Jinyoung went straight back to the den from the king’s court, relieved to find Mark and the cubs still gone on their hunting trip. He tore up the note he’d written Mark and quickly grabbed his healer’s kit from under his cot. A quick glance through it told him he was stocked as well as he could hope to be considering he didn’t have the slightest idea off the top of his head how Healer Hyun—if he was indeed responsible—could have turned a beast Feral.

He was just about to hunt for some paper to leave another message for Mark explaining (or lying about, more honestly) where he was when a voice came from the cave entrance. “Jinyoung? What are you doing?”

Jinyoung whirled around. Mark was standing there in his human form, arms folded across his chest.

“Oh?” Jinyoung said, making a deliberate effort not to sound too guilty. “You’re back from your hunt? Did you catch anything? Where are the cubs?”

“We came back from our hunt a good half-hour ago, and when I saw your note, I sent the cubs to visit friends so I could get you away from our good king, who I told you not to speak to without me.” Mark’s eyes narrowed. “I was just about to head there, when I saw you heading here. Now tell me, Jinyoung: what did our king ask of you that requires the use of your healer’s kit?”

Jinyoung bit his lip. “He…he merely asked me to examine a fellow human living among the wolf tribe. Lady Kim, the mother of the white wolf Ravi and his sister Chungha? She has an illness that doesn't exist among the beast tribes and would benefit from an examination by a human healer.”

“Oh?” Mark was prowling closer, his eyes still narrowed. “Then would you mind if I went with you to examine her?”

Jinyoung took a step back. “That…that wouldn’t be seemly. You know examinations are more comfortable with privacy….”

“I wouldn’t watch. I would only accompany you to the den where she lives and stand watch outside.”

Jinyoung kept taking steps back as Mark crept closer until he backed right into his cot with the backs of his knees and sat down hard upon it. “I-I don’t think I’ll be in danger, so I’m not sure why that would be necessary.”

“Jinyoung.” Mark placed his hands down on his shoulders. “You’re lying to me. If you don’t want me to get angry, I’d advise you to come clean and admit that the King convinced you to examine the Feral against my wishes.”

Jinyoung’s mouth felt dry at how easily he’d been discovered, but at the same time he felt a flash of anger at Mark’s apparent presumption that he could accuse Jinyoung for being disobedient along with dishonest. “Your wishes? I know I agreed to the charade of being your mate, but I don’t recall surrendering my will and ability to choose for myself to you.”

“The point of that charade was so I could protect you and bring you home. Tell me, how am I supposed to protect you if you throw yourself into danger?” His eyes blazed. “You’re going to get yourself killed over this.”

“Jaebum assured me that he would take responsibility for my safety.”

“Jaebum? His first concern is his people. He’ll always, always prioritize them and Youngjae over you, no matter what he says. I asked you to put your trust in me because the blood debt between us makes my highest priority protecting you, and-”

“Is that all that matters to you, then?” Jinyoung snapped. “Fulfilling that blood debt? Do you only care if I live or die because your reputation and honor depends on it? Is that all the significance of my life to you?”

“Of course not!” Mark at last looked more unnerved than angry. “I…I fully acknowledge your value as a person, and I…I respect you greatly, just as I’ve said in the past.”

“Then if you respect me, you’ll respect my decision to do this. I want to help. And if my teacher was in any way responsible, I want to right his wrongs. Don’t you see? If humans like me do nothing to stop the plot of turning your people into weapons, you won’t survive this war as yourself. Tanie…Palla…Nia…they’ll just be weapons of our army. Don’t you understand why I can’t allow that to happen to them? Why I can’t allow that to happen to you?”

“If you expect me to understand, why can’t you understand that I can’t allow you to be the next casualty of the Feral?” Mark touched Jinyoung’s cheek with a surprising amount of gentleness. “I admire your decision to do it all the same, and am grateful you see our cause as one worth sacrificing yourself for. But…no more than you wish death on me and my children do I wish death on you. Don’t you understand that?”

Jinyoung exhaled. Mark was speaking to him in perfect earnestness, he knew. There was something almost touching in it, given that he highly doubted Mark would have had any interest in his survival at the beginning of their acquaintance without his moral obligation to.

“I do understand,” he told Mark firmly. “And I’m grateful. But all the same, understanding doesn’t change my heart on this matter. I don’t want to die either, but I trust Jaebum when he said he’d take every precaution to keep me safe during the examination. I have faith that taking this risk may provide answers to help not only the Feral, but you and all your people as well. And I mean to do it whether you approve or not.”

Mark kept pressing down on Jinyoung’s shoulders for a long moment, his eyes wavering between various emotions. Finally, he sighed and took a step back. “Very well,” he said. “But I will come with you. I will be part of the precautions to keep you safe.”

Jinyoung nodded and rose to his feet. He could hardly deny Mark his decision any more than Mark could deny him his. “Fine, then. Come with me.”

The two of them went into the forest and towards the cave where Jaebum had asked Jinyoung to meet him. There were two tigers stationed at the entrance as guards along with Jaebum.

“Ah, I see you couldn’t sneak past our ever-vigilant General,” Jaebum said upon seeing Mark. He didn’t look particularly surprised. “But you are here, which means you intend to go through with it, yes?”

“Yes,” Jinyoung said firmly.

“With the caveat that I’ll rip your head off if something happens to him,” Mark added.

“Yes, yes, I told him you could kill me if it didn’t go well, I know, I know,” Jaebum grumbled. “Truly, you could at least be a little nice to me on the anniversary of Youngjae’s disappearance. I’m plenty miserable enough at the moment as it is.”

“Then please spare me the misery of having a mate to mourn myself.”

Jinyoung looked at Mark in surprise. It was an odd thing for him to say, knowing in his heart that they weren’t actually mates. Perhaps Mark only said it to keep their charade going, but it alarmed him somewhat all the same.

Nothing further on the subject was said, however, and Jaebum led them into the cave. “It will be best if we’re in beast form for this,” Jaebum advised Mark. “We’ve tested it many times, and the sedative lasts a good two hours. I’ll evacuate Jinyoung at least ten minutes before it’s set to wear off and order the tigers to dose the Feral again if need be, but just in case…”

Mark wordlessly shifted, and began padding alongside Jinyoung in the form of a lion. Seeing it reassured Jinyoung—whichever beast had turned Feral, it was surely smaller than Mark was.

When they reached the inner part of the cave, Jinyoung saw that the beast chained to the wall was a white tiger. Its mouth was muzzled shut, and its claws were filed down as much as they could be. It was laying limp on the ground, knocked out by the sedatives it had been given as promised.

Jinyoung opened his healer’s kit and approached the unconscious beast gingerly. It was hard to know where to begin, but he settled on digging his fingers into the white tiger’s pelt, feeling parts of the skin underneath for needle marks or cuts which may have served as entry points for poison. “How long has this white tiger been Feral?” he asked as he searched.

“He was brought here last winter,” Jaebum said.

Jinyoung frowned. If that was the case, it was doubtful any traces of needle marks or incisions were there. He’d have to examine the white tiger’s eyes and mouth for symptoms instead, which was far more invasive and had a greater chance of accidentally agitating the patient, even in his knocked-out state.

Still, he put his finger on the closed eyelid of the white tiger and lifted it. Immediately, he could tell something was wrong. The eyes were bloodshot and there was crust around them which suggested the earlier presence of some kind of watery discharge. The pupils were also dilated more than they should have been. An examination of the white tiger’s nose revealed more crust from discharge around it, and an examination of its mouth revealed slight foaming and red and swollen gums.

“I know what this is,” Jinyoung said, heart pounding. “I’ve seen this before.”

“Yes?” Jaebum asked urgently. “What is it?”

“A few years ago, there was a corruption in the water supplies of Low Lofferin. If humans drank it, it would give them stomachaches and runny bowels, but if animals drank it, it would make them go wild. They’d foam at the mouths and bite anyone who got near them. It infected many dogs in our village, and many of them had to be killed because they were attacking their own owners.” Jinyoung frowned. “A council got together to devise ways to purify the water, and that problem was quickly solved. But even months later, the infected animals that were loose in the wild were still a menace. So Healer Hyun gathered some of the infected animals in the High Laboritorium to study, and he developed a cure that would still their agitation. And…he’d taken many samples of the corrupted water, too. To study the bacteria that caused this effect…”

“Which he is now infecting my people with,” Jaebum growled. “But you said there was also a cure? Do you know it?”

Jinyoung nodded. “We studied it together during my lessons. Only, I don’t have any with me. I have most of the ingredients in my kit, but I’ll need coal tar. I’ll also need a fire to distill the coal and mix the ingredients.”

“We’ll need to leave the cave for that,” Jaebum said. “Mark, you help Jinyoung with the fire, and I’ll fetch some coal for him to use. Quickly, quickly.”

 While Mark found a cauldron for him to use filled with water to boil, Jinyoung crushed and cut up his other ingredients as needed, following the methods Hyun had taught him. It left him with an unsettled feeling. He’d thought of his teacher as such a hero for researching and solving the problem with the infected animals. How could Hyun just turn around and use the fruits of his research to harm and infect others? He remembered Chungha's assessment of his character, and how this cruel behavior matched with the Hyun she had known, the version of him Jinyoung had never seen.

Mark returned as quickly as possible with the cauldron, and the two of them lit a fire underneath. Moments later, Jaebum returned with coal, which Jinyoung set to work distilling. When it was ready, he added the other ingredients and stirred until the consistency was just right. Most of the mixture he bottled up in vials, but some he poured into an empty syringe.

“Is it safe to go back in the cave?” he asked Jaebum.

“Yes, the sedatives should still be in effect.”

The three of them returned to the prone form of the white tiger. “He won’t recover right away,” Jinyoung explained. “He’ll be weak and disoriented for a time, maybe a few days. But if all goes well, he should regain his senses and be able to shift as normal.”

Jinyoung lifted his syringe and plunged it into the white tiger’s flesh, pressing down to ease the medicine into his body. When Hyun had done this with the infected dogs, they would usually start spasming about six seconds after the medicine entered their system, so Jinyoung counted off in his head 6…5…4…3…2…1

The white tiger’s eyes snapped open and his body started shaking with spasms as anticipated. Jinyoung was just about to remove the syringe when he felt a sudden and urgent tug against his back, and suddenly he was being flung across the room, away from the white tiger. He landed hard upon the ground, the cave floor scraping his cheek roughly as he slid forward and came to a stop. His arm throbbed where he’d landed on it, but he didn’t think it was broken. He lifted his head. What in the world had happened?

Jaebum and Mark were growling and snapping at the spasming white tiger, their hackles raised. They must have thought the sedatives wore off, Jinyoung realized. Mark had most likely snatched the back of Jinyoung’s robes in his teeth and flung him back to get him away from the white tiger if it happened to attack.

“It’s all right,” he said, struggling to pick himself off the ground. “He’s supposed to do that—it’s an after-effect of the medicine. He’ll stop spasming in a moment and most likely fall unconscious again. He won’t hurt us.”

Mark and Jaebum stopped their growling, and Mark whipped his head around to look at Jinyoung. It was usually hard to read his expression when he was in the form of a lion, but right then the worry on his face was as clear as day. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know,” he said in a low voice. “Did I hurt you? You’re bleeding.”

“Don’t apologize, I should have just warned you that would happen.” Jinyoung touched his forehead. Sure enough, he’d cut himself and was bleeding a little. “I’ll bandage it up in a second. Right now…” He stumbled forward, back to the white tiger. His body was sore thanks to the impact, but he tried not to let it show. When he was near again, he removed the syringe and returned it to his kit. After a minute, the white tiger again stilled and closed its eyes.

“Have your healers monitor him,” he requested to Jaebum. “He should be well enough to speak in a few days. Perhaps he’ll be able to tell us how this happened.” He paused. “But…I think it’s certain at this point that Healer Hyun was involved.”

“Perhaps that is fortunate, since you know his methods and can counteract them as you have just done,” Jaebum said. He shifted into his human form, then placed his hands on Jinyoung’s shoulders. “You have done well today, Healer. You have brought me hope that the damage this man has wrought against my people can be undone. That is worth more than anything, more than you’ll ever know.” He turned to Mark. “This changes everything, General. We’ll need to factor this knowledge into our strategy when we raid the High Laboratorium. I’ll summon a council as soon as our soldier here recovers and can tell us what he knows. Jinyoung, I ask that you attend as well. For now, you two are free to go. I owe a great debt to you both for what you’ve done today.”

“I am glad I was able to help.” Jinyoung said. He leaned down, packing up his healer’s kit. He could still feel the dampness of blood on his forehead, but decided to patch it up when he was back in the den.

When he had finished organizing his things, Mark, who had shifted while Jinyoung was occupied, leaned down to offer his hand and help him to his feet. He did not look nearly so pleased as Jaebum. In fact, his eyes were outright pained, and they flicked immediately to the parts of Jinyoung’s face that had been cut or scraped in his fall. When Jinyoung was back on his feet, he pulled him forward by his hand out of the cave and guided him not back home to the den, but towards the spring where they bathed. He pointed to a rock at the side of the water. “Sit,” he said. Jinyoung was too tired to protest, and sat as asked.

Mark took Jinyoung’s healer kit from him and opened it, pulling out a cloth and some ointment. He dipped the cloth in the spring water, then placed it on Jinyoung’s forehead, mopping up the blood that had dried there.

“I would have taken care of it,” Jinyoung said, though he held still so he wouldn’t disturb Mark’s work.

“I was the one who caused it. It’s my fault.”

“If the sedatives really had worn off, then you doing what you did would have saved my life,” Jinyoung said. “I’d rather have a few cuts than be dead.”

“Still. I was careless. And I…” He trailed off, swallowing. “I know better than to be careless when I’m in that form, the form of a predator. I was worried about the white tiger hurting you, but if I make one mistake in my movements as a lion, I could kill you in a heartbeat without meaning to. I know that, but I keep saying things like I’ll protect you and you’ll be safe with me as if I’m not a risk to you merely because of what I am.”

Jinyoung studied him for a moment, then snorted in amusement. “I wouldn’t have pegged you for being the overdramatic sort. Seriously, do you think I don’t know already to take precautions when you’re shifted? That’s why I don’t sneak up on you or join you and the children on your hunts, and why I request you not be in your beast form when I’m seeking during our hide and seek games. And I know well enough that you’re careful around me, and wouldn’t swing your claws around or snap your jaws without a care as to whether I’m nearby. You’re not some mindless creature with no control over yourself. If you’re so worried about accidentally killing me off, how do you expect beasts and humans to ever live together in understanding if you insist on being ‘a risk merely because of what you are’? We humans are stronger and smarter than you give us credit for. And I’m not so breakable that I can’t withstand a few scrapes if need be.”

Mark looked annoyed for a moment as if Jinyoung was deliberately underestimating him, but then lightly tsked under his breath. “I’m not implying that I think you’re stupid, Jinyoung.”

“Good, considering I just proved myself to be quite clever.” He leaned forward. “I’m going to have to be part of the plan to rescue Youngjae now, you know.”

Mark scowled. “I know nothing of the sort.”

“Yes, you do. The kidnapper is my old teacher, and I’m someone he trusts. I’m familiar with the location. I have the cure for the Feral problem. You were going to have to bring me on part of the journey to begin with, to take me back to Low Lofferin. It would be stupid not to involve me in the rescue.”

“Now I’m the one being implied as stupid?” Mark set down the now blood-stained cloth. “That Laboratorium is going to descend into a battlefield one way or another, and it will be the determining battle of this war. You are not a combatant. Therefore, it would only make sense for you to give us all the information you know before we set off and stay out of the danger yourself.”

“Or perhaps I could minimize the danger by tricking Healer Hyun into inviting me inside, after which I can determine Youngjae’s exact location, and then very easily sneak the rest of you in for a surprise attack?”

The part of Mark who was General of the beast tribe most likely realized this was a sound strategy, but the part of him bound by their blood debt didn’t seem to think so. Jinyoung wasn’t particularly interested in his protestations, so instead rose to his feet. “I hope you’ve realized by now that I don’t intend to let you boss me around, General,” he said. “I intend to do exactly as I please.”

“Jackson warned me about this,” Mark grumbled, standing up. “He said you would assert dominance as soon as you had an opportunity and that I’d spend the rest of my life being overruled by you.”

“Fortunately for you, you’ll just have a month or so more of being overruled,” Jinyoung shot back. “For now, let me use my newfound dominance to insist on fetching our children and going home. I’m tired.”

Mark’s eyebrow lifted. “Our children?”

Jinyoung flushed. “Y-Your children. My…er…nieces and nephew, I suppose, since they call me uncle. A slip of the tongue. It’s been a long day.”

“Yes…” Mark returned Jinyoung’s healer’s kit to him, an odd look in his eyes as he looked at him. “And Jinyoung?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you for today. And why you did it. Even though you must go back, know that your actions today will always be honored in Calovia. We will never forget all we owe to you.”

Jinyoung nodded. But as they walked back, he couldn't help wondering just how long he would remain in Mark’s memory when he was gone, and how many days it would take for him to become an afterthought and then a rare and occasional recollection that faded just as quickly as a single snowflake landing on the ground.

Three days later, the white tiger had recovered sufficiently enough to speak, and Jaebum summoned Mark and Jinyoung to his court for a meeting. Immediately upon arriving, a young man with black and white striped ears and a tail hobbled up to Jinyoung. “I’m Captain Baekho,” he said, saluting to Jinyoung. “The tiger whose life you saved. I don’t even know how to tell you how grateful I am.”

“I’m glad you seem to be doing better,” Jinyoung said. “I hope you can at least repay me by staying well and alive.” He prayed that Baekho wouldn’t get it into his head to swear a blood debt to him and start insisting on being his protector in the way Mark did.

“I have a lot to make up for,” Baekho said solemnly. “I killed a lot of people when I was out of my mind, including members of my own tribe. His Majesty says I can begin my repayment by sharing everything I know about what happened to me, so I’ll try to remember everything as best as I can.”

“Please do,” Jaebum said, taking a seat. “If I’m remembering correctly, you were part of one of the scouting teams sent to investigate the High Laboratorium?”

“Yes, that’s right. A lot of soldiers had been disappearing in that area, and from the beginning, it was clear why. There’s a window glimpsing right into the room where they’re holding the Sacred Prince. It was if they wanted us to know he was there. It was a clear enough trap, but someone like me can’t do any sneaking around anyways, so I thought I’d just overpower whatever guards were in the way. But before I could get near them, a cage clattered down from overhead and trapped me. I was taken to some kind of dungeon. All the beasts they had captured were there, but all of them had red eyes and foamed at the mouth and didn’t seem to have any sense of self. They were Ferals. There was also a human in one of the cells. There were a lot of guards around him. They were always taunting him, saying that even though he had some beast blood, ‘Hyun’ was going to find a way to make ‘the water’ work on him if he refused to sign papers for them. They called him ‘Your Majesty,’ too, but it seemed real mocking.”

Jaebum’s eyes widened. “Was the man young with brown hair and slightly fox-like features like mine?”

Baekho nodded. “Yeah, just like that.”

“That may have been King Minhyun. This Healer Hyun must have him trapped.”

“But that’s impossible!” Jinyoung protested. “You can’t just kidnap a king and have no one know about it!”

“You can if you blackmail the king’s officials,” Mark said. “Perhaps he said if they rose the alarm, he’d tell everyone that King Minhyun was part fox. It looks like they’re still having him issue laws and proclamations from captivity, so it’s no surprise the commoners don’t know he’s gone. That's probably why all the propaganda continued, even with a half-blood as king.”

“What else do you remember, Baekho?” Jaebum asked.

“At the beginning, before I lost my mind, I saw these men with whips come into the dungeons. They’d have the Feral beasts smell rags. Sometimes, if the beast snapped after smelling the rags, they’d whip it. Other times, they’d throw it some meat as a reward if they snapped or tried to attack—the meat was beast meat, I think, by the smell. From the corpses of the ones that had died in battle, maybe.” Baekho shuddered. “I think…I think that was how they were training us to attack beasts instead of humans. I don’t know. I don’t remember my own training. I just know that by the third day, I couldn’t bear my thirst anymore and drank from the water they gave me in my cell. I can’t remember anything after that.”

“That must have been the corrupted water,” Jinyoung said. “You can’t remember, because it made you lose your mind.”

“I don’t really know how I escaped for the beast tribe to find me,” Baekho said. “I think after we were trained, they may have experimented with sending us out into battle.”

“Yes, that was how,” Mark said grimly. “I noticed there were beasts among the humans during one of the battles and that they were attacking us, their own kind.  I had some of the tigers in my battalion attempt to take you down. It took quite an effort to get you muzzled and restrained enough to get you back to Calovia to examine you to figure out why you were behaving as you were.”

“And that’s when I killed the healers, right?” Baekho asked, miserably.

“We will hold this Hyun killer responsible far more than we will ever hold you,” Jaebum said. “And this information you have given us is incredibly valuable. It tells us not only how they’ve been luring in and corrupting our people, but also that King Minhyun is a victim in this as well. If we were to save him, he’d be in our debt, and perhaps this war would finally end.” He tented his fingers. “After hearing this account, I think it would be best to send a small strike force rather than storm the place with an army. Mark, you and your three lieutenants would suit. I will come as well. And Jinyoung, you could be essential in getting us access, if you’re willing.”

“I am,” Jinyoung said. Mark sighed, but kept quiet.

“Shall I come, too, Your Majesty?” Baekho asked.

“No, I don’t imagine you’ll be well enough by time we set out,” Jaebum said. “But I would be grateful if you could tell me…did Youngjae look well when you saw him?”

“He was resplendent as ever. They haven’t hurt him, but he’s been giving them hell all the same. For the brief moment I saw him, he looked like he was mouthing off.”

Jaebum smiled, the sweetest smile Jinyoung had ever seen on him. “Good,” he said. “I’d expect no less from him.” He turned to Mark. “So, any thoughts on how to make a success of this rescue mission, General?”

“Actually,” Jinyoung cut in, lifting his hand. “I think I may have some ideas…”

Jinyoung was in the den working on bottling up his vials of his freshly created Feral antidote, listening idly as Mark sparred with Jackson outside. They’d determined to set off for High Lofferin around the time the snows would begin to melt there, which Jinyoung calculated would be about a month and a half. This gave them plenty of time to prepare, but there was still somewhat of a sense of urgency among the members of their strike force to be ready for what they knew could very well turn the tide of the war. As for Jinyoung, he felt a very different kind of urgency. He knew his time left in Calovia was measured in weeks, and while he should have been happy at the thought of going home, his heart wouldn’t stop aching. It was because of the cubs, he thought. He couldn’t bear the thought of never seeing them again. Because of them, as much as he was an outsider in Calovia, he felt like he was at home in a way at the same time. He hated the thought of them taking down his cot when he left, and of Nia, Palla, and Tanie one day snuggling up against the side of whichever person Mark took as his true mate when it was revealed that Jinyoung was nothing more than a lie.

He exhaled, trying to shake the thoughts off. He forced himself to think instead of his mother and father and the library in Low Lofferin and the little clinic where he’d work when the war was over, but even though he loved all of these things, it felt like his heart would no longer be satisfied with just them anymore.

Maybe this means I want to settle down, he thought, and have cubs—children—of my own. But when he tried to think of doing that, the face of his imaginary children immediately transformed into the faces of the three cubs, and the partner at his side…

“Are we done for the day?” he heard Jackson saying from outside. “Mind if I go inside and pay my respects to the mister?”

He couldn’t hear Mark’s answer, but seconds later, Jackson popped his head in. “Doing well, Jinyoung?”

Jinyoung nodded, though he didn’t feel terribly well at the moment. “I’m fine,” he said.

“Yeah? You’re looking a little under the weather.” Jackson sat down beside him. “You’re not…er…breeding, are you?”

“What?” Jinyoung asked, nearly dropping his ladle in the cauldron. “I’m a man!”

“I realized that. But you’re also good at science, so I thought you might have found a way.”

“I haven’t. And I haven’t been trying to begin with.”

“I suppose you’ve got plenty lovely kids already without adding to the pack anyways. But if you’re not breeding, is something else wrong? You’re not having a lover’s quarrel, are you? I know the General’s worried about your role in our mission like the stubborn old goat he is.”

“Needlessly. And, Jackson…” Jinyoung trailed off. Now that they had their date of departure and Jinyoung carried a degree of respect among the tribes for healing Baekho, wouldn’t it be fine to come clean about his little deceit with Mark? It wasn’t as if Jaebum was intending to kill him, anymore. He was well protected, even without Mark covering for him. They didn’t have to hide anymore.

But something gave him pause before the words could actually come out of his mouth. It felt that by putting it in words, it would bring a close to something he wasn’t quite ready to end. After all, if he wasn’t Mark’s mate, maybe someone would insist he lodge somewhere else rather than Mark’s den with the cubs. Maybe Elder Kahana would be angry with him for lying to her at their sacred gathering, and the lion tribe would in turn alienate Mark again for his role in that lie.

No, Jinyoung resolved. I won’t tell this secret. Not now. Not yet.

“What is it?” Jackson asked after Jinyoung failed to continue his sentence.

“Nothing,” Jinyoung said. “I suppose I’m just tired. I haven’t been sleeping well.”

“Sorry to hear it. In that case, I’ll get out of here so you can take a little nap.” He rose to his feet. “Don’t work too hard, you hear me? We still have time.”

But not enough, Jinyoung thought. Not enough by far.

Almost as soon as Jackson had left, Jinyoung heard the cubs return from a trip to the freshwater spring with some of their friends. They sounded in high spirits, immediately charging up to Mark with a chorus of “Papa! Papa! Papa!”

“Yes, what is it?” Mark asked, sounding amused by all their overflowing energy.

 “It’s so exciting!” Palla said. “Why didn’t you tell us before?”

“Papa is a big meanie!” Tanie said. “You hid from us!”

“What are you talking about?” Mark asked. “Did someone tell you about Uncle Youngjae and the rescue mission?”

“Not that, we knew about that,” Nia said impatiently. “It’s Uncle Jinyoung! Thalia said that her mama says that Uncle Jinyoung is your mate, which means he’s not an ‘uncle’ at all! He’s another papa! He’s our papa! Why didn’t you say so? That means he’ll stay with us forever and ever and he’ll teach me so many things and it’ll be perfect! We’re so so so so happy!”

“Happy happy!” Tanie chanted.

“It’s not fair that Thalia knew before we did,” Palla huffed. “I wanted to know first!”

“Me too!”

“Me too!” Nia echoed.

It was quite a bit of this before the cubs even gave Mark time to cut in, and already a sizable lump was forming in Jinyoung’s throat at what he knew Mark would have to say. It was so very touching that the cubs liked him enough to so easily accept him as a prospective new parent when the first night he’d stayed with him, they’d been quite clear they were not ready for someone else in the role of ‘mother’ in their life—though Jinyoung supposed his role was a different one to them. At the same time, it was far more heartbreaking since he knew he would not be able to stay in their lives ‘forever and ever’; he wouldn’t even be able to stay in their lives for the duration of the year.

“Children,” Mark said gently, quieting their upbeat cheers. “I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you about this. But Jinyoung being my mate was a story I had to tell people so he would be able to stay with us while he was here. He would have had to stay with King Jaebum otherwise, but I thought he would be safer here, with us. So it was just a story, not a real thing. He’s your Uncle Jinyoung, not your Papa, and…” Mark’s voice strained a little. “Very soon, he has to go back to his own home, with his own family. Uncle Jinyoung lives in a place called Low Lofferin, That’s where his den is. And-”

The children wouldn’t let him finish before erupting in fury. “Liar!” Nia shrieked. “He’s not leaving, his den is here!”

“Papa, you always say not to tell stories, so if you told a story to people, then you’re bad and it’s all your fault!” Palla thundered.

“I don’t want him to goooooooooo!” Tanie wailed, already crying.

“Children,” Mark said in a pleading voice. “You’re right, it was very bad of me to tell a story, but I did it to protect Uncle Jinyoung’s life. I didn’t want him to be hurt. I know he really loves you three and that being with you makes him happy. But he has a family of his own that loves him, and he belongs together with them-”

“No, no, no, no, stop it, stop it!” Nia yelled. Seconds later, she had dashed into the den, standing in front of Jinyoung, her chubby cheeks flushed and her eyes blazing. “Tell him to stop lying! Make him stop!” The other cubs ran in after her. Palla looked confused and distraught, and Tanie was hiccupping with sobs. It broke Jinyoung’s heart even more to see them like that and to know he was only going to make it worse.

“I’m sorry,” he said in a small voice. “But your Papa is telling the truth. My own Papa and Mama are waiting for me in Low Lofferin, and they’re probably scared because they don’t know where I am and if I’m OK. I need to go back and tell them I’m fine.”

“But then you can come back!” Nia said passionately. “You can bring your Mama and Papa—they can be our Grandpapa and Grandmama! They can live with us too, and we can be a big family!”

“I’m sorry,” Jinyoung said again in an even smaller voice. “But my Mama and Papa are humans, and…I don’t think they would be able to live in Calovia comfortably. Like your Papa said, I really, truly love you three, but where I belong is in Low Lofferin with my family.”

“We’re you’re family!” Tanie hiccupped.

“Yeah!” Palla said, placing her hands on her hips. “Why do you not wanna leave them, but you’re OK leaving us? That’s not fair!”

“If you love us, why don’t you want to belong with us?” Nia threw in. Her chin was beginning to wobble.

Jinyoung’s eyes were burning and he was finding it hard to breathe. He’d thought the situation couldn’t be any more painful, but at that moment he felt like his heart was being stabbed over and over again, each cut deeper than the next. He wanted to scream and cry that he didn’t want to leave them either, but at the same time that he couldn’t just stay indefinitely pretending to be something he wasn’t. ​

Maybe it would make the cubs happy to live in that fantasy where Jinyoung and Mark were true mates and they were a perfect, complete family, but wouldn’t that just be a burden on Mark, who’d only meant to be saddled with the responsibility over him on a temporary basis? Wouldn’t it be a burden on Jinyoung himself, to have to settle for being an unwanted mate with no real love involved?

He turned his face away sharply, before the cubs could see the tears beginning to slip from his eyes. Along with his deep sense of sorrow, he felt inexplicably angry, though he wasn’t sure at who. Maybe it was at Mark. After all, shouldn’t he have known something like this would happen, that his cubs might get attached, and that Jinyoung might get attached in return?

“CHILDREN, ENOUGH!” Mark said in a sharp voice, sharper than Jinyoung had ever heard from him when addressing the cubs. Palla and Nia immediately fell silent, and even Tanie cut off mid-sob. “You are speaking selfishly. What right do we have to insist upon stay or go when it’s his choice to make? I know you’re upset, but you’re only upsetting him and me as well. This discussion is over.” There was a strong note of finality in this last word, so strong that the cubs did not protest. Tanie and Palla shifted into beasts and ran from the den, and Nia stood there shaking for a moment, fists clenched.

“I hate you,” she said in a bitter whisper, then she exploded into tears and ran after her siblings. Jinyoung didn’t know if this was directed at him or Mark or both, but it stung like a slap to the face.

It was just him and Mark in the den now. Jinyoung couldn’t look up at him through his tears. He didn’t want Mark to see them—he felt ashamed of the knowledge hanging between them that such an integral part of why Jinyoung couldn’t stay was because they weren’t the lovers everyone else thought they could be.

“Jinyoung,” Mark said quietly.

Jinyoung shook his head, indicating that he didn’t want to speak or be spoken to. Mark seemed to understand, because he didn’t say another word. He simply remained in the cave as Jinyoung cried. Sometimes, though Jinyoung couldn’t truly be certain, he thought he heard a shaky, misery-laden sharp intake of breath that was different from his own, but it might have been nothing but the echo of his own tears coming back to him.​