The Hanes Enigma

Chapter Fifteen: Accept and Reconcile

Jeon Jungkook

Four years ago

"I don't know why I always stray away from the pack! It's not like I can remember it!" I yell at my brother.

"It's not safe, Jungkook!" He implores.

"I can't help it!!" I always wake up by a stream on the outskirts of our woods. Occasionally with a bullet wound or two. It's never too serious but my family insists on making it a much bigger deal than it is.

"Jungkook, he's right... There's a young girl in the village who has to get therapy because once a month she keeps seeing wolves." My father sighs.

"Dude, your wolf is obsessed with eating little girls? Maybe that's who you killed..."

"I didn't kill anyone!!" I throw a chair at him and my father pulls me away angrily.

"That is not how you behave under my roof, young man!" He glares at me, eyes amber as my own and boring down on me. I feel threatened, he is my alpha, but it just doesn't work the same way it does with the others. I'm pretty sure I'm going to grow into an alpha too and then one day I'll have to leave them all. I won't have a home anymore. It's a fear I've had ever since I was a kid, but it's starting to become real.

"I-I'm sorry! I just get so fucking angry!" I clench my jaw and fists, claws digging into the palms of my hands.

"Then you find a place to channel it. You get rid of it. You do not bring it back into this house. Is that clear?." He raises his eyebrows at my silence and I just nod.

I shoot my brother a glare and then turn on my heel, grabbing my jacket.

I slam the door shut and stuff my hands as deep into my pockets as they'll go. I see Jimin on a bench in his front garden. Before he sees me I wipe my eyes. I don't want him to see that I've been crying.

I run up to him. "Hyung!" Come on Jimin, I know you've been acting weird lately but I could really do with you being your old self and just cheering me up a little.

"Hi.." Well, shit.

"Jimin?.. What's wrong?.." I frown and go to sit next to him, wanting to comfort him, but he glares at me. I bite the inside of my cheek and nod, backing up a little. "Are you still annoyed that you're grounded?"

"Hasn't it been almost exactly three years, Jungkook?." He snaps at me, knee shaking. Why is he so agitated?

"What?" I frown, confused.

"Since you killed someone." He purses his lips and my heart becomes an anchor, dropping well below sea-level.

"I-I didn't.. Jimin, you know I didn't!" I refuse to cry. He's just having a tough day and taking it out on me again. He's still my best friend. He still loves me. We're brothers.

"How?. You can't remember anything." He grits his teeth. I didn't, I know I didn't.

"N-No one remembers their f-full moons. I couldn't-... I would never-... I can't have-..." I gulp. Maybe they're not wrong. Everyone says you kill on sight.

I run. I can't take that being the truth. I can't actually have murdered a person. A child! I mean I was only twelve or thirteen at the time, but still! That's a whole life that I ripped out of existence. I don't know where I'm running. I don't know this part of the woods, it's way further out than I've ever gone before. I can't even see anymore, I'm crying so much.

I trip and feel branches and twigs snapping beneath me. I roll down a hill, grunting with every bump along the way. I land with a splash and a very sodden bum. No one is ever hearing about this.

I look around and blink, wiping my tears away. This is where I always wake up. This is where my wolf always goes at the full moon.

"Uh.. Are you okay?"

I jump and turn away from the sound. This sounds weird, but I hate people seeing me cry. I'd rather turn away than admit I'm hurting.

"What are you doing here? These are private woods. You can't be here." I snap.

"Right.. Sorry, it's just.. It's a shortcut to the library... I'll go the long way around..." I hear the girl shuffle and turn.

"The library's like an hour and a half's walk. Get your parents to drive you or something." I grumble.

"It's only twenty minutes from here if I cut through your woods..." She sighs. "I like walking, it's fine."

"Your parent's wouldn't drive you?.." I frown.

"No, they... They're busy. You should go inside and get changed. Cold and wet gives you pneumonia and then you might hallucinate. Be careful." She starts walking away. I chuckle at the thought of a werewolf catching pneumonia. She's not really going to walk for an hour and a half just to read some books... Is she?

"Yah! Girl.. person... Just go through the woods. Pretend you never saw me." I grumble and start walking back where I think I came from.

"Really?? Thank you!" I hear her whistle happily to herself and I smile slightly. At least someone's happy today.

Cold, wet and hungry. I slam my bedroom door shut and change into dry clothes. Just an oversized hoody and some tracksuit bottoms, they're comfortable. I sit on my bed and just let tears fall.

My door opens and I immediately look away.

"Kookie..." My father sighs and sits next to me on my double bed. He puts an arm around me and I lean onto his strong shoulder. I want to be as good an alpha as him one day.

"D-Dad.. Did I really k-kill someone?..." I dread the answer, even if I'm pretty sure what to expect.

He sighs, rubbing behind my ears comfortingly. "It's more than likely, yes... It's rare, if not unheard of, for a werewolf to make a bite like that if they weren't trying to kill..."

"So.. So I killed a witch?" I sniffle and try to hold back my sobs.

"It was your first ever full moon, Kook. No one's blaming you." He strokes behind my ear and I wish it could work like it normally does, but it just doesn't. "I'll tell your brother to take it easy on the jokes, okay?"

I nod but honestly, I don't care. I killed someone. "What's the other option?.." I mumble.

"Hmm?" My father looks at me, cupping one of my cheeks with his hand.

"You said it's rare..." I look up, hopeful.

"I.. I know... But it can't be yet, not at your age now and definitely not then. Some elders, a very long time ago, used to bite magick people they wanted to join their pack that weren't werewolves. That's where the mythology for turning came from. But even if you will present as alpha, which with your temper, is most likely the case, you weren't back then. The chances of the bite working are slim to none. And if it had you'd be mentally connected to the witch. Have you noticed anything?"

I shake my head, heart sinking. The possibility of me having not killed anyone gets slimmer and slimmer the more information I find out.