Baekhyun sighs as he transforms into his wolf form.

 

This morning he had woken up with that nagging feeling in the back of his mind once more and not even Chanyeol’s morning kiss had helped in making it go away.

 

He trots out of the dimly lit cave and howls a calling. Kris was the only one who had heard him as he ambles to his mother and obediently sits in front of him on his back legs. The rest of the pups continue their play, clearly turning a deaf ear towards their mother.

 

The huge midnight blue wolf suddenly materializes next to the smaller sized magenta wolf and takes a deep breath before he let out a much louder command, “KIDS, GATHER!”

 

At once, all remaining six heads snap in unison towards their father’s authoritative voice and immediately begin to file next to their oldest brother according to age.

 

“Show off,” Baekhyun mumbles under his breath as he pouts, looking away from his mate. Chanyeol turns his head to his right and leans in to kiss the pout away. Baekhyun tries to squirm away but Chanyeol, being a whole lot stronger than he was, holds him in place.

 

“What’s wrong, baby?” Chanyeol chuckles as he nuzzles at Baekhyun’s neck. If Baekhyun had been in human form, he wouldn’t have been able to hide the mad red blush that was sure to have fanned his cheeks.

 

Baekhyun tries refraining himself from displays of affection with his mate in front of his pups because it made him embarrassed; he couldn’t help but feel shy when Chanyeol kisses him with an audience.

 

“The kids are looking…” Baekhyun says sheepishly, still trying to put some distance between him and Chanyeol.

 

Instead of pulling away, Chanyeol does the exact opposite and starts leaving butterfly kisses all over his muzzle and thick mane of his neck. The quiet litter suddenly breaks out into cries of “eww” and “daddy, stop eating mummy’s face!”

 

“Why can’t they see how loving their parents are?” Chanyeol laughs at his pups’ outburst of distaste.

 

“Because…” Baekhyun trails off as he feels himself beginning to enjoy Chanyeol’s affectionate displays more than he should.

 

“Stop distracting me! I can’t think straight!”

 

Baekhyun finally manages to jump a few feet away as his ears flitters while Chanyeol looks at his mate, head tilted in adoration.

 

“Daddy, don’t you love mummy anymore?” Tao asks as in a trembling voice.

 

“Why do you say that?” Chanyeol questions in confusion.

 

“Because Chen says you’re eating mummy’s face…”

 

“Tao ya, I was kissing your mummy,” Chanyeol says in amusement.

 

“Oh.”

 

“Alright, kids, you all know what day it is today, right?” Baekhyun changes the subject once he realizes that time was running out. Chanyeol would soon have to leave for his hunt.

 

There was a chorus of reply and Baekhyun takes a moment to appreciate how well-behaved they all seem to be.

 

“Ok, so let me just run through the ground rules before we set off. First, walk in a single file and do not, I repeat, DO NOT, stray from the group. Second, NO pushing each other when in the water. There may be sharp rocks in the shallow parts. Thirdly, you kids better not do anything stupid that might put yourselves in danger. Safety ALWAYS comes first. And lastly, I don’t care how much you hate cleaning up. We will not leave the place until every single one of you are spotless. Do I make myself clear?”

 

The family goes to the river nearby twice every week for their washing up and the kids went wild when in water. More often than not, they end up playing instead of actually cleaning up. He was just glad Chanyeol was still here to help out.

 

“Yes, mummy!”

 

“Okay kids, let’s go!”

 

Chanyeol leads the pack with Kris following close behind, followed by the Three Musketeers, the twins, little D.O, and finally Baekhyun at the end of the line to keep an eye on his pups from behind.

 

When they arrive, Chanyeol and Baekhyun are surprised to find that half of the river has nearly frozen over. It was too early in the month for it to happen, and it could only mean one thing – winter this year was going to be the coldest and harshest they would ever face.

 

“I’ll make sure to bring back more food. I have a feeling we’ll be stuck inside for much longer than usual,” Chanyeol says as soon as they stop at the bank of the river.

 

Baekhyun nods in agreement.

 

“Look, mummy, I’m skating!” Jongin interrupts his parent’s conversation.

 

Baekhyun looks in horror as the chocolate brown pup slides haphazardly across the river. He lifts both his forelegs up in the air and spins a few times.

 

“I’m a ballerina!”

 

“JONGIN!” Chanyeol bellows and attempts to jump towards his pup, only to be stopped by Baekhyun by the paw. Only Chen and Tao seems to be flapping their ears in excitement while the rest look on in annoyance, clearly appalled by their brother’s stupidity.

 

“You can’t go on the ice… It’s too thin, it’ll break.”

 

“Jongin, come back here,” Chanyeol hisses. The chocolate brown wolf tries to scramble his way back, only to fall flat on his stomach.

 

“I-I can’t… it’s too slippery,” Jongin starts to whine as he spins uncontrollably. Baekhyun wants nothing more than to reach out and grab his pup back to safety but he knew better than to do something stupid like that. The ice wouldn’t be able to support both their weights.

 

“I’ll change back to human,” Chanyeol suggests but Baekhyun shoots down the idea.

 

“No, you’ll still be too heavy. We need someone lighter to get him.”

 

Baekhyun glances at the row of his other pups and his eyes fall upon the carmine coloured wolf.

 

“D.O, come here.”

 

The pup does as he’s told, stopping right in front of his mother who bends all four legs so he could be on eye-level with him.

 

“I need you to help Jongin. Can you do that, my little man?”

 

D.O glances at his helpless brother who seems to be moving farther away as he frantically scratches at the ice in an attempt to stop himself from sliding away.

 

“I don’t know…” D.O replies in hesitation.

 

“Your brother needs you. You can do it, D.O,” Baekhyun nuzzles his face in encouragement.

 

“Okay.”

 

Chanyeol prepares the rescue attempt by securing a vine around D.O’s underbelly. Baekhyun helps D.O step onto the ice, holding him by the scruff of the neck till he’s able to find his own balance and then lets go when the pup was ready. He carefully stalks to the sobbing pup and in a swift movement, grabs at his left forearm. Once he had Jongin in his grip, Chanyeol pulls the vine back to bring both pups to safety.

 

“Jongin,” Baekhyun breathes as he pulls his pup into his embrace and nuzzles at him, relieved that he was fine.

 

Chanyeol stalks over to his youngest pup and places a kiss on the top of his head, “You did well, little man. That was very brave.”

 

Right then, the other pups raced towards D.O and engulfed him in a hug. Chanyeol takes a step back, away from the dog piling that was happening.

 

“You, on the other hand, are grounded,” Chanyeol gives Jongin a stern look.

 

 “Yes,” Baekhyun agrees as he holds Jongin away to take a good look at him, “You broke rule number 3.”

 

“What’s my punishment?” Jongin’s ears droops down as his eyes cast down.

 

“You’re on clean up duty back home for a week.”

 

Jongin represses the urge to groan aloud. Everyone hates clean up duty. That was the worst kind of punishment because that often meant limited play time.

 

“Okay, guys, since the river is frozen and slippery, you won’t be doing the washing up today,” Chanyeol begins and the litter of pups erupts into a cheer.

 

“But, mummy and I will help you with the cleaning up.”

 

Everyone’s cheering turn into groans.

 

“You take the Three Musketeers, I’ll take the rest,” Chanyeol informs Baekhyun only for the latter to protest.

 

“No! You take them, I’ll help the rest.”

 

“What? Baekkie…” Chanyeol whines. Neither were truly ever ready to handle the Three Musketeers on their own. Especially during the washing up. They absolutely could not sit still. Not even for a second.

 

“Shut up and just do it, Yeollie. I’m pregnant.”

 

Chanyeol knows he has lost the argument. Baekhyun always wins whenever he uses the “I’m pregnant” excuse. Baekhyun always gives him the silent treatment whenever Chanyeol refuses to accept that excuse as valid.

 

“Daddy, why do you have such large ears?” The orange coloured pup asks as he flicks Chanyeol’s right ear.

 

“Because God wanted me to have large ears, Chen.” Chanyeol continues to scratch at the dirty spot on Jongin’s hind leg.

 

“Does that mean that God wanted Kris hyung to have a huge pee pee?”

 

Chanyeol chokes on his own saliva at Chen’s question.

 

“Y-Yeah… sure…”

 

“Daddy, you’re like a horse!”

 

“Tao, could you please get down from my back? And Jongin, could you please stop trying to dance? You can show me your pirouette later when I’m done cleaning you.”

 

“God, Sehun, what have you been doing during play time!? Why is it so difficult to get this black spot on your paw to disappear?” Baekhyun complains at the same time as Chanyeol looks over to how his mate is handling his own bunch. Sehun may be a chore to clean, but at least he’s the only one in that group who’s going to be giving problems. Baekhyun should be thankful. Kris, Luhan and D.O were all pretty obedient.

 

“I may have stepped in deer poo,” Sehun admits sheepishly.

 

Baekhyun cringes but heaves a sigh of relief when he finally manages to get rid of the dirt. He finishes off by pouring water over Sehun’s pink fur and then his mane.

 

Chanyeol the muzzle of the last of the pups, Chen, and transports them all to the dry-off area in which Baekhyun has drawn out the boundary into the soil so both Chanyeol and himself could wash up themselves.

 

“Baby, there’s something wrong with D.O,” Baekhyun says when he glances over at the dry-off area to see the carmine pup sitting in the corner, resting on all fours with his head tucked into his fore legs.

 

“What do you mean? He has always been a little quiet.” Chanyeol Baekhyun’s purple mane.

 

“I know. He doesn’t take after either of us.” Baekhyun bends down to take in some of the cold water before helping Chanyeol clean his paws.

 

“Baek, we’ve talked about this. He’s ours. Stop bringing it up, it is to stay in the past. Besides, it doesn’t matter, does it?” Chanyeol replies sternly.

 

“It doesn’t, but I think he knows…” Baekhyun whines softly. Chanyeol fluffs out Baekhyun’s tail that was now almost dry.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Yesterday he drew a picture of our family without him in it, and he wrote the words “perfect family”. He thinks he doesn’t belong with us. He thinks we’ll be perfect without him. But we’re not complete without any one of us, are we?” Baekhyun says sadly as he allows Chanyeol to help him up to all fours.

 

“Of course not, sweetheart. Maybe we could show him that he’s just part of the Park family as every one of us.”

 

“How do we do that?”

 

“Honestly, I don’t know. But we’ll figure something out,” Chanyeol promises, nuzzling into Baekhyun’s mane.

 

---

 

 

Note: Thanks for all the lovely comments! How did you guys like this chapter? Hope you aren't too upset that there isn't much Sehun, Luhan, Kris in this but it's kind of tough trying to fit everyone into one chapter. BUT i assure you there'll be more of everyone in the following chapters.

 

A small hint of what's happening in the next chapter: There'll be HunHan, ChanyeolxAll pups, Chanbaek moments and (hopefully) full story on D.O where some slight drama happens.

 

So do look out for it! AND PLEASE COMMENT <3 I know I don't always reply because I invest what little time I have into writing the stories but I DO read every single one with a smile :)