Not only shock, but fear etches itself on Chanyeol’s face and when he mutters no several times, his appearance starts to change. It happens so quickly, however, that Chanyeol doesn’t seem to have time to retract his arm and a mere second later, Baekhyun feels the skin on his shoulder rip painfully. He releases a strangled cry, but tries to hold it in because it seems the wolf is having a much harder time. But at the sound of Baekhyun’s pained voice, the animal stills and looks at him, eyes drifting to his shoulder.

“It’s – it’s alright,” Baekhyun tells him, but stutters, because really, it isn’t. And Chanyeol doesn’t believe so either as he nuzzles Baekhyun’s chin out of the way with a nose that’s too big. Instantly, the small man flinches, not at all sure what to expect – but certainly not a tongue carefully lapping at the exposed, bleeding skin. A shiver runs through him and at this point, Baekhyun isn’t sure whether that’s because of fear – he might still get bitten, after all – or because it’s Chanyeol his shoulder. For a moment, he’s so struck he doesn’t know what to do, but he makes his mind up soon. “Chanyeol,” he says, but the wolf doesn’t stop and another shiver makes its way down Baekhyun’s spine, so he forces himself to hold the werewolf’s face instead, even though it causes his shoulder to sting again. “Chanyeol, it’s alright, it’s not your fault,” he repeats, making sure to look in the eyes of the animal before him and just the realization that this is the same Chanyeol as the one he likes, heats up his face.

The wolf whines, as if he doesn’t agree with that, but quiets down and looks hopeful at Baekhyun, as if he’ll know what to do now. He doesn’t, he only knows he can’t go back to sleep like this. Besides, he has no idea of what time it is and he feels like he’s been in bed for far too long already. Not that he would mind spending – halt those thoughts. Chanyeol is a werewolf. And yet, he finds that image very appealing, the one he had right before the tall man jolted awake to turn back into an animal; the sight of him so close, sleeping peacefully. He hopes to do away with the thoughts with an awkward cough to clear his throat.

“I want to go look for them again,” Baekhyun announces when he pushes himself up off the bed, but flinches when his shoulder aches. As he does so, and his fingers carefully feel the damaged skin, he slowly turns back around to Chanyeol, a very important thought on his mind. “You came looking for me, that’s why you got bitten,” he declares and as a response, the wolf crawls closer to him, nuzzling his hand – and Baekhyun doesn’t know what he wishes to say. “Come,” he therefore only says and although Chanyeol fits being an alpha much more than Baekhyun does, the wolf listens to him and they both get off the small, but cozy bed.

When Baekhyun is all freshened up, they’re back outside and this time, Baekhyun is determined to find his friends. Even if it means meeting up with werewolves he doesn’t like. Even if it means fighting them, he realizes – because he values their lives above his own.

“Maybe it will go a little better this time,” Baekhyun tells Chanyeol, although the wolf doesn’t seem to be too willing to try again, “because you’ve been a werewolf for a little longer,” he adds and the perked up ears are enough of a sign to him.

He doesn’t need to say anything more and Chanyeol prepares himself to follow a trail, into a different area than where they had gone yesterday. Baekhyun begins to believe that the werewolf who took his friends away, led them astray by creating a fake trail – and because Chanyeol isn’t so much used to being his new self yet, he couldn’t have figured it out.

Chanyeol is fast, way too fast. As a human, he already had the advantage with his long legs, but now, he disappears even faster. He comes back for Baekhyun every time, though, and there is no reason to think that is strange, but the short man feels himself smile every time it happens.

However, that smile is washed off his face the second he hears something from one of the nearby bushes. He squints, but sees little and looks over at Chanyeol for confirmation, but the wolf stands relaxed, anticipating, but without any sign of discomfort. Baekhyun is confused and feels conflicted because if Chanyeol isn’t afraid— it’s Jongdae.

Baekhyun lunges forward and supports his friend as soon as he notices the shape the other is in. Bad. The man shivers under Baekhyun’s inquisitive eyes, but as soon as he lays eyes on Chanyeol, he holds his breath. Baekhyun doesn’t catch on right away, as he’s in the middle of looking for injuries and he finds that Jongdae is covered in cuts, possibly from tree branches he ran into on the way here, but otherwise isn’t seriously hurt, physically.

“Are you alright?” he asks anyway and Jongdae seems to snap out of it, somewhat.

“There’s – there’s one behind you,” he says in the smallest, most broken voice Baekhyun has ever heard and he sees the other man is on the brink of tears.

“That’s Chanyeol,” he says dismissively and misses entirely the horror that’s on his friend’s face. “What happened to you – where’s Kyungsoo? Is he alright? Are you?” Jongdae doesn’t appear to have heard anything of what Baekhyun has been saying and looks at him in shock, then at the animal slowly approaching them.

“Chanyeol?” he asks, clearly not believing in this bull. “Are you out of your mind?” Baekhyun frowns at him, but before he said he’s not, Jongdae’s eyes drift downward slightly. “What happened – did he get you too?” There’s so much fear in his voice that Baekhyun almost grows scared from it himself.

“No, Chanyeol accidentally scratched me. Now answer me for a second – where is Kyungsoo?” Jongdae doesn’t answer – not yet.

“What madness drives you to think that’s Chanyeol?!” He takes a few breaths when Baekhyun doesn’t care to answer that. “Soo is still there, with that creep, I couldn’t – I could only–” What did he just say?

“You left him there? Wherever that may be? How can you–” It’s only now that Baekhyun notices that this is the first serious argument the two have ever gotten into. Over Kyungsoo, no less. And Chanyeol is incapable of telling anyone to back off and he nervously paces back and forth, panting restlessly.

“What would you have done?!” Jongdae shrieks and Baekhyun flinches at the tone of his voice as well as the tears streaming down his face in desperation. “We got kidnapped by a werewolf, if you didn’t notice yet!”

“Don’t you think I was targeted too? Jesus Jongdae get yourself together!” Baekhyun yells, equally heated up and he begins to realize they’re like this because Kyungsoo is that important, and the impact this whole event on them has, is huge. It’s why he turns around and breathes deeply a few times. He’s absolutely not forgiving Jongdae’s cowardly though. When Baekhyun turns back around, all panic is gone from his face, he sees Jongdae notices it too and it affects him. “What I would do, is what I’m doing right now. I was on my way to get you back – both of you. So I’m going to continue that, whether you decide you’ll give up on our friend or not.”

Of course Jongdae couldn’t return to the cabin alone. That’s why he silently follows Baekhyun, for the first time feeling as if the other short man actually has something on him. Other than that, he doesn’t trust the wolf, can’t believe it’s Chanyeol and will not listen to Baekhyun when he tells him to trust him then, if he can’t trust the animal.

And to be really honest, Baekhyun isn’t sure at first where all this courage came from. It’s definitely not because he’s not scared anymore – he knows there’s a good chance he’ll get hurt. Maybe it’s like he thought before, the idea that his friends mean more to himself than even his own life does – and that he’s getting strength from that.

He chuckles when he realizes that pretty much sounds like he cares for his friends like wolves care about their packs. It’s also the moment in which he turns to Jongdae and startles the other, but a smile is on Baekhyun’s face still.

“I’m sorry,” he says and though nobody asked for it, he hugs his friend and Jongdae breaks down in his arms. Sobbing that he is sorry too and many words Baekhyun can’t make sense of, but he gets the gist. It’s time they got Kyungsoo back and reunite their pack. The only one left out right now, is Chanyeol though and Baekhyun makes eye contact with him, sends him a smile and hopes for the best. Facial expressions are difficult to read off wolves, but the wag of his tail should tell him enough.

Not long after, they finally reach the spot – a small arrangement of houses. Baekhyun gets a terribly eerie feeling and he knows this is where the werewolf is at that tried to bite him only the night prior. He’d come back for him too, he promised and that alone is enough to send a shiver through his body because he’s foolish enough to come close to the den himself.

“Ah,” a smooth, deep voice then sounds and all three are quickly on their toes. “I see you even brought back my hostage – saving me some trouble there. I hope you read a little bit about what’s going to happen – your cute little friend is less than safe,” the stranger says, pointing to the house behind him as soon as he comes into view. “Oh I see you still got trouble changing, my bad. Not that I’m sorry – I’m not really.” Chanyeol growls and the sound sends chills down Baekhyun’s spine now that he knows exactly who this is. Jongdae hides behind Baekhyun though, his fingers on the shoulders of the man in front of him and Baekhyun hisses when they touch his wound, attracting the attention of the stranger. “Oh? Did he already bite you?” Baekhyun hears Jongdae mutter a sorry in his ear, but it doesn’t matter. It hardly bothers him with the situation they’re in.

“Where’s Kyungsoo?” he demands and the werewolf amusedly raises an eyebrow.

“That’s his name? He wouldn’t tell me no matter how much I pressed – he’s right there, sweetheart, but you’re hardly in a position to be demanding things of me, don’t you think?” He smirks and the next second, he’s right behind Baekhyun. But instead of going for him, he turns to Jongdae.

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I thought I'd update quickly again seeing I was away for a while ^^ I hope you're enjoying the story! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you'll leave me a comment too! <3