Chapter 15 

 

The throbbing pain was blinding for a full moment before Yuri was able to push it to the back of her mind and ignore it the best she could. 

 

As understanding dawn on her, Yuri force herself up onto three of her four feet, keeping her wounded leg lifted up off the ground and held protectively close to her body. 

 

It had been a trap. Yoochun hadn't fled. No, he had led her into a trap knowing that she would follow. 

 

Yoochun's intention was clear. He couldn't kill Yunho himself so he was going to kill Yunho by killing her, his wolf mate whom he could and wouldn't live without. Not for anything. 

 

Yoochun hadn't lived this long and become what he was by fighting honorably and Yuri had fallen for it hook, line, and sinker. Yunho had tried to warn her but she had been so cockily sure of herself and her new power. She had allowed herself to overlook the fact that she was a newborn Lycan with no training at all while Yoochun and Yunho were as old as the forest around her and now Yuri was going to pay dearly for her mistake and because of her so was Yunho. She was going to be responsible for the death of the mightiest Lycan warrior alive, leaving the world, both immortal and mortal, without it's greatest protector. 

 

How could she have been so stupid, so foolish? 

 

Through the wolf link, Yuri heard Yunho use language she had never heard from him before, words that would make a sailor blush as the saying went. 

 

'Yuri, my heart.' Yunho's voice inside her head was tender and warm, despite the anger and desperation she could feel boiling inside him, 'You are anything but stupid or foolish. You are brave, strong and hell-bent on protecting everyone without any thought of yourself.' 

 

Yuri gritted her sharp pointed teeth, determination flaring through her with all the force and power of a supernova. If she was going to die then she was going to go down fighting because if she dies then so too would Yunho and there was no way Yuri was ever going to let that happen. 

 

Yoochun just might succeed in ending her life but she wasn't going to go down easily. 

 

With her teeth still tightly clench, Yuri slowly and carefully lowers her wounded back leg to the ground, applying weight an ounce at a time until the pain became more than she could stand and her leg crumple beneath her after not even a third of the weight the leg normally supported. 

 

For this battle at least her leg was unusable. All Yuri could do was tuck her leg into her side and try to keep from using it. 

 

"I should thank you, !" 

 

Yuri tense as battle ready as she could be at the sound of Yoochun's booming voice echoing through the trees around her. Despite the volume of Yoochun's voice and her new superhuman Lycan ears, Yuri couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from. It sounded as if he was all around her all at once. 

 

"With the simple task of ending your life, I will finally be rid of that pathetic coward of yours! He has been an irritation to me for far longer than I should have allowed!" 

 

Yuri scans the trees surrounding her but nothing, not one thing gave away Yoochun's location. She wanted to defend Yunho, to point out to Yoochun that Yunho wasn't the one hiding right now but as human speech was impossible for her Lycan form, Yuri settle with an extremely menacing growl that to her great satisfaction convey her response quite nicely. 

 

Yoochun's sadistic laughter echo eerily around her and Yuri fought the urge to cringe at the audio onslaught of the most sinister sound she had ever heard in her life. 

 

Yuri steps further into the clearing and turns her back end towards the tree situated in the center so Yoochun couldn't surprise her from behind. Again. 

 

Should she try to make a run for it? Was that what Yoochun was expecting and waiting for her to do? How fast could she move with her hind leg wounded so bad that it couldn't stand a fraction of her weight? 

 

Despite her best efforts, panic rose within her. What should she do? What could she do? And then Yunho was there. He soothed away her rising terror as best as he could through their mate link given that he himself was terrified right down into his ageless soul that he wouldn't arrive in time to save her. 

 

'Yuri, buy as much time as you can. I'm coming. I'm almost there. Yoochun led you around in a wide arch before circling back to the clearing. He led you there intentionally, he wants to mess with your head as he always has done. Don't let him. Just do what you can to stall. Remember, Yoochun's greatest weakness is his ego.' 

 

Yuri nodded once in understanding and then very carefully she force her thoughts to go blank, turning her full attention to her surroundings, listening to the forest around her for any hint of movement. 

 

That was when Yoochun step carelessly out of the tree directly in front of her, his head angle to the side as if he were considering her like a little boy would a captured insect in a jar. 

 

"What is he telling you?" Yoochun enquired, with the casualness of a man asking what she thought of the weather lately, only the evil in his black soulless eyes ruins the effect, "What words of comfort is he whispering to you? Is he promising that nothing will happen to you, that everything will be fine?" 

 

Yuri raises her lips and bared her sharp teeth at him in a soundless growl. 

 

Yoochun laughs that chilling sinister laugh of his again and took a step to the side, keeping his eyes glued to her as he strutted around the outer edge of the clearing. 

 

"You should have chosen me, you stupid mortal !" Yoochun hiss, his playful childlike tone was out of place with his words as he practically prance around the outside of the clearing like some theatrical dark monologuing fairy, "I'm going to gut you like the pathetic mortal you are and I'm going to do it slowly, all the while your pathetic excuse for a prince will know that he can do nothing to save you!" 

 

Yuri found herself wondering what it was about bad guys and monologuing. Hadn't any of them ever watch a Marvel movie? While the bad guy was rambling on and on, the hero found time to escape whatever trap the villain had set. Not that Yuri was going to do anything about it while Yoochun was monologuing and trying to mess with her head, Yunho was closing the distance between them but honestly, a long villainous monologue was a hero's best friend. 

 

'Don't react, Yuri.' Yunho warns her, 'Try to show as little fear as possible. He feeds on it in his victims.' 

 

Yuri sneers defiantly, 'I'm not afraid of him.' And reach for the magic inside of her that allows her to shift forms. Yuri wasn't sure if it was magic but she had no better word for it. If anything in this world was magic then this powerful swirling warmth inside of her had to be it. 

 

It was painful but this time Yuri was prepared for it and it was over much quicker than before. In the space of three heartbeats, Yuri was human again, as as the day she had been born but she forced herself to ignore her modesty that had been taught to her since the cradle and focus on Yoochun. 

 

in the immortal world didn't hold the significance it did in the mortal world. In the world she belongs to now, amongst the Lycan kind, was part of life. 

 

Yuri was aware of her bare feet on the damp foliage cover ground that crackle beneath her feet, the cool night breeze swirl around her body and her long unbound hair that brush the back of her body, caressing her flesh as it dances in the gentle night breeze and all the pain and aching she had been enduring only moments before was mostly gone, even her leg was better, now able to bare her weight without much more than a persistent throbbing ache. 

 

A glance downward reveals a half heal wound on her bloodstain thigh; it now looks days old rather than minutes. Her leg wasn't without complaint but it was usable. 

 

Lycan healing really was a marvelous thing. 

 

'What the hell are you doing?!' Yunho shouted incredulously into her mind, his terror pulsating through their mate link very nearly blinded her. 

 

'Trust me.' Yuri implored him, and then once again focus fully on Yoochun, carefully and with great difficulty, keeping her face blank of expression. 

 

Yoochun was leering at her with sadistic lust and Yuri had to fight both her building nausea and urge to cover herself from his malevolent eyes. 

 

Yunho needed her to buy time so she would buy time. As Yuri saw it, in her Lycan form she was a threat to Yoochun, not much of one but still a threat but in her human form, Yoochun still saw her as a defenseless weak mortal woman who was no threat to him at all. 

 

Yoochun's tendency to underestimate mortals was Yuri's greatest weapon at this point and she intended to use it to her full advantage and on top of that, as long as Yoochun's vile gaze was on her body he wasn't paying attention to anything else. 

 

"Nice." Yoochun purred, with creepy lust-fill approval, "Maybe I won't kill you that quickly." 

 

"Same old threat, same hollow promises. Don't you have anything new to say, Yoochun?" Yuri tried to make her tone as nonchalant as her expression and was smug please at how offhanded she actually sounded. 

 

If she survives this night maybe she should try her hand at professional acting. 

 

Finally Yoochun raise his gaze to her face and tried to read her expression but there was nothing to read, she was still young enough that the occasional lie was a necessary survival skill, especially as she had been living on the campus where drama queens tended to reign supreme but Yuri could read plenty in Yoochun's eyes. She knew from her brief personal experience of him that Yoochun had a mask that kept his thoughts from his eyes very well but as he didn't feel threaten obviously he felt he had no little to keep his thoughts conceal from her and what Yuri saw turn her stomach. Dark lust flare in his black eyes at the sight of her body, anger no doubt at her flippant taunting tone and glee that would have been childlike if not for the evil that twisted each and every expression and emotion Yoochun had. 

 

There truly was no good in Yoochun at all, not one ounce. Yuri knew that everything that he had once been had all been burnt away centuries ago when he had fallen after witnessing the death of his destined mate. Yuri felt pity for that man who had suffered so much but she felt none for the monster he had become. There was nothing that could excuse all the evil Yoochun had done since he had fallen. 

 

Yoochun had to die, there was no way around that but maybe in death, he could finally know some peace. 

 

Her thoughts must have leaked through her mask because rage flare in Yoochun's eyes, replacing all else and he snarls through his teeth, taking a menacing step towards her. 

 

"Wipe that look of pity from your face right now!" Yoochun warn, with a furious vampire hissing snarl but before Yuri could react, Yoochun was suddenly standing in front of her, with his arm drawn back and before Yuri could do anything about it, Yoochun, for the second time tonight, let his hand fly, backhanding her across the face with what had to have been most of his strength. 

 

Pain exploded through her entire body and she lost all grip on her senses. She couldn't see, couldn't hear and couldn't feel anything but pain. Her head was ringing, her mind scramble and all she knew was the pain which was all that was strong enough to penetrate the lake of disorientation she found herself drowning within. 

 

Was she dead? Had Yoochun killed her? 

 

Yunho couldn't reach her. Yoochun had struck Yuri hard and the blow had left her disorientated and vulnerable. He could still feel her, could feel her pain and terror as she fought to focus, to pull her mind back together and regather her senses before Yoochun attack her again. 

 

Had Yuri been mortal such a blow would have killed her three times over but now that she had the stronger more durable body of a Lycan, it would take much more to kill her, for which Yunho was unspeakably grateful but while Yuri was down and in her human form, she was as helpless as a puppy. 

 

Yunho had to get to her, to save her but he was still half a mile away and moving at a mortal pace due to his dangerously weaken condition. 

 

Even when he reaches her, Yunho gravely fear that he wouldn't be able to do much. In his current condition, the best he could hope for was to buy Yuri enough time to run. If she ran away from the manor towards the east then she would have a good chance of making it to Yonghwa. 

 

To safety but first Yunho had to get to her in time. Yoochun had led Yuri around in a wide arch before heading for the clearing which was fortunate for Yunho because if they had been going in a straight line it would have taken him far too long to reach them. 

 

In fact, Yunho knew that he would never have reach Yuri in time to save her life. 

 

He still might not reach Yuri in time but thank the goddess that his physical presence wasn't the only way he could help her. As Yuri was practically a newborn into the immortal world, it may be a long shot but right now it was all they had. 

 

Yunho reaches deep into the link, throwing as much of himself into Yuri's mind as the brand new mate link would allow and focus on helping Yuri find her focus. 

 

'Yuri, reach for me.' 

 

Yuri had regathered enough of her scattered senses to push through the pain and disorientation to recognize Yunho's voice, Yunho's presence inside of her own mind. 

 

'Use me to focus.' Yunho's authoritative but gentle tone echo through her scramble mind as Yuri struggle to comprehend the meaning of his words. It was like he was speaking a different language that she had known a long time ago. 

 

Yuri tried to get her stun mind working again but it was so hard like trying to swim through mud. 

 

'Focus on me. Use me as a focal point to reassemble your mind.' 

 

Focus? Yunho wanted her to focus. Right. She needed to focus. There was something important that she had to remember, to do but what was it? 

 

'You are in grave danger, Yuri. You need to open your eyes and get back on your feet. He's hurting you, I can feel it. You have to defend yourself. You have to stay alive until I get there. You just need to hold on a little longer. Please, try to pull yourself together. He hit you hard but you are strong. Your will is the strongest I have ever known. Use it now.' 

 

Was someone hurting her? Yes, there was pain. She could feel it but it was all one. She couldn't tell one pain from another, the pain was like the disorientation. It was all around her; the disorientation and pain had consumed her until she couldn't tell the two apart. 

 

Yunho said she had to focus. That she could use him to focus. He wanted her to open her eyes. Was that why she was suspended in darkness? Her eyes were closed; Yunho wanted her to open her eyes. 

 

'Yes, open your eyes.' 

 

Ok. She needed to open her eyes but how? She didn't even know where she was, let alone where her eyes were. Focus. She needed to focus, to rid herself of the haze she was trapped within. 

 

Use Yunho as a focus point. Ok. She could do that. Yuri could feel him, he was the warmth and pulsing light in the darkness on the edge of her consciousness but the more she focuses on him the more the disorientation faded and the pain increase. 

 

There was more pain now and the more Yuri pulls herself out of the heavy darkness the clearer and sharper the pain became. The pain even divided until Yuri could distinguish one pain from another. There was an aching pain in the distance and hot sharp burning pain that threaten to overwhelm her, to swallow her whole and destroy her. She became aware of not only her own emotions and senses but Yunho's as well and Yunho's were stronger. They were more important to her. Yunho was terrified because he loves her and she was being hurt. Yunho loves her and if she dies then he would die too and she was at risk of dying because she was facing a dangerous enemy in battle. That was where the pain was coming from. Yoochun had hurt her, he had hit her. Yoochun was hurting her. 

 

Just like that, the scattered pieces of her mind fell into place like pieces of a puzzle. 

 

Yuri's eyes flare open. She was lying slump on the ground at the base of the tree in the center of the clearing that Yoochun had slam her into. She was ; she could feel the cold damp foliage coated ground beneath her bare body and the coarse bark of the tree against her . 

 

Yuri could even feel the cold breeze caressing her bare flesh like an icy lover's touch and hovering over her, crouch on his knee with his brown highlighted hair hiding his black eyes from her, Yoochun was enjoying himself as he cruelly ran one outstretch claw across her midsection, slicing another painful cut along her belly, adding another to the half a dozen long bloody gashes that were already there. 

 

Yoochun was cutting her slowly, slicing her from one end of her belly to the other as if he were a toddler finger-painting with only one finger using only red paint. 

 

Yuri clenches her teeth, fighting against her need to scream in pain and force her body to remain still. Yoochun was slicing her flesh but not deep enough that he risks cutting anything vital, his objective was obviously to cause pain, not life-threatening injury. 

 

No doubt Yoochun intended to use the sight of her bloody and injured body to distract and torture Yunho when he arrives and Yoochun was so focus on his task, taking so much sadistic delight from harming her that he hadn't yet realized that she had woken. 

 

This was her chance. Yoochun was close and he was unaware. Yuri didn't think that she had actually passed out, rather just been literally knock senseless from the force of Yoochun's powerful blow and her impact with the tree hadn't help at all either. 

 

Reaching for her Lycan magic, Yuri will her body to shift as she leaped into swift action. 

 

As her body grew in size in the blink of an eye, contorting until she had four legs instead of two and a furry coat, Yuri lash out with her hand. As the blow landed her hand became a clawed paw the size of a serving tray. Tensing her fingers that were now toes, Yuri felt and heard fabric and flesh tear as her claws slash across Yoochun's chest. 

 

Roaring in outrage pain and surprise, Yoochun leaps back from her; he was several feet away before Yuri had even returned her paw to the ground. His arm was cross instinctively over the wound that was nowhere near as severe as Yuri had hoped it would be. 

 

Yoochun snarl with sheer rage at her, the evil furious hate that burn in his black eyes promise that she would pay dearly for what she had just done. 

 

No doubt with life's blood. 

 

Yuri raises herself up onto all four feet, relieve that once again shifting had healed her minor wounds enough that the pain had dulled to a throb that was easily ignorable. 

 

She could get used to this. Yuri knew that shifting didn't always completely heal severe wounds, just look at Changwook and Changmin but it did dramatically speed up the process. So all she had to do was avoid any fatal injuries and she would survive but it came at a price. Each time Yuri shifted, she could feel a fraction of her energy fade away. Shifting took energy from her. Which meant that each time she shifted she weaken. Shifting once or twice had no noticeable effect but constantly shifting in such a short period of time could be dangerous, especially in battle. 

 

So even immortals had their limitations. 

 

'Shifting too many times in a short period can leave you unconscious and leave you at the non-existent mercy of your enemy. In some extreme cases it can even kill you so you must be careful Yuri, don't shift again.' 

 

Yuri mentally rolls her eyes at Yunho but kept her wary gaze focus outward on Yoochun, 'Like you can talk, Yunho Oppa. I can feel how weak you are. Stop worrying about me and worry about yourself. I have a few more shifts left in me, you don't.' 

 

Yuri heard Yunho mentally snort at her words, 'Stop worrying about you? It would be easier for me to stop the moon from rising.' 

 

Yoochun purposefully lower his arm from his wound and shifted his weight, his stance becoming one of a man intending to attack. 

 

Yuri tense in response, waiting for him to leap into action. 

 

'Be wary, Yuri.' Yunho told her sternly, 'If he knocks you out even moderate wounds can kill you. You can't shift if your unconscious.' 

 

Just like Jessica and just like that her pride and triumph at finally giving Yoochun some of his own medicine was gone beneath a wave of anger and guilt. 

 

Jessica. Jessica, who had very nearly sacrifice her own life to save her from Yoochun was proof enough that what Yunho said was true. 

 

Yuri had to end this. For Jessica. 

 

All of the vigor Yuri had been feeling since she had leaped into pursuit of Yoochun evaporated and all that was left was a burning rage and determination born from her bloodthirsty hunger for revenge. 

 

This was that moment. Her moment. 

 

Right here, right now, her moment had come. The moment in which everyone eventually had to face, the moment in which a person had to let go of their youth in favor of becoming all that they could be. Yuri couldn't be that naive student anymore, teetering on the knife's edge between the immaturity of girlhood and responsibility of womanhood. She was a mated woman now, she would one day be a princess, by marriage to the Lycan crown prince and possibly someday she would even be the queen of all Lycan's. She would be looked up too, an example for everyone around her. She would be in a position of authority and expected to lead and defend. Yuri was a warrior now, a solider against the damned who threaten the innocent and wanted to take over both the mortal and immortal worlds. The Lycan's and vampires were the only ones who stood between the damned and the mortal world they had sworn to protect. 

 

Yuri had become so much more than she had ever thought she could be and she would only continue to grow from this night onward. She had to pay for what she had been given and this was how. She lives for others now, live to serve and protect. 

 

Yuri would never give up. Never. She would never stop fighting as long as there was an enemy to fight. She was going to fight as hard as she possibly could; she was going to fight every bit as hard as everyone else had ever fought for her so that she could become what she was destined to be and Yoochun wasn't going to stand in her way any longer. 

 

Yuri could feel Yunho's love and pride for her, his admiration for the bravery in her thoughts and her full and utter acceptance of her destiny, her place in his, their world. 

 

'Let your resolve drive you but don't let it make you reckless. Yoochun's greatest strength and his greatest weakness is his ego. I'm almost there, just hold him off a little longer.' 

 

Yuri didn't comment, not even in her thoughts but she could feel just how close to passing out from exhaustion Yunho really was. 

 

Yuri cast a brief glance down at Yoochun's wound and was please to see dark blood oozing from between his fingers, running down his arm and dripping onto the ground at his feet. Unfortunately, the flow was already slowing. It wouldn't do much to slow him down for long. 

 

"You !" Yoochun roar, black rage in his eyes such as Yuri had never known, "You will die for that!" 

 

Yuri couldn't help but take a step back from him in fear. Finally, Yuri could truly see it, could see him for the centuries-old fearsome immortal warrior of the damned that had kept Yoochun on his throne all this time. Yoochun flexes his fingers and dramatically extended his arms out from his sides and bent his knees ever-so-slightly like something out of an exaggerated Dracula movie. 

 

Yuri tense and bared her teeth, halting her retreat from him. Instinctively Yuri knew that she wouldn't be able to buy any more time. She had enraged Yoochun that this time he intended to kill her for real. 

 

A fight Yuri had so little chance of winning alone. 

 

'You aren't alone.' Yunho promises her, his tone hard and resolute and like the knight in shining armor he was, not literally, of course, Yunho burst from the trees and into the clearing, as as the day he had been born. 

 

He immediately positions himself protectively between Yoochun and herself. 

 

Unfortunately, there was no way that Yoochun could fail to notice how dangerously weak Yunho was. Yunho was unsteady on his feet, swaying back and forth as he panted like a fifty-year smoker who had just climb several flights of stairs, struggling desperately to catch each breath. 

 

Yunho was so weak that even breathing seem too much for him. 

 

'Oppa.' Yuri whispers into his mind, through their wolf link, her mental voice trembling with her fear and worry for him. 

 

'Don't fear, Yuri.' Yunho soothed her, 'I would have to be dead to be kept from standing at your defense.' 

 

Deep within, Yuri's vibrant Lycan heart clench in agony at the very thought and before she was even aware of what she was doing, Yuri took her place at Yunho's side. 

 

'We will protect each other now.' And without another word Yuri charge at Yoochun, focus on her target, Yoochun's bloody thigh. 

 

Yuri suspected that she will still be discovering new aspects of her transformation a year from now but still she was surprised at how fast she was able to move. Her feet hardly touch the ground before they were airborne again and the trees around her blurred into a whirlwind of color but at the same time, it strangely felt as if time itself had slow down. She could hear her own heartbeat, she could feel the cold night air as she speed through it and she could see Yoochun coming closer and closer as clearly as she had ever been able to see anything. 

 

Yuri open her jaws wide, mentally preparing herself for the disgusting taste of damned blood that would fill when she sunk her razor teeth into the flesh of Yoochun's thigh but just as Yuri reach him, her target disappear as if into thin air and then without warning, what felt like a lead pipe slam into the back of her neck, sending her crashing down into the ground hard. 

 

Yuri shook her head, trying to clear the familiar disorientated state. Thankfully this time it passes with a few shakes of her furry head. 

 

Though their wolf link Yuri heard Yunho curse furiously at seeing Yoochun hit the back of her neck with his arm and she felt his fury that Yoochun had hurt her yet again. 

 

Yuri was getting really and truly sick and tired of getting hit in the head. How many blows could she take before she suffers permanent brain damage? And with that thought Yuri push herself back up to her feet, aware that her legs and bloody belly were covers in dirt and mud. Since her belly had the lightest layer of fur the feeling of her bloody and dirty state wasn't pleasant but she ignores it as she turns to find Yunho engage in a ferocious battle with Yoochun, already bleeding from several fresh wounds. 

 

Even to her inexperienced eyes, Yuri could tell that Yunho was moving far too slowly, so much so that he was almost an easy target for Yoochun's strikes and on top of that, Yunho was so weak that he couldn't strike out with enough force behind his own attacks to do much damage in return. 

 

Yuri considers giving Yunho more of her own strength but knew he wouldn't take it. He wouldn't leave her anymore defenseless against Yoochun than she already was. 

 

Even the two of them together weren't enough to take on Yoochun and win. They were going to die at Yoochun's hand very soon unless she did something but what could they do that they hadn't already tried? Yunho didn't have any more tricks up his sleeve, hell, he didn't even have the strength to fight and Yuri had no more ideas either. 

 

Where was Yonghwa? Surely the girls had done as she had asked? She had stressed to them that it was a matter of life and death that they get word to Yonghwa as quickly as they could. 

 

The girls should have reached the vampire mansion by now, they had more than enough time, even if they had gotten lost a time or two. 

 

Yonghwa was their last hope so where was he? 

 

Surely Yonghwa hadn't abandoned them, hadn't left them to face Yoochun and his damned army alone? But what if Yonghwa's mansion had been attacked too? What if he couldn't help? 

 

What would they do? 

 

Very well aware that the two of them were fighting a losing battle, Yuri jumps back into the fray without another thought for herself, striking out what little she could while staying out of Yoochun's reach. 

 

If Yoochun got his hands on her again, Yunho would no doubt be forced to watch her die a full moment before he willingly joins her in death. 

 

'Yonghwa Oppa, where are you?' 

 

Now all three girls knew exactly what all the commotion in the woods had been while they had been in the car. It had been this. This, which even as they watch with their own eyes couldn't believe. 

 

The three enormous wolves, two had step soundlessly from the dark moments before, were lock in a ferocious savage deadly battle with six of the men who had only minutes ago form a circle around the three of them. 

 

At first, after realizing what was happening, all three girls had terrifyingly expected to watch the six men be gruesomely torn apart by the wolves that seem to have been made for battle but after only moments it had become painstakingly obvious that these men weren't normal. 

 

Hell, they probably weren't even human. Instead of being torn apart by claws that were longer than Seohyun's hand, the men had move with inhuman speed and stealth and had dodge and avoided both the razor sharp claws and tyrannosaurus rex-like teeth while attacking the wolves with impossibly long claw-like fingernails that hadn't been a part of their hands before they had sprung into battle as there was no possible way they had miss something like that and obvious great superhuman strength. 

 

Strength that had reveal it's impossible limitlessness when one of the men pick up one of the wolves and had thrown it into a tree a good eighteen feet away. 

 

Seohyun couldn't understand what she was seeing but at the same time, she couldn't deny what she was seeing. She had known that Shinhye and those with her weren't normal and logic told her that Yonghwa was one of them in every sense but there was no way she could have guessed something like this. 

 

This should have been impossible, these were creatures of myths, legends, and movies but ever since that moment that she had met Yonghwa's eyes, her world had changed, she had changed. Seohyun didn't understand it but she knew, just knew that this was what Yonghwa was a part of and now so was she. As hard as if was for her to believe, to accept, her entire world had change the moment she had connected with Yonghwa and it was so strong that she couldn't deny it, no matter how much she wanted too. She was drawn to Yonghwa in such a way that even now, apart from him after meeting him for only a matter of minutes, face with a very possible gruesome death, all Seohyun could think about was that if she dies she would never see Yonghwa again, never know him. 

 

It was as if Yonghwa was the missing piece of her that she had unknowingly been searching for her entire life and now that she had found him she could only ever be complete with him but how did that make sense? How could it be real? 

 

Shinhye had said that lady Yuri would be able to give her her answer. Did that mean that Yuri had experienced something like this too? Did Yuri feel like this about someone too? Could Yuri explain to her exactly what this was between Yonghwa and herself? 

 

Seohyun needed to see Yuri, needed Yuri to explain all of this. Seohyun needed to know what this was. 

 

Seohyun wanted the world to make sense again. 

 

"No!" Shinhye shouted, from where she stood protectively in front of the three of them, effectively snapping Seohyun out of her thoughts with a startled jump. 

 

Seohyun turns her attention back to what was happening around her in time to see Shinhye point to their right, at the darkness over their heads. 

 

"Don't kill it here, not before the eyes of our prince's innocent mate! Take it into the shadows!" Shinhye order, sounding like the battle commander she claims to be. 

 

Seohyun peeks over the shoulders of the men who still stood protectively around them to see that two of the pale men had one of the wolves on the ground, holding it pin by its neck and rear legs even as it struggles savagely against them, clawing deep gashes in the earth beneath it. Snarling, growling and snapping its massive jaws dangerously close to the one holding it pinned by its neck but neither of the two men shows any fear of the massive beast with black soulless eyes and that was the last Seohyun saw of it. The massive wolf and the two men disappear in the blink of an eye but the racket remains. The snarls, growls and thunderous chomping of its massive jaws continue on for a few moments more before it was silenced by a sickening meaty thud mix with the horrible mix sound of massive bone snapping and with one final pain pathetic whimper. 

 

Seohyun knew the creature was dead, even before the two pale men step back into the light, their eyes focus on the remaining two enormous wolves. 

 

"Don't weep for them, my lady." 

 

Seohyun blink, realizing that the words were meant for her. She raises her gaze to find Shinhye watching her with a solemn expression, her eyes soft with sadness. 

 

"To become what they are, they must spill life's blood of the innocent." Shinhye explains, her words carrying the same sadness as her haunting eyes, her words just loud enough to be heard clearly over the noise of the battle that rage around them, "These evil creatures have spilled the blood of countless innocents. This is what we do. We put an end to them and hope that they may find peace in the next life with the moon goddess." 

 

Shinhye turn her sad eyes back to the battle, "Everyone of the damned was once one of us, vampire or Lycan, they once stood with us in the same battle we continue to fight but they fell to the darkness that we all carry, that we all fight every unmated day of our lives. Their numbers swell as ours dwindle and with each one of us that fall into the darkness, a little more of the waning hope that we have left vanishes with them." 

 

Shinhye turns and looks Seohyun straight in the eye with a faint sparkle in her own, "That is what makes yourself and lady Yuri so special, so important to us. You are both causes for renewed hope for our kind, for all immortals. The light in our eternal night. This is why anyone of us would gladly lay down our lives for you or your friends." And then Shinhye smile, it was a smile filled with sadness and pain but it was the smile of one who still had hope nonetheless, "You can feel it, can't you? This life, your mate calling to you from the core of your very soul." 

 

Over Shinhye's shoulder, Seohyun watches as the six men, who moments before had been engaged in battle, disappear into the darkness dragging the remaining two massive wolves who struggle violently against the hands that held them. 

 

"Just get us out of here." Yoona pleaded, who now looks just as pale and sickly as Seohyun felt. 

 

Seohyun had never seen Yoona look like that before and it scares Seohyun more than the massive wolves had. No matter what had happened, what situation they had found themselves in, Yoona had always been the strong indomitable one, brave and unmovable. 

 

Shinhye nodded her head once and raise her right hand high up into the air above their heads, gesturing forward with her hand. 

 

A moment later the muffled sound of a motor engine replace the silence and out of the darkness like a great big black monster stepping out of the safe cover of night, a black SUV with tinted windows drove up to them. 

 

Shinhye lowers her arm and extended it towards the vehicle, inviting them forward, "Your friend awaits if you still wish to carry onward." 

 

Without another word, the three of them move towards the SUV, not one of them had it in them to do anything else. All three of them just wanted to get to Yuri and then wait for this life-altering night to end. 

 

The closest man to the vehicle from their protective circle quickly move to open the hind door on the passenger side, wordlessly coaxing them up onto the long black leather back seat. 

 

Taeyeon steps up first, sliding along so Yoona could follow behind, both getting in without question of a word of argument. 

 

Seohyun steps forward to follow Yoona but pause before stepping up. She turn and look into the darkness at the spot that she had last laid eyes on the massive wolves with black eyes, all too aware of her protective detail around her waiting impatiently for her to step up into the black SUV that looks as if it had been pluck right out of the hands of the secret service. 

 

Yuri really was in danger and now so were they. What had they stumble into that Seohyun had the sickening suspicion she was now an important part of? 

 

As Seohyun step up into the SUV beside Yoona and click on her seatbelt, knowing one thing for certain: her life was never going to be the same again. Tonight had changed everything forever and Seohyun couldn't fight the dreadful fear that it might not be a change for the better. 

 

Yuri couldn't keep this up much longer and Yunho was in an even worse state. 

 

In the past few minutes, the situation had gone from really bad to disastrous. Yunho was now bleeding from over a dozen wounds, a few of which were quite serious and his strength reserves were all but depleted; he was very close to having nothing left. 

 

He was almost done. For good and Yuri had various wounds of her own, none life-threatening but enough to start really affecting her. With every drop of blood that flows or oozed from her Lycan body, another ounce of her strength left with it. 

 

Yoochun hadn't gained a single wound since she had swipe him across his chest with her claws even though Yunho was fighting with all his might and Yuri intervening when she could. Their wolf link helps them coordinate attacks that ultimately fail due to Yunho's weakened condition and her own inexperience. 

 

All they had manage to do was not get kill but unless something changes it wouldn't be long now; one way or another they were going to fall. 

 

Then it happens. Yunho knew it just as surely as she did that it was now or never and in his desperation Yunho lunged for Yoochun's throat, his claws outstretch as far out in front of him as he could manage, intending to sink his claw human fingers into Yoochun's throat, effectively fatally wounding him and ending Yoochun's life but Yoochun saw it coming. Yuri saw his gleeful dark triumphant grin that chills her right to the bone and reaches for Yunho through the wolf link even though Yuri knew that her warning would come too late. 

 

Yoochun brought his own claw hand down as he sidesteps Yunho's attack, aiming for Yunho's jugular artery exactly as Yunho had intended with him. 

 

The world spun around her, blurring every detail but one. 

 

Yoochun's hand. 

 

Yunho cried out in pain and anguish as Yuri let out a pained whimper as blood spray through the clearing. 

 

Yonghwa could smell blood. A lot of blood, mix with other bodily fluids. 

 

The scent was so potent, so overpowering that Yonghwa hadn't known anything like this in over five thousand years, not since the last medieval battlefield he had fought upon. It had been a devastating victory. Yonghwa had led his army against their damned enemy who had been outnumbered but had fought fiercely; the damned had been defeated but Yonghwa's army had suffered great loses. For three days the nearby river had run red with the blood of so many of his own. 

 

The smell came first, carried by the wind forewarning them of the death they were about to see. The cries of battle came next. 

 

Yonghwa hurried faster through the trees with his own forces at his back, several dozen of his warriors, all brave and loyal. All willing to die for him and their cause. All willing to fight with their Lycan allies regardless of the animosity that had once existed between their people. 

 

The first thing Yonghwa notice as they left the trees was the destroy outer manor walls, beyond which lay the trash manor and grounds, all of which were a frenzy of battling pairs and even a few groups, all fighting for their lives. 

 

Yonghwa came to a halt but the forces at his back didn't. His brave vampire warriors, most of whom had served him for hundreds of years didn't hesitate to join the battle against the damned enemy who had until their arrival clearly and gravely outnumbered their opponents. 

 

As they were trained to do, a small number made up of his healers and field medics began to sort through those who lay on the cold bloody earth, the wounded and lost. They tended to the wounded as best they could and finish off the wounded damned. It was a good practice strategy that Yonghwa had long ago share with the Lycan's. Tending to the wounded even while the battle rage resulted in fewer deaths and dealing with the downed damned prevented surprises, such as the enemy re-rallying against them when they thought the battle was over. 

 

Only his two bodyguards remain at his back as Yonghwa search the battlefield for any sign of Yunho, in human or Lycan form, Yonghwa knew both forms well. 

 

Yonghwa didn't see Yunho but he did see one battling Lycan in human form that he did recognize. He watches as two of his own hurried to relieve the obviously exhausted and wounded beta of the two damned vampire soldiers he was fighting that was easily twice the man's human size. 

 

Upon realizing Yonghwa's presence on the battlefield, Donghae promptly turns and hurried to him, limping badly the whole way. 

 

With one look at Donghae's short injured leg, noting the badly torn flesh and blood trickling down his leg, Yonghwa had to wonder how the Lycan was still in the battle, especially while fighting on two legs instead of four, well, one and a half legs anyway. 

 

At his back, Yonghwa sense his bodyguards tense in response to the Lycan's approach on an active battlefield, a reaction born from centuries spent as enemies before becoming allies but they did no more than that as logic overrode the automatic and instinctive response; Donghae was no threat to their crown prince as he was the alley they had come to aid. 

 

Yonghwa studied Donghae as he approach and noted his injuries and the obvious signs of fatigue on the man. Donghae, along with all others of his own on the battlefield had fought long and hard, yet even beyond their limits they had fought on. 

 

Yunho was fortunate in his strong and devoted pack. Yonghwa's own had never been tested so formidably but Yonghwa had no doubt that his own would honor him just as Yunho's own continue to honor him. 

 

Donghae, panting heavily, carefully but quickly bow his head to Yonghwa as was proper but Yonghwa waves the formality aside. 

 

"Where are Yunho and his mate?" 

 

Donghae pointed into the trees at Yonghwa's back, "Yoochun took off. Yuri persuaded and Yunho follows." Yonghwa narrow his eyes, baffled "How could Yuri pursue?" Surely Yunho never would have let her do so, not that Yonghwa intentionally doubted Donghae's word. 

 

Donghae swallow, still trying to catch his breath, "You will not believe it easily but Yuri follow Yoochun in her Lycan form." 

 

All three vampire's eyes widen in sheer disbelief. 

 

Yonghwa whirl on his heel and flew back into the trees. 

 

If what Donghae said was true and Yuri had become of the Lycan's then she was a miracle worth any price to protect, even his own life. 

 

A miracle Yonghwa had to see with his own eyes, especially now that he had found his own mortal mate. If Yuri had become a Lycan, did it stand to reason that Seohyun could become a vampire? 

 

Had Yonghwa not scented Yuri for himself, he would have consider other possibilities, such as that Yuri had been a born Lycan who had been lost in the mortal world, growing up not knowing what she was but he had sampled her scent and Yonghwa had no doubt that Yuri had been a mortal human in all meanings of the word the last time he had been in her presence. 

 

For the second time in one night hope, real hope bloom in Yonghwa's soul. After so long, could it be possible that he had been gifted such a precious mate? A mortal born who could become one of the immortal worlds? 

 

Dare he believes it so? 

 

Yuri slam into Yunho so hard that she sent the both of them rolling, blood spraying as Yoochun's claws raked Yunho's back and Yuri's belly and side. 

 

The three of them went sprawling in three different directions. 

 

Yuri had feared that she wouldn't make it in time and she very nearly hadn't. Instead of trying to knock Yoochun off his feet to save Yunho, Yuri had collided with them both just in time to spare Yunho's neck from Yoochun's fatal blow. 

 

When Yuri had rammed the two of them, Yoochun's attack had been knocked off target. Instead of Yunho's neck, Yoochun's claws had sunk into Yunho's back and had sliced through his flesh right down the length of his back and then as a result of the force of her own attack, Yuri's side and belly had collided with Yoochun's outstretch claws as well. The force of her own lunge had very nearly impaled her on Yoochun's razor claws. 

 

Only when everything was silent and she was still did the pain hit her like an anvil. Yuri lay on the ground on her side, thankfully her uninjured side as her wounds throbbed with red-hot pain, pain that kept her paralyze on the ground. 

 

Even breathing was agony. 

 

The wound felt hot and it throbbed in a way that made the wound seem alive like the wound had a life of its own and it was piss. 

 

The wound was deep. That Yuri knew. She didn't know how she knew but she knew. She could feel her blood streaming down her body to pool on the ground below her, turning the damp earth into sticky black mud. The sensation felt strange, the blood felt hot and cold at the same time while her wound blaze like someone had set fire to her belly and side. 

 

This was it. She was done. She had done all she could do and it still hadn't been enough. She was this amazing powerful creature, a legendary Lycan and still, she hadn't made a difference. 

 

Yoochun was going to kill them both and in doing so he would win. The evil Yunho had spent his entire immortal life keeping at bay would flood the earth and all good would fall. 

 

In Yunho's mind in response to her thoughts, Yuri heard Yunho hope that Yonghwa might have a shot at stopping Yoochun now that his forces had been diminished at the cost of his pack but as mighty a warrior as Yonghwa was, Yunho was Yoochun's only living equal in battle and in cunning intelligence and strategy. 

 

Yuri was saddened that she hadn't been able to affect the outcome of the war but console herself with that at least she had known real love. The kind of endless powerful love she had dreamed of as a little girl. She was endlessly thankful for that, for Yunho. 

 

For the brief but happy time, they had shared. 

 

A shadow fell over her and Yuri open her eyes enough to look up at the monster who towered over her. 

 

"Yoochun, don't you dare touch her again." 

 

At the sound of Yunho's weak but threatening voice, Yuri smile. Her smile was weak but real. Yunho had sounded so weak and she could hear the pain in his voice just as clearly as she could feel it but at the same time, there had been that hard commanding tone of supreme authority that Yunho use when he was determined to have his way. 

 

It was the voice of a man who had been raised and intended to be king. 

 

Yunho was there with her. They would die but at least they would die together. If they both had to die then that was how Yuri wanted it. She fears dying only a little bit, she fears leaving Jaehyuk alone and the girls behind who would never know what happen to her but she fear Yunho's death most of all. 

 

Just as Yunho fear nothing more than her death. 

 

Yunho watches helplessly as Yoochun hovered over Yuri's still and wounded form, his hand raised high to strike and kill her as Yunho watch on, too injured and weak to rise to his feet no matter how hard he tried. He had been push well and truly beyond his limits tonight, more so than ever before and now because he was weak he was going to watch Yoochun kill his mate just as Yoochun had watched his mate die so long ago. 

 

This was what Yoochun truly wanted, his ultimate revenge upon him. Yoochun wanted Yunho to suffer as he had in the moments before he had fallen to damnation. As a damned Yoochun was unable to feel love or kindness or empathy. He knew only hatred, anger and revenge. 

 

Yoochun intended for Yunho to suffer a fate worse than death before Yoochun finally kill him. 

 

Yunho struggle again to rise to his feet but he didn't even have the strength to get to his knees. As it was, it was all he could do just to remain conscious. The looming blackness of exhaustion had become heavier with each passing moment; he wouldn't be able to keep it at bay much longer. 

 

'No. Yuri.' Yunho feebly reaches out for her from where he lay on the cool damp earth, his barely open eyes filled with fear and anguish, 'I'm so sorry. I should never have brought you into this life. I should have left you alone, safe in your mortal life.' 

 

Yuri's heart and eyes soften with her love for him and with the sadness that their time together was coming to an abrupt end far too soon. She had no regrets though; she didn't regret a single moment of their brief time together. She was only sad knowing that her death would cause Yunho unbearable torment and in turn bring about his own death. 

 

'No.' Yuri cooed softly into his mind, 'Listen to me, Yunho Oppa. I would rather die tonight than live an eternity never knowing you, never knowing this love that has taught me to fly. Never knowing this magic that you have shown me, that you have made me a part of. I was so wrapped up in trying to achieve the life that I thought I wanted that I didn't realize that I wasn't really living. You brought me to life in a way I never dream of. You show me a world filled with life, magic and loyalty and I am and always will be eternally grateful to you for that but what I'm most grateful for is you and your love.' 

 

Yuri summons every ounce of her love for him and sent it through their wolf link, needing him to feel the power and purity of her love for him so he couldn't doubt her declaration of love. She wasn't afraid of the unknown anymore, she wasn't afraid of dying. Yunho had taught her that there was nothing to fear in death, that in the unknown lurk so much possibility and hope and if this truly was the end for them then Yuri wanted Yunho to know that. 

 

To believe. 

 

'I love you with my whole heart and I'm honored to have been your wolf mate. The pack calls me the miracle but in truth you are the miracle. Your strength and courageous heart have brought your people so much further than they would have gone without you. They live today because of your strength and stubborn head. They have hope because you endure.' 

 

Yunho opens his mouth to declare his love out loud, needing to speak the words for Yuri and the whole world to hear one last time but movement over her caught his attention. 

 

It seems that Yoochun wasn't going to allow Yunho his final chance to tell her how much he loves her. 

 

Yunho's heart froze in his chest and his eyes grew wide as Yoochun's claw hand speed down through the air, aim at Yuri's unprotected neck. 

 

The blow that would end Yuri's life. 

 

Without warning like the intervening hand of the divining angels on high, something shot out from the trees with all the speed of a bullet from a gun and rammed into Yoochun's unprotected unsuspecting back. 

 

The force of the collision knocks Yoochun off his knees and sent him flying over Yuri's still form and into the trees on the other side of the clearing. A moment later the sound of something big hitting the wood with jarring force vibrated through the silence of the clearing and the forest around them. 

 

Yunho raises his gaze from his wolf mate's beautiful face to the face of the man now standing in Yoochun's place over Yuri. 

 

Yonghwa grins devilishly down at him with a sparkle in his dark brown eyes that Yunho had never seen there before, "Sorry we are so late, my friend. We intercepted fifty damned headed for the manor and had to deal with them before coming here. I didn't believe you wanted Yoochun's reinforcements making life even more difficult for your own." 

 

Yunho's eyes narrow on his good friend to whom Yunho would forever owe an unrepayable debt for saving Yuri's life. Even in his weakened state, Yunho could see that there was something very different about him; he seems lighter, almost happy? But now wasn't the time for such things, even with Yonghwa's aid Yoochun wouldn't be easy to take down. 

 

Behind Yonghwa, two vampire warriors step out of the trees into the clearing, both quickly taking flanking positions just behind their crown prince, both prepare to fight the most fearsome damned warrior on earth for their prince. 

 

Yuri sigh in relief into the cold ground beneath her, taking a moment to close her eyes to collect herself and offer her silent thanks to the moon goddess who watch over all the immortals. It had work. The girls had found Yonghwa and had delivered her message; help had come at last. Now there they had a real chance of winning the battle that continues to rage in the Lycan territory. 

 

'Thank the goddess.' Yuri silently repeated her thanks, once again thanking in prayer the moon goddess of the immortal races that was now her deity also. 

 

Yuri open her eyes and return her attention to their rescuers and noted with great relief that only one of them show any sign of having recently engaged in battle; the vampire to Yonghwa's right had two minor gashes running along one cheek as if he had been attacked by something with sharp claws that had narrowly miss taking his head from his shoulders. The wound had already healed enough that it had clotted, only drying blood from his check to the neck of the button up shirt tarnish his otherwise pristine appearance. 

 

They had fought as Yonghwa had said but none of them look tired or show any sign of being badly injured. Each of the three was able and ready to fight which gave them a distinct advantage over Yoochun who had to be tiring, after all, he had done and it please Yuri to no end that this time it was Yoochun who was outnumbered. Gravely outnumbered if she counted Yunho and herself which might not actually be smart since the both of them were down for the count for the foreseeable future. 

 

"Fear not for your pack, Yunho," Yonghwa assure him, drawing Yuri's focus from her thoughts. 

 

"I have sent the rest of my forces to the manor; what damned remain will be suppressed with no more loss of life." Yonghwa explain reassuringly, as he walks over to Yunho and help him into a sitting position with hardly any effort at all, moving his blood and mud cover body back a foot or two to lean him up against the nearest tree trunk, "My best field healers are among them, the wounded will be seen too." 

 

Then Yonghwa turns his attention to her. Yuri opens to speak, momentarily forgetting that her Lycan vocal cords weren't up to human speech and as a result, a strange sounding whine came out. 

 

Yunho laugh weakly but the sound was filled with genuine love and amusement at her momentarily bewilderment, "Yuri says 'hi Yonghwa Oppa'." 

 

Yonghwa grins down at her, amused as well, "Hello, Yuri." He lowers himself down onto his knees beside her and inspected her wounds but he must have seen something in her eyes because he gave her a reassuring gentle pat on her furry shoulder, "Have no fear your friends are safe. I promise." 

 

Yuri quirk an eyebrow at him. Was it just the loss of blood that had made Yonghwa's tone sound funny, not ha ha funny but weird funny when he had spoken of her friends? 

 

Yuri would have ask Yunho to inquire on her behalf but the sounds of battle from the trees pull her attention away from Yonghwa and his almost giddy demeanor. 

 

Yuri turn her gaze to the trees just in time to see one of Yonghwa's vampire bodyguards, the one that didn't have a bloody cheek, come flying out from between the trees and hit the ground hard only a few feet from her, spraying dirt through the clearing behind him. 

 

Yonghwa was instantly on his feet and then he was gone, disappearing into the same trees. 

 

A moment later the second bodyguard was back on his feet and following his prince. 

 

Yuri could smell fresh blood. Vampire blood. The vampire bodyguard was bleeding and the smell wasn't like that of the blood of the damned. It wasn't sickening or rancid but it wasn't exactly a pleasant scent either. It was a lot like Lycan blood, that scent she knew well after the last few hours but at the same time, it was so very different. 

 

'It is believed that Lycan's and vampires share a common ancestor or so the legends of old go.' Yunho explains, even though his thoughts and senses were focused on the battle within the trees that he could hear but not see, 'Mortal blood is metallic but ours is...well the best description with your limit knowledge and experience would be magical. It's what makes us different from mortals on the cellular level.' 

 

In the back of her head, Yuri thought that this was something Taeyeon would be interested in with her highly intelligent and curious mind. 

 

Yuri personally was satisfied with magic as an explanation. 

 

In Yunho's mind, Yuri heard him reflect on how easily Yuri's attention became sidetrack just like a puppy. 

 

Yuri growl half playfully into Yunho's head making Yunho chuckle ever so briefly. 

 

Yuri reflected on Yunho's previous thought and had to admit that he had a small point. It might be something she would have to work on but everything was new and fresh to her now so sue her if she got a little sidetrack by it. Yunho had centuries to experience the world through the eyes of an immortal and learn to focus his instincts and abilities, she hadn't. 

 

Yuri, momentarily distracted from her wounds by their playful banter made a move to sit up but the pain that shot through her quickly had her laying back down where she carefully kept her body still. 

 

Yuri raises her head and turning only her head, studied the worst of her wounds. It wasn't bleeding as badly as it had before, the blood now oozing out rather than gushing but it was still just as painful. 

 

Yuri sigh. It seems that being an immortal being able to shift into a wolf the size of a minivan didn't exempt her from pain. 

 

Yunho studied Yuri's wound through her eyes and mentally noted that it would need seeing too once Yoochun was taken care of. 

 

Which would be nowhere near soon enough. Had Yunho the strength, he would have crawl across the clearing to her and tended to her wounds but right now he was struggling just to remain conscious. 

 

His body needed to rest and very soon, one way or another, it was going to get what it needed. It was only Yunho's loving compulsion to keep Yuri safe that gave him the force of will needed to remain awake for as long as he had. Suddenly, three tall figures burst out from the trees, all three engage in a frenzied battle of sharp slashing claws, snapping elongated teeth and superhuman strength, speed, and agility. 

 

Even with her new Lycan eyes, Yuri was just barely able to follow enough of the battle to know that even with two against one, Yoochun was still holding his own well enough that he had suffered no new injuries. 

 

Yonghwa and his bodyguard, the one with the bloody cheek were fighting their hardest but they just couldn't seem to gain the upper hand long enough to kill Yoochun. 

 

'Oh, by the goddess!' Yuri mentally cried out exasperated, using one of Yunho's favorite exclamations of frustration. What was it going to take to bring Yoochun down? 

 

Yuri didn't know where the second vampire bodyguard was, Yuri hopes he wasn't dead but even with the two vampire warriors, Yoochun was still holding his own and Yuri just couldn't tolerate that. 

 

Yoochun was going down. Tonight. Yuri was going to make sure of it. 

 

'Yuri, don't you dare!' Yunho warns her sternly, glaring warningly at her from where he sat slumped up against the tree, his glare impressively thunderous despite his weaken and injured condition. 

 

Not eight feet from her, Yonghwa and his bodyguard were exchanging blows with Yoochun but not one was landing. 

 

Yuri was sick and tired of bleeding, it was well and truly time that Yoochun shed some of his blood. A lot of it preferably. 

 

Clenching her teeth tightly against the pain, Yuri forces her body into a sitting position, all the while Yunho continue to growl, threaten and plead inside her head. 

 

As much as Yuri love Yunho she had to admit that it had been so much easier to plot and do mischief when Yunho hadn't been able to hear her thoughts and feel her emotions. 

 

'Yuri! Let Yonghwa handle Yoochun!' 

 

Yuri ignores him. 

 

Yunho promptly decided to switch tactics; his threats didn't carry much weight when he couldn't even sit upright by himself. 

 

'Yuri.' Yunho said in a gentle cajoling tone, 'You are very brave to want to help but you will only be in the way. Haven't you learn your lesson yet? Look at yourself. You haven't even been a Lycan for one day let alone been train to use your abilities.' 

 

Yuri ignore him, although she made a mental note to punish him for his choice of words later. 

 

In the way? Learn her lesson? If Yuri had vocal cords she would have told him to kiss her . She might have been his mate but she wasn't his to command. 

 

Yunho really had to join the twenty-first century. 

 

'Yuri!' 

 

Yuri could feel her four paws beneath her and feel the cool wind dance across her pelt. She could hear the sounds of the ferocious and savage battle that rage beside her and she could hear Yunho's frantic heartbeat from his fear for her. 

 

Yuri opens her eyes and raises her front paw to take a step when suddenly two things happen at once. Pain shot through her entire body radiating from her stomach and the world spun around her as a wave of weakness and dizziness hit her without warning. 

 

Yuri stumbles and her front legs collapse beneath her, causing another wave of stabbing pain to shoot through her making her release a pained whimper before she could stop it. 

 

"Yuri," Yunho whisper out loud, clearly distress and hating himself for not being able to help her and for putting her in this situation. Hating himself because she was in pain and there was nothing he could do for her. 

 

Yuri's heart once again swells with love for him. Yunho had always carried the weight of the world on his shoulders, had always taken care of others while caring nothing for what it cost him. He always blames himself for everything. 

 

It seems that Yuri was going to have a full-time job with him. He was going to learn that not everything was up to him, that it was alright to let others join the fight occasionally. 

 

Yuri gritted her teeth so hard that she was hurting herself but she forced herself up onto her feet regardless, fighting to push back the dizziness and her exhaustion. She had to get to her feet and stay on her feet. She had to fight. 

 

'No, you don't.' 

 

Yuri opens her eyes and looks at the battling trio. Nothing had changed but the steadily rising number of injuries Yonghwa and his bodyguard had. 

 

She had to help and without another thought, without any more hesitation, Yuri summon up all her remaining strength and ran into the fray. 

 

Yuri had no more idea of what she was doing than she had the first time she had battle in her Lycan form, only a short while ago but this time she handed herself completely over to her instincts, to what felt right. She snaps her huge muzzle while making sure that she didn't bite either one of her vampire allies and when they were clear Yuri lash out with her sharp claws. 

 

Not once did Yuri land a blow or catch Yoochun with teeth or claw but Yonghwa and his bodyguard took full advantage of the presence of the massive attacking animal with claws and teeth and struck out when Yuri had Yoochun momentarily distracted. 

 

Yonghwa got Yoochun quite badly across the right side of his ribs and the vampire with him caught Yoochun across the shoulder blade and the back of his arm. 

 

The three of them fell into a rhythm. The bodyguard would divert Yoochun's attention away from her and Yuri would use the opportunity to lash out at Yoochun who easily dodge her attacks but Yonghwa was there waiting when Yoochun did. 

 

Yoochun has sustained two more injuries, both minor, one to his lower thigh and the other to his hand when he had finally had enough. 

 

Yuri didn't see it coming and the three men saw it coming too late to warn her. 

 

Yoochun waited for her to go for him again and then he lashed out with his uninjured leg, kicking out with all his strength while ducking beneath Yonghwa's claw hand. 

 

Yoochun's foot caught her fair in the stomach, right in the previous injury he had given her. Yuri felt her flesh tear as Yoochun effectively reopen her wound anew. 

 

Yuri screams in pain which in her Lycan form came out as a pain-fill cross between a roar and a whimper. 

 

Yuri didn't even remember being airborne, all she knew was that one moment she was in the heated fray of battle being hurt and the next she was on the other side of the clearing, lying limply on the cool damp earth that felt oddly pleasant compare to her heated bleeding and swollen flesh. 

 

'Yuri.' 

 

'I'm alright.' Yuri replied instantly, automatically but her tone was weak and filled with her agony. Her tone betrays the lie in her words. 

 

In her mind, Yuri felt Yunho's desperation as he pulls himself across the foliage cover hard damp earth in desperate need to reach her. 

 

Yuri open her eyes enough that she could see him but other than that she didn't move. Her large furry body didn't have the strength to move. There was no if, buts or maybes about it; she was done. 

 

'End this, Oppa.' Yuri weakly pleaded him, 'Yoochun's evil must end. Please, for Jessica?' 

 

Yunho fear she was dying and Yuri found herself unable to care. She didn't have the strength left to care; she just wanted this done with, once and for all. 

 

Still several feet away, Yunho's heart very nearly stop beating. Surely Yuri wasn't giving up, not Yuri who was filled to the brim with life, energy and that feisty stubborn will of hers. 

 

What had Yoochun done to his Yuri? 

 

Fury boil inside of him such as Yunho had never known. Yuri giving up wasn't right. A defeated Yuri was just wrong. 

 

Yunho turns his attention from Yuri to Yoochun to find that Yoochun was only a matter of feet away, in fact, Yunho was closer to Yoochun than he was to Yuri. 

 

His entire body was consumed by a throbbing pain that robs every muscle of its strength but if it was the last thing he ever did, Yunho would find the strength to end this. 

 

Yunho focuses everything he had on his right hand but for a long moment, nothing happens. For the first time since mastering his abilities, his body wouldn't obey. 

 

Yunho pours more of his will into his task and long seconds later his drain body slowly manages to obey him. 

 

Maybe for the last time. Had he ever been so weak, so exhausted in all his long life? 

 

If he had then Yunho had long since forgotten it. 

 

Yunho flexes his aching fingers; the tips of his five long sharp claws harmlessly caress his palm. 

 

It had been a long time ago that Yunho had learned the valuable lesson that the defeat of an enemy could come from the smallest of things, the right attack that took so little to accomplish could tip the scales. 

 

All he had to do was wait. Wait for his chance. 

 

Yoochun was going to pay for the harm he had done to Yuri and Yunho was going to accept nothing less than life's blood as payment. 

 

Yunho didn't have to wait long. Yonghwa saw to that. 

 

Yonghwa had kept a careful eye on Yuri, mindful of both her and Yunho's location, making sure to keep the fight away from the two weak and injured Lycan's. 

 

No more harm was going to come to either of them, especially not the young woman who had unknowingly delivered his mate to him. 

 

Which was why, when he caught sight of Yunho crawling on his belly towards Yuri, Yonghwa had manoeuvred Yoochun further towards the opposite side of the clearing and why, when Yunho stop in the middle of the clearing and extended the claws of his right hand with his eyes focus on Yoochun, Yonghwa knew what he had to do. 

 

Yonghwa plans his course of action carefully. This was their chance, the one they had waited for centuries and Yonghwa wasn't going to let it slip away. 

 

Attacking one at a time, Yonghwa and his bodyguard subtly maneuvered the three of them back towards the center of the clearing, keeping Yoochun solidly focus on the two of them and his back to what lurks behind him. Yonghwa didn't need to worry about words with his bodyguard who had been with him for centuries. Like all Yonghwa's personal bodyguards, they had trained together until they could act as one in battle. 

 

Yonghwa didn't consider any of his own his serves; he considers them friends and family. They had fought together many times, had earn each other's trust and loyalty time and time again and as such, they had all learned to fight and move in harmony. 

 

Yonghwa's bodyguard had caught on to Yonghwa's intention almost immediately. 

 

They continue to push Yoochun back, a step at a time. 

 

Attack. Attack. 

 

First step back. 

 

Attack. 

 

Second step back. 

 

Almost there, just one more step. 

 

Yonghwa attack one last time. 

 

Yunho aligns his claws, tense his fingers and lashes out, aiming for the ankles that were now within arms reach. 

 

Skin and flesh parted and blood spray, soaking Yunho's fingers as he slices his claws through both of Yoochun's ankle, severing both Achilles' tendons. 

 

Yoochun cried out in startled pain as he crumbles to the ground like dead weight, his feet now useless to hold him up. 

 

A tiny triumphant grin touch Yunho's lips for the briefest of moments before his body, filthy from head to toe with blood and mud became limp and darkness close in on him. 

 

'Yunho Oppa!' Yuri cried out weakly, from where her Lycan bleeding body lay on the cold damp earth. 

 

The only thing that kept Yuri from completely losing it was that she could still feel him there, on the edge of her consciousness, even though she couldn't hear anything; Yunho was there but he wasn't responding to her at all, it was like his mind had near completely shut down. 

 

She had to get to him. Yuri needed to feel his beating heart beneath her hands. 

 

Not her paws. 

 

Yuri closes her eyes and reaches deep into her, pushing away everything else and turning all her focus inward. She didn't know if she had the strength left to shift one more time but she was going to find out. 

 

She ignores her fear for Yunho, she ignores the men around her as Yonghwa move in on Yoochun for the kill, she ignores the pain of her injuries and she ignores her own exhaustion. 

 

Yuri needed to be human again and there it was. The warm pulsing power inside of her. It was like a second heart that she could bend to her will, it pulses with life, warmth, and power like a tiny sun she carried inside of her. 

 

It was the second greatest gift Yunho had ever given her but it was as precious to her as Yunho's first gift. 

 

Yunho's first and the most treasured gift was Yunho's own heart, a heart filled with all the love and devotion Yunho possess. 

 

Yunho had given her so much. More than she could ever repay and she wasn't going to lose everything now. There was no way in heaven or hell that Yuri was going to let either of them die. 

 

Her body might have been too weak to shift again but Yuri's will was as strong as it had ever been. She focuses on the magic and pours every tiny bit of her will against it, compelling the magic into action even though her body didn't have the strength to offer the change. 

 

It fought her, wordlessly telling her that she was indeed too weak for this but Yuri stubbornly kept pushing against it, bending it to her will and just like that Yuri felt the warmth, the magic spread over her and this time the pain of transforming was easier to ignore and was gone much sooner. 

 

Yuri opens her eyes and casts a glance down at her body to see that the wound on her belly was still open but once again the flow of blood had slow from gushing to oozing. 

 

Suspecting that her blood loss was one of the reasons why she was so weak, Yuri lowers her hand to her belly and press her palm against the deepest and widest part of the wound just above her hip bone not knowing if it would make any kind of difference. It was what people did when they were hurt, covering the wound either to protect it or an effort to slow the flood of their life-giving blood but that was all Yuri had the strength to do. She had use everything she had to shift that one last time. Lying her head on her other arm, Yuri closes her eyes and welcome the looming darkness with one last thought. 

 

'Yunho Oppa.' 

 

Yonghwa looks down at the man who was considered the world over as the most fearsome damned warrior on the planet who was at this very moment crawling through the blood soak earth in desperate attempt to flee from him but Yonghwa wasn't going to allow that. Yoochun had done so much damage, cause so much hurt over his long damned life that there was only one mercy left for him, his own swift death. 

 

It didn't seem honorable that this was how such a mighty warrior met his end but Yonghwa wasn't going to hesitate. He had to think about all he had spent his entire life fighting to protect, his people, his allies, his friends, his family, the innocent people of the mortal world and now his own mate. 

 

Yoochun had threatened Yuri time and time again over her short time in the immortal world, had even kidnap and hurt her and Yonghwa could and wouldn't let the same thing happen to his own mate. 

 

Seohyun. Such a perfect name for her, the fair black haired beauty with the bewitching angelic eyes who look so alike Yuri that they could have been sisters. 

 

Yonghwa sense movement behind him as someone steps into the clearing but a sampling of the air told him that it was the second of the bodyguard who had taken a blow meant for him when they had been battling Yoochun amongst the trees. 

 

The wound wouldn't cost the brave vampire warrior his life but it had been severe enough to keep him from the remaining of the battle. 

 

"May you find forgiveness and peace in the realm of the moon goddess, Yoochun. May your lost mate welcome you into her open arms at long last." Yonghwa bestows the traditional final farewell upon Yoochun for all the service Yoochun had done for Yonghwa's father and the Lycan king before he had fallen into damnation. 

 

"Just be done with it!" Yoochun hiss, through his teeth, defeated yet still proud. 

 

Yonghwa rushes forward, yank Yoochun back onto his knees and raise his hand up high, his long half-bent fingers lock in position, his extended claws sharp and deadly. 

 

Yunho wanted so much to rest his pain and aching body that had been push beyond all limits this night but he needed to make sure Yuri was safe before he could rest. 

 

Yunho didn't know how long he had been out for but he suspected that it hadn't been much longer than a few minutes. He was a warrior whose instincts were far too well-honed to allow him to remain unconscious on a battlefield. 

 

Movement was what kept one alive. It was the rule on the battlefield. Those who remain still were an easy target, those who push on and kept moving stood the best chance of surviving but Yunho's mind and heart were insisting that he move for a much more important reason than his own survival. 

 

Yuri was hurt. Yunho didn't know just how much of a Lycan Yuri had become, maybe she was all Lycan now but maybe she didn't have all their strength. It took a lot to kill a Lycan, even in human form as immortal beings could heal almost any wound if it was seen too in time but Yuri wasn't a born Lycan and there was no telling what her limits were. 

 

Yunho forces his eyes open but even that seems to be too much to ask of his exhausted and battered body. Everything was blurry as his eyes struggle to find their focus. 

 

Yuri. Where was Yuri? 

 

"Yuri." Yunho croaks weakly, the word so softly spoken that his superhuman ears barely caught the sound. 

 

Yunho reaches for her with his mind and found her but the absence of cognitive activity told him that she was unconscious. 

 

"She's here." A familiar and gentle voice assure him, from somewhere above. 

 

Yunho raises his gaze which after a few more seconds finally focus to reveal the calm face of his vampire best friend who was kneeling on one knee beside him. 

 

Yonghwa consider Yunho for a long moment, thinking hard. The man was dangerously weak and he needed his rest but Yunho was so stubborn that Yonghwa knew that he would never let his body rest until he knew Yuri was alright but Yuri wasn't altogether alright. The scent of her blood was heavy in the clearing and shifting so many times had done enough to slow the bleeding of the wound but the tiny young woman needed a healer. 

 

Yonghwa owed Yunho and his mate everything. It was forbidden, even though Lycan's and vampires now consider themselves allies but to Yonghwa Yunho and his pack were far more than allies to him now. 

 

They were friends. 

 

Yunho had proven himself trustworthy of all Yonghwa's secrets, even those of Yonghwa's royal bloodline. 

 

There were a few things that vampire royalty could do that the Lycan's knew nothing about, not even the Lycan royalty. 

 

Yonghwa sigh heavily, making his decision. What the hell as the mortals said. Yoochun was dead, along with the bulk of his damned forces and the discovery of mates in the mortal world had open up all sorts of doors for all the immortal. 

 

Yonghwa places his hands on either side of Yunho's head, one of which was soaked in dark blood all the way up to his elbow, bow his own head and close his eyes. 

 

With a deep breath to prepare himself, Yonghwa reaches deep within, calling his magic to do his bidding. 

 

Lycan's use their magic to change their bodies, to become impressive beasts that kept them close to the moon goddess and the wild spirits of the mother earth but vampires use theirs in other ways. 

 

Vampires couldn't change their form but there were others things they could do, especially the royal vampire bloodline. 

 

As part of the royal bloodline, Yonghwa could do things that his people couldn't, such as what he was about to do. 

 

Yunho was aware enough to wonder why Yonghwa was cradling his head as he was. Yunho knew he was in bad shape but surely he didn't look that bad that Yonghwa fear that he was close to death? 

 

"For you, my friend," Yonghwa told him softly, a moment before his hands began to grow warm. 

 

Yunho had no idea what Yonghwa was doing and despite their long years of friendship in which they had fought in countless of battles together, Yunho's deeply embedded survival instincts scream at him to stop Yonghwa from doing whatever it was he was attempting even though Yunho didn't even have the strength to raise his head and why wasn't Yonghwa seeing to Yuri? Yuri was the one who was badly hurt, not him. Her wound had to be tended too as she was already in a dangerously weaken condition and she was still losing blood. 

 

He could smell it. 

 

The warmth from Yonghwa's hands surrounded Yunho's mind and consciousness in a pleasant cloud of warmth and an unfamiliar...was that magic? 

 

Yunho didn't know what Yonghwa was doing or how he was able to accomplish it but the soothing warmth began to spread down his body as slowly and as gently as a mist atop the ocean. 

 

What was happening to him? It almost felt like he was being very slowly submerged in warm water after spending all day outside in the icy cold. 

 

"Don't fight it." Yonghwa's tranquil voice told him, his voice somehow sounding much clearer and much closer than it had the moment before. 

 

The warmth reaches his toes and then it slowly ease once Yonghwa releases him. 

 

"What did you do?" Yunho asks out loud and was immediately stunned at how steady and strong his own voice had sounded when only moments ago it had been a struggle just to voice a single word and that was when a stun Yunho realize that he felt so much stronger than he had a moment ago. 

 

Without moving his body at all in fear that it was an illusion, Yunho turns his full focus inward and mentally scan himself. 

 

He was stronger, he had more energy than he should have had. Yunho knew he had barely half of his usual energy and strength but it would be enough to get him to his feet. He wouldn't be able to shift for a while yet but he was able to move sluggishly with some effort. 

 

Yunho opens his eyes and looks up into Yonghwa's intelligent friendly eyes who was waiting patiently. How was it possible? How had Yonghwa done what he himself had only just discovered that he could do with his own bonded wolf mate? 

 

How had Yonghwa shared his energy with him, his magic? Yonghwa wasn't even of the Lycan's, how was this possible when it was only just manageable between royal bonded mates? 

 

"How?" 

 

Yonghwa grin mysteriously at him, "I'm sad to say that even after years of friendship, there are still some secrets between our races." He extended his hand to Yunho in a silent offer to help him up. 

 

Yunho took Yonghwa's offer hand and Yonghwa pulls him up to his feet that were only slightly unsteady beneath him. 

 

"You transform into a creature of fearsome might." Yonghwa pointed out, "So it shouldn't surprise you that we have a few tricks of our own?" 

 

Yunho grin, Yonghwa's point well taken and bow his head once to Yonghwa in respect and thanks before he turns, slow enough that he didn't put his battered body under any unnecessary strain and close the distance between himself and his still unconscious mate, not sparing more than a brief glance at Yoochun's bloody lifeless body. Finally, Yoochun's death had come to pass. 

 

Yunho couldn't care less that it had been Yonghwa who had delivered the deathblow that had finish off Yoochun once and for all. He didn't care that it hadn't been his own hand that had avenge all those Yoochun had killed. Truth be told, Yunho had expected to feel relief and triumph when this moment finally came, that at long last Yoochun was no more but Yunho felt neither. Yoochun's tale had been one of tragedy, despite all the pain and suffering Yoochun himself had inflicted upon others. 

 

Yunho could let go of all the negative emotions and bad memories he carried of Yoochun for more than half his life. He would forgive and move on but first, he had to see to his wolf mate. 

 

Yuri was in a lot of pain and had a serious injury. When Yoochun had struck her he had intended the blow to take her life as Yoochun had realized that his final moment might very well have come and Yunho knew Yoochun well enough to know that he had intended to take Yuri into death with him knowing that Yunho would willingly follow. 

 

Yunho would never let that happen. He had sworn an oath never to allow any harm to come to Yuri and her demise damn well wasn't going to come by Yoochun's hand. 

 

Like countless others. 

 

Yunho knelt beside his wolf mate, closing the last foot of space between them and tenderly brush her tangle muddy hair back from her pale face. Like him, Yuri was as as the day she had been born and was cover in dying blood, smear mud, and various bruises and scrapes. Her long light brown hair was dreadfully tangled with leaves and twigs and smeared with mud. 

 

Yuri was so deeply unconscious that he couldn't reach her through their wolf link. The first thing Yunho had to do was wake her and thanks to Yonghwa it was now possible. 

 

Yunho laid one hand gently on Yuri's bare hip and his other gently cup the unbruised side of her face, sicken to his very core that he had allowed so much harm to come to his mate whom he had sworn on his life and his very heart to protect from all harm. 

 

Yunho reach deep into his wolf link, reaching as deeply as he could with Yuri in her unconscious state and then he focus completely on her and what he had to do, what Yonghwa had just done for him. 

 

Throwing all his will against his own magic and Yonghwa's loan energy, Yunho pushes it through their mate link. Thankfully, it obeys without any resistance and flow smoothly into Yuri's drain and battered body and with every ounce of energy he gave her, Yunho sense Yuri's mind drift back towards consciousness. 

 

Yunho kept going, giving her all that he could spare without passing out. Only when he was sure that he had given all he could, nearly three-quarters of what Yonghwa had given him did Yunho stop and wait. 

 

The forest spun around him making Yunho fell nauseous but he didn't care. All he wanted was for Yuri to wake up and smile at him. 

 

It wasn't long before the absence of her utter exhaustion made it impossible for her mind and body to continue to ignore the pain of her injuries and she was pulled out of unconsciousness. 

 

Beneath his hands, Yuri's expression change from one of quiescence to one of pain and distress and her breathing quickly pick up as she struggles against the agony of her battered body. 

 

Yunho felt her pain for a brief moment before Yuri made conscious connection with his own mind and felt his worry and own distress at the pain she was enduring and in response, Yuri hurriedly struggles to block their link enough that he wasn't sharing her pain. 

 

Yuri didn't yet have mastery over their mate link but she had learned enough to partly shield Yunho from her pain. One day Yuri would master their wolf link as all mated couples eventually did. By the moon goddess, Yuri would live to master everything in his, their domain. 

 

Now that Yuri was conscious again and Yunho was satisfied that she had enough energy to keep her that way, Yunho turns his attention, finally to the most severe of her wounds. 

 

Yunho gently curls his hand around the back of her head, cradling her head with all the gentleness and care a loving mother would with her sleeping child and with his other hand that rested on her hips, he carefully rolled her onto her back. 

 

Yunho ignores her ness and focuses on the bleeding wound slash across her belly and side. 

 

Yoochun, the bastard had hurt her so badly that even shifting forms hadn't done more than fractionally heal the gaping wound that ran from one side of her belly all the way around to her side, ending above her hips. Had she been mortal as she had been only days before the blow would have killed her by now but now that she was a Lycan she was much harder to kill. 

 

Praise and thank the goddess. 

 

Still, Yuri needed attention or she could very well die. Yunho looks down into her pale face, her expression contorted by her agony. Both her eyes and teeth were clenched tightly shut as she fought the pain that she had until now been spare by the adrenaline of battle and the peace of deep unconsciousness. 

 

Maybe Yunho should have seen to her wounds before waking her. 

 

"Look at me, Yuri." Yunho cooed, staring beseechingly down into her flawless beautiful face, he didn't see her bruises and scrapes, only her, "Yuri, open your eyes." 

 

'Please?' Yunho pleaded softly into her mind. 

 

Yuri opens her eyes and looks up into his and relief wash through Yunho when he read what lay in her tear-fill starry eyes beneath the pain. He saw as clearly in her eyes as he felt through their mate link her love and determination, determination to live, to be with him always. In her thoughts, Yunho could hear her refusing to let herself fall beneath Yoochun's hand. 

 

Yunho smile down into her face with love and tenderness, hearing Yuri reflect on how handsome she thought him and how much he loves her and his smile grew into a beaming grin of love and joy. 

 

Yuri was going to ok. 

 

No longer frantic but still needing to ease her pain, Yunho leans down, hovering over her wound and drew in a deep breath through his nose. He could smell Yoochun's scent in the wound which was expected as it had been his claws that had torn through her delicate flesh, within him Yunho's beast growl furiously in outrage and Yunho fought to keep the growl from escaping his lips but he didn't smell anything foreign inside the wound. There was no poison or any contamination that would harm her or slow her healing. 

 

Yunho had no way of knowing for sure if Yuri had inherited all of the standard Lycan abilities, only time would tell that but he felt fairly certain that accelerated healing would be one of them. If not, however, Yunho would just have to give her more energy, enough to shift one more time and in doing so would heal the wound a little more, hopefully, enough to stop the bleeding at least. 

 

Satisfied that the wound was venom and poison free, Yunho opens his mouth and at her wound, collecting as much of his healing saliva in his mouth as he could draw and didn't stop until he had over the entire wound. Out of the corner of his eye, Yunho watch as Yonghwa dealt with Yoochun's headless corpse. Yonghwa had toss Yoochun's headless body into the center of the clearing then went to retrieve Yoochun's head, Yonghwa carelessly kick Yoochun's head over to his crumpled lifeless body like a football and then Yonghwa set the body alight using a Zippo lighter and a small bottle of lighter fluid that he had pulled from his black Calvin Klein slim fit solid raincoat pocket. 

 

The putrid smell of burning damned flesh fill the clearing before bellowing up into the dark night sky. 

 

Yunho knew his healing saliva had done its job when Yuri's tense body relax and he could no longer feel her trying to block her pain from him. Her belly and side still hurt but she was no longer in agony. The wound had close enough that her precious blood no longer leaks or oozed from her glorious body. It would be half a day or so before the wound was closed completely but by sunset tomorrow all that would remain of the wound that could have kill her would be an angry half heal mark. 

 

Yuri laid limply on the ground, looking up at him through exhausted eyes. She opens to say something but Yunho silence her with a gentle kiss on her lips. 

 

"You never have to thank me, Yuri." Yunho lightly rested his forehead against hers, looking down into her love-fill eyes, "Not for anything. That you draw breath will always be more than enough for me." 

 

Yuri laughs softly, happily "You could out-charm prince charming himself, my proud warrior wolf." 

 

Yuri's heart swells with love and joy such as she had never known, never dream of. She loves Yunho so much that she was overflowing with it and now everything was ok. No, everything was better than ok; Yoochun was dead and now they were truly free of his evil. Yoochun would never threaten anyone Yuri care about ever again and there was nothing left to spoil their happy life together. 

 

Deep in her heart, Yuri knew with all the certainty of the heavens that everything was going to be alright now and together the two of them were going to build a bright love-fill life together, one of joy and laughter. 

 

Ignoring her aching and exhausted body as she was too deeply embedded in the moment and her glorious love for him, Yuri reaches up and cup his cheek in her hand. 

 

Yuri could truly see him for everything that he was, all he had ever been and everything he had the potential to become. 

 

Yunho was more than an immortal warrior Lycan crown prince; he was a man who felt sorrow, remorse, and loneliness, who had vulnerabilities and fears even though he seldom shows it. He was a man who for so long had to be strong for everyone else as he and his people had been trap in a seemingly endless despairing world of darkness. 

 

He was the man who loves her, would do anything for her and he was the man who unconditionally held her entire heart. 

 

Yunho was the man who was looking back at her with all the love and joy reflected in her own eyes. 

 

Yuri raises herself up onto her elbow and touches her lips to his sweetly tempting lips that tasted like blood and heaven. Yuri closes her eyes and leans into the kiss that felt like coming home. It wasn't a kiss of passion or hunger but a kiss of love and celebration, of the anticipation of the future that was to come as all uncertainty for the future, had died with Yoochun. Yuri was the first to break the kiss that could have effortlessly lasted the day. She looks into Yunho's bright loving joy-fill shinning eyes, "I love you." Yuri open their link as much as her inexperienced mind was able to do so he could feel just how much she loves him, love that was beyond description, there were no words that would give justice to how much she loves him, "The stars of heaven will crumble with age but my love for you will yet endure." Yunho laughs softly, joyously, "Oh Yuri, when you say such things I'm left helpless against your every whim." 

 

Yuri couldn't help but laugh; it felt so good to laugh. 

 

"Let's go home." Yuri drew in a deep breath as if to cleanse herself of the weight of everything bad that had happen tonight, "We have much to do." 

 

"As my queen commands." But despite his words, Yunho shamelessly reclaim her lips in a happy playful kiss that had Yuri giggling against his lips in sheer joy that she had no hope of keeping contain. 

 

Yuri felt like she was going to burst from the amount of love and joy inside her. 

 

Above them, someone politely clears his throat. 

 

"May I offer you a covering, lady Yuri?" An amused voice asked politely, and just like that, reality slam into Yuri like a bucket of ice water. She was lying on the icy damp earth stark , right next to her stark mate. Yuri felt her entire face burn with embarrassment as she looks up to see Yonghwa standing a few feet from the two of them with his back politely turn. His right arm was extended behind him wordlessly offering them what he held in his hand. 

 

Yonghwa's two vampire bodyguards were nowhere in sight. 

 

Yuri quickly realizes that Yonghwa was offering his long black coat that he had been wearing only moments before. Yuri suspected that if she hadn't been there Yonghwa wouldn't have even notice Yunho's or if he had he wouldn't have said a word about it but she was Yunho's mate and Yonghwa was a man who so obviously prided himself on being a gentleman. 

 

Yuri wonders if Yonghwa had dared to sneak a peek before now; she had been each time she had shifted to her human form ever since leaving the manor. 

 

Certain of Yonghwa's chivalry, Yuri's embarrassment faded enough that she was confident that she would survive even if he had seen a little too much. 

 

Yunho lean back and reach out to take the coat Yonghwa held out to them while Yuri pulls herself up into a sitting position, ignoring her body's protests and the pain in her side and belly and look down at her self. 

 

Most of her stomach and side was coated in her own drying blood and she was cover from head to toe in darkening bruises, small cuts, and scraps and if that wasn't enough to complete the 'I was just in a violent and bloody battle' look, her entire body was cover in thick smear of dirt and mud and her hair was unruly tangle with the added bonus of sticks and leaves. 

 

Yuri looks like a crazy lady who had been living alone and deep in the secluded woods. 

 

Yuri shrug. In an hour Yuri had no doubt that Yunho would have her clean and dress with every one of her wounds seen too. 

 

In fact, a quick glance into Yunho's mind as he held Yonghwa's coat out for her told her that he already had such a plan at the ready, follow by spending the next two days alone in bed with her. 

 

Yuri's blush deepens but not from embarrassment. 

 

This mate link was going to take some getting used to. 

 

Yuri grin like a Cheshire cat. 

 

She couldn't wait and it wasn't as if their mental link was without its benefits as Yuri suspected that it wasn't just pain that could be felt through their very deep, very powerful, very personal link. 

 

The trek back to the manor was a slow one, at least by immortal standards, as both Yuri and Yunho were exhausted beyond measure and despite their advanced healing abilities were still sporting multiple injuries in various stage of healing. 

 

Yunho was so weak that Yuri had to wonder how he had managed to keep his eyes open let alone somehow find it in him to put one foot in front of the other even though Yunho wasn't so much walking back to the manor as he was being carried. 

 

Yunho had one arm draped over Yonghwa's shoulder with Yonghwa holding Yunho's hand that was dangling over Yonghwa's opposite shoulder to hold Yunho in place. Yonghwa's other arm was wrapped around Yunho's bare waist, supporting most of his weight and effectively keeping Yunho on his feet. 

 

Yuri suspected that Yunho was keeping a part of his mind close to her as he didn't want her to know how he was feeling about his current position; it had to be a tiny bit galling being the proud warrior and prince that he was but it also proves Yunho's humility that he hadn't said one objecting word when Yonghwa had helped him to his feet and assumed their current position. Not even in his own mind. 

 

It seems that Yunho's much greater experience with mind links was going to put her at a disadvantage for a while. It was hard enough to live with Yunho when he wasn't in her head but now he was going to constantly be one step in front of her. 

 

Yuri couldn't allow that. She was going to have to get a handle on the ins and outs of her wolf link with Yunho and quickly. It just wouldn't do having Yunho believe that he could handle her. She was a self-respecting woman of the twenty-first century, after all, it wasn't in her nature to allow herself to be handle but what Yuri suspected really bug Yunho and what he was hiding from her in his mind was her current position; she was currently being carried on the back of the unwounded vampire bodyguard, piggyback style and it didn't help that all she wore was Yonghwa's coat that was button up from her neck to her thigh, Yuri was extremely thankful that the coat had a slit up on each side that allows the lower half of the front of the coat to cover her most delicate of places, even in her current position but what could be done about it? They both were too weak to make it more than a few steps on their own, although Yonghwa's energy boost, Yuri was determined to find out how Yonghwa had done that without a mind link at some point, meant that they weren't being carried back unconscious. 

 

At first, the both of them had been anxious to return to the manor as they had been away too long and they had no idea how the battle was going, Yunho was too weak to even use his link with his beta's even over such a short distance but Yonghwa had assured them that with his reinforcements the battle would be over or at least finishing up by now and doing so in their favour. 

 

It only took the three vampires a matter of minutes to get them back to the manor. The wall on their side of the manor was all but done, shattered into rubble by the damned army but they didn't head straight for the manor once Yunho had seen with his own eyes that the battle was indeed over. The pack and their vampire allies were picking through the bodies that littered the grounds, looking for surviving allies who needed healing and lingering damned that needed finishing off. 

 

Instead, Yunho pointed Yonghwa to a tree only thirty feet from the main gate. 

 

As Yunho reach deep into the tree through an almost natural looking hole in the thick living trunk, he told her through their wolf link that because of the Lycan's habit of exploding out of their clothes, there were several stashes strategically place around the entire Lycan territory and especially around the manor. 

 

Yunho explains briefly that the clothing was mainly for the mated as was part of Lycan's life but bonded mates were naturally very protective and possessive of each other. 

 

Yuri had to admit to herself that made sense. She certainly didn't want any other woman checking out her Yunho. 

 

Yunho was hers. 

 

Through their wolf link, Yuri felt Yunho's smug satisfaction at her possessive thought. 

 

Yunho pulls out two airtight clear plastic pouches, both containing either dark or black fabric that Yuri guess were items of clothing and handed one to her. 

 

Less than five minutes later, the two of them step back out of the trees where they had gone for a moment of privacy to dress, done solely for her benefit no doubt as immortals seem to be really blasé about notions such as modesty. 

 

Yuri found herself wearing a simple deep black colorblock fit and flare dress while Yunho wore only a pair of black Levi's jeans. 

 

Being decent was all that they concern themselves with; Yuri didn't even ask for shoes. All they wanted to do was to get inside, take a few minutes to see what couldn't wait or be left to others with more energy and then go straight to bed. 

 

Yuri might not even take the time to brush herself off first. She didn't care that she was all muddy and cover in dying blood, she just wanted to sleep. 

 

For the next year. 

 

Now that they were decent, Yuri took in the devastation that lay around her. The manor and grounds were a complete and utter mess. Outside the grounds and gardens had been torn to shreds, the flowers and other assorted plants had been torn, broken and scattered across the lawn that now had large gouges gored out of it, some long and deep enough that they could have been used as trenches but inside the damage was even worse. 

 

The entire outer glass wall that had once stood five stories high was completely gone, destroy, now laying in various pieces and shatters across the lawn, terrace and throne room. Even the frames had been all rip out or rip inward would be a more accurate description as the damage had been caused by the enemy crashing their way inside. 

 

On top of that, the floors had massive jagged chunks torn out of its once smooth gleaming marble surface and the walls had several large holes in them where the battle warriors had either punch or gone completely through and on top of all that, there were countless blood stain from the fallen and wounded and dozens upon dozens of lifeless corpses and just as many wounded that were now being seen to by either vampire healers or those few who had been lucky enough to escape serious injury, although they still had to be exhausted and hurting. 

 

It broke her heart to see her home like this, to see Lycan's and allied vampire blood stain the floor, the wall and the grounds of their home. Even worse, it sickens her to her core to see slain immortal's lying amongst their enemy. The battle had been won this day and with Yoochun's death they may very well have won the war but it wasn't time to celebrate. Now was a time to mourn and help the wounded and fallen. Now was the time to bury their dead and clean up their home, to help those who grieve find their way. 

 

The day would come for celebration and all immortals would rejoice the hard earn peace they had just won and finally look to the future that was now so much brighter. That would be the day that they would all let themselves feel the new hope for the future, to wrap their minds around the fact that the leader of the damned, along with a large number of damned had been slain and that a mortal had not only been mated with their prince but had become a Lycan herself. 

 

An immortal Lycan, however, remains to be seen, only time would tell whether or not Yuri had gain immortality with her new Lycan abilities but no matter how much time she had, Yuri would spend each and every moment with the man she loves with all her heart and soul and be eternally grateful but first, the mess. The mess that was going to take forever to clean up. 

 

There was a lot of work ahead. 

 

"Yuri!" 

 

Yuri whirl around, startled at the loud and familiar call that was so out of place that for a long moment Yuri wonders if she had imagined it. 

 

Yuri's eyes grew wide and her jaw drops at the sight that greeted her. 

 

Standing where there had once been two glorious thrones that had been reduced to twisted and torn rubble were three young women whom Yuri knew well and love with all her heart, whom she considered her sisters. One had long black hair, one had long golden blonde hair with very intelligent and gentle eyes and the third with brown hair and spirited eyes towered the other two standing tall and proud. 

 

She couldn't form words. What were the girls doing here? An immortal battle had just rage on this very ground. The girls were supposed to have gone to Yonghwa to deliver her message that they needed help, not actually come to the manor. 

 

Regardless of everything Yonghwa had done to help them, Yuri was going to kill him for endangering her mortal friends like this. 

 

"Seohyun? Yoona? Taeyeon?" 

 

"Yuri!" Seohyun cried out again, a moment before the three girls sprung into motion. 

 

Stumbling and sidestepping whatever littered the floor in their path, the three girls hurriedly made their way to Yuri while all she could do was gape at them as they approach. 

 

The moment they reach her all three of them threw their arms around her, hugging her and each other for all they were worth. 

 

Yuri clenches her teeth to hide her pain that they unknowingly cause her from contact with her wounded and bruised body. 

 

"Yuri!" Seohyun cried out, her name for a third time before she pulls back enough to look at her, "Girl, we have been so worried about you!" 

 

Thank the moon goddess that Yunho had given her something clean to wear or else the girls would have broken into hysterics at the sight of her wounded and battered form. 

 

Taeyeon and Yoona pull back to look at her and Yuri took the opportunity to cast an accusing glare at Yonghwa over Taeyeon's shoulder. As thankful as Yuri was to see her friends, she hadn't realized how desperately she had been missing them, Yonghwa was going to get a good talking too but for now, Yuri was going to be with her friends. 

 

"I know and I'm so sorry." Yuri told them all, looking each one in the eye so they could see her sincerity, "It couldn't be helped. I stumble into something that would only have put you all in grave danger." 

 

"We know." Yoona all but growl, keeping her voice low so not to be overheard by those around them. 

 

Yuri didn't tell her that no matter how quietly they spoke, those around them would clearly hear every word. 

 

Taeyeon scans her face, her eyes filled with concern as they lock on the bruises that marred her face, "What happen to you, Yuri?" 

 

"Who hit you?!" Yoona demanded dangerously, her hands curling into fists. 

 

Yuri gave all three of them a reassuring smile, "Don't worry, I promise I will be alright. The monster who did this to me is dead. He can't hurt anyone anymore. Tell me, how did you get here?" 

 

The three girls quickly fill Yuri in on their very eventful night, knowing that Yuri intentionally changes the subject, leaving her speechless and shock. 

 

What had she done? All three girls knew now and there was no going back. They knew. They would always be in danger now. 

 

Because of her. 

 

Three taps on her shoulder pull Yuri's attention back to the girls and she turns and gave Yoona a questioning look, patiently waiting for Yoona to say what she wanted to say. 

 

Yoona lean forward and whisper curiously in Yuri's ear, "Hey Yuri, who's that guy over there? The one with the brownish-black hair?" She pointed in Changwook's direction where he stood just outside leaning against the pillar that held up the above balcony, keeping her hand low so he wouldn't see her pointing at him. 

 

Yunho watch as Yuri reunited herself with her friends without any awkwardness at all; it pleases him that even though she was no longer part of the mortal world, Yuri was still Yuri. 

 

Yunho didn't worry that Yuri's three friends were mortals in his immortal world, he didn't worry about the secret of all the immortal or what the young women might do when they discover what they truly were. There was nothing left for him to worry about anymore. He had his mate who was nothing less than a miracle, a glorious gift bestow upon him by the moon goddess herself. 

 

Yuri was a wonder, a miracle. She was or had been mortal but somehow she had become a Lycan. He had no way of knowing if she had gain immortality as well as the ability to shift into a Lycan wolf but it didn't matter. No matter how long she lives, every moment with her would be a blessing, a gift. He would treasure every precious moment he had with her. He would love her more than any man, mortal or immortal, had ever loved a woman. Yunho turns to thank Yonghwa for saving them all but pause when he finally caught a look at Yonghwa's expression. It wasn't a look Yunho had seen on Yonghwa's face before but it was a look Yunho knew well. 

 

Yunho took note of how closely Yonghwa's female commander, Shinhye her name was, hovered to the women and how attentively Yonghwa was staring at one mortal young woman in particular who looks startlingly like Yuri even though he could smell that they share no common bloodlines and then it dawns on him. 

 

Yunho grins with amazed delight for his dear friend and picks a name out of Yuri's thoughts, "She's yours. Seohyun." 

 

Yonghwa didn't take his eyes from the black-haired beauty who look enough like Yuri to be her sister and nodded while his eyes glittered with joy and affection as he watches the young women as they talk, "Yes. She is my mate. I don't know how but she is special like Yuri. Mortal but mine. I understand now exactly how you felt my friend when you found Yuri and I thank you for clearing the path for me. I don't need to fear as you did, for her safety nor her fate. It seems that Yuri was only the first of her kind reveal to us." 

 

Yunho indicated his head towards the four young women understanding exactly what Yonghwa meant. The last of his fear for his mate's future was gone. Yuri had become one of them, how Yunho didn't know and he wasn't going to question his gift. 

 

Not now at least. 

 

If Yuri was able to shift then there was a fifty/fifty chance that she had become immortal but if she hadn't then that was alright too. He loves her and whatever time they had together would be precious and he would be forever thankful for it. 

 

"If Seohyun truly is akin to Yuri." Yunho said lightly, "You will be able to change her." 

 

Yonghwa nodded; the thought had already occurred to him and he had already prayed to the moon goddess that Seohyun would will it so, "When she is ready." 

 

At Yuri's side, the brunette that Yuri knew to be Yoona enquired about Changwook, the beta catching her immediate attention. 

 

Out of the corner of his eye, Yunho saw Changwook and Changmin enter from outside, treading silently over broken glass and other debris and almost instantly their heads perk up as their eyes were drawn towards the young mortal women crowded around Yuri. The identical expression that appears simultaneously on their faces was unmistakable. 

 

Yunho gasp in awed wonder, Yonghwa echoing him a heartbeat later. 

 

"How can this be?" Yunho wonders out loud, his tone portraying his stun wonder, "Three more females of Yuri's kind found in a single night?" 

 

Yonghwa was silent for a long moment before he spoke again. It was incredible. In less than a month the entire immortal world had changed forever. Fortune had finally returned to the two immortal races. Or maybe it had been the moon goddess's favor that they had won back after so long but whatever it was, it seems that their time lost in despairing darkness, metaphorically speaking, had ended and it had done so with the swiftness of a dark and terrible curse being broken. 

 

Yonghwa smiles wholeheartedly, powerless to do anything else, "Don't question the gifts of the goddess, my friend. Just be thankful for them." 

 

Yunho laughs at his friend's words. How quickly he had done just that after resolving not to and oh, by the moon goddess it felt so good to laugh with such happiness and carefree vigor. Yunho's body had never been weaker or so badly battered but his soul felt so light, he was so happy that he felt as though he could fly. 

 

Yunho smile at Yuri as she squeals and talks with her friends. 

 

After a moment Yuri turns and look directly into his eyes, beaming him a stunning proud, happy and love-fill smile. There was a tell-tale and knowing look in her own eyes that he didn't need to read her mind to understand. Yuri had been listening to them and Yonghwa's last words had drawn her eyes to him. 

 

Yunho beam back at her, feeling her love for him come through their wolf link that was every bit as clean and as strong and as unbreakable as that of any other mated immortal couple. 

 

The beaming smile on Yunho's lips was the largest one to touch his lips in so many centuries. 

 

"Oh." Yunho purred, to his vampire best friend, "I am."

 

---

 

N/A: See you all again next week with the last chapter. 

- butt3rflyl0v3r ♡