"But hyung, she figured it out herself!"

Kris had overheard Luhan telling Xiumin that I had "figured it out," and it was clear that he was just short of furious after hearing that. It had made the fact that Luhan had gone into his room seem like nothing. Now, Kris had a firm grip on my arm and was pulling me through rooms, away from the living room, while Luhan was pleading with him and tugging on his free arm.

"Oh right, I'm sure she just had an epiphany and figured out our true nature," Kris growled at Luhan. "Sure, she's smart, but no one could figure it out that easily, unless a certain someone helped her to that realization."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Luhan replied, his eyes wide with innocence.

"It doesn't matter; I'll deal with you later," Kris said, shaking Luhan off of his arm. "Right now, we've got to talk to someone about this whole situation."

I had no idea who he could be talking about, but, with the mood that he was in, there was no way I was going to ask him. Instead, I let him pull me down another hallway until he stopped at the last door there and knocked on it. He looked nervous, and the way he knocked on the wooden door seemed frantic, almost panicked. For a moment, I felt bad for him.

Then, I was pulled from my thoughts when the door creaked open, and a pair of eyes peered out of the dark room.

"What do you want, Kris?" asked a voice, rough and warped with age. It seemed to me like we were about to talk to someone completely ancient.

Kris glanced toward me for a moment before looking at the person and saying, "Someone found out. She figured it out already."

"I told you that you were stupid to bring her back here," the voice said as the person pulled the door open completely, revealing a dark room lit only by a few candles against one wall while the window was covered by a thick curtain that only let a tiny amount of light through. I shivered a little as Kris pulled me into the room after him, and the ancient person closed the door behind us.

Because of the darkness, I couldn't make out any details about the man except for the fact that he must have been very old. Kris made me sit in a small chair by the curtains while he stood next to me. I could hear the man pacing slowly back and forth in front of me, and after a few minutes, he stopped and seemed to turn toward me.

"You are lucky that it was her who discovered your secret, young alpha," he said, his voice serious, lacking the humorous tone he'd held when he had spoken before.

Kris tensed beside me and replied somewhat angrily, "How could it possibly be lucky tha--"

"She is different," the man said, cutting him off. I could sense his movement as he moved closer to me, bending over even more to look into my face. "You will see, in time, that she is different from what you believe her to be."

"Abeoji, how can you take this so lightly?" Kris said, anger masking the stress in his voice. "We moved here so that our secret would be safe, and now some girl has figured it out in a matter of hours."

I winced at being called 'some girl'; it showed that I meant nothing to Kris, which was never a pleasant feeling, regardless of how unpleasant the person was.

"Kris," the man said, his tone growing irritated. "You clearly do not understand me. She is different, in ways that you cannot even imagine. She was fated to discover your true nature." His tone softened as he turned back to me and said, "My dear, I'm afraid that, due to our current situation, we will be forced to keep you here with us for a little while. I'm sure you won't mind too terribly."

"What?!" I said, and I would have jumped out of the chair if Kris hadn't put a restraining hand on my shoulder after sensing my movement. "You can't just keep me here. What about my mom? She'll be worried sick about me as it is, and you expect me to just stay here without any explanation for her?! She'll think I've been kidnapped!"

"Ah, yes, well that will be taken care of momentarily. She will receive an explanation that will keep her from wondering about you and keep our secret safe, such as that you are staying with a friend. As soon as the two of you exit this room, I will personally take care of that."

I was stunned by his response; could they really take care of it, just like that? They were capable of keeping me against my will and making sure that no one in my personal life worried about me. Had I stumbled upon a pack of werewolves or a secret mafia?

"Now, Kris, if you'll show her to one of the spare rooms, I'm sure she'll be able to make herself comfortable," the man said, moving to the door and opening it.

Instead of grabbing my arm, Kris's hand fell upon mine, just for a moment, and I felt a blush rise up in my face. He quickly removed his hand from my own and grabbed my arm like he had before. I was suddenly thankful for the darkness of the room, but apparently the moment hadn't gone as unnoticed as I had assumed.

"And try not to get too close, you two," the man said, the hint of humor having returned to his voice. "There will be plenty of time for that later on."

"Thank you, abeoji," Kris said, dismissing the man's last statement without acknowledging it, which I was a bit thankful for. I couldn't imagine ever being close to Kris, with his constant temper and harsh words.

~

Instead of taking me to the spare room himself, Kris let Luhan do it instead, since the younger boy seemed more willing to be around me. He led me back upstairs and down the hallway with all the doors, speaking as he walked.

"Each pack member has a room up here on this floor; only abeoji has a room on the main floor, supposedly because he prefers to be close to the ground. Anyway, there are three spare bedrooms, and one of them just happens to be right next to my room." His face lit up in an adorable grin at the thought of it, and I couldn't help smiling back at him when he did that. Honestly, his happiness was contagious.

He finally stopped at a door toward the end of the hallway and said, "This will be your room. My room is the one to the right, and Lay's is the one across from yours, and Chen is across from me. After that, Tao is next to me, Xiumin is across from me, and Kris has the large room on the end."

I looked down the hall as he said this, trying to commit all the rooms to memory, and I recognized that the room I had come out of with Luhan earlier was Kris's room. Shaking my head, I looked back at Luhan, whom I found to be watching me.

"Don't worry about Kris," Luhan said. "He sort of blames himself for all of this, and he doesn't think it's good that anyone outside the family should know our secret. I'm sure you understand."

I nodded, looking down. I couldn't blame him; everything would have been much simpler if I hadn't been brought here in the first place.

"But you're here now, so you might as well enjoy yourself," Luhan said, smiling again as he seemed to read my mind. "And I think you'll like your room," he added as he finally opened the door to the room and led me inside.

The first thing I noticed were all the different shades of green. The walls, the bedspread on the queen-size bed, even the curtains over the windows; they were all beautiful hues of green that complimented each other well. The furniture was a rich, dark brown, and the shag carpet was a creamy tan color. Photographs on the walls depicted scenery full of plants and trees, and I recognized a couple as the wildflowers that were growing in the yard.

"Do you like it?" Luhan asked, searching my face for some sign of approval.

Before I answered, I threw my arms around his waist, hugging him tightly. He seemed surprised at first, but after a moment, he returned the hug, his toned arms wrapping around my shoulders.

"This is the best room I could have possibly asked for," I said as I stepped away from him. "It's perfect."

"And it's even better because it's right next to my room!" he said, winking mischievously.

"Hey! What's all the commotion going on here?"

Our attention suddenly drawn to the door, Luhan and I both turned to see someone standing there, and though it was one of the boys from the group, I hadn't ever met him before so I didn't even know his name.

"Oh, you're awake..." the boy said, his eyes landing on me as his voice trailed off. I couldn't tell what kind of emotion was in his voice; he almost sounded sad or guilty.

Luhan immediately bounded over to the other boy, ignoring his less-than-ecstatic emotions. "Lay, this is Elle! Apparently she's staying with us for a while, so I was showing her the room she's staying in."

"Uh, hi," he said to me, waving his hand meekly in greeting. Then, looking back at Luhan, he said in a lower voice, "What about our se--"

"She already knows!" Luhan said, grinning. "That's why she gets to stay with us and keep us company for a little while."

"Who decided that?" Lay said, surprise in his voice.

"Kris took her to talk to abeoji, and they got it all figured out," Luhan replied.

"Oh, I see," Lay said slowly. "Uh, Luhan, do you think I could talk to Elle for a moment? You know, privately?"

Luhan's eyes grew wide when Lay said that, and he said, "Ooh, Lay, you know you can't do anything with--"

"Luhan, it's not like that. I just need to talk to her. About the accident."

"Oh," Luhan said, breathing a sigh of relief. "I suppose that's fine." Turning to me, Luhan added, "I'll be right outside the door if this guy pulls anything funny."

With that, Luhan slipped out of the room, shutting the door almost all the way behind him, leaving me to face whatever Lay had to say.

"Um, I don't know if you remember anything I said to you earlier. You were asleep, so I doubt it. Anyway, I just, ah, wanted to apologize."

He paused then, probably looking for words, and I took the moment to look at him. He was tall as well, his hair was a rusty red color, and the way he was dressed reminded me of Jamye for some reason. In a strange way, I thought that she might like him a bit.

"Since you already know what we are, I suppose I can just say it: we were hunting, and I was chasing the deer that ran out in front of your car." He stopped again, looking guilty as he rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. "I didn't mean for it to run that way. I just got so excited to be out there running again that I didn't really think as much. I guess I was going on instinct at that point.

"Anyway, all of this is my fault, especially you getting hurt and wrecking your car, but I really hope you can forgive me."

Looking at his face, I could immediately tell that he was being completely honest, and I knew that there was no question as to what I should do.

"Of course I forgive you," I said. "I don't understand everything about you all yet, but I know how instincts work, and I don't think you would want to hurt me anyway."

At those words, his mouth formed a small smile, and before I could say anything else, he pulled me into a hug just as Luhan had done earlier, though he didn't pick me up off the ground.

"You guys have a thing for hugs, don't you?" I said as he let me go.

"Eh, maybe a little, dongsaeng. I think it's just because there's a girl in the house," he said with a small wink.