Thank you so much for all that were patient! I love and appreciate you guys so much!

Fun update: I created a playlist on Spotify for this story! Hopefully you guys can check it out. It is titled ECBL by trinkdufreak. Search it up and check it out!!!

Hope you enjoy!

Something was off when they arrived. Kyungsoo could feel Yifan’s muscles go stiff as they finally got to the entrance of the cave.

The wolf tilts his head back and sniffs the air avidly. He’s searching for something. He seems to find it too, as his eyes glow and he carefully puts Kyungsoo down.

“Wait here.” he grunts before jogging inside. The little mate is left in the opening with a confused look and worried thoughts. He shuffles over to a large enough rock to sit on, sighs deeply and tried to wait patiently.

The sun still bright in the sky, animals rustling about and birds singing their songs. Kyungsoo enjoys the green leaves and vegetation not too far from him. He inhales the soft blues of the sky and tries to relax. Even as he shifts and his vision spots all the red on his hands, he attempts to slow his heart. The blood is everywhere. It’s drenched his hands and chest. Everytime he glances downward all he can see is the dots of red on his cheeks.

His memory holds on to the animal’s last scream. How the gigantic roar had morphed so quickly into an anguished cry. Suddenly the jaguar had not been so terrifying. He had seemed quite scared, quite gentle as he died.

“Come inside little mate.” Yifan’s voice interrupts his dark thoughts. When Kyungsoo looks up he stares at the wolf for a moment. Something is wrong. There is a line of tension in the wolf’s brow. His face is like cold stone, masking the emotions underneath. Kyungsoo wants to ask what was inside. He can tell though, by the sheer slice of the blue eyes glaring at him that now is not the time to ask.

So the induk quietly walks past the beast with his head hung low, worrisome thoughts echoing in time with the sound of his footsteps across the cave walls.

The induk doesn’t meant to tense up every time Yifan touches him, but it's what he is simply used to. He expects that when the wolf grabs him for the hand to be full or rage, to be yelled at and talked down to. Kind offers of bathing together in dark lake inside the cave, a gentle deep voice accompanying it, and a coarse thumb caressing his forearm is not what Kyungsoo expects.

“Yes,” he answers meekly, “I would like to wash all of this off.” With his fingernails he had begun to scratch of small dots of blood. Resulting in the red paste gathering under his nails instead.

He’s led to the lake resting within the cave. The same one he had almost drowned in.

Yifan senses Kyungsoo’s hesitation. The wolf had jumped in without a word, long body gliding into the dark water easily. A small splash follows before the neon blue eyes are watching the little mate expectantly.

Kyungsoo remembers how deep it is, how he doesn’t have a knack for swimming. He felt like a dead weight last time, sinking to the bottom quickly. It had been terrifying.

Wordlessly the beast swims closer to the edge, closer to Kyungsoo. He treads there, leaving just enough space for the little mate to jump in.

The induk gets the message. It makes his heart beat loudly, a flush of blood rise in his cheeks.

Yifan would catch him. He was there. He wouldn’t let Kyungsoo drown.

The smaller mate crouches at the edge carefully, slowly easing his feet into the water. It’s colder than a night’s breeze and causes goosebumps to raise on his skin. With a deep breath and heart hammering in his chest, Kyungsoo lets his body fall in.

His shoulders are barely covered by the single drop of liquid before Yifan has his arms wrapped tightly around Kyungsoo’s middle. The little mate doesn’t think before wrapping his own arms around Yifan’s neck tightly.

“It’s fr-freezing!” Kyungsoo is shivering violently, teeth chattering as his knuckles tighten around the neck he’s clinging to desperately.

A new sound enters his universe then. It’s simple, gone before it really begins. Kyungsoo stills and tries to memorize it.

Yifan had laughed under his breath.

It was a simple scoff really, which the beast had done before when mocking the induk for being weak and vulnerable. But this one had been different. At the back of his throat there’d been a note of humor, a hint of happiness. It had chimed in with the scoff and Kyungsoo feels a twinge of a smile growing on his lips.

He’d never heard Yifan laugh before. Not like that. Not genuinely.

Kyungsoo makes the mistake of pushing back far enough to see Yifan’s face.

He’s smiling. Not outrightly but, he’s definitely not frowning. The blue eyes that are usually glaring and shooting invisible arrows are scrunched up a tiny bit, pushed up by the wolf’s cheeks.

“Is something funny?” Kyungsoo smiles right back.

The blue eyes shimmer a bit, “You are. The way you fell in, like a floundering fish.”

Another smile, another small round of chuckles. Kyungsoo’s heart is still hammering, but for a new reason. The wolf clears his throat when the little mate only smiles back in response.

“Don’t!” Kyungsoo gasps when he feels the man pushing him away a little. He tightens his grip around the wolf’s neck, the fear of drowning is still present in his mind. The wolf doesn’t say anything, only pulls the induk back tight his arms and kicks around, letting the pair float about the cold water aimlessly for a bit. Their bodies are close, just as close as the first night they’d met, Kyungsoo can’t help but let his mind wander, feel the body that he’d slept next to for so many nights now.

The beast is all hard lines and angles, tone muscles flexing as they surround Kyungsoo in protection. Powerful legs kick in wide strides under the water. Powerful arms circled Kyungsoo’s middle. A powerful abdomen was pressed against Kyungsoo’s softer one. His arms were wrapped around a powerful neck.

Powerful. The beast was very strong and powerful, and yet here he was being tender. His arms could squeeze harder if they wanted to, but they only secured Kyungsoo in place. Powerful hands were gently rubbing soothing circles onto the shivering man’s back.

Kyungsoo finds himself resting his head on the beast’s shoulder, closing his eyes and letting his mind get lost in the feel of Yifan around him, in the feeling of being protected and...cherished.

“I could get used to this.” Kyungsoo muses. Another laugh from the wolf. He liked Yifan’s laugh. It seemed to rumble down to his throat, a deep vibration that only Kyungsoo could hear.

“Used to what?” Yifan asks with a teasing tone.

Kyungsoo lifts his head. Blue eyes look down on him.

“Used to you, being so kind. Holding me.”

“You are my mate.” Yifan reminds him.

Kyungsoo arches a brow, “I couldn’t tell, could you?”

The wolf’s face hardens, as does Kyungsoo’s. He expects a defensive remark of some sort. Maybe about Kyungsoo being annoying, weak, or even about how the wolf was only doing what he needed to do.

Instead, the wolf’s face softens gradually. There is sincerity in his eyes as he whispers,

“You make me feel things that I haven’t felt since I last saw my mother.”

Kyungsoo’s brow scrunches now, mind running around that sentence. He wants to ask now, the question burns on the tip of his tongue. Yifan’s evident pain though, the pain that leaks out through his eyes in clear streams makes him stop though. Kyungsoo’s instinct is to wipe away the stray tears that begin to fall down the beast’s cheek.

Yifan’s neck snaps, his head whipping away.

“Stop.” the wolf’s voice has gone hoarse.

“Let me.” Kyungsoo argues, reaching to try and show that he cares, that all he wants to do is comfort Yifan.

Neon eyes glare at him and he’s pushed away for a moment. Just at arm's length, unforgiving grip still wrapped around Kyungsoo’s wrist to keep him afloat. He tightens his hand around Kyungsoo’s wrist as warning to leave it. Yifan doesn’t want Kyungsoo to know his pain, to know what a mate could do to hurt him, what his mother did to hurt him.

“Yifan-”

“Over there is the shallow area that you usually bathe in, you can clean off the blood with a cloth I have.” the wolf pulls the induk forcefully towards the far end of the lake. Once Kyungsoo is able to stand alone the wolf lets him go completely.

“Hurry before the sun sets, otherwise you will be cold all evening and complain.” Yifan says before jumping out of the lake and walks to the corner where they usually sleep in. He returns after a moment with a simple piece of cloth, wordlessly tossing it into the lake for Kyungsoo to grab.

Without another word the wolf leaves Kyungsoo to bathe, shifting into his animal form and laying down in the dark corner in silence.

The induk feels his heart weigh heavy in his chest. He can’t tell what hurts more, seeing the pain in Yifan’s eyes or the way he’d immediately put up a strong wall to keep Kyungsoo out.

“My father hated me.”

The wolf’s ears perk up for a moment before falling again. They’d been sitting in silence for quite some time. Kyungsoo had finished wiping all the blood away, watching the swirls of crimson float around him the way smoke danced in the air. It was surprising how much of it had gotten in his hair, but with the cloth Yifan had given him he was able to get every ounce of red off.

He’d climbed out easily, walking over to where the wolf was curled in on itself, seeming to be asleep. But it was the wolf’s tail that gave him away. The second Kyungsoo sat down against the beast’s belly, a long tail swung around and laid over the little mate’s form. Warmth was more than welcome and Kyungsoo ed his arms into the thick and sinfully soft fur.

“You’re terribly warm.” Kyungsoo sighed. No response.

So the pair had sat in silence. Kyungsoo had watched the light from the tunnel recede slowly,

When was the last time Yifan had seen his mother? His father had passed, that much Kyungsoo knew. It was with these two facts that Kyungsoo was trying to solve the mystery that was rakasa serigala.

Maybe in order to learn more about the wolf, Kyungsoo had to share something about himself. They had never talked about that, their history.

“I was supposed to grow up to become a warrior in candra suku. My clan is supposed to be the strongest, I was a prodigy. After all I was born under the wolf moon. Surely I would become fierce and brave.” Kyungsoo sighs. Old feelings begin to bubble under his skin. Like an old pot that had been full of water, left over a small fire. Slowly the water had come to a simmer. Kyungsoo had forgotten about that old pot of water, but now he could see the small bubbles, feel them heat up his skin.

A quick glance over tells him he has the wolf’s full attention. The blue eyes are watching him silently, but the dog like ears are at full attention and aimed his way. Yifan is listening.

“But the older I grew, the weaker I became. I was afraid to take life, to be the reason I living being stopped breathing. It didn’t sit right with me. Everyone looked down on me, I knew they did. Most of my clan stopped talking to me. My father made it a point to tell me I was a disappointment every day. From the time the sun rose to when the moon showed her face, he reminded me that I was nothing to him unless I became a successful warrior.”

Every day. Every time their eyes met. Every chance he got.

Doprajurits are supposed to be strong, where is your strength?

I killed plenty of game by the time I was your age, what is wrong with you?

Disappointment suits you, like a warrior's crown suits me.

Wet and hot air mists over Kyungsoo’s face. Yifan’s muzzle is pushed against his head, nuzzling into his hair. The induk reached up and combs his fingers through the fur under wolf’s chin.

“It’s alright. He did damage, and my clan rejected me, but I had friends. I had people who cared about me.”

Chanyeol’s smile flashes through his mind in a split second. At the pit of his stomach he feels a dull throb at the romance that was lost before it could begin. Surely, Chanyeol would have treated him with kindness and respect, spoiled him and showed Kyungsoo every day that he was loved and adored.

The warmth from behind him is gone in a flash and Kyungsoo almost falls flat on his back. Instead, a firm chest is seated behind him. Yifan wraps his arms around Kyungsoo’s shoulders, and the little mate feels the same warmth he’d felt earlier in the lake.

“These people cherished you?” Yifan murmurs against Kyungsoo’s ear.

He thinks of the tiger coat with buffalo horns, of the deep kiss in the dark hut, and of the deep base that had asked the simple question in his ear.

“They did.” Kyungsoo sighs.

Yifan holds him for a long while, as they sit in the darkness of the cave, as they listen to silence around them. The wolf is so warm, even in his human form, heat resonating from him like a spark of fire is waiting to erupt right from under his skin. Kyungsoo scoots until they are fully against one another, until Yifan’s face is pressed against his own, until he loses track of where his own skin ends and where the beast’s begins.

It’s this way, with Yifan surrounding him and rocking him gently, that Kyungsoo falls asleep.

Not with tears trickling down his face, not with frustration in mind or even annoyance. He feels a serene calm washing over him. It feels like he could float away into the sky and meet the moon.

Once Yifan is positive Kyungsoo is asleep, he can tell by the even breaths and the steady heartbeat of his mate, he pressed one soft kiss to the smaller man’s temple.

“My mother must have hated me more than your father hated you. She didn’t even talk to me. And then she left.”

Slowly he eases the unconscious body down till his little mate is fully laying down. Yifan is able to extend his arm as a makeshift pillow for the man’s head. He frowns as he glances around. Maybe some hides would do them good, make his mate more comfortable.

Yifan will surely never tire of how beautiful Kyungsoo is. Those wide eyes could swallow the universe whole. They were so dark and deep, so wide and reflective. His full lips were begging to be kissed, his porcelain skin so fine and fare.

“I hope you don’t leave me too.”

What is it you need beast? What is that you need in order to leave my people be?

A mate.

That’s simple, I will bring you the most beautiful mate from my tribe now.

No. Not just any mate will do.

I understand that they need to be untouched, .

Not just that. I require a special . It’s nearly impossible to find, the mate I seek.

Do tell.

They must be untouched yes, but there is more. Someone with the spirit of a warrior but the heart of a mother. Someone who will not shake in the face of death, someone who can care as much as they can fight. Surely there is no warrior in your tribe that also has the heart of a mother.

No there is not...not yet.

See all that mushiness I finally blessed you guys with? Not a single bit of violence or insults. What?! #letthelovegrow

A kind of explanation as to why I haven't updated is posted in the next chapter tease, so you can read that if you wish.

Also, if you guys could answer this question becuase I'm dumb: Did I already show you guys the map I created for this world?? I can't remember if I have or not...

Anywho! Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed! Please feel free to leave a comment, I always read and sometimes reply! Also if you have questions please ask! I'll do my best to answer! And story theories are ALWAYS welcome, they excite me haha.

Much love doves,

Porter