Chapter 2

It was four weeks into the new semester and Annie was already swamped with all the coursework. She had to cancel her lunch with Clay because she was spending her lunch locked in a study room in the library with her lab partner Ben going over material for the test coming up Friday. Grace and Bridget were supposed to join them, but they had suddenly bailed at the last minute. Being alone with Ben had made Annie feel nervous, and not in a good way. He had been giving Annie more attention since the start of term last fall, giving her the idea that he wanted to be more than friends. Regardless of her nerves she agreed to study with him, she really needed to pass this test. Several hours after they had initially met books and notes were splayed over the table and an empty Taco Bell bag Ben had brought for them lay on the floor behind them.

"I am never going to know everything by this Friday." Annie insisted, resting her forehead on the notes in front of her.

"You're smart Annie. You're going to ace it and you know it." Ben insisted, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. Feeling a little uncomfortable with the contact Annie sat up, shrugging off Ben's hand. He had been doing that more and more as of late, something Annie hadn't appreciated.

"I think it's time for a break." Annie needed a break from Ben more than from studying. She was no longer as comfortable remaining in the confined study room with him. "My cousin is on campus and I promised I'd drop in to say hi,"she lied as she started stuffing her notes back in her bag. To her disappointment Ben rose with her, claiming he'd walk her to Clay's office.

The sun was just starting to set. If Annie wanted to keep the pretense of visiting Clay she had to pick up the pace. He usually left around 6. Ben kept pace right along with her until they were outside Clayton's office. His door was shut, but she could hear him shuffling papers inside. He hadn't left yet, thank goodness. Just as she was about to knock, Ben's hand pulled on her wrist, stopping her. Sighing in frustration she turned around, only to be met with his lips on hers. Annie really needed to stop turning around with men behind her as that was the second time it had resulted in a kiss. Though Annie didn't even contemplate returning Ben's kiss. Instead she pushed him abruptly away.

"What the Hell Ben?" Annie rounded on him once he stumbled backwards a few steps. Admittedly Annie had probably pushed him a little harder than need be. "Where did that come from?"

"Are you serious?" Ben retorted, seeming more angry than embarrassed. "You're the one who asked me to the study date."

"Study date doesn't mean an actual date Ben. It means 'let's study for this huge test we both have because two sets of notes are better than one.'" Annie was genuinely surprised that Ben had considered her asking him to study with her as a date. How was studying even remotely construed as romantic in the least?

"I brought lunch, made sure Grace and the others didn't tag along. I even walked you to your cousin's office." And he thought that earned him a kiss? That it meant she liked him? Ben had been an alright lab partner and a decent friend, but Annie had thought she had been perfectly clear that any feelings she had towards him were purely platonic. Before Annie could inform Ben of any of that Clay's office door clicked open.

"Everything all right out here?" His arms were crossed, making his muscles bulge. It was an intimidation technique he used. Normally Annie made fun of him for it, but she was more than thankful for it at the moment as it had managed to get rid of Ben. Ben ended up muttering something about seeing Annie later before making his way back down the hall. Relieved that it was all over Annie turned to Clay, planning on thanking him before she noticed his arms were still crossed.

"Care to explain why you ditched lunch with me for him?" He asked, he was using his gruff, angry voice he normally saved for misbehaving Mutts. "Or perhaps you'd like to explain it to Nick?" Annie's stomach dropped at that. It was just a stupid kiss she hadn't initiated, reciprocated, nor wanted. Wouldn't that mean she didn't have to tell Nick?

"It's not like that, and you know it. You heard our conversation. We were only studying." There was no need to hurt or anger Nick over nothing.

"Studying that led to kissing." Clay wasn't backing down. Truth was, he was angrier with the human than with Annie, but the human wasn't there anymore.

"He kissed me. It was not mutual. It was nothing." Annie knew it didn't matter in Clay's eyes. All Clay cared about at that moment was protecting both pack and Nick. "You're really going to make me tell him? You really want to upset him for nothing?" Clay's muscles moved as he readjusted his position to let his hands fall down to his side.

"Just stay away from the human." And then neither of them will have to tell Nick. That's what Clay hadn't said. Even though he didn't say it, Annie knew what he meant and she felt a rush of relief flow over her.

With a nod of her head Clay immediately dropped the intimidation act. He offered to take Annie for dinner, but she declined claiming she had more studying to do, alone this time. They parted ways in front of her dorm building with Clayton saying he would see her on Friday. And Annie did end up seeing him on Friday, just not for lunch as she had expected. Clayton found her as she was leaving the exam hall with her classmates. Ben was beside her, but she was obviously trying to keep her distance as she had been ignoring him and talking with a blonde on her other side. As soon as Ben noticed Clay he fell a few steps behind Annie.

"We need to talk." Clay interrupted as Grace was answering Annie's question. Annie had known he was there, had smelled him when she had left the hall. Which was why she was pointedly only talking with Grace and not Ben. With a goodbye to her friends Annie followed Clay to his office. He didn't speak until the door was shut tight behind them.

"Jeremy sent a message for everyone to call him. Something's happened." He was already dialing Jeremy's number on his office phone.

"What's happened Clay?" Annie didn't hide the worry in her voice. Jeremy only contacted the whole pack when he needed them home. And normally he didn't need them home for anything good.

"Clay, is Annie there?" Jeremy's voice answered over the speaker.

"I'm here. What's going on? Is everyone okay?" Jeremy didn't answer in much detail. There was a girl killed by a Mutt close to home. He was calling everyone home. "Everyone?" Annie asked, her thoughts going to Elena. Annie knew Elena wouldn't come back unless by force. Even then, Annie doubted whether Elena would go.

"Everyone." Jeremy confirmed. Glancing up at Clay, Annie saw his pain for the split second he let his wall down. When he realized she was staring the wall went right back up. "I'll expect both of you here tonight."

"Maybe I should go to Toronto. Try to convince Elena to come back with me." Annie suggested. She was immediately shut down by both Clay and Jeremy. Jeremy claiming it was more likely Elena would come home if Annie was there. Clay claiming if Annie went, Elena would try to convince her to stay in Toronto with her rather than Annie convincing Elena to leave.

"I'll see you both in a couple hours." Jeremy's last order rang with authoritativeness before he hung up. Annie had no choice, she would go home with Clay that night. Hopefully they could get all of it sorted before the weekend came to an end. If not Annie would need an excuse for missing classes.

Clayton was a fast driver, especially when he was in enforcer mode. They arrived at Stonehaven in just over an hour and a half. Clay immediately started in on how he could take care of the Mutt by himself, but Jeremy wouldn't hear of it. While they continued to 'discuss' it Annie dragged her duffle upstairs to her room. She methodically put away the things she had brought, it helped ease her nerves slightly. What would have really helped would be to go for a run, but she doubted if Jeremy would let her go alone—either on two legs or four—what with the attacks. Instead she took a long, hot shower. Like the unpacking, it only helped but so much. She remained in her room until nightfall, not wanting to be stuck in the middle of a heated discussion between Jeremy and Clay. Dusk had just settled when Annie heard the car pulling into the drive from her bedroom, then the voices from downstairs. Antonio and Nick had arrived.

Clay greeted both father and son with a hug when they arrived. Nick let his eyes drift over the room, silently searching for Annie. Clay seemed to know what he was doing because when he caught Nick's gaze he made a show of rolling his eyes.

"She's upstairs." Clay answered the question he knew Nick was wondering.

Before Nick could even think to move towards the stairs Annie was descending them. She took them two at a time, heading straight to Nick once she reached the entry hall and wrapping her arms around him. Holding on tight as he wrapped his own arms around her in a welcoming hug, Annie realized just how much she had missed him as she breathed in his familiar scent. Antonio and Clay stood silent for several minutes, letting the two have their moment, before Antonio cleared his throat and demanded it was his turn for hello. Blushing Annie went to hug Antonio, not noticing the questioning look he sent his son.

"How are you, little Principessa?" Antonio asked, smiling fondly down at the small brunette that stood before him.

"Good, now that I'm with family." Annie answered with a quick sideways glance at Nick. Antonio didn't miss it, and he would have questioned his son about it if there weren't more pressing issues at hand to discuss.

"Speaking of family, where is Jeremy?" Clay was the one who informed them Jeremy was downstairs with the Mutt files. Antonio immediately headed for the basement. Coming up behind Annie, Nick rested his hand on her lower back, gently herding her after his father. It was unnecessary as Annie would have followed anyway, but Nick enjoyed the excuse to touch her. He knew troubling circumstances had brought her home, but he was still happy she was there. Talking with her on the phone wasn't the same as being able to see her, touch her, or smell her distinct scent.

"What's going on?" Antonio got right down to business once greetings were exchanged. Jeremy summarized what Annie had overheard him telling Clay earlier. A girl was dead at an unfamiliar Mutt's hands and they would wait until the whole pack was home to act on it. Tension flared when Nick asked the same question Annie had, did 'everyone' mean Elena. It did. Logan and Pete were going to talk to her. Jeremy assured them she would come.

"So you'll let Logan and Pete go to convince her, but not me?" Annie had wanted to help bring Elena home, knew that she had a good chance at being successful. She had a closer bond than anyone else in the pack had with Elena. Both being the only two female werewolves in existence led to a special connection. It frustrated her that Jeremy wouldn't trust her to go to Toronto. She knew it had nothing to do with logic and had everything to do with her being the baby of the pack. Annie may be the youngest, but she wasn't weak and she was growing tired of everybody's overprotective nature towards her.

"I am doing what's best for the pack Annie. I will always do what is best for this pack." Annie wanted so bad to challenge the statement, even though she knew better than to go against her Alpha. Sensing her frustration Nick placed a firm hand on her shoulder, in equal parts warning and restraining.

"Why don't we start dinner?" It may have sounded like a suggestion, but Annie knew Nick would force her upstairs if he had to, simply to protect her from spending a night in the cage for arguing with Jeremy.

Upstairs in the kitchen they were alone. Nick was putting steaks on the stove to grill while Annie went to mixing a salad. Stubborn as she was, she always insisted they had some vegetable with their meals in order to maintain a more well-rounded diet. Nick always said the squirrels and rabbits they caught while running rounded out the diet just fine, to which Annie would always roll her eyes. The two occupied their own sides of the kitchen in relative silence until Nick abandoned his post at the stove.

"Nick," Annie warned halfheartedly as he wrapped his arms around her from behind and pressed his nose into her neck.

"I'm just getting reacquainted." He sighed into her neck. "I missed you, Principessa." His lips brushed against her neck as he spoke, sending tingles down her back. How could the same nickname his father used for her sound sexy when coming from Nick? Who was she kidding, Nick could probably make reciting the periodic table sound sexy.

"How was Italy?" Annie asked, changing the subject as she turned to face Nick.

"Not as fun as it would have been had you been there." She should have known, with Nick, the subject wouldn't stay changed for too long.

"I think the steaks need turned. Don't want to burn them." That one did the trick. He immediately left in favor of the steaks. Food was a very serious matter for wolves.

Annie was thankful for that when just a few minutes later Jeremy and the others joined them in the kitchen. When they sat down for dinner Jeremy took his seat at the head of the table, with Antonio and Clay to his left and right. Nick sat across from Annie, beside his dad. As soon as Jeremy took a bite all the boys dug into the food, filling their plates up mostly with steak. Shaking her head Annie made a point to serve herself a helping plate of salad first. Conversation started up after the first plates of food had been cleared. Annie couldn't help but smile to herself, happy to once again be around her pack. She missed them while she was at school. Her friends were a good distraction, but they didn't really know her. Not like the pack did.

Annie's smile fell and the conversation stalled when seemingly random pop music began playing. It was Annie's phone. All eyes were on her as she fished it out of her jeans pocket, knowing exactly who was calling without looking. Grace had picked out her personal ringtone herself. Hitting the end button immediately to stop the music, Annie couldn't help but catch both Nick and Clay snickering, most likely at her ring tone.

"Sorry," Annie murmured. As soon as she said it, the same song began playing once more from her phone. Grace was calling back

"Maybe you should answer that." Jeremy stated calmly before taking another bite of his steak. Annie knew forcing her to answer and converse at the table was her punishment for having her phone on. There was a rule about no phones during meals.

"Grace," Annie sighed as she picked up. "What's up?" There was loud music playing in the background, Annie recognized it as Grace's pre-gaming track. She also picked up on the voices of Bridget and Claire, classmates of hers from the nursing program.

"Annie!" Grace squealed into the phone loudly. "Where are you? We're about to head out to celebrate the exam we all failed today!"

"I'm home visiting for the weekend." Anne replied to which Grace responded with a loving 'boo you bitch.' "How much have you had to drink so far?" Grace was known for pre-gaming hard, which worried Annie slightly as she wasn't there to take care of the aftermath that was drunk, then hung over Grace.

"Not too much." Grace insisted. Even though Annie highly doubted that was true, she wasn't planning on challenging her on it. In fact, she was going to respond with a simple 'good' and wish Grace a good time, wanting to end the conversation as quickly as possible to avoid further embarrassment as she was currently the table's entertainment. Unfortunately Grace was faster. "By the way, what's up with you and Ben? He totally blew us off studying Wednesday so you two could have 'alone time.'"

If everyone's attention hadn't been on her before, it most definitely was after that. Nick's stare was intense as he took a new interest in the conversation. Annie wanted nothing more than to kick Grace at that moment.

"Ben is delusional. He never did understand we are just friends." Annie made a point to look at Nick as she said that.

"So you didn't kiss him? Because that's what he's saying." Damn. Annie was going to kill Ben. Metaphorically speaking. He could never just keep his mouth shut.

"He kissed me." Annie corrected. She hadn't really wanted to have this conversation, especially not in front of the Pack. Most definitely not in front of Nick. "Without my consent. And I gave him Hell for it." Annie added quickly, hoping it would help calm down a certain male wolf. It didn't work. Nick's jaw tightened at Annie's confession. Neither he nor his wolf liked the idea of another guy touching Annie, let alone kissing her.

"So you're not hooking up?" Grinding her teeth at Grace's question, Annie's grip on her phone tightened to the point it omitted a low crack.

"No Grace. Ben and I are just friends. Maybe not even friends after this. As it is I like someone else." Annie avoided Nick's gaze after admitting that. A part of her had said it because she wanted to get Grace off her back. Another part of her knew that it was the truth and that someone else just happened to be sitting across from her.

Of course Grace squealed once more, demanding to know who it was, then listed a bunch of the guys they had classes with. Annie simply told Grace Goodnight before hanging up the phone. The silence in the room after that call was admittedly awkward. Clay ended up breaking it, asking if Annie could pass the salad. She sent him an appreciative smile, knowing too well he didn't really want the salad. After that conversation picked back up.

Annie volunteered for dish duty when dinner was finished. It would give her something to do as well as an excuse to avoid an awkward conversation with Nick. It didn't really work as Nick stayed behind to help, and once again they were alone in the kitchen.

"Who's Ben? Other than the boy who kissed you." Nick spoke first as he picked up a towel and stood beside Annie.

"He's just one of the many immature guys in my program." Annie answered as she handed him the dish she just rinsed.

"Oh good, a male nurse. He's bound to be a pansy then." Laughing in response Annie looked up at Nick for the first time since he'd joined her. His eyes were smiling, which was a relief to Annie. He wasn't angry with her. "So, who is this someone else you like? Anyone I might know?" Nick asked in a suggestive tone, smiling down at her.

"Actually, yes. It's someone in the pack." Annie played along. Nick's smile grew bigger as he replied with an 'oh really.' "Yes, I admit it. It's Pete." Nick, who hadn't expected that, chuckled at her evasiveness instead of becoming frustrated. He had to hand it to Annie; that was a pretty good one. From the den, where Jeremy and Antonio had retired with drinks after dinner, the two had been listening to Annie and Nick's conversation.

"I believe there is something between your son and my daughter." Jeremy stated calmly as he took a sip from his glass. True, Annie was not his daughter by blood, but he had always seen her that way since the day she came to Stonehaven.

"It would seem as such." Antonio agreed. "Perhaps I should have a talk with him. The last thing we need is another situation like Elena and Clay." Those two complicated things enough on their own.

"Annie is not Elena." Jeremy murmured as he stared into the fire. Elena resented everything that had to do with her wolf form and the memory of being bitten. Annie, who was born into that world and knew no other way, relished in everything Elena resented.

A/N Here it is! The second chapter. I am really enjoying writing this story. I know I'm not following the show exactly, as Nick was in New York and not Italy before returning to Stonehaven. That being said, with an OC in the mix there is obviously going to be some artistic changes.

Thank you to all who have already followed and favorited this story, it means a lot to me. If you ever feel like reviewing, that would be nice too. But no pressure :) I am interested in your ideas of who you picture as Annie. I know I haven't given much of a physical description for her yet, it will come soon. Albeit you do know she is Italian and had brunette hair. Let me know what ya think!

Rach

xoxo