Your head hurt when you woke up again. The last thing you remembered clearly was hitting your head on a particularly sharp rock. Fuzzier images were surfacing: Jongdae in wolf form coming to your rescue. Him showing actual concern for your safety. 

What a cruel thing for your brain to conjure up.

Groaning, you pushed yourself up to get back to the house. But your hands didn’t make contact with leaves and twigs. Fully opening your eyes, you realized you were already back. Someone had changed you out of your rain-soaked clothes and into a large t-shirt and a pair of your comfortable shorts. From the design and cut of the shirt, it certainly wasn’t one of yours.

“No, don’t get up yet.” A strong hand pushed you back down onto the mattress. Jongdae’s face appeared in front of you, a small smile on his lips.

“You found me?” You blinked. Were those images real?

He nodded. “You scared me. I thought something really bad had happened to you.”

With a hesitant hand, he reached out to you, pushing strands of hair out of your face. The action confused you. Where was this coming from? 

You tried to sit up again and this time Jongdae helped you with a sigh, shifting you so you could lean back against the headboard. He got up on the bed next you, leaving no space in between. Still not processing what was going on, you stared at Jongdae, unable to think of any words to communicate your current state of mind.

“I’m glad you’re safe,” he whispered. Without warning, he intertwined his fingers with yours, rubbing his thumb across your knuckles. It set your skin on fire. Your heart was racing from the contact, unable to believe that this was actually happening. Was this some sort of delusional dream you were having? 

You couldn’t bring yourself to remove your hand from his, but you did turn to face him, furrowing your eyebrows. “What are you doing?”

Jongdae sighed. With his free hand he cupped your jaw, bringing your forehead to his with a slight tock.

“(y/n), I’m so sorry. I was so wrapped up in fighting this I didn’t stop to think about you. I knew it was useless, fighting the bond, but I’m too stubborn for my own good.” Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath before look at you again. “When Junmyeon told me you were asking about breaking the bond, I panicked. Then you screamed. I didn’t think, just ran. I couldn’t lose you. Never to see you smile again or hear your laugh. I couldn’t let that happen. I realized that I had the best thing in front of me and I was so close to losing it.”

His words shocked you. Only in your daydreams did he ever say anything along those lines. Did he really mean it?

“Jongdae, I-”

“Shhh, let me finish.” He caressed your cheek. “Please stay. Please, give me another chance. You said that I wouldn’t ever love you back, but that’s not true. I’ve already fallen in love with you, (y/n). I’ve been in love with you.”

“Why?” you asked suddenly.

Jongdae looked taken back, surprised by your still lingering hostility. “Why what?”

Pulling your hand from his grip, you stood up, getting off on the other side of the bed so it was between the two of you. “Why the sudden change heart?”

Jongdae crawled closer to you, but you took a step back. That action made his face fall.

“It’s not a sudden change of heart. I’ve been falling in love with since the day you moved in here.”

“Well, you have a funny way of showing it,” you snapped. “You know how confused I’ve been the last month? Watching where I stepped, trying to make sure that I didn’t upset you and then getting confused when you did nice things for me or talked to me without being mean? This entire time I’ve been convinced that you hate me.”

Sitting on the side of the bed, Jongdae dropped his head in his hands. “(y/n). I’m so sorry. I-I don’t hate you. I really am in love with you. I just… I was scared.”

You pulled your eyebrows together, confused. “Scared? How am I scary?”

Jongdae stood up and when he walked towards you, you didn’t move away. He gently grabbed your upper arms, looking at you. His brown eyes were glassy, a small pool of water gathering on the bottom lid.

“I told you about being dropped off when I was two?” You nodded. With a heavy sigh, he continued, “Being abandoned like that, it’s stayed with me. I’m scared of being left again. It took me a long time to trust the guys. And a pack stays together, no matter what. So, when you came along, I thought you would take one look at me and walk away, wanting nothing to do with me.” His hand slid down until it was gripping yours. “I know it was stupid, but I couldn’t help it. And the more I fell for you, the more scared I became. But when you said that you had fallen for me, too… I realized that I was wrong and I never should have tried to push you away in the first place.”

Your own eyes were starting to tear up. You hated the fact that you couldn’t exactly argue with that. It still wasn’t right for him to do what he did, but you understood.

“Please, (y/n), can you forgive me?”

Your brain was having a difficult time piecing together the fact that any of this was happening at all. Stunned into silence, all you could do was nod your head.

Releasing your hand, he cupped your face with both of his palms.

“I can’t wait to stare at those eyes for the rest of my life,” he whispered, a smile growing on his lips.

You rolled said eyes, scoffing at his sentimentalism.

Slowly, he leaned in forward, his breath warm against your face. With the minutest space between your lips and his, you wrestled with yourself on wanting to close that gap. Jongdae was being affectionate with you now, but you didn’t want to push him, even though you wanted more. You were right, the feeling of fire was getting addicting. Turns out, you didn’t have to hold yourself back as Jongdae took that last step.

The moment his lips touched yours, you were a goner. One hand was in your hair while he free arm wrapped around your waist, pulling you closer to his chest until there was no room to even fill up your lungs with air. He backed up until he hit the bed. He sat down and lifted you so your legs were now strewn over his lap.

Kissing Jongdae was something that you had always pushed out of your mind whenever the daydreams curved that direction. It didn’t matter much since your wildest imagination could never have met this. His lips were soft against yours, cradling your bottom lip between his own. The tip of his tongue tickled the sensitive skin of your lip before it could enter your mouth, access you weren’t quite granting yet.

Releasing his vise around your torso, Jongdae slid his hand down your waist before coming to a stop on your thigh. His grip was hot against your skin. Sliding his fingers up and under your shorts, he repositioned you so you were now straddling his lap as a possessive growl ripped from his chest. The unexpected sound made you gasp, simultaneously giving you the breath of air you were desperately needing and allowing Jongdae’s tongue to gain access to the place it had been battling to enter.

Your bodies were pressed so close together and Jongdae ran much hotter than the average male, you were sure you would start sweating through your T-shirt. The slightly unromantic thought made a giggle tickle your throat that you couldn’t hold back. At your outburst, Jongdae stopped and pulled away. Frowning, he tilted his head to the side.

“What’s so funny?”

Now you were embarrassed. Heat rose in your face and you avoided his gaze.

Jongdae scoffed playfully. “(y/n)…,” he pushed a lock of hair back out of your face. “I’m not a mind reader.”

Scratching behind your ear, you mumbled, “You’re just really hot.”

Most certainly hearing you, a cheeky grin spread across his face. Without warning, he flipped you over so you were now lying on your back with Jongdae hovering above you, a hand placed on either side of your head.

“Thank you,” he smirked. “You’re not too bad yourself.”

You slapped his chest. “I meant temperature wise. You’re practically a living heater. I thought I was going to break out into a sweat.”

Bending his head down, he nuzzled his nose into your neck. A satisfying rumble vibrated his chest against your shoulder. “I know another way to get us sweating.”

In a panic, you pushed him off of you and sitting up right.

Clearing your throat, you stuttered, “W-why don’t we take things slow?”

Sighing, Jongdae pulled you into his lap, resting his head in the crook of your neck. “That’s going to be extremely difficult, you know.”

You frowned. “You’ve done pretty well the past month or so.”

Jongdae growled, tightening his arms around your waist. He raised his head to look at you. “Are you going to hang that over me for the rest of our lives?”

Irritated, you shoved yourself off his legs and headed for the door. Before you even made it halfway, the wolf was blocking your path.

“What did I do?” he whined.

You stared at him, unable to believe that he honestly didn’t seem to understand why you would be upset.

“Seriously, Jongdae?” You crossed your arms over your chest. “I’m happy – I really am, that we can finally give this a shot, and I do forgive you, but… this last month – heck, the last several months – still really hurt. I’ve felt so unwanted and you hadn’t even given me a chance. I’ve been hurting every day and the memories of that hurt aren’t going to wash away to create a perfectly clean slate. I’m going to need time. Not space – because I don’t want you to go away. Just some time.”

Jongdae nodded, the look on his face so full of shame. He knew what he had done and he understood that you couldn’t just forget it. Taking a step forward, you reached out to him, laying your palm against his cheek.

“But,” you gave him a small smile, “I think I’m the happiest I’ve been in a very long time.”

The shameful look melted away from his face and your favorite blinding smile made an appearance. He wrapped his arms around your waist, bringing you in close to him. His nose rested against the space where your jaw met your ear. That seemed to be his favorite place.

“I’ll make it up to you,” he promised. “I will spend the rest of forever making it up to you. I’ll scrub that slate so clean, you’ll be able to see your face in it.”

You couldn’t help but giggle, standing there in his arms. A small, pessimistic part of you panicked, wondering when he would switch up on you again and decide that in fact he wasn’t in love with you and he still didn’t actually want you. With great effort, you pushed the thoughts away, deciding that if that was to happen, then you would deal with it then.

“Jongdae, is she awa– oops, sorry!”

Ji Yeon’s head disappeared from the doorway so quickly you almost didn’t realize it was her. You hadn’t heard the door open and were embarrassed to be caught. Granted, the two of you were only embracing, but it still felt so intimate.

Jongdae chuckled as he lift his head, still keeping a grip on your waist. “That’s probably going to happen a lot around here.”

“Is that why the other mates live by themselves?” you murmured to yourself.

For some reason that caused Jongdae to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” you asked innocently.

“Nothing.” He kissed your lips, probably to distract you from the joke you’d missed.

Then it hit you. You almost slapped yourself with how naive you’d been. Now you got the joke, but you’d keep the revelation to yourself. You were too embarrassed to say anything to Jongdae. Maybe later you could talk to the girls about it. You weren’t completely inexperienced, but you were still shy and it’d been… a while.

“Come on,” Jongdae grabbed your hand and tugged you out of the room. “I can hear your stomach growling and I’ll be damned if I let my mate starve.”

Your cheeks heated up at the sound of him calling you his mate. They were probably still red as you entered the kitchen behind Jongdae, still clinging to him.

All the other wolves as well as their mates were gathered around the rarely used dinner table. Junmyeon shot you a smile when he noticed the two of you holding hands. But it disappeared quickly as you joined the group.

“This isn’t good, Junmyeon,” Minseok groaned. “They really want us dead now.”

“What’s going on?” Jongdae asked.

Picking up an envelope made of old, yellow parchment, Junmyeon sighed. “This was left on the porch sometime while we were sleeping last night. It’s addressed to (y/n).”

You shrank into Jongdae’s side as he squeezed your hand. “W-what is it?”

Ji Yeon was the one who answered you in a hushed tone that was truly frightening. “It’s a witch’s curse.”