"Soon.." he heard a sweet voice whisper in his ear, peculiarly cold breath tickling his neck and igniting his senses. He jolted up, wiping the sweat from his forehead and struggling to catch his breath. Chanyeol had had yet another vivid dream about a mysterious female, whom he hoped was his mate and not some sort of demon tormenting him. After all, anything was possible in his world. That was when he heard the ruckus downstairs, and he turned his head to check his bedside-clock, which read 2 a.m. He hurried out of bed and sprinted down the stairs to see half the house gathered around, as Baekhyun and Sehun were carrying a blood-covered Xiumin to the livingroom couch, his mate sobbing uncontrollably. Yixing, their healing brother hurried by Xiumin's side. Soon the entire house had come down, and were worriedly asking each other what had happened to their brother.

"Vampires… scores of them." Xiumin managed to whisper between coughs. The others couldn't believe their ears. Vampires usually avoided werewolf territory and kept to themselves as long as werewolves didn't interfere with their feeding habits. This sudden attack had taken everyone by surprise. The usually cheerful Chen gulped and set his worried eyes on the Alpha:

"What do we do? "

"What do you mean? We fight back! Don't we, Hyung?" a very revolted Sehun intervened. "They have to pay!" he gritted his teeth angrily.

Suho was deeply buried in thought, pondering their options. Xiumin had said that there were scores of vampires, which meant at least a dozen, which also meant that they were clearly outnumbered. They were 9 male wolves, 4 human mates, and 4 wolf mates, and the human mates needed constant protection at home, meaning that he could send 11 wolves tops into battle. They needed help, and they needed it as quickly as possible.

"Yes.. yes… this matter will not be ignored. However, we mustn't act hastily. We should conjure up a plan first." Suho answered, wiping his brow.

"I say we attack them during daytime. The sun burns them, right?" Baekhyun suggested.

"No, you moron, they have daylight jewelry, they are as capable of walking in the sun as we are. Jesus, crack open a book from time to time." Kyungsoo scolded him, and Baekhyun frowned in return. "We have literally no advantage." he sighed, burying his face in his hands, while his mate rubbed soothing circles on his back.

While the others were discussing battle strategies, Yixing was concocting herb ointments to apply to Xiumin's wounds. He was writhing uncontrollably and moaning as his high fever was making him delirious. "It's the vampire venom. The fever is helping him burn it out of his system." Yixing explained to Xiumin's mate as she was using her entire strength to pin Xiumin to the couch and keep him still.

"Is he going to make it?" she asked, tears streaming down her small face, while she was trying to stay strong for her mate. Yixing nodded, carefully rubbing medicine all over his brother, who was already beginning to heal. "He is strong. And he put up a good fight. I wouldn't expect anything less from my brother." he whispered, his features deeply set in concentration. "Kai, Sehun, take him to his room. He will be as good as new in a couple of days." Yixing breathed out, wiping the sweat off of his forehead. "I can take him." Xiumin's mate offered, but Yixing waved her off. "Werewolf or not, you're a lady. Let these two do the honors." he stated, as Kai and Sehun grabbed Xiumin with ease and took him upstairs to his room, his mate right behind them.

Slowly, the crowded house grew silent again as almost everyone went to sleep, except for Suho, Yixing and Kyungsoo who were in the library, discussing their next step. Chanyeol was listening intently through the wall from his room, as those three and Xiumin usually made the most important decisions, seeing as they were the most level-headed and the eldest. He and the others were usually excluded from the decision-making process, they mainly followed the orders. It didn't bother him though, he was not very good at handling pressure. He heard Suho heave a sigh, and he could just imagine him rubbing the bridge of his nose as he always did when he was stressed.

"What could have brought this on?" Kyungsoo asked, while browsing through all the books about vampires that they had in their library, even though he had already read all of them. "Could they have done it just for fun?" he turned towards Suho and Yixing who were exchanging worried glances.

"It is possible. Vampires tend to wreck havoc just for the sake of it. We have to wait until Xiumin wakes up to see if the vampires maybe gave him a message to deliver." Suho said.

"If it turns out they indeed have some sort of score to set with our pack, are you going to call him?" Yixing asked, scanning Suho's face, as Kyungsoo's eyes grew wide.

"Call Leo and his coven? Can they be trusted? They are vampires too after all. They are cunning, deceiving, vindictive, downright evil-" Kyungsoo began, but was interrupted by Suho.

"Leo and I have saved each other's lives throughout the years more times than I can remember. I've known him longer than I've known any of you. Almost 200 years. Besides, he and his coven do not feed straight from the vein. They respect human life. Not all vampires are evil. That is the same as saying that all werewolves are rabid dogs that kill humans every full moon. Which we know is far from the truth. I trust Leo and anyone he considers a friend and an ally is an ally of mine." Suho explained in a whisper.

"You know we completely trust your judgement, but the kids might react-"

"Yixing, the kids must accept the fact that desperate times call for desperate measures." Suho gritted his teeth. "Don't think that I am comfortable bringing creatures that feed on human blood in a house with 4 humans, including my recently found mate, whom I've been waiting for longer than I can remember. But we are outnumbered. And these vampires can teach all of us how to defeat the other coven."

Chanyeol hated when they called him and the others "kids". Just because they were a couple of dozen years younger than them, didn't mean they couldn't act responsibly. Still, inviting bloodsuckers into their home was ludicrous, especially after what they had done to Xiumin. He didn't care that they were different vampires. If Suho thought he would be civilized to those monsters, he was in for a surprise.