CHANYEOL'S POV

     I can't bear to look at the maknaes faces, as we have our pack meeting in the very place where we always felt loved and nurtured. They have pulled their chairs even closer to each other, wanting to feel the comforting warmth of another body, to calm the fear and sadness in their hearts. I can see Jongin eyeing me as he tried to calm Sehun by rubbing his back. I also want to move my chair closer to them, but my time as one of the maknaes ended this morning. It actually ended eight years ago, when I let the fire of the phoenix consume my soul and release my beast.

      It happened when I was ten years of age, we were walking in the middle of the forest that was part of my ancestor's estate here in Korea. I just wanted some peace and quite at that time away from all the chaos and planning that I am hearing every day against creatures crawling their way to our territory. Back then, I thought that our territory only reaches up to the end of the forest where only a few rays of the sun can penetrate. And the land beyond that was surrounded by a few stumps of dead trees, where the soil of the forest meets the sand of the nearby sea is the world outside our boundary. I never thought that we have a whole continent as our responsibility. A daywalker have found us on that fateful day, lured by the scent of the owner of sweetest blood that my best friend Baekhyun is carrying on his back.

     It was already too late when we noticed his presence as he bared his fangs and pushed Baekhyun on the forest floor knocking both him and Sophie unconscious. The blood flowing from Sophie's temple made the vampire even more frenzied with hunger. Before he was able to sink his fangs into her soft neck, I yank the vampire away from her. I don't know where I got the strength to pull him away and tackle him on the ground. I knew that I still have to wait for three more years for me to transform into my wolf and even that will not be enough since daywalkers are the strongest kind of vampires. But the sight of my best friend lying unconscious and the girl that I have always loved bleeding made the wolf in me stir from its peaceful slumber. I felt the strength of my wolf forcing its way out as my canine teeth elongated into fangs and my nails transformed into claws.

    Fighting with a daywalker was a herculean task for my ten-year-old self. I was only able to distract it for few seconds, and it was up again and making its way to where Sophie was lying. I willed my body to stand up, despite the several wounds that I have received from the glass like claws of the daywalker. In my persistence to protect her, I fought him with my remaining strength and since he moved in a blur, I didn't felt it right away that his fangs were already in my neck poisoning the wolf in me. Everything was becoming a blur as I feel the vampire's poison invading my veins. I can hear the heavy footsteps of my pack running to our direction as I fight for my life. Those footsteps gave me a surge of hope and made the fire inside me took control. But the footsteps slowed down to a halt when I set the forest on fire. Also hurting the life that I have tried to protect.

     When the pack reached us, I have already burned the daywalker to ashes. But the venom he injected in my veins was killing me. I am gasping for breath as life slowly leave my bo