“A truce?”

You let out a humorless laugh.

“Yeah, a truce.”

Jongin continues to trace slow kisses on the juncture between your neck and shoulder.

“A truce will only happen if Oh Sehun stops killing  people from our territory every full moon, every chance he gets!”

You tried pushing him off but he suddenly pushed and pin you on the bed, your hands are locked by his hold on top of your head.

Jongin closes his eyes as he inhales the aroma your body is giving out.

“Mmm, you smell extra delectable when you’re mad, baby.”

“Kim Jongin, I am serious. We will never work unless there’s peace between our packs.”

“We’ve told you many times that Sehun left! He evicted himself from the pack many moons ago!”

You can tell Jongin is getting worked up talking about Sehun, his eyes suddenly turn gold the instant he spoke of his friend’s name.

“Bullshit! He’s your best friend!”

You spat as you try to remove yourself from his tight hold of your wrists, but he was obviously stronger than you since you’ve suppressed yourself from eating raw meat last full moon.

“Our kind hasn’t fed on humans for hundreds of years already, yet killings started when the news broke out that your pack kicked him out!”

You continue to castigate him.

“I told you, we didn’t kick him out!!!”

He snarls his lips and his canines bared. But instead of your expectation of him hurting you, Jongin unexpectedly smashes his lips on yours sloppily kissing you as if he hasn’t kissed you for a long time when you were just making out moments ago. His canines are grazing your teeth so aggressively with his vigorous movement.

“Jongin!”

Pushing him with all your might, Jongin lets go of you completely before slouching and turning his back on you.

“Believe me, love, Sehun and I haven't spoken in years. I really miss that brat…”

You can tell he wasn’t lying, the sadness in his voice made your heart skip a beat. You can feel his pain in your own chest, now you regret even mentioning this to him.

With that, all you can do is just hug him from behind. Even though the thick clothing he has, you can feel his heat on your nakedness.

“Jongin…”

“I’m sorry, I just… I can’t take this anymore. I just wanted to be with you against all hindrances.”

Your embrace around him tightens.

“I know, me too.”

Jongin sighs as he continues to be quiet and mopey and it took a moment before you speak out again.

“You know what, let’s talk to our elders… Together! I’m sure they will listen, they know we’re mates!”

Jongin moves to face you again and you were forced to let go of him. He slowly removes his suit jacket and loosens his tie.

“I wanted us to mark each other first before we do that. That way they can’t resist us since we’ve already established our connection…”

“Of course,”

You smiled and helped Jongin remove his tie off of him.

“Remind me again why it took me this long to come to you…”

“You’re an idiot!”

Jongin smirks as he starts unbuttoning his shirt while you started working on the belt of his pants.

“I know.”

Zipping him free from his pants, Jongin pushed your hands off before you can even pull him out of his tight boxer briefs.

Jongin cups one side of your jaw and looks you deep in your eyes, smiling at you as if you’re some kind of buried treasure he has found in the deepest of oceans in the world.

“What?”

Suddenly feeling self-conscious in your skin, you tried looking away from his eyes but Jongin redirects your face back to him.

“Don’t turn away, love. You look so beautiful like that, naked and vulnerable just for me.”

Jongin then lays you gingerly on his suite bed, tracing his warm palms from your jaw down to your hips. He pushes down his briefs and kicks it off of him in an instant as both his hands are caressing your hips.

You spread your legs wide and took his hand so he can touch you there already. Your eyes roll at the back of your head when Jongin grabs his penis with his other hand and starts rubbing him on you, spreading his pearl of precum with your own wetness. Hitting your clitoris slowly, you started to moan out in frustration.

“Jongin…”

You whine, wanting him to do something more, other than teasing you like that.

“Alright, baby, just making sure you’re ready.”

“I’ve always been ready since I felt our bond two years ago…”

The double meaning of your words made Jongin giggle before pushing himself in. Your breath hitched when you felt his entirety inside of you.

You grab and latched on Jongin from under his arms, your nails dig on his shoulder as you cross your legs around him so he can go deeper inside of you.

“Oh, baby…”

He breathes out as he kept a steady pace. Without warning, you bare your canines and dug deep on his neck, marking him for eternity. Jongin cries out in pleasure when you unexpectedly bit to mark him, making him push harder on you. The taste of his blood is sweet on your tongue, his momentum making your head spin.

“My turn”

He smirks as he props himself up when you let go of his shoulders. You see the remnants of his blood dripping down his chest from your bite. You can see that his skin has already healed, but what looked like a permanent tattoo of a scar from your bite is what’s left, validating you as his mate.

“Tell me– T-tell me if– you’re close.”

Jongin’s words and breathing wavers as his thrust get faster and more erratic.

“Almost there, baby.”

You almost whispered your answer, afraid you’ll lose your control over your voice when you spoke louder. You can tell he’s almost there too, so you tighten your legs around him so you can help tip you both over the edge.

“Fuck!”

You scream out as you slam your head hard on the pillow, exposing your neck for him! When Jongin feels you clench around his cock, that’s when he exposes his canines again and pierces them on the skin of your neck. You feel him spurting his hot seed inside of you as his bite gets deeper.

“You’re mine now, and I’m yours.”

You gave Jongin a satisfied smile before reaching up to kiss his lips.

You brushed your teeth and washed your face, moving around the washroom with a bit of a spring in your step. There was something inherently different about this day. Maybe it was reconnecting with Sehun last night, maybe it was him marking you again that made you feel more secure and almost back to normal. Almost.

It clearly wasn’t having the same effect on Sehun.

Sitting in the living room, you chatted away with Kyungsoo’s mate, who was up getting ready to go to work and waiting impatiently for Kyungsoo to be done upstairs.

Without fail you could hear someone running up stairs, banging their way down to the first floor.

“I’m in here.” You called. Kyungsoo’s mate got up, excusing herself to go to the kitchen.

“You should have woken me up.” Sehun stated, storming into the room.

“I wanted you to sleep.” You smiled at him in understanding.

“I don’t need to sleep.” He snapped, “I need you with me.”

He was kneeling in front of you now, pulling you onto his lap on the floor. Sehun held your head against his chest sighing deeply.

“Just give me some time okay?” He pressed his lips to the crown of your head, “I promise, someday you will be able to leave my sight…but for now, I’m going to come running. Every single time I can’t see you.”

You relaxed into him. It was easy to forget, because you were the one trapped, that Sehun was on the other side dealing with it. You could feel it all the time, the blame he placed on himself. The questions that constantly ran through his head.

“I’m sorry.” You muttered. “I’m really sorry.”

His breath hitched and his chest quaked as he began to cry.

“I’ll listen to you now. I’ll never disobey you again.” Hearing him cry was making you cry. You could barely get the words out. “I’ll stay right next to to you forever. No matter what.”

Your shoulder tingled, where Sehun had bitten you the previous night and you circled it.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, my shoulder just feels weird.” You rubbed it over the sweater. “It’s almost like my arm is falling asleep.”

Sehun stood up with you still in his arms, setting you down on the couch. He pulled the sweater off your shoulder his brows furrowing as he looked at the scar.

“What is it?”

“The scar…it’s different…” He breathing sped up, “Are you wearing a shirt under this?”

You shook your head no. You felt nauseous. Had you made a mistake asking him to mark you again? You were dreading seeing what the scar looked like. He held your hand, pulling you back up to him room, not waisting any time pulling the sweater off of you.

“Sehun-” You started to look towards your arm but Sehun held your face still, looking up at him.

“Don’t freak out okay?” He was talking quietly, his eyes glancing between your eyes and your arm.

“You’re scaring me.” A shiver ran through you and your arm tingled again.

“Just…”He walked you to the bed, “Just sit here and close your eyes okay? I’m going to get you a t-shirt.” You wanted to look so badly, but you couldn’t bring yourself to look down.

“Lift your arms babe.” You did and you felt the cotton being pulled over your head and you adjusted it around you. “Now, it’s a bit surprising okay? But don’t be scared. We’re going to figure out whats going on.”

Your hands were resting on your knees. Opening your eyes slowly you started at your hand, working your way up your arm. Everything was fine until you got to your elbow. You noticed a several silver lines running up your arm.

You couldn’t breathe. It felt like your lungs were starting to collapse in your chest. Your chin quivered and you bit your lip to stop the sob from escaping you. You got up suddenly, stomping into the bathroom. The more you looked the more scars you saw. They wrapped all the way around your upper arm and down your right shoulder blade. A few strands of scars even trailed down your chest.

“It looks like lightening.” Sehun muttered, reaching out to touch the scars on your back. You stepped out of his reach.

“Don’t touch it.” You snapped. “Don’t look at them.” You pulled the shirt back over your arm and scrambled to put the sweater on again. Getting in bed, you pulled the covers over your body.

Sehun sat on the edge of the bed, leaning on his elbow.

“_____.”

You turned over.

“I just want some time by myself.” You whispered, tightening the blankets around you.

“Okay…” His voice was almost inaudible. He ran his fingers through your hair once before he stood up, taking a book and sitting in the air chair by the window.

Your arm started to tingle again and you fought the urge to look at it, praying with all of your might that the scars weren’t spreading.

You were getting a headache from clenching your jaw, which was the only way you could keep yourself from crying. Sehun couldn’t hear you cry. You needed to be strong.

It felt like the minutes passed as hours. You turned over again and again restlessly, a never ending cycle of thoughts attacking you. You were sure to keep your eyes away from Sehun as you could feel him watching you intently from behind his book. The pressure was getting too much to handle. He wanted you to say something, literally anything to show him that you were okay.

You swung your legs over the side of the bed quickly, scurrying into the bathroom and locking the door behind you. Listening intently, you could hear Sehun padding across the floor and see the shadow his feet created under the door as he stood listening for you.

“I’m fine.” You blurted out huskily.

The footsteps retreated.

Unable to hold yourself back anymore you took off your shirt, looking at the scars that now trailed down the delicate veins in your arms. Looking at the white lightening pattern that was currently working its way down your back.

You heard the bedroom door close with a muffled thud, your cue to relax. You worried that there was never going to be an answer for this. Worried that you did something extremely wrong.