After the party was over, Collin and Cael stayed in the living room to talk about the "Situation"

Personally I wanted nothing to do with this situation. If it were up to me, it wouldn't even exist. I rolled my eyes as my mom tried to comfort Collin about me liking his son. It was never going to happen!

I caught Cael looking at me with adoration and wanted nothing more than to puke. The only reason he was looking at me like that was because of some stupid werewolf mutated gene. Naturally, I would still be hating him and vice versa.

"So umm, nice whether we're having right?"

I had to scoff at my mom's attempt to stop the awkwardness in the room. Once I realized that nothing was going to get accomplished I rolled my eyes and started for the stairs.

"Charlotte!" My dad called. With a sigh I looked back at him with a tired look on my face.

"Yes?" I asked a little too sarcastically.

My dad raised his eyebrows. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To sleep."

"But we still need to talk." My dad pointed out; slightly nodding his head in the direction of Collin and Cael.

I looked over as Collin looked put out and Cael just looked nervous.

"I'm tired and it's my birthday. I am going to bed. Goodnight." I left no room for discussion.

Everyone looked disappointed in my reaction but I didn't want to think about it. I wasn't happy.

When I walked upstairs, I stopped at Junior's door. My relationship with Junior was different than any of my other brothers. Junior was the oldest and he most resembled dad. I always went to him when I needed advice on serious matters and when I needed comforting. He treating me like the baby sister I was and was so protective of me, even more so than anyone else. I knocked on him door before stepping in. He was lying in bed watching TV and without question I went over to his bed and sat down next to him. He sat up and pulled me into his arms. He softly stroked my head while I thought about everything that happened today.

"What am I going to do?" I asked, sounding almost defeated.

"Whatever you want to do."

"It's not that simple and you know it."

It's true. He did know it. Junior imprinted on 18 year old, Sofia when she was visiting Washington with her family. The problem with that was that Sofia lived in Florida and had no intentions of moving to Washington. She was still finishing school there and intended on going to College there too. Junior of course was heart-broken. After establishing a long-distance friendship with her, he sort of distanced himself from the rest of our family.

We were such a close-knit family but we knew how much this was hurting him.

He looked at me and sighed and just went back to watching TV, with my head on his shoulder.

"I think you should realize that there was a reason that this happened and embrace it. You never know where it may lead you." He said after 10 minutes of silence.

I fell asleep watching TV with him and woke up in my room the next morning.

I hopped in the shower and got ready in a pair of jeans one of my brother's little league jersey that no longer fit. I completely forgot which brother it was though. Across the back it said BLACK so I always loved wearing it. After I was done I knocked on each of my brother's doors willing them to wake up.

I wanted to spend a day with just them like we did every year the day after my birthday.

Today we decided to talk a walk through the woods and have a day in the meadow. Mom and say were okay with it and mom even packed us all a lunch. She kissed us all on the cheek before we left, even Junior. No matter how old we got, we would always be her babies.

This day was my absolute favorite kind of days. I would just spend the day with my brothers with no interruptions, just us having fun like when we were kids. Junior insisted on carrying me on his shoulders as we made our way through the woods. Being on his shoulders gave me and enormous height advantage as I picked random things of the trees and aimed them at each of my brothers heads.

"So ducky, what shall we play first? I think football."

"No wrestling!"

"No baseball!"

"HEY!" Junior shouted. "Let ducky pick, it's her day."

They all looked at me as they awaited my opinion.

"I say football, the teams would be even."

"Yes!" Will and Elijah cheered. It was their favorite sport.

We set up the teams as Junior, Me, and Liam. Will, Hunter, and Elijah were on the other team.

The thing about my brothers was that although I was their little sister, when we played sports they knew I could play just as good as them. So once I had the football in my hands, I ran and ran. I was quicker than Elijah as he try to grab onto my waist to try to bring me down but since he couldn't, Will stepped in and tackled me from the side. Me and him tumbled and rolled over the grass, staining all my clothes. The ball was far gone.

"Awww come on! That deserves a penalty. Card him!" Liam yelled

"Who are you talking to, idiot? We have no refs"

Will picked me up from the floor and set me on my feet.

"You okay duck? I didn't hit you too bad did I?"

I shook my head.

We decided to take a break from the game and eat the lunch that mom had packed us.

"So, what are you going to do about Cael?" Hunter asked.

"I don't want him! I just want him to leave me alone. I hate that his whole opinion of me changed around just because of stupid magic."

"But sis, you're going to end up loving him" Elijah said.

I scoffed "Yeah right! Not after all the stuff that kid has put me through."

"But sis-"

"No. I'm done talking about this. You're my brothers. You're supposed to side with me. Always."

I was upset. I felt like I was all alone in this decision and no one supported me.

We cleaned up the mess we made and headed back home. Elijah came up to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. I leaned into him. He was probably the sweetest. He was the actual baby of the family and I always saw the little kid side of him whenever he spent time with me.

When we got home, Junior had to leave for patrol and mom and dad left a note saying that they went out to dinner. I went to my room and decided to watch a scary movie. As soon as it got to scary, Elijah and Liam climbed into bed with me to watch the movie too. They claimed to be there to protect me, but I knew that just used that as an excuse to watch the movie that mom and dad prohibited them from watching.

Will and Hunter slowly made their way to my room too. As much as they hated to admit it, my brothers were saps when it came to family. We loved doing things together and just spending time with each other.

I had enough boys in my life. I didn't want another one.

But this was fate and fate was never predictable. It seemed to hate me at the moment; I could only wish that it wouldn't screw me over again.

X-X

I was so tired. I had no idea I'm usually a morning person but for some reason my whole body was exhausted. My limbs were sore and all I wanted to do was crawl back into bed and sleep. Too bad I was at school in the middle of English. I felt a tug on my heart and looked up to see Cael walking into class.

I wasn't going to lie. He looked like crap. He looked like he was about to fall asleep for exhaustion. His hair was a mess on top of his head that looked like he just rolled out of bed. He sat at the front of the class so I could see when he laid his head down on his arm and fell asleep.

He actually looked cute like that- WHOA WHAT? No I can't think stuff like that. No. NO.

The bell rang and he stayed sleeping. I put all my stuff away and was one of the last people leaving the classroom. No one had woken Cael up yet and I hesitated before walking over to his seat.

His mouth was open slightly and his was quietly snoring. I smirked.

"Cael… Cael wake up. Cael class is over." I shook his shoulder.

"No mom, 5 more minutes." He mumbled. I smiled.

"Cael wake up. Cael it's me, Charlotte."

He jolted up; his dazed eyes searching and then focusing on my face. He looked a little angry at whoever had woken him up but once he saw it was me, his eyes softened.

"Hmm?"

"Cael class is over. You fell asleep."

"Oh. Umm my bad. Thanks for waking me up."

"Yeah. You sure you okay?"

"Yeah yeah I'm fine, just late patrol."

"Oh alright."

"Are YOU okay?" he asked, looking slightly amused and worried at my tired face.

I nodded my head and left the room, I knew Ayden would be outside waiting for me. As if on cue, he was outside the class pulling my backpack off my shoulders and walking next to me.

"Cael had to run a late patrol last night. That's why you probably feel so tired." He looked at me with sympathy.

"Oh so now I have to feel whatever he physically feels too? Awesome."

"You could always call your parents and ask to be signed out. I bet they would let you under the circumstances."

"Yeah I like that, let me call them."

I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed the house phone.

"Hello" My mom's cheerful voice greeted me.

"Hey mom"

"Charlotte? What's wrong sweetie? She asked getting worried.

"Can you sign me out please? I'm really tired."

"Yeah let me just ask your father."

I heard her walk around the house looking for my dad. "Jacob, Charlotte said she's tired and wants to come home."

I could basically hear my dad smirk on the other end of the phone.

"Oh is someone tired from their late night patrol? She can come home… If she brings Cael too. Because I know he has to be exhausted."

I wanted to punch my dad in the face at that moment. I rolled my eyes and looked up at Ayden who looked so amused by this whole conversation.

"Fine! Whatever just sign us out." I snapped the phone shut.

Ayden let out a laugh and I glared at him.

"Alright alright let's go find Cael."

The late bell had already rung so I didn't even bother going to my next class. Ayden had his next period with Cael so we knew which class to go to. I walked in, and thankfully that teacher loved me.

"Can I have Cael please? He's getting signed out." I asked in my most polite voice.

"Sure sweetie not a problem. Cael? You're leaving. Go with Charlotte."

He looked up from his desk and his eyes widened in surprise. He grabbed his backpack and hurried out of class.

"So what are we doing?" He was cut short when he saw Ayden leaning against the wall with my backpack in hand. He rolled his eyes and diverted his eyes to the floor.

"We're going home. Thanks to you I'm tired and I can't be at school like this anymore. But my parents said that if I went home you would have to go home with me."

He seemed a lot happier after that.

"So we're going to your house?" He asked hopefully

"Yeah I guess."

We walked to my truck and I threw my stuff in the back, motioning for Cael to do the same.

"Ayden could you do me a favor and tell the twins to ride with Will and Hunter please?"

"Sure no problem ducky." He smirked.

"Thank you" I said as I hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. I heard Cael growl in the front seat and decided to ignore it.

Cael always had anger issues; he was just going to have to get over it.

I hopped in the driver's seat and pulled out of the school parking lot. The car ride started to have an awkward silence so I just turned on the radio and started to sing along. About halfway through the song I noticed Cael staring at me and I got self conscious.

"What?" I snapped

He looked away sheepishly almost embarrassed about getting caught. "Nothing." His tan cheeks soon became pink.

"Are you blushing?" I asked with a smirk. Cael never blushes. Never.

He just turned his head away from me and stared out the window.

I pulled into the driveway and put the car in park. I reached into the back seat to grab my backpack but realized that it had shifter under Cael's seat during the drive. I got on my knees on the driver's seat and leaned into the back to grab the bag. I had to stretch because I could not reach it. Once I grabbed a hold of it I sighed loudly and started to retreat back into my seat. When I started pulling away Cael's face was just a few inches away from mine and my breath caught in my throat. He was staring at my lips and flushed face and then finally my eyes. His beautiful green eyes held onto my brown ones. I wanted to move away put couldn't. He reached his hand up to trace my jaw and cheek bone. Slowly his hand ran down my arms and onto my hip where I realized that the shirt had ridden up. His hand was burning hot but it felt so good up against my skin. He started inching his face closer to mine and his breath fanned across my face. I had to close my eyes as I leaned into his hand. He smelled like mint and pine trees

He looked into my eyes again before something in them changed. His hand that was resting on my hip was now pulling my shirt down and he reached between us to grab my backpack out of my hand. He pulled away from me and slung my backpack over his shoulder. He reached for the handle of the door and started climbing out of the truck. It took me a second before I snapped back to reality and quickly got out of the car.

I was so embarrassed! How could I let him get to me like that? It was going to be so much harder now to convince him that I didn't want him. I groaned.

I opened the door and went straight into the kitchen. Cael stayed by the door not really knowing what to do. On the counter there was a note that read:

We had a tribe council meeting to attention. Behave. We'll be back around 2pm.

-Love Mom and Dad.

Could this get any worse? I looked at the clock and it read 10:30am. There was no way I was going to make it through this. I grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and went back into the living room. Cael was sitting on the couch looking so uncomfortable. I sat on the other end and turned the TV on. After 5minutes of channel surfing I didn't find anything so I turned to give Cael the remote but he was already asleep. His long body took up the "L" part of our couch, his arms draped across the back. I had to stop from smiling. Once I realized that I was about to pass out, I leaned toward the middle of the couch. My head was about a foot away from his chest and my legs were elevated on the arm rest. The last thing I remember is his light snoring.