I wasn't going to lie; today had been a day of discovery.

And firsts.

And, well, how was I supposed  to describe what spending a day with Kade was like? Because it sure as hell wasn't as painful as what I had originally thought.

In fact, it had felt...normal. Natural. Like it was something I was supposed to do.

Which kind of made sense, considering we were sort of, you know, meant to be and all. The werewolf Gods didn't just create a soul mate for you, for you to think it wasn't meant to be.

Didn't mean I wanted to love being near him. Here I was, for the past couple of days, blatently shutting down anything to do with having Kade as a mate because my stupid pride wouldn't accept him quite so easily after what he'd done in the past. So it was making it really, really hard when all my wolf and I wanted to do was cuddle up next to him on the couch he was previously seated at, instead of following what I needed to do and make him work for this pairing.

Work for the two of us.

When we'd gotten home from Violet's, I had told Kade to fuck off in the least nicest way possible. Nothing like cutting someone off at the knees with a good old fashioned 'if you don't fuck off, I'll cut your nuts off'.

He thought it had been 'cute'. Then, he followed me around the house as I tried to ignore him outright, that dark, woodsy scent filling my nose to the point of complete and utter distraction. I'd put the milk back in the food cupboard, it was playing with my senses that much.

He'd laughed at that too, angering me more.

Then, he'd tried to touch me. Not in the sexual way, although his eyes flashed with something close to it when he wrapped his big hand around my arm and dragged me into the living room, forcing me onto the couch.

Then he stared at me for a full on minute. Just stood there, and stared. I stared back, the defiance in both our eyes stiff and unyielding. Normally, him being a future alpha, he would hold the power, have the strength advantage.

But I had Ether blood, and that balanced it out to where I could match him, intimidating stare to intimidating stare.

I had taken in his facial features while he stood in front of me too. I had traced my eyes over his hard jaw, his thick neck, the way his nose flared slightly when he was thinking about something in particular. I followed the lines on his mouth, not too thin, not too thick, and down his nose, finding a scar just below his right eye, small, like the size of half a pinky nail, but a scar nonetheless. That had been intriguing, because werewolves didn't normally scar unless salt hit the wounds.

Then I locked onto his eyes and I knew I wasn't going anywhere any time soon. His eyes, they were so dark, so very deep brown, almost black. They held his emotions, I realised. He was good at hiding them from his face, but when it came to his eyes...they were like looking into a pool hot emotion.

Eventually, he'd picked a movie, put it in the DVD player, and flopped next to me on the couch, where he'd stayed the entire way through Grease.

And I knew then that even if I wasn't going to accept him today, or tomorrow, or any time until I was ready to set my pride aside and mate with him, I was going to.

There was no doubt about it. This guy was my future.

And Grease was my all time favourite movie. Go figure.

By the time Max and Emeli arrived back with a few of the others from the pack, we were half way through a full fledged argument on why John Travolta was better than Kevin Bacon.

I recalled having this argument with Max on Violet's first day of school. And of course Max and Kade would be really similar, wouldn't they? They were both so infuriatingly stubborn it was hard to just chomp back on my molars and not get the claws out.

"What do you mean, John Travolta is much more appealing? His nose is the size of fucking Canada."

"At least he has a nose. Kevin Bacon is like the offspring of Voldemort."

"What is going on in here?" Max asked as him and Emeli walked into the lounge. Kade was staring at me, with eyes as wide as saucers and his mouth hanging slightly agape.

"How dare you."

"It's true. At least Kevin got hair, it's not like Voldemort could even give him that-"

"You did not pull the he-who-shall-not-be-named card on Kevin, did you?" Max asked, his eyes swinging to me and narrowing into a glare. I folded my arms, a smug smirk working it's way onto my face.

"She's the devil." Kade muttered, his dark eyes swinging back to me. I nailed him with a glare too, and he grinned back, his face lighting up with amusement.

"For once, I'm agreeing with you, Pelletier."

"Oh, Katie, Georgina gave me our 'uniforms' for tomorrow." Emeli said, her face trying to hide the wince that tried to break through into her face. It didn't work. Her right eye still scrunched and her mouth grimaced and her nose screwed up as she held out the bag that contained what he had to wear for the car wash.

"Please tell me there's actually clothing in there."

Emeli didn't say anything.

With hesitant hands, I took the bag from Emeli and opened it slowly, pulling out something small, smooth, and white.

"I'm so coming to the car wash now." I heard Max mutter, but paid no attention as I gaped at the bikini.

"Are you serious?" I asked, staring at Emeli. "This?"

Before she could nod, Kade was right beside me, his side pressed against mine. My wolf liked it, as she purred softly in content. "You're not wearing that."

"Georgina said we have to. We all have to match, and she got to pick the bikini's."

"You're not wearing that." Kade shook his head again, his eyes going slightly wide again. "Do you know what would happen if you did?"

I frowned, shaking my head.

"Guys would try to touch you. And I'd have to rip some throats out."

"Kade, that's a little over the top-"

"I don't particularly like the idea of killing, but if-"

"Max, will you please spend the day with Kade tomorrow and make sure he doesn't kill anyone while I wash some rich kids cars? Please?"

A few weeks ago, if I had asked this of Max, he would have scowled and swore and pinned Kade with a scowl so nasty I would have felt the hate from a mile away. Now, however, he just shrugged and nodded. "Sure."

"How did she know our sizes?" I asked Emeli, who shot Max a quick glare before replying.

"Our best buddy Max here was more than happy to give over the sizes."

Max grinned. Kade growled.

I rolled my eyes.

"Well I'm hungry, anyone else?" Max said as Kade continued to glare at him. There was nothing behind the stare though, no animosity or hate, nothing.

I was right, the two were going to be great friends. I couldn't decide if that was a good or a bad thing.

We all left the lounge, Emeli carrying the bag with the stupid white bikini's, and headed into the open plan kitchen in the next room. Several of the pack teenagers, like us, were sitting around the huge dining table, laughing and joking and smiling. When we walked in, they looked up at us, or rather Kade, and frowned when they saw who he was with.

Then he did something that shocked every single person in the room.

He put his arm around my shoulders and waved, a small grin alight his face. If I had a camera, I would have kept the snapshot of this moment forever, because I'd never seen their mouths open so wide in my life.

I shrugged him off quickly once the shock started to wear off and they all went back to what they were doing, a few confused glances still getting thrown our way, but we ignored them and got some food before going back to the lounge, even Emeli joining us.

She hadn't just hung out in a while, because she had been so busy spending time with James. I took a quick, subtle sniff when she passed me to get to one of the couches, and almost sagged in relief.

She still smelt exactly the same. Like honey and spring. Meaning her and James were still yet to mate.

When two officially mated, their scents mixed and became permanent on both, signalling to other wolves that they were very much taken and very much together. I silently thanked the werewolf ancestors she wasn't mated, and took a seat on the same couch I was on before.

Max was just popping in a movie when the door bell rang, so he groaned, stood up, and went to get the door. I wasn't paying much attention, as Kade had rolled his sleeve up over his shoulder and rubbing it, as if it was bothering him, and my eyes were fixated on all that muscle.

Until I heard his voice.

"Katie, you're dads-"

"Why weren't you at school today? They rang me at work and said you'd skipped, so what's wrong-oh hell no."

I looked up at dad in shock as his eyes fixed on Kade, and they turned into two pits of fire. "Hello son. Long time, no meet."

Kade gulped, his eyes switching to mine before back to my fathers. I bit my lip, standing up and walking over to where dad was. "Hey dad, so this is Kade-"

Kade stood too, recomposed, and walked over slowly, like he was judging what dad would do. I stood next to him as he held his hand out to shake with my dads, but my father was still trying to kill him with his eyes.

Then, he threw one solid, reliable punch right at Kade's jaw.

I yelped as Kade's head snapped to the side, but his body didn't stumble. He slowly brought his head back to my dad, his jaw moving back and forth as he assessed it carefully. "I deserved that."

"Yeah, you did."

"Dad!" I yelled, sending a full glare his way. "What do you think you're doing?"

"What I should have done the minute you told me he rejected you."

"It's all sorted now, dad. Trust me. I'm fine. We're fine." I said, looking between him and Kade to make sure they wouldn't start throwing any more punches.

"Well I would still like to quiz him. May I see you outside, Kade?" He asked, his voice hard, but his eyes didn't quite hold the same anger they did before. Dad had so much respect for the alpha's here, Kade's father included, so the fact he just punched his son would make him feel guilty later on, I knew it.

"Just do it here, dad." I groaned, sitting back down on the couch. "You promised me you wouldn't kill him anyway."

Kade spun to look at me in horror. "He wants to kill me?"

"Well," I winced, "he did."

"Alright, son. Sit down." Dad instructed pointing at the couch where I was. Once Kade did what he was told, dad started to pace. "Why did you reject my daughter?"

Kade gulped, then started to speak. "I wasn't completely ready for a mate when I met her. She just popped out of nowhere, and I panicked. I was a coward, and an asshole."

"Got that right," Max muttered. Kade glared at him before dad started talking again. "Why do you think you deserve my daughter now, then?"

"Well that's easy. I don't."

"Then why are you here?"

"Because I want to be. And I want her to need me." His eyes flicked to me for the briefest of moments, before focusing back on my father.

"So you know about her bloodline? About the danger she's in."

"Yes."

"And you'll protect her? No matter what?"

"With my life."

Dad stared at him for what seemed like forever. Kade stared back, never once dropping his eyes.

"Can you solemnly swear to me that you'll never hurt my daughter ever again?"

Kade stood, then started to speak a genuinely true oath to my father. When he was done, I was a little dazed, a little emotional. This was insane. I never thought I'd see this day, and yet, here I was, watching my father meet my mate.

"Okay," Dad said after a few seconds of silence. "I have one more question."

Kade nodded, bracing himself for it. "Are you a football, or baseball kind of guy?"

Kade answered without hesitation. "Baseball. Hands down."

Good answer, I thought with a smile. Very, very good answer.

"I don't regret punching you, son."

"I don't either. I fully deserved it. And more."

"Oh I know. You're just lucky I'd gone to the shooting range the week before Katie told me about you and I'd used up all my bullets. Otherwise this conversation would have gone a little differently."

I could see Kade nodding, but there was something in his eyes. Was it respect? It looked a lot like it.

"Well," Dad said, clapping his hands together, "Katie, will you walk me to the door? I still want to know why you weren't at school. Oh, and since your birthdays coming up in a month or so, your mother wants you to come over for dinner tomorrow night to start sorting out some arrangements."

I blinked, completely forgetting I was turning a year older next month. It didn't seem anywhere near as important as anything else going on right now, so I put it to the back of my mind and nodded, following dad towards the front door again. When we were on the exterior side of it, my dad turned to me and sighed. "I'm sorry I punched him."

I smiled, wrapping my arms around dads waist. "No you're not. You said inside."

"You're right." Dad chuckled, his chin resting on the top of my head. "But I think I'm going to like him one day."

"Was it the part where he shat his pants when he saw you, or the part where he took your punch like a man that made you decide you might like him in future?" I teased, pulling away from dad.

"It was the part where I could see he cares about you. I remember looking at your mothers father like that too, making that oath. And he was a lot smaller then me, so Kade had it tough." Dad laughed again. "So why weren't you at school today?"

"We had to sort some stuff this morning." I said, and he nodded, understanding I meant about the bloodline. "You don't have to worry though. We have this sorted."

"I wish you had just said you were cutting class because you were acting out of rebellion, like any other teenager."

I grinned, and he ruffled my hair with his hand before kissing me on the forehead and started back down the road to our house. I watched him go, feeling more happy then I had in ages.

Then my eyes flicked to the forest surrounding the pack house, and I instantly saw something that made my blood run cold.

A set of gold eyes was watching me from the shadows. And they were smiling.

I walked back inside quickly, trying not to let it bother me that much. James wouldn't come to the pack house because if he did, his whole plan would be ruined. So I was safe. For now.

"Dude, you handled that like a bitch." Max said, bumping his knuckles against Kade's in respect as I walked back into the living room. "Mr. Shaw's fucking huge."

"Like a tank." Kade muttered, his eyes meeting mine as soon as I walked in. "Is he going home to reload his gun?"

I shook my head, smiling. "I think you just passed the interrogation. Just."

Kade visibly sagged in relief. "Thank fuck. I haven't been that freaked out in years."

"You know what this means, man?" Max said, smiling gleefully. The shit stirrer. "You're going to see a lot more of him."

Kade paled, then shook his head. "I'm so going to die early."

* * * *

He was late. The fucker was late. I hadn't given up my time to wait for the ancient prick in the woods, for him to be late. Maybe because I was a teacher, or acting as one, or maybe because being punctual was one of my main virtues, I'm not sure.

But the fucker was late, and I was getting pissed off.

Just as I was about to say the hell with it and go home, a black shimmering shape started to appear, as though it was seeping out of one of the massive tree trunks in this forest. I waited while the shape slowly formed into something more solid, the shimmering stopping as the blackness took shape of legs, thighs, a torso, arms, shoulders, a head.

Then the shimmering stopped, and Brother Drek appeared in his human form in front of me, the mother fucker grinning like he knew I was pissed off but didn't give two shits. His regal robes were the colour of his birth right, the moss green and dark brown symbolising his Earth Wolf bloodlines. His robes flapped slightly in the breeze, the shiny material moving even when his huge body didn't.

Out of all the organisation brothers, the leaders of the association I worked for, I hated Drek the most.

His name, for instance. It was Dutch for dirt. He was an earth wolf, so it was kind of fitting. It also meant excrement, dung.

I couldn't freaking agree more.

"About time you got here." I muttered, starting to pace in the small clearing in the forest. "I don't have all night, remember?"

"I see you're patience hasn't improved with your time in pack land." Brother Drek drawled, his unmistakable accent from the early Netherlands, the words rolling off his tongue almost uncomfortably. He preffered to speak in Old Dutch, the first language he'd learned, the one he was born into, but today was modern times and he could speak in fucking English, thank you very much.

"I called on you because it's going to happen. Tomorrow. There's a stupid fundraiser at the school, and Katie will be there. It won't be hard to lure her into one of the classrooms and get her alone, trust me."

"Oh James, you should have learnt by now that I do find it very hard to trust you in the slightest."

I growled, my anger heightening. "Just let me finish the job. Then I can get the fuck out of here and you and me can stop these little meetings."

"We want it done by tomorrow, otherwise I'm sending in back up."

"Back up?" I said in a cold voice. "I've done this enough to not need back up, Drek-"

"That's Brother Drek, to you soldaat." I glared at his use of word, soldier. I wasn't just a soldier. I was more important than any of those other werewolves doing the same job as me.

I knew, he should know it, but Brother Drek had dislike me from the start. The feeling was mutual.

"Whatever-"

Something gripped my ankles, yanking them forward. I yelled as the back of my head hit the ground hard, and I looked down to see two vines of ivy securely wrapped around my ankles, and it didn't take a genius to know who willed them to do so.

Brother Drek was grinning again.

I suppose being alive since the 6th century gave you a lot of time to hone your powers, and Brother Drek had a few up his sleeve.

"Remember, James, I am the main controller of what you do here. So don't make me angry, boy. This is far bigger than your ego. The girl has to be killed. The threats of a new war are approaching, and this time it will have a bigger impact on the hidden world as a whole."

"I think I can kill a seventeen year old girl." I spat, looking up at him as he stood above my body, his robes making a soft swishing sound as he walked.

"You've already failed twice."

"Her stupid mate kept intervening. You know I can't get near her with him around."

Brother Drek looked at me as if I was stupid. "Then kill the boy too."

"I can't just kill everyone who stands in the way-"

"Why? Because your mate would be one of them? We made a deal, when you agreed to this life. That you would give up the chance of a mate to fulfill what is needed to be done in order to keep us on top."

I locked my jaw together and stood up, the ivy around my ankles long since gone. "She's not a problem. I couldn't just ignore her though, could I? She would have thought something was up."

"Then why did you ask her to move back to your pack with you?" Brother Drek asked, and it sounding like he was making a tsking sound at the same time. "Remember, I see everything."

"So I lied. A lot. She's Katie's best friend, so I needed to get closer with her to get closer to my target."

Brother Drek shook his head slightly, his bright, translucent green eyes burning holes through my memories.

Oh yeah, he could also sort through my memories. Like the other seven leaders of the organisation could. Didn't hurt a bit when he did, but you knew he was in there, and that could fuck you in the head like a bitch with three boobs could.

"You're lying. Your mate is not your priority. You agreed. You took the blood oath. She means nothing. Remember that."

I growled again, low in my throat. Yeah, my wolf had half a mind to fight him on this, fight us both on this, but the dog inside of me was as dark and twisted as the life I led.

He may have a connection to Emeli, but he didn't care for her in the slightest.

"The night is young, James. But tomorrow will come soon enough, and if the deed is not done by nightfall tomorrow, I'm sending in my favourite Engel."

"Oh, fuck no." I scowled. "No way are you sending in him."

"I won't have to, as long as you succeed. Afscheid James. Do not let me down." Brother Drek started to shimmer again, his blackness taking over his features until his body was no longer a solid, tangible object.

Then he disappeared with all his pansy shimmering darkness and left me alone in the woods. Good. I really hated that prick.

I felt a sharp stab of pain in my head, reminding me that Brother Drek was right there with me, all the time.

All the fucking time.

I started walking back the way I had come, into the forest near the pack house. When I reached the edge of the forest, my footsteps took on moving in determination.

Katie was going to be dead tomorrow by nightfall. I couldn't fucking wait to get her done and get out of this town. Get back to the hidden world where my reputation might just be at stake if Brother Drek decided to let everyone know I'd already failed twice in killing Katie.

But not tomorrow. I looked up, and smiled when I spotted her watching her father walk down the road with a small smile on her face. Her eyes moved slowly around her, then found mine, and all colour and emotion drained from her face when she saw the gold in my eyes.

Good. She better be scared.

Because she was about to meet her maker tomorrow. And I couldn't fucking wait.

* * * *

Well I had a lot of fun writing this chapter! It gives you a little more insight on the organisation, and more will be revealed as we go :) James is a douche, is it time for him to die yet? Most probably. Or is it? And I like Brother Drek, in a twisted sort of way. Stay tuned for more! The plots just getting interesting ;)

Vote, comment, do what you need to do!

:)

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