You woke up alone and confused. None of your surroundings looked familiar and you racked your brain trying to remember where you were. 

Ah, right. The wolf pack. This was their house. And you were in some random wolf’s room. 

Soomi was no longer beside you, nothing but rustled sheets where she’d fallen asleep so easily last night. She must have already gone downstairs. Great. Now you’d have to make the descension on your own. Gathering up your toiletries, you slowly pulled open the door and searched around the hallway. Voices echoed up from the living spaces below, but besides that there didn’t seem to be a soul around. 

With the coast clear, you hightailed it over to the bathroom, finding it made easy by the fact that someone had left it wide open. Double checking that the door was securely locked, you went through a quick version of your morning routine and then rushed back to the bedroom to get changed. 

Once you were ready to head downstairs, you found yourself frozen, unable to tackle that first step. 

Come on, (y/n). They’re just wolves. They won’t hurt you. What’s the worst that could happen?

Bravery at its highpoint, you buckled down the nerves bubbling in your stomach and headed down the stairs. 

The kitchen felt like chaos personified as soon as you stepped foot in its boundaries. 

Wolves and their mates were scattered all over the linoleum; eating, standing, talking loudly, and overall creating an atmosphere that made you want to turn around and jump back in between the covers. Unfortunately, you were spotted before you could even try. 

“(y/n), you’re up!” Soomi oh-so-graciously pointed you out as soon as she saw you. Too many eyes to be even remotely comfortable whirled on you, creating a silence that was even more compressing than the noise. 

Unsure of what else to do, you waved with a strained smile on your lips. “Hi.”

“(y/n), go ahead and sit down,” Junmyeon offered as he half-shoved, half-urged one of the wolves out of a chair from the table. 

“Hey!” the black-haired wolf whined with a pout as he stumbled to his feet. 

“You’re done eating, Jongdae, and she’s a guest,” Junmyeon huffed. He said it like such a mom you couldn’t help but choke back a snort. 

You tried to cover it up with a cough while several of the wolves smirked at you. Waving your hands in front of you, you insisted, “No, really, it’s okay. I’d rather stand.”

“Aren’t you hungry?” Soomi asked, concerned. 

“I’m good for now,” you said. It was mostly true. You were too nervous even think about trying to get food down to your stomach. Feeling a bit exposed in your current position, you shuffled across the room until you were next to Soomi at the counter. 

One of the wolves dressed in very casual athletic wear handed you a fresh mug that was a comfort to your sweaty cold fingers. 

“Thank you,” you told him quietly. He gave you a wide gummy smile before walking away. 

“So, should we get started?” Junmyeon suggested as he clapped his hands. 

“What about Sehun?” a tall wolf with ears sticking out asked. 

“He stayed out late last night,” said the imposing wolf with a deep voice and an air that radiated authority. He was seated at the breakfast booth with an adorable little girl with long hair sitting on his lap. “If he wants to keep sleeping, let him. We’ll catch him up later.”

Sehun? Was that who you saw last night? Too bad you didn’t have a face to add to the name. All you had were a pair of shoulders in a white t-shirt. If you were going to be here a while, you might as well start learning the names of the crowd. Junmyeon was the only one you knew and that was from a brief encounter several years ago. He wasn’t mated back then….

“(y/n)?”

You blinked, coming back to the present. “Yeah?”

“Can you go into detail about your last vision, please?” Junmyeon asked. 

“Um, sure.” Scratching the back of your head, you searched for the best way to verbalize what you had seen so that they would understand. “This one was the most clear, I guess? I was in the woods, at night. The blood moon was high and bright. A woman I didn’t recognize was there. She had platinum hair, but that’s all I could tell. I couldn’t see her face.”

“So, in your visions, you’re physically there as well?” one of the wolves asked. 

You nodded in response. “That’s what it feels like anyway.”

“Is it possible that this woman might be a witch?” Junmyeon hypothesized. 

The wolf named Jongdae growled threateningly and pulled the woman standing next to him in closer to his chest. 

“Calm down, Jongdae,” said the authoritative wolf. “That business is over. I doubt someone else is coming after your mate. Especially now that she’s marked.”

“Well excuse me for being cautious over the witch and blood moon combination,” Jongdae scoffed. The woman in his arms patted his hands caringly. 

“So what should we do?” one of the younger wolves asked with great concern. His face was a strange combination of sharp and soft. Judging against the others, you guessed that he was one of the younger ones of the pack. 

The wolf with the ears pushed his mouth into a pout. “Is there anything we can do?”

Junmyeon ran a hand through his hair. “Soomi and I are going to do more research on who this woman could be or what significant events could happen under a blood moon. Kita is looking into it as well and will update me if she’s found anything when she gets back.”

You couldn’t help it. Even if you’d been fully awake you didn’t think you would have been to hold back your facial muscles from forming a look of disgust and sending it Soomi’s way. Was she really going to put herself through that?

As soon as she caught your stare, Soomi elbowed you in the stomach to make it go away. 

“Ow,” you hissed under your breath. Rubbing the sore spot by your hip, you happened to look up and meet eyes with a blonde haired wolf. He looked at you curiously, his head tilted to the side and a confused frown pulling on his eyebrows. You looked away as you formed your face back into a neutral expression. 

“Do you realize how much significance a blood moon has in different cultures?” another wolf scoffed. 

“Baekhyun’s right,” the authoritative wolf agreed. “You might be able to narrow it down, but there’s no way to get a definite answer. What good does that do?”

“It gives us a starting point at least,” Junmyeon argued. “In the meantime, we’ll see if (y/n) has anymore visions. Since the girls are staying here, we’ll know right away and be able to add whatever she sees to what we already know.”

“Which is an extremely short list.”

“Wait, they’re staying here?” Baekhyun looked like his alpha had just told him he wasn’t allowed to phase for a month. “Isn’t this place crowded enough?”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Junmyeon was getting visibly frustrated. You felt a little sorry for the alpha. He was only trying his best. The circumstances didn’t exactly allow for much wiggle room. Granted, you weren’t too pleased about this whole thing either, but you’d done your arguing. Now you were going to just take whatever hits were sent your way. It couldn’t get any worse anyway. Right?

“I know construction on the other house isn’t finished yet, but we’ll have to make do. I promised Mother Willow that we would keep Soomi and (y/n) safe. I’m not going to risk them staying an hour away in the city where we can’t protect them.”

“We’ll stay out of your way as much as possible,” Soomi promised before looking pointedly down at you. 

With an obviously fake cheerfulness, you added, “Staying invisible is what I do best!”

Junmyeon didn’t find the joke particularly funny. “(y/n), that’s not neces-”

“Why is everyone having a meeting without me?”

All heads in the room turned to look at the newcomer. 

Standing at the bottom of the steps just inside the kitchen was the final wolf, the one you’d barely caught a glimpse of the night before. He was just as tall as you’d thought and your memory hadn’t exaggerated his wide shoulders. But when your eyes settled on his face, your heart did a cartwheel, banging against your sternum painfully. You looked away quickly, pretending to be uninterested in hopes of getting your heart rate back to normal. 

“Nice for you to finally join us, Sehun,” Jongdae said mockingly. 

“What did you do to your hair?” Junmyeon exclaimed in a very parental voice. But Sehun didn’t reply. 

Too curious for your own good, you looked back at the wolf to see why he didn’t answer. When you did, you frowned. 

Because he was staring right back at you, a confused expression scrunching his features. Was he not expecting you like the others? 

Your heart was nearly in your throat by now and you couldn’t get it to calm down. What the hell was wrong with you?

“Sehun!”

**

Sehun blinked, finally pulled from his confused state of mind. 

“What?” he snapped. Everyone was staring at him, including Soomi and another female he’d never seen before. 

“I asked ‘what did you do to your hair?’” Junmyeon repeated. 

Sehun bit back a smirk as he ran a hand over his new hair. 

It was supposed to come out as a more neon orange, but he didn’t completely hate the more copper tone it took on. That’s what he got for dying his hair blonde for years, he guessed. The new length was taking some getting used to, but he liked the lightness of it, already feeling cooler than the heaviness of the longer hair. 

Shrugging, he finally answered, “I wanted to try something different. Not like you haven’t done it before.”

Junmyeon looked like he wanted to argue back, but he held it back, only releasing a sigh and shaking his head. 

“So what did I miss?” Sehun asked, refusing to allow his eyes to flicker over to the additional females. Well, to one specific female really and it wasn’t Junmyeon’s old crush. 

When he’d first reached the kitchen, he’d been surprised at the fact that literally everyone in the pack – mates, members, and even little Mei – was shoved inside the food area. The atmosphere felt serious and tense, which was the exact opposite of what Sehun was wanting this morning after had gotten very little sleep. He wanted the chaotic yelling and roughhousing that he was used to. And food. He really wanted food. 

Stepping further into the kitchen, he forced himself to a stop when he realized what direction he was headed for. Why his body was headed for you was lost on him. Now he was stuck awkwardly standing in the middle of the kitchen with no way to play if off. 

“We were talking about what to do about (y/n)’s visions?” Kris answered. 

Sehun frowned. “Who?”

“That would be me.”

Turning to the voice that had called out, Sehun braced himself. Now he had a name to go with the face that had made him feel so confused. But why was he so confused? You were the witch who had seen something coming after them. Okay. Big deal. They were a large pack. They could hold their own against whatever came their way. They’d proven that with the hybrids years ago. So what were you doing here now and when would you leave?

The wolf in Sehun’s chest growled at his last question. What was that about? Sure, you were pretty, but that never moved Sehun before. He never cared about looks or anything like that before. But now there you were, holding a hand up and wiggling your fingers at him sarcastically and he was feeling… something. 

It took effort, but Sehun managed to tear his gaze away from you to look at his alpha. “Did she actually see anything this time?”

“Excuse you! I’m standing right here!” you barked. 

Rolling his eyes, Sehun shifted to face you head on. He could feel his heart pounding in his ears as your eyes met. There was no control over it no matter how hard he tried to shove it down. Even if he couldn’t put a stop to it on the inside, he managed to stay composed on the outside. “Alright, then. Did you actually see something this time? Or do we still only have to go by what you felt?”

“Screw you!” 

Having touch a very sensitive nerve, you pushed off the counter and stormed up to him. However, instead of stopping in his face, you kept going, checking him with your shoulder before you continued on your way out the door. 

In any other given situation, Sehun would have mouthed off some sarcastic comment to get the last word in. But in the shove, your bare arm made contact with his, sending a shockwave through his body. It was a hot electricity - not the kind that hurt, but the kind he might find himself chasing after. Unable to help himself, he turned and watched you disappear into the backyard. 

“Was that entirely necessary?” Junmyeon whined. 

“Leave it to Sehun to piss off the witch,” Tao snickered behind him. 

Sighing, Soomi started for the back door. “It’s alright. She’s just having a hard time right now.”

“I think Sehun should go apologize to her.” Junmyeon gave the younger wolf a very pointed look. And for once, he wasn’t going to argue. He’d even taken a step to go find you. 

“No, that’s not a good idea right now,” Soomi argued. “Trust me. It’s better if it’s me that goes after her.”

Sehun didn’t argue. In fact, he whirled on his heels and headed in the opposite direction, right out the front door. As soon as his bare feet hit the grassy carpet, he shifted. 

He was only beginning to understand what had happened when he first saw you. And to be honest, he didn’t know how to feel. So, for now, he’d simply ignore it. He didn’t know if you felt or understood what was happening and he didn’t really feel like explaining it to you while everything else was going on. As long as you didn’t outright reject him, he had time. 

So, he was going to take all the time he wanted. 

**

You’d found a rather large tree to hide behind once you thought you were deep enough into the woods. Right now you wanted to be alone. There were too many bodies, too many eyes watching you and you hated it. How did they live so cramped in there? How were you supposed to live like that?

The worst was you were going to have to be around him. Sehun. 

Sure, you’d had similar thoughts in the beginning, when the visions first started. You thought everyone was making a bigger deal of them than necessary. But you got past that. You came to terms with the fact that this was truly something to be worried about. And now no one understood that more than you. To be questioned now…

Leaning your head back against the trunk, you tried to push away the scene from the kitchen. The best way to ignore your hurt feelings was to focus on something else. So you did. 

You were all alone out here and, while there wasn’t any water, you had plenty to work with. There was a slight breeze in the air, rustling the fallen leaves that were scattered around the forest floor. Closing your eyes, you concentrated on moving the air at a faster speed. 

At first, nothing happened, but then you could feel the wind picking up against your skin. For some reason, that element was always the easiest for you to manipulate. All you had to do was let go, be light. And then you could make it move. 

“(y/n)?”

Your eyes snapped open and you peeked around the tree. Then you snorted. Soomi was standing just a few feet away, her hair whipped all around her face and stuck in . She blew out the hair and fixed it the best she could with her hand before taking a few more steps forward. 

“You really need to relearn restraint, (y/n),” she scolded as she sat down beside you. “These wolves are weary enough as it is. If they found out what you could do… I’m worried about how they’d react. I don’t want them to be scared of you.”

“So, I’ll always have to hide who I am, huh?” you scoffed. Why should you expect anything different?

“It’s not hiding who you are,” she insisted. “It’s simply protecting yourself. The last thing I want is for you to get used.”

“I can take care of myself,” you argued. 

Soomi gave you a smile before pulling you in close. “I know. But that won’t ever stop me from being protective over you.”

You couldn’t resist. You wrapped your arms around her waist and shuffled in deeper to the hug. After a few minutes of silence, you commented, “Coming here was pointless, just like I said.”

Soomi huffed. “It’s not pointless. We’ll find out the answers we’re looking for. Just give it time. Please?”

You didn’t answer. Because you didn’t want to. Even though you were out of Mother Willow’s house and away from the coven for the first time, you were feeling just as trapped. All you wanted was to be free. Free to see the world. Free to be who you were. 

It seemed no matter how hard you chased it, however, it would always be just out of your reach.