CHAPTER twentyone 

The rustling sound from the fallen leaves on the ground could be heard by the keen ears of a certain red wolf. Sensing his attacker’s presence, he suddenly ran towards his left. The leaves on the bushes around him gently brushed against his silky, red fur. He always enjoyed running around in his wolf form because he felt stronger and more confident and strength is what he needs now to get out of this mess.

Hearing another wolf running behind him on his right side, he mentally cursed. One of them was enough but now two of them? This was not going as he planned to and it will be worse if another attacker would join in the ‘fun’. Hoping to escape out of here instead of confronting them, he tried to run as fast as possible.

The brown coloured wold sped up when he saw the red wolf running faster. He was this close into getting prey. Surely he would not fail now, right? A flash of blonde ran passed and the brown wolf let out a low growl. How dare someone try to steal his prey? One thing a hunter hates the most is letting his prey get taken away right before his eyes.

The red wolf let out a small yelp when the blonde wolf pounced on him from behind. They struggled a little but the red wolf froze when he felt the blonde’s sharp teeth at the throat. The blonde wolf pressed his teeth harder on the red wolf’s neck and the latter squeezed his eyes shut, praying that his attacker would not kill him.

A warm, wet tongue replaced the set of sharp teeth and the red wolf snapped his eyes opened just the see the tongue belonging to the blonde wolf. *I thought you were going to kill him, Jongin.* The brown wolf stared at them in boredom.

*Puhlease hyung. I would never hurt Bambi.* The blonde wolf rubbed his nose against the red wolf’s cheek in affection.

“I honestly thought you were really going to kill me too, Jongin.” The red wolf shifted back to its human form and there lay the newest member of the DarkMoon pack, Do Kyungsoo.

Jongin and Chanyeol shifted back to their human forms as well and Jongin got up while pulling Kyungsoo with him. “Come on, Bambi. You know I will never do something like that. Plus I wouldn’t want to even imagine what Yifan hyung will do to me.” Jongin shuddered at that thought while Chanyeol rolled his eyes at his dramatic dongsaeng.

*Of course you will never hurt me. None of you will.* Kyungsoo smiled a little and fell into step with Chanyeol and Jongin as the 3 of them went back to the pack house.

“Wait, so that means I win, right?” Jongin asked his friends and they rolled their eyes.

“You only won because Yifan hyung instructed ONLY Chanyeol hyung and you to test me. If hyung is in the game, I’m pretty sure he will be the one to win.” Kyungsoo reminded the blonde and Chanyeol nodded in agreement. Once their leader decided to go after someone or something, he never fails.

“Anyway, last one back to the house has to wash our smelly socks for a month!” Jongin shifted into the wolf and sped towards the house. Chanyeol quickly followed him and they ran away, leaving the doe eyed boy stunned at their sudden actions.

“It is not like you will wash the socks even if you do lose, Kim Jongin.” Kyungsoo shook his head at his dongsaeng’s immature behaviour before running after them.

Cushions filled the couch, making it almost no space for anyone to sit. Candles were lit up and placed around the house. Joonmyeon looked at the calendar on the wall and smiled. Only one more day to Christmas and everyone loves Christmas. His friends love the food, the company and the fun. Not forgetting that Christmas this year will be a special one because of a certain somebody.

“I’m first!” Chanyeol burst into the house followed by Jongin and Kyungsoo.

“Not fair! You tripped me!” Jongin threw a mini tantrum while Chanyeol just ignored him and went to Yifan’s room to report that test. Joonmyeon sighed a little. A maknae will forever be a maknae no matter how old they are.

“We’re home.” Kyungsoo greeted Joonmyeon with a smile and the older male smiled back.

“Welcome back. I supposed the both of them weren’t so tough on you during the test?”

“I doubt that. They caught me within 10 minutes even after giving me a head start of 1