White Wolf

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/34966216.

Rating: Explicit
Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: M/M
Fandom: 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Relationship: Jeon Jungkook/Kim Taehyung | V
Character: Kim Taehyung | V, Jeon Jungkook, Kim Seokjin | Jin, Park Jimin (BTS),
Kim Namjoon | RM, Min Yoongi | Suga, Jung Hoseok | J-Hope
Additional Tags: Werewolves, First Full Moon, Alpha Jeon Jungkook, (but it's not A/B/O),
Werewolf Jeon Jungkook, Werewolf Kim Taehyung | V, Past Abuse,
Past Character Death, Referenced Alcoholism, Fantasy Violence, Blood
and Injury, Animal Death, Small Towns, Strangers to Lovers, Explicit
Sexual Content, Hurt/Comfort, Full Shift Werewolves, Pack Dynamics,
Angst and Fluff and Smut, Werewolf Courting, Falling In Love
Language: English
Collections: In Bloom: Winterfest
Stats: Published: 2021-11-06 Completed: 2021-12-13 Chapters: 4/4 Words:
61967

White Wolf
by dovekook

Summary

Taehyung has put his strange episodes – forgetfulness, confusion, waking up far from home
with no idea how he got there – down to stress. He could do without being dragged to this
strange small town for the funeral of a father he never loved. Everyone stares at him here,
like they know something he doesn’t.

And they all talk with reverence about the full moon.

(in which Taehyung, with no clue of the wolf blood in his veins, somehow finds himself
being courted by the local pack Alpha)

Notes

Hello~ Welcome to my submission for In Bloom’s Winterfest 2021! To the prompter who
asked for this, I hope that I managed to fulfil everything you could have wanted from the
story. It sure took over my life for a while.
A few warnings, because the story somehow has a surprising number of them. I promise it
isn’t as dark as it sounds!
Contains: Past Character Death (Parental Death), Past Abuse, References to Alcoholism,
Moderate Descriptions of Violence (Fantasy Violence), Blood and Injury, Animal Death,
Explicit Sexual Content

I hope that you enjoy the story, especially the prompter, and that you can have a good time
with it <3

Prompt:
Wolf au (you can choose not to use a/b/o if you want)
Taehyung being oblivious to being a werewolf. But then he moves back to the place/city he
was born (Maybe he's adopted or his parents died). He notices the strange way people
behave and talk.
And basically Taehyung have to find out he's a wolf on his own because the others can't tell
him? Also him being oblivious to alpha Jungkook courting him
 Chapter 1
Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

The drive south is unfamiliar.

When he first started college, Taehyung would take the train home to Daegu every couple of
months. After his mother’s death, those visits dropped to twice a year, once in the summer and
then for Chuseok, on which he was still obligated to see his father. Each year, the trips became
more draining and more volatile. But Taehyung has always executed his duties, the finest example
of a respectable young man, whatever the cost.

With another funeral to attend, he must perform one last act of filial piety.

Travelling to Daegu, he could tolerate. Growing up in the city, he felt like a dot in a work of pop-
art, one small speck that made beautiful a wider painting. It was easy to feel anonymous. He likes
to feel anonymous.

Today that city seems far away. A crumpled map is spread on the dashboard because his
navigation app has been glitching ever since he left the last town.

The day that he read through his father’s last will and testament, he was stunned to see that the
instructions for his funeral involved moving his body to the town where he was born, not the city
where he spent his whole adult life. He knows from stories told between liquor bottles during his
childhood that his father grew up in a small town, the kind where everyone knows one another and
by extension everyone else’s business.

Small towns give him the creeps.

For a man who likes to fade into the crowd, they make Taehyung feel a little too significant.

The inside of his car is pristine. As he only plans to stay for a couple of days, his luggage amounts
to one small bag in the passenger footwell, and another on the seat. Poking out through the open
zipper is the crinkled paper packet containing his prescription. For three weeks he has been taking
the pills the doctor gave him, and he hasn’t had another episode since.

Forgetfulness. Confusion. Taehyung put it down to stress.

It took two years for his roommate, Seokjin, to convince him that waking up miles from home in
the morning with no recollection of how he got there every once in a while isn’t healthy, and it
can’t be explained away with stress.

As the crop fields fade into forest, Taehyung has to concentrate more. This is where the roads
become winding rather than wide and open, and so many dirt tracks lead off from the black-top
that he has to focus on finding the sign for the town. He does not want to miss it and have to track
back.

"Come on…" he murmurs. "Don’t do this to me."

He must have missed the turning. The last leg of the drive seems to have lasted for hours and he
only stopped for gas at the last city. As his hands start to sweat on the wheel, he slows and peers in
amongst the trees. Only driving and returning home to see his father can give him this anxiety; the
combination of the two is toxic. It makes no difference that this time his father will be in a coffin.

Just when he is slowing and preparing to double back, he spots the wooden sign. It is buried in
amongst the creeping vines and overhanging trees. The words seem to have been carved by hand
and each letter splinters.

Torrent Woods.

Three miles.

Taehyung turns and follows the winding path. Not one car passes him in the opposite direction.

The town doesn’t emerge as one monolith. First it appears as strange little houses nestled in
amongst the woods, like wood cabins that he might see in a costume drama. Only the cars parked
on the verge close to the properties assure him that he hasn’t stepped back in time. Soon enough,
signs of modern life come to the forefront, and he finds himself exhaling in relief.

He passes a small movie theatre showing films from last season, and a real estate agency, and small
line of stores. None of the streets seem to have names marked, and the map doesn’t answer half of
his questions. Taehyung frowns and pulls over at the side of the road to look closer. Tired from the
hours of driving, he rubs his eyes. No amount of kneading makes the map make any more sense.
Just when he’s starting to panic, he looks out of the window and sees a friendly looking lady
walking down the street.

“Excuse me?” he rolls down the window as fast as he can. “Could you help me find this house?”

She looks nervous for just a second before taking a step closer to the car. Few strangers must pass
through this town. “Where are you headed?”

“I’m looking for the old Kim house. My father, Kim Joonho, grew up there. I’m sorry, I’ve never
visited the town before.”

“Kim Joonho?” She surveys him with curious eyes, but she doesn’t seem as wary as before.
Judging by her age, she would have been a contemporary with his father at school. Sure enough,
she tilts her head to the side in something like recognition. “That must make you Taehyung.”

Caught off guard, he hesitates before answering. Word of his father’s passing will have spread
through the town, not least because his funeral will be held here tomorrow, but he didn’t expect
anyone to know his name. As far as he knows, his father never returned during adulthood. Still, it
isn’t outrageous to think that his father kept in contact with some of the people here. “Yes,” he
smiles, “I’m Taehyung.”

“We were all so sorry to hear of your father’s passing. The whole town will attend tomorrow, you
know? We want to pay our respects.”

Taehyung has to work to keep the stiff smile on his face. Suddenly, his jaw aches and his cheeks
feel like rubber. “Thank you.”

“You need to keep heading down this way but take the first left. The old house is at the end of the
Apple Tree Lane, but I’m afraid you’ll find it worse for wear. I don’t think anyone has been inside
in a long time. It’s quite dilapidated. There is an inn here in the middle of town if you need
somewhere to stay.”

“That’s okay,” he says quickly. He does not want to have to socialise more than necessary, and
those places are often the centre of attention. “I’m the sole beneficiary of my father’s estate, which
means the house belongs to me now. I’d like to see it.”

He thinks the conversation is done, but even when he pulls away a glance in the rear-view reveals
that she watches him all the way down the street, until he makes that first left. The lane he’s
looking for isn’t marked, but as soon as he sets his eyes on the gnarled, aged apple trees
overhanging the road, he knows where he needs to go. His wheels crunch on the uneven terrain on
their way up the narrow path.

The house looms as soon as he crosses a small hillock and he cuts the engine some way from the
porch. Like much of the town, the building is old; compared to the stores he passed it is clearly one
of the oldest. He has no key, but the door creaks open with the slightest nudge. The grandparents
that he never met must have lived here until they died, because some relics of their generation
remain in the decoration. Much of the property seems to have been gutted, though.

Little furniture remains, only the most rickety pieces. No art hangs on the walls. He cannot identify
every room. The kitchen is traditional, with no modern fixtures. Taehyung checks the running
water and is relieved to find it functional. Though worn and unlived in, the house is not completely
derelict. Peeling paint can be covered. Floorboards can be repaired.

The worst part is the dust.

Taehyung sneezes three times before he reaches the stairs. The second level is an unusual feature
of a house so old. Each surface is covered in such a thick layer of dust that it has begun to fade
from grey to black. Upstairs he finds two more rooms. In one, some books remain, yellowing and
damp. Taehyung picks up the top, a collection of Longfellow in translation, and raises his
eyebrows.

He knows so little of the family that lived here.

Only as he paces and the boards protest beneath his shiny shoes does he remember that he has to
sleep here. The prospect of the inn in town might not be so terrible after all. Sighing, he returns to
the ground floor and searches for anywhere that he could lay down tonight. A moth-eaten couch
remains that he has no intention of touching. In the end he returns to his car, leaning back on the
hood as he dials Seokjin’s number.

“How’s paradise?”

“The house is a mess,” he says. He doesn’t mention out loud that it is a relief just to hear a familiar
voice. Seoul seems a million miles away. The short journey across the country feels like a flight to
a different corner of the world. “This whole town looks like it hasn’t been touched for years.”

“Are the people weird?”

“I haven’t met many of them, hyung.” Taehyung narrows his eyes as he tracks his eyes around the
grounds of the house. Rotten apples cover the overgrown grass. Nothing has been tended here for a
long time. Weeds have become flowers, creeping up with menacing thorny stems but delicate
purple petals. “I have the funeral tomorrow. Shit, I hope no one expects me to say anything.”

“You’ll be fine. Everyone will just bow and maybe want to shake your hand, and then you’ll be
done and you can come home and pretend none of it ever happened.”

“I have the house to think about.” Even as he says it, he knows it’s ridiculous. There might be a
real estate agency in town but there’s no way that anyone is buying property. This house doesn’t
have resale value, and he sure as hell isn’t going to be living in it. For all it’s worth, it might as well
sit here empty, gathering dust the way it has for all these years. “I just – yeah, no, you’re right. I’m
up in my head about it.”

From the end of the line, crackly and tinny, he hears Seokjin’s voice soften. “Of course you are.
But this is the last time you have to think about him.”

The mention of his father makes Taehyung rub his face again. His forehead will crease prematurely
if he isn’t careful. These last two years at grad school have been draining the life from him, but
these recent weeks since he got the call have been worse. As if burying a man isn’t enough, he has
this place and this house to think about. Why couldn’t he have had a normal father?

Why couldn’t he have had any other father in the world? Taehyung stopped thinking those thoughts
as a teenager, shoved them far to the back of his mind, but they’re having a resurgence like the last
tour of an ancient rock back who ought to have retired long ago.

“I can’t stay in the house. It’s grim.”

“Does the town have a hotel?”

“An inn, I’ve heard.”

“Check in there. Don’t worry about the money or anything else. Just get yourself a hot shower and
some dinner and you’ll feel a lot better about tomorrow.”

Taehyung nods. “You’re right. I will.”

As soon as he hangs up, he misses Seokjin’s voice. Seokjin runs seminar classes three days a week
at the university between his own studies. If it weren’t for that schedule, he might have been able
to come with him. He probably still would have done, if Taehyung had asked, but he didn’t. Asking
for help isn’t something he has ever been good at. Seokjin gradually coaxing him into seeing a
doctor took months, and even then he was as skittish as a cornered animal on his plastic seat.

From a young age, he was used to setting his lips in a line and telling his teachers that nothing was
wrong.

Over time, he became good at telling himself the same thing. He was so convincing that for a
while he almost believed it. He pretended that his life was normal, like his friends’, and if he tried
hard enough he could forget the reality for minutes at a time.

This was the better option.

Taehyung drops his bags down onto the bed and sits gingerly at the end of the mattress. Checking
in to the inn was simple, and they took his credit card despite his sudden concern that the town
might operate on a cash basis. For a minute he was sure the man behind the desk was looking at
him strangely, but he shook off his own anxiety, reminded himself that he’s very much up in his
own head right now, and by the time he reached the room he was feeling better.

He flops back and eyes the ceiling. The inn isn’t modern, but it isn’t bowing under the strain of its
age either. A spider has made a home around the light-fitting. Few people must visit the town.

A small restaurant adjoins the inn. That must be where they make their money because he
imagines these rooms sit empty for most of the year. Maybe during hunting seasons some people
might visit to make use of the woods, but the lack of information about the town online doesn’t
lend itself to a tourist trade. Taehyung’s stomach rumbles and he feels the first pang of hunger
through his gut. It has been a long time since he last ate.

He unpacks his two bags first, opening one of the drawers in the heavy wood dresser opposite the
bed to lay out his clothes. A small religious book is pushed to the back of the drawer. Taehyung
ignores it and folds his shirts before hanging his suit over the doorframe. It’s the same suit that he
wore to his mother’s funeral three years ago. If he closes his eyes, he can still remember how the
wind whipped his face at the graveside that winter.

He takes nothing but his phone and his wallet down to the restaurant.

When he steps inside, he finds that it’s less of a restaurant and more of a dining hall. There seems
to be no waiting staff, and no assigned tables, but rather three long benches around which small
groups of people sit, talking very loudly. As expected, everyone knows each other. They drift from
group to group to lean over and join the conversation. Feeling more uncomfortable than ever,
Taehyung takes a seat at the end of one of the long tables and fiddles with his rings.

“Kim Taehyung?”

He whips around, swallowing down a spark of anxiety as he meets the eyes of another stranger.
Everyone here will be a stranger. Yet he hardly seems like a stranger to them. “I – yes, that’s me.”

The woman surveys him. In the city, no one would ever look at another person so thoroughly.
They cast their eyes down after the most fleeting glance. She analyses him, takes him in from his
straight hair to his smart shoes. “Let’s get you something to eat. You’ll never taste a better spicy
beef stew than you will here today – it’ll warm you up. Don’t you feel winter is coming early this
year?”

Taehyung doesn’t know what to say. In the city, the seasons blur into one. No one is ever outside
long enough to notice the extremes of the weather, too focussed on reaching their next destination.
This second half of the year has not felt so dissimilar to the first, except he notices the colder
breeze in the evenings. “I suppose it has,” he says out of politeness. “I’d love to try the stew.”

She smiles. Her hair is just beginning to grey at her temples, exposed as it’s pulled up into a loose
tie. “We’re all so sorry for the loss of your father,” she says.

Taehyung doesn’t know if the stream of condolences is easier or harder to tolerate than they were
after his mother died. There is no comfortable way to mention the passing of someone’s parent;
finding the right thing to say is awkward, and finding the right response is even worse. Taehyung
thinks he’d prefer it if no one mentioned it at all. That would save everyone the pain. “Thank you. I
know he held this town close to his heart even after so many years away.”

There is a reason that Taehyung is training as a lawyer. The profession suits him. He has always
been an excellent speaker. He observes people and surroundings and makes quick judgments.
Moreover, he knows how to lie. His father didn’t mention this place for years before his death.
Everything that Taehyung knows about it is recalled from his childhood. But he knows what
people want to hear.

“If you need anything at all, you come and find me,” she says. “Just ask for Mrs Park. I spend my
life in these kitchens.”

“Thank you, Mrs Park. Where should I pay, for the meal?”

She laughs and reaches out to squeeze his shoulder. It takes all of his restraint to stop himself from
flinching. “Don’t be silly, Taehyung. You don’t have to pay for anything here.”

The only way to occupy himself while he waits is flicking through his phone, but Taehyung
realises quickly that the connection out in this town is poor, and he isn’t going to ask anyone for the
wi-fi password. He scans through his recent messages to Seokjin and the emails that he already had
downloaded. When he runs out of things to look at there he flits through his photos to remind
himself that Seoul is only a car-ride away.

His small apartment, his college, his everyday haunts from the coffee shop on the corner to the bar
where he meets his friends.

He’s settling into a self-imposed familiarity when a man drops onto the bench opposite him, and he
jumps, dropping the phone to the table.

“You must be Taehyung.”

“Does everyone here know who I am?” Taehyung says before he can stop himself.

The stranger is his age, the youngest person he’s seen yet in this town, with bleached blond hair,
and he instantly regrets snapping at him. He has a friendly face, and the floppy hairstyle suggests
that he follows the trends of the city. Even after Taehyung was so quick to react, he’s smiling.
“Well we don’t get many visitors. And news travels fast. I’m Jimin, Park Jimin. You just met my
mom.”

Now that he says it, Taehyung can see the resemblance. They have the same gentle eyes and soft
features. “I’m sorry if I sounded rude,” says Taehyung. “It’s been a long day.”

“Oh I understand!” Jimin waves his hands to indicate that it is already forgotten. “I can’t even
imagine. You should know that the whole town will be here to support you. We’ll all come
tomorrow.”

Why anyone Jimin’s age, who surely wouldn’t have known his father, wants to drop by the funeral
Taehyung doesn’t know. He had been hoping that the most he would have to deal with would be a
couple of his father’s old school friends. Instead, this small town has lived up to his worst
expectations of such places, and seems to move as one unit, like a shoal of fish.

“Eat up,” says Mrs Park, when she returns with three dishes balanced on her arms. “You look
skinny.”

“Mom, don’t tell him he’s skinny, it’s rude!” protests Jimin.

Unoffended, Taehyung thanks her and arranges the bowls in front of him. He has always been
slender, but for a while in Seoul he filled out with some hours at the gym and plenty of Seokjin’s
cooking at their shared apartment. Only since the news started filtering back to him of his father’s
illness – which he never would have told him himself – did the weight start to drop off him again,
and he knows the stress has left him drawn. His cheekbones stick out.

“No one here has any boundaries,” says Jimin, glaring at his mother when she walks away. “Just a
warning.”

“It’s fine,” laughs Taehyung. “I’m not staying long.”

Jimin ignores that. “So tell me about you. What’s it like being a city boy?”

Taken aback by the directness, Taehyung takes a second to answer. “I’m studying in Seoul, law at
grad school.”

“Law? Wow.”

Taehyung grimaces. “If I’m honest, I haven’t been keeping up with my work these last few months
as well as I usually do. I started law because I didn’t want to be a doctor and the way my family
was growing up, those were the options. I’m good at it, but I don’t know if it’s what I want to
spend the rest of my life doing. I’m sorry,” he says again, shaking his head. “I don’t know why I
just said all that. I’m tired. Did you study? I’m sure there isn’t a college here.”

“No college here,” laughs Jimin with a nod, “but I studied in Busan. I moved home once I
graduated. Everyone who was born here comes back eventually.”

“Even in a box.”

The blunt statement seems to make Jimin lose his grasp on the conversation for a moment. “I – I
suppose.”

Jimin is saved from having to say more by the arrival of a group of guys, all of whom seem to
know him. They cross to their bench immediately and Taehyung occupies himself with eating
while Jimin leans back from his seat to accept their loud greetings. The food is as good as
promised, though the chili is amped up so far that his whole mouth burns. Warm him up? It’s
making his forehead sweat. The tender skin under his eyes is stinging.

“This is Kim Taehyung,” says Jimin. “You know, Kim Joonho’s son.”

He has to look up.

There are three guys around him, too many for Taehyung to examine in detail without staring,
though staring must be normal in this town because they are all watching him shamelessly. The
scrutiny gives Taehyung the feeling that he has something on his face that no one has told him
about, and he has to fight the automatic urge to cover his mouth or shrink back into his chair.
“Hey,” he says, the only thing he can think of.

“Kim Joonho’s son?” The tallest of them claps a hand down on Jimin’s shoulder. They all seem
very physical with each other. When one moves, another mirrors him. “So you’re Taehyung?”

He nods, unnerved by the fact that everyone in this town knows his name when he knows none of
theirs. They all chant their condolences, speaking as though they knew his father well, and
Taehyung plays along with the routine, already tired of it.

“Where’s Jungkook?” asks Jimin.

“He got held up but he’s coming.”

Jimin looks back to Taehyung. “This is Namjoon, Hoseok, and Yoongi.” He points them out in
turn, and Taehyung takes this opportunity to memorise their faces. “You’ll get to know everyone in
town but these are the guys you need to know,” he winks.

Namjoon swings a leg over the bench to join them, and soon enough the whole group has become
part of their party. Though he has never been shy per-se, Taehyung loathes being the centre of
attention. He thinks he preferred it when it was only him and Jimin. The four of them bombard him
with questions so fast that he feels like he’s speed-dating – that’s something they ask about too.
Yes, he’s in grad school. No, he doesn’t have a partner. Yes, this is definitely his first time visiting
the town.
They only stop their interrogation when another man appears, and they all look up.

He commands attention.

That’s Taehyung’s first impression of him. As though the spotlight was moved on the stage,
Taehyung fades from everyone’s awareness and they focus instead on their newcomer. They even
sit up straighter.

“Jungkook!” beams Jimin. “Meet Taehyung.”

So this is Jungkook.

He can’t be any taller than Taehyung, but he’s broad – he takes up space. In a charcoal tee, despite
the cool weather outside, every muscle shows. His chest is bulky, and prominent veins travel down
his arms, threading past the curve of his biceps. The frame isn’t overlarge – he doesn’t bulge like a
body-builder – but Taehyung wouldn’t take him on in a fight. Tattoos curl over his arms, intricate
and dark.

Realising that he’s staring, like everyone else in this town, Taehyung drags his eyes up to his face.

To his relief, Jungkook looks softer there.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” says Jungkook. Even as he says it, his gaze rolls over Taehyung’s face
and body, penetrative.

“Thank you, I appreciate that.”

Immediately, Hoseok stands to offer Jungkook his seat, and Taehyung looks between the two with
curiosity. Jungkook looks like the youngest of the group, with a hint of boyishness still lingering
around his features. Maybe it’s just the wide, round eyes that give him such an appearance. The
innocence there doesn’t match his body. He takes the seat. “I can’t believe you haven’t come back
to the town before now,” he says.

Something about the way he looks at him is like nothing Taehyung has ever felt before. He knows
people who hold a room by being loud, overtly confident, but Jungkook isn’t loud. His very posture
is dominant. Those innocent eyes shouldn’t be able to look so commanding but somehow they do
and he’s sure if Jungkook barked an instruction at him, he’d obey in a second under that gaze.

“Back?” says Taehyung. “I’ve never been here.”

Jungkook laughs. “You were born here.”

“No, I wasn’t. I was born in Daegu,” he says, awkward. “But my father grew up here.”

“Check the records,” shrugs Jungkook, shaking his head. “Daegu… As if any parent from this
town would let their child be born anywhere but here. Perhaps you’ve got a lot to learn about
yourself, Kim Taehyung.”

He wants to argue. His fuse is short after the day of driving and the discomfort he’s felt from the
very moment he arrived in town. However Jungkook is obviously the centre of this group of
friends, and he doesn’t want to start some kind of row with half of the town on the eve of his
father’s funeral just because he’s taken an instant, irrational dislike to someone that he didn’t know
five minutes ago.

Jimin warned that the people here don’t have the same boundaries as those in the city. A guy like
Jungkook might never even have left this town. He shouldn’t hold him to the standards of Seoul,
where people avert their eyes from strangers and talk in polite, muted, inoffensive tones.

“We should go. I’ve got Yejun on my ass about next week. Preparations need to be made.”
Jungkook stands, and the group follow without hesitation. “It was good to meet you at last,
Taehyung.”

“If you need anything, ask my mom!” says Jimin, quickly, over his shoulder.

They follow Jungkook like a litter of puppies.

The funeral drains the last of Taehyung’s strength.

As promised, the whole town turns out. They don’t fit in the one hall, but when they attend the
grave they spill across the yard. It fades out into the woods. Many tombs stand above the ground in
tradition. There are no graveyards like this in Seoul, or Daegu. Taehyung wears the suit he keeps
only for funerals and he accepts every bow and every word as the last remaining person in his
family’s line.

Some of the older townspeople tell him stories in whispers. One narrates the time that his father
and some of his friends broke into the school at night to release fireworks from the back field.
Another excitedly tells him all the tales, the rumours, of a teenage life and love, the kind that
reminds Taehyung that every old person was young once. He smiles stiffly and pretends that he
cares for their stories about a man he hated.

His night of sleep in the inn was restless and disturbed. Each time that he closed his eyes, the wind
howled against the windows, and each time that he opened them it quietened again. Close to three
in the morning, he realised that he had forgotten to take his medicine, and he spilled out of bed,
padding barefoot across the cold floor to find his bag. The last thing he needed was to have another
of his strange episodes while here in an unfamiliar place.

Seokjin was asleep in the morning, the first time that Taehyung stumbled back to their shared dorm
room after waking up in an alley a mile away. He’d walked back to campus with bleeding bare feet.
Scratches littered his face. Seokjin was horrified, sure that his new roommate was participating in
some kind of bizarre brand of street-fighting. Taehyung laughed weakly that he had problems with
sleep-walking. Those problems began soon after he moved to Seoul.

If he walked for a mile here, he’d end up in the middle of the woods.

They stand all around him, reaching out branches like a reminder that he is far from civilisation.
Clouds cover the sky. The graveyard is shadowed by the trees. So many people watch the
interment that Taehyung thinks his father must once have led some kind of hidden celebrity life.

Strangers talk to him like they’ve known him for years.

And they all stare. They stare and stare. Taehyung wishes they at least pretend to hide their
intrigue for the sake of some funerary propriety.

The guys that he met yesterday are here. Jimin, Hoseok, Yoongi and Namjoon, and Jungkook. He
stands at the front of the group, arms crossed, in a crisp white shirt and black tie most unlike the
clothes he wore to the dining hall. He looks different with his tattoos and his muscles hidden. Like
the rest of them, he watches, eyes on Taehyung the whole time rather than on the grave, the coffin,
as if the dead man isn’t the one they’re interested in.
Why would they be interested? His father must have left town before most of them were born.

Never in his life has Taehyung felt more unsettled.

“You should say some words,” says the director who has taken them through the rights, Mr Choi.

“Oh – I really don’t - ” Taehyung takes a step back. “It isn’t customary.”

“It’s customary here,” says Mr Choi. “Your father meant a lot to this town. They want to hear his
son speak.”

Taehyung thinks of the version of his father that must exist in their heads. A noble son, perhaps,
who left the town to pursue a new, bright life in the city. One who got out. Their reminiscing reeks
of nostalgia, like each of them recalls the person they were before he left and their memory of their
youthful self bleeds into the way they remember him.

None of the have to remember him the way Taehyung does.

He doubts any one of them has to remember the weight of a glass window pane, complete with
lead-piping, smashed across their face by him in a rage.

The scar threading Taehyung’s hairline doesn’t let him forget.

“Well thank you,” he says, putting on the voice he has trained for a law court. Inside, he pushes his
real self away. The memories can stay locked away in their box. He can conduct himself the way
his audience demands; he is well trained. “Thank you all for coming today, I know that it would
have meant a lot to my father. He was - ” A good man, he tells himself, just say he was a good
man. It’s what everyone says when forced to make a eulogy.

No one ever says that the dead person was a cruel person, a thief or fraudster, a monster. They sing
praises, no matter the truth of the life now resting between those coffin panels. Taehyung wouldn’t
be the first person to have lied at a funeral.

But he can’t force his mouth to make the words.

“He was always committed to his work.” And the bottle. “And his – and his family.” The lie leaves
an unpleasant taste at the back of his mouth, but it seems to be enough for the community, who
bow their heads in respect, and Taehyung crosses his arms across his body as he steps away. The
one assurance that keeps him upright is the fact that he will never have to come back to this place
again. He has no intention of ever visiting his father’s grave.

His mother’s ashes are kept outside Daegu. He’ll take his flowers and his love there.

“Are you okay?” asks Jimin.

Taehyung hadn’t noticed he’d drifted in the direction of his group. “I’m fine.”

Every funeral that Taehyung has ever attended has featured a visible outpouring of grief. Not a tear
has fallen here today. His own face is stony and blank. Allowing himself to access any emotions
puts him at risk of exposing something he shouldn’t. He wasn’t glad, wasn’t relieved when he
found out that his father had died, but he wasn’t sad either. Like everything else in his life, it was a
happening. Taehyung stores his experiences in filing cabinets in his mind, a long list of
happenings.

“Come back to the dining hall with us,” says Jimin. “There will be lots of food.”
Jungkook takes a step forwards, and they all fall silent. Taehyung, too, suddenly feels incapable of
speech. The world balances on a knife’s edge when Jungkook is about to speak, like the slightest
disturbance will cut the very folds of the air around them. “Forget food, he needs a drink. Come to
the bar.”

Without even contemplating a refusal, he nods. He puts it down to his own fatigue. Even he is not
immune to the restorative properties of a strong whiskey, though he drinks rarely, cautious of the
risks in his genes. As if caught up in the same magnetism as the rest of the gang, he falls into step
with them behind Jungkook, watching the back of his head.

Jungkook’s hair is thick and wavy, and Taehyung gets the impression that he cuts it with his own
scissors because the lines are choppy and uneven. At the top of his spine, just peeking out past the
collar of his shirt, is another tattoo, something geometric and angular that he cannot figure out
without seeing the picture in full.

They leave the funeral party behind, and no one questions them.

Taehyung has the strange feeling that no one here questions Jungkook at all.

Maybe he’s the son of the richest guy in town. Back in Seoul, Taehyung has seen chaebol heirs and
new money kids racing around with an entourage in tow, behaving as appallingly as they want
without a word of criticism from anyone. Not that Jungkook has done anything wrong. Taehyung
just finds it unsettling that someone can hold such an authority over a group without saying a word.
Maybe he’s done something amazing in the town before and become known like some kind of
hero.

Taehyung imagines scenarios in his head. Jungkook could have rescued a child from a burning
building, or identified some terrible flaw in the water supply just in time.

Or maybe he was just the most popular kid at school, and in a town where few people leave, that
influence has carried over into adulthood.

“Were you close with your father, Taehyung?” asks Jimin tentatively.

“No.”

Jimin doesn’t take his abrupt response as an end to the conversation. “Still, it can’t have been easy,
especially so soon after you lost your mom.”

Does everyone here know every detail of his business? The thought makes Taehyung’s skin crawl.
It isn’t Jimin’s fault, but he can’t help but feel bristly as he walks beside him. He doesn’t say
anything, but he loosens his tie. Whether it was constricting his breathing or his mind just told him
so, he sucks in a breath as soon as he undoes his top button.

“I know you probably think we’re strange,” Jimin pipes up, undeterred by his silence. “I get it,
small towns seem weird. But the great thing about this place is that everyone will have your back.
We’ll all help you back on your feet, with the house and everything. You might not have grown up
here, but you’re still one of ours.”

Taehyung doesn’t have the heart to tell him that he doesn’t want to be one of theirs.

The bar, he discovers when he slips the keys from his back pocket, is Yoongi’s place. Every store
across town has been shut down for the day. One by one the lights sputter into life and Taehyung
looks around. Tables, stools, long polished bar, glasses and bottles, landscape artwork on the walls.
It isn’t so different from the bars in Seoul. “Do you run this place?” he asks, gathering himself.
“My mother’s family have had this bar for three generations,” Yoongi smiles. “I like to do my bit.”
Rather than asking anyone what they would like to drink, he ducks behind the bar and pours
everyone a cup of the same dark, syrupy looking liquor. “I think we should make a toast to
Taehyung’s father.”

Taehyung looks down, praying for the moment that this will end.

“Let’s not,” says a calm, firm voice, and everyone lowers their cups. The authority in Jungkook’s
tone makes a shiver run down Taehyung’s spine. “I’m sure Taehyung is sick of all these
formalities.”

If he senses Taehyung discomfort on the air, then his ability to read people is remarkable, because
Taehyung has spent a lifetime learning to put on the most impenetrable mask.

No one questions Jungkook’s instruction.

Instead, Yoongi puts on some music and opens the doors to the bar so that anyone else from the
town can drop by as they make their way back through the streets. For the first time, Taehyung
wants to thank Jungkook, but he can’t bear to look up when he can tell that the other man’s eyes
are fixed on him. He focuses on his drink, swilling it in the glass tumbler before tipping it down
his throat in one gulp. It burns, and he’s grateful for it.

“So I hear you’re going to be a hotshot lawyer?” says Jungkook, and when Taehyung is addressed
directly he has no choice but to look at him.

“Maybe.” The more he questions it aloud, the more he questions it in his gut. The last six years of
his life, he has been going through the motions. Every step he has taken has been something
expected of him, by the teachers who were amazed at his diligence in school, and by himself, as
some proof that he could make it out of the circumstances in which he was raised. “What about
you? What do you do for a living?”

Jungkook leans back against the bar, rolling the base of his glass around in circles. “Oh a bit of
this, a bit of that. It’s an underrated skill to be master of the odd-job.”

He looks fit for that kind of work, strong and confident and outdoorsy. Taehyung can imagine him
trying his hand at carpentry or building work or electrics.

“I could help you out fixing up that old house of yours,” Jungkook continues.

With a laugh, Taehyung shakes his head. “Thank you, but I’m not staying. I’ve got to drive back to
Seoul tomorrow.”

“Of course you’re staying. You can’t come to town, your town, and disappear without even getting
to see the place. Stay a while. That house deserves some tender loving care and you need to see the
place where you should have grown up.”

Taehyung shifts in his seat. Everyone seems to do what Jungkook says, and bizarrely, he doesn’t
want to refuse him either. Like a great orator, it feels easier, more pleasurable even, to lean in to
what he says than to push away from it. Never, even amongst some of the most esteemed law
professors who he has worked with over the last couple of years, has he felt such a natural pull to
follow someone’s instruction.

The path of least resistance feels so smooth when the words are coming from those delicate pink
lips, too soft for the rest of him.
Taehyung’s mind drifts to the house, and the damp books abandoned forever, and the old building
that ought to have been preserved so much better than this. He fights to push the thoughts away. He
fights to push away the natural urge inside him to say yes. “I really do have to get back.”

“Stay just a while,” repeats Jungkook. “It’s the full moon next week.”

What an odd thing to say.

Maybe it’s tiredness, but Taehyung can’t quite make sense of it. When he looks around, he sees
that the others are all watching him as if Jungkook has just said something very significant. Jimin
scratches at a splinter in the bar awkwardly, and Yoongi turns around when he notices him looking,
but Hoseok and Namjoon don’t look away. They stare at him, expressions unreadable.

“Is that supposed to mean something to me?” Taehyung says with a nervous laugh, looking back at
Jungkook. “What happens on the full moon?”

Jungkook holds his gaze, so directly that Taehyung feels the instinctive urge to look away but he
fights it. Tilting his head ever so slightly, like he’s examining him, Jungkook doesn’t answer at
once. After a second, he pushes back up from the bar and shrugs. “We like to party. You know
people get a little weird on the full moon. It’s kind of a town tradition.”

The last thing in the world that Taehyung wants to do is attend a party with these strangers, in a
town he doesn’t know, where the people are different to back in the city, but for some reason he
can’t seem to open his mouth to argue. There is something about this place, some kind of pollen in
the air or gravity to the grass, that keeps him in his seat, feet rooted to the ground. He wants to say
no but for some reason he doesn’t want to say no. So he nods. It would be rude to refuse their
hospitality anyway. “Okay.”

“We’ll head up to the house tomorrow,” says Jungkook, with the tone of someone who is used to
handing out orders. “You’re staying at the inn, right?”

“I am.”

“I’ll bring my truck and see what we can do. I’d like to see the old place restored to its former glory
and you’re going to need somewhere to live.”

To Taehyung’s astonishment, Jungkook arrives at the inn at dawn, and no one stops him from
coming to the door of his room to rap a drumbeat against the wood until Taehyung staggers from
the bed to shut him up. The morning like is so low that it only just breaks through the shutters,
creating shallow patterns across the floorboards. Dressed only in the one pair of sweats that he
bought and a thin blue tee, Taehyung feels vulnerable, exposed in the company of a man already
dressed for work.

Despite the early hour, Jungkook is wide awake. His eyes are bright and alert, and his hair freshly
washed, thick and wavy. He smells like sandalwood. Taehyung shouldn’t notice that but he does.
He notices his carved calf muscles, like a marble statue, because Jungkook is wearing shorts, and
the scars that litter his skin, some fine and old, others ragged and recent. This is someone who
works every day in the forest or around rough materials.

He looks so different from Taehyung, but Taehyung has scars too.

Determined not to seem skittish, Taehyung dresses quickly while Jungkook paces the room,
looking out through the shutters at the silent street below. Just as he looks up, he sees Jungkook
turn around the pill bottle on the chest of drawers, examining the label. “Strong stuff,” he remarks.
“What’re you taking it for?”

“That’s private,” mutters Taehyung, suddenly remembering why he didn’t like Jungkook very
much the first time he met him. He snatches the bottle away and throws it down into his bag,
making sure to push past him to get to his jacket. So short on sleep, and having had more liquor
yesterday than he usually would, he’s feeling more combative than before. “Are we going now?”

Jungkook chuckles under his breath and nods. “Sure. Let’s go.”

The back of his truck is loaded with tools and materials, some covered with an ancient, torn tarp.
All of the paintwork is scratched. But when Taehyung climbs into the passenger seat he finds the
cabin itself quite clean and fresh-smelling, and he’s relieved. He half expected there to be food
packets and coffee cups left behind on the dashboard.

“I’m sorry if I’ve offended you,” says Jungkook when he pulls out onto the street, taking Taehyung
by surprise.

“I – what?”

“I get the impression you don’t like me very much.”

Now Taehyung feels guilty. Fuck. Jungkook has offered for no charge to help him out with clearing
the old house, and it was Jungkook too who saved him the pain of listening to everyone toast his
father. Since arriving in town Taehyung’s fuse has been too short, and he reminds himself that he
shouldn’t be judging Jungkook by the strict social standards of Seoul, where everyone lives their
life trying to prove their worth on the hierarchy. “I’m sorry. It’s not that. I’m just… it’s not been a
great week.”

“I get it. Don’t be sorry.”

“Everyone here seems to have so much respect for you.”

Jungkook laughs. His knuckles are tattooed, prominent where he grips the steering wheel. “We get
along well, I mean we all grew up together. There aren’t many young people in town. Even those
of us born a few years apart were raised as if we were the same age. Everyone is close.”

“But the way they look at you is different. They follow you.”

It takes Jungkook a minute to respond, like he’s carefully considering his answer. “What can I say?
At school I loved being the centre of attention, a bit of a class clown. I’ve always had a lot of
friends.”

At first Taehyung thinks that doesn’t answer his question, but then he realises that he didn’t really
ask a question. “You’re a natural leader.”

“I guess.”

“About the house… I know you want to help out but it’s really not in a great state, and I’m not
going to be staying in town long enough to get it fixed up,” warns Taehyung. “I appreciate you
offering your help, I really do, but I don’t want you wasting your time.”

“It isn’t a waste of time. Besides, it’ll give us a chance to get to know each other. No one wants
their lasting impression of a person to come from a funeral.”
Back at his desk, Taehyung has a pile of reading to do as tall as his knee, and before getting in the
car in Seoul the pressure of his research was crushing. Here, despite the unfamiliar surroundings
and the uncomfortable atmosphere, he feels like he can breathe. So he takes several deep breaths,
centring himself, and with each exhale he thinks of his responsibilities drifting up into the air. It
would be easy to forget them all, hidden away in a small town like this.

“Did you go to college? I know Jimin studied in Busan.”

“College? Me?” Jungkook laughs. “No, no. I wouldn’t have lasted five minutes. Jimin and
Namjoon have always been the smart ones. I’m good with my hands. Need the roof retiled? I can
do that. Algebra not so much.”

“I think you have to be pretty smart to lead people the way you do.” Since Jungkook detected his
air of irrational dislike, Taehyung now feels the need to cover it up with spritzes of praise.

Jungkook doesn’t say anything, but when Taehyung looks across at him he sees that his lips have
twitched into a small smile.

When they pull up at the house, Taehyung takes the chance to call Seokjin, sure that he’ll be out of
bed by now. Sure enough, Seokjin answers after the third ring, launching straight into questions
about the funeral. Taehyung lets him talk, the stream of concern of a close friend, and then he
answers everything at once in the most concise manner possible. “It was fine, hyung. Just another
funeral. Everyone talked about how amazing my father was and then I escaped to drink with some
of the young guys here.”

Jungkook watches him, unsubtly, as he unloads some tools from the back of his truck.

“Listen, I’m actually going to stick around for a few days.”

“You’re staying? I thought you couldn’t wait to get away!” laughs Seokjin.

“I want to fix a few things up with the old house. Maybe get to know the town, even. Believe it or
not, it’s nice to get some fresh air.”

“Fresh air? What’s that?”

“I’ll call you later,” smiles Taehyung.

Not even a second after he has hung up, Jungkook passes, shouting over his shoulder. “Just another
funeral?”

“Well it wasn’t my first.”

“I take it you and your father weren’t close?” He kneels down and examines the front door,
swinging it back and forth on its hinges. “I don’t mean to pry but that didn’t sound good on the
phone.”

“It’s nice that everyone here has great memories of him,” shrugs Taehyung, at first unsettled by
Jungkook’s directness, but the more questions he asks, the more he finds that he likes the absence
of boundaries, in a strange way. Everything is less polished than it is in Seoul, where half of his
interactions feel rehearsed. There’s something appealing about talking openly, out here in the crisp,
cool air, with someone who doesn’t know him well enough to have his impression tainted.

“But they aren’t the same memories as yours?” The old lock creaks as Jungkook unscrews the
fitting.
“People change. Maybe my father was a good person then, but he wasn’t by the time I knew him.”

He expects Jungkook to chastise him for saying such a thing about a senior passed, something so
taboo that in a traditional town like this it might border on the superstitious, but Jungkook just
nods. “Yesterday must have been hard for you.”

“You knew I didn’t want to talk about him, at the bar.”

“I’m good at reading people.” Jungkook slips the old lock from its nook and smiles to himself.

Maybe that’s why you’re such a natural leader, Taehyung thinks. “He was a mean drunk,” he says
aloud.

He shocks himself with the words. He almost covers his mouth with his hand after they slip out.
What magnetism in Jungkook drew them out of his chest, what drug in the air in this town that
could make him voice things he’s never shared with anyone but Seokjin, he doesn’t know, but it
makes his hands sweat. He shoves them into his pockets, too ashamed to watch Jungkook work
after saying such a thing so he turns away.

Jungkook, though, stands. “Violent?”

“I shouldn’t have said anything,” mutters Taehyung. “He’s barely cold in his grave.”

“Sounds like it’s the best place for him,” says Jungkook, and the words are so harsh, so icy, that
they shouldn’t feel like a warm blanket settled over Taehyung’s shoulders. “I don’t buy into this
don’t speak ill of the dead crap.”

None of that should sound comforting, but it does. Taehyung wraps his arms around himself and
sits back against the hood of the truck while Jungkook works. “Tell me about this party, at the full
moon. Don’t tell me it’s out in the woods?”

Jungkook laughs. “You’re going to have to get used to our traditions, Taehyung. The woods are
part of this town, like our grandparents. We were raised by them. Do you know, I travelled to the
city once and I couldn’t find my way around all those streets. Every block looked the same. The
lights were blinding and there were so many people that I couldn’t even see them as individuals
anymore. Meanwhile in the woods, I’m never lost. Every tree has a character; I know them all.”

Taehyung thinks of his unease arriving in the town, and the contrast with Jungkook’s security here.
“I understand. I felt weird coming here, away from the city, so I get it. It’s what we know.”

“You can just hang out at my place if you aren’t comfortable out in the woods. Like you said,
people tend to… follow me. If I say the party’s at mine, then the party’s at mine.”

Jungkook fits the new lock with ease, like he carries fittings everywhere he goes. Upon
examination of the back of the truck, Taehyung finds that he’s something of a walking hardware
store, which makes sense because there can’t be that many tradespeople in town. Despite the cool
air, he shrugs off the checked shirt that he was wearing and works in his tank. His shoulders are
nice to look at.

Taehyung scratches that thought from the record soon after it crosses his mind.

“See? Now you have a lock,” grins Jungkook. He throws the key to Taehyung. “You don’t need to
lock your door here – trust me, our crime rate is at a zero – but I know you city guys like to feel
like there’s a barrier between you and everyone else while you sleep.”
“You haven’t seen the inside. I don’t think it’s inhabitable.”

“Nothing that can’t be fixed with a bit of elbow grease,” grins Jungkook, and then his smile falls
when he pushes upon the newly fitted door and examines the hallway beyond.

During the morning, Taehyung thought that Jungkook was going to take on the house all by
himself. Though Taehyung could help, sweeping away the dust and collecting up the few
possessions left behind, he felt idle in comparison to Jungkook who heaved around the remaining
furniture without breaking a sweat. He wouldn’t let Taehyung do anything that involved lifting,
which made Taehyung feel both annoyed that he thought him feeble, and very pleased that he was
freed from the responsibility of physical labour.

Jungkook seemed determined to strip the whole house alone by lunchtime, but the plan becomes
clearer at midday, when his friends arrive.

They pile through the door one by one, Namjoon at the fore carrying a drinks cooler and steaming
bag of hot food, and Jimin at the rear. They are minus Yoongi in their number, but Jimin is talking
to two strangers that Taehyung does not know yet, one guy and one girl, both of whom look a
couple of years younger than him. “This is Yejun, Taehyung,” Jimin says cheerily, “and this is
Eunmi.”

Taehyung bows his head politely.

Yejun looks across at Jungkook. “This is him?”

The throwaway manner in which he says it makes Taehyung bristle. In his experience, it isn’t good
form to speak to someone you have just met in such a way, and he doesn’t bow either, despite the
fact that Taehyung is sure he is older. If he had taken a friendly dislike to Jungkook the first time
he met him, the kind that could be fixed with an early morning truck ride and a favour thrown his
way, then he takes an unfriendly dislike to Yejun.

“Mhmm,” says Jungkook, not looking up.

“I thought he’d be taller.”

Jimin rolls his eyes and shoves Yejun out of the way as he joins Namjoon to unpack the food and
the sodas.

Taehyung is blessed, he knows, to have inherited the best physical features from both of his
parents. He took his mother’s full lips and keen eyes, and his father’s sharp bone structure. His
father was tall, very tall, such that he was clumsy, while Taehyung grew into his mother’s frame,
more well-balanced, more in-proportion. Most importantly, he inherited her temperament.

“We need to tear up the floors and take out any walls you don’t want before we do anything else,”
says Jungkook, ignoring him and addressing Taehyung instead. “What do you think of the layout?”

“The layout?” Taehyung laughs. “I’m not going to be living here, Jungkook.”

“Humour me.”

“This is an old house. If you go knocking down walls the whole place might collapse around us.”

“Well that’s why we have Namjoon,” he smiles. “He studied engineering.”

What Jimin said is true. While Taehyung thought he must be the anomaly, leaving the town to
study, it seems that half of the kids here travelled away to go through university, yet all of them
have returned. Everyone comes back here. Even his father, not six feet under the hard fall earth.
Even Taehyung. And he has to ask Jungkook a question, so he takes him aside while the others get
to work.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Anything you want.”

“You said that I was born here, that I should check the records. Did you mean it?”

Jungkook looks at him curiously. “Of course I meant it. Kim Taehyung, Torrent Woods, 1995.”

“You looked me up?”

“It’s a small town. Nothing much exciting happens here. Your family have been here for
generations, just like all of ours. Your father, your father’s parents, their parents. Your mother, her
parents, and her parents’ parents. Then you. That’s how things go.”

Taehyung laughs. “My mother wasn’t born here.”

Lifting an eyebrow, Jungkook surveys him. “That’s what you think?”

“She never even mentioned this place. It’s my father’s town. They met in Daegu.”

“Walk with me,” says Jungkook, taking him by the forearm to lead him up the stairs, away from
where the others are eating. “You really don’t know that this is where your mom grew up?”

Taehyung runs his hands through his hair in disbelief. This is the most ridiculous thing he’s ever
heard, but something at the back of his mind stops him from arguing. After the funeral, Jimin told
him that it couldn’t have been easy, losing his father so soon after his mother. It means they knew.
The people in this town knew she’d died. And yet none of them have mentioned her name to him,
busy telling gushing stories about his father. “She can’t have done. I would have known.”

“I don’t want you to think I know more about you than you do, Taehyung, but people here talk.”

“Tell me,” whispers Taehyung. “Tell me everything you know about my family.”

They sit on a splintering window sill, side by side. Taehyung looks small compared to Jungkook
though there isn’t a centimetre between them in height. His frame is so much more slender. While
he talks, Jungkook stares away at the wall, like he can’t look him in the eye while telling him
stories about his own family. “I know from my dad that your parents were together for a long time,
like high-school sweethearts. Your mom’s parents died when she was young, right?”

“Fucking hell,” mutters Taehyung, rubbing his face. The realisation that someone he didn’t know a
few days ago seems to know everything about him feels like kilo weights in his gut.

“Everyone knew the two of them, everyone loved them. You were born here the same year as
Jimin. But then they left, took you to Daegu.”

“Why does everyone talk about my father like some kind of hero but no one has even mentioned
my mother?” he says shakily.

“I - ” Jungkook hesitates. “I think they believe that your mother… stole you away. You know we
don’t leave this town, not forever. It isn’t the way we live. And she and your father took you and
never came back.”

Anger burns in Taehyung’s throat and he closes his hands into fists. The thought of people talking
about his mother here, the best person in his life, like that… even after she died? “She stole me
away? Like he didn’t come too? They took me to Daegu together. Hell, my mother couldn’t have
done anything my father didn’t want her to! She was terrified of him!”

“I’m sorry,” says Jungkook. His voice is surprisingly soothing, soft and calming. “It’s the old
generations, you know what they’re like. They blame the mother for everything. Your father’s
parents were very influential around town and I’m sure they told people that it was her fault, not
their golden boy.”

Everything that Taehyung thought he knew feels fuzzy now in his brain. Nothing he had was built
on experience or memories, but all told to him in his father’s late-night rantings, slurred and
indecipherable, or pieced together from the things he guessed. Each version of his own history has
involved his mother meeting his father in Daegu, not here. Here. He tries to imagine his mother
walking these streets. They don’t suit her. She was always elegant and wise, not rough and ready
like Jungkook and the kids around here.

“Jungkook, I didn’t even – I feel like I don’t even know who I am,” whispers Taehyung.

“You’ll figure things out. The people who are born here belong here. This place will clear your
head.”

Taehyung doesn’t see how Torrent Woods could ever clear his head, when ever since he arrived it
has been cloudier than ever.

The days blur into one another like running water in the small town, one day after another
becoming a single stream, the likes of which runs through the surrounding forest. Taehyung knows
that, because Jungkook has been showing him everything there is to see in the town and the woods.
Rain falls for two days straight, but Taehyung is warm enough even outside in borrowed clothes
from Hoseok and a pair of Namjoon’s boots.

Everyone seems to be going out of their way to provide him with assistance, he thinks on
Jungkook’s instructions.

Taehyung thought it wouldn’t take more than a day to learn the town, but with the woods deemed
part of the territory he finds much more than he imagined. Jungkook shows him the modern stores
and the old buildings, the small areas of cultivation, the cabins for wood-cutting and the strange
sculptures dotted around the forest. According to Jungkook, no one knows who carved them.

“Our town survived for a long time selling timber,” he tells Taehyung, while Taehyung crouches to
examine one of the sculptures.

It is carved from a tree stump, in jagged, abstract lines that make it difficult at first to identify the
subject. When Taehyung has walked around it twice, it begins to take form. They’re creatures,
three of them wound together. At first he thinks they’re tigers, like the most revered national
animal of the country, but when he touches the carving of their tails and looks into the hollow eyes,
he changes his mind.

They’re wolves.
“Do you like them?” asks Jungkook.

“I love art,” murmurs Taehyung. “When I was a kid, I wanted to be an artist.”

“So why law? Why not art?”

“I excelled at school, so everyone said I should be a doctor or a lawyer,” shrugs Taehyung. “I don’t
think I had the confidence to tell them I wanted to do anything else. And my father didn’t like it.”

“Do you create now?”

He shakes his head. “I haven’t for a long time.”

“Let me show you more. I know these woods better than anyone. I can tell the way by the way the
leaves blow on the wind. I’ve found at least five of these sculptures. While we walk, I’ll tell you
about the town. We have a rival town, a few miles along. Ever since the days of the warlords,
people say, we’ve fought over these woods as territory. They belong to us now. And our school
beats their soccer team every season.”

“Territory? This really is different to growing up in the city.”

“It’s one of the reasons our elders get edgy if anyone leaves town for too long. We need people
here to keep everyone safe in case anything happens again. Young, fit people.”

Taehyung wants to laugh again, because it sounds so ridiculous to imagine a neighbouring town
marching in with weapons or riding horses to try to fight for territory in 2021, but he doesn’t laugh
because he can tell from Jungkook’s voice that he’s being deadly serious and he knows that would
be disrespectful. He bites his tongue. “Do you ever think about going anywhere else?” asks
Taehyung instead. “I know you said that you didn’t want to go to college but is there nowhere else
you’d like to go? I can’t imagine spending my whole life in one small town.”

Despite the light rain filtering through the canopy ahead, Jungkook has removed his jacket and
walks in a tee. The water makes the shirt cling to his body and rain drips from a curl in his hair that
falls across his forehead. With mud on his boots and a switch-blade at his belt that he uses to cut
through any tangles of undergrowth, Taehyung can’t imagine him in the city.

“No, there’s nowhere else,” shrugs Jungkook. “I love it here. It’s my home. And I have a duty to
my town. If every young guy went chasing a dream somewhere else there’d be no one left to take
care of our elders. I do half the work in this town. You think yours is the first house I’ve restored?
People here can’t afford to pay contractors up in the big city, and I won’t watch our seniors break
their backs doing physical labour when there’s young people like me who could do it for them.”

All his life, Taehyung has played the most respectable role that he can, but he’s never heard
someone talk about duty like Jungkook does. “This town is very lucky to have you,” he tells him.
He thinks he’s starting to understand why everyone here has so much respect for him.

“It’s the full moon party tomorrow,” says Jungkook, changing the subject. Taehyung has a feeling
that he doesn’t like being on the receiving end of praise. “Do you mind everyone drinking?”

“I had liquor with you after the funeral.”

“I know, but I’m sure it’s different when people are drunk. If you don’t like being around people in
that state then I’ll make sure no one gets crazy.”

“I’ll be fine.”
“Well you tell me if you’re uncomfortable, any time.”

“Thanks.” He means it. “I will.”

They tramp through the mud a little further. Taehyung is becoming used to the sounds of wet
leaves and crunching branches underfoot. Sometimes, if he stops to listen, he’s sure he hears
animals in the woods – the crack of a twig, the rustle of bushes. In Seoul whenever it rained he’d
duck into a doorway for shelter, but he finds he quite likes the patter against his borrowed raincoat
and the scent of the wet forest all around him. Things he’s shied away from for a long time don’t
seem so intimidating now.

“Those pills you take - ” starts Jungkook, and Taehyung’s head snaps up. Perhaps he’s been
waiting until they were justifiably close to bring this up again. “I know you said you don’t want to
talk about it and I respect your privacy but will you just tell me why? I know drugs like that.
They’re meant to stop you… losing your grip, right? Like on what’s real and what isn’t?”

Instantly defensive, Taehyung stops, crossing his arms across his body. “Why are you so interested
in this?”

Jungkook seems to be figuring out the right thing to say. “You just don’t seem like you have
anything wrong with you,” he says eventually. “Tell me.”

Not for the first time, Taehyung notices a quiet authority to his tone, and he looks up at him with
the sudden urge to answer. “I have funny spells, sometimes,” he says flatly, reminding himself that
Seokjin said this is nothing to be ashamed about. “Like I can disappear for a day, two days at a
time, and when I come back to myself I don’t remember where I was or what I did. I saw a doctor
about it this year.”

“How long has it been happening?”

“I don’t know. Since I was eighteen, nineteen maybe? Why does it matter?”

Something flickers across Jungkook’s eyes. “You shouldn’t take those pills,” he says.

“Excuse me?”

“Just trust me, please. Don’t take them.”

“Oh my God,” groans Taehyung. “I know this town is old-school but don’t tell me you’re all…
anti-medicine or something?”

“Of course not,” snaps Jungkook, and his voice is like a gunshot. Taehyung could swear it rings
around the forest, an echo. “I’m sure they help a lot of people but they won’t help you. There’s
nothing wrong with you. You don’t need them.”

“I’m not having this conversation,” says Taehyung, shaking his head in disbelief. There he was
thinking that the two of them could be friends, that Jungkook wasn’t so different to him after all.
He’d allowed himself to be sucked in. Maybe everyone here is living in another age after all, one
that still thinks medication is some kind of affront. “You don’t know me. What the hell right do
you have to tell me about my own health?”

“Please.” Jungkook catches his arm and Taehyung wants to pull away but he’s rooted to the spot.
His legs don’t work. “Just one night. Forget them tonight.”

Taehyung can’t shake him off, not because Jungkook’s grip is tight or because he’s stronger, but
because he cannot make his own body cooperate. He stays frozen until Jungkook releases him at
last and pushes his wet hair back from his face. Immediately, Taehyung turns around to walk away,
shaken, but he realises that he’s staring at unfamiliar forest, every tree identical to the next. “I
won’t be able to find my way back.”

“I’ll walk with you.”

They stamp back towards town in awkward silence.

Stewing on a deep anger, Taehyung feels his stomach bubble with acid, and he wants to confront
Jungkook but he doesn’t know the right thing to say and he’s more than a little scared that his
guide will leave him out here in the woods.

Jungkook seems to be deep in thought for some time too. Then, clearly incapable of letting
something go, he asks: “Did you ever talk to your parents about these episodes?”

Taehyung wheels around, fury bubbling over. “Are you serious? You’re actually still going to
pursue this?”

Holding his hands up to expose his palms in a show of vulnerability, Jungkook concedes. “Okay,
alright. I was just curious.”

In spite of himself, Taehyung feels a compulsion to answer. “And no, I never talked to them about
it. You think I would have told my father? And my mom had enough to worry about without me
making things worse.”

“Everything will make sense soon,” whispers Jungkook. Out here, his voice sounds musical,
keeping time with the woods. “I’m sorry. I’m not doing this right and I’m saying all the wrong
things. But I promise it’ll all make sense soon.”

By the time that he makes it back to his room, Taehyung is exhausted. He’s stressed out, he’s
weirded out, and the combination has left him with a throbbing pain behind his eye. Maybe he
should forget the stupid party and drive out of town first thing in the morning; he doesn’t owe them
anything. When he strips out of his clothes though and collapses onto the bed, he eyes the medicine
bottle on the nightstand and all he can hear is Jungkook’s voice in his head.

People follow him everywhere. They trust him like their chosen leader. It’s almost religious.

And Taehyung doesn’t take the pills.

Like Jungkook’s word is a gospel that his own reasoning, his own logic, can’t reject.

Against all of his better judgment, Taehyung joins the party.

Namjoon comes to pick him up, which at least suggests that Jungkook thinks he’s pissed off at
him, which he is. That doesn’t stop him traipsing through the town to his house like he’s drawn
there by some invisible force that he cannot fight. Along the way, Namjoon chatters about Seoul,
asking all sorts of questions, but they’re the kind that Taehyung is happy to answer. They talk
about study, and about books, and after the altercation with Jungkook, Taehyung is glad to be
reminded that there are people here in town he can relate to.

He and Jungkook don’t exactly have much in common.

Taehyung wishes he didn’t find something about him so compelling. He wishes he could stay mad
at him. But when he sees Jungkook outside his front door, talking to Jimin in a pair of long shorts
and a loose, long-sleeved shirt that can do nothing to protect him from the cold weather, he doesn’t
feel any anger about their argument yesterday.

He has to admit it: he’s drawn to him.

“You came,” smiles Jungkook.

“This is your place?”

“It’s not much,” grimaces Jungkook, but Taehyung thinks it’s a lot.

The house is built across one level, in smooth, shining wood, like the old and the modern brought
together in one. Outside, two busted up cars are parked on the street, and Taehyung likes the
thought that Jungkook is working on them. There’s a messy garden, overgrown but somehow
charming, with the last wildflowers coming to the end of their life before the winter. Taehyung
can’t imagine ever seeing a house like this in Seoul or Daegu.

A city apartment couldn’t compare.

“Jungkook built most of this place himself,” says Namjoon.

“You did?”

Jungkook nods, looking a little sheepish. “Would you like a drink? We have beers, soju, but we
have soda as well.”

“I think I can stretch to a beer,” says Taehyung, but he gives him a grateful smile.

Outside, day is just beginning to turn to evening. Half of the party seems to be in the garden, where
they’ve lit a fire, and music plays on a huge sound-system, the cables trailing back up to the house.
They’re lucky the rain stopped yesterday. Almost everyone, Taehyung recognises from the funeral
or from the tours he’s taken for the last two days.

Jimin and Hoseok are the ones who arrive with the beers, while Jungkook greets more people at
the door. He’s obviously the host, not just because this is his house but because he seems to be the
director of everything in Torrent Woods.

“We’re all glad you’re sticking around!” beams Hoseok.

“Oh I really need to get back to Seoul soon,” Taehyung says quickly, because he doesn’t want them
to think he’s staying. “Maybe tomorrow. I have a lot of work to catch up on.”

“Reading law books?” says Jimin. “You said yourself that it’s not what you want to do with your
life!”

“I didn’t say that! I just said that I’m not – I’m not sure,” he falters. Even the suggestion that he
might back out of something that he’s dedicated so many years to makes him shudder. “I have
other things to think about too. My life is there. Maybe I’ll come back to visit some time, though.”
He doesn’t mean it, and he knows they’ll know he doesn’t mean it.

The back of Jungkook’s land spills into the woods with no clear boundary. Steadily, the couple of
trees become five or six trees, until his eyes are met with blackness where they grow dense. These
woods don’t look anywhere near as safe at night as they did during the daytime, walking with
Jungkook. Having never lived outside of the cities, Taehyung hasn’t encountered anything close to
a dangerous animal.

“Is there anything dangerous in the woods?” he asks, watching the trees with nervous eyes.

“Dangerous?” smiles Hoseok.

“You know… like animals.”

“Well as far as I know we haven’t had bears in the south for a long time,” muses Hoseok, and
Taehyung can’t tell if he’s teasing him. “You might see some snakes, though.”

“We have native wolves, in the south,” says Taehyung hesitantly.

That makes Hoseok laugh, but Jimin kicks him and he manages to turn the sound to a kind of
cough. “Ignore him,” says Jimin. “Trust me, you’ll be fine, Taehyung. Nothing’s going to come
out of the woods and bite you. If it tried, Jungkook would leap to the rescue anyway. I’m sure he’d
wrestle any pesky bears that found their way over the border.”

Taehyung doesn’t know what to say to that, so he takes a large gulp of his beer. Unfortunately, his
silence seems to tempt Jimin.

“Especially since he likes you so much.”

“Likes me?” laughs Taehyung, thinking of their arguments. “He’s basically the town
representative, he’s been giving me the tour.”

Hoseok raises his eyebrows at Jimin, like he’s daring him to say more.

Jimin shrugs. “It’s just surprising. Jungkook doesn’t like outsiders. He doesn’t like anyone at all
much apart from his pack. But I suppose you’re an insider really.”

His pack.

Images of the Rat Pack cross Taehyung’s mind, the kind of music that his mother used to listen to,
and then he thinks of the Hollywood Brat Pack and he fights the urge to laugh. Of course Jungkook
would have some kind of nickname for his group of friends. If it were anyone else, Taehyung
would find that embarrassing. He wishes he would find it embarrassing. But with Jungkook it’s
somehow charming, in an irritating way.

Hoseok shoots a glare at Jimin like this time he is the one who has said too much, and they change
the subject in unison.

While Hoseok narrates a story about some strange happenings he saw on the east side of the town
a few days ago, much to Jimin’s interest, Taehyung notices Namjoon and Yoongi not too far away
so he gives them a wave. They’re sat on upturned steel cans, sharing drinks. Namjoon’s hand is
resting on Yoongi’s thigh, too high to be friendly. Taehyung hadn’t noticed they were a couple.

Namjoon waves back merrily, and the three of them drift over to form a larger group.

“We were just telling Taehyung not to worry about bears in the woods,” announces Jimin.

“Alright, alright,” Taehyung shakes his head, “everyone get your laughs at the city boy out of the
way.”

Namjoon does laugh. Yoongi’s lips twitch.

“Have you seen Jungkook?” asks Hoseok

“He’s still inside. He was talking to Yejun the last time I saw.”

“Oh,” says Hoseok, with a barely concealed look of contempt. “Lucky him.”

“He’s not that bad, hyung,” says Jimin in the tone of a parent trying to convince their child to eat
broccoli.

Hoseok holds up his hands. “I just don’t like the guy.”

“I don’t like him either,” says Yoongi. “Every time he comes into the bar he acts like he owns the
place. He’s a cocky little shit.”

Namjoon snickers and squeezes his thigh.

Because he doesn’t want to get into a discussion about someone he doesn’t know – not least
because Taehyung didn’t especially like Yejun upon first meeting either and he doesn’t want to say
something he’ll regret – he offers to dip back inside to get everyone more drinks, even though he
hasn’t finished his own beer yet. He crumples Hoseok and Jimin’s cans and searches for
somewhere to throw them away. Littering in Jungkook’s garden doesn’t feel right.

Inside, he ducks between strangers on the way to the kitchen where he holds he’ll find more beers.

Jungkook’s voice carries down the hall, and he pauses. The music is muffled enough inside that he
can hear what is being said, and from the tone in Jungkook’s voice it isn’t something he should
walk in on.

“This isn’t your call,” he snaps. “Know your place.”

He’s never heard Jungkook sound like that before. The ice is in his voice sends a shiver down his
spine. There’s such authority that he takes a step back even though he isn’t being addressed, and he
bows his head in the hall like some bizarre act of submission. Glad that there’s no one here to see
his bizarre display, Taehyung turns away, because he doesn’t want to hear more of that tone.

But he stops. He can’t help it.

“I’m thinking about everyone else, like you should be!” hisses Yejun. Taehyung recognises his
voice because he thought it was nasally the first time they met, and in frustration the effect is
heightened. “He could be feral for all we know! You’ve got people here for a party for God’s sake.
Some stupid kids sneak in and then wander into the forest and you don’t notice and then what?”

“I’ll deal with him.”

“He’s not our problem! He’s not one of us. We have threats from the west to think about. We don’t
need this problem landing in our laps too.”

“He’s one of our own whether you like it or not. You think I’m going to leave him out in the cold?”

“Maybe you should think about your real family first!”

There’s a thump and a scattering of something that could be glass across a surface, and Taehyung
doesn’t need to look to know that Jungkook has shoved him. Taehyung takes a step back forwards
until he can see through the crack in the door. He swallows. Jungkook has a fist in Yejun’s shirt,
holding him so roughly against the counter that Yejun’s back bends at a sharp angle. Taehyung
thinks it could break.

“Know your fucking place,” repeats Jungkook in a voice of steel, and Taehyung has to fight back a
strange sound that grows in his throat.

Slowly, Yejun turns his head to the side, exposing his throat, and at last Jungkook lets him go,
pushing him once more when the boy straightens up too quickly to follow him.

Taehyung barely has time to duck into the next room before Jungkook would have seen him in the
hallway. His heart pounds so fast that he has to place a hand down on the leather couch to stay
upright. The headache that started to affect him yesterday is throbbing again. Blood rushes in his
ears. All of a sudden the music outside seems very loud again, and he feels as though he’s finished
a bottle of wine, not one can of mid-strength beer.

“Taehyung?” says Jungkook, the first to find him of course.

Every word that was said in the kitchen crashes around Taehyung’s mind. None of them make
sense. They tumble over each other, confused. And the command in Jungkook’s voice that he
heard, though gone now, makes him shake even when he remembers it. Jungkook takes the
crumpled cans from his hand and throws them down, holding him steady with firm hands to his
forearms.

“Look at me,” he says, and Taehyung looks up in an instant. “You’re okay. Let’s go outside.”

Taehyung has the sudden disturbing thought that his drink might have been spiked. Maybe the
town is some kind of cult, or maybe an organ-harvesting ring like he’s seen on TV. If so, Jungkook
is the leader.

When the cold air outside hits him, he feels both more awake, and more dizzy. The only way he
stays on his feet is by slumping most of his weight against Jungkook, who bears it easily with an
arm around his waist. Whatever they might have fought about out in the woods, and whatever he
saw in the kitchen just now, Jungkook feels like a safe place – the most natural safe place in the
world. He’s warm, strong, and he radiates an aura of protection, like Taehyung is secure in his
sphere.

“Yoongi, clear the place out,” he says, like this is routine.

Yoongi stands in a second. “Alright, everyone, you know the drill! Drinks served at my bar from
now on.”

There are no complaints. Almost everyone at the party rises in one mass, even though it has only
just gotten properly dark. Light spills from inside Jungkook’s house, yellow and gold, but overhead
there is a silver glow of moonlight. Taehyung looks up, sucking in air to try to stop himself from
descending into a full panic attack. The full moon breaks from behind its cloud and bathes him in
light, the way the sun shines on the martyrs, twice the size that it ever looked in the city.

“It’s early in the night,” says Namjoon, low and fast.

“I think I triggered him in the house,” mutters Jungkook. “I might have let myself slip in front of
him.”

“Tell me that means you reminded Yejun who’s Alpha?” says Hoseok.

Taehyung can hear them all. He even sees them all – Jungkook, Namjoon, Hoseok, Jimin, Eunmi
and a second girl, the only two who haven’t left the party, and when he stumbles and half turns he
 sees Yejun, who hasn’t left either with a second stranger following behind. But he doesn’t make
sense of any of it. His head pounds like the worst migraine he’s ever had. The moonlight burns his
retinas like the sun.

“Trust me, he knows,” says Jungkook. He sounds gruff now.

He’s walking Taehyung towards the woods. Walking is one word for it. If anything he hauls him,
because each time Taehyung trips he holds him up. Taehyung wants to fight him, an innate terror
taking over when they start to disappear under the canopy of the trees, but instead he just curves
into him further.

“I’ll shift now,” says Jimin, with a worried look at Taehyung. “He’s going to turn. You might need
me.”

“You should send the kids away,” adds Namjoon, and Jungkook barks an order out behind him.

The younger guy, and the girl that Taehyung didn’t recognise, back away at last, back to the house.

At last when civilisation is no longer visible over their shoulders, Jungkook stops, holding
Taehyung by the shoulders. He tries to back away, weak on his feet, but Jungkook holds him fast
before helping him to the ground, sitting him back because his legs can’t hold his weight anymore.
A shooting pain runs through his hand, and he closes his fingers on earth beneath him.

“Anyone hurts him and I’ll kill!” snarls Jungkook, and there’s something so animalistic in his
voice that Taehyung loses grip on the human part of himself, discovering for the first time under
the canopy of the trees and its thin sheaths of moonlight, that there is a second part of him.

His eyes roll up.

His claws tear the ground.

Chapter End Notes

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 Chapter 2
Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Much like waking up in a hotel room or a new apartment, Taehyung does not at first recognise
where he is. The bed is hard and the blankets scratchy, but they’re warm and the pillows soft
beneath his head. His throat and mouth are so dry that when he breathes in air it’s like tiny knives
make an assault on his wind-pipe. He rolls onto his side, closing his fingers on the sheets, and
stares at the opposite wall.

Unlike waking up in a hotel room or a new apartment, the room does not then steadily align with
his recollection.

He’s never been here before.

Panicking, he scrambles up to sitting, hitting his head against the wall as he goes. A wide window
looks out onto a flat view of the woods, and the smell of smoke from a fire now long put out drifts
through the open shutter. The decoration in the room is sparse. The bedclothes that fall around him
are plain, and there is no art nor any photos hung on the walls. Every inch of the space is spartan.

Taehyung also becomes aware that he’s wearing clothes that aren’t his own, a pair of black sweats
that are loose on him. His chest is bare. Fear takes his throat in a vice when he looks down and
sees a white dressing at his side, with a splash of dark red that has bled through. Whoever put him
here has hurt him.

None of his memories put themselves together before the door opens with a creak and Jungkook
slips inside.

Jungkook.

There’s no weapon to grab and Taehyung couldn’t fight him if he wanted to. Jungkook would
overpower him easily.

“You’re awake,” says Jungkook.

To Taehyung’s astonishment, he’s holding a cup of coffee. “What the fuck did you do to me?” His
voice is hoarse.

“Everything’s okay,” says Jungkook. He puts the coffee cup down far enough away that Taehyung
can’t lunge for it to throw at him. Very wise. “You’re alright. Take a breath. No one’s going to hurt
you.”

“I’m bleeding.”

Jungkook eyes the bandage. “I’m sorry for that. You were lashing out and I really did have to stop
you getting any closer to town. I made it clear that none of the others were to touch you, so you
were my responsibility.”

“I – I don’t know what you - ”

“Yes you do.” Jungkook sits on the side of the bed and touches his fingers gently to the dressing.
When Taehyung doesn’t reel away, he peels it back to check the wound, sighing to himself. “I did
everything I could to keep you safe. It’s a flesh wound, it’ll heal fine, and fast. You’ll have a nice
scar. If it makes you feel any better, you put one on me too.” Jungkook pulls up the sleeve of his
tee and turns his arm to show Taehyung the brutal cut on his bicep, held together by steri-strips.

“I don’t understand,” whispers Taehyung.

“I’m sorry. I hate that it had to be this way but there’s… protocol, to follow. You’re one of ours but
you’ve spent your life out of town, and we don’t tell outsiders the truth. I had to wait to see you
change before I could talk to you, just in case. Just in case you weren’t one of us. It’s stupid – I
knew what you were before you even told me about the episodes but there are rules, even for me.”

“C-can I have the coffee?” says Taehyung, because he doesn’t know what else to say.

Jungkook watches him drink, rubbing his own tired eyes. “Our town isn’t like other towns,” he
says at last. “Our traditions run very deep. Blood deep. Bone deep. They show on the full moon.”

Maybe it’s the caffeine, or maybe it’s the mention of the moon, but the memories trickle back.
Some are more vivid than others. He remembers the party, and Jungkook confronting Yejun in the
kitchen. He remembers staggering outside, and Jungkook’s friends closing in around him like a
protective circle, and he remembers the woods, and terrible fear. That’s when the memories get
hazy.

“I had one of my episodes,” he says in realisation.

“Not an episode,” murmurs Jungkook. “You shifted, the way we do, but you’ve never had a full
transformation before. It hurts, the first time.”

Taehyung swallows. “Tell me what’s wrong with me.”

“This is a gift, Taehyung. It isn’t something that’s wrong with you.” Jungkook rests a hand on his
leg, just above the knee, and squeezes gently. “Back when wolves roamed the forests freely here,
our townsfolk had a special connection with them. They kept our town safe from attackers, and in
return we kept them safe from hunters and fur trappers. Over many generations, that bond became
spiritual, and we gained our gift. It’s a blessing.”

“Insane. This is insane.” Taehyung kneads his eyes, turning away, but there’s no denying the
chaotic blur of memories inside. His claws, razor sharp on the earth, and the snap of fangs, and the
howling. Not his own. He remembers the sound, haunting in the forest. Never has he remembered
anything from his episodes before.

“There’s a reason people don’t leave this town, Taehyung. There’s a reason people don’t take their
kids away. You can’t turn fully without your pack around you, without - ” Jungkook hesitates, “ –
without your Alpha close by.”

Taehyung doesn’t want to hear any of this. He turns away, curls up in a foetal position but then he
winces when the wound at his side twinges.

“What was happening to you in Seoul, this half-life you were living… I can’t imagine what you
were doing to yourself month after month. People like Jimin, like Namjoon – our family – they
wait two, three years after their first change before they leave to study. By then it’s under control.
They can curl up in a room and sleep it off – they’re in command of their wolf.”

“Their wolf?” Taehyung says faintly.

“My father taught me that each family once bonded with a different wolf. The soul of that wolf
lives on in our bloodline. Yours lives on in yours.”

“My wolf?”

“Your wolf.”

Taehyung doesn’t need him to say the word they’re both avoiding.

Werewolf.

It’s madness – it sounds like raw insanity – but he doesn’t question it because that madness seems
more real than the reality he has been living for so long. Jungkook’s story fills a gap in his mind
and his body that he didn’t even realise was empty. Everything makes sense for the first time, and
he squeezes his eyes shut.

“That medicine you were taking… it would never have helped. You need to be here, surrounded by
your people.”

“Close to my Alpha,” he parrots his words. In his mind’s eye he sees Jungkook pushing Yejun into
submission in the kitchen during the party. He sees the town following him around like –
Taehyung almost laughs at his own ignorance – like puppies. And he feels the strange weight that
Jungkook’s words hold, the way that it felt all wrong to pull away from him, the way that in fear
he’d tucked into his side. “You’re the Alpha, aren’t you?”

“Wolves aren’t easy to control,” says Jungkook quietly, “they need a strong leader.”

“How did you become the Alpha?” Taehyung rolls over to look at him. “You’re so young.”

“It’s not a matter of age. It’s something I was born with. My wolf.”

“That’s why everyone does what you say?”

Jungkook nods. “Yes, that’s why everyone does what I say.”

“Not just the pack, but the whole town.”

“I – yes.”

A thrill runs through Taehyung’s navel when he thinks about Jungkook’s power. It shouldn’t. Not
when his world has just been turned upside down and righted again in a matter of minutes. But the
thought that one man has command of a pack like this, protecting and handling his town and its
elders to keep everyone safe, is exciting to him. Jungkook is exciting to him. Upon first meeting
he’d confused his excitement for dislike, unused to the crackling, electric feeling in his blood. “Am
I in your bed?” he blurts out.

Jungkook chuckles. “Yes. You should get some sleep. We don’t rest much during the nights of the
full moon so take advantage of the day. I’ll bring you something to eat. Mrs Park always drops off
food for us.”

“She knows? I mean everyone knows, the whole town?”

“Everyone who was born here. Like you.”

A sickness returns to Taehyung’s stomach, replacing the momentary excitement, when he realises
that this is something that he inherited in his blood. To bury it down, he tries to think of something
funny to say. He keeps his voice quite flat as he examines the wound at his side. “I suppose this is
all good news. For a moment I thought you’d stolen my liver.”

Just as Jungkook said, after a long sleep and a few hours of restorative eating and drinking,
Taehyung has healed fast. The cut from Jungkook’s claw still shows, but it doesn’t bleed and he’s
sure the skin is already knitting back together. Jungkook informs him that they heal quicker during
the full moon. As they sit out in his garden, watching the woods, Jungkook tells him a lot of things.

Winter is coming early. There’s a cold frost on the ground that only melts away when the autumn
sun is high in the sky, and Taehyung has to keep a blanket wrapped around himself where he’s
tucked up on his chair. Jungkook never looks cold. Perhaps he’s especially hot-blooded, as the
Alpha. He makes Taehyung tea to warm him, alternating between feeding him more of Mrs Park’s
cooking and feeding him more knowledge, which Taehyung starves for.

“Jimin is my Second. That means that if anything happens to me, even temporarily, he takes over
the role of Alpha. The pack know to follow his instruction.”

“Jimin?” Taehyung says in astonishment. “He seems so… sweet.”

“And I don’t?”

Taehyung’s cheeks turn pink. “You’re just more…” He trails off, because he doesn’t want to tell
Jungkook that everything about him oozes dominance, from the way he sits with his legs spread
wide and his arms sprawled on the fence panel and the chair of his arm, like he doesn’t have to
worry about protecting an inch of his body, to the way he speaks, in cool command of the world
around him. “What do you mean, if anything happens to you?” he asks instead.

Jungkook shrugs. “If we were to have a fight with another pack, I might be badly wounded.”

“Fights? With another pack?” Taehyung starts, sickened by the thought, and then he remembers
something Jungkook told him in the woods. “The next town – the ones you said were your rivals –
the fighting for territory - ”

“It’s been a long time since we had a conflict,” smiles Jungkook. “It’s 2021, after all.”

“But what if - ”

“Don’t worry yourself about it.”

Taehyung is worried, but he bites his tongue. “Tell me about the pack. I mean it’s you, Jimin,
Namjoon and Hoseok, Yoongi and Yejun.”

“Not Yoongi.”

“But his family have lived here for generations?”

“It’s much rarer for the gene to carry down from mother to child than from father to child, and
Yoongi’s mother is the wolf. His father came from out of town. Yoongi’s part of our family but he
isn’t part of the pack.”

Taehyung starts again. “You, Jimin, Namjoon and Hoseok, Yejun…”

“The girls, Eunmi and Haeun. And another boy, Sunwoo. Haeun and Sunwoo are very young –
they’re still at high school and they’ve only had a couple of lunar cycles. I didn’t let them run with
us, last night, because you were out of control. It could have been dangerous for them.”

“Out of control?” whispers Taehyung, embarrassed.

“Like I told you, it was your first full shift. You haven’t gained any control over your wolf yet.
Your body has never changed the way it did last night. And you were in a lot of pain. Animals
don’t react well when they’re in pain. Tonight will be easier. You’ll be much more lucid, and
you’ll come to learn about your second form. I did my best to guide you last night, and I think you
were able to pick up on my Alpha voice, but you were spooked by something. That’s when you
made for town and I had to… I’m sorry,” he says again, nodding to the healing wound at
Taehyung’s side.

Taehyung shakes his head. “It’s okay. The thought that I could have hurt someone is terrible. Back
in Seoul, what was I doing? During the episodes I mean?”

“Obviously you couldn’t shift. Our souls belong here in these woods, surrounded by our pack. You
were trapped in your human body with your wolf mind up in the city. If you’d never have come
here I’m sure you would’ve driven yourself to madness,” says Jungkook.

“This feels like madness,” says Taehyung. He rubs his face, resting his elbows forward on his
knees. “Or it should. I should be laughing at you. I should be laughing at myself for even thinking
the word werewolf. But I’m not. How am I not laughing?”

“Because you know. A part of you has always known, as that wolf has always lived inside you.”

At that moment, the pack arrives, or at least the chunk of it that Taehyung is coming to know.
They’re obviously Jungkook’s real friends, the ones that have chosen to hang out with him rather
than being pushed that way by the matter of their birth. They bring Yoongi with them too, and for a
fleeting moment Taehyung wonders what it’s like to have all of his friends turn but to remain
human himself, despite that magic running back through his bloodline too, but then he decides that
he has enough to worry about without thinking about anyone else.

“You’re looking better than I expected,” says Hoseok, clapping a hand down on Taehyung’s
shoulder.

He jumps. He’s never liked being touched when he isn’t anticipating it.

“He slept most of the day,” smiles Jungkook. “Have you seen Yejun?”

“He’s off somewhere sulking,” says Hoseok. “He didn’t like that you put him in his place last
night.”

“He’s a problem,” mutters Jungkook, “I need to have a long sit down with him outside of the full
moon to talk about his future in the pack.”

Taehyung shivers at the memory of Jungkook’s full Alpha-mode in the kitchen.

“So, do you remember anything of your first time in the woods?” Jimin asks merrily.

“Well from what Jungkook said, I think I was pretty rabid,” grimaces Taehyung.

“Oh don’t worry about it! Has he told you how beautiful you were?”

Taehyung chokes on his tea and Jungkook turns to them, watching Jimin with a look that borders
on threatening. Jimin doesn’t submit to it, though, like it is Jungkook the friend, not Jungkook the
Alpha, who looks like he might rip his head off.

“We’ve never had a white wolf in our pack,” continues Jimin, smirking at Jungkook’s expression.
“You glowed, Taehyung, like the moonlight shone for you. Even Jungkook was in awe, weren’t
you Jungkook?”

A muscle works in Jungkook’s jaw as he meets Taehyung’s eyes. “Yes, your wolf was lovely.”

Praise for the soul of an animal that lives inside his bloodline perhaps oughtn’t make Taehyung
turn pink, but his body reacts for him. He blames the wolf’s nature. Receiving compliments from
the Alpha must be a very exciting treat for that part of him. That must be why people trip over
themselves to do as he instructs and to impress him. Immediately, Taehyung wants to please him
too. He wants to ask Jimin how to behave in the pack so as to give the best impression.

“You’ll see tonight,” says Namjoon. “The second change is so much easier. If you get confused or
frightened, you just need to reach out and you’ll find Jungkook’s voice.”

“I’ll be able to hear you?”

Jungkook nods. “Only the Alpha’s voice is clear in the pack. That’s why it’s important to have a
good leader. Once you’re more in tune with your wolf you might be able to hear Jimin too, but it’s
my voice you’ll want to tether to.”

Taehyung falters on a question he’s been meaning to ask. “This might sound stupid, but do people
have to do what you say? You said about your Alpha voice earlier and it made me wonder…”

“I have a full voice. If I use that, then the pack has to obey,” says Jungkook, and Taehyung is glad
that he’s being honest. “But I wouldn’t use it. I’d never force anyone to do anything. I lead my
pack by the respect I’ve earned, not by control. You might feel a degree of natural instinct to
follow my instruction but it isn’t a compulsion. If you’re worried, we can talk more about it,
because the last thing I want is for you to think that I’d ever make you do something you don’t
want to do.”

“I don’t think that!” Taehyung says quickly. He considers the way his knees occasionally go weak
in Jungkook’s presence, but he doesn’t ask about that. If everyone says that isn’t normal, then he
won’t live down the shame. “So do we only turn on the full moon?”

“The full moon is the only time you can’t control the change, but once you have command of your
wolf you can shift any time,” explains Namjoon. “The full moon is when we’re closest to our
instincts, though. Our elders, our parents and grandparents, they spend their full moon at home, but
we like to stay in the woods, close to our roots. It’s a very important time for us. That’s why we
always have a party or a bonfire. Sometimes the whole town celebrates.”

It’s so much information to take in, but Taehyung is used to studying. He has memorised precedent
from thousands of cases. He has spent hundreds and hundreds of hours poring over books in the
library. This shouldn’t be too much.

Still, he has to excuse himself for a minute while the others chatter on. No one minds. They must
know this is overwhelming for him.

He takes a breather in the house, sitting on the very edge of the couch because he’s yet to feel fully
comfortable here. An old TV is propped on a carved wooden table, but there is dust gathering and
Taehyung is sure Jungkook doesn’t spend time in front of it. A few books litter the table, but their
spines are unmarked. It is obvious that Jungkook lives his life outside, not hidden away in here.
“Are you okay?”

He doesn’t look up as Jungkook sits beside him.

“I know it’s a lot.”

“Do you know?” says Taehyung. “This has always been your path. Since you were a kid you knew
who you were, what you would be. I’m too old for this. I’m too old to learn this now. I have a life
in the city. I was going to be a lawyer. I can’t be a werewolf lawyer!”

“If that’s what you want, then you can still be a lawyer. You can get your wolf under control, go
back to the city, pretend this isn’t your nature. But I don’t know if you should.”

Taehyung exhales shakily. He doesn’t dare voice the fear that is gripping his chest. Some things,
he has shared with Jungkook, but he can’t share this. It’s too personal. Everything that they all said,
about their genes, their parents, their grandparents, is a searing reminder of the blood that runs
through his veins. This wolf is something he inherited from the blood of his father, a part of his
genetic make-up that he prefers to pretend does not exist.

If his father left this town, was that when he became a monster? Was it being torn from his pack,
isolated in the city, that changed him from the man everyone here seems to think he was? Or was
he always violent? Was that as much a part of him as the wolf?

A dread that tastes of metal and stale liquor settles at the back of Taehyung’s throat. Now that he
recognises that undeniable curse or gift that he shares with him, he cannot ignore the fear that he
could become more like him. He’s spent a lifetime fighting against that danger.

The thought haunts him.

But he doesn’t dare ask Jungkook any of those questions.

The first time that Taehyung is aware of the change, it is both better and worse than when he was
out of his mind.

He turns deep in the woods, surrounded by Jungkook’s friends. The rest of the pack, Yejun and
Eunmi, Haeun and Sunwoo, are running by themselves tonight under Jungkook’s orders. In relative
terms, Taehyung feels safe with these friends, but he doesn’t feel safe from himself or for the glow
of the full moon. He wonders, as he watches it, whether he ever noticed it before in the city?

Of course he searched for stars. Maybe he remarked on the moon more than once. But did he ever
truly look at it?

Now it stands bold and white against a smooth black sky, less cloudy than last night, and its
dominion over the night is dwarfed only by its dominion over the soul he’s at last coming to
understand. Before his body starts to change, he notices the little signs. His skin feels hot as it
would under the gaze of the sun. His pupils blow wide. His pulse grows faster and harder until he
can hear it in his head.

And his senses heighten. The sounds of the woods turn his head. Even the slightest splintering of
wood far away in the distance has him alert. He can taste the damp of earlier rain on the air.
Though the night is pitch dark out here, far from the light pollution of the cities, his eyes adjust and
he can make out in detail the creases in the bark of every tree.
More than anything else, his sense of smell sharpens. Where he stands close beside Jungkook, he
can pick up a scent on the air that he knows, innately, belongs to him. Alpha. Maybe outside of the
full moon he’ll laugh at himself for even thinking the word but now it feels natural. Jungkook’s
scent is earthy, like the woods he loves so much, but tinged by reminders of home.

Coffee. Rain. Citrus, like a nice soap. Cut timber. And sweat. But Taehyung doesn’t wrinkle his
nose. Jungkook smells good.

He doesn’t have time to rebuke himself for that thought before the wolf takes over. Jimin and
Jungkook stay close as he changes, maybe dangerously close, but Taehyung is more aware of
himself this time. That’s what makes it both better and worse.

His body trembles and he bites so hard on his lip that it bleeds, but there’s no stopping the
transition. Hands become paws with gleaming black claws. Even as he looks down he sees the
strange contortion of his flesh, bathed in moonlight in this forest clearing, and that bright bluish
white light becomes fur, and he has to close his eyes. He drops to the ground, panting, as the pain
starts. It isn’t as brutal as last night. He only feels like his entire body is being put through a meat
mincer.

He writhes.

The wolf claws to break free, not from his body but his mind.

And then he hears him.

No.

The Alpha’s voice is clear in his mind as his own thoughts, and his eyes snap open.

Without his own knowledge, Taehyung has fallen into an aggressive stance, hackles raised, teeth
bared, and it’s only when he remembers that he’s Taehyung at all that he gains some control over
his body.

He drops down to the ground, flattening his body against the earth.

The four wolves circle him, as if calculating his risk.

Taehyung wants to tell them that he’s safe, that he isn’t going to attack, but he can’t speak. They
warned him. Only the Alpha’s voice travels through the pack. He can’t communicate. The thought
is frightening, yet at the same time soothing. He could drift away like this, with no need to think
for himself or try to present himself to others, under only the command of his Alpha.

And he knows which wolf is Jungkook.

Not just because he’s the biggest. Not just because his fur is shaggy and jet black, almost wavy
like his hair, thick and so reminiscent of him. Not just because his body language is the most
dominant, with his ears erect and his legs stiff.

Taehyung also knows him.

He sees Jungkook in the wide, dark eyes. They hold his charm, the strange innocence that doesn’t
suit his physical form. That familiarity, that reassurance, keeps Taehyung sane as much as the
exertion of dominance.

Stay down.
They’re commands. As a wolf, Jungkook doesn’t communicate the way he does as a man. This is
the Alpha.

Taehyung guesses that he shouldn’t even think of the wolf as Jungkook, now, but he can’t help
himself.

He doesn’t have to think consciously to roll over, exposing his vulnerable belly as the dominant
wolf steps over him, one paw at his chest. Jungkook’s claws scrape close to his throat, a reminder
that he could cut if he wanted to. Taehyung realises, with a rush of adrenaline and a rush of relief,
that his own body has acted for him, rolling into a position of submission without the human part
of himself ever having to think about it. This is his wolf.

The thought is exhilarating.

Jungkook’s muzzle lowers to his throat, like he’s taking in his scent, and then he steps off him.

Good boy.

Taehyung waits while the other wolves check him out, more hesitant than their Alpha. He
recognises them too. Jimin, who is the prettiest tan colour, while Hoseok and Namjoon are grey.
He can recognise them all from their eyes. When he looks at his own paws, he is almost blinded by
the bright white. He’d love to see himself, all of himself, in this form.

He’d love to see his wolf.

As the newest of their number, he makes sure to stay down in his submission as the others get
close, though he remembers that Jungkook said his position in the hierarchy was decided not by
age but by the wolf inside. Taehyung wonders where he’ll fit in with them. He doesn’t even
consider that he might not spend the rest of his life surrounded by this pack. In an instant this
becomes his world. Why on earth would he ever return to the city when he could spend a life here
in the woods as a wolf?

He feels like he’s connected with the most intrinsic part of himself.

Jimin gives him a friendly nudge and he jumps up, excited to get going.

The aura around Jungkook fills the forest with energy. Taehyung knows he’d race after him into a
fight without hesitation; he’d jump in front of him, to protect him from attack. Every wolf in the
woods must feel the same.

Never has Taehyung felt like he’s part of something.

As a young child, he was able to make friends, and school wasn’t difficult, but he never had a best
friend. He was, in his mind, a fringe member of each group, tolerated but never truly embraced. As
he got older, he became more awkward, in a phase of teenage-hood that characterised him as over-
intelligent and unsociable. He didn’t have much school spirit, driven only by the brutal goals he set
himself because it was easier to fixate on an almost unattainable future than to think about his
present-day reality.

Here, surrounded by these wolves, he understands at last.

This is where he was always supposed to be.

He discovers that for the first time he likes to run.

The gym is one thing. Taehyung likes strength-training, even if exercise isn’t his natural
inclination, because he likes being able to see the results on his body. But he has never been able to
endure cardio. He doesn’t have the patience.

Running as a wolf cannot be compared to running as a man.

This is easy.

Though the five wolves charge through the woods at pace, they seem to make little sound and they
leap between small gaps, from rock to rock, like they have the forest memorised. Except Taehyung
doesn’t have the forest memorised, yet he seems to have the same instinct. Jungkook is the fastest,
and visibly the strongest.

When Taehyung hears the whisper of running water, he turns his head, and Namjoon nudges him
with a nose to his side to push him in that direction. Taehyung pauses, hesitant to take the lead, so
Jungkook crosses in front of him and pads his way down the verge ahead.

One of the forest streams cuts through a narrow channel of rocky undergrowth. Moonlight from the
clear sky peeks through the trees, and when Taehyung looks down at the water he sees the first
glimpse of his reflection, rippling with the reflection of the moon behind him. Jimin was right.
He’s pure white. It isn’t as hard as he thought it would be to reconcile the image in his mind with
the reflection he has looked at for twenty-four years.

He doesn’t reel back in shock.

He admires it.

Beetle-black eyes glint with the moonlight. His soft white fur is ruffled by the light breeze. Below
his snout he sees the prominent canine teeth gleaming, fangs for tearing at flesh. A carnivorous
urge runs through his body that shakes him. He wants to hunt.

Come. Jungkook jumps to the other side of the river and the others follow. Taehyung keeps up, not
even clumsy with his new body to think about. Taehyung must learn the perimeter.

Walking the boundary of their town in the daylight, as a man, is a strange sensation.

What was last night easy to recognise, is now a maze. The wolf side of him understood by the
scent and the crumpling of leaves from the trees even where their territory was mapped out. Those
instincts don’t exist in his less sensitive human form, and he finds himself disappointed. Jungkook
has to walk him through it from start to finish, this time with explanations.

During their extraordinary night in the woods, Taehyung found that Jungkook did not communicate
much in his wolf form, and he got the impression that the Alpha voice was reserved for important
commands and warnings, the kind of information that could not go unspoken, rather than chit-chat.
Otherwise he led the way a wolf might in the wild, without language. They all understood, after all,
without orders.

“We keep to our boundary out of respect to the next town. They have their wolves, and we have
ours. We interact with them pleasantly in our human form but instincts can take over when we
transform, and packs meeting each other on the full moon can result in… scuffles. Not serious
fights, so please don’t worry. But you can imagine the territorial nature of our inner wolves.”

Taehyung nods, though he can’t not-worry about the fact that there’s another wolf-pack so close
by. That means another Alpha. Someone who could challenge Jungkook in a fight, even. What if
they decided that they wanted to claim more territory for themselves? The thought of Jungkook
and the others in a fight makes him feel sick. Jungkook is so strong, so fierce, but that doesn’t
mean he’s invulnerable. The throat, the belly, there are so many places he could be wounded. And
Jimin? Jimin looks so slender and delicate in his human form.

“If there was a real fight, they’d go for you, wouldn’t they?” says Taehyung, anxious. “You and
then Jimin. The Alpha and the Second.”

“Don’t worry about it,” repeats Jungkook. “I can take care of myself, and so can Jimin. And our
pack would protect me. We have a few less in our number than they do but we’re strong. And you
add one more.”

“I could never fight,” murmurs Taehyung. “I don’t like to hurt anyone.”

“It’s different, when your wolf takes over.”

“I’m not… Wolves have this natural aggression, don’t they?”

Jungkook frowns as they walk. “Not necessarily. We fight to defend our pack, our family, but that
isn’t aggression. Some wolves are more naturally aggressive than others, just as some humans are.”

“Are you? Because you’re Alpha?”

“No. I’m dominant, because I’m Alpha. There’s a difference. I don’t think that I’m aggressive, but
I’ll assert dominance if I’m challenged, just as I’d defend my pack if we were threatened.
Aggression is something else. Yejun, in our pack, is aggressive as a wolf, but he’s aggressive as a
boy, too. I know that he had a rough time at school and his father is almost as much of an ass as
yours was. For him, that meant growing up very angry.”

It goes unspoken that for Taehyung, it meant the very opposite. The mention of his father reminds
him of his fears, and he stops, kicking at the leaves beneath his feet. “This gift – you called it a gift
– how do I know if I want it?”

“Why wouldn’t you want it?” says Jungkook in disbelief.

“I – never mind.”

“Tonight, Taehyung, we’ll hunt. I’ll teach you how. You’ll love it.”

“I couldn’t hurt something,” grimaces Taehyung, but inside he remembers the thrill that ran
through him at the thought of hunting last night. He wants to chase. Not in daylight, but at night
it’s a new instinct.

“Tell me that again later, when we start.”

These walks with Jungkook in the woods are becoming familiar. The Alpha has taken an interest
him, Taehyung presumes as the newcomer to the pack, and he’s grateful. Who better to learn all of
this from than their leader?

“What do you know about wolves?” asks Jungkook.

“Nothing,” he answer, quite honest.

“Wolves have some of the most complex and dynamic social units of any animal,” says Jungkook,
and it’s obvious he’s excited to talk about this. “Wolf packs are intricate in design. Wolves – not
werewolves, like us – have only one breeding pair, often known as the alphas, and they’re
surrounded by two levels of subordinates, mostly their children or sometimes siblings. Wolf packs
last through generations. Research shows they pass knowledge from generation to generation, from
hunting strategies to weather patterns.”

“That’s incredible.”

“Mmhm. Wolves play, throughout their lives. A wolf can have a playing partner from being a pup,
all the way into old age. When their friend dies, they grieve, they mourn as we do. If a wolf is
wounded or sick, the other wolves protect it and nurse it back to health. They’re more loyal than
people, far more loyal.”

“What about the lone wolf?” says Taehyung with a small smile.

“A common misconception, projected by man. The lone wolf doesn’t seek a path of isolation. The
lone wolf is always searching. He would never choose to be alone. He crosses many miles in
search of a new mate and a new pack. There is no true lone wolf in the wild.”

Taehyung muses on that.

“We don’t do well alone. We can survive, but it’s not in our nature.”

He’s not talking about wolves as an animal anymore.

Taehyung thinks of Seoul, his friends in Seoul and his work and his study, and he thinks of
returning there and leaving this pack behind.

There is no true lone wolf.

“Are we friends, Jungkook?”

Jungkook looks surprised by the left-field question. A second emotion hovers in his eyes that
Taehyung can’t identify. “Friends? I’d say so, wouldn’t you?”

“I’m sorry, I’m just confused. This is all a lot to take in. Ever since I arrived in town people have
been bending over backwards to help me out and at first I thought it was out of loyalty to my father
but now I find out it’s because my secret birth-right is to be part of a magical wolf pack and then I
thought maybe everyone is just being nice to me because it would be awkward to have someone in
the pack that they don’t get along with. I’m not sure if it’s duty or friendship.”

Jungkook frowns. “You worry too much.”

He looks like he’s going to say something else, but at that moment as though this talk of friendship
was heard all the way up in Seoul, Taehyung’s phone rings. Seokjin’s name is printed across the
caller ID. “Do you mind if I take this?”

“No problem,” says Jungkook, walking away a little, strolling through the woods.

“Don’t leave me!” Taehyung adds nervously.

Jungkook laughs. “I’ll stay close.”

“Hey, hyung,” says Taehyung, and he has to take several deep breaths at the start of the call. He
hasn’t considered for a second how he is going to explain any of this to Seokjin. What’s he
thinking? He can’t explain any of this to Seokjin. Jungkook hasn’t had to say it in children’s terms
but it’s obvious that everything he’s been party to in this town is top secret, not to be blabbed away
the moment he’s learned it. Besides, if Seokjin heard him talking about werewolves and blood-
bonds he’d likely phone the people in white coats to come and pick him up, convinced he’d had a
real mental breakdown this time.

“How’s Torrent Woods?”

“It’s good. The people here are really great once you get to know them, not at all like they are in
the city. Everyone works in one big community, together. I’ve been spending time with – with
some friends.”

“You’ve made friends?” Seokjin sounds suspicious, and with good reason. Taehyung can move
fluidly through social circles as an adult, and he has a group of friends, but that doesn’t make him
sociable. He prefers to stick with the people he already knows rather than reaching out to meet new
ones, and in truth most of his friends are Seokjin’s friends, who he inherited by virtue of being his
roommate.

“Less of the tone of surprise, please. There are a few guys here our age, and they’re nice. They’ve
given me the tour of the town and the woods.”

“When are you coming home?”

He hesitates. “I don’t know. There’s a lot of work to do on the house and I don’t want to leave it
here as a ruin. I think maybe I’ll stick around just a little longer. There are some of my father’s
affairs that I still need to put in order.”

“Right,” says Seokjin, but he doesn’t sound comfortable. “Are you sure you’re okay, Taehyung?
Because you can talk to me. Losing a parent is hard enough, but losing your father not long after
your mother, and with that relationship fractured enough as it was… I’m worried about you.”

“I’m fine, hyung, I promise,” he says, trying to keep his voice steady. It’s no surprise that Seokjin
would be worried about him. As far as Seokjin knows, this is his over-worked, newly-medicated
roommate processing a new bout of parental trauma far from home in a town he’s never visited,
alone. “You don’t need to worry about me. I’m feeling good, like I’m figuring some stuff out about
myself but not in a bad way.”

“Well will you call me again tonight? Or scratch that, I’ll call you.”

The full moon flashes across Taehyung’s mind. “Can we make it the morning? I’m going out with
some of the guys tonight.”

“First thing. Call me.”

Taehyung wishes that he wouldn’t feel so relieved when he hangs up. Some things can’t be
explained to his friend, and keeping them hidden from him makes him feel worse. “Jungkook?” he
calls nervously, when he looks around and sees nothing but forest, much less welcoming than it
was last night in his wolf form. No answer comes. “Jungkook?” he repeats, louder, heart thudding
against his sternum.

“Right here,” says a voice from behind him.

He swivels around and exhales when he sees Jungkook’s familiar face.

“Everything okay?”
Trying not to look too thankful for his timely return, Taehyung rearranges his face. “Yeah, yes. My
friend is just worried about me.”

“How worried?”

“Well you know, I was just starting to treat my episodes and then my father dies and I come here
and now I’m not rushing straight back to Seoul… If I were him, I’d probably be pretty worried.”

“Tell him it’s good for you. Fresh air, walks in the woods, slow pace, that’s all good for your
mental health, isn’t it?”

“I suppose you’re right,” he laughs. His mind drifts to the medicine in his room at the inn,
untouched for three days, and his stomach flips at the thought that it never would have helped.
What would his doctor have recommended next? Institutionalisation? His episodes must have been
bizarre to witness, and he feels ill imagining where he went and what he did while his wolf was
trying to tear its way out of his human body. “If I hadn’t have come here, Jungkook…”

“Don’t think about it. You’re here now, safe with us.”

They walk in silence for a while. Only when the trees begin to thin does Taehyung recognise
familiar tracks, and despite himself, he smiles as the house emerges in the distance. His house. Two
of the back windows are boarded up with splintering wood panels. A crumbling fence surrounds
the boundary, marking out a garden that is indistinguishable from the wild beyond.

Jungkook lets him in through the back door, shoving it open with a shoulder to the panel.

Since he first stepped inside, the condition has improved somewhat. The pack have cleared the
mess and lifted the dust. Jungkook’s tools are littered in each room and he has set up a workbench
in the hallway. How he has been working, between their night-time excursions to the woods and
their day-time excursions to the woods, Taehyung doesn’t know, but he has the impression that
Jungkook doesn’t sleep much.

“Namjoon says that we can take down this wall,” says Jungkook, rapping on a hollow sounding
section of the wall separating living room and dining room. “It was added later, it’s not supporting
anything. I think if we tear out stuff like that and have everything in its original structure, the spirit
of the house will be stronger, happier. I want everything to be perfect for you. And besides, during
the full moon I feel stronger than usual and I like the thought of wielding a sledgehammer.”

Taehyung laughs, because he can’t imagine Jungkook being even stronger than he already was. His
muscles are rock hard. “I really appreciate all of this, Jungkook, but you don’t have to do all this
work. You know I can’t stay here.”

Jungkook stares at him. “What do you mean?”

“I have a life in Seoul.”

Last night, for the first time in his life Taehyung felt utterly free. As he bounded through the
woods with his pack he could not even contemplate the thought of ever leaving. To his wolf mind,
moving in his pack was paradise, somewhere far for the constraints and the stresses of his real life.
Now, in the harsh light of day, he’s faced with his rent bill, with his social life in the city, with the
graduate course that weighs down over him promising a career that he isn’t sure he wants.

But it’s his life.

“You’re not serious?” Jungkook’s hands drop to his sides. For just a second, he looks so distraught
that Taehyung feels his wolf itch to comfort his Alpha, but he’s lucky that Jungkook hides the
expression quickly. “Taehyung, you belong here. You can’t just run off back to the city. This is
your home. We are your home. Your pack.”

“It’s amazing, Jungkook, but I told you before that I’m too old for this now. I’ve built a life for
myself far away. I can’t drop it all to stay here.”

Jungkook rubs his neck. A red flush has crept up his skin. “I thought – I thought after you ran with
us - ”

As he says it, Taehyung can see the fear in his eyes, and he thinks he understands. Jungkook thinks
he’s failed as an Alpha. He thinks he ought to have been able to convince Taehyung to stay. He’s
scared that he’s losing part of his pack because he’s done something wrong. “It’s not your fault.
You guys are great, amazing,” he says quickly. “But I can’t…”

“Jimin will be heartbroken,” says Jungkook, and it’s so obviously a defence mechanism that
Taehyung wants to reach out to him.

“Jungkook…”

“I’m going to go and get some more tools.”

As promised, on the last night of the full moon they hunt.

Jungkook told him that knowledge is passed between generations in wolves, both taught and
transferred in their very blood. He told him that wolves learn about their terrain, their weather
patterns, and their methods of hunting to pass on to pup after pup, and when they run through the
woods Taehyung understands. He’s never so much as been fishing, but in his wolf form he knows
how to hunt. He wants to hunt. It’s deep inside him.

With Taehyung deemed safe, they’re joined by Yejun and Eunmi, and by the two young ones. As a
larger group, Taehyung sees what the pack can do, and it makes him shiver. They crash through
the undergrowth, so fast that Taehyung can’t watch them all. He notices that Yejun is especially
quick, outpacing Jungkook. Taehyung himself isn’t especially fast, or especially strong, but he
thinks he has a keen eye. He notices movements in the trees, nudging at Jimin each time to show
him, and he thinks the other wolves appreciate it.

They split into two groups, then three, as the wolves start to chase their own cause. Taehyung
supposes that even amongst their pack instincts, they still have a human individualism. That’s what
he thinks, until he sees Namjoon and Hoseok return with a kill, and the two wolves nudge it
forwards, leaving it at Jungkook’s paws.

The Alpha eats first.

Whatever his instincts, Taehyung has to look away when Jungkook feeds. He might be wolf but he
was human two days ago, and the thought of tearing into raw flesh crosses a line that he can’t take.
He wanted to hunt. He wanted to chase. But that was all it was. In his mind, even his wolf’s mind,
it was a matter of play. The urge fades a little, and he shrinks back. The sight of the blood is too
much. A low whine escapes his throat, and he sees the flash of Jungkook’s eyes meeting his.

As of yet, he has stayed close to Jungkook and Jimin, the two with whom he is closest and with
whom he feels safest, as they are the most dominant members of the pack. Jimin nudges his side,
encouraging him to stand, but Taehyung stays flat to the earth, chin on his paws, unwilling to
move. Even the human part of him tells him to stand up, but can’t face it. Running felt like play,
before. It felt like being part of something. He thought they’d chase something together, like fun.
Now it’s too real.

Let him be.

It’s Jungkook’s instruction.

Jimin keeps looking back at him, but he obeys the order, following Jungkook into the trees while
Hoseok and Namjoon fight playfully over what is left of their kill. Taehyung feels frozen. These
are the same friends who drank beer and ate kimchi jjigae with him. Now, with blood on their
snouts and claws tearing at hide, he realises for the first time that wolves are also killers.

And he’s one of them.

Yejun and Eunmi return together, dragging some poor creature behind them, and Taehyung backs
away, under the shelter of the trees. Yejun’s eyes find him. His grey face is covered in blood. His
fangs show past curled lips, and he takes a step forward before Namjoon growls and he backs off.
The wolves face up to each other, as if each is threatening the other to make a move, but then
Yejun backs down, hauling the catch with him. He must be going to find Jungkook.

The night feels long, most unlike yesterday that seemed to pass in a heartbeat.

Taehyung is restless. He itches to run, to join the others in the hunt, but at the same time his human
side keeps him pinned to the floor.

A ripple of fear runs down his spine when the black wolf emerges from the shadows. It’s Jungkook
– it’s only Jungkook – but the Alpha is huge, and there’s blood dripping from his muzzle. He
advances on Taehyung, but when he’s a foot away he only drops the carcass from his jaws in front
of him. The blood spatters on the forest floor. It’s a deer, cut down with piercing canine teeth to the
throat, and it is well dead.

Eat.

Taehyung looks up, frightened, but Jungkook’s eyes are harder to read in his wolf form.

It’s for you.

When Taehyung’s eyes flit around, he sees that the other wolves have returned. They’re watching
him. They watch Jungkook, too. The Alpha bumps the carcass forwards with his nose, rolling it
over until it’s closer to Taehyung.

Taehyung places a tentative paw on the flesh, but he lifts it off when he sees red stain the pure
white fur there.

As if to encourage him, Jungkook paces around the prey and instead lays down beside him. The
other wolves bristle. Perhaps they don’t often see their Alpha laying himself down. But he folds
one paw under his body and nudges his nose at Taehyung’s neck. His body is warm beside him,
radiating heat, and the closeness to his Alpha calms the anxiety in Taehyung’s chest. Excited to be
close to him, their leader, he nestles closer, forgetting the deer altogether.

Only when Jungkook nudges it again does he remember.

His Alpha wants him to feed.

Comforted by that assurance, he sniffs at the carcass, and his wolf side paws at the earth in
excitement. The Alpha brought him this. The Alpha hasn’t caught a meal for anybody else – they
have all had to hunt, and they have had to give up their catch for him. Only Taehyung has been
gifted prey straight from the jaws of their Alpha. The thought pleases his wolf so much that he
forgets his sensibilities.

Jungkook shows him how to use his claws, and Taehyung forgets to feel human.

He prods uneasily at his lunch.

Mrs Park’s cooking is the best in town, and the best he’s ever tasted along with Seokjin’s.
Taehyung’s own mother was never a good cook, but she used to try hard; she would always make
lunchboxes for him to take to school, and they weren’t as cute or pretty as some of the other kids’
but he cherished any gift from his mother. Each morning, she woke up very early, when his father
was still passed out, and she would hurry Taehyung into his school clothes and walk with him.

Often he would be an hour or more too early.

As an adult, he wonders what the teachers thought of him back then. When he was little, the effects
of his home manifested only in his fear, a fear of playing boisterously while other children liked to
bundle over each other on the playground. In the awkward passage between child and teenager, he
became stalwart as a tree that has stood many years, threatening to stand up to the grown man
above him until his mother would drag him into the bathroom with her and lock the door. If she
wasn’t quick enough, he’d go to school with a split lip the following day.

They must have known though, the teachers, by the time that he was a teenager. Bruises, cuts, dark
shadows under his eyes from night after night without sleep. Taehyung has never been aggressive.
He would never raise a hand to another person – has never been able to, even in defence. But he’d
stand in front of his mother, and by the time he grew taller than her, she could no longer push him
away.

He can’t throw a punch but he can sure as hell take one.

“Taehyung?” Jimin interrupts his thoughts. “Is everything okay?”

Becoming aware once again of the busy dining hall around him, Taehyung nods. “Yes. Sorry. I
was miles away.”

“I know that the last few days have probably been tough, but you don’t have to worry about it for
another month. You can learn more about yourself before then. You’ll be better prepared for
everything next time.”

Taehyung can only think about the hunt. He picks out the vegetables from his lunch, but he leaves
the meat behind, because when he looks at it all he can think of is the raw flesh that his wolf
enjoyed last night. A month. He has twenty-nine days in which to make sense of his life now that
he’s back in his human mind, and decide whether to spend his next full moon here with his pack, or
far away in Seoul, alone, where he cannot transform.

Some way down the bench, Yejun is talking to some of the others from the pack, and his voice
drifts. Taehyung thinks that he means it to. Yejun seems like the sort of guy to talk in a loud stage-
whisper when he wants everyone to know his gossip.

“I can’t believe that I’m the only one that thinks it’s dangerous for him to be so distracted!”
Namjoon sighs. “Distracted how? He’s doing his duty as Alpha, and you’d do well to remember
it.”

They’re talking about Jungkook.

“You saw what he did in the woods,” Yejun seethes. “He brought a kill to the new one.”

“To Taehyung, yes,” says Namjoon. “Taehyung has never hunted. You know it’s important for us
to feed on the full moon. It isn’t about our human side. Our wolf is never satisfied until it feeds –
that’s our nature: we play, we hunt, we feed, we clean, and we sleep. Every full moon. You know
all this.”

Yejun scoffs. “And you know damned well that isn’t what I’m talking about. Taehyung could have
hunted for himself. The others could have brought him a meal. Whatever. But the Alpha doesn’t
ever bring food to his subordinates.”

Taehyung looks down at his bowl. He doesn’t want to show weakness, aware that Yejun knows
he’s not far away, but he can’t face looking up. Heat rises up his neck to his cheeks. Jimin tries to
say something to distract him but Yejun starts talking louder to drown him out.

“Wolves bring food to the Alpha. Not the other way around. There’s only one reason he’d debase
himself in such a way, especially in front of the rest of the pack.”

Namjoon cuts across him this time. “Be careful what you say, Yejun. This is a pack, not a circle of
friends; you don’t have to like him. But you know not to disrespect him. You might be young but
you aren’t Sunwoo’s age, you know how to behave around your Alpha. Talking behind his back
like this, trying to spread gossip, does not fall under the bracket of that respect.” Namjoon sounds
dangerous, and at last the younger wolf seems to hesitate, just for a moment.

Then his face resolves itself and it’s clear he’s chosen to snap back. “I’m just saying that with
threats coming in from the west, we don’t need an Alpha who’s distracted by his new bitch.”

There’s a crash of broken ceramic as bowls scatter to the floor. The sudden noise makes Taehyung
flinch, one protective arm jumping up to cover his face in response to a long-dormant instinct. In a
second, Namjoon has Yejun pinned, a hand to his throat. Namjoon has always seemed to mild-
mannered, so diplomatic, that it startles Taehyung to see him so aggressive.

No one in the dining hall starts forward to try to separate them. Everyone in this town must know
not to interfere in wolf business. But Taehyung sees Mrs Park step up behind Jimin a fraction.
Even amongst wolves, it seems, a mother’s instinct to protect is automatic.

“Don’t expect me to sit idly by while you speak ill of my Alpha,” spits Namjoon.

Yejun shoves him off, making no sign of submission as he had when Jungkook had pinned him in
the kitchen on the first night of the full moon. His eyes flit to Taehyung. He looks very pleased
with himself. The hall is taut with tension just waiting to snap, but Yejun simply straightens his
clothes and shakes his head as he marches off towards the doors. It does not escape Taehyung’s
notice that Eunmi, Sunwoo, and Haeun all follow him.

“Don’t listen to anything he says, Taehyung,” mutters Jimin. “I’ve tried to reason with him but he’s
out of line. The pack won’t tolerate it much longer.”

Whatever Jimin says, though, cannot drown out the Yejun’s words, playing out over and over in
his mind like a scratched record. “What he said – ”
“Just ignore him.”

“Is it true? Is it true that the Alpha would never bring a kill to share with another wolf?”

Jimin sighs. “Yes, it’s true, but who cares about those silly rules? Jungkook is an even better Alpha
than all those who’ve come before him, that’s why we all respect him so much, and if he wants to
feed his pack then I say that’s cool. You’re new here, and you haven’t grown up with the rest of us
so things are different with you. Jungkook wants you to feel comfortable.”

“And it’s not a sign of anything else?” says Taehyung tentatively, very aware of what Yejun had
called him.

Jimin isn’t a good enough liar to stop the flicker of hesitation from crossing his eyes. “No, it
doesn’t mean anything else.”

Thinking of the way that Jungkook had laid down beside him, so close against his body that their
fur had nestled together, Taehyung swallows. He doesn’t need to ask Jimin about that to know that
the Alpha doesn’t often cuddle up close to other wolves. When he blinks, the image of the carcass
that Jungkook had dropped at his paws is imprinted on his mind, and he tries to imagine what that
would have looked like if the two of them were human.

Maybe Jungkook would have dropped a bunch of roses at his feet.

Taehyung would be lying to himself if he weren’t to admit that he likes watching Jungkook work.

The Alpha’s muscles flex and strain while he saws through wood, in a vest that hangs off him such
that every time he moves his chest shows, as well as the curve of his ribs and the rippling muscle
at his side. Something has changed in the way that Taehyung looks at him, and he’s one hundred
percent sure that it’s down to his wolf. Some soul, a second soul deep within him, is very pleased
that a strong, fierce Alpha brought a fresh deer carcass to gift to him, and human Taehyung is both
disgusted and fascinated.

“Yejun was mouthing off in the dining hall, yesterday,” he says, wondering if there’s a way to
segue into that conversation.

“He’s always mouthing off,” mutters Jungkook.

“He said something about threats from the west. Is he talking about the other wolf pack? Your
rivals?”

Jungkook sighs. “I have a good relationship with their Alpha, or at least I think I do, but tensions
are always fraught when it comes to territory. A small patch of forest between our river and theirs,
which run almost parallel, has been contested for a long time. Some information suggests they want
to challenge for it, because we’ve marked it as our own for the last few years. Don’t worry yourself
about it. It’ll be a minor skirmish at most.”

“He said some other stuff.” Taehyung doesn’t want to be a tattletale, but he has his own agenda
here to think about. “He said you shouldn’t have fed me, that night.”

Jungkook snorts, a half-laugh through his nose. “Of course he said that.”

“Is it not… customary?” Taehyung has already asked this of Jimin but he wants to see how
Jungkook reacts to the questioning.
“Not exactly. But you were scared to hunt. You were confused between your wolf and human
instincts. Things are different with you, because you didn’t grow up with this the way the other
wolves in the pack did. I needed to give you a little nudge. Don’t listen to anything Yejun says.
He’s just bitter.”

“Bitter?”

A clank rings around the room as a broken shard of wood falls to the floor. Jungkook is cutting
boards to replace the old floor panels, and he seems to prefer good old-fashioned manual labour to
power tools. Taehyung won’t complain. There’s sweat dripping from Jungkook’s hair, and when
he turns the muscles of his back shift. It’s a nice view.

“Yejun’s father was the Alpha, in our seniors’ pack. He was raised with the expectation of being
the next Alpha when he came of age. But my wolf has grown stronger. You can imagine how it
was for him to be raised thinking that he was a prince before finding himself a - ”

“Pauper?” suggests Taehyung.

“I don’t like to think of my pack that way,” answers Jungkook, but his lips twitch.

It’s clear that Jungkook isn’t going to be forthcoming about any further meaning behind his act of
corpse-sharing, so Taehyung sighs and sits back to watch him for a while longer. Every time he
raises a finger to help, Jungkook waves him away and tells him to sit down. “I don’t think he’d
make a good Alpha,” says Taehyung, with the intention of stroking Jungkook’s ego a smidge. This
might coax him to talk. “He doesn’t have your control.”

Sure enough, Jungkook looks up with a barely concealed look of satisfaction. “You think so?”

“I think you’re always in control, not just of your pack but of yourself. Your temperament is suited
to leading. You know how to exert your dominance but you’re not aggressive. You treat everyone
with respect, and you allow them to air their opinions but you remind them who their leader is. I
don’t think Yejun has any of that. He just seems to like throwing his weight around.”

Jungkook looks very pleased. “I’m trying. Doing my best, you know?”

“I think you’re doing an excellent job.”

“Thank you,” murmurs Jungkook, and the tips of his ears turn red. “You have no idea how nice it
is just to hear someone say that.”

“It must be a lot of pressure, being the Alpha.”

“It’s…” Jungkook stops, leaning against his workbench, shoulders hunched. At the back of his
arm, stretched taut over muscle, Taehyung can see the wound he left on him that night when he
was rabid. “It’s like I never rest, even when I sleep. I’m always half-awake, anxious, anticipating
some attack on my pack, on my town. When we run, the others can drift into their instincts, just let
their wolf take over – the full moon is a release, but for me I have to be alert, in control.”

Taehyung nods along. He wants to reach out to him.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t complain.”

“You can complain all you want.”

But Jungkook is obviously done talking about himself. He stacks the finished floorboards in one
pile by the wall and sets about sanding down the splinters. “You know there’s a month now until
the next full moon? Plenty of time for you to think about what you’re going to do. Is Seoul still
calling to you?” His voice turns brusque, as if he’s trying to pretend he isn’t too worried about
Taehyung’s answer, but Taehyung can see the anxiety in his tense back.

At the back of his neck, travelling down his spine, is a geometric tattoo depicting an orbit of
planets, but at the centre there is not the sun but the moon.

“I don’t know,” says Taehyung. Seoul isn’t calling to him, not in the spiritual way that the woods
here do, but practicality dictates his return. Taehyung has always been a respectable son, a
respectable citizen, the kind who does well and works hard and will have an excellent job with a
good salary and a plan for the future. But none of that calls to him. He’s gone through those
motions for enough years, and they haven’t once brought him the joy that running through the
woods did.

“Some people would have freaked out when they learned what you learned,” says Jungkook. “Can
you imagine telling one of your friends that they’re a werewolf? They’d lose their mind. But the
way you reacted was like you’d always known, inside. I’d almost say you looked relieved.”

“It helped me understand some things.”

“This is where you belong, Taehyung. This is who you are.”

Taehyung squeezes his eyes shut. Now that the spotlight has turned onto him, he is enjoying this
conversation less. All of the anxieties that he has been forcing down in his gut, the ones that he put
on pause during the full moon with the excuse that he could think about them later, rise up inside
and he has to cover his mouth as he takes a sharp breath.

“Taehyung?” Jungkook murmurs.

“Jungkook I – I’m scared.”

Frowning, Jungkook crouches down in front of him so that he can hold his gaze, because Taehyung
has started to stare resolutely at the floor. “Why? Talk to me.”

“I told you what my father was like,” he whispers. Knowing what Jungkook did for him in the
woods, risking the disapproval of his pack, and knowing what it meant that he made that gesture
for him, he feels safe enough to speak. This is his Alpha, whose presence is comforting on an
innate level, and this is also Jungkook, who is as patient and calm as he is powerful. “I told you
about the drinking, and about how afraid we were of him.”

“I know,” Jungkook nods, resting a hand on his knee. Heat radiates from his touch.

“There were times when I thought he could be almost human. He’d say he was sorry and he’d say
he’d stop drinking and he’d take me to school or to the park, and each time I’d think things would
get better. That never lasted more than a week. He was a monster. I was so afraid of him. You have
no idea how many times people asked me if everything was okay at home and I said yes. I did it
right through college, when I still went to see him. I was as scared of him then, as an adult, as I was
as a kid, even though I got tall enough, strong enough, that he didn’t dare hit me anymore.”

“I’m sorry. Taehyung, I’m sorry you had to go through this,” says Jungkook. “If he was still alive
I’d put him in the ground for what he did to you.”

Taehyung rubs his eyes. “I tried to get my mother to leave him, once. I packed her bags and tried to
pull her with me, back to Seoul where I’d just started college. When he caught us – me – he went
into such a rage that he broke a window, smashed glass all across my face.” He brushes up his hair,
showing Jungkook the jagged scar at his hairline, and he shivers when Jungkook reaches out to
touch it.

His fingers are gentle, the touch featherlight. “I wish I could go back in time,” murmurs Jungkook.
“I wish I could take the two of you away from him and protect you. I’m your Alpha. It’s my job to
keep you safe.”

A tear squeezes out of the corner of Taehyung’s eye and he wipes it away angrily. It has been a
long time since he cried in front of someone. In fact, he doesn’t remember ever crying in front of
someone at all. He put on a mask as a child, one that hid the pain and the bruises, and he has never
let it fall. His breath hitches in his throat and he swallows a burning lump down. “I’m so fucking
scared, Jungkook, of this wolf inside me. I know you said wolves aren’t naturally aggressive but
what if his was? What if his wolf was what made him the way he was?”

Jungkook sits back on his heels, brow furrowing.

“That same wolf lives in me, right? That’s my family’s wolf. If that soul is violent then what if
being here, letting myself get close to that part of me, makes me more like him?”

“Oh Taehyung…” whispers Jungkook.

“It’s hard enough knowing I share his blood. The thought that I share something more, something
more important even...?”

“Your wolf isn’t from your father,” interrupts Jungkook, before he can say anything else. “God if
I’d known this was what you thought… it never even crossed my mind. Your father was no wolf.
He was a beast but he was just a man; plain, human scum. Taehyung, your wolf is from your
mother.”

Taehyung’s eyes snap up.

The world freezes around him. Even the air in his lungs ceases to move. Another tear falls down
his cheek and this time Jungkook gets to it first, brushing it away with a gentle thumb.

“She gave you this gift.”

“I – I thought – I thought you said that the gene didn’t – that Yoongi wasn’t a wolf because his
mother couldn’t – ”

“I told you that it’s rarer for the wolf to pass from mother to children, but not impossible. It
happens.”

“My mother was like me? Like us?” he chokes.

Jungkook nods. “That’s why people here don’t talk about her. Fuck, I could’ve told you all of this
after the first night of the full moon but I didn’t even think about it. When she walked away from
the pack, taking her pup with her, they considered it the utmost betrayal. I’m sure she had her
reasons. You’ve met Yejun and with his father as pack Alpha I know things must have been hard
for their generation. I know that she did what she thought was right for you.”

“I don’t understand. I don’t understand why she never told me.”

“Like I said, it’s rare. Maybe she thought that you wouldn’t inherit the wolf from her. When you
came of age and never mentioned any strange feelings, any episodes like the ones you had in
Seoul, perhaps she thought you weren’t affected. Or maybe she was just afraid to admit the
possibility to herself, if being a wolf was a bad experience for her. People are complicated, and
they do complicated things when they’re in pain. Living with your father must have been a… daily
trauma.”

A terrible thought crosses Taehyung’s mind. “Do you think he was jealous? Jealous that she had
the wolf and he didn’t? That he was ordinary?”

“We can’t know,” says Jungkook. His tone is so calm.

“How could he hurt her? If she was a wolf then she should have been stronger than him, surely?”

“Look at yourself. You’re a wolf, but you’re not a fighter,” says Jungkook softly. “And the two of
you share that soul. You think an ugly brute like your father could’ve shared a bloodline with a
beautiful, moonlight-white wolf like yours? I’ve never seen a wolf hesitate to kill the way you did
in the woods. You’re gentle.”

“Weak. You mean weak.”

“I do not mean weak,” says Jungkook, and a hint of his Alpha voice creeps in with the severity of
his tone. “I love that you’re gentle. If your mother was anything like you then I’m just sorry that
she was betrayed by someone who exploited that gentleness. I’m sorry he’s made you question so
many things, I’m sorry that he’s been this shadow over your life for so long, but he can’t take this
from you. Your wolf belongs to you and your mother only. He doesn’t get to be part of that.”

It hits him somewhere he’s deeply vulnerable.

Taehyung cries.

He buries his face in Jungkook’s neck and his Alpha does nothing but hold him there, smoothing
down his hair with a soothing hand. The tears fall unrestrained and Taehyung’s shoulders shake,
his back trembles, his whole body seems to cry with him. Jungkook doesn’t say anything – doesn’t
try to talk him down – and he appreciates it, because for the first time in his life he wants to give
in. He lets the emotion pour out of him in the hopes that after this one time, he’ll be spent.

This close, he can pick up the scent that was so strong to him in the woods: Jungkook’s scent. He
breathes it in and a wave of comfort settles over him. He wonders how it would be to be held by
him, surrounded by that warmth. The bond between Alpha and wolf is like nothing he’s ever felt as
a human being. It’s beyond anything he could share as a mere man.

“It’s okay,” soothes Jungkook at last, when Taehyung’s shoulders stop shaking. “You can cry as
much as you want.”

In one moment, Jungkook has helped him find a connection with his mother that he never knew
existed, and sever a connection with his father that he feared more than any other.

“You told me that we can shift any time, once we have command of our wolf? That we don’t have
to wait until the next full moon?” he whispers. His throat is sore from crying and his red-rimmed
eyes sting.

Jungkook nods.

“Will you help me try? I want to meet my wolf again, now that I know.”

“Of course,” says Jungkook. “We can go down to the woods this evening – it’s easier when the
moon is out. And since the full moon was so recent you should find it easier because of that too.
We’ll go together, just you and me. The rest of the pack doesn’t need to be a part of it. This is for
you.”

Taehyung shivers at the thought of them going together to the woods, just the two of them. They
have walked side by side, alone, countless times during the day in their human forms, but it feels
different as wolves, when the pack is always present. He wipes the last of his tears from his face
and manages to smile. “Thank you.”

Taehyung is in his room at the inn when Seokjin phones him, and his friend does not sound happy.
Cursing under his breath, Taehyung tries to track back to when he was supposed to call him.
Yesterday? He thinks it was yesterday morning. The days in Torrent Woods are long and
complicated, and at the same time so fast that he blinks and he can miss two of them.

“You didn’t check in with me!” says Seokjin, before he even speaks.

“I’m sorry, hyung. I’m really sorry, I just forgot.” He thinks it best to be honest.

“Forgot? Taehyung you know I’m worried about you! Please don’t forget!”

Taehyung takes a slow breath. He’s collecting up a blanket to take with him to the woods because
it’s freezing cold outside and he doesn’t know how long he intends to stay there with Jungkook.
Though he’s warm in his wolf form, if they want to talk he’ll have to turn back, and Jungkook
might be a walking space-heater but he isn’t. “Please don’t be so worried about me. I’m good. I
actually really like it here and the friends I’ve made are helping me through some stuff.”

“These friends you’ve made… they want anything from you?”

Taehyung sighs at the tone of suspicion in his voice. “What could they possibly want from me,
hyung?”

“You’re from the city. To a lot of people that means money.”

Laughing at the thought of Jungkook or any of the others wanting something as banal as money,
Taehyung shakes his head. “Trust me, they don’t want money. They’re good people. I feel like
I’m… part of something, when I’m here. The community is really close. Everyone looks out for
each other and they all work together. Everyone’s helping me with the house. Can you imagine
that back in the city?”

The line crackles. The reception is never good out here. “How long are you staying for?”

“I’m not putting a date on it. Honestly, I’m thinking about staying for a while.”

“Taehyung, you have school to think about! You have a thesis to write!”

Sat gingerly on the end of the bed, Taehyung rubs his eyes. This isn’t a conversation he wants to
have right now. “I’m going to call them and tell them I’m taking a sabbatical. They’ll let me defer.
It’s not a big deal, and I’ll still send you the money for the rent on the apartment so you don’t have
to worry about that.”

“I’m not worried about the rent, I’m worried about my best friend!”

Guilt makes Taehyung’s head ache. He knows how all of this must look to his Seokjin. This
disappearing act, from a friend who’s already vulnerable, who already has strange episodes… But
what can he say? How can he explain that after what Jungkook told him about his mother it would
feel like cutting a thread that tethers him to her, to leave behind his wolf now? When he’s barely
got to know it yet? “I’m fine. I’m sorry that I’m worrying you but I promise I’m in a good place.”

He doesn’t know whether he’s talking about Torrent Woods or his own mental health.

When Seokjin doesn’t say anything, he sighs. “I’ve really got to go. I’m hanging out with one of
the guys tonight. I won’t forget to call again.”

At that moment, Jungkook raps on the door, and Taehyung pushes his guilt away, reminding
himself that for once in his life he’s allowed to do something just for himself. This is something
that is happening to him, and no one else. He can’t be beholden, even to his friends.

“Everything okay?” asks Jungkook.

He nods, relieved to see that Jungkook has also brought supplies – a thermos, another blanket, and
a bag that he hopes is full of snacks.

Evening is the prettiest time of day in Torrent Woods. The lowlight dapples through the trees that
grow everywhere, and the lights begin to come on in the stores and houses, giving the town a glow
that Taehyung might once have found eerie. Now it feels like home. With the moon just beginning
to wane, the nights are still bright, though Taehyung can see that Jungkook has squeezed a
flashlight into his bag. Tonight is dry, crisply cold.

The two of them head into the forest. Taehyung feels no fear with his guide, and his once
misplaced worry about wild animals seems laughable now. The wolf is at the very top of the food
chain. Wolves rule these woods.

They pass one of the abstract sculptures that Taehyung admired so much before he knew the truth.
This time, the wolves take shape easily, and he crouches again to brush his fingers over the shapes:
tiny piercing fangs, large paws, long bushy tails. Jungkook lets him examine it without
interruption. Taehyung appreciates Jungkook’s ability to remain silent. He never intrudes on space
in which he isn’t welcome, even if that space is merely a bubble in the air.

He doesn’t fill silence with chit-chat. Everything he says is measured, most of it either helpful or
reassuring. Taehyung always imagined himself with a talker. All of the guys he’s dated – or at least
been on a first date with because it rarely makes it past one – have been academics at his college
who thought they knew everything about everything. He thought he found that attractive. Even if
they told him things he already knew, he listened, pretending to himself that he could be interested.

Jungkook has none of that performative intellect, but Taehyung thinks he’s more intelligent than he
lets on, or than he gives himself credit for. It doesn’t matter if he is or not anyway. Jungkook works
with his hands, he’s a natural leader, he’s dependable and strong and loyal and Taehyung thinks all
of that is suddenly more attractive than some pompous college academic in a tailored suit jacket
who inadvertently talks down to him more often than speaking on a level.

It intimidates Taehyung how quickly he has slipped into thinking of Jungkook in these terms:
appealing, attractive, desirable.

There was no lust at first sight back when he met him in the dining hall. He remembers thinking
that Jungkook was built, and that’s about it. Now, he can’t imagine how his past self didn’t look at
his face and feel weak at the knees. He can’t even entirely blame his wolf and the natural draw of
the Alpha. There’s also something embarrassingly human about the way his neck gets hot when he
watches him work, and the way his navel sometimes twists if Jungkook leans very close to him.

“I thought we could eat a bit first,” says Jungkook, laying down the blanket on a flat section of
ground. He tips out the contents of the bag and Taehyung smiles when he sees the collection of
snacks that Jungkook has put together. This is the second time that he has brought food to him, out
here in the woods. “There’s some hot tea, as well. I can tell you feel the cold.”

“Am I so obvious?”

“I guess it can’t be so cold in the cities, can it? All those buildings, office blocks pumping out heat.
And no wind, because the skyline is covered in concrete.”

“You really do love it here, don’t you?”

Jungkook nods. “You could love it here too.”

“What was it like for you growing up? Tell me about school.”

With a laugh, Jungkook watches the woods. “Well I told you before that I could be a bit of a
clown. I was pretty popular. People have always liked me. I don’t know whether it’s because inside
I’ve always been Alpha, or whether I just caught people’s attention with the way I acted, but
socially things were good. It’s a small town, so you know there aren’t many of us. The same group
of kids in every class. There weren’t even enough people to have cliques, different groups. You
either had no friends or some friends or a lot of friends.”

Taehyung, who attended a massive school in Daegu, can’t even imagine. Maybe his teachers
would have been more attentive if they hadn’t have had to see hundreds of kids every day. Maybe
if he’d grown up here, people would have known what was happening at home.

“All of the kids of wolves kind of hang out together by nature, and everyone expects that, but there
wasn’t anyone my exact age so I grouped together with the older boys like Jimin and Hoseok and
Namjoon. Of our circle, I was the last to turn, being the youngest.”

“Who was Alpha, then?”

“Jimin,” says Jungkook, in a tone that suggests he’s surprised Taehyung had to ask. “My Second.”

“That must have been hard for him,” starts Taehyung hesitantly. “I mean being the Alpha and then
being replaced… how did he cope with that?”

“He wasn’t angry,” shrugs Jungkook, “or at least he didn’t show it. Wolves have a very natural
hierarchy, and that’s how we feel comfortable. For Jimin, it wasn’t like a threat, an attack on him.
It was simply a shift, a natural changing in the dynamics of the pack. He’s always been happy to be
my Second. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that it did affect him somehow – I think he’s always had
more sympathy with Yejun than the rest of us, and maybe that’s why.”

Taehyung nods. It makes sense. Yejun, who thought he would be Alpha, losing out to Jungkook.
Jimin, whowas the Alpha, being replaced by Jungkook. They must have talked about it.

“But Jimin isn’t just my Second, he’s one of my best friends. He doesn’t blame me for our nature.”

Daring for a second to throw caution to the wind, Taehyung asks: “How do the rest of the pack
dynamics work? I mean it’s a pecking order, isn’t it? Someone is at the top – you – and someone is
at the bottom, and everyone else has to fit in between. But what would happen if, say, the Alpha
found – found a mate?”
Jungkook turns to look at him then. “A mate?”

“You know, like a girlfriend? Or a boyfriend?” Taehyung hopes he doesn’t sound too hopeful
slipping the latter in. He has no idea if Jungkook like girls or guys or anyone at all for that matter.
The only information he has to go on is a catty remark from Yejun, which isn’t exactly a reliable
source.

“When it comes to werewolves, the Alpha rarely chooses a mate in the pack. There aren’t enough
of us, so if we all kept our relationships within the pack our bloodline would die out fast. And
because we grow up together we’re more like a family, so it would feel strange. For that reason our
kind invariably find human partners.”

“What if you hadn’t grown up together?” Taehyung can’t take it back once he’s said it, and in truth
he doesn’t want to. He allows the words to hang in the air while Jungkook looks down at his
hands, playing with an empty candy wrapper. He shreds the plastic into little pieces. When he
doesn’t answer, Taehyung tacks on another question. “How would that affect the dynamics, if you
as the Alpha were to find a mate within the pack? Hypothetically?”

“Any mate of mine would be alongside myself, at the top of the hierarchy.”

“Even above your Second?”

Jungkook nods, not looking at him. “In a different role, of course. The role of the Second is to
replace me if I die or am wounded, and to be my second in command in times of conflict. That role
wouldn’t befall my mate. But in all other spheres, I’d certainly expect my pack to treat my mate as
the most senior wolf in the pack, apart from the Alpha. When it comes to hunting, to feeding, and
to our hierarchy of dominance, my mate would be at the top.”

“Just below you?”

“Alongside me,” says Jungkook, and at last he looks up to meet his eyes. “I’d never allow a mate
of mine to feel he was below me.”

Taehyung doesn’t miss the detail.

They’re sat so close together that he can feel the warmth radiating from Jungkook.

He wants to lean in so desperately, but just when he starts to move Jungkook clears his throat.
“You wanted to see if you could shift outside of the full moon.”

Taehyung sits back. “Yes.”

“We should try now.”

“Can’t we talk some more?” he asks, because even his wolf is pushed to the back of his mind right
now. His heart beats very fast, less of a pounding and more of a fluttering. Even though the air is
cold he feels so hot that he could slip out of this coat and his skin would still feel it were burning.

Never has Jungkook looked vulnerable, but he can see it now, and at last the innocence in his eyes
matches up with the expression on his face. “You know I’m not very good at talking, Taehyung,”
he whispers. “I’m not… like you.”

“Like me?”

“Smart. Curious. Loquacious.”

“I mean you just used the word loquacious,” says Taehyung, in the hopes of making him smile, but
Jungkook looks down like it has made him feel worse.

“You’re more interesting and more intelligent, hell you’re even older than me, and if we keep
going like this then you’re going to manage to talk me into circles that I can’t bluff my way out of,
and I’m terrified that the more you get to know me the more you’re going to realise that you’re a
fucking million miles out of my league.”

There it is.

There can be no hiding the truth anymore.

Jungkook has whispered it into life here in the woods.

“You’re practically a lawyer,” he goes on, “with this big fancy life in Seoul. And I’m just a small-
town kid with no prospects, no brains, nothing to offer you.”

Taehyung doesn’t even have a chance to feel happy that Jungkook clearly has feelings for him,
because he’s so disturbed by the outrageous, unwarranted, unfair self-criticism.

Never would Taehyung have imagined such a stream of self-contempt to spill from Jungkook’s
lips. He knew that he was a good leader, and he knows that part of being a good leader is keeping
anything that makes you vulnerable locked away deep, deep inside where no one can find it to hurt
you with, but he didn’t realise that he was that good. He had no inkling that Jungkook was insecure
about any of this.

“Jungkook, that is – no,” Taehyung catches his face with a hand to turn him to look at him, holding
his eyes with his own. Jungkook just jerks from his grip, pressing his cheek down to his arms,
crossed on his knees, as he faces away.

“You think because you didn’t go to college that you don’t have brains? God, Jungkook, that is
so…”

“Stupid?”

“Yes. I mean no!” he snaps, realising that Jungkook had managed to wind him into the circles that
he’d been worried about. “You are so far from stupid. You’ve got this all backwards. You think I
have some hotshot life in Seoul? Because I don’t. I’m not a lawyer, I’m just a student, a struggling
student who was falling apart under the pressure long before I came here. You think you have
nothing to offer me compared to my fancy life? Jungkook you have this beautiful house all of your
own that you built for yourself while I’m living with a roommate in a tower block; hell, you’ve
been fixing my house for me, making me a home when we aren’t even a couple yet!”

Jungkook at last turns his head on his arms to look at him. His eyes are wide and glassy.

“I don’t even have a proper job, while you’re managing this whole town. I mean what was it you
said? No prospects? You’re the fucking Alpha, Jungkook! You’re like the CEO of Torrent
Woods!”

That earns him a small smile. Little victories. Taehyung will take this in baby steps.

“I won’t let you talk about yourself like that. No way. You’re the one who’s out of my league, and
I’m jogging to keep up because I don’t want to fall behind because I think you’re brilliant.”

Jungkook blinks, perhaps wondering if the tirade is over yet. “You mean it?”
 “More than anything I’ve said since the day I arrived here.”

“You know, if I heard correctly then you said that we aren’t a couple yet. Does that mean you’re…
thinking about it?” Jungkook asks with just an air of hesitance. “Because honestly I don’t know if
I’m reading this right.”

“I take it back,” says Taehyung, rolling his eyes, “maybe you are stupid after all.”

Then he kisses him. He cups a hand to his jaw and pulls him into him and Jungkook, maybe for the
first time in many years, lets himself be led. The kiss is gentle but aching, like they’ve both been
waiting for it for a long time without even realising it. Jungkook’s lips taste of the hot tea from his
thermos. They’re soft, just as Taehyung imagined. Little else about Jungkook is soft.

Taehyung rests one hand on his arm and finds the muscle beneath like rock, and when he leans into
him it makes him dizzy to feel how solid he is, as chiselled as the sculptures all around the woods.
A small breath escapes his lips and Jungkook takes that opportunity to reclaim his command – a
flash of Alpha – as he takes a grip on Taehyung’s waist and lifts him over his lap easily, like he’s
nothing but a feather. His muscles barely flex.

He nips at his lower lip with his teeth and Taehyung feels that knot in his navel that he has become
aware of the last couple of days buzz with excitement.

“You know, Kim Taehyung,” grins Jungkook, showing his very pointed canines when he smiles, “I
might be stupid, but I’m not the one who just grabbed his Alpha without permission, who just
mocked his Alpha right to his face… That’s very dangerous behaviour.”

“Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it?” breathes Taehyung. His breath fans over
Jungkook’s lips.

Jungkook cocks his head to the side, then smiles again. “A lot of things that we aren’t going to talk
about right now because I think this was supposed to be a soft moment, but I’ll keep them saved up
in my mind for when we’re having a not-soft moment. Then I’ll tell you all about them. Just you
wait.”

Taehyung collapses over him in a fit of laughter, burying his face in his neck, and Jungkook
loosens his grip on his waist as he wraps his arms around him instead. They stay in that position
for so long that the evening becomes the night, but Taehyung isn’t frightened in the woods, in the
dark. He’s straddling the lap of a powerful Alpha, after all, who could easily protect him.

Moonlight bathes their corner of the forest.

“Do you still want to turn?” whispers Jungkook.

After a minute, contemplating whether he wants to continue this moment as his human self or as his
wolf, Taehyung nods.

It’s best to have both.

Chapter End Notes

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 Chapter 3
Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Being courted by Jungkook, Taehyung finds over the next couple of days, is a public affair. For the
first time in a while he is reminded of his initial misgivings about small towns: everyone knows
everyone else’s business. Sure enough, by the morning after they kissed in the woods, everyone
seems to know that the Alpha has got his eye on the newest member of the pack. Maybe Yejun has
been spreading rumours, but the thought bothers Taehyung less since he and Jungkook have
confessed their feelings to one another. Yejun can’t make it awkward now, at least.

To their credit, people aren’t too obvious, but Taehyung isn’t stupid.

In the dining hall for breakfast, everyone spins by his way to say hello, and Mrs Park prepares him
an extra special meal that is three times too large for one person to eat, even a werewolf. She asks
him what he’s doing today, and whether he’ll be spending time with the pack or not. She frames it
as a question about Jimin’s day, but Taehyung knows she’s asking if he’ll be out with Jungkook.

On his way to his own house, now slightly less dilapidated then it was when he arrived, everyone
greets him loudly. From the day he arrived, Taehyung has been the centre of attention, but this is
different. They all have the same glint in their eye.

While they work on the renovations, the rest of the pack, who have been drafted in to help by
Jungkook again, all stare at him. Even the ones who try to be subtle and pretend they aren’t
watching are caught at least once. The young ones look at him with curiosity, Yejun and Eunmi
with thinly veiled dislike though Taehyung doesn’t know what he has done to earn such treatment,
and Jungkook’s friends with expressions ranging from delight to bewilderment.

Only Jimin is brave enough to speak aloud.

“So…” he starts. The two of them are working alone upstairs. Taehyung has avoided passing too
much time in the same room as Jungkook, lest they draw even more attention to themselves, so he
has spent the morning stripping wallpaper with Jimin on the first floor.

“So?” he smiles.

“Eunmi said that she saw you and Jungkook leaving the woods together last night. Alone.”

Eunmi. If it wasn’t Yejun, it would be his sidekick.

“Jungkook and I have walked in the woods together plenty of times. He’s been showing me the
town boundaries and some of the artwork – you know the sculptures in the woods?”

“Yes but it was very late and this time you were… you were wolves.”

Taehyung narrows his eyes. He knows for a fact that he and Jungkook didn’t leave the woods in
that form because they went for a midnight walk together back in their daywear for another hour
before returning to town, talking about everything from childhood to candy preferences. That
means Eunmi was either wandering the woods, or following them. He figures the latter. “Does that
make a difference?”

“It makes a difference.”

“News really does travel fast here, doesn’t it?” says Taehyung.

“You know people were already talking after the full moon. I know I talked it down to you because
I didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable, but what with the feeding and the snuggling…”

“The what?”

“Snuggling. You know what I’m talking about,” says Jimin, with a sly grin. Then the smile falters.
“You don’t know what I’m talking about? When wolves court, they snuggle. Like humans hold
hands, or cuddle. When Jungkook brought that deer, he laid down so close to you, all nestled up so
if you weren’t white and black I wouldn’t even have known where your fur ended and his started.”

“I thought wolves were very physical animals.”

“Well we are, but not with Jungkook. The Alpha doesn’t do that with any of us. I doubt he was
even thinking about what he was doing – you know the wolf mind and the human mind get
confused during the full moon – but some of the pack noticed.”

“Snuggling?” Taehyung repeats.

“It’s sweet. I half expected him to start nibbling on an ear. Or grooming you.”

Taehyung sends a silent thanks up to the heavens that Jungkook didn’t start grooming him in front
of their entire pack.

“So Jungkook has never acted like this with another wolf before?” he asks, hoping he doesn’t
sound too possessive.

“Never. That’s why people like Yejun are talking. Jungkook has always been duty-duty-duty and
now he’s… thinking about something else, for the first time. It wasn’t going to escape people’s
notice. Even in the daytime he’s different around you to the rest of us. You wouldn’t notice
because you didn’t know him before, but he’s changed since you got here. With us, we’re friends,
but he’s still Alpha. With you, it’s like there’s none of that, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him tell you
what to do.”

That reminds Taehyung of something that he thought about when he was lying in bed this morning,
and Jimin seems like the prime candidate to ask. “Jimin, I wouldn’t be drawn to him just because
he’s the Alpha, would I? I know he has this influence over everyone and I… it’s not a wolf thing, is
it?”

“Well let’s put it this way: he’s my Alpha too and I’ve never wanted to kiss him,” shrugs Jimin,
and then he grins. “Gross. Nor has anyone else in the pack, as far as I know. No. Not a wolf-Alpha
thing. Definitely just a you thing.”

Relief settles Taehyung’s tight shoulders. Though he knows Jungkook would never, ever use his
power as Alpha to exert any untoward influence over him, it still had him worried to think that
maybe his own wolf was playing a part in trying to shove them together. The reminder that no one
else has fallen under some Alpha-induced enchantment is encouraging, and he feels once again that
he can trust his own mind.

“Have you?” Jimin asks when he skips a beat. “Kissed him?”

Checking over his shoulder to make sure that no one else has come upstairs, Taehyung nods. “Just
the once.”
Jimin claps his hands together in excitement and only quietens down when Taehyung shushes him,
anxious that someone will hear. “I’m sorry, this is just so exciting. Jungkook works way too hard
and he never takes a break. He does everything for everyone in this town and he hardly even
accepts a thank you. The thought of him having someone to spend time with and come home to and
-”

“Come home to? We’ve kissed once, Jimin,” laughs Taehyung, but he can’t deny that the thought
sent a thrill through his body.

Jimin waves that away with a dismissive hand. “For now.”

Taehyung can’t help but think that Jimin sounds ever happier about this than he is.

He continues his peeling of the wallpaper for some time without talking anymore, and Jimin
doesn’t push him. They get along well together, side by side, stripping the walls. Taehyung hasn’t
asked how Jimin must feel about the potential of another wolf moving up to his level in the
hierarchy. Jimin isn’t Yejun. He won’t freak out.

When the others stop for lunch, Taehyung finds Jungkook out in the back garden. He’s cutting
wood. He also isn’t wearing a shirt. Sweat drips down his back, glistening on his skin, over the
dark tattoos and down channels of muscle. Taehyung leans against the doorframe to admire him,
but Jungkook must sense his presence because he turns, wiping the sweat from his forehead with
the forearm still holding his axe.

“Sorry,” he says. “I got hot.”

“I can see that,” smiles Taehyung. His tone makes it clear that he won’t rush him into finding a
shirt. “Are you aware that we’re the subject of town gossip?”

As if he’d been hoping he wouldn’t have noticed, Jungkook grimaces. “I’m sorry,” he says again.
“It’s because I’m the Alpha. Everyone is kind of… in my business, all the time. I’ll tell them all to
shut up if it makes you uncomfortable. You know they’ll do as I say.”

“Jimin tells me that unbeknownst to me, we engaged in some public snuggling, the day you
brought me that deer?”

Jungkook’s neck flushes. His body is unbelievable, far better than any frame he saw guys killing
themselves for at the gyms in Seoul. Another drip of sweat runs down his chest, and Taehyung
tries not to look at the way it travels between his abdominals, to the trail of dark hair at his navel.
“I forgot myself, that night. You looked so vulnerable when you didn’t know whether to hunt; you
were whining. It…”

“Triggered your Alpha?” Taehyung grins. “Made you want to protect me? Hunt prey for me? Get
all close and tactile with me to make sure I felt safe?”

“Are you teasing me?” says Jungkook, with a playful glare.

“Do you think I’m beautiful, when I’m all wolfed up?”

Jungkook drags his eyes up and down his body. “Let’s just say that my man likes your man. And
my wolf likes your wolf.”

The praise makes Taehyung feel hot all over. “Jimin said there’s never been a white wolf in the
pack like me. Don’t you think it’s cute that you’re jet black and I’m pure white? It’s no wonder
people were talking before you even kissed me.”
“Technically, you kissed me.”

“Don’t let everyone else hear you saying that. It’s very un-Alpha of you.”

He has the feeling Jungkook is about to say something flirtatious about exactly how Alpha he can
be, because his eyes gleam and his mouth starts to shape the words, but they’re interrupted by a
shout from the house. No one wants to start eating before the Alpha has fed first. Such customs,
Taehyung has come to understand, extend into their human life. Many customs, he finds, because
when they slip inside and everyone passes Jungkook plastic boxes containing the choicest portions
of the food, he starts to hand them over to Taehyung. Pointedly.

Aware that people are watching them, Taehyung looks down.

But there’s no hiding it now.

Jungkook fusses over him. They sit side by side on the floor but their thighs press together and
each time that he leans over for more food, Jungkook squeezes a hand on his leg and everyone can
see it. The two of them curve into each other. Taehyung is aware of it and he wishes he could stop
because Eunmi is staring daggers at him but it’s as if new, strong magnets govern his body. When
Jungkook moves, he moves. When he moves, Jungkook mirrors him.

Taehyung catches Jimin’s eye across the room and sees him grinning, nudging Hoseok hard in the
ribs.

The conversation hovers on subjects about town. Taehyung discovers that most of the pack help
out with things around the town, though apart from Jungkook they all seem to have a separate job.
Only Alpha serves as a position in itself. Jimin supports the teachers at the small elementary
school, and Taehyung can imagine him there with children clambering all over him, excited by his
bleached hair. Namjoon works at the library – or from what Taehyung can tell, altogether runs the
library.

Only Yejun drags the subject back to wolf business. “Tell Jungkook what you told me, Sunwoo,”
he instructs. His voice holds none of the power that Jungkook’s does, nasally and turning up at the
end of every phrase.

“Tell me what?” Jungkook’s chopsticks pause in the air.

The boy jumps and clears his throat. He’s so young, not even out of high school. A messy mop of
hair falls over his shy eyes. Taehyung thinks he ought to be worrying about homework and
detention, not full moons and pack politics. “Oh… it might be nothing But when I was running on
the last night of the full moon, with Haeun, I thought I saw something over the river. We were
hunting and my eyes were on the prize so I didn’t stop, I’m sorry.”

Jungkook is frowning. “Don’t be sorry.”

“I think – afterwards I thought it was another wolf,” whispers Sunwoo, his eyes full of shame.

Jungkook’s gaze flits to Yejun’s. “Other wolves?”

“They’re making their presence known. We need to make a stand in response. These weeks
between the full moons are important. You should be patrolling the boundary every night, as the
Alpha.”

“Don’t tell me what I should or shouldn’t be doing, Yejun,” says Jungkook, and a hint of authority
creeps into his tone.
Yejun puts his hands up. “I didn’t mean to impose. I just think it’s important. If you’re scared of
going alone, I don’t mind running outside of the full moon. You and I could take a shift tonight.”

The accusation makes Jungkook sit up taller, and Taehyung feels the air in the room shift. It’s clear
that Yejun has said something he shouldn’t. For a moment Taehyung thinks there will be an
explosion. However when Jungkook responds, his voice is quite calm. He doesn’t rise to the bait
and Taehyung exhales in relief. “I don’t need a sidekick,” says Jungkook, “but thank you for the
offer. I’ll take a walk down the border tomorrow – I have other plans tonight. Their pack isn’t
going to make some kind of challenge outside of the full moon.”

“You shouldn’t go unprotected!” snaps Yejun, his voice rising higher with frustration.

“Jimin will accompany me,” says Jungkook, and then he squeezes Taehyung’s thigh. “Or perhaps
Taehyung.”

Jimin and Hoseok snicker.

Looking as though his birthday has just been cancelled, Yejun shoots a violent glare from
Taehyung to Jungkook and back again before standing to stalk from the room.

Turning from man to wolf outside of the full moon involves communing with a side of himself that
Taehyung once did not know existed, but he thinks he’s good at it. Maybe it is because he wants
him to feel good about himself, so much more inexperienced than the rest of the pack, but
Jungkook tells him that most people take many weeks or months before they can change at will.
Taehyung finds it easy. His wolf has spent years pushed down deep inside, trying to claw free at
the full moon. He doesn’t struggle to communicate with it.

Much like meditation, which he has tried in the past to quell his episodes and settle his anxiety, it is
a matter of clearing his mind of the intrusions of daily life. Thoughts are replaced by instincts.
Worries are replaced by calm. On Jungkook’s instruction he pictures a serene beach (though
Jungkook chose a forest) and he imagines running. The footsteps begin on human feet, the sand
between his toes, but with every pace he feels the steps become softer.

His paws thump on the sand. A freedom takes over. The wind in his hair becomes a gentle breeze
rippling through white fur, cool on his hot skin. Taehyung feels close to his wolf. When he closes
his eyes and finds that link he feels the way that he did the last time his mother hugged him. At one
with everything that matters in his life.

The two of them shift deep in the forest. Jungkook warned him that while everyone in the town
knows that werewolves keep the perimeter safe at night, they might still be startled to see such a
transformation in front of their eyes. Jungkook has promised to show him a special place in the
woods where the other wolves don’t stray, and Taehyung can’t help but buzz at the prospect of
visiting Jungkook’s sanctuary.

They pad through well-worn trails. Still sensitive in his new form, Taehyung stops whenever
something digs into one of his pads to lick his paws. He’s clumsier than Jungkook, unused to this
body. Dry tonight, the forest welcomes them. Taehyung never feels cold in his wolf form. The
journey feels short but Taehyung can imagine that on human feet the hike might take hours.
Jungkook leads him into the undergrowth, where branches snag at Taehyung’s fur and he whines,
but the Alpha presses on and he can only follow.

Being unable to communicate is a strange experience. Occasionally, Jungkook says words of

encouragement.

A little further. You’re doing well. One paw in front of the other.

His sentences are short. Taehyung thinks he must lose some grasp on his complex human
communication, replaced by the basic instructions and reassurances of the wolf pack. For himself,
unable to speak, he first feels frightened, especially that Jungkook will think it’s uncomfortable that
he gets no response for anything he says. After a while, though, Taehyung can forget those human
thoughts and lean into his wolf, deferential to his Alpha, and his mind clears. He feels at peace.

Jungkook’s private place is so covered in plant-life that it is invisible to the naked eye, but
Taehyung can smell him around every spot. Wolves are territorial, after all. Gnarled tree roots rise
up from the earth, covering the entrance to the small cavern. Thick leafy shrubs bury any traces of
its body. Without following the exact path that Jungkook has taken, Taehyung would miss the
small entrance. Jungkook lays down, eyes up on him, and it’s a vulnerability the Alpha would
rarely betray.

Taehyung pads forward to lie down beside him. Their bodies press close, warm in the cold night.
Being close to Jungkook in the daytime is one thing, but like this he feels at home, at peace. He
closes his eyes and rests his chin down on his paws. The noises of the woods are loud to these
sensitive ears, from the rustling of the leaves to the whisper of wind that wends its way through the
trees. In its own way, the sound is music.

When he opens his eyes, they adjust quickly to the darkness again. Ahead of him is the mossy
green earth, one fallen branch with mushrooms growing from its body, and a tiny cluster of white
winter flowers. During the night their petals are closed but by morning they’ll open in search of the
smallest glimmers of sunlight. Taehyung watches them. Did anything ever look so beautiful to
human eyes?

He feels safe here, enclosed by the den of the cavern. The shape is formed from a tree that has
long-since fallen, tearing up the ground with its roots. His wolf instincts seek protected places like
this.

They seek a strong Alpha, too, who could protect him better than any cave.

You like it?

By way of an answer, Taehyung bumps his head at Jungkook’s neck before remembering that it’s
the most vulnerable part for a wolf, and he looks down in shame. Jungkook, unaffected, nudges
him back, until he can rest his face over the back of Taehyung’s neck, like the two of them are
connected by their most exposed part. When they’re in this position, neither of them look so
exposed. Taehyung wonders whether he’d be able to defend Jungkook in a fight.

Jungkook told him that such a thing isn’t his role, but he hates the idea of his Alpha being faced
with foes without him being there to protect him. Yejun and Sunwoo’s concern over the
neighbouring wolves makes him nervous. They might be paranoid but they might not be. The
thought of some other wolf getting too close, snarling with those vicious teeth, perhaps surrounding
him if there are more than one of them –

Jungkook is strong. He’s the biggest of the wolves. But that doesn’t make him invincible.

Taehyung hasn’t seen wolves in the wild but he’s seen dogs fight in videos, police dogs trained to
kill, and he shivers. His human instincts would tell him to run, but his wolf instincts would tell him
to put himself between an enemy and his Alpha. Whether the fact that the Alpha is Jungkook
makes a difference isn’t clear to him in this form. Would he defend anyone?

But it’s Jungkook.

Perhaps sensing his distress at all these thoughts bouncing around, Jungkook nuzzles at his face,
and then starts to lick at his neck and his ears. Taehyung leans into it, almost falling onto his side
as his wolf curls tight in against Jungkook. In the morning, he might pull a face at the thought that
Jungkook licked his fur. Oh it’ll definitely seem gross. But his body relaxes until it feels almost
like liquid. The comfort is nothing he’s felt in a human embrace.

He rests his chin on one of Jungkook’s paws, almost double the size of his own.

The flowers glow under the moonlight where it breaks through the canopy. The further they drift
from the full-moon, the more Taehyung feels an aching, yearning in his gut. He wants the next
moon. He wants to be here for the next moon. He can’t bear the notion of walking away from here.

Jungkook grooms him, nibbles at the tips of his ears, and it tickles so much that Taehyung rolls
over and nuzzles at Jungkook’s neck. His legs fold up to his chest and he curls up against him. This
is definitely what Jimin called snuggling.

Fuck.

There’s no one here to see them this time, though. Taehyung can watch the white flowers anticipate
their morning bloom and accept the attention that the Alpha lavishes upon him without fear of
being observed. He has been shown to this special, most secret place, saturated with Jungkook’s
scent, and that must mean something.

Upon Jungkook’s insistence, Taehyung takes his bed.

Though he told him, in semi-flirtatious tones, that it would be okay for Jungkook to stay, Jungkook
merely turned pink around the ears and fussed around finding an extra blanket and some clean
towels for him to use in the morning, before backing out of the door and hurrying to sleep on the
couch. Jungkook is an enigma in his human form. At times, Taehyung sees the Alpha, driven by
his wolf in the way he commands the people around him. At other others, he’s awkward, and he
looks young, eyes wide and innocent and so often confused.

The duality is engaging.

How much of that softer side does he show to the rest of the town? Not much, Taehyung thinks.

He sleeps well in Jungkook’s bed. The first time that he woke up here, he was so aware of the hard
mattress – it hardly reacts to his bodyweight, but then he supposes that he is much lighter than
Jungkook. This time, it seems steady and firm, rather than stubborn. He remembers meeting
Jungkook the first time too, and how much he was put off by him, too cocky, too confident, too
socially dominant. Now all of that is what makes him weak at the knees.

Taehyung can smell him on the pillows. He usually sleeps with one between his legs to align his
spine but even in the privacy of the bedroom, sleeping with Jungkook between his legs seems
outrageous, so he resists.

Morning comes too early. Light streams in through the shutters to the foot of the bed and
Taehyung groans, rolling onto his front. The late-night excursions are draining him, but no more
than the all-nighters that he had to pull to finish his essays on time. School drifts in front of his
vision but he blinks it away. After hours with Jungkook, he barely remembers what he used to
study anymore. Seoul seems far away, not only in miles but in his mind and his heart.

He isn’t licensed to sleep in too late, because Jungkook arrives with coffee and food an hour after
dawn. Taehyung has begun to wonder if he ever sleeps, but Jungkook told him the pressure he’s
under – the fact that he can never truly rest. Frowning to himself as Jungkook plants himself on the
end of the bed and throws him the tub of warmed leftovers, Taehyung considers whether Jungkook
would be able to sleep if they were in the bed together.

He’d have another wolf close by, someone who could at least protect him long enough for him to
wake if something happened. If Jungkook needs to feel security then he’ll give him that. Taehyung
is good at taking care of people, even if he isn’t always so good at taking care of himself.

“Do you ever sleep?” he says, trying to make his voice dry.

“Did I wake you?”

Taehyung doesn’t want to make him feel bad, so he sighs and throws himself back against the
pillows with a glare at the shutters. “The sun woke me.”

“Then let me fight the sun for you.”

Heat creeps up Taehyung’s neck. There is something very straightforward about Jungkook that he
finds appealing. He flirts openly, even if his ears turn scarlet when Taehyung responds. He’s
upfront and shameless in his liking for Taehyung, but somehow blanched at the thought that
Taehyung might ever like him back. He says grandiose romantic things such as this, but his
gestures are understated and quiet, a hand to his lower back or a breakfast brought to him in bed
where no one else will see.

Even if it’s leftovers.

Taehyung can’t cook too well, having relied on Seokjin for a long time, and in a town with Mrs
Park’s cooking, he sees no reason why Jungkook should have learned to cook either.

“Thank you for showing me your special space,” says Taehyung. He pulls the blankets up around
his face shyly. It has been a long time since he last stayed over with a man after a date, and whether
or not they ended up in the same bed doesn’t affect the feeling inside his chest. This, like the cave
last night, is Jungkook’s private space, and he has been invited to share in it. He won’t
underestimate that privilege. “It was beautiful. I felt safe there.”

“Wolves are inclined to find dens,” smiles Jungkook. In daylight, he looks embarrassed.

“If I go back to Seoul then I’ll show you some of my haunts too, though I can’t promise that any of
them will be so lovely.”

“If?” Were Jungkook in his wolf form, his ears would perk up, and Taehyung wishes he didn’t
notice that.

When he thinks about it, Taehyung doesn’t know how the word slipped out, but it feels natural. He
looks down, fiddling with the scratchy blanket. “Well you know… I like it here in town. I have my
degree to think about and my friends are going to be missing me but at the same time it’s like…
I’ve never made a choice just for me. Sticking around for a while could feel like a gift I’m giving
to myself.”

Jungkook’s eyes sparkle with excitement, but he reconstructs his face into a neutral expression not
reflected in them. “You know we’ll all support you whatever you decide?”

“Like you don’t want me to stay,” Taehyung laughs softly, shaking his head.

Jungkook nods. “Of course I want you to stay. But everything you’ve said since you got here is
right: you aren’t like the rest of us. You didn’t grow up with this. I talk a big talk but I know this
isn’t – isn’t your home. It isn’t in your heart yet. But I could make it a home for you.” He implores
Taehyung with his eyes even as his lips stay flat and he must be biting his cheeks to keep the
expression so inoffensive. “I could build a home for you.”

“I know that,” murmurs Taehyung. “You’ve already been doing it, over at the old Kim house.”

“Not just a house. I’d make a place for it here,” Jungkook whispers, and he leans over to press a
hand across Taehyung’s heart. The spot that he touches burns with his body heat. Taehyung would
never need a blanket in his embrace.

Taehyung laces their fingers together and brings Jungkook’s hand back to his lap. “You’re not at
all like guys I’ve dated before, Jungkook.”

“Tell me about the guys you’ve dated before,” he says, with a smug grin.

Before he answers, Taehyung pulls a face of momentary consideration, and then he smirks. “Ask
me anything else. They don’t compare.”

Jungkook doesn’t press the issue. He hums. “What can I do to make this town feel like home?”

Taehyung was expecting a question about his favourite colour or candy. He pauses, taken aback,
but gathers himself quickly. “Be here.”

Taking that as an invitation, Jungkook leans over and catches his lips in a gentle kiss. How he can
be the strongest in the pack, the most intimidating Alpha, and yet kiss as though Taehyung is the
delicate petal of a flower, is a mystery. He cups Taehyung’s jaw, tilting his head back to deepen the
kiss and Taehyung thinks he could never tire of kissing him. Energy crackles where their skin
touches and Taehyung tries to blame his wolf but in truth he’s growing more aware that his human
has fallen hopelessly for Jungkook.

“I’ll be right here. You know I’ll never leave.”

Leave him? Leave this town. The latter is more resolute. Taehyung knows that Jungkook is tied
here in a way even the rest of the pack are not. He’s the Alpha. His place is here, in these woods,
leading his people. He can’t follow Taehyung back to Seoul. He couldn’t even if he wanted to and
Taehyung doesn’t know if he would want to. He doesn’t know where he lies in Jungkook’s priority
list. Dating the Alpha means accepting that his place in his life may always come second to his
devotion to the pack.

The realisation makes Taehyung look down, but at the same time it invigorates him, a quiet buzz in
his bloodstream. Being the centre of someone’s universe would make him nervous. In occupying a
position alongside Jungkook’s other commitments, he thinks he’d be much happier.

“I swear I can hear you thinking. Has anyone ever told you that you think loud?”

Taehyung grimaces and pushes Jungkook’s chest playfully. “Stop trying to listen!”

“I’m sorry, it’s just that you’re the smartest person I know so I’d like to get a direct line.”
“I’m lucky you can’t do that when we shift,” mutters Taehyung. “Imagine if all your Alpha
superpowers meant that you could look straight into my mind? You’d know all the silly,
embarrassing things I think about you.”

“What kind of things?” grins Jungkook.

Realising that he’s dug himself into that hole, Taehyung sighs. “Don’t make me say them out
loud.” He has visions of Jungkook hearing about his tendency to turn to jelly when his muscles
flex, or how annoyingly attractive he finds him whenever he turns out to be right about something
they mildly disagree on.

“Okay, okay,” laughs Jungkook, but then his face falls. “You don’t mind, do you? My Alpha
superpowers? Because I know that it isn’t easy being in a pack, and then me being in this role and
you being… I know it’s complicated.”

Taehyung knows from his face that Jungkook is serious about this, so he lets the playful edge drop
from his tone. “I don’t mind.”

“Honestly?”

“I don’t mind,” he repeats. Deciding to be honest, he elaborates. “I talked to Jimin about it. I was
worried that maybe the relationship that my wolf had to your wolf might influence the way I felt
about you, but he reassured me. He made it clear that you’re everyone’s Alpha but no one else has
ever been inclined to jump your bones. That made me feel better.”

“If I could forget being an Alpha and leave it behind to make you feel more secure, I’d do it,”
whispers Jungkook.

It’s such a raw promise that Taehyung’s heart feels strange and tense in his chest when he says it.
“You don’t need to. I know you wouldn’t use your… superpowers on me.” He snickers, to show
Jungkook that he finds the whole thing entertaining, and he thinks he sees him relax.

After a second, Jungkook lifts an eyebrow, his cockiness restored. “Tell me more about how you
want to jump my bones.”

“Don’t push it.”

Jungkook lifts his hands in defence. “You said it, not me.”

As he picks at his leftovers, Taehyung thinks that he’d be happy spending every morning like this.
In the vision he stores in his mind, Jungkook is in the bed beside him, rather than arriving from the
couch, and the shutters are covered in dark curtains so that he can sleep in until later in the day, but
otherwise this is how he pictures the scene. The two of them messing with each other. Playing with
each other. Kissing each other. He can’t think of anything more that he’d want of a morning.

In a choice between this and crawling out of bed at an ungodly hour in Seoul to prepare himself for
another day of exhausting classes or an unpaid internship in a profession he’s never truly wanted,
he knows which he would choose.

“You’re thinking loudly again,” warns Jungkook, lifting Taehyung’s hand to kiss his knuckles.

“Damn.” Taehyung snaps himself back to reality. “You know what? I think I will tell you more
about wanting to jump your bones after all.”

-
With the entire pack working on it (if with varying degrees of commitment), Taehyung finds his
house gutted and put back together in an alarmingly short space of time. He thinks the gang could
have a future on television doing 24-hour house renovations if they so desired it. Before long, the
floors are laid and Jungkook and Namjoon have started plastering. To make himself useful,
Taehyung walks with Jimin to the dining hall to bring back fresh tubs of Mrs Park’s cooking.

The aromas are almost overwhelming in the kitchens. Fried fish and barbecued meat, garlic and
chili and sizzling onions, heady spices and fresh herbs and thick bubbling sauces that make
Taehyung feel as though he’s inhaling red beans. Mrs Park wraps up an extra parcel for him and
one for Jungkook, causing Jimin to complain that he never gets any special parcels, and his mother
orders him to stack up the boxes. Taehyung shyly accepts. He’s getting used to being embraced as
one of the town’s most spoiled inhabitants.

On the way back to the house, Jimin starts eating fried pancakes straight from the paper bag. “So
how was your date?” he asks through a mouthful.

“Magical. Jungkook makes me feel… amazing.”

Jimin pulls a face.

“I just mean when we’re talking together!” Taehyung says quickly, realising the implication. “And
when we’re not talking too. Last night we just laid side by side and watched the woods, like we
didn’t even need to say anything.”

“I’d bully him about being such a softie for you,” sighs Jimin, “but I don’t even have it in me. It’s
too cute to watch. I’ve never seen him get like this about someone before and we’ve known each
other such a long time.”

“Has Jungkook seen other people?” Taehyung asks hesitantly, nervous at the thought of any
potential love rivals being in town.

“Not really,” shrugs Jimin. “Not the way he’s seeing you. He’s always been all work and no play.
Whenever I asked him about it he said that he didn’t have time for a relationship, but I think no
one’s ever interested him enough either. It’s so nice to see him like this. I think he’s a little head-
over-heels so be gentle with him, please.”

There’s a protective edge in Jimin’s tone. Jungkook isn’t just his Alpha, but his friend, and
Taehyung knows that the same can be said of everyone in town. That’s a lot of pressure. He
doesn’t think it would go down well if he broke his heart. It’s a good thing, then, that he doesn’t
have any intention of doing so. “Head-over-heels?” he laughs. “Honestly I’m not sure what I’ve
done to deserve so much from him.”

“Well you’re beautiful. I think he finds you fascinating, with your city ways and big-time
education. But I also think he finds you charming. Jungkook is hard on the exterior but he’s a little
soft inside, and he needs someone who knows how to break down his walls and take care of that
vulnerable part. You’re insightful and careful and calm, everything that I think he needs; a part of
him must know that. Plus, I think he likes being able to teach you about being a wolf,” laughs
Jimin, nudging his shoulder as they walk. “It probably makes him feel all Alpha, getting to show
you the ropes.”

“You think?” he smiles.

“I know Jungkook. You’ve landed yourself a really amazing guy, Taehyung.” He stops now and
turns to face him. “Jungkook is loyal and devoted. You won’t find a better man anywhere and I
mean that. He’ll dedicate himself to you and I don’t ever want to see him get hurt so promise me
that you’re serious about him? Because if you’re planning to run off back to Seoul out of nowhere
then he’s going to be heartbroken. You need to make the choice that’s best for you, but give us
some warning so I can be prepared.”

Taehyung stares. He hadn’t expected such a conversation to arrive with Jimin, but he can see from
his eyes that fierce, protective charge. He’s Jungkook’s Second, after all. “I don’t want to go back
to Seoul,” he whispers.

“You don’t?” Jimin falters like he can’t quite believe that.

“Not because of Jungkook,” says Taehyung, to himself as much as Jimin, because he might be
more than a little head-over-heels himself but he’s still sensible enough not to throw away
everything he’s built for a guy he’s fallen for way too fast. “The truth is that I don’t want to go
back because I don’t think I ever really belonged there. I never felt like I belonged anywhere until I
came here. I thought this place would be somewhere I associated with my father but now it’s where
I think of my mother. I feel close to her, when I shift.”

“For what it’s worth, I think you do belong here.”

He nods, looking up at the clear sky. It never looked like this in the city with that thin layer of
pollution. Here he can see the moon during the day, and clouds are a bright grey-white against flat
blue. “I love the woods. Shit, I love the town and I thought I’d hate it. You guys are amazing and
Jungkook is one hell of a bonus. I feel like before I came here I was sleepwalking through my own
life, and now I feel truly awake for the first time.”

“So you’re staying?”

Taehyung swallows, watching the expanse of blue. Torrent Woods can’t be under any flight paths;
he doesn’t even see a plane in the sky. “I want to.”

Jimin exhales. “Okay. Good. But there’s more than one way to break a man’s heart so I’ll still be
keeping an eye on you!”

The tension broken somewhat, Taehyung laughs. “I promise I won’t ever hurt him.”

Jimin looks much happier for the rest of their walk back up to the old house. The two of them are
popular upon arrival, as the pack scramble for food, which they lay out in the living room for
everyone to eat. Rather than sitting, though, Taehyung takes the special lunchboxes that Mrs Park
prepared and heads up the stairs to find Jungkook, who didn’t immediately join them. He finds him
in one of the bedrooms, leant against an unfinished wall, and Taehyung knows in a second that he’s
asleep.

So he does rest.

His chest rises and falls steadily but his brow is furrowed in a frown. His hair, sweaty from all of
the work, separates into individual strands where it falls across his eyes. His head can’t be
comfortable pressed against the hard wall but Taehyung doesn’t want to wake him by trying to
squeeze something soft in the gap, so he just sighs and sits back against the opposite wall to watch
him. Jungkook looks smaller folded up, one leg against the floor but the other tucked up to his
chest, a loose arm holding it in place. He must have fallen asleep after sitting down to rest for just a
second.

Taehyung eats quietly, saving more than half of everything for Jungkook.
Whatever dream is taking place makes Jungkook’s eyes flit under his lids. His lips are parted and
Taehyung can hear the slight hitch in his breath that might come from worry. He wants to wake
him but he wants to let him rest too. Only when Jungkook moves, either adjusting in his sleep or
reacting to an external influence in his dream, does his head turn and he slips against the wall,
catching himself with a quick hand to the boards, and he jerks awake.

“Taehyung?” The first word he says.

Taehyung stands so that he’ll see his movement right away. “I’m right here. You fell asleep.”

Jungkook sits up, quickly pushing the hair back from his face. It’s obvious that he’s embarrassed.
“God, how long was I out for?”

“Just a few minutes. It’s good for you – I don’t think you sleep enough. I kept food aside for you if
you want to eat.”

Jungkook’s ears are once again red. “I’ll have plenty of time for sleep when I’m dead. I’ll rest
then.”

Taehyung swats him with a gentle hand. “Don’t say that! You need to take care of yourself.
Between patrolling the boundary at night and working on the house all day and taking me for cute
dates I’m not sure when you’re recharging! You need to take care of yourself or you’ll burn out.
Trust me, I’ve been there. When I was finishing my undergraduate degree all I did was work all
night and work all day and it made me so sick that in the end I had to get an extension for my thesis
anyway because I was laid up in bed for weeks.”

“Do you think I can’t look after myself, Taehyung?” says Jungkook with a small smile.

“I think you can, but you don’t, because you’re so busy trying to look after everyone else.”

Jungkook must not have an answer for that, so he occupies himself with the food instead. Jungkook
looks happiest when he’s eating. Taehyung gets the impression that he’s a man of simple
pleasures: good food, walks in the light rain, friends to share beers with and the gratitude of the
people he helps. That’s all Jungkook needs to be happy, and it’s attractive about him. Taehyung
feels like the breakneck pace of his life slows around Jungkook and he learns to look around him
and take in the beauty instead of focussing only on the goal ahead.

Taehyung feeds Jungkook a rice ball, brushing a drop of sauce from his lip with his thumb, and
then they both laugh.

“Too corny?” says Taehyung with a grimace.

“No I like it. It feels romantic.”

“Do you like the idea of romance? Because I could do romance.”

“I’m not sure. It’s new to me.”

Deciding that kisses aren’t too cheesy, Taehyung touches his lips against his and pats his neck.
“Well we can experiment.”

Jungkook is about to kiss him back when they’re interrupted by the sound of some kind of kerfuffle
downstairs. Raised voices carry up from the hall but they’re muffled by the freshly plastered walls.
A whistle of winter air travels up to them, suggesting that the front door is open, and Taehyung
frowns. He doesn’t have to consider the voices on a human level to register the agitation, because
he is so in sync with his pack that he’d sense their concern on the air.

For Jungkook, that instinct must be a hundred times stronger.

Taehyung stands, taking a step towards the door, but Jungkook is in front of him in a second,
moving like a lightning bolt searching for the earth. It isn’t to race to the scene, but to first place
himself squarely in front of Taehyung. He holds a hand back to stop him from pushing forwards.
The protectiveness drips off him in waves of energy that Taehyung can almost taste.

Jungkook is protective of all the pack, but he’s never seen him like this before.

The air around him seems to vibrate.

“Wait here,” he tells him. “It might not be safe.”

“Don’t be silly,” Taehyung rolls his eyes, and Jungkook bites back an argument. He doesn’t try to
stop him from following.

Jungkook takes the steps downstairs so quickly that he almost glides. Taehyung struggles to keep
up with him. Hoseok and Yoongi are in the doorway to the living room but they part immediately
to let Jungkook through, even if Hoseok adopts a second defensive position behind Taehyung as
soon as they pass.

When Taehyung discovers the source of the argument, though, he stares in astonishment.

There’s no threat here.

Seokjin is squared up to Namjoon, and the collision of his two worlds makes Taehyung feel so
dizzy that he is forced to keep a hand on the back of the couch to stay upright. Jungkook plants
himself in front of him, so broad that Taehyung has to move to the side to see around him properly.

“Tell me where he is right now! They sent me up to this house saying that he’d be here.” Stress is
heavy in Seokjin’s voice.

“Tell me who youare, first,” says Namjoon, and Taehyung winces. This is his pack. Their first
instinct, while less wild than Jungkook’s, is still to protect him. And he has a sneaking suspicion
that they have all been briefed by Jungkook to do so, because Hoseok is very close, and Jimin
closes in on his other side.

He ducks out from behind Jungkook and trips in his haste to get between Seokjin and Namjoon.
“It’s okay! I’m right here, Seokjin.”

Seokjin rounds on him, expression a mixture of relieved and frantic. Taehyung notices that Seokjin
looks very different to everyone else in the room, and not just because he’s wearing the smart pants
and clean button-down shirt of the city. There’s something different in the way the wolves hold
themselves. Had Taehyung ever noticed before? Has he begun to mirror them, standing the same
way? Suddenly conscious of his own posture, he tries to rearrange his limbs.

After a moment, Seokjin throws himself forward to hug him.

He doesn’t get that far because Jungkook reacts to the sudden movement by wrapping a defensive
arm across Taehyung’s chest, pulling him back into his body as if to shield him from attack.
Somewhere in the room, Yejun whistles, and Taehyung wants to shoot him a filthy look but he’s
more focussed on the fact that a very protective Alpha wolf is currently putting himself between
his chosen partner and a potential threat, and Taehyung can feel him bristling. “It’s okay,
Jungkook, it’s alright,” he says quickly, taking his hand to unwind his arm from his body, “Seokjin
is my best friend.”

Seokjin’s eyes flit from Taehyung to Jungkook and back again. They narrow.

“What are you doing here, hyung?” says Taehyung, forcing a laugh to try to defuse some of the
tension in the room. Seokjin has always been confident, composed, but marching into a room full
of this many strangers who are clearly a gang must have been intimidating.

“I came to see you. Can we talk? Alone.” Seokjin stresses.

“I – of course,” he says, soothing Jungkook again with a squeeze to his wrist that tells him Seokjin
is nothing to worry about. “I’ll be back.”

Jungkook nods, watching them head out of the back door with all of his pack’s eyes on him.

Out in the cold air, Seokjin runs his hands through his hair. Worry paints his features. He gives
Taehyung a searching look that travels all over his body, like he’s looking for some kind of injury
or visible sign of distress. When he finds nothing, he looks back up to his eyes. “Who are all those
guys, Taehyung?”

“My friends,” he says. He can hardly tell Seokjin that they’re his wolf pack.

“Friends? That one who looked like he was going to snap my neck didn’t look too friendly.”

This poses more of an issue to Taehyung. There is no human excuse for the Alpha instinct that
threw Jungkook in front of him. He smiles sheepishly. “People around here just aren’t used to
strangers showing up unannounced. I can’t believe you’re here! In Torrent Woods! How did you
even find the place?” He remembers how his own satellite navigation went haywire looking for the
town, like it could sense the magic.

“With difficulty,” Seokjin says drily. “I had to drive around in circles in these woods for hours
until I ended up in the next town over and they helpfully gave me directions here. They’re
friendlier than this lot.”

Taehyung wonders if he encountered the wolf pack there, too – the ones who have been straying
too close to their territory. “You should have told me you were coming. I could’ve met you in town
and shown you all the cool stuff. This is my father’s parents’ house. The guys are helping me with
the renovations, because it was falling apart when I got here.” He knows he’s rambling, because he
always rambles when he lies and though this isn’t necessarily a direct falsehood, he’s telling at
least five hundred lies in one breath by omission.

“I called you twice last night, Taehyung, and three times the day before. Since when do you not
answer your phone?”

I was on a date in the woods, he thinks, then he remembers his mornings waking up in Jungkook’s
bed and his cheeks turn pink. “I’m sorry, I was out with the guys. I left my phone at the inn.”

Seokjin shakes his head in disbelief, and Taehyung can’t blame him. Back in Seoul, he kept his
phone glued to his hand at all times. “I’ve been worried out of my mind,” he hisses, through gritted
teeth. “I came here because I thought you’d been taken in by some kind of cult!”

“A cult?” laughs Taehyung. Laughing is the wrong thing to do, because his friend turns scarlet
with anger.
“You come here for two days for a funeral, and the next thing I know you’re not coming back to
Seoul? You never check your phone? You start telling me that you’ve got in with some group of
people here who understand you like no one else does and that you’ve found yourself and suddenly
you don’t want to come home? You don’t even call your college so I’m the one who has to cover
for you because your advisor isn’t happy you’re missing your meetings?”

Shit. Taehyung meant to call the college. He really did.

“This is a weird small town! Cult wasn’t such a wild theory!” Seokjin shakes his head,
gesticulating back at the house as if the group inside are exactly what he was talking about. “I’ve
been freaking out.”

“I’m sorry, hyung. I had no idea,” he says, even though he realises now that Seokjin told him over
and over how worried he was, and Taehyung just wrote it off as hyung-anxiety, nothing to think
too much about. How many times has he not called Seokjin when he promised he would? How
many times has he not returned his messages? “I’m really sorry,” he says, and this time he means it
more.

Seokjin sits down on the crumbling bench in the garden and eyes the axe that Jungkook has left
impaled on the block, where they often cut wood for the fire. “You have to understand,
Taehyung… We both know you’re vulnerable and coming here for the funeral of a father who…
your father,” he says instead, clearly deciding against elaboration. “You only just started your
medication and we still don’t really know what’s wrong and if it’s something that makes you more
susceptible to being…”

Right. Seokjin thinks that his strange episodes mean that he’s more likely to fall in with a cult. Of
course he does.

A hysterical laugh almost spills from his lips when he considers what Seokjin would say if he told
him the truth, but thankfully for his own good he manages to hold it back.

“Tricked into joining a cult?” Taehyung finishes for him instead. “I’m okay, hyung. I’m so sorry I
scared you like this. I’ve had a lot going on and I’ve been self-centred. I didn’t even think about
how it would look to you. But I’m fine, I promise. No cults here in town. Everyone is great.”

Seokjin slumps in relief.

“Did you really drive all the way here from Seoul this morning?” asks Taehyung with a tentative
smile.

“It was awful, Taehyung.”

“I know. My satnav died when I was looking for the place. We should go up into town and you can
try Mrs Park’s cooking. It’s almost as good as yours.”

The compliment, a gentle reminder that he’ll always be number one, seems to make Seokjin perk
up a little. “Will your guard dog mind?”

Taehyung chokes on air. Oh Jungkook will like that one. His guard dog. The choke turns to a
snicker. “You mean Jungkook? He and I are… well we’ve been…”

“So that’s why you haven’t come home and you’ve forgotten your friends exist?” sniffs Seokjin,
rolling his eyes as he stands. “Here I was thinking you were going through some kind of traumatic
experience and instead you’ve been getting dicked down by puppy-eyed-Schwarzenegger in there.”
Taehyung gapes at him, wondering quite how bulging Jungkook’s muscles could look in that
simple white shirt, and then he smiles.

He’s missed having his best friend around.

Taehyung is saved from having to answer too many questions by Mrs Park’s cooking, which
occupies a large chunk of Seokjin’s time – and, by the looks of the portion sizes, a large chunk of
his body too. The table is spread with the best that Torrent Woods has to offer. It isn’t for Seokjin’s
benefit, but he doesn’t have to know that. Mrs Park wasn’t fazed by Taehyung returning after she
already cooked up a full meal for the pack not two hours earlier. Everyone in this town competes to
do or provide anything that Taehyung might need at the drop of a hat.

It is undeniable, now, that every single person in the town knows Kim Taehyung – the once lost
son of Torrent Woods – is being courted by Jeon Jungkook, the Alpha of the pack.

People he hasn’t seen before or that he only vaguely remembers from the funeral come over to
greet him for the day. Someone brings him a basket of eggs from their hens as a gift, and another a
very beautiful bunch of flowers from their garden. All the while Seokjin watches over his bowl,
slurping up soup before picking at his beef short ribs, a bemused smile on his face.

“It’s as if you’ve become some kind of town celebrity.”

Taehyung grimaces. “Oh you know, everyone has been very nice to me after the funeral.”

“That’s all?”

Seokjin has always been able to read him too well. Taehyung sighs. “The guy… puppy-dog guy…
he’s kind of a big deal around here. And you know how small towns are. Everyone knows that he
and I have been seeing each other, so everyone’s interested. I believe they think I’ll trade
information for eggs.”

Snickering, Seokjin drags over a bowl of radish salad. “What kind of a big deal?”

This isn’t too difficult to explain outside of wolf terms. “He’s a golden child, you know? His family
have lived here for generations and he’s their only son. He helps out the whole town with
everything they need. If any elders need driving to the big hospital in the city, he takes them there.
If someone’s roof is leaking, he fixes it up. He tills the land when the old farmers can’t do it
anymore and he teaches all the little kids how to navigate the woods.”

Realising that Seokjin is watching him with a curious expression, he stops talking.

“What?”

Seokjin smiles and picks up another bowl. “He’s just so not your type. All the guys I’ve ever seen
you with have been beanpole skinny, glasses propped up high, stack of books in their arms. You
don’t see anyone with anything less than a PhD.”

“Well maybe that’s why I never made it past a first date with them,” Taehyung shrugs. “Jungkook
is different and I think that’s good for me. He’s shown me sides of myself I never knew existed.”
Quite literally. “I’m slowing down and spending time healing and he’s helping me. I really like
him, hyung.”

“You barely know him,” whispers Seokjin.

Perhaps his pack aren’t his only over-protective friends.

Taehyung diverts the conversation quickly to a discussion of the town and its history, skipping
over the parts that would have Seokjin calling a doctor to debate his sanity. He tells him about the
discovery that his mother grew up here, and about how close he feels to her when he’s out in the
woods. Seokjin doesn’t need to know that he tends to have paws in those moments. At the mention
of the woods, Seokjin looks more flabbergasted than ever. Taehyung has never been outdoorsy.

“I’ll show you around. You’re going to love the woods, hyung,” he says, hopeful because Seokjin
like plants. House-plants, anyway, and cacti.

Just when they’re going to stand, Jimin appears. He acts casual but Taehyung knows he’s angling
to come over, so he raises his hand to wave. “Hey!” Jimin smiles. “I just came by to see my mom.”

Taehyung thinks that’s a shameless lie. Either Jimin sent himself to dig for information about the
newcomer, or Jungkook sent him to make sure that Taehyung is okay. He rolls his eyes. “Well
she’s in the kitchens,” he says, with an equally sweet smile in return that tells Jimin he knows
exactly what he’s doing.

“So this is your best friend? From Seoul?” Jimin beams.

“Kim Seokjin,” says Seokjin, inclining his head. “I’m sorry that I didn’t introduce myself properly
earlier. I’d had a long drive – this place isn’t the easiest to find – and I took my stress out on the
rest of you.”

“Oh it’s okay! We were all a bit jittery too. We’d been working on the house all day and everyone
was tired. What do you think of Taehyung’s house?”

Seokjin hesitates. “I think it’s looking lovely. I’m sure that whoever buys it will be very happy.”

“Let’s take a walk,” says Taehyung, before the implication can settle in because Jimin’s serene
smile is starting to look more forced. “I’m going to take Seokjin around the town to show him
everything. We might spin by the woods.”

“Do you need a guide?” says Jimin. His strained voice suggests that he’s worried about him
wandering around the woods with only a human for company. The threat of the neighbouring
wolves hangs over their heads, and while Taehyung felt safe with Jungkook, he falters himself at
the thought of being caught off guard without back-up by wolves bigger and nastier than him. He
imagines the other pack as much more animalistic and dangerous than his own.

Almost caricature.

“We’ll stay close to town,” he says, thinking that the pack’s protectiveness is, in this case, justified.

While they walk, Taehyung can feel Seokjin stewing at his side. He knows his friend as well as he
knows himself and he can tell that he’s trying to figure out the best way to broach a controversial
topic, the way he did when he told Taehyung that their utility bill went up in price or let him know
that he’d torn the lining of his favourite jacket when he borrowed it. Pretending that he doesn’t
notice, Taehyung shows Seokjin each sight one by one, like a tour-guide.

Evening begins to fall, so early at this time of year. They walk along the outskirts of the woods,
and he can sense Seokjin’s anxiety being so far out in nature. It’s a step too far from his house-
plants.

“Taehyung…”
Here it goes.

Taehyung sighs and looks up at him. “Hyung?”

“I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but I wouldn’t be your best friend if I didn’t tell you
the truth.”

“Okay. Hit me.”

“The thing is… you’re in a state of real emotional upheaval right now and I can see that you’ve
latched onto this town and the people here. It’s the town where your parents grew up, and after
losing them so soon after one another it’s understandable that you want to be somewhere that
evokes their spirit to you, and I’m sure you feel a connection with the people here that remind you
of them both.”

“Both?” Taehyung snorts. “I don’t care that my father is gone.”

“Yes, you do. I was with you, remember, the day it happened? Whatever he was, however much of
a monster, he was still your father and it still affected you.”

“Why are we having this conversation, hyung?”

Seokjin takes a deep breath. “You’re very exposed, emotionally, at the moment, and if I’m honest I
don’t trust any of these people here. These guys are acting like you’re part of their gang, when five
minutes ago they didn’t know you at all. This boy, Jungkook… it’s clear that he’s swooped in and
you feel like he’s saving you but I’m worried. We don’t know their motivations. They could want
anything from you.”

Taehyung has no way to express the innate bond that he has with pack. There is no human
comparison. His heart pounds against his chest. “You don’t understand.”

“No, I do. I do understand. Maybe better than you do right now because you aren’t thinking
straight. You’re vulnerable. I need to stand up and be your friend and help you see that this place
might not be what’s best for you. It’s like you’ve forgotten where your home is,” he says, a
pleading tone entering his voice. “Your life is in Seoul. It has already been dug up and replanted
once, from one city to the next, and you need to plant roots.”

“Twice. I was born here, before they took me to Daegu.”

Seokjin’s lips part in surprise. Of course he couldn’t have known this.

“If anything, I’ve come home.”

Considering a change in angle, Seokjin stops and turns around. Rain is falling, light but with the
promise of heavier downfall later if the charcoal grey clouds darkening the evening sky are
anything to go by. He shields his eyes. “If this is about Jungkook then I understand – I know what
it’s like to fall for someone and I know how quickly they can become the centre of everything,
especially if you’re dealing with upheaval in the rest of your life. But if it’s real – if this guy really
cares about you – then he’ll go long distance, or even follow you to the city.”

“If it’s real?” Taehyung knows he shouldn’t be too short with Seokjin, who doesn’t know the
whole story, but he can’t help himself.

“If he really cares about you, then he’ll understand that right now you need to be surrounded by
your old friends, somewhere you know. Somewhere stable. Please, Taehyung, trust your hyung.
Come back to Seoul with me. Come home.”

They’ve walked most of the way back into town now. People are passing them, but no one stops
for their usual greetings with Taehyung, like they can tell this is an altercation not to be intruded
upon.

“Come back to school,” Seokjin adds, and Taehyung shakes his head.

“I don’t want to go back to school,” he says, and saying it out loud makes it so resolute. Only
spoken so clearly in his own voice does he realise that it’s true. This town is not what has done this
to him; Jungkook has not done this to him. For months he’s been dragging his feet, delaying his
thesis, struggling through case studies with a constant migraine and an anxiety tremor in his hand.
Since arriving in Torrent Woods he hasn’t felt bad once. With that stress lifted from his shoulders,
he’s come to look at what it was all doing to him in the harsh light of day.

A clear head, in spite of everything.

“Don’t be daft, Taehyung,” says Seokjin in earnest, and his worry is etched all over his face. “This
is everything you’ve worked for.”

“I don’t want it.” Repeating it strengthens the resolve deep in his belly that has only become clear
here and now. “I don’t want it,” he says again, in a whisper, this time for his own benefit more
than Seokjin’s. It’s the truth. His heart pounds at the realisation.

Seokjin rubs his eyes, clearly growing more frustrated and more anxious, like he’s losing his grip
on him and scrabbling to get it back. “So what do you want? You want Torrent Woods? Forget
Jungkook; I mean the town. You want to stay here? There aren’t going to be any jobs. That house
isn’t even liveable yet. What kind of future are you going to be able to plan here?”

“I don’t know, but I know that I’ve spent a lifetime planning a future that I never even wanted.
Maybe being here is a chance to press pause on that and just think about being alive for a minute,
because you’re right: both of my parents have died. I’m in a difficult place emotionally. My own
mortality is staring down the barrel at me and nothing feels permanent. For whatever reason, I feel
safe here. I know it’s strange and I don’t expect you to understand it but I need you to respect it.”

The rain has turned to icy sleet. They’re only a short walk from the inn. Thin lines of sleet paint the
windows of the shops, driving from the west.

Seokjin looks into his eyes. “I’m going to drive back to Seoul tomorrow morning. I want you to
come with me. My car is out front and I’ll leave at seven o’clock, so if you come to your senses
then I’ll be waiting.”

Angry now, Taehyung swallows. “I’m not going.”

“Please.”

“You can stay in my room, it’s all paid up,” says Taehyung throwing him the key. “I’ll go to
Jungkook’s.”

“Taehyung - ”

“You’re my best friend, hyung,” he says in a shaky voice, “and it means a lot to me that you came
here to check on me, but this is my life. It’s time I chose something for myself for a change, instead
of doing what everyone else wants me to.” He’s dedicated a lifetime to that, trying to fit into the
mould that others have made for him. For the first time, here in this town, he feels like no one is
pushing him from any side. He can breathe. “It’s my life,” he repeats, and he turns on his heel to
stalk through the sleet as if falls heavier and heavier around him.

Walking in the rain was a bad idea.

The town might be small, but it isn’t that small, and Jungkook’s house is on the outskirts. By the
time that he reaches it, following the maps in his mind that have at last begun to fill in the last of
the details, he is drenched through to the bone with the icy sleet, despite the weight of his coat.

His teeth chatter. He shivers so violently that he struggles to knock on the door because his
gloveless fingers are stiff like blocks. Rain is in his boots and down his spine and it soaks his hair
until it’s dripping down his face. The dramatic effect of flouncing away, he decides, is not worth
this punishment. Even the second that it takes for Jungkook to get to the door is too long, and he
stumbles over the threshold without invitation, his lips beginning to turn blue.

“Shit, Taehyung!” Jungkook holds him back with hands to his shoulders to examine him before
pulling him in against his chest even though he’s sopping wet. “What the hell were you doing out
walking in the rain? You should’ve called me to pick you up.”

Taehyung sniffs against him, because ever since the argument with Seokjin he has been fighting
the urge to cry. He doesn’t enjoy being forced into a position where he has to choose between
Seokjin and Jungkook, or between his old home and his new one. He buries his face into his neck
and breathes in the now-familiar combination that makes up Jungkook’s characteristic scent. When
his trembling becomes obvious, Jungkook curses again and pulls him inside to sit down on the
couch.

“What did he do to you?” That’s Jungkook’s first question, and it carries all the strain of an Alpha
who has found one of his pack in distress. Perhaps his most beloved of the pack. “I was worried
when you left with him. He seemed angry.”

“Don’t be silly,” whispers Taehyung, wiping his running nose on his sleeve. Then he realises that’s
disgusting and tries to take it back somehow by fidgeting, but Jungkook doesn’t seem to care.

“What did he say?” His eyes are dark.

“Nothing. It was nothing. He just wanted me to go back with him and I said no. He’s my best
friend. He’s just trying to do what’s best for me but he doesn’t understand.”

Jungkook fusses over him. First, he helps him out of his wet coat, throwing it down by the empty
fire, and then he strips him out of his wet shirt and even his soaked jeans, folding them up and
placing them down on the other seat of the couch. For some reason, Taehyung doesn’t feel shy
being unclothed in front of him. After the first change, when he was feral, Jungkook must have put
him back into clothes before carrying him to bed. He has nothing to be shy about now.

“You need to get warm,” murmurs Jungkook.

He bustles around the room, loading wood into the fire and bringing it into life, and he wraps three
layers of warm blankets around Taehyung’s body. This is what he likes about Jungkook, what
makes him different from those guys in Seoul. They’d have talked a big talk about not intruding
upon Taehyung’s space, or his independence, so early in the relationship (when in truth they just
didn’t want to do the work). Jungkook doesn’t perform for points like that. He’s a care-giver,
someone who was raised to look after someone in need.
And Taehyung has waited a lifetime for that person to come along.

He thought he didn’t need it. He thought with a blank mask and a high-class degree he could move
through life pretending he didn’t need any help. But God knows he needs it. How long has he
needed a hug? Not from a friend, but from someone who loves him more intimately than that: only
a mother, or a lover, could provide that kind of embrace.

Jungkook does it for him.

He pulls Taehyung into his lap and wraps his arms around him, a better radiator than the blankets.

Taehyung doesn’t cry like he did after opening up about his childhood. A conflict with his friend
isn’t enough to make him shed tears – he has that much of a mask still, at least – but he folds into
Jungkook in a desperate search for warmth and for reassurance that doesn’t come from words.
That’s another thing that’s different about Jungkook. He doesn’t try to talk about everything. He
doesn’t push him for explanations and answers; nor does he offer every ounce of advice under the
moon that he has learned from books or the internet.

No platitudes.

In the most old-fashioned way, he simply reminds him with the physical that he’s here to share his
pain.

Only when Taehyung has stopped shivering and begun to trace letters onto Jungkook’s chest,
hoping he might figure them out, does Jungkook speak. “He wanted you to go back to Seoul with
him?”

Taehyung nods. “He’s right. With the information he has, I should go back to Seoul. I couldn’t
even argue with him because how would that be fair? He doesn’t know the truth. Seokjin doesn’t
know what we do in the woods, who all these friends are to me. He says I hardly know you and
how can I tell him that there’s a soul inside me that has known yours for generations before we
were even born?”

The outward acknowledgment of his wolf makes a merry fire light up inside him, and it begins to
warm him too from the inside out. Is this why Jungkook is so hot all the time? Is he so in tune with
his wolf that he never has to fear the cold?

“Is that how you feel?” whispers Jungkook. “Like your soul knows mine?”

“Even though I’ve only known you for weeks, I feel like I could never leave you,” he says. Maybe
it’s the toll of all of the upheaval he’s faced since he arrived here, but he can’t lie. The truth pours
out of him in waterfalls, beautiful but unrestrained.

Jungkook swallows. “I felt it on that first night. I snarled, almost as wild as you, when you
changed. I told them that if anyone hurt you, I’d kill. I’ve never said something like that to my
pack before. It haunts me even now.”

“Would you still?”

“Kill, if anyone hurt you? Yes. It’s not even my choice. My wolf chose you, and he has far more
power than me.”

Taehyung shivers at the thought, but it makes him feel safe in a way he never has. As a child, his
mother would take him in her arms and whisper that she’d keep him safe, but she couldn’t, not
really. In Jungkook’s arms, he’s more secure than he’s ever been. No one can break through his
embrace. They’d regret it if they ever even tried.

Though he swore to himself not to cry, Taehyung wakes up with a puffy face and red eyes, and he
realises that in sleep his body might have betrayed him. Jungkook is awake already, stroking his
hair, and he tucks his face into his neck in shame. His whole body hurts because he fell asleep on
the couch and Jungkook must have been nervous to move him to the bed lest he wake him. A crick
aches in his neck and the muscles of his legs feel tight where he kept them tucked up in
Jungkook’s lap.

“You didn’t patrol last night,” he whispers against Jungkook’s skin.

“I had more important things to worry about.”

“Don’t say that,” groans Taehyung. When he thinks back to staggering here in the rain like his
world had just ended all because of a fight with his friend, he feels more embarrassed than ever.
The thought of Seokjin makes him sit up, pressing his hands to his burning cheeks, and he shakes
his head as he crawls from Jungkook’s lap. “Shit. Seokjin will be leaving soon and I need to
apologise. I have to get back to the inn.”

“Okay,” nods Jungkook. He doesn’t argue with him, nor try to comfort him with promises that he
has no need to say he’s sorry. “Let me get you some clean clothes. You just slept in these.”

“There’s no time,” he says. At the door, he fumbles for his boots.

“I’ll drive you in my truck. That’ll be quicker.”

Taehyung accepts gratefully. The cabin of Jungkook’s truck is familiar and now that he’s aware of
it, he can smell his scent over the fresh pine of the air freshener. There are hard boiled candies in
the glove compartment that Taehyung doesn’t think they sell in the cities anymore. He picks out an
apple green one to moisten his mouth because his throat is scratchy and he can’t remember the last
time he drank anything.

Jungkook drives fast, possibly too fast, but Taehyung doesn’t think the town even has a police
station. What do they have to worry about? If anyone caused a disturbance, the wolf pack would
deal with them quick enough. He pulls into the street with a screech of tires and parks up against
the sidewalk, because up ahead Seokjin is leant against his car, watching the early morning foot
traffic with cool eyes. Taehyung jumps out of the truck. Jungkook doesn’t follow.

“Hyung!” he shouts.

Seokjin turns and gives him a small wave, but his face is resigned. His gaze flickers from
Taehyung to the truck and back to him.

“It’s nearly seven-thirty,” exhales Taehyung as he reaches the car. “You waited.”

“Of course I waited,” sighs Seokjin. He fiddles with his sleeves and glances up once more to
Jungkook’s truck. “You’re not coming, are you?”

Two cars pass in the space of time before Taehyung answers. “I’m sorry. I feel awful for the way
we spoke yesterday. You’re my best friend and I know you’re only looking out for me. I
understand why you’re worried and I meant it when I said I was grateful. I can’t explain this;
there’s no way to put into words why I need to stay, but I do. For now, my place is here.”
Seokjin nods, like he knew this answer was coming. “I’m sorry too. You were right: it is your life
and I let my worry cloud my judgment. I’m not going to say that I get it but I respect it, and I hope
that you find what you’re looking for. And if you don’t, then I’ll be waiting back in Seoul for you.
I’ll even change your sheets for you while you’re gone so that your room is nice and ready for you
when you get back.”

“You know I hate changing the sheets,” Taehyung laughs softly.

“Of course I do. I know everything about you.”

Not everything, Taehyung thinks, but he just smiles. “Thank you for waiting.”

Seokjin shrugs. “I wasn’t going to leave town without us reminding each other that we’re still best
friends.”

“Come to visit. And I’ll visit you soon too, in Seoul.”

“Answer your phone,” says Seokjin in response, before pulling him into a crushing hug. “And tell
your boyfriend that if he messes with you I’ll knock his teeth out. He might be huge but I can be
very speedy – swift as a fox.”

Taehyung laughs, trying to imagine Seokjin confronting Jungkook, and then squeezes him in
return. “I’ll call you every night.” This time he means it. He won’t make the same mistake again.
The thought that Seokjin was up in the city worrying about him each day floods him with guilt.
“I’ll give you daily updates on the puppy-eyed-Schwarzenegger and maybe you’ll start to like him
eventually.”

Seokjin narrows his eyes at the truck, but then he nods. “Keep me updated.”

Saying goodbye to his friend is the only fleeting moment in which Taehyung questions his decision
to stay, but as he waves, watching the car disappear down to the end of the street before turning in
the direction of the woods that house the maze back to civilisation, Jungkook steps up behind him
and wraps a warm arm around his waist. He settles back into him, breathing out his worries, and
Jungkook kisses his cheek. They’re getting more physical with each other in public now.

“Everything okay?”

Taehyung nods. “Like it never even happened.”

“Do you want to stay, Taehyung? You’re not staying because you think I want you to or because
you think should because of the pack? Because I know you have a life in Seoul and if you want to
go then we won’t make you stay. All I want is for you to be happy.”

“I’m happy here. Happy in a way I haven’t ever felt happy before.”

“Good,” exhales Jungkook. “I was acting cool but I don’t know what I would have done if you’d
said you were leaving.”

They have breakfast at the inn together. If anyone notices that they’re both wearing yesterday’s
clothes, no one mentions it. Everyone who passes says good morning to Jungkook, and then to
Taehyung in turn, like some kind of chant. The ones that stop to talk to Jungkook ask about
everything in town as if he is the mayor, ready to dole out solutions. And he does.

They ask about a collapsed roof in the school gym and he promises to take a look at it by the end of
the day. They ask for help digging up the last of the fall harvest under the hard, frosty earth, and he
tells them he’ll get the pack to drop by this afternoon. They ask him whether he can drive some of
the kids up to the city for a trip but he has to apologetically delegate, and Taehyung sees the
genuine regret in his eyes. He wishes that Jungkook wouldn’t bear the whole weight of the town
on his shoulders.

Jungkook is ready to field another request when they both look up to see that their latest visitor is
Yejun, and he looks furious.

“Yejun?” Jungkook says lightly.

“Where the hell were you last night?”

“Watch your mouth. I don’t answer to you.”

Yejun blisters. Taehyung thinks he’ll explode if he doesn’t unleash the anger inside him as soon as
possible. A reddish tinge stains his skin and his hands are balled up into fists at his side. “I took out
Sunwoo last night and we ran into two wolves, just east of the border. We’re lucky they ran off
because do you think I could’ve taken them both on with a schoolkid for backup? You should’ve
been there. The Alpha should’ve been there.”

Taehyung slides a hand down under the table to hold Jungkook’s leg but there’s no way he can
calm him in the face of such an onslaught.

“If I were you, Yejun, I’d back off,” says Jungkook, and Taehyung can hear the vibration in his
voice. “Because no one wants a scene, but right now my wolf wants to give them one.” He stands.
Taehyung lets his hand slide back to his lap and he tries to concentrate on a chip in the table
because this doesn’t seem like a conversation he should be part of. He doesn’t have to look up to
know that Yejun doesn’t back down.

“You should’ve been there,” he repeats.

“And you should’ve known better than to take a kid out in the woods outside of the full moon. I
appreciate that you’ve alienated yourself from every adult in the pack, but that doesn’t mean you
get to waltz around putting teenagers in danger. Sunwoo should’ve been in his bedroom finishing
up his homework, not prowling our boundary at God knows what hour because one of his hyungs
is too much of a coward to run by himself or ask for a grown-up buddy.”

Yejun shoves Jungkook in the chest. Jungkook shoves back harder until Yejun trips, almost falling
on the flagstone floor. A scrape of benches pushed back rings around the room as a few people
stand, ready to protect their Alpha if necessary, but Jungkook holds up a hand.

“You and I are going have a long fucking talk, later,” Jungkook snaps, stepping aggressively close
to Yejun.

Yejun is smaller than Jungkook by an inch or two, and nowhere near as bulked up, but that doesn’t
mean he couldn’t do any damage. Taehyung steps up behind Jungkook in an automatic motion,
prepared to back him up in a fight if it happens even though he has no clue how to fight, but Yejun
doesn’t look like he’s going to lunge. He glares up at Jungkook with open contempt. His jealousy
is so loud that the entire room must be able to hear it. Taehyung has never seen someone look at
another man with such unrestrained, unabashed envy. It’s almost humiliating. Taehyung would be
embarrassed to look at someone so shamelessly.

“I don’t like you and you don’t like me,” says Yejun through gritted teeth, “but this is about the
town. This is about protecting our people and our territory.”
“I know,” says Jungkook, and Taehyung is surprised by the lightness that returns to his voice. He
has an incredible ability to compose himself. “And I’ll run with you tonight.”

Horrified, Taehyung looks from one to the other, but Yejun seems to take this as a fair answer. He
straightens his jacket and walks out of the dining hall with half of the room watching him and the
other half dragging their eyes to Jungkook. As if he can’t even see them Jungkook takes his seat
back at the bench and drags another bowl of thin soup towards him, picking seaweed out to soften
on the surface. Taehyung is lost for words as he sits back down beside him.

Not for long. “He didn’t submit to you,” he says, remembering the last time that the two of them
argued.

“No, he didn’t.”

“Couldn’t you… make him?” Taehyung asks anxiously.

Jungkook sighs and pushes the food away. It’s evident that he’s lost his appetite. “I’m not going to
be one of those Alphas who bullies their pack into submission. Everyone has the right to air their
opinions, even their displeasure. Yejun’s problem is that he doesn’t know how to raise his concerns
with any degree of respect. I need to show him how to behave but if I put him down every time
he’s only going to hate me more. The two of us need to talk, resolve our differences. Running
together helps wolves remember what we’re part of, as a pack.”

“Right. A good leader knows how to employ diplomacy, when authority doesn’t pay its
dividends,” mutters Taehyung. He appreciates his maturity, but he can’t help but think that this
kind of approach isn’t going to work with Yejun. “But do you know what he called me, back when
I hardly knew who I was or what I was doing? He called me your bitch.”

A muscle works in Jungkook’s jaw. “You should’ve told me that five minutes ago. I’d have ripped
his throat out.”

Taehyung gulps. “No throat tearing! Please! What I mean is that he’s bitter. He’s jealous of you.
How can you think you’re going to get through to a guy like that?”

“I’ll figure it out,” mutters Jungkook, but Taehyung’s words seem to have soured his mood even
further.

Changing tack, Taehyung voices a different worry. “What if he’s lying?”

“Lying?”

“What if all this stuff about other wolves crossing our border is a load of crap? You know I was
training as a lawyer – I know better than anyone that people lie. They lie all the time to get what
they want and to get out of what they’ve done.”

“Others in the pack have noted his same concerns.”

“Who? Yejun’s fanclub? Eunmi and the kids?”

“Why would he lie?”

“To – to undermine you? To make you look like you don’t have control of the pack or like you
aren’t keeping the town safe? I don’t trust this guy. I don’t like the thought of you being out in the
woods with him during the night.”
 To his disdain, Jungkook only laughs gently. “I can take care of myself, sweetheart.”

Between the conflict with Yejun and the altercation with Seokjin yesterday, Taehyung is reaching
his limit. He rubs his eyes, more stressed than he’s felt since he landed here in town, and tries to
take a slow, steadying breath. Seokjin taught him all sorts of breathing exercises but they’re
difficult to apply when the thought of Yejun makes his blood boil and his lungs constrict. “Take
someone with you. Take Jimin with you, please. Or me. Just someone so that I know Yejun isn’t
going to have his little pack jump you in the woods.”

Jungkook sighs. “It’s sweet that you’re worried. But Yejun is the son of the former Alpha. That
means I owe him a degree of respect, whether either of us think he deserves it or not. Arriving with
an entourage would be a bad look for me, and if anything’s going to make me look weak then it’s
needing a bodyguard. Yejun isn’t stupid – he knows what happens to wolves that try to challenge
the Alpha and lose.”

“What happens to wolves that try to challenge the Alpha and lose?”

“They’re banished,” says Jungkook, like such a word isn’t unusual in a modern town in 2021.
“They aren’t welcome here anymore.”

“So the Alpha can’t be replaced?”

“Not unless the challenger wins,” laughs Jungkook, “and Yejun isn’t idiotic enough to challenge
me in a fight. I’d crush him with one paw.”

Taehyung looks down miserably. He appreciates Jungkook’s confidence – has always found it
attractive in him – but he doesn’t share his certainty. Yejun might not be able to beat him in a fight
but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t pursue one, and Taehyung has watched those teeth and claws tear
into forest prey, ripping skin from flesh and flesh from bone. Jungkook is strong and sturdy but
he’s also made of the same stuff as anyone else.

Nausea swills in Taehyung’s stomach at the thought.

Jungkook must sense his distress. “Please don’t worry about me. I can handle Seo Yejun.”

“Fine,” he mutters, but he doesn’t think it’s fine at all.

Chapter End Notes

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 Chapter 4
Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

In the evening, it becomes clear that Jungkook knows full well that Taehyung doesn’t think things
are fine, because he invites Jimin over to the house to babysit him. He does so under the guise of
Jimin being bored and wanting someone to hang out with, and he even smacks the old television
into life, but as soon as he sees Jimin’s jovial, fakest smile when he appears at the door, Taehyung
knows why he’s been summoned. He brings food and handheld videogames.

The worst part is that he doesn’t even have it in him to be mad at Jungkook. He’s too worried.
When he catches him at the back door, one foot already out into the freezing night, his fingers
close on his shirt, like he could hold him here forever. Jungkook turns and catches Taehyung’s hips
to pull him in against him, pressing the softest kiss to his lips. “I’ll be back before you know I’m
gone. Try to have fun with Jimin.”

Before he can turn away, Taehyung takes his face between his hands and kisses him again. He
strokes his fingertips down over his lips, so aware of their softness. Jungkook’s face has always
looked so much more vulnerable than his body. Then he lets him go, because Jungkook might be
his boyfriend now but he’s still the Alpha, and this is pack business. Whether he likes it or not.

He does not like it.

Taehyung humours Jimin, or Jungkook, or Jimin and Jungkook, for as long as he can. He allows
Jimin to interrogate him on the finer points of his relationship with Jungkook, and gives him what
he hopes are satisfactory answers. He watches the first segment of a TV show with him, relieved to
discover that Jungkook’s TV is, in fact, connected, but his mind is in the woods. If he could only
shift, he’s sure he could reach out and find Jungkook’s wolf spirit out there, and he’d know he was
safe.

“Jimin?”

“Mmhm?”

“You were the Alpha, right, before Jungkook shifted for the first time?” he starts, praying that this
isn’t a sore spot for him.

Luckily, Jimin just turns to him with raised eyebrows. “I was.”

“So you know everything about being the Alpha?”

“I wouldn’t say everything, but I know enough.”

Taehyung turns the television down. “What happens if someone wants to challenge the Alpha?”

“Taehyung…” starts Jimin, like he knows where this is going.

“Humour me.”

Jimin sighs, but to his credit he answers. “It doesn’t happen often. To get to that stage you’ve got to
have two physically strong Alphas in a pack, really strong. They both have to be big, and they both
have to be dominant, and they both have to have enough backing within in the pack that they think
they could hold it together. There’d be no point in a wolf challenging the existing Alpha, after all,
if he or she is going to face resistance from the rest of the pack if they do win.”

For a moment, Taehyung feels a wave of relief, but then he remembers Eunmi, and Sunwoo, and
the young Haeun. Jungkook might have most of the pack on side but that doesn’t mean Yejun has
no supporters. “Could they form some kind of breakaway pack, before the challenge?”

“It can happen like that,” nods Jimin. “But you’d need either the most socially dominant members
of the pack to take your side who could sway the others, or you’d need a majority. That’s rare.
Yejun has one friend and two kids trailing around after him,” he adds. He doesn’t waste time
pretending not to know what Taehyung is getting at.

“But that still makes four of them, and there are five of us. It’s not so far from balanced.”

“Jungkook told me that you’re worried about this, and I want to tell you that you don’t need to be.
Yejun’s family have a long history in this town, he won’t risk being kicked out and shaming his
whole family over one stupid grudge. He just needs to burn off some steam, have it out with
Jungkook in the woods – I’m sure they’re yelling at each other right now. In a month it’ll be
forgotten. This kind of thing happens from time to time. We’re wolves. Our animal instincts make
us forget ourselves sometimes.”

“Tell me more about the challenge.”

Jimin sighs again. “The challenger has to fight the Alpha one on one. The fight doesn’t end until
one of them submits.”

“What if neither of them submits?” Taehyung asks hesitantly.

“Then the fight goes on until – well, until one of them is incapacitated.”

Taehyung is very glad that he doesn’t say dead, even though the word rings around his ears. “I
know that you all seem to think that Yejun is all bark and no bite, but I’m not so sure. I have a bad
feeling about him. Before I got here I was the kind of guy who wouldn’t have believed in bad
feelings and all that kind of superstitious stuff but I’m a werewolf and Jungkook is my person.
Who’s to say I can’t sense when someone is a threat to him? More than anyone else? I feel it in my
gut, Jimin.”

“Jungkook asked me to make sure you didn’t go wandering in the woods,” he says, without
missing a beat.

“And you’re a good friend, but you’re not my keeper.”

“He gave an order. Jungkook doesn’t usually give orders.” Jimin fiddles with his shirt sleeves, then
thrums his fingers on the side of the couch, eyes turned up to the ceiling in thought. “But if you
were to sneak out of the back door, unbeknownst to me, and I had no choice but to follow you into
the woods to drag you back, then I suppose that wouldn’t officially be disobeying a command from
my Alpha. Hypothetically.”

“Hypothetically,” nods Taehyung, his heart pounding.

Jimin rolls his head back on the back of the couch and meets his eyes. “Instincts matter. Bad
feelings are important. Learning to trust them is an art. You wouldn’t make a bad Alpha,
Taehyung.”

“I don’t want to be the Alpha,” he says, already slipping off his outer shirt so that he doesn’t have
to worry about tearing it. He stumbles on his way to the kitchen, rushing too much. “I just want
mine to come home safe to me.”

The woods are more intimidating when he’s alone. Even though he knows that Jimin will follow
not far behind, Taehyung finds the expanse of black sky and the labyrinth of identical trees more
shapeless than usual, like there are no landmarks. He blames his fear. With Jungkook he felt he
was coming to understand the lay of the forest, but running is different without a second pair of
eyes and he finds himself doubting every step. He knows if he picks up the stream then he can
follow the boundary as far as it goes but what if Jungkook and Yejun are somewhere else in the
forest?

He stops and closes his eyes.

Jungkook is the Alpha, but he’s also more than that to Taehyung. His wolf should be able to find
him. He reaches out, tries to push his mind across the woods in search of him, of his familiar voice,
but he can hear nothing. He remembers what Jimin said – that trusting his instincts is important for
a wolf – and he lets himself drift in the direction that his paws take him.

His white fur is a beacon in the woods. He knows he could never stay hidden if he tried. The coat
seems to emit light, though he knows really it only draws in every glimmer of moonlight that it can
find until the glow nestles in amongst his fur. Like he’s carrying stardust on his back. He feels
vulnerable being so on show without Jungkook at his side to protect him, even though he knows no
predator prowls these woods that could ever take on a wolf. Except another wolf.

Taehyung is distracted from the worry by a growl. It isn’t close enough to be directed at him. It
never would be. He recognises Jungkook’s growl, and the low bark that follows. Taehyung runs
again, but he’s just approaching a clearing that the pack have visited before, when a body slams
into his and he falls to the side with a whine, snapping at air. Fear takes a grip on him before he
recognises the soft tan wolf and realises that it’s Jimin, flooring him close to where the trees open
up.

Stop.

It’s the first time he’s heard Jimin’s voice like this. Jungkook told him that he might hear him, as
the Second, but it catches him off guard. He must have caught up with him fast. Jimin is more
experienced in these woods. Though he couldn’t contravene a direct order from his Alpha and take
Taehyung into the forest himself, he could sure stalk after him to keep him safe if Taehyung made
his own way here. Clever Jimin.

Taehyung immediately tries to jump up because the barks are loud here. Low growls rush through
the trees. Jimin pushes him down again.

It isn’t safe.

As soon as Jimin leaves him, Taehyung manages to scramble up. His innate need to follow the
command of the Second is not as strong as for the Alpha. He races after him and skids to a halt at
the tree-line. He can see Jungkook, and when he scans his gaze around he can see Yejun too.
Jungkook is upright, in a dominant, confident stance, while Yejun is low, aggressive, almost more
catlike than wolf-like.

They’re circling each other.

Taehyung doesn’t have time to feel a flash of satisfaction that he was right. He’ll tell Jungkook that
later, both Jungkook and Jimin, and he’ll make them see that they need to trust him in future. But
that can wait. All he can feel now is fear, and a violent instinct to guard. He needs to get himself
into the clearing. He needs to get close to Jungkook. His wolf is smaller, so if he gets in front of
him, he can nestle under his neck, guard that most vulnerable part from this attacker.

Jungkook looks larger than ever. His lips are curled back to show gleaming teeth that Taehyung
has before seen tear into animal flesh. The canines are like blades, evolved to kill. Everything
about the wolf is a product of evolution, an apex predator. And the enemy wolf has those features
too. Yejun is no longer part of their pack; he’s a threat. The challenge is clear. The old Alpha and
this new challenger have carved out this space in the forest, alone, to fight.

Did Jungkook know?

Taehyung tries to think back to their conversations. Jungkook isn’t a fool. He wouldn’t have
believed Yejun and the kids’ stories about wolves on their territory when he has a good relationship
with the neighbouring Alpha. He wouldn’t have come out here alone with Yejun, a wolf who he
knows to hate him, insisting that no one accompany him, not a single ally. He wouldn’t have sent
his Second – his best fighter – to babysit his mate back in the house when he could have been
patrolling the other side of the perimeter if anyone threatened the town. Not unless he knew.

A wave of pained anger makes Taehyung shiver.

Jungkook knew this would be a fight.

Yejun snaps his teeth but Jungkook doesn’t take a step back. His black eyes shine. He doesn’t look
afraid. Jungkook is the Alpha. He isn’t scared of a fight. His dominant wolf might even crave
moments like this. He’s so far in the red zone that at first he doesn’t notice Taehyung or Jimin.
Only when a branch cracks beneath Jimin’s paw does he turn, and his growl turns to a snarl.

No human words make it through to them. His wolf is in the driving seat. But the command is
clear: back off.

The challenge must take place between two.

Jimin crosses in front of Taehyung, forcing him back, but Taehyung tries to push forwards again.
He won’t watch Jungkook be torn apart by Yejun. Whether he wins or not doesn’t matter. Those
teeth could rip limb from body and Yejun losing isn’t worth Jungkook losing an arm.

The ground is torn up as Yejun lunges, claws tearing the earth, and Jungkook parries him easily,
snapping back as the smaller wolf stumbles. Jungkook doesn’t take advantage of the slip. He just
circles again, like he’d prefer Yejun to tire before making any kind of attack. Yejun isn’t stupid.
His father was the Alpha and Taehyung has seen the way he gathered supporters. He won’t be
swatted aside like a fly.

Sure enough, Yejun is smarter this time. He snaps forward at Jungkook’s legs, rather than his
stronger torso, and Jungkook is wrong-footed. He’s bigger, with much more body to manage. If
Taehyung were to fight him, he’d try to knock him off balance too. The first time they hunted, he
remembers watching Yejun flit through the trees, grey lightning. He’s the quickest in the pack.
What he lacks in size he makes up for in agility. Jungkook slips on the leaves.

Taehyung darts forward from behind Jimin, all thoughts on protecting his mate, but Jungkook’s
eyes swivel to his.
Stay!

The command is clear and sharp in his mind, and when Taehyung tries to step forward his body
won’t obey. Jungkook has given him an order. It isn’t a request. His wolf can’t disobey. He howls
in rage, scratching at the forest floor, but his wolf shrinks back, submitting to the Alpha.

In the moment of distraction, Yejun bites, and Taehyung whines, watches blood spill from
Jungkook’s shoulder.

Jungkook snarls and snaps back, and Yejun rolls over as they wrestle. Jungkook’s blood spatters
over the ground but he does seem weakened in any way; if anything, the wound seems to have
heightened his rage, and maybe werewolves feel adrenaline the same way that humans do because
he seems stronger even than before, throwing Yejun back with teeth to his side that clench in a
vice. Yejun howls. His blood joins Jungkook’s, staining the earth.

Taehyung thinks nothing will be able to grow here after this.

He whines again, in despair at not being able to defend his Alpha. Jimin could. He’s free of
commands, but he just stays close to Taehyung, putting his body between him and the fight until
Taehyung has to duck to see. It’s clear what his instructions are.

Whether Jimin knew that this fight was going to happen – and Taehyung thinks not – he’s been
told to protect Taehyung.

And he’s taking that seriously.

Then, Taehyung hears another voice in his head, and he shrinks further in on himself. It isn’t
Jungkook or Jimin. It’s a familiar sneer, throatier as a wolf but still recognisable.

What? You don’t want your bitch getting in your way? Yejun has an Alpha’s voice, either born
in him or developed over time with the sycophants who followed him in the pack.

Jungkook’s claw tears three slashes down the wolf’s side but they’re only skin deep. Yejun
manages to dart away before worse damage is done.

The wolf paces, eyes on Jungkook. A pack should die defending their Alpha. That’s where
you’re weak. You treat them like your friends.

Jungkook growls and advances on him again. He doesn’t respond to the taunts. That’s the kind of
leader he is and Taehyung feels a wave of pride. A wolf like Yejun would never understand that
someone like Jungkook wouldn’t let anyone be hurt for him. Taehyung doesn’t care what wolf-lore
says. Jungkook is a real leader. He would put himself on the line to protect his pack, not the other
way around.

But his honour is also the reason there’s blood dripping down his shoulder and his haunches.
Taehyung needs to get to him. He needs to lick his wounds clean and get him home safe. He can’t
even move.

The brawl starts again too fast. Yejun leaps around the clearing, deft and quick, and Jungkook can
turn but he isn’t fast enough to stop him from lunging at his side, ripping at him with vicious jaws.
Jungkook is rolled to his back just long enough for Taehyung to howl in fear but he soon rights
himself and bites back, latching on to the vulnerable inner joint between Yejun’s front leg and
chest. Blood covers his snout: dirty blood, Taehyung thinks.
Yejun manages to bite Jungkook’s ear, and Taehyung is sure he sees a chunk torn clean off, but it
could be more bubbles of blood rather than skin. He closes his eyes, unable to watch anymore, but
then opens them again because the sounds are worse than the sights. The tearing of flesh is vivid,
something that Taehyung will hear in his nightmares forever. There will be no forgetting it.

They fight like wild wolves. Taehyung can see replays in his mind of documentaries he’s seen on
TV. Animals will fight to the death. And he can see nothing human in either of them now. Their
wolves are competing for dominance. Any human dislike has been replaced by the more violent
instincts in their blood.

Jimin is in a defensive pose, like he’s ready to join the fray and put himself in front of Jungkook if
things get too bad, but Taehyung doesn’t know how he will. Jimin respects their rules more than
Taehyung does. Whatever loyalty he has to his friend and his Alpha, he thinks he’ll respect the
sanctity of such a duel.

The thought frightens him.

Would Jimin or the rest of the pack stand by and watch Jungkook die?

No.

There’s too much human in them for that.

There has to be.

A growl rumbles low in Jungkook’s throat and he throws Yejun off him again with such force that
the smaller wolf’s back cracks against a tree on the opposite side of the clearing. He isn’t quick
enough to scramble up. Jungkook is over him with claws at his belly and throat in a second, and
Taehyung feels a fresh wave of horror. He wants Jungkook to win the fight but he doesn’t want
Yejun dead either. Jungkook can’t do something like that. He isn’t a monster.

Fighting the magnetism that keeps him pinned back by his orders, Taehyung manages a step
forward. His wolf trembles. Jimin turns back and growls at him to stay down.

Submit. Jungkook’s order is razor sharp.

Yejun snaps up at him but he’s pinned.

I don’t want to hurt you more than I already have.

If Yejun senses weakness in the words then it’s a weakness Taehyung will always love Jungkook
for. The young wolf writhes and snaps up, catching a bite to Jungkook’s throat, and however
shallow it is blood drips down onto his own face, into his eyes, and Taehyung sees Jungkook’s
claws tighten, pressing into Yejun’s chest until they start to break the skin through his thick fur.
He’s panting. They both are. The claws close in a grip and Yejun howls.

Taehyung thinks his wolf must have better instincts of self-preservation than his human, because
he rolls his head to the side, showing the vulnerable length of his throat, and Taehyung whines in
relief, pushing at Jimin to get past, but Jimin keeps him firmly behind him.

Jungkook lifts his paw, and with every step back he leaves bloody pawprints on the earth,
illuminated by the moonlight.

Go.
Yejun looks too weak to stand, but somehow he clambers upright on trembling legs. For a split
second, Taehyung thinks he might be stupid enough to lunge again, but then Jimin throws his head
back and howls. Taehyung’s instincts know that he’s calling the pack. The howl is heart-wrenching
and ethereal, magical and guttural at the same time. Yejun turns to limp away, slow and anguished,
and Taehyung feels a flash of sympathy. The creature is badly wounded.

But Jungkook is bleeding.

He reminds himself not to give a fuck about the thing that hurt him.

Jungkook slumps down as soon as the wolf has disappeared in the trees. He has taken the brunt of
the attacks in the fight. Taehyung knows now that he was holding back, keeping his strikes on the
surface level so as not to hurt the younger man beyond recovery. Yejun, it seems, had no such
qualms. Had the wound at his throat been inches higher, it could have been deadly.

Taehyung whines to be released from his bonds, but Jungkook isn’t speaking. Maybe he isn’t even
thinking. His chest and belly heave with exertion. Jimin darts to his side, and Taehyung screams in
anxiety.

The sound is so human that he pauses. His wolf might submit to Jungkook’s orders, but he knows
he’d never submit to a man, as a man. Jungkook would always treat him as his equal. He wouldn’t
bind Taehyung’s human in a command.

He shifts, stumbling by the rapid transition to his human form, and Jimin turns with a panicked
snarl.

Stay back! Even in this form, Taehyung can hear Jimin’s voice in his head. He isn’t safe.

He can see it. Jungkook is more animal than man, wounded and defensive. He snaps even when
Jimin gets too close. But Taehyung steps forward anyway, relieved to find that his legs work again.
Jungkook wouldn’t hurt him. His wolf knows him. He reaches out his hand, as he would
approaching any wounded animal. Jimin tries to block him but Taehyung just ducks around him
and there’s nothing the wolf can do. He could hardly bare his teeth at a vulnerable human.

When Taehyung gets close, Jungkook snarls again, but he doesn’t snap his teeth.

Taehyung! Jimin’s warning voice.

Taehyung ignores him and steps into Jungkook’s range. “It’s me. It’s just me,” he murmurs, and as
soon as he presses his hand to Jungkook’s side he can see the wolf settle. He’s panting so heavily
that Taehyung thinks it’s a miracle he’s conscious. With this much blood dripping from him, it’s a
miracle he’s conscious. Taehyung strokes his fingers into his shaggy black fur and finds one of the
wounds. Jungkook whines but doesn’t bite.

Taehyung swallows, looking down at the blood on his fingers.

“It’s your Taehyung,” he whispers, stroking Jungkook’s face with the back of his hand. “And
you’re in big trouble when we get home for what you pulled today!”

Jungkook nuzzles against his hand, so tender that Taehyung could forget he’s a wolf and imagine
that he’s nothing but a giant, fluffy puppy. His breath is red hot over Taehyung’s skin. He curls his
legs into his body and lowers his chin down to the ground, until Taehyung has to crouch beside
him to still reach his face. He scratches behind his ears, anything to soothe him, because he knows
there’s nothing he can do for the wounds.
“Taehyung?”

He spins around, relieved to see the pack have arrived. Namjoon and the young Haeun are in their
human form, while the others have wolfed up. They approach Jimin, while Namjoon brings
forward a bundle of clothes to throw to him. When he gets too close, Jungkook snarls, and
Namjoon backs up, raising his hands to show he isn’t a threat.

“Taehyung, he’s dangerous - ”

“He’s mine,” chokes Taehyung, and with the last of the pack here he can let his emotions rise up
from his belly through his chest to his face and he wipes a tear away angrily. “He wouldn’t hurt
me.”

The wolves fan out, guarding the trees, and Taehyung is confused to see Haeun and Sunwoo join
them, and even Eunmi, who shadows Jimin with a low, ashamed gait. Taehyung can see it in her
posture.

“Jungkook?” says Namjoon, crouching to the ground in what must be another sign that he’s no
threat. “You need to shift.”

Jungkook snaps again, baring his teeth, and Taehyung catches his face in his hands to calm him.
His eyes look wild but when they settle on Taehyung he sees a flash of his Jungkook again. He
strokes the fur down under his eyes and runs his fingers through the thick hair on his neck and
chest, checking for the worst of the blood. The wound to his throat seems, at least, to be
superficial. Taehyung should have been there. He should’ve been tucked under him, protecting that
part.

“We need to get you home. It might not be safe out here,” presses Namjoon.

With his pleas achieving nothing, Taehyung buries his face in against Jungkook’s and presses a
kiss to his muzzle. It has been scratched badly during the fight but Jungkook doesn’t pull away.
“Listen to Namjoon,” he murmurs. “Come back to me.”

Jungkook whines softly against his hand and Taehyung has never heard a sound like that from him
before.

“Let me take care of you.”

Watching the transition back to human form makes Taehyung shudder, but he keeps his eyes on
him so that Jungkook can be calmed by his gaze. Worse even than the change is the vision of
Jungkook drenched in blood in his own body. It’s so much worse. The wounds might seem smaller
but there’s no hiding them beneath a layer of fur. His blood drips on onto the forest floor, not
matting close to the gashes anymore, and Taehyung has to turn away just for a moment, afraid he’s
going to be sick.

Reason two that he chose law over medicine.

Namjoon curses and crouches beside Jungkook, helping him rest up against the rocky outcrop
behind him. “I need to call my father.”

Taehyung looks up at that.

“He’s a doctor. The doctor, I mean, the only doctor in town,” says Namjoon.

Taehyung’s nausea is low on his list of priorities now so he forces himself to look back to
Jungkook, cradling his head with his hands because he isn’t strong enough to hold it up for himself.
Blood streams steadily from his ear, and Taehyung’s stomach flips when he remembers Yejun
tearing, he’s sure, a chunk of skin or flesh with him. With the amount of blood he can’t see the
wound. That’s a relief.

“Taehyung?” Jungkook croaks. His face is pale and sweat drips down his forehead even though it’s
a freezing night.

“I’m here, baby,” he whispers, leaning in close.

Jungkook takes shallow, shaky breaths, like he’s preparing to say something profound, and turns
his head to look at him. “Do you…”

Taehyung nods, encouraging him to get the words out.

“Do you think I look sexy, covered in blood?” Jungkook says raggedly, and a small, crooked smile
pulls up one side of his lips.

“No!” chokes Taehyung, outraged, and he wishes upon wishes that he didn’t laugh but it escapes
his lips before he can stop himself, almost hysterical. “What the fuck, Jungkook! You think it’s
like it is on television? It’s fucking awful. You’re bleeding and I’m crying and I don’t know what
to do and how dare you leave me behind knowing you were coming to fight that thing!”

Jungkook laughs, but the sound is too close to a death rattle for Taehyung’s comfort. “He could’ve
– could’ve hurt you.”

“Hurt me? He’s ripped you apart!”

“Just a scratch,” murmurs Jungkook. There are teeth marks buried in his abdomen and the gashes
from claws torn over his chest. His leg is badly bleeding and it’s nothing compared to the steady
drip of blood from his ear. “You should’ve seen the other guy…”

“Let me get him up,” says Namjoon, nudging Taehyung aside to wrap an arm around him. How he
can be strong enough to move him when Jungkook must be the heaviest of all of them, Taehyung
doesn’t know, but Namjoon manages to help him up, gesturing for Taehyung to take his other side.
The wolves circle them. All of them. Jungkook’s feet drag on the ground, too slow to find a path
one in front of another, and Taehyung almost buckles even though he knows he’s taking only a
fraction of the weight that Namjoon is.

He reminds himself to be strong, like Jungkook was during the fight.

As they stagger over the uneven terrain of the woods, Taehyung thinks about deadlines and
reference books back in Seoul, and realises in a rush the reality of the life he has just signed himself
up for.

No amount of protests, no amount of shouting, can convince them to take Jungkook to the hospital.

Taehyung rages. He threatens to go to get his car and haul Jungkook into the back seat to drive him
there himself. He yells at Jimin until he’s blue in the face. And then, defeated, he collapses down
onto the only other chair in Jungkook’s small living room, and refuses to speak to any of them. He
can’t out-argue an entire pack and a town that likes to keep their secrets safe to home, but he’d try.
What he can’t even try is out-arguing Jungkook, who pale-faced and semi-conscious, is somehow
more stubborn than the rest of them.
They treat him on the couch. A nurse from the town and Yoongi assist Namjoon’s father in
patching him up, assuring Taehyung that wolves heal fast even outside of the full moon. They
promise too that he doesn’t need any blood, but Taehyung isn’t so sure. Jungkook looks so ashen.
He sits back moodily in his chair and watches, like Jungkook’s sentinel, while they work.

Jimin makes coffee, which Taehyung holds to warm himself up, but he doesn’t think his body will
be able to stomach eating or drinking anything.

Every time he closes his eyes he sees the blood. Every time he opens his eyes he sees Jungkook
weak and sick on the couch. If he closes his eyes a second time he hears the snarls and the tearing
of flesh and he fights the urge to be sick again. He’s already done that twice since getting home.
Seeing the extent of Jungkook’s wounds reminds him that somewhere out in the woods Yejun is
limping, maybe even worse, with no pack to care for him.

“Where will he have gone? Yejun?” he asks Jimin hoarsely.

“Anywhere but here. Maybe the next town. If he’s lucky, they’ll take him in.”

For the first three hours, Jungkook slips in and out of consciousness. Only when everyone moves
away from him does Taehyung step forward and rearrange the pillows loaded on the couch. He
squashes one under his head and neck to support him, and pulls a blanket up around his chest
because he knows Jungkook is always hot but he doesn’t want his feet or hands getting cold. If his
pallid colour is anything to go by, then he isn’t pumping much hot blood around his body.

He dampens a cloth to dab away the clammy sweat on his forehead. Jungkook’s breathing is less
ragged than it was in the woods. Wrapped up in white dressing and bandages, modesty protected
only by the blanket, he looks very vulnerable. Taehyung wipes away any dried blood left on his
skin, kissing his hands and his tattoos as he goes, and checks his breathing with the back of his
hand, his pulse too, to make sure that everything is as it ought to be.

The wolves must be right.

Anyone else would be in an intensive care bed after an attack like this. But wolves don’t heal the
same way as other people. Jungkook takes only two more hours to wake up, groggy but alert, and
he tries to stand immediately. Taehyung has to pin him back to the couch. The wounds mean that
Jungkook is, for once, weaker than him. “Don’t you dare,” says Taehyung. “You’re staying right
here.”

Jungkook coughs and tries to get upright again but he’s powerless against Taehyung’s grasp. When
he gives up, he starts to laugh. It’s more of a wheeze but as charming as Taehyung has ever heard.
“You know…” Jungkook swallows and reaches to take his hand. A lazy smile plays around his
face. “You told me you could’ve been a lawyer or a doctor. I’m thinking maybe you should have
chosen doctor.”

“No chance,” says Taehyung, but his lips twitch in spite of himself. “I have no bedside manner.”

“You’re not going to tell me off again, are you?”

“I will once you’re better,” he sniffs. “Right now I think our main priority should be getting you a
tetanus shot. I dread to think what that mangey dog had in its teeth.”

Jungkook laughs, but his laugh is interrupted by a another gasping cough and his hand jumps to his
chest, face contorted in pain.

“Dr Kim says that you’re badly bruised. You need to keep still and rest. He says most of your
wounds are superficial; most of the blood on you wasn’t yours, and half of the rest is from your
ear. He took a chunk out of it that you won’t get back,” adds Taehyung with disdain. He hasn’t
been able to face lifting the dressing from his ear to look. He shudders. “I can’t believe you left me
here, pretended like nothing would happen.”

“I didn’t want you to worry,” whispers Jungkook.

“Worry? I was terrified when I found you in the woods. I thought you were going to die!”

“There’s a reason I didn’t want you nearby. He could have hurt you.”

“I don’t care about him hurting me! I care about him hurting you!” says Taehyung, his voice lifting
in pitch. “I’m your mate. You and I are supposed to stand side by side and fight together. Next time
I’m coming with you and you won’t like what will happen if you try to stop me.”

Jungkook laughs again, resting his head back into the pillows and watching the ceiling. “I hope
this won’t happen again.”

“No, it won’t. Not if I have anything to do with it.”

“I thought you weren’t going to tell me off until I feel better?”

“If you’re well enough to joke around then you’re well enough to face my wrath,” huffs Taehyung,
but then his face softens. His anger abates. Jungkook is looking at him with such love in his eyes
that it becomes hard to think straight. He doesn’t look like the Alpha here and now. He’s in pain;
his eyes are wide and longing; his body is broken and Taehyung can’t know how long it will take
to heal. Smoothing the hair gently back from his forehead, he wipes at a speck of blood that he
missed on his hairline with his thumb.

“I never could have forgiven myself if you were hurt,” says Jungkook. “I knew Yejun wanted to
challenge me and the closer you and I became, the more afraid I was that he’d try to use you in
some way. It was better for us to fight alone in the woods, once and for all, than to continue
playing games. Jimin was supposed to take care of you if anything happened to me.”

“I can take care of myself,” Taehyung reminds him, but he doesn’t have it in his heart to chastise
him any longer. “Jimin followed me. I could find you in the woods just by closing my eyes and
reaching out to your wolf, like we’re connected. I found you quicker than he could have done.”

“You did call yourself my mate.”

“What? No I didn’t!” Taehyung stammers.

“Yes you did, not five minutes ago!”

Taehyung bites his lip, embarrassed at the slip of the tongue. He spent too long in his wolf form
tonight. Those instincts are rubbing off on him. “I think you’re delirious,” he says, and he catches
Jungkook’s laugh with a kiss, sharing his breath only for a second because Jungkook must be
weak. Their lips brush together, Jungkook’s sore and scratched. “Or maybe I’m just shy.”

“Mating is a very sacred process for us wolves, you know,” Jungkook says to him once they break
apart.

“Don’t talk about it now. You might get excited.”

“How did I get so lucky as to have a man like you walk into my life?”
Taehyung strokes the tattoos on his chest, creating each curve with his fingertip, and checks on the
worst of his cuts. The wound at his neck isn’t deep, but the gashes on his leg might take longer to
heel. He smooths the blanket back down before standing. “I’m going to make you something to eat
and drink. You need to keep your strength up. Jimin can keep watch over the town for a couple of
weeks – I don’t want you worrying about anything except for getting better.”

“Yes, Nurse Kim,” says Jungkook with a wheeze of a laugh, then he adds under his breath: “You
know if you were that into roleplay, you could’ve just told me.”

“Don’t test me, patient Jeon. I’m the one who gets to decide where we stick your thermometer.”

Jungkook keeps his mouth shut after that, though Taehyung can hear his laughter in the short
breaths through his nose. All the time that Taehyung moves around the house he watches him with
adoring eyes.

Werewolves heal fast.

That much Taehyung can now confirm as fact.

Jungkook is up and on his feet in a week, though Taehyung steers him back to bed whenever he
catches him. They make a game of it. Every morning, when Taehyung slips out of the house to
collect food parcels from Mrs Park or to run one of the errands that he has picked up, Jungkook
sneaks from his bed to do everything that Taehyung thinks is too strenuous for him, which much to
Taehyung’s horror has included a kind-of workout the last two days. When Taehyung gets home,
he searches the house and the garden and the outskirts of the woods until he finds him.

Each time, the game ends in kissing. Sometimes they’re playful kisses. Sometimes Jungkook slides
his hands down over Taehyung’s body and kisses him fervently, nipping his lip and rolling his
tongue against his until Taehyung’s legs turn to jelly but he always has to put a stop to it because he
isn’t sure if Jungkook is strong enough to hold him up yet.

Afterwards, Jungkook slinks back to bed, complaining loudly about his imprisonment.

Taehyung placates him by feeding him in bed and kissing him some more. It works a treat. Plus,
it’s a treat for Taehyung too.

“Come on, I can hold a paintbrush,” Jungkook bargains one day. Their legs are tangled together,
Taehyung squeezed in beside him against the same pillow. “That isn’t heavy-lifting. My muscles
will start to atrophy soon if I don’t get moving.”

“I don’t want you doing yourself any more damage.”

“I’ve had my stitches out, there’s nothing to pull.”

“Dr Kim said that you need to be more careful now that your stitches are out because there isn’t
anything holding your wounds together. I think you should stay in bed a little longer.”

Jungkook sighs theatrically. “Will you make it worth my while?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” grins Taehyung, kissing him again. If any of his friends could see him
now, they’d ask him where he’s hidden the real Taehyung because he feels like a different person.
The awkward, tight-laced Taehyung of before has been replaced by this one, his soft and romantic
clone. Every morning when he wakes up his first thought is to check on Jungkook. In Seoul he had
to be cajoled into cooking, usually as Seokjin’s sous chef, but now he’s excited to make breakfast
for him even if lunch and dinner still come courtesy of the town dining hall.

He knows that Jungkook has had a good influence on him. He hopes he’s having a good influence
on Jungkook too.

Jungkook touches Taehyung like he’s made of glass, even though Taehyung is sure he’s the less
fragile of the two of them at present. He traces the lines of his face with his fingertips in between
kisses, mapping his brow and cheekbones and lips, even following the lines of his neck to brush
along his collarbones. As he works his way back up, he follows his hairline, then pauses at the
jagged scar there, avoiding it to thread through his hair instead.

“Jungkook?”

“Mm?”

Taehyung hesitates over a question that has been bothering him. “What would have happened if
you’d lost to Yejun?”

Wrinkling his nose at the mention of him while they’re in bed together, Jungkook shrugs before
giving an answer. “I would’ve had to find somewhere to go.”

“What would have happened to me?”

“What do you mean?” Jungkook tilts his head to the side.

“Well I’m your – your mate, aren’t I? He wouldn’t have wanted me sticking around.”

Jungkook opens his mouth and then closes it, clearly surprised by the question. “You aren’t
officially my mate. But no, I don’t think he would’ve tolerated having you here. I’d have taken you
with me, if that’s what you wanted. We could have made another life far from here. It would feel
like losing my heart, having to leave Torrent Woods, but with you I’d keep a portion of it, like
bringing home with me. And I’d always support you and take care of you.”

Taehyung rolls his eyes. He doesn’t know whether it’s his Alpha side or just the way he was raised,
but Jungkook can be so traditional. “How do you make it official?”

“It’ll embarrass you if I tell you what we do to seal the deal.”

Taehyung snickers. “Tell me.”

“We make love on the eve of the full moon,” says Jungkook, then he cringes and pulls a face. “I
mean we sleep together.”

“Interesting.” Taehyung taps Jungkook’s lips as if in thought. “It’s the full moon this weekend.”

“So I’ve heard.”

Taehyung smirks. “Does that mean that every other full moon, you have to keep it in your pants in
case you accidentally mate with someone?”

“No!” groans Jungkook. “It only works if you’re…”

“If you’re what?”

He mumbles something.
Taehyung catches his face with his hand and turns him to look at him. “I didn’t hear you.”

“It only works if you’re in love.”

“Well that’s interesting,” whispers Taehyung. He occupies himself by playing with Jungkook’s
hair. The waves have turned to curls from the time spent confined in his bed, and he strokes
through each of them, rolling the strands around his fingers. His heart thuds as he wonders what the
old Taehyung would have done in this moment; ran a mile probably. He thinks about the new
Taehyung that he likes so much; this Taehyung is confident and brave and flirtatious. “You know,
I’ve been thinking about Seoul recently.”

“You have?”

“After what happened to you, I thought that everything here was so crazy that maybe I’d be better
off back in my boring city life after all. No crazy wolves ripping chunks out of my boyfriend, for
one thing.”

Jungkook’s brow creases.

“But the more I thought about it, the more I knew I had so many more reasons to stay than to
leave.”

Jungkook exhales shakily. “Reasons to stay?”

“The reason to stay.”

“Tell me.”

“You say it first,” he whispers.

Jungkook pulls him over his lap to straddle him, fingers firm on his waist. “You’re the only person
in this town who’s allowed to give orders to the Alpha, you know that right?”

“I like that.”

“I like that too. I like how you’re not afraid to tell me what to do. I love how you boss me around
sometimes. I love how you know your own mind but you also open yourself up to learn from
everyone around you. You’re not at all like I imagined city-boys to be. I love those quiet moments
of reflection, when I see you looking into space and I know you’re putting your mind in order. I
love when you’re loud and laughing and teasing me.”

“Tell me more about what you love about me.”

“I love the way you take care of me, because I’ve spent a long, long time trying to take care of
everyone else and you know what I’m tired as hell. I love the way you look in the morning and the
way you look under the moonlight. I love your wolf, the most beautiful wolf I’ve ever seen. I love
the way you knew how to find me in the woods when I was in danger. I love that you shifted right
in front of me even when I was wounded, when I could have hurt you, because you know what the
bond between us means.”

“I do know,” he whispers.

“I love everything about you. I love you. I love you,” Jungkook repeats.

Taehyung kisses his forehead and brushes his kiss up to the parting in his hairline. “I love you
too.”

“A good enough reason to stay?”

“The only reason I’d ever need.”

Jungkook flips him over onto his back and hovers over him, balanced on one muscular arm, as he
strokes his face. He unbuttons the first two buttons on Taehyung’s shirt and presses his hand over
his heart, closing his eyes just to feel it beat. No one has ever done something so intimate to him.
Taehyung shuts his eyes too and lets Jungkook kiss his jaw and his neck, all the way down to his
sternum.

Then he finds Jungkook’s hand and laces their fingers together. “Let’s wait until the full moon.”

Jungkook nods and lowers his face until their foreheads are almost touching. Their breath mingles
together. It becomes theirs, not Taehyung’s and Jungkook’s, like they’re sharing oxygen now. Like
one shared heart beats for both of them. Taehyung cannot know if it’s possible for a human being
to feel like this, or whether the connection deep inside can be known only by two wolf souls who
have known each other for many lifetimes.

Were they friends, before? He imagines the two wolves together in the woods long before outside
humans came, safe-guarding this town from warlords and attackers. How long have they spent
dreaming of being this close? Waiting for two humans who’ll fall in love so that they can become
one?

“I love you like I’ve known you forever,” says Taehyung.

Jungkook rolls back off him, holding his bruised ribs with a wince from the exertion, and exhales.
“I love you like our eyes just met for the first time across a crowded room, and like I’ve had you at
my side for a lifetime.”

“You always have to one-up me, you know that?” laughs Taehyung.

“It’s an Alpha thing,” he shrugs. “You wanted the boss, you get the competitive edge. That’s the
deal.”

“I would’ve loved you if you were a nobody, too,” says Taehyung.

Jungkook grins at him, turning his face on the pillow, eyes glinting. “Yeah, yeah. But tell me you
don’t find it a teensy bit sexy that I’m the Alpha?”

“Ask me again on the full moon.”

Jungkook shows off his scars to anyone who will listen. For the wolves that weren’t present for the
fight, he performs several action replays with Jimin, and Namjoon and Hoseok especially have the
good grace to whoop at all the right moments. With the rapid approach of the full moon,
Jungkook’s healing has accelerated. Each evening he sits out bathed in the moonlight and
Taehyung watches his wounds knit together until they could be months old.

Being a werewolf, he thinks, has its perks.

The gashes on his leg look as if he came up against a brutal wild animal. His side and shoulder are
nothing but white scars and his neck has healed so well that only Taehyung gets close enough to
see the thin crescent of scarring. He keeps his hair floppy, though, to cover his ear where the worst
of the damage was done. He doesn’t show that off to the others.

“May I sit here?”

Taehyung looks up and nods politely when he sees Eunmi. The kids haven’t spent as much time
around the pack recently and he thinks it might be that they’re ashamed over their allegiance to
Yejun, even though Jungkook has pressed over and over that he isn’t angry or hurt by it. Eunmi is
bundled up in a huge puffy coat and with her hood up he’d hardly recognise her, except he can
sense the presence of his pack wherever they are.

They watch Jungkook messing around with Namjoon, beer in hand.

“I wanted to say that I’m sorry.”

Taehyung raises his eyebrows. “Sorry?”

“I already told Jungkook but you’re his mate; any wrongdoing committed against him is an offence
against you too.”

“We’re not mated!” grimaces Taehyung.

“Everyone knows you will be,” she laughs. Her voice is thin and delicate. “I want you to know that
I never, ever thought that Yejun would do something like that. I thought he was just… talking, you
know? We were in the same year at school and I watched how much it destroyed him not
becoming the Alpha and I let it make me hate Jungkook too, as if it was his fault. I thought Yejun
just wanted to make some drama, maybe make a fool of him…”

Taehyung bites his tongue.

“I know it’s awful. He told me to make up this lie about the neighbouring pack, hoping it would
humiliate Jungkook in front of them. I hate myself for playing along with it. But I never thought he
was going to challenge him. I never would have been a part of that. Someone could have been
killed! God I’ve been so stupid,” she whispers, leaning forward so that her hair falls out of her
hood and covers her face in a thick sheet.

“It’s okay,” says Taehyung, remembering how he talked when he was going to be a lawyer. He
knows how to push his own feelings to the back of his mind and speak with diplomacy. “There’s
no one in the world who hasn’t done any stupid things.”

She brushes a hand across her face but Taehyung can’t see if a tear has fallen. “Please don’t be mad
at the kids. It isn’t easy being the youngest in the pack and I think with Yejun being closer to them
in age they were less intimidated by him than Jungkook. He made them feel like they were his
friends.”

“I’m not mad, and nor is Jungkook. He’s going to make things right with the whole pack. He
doesn’t want anyone to feel excluded.”

“Except Yejun,” she says, and this time she definitely wipes her eyes. “How could he be such a
fool? I hate him for this. I wish I could smack some sense back into his empty head!”

“Have you heard from him?” Taehyung asks.

She turns her face to him then, with a furtive glance in Jungkook’s direction. “I - ”
“I’d like to know he’s okay. I’m sure Jungkook would like to know he’s okay too.”

“He went to stay with one of his cousins in the city,” she says. “He called me a few days ago. He
was badly hurt but you’ve seen how we heal. If it means anything, I think he feels like an absolute
idiot.”

“Jungkook is going to see Yejun’s father after the full moon. I know he feels like he should’ve
gone earlier but we don’t think it’s a good idea for him to visit when his wolf instincts are
heightened, and he’s been resting, mostly on my orders,” Taehyung adds with a small smile.
“Between you and me, I think he’s going to tell Yejun’s father that he can come back one day, if
he’s ready to be part of the pack again.”

“You think that?” she whispers.

Taehyung watches Jungkook crumple his can and sprawl back on the bench to expose his leg to the
moonlight for healing. He’s still wearing shorts, now that winter has closed in. He remembers
Jungkook telling him that he’d put his father in the ground for what he did to him, but he’s seen no
such hatred for Yejun in his eyes. Jungkook would obliterate anyone who hurt the people he loves,
but when it comes to people who have hurt him he’s much more forgiving. “He’s a good person.”

“Once someone is banished - ”

“I don’t think Jungkook goes in for any of that stuff. It’s 2021. I’m sure we don’t banish people
anymore.”

“Yejun would never be so stupid again,” she says anxiously. “He knows how badly he fucked up.
He even told me that he wants to apologise to Jungkook.”

“You should tell Jungkook that.”

“Taehyungie!” Jungkook shouts, and Taehyung looks to him with an automatic smile.

He wanders over to the group, relieved to see that Eunmi is welcomed into a conversation by
Hoseok, Namjoon and Yoongi. As soon as Taehyung reaches Jungkook, the familiar strong arm
winds around his waist and he curves into his side. The two of them fit together like they were
made to stand side by side. Before arriving in Torrent Woods, Taehyung never would have
believed in anything mystical, but now he thinks that there’s no reason not to believe that he and
Jungkook were meant to find each other.

“You look like you’re feeling better,” says Taehyung, tilting Jungkook’s face with his fingers to
check the wound on his throat.

“Moonlight does magical things. I think you look most beautiful in moonlight.”

“You would say that.”

Jungkook kisses him to the catcalls of his pack and Taehyung giggles, burying his face into his
neck. When he first came to town, the thought of being the centre of attention made him sick to his
stomach. Now that he’s getting used to it, he thinks that he doesn’t mind everyone recognising him
as Jungkook’s boyfriend. He has been proud of things before, his academic achievements and
making it to Seoul, but this is something he feels a different pride for, deep inside.

Maybe it was growing up in a home like his. Taehyung likes to think he is as self-aware as a man
can be. Maybe a therapist would give him a textbook explanation for the reason he was so good at
detaching himself from everything animated in his life. But for a long time Taehyung didn’t
imagine he could love or be loved, not like this. Now he has someone who’d put himself in the
way of a bullet for him, maybe lose an ear for him. There’s no scar, he thinks, that Jungkook
wouldn’t bear.

“Keep your eyes closed.”

“They are!” laughs Taehyung, because it has been minutes since Jungkook stopped covering them
with his own hands and begun to clatter around the house. Though he can already smell the
burning of candles and hear the rustling of paper that suggests Jungkook is setting up something
elaborate, he keeps his eyes firmly shut. He wants this to be perfect for him. Jungkook has tried so
hard, even sending Jimin out with a shopping list while he was laid up in bed. Taehyung knows
because Jimin blabbed to him as soon as he asked.

“Okay.” Jungkook swoops back to his side. The house is silent now that everyone has gone home.
Through his lids, Taehyung can see the moonlight, a whiter glow than the sun but he’s more
familiar now with the night. He jumps when Jungkook rests his hands on his shoulders, leaning
close to press a kiss to the vulnerable spot below his ear. “You can look now.”

When Taehyung opens his eyes, despite being sure of what he was going to see, he still rests back
into Jungkook’s chest and shakes his head. “You did all this?”

“I wanted it to be perfect.”

Taehyung has a sneaking suspicion that Jungkook has studied movies for this, or maybe he’s asked
around for someone’s recommendations from romance novels, but either way Taehyung’s heart
bursts not at the cliched little touches but at the gesture. It’s evident in every detail that Jungkook
wanted this to be just right.

“We said we’d experiment with romance,” Jungkook adds nervously.

“I remember,” whispers Taehyung.

Jungkook has switched off the lights but thrown open the shutters so that moonlight can spill
inside. The candles are everywhere, and Taehyung grows nervous when he remembers that half of
Jungkook’s house is made of wood, but all of his favourite scents fill the room. The flowers he
mentioned once to Jungkook were his favourite; the earthy scents of the forest that he has fallen in
love with; a sweet taste on the air like candied fruits.

“You did all this?”

“Do you like it?”

“I love it,” he whispers.

Jungkook takes his hands and pulls him towards the bedroom, a smile creeping over his face.
“Now, I want you to know that I’m feeling much better and that you don’t have to worry about my
physical state.”

“Why?” Taehyung narrows his eyes.

In answer, Jungkook sweeps him off his feet and into his arms in a motion so rapid that Taehyung
does not have a second in which to stop him. He tucks into his chest and grabs for his shirt for
something to hold onto, laughing against him because this is so Jungkook. His boyfriend carries
him across the threshold of their bedroom, one arm beneath his legs and the other wrapped tight
around his shoulders, and Taehyung doesn’t have the strength to scold him.

His stitches are out, after all.

Jungkook has scattered rose petals on the bed and Taehyung has to bite back a laugh because he’s
just too sweet. Adorable, in the way that only a small-town boy can be.

“You know this is cute, even for you?” he sighs.

Jungkook grins as he lays him down on the bed and crawls over him to occupy him with kisses for
at least a minute. Taehyung has never made out like this with anyone before. The closeness with
anyone else would’ve made him anxious, but having Jungkook’s warm presence all around him is
comforting. It pleases both his human and his wolf. He strokes every part of him that he can reach
before pulling at his shirt.

He has always liked to admire Jungkook’s body.

Jungkook helps him, sitting back on his heels where he straddles his body. As he pulls his tee over
his head, Taehyung traces the new scars and the old, a map of a lifetime spent in the woods.
“You’re like a superhero,” he giggles, because what were deep gashes after the fight are only white
scars.

“Please, I haven’t worked out for two weeks,” groans Jungkook.

“I wasn’t commenting on your body,” he laughs. “Though now you mention it…”

With an excuse to touch him, Taehyung runs his fingers over every line of muscle. He starts at his
broad shoulders and trails down over the angular pectorals, daring to brush at his nipples just a
moment to watch the way his breathing tightens, and then he follows the channel between his abs
and strokes each one out, like he’s counting. Taehyung has never considered himself to be a man of
simple pleasures but with Jungkook shirtless in front of him he likes to indulge himself.

“Can I?” asks Jungkook, toying with Taehyung’s shirt.

“If you don’t, I’ll tear it off myself.”

Jungkook cocks his head to the side, like he’s considering which he’d prefer, but he settles on
undressing him. As Jungkook has always been, he’s so gentle in spite of his large frame. He
unbuttons Taehyung’s shirt and stops at his jeans, like he’s anxious about moving too fast. Instead
he strokes up over his soft tummy, his chest and back to his face to hold his cheeks for more kisses.

“Have you done this before?” he whispers, brushing his lips over the shell of Taehyung’s ear.

“Not with anyone I cared about the way I care about you.”

“Me neither,” says Jungkook. “It feels different right?”

Taehyung nods. Reaching his mid-twenties without any great love wasn’t something that ever
bothered him. Watching his parents as a kid was enough to put him off relationships for life, and
the clinical part of him that studied law found it difficult to believe that love like that could exist,
not least when he read some of the cases lovers embroiled themselves in. He never felt that he was
starved of anything.

Yet now he feels like he’s been fed in abundance.

It isn’t clinical anymore.

His skin is hot, inheriting Jungkook’s body heat, and his hands are shaky because his blood buzzes
under his skin. Jungkook strips out of his clothes with confidence because why wouldn’t he be
confident? They put bodies like his on the front of magazines. Taehyung is more hesitant, looking
down shyly when Jungkook helps him out of his jeans. It’s stupid. They’ve seen each other naked
in the woods. Somehow, it’s different here, under the low lights of the bedroom.

He tries to look anywhere but into Jungkook’s eyes.

“Beautiful,” breathes Jungkook. He slides his hand up from his calf to his thigh, to his pointed hip.
“I still can’t believe you wandered into my town.”

“I still can’t believe that you courted me by dropping a dead deer in my lap.”

“Let’s not mention prey in bed,” groans Jungkook. “I was in my… wolf mind.”

“That reminds me,” says Taehyung, his breath hitching as Jungkook strokes up along his ribs. “I
told you we’d discuss the sexual appeal of you being the Alpha, when it came to the full moon.”

Jungkook grins. “We did agree that.”

“You’d better show me how Alpha you can be, then,” says Taehyung, and he throws an arm across
his face and groans because he never could have imagined himself saying such a thing out loud.
Jungkook doesn’t laugh though. He grins, glinting white teeth, and pulls Taehyung down the bed
with a grip on his thigh until he’s resting flat on his back, breathing heavily.

Jungkook is dominant in the way he kisses him. His Alpha must be excited. He nips Taehyung’s lip
and Taehyung bites back, not a real bite but a graze of his teeth at his jaw as Jungkook travels
kisses up all over his face. Taehyung’s back arches as Jungkook touches all over his body, running
his hand down to stroke across the growing swell of his arousal. Everything moves in the same
rhythm – the way he strokes him, the way he licks into his mouth when he kisses him again, the
way his chest rises and falls.

When Jungkook wraps a hand around his cock, Taehyung groans, unable to even arch his back
enough to accommodate the lightning that runs through his navel and up his spine at the
stimulation.

“I like that sound,” says Jungkook, thumbing over the head until Taehyung lets out a louder moan.
His legs fall open automatically, inviting him, and Jungkook smiles as he twists his wrist to
examine the different ways Taehyung’s body reacts to him. He sucks a mark at his neck, one that
won’t fade fast, and Taehyung buries his hand into his hair to hold him there.

It’s in the nature, he’s sure, of an Alpha to mark his mate as his own.

“Are you sure you want to go all the way?” Jungkook says with kisses over the purple stain.

“Of course I’m sure!” groans Taehyung. Jungkook has working hands, calloused and rough, and
the friction against his sensitive length is almost too much to handle. Almost. Taehyung likes to
think he has a high tolerance for such things. The friction is a reminder that Jungkook is his
opposite, his favourite opposite. Taehyung’s hands are soft, worked only for writing essays.

Jungkook sits back and grabs the bottle of lube that he prepared, and Taehyung props himself up
on his elbows to watch. He has seen Jungkook unclothed before, but it’s different when he’s hard.
Taehyung wouldn’t usually compare sizes – he really wouldn’t – but it would be a disservice to
Jungkook not to think about how big he is.

Taehyung curls his fingers lazily around his own arousal to replace Jungkook’s as he watches, and
he raises an eyebrow. “Does it come with being the Alpha, the huge cock?” he asks, voice casual.

He’s sure he sees Jungkook’s length twitch in his hand. His ears turn red. “Which answer would
you find sexier?”

“That’s cheating.”

Jungkook fists his cock and makes sure that Taehyung watches, holding his gaze. “I don’t think it’s
a prerequisite. I guess I’m just blessed that way.”

“Interesting,” muses Taehyung.

He’s cut off from his smart-talk when Jungkook pushes his thigh up to his chest and rubs a finger
then two over his hole, drenched in lube until the drag feels sticky and wet. Well, Taehyung did
make him promise to go all Alpha on him. He isn’t complaining. The roughness sends a thrill up
his spine and a knot curls temptingly in his navel. Jungkook manages to be both gentle with him,
never hurting him an ounce, and rough in the way he folds him up at the same time. The contrast
almost has Taehyung’s eyes rolling up before he’s even inside him.

“You look so good spread out for me, baby,” Jungkook grits against his ear while he works a third
finger past his entrance, stretching him to take his length. If it weren’t Jungkook, Taehyung would
be intimidated, but he knows his boyfriend will take his time over this. He trusts him.

The thought makes a strange cloud descend over his mind and his body relaxes. He trusts him.
He’s never trusted someone the way he trusts Jungkook. It’s not the first time he’s slept with
someone but it’s the first time he’s been intimate with someone. He lets Jungkook have his body
and his mind, opens up with a vulnerability to him that makes him feel happy and dazed, like
there’s no place he’d rather be.

“Okay?” whispers Jungkook.

“Feels – feels so good,” he moans, as Jungkook crooks his fingers and strokes against his walls.

“Can’t wait to feel you around me,” Jungkook breathes.

Taehyung has to wait. He has to wait with mewls of pleasure while Jungkook takes him apart with
his fingers, brushing over all of the sweetest spots that have his moans heightening in pitch, on and
on until he’s satisfied that he’ll be able to take him. By the time he finishes, Taehyung thinks he’s
already lost all of his grip on this plane; he’s certainly lost his grip on words.

When Jungkook asks if he’s ready, he just nods and nods, desperate.

Shit, does he look needy?

“I love you,” Jungkook reminds him.

The words are cool water on Taehyung’s hot skin. When Jungkook presses inside him, he wraps
his arms around his back and he’s sure his nails dig in to the muscles but Jungkook doesn’t wince.
Their lips catch in a messy kiss, punctuated by Taehyung’s gasps. He’s never felt a stretch like this
before. He arches his back but Jungkook just takes hold of his body like he’ll shape him however
he wants, a sculptor.
He asks three times whether Taehyung is okay.

It isn’t easy for Taehyung to answer. He doesn’t want words when feeling is so much better. Their
bodies tangle as one, making such a mess of the bed that Taehyung reaches for the pillow to throw
away and the sheets make a jumble around his ankles. When Jungkook is fully sheathed he nips at
Taehyung’s ear and lets his tongue and lips linger on his warm skin.

To show him that he’s ready for more, Taehyung rolls his hips down and Jungkook exhales, eyes
fluttering shut at the level of sensation. Taehyung feels like he’s been split in two and put back
together all at once, like his body was made and remade to receive him. The knot of excitement in
his navel vibrates with pleasure every time that Jungkook shifts, and Taehyung knows he won’t
last long like this.

“Please,” he moans, and he has just a second of rational enough thought to think of one more way
to prod at Jungkook. “Please, Alpha.”

That does it.

Jungkook growls – honest to God growls – and he holds Taehyung’s waist in a vice as he brings
his body down to meet him, fucking so deep that Taehyung sees stars. He establishes a rhythm, not
too fast but torturously deep. With each thrust he presses against the bundle of nerves inside that
has Taehyung keening. Taehyung manages to wrap his hand back around his own cock, trying to
jerk in Jungkook’s rhythm but it’s messy.

“Say it again,” breathes Jungkook, red hot.

“Alpha,” he moans. The way it makes Jungkook grip his hips tighter is temptation enough to say it
again. Even the press of his fingers on his skin is intoxicating. It takes only a few loose, sloppy
jerks to his own before Taehyung is coming, head thrown back to the hard bed as he tightens all
around him, spilling over his own belly. With every thrust, Jungkook pushes him further beyond
the brink until he’s moaning nothing but his name.

Jungkook. Alpha. Jungkook.

“Fuck, Taehyung,” Jungkook groans. His teeth graze over his neck again and Taehyung knows he
wants to mark him more. To indicate that he can, he rolls his head to the side, floppy and spent,
exposing his throat in submission.

“Keep – keep going,” Taehyung pants, because all that he can think about now is Jungkook
catching his high.

Jungkook is outrageously strong. He moves Taehyung on the bed like he weighs nothing, flipping
him over to take a new angle, one hand on his hip and the other clenched on the sheets close to his
head. Taehyung can barely hold himself up, mouth open and spit on his lips, but he grabs back for
the pillow he threw for something to bite as he fights through the hyper-sensitivity.

The sound in the room is all them. In the city, sirens wail and drunken chatter drifts up to every
window. Here, beyond these walls there is nothing but silent night, stretching out through the
forest as far as any man or wolf could ever hear. Their moans, the slap of skin on skin, the union of
breath becomes the music of Torrent Woods.

“Taehyung, baby - ” Jungkook finishes with a snap of his hips, holding him up as he spills inside, a
hand sliding to his lower back like he can massage out the stimulation that has Taehyung trembling
beneath him. And they find a new silence. Jungkook grinds in against him a while, pulling out only
when he’s spent, and he pulls Taehyung into his lap. They stick together with sweat. Taehyung
doesn’t even have it in him to pull a face.

The room becomes silent again, for a minute, maybe two minutes.

“I love you,” he mumbles, folding into Jungkook’s chest.

Jungkook nuzzles his hair, burying kisses all over him. “Was it good for you?”

“I came first.”

“Well no good Alpha would leave his mate wanting,” snickers Jungkook. He strokes Taehyung’s
damp hair back from his face. “You know, calling me Alpha… I wasn’t expecting it.”

“You like it?”

“You need to ask?”

Taehyung laughs and wraps himself all around Jungkook like he could never be separated from
him. “I thought you’d like it.” He traces the new scar on Jungkook’s neck with his finger. “It’s the
full moon tomorrow.”

“It is.”

“I don’t think I’ll even be able to walk, let alone run.”

Jungkook laughs and pulls away, swinging his legs off the bed. Before Taehyung can even
complain, Jungkook has scooped him up in his arms, and he grabs at his bare chest like he’ll find
something to hang on to as Jungkook carries him to the bath in the next room. There are no houses
beyond Jungkook’s. The wide window in the bathroom looks out upon open forest. “Then I’ll carry
you,” he says, kissing Taehyung’s forehead.

They curl up together in the wide bath, and Taehyung watches the swirls as the water rises up and
up, bubbles covering his tummy then his chest. He rests his head back onto Jungkook’s shoulder
and feels every sting in his body soothe under the treatment of the hot water. He takes care to trace
each pattern of Jungkook’s tattoos where his arms rest on the side of the bath, and tries to
memorise those that he has not examined in enough detail before.

On his forearm, in dark black and flashes of light picked out, is a wolf. It’s Jungkook’s wolf, he
thinks, onyx black and bushy. He imagines, checking a small free patch of skin on Jungkook’s left
arm, how it would look if he had two wolves: one jet black, and one dazzling white.

The change is easier on the full moon.

Taehyung forgot how easy it could be when he doesn’t have to concentrate. The wolf takes over
under the moonlight, and the freezing air begins to feel like the mildest breeze. Every sore muscle
stretches and relaxes. The trees part ahead of him, like the woods were grown to accommodate the
wolves, and the moonlight that dapples the ground is bright and white. Taehyung’s paws are like
snow on the earth.

The day that snow first falls, I’ll take you out to run.

Jungkook talks only to him. With the aggression of their neighbours proven false, and no threat
hanging over the town, he can divert Taehyung so that the two of them take their own path through
the woods alone, padding in the direction of their special lair.

You might lose me in the snow, says Taehyung, and then he freezes. The words formed in his
own mind and drifted out into the air as if spoken by the very leaves on the trees.

I’d never lose you.

Taehyung spins around, watching the black wolf cut through the trees. The scars show when his
fur ruffles with the breeze. You can hear me?

Did you think mates wouldn’t hear each other speak? Even in this tone, ruled by his wolf,
Taehyung can hear that Jungkook would be laughing if he were human, like Taehyung has just said
something very silly. He thinks in his other form that his face would turn pink. In retaliation, he
bumps into Jungkook’s shoulder, and the wolf falls to the side with theatre, as if Taehyung’s small
form is enough to knock him down.

For a minute, the two of them tumble over one another. Wolves love to play. In this form Taehyung
has found an innocence that he was never permitted to indulge in as a child. He nips at Jungkook’s
tail and falls onto his back when Jungkook pins him. Their muzzles brush close together, and
Jungkook runs his nose up Taehyung’s throat, scenting him with a scent Taehyung has come to
recognise from their closeness.

Jungkook lets Taehyung flatten him too, and it’s satisfying, even though Taehyung knows it’s kind
of cheating.

They run together for a while, the sound of their paws deft and gentle in the muffled woods.
They’re predators, evolved to stalk and hunt, hunt in packs. Jimin, Namjoon and Hoseok pass
them, and they run alongside one another for some time under the gaze of the moonlight, but
Jungkook and Taehyung separate again to head towards their den. Without hesitating, the two lie
side by side, nestled in close and warm.

The grooming takes some time. First Jungkook grooms Taehyung, and this time, for the first time,
Taehyung returns the favour. It’s an intimacy he can’t imagine walking around during the daytime
as a man. If he closes his eyes, the sensation feels similar to stroking Jungkook’s hair when they’re
in bed, soothing for both of them, a reminder of closeness.

Usually during his time as a wolf, Taehyung cherishes not having to speak. He can slip into a
different rhythm with the earth, giving over to instinct, listening only to Jungkook’s instruction and
following the movements of the pack along an innate map. Not having to think for a while clears
his head of the dark things that swirl sometimes in the back of his mind, replacing them with peace
and understanding.

But he cannot pass up the chance to use the direct line he now has to the Alpha.

Will everyone else be able to hear me?

No. Jungkook nibbles at the tips of his ears. His own has healed, but the scarring remains.
Taehyung thinks no wolf in their right mind would challenge Jungkook to a fight now with battle
scars so proudly displayed. Not to mention he’s a foot taller than any other wolf in the forest. That
pleasure is all mine.

So we can have secret conversations?

Jungkook nuzzles his neck. We can do that anyway, every morning, in our bed.

Jungkook’s house has become his own. Taehyung doesn’t even remember moving out of the inn
but then he had almost no possessions apart from the suit he brought for the funeral. From the day
Jungkook limped out of the forest, held firm between him and Namjoon, Taehyung has never
returned there. Jungkook needed him. Taehyung thinks he needed him too.

They return to silence after that. Taehyung allows himself to drift. He looks up at what little of the
sky he can see through the trees and examines the spattering of white stars against the clear night.
They seem to shine brighter with the fullness of the moon. Closing his eyes, he pictures his wolf
flitting through the woods, bright white and glowing, playing with his pack and following the
enticing scent of prey, never caught up in thoughts, in overthinking, in memories.

His brow tightens. He remembers a night that he crawled to bed early back at the dorm, leaving
Seokjin behind at a party. His head was throbbing. With every breath, he lost grip on his reality.
How he ended up back on the street he doesn’t recall. Until this moment he has never remembered
any of this at all. But he remembers slumping somewhere between buildings, tearing at his own
clothes and skin with his nails, moaning to himself in a deep distress.

He has never recalled a second of any of his episodes, but now he looks up again and sees the same
moon. The moon shone full and foreboding that night. If anyone passed they must have thought
him mad. How many people ran past alleyways? Crossed the street? Changed direction when they
saw this strange man howling and scrabbling like a caged wolf?

He was a caged wolf.

A lone wolf.

Jungkook told him that there are no lone wolves. Lone wolves are always searching. Lone wolves
are lost.

Taehyung? Jungkook senses his distress. He nudges his side with his nose, and licks gently at his
neck.

I’m fine.

Are you?

I’m just remembering things.

That’s good. Jungkook reassures him. You’re growing closer to your wolf.

Taehyung has never been able to block out his worst memories. Each night if he doesn’t distract
himself – in the past with his work, now with his pack – his childhood plays itself out in gruesome
detail like television reruns that he can never escape. Every full moon, though, was locked away
somewhere that he couldn’t access, as if he wasn’t ready yet. His wolf lets him see them now.

Rather than an onslaught – rather than allowing himself to be drowned in the memories – he tries
to think of them as stories that he’s now ready for, revealed one by one to him by a mother who has
been watching, waiting, ever dedicated, for the moment in which he was ready to bear them.

Rarely does the phone ring more than twice before Seokjin picks up.
“Taehyung?”

“Hey, hyung,” Taehyung smiles, pacing the street. Jungkook asked him to meet him here after his
meeting with Yejun’s father, Mr Seo, but he’s taking a long time so Taehyung has taken to walking
up and down the road, jumping between paving stones like a game. Since finding more harmony
with his wolf, he’s found more joy in play. He never did as a child. “How’s it going?”

“Deadlines are biting my ass,” says Seokjin matter-of-factly. “I was wrong when I argued with you
before: dropping out of school and running away to live in the woods is absolutely the right
decision and I will be joining you forthwith.”

Taehyung laughs. He’s relieved just to be able to laugh with Seokjin again. “Look, when you’re a
big important professor, you’ll look back on these deadlines like the smallest ripple in the ocean.”

Seokjin grumbles something inaudible. “How are things in Torrent Woods?”

Taehyung thinks of wolves, of feuds, and of blood. Then he smiles. “Things are good. We’re
finishing up the old house and I’m going to put it on the market once it’s done.”

“You’re selling up?” Seokjin asks in astonishment.

It wasn’t easy to get to this point. Taehyung discussed it with Jungkook for so many hours that his
mouth turned dry. He felt guilty for all the work the pack had put into the house, working every
day to make it right for him, but Jungkook assured him that no one would mind. There are so many
young families in town who want to leave their parents’ houses; Jungkook assured him that they
wouldn’t struggle to find someone who would see the new-old house as their dream home.

Taehyung takes a sharp breath. “It’s the house my father grew up in. I thought I could make it mine
but whenever I see it, I think of him. I don’t want it anymore.”

“Where are you going to stay?”

“With Jungkook,” he answers without hesitation. Jungkook’s house has become his own anyway.
“You know, hyung, he told me he loves me?”

Seokjin exhales a whew at the end of the line, crackly but recognisable. “And do you love him
too?”

“So much. I love him so much that I can’t put it into words.”

“You sound happy.”

“I’m happier than I’ve ever been. I feel like I’m home.”

“I’m happy that you’re happy.”

“We’re going to come to Seoul soon, Jungkook and I, maybe next month? I really want the two of
you to meet properly, on better terms. He hasn’t been to Seoul before and I want to show him all of
the sights. He’s taken me all around the woods so I want to take him all around the city, show him
the lights and the bars and the Han River. But most of all I want him to meet all of my friends. Just
because I live here now, that doesn’t mean I’m saying goodbye.”

“I’d love that,” sighs Seokjin. “We all would. Everyone misses you.”

“Maybe some time you could come back here too.”

“If it gets me out of my deadlines, I’ll leave tomorrow morning.”

Taehyung turns, tempted by the wind, and sees that Jungkook is heading down the street, crossing
in front of a truck with one hand up in thanks. He can always sense his presence. The two of them
can never move anywhere in the house secretly, because the magnetism between them is an
inflexible tie. “Hyung, Jungkook is here. I’ll call you again later.”

“Oh don’t worry about me. Take all the time you need to be hopelessly in love.”

Taehyung grins, closing the rest of the distance to Jungkook in a few short paces. Though
Taehyung is wrapped up in a thermal shirt and sweater under his thick winter coat, Jungkook is
dressed only in a thin leather jacket, hands pushed into his jean pockets. The closer he gets, the
happier he is to see that Jungkook is smiling. As soon as he reaches his side he winds an arm
around Taehyung’s waist and presses a kiss to his lips. Jungkook has never been the sort of person
to shy away from public displays of affection.

“Did everything go okay?” Taehyung asks.

He nods. “It was good. We talked, Alpha to Alpha. He told me that he understood and he knew I’d
done everything I could to fix things before it got to that point. He even told me that he would’ve
done the same – that he did the same, before, when he was challenged. I told him what we
discussed. I said that if Yejun is ready to get himself together and apologise to the pack then I’ll
give him a second chance.”

“You did the right thing,” whispers Taehyung. “You’re a strong Alpha, but this is exactly what
makes you a strong Alpha. You aren’t arrogant, you don’t want everyone under your control.
You’re good. You’re modern. We don’t exile people anymore, it’s 2021.”

Jungkook laughs softly. “Thank you. Mr Seo said that Yejun isn’t going to come back. Not for a
long time, at least. He’s going to study in Busan, like Jimin did. We think it will be good for him to
gain some perspective away from this town. He’ll realise that we might be wolves, but we’re
human first.”

Taehyung feels a smidge of relief. Though he admires Jungkook’s capacity for forgiveness and the
benevolence with which he runs his ship, each night when Taehyung traces his scars he is
reminded that Yejun is dangerous. Jungkook is his mate, and he doesn’t want someone who could
hurt him anywhere near him. Out loud, he maintains some neutrality. “I do think that will be good
for him.” After a moment of pause, he nods to the shop to their right. “So why here?”

The coffee shop is small and nondescript, with no official signage and only one blackboard outside
letting people know that it is open, but Taehyung has still seen a steady amount of traffic drifting in
and out, with steaming polystyrene cups and paper bags. Jungkook holds open the door for him to
slip inside and a light gold bell tinkles overhead.

One counter houses all of the goods. Rows and rows of small, perfectly formed cakes and steamed
buns. Sweet, rosy gold breads are arranged in neat lines. Round cookies are iced with tiny wolves,
perfect for the kids, but Taehyung decides he wants one too. The aroma of coffee is almost
overwhelming, rich and roasted.

Jungkook buys two cookies for Taehyung.

“I wanted to bring you to this place because I did some digging,” he says, placing down their
coffees on a table by the window.
“What kind of digging?” Taehyung asks in surprise.

“After what we decided about the Kim House, I wanted to find out where – where your mother
lived,” says Jungkook quietly. “Before she married your father, I mean. I knew it was a long-shot
but I figured someone would remember.”

Taehyung looks at him with wide eyes. “Did you find out?”

“I did. She lived right here.”

His eyes grow, if possible, wider. “H-here?”

“They converted the place into this coffee shop around fifteen years ago. I’m sorry that you
couldn’t see it while it was still a home but I wanted to show you nonetheless. I thought even just
being here, knowing that she was here once, would help.”

Taehyung nods and exhales slowly. His eyes flit up around every corner of the café, like he’s
expecting to see lines drawn on the walls to measure his mother’s height when she was a child, or
little drawings left in marker pen down by the skirting boards from her childhood. There is nothing,
of course. The building has been gutted and rebuilt, turned into something new for the town to
enjoy. But now that Jungkook has said it, he senses something.

Home.

“Sometimes I feel like she was never really here,” Taehyung whispers. “The way everyone talks
about my father it’s like he permeates the walls in this town, but my mom is a ghost.”

“I know. That’s why I wanted you to know,” says Jungkook, squeezing his hand on the table. “And
I – I asked my mom about it too.”

Taehyung’s eyes snap up from their joined hands to his face. “Asked her what?”

“Just about the two of them.”

“You didn’t tell her anything, did you?” he says, anxious. Some things are too personal to ever be
shared. Some scars are to be shown only to the people he loves most intimately.

“I didn’t say anything,” Jungkook promises. “I just wanted to ask if she knew anything about your
mom. I know there’s so much that you don’t know. Small towns are difficult. On the one hand,
people have very long memories. But on the other, they also have very long silences. I thought I’d
have more luck talking to someone outside of the pack line, and my mom knows everyone and
everything about this town.”

“What did she say?” whispers Taehyung, suddenly thirsty for information.

“She told me about this place, and she told me about the two of them at school. But what I really
wanted to ask her was why they left.”

Taehyung’s heart pounds in his chest. He tries to occupy himself by nibbling on his cookie, but his
hand is shaking. He’d given up on ever getting answers.

Jungkook hesitates before continuing. “I think it was a difficult time to be a woman. Things move
slower here than they do in the cities. It was probably even more difficult to be a woman and a
wolf; expected to be loyal to your pack, expected to be deferent to your husband. You know that
people here blamed her. They said that she abandoned the pack, stole you away from them. But for
what it’s worth, my mom said that she always got the impression your father was the one who
wanted to leave.”

“She said that?” whispers Taehyung.

“She said that they were very private, and people in town didn’t know much about their
relationship. But she said your mother loved this place, and she wouldn’t have wanted to take you
away.”

Taehyung swallows. This answers an anxiety deep inside that has been bubbling away in his
hollow stomach since the day he arrived. “Do you think she’s right?”

“I think… You asked me once whether I thought he was jealous of her for having this gift when he
didn’t. Maybe you were right.”

Taehyung squeezes his eyes shut and palms over them. “There’s so much I wish I could ask her…
so many things I’ll never know.”

“Maybe…” Jungkook hesitates. “Maybe the reason that she never told you the truth was that she
was scared he’d shift that jealousy onto you, if he knew that you were gifted too. Maybe in her
mind it seemed safer if you thought you were ordinary, and he thought you were ordinary too. I’m
sure that everything she did, for whatever reasons she did it, was to try to protect you.”

Taehyung looks down, blinking his stinging eyes. “Thank you for asking.”

“You can talk to my mom any time you want. She knows the women of this town better than
anyone. And she doesn’t let men talk over her, so you get some real answers.”

Since moving into his house, Taehyung has been slowly assimilated into Jungkook’s life, but the
thought of growing closer to his family is something different entirely. Jungkook’s parents are
kind, his mother smart and his father much milder than him. They’re proud of their son being the
Alpha, but they’re quiet and unassuming around town. People treat them with respect. Jungkook’s
mom runs the only bookshop in town.

“I want you to know that if you ever want people to know the truth, we’ll set them right,” adds
Jungkook, but Taehyung shakes his head.

“I don’t want them to know.” His childhood is something he’d rather leave behind, imagining it in
Daegu, never here.

“I’ll protect you always, Taehyung. Your wolf spirit is something you share with your mom and I
hope that she can hear me when I say that I’ll always keep you safe. I’ll give you the best life.”
Jungkook kisses his knuckles. “I promise.”

It is a deep kind of trust, Taehyung thinks, that he didn’t even need Jungkook to say these words
out loud to know that they’re true.

Snow falls heavier in Torrent Woods than it ever did in the city.

The warmer temperatures in Seoul from the heat of so many buildings melts snow so quickly
during the day that it is hard to enjoy a day with it. Here in this small town, the snow falls thick
and crystalline, and it grows up against every building like a living creature. For days, it stands
thick. The pack are responsible for keeping the town as accessible as possible, but on some days
they are fighting a losing battle.

Just as soon as they clear the roads, the sky opens again.

Wintertime shines here. The school closes and children flood the streets to play. The old buildings
wear white hats. And on the full moon, Taehyung runs with Jungkook, as white as the snow, and
the woods light up.

This deep in the winter, even Jungkook wears a hat. Taehyung knitted it for him, indulging one of
his new hobbies, and was certain to include a large black bobble, fluffy and warm like his wolf.
The kids who are old enough to know that he’s the pack Alpha race up to them in the street asking
for wolf-rides, and Jungkook rolls his eyes but allows them to sit on his shoulders in his human
form, at least. He’s very good with kids.

On the way back to the house, Jungkook’s hair dripping wet with snow, they pass the narrow path
leading up to the old house. A brand-new shining Sold sign hangs out front. Every time they pass,
Taehyung thinks of the good times that the pack spent together there, and not the man behind it.
Instead, every day he and Jungkook collect coffees from the shop that Taehyung now thinks of as
his mom’s shop, and walk back to Jungkook’s house.

Their house.

All winter, Jungkook has been working on the outhouse at the back of his land where he used to
store all of his tools. He never stops. After returning from shovelling snow for hours, he gets back
to work, insisting that he can take care of it himself and accepting only coffee in return from
Taehyung. Today is a big day, because today is the day Taehyung is allowed to see inside.

Since Jungkook started, he’s had a feeling that the outhouse is for him. They aren’t falling over
each other in the house, because Jungkook spends most of his time outside and the rest of the time
they’re curled in bed or on the couch together, but Jungkook still complains that the house is too
small and that Taehyung should have some space of his own, so that it feels like his home too.

“I hope you’re going to like it,” Jungkook beams as he opens the gate, brushing a hand at
Taehyung’s lower back to guide him inside.

“I know I’ll like it. It’s all your work!”

They pass around the back of the house without having to step inside. Back in Daegu and Seoul,
Taehyung could never have imagined himself living in a place like this, where everyone lives in
houses and they even have yards. The outhouse is to the left of Jungkook’s garden where they host
their full moon parties; snow clothes the roof that Jungkook replaced painstakingly, slate by slate.

Where there were before loose wooden doors, he has fitted smart sliding glass. Nowhere in town
has a lock on the door but he has included a key-code entry for Taehyung’s benefit, his favourite
city-boy. “Are you ready?” he grins. “This is all for you. I want you to have your beautiful space
because you deserve it. You deserve everything I can ever give you.”

Acting as surprised as he can, Taehyung beams. “All for me?”

“All for you.”

Jungkook slides open the door and steps aside so that Taehyung can enter first. Warm, fluffy
slippers are beside the door to replace his snow boots. You would never know that the building
was in the middle of the garden, as merry heat spreads from wall to wall. Almost the entire
opposing wall has been replaced with glass, looking out upon the fringe of the forest. The trees
look magical at this time of year, powdered with snow.

A cosy chair beside the window is stacked with books. Beside it, a carved wooden sculpture like
the ones that they find in the woods, and Taehyung gasps, leaning close. “Where did you - ”

“Being the Alpha has its perks. I have become party to certain… information.”

“You know?” breathes Taehyung. “You found out who made the sculptures in the woods?”

“Well during my investigations, I discovered that the man who made the sculptures in the woods
passed away a long time ago. But I found his grandson. And he can carve too.”

“Who?” whispers Taehyung. “Tell me. Please please please. I promise I won’t tell anyone!”

Jungkook snickers and leans close to his ear. “Yoongi.”

In utter astonishment, Taehyung turns to look at him, but Jungkook only presses a finger to his lips.
The sculpture is small, perhaps not as delicate and polished as those in the woods, but it depicts
two wolves following each other on the same path, as though neither one ever leads the other.
Taehyung traces the varnished wood and shakes his head. Still there are things in this town that can
take him by surprise. For such a small community, he never would have expected to have such a
wealth of mysteries to pursue.

“Do keep it secret. This town thrives off its legends,” says Jungkook.

Taehyung stands straight again and crosses at last to the beautiful wooden easel, pointed towards
the window. A stool with a palette stands at its side. From the colour of the wood, Taehyung can
tell that this easel, too, took its wood from a tree of their own forest. Jungkook must have made it
for him. “You – you made me an easel?” he whispers.

“You told me once that you used to paint and that when you were a kid you dreamed of being an
artist.”

“I haven’t touched a canvas since I was little, Jungkook.”

“So touch one now.”

For weeks, Taehyung has been worrying aloud about his position in the town. Never in his life has
he enjoyed a period of not-working, and he’s struggling to rest in it now. Jungkook has assured him
that he can help on his rounds every day, but Taehyung is no labourer. He needs something to fill
his days that keeps his mind clear and smooth, a way to while away the hours while Jungkook is
doing his duties for the town.

Maybe he could even sell a painting. Like a job.

“I can’t believe you did this for me.” He turns and takes Jungkook’s hands. His fit so perfectly
against Jungkook’s, a little more slender but his fingers are longer. They complement each other
just as the two of them do, the black wolf and the white wolf who run together in perfect harmony.

“I can only work to give you even an ounce of what you deserve.”

“I deserve nothing more and nothing less than the simple matter of your love,” says Taehyung,
pulling Jungkook in close to kiss him with all of the passion that he can gather.

The snow falls on beyond the wide window, as they embrace under the eyes of the woods.
 Taehyung traces the fine scar on Jungkook’s throat and Jungkook brushes his fingers along the
jagged scar on Taehyung’s brow. Before coming here, Taehyung never could have imagined that
such a tender touch could exist. Jungkook, his wolf, caresses like a butterfly.

“Jungkook? Let’s run tonight.”

“Even though we’ll get snowballs in our fur again?”

“We’ll stay in our form and let them melt out by the fire,” says Taehyung.

Jungkook groans because he hates having ice-balls stuck in his paws, but with one hand on
Taehyung’s face and the other secure on his hip, binding the two together with touch, he can hardly
refuse. “Only for you.”

“We’ll run?”

Jungkook smiles, grazing the softest kiss across his lips again, and nods. “We’ll run.”

Chapter End Notes

Thank you for reading <3

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