CHAPTER 1

JEON JUNGHO

The front door to our home opens and I lift my head up from the phone to see dad standing at the entrance. He wore a big smile with the packages hanging off his hands. Mom rushes to get the packages from him. I stand from the couch where I've been slumped for almost half an hour now and walk toward them. Taking one of the packages from mom.

"You look so happy," I mutter to dad.

"That I sure am," Dad says with a laugh. Mom gives him a side look, brows propped up on her forehead, I too have mine propped up.

"I went to the village in the north today, to see Jaewoon and his family." He says to us.

"Oh, you did?" Mom asks enthusiastically as she reaches to take his shoulder in her hand. A wide smile plastered on her scarlet-tinted lips. I watch their exchange, dumbfounded.

"What's going on here?" I ask, looking at dad and then mom.

Finally, they decide to graze me with their undivided attention.

"Your dad went to the village to see your future mate." The smile stays on her lips as she lets me know. Future mate, huh? Funny. I've heard this a lot before and I know where this talk is going. Now they're getting on my nerves. Are they for real?

"My future mate?" I ask, never doing anything to hide the fact that I'm very much uninterested.

"You know Jaewoon, yea? He has a son, a very handsome one at that. We think he suits well for you." It's dad this time. I look at him in disbelief.

"Are you kidding me, dad? Mom, are you?" I ask them both. I move closer to the table to put the package on it. I feel as if it's weighing me down with the frustration I felt.

"No honey, your father really has a great relationship with the said man. They promised it before you guys were even born." Mom said, placing her hand on my shoulder.

"You guys are ridiculous!" I snap, and her hand on my shoulder drops. I'm done taking their bullshits. Mom's eyes widen as she looks at dad, then back at me. She wants him to talk, to make me shut my stupid mouth.

"How can you promise me to someone else I don't even know? I didn't even see him for fuck's sake!" My voice raises in its sound. My scent spike up. Still, dad nonchalantly stands in front of me and holds my furious gaze.

"Don't shout at your dad, Jungho!" Mom's voice feels so far away even though, she's standing so close to me. I feel anger burn my skin. Everything is a blur.

"I just turned twenty, I'm too young to be married!" I try to reason. I'm sure it's going to fall into duff ears.

"We are not gonna marry you off this instant. If you forget let me remind you, you're going to Avle next month." Dad says.

"That I know."

"Then what? You're only back when you finish your four years there and you'll be twenty-four at that time."

"How old is he?" I don't know what make me ask that but nonetheless, I did.

"Seventeen," Dad said with no hint of shame in his features. Brown eyes are cold and distant. Keeping every emotion at its bay, ordering and forcing his son to do something he can't think of doing.

"How can you be so shameless, father? I don't wanna marry a kid! And how come you think you have a say in my things?!" I roar, and in my twenty years of life, I could never recollect any moment I ever snap at my dad. And now seeing him standing before me with disbelief swimming in his wide brown eyes says it as much.

"You do what I say!" Dad growls with finality in his voice and a finger directed toward me, flashing his eyes red. He gives me his one last gaze as he makes his way upstairs.

My stomach churns. I feel so hot. A quiet whimper snaps my head to the side, mom now stood far away from me, holding the corner of the table to balance her body from falling. It's as if a bucket of ice-cold water was thrown over my head. I still.

The fuck did I do?

I scrunch my nose at the burnt scent of mine. I take a step closer to her.

"Sorry." The word barely came out of my mouth as I hurried outside. The howls of the wolf in me haunt my insides. He claws at my skin to let out.

The white pieces of clothes shred down to the ground before my feet. Bone cracks and pain dull in my flesh as I started to shift into my wolf form. Claws rise along the raven fur as my bone rearrange. The pain feels good.

I run into the woods, in the dark. The coldness threads into my fur and skin.

I ran and,

Ran and,

Ran.

I howl into the darkness, paws hitting on the ground with so much force as I let myself go and fall into the pit of my outrage.

The moon shines bright above my head. I give myself a moment to stop and haul at her for doing this to me...

...

It's in the morning when I am seated on the kitchen table with breakfast before me, I see dad coming down. I didn't see him at all after the yell yesterday night. I stay silent, not minding when he walks straight towards where I sit and take a seat beside me.

Mom place freshly baked pancakes before him, uttering a quiet 'good morning, honey.' Which he acknowledged with a smile. I lift my eyes up to find her looking at me just for me to cut the gaze. I hear her sigh before she walks back to the island.

"We're going to the north next week." He declares.

"Why?" Even though I know the reason I want him to say it.

"To see them, you need to meet in your wolf forms. Moreover, your wolf needs to accept him." He says, biting on the pancake he picked up with his fork.

I don't say a word, not that it mattered. Not in this case at least. They were good to me, are good to me. And I have taken my own decisions but in this, I don't know what's happening.

And I hate that, really.