Kyungsoo was awoken by muffled chatter. His eyes stung from the bright surroundings and his cheeks were streaked with dried tears. He shielded his face from the light and rolled onto his back.

“Kyungsoo?” he heard Jongin softly call from the other side of the room.

Kyungsoo stretched and sat up, his eyes still closed. He felt the canopy dip beside him, then a hand gently caressing his cheek. He opened his eyes to see Jongin sitting beside him, a concerned look on his face. “Did you sleep well?” he asked in almost a whisper.

Kyungsoo nodded slowly, leaning into Jongin’s hand. Jongin pulled the smaller into a gentle embrace and they sat there, taking in each other’s presence.

Kyungsoo really appreciated that Jongin wasn’t asking questions. Considering the state Kyungsoo was in the night before, the answer was pretty obvious, but still Jongin didn’t mention any of it. Instead he gave a silent reassurance, and that meant a lot.

Jongin ran his fingers through the shorter’s soft hair, “Let’s get you cleaned up so we can go help the others, ok?” He helped Kyungsoo out of bed and went to get him warm water for a bath.

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Jongin drew a nice warm bath for Kyungsoo and helped him clean his back and hair. The water felt so refreshing against his skin, with Jongin using a towelette to softly scrub his back.

Kyungsoo brought a handful of water up to his face and washed away the events from the day before. He was cleansing himself from the emotions and starting a new day, fresh.

Jongin ran his fingers through Kyungsoo’s hair and massaged his scalp with an aromatic soap. Kyungsoo leaned into his hands and almost fell asleep from the calming scent. Jongin was so gentle and it made Kyungsoo blush when he realized how much skin he had exposed.

After drying up, Kyungsoo got dressed in a simple blue and white striped shirt with some jeans to go out and help the pack with whatever daily task they had. After the bath, Kyungsoo felt a lot better and much more awake.

Since it was morning, the first task was to help make breakfast. The alphas came first because they had to leave for hunting soon after. Tao seemed surprised to see Kyungsoo.

“You’re up early,” he said in the middle of cutting vegetables.

Kyungsoo picked up a knife and some other vegetables and started cutting as well, “I wanted to help out,” he shrugged.

“I would say I’m surprised to see you here at all, but I heard what happened.”

Kyungsoo froze. Tao noticed this and was quick to correct himself.

“Not all of it, I just heard about you coming here. Are you alright?”

Kyungsoo slowly began cutting again. He knew he could trust Tao and that the other would listen, so he shouldn’t be so worried. “I’m ok. I’ll just be staying here for a while,” he smiled softly to the taller. Tao smiled back and they changed the topic, continuing with breakfast preparations.

They made a few omelets for the alphas to quickly eat before leaving for the hunt. With an extra hand in the kitchen, they were able to make many in a short amount of time. Once the alphas were fed, they all changed into wolf form and took off.

Of course, Jongin didn’t forget to give his mate a kiss before leaving him.

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With the alpha’s gone, there wasn’t much else to do at the camp. Kyungsoo contemplated visiting Suho’s house, but he worried that his parents might be there. He decided to collect flowers from a nearby opening in the forest, to distract himself.

Once he got there, he immediately found bundles of colorful flowers that caught his eye. The air smelled of all different kinds of flowers--Kyungsoo decided he’d make some fragrance or candles for the pack later.

While loading his basket with flowers, he heard a rustle in the bushes behind him. He brushed it off as just the wind and continued looking at the flowers. Then, the sound came again.

“Jongin?” He didn’t think the alphas would be back so soon. He braved a look at where the sound came from. As he got closer, the rustling stopped.

“Hello?” he called one more time, and before he could take another step closer, suddenly something launched out from behind the bush, startling Kyungsoo. He gave a surprised yelp and jumped back from the bush, his eyes shutting instinctively.

He stood like that for a moment, waiting. But nothing happened.

When he opened his eyes, there in front of him was a small white bunny with droopy ears, staring up at him. Sighing in relief, Kyungsoo began to feel silly for being so scared of the small creature. He kneeled down and smiled at the bunny.

“Hi little guy! You gave me a scare for a second there,” he chuckled to himself. The bunny just sat and stared at Kyungsoo with big black eyes. He fished in his pockets for something to give the bunny, and found a few small cookies he had packed when he left home. He held out a cookie towards the bunny, letting it sniff him first.

The bunny slowly sniffed closer until it could reach the cookie and started to nibble on it. The creature let Kyungsoo pet it while finishing the cookie.

Afterwards, Kyungsoo stood up and began making his way home, bidding a farewell to the bunny. But the creature had another idea.

As Kyungsoo walked back through the flowers, he heard the soft sound of leaves shuffling closer to him. When he turned around the bunny was right at his heels. “I don’t have any more food to give you, little guy,” He chuckled and kept walking.

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For a while the walk was quiet, with the occasional wind shaking the trees and birds chirping. Kyungsoo counted the flowers he had collected and wondered if the alphas had returned yet. Suddenly, he heard a squeak from somewhere. He looked around, but couldn’t see where the sound could have come from.

Then he looked down at a nearby tree and saw the bunny from earlier. It had somehow gotten stuck in an uplifted tree root, and was trying to wiggle free. Kyungsoo quickly ran over and pushed the tree root and freed the small creature who then sat and stared up at Kyungsoo like earlier. “You’re still following me? Don’t you have a home to return to?” Kyungsoo pet the rabbit.

He started walking again, then abruptly stopped. Kyungsoo chuckled--the bunny had tried to follow him and ended up bumping into his heels from the sudden stop. “You like me this much?” he picked up the small animal, “Maybe I’ll keep you as a pet.”

Once he reached the camp, he grabbed a couple carrots from the cooler of veggies and went to the tent to play with the animal.

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A few moments later, the alphas returned from hunting. As they put their catch away, Jongin smelled something strange.

“Hey, Chanyeol, do you smell that?”

Chanyeol sniffed the air, “That’s an unfamiliar scent. Only Kyungsoo came right?”

Suddenly, they heard a deep yell from Jongin’s tent. “Kyungsoo!” Jongin immediately ran towards their tent tearing the flap open to see Kyungsoo on the floor with a hand raised protectively. On top of him was a man with long drooping bunny ears and a tail. They both looked up at Jongin--Kyungsoo with a look of horror and the man with a look of surprise. The man smiled and waved, “Ah, hello-”

He was cut off when Jongin lunged across the room, grabbing him by the neck and pulling him off of the smaller. He was furious.

“Who are you and what did you do to my Kyungsoo?!” His claws began to protract as his wolf took over. The man started to look nervous as the claws poked his skin, “I-I don’t mean harm,” he spoke in a soft voice. This didn’t convince Jongin however and the wolf growled at the man.

“I don’t trust you! What were you doing to Kyungsoo!?” The man struggled in his grip and suddenly there was hand placed on Jongin’s shoulder. He turned around to see Kyungsoo who spoke soothingly, “Jongin, he didn’t do anything, I’m fine.”

“What if he did do something? Can we trust him?”

“Maybe we should let him explain himself, then.”

Jongin looked into Kyungsoo’s calming eyes and his claws contracted, his grip slowly loosening on the man’s neck. The man gasped for air, “Th-thank you.” Kyungsoo blushed when he remembered the man was , “We should get him covered first.”

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For the time being, they decided to cover him in a blanket while they introduced each other.

“So who are you?” Kyungsoo asked, with Jongin’s arm protectively wrapped around him.

The man stood and bowed respectively, his large ears falling in front of his face, “My name is Zhang Yixing. I come from a rare species of bunny hybrid, but I lost my colony a while back.” He spoke softly.

“So why did you follow Kyungsoo?” Jongin asked, now calm but still suspicious.

The man bowed again, “ I deeply apologize for startling you. I was actually trying to find new herbs I could use for medicines, but it gets a little lonely. I wanted to make a friend, but I guess I took the wrong approach, I’m sorry.”

“Medicine?” Jongin cocked his head to the side.

YIxing nodded and smiled, a deep dimple forming on his cheek. “I was a healer in my colony. I know about all the different types of herbs--good and bad--for healing and treatment.”

“Wow~ that’s cool,” Kyungsoo spoke up, “It’s nice to meet you Yixing, I’m Do Kyungsoo and this is Kim Jongin. I’m human and he’s a werewolf.”

“I’m his mate,” the mentioned quickly added.

Yixing chuckled and bowed his head, “Nice to meet you as well.”

“Can we trust you Yixing?” Jongin was back to interrogating him.

“I promise, I have no ill intentions. If I’m an inconvenience to your pack, then I will leave if you wish.”

Jongin looked at Kyungsoo and they seemed to have a silent conversation before he turned back, “You’ll have to talk to the leader. I think a healer would be a great addition to the pack.”

For the nth time that day Yixing bowed, “Thank you! Where can I find them?”

The two led Yixing to Kris and Tao’s shared tent. Jongin stepped in first to explain the situation to their leaders before having Yixing go inside to meet them and discuss.

“Hyung, we have a visitor,”

“Who is it? This unfamiliar scent has been in the air for quite some time now.” Tao greeted the younger kindly.

“He’s a bunny hybrid that lost his colony and needs a place to stay.”

Kris furrowed his eyebrows, “A bunny? And why would we need him?”

“He says he was a healer in his group and that he knows the herbs very well for making medicines. I don’t believe we have a proper doctor in the pack.”

Tao turned to Kris and nodded, “He’s right. We’ve been here for so long yet we don’t even have proper treatment.” He turned to Jongin, “Please bring him in, I’d love to meet him.”

Kyungsoo and Jongin decided to wait near the tent until Yixing came back out. Their conversation sounded light and happy and after a while Yixing came out--now clothed-- with both Kris and Tao following behind. Yixing bounced happily when he saw Jongin and Kyungsoo, “I can stay!” They all smiled. Yixing pulled the two into a hug, “I don’t know how I can repay you two for helping me,” he said.

Kyungsoo chuckled, “Welcome to the family, Yixing.”

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Avonelle_Exo-L: Thank you so much for being patient with us! There's just so much going on these days. We'll get started on the next chapter as soon as we can, so I hope you enjoy this one! ❤️❤️❤️