"Is this entire trip one giant game of 'Who Can Make Amias Most Uncomfortable'?" Amias exclaimed and covered his face with his hand as I scrambled to zip up my fly and button the top button on my pants. "Because if so, you all are winning!"

He turned away from Matteo and I and just as he was faced with Fran and Devin walking through the brush as if nothing had transpired between them. Completely unaware that Amias had told us of what happened.

"What's going on everybody?" Fran announced with a smile.

"They know." Amias bluntly stated and Fran's smile fell immediately, turning into a much more sheepish version.

Devin rolled his eyes, clearly not one for Amias' theatrics. He walked past Amias with Fran in tow and came to a stop in front of Matteo and handed him a crumpled piece of paper that he'd fished from the depths of his pocket.

"If that's a love letter I swear..." Amias warned.

Matteo growled lowly in irritation, he pulled out a cellphone from his pocket and tossed it to Amias. "Go call Felix and don't come back until your mate has talked some sense into you."

Amias' eyes immediately lit up, an entirely new person in milliseconds. He caught the phone and held it to his chest for a gleeful moment before he rushed off dialing Felix.

I felt for him, he was away from his loved ones and on top of that essentially fifth wheeling even though none of us were officially anything at all. I'd be annoyingly bitter too if it were me but then again, I'm always bitter so I don't really count.

Matteo unfolded the paper, it looked like it was a flier for some kind of ritzy gala event.

"They're hung up everywhere, Lysander is advertising some kind of celebration." Devin explained and shrugged once. "It has the potential to be just the right cover we need."

Matteo mulled the idea over for a moment, his hand absentmindedly rubbing his stubbled chin as he weighed his options internally. Finally he nodded, "It beats what I had originally planned."

His comment surprised me, I raised a brow over at him and he immediately looked away. If he hadn't already caught my interest, I was definitely invested now. "What did you originally have planned?"

Devin let out a breath, trying to suppress a laugh to the point where he had to turn away. Fran scowled at him, trying to get him to stop laughing.

"What was it?" I demanded again, not particularly enjoying Devin's reaction to my persistence.

Matteo shot a glare at which Devin, the terrifying and bloodthirsty vampire, immediately stopped snickering. "This was before everything and it wasn't really a plan, per say.." I waited expectantly for him to continue, he huffed in irritation when he realized that I wasn't letting him off the hook. "I was going to use you as bait."

I stood there expressionless, mostly upset with myself for allowing myself to feel surprised. This shouldn't be a shock that Matteo would have planned something like this, to use me like that. He reached forward to take my hand but I quickly pulled away, stepping back to keep distance.

"It's not as bad as it sounds, Olive and we're obviously not going to do that anymore." Matteo explained and again tried to close the gap between us but I refused.

A cold laugh escaped my lips, "You really had me for a second." I folded my arms across my chest, "I actually believed that you were changing, that you cared about me."

Matteo rolled his eyes, "You're joking, right? This isn't that big of a deal."

I shook my head, "When did you decide that my life was important? Before or after I gave you an erection?" I spat out and everyone went silent, the only sound in the clearing was the noise Matteo's phone made when it fell from Amias' frozen hands.

Matteo's hands tightened into fists, I mean, I'd embarrassed him in front of everyone I could tell why he would be more than upset with me but the b:stard deserved it. "Olive." His voice was low, it was a definitive warning telling me to stop but it was too late...

I was back on my bullsh:t.

Turning away from Matteo, I started walking off in the opposite direction from him our group. Did I know where I was going? Absolutely not. Did I care? Not in the slightest.

"Where the f:ck are you going?" Matteo called after me, I could hear rustling behind signaling that he was indeed following after me.

"Leave me alone, I mean it." I growled out, refusing to turn around and acknowledge him because I know that my resolve would not last forever with him.

Matteo laughed loudly, "Right, leave you alone in Freeman's Land, without any sense of direction or wolf? Absolutely not."

It just seemed exceptionally strange to me that someone could care so little about me, so much so that he'd intended to use me as bait for a psychopathic vampire king and then to suddenly worry about my wellbeing when I'm wandering off into the woods.

Fake as f:ck, if you asked me.

I grew angrier and angrier with myself every step I took, I kept replaying every stupid little infatuated remark we exchanged with one another and it just infuriated me to the core.

"That's exactly what you're going to do if you ever want to see me again." I finally spun around and was face to face with Matteo who was looking significantly less smitten with me now than a few moments ago. "Leave me alone. I need space and this," I motioned between us, "Is not helping."

Matteo scowled at my hands that were gesturing before dragging his eyes back to my face, he looked entirely unbothered. "Space." He repeated, not asking but stating.

I nodded and turned away from him again, starting to walk away immediately again. This was not healthy, this was not healthy, this was not healthy, this was not healthy...

With every step I took, I repeated the mantra. It kept me from giving in to the parts of me that were screaming for me to turn around and launch myself into Matteo's arms, the stupid parts of me.

To my surprise though, Matteo didn't follow?

That's what I wanted though.

I trudged through the messy terrain of the foreign forest, I broke a stick off of a bush I walked by and focused on snapping it into tiny pieces as a stress reliever as I walked.

I mean who did Matteo really think he was? He was constantly hot and cold, yes and no, up and down, wrong and right...Katy Perry really hit the nail on the head with that number.

I came across a path with a fallen tree lying in the middle of the path. It was either climb the tree or go down a significantly darker and steeper path so obviously, I began to amble over the mossy log. "Oooh, I'm Matteo. I'm a big, strong and mean wolf but I've had a tough life so my actions are validated. Also, my favorite color is brown...brown just like your hair, Olive!" I mocked him under my breath, remembering that particular line he'd scrounged up to use on me. "Stupid, stupid, stupid."

He was incorrigible.

He was despicable.

He was an ass...sh:t.

Yeah, Matteo was an ass-sh:t.

"I don't know who that Matteo guy is but he sounds like a dick."

I jumped at the sound of someone's voice and slipped, falling down off of the log and landing onto my ass on the ground at the feet of the stranger who had clearly been listening to my conversation with myself.

As if I hadn't just tumbled off of a log, I quickly stood up from the ground brushing myself off as I lifted my eyes up to the stranger.

The first thing I noticed was that whoever this was, he was exceptionally tall. It was a mission trying to not look like a complete idiot squinting in the direct sunlight as I tried to see his face.

I let out a slightly nervous little laugh, I even forced a smile onto my face as I glanced around me, searching for a potential escape route should I need it. "I'm sorry but do I know you from somewhere?"

He smiled, his eyes glinting down at me and he shook his head. My stomach dropped. "We really don't have time for introductions, doll, your boyfriend is going to be back over here any minute now." He paused, surveying the surroundings before letting out a soft sigh, "But since you asked so nicely, I am Ansel."

Ansel offered me a bright smile and it almost distracted me from the bizarre explanation he'd just given me. "Excuse me?"

"And polite too!" He exclaimed and dug something out of his pocket. Ansel extended his hand out to me, "Jolly Rancher?"

Sure enough, there was a bright red hard candy lying in his outstretched palm.

I shook my head slowly, my brow pursed intently together. I was officially weirded out. "I'm actually late for...for the thing with my friends at the...the place." I stumbled over my words as I desperately tried to create a coherent excuse, "I'm just going to head back not before they get worried about me, thank you for the candy offer though."

I quickly reversed and started walking back in the direction I'd came in, relief washing over me when I didn't hear Ansel's voice anymore.

What a strange guy.

I glanced over my shoulder back towards Ansel's direction but when I looked, he was no longer there.

That's weird.

I turned back around to face the path ahead of me but when I looked up, Ansel was standing directly in front of me.

"Sorry about this, doll." He smiled apologetically before he sprung forward and pressed a strange smelling cloth to my face.

There wasn't even time for me to scream or fight back, the effects of whatever chemical he'd chosen were far too potent. In seconds, I was unconscious and completely at the mercy of this stranger from the woods.