Chapter 5 

 

Before midmorning the next day, Yuri had had enough. She was going stir crazy lock in the dreary gloomy bedroom. Yesterday, while she had been in the library, under guard, the bedroom had been clean and everything she had damage had been replaced. The room looks almost exactly as it had been before she had trash it. 

 

It had been tempting but she hadn't re-trash it, even if it would be something to do. It was a nice room and a lot of the stuff in it was more than nice. God knows the total cost of it all had to be somewhere in the range of ludicrous. It was going to be a bright and sunny day, not that she would really get to enjoy it, being lock inside this gloomy bedroom all day, and Yuri was enjoying her breakfast that had been brought to her. The day before yesterday she had been asked by the nice young woman who delivers her meals to the room what it was that Yuri like to eat and since then she had mainly been served what she had more or less ask for. This morning her breakfast included rice, fermented soybean soup, grilled mackerel, kimchi and vegetable side dishes. 

 

Whoever plan and prepare her meals really provided her with a variety as well as what she had asked for while at the same time providing her with all the vitamins and nutrients her body needed. 

 

However, Yuri suspected that it wasn't a coincidence that her breakfast was an equal balance between what she had asked for and what her body needed to stay healthy. It seems that Yunho was taking his promise to keep her safe and sound so serious that it even stretch to her diet. 

 

It was irritating the hell out of her that she was finding it difficult to remain mad at someone who was taking such great interest in her health and well-being. Oh well, she had just had to try harder to stay mad at him; there was no doubt that Yunho would do something soon enough to refresh her dislike towards him. 

 

Yuri was halfway through her breakfast when, without warning, it had finally hit her like a tone of bricks; she had been at the mansion for the better part of a week without contacting anyone. She had family and friends, not to mention her midterms that started in a few days. 

 

Oh, hell. 

 

Yuri put down her soup and hurried to the door. The doors weren't locked anymore but her guards now and at all times included a woman who wouldn't hesitate to stop her from leaving, unlike the men who seem unwilling to actually lay a hand on her, although Yuri was beginning to suspect that it was more due to their orders than any chivalrous morals. 

 

Her two guards weren't startled when Yuri open the door rather purposefully, they always seem to know when she was near the door. It was as if they knew she was about to open the door as if they could hear the smallest sound she made within and since she wanted any little noise to break the bone-chilling silence of the mansion, she made no attempt to be quiet. 

 

Her two guards, the woman who had escorted her back to her room when she had first tried to bolt and the man she had run past the first morning she had woken in the mansion, were already facing her, patiently waiting for her to speak but at the same time they remain vigilant in case she tried to bolt again. They treated her like a delicate but mischievous child that didn't know any better. 

 

It was just one more item to add to the long list of things that were grinding down on her nerves and she hadn't even had such a list a week ago. A week ago, everything had been simple and ordinary and then she had fallen into a Joss Weldon paranormal production. 

 

Where was Buffy when you needed her? 

 

"I need to see him." Yuri address the both of her guards in a firm tone, that left no room for argument or doubt that it was important. 

 

They didn't need to be told who 'him' was. 

 

"Of course." The man with the long brown hair and dark brown eyes said, with an elegant bow of his head as he indicated with his arm for her to follow the woman who was already leading the way down the corridor. 

 

The woman remains a step in front of her while the brown-haired man follows a step behind, the end result being that she was encased in a circle of protection in the corridor. Her warden had train her guards well; she was as effectively imprison as she was when she was locked in the bedroom and even though she was virtually surrounded by immortal shape-shifting super-strong werewolves, strangely Yuri wasn't afraid at all. She was intimidated by them, what human wouldn't be, but she didn't fear them. They protected her too carefully, too devotedly, as one would a precious breakable treasure; it made it easy for her to trust that they would never hurt her. 

 

It was then that Yuri realizes that she had never ask names. It was rude of her but under these circumstances, she could forgive herself and since it seems that she was going to be there for a while, she might as well introduce herself to them and learn the names of the people whom she was continually coming into contact with. 

 

"I'm Yuri, by the way." 

 

The woman in front of her looks at her over her shoulder with a surprise but friendly smile as if she was pleased that Yuri had spoken but hadn't been expecting her to do so. 

 

Yuri sense her female guard was a nice caring person; when she overlooks the fact that this immortal woman was helping the big dominant jerk to hold her against her will. 

 

"Believe me, we know." The woman said, with amusement in her dark brown color eyes, "I'm Tiffany, Siwon's mate." 

 

Yuri had no idea who Siwon was. 

 

The man walking behind her spoke with a genuine smile in his surprisingly light easy-going tone, "I'm Changmin, young miss, Yunho's third beta." 

 

Yuri looks over her shoulder and gave him a quizzical look, silently telling him that she had no idea what a beta was. She let the 'young miss' slide this time as her curiosity was greater than her irritation at the polite and out-dated term that made her feel as if he was addressing a small child. 

 

Changmin's smile widens; he really was instantly likable once Yuri gave him the chance, "A beta is the alpha's second in command so to speak. I'm the third beta; I rank fourth in command of our pack, miss." 

 

Alpha. Well, no points for guessing who the alpha was. 

 

"Drop the miss, it's Yuri," Yuri told him, before turning her attention back to what lay ahead of her. 

 

Behind her, Changmin chuckles softly and replied with what could almost be fondness in his tone, "As you wish." One minute and a staircase later, Changmin knocks softly on the door and announce them all through the thick wood. 

 

"Enter." Sounded back through the door and they enter in single file with Tiffany leading the way and Changmin closing the door behind them. 

 

Yuri look around the room, unable to help to be impressed. The more she saw of the large mansion, the more she came to respect just how much money the inhabitants had; not that money was of any importance or concern to her but wow, what could be done with a large quantity of it to a personal dwelling was impressive and eye-opening. 

 

The room was an office pure and true, unlike the library office next door to the bedroom on the floor above. This room had no bookcases or visible books of any kind, but the desk was an exact replica to the one in the library except twice the size. Open folders and files and sheets of crisp white paper lay scattered across the surface in front of Yunho where he sat behind the desk, an expensive looking gold pen held in his right hand. Behind him were floor to ceiling windows that spanned the entire wall, giving view to the neat well kept ground of the estate and the spanning wildness beyond the high white wall and in the center of the room, between the door and desk, sat four two seater black leather couches surrounding a glass coffee table with a vanish black wooden frame. 

 

This room was for business, official, no-nonsense serious-as-a-heart-attack business. 

 

Yunho looks up from his paperwork, that seems never-ending, even to an immortal such as himself, turning his full attention to Changmin for an explanation as to why his mate had been brought to him instead of him being summoned to her, even though he had left no orders to the contrary. He had heard her from a floor above demanding to be brought to him and had expected Changmin to instead ask Yunho to come to her. 

 

Whatever his mate wanted to say to him would this time have the audience that consisted of Tiffany and his three betas as Donghae and Changwook had been in his company before Yuri and her escorts had entered. There was no doubt though that the four would keep out of his business with his mate whether they were in the room or not, their highly tuned curious ears would witness this conversation. 

 

Changmin leads the way across the room to his alpha's desk where he immediately bows his head respectfully to his alpha and stood tall beneath his steady authoritative gaze, "Your mate has requested an audience with you, my lord." 

 

Yunho's eyes narrow in on his third beta at the 'my lord'. Normally, his beta's didn't address him so formally outside of formal company. They left it for formal occasions, such as when in vampire company or Yunho's royal parents visited. 

 

Instead of questioning the formality, Yunho turns his attention to his mate who seem unafraid but impatient and stress. Something was worrying her but she seems to be relaxed in his presence. 

 

This pleased him to no end; his mate was starting to become accustomed to them, although he had made it easy for her. He had strictly ordered that she wasn't to witness any of his pack in the wolf forms or see them do anything out of the ordinary for mortals. He had even acted to assure that she didn't lay an eye upon the fifteen vampires Yonghwa had sent to protect one who wasn't his own mate. 

 

Not in the mood to show the same good manner that his own show him, Yuri walks straight up to his desk, laid her hands on the smooth almost icy surface and stare straight into his eyes which was only possible because he was sitting. She wasn't going to submit to him, she still wanted to be let go and she would take any opportunity that presented itself to get away. She just didn't see the sense in provoking the wolf until then, especially now when she wanted something from him that she wasn't sure he would grant her. 

 

"You have to let me go." Yuri told him steadily, deciding to aim high so that she could turn her true goal into the 'negotiated middle ground'. 

 

Yunho slump back against the cushion high back of his black office chair and sigh heavily like a loving father would when he was being endlessly pestered about something by his beloved child, and his tolerant indifference was pissing her off. 

 

Yuri bit the inside of her cheek to keep from screaming at him at his tolerating attitude; she wanted something from him. She would wait to hear his answer before she starts screaming at him. 

 

"We have been through this." Yunho told her, with calm tolerance, "Even if I was willing to let you go, it isn't safe." Yuri simultaneously releases the delicate flesh of her inner cheek from between her teeth and the delicate hold she had on her temper, freely giving her temper free rein over , "I don't care what you are willing to do! I have friends and family that are, without a doubt, worried sick about me! Not to mention my studies! I have midterms in two days!" 

 

As Yuri fumed at him, as adorable as a hissing kitten, Yunho considers her point. He had been so preoccupied with her safety and everything else that he hadn't considered the other mortals in her life. By now, she would have been reported missing by her friends and the police would be looking for her. They wouldn't find her here, Yunho didn't worry about that, but the fact that her friends and family would be worried about her seems to be distressing his mate and he couldn't let that continue. 

 

Mortals were such delicate and emotional creatures; her distress could affect her health if it continues to mount. He would have to let her do something to ease her distress. 

 

As the silence wore on, Yuri continues to glower at him. He wasn't going to let her leave that much was plainly written across his calculating face but she had to do something to reassure her friends and brother that she was safe; at least until she could get away from Yunho and his pack. 

 

Yuri couldn't let her friends and brother, all of whom she loved dearly, worry themselves sick over the horrible thought that something terrible had happened to her. She should never have left it this long. She should have done this the first morning. There was no excuse for forgetting about her friends and by now her brother would know something was wrong. 

 

Swamped by a tidal wave of guilt, Yuri's anger deflated. For those she loved, she was going to have to set her pride and temper aside and give Yunho whatever he wanted in order to get word to her loved ones. 

 

"At least let me call Jaehyuk, reassure him I'm alright." Yuri beseeched him, reaching for below the middle ground even though her pride was offended that she was negotiating with him so quickly. Her temper was well and truly deflated beneath the worry and anxiety her brother had to be going through. He had already lost his parents, their parents, losing her would destroy him. 

 

Yuri couldn't let that happen. 

 

"Jaehyuk?!" 

 

Yuri was wrench from her worried thoughts by the single hostile sound that was more of a snarl than a word. She snaps her gaze that had fallen to the desk while she had been thinking back to him to see his eyes ablaze with jealous hostility. 

 

Baffled and cautious, Yuri watch as Yunho slowly, menacingly, rose to his feet, his entire body tense as if he was barely restrained from doing something violent, not against her but against Jaehyuk, of that she was certain. 

 

Yuri took a fearful step back, not taking her eyes from him. He was ready to do harm, maybe kill and she knew very little of what he was capable of. 

 

"Just who the goddess's name is Jaehyuk?!" Yunho all but roar at her, his eyes blazing with obvious lethal jealousy that he made no attempt to disguise or control. His entire body was tense, battle-ready. His jaw was clench, the muscle in his neck was visibly tense and corded in his enraged state and his hands were clenched tight into fists but the most menacing thing about him was his eyes that would have look black had they not been filled with the furious fire of hell. 

 

Changmin sense Tiffany tense, readying for conflict, besides him at the same moment he did, the moment Yuri had spoken the other male's name and of her need to contact him, both of them ready to leap into action, whatever that action might be. Any Lycan male would naturally be enraged and jealous when his newly found mate, who was fighting him every step of the way, mention another man's name with such affection. 

 

Changmin knew Yunho could and would never hurt his mate but Lycan kind was overprotective, possessive and highly competitive and as alpha, royal alpha at that, which meant that he was stronger and had greater capabilities than the average male Lycan, Yunho was the most deadly of all Lycan warrior. He was overprotective, obsessively possessive and dangerously jealous right now. If there was another male in Yuri's life, who wasn't related to her, whom she cared for then right now that said male was in grave danger. 

 

Unaware of anything other than the fuming immortal shape-shifting man raging before her wide frightened eyes, Yuri had absolutely no idea what the hell was going on. Yunho had just exploded into a murderous rage at the mention of her brother's name. 

 

Wait. Yunho evidently didn't know that Jaehyuk was her brother. He had obviously assumed that Jaehyuk was her boyfriend or something but even if Jaehyuk had been the name of her boyfriend this reaction was way over the top. He was acting as if she had just demanded to be released so she could go into the arms of the man he despises most. Maybe she had made a grave mistake in becoming too comfortable here, after all, they weren't human. They were werewolves and they were a hundred times stronger and faster than she was and they were dangerous. 

 

Just look at how little it had taken to set Yunho off. He had seemed so control and so much older, but she wouldn't go as far to call him wise, he was far too arrogant for that, beyond the limits of normal human, that she hadn't seen his out-of-control emotion-driven behavior coming. 

 

Without any warning at all, Yunho suddenly leaped up onto the top of his desk with the ease a normal person would use to climb a single stair, knocking the various things sitting on the polish surface flying in all directions. Yuri instinctively flinches, fearfully taking a step back as she warily watches as Yunho crouched down onto his toes and fingertips, as steady and as weightlessly as if he were held upright by invisible wires, as he continues to glare frenziedly at her. 

 

Yuri took a second wary step back, keeping her eyes glued to him where he crouched on his desk in perfect balance as if ready to pounce. He was in his human form but right now he looks every bit the dangerous wild predator Yuri knew he really was. His eyes were almost black with barely-contain fury and a low ominous growl escape his parted lips as he bared his teeth. 

 

"Brother." Yuri squeaked fearfully. She wasn't sure if she was more fearful for herself or her brother; a part of her, deep within, had been certain that Yunho would never hurt her but now even that part had doubts, "Jaehyuk is my brother." 

 

In the blink of an eye, Yunho's demeanor change. His rigid battle ready body visibly relaxes and he gracefully leaps backward off the desk and returns to his chair, calm and composed, as if the last minute had never happened at all. Wow. Talk about blowing hot and cold. Yuri made a mental note to be far more wary and attentive of him in the future. Yunho was calm, control and civilized, to a point, but the beast within was unpredictable, impulsive and dangerously explosive. It seems that the wild creature within had far more control over Yunho than she had originally thought. It was entirely possible that in a fit of anger he might unintentionally hurt or attack her. Yuri realizes then that she really didn't know anything about him; yes, he was a man who could shift into an impossibly large wolf and kill vampires but about him and his beast she knew so very little. 

 

Maybe her trust in that he wouldn't hurt her had been premature and foolish. 

 

Yunho silently curses himself and his rash behavior in every language he knew, which was most. He had scared his mate and had made her feel threatened; fear was the last thing Yunho wanted her to feel towards him. He needed her to trust him but she couldn't if she fear him and was constantly wary that he would explode at any moment. To top it all off, Yunho was disgusted with himself. He was the alpha prince, one of the most powerful and eldest surviving of his kind outside of the high Lycan royal court and he had lost control like an adolescent pup. He was better than this; he was a fierce and fear warrior with unmatch control and skill. He had to get a grip on himself around his mate before he ran the risk of causing his mate harm, physical or emotional. 

 

After a long silent minute pass in which no one in the room dares to move, Yunho look up into his mate's fearful and wary eyes as she watches him like a defenseless baby rabbit caught in the hungry murderous gaze of the great timber wolf. She wasn't shaking in fear, instead, she was completely still except for the subtle in and out motion of her chest but it was obvious that she would bolt if he so much as twitch. 

 

He had to repair the damage he had just done. 

 

Yunho briefly took notice of Changmin and Tiffany standing battle-ready and watchful at Yuri's back, ready to act, he knew, to protect Yuri from him. 

 

Yunho made a mental note to reward them later. It took great courage and dedication for those so loyal to their pack to be willing to stand against the man who was their prince and alpha, for the good of the innocent. They would protect Yuri from any threat, even from their own alpha prince. 

 

Moving with exaggerated slowness, Yunho pick up the black landline phone from the floor at his feet and gently place it on the far side of the desk from him, in front of his mate before he leans back in his chair, intertwined his fingers in his lap and waited patiently, all the while displaying his calm state on his face and eyes. 

 

At some point later, after Yuri had overcome this little incident, Yunho would have to explain to her the wild impulsive nature of the beast his kind carried and he would apologize for his action; he could be dismissive about his behaviour when acting in her best interest but not when he was being irrational and jealous. The Lycan kind were fiercely competitive, possessive, protective and easily overcome by stabbing jealously around one's own mate; to hear one's mate even say another male's name with such caring can trigger the possessive fury of the temperamental beast within but still, there was no excuse for one as old and as practice in his control as he was and Yunho intended to tell her so, just not now. 

 

As fearful and wary as she now was of him, Yuri wasn't going to let this chance to call her brother and friends to ease their worrying for her pass. Keeping her eyes fixed on him Yuri pick up the phone and using her peripheral vision to keep a watchful eye on him, dial her brother's cell phone number as automatically as she would her name into a computer keyboard. 

 

It rang three times before Jaehyuk pick up and greeted with a detached, "Yeah?" 

 

Yuri drew in a deep breath and force calm casualness into her voice; the point of this phone call was to calm and reassure, not to make him worry worse by sounding freak out and scare, "Jaehyuk, it's Yuri." 

 

"Yuri?!" Jaehyuk all but yell, through the phone so loudly that Yuri was forced to pull the receiver away from her ear for a brief moment for the well-being of her eardrum, "Where in the hell have you been?! Where are you now?! Do you have any idea how freak me and the girls have been?!" 

 

It pains Yuri's heart that they love her so much and she had caused them to become so worried about her; she really should have demanded to make this call days ago. 

 

"I know. I'm so sorry, Jaehyuk." Yuri soothed him, the best she could when she didn't feel calm at all herself, "I haven't been able to call before now." She glares darkly at Yunho because he was the reason she had disappeared without a word in the first place. 

 

Yuri knew Yunho was listening to every word being said but there wasn't anything she could do about that; she was just thankful that Yunho was allowing her to contact her loved ones. 

 

"Why?" Jaehyuk asks, with concern suspicion. 

 

Yuri looks to Yunho for an answer. She couldn't very well tell him the truth now, could she? For one, Jaehyuk would think she was crazy and two, Yunho would most likely end the call prematurely and permanently. 

 

A stern expression appears on Yunho's face and he shook his head no twice, wordlessly telling her not to answer. So much for probably but no matter what, Yuri wasn't about to lie to her brother or friends, especially not after everything she had put them through since she had disappeared. 

 

Yuri turns her attention back to her conversation with Jaehyuk, "I can't tell you, Jaehyuk. I'm sorry, I just can't." There was heavy silence on the line for a long moment before Jaehyuk ask in a hard serious tone, "Yuri, are you in trouble?" 

 

Yuri closes her eyes and places her hand over her face to hide her expression from Yunho, not wanting him to read her emotional anguish on her face. She couldn't lie to Jaehyuk but she couldn't tell him the truth either. 

 

Yuri could feel tears filling her closed eyes; it was so hard talking to Jaehyuk, trying to reassure him that everything was ok when there was the possibility that this might be the last time she got to speak to her brother. 

 

Yuri swallows thickly and spoke, her voice trembling with emotion but comprehensible, "Jaehyuk, I want you to listen to me. I'm safe, I'm ok but I'm in the middle of something that I need to handle on my own. I need to be by myself for a while. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you or anyone else but believe me when I say that I had too." Yuri drew in a deep shaky breath and forced herself to go on before she lost her nerve, "But I love you, Jaehyuk. You know that, don't you? You have always been the best little brother any girl has ever had. You are going to be ok, Jaehyuk. You are strong and stubborn, just like dad was." 

 

There was a long pause before Jaehyuk spoke again, "Yuri, this sounds like goodbye." Jaehyuk was really worried now, his voice was thick with fearful emotion. 

 

"Not goodbye, Jaehyuk." Yuri promises him, even knowing that at any moment so many things could make a liar out of her, "One way or another, I will always be with you, Jaehyuk. Always, just as mom and dad are with us." "Yuri." 

 

"Please Jaehyuk?" Yuri begs him, as tears continue to flood her eyes but she refuses to let them fall, "Don't worry about me, you know me. You know that I will never do anything reckless. I promise you that everything will be ok. I just can't explain anything right now." 

 

"Promise me I will see you again." 

 

Yuri's grip tightens on the receiver as she lowers her hand from her face and opens her eyes to look into Yunho's penetrating eyes. He was staring at her with sympathy in his brown eyes. 

 

Yuri had never felt so conflicted in her life. She wanted to hate Yunho for putting her through this, for forcing her to inflict this pain on her brother but if it hadn't been for him then her body would have been found cold and lifeless in the park over a week ago. If it hadn't been for Yunho then her brother really would have lost her forever. As much as Yuri wanted to hate him, it wasn't until now she realizes that she owed Yunho more than her own life. Yuri owed him her brother's. At least this way Jaehyuk knew she was alive and safe, wherever she was and he would continue on with his life as he had before instead of taking a turn for the worst that inevitably would have lead to a premature lonely death. Yuri knew her brother well, she had raised him and taken care of him since their parents had died; her death would be something he would never recover from. 

 

"I promise you will see me again, Jaehyuk." Yuri told her brother, with complete sincerity, her piercing tear-fill gaze telling Yunho that he wouldn't make a liar out of her, that she would see her brother again no matter what, "One way or another, we will see each other again." 

 

At the sight of her miserable tear-fill eyes, Yunho wanted to take her into his arms and promise her that everything was going to be alright, that he would make certain she kept her promise to her brother but he forces himself to remain silent and still where he sat. He had just scare greatly; he knew she wouldn't appreciate him near her right now. He knew she blames him for this, for keeping her away from her brother but it was for the best. Not only would going to her brother endanger her, it would undoubtedly endanger her brother as well. 

 

Once the damned found out about Yuri, if they hadn't already, they would want her and they wouldn't stop until they had her, they would do everything and anything to get their hands on her. 

 

Yunho listens, his heart tightens at the sight his mate made as she told her brother that she had to go and that she loves him. She didn't say goodbye before she hung up but she did tell her brother that she would keep her promise, hell or high water she would see him again. 

 

Yuri was the one to end the call by using her finger to press the little black button in the receiver's cradle but she didn't replace the receiver. 

 

"I'm sorry." 

 

Yuri didn't know what Yunho was sorry for and right now she didn't care. Instead of making things better by getting in touch with her brother, she had just made things ten times worse, for herself and her brother. She should have lie to him, told him that everything was fine, that she had just taken off for a brief break from the stress of everything or something. Anything would have been better than the half-truth she had just told him. Now he was more worried about her than ever. 

 

The only consolation was that if something did happen to her and she couldn't keep her promise to her brother, at the very least she had had the chance to tell him how much she loves him and to say goodbye. 

 

If this was her last chance to say goodbye then Yuri wasn't going to miss the chance to call the other people in her life she loves. 

 

Before Yunho could utter an objecting word, Yuri was dialing Seohyun's cell phone number, again straight from memory. 

 

This time the phone on the other end only rang once before it was picked up with a frantic and timidly hopeful, "Yuri?" 

 

Yuri blink, startled and baffled as to how Seohyun knew it was her; she was calling from Yunho's landline, there was no way that the display screen had come up with her name. 

 

Yuri closes her eyes against the logical truth; Seohyun hadn't known it was her, no doubt Seohyun answer every call that way in the hope that it would be her. 

 

"It's me, Seohyun." 

 

"Yuri?! Where in the hell have you been?!" Yuri winced and quickly pull the receiver away from her ear as Seohyun's high pitch screech exploded through it. 

 

It appears that Seohyun had been worried out of her mind about her. 

 

"No, screw that!" Yuri could hear Seohyun say, a moment before it was followed by, "Where the hell are you?! Do you have any idea what you have put us all through disappearing like that without a word nearly a week ago?! When you get home I'm going to kill you!" 

 

Yuri hastily looks up at Yunho for his reaction to Seohyun's threat but he was calm and just slightly more than a little amused. It seems that fortunately, the Lycan alpha knew that Seohyun was kidding about the killing part. 

 

At least Yuri hopes so, she would hate to see what would happen if Seohyun actually tried to ring her neck with Yunho in the vicinity. 

 

Her money would be on Seohyun. Seohyun wasn't immortal with superhuman strength or speed or anything but when it came to those she loves, she was downright terrifying in her cunning and determined defend-a-friend mode. 

 

"And then I'm going to clone you and kill all your clones!" Seohyun continues to rant as loudly as she was physically able. 

 

"Listen, Seohyun. I don't have a lot of time." Yuri said quickly, but calmly before Seohyun could say another word and maybe just send her completely and permanently deaf. 

 

"Yuri, what is it?" Seohyun's terrifying fury was gone, completely replaced by worry and concern for her best friend, "Girl, are you in trouble?" 

 

"Seohyun, I'm ok. I promise." Yuri quickly reassures her. She wasn't going to repeat her mistake with Jaehyuk by revealing too much. In this case, it seems that less would be better, "I can't tell you anything right now but I want you to know that I'm safe and I'm alright. I just can't tell you anything specific right now. I had to go away suddenly and I didn't have time to tell you. I'm sorry I have had you worrying for so long but please believe me when I tell you that it couldn't be helped. Just know that you don't have to worry about me." 

 

"Yuri." Seohyun really sounded concern and distraught now, "You are scaring me. What have you gotten yourself into? Whatever it is, we can help." 

 

Like the opening of a floodgate, Yuri's tears ran free of her eyes and travel in parallel paths down her face at the love and devotion Seohyun demonstrated with so few words, "You can't help Seohyun but please just tell Yoona and Taeyeon that I'm alright. Stop looking for me. I will come back when I can." 

 

On the other end of the phone line, in her dorm room on the university campus, Seohyun heard the tears in Yuri's shaking voice and fear wrap its icy squeezing grip around her heart, "Yuri." 

 

"Bye, Seohyun." 

 

"Yuri!" 

 

The only response Seohyun got was the beeping engage tone. Yuri was alive but Seohyun was certain that in no way was Yuri alright. 

 

Yunho couldn't stand it. He couldn't stand watching his mate cry so wretchedly that her violent sobs shook her entire tiny form as she fought to breathe through them. He sat uselessly frozen in his seat, unsure as to whether or not he should go to her, to offer her comfort. 

 

What if by going to his mate he only made the situation worse by scaring her even more than she already was? There was only one thing he could do under these circumstances, a strategy that had proven effective before in the short time they had known each other. 

 

"Now that you have your calls done with, I will make mine," Yunho told her, with a steady but telling voice as he reaches over the desk and picks up the receiver. His fingers swept over the keypad fast and efficiently and when the computerized voice on the other end of the telephone line asks what number he wishes. 

 

Yunho look straight into Yuri's teary eyes and told the information line he wanted the number for the university and then he purposefully rotated the computer chair until his back was mostly to Yuri and he requested that he be connected to that number. Out of the corner of his eye, Yunho saw that he had succeeded in catching her attention. 

 

"What are you doing?" Yuri asks thickly, through her sobs. 

 

When Yunho gave her an innocent quirk of his thick eyebrow with a soft 'Hm' Yuri knew he was up to no good, "What are you doing?" Yuri repeated, her teary red eyes zeroing in on the receiver he held to his ear. 

 

Yunho opens his mouth to reply but when the phone was picked up on the other side of the line, he instead raises his finger at her in a 'wait one moment' gesture, leaving Yuri glaring at him and listening intently. 

 

Unlike him, Yuri couldn't hear what the person on the other side of the line was saying but she knew that it was someone at the university; even through her sobs, she had been able to hear the loud-mouth jerk request the number from information. 

 

Yuri's instincts told her that Yunho was up to something and as much as she wanted and needed to cry right now, she knew that she had better be alert because he was up to something. 

 

That damn failing-to-appear-innocent jerk quirk an eyebrow that just screams he was up to something; he might as well have the proverbial devil dancing on his shoulder whispering naughty suggestions in his ear. 

 

"Yes, hello. I would like to speak to someone about a certain student who unfortunately has suffered a family emergency and can't participate in her exams. I would like to excuse her from the rest of the semester on her behalf." 

 

Yuri's jaw drops open speechlessly. Yuri knew she look like a gapping fish out of the water but she just couldn't believe what the arrogant, self-center, high and mighty jerk was doing. Was he seriously trying to sever all her ties with anything that resided outside of his walls? 

 

Just how long was he planning to keep her there? 

 

With her tears and heartache momentarily forgotten, Yuri slams both of her hands down on the desk in front of him, "What the hell are you doing?!" 

 

Yunho was being transferred to the member of staff who could help him and the phone was ringing so he ignores his glowering mate in favor of getting this done as fast as he could before she came to her senses and tried to stop him. 

 

"Yes, hello." Yunho greeted when the phone on the other end was picked up and he re-explains himself, omitting most of the details. 

 

"I'm sorry." The official middle-aged sounding woman told him, from the other end in an official tone, "Such requests can only be submitted by the student themselves. Not to mention it would be extremely difficult with how late in the semester it is. If she can't attend her exams then I'm afraid there will be little choice but for her to be marked down as a non-compliance in her studies and she will fail. However, she may repeat the semester, if that is her choice. If not then she should think seriously if this is where she wants to be." 

 

In another life, Yunho would have been furious at the woman's unwillingness to help him but he had been raised a prince who would one day be king. In the immortal world, as crown prince, he mostly got his way but in the mortal world, he always got his way. One way or another. 

 

"Under normal circumstances." Yunho started smoothly, adding just a half measure of charm to his tone, "I would completely agree with you, however, miss Kwon's absence can in no way be helped and I would understand that this would be a great inconvenience to several. I'm asking leniency in this case. Leniency I would gladly compensate for. Say for example, in exchange for miss Kwon's to pick up where she left off in the next year, I would be willing to make a substantial donation as compensation for any and all inconvenience this will cause." After a long pause, an icy voice sharply ask, "Are you trying to bribe me, sir?" 

 

"Not at all." Yunho lie smoothly; bribing her was exactly what he was doing but he wouldn't allow the university to label it as bribery; he wouldn't let anything tarnish Yuri's name, "I'm willing to show my gratitude for leniency shown to a student who has suffered a rather unfortunate and tragic event in her life." 

 

"Look, sir, I'm sorry but I can't..." 

 

"Would eight million won suffice?" Yunho asks, remorselessly cutting her off in mid-sentence. 

 

Yuri was dreaming. She had to be. Things like this happen in real life? Here was Yunho, as calm and as naturally as breathing, offering millions of wons just so she could take a year off university so she could...Hang on. A year? A whole year before she picked up where she left off? 

 

Rather than continue to glare or scream at him again, Yuri instead chose to lunge for the phone receiver. She launched herself straight across his desk, arm reaching for the phone but at the last moment her hand only grasp air. 

 

Blinking in battled confusion, Yuri found herself looking into the black leather of the empty office computer chair, "Excellent." The familiar please voice said, from her right. 

 

Yuri turns and saw Yunho leaning up against the wall to her right with the phone in his hand, leaning up against the wall as if he had been there the entire time. He looks calm, relaxes and very smug as he stares into her eyes standing there against the wall like he was at a casual family barbecue. 

 

"I will send someone to pack and collect her belongings, please notify the relevant staff. Thank you." 

 

Yunho hung up the phone making a mental note to call his mortal secretary and send her to have Yuri's things pack and sent to the manor. 

 

Yuri had been gob-smack before, not often but she did know the feeling but this was something else entirely. 

 

This jerk had just paid eight million wons to her university so she could be excused from her exam and defer for a year. She just couldn't believe it, just how arrogant could one man be? And how rich was he that eight million wons was nothing to him? He had shown as much indifference to that large sum of money as most people did to the loose quarter buried in their couch. 

 

If he could spend that much money on something so superfluous then this extensive extravagant mansion was well and truly below his means. This was a man who had cash, and a lot of it, to burn but the money obviously meant so little to him that he hadn't even battered an eyelid in donating millions to her university. 

 

What kind of man had that much money but didn't care about money? 

 

One who plans to keep her prisoner in his posh mansion indefinitely, a little voice promptly reminded her. 

 

Yuri closes , endeavoring to forget about the money he had just use to bribe her university and return to glaring at him. She couldn't undo what he had just done, for that amount of money the university wouldn't let her if she tried but what she could do was take her sense of powerlessness and frustration out on him. 

 

God knew he more than deserves it. Just how long was he planning to keep her there? He had pulled her out of school for a year. Her brother and friends were already out of their minds with worry, what would that become if she was gone for a full year? 

 

Yuri couldn't imagine not seeing her brother or friends, whom she loves and thought of as her sisters, for that long. She needed them in her life, she needed those she loves and she needed to know that they were alright, not worrying themselves sick over her. It didn't help either that she felt so guilty for not contacting them sooner. They had been worrying themselves sick over her for days until now when she had finally thought to contact them. When she got away from the jerk and out of this mess, Yuri was going to have to make it up to them, maybe give each of them one of her organs or something just as meaningful. 

 

"Just what the hell do you think you are doing?!" Yuri demanded, feeling the heat rise in her face and neck as she became red from the heat of her blazing fury, "Bribing the university to deter me for a year?! Just how long do you think you are going to be able to keep me here?!" 

 

Yunho leans back in his chair, considering her through his amusement-fill brown eyes, damn, Yuri was as furious as hell with him but she just couldn't seem to stop noticing how dropped dead gorgeous he was. The man had appeal oozing out of his pores. 

 

"I don't think anything." Yunho told her self-assuredly, "I know that I'm going to keep you here for as long as I must to keep you safe." 

 

It took all of Yuri's self-control to keep from screeching loud enough to stir the dead in sheer frustration. The jerk's arrogance knew no bounds. 

 

It would have given her nothing but the greatest pleasure to tell him just where he could stick his arrogant oversize ego but Yuri could see it in his eyes that her fury was only succeeding in amusing him and she refused to keep giving him the pleasure. 

 

Yuri narrow her eyes at him, glaring at him wishing more than anything that looks could kill, "That's what you think." And Yuri spun on her heel and stalk across the room with all the dignity and grace of a reigning queen. The thunderous boom of the door slamming echo through the office as its occupants continue to stare after her, even after the door had been slam close behind her. 

 

After a brief moment of silence, a loud enrage feminine screech from down the hall had them all turning their incredulous gaze back to the Lycan alpha prince who still sat behind his large desk. 

 

Yunho had the inkling that if Yuri had been able too, she would have at least attempted to inflict some form of harm upon him. If she had been able then Yunho had no doubt that he would have been left his wounds for days. 

 

There was strength and will in his newly discover mortal mate, so alike that which Jessica possess, that made every male in the vicinity, mortal or no, wary of her. As he had just witnessed, even frustrated and captive in his house, Yuri had still stalked out of the room with the poised air of an infuriated queen. 

 

No doubt about it, Yuri was a woman who more often than not would get her way in life and in the manor; it was only Yunho's fear for her safety that prevented her way in some things. 

 

Yunho, ignoring the accusing eyes on him, turn his thoughts back to more serious concern. There was much to do and he had to get it done as soon as possible. 

 

Looking up, Yunho turns his attention to Tiffany who was the only female in the room and the only one bluntly glaring irately at him. 

 

It appears that his mate had a knack for quickly gaining the affection of the member of his pack. 

 

"Tiffany, I need you to assist Jessica in gathering everything my mate needs." Yunho instructed her, waving his hand dismissively in her direction, "Clothing and personal items. Anything and everything she may need." Without saying a word, Tiffany bows her head stiffly to him and turn on her heel to leave the office, no doubt she wouldn't fail to fill Jessica in on recent events. As with the mortal race, the Lycan women tended to stick together when the men of the pack acted 'inappropriately' or at least that was the correct term. The actual term that was mainly used by said women was one he wouldn't repeat. 

 

The battle of the es didn't just rage in the mortal world. In the pack, when a man enrages a female bad enough, he more often than not had to go to proverbial war with every female in the pack. 

 

"Don't go too far overboard." Yunho added, as a disclaimer to Tiffany, "When Yuri settles I'm sure she will go shopping herself." 

 

Money was of no importance to him, he and his entire family secretly own and ran several multi-national, multi-million dollar company but if he had to move Yuri he didn't want more than a few suitcases. The less she had right now, personal possessions wise, the better. 

 

Tiffany closes the door behind her with much more force than was necessary. 

 

Yunho turns his attention to his betas who were still and practically standing at attention. They were friends and brothers but even when they were without formal company, there were times they had to remember that there was a hierarchy in the pack. 

 

"Tonight I want the three of you to take two units comprised of our best and find Minho." Yunho's tone was hard with authority and icy with deadly implication, "He saw Yuri; no doubt he already knows that she is of some importance to me at least." 

 

"And when we find him?" Donghae asks, without emotion. 

 

"He is a danger to my mate." 

 

Donghae bows his head in acknowledgment of the order and the three betas turn and left him alone. 

 

Yunho leans back in his chair with a heavy sigh. There was so much he had to do or see done and the feeling that time was running out was growing stronger around him, ever since the night Minho had escaped him with knowledge of Yuri. 

 

If Minho learns of just who and what Yuri was, correction, when he learned, Yunho had no doubt that Yuri would become the most target woman on earth, mortal or immortal. Other than his sister, the princess of the Lycan race, who had always been kept safe at all costs Yunho had never known a weakness before, especially one so venerable. It would only be a matter of time before the worst of the damned, who Yunho had been hunting for over three hundred years, learn of Yuri and would come for him, either to take what was his or to kill him. 

 

Probably both. 

 

Yunho couldn't let either of the events occur. No matter what happens, he couldn't let Yuri fall into Yoochun's hands, especially not if Yuri was what Yunho secretly hope she was. As for his own death, Yunho had stop fearing death by the end of his second century of life. He had a reason to live now, one unlike any he had ever known before but his life was inconsequential to him against that of his mate and pack. 

 

If his death was coming then no matter what Yuri would be protected for the rest of her natural days. 

 

Half-heartedly, Yunho picks up the receiver of the sleek black landline telephone on his desk and press the first speed dial. He had been dreading this call but it had to be made. No doubt word had already reached their ears, even though they were on the other side of the world. 

 

Goddess bless the communication age. Technology was one of the very few things that the mortals better immortals at; their limited time at life gave them unlimited potential and imagination. 

 

The phone only rang twice before it was picked up. 

 

"Darling, you finally call your mother." 

 

Yunho softens at the sound of his mom's loving melodious voice. He did miss her but even after five centuries, he was still just a pup to her. 

 

"Hello, mother." Yunho breathed gently, as he turns his office chair to look out of the window at the manor's ground and his thickly wooded territory that stretches beyond, "I only call you not two weeks ago." 

 

"Two weeks is a long time for some." His mom told him wisely. The queen of the Lycan race had only recently celebrated her eight thousandth birthday; the Lycan king had done so three centuries before his queen. 

 

His mom had no idea how right her piece of wisdom was. Look at all that had happened in his life in the last week. 

 

"I have news." Yunho wasn't fooled for one moment by his mom's impeccable restraint at waiting for him to approach the subject. 

 

As far away from his parents as he was, the Lycan king and queen still knew most of what happened to and around their only two children who had moved to the new world long ago and they knew it well before Yunho or their young daughter reported it to them. Unlike royalty in the mortal world, the royalty of the immortal world had absolute power over their kingdom and people. When it was said that the power of the Lycan race resided in North Korea, it was nothing but pure truth. 

 

"Hold on one moment, my darling." The Lycan queen purred before Yunho could say another word, "Your father is here, I will put you on speaker phone." 

 

Not even a moment pass before Yunho heard the telling click that his mom had indeed put him on speaker phone. Yunho resisted the urge to roll his eyes. His parents were over three thousand years old, the oldest of the surviving Lycan kind but they had never lost touch with the latest technology and invention of both the immortal and mortal worlds. 

 

"Yunho, my boy." His dad's voice all but boom through the phone receiver, "I expected your call five days ago." 

 

In other words, his parents had learned of Yuri three days ago but had been waiting for his call, no doubt to demonstrate to him that they had accepted that their only son was his own man now, one who stood on his own two feet. 

 

There was no point in beating about the bush. His parents love him and so often they check in on him, even though he was half a world away. Of course, they knew he knew that they did but they all continue to pretend that Yunho was ignorant of their watchful eye but maybe their eyes wouldn't remain so watchful over him now that he had finally found his wolf mate. 

 

"I have found my mate in a mortal woman name Yuri," Yunho told them in one breath. 

 

"How wonderful darling!" His mom chimed joyously, at the exact right moment but Yunho heard the worrisome edge to her tone as clearly as he could picture it on her beautiful flawless face, as old as the king and queen were, neither look to be over the age of thirty. 

 

Yunho didn't doubt that they were relieved that he had found his mate at last and in doing so had found peace but they were worried. Within minutes of hearing the news, they would have already considered the implications of their son's mortal mate. 

 

"Your mate has long since been owed to you by the goddess." The king of all Lycan kind proclaims proudly to him, "I'm proud of you, my son, for holding on for as long as you did." 

 

"We are coming to the new world to see you both." The queen of the Lycan kind was excited. She hadn't visited South Korea which they both still refer to in the old manner as the new world in decades but now wasn't the time for them to come. Things needed to settle down before his parents could come to see her. Things are complicated and dangerous enough without having his royal parents there as well, along with no doubt, the entire Lycan royal court. 

 

"I would be overjoyed to have you and father in my house." Yunho said truthfully, "But not yet. The immortal world worldwide has been stirred, especially here in South Korea. I need to focus on protecting Yuri now and." 

 

"Our presence will only stir it up all the more." His mom finishes for him, she sounded disappointed but understanding. 

 

"What of the damned?" His dad asks, his tone all hard serious business. 

 

"I have reason to believe that Yoochun will be returning to the region again soon." Now that Yunho voices his suspicions, it seems all the more likely, "No doubt news of my mortal mate will reach his ears shortly, if not so already. He will come, for one reason or the other. He will come for her." 

 

"What can we do for you, my darling?" His mom asks, concern for her children. 

 

Yunho had known even before placing the call what he needed to ask of his parents, "I need numbers to protect my territory. As long as the border of my territory hold, the damned will never get near my mate." 

 

"Then numbers you shall have." His dad promise sternly, his word would be so as the king of the Lycan kind consider his word bound by his honor, "I shall send my beta with eight units of my best. They are yours to command, with more if you wish." 

 

"Eight units is all I hope I will need." Yunho would have taken every man his dad could offer but he wouldn't risk the safety of the royal Lycan court. It wasn't a complete impossibility that with all the strength of the royal Lycan family in South Korea that Yoochun would take advantage of the court's fewer numbers and attack them instead. Yoochun was just cunning and devious enough to do it. 

 

"What of Jessica?" His mom asked him inquisitively, her voice laced with the worry of a loving mother, "Will you be sending her to us?" 

 

"Not at this time, mother." Yunho had already considered his sister and what was safest for her. It was true that the Lycan princess would be safer under the protection of the Lycan royal court but with all the damned activity, the danger she would be in on the commute outweighed the risk than if she remains. 

 

For the time being, Jessica was safer inside his walls. 

 

"Jessica is safe enough here." Yunho assures them, "I will not risk her safety as long as my territory remains un-breach." 

 

"If that is what you think is best." His mom said, with a heavy sigh that spoke of her disappointment at being denied the chance of a visit from her daughter but still, she respected and trusted her son. 

 

It was known by all that the Lycan prince guarded well that which was in his domain. 

 

After drawn-out goodbyes between the three of them, Yunho hung up the phone feeling as he always did after talking or visiting his parents, exhausted and grateful. His parents, even with the conversation as serious as it had been, always made him feel proud to be who he was. His parents love him; in all his years, not once had he felt unworthy of being their son. He was just as proud to be their son as they were to have him as a son but on the other side of the same coin, Yunho always found himself feeling mentally drained after long periods of time in his parent's company. 

 

It had been so since he had reached his first century; it was part of being a Lycan, especially Lycan royalty. Yunho had been born to be an alpha, to be a leader and the blood of kings flow thickly through his veins and living under the rule of the supreme alpha that his dad was stirred his beast's natural instinct to challenge in a battle for the right of leadership. 

 

In a Lycan pack, there could only be one alpha. It had only been his human half's iron will that had held his beast so tightly that had prevented him from spontaneously attacking his dad for the right of leadership. 

 

Yunho was buried deep in his thoughts and memories of his childhood when the shrill tone of his desk phone pierce through him and snap him abruptly back to the present. 

 

For a moment Yunho considers not answering the call but the responsibilities and duties that rested on his shoulders as prince and alpha weighed too heavily to let a call go unanswered without a justifiable reason. 

 

Drawing in a deep breath, Yunho picks up the receiver and put it to his ear, "Jung." 

 

Listening silently for a moment, Yunho had to fight to resist the compulsion to bang his head repeatedly on his desk, feeling the weight of his responsibilities grow that much more crushing upon his broad shoulders. 

 

By the great moon goddess, this was the last thing he needed right now. 

 

Donghae had a good hour before he needed to leave to embark on the hunt for the damned vampire name Minho and everything was all organized; the two warrior units had reported for duty as ordered by their alpha, their mission directive had been made clear and their weapons had been clean and inspected. 

 

While Donghae had been handling everything in preparation for their hunt tonight, Changmin and Tiffany had returned to their posts outside of their alpha's bedroom in which the mortal woman had remained for the remainder of the day. 

 

No doubt Tiffany and Jessica had already organized everything Yuri would need and what needed to be delivered to the manor was on its way. 

 

It didn't take Jessica or Tiffany long to organize and obtain. 

 

With a quick peek into his mate's mind, which forever dwell alongside his own consciousness when their link wasn't in active use, Donghae saw that he had been right; Jessica had just gotten off the phone with her mortal personal assistant in the city and what she had ordered would be there before eight o'clock tonight. 

 

The few women of the pack were nothing if not efficient in ways that only women could be. 

 

Satisfied that everything was as it should be, his alpha's order being followed and Jessica, his wolf mate, safe and content, Donghae turn his mind to other matter just as he reaches his destination. 

 

Donghae didn't know what had brought him to his alpha's door; he had moments before believe that he had been mindlessly walking the manor's long dim halls but he found himself looking at the large double doors as if at will he might see through them. 

 

Beyond the thick heavy wood, Donghae could hear the young mortal woman's healthy beating heart, her soft breathing, and rhythmic footsteps; she was pacing back and forth and she was in no way happy. In fact, if Donghae had to put a descriptive phrase to her current demeanor, he would say that she was royally pissed off. Mates always tended to bring out the strong emotional reaction in each other, ranging from fury to passion, from joy to frustration. Normally in time, both man and woman of a mated couple learn to control and manage their strong emotional reaction to each other but newly coupled mates, no matter their age, were at constant emotional heights when they interact with each other. 

 

The young mortal woman needed guidance and Donghae found himself willing to be the one who offers such to her as one mated being to another. The young mortal knew nothing of their world and even less of what it was to be a mate, to be so blessed by the goddess as to be given such love, happiness, and inner peace. 

 

Donghae indicated his head towards the doors which Changmin promptly open without so much as a raised eyebrow and the three of them step inside, Tiffany for many reasons but mainly because no male would dare to be unchaperoned while in the presence of another's mate, no matter how trusted and Changmin had most likely enter because he was curious and unwilling to be the only one to wait outside. 

 

At their entry into the room, Yuri turns and after a moment of silence in which she considers them, her eyes narrow until she was glaring wrathfully at the three of them. 

 

"Don't tell me!" Yuri snap venomously in their direction, "You are here to stick up for him!" 

 

Donghae held back an inappropriate chuckle that he deems would only enrage her further. He like this young mortal woman; she was spirited and even though she had a temper that was as wilful and unpredictable as that of mother nature, she was extremely likable and amusingly zealous even while she believes herself to be a prisoner here in the mansion. 

 

"Not quite," Donghae replied, his amusement not completely mask in his tone. 

 

Yuri narrow her eyes on the one name Donghae. She didn't believe him for a moment. Everyone in the mansion seems to think that Yunho was some kind of god or something. 

 

While Yuri only allows herself to think of Yunho as an arrogant controlling jerk who refuses to take no for an answer on anything. 

 

"Then why are you here?" Yuri felt a little bad that she was being rude to the people who continue to be the nicest to her but they were still helping that jerk hold her prisoner, damn it. If that didn't give her the right to be at least a little rude then what did? 

 

"To offer company you aren't livid towards." Donghae answer, his tone good-humor as he gave a small smile at his own half-joke. Half because even though he meant the quip in jest, his words still held true. 

 

Yuri couldn't help it; most of the people in the mansion she had met so far, all except for the alpha domineering jerk, she helplessly found herself liking. 

 

Yuri gave him a small smile which she didn't have to force, "You assume a lot." 

 

"One of his many flaws." Changmin quip, with a huge grin, his dark brown eyes twinkling with innocent laughter, "Like you are one to talk." Tiffany teases Changmin, with a teasing roll of her eyes. 

 

Donghae was delighted to see Yuri's smile reach her eyes. She really was a beauty to behold, especially when her eyes glittered with mirth and joy, something Yunho himself had yet to witness firsthand. His alpha seems to have a talent for antagonizing his mate which was a real shame because to those she favors she was a beaming jewel. It was a delightful experience to be around her when she was in a good mood; she was delightfully charismatic. Yuri couldn't remain angry and frustrated at Yunho, at least while he wasn't even there when she was surrounded by such likable and funny personalities. It was a con that they were friends with the arrogant jerk but it was a plus that they could make her laugh so effortlessly but at the same time, Yuri knew that they were there for a reason. No one here had come near her without a purpose. If they were here to plead their alpha's case then they would be wasting their breath but if they had come to cheer her up then she was grateful for the pleasant company. 

 

"Why are you here, Donghae-ssi?" Yuri asks evenly. In a matter of a few minutes, thanks to the three of them, her guards, she had gone from feeling frustrated and angry to feeling at ease and relaxed. She hopes that the answer to her question wouldn't spoil her newly acquired good mood. 

 

"Not to plead Yunho's case," Donghae assure her. He could sense her suspicion and had confidently assumed the reason for her suspicion; anyone who spent any amount of time amongst the pack could see the loyalty and respect the pack had for their alpha but as much as Donghae wanted to defend his alpha, he knew that no matter what he said, nothing was going to change the young woman's attitude towards his alpha, at least not at this moment in time. Instead, he chose a different course in aiding his alpha and this young mortal who now dwell in a world where danger would forever stalk her, "But to explain to you the situation you have come to be in; one that you can't see because you simply don't know our world." 

 

What was it about logic that made it hard to argue against? Yuri found herself wondering. Donghae had come with calm logic while his arrogant jerk of an alpha had come with commands and expectations. 

 

If Donghae, whom Yuri helplessly found herself liking all the more, wanted to sit her down and calmly explain the situation to her then she wouldn't stop him. It wasn't as if she had places to go and things to do. 

 

The truth was that Yuri was bored out of her skull and being angry at Yunho did help to fill the hours a little bit. What could she say she was only human which was more than she could say for him but regardless of everything, being constantly angry at someone was exhausting, especially someone who wasn't even there. 

 

So with that in mind Yuri walk over to the bed and took a seat, wanting to be comfortable because she had the feeling that this was going to take a while. 

 

Donghae smile, grateful that Yuri was willing to at least hear him out, so long as he didn't try to plead Yunho's case as he was mildly tempted to do so. 

 

Yunho had waited too long for the gift of a mate and Donghae love his brother dearly and wish him only all the good things he deserves. 

 

"We are not the typical creature of your mortal legends." Donghae began, as he watches Yuri settle down on the bed to listen as a child would for a bedtime story, "We are Lycans, not werewolves. The moon holds no sway over us; we choose when we shift and we can only change into a wolf, not some creature in the in-between. Even the vampires are different than those your race writes legends and movies about." 

 

"Vampires will not burn into cinder if they are exposed to the light of day; if they remain too long in the light of day they suffer and will eventually die but not by fire." Donghae considers the description for a moment, wording his next sentence in his mind before speaking it, "To express it in a way you would understand, their life force is drained away until their bodies no longer have the life force left to live." 

 

Yuri couldn't help herself, she found herself fascinated by what Donghae was explaining; she was being pulled in just as Donghae had no doubt intended. He was helping her to understand her situation and for a few moments forget her anger towards Yunho by distracting her and Yuri were thankful for the if only temporary, reprieve from everything. 

 

"The two immortal races, the vampires and we, the Lycan's kind, are nearly as old as the human race itself. We once lived in the open, in the light with mortal kind, guiding and nurturing the mortal race but then came the birth of the damned." 

 

The tone of Donghae's voice change, becoming solemn, telling Yuri that the birth of the damned kind had in no way been a good thing. 

 

"Those who would become the damned feeds on the life force of mortal kind and in the taking of life's blood, they became mad in their ignited ravenous thirst for more and so they fell into forever lasting madness and became creatures that are forever at the mercy of their raging thirst." 

 

"To protect the mortal race and ourselves from an everlasting existence in fear and terror, the immortal races faded from the mortal world and into the darkness of night but our sacrifice came at a high cost, so say to high a cost. Life became harder for us immortals, for in our immortal lives in truth it was the goodness and love of the mortal race that kept us strong, kept us true to ourselves but living in the darkness, almost becoming a part of it, took its toll upon us and it became harder for us to see the light, even within ourselves." 

 

"To make matters worse for us, we were forced to kill the damned to protect mortal kind but the damned are those who were once part of us, our brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers. Our Kin. To kill a damned was to kill one that others of the immortal races love. This spark the war between the vampire and the Lycan people. A war which rages for millennia." 

 

"With two wars to fight and even more immortals becoming of the damned, our numbers fell until we barely linger in the low thousands. Facing the extinction of the immortal kind while the damned grew stronger, the vampire and Lycaon kind were left with no choice but to decree peace by signing a peace treaty not even three hundred years ago." 

 

"Now all that remains is the war against the damned who grow increasingly stronger every year with each immortal who gives up hope and feeds on the lives of mortal kind. The damned are ruthless evil creatures without mercy or compassion. They kill without regret and they kill many. That is what we do, we fight to keep them from overrunning the earth and turning the mortal race into an all you can eat buffet." 

 

Yuri stares into Donghae's profound brown almond-shaped eyes, speechlessly. What could she say in the face of such long-lasting hardship? 

 

It was really beginning to irritate Yunho that his mate was patient and pleasant to his own betas while she continues to find him insufferable. He didn't blame her because he was keeping her in the manor against her will but that didn't mean he had to like it damn it. 

 

For the past few minutes, Yunho had been listening from the floor below as Donghae had outlined their history to his mate, highly edited of course until he had been unable to stand it any longer. He stalks up the stairs and without conscious memory of arriving there, Yunho stood in the open doorway of his own bedchamber. 

 

"All you can eat buffet." 

 

Donghae fell silent when he finally notices his alpha's presence, looking at him warily, not knowing whether or not he was in trouble; he had done what he could to minimise any risk of angering his alpha. He had assured that a female was present so that he wouldn't be alone with another Lycan's mate which could often lead to a violent physical battle and he had edited their Lycan history down almost to the point of becoming disrespectful to those in the past who had lost their lives or their loved ones. 

 

Yunho gave all three of them a hard glare from the doorway, "Don't you have duties to attend too?" The sun was setting; the assign units had to embark on their hunt for Minho within a quarter of an hour. 

 

Without a word Tiffany and the two beta's quickly left the room and were out of sight within moments. His betas would prepare for the hunt while Tiffany would remain close enough to return to her post outside the bedroom door once Yunho left. 

 

Once they were alone, Yunho enters his bedroom, not bothering to close the door behind him, his steady gaze on Yuri. 

 

Who was glaring wrathfully at him from where she still sat on the bed. 

 

"You seem to be settling in," Yunho stated conversationally. 

 

Yuri snorted, "You wish." 

 

Oh, how he did but Yunho saw the wisdom in not saying so out loud. 

 

"I'm needed in the city for a few hours. I have business I must attend to that can't wait." Yunho informs her regretfully. He in no way like the idea of leaving her but his mortal personal assistant had called from the company headquartered in the city. Apparently his board of directors was trying to bankrupt the company through some really very poor business decisions that only he could put a stop to in person but it was Yunho's company, he owns eighty percent of the shares and as a result, he had the undisputed ruling vote. If he didn't want something to happen, it didn't; even when they attempted such in his absence, they were unsuccessful, largely due to the several members of staff, all who were unquestionably loyal to him, who reported to him of such things. 

 

His personal assistant was only one of many who reported to him. 

 

"I will only be gone for an hour or two," Yunho added; he wouldn't be leaving her at all but he had to protect his pack's income. 

 

Yuri raises a thick straight questioning eyebrow, simultaneously asking him without words what it had to do with her and conveying to him that she really didn't care what he did. 

 

Again, Yunho wisely decided to let her irritating indifference to him pass. For now. One way or another, her difficult attitude would soon come to an end. There was only so far she could push him before she would be forced to face the consequences. 

 

Briefly, Yunho considers offering her the chance to come with him but he didn't trust her in public not to run from him or scream high heaven at the first opportunity. On top of that, the city wasn't safe at the moment, not for her. The safest place for her until Yoochun and Minho were far from the city and his territory was here at the manor. Due to his unforeseen absence, Yunho had already amended his orders for the night. He had left instructions with Changwook that he and Donghae were to leave the hunt for Minho to Changmin and remain at the manor to protect the pack and watch over Yuri. 

 

Changmin and two units would suffice for the hunt; Changmin may have been the third in line of his beta's but he was no less capable than his two brother betas. 

 

"You are to stay in this room and you will not cause any trouble." Yunho instructed her in a mildly warning tone, "I have left orders that under no circumstances are you to leave this room so don't even try. You will not get far, I promise you that." 

 

Yuri opens to colorfully blast him with anatomically impossible suggestions but before she could say a word, Yunho was gone in a blur of black and the doors close firmly behind him. He had left in the blink of an eye before she could get her own two cents in.

 

Oh. That really ticked her off. If the jerk was going to order her about the least he could do was stay for the argument to follow. 

 

Yuri was really becoming sick and tired of the jerk's commanding attitude and his expectations that she should jump to his exact specifications. 

 

The jerk really needed to be knocked down a notch or two. 

 

The jerk had finally allowed her to contact her loved ones who were worried sick about her, again, that was his fault and now he was informing her on his whereabouts as if she should actually care. 

 

Yuri had never thought herself a saint but she had always believed that she had a reasonable level of tolerance and patience, that had been before the jerk had kidnapped her and drag her back to his enormous mansion of immortal werewolves. 

 

No, not werewolves, Lycans. 

 

The jerk was pushing every button she had without even trying and it was driving her fury to new heights and what was worse was that Yuri could feel herself gradually becoming more and more comfortable here and she didn't want that. 

 

Yuri had to get out of there before she became too complacent and now that Yunho was leaving, this was her chance. She wasn't going to stay one more minute in this mansion as his prisoner. She had had enough of him and his possessive obsession with her. 

 

What's more, Yuri was afraid that she would soon forget all about getting away from the jerk, that soon she would lose her will or even the notion of escaping. She was a prisoner here and she couldn't afford to forget that. Not for anything. Yunho and his kind were dangerous and it was only a matter of time before he lost his temper again. There was no telling what he would do when push to the limits and she had no intention of either ceasing her pushing or being there when his infuriating control finally broke. 

 

Not fifty minutes later, Yuri watch from the fourth-floor balcony of the jerk's room studying the outer wall of the mansion and the immediate grounds in the dimming light of twilight. 

 

Eighteen minutes ago Yuri had watch as the jerk and the one she knew as Changmin, along with at least a dozen others, load into a black stretch limo and the two black SUV's that look like something out of a modern gangster movie and drove out like they on their way to a shady business deal in the middle of nowhere, safe from the eyes of the law. 

 

Yuri wanted them, the jerk especially, to be as far from her as possible. 

 

This was her chance. She waited only a few minutes knowing with each passing moment the jerk was further and further away before she threw her leg over the balcony railing, turn around and drew in a deep breath for courage. 

 

As far as Yuri could see it, her only real way out of the mansion undetected was over the balcony as the door was well guarded; she wouldn't make it past the two guards again. If they guess her intentions, they would merely avoid the ordeal by locking the doors and sealing her inside. 

 

The last thing Yuri wanted was to be locked-in. 

 

The fortunate thing was that there were two other balconies directly beneath hers, the three perfectly align like semi-circle shelves on a wall. 

 

In high school, Yuri had been something of a klutz. After her parents had died, as part of her resolution to continue on, she had taken some dance classes where she had learned to move her feet without falling or tripping over. The dance classes had been the kind that included all kind of dance from ballroom to ballet to jazz to modern dance. There had even been one or two classes of exotic dancing that had involved explicit dancing on a stripper pole which not even the girls knew about and never would, not without some serious torture. 

 

The first year of the dance classes still made her wince at the memory; she had endured bumps, bruises, strain and pull muscles and even a mild sprain ankle but in the end, it had all been worth it. She hadn't exactly become graceful but the lessons had left her with a better awareness of her body and her body's capabilities and at this present moment in time, Yuri was thankful for every minute of the weekly classes she had attended for three years in which the dance teacher could have double as a combat instructor for the marine corp. In the end, she had been sad to drop the classes but after three years she had accomplished what she had come for and on top of that she needed to focus on her studies at university and she couldn't afford the classes and her textbooks. 

 

As she had been taught in class, Yuri closes her eyes and picture what she wanted to do. She needed to get this right if she fell the fall probably wouldn't kill her but she was more than high enough to break bones if she slips and fell. 

 

Holding onto the balcony railing, Yuri crouched low, this was the most difficult part, and while holding onto the railing, she slid her hands down until she was holding the absolute bottom of the rail beams, only an inch above where her feet were perched. 

 

She would only have one chance at this and to top it off she had to be as quiet as possible or else the Lycans who inhabited the mansion, all with superhuman hearing, would hear her. 

 

This was the moment of truth; the hardest part was dropping her body without losing her grip on the railing. If she did this right then with a few gymnastics, she will be able to drop onto the balcony below. 

 

If she didn't do it right then it was going to hurt. 

 

A lot. 

 

Her entire body was tense, her pale hands grasping the runs in a death grip and her feet. Yuri knew it was now or never. She couldn't hang around on the outside of the balcony railing forever. 

 

Swallowing, Yuri allow her feet to slip from the balcony floor beneath her and just like that she was falling down through the air until an instant later her arms caught and she winces under the jarring strain of her death grip on the railing ending her descent. 

 

The scariest part was over. Now she was dangling two and a half stories above the ground, her feet hovering only five or six inches above the railing of the third-floor balcony below. 

 

Now all Yuri had to do was find the courage to let go and pray that no one saw her while she took a little time to find said courage. 

 

Donghae, Changwook and two of the vampire guards watch from below, hidden in the shadows of the large tree by the manors near single story high wall, unable to be seen by mortal eyes as Yunho's mortal mate was determinedly attempting to escape Yunho's room by means of using the balcony and those below it as a giant ladder. 

 

"We should stop her!" Changwook growls edgily, his voice so low that no mortal ear would have been able to hear even if they stood where Donghae stood directly beside him. 

 

Immortal hearing was far greater than that of mortals. 

 

Donghae shook his head, "If we startle her she could fall." He turns his head to give Changwook a piercing look, "Do you want to be the one to tell Yunho that his mate suffers harm by our direct doing?" 

 

Donghae knew what would happen as it would be exactly what he would do if he was in Yunho's place. If he left Jessica in the care of another and she was hurt because of that person's actions, there would be blood to pay. 

 

"If she falls anyway..." 

 

"Then we will have time to catch her." Donghae interrupted, as he turns his gaze back to the manor in time to see their alpha's mortal mate swing her body back and forth enough that when she let go the momentum of her swinging body sent her falling down and forward, to land safely on the balcony below. 

 

They all heard her hush triumphantly whisper, "Yes!" 

 

Moments ago Changwook had heard Yuri step over the balcony and had immediately alerted Donghae. They had then quickly hastened out into the gardens where they could monitor her unseen. 

 

Donghae had been left in charge of the manor and Yuri's safety. For a moment they had feared she was going to try to make some ill-conceived suicide attempt but then she had lower herself until she was grasping the runs of the balcony railing and they had realized her true intentions. Donghae had then decided to reframe from acting until she either needed their help or she made it safely down. 

 

He couldn't risk Yuri hurting herself in this impressive, but very foolish, mortal method of escaping the manor, even though she wasn't at risk at the moment as any of them could catch her if she fell or endangering herself by leaving the grounds, therefore, their protection but at the same time Donghae didn't want to cause more conflict between Yunho and his mate by having this little adventure turn into an incident which he would be forced to report to Yunho. 

 

None of them like keeping secrets from Yunho but this one would be for the best. The last thing Yunho and Yuri needed between them was another argument as Yunho would definitely have something to say to his mate about this little escapade, that wouldn't be delivered in a calm logical manner and the friction between them would only worsen. 

 

Yunho needed his mate, in all ways, but in truth, Yunho had Yuri in so few ways. There would be times when Yunho would need the comfort and soothing touch of his mate; he would need to feel that connection between them that all mated Lycans knew. Soon, this situation between them wouldn't be enough for Yunho, as it stood Donghae knew the Lycan nature well enough to know that from the moment Yunho had laid eyes upon his mate in recognition of what she truly was, his beast would have been strongly demanding Yunho to take her, completely and in all ways, to claim, to mark her as his for all of time. To forge the unbreakable link of mates between them that would bind them permanently but that could never happen if Yunho and Yuri continue to heads as they were, driving Yuri even further away and strengthening her resolve to keep her distance, physically, mentally and emotionally, from him. 

 

Donghae hopes that he could talk Yuri into returning to her room under her own steam without fuss, if any of them even got too close to her, Yunho would smell them on her and he wouldn't be pleased. 

 

Unfortunately, the young mortal women weren't known for being logical and cooperative; as most of the daytime soaps on television attested too. 

 

In his mind, Donghae heard Jessica's warning growl at the offending thought. 

 

Donghae suppresses his smile and once again told his mate to keep out of this. She was currently hunting on the far side of the manor and only remain away at his request. No doubt before this night was out, at least one woman would raise her voice to him, he didn't need his mate added to the equation. 

 

'I can get her back to her room much easier than you can!' Jessica snaps irritably, with a sardonic edge to her tone, into his mind from eighteen miles away. 

 

Donghae did roll his eyes, 'I know you far better than that, my darling Sica. You would side with her the moment she made the argument that Yunho is mistreating her by keeping her here against her will.' 

 

Jessica's only response was another warning growl. 

 

Now that she was only the third-floor balcony, Yuri had a decision to make. She could repeat the process until she reaches the ground or she could take the easier option of using the door as it was unlikely that it would be locked or guarded as hers was. 

 

Going over the balcony again would be the harder of the two options while going through the mansion increase her chances of being caught or corner. 

 

An easy choice, especially now that she knew she could do it. 

 

Yuri swiftly threw her leg over the balcony railing once again and carefully but more confidently this time repeated the process. She crouched low holding onto the runs of the rail, allow her feet to drop from the balcony floor until she was dangling in the air, holding on tightly and then she swung her body back and forth until she had enough momentum and then she let go, landing solidly on the second story balcony below. 

 

Only one more floor to go. 

 

Yuri drew in a deep breath to prepare herself and threw her leg over the rail when the glass doors behind her caught her attention. 

 

Caught between her curiosity to have a look and her need to get away from the mansion of the arrogant jerk, Yuri hesitated for a long silent moment before her curiosity caught the better of her and she left the railing and went to the doors that lead out onto the balcony. 

 

The doors were made of glass and thin golden trim, they reach from barely an inch below the third floor above to the floor at her feet; the entire wall and the large arched double doors were made mostly of smooth clear glass but it was lay within that caught her breath and made her eyes open wide in wondrous awe. It was gorgeous. Like something magical from a dream or a fairy tale. 

 

It was a ballroom but one unlike any she had ever seen except in Disney's beauty and the beast. What was it with that movie? If the mansion hadn't obviously been older than the movie Yuri would have believed that they had seen the movie and endeavored to design their mansion in a close as fashion as possible, although she had yet to see a talking teapot or even a suit of armor. 

 

The ballroom was two stories high with a landing going around the interior level with the second floor, opening up onto the balcony. The walls were ornately designed like something from a grand palace with cream white and gold while the floor was marble but instead of smoky grey through the white marble, it was a golden pattern in the exact same design as the traditional smoky grey and white marble. The staircases and the second-floor landing were covers with long rolls of golden carpet, exactly like the endlessly long red carpet royalty were known for using. The ceiling was marvelously and skilfully painted just like the Sistine Chapel, only the image was of great grand and proud wolves standing on grassy cliffs, wolves howling at the moon and running through a fairy tale forest of perfect tall vibrant trees. Hanging from the ceiling in the center of the room was an enormous sparkling chandelier of crystal and gold. It was the side of an upside-down Christmas tree that was three sizes too big to fit into the living room of the normal household. 

 

What was a room like this doing in such a dreary mansion? It didn't belong here, not this room of white and gold and glistening crystal. It belongs in some royal castle somewhere far away in an exotic land. Or in a fairy tale but not here in the middle of the forest in the dreary mansion of the arrogant Lycan who kept her prisoner. 

 

Before Yuri even knew what she was doing, her hand was on the delicate thin curve handle of the door and was pushing it downwards, more than half expecting the door to be locked but it wasn't locked. The door handle went smoothly downwards and when Yuri steps back, the door came without the slightest resistance as if the door weighed nothing at all. 

 

It was as if someone else had taken control of her body, Yuri didn't think about entering the room or anything else but she was suddenly inside the room, walking along the landing towards the wide golden carpet staircase that leads down to the ballroom floor. She wasn't aware of her own feet taking one stair down and then another but suddenly she was standing on the ballroom floor that felt smooth even beneath her feet and that's when she saw the last detail of the room that she hadn't been able to see from the second floor. 

 

Beneath the second floor landing that lead out onto the second story balcony was a single stair dais that was draped in golden carpet and surrounded by matching golden drapes that were pull back to reveal the glass wall with golden t and wide high arched doors that made up the wall behind the two solid gold throne that sat in the center of the dais. 

 

The largest throne sat in the dead center of the dais was nearly twice the size of the second that sat half a step behind the largest throne, slightly to the left. 

 

Yuri was astonished to realize that she was really looking at two thrones. One that she knew, without doubt, belong to Yunho, the Lycan prince while the second was that of a princess who sat beside the prince. 

 

What was this place? What was she in the middle of? So many times by many she had been told that Yunho was an alpha, a prince. That he and those with him were immortal shape-shifting wolves. 

 

There was the grandest of grand throne rooms in this dreary mansion of an immortal Lycan prince who kept insisting that she was his mate. 

 

His mate? In the blink of an eye, the reality of everything that she had been denying for days hit her and she couldn't breathe beneath the crushing weight of the terrifying hand that grips her that was this impossible reality. Yunho intended for her to sit beside him here as some kind of Lycan princess. This is where he wanted her to be, beside him on a throne that didn't belong to her that she didn't want. She didn't want to sit beside him on a golden throne like some fragile decoration. 

 

Yuri wanted a normal life, she wanted to be free. She didn't want any part in any of this. 

 

She had to get out of there. Now. If she stays another moment then she may never have what she really wanted, to be free with her normal safe life. 

 

Refusing to look at the throne, Yuri ran for the door behind them, praying that they weren't locked either. She had to get out of there, not just the ballroom but the entire mansion and its grounds. 

 

The door open just as easily as the one above and Yuri ran out onto the terrace below the second-floor balcony, the cool night air hitting her like icy water and finally she felt as if she could breathe again. 

 

The ballroom was just a room and she didn't have to be anyone she didn't want to be. She was going to get out of there and get back to her normal life and forget any of this ever happen. She didn't have to be the mate of anyone she didn't want to be, she didn't have to be some kind of werewolf princess or sit on a golden throne beside an alpha prince. 

 

When she finally got back to her normal life, this would be nothing but a bad dream that she could forget. Drawing the cool night air repeatedly deep into her lungs, Yuri allows the logic her mind was comforting her with to wash over her and cleanse her of everything that she had just endure. 

 

She chose her own path, made her own fate. No one else. What was in that ballroom was of no concern to her. Looking around, Yuri firmly forces her mind back on track. She needed to escape. She had made it out of the mansion which was the first step. A mansion that in truth had left her a little disappointed because escaping from its wall had been easier than she had anticipated. 

 

Now all that was left was the story high stone wall. 

 

Yuri edge closer to the edge of the terrace, searching the darkness for any sign of movement. She had gotten out of the mansion without being discover, now all she had to do was traverse the garden that stood between her and the wall which she had to then climb and then all she had to do was make it through the woods for what could be several miles before she reaches the closest sign of human civilization. 

 

No sweat. 

 

Of all the good fortune she had so far, Yuri had no illusion that the immortal superhuman inhabitant of the mansion would simply open the gate for her and let her walk out of there and while she was fantasising the impossible, why not ask them for a car she could use to drive back into the city? 

 

She had a better chance at sprouting wings and flying over the wall. 

 

As far as the gate went Yuri had no idea how to do it herself; there was no keypad or anything on the inside of the gate that she had been able to see during her stay and she wasn't going to waste any time searching for one in the dark. 

 

Instead, Yuri went in the opposite direction, out into the open in the cool night air and bolted as fast as she could towards the one place she knew she could get over the wall. She had planned her escape, what she could anyway, for the last half an hour from the balcony on the fourth floor before she had launched into action. 

 

The towering solid stone wall surrounded three sides of the mansion while the fourth side was protected by a several story drop in the form of a sheer cliff face. Barely three feet from where the wall ended at the cliff, there was a large old tree with thick branches that overhung the wall. 

 

Yuri had dress knowing that it may very well be pre-dawn morning before she made it anywhere. Hell, she didn't even know where she was but she couldn't be too far from a highway or small town or at least she hoped that was the case. Yunho and his people seem to like their privacy but Yunho had gone into the city with the expectation of being back in a few hours. Knowing Yunho had things to do in the city meant that they couldn't be that far from it. 

 

She wore a burgundy camisole with a pair of black pull-on pants and black Michael Kors mix media polka dot detail hooded jacket that would keep her warm, at least until early morning if she was still outside and on her feet, she wore the most comfortable pair of running shoes she had ever put her feet into. 

 

Everything she wore, even her underwear, had been brought for her but even though Yunho had paid for them it was obvious he hadn't picked them; the style was too fashionable and the sizes were too exact to have been chosen by a male, no matter how old. 

 

A flash of brown was Yuri's only warning as the large shape whirl pass her so fast that it was only an indistinguishable blur, pulling her abruptly from her thoughts. 

 

Yuri came to such an abrupt halt that she almost topple forward. She only just manages to catch her balance in time to prevent herself from falling flat on her face and just like that, in the space of a blink of an eye, Yuri was surrounded. She stood in the middle of a wide circle, surrounded by four men and three gigantic wolves. They made no move towards her and most of them stood tense and ready, watchful but without hostility in either their body language or expression. Their intent in their expressionless demeanors was obvious, they endeavored to appear as non-threatening as possible; even the wolves appear in no way threatening. Their goal wasn't to harm her but to keep her from running. 

 

The only one of them Yuri knew was Donghae, who stood directly in front of her, staring grimly and silently at her, as if waiting for her to be the first to say or do something. The three wolves watch her with predatory intensity but stood silent and still, only their eyes show the human intellect beneath the animal surface. One wolf was the brown wolf she had caught a brief glimpse of as he had shot pass her. Unlike the other two wolves, he didn't have a white belly or face but he did have brown eyes that watch her with a penetrating and potent note of sadness and heavy burden. 

 

Yuri knew that this wolf was Changwook; she had heard Donghae say his name the second time he had taken post outside her door when she had open the door to ask for her breakfast. There was no forgetting someone like Changwook, especially his sad brown eyes fill with barely control violence and the aura of danger and bloodthirst that hung around him like a smoker's cloud. 

 

The other two wolves Yuri had no idea who they were but they were equal sizes to Changwook so she assumed that they were both males. One had the color of silver on the top half of his body from his nose to the tip of his tale while his belly and under his neck and tail was pure snow white and the third wolf was the color of reddish. 

 

Two of the men, however, were different from the Lycans and Yuri recognize what it was that made them different. Unlike Donghae, like any of the people in the mansion, they didn't have a healthy tan or any color on their skin. They were deadly pale like death and their eyes were dark and ghostly. They weren't malicious eyes as those who had attack her had had; these eyes held soulful sorrow and despair within. 

 

Donghae immediately understood the panic in the young mortal's eyes at the sight of the two vampires. There was no mistaking them, even being the mortal that she was. Both times she had been attacked at least a number of them had been damned vampires. 

 

"They mean you no harm." Donghae told her, in his most soothing, calming tone, assuring her that everything was alright, that there was nothing to fear, "These vampires aren't of the damned, the evil killers of the immortal races. They mean you no harm. Their purpose here is to protect you." 

 

Donghae took a measuring step towards her, holding his hands up as if he was surrendering to her, showing that he meant her no harm himself, "They were sent here by their prince to help protect you." 

 

The more Yuri learn, the more mystified she became but it didn't matter. She didn't want to learn more about the werewolves and vampires. She wanted to get away from them, forget them, yeah, like that was ever going to happen and get on with her life. She didn't want to be protected or attack by werewolves and vampires. Most of all she wanted to get away from a certain Lycan prince who was determined to keep her prisoner here. 

 

She was surrounded, she didn't take her eyes off of the two vampires but fortunately, Yuri knew she still had a chance to get away, as long as Yunho wasn't there. It also helps that all who surrounded her were male. 

 

"Let me go!" Yuri directed the demand at Donghae, who seems to be the leader of them when Yunho wasn't there, "I can't." Donghae's eyes were apologetic and sincere, "You don't know the great danger that awaits you outside of these walls. You wouldn't last the night before you fell into the damned hands." 

 

"I don't care!" Yuri cried despairingly, she just wanted to get away from there, from Yunho and get back to her normal life. It was too dangerous for her to stay there because if she stays much longer she wouldn't want to leave when she eventually had the chance, "I can't stay here! I just want to go home!" 

 

"You are a part of this whether you want to be or not." Donghae told her straightforwardly, willing to give the different approach a try, the cold hard truth of her situation, "No matter where you run, how far you go from here, you will always be in constant danger. What's more, you will put those you care about in danger just by association." 

 

Yuri wanted to scream at Donghae that he was wrong, that they were all nuts and impossible but she couldn't. She didn't have it in her because she knew he was right; she just hadn't been able to face the truth of it until now, until he had forced her too. So she wouldn't contact her friends, she had run as fast and as far as she had too. 

 

It was time to put her assumptions about the men who surrounded her to the test. Yuri knew just what to do. She was only thirty feet or so away. 

 

Donghae knew she was going to try something, that wouldn't make their job any easier, the moment her eyes became hard with decision and determination born of desperation. She wanted to escape and she was going to try her damn hardest to do just that. 

 

He expected her to bolt, to try again to get to the tree that she could climb to scale the wall and escape. 

 

What he wasn't prepared for was for Yuri to walk calmly but purposefully pass Changwook, not to the tree but to the cliff's edge. It was because he hadn't expected it of her that she actually made it to barely five feet from the edge of the cliff that was a sheer drop that would certainly kill her. 

 

Donghae froze, the action simultaneously mirrors by the rest of those who stood with him. 

 

Yuri looks straight into Donghae's eyes, allowing him to see the seriousness within. She wasn't about to jump but she wasn't about to let Donghae know that. All she had to do was remain calm, keep her heartbeat steady and her breathing even and with any luck at all they might just believe she was willing to jump. 

 

They had yet to even come close to her. That told Yuri that they were under strict orders from their alpha that no harm was to come to her; she wouldn't have even put it past the arrogant prince to give the order that no male was to touch her. 

 

In fact, Yuri was counting on it. 

 

"Back off." Yuri orders them all but kept her eyes steadily glue to Donghae's alert wide eyes, "You are going to let me go or I will jump right now. Some women can live under the thumb of an arrogant domineering jerk but I won't." 

 

Donghae took a single exaggerated step backward, demonstrating to her that he wasn't going to come near her, just as she wishes, "Yuri, you don't want to do this. Think of those who you love." 

 

"Let her go." 

 

Yuri gasp, startled, as she moves her gaze from Donghae to the female figure with long light brown hair who now stood just behind Donghae to his left. She hadn't been there a moment before. If they could move that fast then it had to be solely Yunho's order that kept them from snatching her up before she even realizes that the ground was no longer beneath her feet. 

 

"Jessica," Donghae spoke to his wolf mate and wife but kept his eyes glued to the mortal woman who was standing close to the edge of a cliff. 

 

Yuri recognizes the woman, who looks to be her age but since they were immortal Yuri wasn't going to even guess her real age, from the entrance hall when Yuri had tried to escape the first time she had woken in the mansion. She was dress in a navy Lush Payton cinched waist dress. She stood tall and proud like a woman who was accustomed to being listened too and obey. 

 

Regal was the word. 

 

The beautiful woman's eyes continue to stare back into Yuri's own and she found herself unable to look away. The woman had the most penetrating all-seeing gaze that Yuri had ever known, it was almost as if this woman could see right down into her soul to see all that she was, all that laid in her past and in her heart of hearts. 

 

"Let her go." Jessica repeats commandingly, cutting Donghae off before he could say another word other than what Yuri assumed was the woman's name, "You are free to go, Yuri. If that is your choice but go knowing that my brother will come for you. From him you will never be able to escape; one day, when you come to truly understand, you won't even want too." 

 

Not about to let her chance slip by for anything, Yuri turn on her heel, ran to the wall and quickly scaled the tree, landing heavily on the other side. She didn't know how long it would be before they came after her but she knew she didn't have time to waste. 

 

Running as fast as she could through the trees until she couldn't run anymore, Yuri slow to a jog as she weaved through the trees, not once hearing any sound that would hint she was being followed. 

 

Time pass, how much Yuri had no idea but when she finally did reach the two-lane road, Yuri was exhausted, hot and sweaty. 

 

Fortunately, Yuri only had to walk for a few minutes before a car approach and at seeing her, a young woman alone after dark in the middle of nowhere, the old couple within stopped and offer her a ride into the city. 

 

Even as she slid into the back seat of the white Honda Accord Yuri knew that it wasn't over yet. The woman Jessica wasn't wrong. Yunho would come after her and if Yuri wanted to truly escape, she needed to be long gone from the city by sunrise. 

 

As the car pulls back onto the road, Yuri looks back and saw a glimpse of a thick bushy tail disappear back into the trees. 

 

The wolves were already on the hunt for her.