The door at then end of the hallway was thrown open, pulling you out of your meditation. Johnny came storming up to your cell, his face pinched into an expression of rage. Only two of his little followers were behind him. You recognized their faces, but couldn’t remember their names. Now it didn’t really matter. But you were curious to where his other idiots were.  

“Well, it looks like your precious wolf came looking for you,” Johnny sneered.

Your eyes widened for a split second, before you composed yourself again. Please, don’t be true, you pleaded in your mind. Please, don’t be that stupid.

The idea of Luhan actually finding the compound and coming within the grounds had never crossed your mind. How did he even find this place?

“There could only be two options for a wolf to come after you, risking his life to find you here,” Johnny hissed. “Either he really wants to kill you himself or my earlier guess was correct and the disgusting mate scenario is at play here.”

You rolled your eyes, desperate to keep up the facade that you were unemotional about this whole ordeal. Sure, you were dead anyway, but you couldn’t help it; it was simply in your self-preserving nature. “Congratulations, Johnny,” you sneered sarcastically, even adding in a slow clap. “You’ve finally got it all figured out. I’m sure whoever that wolf is, they’re simply trying to kill me for wounding one of their own. Or maybe it is the one I struck? Why don’t the two of you team up and kill me together?”

“See,” Johnny crouched down so he was now at eye-level with you, “I don’t quite believe you. A wolf wouldn’t risk their life and come into our territory just to kill one hunter as revenge, especially alone. In conclusion, the only thing that could drive a wolf to a suicide mission is if you were his mate.”

“I’m pretty sure we’re all under the belief that that isn’t possible among hunters.”

A sickening grin grew on Johnny’s lips. “I don’t believe in that, actually. I think the universe likes to be funny every now and again. And I think they played the ultimate joke by having the precious daughter – the one who is always and could do no wrong – be chosen as a mongrel’s lover. I couldn’t have wished for anything better.”

Your blood was beginning to boil under your skin. The way that Johnny was basking in the situation, as if he’d planned it all. Of course, he had no control over fate like that, but he certainly was enjoying the outcome from the sidelines.

“It’s funny, you know,” Johnny laughed to himself. “When I purposefully leaked out that there was a hunter undercover in the area, I just thought that the wolves would kill you and I wouldn’t have to deal with you anymore. But this just might be even sweeter. Now I’ll have the pleasure of doing it myself.”

“Y-you let word get out about me?” You were floored. No matter how much he hated you, never did you image he would betray the organization like that. Letting mission secrets reach the ears of the wolves, sabotaging everything that had been so difficult to build in the first place? He’d gone mad and it was clear as a cloudless sky in his eyes. “How could you do that to us? Betray us like that?”

“Us?” he scoffed. “There is no us. You don’t belong with the hunters anymore. If anyone betrayed this family, it was you.” His eyes drifted down to your wrist, where the tattoo that marked what you were was located.

Something sparked in his expression and soon, he was swinging the door of your cell open and pounced. He had you pinned to the ground, arm twisted behind your back giving you no way to gain the upper hand.

Turning to his goons, he ordered, “Get it ready.”

There was no need to ask what “it” meant.

Pulling you up to your feet, Johnny paraded you into the “interrogation area” of the holding cells. One of the boys was already working on one of the irons, getting it hot in the fire that was always kept alight, just in case.

You were handed over to the other follower, who twisted your arm even further, making you let out a cry that you’d tried to bite back. Johnny took the now glowing poker and motioned to the first boy with his head. He was only a few years older than Alli, but there was no conflict or remorse in his eyes as he maneuvered to grab your tatted arm and laid it across the stone column, pushing your sleeve up to expose the skin.

In a slow, maniacal turn, Johnny pulled the iron out of the fire, the light giving his face an even more menacing orange glow as he held it up. As he walked closer, you turned your face away and dug your teeth in your shoulder, preparing for the pain that was about to come.

But nothing – no amount of training or mental strength – could have prepared you for the moment that iron met the thin, delicate skin of your wrist. A desperate, uncontrollable scream ripped from your lungs. It was hopeless to think that someone would come to save you before Johnny was through.

“That was more satisfying than I thought,” Johnny sighed when he tossed the iron back into the fire. The boys holding you down finally let go, letting you crumble to the ground. Your entire body shook from the torture it just experienced.

“(y/n)!”

You gasped. He really was here. And he must have heard you scream.

“Looks like he’s arriving just in time,” Johnny chuckled. He looked to his young followers, “Let’s go get some new pelts, boys.” They, too, gave off sickening smiles before herding out of the room.

Idiots.

Using your good arm, you pushed yourself up off the ground while cradling your blistering wound to your stomach. You could fight through the pain, you just needed to dress it first. With your teeth holding onto the fabric, you carefully tore the sleeve off your shirt and used it to make a rather crappy bandage. You hissed and whimpered at the pain from pressing on your burn, but you bit through it, knowing this was better than nothing.

Once you finally got to your feet, you took a step in the direction that Johnny had gone, but then you stopped. While instinct was pushing you towards Luhan, you knew running in like this was plain stupid. So, instead, you headed out the other way, breaking out through the doors on the opposite end and running full speed towards your old home.

It was dark out now, but one light was still on in the house, through the back kitchen window. Peaking in the sliding glass door, you saw your father sitting at the table, a single glass of whiskey in his hand while the half empty bottle rested on the wooden surface. Your father hardly ever drank, saying that it fogged up the mind and slowed the reflexes. Learning of your betrayal had drove him to this. A pain stabbed at your heart, but you couldn’t go back now. You couldn’t spare your father the ache of a child who was mated to a wolf. It was out of your control and… to be honest, you weren’t sure you’d change it if you could.

Leaving the scene of your father’s heartbreak behind, you snuck over to the wall that held your bedroom window. It wasn’t going to be easy, especially with one arm partially useless, but somehow you managed to dig your feet into the brick surface and haul yourself up until you reached your windowpane. Just for an occasion like this, you hadn’t locked your window and sliding it up was a piece of cake.

As carefully as you could, you tiptoed around your room. Your favorite bow was still back at the apartment so you had to make do with your backup. It wasn’t as light or fitted to your grip, but it was still trustworthy. Once the quiver was strapped to your back, you made your way back over to your escape. The floorboards out in the hallway squeaked, freezing you in your spot. You waited to see if they would pass, but instead the door to your bedroom started opening and you jumped. The landing was hard, only the instinct to roll keeping you from receiving a bum ankle or a broken leg.

“(y/n)?” a voice called out from the window. You refused to look back. If you looked towards your sister, you would hesitate, possibly risking Luhan’s life in the process. “(y/n)!”

I’m sorry, Alli.

You kept heading the direction that you heard Luhan’s voice come from. There wasn’t any sign of either party near the holding cells, but the prints in the ground suggested they had migrated to the abandoned part of the compound.

Growls and shouts seemed to be coming from one of the warehouses, so you followed the noise through the buildings until you found not one but four wolves fighting against the hunters inside one of the condemned storage houses. Two other hunters – Quan and Luke – had joined in on the skirmish since you ran for your bow. Quan was about to throw a knife towards the gray wolf whose attention was focused elsewhere, so you grabbed an arrow and shot at his hand, disarming the knife and slicing the skin across his knuckles. He cried out in pain, but you didn’t feel the tiniest bit guilty. The gray wolf turned to you and narrowed his eyes before jumping back into the fray. On the other hand, a white wolf that you recognized immediately ran over to you began to sniff and nudge you with his snout. Finding your bandaged arm, he at the wound, whimpering when he noticed the blood spots leaking through. But you weren’t worried about yourself right now.  

“Luhan, are you okay?” you asked frantically. He let out a yelp as confirmation before turning around and taking a protective stance in front of you.

“Come to accept your fate, (y/n)?” Johnny mocked.

“Just let us go, Johnny.” It was a pathetic and useless plea, but you wanted to get it out anyway, that way you could say you gave him a chance.

“Not a chance!”

Johnny lifted up his crossbow and aim for Luhan.

“No!” You tried to run out from behind your white wolf protector, but he body-checked you, sending you down to the ground.

As Johnny’s arrow zipped through the air, a reddish wolf jumped into view, taking the hit in the shoulder instead.

Luhan growled and started running towards Johnny, who tried to shoot again, but this time missed. The other two wolves were holding their own against the rest of the group, getting some damage given the blood covering the rips in their clothes. Johnny, however, was quicker and more skilled than the others, and managed the slide under Luhan, dodging his attack. He sent another arrow towards the red wolf, who was distracted trying to remove the first arrow from his side, and hit him in the shoulder.

A whining howl echoed through the warehouse, causing all the fighting to cease. Johnny was standing on the wolf, one foot pressing into his side wound while the crossbow was held to his head. You knew that arrowhead would be strong enough to penetrate the wolf’s scull, but the others didn’t. They started to move forward in anticipation of a strike, but you shook your head as you readied your bow.

“You won’t make it,” you yelled at them. The wolf you recognized as the one you’d wounded last week looked back and forth between you and the red wolf before taking a step back. You put your focus back on Johnny, your own arrow lined up with his chest.

“You already betrayed us by falling for the mutt,” Johnny sneered. “Will you really betray us even further and kill one of your own?”

“You said it yourself I wasn’t one of you anymore,” you reminded him.

He shook his head, a snarl on his lips that showed off his own canines. “I don’t mean the hunters. I mean humans. Are you really going to kill a human just so this wolf might live? Can you do that, (y/n)? You’ve never killed in your life. Will you let the first one be your own species?”

Damn it. He was goading you; it was too obvious to ignore, but he was right. You weren’t a killer. It was always the missing piece that kept you from being the perfect hunter. On the occasion you’d witnessed a kill, a little voice in the back of your head always insisted that taking a life was wrong. And that voice was still there now, coaxing you to lower your bow.

Johnny smirked. “That’s what I thought.” He cocked his bow just as a way of showing off. Unlike you, Johnny wasn’t someone who hesitated.

Whip!

Johnny staggered back at the moment of the arrow hitting his chest. His eyes were wide with surprise at the piece of wood sticking out of him, not quite believing what he was seeing as you lowered your now empty bow.

“I won’t kill for nothing,” you stated. “But I will protect what I care about.”

It was evident in his eyes that he wanted to scream or yell or defy you in some way, but his lungs were filling up and he couldn’t get enough air to even whisper. First he fell to his knees and then his back, moving no more.

“Now you’re really going suffer,” Quan threatened as his moved towards you. But he didn’t make it two feet when an explosion went off behind him, sending everyone to the ground.

You shook off the shock, looking around for the cause as little fires started dancing along the ground and littering the old rotting crates. “What the hell?”

“(y/n)!”

Through the thin smoke, you could barely make out your little sister waving at you from the other side of the warehouse. In her hand was a thick black box you could only guess was a detonator. Girl always was a pyro, but this….

“Alli!” You jumped up to your feet and ran towards her. You grabbed her by the shoulders to make sure she was alright, but she didn’t even have a scratch. “What are you doing here?”

“The right thing,” she said sternly.

“You shouldn’t be here,” you urged as you tried to shove her out the door, but she fought back.

“It’s too late!” she yelled back. “I’m already here. And I already destroyed the archives.”

That made you stop your attempt. “You- what?”

“I blew up the archives,” she repeated proudly. “Now they won’t know where you and the wolves are. But you need to get out of here. I rigged two more bombs and they’re about to go off.”

“Alli, I love that you’re trying to help, but that was incredibly stupid!”

She looked up at you with a small smile. “I guess I’m just like you then, huh?”

Even though it wasn’t the best time, you pulled her into a hug, unable to help the overwhelming love for that was consuming you. Kissing the top of her head, you grabbed her hand turned towards Luhan, waving your arm towards the other entrance. “Luhan, get out here! There’s another bomb!”

But it was too late. They both went off simultaneously in the middle of the warehouse, blowing it to pieces.

**

Luhan was human when he was conscious again. Ashes fell around him like blackened snowflakes in a joke of a winter’s night. The only light to see by was the flaming ruins of the warehouse that had been standing only a few seconds ago. Looking around him, he made note of Minseok, Tao, and Kris all being alive and conscious. The former two were helping Kris get up to his feet with difficulty. But there was no sign of you or the other humans among the debris.

“(y/n)? (y/n)!”

Scrambling to his feet, Luhan ran to the area he last saw you before the explosion. He shoved embers and beams out of the way, trying to find you. The only bodies he discovered, however, were of the hunters that had tried to kill them. Their eyes were closed and there was no sign of breath. The fact that they didn’t survive the blast was making him even more frantic.

He searched everywhere he could get his hands on. Where had you gone? The fact that he couldn’t find you was the only hope he had that you’d survived the blast.

“Luhan, we need to get out of here!” Minseok came running up to him, careful to avoid stepping on something that could cause further injury.

“I have to find her!” Luhan continued to dig through the rubble, pulling his arm out of Minseok’s grasp.

Minseok growled, grabbing ahold of Luhan and turning him around. “Listen! She’s not here! She probably left to help that girl! As long as you feel it here,” Minseok pointed to his heart, “then she’s alive. But right now, we have to get out of here before more hunters arrive to investigate and before Kris bleeds to death.”

Luhan looked back at the other two who’d come to help him. Kris was barely able to stand, even with the help of Tao. Blood dripped from the wounds on his side and shoulder onto the burnt grass. Then Luhan looked to the opposite horizon. There was still no sign of you, but what choice did he have now?

“She’ll come back to you,” Minseok promised. “She’s a fighter and she won’t let you go like this.”

Knowing he was right, Luhan had to give in. He let Minseok herd him away from the disaster zone and they ran back through the woods to get to home and get to safety.

His wolf whined because he knew he was putting space between you and he didn’t know when he would see you again. He didn’t even know if you were okay. Were you hurt? Sure you might be alive, but did you recieve your own life-threatening wound when the bomb went off? What about what Johnny had done to make you scream like that? What had he done to your arm?

The fact that he didn’t know was killing him, but the only way he could see you again was to make sure he stayed alive himself. He just wished he knew how long it would be until he had you back in his arms.