"Are you sure you don't want to come?" I doubled checked, fluffing my hair in the car mirror.

"No, you go spend time with your friends." Xavier smiled reassuringly, "If your friend's just been through a breakup, the last thing he's going to want is to hang around with a couple all evening. I'll meet them all another time."

"Awfully considerate of you." I complimented, "Are you sure you don't mind picking me up after?"

"Of course I don't mind, Cam. I want to make sure you're safe, after all- you know what the risks are." Xavier frowned, "Just text me whenever."

"Okie doke, thanks." I smiled, pushing the car door open.

"Have a good night!" He called, giving me a wave as I pushed the door closed.

I watched the car pull off into the night as the warm feeling in my chest dimmed gradually. It was still weird being around him and we didn't do much physical stuff, but we were still getting to know each other. He hugged me a lot and held my hand, but that's pretty much it.

I sent a small wave to the guy who used to be in charge of watching me at night- it had obviously been a while since I had seen him, since I had been staying at Xaviers. He sent a nod in my direction, hanging back as I walked into the pub and out of the dreary weather.

The pub wasn't overly busy, considering it was a Tuesday night, but it had the usual crowd of avid pub-goers. Spotting my group was pretty easy, since they were roaring with laughter in a corner booth. I was met with cheers as I strode over, making a smile slip onto my face.

"It's the man, the myth, the legend!" Heather clapped, "No lover boy with you?"

"Another time." I chuckled, slipping into the booth and giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"We were just talking about the day we all met." Mike chuckled, sliding a drink towards me.

I snorted at the memory, grinning as I took a sip of my drink.

"Do you remember? Tiny year seven Mick was caught with his Dad's flask in assembly on the first day." Fred reminded me, "They knew that you and Heather were involved because you threw up half way through the powerpoint welcoming us to our new school."

"He's been a bad influence since day one." I shook my head, "What year seven steals their Dad's flask?"

"What eleven year old drinks from some random kids flask?" Mike shot back, which was a fair point.

"You never did let me live down throwing up on you, Fred." Heather groaned.

"You got it on my new school shoes!" Fred exclaimed, "Some of us could handle our drink."

"Don't act like that's normal for a year seven." Oscar snorted, "You've got a problem."

"We all do." Fred shrugged, sipping his drink.

"I'll drink to that." Mick cheered, clinking his glass to Fred's.

"Idiot." Mike muttered, "I can't believe I got in trouble that day. I wasn't even involved, but they couldn't tell Mick and I apart so I got shit for it too."

"Having to go to group sessions about peer pressure as punishment clearly didn't do shit to help." I chuckled, "Fred still ended up becoming a drug dealer."

"I would have put my bet on Mick back then." Oscar mused.

"I wouldn't have." Mike scoffed, "He would just give everything away for free and burn into his own stash."

"Probably." Mick admitted, smirking.

"Ava and I were in detention for bunking class when we met you guys that day." Oscar frowned, the table going quiet.

It certainly felt strange without Ava here. Even on the day we had all met, Ava and Oscar had been a pair. They were skiving off of class that day to make out in the boy's changing rooms- a bad idea considering there was a PE class due to use that space. It must be a painful memory for Oscar- six and a half years together was a hell of a long time, after all.

"Maybe you need a rebound thing?" Mick proposed, "Usually works for Cam."

"No, no, no. Bad idea, Mick." Heather shut that down immediately, "If she sees you move on too quickly it'll just end up hurting both of you even more."

"Did you talk to her today? Is she okay?" Oscar asked, his voice thick with emotion.

"She wouldn't talk to me about it." Heather sighed, "She didn't ignore me, but she may as well have. All I could get in reply was 'sorry' and 'I'm fine'. She really wants some space from us, so I think we just have to accept that."

Leaning back in my chair, I thought about everything for a second. I thought about those girls she was hanging out with and from where else I knew them; I couldn't pinpoint it, but I was sure I knew them from more than just past sexual encounters. The answer was on the tip of my tongue, itching to come forth; I almost had it.

"Who the hell is that?" Mike's voice cut through my train of thought, gesturing subtly to something behind me.

Everyone- not so inconspicuously- looked over at what Mike was gesturing to and my eyes shot up to follow them. The man looked entirely out of place in the quaint, traditional pub; dressed in just a t shirt, I was wondering how he wasn't freezing cold- considering it was now pouring down outside. Not to mention, the shirt was torn in places and caked in grime.

He was leaning against the counter, looking right at our table. In a small town, you knew a lot of people's faces. Everyone was familiar in some kind of way, but I had never seen this guy in my life. I would remember. The way he was looking at us unnerved me and made my mouth go dry; something wasn't entirely right about this situation.

My eyes flickered away from him, looking for any sign of Xavier's henchman. I couldn't see him, but I was praying that he was somewhere nearby, lurking in some kind of shadows. The way the guy's eyes were burrowing into me made my stomach drop.

"He's looking right at you, Cam." Heather whispered, taking my hand nervously.

I couldn't reply, even if I wanted to; fear had crept into every crevice of my being. Something inside of me was screaming that this guy was no good and I had a feeling that he wasn't part of Xavier's wolf pack. He was something else.

I didn't want to take my eyes off of him, in case he tried something, but I had to text Xavier. Even if it was just a silly gut feeling, I had to trust my senses. My shaking fingers had never tapped on a screen so furiously before, letting Xavier know that there was somebody in the pub staring at me and it didn't sit right with me. I didn't want to say the word 'rogue', but that's what my gut was screaming.

His reply was instant: 'I'm on my way.'

Within seconds, the bodyguard entered the pub and headed over to my table. I waved at him, but he didn't even acknowledge it- his face was stone cold and that confirmed my fears as true. The guy at the bar was not somebody the pack trusted.

"Awe, you told on me?" The guy at the bar pouted teasingly, his voice cold and mocking.

"You need to leave. He's on his way." Greg's voice was equally as cold now, his glare fixated on the strange guy.

"I only wanted to make friends." The person was really pushing their luck with Greg, I could sense him losing his patience.

"I said leave." Greg hissed.

As they continued their strange staring match, I glanced at my friends. They were beyond confused with what was going on and I couldn't imagine what was going through their heads. Heather would have a field day with this, fuelling the theory that Xavier's a dangerous gang member.

I was trying not to show it, but I was quaking in my damn doc martens. Something about that guy was unnerving to me- it was like you could sense how unhinged and angry he was. The cold spite in his voice sent shivers down my spine- not the good ones that I got from Xavier, but ones that leave you feeling cold and nauseous.

I heard tires screech outside and a warm feeling flooded my chest, allowing me to breath a sigh of relief. As I did so, the stranger's eyes darted to me and an unreadable expression flickered over his face. Greg cussed under his breath, standing up to block the guy from me.

"Xavier! I didn't realise you had found your mate! Why didn't you tell your old friend?" The guy's voice was anything but welcoming or genuine, a sick sort of excitement wrapped around the words.

Xavier's eyes found mine and he sent me an apologetic look, frantically scanning me to check that I was okay. I silently nodded at him- I was fine.

"That's your mans?" Oscar scoffed, "Jesus christ. No wonder you felt attraction to him."

If there wasn't a rogue in the pub right now, I would have found that quite amusing.

The pub was incredibly quiet, everyone watching the exchange go down. The guy's yelling had certainly caught everyone's attention. In Britain, 'mate' isn't an odd word, so at least it wasn't drawing suspicion of anything out of the ordinary; they probably just thought that a fight was about to go down.

"Leave." Xavier spat, his eyes growing cold as he turned to look at the unwelcome rogue.

"Why? You leave." He was trying to get on Xavier's nerves and it seemed to be working.

"I don't have time for your games, Jude." Xavier's hands were clenched and it looked like he was holding in all of his anger towards this person.

I couldn't help but wonder whether this was the guy who was responsible for that girls death. Xavier said a rogue had done it, so it was possible. A shiver of fear travelled down my spine and I tightened my hold of Heather's hand for comfort. What I truly wanted was Xavier, but that wasn't possible right now.

"The way I see it, Xavie-kins, is that if I leave now, you'll just want to scrap in the car park." Jude smirked, "I'm only half way through my pint and I was really enjoying your mate's conversation. Interesting guy- not at all who I thought you would go for. If I'm honest, he's more my type than yours. Strange."

He was listening that entire time? I don't know why I was surprised, but sometimes I forget that werewolves can hear everything. It didn't sit right with me that he now knew an intimate story about my life, about my friends.

"Cunt." I whispered under my breath, allowing me to see who exactly was a werewolf in this room.

Everyone who's head swung towards me had an expression of shock, whereas the humans in the room were left looking confused as to why everyone suddenly gasped. The room fell into silence once again and I used that as an opportunity to scan the whole place. Jude was certainly outnumbered, but there's no way Xavier could make a move to stop him with so many non-werewolves in the same room. Jude was clever for realising this, showing just how crafty he was.

However, Jude also struck me as the type of guy to not think twice about blowing Xavier's little secret if he stepped out of line.

"I would keep a leash on that one, Xavier. He doesn't know when to watch his damn lip." Jude snarled at me, a slither of regret dripping through me.

"Don't fucking talk about him like that." Xavier growled, his eyes darkening a shade.

My mouth dropped open. I wasn't sure how noticeable that was to people who didn't know what was going on, but I sure as hell didn't want Xavier to push the limits. I slid out of the booth, cautiously stepping around Greg and walking over to Xavier. Jude's eyes were trained on me, eating me up, and it made me feel sick, but I continued.

Xavier didn't glance at me, his eyes shooting daggers at Jude for looking at me like that. He was close to losing it and I knew I had to do something before all hell was let loose in this quaint pub. His hands were still clenched, so I took one into my hands and unclenched it for him. Linking my fingers with his, he finally let his eyes soften as they looked into mine.

"Breathe." I whispered, "I'm okay."

"Yeah, Xavier, breathe." Jude mocked, "I always did say you needed to take that stick out of your ass."

Xavier's muscles tensed up again, but I just squeezed his hand to tell him to let it go. He sighed, closing his eyes for a few seconds as he tried to compose himself. I could tell how cut up he was about not being able to protect his pack originally, so it was hard for him to just let any rogue go.

"This isn't over, Jude." Xavier warned, "Phil, you make sure Cam's friends get home safe."

I guess Greg was actually named Phil, but I preferred the nickname I had christened him with; It suited him more. Xavier sent one more glare towards Jude before leaving the pub with his hand in mine. Swinging my car door open, he still seemed angry and tense. I climbed in and he closed it behind me, jogging around and getting into the driving seat.

We sat in silence for a second, reflecting on what had just happened.

"Fuck!" Xavier suddenly shouted, his hand hitting the steering wheel with frustration.

I bit my lip, feeling bad about not knowing how to comfort him. I took ahold on his hand, trying to calm him down- it's not his fault that he can't do anything right now. Exposing their secret would put just as many people in danger.

"I was so close to just shifting there and then." Xavier sighed, "Thank you for stopping me. Jude gets under my skin, makes me like that."

"I get that. He seems vile." I muttered, glancing through the condensation covered window to the bright lights of the pub.

"I can't believe you said that to his face." Xavier chuckled, shaking his head.

"I think I got on his nerves with that one." I laughed, despite feeling slightly uneasy about it all.

"We'll need to talk about everything, but right now I'm shattered and you haven't slept for a few days. Let's just go home." Xavier sighed, turning on the engine.

"What happened to your car? This one has normal doors..." I suddenly realised that we weren't sat in his Tesla.

"This is Noah's- I took the nearest car available in the rush..." Xavier shrugged.

I nodded and we set off, driving far far away from that creep in the pub.