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Nick's POV

(Right After Their Kiss)

I leaned my forehead against Rachel's as I tried to catch my breath. I had wanted to do that for as long as I could remember. Then I realized that she might not have approved of the kiss. I pulled my head back enough to determine her reaction. It seemed she was floating at first, then she remembered something and she frowned. I stepped away, placing air between us.

I knew she probably was not frowning about me, but I was a little embarrassed. Therefore, I mumbled out my excuses and made my escape. I have to get away from this girl, before I ask her to marry me right now.

I sighed as I remembered that that would be impossible anyway, her social status being what it is. I had resigned myself a long time ago to being only friends with her; even though I loved her, more than anyone knew.

I am not supposed to love her though it is against the rules. I thought to myself.

The first time I had to face the fact that I could never love Rachel was when I became her official bodyguard. I was about fifteen, she was thirteen, Rachel and I weren't extremely close then, but we knew of each other, considering our fathers were the only ones that didn't come back from that war. Later I found that we had both dealt with our pain very differently; she had locked herself in her father's room and become depressed, I had gone to the woods and killed animals with my bow.

One day, as I was walking out my door to go to the forest, my mother stopped me saying, "Nicholas, will you please accompany me today? I have a few patients that are being… stubborn. I think you could help me with them." This was normal, my mother often asked me to help her with some illness or another. Therefore, I agreed to go with her instead of to the woods.

We came to a house that I faintly recognized but I could not place who lived inside. My mother paused in the yard, looked up at the second story window, and sighed. Then she continued on, when we came to the door she lifted her fist to knock, but ended up just walking right in. Now this was abnormal, she never walked right in unless the person that was sick was near death.

I took a deep breath; praying the person was not dieing. I had never been good with death. She continued upstairs. However, I paused just inside the door. The lamps and candles were all out, giving the house an empty feeling. It was creepy, so I then hurried after my mother.

I looked around at the top of the stairs, unsure of which door my mother had entered. When I finally opened the right door, the sight froze me. there was a girl around my age, curled in a loose fetal position in the middle of a massive bed. She was wearing a knee length black dress, her thick dark brown curls made a shade, covering her face, and there was a strange quiver to her shoulders. She looked extremely vulnerable and weak, making me want to protect her.

I stepped cautiously forward, not wanting to scare her. I gently brushed the hair back from her face, she sobbed as she looked up at me. I looked into her eyes; a pain was there that rekindled my own grief. I felt a strange unbreakable bond form in that one second.

I glanced up to find my mother's eyes trained on me, she had tears falling down her face, but she quickly wiped them away. She walked over with a thermometer, and gently tucked it in the girl's mouth, as it rose above the hundred mark I wondered what was wrong with her. I remembered mother walking right through the door, and I sullenly realized she might be dieing.

Nevertheless, such a healthy looking girl would not be dieing it must be something else. I thought to myself, suddenly I wanted very badly to know what was wrong with her, so that I could help her in some way.

I grabbed my mothers hand and pulled her into the hall, shutting the door behind me. I turned to her and asked urgently, "What's wrong with her?"

My mother looked at me for a time before saying "Her father died, she is depressed." She paused and took my hand again. Looking into my eyes, she said the last thing I expected to hear. "That girl's second name is Saventia."

I sucked in a sharp breath. She is one of The Hidden. I thought, shocked. "Is she-"

My mother nodded, but then she quickly corrected me. "She doesn't know though, her mother was a friend of mine, and she wanted her daughter to live a normal life before being thrust into the wolfish society world." Then she looked at me pointedly, "You must not tell her. Do you understand? The reason I brought you here today is because her father was the one your father died trying to save."

I stared at her, hardly able to take it all in.

"Nicholas, I need you to protect her. She is all alone in the world, and she is making herself sick with grief. She has not eaten in a while; do you think you could try to get a bowl of soup down her? She seemed to be comfortable around you." I nodded in reply, and as I fed her spoonful by spoonful, she watched my every move with her big brown eyes. I silently promised to protect her as long as I lived, no matter the cost.

I thought of all of this as I slowly walked back to my house, and only when I walked in and my mother greeted me did I stop my daydreaming. I beamed down at her, but she did not smile back. She whispered, "Someone is here to see you, It's that man again, I do not think he is happy."

My smile faded. Did they see us together? I thought as I walked into the sitting room. "Hello again. It has been awhile has it not, Nicholas?" I grimaced, I hated that voice and it's owner.

"What do you want Daniel?" I asked in a menacing tone.

He chuckled, but his face was serious. "I heard you decided to kiss her." He pulled a book off a shelf. Then continued talking. "You see… Nick that presents a problem for us. It is, as you well know, almost her eighteenth birthday. In addition, she will be leaving not long after that. As it turns out, she happens to love you. You could see why that is a problem." He waited expectantly for my answer.

"What do you want me to do about that? I can not just change her feelings for me." I said smugly.

An evil grin spread across his face and he said, "Tell her that you don't love her, break her heart."

"Never!" I snarled through clenched teeth.

He chuckled. "You don't have a choice. She will suffer even more if you do not tell her; remember to make her believe that it is the truth. And Nicholas, the King also says to get to the battle field as soon as possible, he is going to send out a notice tomorrow but he knew I was coming here, and he told me to tell you." With that, he got up and left.

I did not sleep that night, the thought of what I was about to do to Rachel made me nauseous.

When the sun finally rose, and I heard Mother in the kitchen, I got up. I told her I was going to see Rachel today, so she made us a picnic. Then I made my way to Rachel's house. However, when I arrived in the yard, I saw Rachel run out, she did not see me as she ran into the woods. I knew something was wrong, so I followed her. As soon as she hit the tree line though, she seemed to get faster. I was stumbling over roots and trees, but she seemed to be gracefully floating.

For a while, I lost her in a sea of green, but I finally caught up to her, she told me about Matthew and I almost told her about 'The Hidden'.

Then, in only a few minutes, I broke her heart. I only prayed that someday I could repair the damage I had done. As I was finishing my little speech and I saw that she believed me, I felt my heart break also.

We had a picnic in the field. It was the worst picnic ever, and I was really starting to hate this beautiful little field. With its pretty flowers, its amazing color, and the worst part was the perfect woman that sat in the middle of it all.

"God why are you doing this to me?" I whispered when Rachel was far away. "I love her with all my heart; please don't take her away from me."

A little while later when Rachel and I were lying beside each other watching the clouds,

I prayed again. "What do I have to do to keep her?" I waited for an answer. I was not expecting to hear an audible one. "Tell her" I closed my eyes, I felt the sun on my face, and saw the redness of the sun shining through my eyelids. I felt the battle going on inside me, one side told me to tell her it was a lie, but the other told me to keep her safe from those dangerous people.

I turned my head to watch her; she was the most beautiful woman on the face of the earth. Every one knew it; I had heard so many men talking about her, many times I had to restrain myself from knocking people out.

( (A/N) You will never guess which side of the fight inside him won. :)

"I can't stand this any longer." I said as I got up from beside her. I strode over to the opposite side of the clearing, getting as far away as possible.

She looked at me and asked innocently, "What's wrong?"

I spun around and looked at her, she was almost glowing with beauty. I took the sight of her in, she had a dark green dress on, it came to her knees, with some kind of black lacy stuff covering her shoulders and ending at the hem of the dress.

(Please bear with me, I am trying to go at it from a guy's view of clothing.)

Her hair was twisting in all directions, and it was falling down her back in long dark brown ringlets. I could see her big brown eyes from where I was standing. She was what you would call enticing.

I walked with a steady stride around the edges of the clearing, she was in the very middle, so I was able to see her clearly the whole time. Yet I was far enough away that I had to move quite a distance to get to her lips. I started talking while I walked. "Can I ask you a question?"

She lifted her eyebrows, surprised that my tone was almost angry. "Anything." she answered in a small voice.

"Why is it that you are okay about me not loving you?" The words slipped out before I could stop them, I had not planned to say that.

She ran a hand through her hair, thinking. Then she said plainly. "I'm not."

That made me stop walking I stared at her. "You're… not?" My pulse seemed to multiply by a million.

She looked at me and frowned, "Of course I am not, but you have always been utterly altruistic when it comes to me, and if this is what you really want… then I will pretend, for your sake." She sincerely meant every word.

I walked slowly over to her side and lowered myself to the ground. "I'm so sorry it has to be this way. I love you… It's just in a different way than you think." Did it even sound like I truly thought of her like a sister? I had no idea how to sound like I loved her in a different way. However, she seemed to believe it.

She smiled gently, and leaned toward me. My heart stopped, Did she see that I was lying? everything within me wanted to kiss her again, but it was not to be. She stopped leaning and whispered, "It's alright, really. Don't beat yourself up over a little thing like my silly feelings." then her head leaned all the way and landed on my left shoulder, I laid my head on her left shoulder. Wanting to cry about her, she had just made it clear she didn't care a bit weather I loved her or not.

There in the middle of a beautiful field, sitting across from each other with their heads on each others shoulders. Were a man and a woman, who were deeply in love with each other. However, neither one knew the other loved them.

A/N

I answered some of your questions on this chapter I think.

But now there are more questions. (As it should be.)

What is "The Hidden"?

Il ya plus a venir!

Please review!