Jace called for the twelfth time while I tried to plot some graphs for class. I stopped myself from tracing the lines—it was hard for me to focus on schoolwork when he kept calling me. I was thinking about him too much and I knew it wasn't good—Jace struggling to get in touch with me kept on invading my thoughts and distracting me.

At the thirteenth call, my heart fluttered again and I decided to pick the phone up this time.

"I'm coming to your house," he said immediately.

"Jace," I sighed, "I'm doing homework."

"Why didn't you tell me that earlier?" he asked.

"Did I need to?"

"Don't answer a question with a question," he said, sarcasm creeping into his voice.

 "What do you want?" I asked.

"I want to see you."

"You will see me, eventually," I said. "We're in the same neighborhood, Jace. I'm not miles away or anything."

"Why did you kiss me?"

I was stunned by the question. I tried to breathe in and calm the stupid butterflies fluttering around in my stomach—how should I answer that question? I didn't want to sound like I was trembling. I had to keep my guard up.

I wanted Jace to think that his actions no longer bothered me.

"I told you I needed it," I answered.

"Don't you need it now?" He let out a flirtatious groan.

"If that can help me complete these motherfucking graphs, yes," I said.

He laughed, and I could visually sketch out his smiles, the way his full set of white teeth were visible behind his plush pink lips . . . suddenly I wanted to feel the press of his body on mine again.

Then I heard a series of beep, signaling me an incoming call.

"Dude, I'll call you back," I said. "Someone's calling."

I turned off the phone and found Adam's number popping up on the phone screen.

"Hello?"

A heavy wheezing came out of the receiver as I picked up the phone.

"Dude, a little help," Adam panted. "I—I'm near your house. I don't know how I'm here, but—but can you come out for a little while?"

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Adam's eyes were heavily bruised like he had just gotten into a fight; under the sunlight, blood gleamed at the corner of his lips.

Panicking, I ran towards him. "What the—"

"I'm fine," Adam groaned.

"What the fuck had happened to you?" I said. "Get inside."

Herding him into my house, I made sure that Mom wasn't there. If she saw Adam hurt she would make such a huge fuss that the whole state would know about it within seconds.

I wasn't really sure what to do with a wounded person, so I went to the kitchen and took an ice pack. I helped Adam put it on his eyes as he sat down on the couch in the hall.

"I was at the secret abandoned basketball court with Marcus and the others," he started. "And then things got shitty."

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Well . . . Theo opened up with how . . . well, you got tracked down by the pack leader and shit."

My jaw fell opened. I couldn't believe Adam would be in the know with this whole me-being-a-coward stuff. It felt extremely peculiar and impossible, but he simply said it, like he was there at the gathering.

"They were asking if I knew you were a wolf just like them," Adam panted. "And then they went crazy saying shit like how stupid you were at the gathering. I let Theo finish and it felt wrong so I ended up throwing a punch at him."

He held out his hand, spots of black and blue covered his skin.

"Holy fuck," I cursed.

"That's when he came at me. Marcus stopped us from getting into it, fortunately. What are you guys, anyway, cyborgs? Theo's face was as hard as a stone."

"Don't do this again, Adam," I said. "Mortals aren't as strong as we are. You can't possibly fight us."

"Well, he was rude," he rubbed the wound on his lips. "I guess I won't be playing basketball anymore."

"What did they say?" I asked.

"Well, Theo said how stupid you were and he explained how you had hid from Jace . . . well, since Jace dated Heather Roberts, Theo also told me how unfortunate it was for Jace to have you as his mate. It's like the man could actually fuck the girl until you came into the picture."

I gasped to the words Adam said—he really was really pissed off now.

"It's not funny," Adam continued. "You see, Theo used to date Heather, but everything was over when Jace got with her."

"He should be happy, then," I responded. "Heather's free for him now."

"Yeah."

My heart started to race and tension was building up inside of my chest. Should I blame myself for what happened to Adam? Was it wrong to tell him about my lycanthropic identity in the first place? He was the last person who deserved to get hurt like this. I closed my eyes and tried to breathe.

"Anyway," Adam continued, "what are you doing? Where's Jace?"

I shot him a look. "Why would you think I would be with him now?"

"You're in love with him . . . well, aren't you?"

"Dude, please," I groaned.

"I think I'm interested enough to hear more about this whole mate thing now," he said. "Wait, if Jace is meant to be for you, it's like . . . if you liked girls, you wouldn't be anymore because your soul mate's a guy?"

It was funny that my shape-shifter traits weren't the main focus of Adam's curiosity, but the mate theory was.

Adam and I walked into my father's office. I took a stepping stool nearby to climb up a very tall bookshelf at the end of the room. On top of the bookshelf was the biggest hardcover book our house had; the Immortal Guide. The book was almost two thousand pages in size. I took the gigantic encyclopedia and brought it to my chest with care and climbed down.

"God, what the fuck is that?" Adam asked.

I couldn't answer him as I was still holding the book to my chest. I walked torturously to my bedroom while he followed behind me.

"Whatever that is, it looks like it can break some bones," he added.

"It has the ability to break my bones," I said as I threw the book on my bed. "But it will definitely crush yours since you're a mortal."

"No wonder you always win fist fights," Adam groaned. "You're practically cheating."

I laughed when I turned to the chapter about immortals' and their mates. There were actually hundreds of sub-chapters about it, including The Bond Effect and The Mark; two of the topics I was looking forward to studying after this.

"You might want to read this," I said.

"You think I would read this huge ass shit?" Adam said. "Hell no."

I flipped a few pages to find the answer to Adam's previous question. I thought it would help him relate to how I felt about Jace now; it would be better for both of us. Then he would understand the whole not-being-literally-gay thing.

"See this," I pointed out a line. "Mates will have a prevailing attraction toward each other  . . .  they will be drawn emotionally, romantically and sexually  . . .  and here's this  . . .  after discovery, they will never experience attraction toward others.  That means I'm not even gay, because if I was, I would want to have sex with you or some other guy. But I can't. I will only be drawn to . . . you know."

"Jace . . . Jace Andrews is the only one who can turn you on," Adam finished me.

I flustered at the truth. My blood raced to my cheeks as I looked down.

"Obviously you're in love with him now," Adam said.

"I hate him," I told Adam. "You do know how I really hate that motherfucker."

"I don't know," he said. "He liked to tease you and stuff, but you just didn't care. Maybe he even liked you before and those things he did was just his way of approaching you."

"No," I disagreed. "We really hated each other. I swear."

"But . . . damn, you have Jace Andrews! He's like . . . he's an idol!"

"Not to me, Adam."

"I'm going to look at the bright side," Adam responded. "Jace is now yours. That means more girls are free from his charm. And then there's Heather Roberts and Rachel Courtney . . .  damn."

I let out a loud laugh. Adam mentioned those girls almost every day, but even now, he hadn't ever dated anyone. I guess we weren't that different from each other.

I observed as Adam tried to flip the pages of the gigantic book and squinted to read the small text in the book. I got up from the bed, reached for my graph papers and started to draw again. Placing it on my lap, I tried to draw a good line since I'd messed it all up previously.

A couple of minutes passed. I watched as Adam rubbed the wound on his mouth, putting the melted ice pack on his eyes again and again, still attentive on reading the Guide. My stomach dropped as I saw Adam struggling with pain—he was wounded because he cared about me, defending me for the insults Theo had thrown at me.

I heard Theo and Jace had once argued and fought over Heather. It had something to do with Jace not being serious about Heather while Theo was actually in love with her. But still, Heather was a rich man's daughter who'd never be serious in dating. Sunny loathed her so much she would explode if she heard her name. Rumor had it that Heather had slept with all the seniors during her sophomore year.

But now I guess there was no more Jace in the picture—Theo could have Heather in no time.

I didn't know why Theo might hate me. As far as I could tell, Marcus and his friends were just fine with me. Well, we rarely communicated since they were always busy forming the basketball team, representing Bloomingdale High. Jace and Marcus were once good friends during their sophomore year. That's when Jace was the team captain. But then Jace switched interest to football and left the team.

"Damn, you and the man can never be apart from each other!" Adam gasped. "Look . . .  mates are meant to be by each other's sides. An unintended farewell between them may lead to light illnesses or depression. The mated pair would suffer headache, fever or loss of appetite. If the condition is prolonged it will worsen . . . you should go to your mate now, Jordan."

"It happens with some mates," I told him. "Not all mates have to be together twenty-four seven. He's okay without me  . . .  I think. Plus we don't have that 'unintended farewell' thing. It's not like I told him we're over or anything. We're not even in a relationship yet."

I ended up tutoring Adam about this other life he'd never know existed. I showed him the first few pages of the Guide where the book introduced us to the list of immortals and half-and-half. I answered a lot of questions he had.

"What the hell is half-and-half? Werewolves? Oh . . . there are more half-and-half than werewolves . . .  God, are there vampires?"

"What's this whole Mark thing?"

"If you bite me, would I turn into a werewolf?"

I explained each of them, hoping it would make our friendship better, because I felt like it was the best I could do in return for him for defending me. Again, seeing blood stains on his face made my gut churn.

I smiled at Adam's enthusiasm and tried to ignore the tears pooling in my eyes.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Mom freaked out when she saw Adam's ruined face like I knew she would. Adam told her that he fell somewhere as he tried to get to my place to give me some homework. That was one hell of a lie, but Adam definitely did it well.

"I guess I'll see you at school," Adam said.

I knew it hurt for him to smile, but he did anyway. Tremors went through my chest as Adam winced because of the cut on his lips.

"Bye," Adam said again.

"Thanks, man," I told him.

"No problem," he responded, patting my shoulder. "I just had to do what I had to do, okay? You're my buddy."

Maybe it was true; I had underestimated him before. I thought everything would be over if he found out the truth about me. He was determined to stand by me despite what people had said about me. I breathed in, my eyes watering.

Before I could respond, a figure of a familiar woman emerged out of the blur behind Adam.

My pulse raced. It's Jace's mother.

Adam moved and said, "I'm going, man. See you soon."

My head could fathom nothing else when Lisa approached the front yard. Oh God. My heart seemed like it had wings because I felt it flying out of my mouth.

I sprinted to the kitchen, approaching my mother. I ignored how busy she seemed as she prepared meals.

 "Tell Adam to stay," Mom muttered, chopping some onions. "I'm making something nice—"

"Er . . .  he'd just left," I said. "Mom, help me—Lisa's out at our front door! What is she doing here?"

"I told you not to let Adam leave!"

"Mom, Jace's mother is out there! Please tell her I'm not here or—"

Lisa's tiny voice echoed across the empty hall.

"Hello," she said in a cheerful tone. "Anybody here?"

"Coming!" my mother shouted, ignoring the onions as she walked to the front door. I tugged on her sleeve but she ignored me.

My heart hammered in my chest, threatening to give out on me in no time. Sweat dribbled down my shirt and I didn't know why I felt so anxious—it felt like I was going to get murdered or something.

I stood behind the walls near the kitchen archway, silently eavesdropping on Mom.

"Is Jordan here?" I heard Jace's mother say.

"JORDAN!" my mother screamed.

Holy—

"Please turn the heat off! The potatoes should be boiled enough by now!"

In my head, I was mentally killing my mother, screaming at her because she knew I refused to see any of Jace's family members, not after my humiliating escape through their window. The thought of it made blood raced to my cheeks—I wanted to strangle myself, regretting the stupidity of my actions. I should have been more professional, there could've been a better way.

"Oh, so he is here," Lisa said.

I steadied myself, walked over to my mother's boiled potatoes and turned the heat off. Then I pressed myself to the wall behind a refrigerator in my kitchen as if I could hide in there.

Please, Mom, start a gossip topic, make her forget about me! Talk about Brangelina, or the Kardashians, or someone else—

"I'm here to see Jordan, actually," she finally said it.

"He's in the kitchen," my mother responded. "Is there something wrong?"

"Bob insists on meeting him personally. I mean, of course, the whole pack's a family, but Bob thought Jordan is a little more . . . special. He's probably going to be our son-in-law in the future, and it's not decent for us to not talk to him properly."

My cheeks warmed.

She added, "I'm making a special dinner tonight. Jace and his little brother are picking up their big sister in the airport. Tara's on her semester break, she's been so excited since hearing about Jordan. She insisted on a pricey ticket for a faster journey home. So we want him to be at our place tonight. Bob thought he should spend a night with us."

"Of course!" my mom replied. "Your house isn't like ten miles away! I can definitely allow Jordan to spend the night."

There was a battlefield of butterflies in my stomach at the thought of meeting Jace's whole family tonight. Even Tara would be there. Jace's big sister was just a female version of him; when I was a child, Tara enjoyed seeing my tears—she'd throw spiders at me, play jokes on me, testing my limits so she could see me throw tantrums and burst out in tears. I had been secretly happy when she was accepted at some college in London last summer—it was a relief.

Now she was back.

"Jordan?" I heard Lisa calling me. "Come out here, sweetheart. I know you heard me."

I forced a smile, trembling as I walked to the main hall. I tried to look silly, attempting to reduce the awkwardness in the situation.

"Hello, Lisa," I said.

She moved closer to me as she patted my head like I was a good little boy.

"There's my boy," she responded. "Be at my place around eight. I am already preparing things. And oh, bring some clothes for tomorrow. After the sleepover you and the boys can go straight to school."

I tried to come up with some excuses. I could tell her I had lots to do while swearing it was true, but nothing came to mind and she walked away too quickly.

"Thanks, Sarah!" she said to my mother.

She turned to wave at us and walked out the door.

"What's wrong with you?" my mother said as she turned to me. "You look terrified."

"I don't want to see them, Mom," I groaned. "Not now! Don't you think everything's too early?"

"No," she protested. "Everything is actually a little late, Jordan. I hate to tell you this, but you should've come to terms with your mate earlier than this. He should've united with you a little sooner, but you hiding from him have messed things up. At least, listen to your future mother-in-law and go to the dinner."

"Mom, please, I'm not like . . . engaged or anything," I groaned.

"Listen to me," she said, squeezing my shoulders lightly. "Go. At least this is the best apology you can afford to give them. Go for the sake of guilt—have a little remorse, sweetheart. Think about how Jace could've died if he hadn't kissed you the day we were gathered."

I was stunned by how honest and linear Mom's words were. My brain froze. I could only stare as my mother cupped my face and whispered softly in my ear.

"Isn't this what you've always wanted since you were a child? He's your mate, Jordan. You deserve to be happy."

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

The sky was peach and pink from my window. Twilight was approaching. I was feeling a bit drowsy. I lay on my bed—if I dozed off, it would be the most perfect excuse for not attending the dinner. So what if the Andrews cooked a fancy meal tonight? Tara would be there to finish the leftovers—I bet she was hungry enough to do that.

But I couldn't do this. It didn't feel right to behave this way.

I got up and went to the dresser, thoughts ran wild in my head. What kind of conversation would I have with Jace's family? What excuses did I have to give if they demand reasons for why I hid from Jace? Would it be okay to just tell Jace's parents that their son had been a big asshole to me?

"I can't," I said to myself. I threw the black sweatshirt and the pair of long pants I took from the dresser to the bed. I lay down again on the bed and closed my eyes, wishing that everything never happened. As I stared at the small clock on the bedside table, I really hoped time would turn back if I twisted its hands around.

Then it was nothing but empty blackness until I heard a scream.

"Jordan! It's seven-thirty and you're sleeping! You promised—"

I was up like a rocket when I heard my mother wailing in my bedroom. I glanced at the clock and it showed me something that seemed like two minutes before seven-forty. I rubbed my eyes and I wasn't hallucinating.

"Get yourself ready!" my mother slapped my back.

Should I go? Should I? I don't think I should! I shouldn't . . . I just don't have to—

My mother pushed me and I stumbled into the bathroom.

I cleaned myself up and cursed when I saw how messy my hair looked. The drowsiness from my accidental nap didn't fade away.

Mom prepared me some clothes for school, putting it in a small bag as she handed it to me. She muttered something I couldn't decipher as I struggled to fix my hair. 

"Should I wear cologne?" I asked my mother out of the blue. "God, I don't have one. Should I ask for Dad's Calvin Klein?"

"You don't need Calvin Klein to win Jace's heart, you know that," my mother said sarcastically.

I shot her a look, looking away when I felt myself fluster.

Maybe Mom's right; I don't need any damn cologne.

I put on a sweatshirt and pants when it was already eight. My hair was still fucked up, so I decided to hide it under the hood. I grabbed the half-finished homework I had, stuffed it into the small bag and ran downstairs. My father was arguing with Stanley over sports featured on the eight o' clock news.

"Tell them I say hi," Mom told me.

I nodded, rushing to the door when Stanley popped up beside Mom. He looked devastated—probably he'd lost the debate with Dad. He glanced at me, his eyes travelling my figure up and down.

"What?" I said.

"Nothing," he responded. "Well, actually, I'm thinking something."

"What?" I groaned.

"I thought that . . . well, if you need condoms—"

"Shut up!" I screamed.

"Oh, I've forgotten that mates don't catch disease," he added.

"Like you have one," I said. "The condoms."

"You seriously have to get to know your brother, Jordan," Stanley said.

I rolled my eyes. "Gotta go," I muttered and sped out of the door to the neighborhood streets.

The Andrews' place was a few streets away from my house. I had to walk down to the center of the neighborhood. Jace's house was a few houses from Sunny's and the Alpha's Main House. The wind blew and I shivered. Even if it was cold out, there were kids younger than me who still play in the neighborhood park, seesawing, playing basketball and cycling. Werewolves always preferred night, but the opposite was true for me—I did not favor the cold.

The neighborhood was stunning in darkness, though. Orange lights from the houses illuminated the night, dark silhouettes of mountains and hills to the north of La Cove appeared in the horizon. People were barbecuing, running and laughing in the bright night. Nothing died here, everything kept on living and breathing and replacing sorrow with bliss.

My heart raced when I saw Jace's house. I tried not to focus on what my heart was doing when I walked straight to the door. I could already hear the mutterings and the commotions happening beyond the walls. By the front window, I could see Jeff making the whole family laugh with his jokes just like he did in the classes we were in together.

My heart skipped a beat when I noticed Jace sprawled on a couch, watching TV.

I'd never given much thought about how Jace behaved with his family. He had been the bad guy in my head for years now. Sometimes, I thought of him as a werewolf cursed by Satan as he would always act notoriously wherever he was. But now, I wasn't so sure.

Maybe I didn't know him that well.

I pressed the bell and wiped the trickle of sweats in my palms on my pants. I tried to breathe, anticipating Jace's figure standing at the door, smiling at the sight of me. He would say I looked terrible, noticing how awful my hair was when he saw me.

I gasped when the door opened. A tall girl with a jet-black shoulder-length bob stood in the doorway.

Tara seemed to have grown taller—she was about two feet taller than me. Damn, she looked like a supermodel—her long legs glistened under the dim light, her curves would have definitely driven Adam crazy.

She was so different now.

"You're late," she said. "My brother's boyfriend is a jerk."

"I'm not his boyfriend," I groaned.

"God, you are a jerk," she added. "You're late and you don't look nice. You should've called me—I know a better look that can turn my brother on."

"I don't need to be dressed up with some sexy girl clothes, thanks," I answered. "Only that can turn Jace on."

Obviously that wasn't true. Tara sniggered as she kept staring at me; her eyes were full of something that I could only see as passion and excitement.

"It's okay if you don't want to let me in," I added. It wasn't a good introduction to someone who'd just been from a faraway place, but the urge to face someone who had been a childhood bully kept creeping in my head.

"Oh, please," she rolled her eyes and pulled me to her, concealing me in her embrace. I wasn't comfortable with the thought of her boobs touching my skin.

"I can't believe you two are mates," she whispered. "That's fucking awesome."

She pushed me lightly; staring at me like how Sunny had looked at me when she was happy.

"I can't believe it too," I said.

"Frankly, puberty has done a lot to you. Look at you, hottie," Tara said, still looking at me with passion filling her eyes.

"Thanks."

"It's all done," Tara said to me. "Jace had been bragging about how he could date all those fake bitches at school. Now he has you and he's all done."

I couldn't hold in the laughter in my chest. 

When I walked in, I caught Jace looking away from me.

"C'mon, dinner's ready," Tara said.