"Alex, Alex, I won't hurt you." The man soothed and I looked into his eyes carefully, searching for the thing inside of him that made him what he was. "I need to check your wrist and your shoulder and your other injuries."

I shook my head stubbornly, taking an inconspicuous step backwards.

"Alex, you're not healed, I need to make sure-" He reached out to touch me and I jumped backwards into the table, squeaking and feeling trapped. He sighed and stepped back and I ran past him.

"Dr. Samuel will you please...fix her." Ben made a face.

"I'm not a miracle worker!" The older wolf snapped, then he pinched the bridge of his nose. "If she doesn't want me to go near her it is her choice."

"Help me." I whispered. They both turned to look at me, my guard and my supposed-to-be doctor.

"I want to, I really do, but you need to let me near you." Samuel held his hands out like I was a frightened puppy.

I shook my head.

They both groaned.

They were right back where they started.

"Are you ready to go back home?" Jesse asked, it was two o'clock in the afternoon, a whole two months after the incident. I looked around and nodded.

"Yeah."

She grinned.

"So...you'd have no problem going to the party tonight?"

"There's three of us, it doesn't make a party." I sighed, sitting on the floor of my empty house.

"Yeah it does! My dad and Mercy are getting MARRIED tomorrow! MARRIED!" Jesse shrieked happily. "You, me, and Mercy are having a party at our place while the pack takes my father out to wherever!"

I laughed, it was typical for mates to not be married, but Jesse's enthusiasm was hilarious.

"Yeah, I'll come."

"Great!"

So that night, we all sat around, goofing off over an innocent game of Apples to Apples. We had gotten Applebee's for dinner.

We finished the game and stayed silent for a moment before Jesse inevitably thought of something not good.

"Let's play truth!"

"NO!" Mercy and I yelled at the same time, what was she? Fifteen?

"Yeah, it'll be fun! We have two lie detectors!" She grinned maniacally.

Mercy looked at me and I sighed.

"Fine."

"Okay, so here's the question and we all have to answer it, we take turns asking!" She set the rules.

"Wait, since when do you play truth like-"

"So, how old were you when you had your first kiss?" She piped over my question. She looked at Mercy expectantly who rolled her eyes.

"Around fourteen, I'm old, I don't remember these things." I let out a short lived laugh before the eyes of terror stared at me.

"Same." I shrugged.

"I was fifteen!" Jesse smiled. "Mercy, ask a question!"

"I'm good." She passed.

"This, my friend, is not a game of truth. This is a game of 'who did what' and I do not enjoy the idea." I made a face.

"Fine then, my turn." She shrugged. "Who was your first kiss?"

"Must I answer?" Mercy rolled her eyes.

"Nah, you don't have to!" Jesse thought for a moment before she had given the answer. She looked at me.

"Henry Fraizer." I made a disgusted face.

"That bad?"

"No, I just had a flashback...what did I see in him?"

We all laughed for a bit.

"Well, mine was a kid named Jeff."

"LIAR!" I pushed her playfully.

"Right, lie detectors. His name was Jamie Young and he was cute." She smiled, pushing me back.

There was silence.

"I'll ask a question!" Jesse smiled, never missing a beat. "Who was your first?"

"Jesse!" Mercy scolded. I winced.

"Well?" She asked, "Here, I'll start us off. Gabriel was my first."

Mercy frowned.

"Teddy Grabellez."

She was lying, I didn't say anything about it. Though, I decided they deserved the truth from me. Someone needed to know.

"Lucas." I whispered and Jesse's eyes widened.

"Oh my God, Alex!" She hugged me, "Are you serious?"

I bit my lip.

"Yeah."

Mercy was staring at me like she was trying to figure out what to think. Finally, she settled on the emotions shocked, angry, pitying, and...self-loathing. Don't ask why that was there, I don't have your answer.

"It's not your fault." She finally said, "Any of it."

I looked at her and the silence began again.

"How 'bout a movie?" Jesse was the one to break the awkward moment again. We turned to her with amused expressions.

"'Kay."

XXX

Adam had been very careful with his temper around me and so had Samuel. I was grateful, though I still couldn't go too close to them without having a panic attack thing. Usually I could keep one inside until I was alone, but not always. That's where my problem was.

I had been invited to the wedding. I had been invited to the wedding where other wolves would be, like...not Columbia Basin wolves.

Yeah, I was panicking.

So what I did was simple, I made the decision to skip the ceremony (because if I freaked out people would definitely noticed I was doing so) and go to the party and the party only. That choice pretty much killed any and all confidence I had left because as it ends up, the place they rented was HUGE and could therefore fit more dominant wolves without a problem.

Well...there was my problem...

Either way, being a wedding, there were seating arrangements. This was a problem, when the first wolf sat by me, I freaked and ran into the bathroom, breaking into tears. Of course his mate followed me and she smelled like witch so that freaked me out even more!

In simple, I was having a full out panic attack in the bathroom.

"Hello?" The woman said softly and in that moment I saw she was blind. "Are you okay."

"I'm fine." I choked out.

"Oh!" She gasped, "You're Alexandria!"

"Alex." I whispered. "It's Alex."

"Well, Alex," She was ever so cheerful, "I'm Moira and the wolf seated by you was my Tom. He's second of the Emerald City Pack."

"You guys make a cute couple." I mumbled.

Her smile brightened.

"Thank you!" I blinked back my tears as she continued. "I can't wait to have another girl on the territory. Believe it or not, most of EC's wolves are unmated so I'm the only one it seems. There's never anyone to talk to."

My eyes widened and the diminishing panic heightened again.

"What?" My voice squeaked.

Moira frowned, her eyebrows furrowing.

"Tom said Angus said the Marrok said you were moving in by us." She crossed her arms. "They didn't tell you."

It wasn't a question so I didn't answer.

"Of course not, they never tell us girls anything." She sighed.

"Alex?" A bright mop of hot pink hair announced Jesse's arrival in the bathroom. Her silk turquoise bridesmaid's dress complimented the...neon-ness of her hair. "Er-hey Moira. Alex, my dad and Bran, and Unknown Wolf wanted you...maybe we should fix your make-up."

I looked in the mirror and couldn't help but laugh. My mascara had run from my eyelashes down to my chin and trickled down my neck, following my tears.

"It's a good thing I always have make-up remover!" She sang, pulling out a bottle and a bunch of other things from her tiny purse.

"Is...Jesse, is that my make-up?" I frowned.

"...Noooooooooo..." She trailed off, she smelled like a stinky liar. "Yeeeeees...but aren't you happy I did? I didn't doubt you, but I thought just in case..."

I nodded.

"Thanks."

"Anytime, now come on! They'll be serving dinner soon and I kinda wanna get food before those stupid wolves eat it all!"

Jesse worked miracles and Moira made me feel a lot better by just talking to me about nothing as if nothing was the matter. In only five minutes, I looked presentable.

I followed Jesse to where Bran and Jesse's mystery man (aka Angus) stood. I suspected Adam had left because it was kind of his wedding.

Moira was right.

Despite my fear, I looked Angus in the eye, determined to be myself and the same teenager he had watched for a night two months ago.

"Alex, it has been decided you will live on Emerald City Pack territory. It's just close enough for school."

No it wasn't!

"At Seattle Pacific University." He read my mind. "I think change will be good for you and I assure you Lucas has been dealt with most severely."

I did squeak there, but nodded. Turning my back on them after a bit on inner debate, I returned to my table.

At least I was going to a normal college?

"You were right." I looked at Moira.

"I know." She grinned and I smiled, until someone sat next to me.

This arrangement was not a good one. I have a feeling it was purposely set up to get me accustomed to my new "friends" and "neighbors" and things like that. Whatever the reason, I was not enjoying it. I shifted over so there was six inches between me and Angus and Moira had already switched with Tom so I wasn't exactly surrounded.

After dinner there was...dancing. The joy. I watched, amused out of my brain, alone. Well, until the familiar British accent spoke from behind me.

"Dance?"

It was one word and it made me laugh so hard. I kept it quiet to be a little polite. I nodded and gave him my hand.

"How much?"

"Thirty bucks." He grinned.

"I want a cut."

"Aw! Then I get less!" He teased and we begun dancing slowly, we weren't really dancing so much as talking and swaying really. Surprisingly, I was okay with it, but Ben wasn't quite as dominant as Lucas had been so really...

"Gee, you're a real rocket scientist, Ben."

Someone coughed one of those "eh-em" interruptions and we stopped. I watched as Ben's eyes turned slightly lighter and I kind of shied away from him before turning around to see Angus' green eyes were...brighter than they should be. I stepped backwards once. Panicking was never good to do in these situations.

They started glaring at each other, which they shouldn't considering Ben wasn't very dominant at all, and my eyes widened. I jumped out of the way just in time as water-ice cold-drenched them from head to toe. I turned only to bump into the thrower.

"Thanks." I mumbled.

"Don't mention it." Mercy nodded and patted me on the head. "Juice works too."

I took a breath and walked back to the two startled wolves.

"Go dry off." I pointed angrily to the bathrooms, "And when you come back I want you to apologize in a NORMAL way to each other and to Mercy. Do I make myself clear?"

They nodded.

"Then go!"

So they did.

It was ten minutes later when they reappeared miraculously dry. I wondered idly if the men's room had spare clothing or something in case of this happening. They apologized, of course, it only took a little bit of a shove.

"Will you please dance with me?" Angus asked innocently. I groaned.

"After what you just did?" I thought for a moment, "NO!" Actually, to be honest, my real problem was the thought of him touching me. He was high enough in the rankings of the continent, I was not going to let him near me.

"Just for the heck of it."

I gritted my teeth. He was making this so much more complicated than it needed to be. I spun around to give him an angry comment, but when I opened my mouth, nothing came out.

He was giving me the damned puppy dog eyes. No pout, just the eyes. They were all sad and depressed and stuff.

"Oh..." I softened for a moment before crossing my arms across my chest. "NO!"

He raised an eyebrow as if to challenge my decision and I pursed my lips.

"Fine." This was not going to end well, "Just...eighth grade dancing. None of this fancy stuff that I can't manage."

It was really because I felt I could run better if we were dancing like that.

He nodded and I followed him onto the crowded dance floor. Just as he moved to hold me, I jumped back. In response he put his hands up and even with his ribcage, showing me he had nothing and meant no harm, not unlike the way you'd approach a startled animal.

"Alex, I won't hurt you." He said softly, soothingly, he made no move towards me however.

I blinked and nodded. Taking a breath, I stepped forward slowly and rested my arms on his shoulders, just close enough I could touch my wrists together behind his neck. His hands touched my waist lightly and I flinched, jumping closer in a bad attempt to avoid the contact. He let go and I settled down.

"Alex, easy." He breathed in my ear and I felt him place his hands on me. My rapid breathing began to slow. If my arm had been broken I wouldn't be in this mess. Of course, it could only be dislocated.

We swayed back and forth carefully as "Smile" by Uncle Kracker began to play on the stereo.

Jesse and her "long time boyfriend" Gabriel were dancing the same, awkward way. Jesse raised an eyebrow and I gave her a look that told her I ad no idea what had just happened. She laughed a little and went back to talking with Gabriel. I watched them until the song was over and I found myself half asleep on Angus' shoulder. I was startled with my new findings and jumped back, stumbling a little and hitting my head, most likely on Angus' chin.

I walked quickly back to the table and saw Tom staring at me. Even more scared now, I paused and headed for Bran's table. I stopped halfway there and decided maybe I just needed a break. So, in the end, I sat outside.

Change was...not always good.