You stared of into the distance as you sat on the steps of the back porch of the hunters’ home. You were not staring at anything in particular. You honestly wished you had something better to preoccupy yourself with. However, right now, all of the hunters were getting ready for the full moon. Judging by the sunset, it was almost time. You weren’t anxious. Not nervous at all. You felt as though what was happening was so surreal there was no way it could be real. Yet, it was. You had joined the hunters and the werewolves were now your enemy.

Despite being deep in thought, something caught your eye from your right. Someone in a white shirt sat down next to you on the steps of the porch. You paused your thoughts as you stared at him.

“Jaehyo?” You questioned him. He didn’t turn to you. He just sat there, staring off into the forest you were previously looking at.

A hand ruffled your hair just then. You looked up and found P.O looking down at you. He sat down on the other side of you and cradled his chin in his palm.

“You don’t have to come.”  He told you without looking away from the forest.

“I want to.” You asserted to him.

That’s when Jaehyo spoke up, “You’ll be a burden on us if you come.”

You turned to him and huffed, “I’m not asking you to be a shield for me. If you think I can’t handle myself then we can go at it right now.”

P.O laughed as Jaehyo furrowed his brow at your threat, “Alright, fine.” P.O slung his arm around your shoulder and ruffled your hair again, “Don’t hesitate to come straight home if something happens though.” He pointed at you and you nodded in acceptance of his terms.

“It’s time to go.” A voice got the attention of the three of you. You all turned to find B-Bomb standing next to the back door.

You got out of the truck at the old water mill at the lake. You readjusted your belt and fixed your jacket as you gathered you nerves together. B-Bomb inspected you from the other side of the truck. He was silently watching your nervous mannerisms when someone suddenly spoke to him, “Hey, Zico’s car isn’t here. He left before us didn’t he?” U-Kwon asked him as he stretched from being cramped into the truck with you and B-Bomb.

B-Bomb looked around with furrowed eyebrows.

“Maybe he’s waiting at the mill.” Kyung spoke up as he got out of the white Hyundai behind B-Bomb. Jaehyo, P.O, and Taeil all got out of the car after him.

You however did not have as much faith in Zico as Kyung did. You had a feeling that something wasn’t right about Zico not being there. Nevertheless, the seven of you made your way to the mill. Your heart pounded like crazy. You would see all of the werewolves together. You weren’t sure what expression to make and right now, you had no time to really plan anything out.

You reached the water mill sooner than you would have liked to. When you emerged from the brush of the trees, seven heads turned into your direction. Surprise crossed their faces, as it should have. They probably had no idea what you had been learning from the hunters all this time. No idea that the hunters didn’t just leave you to hang out on the sidelines but actually put you to some use. It was no question they expected you to stay behind.

In fact, one of them voiced out his opinions as soon as the seven of you came to a stop in front of them. “What the hell are you doing right now?” Sunggyu growled at you. Kyung stepped in front of you, blocking Sunggyu’s view.

“What’s with the words, didn’t we agree to come here so that we wouldn’t have to spend time on useless chatter?”

Woohyun frowned and took a step forward, “What are you doing here?” He ignored Kyung’s statement and continued talking to you, “You need to leave.”

P.O stepped up and put an arm around your shoulder, “You need to quit ordering her around like she’s still one of you.”

Sungyeol suddenly made a move forward, causing Hoya to hold him back. Sungyeol bit back his tongue in order to stop himself from blowing whatever plan you seemed to have up in your face. However, the way the hunters seemed so friendly with you was drying his patience.

“Send her home.” Hoya spoke up before Sungyeol could. “She’s not a part of this.”

U-Kwon laughed and opened his mouth to speak only to be interrupted, “I am a part of this. I’m not going anywhere.” The seven wolves looked at you with questioning eyes. This only served to fuel your frustration. Still, still they couldn’t trust you enough to let you into their fights. Their secrets. Their world.

Sunggyu shook his head in disapproval as he looked at you in disappointment, “Don’t make me have to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt a human who has nothing to do with this.”

Kyung stepped forward with one foot and tilted his head up at Sunggyu in a mocking gesture, “I’d like to see you try to a lay a single finger on her.”

Sunggyu crossed the boundary so quickly no one could even anticipate his movements. He punched Kyung square in the face and Kyung stumbled back a few steps. Sunggyu looked him up and down, “You’re wrong if you think that applies to you too.”

Kyung rubbed his sore jaw in slight disbelief of what just happened. He looked back up and locked eyes with Sunggyu, “You’re going to wish you didn’t strike the first blow because now I have no reason to hold back.”

Before you could even process a way to stop the two from hurting each other, you heard the sounds of ripping flesh. You had heard that sound enough to know exactly what that meant. U-Kwon, who was previously standing beside you, went falling, or more like flinging, backwards by something large and brown so quickly your hair flipped due to the wind brushing by. You whipped your head back to see U-Kwon socking a wolf in the face. The wolf was large and not in terms of fat. This wolf had a muscular body slimmer than Hoya’s which you remembered from the day you took care of his wolf form. This wasn’t Dongwoo, Sungyeol, Sungjong, nor Sunggyu, whose forms you had also seen before. No, just by watching it’s movements as it launched itself at U-Kwon, you knew. The wolf was Woohyun.

The shimmering gleam of gold caught your eyes next. When you followed the sudden flash of light, you realized it was Dongwoo’s fur gleaming under the moonlight. He was headed straight towards B-Bomb who seemed not in the least bit surprised Dongwoo chose to once more fight him. You turned back to the werewolves, finding Myungsoo slowly cracking his knuckles.

You’d be lying if you said you would have easily been able to look away from him. You were waiting in anticipation. You wanted to see it. To see how he changed. To see how he looked. However, he did not change as you expected.

Even as Sungjong beside him went running past, leaving your range of vision before you heard skin ripping. What followed was a recognizable snarl only an animal could produce followed by P.O’s ramblings. Even as Hoya decided to fight Taeil hand to hand just a few feet away from you. Even as Sungyeol did not hesitate to reveal his black furred wolf form before dodging Jaehyo’s throwing knife that whipped past his face. Even as the fight between everyone around you got louder. You could only stare at Myungsoo, waiting to see what he would do, what move he would make. Instead, he did nothing.

That’s what bothered you. How nonchalantly he had decided to not even think you were worth the effort to even approach. It angered you that even now your presence was a footnote to their story.

That’s when you heard it. Besides all of the fighting going around you right now, you heard a distinctive tear to your left. Sunggyu had changed. He was serious. He wouldn’t have changed otherwise. Last time he fought the hunters without even changing and almost killed one of them. You found your feet moving on their own as you went to Kyung’s side immediately.

Myungsoo at first wasn’t sure what you were doing. Once he realized what was going on, he sprinted after you. You had stepped in between Kyung and a charging Sunggyu. Sunggyu had no way to stop his claws that descended downward where Kyung once was. Instead, his claws ripped through the skin on your arm and left three parallel slashes. You winced in pain but swiftly pulled your knife from your belt holster. You held it up in a defensive stance, not showing weakness despite your arm that now felt like it was on fire.

“Out of the way.” Kyung tried to push you away, anger filling him quickly towards the wolf leader. You did not oblige to him and kept firm in your stance. You glared at Sunggyu, keeping your eyes on him.

Sunggyu’s wolf form slowly took a few steps back.

You were so focused on him, and Kyung so focused on you that you didn’t notice Myungsoo from your left coming at you with great force. He tackled you, making you and him both go falling back a few feet and giving Sunggyu an opportunity to get at Kyung; which he immediately took. However, the reason Myungsoo went after you in the first place soon became clear. It was in order to avoid having you get squished by a silver blur that now landed down in between Sunggyu and Kyung.

Myungsoo got off of you and turned to face the wolf he had never seen before.

You, on the other hand, had seen that wolf before. It was the wolf that Zico had confronted that day you and Kyung had followed him into the forest. The moonlight made its coat look even more brilliant than when you first saw the creature.

The entire area went silent as everyone focused on the wolf. The werewolves especially were memorized by its appearance.

It did nothing, paid attention to nothing, except you. The wolf lowered its head and opened its mouth before looking back up at you again. On the ground you saw something shimmering. It was a leather necklace of some kind. You got up, making Myungsoo unsure if he should yank you to sit back down or not. He was too stunned to reason correctly and you ended up walking towards the wolf with no one to stop you. As you got closer, you saw what was shimmering on the ground. A key. The same key Zico, Taeil, and you had found at the mayor’s house. The same key that should have been with Zico right about now.

Your head snapped up quickly at the wolf, “Zico?” You questioned frantically. The wolf only stared back at you. You shook your head no. That’s when the blood on the wolf’s fur became noticeable. You couldn’t control your thoughts as you gripped onto the key and lifted it off of the ground, “No.” You murmured. You stepped back slowly as your mind worked. Your memory had gotten much better since you followed Zico that day. You never tried to before, but now, you could remember the path he took back then. Your unconscious mind now produced a map for your conscious mind to follow.

You pivoted on your heel and broke out into a run towards the place the hunters’ parked their cars. Myungsoo gripped onto your wrist as you went running past him, only to have you continue on as if he never had.

Soon, B-Bomb and P.O followed after you, completing forgetting about the fight with the werewolves. Taeil, Kyung, U-Kwon, and Jaehyo all ran as well. All of them heard you when you said Zico’s name. And from the look of desperation on your face, now was not the time to have another fight with the werewolves.

The wolves couldn't help but wonder what was going on right now. They turned their attention to the werewolf that had appeared. To their displeasure, it bolted away just as quickly as it had appeared. Sunggyu, still in his wolf form, made eye contact with Sungjong and Sungyeol. The two wolves, the fastest ones of the seven, took off after the mysterious wolf. With nothing to go on, they had no choice but to go after the one lead they had.

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A/N  eaten by AFF.