When I woke up, Ember was gone.

Rapidly, I sat up and searched around my room. Realising it was empty, I ran into my bathroom. She wasn't there either.

Fear and panic simultaneously flooded my system.

She can't be gone. I can't lose her too.

All her things were still there. The indentation of her body on my bed still faintly remained, her scent still lingered in the air... Her clothes strewn over my bathroom floor.

"Ember?" I shouted and searched quickly through all of the upstairs rooms, only to discover that she wasn't in any of them.

I raced downstairs, thankful of my heightened speed.

"Ember?" I shouted again, louder this time.

Could they have taken her as well?

In my panicked state, I wasn't fully harnessing all my senses as I should have done — if only I focused, I would've been able to hone in on her scent, listen for her heartbeat. But I didn't; the panic and confusion and dread were overwhelming me.

When I'd slept by her side the night before, I'd had no nightmares or night terrors whatsoever. It was like Ember's presence kept me sane overnight.

I ran into the kitchen after checking all the other rooms. And there she was, simply getting a glass of water.

"I thought you were gone," I whispered, before pulling her close to me.

"I just wanted a glass of water," she explained — leaning away from me and searching my panic-stricken face with her deep blue eyes glazed with concern. The sort of concern and care that I never thought I'd experience again after my pack left.

"I know, it's fine... I just—" I faltered, voice struggling, "I just thought that you might've been taken as well."

"Oh, Theo," she said softly and looped her arms around my neck. "I'd never leave you like that."

"You don't always get a choice," I spoke stonily, struggling to keep myself from shutting her off. I forced out a question as she stood there looking cute as hell in my hoodie. "Enjoying my clothes?"

"Yes." She smiled and snuggled into my hoodie; "They remind me of you."

"Do you wanna go back upstairs?" I asked.

"Sure." She grabbed her glass of water, and I followed her up the stairs, "When are your parents gonna be back?"

"Later this evening," I said absent-mindedly, remembering that they had told me to make sure I'd had something for dinner by the time they were back.

"So... I can stay for a bit?" She bit her lip and walked into my room.

"You can stay for as long as you want," I told her and collapsed on my bed again — emotionally exhausted from the prospect of her potentially being taken from me. From the prospect of being alone again.

"I better text my mum," she mumbled as she dug in her bag for her phone.

Leaning back against the headboard of my bed, I closed my eyes, relieved that I'd found her. I dreaded what would have happened if she was actually taken, and what the Alpha in town meant for me.

Eyeing the tattoo on my wrist after sitting next to me, Ember asked, "How do you actually get your tattoos to like, last and not heal?"

I grimaced, "By an extremely painful process. First, you get the tattoo done as you would normally, and then because it heals in about five minutes, you have to use a concentrated flame, like a blowtorch, over it... And you have to burn wolfsbane into it. It hurts like hell, but then the tattoo lasts."

"So... How did you get the Omega tattoo and not even realise it?" She frowned.

"I have no idea, that's what makes it even more complicated. Because there's no way that I had it done the normal way and didn't realise." I showed her my wrist as I pointed to the cross over the piled, overlapping circles. "But there's also this as well. It used to just be an empty circle, that was my pack's symbol. I don't know what the cross it means; it appeared the morning after they left. But whatever it is, it can't be good."

"Right, okay." She nodded, obviously thinking about something.

"How about you?" I asked, causing her to raise her head, "How did you get your flame tattoo?"

"Well, it developed and became clearer to me after my mother gave me the Phoenix." She sighed. "The only problem is that it doesn't always work to cool me down anymore."

"What do you mean? How does it cool you down?" It was my turn to frown.

"Well, at Ashley's, the reason why I ran off into the toilet was to run cold water over it." She turned her wrist up and began tracing the black flames. "It used to cool me down, to cool down the fire inside of me. Except that it doesn't seem to do anything now, so I don't know whether it's supposed to do something else..." She trailed off, thinking again.

I remembered that day at Ashley's so clearly. I'd been a real jerk, pushing things too far, too fast.

"Ember, about that day at Ashley's, I claimed to know your secret, and I'm sorry for that," I apologised and her eyes found mine. "I didn't exactly know your secret, I could tell that you were something supernatural, though."

Ember frowned. "How did you know how to find me?"

In as much detail as possible, I told her about Storm's message to seek out a friend in the fire.

"So, am I your 'friend in the fire'?" Ember asked.

"I guess so." I shrugged, "But I have no idea what to do next, I don't know how I'm supposed to get my pack back. The Alpha in town just made things a whole load more complicated, as well." When she frowned, I told her, "Once you're in a pack, it becomes almost impossible to leave it. Some of the only ways that you can leave a pack are things like being cast out, being killed or your pack or even your Alpha being killed – if you leave by choice there's only a tiny possibility that you'll be able to find another pack willing to take on an Omega."

"Have you ever met another Omega before?" She asked, curious.

"Yes, though not to talk to. And, obviously, I didn't know that I would become an Omega myself." I grimaced. "We found her body, just at the edge of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation — meaning that she'd just made it into the state of Montana. None of us doubted that she was looking for us; there wasn't any other pack in the area. Her body was strung up in a tree, cut in half — by hunters." I gritted my teeth, remembering, "We all felt partly responsible... She'd come looking for us and had been killed doing so. Yet it was also one of the first signs of hunters that we'd seen in Montana — though we reckoned that they'd tracked her from Canada, just above Montana."

She bit her lip. "How much death have you seen?"

"Too much," I sighed, laughing exasperatedly as I pushed my head into my hands. "But it's good to remember them, it lets their memory live on."

Moving closer to me, she wrapped her arms around my neck in an embrace, "If you ever want to talk about any of them, I'm here."

"Thanks," I broke a little bit, "I just don't want my pack to be added to that list."

"They won't." Ember reassured, pulling away from me. "You will find them, I promise."

"Promises are nothing but false hope," I retorted cynically.

My parents had also promised that they'd never leave me; look at how that turned out. My pack had promised that we'd always stick together; look at how that turned out. All I needed was a third promise to be broken and I'd never trust 'promises' ever again.

"We should get up," I huffed, rolling out of bed and walking into my bathroom.

When the bathroom door was closed, I heard Ember mutter to herself, "God, Theo, why won't you just talk to me?"

I stared at my reflection in the mirror, jaw clenched. The reason why I wouldn't talk to her was because I couldn't talk to her — I couldn't put her through everything I'd been through.

Why can't I bring myself to trust her?

She clearly cared about me, and I cleared cared about her — as demonstrated when she wasn't in my bed this morning and I so nearly lost it thinking that she'd been taken.

Damn it.

I opened the bathroom door and went straight over to her, pulling her into a hug.

"The reason why I won't talk to you is because I don't want to hurt you. There are things that you wouldn't want to know about me," I explained, kissing the top of her head.

"Knew you would've been able to hear that," she muttered under her breath. "So, you think that there's nothing bad about me? You think that I haven't experienced death in my life, because of what I am?"

"You— You've killed?" I stuttered disbelievingly.

"This isn't about me," she stated, circling her arms around my waist and leaning close against my chest — but it was about her; sadness radiated from her and encased me in her silent suffering too.

Placing my hand under her chin, I tipped her lips up to mine and kissed her gently; I could taste the salt of her tears.

"If you ever want to talk about it," I told her, "I'm here."

"Just talk to me, if and when you need to, okay?" She reaffirmed, "Don't shut me out just because you think I can't handle it."

"I won't — you can talk to me as well." I sighed, "We should get up now."

"Well, what time is it now?" She asked, grabbing her phone. "Crap." She swore, "It's already 11. I should probably leave soon anyway."

At the ping of a text, I checked my phone too.

LIS:

Hey Theo, so we're going to be home around 12-ish instead of 6 today. Please make sure the house is tidy! Just a heads up, Neal wants to talk to you about something... See you soon!

I groaned and threw my phone across my room.

Ember raised an eyebrow. "You okay?"

"Fine, except that Lis and Neal are gonna be here at 12 when they were supposed to get back at 6 tonight. Lis wants me to tidy the house. Oh, and Neal wants to talk to me about something, so that's gonna be loads of fun!" I ranted.

"Then I should go." Ember sloped off into the bathroom.

Sighing exasperatedly, I changed into a fresh set of clothes. Then I ran around the house at superspeed and cleaned every surface, even though everywhere was already tidy. I took the trash out and threw a ton of my dirty laundry in the washing machine.

I was dreading my little chat with Neal. It would undoubtedly be an interrogation and some useless information about the Agency. The Agency who, as far as I could tell, had done nothing in order to look for my pack — they'd given up without even trying.

Sprinting back upstairs, I realised that I could hear the shower running — even if Ember was having a long shower, I doubted that the water would still be hot anymore. The boiler in that house had an annoying habit of acting up. Even beautiful houses have flaws.

"Ember, are you okay?" I knocked on the bathroom door and then waited a couple of minutes. I couldn't even hear her heartbeat so I yelled, "I'm coming in!"

The water was still streaming out of the shower, but Ember was nowhere in sight. Frantic, I called her name over and over. Anxiety flooded me — what if she is gone this time?

Then — out of nowhere — a burst of flames sprang up from the shower floor, unaffected by the running water. The flames raged for a few seconds, leaving me speechless and thoughtless. They died away and left behind a figure of a girl crouched over.

Grabbing a towel, I rushed over to her, "Ember?"

It's her, I realised as I saw her confused face.

"Thanks," she whispered when I handed her the towel and turned away so that she could cover herself.

Hesitantly, I asked, "Where... Where were you?"

"I think..." she stumbled over her words, "I think I was at Lake Oldoy..."

"How?" I snapped, "How is that possible?"

"I think that I..." She swallowed. "Teleported."

"How did that happen?"

"I think it's another ability," she spoke, dropping her eyes to the floor as she stood —pulling the towel tighter around her. She'd clearly been shaken by the experience, and there I was snapping at her.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked, my tone becoming softer.

"I'm... I'm fine — No I'm not, I'm not fine," she admitted, "I'm scared as crap. But... it'll be fine, right?" She asked, looking up at me.

"Yeah, sure." I nodded, though I wasn't entirely convinced it'll all be fine. "Hey, we'll get you through this, okay?" I smiled weakly. "You trust me, right?"

"I trust you." Ember nodded and leaned against me, wrapping her arms around me.

In all honesty, I had no clue how to help a girl who just spontaneously teleported a few miles away while she was in the shower. But I couldn't let her know how clueless I was.

Lis and Neal walked through the front door just as Ember snuck out through the back door.

"Theo, we're home!" Lis called out.

"Yeah, I know," I grumbled, walking towards them. "How was your trip?"

"It would've been better if—" Neal began but after a glance from Lis, he changed what he was saying, "If the art museum wasn't closed."

"Don't think I didn't see that," I told both of them. "I can tell when you're lying as well. Besides, I know that the Alpha who arrived last night will have... altered your weekend plans."

"How did you—?" Neal started before I cut him off.

"He howled, and it was freezing cold last night — that's how I know," I informed them, firmly folding my arms over my chest as they dropped their bags to the floor.

"Theo, we need to talk." Neal sighed, "It's about the Alpha."

"I'd guessed that much," I grunted.

"The Agency has been in contact—"

"Of course they have," I scoffed under my breath, glaring at him.

"Theo, if you let me finish a sentence, you might actually know what's going on, instead of jumping to conclusions." Neal glared at me.

"Maybe if you actually spoke to him about what's going on, then he wouldn't jump to the wrong conclusions," Lis retorted, glaring at Neal now.

There were a lot of glares being thrown around.

"Yes, but the Agency doesn't want me to tell him everything." Neal explained to his wife, "There are only certain things I'm allowed to tell him."

"Hello? You know I'm right here, right?" I asked, hoping they would then stop talking about me as if I wasn't there even though I was there. I rolled my eyes, adults — what a waste of effort. If they weren't there, I probably would've been able to start tracking my pack already.

"So, what do you want me to do about the Alpha?" I directed my question at Neal. "Because I was already planning on avoiding him."

"That's exactly the opposite of what the Agency wants you to do," Neal told me, "They believe that if you get yourself into a new pack, then you'll be better protected from the hunters if they arrive."

"First of all," I grimaced, "It's a 'when' not an 'if' the hunters arrive — they're coming, and you both know it, I know it, the Agency knows it. Second, I'm not going to let people die protecting me. And third I don't need a new pack; I've already got one."

"Wake up, Theo!" Neal exclaimed; Lis only rolled her eyes and walked into the kitchen, leaving the argument to erupt. "You don't have a pack — you're an Omega, how long will it take before that's gonna sink in?"

"This tattoo doesn't mean anything!" I yelled back, "It's cursed and bleeds and fills me with agony — it's got nothing to do with my pack. They're still alive, I know it! I can feel it!"

"What will it take for you to give it up, Theo? What will it take for you to realise that they're gone?" Neal's voice was rising.

"Their dead bodies lying in front of me," I growled, "That's what it'll take."

I was losing control, anger building up inside of me, the wolf begging to be let loose. My nails had lengthened into claws.

"You need to calm down," Neal said cautiously, presumably noticing my claws.

"Oh, yeah?" I snarled, "'Cos you're making that so easy for me."

"There's something you should know..." Neal faltered, aware of the ticking time bomb in front of him — the werewolf about to shift. "The Agency wants you to join the Alpha, and," he gulped, "They have reason to believe that your pack may still be alive..."

"What?" My claws were beginning to retract now, my heartbeat steadying.

"They found a scent. In one of the places where they think they were kept," he explained slowly, "The Agency doesn't know why they're still alive, but it's obvious that whoever took them keeps moving them to avoid them being tracked too easily."

"I have to go back," I declared, bolstered by the nugget of hope. "I have to go help."

"Theo, no." He shook his head. "You have to stay here, continue with school, try and live a normal teenage life."

I laughed loudly at his words. "You don't get it, do you? My chances of living a 'normal teenage life' were taken away from me the moment I was bitten. I have to go back; I have to help them — who else would be able to pick up the scent as well as me?"

"They have experts," he insisted briefly, before deciding, "You're not going back, it'd be like sending a lamb to the slaughter. The hunters would either kill or kidnap you the minute you were on U.S. soil."

"Whatever," I grumbled, knowing that he was right, "But what if I don't want to join this Alpha?"

"You might not have a choice," Neal said darkly, "The most likely scenario is that he'll come after you and any other werewolves already in town. He'll probably turn a few as well."

"You think I don't know all this already?" I hissed at him.

"Do you know any werewolves that are already here?" He asked, ignoring my remark.

"Yes, at least one," I replied, thinking of Kaden.

"You need to stick with them, no matter whether they join the Alpha or not. Chances are though, your friend is probably an Omega, just like you." He shrugged and walked off.

"I'll try," I told him honestly, but not making any promises; it's not like promises would be helpful anyway.

I had no idea whether Kaden was able to control the shift, or whether he went around killing people on full moons — that would be an awkward conversation trying to figure that out.

Even though I knew that she could probably help, I didn't want to bring Ember into this... But at some point, I might've had to. There would be another awkward conversation.

I knew that my pack was still alive... and I was beyond glad that they were and I had been right, but why were they still alive if they were still be held by the hunters? Why were the hunters even holding them in the first place?

Hunters are supposed to kill supernatural creatures, and even if they do capture them, it isn't long before they are killed. Eventually, it all just ends in being killed — how pleasant.

Though I hoped with all my heart that my pack did remain alive long enough for them to be found and that all of my pack were still alive.

I couldn't sleep that night — insomnia induced by fear and worry is the worst sort, and I should know; by that point, I'd had plenty of sleepless nights due to insomnia and night terrors. 

Screaming.

A girl screaming.

Abi? It sounded like her banshee scream. Her keening — a sound so piercing it could shatter glass and make anyone in a two-mile radius' ears bleed.

Still screaming. I couldn't find her. It was dark everywhere.

"Abi?" I yelled out into the darkness.

"Theo!" She cried back, "They're dead, they're all dead."

She began screaming again.

"Where are you?" I tried to ask but was stopped by my throat blocking up.

She screamed so loudly that I could feel blood begin to trickle out of my ears, my eardrums splitting from the sound.

And the scream went on and on and on.

And I couldn't find her, I couldn't find any of them.

"Find us!" I heard her cry out to me before I tripped and fell and kept falling — no end to the dark abyss.

I woke in my bed, yelling and dripping in sweat.

When I'd calmed down, I realised I was holding something in my hand — Abi's tear-drop-shaped pendant that she always wore... It held pictures of her family.

And sure enough, when I opened the clasp, I saw the same faces that Abi had shown me. It was the exact same pendant.

What does this mean? I scarcely had time to think before the darkest part of my mind took over my conscience and ruled the remainder of my night with terror.