"Touch her and see what happens."

The voice instantly calmed my fears. Which is strange because to anyone else the voice is meant to spread fear throughout their being, but for me I am relieved. Eli looks up and makes eye contact with the man who threatened him, and his eyes widen before he retracts his hand.

"I'll talk to you later, Thea," Eli grumbles, angry that he was interrupted before he could explain himself fully.

"No you won't. Get the fuck out of here before Grayson sees you," Cooper yells, a smirk growing on his face as Eli trembles in fear. Once Eli is gone, I turn to Cooper with a grateful smile on my face. After being so scared by Eli, I'm now left shaking and confused about my "friendship" with him. For reasons that I can't explain, I immediately wrap my arms around Cooper and bury my face in his chest.

Over the weekend, I missed him. I missed Grayson more, but I can't even think about my relationship with him. Cooper's in front of me right now, so I'm going to focus on him. Him coming to my defense proves that he is still my best friend, no matter what species he is. I don't care that he's a werewolf anymore. Maybe that makes me weak for forgiving him so easily, but I need his jokes and unnecessary cursing in my life.

"Whoa there, Thee," Cooper chuckles as he almost loses his balance from the strength behind my hug. He hugs me back tightly. I'm reminded of his werewolf strength when he squeezes me too tightly, and I lightly tap on his shoulder to get his attention.

"I can't breathe," I squeak out to Cooper, who immediately drops his arms and backs away from me as if I tased him. "Shit! Sorry. I forget how fragile you are. Are you okay?" he asks with concern. His unruly brown curls continue to fall in his face, and he frustratingly brushes them aside.

My giggling makes his look of worry go away. "I'm fine, Cooper. Can we get to class?"

We walk side by side to Psychology, not saying anything about the incident. When we sit down in our seats, I check my phone to see that class should have started two minutes ago but the professor is nowhere in sight. With nothing to do but wait for her, I turn to Cooper.

"Can I ask you a question?"

Cooper stretches out his arms and legs as he leans back in the chair, letting out a loud yawn that turns a couple of heads. "Ask away," he grins, leaning his head back on his hands as he looks at me.

I'm not exactly sure how to phrase the question I want to ask, so I just ask it in the most straightforward way possible. I also lower my voice so that no one around us can hear our conversation. "How do you know when someone's a supernatural?"

His eyebrows shoot up, getting lost in his brown mop of hair. He sits up and leans forward, his forearms now resting on his thighs. His carefree look changes to one of concern. "Unfortunately for you, you won't be able to tell. Not clearly, at least. For us werewolves, we can smell out different supernaturals instantly. For you, you'll have to look for details."

"Like with the vampire, his eyes turned red," I whisper, more to myself than to him. Cooper still hears me, and his eyes darken to an almost black color. "Cooper... your eyes..." I slowly back away from him, inching further back in the chair until I am as far from him as possible without it looking suspicious to others.

He closes his eyes, and a few moments later they open to reveal the usual brown shade I'm used to. "Sorry," he says gruffly. "Just thinking about that fucking vampire laying a hand on you..."

He lets out a dark laugh. "If I'm this angry, how do you think Grayson feels? For touching his mate... I wouldn't be surprised if that vamp experiences his second death sooner rather than later."

"G-Grayson's gonna k-kill him?" I stutter, biting my lip and tightly clenching the armrests until my knuckles are white.

"He's an Alpha, and his Luna was injured. He's gonna do a lot more than that."

I'm speechless. It shocks me to know that the vampire will be killed, but it surprisingly doesn't bother me as much as it should. I should be horrified that he will be tortured and will suffer, but instead I feel safer. Shouldn't I feel bad?

I don't know what to say, so I just slowly nod my head. The doors in the back of the lecture hall open abruptly, and our Professor jogs down the aisle to the front of the classroom. After apologizing for being late, she asks us to give her a few minutes to set-up. As I wait for the lecture to begin, I shyly turn to Cooper.

"I'm sorry for ignoring you this weekend."

He only grins at me and nudges me with his arm. "It's fine, I get it. It's a lot to take in."

"Just know that it wasn't just you I was ignoring. I wasn't responding to anybody," I clarify, hoping he understands that I just needed time away from people, not specifically him.

"Oh, I know," he chuckles as he reaches into his bag and retrieves his laptop. "Grayson's been a little bitch all weekend. His entire room is a wreck, completely trashed from him constantly wolfing out and punching walls and shit. I haven't had any time with Axel because he had to step up and take over basically all the Alpha duties while Grayson has his mental breakdown."

"What? Is he okay?" I ask- well, more like demand to know. My worry for him slowly increases as I wait for Cooper to explain. My heart is racing and my leg begins shaking from anxiety.

"No he's not okay!" Cooper laughs. Why would he laugh about that? "You ignored him all weekend after you didn't let him stay with you. He thinks you're scared of him and will never accept him. We had to stop him from running to your house at least five times," he explains.

My hands cover my mouth as I sit there, shocked. I didn't realize that my ignoring Grayson would affect him that much...

"Of course it affects him!" Cooper exclaims. That's when I realize that I said that last part out loud. "I tried to tell you in the car the other day. Now that Grayson's finally found you, he can't live without you. Axel's my mate, and just being apart from him for a day is hard. He's the Beta of the pack, second in command after Grayson, so when he was doing all that work I barely saw him. Mates aren't like anything in human society. We are mentally and physically weaker without each other."

Our professor begins the lecture and I halfheartedly begin taking notes. Every time there is a brief pause in the lecture, my mind drifts to Grayson. I should probably see him soon. Now, however, I'm not scared of him. I'm scared of how much he cares about me. If he's willing to kill for me, what else is he willing to do? I've never been in a relationship- ever. This is the first guy I've ever been interested in romantically, and this situation is far from the norm. There aren't any advice columns that I can ask for help from. What would I say? 'Excuse me, but my werewolf mate is punching walls and killing vampires for me, what does that mean for our relationship?'

As I'm lost in thought, I feel and hear something on my hands. I look down and see twenty pens- courtesy of Cooper. Just like last time, the pens can't stay on the desk, so most of them fall to the ground and make sounds that probably aren't that loud. However, in the silent lecture hall, they could be compared to the volume of missiles being released.

I glare at Cooper who only shrugs at me as he is unable to keep a smile off of his face. "What? I didn't know if you were gonna forgive me or not. I needed a plan B."

~

After class ended, Cooper tried to convince me to go to the pack house with him to make-up with Grayson. Although I really wanted- no, needed- to talk to Grayson, I had a shift at Java so I couldn't. Also, when I found out what the 'pack house' was, I completely freaked out.

This house was where I was taken after the vampire attack, and it was less of a house and more of a mansion. From what I understand from Cooper, it's where important pack members live. So it's basically a huge hunting ground filled with werewolves who are way stronger and faster than me. I definitely don't want to go there anytime soon. I may be coming around to the idea of my friends being werewolves, but I'm not ready to meet werewolves that are strangers!

Nonetheless, Cooper texted me the address in case I changed my mind, which will never happen. I still smiled and gave him a reassuring hug that I would consider before I left. After walking home and quickly changing into my uniform, I headed out once again and made it to Java ten minutes before the start to my shift.

After clocking in, I notice that my friend Cassidy is on the same shift as me. I rush into the break room and find her on her phone, most likely scrolling through Instagram. At the opening of the door, she looks up and immediately jumps to her feet when she sees me. She runs over to me and engulfs me in a huge hug. I chuckle and hug her back with the same amount of fervor.

"Nice to see you, too," I laugh. Cass releases me from her grip only to smack me in the shoulder- and not lightly may I add.

"Ow! What was that for?" I whine, rubbing the now-red spot on my arm.

"That's for you ignoring me all weekend! I texted and called a bunch but you never responded," she says with a pouty face. "I was forced to hang out with Kate instead." She adds a fake shiver for effect. I know she doesn't like Kate, a girl we both went to high school with. However, Cass says that she keeps Kate around as a "back-up friend" in case any of her real friends were unavailable. I think it's cruel, but Cass is just fine with the situation.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't realize you reached out to me. My phone was on silent all weekend." I make sure my apology sounds genuine because I don't want her to be upset. Cass is very sensitive, and being alert to her ever-changing mood is something I've had to learn to be her friend for so long.

Luckily, she believes me and gives me a light-hearted smile. "That's okay. But why was your phone on silent? Avoiding a guy?" she says jokingly, then laughs at the idea like it's the most ridiculous thing she's ever suggested. I only stare at her, not knowing what to do or say. My silence is an answer in itself, and Cass sees this and pounces.

"OMG! You were avoiding a guy?! Who is he? What's his name? Is he hot?" The questions all morph into one long, breathless demand for answers, and I figure that if I give her a little bit of information she'll back off... eventually.

"I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to talk to anyone else about it." I don't want the news spreading that I'm talking to Grayson, and I could honestly use Cassidy's help when it comes to guys. She's been with more guys than outfits she owns, so she can help me decipher Grayson's actions. Although he's a werewolf, he's also a guy.

Once she agrees to keep what I tell her a secret, I spill. All throughout our shift at Java I explain how we met- through Cooper- and how we began texting and talking on the phone. I tell her about our date, our first kiss, and our return to my angry mother in the rain. Obviously I refrain from telling her about anything supernatural. I don't know if she would be in danger for knowing, and she probably wouldn't believe me anyway if I did.

Cass stays glued to my side the entire time I explain things to her. Whenever the bell jingles, alerting us to a new customer entering through the front door, Cass gets extremely annoyed- like entering the coffee shop is a crime against humanity. She annoyingly takes their order and rushed them whenever they take too long. I have to scold her a few times for her lack of manners, but she only tells me that she wants to get the customers out of her face so that she can hear the rest of my story.

On the outside I try to feign disappointment, but on the inside I'm actually quite happy that Cass is being such a great listener. I've never had any boy troubles for her to listen to before, so she's eating up everything I tell her. When I finally get to our falling out, it's almost the end of our shift.

"Wait, I don't understand. You go to a club with another guy and you're mad? He was totally jealous, you know," she says matter-of-factly.

"What? No he wasn't," I say as I continue to mix ingredients together for a customer's mocha frappuccino. I'm not like Cass- guys don't get jealous over me.

"He 100% was jealous. He probably flipped out when he found out you were going to a club without him, dressed all hot with another guy, grinding on each other-"

"Cass!" I squeal, forcing her to stop talking while I quickly deliver the drink I finished to the customer. Turning my attention back to Cass, I gave her a look of disapproval. "I didn't even know it was a club until I got there. I thought it was a bar! And I wasn't just going with Eli, Elle was coming too-"

"It doesn't matter," Cass says while shaking her head. "He was jealous and was trying to tell you that he didn't want you going out with another guy, and you did. Is that why you two aren't talking? Because if that's the case, you two need some make-up sex already."

I groan and cover my face with my hands, unsuccessfully hiding myself from her crude comments. Why do I surround myself with friends who speak so inappropriately?

Cass only laughs and slings an arm around my neck. "Don't worry, Thea. I think you and Prince Charming will be back together before you know it."

I mumble "we were never together," lowly, and Cass chuckles.

"Sure," she says in an unbelieving tone. "C'mon, our shift is up. I gotta get ready for a date."

"A date? With who?" I question as I remove my Java apron and clock out. Cass has this huge grin plastered on her face, one that would be very hard to remove. Her smile is infectious, and I need to know more.

"Well, we were so busy talking about your man that we didn't get to talk about mine! But he's so hot, Thea! He's got bright blue eyes and this silky blonde hair that I just wanna grab a fistful of. And don't even get me started on his body! I haven't seen it in person, but his Insta is filled with pics of him working out and he's so freaking hot..."

I let Cass' voice fall in the background of my mind. She goes on and on about this guy, and I let her talk all while grabbing my things together and walking out the employee door and outside Java. She continues talking animatedly, and I'm half listening until I look up and see someone that I'm only expecting to see on my terms.

"We need to talk."