Slowly, I backed away from him. The fear that quivered on the back of my neck gave me adrenaline. "Wolf..." My voice shook as I said the word.
    His face suddenly became worried. "Don't be afraid!" He lifted his hands and waved them, signaling me to stop freaking out. "I won't harm you!"
    He won't harm me? I could hardly believe that anymore. I felt like him and his whole pack had been trying to hunt me down for game ever since that first night. I hardly wanted any more to do with this.
    The two of us stood staring at each other, speechless. I wasn't sure what to say to Chanyeol but that I wanted to leave. Although, the air around us didn't feel dangerous. The look in his eyes wasn't so bad either.
    "I can't believe that..." My adrenaline was still alive. I wasn't too sure if I could trust him knowing that he was a wolf. "I am unaware of your capabilities."
    A depressed look crossed his face and his lip curled to the side. "Would you believe me if I showed you?"
    "What?"
    Startling me, Chanyeol's eyes flashed brightly. His human ears grew upward into a pointed angle. Thousands of strands of hair began to multiply on his body and a tail vined out of his lower back.
    The sight of his transformation made the air around me go berserk. Strange sparks of light were shooting from every corner of my eyes. It was all some sort of transformation magic.
    Chanyeol (in his wolf form) howled loudly and painfully. The sound resonated in my ears, ringing inside of my head like a funeral toll bell.
    He looked down at me with his golden eyes. Each circular pupil staring straight into my soul. The feeling of crashing waves toward the rocks on the coast, waning toward the moon. Our interconnection.
    My feet, too scared to support me, went limp and I fell on my bottom. Chanyeol lowered his head down to my face and my cheek with a whimper. All I could do was sit quietly, baffled by the sight of his change. This was all too much for me.
    Unsatisfied with my reaction, Chanyeol formed back into his human side. He lifted his hand and my hair. "I'm sorry if I scared you... I just wanted to show you that I can control myself."
    I gulped once again. "Uhm... I can see that." I looked down at the ground.
    Chanyeol's eyebrows lifted and he noticed something in my hair. His hands quickly scooped the black wood comb out of my hair for inspection. "I can see you are wearing the charm I had specially carved out for you."
    "This was yours?" I took it from his hands and felt the deep carvings of the wolf head with my fingers. The rough texture brushed lightly against my fingertips. "Does this mean...?"
    "I really take a liking to you." He leaned his head in towards me and tilted it to the side, his eyes keeping locked with mine the whole time. "You're special."
    "Wait!" I pushed him back. "I thought you and your pack don't associate yourself with women because it is against the laws of your clan?"
    He put his hand on his stomach as he laughed. "Whomever whispered that into your ears is wrong. It is not that we do not associate with women, we just tend to stay away from them because we fear that we cannot control ourselves or our magic."
    "Then what about MAMA? Didn't you solemnly swear yourselves to her?" That question brought about a puzzled look on Chanyeol's face. He looked up in thought with a frown.
    "From the bottom of my wolf heart, I do not have the answer to that. We have sworn ourselves to her, but for some strange reason, we all feel like you are that answer which we have been searching for." He placed the comb back into my hair as he said this. With his hand, he softly my cheek. I blushed and looked away from him. A tornado began to twist inside of my heart. "Nou... Be with me and we can find out the answer together..."
    Chanyeol leaned in closer to my face, lips nearly touching. "I think you might be able to unlock the answers to all that we need to know..." I watched as he closed his golden eyes and inhaled my scent.
    "Stop what you are doing." A man's voice came clearly from behind me. I quickly pushed Chanyeol away and looked back.
    Kai stood tall behind me with a staff pointed to Chanyeol's face. I scanned the area to see Chen, Lay, and Luhan also pointing weapons in our direction. What was going on? Why were they attacking us? Why me? Why their own pack member?
    Luhan motioned me over to where he stood, offering a gentle protection from Kai's sharply pointed weapon. I immediatly scooted over to where he stood, hiding myself behind him. "What is happening to Chanyeol?" I whispered to Luhan.
    Luhan looked back at me and whispered under his breath. "Chanyeol has broken an ancient law, so we must bring him back to Father Wolf for trial."
    "He broke a law?" My confusion clearly signaled to Luhan that I still didn't get the laws of the Wolf clan. He sighed slightly and explained it to me thoroughly.
    "We are not allowed to show anyone our wolf transformation. When we transform, it is a secret and ancient magic that only we are allowed to witness. If we use it with another human being on the site of our change, we suffer great consequences and undergo a great trial by Father Wolf." Luhan's explanation was clear like water. The reason why Chanyeol should have kept his powers to himself was to keep me away from the secrets of the Wolf clan. Why didn't he stop himself though? If he knew this information just as the rest of them did, where was his control there?
    Chen walked over to where I stood and studied me carefully. "I have an idea of why he did not stop himself." He leaned in close to me. I hesitated to back away, knowing that I was in a vulnerable position. He breathed in a large amount of my scent and his golden eyes danced like flames. "You seem familiar."
    Lay, who was in the distance, loosened his hold on the arrow facing Chanyeol. He pointed it down to the ground and sniffled. He didn't say anything, but he felt the same way that Chen did. In fact, they all did. Every one of their reactions looked a little more relaxed after endulging themselves in the 'familiar' way I smelled.
    Kai's dark golden eyes switched from watching Chanyeol to me. He didn't budge a muscle, but I knew that he was doing the same thing that they were all doing. Taking in my scent.
    Instead of letting the feeling of their eyes caving in on me, I stepped up and asked a question. It was a particularly serious question, but the answer was needed to be known by the other four. I should help out. "Chanyeol! Why didn't you stop yourself if you knew the law?" His big ears perked up a little bit as he listened to me.
    Chen, Lay, Kai, and Luhan, once again, focused their eyes back on Chanyeol. All judging him before he answered but awaiting a final reason to bring him back to Father Wolf for trial.
    Chanyeol scratched his head and his pursed lips, then looked straight at me. "Because your presence makes me feel like I have the power to do anything without a reason to do so."
    The four other men looked at Chanyeol, surprised by his words. All their eyes suddenly went back to focusing on me.
    "We can hardly feel it like you do, brother, but we believe you." Lay took a few steps closer, bow and arrow hidden away on his back. "The small aura that feels familiar... Like Mama's..."
    Chen walked over to Luhan and bent down to get closer to talk. "We will let you off with this one. The four of us will not take responsibility of your actions nor will we take responsibility for her if you are taken for trial. Watch yourselves and do not get caught by Father Wolf." He patted Chanyeol's short, black hair softly and then lightly pushed him over.
    "As if I would let anything happen." Luhan, Chen, Lay, and Kai all stared at Chanyeol with estranged looks on their faces. They were confused. Chanyeol referred to me with a smile. "I have taken a liking to her, my brothers."
    "Another rule broken." Kai grumbled under his breath. His eyes looked away from us and into the distance. His sharp jaw structure stood out. "You had better watch yourself."
    It wasn't hard to tell that Kai could care less for his own clan members. Even Chanyeol, who always wore a bright smile, was ignored constantly. But brothers weren't always going to agree with everything.
    "Lay, Kai, Luhan..." Chen, who had mainly been quiet, didn't want anything else to do with this mess that Chanyeol had created. "Let's leave before we are troubled as well."
    The four of them, keeping in a pair, sprinted into the darkness of the woods without a single sound. Not even the leaves on the branches of the bush moved. They were as swift as the wind and as quiet as the night. It was no wonder they were such excellent hunters.
    Finally alone, Chanyeol and I were unable to speak. I wasn't sure what to say to him after hearing that he had taken an interest in me. Chanyeol wanted me to have the first word, but the more he didn't speak, the more the air around us suffered.
    "Uhm...." I started out a little off the edge. "I think I should go home..." I peeked over my shoulder at Chanyeol, who was already beginning to pout. His short black hair seemed even darker as the night crawled through the woods. The color of gold shone softly in his eyes. It was getting hard to see.
    "Will we see each other tomorrow?" His rough voice became gentler. I know he wanted to reach his hand out and hold me close, but it would be greatly ignored.
    "I do not know and I cannot make any promises." The disappointment that overcame his face when I said those words burdened my heart. I wanted to be able to appeal to his feelings, but that would mean leaving myself out in the open for a wolf.
    "Maybe we will get the chance to see each other again. If not tomorrow, sometime soon." Chanyeol cheered himself up with these last words. He rose off the ground and helped me up as well. Finally summing up the courage, he embraced me into his arms and squeezed me tightly.
    "Aren't you afraid that you're going to get caught!?" I exclaimed loudly, sort of hoping for someone to hear me. I was unfortunate though.
    "There is no one else around. Just the forest, the moon, the stars, you and I." His large hands played lightly with my hair. "I wish for this moment to last forever, but you have a worried family. I will let you go."
    With that, Chanyeol released me from his hold. One last smile for the night and then he disappeared into the dark without a sound. Just like the rest of them.
    I stood in my spot and dazed into the dark, hoping that I would be able to see his gleaming gold eyes. Not even a shimmer of light shone from the darkness of the woods. He was nowhere to be found. At least not by my eyes.
    "You should be more careful..."
    I jumped from the voice beside me. I looked over to see the man with blood red hair staring down at me. A sly smile was spreading across his face.
    "I was just sleeping in this tree here when you six bothered me from my sleep with your loud shouting. I bet even a deer miles away could have heard you all." The golden circle in his eyes did not rotate, nor did they even glow. Just a plain and dark color. Old remains of a light that used to be in his eyes.
    "Who are you?" I glared into those dark eyes of his. The way his eyebrows were arched made him seem even more angry than he already was.
    Those dark eyes of his had already seen everything. His small ears had already heard everything. He could hold everything against me. With a few words, Father Wolf would know that Chanyeol had broken ancient rules. He seemed horrible enough to do that, even to his own brother.
    I heard no answer to my question, so once again, I asked him. "Who are you?"
    A big smile grew across his face.

    "I am Zitao."