Home Is Where the Heart Is

Chapter One

"I have an emergency placement — can you take him?"

Seokjin could barely hear the words over the sound of his heartbeat pounding in his ears. The cake he'd been moaning about on the floor was now a mere afterthought. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

A placement? For him? After forty-two months. Forty-two godforsaken months of being dodged as a placement possibility because 'Children thrive in homes with more than one parent, Mr. Kim. We're looking for homes with a feminine touch.' (which was a load of sexist bullshit if you asked Seokjin, thank you very much), and it was finally happening.

Seokjin ignored the crick in his back and pushed himself up. "An emergency placement?"

"He's four," Jenna, his case manager who somehow managed to wear a new ensemble of head-to-toe black and white every time he saw her, confirmed. "Considering how long you've been waiting for this to happen, I could almost say he was meant to be yours."

This was one of the reasons he liked Jenna. Even considered her a friend. She was no-nonsense — a realist, yet an optimist.

"I'll take him," Seokjin said in a single rush of air, scrambling to his feet. "I'll set his room right up. I'm taking him, Jenna."

Jenna didn't laugh. It was a peculiar thing Seokjin had learned about her over the years, but she had a certain huff that belied her enjoyment.

"He's four years old," Jenna reiterated after her not-a-laugh huff. Jin's back screamed at him as he shuffled his way to the first guest room, but he ignored it. "His name is Kim Taehyung, based on the records we could find. We're trying to track down any family, but we're fairly certain he was trafficked, and it will take a while."

Seokjin let out a breath. "Trafficked how?"

"Cage fighting." The answer was curt. "The traffickers at the warehouse have all been arrested. He was one of about thirty recovered, the youngest. I have to warn you, Jin; the basta— ahem, criminals didn't make him fight, but they panicked during the raid. He's injured. It's not pretty."

Seokjin threw open the window to let in fresh air. The early morning breeze smelled of his neighbor's terrace garden and whatever weird smoothie they'd made that day: floral and tangy. A perfect scent of spring. It was such a disturbingly peaceful scene for the information he was being bombarded with. "How bad?"

"Hospital reports a broken arm, a few cuts on the face, tenderness and assumed bruising on the chest and stomach. Malnutrition. He's incredibly underweight."

Seokjin frowned at the small bed in the room. It needed fresh linens. "Assumed bruising?" he asked.

Jenna sighed in something that sounded like abject disapproval. "The kids were all taken to the same general hospital. Too many designations, not enough specialists or time. He was uncooperative with the medical staff they had."

Seokjin bit the inside of his lip, catching the meaning behind the words with a sudden alertness. "He's a hybrid?"

"He is."

That... complicated things. "Is he a prey hybrid?" Seokjin prayed a little. A prey hybrid he could possibly handle. A prey hybrid was doable. "Do you know his designation?"

The hesitation told Seokjin everything, even before Jenna murmured, "No. A predator of some sort."

Seokjin stopped his linen closet rummaging to process. "Is he a pup?"

What he meant was, is he a wolf?, because that was the number one designation he wanted to avoid. He had nothing against wolves, but raising a wolf was a process that involved managing moon cycles and pack hierarchies and an entire culture of dynamics and traditions Seokjin simply didn't know. Things wolf pups had to understand for their own safety.