TOAO | MW [✔]

One.

"Down! Down!" Mingyu laughingly chided his wolves as they all jumped up on him in excitement, their sensitive noses smelling the fifty-pound bag of food on his shoulder.

The proud owner of Kim Service Wolf Training, Kim Mingyu's facility had the capacity for up to twenty-five wolves at a time, though he currently only had twelve in-house for training. He specialized in training wolves for wounded veterans and supporting and guiding purposes for the disabled. His facility was fitted out with all the necessities for both humans and animals. Training a guide wolf or support wolf was an intensive process, and training the human half was just as hard, if not harder.

He didn't have any human tenants currently, but he had a few lined up over the next few months. His business wasn't extremely profitable, but he was passionate about it. He ran primarily off of donations and subsidies from the government. His was considered a charitable business. He didn't care about accumulating vast wealth. He had a roof over his head and his wolves, that was all he really needed.

The only thing missing from his life was a mate. He loved his wolves, but he was tired of being alone. After his time in the Marines where he'd trained wolves and led missions with them, he'd been left with hard-to-process PTSD and other issues that had made trying to find an omega nearly impossible. He'd gotten help with his trauma and now lived a healthy and normal life, finally able to put those days behind him. He was ready to move on.

His friend Hyunwoo and his mate Kihyun were always trying to set him up with various dates, but he felt that when he met 'the one' he would know. There was no reason to rush it or force it. They were worried about his solitude and concerned that he might slip back into his old headspace left over from his days in the military. However, he was fine. He was happy, and healthy, keeping himself busy with work. That was good enough for now.

His wolves were yipping and growling at each other, playing tug of war with bits of rope and chew toys. He'd let them all out of their kennels for a while to run and play. None of them were in their harnesses so they knew they were allowed to play and be themselves for now.

Piper was curled up in his kennel as usual. The wolf was the most antisocial he'd ever worked with. Mingyu had had him for almost two years now and had yet to find anyone to pair him with. The wolf was definitely the alpha of the kennels, second only to Mingyu himself, and all the others learned quickly to leave him be. Mingyu was the only human the wolf really seemed to like. He wasn't vicious or dangerous, but he was the grumpiest animal he'd ever met.

Piper would harumph and turn his back on anyone who tried to pet him. Honestly, Mingyu was fond of the wolf and related to him a lot. He felt that Piper was simply waiting on the one just like him, and he wouldn't accept anyone else. He heard the bell on the front door ring just as he offloaded his burden of food into the storage bin next to the kennels. There was a light tapping that he thought for a moment was high-heeled shoes but realized it was too soft.

"Hello?" The smooth, deep voice hit his ear like silk and Mingyu felt a shiver roll down his spine.

"Just a sec!"

Mingyu watched as his wolves raced to greet the guest and strangely, he saw Piper come out of his kennel to investigate as well. His wolves beat him to the lobby and he heard them sniffing and whining, then a little, "Oh!" and a clatter followed by tinkling laughter.

He rushed through the door to see a smaller, blond omega on the floor surrounded by his wolves who were all sniffing and nuzzling the stranger. The most unusual thing however was Piper, who was lying across the omega's legs, head on paws and totally relaxed. The male omega was beautiful. His blond hair hung effortlessly into his face, obscuring his eyes, and looked soft as strands of silk and luminous even in the harsh fluorescent lighting. His clothes were simple, just a pair of light blue jeans and a heather gray t-shirt under a blue and black plaid button-up that hung open on his shoulders. Mingyu's eyes sought the high heels he'd heard but saw only black Converse.