JB sat on the porch of his pack’s cabin and looked out into the woods with furrowed brows. The forest was unnaturally still today. No wind blew through the trees to make the leaves rustle. No animals ran through their forest and made pattering sounds with their feet. The brook that ran through the the leaf covered ground was still and stagnant, as if it could no longer babble freely. The stillness seemed to be the forest itself holding its breath to hid from something unnoticed by the werewolf. 

He didn’t like it.

Something was wrong, very wrong, and Yugyeom had been gone since yesterday. The wolves would often run off into the woods without telling the others and return days later to tell the about their adventure. But nerves settled uneasily in JB’s stomach and made him look out at the woods every few minutes. He didn’t like not know where the pup of his pack was, not one bit. 

But without knowing were Yugyeom was, there was nothing he could do. JB would have to sit on the deck, waiting, hoping, that the nagging feeling he had was just that.

***

Eunkyung entered her house and slammed the door closed behind her, leaning up against it with a tired huff. Today had been terrible. It had been one test and quiz after the next. It felt like it would never end. She let herself slip down the door until she was sitting on the floor and sighed as she looked around the familiar cabin. Slowly, she could feel herself relax.

She was home. That was all that mattered. None of her problems at school could follow her here. Eunkyung closed her eyes for a moment when something warm and wet ran across her hand.

She gasped, eye shooting open, before seeing that it was just the wolf. It sat in front of her with an excited look in it’s eyes, it’s tail making dull thumps on the floor as it wagged happily. She sighed in relief before lightly scratching it behind the ears. The wolf closed it’s eyes and leaned into her touch, grunted slightly at the heavenly feeling.

Eunkyung gave the wolf one last pat on the head before pulling herself up to standing walking toward the kitchen.

“Want something to eat?” She asked it as she opened the fridge. “Hm… I still have a bit of beef I can feed you.” She pulled out a small cantor with meet in it and opened to for the wolf before putting it on the ground. “I can’t give this to you all the time. You’ll have to settle for chicken soon.”

Eunkyung paused as a though occurred to her and she crouched down to look at the wolf as it ate. “How long are you going to stay with me? Until you heal? Or longer?”

The wolf stopped eating for a second and looked at her with a curious tilt of it’s head. 

“Well, it doesn’t really matter, I guess.” She stood back up and reached into the fridge to pull out a bowl of leftovers for her to eat.

After dinner, Eunkyung cleaned up their dishes and made to go upstairs to do that homework she hadn’t finished yesterday. But when she put her foot on the bottom step, something tugged gently on her pant leg. The wolf whined at her and gently tried to pull her away from the stairs.

“What is it?” She asked. The wolf turned in a circle and sat down before whining again. “Do you want to go out?”

The wolf huffed.

“Are you still hungry?”

Huff.

“Well, what d you want?” She crossed her arms and looked at it expectantly.

It turned away from her and walked into the living room. Eunkyung followed behind the wolf as it went over to the couch and nudged it with it’s nose then looked back at her.

“You… Want me to sit down?”

The wolf let out a happy bark and it’s tail started wagging.

The wolf doesn’t want to be alone? Eunkyung thought as she gave the wolf a quick scratch behind the ear.

“Just let me grab my homework, okay?” She said. “Then I’ll sit down and hang out with you.”

The wolf huffed again, laid down at the foot of the couch, and watched her leave the room.

If Yugyeom was a cat he was sure he’d be purring. He loved being with Eunkyung. When she came back downstairs with her backpack filled with her books and papers to sit at the couch, Yugyeom gave her ankle a before resting his head on her feet like it was a pillow. As she did her work, she’d mumbled things under breath to help her remember them. Every once in a while her mumbles would get a frustrated lilt to them and she’s run her hand through her hair. Yugyeom would always lift up his head and look at her concernedly before her calf in a steady rhythm in hopes to sooth her. When she’d get stuck on a problem, Eunkyung would lean down and pet Yugyeom as she walk through the problem out loud to try to catch where she went wrong. 

While they weren’t exactly talking, Yugyeom felt like they were bonding. This was certainly the longest amount of time he had ever spent in her presence. The quiet around them was comfortable and Yugyeom could feel himself slowly drift off to sleep at her feet.

As he slept, Yugyeom had visions of his mate knitting and laughing as he tried to get her to dance with him. He ran around the living room like an excited puppy for standing in front of her with his hands outstretched to her. She shook her head with an amused smile as she knitted a sock with stars stitched in it. Yugyeom pouted and crouched down so he had to look up at her with big eyes. Finally she gave in and chuckled as she stood up and held his hands. Together they danced around the living room like it was the finest ballroom.