A/N: Yo everyone. I am sorry for posting this so late. I hope you don't kill me for this long chapter and thank you for reading this trash.

The Hawthorn Moon

Being passionate isn’t wrong,

It’s a beautiful thing after all..

That mind-numbing dedication.

But be ready to swallow the fruits

Born of your own passion.

Taste; a matter of your cultivation.

Suho felt calm, like waves of the ocean he resided under. More like, sea was an emulation of troughs and crests of his own feelings and emotions.

And since the waves of the sea behaved like his extended yet involuntary limbs, he had mastered the control of his emotions. He had learned to keep himself calm despite how aggravating the situation maybe. For the sake of his emotions he cannot afford to endanger the many creatures dependent on sea for their survival and sustenance.

They were his responsibility so he had to tread with care but there were times when he felt enraged like the molten lava and felt like exploding as if he were a volcano and those times have brought great chaos and destruction.

No the kind of anger he felt right now ran much deeper and much colder. He didn’t feel like uprooting the entire planet of its hinges. No, his mind was clear and focused only on one goal. He could see his path clearly and destroying the world wasn’t a part of it. He didn’t want to do such senseless things, he had a responsibility after all. And he held his responsibilities as his top priority.

His judgement was far from being clouded by unnecessary emotions. It was in fact better than ever before and he had an idea about what he was going to do.

He watched the sea with storm brewing in his irises yet his face remained unchanged like the rocks his eyes were fixated on.

“Master?” A voice hesitated.

He only looked over his shoulder as a sign of acknowledgement.

“Will you be leaving tonight master?”

Suho turned away again. “Let’s see” His eyes narrowed a bit in trepidation. His plan was nearly perfect. But there was a cog missing. Somehow, he wasn’t sated with his plan

“The usual, Jae.”

The servant was a bit shocked at the sinister look his master’s eyes held. No, it wasn’t that. He was long used to that. It was the speck of hesitation that crossed his eye for a fleeting second like a brief tail of a comet shooting across the sky.

Jae contemplated a full second before speaking, “Are….. you sure Master?”

He expected a barrage of harsh words shooting him down.

Suho tried to focus on a tiny fish floating about, having lost its way, flapping around aimlessly. No it wasn’t a conscious effort. More like his brain chose to be stuck to that sight alone, as if trying to give him an indication of sorts which he seemed to be missing by an inch somehow.

Jae’s eyes widened when his ears strained to hear the sentence his master uttered subconsciously.

“Am I?”

The servant hesitated for a bit, trying to decide the best course of action.     `

Jae sensed the slight turbulence that passed them which was uncommon for the deep sea bed they resided in. But he knew better. It wasn’t a random turbulence of the water. It was his master’s own reflection. He had been right. This turbulence was the copy of hesitation he had seen in his master’s eye for a split second.

Humans or Gods who resembled humans; everything about them could be used in deception but not the sea. The sea down here never lied. It didn’t have a mind of it’s own. But rather an extension of his master’s mind.

And he knew that sentence wasn’t meant to answer his question. After centuries of serving him, he had learned to read his complicated master just right. Anyone else and they would have misinterpreted that statement.

But the thing was, his question wasn’t asking about tonight either.

The moon would be harsher tonight. It’s serenity would burn him more than the flares of the Sun itself. And what’s more, there will be unnecessary visitors.

But like an addiction gone bad, he could not stop himself from scalding himself by the cold light of the moon if it meant he got to see Jongin again. He was hopelessly pulled by the gravitation of the moon and the higher the moon got in the sky, the more thrilled he felt and it was reflected by the waves of the sea getting increasingly persistent on the surface.

He returned to staring out of the window again, absently noting the lack of a flailing fish. He briefly wondered if it was alright.

His eyes zeroed in on gleaming eyes of a predator and the gleam was reflected in his own eye when he turned to his hump back servant

“You know me well, Jae. it’s the usual.”

“Right away, master.” This time he did not hesitate.

The Oak Moon

Protect your precious; But

Hold your ambitious desires!

Lest it turns pernicious

It might become the fire

That burns down the pyre.

Kyungsoo’s mood swings rose and fell like the tides of the sea. And he knew the cause behind it very well too. But meeting Kai; the Lunar deity was the best event amongst it all. No matter how he felt, how aggravated he would be just prior to meeting Kai, spending time with him always calmed down waves of turbulence in his mind.

And going by his rapidly changing moods, he was forced to schedule his classes with Sunhwa after seeing Kai. He really couldn’t attempt to teach someone before it. Heck, he avoided any social contact before the full moon, knowing his delirious moods would get him nowhere.

And currently that’s what he was experiencing. A goddamned mood swing.

He just prayed to Lunar Deity, he blushed a little thinking about him now. But he sincerely prayed that no one found him like this. He could barely conceal his irritation that kept bubbling up to the spurred by boiling anger that seemed to have come out of nowhere. But now it was an unavoidable part of him. Even if he hated it, it was regarding himself after all. And it was not some infected limb, that he could amputate on the account of horrible gangrenes and throw it out into the sea.

He could only put up with this ire that kept rising up and down.

Yet, he tried his best, lest social contact was inevitable.

First there was Minseok who somehow always around the corner to drag his from bed everyday. Kyungsoo was convinced that the man would drag his back from hell if he needed to. He was a fearless monster and nothing seemed to scare him. He still remained a perfect portrait of everything calm and serene.

He almost made Kyungsoo burn with envy. That serenity might not have been a look suited on an Alpha wolf but it was something unique only Minseok could wear, yet maintaining a stern countenance underneath all that calm. It only suited him because his authority never lied in his ability to scream at his subordinates.

His authority became more prominent in that calm visage. In quiet and clear words that left no room for questions and eyes that were firmer than the earth they stood on. A quality that won over everyone easily and made him so easy to trust. Earth may quake but those eyes wouldn’t falter, wouldn’t waver.

He qualities made him a natural leader. And somehow, when Kyungsoo reflected upon himself, he hardly found himself fitting to take the role. The more he observed Minseok, the more he felt himself wavering. And that lil’ sneaky thought of him being a  mere replacement for his brother continued to haunt him. A mere seed of doubt and a whole tree of problems.

Is this what hitting a low felt like? He thought he already had been through that phase when he was caught up in the mess regarding Kai being his mate. But this was a new kind of low he felt he had hit. A direct blow to his confidence. It was like a small paper cut. The thought itself might have been small but it annoyed him like a .

All the energy was zapped from him with a mere thought.

“Kyungsoo dear, I have begun to wonder who is the master and who is the student here.”

He recognized the tone of the statement before he could even the register the voice itself. He chuckled.

“Come to annoy me again?”

How could he forget. There was Sunhwa too.

She entered his hut with a smirk on her face and her arms crossed.

“Why dear, I thought it was my annoying presence that kept you alive and awake? Not annoying enough for you?” She leered at him.

“Not annoying enough indeed.” His lips quirked up on their own in a fond sort of way.

“My personal knight come to save me from this eternal darkness. O’ Brave knight…..What shall I do for thee.”

Sunhwa rolled her eyes, her lips quirking up, “ Oh quit the dramatics Kyungsoo. You are becoming more and more like a drama queen these days.” She shook her head but Kyungsoo froze for a second.

But she was sharp as always. “Oh? You thought I wouldn’t notice? Kyungsoo, dear it’s you who is failing to notice the changes around you.” Her words grazed him leaving shallow cuts in its wake. But he was aware that he has been unfocused for these past few weeks

Her face stretched into a full cheshire grin, “Knight? I am surely flattered.”

Kyungsoo reflexively snorted, “Those arrows surely had me fooled for a second there but then my eyesight cleared and I realised it was just a foot soldier.”

“In that case I will just wait for my Knight to come save me.” Kyungsoo only wanted to play along with the threatrics but he couldn’t deny the truth interwoven in his words.

“Are you?” The question threw him off guard because he had hoped Sunhwa wouldn’t notice the change in their flow.

But every Hunter was trained to detect the slightest alteration in the air around them, barely leaving any room for mistakes.

He choked out an answer somehow, “Yeah…. Maybe I am.”

He jerked a little when Sunhwa decided to sit beside him. He wasn’t wriggling out of this anytime soon it seemed. This thought put him on a slight edge again. If Sunhwa noticed his terseness, she didn’t prod.

“Kyungsoo, you have been my teacher for a while now…” She trailed off, probably trying to word her feelings correctly.

“Have- Haven’t you ever wondered why did I learn to hunt using bow and arrows?”

“I would be lying If I said it didn’t cross my mind….” he ran a tense hand through his shaggy mane. “But then I realised it wasn’t my place to question.”

“If you haven’t already noticed, I wasn’t supposed to be a hunter anyway. I wasn’t supposed to be anything actually…...I wasn’t even supposed to survive.”

Kyungsoo suddenly got the gist of the whole situation but he wasn't gonna interrupt her at this point.

“I was a premature pup to begin with. My chances of survival were close to..well...none.” She took a deep sigh. By some miracle of gods I survived but I was deemed too weak for any strenuous activity like hunting.

And my family was okay with it since I am an Omega. And Omega’s don't exactly need to hunt.

Growing up, I had developed a sort of hatred for those wolves who ran out to hunt with the first light of the moon.

But I couldn’t hate hunting so I ended up with my trusty old arrows.”

Kyungsoo understood the underlying message that there wasn’t a single person willing to teach her to hunt considering her condition. And being an Omega her family wouldn’t support her either.

Rules were subjective to the nature of the pack. Whether a Omega could hunt or not, was all dependent on the pack leader or the Elder. The strictness of the rules and how far a rule could be stretched was upon whims and fancies of those who lead the pack.

And for the first time, Kyungsoo realised that this pack was not as liberal as he had thought.They too, were clasped by ironclad rules that a pack wasn’t supposed to break. And Sunhwa’s story was letting him have a glimpse of the pack dynamics he hadn’t bothered with until today that is.

Judging by the grim turn her story seemed to take he could be sure that even if Omegas were allowed to hunt, an exception to the rule were runts obviously whose survival was more important to the family than their liberties. He was sure that as a pup Sunhwa wouldn’t have been allowed ten foot within the range of hunting grounds.

A rueful smile grew across his face but he said nothing. But there was more to her story apparently which continued after another sigh of a shaky breath.

“My Mom always knew I wanted to be out there, be amongst all those hunters who stood tall and proud after a successful hunt.” She looked down deprecatingly.

She let out a small chuckle, “She always gave me that fond look when I stood by the door to watch their return…..she said my eyes really held the power of a thousand stars as i watched the hunters in fascination. ”This time the smile on her face was faint but real.  “Then one day she made me sit me promise that I wouldn’t do anything that would hurt me.”

With a mental jolt, Kyungsoo realised that there was something else that he was missing out other than the obvious.

She kicked out her legs like a little kid when she spoke again, this time making an eye contact again. “My first reaction to that was quite apoplectic.” Her voice continued in hushed soothing tones as if this was the first time she was openly talking about this matter.

“Sometimes I would see my mother’s eyes dim with a hidden kind of sadness but as soon as I tried to confront her about it head on…..or…..discreetly she would deny it vehemently enough for me to give up eventually.” she snorted again.

Kyungsoo couldn’t bring himself to give inputs in this matter. It wasn’t his place anyway.

“But then I thought about this a lot...It was the to the point where I was crashing into walls headfirst because the mom I knew never stopped me from doing what I really desired.

That’s when I met Minseok. He was guffawing at my sorry state and my temper flared up assuming him to be like any other Alpha.

It brought a small smile to Kyungsoo’s face. Imagining a clumsy Sunhwa and Minseok making jests at her expense. But he finally connected the missing piece to their relationship. He felt as if he understood their dynamics better thinking back to the easy going banter he had witnessed when he first arrived in this pack.

“But instead of ridiculing me when I tried to punch him, he caught my punch easily smiled and said ‘let’s talk’.

“Did you still punch him?”

“-‘Course I did!”

“That earned you brownie points from me.”

Sunhwa snorted which loosened some reigns of tension that were beginning to grip them by their necks.

She began in that tone of hers, “You-” she stretched out the vowel in replacement of all that she had to say or probably thought better of it.

She shook her head. He knew what she had meant to say.

“Well, Minseok told me really absurd stuff. It was…. to me back then.”

“He told me to rethink my mom’s words again. And for that statement alone he almost received another punch but something about his phrasing made me reconsider.”

“Damn… And here I was actually looking forward to Minseok finally getting beaten up.” Sunhwa snorted but was quick to shush me.

“Somehow her words about not getting into dangerous business really got to me and it was then I understood the depth of her simple, typical motherly worry.”

And Kyungsoo pieced all the jigsaw pieces together as well.

“And when she didn’t object to my bows and arrows, I knew I had made the right decision and not just that but her words had finally reached me.”

A serene smile spread across her face which stunned Kyungsoo for a second.

“It is out of determination and willpower that I have somehow made it here, stumbling, grumbling and all.”

“So I take it that Minseok taught you some vague basics of hunting?”

“Yea, he did…. Essentially he was breaking one of the very important rule of this pack so he had to maintain a top notch secrecy whenever he he did and to be honest I could hardly ever practice with him trying to be careful of getting caught and he too, didn’t have a lot of free time from his pack duties as the Young Alpha Leader.”

“That explains things.”

“But I am thankful that he at least tried to teach me the basics, in case there was a dire emergency.”

“So… now you have the permission to hunt, because I don’t see Minseok’s underlings chasing me yet.”

“The village Elder had me go through various endurance tests before he saw me fit for the activity. At the end of it all, when I didn’t give up and passed them all, he sighed told me to do whatever I wanted which I believe, was his consent ultimately.”

She turned her serene face towards him. “And this is why Kyungsoo……”

Her face went dead in matter of a second..”I hate it when you skip our sessions like the useless bum you are!”

“I am no bum!” Kyungsoo tried to defend himself.

She got up to leave and Kyungsoo’s eyes followed her movement. “That solves things because you just admitted you are definitely useless.” And she walked away with her arms crossed and chin turned up haughtily.

In Kyungsoo’s defence, the only reason he let her have the last word was because he felt too lazy to yell and defend himself all the way across to where she was.

Somewhere away, a lone figure calmly watched the turbulent waves thrashing against the rocks with an intent to break the very cliff they stood on. They couldn’t be sure if that was a good sign or not.

The Holly Moon

Love transcends time and space

Towards the infinite end.

Bodies may perish,

Words may fade.

But true feelings that tether souls,

Shall never be swayed.

“Have you fallen in love before?” Kyungsoo was resting on his paws seemingly apathetic but this question bothered him more than he liked to admit, even to himself.

Kai turned to him with a radiant smile, “What brought this on?” He knew where this was going or atleast what was going on in Kyungsoo’s head. But the glimmer in Kai’s smile hurt Kyungsoo’s eyes, and pierced right into his core. He closed his eyes in response.

Kai’s smile widened.

Eyes closed, Kyungsoo still felt his retina might burn from the sheer impact of such a gleaming smile. Suddenly he wasn’t all that curious about his question

Kyungsoo let out an inaudible sigh of relief when Kai turned away from him, taking his radiance elsewhere and stopping the continuous assault on his eyes

“I had.” Kai muttered softly, his words dissolving away with the wind. Kyungsoo wasn’t able to decipher any emotion from the sentence but he did catch the past tense.

It would have been better for both of them if he hadn’t asked such a ridiculous question.

“She was the prettiest of course”

“Tell me something new, Moon prince.” Kyungsoo should have the held back the urge to sass and this might be the hole he dug for himself but he never said anything about not protecting himself from the sticks and stones that were inevitably there.

Kai snorted. “What do you know? I could be in love with a woman who had snakes for hair.”

“You were the one who said of course.”

“And you were the one who was acting jealous, so I thought I could exploit that side of you some more.”

Kyungsoo opened one eye, expressing his ire. “Are all Gods meant to be manipulative?”

“Yeah, it’s a prerequisite Kyungsoo. All Gods have to be.” Kai said it with such annoying innocence that softened the impact of his statement yet Kyungsoo hated to admit that amongst all this he still found Kai endearing, manipulation and all.

“Her name was Krystal. And before our relationship came to be, she was a close friend of mine so before anything else we were a pair of good friends who understood and complemented each other well.” That automatically shut Kyungsoo up. So they were back to this. Kyungsoo pathetically tried to pretend that he was completely unbothered.

“But when you can live on forever, there’s a lot that can go wrong and Love alone is not enough to bind two people together. Fuel runs out, things change and feelings fade.

“Is immortality your problem or falling out of love?” This time Kyungsoo was genuinely curious without the hindrances of his negative emotions. This really forced him to think about issues he had sidestepped in the happiness of finding his mate.

Kai grimaced a bit as he honestly tried to answer the question. “A bit of both and at the same time it could be neither? I don’t really know but those were the conclusions I finalized after thinking about it for years and in grand scheme of things, those were definitely one of the reasons.

“What are you talking about?” Kyungsoo did not like the rueful smile that was gracing Kai’s features at the moment. The annoying glimmer from before was reduced to inexistence and despite the smile painting his lips, his eyes seemed a bit dull. The smile wasn’t enough to reach over and and reflect the same intensity of brightness in those dark irises.

“Things happened and I was forced to banish her sister to the mortal realm as punishment.”

“She threw a fit?” It wasn’t that hard to guess.

“Sort of yeah, but not in the conventional sense. Krystal wasn’t that type of woman who threw hissy cat fits.

“She refused to see my face from then onwards breaking our relatio