"This can't be true," I gasped, turning to Rita for validation.

Her eyes were downcast. The beautiful chocolate cake that she was preparing for her son was completely forgotten. 

"Does Sebastian know?" I demanded, feeling the knots tightening in my stomach. This time, I knew they weren't from the silver pills I was taking. "Does Sebastian know that I could kill him?"

"Yes, and he didn't want us to tell you. Up until you attacked him we had no reason to, but it's only fair that you know," Rita admitted. 

"Dear God, this can't be happening. No, this isn't possible. I love him so much, I would never even dream of hurting him. I don't know what came over me, but I'm taking pills now, we are suppressing my wolf," I stammered, feeling tears flood my eyes.

"Charlotte, there is no immediate danger. We can see how much you care. You're taking pills to weaken your wolf. Many mates would never even consider doing such a thing because it could harm your wolf permanently. That's devotion. And, even before we told you, you obviously knew the risk," Henry said. There was still an edge of hardness to his voice, but his features were softer. "Look at all these guards that are here at your request. You are doing what you can. Sebastian wants you to stay otherwise he would've told you sooner."

"And it's not a very detailed account. It's from over four hundred years ago and we have no validation to back it up," Rita stated, but her smile was strained now.

"I need to leave. I need to get away from him," I sputtered, shoving back the stool and landing on my feet.

"Now, let's not be hasty," Henry murmured, placing a hand on my shoulder. He eased me back down onto the stool. "This is a lot of information and it can be frightening. Rita is right, this could all be mis-translated and mean nothing. For now, you've planned a wonderful party for your mate and taken extra precautions to make sure that everyone is safe. You need to talk to Sebastian about this, but you have a life time to do that. Just take a deep breath and let him enjoy a couple days with his friends and family. He deserves that much."

The next day Sebastian was due home. An hour before he was supposed to arrive at the house I went over everything for the hundredth time. I told everyone that I wanted everything to be perfect, but the reality was that I wanted one last chance to show Sebastian just how much I loved him. No matter what came after at least I had given him this.

And everything was beautiful. Rita needed some assistance but her multi-layered chocolate cake turned out wonderful and we had applied the icing together. Colin was actually decent at cooking and made a buffalo chicken mac n cheese dish with very little guidance. Henry was hopeless, but was content enough to make a dressing for the salad while I made a loaf of bread from scratch. The decorations were moderate at best, but I was sure that this was the most Sebastian had been celebrated in years.

And now, when Sebastian rode up to the house on one of his motorcycles I wrung my hands together, so nervous. 

"You look so wonderful," Rita murmured, gazing at my new floral dress. 

I had bought it specifically for this occasion, but I felt anything but cheery and bright now, waiting for the worst to happen. I tried to shoot her a kind grin, but my eyes went to the additional guards who were wearing civilian clothes. My eyes caught Keiko and she gave me a huge smile and a thumbs up.

A moment later the front door opened and Sebastian entered.

"Surprise!" Keiko shrieked, throwing her arms in the air.

"Happy Birthday," Rita and Henry greeted.

Sebastian seemed stunned for a moment, saying nothing as his eyes scanned everyone over. Then, when a smile stretched across his lips he came straight towards me. Even after everything I had done to him the ease and comfort was always there with him.

"You planned all of this, didn't you?" he accused.

"Of course she did. Leave it to your mate to order the king and queen to come to a party," Ajax piped up as he held Clementine in his arms. When the girl grabbed a chunk of his auburn hair and yanked he simple rubbed his stubble against her cheek. She squealed in delight.

"Not that we needed to be ordered. All she had to say is that she would be cooking and we all would've piled in a plane," Keiko laughed.

"God, you are wonderful," Sebastian murmured. One arm slipped around my waist and he pulled me up against his chest. His head dipped down and he gave me a slow and easy kiss, showing me all of his appreciation so shamelessly.

"Seb, I made a real cake, not even from a box!" Rita squealed, breaking our minor moment.

"Now this I have to see," Sebastian laughed, still keeping me tight against him. 

We were inseparable for the whole night. Some times I would try and give him alone time with his family but he would seek me out and drag me right into the conversations. I would scoot away when he spoke with Ajax about business, but he would grab my hand before I could get too far. When I giggled with Keiko about trivial things he would appear and hold my hand, seeming just as content to listen to the conversation as I was.

Everything was going well. Sebastian adored the food and thanked everyone for their participation, though he winked at me when he thanked his family. I flushed and bowed my head.

When we moved on to presents I watched in delight as he unwrapped an expensive watch from Keiko and Ajax. His smile was huge and would've looked genuine to anyone else, but I knew the difference between his fake smile and the real grin that lit up his face when he saw the light weight hiking set his family had gotten him. 

But when he stood up and wrapped his mother in a hug I heard something. It was soft and pleasant, feeling like a wordless lullaby. At first, I payed it no mind, thinking that someone was humming a tune I didn't know. The moment was so beautiful that I was convinced nothing could taint it.

But Keiko saw it first.

"Oh my God, her hair is floating!"

"Fuck," Sebastian hissed. 

I could feel it happening, moving so slowly it felt like an oil spill spreading through my veins. While a womanly hum filled my mind Hades shoved his mother and father roughly behind himself. The royal guards came forward. I cocked my head to the side, a twisted smirk curling my lips. Ajax thrust Clementine into Keiko's arms then pushed her behind his body. Colin leapt to his brother's side, ready to defend his family. Hades lowered into a fighting stance, keeping his center of gravity low, but didn't move towards me. 

"You can't defeat me," I snarled at Hades, feeling my eyes roll back. "I'm the only one who can break you."

"Charlotte, I don't want to fight," Hades murmured.

His voice sounded sickly sweet, tasting like a drug in my mouth. I physically gagged and took a step towards him. 

"You need to pay. You need to suffer," I hissed. "I'm going to kill you."

"You're my mate, Char," Hades pleaded. "Listen to your wolf, what is she telling you?"

His words were so unexpected, so shocking that my head shook on it's own accord. I felt like screeching and covering my ears at the mention of the animal inside me, the animal that made me love Hades when I should've hated him with every fiber of my being. But the humming stopped. It halted and I was left feeling hands that were not my own and my hair dancing in invincible water.

Then, from within, came a powerful howl. 

"Seb," I screamed, pure terror racing through me. No, no, this wasn't possible. I had taken silver to repress my wolf. there was no way she could come through now. No, I didn't know what she was capable of.

I did the only thing I could in my brief moment of clarity.

I fled.

I raced out of the living room with the howling still droning on in my mind. My bare feet slipped on the hardwood floors of the entrance way, but I pushed harder, only pausing to fling the front door open.

But I lost the battle.

The second my feet hit the grass I was shifting. Slowly, and painfully, but my wolf was taking over. I felt the bones in my face crunch and readjust. I let out a scream as the joints in my legs rearranged themselves. My eyes jammed shut, pushing tears down my cheeks. I only hoped that Sebastian had taken the extra minute I had given him to run to safety.

And when I opened them my vision was altered. The colour had nearly vanished from my eye sight.

I felt like I was watching myself from the outside, waiting helplessly for my wolf to turn around and pillage the man I loved and his family. 

But my wolf head dropped down and I raced towards the dense forest, away from my mate, saving him for the humming that caused evil to spread throughout my body.

~~~Distraction Section~~~

I just love Charlotte. She has come to be such a sweet character and I wanted to show her kindness in this chapter and yesterday's. As per usual, we end on a cliff hanger because you all love them ;)

Question of the Day: Describe your person hell.

Here's mine: people drive slowly and refuse to move out of the passing lane, triple points if they are doing something dangerous like texting at the same time. Men say stupid shit like "get back to the kitchen and make me a sandwich". Constant heat, so hot I can never snuggle up with a blanket and sip warm tea while watching the rain. Whiny, middled aged women everywhere yelling at minimum wage workers.