A howl at 4 o’clock in the morning caused me to jump up from my snooze. I had been tossing and turning all night, unable to find solace in the comforting arms of the soft mattress that felt like fluffy clouds under my body. I heaved myself up and frowned at the sound. Right, wolves, it clicked into my mind that indeed ferocious predators that skinned their preys alive with their ginormous jaws and clenched teeth surrounded me. The thought of it raised goosebumps over my arms and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end like I was electrocuted.

Peering up through half-closed eyelids and pushing my fringe out of my view, the first thing I saw was Luhan’s broad back, his breathing slow and soft as I gently hauled my body up and tiptoed towards the window, peering out of it through the half-closed blinds that suddenly shone rays of sunlight through the window pane like strands of snakes wriggling up and down the room.

The window gave view upon a garden the size of a football field, with the forest towering behind it like a massive foil of deep sea green. On the pitch were found a bunch of wolves yapping playfully at each other and before my very eyes, they all morphed into human beings. My heart lurched in the side of my chest as a gasp fell from my lips. What the ? They just changed within a second like a switch of a light. And I thought humans were crazy enough. To think that there was actually something more to the world I had grown accustomed to, it practically threw me off my scale, I couldn’t find my balance anymore. A small part of me was scared, scared that I couldn’t fit in and scared that they might see through what I’m putting up. But then again, the scene between Luhan and Suho kept replaying through my mind. I don’t know why I felt a surge of sudden envy at the memory.

I guess a small part of myself wanted to experience this kind of friendship, this fierce, passionate and deep bond that entwined all their fates and lives together.

“Can you stop talking already?!” Luhan’s voice boomed across the room, ringing through my ears when I jumped and looked back at him. Wow, chill your god, I rolled my eyes. He sat up on his bed and was rubbing sleep out of his eyes, his hair a picture of a bird’s nest that went through turbulence. A chuckle couldn’t help but erupt from my mouth.

But his words caused my eyebrows to dip down into a frown, before I asked, “You must be crazy, I didn’t say a word. I don’t talk to myself” and then scoffed.

A raise of his eyebrow made me want to hit him again. He never seemed to be affected by my words no matter what bull sprung out of my mouth. It was like he was blocking everything I was saying or was just playing around with me like an adult would do with a little kid.

Like how my dad used to fool around with me, bringing me about and holding me onto a leash of false hopes.

Yeah right, oh the good ol’ life.

“Fact n.2 about wolves,” He recited, lifting a finger like the little he was. Urgh, he made me want to throw up last night’s dinner. Speaking of last night…I never had anything to eat. “The closer we get to our mate, physically and mentally, the louder the mate’s thoughts get. Once the bonding phase is over, the wolf can practically read his mate’s mind”

“Thank you for that piece of information- WAIT A MINUTE,” I spun around so quickly sparkling stars were glittering before my eyes, and I pointed at him with an accusing finger as I threw him the most dangerous scowl I could muster, “YOU CAN READ MY MIND?!”

“Your strongest thoughts, yes” He nodded.

Damn it, I was screwed.

That meant that everything I criticized about him, he heard it clearly like crystal water.

Every little time I felt like punching his face in or gouging his eye out, he heard it.

Oh .

Well I wasn’t going to say sorry, for all I knew he deserved it for being such a smartass and for treating his guest with pure snobby intentions.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart. I don’t give a about what you think of me~” he singsonged as I broke out of my thoughts. I was still traumatized, trailing my eyes over to him as he walked to the closet, picked out two sets of clothes before throwing me a piece, then marching over to the bathroom before slamming his door shut. I winced, Luhan wasn’t someone to show his emotions easily, and yet I felt like he was annoyed by my reactions.  

I thought that he had no interest in me. That’s what he made clear last night when he talked to Suho, right?

But why would he bring me over here then?

Argh damn I don’t understand a single thing about this wolf-mate thingy. If only someone could enlighten me about it. But my thoughts echoed back to the past where I had told myself not to fall for this trap because I wished to be normal and not have any more extravagancies in this life. After my parent’s divorce and my grandfather died, I just felt bad. Not even sad, I felt bad for having badmouthed them all those years, for having taken for granted what I shouldn’t have, because these people, no matter how much I was an emotionless person, I still cared. I wished to have shown them that before it was too late.

Now that I had at least a small bit of control over my life, here comes Luhan to shake it all up.

 A soft knock on the door revealed a very fragile, feminine and dainty girl. She looked old enough o to be in university but still had a gaze as fresh as a wide-eyed doe as she gazed at me with the most gentlest and purest looks twirling through her brown orbs.

“Hello, you must be Seulmi,” she bowed once, and I proceeded to do the same. I couldn’t have rumors about me being snobby flying around here, god knows what those wolves might do, “I’m Lin and I’m Lay’s mate. Nice to meet you”

Throwing me off guard with one of her sweet smiles, the girl pushed some clothes into my arms “Here’s some clothes to freshen you up. You may come down when you’re ready” and before I even knew it, she was gone like the wind and like she had never even been here.

Man, the humans- correction, the creatures- in this house had a very bad habit of appearing and disappearing when they deemed it fit, and I found it utterly disgruntling not to forget that it scared the beejeezus out of me.

“Stop daydreaming, sweetheart~”

Urgh, his voice would be the death of me.

I swear if I lay my hands on a frying pan of some sort, I’ll definitely use it against him. I wasn’t good in sports for nothing, my hands ached to punch his little face in and make a dent onto his skin because he seemed too angelic to be real. No human could look that way with the most evil thoughts lingering inside his mind, it didn’t make sense.

But then again Luhan wasn’t human. Ah, I forgot that mere detail.

At least he had the decency to wait for me and bring me out where we were supposed to take our breakfast. The wolves had a huge circle hall where they met in the center for dinner. All around its circumference were doors leading to each of their rooms while a staircase was found in the middle leading downwards towards the central table. No doubt the whole setting impressed me, but I kept a pokerfaced mask just to meddle with Luhan's patience and sanity. If he thought that presenting me the most sophisticated materialistic richness would win me over like those fake barbies stripping in clubs, then he should try again. Park Seulmi was someone rough and strong able to stand her own ground when she felt like it. You had to be in my good books in order for me to accept you.

Otherwise you're just dead meat. 

A series of faces were presented to me, and trust me I would’ve lied if I said that I could remember all of them. All in all, you could point someone out to me and I would still be clueless about his or her name. 

According to Suho and the scarily tall giant with angry bird eyebrows, I still had a lot to learn and they suggested that I should stop using up my energy fighting and instead try and use my brain for gathering knowledge about them.

"I told you I'm not ing interested in all that dog " Narrowing my eyes at the group sitting scattered all around me, I heaved a long, huge sigh. Now that they had me trapped inside their peripheral, there was no way they were going to let me out especially since I've shown them my most docile side last night. 

Damn it, I had wrapped myself in this hellhole all with my own doing. There was no way to get out of it. 

"Interested or not, it's too late to turn back the clock. Luhan's already shown you his true nature, there's no going back now" Kris explained with a shake of his head, large hands clasped in front of lap. 

"What if I don't want to?" I shot back.

"It's either you stay with us or we kill you" 

I played back his words in my head, wondering if he were really telling the truth. Was this wolf and mate thing as important as they claimed it to be? What difference did it make if I accepted Luhan or not? I mean we could all go back to our normal lives and then I can continue chasing normality. 

Or could I? 

But Kris's expression was everything but amusement. It felt like a bucket of cold water on a windy day over my muscles, I shivered unconsciously. He definitely was a scary being; I wondered how his mate copes with him. Surely she turns off the lights at night in hopes of not being traumatized by his scary face.

"Well," Sarcasm was dripping from my tone like ice cream melting in the oven, "when do I get an intro of Wolf 101?"

They burst out laughing, hoots and jeers thrown over at Luhan while he sat there, shaking his head and grimacing.

“Man Luhan, you have some work cut out for you” Chen seemed to pat his back sympathetically, and I scoffed, replying, “Excuse me, I think it’s the opposite”

“The door’s always open, sweetheart” came Luhan’s venomous response while a nerve throbbed on his temple.

“And I thought that Kai hyung and Sarang were the funniest couple” Sehun chortled and threw an arm over Haerim’s shoulder, “don’t you think they kinda look like us?”

Said girl rolled her eyes before punching him jokingly on the shoulder, “ey we weren’t all that bad, right Sehunnie?”

“I presume you two mated as well?” I asked, raising a brow upon seeing them getting it on with each other. The level of PDA in this room was so suffocating i could die. I mean please keep your hands to yourselves! This isn’t a ing room!

“Yes, it’s been over what? Two years?” Haerim’s lips hitched into a soft smile, like she was playing back a memory. “Being mated is the most beautiful experience you’ll ever have, Seulmi. Trust me on that”

“And if Luhan does anything to upset you, we’ll beat him up, right girls?” Sarang threw her fist in the air and a series of cackles and giggles followed all around. The brown haired girl named Krystal leaned over, winking at me mysteriously as she said,

“But I’m sure Seulmi might be able to kick his ”

A smirk made it’s way up, dancing at the curves of my mouth, “Don’t underestimate me”

After spending a day with the wolves and their mates –a valuable reason to skip school, I had argued against Kris angry bird eyebrow alpha- I started to become a little more acceptable towards the concept although I was still reticent in wanting to join their little clique. When I took example of Sarang, she seemed so whipped around Kai, like she melted every time he would pass by or they would lock eyes from a distance and it just creeps me out. It sends chills of disgust over my body because I just couldn’t stand this excessive affection. It was like the titanic reborn, Jack and Rose couldn’t separate for even one second. They breathed the same perimeter of air even.

It pissed me off the slightest.

I mean come on; can you get any cheesier?

Urgh.

Throwing myself onto one of the couches in the living room, I heaved a sigh of relief once all the shouting of the crowd was gone from my ears. Most people hadn’t stuck around long enough to realize this about me but while I portrayed a very touch and outgoing personality at school, in truth I loved staying home and curling up on a couch with a good book. Solitude was my middle name, and I didn’t mind being alone. Actually, I love it. Because when I’m alone, I had time to think, time to sort out my thoughts and arrange my feelings. I had this time to think over my own self and try to understand what was going on in my mind. I got too distracted, too rough when outsiders would bump into my personal bubble, prodding and asking neverending questions that didn’t cease.

“Oh hey sweetheart, what are you doing here all alone?”
Yay, here comes the double-faced demon.

Without turning to acknowledge his presence, I released an exasperated sigh, “Get lost, ahjusshi”

“Truthfully, I thought you were going to bolt the second you had the chance” He replied genuinely enough as he took a seat next to me.

I made sure that he noticed the way I fidgeted away from him to put more distance between us, “Are you challenging me?”

“If you think of it as one” He smirked. Argh, it had to be one of the most infuriating things I’ve seen in my entire life. This ahjusshi never knew how to back down no matter what. Somehow he hit all the most tender nerves he could find possible within my body, nerves that sent sparks of annoyance and anger coursing and boiling inside my stomach like bunch of mini volcanoes. I felt like he was just wasting his time playing and prodding at me, watching how long I could stand before exploding.

Then he’d probably tire out and throw me aside.

“What the do you want from me exactly?” The annoyance in my voice could not be missed, and I knew that he knew exactly how I was feeling due to his raised eyebrow while he threw me an unreadable gaze.

“What I want from you?” he cocked his head, “honestly, I don’t know”

“What they have” gesturing towards the direction of the Kai and Sarang couple, “it’s not happening with us two”

“Ha” He chortled like it was the funniest joke ever made this year, “I wasn’t counting on it sweetheart”

“Eh?”

When he looked back at me, a flash of pain seared through his eyes as quick as a mirage. It lasted for seconds before it was already gone, but it was there all right, I hadn’t imagined any of it. The cold darkness that wrapped around his orbs and widened his pupils into something like depression was real, Luhan had gone through something that was unknown to me and I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to know or not.

He chuckled darkly, “It’s nothing”

thanks to all of you who dropped a comment and who support this story! I'm glad that you're liking it so far and i hope you also liked this chappie ~ :) 

I know the plot is going on slowly right now but you have to understand that Seulmi is a more hotheaded type of girl that knows what she's doing. She's going to keep trying to stay away as long as possible because she's scared of the rejection, that's why she's being so harsh on Luhan :) 
And as for Luhan, well poor him he's an abashed wolf don't even know how he survived all those years xD Anyway, stay tuned for more! Definitely going to get more interesting! :D <3

CHU~