Chapter Text
Chan would love to say he told him so, but he's sure that that'd get him his eyes clawed out, and he kinda needs those.
It's just, he told Minho so.
*
All the way back in a cave in the middle of a forest so vast the humans who hunted them got lost in it more than they picked up a trail, Chan and his humble pack had met Minho and his flock.
(Because a vampire's pack is apparently called ‘flock’. That was the first adjustment.)
Chan doesn't like to think back on it. Not because he's unhappy about meeting them, he just dislikes the how and why. The Great Monster Hunt was tiring and exhausting for every creature, so much so that even rivaling kinds had put aside their differences to survive.
Vampires and werewolves definitely never had great relationships, but the Great Hunt changed even that.
(That was the second adjustment.)
Safe to say they had to get past a lot of prejudices.
He had assumed that Minho and his fledglings were in some sort of romantic relationship, perhaps because the only other vampire flock he had ever met had been one big polygamy.
Finding out they weren't had surprised him, but he tried not to let it show. That had been a one-time thing, and Chan didn’t intend to ever awkwardly ask about the details of anyone’s relationships ever again.
He learned his lesson and would make sure no interaction would ever be like that conversation again.
Yet, dinner-for-eight is weird today.
Specifically, in the way the vampires act towards their fellow non-bloodsuckers, and how the others subtly pick up on it, even if they really do hide it well.
It starts normally, as far as normal goes with them.
Minho insisted on hosting tonight because he hates having to go through the lake to get to the Siren's home, and he believes none of his wolf friends to be capable cooks.
It's a common occurrence by now for the vampires to host multiple dinners in a row, usually until either Chan can't take being cared for anymore (Jisung's phrasing, not his) or until Minho wants to cut costs (despite being rich. Seungmin jokes it's because he doesn't want to seem too nice).
Which is why Minho's curt greeting leaves Chan confused. Not just him, he can smell confusion on Changbin and Jisung too, but they decide to leave it be. Minho isn't the type to do something out of pretend kindness; if he has an issue with them, he'll let them know.
That's what Chan thought.
But then he notices Hyunjin's awkward shuffling — it's nothing you'd notice if you were a stranger, but the way his eyebrow twitches when Changbin leans in to pat his shoulder as he asks whether the vampires want a helping hand preparing dinner, and the way he doesn't attempt to kiss Jeongin in place of a Hello speaks louder than words could.
It's only when Felix, hug-loving, somehow always touch-starved, bright Felix, dodges a hug from Chan and instead goes to pat his bicep half-heartedly, that the wolves grow really suspicious.
Chan exchanges a worried glance with Changbin once the blond disappeared.
“I'm not going insane, right? The flock is acting weird.” Changbin questions, tilting his head slightly.
Jisung groans and nods so vehemently that his brown curls get even messier. “I thought I was overthinking!”
Changbin casts a glance toward the hall that leads to the kitchen, his eyes reflecting the setting sun from the big windows, then he turns back to them.
“It's like they're avoiding touch. Not just with us, did you see how Hyunjin greeted Innie? How quickly he and Felix just left when Minho-hyung asked them to get something?” He growls quietly, and Chan feels it resonate in his mind.
He opens his mouth, a response on his tongue, when the two reappear, bread baskets and table cloths in hand.
Changbin had once told Chan that he was overprotective, and while Chan always knew that there was an ounce of truth to that, he never realized just how protective he was –or, to be honest, he did. He is aware, but he thinks it's fair– until tonight.
Because what reaction is he supposed to have to seeing bite marks on Felix's neck, other than worry?
“Felix!” he gasps out once the two red dots on the younger's neck come into his vision, and he grabs him by the wrist, gently but urgently pulling him closer so he can swipe blond hair away and get a better look at the marks.
Felix squirms, holding the bread basket more tightly in his hands. Changbin, likely having caught the worried spike in Chan's scent, or maybe just recognizing that tone of his, is by his side immediately, taking the basket from his hands. The wolf places a hand on Felix's shoulder.
“Let hyungs take a look at that, that's a nasty insect bite.”
When Hyunjin snorts, it's Jisung who reacts, casting an almost-but-not-really scolding glance at the vampire, who shrugs.
“I can explain—”
But Chan shakes his head and finally gets the other to sit down –on his lap, because he refused to take a seat beside him, but that's details– so that he can hold him still and inspect the marks on his neck. Felix groans quietly, still fighting his hyungs off.
Jisung pouts at the side, and Chan can really just imagine the dramatic thoughts in his pack's youngest's head, undecided on whether he feels left out of pack activities because he wants to check Felix over too, or because he wants to be Felix.
“What kind of insect bites like that?” Chan grumbles, not noticing Hyunjin burying his laughter in his hands.
Necks are meaningful to every creature one way or another, and pressing your nose to them is usually viewed as something intimate, reserved for exceptionally close relationships.
Good thing that Chan loves his friends with his whole heart, enough to consider even vampires and sirens pack. His nose is in Felix's neck without a second of consideration.
“Hyung, it's not—!” Felix yelps, flinching away from the wolf. Changbin shushes him and shakes his head, “Shush, let Chan-hyung work. What kind of insect can even leave a lasting mark on a vampire? What if it's garlic inflicting—”
“A garlic-inflicting insect?”
Minho stands in the doorway, arms crossed and leaning against the dark wood frame, while Seungmin and Jeongin each carry in plates of food.
Chan, however, doesn’t know what he's smelling.
No, he knows. That's the problem—the root of his confusion.
He knows that scent of morning dew, fresh and heavy like leaves after cool rain.
But it's not Felix's. It's Minho's. Except it's coming right from the insect bite, that scent of citrus blooming after a cold rain, lemons growing after cloudburst.
Felix squirms again, and his hand finally finds purchase in Chan's face, pushing the wolf away. But it's too late, the scent already wrote itself into Chan's system. He blinks, confused, because if what he thinks happened happened, then that would mean that—
“I didn't realize that I was an insect.” Minho huffs. Behind him, Seungmin's eyes widen comically.
Changbin opens his mouth to say something, frowning, a joke likely on his lips, but Minho is faster. He pulls Felix off Chan's lap like he weighs nothing and extracts his fangs, positioning his jaw above the bite. Jisung yelps, as if he wants to jump forward and pull Minho away, then it hits him.
Hits all of them, really, the realization.
That's not an insect bite. That's a healed vampire bite, red as if it happened only some days ago. Chan can feel his eyes widen, and next to him, Changbin's eyebrows shoot up. Like being thrown into cold water.
“Before you stone me,” Minho raises his hands placatingly and gestures to himself. “Everything happened consensually.”
On the other side of the dark wood table, a chair is moved as Hyunjin stands up. Everyone's gaze flicks to him while he walks up to his flock, tugging long black hair to the side and baring his neck, which bears similar bite marks, except that one rests at the dip of his jaw.
“You— I— What?” Jeongin stammers.
Felix nudges Minho, almost pouting, and Hyunjin also looks to the older, as if they don't know what to say.
“We drink from each other, isn't that obvious?”
“But— Aren't there a ton of vampire rules and laws that forbid that? And how does that even work? Your blood can't give what human blood gives, so how–” Seungmin's eyebrows are pulled down in a deep frown, his gaze shifting between their three vampire friends’ necks.
Minho snorts, waving his hands in front of him as if the other wasn't saying what was on everyone else's mind. “Please, if we abided by all the old rules, we wouldn't be allowed to be such close friends with you.”
At that, Changbin pipes up, grinning. “Aww, hyung, you really love us!”
“Seo Changbin, I hope you don't care too much about what your fur looks like.”
But Chan is still where he was, hands tightly gripping his pants. He's turned back around at least, but only to stare at his food.
He really, really prides himself on how open-minded he is, always has been, and always will be, toward other creatures. He's never been territorial like it's expected of wolves, especially of alphas; he's never hunted a being out of town because they were different. Heck, dare he say he welcomes them with open arms.
But that doesn't nullify all the harsh words he's heard, all the rumors.
He grew up in a traditional pack, the type to talk bad about other beings, the type to shamelessly hunt anybody and anything in their territory. He never liked it, and his belief that not every interaction had to be rooted in distrust and end in a bloodbath got proven right when he met Changbin.
But even Changbin's original pack, as nice as they had been to him, another werewolf, had badmouthed other species. Especially vampires. They threw around all sorts of insults and had more than a dozen stereotypes. Chan never purposefully listened, because he didn't want to believe the words he was hearing. But they're still imprinted in his mind. ‘Ruthless’, ‘bloodthirsty’, ‘vicious’, and the like. But also, and he still remembers the sneer most wolves used to talk about it with, ‘Cannibals’. Chan had never believed that.
But now it's different. The flock aren't cannibals, no, but the word still circles his mind. They're just drinking from themselves, that doesn't mean they're cannibalistic or anything, right?
Jisung, next to him, picks up his scent when it drops further into fear, and nudges him out of it with a mumbled “Hyung.” It helps snap him out of his spiral, but it doesn't stop him from thinking.
*
Chan pulls Minho aside after dinner, ignoring his déjà vu.
“So what happened?”
The vampire tilts his head, staring the other down. Chan just knows that Minho is well aware of what he's asking about, and that he's just teasing. The wolf ends up giving in.
“Fine. You don't have to relay all your intricate flock dynamics to me. Just— Promise you'll be safe? Promise you know what you're doing?”
He hears Changbin chastise him for being too overprotective in the back of his mind and makes a mental note that he needs to stop taking his words so seriously – Changbin commented on it lovingly, not as a serious criticism.
Minho just huffs, understanding that Chan cares too much for his own good. His scent changes, a hint of a distant sort of confusion making itself known. Chan squeezes the vampire's wrist.
In the past century, ever since they had settled down in Gamseok, Chan had learned to read the vampire. He had learned a lot.
Minho cares subtly, silently; by making sure everyone has their favorite food on their plate, by casually checking over injuries, by pulling them apart when he sees someone close to genuinely getting hurt.
He's also just as protective as Chan. Even if it's different, it's still true. Chan knows that Minho would physically stop any harm from happening to his fledglings, no matter what, anytime.
“I know you're worried. But there's no need, we can easily survive like this. I don't know which horror stories Kim Seungmin told you about his kind, but vampires are adaptive.”
“That's— Yeah. I mean, I'm worried about that too, just… I'm also talking about you as a flock here, and the changes.” Minho shoots him a look, but Chan isn't deterred just yet. “I know that vampire dynamics are different. There's a less specific hierarchy, and usually it's far more distant than wolf packs, I know. But that doesn't stop me from knowing, too, that you still feel.” Okay, great Chan. Derail the conversation from the topic.
Minho stares at the werewolf for a moment, then sighs and finally squeezes Chan's hand back.
“I know, hyung. I'm quite certain about my feelings for everyone involved. I'm giving everything its time, though.” With that, the vampire pats their linked hands once and takes a small step back.
His way of ending the conversation, and even though Chan would love to try and prod, he knows it's no use with Minho. He ignores what the words could mean, because that would really be too much for his poor heart.
*
Understatement or not, Chan thinks everything could have gone much worse — or better, but he tries not to think about that.
The way to their own house is quick, even with Minho's mansion being situated rather in the outskirts of town, the dark wood-based building like a towering menace in the night.
It's no less awkward, though. It's obvious what's ghosting around their minds, be that as it may that Minho had tried to explain it at dinner.
Jisung is the first to speak his mind, one step into their home. The pack owns a house much smaller than Minho's mansion. Instead of dark wood, deep reds, and elegant shelves lining the wall, everything is kept in painted wood, the furniture comfortable for both their human and wolf forms.
He flops onto one of the mountains of blankets, his shape shifting before his hands hit the soft fabric. The wolf twirls in the onslaught of sheets while Chan and Changbin settle on the couch with tense shoulders.
I don't like the idea of our vampire friends biting each other every other day. The sound of his voice echoes through his pack members’ minds.
Changbin sags in relief at the younger breaking the silence, and replies with his human mouth. “Me neither. The idea that they're strangely dependent on another now— it irks me. But I guess I trust Minho-hyung. I think."
Jisung's long snout peeks out, huffing, before two black paws that transition to grey fur follow. You can't be serious! They're– They're drinking up each other! Did you not see how Lixie's neck looked?! What if— if—!
Chan cuts him off before Jisung could forget how vulnerable human skin is and launch at Changbin.”Ji, Bin-ah is right. We have to trust Minho; this simply isn't our night to rule.”
Jisung growls quietly, but one look from Chan quickly silences him. He pouts, if wolfely possible. If you trust him so much, then why did you pull him aside?
To confirm that I can trust him, which I do. Chan replies sharply, from head-to-head rather than with his human mouth, hoping the wolf will abide by his words then.
See, now maybe Chan lied about that. He wants to trust Minho, yes.
It’s not his fault that a part of him can't. It's just werewolves; they have a lot of prejudices about vampires. They don't stay together as long as wolves do in packs. They're not that kind of creature. They're not social, not dependent on the kinship that packs share. They don't let each other in just like that; they live in solitude.
Meaning Minho and his flock, had been different from what Chan knew, and even way later, the flock kept throwing him off. So after a while of knowing them, he had decided to just accept it: Everything he knew about vampires, to put it simply, was wrong.
That does not take away from the fact that, as much as he wants to trust his friends in this decision, he can't help but think of the rumor, the superstition almost, about the venom that vampires bite with; It's addictive, and flocks that bite each other get addicted to each other.
Chan knows it's irrational, yet he also knows what most other species believe: That cannibalism is quick to happen amongst vampirekind.
He hates it. But the idea of his friends being addicted to each other's venom, the idea of it driving them mad to the point of cannibalism…it's called a venom for a reason.
He deliberately pushes these thoughts away, turning to instead scratch Jisung between his ears. The wolf immediately goes pliant, dropping his snout onto the elder's knee.
“We've got nothing to worry about. Minho is a trustworthy sire and friend. If he says it's fine, it is.” Truly, Chan is talking to himself here, too.
He hopes he's right, he really does.
*
Tomoya is a young wolf who moved to town in the spring of last year. Chan had pretty much adopted him and his pack the moment he met them.
Now, though, Tomoya is raising his eyebrows at Chan and staring him down, no longer the shy and unsure pup he used to be.
“So basically, you trust them to know what to do —especially Minho-ssi, because he's their alph- sire,” Tomoya is quick to correct himself, but Chan can't blame him for the slip-up; he always believed alphas and sires to be synonymous. “But you're also extremely worried and getting grey hairs by the minute because you've heard one too many horror story about what happens to vampires when they turn kinda cannibalistic?”
Chan nods, his shoulders tensing at the reminder.
Tomoya huffs, taking a sip of his steaming tea, the cup fully covered by his hands. The brown mittens he's wearing almost make them seem like paws, and Chan fights off the urge to coo.
“Changbin-hyung was right, you are so overprotective.”
“Yah,” Chan mutters helplessly. Tomoya leans back in his chair, sipping on his tea, attentive eyes watching him.
“You called it a rumor yourself. There's no report about vampires actually becoming cannibalistic when they drink from each other. And besides, isn't blood their main source of food anyway? Does that not mean that they're cannibals anyway? Like, not-bad cannibals?”
Chan suppresses a growl at that statement. “That's what I was trying not to think. I don't know what the old wolftalk really is about; Blood or something else?” He sighs audibly before shaking himself as if to shake that thought off.
“Never mind my worries. How's your pack, Tomoya?”
The young pack leader brightens, his smile so radiant that Chan wants to coo. “Oh! Yuki actually managed to effortlessly transform some nights ago! He's the first one after me, and he keeps annoying everyone with it, but y'know.” Tomoya's gaze turns softer at the thought of his youngest, and Chan laughs.
“Impressive, how old is he again?”
“Uhm, like a hundred? I don't get human years, sorry, hyung.” The younger alpha mumbles into his tea, and Chan smiles warmly, rubbing his hand for a moment.
“Aigo, don't worry.” He pauses a moment, thinking. “That makes him around eighteen in human ways of counting.”
Tomoya nods, then his scent shifts. It's subtle, but the young wolf doesn't have much experience with controlling his scent yet, and Chan has a very good nose.
“What's wrong, Moya-yah?” Chan gently inquires. The younger worries his lower lip a moment, then looks around. There are only some older town folk on the other side of the road looking at a display of fabric around, and Tomoya seems to deem that a subdued enough environment to lean in closer and whisper, quieter than human ears could pick up.
“Seita and Yu, after last night's patrol around the western parts of the forest… they saw— I can't describe it, I don't want to, but…” Tomoya shivers. “They believe they have picked up the restrained scent of humans. Superficially, artificially restrained, hyung.”
Chan feels himself freeze, blood running cold. The tea cup in his hand suffers collateral damage as he drops it from his grip. It didn't spill anything, but even if it had, Chan wouldn't have been able to focus on that.
“They weren't cloaked, right? Not looking for traces, not—” Not hunting, but he can't bring himself to speak that thought.
Tomoya worries his lip so much that Chan gently nudges his chin. Bad idea, apparently, because the wolf suddenly has all the words Chan didn't want to hear tumbling from his mouth.
“Seita said they were cloaked. Yu wanted to move closer, but Seita held him back. Still, they were looking for something. Things. Yu, he has a good nose, he said— said that they smelled like metal. Seita pulled him away, but— but he— both of them picked up a silver scent.”
Fuck.
Chan sinks back into his chair.
He thought the Great Monster Hunt had been fully settled at the beginning of this century; he really did. Heck, many beings live side by side with humans now, no problems at all. Everyone in town knew about the fact that some amongst them were a bit different. Minho was a known vampire. His flock, too. Chan and his pack, many of their customers knew about what they are.
If Hunters return, coming to their town…
“Tell your pack not to try shifting anytime soon.” Chan stands, abruptly. He has a few people to warn, and more importantly, a group of people to protect.