<3<3<3<3<3<3 Love you~!

~

The smaller female wolf launched herself at Ravi when her companion lunged for me, and although it was two against one because I was definitely no match for them and I was no help at all, Ravi held his own, surprising me when he grabbed the gray wolf that was aiming for me. He literally snatched him by his tail, yanking him back painfully enough that the wolf yelped. With an angry exclamation, he used the gray wolf as a shield against the female, the red wolf backing off once she saw she was about to harm her own ally. The dude in Ravi’s arms wasn’t cooperative at all, however, and squirmed violently in my friend’s hold, dangerously close to snapping his teeth around Ravi’s handsome face. Grimacing, Ravi held the wolf in a way that kept its jaws away from his head, but the wolf’s hind legs started to rake down against Ravi’s thighs, tearing through the already-tattered fabric of his pants. With a grunt and a roar, the wolf was thrown away by Ravi, and he took a step towards it, his own teeth exposed in a challenging sneer.

Gathering itself up off the ground, it started to circle, and Ravi joined in on the dance, his capable hands ready at his sides. I watched, both with fascination and terror, afraid for the guy that had so quickly become family.

While Ravi and I were both distracted, the female took her chance to come at me on her own, leaving the wolf under Ravi’s intense glare to fend for himself. She gave herself away when she growled, coming towards me with her jaw already wide open to sink her teeth into me. On reflex, I threw my arm up to block, but all that got me was a forearm full of sharp, unrelenting fangs. White-hot pain started from the points where her teeth penetrated, radiating out and up all the way towards my shoulder, my muscles spasming in protest. I in my breath, instinctively trying to pull free, and she tightened her hold, locking her jaw, her teeth tearing my skin further as she tugged, too.

I hate animal cruelty, I really do, and I'm super against it, but I don’t think she really counted and I didn’t think much about it then when I started pounding against her deltoid because I was in a lot of pain. I let loose, wailing on her, and she started to growl viciously, lifting her forepaw to swipe at me, pulling at my arm painfully at the same time. I dodged just at the right moment, but I also gaped at her, shocked by her range of motion; the swipe was more like a lion’s strike. With more incentive, I punched on her side some more, also desperate to get my poor arm free. I cried out involuntarily when she tried to shake me about like a chew toy, and then gasped loudly in more pain when she tried dragging me off with her. I had to throw my legs out to keep her from hauling me away, suddenly engaging in a game of tug-of-war. Getting fed-up with her, I threw my best left hook, my fist connecting solidly with her mandible.

To my huge surprise, I heard something crunch, and the shock and horror that coursed through me made me stop even though she was still growling viciously. “Holy sh—I’m so sorry!” I told her quickly, probably even confusing her for a second.

She didn’t accept my apology, choosing instead to sink her teeth even deeper into my giving flesh. I shouted in disbelief, the pain unbearable, amazed that she hadn’t snapped my bones yet.

Ravi, wrestling with the gray wolf just a few yards away from me, noticed just how deep of a pickle I was in and grunted as he tried to restrain his own wild canid. “Hang on, Mia!”

I was about to tell him to take his time when the red wolf lifted her paw again, rending my forearm simultaneously with her choppers. Clenching my jaw to keep myself from screaming, I used her hold on my arm against her and yanked her towards me quickly to throw off her swipe and lifted her head, throwing my fist out at the same time to punch her in the throat. She gagged and loosened her jowls enough for me to pull my arm free, backing up in a clumsy scramble as she tried to recover from the hit she received. The relief of having my arm free and away from her sharp teeth made me feel lightheaded, and then I saw all the blood, which made me feel even more lightheaded because there was so much of it, but a little nagging voice in my head told me it was a good time for me to get the heck out of dodge and worry about the bleeding later.

Just as I was about to get to my feet, she lunged again, and this time I had no dream whatsoever of fighting her off. I took a shaky breath and met her eyes without batting an eyelash, prepared for her worst, and determined to get back up after.

A wicked gleam caught my attention and I turned my eyes away for just a second to see what it was that had glinted so brightly in the light of the autumn sun, moving just in time to see that the flash had been right by my shoulder and that it was followed by a blurring streak of beautiful darkness. It was difficult to keep up with how fast it all happened, but as soon as it was over, I knew immediately just exactly what had occurred.

Majestic, graceful, and absolutely gorgeous, Taekwoon stood over the pinned body of the female wolf with my necklace still on him, her much smaller form writhing under his large paws. He had his eyes narrowed down at her, his gaze lit like gold fire, not amused. Relieved to see that he was okay, I sagged a little on the cold, crunchy grass of their vast backyard. The movement unsettled my injured arm and I tensed, hissing quietly from the pain. Taekwoon turned to look at me when I moved, and his ears twitched when I’d made the noise; his eyes zeroed in on the mess my forearm had become, and then narrowed into angry slits. His lips peeled back from his teeth in a soundless snarl, the sharp fangs catching my attention the most, and his ears flattened angrily. The female under him growled in return, undaunted, but it would be the last mistake she’d ever make.

I started, my eyes widening. He had moved so quickly once again, and I was only able to piece together what happened from the aftermath. The female was no longer alive, limp under the ebony wolf, her lifeless body frozen on the ground. There was a horrible gaping hole where used to be, and blood, so red that it looked black, dripped from Taekwoon’s muzzle. Watching the fat drops fall to the ground, my eyes glazed over; quickly thereafter, the rich wine scent reached my nose. I ignored the way my mouth went dry, an unbearable thirst assailing me, and dropped my eyes, horrified by my reaction.

When I sensed him move, I looked up again to track Taekwoon as he joined Ravi over the body of the gray wolf, the two members of my family alive and safe. Ravi, in his human form still, stared down at the motionless canid at his feet, his expression sad. He shook his head and crouched down, running his fingers through the damp and dirtied fur, regret blatant on his handsome face, even after he’d sustained his fair share of injuries holding the beast off. He turned and said something to Taekwoon, and the black wolf dipped his head briefly in what I assumed was a nod before nudging the gray canid with his nose, then backed away slowly. The black fur began to recede, disappearing to be replaced with smooth, unblemished skin, and the wolf soon became a man, his torso and limbs elongating and reshaping into those of a human. Taekwoon stood up straight, shaking his hair out a little, stretching his neck until vertebrae resettled into place with a series of refreshing pops. The transformation lasted three seconds exactly, a truly magical moment, so fast that I would have missed it if I hadn’t been looking right at him.

The beautiful love of my life turned around to face me, his eyes still yellow. I wanted to get up and run to him, but my body didn’t listen to me even when I tried to lift myself up, so I settled with gazing, my eyes raking over his form to make sure there wasn’t a scratch on him. To my immense relief, I saw only a single bruise just above his right hip, but it looked like it was fading right then and there, colors shifting and lightening like a morphing Rorschach test, the discoloration changing so it evolved from looking minutes old to a bruise that had been received days ago. I blinked, and it was gone. The black pants he was wearing only made his appearance even more beautiful to me, highlighting his fair skin; the white-gold chain gleamed proudly, catching the light of the mid-morning sun, the amber stone a reflection of his stunning eyes.

He came over to where I was seated on the ground and crouched down in front of me, his eyes looking at the arm I was cradling gingerly against my chest. I could see the muscles of his jaw working, his teeth clenched, and the incandescence of his eyes intensified.

No longer holding myself back, I reached for him and touched my fingertips to the side of his neck. His gaze slid up to my face slowly. His expression was unreadable, and I wondered why he was so withdrawn from me again. This wasn’t the Taekwoon I’d sealed my life to yesterday, this was more like the Taekwoon that I’d almost clobbered with a baseball bat.

In a muted voice, he asked me, “You’re not disgusted?”

His question startled me. I furrowed my eyebrows at him. “Why would I be?”

His eyes started to darken slowly, losing the yellow pigment. “I just took a life in front of you.” His eyelids closed. “I just killed a woman right before your eyes.”

Clumsy because my injured arm was a hindrance, I could only think of grabbing him by his hair to pull him towards me. He made a soft noise of surprise when I tugged, and because he’d been completely unprepared, he fell into my lap gracelessly. He tried to lift himself back up, but I didn’t let him, wrapping my arm around his chest so he continued to sit on my legs, although I had to readjust to keep my balance by spreading my knees so he sat in between them. I pressed my face against his broad back, right in between his shoulder blades, inhaling his scent for personal reasons and absorbing his warmth, and then kissed his skin, making him shiver.

I turned my head from left to right with my forehead still pressed against him so he could feel it clearly, and then pressed my hand tighter against his sternum. “You saved my life. Again. And even though it makes me a bad person, I’m relieved that it was her life instead of yours, or Ravi’s.” I froze in a sudden panic. “The others are okay, right?”

He nodded quickly to reassure me, turning around in my hold so he was now kneeling with my hand on his bicep. He cupped my face in his artist’s hands and looked me right in the eye, his expression grave. “Don’t you dare do that again.”

Deciding to get saucy now of all times, thinking fondly of Ken, Hakyeon, and Hongbin, I smirked. “But I like being a werewolf chew toy.”

Strolling over, Ravi commented rather saucily himself, “So then be Taekwoon’s.” He kneeled down next to us, bracing himself on the ground with his fists. He had his head tilted at an angle, throat bared in deference, his head also lower than both Taekwoon’s and mine. I was getting a little better at noticing and reading their body language, but I was still unsure of little things. This, however, I knew was Ravi showing respect to Taekwoon, the more dominant wolf, and even to me, the more dominant wolf’s mate.

It made me feel funny.

Because of Ravi’s brazen comment, Taekwoon ended up cuffing the younger wolf lightly on the side of his head, but Ravi barely reacted. Instead, he smiled cheekily at me. “At least we know Taekwoon will kiss it better?” That earned him another little knock on the noggin. “I don’t think you’ll it better, will you?” he asked Taek with surprise, and got another fist bump to his head. “I give up,” Ravi mumbled, sighing with exaggerated exasperation.

I laughed quietly at the two of them, and then turned around carefully to look in the direction of the house. “Are all the trespassers dead…?”

Taekwoon answered me gently, “No. Some of them decided to run away when they saw we weren’t easy.”

He got up and started to help me to my feet, careful with my chew toy arm. Wincing only once after the movement kick-started a throbbing in my wound, I looked back and forth between both of them. “Who were they, and does this happen often.”

Ravi was the one to say, “It definitely does not happen often.”

That was a huge relief. I looked at Taek, waiting for the answer to the first part of my question. After a moment’s hesitation, he said, “They are wolves dedicated specifically to hunting vampires.”

Hey. What’s on your mind? Pain. Pain is on my mind.

It was really difficult to find my happy place, but over-thinking things seemed to help me out enough. Although watching made me feel a little lightheaded, I kept my eyes trained on Hongbin’s nimble fingers while he personally stitched up the hamburger meat of my arm. He was working with his brow furrowed, looking as pained as I was, but he was the one with the most medical training other than Hakyeon so he had to do it; the pack’s Alpha was tending to Ravi’s gashes with help from Ken because there were so many little cuts and tears in his skin from getting scratched up and nibbled on by the gray wolf, and Sanghyuk was busy cooking in the kitchen.

I was in pain from my arm, but Hongbin was in pain because Taekwoon was standing right behind him, his eyes narrowed as he watched the pretty boy sew up the gaping tears in my skin.

All six werewolves also happened to be shirtless, and that actually really helped me keep calm. It was a lot like my happy place, except I got +5 shirtless wolf-men in real life.

I shuddered and made a horrified little noise when Hongbin pulled a tad more on the wiry thread, nearly finished, and Taekwoon pressed against Hongbin’s back in warning. Pausing his ministrations, Hongbin turned around and looked up at him innocently. “Uh… If you move me, you move my hands, so…” He blinked angelically and tried a small, endearing smile. “Excuse me?”

Smiling to let him know I was alright, and also because Hongbin was pretty stinkin’ adorable, I told Taek, “It’s because I watched him do it. It really doesn’t hurt.”

Taekwoon’s fierce gaze bore into mine and he left Hongbin alone to come and bully me next. He braced his hand on the back of my chair where I was seated at the dining room table, and leaned down so his face was inches from mine. In a low, soft voice, he murmured, “We can smell lies.” He stared at me for a total of six rushed heartbeats before straightening up again and situating himself down into a crouch beside me, giving Hongbin space but still watching over me. He was all fine and dandy now, but I was left with my hormones scattered.

Hongbin agreed with Taekwoon, nodding slowly with a mild wince on his face because he now knew that he was hurting me for sure, but he was still smiling in silent thanks. “Nice try.”

I cleared my throat and opted for the change-of-subject method. “So there are dedicated vampire hunters, huh?” I mulled that over again briefly. I’d been thinking about it silently the entire time since Taekwoon had mentioned it outside, but he didn’t say anything more after revealing that little bitty. I was loaded with questions. “Did these particular wolves end up here because of me?” I held up my good hand quickly before Taekwoon could answer. “And if you can tell when I’m lying, then it’s only fair for you to answer me with the truth, too.”

Over from his spot at the other end of the table, Ravi chuckled deeply. “She’s good.”

Ken, more serious than usual as he focused on the open lines of reddened flesh on Ravi’s thighs, told me, “Yes and no, little sister.” He dabbed at the cuts lightly, careful as he cleaned up the oozing blood. According to Hongbin, werewolves didn’t get infections and were extraordinarily fast healers, but if injured by another preternatural creature, they healed slower than humans and could end up getting nasty scars for souvenirs. Ravi’s cuts didn’t look like they would scar to remain on his perfect skin forever, but they still looked painful. I did notice that he had a pretty badass battle scar running down his side over his ribs, though, but other than a few tattoos he was sporting and the lines of his toned muscles, his skin was unmarked.

Looking away from Ravi’s skin as he disposed of the soiled gauze he’d been using, Ken met my eyes with a little smile, his eyes crinkling up attractively. “They happened upon you by accident. They were only coming by to ask if we knew about the attacks just a few miles south of here.”

My stomach twisted and I forgot all about the needle and wire Hongbin was using on my skin. “Attacks? Vampire attacks?”

Alerted by the panic in my voice, Hakyeon lifted his head and looked at me, his hand still pressing a pad against Ravi’s chest to stop the bleeding from one of the deeper wounds the younger guy had. Hakyeon’s own shoulder was bandaged up neatly, covering what had been, according to Ken, a pretty pink picture of wolf on wolf violence. Other than Ravi, Hakyeon, and my own self, no one else was hurt because they’d been “smarter”—Hyuk’s words (Ken had also said that Hakyeon had gotten gnawed on because he’d been protecting Sanghyuk, which got the youngest wolf to quit bragging and boasting).

After sparing an apologetic glance for Taekwoon, Hakyeon looked at me straight on again and explained, “Although they’ll never find you here, Mia, they’ve gotten close. He’s looking for you.”

I shuddered again, but it had nothing to do with Hongbin. Actually, he was already finished, patching up my forearm with a couple of sterile nonstick pads both on the top and on the bottom. Taekwoon helped by lifting my arm off the table while Hongbin started to wind vet wrap around it, the self-adhering bandage an obnoxious shade of neon pink.

Doctor Bean provided me with a little bottle of pain medication, smiling lightly but enough for his dimples to say hello. “These should help with both the swelling and the pain. Take two.”

I smiled back at him lightly and thanked him sincerely, taking the white container with my good hand, my fingers numb. I held onto the bottle tightly, looking at Hakyeon’s nose so I wasn’t staring him right in the eye. “So innocent humans are getting attacked? Did you guys know about this?”

Hakyeon didn’t look at Taekwoon, but Ken, Hongbin, and Ravi did, giving away the answer. I turned down to stare at Taek too, my eyes narrowed. “You knew about it and you didn’t tell me?”

“Even if you knew, it wouldn’t have made a difference,” Taekwoon replied easily, unrepentant. “You would have only blamed and tortured yourself.”

“I could have—!”

He looked at me sharply, shutting me up without effort. “Could have what?” I was starting to realize that when he spoke in that particular soft tone of voice… Well, it was dangerous. “You could have gone to him? Handing you over isn’t going to make him stop killing, and relinquishing you was never an option—it will never be.”

I didn’t want to hand myself over either, and his words made me love him even more, but… “He’s killing because of me.”

Ken stopped taping up Ravi’s thighs and shook his head quickly at me, his expression severe. “No, Mia. He isn’t killing because of anybody but himself.” He glanced at Taekwoon briefly, probably because he was worried about stepping on his toes for talking to me so sternly. “He’s killing because he chose to become what he is. A monster.”

I still couldn’t quell my own guilt. I dropped my eyes to my wrapped forearm, and then gave up fighting my urge to touch the man crouched beside me. I ran my fingers through Taekwoon’s hair adoringly, ending with my hand on the nape of his neck. He leaned into my touch, tilting his head to look at me again. He wasn’t super happy yet, but he was starting to thaw like I was.

“When did the attacks start and when did you notice them?” I wondered, and Ken caught my attention by shrugging lightly.

The one to answer, though, was Ravi. “A couple days ago?”

Hakyeon confirmed by nodding, leaning in to inspect Ravi’s chest. While he checked the wound, he added, “We wanted to keep it a secret to keep you from worrying.”

My intuition flared and I looked down at Taekwoon again, my eyes narrowed. “Because you wanted to be super secret and manly and stuff?”

They all looked at me in unison, all of them sheepish except for Taekwoon. Actually, Taek wasn’t looking at me at all. He was staring off to the side, pretending to be deaf.

Feeling a little betrayed, I whispered, “You lied about the super secret manly stuff?” I thought they’d been talking about Taekwoon and me, giving saucy relationship advice or something equally gushy and cringe-worthy but sweet.

While the others remained confused, Taekwoon looked up at me with appeal. “I didn’t. We talked about both.”

Hongbin came to his rescue. “He only used some of the truth to prevent you from worrying about the rest of it.”

Just when I thought they couldn't get any sweeter.

I took a deep breath and shook my head at all of them, beginning to smile. “You pack of puppies are so very precious.”

Ken grinned and shimmied his comically. “Ruff-ruff!”

Making me laugh along with the others as he’d planned to, I relaxed in my chair, but I was still worried about the crazy vampire that was attacking innocent people to “find” me. I’d spent enough time in Jekyll’s head to know that he wasn’t trying to find me; he was trying to lure me out.

Sanghyuk came out with a huge steaming pot in his hands noisily, grinning merrily as he sang, “Salaca doo la, menthicka boo la, bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!”

Raising my eyebrows and grinning already, I leaned forward to see what he brought out, amazed at the size of the pot he set on the table. “You cook too, Hyuk?” I was ready to start praising him.

Taekwoon shook his head slowly. “He doesn’t cook.”

"But look, he cooked…” My eyes widened and I looked at the youngest person in the household with amusement, his proud grin unwavering. “Ramen. He cooked ramen.”

Sanghyuk held both his thumbs up and continued to beam happily back at me.