IIIIII'M BAAAAAACK! ;D

Hey guys! Ok so I WAS planning to not write until the school year ended. But then I saw that my story had dropped to the 800's on What's Hot! :'{ And also I was having withdraw symptoms! Seriously! I missed writing and posting and reading your guys' comments...I was going nuts! And it's only been 2 weeks! That's kind of sad if you ask me... but ANYWAY I won't guarantee a release date for the next chapter cuz everything gets kind of unpredictable at this time of year. Also my mom is limiting my computer time for this summer. >:[ it's to like 2 hours a day and no electronics AT ALL on Wednesday!! Sucks doesn't it? Well, ya so be patient with me, I'll be writing all of those two hours!! (And some late at night when she's asleep =P). ENJOY THIS CHAPTER AND DON'T FORGET TO VOTE AND COMMENT!!!

~Alex

Ps. If you couldn't tell, I had coffee about twenty minutes ago!!! I'm gunna go run around my house a few times!!! SEE YAAAAA!!!

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It had been a week since I had developed my new power. Every spare minute I got was spent practicing it and my fighting skills. Andrew and Davo had to literally drag me to bed every night, with me complaining and asking for 'five more minutes' like a small child with a play date that ended too early.

It's amazing how much one power can do. The strange haze acted as a sort of shield, since whenever someone was to touch it, they would be shot back a good thirty feet. We had tried so many different things with it, to test its full abilities. I couldn't put it around other people, which had disappointed Connor, but we found that nothing could penetrate it. We tried having me running into things, which only resulted in the destruction of those things, they tried stabbing it with a knife, which only resulted in the wielder of the knife being shot backwards with the knife bent in hand.

My shield was powerful, but would it be powerful enough?

As I practiced a new power surfaced. I could move objects with my mind, telekinesis I believe it's called. A power that James and I had in common. Though how mine matched to his, I was not sure.

Elli and Cece had been hanging around me the past week. They knew of my past, I assume from Andrew. They didn't try to talk to me about it, which I was grateful for. They had become my good friends. I had never really had girl friends before but it was kind of nice. Sometimes Cece would come visit Elli and me in our room over night and we would just talk about random and seemingly irrelevant things. Cece was absolutely shocked when she found out I had never had a sleepover before.

Cece was a nice girl, always happy and trying to find the best in people. But the thing about her was she never stopped talking. It's not that I minded, she was interesting to listen to, but she gave me her whole life story in ten minutes. Her parents had been divorced and her mom was married to a man similar to my father. So one day she ran away. She had just stumbled upon this house and Connor had asked her to join. Obviously, she had said yes. She had never met Danny in person but she had heard everything about him from Connor and Andrew. Her eyes softened and her cheeks went red when she talked about Connor. It was easy to see her infatuation with him, though she never voiced it.

Elli was a little more complicated. She never really talked about her past, though I had the idea it was just too painful. Whenever I would ask a question or she would accidently let something slip her eyes would glaze over as if she was traveling through her memories, back to a time not so happy as now.

We were all sitting outside at a picnic table I never noticed. We each had some kind of food in our hand; Andrew an apple, Elli a granola bar, Cece a small bag of chips, and Davo, Connor and I sandwiches. Elli broke a small part of her granola bar and threw it at Andrew, hitting him strait in the eye.

"Ow!" He yelled covering his eye with his hand. "What the hell?!"

Cece reached an arm up and smacked him in the back of the head. "Language Andrew." We all started laughing as he held his eye with one hand and his head with the other.

Just then, I spotted a young girl, maybe two years younger than me, walking towards the tree line. She was turning her head from side to side, as if to make sure no one saw her, her stormy blue eyes darting everywhere nervously. She had her hands in her jeans pocket and kept her back slightly bent forwards. For just a short moment her eyes locked with mine. She gave me a suspicious look before sprinting off into the trees with her reddish-blond hair waving behind her.

"Who was that?" I asked Andrew who was still holding his eye.

"Ya what was with her?" Said Davo, having noticed her too.

"That's Bailey." He said, blinking his eye furiously as he took his hand off it. "She doesn't really talk much, and she spends most of her time in the woods alone. No one's exactly sure what she does." He shrugged.

"Where'd she come from?"

"I found her half dead in the forest," Connor chimed in. "We brought her back and fixed her up, we think she was previously part of Danny's pack but we can't be sure, she won't talk about it."

I stared at the place where the strange girl and disappeared. Something about that girl put me on edge. Something that I just couldn't put my finger on.

* * *

Andrew and I were sitting in his room, playing Jinn Rummy again. We used to always play this when we were kids. I've only ever beaten him once, and I've always had my suspicions that he let me win.

I was here reluctantly, since I would much rather be training, but he said I needed a rest.

"You've been working yourself like crazy for a week Maggs," he had said. "You need to take it easy. You'll just wear yourself out if you keep going like this." And when Andrew had his mind set about something, there was no point in arguing with him. So here I was, sitting in his room, wasting valuable time.

He was shuffling the cards for a new game when something came to my mind.

"Hey, Andrew?"

"Ya?"

"When I was in Danny's camp...something happened. Remember when I told you Gage practically killed me in the training field?" His eyes narrowed. "Well after that, I heard Danny and Jason talking. Danny said: 'You can't fall for every helpless girl that comes into this camp! You know what happened last time. I forgave it that time, but don't think I will again.'" I could remember his words perfectly. "Do you know what he was talking about?"

"Ya...ya I do." He looked down. "But I think you should be talking to Elli about that, not me."

"Elli?" what the hell does Elli have to do with anything?

"Ya. Just trust me."

I jumped up before he could say anything else.

'Fine. If he won't tell me then I'll just take his advice.'

I ran down the hall to my room. As I reached my hand out to open the door I hesitated.

'What am I going to say? Just walk in there and say 'so Elli I heard about you and Jason...' Ya. I'm sure that would go over well.'

My hand hovered uncertainly over the handle for a moment before I took a deep breath and twisted it, pushing the door open.

"Elli?" I called, half hoping she wasn't there.

"Ya?" she called back.

"Can I talk to you for a sec?" I walked all the way into the room and sat on my bed. Elli was lounging on the windowsill, reading a book. She looked up and turned her eyes to me.

"Ya sure. What about?"

"I...uh..." I rubbed the back of my neck nervously, looking away from her searching eyes.

"Come on kid. Spit it out."

I took a deep breath trying to steady myself and keep from stuttering. "When I was in Danny's camp Jason mentioned something...well someone." I said in a rush. "Danny said to him, 'you can't fall for every helpless girl that comes into this camp! You know what happened last time. I forgave it that time, but don't think I will again.' I asked Andrew what he was talking about and he said that I should really be asking you that and...so...here I am." I chuckled nervously.

She looked kind of shocked by my rush of words. "I don't think I've ever heard someone talk that fast before...well maybe Cece but still."

"You need me to repeat?"

'Please say no please say no'

"No, no I got it." She sighed and ran her fingers through her long light brown hair. "Well, I guess since Andrew couldn't keep his trap shut and I don't want you making wild conclusions based on what you've heard...there's no real use in keeping it a secret any longer." She rested her elbows on her knees, folded her hands together, and settled her chin on them.

"About a year and a half ago...I was at home alone, watching TV. Someone knocked at the door and I answered it. It was Danny, though I didn't understand the significance of that at the time. It was winter at the time and he asked if we wanted our walk shoveled and if my parents were home. Like the idiot I am I told him they weren't and asked if he could maybe stop by another time. Before I really knew what was happening someone grabbed me from behind and knocked me out. I woke up with Gage and Danny standing over me. They cut me and tested my blood for the werewolf gene...and as it turns out...I had it. He bit me and...well you know what happens after that."

I nodded my head. "How do they test your blood for the gene?" I asked.

"You know how we can't manipulate silver? Well our blood doesn't like it much either. Basically they take blood from you and put it on

a plate or something that has some silver in it. When the blood hits the silver it turns black and clots up."

I remembered back to when I had first been kidnapped, when Gage had stuck that knife into my arm. So many things from my recent past that had confused me and gnawed at my consciousness since were now coming to light with the help of Connor, Andrew and their pack. The tangle of mystery and confusion that was confining my mind was beginning to slowly unravel.

"Ok go on."

"After I woke up they towed me into their training sessions and all that. For a while it wasn't too bad, except for that stupid collar. But then...then Jason...well we started to talk and hang out during the day and well...Pretty soon we fell in love. Gage didn't like that...I never really knew why he took such offence but he did. He treated me differently; he was harsher with the training and always found some way to make my life miserable.

"Before long I had had it and wanted out. Jason and I were planning to run away together. The night we had planned to run...Danny was waiting in the woods for us. I'm not sure who told him or why or how they even found out but...somehow...he knew. We fought back...but they beat the crap out of both of us.

"Jason managed to kill two guards but it wasn't enough. He told me to run and I did. I didn't stop running for hours. I wasn't even aware that I was still running, my body was completely disconnected from my brain. I got to some coffee shop and just...broke down. I sat at a table and cried my eyes out. A few of the people in the shop left because I was making so much noise but the workers probably just didn't have the heart to kick me out. I was so sure that Jason was dead and that Danny would come looking for me. Then I heard the bell ring and I smelled a werewolf in the shop. I immediately thought it was Danny or Gage and jumped to get ready to run but...it was Jason, covered in blood and dirt. I was crying my eyes out and he just held me..." A lone tear rolled down Elli's cheek as her shoulders shivered slightly.

"We stayed wherever we could, pretty much in parks and things like that. One night we slept in a camping clearing in the smaller branch of woods just west of here. We thought that since people tended to come there that Danny wouldn't.

"When I woke up the next morning Jason was gone. I waited in that clearing for hours before he came back. I was so relieved to see that he was ok...that is until Danny and his goons came walking up behind him. Danny put a hand on his shoulder and said 'You did the right thing Jason.' Jason just nodded his head as two guys came up to me and tied my hands behind my back. He looked hurt and regretful when our eyes met but I didn't care how sorry he felt." Her upper lip curled slightly in anger and disgust.

"I fought off the guards and ran like hell, not even bothering to look back. I eventually stumbled on this house. Well it was smaller then but you get the point. Connor took me in and...I've been here ever since." Her teeth clenched around her lower lip as she chewed on it nervously. "I can still remember what it felt like...when he held me...when he kissed me...when he betrayed me..." Her voice cracked on the last two words. Her bottom lip was trembling uncontrollably as more tears flowed down her now-red cheeks.

"Can I...can you just...?" She was now full-on sobbing, her shoulders shaking, her chest heaving in sobs. I knew she wanted me to leave. Elli was one of those kinds of people that doesn't like to let people see her cry, that doesn't like to show weakness.

"Ya sure," I said, standing. I put a hand on her shoulder as I walked to the door. "Thank you for telling me." I knew the last thing people wanted to hear in this situation was 'I'm sorry'.

She just nodded at me, though that was probably the only thing she was capable of at the moment. I walked out of the room and closed the door behind me. I stood there for a moment, my own chest wanting to heave in sobs. I knew what it felt like to be betrayed by him. That feeling of heartbreak and treachery is not something I would wish on anybody...except for maybe him. Though, for what he did to Elli and me, he deserved so, so much more. I slid my back against the door until I was sitting on the carpeted hallway floor. I leaned my head against the door and closed my eyes, fighting the tears that were threatening to over flow.

I couldn't get Elli's face out of my head, sobbing, eyes red, cheeks flooded with tears...

'Why do I have to be so damn curious?! Why couldn't I have just dropped it instead of making her drudge up all those horrible old memories?'

*Cuz you're a selfish bitch?*

'Gee thanks.'

*Aw come on. It wasn't you fault, it's not like you were the one that betrayed her.*

'Ya but I made her think about it. I made her remember.'

*Quit beating yourself up about it. It won't change anything*

'Ya...I guess you're right.'

"Hey Maggs." Andrew said, snapping me out of my thoughts. I opened my eyes and looked up at him. He met my gaze, his emerald

eyes boring into mine in the soul-seeking manner they always did when he was thinking.

His chest was completely bare and I couldn't help but stare at him. He wasn't the lanky skin-and-bone kid I knew growing up anymore. His chest was now perfectly sculpted; everything from his perfect pecks, to his eight-pack that led in a V shape by his hips, would put any Olympian to shame. His arms were no different, toned muscles clear under the tanned skin but not bulging to the point of looking like some guy from professional wrestling. My eyes raked across his chest, down his abs and back up again uncontrollably.

He cleared his throat. "So...she told ya?" He sounded uneasy under my gaze.

*Hey, lover girl, snap out of it!*

I shook my head and tried to keep my focus on his face.

"Yup."

"Are you ok?" he asked, giving me a weird look.

"Ya I'm fine." I tried to sound reassuring but I was most likely failing.

"Alright then, you want to go get something to eat?"

"Ya sure." He turned and I followed him, staring at his deliciously muscular back.

'Whoa, whoa, whoa. Delicious? Focus Maggie, focus...This is Andrew we're talking about here...'

Then my eyes came across something odd.

"You have a tattoo!" I exclaimed.

"Really? I didn't notice." He replied sarcastically.

"Ha ha funny." I smacked him on his arm. "But seriously, since when do you have a tattoo?"

"It's a pack thing." He replied. I looked at his tattoo more closely. It was one black, un-broken line that twisted into a paw print at the

top, right between his shoulder blades, and spiraled down to make an upside-down human handprint that rested along the length of his spine.

"Will I get one?" I asked.

"When you become an official part of the pack, yes."

"Do I have to get it on my back?"

"No. You can get it anywhere you want."

"I've always wanted a tattoo..." I mumbled, mostly to myself.

He chuckled. "Come on, let's go get some lunch."

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Ok it was kinda ify but trust me the next one will be MUCH more interesting! ;P