As soon as the first car arrived home, Jinri was inside, up the stairs and in her room before anyone could say anything. Kris cast a weary glance around the living room.

“Would anyone care to tell me why she just practically barreled down that door and refuses to speak with anyone?” he asked, his voice exasperated. No one spoke. “No one? I guess it’s only fair then that we all suffer for it, then?”

“It was me,” Luhan confessed, much to the surprise of everyone in the room. “I snapped at her when I shouldn't have.”

“Well you must’ve said something pretty stupid, then, to make her ignore all of us,” Xiumin muttered, earning some nods of agreement.

“Explain,” Kris ordered. Another prolonged silence. “Now, Luhan.” Despite being younger than the baby-face boy, Kris was his alpha, and so held a great measure of power over him. Luhan sighed and recounted what had happened, his realization about the Howling, and his subsequent snapping at Jinri when she asked him what was wrong.

“No wonder she’s upset,” Kai scoffed. “She already has issues, what with that sad excuse of an Aunt. You’re not helping by telling her she’s a problem.”

“Especially when she seems to trust you the most out any of us,” Sehun added, peeved at his best friend.

“Well, as some of us already know,” Kris sighed with a pointed look at Chen. “All she needs is some time to cool off.”

The living room emptied after that, with everyone going their separate ways. The three maknaes went on a run with Baekhyun and Chen while the others scattered around the house.

Meanwhile in her room, Jinri was fuming. She was upset with Luhan, sure, but what angered her more was the fact that it seemed like secrets were still being kept from her. She knew that they were still getting to know each other and a certain level of trust came with prolonged acquaintance, but she hated feeling like a 13th wheel. It was like she was being babied, coddled for no reason. She had made the promise of loyalty to them, hadn’t she? She didn’t run screaming when they told her they were actually a pack of wolf shape shifters, right? And she sure as hell trusted them with her life after everything that had happened last week. So why were they still stepping around her as if she was a time bomb waiting to blow? Why was Luhan acting like she would break down if he just told her what was on his mind? She wanted answers, not evasions.

Startled from her thoughts by her phone ringing, she checked the caller ID and smiled. Perfect.

“Jinri, you actually picked up!” Taemin exclaimed as soon as she accepted the call. “I was wondering if you had time to meet today?”

“Well, it’s either meet you or do homework,” she told him jokingly. “And you seem a lot more interesting than homework. Should I get Kai to-”

“No need, I’ll come get you myself,” he told her. “Dress comfortably, okay?” before even giving her time to respond, he ended the call, leaving her with a smile. At least he would be able to help her answer some questions.

She got off the bed and examined her appearance. She was wearing a simple t-shirt and jeans. She supposed that was comfortable enough. She grabbed a sweater, her bag, and shoes, and after checking the hallway to make sure no one would stop her, or ask her where she was off to, she headed downstairs. Due to the silence she was greeted with when she went downstairs, she was expecting that everyone had gone in their rooms or for a run. So she let out a startled yell when she entered the kitchen to find Xiumin sitting at the table, picking at a sandwich and reading a book.

“Sorry?” he said with a slight laugh at her expression. “Hungry?” He held up the half of his sandwich that he hadn’t touched.

“No, thanks.” She said, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge. “I thought you all would have gone out for a run.” He shook his head.

“Tao, Kai, and Sehun went with Bakehyun and Chen,” he told her. “They should be back soon. But you look like you’re going out.”

“Yeah, I am,” she said simply. “He should be here in just a minute or two, I think-”

“Jinri! Where are you?” a pleasant voice came from the living room. This time it was Xiumin’s turn to look surprised.

“Taemin? What’s he doing here?” He muttered, abandoning his sandwich and following Jinri out of the kitchen. He saw the two embrace (or rather Taemin hug Jinri before she could stop him) and raised his eyebrow in disbelief. When had these two become all buddy-buddy.

“Minseok! You’re here as well; great, I can hit two birds with one stone,” Taemin said, pulling back from Jinri and walking over to him. His icy blue eyes flashed conspiratorially. “Jinri, we’ll be back in a minute. Xiumin, please show me to Luhan, Kris and Suho.”

Jinri sighed and rolled her eyes. Of course she had to wait alone; more secrets.

It was only ten minutes before Taemin, Xiumin, Luhan, Kris and Suho came back down the stairs, the latter four with grim looks on their faces. Jinri avoided looking at Luhan and gave a weak smile to the others.

“Come on sweetheart,” Taemin chirped, looping his arm with Jinri’s as she stood from the couch. “Let’s get going and leave these grumps to themselves.” Before she could ask where they were going and how they were getting there, they disappeared with a small pop.

“I’ll kill him,” Luhan fumed, glaring at the spot the pair just vacated. “I swear that I will kill him.”

“Luhan calm down,” Xiumin sighed. “You know we can’t do anything. Not with this, not with the Howling. You aren’t the only one who’s worried about her.”

“I’ve started to bond,” he told them through gritted teeth. No one looked surprised. “I can’t stand it, and I can’t stand seeing her with him, knowing that she’s going to get hurt.”

“It’s out of our control, Luhan,” Kris snapped, flopping onto the couch. “We’re all going to bond with her at some point. It’s painful for all of us to watch this happen.”

“She has a week,” Suho said. “A week before everything gets really real, really quickly. Apologize as soon as she gets back, Luhan. Let’s try and make this as comfortable as possible, not only for her sake, but for ours.”

*

Jinri gasped as she felt her feet touch the ground once more. Her eyes were tightly shut and she was gripping onto Taemin’s arm like a life preserver. One second she had been standing in the living room, and the next it felt as if the world had been ripped out from under her and a plunger was all the air out of her lungs. And just as soon as it began it was over.

“You can open your eyes now,” Taemin chuckled from beside her. She took a deep, shuddering breath before slowly opening her eyes.

“An alley? You took me to an alley?” She deadpanned. “Well that was anti-climactic.” Taemin just smiled and pulled her along.

“No, silly,” he giggled. “We couldn’t very well just appear from nowhere in the middle of Gangnam, could we? Magic doesn’t exist to normal people, you know. What did that author lady call them? Muggles? Yes, muggles wouldn’t understand.”

“If you say so, wizard boy,” she mumbled and shook her head. She let him pull her through the throngs of people, surprised that she was able to keep from tripping up with his fast pace. Finally he began to slow down and they stopped in front of a very non-descript brick building.

“We’re here!” He cheered and before she could even ask where ‘here’ was, he pulled her inside. What she saw nearly had her running back outside.

“Dress shopping?” She hissed, narrowing her eyes at him. “You’ve brought me to go shopping. For dresses?” It wasn’t that she hated shopping. She didn’t really have any particular feeling toward it in general, but she particularly hated dress shopping. Dresses limited the ability to move freely, and as a person who hated being restrained, she wasn’t particularly fond of the idea.

“The Howling is coming up, and as a Tamer you must be properly fitted for your dress,” Taemin said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Come on; the best dresses are in the back.” She tried to dig her heels into the plush carpet, but he was much stronger than her and she nearly crashed into his back as she was pulled forward.

“Fine, fine,” she relented, and he gave her a triumphant smirk. “I’ll look for a dress. But only if you promise to answer some questions afterwards.”

“Fair enough,” he agreed, and the next thing she knew, she was being shoved into a dressing room.

40 minutes, 11 dresses and one very tired Jinri later, she had found a dress. Or rather, Taemin had found a dress for her. She didn’t care too much what the damn thing looked like, as long as it covered everything properly and she could walk or run in it if necessary.

“Now, time for dinner,” Taemin said, and at her pointed look, smiled. “And I’ll answer your questions.” He turned to the woman manning the counter and flashed her a toothy grin. “Could you have that sent to my home? Thank you.”

It took them another few minutes to reach the small restaurant where Taemin wanted to eat. Besides the waitress, they were the only ones there. He ordered for the both of them, and then leaned back in his chair.

“Shoot, sweetheart,” he smiled at her. “What do you want to know.” Jinri raised her eyebrow at his rather casual attitude.

“How old are you?” she asked, more as a joke, but she really did want to know. He grinned at her and leaned in really close.

“93,” he grinned, and watched as her face went from blank, to confused, then shock, then realization. She remembered when Xiumin was first explaining the Council to her.

“They’re ancient, even though they might look young…”

“No way,” Jinri finally breathed. “You don’t even look old enough to drive, let alone be the member of an ancient Council of mythological shape shifters.” She shook her head and took a sip of water to wet her suddenly dry throat. If he was that old and the youngest of the Council, she shuddered to think about how old the others were.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Taemin laughed and leaned back again, enjoying her embarrassed expressions. “Anything else you’d like to know?”

“Why are the Hadrian after me?” She asked after a moment. “I get that there’s probably not a good relationship after all that stuff back when Tamers first came around; but why me?”

“You’re the first Tamer in a long time, Jinri,” Taemin sighed, losing some of the playfulness in his tone. “Not only do the Hadrian hold an obvious grudge against all the members of our bloodline, they also are particularly eager to return the world to its pre-civili