*****

*Corey*

"Corey, you can't seriously be telling me you're going out again!" Hayley frowned at me.

"Uh... I'll see you later then, Hayley," I said. What else could I say without lying to her?

"Corey!" She snapped at me.

"Woman! I'm older than you are! You can't act like you're my mother." I joked but she didn't seem to be on the same page as me and just kept glaring at me.

"What's wrong with you, Corey? Can't you see how much this hurts him?!" She said.

"Hurts who?" I played stupid. Jayden was currently not in the hotel, probably with Kaden and the other two and I had no idea where they were, wasn't really interested in finding out.

"Corey, can't you just wait until this witch has done whatever you want her to before you go one-night standing every girl you lay eyes on? Jayden's not doing it to you." Izabella said as she joined us.

I turned to both of them.

"That's because Jayden doesn't one-night stand girls," I made sure they heard the emphasis on the word 'girls', "And he's not very attractive, so he doesn't get the guys either," I lied.

I might not have been gay, but Jayden didn't look bad at all, not that I would ever admit that to anyone. He had a kind of alluring innocence and vulnerability... His round brown eyes were very puppy-like and reminded me of a stuffed teddy bear's.

Izabella and Hayley glared at me before Izabella's face dropped sadly.

"What's happening to you, Corey?" She asked softly. I almost rolled my eyes, nothing was happening to me.

"Nothing, I have to go. I love you, stay safe and lock the doors." I said leaving before they could speak again.

As I walked down the hotel hallway – which was nowhere close to as nice or clean as the previous hotel – I pulled out my phone but paused as the home screen displayed after it turned on.

How...? I frowned. Hayley and Izabella. They had had my phone the entire day because I usually lost stuff when I felt sick so I had given them my phone to keep while I suffered through my hangover and now, as I stood in the hall I stared down at a picture of Jayden asleep. I knew when it had been taken, the first day of our trip when he had fallen asleep in the car, I was about to delete it but the stupid mate part of me stopped me and I just stood there studying the picture.

He looked peaceful, it annoyed me. He was an Omega. Very vulnerable in his sleep, when he wasn't sleeping as well, but when he was sleeping it was much worse. He looked like anything but a light sleeper, shouldn't he have been afraid to sleep so deeply being as vulnerable as he was?

I ran my eyes over the picture. He had headphones on, his hood hanging on his shoulder. As I looked at it I realised I hadn't really looked at him that closely except when the picture was taken. His hair was trimmed in a fading brush cut and his jaw was sharp – though I blamed that on how skinny he was. He had a scar just below his ear, it ran from just under his jaw to the front of his neck. How could a werewolf have a scar? Didn't he heal at all?! Exactly how weak was he?! Why hadn't I noticed it before? I mean, it's not every day you see a werewolf with scars. I had so many questions but then a question popped up that silenced all the other questions in my mind... How had he gotten the scar? I didn't think it would be possible to fall on the side of his face and get a scar like that below his ear. I frowned running my gaze back to his face. My eyes drifted over it slowly and stopped on his lips. They were full and looked plump... how did they fee –

I looked up shocked and realised how long I had been looking at the picture. What the fuck was I doing?! I was supposed to be on my way to a club but instead I was checking out a guy?! What the hell was wrong with me? No. No, I wasn't checking him out. I wasn't. Then what had I been doing? It doesn't matter what I was doing, I was not checking him out. My wolf growled in my head, confused. I sighed trying to deny my own confusion. A few drinks and some really hot girls. Yeah, that's all I needed to fix my head.

I turned off my phone to make sure I wouldn't see that picture again until I was drunk enough not to get lost in it when I was trying to delete it before shoving my phone back into my pocket and heading out of the hotel.

-----

*Jayden*

Once again, we all waited up for Corey. Hayley and Izabella were freaking out because his phone seemed to be off and Sean kept trying sensibly to calm them down by asking them what could possibly happen to one of the strongest young Beta's on the planet, his attempts at comfort were unsuccessful though. They just got more worried with every minute that passed and soon the rest of us were beginning to worry too. It was a relief when Corey finally staggered into the room although he was obviously way beyond drunk. I was surprised he even knew which hotel we were in, let alone which room. He could barely walk properly.

"Corey?" Hayley spoke slowly as she got up.

Corey laughed. "Hayleyyy, I missed yooou," He slurred hugging her. She grimaced in his arms, probably because of the smell of sweat and alcohol radiating from him, "Mmm, you've gotten sooo pretty." He mumbled poking her cheek. "And tall! Looook at you, so tall! Where's Izab-Izabella?" Corey stumbled over his words while giving a hiccup.

"He's completely wasted..." Kaden muttered.

"I can't imagine how much he must have drunk to get to this point," Trent added looking concerned.

"Corey, lay down." Izabella grabbed his hand.

"Izzy! I-I brought yooou some cake... Wait, it's gone... I think a... A leech took it." He mumbled. I heard Sean, Trent and Kaden trying not to laugh at him.

Suddenly Corey gasped. "You!" He pointed at me. I backed up against the bed as he came charging at me, tripping and almost falling on the way, I was too terrified to laugh at him. Drunk people were very aggressive...

"Jay, move –" Kaden began to come to us but Sean grabbed his arm holding him back.

"You-you're... You're the one frommm the picture," He knelt, or more like fell onto his knees in front of me. I froze as he poked my cheek, "Your skin is soft..." He mumbled. What was going on? I was trying to control my racing heart and trying to process the feeling of him being so close to me, and this time not because he was pinning me to a wall in rage. I stared into his blue eyes as they studied my face while his finger poked my cheek lightly, "What..." He slurred, "You... you got hurt..." He poked my neck right where I knew the scar was and I froze. What? Shit. I covered that. How did he see it?!

"What?" Kaden spoke.

"N-nothing. He-he's drunk." I attempted to shove Corey away but he grabbed my wrist, even in his current drunken state, he was incredibly strong.

"No, no, I saw..." he leaned closer to me. My breath caught as I felt his body heat against mine showing exactly just how close he was. "I saw –" he was cut off when he turned from me and threw up right beside me. I gagged as I covered my mouth and quickly shifted away from him.

"Oh my God!" Izabella covered her mouth.

It was disgusting but I couldn't have been happier that he had puked, it distracted everyone, including him. Most importantly him.

"S-sorrry, Jaaay." He slurred looking like a child that just did something terrible and was afraid he would get punished as he wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

"It's alright," I chuckled. I kind of liked him when he was drunk, he was a lot nicer to me. It was the opposite of what I had expected.

He stopped and looked directly into my eyes making stare back at him surprised. "Yoou... You have very nice eyes... I like brown eyes... they're like... they're really nice..." He mumbled softly. I felt my face heat slightly as everyone laughed.

"Alright, Beta, bedtime... We should probably get him some medicine for tomorrow." Sean said pulling Corey off the floor before shoving him onto one of the beds in the room. I watched as Sean proceeded to tuck him in and smiled.

"Shouldn't we make him brush his teeth?" Izabella frowned.

"No, the taste in the morning will make him learn not to drink so damn much." Sean said frowning at Corey who was already asleep.

"'You have very nice eyes, I like brown eyes'" Kaden smirked at me.

"Shut up," I mumbled while frowning at him, he just laughed.

"You know, people tell the truth when they're drunk." Hayley smiled.

"You HAVE grown? Is that even possible? I thought you were a midget..." I mumbled, surprised seeing as she was shorter than me. She glared at me as everyone else laughed.

I got up grimacing as I caught sight of Corey's vomit. Exactly what the hell had he eaten and drunken?

"You should... Get that cleaned up." Kaden pointed at the puddle as we began to walk out of the room.

"Hey! He's your mate!" Trent called.

"We both deny that. He IS your best friend though," I replied.

"Hey! You don't deny it. Jayden, clean –" Hayley began but the door shut behind me. No way I'm cleaning that. I smiled before it fell. He had been drunk, couldn't even make out proper sentences. He would not remember any of that. Don't get your hopes up, I told myself, that always ends badly.

*****