𝙲͢𝚑͢𝚊͢𝚙͢𝚝͢𝚎͢𝚛͢ 𝟹͢𝟸͢

Unsurprisingly, or maybe a little surprisingly, Jungkook got along extremely well with my family.

He's Korean and I'm black. We have completely different cultures and customs, don't share the same native tongue, are two very different people and he's an introvert who doesn't talk much around people he isn't used to. But somehow it's like he falls right into place, as though he were meant to be here all along.

When mama got him into a hug and then introduced him to papa as her new son, he had batted her hands away and grabbed Jungkook for himself. With his cheek squished against papa's chest, he gives me a bewildered look.

"Woman, you might be a queen but you don't get to steal my new son before I've even met him."

"He's actually my chosen, so..." I try point out but they both go in on me. Saying things like I've been 'withholding their new child' from them, and since I did that I've 'fractured the family'. They're so full of crap.

Jungkook looks equal parts frazzled and confused, but he's smiling when papa finally releases him and roughly scrubs his hand over his hair in an affectionate gesture.

I hadn't noticed Atticus to my left until he speaks, casually leaning against the refrigerator with his legs crossed at the ankles.

"You're both embarrassing." Atticus rolls his eyes before whipping out his phone and turning on that stupid song I hate.

"I've been a (G) throw up the (L) sex in the (A-M)-"

His head is saved from me knocking it off his shoulders by mama. Unfortunately.

"Elden, let go of Jungkook. Atticus is jealous and needs our attention."

Still stuck to my side, Lavinia giggles as our parents aggressively grab Atticus, his phone clattering the floor. I grab it and turn off the ear bleeding sounds of that god forsaken song. Then take a picture of me flipping him off and set it as his background.

"Don't worry son, we still love you!" Papa says loudly before smacking a loud kiss to my brother's forehead as he struggles to get out of their hold.

"Everyone gather around Atticus!" Mama calls loudly. "He needs our love!"

"I DON'T need-"

Cassius appears from nowhere, grabbing me around the shoulders and dragging me and Lavinia into this group hug. "No, everyone needs love!" He shouts.

Mama and papa both make sounds of agreement and I see Jungkook on the other side of this forced circle of weird looking at us like we're all crazy, but he's enjoying himself regardless.

Cassius, ever the crack head, announces, "everyone, let's jump for Jesus!"

"NO! This is stupid-" Atticus tried to object but it's useless. We're already jumping as a group for Jesus.

The second Atticus can escape he does. But then papa puts him in a headlock and they fall to the floor as with him screaming about how much he loves all of his sons equally. I don't think I prepared Jungkook for this as much as I could have, but whatever.

"C'mon, Cass."  Since his arm is still slung over my shoulders, I step over my father and brother wrestling on the floor towards my chosen.

"Jungkook, this is my brother Cassius. Cass, Jungkook."

My sibling's arm drops away from me so that he can hold both of them wide open. "My new brother!"

Jungkook chuckles as he and Cassius share one of those bro hugs that men do. The kind where they pretend to be all gruff and slap each other on the back. I shouldn't be annoyed over it but I kind of am since before we came over here, I asked them all to be normal for one day. Figuring they would struggle with that, I'd added to at least refrain on greeting him the American way but clearly they ignored every single thing I said. Jerks.

"Atty, go set the table." Mama says once dad has finished punishing Atticus with love. I wonder if she used the nickname he hates on purpose or not. But regardless, he does as told without giving any lip about it.

Jungkook, Cassius and papa are all standing by the stove and I can see my father rapidly falling for his 'new son' when Jungkook is curious about the crawfish étouffée simmering on the stove. If there's one thing he loves more than his family, my papa loves cooking and sharing his native Cajun dishes. Although he didn't ask for the entire recipe, step by step, Jungkook heard it anyway, listening avidly and asking questions here and there.

When we sat down at the dinner table, dad served him first. Which, and I'm just now realizing that I forgot to tell Jungkook this, is a huge honor in our pack. It's meant for someone who is either: most respected, the strongest, or someone at the end of their life (I.e. the eldest). Next in serving is mama, or as papa calls her, 'his queen'. Then me as the eldest child and then it goes by age and dad is last. That doesn't mean that he's the least respected, it's just because he's the one passing out the food. And out of respect, no one starts eating until he does.

Over the course of the meal, Lavinia asks more blunt questions, and in English, which Jungkook barely understands.

"Jungkook, do I have to call you oppa? I don't like that. Your name isn't oppa; it's Jungkook."

Jungkook, who had been just about to take his first bite, paused to blink adorably in a confused manner. "No." He replies in broken English, "You call me some...else." He glances at me as if to ask if he spoke correctly and I nod. It was close enough.

Happy with the answer, my sweet, sweet, precious Lavinia smiles and says, "then I'll call you big brother!"

I elbow my chosen gently and shake my head to signal that he should let her go with it. My poor little sister.

Atticus is always there to throw reality in your face. "You're an idiot."

My precious little brother. He's so cute.

"Watch your mouth." Mama snaps a curt warning that has him dipping his head in apology.

"You pretty." Peregrine, my four year old sister openly points at Jungkook, who is now lost in the dish in front of him. He slowly chews, closing his eyes for a few seconds as though to savor the taste. "I like it."

"Careful now, Perry," I warn playfully, scrunching my nose at her to make her giggle. "This one is mine. You can find your own chosen one day."

"Ahuh." She nods, seeming thoughtful for a second before adding on, "but not a boy."

Oop. My little sister, a lesbian queen???

"I want gingerbread chosen."

Ok scratch that. But on a more serious note, her future chosen will probably smell like gingerbread. 

"How do you like it?" Papa asks Jungkook, his lips quirking into a grin as he watches my boyfriend devour his meal.

"I love it." He practically moans before stuffing his mouth full again. Mama and papa both smile at the display. "What's in the Cajun seasoning that makes it spicy?"

Again, my dad is thoroughly impressed and launches into a long lecture about smoking cayenne peppers and all the ten different blends of salts and spices. Gah. He couldn't have picked a more boring question.

As they're preoccupied, mama, who's seated to my left, whispers, "Jungkook smells different."

With my face burning, I nearly drop my spoon and a smirk grows on her face.

"I'm kidding."

Why? She could have asked me and I would have told her that we mated. She didn't have to trick me like that. Hermes.

"Either way, it's fine with me." Mom says casually before scooping some of the étouffée over the white rice on her plate. "Just don't get pregnant while you're still a teenager."

"But you did." I point out. In mama and papa's love story, they met when she was 19 and he was 20. They met by coincidence in the woods, recognized that they were chosen immediately, and boom, I was conceived. Right there.

With a motherly smile, she reaches out and caresses the side of my face with her palm. I lean into it, loving when mama shows affection. "And I wouldn't change it for the world. But I want you to live a little before settling down. You deserve to achieve all of your dreams first."

I hope that one day, if we do have kids, I can be as good a mother as mine is.

As expected, everyone fought over the chocolate cake. This time around, mama was served the first (and biggest) piece. Jungkook (and everyone else) inhaled it in record time and then we were all near tears that it was gone.

After that we ended up in the living room with the karaoke machine, screaming our heads off. I say screaming because our singing sounds more like that than actual singing. Honestly we  sound like a bunch of dying turkeys. All except for Jungkook who wipes the floor with us, his score being a perfect 100. Of course.

Throughout the day the storm outside got worse. When the sky became darker and sleet started to mix with the rain, papa ushered to the door, shoving these sleeping bags in our arms, 'just in case'. Just in case, what? All of our blankets got up and walked out of the cabin? The sleeping bags he had forced on us weren't even that cheap kind that are marketed towards kids who like to pretend camp. They're the super thick, very expensive kind that professional mountain climbers use. Where and when did he buy these?

I don't get the chance to ask before he tells us to leave, worried about us having to drive 100 seconds away in the ice. I don't even get why he's being so overbearing about it. In Appalachia, where I grew up, snow and ice was common throughout the winter. As a young pup, I can remember romping through the snow, kicking up the tendrils of ice particles as I chased after mama, both of our snouts slick with the cold stuff.

When I was 6 and my younger twin brothers were 1, they had seen their first snow and that's a core memory for me. At that time, I was the cool big sister they looked up to.

Heck, maybe I still am but since they've hit puberty any and all big sister praise had come to a halt. Now they just liked to annoy me and since I became of (lycan) age at 15, glare away any male members of our pack that took an interest in me.

But at that first snowfall for them all those years ago, I remember teaching them how to play and hide in the snow in our natural forms. We would huddle together and bury ourselves in it, then when papa freaked out because he'd realized he'd lost us, we would jump out and ambush him. Now that I think harder on that, our dad definitely let us think we got the jump on him.

After that, we shifted to the human form and I taught them how to make snow angels and build snow men. We played and played, all day and for so long that we were in danger of getting frostbite and only came indoors when mama demanded it.

"Your family is fun." Jungkook brings me out of my memories. I glance to see that he's got this little wistful smile on his face as he drives us closer to home.

Home. Is that cabin my home now? That's kind of scary. Despite loving the crap out of Jungkook, I'm still afraid to take flight and leave the nest that my parents have protected me in my whole life.

"Really?" I ask, as if I didn't know they were fun.

"Yeah. It felt very...natural there."

"That's because musty Selene said that we're soulmates." He doesn't laugh at my attempt at humor, and I'm worried that I maybe said something that offended him until he speaks again in a quiet voice.

"Be honest with me. Do they really want me to call them mom and dad? Or are they being nice about it because I'm with you?"

"Of course they do." I reply automatically. "Lycans don't really lie when it comes to emotions. They're too strong for us."

"But you lied."

I blink, confused on what he's talking about. "What do you mean?"

His fingers on the steering wheel flex for a second before he answers. "Remember months ago when you called me out in foreign language class? You said something about how we couldn't be together and that when you confessed to before that it was on a dare. But it wasn't."

Careful to keep my mouth shut, I mull over the question, trying to figure out how to approach that subject. The reason that I was able to lie then was because I was trying to protect him, and that emotion ruled over the others at that moment.

"I still don't get why you did that, though?" He says, mostly to himself. "If it was for revenge, then it wasn't very...I dunno. Creative? Intense? I'm not sure what I'm even trying to say."

He's trying to solve a puzzle but the last piece is locked tight inside of me. I'd done that to protect him from that stupid lust demon. But I can't say that. I can't because...

I'm terrified of the moment he comes to understand the price of truly being with me. No one wants to be cursed. Especially not with some of the messed up things I have to see. Even though I accept that I'm going to have to tell him one day, I still dread it.

I shift in my seat, unsure of what to say, just as the cabin comes into view. Relief fills me at the sight of our temporary home growing closer, before it's quickly deflated out of my chest.

Covered in blood from head to toe, a woman is standing directly in front of the bumper. My startled scream prompts Jungkook to slam on the brakes. He immediately begins to question what's wrong as I stare out of the windshield, my heart thrashing in my chest at the unexpected sight.

I realize a second too late that I'm the only one here that can see her.