I was so busy trying to control the sinking dread in my stomach, that I didn't even notice Kade shift back into his human form beside me until I glanced over to come face to face with glorious chest. My mind blanked for a moment, and everything else became background noise and all I could think was don't look down, don't look down, don't look down. Violet sent me a smug smirk because she knew what I was thinking and I realised that both of the men we were kind of involved with were naked on each side of me.

I almost melted when Kade turned to Noah and said in a demanding tone, “Get us two pairs of pants.”

Noah stiffened, then folded his arms over his chest, and I remembered Noah had alpha blood as well, so he wasn't going to back down that easily. Kade didn't know that, however.

“No, get your own.”

“Just go get them some pants.” Levi snarled, and I glanced at him and almost laughed at his expression as he held his large hand over Lydia's eyes firmly, his disapproval of shifting in front of his little sister clear.

Noah came back out with two pairs of sweatpants a few minutes later, and he threw them in front of Max and Kade. They each pulled on a pair, and I sighed in relief in sync with Violet. Now, at least, I wasn't standing in the middle of two butt naked guys.

“Katie, you need to change too.” Violet said, but Kade stepped forward and growled.

“She's not changing here! He's here.” Kade pointed at Noah, who just smirked and leaned against one of the nearby trees, clearly trying to bait Kade.

Violet rolled her eyes and sighed. “I'm taking her inside to shift. I presume your Kade, by the way. Nice to meet you, I'm Violet.”

“I know.” Kade said roughly, and I growled softly at him. He glared down at me, then hesitantly held out a hand and grumbled a hello before turning and walking a few steps back towards Max. I followed Violet into the bungalow, glad to be out of the testosterone filled clearing.

Once I was in Violet's room, I shifted without even bothering with worrying about her being in the room. She'd already seen me naked once before, anyway. Besides, Violet was too busy digging through her drawers trying to find me clothes to get an eyeful of my nakedness.

“Here, put these on. We need to hurry.” Violet's voice turned serious again, and the clearing moment had evaporated from my mind the second I thought of Emeli being in danger.

“Are you one hundred percent sure you know who it is?”

It was the first time I'd seen Violet look completely uneasy. “No, but it has to be James, Katie. We have proof.”

“What sort of proof?” I asked, yanking on the jeans Violet had threw at my face. Luckily, we were pretty much the same size all over, even her bra's fit me.

“Levi noticed him following you out of school when he was waiting for us, but a student stopped him. Then we waited around until most of the students were gone, and James came outside on the phone. He was talking about getting close, and that she would be taken care of by the end of the week.” Violet explained, and I felt a small shiver of fear run through me when I thought of what he meant. “That's not the only thing. His eyes, they were gold.”

I paused as I pulled on some of her shoes. “Are you sure?”

“I'm sure. And I know this is going to be hard, because Emeli's his mate, but this is your life here Katie. James is trying to kill you and when need to stop him and figure out what the organisation is up to, regardless of Emeli and his bond.”

It sounded logical, and she was completely right, but I was dreading how Emeli was going to react. James was her mate, after all. But he was also part of the organisation that was trying to kill me and the other Ether's that were left in the werewolf world.

“Is there any other way we can deal with this without hurting Emeli?” I asked, but I knew there was no hope in that. Violet confirmed my dread by shaking her head as she walked out through to the main room and opened the door out into the clearing again. Levi, Lydia, Noah, Max and Kade were standing in a circle, all with different expressions on their faces. Levi was wearing that emotionless mask I'd first seen him with, Lydia looked a little awe struck, Noah looked downright smug, Max was sporting a pissed expression and Kade just looked annoyed.

“So what's the plan?” Max asked as we approached, his eyes locked firmly on Violet like she held all the answers. Violet bit her lip and looked around at the others, then sighed and started to talk.

“I'm not sure.”

“What?” I squeaked. Well, there goes my plan on depending on Violet for guidance through this.

“Look, we can't rush into this. We need to play this properly, which means that Emeli can't find out until we decide to do something because she will tip off James on accident. And we need to confirm that it is him. This is delicate guys, we can't just kill the guy.”

“Really? Because that was our plan.” Noah mumbled, and Levi nodded. Violet shook her head, trying to think.

“We need him to get Katie alone again.” Violet said, and I stilled.

“Wait, you want him to attack me again?” I asked, and Violet nodded with a cringe. “Can't we just go and grab him or something? Tie him to a chair and beat the answers out of him?”

“No, that wouldn't work. Remember, this is for a bigger reason too. This is just a stepping stone in reaching the organisation. If we could get something out of James and make it clear we know more, they might start to sweat a little. One thing the organization prides itself on is it's ability of non-existence, so if we can reveal them to more people, they'll be more likely to make contact with us.” Levi explained, and I could tell he had been planning this for a while.

“And then what? You'll sit down with them and explain that Ethers aren't all bad and they need to stop murdering them?” I said slightly sarcastically, and Levi looked me straight in the eye and said with an even, calm voice, “No. I'd kill them.”

I actually shivered at his tone. Not even Kade sounded that dangerous, but Levi had about ten pounds of muscle and one foot of height on him, so I suppose his threats came off naturally more menacing.

“We need to find Emeli.” Max called out, his face tight with a frown. “She's been talking about moving back to James's pack with him after graduation. He won't be taking her home though, will he?”

“Probably not.” Violet winced, but covered it up quickly and started walking forward towards the ivy cutrain. She knew something about that, I could tell, but I restrained myself from asking any more questions. My best friends mate was trying to kill me, and was part of an organisation that secretly murdered any Ether they found.

Maybe Emeli would understand when this all unfolded. I shook my head at that thought and sighed sadly. No, she won't. It's her mate, not her pet hamster. This would rip her apart.

“Let me get this straight.” Kade spoke up for the first time since we stepped out of the house. I looked over to him as he began to pace slowly. “James, Emeli's mate, is a spy from this organisation that is trying to kill Katie, and you want to send her in as bait and get attacked just so you can catch him?”

“Yeah, that sounds about right.” Noah nodded, and Kade growled, stepping towards him. I tried not to marvel too much at his bare, tanned upper body, but it was incredibly hard when he wasn't wearing a shirt.

“That's where you step in, Kade.” Violet said quickly, interrupting his and Noah's little glare off. “I told Katie about the protection her mate can offer. You can be there, ready when he attacks. James can't get to her, if you're in the way. Then Levi can grab him-”

“No. I don't need his protection!” I shouted like a stubborn child. Kade snorted, folding his toned arms.

“Yeah, because I'm not going to let you get attacked by him in the first place.”

“Since when did you become so caring?” Max snarled at Kade, who bristled at his remark. “You've been nothing but cruel to Katie, and now you're acting like you've staked a claim on her. Last time I checked, asshole, you'd rejected her. Twice.”

“Can we all just stop the testosterone show and tell, please? We aren't going to do anything until we know what James is planning, okay?” I said, and the others looked at me like they were slightly taken aback. “Let's just go and find Emeli.”

I stormed off in the direction of the ivy curtain, suddenly a little frustrated with everything. I was creating all this drama for everyone because of what ran through my blood, and I was getting angrier at the fact that everyone else thought that they had to fix it. I wasn't weak, I could deal with my this myself.

Half way through my walk back to the pack house, I sighed when I heard the silent, steady footsteps of the others behind me, and I realised that no, I did actually need them. Execpt Kade. I was determined not to need him, because he certainly didn't need me.

When we reached the edge of the trees, I stopped and turned to everyone else. “Do you think James will try anything this weekend?”

“No, I don't think so.” Violet said, scratching her collarbone just above her heart, as if she was experiencing mild pain there. “Katie just...be careful, okay? Stay with the others, don't get caught out alone, that sort of thing.”

I nodded, and we stood for another five minutes, discussing a little more in detail what was happening, who James was, what we needed to find out. I was tuning in and out as we talked, but Kade's firm presence beside me kept me from floating off into the corners of my mind. I was totally concious of him standing not two feet away, completely shirtless, and it wasn't helping as I tried to refocuse on Violet's words.

“The minute he tries anything, we'll be here.” Levi said in a reassuring voice, and I nodded as we said goodbye for the night. Kade, Max and I started walking back to the pack house in a deep, thoughful silence, when Max stopped and sighed when we reaced the door.

“Emeli's going to be crushed.” He muttered, and I nodded in agreement. I couldn't imagine what this was going to put her through, but a little part of me was hoping that James wasn't the traitor. That he wasn't trying to kill me, for Emeli's sake.

But you know when you just have that feeling where you know that others are right? That feeling was plaguing my body to the point of exhaustion.

“Let's just hope for the best.” I mumbled, and walked back into the house and up to my bedroom without bothering to see what the other two were doing. At that point, I didn't care. All I could think about was Emeli and James and that if I had a normal bloodline, then none of this would be happening.

* * * *

So this chapter sucks in my mind, but I think it kind of had to be written, so please don't be too disappointed with it like I was! And I promise things will start picking up from here. I got a little writers block and I couldn't for the life of me figure out where this chapter was going and other story ideas were popping into my head and distracting me and UGH sorry for the rant but I'll try to get this story finished as fast as possible!

P.S. I'm thinking of doing another story or two related to this one, so comment/vote if you liked this chapter or if you think I should consider making a sequel or not.

:)