Tonight was the night. Taehyung had been preparing for this, training, honing his skills. Tonight, he could finally show off. Jungkook wouldn’t be the golden one anymore, no sir; Taehyung was going to show everyone in the pack that he was better, stronger, faster, and more fearless than anyone ever was at his stage.
It’d been a daunting task trying to grow accustom to this whole howling at the full moon business, but Taehyung’s doing pretty good (in his mind anyways). Jimin, his lifelong best friend, had been the one to turn him. When Jimin had revealed his secret to Taehyung, the latter would never stop bugging him about his new found lycanthropy. Jimin didn’t mind though, he knew that with Taehyung came along an overly curious mind.
Ever since Jimin turned him into a werewolf, Taehyung found a new sense of family. His pack was his home away from home (except his home was very far away, considering he was at university abroad), and a place he felt like he was a part of something. With his surrogate mother and father Seokjin and Namjoon, his grumpy uncle Yoongi, his happy virus Hoseok, his better half Jimin, and his little brother Jungkook, he felt warmth and safety that was tenfold anything he’d ever felt. They were his family. His. He had found his calling, and it couldn’t have felt more incredible.
And tonight he would prove to them he was capable of this. Namjoon and Yoongi were the ones in charge of training the pups, and they always told Taehyung he wasn’t ready. Tonight, he would be able to run free with them, twist through the trunks, leap over grown roots and fallen down trees, see his family, his brothers, pound their paws against the ground as the wind ran through their fur.
Free.
A freedom that Taehyung’s heart longed for ever since he’d become one of them. The instinct to run whenever the moon was out proved to be difficult to resist. And that was his first lesson. Control. The one thing his wolf didn’t want was to be controlled. Every full moon since he was turned 7 months ago, Namjoon and Yoongi would chain him down in the large basement of the pack house while he ripped his skin raw trying to escape the iron the clasped around his wrists, that tied him back to the reinforced wall behind him.
It was tiring, but slowly Taehyung learned how to control the urge that told him to destroy everything in front of him. He learned to push down his wolf, to control. And he was finally given the okay from his mentors to be allowed on the run in the light of the full moon.
Now, stood at the barrier between the home he knew and the home his wolf knew, he felt the crawling in his skin telling him that his wolf was itching the go; to run. He barely caught the words that Namjoon said to the pack before he gave the signal to shift.
“Remember: stick together. Don’t let anyone leave your sight. Don’t wonder off.”
Shifting with his pack was very, very different from shifting inside the training room. This was exhilarating. Fully shifted into his wolf form, he looked around at everyone. His eyes picked up things more clearly in the dark, far better than his human eyes could. The pelts of his pack ranged from black and grey to a beautiful rusty rouge (that belonged to none other than his best friend). His own fur, according to the members who’d seen him shifted in the training room, was shiny silver with a dusting of white; as if the moon itself was embedded in his genes. He glanced over to Namjoon, saw his nod, and bolted off, Jimin and Jungkook a few paces behind him.
It felt good to be on all fours in the open. He navigated the woods like he knew them by heart, even though this was his first time ever being inside the forest that was behind the house. The pack house was down a deserted road with no other occupants for miles. The perfect place to raise a family of wolves.
In this moment, Taehyung truly felt himself let go. He howled along with his brothers to the full moon; the wolf’s moon. The night air was chilly, but nothing was getting through the thick silver fur that encased his body. He felt secure in his skin, or rather, in this version of his skin. He heard the pack pounding on the ground in his ears, almost as loud as his heart but not quite. Everything was enhanced.
And he loved it.
He heard the pounding of his pack get quieter and the howling get louder from behind him, but it was all still so distant. Just a whisper compared to his heart thumping. Like how the higher up you go, the small the ground looks.
Before he even knew what was happening, Taehyung was alone. He’d broken his leader’s rule: he split from the pack. Worried, he sniffed around to try and catch someone from the group, anyone. But he quickly realized he wasn’t ready for that. He hadn’t learned how to pick up scents from so far away. In a panic, Taehyung howled towards the navy night sky. Maybe they’d hear him, and he could find them. Like a game of Marco Polo, except this time he needed to find them.
No such luck.
He heard it; just in the distance the howls of his pack in reply to his own. Too faint to pick up its origin, never mind a direction.
He tried again.
Again, a faint reply.
And again.
And again.
Again.
He stopped. He needed to think of his possibilities.He didn’t know these woods as well as his wolf made him think. He didn’t hunt out here in his training yet (that came afterwards), and he’d only heard of certain landmarks from Hoseok and Seokjin when they shared their knowledge with the younger wolves.
He was lost. Afraid.
His heart had slowed down at this point, and the quiet night air swallowed him whole. Suddenly his heightened hearing and smell were no use to him. He couldn’t even find his way back home.He huffed out a sigh. It wasn’t until that moment that he realized how tired he actually was. He wasn’t used to this physical work; he never came close to running while training. Sure, he got to walk around (and maybe run a little bit) in the houses yard, but like this?
Never.
How long had they even been out here? Minutes? Hours? Taehyung felt like it was the latter, considering they left at dusk when the sun had just finished setting and now the sky was full of stars and almost a little bit lighter than before. It made him a little less panicky, because with a lighter sky meant morning was closer, and that meant an easier time finding the way home.
And that is how Taehyung found himself wondering around the woods aimlessly. He decided that while he was out here, might as well make use of the time and explore a little. Still in his furry coat, he walked around the woods while keeping an eye (or in this case nose and ears) out for any signs of home and his pack.
They must be looking for him. They wouldn’t just leave a fresh wolf out here… Or would they? To be honest, this was the perfect time for Taehyung to use new skills and figure things out for himself, which is something they preach about back in training. He can just imagine it now: Jimin wanting to look for him while Namjoon denies him. Jimin always worried about him, even more than Seokjin.
In the end, maybe tonight wasn’t his night. He’s accepted that. But tonight is a good night for a stroll around the woods, especially at this time of year. It was starting to lighten up too, so maybe it was nearing dawn. Trust Taehyung to find the silver lining to his poor situations. He was starting to really feel the exhaustion set into his bones now, making his steps fall harder and shorter apart. He sighed again, and then took a deep breath in.
What was that…scent?
He froze. His heart started to pick up again. Whatever it was, it was close by and it smelled incredibly pleasant. He took another deep breath in, and followed it. He continued like this, breathing in deeply and walking forward a few paces before he reached a sort of clearing.
There, right in front of him, stood a house. A typical house you read about in books that are in the middle of nowhere deep within a forest. Not his house, but the scent he had followed overwhelmed him now, and he couldn’t help but notice how it made him feel. He felt almost the same as he did at the house.
Safe.
He couldn’t help himself. He moved further into the yard, ignoring the fact that his body was yelling at him to rest. He failed to realise that he actually wasn’t moving very far with each step, signalling again that he was in no condition to be moving after the night he had. He wasn’t in the right physical shape for this.
But still he walked and walked and walked…Until his vision went black and he passed out onto the grass.
Now, what Taehyung didn’t seem to remember in his dazed, exhausted state were these four things.
When you see a house, generally speaking people live in it. Especially if it has a scent.
People aren’t used to seeing people passed out in their yard.
When you shift, you are naked. Wolves don’t magically form clothes. That’s just stupid.
You don’t stay in your wolf form while you sleep if you have not trained yourself to do so.
And herein lies Taehyung’s problem. He had just passed out in someone’s yard, as a wolf, who hadn’t had proper training for staying as a wolf while asleep.
Being woken up by the screams of someone who is 100% definitely a female isn’t very pleasant.
Being woken up by the screams of said female who finds you laying in her yard naked, is even more so.
Taehyung jolted awake at the noise and jumped up, ready to run, or walk or something. Taehyung however had forgotten about his current clothing state, which led to more screaming by the female mentioned. Taehyung quickly covered himself with his hands and shouted.
“I’M REALLY SORRY ABOUT THIS BUT CAN YOU PLEASE STOP SCREAMING I’VE JUST BEEN WOKEN UP AND I SERIOUSLY DON’T APPRECIATE IT.”
That seemed to get the female’s attention because she stopped, red-faced with a stunned expression gracing her features. She opened her mouth and closed it a few times before shouting back at Taehyung, who was still standing in her yard completely naked.
“I FEEL LIKE I HAVE THE RIGHT TO SCREAM! I JUST FOUND A NAKED DUDE IN MY YARD. AT 7 IN THE MORNING.”
Taehyung looked at her, his head tilted to the side.
“Who the fuck wakes up at 7 in the morning, especially on a Saturday?”
She huffed. Clearly he wasn’t seeing the issue at hand.
“I don’t really think that’s the main problem here, considering you’re the one who was woken up naked in a stranger’s lawn at 7 in the morning.”
Taehyung nodded his head in agreement. He couldn’t really compete with that.
“Speaking of which… Why are you naked in a stranger’s lawn at 7 in the morning?”
Taehyung snapped out of the conversation then realising what he really needed to be doing.
“Again, I’m sorry about this, but I gotta get home so uh… see you later?”
And with that, he bolted back into the woods, leaving behind the girl who had drawn him in with the scent in the first place.
And Taehyung well…
He didn’t even know it
wowowow okay hi kids!!
this is admin Katie and this is my first official writing on this blog! I’m kinda nervous about posting this but since admin Jujube has been encouraging me I feel better about my writing
I hope you enjoyed this and let me know what you think! I may make this a lil series thing, so if you’d want that please please let me know. I also apologize if there are any spelling mistakes, I’m posting this while on mobile woops. But anyways!! Have a good day/night/week ^-^
