Two weeks passed quickly—so quickly that I was sitting in a blue dress in a seat by our friends while watching Wes walk down the wedding aisle in a black tux that really made his eyes look electric blue. The next person to walk the aisle was Chase. He wore the same black tux as Wes, only his tie was a light green that matched the mint color of the dress worn by the bridesmaid that walked beside him. Unlike the bridesmaid who Wes escorted (who I learned was one of the bride's sisters), this maid was around our age and absolutely beautiful. Also unlike Wes, it seemed like Chase's pair actually knew each other enough to look comfortable and whisper back and forth as they walked down the aisle. She said something to Chase that caused him to poorly hide his smile when he looked down to her. He said something back which caused her to giggle before she parted on the other side of the alter. The entire time they took a few secret glances at each other and I watched her smile down on herself. I had no doubt that her mind was racing with how lucky she must be to have the great Chase Cane escorting her. But I also wondered if she knew he was a werewolf that could destroy whatever picture perfect fairytale she had planned for them in her head.

***

The reception that was hosted in the huge wooden house. They removed the unnecessary furniture and fit almost two hundred of us here and enough space for a dance floor and a cocktail area with a caterer. It was overwhelming, but sitting with Eli, Jasmine, Mason, Tori, and Wes made it a lot more comfortable. That was until Chase and the beautiful blonde bridesmaid from earlier approached us.

"Hey guys," Chase greeted and there was lightness in his voice and on his face I had no reason but to attribute it to the girl. The table responded in greeting and I reluctantly contributed as well after finishing my second glass of champagne. "You don't know the girls yet, but I think you remember the guys," he started. "Eli, Mason—"

"Wes," the blonde girl finished. She gave Wes a look and it seemed as if something sparked in her eyes. But she quickly looked over to Chase. "We've all met before."

"Unfortunately," Wes mumbled. I gave him a weird look as he shifted in his seat. The blonde girl's eyes flashed to me.

"Chase was right. I don't know you," she said, tilting her head to the side and looking at me instead of me and Jasmine.

"Good," I heard Chase and Wes mutter. Just because of that, I stuck my hand out to her. After all, she was the one with the challenging glances.

"Alicia," I introduced.

"Kayla," she said, shaking back.

Chase touched the side of her waist and led her away from the table after Jasmine introduced herself and received none of the tension Kayla gave to me.

"Is that his new girlfriend?" Jasmine asked. "She is gorgeous."

"I don't think that's his girlfriend, but she's his date yeah," Mason shrugged.

"How does he go from someone like Zoey to someone like her?" Jasmine asked. I scoffed. She gave me a look. "No offense."

I sighed to myself, but understood completely.

"Come on, let's go," Wes whispered down to me. He helped me up and grabbed my hand to lead me to the dance floor which was on the other side of the house through the hallway. Once we got there, I wrapped my arms around his neck and he hugged me into him. It was rather romantic as we swayed back and forth and had the ambience that came with a wedding and marriage. We stayed like that for a few minutes and then I looked to the side and saw Chase and Kayla flirting and smiling as they danced swiftly. I breathed heavily. Wes followed my gaze.

"Does she know about...?" I asked him. I was referring to the fact that they were all werewolves.

"I believe so," Wes answered. I looked up to him.

"How?" I asked.

"Long story," he replied. He pulled away from me. "Let's go."

I questioned him, but then he pulled away and grabbed my hand. He led me up the stairs and down the hall to a familiar room. He backed me up into a wall and pressed his lips onto mine. I kissed back and his hands ran up my dress and grabbed me and pulled me into a room. My back hit the bed and a flinched from it hitting my healing wound. He ran his tongue on the bottom of my lip and then parted my lips. Our tongues danced together and I felt his hands at the zipper of my dress. I stopped him by adding my hand on his, causing him to pull away from our kiss.

"Alicia, we're mates, so we're eventually gonna have sex...it might as well be now," he whispered against my lips. At the words "mates" I tensed up. What he said made sense. If we were mates, we would have sex. I just didn't know how much truth there was to it. Nor did I care in the moment apparently. I reconnected my lips with his and he unzipped my dress half-way down before he took of his jacket and undid the buttons on his shirt to throw it over his shoulder. He was on top of me so he flipped me on top and unzipped my dress completely so I slid out of it and threw it on the floor. I was now in my strapless bra and underwear as he only wore his trousers. He kissed along my neck and down my shoulders. My hands found his belt-loops and I was meaning to unbutton his pants, but I stopped. Something inside me told me to. I wasn't ready to have sex with him or anyone, regardless of whether they were my soul mate or not. He still kissed my body and rubbed his hands all over me as I hesitated.

"What's wrong babe?" he asked between kisses. I sat up in my straddle over his hips and shook my head. He gave me a weird look.

"I don't think I'm ready," I announced. A month ago, I hadn't even had a boyfriend or my first kiss. I always thought that I was gonna be the kind of girl that waited for my first time. Just because Wes stole my first kiss, didn't mean he'd take my virginity as well. Not this fast in our relationship at least.

Wes gave me a disappointed look and then moved me to the other side of the bed. I half expected him to break up with me for turning him down, but instead he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me into him. Just like when we went camping. Except this time, he was closer and it was like when Chase had me.

"It's okay. You will be sooner or later and the least I can do is wait," he whispered by my ear as he rested his head on my shoulder. We laid there in our underwear and in silence and then drifted to sleep. His pleasant reaction as opposed to his normally aggressive demeanor made me actually consider that we could be mates. He had been attempting sexual advances on me since we met and on his most promising night thus far, he was shut down. I knew of a plethora of guys who would be enraged, violent, and/or destructive at that outcome and here he was being the absolute opposite. Maybe I was the only person who could slow down his impulsiveness and pull out his compassion. Maybe we were actually mates.

***

When I woke up the next morning, it was bright and empty. Wes wasn't there. I laughed sarcastically to myself. Of course he wasn't. No matter how much I wanted to deny my true feelings, abandonment was partially why I didn't have sex with him last night or think I was ready for it at all—because of the chance he would leave me. Just like he was doing right now. I lazily slid off the bed and grabbed my dress. I slid it on and managed to zip it up most of the way. I noticed that Wes left his jacket, so I threw it over my shoulders and walked out of the room.

At this point, I just didn't care even though it was a plausible excuse. I trotted down the stairs and found the place already cleaned up. Considering it was ten and the party ended less than twelve hours ago, the cleanliness was astounding. And, there was nobody here but me. Well that's what I thought until I heard a voice start speaking when I looked out the big window.

"Please don't tell me you slept with him," a voice said. I turned back to see Chase leaning up against the doorway in a shadow. He still wore what he did to the wedding, but his jacket was off, his sleeves were pushed up, his shirt was slightly unbuttoned, and his tie was missing.

"I slept with him," I replied. He breathed out heavily and then took a step out of the shadows.

"Did you sleep with him or did you have sex with him?" he asked with hard dark brown eyes. Somehow I had to take pride in the fact that he knew me well enough to know that I would want a rise out of him. Because technically I did sleep with Wes. I just didn't know why Chase approached me with such a request.

"I don't think that's your business," I replied, shifting positions.

"Why wouldn't it be my business?" he countered. I could come up with a few reasons.

"Maybe because I already told you I was done with you and your bullshit," I figured. "Or the fact that you're my sister's ex-boyfriend so it's kind of weird. Or the fact that what Wes and I do is no one's business but ours." He only watched me and made it seem as though none of those reasons were acceptable. "We're mates. We can do whatever we want, okay?"

Chase's lips parted and his eyes darkened. Bingo, we found a winner amongst reasons.

"Is that what he told you?" he asked.

"I just believe that it's no one's business—"

"Not that shit. I don't care what you do," he interrupted in a lie because he was standing here obviously upset by something he thought I did. "I mean, did he tell you that you're mates?"

"Yes," I answered honestly. Even though I was annoyed that Wes left this morning, I couldn't deny that I believed Wes last night. But maybe I should've denied it because it caused Chase to erupt in so much anger that he hit the nearest wall.

"Did he tell you that before or after he f*cked you?" Chase guessed.

"Why does that matter? He just seemed to mention it in the same event of saying we'd eventually have sex so why not last night," I recalled. His eyes darkened even more and I started to care about it, even though I hadn't spoke to him in weeks. And when he said the next line, I remembered why I was avoiding his douche self.

"He's lying to you," he muttered.

"Excuse me?"

"He's lying to you, Ali. You just don't understand..." Chase said, having a rough time actually saying it himself.

"Wes isn't lying to me," I denied. Why would he? I had already seen the worst sides of him so even though it could make sense he would lie, it wouldn't make sense for him to lie to me.

"You want to know what the outcome would've been if you didn't sleep with him?" Chase asked. "He'd drop you in an instant."

That would've hurt if I believed it. But I laughed once in a sarcastic and skeptical way. He gave me the same hard look. He moved past his madness and moved onto trying to give low blows to make me feel how he was.

"You know, this is why we stopped talking. I don't need your input on Wes. And yes, I know. He's hurt me. And all of those times have been accidents, so now I know to be more cautious. But you're wrong about him," I said confidently.

"You haven't known Wes for as long as me," Chase replied. "No girl will ever know when he's playing them."

"Well I do and he's not," I responded with attitude. Chase sighed and scoffed in frustration. He didn't believe me. "If he's playing me, then he wouldn't have stayed with me last night when I told him I wasn't ready to have sex with him."

"Yet where is he now?" Chase said down to me even though I basically gave him what he wanted by admitting Wes and I didn't have sex. I didn't know why he was on this rampage in the first place! He shouldn't give a damn about me anymore—even though I reluctantly cared about him for some reason his eyes forced—so why was he being so damn clingy, confusing, and mad about this?! I started to walk past him and he said something that made me more furious than ever because he could've just dropped the issue.

"Wes Knight is not your mate."

I turned on my heels.

"Oh shut up," I ordered in a shout, pointing at him and taking slow steps toward him. "You don't know any more about mates than I do. You can date my sister and blonde bombshells like Kayla, but you're still alone. You have no one to claim as your mate and you just want everyone to be as miserable as you. So I suggest you don't f*cking disrespect mine before he starts disrespecting you and your life."

I was blazing with anger so much that I turned and just walked before I would experience a Chase so angry that he would explode into a wolf.

"Are you f*cking stupid?" Dane asked Wes as they marched through the forest. They were on a hunt for an enemy of sorts, but Dane's thoughts went in another direction.

"What the hell did I do now?" Wes asked, depressed and not in the mood to deal with Dane's shit. It was too late. Dane pinned him against the tree.

"You're lying," Dane accused through his teeth.

"Humor me," Wes replied, not recalling any possible accused lied that Dane wouldn't realize were lies, since most of the dialogue from Wes' mouth was a lie.

"Alicia's not your mate," Dane said. Wes' jaw tightened.

"I don't see why that's any of your business anymore—if it ever was in the first place," Wes said back.

Mates were weaknesses. Especially when someone as destructive as Dane knew about them. But then again, Wes was complicated to understand and hid his feelings for the most part. That's why most of what he said was a lie.

"Well last time I checked, everyone has only one soul mate—if they have one at all," Dane spat. "And when the girls are found, that'll be your time to prove yourself true to Alicia."

Wes' jaw tightened even more as Dane released him. He expected Dane to realize what was going on over the past months, but he was clueless. The missing girls coming home—if they ever would—wasn't a likely prediction for him. That topic was skeptic to him.

"Chase has a new girl," Dane said. Wes looked at him as they continued to walk through the woods.

"What?"

"Kayla," Dane answered.

"No."

"No?" Dane asked, confused. "Did you see the way he was looking at her?"

"He's not into her. He only did that because he needed a date," Wes said absent-mindedly, even though it was true. Wes managed to keep the resentment out of his voice because at this point, he really didn't want Chase to be happy with anyone. Dane scoffed. They continued walking in silence until they froze in place above crunching leaves.

"Look what we have here," a voice greeted. The boys looked to see a fit guy with messy brown hair, pale skin, and a smirk on his face. To his left was Riley Sean.

"I don't know what you have, but it looks like we have a couple of tresspassers," Dane spat. His eyes darkened a shade.

"It's always amusing when you all accuse us of trespassing without even knowing the barriers," the guy smirked. Wes and Dane raised an eyebrow.

"Your border is back past that tree behind you," Riley informed pointing. "Ours is two yards behind us."

"Wait. That doesn't make sense—" Wes started.

"Yes it does," the guy interrupted. They all stood in unclaimed, in-between land.

"That's not possible—" Wes replied.

"It's a loophole," Dane said beneath his breath. A ten to twelve feet of a perfect loophole.

"Oh, don't worry. We don't plan on going back on our little deal," Riley stated. Wes eased up a bit. "But I do have a compromise."

"Why the f*ck should we make another deal with you when you went back on the last one?" Wes shouted.

"I didn't send those hunters down here on Halloween. I didn't even recognize them. They were coincidentally there. Maybe that's karma for what you did," Riley denied.

"Did it strike a nerve?" Dane smirked—clearly amused that he caused the retaliation and received none of the consequences.

"How the hell was that karma, when my girlfriend ends up getting hit by a bullet after your little stunt? She doesn't have anything to do with this!" Wes yelled.

"Oh. Speaking of which, how is Alicia doing?" Riley asked.

"I don't know. I'll ask her when we're in bed together again," Wes retorted. Riley narrowed his eyes. Riley took steps toward him.

"I don't care how much you insist on thinking that'll get to me. I know that you're the one that hurt her a few weeks ago and you're stupid enough to believe she'll never resent you for it," Riley whispered. Wes cocked an eyebrow but didn't sway from his confidence.

"Well of course she's hurt. Doesn't it always hurt the first time?" Wes responded. Riley narrowed his eyes more. "Oh. Did you mean something else?"

Riley smirked and chuckled once.

"You're one of those guys," he accused. Wes smirked, even though he didn't know what Riley meant. "You get the girls, but when you get that one girl that you like—or maybe even love, I don't know—you say anything and everything to cover it up and make yourself look cool. You have feelings. It's okay to admit them, Knight."

Of course Riley said all of this in a mocking voice. Wes growled in the back of his throat. The reason he said sexual references about Alicia, was because he didn't want these people to know how he felt about her. In this case, he was now going behind three people's backs all because of his change of feelings.

"What did you want?" Dane finally asked Riley. He didn't care about Wes and Riley's rivalry over Alicia.

"To extend our property and rights of course," Riley's friend answered.

"What's in it for us?"

"What was in it for you last time?" Riley reminded.

"No," Wes and Dane said at once.

"You sure?" Riley asked with a devious look.

"Definitely," Dane answered. Riley laughed once with his friends before they took off.

"What now?" Wes asked.

"We have twelve feet of loopholes to take care of," he answered.

"Sounds like a long ass night," Wes commented.

"Damn right," Dane replied. "But don't worry; I'll have you back in time before your precious Alicia will worry."

"May I ask you something?" I asked Wes as his arm was around me and I snuggled into his chest. We were sitting outside my house in his car.

"Anything," he answered, kissing my head.

"What reasons do werewolves have to phase?" I asked.

"To hunt and to protect the pack or humans in the area," he answered.