-Mason-

A week. It took a week of painful amounts of gorging before I felt in enough control of myself. Even then, I didn't trust myself to ignore the humans completely, so I wandered into town the night before I was planning to test myself and found Alex easily enough.

He lead me through town to a roof and I hopped up there, and found him waiting, staring at me with creepy eyes. I liked him, he was a guy who understood the truly important things in life. The things I'd only just come to truly know.

Protecting Geffs innocence, and destroying everyone who hurt him.

We could easily find common ground in that. I could tell he was developing feelings for Geff, and I also knew that he was fighting to keep them down. He was concerned for Geff's emotional state, and was terrified he'd hurt the man.

I could understand that, and I wouldn't hold his feelings against him. It was hard to when you yourself were able to lose your mind over wondering if he would ever forgive you or not.

"What did you wish to speak of?" I asked, meeting his gaze with a half-smile and a raised eyebrow. It was a very cocky expression, I admit, but so what? I was curious.

"I might need your help." He was serious and didn't seem up be joking, so I stared, confused. Since when did Alex ever need, much less want, my help? Better question, when did any Were want a Vampires help?

"Okay... what would you need me for?" The answer was simple. And shocking.

"I may need to mark you."

That left me frozen, blinking from the shock. Mark. In the Were world, that term meant to be made part of a pack- in this case a pride. But, a mark was always made on the neck- displaying subservience toward your Alpha in a primal way.

In vampire society, only lovers bit each others necks. Lovers who had shared their whole selves with each other. It was even more intimate to an anima. We saw each others souls, and lovers formed a bond between their souls with the bite.

That was what this Alpha was suggesting.

I shivered, disgusted by the idea, already backing away. I opened my mouth to reject him, to deny this- to crush that hope he seemed to have that I'd give in. Then he said the words that he knew would leave me caving to his desires.

"It's to protect Geff. From another Alpha." I winced, fists clenching as I shut my mouth and glowered. Why would this be necessary? Another alpha, of course. Omegas were fairly rare, and adding one to his pack would give this stranger-Alpha an immense amount of prestige.

Alex was the only person I trusted to care for Geff the right way- to treat as a person instead of an object to be kept nice and polished. He didn't care what others thought about his way of doing things- his only priority was his pride.

Sometimes, I hated being able to see people's souls, their dreams, hopes, desires, and intentions. The very thing that made me a Were's worst enemy, also made me the most likely to help him in this.

I grimaced, then sucked in a breath and tilted my head, squeezing my eyes shut as I clenched my fists. I waited to be marked, to be degraded beyond what any vampire ever before had been, so that my Omega could avoid the same fate.

Blessedly, he made it swift. He barely touched my neck for a few moments, his breath brushing against my skin as his teeth touched it. Then he was gone, and I felt oddly... dull. I shook my head, holding a hand to it as I slowly straightened my head. Then I winced. My neck burned and so did my eyes, my breathing growing ragged and unstable.

I shook, feeling intense pain as I both felt and saw my soul touch his, stretching in ways it wasn't built to handle. I did what I could to keep it stable, and knew it would adapt as long as I maintained it long enough. I felt small threads of my soul stretch out, reaching out towards something I didn't know, and then another soul touched mine. And then two more followed. 

Geoffrey's thoughts entered my head, a bundle of emotions and oddly vague impressions. It was vastly different from the other two people that now shared my head. I could hear Alex, and he could hear me. I couldn't sense a single emotion from him, and his Beta was the same.

I backed up, hyperventilating from the pain as agony burned through my whole being like the searing heat of a thousand screaming fires trying to claim my flesh at once, all while the sun seared my flesh from above. Alex grabbed my wrist and I flinched back- but his grip was unbreakable.

I breathed, struggling in my mindless pain and fear to get away from him, terrified by the sudden strength he seemed to have. His soul seemed larger, much darker than before- almost like a vampire's, but with an odd light that seemed to reflect from deep inside of himself. I'd never seen something that looked so... wrong. A deep piece of myself seemed to scream that it was wrong on a fundamental level.

I'd formed the bond willingly though, and I couldn't break it. Only Alex could break it now. I shuddered, placing a hand on my neck where he'd touched me, and heard a confused chuckle. I glanced up, and saw him eyeing my head.

A quick peak in his mind- something I knew he noticed but was determined to grow good enough to keep secret from him- revealed that my hair was standing on end, looking fluffier- like a cat when it gets spooked. I blinked in confusion, then froze, pausing as I listened carefully.

Alex had frozen too, and we both listened carefully until we heard it again. A slow thud from my chest, and a faint sensation of movement in my veins. I grew panicked again and the thudding became more frequent, though it still was almost half a minute between each pump.

"M-my heart... is beating..." I felt my breathing quicken, and I stared at him in what felt like abject horror. He seemed interested and only slightly fearful. I shook off my panic and breathed, forcing myself to calm down.

"O-okay... okay... um, what does this mean for... me?" I asked him, slightly nervous of his answer. Luckily- thankfully- he had a simple, easy to bear one.

"I th-think it's time to introduce you too the Pride, then get you set up here in town... if you can handle the smell?" I blinked, realized he had already shifted through my memories- the ones he thought were important. He knew what I was struggling with and what my strengths were.

And, looking at his thoughts, he'd looked at what I desired. There honestly had only been one thing to find. Geoffrey. I nodded, smiling.

"Thank you..." I then dropped my smile, glaring at him. "If you ever bite me again, I'll hit you hard enough to kill you. Got it?" He seemed shocked and confused for a moment, and then I showed him my beliefs.

He'd basically had sex with me, in Vampire culture. Something more intimate than that, even. He blushed, eyes widening.

"Oh... you let me do that anyways?!?" He seemed horrified, and rightly so. I snorted, looking away. There really was only one word I had to say for us to understand each other.

"Geoffrey."

____________________________________

-Alex-

I stared at him, nodding. There really was only one reason I'd do something like that. Regardless... I shivered. It was hard to hate someone you understood, and I was connected to his mind now. I saw his memories, knew him deeply. It was eye-opening.

It also was faintly disturbing. I was- in the eyes of most vampires- more tightly bound to him than I could be through marriage. Even more than normal because of how the bond worked. I shivered, trying not to think of what that might mean, or what it could wind up doing. I begged Luna in my mind to help me make up for my action.

I sucked in a breath, then started planning. I was the leader of a pack. Until they were out of high school, each kid received a stipend from the older prides and packs, a way to help ensure they were able to get settled into a life. And a way to rack up a debt.

Those could be useful... I still had access to the funds my pride had received, and they couldn't have accessed it themselves to give the other man access. So the money was safe from the stranger, in my capable hands, and waiting to be used.

"What do you need done, Mason?" I watched the man think, biting his lip as he considered. If he asked for something expensive, I would find himself very short on funds, very quickly. There were maybe three thousand dollars in the account- they weren't given a large stipend, and most were too young to need one. It was really only the kids ten and older getting one- and only until they got a job.

"Well..." Mason thought for a minute, his eyes growing fairly dark from the effort of the thought. I'd never seen a vampires eyes so brown-colored, so dull. I wondered what he'd been doing out in the woods to get them that way.

"I need an apartment, a laptop, and internet. After that, I can go to an online school and, with some help from you... I think I can handle the rest." He smiled, his mind already whirring with plans to go to online school and figure out what to do after that.

For some odd reason, I didn't disbelief him. Oh, I was certain that he'd need a few months to accomplish it at least- even going 24-7- but I didn't doubt that Mason would do it. And I knew that the man would, too.

"I hope you know what you're doing. I'm serious when I say that you'll need a job- and within two months. Money will run out fast, especially once this other Alpha realizes what I've done. It might take a month, but he'll have whatever assets of mine he can get his hands on frozen and useless once he catches wind of this... oh Luna, I can't believe I'm doing this... be careful."

The vampire nodded, eyes determined, and I sighed. I waved him over, then went to find an ATM. It was time to get Mason set up- then maybe my Pride would be a little more stable.

Hopefully.

____________________________________

-Geoffrey-

I was humming as I watched the ceiling. I felt... confused. Alex had found a new person, but he felt... different. His emotions were all tangled up, and he was more... sharp, than the others? If that made any sense.

The others had always seemed more like clay, while this new person felt more like a mass of thorns, sharp and prickly. I wondered who this stranger was, confused by how different they were. Maybe they weren't a cat- that would be cool. Though, they'd still be scary to meet.

I hated being shy, but when you have my problem of extreme obedience, you learn to be afraid of everyone. And everyone learns to not care about you.

Except my family. They cared. They proved it by trying so hard to just be normal after I came home, they proved it by how obviously distraught they'd been before that- though my parents had started moving on before I'd gotten home. I was even grateful for that.

My biggest scare had been George. He'd been so alone, so scared and broken... it broke my heart just thinking about it. I'd been sleeping next to George the past few nights as a way to make a sort of apology. The few times George woke earlier than me he was in a panic.

After all, George knew how much I hated being touched. I could bear this, though, after everything Mason had put me through. I could mostly ignore the almost physical pain now- especially when it was George and I was trying to comfort my brother. I could do it.

So I did, and George grew used to me being there, smiling in thanks every morning. I was next to him again tonight, and I was hoping he'd be smiling again tomorrow. I couldn't keep doing this forever, it was already starting to leave me with memories of that time.

I focused on his breathing, his heartbeat, and his warmth- all things I'd never felt or heard while Mason slept next to me. Those were enough to let me sleep, however uneasy that sleep was.
—
I woke up to the feeling of being watched, blinking in confusion as I looked around. The room was empty, and the window was built in a way that didn't allow someone looking in and see our beds.

I shivered, not sure why I was feeling so uneasy, then I froze, hearing an odd, unfamiliar sound. A slow, rhythmic thumping that was already fading. It sounded like a heartbeat, but nothing alive had one so slow. Not unless it was in hibernation or something.

I shivered, trying to get back to sleep. I couldn't manage it so I slipped back into my own bed, sighing in relief at the warm, peaceful blankets. I froze, stiffening.

Warm? Blankets weren't warm unless someone slept in them. I took a deep breath, and I barely smelled anything. Apparently this person had prepared well... but the thought scared me. I wouldn't know who I was dealing with,  couldn't tell who they were on sight based on scent...

I shivered, wondering how many times they'd already come into my room and slept in my bed. It gave me chills. I wondered why they hadn't done anything. What did they want?

Whatever it was, I was scared enough that I had trouble falling asleep the next day, and when George awoke, he saw me shivering from a nightmare, wrapped around a pillow. He grew faintly gloomy, knowing exactly why his brother had gained the nightmare, or... thinking he knew why.

I woke up to him smiling as he shook me awake. He grinned down at me and pulled me out of bed, helping push me to get ready for the day. It was the first time in a long while I'd seen him smiling so long and so sincerely. It brought a smile to my own face and left me more relaxed than before.

George was here, I was safe. So what if scary, creepy people got into my room? George could keep me safe. He always did, and I wasn't going to stop trusting him now. Besides, the weirdo had probably visited before- why would it matter if they had?

They hadn't touched anything, no one was hurt, and they hadn't even left a scent. I felt oddly calm about it now, certain I'd know the answer soon. I didn't understand that little premonition, but I'd trust it- I could do that much.

_________________________________(A/N) Hey guys! How's it going? Sorry this took so long, I guess I'll need to get back into the habit of writing again.

So, what do you guys think is happening? What do you think is going to happen? What do you think of Alex and Mason's little moment? Do you think this'll bring them closer or push them farther apart?

I look forward to hearing your comments, as always!

Till next time, Sept-Mates!

Your Poet and Scribe,
~ShadeFinder<(0^0)>