Chapter 10 

 

Yunho couldn't be still. He should have gone with Yuri and Jessica to the airport instead of following this ridiculous plan that involves Donghae and himself remaining behind so that anyone watching would automatically assume the convoy a decoy on the belief that they would never let their wolf mates leave the manor without them. 

 

Yunho was pacing back and forth in his office, agitated and edgy and anxiously going over and over the possible risk of this plan ever since Yuri and Jessica had departed forty minutes before. He was waiting for confirmation from Donghae from Jessica that the two females were on the private jet bound for North Korea. The jet waiting for them was the best and the fastest in his small fleet and that included those available to him through his various mortal companies. The jet was fast, sleek and with all the state-of-the-art modifications, it was damn near impossible to bring down, by either weaponry or weather and to make it even safer still, his two best, most trusted, Lycan's pilots were flying and once Yuri and Jessica step foot on the soil of North Korea they would be safe. The full power of the Lycan throne resided where they were going. The Lycan palace was a well-guarded impenetrable fortress and the surrounding territory was the safest in the world for Lycan kind. 

 

There Yuri and Jessica would be safe until Yunho could put an end to Yoochun and his war but the journey to North Korea may just put them directly in harm's way. If Yoochun or any damned for that matter knew that Yuri and Jessica had left his protection then nothing would stop the diamond from...Damn this all to hell! He should have been with them. He should have never let them go without him. 

 

The only thing that kept Yunho from shifting and pursuing the limousine that had taken his mortal wolf mate and sister from him was Donghae, who stood silently by the floor to ceiling window, focusing intently on his mate and their progress through his mate link with Jessica. With Donghae able to maintain mental contact with Jessica for the entire trip and the entire time, they would be gone Yunho could monitor their progress in real time. 

 

He would know in an instant if something went wrong, such as being attack by the damned. 

 

"Where are they?!" 

 

At his prince's bark demand Donghae look up and silently noted that Yunho's agitated demeanor was increasing with each passing minute. They had been side by side for a long time, they were friends and brothers and never had Donghae seen the crown prince of all Lycan kind so on edge; not even the night his mother had given birth to Jessica. That night Yunho had been gravely and anxiously worried for the fate of his mother and his little baby sister. All had been well but until Jessica had been born Yunho had been anxious for his family.

 

'Oh, good goddess!' Jessica's irritated voice rang touchily through his mind, hearing her brother's words through Donghae's ear, 'He already asks thirty seconds ago!' 

 

'Have patience with him, Sica.' Donghae whispers soothingly back to her, 'I was no different with you on our first decade.' 

 

Donghae was careful to keep his grin from his plump lips when he heard his mate's reply in his mind even though the thought wasn't directed at him; his mate had thought the same of him as she now did of Yunho during their first decade together when Donghae had been slightly too overprotective of her. 

 

'Slightly overprotective? Is that what you call it?' Jessica scoff, 'You damn near drove me insane. You wouldn't let me out of your sight.' 

 

'I still don't like too.' 

 

'Yeah, but at least these days you let me bathe in peace.' 

 

Donghae quickly wipes away the grin he had fail to keep from his lips before Yunho could see it; it was a different day in a different century but still, the old disagreements between him and his mate thrived. 

 

"They are eight miles outside the city." Donghae answers his prince and brother-in-law, with a gentle reassuring and carefully patient tone, "All is well. Remember they are taking the long way around to avoid any damned spies watching our borders. We all knew the journey would take longer than it should." 

 

Donghae knew he was trying to reassure himself as well as his prince. He had kept it from showing but he was just as anxious as Yunho was. Jessica was his mate, he loves, worried and fear for her no less than Yunho did for Yuri; he only had more practice at managing it. 

 

"I should have gone with them!" Yunho growl cantankerously, as he continues to pace restlessly back and forth, "Yuri can find trouble faster than any I have ever known in all my years!" 

 

'He had better watch his words or I will tell Yuri.' 

 

Donghae bit down on the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing out loud, "Watch what you say, Yunho." He warns Yunho when he was confident that he could speak without laughing, "Jessica warns that she will tell Yuri what you said." 

 

Yunho pause, lifted his lips to growl low in his throat and then continue his pacing. 

 

In less severe circumstances, Donghae knew his mate would have told Yuri anyway but right now Jessica was too busy with everything she had to do. She believes herself to personally be tasked with Yuri's safety. He felt her dreading anxiety that seems to be contagious lately and impatience to finally be on the jet heading for their homeland. 

 

'You will be on the plane in a matter of minutes, Sica.' Donghae whispers softly to her, mentally caressing her mind with his warm radiant love for her. 

 

'While you remain.' Jessica replied miserably, as she thought of how it wasn't easy for them to be apart and it wasn't, no matter how they joke about it. They were two parts of one whole, being apart never felt right, no matter how short a period of time it was for. 

 

'We are never apart.' Donghae reminded her, but Yunho turns his focus back to him before he could say any more. 

 

"Are they there yet?" 

 

Donghae felt Jessica smile as she considers just how alike he and Yunho were. Donghae couldn't disagree, not when it came to an immortal and their mate; there was nothing more important than the other's well-being and happiness. There was nothing Donghae wouldn't do for his beloved mate. 

 

Donghae's head snaps up so fast that had he not been an immortal Lycan, he would have most likely broken his own neck. 

 

Yunho was instantly at his side, icy dread and heart-squeezing fear taking a crushing hold of him, "What happen?" Donghae closes his eyes and reaches out with all of his consciousness to his love but he couldn't hear her thoughts. When he focus as hard as he was able to, he could sense her, feel an echo of her emotions and confusion but that was all. Never, not in all their hundreds of years together, had Donghae been unable to hear the thoughts of his mate, to feel her emotions as clearly as he felt his own. 

 

Something was gravely wrong. 

 

Without even taking a moment to answer his frantic prince, Donghae shifted into his wolf form in a fraction of a second and with a single leap was flying straight through the glass window and down into the empty darkness of the night in a shower of broken glass. 

 

Jessica was alive but she was fearful and wary and then he felt her terrified shock as she steels herself against the coming battle. 

 

Then Yunho was beside him as they landed on the soft earth beneath the window and took off at full speed towards the city, jumping the stone wall with a single bound. 

 

'Something is gravely wrong! Somehow something is jamming our mate link! I can't hear her!' Donghae made no effort to dull his frenzied fear and sense of urgency and dread, 'I can feel the echo of her emotions; she's afraid and readying herself for battle! They have to be under attack!' 

 

From deep inside, born of terror and panic, Yunho funneled all his will and strength into his pace and shot through the woods, running faster than he had ever had in his entire existence. 

 

Yoochun was after Yuri. He knew it and Yunho would die before he let Yuri fall into Yoochun's hands and so would Yoochun. 

 

It took Yunho less than thirty minutes to get two-thirds of the way around the city but by then whatever had happened was well and truly over. 

 

Yunho all but skidded to a halt when he finally came to what remained of the limousine and the two black SUV's that had been taking his mate and sister to the small airport only minutes away by the road. 

 

The motorbike was nowhere to be seen. 

 

The roof of the limousine had been near completely rip off from the vehicle; only the front two feet of the roof remained attach while the rest was lying in jagged pieces all around the section of the road, along with the two rear limousine doors that had clearly been rip off by strong hands and the front bonnet of the limousine was crush inwards as if something extremely heavy had landed on the hood. 

 

As wreck as the limousine was, it was clear from the destruction of the two SUV's that both sides had been careful not to harm the occupants within the limousine. One of the SUV's was wrapped around the thick base of a tree with enough force to implode both sides of the vehicle and the other SUV was lying upside down. Between the two SUV's three doors that Yunho could see had been rip clean off while the remaining doors hung wide open. Most of the windows were either badly crack or shatter completely; the glass was scattered across the entire battlefield, glittering like thousands of diamonds. 

 

The battle had been violent, brutal and quick. The surrounding trees had enormous branches broken off that were either crush or shredded and large chunks had been taken out of the tree trunks and even the road beneath their feet. One brief scan of the area told Yunho exactly what had occurred. A damned ambush had been waiting for the convoy; there had been at least five dozen damned, the scent of the damned in the vicinity was sickeningly heavily strong suggesting that there had been a large number present very recently, who had leapt out of the woods without warning and had knock the SUV following behind the limousine straight off the road and into a thick tree trunk on one side of the road. The limousine had been jumped on and then pried apart from the outside in an attempt to get at what was inside and the front SUV was upside down but other than the damage caused by it being flip, Yunho could see no further damage which told Yunho that the occupants had had time enough to get out before it had been flip. 

 

As well as the carnage of the vehicle and the trees, bodies of his men amongst over a dozen damned lay amongst the debris. 

 

Yunho had sent eighteen men, Changmin and Changwook with Yuri and Jessica and from where he stood, Yunho counted eighteen; it was Changmin and Changwook who were missing. 

 

Less than three seconds had passed since Yunho had arrived at the devastation that was what was left of the battlefield when Donghae arrive at his side. 

 

Yunho shifted back into his human form in a single step and hurried to the closest of his own men; that he was never even enter his mind. 

 

It was one of Yunho's best warrior, outside of his betas, he was almost as experienced as his betas were; he was only five hundred years younger than Donghae. He was unmated but had always impress Yunho with how he had shown such mastery over his beast. The Lycan's had the faith and hope that Yunho himself hadn't known until he had found Yuri. Yunho suspected that this loyal Lycan warrior would last another eight centuries before he fell into damnation. He still lives in hope of finding his mate. 

 

He was alive, gravely wounded but alive. With a brief assessment Yunho judge that he would live long enough to receive aid from those of his pack who had follow him when he had bolted from the manor but had been unable to keep up. 

 

By his estimate, they would arrive within the next minute or so. 

 

Yunho checks the next three as Donghae join him. One of the three had been decapitated, an instant death, while the other had had his heart ripped out from his chest by razor-sharp claw hands, a vampire damned. 

 

Yunho had seen both inflictions of death more times than he cares to ever recall; hell, he had inflicted both forms of death even more so but even after all the wars and battles he had fought in during his immortal life, losing a pack member still hit him and the entire pack hard. 

 

From all the rest that Donghae examines, five live but was gravely wounded however they too could wait for the help that was coming. 

 

It pains Yunho that he couldn't spare the time to aid them himself but he had a more urgent matter to attend too. No time could be spare in finding Yuri and Jessica; his people depended too heavily upon them being found swiftly and unscratched. 

 

Out of all eighteen damned left behind, only one still lives which Yunho swiftly rectified; the surviving damned was too close to death to be saved, even for an immortal. His heart had been all but shredded; there was no saving him. 

 

Yunho wishes the damned hadn't been so far gone; as a prince and general in the immortal wars of the past, Yunho knew the value in a living prisoner. The damned were loyal to their prince, Yoochun, but unlike his own people, they were far more loyal to themselves in the end. 

 

While checking the wounded, Yunho had picked up a familiar scent near the limousine mingle in with the scent of Yuri, Jessica, Changmin, and Changwook. 

 

Minho. 

 

If Minho had been here and Yuri and Jessica were missing then unless Yunho had missed something crucial, Yoochun had Yuri while Jessica... 

 

More than a dozen of his pack finally burst into the clearing but they were stopped in their tracks by their alpha's grief-stricken gut-wrenching cry that he let free to the night sky above. He may have been in his human form but the sound was that of a wounded alpha wolf. 

 

None of Yunho's own needed to ask why he was so anguish. 

 

The faint sound of light footsteps slowly heading their way caught Yunho's attention and the wind shifted, carrying the scent of fresh immortal blood. 

 

Yunho tense and sank into a low battle stance as he waited for the immortals to leave the trees. If they were damned then he would shift and destroy one but only wound the other; he had plans for the other. 

 

The one he let live would tell him where to find Yuri, one way or another; the one he let live, for a short time, would envy the dead. 

 

With a pain sound of effort, Changmin and Changwook step out from amongst the trees. Changwook had his arm draped over Changmin's shoulders while Changmin had one arm wrap around Changwook's waist and with his other Changmin held Changwook's wrist to keep Changwook's arm in place on Changmin's shoulder. 

 

Yunho relaxes his battle stance as he scans both of his beta's with his hard icy glare; he was glad that they were alive but they had let him down in failing to protect their charges. 

 

Changwook was in the worst condition of the two. He had long deep cuts covering most of his flesh. He had four long still bleeding slashes half an inch apart across his entire oval-shaped face, running from the left side of his forehead across his right check ending at the right side of his chin, that most likely had been inflicted by a vampire's claw hand. Changwook's right wrist which he held close to his chest was at an awkward angle, obviously broken, most likely in more than one place and his left leg was completely mangle, blood oozing from the shredded flesh, some of which was hanging from his legs by only narrow shreds of skin that stain to keep it attach at all. 

 

Yunho had seen the wound countless times before; a damned Lycan in wolf form had managed to get the limb in his mouth and had bitten deep, tearing the flesh like wet tissue paper. 

 

Changmin was in much better shape but not by much. Blood was dripping steadily from the elbow of the arm that he held Changwook's wrist with from a deep wound Yunho couldn't see. His right eye was badly swollen shut, his jaw hung limply that reveal to all who look upon him that his jaw was broken and there was a trail of still flowing blood all the way down his right side that reaches his thigh from a deep puncture wound on the right side of his neck. 

 

A damned vampire bite. 

 

Both betas were exhausted, wounded and hurting but they tried hard not to show it which made Yunho pause. They had obviously fought hard to save Yuri and Jessica but had been gravely outnumbered, judging by the number of slain damned that lay upon the ruin remains of the battlefield. 

 

Yunho and Donghae simultaneously rush forward to offer them aid. Yunho carefully took Changwook's weight and lower him to the ground where Changwook slump heavily in a sitting position while Donghae inspected the bite wound on Changmin's neck. 

 

Vampires bite were a serious wound to a Lycan, as the saliva of the vampire dramatically slow the healing process, the purpose of which was to keep the blood flowing so the vampire could feed. 

 

Changmin's bite was severe as it appears that whoever had bitten him had been wrench away while he had still been feeding, in effect causing his fangs to be torn from his neck and creating a far graver injury than a clean bite would have. 

 

"What happen?" Yunho asks Changwook, knowing that it would be at least a day before Changmin would be able to talk again. 

 

Changwook was panting heavily, significantly drain; it appears that he was finding it too great of an effort just to breathe. 

 

"We were ambushed and outnumber." Changwook mumbles exhaustedly, with a grunt of pain, "I counted thirty of the bastards." He looks up into Yunho's eyes with wretch despair and shame display clearly in his eyes. 

 

Yunho knew his beta's well, he knew that Changwook believes himself gravely dishonor for his failure to protect his alpha's mate and sister. Yunho would set him straight later, there were far more important matters at hand right now. 

 

"I clear a path to the trees for Jessica." Changwook went on, his voice heavy with exhaustion; he was on the verge of utter collapse, "Jessica didn't hesitate. She got Yuri and herself out of here but Minho was on the battlefield." He swallows thickly as he closes his eyes, pain consuming his face as he relived the moment, "I tried to stop him but he knocks me into three damned of our own kind. By the time Changmin and I manage to get through, they had already been taken." 

 

Changwook turns and looks with heavy remorseful significance into Donghae's eyes, "I found the spot where Jessica was ambushed. I think they carried her out of there." 

 

Wretch agony flashes in Donghae's wide eyes but he quickly hid his emotions behind an expressionless mask, a brave face worthy of the first beta. They had all been through similar situations to this before many times, they had to keep a brave face and believe that they would get their taken back; without that belief, an immortal would fail and fall, "She's alive." Donghae told them, with a hard resolute tone, "Whatever those bastards are doing to jam our link, it isn't enough to break it completely. I can still feel her. She isn't aware but she is alive." 

 

"That's not all." Changwook told them, as he looks back up into his alpha's eyes, "I pick up Yoochun's scent about five hundred feet in." He hesitates only a moment before he added, "Mix with Yuri's scent." 

 

A chilling murderous roar of sheer rage explode from Yunho that had all in the vicinity, immortal and animal alike, frozen in cautious trepidation; there was a distress predator near. 

 

Yunho spun on his heel to address half of his pack that had gathered at their alpha's cry, "I want the entire city search now! No one sleeps, no one rests! No one eats until Yuri and Jessica are safely back at the manor!" 

 

Many winces under their alpha's rage but none show sign of doubt or hesitation. Within seconds the area was empty of the dozens that had been there moments before, all that remains was Yunho and his beta's. 

 

Yunho turns to his beta's, two of which were out of the fight, at least for tonight. They had done all they could do, they deserve one night of rest. They were no good to him dead on their feet. 

 

"Donghae, take them back to the manor." Yunho gave the two wounded beta's an authoritative glare, warning them not to argue with his commands, "Where they will rest. You are no good to me when you are dead on your feet. Donghae, you will join me in the city with everyone we can spare from the manor." 

 

All three bowed their heads to him once in reluctant submission. No matter how great their need was to be a part of the search party, they wouldn't disobey him. 

 

Yunho watches silently as Donghae shifted into his wolf form and carried the two wounded soldiers from the battlefield knowing Donghae would be with him again within half an hour. 

 

Yunho had never before been so enrage or more terrified in his entire life. Or more self-loathing; he should never have let Yuri or Jessica out of his sight. He should have taken them to the airport himself and now because of his idiocy Yuri and Jessica were defenseless in the hands of his most malicious enemy and it was very possible that at least one of them was injured as Jessica would never let Yuri fall into an enemy's hands without a fight. 

 

The only thing that gave him the ounce of hope he had left was the knowledge that the two females were far too valuable for Yoochun to seriously harm or murder. 

 

At least for the moment. 

 

So Yunho most likely had a short amount of time to find them before anything serious happen to them but if Yoochun had so much as harm a hair on either of their heads, Yunho would skin him alive before he kills him. 

 

One way or another, Yoochun and Minho were going to die, their time had long since been overdue. Too many times Yunho had let old regrets make him hesitate but no more. He couldn't change the past; all he could do was protect the future. 

 

Reaching into his pocket, Yunho pulls out his cell phone and hit the eighth speed dial. The phone on the other end only rang once before it was picked up without greeting. 

 

"Yonghwa." Yunho said crisply, his voice the only means of identity, "I need all the aid you have, my friend. Yoochun has Yuri and Jessica." 

 

For the second time in twenty-four hours, Yuri was so worried about Jessica that she was close to tears. The Lycan princess had been unconscious for several hours, how many Yuri had no idea as she had no means of tracking the time but it felt like it had been a full day. 

 

After Jessica had been knocked unconscious and Yuri had realized that they were captured by the enemy, Yoochun had carried her, kicking and screaming all the way while Minho had carried Jessica whom he had thrown carelessly over his broad shoulder with the ease that Yuri was beginning to accept as part of the immortal norm. Then, wasting only the time it took to avoid long stretches of sunlight, Yoochun and Minho had carried them out of the woods and thrown them into the back of yet another stretch black limousine with dark tinted windows. 

 

There Yuri had immediately demanded clothing for Jessica who was still after her clothing had been shredded when she had transformed into her wolf form. Yoochun had just raised an eyebrow at her and without a word had nodded at Minho who had swiftly taken off his black cotton polo shirt and thrown it to her. She had ignored both the now half- man and the awful putrid damned smell soaking the black cloth and she had awkwardly slipped the shirt over Jessica's head to cover the top half of her unconscious form and then, before the vehicle had even reached cruising speed, Yuri had been forcibly blindfolded and tightly restrain. Yet, even without her sight, Yuri had been able to tell that they had been taken into and across the city by the loud distinctive sounds of the city. She had no idea exactly where they had been taken too but she knew they were on the west side of the city that was mainly an industrial area, most of it run down or deserted, as when they had removed her restraints and blindfold so she could walk under her own power she had seen that they were inside some run down factory that they had driven straight into. 

 

With Jessica once again thrown over Minho's shoulder, Yuri had then been taken down three flights of stairs into some kind of sub-basement and down a long dark filthy tunnel that smelt of foul water and decay where they had been lock inside a room. 

 

During all of this, Jessica hadn't even stir but at least the room had turned out to be a comfortable one which honestly had surprised Yuri. The white painted room looks like it was right out of a fancy high price hotel. 

 

There was a cream brown four-posted queen size bed with white flowing silky curtains drape all around, a tan brown settee, thick classically design carpet on the floor and a golden vanity mirror. There was a white single door with gold t that leads to a small but equips bathroom that was complete with shampoo, soap and clean towels. There was even colorful landscape art on the walls that supplied both rooms with the only real color. 

 

The room was well light, clean and very light in color. It was a room design and put together for a woman. What this room was doing here in an underground damned hideout thoroughly baffled Yuri. 

 

Yuri had done what she could for Jessica. She had covered her with the thick covers and given her a little water by wetting one of the white hand towels she had found in the bathroom and dripping a few drops of water into . 

 

Other than that, there was nothing Yuri could do. Both sides of Jessica's body, from her shoulder to her knee were badly bruised and Yuri was partly glad that Jessica was unconscious because she had to be in excruciating pain. The princess looks like she had been slam simultaneously by two wrecking balls. 

 

Jessica was pale but she was breathing unhindered. Yuri wasn't a doctor, she knew nothing about internal injuries but Jessica was an immortal Lycan princess, she had healing abilities which Yuri knew very little of; she didn't even know if Jessica's healing abilities were capable of healing serious internal injuries. 

 

Since being lock inside the room, when Yuri hadn't been watching over Jessica or doing what little she could to help her, she had been searching every inch of their cell for a way out or anything that could be used as an effective weapon. If they had been held by ordinary mortal men then there were plenty of weapons in the room, a shard of smash mirror with half wrap in cloth used as a knife for example but there was nothing that would be effective against a much faster stronger immortal. 

 

There was no way out either, the entire cell from the floor up was what looks like solid cast iron that Yuri suspected was inches thick; the purpose to keep an immortal prisoner. 

 

Which meant that they weren't going anywhere unless it was through the solid heavily bolted door. 

 

A weak pain groan from the bed drew Yuri's attention and made her heart rate pick up as she dares to hope for the princess. 

 

Hurrying back to the bed, Yuri climb up onto the soft surface in time to see Jessica's eyes slowly flutter halfway open and look up at her. 

 

The pain was evident in the princess's eyes but she somehow no longer appear so fatigue and pale, as if the rest had helped her regain some of her strength, enough to wake up at least. 

 

"Jessica, are you alright?" Yuri asks anxiously, her voice sounding more than a little frantic. 

 

Jessica forces her lips to form a small comforting smile for the anxious young woman who had been so brave throughout her entire ordeal. She had woken a few minutes before she had made the sound to alert Yuri to the fact that she was awake to have time to assess her condition. 

 

Immediately Jessica had known that even though she had been slam into a tree by Yoochun, she could remember sensing Yoochun moments too late to do anything to avoid his attack, none of her bones had been broken, however, her body had taken a mighty blow. Both sides of her body throbbed with heat and pain, one side from Yoochun's body blow, the other from that blow sending her flying sideways into the broad tree trunk but her body had been healing while she had been unconscious. 

 

It had only been when she had dared to move that she had released an involuntary groan of pain. 

 

If she had been mortal, either blow would have killed her one way or another, most likely from fatal internal injuries. 

 

"In another few hours, I will be completely healed." Jessica didn't feel bad for lying to her brother's mate; she didn't want Yuri distracted worrying about her. 

 

Besides, Jessica knew she would be fine. Her healing could even be accelerated if she shifted into her wolf form. She was tempted to shift but she was still weak and she had the feeling that she would need every ounce of her strength if she was going to get Yuri out of their prison and away from Yoochun. 

 

That was Jessica's main concern right now; getting Yuri out of the enemy's hands, even if she had to sacrifice herself to do it. She was a princess and she had been raised knowing that compare to the sake of her people, her life meant little. It was her duty to do what she could to protect her people and their way of life. 

 

Truthfully, that was why Jessica had tolerated being kept safely locked away in either her parent's care or her brother's. She was the princess of their kind and as a female she was invaluable. It was her duty as a female to remain safe and bare life so their race could continue on even though she would much rather be fighting by her brother and mate's side. She may be a female but she knew how to fight; she had been trained to protect herself and her people since she had reached the age of maturity but since Yuri had been found, Jessica was no longer the brightest beacon of hope of the Lycan kind. It was Yuri who carried the hope for her people now as both the mate of the next Lycan king and as the first mortal mate to be mated with an immortal in all their recorded history. 

 

On top of that, Jessica really like Yuri and not just because she had brought her brother to life unlike Jessica had ever before known her brother to be. Yuri was spirited, strong-will and courageous, although it was obvious that Yuri had yet to learn that for herself and truly kind-hearted. There was something so pure and accessible about the dark brown eyed young mortal woman. She was the kind of person who others just seem to flock too and love dearly. Yuri also had a great deal of potential, potential to become more than anyone, even immortals could have ever dreamed of. 

 

Yuri was worth anything and everything to protect, even Jessica's own life. Yuri didn't know it but she had already given the entire Lycan race a reason to hope and with it at the very least postpone the extinction of their entire race. With Yuri's strength and her love of their prince, she gave those on the edge of damnation the strength to hold on longer. 

 

With renew fierce determination, Jessica gritted her teeth and force her throbbing bruise and battered body up into a sitting position and swept her eyes over their prison cell. She had to get Yuri out of there as quickly as she possibly could. 

 

Ignoring her body's need to rest and heal, Jessica moves carefully to the edge of the bed and slowly rose to her feet, taking only a moment to test her strength and balance before she walks on wobbly feet to the wall. 

 

The scent of fresh paint filling her senses; the room had only been painted a few days ago. It was obvious that this room had been assembled for the purpose of housing Yuri. 

 

Yoochun had been busy. 

 

As the minutes tick by, Yuri watch with silent powerlessness from the center of the room as Jessica methodically check the door and each wall for some sign of an unobvious exit, for some weakness in the solid iron walls or flaw in the construction that Yuri hadn't realize but it was clear from the grim expression on Jessica's face that she didn't expect to find one. 

 

"Just how much trouble are we in?" Yuri asks, when Jessica turn away from the wall, her examination complete but unrewarding. 

 

Jessica look around, scanning their surroundings one last time, "Well," She said, with a heavy sigh, "How does the expression lost in bear-infested woods smothered in honey suit you?" 

 

"Can't you mind talk with Donghae Oppa?" Yuri asks, with dismal hope, knowing that if she had been able too she would have already but still she needed to ask. 

 

Yuri got her answer when Jessica looks straight into her eyes, dread and worry there behind a transparent mask of nonchalance. Jessica was worried but she didn't want to frighten her anymore than she already was. 

 

The truth was that Jessica had been trying to reach Donghae for the last few minutes, hell, she had been trying ever since they had been ambushed but to no avail. Donghae wasn't dead as she had first feared; she could still feel Donghae on the very edge of her consciousness. Donghae was terrified, frantic with worry and murderously furious. Their bond was still there but was being blocked by something that was only allowing the faint echo of emotion through. 

 

Jessica didn't know of anything that could interfere with the telepathic link between immortal mates, she had been able to communicate mentally from the other side of the planet as clearly as if Donghae had been standing beside her. Whatever it was that was blocking her mate link it was powerful and unheard of. 

 

Jessica knew that both her mate and brother, along with all the other immortal kind inform of the situation, were at this very moment tearing the city apart looking for them but since she didn't have a single clue as to where they were, the natural scents of the area and surroundings would have told her if they hadn't been cloak by the putrid scent of the damned that contaminate everything with the scent of death and rot, there was no telling how long it would take those searching for them to find their prison. 

 

For the time being, Jessica had to keep Yuri calm and as safe as she could. She was a powerful Lycaconess of the royal line but still as in nature, the female was more often than not physically weaker than the males. Females, however, tended to make up for their lesser strength and smaller size with higher intelligence and cunning but as weaken and injure as Jessica was, Yuri was mortal and therefore was far more vulnerable. 

 

"Don't worry Yuri." Jessica told her, with a gentle reassuring tone, "Yunho Oppa and Donghae Oppa will come for us. Nothing born of heaven or hell will ever stop them from coming for us when we need them." 

 

Yuri didn't doubt it but would they find them in time? 

 

For that matter, in time for what? What did the damned want with them exactly? It was bad enough being in this situation; it was even worse not knowing just how bad it was. Jessica was trying to comfort her, trying to protect her by downplaying the situation but Yuri didn't want to be comforted. 

 

Yuri wanted to know just how bad it was and why. 

 

"Tell me about Yoochun-ssi." Yuri had accepted that she was part of this now and she wanted and needed to know all there was to know about the situation, "Who is he?" 

 

Jessica stares at her for a long moment, hesitating as if deciding whether she should answer or not and just how much she should tell. 

 

Yuri bit the inside of her lips with disgruntled irritation. They were treating her like a helpless child and it was really getting on her nerves, "If I'm going to be part of this, no scratch that. I'm a part of this and I deserve to know exactly what's going on and why I'm a captive of that deranged melodramatic pompous Yoochun." 

 

Jessica couldn't help but grin with fond amusement and pride at Yuri's list of Yoochun's attributes. This mortal truly was a perfect match for her brother; Yunho would never know a moment's peace again but he would always be smiling. 

 

"Yoochun is the most powerful of the damned; before he fell Yoochun was the most skill and competent warrior the vampires had. This was well before my birth." Jessica sighs heavily and carefully sat down on the side of the overstuff bed so not to jostle her hurting body, "He was fear, respected and honor but it was always well known that there were shadows within him long before the darkness within him grew strong. To his credit, he did try so hard to keep it collar and strive to do good for his people." 

 

Yuri took a seat beside the Lycan princess, knowing from Jessica's solemn tone that this story was one of tragedy, "Time can wear down even the best of us. Like most immortals, Yoochun eventually lost faith and hope that he would ever find his mate and the darkness in him grew stronger and stronger but just when it was fear that he would turn, Yoochun found his mate." So many times Jessica had heard the tragic account but still, it left sorrow in her heart which faded quickly when she remembers all the crimes Yoochun had committed since falling into damnation. 

 

"She was beautiful and pure; she was the niece of the current reigning vampires queen, only twenty-two years old, a child in our world. Her name was Chaerin." Jessica look into Yuri's eyes with sorrow in her own as she waited for Yuri's reaction to what was coming next, "She was an active young woman, she loves to run, hunt and play but most of all she loves to shall we say, hone her battle skills. It's a quality in the immortal world mostly associated with the Lycan race as the blood of the wolf runs thickly in our veins. The vampires consider themselves more sophisticated than us." Jessica shrug, "Which is true I guess but there are those few occasionally born of the vampire who has the wild untameable spirit of nature." 

 

"All this was during a time when war still raged fiercely between the vampires and our kind. In a way what was to come next was one of the first steps towards peace between the Lycan and vampire people." Jessica explains, "It is said that Chaerin was one of the few at the time who objected to the war between the two immortal races and she refuses to fight in the war she deems pointless. Instead, she endeavored to become a hunter of the damned; those who cause harm to the innocent mortals. A notion Yoochun didn't share. In fact even before his dark fate found him, Yoochun had come to hate and despise Yunho Oppa for his determination to protect mortals. He saw my brother as his arch nemesis. This became cemented the tragic night Yoochun found Chaerin and realize she was his mate." 

 

"It was our father who told me what happen that night, Oppa never speaks of it. It's one of the heaviest burdens Oppa carries; I have seen Oppa's agonizing regret and self-loathing over what happens in his eyes so many times." Jessica drew in a deep heavy breath as if preparing herself to continue, to say what came next, still watching Yuri's reaction to every word, "Oppa was out hunting the damned that night, during the time we warred with the vampires, the damned had grown in number and in power. A temporary unspoken truce had been called between us and the vampire so that the damned could be dealt with. Oppa had been tracking a large group of damned all night, by the time he caught up with them a unit of vampires was already engage in battle with the damned. The vampire was outnumbered and more than half of the unit had been kill while many of the damned still remain." 

 

"Now Chaerin wasn't among them at that time, she had just arrived from a distant coven in Russia with her parents to be presented to Yonghwa as a possible mate, it's rare but sometimes a mate can be found within one's own bloodline. She had been feeding nearby and heard the commotion of the battle and it had drawn her. From the shadows Chaerin watch as her own kind was being slaughtered before her eyes but as compassionate as she was, she was intelligent. She knew interfering without a weapon would only cause distraction." 

 

"But when Oppa and his unit arrive, Donghae Oppa, Changwook Oppa, Changmin Oppa and Jaejoong Oppa, they join in on the battle against the damned, Chaerin fear that when the battle with the damned was finish, a new battle would begin against the exhausted and wounded vampire unit. She leaped into action, joining the battle against the damned before the two immortal races turn on each other." 

 

"Donghae Oppa says that the moment Yoochun saw her, he knew that Chaerin was his mate. With his unbonded mate on the battlefield, Yoochun erupted into a killing frenzy. Killing all but ally on the battlefield. The remaining damned fell swiftly, leaving only the Lycan enemy." 

 

Jessica closed her eyes against her memory of her brother's burdening painful regret and went on, "Yunho Oppa tried to reason with him, he even tried to withdraw but Yoochun engage him in a ferocious battle with blood in his eyes. Oppa knew the look well; Yoochun was fighting him to the death. As the two fierce warriors lock in battle, the units fought against each other." 

 

Jessica open her eyes and turn to look into Yuri's wide eyes; she was firmly enthralled by the story, "You have to understand, mates are precious and fiercely protected as females are few and immortals only get one chance at a mate; a second chance is impossible as none can survive the loss of their mate. A mate is everything to an immortal and the safety and protection of one's mate is all that matters. Yoochun saw his young inexperienced mate on the battlefield with his enemy's greatest warrior. Had you walk onto the battlefield in her place, Yunho Oppa would have been no different. This is why logic and reason couldn't reach Yoochun; maybe if it had the tragedy never would have happened. It was an accident, Oppa never meant to do what he did and he regrets it as much today as he ever did." Jessica needed Yuri to understand that about Yunho, she couldn't let what had happened so long ago, that Yunho had carried with him ever since, come between them. 

 

"Chaerin realize that Yoochun was her mate and without thought, she jumps in-between Yunho Oppa and Yoochun in an effort to stop the battle before one of them did something that couldn't be undone." Jessica once again closes her eyes against the fierce sorrowful emotions that rose in her when she thought about what this one moment in time still did to her brother, "Oppa didn't see her until it was too late. Chaerin took the fatal blow meant for Yoochun. She dies instantly from the blow to her heart." 

 

Something wet hit Yuri's cheek and she raises her hand to her face and touches her cheek. Pulling her hand away, Yuri saw that her fingers were wet; she was crying. She had been so enrapt by the tragic tale Jessica was telling her that she hadn't even noticed she was crying. She was crying for the young woman who had accidentally been kill, for the young woman's mate who had also died that night but mostly she cried for the pain and guilt that had haunted Yunho for centuries. 

 

"Yunho Oppa was devastated. He had never taken the life of a female before that night. Not even a vampire one who had fought in the war. He had wounded them but had never killed a female. He knew as well as any how precious they were, even to the enemy." Jessica look straight into Yuri's tear-fill anguish eyes, "Oppa was unable to accept what he had done; he fled, leaving Yoochun holding the lifeless bloody body of his unclaimed mate." 

 

Jessica closes her eyes and turns her head away from Yuri's, trying to fight her own tears. In the current situation, no matter how tragic Yoochun's story was, she wasn't going to cry for the bastard. 

 

"A part of Oppa die that night." Jessica whispers brokenly, "It was centuries before Yunho Oppa took anything for himself again before he smiles again, as haunted as his smile was. It was from that day that he endeavored to have peace between the vampire and Lycan kind. It took over a hundred years but Oppa did bring peace between us." "Yoochun never even gave himself a chance to seek death in his anguish." Jessica force away her thoughts; on the edge of her consciousness, she could feel Donghae reacting to her sorrow and pain. He was distress and fearful enough she didn't want to add to his worry, "Madden at the loss of the mate he hadn't even had the chance to learn the name of, Yoochun drank life's blood that night and fell into damnation. Fuel by his rage and hatred, Yoochun quickly became the most powerful and fear of the damned in immortal history; he manages what no other ever had. He not only survive the death of his mate but he regains some semblance of control and brought the damned together under one leader, organizing them and making them far more dangerous than they have ever been." 

 

Silence stretch between them but time pass unnoticed. While Jessica fought to control her emotions to console her distraught mate, Yuri process what she had been told. 

 

No wonder Yunho was how he was; this was why he was so overbearingly overprotective of her. Yunho had seen how easily one could lose their mate and on some level, Yunho still felt that he was unworthy of a mate of his own when he had taken the life of another's mate. 

 

Yuri had witnessed how preciously Donghae regarded Jessica; he cherishes her above all else and loves her even more. Jessica was Donghae's hope and reason to be, she was his peace and joy. What would it be like to lose that forever, to have no reason to live, to hope? And Yunho had taken that away from another, an enemy but another nonetheless. He had been torturing himself far longer than Yuri could comprehend and had done it without burdening his friends or family. He fought and hunted to protect and he endeavored to keep his people in good comforts. 

 

It was only now, so much time later after Yunho had found his own mate that he had given himself a second chance at living and she had thought about leaving him? How could she have been so selfish, so uncaring that she had been trying to leave him to an empty anguish-fill life without her? 

 

Yunho had spent most of his life existing for others and only now he had something for himself; he had her. Even after all her attempts to run from him, all of her acts of defiance against him, Yunho had shown patience and restraint. 

 

How could such a man be true? Yunho was the most selfless and bravest being on the planet, it wasn't a matter of him being worthy of her but of her ever being worthy of him. 

 

Yuri didn't know how she could ever be worthy to have him but she intended to spend the rest of her life trying to be worthy of the unsung hero of the night. Yunho was the champion of the immortals who fought endlessly to protect his people and innocent mortals who had no one else to defend them. 

 

Yuri felt her heart squeeze as she felt herself fall and realize with unswerving clarity that she had fallen in love Yunho, heart and soul. She had been foolish to be afraid of loving him, of being with him just because she may or may not be able to keep her own identity. She would just have to be stronger than she was, to hold onto her sense of self as she became whatever Yunho needed her to be, to give him whatever he wanted of her. 

 

Yunho was the one man Yuri could fearlessly and utterly trust. He had never hurt her, never betray her and never leave her. He will always be there when she needed him as she would from this day on strive to always be with him. She had helped him let go of the past and do what she could to relieve as much of the burden that lay on his shoulders as she could. Yunho needed her, no it was more than that; he deserves her. He deserves to know peace, love, and happiness, after all, he had done, after all, he had been through and just like that, Yuri was his. For life. Not because he had claimed her, not because he had marked her but because she chose to be. She chose him but first, she and Jessica had to get back to him. To do that, they had to escape from Yoochun. 

 

Turning her full focus back to the situation at hand, Yuri knew that they needed to find a way to escape or at least think up of a sort of escape plan. 

 

First, they had to get out of a lock windowless room with thick iron walls and then they had to get pass Yoochun and his army of damned. 

 

The task ahead of her was more daunting than climbing a thirty-story skyscraper barehanded. 

 

"Hey." Yuri said in an inquisitive tone, drawing Jessica's attention back to her, "What's the story with the other one who is always with Yoochun?" She was certain that the one call Minho was one of the damned who had attacked her at the club that night. 

 

"You mean Minho?" Jessica asks, with a faint trace of amusement in her dark brown eyes, "He's a fallen vampire; he was the first to join Yoochun and has been with him ever since. His story isn't nearly as tragic as Yoochun's. Minho lost hope of finding his mate and lost control of his thirst. As Donghae Oppa tells it, Minho came across a damned feeding on an innocent mortal and kill the damned but was overcome by the scent of fresh mortal blood that he finishes the damned's kill himself." 

 

Jessica's tone told Yuri just how frequently it happens. It made sense though when those on the verge of becoming a damned hunted the damned blood was something they would often come across and the temptation had to be immense. 

 

Yuri made a mental note to talk to Yunho when all of this was over, about possibly putting those who were too close to falling into damnation on the bench and out of the path of temptation. 

 

"So, how are we going to get out of here?" Yuri asks Jessica, almost casually. 

 

Jessica held her hands up in an 'I don't know' gesture, "I don't know. This room is superior to the cells of mother and father's palace back in North Korea. Yunho Oppa would have a lot of trouble getting out of here and then there are the damned guards. I might be able to take them but without knowing how well trained and skill they are, I can't quote any odds." 

 

Yuri hadn't really expected any. Well, when the obvious and simple didn't work, try Hollywood. 

 

"What about seducing and tricking the guards?" Yuri suggested, going over various movie scenarios in her mind, dismissing most while considering the rest. 

 

Jessica gave her a skeptical look, "This isn't some corny midday soap opera. I'm mated. Immortals and damned alike can tell a mated female at a thousand yards. Donghae Oppa's scent is as heavily embedded in my flesh as my own." She raises a hand and indicated towards her, "And you. Well, even if they ignore Yunho Oppa's claiming mark and scent all over you and the strict orders Yoochun no doubt gave not to touch you, you are mortal. They are more likely to see you as breakfast." Jessica indicated her hand at the door that was bolted from the outside, "The only way out of this room without a miracle is through that door but it's near impossible without knowing how many are out there." Yuri rose to her feet and started to pace back and forth as she dismisses the last of the scenarios she had been considering. 

 

Yuri's head snaps up at the loud sharp sound of metal moving against metal and turn to the door. She was standing in the middle of the room and even though her instincts were screaming at her to hide, Yuri knew that it would be a waste of time and effort. 

 

There was no place to hide but in the tiny bathroom or under the bed. She was a prisoner; she was trapped in this galling white room at the mercy of a heartless immortal superhuman monster with the thirst for bloody vengeance in his black soulless eyes. 

 

The door open and in a single blink of an eye, Yuri realizes that Jessica was suddenly standing in front of her, between her and the door as Yoochun and Minho step into the room with two unfamiliar damned behind them. 

 

Jessica may have been a female which meant that she was a few sizes smaller and not as physically strong as they were but she was still a Lycan. She had superhuman strength and speed and she could turn into a wolf that was still five times larger than the largest wolves of nature. 

 

Jessica stood tall and proud, every bit of the princess she had been raised as they stared off at each other. 

 

"Princess Jessica." Yoochun greeted her, his tone greatly unsettling with dark amusement underneath which was the faintest hint of warning. 

 

"Yoochun," Jessica replied briskly in an icy dark tone. 

 

"I must say, princess. You are an unexpected bonus." Yoochun slowly walks further into the room, Minho on his heels while the two others remain just outside the doorway watching with curious amusement and sinister satisfaction, "I had expected Yunho to ship you off with the other women and children days ago." 

 

Jessica's eyes narrow sharply; she didn't like it one bit that he knew about the fleeing women and children. There was something in his arrogant grin that told her that he believes that they had only gotten away safely because he had allowed it to be so. 

 

How had he known? Was he watching the manor that closely? Had it been the spy that had attack her in the manor's garden? 

 

"I will tell you what you won't be expecting!" Jessica snap, with a tone so feral that her words were all but growled at him, "Yunho and Donghae tearing you to shreds for touching what is theirs!" 

 

Yoochun and Minho erupted into highly amused mocking laughter, making a show of that they didn't fear what Yunho and Donghae might do to them. 

 

Jessica impatiently waited for the ridiculous laughter to die down before she asks, "How are you blocking me?" 

 

They didn't need to ask her meaning, Jessica could see it in their smug triumphant expression that they knew exactly what she was talking about. So it was there doing that she hadn't been able to telepathically contact Donghae since just before the ambush. They were jamming her somehow. 

 

If only she could find out how maybe she could do something about it and lead Donghae straight to her. Bonded mates could always find each other no matter what obstacles stood between them, even if one had no idea where they were. They could instinctively go to each other, kind of like the way birds always knew which way was north or south during migration. 

 

Yoochun looks beyond Jessica directly at Yuri and it was all Yuri could do not to cringe in revulsion. 

 

"The mortal race has become so creative in this modern age, so inventive." Yoochun state, as he slowly walks further into the room, closer to them. 

 

Jessica didn't retreat but raise her extended arms a little higher, widening her protective stance in front of Yuri, "Mortals, as pathetic and repulsive as they are they just keep on inventing." Yoochun shrug as if he didn't understand how humans had become intelligent enough to become of use to him as anything other than a meal, "In fact, they have even invented a few things that, shall we say, hold possibilities that their feeble minds never even dream of. This entire cell." He raises his arms in a gesture to their surroundings, "Is surrounded by an electromagnetic wave distorter. The mortals created it to scramble radio waves and such; its main use in the mortal world is to prevent the broadcasting of listening devices I believe and its range is incredible I must admit. It jams all signals within the mile." 

 

Now Jessica understood. She hadn't studied human technology in a while but she had been around long enough to know that the mortals had recently taken a great interests in listening devices and other spying technologies, ever since the first world war and that extended to the disruption of listening devices; technology that operate somewhat similar to the mate link of the immortals. 

 

It had never been studied but in recent times immortals had come to understand, based around the mortal's research, that bonded couples and such could communicate telepathically because of the ability to strengthen the brainwaves between two or so receptors, in other words between two deeply link minds. 

 

It was a machine that prevented her from communicating with her mate and brother. Jessica was going to have to assure that this information got to Yunho. He had to know about this modified mortal weapon that could be used against them. 

 

Since the damned didn't mate or bond deep enough for telepathic communication over anything but the immediate vicinity, this weapon couldn't be used against them but could be a great disadvantage for the immortal kind. 

 

Since Jessica was standing in front of her, Yuri couldn't see the princess's expression but she could see Yoochun's. Whatever Jessica was betraying on her face had delighted Yoochun and Minho; they had great big darkly amused grins on their faces. 

 

They were grinning like fools with the winning hand. Whatever this thing was that they were talking about, the words electromagnetic waves were way beyond her understanding, was something that was an advantage to the damned and not one to immortal kind. 

 

"Whatever you have!" Yuri snaps defensively, "It won't help you! Yunho is going to tear you limb from limb and you won't be able to do anything about it except cry like a terrified little girl!" 

 

The grins were promptly replaced by a furious scowl as both Yoochun and Minho's eyes narrow dangerously into slits that were focused on her. 

 

Jessica wanted to close her eyes and shake her head at Yuri's brave but foolhardy daring. On one hand Jessica wanted to cheer at her courage but on the other hand, pissing off Yoochun when they were at his mercy wasn't a smart thing to do. She had wanted to act as Yuri had done but centuries in this war and in the immortal world where pride was deeply embedded in all males, Jessica knew better. 

 

"Watch your tongue, mortal!" Minho spat at her, taking a threatening step towards them. 

 

Jessica tense, ready to fight for the helpless but brave mortal, even knowing that she had most likely loses and pay dearly for protecting Yuri with pain and blood but willing nonetheless. She would have done it solely for the fact that Yuri was a mortal but Yuri was her brother's mate and the brightest ray of hope both the Lycan and vampire kind had known in millennia. 

 

If necessary, Jessica would defend Yuri until her own death. 

 

Yoochun out his arm, physically stopping Minho in his tracks while he kept his furiously cold black eyes focus on Yuri with a penetrating glare that promises pain, "Careful, little girl. You don't need your tongue to give me what I want." 

 

Yuri involuntarily swallows repulse, even though was suddenly as dry as the Sahara desert. She didn't like Yoochun or his conceited manner but she had a healthy respect for pain and an even healthier sense of self-preservation that was stronger than her pride. 

 

"And what do you want from her?" Jessica asks, knowing she had regret asking as she already knew the answer. Yoochun's expression relaxes but the icy malevolence remains in his cruel black eyes, "The same as your precious brother, only I won't be so polite about it." 

 

Yuri knew she shouldn't ask but she was like a curious and mischievous child who had come across a sign that warns not to touch the wet paint, she just couldn't resist poking, "What is he talking about?" 

 

Jessica felt sick to her stomach at the thought of Yuri beneath Yoochun's cruel hands and what he will do to her when he stops being nice but she refuses to lie to Yuri; she deserves better than lies, especially when she was being so brave. 

 

"He wants to use you as a substitute mate, Yuri." Jessica spoke to her, but kept her eyes firmly on the threat, "In a vain attempt to obtain offspring." 

 

The burning acidic contents of her stomach fill Yuri's mouth and she fought the urge to fully throw up. Slapping her hand over as her eyes grew wide, Yuri fought against her body's reaction to the image his words created. With burning and her stomach threatening to send more, Yuri reluctantly swallows and fought to keep it down. 

 

When Yuri believe it was safe enough, she lowers her hand from and glare defiantly at Yoochun, her only thought was that which she promptly voice, "I would rather die than let you touch me, you soulless repugnant monstrosity!" She was secretly proud of herself for the brilliant insult in such a terrifying situation, "You can go straight to hell with a dump truck shove up your ! I'm Yunho's mate!" 

 

Jessica was the first of the two of them to realize that Yuri had just made a grave error in judgment in challenging Yoochun's pride. Too fast for Yuri's mortal eyes to perceive, Yoochun's fists clench in rage as he moves towards them. The distance separating them and that Jessica had been waiting for it was all that gave Jessica enough time to push Yuri back and lunge at Yoochun but Minho must have been watching her as Jessica had been watching Yoochun because just as Jessica would have slammed into Yoochun's chest forcing him back, Minho was there between them. 

 

Jessica had no time to react as Minho, with marginally greater speed and strength, grab a vicious hold of her upper arm and threw her sideways across the room until she hit the solid iron wall with all the force and strength of an experience older damned warrior. 

 

Pain exploded throughout her body as if she had been hit by a bolt of lightning. Once again Jessica was body slam into a solid surface and once again the pain was the last thing Jessica knew before she lost consciousness. 

 

One moment Jessica had been standing in front of her, the next Jessica had been slam into the wall to Yuri's left where she had fallen motionless to the floor. In the same moment, Yoochun was suddenly standing in front of her, growling furiously like a savage deranged animal. 

 

Yuri could do nothing, with not even enough time to flinch away from him before the back of Yoochun's hand collided with the soft flesh of her cheek and sharp white-hot agony spear through her face and head and everything went dark, a bless relief from the pain and terror that she might have just gotten Jessica kill. 

 

Speeding swiftly through the shadows of the city in his wolf form as fast as he could while still taking close notice of the surrounding scent, every one of Yunho's thoughts was consumed by frantic worry for his capture mate and sister. In his mighty wolf form, Yunho was able to move very fast while still taking in the scent that surrounded him with proficient ease. 

 

In his wolf form, Yunho was faster and his senses and instincts were much higher and acute than in his human form. Yunho would always know Yuri's scent, it was deeply embedded in his very being and Jessica's scent Yunho had known for centuries, not to mention Jessica and himself carried the same blood, her scent was the closest matching to his than that of any other on the planet, their parents included. He would know either scent no matter how old, since the last rain at least, no matter how strong the over-layering scents were. 

 

Yunho didn't care in the least if he or any of those he had searching for the two women were seen by mortal eyes. Tonight nothing matter but finding Yuri and Jessica at any cost. Once they were safe, Yunho fully intended to deliver his murderous wrath down upon every damned in or near the city. 

 

The damned would learn one way or another that no one, Lycan, vampire, damned or mortal, touch his mate or any female under his protection and for those who had her, those who had dared to touch what was his, there will be no mercy. 

 

With Yuri and Jessica in Yoochun's hands only one thing gave Yunho any comfort; the knowledge that Yoochun wouldn't torture, maim and/or kill Yuri as Yoochun would normally have done to any capture immortal female as means of delivering vengeance down upon the female's mate and pack or coven. 

 

Yuri was a mortal mated to an immortal and as such, she was far too valuable to be used as a means for physiological warfare. 

 

No, Yoochun would save that for Jessica as he had two of Yunho's females, one of which he had no other use for. While Yuri would endure a cruel fate, Jessica would suffer a fate far worse than the death at Yoochun's sadistic hands before he eventually kills her. 

 

Why Jessica hadn't yet suffered sadistic harm was a miracle Yunho hadn't expected; Yoochun had Yuri and Jessica for several hours and as far as Donghae could tell with his mate link as faint as it was, Yoochun had yet to lay a hand on her since he had abducted them. 

 

Beside him, Donghae ran step to step with him, determinedly keeping stride with him as Donghae was on the same mission he was; like Yunho, Donghae had everything to lose. 

 

Donghae's weak partial link to Jessica was why Yunho kept Donghae close at his flank. Donghae, even with the telepathic bond of mates between them severally weaken somehow, he could still sense his mate's emotion, even if he couldn't hear her thoughts. 

 

Donghae kept him in constant update. Jessica was at present fearful and anxious but calm and compose; something Jessica wouldn't be if Yuri wasn't with her and safe but they were fast running out of time; Yoochun wasn't known for his patience or restraint. 

 

Yunho fully intended to search the entire city. If he had too he would tear down each standing structure brick by brick. He would find her, no matter where she was and then he was going to kill Yoochun once and for all. Yuri was his and the entire world was going to know it before all was said and done. 

 

For the past few hours since losing Yoochun's scent at the city limits, Yunho had been brutally interrogating and killing every damned that crosses his path. He wouldn't stop, would never slow down until he found her. He would kill every damned on the planet if he had to to get her back. 

 

In the logical part of his mind that Yunho was pointedly ignoring, he knew that he was out of control but he just didn't care. 

 

Suddenly, Yunho sense Donghae freezes beside him, halting in midstride. Yunho instantly halts his own pace and turn to find Donghae, in his wolf form, with his head down and concentrating on everything he had. There was no movement, no sound from him except his heartbeat; for all the signs of life, he was displaying he could have been made of stone. 

 

Choking terror and frantic panic gush through him as the wall Yunho had trapped it behind crumble and Yunho stops breathing. 

 

'What is it?! Is Yuri...?! What is it?!' 

 

Donghae's eyes flare open and he looks into Yunho's dark terrified eyes and rigid stance that mirror his own. 

 

'Pain. Pain and then empty darkness.' Donghae's mental voice was barely a choked whisper as if every word was a devastating torment to verbalize, 'She's unconscious. He did something to her.' 

 

'Yuri?' 

 

Donghae could give no answer; he could no more tell Yunho about the fate of his mate than Donghae knew about his own. 

 

Jessica regains consciousness to a world of throbbing pain, her mind momentarily trap beneath a heavy hazy cloud. She felt so disorientated that it was another full minute before the pressuring urgency and her worry for Yuri return and Jessica snap open her eyes and lifted her head enough to look around her, forcing herself to ignore the agony in her pounding skull. 

 

How long had she been out and what had happen during her unconsciousness? 

 

Minho was leaning against the wall just feet from her with his arms cross smugly across his chest. His stance was one of ease and his expression was one of chilling triumphant anticipation as he stares at the bed. 

 

Jessica follows his gaze to find Yuri lying flat and motionless on the bed with her arms above her head while Yoochun hovered over her, his hands on her body in a manner that Jessica knew that if Yuri had been conscious she would have been screaming and fighting against him like a feral animal. 

 

How long had she been out? Jessica didn't know but it couldn't have been more than a few minutes as Yuri was still clothed and Yoochun wasn't a man of patience once he decided upon a course. 

 

Neither of the damned had realized that she had regained consciousness. She had a chance to act with the element of surprise. One moment was all she would have and hopefully, it would be enough. 

 

Knowing it was now or never Jessica brace herself for the coming intense agony from her battered body and sprang into action; she had to get Yuri out of there. Now. 

 

One thing about being an immortal female was that the enemy often underestimated her; most damned consider females, of any race, weaker and unintelligent and therefore not any real threat to them. 

 

Jessica was a female but she was still a Lycan and a princess damn it and their mistake of underestimating her work to her advantage. 

 

Before Minho could spring into action against her or Yoochun could realize it was coming, Jessica was up and off the floor, transforming into her wolf form. Her form was easily three sizes smaller than Yunho and her mate but she was still a force to be reckoned with. 

 

In one bound, Jessica was on the bed, standing protectively over Yuri. The bed beneath her shook at the impact and creak threateningly to give out beneath her massive wolf weight. Acting quickly without hesitation, Jessica kicks out with both of her front paws at Yoochun's chest and sent him flying across the room until he slams into the cast iron wall, just as he had to her. 

 

Out of the corner of her eye, Jessica saw Minho leap into action. 

 

Seconds were gone, only heartbeats remain. 

 

Jessica slid her head down along the bed and under Yuri's unconscious form until she was completely beneath the young woman's tiny body and nudge her downwards until Yuri was drape limply across her fury back and then Jessica was flying through the air; she was at the door in a single bound. Looking over her shoulder, Jessica saw Minho throw himself after them with Yoochun closely behind him. Both were baring their vampire teeth as they hiss and snarl, wrathfully enrage. 

 

In the face of the livid rage of the two most powerful and strongest of the damned, Jessica beam them a smug triumphant wolfish grin and kick out with her back paw. 

 

The door slam close just as Minho reach it, the bolt sliding immediately and smoothly into place and unlike most doors, this one swung outward instead of inward, most likely to prevent anyone from hiding behind it and ambushing the captor. 

 

The damp dim tunnel was deserted and silent. Jessica didn't know where the two guards were but she doubts they will be gone long. She had to act quickly or their only chance of escaping would be wasted. 

 

As Jessica carefully slid Yuri off of her back the locked door behind her began to violently shudder and reverberate as Minho and Yoochun pounded against it trying to get it open and Jessica knew they would. Yoochun was the strongest and most cunning of the damned; he wouldn't make a prison that he himself couldn't escape. 

 

With no time to waste Jessica shifted back to her human form, paying no heed to her ness and scan Yuri for injury but whatever Yoochun had done had only left bruises; there were no broken bones or bleeding wounds, she could smell no blood nor hear any grating bone. Not having any time left to be gentle Jessica raise her hand, gave her a silent apology and slap her carefully across her unbruised cheek, not using enough force to hurt any more than a sharp sting. 

 

A soft weak groan escape Yuri's parted lips and Jessica felt overwhelming relief; Yuri was rousing, she couldn't be too badly hurt. 

 

"Yuri, come on. Wake up please." Jessica begs her, her tone hush but urgent, "We don't have time. We need to get out of here and to do that I need you conscious." 

 

The first thing Yuri became aware of was the aching pounding in her head; it felt like she had been hit over the head with a huge wooden mallet. She had the headache of her life and it was hard to focus and on top of that, she was aware of a stinging pain across her cheek. 

 

Why was half her face throbbing with sharp burning pain? 

 

The last thing she remembers was Yoochun back-slapping her across the face. 

 

Yuri could hear Jessica begging her to open her eyes, to wake up. She sounded so frantic, so urgent. Something was wrong; she had to wake up and help the princess. 

 

With that thought lending her the force of will to ignore her pain and aching body, Yuri opens her eyes to find herself staring into the dazzling dark brown eyes of the worried Lycan princess. 

 

Who was stark ? 

 

Politely keeping her eyes averted as much as she could, Yuri pulls off her top and handed it to Jessica, leaving her in a white split strap clean cami. 

 

Jessica gave Yuri a brief thankful smile and quickly pull the top on over her head. 

 

Once cover with the top that only just cover her, Jessica rose to her feet while pulling Yuri's to hers. Without even feeling Yuri's weight, Jessica wraps her arm around the young mortal's waist as she pulls Yuri's arm around her shoulder. Jessica was at least eight times stronger than a mortal football team but she was still a woman. She wasn't physically large enough to easily carry someone in her arms even as small as Yuri, at least not in her human form. 

 

"We are getting out of here," Jessica told her determinedly, as she all but carried Yuri down the dark desolate concrete tunnel they were in that had large rusted pipes running along both walls and ceiling above. It was dark and smelly, so smelly that Jessica really didn't want to breathe too deeply but she breathed in through her nose regardless of the wretch smell of the damned, decay and waste. 

 

With one whiff, Jessica knew that they were at least three stories beneath ground on the west side of the city; the scent of earth grew stronger the further one went underground and once an immortal pass another three stories underground, the scent became different, older, as if the faintest traces of scents from before the birth of mankind still linger in the earth itself, whispering of times before war, famine and mankind. 

 

Jessica shook her head. Now wasn't the time for that, she had to get Yuri out of there and if they had any luck at all, she might just be able to escape herself. She wanted, needed, to get back to Donghae. She could feel the echoes of his crushing fear and devastating worry for her; even though Donghae knew she was alive and she was doing her best to remain emotionally calm in an attempt to soothe him, he was terrified for her. 

 

In her secure hold, Jessica was aware of Yuri vainly trying to support her own weight and keep pace with her but the young brave mortal was still disorientated and didn't have her superhuman abilities; Jessica was all but carrying her and it was only just barely slowing her down. 

 

What was slowing her down was the silence. With her immortal ears, Jessica had always been able to hear something, even at the peaceful manor there was always the sound of nature from the woods around them and the noises from within the inhabited home of the pack but now there was nothing, she couldn't hear the sound of the city or even the sound of the damned moving about in the tunnel around them. All there was was the thunderous booming of Yoochun and Minho on the door of what had been their prison. 

 

Jessica moves swiftly along the tunnel, passing at least a dozen other tunnel leading off into the darkness but none gave any indication that they lead to the surface. They needed to get out of there but they were in what appears to be a labyrinth of sewer and maintenance tunnel under the city. If she had been conscious when she had been brought here, she would have been able to retrace their step with little difficulty but she hadn't been. She had been carried by a damned who had masked her scent so she couldn't even follow her own scent to the surface. 

 

To make Jessica, even more, convinced that fate was working against them, she couldn't pick up any trace of Yuri's scent either. Normally she would have been able too but the thick putrid layer of the scent of the damned was too thick; both their scents had been completely coated by it and Yoochun and Minho's scent was everywhere so Jessica couldn't even follow theirs out. 

 

It seems that they were going to have to find a way out without her usual methods. 

 

"That way." 

 

Jessica came to an abrupt halt and look across to see Yuri pointing down the tunnel leading off to their right. It wasn't until then that Jessica caught the weak scent of the fresher air, proving Yuri right in her directions. 

 

So Yuri had been paying attention to where they had been taking them when she had been brought in; clever girl. It wasn't normally in the nature of mortals to be so intently perceptive. 

 

Beaming Yuri a proud grin and still supporting her weight, Jessica enter the tunnel and pick up her pace to one that Yuri had no chance of keeping pace with; they had to get out of there. The alarm hadn't been raised yet but it was only a matter of time before either Yoochun got out or someone heard the racket they were making. 

 

The scent of fresher air was growing stronger with every step Jessica took, telling her that they were getting closer to the way out and then Jessica saw it. 

 

A badly rusted slime coated spiral staircase leading upwards. 

 

Up meant out. 

 

With only enough space for a single file, Jessica swiftly move her arm from around Yuri to her waist and Jessica move Yuri behind her and up onto her back where Yuri automatically wraps her arms around Jessica's neck and held on. 

 

Jessica didn't even feel Yuri's weight; Yuri really was tiny, weighing barely any more than a five-year-old child. Jessica suspected that she might even have been able to bare Yuri's weight had she herself been mortal. 

 

Taking the stairs three at a time, around and around, Jessica found herself at the top of eight stories above in less time it took a mortal to scale a single staircase. 

 

They were out of the tunnel and at the surface. Now Jessica had to figure out where they were so they could escape. Time was pressing down upon her, suffocating her; they were running out of time. By all rights, they should have run out of time already. 

 

They were at the surface but they weren't out yet. They were inside of what look to be an old abandon factory, a box factory by the look of the badly rusted machinery and deflated decaying boxes spread throughout the three-story high half-a-block wide space. 

 

Jessica breathed in deeply, scrutinizing each and every scent. The scent of the damned was thick in the enclosed space but she could still distinguish the scent beneath. They were in an abandon box factory on the west side of the city. Somewhere near the river; Jessica could smell the dirty flowing water and just like that it hit her. The polluted water was how the damned had managed to mask their scent as no immortal wanted to breathe deep the putrid scent of pollution and human waste to discern the even fouler scent of the damned. The factory also had all of its windows intact so there were few places the scent of the damned could leak through. 

 

"There's a door behind there," Yuri whisper in her ear, raising her arm from around her neck to point straight ahead at the large piece of rusting machinery with a conveyer belt. 

 

Not wasting a moment, Jessica follows Yuri's direction to find the door where she had no doubt would be. Yuri had been paying close attention when they had brought her in which was more than commendable as she had been defenseless in the cruelest hands. 

 

Yuri was the most fitting mate for her brother, even more than any could have realized. Yuri was a petite mortal but she wasn't defenseless; her mind was so sharp and cunning that it boarded on terrifying. 

 

Yunho was going to have his hands full with her if Jessica could get Yuri away from Yoochun and his damned army. The doors were ordinary wood, the faded dirty white paint had mostly flake away and Jessica had no trouble opening it and just like that they were out in the fresh air of the late afternoon. 

 

The sun was already on the horizon but sunlight still shone down upon them. Maybe luck hadn't abandoned them at all, with the sun still up the vampire damned would be reluctant to follow. Even though only the strongest and purest of sunlight could actually kill a vampire they were still hesitant to step out into the light of day. 

 

However, there was absolutely nothing to slow down the Lycan damned. 

 

Right on cue, Jessica heard the telling ringing metallic pounding that proclaims that they had indeed run out of time. By the sound of it, at least half a dozen large men were rushing up the spiral staircase. 

 

Their escape had been discovered, she had to act now. 

 

Resuming her swift pace, Jessica looks around desperately, scanning their surroundings. There had to be a way to get Yuri out of there other than on foot. On foot, Yuri had almost no chance of getting away as Yuri could never get far enough away with what little time Jessica knew she would be able to buy her. 

 

As Jessica had known, the murky greyish brown water of the river flows not fifty feet from the factory that was on the very border of the city limits. Beyond the river stretch farmland with the occasional farmhouse, most of which were in bad need of repair and a fresh coat of paint. Running parallel to the river was a two-lane road with bad cracks and multiple deep potholes and there, five stories above the old road that had long since seen better days was a once white concrete pedestrian overpass that connected eight factories on opposite sides of the road and river. Once mesh fence had enclosed the pedestrian overpass but now most had fallen slack or fallen away completely. 

 

Taking the opportunity to get a better view of their surroundings, Jessica changes her direction, heading for the pedestrian overpass with all the speed she could muster. 

 

This wasn't going to be easy, especially in her weakened condition and carrying Yuri but Jessica didn't see that she had any other choice. At best they had seconds before they were found. 

 

Reaching the edge of the river, Jessica gritted her teeth against the pain of her battered body and tense, bending her body low as she gathers all of her strength and all of her will. She was going to make it. She had too. 

 

With all that she had in her, Jessica leaped up into the air aiming for the pedestrian overpass. If she misses then they would fall into the river and Jessica didn't think she had the strength to keep both herself and Yuri afloat in the fast flowing dirty water but the moon goddess was with them, Jessica landed solidly on the edge of the overpass with a grasp of pain; even with her fast healing it would still be another day before she would be able to move pain free and that was if she didn't sustain more injuries which didn't seem likely in their current predicament. 

 

Jessica scans the area and immediately movements in the distance caught Jessica's attention and she silently thanks the moon goddess for favoring them in their escape. 

 

From where they stood on the pedestrian overpass the almost deserted rundown factory area, Jessica could see a truck with two open-top freight container speeding towards them that would pass under the bridge in a matter of second. With a Lycan's eye, Jessica analyzes the speed of the truck and the distance that was decreasing between the two points. It was Yuri's only chance. 

 

The sound of a wooden door banging open told Jessica that they were no longer alone. 

 

Jessica had known since they had fled their prison cell that she will have to stay behind to buy Yuri enough time to get far enough away that she at least had a chance of being found by one of their own; Jessica knew Yunho would have every available immortal scouring the city for them both. 

 

Grasping hold of Yuri's waist in her hands, Jessica looks into Yuri's eyes, unable to help but wonder if this was the last time she would ever see the extraordinary mortal woman she had become so fond of, "Tell Donghae Oppa I love him so much and that I'm sorry." 

 

Yuri's eyes grew wide in horror as she realizes what the words meant, "For what?" 

 

Out of the corner of her peripheral vision that was ten times acuter than mortal sight, Jessica tense, ready for combat, "You will know when you see him." And with carefully restrained strength, Jessica toss Yuri over the railing, keeping hold of her as gravity caught her weight and drag her down until she was dangling in the air three stories above the black asphalt. 

 

Yuri gave a startled scream as Jessica then release her hold on her, letting Yuri's body slide through her hands until she tightens her hold on Yuri's wrists. 

 

Yuri looks up into Jessica's steady eyes, knowing her own eyes were wide with startled fear and bewilderment which Yuri consider rational considering her current location. The only thing that kept her from screaming her lungs out in terror was that she trusted Jessica and the focus look in Jessica's eyes that told her that Jessica knew what she was doing or at least Yuri hope Jessica did. 

 

The woman was a centuries-old immortal Lycan princess with the strength of five men; if she couldn't trust Jessica to hold her dangling several feet above the hard ground then who could she? 

 

Jessica's entire midsection was screaming in painful protest from the bow position; her wounds from Yoochun slamming her into a tree a quarter of a day ago and then a wall not ten minutes ago still hadn't healed. She was an immortal Lycan princess but she could still be hurt and she still felt pain but Jessica forces herself to ignore the pain; her body would heal if she lives long enough for it too, the most important thing was getting Yuri away from Yoochun. As Jessica steadily held her gaze lock with Yuri, silently reassuring her that everything was going to be alright, she was listening to the approaching truck engine. 

 

Jessica silently counted to three and abruptly release her hold on Yuri. 

 

Jessica had given Yuri no warning before she releases her, leaving her no time to scream as she fell down through the air. 

 

They say that when one was about to die, one's life flashes before their eyes but Yuri didn't even have the chance to experience it before she landed heavily with a small bounce on a semi-soft pile of folded cardboard and plastic bottles, her teeth snapping together painfully. 

 

Above, Yuri saw Jessica straighten as she solemnly watches her be taken further and further away. 

 

Yuri pulls herself up onto her elbow, needing to keep Jessica in sight for as long as possible but she instantly regretted choosing to do so. 

 

Her last glimpse of Jessica was of the Lycan princess fiercely battling two large men, Lycan damned Yuri assume since the sun was still up, on the overpass. 

 

Fortunately for Yuri, the truck which was hauling recyclables such as empty milk cartons and folded boxes, Jessica had dropped her into the back of, had been heading into the city. 

 

For the first few minutes of the journey, Yuri had remain as still and as silent as possible, even knowing that it was her scent that the damned would most likely follow when they pursue her and then she had buried herself beneath a layer of cardboard just in case; it might be a pointless effort but Yuri was going to do all she could to hinder their search for her. There she had remained for a good thirty minutes before the truck had stopped, pulling into a brightly lit truck stop and gas station. 

 

Yuri motionlessly listens as the driver exited his truck, lock it and walk away, most likely to have some dinner since the sun had just set beneath the horizon minutes before. 

 

It was hard to believe that it was only this morning that she had been in Yunho's arm. It felt like it had been a month since she had last seen Yunho; so much had happened in the last...What? Eight hours? Had it really only been eight hours? Time passes so torturously slow when she was away from him and she had been through so much today. Since leaving the manor that morning, Yuri had been toss around like a rag doll, had ridden on the back of a huge wolf only to be violently knockoff, kidnap, knock around some more and then she had to run for her life, forced to leave Jessica behind and then finally she had been drop into the back of a recyclables garbage truck to continue to run for her life. Yuri almost wishes for her old life back, her old boring safe life but in that life, she would be without Yunho. She would rather live in constant danger now than to have lived her entire life without knowing Yunho and their love. She was in a world she didn't belong, a world of impossible supernatural creatures but she wouldn't have it any other way. 

 

Yunho made everything worth it. Some might say that she had given up her dreams that she had worked so hard for so long but the way Yuri saw it, she had merely exchange one dream for another, a better dream. 

 

One she would fight for, do anything for. 

 

As quietly as possible, Yuri work her way to the front of the trucks deep tray where she had noticed a ladder that allows one to climb in and out and pull herself up and over the side and climb down, jumping the last two feet as the ladder ended just before the top of the waist-high wheels. 

 

The truck stop was just like every other Yuri had ever seen. There were fuel pumps with a two-story-high roof above to protect customers from the rain while pumping gas. The high ceiling had rows of long bright fluorescent lights and a brightly lit shop and café area within. There were near a dozen other eighteen wheeler trucks in the parking lot that reek of diesel fuel, oil, something heavily metallic and dirt. 

 

Yuri had no idea where she was and that wasn't all she was without. She had no money, no cell phone as she had left her purse, containing her cell phone and money that Yunho had given her, a great big wad of cash in the limousine. She also had no means of protecting herself from mortal or immortal threats. All she had were her wits and the clothes on her back. 

 

Yuri really wishes she had her purse but it wasn't as if she had the time or presence of mind to grab her purse before she had literally been thrown out of the destroy limousine. 

 

The whole situation was great, just great. Yuri couldn't see how the situation could possibly get any worse. She was lost and alone in the city with an army of superhuman damned on her trail. She didn't even know any of the contact numbers for Yunho or the manor as she had them all enter into her cell phone, she hadn't had enough time to learn them and she doubted that they would be listed in the phonebook. 

 

Hell, Yuri didn't even know the names of any of Yunho's companies. If she had Yuri knew she could have found a means of contacting Yunho there. Hell, for all Yuri knew members of the pack could even work there. At the very least she would have had someplace to go, a direction and a lead. 

 

Yuri mentally slaps herself. She couldn't stand around all night whining about what she didn't have. She was wasting the precious time that Jessica's self-sacrifice had brought her. What she needed to do was to get someplace safe until she could figure out what to do. 

 

For a moment, Yuri hesitates, an idea occurring to her. She could call one of the girls, they wouldn't refuse the call but that would mean bringing them into this mess and putting them in grave danger. 

 

Folding her arms across her chest and burying her fingers into her elbows to keep herself warm against the icy breeze of twilight, Yuri put her head down and started on her way down the street in the direction of the bright lights that cast an orange glow on the clouded sky above. 

 

She had to find an immortal, preferably not a damned one and get back to Yunho. He had to be worried frantically about her. 

 

Two hours later, despite walking briskly the entire two hours, Yuri was so cold that her teeth were chattering and her feet were aching from all the walking she had done on the hard pavement but finally she had reached her destination. Half an hour after walking out of the truck stop, Yuri had recognized the name on a street sign and had realized where she was. From there she had decided to head for the campus. The campus park was where she had first met Yunho after he had saved her life; it was a place to start her search for an immortal. She had been attacked by the damned there so surely at night in the park and the campus was placed in which the hunting damned immortals roam and so it stood to reason that those who hunted the damned would go where the damned hunted. 

 

It was dangerous and possibly futile, hell, it border on stupid but it was the only thing Yuri could come up with. She really should have paid more attention when she had escaped from the manor that night, only to be all but drag back by Yunho. 

 

The park was how it always was at night, cold, dark and mostly deserted, even more than usual. Then again, after last week's gigantic wolf sighting it didn't really surprise Yuri that most people were staying clear of the park until either news was release of the wolf's capture or death or enough time had passed that the wolf had faded into a campus urban legend that would be told over and over, becoming more far-fetch with each passing year. 

 

During her first month on campus, Yuri had heard the story at least a dozen times about the cool dude who had become a legend when, after forgetting that he had class that day, had gotten into the shower only to realize halfway through that he had forgotten about the important lecture that he had to attend. The gist of the story was that he had immediately gone straight to the lecture theatre, dripping wet and except for a pair of unlaced shoes and a tiny white bath towel. 

 

Shaking her head as if to physically rearrange her wondering thoughts, Yuri turns her focus back to the situation at hand; with the park so unusually quiet maybe the damned had found other place to hunt. If that was so then the immortals that hunted the damned wouldn't be there either. 

 

Maybe she should try another park, one that people weren't intentionally avoiding due to a dangerous animal sighting. There was the city's largest park in the city central that was only a forty-five-minute walk away. 

 

"There you are." 

 

With a startled yelp, Yuri whirl around to find a group of eight black-eyed damned standing only a few feet from her glaring at her with dark furious and irritated expressions on their twisted pale faces. They were all vampire damned base on the pale-as-death color of their skin. 

 

Yuri wanted to shake her head incredulously; after everything she had gone through in the last few hours, it would end with her back in the damned hands in the place where it had all began. Jessica had sacrificed her own chance of freedom to help her escape only for it to have been in vain. 

 

Yuri found herself wondering with icy dread if Jessica would be disappointed in her when she found out. 

 

However, knowing that she was caught didn't mean that Yuri was going to go without a fight or at the very least she wasn't going to go silently. It was easier to be brave when she knew they wouldn't hurt her; Yoochun seems to be the only one among the damned who was believe to have that right. 

 

Which only made Yuri fear for Jessica's well-being all the more. 

 

Taking a slow retreating step back, Yuri kept her eyes on them. The way she saw it, if there were damned here in the park then those who hunted them wouldn't be far behind. She had to stall as long as she could; Yunho had saved her before, she had to have faith that he would again. 

 

"How did you find me?" 

 

The tallest and bulkiest of the eight damned step forward from the group, his black eyes were sharply focused on her and his expression was darkly disgruntled, "The scent of the Lycan prince!" He snarls, the words bitterly as if they were foul tasting on his tongue, "Contaminates you! It wasn't hard to track!" 

 

Yuri force a goading grin to her lips, carefully hiding her fear as she warily kept her eyes glued on them; if they guess her true intent was stalling them then they had only get her out of there all the quicker, "No matter what happens to me, he's going to kill you all. You will die screaming in agony like the pathetic cowards you are." 

 

Three of them snarl wrathfully at her, one even taking a menacing step towards her. 

 

Boy, did Yuri feel like one of those kidnap damsels in distress in a lame action movie who so effortlessly stall by keeping the bad guy monologuing until the hero arrive to save the day? 

 

For just this once Yuri hope that real life would be just like that movie that Yunho was on his way or at least another immortal who would help her; they had to be looking for her. 

 

Taking another step back from them, Yuri forces her grin to widen at their reaction, "So it's true, the damned fear Yunho, my Lycan defender." 

 

The biggest one that stood in front of the others, glare darkly down at her which told Yuri just how true her words were. As much as they obviously hated Yunho, they fear him more. Now, if only she could figure a way to further use that to her advantage. 

 

"Our king will destroy your prince!" The tall damned spat venomously at her, his eyes narrow into black slits, "And with you, he will bring about a prosperous age for all damned kind!" 

 

Yuri snorted, tempted to childishly stick her tongue out at them, "As if. Yunho will wipe the floor with him. Yoochun may have the numbers but he isn't half the man, er...immortal Yunho is. Face it, your psychotic king will fall at my prince's feet and he will make each and every one of you pay for even breathing the same air as me, his mate." 

 

Five of the eight, including the tallest one, snarl and hiss furiously in unison. 

 

Ok, so maybe Yuri was putting too much faith in their fear of Yoochun and his orders that she is not to be harmed. These weren't the loyal and honorable soldiers that Yunho had at his command who wouldn't disobey him to save their own lives; these were greedy evil soulless monsters that were called the damned for a reason. 

 

Realizing that she wasn't going to get a moment more, Yuri knew she had to run or at least try as she knew that she wouldn't get far. She whirl to run or at least tried too but something hard caught her around with an iron grip and Yuri found herself staring along a black arm into the black eyes of the largest damned; the one who was holding her by with one hand so tightly that she could barely breathe. 

 

His grip on was like a vice, she could practically feel the bruises already forming and Yuri knew that it had been a mistake to taunt and tease them as she had. 

 

Not only were the damned narcissistic and arrogant but they had very short fuses as well. 

 

"I'm going to teach you the proper respect for your superiors!" The largest damned hiss, as he raises his other arm and pulls back his hand with the clear intention of striking her across the face. 

 

Yuri refuses to close her eyes; she wouldn't submit to them, wouldn't show fear. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction but the blow never came. Instead, Yuri heard a sickening meaty thud follow instantly by the tall damned howling in sheer agony as he releases his hold on her. 

 

Yuri instinctively steps back the moment she realizes that she was free to see that eight of the damned were further away from her than they had been. All eight were crouched low in what Yuri recognize as a hostile battle-ready stance, all of them hissing and snarling furiously. 

 

The largest of the damned who had been preparing to strike her was holding his arm against his chest but his arm looks wrong somehow, shorter. 

 

Yuri blink mystified for a full moment before she realizes two things at once. First, the hand belonging to the largest damned that he had been holding her with was missing, severed from his arm just below the wrist and second, the group of the damned were no longer looking at her but at something to her right. 

 

Or more accurately, someone to her right. A tall figure dress in black with even blacker hair. 

 

Yuri's heart skips a beat and she silently breathed a sigh of relief as she recognizes him. 

 

Yunho was standing deadly still with his back to her, holding a long silver sword in his hand that he held pointed outward from his body; the blade of the sword was cover in a thick black liquid that was dripping from the pointed sharp tip. 

 

Yuri didn't need to look down to know where the hand of the largest damned was. 

 

Seconds tick by in which none of the immortal men move. Yunho remains as theatrically still as a statue and the damned remain crouch motionlessly, their eyes betraying the only sign of life as the damned vigilantly kept their eyes fixed on Yunho. 

 

They all seem to be waiting for something and just like that it happens. It was so slight, so inconsequential that Yuri wasn't sure that she hadn't imagined it but she could have sworn she saw one of the damned vampires shift his weight ever so slightly, the movement so quick that she hadn't actually seen him move. It was like creating moving pictures by flipping the pages, the picture after was only slightly different than the picture before, giving the illusion of movement over several images. 

 

It was as if a spell had been broken or time had been stopped and had suddenly started moving again. One instant Yunho was standing next to her and the next he was gone, disappearing into thin air as if by magic but Yuri knew better; Yunho's movements had been so fast that her inferior mortal eyes hadn't been able to see him leave her side. 

 

Chaos shattered the peace and tranquillity of the night as a violent battle rage around her. Yuri saw nothing but the occasional flash of black clothing or a glint of light reflected from Yunho's sword but she heard plenty. 

 

The vicious animalistic snarls and hisses of the damned vampires, the cries of agony and outrage as a blow landed tearing into flesh and the thunderous boom as the superhuman immortals collided with each other again and again. Yuri was now the one who stood frozen, watching fearfully as Yunho battle against eight of the damned vampire. She had faith in Yunho, in his steadfast driving will to protect her but he was outnumbered from eight to one. 

 

Where was Donghae and the other betas or any other from Yunho's pack? Surely Yunho wasn't searching for her on his own. 

 

From the chaotic indistinguishable fray fell one of the damned, unmoving and disfigure; Yuri didn't look too closely, she didn't need to know the cause of death and she didn't need the nightmares that would undoubtedly come from the gruesome sight. 

 

As seconds became minutes, Yuri kept firm to her decision not to look directly at the various size pieces that continuously fell or flew from the frenzied violent fray; she wasn't certain, she was in no way curious enough to break her resolve not to look but Yuri strongly suspected that at least two of the pieces had been human heads and just like that, it was all over; not eight minutes had passed since it had begun. The fray was no more, Yunho returns to her eyesight as the eighth, headless damned vampire fell dead at his feet. Yunho had won against eight damned, his sword that he still held in his hand was dripping with the thick black blood of the recently decease damned. 

 

Finally, she was safe with Yunho once more. 

 

Slowly, Yunho turns to face her, his eyes blazing with the intensity of his emotions within, giving the illusion that his eyes were trembling with the strength of the potent emotion they held. 

 

Yuri felt her breath catch in as she scans him from head to toe, so overcome with relief when she saw no sign of injury that her entire body began to shake from the force of it. Unable to move for fear that she would collapse, tears fill her eyes as everything that had happened in the last twelve hours finally hit her all at once but mercifully the icy weight of her fear that she would never see Yunho again was gone. 

 

Shakily, Yuri raises her hand towards him, silently calling him to her, begging him to hold her in his strong ever-protecting arms once again. 

 

Yunho was there, his arms around her holding her tightly to his chest, in the blink of an eye as if he had always been there holding her. It felt like coming home after years of being apart. Yuri closes her eyes and allows herself to sink into him, thinking of nothing except the feel of his protective embrace and his love as she resumed breathing once again. 

 

Yunho couldn't bring himself to believe that his mate really was finally back in his arms, alive and safe. 

 

All day he had been going out of his mind with terrified frenzied angst as he had searched the city for her with finding no trace of her and here she was, in the same park in which they had first met. He had caught her scent only a quarter of a mile away and he had followed it with his heart in his throat, moving faster than he had ever had in his life, leaving those who had been searching with him behind forgotten, to find Yuri only a matter of feet from the sight of her first damned attack that had brought them together. 

 

Yunho had taken one look at the damned who had been holding her by the neck, in the act of preparing to strike her and Yunho hadn't hesitated. He had drawn his sword and had sliced off the offending limb. 

 

Then fuel by his rage and compulsive need to defend his mortal mate, Yunho had been overcome by a killing frenzy such as he had never known; he couldn't even clearly remember killing the eight damned who lay in pieces on the ground. 

 

The killing frenzy, the consuming madness had passed the moment Yunho had turn to see Yuri looking at him with all-consuming need in her wide beseeching eyes. A hand of pure ice had wrapped around his heart and squeeze tight at the sight of her entire body shaking and the tears gathering in her innocent soul-baring eyes. 

 

He silently, continuously, kept telling himself, reassuring himself that Yuri was safe in his arms once more but Yunho just couldn't seem to bring himself to believe it. The gut-wrenching terror in his stomach and heart just wouldn't go away. 

 

How close had he come to losing her forever? What had she been through in the past ten hours since she had been taken from him? 

 

At the thought, Yunho loosens his hold on her and gently pull her away from him so he could look at her. The first thing he became aware of was Yoochun's scent mingle with hers, Jessica's and his own. 

 

Yunho's eyes narrow with murderous fury. 

 

Yoochun had touched her; the evidence was carried on her flesh where Yoochun had dared to lay his hand. 

 

Yunho's eyes zero in on the bruise on Yuri's face, a bruise that had consumed nearly the entire left side of her face; he hadn't noticed it at first in his state of overwhelming relief at finding her alive. 

 

Very carefully, so slowly that it was almost equal to the speed of continental drift, Yunho raise his hand to her face but didn't touch her bruised skin. Instead, he took hold of her chin gently in his fingers and tilted her face so that he could better see the injury. 

 

An injury that carried Yoochun's unmistakable scent. 

 

Yoochun had struck her, hard and Yoochun was going to die in agony for it. 

 

Yunho was blind with fury, all he could see was blood red, he was so close to going postal with his rage that he forces himself to release his mate and step back from her in fear that he would act without forethought. Such a rash action carried the risk of harm to his mate if he remains too close to her. 

 

Yuri saw the murderous fury in Yunho's eyes as he retreated from her and she knew its causes. She had yet to see her reflection clearly but she knew Yoochun's blow left evidence behind. No doubt it was her bruised face that had caused such fury in him but as justifiable as his rage was, his retreat from her wasn't. She needed him now, needed him to hold her and tell her that everything was going to be alright. She needed him to be here with her, not murderously focus on Yoochun. 

 

"Yunho..." 

 

"Jessica!" 

 

Yuri spun, cut off from what she had been about to say by Donghae exploding onto the scene, frantically looking around the park for his mate. 

 

Yuri swallows thickly even though was bone dry, "Donghae Oppa." 

 

Donghae's gaze snap in her direction, his eyes those of a madman who had misplace the object of his obsession, "Jessica?" His voice trembles with desperation. 

 

Yuri bows her head in shame unable to look into Donghae's eyes as she told him that his mate hadn't escaped the hands of his sadistic enemy was because of her. 

 

"I'm so sorry, Donghae Oppa." Yuri sob brokenly, "Jessica stay behind to give me enough time to get away. She drops me into the back of a moving truck. The last I saw of her she was fighting two damned who had pursue us." 

 

"No!" Donghae cried out in denial, pure hell consuming his normally radiant brown ageless eyes, "No!" 

 

Yuri reaches out to him but hesitated. She was the reason that this man's wife and soulmate, his true love, had stayed behind and was very likely been recapture. 

 

Donghae's fist clench tightly and his body began to shake uncontrollably as he closes his tear-fill eyes, "She's alive. I can still feel that." 

 

Yuri felt so helpless and guilt-ridden, all she could do was offer Donghae one small comfort, "I know how he's jamming your link with Jessica." 

 

Donghae's eyes snap open and his head snaps up so fast that he actually startled her, "What? Yoochun manage this? How?" 

 

Since Yoochun had braggingly told her himself, Yuri was confident in her answer, "He said he was using an electromagnetic wave distorter design by mortals to scramble radio waves and jam listening devices. Somehow it operates on the same level as the mate links." 

 

Yunho exchanges a significant look with Donghae, not needing their mental link to know each other's thoughts. 

 

If Yoochun could prevent them from communicating telepathically then it would put them at a great disadvantage when the time for war finally arrive and not just in that instance. If the damned attack Yunho or any of his pack while using this technology it would leave them incapable of calling upon the rest of the pack. 

 

Unaware of the silent communication between the alpha and the beta, Yuri stares into Donghae's eyes with her heart in her own sorrowful eyes, "Jessica said to tell you she was sorry. She had to stay behind so I could get away." 

 

Yunho's arms tighten carefully around her, silently reassuring her, "Don't worry, Yuri. We will find Jessica and we will make Yoochun and his own pay for what they have done." He then looks down at her with serious focus eyes, "What can you tell us about where you were held?" 

 

Yunho's tone had been soft but Yuri knew the importance of everything she could tell him about where Jessica was being held; they couldn't locate her without help and she was that help. 

 

She would be that help. 

 

Yuri closes her eyes and ran through everything, every memory of her time as a captive in Yoochun's lair, pulling everything she could remember from her mind. What she had seen, smelt and heard. 

 

Yuri kept her eyes closed as she told them about being underground in tunnels of some kind beneath a run down old box factory near a river, a bridge and eight factories on different sides of the said river that were connected by a high pedestrian overpass. She told them how long she had hidden in the truck before it had pulled into the truck stop slash gas station and as accurately as she could, she verbally retrace the steps that had led her to the park. 

 

When there was nothing else left that she could tell them, Yuri open her eyes in time to see Donghae take a step back from them, his eyes blazing with renew hope and fierce determination to find his mate but beneath his hope and determination Yuri could see a chilling fearful dread that Donghae was unsuccessfully trying to suppress. 

 

"I will find it." Donghae pledge, his tone that of an unstoppable devout force, "I will find her." And then Donghae was gone, disappearing into thin air as if he had never been there at all. 

 

Yuri stares at the spot where Donghae had been for a long moment before she looks up at Yunho. When she spoke, her voice was beseeching and fretful, "He will find her, won't he?" 

 

Yunho tenderly the back of her head, attempting to calm her, "He will find where you were held, even without your directions. He will follow your scent back to Yoochun's lair." 

 

"Shouldn't you be with him?" Yuri asks, even though at this moment she would rather he kill her than to be apart from him again so soon after being reunited with him, "Jessica needs you now more than I do." 

 

Yunho's eyes became hard and guarded, his lips forming a thin line so that his lips almost disappear completely, "There's nothing I can do for Jessica that Donghae can't, at least not tonight." He raises his gaze until she couldn't see his eyes but continue addressing her, "You are cold. Let's get you home where it's safe and warm." 

 

Yuri stares at him with narrow deeply suspicious and concern eyes. She could sense that there was something Yunho wasn't telling her, some piece of information that he was keeping from her, something she fears had to do with finding Jessica but Yuri could see by the set line of his jaw that he was resolved not to tell her what it was. 

 

It wasn't until Yunho tuck her into the nook of his arm, inside his black Calvin Klein bomber jacket to protect her against the cold of the night and took off running like the mythical creatures of legend that he was that Yuri realizes that Yunho didn't expect to find Jessica so easily. 

 

Yoochun was clever. He was still alive because of his intelligence and cunning; after all, Yoochun continues to live even though Yunho had been hunting him for centuries. By the time Donghae made it to the factory, Yuri strongly suspected that Yoochun would be long gone. 

 

Her heart all but shattered in her chest as the full weight of the truth hit her. She had taken too long in finding her way back to the pack to provide Jessica with any help, just as Jessica had known would happen, that was why Jessica had sent her apology to Donghae. 

 

Jessica had known that it might very well be her last words to Donghae, her beloved husband and wolf mate who would die without her or along with her should Jessica's death be imminent. 

 

The journey back to the mansion was a blur for Yuri and not because Yunho had carried her back while running at what was most likely a speed close to that of the speed of sound. It had been a blur because all Yuri could think about was what if Yoochun had hurtled Jessica or god forbid he actually kill her it would be all of Yuri's fault. 

 

It was all her fault, everything. It had been because of her that Yoochun had come after them in the first place, it was all her fault that the immortal beings were needlessly dying as they fought to protect her and it was all her fault that now all immortal kind face a head-on war with the overwhelming numbers of the ruthless bloodthirsty damned. 

 

Yuri was so deeply trapped within her own self-loathing that she wasn't aware that she was indoors until the doors of Yunho's bedroom exploded open and Tiffany came rushing in. 

 

Yuri remains silent and still as Yunho gently sat her on the bed before he turns his attention to Tiffany, ordering her to deliver the news she so obviously had judging from the urgent manner in which she had enter the room. 

 

Tiffany bows her entire upper body to him before standing tall and proud before him with distress clearly display on her oval-shaped face. 

 

"Donghae sent word; the factory and surrounding area were deserted." Tiffany informs him quickly, urgently "Yoochun left no trace of their current whereabouts behind. There is no sign of Princess Jessica. They must had recapture her and taken her with them." 

 

Yuri watch without reaction, she had been expecting the heart-wrenching news that Yoochun and Jessica were long gone as Yunho dismiss Tiffany with a dismissive wave of his hand. 

 

All at once, the trauma of the entire day that until now Yuri had been forcibly suppressing came rushing to the surface and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She could feel everything; from the pain and dread of leaving Yunho that morning to the fear, she had felt during the ambush. She felt the frantic gut-chilling fear she had felt for Jessica when Yoochun and Minho had taken them away, she felt the terror at the possibility that she would be used against Yunho and that she would never see him again and she felt the crushing agony and self-loathing at knowing that it was her fault that Jessica hadn't been able to escape herself because she had to stay behind so that Yuri herself could get away. 

 

She was drowning in a sea of despair, self-hatred, and fear. How would things ever be ok again? How could she be here with the man she had loved a number of days while the selfless brave immortal Lycan princess was a prisoner of a malicious damned king who would torture her just for the fun of it while being forced to be truly separate from her love and husband of centuries? 

 

If wasn't right. It wasn't fair. It should have been her who had been left at the merciless hands of a damned monster. Yuri couldn't stop it, not if her life had depended on it. She bows her head in utter misery and wept. She cried for Jessica and everything that Jessica had gone through to keep her safe and to help her escape. Jessica was so selfless; Jessica had to have known that staying behind after dropping her into that truck might cost her her own life. 

 

If anything happens to Jessica, Yuri knew that she will never forgive herself. 

 

"Yuri." 

 

Yuri raise her gaze to see Yunho kneeling on the floor in front of her and since she sat on the edge of the bed, they were eye to eye for a change. He was intently staring into her eyes and she could do nothing as his deep penetrating eyes read her own. She knew her thoughts would be clearly reflected in her eyes, she knew that he would read them as easily as the words on a billboard. 

 

Yuri expected words of comfort and a vow that he would make it all better for her, that he would get Jessica back no matter what and she knew that even though he would mean his words right down to his honorable relentless and compassionate soul, she wouldn't. 

 

Yunho may have been an immortal Lycan warrior prince but he wasn't a superhero and this wasn't some comic book where the hero always prevails without a drop of bloodshed on the side of good. 

 

In the real world, the bad guys could win and often did. Believing that they would get Jessica back without her suffering was as likely as Yuri sprouting wings and flying to the moon to meet the Lycan's deity, the moon goddess in person but instead of words, Yunho gently wraps his arms around her and held her, burying his fingers in her hair, he pressed her head onto his shoulder and gently began to rock her back and forth. 

 

As if he knew that right now what she needed most was to cry and so Yuri cried. She had no idea how much time pass and even though she wanted so much for it, the blissful peace of a dreamless sleep never came so Yuri did the only thing she could do, she cried until she had no tears left. 

 

Long after the final tear leak from her eyes, Yunho release her and briefly disappear into the ensuite from where he returned with a damp washcloth and a cool glass of water which he helps her drink. He didn't lower the glass until she had swallowed every last drop. 

 

Yunho then washes her face with the cool damp washcloth that felt wonderful against her flush heated skin and red puffy eyes. 

 

When he was done, Yunho places the empty glass and washcloth on the bedside table and return to his place on his knees before her and all the while Yuri couldn't take her eyes from him even the length of time it took to blink. 

 

As much as she hated herself right now and as impossible as it seems, Yuri found herself left numbly awed in the wake of what Yunho was doing and the blatant proof the act was of his love for her. 

 

Yunho was taking care of her, in the focus selfless way a wolf would care for his injured mate, seeing to her every need until she was strong again and doing whatever it took to assure that his mate would be ok. She had needed to cry in her despair and wretch misery and he had held her and allow her to cry, not placating her with false promises. When she had finish he had then acted to ease her discomfort and assure that she remains healthy and well by assuring that she didn't dehydrate from crying so much. 

 

Unable to stop herself, the need to touch him to assure herself that he really was real and not a dream was too strong, Yuri raises her hand and caress his cheek with her fingertips with the briefest and barest of touches. 

 

With sincere love and fierce promise in his eyes, Yunho wraps his hand around her fingers and brought her hand to his lips where he planted a kiss on each of her fingertips. He couldn't stand this. Her anguish was the worst kind of torment to him, her tears tearing his soul apart more thoroughly than any blade could ever tear at his flesh. His mate had been returned to him unharmed but not unscathed. She had only bruises on her body but inside she was broken...no, that wasn't an accurate enough term. 

 

Shattered. Destroy. They were the only terms that even came close to what he was witnessing in his mate. He had to do something; he had to take away that wretch look on her face and the hollowness in her eyes. 

 

First, Yunho was going to do whatever it took to take away his mate's pain then he was going to get back his sister and finally he was going to make Yoochun pay for his mate's pain with life's blood. 

 

"Jessica is so much stronger than even I can ever hope to be." Yunho whispers softly, soothingly "So much stronger and smarter than Yoochun. She has this entire pack wrap around her finger. Such a woman isn't easily defeated but this isn't the only thing you need to remember about Jessica. Jessica is the princess of all Lycan kind; she is protected as greatly as she is because she is so important to the Lycan kind, as are you. Yoochun will not hurt her because she is far too valuable. Without you, Jessica is all he has to use against us." 

 

"I know Yoochun better than anyone else ever has. I have been hunting him since he turns centuries ago." Yunho's tone was honest and steady. He wasn't bragging; he was merely telling her what was fact, "When Yoochun makes his move I will take Jessica from him, I will bring her back to the safety of the pack. Until then, Donghae will monitor her through their mate link. Yoochun may be able to interfere with their mate link but he can't sever it completely. The mate link is too strong for that, Donghae and Jessica's love is too strong and unbreakable for that to happen. You have to trust me. I will get her back and Yoochun will never threaten you or Jessica or anyone ever again." 

 

Yunho was relieved to see her despair ease at his words; Yuri's despair didn't completely leave her eyes but she trusted him and she trusted in his promise. A promise Yunho would keep no matter what he had to do. 

 

Yunho raises his free hand to her face, cup her cheek and caress the soft warm flesh of her cheek with his thumb, "Jessica is safe unless something changes and that isn't likely to happen any time tonight." 

 

Yuri knew Yunho was right unless something changes there was nothing more that they can do for Jessica, at least not tonight. The search was ongoing with every available immortal and Yunho needed to be here with her tonight, even though Yuri knew that there was a part of him that felt he needed to be out there searching for his sister because she was a woman under his protection if nothing else. 

 

Deep inside, in a place that wasn't consumed by helplessness and despair, a flame was ignited that change her desperate need into something much more primal, something much easier to feel. 

 

Yunho knew well the spark that brightens his mate's eyes but as great as his need was for her in the mating of the flesh, he wouldn't. He wouldn't take comfort in his mate while Donghae was without his. It was through his mistakes that Jessica was now in grave danger so until Jessica was safely in her mate's arms once again, he wouldn't take his mate himself. 

 

No matter how his beast and his body demanded to make love to her. He wanted so much to find bliss in his mate's warm wet softness, to once again know the peace and ecstasy only she could bring him. 

 

Unlike ever before, Yunho found that his beast was powerless this night. Now that their mate was safe and sound once again, it was the man fully in charge and the man wouldn't take comfort in his woman until Jessica was safe once again. No matter how much he burns for her but there was something Yunho would do before he laid her down to sleep in his arms. 

 

Yuri gave no protest when Yunho began to strip her of her clothing that she knew still carried Yoochun's scent thickly in each thread. Yoochun had carried her through the woods and laid on top of her, of course, her clothing reek of the evil king of the damned. 

 

First Yunho pull her cami over her head and when he moves his hands to the hem of her pants, Yuri lean back and supporting her weight with her arms, lifted herself from the bed so he could pull them down her legs until he pulled them free of her feet leaving her dress only in her underwear. 

 

Days ago, her sense of modesty would have compelled her to cover herself in a man's presence but now Yuri felt no need to cover herself, not before her mate's eyes. That's who Yunho was, her mate, the other half of her soul whom she had been waiting her entire life for. She had been born to be his and there was nothing left within her that disputed that fact, not anymore. 

 

Yunho straightens, still on his knees and Yuri expected him to kiss her, to lay her down on his bed and take her with all the wild untamed passion he had shown her their first time together in the flesh but again he didn't do as she expected. 

 

When Yunho lean in, Yuri expected him to cover her lips and kiss her, to make love to as he would soon do to her body but he missed his target; instead of her lips, he put his mouth to her bruised cheek and with a slow caress of his tongue, he the length of her cheek from her chin to just beneath her eye. 

 

Yuri winces at the pain but made no move to pull away from him. While she had felt his tongue multiple times the night they had made love over and over, this time it brought back the memory of the night they had first met when he had the wound at her neck which in turn had nearly completely healed it. By the next morning only an angry red mark, similar to a hickey, had remained. 

 

He was her bruise to help it heal. 

 

Yuri remains still, allowing him to do as he will. 

 

Her mate thoroughly every wound he found as he meticulously search her body, in a way that would have been highly invasive had they not already made passionate love, starting with the bruise on her cheek then the bump on her head from when she had been knocked off of Jessica's Lycan back and hurl to the ground. Then he moves onto the bruise on her wrist from when Yoochun had grabbed her in the forest and then he moved onto all the other bruises and scratches on her arms, legs, and thighs from being knocked off of Jessica and sent rolling along the forest floor. 

 

Yunho didn't say a word or halt in his methodical inspection and healing of her body until he came to the last of her bruises, those that cover her thighs. 

 

Yuri had the feeling that Yunho had left those until last as it was impossible that they had been unnoticed until now. Yunho stares at the bruises on her thighs for a long silent moment before he finally spoke. He didn't look up into her eyes but his tone betrays what he was trying to hide by meeting her gaze. 

 

"What did he do?" Impotent rage vibrated through his tone, his words, and his taught rigid body. 

 

Yuri knew exactly what he fears and she wonders why he didn't know the answer he so obviously needed her to voice. Surely, he would have been able to smell where Yoochun had touched her? 

 

Gently Yuri brought her hand to the top of Yunho's head where she buried her hand in his thick silky black hair. Compare to what he fears had happened to her, what she had actually endured didn't seem so bad. 

 

"He slapped me across the face and I went flying into a wall, the rest is from when Yoochun stop us from getting away after the ambush. I was on Jessica's back, she was in her wolf form and we were running away when something sent us both flying. Jessica hit a tree while I was sent rolling along the ground." Curling her fingers into the locks of his hair, Yuri pull back, making him look up into her eyes, "You are still the only man to have me as you will always be the one and only. You would know it otherwise." 

 

"I should have never let you out of my sight." He whispers wretchedly, and lower his head to her thighs, the last of her bruises. 

 

By morning Yuri doubted there would be a single marring mark left on her entire body. 

 

Yuri silently watches him, her heart heavy with sadness but warm with love at the same time. Her mate was healing her injuries while he curses and hated himself. 

 

When Yuri was confident that he had her wounds enough for them to heal by morning, she once again tightens her hold on his hair and forces him to look up into her eyes. He had been there for her only minutes ago when she had needed him most, now it was her turn to be there for him. 

 

Yunho stares back into her eyes, his own fill with emotional anguish. 

 

At first, Yuri had been unable to see Yunho as he truly was, to realize that few ever saw beneath the prince and warrior to the man beneath but she could see him now, all of him as he really was and it left Yuri humble and unable to do anything but love him. 

 

Yunho was so strong, so selfless, he never let anyone else see a single moment of weakness or hesitation in him but he was still a man, he did experience moments of uncertainty and fear. There were times in his life when he needed to be the one who was comforted and reassured, no matter how much he tried to hide it from the rest of the world. This was a man who had been hopelessly lost in the despair and loneliness of a tireless war and had to remain strong for the sake of others for so long. 

 

Well, not today. Today it was his turn to find comfort in someone else; it was time for the man within to know some peace and contentment. 

 

Yuri slowly releases his hair and gently ran her fingers through the thick midnight black strands, letting her touch soothe him and repeated what he had told her not that long ago. 

 

"If Jessica has even half of your strength lock away within her then the goddess help Yoochun." Yuri whispers softly, her eyes and heart filled with her love for him, "Nothing will happen today. Yoochun will come but not now. When the sun rises, this war will continue but for tonight, for this one night, there is no war, no evil powerful enemy, no immortal race resting on your shoulders. For these few precious hours, there's just you and me." She tenderly planted a gentle kiss, barely a caress, on his lips and whisper, "You need me now as I need you. Lose yourself in me; allow yourself this moment of peace. I'm not going anywhere and not because Yoochun is waiting outside those walls ready to pounce on me. I'm here with you because this is where I want to be. I will never leave you alone again." 

 

Yuri stares into his eyes as Yunho stare deep into her promising love-fill eyes, for the first time ever there was a combination of sorrow, guilt, pain and vulnerability in his eyes, everything that he kept hidden from everyone, from the world, he allowed her to see. 

 

Yuri leans forward until her lips were at his ear, "Forgive yourself for what you can't change. For Jessica and what happens to me. Focus on here, on the now. Focus on me." She cups his face and pulls back to look into his eyes, the look in her eyes as vulnerable as the one in his, "You aren't a prince now. It's just you and me, just Yunho and Yuri. There's nothing else but this room and us." 

 

"He took you." Yunho murmured impotently, and buried his head in her lap and wrap his arms around her waist, "I couldn't save you. I couldn't find you. In those endless hours, he had you I would have given up everything, my crown, my life, my entire kingdom to have you back. Not that I deserve you; I fail to keep you from harm. I couldn't save you. I couldn't save you." 

 

"Yet here I am." Yuri whispers gently, "Not everything is your fault, not every burden is yours to bear." 

 

Yunho raises his head, every part of his being focused on her, "You are." 

 

Yuri sigh, "Not even you can keep me safe from all there is." At her words, Yunho pale slightly but she went on, "Things happen, things we can't change or control. Not even you can control the choices of others, not even you can stand between those you protect and the rest of the world. Maybe you care too much, maybe you try too hard but it's killing you. You need to let go of everything else for the time being and hold me. Be with me now. Please? I'm here and I'm not going anywhere." 

 

Yunho's eyes widen at her words. Did she mean she wouldn't leave him tonight or was she saying that she would stay with him for always? Dare he hopes for the former? 

 

Yunho wanted to know the answer but at this moment he needed something else so much more. One way or the other he would get his answer, just not this night. 

 

Repentant that he was going to so quickly break his unspoken vow not to take comfort in his mate until his sister was safe at home but not enough to prevent him, Yunho cup the outside of her thigh in his hand, reveling in the smooth soft feel of her skin. She was so petite that his hand with fingers leisurely spread half of her thigh. 

 

In response to his touch, heat slowly enters Yuri's eyes and her skin beneath his touch became warmer as a result of her arousal. 

 

Yunho wanted if only for tonight, to believe his mate's words. To believe that he had sacrificed enough to deserve her and the peace and joy she brought to him regardless of his failures. 

 

For tonight, let him have that illusion. He would atone for his broken vow tomorrow, just let him have this, have her tonight. 

 

His body was already hardening in preparation for what was to come and for the first time with the rising of his fervor his beast didn't try for control. It seems that tonight it would be the man and his woman, without the presence of his beast. 

 

Yunho took hold of his mate's face between his large but gentle hands and drew her to him. He kisses her tenderly but with all the love he had to give, a kiss his mate responded too with just as much gentle passion and hunger. 

 

Last time his beast had taken her selfishly, tonight the man would love her selflessly. Tonight would be all about her pleasure in gratitude and worship for all that she was to him and all she gave him just by being. 

 

While he still had the control and mind to do so, Yunho pull back enough to break their kiss and whisper softly, "I want to lay my kill at your feet." 

 

Ancient words that to the Lycan kind meant eternal devotion and ever-lasting love. To lay kill at one's feet was the ultimate act of submission and devotion between the Lycan kind. It was the Lycan terms for 'I love you'. 

 

To anyone else his words would have been considered strange, maybe even a little frightening but Yuri knew that it was significant in his world, knew it was a pledge of timeless devotion. She could tell just by the utter seriousness and genuineness of his tone that there was great meaning to his words, the kind that would last an immortal lifetime. She would find out exactly what his words meant later but for now, they had all the significance of I love you. 

 

Lips lock together once again in a kiss that seems to go on forever, they sank onto the bed, the manor was as quiet as a tomb as the manor slept in preparation for what was coming. 

 

Whatever the future brought with it, Yuri would face it with her people the Lycan kind and she would stand beside the man who had so quickly become her prince, her mate and her love, no matter what. She had finally found her place, her destiny. It wasn't what she had dreamt of for all of her adult life but fate had given her something better, something so much better than anything she could have ever imagine. 

 

In only a few short hours they may very well have to face grave peril and possibly even death but one thing Yuri knew above all else was that she and Yunho would face it together. Yunho had never said the three words but Yuri could feel the proof of them in every touch, see them in Yunho's eyes every time he looked at her with his penetrating and intense brown eyes. 

 

Let tomorrow come, for tonight there was nothing but each other, two soulmates finally able to know the peace only the other could bring. 

 

It had been centuries since Yoochun had been this enrage. The incompetent imbeciles that had failed to prevent the mortal woman's escape had already paid in life's blood, their limp dismembered bodies cooling around him within the throne room of his alternate lair. They had screamed for over an hour before he had granted them the mercy of death and while the torture had been ever-so-sweet, he felt no less displeased than he had when he had started. 

 

It astounded him that one female Lycan and one puny mortal woman had been able to get past the entire guard of his primary lair. 

 

Fortunately, all wasn't lost. The fools under his command had managed to retrieve the Lycan princess before she had been able to escape. Unfortunately, they hadn't done so before she had helped the mortal woman escape and find her way back into the hands of the pathetic Lycan prince. 

 

The first thing Yoochun had done after learning that the mortal woman had successfully escaped was to command his entire coven to pack up what they needed and relocate to their alternate stronghold. Being forced to abandon the network of tunnels that provided multiple escape routes didn't please him at all, such places had aided in keeping him alive for so long when so many hunted him but at this crucial stage of his plan, Yoochun couldn't afford any more mistakes. 

 

With those who had fail him dealt with as an example of the consequences of incompetence, Yoochun took his place on his throne and turn his attention to the Lycan princess who was chain to the floor in front of him. Her hands were shackled and chain to the thick bolt deeply embedded in the floor and as an added precaution he had collar her with an inch thick solid iron collar that was also chained to the floor. The chains were thick and sturdy, she wouldn't be able to break them; they had held stronger immortals than she. 

 

In her Lycan form the princess would have the strength to break her chains but fortunately, she couldn't shift. The collar was only just big enough to fit her neck in human form and shifting require growing bigger; her neck would break before she completed the transformation. 

 

As the weaker went, Yoochun found himself both irritated and mildly admiring her. She was a thorn in his side but a very valuable asset to him so he wouldn't harm her unless he had too but at the same time, he had to admire her for what she had done this night. She hadn't only found herself out of a cell that in the past had successfully held numerous immortal men but she had also helped the mortal woman escape despite being gravely outnumbered. 

 

The only stupid thing she had done that kept him from admiring her enough to speak of it was that she had stayed behind to buy time for the weak mortal female to escape. The mortal female he would slay a thousand princesses for. A mortal woman he had to get back at any cost. She was the key to his plans; from the first moment he had heard of her, Yoochun had realized the potential. Not only could the mortal female mate with immortals and once he possess her he would become the undisputed king of all immortals but she was also the Lycan prince's mate. 

 

Finally, Yunho had a weakness Yoochun could easily exploit; he had waited so long for the day he could wash his hands with the fresh flowing blood of the Lycan prince. 

 

Yoochun studied the Lycan princess from his throne. He had glanced at her before but never this close. She was glowering up at him, growling and snarling softly in the back of while her dark brown eyes blaze at him. Her flawless beauty was only surpassed by her temper that was so legendary that it had reach even his ears. 

 

The Lycan princess was a beauty to behold but she was an old maid when compare with the beauty of the mortal female Yuri who he wouldn't have to go to such lengths to control. 

 

Yoochun had to hand it to the Lycan prince; he did indeed surround himself with unparalleled beauty. 

 

"You may have succeeded in getting her back into your brother's hands." Yoochun glare icily down at her, "But you have only succeeded in delaying my plans. I will have her back before the week is out." 

 

Jessica narrows her eyes at the egotistical boast. All her life she had heard whispers of stories about the fearsome king Yoochun of the damned but her actual face to face encounter with him could be counted on one hand. She was the princess of the Lycan kind, Yunho's sister, and Donghae's mate until Yuri had come along she had been the most protected female of the immortal world. 

 

The tragic death of Yonghwa's sister long ago had left caution and fear in those of the immortal world and further steps had been taken to ensure the Lycan princess remain safe and happy. These steps that had so often frustrated her to the point of screaming she had always understood though. 

 

Not only was she a royal Lycan female, one of only two living today, the other being her mother, Jessica also knew that she was the second in line for the throne when their parent's reign came to an end. Yunho was the crown prince but he was also on the front lines of the war if tragedy struck and he was lost, it would be up to Jessica to carry on not only their line but their race and traditions as well. 

 

Jessica grin triumphantly up at the damned king, even though she was chain to the floor like some mangy mutt because she knew the words on her tongue rang with truth, no matter what Yoochun could come up with, "You will never get near her again and even if you manage it, it will be the last thing you will ever do. My brother will tear you to pieces. Do your worst to me but Yuri is back with my brother, whatever plans you have will never work. Now that Yuri has come, I don't hold half the importance that she does. Should I perish here, it will make no difference to my people. All hope for our future lies in Yuri's hands now. Not mine. No one will trade Yuri for me." 

 

Yoochun clenches his teeth at her gall at being so defiant with him but he knew the Lycan princess's weak point, "Not even your mate, Donghae?" 

 

The flash of emotion in the princess's eyes, that she struggles too late to hide, gave her away. 

 

"Donghae's death will not even cause a ripple amongst our kind," Jessica told him sadly, regretfully. She didn't fear her own death nearly as much as she fears the death of her mate, "Everything rests with Yuri now. You might as well kill me for the entire immortal world stands before you and her. You will never get near her again." 

 

Leisurely Yoochun rose to his feet, his eyes fixed on her as he descended the dais, one slow step at a time. 

 

Jessica watches him warily. There was a wicked gleam in his eyes that put her on edge, it spoke volumes that he thought she was wrong and then some. 

 

Was it possible that he had some weapon or something he could use to get to Yuri that they were unaware of? 

 

Jessica could do nothing as Yoochun walk slowly to her and crouch down in front of her, still towering over her. 

 

Pain exploded through her scalp and Jessica cried out in surprise and pain as she was caught completely unaware. He had moved faster than she had been prepare for; he had grab hold of her hair and had used it to pull her head back sharply, as far as the collar allow. 

 

Yoochun glare down into her face with a chilling sadistic expression on his own, "Your death will come soon enough but not before you witness the fall of your precious pathetic brother and your feeble pack. The reign supreme of Yoochun is about to begin and you are going to be a witness to my glory before your untimely end. Everything your brother has will soon be mine; soon the entire world will cower before me. On the other hand, play your cards right and I might just keep you as a pet but have no illusions princess. Victory will be mine." And with that Yoochun roughly release her, rose to his feet and stalked out of the throne room, leaving her alone bound and helpless on the floor. 

 

Soon, all her kind and all the vampire kind would join her on their knees at his mercy. Soon he would have everything he had been waiting for, everything that was rightfully his. 

 

Soon, the damned would rise with him as king and all others would fall, immortal and mortal alike as once the immortals fell before him there would be nothing to stop him from becoming the new dark god of the wretch mortals.

 

---

 

N/A: I'm deeply truly sorry for all of the readers who have been patient while waiting for me to update. I know it hasn't been easy since I haven't update in a long while. Work has been hectic that I haven't been able to write/log in and update but since work is slowing down somehow I will be able to manage to update more like how I use to before work picks back up. 

- butt3rflyl0v3r ♡