Kai mentally groaned as he sat down in front of the fire in front of him. Sehun sat next to him, and across from them, Chanyeol was looking into the red flames with furrowed brows.

They hadn’t been able to come up with an excuse that would make Tao and Luhan leave. They had no choice but to accept their help and let them tag along. Now they all tried to figure out a way to get away from them before they had led them to close to the den.

The den was hidden within the forest. Few outsiders were able to find their way there without anyone who had already been there; and even fewer came back to tell about it. How you had found it in your half-conscious state remained a mystery to all of them and was probably one of the reasons the Alpha hadn’t decided to kill you on the spot.

Kai turned his head to the side and looked at the two horses who were being tied to a rope that was tied up between two trees. They were tame animals, but if something in the forest scared them and they ran off, it would be bad. Better safe than sorry.

“I’ll take the first watch.” Luhan offered as he walked over to them. Tao following suit.

“No, we can’t let you do that after doing this much for us. You should sleep. Kai will take the first watch, I’ll go after him and then Sehun will go after me. The two of you can sleep tonight. We’ll handle it.” Chanyeol said as he offered a friendly smile.

Kai looked at Sehun who gave him an almost unnoticeably nod. Then he turned his head back to Luhan. He looked like he was about to protest, and just as Kai was about to insist that he’d take the first watch, he nodded his head.

“Fine.” He said before turning his head to Sehun with a friendly smile. “Wake me up when you feel like you can’t stay awake for much longer.”

The youngest nodded shortly as a reply. He had never been to found of talking to strangers. Even though he had met Luhan earlier that day, he was still a stranger and someone who couldn’t be trusted yet.

“See you tomorrow then.” Luhan said and gave them all a nod before he turned to Tao who had been standing silently beside him. The two of them turned around and walked over to their sleeping spot.

“One hour.” Chanyeol said in an almost inaudible voice, though thanks to their sharpened sense of hearing he knew his friends could hear him. Then he looked at Sehun. “Pretend to be asleep. I’ll give you a sign when it’s time and then we’ll talk.”

The two of them nodded before Sehun and Chanyeol stood up and walked closer to where Luhan and Tao had laid down and was now trying to fall asleep.

Kai shifted his weight in an attempt to find a more comfortable position as he watched the red flames dance over the wooden pieces that weren’t turned into coal yet. He was going to watch the fire while the others slept. It would keep away animals and keep them warm in the cold night air.

He picked up one of the branches beside him and tossed it into the flames while a sigh left his lips. His thoughts wandered off as he watched the flames devour the thin branches.

He thought of the den, about his friends and family and the rest of the pack. And he thought of you. He wondered how you were doing. Were you cold, or boiling over with a fever? Did the medicine Cyrus gave you to help you sleep work? Did the poison cause you to have nightmares? Where you scared? There was many questions going through his mind, and it angered him that he couldn’t get the answer to any of them.

“Why couldn’t you just do as I said and stay out of trouble?” He mumbled as he poked the fire with a stick.

Tao twisted around a little. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t get comfortable. It annoyed him and kept him awake together with his thoughts. The three boys hadn’t been too happy to see him and Luhan. He hadn’t expected it to be otherwise, and they had done a pretty good job at covering it up, but there was something about their behavior that gave them out. He couldn’t point it out, but he felt like they were hiding something.

Tao thought of you. He hadn’t seen you in a long time now. It bothered him to no end that you were gone. The two of you had been as good as inseparable since birth. He had been away from you before, every year when he went away to practice his fighting, but that only lasted for short time before he could return. The two of you had never been separated for this long before, and the thought of it bothered him.

If you were dead, he would be broken, but if he girl that they were going to save turned out to be you, he would be happy again. He would take you home with him and Luhan and never let you be taken away like that again. He would probably beat you kidnappers to death or somewhere near that too, but that was a minor detail. What mattered now was to find whomever they were heading to and save her, and hopefully, that person would be you.

He smiled at the thought of seeing you again. He knew he was a little overprotective, but he didn’t care and as long as he knew you didn’t either, he was fine with it. He snuggled his face into the jacket he had balled up to a pillow, and welcomed the sleep that was slowly taking over his body.

Chanyeols ears twitched as he listened to the sound of heavy breathing. He focused his ears, but couldn’t detect any signs of the two boys being awake. He opened an eyelid and looked at his surroundings. The two limp bodies before him moved in sync with the sound of their heavy and steady breathing. They were sleeping.

Chanyeol opened both his eyes and sat up. He looked at Kai who was poking the fire, before his gaze shifted to Sehuns body beside him. The corner of his lips tugged upward at the sigh. The boy really knew how to play. Even his pulse were slowed down. He stretched out his arm and carefully poked his back.

Sehuns head turned as he peeked at Chanyeol over his shoulder. Chanyeol nodded towards the fire were Kai sat and the two of them stood up and quietly walked over to him. It was time to talk about how they were going to fix the mess they were caught up in.

Kai looked up as his friends sat down around the fire. He had been lost in his own thoughts while he played with the fire with the stick in his hands. He placed the stick on the ground beside him and nodded at the two faces in front of him.

“We have to get rid of them, fast. If we lead them too close to the den they’ll find the passage without our help, and we can’t let that happen. The Alpha might have spared Avry, but if we bring two more humans to the den then we’ll all be in trouble.” Chanyeol said with his deep and hushed voice.

“We know that, but how?” Kai asked.

“We could transform and run away now that they’re asleep.” Sehun suggested, but Chanyeol shook his head.

“That would only scare the horses and wake them up.”

Sehun nodded and furrowed his brows, he had forgotten about the two horses that was tied up a few feet away from them.

“We could walk away and transform when we’ve gotten away from them.” Kai suggested as he looked at Chanyeol who seemed to have been put in charge of making decisions.

Chanyeol furrowed his brows in thought as he stared deeply into the fire. It was a good plan, but it was too simple. And too simple plans usually ended bad one way or the other. He let out a sigh. They didn’t exactly have any better plans.

“Let’s go for it.” He said and returned his gaze to his friends. “They expect that we’ll be on watch until sunrise. If we go now, we’ll have a few hours before one of them wakes up to check if one of us is still awake.”

Kai and Sehun nodded before the three of them stood up. Chanyeol tossed some branches on the fire so that it would last a bit longer and give them more time to get away. The three of them looked at the two sleeping silhouettes before turning around and walking away as silently as they could.

After walking for about a mile, they changed into their wolf forms. Relief flushed through their bodies as the thick fur started to cover them, and their vision became sharper and clearer in the night. The wind carefully blew over them and played with their fur as they completed their transformation. After that they ran. They ran as fast as they could with feelings of relief, happiness and freedom running through them. It was a wonderful feeling to just run through the forest.

They kept running without keeping track of how long they ran. They just kept running without feeling exhausted or bothered by anything. However, that quickly came to a halt as a flash of white moved in the shadows. At first, they ignored it, believing it to just be the reflection of the moonlight. However, as it appeared at the outskirts of their vision again, they slowed their pace a little, and soon after a white wolf ran out from the bushes beside them. They all came to an abrupt halt and starred at the white wolf that seemed to glow in the moonlight.

The white wolf started to transform, and soon after the wolves were gone, and four human silhouettes could be seen in the pale light of the moon. They eyed each other carefully and silently before any of them spoke up.

“Kira.” Sehuns voice cut sharply through the cold night air, as he looked at the girl a few feet in front of him.

“Hello guys.” Kira said calmly, her green eyes locked with Sehuns.

“What brings you here?” Chanyeol asked in an attempt to prevent the tension that was starting to build up between the two of them.

“I came looking for you.” Kira simply answered Chanyeols questions, though her gaze was still fixated upon Sehun.

“You didn’t need to.” Sehun said sharply. “We have what we searched for and now we’re heading back.”

“I know.” Kira answered with a similar sharpness in her voice. “But Cyrus sent me to give you guys a message.”

“What?” Kai blurted out quickly. Kira slowly averted her eyes from Sehun to look at Kai.

“It’s about the girl.” She said and felt a twitch in the corner of as Kais eyes widened a little, however she maintained her poker face as she locked gazes with him. If Cyrus sent someone to deliver them a message, it couldn’t be good. “Her condition is getting worse. The medicine he is giving her isn’t helping as well as they did to begin with. Her fever is higher than before and the poison seems to be spreading faster than normal. You have to hurry back with the antidote. It won’t be long before it’s too late.”

Kais eyes widened a little more as Kira spoke. His heart sunk at the mentioning of your condition and angst and worry started to fill him up. Chanyeol slightly looked at him and spoke up when Kai wasn’t able to reply.

“Thank you Kira for giving us the message.” Chanyeol said and gave her an approving nod, before he mumbled quietly to himself. “Good thing we got away from them so fast or this would’ve been really bad.”

“Got away from who?” Kira asked sharply as she narrowed her eyes at Chanyeol. The tall giant quickly ran through his head for a believable lie, but he came up with none. However, he didn’t have to as Kiras eyes widened, as she understood who meant.

“You brought more humans?!” She blurted out loudly without thinking of their surroundings.

“Quiet down!” Sehun snapped at her. “You don’t have to shout it out to the entire forest that we brought Avrys brother and boyfriend with us.”

Kira blinked at Sehun before her head turned to Kai.

“Boyfriend? I thought you were her boyfriend.” She said bluntly

Kais cheeks flushed pink and he thanked the gods that it was too dark for them to see.

“N-no.” He quickly stuttered. “We’re close, yes, but I’m not her boyfriend.”

Kira raised an eyebrow at him. Even though she hadn’t been around, she knew a lot more than they thought.

“Suit yourself.” Was all she said before she turned her head to look at all of them. “I’ll do you a favor this time and keep an eye on them for you. I’ll make sure they won’t find their way to the den. You just hurry up before the poor girl dies.”

They all nodded. Kai and Chanyeol transformed back to wolves, and looked curiously at Sehun when he didn’t. Sehun just waved them off.

“You go ahead. I’ll catch up with you.” He said. He was after all the fastest among the three of them, so catching up with them wouldn’t be a problem. Kai and Chanyeol looked at each other and nodded. They knew that he just wanted to talk to Kira alone. They ran off and left Sehun alone with Kira.

“Why?” Was the only thing he said once they were alone.

“What do you mean why?” She asked as she looked at him. She wanted to step closer to him, but stayed still.

“Why do you do this? Coming for us and offering to watch over the humans while we return to the den. I know you don’t like Avry, so why are you doing this?” He asked as he looked at her with a hint of confusion in his face.

“You wanted me to change didn’t you?” She asked while looking straight at him. Sehun met her gaze, but before he could reply, she spoke up again. “I know this won’t get us back to where we were before. Actually, I’m starting to wonder if I’m the only one who want that. However, seeing how you are now, how you changed and how happy you are… I realized that I’ve been a bad person. I don’t want to be like this anymore. It bothers me. And I know that if you can change, then so can I.”

Sehun blinked at her in surprise. He had expected something special for her to do this, but what she said came as a surprise to him, and wasn’t exactly what he expected. He tried to open his mouth to reply, but he didn’t know what to say.

When Sehun didn’t reply, Kiras lips tugged slightly upwards before she walked towards him. She walked past him without looking at him. And as she passed by him she spoke up.

“Did it ever cross your mind that Avry isn’t the person I’m doing this for?” She asked without expecting an answer. She was about to transform into her wolf for and run of, when Sehuns voice cut her off.

“Thank you, Kira.”

Kira smiled softly at his words and the warm feelings they brought her. Then, without saying anything, she turned into a silvery white wolf, and ran off and disappeared between the trees.

Sehun held his breath as he resisted the urge to turn around and look after her. He didn’t know how much longer he would be able to pretend to be angry with her and push her away. He missed her, more then he’d even like to admit. He always managed to convince himself that he was better off without her, and that he didn’t miss her at all, but every time he saw her, he was proved wrong.

He let out a frustrated sigh and ran his fingers through his hair while mentally telling himself to get a hold of his emotions and focus on his task. Then he changed into a wolf and ran after his friends.

* * * * *

I know some of you might be a little bit disappointed that Tao and Luhan are leaving so quickly, but don't worry they're not gone yet. They'll come back in the next chapter or the chapter after that ^^ And also, I'll introduce you to someone new soon! Hope you look forward to it!

I'm getting more votes and subbies! I'm so happy! Keep commenting too. I love reading your comments, and they sometimes make me look at what I wrote with a new perspective, not to mention that I do get some ideas from them ^^

Love you all ~