Jeon Wonwoo familiarized himself with a lot of things. He remembered the scuffling of the leaves beneath a squirrel’s paws when it came out at the crack of sunrise, and the beating of a nearby crow’s wings when it prepared to take off. He no longer jumped at the sound of water rushing through the pipes as he showered, or the striking multitude of footsteps when the rest of the pack came back from a run.

    What Wonwoo didn’t get used to was the sound of crying, specifically a human’s cry. It was even worse with the youngest pup whining about how loud it was. It was distant, but that only made it worse. It echoed and it made a select few, a very whiny few, very jittery. The younger members of the pack were restless, and Wonwoo himself was included. Except he didn’t whine.

    The wailing drove Chan absolutely crazy; he whimpered endlessly. Seokmin and Jihoon had to trap him upstairs. They’d check him every few minutes, saying that he refused to talk after wrapping himself in a few blankets. Hansol wouldn’t stop tapping his foot on the ground, nor did he stop clawing at the couch fabric. Wonwoo wondered if he even knew that he was doing that.

    As much as they hated the sound of crying, they couldn’t get involved. Surely a search party would identify and find the girl. Besides, a person- who isn’t fully human, finding another person in the woods at one in the morning is completely normal. Wonwoo had a feeling her crying wouldn’t end soon though. They have saved a couple of humans, but that’s what started the rumors, and they didn’t want to explode that back up again.

    “Wonwoo, go. Just this once. Grant her the wish, knock her out, and then take her home.” Seungcheol tilted his head toward the door. Wonwoo didn’t have to be told twice.

    He didn’t bother to take a jacket outside; it wasn’t that cold for him anyways. He took a flashlight along. Wonwoo didn’t want anything being too fishy. Identifying himself as the boy who can grant wishes was suspicious enough. Taking a few deep breaths of air, Wonwoo turned the knob and strolled out the door. He had yet to turn on the flashlight; once he got close enough to the girl, he’d turn it on.

Wonwoo was quite curious about how she went under the dip. Granted, he was positive that she fell, but he never knew anyone else who went so far in the middle of the night. It wasn’t dangerous out in these woods; the most dangerous animal would well… be him, but it was extremely dark. It was easy to get lost, even during the day. Whoever this person was, Wonwoo thought, was extremely desperate or extremely stupid. Maybe both.

He easily picked her up with his ears, dashing over protruding tree roots and bushes. The night sky was almost completely blocked from the trees. It was nice to feel the air ghost on his skin during a little run. When he came close enough to her, his eyes flickered. It wasn’t like him to suddenly shift colors like that, but his nose picked up her scent. She smelled horrid. Fear, disappointment, jealousy, sadness, anger; it was all mixed together. It almost made his eyes water. He managed to shift them back when the girl started to run at him. He suddenly felt very antsy.

Wonwoo avoided her for a while, scowling when he couldn’t get that feeling off of him. It made his stomach twist, but he needed to get this done. He needed to grant her the wish and leave. He saw her fall, and she seemed pitiful enough. There was even blood on her face.

“I just wanted to be selfish for once! For once! I don’t want to be alone anymore. I-I don’t want to be alone anymore.” He pitied her.

She was small, quite small compared to him. There were bits of dead leaves in her hair. She must’ve gotten that scrap from falling earlier, from the dip. That was only an assumption, but he was quite set on it.

Crouching down just a smidgen before her, he his flashlight, turning it on and off. He saw her hands swat away at the air, and he didn’t bother to pick it up right after she hit it. His eyes shifted again, and his nose picked up even more. He didn’t realize that she picked it up until the light hit his eyes.

“Go home. You got your wish.” Panic settled comfortably in his chest. She saw him, she saw his eyes. Not to mention she smelled like someone from the pack.

Without any hesitation, he pulled her forward by the neck. It was harsh; she didn’t have any time to react. With a quick cutting blow to the head, she stumbled momentarily to the ground. He picked her up, swinging her body over one shoulder while he grabbed the flashlight. Wonwoo needed to get back to the cabin quick.

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“Why’d you bring her here?” They all backed away the moment the door slammed open.

Wonwoo was drenched in cold sweat, breathing heavily. He dropped the flashlight to the ground, coughed a few times, and laid the girl on the floor. Mind you, he wasn’t very gentle.

Seungcheol was extremely confused. Wonwoo seemed very antsy; he obviously didn’t like carrying the girl. Plus, he brought her back. His ears picked up a rustle from upstairs. Before he knew it, the pack was downstairs, staring at a very smelly and dirty girl.

“She smells like Minghao.” Jeonghan was the first to comment. He crouched down, inspecting any external wounds.

“Junhui, call Minghao and Seungkwan. Mingyu, help me get some water.” Seungcheol was out the door in a flash.

They were all very confused. Wonwoo kept fidgeting- something he had never done, and that girl smelled like Minghao.

“Do you think she’s his mate or something?” Jisoo asked. His question was left on hold.

They moved her to the couch soon after Seungcheol and Mingyu came back. Jeonghan insisted that he clean her wounds. Junhui didn’t come back until they patched up her scratches. No one actually knew that he left to call upstairs, but he came down and said that Minghao was on his way.

When he arrived, Minghao’s eyes shifted colors. He sighed tiredly when he saw Soo, unconscious and dirty, on the couch. Her eyes were swollen, most likely from crying, and he couldn’t help but feel regret when he saw all the bandages on her body.

“They’re just minor scratches.” Soonyoung pointed out.

“Mind telling us why she’s drenched in your scent?” Wonwoo questioned. They all moved to the dining table in the kitchen. Wonwoo wouldn’t stop looking at her.

“She’s a friend. I needed to protect her.” Minghao didn’t look up from his lap.

“Protect her from what? Minghao, you marked her. She’s not your mate is she?” Wonwoo fumed.

“Look, I don’t know why all of you seem so off. Yeah, I marked her. There was an incubus in town two weeks ago and I got worried. Soo isn’t my mate.” Minghao glanced back at her worriedly. It was a bad idea to let her out.

“Wonwoo, why are you so jittery?” Chan scooted his seat away from Wonwoo. He kept looking back and forth at God knows what, and there was this huge scowl on his face. Wonwoo’s eyes were still a gleaming amber. They kept shifting back and forth.

“Oh my god… Don’t even tell me.” Seungkwan kept in a laugh. It definitely wasn’t the time for one.

“You’re all weird cause Minghao marked your mate.” Seungcheol patted Wonwoo on the back with more force than he should.

“I mean, marking wears off pretty fast, so I guess it’s okay.” Soonyoung shrugged.

“Depends on how he marked her, actually.” Seungcheol added in.

“How do you mark something?” Mingyu asked.

“Well here’s a lesson for all you pups. Marking is when you want to show that something, or in this case, someone is yours. Not necessarily meaning that the person or object you mark is your possession. Like Minghao said, you can simply do it to protect someone. If you wanted an incubus to know that someone is off limits and associates with a werewolf, he’d back off. Marking can be done in two ways. Minghao probably cuddled with her or something.”

“What’s the other way?” Hansol added.

“.” Seokmin rolled his eyes.

“Y’know, maybe Seungcheol didn’t mention it for a reason, Jun.” Jun could care less. They were young, yes, but that didn’t matter.

Wonwoo felt sick to the stomach. His mate was lying on a couch, unconscious, with the smell of his pack member all over her body. Needless to say, Wonwoo was tired.

“What are we going to do?” Wonwoo asked. Seungcheol glanced back at Soo.

“We have two choices. We either let Minghao carry her back home or we let her stay here. We either tell her about the truth now or later; there’s really no avoiding it.” Seungcheol said.

It was true, much to their dismay. Any rational human would know that waking up in their room after getting lost in the woods and fainting after seeing a dude with weird eyes is weird. And real. No one has dreams like that.

“I say we let her stay here. Minghao probably got permission to stay here anyway. He can tell her what she needs to know, and we can all figure out things from here.” Soonyoung took a vote. Everyone agreed.

“What about all… all this mate stuff? Do I tell her that?” Wonwoo questioned.

“That’s for you to decide, wolf-boy.”

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