As always, disclaimers on the first chapter!

Hello, new readers! I see there a few new people from completely new countries, even! I gotta say, that's made of awesome! First off... Griffin? I'm sorry. This is only a small pouch. But, I promise, there will be more Shifted-crack come Thursday! I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorry! If it helps and pleases ye any, I've been working on getting back on track with the long over-due sequel.

In other news, with classes out for the summer and my new-found "Huzzah! The student loan peoples aren't forcing me to take summer classes!" time has left me WIDE open to be a Beta. So, if you're looking for a Beta make sure to read my Beta Profile thoroughly. Feel free to PM me with questions and the like. Fair warning, I'll probably read a sample of writing before deciding to take on the task. I have a red pen, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Betrayer

I was sitting with my head in my hands and my eyes closed when Nick finally came back inside. I had managed to keep myself from crying, but that was anything but talent. Growing up, I used to get yelled at when I mourned any of my pet's deaths, so I learned to just not cry where others could see me. I lifted my head when I heard the rustle of bills being dropped to the table and dared to look up at Nick. He kept his eyes averted, even going so far as to completely turn his head from me.

"Jeremy says he'll call the delegates of the council and tell them we've been postponed. We're to go to the cottage that we rented and wait for him there."

As he turned away to head back out to the Escape, I realized how cold his voice sounded. He was distancing himself from me as actively as he tried to befriend me those first few weeks. I wanted to tell myself that I fucked up royal, but I couldn't tell where exactly I fucked up. Was it in not telling the Pack sooner? Or was it in telling them at all?

I stood up and followed Nick out to the Escape, climbing into the passenger seat and watching him as he climbed in. For some reason it hurt me deeper that he wouldn't look me in the eyes than anything else I could remember. I wanted him to talk to me, to be mad that I held back this information for so long. I wanted something besides his silence.

Silence was all I got. It was another hour drive to the cottage filled with nothing but absolute silence and my mind whizzing with thoughts of what I could do, what I should have done, or even what I should be doing other than sitting here quietly. I thought back to the unintentional jab that I made at him my first dinner with the whole Pack. I hurt him then, too, but he didn't know me well enough to respond to it. Now I seemed to have actively injured him, and he was upset about it. Or was he? Did I really feel that I made friends with him? With any of the Pack?

In the five hours it took Jeremy to get to the cottage, Nick didn't speak once to me; not a glance or a sound. It was like I didn't exist anymore. Every time I looked up from the page I was trying to read, Nick was staring out the window at the snow. Something in his eyes told me he wasn't looking at what was outside. Five hours, one of driving and four of waiting, Nick and I did nothing but stare and memorize one single page in a novel. Just when I was sure I couldn't take it anymore, headlights came up the dark driveway. I tossed my book aside and sat up in the chair as Nick got up and ran out to greet Jeremy.

I watched the two men through the bay window seat, standing out in the snow as they talked like it was a mild spring afternoon out there. As I stared, my mind began to wander again about what would happen to me now that my "secret" was out. I knew more about this small group than they were comfortable letting anyone know, and I got it all from the fiction section of my local bookstore. I snapped back when I saw Jeremy head toward the front door, leaving Nick in the snow with his back to the window...and me. I didn't tear my gaze from the window until I heard the front door shut quietly and Jeremy's soft footfalls stop behind me.

"Nyx, you need to tell us—me—everything."

I looked up at Jeremy, into his black, unreadable eyes and with a sigh I told him my story from the beginning.

The next morning woke me up with bright rays of sunlight stabbing my eyes through my eyelids. I groaned and moved a bit, trying to turn away from the vindictive sun only to fall gracelessly from the window seat with a loud thud that jarred me all the way awake. Sitting up and rubbing my head, I tried to remember what happened after I told Jeremy my story the night before.

Oh, that's right... Nick came in somewhere in the middle of my story and passed right by us and into the bedroom, not even stopping for a cursory eavesdropping. Just walked right by as if he was the only one in the cottage. I think I stopped my story to stare at the closed door of the bedroom, because I remembered Jeremy urging me to continue. After I explained to Jeremy, he called Nick outside and I took back up my perch in the bay window seat, watching them until I fell asleep.

Jeremy's reaction to my story was totally and completely Jeremy. His eyes never left mine and his facial expression never changed. He took everything in calmly and the only reason I knew that he was processing it and sorting it out in his head was the very reason why I was there telling him this story. When he and Nick went back outside, I tried to listen in on their conversation but they stepped too far away from the cottage for me to hear them. I ended up falling asleep while waiting for their return.

After I stood up and stretched the knots and kinks out of my neck and back, I went to the bedroom door and lay my hand on the knob. There was a time, only a few short days ago, when walking in on Nick was something that was okay to do. Everything was different, now. Not just because Jeremy was here, but because I had betrayed Nick's trust. I didn't tell him soon enough. I led him on, in a way, and I felt guilty about it.

I decided against opening the bedroom door and settled for making breakfast. Not exactly my forte, since I didn't much enjoy breakfast-type foods. The groceries Jeremy brought were fairly simple: eggs, bread, butter, milk, juice... By the time I finished the bacon and was working on the french toast, I heard the bedroom door open and looked up to see Jeremy sit down at the breakfast bar.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?"

I frowned down at the frying pan and stabbed at the bread to flip it over. "Wonderfully," I grumbled. "Almost as comfortable as the floor of the cage."

"Do you really think you deserve more respect than you're getting?"

I shoveled a pile of bacon and four slices of french toast onto a plate and turned around, dropping it in front of Jeremy unceremoniously. "Fuck you. I told you in the beginning that you wouldn't believe me if I told you. I was looking to preserve my damn life."

Jeremy ate in silence as I fixed an identical plate of food and dropped it just as hard on the counter next to him. As if on cue, Nick came out of the bedroom and I stalked out of the kitchen. It would be another day of ruined appetite for me. I grabbed my clothes from my suitcase on the couch and went into the bathroom to shower and change.

When I emerged forty minutes later, breakfast was eaten and cleaned up, except for one plate of food with another acting as a cover sitting on the breakfast bar. Nick was also still sitting at the bar, but Jeremy was no where to be seen. They saved me breakfast, so I decided I should eat it. Leaning against the bar on the opposite side of Nick, I picked up a slice of bacon and stuffed it in my mouth, chewed and swallowed.

I studied Nick for a while. For the first time ever, he looked disheveled. His hair was a mess and under his eyes were so dark I'm sure Jack Sparrow would be asking him where he got his Kohl from. Even his tailor fitted clothes seemed to just hang off him in a messy pile of fabric.

"Sleep well?" I mumbled around another mouthful of bacon.

Nick lifted his eyes from the counter and seemed startled to see me there. He blinked a few times, bringing himself back to the present and nodded. "Yeah..."

"That was a real shit-head thing to do." I stuffed another piece of bacon in my mouth, this time wrapped in powder sugar covered french toast.

"Yeah, well... After thinking it over for the night, I kinda understand why you handled it the way you—"

I swallowed my food and smirked at him. "Not me, dork. You. Leaving me there on the bench all night? Very slick, Rico Suave."

Again he blinked at me, surprised. "I, uh... Well, you would have done the same!"

I shook my head and gave him what I hoped was my most reassuring smile, but there was too much sadness in me to feel it to be very convincing. "Well, duh. You're a boy. Boys are icky."

He just smirked at me and watched as I finished breakfast. Jeremy appeared in the kitchen as I was cleaning the plates that my food was on.

"Good, you ate. Are you two almost ready to go?"

I blinked at Jeremy as I dried my hands. "Go? We're still taking this to the council?"

"We need to take it to the council more now than ever." He reached for the keys to his Explorer and headed for the door.

I looked at Nick who had gotten up to help me put the dishes away as I cleaned. Jeremy was right. Even if we decided to forget about the bloody mirror message, the council needed to know about me. I was getting good at telling my story, my voice shaking less and less with each retelling, but this next and last time I will be going in cold. I didn't know the other council members as well as I did the Pack, and I chose to not get myself started on how very little I knew about the other races that sat on the council. As I followed Jeremy out to the car, I hoped that I wouldn't make some supernatural faux pas.