Pat lay there, listening to the strange sounds outside. ‘They have got to be some sort of a signal.’- she thought.

Though the curious cat in her urged her to go find out what it was, her sensible self did not let her do so. After a minute or two, the sound stopped suddenly. Pat shifted uncomfortably on the bed. All the servants were probably sleeping and the seven brothers were yet to come back. The house felt lonely and vulnerable without them.

Pat got out of the bed and walked over to the window. It was dark outside, the shadows of the trees enveloped the area and created a mystical effect. Her toes curled up as she stood there on the cold marble floor. She was feeling calm and peaceful until a huge shadow appeared in front of the window and slumped against the glass, leaving a trail of blood as it slowly slipped down.

Pat stepped back from the window, paralyzed with shock. She wasn’t afraid, just dumbfounded with the whole thing. The window was still closed and there were painful moans coming from the creature. She peered through the glass and saw a huge black wolf lying on the ground.  When it opened its eyes and looked at her, she was surprised with their familiarity. Pat hurriedly opened the window, climbed over to the other side and stepped into the cold night, the grass pricking at her bare feet. The wolf’s eyes followed her every move. She knelt beside it and looked at it intently. She was even more surprised when she realized that it was a werewolf. She went back into her room and returned with a blanket. Covering the shivering wolf with it, she whispered in its ear….”you can phase now”

Pat had a fair idea who it really was and was quite perplexed herself to be able to identify him by just looking at his eyes when all werewolves kind of had similar eyes.

His body changed and slowly he found his hands holding the blanket around himself. He clutched the girl’s sleeve and asked her hoarsely -”where is baekhyun?”

“He is not here…he went hunting with the others.”- Pat replied and he let go of her sleeve.

 He stared up at the girl who was now observing him with keen eyes.

 “Are you alright?”- She asked.

 “No, not really. Do you think you can help me?”- He managed.  He had lost a lot of blood already and he wasn’t healing up fast enough.

“ You are bleeding a lot.”- she said while helping him get up.

“ Yeah, I know.”- He replied while somehow managing to get through the window into the room. The room was strong with her aura and he felt at ease at once.

“I’ll go wake up the servants.”- she said but he stopped her.

“ Don’t. Please… I know you don’t even know me…hell, we haven’t even been introduced but please do me this one favor… don’t call anyone.”- he said, his eyes pleading.

“ but we’ve got to stop the bleeding”- she said, her eyebrows creased with worry.

“I know. Could you bring me a towel or something?”

She nodded and hurried over to the bathroom. He managed to get up and make it to the bathroom. He sat down on the floor and watched her as she brought the towels and knelt beside him to slowly dab on his wounds.

“no . not like that. Press firmly.”- he showed her how to do it and leaned back on the wall, wincing with pain.

She was genuinely worried for this stranger, at whom she had but only one glance before.

“could you bring me some clothes and some bandages?”- he asked, looking at her working with the towel  gingerly, avoiding touching his half body.

She nodded and left the bathroom to look for some clothes. She found  a loose pant that Kai had lent her before and some leftover bandages to the bathroom and sat down beside him.

“thanks”- he murmured and struggled with the towel.

“ do you need stitches?”- she asked.

“No. remember?.. I am a werewolf…I will heal up alright. I just need to clean the wounds.”

She helped him clean the cuts on his back, her fingers doing the work quite gracefully for an amateur like her. Though her nursing skills were poor and his beyond average, she still helped him wrap the gauze around the wound on his abdomen. The wounds were not cuts but deep slashes that could have been made only by claws. She was curious but kept shut from asking him about it. After all, she was a guest and had no right to ask around about their internal affairs.

“ Do you mind if I stay in your room until morning? I can take the couch.”- he asked.

“no its alright. You take the bed; I am fine with the couch.”- she offered. She then left him so that he could  change while she cleaned the mess of blood in the room.

He accepted to sleep on the bed and apologized for making her go through all that because of him.

“ don’t apologize. You guys had to go through a lot more because of me. I am grateful to you for letting me help.”- she said while making a makeshift bed for herself on the couch. He tugged himself under the cover and yawned.

“ by the way…. We haven’t even told each other our names.”- he said, smiling.

“well… I know yours.”- Pat said.

“ I know yours too but still…..”- he replied, trailing off.

“I am Pat.”

“hiii….Pat…I am chanyeol. Thanks for everything.”

“I should say that…thanks for everything”- pat said, smiling softly.

They  both went to sleep; one in bed, the other on the couch.

Pat couldn’t sleep of course…she was conscious of her heart beating, worried that chanyeol, being a werewolf,  would hear it.

He fell asleep as soon as he shut his eyes, too tired to think of anything.

Pat kept checking on him every hour. He was murmuring and in  his sleep. Pat could tell that he was having a nightmare.  She took a wet towel and wiped the sweat from his forehead, whispering….”shhh..shh… everything’s alright.”

That seemed to calm him down and so Pat sang.

Deep in the meadow, under the willow.

A bed of grass, a soft green pillow.

Lay down your head and close your eyes.

And when they open, the sun will rise.

Here it’s safe and here it’s warm.

Here the daisies guard you from every harm.

Deep in the meadow, hidden far away.

A cloak of green, a moon beam ray.

Forget your woes and let your troubles lay.

And when it’s morning, they will wash away.

Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true.

Here is the place where I love you……

The song was peaceful, her sweet voice ringing in chanyeol’s ears, helping him escape from the nightmare. He sighed in his sleep and slowly slipped into a deep, calm slumber.

---

 

Chanyeol woke up to the sound of a pen scratching on paper. He looked sideways and found Pat poring over a  notebook, her hands writing away with graceful speed. He put up his head on his elbow and stared at her. She didn’t even notice that he was  awake.

“you sing well.”- he said, finally breaking the silence.

Pat looked up from her diary and found Chanyeol gazing at her intently.

“I  don’t sing.”- she said.

“then what was that last night?”

“you were dreaming, I guess. I don’t sing at all.”- she replied and went back to her diary.

She heard him chuckle.

“sure you don’t”- he said sarcastically.

“you don’t believe me, do you?”

“of course, I do.”

Pat sighed, “believe what you want, I really have no say in that.”

She started writing again.

“what are you writing?”

“stuffs…”- she replied.

“stuffs like a guy barging into your room late at night asking for help?”

“pretty much.”- she said grinning.

“its eight o’ clock.”- she said after sometime. She couldn’t just ask him to leave the room.

“right. I should go. Can you not tell anyone about this whole thing?...not even my brothers?”- he asked.

Pat didn’t know what to say. She had no idea where her loyalties lied. After all, Suho was the pack leader, he was supposed to know everything. After a long moment , she finally said-

“sure, I won’t.  Are your wounds healed now?”

“yeah…probably.. I will have to check.”- he said and got out of the bed.

Pat hadn’t seen him clearly that night. Now, that the whole room was lit up with sunlight, his body outshone the posh furniture in the room. He truly looked angelic. The sunlight illuminated his body, throwing beautiful shadows on his light olive skin.

The muscles of his arms flexed as he unwound the bandage from his stomach. Once the bandage was gone, only a faint scar remained on his toned abs.

“good as new.”- chanyeol said throwing the bandage into the bin.

“ wow.. you guys can heal real fast.”- Pat said.

Chanyeol knew that it was only partially true. Werewolves healed fast  but he didn’t. All the drugs, made it difficult for his body to close up the wounds and he knew it very well.

“ yea, we do.”- he said in a small voice, feeling guilty for lying

“can I use the bathroom?”- he asked before Pat could ask something about it.

“sure. You will be needing proper clothes, right?”

“yeah…that would be great. Gaein would be here with your breakfast soon. She better not see me here. I will have to go out and come through the front door again, not jump in  through another window.”

Pat nodded in agreement and said- “ I don’t really have clothes that would fit you. So….”

“my room’s second from the left on the first floor. There’s a duffel bag under the bed. If you could get that……”

“I will go. Don’t worry.”- Pat said and went out. She climbed the stairs  after making sure that there was no one around. Luckily the stairs didn’t creak and she safely reached the first floor. Pat found the door to chanyeol’s bedroom. There was a nameplate with ‘PCY’ written in gold on it.

“Park Chanyeol”- she whispered his name, her hand trailing the gold letters.

It was strange that in their whole conversation, not once did they call out each other’s name. Everything was strange for her. How a total stranger had let her enter his bedroom without hesitation. Pat figured out that it was the situation that compelled him to let in a girl, he had met just the previous night, into his bedroom all alone.

Pat opened the door and got in.

The room was neat and very big. It even had a fireplace.

The walls were painted a dark brown and had a beautiful painting of a girl and a wolf.

She reached under the bed and pulled out the duffel bag, he was talking about.  She took one last glance and got out of the room, closing the door behind her. The servants were probably still asleep but then, it was like this every morning and every day, Gaein, the housekeeper  would bring her breakfast without making  a single sound in the kitchen…she never heard a noise from the servants though her room was on the ground floor too. It was kind of spooky but Pat didn’t mind.

She got into her room and heard the shower running in the bathroom.

“you in there?”- she called out.

“yeah…you brought the bag?”- Chanyeol asked  closing the tap.

“Yes. I am keeping it down on the floor.”

“okay…I will take it in a sec.”

Pat moved back to her desk and closed her diary. She heard the bathroom door open behind her and closing again.

She had a werewolf showering in her bathroom. How strange was that? For weeks, she didn’t have human interaction and here she was staying under the protection of very hospitable hosts and the funny thing was, they completely trusted her whereas she didn’t, not even a bit.

Chanyeol came out of the bathroom and Pat turned around.

“you wear formals all the time?”- she couldn’t stop herself from asking.

Chanyeol chuckled.

“no. not really but I do when I  travel to places filled with all sorts of brainy, boring people, meaning, the hall of the guardians.”

Pat laughed lightly. “they are not that boring, you know.”- she said.

Chanyeol shrugged.

“thanks”- she said.

“what for?” he asked while buttoning his coat.

“going to that boring, old place for me.”

“don’t bother. You repaid me last night. We are even now.”- he smiled.

“well, I gotta go then. I am glad that you didn’t ask me why came home like that last night.”- he said

“I shouldn’t, right?”

Chanyeol thought for a second before answering. “ yeah. You probably shouldn’t”

He climbed over the windowsill and looked at her.

“thank  you, Pat.”- he said and  jumped down, disappearing into the bushes on the other side.

---

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

HII guys..so i am a big fan of the hunger games and have read all the books and i loved that song...katniss sang that song to her sister prim in the first book. if you want to hear the song chack it out in the youtube...its called 'deep in the meadow'.

ALL HAIL EXO FANS!