I left April and went inside – I needed a drink, and by drink I didn't mean water. A rustling noise came from the corner and my head whipped up at the noise, suddenly alert. It was... that girl. I couldn't remember what her name; all I remember was that we slept together – a one night stand. I felt slightly bad for her in that moment. And I felt ashamed.

Was this who I had become?

A guy who didn't remember names?

What would my mother think of me?

I shook the thought off, staring back into the abyss of honey-coloured liquid in my cup, swirling it around, as though I would be sucked into the mini hurricane forming from the motion.

"What the hell was that girl doing knocking at your door?" She hissed, pulling my shirt down. It took me a few moments to realize that it was my shirt - my favourite one as well.

Sighing, I shot her a well-rehearsed smile. "The girl? She won't be a problem - she was just... in the wrong place. And as for us." This time I stood up, glaring. "No-one can know about this. It's a onetime thing, nothing serious. It was... a mistake."

I bit down on my lip. Why did April have to go and knock on my door at that moment – it made me furious that she saw me like that. That she thought of me like that now. And her pushing me away and shutting me out when I was introducing her, made the situation even worse.

The girl stared at me, really stared at me. I held her gaze, my eyes burning with an unspoken emotion, but I kept my cool and raised two eyebrows at her questioningly, leaning back onto my elbows. There was no doubt she was a nice girl – she was a girl who kept her emotions well-checked under a mask of nonchalance and civility – and this mask was broken now. By me.

I could see her blinking furiously, wishing away tears, but the dewiness in her eyes gave it away. Scrambling out of bed, she shot me a glare, muttering something incoherently under her breath. "You're a dick, you know that? Boys like you – God, they have no respect at all. No respect for anything or anyone."

"I know."

"And you're – you're just so..." Her voice broke. "I can't believe I did this I'm so stupid."

I threw her my jacket and left the room, eyes cold, leaving her in privacy to get dressed and leave. I felt her snatch it up behind me, spitting at me once more, before I slammed the door shut behind me, leaning against it, breathing evenly. May as well find April now. Voices drifted in from the corridor. Strangely, I thought I heard one of my brothers speaking.

I had two brothers – something I didn't like to make known. Cole and Kaden were older than me, but no better. They'd both left soon after my mother died, leaving me to cope with our father – I ran my hand through my hair distractedly, fuming silently, and was about to pull out my packet of cigarettes, before remembering the look on April's face. She'd probably force me to drop it anyway.

I rounded the corner when I saw Cole standing in front of April, grinning. His tall frame enveloped April and she looked like a small doll in comparison – thinking about it, compared to both of my brothers, she was very small - ignorant even. Something that didn't fit in well with the Knight household. She didn't belong here. I knew that and I didn't like the fact that it was me who had ruined her life for my own selfish purposes. I marched up to them and pushed April out of the way, so I was facing Cole. He decided to turn up after how fucking long?

"Aiden! How are you?" Cole charmed, his green eyes alight.

"Fuck off."

"Come on now, that's not way to speak to your brother." His arms dropped, his expression hardening.

"You turn up here after how long? And you expect me to welcome you with open arms?"

"Don't hold grudges Aid – you were always the worst at holding grudges."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Don't pretend that you care, Cole." I warned. "What do you want?"

"Stop being a little bitch Aiden." He replied, examining his nails now as though the last 2 years had been nothing. To me, it was a time when my brothers had decided to leave, leaving me with all the god awful responsibilities of being soon-to-be Alpha of one of the largest packs in America. They left me when I needed them. "I only came because I heard you found your mate. I want to meet her – I mean me and Kaden found ours a long time ago and to be honest after what had happened, I never thought you'd find one, let alone accept one." He remarked honestly.

"Yes, I found one and yes I accepted her. Now you can leave."

He blew out a lungful of air. "I also heard there was a dinner, where dad would meet your mate and me and Kaden thought we'd come and give our moral support. It's always nice to witness first hand awkwardness. He crossed his arms over his chest, a strand of dark hair falling into his eyes.

"Don't give me that shit. Don't even lie, you don't give two flying fucks about any-" I was cut off.

"Shut up Aiden. Stop holding a grudge," He clicked his tongue, checking his watch. Somehow, despite growing up, my older brothers still had an innate ability to make me feel inferior in their presence. It was as though they had some kind of obscure power over me, still viewing me as a child.

"You shut up."

"Forgive and forget, remember?"

"Oh really, well I'd like to see how dad forgives you when he sees his two sons coming back from dealing with rouges for the past two years."

"He'll love us – I mean we were always the golden children Aid – well, Kaden was anyway. And, we did him a favour – we cleaned out all rouges from the North and West. Once he finds out what we were doing was good he'll welcome us with open arms." He said confidently, shooting me a smile. To anyone else, his smile would have been charming – to me, all I could see was the almost imperceptible chip in his front tooth where we'd been play-fighting all those years ago.

"Sure," I drawled sarcastically, tapping my foot. He was right – dad would welcome them with open arms and as would Lisa. Even though they left for the past 2 years, he wouldn't care as long as his reputation isn't ruined. I chewed my lip painfully.

"Just piss off you fuck tard."

"Failure." He shot back.

"Low-life."

"Druggie, alcoholic and oh, let's see, what else," he pretended to think, his eyes dark. "Oh yeah... Mommy's boy."

My blood rushed to my head. I wanted to shift so badly and rip his fucking heart out – my eyes swept across my surroundings to examine my battlefield. I growled and felt my muscles rippling, my back tensing, my eyes dilating – every sign I was about to turn. My vision was changing, becoming sharper, clearer – his expression had dropped and he almost looked ashamed. He advanced towards me slowly, calling that he was sorry, that he didn't mean to get so angry, keeping a safe distance away.

"It's not your fault Aid. I'm sorry – that was low of me. Calm down, just calm down. It's not your fault, it's not your fault." He soothed, his eyes melting back into the green orbs that I knew so well from when we were younger. Playing tag with him, pulling pranks on people – we called ourselves the 3 musketeers. But even the pleasanter memories couldn't stop the anger and the sheer guilt that was tearing at me from inside, screaming to be unleashed. Suddenly, a noise snapped me out of it.

Aaaaah choo!