Nyx || ATEEZ OT8

28| Running with the wolf

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 2,850 words

𝐘𝐮𝐧𝐡𝐨

The castle was breathing in silence. A silence wound up by the fear of making the smallest wrong movement that would cause a catastrophe to enroll.

Yunho drummed his fingers against the backrest of a chair by the dining table, feeling distinctly anxious about how the mood had changed so quickly. He didn't know what was happening, or why even. He only knew that Prince Yeosang had looked terribly ill and that it was affecting Wooyoung poorly which furthermore had him react to the shift to the air.

His wolf hopelessly howled at him to do something about the other prince's suffering, but he just couldn't figure out what to do. It wasn't like he just could tell Wooyoung that everything was going to be fine again when that obviously was not something he even believed himself.

The despaired call across the dinner table, the crease of brows, and Yeosang's head lifelessly rolling back all limp- Yunho had nearly thought that it already had been too late to save the fairie prince's life.

And yet, now, he still did not know what had happened afterward Seonghwa had left the dining hall. After all, it could really have been too late to save his life.

Yunho glanced over at Wooyoung across the table but the expression he wore only made the churning of his insides even worse. And Yunho couldn't do anything about his fret. He desperately needed his wolf to understand before he would be clawing the eyes out of the person closest to him. That wouldn't be a pretty sight.

Somewhere.. deeper down.. he knew what was going on. He knew all about his thoughts of wilderness and hunger for violence. But he couldn't let it slip now. Not when Wooyoung was so scared.

A finger that poked his shoulder had him roughly turning around, the vicious bite in his mouth pressing against his shut mouth. Surprisingly enough, it was the crown prince of the merfolk reaching out for him, and a quick look on his face made Yunho acknowledge the obvious worry he shared with everyone else in this room.

"Yunho, you're.." but San's sentence drifted elsewhere when his gaze settled onto something above Yunho's eyes.

His throat bobbed as if unspoken words accumulated on his tongue and Yunho could not help the threatening growl coming from his chest. San's hands were clasped together in front of him, clearly as a way to stabilize his wavering feet.

"You're.. your head is.. your hair.."

Yunho paused. Then he froze. Then his expression fell as he tried to put together what the other prince was saying.

His hand slowly raised to his hair, feeling around the outline of his crown before his fingers slid over the item and toward the middle of his head. The tip of his fingers suddenly collided with something he had not expected to be there at all. An instinct crossed his mind and he flew toward the nearest window, arms throwing his entire weight against the giant windowsill as he looked up into the dark skies of the night... Well, into the night there happened to not be dark at all. The instant his eyes shifted up, they started burning their golden colour into his eyesockets reflecting the full moon's powerful shine that he so feared to be the reason for the unusual shift of extreme sensitivity.

Yunho would have a few minutes at most before his body would start to transform into the beast he truly was.

And he feared he would not be gentle.

The werewolf turned around again, his eyes scrambling across the other princes as his heart rate quickened with every breath of air. He pressed his growing nails into his palms in order to keep himself anchored in the moment but his head was a whirlwind of rage.