Someone knocking at the door woke me up. I groaned and buried my head further into Kris. Kris must have been woken up too because he held me tighter and sighed.

“Kris Hyung?” My eyes flew open as soon as I heard Sehun’s voice.

, , , ! The very idea that Sehun might catch me with Kris was mortifying—not that I had done anything wrong (at least, I don’t think I did anything wrong), but this was Sehun. Sehun. Everything was different when it came to him. Terrified that he might open the door due to Kris’s lack of response, I whirled on the still sleeping male and shook him a good couple of times.

“Kris! Kris, wake up!” I hissed.

He groaned and Sehun knocked again. “Kris hyung?”

Kris slowly opened his eyes and for a second, I was struck by what I saw. The sheet was twisted around us. For Kris, it was twisted low around his hips, exposing his upper torso. His hair was a mess and he was looking at me with a satisfied but hungry look. Heat washed over me, but I forced it back.

“Wake up! Sehun’s here, and-and—” And what? I doubt Kris cared. I bit my lip, trying to figure out how to get out of this.

But seeing me worrying to myself, Kris seemed to fully wake up, rubbing is face. He sat up and the blanket pooled even lower. I forced myself not to look. “What is it, Sehun?”

“Oh good. I was looking for you all over the place.”

“What? Why?”

“I can’t find Hyorim noona.” Kris looked at me. “I wanted to talk with her and this is where her scent is the heaviest. Is she in there with you?”

I blushed and an amused smile crept into Kris’s face as he watched me. “Tell him no,” I mouthed.

His grin grew bigger and I was suddenly worried. “She said to tell you no.”

My mouth popped open. Kris was shaking as he held back laughter.

“Wait, so she’s in there? Noona?”

I wanted to kill Kris just then. With my teeth gritted, I said, “What is it Sehun?”

“Can I come in?” I could hear him turning the knob.

Oh. My. God. I panicked. “No!”

“What? But why?” he whined. “I want to play with you, noona.”

“I-I . . .I-I-I—!” My brain was on the fritz.

“She’s currently,” he grinned at me, “Playing with me right now, Sehun. Go and play with someone else.”

There was a whine. “But I don’t want to. I want to play with—”

“Now, Sehun.”

There was a moment’s silence. “Fine.” He huffed.

I waited to make sure he was gone and then let loose all the air had I been holding in. Kris broke out laughing. I whirled on him, glaring.

“That wasn’t funny!” I snapped.

“You should have seen your face!” Kris guffawed. He calmed down a little. “And anyway, they’re bound to figure it out soon enough.” He leaned towards me and pushed me back to the bed. I knew what he was thinking and I couldn’t believe it. He was insatiable. And with the way my body was heating up and responding to him, apparently so was I. “My smell is going to be all over you.” And he said that with the thickest amount of masculine pride I have ever heard.

I placed my palms on his chest. I gave him a small smile, then snarled as I used both my legs and my arms to fling him off the bed. He landed with an, “Oof!” on the floor. I crawled to the edge and looked at him as he stared right back with a mixed expression of awe and shock.

“That gives you no excuse to treat me like that.” I was mad at him, but it was different from my usual mad. This wasn’t as harsh or heated. A childish urge to stick my tongue out at him gripped me, so I followed it. Puffing my cheeks out, I stuck my tongue out at him.

He chuckled, then sobered up a bit. “I’m sorry. I got a little overexcited.”

I grumbled. “Don’t let it happen again.”

He grinned at me. “I promise. And now that that’s all over with . . . can we—?”

I crossed my hands in front of my body into an X. “No! We need to go out and train and see if Luhan and Xiumin are back. We’ve wasted too much time.”

Kris pouted. “I wouldn’t call it wasted.” He sighed and sat up. “Alright, alright. Let’s get dressed and make sure the world hasn’t fallen apart without us.”

Both of us were starving and since it was still morning, albeit late morning, we figured that’s where everyone would be anyway. The moment we walked in, everyone’s eyes were on us and I was suddenly very uncomfortable. But I tried to brush it off—I was probably just overly sensitive since—

“So . . . anything fun happen last night?” Kai asked, barely suppressing a laugh.

Right then is when I knew everyone knew. But I acted like I had no idea what he was talking about and went to Lay who had cooked something up for everyone. Grabbing a plate, I let Lay plop some food down on my plate—he gave me a small smile and I bit my lip.

I went to sit down at the island and Kris was right behind me with a plate of his own food in his hand. Sumin was across the counter and gave me a huge grin. I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. But I noticed that two members of our family were missing.

“Where’s Chen and Ai Li?” I looked at Lay.

He shrugged. “They’ve been keeping to themselves lately. No clue why.”

“Hey, hey, hey! Don’t change the subject.” Kai butted in. “So is our Hyorim a proper woman now?”

You could feel everyone tense up. But I was just so tired and so used to Kai at this point, I decided not to get riled up. I ignored him and just ate.

“Come on now—you’ve got to let us know so we can plan the wedding and when to expect little terrors running around.”

I was a bit surprised to see Kris tense up when I was letting it all wash over me. I placed my hand over his, signaling him to let it go. But something in Kai’s tone caught my attention. It was bitter and hurt. I watched him carefully and for the first time, I noticed how small he looked. He looked vulnerable.

I went to open my mouth, but Sumi beat me to it. “Kai.” His head whipped to Sumi and again, I noticed that lovesick and hurt expression that appeared on his face for a split second. “You need to leave now.” Kai actually looked like he had been punched in the gut. He nodded his head and without another word, left. Sumi turned to us with an apologetic look. “Sorry. He’s been rather . . . abrasive since Junsu and Minji were born.” She looked at Suho and with a tightlipped expression, nodded his head and followed after Kai.

“Are Luhan and Xiumin back yet?” Kris asked.

“Not yet.” Tao said.

I really hoped nothing bad had happened to them. Taejoon. Why are you doing all of this? I don’t understand.

“Alright, let’s get back to training.”

Suddenly, Ai Li stepped into the room. Was it just me, or did she look a little . . . off? Chen was right behind her, his face contorted into that worried look that seemed to be permanent now.

“Ai Li, are you—?” Chen began.

“I’m fine! Just . . . I’m fine.” Ai Li said a little gentler.

“Is anything wrong?” Kris asked.

Ai Li looked up and seemed surprised to see everyone in the room. “Oh . . . I’m fine. Just a little tired. Did I miss something?”

“Not really. How is the new shard research going?”

Ai Li shrugged. “It’s getting there. I haven’t really been feeling well, so it’s taking me a bit longer.”

Now I was worried. As far as I knew, we couldn’t get sick, not with things like a cold or flu or anything like that. “Not feeling well? What’s the matter?”

She waved me off. “I’m fine. It’ll pass.”

“Okay . . .”

“I’m just grabbing something to eat and then I’m going to get back to work.”

I didn’t have it in me to train today. Both because I was still tired and sore from last night—which I was reminded every time I moved—and because my mind was full of other things. First, I was worried about Ai Li. She really hadn’t looked right. I wondered if maybe Kris and I really were asking too much of her, pushing her past her limits. I would have to talk to her about it later. Her work was important, but not enough to give up on her health.

I wondered about Kai next, about the way he behaved earlier and what Sumi had said. I recognized a hurting soul when I saw one. I knew it all too well. And I wondered briefly if Kai’s mood had anything to do with Sumi . . . .

And then, like I knew it would, my mind went to Taejoon. I just didn’t understand. Why was he doing all this when he knew what it was like to be attacked by Ferals? Why? I had to admit right there that Taejoon was dear to me, despite his betrayal. I wanted to understand him and what he was doing. And I hoped I wasn’t being too optimistic when I said I was dear to Taejoon. Those moments in the woods when we had been together had been . . . peaceful. We had laughed and talked and joked around. I’d like to think not all of that was fake—it hadn’t felt like all of it was fake.

I didn’t want to give up on him. Not yet. Not when everything was so uncertain. If I could just . . .

That’s when the most blessed, familiar scents hit me.

Luhan and Xiumin were back.

We all excitedly went to meet Luhan and Xiumin, who were still in wolf form. In a split second they morphed into their human forms. They were both dirty and panting like crazy.

Kris walked up and gave each one a water bottle which they downed in seconds. “Go and rest up. I want you to report everything in two hours.”

They nodded and plodded to the house. Luhan suddenly turned around. “Oh and the other packs are right behind us.”

Other packs. I took a deep breath and strange and burning scents engulfed me. I wanted to go and warn them off, but when I looked at Kris, he was smiling. He looked at me. “Here comes the cavalry.”