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The phrase ”shaking in fear” was something you knew about and used quite frequently in your books. The meaning behind the phrase hadn`t really dawned on you until you found yourself  sitting curled up with your back against a tree, completely drenched from the rain that poured down, shivering in fear. Your eyes were wide open and your bottom lip quivered slightly with every shaky breath you took. Tears were uncontrollably streaming down your face as you tried to make sense of what you had seen. 

But it was no use, no matter how much you thought about it, it didn`t make sense, how could that creature have been real? There was only one thing you were absolutely sure of, you had never been so scared in your entire life.  

Kai was sprinting at an unnatural speed through the woods with the other five boys close behind.  He`d long since turned back to his human form so as not to scare you any further when he found you. He had to find you; the burning pain inside of him had flared up the moment you had run away from him.  But it was joined with another feeling as well, a sinking feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. He was worried.

“Jin.” He mumbled as he leapt over a fallen tree.

“We`ll find her Kai.” Suho reassured his friend.

“You know what`s out there Suho.” Kai turned his head towards Suho beside him.” We have to find her before anyone or anything else does.” 

The once heavy rain slowly began fading away leaving only a quiet silence in its place. The storm was coming to an end and soft rays of sunlight slowly set on your wet cheeks, though it was hard to tell if they were wet from rain or tears.  Your clothes, drenched and muddy from the rain water and forest soil, stuck to closely your body.

“You alright there love?” the sound of a silky smooth slightly husky voice snapped you out of your trance like state and with wide fearful eyes you whipped your head in the direction of the voice. A man stood in front of you, dressed in a black suit with a black trench coat on top. He was leaning against his cane while smiling down at your cowering figure causing his silver eyes to form crescent moons and almost disappear. You pressed your back harder against the bark of the tree to the point of it painfully tearing through the fabric of your shirt and leave shallow red cuts all over your back.  You found no courage to speak any words so you remained silent as the new intruder chuckled slightly while shaking his black bangs out of his eyes.

“You seem lost.” He said while offering what you assumed was supposed to appear as a kind smile but looked more like an amused smirk. You shook you head, no, you still did not fully trust your voice to form any single syllables but none the less felt compelled to reply to his question in some way. Sensing your hostility he straightened himself up before taking a deep bow.

“Allow me to introduce myself love,” He raised his head and this time his smile seemed friendlier for a brief moment before it twisted into a slight smirk once again.” My name is Jaejoong, and I mean you no harm.”

“Leave me alone” your voice came out cracked and hoarse, barely audible, and you swallowed hard in an attempt to strengthen it. ”Just leave me, please.” The man, Jaejoong, was about to speak again when a shadow swept past him and shielded your vision of him. It happened too fast for you to react and within second you found a pair of yellow eyes staring deep into your own hazel ones.

“Are you alright?” Kai spoke cautiously while scanning your body carefully for any injuries or scratches.  It took you a moment to realize what was happening, but when you did you mustered up all the strength you could find and pushed yourself of off the ground, away from Kai.

“Don`t come near me.” Your eyes were once again wide in fear as you held out your hands towards him, waving them about in a gesture that told him to stay away. Kai stood up as well, his once yellow eyes slowly losing its intense color with every step you took away from him. Despite your fear and current confusion with the situation you still noted the genuine hurt in his eyes and worry in his voice when he`d spoken. For some odd reason it tugged at your heart seeing him so broken when he looked at you, but with a small shake of your head you shoved that thought to the back of your mind and glanced over his shoulder instead to find that Suho and the others were facing Jaejoong, teeth bared and low growl erupting from the back of their throats. Jaejoong had once again plastered an amused smirk across his face as he twirled his cane between his fingers.

“Well look at this, never thought I`d have to honor of meeting a werewolf pack in these parts anymore.” His eyes glinted mischievously. ”Thought you were all almost extinct by now.”

“Guess you were wrong.” Sehun growled. ”Who are you?” Jaejoong groaned loudly and swung his cane to rest on his shoulder.

“Come on, I just introduced me to that one there seconds ago, do I have to do it again?” He nodded his head in your direction without taking his eyes off of the five boys in front of him. Suho stepped forward and spoke through gritted teeth.

“We`re not interested in your name.” Jaejoongs eyes once again glinted with mischief before Suho continued.” We want to know what you ar-“But before he could finish his sentence Jaejoong had raised his hands and snapped his fingers. The moment he did so everything seemed to go in slow motion for a few seconds before the scenery around you changed. You felt yourself lift off of the ground and hover slightly in the air while the trees and bushes seemed to mold together with the sky before separating again, now creating a new environment. The only thing left untouched were you, the boys and Jaejoong who had once eye closed while the other stared at you intently. You made a futile attempt to look away but his gaze held yours up until the moment you once again felt solid ground under your feet, then he broke contact and turned to observe his surroundings instead.  Following your example you hesitantly did the same only to gasp as your eyes landed on the interior of a very familiar looking living room.

“I thought that our conversation will be best held in a secure environment, you never know what might be listening in the forest.” Jaejoong said as he leaned against the counter of one of your study desks.

“How did you-“You began but Jaejoong cut you off, a habit of his you found slightly annoying.

“Magic. I suppose you`re familiar with the term.” The mocking grin on his face earned him a glare from Kai and a frown from you.  

“There`s no such thing as magic. I don`t believe in such things” You said and out of the corner of your eye you could see how Kai flinched and clutched his shirt tightly while briefly closing his eyes. You caught yourself wondering if he was okay and at the realization of that you bit your lip, you weren`t supposed to care about him, or any of them for that matter.  A loud chuckle broke you from your thoughts and you focused your eyes on Jaejoong again.

“After what I just did you still don`t believe?” He pushed of off the desk and moved towards you but stopped when Chanyeol and Kyungsoo blocked his path.

“Oh love, you better start believing, unless you want your friend over there to die.” Your eyes widened but you kept them on Jaejoong. You were about to ask him why he would say that when Kai once again blocked him from your view.

“Don`t” He warned with a low snarl and from behind him you could clearly see the sweat drops that trickled down his neck, exhaustion clear in his body’s behavior. You creased your brow, why was he still so dead set on protecting you considering the treatment you`d given him and his friend that last couple of hours. You gathered your courage and reached out to grab his arm, your intention being to get some answers from Jaejoong, but the moment your hand touched his arm Kai tensed notably and his breathing hitched in his throat. Once again you creased your brow and tried to push him out of the way but he was rooted to the ground, so instead you moved to stand beside him, releasing your grip on your arm in the process. Not even glancing at Kais face you turned towards Jaejoong.

“What do you mean I better start believing or he`ll die?” You were confused to say the least and though your previously paralyzing fear was still present within you it became less prominent every second that passed. Jaejoong, who`d been temporarily caught up in an intense staring contest with Chanyeol, turned his attention towards you.

“You`re his soul mate love.”  You furrowed your eyebrows, not understanding his words in the least, and Jaejoong noticed.

“Let me break it down to you love. He`s a werewolf, as I assume you must have gathered by now, they all are.” He gestured towards the boys around him who in return tensed up and glared at him, a fact that didn’t seem to faze Jaejoong in the least as he continued.” And all werewolves have a destined someone they`re…” He hesitated as he pondered on what the best way to phrase the next part would be, another grin spread across his face as he decided” …connected to them. Like a red string of fate, I`m sure you`re familiar with the term. Now you see love, when a werewolf finds their destined someone they get sick, love sick if you`d prefer to call it that, and they suffer an incredible amount of pain.” He paused to make sure you were still following him. You nodded, you understood his words but still couldn`t quite grasp the meaning behind them or where he was going with this. Jaejoong was about to continue when you felt someone grab your arm.

“Shut it.” Kai was breathing heavily as he spoke with great difficulty. He attempted to walk forward but stumbled and ungracefully fell towards the ground; he would have hit it pretty hard too had it not been for Baekhyun who was by his side in seconds to catch him. A simple nod of gratitude was all he could muster before he went out cold. Baekhyun gently placed Kai on the couch before moving to take Kais previous position beside you.

“Just stop it; what happens here is none of your business.” Baekhyun tightened his fists as he stared intensely at Jaejoong who didn`t seem the least bit bothered by the recent interruptions in his story telling.

“That`s the great thing about being me, I can do whatever I want.” Jaejoong mocked before looking at you once more. ”Now where were we, oh yes, do you know why they have to suffer so much pain upon finding their soul mate?” You shook your head in reply and Jaejoong continued.” Because they`re neither accepted nor rejected.” You furrowed your eyebrows in confusion, Jaejoongs words made little to no sense, how can someone suffer because they`re not accepted or rejected? But Jaejoong ignored your reaction as he continued.

“You see here`s the key part, the connection a werewolf shares with their soul mate is so strong that should their destined someone reject them, the werewolf will die.” At this statement not only your eyes but the eyes of the rest of the boys also widened.

“What do you mean?” Suho questioned, refusing to believe this piece of new information, they’d known about the being sick thing and that it would only get worse should a werewolf be rejected, but never had they thought it would go as far as dying.

“You mean you didn`t know?” Jaejoong chuckled. ”A werewolf’s soul mate becomes their life, their whole world will revolve around them should their partner accept them. Which is why it hurts them so much when they`ve just found their soul mate, because at that moment the chances of rejection are equal to that of acceptance. But should their partner reject them a werewolf loses his whole world and thus his life.”

Silence fell heavily over the room as Jaejoong finished, Suho and the other boys stared in disbelief at the ground in front of them as the weight of this new found information sunk in. Sehun along with Kyungsoo fell to their knees as they tried to wrap their heads around it while Suho and Baekhyun just stood there staring at the walls in front of them. Chanyeol was the only one who turned to look at you, his eyes almost b with tears as his mind registered that whether his friend lives or dies was entirely up to how you would respond to him, and judging from how you`d behaved lately any hope he`d previously harbored slowly faded away.

You yourself stood frozen in your tracks, your mind was racing with all this new information circling through it.  How could this be? How could you be a werewolf’s soul mate? It didn`t make any sense.  Your eyes met Chanyeols the moment he turned towards you and for the second time that day something tugged painfully at your heart as Chanyeol too fell to his knees. Shaking your head you brought your hands up to tug at your dark brown curls.

“This is just a dream.” You mumbled to yourself as you closed your eyes, determined to will away all the strange and unpleasant things that had happened since yesterday. ”Just a dream”

“It`s not a dream love.” Jaejoongs voice sounded too close for comfort which led you to immediately open your eyes and take half a step back, leaving Jaejoong no more than a foot away from you now.

“I`m not a bad person love, and this is not really a bad thing to be honest. All you have to do is not reject the wolf and everything’s fine.” He leaned casually against his cane as he spoke the words with ease, giving off the impression that the situation was nothing to be so dramatic about to begin with. You didn`t share his view point on that though so you kept your distance.

“But I`m not special so why in the world would I be the soul mate of somethin-” You stopped yourself mid-sentence to glance at Kai before continuing.

”..someone like him?” Kai stirred slightly as you finished and Jaejoong glanced at him with a grin.

“True love, you`re not special. In fact, you`re as plain as they come.” A teasing chuckle escaped his lips as he smiled at you. “But things like that doesn`t matter. What matters is, you`re his soul mate and whether he lives or dies lies with your decision.”

“I don`t want to be responsible for his death.” You whispered, barely audible. ”But I can`t accept him as a soul mate if I don`t love him.” Just like Chanyeol, your own eyes now brimmed slightly with tears just waiting to run down your cheeks for the second time that day. To your confusion though, Jaejoong stared at you with wide eyes.

“Love him?” He let out a roaring laugh.” Love, you don`t have to love him to accept him, just accept him as a friend first and work from there after that. Do that and he`s fine.” A wide smile spread across Jaejoongs face and the tears that had been building up in your eyes finally spilled over and slid down your face.

“W-What?” You managed to choke out before the day’s events took its toll on your mind and everything around you became pitch black as you fell unconscious. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A/N: It seems like I`m always writing these late at night, so I`ll check spelling etc. tomorrow. I hope I didn`t confuse you too much with the whole woul mate thing :P it will become more clear in the next few chapters, but I needed to get the basic idea of it out now or else I wouldn`t be able to move to story along. If you have any pointers or tips don`t hesitate to tell me, I don`t bite and I like your feeback ^^ Thank you~