Val was slowly walking to practice. They were supposed to meet Zack before school and she had a feeling she was going to get lectured again.

Daphne had gone full berserk on her the previous night, and she was mentally drained. Round two with Zack wouldn't help.

Usually, she would stare down to avoid the weird looks she'd receive. Most people stopped as time passed and it got clear that she was a werewolf, but she could still feel the persistent stares of a few.

Not today.

This time everyone's attention was cast elsewhere.

What happened at that lake shook the pack at its core. Apparently, the attacks had never been this frequent, and never so severe. Warriors would die from time to time but the scouts would always spot the rogues before they got too close to the rest of the pack.

But according to Zack, there wasn't just one attack, there were two. The scouts sniffed out a group of four wolves at the other edge of the packs' territory and they attacked. They managed to take them down without any casualties but were too late to track the ones at the lake.

Now they had doubled both the scouts and the shifts.

Wolves, vampires, witches: they would all come to Zack for answers. Since Alpha dearest wasn't there to calm everyone, that burden was cast down to the Beta of the pack. Like everything always was.

What sort of Alpha ignored his pack at a time of need? What kind of an Alpha was he?

Some chose to stay in the safety of their homes while others tried to move on. No one would forget, but if that were enough to tear this pack apart, it would never have existed in the first place. Not this one and not any of the others. At least she hoped so, because she had a feeling they were supposed to stay this time, and the though of the only place she might finally be able to call home being reduced to a desert town had her reeling.

She would see people crying for the lost souls and walking to where she presumed their ashes were to be scattered. The bodies crumbled to dust a little after their death; it was a way to protect their world from humans. And vice versa.

Some fought their emotions out; trained themselves 'till their legs shook and blood loss had them swaying. It wouldn't bring their pups back, but it would keep the wolves from breaking out of their skin. It would keep them from becoming the very thing that killed them.

Zack had said some couldn't handle it. They had to be put down.

She tried to keep her hearing to a human average, but she could still hear them. Weeping, breaking down. Her hands curled into fists.

She hadn't talked much with the others either, and they didn't push her; surely they had their own problems to deal with.

The few scratches the wolves had managed to give them had already healed with no trace of them ever existing. That was a plus, at least.

They all walked into the large space to see Zack glaring daggers at their heads. She thought she saw fur sprout from the back of his head.

"Line up," he grunted. Val saw Sam flinch from her right. They followed his order and waited.

"Do you think this is a joke?" he growled, eyes blazing and feet furiously carrying him back and forth into a straight line. They slowly lowered their heads, baring their throats. Val kept her head high; that beast in her mind cracked an eye open, watching — observing. She would not apologize for wanting to save that girl. "Do you think I told you to stay away for nothing? What would have happened if the scouts hadn't come? If — we — hadn't come!" He moved in front of her.

"I told you to run if you ever even sniffed one of them out. Do you have any idea of how dangerous that was? You could've died damn it! What was I supposed to say to Daphne then?"

"Zack—" Erik lifted his head only a fraction before an angry snarl made him snap it back down, neck craning further.

"Would I be the one to deliver her the news of yet another loved one dying? Would she scatter your ashes where she'd scattered your parents' all those years ago?" She stiffened. His lips pulled back from his teeth. "Answer me!"

Her silence seemed to anger him more than her defiance; which she thought might have had something to do with the fact that she hadn't been officially welcomed into the pack — didn't share their bond yet, nor the instincts that compelled any lesser wolf to never defy its Beta.

She blocked his words, the dull ache that hammered in her heart, and took his glare head on.

Still, no matter how challenging, she couldn't bring herself to lower her head; couldn't look so weak in front of him — In front of any of them. Whatever had nestled in her mind wouldn't let her.

His brows furrowed, conveying a much clearer message than his words did. He was afraid — terrified.

He cared for her well-being, and her stomach dropped at the raw emotion in his eyes.

No one had ever cared for her that way; none but Daphne. She could feel it in her bones. The guilt twisted and tightened in her chest, like a knot that prevented her from taking in a decent breath.

Zack, despite the recognition, continued, "Do you have any idea of how many people died there? Twenty-three pups died, Val. Twenty-three! It was carnage out there, how could you be so irresponsible? How are you supposed to le—" He stopped himself, staggering back, and cast a sideways glance at Alex, who seemed to have regretted opening her mouth to speak.

Zack pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Go to your classes, you'll be late." He moved for the door but stopped at the threshold.

"I expected more from you." His gaze lingered in her mind and her insides clenched as he added, "Be careful from now on, your next time might be your last. And since you like playing with your lives that much, I'll see you prove how strong you are at practice."

Val was the first to break from the line, the others followed soon after.

"He was too harsh on you. We were all to blame for staying at that lake," Erik said, trying to soften the blow, "and... he has a lot on his plate right now; please don't hold it against him." Val gave him a small smile.

"He was right, Erik. Alone or not, I've barely been a part of this pack life to be able to fend off a rogue, or protect any of your backs for that matter." She sighed. They stayed quiet the rest of their way.

Ian didn't seem interested in whatever they had to say, but he wasn't his usual self either, not that she expected anyone to be. Something had fractured in each and every one of them.

"What is it?" Sam asked when she held her back, putting some distance between them and the others.

"Is Ian okay? He seems more far off than usual..."

Sam glanced at him. "He's...complicated." Val furrowed her brows. She sighed. "You'll need to ask him for that."

*****

The classes went by swiftly but Val wasn't paying much attention to her teachers. The school had been more quiet than usual, the students scarcer. Still, people laughed and joked with each other. They went to their classes and parttook in every lesson. They needed normalcy as badly as they craved practice. The release.

Some feeling of excitement was bubbling inside Val for their first art class, and as she walked in, she saw Ian sitting in the back.

His head was hunched as he drew. He hardly even noticed her coming up to him and taking the seat at his left, or the awkward 'hello' she tried using as an excuse to start up conversation.

"Ian?" she asked again. He blinked.

"Hey."

"I didn't know you liked to draw...why didn't you tell me?" she prodded, and felt a sliver of hope as he took a sideways glance at her. She was vaguely disappointed when he simply shrugged.

"You never asked."

Keeping him talking wasn't an option anymore as their teacher entered. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, with brownish-red short hair and intense, green eyes.

"Good morning," he greeted, and a chorus of the same kind followed by the students.

"My name is Peter, and from today onwards, I will be your art teacher." A few excited murmurs were spreading across the class — more so of the female kind — when Peter silenced them with a grin and started talking. At least he didn't play the ignorant card.

Val tuned him out and turned back to Ian.

He had gone back to sketching down something. His movements were fluent, save for the slight push of his pencil at certain parts.

For the first time since she met him, Val saw true, raw emotion in his eyes.

When the bell rang, he looked up at her in annoyance.

She was surprised to have spent the whole of her first art class without drawing anything. She was even more surprised to have watched Ian do so.

"Is everything okay?" Not the question she had in mind, but a start.

"You ask too many questions, you know that?"

She hummed in response, "Sometimes."

He raised a brow. "I'm fine."

"I can tell something is troubling you lately, and if it's about that boy from the other day or those rogues—"

"You'll what? Change what happened?" He jumped from his seat. "Don't bother yourself with things you can't change."

"Ian..." He started to throw the books and pencils in his backpack.

"I'm tired, that's all."

"But—"

"Tired," he growled, hurriedly closing the zipper on his backpack and almost running out.

Val frowned, considering her case, and how she'd wanted space, before sighing and picking up her stuff.

Her eyes caught on a book sprawled somewhere to her right. It was still open to the page Ian was drawing in, and must have fallen off when he was pushing all the books inside.

Her eyes trained on some sort of silhouette. There was a girl. Her feet were swaying in the air as she sat at what seemed like the edge of a house.

She only knew she'd been reaching for it when her fingertips touched the rough paper, and her surroundings blew up into black dust.

She whipped her head from side to side for an exit, only to find none.

Not again. She groaned.

Suddenly, images started flicking in front of her. Some she recognized as Ian and their friends, some were going too fast for her to differentiate.

Then they stopped.

There was a picture. A four-member family smiling happily at the camera.

Val took another step as she recognized Ian to be amongst them, but the photograph soon faded into nothingness.

Instead, a voice called.

"Queen!" It was the happy cry of a small boy.

Val turned around, but instead of coming face to face with the owner of the voice, her surroundings changed in the blink of an eye. She now stood on a rooftop.

"I don't want you to leave again," another voice whined. Val followed it to the edge of the rooftop.

There sat a small girl with dirty blond hair, her eyes a beautiful blue. She didn't look to be more than ten years old.

She was humming the rhythm of a song as her feet followed the music from the edge. The moonlight shone on her from just the right angle, and even at that age, she looked absolutely beautiful.

A small sound made Val turn around to see Ian walking toward her. She was confused at first; could he see her?

She soon realized that he was looking straight through her, and before she even got the chance to step out of his way, he walked right into her. Val expected to feel a bump, or even fall, but Ian just passed through her. Small iridescent particles of something resembling fairy dust exploded at their collision, and she swirled her body around to watch them form back into Ian.

Wide eyes, full of shock and disbelief, followed Ian to the edge.

He looked much younger than he did now. More innocent.

"I won't leave ever again after this. Dad promised this will be the last time." He smiled and pinched her cheeks, making her giggle.

Dad? Ian had a sister?

"Yes but this is the first time you'll be gone for so long." The little girl scowled.

"Time will pass in no time, you'll see." He gave her a sympathetic smile. "And you will always be..." he trailed off and leaned down, prodding for her to continue.

"Here," she giggled, smacking him at the back of his head.

Ian laughed and nodded as he carefully lifted her on his lap, his hands holding her tightly against him from around her waist. "You'll always be on my mind."

Val couldn't help the small smile that crossed her lips. It soon turned into a frown.

Why wouldn't Ian mention having a sister? Or any of the others.

The thought faded from her mind as fast as the image before her. Alarmed screams echoed all around her but she couldn't distinguish what they were saying. They were blended together in a frenzy of pain and terror.

Everything swirled around her. She thought she heard someone call her name.

"Val!"

She snapped her eyes open. Erik was frantically shaking her shoulders, concern washed over his features.

"What happened? Are you okay? Do you still have trouble after the lake? Maybe you should check in docs'. I'll call Derek—"

She put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm okay, just a little dizzy." She tried to smile, but he didn't return it, instead, his brows furrowed, jaw clenched.

"Like hell you are! I've been trying to snap you out of whatever state you were in for the past few minutes!" Had it been that long? It didn't seem that long to her. "We're going to docs' — now."

She pursed her lips. "Can we talk about this later? I promise I'll explain everything, I just really need to go now." She didn't want to risk Ian leaving the school yet.

He gave her a cold look but relented. "Fine. I'll be waiting for your call." Val quickly nodded and grabbed Ian's sketchbook before running after him.

"Ian," she almost shouted when she spotted him angrily stuffing his bag in his locker.

He glared at her and closed his locker shut. "What is it?"

"I... Um... I think I saw something." He raised a brow. She handed him the sketchbook from under her arm and he sighed.

"It's okay. It's just a drawing anyway."

She watched him stuff it in with the rest of his belongings. "Do you have a sister?" She asked warily, it felt like she'd just breached an invisible line.

He stiffened and gave her a cold look before moving to leave. Val stepped in front of him. He glared. Her body had fully taken over now. She had to know if what she was seeing was real, at the very least.

Else she was going crazy, and that was not an entertaining thought.

"When I touched your sketchbook I saw you on a rooftop with a little girl," she let the words hang between them and watched his features twist in anger.

"You see things, and I'm the one with the problem? Maybe you should get that checked and leave me the hell alone!" He pushed past her but froze as the word left Val's mouth. She couldn't stop herself, it was like something had completely taken over her.

"Queen?"

He took in a sharp breath.

Ian peered over his shoulder. She thought he might curse at her, maybe send in a good punch or two, make them hurt; but then he let his shoulders sag and twisted his torso enough to be able to fully look at her. "She was my sister, yes."

"What happened to her?" she asked softly. Her gut was telling her to stop talking, to shut up and apologize for ever asking. But she felt some invisible force pulling her forward, urging her on so that she could help him, so she could ease the turmoil of emotions that clouded his mind. The invisible cloud she could feel around him. Choking him.

"She's dead."