The next day, Jade has a billion questions for me.

"What happened last night? Is Cat okay? Is she still vomiting? Who's Liam Vega? There's another pack? Where's your parents? Where's Trina? Are you hurt? Is your pack okay? Did the other pack get your territory?"

"Jade?" I say softly.

"Yeah?"

"Will you please just chill out? Everything's fine. We ran into a little trouble last night with a pack led by my uncle, they wanted our land. We got rid of them. Cat stopped vomiting a while ago. She's fine. Trina's in my parent's pack, The Steeles, which is basically our police. I'm fine. My pack is fine."

Jade exhales deeply and I grin. "Love you."

She looks at me in surprise and I shrug. "Always have."

Jade shakes her head. "Love you too."

A grin violently explodes on my face.

I make her a sandwich and we settle down to watch some TV.

The rest of our day goes by uneventfully, thank god. When night comes however, I pull Jade up and lead her outside.

"Jade." I say in the softest voice I can imagine. "Do ya wanna go somewhere with me?"

She nods, half-smiling. "Like a date?"

I nod and lead her back to the forest, back where it all started.

Her eyes blink in surprise. "Now that we aren't rushing to get somewhere," I tell her softly, "we can enjoy it."

She smiles at me and I walk into the forest, led by the dimly-lit path. "Come on, we can't keep them waiting."

"Who waiting?"

I just smirk and walk forward, reveling in the pinks and purples that spew forth from the trees and grass. I sense Jade behind me and look around before spotting them. I stop and Jade stops too.

"Be still and don't speak." I tell her lowly. "They'll come to you."

I sense Jade's anticipation for the unknown and I chuckle. They move forward, and forward, and finally they're right in front of my face.

I sense Jade's wonder.

They're little bugs, about a half inch tall, and they emit bright light, like lightning bugs. The one that's in front of my face is a pink one.

They fly away and I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. Looking back at Jade, I see she's smiling like she just got a recording contract.

"Those were sprites. They don't bug us, we don't bug them."

Moving down the path, I stop again at a small pool. The water's crystal clear and I know it's several hundred feet deep.

I wait patiently and sure enough, I see silver glinting under the water. I smile and jump in.

Jade follows and I lead her down to an underwater cave that's totally decked out. We sit on one of the couches and wait.

"Why are we here?" she asks softly, and right on cue, Raquel pops out of the water. "Hiya." She grins, her tail glinting under the waves.

I wave and Jade does the same, astonished. "You're…"

"Finfolk. We're mermaids, but we can turn back to human." Raq confirms.

I smile at her. "Raquel, this is Jade, my mate."

Raq's eyes get wide and I smile at her. "Tori, she's beautiful."

I thank her and Jade seems to be in a state of shock.

"A mermaid think's I'm beautiful."

"Is your girlfriend thinking you're beautiful not enough?" I tease and she turns to me, searching my eyes.

I let out a half smile. "You're breathtaking."

She captures my lips and I flutter my eyes closed, moving my lips in rhythm with hers. It makes music I've never experienced before, but it's delicious.

I break away first and we both grin like idiots for about five minutes, until I realize Raq's gone. I smile and drag Jade back to the mainland.

"One last stop, then we go home." I promise before leading her off the path and into the woods.

I smile before stopping at my destination, which is hard to see in the night. I change into a wolf and enter the decrepit mansion, sighing with each step. So many memories.

I changed back to see Jade following me, and I half-smile.

"Hey Tori?" she asks softly. "I gotta question."

"Shoot."

"Jessica said something about her being one of two that was changed by an attack…who's the second one?"

I brush some hair out of her face. "Me."

Her eyes widen in shock. "I thought your family was werewolves too?"

"I'm adopted. My parents found me at age 3 months outside their doorstep, and when I was eight I was bitten by a rogue. Almost died. This became my safe haven, where I could go to escape the moon, to escape my life actually."

By now we're upstairs. Jade's staring in wonder at the scratches in the wall, the holes in the floor. I grin and walk into the art room.

Jade's facial expression is priceless. "You painted me?" she squeaks.

I nod. "When I first met you, I found you entrancing. I guess I shoulda figured then that you were special, but it didn't click. Anyway, I needed an energy release and painting does that."

Jade's eyebrows were raised and I shrugged before turning to an old piano. "I learned to play while I was here, but I forgot most of it."

Jade chuckles and plunks a note with her index finger.

"Can I see?" she asks abruptly.

"See what?"

"The bites?"

I nod and take off my shirt. There's short little marks under each breast, just visible from under my bra. There's one above my heart, one on my neck, one above my belly button. There's more on my breasts, but I don't want to go topless if it would make Jade uncomfortable.

I have short little scratches down my arms too, and down my sides.

"Is that all?" Jade whispers.

"No, there's more on my breasts but I don't want to freak you out." I explain.

Jade looks entertained. "Show me." She whispers. I nod and unclip my bra, letting it fall to the ground.

They're kinda a mess. There's more scar tissue than regular tissue.

Jade's eyes widen. 'That…looks awful."

I nod. "It's okay." I whisper. She reaches out and traces some of the lines slowly with her finger, sending shivers down my spine.

I smile and put my clothes back on, sitting at the piano. "It sucked, but I'm okay."

Her eyes are still worried and she sits next to me. "I can't believe this." She says softly, touching my hair ever so slightly.

"What's this?"

"You, you're a werewolf, Cat's a werewolf…"

I smile and nod. "I couldn't either."

She scoots closer. "How is Cat a wolf anyway?"

"She's actually pretty different from the rest of us. See, her family had the curse. Her family is pretty much all werewolves. But, you only get the gene if both parents are wolves. Her mom wasn't, so she was a hybrid and couldn't change. She's was pretty fucked up really, her mind was constantly at war, her wolf was trying to get out but her body lacked the proper strength and structure. So I helped her." I shrug.

Jade looks at me suspiciously. "What do you mean…help her?"

"I took her into the woods one night. I could sense a wolf in her, I saw her eyes flash a few times and her mannerisms were like a wolf sometimes. Also I'd find her crying a few times after a phone call from her family. I found out those were after someone in her pack changed."

I waited for Jade to absorb this, and then continued. "I took her into these woods actually. She was scared, I knew she was. Wolves can smell fear, you know. I brought her deep into the forest and we sat down in some old ruins. She was beyond terrified at this point.

"I remember getting in front of her, standing her up, looking around. I heard her heartbeat. I heard the blood gushing through her veins. I realized in that moment that I was in predator mode and my body was ready to kill.

"Cat had squeaked, I remember that very clearly. I settled straight in front of her and noticed how her eyes were desperately trying to change; I could see that they were flicking very quickly from brown to deep blue.

"That was all the confirmation I needed. I brushed her hair off her shoulders, so I had a clear view of her neck. I remember she asked me if I was a vampire, and I shook my head no. I leaned down slightly and brushed my lips really close to her jugular, and then bit.

"She screamed, but that's why I took her so far into these woods, so no one would hear. It took about a day and a half. I stayed with her, right there, waiting. I knew she was alive; I heard her heartbeat and saw her breathe. Eventually she woke up and was a full-wolf. She changed pretty quickly and the next day became my beta. About three months ago she found Skylar and turned her."

Jade's eyes were wide, but bright. "So when are you gonna change me?" she asked teasingly, then turned serious. "I want to be with you as a wolf."

I nod slowly. "I can't."

"Why not?"

I take a deep breath. "Because right now, if I turn you, your blood will taste so good that I won't be able to stop and I'll kill you."

Her eyes grew wide with fear. "Seriously?"

I nod. "It takes several milestones in the relationship to be able to keep control."

Jade slumps. I soften. "I don't want to kill you Jade." I say softly. "But I'm too strong."

Jade scoffs. "Vega, strong?"

I roll my eyes and in a flash have her up against the wall, struggling. I have my lips at her neck and my teeth are bared. I hear the blood pulsing under them and I let go, going back to the piano bench.

"Alpha's are the strongest of our pack, but Cat could probably still do that." I tell her nonchalantly. Jade winces and walks back to me.

I smile at her and hold out my hand, leading her out of the mansion and back into the woods.

"Do you want to see something cool?" I ask her softly, feeling bad about pinning her.

"Yeah."

I walk even deeper into the woods and Jade's following me. We stop at another pool, but this one's a lot less deep. There's a waterfall spewing and from the water multicolored mist is radiating. The water itself is a rainbow, full of colors. Jade's jaw is dropped and I smile as I climb behind the waterfall and into the cave that's there. It's small, but it's nice. I notice Jade at the entryway and motion for her to follow me. We go deeper into the tunnel until we get to a door, which I knock and open.

I know Jade's stunned. We're in a gold mine, run by elves.

There's piles of precious metals lying around on the floor. They don't notice us and they don't care we're there, but we can't steal.

I duck out back into the cave and Jade follows me. "That was a mine." I tell the shocked girl.

"Okay." She squeaks.

I smile and turn into a wolf. "You wanna ride?"

She nods and gets on my back. I feel soft hands grasp my fur and I leap out of the waterfall, landing a few feet away from the pool. Jade looks impressed.

"Hold on." I growl and speed up to my maximum speed, 75 miles an hour. I know she doesn't feel it very much though, there's no wind and she's keeping herself pressed against my body.

I stop just at the edge of the woods.

I turn back to human and see Jade trembling, but not from the ride. "What Jade?" I ask softly. She just points behind me and I look.

Shit.

"Wow, I was right. She is beautiful." The chilling sentence is followed by the merciless laugh of Aiden Vega. "I suggest she run, before we find out just how good in bed she is, hm?"

Please don't kill me?

Dream forever,

Hannah