Hey, dawgs.

So, yeah, it's been busy. And I'm sorry. Three birthdays (all three of the sisters in my family) have come and gone, all seven days apart. I'm not going to give you any dates- stalkers- but they did happen. I've got some Paramore tickets- YES!- a kick-butt new keyboard that feels like a grand piano, and a at least $100 worth of iTunes gift cards. Oh. My. God. I know, right? It's been awesome. A whole bunch of smaller stuff I got too, from family and whatnot, but you're catching my drift.

Okay, so enough about me, and more about Sonny and Chad.

Being the obsessed freak that I am for SWAC, I had to look up the next episode- Sonny With a Secret (Part 1)…I looked ahead and saw SONNY WITH A KISS! ;) I'm sure that you guys looked it up too, I mean, who wouldn't, right? Only people with sense look up. But the next is coming out on July 18th and I'm upset 'cause I was searching desperately for the next episode on Sunday and got sad when there wasn't one airing. Grr. So I'm complaining to you guys about it and not getting on with my story. Grr again. Grr. Grr. Grr. Okay, done with that.

Now let's see some Sonny Chad vampire werewolf stufffff, kay? Kay!

Thanks for reviews once again. I love you all! Yeah…

Chad.

xXx

My paws gripped and ripped at the Earth, pressing down into the dirt on the forest floor. I focused on each thump as I tried to keep my head clear, to no avail. Taking deep, slow breaths I made my way to nowhere. At least, that's what I tell myself.

As I ran, I contemplated whether or not I made a mistake by voicing my thoughts and admitting to Sonny that I wanted to marry her. Every time it flitted through my mind I immediately denied it. Telling Sonny was the opposite of a mistake. Not letting my thoughts in the open would be like not admitting my love for her. It was right. But just not the right time, maybe.

I focused on my breathing and footing, wondering if in my current manner it was too much.

Falling in love with a vampire has made me weak in many ways. Or maybe just the fact that I fell in love was a tad bit much for me. I haven't had time to keep up my skills and habits as a wolf. So many things have come along to distract me, bring me down. I was surprised that it took me a second longer to morph when I ran from Sonny.

She has pulled me left and right- up and down. She has made me incredibly stronger, both emotionally and physically. She has made me a thousand times more confident. She has taught me how to love. How to really, truly, care about something other than my pack and me. And, well, she's done other things too. She's made me feel total and complete heartbreak, pain, depression. She's given me my first headache. She's taught me how to hate completely. She's taught me how to be…whatever I want to be. She's taught me to be me.

When Riley was around I was crippled of all those things. I was forced to be one with my pack- not love them. I was forced to become a wolf- I did not choose. I was forced. It seems so strange to think that it's all over.

Why did I think that? It's not over, I'm taking his horrible place!

Suddenly my body began to tingle, and I felt one of my connections become one with me. I felt Andrew morph.

Immediately I let my mind wander to one of my fiercest growls, but I stopped mid-thought.

I'm not going to yell at you or whatever, he tells me. I feel him- I feel his voice. I can feel his paws against the Earth but it doesn't falter my own. I can sense him- I am him. I am one with the pack. How could I hate them? I don't. I don't hate them. And now that I think about it hard enough, only a small part of me is missing along with Lily's deceased body. But now, it feels even more complete without her around. Now that the mistake is gone, I am one with my brothers, and Jackson will be back to normal. I can still feel him within me in a way no one but another wolf can understand, which means that Sonny didn't kill him that dreaded night. The thought confuses me, but makes me happy no doubt. My brother is not dead. Or better, my brother is alive.

Andrew continues to come into my thoughts. I need to speak with you. It's urgent.

I sort of smile in my mind, but the action is not toward Drew. It is aimed at the absurd turn my life has taken in the past two months. So it's kind of sarcastic. I know, I say simply, and continue around the forest in a blind race to intercept Andrew's steps so we can speak like humans. Uh, like adults.

Step after step I begin to feel even more of something tingley in my veins. I feel him. I feel Jackson.

Then I feel Ryan. I've barely even felt or heard or seen him since the day I was ordered to spy on Sonny.

Then I feel Shaun, who had had a mission for the past month in France to hunt down a bloodsucker who would expose them for what we were. But he was back now.

And with a painful pang of realization I began to understand that there was only five of us left. There were only five wolves left. Me, Jackson, Andrew, Ryan, Shaun. We were the only ones left. The thought overwhelmed me in a way I wouldn't have thought possible.

Sure, we had other packs that were about one-hundred miles away, and we came in contact with them to update each other on any new vampires, threats of exposure, things like that.

It's been eighteen months since we last saw them.

Even with them, us, and the vampires, there would be thirty to thirty-five of us.

Was that enough to keep away the Malexia?

Now, a shiver of fury rolled down my spine. I could now physically feel my brothers on the ground and we were reaching our usual spot of meeting. In the near center of the forest. Everything seemed exactly the same, all smells still intact, all trees still standing tall, all course of nature the same. Except there were some of us missing.

I sighed, morphing as quickly as time would allow and walked the rest of the few feet into the slight opening the trees and the tall rock that riley had placed here to emphasize his status as alpha. I sighed, refusing to go on the rock now.

I was in charge now. I was the alpha.

I blinked.

The wolves entered the opening and morphed.

We stood in silence for three minutes and eight seconds.

"Riley is dead." Shaun stated, having apparently gotten caught up.

I nodded slowly.

"You killed him." He said slowly. His voice was on the verge of yelling, and I could see him shivering.

"Chad." A hoarse voice came to my attention.

I let my arms fall to my sides as I stared, wide eyed at Cindy.

I glared back at my pack accusingly. "Why the hell is she back here?"

"She's been back here ever since the last time Riley called a meeting."

"She hasn't eaten in fourteen months." I whispered to myself. "Yeah, Cindy?"

She just stared at me. I began to walk toward her, undo the chains she was still now to weak to undo.

"What are you doing?" Shaun hissed fiercely, taking a menacingly step toward me before Andrew slapped his hand against his chest. "Stay put," Drew grumbled. Last time you tried to seem in charge you killed three trees and a nest full of baby birds."

I remembered the time Lily had been thrown into a tree by Shaun so forcefully that she knocked another two down that had a few nests in there. It was nasty that day.

"Don't!" Shaun objected.

"Shut up, Shaun." I groaned.

And to my grief, there was silence. I didn't let the fact that I had just forced Shaun to do something get to my head yet because it would overwhelm me. I undid the chains easily as human and stared Cindy in the face.

"Listen to me, Cindy." I said strongly. She didn't make a move to leave, she listened intently. Ever since Sonny came into the picture Cindy has gained a ton more respect for me. "You cannot just leave. You must go straight to Sonny's house." She's seen it in her visions, right? "Do you hear me?"

She nods, smiling softly at me. I stand straight, allowing her to get by. Instead she takes a step toward me and puts a hand to my cheek. I freeze, surprised she had the nerve to touch a werewolf.

"Everything will turn out right, in the end, Chad." She nods. "Everything."

"The future isn't set in stone, Cindy." I repeated the words after two months to a different person. "Things change."

She blinks a few times, tiredly, but keeps a smile on her exhausted face. "You said the same thing to Riley when I told you that you would fall in love with Sonny Monroe."

I stared at her silently.

"I said it will turn out right, Chad." Cindy takes an unnecessary breath. "It will."

She pretty much jogs away because she's so tired, weak, scared. Yet she is so wise.

Everything will turn out right? She didn't say that everything will be perfect in the end, she said right. Right could mean completely different things to each of us. We could all die and to Cindy it would be "right". I knew that she was full of it- visions, I mean- nut she was right about Sonny and I. I was afraid to think about what else she could be right about.

I wonder if she's strong enough not to kill a human on the way home? Hmm.

I turned back to my pack.

"You kill Riley." Shaun yells. "And you release the prisoner?"

"Please don't speak, Shaun."

"Please," Jackson scoffed. "If he hadn't, I would. He abused us and his power in so many ways. Now all we can do is watch and see if Chad does too."

"That's just it, guys." I sighed. "I will try my hardest not to abuse my power as alpha now, and I promise not to hurt you…We're brothers." I smiled. "And together we can fix all this crap up, okay?"

My wise speech consists of some slang. Yeah, sorry.

Ryan snorted. "What? The vampire kings or whatever you call them? They're nothing."

"They've been living for more than a thousand years and have a hundred vampires or more on their side. We're nothing to them."

"You don't think we can do it?" Drew asked seriously.

"You don't think we can do it?" Jackson, for the billionth time in his life, overestimated his skills and was more confident than serious.

"Not if we stand here and talk about it." I shrugged.

"Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa." Shaun puts his hands up. "I am not risking my life for your girlfriend who just so happens to be my enemy."

"Shaun." I said sharply. "You are part of the pack. All five of us are one. We are one. Can you not understand that? You are the pack, you are also in danger. I don't care at all if you don't want to fight for my girlfriend, 'cause she has me. So, why don't you fight for your own life, and we'll see how far along you get?"

His jaw is hard. "Been gone for a month," He grumbles. "And come back to be greeted with death. Sweet."

"Well," Drew shrugged. "It's what we were created for. Death."

"Wrong." I said. "We were created for life."

For a moment we were silent.

"Well then," Jackson smiled. "Okay."

"What?" I was sure it wouldn't be so easy.

"I'll kill some more bloodsuckers. Might boost my ego a bit." He cracked his knuckles and cackled mysteriously. I rolled my eyes.

"Drew?" I asked.

It was a moment before Drew said: "Duh."

"Shaun?"

His jaw was so tight I thought it would crack. "Fine," He spit out.

I smirked. "Good."

"Good." They all nodded.

Again, there was silence.

"Well," I smacked my hands together and rubbed them from their sweaty being of nerves. "Let's go see if Cindy got home okay or if she slaughtered all of Hollywood."