not much, but it's home," hyunjin adds, a wistful look on his handsome features. the three of you take a moment to soak in the peaceful atmosphere of the area, water gently lapping at the shore near hyunjin and felix's feet. your sharp eyes scan the horizon, mind already cataloging the plants on the opposite shore that you could use for spell components and potions. it helps take your mind off the throbbing in your hip from being on felix's back for so long. you shift uncomfortably on felix's back and hyunjin's eyes dart over to felix's. the two share a knowing look that has you puzzled before moving in tandem with one another back up the hill, hyunjin's hand hovering gently behind you in case you fall.
you reach the clearing where everyone's houses stand just as minho and chan exit the big pack house, a lazy smile on chan's face while minho's brows are knit together in an expression you can't quite read. just as the two hit the bottom step, minho looks toward you and his expression evens out. you stare at each other while felix and hyunjin's words become quieter with each passing second, despite your proximity. you're searching minho's gaze for any answers to the lingering inquiries in your mind and he's searching yours for any recognition as to what's happening to the two of you. chan's hand grips the back of minho's neck in a silent farewell before the alpha leaves. if minho felt it, he didn't acknowledge it, too preoccupied with staring you down. your eye contact doesn't break until hyunjin shuts the door to your new home with a slight bang. you have a feeling these boys don't know the word gentle when it comes to doors.
it's been a month since your arrival into the pack of stray kids and, between minho diligently checking for signs of infection and you pumping a healing spell into the wound daily, your ankle has been healing quite nicely. you were now able to put some pressure on the limb without much pain, but you're still unable to walk without help. luckily, a few days into your stay, minho had brought you a makeshift crutch, dismissively mentioning he had fashioned it for you out of the trunk of an old apple tree. you noticed the blush dusting the tips of his ears when he told you, your heart skipping a beat at the gesture.
despite your good relationship so far with minho, the rest of the pack were still wary of you and you can't exactly blame them. historically, witches and warlocks alike did nothing to ease werewolf suffering when humans began their assault on all manner of magical folk only a few centuries ago. most humans still fear the howls of wolves in the forests neighboring their homes while the few witches and warlocks that remain live lavishly among nobles and royalty. though you've never given the pack a reason to distrust you so far, they don't trust easily. some more than others. you can see it in the way eyes follow your movements when you're hobbling down the stairs of your porch in the morning for breakfast. you see it in the way hyunjin moves his canvas out of your sight when he's painting or goes inside his home entirely when you pass by. you see it in the way changbin stands a little straighter when he spots you, like he's preparing to defend himself and his pack from you. you see it in the way seungmin's words trail off while talking to the others upon your approach. you see it in the way chan's smile never reaches his eyes when he's speaking with you. you see it in the way jisung's hands subtly shake when passing food to you during meals. you see it in the way jeongin constantly glares at you from across a room as if you'd slaughtered his entire family. felix is the only one other than minho who doesn't seem bothered by you, treating you as an equal rather than a potential threat. and it bothers you more than it should. your heart clenches when the quiet distrust rears its head and it makes no sense to you. you don't know these people, why does it matter what they think? but, you can't ignore the discomfort settling into your chest about the situation.
that's how you ended up on the edge of the wolves' territory in the middle of the night, knife in hand as you carve protective wards into the bark of ancient trees. by the time you're able to limp back to camp, the sun is beginning to crest over the horizon. chan exits the pack house just as you reach the edge of the first home in the clearing, making you pause. he takes in a deep breath and feels calm, the wards settling into the woods around the two of you with the wind. you continue forward when he nods. chan meets you at the steps of your home. he places a hand on your shoulder, giving you a tired, but grateful smile when he notices how exhausted you look. for the first time, the smile reaches his eyes and you know you've earned his trust. with a quiet "get some sleep", the alpha's hand falls away from your shoulder. he watches you closely to make sure you don't trip while heading inside before turning and heading back into the pack home, no longer worried about his early morning patrol.
gaining chan's trust now meant you could gain the others' trust more easily. your next target is seungmin and jisung. you noticed the blank stares the two would give when you held up your parchment to speak with them or laugh awkwardly at "my ankle hurts" as if you were telling an unfunny joke. you figure out fairly quickly that neither of them know how to read. you enlist the help of felix to change that at first before realizing that felix, although can recognize enough words to get by, he can't fully read either. which means you now have to get creative. at first you start writing things down and showing them the object. you start with an apple, then move to stick, then move to drawing more abstract words like human and wolf. seungmin takes to reading easier than jisung does, but that doesn't deter the older wolf. if anything, it pushes him more. in combination with teaching them to read, you start trying to communicate with them outside of the paper, gesturing and moving your hands in ways that help them understand what you were trying to express. it doesn't take long before not only seungmin and jisung can understand you, but the whole pack can, too.
the other's trust comes a little less on purpose after that. hyunjin was fortunately easy. you had overheard him gushing to changbin one day about a flower that grew on the east side of their territory. the flower had hyunjin practically swoonin over its sweet scent, describing what you assumed to be jade vine. a few days later, there's a vile of the flower's perfume beside hyunjin's bathing supplies. hyunjin noticed it had mysteriously appeared there after one of your weekly baths. then, hyunjin took notice that there would be new, fresh paint near his easel when he would run out of a color and your hands were slightly stained that same color for days after. changbin's trust comes when you're trying to fix up the green house behind the stained glass windows in your kitchen. it had been a day where your ankle ached had ached all night, keeping sleep just out of reach. changbin had come in to inform you dinner was ready only to find you sitting in the dirt angrily hacking away at a stubborn weed with a knife. he placed a hand on your shoulder before grasping the plant at its base and ripping it out for you. he attempted to hand it back to you, a look of confusion on his face when tears rolled down your cheeks. he sat next to you in the dirt and patted your head while you silently cried in frustration. it clicked to both wolves that someone who cries over dirt and mixes scents and colors wasn't someone looking to harm their pack.
there was still one left who hadn't begun to fully trust you - jeongin. though the outward hostility towards you had eased since gaining the other pack member's trust, you still caught an occasional glare or scoff from him. when you started teaching seungmin and jisung to read, you'd sometimes catch seungmin teaching jeongin what he had just learned from you. additionally, you liked to think your sign language lessons with the pack helped ease the distrust the youngest felt for you. despite the slow progress, jeongin's issues with you started to bother the others. at first, if someone saw jeongin glare at you, they'd glare back or nudge him in silent warning. once - and only once - minho had caught a scoff come from jeongin at something you had said and a deep, territorial growl rumbled over the group. nobody in the pack had ever growled like that to one another before, not even chan when he was pissed off. nobody blamed minho, though, as jeongin had been instigating this for weeks. later that night, you and jeongin had agreed just to give each other space in order to keep the peace between the pack. you two would be cordial with one another, but that's as deep as it went.
"you're spacing out again," minho's voice suddenly shook you from your thoughts about the past month. you were currently sitting on the porch of the same open floor home you'd been staying in while with the pack, a book open in your lap. you were quick to save your place before signing back to him, "sorry, i was thinking."
"does it hurt?" minho joked. the wolf plopped himself in the space beside you. his knee brushing your thigh sent sparks across the skin beneath your pant leg. you shook your head in response to his question, a small smile forming on your lips. you two sat in silence like this, just soaking in each others presence for a while. you did this most days, actually. you never conversed with one another past a greeting or a bit of light teasing, but being next to minho just felt... right. like you'd known him your whole life and words were never needed. you peered over at minho and watched him for a while. his eyes were closed and the afternoon sun hit his features in such a way that it made him look god like. you studied the way his nose would twitch when the light summer breeze changed direction, the way his lips would tilt upwards when his keen ears caught laughter from his pack members. your eyes trailed down to his throat where his adam's apple bobbed gently when he swallowed, then your eyes caught the missing top button on his shirt. a little bit of his collarbone peaked out from it and you wondered what it would feel like to have his chest against yours, feeling his heart beat against your own.
the tug on minho's shirt caught him by surprise, his eyes darting to where your fingers were smoothing the fabric in order to shield his bare chest from prying eyes. minho felt giddy now that there was proof you felt the same mating pull he did. your hands left his shirt to return to your book and he almost let out a whine at the loss of contact. a pensive calm set over the two of you again as you began to read your book once more and minho closed his eyes go back to sun bathing.
"there's a full moon tonight," minho commented after a while, focusing his gaze on you, "we're going out in the forest tonight." "is that why i haven't been hearing a whole lot of wolven mischief today?" you joke and minho lets out a laugh that has your heart skipping. you shut your book before hesitantly adding, "will you be going?" he nods and a look minho can't read settles onto your face. he doesn't like it. "don't look so disappointed, i'll come back," he reassures you, patting your cloaked head lightly. "i know."
you stare at minho a moment before standing, offering him a hand which he accepts. now that the both of you are on your feet, your hands move in a question, "will you help me with something before you go?"
the trek back to your cottage on the edge of the wolves' territory doesn't take long and, as much as you would like to think you're leading the way, you know minho actually is. he holds his hand out to you when you two reach a small stream, helping you cross over it without getting your injured ankle wet. the warmth from his hands feels like it'll burn your skin when it makes contact with your own, your stomach doing flips. you both stare at each other, holding eye contact for what feels like an eternity, before you give minho a quick "thanks" and remove your hand from his. minho almost deflates at the loss of skinship, but stops himself when he remembers you likely don't fully understand what's sparking between the two of you. he wants to tell you. god, does he want to tell you, but chan's words play in his head on repeat. let it come naturally and the rest will fall into place. there's something in the tone chan used when he said it that makes minho's skin crawl just thinking back on it, like chan knows more than he's letting on. but, minho trusts his fellow alpha.
turning on his heel, minho continues to follow you to the old, rundown cottage in the distance. "you seemed like you knew where you were going just a minute ago," you finally manage to ask him. "this used to be the old pack house," he answers simply.
"there is no way all eight of you crammed yourselves into that tiny ass cottage together."
minho chuckles at the thought of eight barely adult wolves stepping over one another in the old cottage. "no, that was when chan, jisung, and i were teenagers. changbin and hyunjin stayed with us, too, for while," minho supplies you before adding almost absentmindedly, "this was all long before seungmin, jeongin, and felix came along, though." you shoot minho an incredulous look after doing the mental math; five werewolves in a house that would fit maybe three of them - comfortably - has you baffled at how they hadn't killed each other long ago. minho shrugs at you, "we made it work and nobody got seriously injured." you sigh at minho's words, suddenly feeling like you'd aged ten years with this knowledge, before another question pops into your head.
"wait, chan's the alpha of your pack, right? does that make you an omega?"
"good question, but no. i'm, also, an alpha. so is changbin and jeongin," minho responds nonchalantly. his answer only makes more questions swirl around your head since, from what you understood of werewolf hierarchies, there was only ever one alpha in a pack at a time and the rest consisted of varying degrees of omegas and betas. minho can practically see the steam coming out of your ears while you try to piece the information he'd given you together.
"pack dynamics are weird," he shrugs simply to you.
before you can say anything else, minho nudges the door of the home open with his foot. pages of books rustle when the breeze from the entrance hits them, kicking up dust that makes minho almost immediately sneeze. you giggle at him and he shoots you a playful glare, making you put your hands up in mock truce. "so, what d'ya need my help with?" minho inquires while you busy yourself around the room.
"i know you're not as strong as changbin-," a growl radiates from minho's chest at your words, causing you to snort. "but, can you help me carry some books back?"
"is that all i'm good for? free labor?" minho teases you and you roll your eyes at him. "if i'd known you were going to be dramatic about this, i would have asked for hyunjin's help instead." you move over to one of the bookshelves to pick up an ancient tome you had placed there when you're suddenly hyperaware of minho's arms beside your head. you turn to look at him and your heart skips a beat when you recognize the possessive look in his suddenly ice blue eyes. minho leans his face closer to yours, hearing your breath hitch when his chest brushes your own and his lips brush the shell of your ear. "don't even think about it."
before you know it, minho's on the other side of the room with one of your books in hand before he tosses it into an empty crate not far from him. your face burns with embarrassment and a hand grips the collar of your cloak. you really need to figure out what's happening between you two and fast otherwise you're afraid your heart will explode.
it's dinner time when you and minho reach the edge of the clearing. the scent of spiced meats from an evening hunt and boiled vegetables from your greenhouse wafts its way into your nostrils, making your stomach groan in hunger. minho thinks it's cute. you would rather die than acknowledge the playful look he gives you about it.
"yn! minho! hurry up or changbin's gonna eat your half!" jisung shouts from the edge of the firepit, hands waving in the air to emphasize his words. you go to grab the crate of books from minho only for him to move them out of your reach, "you heard jisung, go or you'll go to bed hungry." you huff at him, but comply and make your way towards the others. minho, on the other hand, makes his way towards your house instead.
"is anybody else seeing way minho looks at yn? or is it just me?" hyunjin comments wistfully as he watches your interaction with their second in command.
"it has to be the mating pull, right? otherwise the two wouldn't be eye fucking each other all the time," changbin mutters through a mouthful of food. jeongin fake gags though nobody is quite sure if it's because changbin's has half chewed food in his mouth or because the mention of minho having some form of sex with you is repulsive to the youngest.
"eye fucking is not what the mating pull does. and don't talk with your mouth full, you're gonna choke," chan scolds his fellow alpha, tactfully changing the subject upon your swift approach. chan is quick to stand and walk over to where you've sat yourself between jisung and felix, two stacked plates of food in one hand and his own half eaten plate in the other.
"the larger portion is minho's," chan informs you when you take the plates from him, "he's gonna need the fuel for the full moon tonight." you nod at him and chan returns to his seat just as minho comes down the stairs of your home, taking quick strides over to your group. he seats himself in the space between you and felix, taking his plate from your hands. his fingers graze your own and you feel those same sparks under your skin, your mind drifting to what you had caught on the tail end of the group's pre-dinner conversation. the mating pull, you make a mental note to look it up in one of your books later.
conversation between the pack flows easily whilst you eat. since gaining their trust, it's become tradition that, during dinner, a pack member tells you stories of their misadventures prior to you coming around. tonight, it's jisung's turn to tell you the story about the time he, chan, and changbin had accidentally stumbled upon a hunter's camp. apparently, the trio had to disguise themselves as really big dogs in order to live amongst the hunters before they could make a break for it. you catch movement in the corner of your eye while jisung is very animatedly recounting the chase the hunters gave when they figured out no dogs get as big as werewolves did. you watch hyunjin sign something to felix about the story from across the light of the fire. felix quickly stifles a laugh, putting his fingers to his lips, and it makes your chest swell with pride.
the moon begins to streak light over the forest as dinner, and jisung's story, concludes. you're enthralled as each pack member's eyes begin to glow various shades of golds and oranges. you note that, other than minho's blue, jeongin has an odd shine to his eyes. a ruby red color coats over jeongin's once chocolate irises and the color reminds you of a memory you wish you could forget. you see the pack off soon after. seungmin shouts over his shoulder to you, "don't get stuck in a bear trap while we're gone!" you snort and choose to flip him off which he quickly returns before jeongin's hand pulls him deeper into the forest by his collar.
once the eight wolves are out of view, you enter your home and light a candle. you bring the light over to the kitchen table where minho had set the books from the cottage, careful not to extinguish the flame. you take a moment to sort through the books and put them in order on a nearby bookshelf. it doesn't take long before you reach into the bottom of the crate for the last book, confusion washing over you when you pull it out. you don't remember owning this book. the leather bound book is old and weathered with age, the cover of it no longer keeping the pages weighed down. to someone else, it would look like all the other tomes of old you own. but, to you, the parchment is foreign and it unnerves you.
upon opening the cover, you're even more confused when the title of a children's story greets you. the moon goddess and her children. all magical folk know this story, it's the story of werewolf origins. you thumb through the pages as curiosity grips your mind and instead of a picture book, you find paragraphs of ancient lore hidden within. chan's voice from earlier and you mouth the words "mating pull" before flicking through the books pages for the words. you're surprised to find what you're looking for in the third chapter of the book.
"a wolf may only ever have one mate per life time," the book reads, "the moon goddess made the strings of fate decide who needs their other half. many will feel the mating pull, but none will find the end of the string until the time is right." in the margins is a note written in foreign cursive, "what happens when a human mate dies before the mating connection can be completed?" a shiver runs up your spine at the words and howls echo in the distance. you slam the book closed, chest heaving as if you had been running a marathon. something about this book makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and you can't stand the thought of being in the same room as this strange book right now. you hobble over to your room and grab a clean set of clothes before practically bolting out the door and down towards the lake.
there's a slight breeze that rattles the bushes around the lake as minho approaches it for a drink, pink tongue lapping the cold water into his furry muzzle. he's already tired from running around with the younger ones - he and chan had been taking turns keeping them preoccupied and out of trouble - and staying awake for most of the day to spend time with you. your smile comes to mind for a moment and he swears he can smell the bergamot and witch hazel that clings to your skin. raising his head from the water, he realizes just how close to home he had unintentionally wandered. he turns to start heading back to his pack before movement in the trees catch his blue eyes.
minho's pupils dilate when he spots you heading down to the lake bed, a set of fresh clothes in your hands. he's quick to duck down low to the ground, wanting to give you a playful fright. his paws are silent in the underbrush as he begins to follow you. a tree blocks his line of sight on you for a moment and he moves to find a better angle. minho freezes when he spots you again, cloak lying on the ground while your fingers unbutton the front of your shirt. i should leave, minho thinks, but he's frozen in place. maybe it's because his rut cycle is close, maybe it's because you're his mate, but he can't seem to bring himself to turn around to go. you undo the last button of your shirt, shrugging it off before lazily tossing it off to the side somewhere. minho's breath catches in his throat at the scars etched down your arms and your back. runes are carved into your skin and they almost seem to glow under the light of the full moon. some runes look older than others and there are varying degrees of depth to them. the lean muscles in your back reveal a scarred rune in the center of your spine that seems to glow a brighter blue than the others do under the moonlight. magic bubbles just beneath the surface of its jagged edges. your hands move to the waist band of your pants and you shed them, revealing more runes on the skin underneath. minho's ice blue eyes scan every detail of the runes as if trying to commit their shapes to memory. most of the runes are in placed in locations you can reach and he thinks back reading about a coming of age ceremony over your shoulder a few weeks ago. he assumes it's likely a ritual you may have gone through when you were younger. but the fur on minho's back suddenly raises as you step waist deep into the calm waters of the lake, a sinking feeling settling into the pit of his stomach when he realizes the glowing rune embedded in your spine was put there by someone else.
a lone howl sounds from the west, breaking the silence over the lake. to you, it must sound like the boys having fun in the light of the moon, but, to minho, chan is calling him back with light worry in his vocalizations. you turn towards the noise and minho can see the scars under your pectoral muscles, confirming what he'd pieced together about you days into your stay here. minho moves silently in the underbrush while your attention is else where, returning quickly to his pack.
you don't know how long exactly you stay in the calming confines of the lake's waters, staring up at the moon in search of answers to the questions swirling in your mind. your mind races about the book inside your home up on the hill, about what this strange connection is between you and minho, about why jeongin glares at you, about everything. you have no answers for any of it and you hate that. the moon starts to dip below the horizon and you realize you've been in the lake all night, your fingers and toes having pruned long ago. you exhale through your nose in a defeated sigh before ducking beneath the lake to wet your hair one last time. you're quick to head back to shore after that, putting a fresh set of clothes on just as the sun hits the tops of the trees. by the time you make it back up the hill, you can faintly hear eight boisterous werewolves returning from their night with the moon. you make it in the door of your home just as they hit the edge of the pack home, slipping inside and shutting the door as quietly as you can. you turn to face the rest of the room and your eyes immediately find the book on your kitchen table. the ominous feeling returns to your chest.
you move through the room over to the book, a glare set on it. you lift your hand to your chest, fingers shaking slightly, and hesitantly reach for it's torn cover. "what's that?" minho's voice nearly sends your soul to the ceiling. a loud squeak making your throat itch uncomfortably and you start coughing. you hadn't heard him enter despite the boys not knowing what closing a door quietly is. minho is suddenly appearing by your side with a glass of water and his hand between your shoulder blades while you struggle to contain your coughing fit. he rubs your back as the liquid slides down your throat, his eyes locked in on the supple skin there as if in a trance. the thought of his lips against the muscles there crosses his mind before he shrugs it off as pre-rut brain.
"sorry," he whispers to you shyly, ears pink with embarrassment, "i thought you heard me knock." you wave your hands at his words once you finish your water, ignoring the slightly metallic aftertaste lingering on your taste buds from your coughing fit. "it's okay. i was just thinking."
"you do that a lot," minho chuckles, moving his hand from your back to take the now empty glass in your hands for you, "did you sleep well?" you hesitate before replying to the wolf, "if not having to put up a silencing spell over my window from how loud chan and hyunjin snore counts as sleeping well, then yes." minho knows you're lying, but it lets it go and instead chooses to chuckle at your words. "well, if you're up for it, i'm going to be cooking breakfast for everyone. you're welcome to join me in the kitchen." you give him a sheepish look. "don't tell me you can't cook..." he sighs and you just smile awkwardly in response. "c'mon, then," minho chuckles, offering out his hand, "a cooking lesson awaits." it's small, but you give him a genuine smile as you take his hand. the book on your kitchen table is long forgotten in favor of spending time with minho.
the rest of the pack gathers in the dining room while minho teaches you some basic cooking skills, making you comment on how similar to making potions it is only for minho to mock faux offense at the comparison if only to tease you. chan watches the two of you fondly as you move about the kitchen together, a tightness he can't explain settling into his chest. he's quick to shrug it off when felix nudges him, speaking in their native tongue, "they look good together, don't they?" the eldest nods, "yeah. i think yn is a good fit for..." he trails off, but felix grins at the implication in chan's loss of words. "so, you'll let him stay?" felix asks, switching back to everyone's common tongue. minho's ears twinge red and his hands stutter while he cuts vegetables from the kitchen. "i don't see why not," chan shrugs, sitting back in his chair, "this house was built to hold everybody, after all." the other wolves cheer at their head alpha's words while jeongin lets out a soft groan followed by someone kicking him under the table.
"so, you were just playing hard to get," jisung pokes at chan's cheek, the older swatting his hand away. "yes," chan thinks for a moment, "and no. there were other other factors i had to take into consideration, but, ultimately, it's not really my choice. it's the moon's." a mug is raised to chan's lips and a long sip follows, the other boys quieting for a moment.
"speaking of the moon," jeongin finally speaks up, a mischievous grin growing on his face, "does anybody else wanna talk about hyunjin running back with that pack of weasels biting his ankles last night?" the group howls in laughter with their discussion shifting towards the event, much to hyunjin's embarrassment. later that afternoon, minho is searching around for you, his heart beating quickly as the impending fate of his rut begins to set in. he wants to explain to you the distance he's about to have from you isn't personal, but he's unable to locate your whereabouts. you're not reading on your porch, nor are you anywhere in your home. he checked down by the lake, knowing you liked to sit the by calming waters when the pack's endless energy became too much. he thinks maybe you've gone back to the old pack house for more books, but there's no sign of you or anyone around the premises. minho's ready to panic on his trek back to the clearing when his nose catches the scent of bergamot and witch hazel on the wind. his sense of smell guides him to a field of wildflowers on the edge of his pack's territory, a field he hadn't realized existed until now. the wind makes the marigolds and lavender dance in between the rows of sage and rosemary. minho finds you beside a plot of forget-me-nots, your breathing even as you slumber with a book as your pillow. a soft smile graces his lips and he kneels down on the balls of his feet, fingers gently brushing a few stray flower petals from your cheeks. his hands move under your sleeping figure before he lifts you up into his arms. minho stills when you begin to stir only to lean into his touch more, fingers hooking onto his shirt tight. he places a fleeting kiss to the crown of your head before his eyes wander to the book you were reading. though some of the ink on the pages are too faded for him to read without dropping you, he can make out some of what's written on the parchment. his smile grows when he realizes it's a historical book about werwolves and he knows you'll be just fine while he's in rut.
the days that follow the night of the full moon are unusually quiet. minho hasn't left his home since he brought you back from your afternoon nap and it worries you. you'd tried to ask the felix about why he's been under house arrest, but he gave you a sheepish look before telling you to ask hyunjin. hyunjin, on the other hand, shrugged and said he wasn't sure, but the guilty look in his eyes told you he was lying. you asked changbin next, figuring maybe an alpha would have more information about it. changbin simply changed the subject as if you hadn't asked him at all. after that, you tried seungmin, who you assumed would be his usual honest self, but he waved you off with a "he's fine" instead. huffing at their secrecy, you sought jisung out since he was the closest with minho. at first, jisung shrugged and told you he didn't know. when you pressed him further, he squeaked out something about chan having the answers you seek and scurried away to join changbin at the lake. unfortunately, the head alpha wasn't much help, either. when you asked him, he only patted your head, told you not to worry, and sent you away with something from the pack snack pantry.
that's how you find yourself in front of jeongin's door after dinner on the fourth night of minho's sudden disappearance. your hand raises to knock on the wooden slab only to freeze in place. you and jeongin aren't exactly on good terms. sure, you've both stayed cordial with one another since minho had snapped at him. but, he wasn't exactly your biggest fan. you're lost in thought as to how you're going to approach jeongin until the door suddenly opens and the youngest stands on the other side with a glare. "are you gonna stand there with your mouth open? or are you gonna come inside?" he snaps at you before stepping further into his home. you stand there before hesitantly crossing the threshold into jeongin's house.
the inside of his abode is warm from a smoldering fire. candles illuminate various trinkets and bobbles hanging on the walls and the earthy scent of incense catches your nose. jeongin's home is neat, but lived in. an empty glass sits in his wash basin and there's crumbs from a mid afternoon snack still on the kitchen table. jeongin stands against the entrance to his kitchen, arms crossed sternly over his chest when he raises an eyebrow at your prying eyes. "it's cozy in here. it suits you," you comment, trying to ease the tension between you two. he scoffs, "you didn't come here to make small talk, we both know that. you're here to ask about minho hyung, right?" your hands fall back to your sides and you nod, a look of disappointment at his crossness with you melting over your face. he ignores it and rolls his eyes, "he's in rut." your blank expression makes him groan. "for someone so damn smart, you sure are stupid..." he mutters to himself before continuing, "a rut. its when a werewolf's hormones go haywire and the wolf gets... agitated. they have a hard time controlling themselves, especially when their mate lives across the way from them." you don't think jeongin meant to say that last bit out loud, but he doesn't show it if he cares or not. his words make something in your head click. mate, like soulmate. the realization that you and minho are bound together by the moon's bond, that you two are soulmates, hits you like a ton of bricks. jeongin's sigh breaks you from your revelation, "go home, yn. minho needs space right now and i don't want you in here ever again." you nod and jeongin turns to leave before stopping when your hand catches his sleeve gently. he whips around, ready to yell at you for touching him, but your hands move before he can get any scathing words out.
"thank you."
you quickly exit the dwelling, leaving jeongin with a conflicted feelings swirling beneath his chest. you head back home with a new understanding.
three more days pass before minho steps out of his home, the effects of his rut subsiding. it had been hard to keep himself from seeking you out in the seven days he was locked away. granted, chan made sure he was taken care of, bringing him food and water when needed. but, it took every ounce of self control and patience in minho not to tear his front door from its hinges in order to get a glimpse of your figure. on days where your scent wafted into his nostrils, he had to bite his hand so the pain would bring his head back down to earth. minho rubbed lightly at the marks between his wrist and thumb, the skin there tender and irritated. early morning sun shown down on the congregation of pack homes as minho makes it down the stairs of his porch. a chill is already on the wind, signaling summer's reprieve. the pack was buzzing about despite how early it was, making the second oldest wolf wonder why everyone was so busy. nobody seemed to notice him yet and he took this chance to observe. dark eyes danced lazily around in search of you. it didn't take minho very long to spot your silhouette rounding the corner of felix's home, the blonde talking your ear off about something he couldn't make out. minho's eyes raked slowly over your figure and something felt different about you, something softer, lighter. he assumes it must be a lingering effect of his rut now that he's found his mate.
"minho!" jisung grinned at him, forcing said male's eyes to dart over to his best friend, "how ya feelin'?" "like shit, thanks," minho grumbles, shoving his hands into his pockets, "what's with all the commotion?" "we're going into town," jeongin grins excitedly from where he and seungmin are stacking empty crates onto a wagon. "what for? didn't we stock up on supplies like... two months ago," minho inquires, puzzled as to what the pack could possibly need from the humans so soon. he's trying to do the math in his head, baffled at how four months worth of food and medicine could be gone in two. "well, someone," chan speaks up, giving changbin and jeongin a pointed stare, "ate up most of our supplies. and with another mouth to feed, we've had to make more food than normal. besides, i think we all need a little bit of fresh air." the two culprits look away like they hadn't heard the pack alpha.
"there's fresh air all around us, what could a stinky human village give us other than tar in our lungs?" seungmin complains from where he now sits beside the wagon. "that's not how that works," you chide the younger wolf. "didn't you mention you needed stuff from the village, too, ynie?" changbin nudges you, moving you closer to minho's proximity as he wanders to join your group. minho nearly growls at the nickname in jealousy. "yeah," you confirm before expanding on the topic, "i need some herbs for samhain. it's not for a few months, but there are things that i need to dry in preparation." "what's sandhand?" hyunjin whispers over to jisung louder than intended, earning himself a soft smack to the back of the head from chan who was now standing beside them. you let out a breathy chuckle, "not sandhand, samhain. the autumn equinox." murmurs of understanding suddenly pass over the group and your smile faulters slightly when their excitement doesn't match your own. "what all does samhain entail?" minho pipes up when you start to deflate, his curiosity genuine, though the added bonus of watching you talk about your passions creates incentive as well. you grin at him and move your hands up to begin your rant about the old witchy traditions. chan is quick to interject, however. "why don't you tell us on the way? that way we're not stuck returning home after dark," chan suggests, impatiently, before everyone piles into the back of the wagon. minho holds out his hand for you to take when you approach the wagon. you stare at his hand a moment before taking it. if you notice the bites on his hands, you don't say anything about it. you're sat between minho and hyunjin when chan calls from the driver's seat of the wagon, "everyone ready?" a chorus of confirmation echoes out over your pack before the wheels lurch forward and your journey begins. conversations between various pack members flow like a river and you're nudged by one of the two sat next to you to start your discussion of what exactly samhain is.
you tell tales of the bonfires you and your fellow witches would burn on warm sandy beaches and dank river beds, of the sweet apple cider and spiced pumpkin seeds you would offer to your ancestors. you speak of the elaborate animal masks children would wear while elders divined what the next six months would bring their covens and teenagers on the cusp of adulthood would get their first runes. you explained that thinning of the veil amplified your magical abilities and, sometimes, you'd be able to hear the words of loved ones no longer in this world. you even recounted the time you swore you saw the moon goddess smiling down at you from her perch in the sky. "there's no way you saw her," jeongin scoffs at you in disbelief. "i was still a kid, so maybe it was my imagination," you acknowledge, but your grin only widens with your next statement, "but i think it really was her." "ohhh, i think i get it," hyunjin interjects, "it's kinda like a witch version of what we do during the full moon." you nod excitedly at hyunjin in confirmation. "honestly, it sounds kinda fun," chan chuckles from the front, arm slung over the back of his seat, so he could be included in the conversation. "aren't you supposed to be driving?" jeongin chides. "changbin's got it," the blonde shrugs. "wait, is changbin pulling the cart?!" you ask, incredulously, before standing slightly. sure enough, a massive umber wolf stands at the opposite end of the wagon when you peer past chan. if it weren't for how his tail wagged happily whilst pulling the eight of you along, you would worry for changbin's health. it's then that the cart goes over a particularly large rock on the forest floor, causing you to lose your balance. everyone braces themselves and your injured ankle gives out from under you. you wait to bounce your face off the floor, but a pair of strong hands shoot to your waist in an attempt to steady you. another rock gets tossed under the wagon's wheel and you're knocked back into a solid chest. "changbin!" chan shouts in warning from where he was nearly thrown off the side. a low grumble from the wolf in front is all chan gets in response and you think it sounds almost like a laugh. "you okay?" minho's lips are beside your ear, hands still at your waist until you nod. your face feels hot at the contact. he lets out a chuckle and moves you out of his lap, back into your seat. you wipe your sweaty palms on your trousers and try to still the beating of your heart. you think you hear jeongin and seungmin gag through the heart beat in your ears.
it takes your group two more hours before you reach any semblance of a road. the edge of the forest draws closer and the wagon comes to a stop in the underbrush a few feet from the roadway. chan gets out first to unhook changbin from the cart, the younger of the two immediately laying flat in the grass with heavy panting once freed. "minho, i'm gonna stay with changbin til he's rested up, so you're in charge of the pups," chan calls while everyone else unloads. "got it!" minho replies, leaning over chan's seat to check on changbin. hyunjin stretches out beside you while he waits for everyone else to get out, "i hope the apothecary lady's there today." "which one?" jisung snorts from beside him. "the one that always smells like dahlias, duh," hyunjin replies, arms around jisung's neck while a hand ruffles his hair. jisung shoves hyunjin's hands away from his head with a pout before following behind felix to exit, muttering under his breath about personal space. hyunjin follows after with a sharp laugh and minho expects you to follow soon after. instead, you suddenly grab his hand and it sends a shiver down his spine. his dark eyes meet yours under that damn cloak you always wear and your eyes flicker from his down to where your hand gingerly grips his own. your fingers ghost over the teeth marks on his skin before you let go and get up. minho's brows knit together in confusion. he doesn't have a moment to dwell on it, however, when felix goes to race jeongin to the village. "not so fast!" minho growls, "grab a crate before you race." the boys groan, but do as they're told. once your group is far enough away, chan turns to changbin's wolven form, "you hit those rocks on purpose."
the village market is small compared to the ones you're used to. but small in size doesn't mean lacking in quality. your group of seven is dispersed into pairs once minho gives everyone their shopping lists and a crate to carry. hyunjin and felix are paired together to grab fruits and vegetables while jeongin and jisung are instructed to gather materials to replace old clothes and blankets. minho puts himself with seungmin to collect all the other miscellaneous supplies before turning to you. you've already migrated down into some of the stalls, looking at jewelry in one of the many booths. a small smile tugs on his lips when you pick up one of the anklets there, the intricate charms laced around its edges jingle lightly against one another on the simple gold band. "you have great tastes," the shop keep grins at you, hoping to make a sale off of you, "it has a partner as well." the old woman is quick to pick up another circlet nearby as minho approaches. the band on the partnered set is smaller, likely to be worn as a bracelet rather than an anklet. the charms are different on the two pieces, but they tell a story that goes together. you smile when you spot a howling wolf charm on both accessories. "how much?" minho asks the old shop keep. "five gold," she grins at the both of you, making minho cringe at the price. you look up at him and frown. "maybe a different day," he smiles to you apologetically, your hands already setting the jewelry back down on the table. a pout forms on your lips as minho ushers you over to a different stall where seungmin is currently haggling heatedly with the shop keep.
an hour or two passes and the pack's errands are nearly complete, the market now suddenly bustling with people crowding the stalls. you choose to stand back from where minho and seungmin are currently arguing with one of the other customers over the last herb at a stall. you laugh quietly to yourself at the two before your eyes are turned to people watch instead - a tired young man at one of the stalls yawns while his head lulls to the side on the cusp of sleep. a group of children run past with a ball rolling beneath their feet. a couple speak in hushed voices and giggles, their hands intertwined while they walk. you spot a mother wrangling her two sons while their father holds an infant in his arms, smiles on all of their faces. for a moment, the scene makes your heart twinge in longing. longing not for a family, but for belonging. you yearn for a sense of purpose to be renewed within you. you move your gaze from the family quickly, eyes now falling on a store front that has "apothecary" written on its door. there's a faint symbol below the script, a witch's rune staring at those who know to look for it. you think back to what hyunjin said at the beginning of your trek about a woman smelling of dahlias and you move towards it, eager to see what the building has to offer you.
a bell rings when the door opens and you find yourself the only customer in the store at the moment. "welcome," a young woman's voice calls from behind the counter. you nod at her in greeting. "is there anything i can help you find?" she inquires, eyeing you warily when you don't verbally respond. instead, you walk up to her and produce a list from your pockets. she reads it a moment and grins at you, "ah, i recognize a samhain list when i see one. give me just a moment, hun." she's up and past the door leading to the back in a second to gather your supplies, leaving you alone again. you catch a whiff of dahlia perfume on her and smile, knowing hyunjin will be happy if he comes by. your eyes wander the shop while you wait. it's full of various plants, potions, and tinctures. a fern sticks out of a pot near the door while petrified roots of adder's tongue and begonia sit in jars on one wall. the other wall has books lining dustless shelves that beckon you to them. your hand instinctually ghosts over the delicate spines of the books, titles you've already read or own flying by. you stop on the last book on the fifth row, the familiar script on the spine is worn with age, but still legible. you pull the book of curses out from its spot on the shelf and take it in your hands like an old friend, heart suddenly pounding in your chest. a shaking finger peels the cover back and your handwriting stares back at you, property of one yn yln. please return if found. the young woman comes out of the back and sees which book you're holding, "ah, good choice. there's no actual curses in that book, but it's good if you're looking to break one. i can add it to your purchase if you'd like." while her hands busy themselves with wrapping up your order, you turn to her slowly. it takes a moment for your brain to register what she said to you before you nod, hands still trembling when you place the book down. you pay for the items before you grab your list back from her, miming writing to ask for a quill. she happily gives it to you, believing you'll ask her for something else. you frantically write down a question as your panic rises the longer you stand in this shop. "who sold you this book?" "ah," she responds, a hand coming up to her chin while she thinks, "it was a younger girl, maybe in her twenties? she had dark hair and the most unusual looking eyes, even for a warlock. said its owner was on their death bed and she had no use for it." you want to vomit at her words. "when?" you scribble in response. "a couple weeks ago, i think. why? do you know her?" you don't reply. the panic and fear in your chest causing you to bolt out of the shop. you slam into a warm chest when you exit, a sharp yelp coming out of the person in front of you. "yn! oh shit, what's wrong? wait- where are you going?!" you ignore hyunjin and felix's calls as you race down alley ways and side streets, searching for the safety of the forest.
you charge down the road to the forest, the ankle you had injured screaming at you. you don't stop. you can't stop. not until you're legs give out from under you and you've collapsed onto the ground, chest heaving painfully. panicked sobs rip violently through your body as you lay amongst dead leaves and roots coming up for air, your breathing quickening its pace while dark spots dance at the edges of your vision. one of your shaking hands grasp at your chest while the other grips the dirt below you. roots and vines from nearby trees creak and whine as they curl around your trembling body, your magic reacting protectively to your emotional state. you think you hear your name being called off in the distance somewhere. your hands move to cover your ears, eyes squeezing shut. you're on the verge of passing out when the roots and vines of your mini dome creating an entrance, your magic reacting to something approaching. when they finish, your mate crouches down to investigate the inside. the image of you curled up on the forest floor, hyperventilating with tears cascading down your cheeks, has minho feeling light headed. somehow, he manages to stay calm. he crawls into the protective shell with you and the roots quickly repair themselves shut. "yn," he calls to you quietly. you shake your head in response and he pushes further, "yn. listen to my voice, love. it's me, it's minho." your eyes open at his name and he lays down with you. he reaches for your hand, his calloused palm moving your soft fingers to rest on one of his pecs. you go to rip your hand away from his, but he holds it firm. "hey, hey, hey, it's okay," minho is quick to soothe you, "just focus on my heart beat, 'kay?" your wild eyes stare into his, your pupils blown wide with fear, before you close them again. minho's heart beat is soothing, the steady thumping in his chest making your muscles relax. "good," he praises you, "now breathe with me, baby." minho doesn't wait for you to reply, instead taking a deep breath before exhaling slowly. you match him on the second breath until the faint feeling in your legs goes away. "that's my good boy," minho whispers, pulling you closer. one arm wraps around your waist and the other wipes tears from your reddened cheeks. your eyelids flutter open, the protective barrier retreating back into the soil of the earth. the two of you stay like this for a while, soaking in each others body heat and presence. your faces are close to one another and minho has the fleeting idea to kiss you, claim your lips for himself. he lets the idea go and stands slowly with you. you sniff and wipe your eyes with the heel of your palm one last time, your other hand never leaving minho's. you didn't realize how much time had passed until your eyes shoot to where the sun is preparing to kiss the horizon. "c'mon," the wolf beside you instructs, his hand tugging you along, "everyone's waiting." you go to move and groan at the pain shooting through your ankle. you look down and see the ankle you had previously injured now swollen. minho sighs and releases your hand. you feel cold at the loss of his touch before he warms you again, placing you on his back. the scent of mint and petrichor makes its way into your nostrils, your arms locking around his neck, and you find yourself suddenly exhausted. your eyelids droop and, before you know it, you're lulled into the land of dreams.
chan is cursing himself as he paces through trampled underbrush. you and minho haven't been seen since you nearly tackled hyunjin outside of the apothecary. he's lucky seungmin had been beside minho when felix approached the two, words of your distraught state sending the second in command sending minho scrambling into the surrounding area after you. chan has half a mind to send a search party for you both as the sun gets lower in the sky. "you're gonna burn a hole in the ground," changbin mutters to his friend from where he sits on the ground, fists clenched together as if he were holding himself back. "i don't understand why we can't just leave yn's ass and go home," jeongin complains dully from his seat on the edge of the wagon. "dude, what the fuck is your problem?!" seungmin scolds the youngest before chan can, "you've been nothing but cruel and mean to yn since he got here. and he's done nothing to you, but be nice." jeongin glares at his brother, nostrils flaring angrily, "maybe it's because you're all too trusting of some witch that randomly showed up, claiming minho is his mate." "that's not what happened and you know it," seungmin growls at jeongin, "yn has tried time and time again to get to know you - to know all of us. he's tried to bond with you and get to know you and every single time you snap at him like the dirt under your fucking paw! do you see the look on his face after you snap at him?! do you see the way his shoulders tense when you're being an asshole?! no, you don't! you have your head too far up your-!" "enough!" chan bellows at the two siblings. a tense silence lingers in the air between everyone, a few members of the pack shrinking back slightly. "seungmin, don't curse at your brother," chan sighs before turning to the youngest, a stern look set on him, "jeongin, he's right. yn is part of this pack now, whether you like it or not. you could at least learn to be kinder to him." jeongin glares at chan for a moment before his gaze moves away from everyone, his arms coming to rest on his chest. a heavy sigh comes from the eldest before he turns his line of sight back to the horizon just in time to see minho carrying you on his back through the trees. jisung, felix, and hyunjin race towards the pair and changbin relaxes with a shaky sigh. the worry blooming in chan's chest ebbs away only to spike back up when he sees you slumped over minho's dirt covered clothes. he only relaxes when he sees the steady rise and fall of your back. the group quiets when they see you sleeping and seungmin helps minho place you into the back of the wagon. chan stops minho as the second eldest goes to grab a blanket that jeongin had bought at the market, voice low, "what happened?" minho looks away, fists clenching so hard on the edge of the wagon chan fears he may break the wood. "i... i don't know," is all the eldest receives before his hand is shrugged off. minho slips your head gently into his lap once the blanket is placed over you. changbin shifts with jeongin and the two take up pulling your cart back home.
nobody speaks on the journey back. some are too afraid they'll wake you and others are still trying to come down from heightened emotions.
you were just a quiet college kid looking out for your friends, so why is your past haunting you like a ghost three years later?
wc: 2.9k
you shouldn’t be here.
the sound of revving engines, the scent of adrenaline and alcohol, the flashing lights bouncing between dancing bodies. it’s another world. a world you and your three friends shouldn’t be in. and yet here you are at the oddinary.
the oddinary. seoul’s premier underground racing bracket. it’s located in varying locations across seoul. sometimes it takes place on the streets of downtown seoul. sometimes it’s held deep in the mountains north of the city. most frequently, like tonight, it’s held on a dusty run down racing arena where all cops are paid to turn a blind eye to the illegal activities that happen here.
there’s only two rules when it comes to the oddinary. the first? the fastest racer - whether it’s by car or by motorcycle - wins. easy. the second? you crash, you lose. simple as that. the unspoken rules, however, aren’t as forgiving. not many people remember the original unspoken rules, but everyone remembers one; if you’re issued a challenge, you have to accept or your reputation is doomed. and a racer’s reputation is everything.
“c’mon!” jisung shouts to you over the blaring music, “i thought i saw him over this way!”
“remind me again how we got roped into this?” seungmin grumbles over to you as you push through the crowd of drunk and dancing bodies.
“because we’re on baby sitting duties,” you sigh to the younger male, a hand pulling your black baseball cap further over your eyes, “and jisung wanted our approval on his new potential boyfriend.”
“‘potential?’ i think he’s already head over heels,” felix giggles from somewhere behind you, already tipsy from pregaming with jisung.
“lee know!” jisung suddenly shouts over the crowd, jumping up and down with a wave before pushing extra hard through the bodies.
“jisung, wait for me!” seungmin lightly scolds, hot on the elder’s heels.
“felix,” you call and turn to find the blonde australian only to be met with vaguely unrecognizable faces in a crowd you didn’t want to be in. a groan emanates past your lips before you begin your search. it takes you twenty whole minutes to find felix sitting at one of the many bars in the vicinity.
“felix, warn me next time before you wander off, please,” you sigh at the literal embodiment of sunshine.
felix only hums in response, a plastic straw already being wrapped up in his perfectly pink lips. you sigh, again, before you lean against the bar beside felix. leaning back on the bar top, your eyes are quick to find where seungmin and jisung had run off to.
your unexpected duo had began to converse with a group of five. the first one to greet them is a cat like man, his face stoic as he says something that makes jisung laugh a little too hard. this is probably who jisung has been pining after for weeks now. and, when you notice him taking softened glances at jisung when he thinks jisung isn’t looking, you assume the feelings mutual.
from there your eyes narrow in on a blonde haired man whose outstretching a hand to jisung and seungmin in greeting, a smile splayed out on his heart shaped mouth while he says something you can’t make out from this far away. you assume its a greeting by the way seungmin shakes his hand immediately after. you hum neutrally at the interaction, deciding the blonde to be trust worthy for now.
a muscley arm shoots out from a shorter man to seungmin, the dark haired boy smiling widely at something seungmin said. the muscle man shoots that same arm around seungmin’s shoulders and you watch a mischevious grin spread on seungmin’s face while muscle man gets annoyed at whatever it was seungmin responded to him with. you assume these two know each other in some capacity, so you keep yourself put for now.
the fourth boy there seems rather tame compared to the other two companion’s in jisung’s new group. he’s sitting politely on a stool beside the blonde haired one of jisung’s friends, waiting to be introduced. the shock of blonde in his bangs makes him stand out among the group, but he looks harmless. you remind yourself quickly that looks can be deceiving - especially when it comes to where you guys are.
finally, your eyes land on him and your mouth drops open slightly. you stare at the lanky man now out stretching his hand to shake seungmin’s. his perfect lips move with unheard words, eyes glossing over seungmin’s outfit and his nimble fingers find themselves hiding back in his jeans pocket. for some reason unknown to you, your brain short circuits at the sight of this final man. you imagine getting lost in how that man’s fingers would feel wrapped around your-.
“ynie?” felix slurs beside you with a second drink now replacing the first, “ynie?! hellooooo? is you in there?”
“yes, lix?” you respond, shifting on your feet a bit uncomfortably. the fuck is wrong with you tonight?
“you’re not gon’ drink with me?” he pouts.
“not tonight, hun,” you chuckle, reaching a tentative hand up to pat felix’s head, “someone’s gotta keep an eye on you and jisung to make sure nobody steals our sunshine twins.”
a drunken gasp escapes past felix’s lips while his unoccupied hand covers them dramatically, “noooo, not me and sungie!”
“yeah, don’t want the two twinks to end up captured and turned into twunks by all the gym bros around,” seungmin quips, suddenly appearing at your side.
“speaking of, what’s the vibe of his new friends?” you nod over to where seungmin had left jisung in the group of guys.
the literature student next to you leans a bit closer to your ear, his voice coming out in a whisper low enough for just you to hear, “the one with the blonde streak in his hair? he was counting a bunch of money of the counter behind him and i highly doubt it was from any legal source.”
you chuckle at seungmin’s naivety, “seungmin, you realize jisung convinced you to drive us all to the best illegal street racing rings in korea, right?”
seungmin stands there, his mind now being the one to short circuit when your words hit him. you chuckle and shake your head - this kid was probably the smartest out of all of your tiny group of friends, but you enjoyed his brief moments of stupidity. your hand is quick to ruffle seungmin’s hair and he whips around to scold you about it only to stop when he realizes you’re suddenly locked in on something on the other side of the bar.
there’s a woman there uncomfortably scrunched between the bar top and a guy who clearly can’t take a hint, his strong arms caging her beneath him. the guy moves his face closer to the woman’s ear and whispers something that makes her face twist in disgust. seungmin turns to say something to you, but finds the spot beside him suddenly empty.
“dammit,” seungmin hisses beneath his breath, dark eyes scanning the vicinity for you. he spots you just as you make it over to the couple, the woman is now attempting to get out of the man’s grasp only for his hand to latch onto her wrist painfully. she lets out a shriek when he pulls her closer to him, a grin spreading onto the man’s face. his expression quickly darkens when he feels liquid flowing down his head and shoulders, turning to find you with a now empty beer glass held over his head. everyone in the crowd seems to quiet down when they see what’s happening.
“sorry,” you say flatly, “i tripped.”
a growl emanates from the man’s chest in front of you as he stands to his full 6’ 2” height and you know now you may have picked the wrong man to piss off. “tripped?” the man hisses at you, “you poured your drink on me.”
your eyes flicker over to the girl beneath your baseball cap, watching her friends quickly grab her arm and usher her over to them with a whisper of her name, before they return to the man in front of you. your silence seems to piss the man off further as he growls and steps closer to you, “what? cat got your tongue?”
his face is inches from yours now, eyes shooting daggers when you smirk. “listen, dude, unless you’re gonna make out with me, you need to back up,” you quip at him, head tilting to the side in a taunting manner.
the crowd around you lets out whoops and hollers of amusement at your fiery words. one boy closest to the man in front of you punches his arm playfully, “he got you good, mingyu!”
the man - mingyu - now steps back from you with red ears, growling in frustration at you. he goes to open his mouth to retort, “fuck you.”
you roll your eyes from beneath your hat, arms crossing over your chest, “sorry, man, you’re not my type.” the crowd around you howls with laughter and mingyu looks like he’s ready to swing at you before a wicked smirk spreads on his face.
“alright, tough guy,” mingyu chuckles, darkly, “let’s see if your driving is as fast as your mouth-.”
“i think you should ask your mom how fast my mouth is.” you feel a glare from somewhere in the laughing crowd from seungmin - you may have taken that last one too far, but mingyu had dangled it in front of you. how could you not take that opportunity?
“race me!” mingyu suddenly roars over the laughter. immediately everybody quiets down and your smirk is wiped off your face - how the fuck are you gonna get out of this now?
“race me!” mingyu declares again, “i’m issuing you a challenge - race me!”
“dude, i don’t have a driver’s license, much less a car to race you in.”
a new voice suddenly pipes up from the sidelines, “you can use my car.” your eyes turn to spot that lanky boy in jisung’s new friend group lazily offering up his car keys from where he’s leaning on the bar next to seungmin and felix. you assume the six boys must have made their way over to seungmin and felix during your initial exchange with mingyu.
“well? are you all bark and no bite, kid?” mingyu taunts you. and his taunts work.
“deal.”
the crowd around you cheers as a pair of car keys is tossed in your direction. you catch them with ease and hold eye contact with the smirking boy beside the bar, unnamed tension beginning to bubble between the two of you. the rest of the crowd moves towards the dusty open track, but your eyes are glued to his. a hand from his blonde friend finds the pretty boy’s shoulder and breaks his eye contact with you. the blonde whispers something into his ear before the two move with the crowd.
a shoulder bumps into yours playfully, seungmin now beside you, “i can’t tell if you’re crazy or stupid right now.”
“maybe a bit of both,” you joke for a moment before your face gets serious. seungmin swallows hard at your expression. “listen to me, seungmin, once this race is over, you need to grab felix and jisung and get the fuck out of here. don’t let anybody stop you, don’t let anybody ask you questions, don’t let them out of your sight, just grab them and go home. okay?”
seungmin nods slowly at your cryptic words, but he trusts you. you’ve gotten him and the sunshine twins out of many sticky situations that jisung has dragged you guys into. even though this might be the most illegal situation, there’s a spark of… something in your eyes that tells him you’re gonna be okay and to just listen to you.
“go, i got them,” seungmin reassures you and you nod at him.
you move towards the line of modded cars, eyes darting around to find the car the set of keys in your hand belongs to. you realize now you have no idea what car the pretty boy who lent you his keys owns.
“no license, no car,” a voice approaches you from behind you, “you sure you know what you’re getting yourself into?”
your eyes meet his and that same spark of tension from earlier ignites. “i said i didn’t have a car, not that i didn’t know how to drive,” you trail off and he picks up on it.
“hyunjin,” he offers you, hands tucked in his pockets as he walks up to you. you don’t offer him a name back, instead you test his name on your tongue, “well, hyunjin, why don’t you tell me what kind of car i’ll be racing with tonight then?”
hyunjin smirks at you, his lithe fingers ghosting over your jaw while he turns your head towards an all black bentley. you whistle at it, “it’s modded i assume.”
“very much so,” hyunjin hums, taking a step towards the car. you follow him, irises floating over his figure for a bit and lingering just a bit too long on his waist. hyunjin turns to you and raises an eyebrow when he catches your eyes wandering back up to his face, his smirk pulling a little bit wider at the edges. you, however, think you’ve played it off coolly, unaware that he knows you were checking him out.
the two of you spend a few minutes talking about the car, hyunjin allowing you access inside of the metal death machine before getting in himself. your fingers insert the keys into the ignition and turn. the sound of the engine turning over almost sends a shiver down your spine, adrenaline beginning to pump its way into your system. hyunjin watched your twitchy fingers clutch the gear shift and move it into drive, suddenly concerned for your safety on the track as well as his car’s. maybe chan was right, maybe he was going to regret this decision.
it’s too late now, though, as you pull up to the starting line and hyunjin is forced to get out of the car. he joins his and your friends on the side lines. you note that seungmin is keeping felix and jisung close to him, good.
“hey, kid!” mingyu calls from his car, “i hope you can drive better than your mouth runs.”
“i guess we’ll find out,” you smirk back at him with a shrug before turning your attention to the stretch of road in front of you. mingyu’s smirk waivers for just a moment at your adrenaline crazed smile.
a woman suddenly walks out to the middle of the track between yours and mingyu’s cars, wolf whistles and cat calls come from the crowd at her revealing outfit.
“ready?”
mingyu revs his engine.
“set.”
you turn up the song playing over the radio as loud as it can go.
“go!”
tires screech on asphalt as your foot collides with the gas pedal. you roar ahead of mingyu’s car while the opening guitar rifts of your music drown out the excited screams of the crowd. mingyu growls at your quick start, a hand moving to his clutch to try and gain some distance to catch up to you. you’re quick to block him at the first turn, but he’s quick to move beside you before the second turn. movement above catches your attention and you now notice a series of drones above the track - you assume this is how the crowd watched the races now. but this moment of distraction is what mingyu needed to get ahead of you after the second turn. you curse yourself under your breath before shifting your clutch and attempt to take your place beside mingyu again.
he glances at you out of his side mirror and growls, “like hell you will!” mingyu yanks his steering wheel, making his car swerve in your direction to knock you off the road. the crowd at the beginning of the track cheers at mingyu’s move.
a grin spreads across your face, hands moving to down shift while your feet slam on the breaks. the bumper of your car scrapes against his back bumper, sheets of metal from both of your cars flying of as you use the momentum from the impact to swerve beside him. backwards. and the crowd hushes in disbelief.
you laugh almost maniacally and stick your hand out the window, middle finger up as mingyu nearly veers off the road while you speed ahead of him. your new position allows you to see how red with anger mingyu is. mingyu veers the steering wheel again to try and hit you. you’re ready for it and use the impact once again, this time to right your car forward. the whispers of the name ‘ghost’ start moments later before they get louder.
mingyu miscalculated when he tried to run you off the road a second time. the impact blows out one of his back tires and he loses control, vehicle sliding off the track and into a sandpit while you speed past the finish line and past the crowd. seungmin looks around in confusion at why everyone here is so shellshocked despite your win. he decides now is the perfect opportunity to grab felix and jisung’s hands and bolt. seungmin ushers the two towards his car quickly, putting felix in the back seat with a trash bag and jisung in the passenger to help guide him out of here.
the breaks of hyunjin’s car squeal as you come to a stop as the winner. you sit there for a moment, your face mostly hidden by your hat. your eyes scan for your friends, but see them no where. thank god. with a final rev of your engine, you speed off and away from the oddinary, leaving only the whispers of a ghost on everyone’s lips.
in a world of soulmates, how will you find all 8 of yours? will they accept you despite your flaws?
you hate hospitals. the white walls drive you insane, the scent of disinfectant burns your sinuses, and you especially hate how everyone tries to hide the depressing atmosphere with fake smiles and sympathy.
your eyes blink open to those stale walls you despise so much, fingers twitching under the weight of a hand. you shift your gaze to a head of blonde hair snoring softly beside you, watching chan’s chest rise and fall with each sleepy breath. you find yourself wondering what it would be like to feel his chest beneath you in an afternoon nap before its knocked out of your head by the throbbing pain thats there.
“oh, your awake,” a voice quietly says from the doorway. a nurse moves to your bedside, their hands busying themselves with checking your chart and vitals. “do you remember what happened?” they inquire, voice soft in that fake comfort you hate.
a hand comes up to your forehead and you rack your scrambled brain for a moment before nodding, “i was getting myself into my wheelchair after a bath and i slipped and fell.”
they nod in understanding before they explain, “you cracked your skull on your bathroom counter. we were able to fix it and stitch you back up, but you do have a concussion, so no screens for a few days. do you have a nurse’s aid to help you at home?”
“i do,” you confirm, “but it’s hit or miss if she shows up.”
your nurse’s lips twitch downwards for a brief moment before they continue, “we should be able to discharge you here in an hour or two, okay, hun?”
you nod in understanding, a pang of guilt hitting your heart for a moment. a sigh of relief you didn’t know you were holding exits your lungs once your nurse leaves the room, eyes flicking over to chan again. maybe it’s the concussion, maybe it’s the guilt, but you free your hand from chan’s grip on it and place it in his hair. your fingers rub circles absentmindedly into his scalp as you stare blankly ahead of you, deep in thought even with a scrambled brain. your bottom lip is quickly worried between your teeth with mixed emotions.
you feel guilty at ignoring your Stray Kids for the past few weeks. you’ve put them through the ringer emotionally, would they even want you now? wait, what changed your mind? maybe the concussion is what changed your feelings towards them. maybe it’s the obvious care they’ve shown you despite your recent actions. you should talk to chan first. but, what would you do if he didn’t want to talk to you? oh, god, could you handle that right now?
‘you think too much,’ seungmin’s thoughts suddenly cut through yours, but you find a bit of comfort in his words. then you realize those words were said aloud as well when you feel chan’s eyes on you.
you release your now swollen lip from your teeth, licking the area nervously, “i… i guess.”
chan takes a moment to stretch out his limbs - likely cramped from being hunched over your hospital bed - before looking at you properly. he can see the guilt on your face as you stare at your hands.
“yn,” the pain in chan’s voice only hurts your heart more, “i know this is hard for you and maybe…” he takes a shakey breath. “maybe this isn’t what you want, but not offering us any answers as to why you don’t want to be around us, to whats going through your head, that’s not fair to us. i can’t hear your thoughts the way seungmin can, so i need to know where your head is at.”
the silence between the two of you stretches out for what feels like hours before you lift your head to look at him. really look at him. his bleached hair is messy in a way that makes it clear he’s been running his hands through it, his eyes are deep with wisdom you didn’t think someone his age could carry. you could get lost in those pools of chocolate irises and you do. you feel like you could say every anxiety you’ve ever had and his long lashes would bat them away with unspoken words of advice.
yeah, you’re definitely concussed.
“i just don’t want you to reject me because i’m broken,” you manage out, tears threatening to appear in your eyes, “i don’t want to be useless to everyone because i can’t walk anymore. i don’t want to be tossed aside and pitied because someone else made a bad decision and i got their consequences. i just want to be loved and seen for who i am and not my accident.”
chan softens at your confession, a soft hand moving to wipe away the tears starting to streak down your cheeks. “yn, you’re not broken,” he comforts, “just because you’re in a wheelchair doesn’t mean you can’t be loved.”
your heart skips a beat at the australlian’s words, a choked sob leaving your lips. maybe this is why you’re soulmates. he seems to know the words you need to hear like its second nature to him.
chan is quick to sit up on your hospital bed with you and place your head against his chest. he’s careful not to place the stitching on your temple against the soft sweater he wore while you sob into it.
“i’m sorry,” you sob, “i’m sorry for going radio silent on you. i’m sorry for running away… i just don’t want to be a burden.”
“you’re not a burden,” chan whispers in your ear, eyes now wet as well, “we see you. we see you and we want to give you the love you deserve. you just have to let us, yeah?”
“okay,” you sniff, drying your eyes on the back of your hands, “okay… i’ll try.”
chan pats your head with a nod, using his other hand to wipe his own tears, “now, i’m gonna go find junhan and jooyeon. minho is in another room since they had to sedate him while you were in surgery. we’re gonna get you discharged and then i’m going to take you home, okay?“
you bark out a laugh, “what? you don’t trust jooyeon to get me home?”
“if i’m being honest, yn, his whole diy set up with your wheelchair makes me nervous,” chan admits.
in a world of soulmates, how will you find all 8 of yours? will they accept you despite your flaws?
you’re overwhelmed.
between all the ignored texts from jooyeon and junhan to your own emotions. hell, even the soulmate connection is too much right now. you used to find comfort in seungmin’s fleeting thoughts or those god awful sour candies felix often indulged in. another buzz from your phone on the bathroom counter distracts you from your thoughts for a moment before you sigh and try to sink lower into the bath tub in an attempt to relax.
but you can’t relax. the guilt and anger chipping away at your mind and now, chan is playing some sort of break up song only making you feel worse. you feel a pressure on your bare skin as if someone were slow dancing with you. you glance down to where you feel the pressure and stare at the words hyunjin wrote on your wrist earlier. your skin is raw from where you had attempted to scrub it off despite knowing full well it wouldn’t go away until hyunjin washed it off.
‘we love you. please come back.’
another wave of anger crashes over head, drowning you in the consequences of your own actions. the taste of wine hits your tongue and you curse yourself for not being able to dunk yourself below the bath water and scream. instead you glare at your legs then at your wheelchair. that’s what all this boils down to.
you believe you’re broken. that your car accident makes you useless and the scars from it make you hedious. how could someone - much less eight different people - ever love you like this? you hate it. you hate feeling like you can’t do anything. you hate that people give you pitying looks. and yeah, sure, your soulmates never once gave you that look before. but, now they know who you are to them, so would they look at you differently?
you’re too scared to find out.
‘yn should be here,’ seungmin’s thoughts enter your mind and you slam your fist on the side of the tub, suddenly feeling cold from another soulmate’s connection. firey determination settles into your chest when your eyes flick to your wheelchair again.
you could do this. you could transfer yourself back into your wheelchair by yourself. this has always been the final step to complete independance. why not try it?
your hands are already on the side of the bathtub hoisting you from the tub, a bit of water splashing onto the bathroom tiles. you manuver yourself so you’re sitting on the edge of the tub, hands blindly searching for the seat of your wheelchair to bring it closer. you do manage to grab on for a moment, but unfortunately you end up knocking your chair further away from you. you huff in frustration at yourself, but your determination is stronger than your irritation.
so you try a new angle.
pruned fingers wrap around your bare thighs, moving one useless limb around the edge of the tub. your foot gets caught on the toliet seat for a moment before you free it. placing it gently onto the floor of your bathroom, you move to the other leg and shift it around so you were now facing your wheelchair. a sense of pride at yourself wells up in your chest.
‘now for the final step,’ you think. your hands reach forward and you stretch as far as you can to try and reach for your wheelchair. somehow you do manage to grab it, but you miscalculated just how close you were to the edge of the tub. you fall forward, knuckles white with how tight you’re holding onto your wheelchair when it slips backwards. you fall and pain suddenly radiates through your head, blinding white hot pain. the room is suddenly spinning and you think you’re on the ground? no, maybe you were sitting up. no, that can’t be it.
before you can figure out where you are, darkness over takes your vision and you pass out.
jisung hadn’t stopped crying since the day at the mall with you. even if he wasn’t actively weeping in front of everyone, chan knew. chan could see it in the way his eyes were contantly puffy and rimmed with red. you were being stubborn, chan had decided, but there wasn’t anything anybody except you could do about it. thats why chan thought it would be good for him and his soulmates to just have an evening to themselves. one with no worries, no stress, just them, a few board games, maybe a movie or two, and a couple bottles of wine. a night to at least pretend everything was okay.
hyunjin hummed as he settled into felix’s side on the couch of their apartment, eyes wandering to where minho and jisung lazily danced to the song chan had put on whilst they played uno. hyunjin’s lithe fingers ghosted over the letters under his sleeve, wondering if you would ever dance with him like that. felix shifted beneath hyunjin to reach for his glass of wine. the austriallian downed half the glass as if he were a man dying of thirst. hyunjin couldn’t blame him though. not after the past few weeks without you. hyunjin looked to the balcony where changbin stood, back facing the apartment while he tried to cool down in the evening autumn air. a fleeting thought of painting the scene crosses hyunjin’s mind before he shakes it away.
chan’s dark eyes wandered across his soulmate’s faces from where he stood in the doorway of the living room. most were finding comfort in each other, but his eyes caught seungmin’s face and chan’s gut twisted. seungmin looked like he was going to vomit at any second and just as chan stood straight, minho screamed in agony.
the room suddenly felt smaller as jisung attempted to keep minho up, whispering frantic questions as the dancer fell to his knees. chan noticed the sudden chattering of teeth from changbin as if he had just been out in a blizzard with no clothes instead of having just come inside from a cool autumn breeze.
“get him blankets,” chan instructed hyunjin and felix as he passed by them on his way over to minho.
“minho, baby, what’s wrong?”chan slipped onto the other side of minho, attempting to quiet jisung with a hand placed strategically on his knee.
“i don’t know, this isn’t…” minho groaned out, hands clutching at the left side of his face nearest to his temple.
“lemme see,” chan whispered, hands moving to look at the area botherin minho. nothing. there was nothing there - no skin broken, no swelling, no sign of anything. “minho, baby, there’s nothing there…”
the dance major’s hands returned to the spot bothering him and chan surveyed the room as if searching for the answer hidden between wine glasses and uno reverse cards. then he started putting the pieces together - the look seungmin had, changbin’s sudden temperature shift, minho’s phantom pain. it all had one thing in common.
“yn…” seungmin breathed suddenly, coming to the same conclusion chan did. the whole room seemed to have grown cold at the vocal majors words. jeongin grabbed seungmin’s hand, silently trying to encourage his elder to continue.
“what about him?” chan’s words were shakier than he wanted them to be, like seungmin had reopened a healing wound in his chest.
“he… he had a thought,” seungmin stuttered, tears in his eyes, “just before minho hyung collapsed. s-something about ‘the final step’.”
chan’s blood ran cold at the implication in seungmin’s words, shaking hands reaching for his cell phone. he tries your number first.
ring.
ring.
ring.
“hello,” your voice echoes from the speaker.
“yn! thank god-!”
“i can’t come to the phone right now, but please leave your name and number and i’ll get back to you as soon as i can!”
fuck.
“jeongin, keep trying to call yn on your phone,” chan instructs, “i’ll try jooyeon.”
chan was thankful jooyeon had approached him when this whole thing with you first started. the bassist had offered apologies for his guitarist’s actions as well as his phone number for emergencies.
ring.
ring.
ri-
“hello?” jooyeon’s sleepy voice answered on the other end of chan’s phone.
“jooyeon! something’s happened to yn.” chan couldn’t get the words out fast enough, his panic and fear crystal clear in his words.
“fuck! i’m not in seoul right now,” jooyeon hisses, suddenly wide awake at the mention of you in danger, “i’ll send you his address.”
“hurry! it’s bad,” chan squeaks out, throat beginning to close from his own emotions. chan motions for seungmin and jeongin to grab minho and follow him, one hand reaching for his car keys while the other opens the front door.
“okay, i sent it,” jooyeon breathes, voice shakey with adrenaline, “i’ll start heading that way. should be there in 2 hours.”
“i don’t know if we have that long…”
chan is met with silence on the other end of the line and he takes it as his cue to hang up. he’s running down to his car with jeongin, seungmin, and minho in tow, fingers deftly pulling up your apartment number on google maps.
they’re lucky your apartment is down the street, barely a 10 minute drive. it’s past midnight, so chan is able to break a few traffic laws in order to shorten the time limit on whatever had happened to you.
thank god, too. when the four men get to your apartment, they’re happily surprised to find your front door unlocked. their sense of relief is brief when they find you in your bathroom, wheelchair pushed into the hallway and a pool of blood surrounding your limp, naked body.
there’s blood on the corner of your bathroom counter top and it’s easy for jeongin to put together what happened. chan is kneeling beside you, one towel is moved over your nude figure while another is pressed tightly to your temple.
“there’s an emergency! our soulmate hit his head on the bathroom counter, there’s a lot of blood. he’s paraplegic… yes…”
jeongin barely registers seungmin’s voice barking out your address to the emergency dispatcher on the other end of his phone, arms wrapping around minho as the two slide down the wall. minho is holding jeongin close to him, shielding his eyes from the sight of you and chan on the ground with crimson pooling around the eldest’s feet.
wailing sounds of sirens sound off in the distance, slowly growing louder with each passing second minho stares at you.
in a world of soulmates, how will you find all 8 of yours? will they accept you despite your flaws?
you chuckled as you watch your new friends search for you amongst the various kiosks and shops your local outdoor mall had to offer. chan and minho were stood off to the side absolutely fuming at them.
you hadn’t slept very well the night before this - your body temperature was either too hot or too cold while your thoughts raced with a mix of your own and another soulmate’s. another soulmate being touched in… intimate places on your torso didn’t help either while a fourth listened to some sort of music you couldn’t quite place.
the lack of sleep mixed with the fall chill in the air had created the perfect scenario for you to fall sleep in your wheelchair while you waited for hyunjin and felix to get out of the changing rooms in dior. when you woke up, you realized very quickly that your friends had abandoned you. under normal circumstances, you would have been mad and left for home already whilst sending an irrate text. instead you were feeling mischievious, so you had moved yourself to the opposite end of the mall and decided to wait. it had taken maybe 45 minutes before you heard the telltale signs of chan scolding his soulmates while they searched for you, minho soon joining in.
“i can’t believe you lost the wheelchair user of all people!” chan scolds, tapping his fingers angrily on his bicep.
“if you don’t find him in the next hour, you guys are gonna get lost next,” minho threatens, hands on his hips.
you, on the other hand, are sat at the top of a hill to watch six of your friends run around frantically looking for you while chan and minho are stood off to the side like angry parents monitoring their ill mannered children as they clean up their mess.
‘fuck, he’s gonna kill me if we don’t find yn,’ one of your soulmate’s thoughts flashes into your mind. your breath hitched at your name in their head, panic settling into your bones at the context of what your soulmate thought and the events currently transpiring before you. is one of your soulmates one of your 8 new friends?
you’re quick to take a deep breath before your head begins to race. you’d need to test this theory and, fortunately, this is the perfect opportunity. you rummage through your backpack until you find a sharpie, taking the cap of it off with your teeth. rolling up the sleeve of your hoodie, you press the inked tip to your forearm and begin to write. “hwang hyunjin.” that was so fucking stupid, why did you write one of their names?! now they’re gonna know it was you! sure enough, you watch hyunjin stop and a surprised expression blooms onto his sharp features. he quickly calls over the nearest of his soulmates - jisung - and the begin to talk frantically.
you watch as jisung excitedly hugs hyunjin and hyunjin reciprocates it. you’re shocked when you feel the pressure of someone hugging you as well, but there’s still two more trials left…
you’re rummaging around in your backpack again and pull out your headphones, placing them over your ears and quickly hitting play on a random song in your spotify playlist. you quickly turn the volume up and watch as chan’s foot and fingers start tapping along to the beat of it, subconsciously stopping when you pause the song. you do this a few more times to confirm before it’s time for the final test.
you raise your hand and smack your arm hard enough to cause pain, eyes darting between 8 boys frantically. minho hisses slightly, shaking out the same arm you had just smacked. chan turned to him with a teasing smile, lips moving as if he were saying something but the ringing in your ears is distracting you too much to make it out. then a thought comes to you: you can’t feel your legs, but can minho?
your body moves before you can even process anything else, fingers pinching at your calf as hard as you can. minho yelps at how hard you pinch and you feel like you want to vomit. you’re on the verge of a panic attack - you need to be anywhere, but here. so you move. shaking hands grip the wheels of your chair and manuver you to a more secluded area of the mall.
everything is a blur. you don’t remember calling jooyeon and junhan to explain the situation, but they’re at your side in what feels like seconds of hanging up with you. in reality, it was likely upwards of 30 minutes or more. tears are streaming down your face at this point. junhan takes your hand and jooyeon begins to steer your wheelchair towards his van. you think you hear your phone ringing from somewhere in your pocket, but you’re too focused on breathing with junhan to care.
the ringing doesn’t stop though.
“yn, can you take your phone out of your pocket and hand it to me please?” junhan coaxes you once you’re calm enough. you nod and fish it out, not looking at the caller id in fear of having another panic attack. you force yourself to tune out the conversation entirely as well.
“yn! finally! i’m so sorry we left you in dior! you looked so tired most of this morning and we didn’t want to disturb your sleep but then we got distracted and we’re sorry! please come back!” the person on the other line doesn’t wait for junhan to speak before they’re rambling at him.
“sorry, this isn’t yn. this is his friend junhan,” the guitarist explains.
“oh,” the boy on the other end sounds disappointed, “uh, is yn okay?”
junhan’s eyes drift to where you sit in the passenger, zoned out with trails of dried tears staining your cheeks. “he’s safe, no thanks to you guys.” jooyeon shoots him a stern look in the rearview mirror as if to warn him not to make things worse. junhan moves to the very back of the van in response.
“whats that supposed to mean?” another voice practically growls at junhan.
“minho, chill out,” a third voice warns. they’ve put him on speaker, great.
“listen closely because i’m not gonna repeat this again - one of you has his own name written on his left arm right now. yn has it as well just above his wrist,” junhan snaps and the boys on the other line go silent, “one of you can hear music playing softly right now, should be Too Sweet by Hozier. two years ago, one of you felt pain from the waist down. you think this shit is all coincidence?” junhan forces himself to take a deep breath when jooyeon’s eyes meet his again.
“yn doesn’t want to have soulmates,” junhan whispers into the phone, “so stay away from him.” before anybody can respond, junhan has already hung up.
eight men stare at the phone in hyunjin’s left hand, chests pounding while a few eyes stare at the blank ink on his wrist. felix is the first to break, sobs muffled by his hands while his shoulders shake. hyunjin’s eyes water as he pulls felix close to his chest. minho already has jisung pulled into his chest and chan is ushering them all towards the cars with a heavy heart.
you were just a quiet college kid looking out for your friends, so why is your past haunting you like a ghost three years later?
“ynie?” felix slurs beside you with a second drink now replacing the first, “ynie?! hellooooo? is you in there?”
“yes, lix?” you respond, shifting on your feet a bit uncomfortably. the fuck is wrong with you tonight?
“you’re not gon’ drink with me?” he pouts.
“not tonight, hun,” you chuckle, reaching a tentative hand up to pat felix’s head, “someone’s gotta keep an eye on you and jisung to make sure nobody steals our sunshine twins.”
a drunken gasp escapes past felix’s lips while his unoccupied hand covers them dramatically, “noooo, not me and sungie!”
“yeah, don’t want the two twinks to end up captured and turned into twunks by all the gym bros around,” seungmin quips, suddenly appearing at your side.
“speaking of, what’s the vibe of his new friends?” you nod over to where seungmin had left jisung in the group of guys.
the literature student next to you leans a bit closer to your ear, his voice coming out in a whisper low enough for just you to hear, “the one with the blonde streak in his hair? he was counting a bunch of money of the counter behind him and i highly doubt it was from any legal source.”
you chuckle at seungmin’s naivety, “seungmin, you realize jisung convinced you to drive us all to the best illegal street racing rings in korea, right?”
seungmin stands there, his mind now being the one to short circut when your words hit him. you chuckle and shake your head - this kid was probably the smartest out of all of your tiny group of friends, but you enjoyed his brief moments of stupidity. your hand is quick to ruffle seungmin’s hair and he whips around to scold you about it only to stop when he realizes you’re suddenly locked in on something on the other side of the bar.
there’s a woman there uncomfortably scrunched between the bar top and a guy who clearly can’t take a hint, his strong arms caging her beneath him. the guy moves his face closer to the woman’s ear and whispers something that makes her face twist in disgust. seungmin turns to say something to you, but finds the spot beside him suddenly empty.
“dammit,” seungmin hisses beneath his breath, dark eyes scanning the vicinity for you. he spots you just as you make it over to the couple, the woman is now attempting to get out of the man’s grasp only for his hand to latch onto her wrist painfully. she lets out a shriek when he pulls her closer to him, a grin spreading onto the man’s face. his expression quickly darkens when he feels liquid flowing down his head and shoulders, turning to find you with a now empty beer glass held over his head. everyone in the crowd seems to quiet down when they see what’s happening.
“sorry,” you say flatly, “i tripped.”
a growl eminates from the man’s chest in front of you as he stands to his full 6’ 2” height and you know now you may have picked the wrong man to piss off. “tripped?” the man hisses at you, “you poured your drink on me.”
your eyes flicker over to the girl beneath your baseball cap, watching her friends quickly grab her arm and usher her over to them with a whisper of her name, before they return to the man in front of you. your silence seems to piss the man off further as he growls and steps closer to you, “what? cat got your tongue?”
his face is inches from yours now, eyes shooting daggers when you smirk. “listen, dude, unless you’re gonna make out with me, you need to back up,” you quip at him, head tilting to the side in a taunting manner.
the crowd around you lets out whoops and hollars of amusement at your firey words. one boy closest to the man in front of you punches his arm playfully, “he got you good, mingyu!”
the man - mingyu - now steps back from you with red ears, growling in frustration at you. he goes to open his mouth to retort, “fuck you.”
you roll your eyes from beneath your hat, arms crossing over your chest, “sorry, man, you’re not my type.” the crowd around you howls with laughter and mingyu looks like he’s ready to swing at you before a wicked smirk spreads on his face.
“alright, tough guy,” mingyu chuckles, darkly, “let’s see if your driving is as fast as your mouth-.”
“i think you should ask your mom how fast my mouth is.” you feel a glare from somewhere in the laughing crowd from seungmin - you may have taken that last one too far, but mingyu had dangled it in front of you. how could you not take that opportunity?
“race me!” mingyu suddenly roars over the laughter. immediately everybody quiets down and your smirk is wiped off your face - how the fuck are you gonna get out of this now?
“race me!” mingyu declares again, “i’m issuing you a challenge - race me!”
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