“He’s weak,” Danye said quietly, her voice barely a whisper. “I can’t figure out what’s wrong.”

Areum stood above both of them, Danye’s head lowered to Minho’s bed and the shifter staring at the ceiling, his eyes dilated and his breathing thin and almost non-existent. She knew as much as Danye knew. Which was nothing.

Minho had now been in labor for days yet the twins had not budge, had not transcended. They’d finally gotten the lower one to turn but from there, no matter how Minho pushed, they would not move.

She’d felt his belly, trying to see if they were stuck, but they were clear of obstacles or blockage. There was still fluid in him, so she knew they could breathe but it was thinning and time was running out on how long they could survive without it. Areum felt the dread creeping up her back; she felt the desolation that Danye felt. Minho was bleeding and the only way they could stop it would be to close the cut between his legs but…he couldn’t deliver that way.

Soon she would have to make a decision.

 “Danye…we have to–”

“No,” she murmured, her head snapping up. “No we don’t. Just a few more hours, okay? Just…give them time.” She placed her hand on her son’s chest. “Right, Minho,” she said, roughly. “They are stubborn. Just like your father was. Stubborn as hell. They will come.”

Minho’s head rotated towards her weakly. “Mo…mother. My children…save them,” he pleaded. “Don’t worry about me. Save them.”

Danye’s bottom lip began to tremble. “You don’t know what you’re asking me to do.” She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “I just…I just got you back. I can’t lose you.”

A single tear leaked out of Minho’s eyes as he looked at her. “Jin…Jinki’s children. I can’t lose them. Please–” Minho’s eyes rolled to the back of his head.

“He passed out again,” Areum noted. She placed her hand on Danye’s back, her shoulders heaving as she wept. “Another hour, Danye. Then you have to make a decision,” she advised softly. “My knife is hot and I can lessen the pain but I may have to cut Minho’s bell–“

“Give me my hour, damn you, woman,” Danye shrieked. “Please,” she begged.

“Of course,” she said solemnly. Areum gathered the bowl and began walking back towards the door. She glanced at the knife sitting near the fire. Taeyeon stood there, in her role as water transporter, her face wet with tears. Jackson stood guard close to her, his hand on her arm as if she would collapse. Areum exhaled when she got to them. “Stay here with him. I’m going to gather everyone.”

Taeyeon looked up at her, her eyelashes wet and sticking together. “Gather everyone?”

“Yes. To give them a chance to say goodbye…”

---

Onew was crouched by the fire pit, atop of one of the stones surrounding it with his eyes closed. He tried calling out to Caelo over and over and over and over again.

He heard nothing.

---

Julien jogged to Iseul’s horse and helped her down from it. Taemin hopped down from his and from there, they raced towards the huge cave Caleo had drawn out as the Mighty Cave. When they got to the stairs that led to the mouth of the cave, two women approached them, one obviously a Torch guard. The other, a head full of pinkish blond hair, had a face that caused Iseul to squint. She favored Jinki.

“Who are you?” the blond asked.

“I’m Iseul,” she answered, then pointed to Julien, “this is Julien, The Prince of Fallow Forest, and Taemin, my son.”

A look of recognition crossed her face as she stared at Taemin. “You’re Taeyeon’s brother,” she said. Her hands were shaking. “I’m…I’m Eunsook. I’m Onew’s sister.”

“Onew’s?”

“It’s a lot to explain right now but you need to get to the lower levels immediately,” Eunsook stressed.

Iseul frowned. “Is…” she looked between two women. “Is…is everything alright?”

Eunsook blinked back tears and shook her head. “Please, hurry. Dasom will you. He needs people with him who he trusts.”

Without another word, Dasom hurried them through the complex, dashing down hallways and through huge cavernous rooms until they came to a set of stairs. As they finished the last flight of stairs, Dasom turned down a long hallway. At the end of it a light shined out of an open door. They ran towards it but Iseul came to a dead stop midway through. Her son stopped next to her.

Confused, Julien turned towards them. “What’s…what’s wrong?”

“Minho,” Taemin said, his voice taking on a ghostly haunted quality.

“He’s dying,” Iseul breathed. “Jinki…” Iseul took off in a dead sprint, pushing past both Julien and Dasom towards the light at the end of the hallway. She skid to a stop and rushed into the room, Taemin on her heels.

“Move!” she yelled as she flew towards the bed.

Danye and Kibum were sitting by the bed, the younger shifter almost inconsolable. Danye looked up confused. “Issie?”

Iseul would answer her questions later. She firmly moved her best friend out of the way and stood at Minho’s side. “Taemin! Taeyeon!” Her daughter ran to the bed, standing beside her twin. “You two are the twins of an Omega Magi. You will be able to do this because the same sort of magic that runs in you, runs in these twins, do you understand?

Both Taemin and Taeyeon nodded.

“Do you remember what I taught you about Vara i Jämvikt?”

Taemin’s next nod was slower and the color drained from Taeyeon’s face. She rushed to sooth their worries. “It’s okay. It’ll be okay.”

“Vara i Jämvikt? Equilibrium?” Danye said, a look of dawning horror on her face. “Red magic? Issie, that spell could kill all three of them!”

“What,” Kibum said, his panicked stare rotating between the mages.

“Don’t worry. It won’t,” she said patiently. She grabbed her son’s hand. “Taemin grab your sister’s hand. Taeyeon, grab Minho’s.”

“Iseul, no! We just need to give him another hour! The babies will respond–”

“They are him dry, Danye! You’re too lost in your fears that you haven’t reached out to him! Something is wrong–they are feeding off of Minho’s life force to stay alive. Something is very very wrong,” she stressed. “We have to force a balance.” She paused and looked around. “Where is Jinki?” she said alarmed. “I can’t finish this without Jinki.”

An older woman who stood by Danye’s side frowned. “He’s…he’s not here. We didn’t know any of you were coming.”

Iseul looked back at Julien. “We have to find him. We can’t complete this spell without him. We need him to complete the link.”

“I’ll find him,” Julien promised. He nodded. “Jackson, come with me. Dasom, you too. Someone summon Inwoo.” And with that they left the room.

“Is Jinki in trouble?” The older woman asked, her voice pitched high in worry. Iseul looked at her, really, really looked at her and instantly knew.

“Your son,” her voiced cracked unexpectedly. “He’s fine. He’s just…”

“He’s okay, Mother,” Onew said.

Areum frowned. She looked almost on the verge of hysterics. “How do you know?”

Onew managed a grin, although it was small and tired. “I’m still here, aren’t I?”

Hours later…

“Where is Julien?” Areum breathed.

She, Kibum, and Danye were still in the lower levels of the cave, watching the three mages perform something they called Vara i Jämvikt. Areum didn’t understand. She’d never understood, even when Danye tried to teach Minho basic spells, lighting the fire pit in the kitchen or helping with low level healing. She’d seen things like it in her travels, small movements of magic that always entranced her. What she was seeing was something completely removed from her realm of understanding.

Iseul, Taemin and Taeyeon were in the same spots they’d been when they’d started the spell. It hadn’t required any ingredients, or crystals, or living sacrifices. Just energy and power. They had completely submitted themselves to the spell, almost as if they were frozen in time. A faint, almost non-existent glow extended out of their hands and covered Minho.

The bleeding had stopped and although the twins still hadn’t moved, they and their father had stabilized.

The mage and her children were powerful. She looked at Iseul, the name engraved in her heart. Jinki’s mother.

She was good to him, very nice and she loved him a lot. I remember she used to sing to him. A really nice song. I can’t remember the words but…Iseul is Jinki’s mother. You?  You are mine.

She was beautiful and held the kind of grace that Areum didn’t possess. Areum thought she was more like Danye, rough around the edges, used to influencing with words and raw strength, instead of inherent powers. Iseul looked like she belonged on a throne of roses. It was no wonder her son was a King. It was no wonder her son’s children would be Princes.

Eunsook had joined them but stood behind her, almost as if she were afraid of the magic. Or she was afraid she would do something to disrupt it. She held Kibum’s hand in a death grip as they waited.

There was a noise, indescribable because Areum had never heard it before, floating from the mages and Minho. Iseul’s eyes opened. “We are almost at the limits of what we can do,” she warned softly. “Eunsook,” she called, looking back at the shifter. “You said you were Onew’s sister. That means you are a blood relative of Jinki’s, correct?”

Eunsook nervously nodded. “Y–yes?”

“Good. Step forward into the circle, child.  We need a life force similar to Jinki’s to maintain this balance until we can find him.”

Eunsook took a step back, her eyes quivering with uncertainty. “Why can’t you use Onew? That makes more sense!”

“That won’t work,” Iseul said warmly. “Onew is a specter. Jinki’s blood does not run through him. Jinki’s blood runs through you. Step forward.” She broke the circle and held out her hand. “Please. Make this circle larger. You are family.” She turned to Areum and there was a small but hopeful smile too. “You’re Jinki’s mother…”

Areum put her hands up and shook her head. “No, no,” she laughed, the sound small. “I’m…I’m not his mother. I just gave birth. I…I…you’re his mother.”

“Your blood, not mine runs through these children. You are his mother. Help me make this circle…this family larger. Its okay, Areum. It’s okay.”

Areum hesitated for a second before she looked down at her son in law and the hesitation was nothing but dust. She grabbed Eunsook’s shaking hand and pulled her into the circle, into the warm glow of Iseul’s mageism.

The emotions she was bombarded with were overwhelming. She heard Taeyeon’s despair at losing Minho and possibly losing her brother’s children. She felt Taemin’s anger that Minho was forced away from his mate and their bond, forced into a situation where he couldn’t receive the medical care he needed. Eunsook was scared of what could happen, of what she couldn’t control–that she was always in control and she couldn’t control this. She felt Iseul’s battle, one of remorse for taking Areum’s child but being blessed to have met Jinki and having the chance to raise him. She thought about her mate, she thought about her children.  Jinki’s children. Jinki’s mate.

Minho was lost in his fear and his thoughts reflected that, his spirit reaching out for his children, reaching out for his mate. Even the children’s thoughts she could hear. She gasped.

They were waiting!

They were waiting for the other person they’d imprinted on. They were waiting for their father.

She looked up to the ceiling, desperate. “Jinki,” she said. “Where are you?”

---

“I’m here.” It was as if he could hear the woman’s voice, her question in his head as he stood in the doorway.

The circle surrounding his mate broke and everyone’s concentration shifted to him.

Jinki hobbled into the room, his face and clothing stained with blood. Julien helped him down the two steps that led into the room and over to Minho’s bed. Kahi was right behind him, saddled across Inwoo’s back as he entered the room.

“What–what happened,” Kibum said as he looked over Jinki and Kahi, his eyes radiating a worry Jinki didn’t see quite often from his High Steward.

“I’ll explain later,” Jinki mumbled. “Julien help me, please.” The taller Artic wolf complied and helped Jinki closer to the bed. Onew stood and met him at his side.

“He’s weak, Jinki,” Onew said. “I can’t feel Caleo anymore.”

“I can’t either, Onew. I called on him and he…just wasn’t there.”

“Is everything going to be okay? I can’t stand this stupid , not knowing. I’m losing it.”

Jinki thunked his wolf on the forehead. “Get it together. They need us,” he said firmly, but softly.  With that, he stood just outside of the circle at his mother’s side.

“You’re here,” Iseul said.

“They were calling out to me. I tried to get here as fast as I could. I swear.”

“You look like ,” she said but then his mother kissed his forehead. “Are you okay?”

“I’ve been worse.”

“Good. I hope you have enough strength. Minho will need your energy.”

“Its fine,” Jinki said, sounding calmer than he felt. “The twins explained everything to me in their own unique way. I just need to be with them. They are waiting for the link to be complete. ”

Iseul’s brows rose. “The strength of you and Minho’s bond amazes me every day.”

Jinki smiled before pulling off his blood soaked shirt, mindful of the wound on his chest. It had been cauterized shut but he didn’t want to think about it. Or the pain that came with that.  Gently, he laid down beside his mate. Something cleared in Minho’s eyes when Jinki’s hand landed on his belly and called his name. Slowly, Minho turned towards him, his face scrunched in disbelief.

“Jin...ki?”

Jinki rubbed a thumb over his mate’s dry chapped lips and smiled. “I’m here, Minho.”

“Why…why are you here?” his mate breathed. “We are …at war. How did you know to come? I didn’t–“

“You are more important than Prae,” he said, marveling at just how true it was. “I may fight for it to survive but only because it’s what I’ve been called to do. Because people depend on me.” He pushed Minho’s hair back off his sweaty forehead and placed a soft kiss across Minho’s nose, then his forehead before looking him deep in his eyes. “I am here because you need me. I live for you, Minho. I would die for you.”

“I called for you,” Minho sobbed, his voice nothing more than a pained whisper. “I–I know it was selfish but I just wanted you here. I wanted to see your face before I died.”

“Shh, baby, you’re not going anywhere. I’m here,” he murmured, kissing the top of Minho’s head, “I’m here, I’m here, I’m here,” he repeated over and over again. “Close your eyes.”

“That’s super easy. Watch me work my magic,” Minho joked softly before his eyes slid close.

Jinki closed his eyes as well and opened the bond, pouring as much as could into his mate.

“Should we start the spell back up?” Taemin asked staring at the couple.

Iseul waited for a moment then shook her head. “No. The bond has been created. We are linked. And Jinki is healing his mate. Look at his cheeks,” she said with a smile. “He’s got some color again. It’s now up to the babies.”

Silence descended the room. Jinki continued to speak sweet nonsense into Minho’s ear while rubbing his belly. He heard his children’s voices in the back of his mind, a jumbled mix of confusion and wonderment.

Suddenly, Minho tipped his head back and screamed. Jinki reared back in shock, looking his mate over. “What’s–what’s wrong?” he stuttered, his eyes wide.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the older woman take a small step forward, peeking under the sheet covering Minho’s legs. “Oh, Se’beatæh! A head!” she laughed loudly before kneeling between Minho’s legs. “I see a head! Taeyeon! Child! Water! I need water!”

Taeyeon’s face split into a smile. “Yes, ma’am! Right away, ma’am!” Taeyeon took off and Taemin followed her.

“Kibum, when Taeyeon brings back the water, refresh your White Willow bark concoction. We will need to afterwards.” Kibum nodded tearfully, still trying to stop his sobs, his shoulders shaking as he made his way to his makeshift apocarthy table. “Onew can you handle my blade? Place it on the fire. We will need to cut the cord.” The shifter exhaled loudly as if he’d been holding it for years and without a word turned followed the woman’s commands.

She looked back at Minho, her smile still brilliant until she and Jinki’s eyes met. Her smile faltered a bit but she didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to. Jinki knew.

Minho hissed loudly and her concentration was brought back to the shifter in front of her. She patted his knee and threw the linen covering his legs all the way back. “It’s time, Minho,” she marveled softly. “It’s time.

---

Half of Nihil was packed into the lowest room of the Mighty Cave. Jinki looked around, bewildered, as they continued to flow in, filling up any available space that they could.

Minho sat back against a pillow braced against the wall, a sleeping bundle in one of his arms. Jinki held the other.

“You said they were going to be PRINCES. Those are girls!”

“Hush, Sooyoung!” Joohyun whispered harshly. “There is nothing wrong with girls! You’re a girl!”

“I didn’t say there was!” she said indignantly, tugging on her braided ponytails. “It’s just a good thing you guys have me around, huh! They’ll need a big sister,” she said proudly, her smile a touch smug.

Joohyun rolled her eyes.

Jinki had had the chance to meet most of the Wanderers as they buzzed around the door. Some of them were regulated to task, such as Sooyoung and Joohyun. Others he’d met as a formal introduction, such as with Eunsook, his biological sister.

Her personality was very similar to Onew’s so instead of the tearful introduction one would hope to have when reuniting with a relative; she punched him in the gut for making her worry. “First I thought you were dead! And then you make that no-good come here,” she said pointing hard at Onew, who only rolled his eyes, “and then you made me care about Minho and then you come in here, limping and bloody and…” she balled up her fist. “What is wrong with you?!”

“She’s…” Onew looked as if he were searching for a word. “Special.”

Caleo hovered over her shoulder like she was some kind of rare creature. “I like her. I like her a lot. Can I keep her?”

Eunsook stared at him with a raised brow but Caleo’s praises seem to calm her down.

His next introduction was with Typhoon–whose temperament wasn’t as…kind as Eunsook–who told him simply, “Don’t treat her bad. She missed you every day you were gone.”

Jinki didn’t know to whom Typhoon was referring to until the woman named Areum came in the room. Both Jinki and Iseul had scrambled to their feet when she walked in. She gave them a funny look and shook her head.  

“The three of us have a lot to discuss, don’t we?” was all she said as she dried her hands on an apron. The talk had come eventually and it was one of the most important conversations Jinki ever had in his life. Finally meeting his birth mother. Finally seeing her face, feeling her warm hands on his, hearing her soft loving voice speaking his name. Onew made it a point to let Jinki know he couldn’t have his mother, to which Areum laughed. “We are all family, Onew. We are linked,” she said, looking at Iseul.

“We are. We are a big large circle, Onew. We are one family.”

Onew grumbled and moved closer to Areum anyways.

Days later, he woke up to Nihil wanting to see the Princes. Instead, he introduced them two his two Princesses.

“Min Soo and Min Sun.”

The entire room cooed.

“We’ve never had royalty here before,” a shifter in a Nihil guard uniform said, his eyes wide as he stared down at the two bundles wrapped in soft downy linens.

“We’re not…” Jinki frowned. “We’re not really royalty.”

“Yes, you are,” Eunsook said. “You’re like… the Kings of Prae.”

Jinki’s frowned deepened but Minho just laughed. “Just go along with it.”

Areum’s frown matched Jinki’s. “Alright, you all. Enough. The babies aren’t going anywhere for a while, so stop acting like they are going to disappear if there aren’t in eyesight every minute you’re breathing.”

The crowed vocalized their disappointment but listened nonetheless and began to file out of the room. Except Sooyoung.

“That means you too, young lady.”

The young shifter gasped. “But–but I thought we said I was their big sister! I can’t leave!”

Areum began pushing her towards her mother who waited at the door for her with a knowing grin. “I don’t know who “we” is, Sooyoung. You declared that. And even still, big sisters aren’t guard dogs. You have work to do in the kitchen.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she said as she walked away.

“Try not to get on Joohyun’s nerves!” Areum yelled as Sooyoung and her mother disappeared around the corner. Sighing, she turned to the new parents. “Ika and Bella are here.”

“The wet nurses?” Minho groaned. “What do we need them for? Just let me keep trying!”

“Minho, love, you’re not producing. I believe it’s a side effect of the medication Kibum told me about? It’s fine. It doesn’t make you any less of a bearer.”

“If we were out in the cold and by ourselves it would,” Minho sulked. “Why are they here so early? They just fed this morning.”

“I know you two want to rest but Julien is outside requesting a word with Minho and Jinki, Eunsook is requesting a word with you. It seems the world does not stop even when we are blessed with Princesses.”

Both parents looked down at the respective daughter they were holding, then at the one their mate was holding and pouted.  “But–“

Areum chuckled warmly at the couple. “They aren’t going to disappear, children. If you hurry up and conclude your meeting you will have all day with them.”

Ika and Bella stepped inside the room and Jinki’s lip poked out even further but he relented. “Where is Eunsook?” Jinki asked.

“The guard station.”

Jinki nodded and handed Min Soo to Bella. “She’s fussy but I think it’s all the attention. I can’t tell if she hates it or adores it,” he said as he slipped his finger from her hold. Bella nodded and took a seat on the opposite side of the fire. He leaned over and kissed Min Sun on the forehead, then Minho on the lips. “I’ll be back soon.”

Minho hummed as he handed Min Sun to Ika and beckoned Julien, who’d just arrived, to come in.

Jinki left the room, following behind Areum until they came to the guard room where Eunsook was waiting patiently…with her axe. “This woman…” he muttered.

“You’ll get used to her. I swear,” Areum said with a small smile. She patted him on the back and left and Jinki watched her go, trying to soak in everything about her in the little time he would be around her.

“There you are, you piece of ,” Eunsook grunted.

“You say I’m the King of Prae but you treat me like I’m a stable boy or something,” Jinki intoned as he took a seat on top of a table.

“I ain’t of Prae,” she said simply. “Either way, we need to discuss a few things. You may not know this but we Wanderers are not warmongers.”

Jinki’s brow rose. “Neither are we,” he said, defending his clan collective.

“Yet you always seem to be in some kind of war. Funny how that works.” She placed her axe down and turned to him. “How do you plan on protecting Minho? And not from Iutus or those funny Blue Crescent people. How are you planning on protecting him from Prae?”

“You care about him,” Jinki asked, his brow and his hackles raised.

“Yes,” she said simply.  Eunsook rolled her eyes. “Not like that,” she said almost disgusted. “I met him and Onew at the same time. They are…” she separated her hands and then pushed them together. “They are like brothers to me. I can’t separate my concern for my brother with my concern for Minho. I can’t separate my concern with you with my concern for Minho.” 

Jinki sighed. “I’m not going to let anything happen to him.”

“As things are, I believe you. As long as Minho is safe here, he’ll always be safe. Your problem is you don’t want Minho here. You want him and your children home with you. Prae thinks he is dead. If they don’t think he is dead, they want him dead.”

“Not all of Prae.” Jinki hopped down from the table and grabbed Eunsook by the elbow, dragging her deeper into guard room and away from the ears of those who stationed the door. “You remember how I came in bloody? How long it took me to get here?”

Eunsook looked at him as if he were strange but nodded. “I was attacked obviously, but it was the “who” that attacked me that became important.” He flipped his hand over until his palm was showing. A slowly healing gash was there.

“Jesu,” Eunsook exclaimed. “That looks like it hurts!”

“It’s a reminder but my pain isn’t important. Kahi and I were abducted and held for ransom. I, the hostage, was to pay the ransom, to meet their demands. They somehow knew I was the Alpha Prime of Prae.”

“They did this to their King?”

Jinki shook their head. “I’m no more their King or their Alpha than I am yours. The woman who orchestrated this told me everything. I learned more about Minho’s heritage. You see, Minho’s great-grandmother was a woman by the name of Fanan. She was one of the founders of Ntatsuvi. It’s a way of life that Toleran mages live by. To them, Minho is a descendant of that way of life. A pact of feral Toleran wolves migrated from Toleran after The Den was built because they disagreed with the Pprunevai.  They set up on the other side of Prae, now Ves, and both Tameless and Meek continued living The Old Way”

“Okay,” Eunsook said, her brow furrowed. “Nice geography lesson but what does that have to do with you getting your kicked?”

“You know how you keep calling us Kings of Prae? Well, the only person between the two of us who is actual royalty is Minho. Danye, Minjung, all were Ntatsuvi royalty.”

“Nice,” Eunsook whistled. “But again, your getting kicked? You’re not saying that happened because your mate is royalty. That doesn’t make sense, why would they harm you?”

“Well,” he winced. “The Meek of Ves, the rational ones if you’ve ever wandered into Ves, have always distanced themselves from The Tameless and regular shifters that lived there. It’s because unlike Toleran shifters who remember the Old Way and the Ves who live by the Old Way, The Meek of Ves only live to protect it. Protecting the Old Way means protecting Minho.” He paused to make sure Eunsook was paying attention to the next part. “They know he’s alive.”

Eunsook recoiled. “THEY KNOW HE’S ALIVE?”

Jinki clamped a hand over . “Hush, you fool.” He pulled her further back into the guard room. “When they abducted me they had a demand. If I did not fulfill that demand, they would deliver me to the Blue Crescents.”

“So they threaten you to protect your mate? How does that make sense in their heads?” Eunsook whispered furiously.

“Threaten, beat, torture. All of the above. It was a very long night.”

Eunsook’s outrage calmed and she looked at Jinki with soft disbelief. “Jesu, Jinki. Are you serious? Why…why didn’t you tell anyone? Why haven’t you seen a healer?”

“He was more important. Then my children became more important. I’m okay, I survived it and I will go see one soon,” he said, shaking off the weird feeling her concern gave him. “But I may be able to bring Minho back into Prae under their watch and maybe back into the Fortress under their protection. No one is exactly anxious to go against feral wolves. The Tameless would protect the Meek even in times of war and The Meek would protect Minho.”

Eunsook stood back from him and whistled again. “Good job, pup. That was impressive. Too bad you had to get ‘yer handed to you to figure it out!” She ruffled his hair. “When are you going to tell Minho the good news?”

“After he rests. I still have a few more weeks here and I just want to focus on him and the girls.” 

Eunsook buffed her nails against her chest. “I can handle things while you’re busy being a father, ya know. After all I am the oldest and the smartest.”

Jinki stared at her for a long moment before he started laughing. “So this is my gift of returning? A bossy big sister?”

Eunsook punched his arm. “Yep!”