City of Wolves

“The moon is rising soon, the moon is rising, ready, set, oh my, the sky is brightening.”

            - EXO-K (Two Moons)

[Lay and Kai and Tao]

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yixing runs.

His shoes pound against the hard concrete of the sidewalk with dull thuds, his shadow flits in and out of others as his figure rushes past cars and buildings and people. He has nothing on him but the sweaty clothes on his back and an extra set in the tiny backpack on his shoulders. The distant sounds of vehicles honking and drunk people laughing and club music blaring are drowned out by the sounds of Yixing’s heavy breathing.

A few people turn their heads in surprise as Yixing rushes past them, but he pays them no mind.

Because he can feel it coming.

He frantically searches for the building.

Not that one, that has too many windows. Maybe this is it- or not, it has a white door.

Yixing is so preoccupied with finding his building and trying not to pull at his hair in frustration that he nearly trips over a startled cat that hisses angrily at him as he barely manages to jump over it.  

That one! The one with exactly two shattered windows on each side of the gray door and graffiti painted all over its walls.

Yixing knows the building well. He has to.

It has been abandoned for years. With nothing behind it but a desolate garage surrounded by tall, iron gates. It was the perfect place for Yixing to Change.

He takes a cursory glance around the city street, makes sure that no one is paying attention to him because he is technically trespassing, then darts quickly into the shadowy alleyway beside the building.

In the murky darkness, he finds the gate and fumbles with the wire that holds it shut. He throws open the door, lets himself in, slams it and reties the wire. Tight. So he can’t escape.

It is then when the dull pain that he’s been feeling all day intensifies and he collapses against the gate with a groan. His backpack falls next to him with a tiny thud.

He estimates that he has half an hour left until it happens.

Yixing can feel it. He his bones ache as they prepare to shift and reform, he feels his muscles bulge and tense in anticipation of the powerful morph. There are no streetlamps in the abandoned garage and the silvery orb in the sky that is the leading contributor to his distress is all but spitefully concealing itself behind the dark outlines of the tall buildings, but he can still see through the darkness perfectly as if it were day. He can hear nocturnal animals rummage through trash cans, hear people talking five streets down from where he was, hear the street cats prowling around on the rooftops.

All that is left to do is wait.

A minute passes and Yixing’s breathing becomes labored. Another minute after that and Yixing has to bite his knuckles until they bleed to stifle his cries of pain because he cannot be heard or discovered or there would be an article about an animal-related murder in the newspapers the next morning.

“Hey.”

Yixing heads snaps up, his feral eyes training on a caped figure standing in the middle of the lot.

“Wh-who are you?” he growls, pressing himself into the gate.

“My name is Jongin, but I go by Kai,” the figure says. He steps forward, probably to let Yixing see him better, but his efforts are in vain; Yixing sees perfectly.

Yixing can see that the boy is young, not even in his twenties. A bit young to be mauled by the crazed animal he knew he would become.

Kai smirks. “You have interesting eyes, Yixing. A bright, vibrant shade of yellow, almost golden, almost beast-like.”  

“It’s just the light,” Yixing mutters, calling upon an excuse that hebeen told a million times.

“What light? I don’t see any lights.”

Crap. He had forgotten that the garage had no lights.

“You should get out of here, kid. Now,” Yixing snarls as his headache intensifies. “You don’t wanna be here, I’m serious.”

“Oh, I know you are,” Kai grins, flashing his white teeth. He begins to move towards Yixing, walking slowly and deliberately with carefully measured steps like a wolf advancing towards his prey; Yixing scoffs at the irony. “I always take werewolves seriously.”

“H-How did you-”

“I know a lot of things about you, Zhang Yixing,” Kai says quietly. “Bitten at age nineteen, transformed fifteen times since then, twelve of those times in this very parking lot. Ran away from home to keep your family safe. Clean record, you haven’t killed or turned anyone since you became a wolf.”

“Congratulations, you’re a stalker,” Yixing spits, clutching his head as the agony slowly mounts. “And not a very intelligent one at that, consorting with a werewolf minutes before a full moon-”

“Do you want a new life, Yixing?”

What?

Does he want a new life? If he doesn’t have to hide during every full moon or be a danger to others? If he doesn’t have to wake up every morning and shivering on the cold concrete of this parking lot and hope that he hadn’t been discovered?

Who wouldn’t?

But what can this Kai do about it? What can he do that Yixing hasn’t tried in the past year or so? But if this human wanted to play with a wolf, then so be it.

“Y-Yes.”

“Then come with me,” Kai beckons Yixing, having already unlocked the gate.

“Now? Are you crazy?! I’m going to turn in-”

“Twenty-three minutes and thirty-seven seconds,” Kai interrupts coolly, tapping his pocket watch. “More than enough time to get to where we need to go.”

Yixing doesn’t budge.

“You’re going to have to trust me, Yixing,” Kai sighs. “Or… you can spend the rest of your full moons right here in this dump wondering whether you should have followed me or not.”

Reluctantly, Yixing shakingly gets to his feet and follows Kai, ignoring the burn in his protesting legs. He doesn’t like the idea of following strangers, but if this guy is indeed trying to take advantage of him, he has very little time to do so before he turns and mauls the living daylights out of him.

Kai leads him out of the alleyway and along the street and into the nearest subway station.

The steps down are agony for Yixing, whose feet are already starting to modify their bone structure.

“How long will the ride be?” Yixing stutters. His teeth are beginning to elongate and he’s trying not to bite his lips when he talks.

“Ten minutes, don’t worry.”

They reach the track and Yixing is positively limping at that point. His shoes feel way too tight for him to be comfortable walking at all.

Kai pulls out a cell phone and dials a number. “Yes… Kai here. Dispatch Train CW and direct it onto Track 6, we’re waiting at Station 3.”

“What is this place we’re going to?” Yixing asks.

Kai looks at him. “It’s an underground sanctuary for werewolves. Well, I take that back; it’s far from a paradise, more like a safe hideout for them to go to during a full moon. I’ll explain on the way there.”

Yixing hears the train before he sees it. It’s not what he expects, it is hardly even a train. It consists of a single car and a driver. The station doors open along with those of the train and Jongin leads him into the subway.

An annoyed teen with jet-black hair, currently yellow cat-like eyes and pronounced eyebags glares at Jongin. “Dammit, Kai, you can’t bring them in sooner? The moon’s about to rise and I am in pain.”

Kai rolls his eyes. “Then shut up and drive this thing.”

The train doors close and the cars begins to move.

Yixing slumps down in his seat and tries to even out his breathing. His body temperature is rising, and the oncoming fever is a sign that he will Change very, very soon.

“Try to relax, it eases the pain,” the boy suggests.

Yixing looks up. “You’re a wolf, too?” The boy nods. He is sweating and his eyebrows are furrowed in discomfort, but he is calm as he directs the train towards wherever they are going.

“The City of Wolves,” Kai begins as he takes off his hat, “is a place for werewolves only. Simply put, it is an underground city, meant to protect both werewolves and humans during the full moon transformations. Some wolves choose to live there, some don’t. But it’s the ideal place for every werewolf to make their Change. That’s why I seek out werewolves and bring them here, keeps everyone safe.”

“You will be free to return to the surface once the full moon passes,” the driver added. “But the full moon is rough on every werewolf, so there are places in the city for you to recover.”

“You basically put all the wolves underground and let them transform?” Yixing asks, partly to distract himself from the pain in his bones as the heat in them flares up. “Isn’t that a bit dangerous?”

“Werewolves don’t harm their own kind,” Kai replies, eyes moving from him to the driver. “They coexist peacefully.”

Yixing stares out of the window, squinting his eyes at the blurred lights as they whizz by while trying to make sense of Kai’s words.

Then he doubles over as his body contorts painfully and a very involuntary, animalistic growl is ripped from his throat. “, J-Jongin, I’m Changing…”

The driver is bent over, too, panting. “You need to work on your timing, Kai,” he says through gritted teeth. “We’re literally turning right on the platform.”

“We’re almost there,” Kai mutters, glancing out of the window. “Only about a minute left.”

That minute is the longest minute Yixing has ever waited in his life. Mainly because he’s trying not to explode out of his own clothes and kill the guy who’s giving him a safe place to stay.

The train rolls to a stop. The car doors and the glass doors on the station slide open, and the two werewolves stumble out and collapse to the floor.

“Thanks for doing this. I’ll pay you double for tonight,” Kai promises the driver. “And I’ll take the train back.”

“Fine, now leave,” the boy snarls in response, already shrugging out of his sweater and throwing off his shoes.

“Kai?” Yixing manages to get out as he struggles to remove his shoes.

“Hmm?”

“Thank you…”

Kai smiles at Yixing. “You’re welcome.”

The doors slide closed and the train rolls away.

“I don’t think I caught your name,” the boy pants. He turns towards Yixing, annoyed demeanor gone and replaced with a friendly one. Yixing sees the muscles stretching under the tight, black fabric of his shirt. And from the way his own clothes are becoming tighter, he can tell that he’s close to Changing, too.

“Yixing,” he replies.

It’s coming. His heart is beating in anticipation.

The boy smiles. “Nice to meet you, Yixing. I’m Zitao. Welcome to the City of Wolves.”

Soon… His wolf is clawing to the surface.

“Glad to be here.”

Now.

Zitao falls onto all fours and Yixing follows suit. Their screams echo off the grimy walls of the empty station as they shamelessly strip off the remainder of their clothing.

But even as the pain peaks and Yixing digs his extending claws into the fabric of his discarded shirt with a feral growl, he knows he is safe.

This time he willingly gives himself over to the wolf. He is with his own kind now. There is no need to hide who he is any longer.

Minutes later, there are no longer two humans on the platform.

Yixing cannot see the moon, but both he and Zitao instinctively turn their heads in its general direction and let out long, echoing howls.

They know that they have somewhere to go. They have somewhere to belong.