“Sit down,” Luhan sighed. “You’re gonna need to.”

I followed his instructions and sat crossed-legged in the middle of my bed. I half expected him to sit with me, but then again, we weren’t that close yet. I watched him carefully as he eyed the contents of my room. Since coming from the forest, he had put a shirt on (much to my disappointment) and I couldn’t get the image of him shirtless out of my head. It was practically burned into my memory at this point. 

“Okay,” he started, running a hand through his brown hair. “Where do you want to start?” He asked, and my eyes widened in surprise.

“Um,” I answered, thinking about it. “How come you don’t hang out with the other boys at school?” I blurted. It was the first thing that popped into my head and my lips had word-vomited it out.

His brows furrowed, and he looked down probably trying to figure out what to say. I saw his hand come to his face. His thumb and forefinger absently pinched the edge of his jaw. It was a cute tick and I wondered if he did it every time he thought deeply about something. My eyes traced the rest of his body quickly. He was fit, just like the rest of the pack I had become acquainted with, but he had a certain elegance to his muscles—a unique poise in all his movements. 

I could have stared at him like that forever, but he raised his head, ready to speak. He must have caught me ogling him because he raised a brow and gave me a small mischievous smile.

“If you’re done checking me out, I’ll go ahead and tell you,” he quipped. I frowned and was about to retort, when he continued. I grimaced, realizing just how much he liked to have the upper hand in our conversations. Then again, so did I. “I used to be a part of their pack,” he stated. “Originally, there were twelve of us all born around the same time. Usually, werewolf packs have generations of children that span the same timeframe since we’re such a close-knit community. All the couples usually decide to have kids around the same age.”

“So you all grew up together? The twelve of you? Does that include the other two wolves in the forest?” I clarified. 

He nodded, continuing to pace around my room as he answered. “Originally our pack was made of twelve families, which is pretty small as far as packs go. This town was our territory and had been for centuries. A long, long time ago, we shared this town with all kinds of creatures. Vampires, witches, fae, you name it. The University was made to be a tribute to the peace all our races shared. It was a nice time, I suppose. But slowly, newer generations wanted to claim the land for each individual race. Eventually the battle got way too serious and, like, half the town was burned down. Almost everyone left after that, but the vampires and werewolves stayed behind wanting a claim to the area.”

I blinked. This was so much information to take in. Especially the part about there being more than just werewolves and vampires, which was an amazing feat in and of itself. 

“So that’s why the vampires are only in town? I’m guessing you guys have a stake on the university then?” You asked.

“Yep,” Luhan confirmed. “Wait, how did you know about the vampires being in town?” He asked, head tilted to the side.

I made a face somewhere between fear and disgust. “I met one,” I explained, and Luhan’s eyes went wider than I possibly thought they could.

“You what?” He echoed, taking a couple steps closer to me. He had an incredibly pained expression on his face, one of regret and worry. “Did it hurt you?”

I bit my lip to keep myself from grinning ear to ear.

He’s worried about me!

“No, it was fine. It was really scary, though. I only got away because Chanyeol distracted him just in time,” I said, and Luhan’s face went dark, unreadable.

“That’s… good,” he concluded. He sat down at the edge of my bed and began to do that thing with his fingers and jaw again. He really did do that when he was thinking, and I got the best kick out of it. But then I realized something.

“Wait, that doesn’t explain why you aren’t with the main pack,” I recalled.

Luhan whipped his head back to me. “Oh, yeah,” he said sheepishly. “You see, after the separation between the races happened, a Council of Elders was formed on the part of the werewolves, and the vampires made their own version called a Congress. A few years ago, when I was about fourteen, the Council passed a law that it was illegal for any vampire to set foot on our territory. If one did, any werewolf who caught them was allowed to kill them. The vampire Congress immediately responded by making their own rule, too. My family, along with Kris' and Tao’s families, the other two wolves you've seen, thought that was taking it a step too far. So, the Council put it to a pack-wide vote. Every adult in all the twelve families voted for whether or not the new law was too extreme. All the other families except for ours voted no, and they exiled our three families.”

I shook my head vehemently. “What the hell? That’s so messed up,” I fumed. 

“You don’t have to tell me that,” Luhan sighed, giving me a sad look. “We’re absolutely suffocated. We can’t go anywhere outside of the woods we’ve been confined to except to go to the next town over—that’s where we get things like food and clothes. We can’t talk to anyone from the pack, we can’t go into our old homes, and…” he paused, looking down, fiddling with the hem of his shirt, “We can’t take mates.”

I felt my insides freeze at the news. Everything made a bit more sense now. The reason he had been rejecting me and the feeling between us. The reason he always tried to make me angry and argue. The reason he was always so painfully cryptic about who he was.

But still, selfishly, I wanted to hear him say it. If he said it, that made it real. His words would speak our relationship into existence. I couldn’t help myself.

“Luhan” I hesitated. “Are we… am I your mate?” I asked. I held my breath, waiting for him to turn and look at me. He didn’t. He just sat there with his head down, playing nervously with his shirt hem.

“I need to go,” he announced, not once meeting my eyes. He stood up, taking two long strides to my closed door. I was quick to leap up and stop him. I wedged my body between him and the door, forcing him to look at me. His eyes were strained, his jaw clenched. He swallowed so hard it was audible.

“Luhan, please,” I begged, “I don’t know what to do anymore. It’s killing me. A few weeks ago, I was completely unaware of you at all, and then all of the sudden I see you everywhere and it’s so hard to get you out of my head. You’re a stranger to me. I have no idea who you really are, but I only want to be around you. It feels so goo