“You’re hair was the same color as it’s fur.”

Silence.

It must have lasted for at least ten minutes. The second the sentence left Victoria’s mouth, Baekhyun froze. Chanyeol was busy staring between he and Vic, unsure of what to say about it. Victoria simply stared at him at that hair.

“I’d recognize it anywhere,” she continued, casually sipping her tea. “At least, I thought I did, but I was panicking. To be honest, when it first happened, the idea slipped my mind the second it entered. It wasn’t until yesterday that it really clicked together.” Chanyeol’s hands were shaking his tea cup, and he had to set it down to hide them in his lap.

Victoria noticed. “I found some of the fur on the ground before I ran into you two. It was stuck in a piece of rotten wood. The piece of wood I had in my hands when the cherry wolf pounced on me.” Her eyes scanned Baekhyun’s face for anything. Sure, he was frozen, but if someone were to say she had dog’s hair she would be speechless too. No, she was looking for the same thing she searched for in the diner. She wanted to see fear. Fear that he had been found out.

When she didn’t see it, she sighed. “But it was obviously a silly assumption. You were just the first people I saw next. I was still really freaked out. I am still really freaked out.”

Vic turned to Chanyeol. “What’s wrong?” she asked in her most innocent voice. “You’re shaking, Chanyeol. Are you cold? We can go into the den if you want. I’m not too fond of the outdoors lately anyway.”

The statement seemed to snap him to attention again. Chanyeol smiled and nodded. “Yeah, just got a bit of wind chill. We can go in.”

As Vicky stood, she began placing the cups and containers onto the mostly empty tray. Her eyes flicked up to Baekhyun. He had returned to his hard and cold expression but stood with Chanyeol.

Like the gentleman he was, Chanyeol took the loaded down tray while Vic grabbed the pitcher. “It’s just down stairs. I can give you a tour of the house later if you want. There’s a hot tub.”

“You have a hot tub?” Chanyeol laughed.

Leading them through the kitchen, Victoria and Chanyeol dropped off the dishes on the counter. Maggie would do them before dinner. She lead them through the living room and down the stairs into her den. It was basically an over furnished basement. Her mother had a black carpet installed about a year ago to go with the wooden walls. There was a large gray-felt L shaped couch in the center of the room and in front of it was a small coffee table. Against the wall hung a large flat screen and below it sat a bookshelf stocked with game consoles, video games, and of course books. In the far right corner there was an egg shaped chair Vic used for reading. To the left, a pool table. Their den was a makeshift relax room.

“Thought you said there was a hot tub?” Chanyeol laughed as he gazed at the room. This was the best game room he could think of. Back at the house he shared with the boys, there were only six bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen, and a tiny living room. It barely fit all of them.

Victoria smiled. “I do, it’s on the roof. When we came into money, my dad built my mom her dream house. If she wanted it, it’s here. She wanted a hot tub on the roof, and she got it. Keith says it’s the biggest pain in the to keep up with.”

“Who’s Keith?” Baekhyun had made his way into the room and ran his hand along the back of the couch. It was so soft much better than theirs.

“The grounds keeper,” Victoria answered. She made her way over to the coffee table and lifted the table top up, revealing a mini fridge built into table. She pulled out a soda. “He does all the gardening and cleans the hot tub and pool.”

Chanyeol watched as she took out two more sodas and set them on the table before lowering the top again. “Vic, I know you don’t know me all that well, but can I live in your basement?”

She laughed and handed each of them a drink. “When there are like ten guest rooms?”

“Ten?! How?!”

“It’s a big house.” She shrugged them off and took a sip of her drink. “The land is like one hundred and sixty acres or something. It goes all the way back to a little lake. Hell, we own half of that trail in the woods. The house is really, really big. I don’t even think I’ve been in most of it.”

Baekhyun sat on the couch wide eyed. “So when you said they came into money?”

Victoria raised her glass. “I could do nothing my entire life, so could my great grandchildren, and guess what? They would still have more than they could spend.”

A loud clap took their attention to Chanyeol who was pointing at Vic and grinning. “Your dad is Bill Gates, isn’t he?”

“No, he’s Jacob Drake.”

After the two had adjusted to the idea of how much money Victoria’s parents had, they relaxed onto the couch with her. The tv was to American Dad for background noise they could talk over. Victoria was still waiting to hear either of their thoughts on what she had said about Baekhyun’s hair. She had basically tossed out the idea of them being the wolves, it was so obviously impossible. Her brain raced through ideas of mutant dogs, and radioactive power plants when Chanyeol snapped his fingers in front of her face.

She jumped and looked to him. “Sorry, what did you say?”

“I was asking about the other wolves,” he stated as he leaned back once again. “Did you get a good look at any of them?”

“Well there was the cherry one,” Vic started. “It was cherry like Baekhyun’s hair, there were… a lot of wolves. I didn’t get a good look at most of them.” That was a lie… she got a good look at one. “Except for the mean one.”

Baekhyun, who was laid out on the smaller side of the L, rolled onto his side and propped his head up on a pillow. “What do you mean ‘the mean one?’”

Shrugging, she pulled her blanket up to her chin. “It was the mean one. The first one, well technically second.” Her feet were propped up on Chanyeol’s lap. She leaned back on the arm of the couch, so she could see them both. “It was black, a really dark black. It had these dark red eyes, and yellow teeth.” The images of him flashed across her eyes, and Vic involuntarily shuddered. “It was so close.”

“Any other ones?” Chanyeol had his feet on the coffee table, but she really didn’t care. He was watching the show more than any of them were and chuckled every now and then.

Shifting until she was sitting up, Vic nodded. “It had other ones with it, but I didn’t get a good look at them.” As much as she didn’t want to, Victoria thought back four days ago. There were so many wolves, at least twenty of them, she thought. “There was a white one, and he had a black one with him.”

“He?” Baekhyun sat up straight. “What do you mean ‘he?’”

Vic shrugged. “It was a boy. What else would I mean?”

“No, no, no,” he dropped his feet to the ground and began speaking with his hands, as if that made it clearer. “You didn’t say any other genders when you talked about any of the other ones. Did you just see it’s or something?”

“Ew! Baekhyun, no!” She glared at him and shook her head, “No, nasty! I didn’t see his !”

Baekhyun threw his hands in the air. “Then how do you know it was a boy!”

“I just do!” It spoke to me. It was a boys voice under the horrific growling.

“But how!”

“Does it matter?!”

“Of course it matters!”

“No it doesn’t!”

“Then why won’t you tell us how you know!”

Vic chucked her pillow at Baekhyun’s head. “Because you’ll call me crazy again!”

Chanyeol finally turned his attention away from the tv when a pillow flew past his face. When Vicky reached for another, he took it out of her hands. “You two knock it off!” He hit her on the leg with the pillow, then reached over and snacked Baekhyun much harder. “Come on! Stop fighting. Vic, we promised to heard you out without calling you crazy. Baek, don’t call her crazy. There, problem solved. Now talk, V.”

She choose to ignore the array of nicknames he was giving her and snatched her pillow back. Hugging it to her chest, she puffed out a breath before taking a deep one. “I know it was a boy…. Because he spoke to me. Not directly, but I could understand what he said to the black one… The white wolf spoke English.”

As expected, they stared at her like she had grown another head. Vic pulled the pillow closer to her and stuck her flushed face into it. I’m not crazy… Despite her protests, she could feel the stinging behind her eyes and pushed her face deeper into the pillow.

Baekhyun and  Chanyeol exchanged a concerned look. ‘I thought that was a myth.’ Chanyeol thought as he looked at the girl hiding in her pillow. ‘Baekhyun, we have to tell Kris. He needs to know Luhan’s vision was right.’

‘We’ll tell him when we get home.’ Baekhyun agreed. ‘But first we have to know what else she thinks she knows. We can assume she told her nanny and bodyguard, maybe even her parents, but we have to be sure.’

When Vic peeked up, Chanyeol and Baekhyun were staring intently at each other. They seemed so concentrated, like they didn’t even remember she was here. Taking her opportunity, Vic gazed at Baekhyun. She couldn’t help but compare him to the cherry wolf. If she squinted her eyes just right, the way his hair stuck up on its ends made it look like he had little cherry wolf ears sticking up from his head. She imagined a puffy tail sticking out the back of his pants and couldn’t help but grin. If she really focused, she could see it peeking out from behind him. Without the fangs, it was a cute picture: puppy Baekhyun.

“Is there something on my face?” Vic snapped back to reality only to find herself staring straight through Baekhyun. He had turned from his brother to return her stare, and Chanyeol sat looking between them.

Shaking her head, Victoria straightened up. “Oh, no, I was just thinking.”

“About the wolves?” Chanyeol asked. “Or about how you think we are the wolf men?”

“I don’t think you are wolf men. I thought you were, but not anymore.”

Chanyeol grinned at me, then glanced at the clock on his wrist. “Sorry to steal your snack and run, but we’ve got people coming over and have to get home.” Victoria nodded in understanding. “Mostly just wanted to check on you. After that stunt last night, you’re probably tired anyway.”

“What stunt?”

The twins stood and stretched, tossing their empty cans in the trash can against the wall. “You were sitting out in the woods all night,” Baekhyun stated. “Your bodyguard yelled at us when we walked up.”

Blushing, Vic stood with them. “Oh, sorry about him.” The three of them headed back up the stairs as Victoria led them towards the back door.

Baekhyun headed out with a small wave, and Chanyeol smiled down at Vic. “If you need to talk or see those magic wolves again, just give us a call, okay?” He hand her a scrap of paper with a phone number written across it in messy handwriting.

“Thanks,” she grinned, clutching the number to her chest. “Sorry i freaked out on you two.”

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll catch you later.” With that, he sprinted out the door to catch up with a waiting Baekhyun.

As the twins took the wooded trail home, Chanyeol couldn’t hide his grin any longer. “Just so you know, I gave Victoria your number,” he said, raising his arm to protect himself from the inevitable slap.

Instead, Baekhyun just nodded. “I figured. Told her it was yours too, I bet.” When his brother nodded, Baekhyun sighed. “Look just because-”

Chanyeol cut him off. “No, don’t give me that ‘just cause we’re mates’ bull. She’s your god damn mate and it’s about time you treated her like it instead of hiding it from her. Look how good that’s gone so far. You’re wolf won’t let you-”

“Enough, Chanyeol. My wolf will get over it; he doesn’t have a choice,” Baekhyun argued.

Chanyeol could see his forehead wrinkling in frustration. “Yeah, sure he doesn’t. Except for getting our whole pack into a war with rogues because he didn’t want to stand down and let his mate die.” He eyed his brother over before continuing. “Or worse, get turned by someone else.”

A low growl forced it way out Baekhyun’s throat despite his attempts to push it down. He coughed. “Stop encouraging him. It bad enough he keeps me up all night whining. The last thing I need is you pushing his opinion.”

“Fine, do whatever you want,” Chanyeol said. “We know all we need to from her. Let’s just go tell the Alpha to call off her protection, and then the rogues can kill her and we’ll-”

“Enough,” Baekhyun growled out, facing his brother with bright blue eyes.

Chanyeol held the stare. “Oh good, you’ve taken over. Now you and me can talk about how to fix Baekhyun without being yelled at by Baekhyun.”