OK so I know that I have been away for a while and I'm so so sorry. I've been so busy and I haven't had time to write. But I hope that this chapter will make up for it. Again I am so sorry.

Enjoy

A new life? Really? I stared at Jacob as if he had 3 heads. This couldn't possibly be… Is he for real?

"Jake," I said. "My life is here with you and the pack, Billy, my parents, Jace and Mackenzie." I could never let the thought of leaving enter my mind.

"I'm not saying you have to run off and marry Derek but I'm saying that there's a possibility that everything's that's happened to you these past couple of years was kind of blessing in disguise…

More like a curse.

"And that it's led to this moment for a reason, because maybe fate wanted you to have better than this."

"And how is being in an arranged marriage any better?"

"I… Look, I'm not a fortune-teller, but I do know that in the end everything will be okay, no matter what you choose."

I had to sit back and assess. After all I've been through there's no way this could be any better. I couldn't just accuse Jacob of telling me to marry Derek and leave everyone else here. I knew that it killed Jacob to say it. But there was something in me that thought he wanted me to leave and marry this man. And then there was a part of me that believed that I was meant to have a new life; a life where I could be happy with a husband and maybe some children.

No matter how much I thought about it, I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that my parents set me up with someone I haven't seen since I was 2.

I rolled my eyes, folded my arms and sat back in my seat. There was just no fucking way.

After my assessment of our conversation, I unbuckled my seat belt, got out of the car, and Jake to come out as well. He got out and looked at me, encouraging me to walk to my impending doom. I let out a small sigh and started walking towards the front door with Jacob following not too far behind. As I stepped on the porch, the attrition of my confidence grew stronger and I felt shy about going into the house and seeing my parents. All I could think about as what they were going to say once I walked through that front door and how they wound punish me for how disrespectful I'd been. I took a deep breath and looked at Jake.

"You ready?" he asked, his face etched with concern.

"As ready as I'll ever be," I replied. I really needed to get a grip. But could you blame me for acting so squeamish?

Jacob put a hand on my shoulder to show his support and trying to assuage my stress. "You know that I'm here right? I'll always be here for you, I promise."

I nodded and said nothing because I knew if I did I'd burst into tears and I'd like to save the waterworks for my conversation with my parents. I swore if I cried enough my tear ducts would dry up.

"I know," I said, still trying to keep it together.

He then pulled me into his arms and hugged me as tight as he could. I wished that the gesture would sooth the pain, but it wasn't that simple. He finally let go, looked at me, and smiled.

"I'll see you later okay."

"Okay." I smiled as he rustled my hair.

"Bye Avie," he said as he walked back to his car.

"Bye Jake."

I turned around, unlocked the door, and walked into the house, just waiting for the shouting to begin.

"Ava?" I heard from the living room. "Is that you?"

"Yeah," I said. "It's me."

As I closed the front door, there was a pause in my mother's response. Maybe she was trying to get her bearings together or she could have been plotting 1,001 ways to kill me for running off; who knows.

I walked into the living room slowly to see my mom on the couch waiting for me to come in. When she lifted her head to look at me, she let out a sigh of relief and before I knew it, she was in front of me, hugging me as tight as she could.

"I was so worried about you," she said, letting out a cry that I was all too familiar with because I'd been doing it for the past 24 hours.

"I know, mom," I said. "I'm sorry." I wished that I could say something else to say. The words were all there, but I couldn't get them out. It was like this venal part of my brain wouldn't let me say them for some reason.

She pulled away and looked me in the eyes. "It's okay. All that matters is that you're home and you're safe."

I nodded.

"Come, let's sit in the living room and talk," she said as she pulled me into the room.

I sat on the couch across from mom. Memories of last night played through my head. I looked around the room.

"Where's dad?" I asked.

"I told him to go to the council building and request a few anthologies on lycans so you could learn more about Derek's abilities."

I suppressed an eye roll.

"Anthologies?" I asked. "Why do I have to read this stuff? Why can't I just ask Derek about his abilities and the history of lycanthropy?"

My dad gave me a pointed look as if asking me to stop being stubborn and humor him. Knowing that the last thing I wanted to do was implement was an argument, I shrugged and held out my hands for the books, only to have two heavy ass books plopped in my arms.

Rude.

"Take those and read them. We'll discuss them when you're done."

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Fine, I'll read them. All I'm saying is why read books when I can get the info directly from the source."

"Ava please," mom pleaded. "Don't argue. Just read."

"Ok," I say. And without a second thought, I walked out of the living room and upstairs too my bedroom. I placed the books on my bed and closed my door.

I really didn't feel like being bothered with this crap. I don't even wanna marry this guy, let alone read about lycanthropy.

I shook my head, sat on the bed, cracked open one of the books and started to read the first page.

'A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope is amythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction'

This should be very interesting...

Wow. Just...wow.

I could not believe all of the things that I've learned in just a few short hours. I thought that our pack of wolves and the Lycans were one in the same but we're not. We may have some similarities but we are totally different.

I learned that in the ancient times, when a person has committed a crime they are brought to certain venues for trial and as punishment they would inflict what they called a curse upon them. It was also said that they were called werewolves because that is what most humans encountered, however lycanthropes can have aspects of any animal in existence.

Soon the children that were born to these werewolves would have the gene.

The 'packs' would not live in civilization because they would be looked down upon. So the alpha of the pack would be the proprietor of the land that each pack would live on.

They were migrants and would have to move often because of the hunters. These people were not like us. We were made to protect. They were made to be killers.

I needed more time to think about this, because this was so overwhelming.

I sat on my bed, thinking about everything I had just read. I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't.

Suddenly, I was eager to talk to my parents about this. But at the same time, I wanted to avoid them, just so I wouldn't have to confront the issue right away. There were just so many things to think about and little time to do it and it was just so overwhelming. I just put my head in my head and let out a loud groan, looking for some type of clarification as to what I was feeling at this exact moment.

Then there was a knock on the door.

"Ava," I heard mom's muffled voice through the door. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah mom I'm fine, I'll be downstairs in a minute."

"Ok," she said. I heard her pause for a minute, then headed for the stairs.

I shook my head, trying to get myself together before going to talk to my parents about this. I then stood up, opened the door, and walked through, taking deep breaths as I walked towards the steps.

I closed my eyes telling myself that I had to be strong, even though I was weak. So putting on my bravado, I walked down the stairs and toward the living room.

As I walked into the room, my parents looked up at me. My mom's face was etched with worry and concern while my dad's face had firmness about it. As if the disposition he showed wasn't his own.

I sat down on the couch and threw my hands in the air as if I were disinterested.

"So… let's talk."

"We want to know how you feel about this Ava," my mom says after a pregnant pause. "We know that you may have questions and we'd be more than happy to answer them."

"Okay," I said. "I just have one question."

"Yes," dad says.

"If these people are said to be vicious killers, why would you have me marry one of them?" I propped my elbows on my knees and sat my chin my chin in my hands and looked at my parents as if I'm saying 'Don't worry I'll wait.'

"The Hales aren't killers, Ava," dad said with a stern voice. "They are good people."

"And just how would you know that?"

"We've been friends with them for years!"

I was seriously getting tired of all the yelling and fighting. It was starting to get old.

"Dad please. I just want to have a normal conversation without it turning into a contagion of screaming."

Not to mention the fact that he still hasn't apologized for slapping me.

He looked at me so strangely. There is was again, his alter ego, the person who was corporally my father but mentally it just wasn't him. I always hated seeing this side of him. It scared me to no end.

"Fine."

"Ok, let's say that the Hales aren't the bad ones, you have no idea what Derek is like now. He could be a bad person and you would even know it."

I don't think that my parents would relegate me to the role of being the wife of someone who kills people. I swear my parents are insane!

One would think that with all I've been through, no one in my family would want to put me through another crisis.

"I don't think I can handle this," I said. "This is too much for me."

My father looked at me with a mix of disappointment and concern. "What do you mean by too much?"

"I mean that I can't marry Derek."

"Ava," mom started.

"No!" I cut her off. "You know I'm still waiting for you guys to pop up and say that you tricked me and everyone was in on it."

"This is no joke, Ava," dad said sternly.

"Then what is this then? Why am I marrying this man? Why did you wait so long to edict this to me?"

"We wanted to wait until you were mature enough to understand. Believe me; this hasn't been any easier on us than it has been on you."

I looked at my mother and sighed. "Is this why the both of you have been acting so weird lately?" I asked.

After my 18th birthday, my parents had been acting very strange. Being very cryptic and secretive, giving me weird looks and acting as if they wanted to tell me something but they couldn't. All of the weird things they would say to me that just made me uncomfortable. It all made sense now.

"Yes," my mom said, looking quite ashamed. "We wanted to tell you so badly, but we wanted to make sure you were ready."

"Mom," I started, trying to figure out a way to say this without being disrespectful. "I don't think I would have ever been ready for something like this. I mean arranged marriage? Don't you think that's a little extreme? And then dad is telling me that I have to get used to it, because this is my life now, but you never once considered how I felt, you know since I'm the one that's supposed to get married and all. That's fucked up about this situation."

My mother automatically scowled at me because of my bad language, but I didn't care. This was my time to say how I felt about the situation. Not to sound self-centered, but this was about me after all.

"Don't you think that we considered how you'd feel when we decided to go through with this?" dad asked, and of course his bad mood hadn't changed. "We wanted you to live your life and be happy and when the Hales came to us with their dilemma, we felt that this was the only way to help."

"By forcing me to marry someone I don't know."

"Our ancestors used to arrange marriages all the time."

I looked at my father as if he's grown an extra head. "Dad it is 2013 and I am an 18 year old girl who wants to live her life first before I think about marrying anyone!"

"Don't you dare raise your voice!" he shouted, rising to his feet, but I didn't shrink back, not this time.

"What do you suggest then? Huh? What am I supposed to do? Where is my say in all of this?"

"I think you've said all that you need to say."

"What do you get out of this, huh? Seeing me miserable. Does it make you happy? Do you have some sort of fetish for causing pain to the people you love?"

It wasn't my intent to anger my father, but it just hurt so much that my own parents would do something like this to me. Tears were starting to flood my vision. I honestly don't think that he feels the pain that I feel, nor does he care.

Suddenly his expression changed. His cold, dark expression turned to a warm and compassionate one. He this sat next to me and enveloped me into a big hug. I wanted to pull away from him but I was just too weak to and right then I just broke down in his arms.

"Oh baby girl, my mission was never to hurt you. I hate to see you in pain."

"Why daddy?" I cried "why did you do this to me?"

I was absolutely conflicted and I just wanted this to be over and I'd do anything for that to happen.

Anything.

Hey everyone. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the fact that it's longer than the last chapter but I didn't want anyone hanging soooooo I decided to give you a little something.