Without emotions we wouldn't face danger and live, anger, hope & will.

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Carter.

It could be said that I didn't fail to take Sterling's words to heart, I did and because of that, I wasn't going to head straight into the wolves den without knowing what the hell was going on and why it seemed everyone was hiding something, as if to afraid to say it. I shouldn't have lied to Tori about where I was going, I was going shopping, only later, currently I was standing by Sterling's diner just as he walked out with a cigarette hanging low from his lips, I wondered why he was wasting his time with the human cancer stick.

Straightening myself out I smiled toward him, he didn't look all that much different now that I looked at him in the sun, his hair was still curly blond with those blue eyes of his that sparkled, he was handsome no doubt but his deeds were a different story. "You smoke now." I muttered gaining his attention, he whipped around to face me only for the cigarette to fall from his lips. "Wait, Carter?" He asked astounded by my appearance, I knew it took a lot to get used to but I loved being in my own skin and being able to accentuate that beauty, so when I nodded he straightened out pulling his beenie in place.

"You look different." He asserted and I chuckled, that was obvious. "Good different ofcourse." He added as I nodded with a smile, but with that smile came the reminder of why I was here. Sterling had given me the number to a rogue faction that operated in Kholis Bay but very far and detached from the pack which I'm sure was a lie. "Why?" I demanded flashing a piece of the number he wrote for me, when he recognized it his face changed, so did his emotions, the guilt that drifted off him was suffocating. "Have coffee with me, and I will tell you whatever you want to know." He finally conceded and I slightly nodded, his hand laid on my back as he led me inside, being the gentleman he was, he opened the door for me, once we were inside I realized only a few people were here, rush hour had passed.

"I never thought I'd see you like this." He mumbled taking me offguard but I masked my surprise waiting for him to speak. "I mean with everything that happened, I expected you to want to rip my head off or something." He explained and I wondered why he expected that, the wolves in GroveHill I would never trust, they all broke me, lied to me and framed me for something I didn't do, it was beyond me to look for revenge or try and meet them in the middle of some amendments, that wasn't who I was anymore, I was just here for the truth and I would leave soon afterward. "Don't expect that from me, you did what you had to Sterling." I replied as that night reappeared in my head.

"I can't let you go." A blond haired boy whispered behind me, in his all black outfit no one would've noticed him as he moved in the shadows that filled the home, I turned around in fright coming face to face with my friend, Sterling, he was the only one who knew I hadn't done anything, we were together the night Enzo's mother and girlfriend were attacked, he could attest to that, but something was different about him, something sinister about him.

"Sterling, you scared me, you have to help me, I already packed, help me." I begged my friend to assist me, I had to run before they knew what I was about to do, whether or not I was innocent they would still want my blood. "I can't help you." Sterling asserted again surprising me. "What do you-." Before I could ask Sterling was striking me with a heavy object, it hit my head so strongly that I blacked out then.

When I began to rouse awake my wrists and ankles were burning, a hiss escaped my lips as the wolfsbane soaked ropes burnt my flesh. "Sterling, what the hell?!" I demanded angrily as Sterling showed up in the kitchen where he had tied me. "I can't help you Carter, and I can't lose everything because of a stupid friendship with you." Sterling explained just as Enzo burst through the door spelling my doom.

Looking at Sterling now I couldn't really understand why he did what he did until I realized that Alpha Harrison had threatened to take away his dream of owning the very diner we were in, he had chosen it over me, and I commended him for it. His scoff made me question him silently. "Don't known how you can be so non chalant when everyone around you failed you, I got what I wanted but it never felt right to have, and along with that dream, I got nothing else, I have no mate, no family, nothing, it seems karma has a way of snaking its way into your life and destroying you softly." He exclaimed and I was surprised by his words, only surprised because I had no hand in his failures, he could not blame me for it.

"I'm looking to give you justice and redeem myself in the process, its why I gave you that number, alpha Harrison didn't just allow Tai to call you back because he wanted to make peace, something is going on and the wolves whose number I gave you, know it, look ever since you left people, specifically wolves have been vanishing from the pack and from the local rogue families, a month ago the disappearances spiked, then you showed up and they stopped, if that's not fishy I don't know what is." Sterling's explanation shell shocked me, how had any of this activity passed the alpha, or rather why hadn't he done anything about it, it only meant he was involved in it.

"How does this concern me?" I questioned Sterling and he leaned in closer. "Its just speculation but I think you're the real target, and you have to find out what, its why I think the so called rogues killed your grandma, she knew something that she shouldn't." Sterling added finally making the shock subside and the sinking feeling set in, Sterling's explanation had put many pieces of the puzzle together but I had many, seriously many more to put together. "That's a lot, and I do believe you but without proof its a baseless claim." I replied just as the wolf opposite me leaned back enjoying his coffee. "Hence the number." He asserted and I looked at him waiting to know the slightest lie from him but there was nothing, he wasn't sending me to the slaughter, I drank my coffee in a few gulps, offering to pay but Sterling refused, just as I stood to leave he pointed toward the area where a certain mark should be.

"What happen to you mark?" He questioned but I ignored him. "Thanks for the coffee." I interjected not wanting to tell him that his alpha broke me, and at some point the bond that kept us together finally broke, rejection without the words, just actions, and it hurt like no other, I never wanted to experience pain like that ever again. "Be careful out there Cherry." Sterling called out using my nickname, it sounded foul now, how could it not when the person who had said it was the one who gave it to me in love and yet he broke me then tossed me to the psychotic wolf.

As I hailed another taxi, I knew what I had to do, I had to meet the wolves who could give me more pieces to the puzzle I was building, I knew I was being watched from afar, by who I couldn't figure it out but I knew, not wasting time on my stalker I got into the taxi, I was heading straight for the den of rogue wolves, I wondered if I would get what I wanted or would I be ripped apart by yet another ploy by Sterling, there was only one way to find out, I had to get to the wolves den, I hoped they liked me enough not to kill me.

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LMJ