It had been one day since Will and Genny had that short argument in the gaming tent. It was making everyone slightly on edge. Today, however, I wasn't taking part in the regular drama, I was meeting with Theo and Sabine.

"We know that the main control room is guarded, and with as many times as we've hit that spot, they probably won't be as susceptible to let us in that way again." Theo stared, as we looked at a rough sketch of the Lab's floor pan.

"Did Tyler say how he managed to get in? Last time we had a guy who could phase through solid objects, I don't think Tyler could have cut through that door if he tried." I pointed out.

Theo nodded. "I'll ask him later, but I think it would be better to try and attack a different part, maybe even a different facility all together."

"It's like a hydra." Sabine noted.

We looked at her in curiosity. She had a hand on her chin as she stepped forward.

"Come on don't you boys read? The mythical dragon with like a million heads, you cut off one, two grow back. They have the money to rebuild their facility in half the time it takes for a normal building. It's useless to keep our target option limited to just this branch, we need to find out who's funding them." She pointed out.

"Of course." Theo ran a hand through his hair. "Who do we know that pulls in huge amounts of money in genetic research?"

"There are quite a few big companies." I started.

"Yeah, but who do we know that has a father who's head of one of those companies?" Sabine encouraged.

"Will." I realized. "Wow, Sabine you're a genius!"

I smiled at her and she cracked a weak grin. "It's literally my job."

"We need to know more." Theo. "This opens up a whole new line of enemies."

"You need someone to infiltrate the Lab?" Sabine asked, making fists.

"If Sabine's going then I'm going." I said immediately, she glanced at me and I blushed, feeling my wing tips quiver excitedly.

Theo shook his head. "Not so soon, we just rescued our new friends, we're not strong enough."

I persisted. "Neither is the Lab, they're recovering as well."

"If we choose a small group of people, I bet we can inflict a lot of damage." Sabine agreed.

Outside the tent, Dylan was eavesdropping in on their conversation. They didn't know he was there, he had been stealthy about it. It was one of the new skills he had acquired, besides enhanced hearing and smell. He didn't like knowing people were keeping secrets from him, like so many other people in his life.

    He stared at Genny as she walked across the clearing, obviously frustrated. He felt the familiar knife cut through his chest again as he watched her. It hurt him so badly to see her upset, Will didn't deserve someone as smart and as beautiful as Genevieve. He couldn't even look up and realize that she was the only guy she thought of in such a romantic way, Dylan longed to take his place.

    Genny turned and noticed him standing there. She glanced around, looking confused, and started to walk towards Dylan.

He winced and started to back away, disappearing deep into the camp, back in the alleyways between sewed together pieces of cloth. She was calling his name.

Dylan couldn't trust himself to be around her when he was feeling bitter, he didn't want to hurt her, he was so sick of hurting people.

He reached for one of the lower hanging branches, and clawed at it weakly. Dylan just managed to pull himself up, he walked along the tree branch, over the wall, and dropped down to the other side.

He winced as he hit the ground, pain lancing up his legs as he collapsed weakly to the side of a small tree that was growing near the river bank. He could feel hot tears welling up behind his eyelids as he tried to smooth the pain in his legs.

Genny took the same path he did, only she was actually strong and knew how to jump off of high places without hurting herself. She landed with feline grace, with barely a whisper as she sat down next to him.

"Hey what's up? Are you okay?" She asked.

He shook his head. "No, no I'm not."

There was a few moments of silence before she continued. "The sting will wear off in a bit, you'll be fine."

He clutched his knees to his chest, not daring to look up at her beautiful face.

"Do you ever just...just... Never mind."

"What?" She asked. "It's okay Dylan, you can trust me, we're friends remember?"

He ran his hands down his face. "Genny, you know you're gorgeous right?"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her blush slightly. "I mean, uh well I guess-"

"Has Will ever told you that?"

She turned the color of a tomato. "Why do you want to know?"

He has. He thought bitterly. He's just as in love with her as I am.

"I know if I lose control of myself I'll hurt people, but I don't want to be alone." His voice cracked.

Genny replied almost as soon as he had said that. "No you won't! That one time in the Lab they had you under the drug, you know that."

Dylan finally sucked up enough courage to look her in the eye. "I'm not talking about being a wolf."

She frowned. "What's bothering you then?"

"I.." It's you. I can't get you out of my mind.

"Genny?" He tried again.

"Yeah?"

"You're never going to love me and I'm trying my hardest to be okay with that." He chocked out, there was no going back, his face was wet, those were probably tears.

Genny's face was white with shock.

His blood felt like it was on fire as all of his emotion spilled out at once and he did something really brave, but also incredibly stupid.

Dylan closed the gap between their lips and kissed her.

Genny instantly felt all of his pent up rage and depression, not to mention his overall obsession with her spill into her nerves as he dug his lips hungrily into hers, reaching his weak shaking hands up to caress her face.

Dylan was crying.

Once she got past her overall shock, she pushed him off of her with such force he nearly fell into the river.

Oh God she felt so confused now.

"Why did you do that?" She demanded, reeling as her head spun from all of his emotions, she could barely pick out which ones were hers, and which one's belonged to Dylan.

"I...I don't know." He winced rubbing his elbows.

She ran a hand through her hair, surprisingly feeling nothing but a growing fiery angry in her chest. That wasn't an answer. That wasn't a freaking answer.

"Did you like it?" He asked nervously.

She wanted to slap him. "No! Please don't kiss me again. I like you Dylan, but not like that. I just want to be friends."

He winced, crumpling in on himself as he realized what he had done. He had hurt her, this was his fault entirely. There was no drug to blame it on this time. He had to fix this somehow.

"Well you know what?" Dylan snapped. "I didn't like it either, in fact it was disgusting."

It worked, she definitely wasn't feeling completely assaulted anymore.

His hands were shaking as he realized Genny had been upset this entire time because of him. This was all his fault. Becoming friends with her had started all of this drama, he knew how to fix this.

"I lied, I don't even like you." He spat.

She sputtered, standing angrily above him. "The why did you-?"

He snarled at her. "A dare, I kissed you on a dare."

Her face was red with anger and her hands clutched into fists as she considered beating him up. "You know what Dylan? Don't talk to me ever again, you can consider whatever we have over."

She stormed away, probably to go punch something.

Dylan watching her go, a new wave of tears running down his face.

Lying to her hurt worse than anything ever did before.

_________________________
Well.

I told you this one would be a small roller coaster

The difficult thing is we've just begun.