"Is mayonnaise an instrument?"

"No, Patrick. Mayonnaise is not an instrument. Horseradish is not an instrument, either."

I could feel my internal clock telling me that it was way too early to be up just yet. I also had a pretty good feeling that I wasn't dead due to the pain in my back—wasn't quite sure if I was happy or sad about that yet.

I grunted in the most unladylike manner as I rolled my body around on whatever cushioned surface I had been placed on. It wasn't the most comfortable thing, but it was definitely a step up from the ground that I'd been sleeping on the past week and a half. One day, I even slept in a tree—until I fell out.

The realization that I was obviously not in a place where I should be sleeping had my eyes popping open in a matter of milliseconds. They were met immediately by the images of a Spongebob Squarepants episode on a large television placed upon a wooden stand.

"What?" I whispered to myself in total confusion as I began pushing my upper body up from the couch that I had been laying on in an extremely unfamiliar room. I didn't get very far before a sharp pain stung my side causing a hiss to pass through my gritted teeth. As if on cue, a familiar head of dirty-blonde hair made an appearance.

"Jack," I snarled at him as he walked into the room with a disapproving look aimed toward me. His thick arms were crossed over his brawny chest making it very hard for me to focus on anything other than his well built torso being covered by a moderately loose fitting t-shirt. It took a lot of mental strength to tear my attention from his body to his foresty-green eyes which seemed to be a tad darker than normal. I was assuming it was due to the anger I could feel radiating off of him.

"What the actual hell, Kaia?" He snapped at me. I'd never had the opportunity to see this side of Jack before. Normally, he was laid back and tried to avoid any type of legitimate argument, but that all seemed to fly out the window at this point. The Jack standing in front of me was not the Jack that I had left back at Caedes Territory.

"I could be asking you the same thing," I fired back with the same amount of hostility he had been giving me. At this, his already clenched jaw clenched even harder if it were even possible.

"Kaia, now is not the time!" He shouted, his eyes flashing to an even darker shade of green, making me jump in surprise. It wasn't his sudden outburst that startled me, though. It was the fact that I didn't even know Jack was capable of getting this furious.

I think Jack realized just how much his extreme contrast in behavior was freaking the heck out of me. He closed his eyes for a moment and took in a deep breath before speaking again. "We're stressed," he stated quietly with his eyes still closed. I wasn't sure if he was referring to he and the pack, he and Matteo, or he and his wolf, but I was just going to assume the ladder based on the previous events.

"I'm not a therapist. You didn't have to kidnap me just to vent about your problems. I'm sure there's a shit-whack of people who would be more than happy to aid you with your stress," I replied. As the words came out, I was internally kicking myself in the shin. I'd never had a problem being rude before, but as Jack's eyes popped open to stare into mine with betrayal looming within them, I couldn't help but hate myself a little bit. I wanted to throw up in my mouth.

Honestly, I thought I was going to.

"You can't tell me that you're actually happy living like this," Jack said, disregarding my verbal jab at him which I was grateful for. It made me feel less bad that he didn't seem very affected by it.

"I'm fine," I put bluntly. I moved my eyes to the floor, not being able to stand seeing the emotions in Jack's any longer.

"But, are you happy?" He challenged causing my teeth to grind together.

Was I happy? At one time, yes. Am I happy now? It's complicated.

"I said, I'm fine!" I snapped, putting an end to that conversation. The two of us just sat in silence for a moment. I figured Jack was going to leave, but instead, another person decided to stroll on in.

"Good morning, our fearless fugitive," Daniella chirped as she plopped down on a recliner across from me. She lifted a pastel yellow coffee cup to her lips as her eyes analyzed the scene in front of her which consisted of a very annoyed Jack and a now very annoyed me. It wasn't far-fetched to think that Daniella would magically become annoyed next. "O-oh, I sense some tension. Did Jack and Kaia actually fight about something?" Daniella taunted.

"Knock it off, Dani," Jack snapped. Daniella just chuckled and sipped her coffee. She was obviously enjoying this.

"Okay, so where are we, and why are we here?" I finally spoke up as I forced myself to sit up. I winced the entire way. I could see the wheels turning in Jack's head. It was obvious that he wanted to help me, but he refrained from doing so. It made my heart hurt knowing I'd managed to make him that upset with me. I pushed away those friendly feelings and diverted my attention to Dani. I didn't have time to feel things in my heart.

"Well, we are currently about two miles into the western border of Caedes Territory—about five hours by car away from the main pack grounds," Daniella replied cheekily.

"We're in Caedes?" I snapped angrily. "I didn't want to be here! You guys know, I'm not a pack wolf! I made this very clear when I left."

"Oh, shut up, Kaia," Dani interrupted me. "Stop acting like this is what you want."

"Why wouldn't this be what I want?" I disputed like a five year old.

"Because nobody wants to be alone, stupid."

"Well, I do, so why am I here?" Dani rolled her eyes at me and looked over to Jack.

"You tell her. I'm annoyed already," she barked while she sipped at her coffee. With a huff, Jack turned to me and began talking.

"Matteo went looking for you after you left, and he hasn't been back. Everything back home is a bit shuffled at the moment without the Alpha. He left suddenly which caused the pack to panic a bit, and I doubt he is going to stop looking for you until you're back," Jack explained.

"Yeah, so instead of staying on pack grounds and taking care of the pack like the responsible, ranking wolves that we are, I suggested that we should probably find you ourselves," Daniella interjected.

"So, you planned this?" I asked, genuinely amazed. I figured after seeing Jack that he was the master mind behind the expedition—definitely not Daniella.

"Don't get it twisted, Kaia. If you're not there, Matteo's not there, and without an Alpha holding a pack together, everything begins to crumble, and I don't do dust," Dani clarified making me lose whatever hope that she could be a good person I had for her.

"So, who thought it would be a good idea to shoot me?" It didn't take a genius to realize that the sharp pain had been caused by a silver bullet. Silver in the right doses can kill a werewolf. It's one of the things that we struggle to heal from. Our bodies react to something in the element which can ultimately cause entire systems to shut down. Tragic, but true. That explains the intense feeling of being set on fire that I had felt when I was about to rip Daniella's head off.

"I wish I could say it was me," Dani replied, answering my question, "but I gotta hand it to lover boy, on this one." My mouth dropped in shock as my eyes connected with the culprit.

"I am shook," I said blatantly. "After all this time, I thought Dan was the one who wanted to pop a bullet in my ass."

"Oh, no. I do," Dani interrupted, causing Jack to roll his eyes.

"Hence why I didn't give you the gun," he retorted.

"There wasn't even enough silver in it to kill her if I wanted to," she scoffed, "and I was the one who made the bullet, so relax."

"You couldn't have thought of a less painful way to get me here?" I snapped, rubbing my side as I remembered the pain that they had caused me.

"Less painful for you? Yes. Less painful for us? No," Dani chimed. "Besides, we could have made it worse and just shot you in human-form. Atleast I made sure you were shifted before giving Jack the okay."

"Am I supposed to thank you?" She must actually be insane if she thinks I'm going to be okay with her and Jack shooting me just because they made it a little less painful.

"I'd suggest it."

"Okay, will you two shut up for a second, so we can figure this the hell out?" Jack burst in trying to silence our argument. "Kaia, I know that—for whatever reason—you don't like to be a part of a pack, but you need to come back. You're a part of this now. You can't just hide from something that is destined to happen."

"If you wanted me back so badly, why didn't you just take me there in the first place?"

"You started waking up way earlier than anticipated, and we'd rather not have you wake up in the middle of driving and cause a wreck," Jack explained. That makes sense, I guess.

"Well, you can't just tell me that some magical force is going to dictate my life. If this was any other situation, no one would care. If he wasn't my mate, then life would just go on like it should be. You guys just need to let it go," I testified.

"Yeah, well, that can't happen because quite frankly Teo is your mate, and this is a situation that we can't just let go of. We need you, Kai."

"You guys have survived just fine without me. I'm not really much of an asset," I muttered, trying my hardest to seem like I had a convincing argument.

"Just because you can't see your importance, doesn't mean it's not there."

"The only importance in my life is trying to stay alive."

"So, why not just come back?" Jack asked. I could see the stress building up in his eyes the more that I denied his offer. "You'll be safe and alive. Matteo would never let anyone hurt you. He would die before you even had the chance."

"Because, Jack, that's not who I am. That's not me," I stated strongly. "You can't just throw a fish in the air and tell it to fly."

"But, this is you? Running around killing for fun? Correct me if I'm wrong, but you didn't seem too thrilled to slaughter that dude earlier. You looked like you were two seconds away from a break down." My brows knitted together in confusions as my arms crossed over my chest weakly.

"I don't cry." I'd gotten close a few times lately, but I hadn't legitimately cried due to emotion in a long time. I didn't cry when my parents left me. I didn't even cry when my brother left me.

"Face it, Kaia. You aren't happy. Just come back," Jack urged softly. I clenched my teeth together, shaking my head.

"I can't."

"Yes, you can. We can leave right now."

"No, Jack. I really can't," I repeated with a hint of finality lacing into my tone. Jack completely overlooked it, though.

"What are you trying to prove here?" He questioned, making something in my brain tick.

"You don't understand!" I growled out as I moved my heavy gaze to the floor. I couldn't find it within myself to make eye contact with him. In all honesty, I was scared that if I did, I'd fall apart. There was something about those cool, green eyes that made me feel a bit more vulnerable than normal. It reminded me of when I was younger—when I was with my brother.

"Are you trying to prove something to your parents?" I clenched my teeth together hard and scrunched my nose up.

"Jack, no, stop!" I snapped trying to sound strong, but I think everyone in the room could tell that Jack was hitting a soft spot for me, and he wasn't really letting up. He was on a mission to break me down.

"You're trying to prove yourself to people who abandoned you. They aren't coming back, Kaia. You're holding onto a memory. They're not worth it. They left you." I swear, I heard something break in the moment whether it be my pride, my composure, or—the one I'm most disturbed by—my heart. Something definitely shattered, though. The rough edges digging into my soul making me want to scream.

"Fine, I'll go! Just stop talking!" I shouted trying to ignore what I already knew was true. They left me, and most likely were not coming back whether that be because they are dead or they just don't care.

I don't think Jack really understands how touchy that subject is for me. If he did, I doubt he'd use it against me.

The whole story is sort of tragic, to be honest. You wake up one morning when you're thirteen to find your brother gone. Your parents have no clue where he went—no one does. The only real friend you've ever had just vanished without telling you or anyone where he was going or why. Then a year later, your parents abandon you, and you're left sitting in a shitty little motel room alone. You wait, and wait, and wait, and wait hoping they come back, but they never do. You were completely and utterly abandoned. I was completely and utterly abandoned.

My parents weren't coming back, my brother wasn't coming back, and neither was I.

"Well, I didn't know you had it in you, lover boy," Daniella chirped, sipping on her coffee once more, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. "Let's go home. I need a nail file, asap."

____________

Woopdy woopdy woooo

I'm praying this chapter made sense because I'm writing it half asleep tbh and I'm not reading it through rn so I'll just edit it later lmao

Anyway, we got a little look into Kaia's life. We also got to see a bit more of an asshole side of Jack. And the normal Daniella BC what else.

Okay, I need rest

Hasta la pasta. 5/29/17