I flung myself into my brother’s arms. He had heard me coming, so he caught me.

“I missed you.”

He hugged me tighter for a second before releasing me, “I missed you too.”

“Why were you guys gone for so long?”

He shrugged and turned to the food grilling. “We just had to take care of some stuff.”

“What stuff?”

He sighed, “We can’t talk about this here, in front of everyone.” He motioned towards the groups of people conversing. “These are members of the pack. You should get to know some of them. You need more friends that are not the guys.”

The smell coming from the barbecue made my stomach turn. “I’m not going to drop the subject just because you don’t want to talk to me right now.”

He nodded, “I know. We’ll talk later. Just go meet a couple girls or something.”

I leaned over and looked at the grill. It wasn’t anything disgusting like I thought had to be on there. There were a lot of ribs and steaks. There were a few burgers for the wolves who weren’t as hungry, and for Amanda, Matt and me.

“It’ll be done soon. Don’t worry.” He tore off a rib and shoved it in my face. I had to cover my nose and mouth with my hand, or I’d puke. He scrunched his face at me, not please with my reaction to his cooking, “well fine then.” He shoved the food in his mouth.

There was a woman’s scream. I looked over and saw Amanda throwing a dish at Chris. Amazingly, he caught it without spilling anything.

Connor just sighed, “Don’t ever get pregnant. We can barely survive Amanda and she’s uaully calm.”

I shrugged. I never really ever considered having children. My life has never been stable enough to have a child.

“I’ll go calm her down.”

“Someone needs to.” Connor muttered, turning his attention back to the food.

Most of the pack members I met were very nice. There were a few guys that were standoffish and then there were a couple of guys that didn’t want to come near me. I could see myself being great friends with the new members like I was with the guys.

All that mattered to me was that they weren’t crazy and that they got along with everyone that I loved.

No one found out about my abilities, so no one asked anything about what I could do. I’m sure that would come up during the next few years, but I’d deal with that when I had to.

Amanda settled down once she got some food in her belly. Poor Brian was forced to wait on her or else she’d snap at random people. I stayed with her, because I didn’t, no one would. Then we’d have to deal with sad and lonely Amanda, which was much worse than angry Amanda. There would’ve been tears, and that would’ve been a mess.

Unfortunately Grayson as avoiding me, no one really noticed. But I did. It hurt my feelings that he didn’t want to talk to me. It wasn’t like I was going to bring anything embarrassing up in front of his fellow pack members.

Most people were gone before 4, which was fine for me. I hadn’t planned on them being here today. I really wanted to just rest. Work had been extra hectic this week. There were a few double shifts that I hadn’t been expecting. The good thing was that I was getting a good amount of money saved up in my bank account.

I left Amanda to her husband and went along with my to-do list.

I was cleaning my room. Tomorrow I had off and I didn’t want to spend all day tomorrow cleaning up my room. Connor barged into my room without warning. "Grayson's --------, I want ------ her." I couldn’t hear him over my loud music. I never cleaned in silence; it helped me get it done faster. I hadn’t even taken a shower.

I groaned and looked over. It was 6PM. "I'm tired." I whined. I didn’t want to meet anyone else today. Most of the pack was enough for one day.

Connor wasn’t going to fall for my whining. "Don't give me that shit. Get your ass downstairs. You need to meet her."

I sighed and pushed myself onto my hands and knees. "Fine. Who’s her?" I asked, just starting to listen to what he was saying.

“Grayson’s girlfriend. Weren’t you listening?”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Grayson’s what?”

“Girlfriend.” He annunciated loudly.

My jaw dropped and my heart fell through the floor.

“What’s the big deal?” Connor asked, eyeing me closely.

I shut my jaw and reigned in my emotions, barely. No one had known what was going on between Grayson and me. We had been careful that no one found out. And now I knew why. He was hiding a girlfriend from me that the whole pack obviously knew about.

I smiled at my brother. “Nothing. I’m just surprised is all.”

He nodded and left me to get dressed. I felt sick. He had been hiding this from me. If I knew, things would have been different. The sick feeling got worse, to the point where I was pretty sure I was going to puke. I ran to the bathroom, but luckily it was a false alarm. I absolutely hate throwing up.

I walked downstairs after becoming more presentable. She was giggling. She had [whore] on her forehead. She had too much foundation on, too much eye liner, the eye shadow was neon. I couldn’t believe he would go for someone like that…actually I could believe he’d do that. Men go for whatever’s easiest apparently.

I couldn’t believe that Grayson would be hiding this. Why would he have come onto me if he knew he had a girlfriend? He shouldn’t have let me. If I knew he had a girlfriend, I wouldn’t have slept with him.

And now because we were with the pack members, I had to be nice. I had to act like I didn’t want to throw Grayson five miles into the atmosphere and just let him drop. Maybe werewolves could splatter if they fell from high enough in the sky.

It was probably a good thing all of my power hadn’t come back to me yet. I could do little things, but ever since that day with Monica, hit has been much more difficult.

I didn’t want to get into her mind. I didn’t want to know anything about her. Just knowing she existed made me want to turn as violent as the wolves that had helped raise me. I smiled at her. She was already giving me the stink eye.

"Hi." I extended my hand towards the girlfriend. Grayson was watching me carefully. He was probably expecting me to flip. I was being sweet, there was no way she shouldn’t like me. "I'm Casey."

She just looked at it and gave me a dirty look. “Miranda.” She muttered without taking my hand. She just crossed her arms over her chest like a 3 year old.

It got awkward, I retracted my hand. "Okay."

Grayson chuckled, I don’t know what he thought was so funny. I knew by the looks on the other guys faces that they knew I was on edge, so Grayson had to know. He really shouldn’t antagonize the one who can whip him. "What's wrong babe?" He rubbed her back, comforting her. I distinctly remember him telling me that he wouldn’t hurt me anymore.

She glared at me then grabbed Grayson's forearm, "I need to talk to you in private."

She took him outside; he shut the door behind himself. She started out calm, then went psycho on him. We were all watching, it was very entertaining. Luckily she had her back to the window. The guys could hear her; it took more than a sliding glass door to lessen their hearing. They were all laughing. Amanda and I could do nothing but sit there and gossip.

"What do you think of her?" I asked Amanda.  I had to take my mind off of the hate I had right now. I swear my blood would start to boil the more I thought about what he had done.

She smiled, "If it moves like a ho, barks like a ho, then it must be a ho."

She made me smile.

Brian gently nudged his wife, "Grayson can hear you."

She looked at the door quickly, "Sorry honey." Grayson didn’t even acknowledge her apology. It would be just another thing Grayson would have to lie about to the girl. She looked back at me, "We need super hearing."

I nodded. "Yea, that would be nice."

She hit me, “Yea, cause that’s just what you need.”

She absentmindedly rubbed her growing bump. She looked so happy. I wanted to be like that someday. Have a baby with someone I loved, knowing I’d have all the help I needed, knowing I’d have all the love I deserved.

They came back in the house, Grayson looked annoyed. Grayson's girlfriend wasn't looking at me. I didn't exist in her presence. I gave Conner a pleading look. He nodded his head, letting me be free to do as I please.

"See ya'll later." I got to the stairs and started making my way up. "It was nice meeting you…Miranda." I acted like I forgot her name. The truth is that I’d never forget her name. That bitch had her hands on my man.

I stopped in my tracks. My man? Where the hell had that come from?

I ran to my room and got ready for a night out on the town. If Grayson could have that little slut as a girlfriend, which meant that I could go out and try to bring a boy home. I bet that would twist his panties. I got out the mini-skirt and a barely-there top. I put on dramatic makeup and teased the hair. It was Friday night, and I was not going to be stuck at home. I strapped on my high heels and ran down the stairs. I stopped by the empty kitchen.

I wouldn’t stay home and wait for Grayson. I had to get out of here and forget what had just happened. I had to find something to do.