Her fingers were stiff, curled into nervous fists by her sides. As friendly as Suho appeared, how on earth could she just let him lead her into a pack’s den where she knew eleven other wolves were waiting?

            And yet, that’s exactly what she was doing. His hand was on her shoulder, a light and weightless touch, but it was there nonetheless. “Don’t be so scared.” Suho whispered. He was smiling softly, as if he was completely comfortable in the situation.

            Truthfully, Suho was just as confused as everyone else. Why on earth was a Fey being forced to live with them? There were questions upon questions running through his mind, but there was something that he deemed more important. He could smell the fear rolling off this poor girl, the nervousness and apprehension and unless he was mistaken there was a touch of loneliness in the stiff set of her shoulders. Almost as if she’d spent too many days looking over them to see if there was anyone coming after her, or coming for her at all.

            And Suho, being the motherly sap that he was, couldn’t let her just wallow by herself. If she was stuck with them as it seemed she was, they might as well all get along. Also, as the ‘unofficial second Alpha’ of his pack, he deemed it his job to do all of the things that Kris had no interest in.

            Dangerous group of monsters charging their way? That was all Kris’ work.

            Poor terrified fey girl showing up in their backyard? That was Suho’s territory.

“Ready?” he asked her, giving her a comforting squeeze on the shoulder. Without really waiting for a response (because honestly, the more she waited the more she would imagine salivating angry wolves trying to attack her) he opened the door to the house and led her inside.

As Suho shut the door behind her, Kitaria stood rooted to the spot. She was in some kind of large open living room full of mismatched furniture and too many chairs. Oh yeah, and far too many werewolves for her to take another step.

            It was almost like a standoff, with her on one side and eleven wolves on the other. A glance behind her told her that Suho had left. A clink of china registered in her mind but she was more focused on what was in front of her.

            “So what’s your name again?” One of the wolves asked her

            “Luhan!” The boy beside him chastised his friend, who ignored him.

            “What? I’m just trying to ease the atmosphere! Smell her, she’s terrified!”

            “You can’t just-”

            “Kitaria.” She in, the two bickering wolves falling silent.   

            “Kitaria.” ‘Luhan’ tried her name out, nodding absent-mindedly, “it’s pretty.”

            “It suits you.” Another one said, winking playfully at her.

            “Chen!” Another wolf whacked him on the back of his head and ‘Chen’ scowled at him, somehow still looking like he was smiling.

            As the wolves began to mutter amongst themselves Kitaria locked eyes with Kris who was lounging against a windowsill. Almost as if he’d been waiting for the moment, he pushed himself off the wall and took a few confident steps towards her.

            The other wolves fell silent behind him.

            “Why were you brought here?” He asked, his alpha eyes boring into her and pinning her to the spot.

            “I… er… stole something and they erm… can’t find it. So I’m supposed to stay here until they do. I think.” She wanted to look away, wanted to hide from his intimidating gaze. Behind him she saw a tall wolf pointing at Kris and snickering with Chen and another wolf.

            “You’re a thief?” Kris’ eyebrows raised and wrinkled his brow. This scared little Fey is a criminal?

            But Kitaria shook her head, “no! I just wanted to look at it for a second, but they wouldn’t let me and I had no other choice so…”

            “What was it?” The tall wolf at the back had stopped his snickering enough to ask the question, and Kris’ sharp gaze seemed to have no effect on him. “Had to have been pretty important for you to risk so much for it.”

            Pretty important. What an understatement. This was the one thing that she had hoped would explain her future, her destiny, it was the one thing that could have held an explanation for why she was such a failure at what was supposed to be simple. But it wasn’t like the wolves would understand, it wasn’t their world.

            So she just supplied, “Fey stuff.”

            The tall wolf nodded understandingly as if that was actually an acceptable explanation, but Kris’ eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Is it dangerous?”

            She could understand his question. As alpha of his pack it was his job to determine if she was a threat, if she was someone he needed to watch out for.

            “No, it’s not.” She replied, and then after another moment she continued in a small voice, “it’s completely useless.” She remembered the moment she’d held it, and the way her expectations had crashed around her, swallowing her in disappointment that even the presence of the guards couldn’t shake.

            “Aw Hyung you made her sad!” Again it was the tall wolf to speak. His face that had previously been one big smile was now troubled. He stepped forward, jumping over the couch to take two long steps towards her.

            “Chanyeol-” Kris’ tone was obviously a warning, but it was deftly ignored as Chanyeol wrapped his arms around her in a hug. A warm hug, who knew that werewolves ran so hot? But somehow, the heat was pushing away the memories of her lingering disappointment. Sure, they were replaced with a little uncomfortableness and uneasiness at being hugged by a creature that she had always been told was bloodthirsty, but there was an underlying layer of comfort as the tall wolf squeezed her one last time before stepping back, his arm slinging over her shoulder. He turned to face Kris and the rest of his pack, his face once again beaming. “See, she’s all better!”

            Kris shook his head at his beta’s optimistic nature and turned his head to hide the smile fighting to show. He had to keep up appearances in front of the Fey, at least until they figured out if she was actually dangerous. He walked away, trusting the other wolves to keep an eye on her. Actually, he knew that there was no way they were going to stop pestering her any time soon, and he figured that was as good a way as any to test what kind of patience and self-control she had.

            Then a thought struck him and he turned back to his wolves one last time, walking towards the three that he had in mind. He kept his voice low, hoping that the fey didn’t have hearing on par with wolves.

            “You three keep your distance, we don’t know enough about her yet.”

            “Aw but-”

            “Do it.” His eyes didn’t have to flash alpha red, the three maknae’s knew better than to go against him when he was this serious. As Kris walked away one final time he felt better about his decision. Tao, Kai, and Sehun were the youngest of his pack, the most impressionable, and if there were any of them that could be swayed by magic Kris would place his bet on those three.

            He found Suho in the study looking through the bookcase.  

            “Anything?”

            Suho shook his head, “there’s no way they’d leave information about their own here.”

            Kris growled, “I don’t like this, we don’t know enough about the fey. We don’t even know if she can use magic!”

            “Well we know she’s not lying about being here on a punishment, one of us would have noticed that, so I don’t think she’s here to do us harm.”

            Kris shook his head, Suho’s words made sense but he was still uneasy. “I’m going to talk to some of the other border packs, maybe one of them will know something.”

            Back downstairs, Kitaria certainly was being put to the test. Almost as soon as Kris had left the room the wolves had scrambled forward to converge on her. She’d found herself surrounded by a set of very touchy and very curious wolves who seemed to have no knowledge of personal space. They were touching her hair, her hands, the back of her neck, one of them even leaned close to sniff her, then his big eyes met hers and he jumped back.

            “Guys back off, she’s scared again.”

            They all jumped back in unison, Chen and his friend managing to trip over one another and end in a heap on the ground. Chanyeol laughed at the state of his friends but still moved forward to help them up.

            The one who’d moved back first was still in front of her, “You ok there? Try and calm down, your heart’s beating a little fast.” He smiled at her, a bit unsurely, but soon enough Kitaria felt herself calm down.

            “Sorry I was just startled-” She tried to apologise, please tell me I didn’t offend them, I don’t want to start this being on bad terms-

            The boy held his hands up, “It’s our fault, we were thoughtless. Let’s try again, I’m D.O.” He held out his hand and Kitaria shook it awkwardly, still not used to the heat that seemed to radiate from them.

            “I’m Chen.”

            “I’m Chanyeol!”

“I’m Baekhyun!”

            “I’m Luhan!”

            “I’m Chanyeol!”

            And suddenly they were all jumping in front to introduce themselves, so enthusiastic that Kitaria couldn’t stop herself from laughing a little, getting swept up by their atmosphere. She focused on remembering each of their names, and the little features that would help her recognise each one.

            Cat eyes, Xiumin.

            Far-off expression, Lay.

             Giant who wouldn’t stop talking and kept re-introducing himself, Chanyeol.

            Then she noticed that she was only talking to 7 wolves. Kris and Suho had left earlier, so that left three more somewhere…

            And then she saw them, standing to the side and watching with curiosity. Even without knowing them she could tell that they were itching to join in with the rest of their pack.

            “Ah, Kita, meet our little youngsters.” Chen looped his arm around her neck and steered her to look at the three wolves.

            “Kita?” She asked in surprise, no one had ever shortened her name.

            “Kitaria’s too long, it’s like, 4 syllables!” He whined at her, and then turned back to his introductions. “This is Tao, he looks pretty intimidating but he can’t even shower alone.”

            Tao looked indignant, like he was about to retort but Chen had already moved on.

            “This is Sehun, he’s our little baby, even if he doesn’t look it.” Kita ad to admit he was right, Sehun looked older than many of the other ‘older’ wolves crowded around her. Although beyond that impressive poker face there was hint of mischievousness in his eyes that rang of a younger brother.

            “And this is Kai. Don’t worry, he’s just a little shy.” Kita felt a familiar pull in her chest, like something was tingling just underneath her ribs. She knew that feeling, she’d been hiding it for years, she’d never expected to find it out here, especially in a wolf.

            Chen was idly talking away, chattering on about something, and she could tell that Kai was getting uncomfortable under her open gaze, but she couldn’t help herself.

            Somehow, even through the shortages and the Fey’s hunts for anyone who possessed it, Kai had magic and had kept it hidden.

            Until now.   

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I’m thinking of trying to update twice a week (probably a little ambitious for me but go big or go home right?), so probably Wednesdays and Saturdays, so see you then!