After bringing Baekhyun to the pack hospital, Julia brought them each a change of clothes. While the doctor gave him an IV and began wrapping some of his wounds, Victoria sat patiently by the bed and watched.

“I can’t believe they would get this close to the border,” Andrew was speaking to Tanner, Julia, Kris, and another larger man she hadn’t met. “And to attack Baekhyun with her right there? They know a wolf will always protect their mate.”

“Worse part is he was probably going for her,” Kris added. “She’s just human, the rogue likely didn’t even notice Baekhyun. Went for him first once he spotted him.”

“Not a wolf? Are you thick?” Andrew asked. She heard fabric moving, and Julia gasp. “She thought I was attacking Baekhyun and swam up behind me! If she was trained better she could have torn out my throat!”

“No, she isn’t a wolf,” Kris argued. “She probably just has sharp nails or something.”

“She was bitten by that rogue,” the man she didn’t know spoke up. “It is possible he turned her. And that would also explain why the rogue didn’t attack her, why it went for Baekhyun. If he thought she was a rogue, Baekhyun would have been a threat.”

“Doctor? Could the rogue have-”

“Victoria are you alright, dear?” the doctor finished wrapping Baekhyun, and turned to her, ignoring the others. “Any scratches, bites?”

He began looking over her hands and arms, but her eyes didn’t leave Baekhyun. “Will he be alright?” she whispered. “He… there was so much blood.”

“The first bite appears to have pierced a vein in his shoulder,” the doctor explained. “It’s already closed itself over, so the internal bleeding was kept to a minimum. He will be fine, I’m sure. Now are you hurt?”

“N-no,” she mumbled. “I didn’t even see it,” she was speaking mostly to herself at this point. “Baekhyun was yelling at me, but he’s always yelling at me, I didn’t listen. He told me to come back, but I didn’t listen, and now…”

Two arms wrapped around her shoulders as Victoria felt her body begin shaking. “This wasn’t your fault, dear,” Julia said softly, and kissed the top of her head. “If anything, we are lucky it was you two. He’s a beta’s son, so he’s stronger than a normal wolf. A normal wolf would already have been lost. He can take a lot more than you give him credit for, dear.”

“But he’s hurt, and he didn’t have to come after me, and-”

“Shut up,” a groggy voice growled out. It was soft and raspy, and Victoria thought she had imagined it at first. Baekhyun’s eyes peeled open, and he sniffled looking around the room. “There are rogues on the border,” he muttered.

“Yes, we’ve gathered that,” the man she didn’t know laughed. “We have men patrolling the lake and the rest of our borders. They will report any sightings.”

Baekhyun nodded, his head rolling to the side tiredly. Tanner stepped up to the bed, brushing his son’s hair aside. “How are you feeling?”

“Bad,” Baekhyun growled out. “and I smell like wet dog.”

The men in the room chuckled at this, and Julia rushed over to the other side of the bed to hold her son. Victoria stared at him silently from the chair. Her hair was still dripping water onto the floor in puddles around her, and her eyes still stung from the salty water, and his brother's blood was still beneath her fingernails. It had only been an hour, maybe two, since the fight, and he was already waking up.

“I’m glad you’re awake, there are some things we must all discuss,” the doctor nodded at them all. Once everyone’s attention was on him, he frowned. “There is a problem. Victoria is shifting, only partially now, but if things continue as they are, I’m sure a full shift isn’t far away.”

“What do you mean she’s shifting?” Baekhyun had sat up in bed, only wincing slightly.

Andrew pulled down the collar of his shirt again. “She attacked me when I was pulling you out,” he explained. “She hadn’t met me, so it was an obvious response, but apparently she is not a natural wolf.”

“As I was saying,” the doctor continued, “This is likely from the rogue’s bite. I had my suspicions before, but there is no denying it. The rogue didn’t bite her, he infected her, most likely on purpose. There are a few ways we can handle this, but I need to express urgency.”

Victoria had been unconsciously holding her shoulder while he spoke. “Infected?” she whispered. A rumbled formed in her stomach, and it made her feel like she would hurl. “I have a disease?”

“No, it’s more like a venom,” the doctor explained. “It infects the blood stream and changes your cells and DNA. It’s known to be quite painful, I’m surprised you haven’t been bedridden by now. The venom will convert your DNA until you are fully transformed into a wolf, only then you can shift, but considering your partial transformation earlier today, I would assume you will shift sooner than later.”

“So what do I do?” she whispered.

“Well that falls between you and your mate.” Her eyes shot to Baekhyun, who’s eyes were trained on the doctor. “Either we can let this transformation happen, and you will either change or die within your first shift. It’s about an five percent survival rate this way, but not impossible. Then after your shift, there is about a fifty-fifty chance you could go feral. Become more wolf than human, like the other rogues. You would join them, and likely be killed. Or, Baekhyun can replace the venom in you with his own. It would enhance your survival rate tremendously, into the seventy percents, and your chance of becoming feral would be nearly none, since Baekhyun isn’t feral. However, this would almost guarantee you complete your mating. As I’ve said this is an urgent matter.”

“How urgent?” Victoria asked him.

“I would give you about a day. A day and a half, maybe.” He explained, “Your changing quickly, likely because you’ve been surrounded by wolves for it, and being with your mate is likely reducing the pain to almost nothing, but it will get worse from here. If Baekhyun decides to change you, even more so. He cannot numb the pain to his own venom, so you would be at the full force of it, and being a Beta’s son only makes it stronger. I can assuming you’ve been hearing a voice lately? Quiet, but there? That is the wolf forming within you.” She heard Baekhyun whisper ‘Oh…’ “Yes, well she will get louder, almost unbearably so. Let it happen, you can learn to control her after the first shift.”

After a moment of silence, the doctor nodded. “Well, you all must need a moment. I will be just outside.”

After he left, the room became a mess of people looking between Victoria and Baekhyun, neither of whom could look at the other. Finally the man she didn’t know nodded. “Well, Victoria, no matter what you decide, you will have a spot in our pack if you would like it.” He smiled at her, then at Baekhyun, before walking out the door, Kris following behind him.

“Was that..?”

“Alpha James, yes,” Tanner nodded. He was sitting in a chair next to Julia, Andrew leaned against the far wall. “He came when he heard about the rogue attack. Stayed to see what was going on. He’ll be heading back to the castle in the morning.”

Thought she didn’t know what this castle was they kept talking about, Victoria nodded. After a moment she let out a dry laugh. “Uh, well it was nice meeting you all,” she mumbled as she stood.

Baekhyun’s head snapped to her. “Where are you going?”

“Uh, to die in the woods?” she muttered. “You know, most likely.”

Tanner stood as well, shaking his head. “You are not going to die in the woods. You can survive the transformation, I’m sure of it. No matter what you two choose.”

“Well there isn’t much of a choice to make,” she shrugged. “Baekhyun doesn’t want me, and I’m not going to force him too, so even if I don’t die, I’ll become some psychopath that eats people. I don’t want that, so I’ll handle it myself.” Victoria went to leave, but Tanner grabbed her arm.

“What are you implying, Victoria?”

“Does it need to be said?” she countered, slowly removing him from her arm. “I don’t want to be like that, so I’m not going to. I’ll make sure of it.”

“You aren’t going to kill yourself,” Baekhyun snapped at her. “Sit down, Victoria. If I rip my stitches I’ll kill you.” Frowning, she did as she was told. “Could you give us a minute?” he glanced to his family, who nodded and slowly left the room.

As the door clicked shut behind them, Victoria felt the tension in the room rise, if that were possible. Baekhyun stared at her, seemingly arguing with himself, while she still felt on the verge of spilling her guts. “Do you even want to turn?” he whispered to her.

“I don’t have a choice,” she answered. She stared down at her hands, they were shaking. “Look if you don’t want to-”

“Stop assuming what I want and don’t want,” he snapped at her. “Look I’m not saying I want to turn you, but I’m not going to just not do it. You’ll probably die if I don’t and I don’t want that either. But I need you to get that once I do this, we are locked together. There is no divorce for wolves. Once I mark you, it’s only a matter of time before we mate, and once we mate its done, we will be spending upwards of a century together. We won’t age, or die for a really long time, so I need you to get that before-”

“I get it,” she nodded. “That’s why I’m not going to make you do it. I’m not going to ask you to. I will handle this on my own. It doesn’t have to be your problem, Baekhyun. I can walk out the door, and you would never have to worry about me again.” Victoria hadn’t realized tears were burning in her eyes. She didn’t want to die; she wanted to be with Baekhyun. Part of her thought this was the best thing that could have happen. They were the same now. That’s all he wanted, wasn’t it? She thought he would be thrilled.

Baekhyun shook his head. “I’m not going to let you die, Victoria. I’ve already decided what I’m going to do. I just wanted you to understand that this will be incredibly painful from the moment I bite you until your first shift. And it only becomes more complicated after that.”

Victoria nodded her head, and Baekhyun swung his legs off the bed. He reached for her, and shaking legs carried her from her chair to him. He stood up, his arms wrapping around her and holding her still. Dipping his head into the crook of her neck, he breathed in slowly. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered. She could felt his lips move against her neck, and as he opened his mouth, his canines grew until they pressed against her neck.

“Hold your breath,” he whispered to her. She took a deep breath, and as she held it, his teeth sunk into her neck. Her arms wrapped around him as much as they could, and she felt a scream bubbling in . Squeezing her eyes closed, she forced the scream down and held onto him tightly. Something burning flooded down her neck and to her chest. She felt the heat filling her body as he slowly removed his teeth. Carefully, his at the wound, and it closed leaving a black mark on her neck, the mark of a beta.

She felt her knees giving out, and Baekhyun quickly held her up, moving until they were both on the hospital bed. Her body was shaking despite the fever rising in her. “Doctor!” Baekhyun shouted. Soon Julia, Tanner and the doctor stormed back in. Baekhyun held her against his chest, brushing her hair from her eyes. Victoria’s green eyes faded to a bright yellow as her canines elongated, and Baekhyun felt her claws pinching into his stomach. He ignored the pain.

“You bit her?” Julia asked as she rushed forward. “Here? You couldn’t wait until we got you two home!?”

Baekhyun shook his head. “I didn’t think that far ahead.” Clutching Victoria to his chest, he tried to control her violent shivers.

The doctor came around and placed his hand on her forehead. “She's burning up,” he stated. “Your venom is burning out the old one. She'll need lots of rest until the shift. Take her home and keep an eye on her.”

As the doctor moved aside, Tanner came around to help her out of bed. Bright yellow eyes flashed around the room as her head rolled back. When Tanner tried to lift her, her claws sunk deeper into Baekhyun stomach. The boy winced, and Tanner quickly backed away. Victoria whipped around and pressed her face into Baekhyun's chest.

Groaning, Baekhyun glared down at her. “Let go, dammit,” he hissed. Grabbing her shoulders, Baekhyun pushed her off of him and slid out the bed. Victoria hissed and reached for him, but he swatted her hands away. “No, you're hurting me. I'm not helping you.”

“She can't hear you,” the doctor shook his head. “The wolf has taken over to hide her from the pain, but it's like having a pup with the strength of an adult. She doesn't know how to control it.”

Victoria began crawling towards Baekhyun from the bed, but he continued to knock her back into it. “So what the hell do I do? Let her rip my stomach out?”

The doctor grinned and shrugged. “If you think it would help,” he shook his head. “All she really knows is that you are her mate.”

“Can't you sedate her or something?” Baekhyun rolled his eyes. Victoria had begun growling at him, trying to grab his hands or clothing and pull him towards her. Sweat had begun pooling down her body, making it even more difficult to grab him and her more angry.

Julia frowned at her son and approached the bed. Victoria growled at her, but Julia ignored it. While Baekhyun argued with the doctor, Julia began to gentle wipe the sweat from Victoria’s forehead. Slowly, Victoria stopped growling at the woman, and approached her, laying her head in her lap. Julia looked up at her son while she pet Victoria's hair. “She's scared, Hyunnie. Batting her away isn't going to help. She needs love and care.”

Rolling his eyes again, Baekhyun rubbed his stomach where the claw marks had already begun to heal. Julia stood, pulling Victoria up with her. Yellow eyes flashed to Baekhyun as Tanner helped Julia lead her from the room.

The doctor turned to Baekhyun and frowned. “I realise this is a trying time already, but there is something else you should know.”