Seonghwa freezes.

The spoonful of soup he held up to his lips drops back into the bowl, splashing everywhere in the process.

Junkyu, who was eating beside him, flinches when a drop of the hot liquid lands on his arm. He looks up at the werewolf. "Are you alright?" He questions warily as he rubs the spot on his arm.

Seonghwa's eyes were blown out and a shiver ran up and down his spine repeatedly. She's here... my mate is here.

"Seonghwa," Jongho shakes his hand from across the table, snapping him back to attention. "What's wrong? You look like you saw a ghost"

Seonghwa blinks repeatedly. "I- N-nothing. It's nothing" He forces a smile and goes to pick up his spoon again.

Jongho squints his eyes at him a little then looks at Junkyu who only shrugs. The prince then shakes his head and returns to sipping the very cold stale cup of deer blood the drows had given him. He gagged as he drank but forced it down the same.

On the other hand, the werewolf sat in silence as Jongho and Junkyu talked. He knew exactly what he felt.

That was a feeling way too foreign and unfamiliar yet he knew exactly what it was. When a werewolf turns 19 they are able to mate. And it's physically impossible to have offspring with anyone but their mate. He turned 19 and watched as his friends found their mates one after the other. They all tried explaining it to him, the feeling of sensing her as soon as she's close enough to you.

He would just stare blankly at them as they would go on with their nonsensical talk about finding 'the one'. He never understood it. And for a while he was convinced there was no such thing... until now that it is.

That feeling was just... indescribable. It was like an unexpected warmth yet a cold chill shocking enough to cause him to shiver. It had to be his mate. And he wasn't sure whether to be happy that he'd finally found her or distraught because that means he and San were never really meant to be.

"What is the meaning of this?" Hongjoong demands as the men at the gates roughly clasps a pair of wooden handcuffs around his wrist.

"Our apologies your highness, but it's orders from above" One of the drows says in a sarcastic tone as he tightens the cuffs even more to the point of discomfort.

Hongjoong scowls slightly and winces a little. Though he found it cute that their method of subduing a vampire was with simple handcuffs made of cheap wood. "You know who I am?" He couldn't help but ask, eyes narrowed slightly.

"You're the first son of Jaejoong and his heir. Who doesn't know you?" The drow retorts, pulling him along. He signals to the other two soldiers that stood at attention before directing Hongjoong forward.

"You do realize I could easily free myself right?" Hongjoong mutters with boredom in his tone as they escorted him towards the village.

The man scoffs, not looking back at him. "You could try. Those aren't regular handcuffs. They're reinforced using arcane magic. You have better luck breaking out of titanium handcuffs"

Hongjoong rolls his eyes at his claim but doesn't say anything else. Eventually they get to the town and people gawked at him as they walked but he didn't pay attention to them. He simply tunnel visioned on finding his brothers then getting the hell out of there.

He follows them into a large tent begrudgingly and just as he's about to demand where they're taking him he locks eyes with Wooyoung. And he froze on the spot. His jaw was slack and his mouth went dry.

"Wooyoung?" He rasps out in a voice so small it was hard to catch what he said.

Wooyoung slowly smiles, it was a sweet and reassuring smile. Hongjoong felt his eyes sting with tears and his bottom lip quiver. Whether whatever his father said about what Jongho did was bad or whether the person standing a few feet from him is in fact an abomination and not his dead brother, he didn't care.

He looks real. And when Wooyoung practically sprinted across the room and enveloped him in a tight hug, he most definitely felt real.

A single tear slide down his cheeks as he stood in complete shock while Wooyoung hugged his thin frame. "You came back to life..?" He whispers out shakily.

Wooyoung let a sad laugh escape his lips and he pulls back from the hug to get a good look at Hongjoong's face. He shakes his head no and wipes the stray tear from his cheek.

Jongho makes his presence known by wrapping an arm around each brother's neck, squishing their cheeks against his in a tight group hug. "Nope. He never technically was dead" Jongho says with a gummy smile.

Hongjoong had no idea what he was talking about but he laughs a little as more tears slide down his cheeks, but they were tears of joy. Usually he often pushed people away and got uncomfortable especially when it came to hugs but he embraced and welcomed this hug. Though he couldn't wrap his arms around them as well cuz they were cuffed together, but still.

"Yah- stop crying. Seriously..." Wooyoung whines with a chuckle and a sniff as he tries wiping away Hongjoong's tears but his own eyes become glossy with tears.

He didn't know what to say but just welcomed Wooyoung's brotherly touch. Nothing else mattered anymore.

"How did you even find us?" Wooyoung asks after successfully choking back his tears.

"Ran into some guy with a ponytail near the Great Lake" Hongjoong croaks, his cheeks wet but tears having stopped now.

Wooyoung smiled. Gotta be that druid... He made a mental reminder to thank him the next time they cross paths.

"He told me about you and..." That's when he notices the person standing to side, awkwardly. "..San" He whispers in disbelief.

San cracks a weak smile once the prince takes notice of his presence. "You're.. alive too?" Hongjoong looks him up and down repeatedly, eyes blown out with shock. Unlike with Wooyoung he was 100% certain the drow should've been dead seeing he was the one that ripped his heart out with his own bare hands.

San shrugs. "Bit of a mystery really. But yeah, I'm alive too. Turns out getting your heart ripped out of your chest actually really hurts" His tone teasing.

Hongjoong chuckles a little and rubs at his wet cheeks just as he walks towards San. "Sorry about that... no hard feelings?"

San just shakes his head and embraces Hongjoong with a laugh with which the shorter returns it. Wooyoung watches them with the tiniest of smiles. And for a moment everything looked like it would be ok.

Yunho was missing and everyone was worried. Especially Sehyoon. A search party was immediately sent out for him while San and Wooyoung were meeting with Hongjoong.

While Seonghwa and Junkyu were being led to meet up with San and them. As they walked, little drow children would stick their heads out of their homes and halted their playing to stare at them. Seonghwa knew he'd never get used to that. It seemed like everytime they walked past the whole town would stop whatever they were doing and watch them.

He cracks a small smile at a little girl who was watching him as he walked by with big grey eyes. Her short white hair messy and bangs scattered unevenly on her forehead. She looked no older than 4 in human years. The girl smiles back, clutching her toy tighter to her chest, her chubby fingers digging into the softness of the plush.

The soldier draws back the drapes at the entrance and they enter the tent. The first thing that hits Seonghwa was the overpowering smell of cinnamon. So much so he was almost knocked back by it. He blinks repeatedly and slowly took in the three males in the room; San, Wooyoung and...

Seonghwa stared at Hongjoong silently once he noticed the new face. The vampire stood shorter than him, his hair dark with the tiniest of curls, lashes full and long. His lips were a pretty pink and dipped down in a frown. His grey eyes were narrowed and that's when Seonghwa realized this newcomer was staring at him. No, scowling at him more like.

"A werewolf?" Hongjoong asks with disdain then turns to Wooyoung, a brow raised in question. "Why's that thing here?"

Seonghwa furrowed his brows at his nasty tone. "Excuse me?" The hell..?

"Don't address me, werewolf" Hongjoong snaps at him, his eyes cold and hateful. "This is so annoying. I didn't know you guys were travelling with one of them" He turns back to Wooyoung.

"Hey, be nice" Wooyoung warns.

"Be nice?" Hongjoong repeats completely shocked at Wooyoung's words. "You hate werewolves just as much as I do"

Wooyoung flashes Seonghwa a tight lipped awkward smile before looking back at Hongjoong. "We'll talk about this later" He whisper shouts to him with a warning in his tone.

"There's nothing to talk about later" Hongjoong says with a scoff then throws a glance over his shoulder at Seonghwa.

Seonghwa simply rolls his eyes and turns to walk off. San quickly rushes after him with a sigh, out of the tent. "Where are you going? We're supposed to be meeting up with someone soon to discuss our plans moving forward" San calls out to him.

"Go on without me, I need to go on a run and clear my head for a bit" He shakes off San's gentle hold on his arm.

"C'mon don't be upset. Hongjoong's just a bit of an asshole like that, I swear he doesn't mean any of it"

Seonghwa scoffs. "Oh he definitely meant it. Not that it matters to me anyways. Don't worry I'm not upset" He smiles warmly at San. "I just needed to get outta there. It's that strong smell of cinnamon in the room that was making it hard to breathe" He turns to walk off. "I'll find you when I get back"

San stares at his receding figure as he walked away. His brows furrowed, eyes squinted and head cocked to the side slightly in confusion at his previous comment.

Strong smell of cinnamon? What is he talking about?

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