“Ugh, my head.” Geonhak groans, body feeling much too heavy for his weight, and he tries to lift his hands to rub at his eyes and finds that he can’t move. “What the hell?”

“Welcome back to the world of the living.” An unfamiliar voice says, and Geonhak peels his eyes open, blinking against the harsh light as his eyes start to focus. He sees a male about Hwanwoong’s height, maybe a bit taller, with short hair and owlish eyes staring at him. “I’m so sorry we had to activate the emergency barrier system, but it was the only way to get to you.”

“Who are you? What do you want? Where is the rest of my group?” Geonhak growls, thrashing against the bonds that are tying him down, realizing that he’s also suspended from the floor by hanging ropes.

“They are being held in this building, don’t worry puppy.” The man smiles. “But we need to keep you separated for the bond to stay intact. For now.”

“What do you mean?” Geonhak asks, confusion on his face. “I’m not bonded to them yet.”

“Oh but you are puppy. You are very much bonded to each of them, for now.” The man comes closer, enough for Geonhak to see that he’s a half fae, half vampire hybrid. “We’ll take care of them. Don’t worry. They’ll get food and blood and the other human will assessed for his….worthiness to be your mate.” Geonhak can see the crack in the man’s mask at the mention of Dongju.

“You don’t like him” Geonhak points out.

“I didn’t say anything of the sort.” The man replies.

“Your face betrays your thoughts.” Geonhak snorts.

“Sharp as a tack.” The man laughs. “Good. You’ll need it for when you meet your father again.”

Geonhak inhales a shaky breath. “I’m not taking over the family business.” He says firmly. “I want to live in peace with my mates. I want nothing to do with what the Kim’s do.”

“Oh, but if we take away your ‘mates’, would you reconsider?” Another voice, this time female calls out. “You are too good for them my son.”

“Mother.” Geonhak sighs. “You are interfering with my life. I told you to stay out of it.”

“You can’t deny who you are, my son.” Geonhak’s mother comes up to them, her eyes blazing with fury. “It’s time they know who Kim Geonhak truly is.”

“They know who I am.” Geonhak spits out, anger crossing his face, eyes narrowing. “I’m Kim Geonhak, and I’m just an ordinary human whose about to become a vampire fledgling within the small vampire group ONEUS and be mated to the 5 men I love the most in my life.”

Mrs. Kim shakes her head, sighing. “You are Kim Geonhak, heir to the Wolf Throne of the 3 Kings and the next leader of the Wolf Council.” She replies. “We just need to bring your wolf out by the Blood moon, and you’ll find your true mate and stop this vampire nonsense.”

Geonhak sees the young man’s eye twitch a little at the way his mother carelessly dismisses vampires in her speech. “You care so little for vampires?” He sneers back at her, knowing she’ll probably hit him for his insolence. “I don’t have a wolf side, if I did, it would have come out by now.”

“On the eve of the Blood Moon in your 24^th year, all males in the Kim bloodline gain their wolves.” Mrs. Kim sighs. “If you’d had half the family interest that your brother does, you would have been ready to take the throne 3 years ago and known about your wolf side.” She tuts at him, walking around to look at him with critical eyes, coming close to inspect his neck, where he knows there are slightly raised marks from the last time Youngjo fed from him. “And you let those blood ers feed off you? What are you, their blood bag?”

“No, he’s our respected mate.” Hwanwoong’s voice rings out in the room, strong and clear, and full of fury.

Geonhak’s heart leaps in his chest at the sight of his vampire mate, blood staining his face and clothes, but the red-gold sheen to his eyes showing he’s not injured, the blood isn’t his.

“How did you?!” Geonhak’s mother screeches, taking a step back from Geonhak as the young man jumps in front of her, fangs already descended, claws out to protect.

Hwanwoong struts towards them, and Geonhak represses a shiver of desire at how beautiful he looks when he’s on the prowl. “Easily enough, when you give them the truth.” Hwanwoong smirks, his eyes wild. “Hakkie, baby, you will want to close your eyes. It may get…messy.”

The young man and Hwanwoong leap towards each other as Mrs. Kim flees the room through a hidden door, and Geonhak squeezes his eye shut as the sounds of flesh ripping hits his ears.

**

“I’m sorry.” Geonhak breathes, after he’s been cut down and his bonds removed, his body weak from hanging in the room and lack of food for several hours. Hwanwoong sits with him, blood off his hands as the body of the young man lays several meters away from them in a pool of blood.

“Don’t be.” Hwanwoong shrugs. “We knew you had a weird family history, and Youngjo was starting to suspect you had wolf blood in you, especially with how you latched on to Dongju and bit him this week.”

Geonhak blushes and ducks his head. “Apparently I’m half werewolf, half human.” He says, looking at the lingering rope marks on his wrists.

“And we could care less what you are, more that we care you are alive and unharmed.” Dongju’s voice cracks as the rest of the group makes their way into the room, as Geonhak’s head snaps up at the sound of his voice.

Dongju’s got a couple of cuts on his face, and is limping a little, but looks relatively unharmed. “We need to get out of here and find a safe space. The start of the Blood moon cycle is in a few hours, and I don’t know about you guys, but if we don’t get to safety soon, you two are going to be targets for a lot of other vampires.”  Youngjo grimaces.

“We’re probably deep in my family’s territory right now.” Geonhak sighs. “The only safe space I remember is an old house I used to go hide in as a teenager when my parents fought. If we are in the main compound, the old house should be about a half hour walk from here.”

Surprisingly they manage to escape the building and get across the yard before they are spotted, an alarm raising as Dongju trips into the bushes at the edge of the yard and the noise brings out someone from the nearest building.

“RUN!” Geonhak shouts at them, pointing towards the south, towards the area where he thinks he remembers the house being. They all start running as the alarm starts to take on the same tone the barrier system at the safe house had, but not as loud.

Geonhak stumbles as he runs, head already fuzzy as the barrier alarm gets louder, body still weak from lack of food and water for who knows how long.

Keonhee grabs his arm as they run, “I got you.” He huffs, and they slowly catch up to the others.

They make it to the edge of the property before they hit an invisible barrier, Youngjo being the first one to hit it and bounce back, falling onto the ground as the others stumble into the barrier shortly after him. “What the ?” Geonhak growls, his hands bawling into fists as he presses against the invisible wall that is keeping them from passing off the main property.

It takes a minute or two for the Kim wolves to come to them, but they don’t seem to be in a hurry, and Hwanwoong sniffs the air, his senses kicking in as the blood he’d taken from the young man he’d killed finally hits his system. “Fae magick.” He breathes out.

“They’re working with the fae?” Dongju squeaks, a little bit of fear in his voice, and they all pull together in a small circle to stay close in case they need to defend themselves and each other.

“Well, to be fair, I did pay them a pretty penny to attack you. But they failed, as usual. Can’t trust a fae to do a job properly.” A deep voice that sounds just like Geonhak speaks from a group approaching them. “Geonhak, son. Stop this nonsense at once and come take your rightful place.”

“ you.” Geonhak spits out, unable to stop the anger from growing. “I don’t want it!”

“I see your wolf is starting to show itself. Good. The anger is the first to manifest.  You know, I was much like you before my 24^th Blood Moon, confused, upset, didn’t know what I wanted. I hated your mother at the time, for getting pregnant with you. I was angry at the world. At the Goddess for choosing me to sit upon the Wolf Throne.” The man comes closer, and they see a much older version of Geonhak sitting on top of a horse, grey hair at his temple and a frown on his face. “In time, you’ll come to realize that it is where you are meant to be.”

“I don’t want to be you!” Geonhak shakes his head. “I don’t want to take your seat! I want to live my life with my mates in quiet and be a teacher. I don’t want to deal with politics and ruling over the Kim clan. You have my brother for that!”

Mr. Kim sighs. “I hate it when you’re difficult. It leaves me no choice but to kill this vampire group and that boring human. Too bad we won’t know if he’s your true mate or not now. I was going to be lenient and let them all live after the Blood moon once your wolf came out and listened to reason.” He turns his head and nods at someone off to the side.

“Hyung!” Geonhak hears Dongju yell at the same time he turns towards his mates, eyes wide with fear as the sounds of guns cocking and firing echoes in his ears. He dives towards Dongju as the gun sounds go off, the fear pulsating through him so fast that he doesn’t feel the bullet hit him until he hits the ground, Dongju underneath him, eyes wide with fear as his hands come back with blood on them as he hears fighting erupt behind him.