"Where were you yesterday?" I asked Zoey as I slid onto the counter in the kitchen Thursday morning.

"In my room," she replied with absolutely no emotion in her voice. Her bangs almost covered her eyes and she trudged around.

"What's wrong?"

"You. Told. Him," she stated.

"Told who what?" I asked, confused.

"You told Chase that I cheated on him with Micah so he broke up with me on Tuesday!" she yelled at me. I widened my eyes.

"Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. I didn't tell him that. He found out by himself. I didn't even know about Micah until Chase told me," I defended. Chase was working my last damn nerve. First yelling at me and now he's lying to my sister about the reason they broke up?

"Yeah right," she spat.

"Hey," I said, grabbing her arm as she walked past me. "You're really gonna believe him over me? We're sisters."

"Well sisters don't promise to keep their mouth shut and then deliberately go behind her back," she retorted.

"I didn't," I groaned. Zoey hit my arm away from hers and walked away.

And here I thought that Chase was trying to be secret mates with Zoey and told her about his secret, but no. He ended up breaking up with her all because "my mistake" of telling him about Zoey's mistake? He had half a dozen other reasons and he chose to throw me under the bus? Oh hell no.

I sat on the counter, wondering how I was going to torture Chase for spreading that lie.

Wes: Good morning

Me: No

Wes: No?

Me: NO.

Wes: Who pissed you off? Geez

Me: Chase!

Wes: Grr...

I was instantly annoyed thinking he was "grr"-ing me, but then I received another text from him seconds later.

Wes: Eli's picking you up for school today. He just picked up Jas so he'll be there soon k

Why was Eli picking me up instead of him? Judging off the short wait time for Eli to text me that he was here, maybe it just logistically worked out better since Jasmine was down the street. I was just glad she was with him as if it was indicative that he told her about the werewolf secret.

I grabbed my bag and left. I climbed into the back of Eli's car and noticed that they were oddly quiet. Not even minute after he started to drive off, I was about to ask why when Eli's phone rang and he answered it right away.

"Hello?" he greeted. "What the hell?...Why?...Ugh. But Jasmine—yes, Alicia's here too...you know what? That's their fault. So too bad...Ugh, fine. We're on our way."

He hung up and tossed his phone into his backpack.

"Babe, where are we going?" Jasmine asked as we noticed he had turned in the opposite direction of the school.

"Chase and Wes probably aren't going to school today," Eli informed.

"So?" I asked with Jasmine. Eli's chocolate eyes flashed into his mirror—staring right at me.

"They may or may not have started a fight with each other and it's not looking to good," he added.

"Why the hell would they be fighting?!"

"You act like they need a reason to fight," Eli said with a twisted face as he looked to the road now. I had a feeling it had something to do with not only the rising full moon, but also the werewolf-charged testosterone between the two boys that was recently tested due to my disapproval of what Chase did.

"I'm confused," Jasmine whined.

"This is why you should've told her!" I whisper-yelled at Eli. If she knew about the werewolf aspect of things, it would seem more important and a less idiotic reason we would be late or missing school.

"I did tell her!" he shouted back.

"Wait," I said. I leaned into Jasmine's seat in front of me. "You know?"

"As of yesterday, yes," she answered proudly.

"Finally someone as clueless as me," I exclaimed.

"Not necessarily," Eli commented. "Having Tori tell you something about werewolves is like having Ozzie Osborne on customer service—no one can't understand it! Only a werewolf can tell you fully."

"Well then I'm screwed and know nothing because I was told by a mistake anyways," I responded.

"Who's Tori?" Jasmine asked.

"Mason's mate," Eli and I answered together. Jasmine only nodded and accepted her perpetual learning curve.

"Oh! She was the girl who went cliff diving with us. Wait. Eli, you said that only you could tell me because we're mates, so how do you know, Alicia?" she asked.

"Alicia spied on us and ended up getting hurt so of course we had to take her home and fix her. Thus, resulting in so much tension that Tori blurted out our secret, even though we were eventually gonna tell her," Eli rambled.

"So your mate is Wes?" Jasmine pieced together because he really didn't hang out before any of this happened.

"I don't know," I moaned with a sigh. I noticed that Eli's eyes flashed up to mine again briefly but he neglected to say anything else on the matter.

"Whoa," Jasmine commented minutes later in our journey out of city limits. I realized that we were at the giant house. I know I followed them into the park's forest the other night, but when I fell asleep, I didn't see how to get to the house and I was too distracted to see the way in the car today. How did this house go unnoticed? I wondered about the mysterious house as much as Jasmine did and Eli easily revealed that it functioned like a safe haven for the local werewolves. I noticed that there were some cars parked along a patch of shorter grass, but Eli kept driving and parked on a paved parking lot with only a few spaces. According to him, the house was already a buzz because it offered a shelter for untrained werewolves during the full moon so they couldn't hurt anyone...let alone because two of the oldest members were fighting.

We got out and Eli turned to Jasmine and me.

"If anyone phases, get behind me," he looked directly at Jasmine when he said that. With that, he grabbed Jasmine's hand and we walked through medium-high weeds and grass around the house. I noticed that a few teenagers sat or stood on the back porch with shorts and muscle shirts, or no shirt at all.

We looked and saw Wes and Chase toe-to-toe further out of the field. The back door slammed and I looked to see Dane hopping over the porch railing and walking out to the field with a bag of popcorn. I scoffed. I couldn't stand him. He was just sitting back to watch the fight.

"Damn he's smart," one of the teenagers with a muscle shirt and khaki shorts commented. "I should've gotten some popcorn..."

"Or a brain," Eli commented. "Go to school."

"We will eventually," the first guy laughed. "And plus, if we fail we can try again year after year after year after year—"

"I know," Eli sighed.

"Or we can just live here," a boy with long hair commented. He leaned against the column with his arms crossed over his bare chest. Eli glared at him. "Isn't that right?" Eli didn't answer him at first and the boy eased off the railing and began walking back inside the house. "I'm putting my money on Wes."

"You go to school or you go home," Eli told the first boy before he obediently left, taking another boy with him even though a few still lingered. Eli, Jasmine, and I started to walk over to the fighting boys. I was surprised that the other pack-mates could see that far. It was like a football field away...but maybe werewolves had better eye-sight than humans.

We walked over and passed Dane who was sitting on the ground, eating his bag of popcorn.

"Good luck at the nose-bleed section!" Dane called after us. Jasmine looked back at him, but I kept walking. Was he stupid? Nose-bleed sections were high-up areas of an arena. Not when you're close-up. Or maybe he meant that because blood was about to be shed in the fight...

"F*ck you!" I heard Wes' voice yell at Chase.

"F*ck you!" Chase shouted back. Glad to know I didn't need super hearing to listen.

The boys lunged at each other as if they would fight after previously wrestling, but Chase contained himself. Wes had dropped down in a stance. I noticed that he wore a black muscle shirt and some black shorts while Chase wore red shorts and a t-shirt.

"What? Afraid to fight me?" Wes taunted.

"You really want to say that when I beat you up last time?" Chase asked.

"You beat me up? That's cute. All I had was a bloody nose and that's it," Wes commented.

"Want a broken one?!" Chase asked threateningly. They growled at each other.

"Stop it!" Eli yelled. They still glared at each other. "You guys are being stupid. You're fighting over nothing and we have bigger things to worry about if you two forgot what happened this weekend."

The boys still glared at each other and I guessed that they were muttering insults at each other. Eli reluctantly sighed and turned to leave to the house. That's it? He wasn't even going to try? When we reached Dane on our way back, I sat a foot away from him and snatched his popcorn.

"What are you doing?" Jasmine asked. She clung to Eli.

"I kinda want to see Chase get his ass kicked," I admitted, eating the popcorn. Dane retrieved the bag from my hands.

"You know, that's probably the only thing we'll ever agree on," Dane said, admitting that he didn't care about his own brother's well being.

"You know what? We have school to get to. So if you're not coming with us, have fun with this douchebag and the fighting idiots," Eli said before walking away. Jasmine gave me one last look before following him. Even from a distance I could hear her trying to cajole him into convincing me to go with them. I always assumed that Eli was the peace-maker in the group, but at least he knew when to give up when his opponent wouldn't.

I turned back to the fight with a sigh and realized that Dane forgot to tell me that Wes and Chase got physical. They were on the ground, pounding at each other. It looked like Wes was winning until Chase flipped him so that Wes was now on the bottom and Chase straddled him with punches to his chest.

And then it happened. Wes exploded. His muscle shirt and shorts were torn off of his body as he exploded into a black wolf five-times-or-more-the-initial-size-of-a-regular-wolf. I got scared for me and Chase who was still in human form.

The wolf tackled Chase and snapped with its bared teeth, but Chase held his own. He punched Wes in his muzzle and then did a roundhouse kick that sent Wes flying into the ground. Chase climbed on top of him and grabbed his wide throat. I listened as Wes started to squeal like some hurt puppy, so as his (apparently stupid) girlfriend, I started to walk over to the fight. I didn't give any thought to what Tori or Eli had said about how dangerous werewolves could be or how Eli said that if anyone phased to get behind him. So I was being stupid and jogging towards them. I hesitated and stopped twenty yards away.

"Chase, stop it!" I yelled as Wes' whimpers got higher in pitch—meaning he was running out of air. He turned to me and I saw his face. Hair trailed down his nose and as extended side-burns as his teeth were like a miniature set of Wes' full wolf set. His pointy ears stuck up from his wild hair and his eyes were bright gold—almost neon colored...but as he zeroed in on who I was and narrowed his eyes, they started to dim.

In his distraction, Wes managed to claw at Chase and he flew off of him. Wes climbed on top of Chase and it looked as if Chase would quickly run out of air just with Wes' huge wolf body on top of him. Wes snapped at him before pouncing his paw on Chase's chest. I couldn't really see any damage since Wes' back was to me and he straddled Chase out of view. He pawed or clawed at Chase in a pattern.

Something turned in my stomach. I didn't want Wes to kill him. But maybe Chase was letting him considering he could've phased too. Suddenly, something happened and Wes was on the ground, flinching. Chase got to his feet and started to walk towards me. He was normal now. No excess hair or teeth or neon eyes. When he approached me, he was breathing hard and his jaw was clenched. His eyes were black like coals.

"Why the hell are you fighting with him?" I asked him when he was ten feet away from me. However, he stopped three feet in front of me.

"Wes is stupid and needed to be put in his place," he commented.

"Don't talk about him like that," I defended.

"Fine. Then you're stupid too but in the wrong place," he commented as he walked past me. Excuse me? I spun around and crossed my arms as I watched him walk.

"Speaking as someone who just fought someone in his own pack—"

"You don't know shit about this pack or me," he said sternly with his fists clenched tightly after he stopped walking away from me. I glared daggers at him and then he looked over his shoulders, with the expression of "did I seriously just say that?" added with the expression of being just plain mad. And then I was about to say something when he turned completely around and his eyes widened. He half-phased in front of me with ease. I immediately got scared for my life as he dropped into a fighting stance with bright green eyes.

Little did I know, it wasn't me that he wanted.

With a paw-full of claws shoving me over and into the ground roughly by my left side from behind, Wes emerged and then attacked Chase, snapping his teeth. Chase made his way on top and I realized that my lower back was starting to burn...but I kept my eyes on them.

Chase fought back hard and then I watched as he bit into Wes' neck. Wes whined before backing off. Chase ended in his fighting stance and I noticed he had claws on his hands and more excess hair on his arms that went to his hands. He fake-lunged at Wes and Wes ran away.

I sat up from the ground and my back was in pain. I guess I sprained it or it stiffened on my way onto the ground, but it felt like a million needles stabbed into it. So I just kneeled there until I gained enough strength as I looked to the grass.

"You f*cking bastard—" I heard Wes' voice say as I snapped my head up and looked as he walked over in a different pair of shorts and no shirt. He strode over to Chase and pushed him. Chase kept calm.

"You're calling me the bastard when Alicia's on the ground over there with an injury that you caused?!" Chase responded. Injury? I added my hand to my left hip/lower back and then felt shredded fabric and liquid. I pulled my hand back into view and saw blood.

"What the—Alicia, I'm so sorry," Wes immediately said when he saw me on the ground. I tried to stand up, but there was way too much pain. I honestly didn't think I could get up... first my wrist was fractured, my leg was shot, and now my back was screwed up. Maybe I was accident prone...or rather I was just attracted to werewolf danger.

"Hey!" Chase called, facing the boys on the back porch. "Get the medic ready!"

As if they could hear him from this far away, a couple of them moved and went inside while the others remained in their spots, much like my "boyfriend" who didn't even inch towards me to help. The only one moving was Chase. He looked at my back and I felt him lift the bottom back of my shirt that was shredded. He turned to Wes with a disappointed look. "Great going," he told him.

Wes didn't help me. He didn't even touch me. Seconds later he started walking away.

"Wes—"

"He can't help you," Chase said before kneeling in front of me. He grabbed my right wrist and pulled me onto his back. He let go and immediately caught me around my right leg. I jerked my good leg because I didn't want him to carry me. He stopped walking. "Look, I'm the only one able to help you right now, so stop resisting."

I rolled my eyes and he continued to walk.

"Smooth move," Dane sneered as we passed him.

"Tell that to Wes," Chase growled as he kept walking. I tried to keep my back and body bent the same way it was on the ground to be in as less pain as possible, but I found it hard when Chase started to walk up the porch stairs. The back door opened and two boys that didn't speak before walked out.

"The first aid kit is ready and I already called Billy," the shorter one with long brown hair—who looked like he was in middle school—informed.

"Good," Chase replied. The boys walked around him and noticed my wound. They hissed. I guess it looked as bad as it felt. Chase turned to all of them. "That's what happens when you're being stupid."

Was he calling Wes was stupid for picking a fight and doing it or me stupid for not staying away?

"Now go to school. All of you. Fight's over," Chase added. They reluctantly started to exit without any sass they gave to Eli. Chase turned back to the door as I felt myself slipping. He walked through the house on the first floor and through the living room and kitchen. Instead of just tossing me onto the bed in the open room, Chase spun me onto the right side of him and then lightly set me stomach-side down.

"Relax," he ordered. My side was still condensed together so I didn't cause me any pain. His hands were above and below my injury. He leaned down to me to whisper. "You need to straighten out your body so you don't stiffen up and that makes it a hell of a lot harder to move."

I slightly moved my leg and hip down so my hips and leg was straight. It still hurt a lot. I wanted to see how bad this cut was...it felt like it spread across my whole back...

Chase's hands stayed on me, just in a different area. His fingers were on the end of my shirt and he started to pull it up, so I pressed my upper torso onto the bed thing so he couldn't take it off. He only scoffed and grabbed another part of my waist. I thought he would tickle me or something, but he grabbed the fabric and ripped it off. He slit it up my spine and it fell flat. I scoffed and rolled my eyes before grabbing the fabric and throwing it onto the floor. He just ripped up my clothes.

Not only that, but his hands moved down to the belt loops of my jeans and I moved fast enough to place my hand on his to remove it.

"If you think you're getting me out of my jeans, you're dead wrong," I said up to him as I kept my hand there.

"If you think I'm trying to get in your pants like that at a time like this, then you're dead wrong," he retorted. "I just thought that you wouldn't want blood on the top of your jeans."

"What?" I asked. I tried to bend backwards to see the wound but since I couldn't bend much, I failed. I dropped back down in defeat. Not only that, but I was starting to smell the blood. Great. And now one of my favorite pair of jeans was going to be stained with blood.

Well I thought so until I felt a wet cloth dabbing at my skin to clean it up before it reached any more of the fabric. I laid there in silence as he sponged up as much blood as he could without actually touching it. To ease the tension, he turned on music. When I Get Home You're So Dead by Mayday Parade started to play. I liked the song, but apparently when I get home, I would be dead. How would I explain this to my mom? I couldn't even walk...With the bullet, it was just my skin and top layer of muscle that could be bandaged, but this? How the hell would I hide this? I sighed. How bad did it even look?