Playlist for the chapter: Growl - EXO, Say Something (Cover) By Eric Nam, It's Cold - Epik High Ft Lee Hi.

We finally arrived at the top of the mountains where the wolves entered a snowy cave. I was being suspicious of whatever could be inside or even what could happen to me. However, that was not for a long moment. They ran across the dark cave for a few seconds when I finally saw light at the end of it. When we reached it, I looked at the pit that was at my right as the wolves were heading down, following the path next to the cave’s walls. I was surprised to see so many people there. They all looked like humans. People were coming out of what looked like houses made out of wood as others were leaving or coming from some paths that were made in the rock. I was looking at a place that looked like a giant city made inside the mountain itself. The light was coming from big holes on the rocky ceiling. We finally reached the ground under the eyes of some people who were obviously staring at me. I got off of Minghao’s back, who looked at me. The pain had faded a little, making me feel better. I started walking, amazed by every little things that composed that public place. Other wolves came from behind us and passed right next to me, running through the place under some children amazed gazes. The wolves passed by me, not without a stare, before leaving. The brown wolf that was with us left with them, followed by the white one. Minghao gave me one last gaze before leaving me behind, in this unknown place. Fortunately that was only for a short moment.

-"You must be Hyemi, the human girl of Minghao?"

I stared at the brown haired boy standing next to me. He was wearing blue jeans and a simple white shirt. I was actually surprised when I realized that most of the people in here were wearing only a shirt while I was freezing with my coat.

-"I guess...You're one of the werewolf with who we were?" I asked.

-"Yeah. The black furred one with the girl who was injured by those hunters."

-"Is she alright?" I asked wondering if my selfish act could have at least saved her.

-"Yes. Others are taking care of her. She'll get better soon. Thank you by the way. If it wasn't from you she probably would have died there..."

His eyes looked gloomy as he recalled the scene. I looked around the place. Everyone was doing there own stuff.

-"What is this place?" I asked.

-"The werewolves hide themselves in the mountains, that way, we can change into wolves whenever we want. No need to worry about humans who may want to kill us." He stared at me with his deep dark eyes. I could understand why he was suspicious of me, why everyone here was giving me these dark looks once in a while. Humans, nor other species, were welcome to come here. I looked back at him, defying his gaze. They were the ones who made me come here, I should be the one fearing them.

-"Come with me" he finally said. "Hoshi is waiting for you." He started walking toward one of the hole in the rock.

-"Who's Hoshi?" I said running to him.

-"The other white wolf. He's our team leader."

-"Team leader?" I repeated, wondering what it could mean.

-"Every wolf is part of a team. These teams are based on what you do for the city. In our case, we are 9 wolves who make sure the city is well hidden. So we go outside a lot, making sure no humans or other species will get close. Hoshi is the one who take every decisions for our team and plan our actions once we are outside." We entered the hole who was lighted by a few light bulbs tangled on a rope going on each side of the hole.

-"Why do I have to see him then?"

-"To make sure you won't betray us. You're friend with those vampires, right?"

-"One of them is my boyfriend." I added looking straight in front of me, feeling confident.

The boy laughed next to me.

-"Wow! That was unexpected." He replied.

I looked at him from the corner of my eyes.

-"What is your name? I feel like I'll have a lot of things going on with you guys."

He laughed and stared at me. He then stopped to face me, his hands in his pocket.

-"My name is Junhui but everyone call me Jun, nice to meet you." He smirked before continuing walking on the path, not even waiting for an answer.

We encountered a few other people on the way that were looking at me but I didn't bother giving them any attention. We finally arrived in an other open place with a lot of big buildings. We entered one of them where people were waiting for us.

There was already 3 boys and a girl in what looked like a big living room. Couches were next to the walls and a big table had been put in the middle of the room. Minghao was one of the boys in the room. He was standing next to the one sitting on one of the couch, staring at the blond boy on the other side of the room. Junhui opened the door, making everyone turned to look at us. Minghao had a little smile when he saw me however, his friends were not as happy as him. Jun closed the door behind him as Minghao invited me to go sit next to him, which I did, under the gaze of everyone. Jun walked over me and sat on the couch next to mine. The girl was glancing at me with her cold eyes. Her long brown hair were tied, falling on her back. Next to her was the blond boy who was now looking at me. He was a little less taller than Minghao, but still taller than me. I glanced at Minghao who was looking at everyone, furtively, as if he was afraid that something would happen. I looked in front of me. None had spoke and I was getting insecure under everyone’s gaze.

-”What am I even doing here?” I broke the silence.

-”That’s what we want to know. What were you doing outside of the city?” The girl asked me with anger in her voice.

-”Calm down, Kaeun.” Said the blond boy.

-”Tss…” The girl obviously was upset for some reason.

-”We have to make sure you are not an enemy. You must have understood that the fact that you are with vampires is quite problematic for us.”

-”Why? My life doesn’t have anything to do with you.” I replied coldly in front of their behavior toward me.

Minghao’s hand touched my shoulder as if he wanted me to stop talking.

-”I told you that there is nothing to fear from her, even if she is with the vampires. I saw her a lot of time already. If she wanted to harm any of us she would have done it already.” Minghao said calmly to the blond boy.

The small dark brown haired boy, who had been quiet the whole time, decided to speak.

-”She just saved Lizzy and even saved Minghao last time… How can she be bad to us?”

The blond looked at the floor.

-”I also want to believe that but you know the rules, Dino… Minghao showed himself to a human without the consent of the alpha.”

-”So you’re afraid I may tell everyone about you? About the fact that you are werewolves?” Everyone’s gaze went back to me. I looked at Minghao.

-”There’s that and…” He stopped in the middle of the sentence.

-”The fact that he broke one of our most important rule.” Finished the blond boy. I looked at him.

-”What if I already knew about you? About all those creatures things?” I knew that it was not normal for a wolf to act like that toward a human. I was just not ready to convince myself that wolves could turn into humans.

-”You knew?” Minghao asked surprised.

-”Well, when I discovered that my boyfriend was a creature from the outside world, I kinda understood that every creatures anyone had told me about could be real too.” I was just hoping that anything I would say would help Minghao at this point.

-"That would change a lot of things than." Jun said glaring at  the blond boy.

-"I'll go talk to the committee." He said  walking to the door. "Minghao, make sure she stays here for now." He gave me a cold look before leaving, slamming the door behind him.

An awkward silence planned in the room as everyone was looking at each other. Minghao walked in front of me, looking at me from his height. I stared at him, still seated on the couch. He then offered me his hand.

-"Come with me." He said with a reassuring voice.

I hesitated, but ended up taking his hand as he leaded me out of the room. I let go of his hand as soon as we got outside, the door closed behind us. He looked at my hand, then at me. His face was betraying sadness.

-"Let's go." He said softly, walking on the path.

I followed him as we walked in the crowded streets. It still felt weird to see the rock above my head instead of the sky. Minghao leaded me to another part of the cave where cute little houses were aligned next to each other. He opened the door of one of them, inviting me to enter before he did, closing it after both of us had entered. The house looked a lot like mine. The walls were made out of brown light wood and there weren’t a lot of windows. The entrance was right next to the kitchen and a small bedroom and bathroom were on the other side of the wall on our right. It was really small but it had a warm feeling compared to the other building from earlier. I walked in the house under the sad look of Minghao.

-”So, this is where you live?” I turned to face him.

He nodded slowly.

-”It’s pretty.” I added.

-”Thanks…” His voice sounded melancholic.

-”What is it?” I asked. I just couldn’t understand the change in his comportement.

-”Nothing.” He replied precipitately.

It was now obvious that there was something bothering him. I raised my eyebrows.

-”It’s just… You know…” He walked in the kitchen showing me his back as he put both of his hands on the counter, looking through the window in front of him. “I didn’t knew that you were this close to the vampires…”

-”Ohhh…” I sighed.

That was awkward.

-”Sorry,” He said turning to face me. “I don’t know what I was expecting.” He laughed. “I never thought a human could act so friendly toward a wolf so I kinda got attached to you. It look like I took it too seriously…”

-”I’m sorry…” I wasn’t sure what to say.

He smiled at me.

-”You don’t have to feel sorry for me. I barely know anything about you. I just  feel bad that it has to be a vampire.”

-”Right? I wish he could be as human as I am. Living with other creatures is actually strange, to tell you the truth.”

-”It looks like you were destined to encounter them tho.” He laughed.

I laughed at him. Vampires and werewolves were now quite common for me. Nothing could surprise me anymore. I walked in the house, still feeling cold, even with my coat. I looked at Minghao and realized that he was not wearing any other clothes than his red hoodie and his black jeans.

-”Are you not cold? Everyone is walking in T-shirt and stuff while I’m freezing with my coat.”

-”You’re cold?” He worried.

-”No it’s fine, but I tought it will be warmer in here.”

He laughed.

-”Werewolves don’t feel the cold. We’re just like normal wolves, but we change into humans at some point. We don’t bother wasting time and energy to heat up the cave since it doesn’t change anything to us.”

-”That’s cool. What else do werewolves have?”

-”Well…” He looked at me, hesitating before telling me about his species.

-”My boyfriend is a vampire. I bet there’s nothing that would make me freaked out as much as discovering that they drink humans’ blood.”

-”We are stronger than humans.” He said while laughing at my comment. “We are also faster and have better senses. What distinguish us from the other species is mostly the fact that we are the only ones who can identify an other species near us and obviously the fact that we change into wolves.”

-”So you can tell whether it is a vampire or a werewolf even if they are just standing still?”

-”Yes.” He smiled.

-”That’s really cool! Vampires cannot do that?”

-”We are the only species.”

That was an interesting fact. I was going to ask him about other stuff when someone knocked at the door. Minghao looked at it, wondering who it could be. He opened the door to a the young boy that was with us a little while ago.

-”What are you doing here?” He asked the boy.

-”I wanted to see her.”

-”You know you should not be here.”

-”Hyung! Please!” He begged Minghao who finally let him inside.

The boy was practically the same height as me, except a little taller. However, he was still a lot shorter than Minghao. He came next to me, fixing me with his brown eyes.

-”Hi! My name is Chan but everyone call me Dino. I’m the youngest of our team. Nice to meet you.”

-”Nice to meet you Chan, I’m Hyemi.”

He smiled brightly. It looked like this kid had a lot of energy.

We talked for a moment as he told me about their life style that was a lot different from us. They were hunting as wolves for their food as they could live perfectly with the diet of an animal. Obviously, they would eat on their animal form instead of their human’s. During summer they would grow vegetables and live as humans more than as wolves. A team was in charge of giving food for the werewolves that were living here while another was working on providing electricity to the cave as well as houses for everyone who needed one. They had a team for whatever they could need, living by helping each other. Dino kept on talking about whatever was coming to his mind, asking me questions at time to time about my human life. He was actually afraid of us. He had saw a lot of his friends dying because of humans, making him fear us, just like most of the other wolves. That explained these weird looks when I entered the cave.

A knocked had been heard at the door, interrupting Dino in his endless interrogations. Minghao didn’t had time to get up that Jun came in.

-”The committee wants to see her.” He said looking at us. He then left a few seconds after.

Dino ran after him as Minghao and me stared at each other.

-”Let’s go.” He said with a smile.

We followed the boys in front, who were leading us to another house however, this time, the house looked like a huge castle made in the rock.

-”This is where the alphas meet each other. We can only get in there with an invitation.” Minghao whispered in my ears.

-”Hoshi is an alpha, right?”

-”Yes, he’s probably with the committee now, talking about us.”

We passed by what looked like soldiers, protecting the entrance. They didn’t moved, but I could see that they were looking at me from the corner of their eyes. We walked on a row of stairs, leading us to the second floor. The inside was made out of wood and luxurious furnitures. Hoshi was already seated on a sofa, around a round table, with two other men and a woman. There were plenty of empty seats for us to sit. Minghao made me sit next to Hoshi, the blond boy from earlier, as he sat next to me. The men and woman were on the other side. Jun and Dino took places next to Minghao.

-”You must wonder why you’re here?” The woman asked me.

I nodded, feeling intimidated in front of these build up men. Even the woman had this permanent cold look on her face however, her voice was soft.

-”We are really thankful for you to have save two of our precious companions, but you have to understand that it is not usual for us to see humans. It is even less usual to see them trying to help us.”

I nodded again.

-”We only want to make sure that if we let you go, it will be safe for all the families who live down here.” The woman finished on this.

-”We also want to see if one of our wolf have broken one of our law.” The black haired man looked a lot more scarier than the woman.

-”On this, did Minghao purposely showed himself as a werewolf in front of you?” A white haired man spoke this time. For some reason, he looked worried.

-”He never did.” I answered truthfully.

-”Then, can you please explain to us how you found out about Minghao?”

-”Well…” I wasn’t sure where to start. “When I saved Minghao, I was trying to stop the bleeding of the injury on his paw with my scarf. So, the second time I saw him, as a human, I saw that he had the scarf around his wrist and since I just had discovered that my boyfriend was a vampire a few days ago, I understood that the wolf and the human could be the same person. Never did Minghao changed form in front of me nor did he told me about his true self.” The people on the other side of the table whispered to each other so that we couldn’t understand. Minghao looked at me with a smile. On the other hand, Hoshi looked anxious.

-”We will look at the situation and keep you updated. You may leave.”

Hoshi got up the first as we all started to follow him right after, without a word. We walked out of the the place following another path that leaded us to a house. Hoshi entered, followed by Dino and Jun. I stopped right before getting in, turning to face Minghao.

-”What is going to happen now?” I was getting worried. The sun was slowly setting and I knew that both my father and Mingyu were looking for me. Above all, I had school tomorrow, but that was the thing that bothered me the least.

-”We will stay here for now, waiting for the committee's decision.”

-”I don’t have the time to wait Minghao! It’s getting late, my father is waiting for me and Mingyu is probably worried that something happened.” I wanted to scream at him, but I was afraid the others would hear us.

He frowned at me.

-”Stop with all that!” I was getting upset at his behavior whenever I talked about Mingyu. I only wanted to make things clear with him, not having to end up trapped in this underground city.

-”He is not in a position to decide whether he will let you go or not.” Hoshi said from behind me.

I faced him.

-”Well, I still need to get out of here.” I added.

Hoshi did as if he hadn’t heard me, walking back inside. Why are they pissing me off so much?! I entered the house following Hoshi.

-”Yahh!” I screamed at him under the surprised gaze of everyone. He faced me with a cold face.

-”I won't let you go out of here. You are a danger to all of us."

-"A danger?" I repeated. What does he takes me for?

-"Since you look so close to the vampires, I don't want you to get out only to tell all your friends to come here and fight us."

-"That would put Minghao in danger and as you saw, I don't want any of you to get hurt. If I ask the vampires to fight you that would go against every actions I did toward the wolves."

He frowned and walked away as if he knew I was right, and locked himself in another room. I faced Minghao.

-"What's with him?" I asked Minghao wondering if he was always acting this way.

Minghao shrugged his shoulders. We finally entered the house under Dino's look. Obviously they had heard everything.

-"I think Hoshi just doesn't want you to leave." Jun said comfortably, seated on the couch.

-"I understood that." I said looking at him with a pissed face.

-"No I mean he really wants you to stay here." I looked at him in the eyes. "Like, forever."

What does that even mean?

I stared at him. That didn't make any sense. Why would Hoshi want that?

Minghao took me by the shoulders and leaded me to a narrow hallway, leading to a room with a bed and a couch.

-"You can stay here for now..." He softly said.

I coldly stared at him. I wasn't quite happy that I had to stay here however, I could see in his face that he was not happy either. He was looking at the floor with a pitiful face.

-"I know you don't want to stay here, that you want to be with your boyfriend, but I can't really make you leave now. It will only lead to more problems so could you please stay here for tonight? They will let you leave tomorrow..."

His voice was melancholic. It hurted in my chest to see him like that. I knew he had high expectations toward me and that I had crushed all of them. He looked so fragile yet I couldn't change anything to please him.

-"It's okay... I'll stay here for now..." I sat on the bed, looking at him.

He glanced at me one last time and left, closing the door behind him. I was left alone in the room. It felt even more cold now.

I woke up in the middle of the night, laying on the bed with my coat still on me. I couldn't tell what time it was, but the house was quiet and it was still dark outside. I got up from the bed. I had fell asleep for a short moment only. It was really weird being here and I couldn't put myself back to sleep. All I was thinking about was Mingyu. I slightly opened the door to see what the boys were up to. I walked in the dark living room only to see Minghao laying on the couch next to Jun who had fell asleep in a seated position, his head bend backward. I jumped in fear when I saw the beast laying on the floor. It looked like Dino had decided to turn into a wolf to sleep comfortably on the floor. It was just like a giant dog. The animal was breathing heavily between his paws, but other than that, the entire house was sleeping. I looked around. The door was right in front of me, passed Dino. Should I try? I caught myself thinking. I started walking toward the door, really slowly, making sure that I won't make any noises while moving. I finally reached the door as I looked at the door handle. You really want to leave that badly? If I tried to get away, Minghao would probably hate me forever as well as the other boys. However, my life was not with them. My father, Mingyu and the boys were probably worried over me. Damn it! I slowly opened the door and looked one last time at Minghao who was peacefully sleeping.

-"I'm so sorry, Minghao..."

I left the house not without a pain in my heart.

I walked in the empty streets of the cave trying to find my way out of here. It was really hard to get back to the path we took earlier, but I ended up finding it. I passed in front of the committee's building, following the path to Minghao's house and finally back to the entrance. I looked at the harsh path that was leading to the outside. There were no other ways. I looked around to see if anybody had followed me. I was alone. I walked along the path in the obscurity procured by the rocks and finally made my way outside. Here, the moonlight was making it easier to see what was around. The snow was glowing from it. I started running trying to remember the way to get back home. That was not an easy task but I needed to try. Fortunately, the mountain was high enough for me to see the walls of the city from afar. I ran toward them as I tried my best not to slip on the rocks under the snow. At the same moment, I heard a howling coming from the top of the mountain. Did they saw me? I ran down the mountain as fast as I could, afraid that they may look for me. I tripped over something hidden in the snow. I slided down for a moment and got back on my feet without any harm. I looked behind me as the howlings were getting closer. I reached the end of the mountain and ran remembering the path. In front of me was my usual frozen lake, where I had met Minghao for the first time. What do I do now? I could ran around it but that would take me too much time and if they were after me, they would have caught me before I could get back home. The growling of the wolves that were getting closer made me chose the fastest way. I slowed down before hitting the icy surface. It cracked under my weight, but it was hard enough for me to ran on top of it. I sped up as I was getting to the center of the lake. Another howling came from behind. I looked back only to see a white wolf jumping at me with both his paws toward me. I turned to face him but tripped falling hard on the ice. Fortunately, it didn't broke. The wolf now had both his paws next to my body, his claws deep in the ice, as it was growling angrily a few centimeters away from my face. I closed my eyes, fearing what would came next. The wolves kept on howling behind us and a few seconds after, it was a complete silence. I felt my clothes getting soaked by the cold water as I was falling in the substance. The cold was biting my bare skin, making it hard for me to keep focus on what was going on from now on. The air in my lungs slowly disappeared, escaping the broken icy surface that was trying to keep in this cold atmosphere. I then felt someone grabbing my coat, pulling me out of the water. It felt warmer when I was in it. My eyes were heavy. I could barely kept them open. I coughed out water, trying to catch my breath. I felt myself being lift up in the air as I grabbed the red fabric of the boy's hoodie. It feels so warm. As I was wrapped up in his arm, I could hear the wolves' howling and growling behind me fading away.

A/N

That was probably the longest chapter I ever wrote xD

So much going on with the wolves! What do you think will happen? Leave comments about your thought on the story! ;) see you on tuesday!