Sori was starting to panic along with the rest of the guys. She was crumpling the hem of her striped shirt with her hands before smoothing it out again. Yoongi had picked the clothes she had to wear today, telling her it was better if her clothes weren’t too flashy nor shabby. He wanted her to be dressed quite plainly and to wear sneakers inside the house for as long as Jungkook’s father was there, for “any necessity” he’d said. Normally she would’ve freaked out just at the idea of stomping around with her dirty shoes, but if Yoongi told her it was better like that, just for two day, she could get over herself and follow his advice. Then she’d probably clean all the floor with a sterilizing detergent, because she was a little bit of a neat freak.

Everyone around Sori was running left and right fixing up the house and cleaning, while she was just told to sit still and drink fresh water to keep herself from sweating and smelling. Sori couldn’t pinpoint why she couldn’t work like the rest of her pack members so she just kept following them around and trying to help, but after the third time Hoseok had to repeat himself, he’d simply grabbed her by the waist, lifted her and dumped her on the sofa. That was when she gave up and sat still. Moreover, her period had just started, and since she was scared of staining her jeans, sitting down and waiting didn’t seem all that bad. Hopefully she wouldn’t stain her jeans while sitting down. Not to mention that her period made her feel tired, thus in the end Sori was fine with her packmates decision. She only had to worry about the smell of blood and the possible stains, but otherwise she wasn’t half as panicked as the rest of her pack mates.

To Sori all this cleaning and panicking really made no sense. Narae’s parents usually dropped by a couple of times a year to visit their daughter and son-in-law, so did Jimin and Taehyung’s parents, but it wasn’t anything that special. Sori had only met Namjoon, Yoongi and Hoseok’s parents a couple of times before, yet no one seemed especially mean or anything like that, nor there had been special and intensive cleaning session. What could possibly be that different with Jungkook’s parents? Yoongi an Taehyung had hinted about their close minds and sternness before, still that didn’t seem much of a reason to be making such a big effort, especially since they were only staying for a day and half or two days maximum, but since they didn’t elaborate further on the matter, Sori hadn’t pushed it.

Namjoon looked really gloom as he paced around the living room, and had also been extremely susceptible ever since he’d heard that Jungkook’s parents were going to be there in a matter of hours. A couple of years ago the alpha had told Sori a bit about old packs and their mentality, and that time he’d used Jungkook’s old pack as an example, telling her he didn’t share that kind of ideas. Sori had come to the conclusion they were working that hard to ease any kind of tension between their alpha and Jungkook’s parents, thinking that maybe they had quite the tendency to criticize Namjoon’s leadership and how he the pack. If there was almost nothing to criticize, there was nothing that could cause tension. Or so Sori thought.

The pack had established everyone’s tasks the previous night, thus everyone got up early to complete them before Jungkook’s parents arrived, albeit no one really knew at what time they were suppose to arrive. Sori hoped it was soon, because the tension was getting to her too, and whenever she got to nervous she felt like throwing up. Moreover, the sooner they arrived, the sooner they left.

Sori was about to fall asleep when a particularly strong cramp in her tummy made her curl in a tight ball on the sofa.

Stupid period. I’m not even bleeding that much yet, why the heck does it hurt so much?

Damned cramps and periods. If I my next life I’m not a male I’m killing myself, I swear.

Sori kept hugging her tummy as she listened to sounds produced by the frantic movements of her packmates and slowly she dosed off. 

A loud noise woke Sori up. She confusedly looked around her, searching for its source. As the girl was rubbing her eyes, she could hear the loud whispers of “, they’re here” coming from the upstairs rooms and feet stomping everywhere. Sori yawned loudly as she carefully stood up, afraid a rushed movement might awoke the pain in her tummy again, willing herself to fix her clothes and hair before she met Jungkook’s parents.

In the end, hearing the door’s bell ring again and seeing that nobody was going to open the door, Sori decided she’d be the one to open the door before the guests got more frustrated. Just as she was twisting the doorknob, she saw Yoongi and Hoseok rushing down the stairs making frantic gestures with their hands and shaking their heads. Unfortunately, by then the door was already swinging open, and Sori’s barely awake brain didn’t allow her to react fast enough to stop the door from opening completely before they all got there.

The man in front of her didn’t look impressed at all.

“Where is Namjoon? And who are you?”.

Jungkook’s father, Junghyung, had a very deep voice and a constant scowl on his face, which seemed to really suite the mean descriptions Sori had been given the previous night. Something in the way Jungkook sat rigidly with his hands on his knees and with his eyes pointed in front of him looked really suspicious to Sori. Jungkook had never been the talker of the pack, but he still did participate in the discussions going around him, especially when it involved things he knew a lot about, which seemed to be the case since his father was talking about his old pack, however today he looked like he was lost in his thoughts. It almost gave the impression Jungkook didn’t have a close relationship with his father and mother, or his whole pack in general. Maybe he wasn’t lost in thoughts at all. Maybe he was simply trying to avoid talking with his father. It wasn’t like Sori was judging him anyways, but his weird behaviour stuck out like a sore thumb. Usually her pack mates were overjoyed when their relatives visited and they all got absorbed with the news they brought, since they didn’t get the chance to see each other that often now that the packs had to live in the lands they were assigned by the government, which often meant they lived far from their families.

 As far as Sori had learnt in the years she’d spent in the pack, werewolves parents didn’t like to keep their children around for too long once they were considered “adults”, even though they loved their children, preferring visiting them in their child’s new pack. Changing pack or creating a new one once the young weres grew was really common, in fact it helped keeping the packs equilibrated and it also assured no one was going to marry or have children with a close relatives. Not growing older and having stopped wars etween pack meant that now the numbers of werewolves was constantly increasing and that forced them to live close to one another, which made it hard to keep a peaceful atmosphere between the close by packs, thus the only possible solution was the creation of smaller packs to occupy smaller portions of lands and for short periods of time. Moreover, werewolves have a tendency to be territorial and possessive, and that usually caused violent fights, but until a couple of decades ago it was necessary for packs to be large, to threaten  the other packs and increase the chances of victory in case of war. Also, changing lands often, made it easier to keep at bay their instincts of possession towards the lands they occupied.

That being said, the parents of her pack mates she’d met with up to now were pretty much okay with the new rules and were quite affectionate and touchy with their children. Jungkook’s father, instead, had spent the last hour criticizing how small Jungkook’s pack was and how much he missed the good old times. All of this while was sitting in Namjoon’s chair, quite far from his son, and also at the head of the table. Junghyung’s eyes were staring at the different members of the pack as he spoke, making sure everyone was paying attention to him, and giving everyone the same treatment, obviously showing he didn’t think of Namjoon as the alpha of the pack or as important as himself. As if Namjoon couldn’t ever be a treat for him. His scrutinizing eyes stopped a couple of times on Sori, to send her a death glare, and disapprovingly on his son, who wasn’t paying much attention to him. In spite of the nice smile he was showing, Namjoon’s annoyance could be easily noticed by the way he was bouncing his legs under the table, as he tried to keep his calm.

Sori knew she was being stared at. At first she’d thought it was just her imagination, her paranoia, but then she’d caught Junghyung’s eyes just as he was glaring in her direction. Slowly Sori started realizing why the guys had often told her she wouldn’t have liked meeting Jungkook’s parents. The atmosphere was tensed with no one else talking a part from Namjoon and Junghyung, while everyone kept their eyes on the two. At some point, Sori realized Jungkook’s mother wasn’t there and started wondering about the woman’s whereabouts. She’d been ordered to go unpack by her husband as soon as they’d arrived, and she had yet to come back. To be true, Sori envied her a little. In her mind she imagined just how peaceful it would’ve been to just leave and lock herself in her room or the rest of the day.

Sori didn’t have a clear idea about Junghyung’s personality yet, but from what she’d seen since he’d arrived, Sori knew she didn’t want to get to know him personally. Moreover, he sounds like one of those elderly man who feels the need to bitterly compare everything he lived in the past with the current present. Usually Sori would’ve found the stories he was telling interesting or at least worth listening to, but after having heard several times how it was better when women had to stay home and obey to their husbands instead of around, she’d just lost interest in the conversation, if she could call it that. With the corner of her eye Sori saw Narae squirming on the sofa, willing herself to keep quiet just for the sake of Jungkook, although letting Junghyung speak like this went against everything she believed in.

Every now and then Jungkook’s father barked out a humourless laugh at something he’d said, be it a remark about Namjoon’s pack or something about his childhood, and Jungkook visibly shrunk on the sofa more and more each time, avoiding everyone’s eyes. Sori found herself focusing more on the older guy’s reactions than about what was going on around her, because his behaviour was really unusual to her. Somehow she felt sorry for him. No one likes it when people has bad opinions about their parents, even though they know their parents . She was so lost in her thought that she didn’t notice someone was talking with her until she felt a hand resting on her shoulder. Raising her eyes, Sori met Jimin’s worried ones.

“Hey, are you alright?”, he almost whispered, a deep frown showing in his forehead.

“Oh, yes, I was just thinking”, Sori awkwardly chuckled. Albeit Jimin didn’t really look convinced by her explanation, he decided to let it go.

“Mmm, ‘kay. Lunch is ready though, come to eat”. He grabbed Sori by the elbow and guided her to the seat he wanted her to take. The seat was the seat she always took, at the centre of the table, with Jimin and Hoseok on her sides, however today it felt wrong for her to sit there, moreover the scent of blood was getting stronger, and the idea of a stranger, Jungkook’s father at than, knowing she was on her period made her feel utterly uncomfortable. Raising her head a little, Sori caught the sight of Jungkook’s mother in the same situation, as she looked at the free seat near her husband but felt uncomfortable with the idea of sitting there because then she’d have to stay close to the other alpha.

When Jimin tugged once more on her sleeve, Sori resigned herself and finally took her seat. Jimin didn’t let her hand though, probably he wanted some sort of comfort, since he was never one to take tension-filled situations well, so Sori let him do as he liked as long as she didn’t need that hand. Moreover, it was also reassuring for her, since Junghyung kept giving her glares full of disgust. Sori wasn’t sure if it was because she is a female and was having contact with male, if it was because she’s still single, because she is a turned-werewolf or for some other reason she couldn’t think of. She’d listened every now and then to his words up until now and those were the reasons she’d gathered from what he’d said.

Sori couldn’t help but anticipate the moment she’d be free to leave to go lock herself on her room. No matter what the others were going to say, she wasn’t having dinner with them. She’d rather skip dinner completely that to have to see the disgusted glares Junghyung was sending in her direction. Aside from making her feel uncomfortable and unwanted, they also irritated her. Like what the heck, she was in her own house and she’d done nothing bad to him, why did he hate her so much?

The moment Jin entered with a bowl full of pasta Junghyung turned his eyes towards him and hell broke loose.

“Why is your beta serving us, when you have three females in you pack, not to mention that one of them is also  turned-were? And why, if you don’t mind me asking, is she sitting with us? And right in the very middle of the table at that”. Sori froze, not knowing where to look or what to say. Junghyung’s voice held a very patronizing and disgusted voice tone, with a barely hidden menace in it. The couple of gasps from the members of BTS were mostly covered by Jin, who cleared his voice.

“This is really heavy, sir, not to mention I have a perfectly working body too, so she doesn’t need to serve us. They don’t have to serve us because of their gender. I cooked and I want to serve”, Jin spoke lightly, albeit his hostility could easily be perceived.

“Oh, really? Don’t you think you treat this little too well? She has to know her place, which surely isn’t in the middle of the pack.”, Jungkook’s father retorted, sending another glare in Sori’s direction, the corner of his lips raised in distaste. Sori could only think about how sorry she felt for her pack, who had to be looked down upon once again because of her. She knew today she shouldn’t have sat in that seat. She knew it.

“It’s not like that, sir”, Namjoon spit out the last word as if it was an insult, “we treat her like any decent human being should be treated. She can have whatever spot she likes in our pack, and we don’t need her to do any kind of work. Sori can do whatever she wants”.

“Ah, I see, I see”, Junghyung darkly chuckled, “you only do what you like, right?”. This time the man was directly talking to Sori. The girl raised her head a little to focus on the man sitting only a couple of seats from her. “I shouldn’t be surprised, since you are what you are right? The s like you are the best ones, I’m not surprised you’re not expected to work to keep your spot in the pack, after all you only have to do what you can do best. Is the father one of them, at least?”. Sori was left speechless. How was it possible that this man had turned Namjoon’s words to give them such a disgusting meaning? She could see Jungkook’s mother tugging on her husband’s arm, trying to make his shut up, but her husband wasn’t done yet. “This is exactly why we’re forced to leave like this. Hidden without being at fault. People like this ruined us. And people like you allow them to leave as if they are free to do whatever they please. As if they are like us. Let me tell you this, alpha”, it sounded like he was mocking Namjoon and his role in the pack, “you are making a mistake. Alphas like you are the reason why we are ruined. You shouldn’t be an alpha if you aren’t even able to make this turned-were stay in her place. I bet my son would be a much better alpha than you”, he concluded raising his brows in mockery. Jungkook looked utterly mortified, yet he didn’t say anything as he curled up to look smaller.

A long silence followed Junghyung’s words, and no one seemed to know what to say to break it. Namjoon was clenching his jaw with all his might, looking like he was on the verge of losing his calm, while everyone else was staring at Jungkook’s father with their mouths ajar.

“Sori, I’m sorry, I think it’s better if you leave for a while. I’ll bring you your lunch in a moment”, Seokjin finally spoke. Sori didn’t replay, she just stood up before she glanced in the beta’s direction and nodded, acknowledging his words. The girl felt like she was walking some sort of very distorted walk of shame, with everyone’s eyes fixed on her as she left the room. Her cheeks were on fire and her hands were trembling so hard that she couldn’t even extract her phone from her pocket to check the time. As soon as Sori reached her room, she noticed her things weren’t there anymore. Looking around in disbelief, Sori realized almost all o