This chapter is mostly a flashback of Xiumin's past because there's too much to explain without doing it this way.

Chapter 12

Xiumin sat alone on the bed, rubbing his fingers along the soft leather of his collar. A small metal disc hung from it with his name on one side and the name of the DBSK pack on the other, to show who he belonged to. Though in truth it was Changmin alone who had made him into a pet. It had been the only way. They hadn't known each other long enough for Yunho to acknowledge them as mates but he was willing to offer Xiumin protection if he was their pet. At the time Xiumin had jumped at the chance.

He listened to the sounds of the shower running in the next room where Luhan was washing away the scent of what he had done with Kris the night before. In truth it had bothered Xiumin a little more than he had let on. Not that Luhan had slept with the alpha while in heat, no that was fine, but the fact that he hadn't even thought to call and let him know where he was. Changmin would never have done that, he thought to himself. Immediately he felt guilty and shook his head to clear the thought. No, Luhan had just been scared of how he would react and probably so exhausted he just passed out anyway.

Heaving a sigh, Xiumin clutched the collar in his hands and looked down at it sadly. Things had been so bad when he met Changmin. Was there anyway Luhan and the rest of the pack would understand that? Would they still believe he was loyal to them even though he had kept this a secret? Surely they would understood why he had. Being a pet was nothing to be proud of.

He turned the collar over once more in his fingers and sighed.

Xiumin had never had a pack. He had been a loner since transferring to the school and was in his third mixed dorm in less than a year. The first one had split up after a month when three of the members formed a pack with a few others and Xiumin had to leave with one of the others. The second had lasted a little longer until one transferred school and another dropped out. The third was by far the worst though.

The third dorm was where everyone had started calling him Xiumin. There was an alpha in this dorm who was also called Minseok and he really didn't like sharing his name. He told Xiumin that everyone would refer to him by the name he had been given in Mandarin class, and then made some disparaging remarks about Chinese people.

Xiumin was lucky enough to have been roomed with the one omega in the dorm but almost everyone else was a beta like him. There were a lot of arguments, a lot of fighting. And when someone was in heat…

Xiumin lived in fear of when he or any of the others, especially Minseok, would come into heat. Sine they weren't a pack there were no rules and the safest option was to lock the door and wait it out, however long that took. The walls were thin, though. He heard the pained screams of the omega when he was caught. He heard other things, too and desperately tried to stay away. He would hide in bed with the pillow over his head but it didn't block out the sounds. He knew that would be him if they caught him. He knew that he would beg them, not to stop but to keep going, as soon as there heat flooded his senses. He didn't want his first time to be like that, or any other time if he could help it.

He was in heat now and that was why he was sneaking out of the dorm. He had done it before , with a sleeping bag under his arm and, if he had enough time, something to eat and drink. It was hard to find somewhere completely safe but he had slept in a few stairwells and even on the roof before. That's where he was heading now, as quickly as possible.

“Where are you going?”

He spun around at the door to see one of his dorm mates behind him, luckily not Minseok. “I-I'm just going...”

“Is that a sleeping bag?”

He swallowed hard and backed towards the door. His legs were trembling and his skin flushed uncomfortably. The look in the other wolf's eyes was dark as he realised what was going and Xiumin shivered with the need to go to him. His body wanted to be satisfied in ways he didn't even know yet.

A low growl rumbled through the other wolf's throat and he took another step away. He would take him right here where any of the others could walk in on them and take their turn. He had heard it happen before.

As soon as the wolf took a predatory step towards him Xiumin turned tail and fled. There were footsteps behind him and a voice calling him back but he kept running. The sleeping bag fell from under his arm and he launched himself up the stairs and away from the other wolf while he still had enough self control to do so. He hadn't gone very far when he ran head first into a tall, solid body and fell back onto the ground.

“Woah, are you alright?” The taller boy reached down to help him up and then jerked away. “Oh, you're in heat,” he said in a tight voice.

Xiumin was breathing too hard with panic to reply.

“Come on, we should get you back to your pack to help you with that.”

“I-I don't have one.”

“Then back to your dorm.”

“No,” he practically shouted. “You can't send me back there, please. They'll… I don't want them to. I'm not ready.” Tears stung his eyes at the thought of what they might do to him and how much of him wanted it at that point, with his heat still raging.

The taller boy sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair. He looked so good when he did that. Xiumin's heat addled brain told him to press up against him, beg him to take him home and take him instead. He gazed down over his body and imagined how he would look . A shiver ran through him.

“Okay, fine,” said the boy. He stripped off his hoodie and threw it at Xiumin. His arms were well-muscled and Xiumin had to force himself not to look. Not to imagine them wrapped around him.

“Put it on,” he ordered gently. “The more your skin is covered the less others can scent your heat.

Xiumin did as he was told, zipping it up as far as it would go, pulling the hood over his head and slipping his hands up into the sleeve. It smelt of the other boy, a scent he would come to know very well.

“Follow me.” He turned away and let Xiumin trail a few nervous steps behind. “You can stay with me. I'll sleep on the couch.”

Xiumin looked up in surprise, amazed that the other boy wasn't trying to take advantage of him when surely he knew how willing Xiumin was in that moment. He caught his eye as the boy looked back over his broad shoulder.

“I'm Changmin, by the way.”

Xiumin gave him a little smile and bit his lip, blushing when he looked away again.

So, that's  how they met but there'll be more on how their relationship progresses. Not in the next chapter though, that's for ChenRis and BaekYeol.