Sehun burst through the main entrance, panting heavily as he leaned against the nearest wall. He had shed his wolf form the second he saw the mansion in sight and the constant running had sweat pouring down his face. His wrist was throbbing, the burning sensation foreign to him. He had never experienced pain, or fear, on such a level. The mere thought of the intense gaze the brown haired man had glared at him caused him to shudder.

 He should’ve paid more attention to the information of the mission.

“Sehun, are you alright?”

The young man twisted his head to see a red haired man rushing towards him. He felt himself instantly relax at the sight. As soon as Luhan reached him he began to examine his body, looking for injures on the skin that was visible. He stopped when he noticed the evident bruise that had deepened into a sickening purple color marring the younger’s wrist. Sehun hurried to cover it up, ignoring the way the air around Luhan seemed to tense.

“Who did this?” He bit out, hands balling into fists at his sides.

“Calm down, Luhan…” Sehun murmured. “It’s nothing, I’ll have Yixing-“

“Lay, remember, his name is Lay.”

“I’ll have Lay fix this and I’ll be as good as new.”

Luhan watched him with skeptical eyes. He opened his mouth to say something but closed it with a light click. Sehun arched an eyebrow at his strange antics before he was abruptly pulled into an embrace. Luhan held him tightly, breathing in and out. Sehun snorted but nevertheless accepted the affectionate action. A silence wrapped itself around the two, until it was broken without any care.

“Get a room you two,” a tanned man called, perched on top of a wide steel arch.

“ off, Jongin,” Sehun replied monotonously.

“It’s Kai, brat. Learn the rules before you apply or those creeps will get you.”

Sehun pulled back from the hug, staring at Jongin. Jongin noticed the clear confusion on his face and grimaced, shaking his head in disbelief. Luhan rolled his eyes at him, tapping his foot to emphasize that he was waiting. The tanned man smirked, one hand raised high in the air before he snapped his fingers. The loud sound travelled across the whole room, bouncing off of the white walls.

It took a second, and then Jongin was standing in front of them with smoke dissipating from his body.

The duo that had watched the whole ordeal rolled their eyes at the same time. Jongin ignored them, turning to face Sehun with the same look of disbelief now back on his features.

“Didn’t loverboy tell you that,” he gestured to Sehun’s wrist. “We’ve got some guys who are out for our blood?”

The mention of blood and the subtle hint of being chased opened up a torrent of the memories of the event that had happened hours ago. How certain he was of completing the mission without any hindrance, how the people in the car had been nothing out of the ordinary. It struck him that he could’ve died.

He could’ve died without ever seeing Luhan or the rest of s.

Harsh breaths escaped his lips, a sense of dread filling every vein as he started to shake. Jongin’s expression quickly changed into worry as Luhan hugged Sehun again, this time tighter.

“He knew,” Sehun gulped, fear overtaking all of his senses. “He knew my name, he knew about my symbol… Luhan, he knew about us.”

Sehun’s emphasize on the last word earned him an even tighter embrace from Luhan. The shaking had faded, but it was still clawing at the insides of his skin. He was scared, he was scared of what the man could do, would do if he hadn’t let him go.

“I failed the mission.” He whispered, shame mixing with the fear.

 “It’s not your fault,” Luhan comforted him, rubbing soothing circles on his back. “What matters is that you are safe and here with us.”

Jongin coughed, breaking the two out of their reverie. “I hate to break the moment you guys are having but we need to report this back to gramps.”

“Do you mean Joonmyun-“

“Sehun, if it’s not gramps then its Suho.” Luhan corrected, reluctantly letting go.   

He nodded, clasping the other’s hand in his and surprising him at the sudden action. Luhan gave him a tender smile as they followed Jongin who tried to ignore their blatant display of affection.

Their footsteps echoed loudly on the marble floor, resonating further down the long hallway. Jongin quickened his pace when he saw a majestic door made of oak tower in the short distance, Luhan and Sehun following. The ghost of a smile flashed across Luhan’s lips as they neared the door. He knew Jongin could’ve bailed on them and teleported to the room instead of all the unnecessary running, he knew he wasn’t doing it because he didn’t want to leave Sehun alone despite Luhan being present. The tanned man had had a secret soft spot for the younger man the moment he’d been introduced to them.

Not that Luhan was going to voice his appreciation. Jongin didn’t need more of his ego inflating.

Without caring, Jongin slammed the door open. He didn’t wince at the large noise the oak did as it connected with the marble walls, instead he casually plopped himself down on his seat. Luhan gave Sehun’s hand an encouraging squeeze before disentangling their fingers from each other. He took his designated spot and waited for Sehun to find his. It had been five months since Sehun had come to them, but the rules and nicknames were still a foreign matter to him.

“I’m glad you’re in good shape, Jongin,” Joonmyun smiled from where he sat next to their second leader at the end of the long table. “Wufan, that’s Kris for you Sehunnie, should we start the meeting?”

Sehun blinked. He was used to Joonmyun fussing over him as well as teaching him all the rules that applied to their group or pack in the kindest of ways. He wasn’t used to Joonmyun calling meetings out of the blue, that was more of a thing Wufan would do.

“I’m glad you haven’t gotten too old, gramps,” Jongin retorted, smirking at all the faces present at the table. “You got everyone assembled before we even got here.”

“I’m not going to suffer from memory loss that soon,” The older man said calmly.

“Just checking, I’m not too excited about having Kris as our fulltime leader.”

A cough led to the end of the bantering. The cough came from no one other than the discussed person. Wufan clasped his hands together on top of the table, resting his head on them while he eyed all of the faces around him. His gaze ended on Sehun who squirmed under the intense stare.

“Oh Sehun, you failed your mission.”

It was straight to the point; Wufan didn’t even bother masking his words as a question.

Sehun gulped audibly, avoiding both Wufan’s eyes and Luhan’s worried ones as he fidgeted. “That is correct.”

“You were also injured.”

“Correct, the injury happened to my wrist.”

After he closed his mouth, Yixing was beside him in a second. The quiet man gently took his wrist and placed it on the table for everyone to see. Their stares some filled with curiosity while others where more or less bored at the sight, did nothing but make Sehun want to sink deep into the leather chair.

Without hesitating, Yixing laid his hand over the purpled area. Sehun watched in fascination as the man’s hand started to glow a white light over the bruise. A warmth buzzed as the light grew brighter, soothing Sehun and within seconds the bruise was replaced with its original white color. The bone even seemed stronger as he flicked his wrist, feeling immense strength pulsating beneath the skin. Sehun gave a small nod of appreciation in which he earned a gentle smile before Yixing returned to his seat.

“Thank you, Yixing,” Joonmyun complimented. “Now Sehun, could you please tell us what happened during today’s mission?”

The silence that followed was deafening. Sehun decided to talk; he wanted this meeting to end sooner than later. He told them everything, from the mission of dealing with the country house, to the car he’d seen driving down the highway towards the house and a man wearing a black leather jacket exiting the vehicle and entering the house.

“Why did you intercept them?” Wufan asked.

“The mission was to erase all survivors present,” Sehun recited. “I did what I was instructed to do.”

There was a low whistle heard from Jongin and Wufan surprisingly showed a glint of acknowledgement in his eyes. But Joonmyun didn’t look happy, an unusual serious expression taking over his face as he looked at Wufan.

“You gave him that mission?” He questioned.

“Yes, I felt that he needed to show us his potential-“

“Wufan, he came here five months ago,” Joonmyun interrupted, scowling. He is barely any older than Tao, who you went lenient on for more than that certain time spawn, and you let him do something as horrible as killing?”

His tone sounded not only sad, but also disappointed. Joonmyun never got angry, but when he was anything but kind and smiling it was both terrifying and took guilt to a completely different level. Wufan wasn’t a person who worse his heart on his sleeve, but everyone noticed the slight flinch.

“I still don’t even know why we do these kinds of things…” He continued wearily.

“We need to retake what was once ours, Joonmyun,” Wufan bit out. “You of all people should know that.”

Tension filled the room as Joonmyun’s eyes were downcast while Wufan glared at him. Sehun could sense it, could sense how the other half of the table displayed a silent agreement with Wufan while the people on Sehun’s side were visibly growling at Wufan for his negligence towards Joonmyun.

“He survived,” Sehun spoke up, stopping what could’ve turned into an outbreak. “That man and his companion survived.”

He was met with eleven different faces turning to stare at him in surprise.

“How?” Jongdae, or Chen they’d taught Sehun, whispered in awe.

“I wanted to scare them,” Sehun paused, trying to block the event that had surfaced. “I gave their car a slight knock, to see how they’d cope. When they continued driving I decided to finish it, I flipped their car over. I wanted it to look like an accident.”

“And then?” Wufan coaxed.

“They persisted; they tried to gain control of the car. I had to finish it, so I contacted Luhan and he told me to do it.”

“It meaning?” Joonmyun asked cautiously.

“I summoned a tornado and I sent it heading straight into their car.”

The majority of the members looked impressed, but all Sehun could feel was guilt. When he thought about it, Joonmyun had been right. There hadn’t been a reason for him to go up against the people in the car.

If he had left like he was supposed to, then he wouldn’t have put himself in this mess.

He wouldn’t have endangered all of them.

“But how could they’ve survived a freaking tornado?” Chanyeol burst out.

“I don’t know!” Sehun snapped. “The car was in pieces and there they were the driver and the passenger, lying under what was left of the roof of the car. The passenger wasn’t wearing his jacket; the driver somehow had it covered over him. I was going to examine his face since it was concealed, but he stopped me.”

He shakily pointed to his now healed wrist. “He threatened me, forced me to show him my symbol and then he let me go. The rest you already know.”

“Wait, he let you go just like that?” Baekhyun inquired in surprise.

“He said that the chances of Luhan listening in were too high and that he couldn’t risk his companion’s safety. Otherwise, I’d be their guest now.”

The tension from before was back, except this time it was more strained. The tension before had been violent, but this one was agitated. Sehun buried his face in his hands, trying to compose himself.  He heard the murmurs that sounded too loud in his ears, heard the indications of fear desperately being hidden in their voices.

“I guess they’re stronger than we thought,” Wufan stated casually, getting everyone’s attention.

“Indeed,” Joonmyun agreed, brows creasing. “I had no idea they’d gained that much information on us, the rumors were right.”

“Okay, hold on a second.” Jongin called from where he sat, looking back and forth at the leaders. “What’s going on?”

Joonmyun sighed deeply, massaging his temples. “All of you know that there are some people out there that are out for our blood, correct?”

There was a hum of acknowledgement before Joonmyun proceeded. “We didn’t tell you more of this information because we didn’t see them as a threat. We’d never crossed their paths and they’d never found or attacked us, scaring everyone about their presence was unnecessary.”

“But,” Wufan continued, letting Joonmyun take deep breaths. “Today changed everything. Sehun wasn’t only injured, that man knew who he was and what he was capable of doing. That means the chances of them finding us have gone from impossible to possible. Keeping this information from all of you is therefore out of the question.”

Sehun glanced up, patiently waiting along with the rest of them at the explanation. He had expected much, and he got more than he’d wanted.

The man had belonged to a special force known as the Chasers. They had been assembled to destroy each and every one of them ever since they came to Earth. Ever since their arrival, the government had finally created the perfect team of hunters that would bring back humanity. Their powers, if they possessed any, were unknown. But they were strong to the point of being unable to die, lethal and showed no mercy.

Sehun knew that.  

“That’s the full story, as you can see we know nothing about them while they know everything about us.” Joonmyun murmured, barely loud enough for the people in the vicinity to hear.

“It’s time we strike back though,” Wufan growled, eyes shining red for a split-second. “We can’t afford to let them find us.”

He gazed at each member, brown orbs burning them before he glanced over at Joonmyun. The latter looked older than his actual age, staring down at the table in defeat. Wufan took that expression as a confirmation before he turned his focus back to their pack, their members.

Their family.

“It’s time we show them who the true hunters are.”