Suho and his mother met everyone at the door. Of course the pack is always welcome in their home, so no one asked questions on why they decided to all stay the night there. Everyone besides Dess, Suho, and Kris went down to the basement to start their late movie night (even when they have school the next day) while they hung back to speak to Mrs. Kim. Iridessa was still in a foul mood, Suho seemed concerned, and Kris was....well, Kris.

"Dessy, you look down. Is everything okay?" Mrs. Kim asks.

"I'm just having problems with my mom, as usual." she says, because it's not a lie. Just only part of the truth.

"If you ever need to get a break away from the pack and you need another woman to talk to, I'm always going to be here." Suho's mom winks, and Dess smiles in return.

   That is another fact that is good to have in their situation. Everybody's parents, except Tao's, knows about them being werewolves. Most of them are wolves themselves. Tao only became a wolf because he and Kris got into a serious crash a couple years ago. Even before that, Tao knew about the pack. He and Dess were the only non-wolves because Kris didn't want him to go through the pain and having to deal with a double life if he didn't need to. However, the drunk driver hit the passenger door where he was sitting and Tao was about to die before the ambulance could arrive. Kris made the hard decision to bite him, and that is something Dess will always respect about her alpha.

"What is going on?" Suho asks quietly as his mother leaves the room.

"Something bad is coming." Kris says.

"Something bad is already here." she urges.

"What kind of 'bad'?"

   Before they could explain more, two little ones ran in the room and tackled Iridessa's legs. Her mood lightens just a smidge as she utters a fake laugh, the twins are really intuitive when it comes to their mother and Dess believes it's the tiny part of magic that's buried deep within them. Phoenix and River are too busy saying "Mommy's home!" and "I missed you!" to realize that there are other people in the room. Dessa pulls River off of her knee and picks him up and hugs him tightly.

"Hi Mommy!" he chirps.

"Hi baby." she giggles and kisses his cute button nose.

   She went to bend down to pick up the other twin (which is a talent that took a long time to perfect) while still holding River, but before she could Phoenix walked over to Kris and raised his arms up with grabby hands. Without even looking at Dess or giving it a second thought, he smiles and picks up Phoenix.

"Hey buddy." Kris says lightly, ruffling the baby's small tuft of hair.

"Shouldn't you two be in bed?" Suho asks.

"Uncle Joon is right kiddos, it's night-night time." Dessa says.

   It takes a full hour of coaxing and play time in the bathtub before they all go downstairs and receive goodnight hugs and kisses from all their 'uncles'. Finally, after being dressed in their matching space pajamas, they were placed in bed and had no trouble falling asleep. Iridessa waited in the guestroom and watched them sleep for a half hour as thoughts ran circles in her head. Since she left the house she had no forewarning of dread, yet she worried of her mother. Thinking about it now, maybe she was a little too harsh, it's definitely possible when it comes to Dessa's attitude.

   After a while she sighs and walks over to kiss the foreheads of her sons. Quietly turning the knob, she opens the door and slips out of the room, only to be met with her alpha. Iridessa waited in front of him because it seemed like he was trying to say something, but it couldn't come out. He glances between her and the door and huffs.

"It took them that long to sleep?" he asks curiously.

"No", she shakes her head, "took them less than five minutes. I was just clearing my head." she whispers.

"Look Dess..." he said before she could move past him.

   Kris scratches the back of his neck and looks at the floor. Moments like this make Dess gulp and she doesn't know why. She eventually nods her head, encouraging him to go on.

"You're right."

"About what?" she asked surprised.

"I don't want the boys to see us arguing with each other, nobody should be raised around that. I apologize for what I said....and how I've been acting too I guess." he answers shyly, an emotion she rarely sees from him.

"It's-....I forgive you."

   Iridessa was so close to saying "it's okay" but saying okay is the same as "it's no big deal" or "it's okay to do it again" to her. She knows that she doesn't have to be angry any longer, but he has to understand that it's "not okay" if he does it again. And for awhile they remain there, staring at each other.

"Guys come on, you already missed the first movie. We're gonna watch Fast and Furious 7." Chanyeol says coming up the stairs.

   They finally break from their frozen state and follow him down to the basement.

 

~~~

 

   The next morning was pretty rough for everyone. Dess and Mrs. Kim were the only ones who got up at the right time. However, the twins were already starting to have a bad day. The entire morning Dess is running around showering, getting ready, waking the boys up, dressing them, feeding them, and getting her books together. The boys would cling to her but she would have to set them down in order to get her day started, which of course they did not like. She was so busy that she forgot to wake up the pack, which they got annoyed for.

"Hey, I'm not your mom, I'm theirs." is all she replied.

   Dess failed to inform the pack about what she suspected was in the tar the night before. She knows that by the end of the day she needs to at least tell Kris and Suho (Suho is beta and would be alpha, should any harm come to Kris) and ask them about a plan. The tar is the only evidence they have right now and she honestly doesn't know how to dissect it.

   Suho's mom was going to babysit again today while everyone went to school. Dess was relieved to know that she had the day off from work after rechecking her schedule. Thankfully Suho had his SUV since they stayed the night at his house, saving all of them from being squished. On the way to school Tao, Xiumin, Kai, Sehun, and Kyungsoo rode with Dess while the rest were with Suho. It was still squished, but a lot more comfortable than the day before.

"So what's going on?" Xiumin asked.

"I can't say because I honestly don't know yet. But I need to find out what's in that tar."

"How are you gonna do that?"

"That's a very good question."

"There was something awful about that." Kai added.

~~~

"Dess, I need to talk to you." Luhan said behind her in the hallway, making her jump.

"Jesus Lu, will you quit with that?" she gasped for air.

   It was something Luhan had always done. Whenever he's really excited or worried he grows impatient, and the problem usually has to do with Dess, Luhan is always running up behind her and scaring her.

"Sorry, can't help it," he blabbed, "but this is important."

"I'm listening." she said while digging through her locker.

"Remember when there was that huge blackmarket for supernaturals that came through town?" he asked and she shuddered at the memory. That was a bad fight, a really really bad fight.

"And how Tao nearly died of wolfsbane just weeks after being turned?" he continued.

"Of course. I nearly had a heart attack trying to drain all the yellow aconite out of him." 

   The supernatural blackmarket was one of the very first fights that the pack got into. Kris found out about the market and they went in undercover to check it out. However they soon found out from all the anti-wolf banners that most supernaturals hate, or maybe they're scared of, werewolves. Let alone a pack like them.

   Long story short, Baekhyun was thrown across the room and broke a table that belonged to a coven of vampires and Tao got injected with a really rare form of wolfsbane. Dess nearly almost died trying to save him, because even some plants are deadly enough to kill a pure dryad and there was just so much of it. So far, yellow aconite is the only one she has a drawn weakness to that she is aware of. The only positive thing she can think of that came out of that experience was a closer bond to Tao.

"Exactly." Luhan stated.

"Huh?"

"That smell of wolfsbane's kinda smells similar to the sample we took Dess." he said concerned.

"Are you telling me there's yellow aconite in that tar?" she exclaimed loudly, and a crowd of people stopped and stared at her. Slamming her locker, she drags Luhan by the collar down the hallway in the direction of her next class.

"Holy hell, I really hope you're wrong." she uttered in disbelief.

"How about we try to make Tao get a scent on it? If anyone has it memorized it's him."

"Memorized? That night is probably engraved into his brain! Are you trying to traumatize the boy?" Dess cried.

"Why is Lulu traumatizing me?" says a voice as an arm slings over her shoulder. Dess looks up and glares at Luhan and he shrugs in response.

"Oh boy." She sighs.

~~~

"Are you ing crazy?!" Tao shouted and it echoed throughout Suho's house.

"Watch your mouth!" Dess yelled, knowing that her twins were just in the other room.

"I almost died!" he resorted to a whisper-shout.

"I almost died!" she whisper-shouts back.

"But Tao is the only one that would know for sure! A wolf's sense of smell is stronger than a dryad's!" Luhan said back.

"Please Tao? It's the only chance we've got on figuring out where it came from and how to get rid of it." Yixing tried saying calmly.

"I need to make an antidote so it doesn't hurt you again." Dess reasoned.

   Iridessa pulled the vial out of her bag after Tao finally agreed. Horrible flashbacks rushed through her mind of the others pinning him down on Iridessa's kitchen table as he was going into toxic shock. She distinctly remembered the gross yellow liquid that started pouring out of all of his orifices. Quickly snapping out of it, she carefully handed the glass tube to him. He hesitantly grabbed it and slowly brought it to his nose.

   Tao only has to take one sniff before he gags and shoves it away from his body. Dess nods to the pack and they all make worried faces. Yellow wolfsbane is hard to get rid of, she has to find some sort of antidote because taking the poisonous plant from other people to herself can kill her.

"What are we going to do?" Kyungsoo asks.

"I don't know." Dess and Kris say at the same time.

"Dess...do you think this tar was meant to kill us?" 

   Everyone got quiet as they realized the possibility. But who would want to? They have never directly been attacked before, as far as she knew most didn't even realize her pack existed. Starting to feel a little sick to her stomach, Iridessa suddenly got the urge to go check on her boys that were playing with Mrs. Kim on the other side of the wall.

   She stood up and calmly made her way out of the room and walked across the house that is used for the boys to be in (Suho insisted on making his parents convert the second guest room into their own little area) and heard giggles from behind the door.

"Mommy!" Phoenix squealed as she opened the slab of oak wood.

"Well hello there handsome." she smiled as her son ran his way over to her open arms.

"Mommy, Caillou is on!" River said from Mrs. Kim's lap.

"I see." she sighed, she really hates that show.

"How was school Dessy?" Suho's mom asked.

"Ugh." is all she said as she plopped herself on the bed with her son.

   Mrs. Kim chuckles lightly, a sound that has always sounded like music to the dryad's ears. Iridessa huffs as Phoenix climbs on top of her giggling and lays on her chest.

"Have you went back to your moms yet?"

"No."

   Dess felt the air grow awkward and ended up kissing her son on the forehead. Making skin contact with her children has always made her feel better in various situations. Mrs. Kim hummed as River would giggle at the children's show.

"I just..." Dess started, "it's hard living with someone who has problems like her. I understand that it's not her fault, but it's just impossible to feel like I don't love my boys. It seems like you love them more than she does. She is supposed to be the grandmother, not you." she blabs.

"With a condition like hers, it's a battle just to feel what love is sweetie. She probably fights herself everyday...must be exhausting." Suho's mom replied as Iridessa combed through Phoenix's hair and stared into his beautiful eyes.

"I wish I could heal her." Dess struggled to speak, she was about to say 'fix' but in her eyes if something needs to be fixed then it had to be broken in the first place, she can't possibly think of her mother that way.

"I know honey. Maybe you should still drop by tonight anyways." Suho's mom said, "You can tell the guys that you went to secure the house, say whatever you want, but if this is bothering you it must be killing her."

Or like something is trying to kill all of us, Iridessa thought.

   Mrs. Kim laughs as River gets out of her lap and dances (more like wiggles) to the television as a commercial comes on. Phoenix, finding the sight funny as well, giggles along with her. The surrounding makes Iridessa's heart feel a little bit lighter.

"Did I ever tell you that Phoenix and River remind me so much of Yifan and Joonmyeon?" Suho's mom asks.

   Smiling about the fact that she always uses their real first names, she nods her head in nostalgia. Mrs. Kim has told her many funny stories that Dess (guilty as charged) sometimes uses as blackmail when it comes to the pack annoying her.

"Yeobo?" a gruff voice says from behind the door.

"Yes dear?" Mrs. Kim responds as her husband opens it.

   Suho's father, even though he is now middle-aged, still works and is usually away from home. Iridessa has been friends with Suho for years now but she has only seen his father a handful of times, usually at holidays and family picnics. Dess wasn't even aware that he was home today and was shocked to hear his voice.

"Ah hello Iridessa-yah. It's been awhile." he smiles from eye to eye, making Dess only blush in return.

"Is there anything you needed, love?" Mrs. Kim asks, and the overused terms of endearment are really getting to the young dryad.

   In the pack, and actually today's teenage generation, their age-group doesn't usually implement honorifics but it doesn't bother Dessa, she actually finds it quite sweet. The married couple talks about plans for dinner, and actually included Iridessa in asking if her and the pack are going to stay. She declined, saying that her and the boys are going home for the night, making Suho's mother smile in delight, but insisted that the pack would love to.

"For a teenage mother, you are very wise and sweet." Mr. Kim said, and before Iridessa could react Suho walked in and shooed his father away, yelling about how that was something too blunt to be said.

"No no no, it's okay Suho. I understand what he meant." Iridessa shyly replied.

~~~

  It took awhile for the boys to get ready and packed up (they didn't want to leave and Chanyeol wanted them to stay for dinner so he could feed them, even though they are old enough to feed themselves) so Iridessa was out of breath by the time the three of them got into the car. A few minutes down the road, one of her boys piped up.

"Mommy I want ice cream!" River demanded from the back seat.

   Iridessa crosses into her side of the neighborhood before realizing what he said.

"What? River it's almost dinner, why would I give you ice cream?"

"Uncle Sehun said so." Phoenix butted in.

"Oh really?" Dess asked, peering into the review mirror at her twins, "I better have a talk with your Uncle Sehun. Little boys don't eat ice cream for dinner."

  Iridessa pulls into her driveway and parks her small car while unbuckling her seatbelt. Her twins giggle.

"Mommy called Uncle Sehun a little boy!" River bubbles.

   She really didn't say that, but she turned around in her seat and raised one eyebrow. Catching Phoenix clapping his hands and letting out his low belly laugh, she smiles and hums at them.

"And you can tell Uncle Sehun that Mommy said he was too." she said back.

   Leaving the driver door open, she first carries all of their clothes and her school stuff into the house before jogging back out to retrieve her twins. Within those thirty seconds her boys were already fighting over the hot wheels car that laid in the middle of the backseat, a little too far for either of them to reach.

"Both of you have more inside, come on now." she chided, unbuckling them from their matching carseats. 

   She let her boys walk in the house on their own with her trailing behind checking her text messages.

 

From: Joon-Joon

You could have stayed for dinner,we have plenty of food

 

To: Joon-Joon

I want to talk to my mom and I need to do the twins laundry, sorry :/

 

From: Kris The Gigantor

I thought we made it clear that you were all staying here until further notice.

 

   Iridessa rolls her eyes and places her keys on the hook. She ignores his text. 

 

From: Channie

Why don't you ever let me feed them! I need to practice being a parent too, I want kids some day you know!

 

   Dess snorts as River sits on her ankle and laughs. She faintly hears a door open and Phoenix calling "Gramma?".

 

To: Channie

Dear God. I hope that 'some day' is like 30 yrs from now. They're old enough to feed themselves Chanyeol, you keep spoiling them

 

   Dessa's phone dings as she waddles to the kitchen with her son still wrapped around her leg, prepared to start dinner.

 

From: Kris the Gigantor

I know you're ignoring me. We went over this.

 

From: Channie

I do NOT spoil! I'm just their favorite uncle~

 

To: Channie

They say otherwise, you might need to have a long talk with Sehun lol

 

"Mommy can I have apples?" River asks from the bottom of her leg.

"Sure. How about we make some spaghetti too?" she grins as her mother walks into the kitchen holding Phoenix. Her phone dings.

"Yeah!" Her twins yell in unison.

 

From: Channie

WHAT

 

"How was school?" her mother asked.

"Boring as usual. You were right though, Environmental Science is super easy." Iridessa replied, trying to avoid any unwanted emotions.

 

From: King Xing Xing

What did you do? Kris is doing the thick eyebrow growly forehead thing and Chanyeol is chasing Sehun around the yard

 

   Dess laughs, knowing the exact look Yixing is talking about, and catches the attention of everyone in the kitchen with her. She bends down and places River on her shoulders as she grabbed the cutting board from below the kitchen counter and begins slicing fruit.

"Must not have been that bad then?" Her mother asks, she in return shrugs her shoulders.

"Can we not fight anymore Mom? I don't like it." she tried to say lightly.

"Of course." her mother hummed.

 

Well.

That wasn't hard.

 

   Iridessa places the twins in their high chairs and gives them fruit to chew on while the noodles boil on the stove. The entire time doing so, her phone has been dinging non-stop because she wanted to avoid spreading germs from her cell to the food. After pouring two sippy cups of milk and putting garlic bread in the oven, she checks her phone.

 

From: Sehunnie

What the did I do!?

 

From: Channie

He is no longer the favorite!

 

From: Sehunnie

Chanyeol twisted my ankle!

 

From: XiuXiu

I'm jumping on the band wagon and texting you too

 

From: Chen

Oh my god. Maybe it's a good thing you didn't stay for dinner hahahahaha

 

   Iridessa squints at the small screen.

 

To: Sehunnie

Two words. Ice. Cream.

 

To: Channie

Chanyeol stop injuring Sehun. Remember what happened last summer?

 

To: XiuXiu

Hi.

 

To: Chen

What? Why?

 

   Dessa's mom shockingly said that she would finish making dinner, something she hasn't done in weeks, so she makes her way to the laundry room and starts loading the washer. Her phone goes off yet again.

 

From: Chen

Suho's dad said that Suho should just man up already and marry you. Omfg I'm dying.

 

From: Joon-Joon

I TAKE IT BACK. DONT COME OVER.

 

From: XiuXiu

Omg you should be here right now hahaha

 

From: Joon-Joon

I REPEAT. DONT COME BACK OVER TONIGHT.

 

From: Chen

Dude Mr. Kim just said that Suho would make a great step-father lmao

 

"Oh good god." Iridessa complains.

 

From: XiuXiu

Kris looks really angry

 

From: XiuXiu

 And Suho is banging his head on the kitchen table 

 

From: Channie

I never knew Suho's parents were into arranged marriages

 

   Face-palming, the dryad decides not to reply to any of the messages. She later eats dinner happily with her little family and makes the boys take a bath together. It was messy and water ended up everywhere on the floor. While she was drying Phoenix down with a towel her mom was doing the same with River.

"Your hair..." 

"What about it, Mom?"

"I've never seen it on a dryad before."

~~~

Believing that her bed has been calling her name since she woke up this morning, Dess decided to head to her room. As usual, the boys threw their little hissy fits before night-night time and complained about how they still wanted ice cream. Thinking about how Sehun is so going to get it tomorrow, she opens the door and flicks on the light. As soon as she does she jumps back in fright when she notices someone sitting on her bed.

“Jesus Christ!” Iridessa screeches.

“Oh, hey Dess.”

“Are you on my laptop?” she lowers her voice.

“Well is this your computer?”

“Seriously Kai?”

  The dryad stomps her way over and plops herself on her emerald green colored bed. She shoves her packmate by the shoulder.

“Why are you here?”

“Because.”

"How?"

"Anna told all of us last year that you keep your window unlocked from when she would sneak over. I'm honestly surprised I'm the first one to do this."

“And why was the light off?”

“I didn’t feel like turning them on.”

  She sighs, “Of course not.”

  As the outcome, they ended up snuggling on the bed and Kai explained the entire Suho scenario which kept Iridessa laughing for minutes on end. She’s surprised that Suho wasn’t the one that snuck into her house to get away from his family.

“Wow, I just never thought Mr. Kim thought of me that way.” she said once they settled down.

“Yeah”, Kai said into Dessa’s shoulder, “you should’ve been there.”

“Not that I don’t mind you barging into my room at unexpected hours of the night- well actually I kinda do- why are you here?”

  For a couple seconds the wolf didn’t say anything and it made her concerned. It seemed as if he was trying to pull his thoughts together.

“I’m just worried about you.” he confessed.

“About me?”

“Well, yeah, and the boys too.”

“Why are you worried?”

  At that point Kai got up from his spot, which shocked the dryad, and stood up in front of her. He laced his fingers together behind his head and paced around.

“It’s just- I- that tar thing hasn’t been figured out yet. And it really bothers me that it’s harmful to you. Is it that way to the boys? Are they even like you?”

  Now of course Iridessa has wondered about those things herself. Heck, she’s a creature made from pure nature and one of her twins has seasonal allergies and the other is allergic to peanuts. How does that even work?

“I really don’t know Kai. I know only women are dryads, but I never had any boys around in my family to see if they had….mutations...as well. I’m just in the dark as you.”

“This .” was all that Kai said back.

“Not always, we just need to find out what that tar is and then I will make an antidote for it.”

“But don’t you need a research lab for that?”

“Yeah, but there’s always the environmental science labs in school.”

“Do you think that will work?” the boy questioned.

“I don’t know Kai. I just don’t know.” she sighed tiredly.

  Kai seemed to notice the exhaustion in her tone of voice and realized that she must have had a long day. But when is it not a busy day being a mother? He sighed back in return.

“How about we just get some sleep, okay?” Dess said quietly.

  The wolf smiles brightly and reaches into her arms after turning off the lights.