So this would've been posted sooner had my laptop not updated and DELETED all that I'd written. Here it is now.

Chapter Quote:

"Without your nakedness to distract me, I'm remembering that we're in serious trouble. Hurry, please."

~Shay Doran, Nightshade

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Chapter 43

Dom

At eleven, Anna and I left the celebration. We had a mission to complete. I waited outside her room while she changed into a more club-like dress. I didn't know what that meant until she came out in a dress so short I'm pretty sure her parents would've died if they saw her in it. I was dying but for a completely different reason...

"What?" Anna asked when she saw me standing next to her door.

"Nothing," I lied.

She smirked at me. "This isn't the least you've seen me in."

"Oh believe me, I remember."

"Let's get going. I plan on getting back early enough that I can catch an episode of NCIS. Tiana ready with the portal?"

"I don't know. Let's find out." The two of us went to the briefing room where, sure enough, Tiana was waiting for us. She quickly wove a portal for us to step through. Anna and I approached the entry to the club. Showing our IDs, the bouncer allowed us entry. We chose not to split up since we weren't looking for the Hunters this time; instead they were looking for us.

Anna and I made our way up to the second floor so we could scan the bottom for our suspected bartender. Upon not seeing him and glancing around at the other dancers, I suggested to Anna, "If we're going to keep looking for him, we should blend in."

"How exactly do we do that?" she queried, not looking at me.

"We're in a club. We dance," I laughed, taking her by the waist and pulling her up against me. She was hesitant but went along with it, becoming more comfortable the longer it went on. About five minutes into dancing, she whispered, "I found him. He's DJing tonight."

I looked over at the DJ table and sure enough, our bartender was there.

"Looks like he can do multiple jobs. Hope he put that on his resume," I remarked.

"Oh come on. Let's get this over with. I don't like being here without the pack."

"Since when are you nervous on an investigation?" I asked as we went down the stairs.

"Since we're not on the Hunters side anymore and they would love to have my head, my pack's, and yours. I'd rather avoid that."

"You have a-"

She whirled around and said, "Shut up and kiss me."

"What?"

"Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable."

"Nice quote Romanoff but it doesn't answer my-"

"Hunters," she hissed before pulling my lips to hers. I reacted instantly, the way I used to whenever we kissed when we were dating. My hands grasped her waist, pulling her as close to my body as possible. Her arms wrapped around my head which I knew was to make sure the Hunters wouldn't see my face but I couldn't help but hope that she was enjoying this as much as I was.

I didn't even know I'd been making her walk backwards until she hit a wall with me pressing her against it. I heard her say my name but I was too caught up in the act to make anything of it until she said it again, more forcefully and with a firm hand placed on my chest, pushing me away. I took a good step away from her when she did this, wanting to give her space. I also needed distance from her so I wouldn't try to kiss her again because God knows I wanted to.

"Hunters are gone," she said, running a hand through her tousled hair, most likely my doing. Anna seemed flustered, making me feel bad. She'd only meant that to make the Hunters avoid looking at us. Unfortunately, I enjoyed the acting too much, maybe because I wasn't having to act at all.

"I'm sorry. That won't happen again," I said. "Let's go."

Anna started to say something but stopped herself. She must've thought better of it. Still, she took my hand so we wouldn't get separated. We arrived a few feet away from the DJ stand. Anna suggested she go up there since the guy would be more willing to talk to a girl than a guy that looked like grumpy cat. I agreed with the first part, became slightly amused and slightly insulted at being called grumpy cat. A few moments later, Anna returned.

"Said he wouldn't go," she said.

"Why not?"

"Said he couldn't leave his post."

"How about you go get the interrogation room, I'll get the guy."

Anna nodded, disappearing off into the crowd. I didn't like leaving her alone but I knew she could handle herself. I walked up to the DJ podium. Before I could say anything, the DJ shouted, "Look, I turned your girlfriend's offer down! I'm not about to cheat on my wife nor on a girl with a boyfriend like you!"

"We're not dating," I said.

"That kiss over there said otherwise."

"Distraction. There's people looking for us and public displays of affection make people uncomfortable. We're here because we need to speak to you. You have two options: the easy way which is you come with me, no problem, or the hard way which I drag you kicking and screaming to the room we have ready. Which do you choose?"

"I can't leave my post. It'll have to wait. The only way I'll go is if you're feds and I don't know much about feds but I know they don't start recruiting people as young as you."

"Hard way it is then." I grabbed him by the throat and pulled him close to me. "What's your name?"

"Ty-Tyson," he choked out.

"Listen up, Tyson, you're going to call someone to fill your post, and then you're going to come with me and let my friend talk to you."

Tyson nodded. I let go of him. He rang up another worker who filled in for him although the worker seemed suspicious. Tyson and I walked to the room Anna had reserved for us. I found her sitting on the desk reading a magazine. I shoved Tyson in the room, shut the door, and leaned on the door to prevent him from escaping. He stood awkwardly in the middle of the room.

"So," Anna said, not looking up, "You're Tyson. I have a few questions for you. First is: what were you doing yesterday night between ten and twelve at night?"

"Bartending, miss," Tyson replied.

"And at some point in the night, did you serve a tall guy with black hair and blue eyes? He had a cute little blonde girl with him."

"I serve a lot of guys like him a night with girls like her next to them. I'd need a picture."

"Here. This is the guy," Anna said, handing Tyson a photo of Hunter. "Now, did you or did you not serve him?"

"I did."

"And when did you slip the drug in his drink?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

She sighed. "I knew you were going to say that. I'll give you another chance: when did you drug that boy's drink?"

"You're out of your mind lady."

Anna looked over at me, nodding her head towards Tyson. I got the drift. In a flash, I had him pinned face-down to the desk, his right arm pulled up behind him in a position I could easily dislocate it. Anna placed her face a few inches from his.

"I really hate having to get physical with my interviewees. My partner here is the muscle and I really don't want him to have to break your arm because I know you're lying. See, this guy that I'm asking you about, he remembers who served him. He remembers it being you."

"Okay, okay, I served the guy. What's so important about this guy anyway? He kill someone or something?"

"He almost did."

"The guy seemed pretty chill so if he tried to kill someone, they probably deserved it."

If I didn't know Anna so well, I wouldn't have noticed her change in attitude, but I saw the slight flare of her nostrils, an instant sign that she was now utterly pissed off.

In a deceptively sweet voice, she said, "Let him go."

I hesitated in doing so but one look from her made me listen to her. Tyson shook his shoulders out after I'd released him.

"Come here, Tyson," Anna said, motioning for him to come over to her. He must've picked up on my tenseness because he seemed reluctant to stand in front of her but did so anyway. In the blink of an eye, Anna kicked him in the knee, making him stoop down in pain. Her fist met his face. Tyson went down, rolling on his back in pain. Anna sat on top of him, snarling all too wolf-like. I even swore I saw her wolf-form slithering around her, aching to come out.

"Are you saying my sister deserved to be murdered by her brother?! Is that what you're saying?!" Anna growled. "Listen to me, if you want to live another day, you will tell me why you drugged Hunter's drink in the next five seconds!"

"Okay, okay!" Tyson exclaimed. "I did it. I was forced to! They were going to kill my family if I didn't!"

"Who?!" Anna demanded. When he said nothing, she barked into his face, "WHO?!"

"I don't know their names! They were two redheads, a boy and a girl, probably siblings. They told me I needed to drug that guy's drink because if I didn't they'd kill my family. Please, my wife and kid are the only people I have in this world. Please don't kill me... please don't kill me..."

Anna remained sitting on the guy for so long I thought she might actually be contemplating on killing him and said, "Hey, get off of him. He told us what we want."

Surprisingly, she listened. Anna stood up, helping Tyson stand as well. He sat on the desk, regaining his composure. I glanced over at her.

"Help him clean up. I'll make a call back to our... superior." Anna went over to the corner, pulling out her cellphone and dialing Babatunde. I sat next to the guy who seemed, rightly so, wary around me.

"Who exactly do you guys work for?" Tyson coughed out.

"Secret organization. Against the people that made you drug Hunter's drink. If they ever find out we were here, tell them the truth. We can handle them. I'm sorry about her. I've never seen her do that."

"Guess I'm the unlucky first one. Why do I get the feeling that's not the worst she could do?"

"Because it's not."

Tyson nodded. "If she can handle herself, why bring you along?"

"Protection. Help. I don't know. We've just always done it together."

"You have your hands full with her don't you?"

"You could say that. Her sister is the same way just in a different way if that makes sense. You better now?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, I'll try and get you some compensation for all this. You're a decent guy who was trying to protect his family."

"Thank you."

"No problem. Good luck." Anna hung up on the cell right as Tyson and I finished talking. The two of us left the club after that, making our way back to the Academy. I escorted Anna back to her room. Stopping outside it, I said, "What happened back there? At the club?"

"I lost control. He insulted my family and not just my family, but my twin. The one person I remembered throughout my entire ordeal with the Hunters. It got personal and I let it get the better of me. That won't happen again."

"I've just never seen that happen before. I want to make sure you're all right."

"I'm fine. Thank you for telling me to get off of him though. I was almost about to kill him."

"I figured. And hey, I'm sorry about what happened when you-"

"It's okay. I... should've found another way to make the Hunters avoid seeing us. I mean I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it but I shouldn't have put that on you."

"I'm not complaining, but you know how I-"

"I thought that would've changed by now."

"Well it hasn't, okay? I'm still madly in love with you and I can't help it. I know I'm only a friend to you now and if that's the only way you'll stay in my life, then so be it. I don't mind. But I am still in love with you right now. Goodnight, Anna." I turned and walked away, cheeks flaming from embarrassment.
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One week later...

I avoided Anna as best I could, difficult when I hung out with Spencer and Riley who happened to be best friends with the twin of the girl I was in love with because the twins were together almost constantly. Meal times were the easiest because I could just read on my iPad and no one bothered me. Being by myself proved more challenging because the Laroche pack and the Stark pack seemed to have taken a liking to me and I'd rather stay on their good side. I'd seen what happened when you were on their bad side (thank you Spencer but sorry you had to endure that). I managed to go to my room without any of the Laroche or Stark pack seeing me after dinner, or so I thought. Someone knocked at my door and I groaned, having fully intended to just go to bed early. But I wouldn't be rude. I opened the door to find Elsa standing there with her hands on her hips.

"Why are you avoiding-"

"Elsa, I really don't want to talk about it."

She narrowed her eyes at me, but more so out of curiosity than. "Why not? Because it's me or because if you do want to talk about it, you'd want to talk about it with Anna?"

"Actually I'd rather talk about it to you, but it's kind of personal, and it's probably not a good thing to say I nearly lost control around your sister because you might kill me."

"How'd you lose control?"

"You're not going to leave until I tell you, are you?"

"No."

I sighed. "She saw some Hunters who hadn't seen us yet and to make sure they didn't see us, she kissed me because public displays of affection make people uncomfortable. I kind of... shoved her against the wall and was trying to go farther than she wanted. She had to shove me away to get me to stop. I did. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it though. Not to mention I'm embarrassed I let myself do that to her. She just started trusting me again. I don't want to break that," I muttered sitting on the bed.

Elsa moved forward, sitting next to me. "You didn't break her trust in you. She told me all about what happened that night."

"And you haven't killed me?"

"I'm not going to kill you when she enjoyed you kissing her."

"What?!"

Elsa bit her lip. "She's still in love with you. Really in love with you."

"How do you- should you be telling me this? And why hasn't she told me this when she knows I'm still in love with her?" I asked indignantly.

"You haven't exactly been talking to her this past week, have you?"

"Didn't think she wanted me to. What else did she tell you?"

"She told me that she believed you when you said you didn't cheat on her but because of everything else going on in her life at the time, between finding out about her family and trying to make an escape route and finding the ring in your room, she panicked."

"She found the ring?!"

"Yes... you were going to propose?"

"I'd thought about it. I would always carry it with me wherever I went in case I found the time to ask her but I always double-guessed myself about whether she'd say yes. I'd convince myself she was going to say yes and I'd get to pop the question and then I'd get frightened and stop myself. I mean we she was only eighteen and I know Hunters and Searchers and Guardians alike marry young, but I didn't think she was ready."

"She wasn't. Although she would've said yes. She knows you're not a Guardian which could complicate things but I think she'd be willing to try it again if you are."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Where is she-" My question was interrupted by someone knocking. "It's probably Spencer or Riley."

I got up to answer the door. I'd been right about it being Spencer, but for some reason he'd brought Anna along with him.

"Hey you two, Elsa's in here if that's who you're looking for."

Anna blinked in confusion before saying, "But I'm Elsa."

I cocked my head. "No... I've been talking to Elsa the past few minutes."

"Sorry Dom, but you got twin-tricked. This is definitely Elsa. I know my girlfriend's scent," Spencer remarked.

"Can you two come back later? Elsa and I need to have another chat," I said. The real Elsa and Spencer nodded and left. I shut the door, turned around, and strode back to Anna.

"Why did you lie to me?" I asked.

"Because it's been driving me nuts not having you talk to me and I thought the only way I'd figure out what was going on with you is if you thought I was Elsa because I tried to get the others to find out what was wrong and you wouldn't tell them so I went to my last resort," she replied hastily. "Are you mad?"

"Only if what you said earlier isn't true."

"All of it is true."

"So you really do want to try us again?"

Anna nodded. "I do."

I walked up to her. "Then, Anna Laroche, would you like to be my girlfriend?"

"I would," she answered immediately, giving me a huge smile. "And for the record, you weren't the only one about to lose control in the club."

"You lost control with Tyson. It's fine. I'm not mad about that."

"No, that's not what I meant. I meant that I almost lost control when you were kissing me." Anna grabbed me by the shirt and began walking back towards the bed. "You know, since you can't get that kiss out of your head, maybe you need to relive it? What do you say we pick up where we left off? Hmm?"

My mind was already going hazy at what she was doing. I heard myself mumble a yes before I crashed my lips to hers.
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