Paper was strewn everywhere. A corkboard full of photographs and strings and sticky notes that would make any sane person think that a major conspiracy theorist lived here was currently leaning against a wall. And maybe that’s what you were, a person losing grip on reality as you tried to tie everything together. You still weren’t sure of the pack’s size or ranking even after another week of following them around. Confirming who was apart of the wolves was proving more difficult than you’d first imagined. Innie tended to hangout with the same group and they would mention others in brief conversation, but you couldn’t find faces to go with the unknown names.

One thing that you were at least ninety percent certain of was the fact that the professor – named Kim Junmyeon according to the university directory – was the alpha. How he was able to control such a large pack all by himself was something you couldn’t fathom, but somehow he managed it. You’d witnessed the others going to him for advice or permission for things and he just had that alpha aura radiating off of him. He wasn’t genetically an alpha, from what you observed. God, you hoped you never had to encounter one of those. Even with all your training, you didn’t think you could survive that fight.

Standing in front of the board that was currently giving you a headache, your eyes kept lingering on one wolf in particular. With his long, forehead-covering hair and soft, welcoming eyes, you found yourself in a strange struggle that you’d never experienced before. Granted, this was the first time you’d ever been this close to a pack before that wasn’t on a hunt. You were forced to be around them in their fake forms, their human forms, and you were pretty sure it was messing with your head.

No. You were strong enough for this. You could keep your focus. You would not fall victim to the façade that was their human shapes. They were monsters that shouldn’t exist. Your family’s history was enough to prove that.

But even now, your skin tingled where Luhan’s fingers had brushed up against your hand. The night before, he even made a brief cameo in your dream. You couldn’t remember the exact details of the dream; you weren’t even sure if there was a plotline or if it was just a bunch of random images. You do remember Luhan’s face making an appearance, though, and it was aggravating you.

Feeling your blood beginning to boil in your veins at your frustration, you swiped up your bag that was carrying your surveillance equipment and threw it over your shoulder before stomping out of the apartment.

You needed to get back in the game. You needed to focus on finding a way to get to the book and give your family the upper hand it had always been lacking. That’s why you were sent here. This was no time to start questioning your world view.

The only thing you could think of doing at the moment was taking another trip to the museum. Last time you were staking the place out,  you’d noticed the curator and the girl who’s name you figured out was Kita disappear into a hallway guarded by a locked door. The only way in was with a key card. Perhaps spending another round in the building would help you create a game plan for getting one of those key cards without leaving a trail and checking out if the book was hidden in one of those off-limits rooms.

Instead of taking the bus this time, though, you decided to walk off the pent up energy in your muscles. It was a couple miles and would take you through the central business district, but that was just another stroll through the park for you.

Walking down the sidewalk, you had your headphones in your ears with no music playing to give off the illusion that you were not to be disturbed while you were able to keep your eyes open for anything suspicious. Many families and friend groups were taking advantage of this beautiful day, milling about among the shops and little locally owned restaurants. They all looked so happy, unaware of the secret world around them.

According to another faction among the organization - one that’s job was to keep an eye on any witch covens - there was a group of witches in the neighboring town. This college city used to have it’s own for several generations, but something happened about two years ago and they were all stripped of their magic, leaving the area to be completely controlled by the wolves. And every single human in this place was completely unaware of the transition.

Sometimes, you wondered what it would be like to be one of them, to not have been trained since the age of four on how to fight, to kill, to keep those you loved safe. What did that blissful ignorance feel like? Was it as happy as everyone seemed to make it?

You didn’t hate being a hunter. Never would you say that you loved it; that might sound a little sadistic and you saved that description for Johnny. It was simply your life and you’d never thought about trading for the other side for it before. You didn’t know what that other side was like. Not like your mother, who knew it very well. She came into this life after meeting your father. Well, more like she met your father because of this life.

She’d been walking home from an evening class at her university one night when an omega attacked her. Your father had been tracking it down and lost the trail for just a few minutes, but it was enough for the omega to find it’s next prey. She never went into detail about it, but to this day your mother carried the claw marks on her stomach. As your father nursed her back to health, they fell in love and she vowed to be apart of the fight. She acknowledged that she got lucky and that there were others that wouldn’t be. It was now her mission to make the number of unlucky ones decline as much as she was able to.

Your mother had always stated she never regretted her decision and she’s never looked back, missing her old life. So, that had to mean that you had the better end of the deal, right?

“(y/n)!”

No. Keep walking. Pretend you didn’t hear.

But the last person you needed to see right now kept calling after you. By the direction his voice was coming from, you knew he was behind you. You didn’t stop. You couldn’t speed up either, because that would be acknowledging the fact that you could hear him. Maybe you’d get lucky and he’d give up.

That was not the case. He caught up to you quickly, stopping you with a hand on your shoulder.

Instincts kicked in and you grabbed his hand, twisting it as you turned around. You weren’t using your full strength and so you weren’t surprised in the slightest when he didn’t show any sign of pain like any ordinary human would. But you faked the surprise, mostly to keep up the act that you hadn’t heard him.

“, you scared me,” you said breathily to add to the charade. You took out the earbuds and stuffed them in your pocket before he could pick up on the lack of music.

“I guess I should have yelled louder,” Luhan chuckled. You let him go and he ran his fingers through his blonde hair, still smiling at you. There was no way that hair could be natural, right? And why was he always smiling around you? You didn’t exactly give off the vibe of sugar, spice, and everything nice. “Are you feeling better?”

You blinked at him, confused. That day at the pizzeria was nearly a week ago. And he was genuinely asking you about your health? “Um, yeah. I think I just ate something weird that day for breakfast.”

He nodded. “Good, good.” Bouncing from foot to foot, he gave off a sense of nervousness. “Are you busy right now?”

“Oh. Um.” You frowned, biting your bottom lip. Was he about to ask to spend some one-on-one time with you? Would that be a good idea if you said yes? The museum would still be there to check out again on another day and you could gain some helpful insight on his pack by speaking with him. Shaking your head, you turned your frown upside down. “No, I’m not. Why?”

A laugh escaped him as if he was taken by surprise by your answer. “Do you want to grab a cup of coffee? With me, that is.”

“Sure.”

Did you just freaking giggle? That wasn’t even you acting as the sweet one. It just… came out after his self-correction. What the hell was going on?

Taking a breath, you pointed to a coffee shop just at the corner of the block and started for it. “There’s that one-”

“No, not that one!” Luhan shouted as he stopped you with a grip on your upper arm. You stared at him wide eyed at the sudden outburst. Clearing his throat, he started to tug you to another shop across the street. “Their coffee . And I know one of the staffers. She’s really nosy and we’d hardly be able to talk because she’d be hovering the whole time.”

“Really?” You looked over your shoulder at the reject shop, mentally notating it in your metaphorical files. Was it a mate that worked there? That could come in handy later.

“Yeah, this one’s much better,” he replied as he pulled you through the crosswalk, careful to keep an eye out for any runaway traffic. His hand had slipped down from your arm to your exposed hand and that fiery tingle was back in full force. Your heart was pounding in your chest and this time… you didn’t think you could completely blame it on your curved fight or flight senses.

Once inside, he let go to which you were both relieved with and aching for more. You shoved your hands in your pockets to keep them under control. Luhan asked for your order, but you shrugged and told him to surprise you. He got a cheeky look in his eye and ran to the front, leaving you alone to scan the area. An empty table for two was sitting in a corner near the front of the store, but right when you took a step towards it, Luhan was back.

“Let’s sit back there instead,” he suggested, nodding towards a booth that was mostly hidden from the rest of the shops patrons.

You really wanted to laugh. Luhan’s attempt to avoid running into or being seen by anyone he knew was painfully obvious and amateurish. Maybe someday you could give him some pointers at subtly.

You blinked, stopping in your tracks. Why did that thought cross your mind? There would never be a someday. Once your mission was finished, you’d never seen him again. The world might never see him again.

Why was that hurting your heart?

“(y/n)?”

Luhan’s voice pulled you out of your mixed up thoughts. “Yeah?”

“You okay?” he asked, his head tilted to the side in a studying manner.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” you insisted as you quickly slid into the booth.

Before he could sit down across from you, the barista at the counter called out, “Order for Luhan ready at the bar.”

He took off, coming back a few seconds later with two plastic cups of cream colored liquid, the sound of the ice cubes clinking against each other filling the silence that was settling between you two. Unsure of what else to do, you took a sip from the cup he’d set in front of you. The strange flavor mixed in with the coffee took you by surprise, strangling a weird sound of you.

“What is this?” you asked, your face surely twisting into a look of disgust. It wasn’t necessarily that gross, it was just… not normal.

“It’s raspberry mocha,” Luhan answered while laughing at your reaction. “If you don’t like it, I can go get you something else.” He reached out for the cup, but you scooted it closer to you instead.

“No, it’s fine,” you sighed. “I just wasn’t expecting it.” For a moment, you just tapped your finger against the thin lid of the cup. You were searching for something to say, to get the conversation rolling, but you didn’t want to come off as digging a little too much, raising his suspicions. “So, do you-”

“Why did you-”

Luhan had started speaking at the exact same time as you and the two of you stop simultaneously as well. Short, awkward laughs came from both of you.

“Go ahead,” Luhan waved at you, palm up.

“No, you go ahead,” you insisted.

Lowering his head, Luhan sighed. He lifted his face again, sitting back in the booth, a half smile pulling up in the corner of his lips. It wasn’t even a full grin, but it was relaxing you where you sat. Whatever was going on inside of your chest, you still didn’t have a sane explanation, but you had a feeling it wouldn’t be going away any time soon. Especially if you kept letting yourself be around Luhan like this.

“Why did you come here?” he asked very bluntly.

The way he stated the question took you by surprise, almost like…. No. There was no way he could know. He wouldn’t be sitting across from you so relaxed like this. He would have told the rest of his pack and you would be dead. Besides, you’d been more than careful with your identity. Not even Innie knew the truth.

You shrugged. “I needed a change of pace. I’m from… I guess you could call it a compound, but that makes it sound a bit cultish, doesn’t it?” Yeah, some might say the organization could be a cult, based on the definition. “Basically, I’m from a small town and needed a faster pace in my life. Unfortunately, I’m not brave enough for the really big cities and Innie was here so that gave me a small foundation to start with.” Even as the lies came smoothly out your lips, it was leaving a bad taste in your mouth.

“And you do freelance design graphics, right?” he urged on.

“Yeah,” you nodded, a grin lighting your face up a bit. Playing around on photoshop had been a nice, unrelated-to-the-supernatural outlet that helped you unwind. You didn’t actually do any sort of business with it, but it was a fun little hobby where you kept all the end results to yourself. “It’s all online so that makes it easy to work my own hours and stay home.”

“That sounds nice.” Luhan took a long sip form his own drink before leaning forward, resting his elbows on the table.

The space between you was at its smallest that it had ever been. You could see the flecks of ember in his dark brown eyes. They were so kind and inviting, practically begging for you to come closer. Your muscles were having a tug-of-war within themselves: closer, father, closer, farther, closer.

Farther won and you leaned back away from him, crossing your arms to recreate the barrier that he was doing a very good job of cracking.

Luhan looked a little disappointed at your response, but he just let it roll off of him. “So, what were you going to ask?”

“Oh, just if you enjoyed living here,” you answered nonchalantly. It was getting tougher to pretend this wasn’t affecting you in some way.

“I like it a lot,” Luhan said happily. But that initial joy slipped a bit. “I was gone for a little while, but being back has been the best decision I ever had.”

“You left?” Since when could a wolf leave a pack and then rejoin it?

Luhan nodded, turning his eyes down to his fingers and picking at his nails. “Yeah. My brothers kind of… got in a fight, I guess you could say. One of them decided to break out on his own, thinking it was best for everyone. I didn’t want him to be alone, so I went with him. But I missed this place every day I was gone.”

“Why do you love this place so much?” It was the first sincere question to leave your mouth. He spoke with such a nostalgic undertone, it was almost like a poet or a songwriter trying to describe their favorite color without saying the name. You found yourself leaning forward again, hands securely in your lap to avoid any accidental contact.

Luhan shrugged as he twirled his straw absentmindedly. “I don’t know if I can describe it, the reason why. Ever since I came here as a teenager, it just felt like home. Like I was always meant to be here and it would help me meet the people that were meant to be in my life.” At that last comment, his eyes flickered over to you just for a second before falling back down to the now empty cup.

“So, you didn’t grow up here?”

“No, I spent most of my childhood a couple hundred miles away,” he explained. “My family traveled a lot and it was kind of pure coincidence that brought me here.”

A nomadic pack. You’d encountered more than your fair share of wolves that chose to live that way. They were easier to spot than the ones that stayed put. That guilty feeling was starting to bubble in your stomach again. Had you run into his old running mates in the past?

You’d never been on hunts like that before. You were never old enough. The only times you went with the older hunters was to track down killer wolves, the ones who’d attacked defenseless humans. Those were deemed “safer” since it was normally a group of hunters verses one or two wolves. You’d never been the one to deal the killing blow, but you certainly had shot more than your fair share of injuring arrows.

“(y/n)?” Luhan reached out to your, but had nothing to hold onto with your wringing fingers resting on your thighs. “(y/n), are you okay?”

“Yeah,” you lied a bit shakily. “But, uh, I think… I think I should head back home. I’ve got work that’s piling up and I really should get started on it.” You jumped up to your feet and Luhan followed suit.

“Do you want me to see you home?”

“No!” you exclaimed, waving your hands in front of you. A bit calmer, you added, “I’m fine really. But… thank you for the offer. Really. Um, I’ll see you around.”

You didn’t necessarily hightail it out of there, but you certainly walked at a fast pace, hoping that he wasn’t following you. Once you hit the first crosswalk, you glanced behind, but Luhan wasn’t anywhere in your line of sight. That let you release a deep breath.

Back at your apartment, you locked the door up tight behind you and tossed your bag down on the couch before collapsing beside it, your face in your hands.

You can’t do that again. That stupid, blonde wolf was doing something to you. He was messing up everything you knew and… you didn’t know if you were strong enough for this inner conflict.

Ever since you were a child, you were told over and over the story of the beginnings of the organizations. You knew them by heart so you could pass on the knowledge to your own children someday. It was what drove you and kept your fundamentals stable. But how true was it?

Centuries ago, when hygiene was still questionable and kings and lords ruled the lands, there were a nest of little villages in a valley. They were all friendly with each other, trading goods and lending a helping hand when hard times fell over them. But the skies wouldn’t stay blue forever.

One night, a monster came into the midst of the smallest village, killing any human it came across. Innocent blood was shed and the villagers didn’t know what to do. The following night, the monster came across the next village, except this time, it had company. Over a week of hell, the five villages were destroyed, only a few families able to survive the massacre.

After banding together, the men of the families set out to track down the monsters so they wouldn’t hurt anyone else. When they found the monsters, they were frozen with shock. They’d witnessed the dog-like monsters transform into men, laughing and joking with human lips and human lungs. With surprise on their side, the men attacked the monsters, eliminating the threat for good.

Or so they thought.

As the five families traveled to find a new place to settle, they heard stories of giant wolves attacking defenseless villages. These stories were new, recent happenings and they realized that the threat was not gone like they thought and there were more out in the world. So they decided that since they knew the secret of the monsters, they should be the ones to stop them.

Over the years, they trained their children, occasionally bringing in others to help their cause. Once they deemed themselves big enough, they split to stretch across the globe to rid every country from this scourge. To this day, the five families, now factions of the singular organization, still fight to erase the supernatural from the world, to protect their fellow man.

But did every wolf deserve it?

Tradition told you that their human forms were just disguises, that they didn’t know what it was like to feel real emotions and that all they did was hide until they were ready for their next attack, their next killing spree. But in your research, the reports of wolf attacks were few and far between in this area. And it’d been decades since the last one was recorded. Then there was Luhan.

He didn’t seem like a killer. None of the boys did. And Innie seemed so happy with Baekhyun, hormones telling her to be like that or not. What was going on in your world?

Grabbing the bag beside you, you threw it across the room, not caring in the slightest if you broke the camera inside as you released a wordless yell.

You pulled back your sleeve to expose the tattoo that you’d proudly let yourself be branded with. It was an honor to be inked with the arrowhead triquetra. It symbolized that you’d passed every test and had dedicated yourself to the cause. But was it all a lie?

No, you didn’t believe it was a lie. There were plenty of legitimate reasons for the organization to exist. Your mother’s scars were proof enough for that. But maybe… maybe it’d gone too far. Maybe there needed to be a distinction between the ones that attacked humans and the ones that just wanted to live their lives in peace.

You scoffed to yourself. Look at you, thinking radical ideas and off of what? One conversation and a few interactions with a single wolf pack? They could still be dangerous, they could still be a threat to humans. They could lose control and hurt someone. Baekhyun could hurt Innie whether it was intentional or not.

A battle was beginning to brew inside of you and you had no clue which side was going to win.

Just focus on the book, (y/n). Once you get that, you can leave and go back to the organization. Go back to your family. They’ll get your head back on straight.

God, you hoped that was true.