Scarlett

My eyes traveled over the massive beast that watched me with its unusual amber eyes. Its teeth were bared but it had stopped growling. Blake sat calmly at the edge of the bed, watching my reaction.

I laughed and clutched my side when the pain shot through me. Despite the pain, I continued to laugh until I had tears running down my face.

Blake looked at me like I was crazy and shifted closer.

"Are you okay?" he asked as he gripped me by the arms.

"Yeah... I'm fine..." I tried to tell him in between my laughter. "I just can't believe... my hallucination would... be this good."

"You're not hallucinating," he insisted.

Finally, I managed to stop the laughter and I turned to face him, wiping the tears of laughter from my face.

"I bumped my head pretty good," I argued with him.

"You didn't hit it hard enough to start seeing things," he assured me, shaking his head.

"But if I'm not hallucinating, then..." I paused for a moment as my eyes shifted back to the wolf watching us. "It's real."

Holy crap! The wolf is real.

Blake watched me closely as my eyes remained on the massive beast at the foot of the bed. After I got over the initial shock, I peered closer and realized it was the same wolf that had been watching me the previous night.

I sucked in a breath as the realization hit me that Cade had been stalking me in wolf form and my anger began to grow. Common sense would dictate I'd be more concerned with the fact that Cade had turned into a wolf in front of my eyes, but the only thing that my mind would concentrate on was that Cade had invaded my privacy.

"You," I said angrily as I pointed an accusing finger at the now-growling wolf in front of me. Feeling my blood boil with anger, I slipped out of the bed, holding my injured side as I stepped closer to the wolf.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," warned Blake but I ignored him as I stepped closer to the wolf, whose amber eyes watched me closely.

"You were watching me," I stated angrily. The hilarious thing was that I was talking to a werewolf like it wasn't something out of the ordinary. Clearly, I needed my head examined.

"You came onto my property and you were watching me," I accused as I stood a few feet away from Cade—well, wolf-form Cade. The growling stopped as his amber eyes held mine.

"We were watching you." The explanation came from Blake.

"Why?" I turned to face Blake, who was standing beside the bed. He ran a hand through his hair.

"You need to sit down and we'll explain," he suggested as he flickered a glance to the wolf and then back to me.

"Don't treat me like I'm fragile, I can handle it," I assured him, feeling that independent streak rise up in me. I'd worked hard to make sure I didn't have to depend on anyone, even Gary.

Whatever these two threw at me, I would be able to handle. In my short life I'd experienced some dark times and I'd managed to get through them. Those moments had made me stronger and they'd made me the person I was.

"I don't think you're fragile, trust me," he said cryptically. "But the explanation might take a while and no matter how tough you're trying to be, you're injured."

He had a point, and sometimes I was too stubborn for my own good.

"Fine," I relented and sat down on a nearby chair that faced toward Blake and Cade, the massive black wolf.

"You can change back," Blake said to the wolf.

In the second it took me to blink, the wolf disappeared and Cade stood tall, dark and domineering. Amber eyes were replaced with his signature turquoise eyes. Thank goodness he was fully clothed when he shifted back into human form.

I was annoyed when I felt the flutter again inside my stomach at the sight of Cade. I hated how I felt around him. Maybe it was one of the reasons I went out of my way to annoy him. He made me feel things no one else had ever made me feel, and I had no idea how to deal with it.

"Spill," I instructed Blake.

"You're in danger," Cade spoke. My eyes shifted back to him and he held my gaze. I couldn't help a tiny bit of fear that soaked into me at his words. From the time my parents had died I'd been looking over my shoulder expecting the same thing to happen to me. It was one of the reasons I trained like I did.

"Why would I be in danger?" I asked, trying to mask the fear I felt, but my voice wavered for a split second.

"Let's start from the beginning," Blake said with his arms folded over his chest.

I looked at him expectantly as I tapped my foot against the carpet. These two took forever to get to the point and I was running out of patience.

"When I asked you what pack you were from, you told me you had no idea what I was talking about," he reminded me.

"Yes, I remember."

These guys had said a lot that didn't make sense. Then the penny dropped; he asked me what pack I'd belonged to—pack, as in a pack of wolves.

"I'm not one of you," I stated fiercely.

They remained quiet.

"I'm not a werewolf," I added as I stood up, wincing when pain shot up the side of me.

"Take it easy," Blake said as he came forward and tried to gently push me back down into the chair. When I glared at him, he dropped his hands and stepped back.

"Stop arguing," Cade said fiercely as he stepped in front of me. "You're one of us whether you like it or not, and arguing about it isn't going to change that."

"But how is that possible?" I asked out loud, taking a step back. I felt the chair at the back of my knees and I sank into it.

A werewolf.

"Both, or at least one, of your parents are werewolves," Cade informed me.

"My parents were murdered when I was ten," I revealed to them. At least one of my parents must have been a werewolf and that thought was hard to wrap my mind around.

"So that explains why you have no idea what you are," muttered Blake.

"How were your parents murdered?" asked Cade gently. It was the first time he'd spoken to me without sounding angry or exasperated. My eyes flickered to him.

"Initially, the coroner had ruled it an animal attack but later he'd changed it to unknown," I mumbled, still trying to process what they were telling me.

Even deep in my own thoughts I didn't miss the look Blake and Cade shared. They knew something.

"What?" I asked, frowning at them.

"It sounds like they were killed by another werewolf." My head reeled at that thought. A werewolf had killed my parents? Why? I couldn't stop an image of a fierce, massive werewolf tearing into my parents with its sharp razor-like teeth. I closed my eyes briefly, trying to push the image from my mind.

"I don't understand," I said, looking at the two of them to explain it for me.

"Most werewolves stay in a pack, some larger than others. The werewolves that don't belong to packs are called rogues."

"Am I a rogue?" I asked softly. Clearly, I didn't belong to a pack.

"Yes, but technically you weren't forced from your pack or left it of your own free will," Cade informed me. "Your situation is different. Until five minutes ago, you didn't even know you were a werewolf."

"Rogue werewolves are usually werewolves that struggle to fit into a pack. They have issues with following rules and commands. Humans that break the law are put into prison; werewolves that break the law are forced from the pack and made to live on their own," Blake explained.

"So you think my parents were killed by a rogue werewolf?" I asked after a few minutes' silence.

"Yes," answered Cade.

"But why?" I asked softly. Having to bring up the memories of my parents and their violent deaths left a lump in my throat and a sting of tears in my eyes. It was hard to keep it together.

In front of me, Blake bent down on one knee to bring his eyes level with mine.

"We're not sure," he said as he looked at me with sympathy.

"All of this still doesn't explain why I'm in danger," I reminded them.