Chapter Six

During the few lucid moments I had over the next week, I occasionally heard Kat and Elena, sometimes even Jeremy talking to me. Kat and Elena would talk of trivial things, just to get my mind off of what was happening. I only saw Jeremy when things got particulary bad and I thought I seriously might die. He talked me through the Changes and often times soothed me to an exhausted sleep afterwards.

Though for all their niceties, never once did it slip my mind that they were Pack.

But I wasn't aware of anything more than half the time. I had horrific hallucinations of good memories, add that to the nightmares of Changing, and I was screaming ninty percent of the time I was caged.

Towards the end of the week I was mostly consious. What surprised me was when a new werewolf came down to visit me. I smelled him before I saw him. He sat down in the chair placed in the corner for whoever was down there. The stranger introduced himself as Reese; he seemed nice enough. Reese didn't talk about me or impersonal things, but talked about his history. He told me that he joined the Pack fifteen years ago after getting in trouble with some man eating mutts.

I felt shivers crawl up my spine to know that werewolves out there actually eat people.

"Why?" I croaked. It was the first intelligable word I'd said to anyone since I'd lost it.

Reese looked a little surprised that I'd said anthing. "Because they helped me. They gave me somewhere to stay and they -mildly ant first- trusted me." I noticed a faint Australian accent peeking through his alto voice.

"I can get out," I said abruptly

"What?" He was confused.

"These bars? I can break them."

He stayed silent.

"I already tried it. It's not that hard to do," my voice wasn't as rough now that I'd started using it again.

His face was still blank, though disbelief flickered in his eyes. I always hated not being believed.

I growled, stood up, wincing at my leg cramps, and walked over to a spot about seven feet from where Reese was seated. Grabbing two bars, I pulled, they started bending and groaning, then they snapped. I lowered my hands and grinned at Reese. He paled, stood up and walked up the stairs.

I knew escaping at this point wasn't an option now that I'd told Reese what I could do. I had never really planned on doing it anyway. I felt this weirdly strong pull to stay, and I generally trusted my instincts.

Twelve seconds later four werewolves- Elena, Kat, Clay and Reese- decended the stairs.

I stood up in all my naked glory- I had never been very modest- and waited for the veredict.

Elena spoke, "You might as well come out." She sounded amused of all things.

I calmly stepped out, "May I have some clothes?" Just because I wasn't modest didn't mean I enjoyed standing naked in front of strangers.

She handed me a pair of sweats and a t-shirt, they were mine. They must have come from the bag she had taken from my house. I threw on the comfy over-worn clothes and followed everyone upstairs.

I was led back down the hallway towards the den. I slammed on my brakes as a faceful of scents hit me. About seven coming from the den total.

They were all werewolves.

I was tempted right then and there to make a break for it. I was being cocky if I said I could handle two of them at once, much less eleven! I mean, I wasn't stupid.

But then Kat put her hand on my shoulder and murmered, "Don't worry, we aren't going to hurt you." Oddly, I felt a little reasured.

Conversation ceased as all eye's turned to me. I just lifted my chin and returned each of their stares. A tense silence followed until a man started to laugh.

He had the same coloring as Nick, who had to be this man's brother, or maybe-it was a stretch- son. Only this man was about as wide as he was tall. And it was all muscle.

"She's a proud little one isn't she?" He chuckled, walked up to me and stuck his hand out. "I'm Antonio, Nick's father."

I took his hand, "Kaine," I replied, though my face was hard.

The bubble holding the tension in popped.

"You happened to return during a Pack meeting," Jeremy spoke softly.

"And before we do one more thing, I want you to know that we did not kill either of your parents." Elena told me firmly.

"How do you know that?" I asked in that scary calm voice of mine.

She answered calmly, "We keep track of every mutt we kill. And we only kill man-eaters." They kill people?

"The Pack killed them. That's you, is it not?" I wasn't ready to believe her, not yet.

"It is, but we are the North American Pack. As far as we know, there are Spanish, Russian, United Kingdom, and Australian Packs. It could have been any one of those who did it. I promise you Kaine, we did not kill your parents."

I knew she wasn't lying. She just wasn't.

"I'm sorry," I said it strongly. I'm a very stubborn person, but I know when I'm at fault.

She nodded briskly, "Now that that's cleared up, I'll introduce you to everyone. We'll finish talking later."

She ran through the room, matching names to faces.

Karl was the tall dark-haired one sitting on the arm of the couch. He was strongly built and looked more like a business man than anything remotely werewolf.

Away from the darkness, I could now see Reese clearly. He was average height with blonde hair and blue eyes. he was wiry, definitely the running kind. His hand was missing two fingers. That piqued my curiosity, I'd have to ask him about that.

Elena reintroduced Antonio, and moved to two men on the edges of the group. I tuned out the name and barely glanced at their faces. One was young- though still older than me- and the other one was about Elena's age.

I heard someone mention the young one as being Joey Stillwell's son- like I'd know who that was.

But like I said, I wasn't really attentive, I was too busy thinking.

If the Pack hadn't killed my parents, who had?

Was this Pack going to help me?

Was I even going to be allowed to leave?

If I was, what would I do?

Gah! Too many questions! Most of which I had no way of learing the answer to.

My brain hurt- which generaly only happened during my AP math class.

After introductions, and everyone went back to their conversations, I quietly slipped out of the den- though every set of eyes noticed me leaving. Entering the kitchen, I headed to the sink, got a glass of water and a few aspirins from where I had noticed them from earlier.

I sat on the bar stool and practiced my Tai Chai breathing.

About ten minutes of calm later, footsteps padded into the kitchen. I caught a whiff of Logan. Damn! Even his scent was sexy!

"We're going on a Pack run," He said it gruffly, "Mom said to invite you." he made it clear it wasn't his idea.

I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm a stubborn kid, which is exactly what led me to politely say, "No thank you."

Hey, at least I was polite.

Logan sighed, "Look, please just come, if you don't, I'm supposed to stay and babys- watch you, and I really want to run."

"Well jeez, when you put it that way, no." I figured I might as well get some fun out of today.

Logan growled, "Kaine, please?" He certainly didn't sound like he meant it. More like he was getting multiple knives stabbed through various nonlethal parts of his anatomy.

What did I do to make him hate me?

Two people can play at that game, "Nope," I said, popping the 'p', "Not unless you say it like you really mean it," I grinned.

He gritted his teeth, "Kaine," He took a deep breath, "I really want you to come."

Other than hearing his teeth grind, I almost believed hime. Almost.

"And Logan, I really don't want to go. So whatcha gonna do?" I taunted him.

I barely uttered the 'do' before he tackled me from the bar stool to the floor. My head bounced off the wood floor.

And the headache I'd swallowed half a bottle of aspirin for was back.

I looked up at him stradled across my thighs (have I ever explained how hot he is?) and growled very deeply. I wasn't playing any more.

I grabbed his shoulders and lifted my hips, throwing him twenty feet across the kitchen, but he was up again in an instant. He looked... surprised? Either that or scared- but I had a hard time thinking of him as scared of anything.

As I was thinking Why the hell would he look like that? I heard a thunder of footfalls stop at the door.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Clayton bellowed.

Logan brushed past him, muttering, "She's unnatural."

Were there such things as natural werewolves?

The run was postponed. So instead of being in the woods, we were all seated around the long oval oak table occupying the sunroom.

Elena sat at the head, Clayton and Jeremy on either side. Jeremy sat with a small hitch in his lips I was beginning to associate as a smile.

What was so funny?

Clayton wore a scowl; I guess that shouldn't have been a surprise.

Antonio sat beside Jeremy and on the other side of him was Nick. Next to Nick was Karl then Reese then me. Across from Antonio was Logan then Kat, Joey's son then that other werewolf that was introduced while my mind was wandering.

From what I concluded, it was arranged according by rank, and I was clearly the untrusted omega wolf in this pack.

Elena looked at me, "I called the Russian Pack on your behalf; they said they wanted to talk to you. They wouldn't give us any information though. After this meeting, you can call them."

I wanted to call them now, but I knew better than to ask that when I was already in hot water.

"Kaine, how were you able to break the cage bars?" I was surprised this question didn't come up sooner.

I only shrugged, "I don't know, I just can," I didn't think it was that remarkable.

Kat joined in, " I know you're new to this, but you shouldn't be that strong. Antonio Muscleman Sorrentino couldn't even do that." She shook her head in wonder.

"And being strong enough to throw me twenty feet? Impossible," Logan's eyes held awe before shuttering closed the emotions again and looking at me with disdain.

He's bipolar. He has to be.

"I don't know how I did it, I thought it was normal for a werewolf." I was confused now.

"You don't remember anything of your birth parents?" Elena asked.

"Nothing, but I was only about a month old when I got handed to my adoptive parents."

"Did you have any abilities before your first Change?" asked Nick.

"Yeah, I guess. I had noticably more strength and speed than other kids, and I could hear and smell better than them. And I never get sick or rarely ever get hurt. That's normal for a werewolf, right?"

By the looks on their faces, it wasn't.

"Well, me and Logan are full-blooded werewolves like you, so we were kinda like that as kids too. But we didn't get noticable 'superpowers' until after our first Change, which came when we were sixteen. That's also a little strange for a normal werewolf, who Change around seventeen or eighteen if it's genetic," She barrelled on.

"But you Changed only a month or two before you'll turn eighteen, which is completely normal, at least it is for a male werewolf with the genes..." She trailed off and started mumblig to herself.

But I had already gotten the message.

I mean, how ironic could it be that a werewolf was weird for any other reason than being a werewolf?

Jeremy spoke up, "While we sort things out, why don't you call the Russian Pack. The number is written on the pad by the phone in the den."

If I didn't honest to god want to know what the Russians had to say, I would have, again, defied orders and stayed.

Instead, I stood up and strode from the sunroom.

And to think, I escaped without getting yelled at.

XxXxXxXxX

I hung up the phone and walked out of the den. I followed my week old scent past the sunroom, ignoring the curious faces, and went into the bedroom I had woken up in. The one with the blue walls and oak furnishings.

I crawled under the covers and drifted to a thoughtless, dreamless sleep before I had the chance to think.

Because I knew at this moment nothing I could think of would erase what I had just learned.