#exo mate

“That was absolutely amazing!” I’m grinning ear to ear as Luhan helps me out of his car. I don’t even care about the massive building behind me at the moment, I just rush up to Kris who had driven in another car and basically beg, “Hyung can I ride with you next time?”

He chuckles, “Of course little wolf but you are offending Luhan hyung.”

I look over my shoulder at Luhan, who is not pouting as he holds the door open for Kyungsoo, Baekhyun and Jongdae to climb out of the back seat.

“Sorry Hyung but Kris hyung drives faster!”

Luhan scoffs, “I would have driven faster if I didn’t have Kyungsoo in the back growling in my ear anytime I went slightly above the speed limit. Kid is such a worry wart, he has her sitting in the front seat with his one arm resting on her shoulders and his other hand holding the door closed even though I already locked the doors.”

“You already poisoned her this morning, I wasn’t going to let her fall out of a moving car too,” Kyungsoo snaps.

“How was your first car ride?” Yixing asks me coming to stand by my side.

“It was so much fun, I can’t believe I’ve gone my whole like with out riding in one.”

“Enough car talk, lets get her inside the building, it’s freezing out here,” Suho decides, taking my hand and leading me past his brothers. I stare at our interlocked hands and realize this is the first time we’ve touched. Warm tingles spread from my fingertips to my toes, I find myself smiling at our connection, gripping his large hand tighter. I take a moment to do a mental checklist of who I’ve at least touched or  I’ve had some kind of moment with, Suho, Chanyeol, and Baekhyun are the only ones who don’t come to mind. With that in my head I pull Suho’s arm a bit so I can wrap our arms together, bringing our whole bodies closer together.

“Hyung.”

He raises his brows, “Yes?”

“We have never really talked,” I note.

He nods, “You haven’t been with us very long, I don’t want to overwhelm you and scare you away.”

“Don’t you want to be close to me though?” My hold on him loosens a bit, something he quickly notices and brings his free hand up to keep me from letting go completely.

“Of course I do! I just don’t want to be like Jongin and almost attack you.”

“You seem pretty in control of yourself,” I muse, “Maybe you’re just a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

That makes him laugh, a beautiful smile spreads across his face and I’m awe struck at such and amazing sight. My cheeks get a pink hue across them, my heart flutters. God they are beautiful.

“How do you feel about being out in public for the first time?” Suho asks, I blink a few times before glancing around. I basically jump into his arms, clinging to him for dear life, where the hell did all of these people come from? Lost in my own thought I didn’t even notice our change in back drop, from a parking garage, Luhan explained to me what they are, to a massive building filled with more people than I’ve ever seen in one place. “Are you okay?” He worries rubbing my back softly.

“So many people!” My eyes are as wide as can be as I try to take in as much a possible. There are so many different smells, human, wolf, something else, my mind is set into overdrive as I try to figure everything out. Someone bumps into us, out of habit I growl at the stranger, earning a confused look from the man.  My heart is beating quickly in my chest making it hard for me to breath. Suho’s hand runs up my neck and tangles in my hair, pushing me towards the crook of his neck. I hesitantly obey, afraid to take my eyes off of the on lookers who are slowly starting to stare.

“What’s wrong?” Kris is quickly standing over us.

“I think there might be too many things going on for her. We need to get her out of here before she lashes out or something.”

“The Executive lounge is on the top floor, should we take her there?” Jongdae suggests.

They must all agree because the next thing I know we are moving. I feel like we are blur, rushing through the corridors or halls or whatever they are called. I wait for more strange smells to find their way to me but all I can smell right now is Suho. It’s much different than from what I was expecting, something more like Minseok’s or Yixing’s, but he smells like a rainy day.

“Insoo,” Suho calls softly, running his fingers up and down my back. I hesitantly release him and realize that we are sitting down, my thighs straddling his hips. Concern is carved into his handsome face.

“I’m sorry Insoo I didn’t think this through,” Kris is kneeling next to us. “I should have known it would be too much, going from the woods to a shopping mall is a massive step. I’m an idiot.”

“Hyung it’s okay, I should have thought about it more. I haven’t been in public before, I should have told you that.”

“This wasn’t our greatest idea,” Luhan admits, “We should have definitely taken baby steps.”

“What should we do now though?” Tao questions.

Kris sighs, “You and Sehun go get her a few pairs of shoes to start out with. Kyungsoo and Jongin, you guys are on pajamas. Chan and Baek you guys are on actual clothes, jeans and shirts should be good to start. Jongdae and Yixing, other necessities like toothbrush, hair ties, and other things girls need. Luhan and Minseok hyung you guys are the most mature so you guys buy her underwear. I’m going to check in on a few things here in the offices, while Suho you stay here and watch over her, okay?”

“Yes Alpha,” Everyone responds together.

“Great, go.”

The ten men rush to the door dogs rushing for food, barely able to squeeze through the doorway. I finally look around our new setting, it’s a decent sized room with two couches and a TV. One wall I realize is completely made of glass looking over the very busy area I’m assuming we were moments ago, how in the world did they get up here so fast.

“Little wolf,” Kris is standing next to me, stroking my head.

I look back at him, “Hm?”

“I’m going to do some work, you will be fine here with Suho right? Cause if not I can stay and let him go.”

Suho nods, though I can tell he doesn’t want to, “I won’t take offense, you are much more comfortable with Kris and this is a very stressful situation for you, I’ll understand.”

Without hesitation I say, “I want Suho to stay, you can do your work.”

“Are you sure?” Kris asks once more.

Suho glares at him, “She said it’s fine, now go.”

I can see how hesitant the older is to just leave but I give him one last smile and wave as he closes the door. A chuckle escapes my lips at his sad child like face.

“You two are so close already,” Suho notes as he places his hands on my hips. “I’m so jealous.”

“Well Hyung what could I do to make you feel closer to me?”

He hums for a minute, “Well there is one thing.”

I cock my head.

“Call me Oppa,” He requests quietly.

“Oppa?” The word sounds foreign on my lips but I notice Suho perking up.

“I just want you to call me it once, please?”

“Suho oppa!” I smile at him, enjoying the way his eyes light up.

“It’s just so cute when you do it,” He is grinning ear to ear.

“Do you not like that I call you hyung?”

He shakes his head quickly, “I’m happy with whatever you call me as long as I can hear your voice. But it was nice to hear at least once from you…”

“I’m sorry, I would do it but in all honesty I never consider it because the only people I’ve ever called oppa are my brothers. They were murdered the night of the raid and ever sense it just doesn’t sound right,” I admit quietly.

Any kind of happy emotion falls from his face, “I am so sorry! If I had known I would have never asked for such a thing, I’m such an idiot! I’m so sorry.”

I wrap my arms around him and pull him into a tight hug, “How could you have known? It’s okay, it’s okay.”

“There is so much about you that we don’t know, so many painful stories.”

“Lots of them aren’t painful anymore, because I wouldn’t be where I am now with the family I have.”

He nods.

Our nice moment is ruined by my stomach gurgling and a sudden pain spreading through my midsection. I clutch my stomach for a minute, waiting for the pain to pass but it only dulls slightly.

“Are you okay?” Suho worries.

I shake my head, “It must be Luhan’s breakfast settling in.”

“Ah fuck, they told me about that, here you sit here,” He scoots me off his lap and on to the couch as he rushes to the door. “I’ll be back with something to calm your stomach, don’t move!” Just like that he is gone. I try to sit there patiently but the groaning in my stomach is telling me to find someplace to empty the contents of my stomach. It slowly makes its way up my throat and suddenly I’m on my feet rushing out of the room for a way outside or to anywhere that they can’t see me. I rush out of nice area they had taken me into, ending up in a pretty empty hall. I see a sign for restrooms cross some kind of bridge or arch or something and run to it. A bad vibe hangs over my shoulder for a moment  as I run down the hall but stops when I reach the restroom door that I bust into. Inside I find the first toilet and throw up everything I’ve eaten the last three days. It only takes a few heaves to actually empty my stomach, I just dry heave for a few more minutes because my body gives me no other option.

“Are you okay?” A soft voice wonders from behind me.

I spit one last time before wiping my mouth off with a piece of toilet paper, “Do I sound like I’m okay?” It comes out more aggressive than I meant to but I’m upset by my now empty stomach.

“I guess not, sorry,” The small voice apologizes.

I close my eyes for a minute with a sigh, “No, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap. I’m okay, thank you for asking.” Namjoon’s manners lesson finally becomes useful.

“I think you ran into the wrong bathroom,” Another voice pipes in. I turn around confused, two little omega girls are staring at me with wide eyes. We are about the same height but that is the only thing we have in common. They have long flowing hair that is blonde and some kind of red. Both are wearing pastel colored dresses and cute little heeled shoes, cute outfits that match their baby faces. Their hands are intertwined, a little fear in their eyes, like I would attack them but looking down I understand why. Under Minseok’s clothes my small figure is covered, my hood is up and I’m wearing shoes much to big for me, I do look a bit boyish.

I’m about to correct them when the taller of the two takes a step closer to me, “Oppa, can you help us?” I blink at her for a moment, me, Oppa?

The other nods, “There is this scary alpha creeping in the hall and we can’t leave.”

“I know you are an omega too but maybe you can scare him off since you are a boy. Oppa please!”

“That must have been the bad vibe I got when I rushed in,” I realize.

“He hasn’t come in because he likes toying with us,” The shorter sniffles.

“It’s okay don’t cry, I’ll see what I can do and pray that my mates don’t see me,” I cringe at the thought of what they would do if they saw me fighting again. “Speaking of which,” I pause, “You both smell of other alphas, where are your mates?”

“We told them we could at least go to the bathroom on our own but of course we can’t even do that,” The taller looks down at her shoes ashamed.

“Don’t worry,” I pat her head, “I’ll protect you from the big bag alpha.” Even though I’m smiling at these sweet little omega my heart pings as I think of my past. “You guys wait here, I’ll see if I can get rid of him, okay?”

They nod before giving a quiet fighting.

With a sigh I walk to the exit and down the hall from where I came I see the alpha that they were talking about. The hallway reeks of his pheromones, letting those girls inside know that he’s out here and he’s waiting for them. A snarl rumbles in my chest at the old tricks he’s playing. Soldiers used to do this to omegas that were trying to hide in the villages we were raiding. The alpha pushes away from the wall he was leaning on and swaggers my way, his head cocked to the side in amusement.

“Was that a growl I heard from you, Omega?” He muses.

“It was,” I snap, “What the hell are you doing slinking around mated omegas?”

“I don’t think that is any of your business. I’m not looking for any little boys to fuck so scram,” He gestures for me to pass.

“I’m not going anywhere without those little omegas so fuck off.”

He laughs, “I’d watch that mouth of yours, unless you want me to find it something else to do.”

“Don’t you have something better you could be doing?”

“Not anymore,” He wraps his arm around my shoulders, “I found exactly what I want to be doing. I’ve never knotted a male omega, I guess there is a first time for everything.” I cringe at his words, placing my hand over his, I lift it over my head and twist it behind his back, sending him to his knees. He cries out as the bones in his arms crack, “You are breaking my arm!”

“I am.”

“Stop! Stop! Please!”

I sigh, “You act so tough but can’t even handle some broken bones. If you going to pretend to be the big bad wolf at least know how to act like one, you whiny bitch. Are you done harassing girls?”

“Yes!” He seethes as he tries to pull away form me with no luck.

“I swear to go if I see you doing this again I’ll rip your knot right off, got it?”

He nods frantically.

“Good,” I push him to the ground, expecting him to run away but flips on to his feet and crouches down ready to attack.

I sigh, ready for him to jump at me but when two more alphas join us in the hall the man freezes. It’s two alphas I don’t know but their scents are familiar enough for me to assume that they are the two omegas mates.

“Shit,” The alpha snarls as he pushes past the other two and escapes down the hall. I look to the new comers with an awkward smile, not really sure how to interact with people. They just look confused about whatever could have happened in front of them.

“Oppa!” The two girls rush out of the restroom and I assume they are running to their mates but they basically tackle me to the ground. “Thank you!”

“Rose, Lisa, what the hell is going on?” One of the alphas asks.

“Mino oppa!” The blonde pops up and beams at her mate.

“Who is this? Get off of him, you shouldn’t jump on strange wolves,” The other scolds, pulling the red head off me. Blondie is pulled up next, I sit up leaning back on my hands, not really expecting the jealous looking alphas to let their mates touch me again.

“This is the Oppa that saved us from the scary alpha,” Red responds, pouting at her mate.

“We are the ones that scared him away,” Mino clarifies.

I roll my eyes but Blondie defends me, “He had him screaming before you showed up.”

Mino is going to snap back before a horrifying growl echoes through the hall. We all sink down as the pheromones of twelve pissed alphas surrounds us. The four wolves near me are on their knees with their heads down. I scan the four before looking to my mates, trying to figure out who they are mad at.

“Hello,” I stand in front of all of them and bow, “I’m Insoo.”

“Hello!” Chanyeol answers back eagerly from where he sits with his brothers on the couch. Eleven pairs of eyes are staring at me, six waiting on edge, afraid of what could be going on, the other five want to hear about my past from my own mouth. The silver haired giants wide smile keeps my heart from pounding out of my chest, I give him a grateful smile.

“It’s nice to meet all of you, I’m sorry for looking like a mess on our first meeting, I wasn’t expecting to be meeting anyone new,” I apologize awkwardly and I run my fingers through my short hair.

“You look beautiful,” Luhan offers me a sweet smile.

“The others had neglected to mention that there were move of you so, again, I apologize for the very bad introduction I’m giving, I would have prepared better or at least talked with my pack to see what they said yesterday. I’m not really sure how I should explain this, can Jin hyung come up and help me?” I look to Kris.

He shakes him head, “I’m sorry little wolf, I would like to keep the fighting to a minimum and having him up here would cause a fight. We are very possessive men Love, I let you stay with them yesterday because you wouldn’t let him go after you passed out. If you need someone to help or lean on I’m right here and so is Yixing, we’ve got you.”

“But it’s different,” I protest lightly, “You don’t know all of it.”

“Please just try and explain a little bit so the others will be more willing to understand why you need another man to hold your hand.”

I take a deep breath, “Okay, Ge, I’ll try.”

He chuckles, “That is all I ask.”

“Okay, when I was a little girl, I was kidnapped by the blood red army.” The new comers eyes are wide with surprise, their mouths hang up ready to question everything.

“You were kidnapped?” Suho repeats.

I nod, “When I was nine years old.”

“The army has been wiped out for thirty years,” Kyungsoo’s brows furrow, “How old are you? How long were you with them?”

“I am 115 years old, so I was is the army for about 76 year? That sounds about right, it was a lot harder to tell how many days would pass back then,” I laugh awkwardly to try and defuse the intense atmosphere I feel beginning to grow.

I suddenly feel my knees buckle under me when I feel the air become thicker around me, “You were stuck with those bastards for 76 years?” Chanyeol seethes. The others want to glare at the younger but are struggling to keep their own anger in check.

Kris is on his feet hanging over me, his hands are on my shoulders keeping me from going on all fours, “Chanyeol calm down right now or I swear to god I will kick you out.”

The silver haired giant growls back at the older, “How can you be so calm Hyung? How can any of you be calm when our mate was used as a sex slave for some of the most disgusting men in the world? Do you remember the rumors of what they would do to the omegas that they caught? Their soldiers were pieces of shit monsters who would rather kill innocent people than die themselves. Can you imagine what could have happened to her?”

“Chanyeol you are only making things worse!” Suho snaps back in an obviously restrained voice. “Look at what you are doing to her, she is just an omega, you are putting too much pressure on her. Calm down.”

Just an omega. I remove Kris’s hands from my shoulders and stand up on my own two feet, ignoring the trembling of my knees and my shaking hands. I straighten my shoulders, trying my best to fight against my natural instinct and just burry my face in Kris’s neck. I don’t cower, I have already cowered and submitted more in the last three day than I have for the last 100 years of my life. I not some weakling. The new comers are arguing amongst themselves, too busy trying to protect me to actually notice me right now.

“Suho hyung is right,” Chen voices his concern, “Bringing it up also doesn’t help. We don’t want her to have to relive it.”

Too late for that, I think to myself, I’ve been reliving my past every night in my dreams since I was freed.

“So are we just supposed to pretend like it didn’t happen?” Luhan scoffs, “This isn’t just something we can ignore!”

“How do we handle something like this?” Suho worries.

Kyungsoo and Minseok are both staring at the ground, their eyes fixed on the wood, their hands are on their knees, gripping them so tight their knuckles are white. As much as they are trying to control their angry I can feel it seeping out of them. All of them are too focused on their anger and how to handle me that they don’t notice my sudden change of attitude. But the others do, Baekhyun, Jongin, Sehun, Yixing and Kris all watch me with both interest and worry.

“You have it all wrong,” I mumble to them.

“What?” The six look up at me.

“I was not a sex slave, I was a soldier.” The others share a knowing look.

Kyungsoo is the first to question it, for the first time I see some kind of emotion on his face, though whether it is concern or anger I’m not sure, “You were a soldier? That’s impossible, they wouldn’t allow a female omega to be a soldier.”

“That’s because they didn’t know, I’ve been hiding my gender my whole life, well since I was nine.”

“How could you have been a soldier?” Chanyeol scoffs, “You couldn’t hurt a fly. You are so tiny, look how fragile you are, you could barely stand with me being upset, how could you be in an army full of powerful alphas?”

“I’m stronger than you think,” I snap back, taking the others by surprise. “This has be been a hard couple of days for me, this is all so new for me. I’m used to attacking people before they have the chance to use their dominance on me, so I hope you’ll understand unless you would prefer me to use my old tactics.”

“You would attack people?” Chen croaks.

My heart actually hurts when I see the concern and guilt on his face but I have to continue on with my poker face, “I did what I had to do.”

I lock eyes with Minseok who’s cat like ones are narrowed on me, “There is a cost to join, isn’t there?”

I stiffen, “A cost?”

Kyungsoo’s eyes go wide, “Your parents.”

“The cost to join is killing your parents with your own two hands,” Jin surprises the room by chiming in. He stands in the doorway, ignoring the death glares he is getting from my mates and casually munches on an apple.

“What are you doing up here?” Kris snarls.

“I was ease dropping, when I heard about the cost I figured Insoo might need a little extra support,” Jin explains with a glare of his own.

“We are here for her,” Yixing interjects.

Jin cocks a brow at him, “Are you sure? You may want to ask some of your other pack members before you start yelling about that.” I look out amongst my mates and feel a ping in my chest. They look so cold. I take a step away from Kris and wrap around myself, trying to hold myself together.

“You didn’t do it did you?” Chen suddenly questions me.

Before I have a chance to answer Chanyeol sneers back, “Of course she didn’t!”

I chuckle humorlessly, “What makes you so sure? Because I’m an omega? Because I’m a girl?”

“Because our mate could never do something that cruel,” He snaps back. A burning feeling spreads through my chest, I’m struggling to breath once again. But this isn’t his dominance taking over me, it’s rejection.

I glare at him back at him, boiling with anger I seethe back, “Well than I guess I’m not your mate because I did kill my own parents. Sorry if that destroys the perfect little image you had of your mate in your head but I did what I had to do to survive.”

“But they forced you right?” Sehun hopes before looking over at Jin, “He forced you to do it! You had no choice.” I look over at the older with apologetic eyes, he’s always being troubled because of me. I guess this wasn’t discussed yesterday from not just Sehun’s reaction but the other four as well.

Jin doesn’t argue, he doesn’t have to, we’ve had this conversation a million times so I give the same answer I always tell myself and anyone else who asks, “I had a choice.”

“No you didn’t,” Jongin agrees, the others nod along with him.

I shake my head, “There is always a choice. Jin hyung gave me two just like he gave everyone else, just like I did with everyone after I was recruited.”

That seems like too much for Jongin to understand, “How could you do something like that to your own parents? How could you make children do the same?”

“Would you rather her be dead?” Jin questions with his eyebrows raised. “Because that is what her other option consisted of if case you were wondering.”

“How could make her do something like that? Why didn’t you help her?” Baekhyun explodes.

“I’ve done more for that child than any of you will ever know. I watched her struggle for years, offered her my shoulder to cry on and my arms to sleep in. I protected her from a world that would have eaten her up and spit her out so don’t you ever tell me I didn’t help her. She had to make the same decision as me and the rest of our pack, your own life or theirs. She did what she needed to do to survive in this world, so get your asses off your high horses and ask yourself, where were you when she needed you? What were you doing, huh? Last time I checked you were more infamous than us. Your life wasn’t on the line when you made that choice to bathe in the same blood as us so don’t you dare judge us. Just answer my question: would you rather have her dead than have her as the warrior she is? But make sure to answer wisely, say the wrong thing and we can be gone.”

The whole room is brought to their feet when Kris suddenly has Jin by the throat, slammed hard up against the wall. “You will not be taking my mate anywhere!” The giant roars as he looms over the shorter. I stare dumbstruck, I’ve never felt someone this mad before. As scared as I feel right now though, I find it strongly comforting that he is this mad about me, all my mates are right now actually.

Jin is surprisingly able to push the other away, rage burning in his eyes, “I will not be leaving my Insoo anywhere she doesn’t feel wanted so the rest of your pack needs to buck the fuck up and take responsibility for making her feel like they would rather have her dead than how she is now!”

Jin’s words just hang in the air, my heart is out there with them waiting to be completely torn apart by whatever harsh words come out of their mouths. I wait for more denial and blame, I wait for their eyes to leave the wood floor and come back to meet mine with nothing but a heartbreaking chill. Instead I meet cat like ones that have sweet warmth to them, “I’m sorry we weren’t there for you. I’m sorry you had to go through all of that. I’m sorry for hurting you, for looking at you so coldly, for not welcoming you in my arms for better or worse.” Minseok comes around the coffee table to stand only a few feet from me. “Can we try again?”

I nod and take a step closer to the older, “I would really like that.”

“Is it alright if I hug you?”

Again I nod.

“Thank god, I’ve been wanting to do this since I got home,” He sighs in relief before pulling me into his arms and burring his face in my neck. The tension seems to fade away allowing me to let out my own sigh of relief.

“Good,” Jin claps his hands together, “now that all this stuff is out of the way I have a cranky pup who would like to see his favorite hyung.”

I snuggle deeper into Minseok’s embrace and inhale his scent, “Give me a minute.”

“I want to hug her!” Chanyeol whines as he comes forward as well. I sigh but release the eldest hyung before allowing the younger to lift me up to his height to inhale his sweet scent. Cake, the man literally smells like cake and it is driving me insane by reminding me of the emptiness of my stomach.

“Are we each doing a round or am I excused?” I wonder when the giant sets me down.

“I would like to have a turn if that’s okay little wolf,” Luhan’s voice is soft and sweet.

“Me too!” Chen appears behind him with a Cheshire grin.

“Form a line, form a line,” I order as the others from earlier also join in for a hug. They each take their time holding me close, I enjoy each new embrace, my mind already forgetting the fighting from only a moment ago. When everyone has had their turn, I look to Kris for an okay to go see my pack. “May I be excused?”

Jin chuckles as he comes to stand next to me, “So polite now, aren’t we?”

“You have twenty minutes but than you need to take a bath, you are still a little cold,” Kris places his large warm hands on my cheeks in a quick attempt to get rid of their chill. He lets me go with a deep sigh before waving us away.

“Did you actually take a bath by yourself yesterday?” Jin wonders as we turn to leave the room, “That’s a first.”

I nod, “It was really weird so I asked Yixing hyung to come in so he laid on the floor.”

Jin chuckles, we reach the stairs, “Poor man. It’s a shame now though, Jungkook has to bathe with Jimin and Tae now that his usual partner is gone, he is very upset about it.”

“Who the hell is Jungkook?” Chanyeol roars from behind us, “And why the hell is he taking a bath with you?” Jin and I rush down the stairs to find our pack lounging around the massive basement, Tao is sitting in a chair close to the stairs on his phone. He looks up upon our arrival and quickly jumps to his feet.

“Insoo-ya!” He greets with a big smile and a tight hug. I return the hug with a quick glance over my shoulder when I hear a crowd following us.

“Hyung!” The three youngest greet me happily. I thank Tao and even give him a quick kiss on the cheek before rushing to my pack to give them each a hug before the moment is ruined. I hug the older boys first since they are the more dominate of the group knowing my mates would hate it a fraction less if I was hugging the pups.

“My pup!” I coo when I finally reach Jungkook at the same time my mates reach the bottom of the stairs. Growls erupt from where they stand but I don’t release Jungkook. Looking over my shoulder I give them a forced smile, “This is my pack.”

“Well it is nice to meet you,” Namjoon greets a bit awkwardly.

“You are the head alpha?” Minseok questions.

Namjoon can’t hide the bit of offense he takes from the question but quickly recovers and straightens his shoulders, “I am.”

Minseok nods as he scans Namjoon head to toe before looking over at Jin who is hovering around Jungkook and I, “I figured from the way this man was acting he would be in charge.”

“I thought the same thing when I saw you,” Jin snaps back, “but I guess we think the same thing, why bother with being in charge when it’s only more work? I had my work cut out for me with my pup and my grand pup.”

“True,” Namjoon ads on with a chuckle, trying to make the conversation more light, “He had his hands full with making sure these two didn’t get into any trouble.”

“What kind of trouble could she get into?” Baekhyun wonders.

I chuckle as I release my pup and awkwardly rub the back of my neck, “More than you could ever guess.”

“Insoo-ya,” Sehun waves me over, I give my pack a small smile before obeying. Sehun pulls me close the moment I’m in his reaching distance and wraps his arms around my shoulder, keeping me at his side. “I’d prefer it if you stayed by us.”

I cock my head in confusion looking to a smirking Jin for an explanation that he happily gives, “He’s jealous Soo-ya.”

“Can you really blame us though?” Jongin comes to stand on my other side, “We’ve barely been able to spend time with her then the hyungs came back and now you are all here taking all of her love and affection and attention.”

“You can’t just expect her to be able to focus on you and only you with twelve mates. Also,” Yoongi clicks his tongue, “it has only been a day since she met you, you didn’t honestly expect her to just throw herself in your arms the moment you meet.”

“That is how is works!” Sehun corrects with a stomp of his foot like a spoiled child, “She is supposed to feel the same automatic connection that we all feel where we can’t imagine living without each other.”

“How do you know she doesn’t feel it?” Jungkook mumbles taking all of us off guard, the pup usually never enters a conversations when other alphas are involved, especially ones so old and powerful. But at the same time my pack and I understand his sudden out burst, when it comes to me Jungkook can be a wild card.

I lock eyes with the younger and warn him softly, “Be careful with your words pup, I don’t want to start another fight.”

“But Hyung they seem so ungrateful for all the things you are doing,” he protests.

“Ungrateful?” Kris snarls, taking a step forward hands clenching tightly at his sides, making the younger step back.

I pull away from Sehun to stand in between them, “Don’t you even think about raising a hand to my pup.”

Kris’s frustration with not only my pack but me as well show in his eyes, “How can you stand there and let them say that we are ungrateful to you?”

“Because you all stand there glaring at us like we’ve done something wrong!” Jungkook snarls at them. “All we have done is loved her while you were all too preoccupied running around the forest slaughtering people for fun. We are her family, who you are keeping from her, because your desire to keep her to yourself seems to be more important than what she wants.”

I turn around to face the younger with a poor attempt at a stern face to scold the boy but when I see his eyes are red from holding in tears I can’t hold my self back from hugging him. “Kookie,” I coo holding the boy closer, his face tucked into the crook of my neck, “What in the world has gotten into you?”

“I’m so sorry Hyung,” He cries softly, “I just…I’m sorry…but you were my hyung first and now they can come and just take you away, how is that fair? I know they are your mates but they won’t appreciate you as much as I do.”

I shush him, “Everything is going to be okay, please calm down.”

“It’s not going to be okay! They are going to make us leave as soon as they can so they can have you all to themselves. I don’t want to leave you behind, I can’t imagine my life without you!”

“Kookie, look at me,” I command take the boy by his puffy cheeks. He stares at me with a cute pout, “I’m only going to tell you this once, okay?”

He nods.

“I love you, you know I will always love all of you. You are my pup and I am your mama wolf, okay? Just because I have my mates doesn’t mean I love you guys any less. You are not getting out of my life even if you wanted to, we are family which means we are always connected. Now stop crying okay?”

He gives me a small smile, “Yes, Hyung.”

“Good,” I kiss he forehead before pulling away and flicking him in the same stop on his head.

“Ah,” He whines, “Hyung that hurt. What was that for?”

“That is for talking back to my mates. I don’t ever want you to talk back to a powerful alpha again, we won’t always be able to protect you from getting your ass beat. I know they are being possessive and a little crazy but this is a lot for them to handle. As I remember you didn’t have the calmest reaction when you found out I was a girl so give them a break. I have a lot more baggage than most omegas, it not like I had one or two problems in my life that they have to deal with. I’m a bucket of crazy with a lot of blood on my hands so give them more than an hour to fully understand that, okay?”

“Yes, Hyung.”

“Do they really have to go?” I actually whine with my hands latched around Jungkook’s.

“Don’t push our luck Soo-ya,” Yoongi says sternly before my mates have the chance to, he is also able to pry my hands away from the younger gently.

Jungkook is pouting but he nods, “He’s right, we are lucky we even get to see you.”

I’m about to snap back with some comment about how no one is in charge of me but snap my mouth closed when I catch the warning look Namjoon is sending me to keep my mouth closed. I nibble softly on my lip as I tuck my hands behind me and look around with wide innocent eyes as if I wasn’t about to go alpha on their asses.

“I’ll lead the way out, we will see you again tomorrow?” Namjoon glances to my mates to make sure it’s still possible.

“Tomorrow,” Kris confirms.

“Goodbye,” I wave to them as they go and like yesterday I feel strange watching them go out the back door.

Jin stops in the doorway and gives me a small smirk, “I’ll bring your things tomorrow, you must be missing your things.”

“I guess,” I cock my head in confusion, I’ve never been a materialistic person so there aren’t many things I feel attached to. It clicks in my mind a moment after making me grin in return, “I really am.”

He bows his head before closing the door behind him and leaving me with my mates. I turn around, giving them an awkward smile I don’t really know where to go from here. Luckily my stomach decides for me as it growls loud enough for everyone to hear.

Kris chuckles, “Hungry little wolf?”

I nod bashfully.

“Did you hear that Kyungsoo? Your mate is hungry, aren’t you going to cook for her?” Chen wraps his arm around the round eyed boy. Kyungsoo glares at the other, he gives me a brief glance before looking away.

“It’s alright,” I answer quickly, “I can find something myself, no need to bother him.”

Kris chuckles as he comes a puts his arm around my shoulders and kisses the top of my head, “We are not going to make you find something, we are going to have a big breakfast to welcome you to your new home.”

“While they are cooking though,” Yixing comes to stand on my other side, “I promised you a bath and some fresh clothes.”

“I thought we got to come too,” The younger boys whine, earning a glare from their hyung.

I smile, “Of course you can come along! The more the merrier!” Yixing is pouting but he doesn’t say anything else as he leads me upstairs with Chanyeol, Baekhyun and Chen trailing behind us. Like yesterday Yixing turns on the water for me before escorting himself and the others out of the room so I can climb in and they can transform. This time though there are lots of bubbles in the tub. I watch completely amazed as they grow with the water. When the water is high enough I climb in the tub and giggle as I’m swallowed up by the bubbles. “Hyungs!” I call once I’m situated. The door opens and six wolves trot in, Sehun and Jongin being the two late comers. Chanyeol rushes straight up to the tubs edge and licks my cheek making me smile.

“Hello to you too,” I greet happily as I reach out to stroke his head.

Baekhyun runs forward and jumps in the water with me causing it to spill out on the floor. Yixing is right there teeth bared, ready to tear the younger boy a part but stops when I start laughing uncontrollably. I can’t hold it in at the sight of the soaking wet pink wolf looking at me with big scared eyes.

“This is what I’m talking about!” I giggle gleefully. “It’s no fun taking a bath by yourself, right Baekhyun hyung?”

The wolf gives me a grin as he nods his head.

“Now if only the tub was a bit bigger than everyone could jump in,” I pout.

The size doesn’t stop Chanyeol from joining us in the water with a massive wolf grin. The other wolves scurry closer eager to join us making me laugh.

“I’m not going to clean this up.”

…………………………………..

“Where are the others?” Kris questions when Yixing and I step into the delicious smelling kitchen. I try to hide my smile by looking in any other direction.

“They made a massive mess so they have to clean it up,” Yixing huffs still furious about the mess of fur and water in his bathroom.

I chuckle and take the man’s hand in both of mine, “I’m sorry Hyung, I take responsibility. They got a bit too excited and jumped in the water with me.”

Yixing shakes his head, “They are grown wolves and should be able to control themselves.”

“You sometimes slip up on that too, you know.”

“When?”

Minseok answers as he stands up from one of the stools at the island, “When anyone else comes near our little wolf you get a bit aggressive which is very out of character for you.” He comes closer, smirking when the younger visibly tenses, “You can’t keep her to yourself you know. I would like to get to know our mate as well. I’m sure the younger boys feel the same, not to mention that the head alpha hasn’t been able to mark her yet.”

“We aren’t talking about things like that yet,” Kris suddenly takes over the conversation, authority dripping in his voice, his eyes fixated on the oldest.

“My bad,” Minseok chuckles as he continues towards me, not even giving Yixing a glance.

“Any particular reason why?” Luhan wonders from the island.

Kris sighs, “I would like her to get used to being around us before we do something like that.”

Minseok hums in understanding before placing his hands on my shoulders and steering me around the island to be closer to not just Kris but also Kyungsoo who is focused on the food cooking in front of him. Kris watches confused, the other four watch with the same expression; Minseok stops places me only inches away from the other before commanding, “Be warmer.”

I bite my lip, in my chest heart wants to stop as embarrassment wraps around me. Am I that awkward? That cold? “I’m sorry,” I choke out hanging my head low.

“Not you love,” The man quickly corrects, sliding his arms around my shoulders to pull me into a back hug. “I’m talking to the head Alpha who seems to have a constant poker face on. You are doing great love,” He coos the last words before placing a soft kiss on my cheek.

“I wouldn’t look so poker faced if everyone stopped touching her and gave me a chance to get closer with her.” The head alpha snaps with such poison I find myself stepping back deeper into Minseok’s embrace. But the older won’t let me get any farther away, instead he pushes me closer.

“She’s closer, now stop with that sour look, you are going to scare her,” Minseok reaches his arms out and grabs Kris’s hands. He brings Kris’s large hands to my hips. Mine were curled up at my chest, unsure of where to put them. Everyone continues to watch as Minseok moves to my hands and places my little fists on Kris’s chest. The oldest stays with his front pressed against my back, chin resting on my shoulder, making sure I can’t back away. Kris is staring down at me, our height difference very much apparent in this position. “Is this close enough?”

“Are you okay with this?” Kris’s gaze softens as he looks at me.

I nod shyly.

“You can move away now Hyung,” Kris nudges the other’s hips away but he pulls himself right back.

“I think I’m making her more comfortable,” He chuckles, “Right sweet girl?”

I’m so thankful my blush isn’t showing right now but embarrassment still coils in my throat leaving nodding as my only option.

“See! She’s so happy she can’t even speak!” Minseok pushes me further into Kris’s embrace, tightly sandwiching me in between their tone chests in a warm hug. I hide my face in Kris’s chest, knowing my cheeks are red enough to be seen even with my tan skin. Minseok chuckles before tucking his face in the crook of my neck. “You smell delicious.”

The three of us are brought out of our moment by the sound of snapping wood a few feet away. Kyungsoo is watching us with nothing but rage and jealousy, the broken wooden spoon is now on the floor, whatever he is cooking is done cooking but he couldn’t care less. There is thick tension in the air, the three seem to be having a silent battle, but I’m confused. I thought that Kyungsoo didn’t like me.

Minseok chuckles, “Someone’s jealous.”

Kyungsoo lets out a growl from deep in his chest.

The growing intensity of the situation and, I’m guessing, my reaction of burrowing myself in his chest, force the head alpha to stop the on coming fight with a snarl of his own. “Kyungsoo.”

The large eyed boy looks to his head alpha, anger still in his eyes, “What?”

Kris rolls at the younger’s hostility, “If you are jealous just say so instead of acting like a child. Would you like to hold her?”

Minseok doesn’t wait for a response before lifting me out of Kris’s arms by the waist and carrying over to Kyungsoo. Like before the oldest stops a few inches from the other, his hands grab Kyungsoo by the arm, dragging him away form the stove and signaling Kris to take care of the food. I’m staring down at my feet while this whole thing is going on, horrified of the angry look Kyungsoo will be giving me. But suddenly Minseok is pushed away from me. Kyungsoo has me tight in his arms, one wraps securely around my waist, his other hand is tucked in the hair at the base of my head, forcing my face into the crook of his neck to breath him in. He doesn’t need to force me at all though to be honest, I’ve wanted to inhale his chocolate like scent since I first saw him.

My hands wrap around to his back, I fist the back of his shirt, pulling him even closer. For a minute I forget that everyone is watching us, it’s just him and I right now. His sweet scent starts to consume my mind, awakening my omega, making my whole body begin to tingle, and I find myself wanting more.

“What the hell!” A younger wolf snarls. I try to jump away from Kyungsoo, my body now burning with humiliation. I just got too excited from his scent, I need to get away from him right now and hide.

“Sehun, you need to calm down right now,” Minseok seethes from only a few inches away now, once again sandwiching me in between him and Kyungsoo. His hands are on my shoulders despite Kyungsoo’s obvious distaste of the action. “This is nothing to be embarrassed about love, it’s completely okay.”

“He’s just jealous he wasn’t involved,” Kris chirps in as he pats my head.

“How about we all stop touching her for a minute?” Suho suggests, “Give her a minute to breath.”

The three around me sigh but slowly start to pull away, I let the two closest to me slip away but I capture Kris’s hand on my head, “This is enough space to breath, I don’t need any more.”

Staring down at my feet I just hear Kris chuckle and say softly, “Okay little wolf, would you like to sit next to me at the table?”

“Please?” I peek up at him.

“Of course!” He wraps his arms around my shoulders and leads me through the rest of the kitchen to the dining room with a group of wolves shuffling behind us only until Kris yells at them. “You guys help with the food!”

As head Alpha Kris sits at the head of the table, he sits me on his left, Minseok comes in a moment later with a plate of pickled radish in his hands and take the other spot next to me. “I hope you are hungry.”

I nod eagerly, “I really am, it’s a lot harder not eating with so much food around.”

“I’ve been wondering about that,” Luhan appears in the seat across from me, adding another plate to the table, followed by Suho. “Did you have to live off the land or did you go into town for things?”

“We survive mostly off small animals during the winter, we eat more fruits and vegetables during the warmer months when we can find them.”

“Have you ever gone into the city?”

I shake my head, “I’ve only ever been in a small town in the north that we stopped in a couple times a couple decades ago. We stayed at a hotel there that a friend of ours owns.”

“What about your education?” Suho questions, concern obvious on his face, “You seem completely fine when it comes to speech but how is your reading and writing?”

“I’m probably a little better than you would expect from someone who has never been in an actual school. Namjoon is really smart so he taught us a bit after we got out and added Jungkook since he was so young at the time we wanted him to have a better education than any of us had.” By now everyone is at the table that is completely filled with delicious looking food. The smells have my mouth watering, “This looks amazing!” I say excitedly scanning all the food, a few different kinds of meat, lots of vegetables, and a bowl of rice for each person. “Did Kyungsoo hyung make this?” I look to the large eyed man who just nods. “Thank you so much!”

“Show your gratitude by eating a lot,” He responds with a stern voice, “You are too thin.”

“I will!” I look to Kris for permission to eat, he nods with a smile, allowing me to be the first to dig in. As I thought the food is absolutely delicious, it has been far too long since I’ve had two home cooked meals in a row.

“After she eats a little more,” Kris says suddenly, glaring daggers down the table. I glance up and down the table confused with my mouth full of food. Kris chuckles as he brushes a grain of rice off my chin, “the want to ask you more questions but I said to wait until you’ve eaten more, you look like you were starving. I’m sorry, I’ve had you in my care for less than twenty four hours and you’ve already been in a fight, got hurt, ran outside into the freezing cold multiple times, and let you starve. You must think we are horrible mates.”

I wave his worry away as I quickly swallow my food, “You are wonderful mates! I’ve already eaten more in the time I’ve spent with you than I have this whole week. When it comes to the fighting that was all me, I got myself into it, that happens. I’m sorry I attacked your friend, it won’t happen again.”

“Don’t worry about any of that right now, you have no reason to apologize, Taemin was being an idiot,” Minseok places his hand on my back.

“What kind of questions do you guys want to ask me?” I wonder setting my chopsticks and spoon down.

“No,” Kyungsoo glares at me, “Eat first.”

I smile at him, “What questions do you have for me Hyung?”

“So who were those other wolves out there?” I wonder as I peek out behind Kris. The four wolves that had peeked out of the forest have now collected the alpha I fought with and returned to the forest, not before giving me a dirty look. At the same time my other mates appeared their alpha pheromone dominates the air, making me feel like I’m suffocating. The six of us are still standing inside, we had decided to at least go into the living room to let the others catch more of my scent. My hyungs are close by, I can smell them but they must have noticed the new wolves and decided to hang back.

“They are our brother pack,” Kris tells me.

“They must not be too happy that I attacked their pack member are they?”

Yixing growls, “I don’t give a fuck about how they feel, they’re just lucky we didn’t tear him to shreds for touching you.”

I cling to the back of Kris’s shirt when I begin sensing Yixing’s anger, “Hyung.”

“Sorry,” He takes a few deep breaths in a sad attempt to calm himself down.

I glance around, “Where is Baekhyun hyung?”

“He went out to talk to your pack, we were planning on having them here before the others returned but I guess that isn’t going to be happening,” Tao sighs.

Kris groans, running his hands through his hair he decides, “We should do this now, they are going to get mad.”

“Suho and Minseok hyung are already fuming,” Kai clucks his tongue.

“Someone go grab them some clothes, we don’t need them flashing her the first time they meet. Yixing, keep an eye on Chanyeol, I’m expecting him to be the most eager to get closer to her. I’ll keep an eye on Minseok hyung since he might be pretty bad too.”

Kai sets off in search of clothing.

Sehun scoffs, “Are you really going to try and get in between Minseok, Luhan, and Suho hyung and our mate? They are going to fight you hard on that one.”

“How do you think they are going to react to my past and my pack?” I wonder, feeling uneasy about these new mates.

“I didn’t even think about telling them about your past,” Yixing sighs in obvious frustration.

“Let us take this one step at a time, starting with walking out there,” Kris officially decides. “Open the door back up.”

Tao sighs but obeys, he slowly unlatches the door and pushes the massive wall of windows to the side, opening the room to the cold. Kris forces himself to step aside but keeps his arm around my shoulders. My eyes go wide at the sight of six beautiful wolves sitting in the snow. I don’t feel scared as bad as I did yesterday, but it’s still there gripping my heart, ready to send me into panic mode.

“They are so pretty,” I mumble softly, unconsciously reaching out my hand to run it through their fur but I notice and pull my hand back. “Sorry, most alphas probably don’t want to hear that.”

Kris chuckles, “So bashful again aren’t we?”

“Do you want me to start fighting again?” I tease.

“Please no, someone is going to loose it.”

“Can I go touch them?” I look to him for permission, which he gives me with a gentle nudge forward. I take a deep breath and step out onto the cold stone patio. A few more steps and I’m back in the snow, I should have asked for shoes but I’m this far, no going back. Unconsciously I approach one specific wolf, his scent draws me in, coffee. “You are the one who distracted me during the fight,” I note mostly to myself but they hear. The caramel colored wolf looks away from me to glare at the head alpha. “Don’t be mad at him,” I quickly defend, “I was just causing trouble. I tend to do that.” I’m trying my best to be playful but he just continues to glare, actually making Kris gulp. I cock my head, “You must be Minseok hyung.”

His head snaps back to me.

“So is that a yes?”

A nod.

“They actually haven’t told me much about any of you, or the fact that any of you existed but they mentioned a few names. Who is Luhan hyung?” I’m trying so hard to be warm, and I’m actually really impressed with how little my hands are shaking and that my heart hasn’t pounded out of my chest. Hesitantly a pretty auburn wolf comes forward, I give him a small smile and a bow. “And than I think it was Chanyeol hyung?” A silver wolf steps forward, this one with much more excitement, he makes me think of Baekhyun but Baekhyun has a much pinker tint compared to this new wolf. “Who was the scary one you mentioned? Soo hyung?” I nervously scan the three other wolves, none of them look particularly scary in fact one stands out to me. His big eyes lock with mine making my heart melts. “So cute!”

Jongin sees me take a few steps toward the wolf, “That is Kyungsoo hyung, or Soo hyung. He doesn’t like being petted.”

“Oh, thank you for letting me know,” I bring my hands to my chest to keep myself from touching them recklessly. But out of the corner of my eye I swear I see Kyungsoo giving Kai a death glare. “After that I think they mentioned Suho,” I watch the last two and see a tan wolf nod his head at me. I bow back before looking at the last one. With an encouraging nod of Kris I approach the last wolf who is a beautiful dark shade of brown, “I’m sorry they didn’t mention your name, you must be the well behaved one, from what I’ve heard in these brief ten minutes is that all the others are trouble.” The wolf laughs making me smile.

“I have clothes for them,” Kai mentions with a giant stack of clothing in his hands.

“Could I go talk to my pack so you can have a good talk with yours?” I ask Kris with a big smile. A chorus of growls erupt from the wolves sending me back on to the patio and into Yixing’s arms.

“They probably don’t like the idea of you leaving at the moment,” Yixing informs me.

“I think they are coming our way again anyway,” Kris sighs, “They must have felt your fear spike suddenly.”

“There they are,” Tao nods toward the forest where a black wolf appears. “Or at least one of them.”

Without a thought I book it pass my mates and right into the snow without a single thing on my mind other than for, “My pup!” I basically scream when Kookie and I get closer. I didn’t realize how much I missed him, I know it has only been a day but that is a long time for us. He tackles me to the ground and licks my face all over, making me a giggling mess beneath him. “Kookie!” I scold through my laughing.

“Hyung!” Jimin and Taehyung yell as they also bust out of the forest, behind them is the rest of my pack and Baekhyun who is just glaring at our touchy interactions.

He pushes through my pack to get to Jungkook and I, “Unless you want your throat ripped out, I suggest you remove yourself from her. We may know what is going on but our other pack members don’t and they are not in the best mood right now.”

Kookie growls.

Baekhyun’s sweet playful demeanor from yesterday seems completely different as he grabs Jungkook by the back of the neck and pulls him off me. “Come with me little wolf before the backyard becomes a battle field. You will be able to talk with your pack after we explain things,” He offers me a hand.

“Please go with him Insoo,” Namjoon quickly encourages me. “I would prefer not to fight with the black dragons.”

“I’m with Namjoon on this, please,” Yoongi almost begs, looking to the house with worried eyes. I follow his gaze back to the house to see eleven of my mates staring us down with angry blood red eyes. Jungkook whimpers with his head bowed to the obviously more powerful group, in fact looking to my pack I see that they are all backing down with their eyes to the ground. I gulp nervously but accept Baekhyun’s hand, he surprises me by just scooping me up.

“It’s freezing cold and you are out here dressed like this, what kind of mates let their mate out like this,” He mumbles mostly to himself as he carries me back across the field. “We should take this inside before she catches a cold.” He doesn’t even bother to wait for his brothers he just carries me inside like I’m a fragile little egg that is going to break. He sets me down on the cold couch before wrapping me up in the blanket that one of the others brought. Kris is kneeling in front of me peeling off the socks he had just put on me that are now soaking wet.

“No more going outside until we have proper clothes for you,” Kris declares. The wolves come in, two of them rush passed with their clothing in their teeth, Minseok and Suho, while the others stop by me. Chanyeol is the first to come right up to me, he sniffs my clothes, his nose wrinkles.

“Do I smell like my pack again?” I sniff my sleeves and only find Yixing’s sweet scent now mixing with another sweet smell, like fresh cakes.

“You reek of Yixing hyung since you slept in his room and his clothes,” Baekhyun explains as he fetches me a mug of tea. “Even thought he is also your mate, we don’t like any other alpha smell near our mate.”

“Sorry Hyung,” I reach other without a thought and stroke the silver blue wolf’s fur. He cocks his head in confusion, “Ah, the hyung thing, we will explain that when everyone is here.”

“So you need to go upstairs and get dressed,” Kris commands. I’m surprised when the big wolf just comes closer and nuzzles his snout into my stomach. “Chanyeol,” The head alpha tries again, making the younger whine.

“Don’t you want to be able to talk to me?” I tempt the wolf with a smile. He groans but quickly heads off towards the stairs, leaving the other three behind. They stare at me, Chen and Luhan are closer, within touching distance while Kyungsoo is far out of my reach. “Are you all going to transform? I actually kind of want to see you react to my past, I didn’t get to see yesterday because I passed out.”

All eyes go to Kris who already has his hands up, “It was an accident.”

“We were gone for a week and all hell breaks loose,” An unfamiliar voice snaps from the hall. Two men come in, they are about the same height but one looks much younger than the other. The last three wolves are off to transform so they can join the conversation as well. One with cat like eyes glares at Kris for a moment before looking down at me huddled on the couch and his face softens. “Hello little wolf.”

I sniff the air, “Coffee,” I hum. “You must be Minseok hyung.”

He smiles cutely, “I am, I’m very happy to meet you my lovely little wolf.”

“It’s nice to meet you too,” I try to stand to greet him properly but the second I try Kris’s hands are on my shoulders pushing me back into the couch.

“Your feet are freezing, how can you not notice?” The older scolds as his large hands gently massage my shoulders.

I look down at my feet, “I haven’t really noticed, I think they are numb.” I try to curl my toes with little to basically no response at my brain’s command, “Yep, they are completely numb.”

“Can you feel this?” Minseok is suddenly a lot closer, his hands are on my ankles, his touch sends a shot of electricity up my leg making me jump away. He holds his hands up, showing me that he means no harm but it’s not that I’m scared, my heart is just racing.

“I can feel that,” I whimper.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you,” He stands up and takes a few steps back.

“You didn’t frighten me, you shocked me,” I look down at my hands nervously.

“Do you want another bath?” Yixing offers, he joins me on the couch, sitting as close to me as possible. I see the way Minseok watches our physical interactions with irritated jealousy.

I pout, “Another one? I guess, just to warm me up, but only if you sit with me again.”

“Why him again?” Sehun pouts.

Tao joins in on the whining, “Why not one of us?”

“Because from what I’ve heard you guys can’t control yourselves around me, but lets say I give you the benefit of the doubt, do you think you can handle being locked in the same room as me while I’m completely naked and basically defenseless?” I cock a brow at them, “Kai saw me in just a towel and went complete alpha on me, do you think you can handle it?”

The two boys share an angry look but say nothing more. Baekhyun steps forward, “I can do it.”

“Okay, lets go Hyung,” I try to stand up but Yixing has his arm around my shoulders in and instance.

“She asked for me,” The older of the two snaps.

“Can both of you just come along? The more the merrier,” I suggest, hoping to defuse the situation.

“Where are we going? Can I come too?” A tall man bounces into the room, silver hair a ruffled mess, a massive smile on his handsome face. The scent of cake tickles my nose.

“Chanyeol hyung?” The other three come into the room, one with big round eyes catches my eye, “Soo hyung?” The man stops, his eyes seem to get bigger when he sees me. I can’t help but smile at him, something about this man makes me feel more warm at just the sight of him.

“Hello,” He bows his head, “I am Kyungsoo.” He makes me think of hot chocolate. From his dark brown hair to his chocolate colored eyes, heart shaped lips make me think he is a soft person but I remember Jongin’s words and curl back into myself.

“Of course, I’m sorry for speaking so informally,” I bow my head apologetically.

“Ignore him Love,” Yixing guides my gaze back to him with a soft caress of my cheek. “You look cold, lets get that water going.”

I’m about to agree when movement on the edge of the forest catches my eye, “What about my pack? Aren’t we going to explain everything?”

“What do you need to explain?” One steps forward, “Did something happen?”

I look to my six mates who already know, “Should I just say it?”

Kris sighs, “Might as well, Tao, can you go get her pack in here? Take them in the front go and down into the basement to hang out while we talk about this.”

“Why do I have to take them?” Tao pouts, earning himself a dirty look from me.

I narrow my eyes at him, “Do you have a problem with my pack?”

“Of course not!” He replies quickly followed by soft words that melt my heart, “I would just rather be up here with you.”

“How about if you are nice to my pack I’ll let you come in when I take a bath too?”

His eyes light up like fireworks, “Really?”

“Yes, but only if my pack gives you a good review so be nice.”

He nods eagerly before rushing outside. I chuckle as I watch him go to my waiting pack.

“Now what is the world is going on?” Minseok asks as he sits on my other side.

I look at Kris, “Any suggestions on where I should start off?”

Sehun’s POV

I stare down at my mate, my mate, as she wraps herself around that mutt I captured. Anger and jealousy boil in my chest, why is she holding him? We are her mates! She should be running into my arms so I can finally breath in that delicious scent I know is from her. There is traces of it in the air but it’s coming from the mutt and that makes me even more angry. She marked him, how could she mark another with that sweet vanilla scent of hers? That is meant for us and our pups. I can’t hold in the growl rumbling in my chest and neither can any of my hyungs.

She looks up at us with her fangs bared and I stop. My heart clenches before my wolf rears it’s stubborn head and I return the action. How dare she growl at us because of that mutt. I want to rip that disgusting mutt to pieces, I should have killed him in the forest and went after her than and there. I’m still mad at myself for grabbing him instead of her, we could have avoided this whole thing. My blood boils at the sight of him grabbing her face and forcing her to look at him and only him. He is whispering stuff to her and I see her body slowly relaxing into his embrace. That should be me.

Her pack comes running out of the forest toward her and soon my hyungs and I are racing to them ready to tear them a part but one of her pack members beat us there. It’s the one she is always hiding behind, he blocks us from our mate, teeth bared, claws out, ready to attack.

“Out of the way!” Kris commands but the man doesn’t budge.

“You cannot separate them right now,” He advises us.

“Why the hell not?” Baekhyun snaps this time.

“She will not go to anyone until she wakes up. This always happens after a panic attack, she will only go to me or Jungkook.”

Kris scoffs, “Move, I will get my mate and you will leave before I stop being nice and slaughter you all.” He pushes the tall man out of the way to reach her. I watch as my hyung places a hand on her back only to receive a fierce growl from our sleeping mate. He pauses for a moment before trying again, this time quicker, he slides his hands on to her stomach and pulls at her gently and gets the same response this time with a few little whimpers when he pulled harder.

“Get your hands off her,” One of her members barks pushing Kris away. “If you want her to be okay, you will leave her alone until she wakes up.”

“You can not tell me how to take care of my mate!” Tao snarls.

“Everyone please calm down,” Their leader says calmly but sternly mostly to his own men. “We can’t just expect them to understand how big of a deal this is for her, they don’t know anything about her.”

“She is our mate,” Kai reminds them harshly.

“And what do you know about her beyond that? Do you even know what happened to her just now? Or anything that has happened in her life?” Hoseok questions.

“We haven’t even had the chance to have a conversation with her yet, we shouldn’t be expected to know everything about her right away,” Lay reasons in a soft but strong tone.

Their leader nods in understanding, “There are some things you should know before you try to just dive into this with her, is there anyway we can explain some things to you?”

Kai shakes his head, “We can take care of her ourselves.”

“We will take what ever advise you can give us,” Lay answers flashing Kai a terrifying glare that has me backing down.

“Hyung, are you really going to listen to these guys when they are just trying to run off with her?” Baekhyun scoffs.

“Baekhyun hyung is right, they may trick us,” Tao agrees.

The leader shakes his head, “This is no trick, Insoo has had an interesting life and so she has to be handled with a certain amount of care. She isn’t like any normal omega incase you can’t tell.”

Kris nods, “She with stood the force of all of our dominance for a long time, many can barely handle one of us for more than a few seconds.” We watch him struggle with a internal debate before running his hand threw his hair and letting out a sigh, “You can come in, but only to explain.”

“Of course, we just want to make sure we are leaving her some place safe.”

None of us say anything as they help their pup stand up with our sleeping mate his arms. It was a bit satisfying though when one of them touched her and she has the same reaction that she had to Kris. We lead the way past the glass double doors into one of our sitting rooms. There is a massive couch that was made to fit all of us but it is not big enough for me to be far enough away from those mutts, which leaves me standing against the wall along with Kai and Tao. Lay is sitting on the far edge of the couch away from where the strangers sit with Baekhyun next to him. Kris is standing in the middle of the room looming over the strangers as the pup settles deep into the couch while the others are sitting on the edge. We are going to have to clean the whole thing to get their scent out of here.

“Now please explain what happened to our mate,” Lay says politely.

“She had a panic attack,” The leader, Namjoon responds. “She has them every once a while but this is her second one in two days and that has never happened before.”

“Why does she have them?” Baek wonders.

The second in command answers this one, “Usually it’s because of something that reminds her of something brutal that happened in our past. But these ones are most likely from the stress of meeting you guys.”

“I’m very curious what kind of past she has,” Kris sighs as he begins to pace, never taking his eyes off our mate. “What were you doing in that village that night? The blood red army was there, were you residence of that village who happened to escape?”

The group shares a look before letting the second continue to answer, “We were actually scouts for the blood red army.”

“What?” We all basically yell.

“They were the most brutal army in history, they have slaughtered thousands of innocent people and those they didn’t were forced to be sex slaves or soldiers,” Kris tells us.

Namjoon nods, “That was us.”

“What about our mate?” I choke out. It is a hard question to get out when I’m horrified of the answer. We are all on edge as we wait for one of them to say something.

“She was with us, that is why we call her hyung, she has spent her whole life as a boy,” One of the younger ones say.

I let out a breath I didn’t even know I was holding, “For how long?”

“About seventy years with the army before you guys wiped them out but she was so used to it that she didn’t want to go back to being a normal girl. That is one of the things I really want you explain to you,” The second glances at our mate with a soft gaze. “She is not a normal omega you are going to have to realize that you can not treat her like one.”

“What do you mean? You want us to act as if she is an alpha?” Kai scoffs.

“Yes I do. Because in her mind she is an alpha and if you want her not to run away within the first two days you can’t treat her like a fragile omega. She has been through wars and dealt with some horrible things, she is a warrior. If you are affectionate with her you should know that she will not respond properly right away. She hasn’t received kindness from anyone but us so having it come from someone else is going to be different.”

“How many of there are you?” Another asks.

“Twelve,” Kris answers.

The man’s eyes go wide, “And all of you are her mates?”

We nod but Kris responds, “We are assuming so. The little whiffs we are getting from the pup confirm that the six of us are.”

“If I can suggest something,” The second interjects.

“Might as well, I’m not really sure how to handle something like this,” Kris admits. He’s right, none of us are built to deal with stuff like this. We had always assumed our mate would appear and be a sweet, normal little omega that would be the perfect little mate but now I’m not so sure what fate has in store for us anymore. The more we learn about her the more frightened I become, what if I can’t take care of her? She has been through so much for an omega, and from what I’ve noticed she needs a lot of care.

“When are the others coming back?”

“Tomorrow.”

“When they come back, introduce her to them one by one, all of them at once will be way too much for her and without us here I don’t know how she will react. For tonight, after we leave have her spend time with just one of you so she can have a solid connection with at least one of you.”

Kris cocks a brow at him, “Why just one of us?”

“It gives her someone to lean on, someone solid for her to go to if she feels overwhelmed. When she feels that way or scared she likes to hide her face in your neck so she can get better access to your scent. That is what usually calms her down.”

Baekhyun snickers, “Who should it be?”

“Obviously me, as head alpha I can protect her the best,” Kris snaps.

The second quickly shakes his head, “Anyone but you.”

“Why?”

“Because she associates your scent right now with the day you tackled her and bit me and she gets really scared when the memory pops us, if I had to pick someone it would probably be this new one,” He points to Lay.

“Why him?” Baekhyun, Tao, Kai and I all demand together.

He rolls his eyes at us, “Because when she thinks of the first time she caught your scent she will think of you threatening to slaughter us and kidnapping her favorite pup. This guy so far has no bad connection to his scent. He is probably our safest bet.”

Kris sighs and runs his hand threw his hair once again, “Any thing else you need to tell us or any other suggestions?”

“Actually yes,” Namjoon buts in, “I would like to suggest visitation, cutting off all connection with her will be stressful for her and my pack.”

Kai is quick to shut that idea down, “You’ve got to be kidding me, absolutely not.”

“Kai,” Kris warns.

“You can’t seriously be considering this, they are just going to take her away. What in the world would make you think this is a good idea?”

“The fact that our mate basically needs directions to take care of her. She is not a stable person, she will need all the stability she can get to get used to living with us. I do not want her hating us for cutting off her pack. As head alpha I’m okaying this. You will have one hour with her every day until I know she is used to all of us. There is a cabin you guys can stay at in the southern corner of our property until then, after that you are gone, got it?”

“How should we handle this once you leave?” One of my mates wonders.

“Give her a moment alone, maybe have her go take a bath or something just for a half an hour or so. Your scents will be all over the place so it will give her time to get used to them and it won’t be as over whelming for her in person. She will be hungry so offer something basic like meat and rice. We’ve been in the forest so long she won’t be used to anything extravagant,” Jin advises them. His hand is holding mine tightly. Jungkook’s sweet smell is all around me making me forget about the horrible day I’ve had.

I always thought finding my mates would be the best day of my life, I would run into their arms and we would live happily every after but now I don’t know how I feel about the idea of my pack leaving me with them.

Jin continues with his talking, “If she is uneasy around you and you can’t stand to be away from her transform into your wolf form. She loves when we do that, she will find your wolf less intimidating.” Have they been talking about me this whole time? What has my pack told them about my past?

“I think she is awake,” One of my mates, the one I don’t know, interjects.

Jungkook sits up straighter so I’m not leaning on him, “Hyung?”

I lean away from his chest and rub my eyes sleepily, “I’m awake, how long was I asleep?”

“A little over an hour,” Jin answers placing a hand on my back. I scan the half of the room that I can see, my pack is sitting closely together on the couch, Jungkook and I are in the middle with Jin on my left and Namjoon on my right. I can sense my mates behind me watching.

“What happened while I was out?” I look to the oldest for answers.

“We talked to your mates to make sure we were leaving you with people who can take care of you.”

“And the verdict on that is?” I muse playfully.

Jin smiles slightly and pats my head affectionately, “You will be very safe here and very loved. Do you want to meet all of them formally?”

I gulp but nod, it takes all of my courage to stand up and leave Jungkook’s safe embrace to see my six mates standing there staring. I lock eyes with the head alpha and quickly find myself taking a step back so my legs are touching Namjoon’s knees.

“Sorry,” I mumble quietly and look down at my feet.

“You do not need to apologize little wolf, you can look us in the eye, we just aren’t used to it from an omega. Please feel free to act like you normally do,” The unfamiliar one says with a smile.

“Not that crazy, about half of that Hyung,” Tae teases.

Jimin chuckles and joins in on the teasing, “Just don’t be as aggressive, everything else you usually do should be fine.”

“Go a head and introduce yourself properly now,” Namjoon nudges me forward. “And please try to do it without looking like a scared pup, it doesn’t suit you.”

I take a deep breath and push my meek omega side back to where she has been hiding for all of these years and look up to make eye contact with the head alpha, my first mate. My chest is tight with anxiety but I’m able to see past it to the warmth buzzing though my body. I lick my lips and take a step towards them, my wolf begs me to go closer so I convince myself to take two more steps so only a coffee table and a few feet are in between us.

“Hello, I’m Insoo,” I bow my head to them politely, “I’m sorry for growling earlier but my automatic reaction is to protect Jungkook.”

“It is so nice to hear your voice,” One smiles sweetly, “I’m Yixing.” He offers me a large hand over the coffee table. I hesitantly take his hand and automatically regret it, I want more. His hand is so warm, he places his other hand on top of mine, locking it in his grip. “I’m sorry,” He apologizes and quickly begins to pull away but I hold his hand tightly.

“It’s okay, your hands are so warm, I guess mine are still a bit chilly.” I take my hand back feeling a loose at the action and I know form the look on his face he feels the same.

“You should warm up more, maybe a bath to help with that?” Baekhyun offers like he supposed to. I try not to freak out at the understanding that the moment I accept my pack will be leaving forever. My uneasiness to respond is sensed by every wolf.

“We will be coming back tomorrow to visit,” Namjoon tells me as he stands by my side, his hand placed on my shoulder, my mates eyes follow the actions. “So please don’t mind us, go take a bath and get to know your mates, you are going to be stuck with them for a long time.”

I smile up at him, “Thank you for everything you’ve done for me Namjoon hyung.” I turn to give him a hug but he holds up his hands to stop me.

“They already want to murder us, we already said our good byes so no hugs should be necessary. We will get out of your hair now, we will see you tomorrow.” With a few pats on my back or head and sad smiles my pack is gone. It’s a weird feeling watching them go out the door and not following them, I stay in my spot gripping the hem of my sweatshirt. My hands are trembling when the door closes and I find myself staring down at my boots again.

“So about that bath,” Yixing slowly comes around the coffee table. “I’ll lead you up stairs if that is okay.”

“Or if you want any of us to do it,” Baekhyun offers quickly earning glares from all the others.

I shake my head, “I want Yixing hyung to do it.”

“Hyung?” Yixing smiles slightly.

I cover my mouth quickly, my cheeks red with embarrassment, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to be so informal so quickly, Yixing-ssi.”

He is quick to shake that embarrassment away, “Being informal is completely fine, we are your mates, it’s just that hyung is what confused me.”

“I’m sorry, that is what I’m used to calling men older than me, what else would you like me to call you?”

“Hyung works,” Tao answers, “Or ge, whatever you want.”

“Okay, thank you.”

“Come along little wolf,” Yixing gestures to the doorway where I see a beautiful grand staircase. “I don’t mean to sound rude but I would really like to get that scent off you.”

I follow him through the doorway, sniffing my clothes as I go, trying to smell something bad but only find Jin’s sweet scent. The walk to the bathroom is silent, we have to walk through a bedroom to reach one of the many bathrooms I assume are inside this house. It’s massive with dark gray walls and white fixtures. The massive white bathtub draws me in, it’s beautiful. It has been a few years since I’ve used an actual bathtub, I’ve only used a shower three times in my whole life. Water falls and hot springs have been my tubs and shows, and in that time I’ve never been alone. So when Yixing turns to leave I latch on to his shirt. He looks back at me confused.

“I don’t really know how to work this,” I gesture to the tub. “We are wanderers so we didn’t have things like this,” I explain bashfully.

“Of course, I’m so sorry,” He rushes over to the tub and turns it on. He turns to look at me, a pink hue gracing his cheeks, I’m happy to know he is as nervous as me. “Do you know how to turn it off?”

“I think so.”

“Then I’ll be taking my leave, take as long as you need. I’ll be in my room if you need anything.” With that he walks pass me and closes the door leaving me alone. They are giving me time to think, to absorb my new surrounds alone. I watch for a little while until the bath is high enough for me to be submerged. I shed my thick winter clothing and slip into the hot water. Once I’m in the water to my nose I feel pretty content. The tub is deep enough for me to sit with my knees to my chest and have the water reach my shoulders, or maybe I’m just that small.

Sadness pings in my chest as the loneliness sinks in. This is the first time I’ve bathed by myself since before Jin and the others just started considering me as another boy and allowed me to bathe with them when no other soldiers were around. It isn’t as much fun when I’m by myself. I glance at the door and briefly wonder if I could ask Yixing to sit on the edge or something but he might find that strange. But we are mates, we are going to have to see each other naked at some point but we also just met. Oh god this is so confusing.

I want to so bad call to him, I can’t stand being alone right now but I’m still afraid of them. Even though Yixing seems so sweet he has a strong scent, his dominant pheromones must be hidden behind that sweet smile. I can feel the others down stairs moving around but if they are speaking they must be whispering so I can’t hear them. There are so many of them, yet right now I feel so alone.

I open my mouth to call to Yixing or to any of them and tell them I don’t want to be alone but fear takes a hold of my vocal cords only allowing me to let out a small whimper.

It doesn’t go unnoticed and suddenly Yixing is knocking on the door, “Are you okay?”

I sniffle as tears threaten to fall. It’s such a strange thing to have an intense connection to someone without actually having one. It’s actually more horrible than anything, because I feel as if I should be able to call to them to burry my face in their neck and calm any anxiety I’m feeling but then I remember the terrifying looks they’ve been giving me and my pack and I can’t. They must find me disgusting, a stupid mutt that lived in the forest her whole life with a bunch of men.

“Insoo, please answer me, are you okay?” Yixing basically begs on the other side.

“I don’t know how to do this,” I choke out.

I can sense the panic radiating off of him, “Do what little wolf? Do you need help?”

“I don’t know how to tell you I don’t want to be alone but at the same time I’m scared.”

“Please calm down love, I’ll be there in one moment,” He promises. The door cracks slightly and I panic as the door slowly opens. A snout appears through the crack and opens the door fully revealing a black wolf. It nudges the door closed before slowly coming up to me, afraid I might be frightened. It stops about a yard away from me and sits down.

“Yixing hyung?” I stare at the beautiful wolf with wonder.

He nods.

“I’m sorry you had to transform, it’s just that I haven’t taken a bath alone in years. I’m just feeling really alone right now, can you hang out in here for a little while?” It is hard to keep the shaking out of my voice. I’m scared that he might storm out. I’m scared he might think of it as invitation to more than I want to give at the moment and right now I’m lucky if I can get myself to touch them. Thankfully he just nods and lays down on the marble. “Thank you Hyung.”

I continue soaking in my bath, happy that my naked body is out of his sight. No matter how much I try to convince myself that I’ve bathed in front of my pack hundreds of times this feels different, they are my mates. After some time, the water is cold and I’m peeking over the edge of the tub to see Yixing resting with his eyes closed. There is a towel on the floor next to the tub so I quickly grab it and stand up out of the water. Just as I am able to wrap it around me, Yixing is awake and on his feet, eyes wide and alert.

“I’m done,” I give him a small smile. He quickly relaxes but still scans the whole bathroom for any one else. I step out of the of the water and stand in the middle of room dripping wet. He leads me to the door and scratches, telling me to open it so I quickly obey and follow him into his room. He leaves me for a moment to go into his closet, I stand there in my towel slightly shivering.

“Lay hyung, is she out of the bath yet?” Jongin yells as he comes into the room but stops the moment our eyes lock. I wrap my arms tighter around myself and quickly begin taking a few steps back until I feel the footboard touching the back of my thighs. His eyes turn into a beautiful gold and his pupils dilate into massive saucers almost blocking out the new color. He takes a step closer, a deep growl comes from his chest as he continues to take slow steps toward me. His pheromones are so strong I find myself sinking to the floor and baring my neck in submission. He closes his eyes and inhales deeply, a handsome but chilling smile spreads on his face, “So beautiful, so delicious.”

Another growl rips through the room making the alpha in front of me tense and bare his teeth. Yixing storms into the room still in his wolf form, he quickly gets in between Jongin and I. The older snaps his teeth and crouches down, preparing to attack. I curl into a ball, feeling as weak as I did the night Jin took me in as a pup. A whimper is able to escape from my lips that makes the younger alpha more eager to come closer.

“Get out of the way,” The younger snarls.

“Kai,” A familiar voice roars. If I wasn’t shaking before I’m trembling now, not him, anyone but him right now. I can’t handle more alpha pheromones right now, not when I feel so vulnerable in such a new setting. Any hint of Jin’s comforting scent is gone leaving me nothing familiar to cling to. I try to build my wall up, to protect myself from all of this like have for years but it won’t work, why isn’t it working? I don’t want to bare myself like this to them, at least not yet, I would also prefer to be wearing something more than at towel. “Kai leave the room now,” Head alpha commands from the doorway.

The man takes control of the room, quickly coming around Jongin and blocking me from the younger’s view.  I can tell they are all on edge, without Jin masking my scent, my fear pheromones are thick in the air most likely drawing the others in as well only making me more afraid.

“You need to leave right now before I make you,” Head alpha warns.

Jongin chuckles, “I would like to see you try.”

“Are you sure you do? Is this the first thing you want your mate to think of when she catches your scent? You busting in and trying to attack her?” Those words must strike a cord in the younger because I feel him relax a bit, the pressure on me lessens a bit and I’m finally able to breath again. “Good, now go out and blow off some steam, you will not be allowed near her for the rest of the day.”

That riles the younger up again, “Who are you to decide when I see my mate?”

“I am her mate too and I am also your head alpha you need to remember that. Now leave before I make it a week,” Head alpha snarls back.

Jongin stays there for another moment before taking one last deep breath and storming out of the room. As soon as he is gone I relax and fall forward to rest my head on the cold wood floor. If this is going to be a regular thing I’m going to have to adjust really quick, I haven’t had to deal with this stuff for thirty years I’ve become too weak to handle alpha disputes this intense. My relaxation is interrupted by a wet nose nudging my shoulder, I sit up to find Yixing staring at me along with head alpha who appears to have come closer.

“Are you alright?” He asks taking another step closer that has me pressing up against the footboard in fear. He stops in his tracks, “I’m not going to hurt you, I just want to,” He pauses, “I-I need your scent, it will only take a second and then I will be gone.”

I gulp but nod, feeling guilty that I can’t get closer to them, I figure this will be a start. He comes closer with his hands up and eyes wide, watching for any sign of my fear. Yixing is hesitant to move out of the way but one look from his alpha has him gone in seconds. On shaky legs I force myself to stand up and to not be a complete weakling. I feel so over whelmed with him standing over me, our height difference more apparent as I try to look up at him and find his chest in my view. He is hesitant on where to put his hands but ends up going for my shoulders. His large hands make me feel so small and weak, everything about him makes me feel like I’m shrinking.

I bare my neck to him and suddenly his hands aren’t on my shoulders, his arms are wrapped around me. There is no way for me to escape from his iron clad embrace, leaving me no option but to let him do what he wishes. For a moment I expect him to just mark me, claim me, even mate me right then and there but instead he just tucks his face into the crook of my neck and takes a deep breath. My hands are flat against his chest until my fingers dig themselves into his button up as I do the same as him and burry my face in the crook of his neck. His delicious scent wraps around me and drowns me in it until I can’t think about anything else.

“I’m sorry that I scared you,” He mumbles softly. “I just didn’t want him to lose control and do something he would regret. Please forgive him.”

“I do.”

“Thank you,” He takes one more deep breath like Jongin before pulling away. I don’t release his shirt fast enough making him look down confused but he smiles when he realizes I had been clinging to him. I look away bashfully. I’m surprised when he kisses my forehead before quickly leaving, closing the door behind him. With him gone the cold room takes a hold of me making me wrap my arms around myself. Yixing appears again this time with a t-shirt in his teeth. I accept it and he runs back to the closet for more.

I shuffle to the bathroom for my clothes but find them missing, where could they have gone? I wonder if Yixing took them to wash Jin’s scent off, most likely. He returns with a pair of boxers, I take them without question and pull them on under my towel. With it still wrapped around me, I pull the t-shirt on before discarding the soft fabric. Looking at Yixing I see that he is turned away, trying his best to give me some kind of privacy. He seems different from the others, like he isn’t controlled by his wolf. For a brief moment as I’m standing there, forgetting what just happened with Jongin, I feel like I can actually do this. If all of them can be calm like Yixing, I know I can do this, but I don’t feel like I could be that lucky with all six mates.

It’s getting dark. In the early stages of winter the cold is biting at my cheeks turning the normally tan color a pink hue. I don’t mind the chilly air, in fact I prefer it to the hot humid days of summer. Not to mention there is nothing more fun than running through fresh snow. But today isn’t a nice little frolic through the field I’m on a mission, well sort of.

“Kookie-ah! Kookie-ah!” I call as I rush through the forest in my annoying human form instead of my wolf upon the request of Jin. It takes longer for the wolves of this territory to realize that we are here when we are humans. Sadly for us, Jungkook forgot about that and transformed when he rushed to find something that caught his attention even in his human form. And as his guardian it’s my job to fetch him and then return to the rest of the pack. “That stupid boy is going to get me killed as usual,” I sigh.

“Hyung, can you stop talking bad about me when I’m within hearing distance?” The young wolf appears with his signature grin on and nothing else.

“What do you think you are doing? Why did you transform back without clothes near by?” I rush to him and quickly pull out an extra pair of pants and a shirt for him from my bag.

He accepts them and begins pulling them on, “I had to transform back about a mile away and run the rest back to you. I ran into another alpha near the water fall we were at last night, I think he might be trying to track us.”

“Jin hyung is the best at erasing our scent, that alpha won’t have a chance in hell at finding us. Now put on your shoes so we can get going, wolf or not you are going to freeze out here. The others are already at the camp.”

He nods and slips on the boots I offer him. The hike back isn’t too bad, a few miles but nothing we haven’t done before. Kookie is strangely silent on our way there, I notice right away but blame it on the cold. Half way there after I offer him my over sized sweater I know something is wrong with him.

“What is it?” I mumble softly as we climb over a log.

“What is what?”

I sigh, “Kookie, don’t lie to your hyung.”

He is hesitant to show the information, “That wolf I saw, I didn’t just see him, I may have engaged in a bit of an altercation.”

“Since when do you use the word altercation? Stop taking excuses from Namjoon,” I stop and turn around to face him as his words sink in. “What do you mean by altercation?”

“He saw me before I had a chance to get away, actually he smelt me or you, I guess.” Kookie stares at the ground nervously, not something I usually see from the young alpha.

“Is my scent showing or something? I slept next to you and Jimin last night so I should be reeking of alpha, not the other way around.”

“I know that but he looked up at me,” He hesitates, even stops as he tries to find the correct way to describe what he saw. “His eyes turned gold, I think I found your mate or he found me.”

I stop in my tracks. “Mate?”

The word screams in my mind, mate, mate, mate. My wolf wants to turn back, to run to him and cling to him like I wanted to all those years ago. His picture flashes threw my mind and even though I’m scared of what kind of monster I know he is, he’s my mate. He won’t hurt me. Jungkook sees my obvious desire to run and quickly grabs my wrist to keep me from doing so.

“Hyung please,” He suddenly begs. “He is powerful and scary and I’m scared he might hurt you. What if he takes you away? Or maybe he might hurt us for being in his territory-“

“His territory,” I cut him off. My eyes go wide as I realize whose territory we must be in. I grab his hand and begin dragging him faster.

“What’s wrong? I thought you wanted to run the other way, what about your mate? Don’t you want to meet him?”

“I’ve already met him,” I admit, giving the younger an ashamed look over my shoulder.

“You met him? When? Why haven’t you told any of us? Why haven’t you gone to him?”

“Because just as you said, I was afraid he would hurt me. I thought that he would separate us or kill you guys in rage at the situation I was in.” After clearing another mile and our pack scent is in the air I stop and turn to look at him. “I met him the day I found you. We were raiding the village and the black dragons busted in and started slaughtering our pack.”

Kookie nods, “I remember that day, that wolf tackled you and Jin busted in to save us when they were attacking.” I shiver at the vivid memory in my mind.

“That was him.”

Confusion covered his face, “But wasn’t his wolf black?”

I nod, unable to ever forget what my mate looked like as he ran away.

“This wolf was light gray, it looks completely different than that wolf.”

I tense at the new, the realization of this other wolf being my mate opens to more than I want. I pull Kookie along faster, “We will talk about it more once we get to the others, I need to talk with Jin and Namjoon about this before I’m sure about what could be going on.” I begin dragging the younger back again.

“Hyung?” Kookie mumbles.

“Yea?” I glance back at him again only to see him staring back into the woods completely horrified. I pause for a moment, confused about what he could be doing but then I hear it. Someone running strait towards us. “Is it him?” In my human form I can’t smell the wolf yet but as my body begins to tingle and the magnetic pull I felt year ago starts to drag me closer to the on coming wolf.

“We have to run!” The younger commands, this time he’s dragging me towards our pack. “Jin hyung! Namjoon hyung! This is the black dragon’s territory!” He begins to yell, hoping that maybe they could hear us. I pull my hand away from the younger, he looks back confused, “Hyung what are you doing?”

“Run Kookie,” I push the younger away.

“What? I’m not going to leave you.”

“I’ll be fine, you go take the others to our rendezvous place. Once I have him distracted I’ll meet you guys there.”

“Hyung!”

“Kookie, go now! He won’t hurt me!” Just as the words are out of my mouth the wolf is there, tackling Kookie to the ground. And just like before it feels like my whole world is paused. But this time it’s a slightly smaller wolf, light gray, like Jungkook said. I’m to dumbstruck by the sight of this new wolf that also appears to be my mate that I don’t notice Jin sneaking up behind me. One of his arms goes around my waist while his other hand goes to cover my mouth. He pulls me away from the scene in front of me. In that moment it is too late for me to escape his grip. We are tucked behind a tree and I know he is doing the thing where he hides out scent and makes it as if we disappeared.

“Hyung!” Kookie cries as the obviously more mature wolf growls down at him. I fight against Jin’s grip without any give. My pup, I scream in my mind, my mate is attacking my pup and that angers me more than I want to see my mate. How could he just attack him? What if that had been me? Would we have just repeated what happened 30 years ago with another wolf? How can he not see past the scent? How can another one not see me standing right in front of them?

Jungkook’s cries for help have stopped. Jin allows me to glance around the tree with him, keeping a strong hold on me. The wolf must have knocked him out because now he’s just laying there, and for a brief moment I think he’s dead. I can feel my face pale and my heart stop. He can’t be dead. My pup is not dead. A growl erupts through my chest, loud enough for the wolf to hear. But before it can come investigate Jin is running with me toward our camp sight a bit farther away, out of the wolf’s senses range.

The others all stand when we arrive but those smiles drop when they see both Jin’s faces and mine. I know Jin isn’t happy, with bloody bite marks on his palm and probably a bruise on his chest from me hitting him. When he finally lets me go I quickly spin around and punch him in the face, knocking him back in his ass. I’m over him in seconds to continue my punching but Namjoon is quick to pull me off.

“What the fuck?” The head alpha growls.

“Why did you pull me away?” I scream at Jin.

Joon growls once again, pissed at the possibility of me raising my voice at him, “Why the fuck are you hitting him?”

“He left our Jungkook to die! How could you leave him? I could have handled it without your help!” I continue to fight against the alpha holding me. Another alpha appears, and just like the others he’s emitting his dominance over me in waves, trying to get me to submit. The three younger boys realize what they are doing and quickly join in, knowing how strong willed I am it will take all of them to calm me down.  After another minute I feel my omega instincts kick in and I find myself letting out small whimpers. Joon lets go of me and allows me to fall into Yoongi’s arms. I’m shaking in his arms as I let his warmth consume me.

“Now Hyung,” Joon says with a sigh as he sits down at one of the logs surrounding the fire they had built. “What the hell happened, where is Jungkook?”

Jin drags himself over to another log while Yoongi sits down with me on his lap, trying his best to actually calm me down, and not force it. Jin watches as I tremble when he speaks, dominance still thick in his voice, “We ran into one of the owners of the territory.”

“What?” Jimin is on the edge of his seat. “I thought we were too far on the edge of their land for them to find us.”

“Well, something seems to have brought them to us.”

“Do you know who the pack is?” Joon wonders.

Jin sighs, “Black Dragons.”

“He fucking brought them back to us,” Hoseok groans as he stands up to pace.

“Hoseok,” Joon warns, “Calm down.”

“How can I calm down when we are sitting in the territory of the pack who has been chasing us for thirty years? They slaughtered the lot of us when we found that brat and got Jaebum’s team the one time we met a few years later. It’s as if that kid is leading them to us.”

“He’s just a pup,” I growl back, my omega instincts begin to fade as I try to regain my usual dominate personality. “He is part of our pack. How can you say this stuff? He has been with us for thirty year, we ate dinner with him, slept next to him, how can you just call him a bad egg and let him die?”

“We are not leaving him to die,” Jin snaps, “I just wasn’t going to let them get you.”

“He wouldn’t have hurt me,” Even I don’t believe the words coming out of my mouth.

“Just like the other one? I don’t want to have my shoulder shredded again because you were dumbstruck by a pretty alpha.”

My eyes narrow on him, “You know?” I never told him, I never told anyone that I had found my mate.

“Of course I know. I saw your eyes light up when you saw him that night. I didn’t know it was more than one of them until a few minutes ago.”

“Wait,” Hoseok jumps in, “Does that mean it was you who brought them to us?”

“So what if it is? Are you going to get rid of me too?” I accuse.

Jin quickly interjects, “He couldn’t even if he actually wanted to.” The oldest glares threatingly at the younger. “Hoseok, stop with your empty threats.”

“I didn’t threaten her. I was just making it public knowledge that the reason the legendary blood red army was wiped out because they were looking for her.”

I scoff, “You’re welcome.”

Jin rolls his eyes, “That doesn’t matter now, does it? Now it’s on us for coming to them. We are on their territory so they had every right to attack us. They probably smelt Insoo’s scent on one of us and came rushing to find their mate.”

Yoongi hums in agreement, his grip on me tightens protectively, “They are going to be pissed that they found Jungkook instead of Insoo.”

Jimin clicks his tongue, “They are probably going to be more pissed that their mate’s scent is all over another alpha.”

“So we should go now, so I can explain,” I say eagerly.

“What if they are as dangerous as everyone says and they slaughter the rest of us?” Taehyung wonders mindlessly. We all share a look, “I mean they almost killed us back at that village. What is going to stop them from doing it now?”

“I will.”

Tae shakes his head, “Sorry Hyung, you can’t just save us with just a pretty smile or be your normal aggressive self. These are cold-hearted alphas that have killed as many, if not more, people than us and they really had a choice in it.”

“I’m with Tae on this,” Hoseok agrees, “We should have a plan so we don’t get ourselves killed.”

“What if I go find him and say there was a misunderstanding?”

“Yes, of course that will work,” Hoseok scoffs, “And what makes you so sure they will release Kookie after you go to him? What makes you so sure they haven’t already killed him?”

“You guys calm down with the hostility,” Joon warns. “We need to remember that pup isn’t like us, he can’t handle being captured.”

“Maybe if Insoo hadn’t babied him his whole life he would be able to some what take care of himself,” Jimin snips.

“He is a normal alpha, sorry I didn’t raise him the same way we were. I thought it would be nice if at least one of us weren’t prone to nightmares. Sorry that I didn’t bring out the whip and punish him properly. PTSD isn’t something I really enjoy so I figured I shouldn’t pass it along.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“Than please tell me what you mean Jimin since you didn’t punish him at all either these last thirty years. I’m pretty sure you babied him more than I did.”

Joon sighs, “Okay I’m tired of this shit. All of you shut up. Insoo please stop fighting with everyone, we are not leaving Jungkook. Everyone else, stop being assholes, I’m not the type of alpha to leave my pack members behind and you all know that.”

“How are you planning on getting him back?” Jin wonders.

“I have no idea. Jin is the only one who could sneak in there without being sniffed out and I’m not going to send him in alone.”

We are all silent for a moment, the air is heavy with unsaid words. Sitting around the fire we watch as the sun completely sinks, leaving us in darkness. I know what I should say, I should offer myself. Trade my freedom for Jungkook’s and live happily ever after with my mates. But I’m scared. Yoongi senses this and quickly begins trying to sooth me. Jin comes over a moment after and takes me from the younger.

“You know you don’t have to go,” He mumbles into my hair after I tuck my face into his neck.

“But I want to go to him.”

“Than why do you reek of fear?”

“Because I’m scared.”

He scoffs, “You have had to live your whole life pretending to be an alpha, lead a unit in the most feared werewolf army and survived. How can you be scared of a few alphas? You are too strong to let them hurt you, what do you have to be afraid of?”

“I’m afraid that they might hurt you. I couldn’t imagine you guys dying because of me.”

“I don’t have much to live for,” He shrugs. “I’m a very old wolf, I’ve lived a long life and done plenty of things. I can be done with my life. These bastards have done the same.”

“Don’t include me in that,” Jimin, Tae, and Hoseok interject together.

“I’m still young!” Tae whines.

“I haven’t even met my mate yet,” Jimin joins in.

“We still have so much to live for!”

“But we need to save our pup,” Joon reminds them sternly. He looks at me with soft eyes, “But we also don’t want to force you to go to your mates if you don’t want to. So you have to give us the okay before we can even try to figure out how we are going to do the trade.”