“Try one more time.”

You grimaced as you clenched your fists, Zico’s monotone voice ringing in your ears. You dropped to your knees, sighing. “It’s no use, I can’t.”

Zico put his hands on his hips. “You can’t expect to go into this battle against werewolves without even being able to TRANSFORM into a wolf yourself.” He shook his head. “You are shameful for an alpha.”

You jumped up, glaring at him. “I just can’t do it!”

The two of you were alone in one of the underground training rooms. The walls were a dull grey, and your tired voice bounced and echoed all around the large room.

Someone walked in, their footsteps echoing audibly.

Both you and Zico turned to see Jaehyo walking into the room.

“It’s almost dinner. You should rest for the day.” He smiled at you.

Zico saw this and took a mental note.

You gave him a tired smile and sighed. “I have to learn how to transform first.”

He shrugged. “Should I stay here and watch?”

You looked at Zico.

Zico shrugged silently.

“Sure, why not?” You nodded at Jaehyo.

“You better get it right this time,” Zico growled softly. “You only have three days before we launch our attack.”

You glared at him before taking a few steps back. Taking a deep breath, you closed your eyes.

Remember to concentrate inside of you, imagine yourself transforming gracefully into a wolf.

Use your powers, and don’t force yourself into it. Go into it naturally. It should be as easy as breathing.

Feeling your powers flare in your chest, you imagined yourself taking hold of it, keeping a strong grip on it…

Transforming…

The powers diminished and you opened your eyes, blinking in disbelief.

Zico rolled his eyes impatiently. “You are seriously a failure.” He muttered quietly.

You glared at him again.

“Here,” Jaehyo said, giving Zico an exasperated look. “Why don’t you try transforming because you want to lunge at Zico and kill him?”

Zico looked over at Jaehyo. “Seriously?”

He shrugged. “What do we have to lose?”

You closed your eyes again and tried to concentrate.

Stupid Zico.

Your powers flared inside your chest again and you found yourself leaning towards the ground, your spine twisting and bending effortlessly, your hands gently touching the ground as your nails scratched the concrete floor.

You looked up at Zico and glared at him with your dark blue eyes before lunging at his leg, knocking him to the ground.

Zico quickly pushed you off with his powerful arms and your sleek new wolf form skittered across the room, wincing in pain.

Putting his hand gently over his leg, the minor scratches that you had made on his leg disappeared quickly. Shaking his head, he brushed himself off and stood up. “You really do hate me, don’t you?”

You felt your arms and legs come back again and you stretched them out, grinning. “Maybe.”

~~~~~~~~~

Dinner was bland and tasteless as usual, and there was minimal talk at the table.

Jaehyo had glanced up at you and you had tugged your ear slightly.

He nodded, agreeing.

Zico pushed his chair back, clearing his throat. “I would like everyone to begin keeping their body in shape as our planned attack is in one more day. Good night.”

He left.

~~~~~~~~~~~

You went into the room again, to find Jaehyo sitting on the ground waiting patiently.

“How early do you come here?” You whispered with a smile. “Every time, you’re always here first.”

He grabbed you by the hand and tugged you down into his arms. “It doesn’t matter, does it?” He whispered back into your ear.

His warm breath sent shivers down your spine and you rested with your head against his chest, gazing at the dancing flame on the candle.

“Good job today, but I didn’t mean for you to attack Zico like that.”

You laughed softly, lightly punching Jaehyo on the arm. “Well, it helped. Thanks to you, I can transform now, and just in time before the attack too.”

He winked, his long eyelashes casting small shadows on his face as the candle continued to burn. “No problem.”

The two of you sat in silence for a while.

“Are you scared, Jaehyo?”

His lips pressed together to form a thin line. “I can’t lie and say that I’m not.”

Neither of you said anything as you both listened to each other’s steady breathing for a while.

Finally, Jaehyo gently brushed your hair to the side and pressed his soft lips against your cheek. “Good night, _________. You’ll need rest.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was no training the next day as everyone had to stay inside and rest to go over strategy.

You had practiced shifting into wolf again, and you were quite relieved to have gotten it down correctly and you now found it easy to shift back and forth from one form to another.

“_______!”

You turned around to see Kiseop walking towards you and you felt a pang in your chest. You hadn’t thought about him at all until now.

“Hey,” You smiled at him walking into his open arms.

He grinned at you. “So I heard that you were finally able to shift yesterday.”

You nodded. “Yeah. It took quite a few tries.”

“I bet that you were a pretty wolf.” He winked at you and you felt guiltiness well up in your chest again.

“I’ve never seen you in wolf form..”

He chuckled slightly. “Well, you can look forward to it during the fight because I’m a y wolf.”

Rolling your eyes, you went back into the living room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

You went into the room that night again, but this time with shaky legs.

Jaehyo’s welcoming smile was warm as usual, but you saw that it wavered a bit as well.

“You’re nervous?”

You nodded, sinking comfortably into his arms. “You know what? All of us are acting like we’re going to return alive after tomorrow.”

Jaehyo looked towards the ceiling, but not at anything in particular. “Well, we’re all strong fighters, us shape-shifting healers and two alphas. I don’t think we’d die that easily on the first day.”

You sighed. “I know, it’s just…” You played around with Jaehyo’s rough hands. “Is this the biggest fight you think there will ever be?”

Jaehyo was silent for a second. “Maybe. No one knows. But…”

He took his hands out of yours and cupped your face gently so that you were facing him, his face a few centimetres away from yours. “I just don’t want you to die. I’ll go out of my way to make sure that won’t happen.”

“It won’t happen.” You whispered breathlessly, staring into his eyes.

“Good.” He leaned in and you felt his lips on yours, the fireworks exploding in your chest again.

The door opened, and Kiseop was suddenly there, his eyes wide, his hair in a mess.

You broke away from the kiss and both of you looked at him in surprise.

His fists were clenched and his face was paler than usual.

“So it was true.” He whispered, his voice husky and shaking.

“Kiseop..”

It was too late.

He had already closed the door and gone back to his room.

~~~~~~~~~

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