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Chapter Four

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Six years later...

"Hey look, it's the evil twin!" Ivy heard some boys chuckle to themselves. They nudged Theo and pointed at her, waiting for him to say something witty. Ivy didn't let the anger or hurt show when she heard them, but it really did bother her that they thought she was evil. Just because she was weird and liked to spend time alone didn't make her evil. She just thought the animals and plants were better company that immature boys and love struck girls.

"She's not evil...yet," Theo drawled, giving a good imitation of a lazy sixteen-year-old boy. "She's just a stupid girl." The guys had laughed at that, giving him good-natured slaps, trying to suck up to the next Alpha.

Fighting back tears of frustration, Ivy held her head high and walked by them without a word. She had almost made it out of earshot when one of the guys called out to her. "Hey Hivey!" he sneered, making fun of the fact that she turned red when she was embarrassed or angry. "When you grow into a woman, let me know!" She refused to look at him, she knew it was Dylan, one of the neighboring pride boys.

The other guys laughed, adding to the insults. "Yah, when you get breasts, call me. I'll want to make sure they're actually there." He yelped and gave a quick apology to Theo.

"She's still my sister you idiot," Theo growled. "Get out of here before I hurt you."

"Yes, sir," he whimpered, leaving the circle of guys, glaring at Ivy on the way. She gave Theo an emotionless and turned to walk away. She headed into the forest to get some blessed peace and quiet, something she could hardly find anymore.

Her mother thought it would be a good idea to have her socialize with girls her age, which meant doing girly things like painting her nails, playing with her hair, and talking about boys; all things that she didn't want to do. Ever. Even her best friend, Alexia, had become boy crazy. Ivy had no idea who the guy was, but Alexia was 'in love'. Ivy snorted, more like obsessed. She pitied the guy, whoever it was.

Ivy kept wandering through the forest, angry with her brother and his stupid friends. She hated that she felt like she didn't belong. She knew her parents loved her, but she still had this strange feeling of alienation. Daddy always told her she was special and that he would love her no matter what. Ivy wasn't so sure though. If she was evil, like all the stupid boys said, Daddy would never love her.

"Ugh, I hate this!" she screamed, raking her claws across a tree trunk. She felt a sting of remorse when she saw the green flesh of the tree beneath the bark. "I'm sorry," she whispered to the tree, running her hand along the gash. It started to weave itself back together and closed up, looking good as new when she finished.

A dark light, as odd as that sounded, caught her eye just beyond the tree. It was a deep blue color, pulsating softly, urging her to walk towards it. Looking around cautiously, Ivy crept forward, curious as to where the light was coming from. It was oddly beautiful, in a twisted, dark way. When she was close enough to touch it, she stopped and looked at it from all sides. It was simply an orb of light bobbing up and down in the middle of the forest. She ran her hands all around it, careful to not touch it just yet and stepped back with a frown. She had no idea what to do with it. The light didn't seem to be dangerous; in fact, the orb oddly comforted her.

"Touch it," a husky voice whispered through the silence.

Ivy spun on her heel, looking for the source of the voice. "Hello? Anyone there?" she said timidly. It didn't sound like there was anyone around for miles, nor could she smell anyone.

"Touch it," it whispered again. Goosebumps spread over her arms as the heat of the voice washed through her. She wasn't scared of it, but that didn't mean she trusted it. However, she felt compelled to touch the orb just to see what it would do. Anticipating some monumental moment, Ivy reached out with scrunched eyes, holding her breath and let her hand pass through the light. When she opened her eyes, nothing had changed.

Her hand, still in the orb of light, was warm and tingled. She pulled her hand back with a disappointed sigh and started walking back in the direction she had come. Her daddy was going to be angry if she stayed out by herself for too long. He said it wasn't safe for girls to be alone in the forest. Ivy had rolled her eyes at that, but nodded to please Raine.

After about a half an hour, she realized that she didn't know where she was. Ivy had headed back in the right direction, but now she was lost. None of the trees looked familiar, nor did they smell familiar. Sniffing the air, she tried to get a hold on where she was, but nothing was making sense. With a frustrated sigh, she sank to the ground, leaning against one of the trunks.

"You lost?" a voice asked out of nowhere. She frowned and looked up, way up, to see a boy not much older than her standing in front of her with a smirk. He had dark brown hair that curled around his ears and fell in disarray around his face. His eyes were all black except for a small red flame in the center and his skin was a dusky brown color. He was dangerous looking, yet Ivy could still appreciate his raw sensuality.

"I'm not lost," she scowled, unwilling to admit it to this arrogant stranger.

"Right," he grinned, well aware that she had no idea where she was. "I can help you," he offered slyly.

"Who are you?" Ivy asked suspiciously. Something about the boy was off. She wasn't afraid of him, but he was...familiar. "Have we met before?"

The boy chuckled and leaned back on a tree, watching her carefully. His eyes swept down her body in a slow caress that had goosebumps racing up and down her body. "You don't recognize my voice?" he said, wounded.

"Voice?" Ivy murmured. "Wait! You're the one who told me to touch the ball of light!" she exclaimed. A frown marred her pretty features. "Why the heck did you tell me to do that? Nothing happened."

He smirked and pushed off the tree, sauntering over to her. "That's what you think, little girl."

"Little!" Ivy gasped angrily. She hated it when her brothers teased her about her height. Even though she was nearly sixteen, she still looked like a twelve year old, mostly because of her height. She jumped to her feet and poked him in the chest. "I'm sixteen you ass!" He laughed at her, making her angrier. "Seriously, who the hell are you? My dad is Alpha Raine Silva of these woods. You better be careful!"

He looked unfazed by her claim, choosing to raise an eyebrow instead. "No he's not." Ivy felt her mouth drop open, but was even more offended when he closed it for her. "Seriously, little girl, you're not home anymore."

"My name is Ivy!" she ground out. She crossed her arms and glared at him, willing to go along with his little charade for now. "Where the hell am I then?" She didn't want to admit that she might be lost in a section of the woods that didn't belong to her father. However, she knew that she hadn't walked far enough to leave the borders of the forest, so this boy's claim was ludicrous.

"My name is Zeke," he said, answering her previous question. This was really starting to annoy her; the fact that he would chose when to answer her questions. Ivy intimidated most guys because she was the Alpha's daughter, but this boy could give a shit and that pissed her off.

"Zeke? Is that short for something?" she asked curiously.

He scowled, "No. Is Ivy short for something?"

She blushed and looked away angrily, "No. I was just curious. Geez."

"Well what the hell would it be short for?"

"Ezekiel!" she shot back quickly.

Zeke froze and stared at her for a moment before bursting into loud bursts of laughter. "Ezekiel! That's rich. Like my father would ever name me that!"

Ivy scowled while the idiot boy laughed at her. She didn't think it was that funny. In fact she didn't get the 'joke' at all. "It wasn't funny," she muttered. He continued to laugh eventually calming down enough to wipe the tears away. "Are you going to help me or not!" she demanded. She felt a little bad for snapping at him, but he was making her so damn mad. Usually, only her brothers managed to rile her up, but today, this random stranger was pushing all of her buttons.

Zeke looked at her slowly, letting a wicked smile cross his face. "Of course." He held out his hand, as if he expected her to take it and follow along with him. "I won't bite...unless you ask," he purred. Ivy snarled, but placed her hand in his, gasping at the heat that radiated off his palm alone. "Good kitty," he mocked.

"How'd you-" she started to ask, but Zeke tugged her after him, walking quickly through the woods in the opposite direction that she had been heading. "Are you sure you know where you're going?" she asked.

He gave her an offended look, but didn't say anything, increasing his pace so that Ivy was practically running to keep up. In less than fifteen minutes they had made it back to the dark orb of light where Zeke pulled her to a stop.

"Uh," Ivy said slowly, "I've already been here. I live back that way." She pointed towards the way they had just come from.

"No you don't," Zeke said calmly. "I already told you that you're not in your daddy's forest anymore. When you touched the orb you traveled to my forest."

"Your forest?" she repeated slowly, as if afraid to know where exactly his forest was.

Zeke grinned wickedly. "Yes. You're in the demon realm, little girl." Before Ivy could say anything, he wrapped his arms around her and lowered his lips to hers in a scorching kiss that stole all of her breath. He pulled back to nuzzle them lightly and then took a step away. "Tell your parents that Ayumu's son says hi!" With that, he gave Ivy a light push towards the dark orb and watched with a satisfied grin as she disappeared.

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Bring on the love...and the hate, because this is the last chapter I'm posting on this for a while. I'm going to focus on Imposter, but I thought I'd be nice and treat you all to a little bit of this. I know I know, cliffhanger. But you survived the last one so don't go hatin' just yet.

CHECK OUT MY NEW STORY

ok, peace out for now!

hugs & kisses

nichole