The Porsche Boxster raced across the freeway at 100 miles/HR. Minimal traffic ensured speed was not compromised, but the Bugatti Veyron kept up with it. Evelyn realized Ryan himself had come after her this time. He did not bother covering his pursuit. Looking in the rearview mirror, Evelyn caught the grim expression of the Alpha. He looked determined, kept his distance, but within sight of her car. He even had chances of overtaking her, but slowed down at the last moment. Sometimes he antagonized her by bumping her car a little. At times like this, She cursed the fact that his car was faster. Initially, it was fun, but now she was growing tired of it. They kept the race for the half an hour; weaving in and out of the traffic. Another bump jarred her out of her thoughts. Evelyn thanked the thoughtfulness of Bryan, who had falsified her records at school. It has been a week since this game of tag started, now the big bad Alpha himself has shown up.

Thoughts of being chased like this every day, frustrated her, Evelyn decided to end this. She took the next turn off the highway, went through a small dirt road. She parked the car, got out, stood to lean on it. Ryan showed up in the next minute. He stared at her for some time; from within his driver's seat, before he too got out of the car, crossing his arms casually and leaning on his car's bonnet. They stood staring each other for some time. Evelyn sucked in her breath like she received a punch in her gut. Though she saw him more often now, the sight of him every time was tying her stomach in knots. It's as if his attraction seems to grow on her. She frowned, was it the mating bond or was she really getting attracted to him?

"How long do you plan on chasing me?"

"As long as it takes to find what is it that you are hiding from me," Ryan replied nonchalantly. His reply - 'hiding from me,' was made as a matter of speech, but Evelyn couldn't help, but take it on a personal level. She was hiding a lot from him. 'I wonder how he will react when he finds out about my real identity,' She wondered.

"Look, this is ludicrous. Why do you need to bother yourself on finding out where I live? Don't you have better things to do, like hunting down Rogues?"

"You don't have to give me lesson's on what to do and what not to do," Ryan countered with anger. "I'm not going to let someone like you, roam around intentionally in my territory."

Evelyn narrowed her eyes at that comment, "What do you mean someone like me?"

"Well, its obvious, isn't it?" He started listing out the issues while striding towards her, "One, You punch with the power equal to that of a wolf. Two, You are capable of taking six wolves at the same time. Three, You got admitted a grade up in school when clearly you should have joined as the first year in high school, but skipped a whole year, and got to the second - a total geek. Four, You say you are not a hunter, But you have falsified your records. We do not have a single shred of proper information about you." He stood close to her now "So, what should I make of you? Should I take you as a freak of nature?"

Evelyn was speechless. Her lips parted, but no words came out. She wanted to continue being inconspicuous, but it appeared to cause a lot more problems than expected. She understood the frustrated Alpha, admiring his patience in dealing with her. In his shoes, She would have kicked someone like her out of the pack territory a long time ago.

"Can't you just ignore my existence and look the other way around. I mean no harm to the pack. I only need to finish two years here, Will be out of your territory." Evelyn shrugged her shoulders and replied softly looking anywhere but at him. His presence was starting to send her system haywire.

Ryan looked on at Zack thoughtfully. Something about him was throwing him off. "This has bugged me for some time now. Why this school?"

"What?" Evelyn surprised again by the change of question, blinked "It was not my choice. I did not choose this school. It's chosen for me," she replied with a sullen expression. Thinking back in the day when she got commanded to go to this school, her anger bubbled up again. 'That She-Devil is going to pay for all of my headaches,' she mumbled to herself.

"Chosen for you? What do you mean by that? Are you implying you were asked to attend this school specifically?"

"Hmm... Yes, that old geezer didn't give me a choice," exclaimed Evelyn.

Ryan was taken aback. The way Zack said it plainly, without meaning anything was quite surprising. With his hand rubbing back of his neck, looking down reminiscing about something, Zack resembled a harmless kid lost in this world as if he was being reprimanded by someone. Ryan settled down. He wanted to think the kid was harmless and believe that he was not the threat to the pack. But there was something about him that constantly bugged him. He was shrouded in mystery, everything about Zack spelled suspicion and uncertainty. There was also this constant feeling that he should know something about him, he was not able to shake it off. His wolf was also not able to define it. Whenever Zack was around, he felt his wolf on alert. Like he was watching him, but did not communicate anything on it.

"Look, whatever it is that you want to find, is not necessary. Just leave me alone and all I have to do is finish the two years here. I will be out of here."

"You still don't get it. Do you?" asked Ryan. "This is not something that can..." Ryan stopped mid-sentence by the ringing of his cell. "Yes," he answered. "What?... What the fuck do you mean..." he started shouting and turning back to his car. He barely glanced at Zack before driving off.

"Bastard! Couldn't you even acknowledge me to say goodbye?" pouted Evelyn. Whatever it was must have been important for him to back off; for now. Evelyn made her way back to her apartment making sure no one followed her.

Back at the apartment, Evelyn stood staring at her open doorway. The stench of blood was predominant in the air. She already knew who was in the apartment; but hesitated, not sure whether she wanted to butt in. After contemplating for five minutes, with a heavy sigh, She pushed open the door and walked in. She found Taylor in the living room; sitting on the sofa. He was badly wounded and it looked like he was restraining his wolf from healing the wounds. Blood was still dripping from the open wounds across his chest and forearms. She walked into the kitchen taking a soda from the fridge and stood to stare at him from the kitchen doorway. Leaning on the wall, she studied the way he was clutching his hands together. As long as she could remember, Taylor has been always strong and reliable. There were very rare times that he showed his true emotions. He had fought beside her father when he was alive, and now he was fighting alongside her.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" she asked. He was silent for a long time and then answered in a strangled voice, "I was able to reach her... was able to reach her in-time this time."

Evelyn froze. "Shit!"

"I was able to reach her in time," He repeated again. He brushed his palms across his face and clutched his hair tightly, "Why was I able to now? Why not then. If I had... if I had she wouldn't have had to die... I was useless then... Why..."

Taylor started rambling. Evelyn swore, he was reliving the time when his first daughter died. He started shaking violently, she moved swiftly forward and squatted down on her toes before him

"Yo!", "Those wolves sure did a number on you." She started to pinch and poke his wounds. "Seriously, you call yourself my guardian? Look at yourself. You let those low lives run all over you."

Poke!... Poke!... Poke!...

Evelyn stood up to examine all his wounds, "Ahh... seems like it is just superficial." She continued probing and poking around him. There was a popping noise, "Wow man! Did I just hear a vein pop in your head?"

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?" Taylor shouted, standing up, his face turned red, clutching his fists by his sides, controlling himself from throttling her. His open wounds were really painful. He struggled to keep them open so that he could relive the pain and not forget. But here she was making them even worse.

"Can't you see I'm just checking to see if your wound is real?" Evelyn answered mischievously.

"REAL? REAL? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? CAN'T YOU SEE I'M BLEEDING ALL OVER?"

Poke! Poke! Poke.....

"WOULD YOU JUST STOP POKING ME" He shouted exasperated.

Evelyn smiled sarcastically, "Then your wolf is doing a slow job healing you. Have you grown old already? Maybe, I should start calling you Old man." She punctuated the word 'O-L-D.'

Taylor was trying to restrain himself and shouted, "I'm not old, I'm only in my forty's."

"Wow! You are in your forty's already... then definitely an OLD MAN," She stood up and started leaving the room. "Oh yes!, I am cutting your allowance to pay up for bleeding all over my floor and sofa."

"My allowance? You don't even manage the finance of the pack," Taylor yelled frustrated.

"Hmm... I don't, do I? but my word is final anyway. I'm still doing it" She replied, waving her hand, exciting to the kitchen.

"You!... You are!... little twerp. I will get back to you for this" Taylor yelled. He stood up ready to leave, picking up his jacket and discarded shoes. He reached his room's door, but stopped and let out a heavy sigh, "Thank you," he said softly and closed his door.

Evelyn was leaning on the counter the soda can clutch tightly in her hand. His soft response of gratitude broke her, she shattered the soda can with fury. Each and every one of her pack member had a painful past, all related to that incident nine years ago. Though most of them had overcome it, it remained a painful scar for many. Wounds heal, but scars don't. They leave a nasty after taste which, when not overcome tends to take over the person's soul in the end.

Most of the pack was moving forward with the only goal of Revenge in their minds. That was the only thing making her pack work efficiently. Evelyn often wondered what would happen to her pack, after their goals were achieved. Uncertainty about the future frequently left her stumped and kept her from moving forward, from the walls she has built around herself. She forced to move her body from the counter and went towards the Gym, the only place where she could find solace from her thoughts.

Ryan was looking at the child lying in the hospital. She escaped with minimal bruises and was just frightened. She was playing a little too far from the territory when the rogues had ambushed her. If not for Taylor, the girl would have been dead. He fisted his hands tightly, reining in his emotions. He is now indebted to the rogues. "He got injured badly, but refused to get treated and left" informed Luka. "Funny, isn't it. The big one is actually more soft natured than the smaller one."

When he first heard about the attack so close to his pack, he panicked. He remembered Bryan's words, "Any small changes in your pack, you may miss it or ignore it as once-in-a-while-occurrence, but try to understand this from a third-party view. That small change in your pack can alert us in advance."

This incident proved their logic. For once he was glad he did not make decisions in his anger "If I am not mistaken, it looks like the rogue's attack have started to increase a lot," Ryan mused.

"Yeah! Alpha Storm and Alpha Blake have also sent in reports of the recent attacks as well. They are becoming desperate. That's for sure."

They started walking out of the hospital. "I have wondered about this for some time" Luka stated "Taylor is here most of the time, wandering around by himself and does not even come into the pack-house when called for lunch or snacks, But this guy - Aiden, he is not here at all, just pops in once in a while."

Ryan's eyes narrowed at the information, "What are you getting at?"

"You know - the usual. I have tried to track these guys like where they live, but they just seem to slip out. Have sent out scouts to follow them, but we have not been successful. Each time these guys chose a different route to enter and exit the pack territory," Luka announced with a faraway look on his face.

"Aiden rarely comes by. In fact, he is never here. It's only Tayler that we see around. The way they come in and leave us..." he left the words hanging.

Ryan had thought the same thing. Recent incidents have made one thing clear. His pack security was lacking. It was not good enough. The silence was broken by the shrill ringing of his cell. He swiped it to find an unknown number calling. "Hello!"

"Alpha Ryan?" asked the voice on the other end.

"Yes, Who is this?"

"This is Brandon. I have a small favor to ask of you."

Ryan stopped walking while Luka looked on expectantly. 'Why in the world would a High-Council member wants to talk to him, and that too asking for a favor?'

"How may I help?" he asked.

"I need you to arrange a meeting with Evelyn, and it needs to be discreet."

Ryan held his breath, shocked, "Let me get this straight. You need me to arrange the meeting? What makes you think; I am in contact with her?"

"Oh!" There was a strained silence at the other end, "Then my mistake. I thought since you were her mate... You would be the best choice to reach out to. Clearly, I was wrong. I will take this up with Alpha Radell then" Brandon said thoughtfully.

"Hold on a minute," answered Ryan hurriedly, 'This may well be one of the chances to meet her, And I am ruining it,' Ryan berated himself.

"I will arrange for it, but on one condition. I won't be left out."

Brandon thought about it a moment, "Agreed, but try arranging it as soon as possible. This is urgent." He cut the call before Ryan could reply. Ryan looked at the phone angrily, 'That old geezer...' he swore.

"Luka, Double the patrols. I want each entry and exit from the territory recorded, be it of rogues or any member of the pack. Also, inform the rogues to meet me tomorrow." Luka hurried away while Ryan stayed back deep in thought, 'Even if I meet her, what am I going to talk?'