School.

Hell.

What's the difference?

You only go to Hell if you're evil.

It's been 2 days since Dan and his family disappeared and I've been with my new friends and Ryder.

We pretty much just hung around his fudging huge mansion all weekend. My legs decided to start working again yesterday, so I've been glued to Ryder's side.

I didn't know someone could be so possessive until I met my mate. I stare up at his beautiful face.

This face shouldn't be a loud to exist. Carefully, I slide my finger along from his nose to the bottom of his jaw.

I look back up only to be met with those deep, diamond eyes staring back at me.

"Holy Sheep!" I jump in his grip. He chuckles while I clutch my chest, frantically trying to regain my erratic breathing.

"Damn baby, I thought you knew I was awake." Ryder says to me teasingly.

"Well obviously not bear! How could you do that to me!" I scold him. I've found I've become alot more confident these last few days.

My friends say I'm 'coming out of my shell' I don't know what that means but they were smiling while they said it so I hope it's good.

"Common, we gotta get up!" I tell my lazy mate. He's so not a morning person.

"Noooooooooo" Ryder whines while shoving his face in the pillow.

Point proven.

"Common Bear. We gotta go to school" I tell him, trying to pry his arms off of my stomach. Grumbling about how werewolves shouldn't be allowed to be this strong under my breath, I'm completely shocked when he pulls me back down next to him.

"Ah!" I yelp as I land right on top of Ryder's bare back. My whole weight falls on him and he doesn't even move.

"I- You- you didn't even flinch!" I stutter in disbelief. Bear just laughs at me.

"Baby you weigh nothing. I've had 250 pound wolves jump on me purposely, your like 20 pound body falling on me does nothing."

I roll my eyes and say.

"Well I've figured that out. Thanks alot sherlock." I push off his back and go towards the closet.

Bry, Lina, and Ry let me use all their clothes until Ryder had bought me a whole wardrobe. No matter my protests he still did it.

Well everything but pajamas. He said he wanted me in his clothes at night. Now come to think of it, I've never seen my girl friends wearing night clothes, just their mates shirts.

I grabbed a pair of jeans and a plain white shirt. I grabbed a black belt and black converse. I skipped over to the bathroom and hopped in the shower.

I was in the middle of scrubbing my lemon shampoo into my locks when the doors opened. The curtain blocked me from seeing Ryder, but I knew he was in here.

"Ryder?" I asked over the rush of the shower.

"Hah?" His mouth sounded full, which meant he was probably brushing his teeth.

"What's the time?"

"7:15" Bear answered. Then he suggested. "Need any help in there?"

I could feel my cheeks heat up, and not from the boiling rain that was cascading down my skin.

"N-no you p-pervert!" I tell him shakily. I hear his deep laugh, causing my body to become goo. What does this boy do to me?

*****

We pull up to the familiar building and I can't help but nervously run my thumb along my pinky. A horrible habit I have. At least I don't bite my nails or something.

"Hey, we'll be okay, those barbie twins aren't here anymore." I let out a shaky smile to Ryder, trying to thank him but I'm still nervous. Tyson's here.

We walk out and all the eyes turn to us. Someone grabs my hand, and by the sparks that flow through us, it's Ryder.

We walk in and are greeted by the girl, Lily? From last week, along with her 2 friends.

"Luna!" They greet cheerily. Some of my tension melts, seeing their smiling faces.

"Mariah, but Hi!" I tell them, not hesitating to go and hug Bryli's little sister. She relaxes under my touch and I now know that's the doing of the Luna bond.

Apparently I'm supposed to be this 'mother' figure to the whole pack. I have the ability to calm my pack and once I become official Luna, I'll receive the power to heal.

It freaks me out, alot. But I know Ryder will be their for me. We head to first class, Math. This was the class I met Ryder in.

Nate and Ry enter first then me and Bear. As soon as I enter I feel the disgusting eyes of one wolf. An alpha to be exact.

Tyson.

I risk looking over to him and see he's smirking at me. I hear a growl come from Ryder and quickly move closer to him. He settles down a bit and it makes me happy. I always liked helping people.

When we've sat down, I lean over and give Ryder my 3 kisses, on his two cheeks and in between the eyebrows.

His body fully relaxes but I can tell he's still on high alert. Since we're early, Bry starts talking about going out to the mall or something.

I can't focus because all the sudden I feel a dark presence behind us.

"Well lookie here! The Alpha and his...."

Tyson leans over, examining my neck before smiling evily.

".....Unmarked human mate." I shiver in disgust.

"Piss off Tyson." Ryder snarls at the teen. Tyson raises his hands in mock surrender before giving me a wink and turning away.

I unconsciously touch the crook of my neck. Everyone told me why Tyson has his eyes on me because I'm Ryder's mate. Me being a human is hard because I'm not strong enough to beat a werewolf.

Ryder says that if I were to leave him, he would get significantly weaker. If Tyson was able to get me, and mark me, Ryder would supposedly die at some point.

Bear says he'll protect me and I believe him but I still can't shake the feeling of being watched.

I can tell that Ryder wants to mark me, because of the bond, and Tyson but I just am not ready yet.

I don't know why, but something's telling me to wait. Just then a warm hands comes down on my freezing one.

"Here" Ryder says softly, while moving my fingers on my neck, so that they're resting a couple centimeters over.

All the sudden, his eyebrows furrow. "Why are you so cold baby?" He asks me worriedly. I hate it when he worries.

"I'm okay, just alittle chilly." I tell him, trying to pull away. Ryder doesn't let go, instead, he pulls me up and out of my seat and towards his.

When I'm in between his legs he puts his huge hands on my arms and rub up and down. I immediately warm up and lean in closer to his touch.

Stupid me decided to only wear a tshirt. Ryder bites his lip before telling my friends.

"Watch her" They all instantly nod. I roll my eyes at his need to assign me a babysitter.

"Where's he going?" Ethan asks me. I shrug my shoulders. We sit and talk about the movies I haven't watched, again.

Which include most of them, before my mate comes back. Ryder's holding a dark green hoodie and I almost sigh at the sight of it.

Goosebumps swarm my tan skin, I feel like I'm in Antartica. Ryder hands it to me and I waste no time slipping it over my head.

I take a deep breathe, savoring the smell of Bear and the warmth it provides.

I sit on Ryder's lap until the teacher comes in. I'm officially warm and am never going to wear just a tshirt again.

*****

The day has gone pretty smoothly. I've been swarm by different kids from Ryder's pack who all welcome me with open arms. It's crazy, I've never been this accepted.

Right now me and Ryder are just finishing the period before lunch. Bear had all his classes moved so they match up to mine.

Not that I'm complaining. It's nice to have a huge, muscly, alpha werewolf protecting you from every little 'threat'.

There was this littke fly, it was so annoying. It kept flying around, and landing on me. I kept trying to get it but with no luck.

I grumbled under my breath and Ryder turned to me. He saw the fly and faster than I could see, his arm flew up and grabbed something.

He then layed his hand flat on the desk and I heard a squish. Yuck 100x.

"Now you're safe" My crazy mate whispered to me. I rolled my eyes but smiled all the same. Flies are now a threat everyone!

Just then the loud bell rang and everyone got up. The teacher was desperately trying to shout out over the scuffle of students the homework but no one listened.

I walked up to the teacher. She let out a sigh of defeat.

"Hi" I told her. She jumped before turning to me.

"Luna!" The lady looked excited.

"Hello! I'm Mariah!" I told her with a smile.

"Danielle, well, Mrs. Cooper." Danielle said with an airy chuckle. She reminded me of a mother.

"I'm sorry about everyone. I just wanted to say you've been doing a great job teaching this class." Every word I spoke, her face lit up more until she was practically beaming.

"Thank you so much Luna, you don't know how much that means to hear that from you."

I smiled again and was about to speak when Ryder called.

"Alpha" Danielle told Ryder, barring her neck slightly.

"Danielle, how's your family?" Bear asks her.

"Good, Sam is back on his post and the pups have gone back to school."

"That's great! Well we've got to go, see you later." Ryder told the kind lady.

"Bye Alpha, Luna."

I waved over my shoulder and walked out of the room.

"What does she mean her kids went back to school?" I whisper quietly to my mate.

"About a month ago, a vampire got ahold of her 7 year old son, Ollie, he almost died. Their family has finally got back to normal."

I stopped in my tracks. Ryder turned to me, worried.

"Y-you s-said v-v-vampires ex-exist?" I was going light headed.

"Yes, we've been at war with them for forever. But it's okay, there's no way they'll get you."

Ryder was quick to try and reassure me. I sucked in a couple of deep breathes, feeling my throat close.

"Mariah? Mar? It's okay tell me what's wrong." Ryder's trying to help me. Everything's becoming blurry.

Voices. Panicked voices. I look around and see fuzzy faces. All their mouths are moving but no sound registers.

My body becomes numb, and my eyes flutter closed. My body feels like it's floating on a raft in a calm stream.

Then everything turns black.