Baekhyun, Chanyeol and Jongin came back only when the sun went down; at least, it seemed like the sun went down because with the darkness of the stormy skies, it was really impossible to tell precisely.

Sehun would like to comment that they came back when Jongdae finished making a dent in the floor with how much he paced, back and forth, waiting for them.

The first to enter was Jongin, soaked to the bone, almost dropping to the floor when he tripped on the window sill. Next came Chanyeol and to say that Jongdae almost leapt into his direction as soon as the giant come flying through the window, was an understatement. Lastly, Baekhyun entered the hut as well and, only then, did Sehun let out a small sigh of relief at seeing them all in good health and perfectly fine.

“Finally.” Breathed Jongdae as he grabbed onto Chanyeol’s arm, peering over the man’s face and trying to see if the man was really okay by almost climbing on top of him. “I was worried!”

“Were you?” asked Chanyeol with a really soft and pleased tone, happy to see Jongdae worrying for him.

“Of course I was!” protested Jongdae with an almost pout on his lips that made Sehun lift his eyebrows in his direction, going unnoticed by the smaller beta.

Seeing that Jongdae was going to be immersed in Chanyeol for a while, Sehun stood up from the chairs he was sitting and went to find towels to give to the dripping wolves.

Yixing was talking to Baekhyun calmly in a corner, both using low tones of voice, discussing something specifically. He offered Jongin a towel; the man was already sniffing around the pots in the kitchen area, his lips in a truly wolf fashion.

“Did everything go okay?” asked Sehun to the Oracle wolf, throwing the towel on top of the other’s shoulders, covering, and watching with the upmost attention as the cloth absorbed the water.

“It did.” Replied Jongin with a nod, turning to look over at Sehun. “Everything went according to plan, so don’t worry Sehun.”

“I always do.” Commented Sehun absent mindedly.

“I know.” Replied Jongin softly. “You really don’t need to worry that much. Everything is just fine: Kyungsoo and Minseok are hiding in the place we were staying before and, despite the storm, we managed to secure the whole place, to avoid any water from entering the cave. Plus, no one caught us and we just came back in later when the storm began to worsen, and the wolves patrolling the boarders of the village decided to return to the safety of their places.”

“That’s good! I am really glad that they are safe and together. It’s as messy as is; at least now they are away from this and can enjoy a little time together, even if their current situation is not the best.”

“It’s better than just being chased like animals and having to be punished solely because they are in love.” Commented Jongin using the towel to dry his hair, wincing as he rubbed too hard.

“Yixing was really worried about Baekhyun, wasn’t he?” asked Jongin looking at the male.

“He was worried about everyone. Sure, Baekhyun was there and that made him all the more nervous, but I think he was concerned over everyone. It was a lot to process; losing his family, losing his secondary pack, as you may call it, and then seeking refuge in a deranged pack were the sources of higher power of said pack are corrupted, making monsters to kill wolves, potentially not alone in this thing, and all in all, it’s a tough situation to go through.”

“Yes, I think so too. He manages do handle things pretty well, all things considered.”

“True…He’s Baekhyun’s brother after all, something has to be in their blood.” Joked Jongin before turning to Jongdae asking him if he could eat something, yipping a little, something quite peculiar for the male, when permission was conceded.

Sehun passed on a towel to Jongdae, who promptly held in his hands and begun patting Chanyeol’s wet form before he saw, from the corner of his eye, Yixing patting Baekhyun’s shoulder and moving closer to Jongin, probably to eat a little now that his stomach wasn’t twisting itself with worry.

Seeing that the brothers’ conversation had ended, Sehun took the chance to approach Baekhyun and hand him a towel.

“Thank you.” Said the blonde male softly accepting the towel.

“Are you okay?” asked Sehun to the male; he knew that he had asked Jongin before but he wished to see what Baekhyun’s perspective on the subject was.

Baekhyun looked at him, looking a little surprised at the question.

“I’m alright.” Replied the male. “Everything went fine: no one caught us or Minseok and Kyungsoo, we made sure to cover all their tracks, and we are back here, completely safe, so I am perfectly fine.”

“Good.” Replied the beta with a little apprehension on his voice that was quickly detected by Baekhyun.

“Is everything okay with you?” he asked with both his eyebrows raised. “You look seconds away from having a meltdown.”

“I…I don’t know.” Mumbled Sehun.

Sehun was having an internal breakdown indeed. To think of it, last couple of days, weeks really, had been absolute and he was beginning to feel it: the pressure, the doubts, the fear… everything.

“You seem a little  overwhelmed; do you need to sit?”

“No, I don’t think so. It’s beginning to get to me, you know? This whole situation; but I’ll shake it off in a bit. I just need to process the whole day and power through it.” Sighed Sehun dragging a hand down his tired face.

“Did something happen?”

“People from the Council were here today asking questions…”

“Oh it was more than people.” Interjected Jongdae from his place next to Chanyeol. “Youngwoon and Hyunseung were here!”

“Is that supposed to mean something?” asked Chanyeol to his smaller companion.

“Youngwoon is Soo Man's first in command, his top dog, and Hyunseung is the man who harmed Sehun and gave him his injuries on the back.”

The growl that was heard as soon as these words were out of Jongdae’s mouth was no joke. Chanyeol looked incensed and ready to open the door and hunt the male.

“Why was he here?” asked Baekhyun, in a much calmer tone, although there was some steel edge lilt to it.

“He came to interrogate us about Kyungsoo, spouting things on why they were searching for him due to inadequate ual behavior, not performing his priest tasks correctly, all those things. He was a little pushy, trying to mess with our minds and make us fear him, I guess. They searched the entire place and they found nothing. So they left. Youngwoon was pretty convinced that we knew nothing: since there was no smell, no physical evidence of Kyungsoo being here, they said nothing. I guess that our pretty convincing acting did its part too.” Explained Jongdae.

“But they didn’t harm anyone did they?” asked Chanyeol.

“No, they just pushed me to get inside, nothing more.”

Hearing that, Chanyeol immediately fussed over Jongdae, frantically looking at his entire skin expanse in order to discover any signs of Jongdae being hurt. Baekhyun, however, looked over to Sehun.

“And you? Are you hurt anywhere?”

“No. I just didn’t like to see him; Hyunseung, I mean…bad memories.”

“Understandable.” Stated Baekhyun “Other than that?”

“I’m fine.” Replied the male before lowering his tone of voice. “Seungwan was here today. Again.”

“What did she say?”

“She told us that she had gotten rid of all of the clues that could potentially lead someone to Kyungsoo’s and Minseok’s and she hinted that you were doing a good job.”

“How did she know?”

“I don’t know; she said, not by these exact words, that she knew stuff but she was someone who could access information without needing to ask.”

“Like an Oracle?” questioned Baekhyun.

“Like an Oracle but not an Oracle, that much she explained.”

“Then what? What is she? She is clearly not ‘normal’ or whatever you may want to call it. She is simply not a regular wolf.” Commented Baekhyun, crossing his arms and looking at the ceiling in an indication that he was trying to think things true.

“I don’t know. Other from berserkers and oracles I know nothing that could fit into what I see of her.”

Baekhyun hummed lowly in his throat, making a small noise of understanding and nodding slightly. Sehun sighed and sat down on a chair nearby, a weight placing itself on his chest and locking itself there, almost intending to make him feel like crap for the rest of the night.

Baekhyun, as if sensing the state of tiredness that was beginning to consume Sehun, extended a hand to lightly rest it at the other’s shoulder patting the place twice before drawing some circles on the fabric above the skin.

It was comforting; a little awkward because Baekhyun wasn’t the one for doing things like this on a daily basis, but Sehun gave him mental recognition for trying and making such an effort. Also, he preened a little over the fact that he was the one receiving such attention from the male; he didn’t see Baekhyun being so attentive to anyone like he was to him, not even his brothers.

“Hey.” Whispered Baekhyun, making sure only he could hear the words. “Please, don’t stress yourself over it. It’s a lot on our plate, true; however, you cannot let this get to you and consume you, or else you're going to end up crazy because of this. Don’t let it overwhelm you.”

“It’s just a lot.” Replied Sehun. “I am trying not to blow things out of proportion and send myself into an early grave, but this situation is reaching a point where I can’t seem to ignore things and they are starting to affect me.”

“I understand what you are saying but you have to separate things: when it’s time to solve our problems you should think about those things but, when we don’t need to, just ignore them, go to your happy place and simply ignore them, forget that they exist.”

“It’s hard...”

“I know that it is, but if you don’t do it, you’ll end up destroying yourself. Plus, you have your friends, you have us now…everything will be okay.” Comforted Baekhyun, beginning to feel a little distressed at how sad Sehun looked, sitting down next to the taller man.

“I hope so.” Whined Sehun, uncharacteristically, before leaning onto Baekhyun’s side, feeling absolutely drained and hitting almost rock bottom. The man was soft and hard at the same time and he had to admit that the feeling was kind of nice.

He could hear Baekhyun talking to him but the words were blurring themselves and, at some point, the words stopped making sense as it just became noise. It was truly a nice soothing voice: warm and rich.

Without noticing, or maybe he did and wasn’t so keen on admitting, he begun to feel sleep calling him, slowly and sweetly, like a newborn baby being rocked to sleep. Without wanting to resist the call of the Sandman, Sehun closed his eyes and allowed himself to fall asleep, tired as it could be due to the events of the day.

For a brief moment, he wondered what Baekhyun was thinking, especially since he didn’t lift his head from his shoulder.

Little did he know that, even when he fell asleep, Baekhyun didn’t move one bit, allowing the beta to sleep peacefully on his shoulder.

Little did he know that Baekhyun didn’t exactly care.

Little did he know that the older might’ve liked it.

Kyungsoo looked around at the cave. It was a small space, sure, however it was far enough from the village, far enough that no one would ever think of searching there, especially because it was out of the limits and edge of the said village. Also, it was well covered from any suspicious eye, no one would even notice.

The place was also a little cold but Jongin, bless his heart, despite being told to keep close to Jongdae’s hut, actually followed them to the cave bringing two of Jongdae’s huge and warm quilts as well as some warm clothes. It was not the ideal situation but it was better than nothing.

“What are you thinking love?”

Kyungsoo turned and looked over at Minseok. Just looking at the other wolf made him feel immensely better; never mind that he had just left all of his life behind, never mind that he was being pursued for a crime that no one would even condemn him for, as long as he had Minseok around him, it felt that everything would be okay. Perhaps that was a romanticized version on what’s happening but, to actually be able to taste love in a free way, unabashedly and without restrains was affecting his mind; when he had to hunt for food and was unable to access hygiene products, he would be able to think more clearly and judge things in a less romanticized version and would do it in a more clinical manner.

However Kyungsoo didn’t want to think about it now, not when Minseok’s muscular arms felt that good wrapped around him, or when his kisses burned innumerous trails at the skin of his neck.

“I am just looking at our… installations for the time being; it’s far from being a nice hut, like yours, but it’s dry, it’s warm enough, it’s far from that hellhole, so I’m happy.”

“It’s not going to be permanent: you know that, it’s just a temporary measure for our safety… well, for everybody’s safety, really.” Replied Minseok, tightening his grip around Kyungsoo’s waist and propping his chin on the other’s narrow, yet sturdy, shoulder.

“I know. I am absolutely elated to be here with you, as childish as it may sound. I don’t ask for much, I don’t even care much that I am sleeping on the floor or on top of rocks, I just want you to be by my side: I just want to be able to love unrestrainedly.”

The kiss that came after his words wasn’t unexpected but it was welcomed: it was warm and familiar, so Minseok's every problem seemed to evaporate with just his touch.

He let a small chuckle fall from his lips, a chuckle that immediately transformed into a full blow laughter that came right from his soul and leapt out.

“What’s with the laugh?” asked Minseok sweetly, his lips pressed against the roundness of Kyungsoo’s cheek.

“Nothing! I’m just happy.”

“Just happy?”

“Just happy!” confirmed Kyungsoo with a sparkle in his eyes that amazed Minseok and made the alpha content. “How could I be anything else when I’m with you?”

“I don’t know…” teased Minseok.

“I love you and you make me happy; nothing more, nothing less.” Replied the omega with a soft smile playing on his plump lips.

And it was true; after being denied something that he craved for so long, something that was so harmless and so pure, all he wanted was to immerse himself in said love.

Over the last few months, Kyungsoo had meditated upon the subject, trying to understand if he was really that bad of a man for accepting love, if it was such a sin for him to love someone. It troubled him at times: he was supposed to be something, a priest, someone who guided all the believers and offered a balm to troubled souls, words of wisdom, of encouragement, someone who was Mother Nature's voice on Earth.

However, to be that kind of spiritual leader that people expected him to be, his voice needed to disappear, meaning that all his beliefs, all theories and thoughts had to be suppressed in order to fill a more general purpose. At least, that was what his pack, or rather the Council of his pack, made him think; made everyone think. Kyungsoo didn’t necessarily think like that; it didn’t make sense to him that he had to renegade all of the things he preached about. People often made him think that he was a supposed to be a channel for the blessings of Mother Earth and therefore he should be a blank canvas.

Kyungsoo thought that he should feel it and experience it in order to teach others to be good, and that one thing was not an impediment to the other, they were not exclusive but rather inclusive, loving others meant being loved.

It was when he thought about all of these things and finally came to terms with the two sides of him in conflict: him as a priest and him as a person, and eventually decided that a man of faith could also be a man who had a mate.

That moment was also the one where he stopped hanging so tightly to the word ‘priest’ and all his obligations and began to cautiously step across the line that had been imposed when he accepted that role.

He had told Minseok that once, when he came to terms with everything in his head and put a stop to all his internal conflicts; the man had always been a good friend of his and everyone knew that Minseok had been courting him previous to him being assigned as Head Priest, so who better to talk to?

It was at that moment when Minseok couldn’t hold himself any longer, desperate after so much time yearning for the other and kissed him. It was also the moment where he lost all coherence and they both kissed each other fervently and thus their secret relationship begun.

Now? Now it wasn’t that much of a problem since they were on a run; someone had apparently discover them, or thought that they were having an affair, whichever and now here they were. Running only made him far more suspicious and pretty much confirmed the whole thing but, even if he didn’t commit anything, he would still run and be considered suspicious, after all the Council wouldn’t behave likedif he was innocent even if he was.

“You look truly pensive today.” Sated Minseok looking at the man in his arms.

“I am just thinking about everything up until this moment. It’s been a journey and we have been through so much already and yet, there is so much more to come: much worse: you heard them and their words. But, for some reason I feel calm.”

“Why is that?” asked Minseok nuzzling the neck of the omega and inhaling the sweet scent of the male.

“Because we are together!” replied Kyungsoo sounding so assured that Minseok looked over at him with a sense of amazement in his eyes. “Together we are an invincible force: you, me and then everyone else too. We can make it through, and everything is going to be alright. You just have to believe with me.”

“I believe in you and I believe with you, sweetheart. Everything will be alright.” Replied Minseok kissing the other’s neck, right near the jugular where a bite mark: a mating bite mark was proudly on display for everyone to see.

“Everything will be alright.”

Sehun woke up in the middle of the night. It was dark as hell outside and everyone was asleep: he could hear the faint breathing sound of each and every single one of them. He felt almost groggy and his body was not obeying his command.

“Had a good night sleep?” a rough and low voice asked right on his ear, making him jump almost a foot in the air.

When he looked to the side, the pleasant face of Baekhyun was looking right at him, dark circles underneath his eyes looking even darker in the pale glow on a candle somewhere on the room.

“I wouldn’t necessarily call it a night; since it’s probably the crack of dawn and I didn’t sleep for the entire duration of the night. I feel like a boar ran over me.”

“That rough? You should sleep; you need it.”

“I don’t know if it is from sleeping too much when I was hurt or just the amount of things that keep condensing and adding themselves into the huge pile that we have.” Mumbled Sehun while he rubbed the palms of his hands on his face, trying to get rid himself of the sleepiness still assaulting him,

“You should sleep though.” Frowned Baekhyun looking to Sehun with worry in his eyes. “Rest is important…”

“Should you be the one telling me that?” asked Sehun with an amused smile on his lips. “You are probably the one who sleeps the least out of all of us. Even Chanyeol, who is paranoid and super protective of everyone, sleeps more than you do! The only time I saw you sleeping more than a couple of hours was when I treated you, for your injury, the first time we met; you spent a lot of time sleeping.”

“I don’t sleep a lot.” Confessed Baekhyun in a shy voice, as if he was afraid to be chastised by the other male.

“And why don’t you?” asked Sehun truly curious.

“I don’t know; I just don’t. Ever since I was a teenager I stopped sleeping that much.”

“Why though? Everyone needs to sleep a good number of hours to go on and about. Especially being a wolf: a wolves’ metabolism is stupidly fast and we need good amounts of food and sleep in order to morph and… well, survive.”

“I really don’t know.” Explained the other. “I just remember being a teenager and spending a lot of time looking after my brothers, providing food and shelter and, afterwards, learning a lot with the nymphs and the banshees… it was never needed.”

“Or maybe you forced yourself to stay awake for their sake.” Commented Sehun softly, knowing that he had probably hit the mark when Baekhyun turned his head upfront, and facing the general darkness in front of him. “You should sleep more. It’s not healthy.”

“I lived…”

“You lived but that doesn’t mean that it is the healthiest way to go on about it. I have to admit that you are very level headed Baekhyun, surprisingly mature and really down to earth, but sometimes you can be quite reckless. I know that you wanted to keep everyone safe but, at the cost of your own life? It’s bad enough that you were hurting yourself back then, imagine that you couldn’t protect them, in a case of need, due to tiredness and that it would cause your own life to end, or your brothers! That would be careless of you.”

Baekhyun said nothing although his face became heavier and his expression darker. Sehun knew that his words had been quite harsh and Baekhyun was probably not liking them at all, hence the weird expression that was sitting on the older’s face.

“I’m sorry to say it, especially using these words which are not measured but when you grow attached to someone, like I do with you and your brothers, I do worry, I do care and these types of behaviors are my concern as well, even if you don’t think so, or even think I am being meddlesome. I want you, all of you, healthy. Not because you are helping us, not because of some objective we are trying to reach with one another, but simply because you are my friend. I need you to understand that.”

Baekhyun nodded, although he still didn’t’ face Sehun, who was intently staring at the berserker in front of him, trying to make the older wolf believe in the veracity of his words.

Sehun wasn’t prepared for when the man stood up and walked, a little unstable if Sehun were to give an opinion, up to the kitchen area, supporting both of his hands on the wooden countertop, head bowed down.

It made Sehun stand up as well and approach the male without touching, just standing still nearby. He didn’t know what to say and he didn’t understand what was going through the older man’s mind: it could be anything.

“Baekhyun?” he called, making sure not to speak too loudly, since everyone was sleeping; looking around he could see Chanyeol’s huge form curled around Jongdae’s while Jongin slept behind his brother, feet entwining with Chanyeol’s own. Yixing was part of the wolf sleeping pile on the floor, since he was serving as a pillow for Jongin, or rather his legs were; Yixing himself was sleeping in a sitting position leaning against a wall.

“I am sorry if I offended you in some kind of way:  it was really not my intention. I know sometimes I am just too forward and speak things without properly thinking about what I am going to say. And I don’t want to sound too straightforward about calling you and your family friends but the fact is that I actually do feel that way; I mean, you have been helping us for a while and we have gone through a lot already. I just consider you my friends.”

Baekhyun said nothing while Sehun spoke and, even after the tall beta finished his quite bold statement, at least in his understanding, the man didn’t reply. Sehun was growing a little desperate at the other’s lack of answer; he didn’t like being ignored and, even worse, he didn’t like imagining that he had hurt someone unintentionally: that gave him the worst case of guilt.

“Please say something.” Begged Sehun, trying to get a reaction out of the other male: something! Anything!

Another thing that surprised Sehun, at least for this early in the morning, was when Baekhyun lightly slapped his hands on the countertop, turning around very suddenly and scaring Sehun to death, before he marched towards Sehun.

Sehun felt intimidated: for a split second he actually thought that Baekhyun was going to sock him in the face but the bigger part of him told him that Baekhyun would never do that to him or anyone else without proper cause. However, he just felt arms wrapping themselves against his lanky form, encasing him and warming him up.

He realized a few seconds later that Baekhyun was hugging him. Full on hugging him: his front totally covering his front and arms touching the expanse of his back. Sehun was never the one to lie and he was more than okay to admit that it felt good, really good. He felt special and his insides were bubbling with excitement at being the one that Baekhyun hugged first, that he had seen.

He let himself relax into the hug and even hugged the other back, allowing his chin to fall on the older’s shoulder.

They stood like that for quite a while but neither of the two felt inclined to move, especially when it felt that warm and comfortable; at least that was what Sehun thought.

His eyes were shutting down again when a soft whisper made itself be heard, right in his ear, the rough voice, filled with emotion, rolling like a wave to be embed in his mind.

“Thank you.”

“For what?” asked Sehun in a small voice, peering over at the eyes of the other male.

Baekhyun didn’t replied but Sehun felt the sweetest of kisses being pressed into his forehead.

And somehow, Sehun felt all the problems being lifted from his shoulders.

Somehow everything felt good again.

Somehow he felt loved.

A/N : Hello everyone, how have you been doing?Very good I hope. I won't be rambling much today: a friend of mine was taken to the hospital today in an ambulance due to strong chest pains and, although everything is fine, I am a little shaken, more because of the unexpectedness of the situation than anything, she was fine one moment and the next she wasn't. But everything is alright so, at least that.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter, if so comment, subscribe, message me or upvote.
I hope you are all safe and healthy, that you are well loved and repay the gesture by loving others and that you are always HAPPY!
Have a wonderful weekened and I am sorry for the lack of words and the abruptness of them.
Lots of love,
<3