Mae's POV

My stomach tightened as I saw Dex walk through the door. He squeezed his eyes shut, as if he were trying to wake up from a bad dream. He blushed and muttered competing under his breath. I could tell he obviously didn't want be here. No more than I wanted him here, maybe even more.

"I still don't know why you want me to come back here. It's filled with people who want to kill me." I heard Dex mumble to my Dad, "I was perfectly fine in the woods by my self."

"You are a minor, so you have to stay here." I heard my Dad say back, "I'm sure they don't all want to kill you."

"Who want's to kill me?" Dex muttered.

"I sure as heck do!" I screamed, letting my temper get the better of me, "Why are you letting him stay here. Let him go to the woods so I can hunt him down to kill him properly."

"Be nice Mae!" My Dad scolded, "He is your brother anyways."

"Was my brother. Now he's a monster!" I felt Dex's eyes burning into my back. I whipped around, just in time to see Dec was mocking me. I glared at him but Dex just blinked innocently. "A very childish monster!"

"You must have bees in your brain, I'm neither childish or a monster. I just like to have a little fun, every now and then." Dex said.

"Why did you come to Cloudcroft, anyways? I can see you obviously hate it here." I sneered.

"I don't know! One minute I was in the woods, the next I was on the sidewalk by the police station." He hissed.

"Ya, like I believe that!" I retorted. To be honest I wasn't sure if I believed him or not.

"Enough, both of you!" Our Dad snapped.

"Sorry, Dad." I muttered, but Dex said nothing, just glared at his father with fierce red eyes.

After a moment of icy silence, and glares my Dad finally broke into it with a firm voice, "Dex there will be no challenging in this house."

"Your no Alpha to me." Dex retorted, "I don't care, anyways. You can't keep a cat caged, and you know that as well as I do. Besides, silver can't harm me."

"That's why I'm not using silver." my Dad said., with a icy tone to his words. He then moved towards what I had always thought was a vent and pulled it open. There was a room about the size of large closet there. "Get in there." he said, Dex obeyed, but it was obvious he didn't want to. He then put the top back on, "Now you can stay in there until you have decided you want to be civilized." he yelled through.

"I'm never going to be civilized. I'm a monster! Didn't you hear Mae?" Dex spat back.

We then all settled back on the couch, trying to ignore the awkward silence that was starting to bloom, like blood from a open wound. I didn't meet my father's gaze. Just as all seamed to be calming down there was a shaking sound coming from the vent. Then a yowl of pain.

"That would be the gold. It's ten times stronger than silver, well for werecats at least. So no use trying Dex!" My Dad said to us and him.

"I wasn't going to! Not again! Dang that hurt!" Dex yelled back.

"I know you guys must have a lot of questions, like what type of madman would bring a werecat into the house, then lock him in a cellar. Right?"

"That's a good place to start." I grumbled.

"Well the police called and they said they had found my son, and that's not something you can just ignore. Not without it looking funny, that is. So I had to pick him up. I installed the cellar, for just this reason, to keep a werecat prisoner."

"Yay, I'm a prisoner!" I heard Dex call, "What other fun ways are you going to abuse me? Time will only tell!"

"Are you sure I can't just kill him?" I asked, mainly to myself.

"Oh no! I'm going to be killed, by my own sister! I would be a bummer if I had to fight her, to the death." Dex said sarcastically.

"Isn't this thing supposed to be sound proof?" I whined.

"To the outside, it is, the inside, not so much." My Dad replied. Everyone in the room groaned.

"Are you sure keeping him prisoner is a good idea?" Kyra asked, of course she'd be the only other one with doubts on this particular matter.

"Yes. The room has a layer of gold in the center, between the two layers of concrete. Then he'd have to get out from six feet of dirt." My dad said.

"Or go threw the house." Zay concluded.

"Yes, but he'd have to go there the golden bars and then us. Even if he got that far I put a layer of gold on the door knobs and window frames, after his unexpected visits. No werecat can get in or out."

"So we can sleep safe at night?" JJ asked.

"Yep." My Dad said.

"Everyone except me." Dex muttered, "Why do people always make choices about my life, when I'm with you people? You always act as if I can't hear you!" He said louder.

Nobody dared to make a sound, to move, and we were hardly breathing. Dex still looked at us expectantly, ready to hear a lie. I stared hard at the shell that used to be my brother.

His hair was ratty and messed up, as if it hadn't be washed in weeks. His normally small body was thinner than normal, as if he'd been slowly starving himself. I could probably be able to count every single one of his ribs if he was wearing his red sweatshirt. The same thing he'd been wearing when I last saw him, and the time before that. I think he'd been wearing it ever since he first left to find out Uncle. It was dirty and stained with blood. It was also ripped in some places. His eyes were what were most different. Instead of being the happy green eyes I once knew, they were a color that was a cross between green and red, and they were scared.

"You want to know the truth?" I asked Dex, getting on my knees so I could look him square in the eyes, "Why we seemed to reject you, to call you a monster, to lock you in a cage?"

"Say it's for my own good, and I don't care how much it hurts me, I'll come out there and strangle you." He hissed, threw gritted teeth, trying to sound stronger than he really was.

"It's because we are afraid. The Order wasn't founded for nothing. It was to kill what we didn't understand, not monsters, like the ones that we really needed to be afraid of, but the people who were different." I said. Dex stared at me my green eyes meeting his red ones. He lowered his head and blinked, letting his unspoken words sink into me.

I backed away from the cellar, and turned to meet states of my friends, but none of them met my eye. Great now they thought I was a traitor, just what I needed!

"How true is what you just said, Mae?" Kyra asked, finally meeting my gaze.

"My grandmother proved it all when she was a member of the Order. She was kicked out for it." I said, honestly, and Kyra just nodded, respectfully.

Suddenly the door flew open, a and a familiar face poked walked in. His brown hair and brown eyes. His ever present mischievous grin. He ran up to me and wrapped me in a hug.

"Mae." He breathed.

"Xander."

* * *
Dex's POV
A Hour Earlier

I felt my hands sting as the pressed against the cold pavement. I tried to lift myself to my feet but I fell down, almost as soon as I had. My mouth tasted of blood and I saw a small pool of it were I'd been laying.

My head felt as if it was on fire, but the rest of my body was cold as ice. I knew I'd probably freeze to death if I stayed here much longer. I felt my body start to give up, and I didn't protest.

Then there was a African-American woman peering over my body, shining a light in my eyes. I blinked, a couple of times, then felt myself being lifted up.

The next thing I knew, I was in the police station, I squinted my eyes because of the harshness of the man-made lights. It was nothing compared to the moon and it's beautiful glow.

Then came the questions. Most were by the lady I first saw, whose name, I learned, was Officer Kelly.

"So what's your name?" She asked me.

"Dex," I mumbled "Dexter Marwood." Officer Kelly told someone else to do something, I didn't quite understand. When they came back, they gave Kelly a paper.

"Your the kidnapped kid?" She asked me. I squinted my eyes, not sure why she thought that. Then I remembered. I just disappeared. What wasn't making my situation any better, was that I looked kidnapped. Half starved, and beat up. When I didn't respond Kelly asked again, "Did someone take you or did you leave on your own free will?"

"I-i-i don't know." I stuttered.

Kelly wrote something down then asked, "How did you get to the police station?"

"I'm-I'm not sure." I stuttered again.

"Look Dex, if you want to help us then you need to really think about what happened when you were gone." She said.

"I don't know what happened!" I wailed, probably sounding like newborn kit, "it's all to fuzzy."

"Okay, then. I'll just call your Dad and we can continue this tomorrow." She said.

Suddenly fear rose in my chest. I wasn't going to get dragged into that lifestyle again. "No, please don't do that." I said, practically begging, "Anything but that!"

"Why? Did your Dad do this to you?" She asked, sounding skeptical.

"No it's just--" I muttered.

"So you are a runaway." She concluded.

"It's not like I had a choice. My sist--" I cut myself off, not wanting to say too much.

"So your sister did something?" Kelly concluded.

"It's complicated. I think I can just walk home now." I said, trying to leave.

"You live five miles out. There is no way I'm letting you leave without a parent." Kelly said. There was no escape now. I saw her hit the buttons and the phone rang. I heard her talk to my dad, and add something about my sister, but I was too tired to listen any closer.

After a few minutes my Dad drove up and I got in his truck. I lay still in the backseat, not speaking, and hardly breathing. When we pulled up to the house, I stayed in the car and he went inside. I could already tell, this was going to end in flames.

-=+=-

AN:

Wassup guys! I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while, but I have a good reason this time. I had to fly to new mexico yesterday (Bet you don't know which town!) and I was so tired, I couldn't wrote. Now I'm hiding in my room from a dog. Yep you heard me, a dog. I'm at my dad's house for spring break! Yay! There is a lady who lives here too, no not my stepmother or really mother, just a friend of my Dads. She had a deaf dog, that scares the poop out of meh!

So sorry for bugging you with about half of my life's story. So this week I actually have a life! I know, gasp in shock! So I'm writing on my kindle, so sorry for all the mistakes, and double sorry for it taking so long! So that's all for now. As always remember to vote and comment. Bye!!!!!!

Pic's of Kelly