OMG it's been so long but I'm finally writing again! I will try to be better about updating this story, but in the mean time here is a longer (ish) chapter than normal! I hope you all like it :)

After Jason and I hugged in the kitchen, Ella made her way slowly over to us and hugged both of our legs. I sniffle a little bit while pulling away and wiping at my face. I am still shaken up, but Ella needs me not to be right now. 

I lean down to pick her up while neither Jason nor I make a move to step away. We are basically standing chest to chest and when Ella looks over at him, she rests her head on his chest. He wraps his arms around me again and we lean on the counter like that, just in comfortable silence. 

"Do you still want food?" Jason asks quietly. 

"Yeah Ella should eat something," I say looking up at him. Our faces are so close that all he would have to do is lean down a couple of inches and he could kiss me. Instead he leans down and places a small kiss on my forehead and Ella's.

"Alright let's see what I can actually make," he says while shifting away. I stand up straight and walk over to the counter, Ella still in my arms, and take a seat. I watch as he moves around the kitchen gracefully, still not convinced that he will be able to cook this time. Thankfully, someone put lasagna in the fridge and he was heating that up in the oven. He sits next to me once it's in the oven, and looks carefully from me to Ella.

"So where did you say you saw the wolves?" he asks. I take a deep breath thinking about the afternoon.

"Well, Ella wanted to go outside, so we were walking around the front yard when the sickly looking one was walking up the road and towards the driveway. It had bright red eyes that I could see from a distance and was foaming at the mouth. It must have been rabid or something," I trail off while looking down at Ella, who was playing with my necklace. "That one started to chase me but we were too far away from the house so I just started running into the opposite direction, which was the woods, and it was chasing me." I finish while clearing my throat. 

Jason stands up and walks around to get me a glass of water before he keeps speaking.

"Was it fast? How did you outrun it? The driveway is right near the woods," he asks with a slightly incredulous tone in his voice. I must sound crazy saying I ran far enough into the woods to get away for a minute. 

"I just must have been closer to the woods," I said quietly.

"But how did you get away?" He seems confused while his eyes are boring into mine. 

"There was another wolf that didn't look sick, I think they started fighting while I ran away," I shrugged absentmindedly. 

Jason looks confused for a second before thinking about his next question.

"And you ran? Nothing happened with the second wolf?" I can't tell if he is believing my story, and I'll be the first to admit it sounds ridiculous. But what was I supposed to tell a man I had met days ago. 'No actually I threw one into a tree and pulled my sister away from the other, all with my magical freaky abilities.' 

He would laugh me right out the door. I hesitate for another second before speaking.

"Yeah they must have, I'm not sure," I say taking another sip of water. "Anyways, I kept running and I thought it was towards the house, but I guess it wasn't, and you found me a couple of hours later. How did you know I was in the woods by the way?" I ask redirecting the attention to him. I am starting to squirm from all the questions and his intense gaze.

He shifts slightly before answering my question, seeming to think about it for a minute as he takes in my last details of the story. 

"Well I came back here after that meeting I forgot about and couldn't find you two. Nobody else had seen you around and I knew you didn't take any of the cars so that only meant you could have wandered off playing with Ella," he simplifies while getting up to check on the lasagna.

"How did you know the woods though? We could have been walking around town, out to dinner, I could have went back to my apartment..." I say the last part just to see his reaction. I see his back stiffen before he relaxes and shrugs. 

"One of the members leaving the house saw you playing near the woods with Ella and after asking around, I eventually spoke with him," he said while taking the lasagna out. 

I nod and just stay silent. Neither one of our stories exactly matches up with the other. If someone had seen me near the woods, they would have either seen the sick wolf walking up the street, or they would have seen me near the edge fighting both of them. Now that I think about it, for a community that always has people around, there was not a single soul besides those wolves that I could see near or around the main house. Ella and I were outside for almost twenty minutes before that rabid wolf came for us.

I already know the holes in my story that Jason was bound to pick up on, but if he noticed, he wasn't pressing me on it.

Jason starts putting the lasagna on plates, cutting up Ella's piece in silence. I turn her around on my lap and we all start eating, still in silence.

After we eat, with a few outbursts from Ella, including throwing a piece of lasagna at me and Jason, we laugh and go to clean up. The tension thins out dramatically than when we first sat down, and all seems to be forgotten for now. 

"Do you want help cleaning her up?" Jason asks, handing me a wash cloth.

"Thanks, and it's fine. I am probably going to wash her hands and face and just change her into pajamas, she should be falling asleep soon anyways. As if on cue, Ella yawns and wipes her face with her half sauce covered hands. I sigh and try to wipe her face and hands before she can start to fall asleep on me. 

"Go ahead, get her to bed. Don't worry about all of this, I can clean it up," Jason says while rewrapping the leftover lasagna. I nod my head and walk out the door, really not trying to get covered in the sauce on Ella's shirt. 

Once we get to our room, I change Ella into some pajamas and get her into her crib. She starts to fall asleep when I am changing her, and is mostly out by the time I lay her down. I decide I should change too and put on some comfy shorts and a tank top. 

I just sit and watch Ella in her crib for a couple of minutes, thankful that she didn't get hurt today. I lean down and brush some baby hair from her forehead before yawning a little myself.

I go to walk back to my bed before I hear a soft knock on the door. I walk over quickly and peer out into the lit hallway, noticing a second later it is Jason, now in some basketball shorts and a t-shirt.

"Hi," he looks a bit nervous. "So I know its still early and I was going to watch some TV, if you maybe wanted to hang out for a bit?" he trails of seemingly less confident than when he started speaking. I turn to look at Ella who is fast asleep. 

"Yeah sure," I say with a small smile, slipping out the door before shutting it quietly. I turn around and Jason is smiling down at me.

I can faintly hear the TV on in his room and my face gets a little pink as I look at the door, now realizing he meant hang out in his room. In his bed. Jason must have noticed my gaze because he spoke quickly.

"There is a living room on the floor, we can go watch TV there if you want?" he asks.

"It's fine, if you already have something on it's not a problem," I say quickly. Almost too quickly, and my face starts to heat up even more. As Jason turns around I slowly shake my head at my own embarrassment. 

We walk into his room and he walks over to one side before sitting on the top. His room is still so neat and his bed is perfectly made. Part of me wonders if he does that, or if he has a maid come to do it. I can't imagine him being this neat.

"So what're you watching?" I ask while sitting down on the other side.

"I just had Friends on, but we could pick a movie?" he asks while picking up the remote and looking at me.

"Yeah sure, whatever you want. I'm not too picky," I say while shifting a little bit.

I watch as Jason goes through the movies and puts something on that looks like a typical Rom Com, although my heart is going a mile a minute and I can barely focus. I know Jason is interested in me, I mean he asked me out on a date, but it is another thing completely to be hanging out with him by myself. Most times, except for the grocery store when we were out in public, Ella is always with us.

After playing the movie, Jason lays down with his head on the pillow and one of his hands behind his head. I see him glance at me from the corner of my eye while I mimic his actions, getting comfortable on the bed. We are probably almost a foot away from each other, but I can still basically feel the heat of his body and my entire body is tingling, probably because of how nervous I am.

"So tell me more about you," Jason says after a couple of minutes. I look over and he rolls to his side, his head on his hand. During his shift, he has come considerably closer to me.

"Well, what would you like to know," I ask looking over to him.

"What was your life like before coming here? You said it was just you and Ella, what about your friends? Does our family live close by?" he asks curiously. 

"Well like I said, my parents aren't around. There was an accident about a year ago, and we lost them," I say quietly while looking up to the ceiling. Not before I notice the look of sadness in his eyes.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know," he says. I wave my hand and look back to him.

"It's okay, you couldn't have known," I say. "But as for friends, I don't really speak to many of them anymore, and with Ella, I was only taking classes part time, so I don't get to go out too much. We didn't have any other family in the area that I know of, and I've only met my extended family when I was really little, so we're not close," I trail off realizing how sad this all sounds. "It's really not that bad though," I say with a forced laugh. "I have Ella and we make it work together."

"Well I'm glad you're here now," Jason says looking at me with a small smile. 

"Yeah me too," our eye contact intense, it's like he is staring into my soul. "So what about you? Is everyone I met your general friend group? And Connie? Is she family?" I ask while rolling over and copying his position.

"Yep, they are my closest friends here, we all hang out pretty often and work together so you will get to know them more too. As for Connie, after my parents passed, her and Charles became like family to me. They helped me out with anything I needed while running this place, and I would honestly trust them with my life. Connie was my mothers best friend growing up, so she's been with me my entire life. She really stepped up though when I lost my parents," he says. I can see the emotions all over his face. He seems sad when he talks about his parents, but talking about Connie and Charles seems to cheer him up a bit. 

"Well I'm glad you have her, you seemed to turn out okay I guess," I say with a laugh, trying to lighten the mood.

"Thanks," he says while rolling his eyes. "So what do you like to do for fun? I obviously know you are in very great shape and a great fighter, but do you like it?" he seems genuinely curious. 

"Yeah I guess I enjoy it. It clears my head and makes me focused," I shrug while talking. "It also just makes me feel better. Part of me and Ella being alone is knowing that I can protect us. I have never had to actually defend us, until I met you," I say with a laugh. "But it's nice knowing I can."

"Yeah that makes sense," he says trailing off. "Do you work or anything?" he asks curious. 

"Well before coming here I worked part time waitressing. But only a couple times a week, and even less when I was in school. Since my parents died, we don't have a ton of money, but we have enough that I wouldn't have to for probably another couple of years at least," I say shrugging, not wanted to mentioned the couple of million my parents had saved, added together with their life insurance.

"What did your parents do?" he asks. 

"They were both lawyers." I say. "Corporate lawyers actually for some pretty big companies, so they traveled a lot," I say while running my hand across his comforter, it's so soft.

"Oh I see," he says while watching me carefully. "So where did you guys travel to?" he asks.

"Uh well I never actually went with them," I say awkwardly. "They brought me when I was super little, but once I got a little older they would leave me or only one of them would be traveling at a time. The neighbor was really nice and had 5 kids so she would check on me and I would hang out with her kids most days after school anyways. I believe they paid her, she was a single mom and struggling, and it was easier for them not to travel with a kid," I say.

"How old were you when they started leaving you with the neighbor?" he asks intrigued.

"Around ten?" I guess.

"That's really young to leave a kid for days on end," he says eyebrows furrowed.

"I didn't mind, I played with the younger kids, even helped out Ms. Alton with them. It made it much easier when my parents had Ella, I already knew how to take care of kids," I say with a small smile.

"You mean after they died?" he asks. 

"Well, they still traveled after my moms maternity leave. I've been helping with Ella since she was born," I say trailing off. I know he is going to say something else so I quickly start talking again. "So what about you? Were you close with your parents?" I ask. 

"Yes actually very close. I was lucky. My dad taught me everything I know, which led to us spending a lot of time together, and as I got older we became closer. My mom was such a sweetheart, always taking care of us while still being the strict parent. We would go on vacations and stuff, we had a great time," he says looking over my shoulder, smiling. 

"That sounds amazing," I say while putting my head down on my arm and looking up at him, still facing him. "Did your dad run the community before you?" I ask.

"Yes he did. My family has been in charge here for generations," he says.

"How does that work? Do you have to be elected? Has anyone run against you?" I ask confused. 

"No, it is passed down. The community is pretty happy so no one has ever tried to change that," he says a little vaguely. 

"Interesting," I say.

"The whole community is like one big family though, if anyone has complaints they bring it to me or to Liam and Mia, they also help run the community," he says by way of explanation.

"Oh so you have some people help? I know you said Charles helps with finances and Logan and Lily help with training for the security business?" I ask a little confused. "Is the security business your family's or part of the community?" I ask. 

"Well, a little bit of both I guess. I take a salary like anyone else who works for the company, but then anything left over goes to the groceries and bills for the main pack house. I technically own all of it, but there are a lot of teenagers and stuff who live here who can't work yet so we all keep the house running," he explains. 

"That seems like a lot of responsibility to be helping everyone," I say a little worried. 

"It is, but we're all very close, and I would do anything for the people in this community and I know they would do the same for me," he says like its so simple.

"Are you sure this isn't some kind of cult?" I say a little wary. He laughs at my facial expression, his face lighting up.

"No Gabi, this isn't some weird cult," he says. "We all just prefer to live here, and get along exceptionally well."

I nod my head and study his face. He seems genuine, although now that I think about it, everything they had done seems like something someone in a cult would do, and I've probably been brainwashed into thinking I want to stay.

"I can see that look on your face, and I told you, no one will make you stay here. You don't have to be afraid of anyone. Least of all me," he says. He seems very sincere, but he is the one who brought me here in the first place.

"Either way, I still want to take you on a date soon," he says casually. My face heats up a bit and I nod my head, letting out a chuckle. I go to look away but before I can, his hand comes up and gently stroke my cheek. The tingles and warmth that comes through his hand makes me want to never leave this bed. I could sit here with him for hours and never get tired of it. 

His hand moves down my neck, to my arm, and down to my lower back. When I think he is about to pull me in for a kiss. He instead pulls me closer to him, my face going to his chest as he kisses my forehead. I lean against his chest and take a deep breath, relaxing for the first time in hours.