Deception

Prologue

Werewolves are the children of the moon, and a mate is a gift bestowed by the moon goddess. 

Every werewolf’s dream is to meet their mates as soon as they reach their 18th birthday, but it didn’t apply to all of them. Those lucky ones would find them not long after they reach 18 years old, but there are also some who need to wait for years for their mate. Those who falls on the second category is likely due to their mate not reaching the age of maturity, or their mate belonged to another pack. In rare cases, their mate could be human and already has a family on their own, or their mate has unfortunately already passed on before meeting their werewolf half. 

With this belief, many werewolves who had waited for years usually give up finding for their counterpart and make their own family. However, the cons of forcing a mark on someone besides your mate comes with a price, especially if the female is human. Death is inevitable. The female werewolf will be barren, with no children to carry on the male’s family line whether or not the male is of the same species. It is a known fact in the werewolf community, thus marking and mating with someone that is not your mate is frowned upon

"Jungkook-ah, look here." You screamed for your best friend when you found a squirrel at the foot of the tree.

Your voice was loud enough to send the small rodent running up the tree and was instantly out of your sight, making you pout in disappointment. The person you called out for was running as quickly as his ten year old legs could carry him and by the time he was beside you, he looked confused as he turned his head around to see what it was that you asked him to look at.

"Did you make me run here to meet your imaginary friend?" He raised his eyebrows at you when he found nothing. 

"I found a squirrel but it ran away." You sighed and sat down on the ground, feeling dejected.

"Squirrel? Where?" A head popped out from one of the trees and asked, and you responded by pointing up at the tree that the squirrel hid into.

He walked over to you and looked up into the tree branches to see any movements but found nothing.

"Is your imaginary friend a squirrel by chance?" He snickered.

"Kim Taehyung." Another ten year old boy made his appearance, walking towards his three best friends casually as he scolded Taehyung for being rude. 

You wrinkled your nose and hit Taehyung's arm as an act of revenge.

"I swear it was just there, you believe me right, Jimin?"

Jimin smiled and nodded before taking a seat beside you. He looked up into the trees and was looking out for squirrels with you, and just in time, the squirrel made its appearance again and was running along the tree branches which made you stand up in excitement. 

"See! It's a squirrel!" You pointed at the rodent that was sniffing around on one of the many tree branches.

Jungkook put an arm around you and looked at the squirrel that you were pointing at. "Okay, fine. It's not your imaginary friend." 

You turned to him and grinned proudly.

"Told you."

He noticed the cute smile you were giving him and he returned it with one of his own, albeit his cheeks turning red from his hidden thoughts. He just thought that his female best friend was cute. It shouldn't only be him right? He should ask Taehyung and Jimin. Even though there were many female pups that approached him with the intention of befriending him, he was never interested in them. 

The four of them were close since they were diapers, so they never really needed to approach one another for friendship. They were just there for each other.

"You think that who's cute?" Taehyung snorted while you looked wide eyed at Jungkook's words. You were in disblief and your cheeks were burning in embarassment while Jimin was pursing his lips to hold in his laughter.

Jungkook blinked at the reaction he received when he confessed. "It's only me? Try smiling for us Jaein." 

You tried your best to grin and both Taehyung and Jimin burst out laughing while Jungkook looked conflicted.

"Okay, maybe I thought wrong." Jungkook awkwardly said and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Goddess, you look like you ate a bad cookie but trying to lie that it wasn't bad." Taehyung laughed and wiped away the lingering tear in his eye.

You narrowed your eyes at him although you were very flustered when they started laughing at your expense. How were you exactly supposed to smile when you had nothing to smile about? You weren't great at pretending.

"And you look like a laughing hyena." You retorted childishly but Taehyung was completely unaffected by your comment and continued laughing.

Both you and Jungkook waited for the other two to calm down before the four of you headed down to wash up before having dinner. From then on, Jungkook had decided to keep his growing interest in his best friend to himself. The more knowledgeable he was, the deeper he buried his feelings to avoid disappointments, and pointless stress and pain. It was a waste of his time to let his feelings linger on his childhood crush when he had a mate out there. 

This was just an innocent crush, he convinced himself.