I woke up in Chase's bed without him beside me yet again. I ran a hand through my hair and sighed. His room was messy. Not as messy as Wes', but I could tell he tried to clean up. I hopped up and put my jeans on immediately. I skipped over to his bathroom and looked at my reflection. My hair was messy, but for some reason, I didn't care. When I arrived back in the bedroom, Chase was waiting for me, eating a pancake.

"Want some?" he offered with his mouth full.

"Chocolate chip?" I asked, enthused. I rushed over and hopped onto the bed and grabbed one. I sat criss-crossed on the bed and ate my breakfast. I looked up at Chase and his eyes were bright caramel with a full green circumference. "You seem to be in a pleasant mood."

"We'll see about that later," he shrugged pessimistically. I wasn't totally buying it.

"You're being negative and buttering me up with chocolate, which I know you know I love..." I commented. "What's up with that?"

"I don't want to lose you, even though when I tell you about everything, you're gonna hate me," he announced in a depressed monotone voice.

"I thought I established that I can't hate you," I recalled. He sighed of stress once again.

"Why are you so cheerful this morning? Last night you were mad at me," he commented as if offended.

"And now I'm not."

"What's with the change of heart?" he asked suspiciously. Well I realized that I liked you so yes—in the literal sense.

"I don't know," I lied. "Now are you gonna question me or tell me whatever you needed to say?"

"Well you know how Eli, Wes, Mason, and I briefly went to the same school as the girls, but Mason and Wes eventually mated?" he asked, knowing the answer. Obviously I knew about them...and obviously this was going to be him explaining how exactly I was set up in all of this. Billy told us that some vamps moved into town and it'd be best to leave so if anything happened, our scent wouldn't be traced to the girls," he started. "So then we ended up at your school. Then we met you."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," I commented. Maybe for me it was.

"It is," he assured, but then dismissed it. "It was especially bad since you were friends with Riley. He had a soft spot for you, so we made a deal with him. If he didn't tell his parents about us, then he and you could remain in contact without us intruding."

"But you guys did intrude," I commented. All the time.

"And that's the problem," he replied. "We got in the way because Wes' feelings did. So when Riley's parents started to come after us—"

"What's up with his parents?" I asked rather loudly. I was sick of everyone mentioning his parents! Why were they so important?

"Riley's adopted twice," Chase answered vaguely. "The vampire that turned him killed his adopted parents but when he finally found out who his biological parents were, they were ironically vampire hunters. So him and his sister were put in foster care—"

"He has a sister?" I asked. Riley obviously had his secrets, but in the moments we were friends I thought he'd be the kind of proud brother to mention his sister. But then again, I would've assumed that about Chase and he didn't mention Carina's name until she was being carried in unconsciously by Dane.

"Riley had a sister named Eliza...and when they were adopted, they were adopted by a werewolf hunting family," Chase informed. Now his threats towards them made sense. "So with that, he already had a feud with werewolves even though our pack has been in the area for generations so we already had a Council ordained treaty in place for sharing the land, but that wasn't good enough for him. He wanted more and in the beginning he just did what he wanted thinking that Dane and Billy were warning him...He went far enough to kidnap the girls back then and we looked and looked and couldn't find them so Dane was already out of control. He figured that killing Eliza would send a better message to Riley to make it seem like he girls weren't anyone's mates and he'd send them back, but he didn't. Riley only wanted revenge after that point."

"How could Dane do that thinking it wouldn't affect the pack?"

"He didn't just put the pack at stake," Chase said. He looked down at me. "Riley didn't know who the Alpha was, so that put us and all the mates at stake because he was just trying get everyone back. He didn't care who."

"So he, what, decided to aim for me and Wes instead of figuring out the whole mating situation?" I asked. I knew Riley enough to know that he was charming but still a perfectionist. When he found it interesting that the boys didn't come for Carina, April and Jaylen but they did come for me, he was intrigued for good reason. I felt like he would've wanted to solve the mating relationships before taking random digs of offensive attacks.

"That's because we had a plan for him to not figure us out so he did whatever he could," Chase suddenly interrupted as if to explain why Riley's sights changed. . "Billy told us the possible extent of revenge and we took precautions." Precautions? "We didn't want to risk anyone's mate," he started. "So we wouldn't be with them."

"But Eli's with Jasmine—"

"Eli wasn't thought of in consideration of being an Alpha because he's too nice for it. And if Riley looked into Mason more, he'd understand how much Mason doesn't care about anything but himself and Tori, which is why he keeps her so close and why he wouldn't ever be in charge," Chase dismissed. "Riley really only interacted with me, Billy, Wes, and Dane which left him to focus on us because we were more attainable to him than Billy. That's why Carina, April, and Jaylen were taken...But we tried not reacting because we couldn't find them or let him know we were even looking for them."

"But you found me though," I reasoned. Did that mean I was expendable or something? Or did it mean nothing because maybe they figured me being friends with Riley, he wouldn't go the whole distance of getting me killed?

"You're different."

"Different how? I'm no different unless you're gonna say I'm less important considering April and Jaylen were actually mated and Carina was you guys' sister for crying out loud," I reminded. "There was no reason for me to be thrown in the mix especially if Riley still had April and guessed that she was the slightest bit mated to Wes—"

"Riley took you because he thought you were a soft spot for Wes, regardless if he thought you were his mate or not, which we didn't see happening. But even though we found you because Wes refused to lose you or anybody else, we didn't go looking in the first place because of him," Chase told with a shaky voice.

"And why is that?" I sighed with my patience growing thinner and thinner. I wished he would just spit it out.

"You were set up," Chase commented, bringing that little piece of information again. "We set you up with good intention though."

"Are you telling me that Wes went out with me to save his own sorry ass?" I was starting to get pissed off.

"No. He really loved you—and I already told you I think a part of him always will, but when he started to develop feelings for you in the beginning, it wasn't supposed to happen and it went out of proportion—"

"What proportion?" I asked. He sighed and looked down at me.

"In the beginning he went out with you to throw Riley off so he'd maybe let the girls go. I went out with Zoey to do the same, but then Wes fell in love with you when he really wasn't supposed to and now he's still, like, attached to you in a different way than with April and it should really stop before—"

"And why is it bad, other than the fact that he also has a girl that's his actual mate?" I asked sarcastically because I really didn't want to be in this position in the first place and I thought saying it out loud would make it funny, but it only made things worse. I almost wished Wes had never explicitly told me that he wanted to get over April with me because we could've ended our relationship then and there instead of waiting for April to return and going from there -

Chase looked between my eyes.

"You are someone's mate though," he informed. I felt a lump in my throat. "You're important because he's the Alpha."

The Alpha? Of everyone I knew, who was the Alpha? Dane had Jaylen. Wes has April. So then Chase...

I pushed him away from me.

"I'm your mate and you told me nothing!?" I yelled. "As many times as I swore to myself that Wes was mine, it was you this whole time—"

"Who said it was me, huh?" he said, his eyes a chocolate color. I was still breathing heavily and I hated the thought of him lying to me this whole time about being my mate as much as I hated the fact that it made sense it would be him.

Because it did make sense.

"Then why am I here?" I whispered angrily. Like I was just gonna believe Chase's denial. He had been good at omission before, why would now be any different? The only difference now is that I really didn't want to overreact prematurely.

"Because he doesn't want you," Chase hissed. "If he did, he'd be with you. It's better for both of you that you're not together."

"How is that better? I don't even know him!"

"When you're with the Alpha werewolf, you have to take on responsibilities you never thought you'd have," he started in a low voice. "When the pack is in danger, you're in danger five times as much—Riley was less than half of what you'd be up against. You'd be a huge target."

"Well I've already been in enough danger so I think I could decide that for myself," I figured stubbornly. Not to mention, it was foretold that mates were meant to keep each other safe. Should I look forward to having strength in my partner rather than cower away at the pressure of being with him?

"He just doesn't want you as his mate. He's not dumb enough to just leave you be and actually be in danger—"

"Great. I'm conditionally protected, just totally unwanted," I mumbled beneath my breath.

"It's for the best," Chase repeated.

"Maybe it's not," I commented. I suddenly changed my mind. "No. You know what, it's whatever."

"Where are you going?" Chase asked as I started for the door. I opened it, but then he closed it and set his foot in the way.

"I don't want to be here anymore. I hate this," I answered before pushing him out of my way and opening the door.

"Ali—" I heard him call, but then I ran into Carina.

"Hey, Alicia what are you doing here—" she started to ask but then I passed her.

Maybe none of them told me any of this because I shouldn't have known in the first place. Maybe I didn't really want to know the truth myself.