Author's Note: I completely forgot that I had this sitting in doc manager and I've been busy. Summer school ended but that doesn't mean I have loads of free time. We are renovating at home which means I get to help and I have work. On a happier note, I'm working on both of my fanfictions but the other reason that I am posting slower is I'm working on my own fictional work for Camp NanoWrimo. I haven't decided if I will make it into a fanfiction nor do I know which fandom I will put it into.

Anyway, here's the next chapter. Still don't own Glee and its characters, which belong to RIB and FOX. This one is unbetaed so I will own all mistakes. I'm getting fewer reviewers but I know that there are more people following and favouriting my story and I'm super happy about that. I don't want to become one of those writers who are always begging for reviewers but honestly, I would love to hear from you guys, what you like and don't like about the story and whatever else you wanna tell me.

Chapter 7

Finn

Today is Monday morning; I decided that today was the day that I would go to my father's house. I decided to go to his house after school and thus, I went through school a little distractedly and Rachel definitely noticed but I think that she thinks it's due to her letting Quinn join the swim team. Granted I was a little annoyed about that but what I was doing after school definitely was more on my mind.

The other members of the swim team had noticed that I was a good fit so they believed Rachel's judgement. Plus the fact that the others had totally looked up to her as a leader, it was really strange the bond between them and Rachel. I just chalked it up to them being good friends. Before Quinn became her best friend, the other swim team members must have been her best friends and in some ways I believe they still are.

At lunch time, I check my phone and look up the route from school to where my father used to live. I didn't know what to think but I turned to Rachel and told her to go to Glee without me after school. She asks me why and I lie and tell her that my mom scheduled a doctor's appointment for me. She looks concerned and I lie again and tell her that it was just a check-up.

I really needed her so I wasn't paying attention when suddenly Santana appeared and soaked us both with a massive 'Thirstquenchers'. I turned to her angry and yelled, "What was that for?"

She got angry back and seemed like she wanted to punch me in the face or rile me up so I would punch her so that she could fight. Anyway, before anything could happen, I see arms grab her and I saw Quinn and Brittany pulling her back. She turns to me and whispers "I'll take her out and figure out what is going on. Go get cleaned up and calm her down."

It is then that I notice that Rachel had tears running down her face. I turn to Rachel and say "Love, did you bring extra clothes?"

She nods and I walk her to her locker to grab her clothes and then to my locker so I can grab my clothes and we go to our respective washrooms to change. We both exit with wet hair and we are both in our gym clothes. I whisper in her ear "Are you okay, love?"

She says "Yeah, I just thought that we were accepted. I thought that people liked me. I thought that I fit in. I guess I'll never truly fit in."

I look at her surprised as she runs off. I let her go. She needs time to think, I knew this because I knew Rachel. Then, I realized that she hasn't said it back yet and I said it over a week ago. I told her that I loved her. I hoped I wasn't losing her.

Rachel

I ran from Finn. He keeps saying that four lettered word.

I am confused. I love Quinn, I know that for sure. I had talked to my parents about it. They realized that it was how they felt when they first saw each other. You see, dragons have this "perfect mate". It is the person and draco that they are meant to be with. It is the person to best preserve draco genes and produce the best endowed draco babies with. Not only that but they would complete each other. Archeadracos tend to roam the earth trying to find their mate.

The reason my dads didn't figure this out at first was because the object of imprinting usually was another archeadraco. That was the way it happened for my parents, they were both dracos when they first laid eyes on each other. Fire breathing is rare but imprinting on a human, now that it is even rarer. But I hate that the dragon society expects us to be with the individual that we are imprinted to.

I really thought I liked Finn as well, but I realized it was simply because he had paid attention to me first, made me feel accepted. Plus, I had wanted to give him a chance. I mean he was the one who had the confidence to come for me when Quinn needed to get over herself. My parents expected me to break it off with Finn; what with the uncertainty of the nervous feelings that were occurring only around him and because in many ways, he was not a good boyfriend. He keeps forgetting about my vegan lifestyle and never protected me from the perpetual and often daily slushies.

If I chose Finn, I would have to tiptoe around him for the rest of my life; I needed to be ready to leave him if I ever felt in danger.

If I chose Quinn, I would have to tell her about us. I would also be the one to change her. Dracos can cause the change in a human but only if the human they are changing is their mate and only applies if the dragon performing the change is a fire breather. My dads were researching this and they tell me it involves me effectively breathing fire into Quinn. I had to breathe the perfect amount, too much and I would kill her, too little and it wouldn't work. She had to decide to want me. She has to want this lifestyle. Not to mention that if she decided to walk away, she would know our secret which meant that she might be killed for knowing our secret by the clan. I wanted her to make the choice, I won't change him just because she's my mate. That is my decision.

I know Finn thinks that I ran because I was unhappy about the slushying but in reality all of this is what plagued my mind. Of course, like any other teenager, I wanted to be accepted but I knew that as a draco, I would always have secrets. I would never be fully accepted. Maybe Quinn would accept me but other, regular humans, not so much.

I ran outside and sat down against the school and began to cry earnestly. After a couple minutes, I realized if I continued I would be risking draco exposure as I felt the archeadraco stirring deep inside. So I looked for a more secluded area to think and maybe cry some more, somewhere that if I did slip, it wouldn't matter.

Quinn

I bring Santana outside to fresh air hoping that it would clear her head, hoping it would help her open up to me. I told Britt to go to class and she had protested but when I told her that her being here would allow Santana to just distract herself and help her to run from her problems. She pouted but knew I was right and headed to class. It helped that Britt wasn't here as an obstacle but I was still Quinn and Santana was still Santana so talking about our feelings never came easy to us.

So, I brought her down to sit against the school. She began to cry so I put her in my arms and while she tried to pull away at first, she ended up sobbing against my chest. I rubbed her back and soothed her and wondered what was going on. I thought about what might have changed. It came to my mind, the only things that might have caused this was her family or Britt.

I turned to the now whimpering best friend in my arms and I pushed her off my chest and said "Does this have to do with your family or Britt?"

She looked into my eyes and said something chilling; she said "Both... My parents found out about Britt and I and kicked me out" I must have an expression of surprise because she stops and repeats it and exclaims, "They even set the microwave timer for half an hour for me to grab my stuff!"

I prompt her, "So is Britt okay? What happened with her? I don't understand why you are going back to the slushying. I mean it was good for a while, you and Britt being together made you and her happy which meant no slushying which meant the school was a better place. What happened, S?"

By this time, she is silently crying again and she says "Britt is fine but I am just so hurt. My family, they're supposed to be the people who love me no matter what. I had a feeling it would happen like this but I feel like I lost everything."

I interrupted her, "No, San. You didn't lose everything, you still have me. You still have Britt and let's be honest, Britt's parents probably let you live with them, yes?"

She nods.

"See, everything is going to be fine."

She sobs, "You're missing the point! I felt good, I had power and when Britt and I were together but that's when I screw things up, when things are good, I screw things up. I am so scared of that, Quinn. I am afraid that, if she leaves me, I will become a drunk and shoot up every day or smoke until I am higher than a kite and become a Lima Loser because I've lost everything."

During this, she lowered herself to the ground once again, so I kneel so that I am at her eye level.

I tell her, "You will be fine. You have Britt and you are now free from your oppressive family and you can do what you want. You can work and go to New York and build a life for yourself. You care about Britt and she cares about you; she took you in and she loves you. You need to stop being insecure because you will be important one day. Do you hear me?"

She nods.

"Okay, calm down now, stop crying and then we can go find Britt." I tell her.

Finn

I went to the house. My mom told me to let her give me a ride but I convinced her to let me walk there, she said that that was fine as long as I texted her if I decided I wanted a ride back and if I texted her when I arrived so that she would know that I was safe. The house isn't far; I think she was just worried for my emotional state and what I might do. She's worried about what I might find and the things that would upset or disappoint.

I was pretty nervous about it. I don't remember my father. I only saw a couple photographs, mainly when I was digging around in the basement when mom wasn't home. He kind of looked like me, similar floppy hair style and hair colour. My eyes were exactly like my dad's and I was tall and big like him as well.

Reaching the street that the house was on, I texted my mom saying I was at the house. My mom texted back with a thank you, a reminder that she loved me and she could pick me up if that is what I wanted. I walked up to the house and was shocked to note that the house was still pristine and well groomed. I walked to the window beside the front door and noticed that instead of being empty and forgotten about like I thought and expected it to be, it was well furnished and there was not a layer of dust on the furniture. I went to the doorbell and pushed it apprehensively.

In about a minute or two, the man from the photograph opened the door, and seeing me, he says, "I've been expecting you, son." My jaw drops, so he continues. "I am your father," he says, hand out for me to shake.

I put my jaw back to where it belongs and shake his hand. He lets me in, letting me sit on the couch as he went to go retrieve drinks from the kitchen.

I guess I had a look on my face because he turned to me with the glass of water for me that I had asked for and one for him and said "You look like you are about to burst. If you have questions, out with it and we can take turns or whatever you want"

I nod.

"Okay, I'll go first then", he says, "What do you like to do in your spare time?"

"I like football; I am starting quarterback on the school team. I like swimming, I am on the school team and our next meet is in November. I like spending time with my girlfriend and typical teenager stuff like music and TV. What about you?"

He replies, "I like hunting. And yeah, I am pretty into sports and I play the guitar. What is your favourite subject in school?"

"I like gym because I am good at it. I like science because it's pretty interesting and music because it's fun. What do you do for a living?"

He shifts his eyes a little, as if he is hiding something. But I keep quiet and I don't call him out on it. "I work as a pilot."

It goes on like this for a while. Then the questions become tougher. He asked me about my girlfriend, about my school friends, about my time with my mom. I asked him why he left us and he said that he was tired of living a lie and when I asked about other women he denied it as my mom told me he would. I told him that my mom truly thought that he had an affair and that was why he was inconsistent and wasn't there for our family, I asked him if it wasn't a women he was preoccupied with, what was he doing.

He again gets shifty eyes and he says "Text your mom, telling her that you will be home later. I promise there is nothing sketchy going on." I do as he asks as I am truly curious. I wonder if this has anything to do with the feeling in my stomach. I again chalked it up to nerves because of meeting with my dad but I feel like this feeling isn't like anything I have ever felt. It isn't like the feeling I actually get when I am nervous or scared or even with Rachel. It is something altogether new. My mom agrees but I can tell she is a little bit concerned about it.

He sits down on the couch with me as he had been sitting on an armchair across from me before and I look around, his house is furnished with furniture that has a sort of leathery reptilian material, and it is nothing like I have ever seen before. He notices me looking and he starts "That's kind of what I have to tell you about, son. You inherited more from me than just my eyes or my hair. This is my secret, this is why I couldn't spend time with you and your mother and your brother. I am a hunter. But I don't hunt any old animal. I hunt dragons or dracos. And from what you are telling me, you share my secret. You, my son, are a hunter."

I glance up at him, I see that he is telling the truth and I say "So that feeling in my stomach?"

He says "It typically means a dragon is near. But I'm guessing the one you are talking about is the one I am also feeling, that means a hunter is near. That's good son, hunters usually take many years to develop their tracking senses and you have them already!"

I open my mouth again, "So all those times, you weren't home, you were tracking dragons? You gave us up for dragons?" I yell incredulously.

He steps back saying "You don't understand son, I paid the bills doing this. Dragons have hoards and are worth a lot of money."

I continue, "That is stupid, I am going home. Do not call me son and I never want to see you again! Dragons don't exist and I can't believe that you are this disillusioned."

I ran to the door, tug my shoes on and I stood on the front porch. I called my mom and asked her to come pick me up.

I told my mom the general story about what had happened without going into details about the whole hunter business. I didn't want her to know about that, plus it was enough of a surprise to find out that he was still alive. I told her that it was good that she kicked him out because it seemed like he had no spine and he is kind of a jerk.

I go to bed and oddly enough dream about killing dragons and going on a hunt. When I woke up, I shook my head to clear the dream and again, I pretend nothing is wrong and I go through the motions of getting ready for school and for football practice after school and swim team practice in the morning.

Rachel

This morning, I arrive early and without my boyfriend. He said that he was feeling a little sick to his stomach so he didn't have time to get his mom to pick me up. I change into my suit and do some warm up before the others arrive. I wondered what had changed from yesterday. I mean I get that I haven't said the four lettered word that he wants to hear from me that he already accidently let slip. That word, the L word, you know, love. The thing I feel with Quinn, not that anyone knows about that.

I wonder if he somehow found out something about the feeling in his stomach. He had told me earlier and I was wondering if it was linked to the feeling in my stomach as well as that in my dads. He mentioned that his father had left them and my dads had said that they didn't feel it around his mother.

He sounded strange this morning, I wonder if it is because he had seen his father, or if something strange happened.

We had never come into contact with anything like this but then again I hadn't met a dragon outside of my family but we were constantly running to avoid hunters getting scent of us not that we had ever met or come into contact with any. Maybe it has something to do with the homeschooling but still.

I started to swim to clear my head when the rest of my team started arriving. Maybe I hope that Finn is still okay. I want my race to survive and I want the best for Finn. He loves me and I am an archeadraco, this would never be a normal relationship. It is time for practice and Finn just ran in, clearly in a rush. He comes to me, planting a kiss on my lips. I turned to him; looked questioningly into his eyes and I can see that he is hiding something. He says "I'll tell you later, sweetie."

After practice, I get ready for class when I get slushied by Santana. I am upset but after the slushying last week, Quinn had told me that Santana had some things to work through. She said that bullying people was something that Santana didn't want to do but she did it because she had trouble expressing his feelings and she needed some control in her life right now.

I knew how that felt, keeping my secret is the hardest thing I have ever done but outing us would doom my race. We would be hunted and scalped for our bodies and for our hoards. I go back to the change room, thank goodness, I had brought extra sets of clothing when the slushying restarted last week. I showered quickly to get the stickiness out of my hair, off my skin and pulled on my clothes and left the change room.

Finn is waiting outside and he has this weird look on his face as he rubbed his stomach. I worry, knowing that the twisty feeling in my stomach is mutual. I turn to him "Are you feeling okay, better than this morning, I mean?"

He looks at me, "Yeah, I guess I'm okay."

We go through our classes as normal, but I know there is definitely something different because he didn't text me during our classes. Typically I have to tell him to stop texting me because I want to pay attention to school but today, there's nothing. I hope nothing is wrong.

Finn

I get that I've been a little aloof with Rachel. I just don't know. I get that twisty feeling again, I think about it. I mean she is cute and I love her and all and she's not the first one I have felt this with. I remember my first crush, Emily.

I loved her and I got the twisty feeling whenever I saw her. We loved each other but then my parents had decided to move. My dad was still with us at the time, he did always leave us, the family, I mean. I always thought that it was my fault. I know better now which is a relief for me. I was always worried that it was somehow my fault; it plagued my nightmares and caused a lot of stress.

Anyway, I find Rachel at lunch; I take her to the stands outside and take her hands in mine as we sat down. I told her about my dad. I tell her about why he left us and what he is. Her eyes widen.

She says, "Why are you telling me this? What does that mean for you, will you do the same thing he does? Like miss school to go hunting and stuff or have to undergo training to hunt?"

I say, "That's a thing? Like hunters have to train to hunt? How do you know so much about it, Rachel?"

She replies offhandedly, "Yeah, I have hunter cousins or something, they miss school once a month or so to hunt. They train weekly to hone instincts or know the best way to hunt and kill or something like that."

I think that it seems like some kind of excuse but I don't call her out because she seems a little stressed and then she runs out for the second time this week. I just look after her in confusion.

Rachel

I call my fathers, freaking out because I know what the feeling in our bellies meant. It signaled that a hunter is near. But we couldn't just run, that makes it more obvious what we are and while we didn't know what the feeling meant because we had never met hunters previous to this, we knew the existence of hunters.

We knew that Finn's father was a world renowned hunter but we had thought he was dead. Clearly, he wasn't and now, Finn knows, that he has the same genetic influence of a hunter, the one passed to him from his father. This isn't good. It is terrible. It is terrifying.

At least, he doesn't seem to know much about it. He also mentioned that he told his dad to stay away; at least he won't be learning more from his dad. Finn seemed to have his dad's instincts but I feel as though Finn is in denial, which is a plus. He also seemed not to put much credence in his hunter's instincts so far which is another plus. Hopefully, it continues this way.

I go to talk to Quinn, she was the one who could always talk me down and I totally appreciate her for that. I mean she is the one who talks to me while she is in love with me but still wants to take care of her friends even the ones she doesn't get along with and by that I mean Finn.

Quinn helps me to plan our next date; it needed to be good after the picnic that Finn made for me. We ate under the stars, it was romantic and it happened the day before Finn went to meet his dad. I went back to Finn, I apologize to him and I remind him of our date on the weekend.

I wanted my date to be romantic, to be awesome and to be exactly perfect for Finn. He's just gone through so much with finding about the hunter stuff and I knew now that we would be safe unless someone had shifted near him which was highly unlikely because we were all quite adept had hiding our secret.

So I inconspicuously looked at his phone while in between taking pictures with his camera on the day that he started acting weird because I wanted to figure out what was going on and what we were up against. I found it under Nicolas Hudson – Dad. I memorized the number just in case but the address is what I wanted. I brought it to my dads. They had found his house and gone there and they had felt whispers of the twisty hunter near feeling. Nicholas wasn't there at the time which is why they only got a whispery version of the hunter warning. We had definitely found Finn's genetic link to the hunter gene, it's a good thing that Nicholas' hunting area was nowhere nearby. It seemed like he only used this house once or twice monthly.

Anyway, that is beside the point, Quinn was totally awesome help in calming me.

Quinn

Oh my gosh, I can't believe she actually did that! I can't believe I actually helped her! I seem to want to hurt myself. I helped her plan the perfect date. What I want her to do for me and what I want to get the chance to do for her. I hope that she remembers it because I just hope she can be that awesome for me and that I can be awesome for her.

I hope that she become mine soon because I keep falling for her. I tell her that all boys want to be in charge not necessarily over women but they like having things.

Anyway, I am kind of getting off my point, the point is, guys love the shooting range and go carting and laser tag. They like holding the hand of their girlfriend when they are scared about a ride. So I remember only one place with all these things. That would be the amusement park and I tell her about it.

Hoping that one day, I will be the one taking her, the one whose hand she reaches for and the person who she wants to talk to every day.

Finn

She's taking me out on a date today. I am so excited, after school, she pulls me outside, kisses me and wraps a blindfold over my eyes. She gets her dad, Leroy to drive us, we get in the car and she says "Dad, okay, we are all ready, seat belts on and everything. Remember where I wanted to go, right."

Her dad nods and drives there quickly. Rachel grabs my hand and kisses me on the cheek or the lips every so often. I smile when I feel her lips on my face. I am so excited, I completely forget about the ever present twist in my gut.

I say, "So are you finally going to tell me where we are going?"

She chirps back, "What's the fun in that? You'll find out when we get there anyway."

I harrumph and cross my arms in displeasure when Rachel kisses me in the corner of my mouth. I smirk as she tickles me slightly on the side. I'd hate to admit it but yes I am ticklish. We get there after a few more complaints from me about not being able to see and not knowing where I am going, I don't even know where there is.

She walks me up and pushes me through a gate after handing what I think are tickets to a gate manager. She removes the blindfold and I find that the flashing bright lights and sounds and the amount of people just bombard my senses. I am momentarily speech less as I figure out that I am at the nearest amusement park. I never had the money to come or even think about coming during school trips.

I am super happy and I pull Rachel towards the nearest ride. It's a roller coaster, I get a bit apprehensive because I am a little scared of heights and Rachel notices and tugs my hand. "You aren't afraid of a couple of loops and some heights, are you?"

"If I get to hold your hand, no. If not, can we try another ride instead?" I reply.

"Okay, fine then. I get to tell my friends that you are scared of heights" She shoots back, sticking her tongue at me in that cute little way that she does.

"But I'm not!" I say with a pout.

"Okay, okay. No one needs to know, it will be our little secret." She says comfortingly. She kept to her word and let me hold her hand. The ride was exhilarating. I think I discovered a new love for roller coasters and made a point to go on all the ones that were available at the amusement park. We also went on the "make out boat ride" also known as the duck lagoon; I won a bunch of toys for Rachel at the shooting range, the basketball shooting game, the water guns, the ring throwing and the whack-a-mole. We played a couple rounds of laser tag, Rachel ended up being awesome at laser tag winning the best of three, and I won the best of three in go-karting.

It was a good night ending with fireworks; apparently, this amusement park had fireworks once a week, every week! Lucky us, we came on the right day or maybe Rachel planned this. As the finale began to streak the sky, I pulled her in for a kiss. And in the kiss, I saw fireworks, just like every other time I have ever kissed Rachel. It was AMAZING!

Rachel

The date went awesomely. After we drop off Finn, I made a point to text Quinn to thank her for her genius idea. After all, without her suggestion, I would be pretty lost. She responds with a nonchalant "No problem."

However, lately, whenever I am with Quinn, I feel jealousy running off her. Part of being a dragon means that we are able to sense emotions better than humans can. I think she is jealous of Finn but I don't think she will do much out of respect for me. I think she wants me to come to my own conclusions.

But let's be honest. I am only with Finn partly because of obligation because I can't randomly pick up and just dump him. He will want to know why and I can't just tell him that Quinn is my meant to be dragon mate. She'd immediately know that I am a dragon, realize that dragons can become humans and then he will come hunt us. In short, my race would be doomed.