•Mara's POV•

"Mara. My main girl." Josh says as he slings an arm over my shoulder.

Ryder gives him a dangerous glare, which Josh just rolls his eyes at.

"Yes Josh?" I ask.

"Feel like doing something with me today, everyone's caught up in their mates and I'm bored." He says, pouting.

Ryder comes over and pulls me to his side, out of Josh's grip.

"What if I want to do something with my mate too?" Ryder asks.

Josh sighs.

"Ryder." I scold, "Why don't we do something all together?" I propose.

Ryder and Josh exchange a look and then nod, "Sounds good." Josh says.

"Well I want to go to the markets that have just rolled up in town." I say.

"Let's go there then, sounds interesting." Ryder replies, grabbing his keys.

I watch as he exits and I sigh.

"What's up?" Josh asks through mind-link.

I gasp a little and turn to him.

"You're part of the pack now Luna. You can mind-link anyone, as anyone can mind-link you." Josh explains, smirking.

"Oh." I reply.

"Now what's wrong?" He asks.

We start to make our way to the door.

"I think I'm in love with Ryder." I reply.

I look up and see Ryder leaning against the car, typing something on his phone.

"What's so bad about that?" Josh asks.

"Well, what if he doesn't feel the same?" I reply.

I look to Josh and see him chuckling a little, "I think you should just tell him."

"But I'm scared he won't say it back." I say.

"Mara, I think you'll be surprised." He says and then disconnects out of the mind-link and heads over to the car.

I sigh and go too, I'm about to open the passenger side when I notice it's still locked.

I look up to the guys to see them smirking, "Well? Are you going to unlock it or what?" I ask.

Ryder shakes his head, "Nah. We're not taking the car." He replies.

I frown, "Then why did you grab the keys?"

He chuckles, "I didn't take the keys to the car, Mara. I took the keys to my bike."

They move out the way a little and I see two motorcycles sitting in the driveway.

I shake my head and step back, "No, no, no! There is no way I'm getting on that death contraption!" I say, pointing to the bikes.

Josh laughs and pats Ryder on the back, "Good luck man, I'll meet you there." He says.

Josh gets on his bike and starts it, the noise making me flinch, he smirks at me one last time and zooms off.

Ryder comes up to me and wraps his arms around my waist, "I'm not going to let anything happen to you, okay?" He asks, his voice soft.

I just look at the bike behind him and frown.

"Have you ever been on one before?" Ryder asks.

I look to the ground, "No."

He chuckles, "Then you never know, you could enjoy it." He says.

I look up into his eyes and see an emotion I can't quite understand.

"Do you trust me?" He whispers, bringing his face closer.

"Of course." I reply.

"Then you'll be fine." He says, kissing my neck.

I sigh and nod, "Fine."

He grins and gives me a quick peck on the lips, "Come on."

He leads me to the bike and secures a helmet on my head. He puts his on and then hops on the bike, I look at him and he smirks, well I guess that's what he does because I can't see his mouth, and holds out a hand. I take it and he helps me get on.

He starts the bike and my heartbeat increases. Ryder reaches back and grabs my hands, wrapping them around his abdomen, which by the way, is very muscular.

When he drives off, I wrap myself tighter around him and close my eyes.

"Mara, open your eyes." Ryder says through mind-link.

"I'm scared." I reply.

"Don't be, just try it." He says.

I sigh and slowly open my eyes, at first everything is a blur, but then I notice we're on a high part of a hill and I can see the never-ending forest that spreads around us. Snow leaps around and purrs at the wind whipping my face.

I find myself laughing and then feel Ryder torso vibrating, indicating that he must be laughing too.

We get to the markets and Ryder parks next to Josh's bike, which he is leaning against.

I hop off, with the help of Josh, and take off my helmet.

I can't keep the grin off my face, "Okay, that was pretty cool." I admit.

They guys chuckle.

We enter the markets and start looking around the stalls.

"Do you smell something, off?" Josh asks Ryder.

Ryder looks around and shrugs, "There are a lot of different people here, the scents are probably mixing."

Josh just nods and we keep browsing.

••••*••••

"I'm just going to the bathroom." I say after about half an hour.

"I'll come with you." Ryder says.

"Ryder, I'm fine. I'll meet you back here in ten minutes." I smile.

He frowns but then sighs, "Alright, fine. If you're not here in ten minutes though, I'm coming." He says.

I nod, "Okay."

I head off to the bathrooms and it only takes about two minutes before I'm out and looking around, I might as well use the eight minutes I have left to myself.

I'm looking at some hand-made dolls when I feel a presence behind me.

"Luna." Someone says.

I turn around and look at the boy. He looks about my age with beach blonde hair and deep blue eyes, he's tall and I can see the muscles from his arms.

I narrow my eyes, I'm sure I've never met this person.

"Can I help you?" I ask, for some reason, I get a bad vibe from him.

He smiles, but I see some evil behind it, and holds out a hand, "My name's Cam, Cam Winters."

I feel like I've heard his name before, then it comes back to me. The day I Mandy took me to the diner to meet everyone.

•Flashback•

"Do you live close to each other?" Trent asks.

"Next door neighbours actually." Mandy replies.

"So you took over Cam's old house then." Layla says.

"Who's Cam?" I ask.

"This guy that used to go to our school. But he moved or something." Josh says.

•End of flashback•

"You've been mentioned, I'm Samara." I reply, ignoring his awaiting hand.

He retracts it and smirks, "I've been mentioned, huh? All good things, I hope."

"Not much actually." I reply monotone.

He cocks his head, "You don't seem to like me very much."

No shit, Sherlock. "I just don't know you, that's all." I reply.

"So, you're cold to everyone you don't know?" He raises an eyebrow.

I narrow my eyes at him, "No, I just don't feel like you're someone I should trust."

He just keeps that smirk on his face, making me want to slap it off, "Well, you're a lot smarter than I thought, Luna. You better get back to your mate, he's looking for you."

I knew that already, I could smell Ryder's scent getting closer. But I wasn't going to give anything away to Cam, he should think I'm still only human.

"He can wait. What are you doing on my land?" I ask, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Just passing through. I need to get something." He says.

"And what would that be?" I ask.

He leans in closer, the smirk still there, "You'll see." He whispers.

I flinch back from his proximity.

He's about to leave, but then looks at me, the smirk now vanished and a threatening look replaces it. It's serious enough to make me run and hide.

"Oh, and you tell anyone about our little run in today, you'll be very sorry Luna." He says and I notice him gesture to Ryder, I lower my head to try to hide my trembling lips.

When I look up, Cam's gone.

"There you are." Ryder says, then he sees my state, "Hey, are you okay? What happened?" He asks, running his hands down my arms.

"What?" I ask, looking up at him.

"Are you alright?" He ask.

I flush and smile, "Yeah sorry. Just kind of zoned out." I reply.

He studies me for a moment, but he must have bought it because he smiles and drags me along back to where Josh was.

I feel extremely bad lying to Ryder, but if I caught on to what Cam was saying, it sounded like he was threatening Ryder. And I just can't let anything happen to him.

For the rest of the day, I'm always looking behind my back, searching the crowds for the one face I'm looking for.

When it's time to leave, I hop onto Ryder's bike and look around one more time. And then I see him, he's standing in the crowd, looking directly at me.

With that evil smirk on his face.

It looks like Cam is back, and he wants something.

I feel this is very bad.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Hey!

So I've got to chapter 20 and this is when I wanted the intensity of the book to start climbing :)

Thanks to everyone that commenting! Even if it's small, it's awesome to get something from you awesome people!

I just want to get some response and I would like to ask who your favourite character is?

Bailey to the side (Played by Emma Roberts) -------------->

Thank you! xx