Victoria couldn’t believe her eyes. The world seemed to slow to a halt as she stared at the creature. The man continued to shout and taunt the beast, but it was like he was muffled. She watched the wolf as it made slow circles around her. The man moved everytime it did, keeping her between them. The creatures lips were pulled up into n angry snarl showing off the sharp teeth that dripped with saliva. Large paws were barely heard as they took its steps, the talon like claws pulling up dirt and grass each time he raised them. The hair on the creatures neck stood tall as the body rippled with muscle stomped around. The tail was as stiff as the rest of it.

What struck Victoria, though, were the eyes. Piercing blue like the crisp ocean waves. Slowly they were changing before her. The crisp blue was darkening into a chocolate brown. The wolf was growling deeply at the man as this happened.

In the span of a second, the wolf pivoted and lunged straight at her and the man. Victoria squeezed her eyes shut as she felt the bone crushing weight of the animal slam straight into her. At the same time, a sharp pain made its way through her should. She heard a scream as black covered her vision, and she passed out from the pain.

Slowly, Victoria peeled her eyes open, quickly shutting them again at the bright light in the room. Her whole body ached but it didn’t compare to the sharp pain in her shoulder. Groaning, she brought her hand up to her eyes and rubbed them as she tried to sit up. Her shoulder screamed in protest, but she ignored it until her back leaned against a cool wall. Opening her eyes again, she blinked as they adjusted to the light in the room.

As her vision came back into focus, she glanced around the room in a panic. The white walls and monitors told her she was in a hospital, but how? The last thing she remembered was the horrible man, and the runners body, and ….

The wolf.

Throwing off the sheet over her, Victoria moved to slip out the bed when a hand caught her arm. She winced under the touch, and it instantly softened as she turned to see Baekhyun staring at her with concern in his eyes.

“You need more rest,” he whispered. His voice was hoarse as he spoke, like her was losing his voice. “I’ve already told Reese and Maggie you’re here. You need more rest, Victoria.” He slowly pulled her back into the bed as she stared at him confused. He didn’t keep eye contact with her as he put her back in bed and pulled the sheet back over her lap. “Wait here, I think they’re just out in the hall.”

As he turned to walk out the door, he stopped and faced her again. His eyes didn’t leave the floor as he spoke. “I’m glad you’re awake.” The words seemed like he was trying not to say them as he quickly turned and left the room.

Victoria took a second to glance around the room once he left. It was clearly a hospital, but it wasn’t like one she had ever been in. Their were machines and monitors and the like, but the room was huge with multiple beds. There had to be at least ten, each with their own monitors. Lining the room there were shelves and cupboards each seeming to have medical supplies on or in them. Victoria glanced at the door he had left through and was surprised she could see him through the little glass window on the door. He wasn’t facing her, but he appeared to be talking to a few people outside.

Glancing down at herself, Victoria noticed she was in a different shirt and t-shirt now. When she touched her shoulder, she felt bandaging wrapped around it and wires followed her arm up. Glaring down at her hand, she carefully ripped the IV from her arm and began pulling off the other wires as well. Blood puddled out her wrist, but she just pressed it against her bandaged shoulder.

As she tore off the wires, some machines began beeping loudly. Ignoring them, Victoria slipped out a bed a bit woozily and made way to the door. Stopping to grab a rag from a bed she passed, she opened the door with her bleeding hand, catching everyone’s attention.

With Baekhyun stood Chanyeol as well as two older women and men she didn’t recognize. Reese and Maggie stood opposite of them, but they didn’t look like the people she knew. Reese was decked out from head to toe in gear. He had a tool belt that was decorated with knives and guns along with a sash of ammunition across his chest. Next to him, sweet Maggie stood hard and cold. She too had a weapons belt, but no guns. Along with the belt, she had knives strapped to her left thigh and a large sheath on her back. She glared down at the people in front of her with Reese, and the strangers didn’t hesitate to glare back.

When Victoria opened the door, every head snapped to her. Baekhyun was the first to approach her. “I thought I asked you to rest,” he stated. His voice was hard again, but that isn’t what Victoria noticed. She noticed his eyes. His ocean blue eyes.

He had reached out to her, but she recoiled away from him and bak into the hospital room. Sighing, he approached her again, but she tried to slam the door in his face.

Tried.

Baekhyun growled and caught the door with ease. He took a deep breath before he spoke. “Victoria, please calm down. I can explain all of this to you.”

“You’re the dog!” she hissed at him. She had begun dodging him in the room. Pushing beds in his way and throwing whatever she could grab at him. He wasn’t fazed. “You lied to me. You tried to kill me!”

“I never hurt you!” he argued back with her. His eyes were shifting between the chocolate and the blue. “I have always protected you! It’s not my fault you do stupid ! You know how exhausting it it to follow you around in the forest?”

“You’ve been following me?!” she shouted at him. She had twisted a bed around and was using it to keep him the total length away. He held onto the other side and followed her movements. “You ever heard of privacy?”

Baekhyun’s eyes switched back to blue in an instant. He was growling at her now. “Oh please! I leave you alone for half an hour and come back to a rogue ready to eat you! You can’t even defend yourself! You just let him get the jump on you!”

“I had it under control!” Victoria shouts back at him. Neither of them noticed as everyone from outside entered into the room.

Chanyeol went to get Baekhyun but was stopped but one of the women. “Let them be. She is used to dealing with his wolf by now.”

“Control?! You call that control! One kick in the nuts isn’t having is under control, Drake!” Baekhyun shouted at her. “And what did your do when I got him down? Run right to him! What the hell was that, huh? What you’d rather go with him than be here?”

“Don’t turn this around on me!” she shouted at him, giving the bed between then a shove into his stomach. He didn’t even flinch. “You’re the ing stalker! And a liar! I told you everything about what happened, and you called me crazy!”

“Of course I did!” he yelled back. With one yank, he pulled the bed out of her grip and rolled it a side. He stomped up to her as she backed away until her back was against the wall. He continued to yell down at her. “And I was right! You were acting crazy! Sitting out in the woods all night, you’re lucky I’m the Beta’s son or that would be your !” Victoria put her hands on his chest and tried to shove him away, but it was useless. Instead, he put his hands on the wall on either side of her head, trapping her there. Looking up at him, his eyes were a dark chocolate brown. “You know what, let’s settle this finally. I, Baekhyun Byun, reject you, Victoria Drake-”

He was ripped away from her by one of the men Victoria didn’t know and thrown to the ground in a quick sweep. Victoria gasped as he slammed into the ground with a loud thud. “That’s enough, Baekhyun!” he man’s voice boomed.

Before Victoria could stop herself, she ducked under the larger man’s arm and crouched down by Baekhyun. He was slowly pushing himself up as Victoria grabbing his arm to help him. Noticing her, he pushed her asided. Stumbling, Reese caught her in his arms, pulling her into his chest and caging her there.

“Just let me reject her!” Baekhyun growled at the man. “She’s been nothing but problems since the beginning!”

“You don’t mean that,” the man spoke down to him. “You’re just angry and you’ve been taking it out on your mate!”

“I don’t want her!” Baekhyun shouted. Victoria gasped as pain shot through her chest like a steel rod. Reese held her tighter. “I’ve never wanted her! If it were up to me, the rogue would have her! It’s him that won’t quit!”

Victoria felt her limbs give way and reese crumbled to the floor with her. Her breaths were coming out in small puffs and she clutched her chest. “Wha-”

Reese shushed her as he her hair. Maggie crouched down and took her into her arms. “You’re torturing her, and she doesn’t even understand it!” Reese barked.

“And whose fault is that?!” Baekhyun Reese in a heartbeat. “You knew! Why was it my job to-”

The shink of a sharp blade leaves it sheath cut through his words. Reese held the blade to his throat with cold eyes. “You’re her mate. Everything around her is your job now. If you want to reject her, fine, but grow a big enough pair to explain what is happening to her.”