Chapter 25

“Please say something.”

Xiumin looked up at his alpha with worried eyes. Suho had been silent for long enough to make him feel even more uncomfortable than he had before.

“What do you want me to say?” Suho ran his hands over his face and sighed heavily. He couldn't deal with this. He couldn't deal with any of it.

“Xiumin, you're his pet. Officially that means you're not even a member of our pack.”

The other wolf's thought closed up. He was a member of their pack. He always had been. Changmin hadn't even been around when he joined them. “Are you going to make me leave?”

“I don't want to but if he comes claiming you then we can't stop him.”

“He won't. If he was going to then he would have by now, right?”

Suho wasn't so sure about that. It sounded to him like Changmin had been trying to get Xiumin to go to him voluntarily and now that Xiumin had clearly rejected him he wasn't sure what he might so.

Xiumin saw the uncertainty on his face.

“I told him I didn't want to be his pet anymore,” he insisted. “He understands.”

“Xiumin, do you even know what being a pet means? It means he owns you. You can't join another pack, you can't mate with anyone unless he tells you that you can. I've never even known anyone to have a pet these days.”

Xiumin lowered his head shamefully. He knew it was an outdated idea for civilised packs, that's why they hadn't made it public knowledge, but they had been desperate. After what his old roommates tried to do to him he needed protection and they wanted to be together. It was the only thing Yunho would allow since they hadn't known each other for very long.

“We had no other choice,” he said quietly. “I was scared and we were in love and Yunho wouldn't let me join their pack that quickly.”

“What were you scared of?”

Xiumin rubbed the tears from his eyes and looked away. He didn't want to talk about it. He had put it out of his mind and ignored that part of his life, before Changmin and Luhan and the Exo pack, as if it had been a bad dream.

Suho shuffled forward and took his packmates hands in his. Embarrassed, Xiumin pulled them away but started talking.

“I was in a dorm with some other packless wolves. One of them was called Minseok too. That's why people started calling me Xiumin because he said I wasn't allowed to have the same name as him. The others all joined together to make a pack even though they didn't seem to like each other all that much and he was the alpha. There was only me and an omega who weren't in it.”

He paused, swallowing hard. It was a few seconds before he could continue.

“Whenever I went into heat I would sleep somewhere else. On the roof usually if it wasn't too cold or raining. I heard what they did to the omega, to each other even, when someone was in heat. I was terrified of it happening to me. I used to lock the bedroom door whenever I was in there and I only left to use the bathroom or the kitchen when no one was around.”

“Oh, Min, I'm so sorry. I wish you hadn't had to go through that.”

It's okay,” he lied, brushing off his leaders' concern. “I met Changmin one night when one of them realised I was in heat and I had to run away before I gave into it. He was really nice. He let me sleep at his dorm and didn't even try anything.”

He gave a little smile, remembering.

“Then what happened?”

“Then things got worse. Once they realised I was with him they started chasing me all the time, calling me… all sorts of things.” He didn't want to say the vile words that had come out of their mouths. They had tried to make his relationship with Changmin something dirty like he was being used but he had never felt it was that way when they were together.

“They started chasing me all the time, trying to get me to do things with them even when they weren't in heat because they said I was doing it for him so I should do it for them, too.”

He had to stop and squeeze his eyes shut. His hands had begun to tremble and he squeezed them into tight fists even though it did no good.

“Xiumin, I'm so sorry,” Suho whispered. He had had no idea. He hadn't realised Xiumin had been harassed and bullied so badly. He had never talked about it before.

“Changmin got in a fight with one of them,” Xiumin replied, forcing himself to keep going, “when he caught him trying to...” He didn't say it. He didn't want Suho to imagine him pinned on the floor of the bathroom with the other wolf fumbling for the zipper on his pants.

“They got angry at Changmin after that and started threatening him. That was when we asked Yunho if I could join his pack but I guess he thought I was using Changmin for protection or something and we hadn't been together long enough so Changmin made me his pet. That way he could protect me and his pack could too but they could get rid of me whenever I wanted if things didn't work out.”

“Then everything was better?” Suho asked worriedly.

Xiumin shook his head. “Not at first. There was a big fight. It was awful, I felt so guilty for causing it. Everyone got hurt and the school found out what was going on. They kicked out Minseok's pack and everyone found out just how badly they got beaten. They were really mad about it, started making all these threats.”

“What did they do?”

“Nothing. We heard some rumours but things were quiet when Changmin left and I haven't heard anything since.”

“Oh, Xiumin.” Suho leant over and wrapped the other wolf in his arms, letting him rest his head against his shoulder. “I'm so sorry. I understand why you agreed to it but this makes things difficult unless he's willing to let you go as his pet.”

“I know. I'm sure he will though.” He wasn't actually sure at all but maybe if he pretended to be he might convince himself one day.

“You haven't told Luhan all of this?”

He pulled back, shaking his head. “He didn't give me a chance and he was already mad enough that I had kept our relationship a secret from him. I couldn't tell him I was his pet, too.”

“He needs to know. Everyone does, in case something happens.”

“Please don't tell everyone yet. Not until I have a chance to explain to Luhan myself.”

“Alright, but I need to tell Kris. He's your alpha, too.”

Xiumin nodded. He could understand that.

“When will you talk to Luhan?”

“Soon. Once he's calmed down. I don't think he wants to see me right now.”

“I guess you can sleep here tonight,” Suho told him. “At least until he's ready to listen.”

He ruffled Xiumin's hair as he stood and went to get him a blanket and pillow for the couch. He had planned a nice, quiet weekend with Tao but he guessed that idea had gone out the window. Now all he could do was worry about Xiumin and Luhan.

Kris dragged his feet back to his room. He was so glad it was Friday even though the weekend didn't sound like it was going to be fun at all. Xiumin and Luhan were fighting and Suho had just explained to him that Xiumin was Changmin's pet which could open a huge potential can of worms should the other wolf decide to come and claim his property. Honestly, the idea of having a pet left an unpleasant taste in his mouth. As an alpha he always tried to be fair and not take advantage of his power over his packmates. A master could do whatever they wanted to their pets.

Then there was the tension in his own dorm. Baekhyun had spent the whole day either tucked protectively under Chanyeol's arm looking miserable or looking for Chen who was avoiding everyone. Kris had looked too but Chen suddenly seemed very good at hiding. He couldn't hide in their dorm though and he was determined to find him and talk about whatever had obviously happened between him and Baekhyun. He had been fast asleep when he returned from comforting Luhan the night before otherwise he would have asked him then.

At least Lay had been well enough to return to school, although Sehun flitted around him like a tiny, nervous bird trying to predict his every whim and make life as easy for him as possible. At least he was when he wasn't glaring at Jeonghan who came over while they were eating to heal him a little more because he said he was looking tired. Clearly he wasn't one hundred percent better just yet.

“Chen?” Kris called as he reached the bedroom. He opened the door hoping to find his mate there but the room was empty. Before he could look elsewhere for him he noticed a folded piece of paper on the bed with his name scrawled on the front of it.

He picked it up, worrying already.

My parents called, he read. Jongdeok's visiting for his birthday so they said I had to come home for the weekend. I'll be back Sunday night.

That was it. No kiss at the end or anything. Why hadn't he told Kris face to face?

He sat down on the bed heavily. A whole weekend apart. That was the longest they had been apart since they started dating, bar Christmas when Kris went back to his family in China for a week. And that had been far too long.

He remembered how Chen had been when he came back. His own visit to his parents had been terrible. They barely kept in contact with him, practically ignoring that they had a younger son. The way Chen described it they only had eyes for his brother, Jongdeok, who had gotten into one of the most prestigious wolf based universities in America. He had flawless grades, was a star athlete and had even started shifting early. Chen had started shifting late and barely had control over his wolf form even now.

Kris looked across at his lover's empty bed and frowned. Chen hated going home. He couldn't believe that he would leave without even talking to him about it. For the first time since they had met, Kris felt suddenly so alone.

This was a very chatty chapter. Sorry. It had important backstory for the future though

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