Her funeral was held only a week ago now. We gave her the best send off possible; I understand now why she said what she had said to me and April before she left. I understand why it was vital for her to see us as a family, not bickering for once but content and happy. And surprisingly, I'd always thought feeling anger was natural with grief. But this time, I didn't feel anger. Only a contentment. Like my abuela was in peace now.

A hand was placed on my shoulder. "Aiden? We're going out to the woods." Diego's voice sounded.

I tore my eyes from the window. I tore them from the small cherry tree wavering in the wind slightly, its branches bare but promising to bloom under the summer sun. That was the tree we planted for my grandmother. But I knew where she really was now – up in the sky. In the daylight, not visible, but at night, a star, blazing fiercely at us all.

She belonged in the sky, not the ground.

"You know, she would have wanted a party. With alcohol flowing and all."

"Hell, she would have probably wanted people wearing party hats and all." I couldn't help but snort and we fell silent, the joke dying down between us. After the Noah confrontation, we fell back into normality - I didn't need to verbally apologize. We just punched each other in the gut and man-hugged, and that was that. Best friends again.

I looked over to him; he'd been teased in 6th grade because of his green eyes - everyone said he was an alien from another planet who came to Earth to eat them all. I punched the main bully and as payback, he shoved me and Diego in a locker. We became best friends after that. "Shall we leave?"

"Yeah."

Outside, I felt the cool air hit me and I breathed it in. The urge to change was overwhelming and power surged through my veins and sang out to me. Diego appeared by my side and we turned out heads sideward, grinning. Then, I began to run toward the forest, my muscles already beginning to constrict, turn, twist and contort into my wolf's. As soon as I entered the thicket of the first trees, I could feel my body already changed.

My world changed.

The colours were brightened as they swam outwardly in a kaleidoscope of pulsing lights – a dim haze settled around my outer vision, making it seem as though the entire world was a dream. The wind rippled through my muscles and pushed me on. I could feel myself grinning, my wolf racing through the trees that I knew so well.

My thoughts merged into one and I felt one again as I went back to my roots. I could see a blur of jet black fur as Diego raced alongside me and I could say this, if anything:

Shifting into my wolf was almost as good as drinking.

"Bloody hell, I have a stitch." I wheezed, clutching the side of my stomach.

"Get up, come on April. We're giving humans a bad name!" Nina hissed, her arm propping me up. I glared at her sideward and huffed.

"I need to get fit." I breathed, looking up at the foliage of trees around us. "How long till we reach?" I asked, glancing at her, but she was staring at her phone, dumbfounded. "Nina?"

"I don't know. I'm guessing it's through those trees." She tiptoed and pointed.

"Are you sure?"

"I don't know! I'm guessing here. My phone –" she shook her phone roughly, "isn't getting any stupid service."

"Diego gave you the directions. Until we reach the tree with the face!"

Nina paused and gave me a look. "Urgh. I never realized how creepy that sounded."

I shrugged, agreeing. It did sound pretty gruesome. "We should have agreed to let Barbara accompany us. Our pride got in the way." I mused to myself.

"You were the one who said and I quote: ''Oh no, it's fine. Me and Nina are pros at taking directions.'"

"Ladies, ladies. Calm down, please." Daniel's voice emerged from the bushes.

We turned in unison, but I didn't only find relief but shock course through my body when I turned. Daniel was grinning as normal, but his canines were extended and his eyes had bled into a honey-blue colour – all in all, he looked ready to turn at that very moment.

"D-Daniel. You don't know how glad we are to... see you."

He shook his mane of golden hair. "I'm not going to eat you, don't worry. I prefer blondes." He grinned widely. "But anyway, come on. We're nearly there." He extended one long finger towards us and began to walk away, pausing to turn his head slightly to see if we were following.

"How did you find us?"

"I heard you."

"Oh."

We carried on walking for a while, him ahead and us trailing behind, occasionally glancing around us at the trees. "I take it you're scared of werewolves." His voice was dry with amusement.

Nina turned to me. Then, she cleared her throat, flicked her hair over her shoulder and smiled confidently. "We're not. Why would you think that?"

Mental face palm. "Oh come on. April, you could have been more discreet. As soon as you saw me, you flinched. And Nina... well, your expression said it all."

"I'm not scared." I defended. "I just... well... I've only seen an actual werewolf a couple of times. And I guess I'm just not used to seeing you shifting, especially when you still look human." I admitted, staring at my shoes.

He was by my side in an instant and patted me on the shoulder sympathetically. "I understand. You'll get used to it, I promise. And little word of advice: there will be a lot scarier werewolves where we're going, but none of them are our enemies."

"I never thought I'd be in the middle of a werewolf pack. Ever." Nina thought aloud.

"Nor did I think we'd have two humans among us." Daniel said. "But here we are."

"Correction." I interrupted. "Two awesome humans."

He laughed and gave us a sidelong smile. "True."

After 5 more minutes of walking at Daniel's abnormally fast pace, we'd reached. This wasn't any serious meeting, Aiden had explained. But I'd been curious about werewolves and so he'd invited us here to learn more.

"Here we are. Home." Daniel sighed as his outstretched arm swept across the vast expanse in a flourishing gesture.

After that, me and Nina were practically glued by the arm as we walked past the crowd, most of whom remained oblivious to us and finally reached Diego. He turned and grinned, pulling Nina in for a kiss and raising his eyebrows at me.

"Little A." He greeted.

"I'm not little."

"Yes you are."

"Technically, I'm pretty much the same height at Nina. And she's considered average height. So... beat that." I pointed out.

His smile didn't falter. "You're still Little A."

"Then you're... D boy." I shot back hastily.

"Ew... April, please, never call him that again. It's... disturbing." Nina scrunched her nose.

I raised my eyebrows but let it drop. "Aiden's over there." Diego pointed out, his green eyes glowing as he pointed somewhere behind me. I followed his finger but thinned my lips. "But you can third wheel if you want?" He offered, grinning.

I scowled. "Hey, you're the third wheel here. Me and Nina are a pair of survivors – we made it through the woods together, whilst you were... I don't know, chilling out here." Me and Nina turned to look at each other as soon as I said that and grinned, the Destiny's Child vibes strong.

"April, don't worry, I love third wheeling Diego and Nina. We're like one big, happy family." Aiden spoke from behind me as he settled his chin in the crook of my neck and instinctively, I inclined my head sideways to allow him to rest it. His lips were right next to my ear now. I was scared he'd be able to hear my heart racing. "Diego, have you spoken to Matthias?"

Control April, control.

Then, Aiden, quite comfortably, had a conversation with Diego and Nina whilst he remained in that same position, his lips almost grazing my ear lobe as he spoke. And when he smiled, I could almost feel my legs about to wobble into jelly. I shifted my head awkwardly a couple of times and offered a chuckle now and then into the conversation, but the words were lost on me.

All I could think about was how regular and deep Aiden's breathing was, how the light stubble on his jaw pricked me. I wish I had skin like Aiden's - it was always so smooth and exfoliated. I wonder what products he used in his skin care routine. Maybe I'd ask him later.

"April? April? You're drooling." Aiden's voice, soft and amused in my ear.

"What? I'm not drooling." I wiped my hand over my mouth quickly.

"Hmm...." He reclined back on his heels and tilted his head to one side. "You wanted to know about Noah?"

Oh. Yes. I nodded hesitantly. "Here?" I looked up and found Nina and Diego had disappeared.

"No. We'll go somewhere –" he broke off, glancing around us and then toward the forest where flashes of black, white, brown and russet flashes shot past – I'm guessing werewolves. "Here." He nodded and pulled me to the outskirts. "So... what did you want to know?"

"Umh... everything?" He shot me a look. "Well, what happened first of all?"

"He agreed to meet with me in the woods. And we talked." He said briskly.

"Talked?"

"As well as other things," he shifted uncomfortably, "I asked him about that day and I actually listened, yes, I know, I actually listened - about why he did what he did. We also talked about Brandon – his brother – I guess you could call it peace." He shrugged.

"Did he hit you?"

"Once. But it was a good right hook – for his brother of course. I deserved it."

"And you hit him?"

"I think I broke a couple of ribs." He mused, "but I don't think you want the details. And me being me, I was even chivalrous and offered him a ride after; he didn't look too good. Good thing too, I wasn't exactly in the best of moods – I was still pissed. He declined of course." I stared at him, blinking. "He's not dead." He finally settled on saying.

I let out an exasperated sigh. "Geez, why do boys feel the need to use your fists to sort out your problems."

"April." He shook his head. "You know like, what? 10 boys in total."

I pondered upon this. "True."

"It wasn't an insult." He smirked grimly. "And I'll never forgive Noah for what he did – that bastard could have taken you away from me, and that's not forgivable. It was just him and me; fairs fair. And he'll probably never be able to forgive me either, but I understand that, because I actually took someone away from him. So no, before you say it, we won't be grilling meat on the barbeque together like old pals. No way."

"As if I would ever suggest that!" He tipped his head towards me. "Because I'm a vegetarian, so grilling meat wouldn't agree with me. But I'm glad that you told me. And I know now that you're both okay. Kayla's texted me and I'm meeting her soon." I told him, my fingers knotting together.

"Hm. I must admit, I'm surprised at how persistent you and Nina can be. I didn't think Kayla would come back to you after everything."

"We can be quite a pushy pair when we want. And you know what they say: Never leave a man behind."

"Kayla's not a man."

"She's a woman. Or whatever else she wants to be, so shut up."

He rolled his eyes at me before clapping his hands suddenly, the noise making me jump back. "So. Now I'm guessing you want to question us about werewolfism?"

I frowned. "Is that what's it's called? Werewolfism? I thought it was lycanthropy."

"No." He said sarcastically. "It's just... I don't know, shifting. We have a wolf within us the moment we're born – it lives and dies with us. It's just – a part of us, I guess – without it is like living without a conscience."

I thought about that, mulling the thought around in my mind the same way a sommelier would swish wine around in his mouth before spitting it back out again. "So... for humans, it would be like Eminem and Slim Shady. Two halves of the same apple. You need both to function, to think and work and be yourself."

"That was the worst metaphor I've ever heard. And yeah. Except we don't slag half the celebrity world off when we're in our wolf form."

"But he does it pretty well." I pointed out.

Aiden agreed with me. "The epitome of cool." He mimicked something I had once said with a fake sneer and I narrowed my eyes at him angrily, before a thought that had been striking my mind since I'd set eyes on him made an appearance again. I'd wanted to talk to him first about it, but he'd been grieving with his family and space was the most important thing then – especially for the Knight family. I felt a pang of grief ring within me.

"Aiden?" His eyes locked into my own. "Your abuela... are you – well, this is a stupid question to ask, but how are you?" I cursed myself for my stupidity and at how I couldn't put my thoughts into my words – I wanted to show him I cared but I couldn't seem to convey that in my spoken language.

"Ap, it was bound to happen. And I'm glad you met her before she went properly. I'm glad she spent time with her family – all of her family without any of us strangling the other." He said simply.

"And you're not – wanting to turn to the bottle?" I said hesitantly.

"Trust me, if she saw me drinking, she would probably come back as a spirit to haunt me. The woman loved her rum, but not the way her grandson abused it. I wouldn't dishonour her like that again."

"She was a good woman, even if I didn't know her that well." I said. "And she's one of those rare people that you can't forget."

He smiled tiredly. "I know."

"I'm here for you. And I know she's still here too." I found my lips forming the words before I could pause to re-analyse what I had just said. He turned to me, his eyes ablaze with golden light as he faced the sun and cupped my cheeks with both hands and kissed me fully on the mouth. I kissed him back, equally as passionately, sharing his grief and sorrow with me as I pulled him towards me. When we broke away, it seemed like a weight had been lifted from both of our shoulders and he leaned his forehead against mine, sighing.

"She's in the stars, right?" I whispered, my eyes still shut.

"Yep. They're up there right now," I knew he was referring to his mother as well when he said this, "it's just that in the sun you can't see them all too well, but they're there all right. At night they come into focus for us and shine, forming the constellations."

"For someone who rarely sees the stars in the city, you must show me this. I'm sure I'll have a few people to talk to up there as well."

"Don't worry, I'm sure I can bore you to death teaching you the constellations." He grinned before adding. "You know, for someone who resembles Cruella De Ville, you make an awesome kisser."

I scowled. "I'm nothing like her, you idiot. Firstly, I don't have black and white hair, secondly, I do not hurt dogs –" and thus I began a long rant listing our differences. And through all of that, it only struck me later that among my ranting, he had murmured a thank you as he brushed a small kiss on my cheek.

Then, somehow, we began to bicker about cars as we made our way back to where the gang were gathering. But somehow, bickering with Aiden made me smile secretly to myself because hey, it was what we did best.