My thoughts were out of control. Bouncing around non-stop. Aggravating the hell out of me. I tried counting my steps as we walked. I'd even thought, counting the cracks in the ground as we walked too, would help. But neither option worked. We were getting closer to the pack hall. Probably just about ten more minutes before we reached the area.

It was the same area in the center of town that I witnessed Vincent's crowning ceremony being held. Amaruq and Lady Teresa were waiting for us to arrive on that stage with a crowd gathered before them. It was all of Calamitous. The thought made me want to hurl. But I swallowed the vile chunks back down my throat.

"Hnngh." I groaned under my breath.

Vincent heard me and shot me a look over his shoulder. I avoided his gaze.

My knees were weak. My arms were jelly. My chest was caving in unbearably; grasping to breathe without choking on the air around me. Shit. I knew it. My anxiety was running wild. I wasn't going to be able to do this.

I slowed in my tracks, glancing back at the house.

Would it be bad if I ran back to his house right now? I could change my mind and leave them to it. Vincent must have seen me contemplating because he broke away from our small group. Mariah, Dimitri, Dylan, and Claudia, continued ahead unnoticing of us. Bennett seemed to have been the only one who saw us stop. So, he waited.

"What are you doing?" Vincent asked, his eyebrows furrowing.

"I can't do this. . ." I choked out. "I feel like. I just. It's. . . I can't. I don't know. Maybe."

"Genesis, I don't understand anything you're saying right now"—Vincent gripped my shoulders and leaned in closer—"but you need to take deep breaths and take a second to relax."

I nodded and followed his instructions, inhaling every few seconds.

He nodded with me, then spoke slowly, "Okay. Now can you talk to me properly?"

"I suffer from anxiety," I mumbled.

"Hmm, you do, huh?" He rubbed the bottom of his chin, lifting himself back up. "Alright, try thinking of it this way then. Right now, this isn't you in control. You're letting your anxiety control you. You've got to learn to control it. Not the other way around."

"What if I can't?" I panicked. "My anxiety has been controlling me all my life!"

He shook his head. "You can. That advice isn't just for shifting, you know."

"Can I hold your hand?" I blurted.

Vincent's movements came to an abrupt stop. "What?" His eyes went wide. He blinked at me, taken aback, as if he'd misheard me. Unbeknownst to him, he didn't.

"Uh. . ." I couldn't even pinpoint where that courage came from. To ask that sort of question, to him of all people, was bizarre. Holding things that I could squeeze calmed my nerves. Right now, Vincent's hand was the closest to me. And it looked very squeezable. That's right. I could blame it on my thoughts. They were hounding me. It was a believable excuse.

I knew what his answer would have been anyways. He hadn't been too keen on holding my hand when we met my mom. He was awkward and weird about it. He wasn't used to it. I knew that. So, there was no point.

"Um, nothing. I said nothing," I retracted my statement in one breath, "I can't calm my nerves. I feel like I'm going to freak the hell out. I need something to hold and squeeze." Vincent searched my face.

He hesitated when he opened his mouth. "Okay, you can—"

"You can use my hand if you'd like," Bennett interjected.

He was in earshot of us, perched against one of the nearest trees, flashing me one of those smiles that toyed with me. Bennett loved to tease. That was no secret. He'd shown me that the first day we met. And during my stay here, I figured I was the easiest target. I could never tell when he was joking and when he was being genuine though.

Vincent inhaled a deep breath through his nose. It was such a simple action but I noticed it. Just like the tense in his shoulders. However, it was all gone after a few seconds, when he returned to normal, remaining with his arms crossed. Maybe I was imagining things.

I raised an eyebrow at Bennett. "Are you just teasing me?"

Now, Vincent was side-eyeing us from the corner of his eyes. He was trying to be discreet about it, and must've thought neither of us saw him. But I also saw his chest rise and fall, indicating he'd taken a deep breath again. I didn't say anything though.

I wasn't sure what was up with his stare. Whenever his eyes landed on Bennett, it looked like a glare had formed. But it disappeared moments later. His eyes flickered between Bennett and I a few more times, before he tore his gaze away, his ears still twitching in on the conversation.

Bennett grinned at me, waggling his eyebrows. "Would you like to give it a try?"

I narrowed my eyes. "You're serious?"

"Uh huh." Bennett nodded. "You don't believe me?"

"Nope," I said.

"Well, that's only if—"

"Enough!" Vincent barked.

Bennett's eyebrows flung up. Mine did too. I tried to close my gaping mouth. But I couldn't. Not when I had heard the questionable noise with my own ears. It definitely wasn't towards me though. Because I wasn't the one who heard it loud and clear. Nor was Vincent's heavy stare being directed my way. Did he growl?

I couldn't have mistaken that low rumble clinging to his tone. But no, that wasn't the usual growl I'd heard and made plenty of times, myself. It was a low, intimidating noise that I was lucky enough to catch onto.

Normal, to gold, to normal, his eyes went. He was restraining himself. No. Or maybe. Now, I really felt like I was imagining things. But I couldn't have been. I wasn't sure. It was too fast. Just a matter of seconds. That was too fast to make sense of it all in my head.

"Vincent. . ." I whispered.

My heart was loud in my ears. Vincent's own eyes widened at himself, as if he'd just realized what he was doing, and what was going on. By now, everyone had stopped ahead. They were far. But not too far. Probably wondering what the hell was going on back here.

He knew I heard his growl. He knew I saw his eyes flashing between colors too. I knew he knew because he ignored my heated stare. He'd heard my whisper too. I'd tried so hard, so desperately hard, to get him to look at me. But he wouldn't budge. I went to take a step forward, but he was prepared to take a step back. So, I remained frozen.

Something was urging me to go and touch Vincent. I wasn't sure what the hell that would have done. However, I didn't listen to the urge anyways. It was obvious he didn't want me near him right now. So, I kept my distance and stayed as far back as possible.

Vincent cleared his throat and looked ahead. His arms were now at his sides with clenched fists. "Are you two done? We're keeping everyone waiting. Figure it out already." His tone was low and firm.

"We're done. I apologize alpha, sir," Bennett quickly said. I froze again.

Was I living in some sort of alternative dimension? That was the first time I'd ever heard Bennett used the term alpha when referring to Vincent. Not his name, just the title.

Vincent nodded and walked away. Bennett joined his side immediately. I stared at the back of their heads, looking between the two of them. Him and Bennett seemed to have been sharing some sort of secretive gaze. One that I was being left out of again. But I couldn't figure out exactly what the gaze might've been. My mind was still too stuck on the noise.

"Is everything alright?" Mariah glanced between the three of us when we caught up.

"Yes. We just had a minor casualty," Vincent answered. "Let's continue."

Bennett nodded his head in agreement. I bit down on my tongue to keep from talking. But really, my mind was spiraling with questions. Geez, this was the exact opposite of what I needed to help calm me. It wasn't long before we had finally arrived in the area.

I could hear the crowd's talking getting louder as we got closer. The grumbling in my stomach grew worse. Fuck. I knew, for sure, I might not have been able to keep my lunch down anymore.

I removed my hands from my pockets and put them behind my back.

The good thing was, I was still towards the back of the group. The bad thing was, that meant I'd have been the last person the crowd would see. What if something went wrong? What if someone tried to snatch me? What if someone tried to harm me? Shit. We were almost to them.

With my mind stuck on this and Vincent's little stunt, I was ready to explode with tears.

"Breathe, Genesis. Just breathe." I attempted to calm myself again.

"What did I just tell you?" Vincent's sigh met my ears. I felt something warm on my skin. It felt like a thumb pressing to the back of my hand. When I looked down, it was a thumb. I looked up at the person it belonged to. He stood as close to me as possible, as we stood as far away from the group as possible, without drawing attention to ourselves.

"Relax. Genesis," Vincent whispered. "I told you, I wouldn't let anyone hurt you, didn't I?"

He wasn't looking at me. His eyes were on the crowd. I'd just realized we were stopped. Not just me and him, but all of us, waiting for our cue to walk forward. I'd taken a chance and squeezed his hand with all my grip. He didn't flinch.

I guess my wolf strength didn't faze him. That was good. I could squeeze all I wanted. Our entwined hands were out of sight from everyone in front of us, still behind my back. His thumb was rubbing in circles, in a similar fashion to what I did when I grabbed his hand in the café to make him stop worrying. I could see why it worked now. I enjoyed it. A lot.

"What the hell was that back there?" I whispered in Vincent's ear.

"What was what?" he asked.

"Don't play dumb. You know what I'm talking about." I growled through my gritted teeth.

"It was nothing." He shrugged.

"Nothing, my ass." I scowled and shoved my hands into my jean pockets. "You got angry out of nowhere." And for some odd reason, I was about to try and calm you, was what I was going to add. But I kept that thought to myself.

We were forced to make our hushed voices sound even lower, when Claudia shot us a confused glance back. I pushed my glasses up my face, sending her a small smile. Vincent nodded at her. She took the bait and turned back around.

"I just lost control for a second there," murmured Vincent.

I tilted my head to get a better look at his face. "But why? Was it because he offered his hand? I wasn't even going to take him up on the offer to hold it. Even if I did, why would you be mad about that? I think he was messing around anyways."

"You're thinking far too much. Believe me, I don't care about that. You two were wasting time. And I allowed my temper to get the best of me." He remained stoic. "I apologize for that. My sudden outburst probably scared you."

I sighed and gave his hand another squeeze with all my might. I'd forgotten his hand was still there, keeping mine warm. There was a signal above, up front, from someone's hand on the stage. It was probably Amaruq.

"It's time," Vincent announced. I squeezed his hand one more time. He shook his head, and slipped his hand out of my grip, as if I'd burned his skin to a crisp.

"Okay, that's enough," he muttered, clearing his throat. My lips fell into a frown as I stared at my empty hand, shivering at the wind's cold touch, rushing over my skin, washing his warmth away. I tucked my hands back into my jean pockets. We all began walking again.

* * *

The voices were loud but I couldn't hear them. I could only focus on the stares that patronized me. Judged me. Burned me at the stake with just their pupils. It had been the same way when we walked in a single file line around the crowd. I'd been put in the middle of the line. Vincent, Claudia, and Bennett were in front of me. Mariah, Dylan, and Dimitri were behind me.

There were those from the pack who sympathized. There were those who threw insults out of anger. And there were those who expressed their worries calmly. All of them were heard loud and clear. Meanwhile, I cowered behind Mariah, since she was the next best thing to Vincent.

She sensed my distraught, and rode in like my avenging angel, guarding me behind her.

"Is this almost over?" I nudged Mariah's side.

"Almost. Bear with it for just a little longer," she whispered.

"Does this mean the curfew won't be lifted yet?" a woman asked. Her hand was in the grip of a little boy, who was staring at me. He'd been one of many children in the crowd staring at me for a while now. He couldn't have been any older than ten-years-old.

Vincent answered, "Yes. The curfew will not be changing. Nor will the sweeps around the perimeter. Everything will continue as it has been, for the time being."

"What's going to happen from here on?" another voice asked.

Vincent sighed, loud enough, for only us on the stage to hear it. "I won't stand here, and lie to you all. There are many things we have yet to understand. Like how these shadow creature's function. Where they come from. And so on.

"But there are many things we've come to understand about them too. And we'll be using that to our advantage. It is my job to protect you all, even if that means putting my life on the line. I took that vow when I took Amaury's place. Even though I am nothing like my brother.

"But what I need from all of you now, is your cooperation. Genesis is not our enemy. She has been proven innocent in Amaury's murder. However, our true enemy is still out there, hiding in the shadows. Posing a threat to us.

"Not just us, here, in Calamitous. But us, as in wolves. All of the packs we know," Vincent finished. There were a few murmurs going around. Some sounded unsure. Some sounded hopeful. And some sounded neutral.

"None of this means the issue will go away immediately," Claudia spoke up.

"And this doesn't mean you have to like Genesis either," Bennett added on.

"But Genesis has given her word to help us see this through. And she will aid us in the hunt for what really happened to Amaury," Claudia continued.

Vincent finished Claudia's thoughts, "So, you can choose to accept her and work with us, or you don't have to. But no matter how you choose, she is an ally of ours now."