"Hey, you seen Catalina around?" Emmett asked, walking into Jax's room

"No, not since she left for training this morning. Why?" responded Jax, looking up from his computer curiously.

"Just a little odd, don't you think?" Emmett asked, looking out the bedroom window.

"Well, I didn't, but I do now. Should we go look for her?"

"I'm not sure... what do you think?" Emmett asked, glancing over at him, with a raised brow.

"I think it's unlike her not to be bothering us right now. Especially with recent interest in jumping out of nowhere, trying to catch us off guard to beat us in a fight," Jax said, standing up.

"Kinda seems like she's probably up to something..." Emmett said, and they both headed for the door.

"You seen Catalina around?" they asked their dad as they passed him on the way outside.

"I have not, actually," he answered. "Yall going to look for her?"

"Yep," they said in unison and continued outside.

They started their search at the training fields, but she wasn't there. Next, they checked the kitchen, thinking maybe she'd been hungry after practice. The cook informed them she had been there but not for several hours. Then, they decided to check the clinic just in case. The only ones there were Emily and a guy waiting to have his shoulder put back into its socket after receiving five stitches on the outside of his right thigh. They did, however, learn that the damage was from training with Catalina this morning. So she had gone to the fields, but where she was now was a mystery.

"Let's try the library, " Emmett suggested.

Jax nodded in agreement, and they headed that direction. There were three people bent over books. None of which were Catalina, but they did find her friend Ashley. Ashley told them she'd seen her about two hours ago outside in front of the house talking with a boy named Chase. So, they headed back outside. They were running out of ideas and starting to get frustrated, so they decided to morph into wolves and smell her out. They slipped out of their clothes right on the front porch. Where two men had stood now stood two huge black wolves. One was solid black, and the other had a small white patch in the middle of his chest.

They picked up their shorts and carried them with them in their mouths. Jax smelled the air but didn't get much. Emmett smelled the ground and headed towards the large gardens off to the right of the house. Jax followed him. Their mother had had this garden put in. It was beautiful, but they usually avoided it because it reminded them of her. It was a mixture of all kinds of flowers, several different varieties of roses, and fountains. In and around a large hedge maze.

When they reached the entrance to the maze, her scent was stronger. Maybe she'd gone in and gotten lost? Emmett wondered to himself. He followed her scent first right, then left, then straight, until they reached a clearing with a fountain. Sitting on the edge of the fountain was Catalina, only she wasn't alone. A boy assumedly the Chase that Ashley had mentioned was sitting there with her. His arms were wrapped around her waist, and their lips were locked together. Emmett and Jax dropped their shorts and leaped forward. Emmett grabbed a hold of Catalina's pant leg and yanked her away as Jax did the same to the boy.

Jax morphed back into a man slipped on his shorts and menacingly whispered to the boy to get lost, with a meaningful stare. Emmett had also morphed back and had his shorts on and was in a very heated discussion with Catalina.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Emmett accussed angrily.

"What am I doing? What are you doing? Do you know how embarrassing that just was?" Catalina screeched at him, folding her arms across her chest.

"Embarrassing! Embarrassing! Do you know how embarrassing it was for me to have to see it?" he spat back.

"Why are you even here? Why couldn't you have just left me alone!"

"Why are we here! We've been searching everywhere for you! We've been worried about you! But boy, did we end up getting more than we bargained for!" he said, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Well, why don't yall learn to mind your own business every once and awhile!"

"What so you can do that with boys?" Emmett said, pointing to where she'd just been sitting on the fountain.

"Oh my godess! You act like we were having sex! It was just kissing! It's none of your business who I kiss anyway!" she hollered.

"Can we all just calm down and handle this rationnally?" Jax asked, but they both ignored him.

"I don't care if it was just kissing! You're only fifteen and all that needs to be saved for your future mate! Someone who will treasure you above everything else! Not to just be giving to any boy that looks your way!" Emmett responded, his face red with anger now.

"It was one boy, one! And future mate! We don't even know if I'll ever even have a mate! I probably don't even have a lure scent because I'm a freaking mutt!" she screamed, then she turned and ran from the garden crying.

"Well, that went well," Jax said, rubbing his hand through his hair.

"I didn't see you helping," Emmett said with a roll of his eyes.

"I'm just saying you probably could've been a little gentler. I mean, she's getting to an age she's going to be curious about boys. We were that age once, and she's right. We don't know she'll have a lure scent," Jax said gently.

"Shut up," Emmett responded before stomping off towards the house.

After giving her several hours to cool off, himself included, he walked down the hall to Catalina's room. She was lying on her stomach on her bed, book in hand. He went in and sat down beside her.

"Hey, bug," he said gently.

She rolled her eyes and pretended not to notice him.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been that hard on you. I probably said some things I shouldn't have.

"Probably," she mumbled under her breath, still staring hard at her book.

"I just didn't expect to find you with a boy. I guess you could say I'm not ready, okay."

"Obviously," she mumbled again.

"Can we make some kind of deal, maybe?" he asked, nudging her leg with his knee.

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.

"No sex, ple-"

"Oh my godess! Please shut up! That's gross! I'm nowhere near ready to think about anything that serious! That was only my first ki-" she blurted, cutting him off.

"Okay, okay. I got it. Whenever you do get there, please talk to me first?" he said with a relieved smile.

"Well, after today, I doubt you could handle it but sure," she said, looking over at him, trying to hide a copy smile.

"So, do you forgive me?" he asked, nudging her with his knee again.

"Well, maybe I could... if maybe... you could take me to the bookstore in town?" she asked, batting her lashes at him.

"Catta, you know, were not supposed to visit the human town," he chastised.

"Oh, come on. Please, I need new books!"

"No," he said, rolling his eyes at her.

"Don't you ever brake any of the rules? No one will know! Please, I've read every book in the house and it's not like anyone else will take me!" she begged.

"Fine! Dad's gonna kill us. One hour, you get one hour in the store. We'll have to be quick. We'll have to run there and carry clothes, Jax is coming.
I don't feel like it's safe enough otherwise, and I don't want to tire myself out carrying you there and back alone."

"Yay!" she squealed, jumping up and down on the bed.

"I can't believe you let her talk you into this," Jax said as they entered the bookstore.

"You'd have agreed much faster than I did."

"You know dad's gonna have our hides for this, right?"

"Not if he doesn't find out. You watch the door, I'll shadow her," Emmett said, following Catalina towards the bookshelves.

Jax walked over to a bookshelf next to the front door, pretending to scan the titles. Occasionally, he'd pick up a book, scan the back, and put it back on the shelf. The whole time, he watched the room, the entrance to the building, and the street outside through a window. The humans weren't really a concern. They had no way of knowing they were anything other than humans, and if any decided to make trouble, they could handle them easily. However, this town was positioned in between their pack and another one, the blue moon. They hadn't had any trouble out of them, but you never knew when a pack might decide it needed new territory and pick a fight. There was also the danger of rogues. You never knew when one was lurking about. They might just be rolling through, or sometimes they even lived among humans, though it was frowned upon. More often than not, though, they stirred up trouble.

"Fifteen more minutes, Catta," Emmett whispered from behind her.

"Okay, okay," she said, continuing to scan the book titles in front of her, a stack seven high already in her arms.

She loved all kinds of books, fantasy, romance, poetry, and mystery. There was nothing she wouldn't read. Her favorite were werewolf because she found what the humans thought they were like to be very funny. What she currently had her eye on, though, were books about witch craft. In the descriptions of one of the books she'd looked at, it said, "Have you ever made something unexplainable happen?" Another one said, "Do you have powers you don't understand? Do you want to learn how to use them?" She ended up grabbing two about witch craft and three that claimed to be spell book, then she headed for the checkout counter.

The guy ringing up the book raised his eyebrows when he saw the ones on witchcraft. He didn't say anything. He scanned them and put them in a bag. Not his business, he thought. He told her the total and looked at her expectantly. She looked up at Emmett.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, pulling a gold card out of his wallet and swiping it.

They left the shop and headed towards the wood line. When they reached it, Catalina put all her books into a book bag she'd brought with her. She tried to put it on her back but it was too heavy. A look of frustration crossed Emmetts face.

"Put it on me after I transform. I'm not carrying that in my teeth the whole way back," he said before going behind a tree to remove his clothes.

Catalina loosened the strap as much as she could. Emette came back, a solid black wolf. Catalina held open one of the straps, and Emmett stepped into it. She flipped it onto his back and pulled the other strap down for him to step into. It fit very tightly on his back and flattened out all the hair under and around it. It definitely wasn't comfortable, but it worked.

"Oh my Godess! You look ridiculous!" Jax said, bursting into laughter.

Emmett narrowed his eyes and growled. Jax held up his hands and walked backward towards a tree.

"Sorry, I can't help it! You should see yourself!" Jax said, continuing his laughter until he stepped behind the tree to strip.

He came back out a huge black wolf with a white patch on his chest. He laid down on the ground, and Catalina used his leg to climb up, then they ran towards home.

It was dark when they neared the pack house. They stopped about a quarter of a mile away so the boys could morph back. When they got close enough to see the front yard, they gulped nervously. The flood lights splashed across the lawn, illuminating everything within 500 feet of the house. The flood lights were only used when there was trouble. Emmett and Jax looked at each other. They had a feeling they were the trouble. Nothing moved in the yard as they made their way across it to the front door. They opened it slowly, begging it not to make a sound. They kept across the foyer to the stairs and pleaded they didn't creak as they started up them. They made it all the way to Catalina's room without seeing a soul. There wasn't a single peep to be heard in the whole house, not even a snore. Jax opened the door, and they slipped inside.

There was an audible sigh of relief from the three of them as they leaned against the wall. Catalina flipped on the light, and they all suddenly turned into statues. There, in the middle of the floor, was a wooden chair. Sitting in the chair was the alpha. He had a laptop in his lap. He closed it, and his finger drummed across the top of it as he stared at them all in turn.

"Would anyone like to tell me where y'all have been?" he asked calmly.

No one said a word. No one moved. They all started at the floor in humble submission.

"No? Really? No one?"

The silence continued.

"Okay, how bout I start then, hmm?" he said, anger radiated off him so hard it would've knocked anyone else to the floor showing their bellies.

He opened the laptop in his lap and spun it around. There on the screen was the bookstore purchase. There was no denying where they'd been.

"I.... it wa—" Catalin tried.

"It was my—" Emmett interrupted her but was also quickly interrupted.

"Shut it! In the twenty years you've been on this earth, have I taught you nothing?" he asked, looking at Jax and Emmett. "Do you have any idea how much danger you put yourselves in? How much danger you put the whole pack in? You three are the future of everyone here! How could you knowingly hold all those lives in your hands and be so reckless!" he growled.

"I'm—" Emmett tried again to no avail.

"Quite! You are all grounded until I say otherwise. Catalina, you are to go to school, training, and home. No where else! Jax and Emmett, you will be at the training fields from dusk till dawn helping to train the younger kids! Is that understood!" He yelled sternly.

"Yes, Sir," they answered, without hesitation.

"Now, go to bed!" he demanded before leaving the room and slamming the door.