"Kaia," Easton said, his voice low and menacing. His hair was still wet, but his eyes were focused and his usual smile was gone. He knew what this meant. He knew what I could do.

And he no longer wanted to play his soft and patient game.

"It's alright, we just gave the poor girl a fright," one of the men murmured, seeming both confused and horrified.

I didn't care about those two men so much anymore. Hearing the anger laced in Easton's tone made my hackles raise. But instead of being able to turn into a wolf, I felt my hair lift higher, swaying like water currents had captured it. My eyes glowed as bright as neon lights now. He might have been half beast, but I had powers of my own. 

"Kaia, what are you doing to my parents?" Easton demanded, narrowing his eyes. 

"Easton, it's alright, you're only making it worse," the shorter man insisted. "She's just afraid. Yelling at her isn't going to make her calm down."

Easton's mouth fell open like he was about to say something else, deny everything that was being said to him. But he locked his eyes with mine, seeming strangely calm. The fight, the rage, evaporated. Seeing me like this should have sent him running. I was a landlocked medusa, using what I could to control the men around me. And Easton knew my words could be just as damning as stone.

His chin raised a little, but it was an act of self control. And through that small movement, he expressed his dominance over the situation, but also dropped out of his defensive position. His arms fell limply to his sides and he straightened to his full height. 

I just watched him, my chest heaving, water still pouring over my hand. 

I could still get out of this. They still posed a threat to me. 

But no one did a thing. All of them just watching me. 

And I realized that maybe this was not what I had thought. Fear controlled my life. Fear had always controlled my life. And I had acted without thinking. Again.

My hair fluttered down to my shoulders. My sight bled back into the blurry limited lines that my humanity could comprehend. 

"There, that's better," the shorter man soothed. 

And I just stood there. Staring. At Easton's parents.

My fingers trembled as I shut the faucet off. This was a complete and utter dating fail.

"I've told you not to drop in unexpectedly," Easton snapped, the worst of my outburst evidently over. Which made all the room for his. "I told you that I would introduce you all when I was ready, when she was ready. She's not one of us, she doesn't understand that it's normal to just accept each other and move on with life. We are taking it slow. I thought you understood that."

"We tried to text you. We didn't know she would be here. We just wanted to check on you," the taller one defended.

"I'm sorry," I blurted, completely unprepared for them to be arguing, especially when I caused the whole debacle. My tongue felt like wool in my mouth, but I forced myself to speak, even when I would have preferred it if the world swallowed me up and never spat me out again. "I just had my first formal encounter with a werewolf and it put me on edge. I didn't mean to upset anyone."

"Oh, honey, it's not your fault," the shorter one promised. 

"But strange that you are supernatural yet seem to unfamiliar with werewolves," the other mused.

My tongue was tied up in my mouth again. I had no idea how to steer this conversation without landing myself in hot water. Option one was telling them that I was the siren that slipped through the clutches of a violent alpha. Option two was keeping my lips sealed.

Easton, finally seeming to get his emotions lassoed, saved me. "Kaia, these are my parents. This is my dad, Rory. And my father, Daniel."

"Nice to meet you," I said, trying to force my best smile. I wondered if I looked a little sick. I certainly felt it.

Daniel, the more intimidating of the two, gestured for us to settle in the living room. Rory followed behind with his perfectly styled hair and gathered up something in his arms that I hadn't even noticed he had set aside. I wondered if I hadn't blown up if I would have been wrapped up in hugs at this moment.

"Maybe it's not a good night for that," Easton said when he sat down on the couch. He kept a fair amount of distance between us, like we were a couple trying to please deeply religious parents by keeping a dozen bibles between us. 

"It's just pictures. She's your mate," Rory insisted. 

"We are trying to go about this like normal humans, okay?"

"Well, you should give up on that. You're both beyond normal," Daniel piped up, sitting up perfectly straight in his arm chair, yet still somehow to managing to seem like the epitome of ease.

Anxiety crept up at the mention of what we were again. I changed the subject, not understanding. "I'd love to see pictures."

That was all the encouragement that Rory needed. His pale cheeks lit up with excitement and he didn't hesitate, wedging himself between Easton and I. An old album peeled open in his lap. 

"Maybe we shouldn't-" Easton began but his dad pushed on.

"Easton was looking for a picture he could show his volunteer kids and I was just so excited to go through all of the old memories."

And between the glossy sheets were what I deemed to be thousands of magical moments captured, the matte finish unable to express all the love and adoration of a complete family. A family like I used to have who would have probably loved to taunt me with baby pictures.

But there were no snapshots of baby butt cheeks that would have made me giggle and would have made Easton want to shrivel up and die. No chubby faces covered in icing, no diapers, no bathtub babbles. 

I saw the anger in those eyes that I had come to know as rays of summer sunshine. The hands that had clasped together so well with mine were often curled into tight fists in the photos. Daniel and Rory were in some of the pictures, smiling wide with arms around shoulders and goofy expressions. Easton was stoic. He couldn't have been more than fourteen. It didn't matter if they were in a corn maze or a museum.

The hate stayed.

My eyes flashed up to Easton. It was all laid out so bare and raw in front of me, like the photo of him standing at a theme park, straight faced and unamused with gouged, healing knuckles. Secrets he hadn't been prepared to tell me, things I hadn't had the chance to ask him, were now splayed on these pages. 

Easton wasn't looking at me and he wasn't bothering to look down at the slick pages either. Jaw clenched, he kept his eyes trained on the far wall, hands folded too neatly in his lap to be calm. And his knee was bouncing with barely contained energy.

Rory lost all of his enthusiasm. 

"You didn't tell her you were adopted?" Daniel asked, sounding incredulous. 

"Well, not technically. But my two gay dads showing up certainly drove that point home," Easton ground out.

"Well it's nothing to be ashamed of," Daniel pressed.

"No, it's not. But, if you haven't noticed, we have been dealing with enough as is. She didn't need all of this dropped on her."

"We didn't mean anything by it. We had no idea. But we completely understand if you would like us to leave. In fact, I think we should leave. We have given you two a lot to talk about," Rory interjected.

But I couldn't let that happen. I had ruined this. I had thought Easton's parents were attacking me. I had thought that he had turned against me. And, in a self serving act, I had forced him to reveal something he obviously wanted to get to later.

"I think I should go. You two should stay," I insisted, already getting to my feet. 

"Kaia," Easton blurted.

"How about I come over tomorrow?" I suggested, knowing how his brain operated, at least a little. He was scared we would go spiraling backwards. The split second had sent his thoughts into a whirlwind, wondering if I was homophobic, if seeing him in his wolf and this had been too much. But I just wanted to give him space like he had always done for me.

"I can pick you up, my truck is fixed," Easton offered.

"Sure." I forced myself to smile at Daniel who still took up the whole arm chair and Rory who seemed to want to make everything better. "I'm sorry we had to meet like that. Next time it will be better. If you guys are staying a while and would like to, maybe Easton and I could take you out."

"That sounds wonderful," Daniel stated.

"Are you sure you want to go?" Easton asked as he followed me to the front door. "You certainly don't have to."

"Yeah, it'll be fine. I want to give you sometime with your parents. And I'm sorry that I did that...all of that."

He just bowed his head and nodded.

I kept that stupid bloody smile on my face when I wedged my feet into my shoes, said goodbye again, and dawdled out the front door.

And the weather seal on the front door was almost shut behind me when I heard Rory speak again, "If she wasn't your mate, I would tell you to keep your distance. She's unstable."

~~~Distraction Section~~~

Well we are on update number 3 of 8. Are you loving it? Hating it? Do you love Easton because I do!

Question of the Day: What movie always makes you laugh?