Note: I really want to thank everyone who subscribed and upvoted even before I posted anything! I am so touched :') That is why I decided to make it chaptered. Do anticipate what I have planned for it. For now, enjoy the first chapter which is an introduction to everyone and bits of their personalities!

p/s: I hate naming my chapters ><

“MUMMY, SEHUN IS BEING AN A.S.S AGAIN!”

Baekhyun groans as he stirs from his—yet another restless—sleep.

“And so the day begins,” he thinks as he slowly pushes himself up into a sitting position only to fall back down onto the fur pelt when two of his more energetic pups attacks him frontally.

Wordlessly, he attempts to bring himself to his feet again. This time he’s successful, although he feels like he’s effectively a coat rack. Jongin is clawing at the sleeve on his right shoulder, and Chen is hanging by his teeth on the front of his shirt. He peels the chocolate brown pup from his shoulder and places him gently on the ground before he pries the slightly smaller orange pup off him. Chen jumps from his hand and lands on all fours before he’s sprinting out their cave into the open space outside.

Baekhyun is greeted by the blinding streams of sunlight through the canopy of the trees when he waddles out. He stretches out his aching limbs and yawns before a smile spreads across his face. No matter how hard it gets, waking up every day to the scene before him always makes it all worthwhile.

Their cave of a home is located at a vast forest clearing that’s about the size of a football field and a half; perfect for their huge family. Both Chanyeol and Baekhyun had been outcasts from different packs and fate had brought them together in a sweet serendipity of coincidence. They decided that they never really needed anyone else, as long as they had each other. This was also the reason why they had both desired a large family to fill in the void in their hearts that had been created when they had been abandoned by their respective packs.

Right smack in the middle, he sees Jongin, Chen and Tao in an extremely tangled knot of limbs, engaged in a heated wrestling match. The triplets are always seen together so they’re also the rowdiest bunch and both Chanyeol and Baekhyun had termed them as the Three Musketeers. Kris, the oldest of the bunch, was being the independent trooper he was, carrying twigs in his mouth and piling them up a few feet away from the Three Musketeers before he started to build a fort – something he loved doing. His little D.O was alone like always, quietly sneaking one of Kris’ twigs and then using it to draw into the soil, far away from the rest. He was the only one who was in human form. The rest of the pups absolutely loved being in wolf form since they figured they always had more fun that way.

Sehun and Luhan, the twins, were sitting on a tree stump with Sehun Luhan’s ear that seems to be bleeding. The sight of blood causes Baekhyun to go into panic mode as he hurries to his twins.

“Lulu, are you okay? What happened to your ear?” Baekhyun asks worriedly as he examines the wound. The blood has already dried but it still doesn’t appease Baekhyun’s concern.

“It’s just a scratch, Mummy. Jongin ran into me when he was playing with Chen.”

“Yeah, that’s why I was trying to chase those two!” Sehun drapes a protective arm around his pink furred twin. Sehun also had pink fur but it was of a darker shade. They were so identical that Baekhyun often has trouble recognizing who was who.

Baekhyun gently pats Luhan’s head and presses a kiss to his wound. Every time any of his pups hurt themselves, they would always tell him to “kiss the boo-boo away” because “mummy’s kisses are magical”, and of course Baekhyun would never complain because kissing his pups is his number one favourite thing to do in the world – well, next to kissing Chanyeol, that is.

“And he also called me an A.S.S,” Sehun adds. Baekhyun is immediately reminded of how that had been his alarm this morning. Now that Sehun has mentioned it, angry mother mode is activated and he whirls around to waddle as fast as he can to the Three Musketeers who were now all sprawled on their backs on the grass, panting heavily.

“Which one of you called Sehun an A.S.S?”

Baekhyun stands over them with his hands on his hips as he glares down at them.

“He did!” Both Jongin and Chen cry in a chorus, pointing a finger at each other.

Baekhyun narrows his eyes in on Chen’s first before they flicker over to the chocolate brown wolf who whimpers under his mother’s intense gaze. No one could ever lie to Baekhyun; not his pups, not even Chanyeol. They all crack under the pressure of being judged by Baekhyun’s intense gaze.

“Own up, Jongin,” Baekhyun demands as the wolf jumps up to all fours, still looking up at his mother.

“That little brat,” Jongin mutters under his breath, “But mummy, Sehun was going to give us a good beating! You know how good he is in combat!”

“Yah, Park Jongin, that’s no excuse! How many times must I tell you not to call your brothers names?” Baekhyun folds his arms across his chest. He never has such a problem with the other pups since they knew better than to use words they weren’t supposed to, but Jongin seemed to have the foulest mouth out of the litter. Baekhyun blames Chanyeol for this; Jongin takes after Chanyeol quite a bit.

“I didn’t call him a name… I spelt it out…” Jongin pouts.

“No pup of mine will be called a donkey!” Baakhyun declares with finality just as a large midnight blue wolf trot towards the group. Baekhyun jumps in surprise when he feels something soft nuzzling against the side of his neck from behind but immediately relaxes into the warm touch when he recognizes it to be of his mate’s.

Baekhyun whines a little at the loss of warmth when the wolf suddenly pulls away to transform back into his human form. Long and slender arms with lean muscles circle around his waist, slowly expanding to accommodate the huge belly.

“Baekkie, how many times must I tell you not to sleep in your human form? You know how rowdy the kids are. They might hurt you when in their wolf form.”

Chanyeol’s hot breath tickles against Baekhyun’s neck and the latter reaches for his mate’s arms around his torso to pull him closer.

“Yeollie, how many times must I tell you that it hurts less when I’m in my human form? You’re not the one carrying these babies for the fifth time, are you?”

“Still. It would make me feel better if I know you’re in the safest conditions.”

“Yeah, if that’s the case, why don’t you carry these rascals?” Baekhyun cries a little angrily as he pulls away from Chanyeol’s embrace. He’s glad that the pups are now playing away from earshot because he doesn’t want them thinking that he hates having to bring them into the world. It just gets really tiring at times.

Baekhyun attempts to walk away but being heavily pregnant, he doesn’t get past the third step before Chanyeol is taking one long stride to stop him by the arm. He is carefully whirled around to face his mate. Baekhyun’s eyes were already watery with tears.

“Baek, why are you crying?” Chanyeol asks in alarm. He cups the smaller male’s face in both his hands and wipes a stray tear with his calloused thumb. Baekhyun closes his eyes because he feels like he’ll just burst out into uncontrollable tears if he spends even a second longer staring into Chanyeol’s. The latter knows that Baekhyun wasn’t crying because of his insensitive remark. Baekhyun rarely cries over trivial affairs.

“Baek,” Chanyeol says in a firmer tone, “Talk to me.”

“I don’t want you to leave me,” Baekhyun whispers with his eyes still shut.

“Baby, look at me.”

Baekhyun hesitates but takes a deep breath and opens his eyes to Chanyeol’s warm gaze.

“I’m not leaving you. I’m just going to hunt. We do this every year. You here with the pups while I go find food for us,” Chanyeol tries to reason with his mate who shakes his head.

“But I have a bad feeling about it this time around, Chanyeol. What if something happens to you? What if I can’t handle them all? I’m afraid I’ll fail them as a mother…” Baekhyun trails off as he chokes on his words.

“Baekhyun, what are you on about? You? Fail as a mother? You have been nothing short of amazing. You have been there for them every single time they needed you. You’re their pillar of support. You’re my pillar of support. Without you we’re nothing, Baekhyun, trust me,” Chanyeol ends his little impromptu pep talk by capturing Baekhyun’s lips with his own.

“And nothing’s going to happen to me, I promise,” Chanyeol adds when Baekhyun still seemed to be conflicted. Baekhyun nods meekly as Chanyeol flashes him his favourite eye-crinkling smile before leaning down to press a kiss to his forehead.

“Mummy! Daddy! Will you help us help Kris hyung build his fort?” Tao bounds up to the couple who pull away from each other just in time for Tao, Jongin, Chen, Sehun and Luhan to pounce upon them, pushing them down to the grass before they were playfully nuzzling at each of their parents. Chanyeol chuckles at Tao’s phrasing of his words and laughs even harder when Chen starts nuzzling at his tickly spot under his armpits.

Baekhyun pushes to his feet but not before he picks Tao off himself by pinching his dirty green fur of the scruff of his neck and placing him down on the ground. Quietly, he slips away from the noisy bunch towards the carmine coloured wolf who is barely the size of a basketball when in wolf form.

“Hey, my little man. What have you got here?” Baekhyun asks in a gentle voice. D.O must not have heard his mum creeping up on him because he jumps a little in surprise and it takes him awhile to register the question.

“Nothing,” D.O replies in his quiet voice and gets back to poking his twig into the sandy soil.

Baekhyun watches in adoration as his pup draws out a picture of a pack of wolves.

“That’s beautiful, D.O,” Baekhyun says after a minute of silence. He really means it; the drawing is one of the most mature and interpretive piece of art he’s ever seen. Baekhyun’s eyes rake over the picture and he’s surprised at the detail of it. He is able to clearly identify who is who, each having their own prominent feature. Chanyeol, for one, is the largest of the pack with his bountiful velvety fur and protruding large ears.

A smile tugs at Baekhyun’s thin lips as he identifies every one of the wolves, only for it to disappear when he realizes there’s one missing. He counts them once more with the same result – eight wolves instead of their family of nine.

“D.O, this is a picture of our family, isn’t it?” Baekhyun asks to confirm just as the small pup finishes writing the words “Perfect Family” at the top of his canvas of soil.

“Yes.” A frown creases into Baekhyun's forehead at D.O's short and faint reply as the small boy languidly drops the stick to the ground and stalks away with his head down. Baekhyun is left still wondering who the missing wolf was. And then it hit him.

Everyone except D.O is in the picture.