Beast, Blood, & Soul

* 33 *

Holding my cup of tea, I watch Jin move around the cabin. He's currently cooking what looks like a feast and filling the table with mountains of food. I don't even need to know why he's doing it. I saw what happened. There is no way anyone could go through that sort of fight and not be hungry afterward.

It's easy to disconnect Jin from the carnage I saw the others partake in. When Jin was fighting the first wolves, it was protecting Mindy and he was in his wolf form. My mind was okay with that. Who hasn't watched animals attack on youtube or some nature documentary? But watching the men that I love looking like monsters, and ripping the second group of wolves to shreds with their bare hands was a whole nother matter.

I lean my forehead against my warm cup, soaking in its warmth. Looking for comfort from the chaos that ruled my mind.

In my mind's eye, I can see them as they stalked and fought. They were taller than they normally stand. Their arms and shoulders rippled with muscle so that their clothes had torn. Their legs were thick and muscles and they had all been barefoot. Their faces were contorted to a degree. Their mouths were full of razor-sharp teeth. Their ears were pointed and elongated. The hair on their bodies was thicker. Everything about them was bigger and more menacing. But the one thing that I can't let go of, the one thing that will probably give me nightmares were their hands. Big and elongated, they had 3-inch claws that were dripping venom. Their hands were weapons and destruction was the only thing they held in them.

I can't forget watching Jungkook, my sweet bunny, ripping a wolf in half by pulling its jaws apart. Tearing it apart and releasing an earsplitting roar in his triumph over another enemy.

My body trembles at the memory. A few tears run down my eyes as I reconsider everything that I thought I knew.

That wolf pack didn't have a chance. Is this what Mindy meant when she said that other predators don't often dare to invade this area? So if Bangtan is scary enough to keep other big predators at bay, why did that wolf pack get so brave? It wasn't the dead of winter yet. Food wasn't yet scarce.

Why were they there?

"Do you want anything to eat?" I hear Jin's soft voice call to me. I look up and he has a cup of soup in his hand. I nod and he replaces my tea with the soup and I soak up the warmth in my cold hands. I notice that it's mostly broth, so I simply sip and let the warmth cascade down my throat, filling my belly and hopefully warming my shivering body. It tastes like chicken soup.

Chicken soup for the soul. I can't help but smile. Mine is certainly in turmoil at the moment.

Jin kneels before me, making sure I'm okay and I look at him closely. His gentle eyes watch mine. His smooth beautiful skin shows no hint of the monster that lurks underneath. His pillowy lips that I kissed just a week ago, hide the small fangs that he now sports. Fangs that just a few hours ago had hung past these same lips. I look down at his hands, which are gently laying on my knees and I marvel how such normal hands, even with their slightly crooked fingers, hide poison-filled claws underneath.

The person in front of me looks delicate and harmless. He's anything but and now I understand.

I take one hand from the cup and place it over his, "which is the real you?" I ask. My eyes lifted to look into his. Needing to know, but afraid of the answer.

"What you saw today is our real forms," Jin confirms my worst nightmare. My eyes close as fear makes my tremors get worse.

"So what I'm seeing now?" I indicate the gentle form I see in front of me.

"Also me, but like our animals, also just an illusion."

"A very convincing one," I mutter. I was wrapped around this man just a week ago. I kissed him. Was held by him. Yes, we didn't get naked or anything, but we were intimately embraced, and at no time did I feel he was different in my arms than what I could see.