"I appreciate everything." I whispered to Mercy when we hugged good-bye. I looked at Adam. "Really."

He nodded. Mercy smiled.

"We'll see you sometime, kiddo. Don't go getting yourself into trouble." She ruffled my hair.

"Don't tell the kid to do something you wouldn't." Adam laughed.

"EEK!" I screeched as Jesse flung herself onto me. "Jesse! I can't breathe!"

"Then stop wasting your breath telling me that!" She rolled her eyes and let go.

"You couldn't have given me ANY warning?"

"Nope!" She smiled, then frowned. "You're leaving. You're ditching me."

"I am not, stop making me feel bad." I laughed.

"Yes, you are! And now I'll need to get your whole new address and stuff! What if I need to invite you to something? AND YOU'RE NOT HERE?"

"I'll be here." I shrugged, "I'm only in Seattle, Jess, no worries."

"Yeah but you're living on an official territory now!" She complained, looking at her father and rephrasing, "I mean, like, you'll be locked in with a white witch and weird wolves and an AIRPORT! Hey, dad, we should get one!" She turned to look at him, then back to me. Adam looked amused. "They have their own little city like in Montana! What if you forget about me?"

"I will not forget about you! I'll come back for when you and Gabriel finally get married."

She did that thing where you press your lips together and fold them into your mouth and bite them. She did it whenever she was nervous.

"Right...okay...well that hasn't actually been made clear yet. One can drop only so many hints."

I laughed when I saw Adam and Mercy's expressions to Jesse's clarifications.

"And invite me up when you get a date." She reminded, "I wanna help plan your outfit."

I rolled my eyes.

"Okay sure, not saying it will happen."

She grinned.

"Jesse..." I looked at her like she was insane, "Er...I don't like that look. Please don't do anything stupid."

She looked at me innocently and said in that little baby voice. "Oh, I won't do aanytin! I'm a wittle innocent babay."

"Uh-huh...okay...whatever you want to think." I nodded. I looked at all of them. "I'll see ya!"

The car ride was mayhem, too many of us. There was one white witch, an alpha, a second, and a dingo, it wasn't going to end well to begin with! I was stuck in the front because it was either that or in back with the mated pair and that is suicidal. Of course, in the front I'm stuck with the alpha and I was pretty much doing all I could do to keep any part of him from coming within a two foot distance of me.

"Favorite color?" Moira asked me.

I didn't know. Black or blue?

"Either black or blue."

She nodded. I watched, amused. I wondered how a blind witch could be so...hyper.

The song on the radio ended and I recognized the new one. It was from October 2009, I know things about my favorite songs. I reached shyly over to turn it up.

"I should have known by the way you passed me by, there was something in your eyes and it wasn't right." I sang softly. "I should have walked but I never had the chance, everything got out of hand and I let it slide.

'Now I only have myself to blame for falling for your stupid games
I wish my life could be the way it was before I saw your face"

I closed my eyes against the tears that were bound to fall.

"You stole my happy, you made me cry, took the lonely and took me for a ride and I wanna uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-undo it. You had my heart, now I want it back I'm starting to see everything you lack. Boy, you blew it, you put me through it, I wanna uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-undo it!"

I felt the eyes on me as I continued.

"Now your photos don't have a picture frame, and I never say your name and I never will. And all your things, well I threw them in the trash
and I'm not even sad! Now you only have yourself to blame for playing all those stupid games. You're always gonna be the same and, oh no, you'll never change."

I sang the whole song and when I finished there was silence except for the radio.

"Where'd you learn to sing like that?" Moira asked, stunned.

"Bran used to sing to me...I caught on."

"You're really good." She smiled encouragingly.

"Ha, not really, but thanks."

XXX

I threw my bags down on the floor of my new hallway. The house smelled like fresh wood and paint, Moira had taken the liberty to inform me the house had never been lived in and had been repainted and fixed up a little before I moved in. Of course there were the scents of the workers who brought my stuff in, all wolves. I smiled, it was a nice change.

The wood burned under my fur when I slid down the hall. I heard the smash when I crashed into the wall, the thud when the picture fell on top of me, the searing pain everywhere. I saw the blood that had pooled at the bottom of the table when he kicked me again. I felt the numb sensation when my head smashed into the leg of the table.

I looked around, startled to see I was on the floor.

The furniture needed to be re-aranged. Definitely.

So I did. I washed everything I had touched that night and I moved it, settling on a new arrangement that worked perfectly. It was scary how perfectly the hallway had almost completely matched.

I ran upstairs to see the other rooms. My room was huge, obviously the master bedroom. I would've liked it smaller, but this worked fine. It was painted maroon and I kind of liked it.

The room across from it was small, sunlight in the day time, I could tell. It was only 4:00 am with no sun, but the windows pointed to a cheery morning picture.

It was perfect for a nursery.

"Mercy," I croaked, curled up in the bathroom, having cried my eyes out. Mercy had stayed behind from the hunt because I had asked. I had known this was going to happen. She came in quietly and sat down next to me, holding me to her and letting me sob. "I-I lost it."

My head was dizzy and I left the room, closing the door behind me and locking it from the outside. If everything I did was going to do this to me, death was a better option.

I resolved to go to sleep and see what happened in the morning.

Nothing happened in the morning, I was surprised. I had thought it'd have been like my initial visit here, terrible. I had thought maybe there would be more run-ins with the wolves who seemed to hate e ten times more than the wolves from anywhere else I had ever visited.

And...I had honestly kind of hoped Angus would come to see me.

Of course, it was stupid, and I didn't really know why I wanted it. I was still pretty much terrified of him, especially because if I'm not mistaken, it was his fault I had fallen asleep on his shoulder.

Stupid alphas and their stupid magical...magical-ness.

The doorbell ring and I went to answer it calmly. I was changed, but I hadn't done my hair.

"Come on! We're going shopping!" I was dragged out the door by Moira.

"Okay, I guess I'm going shopping!" I laughed. It was going to be a long day.

XXX

"Angus, it is none of your concern!" I snapped, looking behind me by using the mirror I was looking at to put my earrings on. I turned around and found out that the objects in the mirror were closer than they appeared because I knocked into the idiot himself. I jumped backwards and definitely bruised my back on the table. He gave me the room and I ran past, settling in the middle of the hall where he couldn't corner me.

"It is my concern when my neighbor is going on a date with a stranger." He growled.

"He is NOT a stranger!" I rolled my eyes, "He's an old friend and it's not a date, I just haven't seen him in a while. Dear God, Angus, calm down."

He raised an eyebrow.

"You're telling me to calm down?"

"Yes!" I yelled, "Do you not understand basic English? I said CALM DOWN. Even if it was a date, it is none of your business and I can make my own choices!"

"Look where that's gotten you in life!" He yelled back.

I winced.

"I think it'd be best if you left." I whispered, reaching for the door. I opened it.

"Alex, I-"

"Leave. Now." I said coldly. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he never did. He left, leaving me to redo my make-up after crying it off. My life was so damn complicated.