Hope you're enjoying the story! :)

Chapter Quote:

"Aw, you're cute when you're jealous."
~Wolfsbane
_____________________________________

Chapter 17

Elsa

I paced up and down the room, waiting impatiently for Ember to finish dressing. Incredibly I'd finished before her. That typically didn't happen. Someone knocked on our door. I went and opened it. Hunter, Josilyn, and Noah stood there.

"Are you two ready?" Hunter queried.

"Ready!" Ember hollered, exiting the bathroom as she slipped on her heels. "Sorry, couldn't get my dress to zip. The zipper kept getting stuck on a thing of fabric."

"Well let's hurry up. We shouldn't be late," Hunter said.

"Why do we have to go to this? I could be practicing for the dance competition," I groaned. I wasn't comfortable being in large groups around people I didn't know. Everyone else in my pack seemed to have no problem interacting with others, even Akira even if she only just listened to whoever was with her. I wasn't good at small talk. I never had been.

"Because we're going to be running the hotel as a pack and that means we all have to be apart of this and meet everyone. Relax Elsa. You'll be fine. Stick with me okay?"

I wrapped my hand around his arm to help comfort myself. Josilyn peered at me from the other side.

"I heard they have a chocolate fountain. I say we head straight to it. What do you say Elsa?" Josilyn asked.

I smiled at her, knowing what she was trying to do. "That sounds wonderful. Let's do it."

We arrived at the door to the ballroom where our family was waiting. My mom commented on how fantastic we all looked before adding, "Keep an eye out on things. We don't know when the Hunters could strike, it could be any time, so be wary of everyone and everything. You see anything suspicious, come to me or Ren. All right, let's go."

Our entire pack, all thirty of us, entered the room. The place was already packed. I saw a few familiar faces from past years. One guy was named Tony Goldshaw. He was a pervert. He'd practically tried flirting with all the girls in our pack until he realized who our parents were. My dad audibly growled when he found out. Mr. Goldshaw didn't appear the rest of that night. I think that was about four or five years ago. When he saw us this time, he made a beeline for the other side of the room. I bit back a laugh. My dad caught my eye. With the victorious twinkle in his eyes, I knew he'd seen it too.

Josilyn, Hunter, and I made our way to the chocolate fountain. Strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, and other delicious items lined the table, waiting for me to put them under the chocolate waterfall. I took one of everything. The wonderful thing about being a Guardian is that we have incredible metabolisms. We could pretty much eat anything without gaining a pound, and if we did gain anything, we lost it in a few days.

"See anyone you recognize?" Hunter asked, glancing around the room.

"A few familiar faces but none I want to talk to," I answered, stuffing my mouth with a chocolate covered strawberry.

"Oh, it's Mrs. Turner! Let's go say hi!" Josilyn insisted. Hunter readily agreed but I said, "I'll be here. Guarding the table."

My brother and friend didn't push me. They left me standing by myself. I shuffled over to an empty table, scanning the room to see where all my family was. My parents were talking to a group of people; Shiloh and Carrie, Rigg and Erin, and Loren and Melinda were dancing; Nancy and Derek, Taki and Frank, Reyna and Dean, and Sam and Casey were all eating. The kids were simply talking to others close to our age.

My hand went for another chocolate-covered delight but was met with nothing. Glancing down, I realized my plate was empty. I got back up, going for more. As I walked up to the table, I halted in my tracks when I saw a familiar face.

"Spencer?"

His head turned to me instantly. "Elsa?"

"What are you doing here?" We both inquired at the same time.

"You first," he said.

"It's tradition that the entire Laroche pack comes. What are you doing here and should I know about some other people here?"

"Lily, Caleb, and I were all invited. The host found out we were in Colorado and invited us. Plus we've sort of been looking into developing a hotel here so it's good to know the competition. We're all here. Caleb's been keeping an eye on all of your packmates, making sure he stays far away from all of them. Lucky for him, they all seem to stick together. I'd say go see him but-"

"But if my family sees me talking to a guy by myself, they're going to question it. I can't make up an excuse for a guy that looks just like my missing brother. You, on the other hand, have a very valid excuse as to be talking to me," I stated, my tone taking on a more amused sound.

Spencer grinned. "And which part would that be? Me being your dance partner or me being your pretend boyfriend?"

"The former one for most of my pack, both for the ones that think we're dating. Speaking of dating, thank you for playing along with this whole thing. How did it go with my brother? He didn't give you too hard of a time about this did he?"

"No, not really."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. Now Caleb on the other hand..."

"What?!"

Spencer laughed. "He's fine. But yeah, I already ran into Hunter. He and Caleb pretty much both said if I hurt you in any way, shape, or form, they will kill me. Would you like to go dance?"

"Sure." Spencer took my hand in his so he could lead me to the dance floor.

"Okay," He said, taking the lead, "How are you holding up with this whole fake dating thing?"

"Could be worse. We don't have to pretend often, just in front of some of my family. At least they don't all know. Although I'm glad you're the one pretending to be my fake boyfriend. It does make it easier having it be someone I know."

"Out of curiosity, how am I doing as your fake boyfriend?"

"You are doing wonderfully," I told him with a smile. I paused for a few seconds before adding, "I still want my brother to stay here and I'm going to keep prodding him until he either goes back to Canada or stays here, but in the event he does go back, I'm glad he has you and Lily. I really am."

"Do you want me to prod him to?"

I gave him a suspicious glance. "You'd do that?"

"I would. I kind of like it here. Besides, my girlfriend lives here." Spencer winked playfully at me.
_____________________________________  

Ember

I was hanging out with Noah when I felt someone staring at me. However, all glances around the room resulted in nothing. It put me on edge. Noah picked up on it.

"What's wrong?" he asked, wrapping his arm around my waist.

"I don't know. I just have a strange- uh oh."

"What?"

"Looks like mom and dad discovered Spencer. I need to warn Elsa." Noah sighed but tagged along with me. We maneuvered our way over there as fast as possible. I grabbed my sister by the shoulder and yanked her away from Spencer, barely having time to say 'Dad' before he showed up. Hurriedly I said, "How did you get into dance Spencer?"

Thankfully the guy was quick on his feet and replied, "A friend of mine dragged me along to a class one day. I got hooked on the hip hop part. The ballroom dancing not so much. It helped when I got a great dance partner though."

"Feelings mutual. I might actually win this competition with you. My last partner, so sweet but he had two left feet," Elsa added.

"Elsa, who's this?" My mom asked sweetly. She was holding my dad's hand, well, squeezing it more like it, which told me she was taking charge in this conversation. Sometimes my dad's 'I'm the big man on campus' attitude didn't always get results.

"Mom, dad, this is Spencer Barnes. Spencer, these are my parents, Arya and Ren Laroche," my sister introduced.

"Pleasure to meet you," my mom said. She and my dad shook his hand. "How do you two know each other?"

"I'm Elsa's dance partner in the competition this weekend. I offered when I found out her other one was unable to do it."

"Why'd you volunteer?" my dad queried.

"I have a lot of time on my hands sir."

"What are you doing in Estes?"

"My sister and her boyfriend came to visit friends of theirs and rather than spending all my time by myself back home, I came with them. We knew we'd be there a while so I decided to pick up a dance class."

"Where's home?"

"Dad, do you really need to interrogate him? We were just having a friendly chat and a dance," Elsa defended, sounding exasperated.

"I'd like to get to know who my daughter is hanging out with," Ren responded. "So, Spencer, where's home?"

"Canada, sir."

"I see. So what are you doing here? Do your parents own a hotel around here?"

"No, sir. My sister, her boyfriend, and I own it. Our parents-" Spencer halted in his speech, the color started draining out of his face.

"He and his sister lost their parents and Spencer's girlfriend a few months ago. The three of them thought that it might be good to come down here for a while, get a change of scenery," Elsa explained quietly.

"I'm sorry, Spencer. We know how painful it is to lose people close to you," Arya remarked kindly.

"Thank you ma'am."

"Well, we'll let you get back to your chat. It was a pleasure meeting you Spencer. We'll see you at the dance competition," Arya said. She and Ren walked away. Elsa let out a big sigh.

"Thank you so much for that," she said.

"Hey, we promised we'd keep it a secret from mom and dad while it lasts," I replied. "We meant it. Listen I'm going to go to the restroom. Oh, and if you want to keep your little secret from the rest of the pack, maybe be careful with the dancing. You two were rather close."

Elsa and Spencer sheepishly took a step apart. My sister actually moved closer to me and said, "I think I'll head to the bathroom with you. Spencer, I'll see you in a minute okay. Say hi to your sister, and tell her I'll see her in a few minutes? I want to say hi."

The two of us hurried to the bathroom. The moment I was in there, the strange feeling I'd been experiencing earlier disappeared. I let out a sigh of relief.

"You okay?" Elsa questioned.

"No. I have a strange feeling, like someone was watching me the entire time I was in that room but I couldn't see anyone," I remarked. "Am I being paranoid?"

"We're being hunted. It's okay to be paranoid. Hell, it could probably save your life one day. I'll be alert and let you know if I see anything but I think it's just being in a big group of people and the circumstances that we're under that's getting to you."

"How are you so calm about this?"

Elsa shrugged. "Because I know I'm going to be fighting in this war against the Hunters, and that means I can get justice for Anna."

"How long have you wanted to do this?"

"Since I found out the Hunters were still out there. I found out a while ago when I was eavesdropping on a conversation between mom and dad. About... five or six years ago."

"Is that what you do whenever you're in your room? Try and find the Hunters?"

"I first tried convincing Aunt Adne to send me information but she wouldn't do it. Then I may have tried to hack into the Searchers' database to find out where any known Hunters were but I wasn't smart enough to hack into it and I was worried they might find out what I'm doing so I stopped. Then I chose to eavesdrop on our parents and sneak into dad's files on his computer to see what they know. So far I haven't even been able to get past his password. I've hit dead end after dead end unfortunately," she mumbled.

"Hey," I said, placing my hands on her shoulder. "I know you want to get Anna's killers but she wouldn't want you so fixated on this. She'd want you living life because in our lives right now, you never really know when it's going to be your last."

"But Ember-"

"Listen to me Elsa, you are this phenomenal dancer with a super gorgeous boyfriend no matter how long he's going to be here and despite how you feel sometimes, you have somewhere you belong and somewhere you will always belong with people who love you. You have to stop living in the past, okay? Please?"

My sister hung her head. "You talked to Hunter, didn't you? What all did he tell you?"

"Actually, not a thing. I was in the back of the group letting the others interrogate your little boyfriend and overheard some of the stuff you said. I didn't want to bring it up if I didn't have to but I think you needed to hear it. Now let's actually use the bathroom and get out there. I'm sure Spencer is missing his girlfriend."

"Yeah, right. And Spencer is far from little."

"Oh? In what manner are we referring to?" I grinned.

"Ember!" Elsa exclaimed. "I didn't- I'm talking about his height and muscles! Not-"

"I know, I know, I just wanted to mess with you." Rolling her eyes, my sister entered a stall. After doing our business and checking each other's hair and makeup, we went back out. Elsa hastily made her way to Spencer who was talking to Hunter and Noah. All three boys looked on edge. They weren't the only ones. That strange feeling had returned, and I still couldn't place it. It was bugging me.

"Are you okay miss?" a guy asked, coming up next to me.

"Uh, yeah, just surveying the crowd," I replied.

"I see. Anything you're looking for in particular? Food? Family? A dance partner? Not necessarily in that order," he joked. I actually smiled. "My name is Dominic Stone, but you can call me Dom. It's Ember, right? Ember Laroche?"

"How did you know that?" I inquired, my guard instantly going up.

He laughed. "Easy tiger. Everyone knows who the Laroches are here. Besides, I saw your dad earlier and you look just like him."

"I'm more like a wolf than a tiger."

"About that dance partner..."

I smirked at him. "Sure. Why not?"

Dom took my hand and led me to the dance floor. His green eyes scanned the room, similar to what I'd been doing earlier, trying to search for whoever or whatever was giving me that weird feeling. It was still there, but it was different. Again, I couldn't place why.

"Ember, can I ask you something?" Dom questioned, looking down at me.

"You just did, but ask away," I replied.

"Could we maybe... go somewhere private?"

"Private? To talk or something else?"

"To talk. I have a girlfriend. Of sorts."

"So where is she and why are you dancing with me?"

"Follow me and I'll explain."

This was a terrible idea. For all I knew, this guy was a Hunter (a very attractive one) who was going to kill me the minute we were alone. But, of course, my curiosity got the better of me. I let him lead me outside the ballroom to a conference room nearby. He shut the door and sat on the table.

"Listen, I'm know what you are and no, I'm not here to kill you. I'm here to help you. I'm also here to request help from you, if you're willing," Dom informed.

"You know what I am?" I demanded.

"Yes. You're a Guardian. A wolf to be specific. You find the bears farther up north and the cats farther south. Back on track, I wanted to talk to you about your sister."

"What do you want to know about Elsa?"

"I'm not talking about Elsa, although I did consider talking to her too."

"Well I only have one sister and why aren't you talking to her?"

"She has enough on her plate as it is between dance and her boyfriend and keeping her family at bay from her personal life. I thought you were the next safest bet. My biggest problem with you is your boyfriend."

"Boyfriend? Wait, you mean Noah? He's not my boyfriend. We're like... friends with benefits. And you never answered my question. I only have one sister."

"He sure didn't like us dancing together. Might want to make sure he still wants to be just friends with benefits. I'm worried he knows you too well and if you agree to my request, that he'll try and follow you, us. And as for your question, you do have another sister."

"Unless my mom cheated on my dad, then no, I don't. I only have Elsa."

"But I'm not talking about Elsa. I'm talking about Anna."
_____________________________________  
What's this Dom guy's deal and what is he talking about Anna for (SACarter, no spoilers)? Let me know in a review!