"He lied to me."

I stopped rummaging through my messenger bag to look over at Kiara as we continued our brisk pace through the trees. The sun was warmer now, the cool shade from the morning gradually fading. We were already ten minutes into our little rescue mission but the trail of blood we'd been following still hadn't reached an end- if anything, the blood was actually thinning out. With no sign a body. The jerk was healed and moving, leaving a gory version of of breadcrumbs for us to follow. A few feet back we passed by a fox, its head dangling from the branch of a tree nearby. There'd been more dead animals but the fallen trees, with the trunks broken in like something huge had collided into them, they were what had me the most worried.

"Who lied to you?" I asked belatedly, snapping out of my thoughts. I lifted a leg over another fallen tree lying across our path.

Kiara jumped over it, adjusting the sleeves of my jacket- which was the closest thing I could grab on short notice- for the hundredth time since we left the house. I wanted to reach out and fix them properly for her but that would slow us down and I kind of didn't want to anyway. She looked cute with the dark green jacket hanging loosely over her figure, the sleeves enveloping her small hands.

I should not be having these kinds of thoughts.

Not after seeing how easily her supposedly injured boyfriend could uproot entire trees and toss them aside like frisbees.

Kiara was staring up at me, several hairs- escapees of the messy braid she made earlier- bouncing across her forehead as she walked. Her expression was somber, no longer lost or scared which was a relief.

"Will told me he was only hanging out with me because he felt sorry for me." She shook her head in self-disgust. "I can't believe I believed him."

"Is that why you jumped?"

She scowled. "I wasn't trying to kill myself."

"Right. Care to explain why you were so depressed when I pulled you out then? Let's not forget the lack of gratitude as well. A non-suicidal person would've drowned me in thanks- forgive the pun."

Instead of fuming like I'd anticipated, she grew pensive. "I was depressed because I realized something."

"That you're in love with Will?" I guessed.

She rolled her eyes. "I already knew that."

"Then what did you realize?"

She shook her head, then turned and smiled at me. A full blown smile, not at all like the smug one she'd given me when we first met.

"Wanna be my first friend?"

I stopped walking. "What?"

She grabbed my arm, pulling me forwards with a sheepish grin. "Well, technically Will was my first friend. So how being my second?"

"Nevermind the fact that I don't do second place," I replied slowly, "but why is it that you only have one friend?"

She let go of my arm, her eyes training in on the thin trail of blood soaked into the brown soil, some drops painting fallen leaves red.

"I want to be honest with myself from now on, which means I have to be honest with other people as well," she said. "Which is why I'll tell you something I haven't even spoken to Will about. He knew, I guess, but we didn't talk about it out loud."

I fixed my bag, and somehow my hand ended up entwining itself in hers. Or the outline of it, her hand was still trapped in the coat sleeve. I gave it a soft, reassuring squeeze.

She glanced at me, surprise evident in her eyes. "You're not as bad as you seem."

"If I can't be the first, I'll be the favorite," I replied simply. "Go on."

She turned her gaze ahead. "My parents are both immigrants. My dad made it out first, but he went back to Ghana and married my mom. My dad never fails to remind her- us, how lucky we are that we have him. That he takes care of us." She paused for a second, swallowing, her temple suddenly lined with sweat despite the fact that it was cold. "My mom swallows everything he throws at her and pretty much worships the ground he walks on. For a while I did too. It's why I listened to her when she told me to cover the bruises and never make friends. You know, so they couldn't scrutinize."

"I know." I didn't know anything, and the strained edge of my tone said it, but it was better than the silence.

She didn't seem bothered by my response at least. "It made me angry. Still does. I write horror stories. I write about grizzly things and strong characters that overcome them and yet I still shake, whenever he stares at me in a certain way. One look and I'm as stable as a leaf in a storm."

She laughed, and although it started out shaky, it sounded more relieved than anything, which I couldn't comprehend. My confusion must've been apparent on my face because she moved closer to me until our arms were touching, close enough I could smell her cotton candy perfume.

"I'm not telling you this so you'll take pity on me and be nice to me. I'm not telling you this so it explains why I have a hard time seeing the good in people either, if we're being completely honest, I'm just trying to distract myself because I still can't believe Will is a werewolf."

I grinned. "You said it wasn't true."

She shrugged. "I didn't want it to be. But I just realized the thought of calling an ambulance never crossed my mind. It would've been the normal reaction under normal circumstances." She shook her head. "Nothing makes any sense- that crazy samurai chic, Will running all the way through the woods while bleeding this much, the broken trees and dead animals... What is that?"

We came to a halt, a good distance between us and a silver wolf that definitely wasn't Cage. He was four feet away and I should've seen him sooner, but I hadn't. I wasn't going to think about why I hadn't either.

I gave Kiara's hand a squeeze, not taking myeyes off the werewolf. "Looks like more evidence to support yourfears."