Realization hit him like a slap across his face before he jumped away from the couch, away from me as he crouched with his nose scrunched up like he was trying to old his breath. I blinked at him, confusion muddling up my thoughts as I tried to comprehend his actions before he blurted out an “I’m sorry”

He then turned away from me, like he was trying to avoid my gaze at all costs.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I lost control. It happens when the wolf stops communication with its mate” He muttered under his breath though loud enough for it to reach my ears.

Slowly hauling myself up by the elbows, I sat on the couch and cocked my head at him with a raised brow, “Well why were you avoiding me in the first place when you knew it wasn’t healthy for you?” I scoffed. “So irresponsible”

The wolf turned his head in shame with his grey ears drooped like a scolded puppy. If I hadn’t known better, I would’ve called him cute. In those circumstances however, I was more than annoyed really. I was aware of all the small bits and pieces of information that Luhan had omitted to me, not because he forgot but because he precisely thought that I wasn’t interested in being a part of the whole wolf thing. But his ignorance to his health and needs just made me want to sock him in the face. How stupid could he get to neglect his own sanity? After all, one should have a conscious of what they could and couldn’t handle. In his case, he should’ve told me about the consequence of not being close enough, not having enough of my presence.

Although his attitude was a pretty ty one, I didn’t want someone dying on my watch.

“Don’t avoid me anymore” my statement came out more boldly than I had expected it to be, and pressed my lips together when I realized just how much this sounded like a cheesy pickup line from a movie. When the boy threw me a surprised look, I just morphed my features into a scowl to show him that I wasn’t to be messed with if he were to take out some kind of teasing out of my words.

He rolled his eyes and shot back, “Like I have a choice”

“Nah, you’d be dead without me” I smirked back, watching his own eyes burn me off with a glare. A chuckle escaped my lips when the atmosphere returned back to the comfortable bickering that I was accustomed to. As he gestured towards the kitchen and started cooking two bowls of ramen for us, I realized that indeed, our constant bickering has become some normal part of our routine. It felt like another puzzle had been added to the mosaic and things were slowly falling back into place. Maybe with this one step further, we’d be able to communicate more easily. Trust me, I was not fond of befriending just anyone as I suggested before, but not talking to Luhan always made my heart shake in a weird way. A day without him would make me restless, like something was missing.

Oh god what am I talking about? I shouldn’t start becoming dependent on that ahjusshi because who knows? Maybe in the end he’d leave me like all the other people that used to be in my life.

Control Seulmi, you shouldn’t break down and warm up too easily to that creature, I echoed back to myself as I sat down on a high stool, my chin plopped into the palms of my hands while I kept my gaze directed towards his broad back.

Strange now that I thought about, Luhan did sport a muscular back. It was one that made people want to lean onto him and just be there, beside him to enjoy his strength, the muscles in his shoulders moved as he cooked. Instantly, I snapped my head away and scolded myself for checking him out when we weren’t even into that kind of relationship.

But hey, I was straight okay? I check out guys, all the time.

“So, is that the reason why all the wolves keep touching their mates wherever they go?” I tried asking it in a civilized manner, like I wasn’t really bothered by the answer he was going to give me. But when Luhan turned his head slightly to look at me with an unreadable expression across his face, I couldn’t resist from squirming slightly in my seat, hating the way a smile crossed his face at my reaction.

“Yeah, you could say that. But once they bond they don’t really need all that unnecessary stuff” he took out two bowls from the cupboard and put the ramen inside, bringing it over to the table and passing one to me along with a pair of chopsticks and a spoon.

“What do you mean? They don’t faint like you?” I tried making a joke out of it and the boy narrowed his eyes into a glare.

Although his expression was supposed to frighten me, the chuckle broke into soft snorts of laughter. He didn’t look too amused by my light-heartened talk.

“No. Once you bond with a wolf, it’s for life” he replied with gritted teeth. Uh oh, big bad wolf was starting to get annoyed. Maybe I should just pause the teasing for now, because granted Luhan would never attack me –I knew that the day he came to rescue me in the woods- but his wolf, I wasn’t so sure.

“So you fainted because we’re not bonded yet?”

“You could say that”

“But then what if we bond?”

He froze in the midst of eating, his chopsticks poised in the air comically and his mouth opened like a goldfish. They widened at my suggestion before he looked at me from across his bowl, expression a little more than exasperated with my aloof behavior. But hey, in my defense, I didn’t know about this werewolf culture, how was I to know?

“You can’t just bond” It came out more as a growl than a string of words, his eyes flashing dangerously with specks of silver. I may have been strong and kept a pokerface while looking at him, but my heart was trembling in slight nervousness. I had to admit, Luhan could be a hell of intimidating.

“Well why not?” My brows slowly furrowed together. Okay he was making this harder to understand than it actually was, “I mean, if we bond then we’ll be fine right? We’ll be safe”

He looked at me dead in the eye, unmoving and frozen like a mannequin from a boutique. The stillness was creeping me out, but not until he opened his mouth and gazed at me with a serious and yet flat look in his brown orbs flashing silver.

“A werewolf and a mate need to be intimately attached for that to happen”

I swore I felt a pin drop at the deafening silence that followed.

I tore my gaze away from his before pulling my lower lip with my teeth in sudden nervousness. It made sense now; the confusion cleared up in my head. It totally made sense why everyone was so filled with lovey-dovey feelings. Stupid! I screamed at myself, wishing to bash my brain with a frying pan for being so dense. How could I not see? The signs were right in front of my face and yet I looked past them entirely. Why did I think Sarang and Kai were so close? Duh, because they were going out together. Granted it wasn’t just mere friendship. I really felt like punching myself repeatedly after this, and it wasn’t helping that Luhan had a more than amused expression slowly drawing across his face.

“Right” I cleared my throat awkwardly and started playing with my food, “Right. Makes sense”

The boy only sighed, reached out and ruffled my hair as I jumped in shock at his action. He just shook his head with a slow but resigned smile dancing onto his face, “You look freaked”

It was no use looking away but I did so because his gaze felt like it was prickling at my soul, “Who wouldn’t?” I scoffed.

“You got me there”

An awkward silence filled the air; only the sounds of the utensils clanking against the plates were resonating through the room like dead shots of pistols. I swore my ears were red, they felt red with embarrassment. Thank the gods for mercy when I heard the sounds of shuffling footsteps and muffled cacophonies of voices nearing our porch. I rose thankfully to my feet and went to open the door when a fist on the other side gently rapped on the woody texture.

“So have you guys made up yet?” was Sehun’s idea of a sick joke. I just narrowed my eyes at the latter in hopes that would scare him off. Indeed it did, for the boy instantly looked away and whined under his breath.

“Sehun” Haerim cajoled with an edge of a warning in her tone. The wolf’s demeanor changed abruptly as he turned into a mere wagging-tailed puppy in front of his mate. He rushed to her side and wrapped his arms around her waist. The older girl chuckled, dragging a hand down his back so that he shivered.

“Now I like this atmosphere” Baekhyun exclaimed as he set down the bags of groceries on the kitchen counter. The rest of the group filed in and surprising as it may sound, we all fit in the same room, quite barely though. Kris frowned and looked around the room in wonderment.

“We should try renovating sometime” he then said to Suho who nodded in agreement and broke out into a smile.

“That just means that our family’s getting bigger”

“Okay so who’s the first one to have kids then?” Chanyeol beamed, “I really want to play with them! I’ll be their nanny day and night-“

“Like I would let you play with mine” Was Mihye’s direct answer. Kris shuffled over to wrap her into his embrace from behind.

“He’d probably kill them all” Haerim scoffed.

D.O rolled his eyes as he smacked the back of Chanyeol’s head, “Why don’t you concentrate on first getting a mate, ”

“Yah why are you being so mean to me?!” The giant cried while scurrying to the other side of the room with the use of his long lanky legs to get him across awkwardly, away from the younger werewolf. “And anyway, you don’t have one either!” and he stuck his tongue out like a child.

I chuckled despite myself, noticing from my peripheral Luhan’s eyes staring down my features. This small chortle of laughter died down once again to bring forth the embarrassment springing over my cheeks as I turned my head away to avoid any eye contact. One thing I really hated was that when people would stare at you for no reason, it crept me the hell out.

After we had all cleaned up the kitchen and stored away the groceries, Xiumin decided that it was a very good idea to watch a movie and ushered us to the TV room where we all settled down at our desired places. Except for me. My eyes darted here and there, from the couch to the floor back to the couch, and finally resting on a stool at the far end of the room. It wasn’t that I was awkward with any of them, nor did I feel like a prisoner in captivity, but I was just scared of the pull that attracted me to where the silver-eyed wolf was sitting, all relaxed and without a care in the world as he made himself more comfortable on the carpet with his head thrown back onto the edge of the couch.

I wanted, I needed to feel his presence. His essence was rolling off me and I swore though he wasn’t looking at me that his gaze was pinioning me down with my every movement, my every gesture.

Okay, I needed to get out. Now.

Get some fresh air; I was probably out of my mind.

 Yes probably.

The sweet air on the front porch caressed my skin, making it tingle while goosebumps ran up and down my spine. Sighing, I sat down gingerly on the front steps and looked out into the night. Although I was indeed scared of the dark, if I was under a lit area and if I could see the light, then I felt safe. My thoughts were spinning uncontrollably and I felt slightly dizzy from everything that had happened earlier.

Luhan, what was I going to do about him?

He was the cause of me going through this kind of weird pain.

The night air once more swept past me, causing my body to shiver involuntarily at the touch. It hadn’t been long since I’ve stayed here, and soon enough I’d have to go back to that horrible place of a house. I really quite liked it here, the atmosphere, and the people. They were nice; they cared about me, or seemed to give off this façade. My mother couldn’t even look at my face for more than a second, it was quite frustrating. Here I felt like I actually belonged, but did I?
There was a reason as to why I never let people close to me, because I was scared of them taking away all my walls and then abandoning me in the end.

How the hell was I supposed to trust Luhan and the rest at that when I couldn’t trust myself?

Before I could think any further, a wet snout was under my palm and I screamed in sudden shock.

The silver grey wolf just drew back while cocking it’s head at me, probably asking himself whether I was stupid enough to believe he was something else. It’s tongue stuck out at it’s side and it’s ears cocked slightly with the sound of the wind brushing past us.

Luhan. In his wolf form.

“W-What are you doing here?” I tried not stammering but failed quite miserably as I impulsively leaned away from the wolf, forgetting that it was actually Luhan and that he’d never ever hurt me, because hurting me would mean hurting himself, as selfish as that sounded.

He barked softly and padded over to my scared figure, burrowing his head under my arm before plopping it onto my lap so that his huge front paws were resting on the side of my thigh. The suddenness of it all made a giggle escape my lips, and without really thinking, I reached over and started petting his ears. The animal crooned slightly when my fingers brushed through his silver locks, scratching tenderly while looking up at the blanket of stars that covered the city.

“As stupid as this may sound, I don’t want to go back to my mom’s” the words just suddenly blurted out of my mouth before I could restrain them, and more than a little shocked at my outburst, I clamped a hand onto my mouth before looking down worriedly at the wolf, wondering whether he had heard this sentence which might make him think that I was finally softening up to them. , this was no good, I didn’t want Luhan of all people to see my weaknesses, he’d definitely use them against me, what with the scary thing from the forest and now this-

The giant dog whined and shifted his gaze onto mine, my brown orbs clashing with his pair of swirly silver pupils. Instead of resembling Luhan’s usual gaze of mockery, this Luhan was curious and more than a little worried it seemed, or was it just my imagination?

I sighed and gave up on trying to control everything inside of myself. If occurred, then it would. Rubbing soft circles at the base of his neck, I continued absentmindedly, “My mother ignored me the day my dad divorced her. That’s why going back to her house is like living with the dead”

Luhan snuggled closer to my stomach. I kept talking, the stream of words not making sense to my brain. I felt like my body was on autopilot and that he was the one causing me to be so open about this.

“It feels nice here, it feels like…” I bit my lip momentarily wondering whether the word I was going to use was correct, “…home”

In a mere millisecond, the wolf was gone and Luhan’s head replaced it’s own in my lap. A gasp left my lips and I was about to push him away when he grabbed onto my hands, stopping me with his strong and firm grip that seemed impossible to get out of. I noticed even with this sort of aggressiveness, the way his fingers wrapped around my wrists were not too hard so as to bruise them.

I felt with the way his eyes bored into mine with so much intensity.

“I was in love once” He coughed out a whisper of words. I sat there and gaped at him, jaw slack and more than a little stunned with the revelation.

He hadn’t planned to tell it to her so soon, definitely not when she was knowledgeable enough about the wolves habits and usual ritual. But somehow, the words just tumbled out of his mouth before he had the time to restrain himself. It was always like this with the mates, wolves would act like totally sappy idiots as long as they kept them happy and satisfied. Luhan was proud of his status because he was one of the most popular and ancient wolves of the pack, not to forget that his self-control was always up to point. But how the heck had he managed to morph into a cute puppy just by her touch?

He swore he could’ve morphed right then and there when she scratched the back of his ears, a series of electric tingles dangling from her fingers and causing his head to spin deliciously. All he could think about was how her scent was intoxicating- she smelt like autumn leaves and felt like specks of sunlight across his face. He was so close, so so close to cuddling the life out of her. He imagined her now, touching every part of his skin and making him raw with wanted desire.

But then, he’d heard the scratch of pain in her tone, the rough way she announced him about her mother and her father. Right now and then, he felt like they had a connection, that they had both lost something precious to them in the past. He couldn’t believe that she was finally opening up to him after all this time, and before he knew it, he had opened himself up to her, all vulnerable and bare for her to see.

“I was in love once” he blurted out and almost regretted the way her eyes flashed with suspicion. No wonder, she was probably thinking that he was some kind of playbow the way he said it.

Clearing his throat, Luhan continued nonetheless while keeping his gaze upon her brown orbs, “she was my mate”

“HUH!?” was her reply. The girl was indeed flabbergasted at the whole upside down situation.

Luhan straightened his body but didn’t let go of her hands, watching her soft pearly nail crescents in the moonlight and thinking of pressing a kiss on each tip of her phalanges. Seulmi was obviously too distracted by his news that she didn’t draw away when he tightened his grip.

“20 years ago, I imprinted on a human girl that didn’t want anything to do with me. She was very strong-willed, a badass, someone that didn’t believe in fiction at all” His attempt at laughter was a twist of mockery in the night-chilled air. It died down abruptly as soon as it had come, “When I told her, she hated me. She made my life a nightmare. She did everything to push me away”

He released one of her hands then and held out his forearm to her, wincing at the memory although his expression was as frozen as a painted canvas, not giving anything away, “She caused this”

The scar of a long gone memory, the scar he remembered like it was yesterday. She had used her cigarette to burn his skin. The aching physical pain had been nothing compared to the tormented feelings twisting and coiling through his own wolf. Just the thought of it made his heart cringe. He watched Seulmi now, eyes wide with surprise and glittering with a mysterious light of something, which resembled concern. But no, she couldn’t be, he told himself off harshly for having such high hopes, he learnt with experience. Slowly, his mate’s brown orbs dragged down towards the scar and with her fingers, gently traced it like she was entranced with it’s shape, like a child seeing the darkness of the world for the first time. The wolf’ breath halted as he it in, wanting to squeeze his eyes in order to gain control of his own self when she was so close, when her inner essence was screaming out for him to mold with hers.

His eyes suddenly wavered over to the slightly rosy patch of skin on her cheek when she leaned in with a frown to inspect the scarred wound closely. It was gleaming in the moonlight, he felt more than saw the string reeling him in to her, like a moth drawn to a flame. His eyelids drooped down with desire shooting up through his fingers and legs and before he knew it, he had landed his lips on her cheek gently.

Oh .

Well well well..... /wriggles eyebrows/, Luhan's stepping up his game! What do you think is going to happen now that he crossed the boudnaries? What do you think will be Seulmi's reaction? :o comment down below!  <3

thanks to all who comment and subscribe and read my story :D Without you guys i would've been NOTHING SO THANK YOU SO MUCH AND LOTS OF LOVE PEEPS! <3