With Celeana no longer in the room and leaving Ava and Marcella to their own devices, the weight of the conversation hung heavily in the air. It was difficult for Ava to even begin trying to piece together the things she had learned, especially when she knew there was plenty more that she didn't know. Disbelief and confusion swirled in her mind and as she looked over at Marcella, Ava could feel the beginnings of a spiral that she didn't want to be in. None of it could be real.

There was no possible way that Marcella could be over a century old, nevermind the fact that she had been living as a werewolf for nearly just as long. If Ava wasn't sitting down on her bed, she was sure that she would have fallen on the floor.

For the first time, Marcella's expression softened as if she could read Ava's mind. For all Ava knew, she could read her mind. She watched as Marcella crossed the room and took a seat on the edge of her bed.

"I look good for being 105, don't I?" Marcella said, forcing a small smile on her face.

Ava's laugh in response was watery and before she knew it, she burst out into hysterical sobs, overwhelmed. She felt Marcella awkwardly patting her shoulder and Ava leaned into the touch, just needing to feel something that seemed real.

"I know it's a lot to take in," Marcella said gently, still patting Ava's shoulder. "Believe me – you're not the only one who has been overwhelmed by receiving the information we dropped on you. Years later and there are still times I don't entirely understand it either."

"I just don't understand any of this!" Ava said between her sobs. Her thoughts were still going a million miles a minute, and it was getting even harder for her to think. "I don't understand why me! I'm just a regular person. It's not like I'm anything special, so why would Celeana decide that I'm needed for whatever it is – I don't even know what!"

Marcella sighed, leaning forward, resting her elbows on her knees as she scrubbed roughly at her face. She turned her head to look back at Ava who rubbed her eyes, shifting anxiously where she sat. There was a hint of unexpected sympathy in Marcella's expression that only marginally dimmed Ava's swirling thoughts.

Werewolves, witches, Gods, oh my! Ava thought to herself. Though she was struggling very hard to believe it, everything that she had only imagined to be fantasy and make believe was staring her right in the face. A werewolf was staring at her.

"I know," Marcella finally said. "I know. It seems odd and like there's no reason for things, but I need you to understand that there's no coming back from this. You're a part of something way bigger than yourself."

"But why me?" Ava asked, looking down at her trembling hands. Had they been shaking so much before? She took in several deep breaths and let them out slowly, grateful for her slowing tears. "Why did Celeana pick me?"

"Surprisingly, Celeana has their reasons," Marcella replied, her lips quirking into a wry smile. "Why me? Why any of us? Whatever it was, it was enough for Celeana to choose us, and it's all for different reasons. I don't know what the reasoning is for you just yet, but whatever it is, Celeana saw something in you."

"But I'm just me."

"Well, just you, Celeana sees potential. Perhaps it's your resilience or the fact that you are an absolute cry-baby. Whatever it is, you can't change the fact that you can't get out of this. You're one of us now and you need to accept that sooner rather than later. We're bonded and you're just going to have to get over it."

"Bonded," Ava scoffed. "We're not bonded. What kind of bonds could I have with...you?"

"With other werewolves? You'd be surprised," Marcella snorted. "The bond that was formed is one of the strongest connections that can exist within the mortal world. It gives you power, which is a special kind of magic, which already comes with being a werewolf."

Ava glared at Marcella, unable to think of something to say. Marcella didn't appear at all bothered by Ava's glowering and sat up. "You know," she said, "just because Celeana left me to deal with you doesn't mean I have to make you figure this out on my own. Can you handle me driving you somewhere?"

"You're already wearing my clothes, might as well take the car, too."

"Great," Marcella said, clapping her hands and standing up. She moved over to Ava's closet and started pulling out clothes and tossing them on the bed. "Go take a shower and let's go. There's someone that you should meet."

Ava let out a small growl as she pulled herself shakily off her bed, grabbing the clothes that Marcella had chosen. She shot Marcella another growl and stomped into her bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

It was difficult for Ava to make sense of all of her feelings, so she chose to ignore them for the time being. She turned on her shower and stripped off her clothes as she waited for the water to warm up. While waiting for the shower to warm up, Ava turned around and jumped as she took a good look at herself.

She looked awful.

Dark circles rimmed her eyes and her cheeks were red and splotchy from her crying. Her hair looked as though a bird had tried to make a nest in it and several scratches lined her face. But that wasn't the part that startled her most – it was the deep, bright red teeth marks embedded in her skin that left her stunned. The wound was angry looking, the punctures deep and looking as painful as Ava felt. She reached up to brush her fingers over the jagged edges and winced. While it didn't burn, it was still painful to touch. The skin surrounding the bite felt simultaneously tight and torn to shreds all in one, and Ava wasn't sure which was worse. Other than that, she looked normal. She didn't have strange, glowing eyes and hadn't sprouted a ton of fur overnight. If anything, Ava could blame how she looked on being tired or sick and nothing more. There was nothing paranormal about her, except for the bite mark, of course.

When she noticed the mirror starting to fog up from the steamy shower water, Ava pulled herself away. She could worry about everything else later. She wanted to take a shower and figure out where exactly she was being taken and why.

Ava let out a whine as the water touched the bite, the start of the fire starting to return as if the salve Marcella had rubbed into her skin was being washed away. She supposed that being under the torrent of water it was possible, but at least it was nothing like it was before.

She leaned her forehead up against the cool tiles, grateful for the feeling as the hot water ran over her skin. The rhythmic pattern of the water was soothing and kept most of her thoughts at bay. It hadn't even been 24 hours and her entire life had changed for what reason? Ava wasn't sure if she wanted to know the reasons or remain completely ignorant. If she didn't know the truth, maybe she could pretend nothing had happened and that her current reality wasn't, well...real.

Everything felt too enormous for her to believe. It was the sort of thing she would hear in a fairytale – a story made up by some strange author with an imagination far too big; a storyteller with too big of a world in their mind to keep contained.

Except, Ava realized, that wasn't the reality.

It was impossible for her to deny the bite that pierced through her skin and her muscles, especially when she stood up straight, letting the water pelt her directly in the face. How was being in the shower making everything feel impossibly tighter than before? She was wrestling with the truth of her existence and a new reality that defied all logic. As much as she wanted to ignore it all, the throbbing pain starting to radiate from her shoulder made things clear: there was no escaping things whether she wanted to or not. There was no running from whatever fate Celeana had sealed for her.

With a determined sigh, Ava washed herself as thoroughly as she could without aggravating her shoulder more than needed. Not more than once she was grateful for her careful purchases that avoided alcohol as an ingredient because she didn't want to know how that would make her shoulder feel. She combed through her hair under the water, detangling the thick knots that made up the strands and carefully washed her bite wound. Though the pain was starting to grow once more, Ava wasn't going to let the bite or her new life break her. She was much better than that.

Stepping out of the shower, Ava dried herself quickly with a fluffy towel. The fabric felt nice against her skin, though she couldn't help but notice that everything felt oversensitive. Each brush of the towel on her skin as she tried to get dry felt prickly. Something that used to give her such comfort didn't appear to be helping and aggravated her more.

Not wanting to think too much about it and what it might mean, Ava dried quickly and threw her clothes on. She was silently grateful for Marcella's choice of oversized clothing because even her clothes made her skin prickle. The green t-shirt she wore was quickly covered in a dark grey hoodie and the ordinarily frustrating baggy jeans Ava avoided suddenly seemed like sheer perfection. When Ava stepped out of the bathroom, Marcella gave her a knowing look.

"It'll be like that for a while," she said, taking in Ava for a moment before returning to the book she had sitting in her lap. "Do you read romance a lot? Or anything other than romance? I swear that's all you have, but this weird fantasy romance book – romantasy I think they call it? seems good."

Ava frowned, looking at her once meticulous bookshelf that had been destroyed by Marcella's browsing. She grimaced thinking about the bookshelf that she had thrown downstairs, not wanting to know what damage awaited her.

"We cleared everything up downstairs for you, by the way," Marcella said, as if reading Ava's mind once more. "Celeana didn't want to leave things a mess and made sure the doors were closed. They figured that we had done enough damage that we wanted to at least leave your home intact."

"Oh, lovely," Ava muttered.

"Some thanks would be nice."

"What should I be thanking you for? You both ruined my life."

Marcella looked up from the book and gave a slight shrug. "Yeah, I suppose that's deserved," she said, standing up and tossing the book on the bookshelf on top of the haphazard pile of books. Ava couldn't help but groan. "What?" Marcella asked.

"It's just..." Ava gestured vaguely to her bookshelf and shook her head. "It doesn't really matter, I guess."

With another look at the bookshelf, Marcella shrugged. "So, are you ready to go? Need to grab anything before we head out?"

"My sanity," Ava whispered under her breath. She walked over to her door and grabbed the small backpack she used and slung the straps over her shoulders. "I guess I'm good to go. The keys to my car are downstairs. I'm guessing you're driving?"

"Considering you don't quite know your strength just yet, it's probably a good idea," Marcella said. "Besides, I've always wanted to drive an Audi. You've got a nice car, did you know that? Anyway, I also know where we're going and you're not going to be in any shape to drive for a while. I would uhm, grab those sunglasses if I were you because it'll be a little rough out there. Better just put them on now to make things easier." Marcella nodded towards the sunglasses sitting on the nearby dresser. Ava rolled her eyes but put them on.

"Well?" Ava said sharply. "Are we going?"

"Okay, getting a little testy there," Marcella said with a whistle. She motioned for Ava to follow her downstairs. As they walked, Ava inspected everything. Just as Marcella said, everything appeared to be back in place. No errant carpet, bookcase exactly where it needed to be. If she hadn't known what had happened, it would be impossible to believe something had occurred at all.

Against her better judgement, Ava loaded herself into the passenger seat of her car, ignoring the way that the sun somehow seemed a lot brighter than usual. Was this was Marcella was talking about? She thought about asking but decided against it as Marcella turned on the car and decided to blast the radio. Ava very quickly pulled her hood up and pulled it low to cover her eyes.

She had no idea where they were going, but it was going to be a very long ride.