I wasn't surprised when Caleb contacted me first. I was surprised when he called me instead of texting. "Hello?" I asked, a bit confused as to why he was calling.

"Are you ok?" he asked me without preamble. "I didn't want to text. Your hands still look like they hurt." That was thoughtful of him, though he sounded like he was breathing hard, like he was running.

"Are you?" I countered. "You sound out of breath,"

"I was out running. I'm fine," he replied.

"Physically, I'm fine," I told him. I sighed heavily. "I didn't want this. Any of this. I wanted to just be a normal shifter. Being Chosen and going to a good school isn't awful, even if my classmates suck. Even having to wear the vampire necklace in public wasn't terrible. But they branded me. They branded all of us. And I hate it!" I sobbed into the phone. "I hate that they did this to us without our consent," I hated sobbing. I had always considered myself strong, even if I was judging my strength on male standards. Big girls weren't supposed to cry.

"It'll be ok, Sam. No one is going to think less of you for this. I know I'm not going to think of you any differently, just because you have a couple awesome tattoos." I stopped crying when he said that.

"You mean that?" I asked, sniffling. I was hoping he wasn't just saying that so I wouldn't kick him out of the running.

"Open your window," was his reply. Followed by him hanging up on me. I stared at the phone in disbelief. He hung up on me! His words made it through my addled brain then, and I went to my window. Caleb was sitting on a tree branch outside of my window. What the hell was he doing here? The vampires would kill him! I opened the window and stepped back so he could climb in.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him, trying to keep my voice a whisper so Professor Rhodes wouldn't hear and find out he had snuck in. He answered by wrapping me in his arms.

"I'm here for you," he told me softly.

"The vampires and both our parents will kill you if they find out," I reminded him, but that didn't stop me from wrapping my arms around him as well.

"I don't care. I had to come see you. I couldn't just leave you hurting alone,"

"Thank you," I whispered. I let him hold me for a few minutes longer.

"Will you let me see them?" He asked. I nodded and stepped out of his arms. I held up my hands for his inspection. "These are mostly healed already, but they'll be better after your next shift. Are you up to shifting now? I'll stand guard for you," he promised. He knew I didn't feel safe here, and I'd be in the most danger in the middle of shifting forms. He also didn't want to leave me here with a handicap of injured hands, no matter how much they had healed already.

I nodded again and turned my back to him so I could undress. He stood by the door, keeping guard. I shifted into wolf form as fast as I could. It hurt some to rush the process, but it was worth it. I padded over to Caleb when I had shifted so he could give me a couple of pets before I shifted back. He chuckled at me, but obliged. "I'm supposed to be guarding you," he fake grumbled at me. "I can't guard you and pet you at the same time," I whined at him and wagged my tail. He scratched me behind the ears. "I petted you, now go shift back," he chuckled. I turned and shifted back to human form and put my pajamas back on. My hands were still a little sore, but it was negligible.

"Thank you," I told him. He turned to me and smiled.

"I'm just glad you're ok."

"You should get out of here before you get caught." He nodded.

"In a minute. You promised me a story, though, of why it sucks so much here. It's just a normal high school, right?"

"It's fairly normal. It's just that the other freshmen don't like me. I'm a shifter and weird. It's really hard to make any friends here. There's a couple older girls who are nice enough. Not having many friends here just makes the weekends even more enjoyable,"

"I'm sure you'll make friends once they realize that you being a shifter isn't something they should be afraid of," he promised me. I smiled and gave him a nod.

"Thanks. I'm sure you're right. But you really should go home before you get caught," I reminded him.

"You're ok now?" he asked. I nodded and started pushing him towards the window.

"I'm fine, but you'll be very very dead if you don't get out of here before the vampires find you." He fake fought me as I pushed him to the window, but he agreed to go.

"I'll see you this weekend," he promised. He turned to face me and leaned down and kissed me quickly. Before I could figure out what he was doing or how to react to it, he disappeared out the window and into the night. I could't call out to him without drawing unwanted attention. So I did the only thing I could. I closed my window, turned off my lights and climbed into bed.

I fell asleep still thinking about that kiss.