After leaving the bathroom, Victoria made her way back to Baekhyun’s bedroom. Pushing open the door, she walked in and set the bag in her hands on the dresser before turning around the curl up in his bed. Pulling the blanket up to her neck, she laid on her side and tried not to think of her parents. Her parents were hard on her sometimes, but they were never aggressive, and they were nothing like what she saw today. She could still see her mother in the window crying. Why was she crying? At her husband shooting their daughter? Or at the thing she had become?

She felt the stinging in the back of her eyes as fresh tears threatened to form. As much as she didn’t want  to admit it, her parents didn’t want her now. Over the course of three short days, her world had been ripped out from underneath her feet. There was no turning back now. Victoria recalled the anger on Carmen’s face at the mention of her father. Did he think she was like him? Wiping the tears from her cheeks, Victoria clenched her jaw. No, she thought, I am nothing like him. He tried to kill me.

What man would not only aim a gun at their daughter, but fire? It shouldn’t matter what she is or isn’t. Victoria was his daughter, and he was supposed to protect her, not kill her. But where was he to protect her? Halfway across the world while rogues ripped into her shoulder. A phantom pain went through her arm. Reaching up, she held her good shoulder, her fingers brushing over the bulging skin where Baekhyun’s mark laid. When she read about marks like this is stories, she had always pictured it as a bite mark, the shape of the other person’s jaw, but it wasn’t like this.

Baekhyun’s mark resembled more of a raised tattoo on her skin. It resembled a star, with a hollow center and smaller dots near the points. It was small, but noticeable. Her fingers traced the mark, her fingers causing it to tingle. She wasn’t sure how to feel about it. Her wolf was overwhelmed when she thought about it, but an uncomfortable feeling sat in her stomach when she did. The mark was always special in her books, something they couple shared and no one’s was the same. In the books, it meant the two loved and cared for each other about all else, but for them? It was a better option out of two. Baekhyun didn’t love her, and she couldn’t say she loved him either. She was attracted to him, more than she had ever been to anyone else, but that didn’t mean she loved him, or hell, even liked him half the time.

He treated her only a step above they was Marcus did. The only difference was the beatings, they emotional abuse remained. You know he doesn’t mean it her wolf quickly stepped up to defend their mate, but Victoria shook her off. “But that doesn’t make it okay.” She knew now why he pushed her away, he wanted to protect his family; but once she had already been attacked wasn’t it too late for that?

The door to the room opened, and Baekhyun stepped in lacking a shirt and with a towel in his hand drying his hair. He glanced at her in his bed but said nothing and went into his closet. Victoria rolled away from him, too tempted to look him over but not wanting to give him to satisfaction. He was nice in the bathroom her wolf reminded her. Victoria bit her lip, wanting to respond, but not wanting him to hear her. “Only for pity,”she whispered as softly as she could. Laying on this side hurt her shoulder, so she rolled onto her back and looked up at the ceiling.

You don’t know that her wolf argued. As much as she wanted to believe that was true, nothing else made sense. Saving her she understood, his wolf made him protector and didn’t give him a say in the matter, but his wolf couldn’t make him care. Stealing a glance his way, Victoria watched him pick up a shirt from the floor, throw it over his shoulder and dig for another one. He hadn’t yelled at her yet for being in his bed. She wondered if it was related to what he said about scents before.

Since laying in the bed wasn’t make her feel better, Victoria pulled the blanket away and crawled out. Baekhyun grabbed another shirt and pulled it over his head. Turning around, he caught her eye as she climbed from the bed. “Where are you going?” he asked. Turning towards his dresser, he pulled out a pair of socks and sat in his bean bag chair. “You need rest.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to rest here,” she argued. A shiver went across her arms as she stood and deciding not to chance it, she pulled his comforter from the bed with her and marched to the door with it around her shoulders.

She heard Baekhyun mumble something along the lines of ‘that’s not yours’ and chose to ignore it as she left the room and headed down stairs to the kitchen. Sure enough, by the time she reached the bottom step, Victoria had goosebumps across her skin. Pulling the blanket tighter around herself, she walked over to Julia who stood by the stove.

The woman glanced at her from the corner of her eyes and smiled. “Hi, dear,” she said softly. “How are you feeling?”

Victoria peeked into the pan the woman was cooking with and got a big whiff of cooked onions. “Your son’s a butthole,” she replied, “but fine besides that.”

“Which one?” Julia laughed.

She smiled at this and waddles around the kitchen towards the counter she had eaten breakfast at that morning. Pulling out of the the tall chairs, she pushed herself up into it, keeping the blanket tight around her. Something about Julia made Victoria feel very comfortable. She reminded Victoria of her mother, or the woman she thought of as her mother. Currently, she didn’t think either parent deserved the title. Julia was different than that, though. From day one Julia was kind to her and excited to meet her. Although the woman didn’t look anywhere near the age Victoria was told she was, she had a kindness Victoria could only imagine came with time.

“What are you making?” Victoria asked, leaning forward onto the counter. Although she was drowsy, Victoria didn’t want to sleep yet. She didn’t want to lay down and think anymore.

Julia adjusted some setting on the stove before she replied. “I’m going to cook a brisket overnight,” the woman explained. “A lot to ready for it though.”

“What’s the brisket for?” Victoria couldn’t imagine going through all of that for one dinner.

Stepping away from the stove, Julia opened a cabinet and pulled a large crock pot from it and set it on the counter. “Just a little something for the patrol,” she smiled over her shoulder at Victoria. “Some of them have been pulling all nighters with the rogues being so rowdy. I wanted to thank them.”

Victoria smiled at this. She had never met someone who would go out of their way like that for someone, not like Julia did. Her wolf perked up in her chest, and Victoria turned her gaze to the steps as Baekhyun entered the kitchen. She hadn’t noticed it at the time, but he had dressed the same as the black uniforms in the cabin.

“And where do you think you’re going?” Julia hadn’t even glanced at him. She stayed setting up for her brisket.

“Score to settle,” he stated. Walking around his mother, he opened a cabinet and pulled out a small box of cereal. When his mother turned away, he reached into the pan and pulled out what looked like a pepper and dropped it into his mouth. Seemingly unphased by the heat, he turned to Victoria with a stern look. “Don’t touch that dressing until I get home.”

Victoria get him a mock salute. “Yes, Captain.” He nodded, apparently satisfied with that response and left the room.

Once he was gone, Victoria immediately poked the bandage. Julia noticed and smiled at her. “Do you know where he’s off to?” Victoria shook her head, and she nodded. “Probably going to spar with Chanyeol.”

“I tried to spar with Chanyeol,” Victoria said. Julia raised her eyebrow, and Victoria continued. “I lost, but I think I did okay considering.” The older woman chuckled and went back to her cooking while Victoria watched from the counter. She was too tired to actually do anything, but too stubborn to go back up to his room. She saw two pros in staying awake downstairs. One, she couldn’t dread on her parents or the status of Baekhyun, and two, she wasn’t surrounded by his scent.

So instead of dealing with that, she opted for watching Julia cook. She offered light conversation every once and awhile, but overall seemed to be in her own world. Victoria didn’t mind though. She enjoyed watching Julia chop vegetables or meat and toss it into the slow cooker. After she had finished with the brisket, Julia began on a shepherd's pie she announced would be dinner.

Amber stumbled in while Victoria laid with her head on the counter. Victoria hadn’t noticed her until she tapped her on the shoulder. “Hey, what are you doing?” she laughed and sat in the seat next to her.

While Victoria sleepily lifted her head, Julia answered. “She’s keeping me company,” she smiled at Victoria, who happily lai her head back down.

“You looked exhausted,” Amber commented. Glancing around the room quickly, she turned back to her mother. “Where is Baekhyun?”

Julia set down the spatula she was using to cook the ground meat and made air quotes around, “Settling a score.”

Amber rolled her eyes and turned back to Victoria. “Okay, come on,” hopping down from her seat, Amber tired to get Victoria up, but she shrugged her off.

“No, I’m hungry now,” she mumbled. “I’m just gonna wait.”

Laughing at them, Julia turned back to her food. “She insists of being awake,” she  explained. Amber climbed back into the chair next to her as Julia spoke. “After dinner she’ll go straight to bed, right Victoria?”

There was a small warning in her voice, and Victoria found herself agreeing. “Mhmm,” she hummed out and laid her head back against the counter. She hadn’t expected herself to be so tired, but when she remembered all she did today, she understood why. Between the sparing and the running and the wound, she accepted her sleepiness.

It hadn’t been much longer until Andrew and Tanner came home. Tanner greeted the girls and kissed his mate before he went to change before dinner. Andrew entered the kitchen with a stack of papers. A dropped the stack with a loud bang onto the counter that had Victoria jump up.

“Oh, sorry,” he said, sliding into the seat across from her.

Julia gave him a soft sack in the back of his head. “What are the rules about paperwork?”

Andrew nodded and plucked a pen from his shirt pocket. “I know, I only have a few more I want to finished before dinner,” he explained. “I’ll do the rest in my room after.” His mother gave in as he began marking and signing the papers in front of him, flipping them over to a second stack as he went through them.

With now more awake then before, she peeked over to the papers. “What are those for?”

He didn’t look up from them as he replied. “Order forms I have to send to the castle tomorrow,” he stated. Victoria peeked at them again and noticed different meat cuts and quantities where listed next to checkboxes. Andrew looked over each list and signed the bottom, occasionally checking a box or crossing something from the list.

“He’s still learning to be a beta,” Amber explained. Victoria turned to her to see her also looking over some of the forms. “So he gets stuck with most of the paperwork.”

Tanner walked back into the room, changed from his button up salmon shirt and slacks to running shorts and a t-shirt. He clapped his son on the back and stood next to him. “You got my message about the beets right?”

“Yeah,” Andrew nodded. He had the end of the pen stuck in between his lips as he scanned another form. “I already marked them, I’ve just got to finish the meats and medical supplies for tomorrow.”

The oven closed at Julia stuck her pot into it so it could finish off dinner and sat in the last chair around the counter, one hand on her belly. Tanner walked over to his mate  and stood with her, softly talking to her belly. Victoria smiled and turned back to Andrews paperwork.

The front door opened and Victoria turned to see Chanyeol and Baekhyun walking in, both bloody and bruised. She jumped up from her seat, but Amber grabbed her arm. “Don’t bother,” she smiled. “It’s just from sparing.”

The twins walked into the kitchen, Chanyeol grabbing a roll of paper towels and ripping some off to hold over his bleeding nose. Victoria barely got a glance at it before she heard a sickening but familiar snap. She flinched at the sound, but Chanyeol just sniffed and rubbed his nose. Victoria snapped around as Baekhyun walked up next to her. One of his eyes was completely purple beneath it and swollen, and he had claw marks across his right cheek. His clothes were torn in places and blood seeped out of open wounds.

Baekhyun casually leaned against the counter next to her. He turned to his twin who was still soaking up his nose blood with paper towels. Reaching over Baekhyun took Victoria hand and placed it on his forehead. She tried to pull it away, but he held it still. Before her eyes, she watched as the cuts on his cheek began to close and the swelling and bruising around his eye went down. Once nothing but pink scars were left, Baekhyun released her hand. “Thanks,” he nodded at her before he grinned evilly at his still bleeding brother and hopped up the stairs.

“That’s cheating,” Chanyeol groaned.

Amber got up from her stool and wet a few paper towels in the sink before beginning to dab the blood off of her brother. “You should have known better than to spar with him,” she scolded him. “He was just going to come home and get her to heal him.”

“How did I-”

“It’s the mate bond, sweety,” Julia explained. “And it’s a dirty trick for him to pull like that. Next time he tries, let him suffer.” she winked at her. Victoria wiped her hand that Baekhyun had coated in sweat and blood on his blanket with a victorious grin.

Chanyeol took his sisters seat next to Victoria while he and his sister started to clean him up. “I didn’t fight with Baekhyun,” Chanyeol told his sister. “I had to separate him and Carmen.”

This caught the tables attention, and Tanner was the first to question his son. “Why was he fighting Carmen? Given, it’s a pretty fair match, but still.”

He glanced at Victoria from the corner of his eyes. “Uh, I guess he wanted to see if he could win.”

Rolling her eyes, Victoria laid her head back on the counter. “No, he wanted to show how big his balls were,” she said simply. “Carmen was flirting with me this morning, and I’m guessing Baekhyun heard about it and didn’t like it.”

“Or that, yeah,” Chanyeol nodded, tossing the bloody napkins into the trash can. “Doesn’t matter why though. Baekhyun won.”

“You’re kidding?” Andrew looked up from his work. Chanyeol shook his head as he stood up from the table and began walking to the stairs. “But Carmen out ranks him!”

Chanyeol shrugged. “Guess a pissed off mate beats rank!” he called as he walked up the steps and disappeared.

Andrew looked to his father who looked equally surprised and impressed. “There’s no way he beat Carmen, right?”

“It’s not impossible,” Tanner told his son. “They aren’t far apart in rank, basically next to each other. Besides Baekhyun took down that Beta rogue as well. Boy knows how to fight. I’m sure you or I could take on Kris or maybe even James when it came to our mates.”

Amber laughed at this, and Julia smiled brightly up at her mate. “Kris I could see, but no way you could be Alpha James,” she told her father. “I’m sorry, daddy, but he’s a whole different weight class.”

“Victoria beat a rogue in the water before she even had rank,” Tanner pointed to the girl half asleep on the counter.

Victoria lazily raised a finger into the air. “I totally cheated,” she admitted. “I trapped him in the seaweed.”

“All’s fair in love and war,” Baekhyun made his way back down into the kitchen, freshly showder and changed again. The oven dinged behind Julia, and she turned to take the shepherds pie out. Baekhyun turned to his sister and shrugged. “Adrenaline is one hell of a drug.”

“Andrew, put that away,” Julia told her son as she set the dish on top of the stove. “Amber, Baekhyun, set the table.”

Nodding, the siblings all got work work around their mother. Andrew began stacking up his papers and carried them up the stairs to his room. Baekhyun began pulling bowls from the cabinets and walked into the dinning room that was next to the kitchen. Victoria hadn’t noticed it before now since very meal she had was at the counter.

Amber grabbed a handful of silverware and followed behind Baekhyun setting them out. Tanner took glasses down from the cabinets and set them out on the counter next to Victoria. Tossing the warm blanket onto the back of her chair, Victoria stood up and stretched before she began bringing the glasses over to the table. “Oh, thank you,” Tanner smiled at her. “Who wants what to drink?” he asked as he opened the fridge.

The people in the room began calling out drinks, Chanyeol and Andrew entering soon after and getting there’s as well. After setting the glasses out around the table, Victoria awkwardly walked back to where she sat at the counter, but was stopped by Julia. “Go take a seat, dear,” she smiled at her as she took the hot pot to the table.

Victoria followed behind the woman until Chanyeol grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into the seat between him and Baekhyun. “Stay,” he told her with a grin. Julia loaded each of the plates as everyone found their seats until everyone had some and she took a seat next to her mate at the large round table.

Once everyone was seated and served, they all began eating. Tanner and Andrew discussed work while Julia and Amber talking about the food distribution. Baekhyun argued over Chanyeol about what she assumed was a video game they were playing, and Victoria quietly munched on the delicious food and listened to everyone talking over one another. It was so different compared to what she was used to. She never had a sit down family dinner even when her parents were home. Maggie and Reese never had dinner with her, not unless Reese had already drinking at the table when she sat down.

The more she thought about it, the more Victoria realized how lonely she had always been. The only company she had was a few ty boyfriends, and she only put up with them because it was better than no one. She thought Reese and Maggie were her friends, but they weren’t. They were her employees, and they were nice to her because their job required it. Her parents were never around, and when they were they spoiled her with gifts and money because they didn’t even know her. They bought her nice clothes and shoes, but she never wore any of it. They bought her affection, and she accepted it because it was all she got.

A lump began to form in , and she tried to swallow it down with her water. She didn’t want to cry anymore, and definitely not here. Not during their family time, she couldn’t ruin it for them like that. So Victoria sat quietly and ate while the others talked around her. Amber and Julia tried to included her in their conversation periodically, but she didn’t know what they were talking about when it came to the pack. She didn’t even attempt when it came to Tanner and Andrew. She felt like a toddler asking question all the time about things that were so obvious to all of them. Them again, Tanner had said he was over two hundred years old. Too him, she probably was a toddler.

As dinner wrapped up, Tanner and Andrew stayed at the table sharing a glass of brandy while Julia and her kids picked up the plates and glasses and brought them to the sink. Whenever Victoria tried to help either Baekhyun or Chanyeol took the dishes from her hands, so she settled back into his blanket by the counter.

“Alright, to bed with you,” Julia waved Victoria away with a smile. “You really need your rest, dear.”

“Okay.” Victoria nodded and stood from the stool. Turning to head into the living room, she was stopped by Baekhyun wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her towards the stairs. “I can sleep on the couch,” she argued with him, but her just pushed her up the stairs in front of him.

“With my blanket? No,” he said. Pushing open the door to his room, he nudged her inside and shut the door behind him.

Victoria looked from his bed to him. “Then were will you sleep?”

“In my bed?” he stated, walking past her to his bed. Sitting at the foot of his bed, he pulled off his socks and shirt.

She looked away from him, wrapping the blanket tighter around herself. “Then why did you bring me up here?”

He sighed and stood again, stripping down to his boxers. “Are we really going to play twenty questions again?” Walking over to her, he grabbed the edge of the blanket and began pulling her over to the bed. Keeping her eyes on the floor, she slowly shuffled over to the bed. He climbed into it first and laid on his side, propping his head up with his hand. “Get in.”

Victoria shook her head and heard him sigh. “I don’t want to sleep with you.”

For a split second she felt his hurt through the bond, but he covered it up quickly with annoyance. “You want that wound to heal? Then get it. I won’t even touch you.”

“Promise?” she tore her eyes up from the floor and met his. His brown eyes had a small ring of blue surrounding his pupil. Even though he was try to hid it behind his glare, she could see the sadness dancing in his eyes.

“I promise,” he told her. “Just get in, it’s cold.” After he spoke, he rolled onto his other side, tucking his arm under his pillow and leaving his back to her.

Slowly unwrapping herself from the blanket, Victoria tossed it over him and climbed into the bed. She pulled the blankets over herself and felt the heat coming off of Baekhyun’s back instantly. “You are so not cold,” she said, scooting closer to him to absorb his heat. Without Realizing it, she curled up into his back. Her wolf purred in her chest as she pressed against her mates back. Despite herself, she felt her body relax against him and she was lulled to sleep by his warmth in seconds.