RAELYNN'S POV

I know without the shadow of a doubt that Luka figured out I was lying. I mean I'm a great liar and all but it's hard to lie to him, especially when it comes to my wellbeing. But I had to. If he knew what really happened at school today he would have had both Willow and I pulled out and homeschooled. He's overprotective like that.

"Lynn hunny Willow is here for you." Taking a deep breath I clean up my room a bit and touch my scar. It's a habit whenever her name is brought up. Keeps me in check really and reminded of who my friends really are. There's a knock on my door and I open it to find Willow standing in the door way.

"Willow." I say her name as calmly as I possibly can. She looks back at me with a frigid glare.

"Raelynn." I allow her into my room and lock the door. I watch as she takes in her surroundings before she finally deems my bed worthy enough of her butt. Gosh she's so damn stuck up.

"So obviously we need to talk." She says to me cooly. I roll my eyes and sit on the opposite end of her.

"Obviously." Picking up a stuff animal Naal bought me I hold it in my arms and rest my head on it.

"Today did not go as I expected it would." Willow says crossing her legs.

"Same here."

"So what are we going to do about it?" Her question is as much valid as it is clear. We both know what we're going to do about what happened today. I just think we're coming to terms with the thought.

"We're going to kick those girls' asses that what we're going to do." I tell her leaning back. She nods her head and looks over to the empty space beside me. Sighing I nod to the spot and she slowly crawls over to sit beside me. For a good ten minutes there's an empty silence between us. There's no emotion charged in it. No heavy breathing just silence. It's not comfortable... but it's not uncomfortable either.

"If we do this it means we're really going to have to reconcile our differences and become... friends..." I nod my head slowly trying to accept what she just said but it's hard to digest.

"Yeah... you're right." My head falls back against my headboard and hers follows soon after.

"Well then... I guess I will start..." I close my eyes and wait to hear the crap that is about to spew out of her annoying little mouth.

"I hate you. Plain and simple. I have since I was a little girl. But the main source of that anger has never been by your hand and for that I apologize. A lot of the mean and hurtful things I've done to you was wrong and stupid and if I could take them back then trust me I would but I cant. What I can do is apologize profusely for royally screwing up what could have been an amazing friendship... You're not a bad person Raelynn. In fact... you're pretty damn cool if I'm being honest." She stops to take a breath and I realize that my eyes haven't closed since the first word was uttered from her mouth. I force myself to blink and stare at the ceiling.

"I'm not about to have a whole sob story because it's pointless. What I am saying is what matters. I screwed up. I'm screwed up. But I am mature enough to admit it and ask for forgiveness. I'm going to need a friend to get through these next four years and to be honest... I'm going to need a friend period. I'd like for that person to be you." My head nods on its own accord a few times before I can manage out a word.

"That was quite the speech. And I'll give you this, I know you weren't lying. I could hear it in your breathing. So... I guess... I forgive you. It's what Jesus would do and what he command all of his children to do. I forgive you Willow. I forgive you for all of the hurt you caused me and the physical pain you brought upon my life. I forgive you for the misery you put me through. I forgive you for being you. But it's going to take me a long time to truly forget what happened. For the sake of survival in that crappy place they call high school I will put the past in the past but it doesn't mean I'm going to automatically trust you with everything and tell you all of my secrets. You're still a mean and spiteful girl. But I guess this is the first step."

Again we sit in silence for a few minutes before Willow gets up from my bed and fixes her clothes.

"You know Luka knows that we lied." She says standing by my door.

"Yup."

"And he's going to get very suspicious when he sees us getting along."

"Yup." She blows out a breath and opens the door.

"Well one step at a time I guess." There's a faint smile on her lips and I try my hardest to return it.

"One step at a time." Willow leaves shortly after and I end up falling asleep. Good thing too. After today... I'm exhausted.

"Lynn. Wake up it's time to eat." My sister sounds way to close for comfort right now. Groaning I sit up in bed to see it's already dark outside. How long was I asleep for?

"Mom made spaghetti come on." I smile and follow her to the dining room where the food is already set up. But what makes me stop is the fifth table setting. If I remember correctly there are only four of us in this family.

"Um... who's joining us for dinner Elle?" She turns to me at the bottom of the step and shrugs.

"I don't know. Some boy." Some boy? If it were Luka or Naal then they would have come up to my room themselves so who is this kid?

Cautiously I make my way down the rest of the stairs and sit at my usual place at the table. I realize now that they've moved Elle to sit beside me and this mystery boy to sit in front of me. I wonder who it is.

"Nice to see you've woken up Lynn. You've been asleep for a couple hours now." Mom says bringing in the spaghetti to place on the table. Right on cue a yawn slips from my mouth and I stretch my muscles to release some tension from earlier today.

"High school is exhausting." I say simply. If she even knew the half of it.

"Well you can tell us all about it over dinner." My stomach growls at the heavenly smell of garlic bread.

"Hey mom, who's the fifth plate for?" I ask pouring myself some water. A mischievous look hits her eyes for a split second before she masks it.

"Oh a friend of your father."

"Oh so he's old then." I say leaning back while sipping some water.

"I wouldn't call sixteen that old." The water almost chokes me as the boy walks in with the garlic bread. And man is he gorgeous. I mean he's no comparison to Luka but he's a close second. With shaggy brown hair curling over his eyes and around his ears I get a weird urge to want to run my hands through it to feel how soft it is. It's probably very soft... and it probably smells amazing too. His full lips purse at my staring and man do they look amazing as well. And he's fit and tall and smell really good and his eyes, they're chocolate brown with some flecks of gold and green in them. Man I really like brown eyes... wait a second his eyes... they look so damn familiar.

"You know I didn't think it would take you this long to remember who I am." He says smirking. I scoff at his cockiness even though it is really cute and he's really cute and his smile is pretty cute too. And oh crap!

"You're the wolf that I was sparring with all this time?" I say out loud. Maybe a little too loud. His mouth breaks into a full blown and really good looking smile showing me his elongated canines. He's got a great smile. Like making me melt a little great smile.

"Yup that's me." It takes me a second to realize I'm standing instead of trying to seem calm and cool so I slowly sit back down in my seat and blow a curl out of my face.

"So why are you here?" I ask as politely as I can. My mom cuts me a look and my dad chuckles to himself.

"I've been wanting to get to know you outside of the training field and since I've been raised with respect I asked your father if I could join your family for dinner." He sits down in front of me and I feel his foot brush against mine. I don't know if he did that on purpose but I can't will myself to move.

"Why do you want to get to kno–"

"Lynn can we please pray first and then you can ask as many questions as you'd like." I shut my mouth and bow my head in respect. The boy's foot is still resting against mine and as my father begins to pray I feel him run it higher up my leg and back down before pulling back completely. Was that supposed to be seductive? I don't really know what just happened.

"Amen." I hear everyone say grace and I realize I zoned out. "Amen." I rush out keeping my head down because I know I'm blushing. Gosh who the heck is this guy anyways?

"So to answer your earlier question I want to get to know you because you seem like a really cool girl. You've got spunk and spirit and..." He stops talking and I look up to see a faint blush start to spread across his cheeks.

"And?" My father says for him. I watch him look over to my parents and begin to get even redder than before.

"I, um... well... it's just that I... Goddess this is going to sound shallow."

"Well you opened this door so walk through it already." I say getting bored of him already. His eyes snap to me and a look of aggression flashes in them before he takes his water and gulps it down.

"It's just... I wanted to fight you because you're really pretty. Like unnaturally beautiful. I couldn't stop looking at you. At first it was just curiosity as to where you got your scar from and then I started to just want to see you more. So I figured if we sparred it wouldn't look as weird if I kept staring because it would seem like I as focused. It's stupid hearing it come out of my mouth now but it made so much sense at the time. I mean seriously you're just... wow. Excuse my manners Mr. Dawson." He sips at his water again and looks away from me.

The entire table goes silent at his confession and my face burns bright red. I knew there were some guys in the pack that thought I was pretty but I didn't figure anyone liked me. Besides I've always been so focused on Luka that I never really saw anyone else.

"Um... thank you." Is all I can say and he nods in response keeping his head down.

"Aww Lynn he has a crush on you!" Elle says from my side. The boy and I both groan at the same time and catch each other's eye. He smiles warily and I return it because it's the nice thing to do.

"So what's your name young man?" My dad asks him as he starts to serve himself some spaghetti.

"Oh sorry about that. My name's Colin Eden. My father is–"

"Frederick Eden one of the strongest Warriors this pack has ever seen. Yes I know who he is. And your mother is a tracker as well. Very good at it too. It's nice to meet you Colin. As you know I'm Chris, this is my wife Jerri and my daughter Raelynn and Abrielle. Welcome to our home and please enjoy the dinner."

"Thank you si – Uh Mr. Dawson and Mrs. Dawson." Father passes him the bowl and we begin to get back into our normal routine. For the rest of our dinner I tell them the positive parts I can remember from school today and Abrielle talks about her day as well. Everything feels normal as we clean up the table and get ready for bed.

Dad asks me to walk Colin to the door while they head upstairs but I know it's only meant to give us privacy though I don't know why we need it. I just met the guy.

"So about what I said earlier I hope it didn't make me seem like some kind of weird creepy guy. I didn't mean for it to come out that way." Colin says scratching the back of his head.

I smile at his honesty and do something I never expected. I kiss him on the cheek. And it feels pretty good. His skin is soft and smells like pine and some kind of manly cologne. Very different from Luka's scent.

"I've always appreciated honesty in a guy. Don't worry about it. I'll see you around?" He smiles really wide and pulls me into him. His hug feels different then when Luka hugs me. He's much shorter than Luka so my head is almost in the crook of his neck. And his arms aren't as buff as Luka's either but they feel good anyways. I hug him back and pull back gently.

"I will definitely see you around Raelynn." He kisses my cheek in return and walks off my porch with a weird manner to his step. It's almost like he's trying to dance and walk at the same time. I kind of like watching him walk like that. A part of me knows it's supposed to flattering to me so I take it as a compliment. Closing the door I lean against it and touch my cheek.

This Colin boy is very different from Luka but maybe... maybe different isn't a bad thing.

PICTURE OF COLIN ABOVE