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I was in my old neighborhood, where the houses were small, but the community and sense of comfort was big. Dad was cooking on the grill, Mom was laughing at his side, shucking corn and peeling potatoes for her famous potato salad. This was where I wanted to be most. When things felt normal. When my parents were around.  I was lounged back in a blue and white stripped plastic lounge chair with a book in my hand and a pair of rainbow aviators, tanning in my only black bikini, relaxing. Slowly, the book in my hands was slipping through my fingers, falling onto my stomach, and my head tipped further back in the chair. I fell into a deep sleep...

                  "Wake up."

                  I opened my eyes and frowned, shifting my eyes along the backyard. Where was that voice coming from?

                  "What are you doing, kid? I said it's time to eat." Dad stepped momentarily away from the grill to lift up a nearby gardening hose. "Don't make me spray you..." he teased.

                  When I didn't move, he spray me with freezing cold water.

                  "WAKE UP."

                   I jolted awake as a bucketful of ice water hit me in the face. I was stunned by the temperature, wanting to move out of the way as it continued to pour down on me but I couldn't move. My arms were strapped behind me to a chair. My legs were tied down. My feet were at an awkward angle, one of them had fallen asleep. I opened my eyes and saw black. There was a blindfold over them.

                  I waited.

                  And waited.

                  Then screamed.

                  "Silence."

                  My jaw immediately slammed shut. It wasn't a manipulated voice, but it was different from any voice I had ever heard in my life. It was empty. Cold. It was like a tantalizing kiss from a rattlesnakes tail before it struck with its fangs and poisoned you. It was an "or else" without any implication. It was the voice of a killer.

                  "Who are you?" I demanded.

                  "Who are you?" he parried calmly. The man knew my name, I could tell, therefore his deflection hit me harder than anything I had ever encountered. It got me thinking. A lot. Now the man was closer, leaning into me as if I interested him. Too close for my liking. I could feel him staring at me. If I didn't know any better, I would have said he was smiling

                  "Why am I here?" I asked a bit breathlessly. I wanted to ask him so much more. I wanted to know where Sin Trinidad was, if he was alive.

                  "Why are you here?" There it was again. The deflection. Those endless thoughts and conclusions of mine silently following it. What was I in Orange Gate County? What purpose did I have here?

                  This is worst than therapy with that Chinese woman that you made cry, Concience said. You really shouldn't have said that her dead dog looked like an overstuffed burrito.

                  A chair scrapped on the floor in front of me. Footsteps walked away from me. There was a jingle when the man walked that sounded like metal tapping against metal, and soft click to his shoes. I counted how much time he took between each stride. He walked fast, but controlled. Each step had the same amount of weight.

                  I would remember the noises he made when he walked, his voice. I didn't have to write it down, not this time.

                  I knew exactly who he was.

                  His footsteps stopped.

                  “Bravery isn't when you go looking for trouble; bravery is when trouble comes looking for you," Smiley said.

                  A door then opened, slamming so loud that my head started to pound. The man was gone. I was alone. I sat in that chair for the longest time, bathed in darkness, body aching its awkward position, not knowing whether to cry or to scream for help. Instead, I tried to wiggle out of my restraints. It wasn't even a metal, it was a fabric.

                  The chair was bolted to the floor.

                   A door opened again. Footsteps came towards me, heavier than the first man's and less calculated. I was slapped in the face. It stung. "Stop moving the restraints, hybrid," the new man spat. His voice was familiar. Very familiar.

                  "I know you," I said.

                  I could feel them walking around me, their hot breath, their fingers brushing against my wrists, tightening the bonds. "Damn right you know me, dumb bitch," he hissed in my ear, then ripped off my blind fold.

                  I took in the man's red, orange, and yellow Mohawk and immediately started laughing. It was one of the wolf's that Ronny had made dance with his magic in the Orange Gate County mall parking lot. "It's you! Starburst!" I said.

                  He slapped me in the face so hard that I something crack. "That's not my name, you stupid whore!" Starburst then gripped me by the chin and brought his face inches from mine. Up close, his eyes were an odd shade of orange.

                  "You never told me your name," I hissed.

                  "It's Nacho."

                  "Nacho?"

                  "Nacho Business, bitch." He roughly let go of my chin, snickering. "I'll admit that it took me a while to find you, Pepper Ballard. What a name. Pepper. Makes you sound so sweet and innocent," he said, then his lips peeling away from his fangs in a snarl. "What kind of parents name their child after a condiment?"

                  "I'm actually named after Dr. Pepper. It's a funny story, really--"

                  Starburst gripped me hard by chin again, squishing my lips together, face inches from mine. "Shut. Up."

                  "I had to do a lot of digging, ask around. Finally, I was given a street. Imagine my surprise when I'm driving down your road and find you and your whipped boyfriend a few houses over about to dry hump eachother."

                  Sin. I threw my head away from his grasp. "Where is he?" I demanded, looking around the dark room. I couldn't see anything past the small circle of light that came from above my chair. "Where's Sin?"

                  "Dead." Seeing my reaction, Starburst threw his head back and laughed in a crazy way, orange eyes igniting into flames. He started to walk around my chair, eyes unblinkingly seeping into mine as I turned my head and followed him, tears burning in my eyes. He had killed Sin and it was all my fault. "Just kidding," Starburst whispered in my ear from behind. Abruptly, he painfully yanked my hair back and held back a scream.

                  Don't give him the satisfaction of showing him fear.

                  "He's barely alive," Starburst hissed. "Just the way I want him. You see, Pepper, I want you to watch him die."

                  My eyes went wide. "No."

                  "Yes." He smiled at me. "And you know why, darlin'?"

                  "Because you're a terrible twerker?" I tried.

                  With a roar of anger, Starburst pulled my hair harder, wolf fangs hovering near my neck. "You think you're funny, don't you? You think what you did to me and my boys was funny? Half of my pack is still in the hospital because of you. We were dancing for hours. Mall cops came and I ripped my pants off and started grinding on them. Do you have any idea how embarrassing that was? I was in the damn Orange Gate County newspaper as The Pantless Groping Thug! My mom reads that newspaper every morning!"

                  I started crying I was laughing so hard.

                  Before I could blink, Starburst unleashed his claws and buried them deep in my thighs. Stunned, I locked eyes with my captor. "You won't be laughing when I bring in your boyfriend and make him beg for his life." He then dragged his claws through my flesh down a few inches before he removed them. I was shouting out curses so loud that I didn't even hear my own voice. Blood gushed from my legs in thick red ribbons. Pain radiated like a ripple effect throughout my entire body so fast that I thought I would retch right then and there.

                  Now I was howling in pure agony.

                   "I can't want to see the look in your eyes as I sink my claws into his chest and rip out his heart," Starburst said, lapping at one of his bloodied fingers with satisfaction. "You won't be laughing when I convince my boy Smiley to kill everyone closest to you. I've been watching you for him, Pepper. He knows everything about you because of me. He owes me. So believe me, you will pay for what you did to my pack."

                  "You're helping a killer," I said. "You're honestly siding with a serial killer?"

                  "I'm not just siding with him," Starburst said. "I'm helping him. I've been helping him. I'm the reason some of the murders have looked sloppy, and why some of the murders have been random. I lured random people from different parts of town with money and whatnot to wherever Smiley wanted them, and the rest is history. Smiley wanted me to throw bitches like you off of his trail so he could finish what he came to this town to do. It worked, didn't it?"

                  I thought back to the murder of Mortimer High School's janitors, the claw marks in their skin. How their heads were ripped off by bare hands. It all made sense now. Smiley knew that I was looking for him, knew that I was figuring out his motive, and distracted me with random killings.

                  "What exactly did he come here to do?" I questioned.

                  "As if I'd tell you that," Starburst spat.

                  "Smiley made you kill random people for him to throw me off of his trail, then," I concluded softly.

                  Starburst threw back his head and laughed. "He didn't make me do anything messy. I don't do messy. He asked me nicely to get the random victims to one location, perhaps bribed me with woman and cash. Can't say I'm not an easy one to persuade. Smiley made someone else make a mess of the random victims. An old friend of his."

                  "Who did he make do that?"

                  "Since I'm going to kill you, it doesn't matter if I tell you everything I know. The person that Smiley chose is an Alpha that can shift on command without the full moon. Can kill faster than the speed of light. Has no conscience. I wouldn't fuck with that Alpha unless I had a death wish. Wouldn't mess with Smiley either." His orange eyes showed worship. "They're both artists."

                  I stopped breathing. I sat there with wide eyes, staring down at the floor as my thoughts scrambled to come together in a coherent form.

                  Hunter.

                  Hunter was working for Smiley.

                  The hairs on the back of my head stood up. I let out a roar. Spittle came out of my mouth like a rabid animal. I thrashed, I screamed some more. I was an animal, I had lost control.

                  Starburst took a step back away from me. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

                  My voice was purely a growl and insane. "Listen to me closely, Starburst. If anyone I know is killed because of you, I'll come after you and I'll make you and Hunter pay until your doggy tails are twisted around your balls and you're crying at the moon in terror!" I shrieked at him, then tore my gaze around the room, voice raising. "DO YOU HEAR THAT, HUNTER?"

                        It was then I broke free of my restraints, unarmed Starburst, leaped off of my chair, and smashed my foot into his face. Starburst hit the floor with a loud smack. I picked up his blade, wincing greatly as my thigh wounds continued to bleed out.

                  "Pepper Ballard. Professional lock picker," I said, flipping my hair over my shoulder and flipping his unconscious body the bird. "Don't mess."

                  Right on cue, the ceiling of the dark room caved in, and a large, shadowy man fell to the ground, landing gracefully on his massive hands and feet. A single overhead light in the room flickered violently, no longer attached to the ceiling and hanging by a single chord. It swung like a pendulum back and forth, as the man who had fell from the ceiling started to convulse beneath it, his shadowy limbs twisting and cracking into odd positions, black fur shooting out from every pore of his body.

                        Large, clouded blue eyes lit up the darkness and a low, menacing howl echoed off of the walls. A wolf that was at least three times the size of me stepped out of the shadows, its head aimed down and it's lips peeled back from its enormous fangs. Sinewy, powerful muscles bulked up its entire body, yet the beast was lean at the torso, and held itself in a very poised way.

                  I seriously thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head. "Talk about perfect timing," I said. "Here to rip me to pieces?"

                  "Not worth my time." The wolf's mouth was moving, and its pointy ears pressing back against his head. That didn't look like a good sign at all. Especially the talking part. "I felt Sin's pain, not yours. It ruined my nap. I blacked out a little bit and then I ended up here. It's a twin thing. We feel eachother's shit, I don't mean that literally," the wolf, who's eyes were identical to Hunter's, said.

                  "It talks," I squeaked.

                  "It bites too," the wolf who's eyes were identical to Hunter's said. Okay...so it was definitely Hunter. "You're bleeding." The wolf turned its head sharply at Starburst. "Did he do this?"

                 As if his random entrance wasn't worse enough, Starburst leapt to his feet, eyes wide open and alert. When he noticed the elephant in the room-- excuse me, the giant wolf-beast, his orange eyes went wide. Immediately, my captive fell to the ground, bowing before the massive animal. "Hunter," he said, trembling. "I didn't know that you would be here. I see that you know her, I had no idea--"r--"

                  The wolf roared at Starburst. "Who the hell are you?" Hunter demanded. "You ignored my mark, you've wounded my property."

WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?! Concience said. Girl, he owns your ass! Talk about hot possessive blind men Hop. On. That!

                  "W-we haven't met before," Starburst stuttered, "but I've heard so much about you. Smiley wanted the girl here. I didn't know she was your property. I--I would have never of hurt her if I did. She's been tracking Smiley down, and he fears that she will compromise his revenge. This bitch, she embarrassed me in front of my pack. I wanted her to feel pain. I sincerely apologize, Alpha. I had no idea--"

                  "Smiley wanted her here as in he wants her alive," Hunter cut off, pointed ears still pressed down, lips peeled back from fangs. "If Smiley wanted her dead she would have been dead already. If Smiley wanted her hurt he would hurt her himself. You have disobeyed his orders. Stupid of you, really, when there are many others who are smart enough to follow simple instructions. Additonally, only I can call her a bitch." The wolf tilted his head down at me, grinning widely, its voice becoming thick with sensuality. "Bitch," he rumbled.

                  At that, I was flustered. "Well this is getting extremely awkward for me. There's a giant dog talking to me, and a guy who thinks his name is a Mexican dish. Maybe I should go," I said to both of them. I then turned to Hunter's wolf, whom I was oddly comfortable standing next to, looked up at the giant hole in the ceiling, and then motioned to the giant iron door at the base of the room. "And I'll use the door to leave, a part of the room that some of us don't like to use..."

                  Hunter's giant paw blocked my path, his shadowy muzzle nudging me back. "I don't think so, kitty-cat. What did this moron tell you?"

                  "This girl, she knows what you did," Starburst started to stutter, "but she tricked me into telling you, I swear--"

                  "You dare lie to me, pup?" The massive black wolf peeled back its lips from its teeth, starting towards Starburst with its sinewy legs.

                  "No!" I threw myself in front of the wolf before it could get to Starburst, pressing my hands against its fur. Caught off guard, the beast tipped its head down at me. "If anyone is going to kill Starburst, it's me," I began. "But all that matters right now is killing your ass. You lied to me, Hunter. You cold-hearted bastard. I should have known you worked for Smiley. You and your stupid pierced nipples distracted me from the truth!"

                  "You'll get over it," Hunter's beast growled, "and then you'll have nice, long wet dreams about me at night like you never even knew I was a killer."

                  My cheeks reddened. "Ugh!"

                  "You two seem to have a history..." Starburst commented, then started cowering again as he regained Hunter's heated eyes.

                  "Unfortunately," Hunter and I growled in unison.

                  "She denied my mating proposal," Hunter's beast hissed admittedly, baring its pointy teeth at me.

                  "Well fuck," Starburst said. Then, as if they were having a normal best friend conversation, he asked, "Why'd she deny you?"

                  The black wolf in front of me went silent. Clearly things were getting way too personal.

                  "Because he's a lying, brainless dick and I hate everything about him except for his prettiness," I answered for him. "And he's a killer."

                  "Low blow," Starburst said.

                  "I'm not pretty, I'm sexy," Hunter corrected. Deep in its throat, the massive black wolf made a low, tantalizing noise like a rattlesnake. "Now, Nacho, I want you to bring my brother to this room. Then, I want you to leave Pepper and my brother alone, and pretend I was never here, or I'll rip your genitals from your body and shove them down your throat," he said in a more frighteningly rough voice than usual if that was even possible.

                  "If that didn't intimidate you, I'll get Ronny to make you dance again if you don't," I added, smirking.

                  "Unchain the hybrid!" Starburst instantly shouted to nobody in particular. He must of had a headset on. "He's being released as we speak. Listen, I'm really sorry for telling her all about you--"

                  Starburst was cutoff as the giant wolf in front of me started to morph back into a human, it's body parts jerking, shrinking, and cracking into different places. In a matter of seconds, a tanned, naked man stood looming over me.

                  "Scram, Nacho" Hunter said quite calmly, gripping me by the hair, kind of like a momma lion grabs its baby...except a lot m

                  Starburst sprinted out of the room, tripping many times in the process.

                  "Is his name seriously Nacho Business?"

                  Slowly, Hunter's blue eyes hovering over my general direction, his expression blank. We had a silent, intense conversation. If you hate me so much, why did you wear the gift I gave you, the corset and the leggings? Or except my flowers? he didn't say.

                  And I didn't reply, You lied to me. You're a killer. You didn't even tell me that you regain your vision on a full moon or why you have those scars. I can't trust you anymore.

                  "You don't know anything about me, kitty-cat, I never said I wasn't a killer," he said out loud.

                  I arched a brow. "Hold up. Did that conversation in my head really just happen?"

                  "We can communicate telepathically temporarily because you fed from me, but we can't read each other's thoughts. That only happens when vampires or hybrids feed off one another," Hunter explained. "The part about me regaining my vision. Who told you that?"

                  "You regain your vision?" I asked, feigning shock. "Nobody ever told me that! How wonderful! Splendid! Hooray!" I even added some claps to seal the sarcastic deal.

                  Hunter gripped me by the throat. "Don't play games with me, kitten. The full moon is in a couple of days and I'm very temperamental. How would you know that I regain my vision on a full moon unless someone told you?" His features shifted into sharp angles as if he was about to shift again. "Who told you I can see during a full moon?" he asked slowly, voice dangerously low. "

                  Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.

                  "The mailman?" I tried.

                  Hunter snarled in my face, blowing my hair back. As scary as the massive man in front of me was, I was now holding back a laugh. If Hunter was trying to be intimidating with that monstrous roar, having watermelon Jolly Rancher breath was probably not the best thing for him to have.

                   Of course I had to open my big fat mouth. "Ever consider peppermint candy, Hunty? Watermelon just doesn't really fit the whole "I-enjoy-helping-a-serial-killer-in-my-free-time" thing you got going on."

                  Let's just say Hunter didn't find that too funny.

                  Gripping me around the throat, Alpha-man threw me back into the Chair of Doom, restrained me a lot tighter than I had been before. Let me tell you, being at eyelevel with naked Hunter definitely numbed a lot of the unbearable pain in my bleeding legs. I mean, damn, did it numb the pain.

                  HOW DOES HE EVEN HAVE ROOM IN THOSE LEATHER PANTS?! Conscience shrieked. WOWZA, TALK ABOUT A PACKAGE TO BIG TO SHIP.

                  Naked Alpha walked many circles around my chair, growling deep in his throat a few times. He owned his bareness, as if being naked was his usual. When my gaze lifted from his male parts, I noticed his finger nails were still claws and I'll admit, I started to sweat. A lot.

                  Hunter stopped circling me. "Hunty."

                  He said my new nickname for him like a curse, or maybe it was more like a reminder of why I was strapped to the chair, then started to circle my chair again. I was on constant edge. For a moment, when Hunter was directly behind me, he stopped moving, and I shut my eyes, preparing for him to rip my head off.

                  "Who told you I regain my vision under the full moon?"

                  "Sin," I immediately answered.

                  Hunter stopped circling. "You're lying. He would never tell you that."

                  "He did. He tells me everything now."

                  Sin loves you.

                  Hunter started circling me again.

                  "Can I use the little girls room?" I asked after the thirtieth time that he circled my chair At that point, I was nearly about to piss myself, I was so scared.

                  Hunter's lips lifted in a small, cruel smile. He was good at this. Intimidating me. Maybe that was why he was an Alpha.

                  And a killer.

                  Hunter leaned in at my neck, his stubbly cheek brushing in a rough caress and his fangs grazed my corroded artery. I shivered. "I don't like you, Peppermint," he finally hissed, fangs nipping at my ear. I could have sworn that he had drawn blood. "You're still on my shit list, but I admire your sense of survival. For once, I can't tell that you're lying or telling me the truth, and that takes a lot of strength of mind on your part. I can usually tell when anyone is lying--"

                  "I think we're having a moment."

                  "I think you should be quiet because I wasn't done, kitten."

                  For once, I pressed my lips together.

                  "When I prove that you've been lying to me, I'll eat you and your family alive, and I'll do it nice and slow," Hunter said, then escaladed it with, "then I'll do you nice and slow on top of their mauled bodies and I'll kill you."

                  What a nice image...

                  "You better keep your fucking mouth shut about me from here on out, or that death sentence will come a hell of a lot sooner."

                  It was so beyond sick that I found Hunter incredibly sexy even when he was threatening to eat me... Even after I knew he had killed innocent people...

                  Meanie Alpha bit into his wrist, making me wince at the wet chomping sound. Before I could respond, he pressed his wrist firmly against my mouth, gripped my hair, and held me to his wrist. Blood filled my mouth, and I swallowed shamelessly. The wounds on my legs healed and I felt unbelievably energized.

                  Hunter pulled me away from his wrist and lapped at his wound until the skin sewn itself together. I stared at his naked body and licked my lips. To say that I had gotten horny from feeding from Hunter was an understatement.

                  Without a word, Hunter undid my bound up hands and feet with a few slashes of his sharp claws.

                  I looked down at my legs in astonishment. I couldn't believe I could heal so easily from hybrid blood. "Thank you," I found myself saying.

                  "Don't thank me so soon, you're still not going anywhere"

                  Right before my eyes, Hunter disappeared.

                  I stood in one place for a while, staring down at the Chair of Doom, then began to slowly turn in a circle. I felt like I was waiting for something. Or someone...

                  "Pepper." I turned my head towards a very weak, very pale version of Sin Trinidad, who was accompanied by Nacho the orange eyed jerk face. Sin had a giant dark red stain at the center of his chest, and blood leaking from the corners of his mouth. With a short laugh, Nacho let go of Sin, and let him stumble towards me. I caught him slightly by the arms and let him lean heavily into me

                  "You two have fun now, and don't forget to smile," Nacho sang, then slammed the door shut.

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1. What do you think shall happen next?

2. Favorite quote so far?

3. Do you ship #Sepper or #Hepper?

4. Is this book turning out how you wanted it to?

5. How many clichés have you spotted so far in the book?

6. What clichés do you expect to see in this story in the future?