Late chapter oopsies!! I am currently moving homes so schedule is a lil hectic rn. But I wanted to edit this [to the best of my sleepy ability] and make it a great chapter. 

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"You missed gym this morning." I slam my locker shut to see Henry smiling, leaning on his own locker next to mine. "Very convenient but I would've loved to get the memo."

I roll my eyes, slinging my bag over my shoulder. Of course he had already been given the rundown on the current situation. We'd worked together both days over the weekend and whilst I strictly made a point to make him not tell Gabe, we still had breaks to chat all about it. It seemed like work was my only escape, Gabe and Henry were the only things making me laugh while my mind compounded.

"I'm sick," I say sarcastically, a small smile slipping onto my face.

"And I'm..." his eyes drift from mine and he methodically takes a step back from our usual comfortable closeness, a hard look coming over his face. "Incoming," he mummers and I turn my head, looking to the end of the hall to see his warning walking through.

At least five large men, clad in football jersey's saunter towards us, dominating the hall with Micah positioned dead centre. The curves of his lips don't tilt into a soft smile and he doesn't wave his strong arms in peoples direction like usual. Instead, pure exhaustion rims his normally sparkling eyes and every well-defined muscle in his body is stretched tightly. Heads turn almost automatically.

I stare for a moment too long and his eyes lock onto mine, his expression only further hardening. I notice the way his stern pace quickens and I shut my locker with a loud slam. "Let's go," I say, turning to Henry but his eyes remain trained behind me, wary and assessing.

"Too late," he mutters, folding his arms tightly across his chest as he straightens, his body unmoving as if his feet grew roots into the very hall. My skin prickles with goosebumps and I don't need to turn to know Micah is right there. The wrenching twist of my gut is warning enough.

His friends continue on but linger at the edge of the hall and I catch their stares. It makes me grind my jaw to the point of pain but I bite through it, twisting slowly to meet Micah's intent hazel stare.

There isn't a hint of the usual softness to his features and I realise there will be no buttering up for this conversation. "We need to talk," he says firmly, glaring at Henry before meeting my eyes again. "Alone."

The finality in his tone makes my skin crawl. Suddenly the irritation I clamped down on was replaced with something worse, a feeling that threatened my composure.

"I—" I clear my throat, removing the awful terrified steak that it holds and straighten myself. Get your shit together and remember what mom and dad told you, I remind myself. "I've got an overdue assignment to hand in first thing next class, now isn't really a great time," My response is even and firm, however something in the way he looks at me makes the turn of my stomach turn into a tumbling carnival ride.

"That can wait. We can either talk here or go somewhere private, I'll give you that decision but we need to talk." The thought of being alone with him makes more nerves scatter over my skin. But heads are already starting to turn, they were turned the moment Micah's demeanour was different from usual. This was exactly what I wanted to avoid.

"Whatever you have to say I'm sure it can wait, Henry and I have got to go to class, we will be late if we hold off any further." At even the mere mention of Henry, Micah stiffens completely, clenching his jaw before shooting him a sharp look.

Benny comes over casually and gives us a warm smile, his honey skin soft and inviting as he pats Micah on the back. "Hey, pal is everything going alright?"

Micah ignores him and retains his threatening stare towards my best friend. "For his sake, I suggest you tell him to leave. Give him your assignment or whatever excuse you have and keep this between us."

Henry moves closer to me then and my breath hitches in my throat at the action. Something has got to have happened between the last time we spoke and now. This is not the regretful guilty Micah I left in the car, the one preaching promises of understanding and compassion.

"If Athena wants to go, she can go, you have no right stopping her." Henry says and Micah lets out a dry laugh, a laugh that is bordering on menacing.

He simply looks back at me. "Are you going to make him leave, or should I?"

My narrowed eyes widen as my brows pinch together, every instinct pushing me further away from his closeness. He's gone mad. "No one is making him leave." I try to be strong but my words come out just as fragile and shattered as me. Henry is the debater, not me. Conflict makes me cease up and become about as formidable as a glass doll.

I need Henry's sturdy support and calculated words and I really don't want to be alone with Micah right now. "Whatever you have to say you can say it in front of me, she'll just end up telling him anyway."

His soft hazel eyes flare like actual flames have been lit inside him but he clenches his jaw instead of releasing it, focusing his attention solely on me. "Fine. I wanted to talk about what on earth it is you think you're doing, Athena. Do you have any idea the kind of trouble this is going to bring around? Of the severity of what you've done?" He fires the questions at me like he is a semi automatic weapon and they effectively shoot me down.

Benny stands next to him, a crestfallen expression on his face, not for me I realise, but for the pain of his best pal.

"I have no clue what you're talking about," I reply, folding my arms over my chest like if I sneeze hard enough, I can fold into myself. "I thought we already talked things through on Friday, what more do you have to say?" I ask and he shakes his head.

"Don't play that game, you obviously took a very different understanding of our conversation on Friday. Did you really think that the first lawyer your parents rang wouldn't inform the pack about a clear violation of code? What did you actually think that would achieve?" He asks and I feel like my legs are going to give out. My hands shoot out to Henry and he holds me, his lean arms supporting me.

"My parents," I whisper, the words barely audible. I turn to Micah. "If you touch them I swear to god—"

"I don't want to drag them into this, but it's pretty hard when they are fishing to serve my family, me with a damn lawsuit. One that they will never win. You don't want to go down this path, Athena, you will not like what you find. Just leaves things how they are for us to sort out," he says and the harshness of his voice makes me flinch.

"Micah," Benny says lowly, putting a hand on his chest. "Maybe now isn't the best time for this," he says with a pointed look, one that reads he can see what his friend can't. A mate slipping further and further away.

"How do you even know I want to fight against you? You made it pretty clear that you would use the law to get what you want so why can't I? What if I'm simply trying to just understand the fucking laws that I now have to live by so I at least know my damn rights." My use of curse words makes his nose scrunch up, another wolf thing I'm sure, and I roll my eyes at it. "Are you seriously going to stop me from doing that?"

He shakes his head, disappointment filling the fury in his eyes. "The lawyer explained the nature of you wanting to hire him. Or your parents at least, nowhere was learning about rights mentioned. All that I believe came up was the concept of moving or cutting off ties from the bond. All things that were pretty hard for my father and I both to digest, it took me all of yesterday to convince him against moving to arrest them and have you put under surveillance. If you really want to know your rights then I'd be happy to set you up with the pack lawyer, or you can speak to a human one if you'd like, if it honestly makes that much of a difference, but this sort of thing cannot go on."

Tears prick at my eyes and I'm thankful mostly everyone had already dispersed to get to class, that we were now really the only ones left in the halls, even his football buddies deciding to leave us too it. We couldn't even get past one lawyer without it all falling apart. It starts to become hard to breathe as the thoughts run through my head. "No," I whisper, a certain strength in the word despite it coming out as a waver.

A frustrated confusion comes over his face at a word I guess he's not used to hearing often, not from people like me at least. "What do you mean no?"

Benny places his hand on Micahs shoulder yet again, drawing his attention away from me for a nanosecond. "Micah, maybe everyone should have a little time to process this and come back to it later." He doesn't say anything back to his friend but I can see the thoughts swirling in his mind, logic overtaking his anger.

"Again, if there's nothing for her to find that will help then you should have nothing to worry about," Henry says and Micah glares at his intervention in it all. "If you don't mind we need to get to class."

"Our dinner will be at the pack house tonight at six, if you can't make it there yourself I'll arrange for the pack guards to pick you up," he says firmly, the message clear. If I don't come, he'll make me.

"I'll make it on my own." I stare at him with nothing but bottled rage, more so at myself than him. I believed his promises of freedom, of control in this shit show but it was all a pretty illusion to hide me from the fact he holds all the cards.

Too many emotions to place flash in his eyes and he stays there for a moment, debating on whether to say something else before turning without notice, leaving Henry and I standing there alone in the hall. Whatever remainder of football players were hanging around left with him, jogging slightly to catch up to his angered pace.

As soon as they are out of sight I let out the shaky breath that had been lodged in my throat, the tightness loosening immediately.

Henry's arms are wrapped around me instantly an he pulls me into a hug, his hold so solid and familiar it unravels me. I don't even try to prevent the sobs that escape my body as I ugly cry into his shirt, my tears staining the clean fabric that smells of the same lavender wash his mother has used his entire life.

He laces his hands through the hair at the back of my head and holds me closer, allowing me to feel his anguish too. His fear reveals itself in his strong grip, a fear that he is entirely unable to help his friend. Even this, the way I wrap my arms around his waist as he comforts me, would be treacherous should someone see. My whole body convulses with the anxiety of Micah returning to get one last word in only to see this... Something that is so natural between us, so completely platonic that I need. I likely won't have the luxury for long.

"It's okay, Thea, it's all going to me okay." I know he's crying from the strain of his voice. I also know he's trying to hide it for me, trying to make it seem like what just happened didn't scare the shit out of him too.

I shake my head, resting it back on his chest. "No it's not," I cry. "I'm trapped," the admission to him makes another stream of tears run down my face.

He pulls back from me, resting his hands on my shoulders. "Don't say that, okay, we don't know that fully yet. Fuck him, Thea. Don't even give him the satisfaction of thinking about him, don't let him take up a speck of space in your seriously wonderful mind, he doesn't deserve it and its all he wants. Don't give in to it. No more Fire and Fear game sessions—I suck anyway. We are spending that time reading pack law books. I'm no lawyer but I am a decent debater and we will find a solution to this."

I laugh weakly, wiping away my tears as I nod and finally feel the drain that interaction had on my body. "Okay," I say, biting my lip to try stop the sobs. "We... We should probably get to class." I go to pick my books up from the floor but he beats me to it, grabbing the entire lot and bundling it to his chest.

He opens his locker and shoves them inside, slamming it a little too loudly. "Fuck class," he says, holding his free hands in the air.

"Fuck class?" I ask raising a brow. "Who are you?" Henry doesn't skip lightly. If ever.

"A simple guy wanting to have fun with his bestie. Let's get out of here, no more run-ins, no more shitty conversations. Let's just have a good day." I think about the repercussions of it, all the penalties that could apply for truancy but none of them seem remotely serious in comparison to my situation.

It truly can't get much worse.

"Okay."

It takes us a good hour walking down to the docks, chatting about anything and everything that doesn't involve mates or Micah. Once we reach the docks lunch has just finished and the crowd of people eating is now slowly dispersing, ready to continue about their day.

Rock and roll music fills the alleyway we sneak into and I push Henry behind me as we creep towards it, the back of Al's shop coming into view. Gabe hummed along to the strum of guitars, lyrics finding their way in every now and again. I see his legs poking out from underneath a faded red vintage car of some sort that was propped up in the air just enough to allow him to slide under.

I cough loudly, clearing my throat to make it as deep as possible. "Sir you are not permitted to open up a back alley motor store. We are going to need to ask you to come with us." I sound nothing like an old officer and Henry's laughter doesn't help my case.

Gabe slides out, his white tank smeared with grime and oil clinging to his bare chest. His very large, muscled chest mind you. "Thought I smelled trouble. What are you two doing here, don't you have school?" He asks, a grin on his face as his brows furrow.

"We decided to take the day off and come see our favourite person instead," Henry replies, taking a seat on the staircase that leads to Gabe's apartment, pulling his lunch out.

"Fair enough," he says, standing up to grab an old rag to wipe his hands. I take my own seat on his toolbox, smiling.

"Where did this come from?" I ask and he looks at the old car.

"I found her online about to become scrap metal. She runs pretty well for a car her age and I thought it'd be a fun project to pass the time," he says, moving to the radio to turn it down. "I think a few weeks and I'll have her up and running, I might be able to take you out for a spin," he says with a smile.

"Gee, thanks. I'm here you know?" Henry announces and Gabe looks to him like he forgot about his presence entirely.

"You can come too," he says and I laugh.

"Where did you learn to fix engines so old? Al said you were in college," I say and he shrugs, taking a seat on the floor next to his water.

"Taught myself mostly, college is... on hold at the moment. It's something my parents wanted me to do so I took a couple classes to make them happy." I notice a book next to me and I pick it up, the title reading 'Feminism in a Forever Changing Climate'.

"Was this from your class?" I ask and he laughs, nodding.

"Yes, actually. I studied literature and my professor was the only human in the cohort. Slightly eccentric but the best teacher I've ever had. I think my parents more thought I'd be a doctor or a detective," he says, the last option with a laugh like the idea is ironic.

"And now you grill fish for a living. They must be super proud," Henry says and we all laugh at the idea.

He doesn't answer immediately and just shrugs, sipping his water. "Maybe I'll take this old thing and travel the country, who knows?" I feel a ball tighten in my stomach with jealousy. I envy that he is able to dream with such freedom, with so many options before him. "So what's the plan today? I would not mind to get out of here and shut up for the night. Mondays are quiet anyway."

My plans for tonight are solid it would seem but six o'clock is a while away. "We didn't get much further than coming down here," I say, still reading the blurb of the book.

"We were thinking about going for a swim, it's hot enough," Henry says and Gabe, still sweating from being under the car, nods.

"That sounds great, I was actually planning to go up to the devil's cliff sometime. Maybe we could do that, you have a boat right?" He asks Henry and he nods. Fearfully.

"Devil's cliff? As in jumping off of it?" I ask. It's the highest cliff overlooking the ocean that you can safely jump off. The word safely is to be used loosely, no one has died but it's dangerous.

"What? Not game enough?" He asks and I nod.

"That sounds horrible," I reply and Henry nods agreeing with me.

"You do have a boat though don't you?" He asks again. "You can meet us at the bottom then, last I recall Athena you owed me one for driving you up for your little pack interview. I think it's time to call it in." I immediately regret my choice of words that night.

"If I'm not jumping I do not mind, I know where a spare set of keys is on the boat and I'll make it there around the same time you guys get to the cliff," Henry says and it shocks me that I'm not immediately opposed to it. The idea of doing something I shouldn't is actually appealing, something I know Micah would disapprove of but can't control. There are always loopholes to laws and until he tells me I can't jump off Devil's cliff then I suppose it's well within my rights.

Actually, if he doesn't know I'm breaking the law then there's not much he can do.

I look at Gabe, jumping off the toolbox with a grin as I grab my bag. "Okay, let's do it."

He smiles wider, a glint in his eyes. He points to the book I left next to me. "You should take that, I've already read it a couple of times through and it'd be cool to have someone to talk to about it," he says and I pick it up, tucking it into my bag.

"Maybe I'll write an article on it," I say with a shrug.

"I look forward to reading it," he replies and Henry coughs loudly.

"Are you jumping in like that?" He asks me and I look at my clothes.

"You can get changed upstairs while we raid the kitchen for snacks to have after. Grab some towels while you're up there." I nod, smiling as I being to feel the adrenaline creep into my body that welcomes it instead of rejecting the idea.

"Okay!" I say, jumping up and reaching for the railing to the stairs.

"Oh and Athena?" He asks, making me spin around. "Grab the helmets," he says with a smirk and I smile right back.

-

The bike rolls to a stop near the top of the hill and Gabe kicks the stand out, facing the vast ocean and the city below. I climb off, taking the helmet off and placing it on the seat once he gets up. The drive was just as exhilarating as the first time, it felt like we were a knife slicing the wind as we soared through the streets. Nothing

else mattered and it still doesn't, up on this hill so far away from it all.

"We need to walk from here," he says and I look at the signs behind him on the fence, full of warning signs, of penalties and fines that apply to those who cross.

"So we aren't just going to bust through the fence?" I ask, and he looks to where I nod, his body shaking with a laugh.

"No," he says, moving towards the fence to inspect it before walking along the edge, pulling at a shrub to reveal a slight gap. "Can you just reach into my bag there and grab me some pliers?" He asks, beginning to pull at the existing hole.

I unzip his bag and fish around, pulling out the pliers the moment my hands find them. As I take it out I pull a picture with it, an old photo shot on film of a car that looks exactly like the one he was working on but in perfect condition. There's a man with a grin so wide it covers his face wearing shades as he sits behind the wheel holding a small baby that stares straight at him.

"What an ugly baby," Gabe says with a grimace and I laugh, looking up with a bewildered expression at such a comment on a kid noticing he is standing directly in front of me.

"That's very harsh, I happen to think it's a very cute, chubby baby," I comment with a gooey face before holding the picture up to him. "That man looks an awful lot like you... that chubby ugly baby is you isn't it?" I ask and he snatches the photo from me with a smile, looking at it before shoving it in the bag.

"Enough of that," he says playfully, "Pliers?" He asks and I hand them to him without question, following him to the fence where he clips a few times before making the hole considerably larger.

He passes them back to me casually as he gets rid of the thin metal sheet and I run back to the bike, shoving them in the bag before jogging back. He'd already wormed through the fence and I followed through, both of us passed the caution signs within moments.

"Is the car you're working on now the same as in the photo?" I ask casually and he nods.

"Not the exact one but it's an almost identical replica— save for the bumps and bruises. I don't have many photos of me and my dad," he says, pushing a branch aside and holding it for me. "At that age at least," he adds.

"It's cool that you are recreating it," I comment and he turns to smile softly at me.

"Yeah, it is," he says almost so quietly I can't hear it.

"Well I happen to be in need of some driving lessons, my parents don't have time and I'm very much past the age of having a license," I say with a sheepish grin.

"Why do I feel another favour coming up?" He asks sarcastically as we trek through the foliage.

"You get something out of it," I counter and he turns, raising a brow.

"Really? And what's that?" He asks before shaking his head, returning to confusion. "Wait what am I even giving up?"

"Well, I happen to have a bit of time on my hands at the moment." A lie— or rather a work in progress if what I've been plotting in my mind after leaving with Henry works out. "So I was thinking I could help you to build that rusty old car into good shape, good enough to get some lessons."

"Do you know anything about cars?" He asks and I let out a breath, the hill already having a toll on me.

"Not exactly—" he lets out a hearty laugh. "But I can learn! Surely it's better to know all about cars before getting behind the wheel of one and I'm actually a very good driver. My instructors said that I was among the best," I lie, again. There is a reason my parents wouldn't take me out. And a bigger reason why instructors stopped taking my calls.

"I'll think about it," he replies. "An extra set of hands might be useful," he ponders and we reach a clearing, the ocean in sight.

"Exactly what I was thinking, I could be so so helpfu... oh my god." The more we walk the close to the cliff edge we get and my vision warps with the height of the drop, my gut twisting into knots. "It looks so much higher from here," I say, trying not to upchuck the contents of my stomach.

"It's not so bad," he runs up to the edge, and stumbles at the end, his face filling with shock and I let out a scream, panic filling me.

"Gabe!" I yell, going to try catch him but he pulls back with ease, smiling and I could slap that smirk straight off his face.

"Relax, Athena. You've got to let go of all that fear," he says, taking off his shirt and throwing it on the ground before moving towards me. I suck in a breath as he nears me, a smile on his face as he comes so close I can feel the heat from his skin. He places a single finger over my heart and I despite it beating at a hundred miles an hour it feels dead. "If you hold onto your fear it is going to get trapped in there and the longer you keep it the stronger it will get until one day, it will beat through you straight from the heart."

I suck in a harsh breath and push his finger down, moving back. "I don't know," I say, shaking my head and he shrugs, raising his hands.

"I'm not going to make you jump. Do what you feel you should do, not what your fear wants you too," he says, walking back. "Simple." He doesn't give me a chance to respond and breaks off into a run, gliding through the air so fast I nearly don't register it before he's gone.

I move to the edge, wide eyed and full of shock as I peer down as he lets out a joyous scream, splashing into the water all at once. I continue to watch, not moving an inch at the water sloshes over, barely able to see through the fuzz of my vision until a body pops up.

In the distance, a boat rushes forward and I watch as Gabe climbs up before the boat moves out further once more, the horn blaring for me to come down.

"Come on Athena," I say, moving my feet as I stare below me.

I've got to let go of my fear, Gabe is entirely right. I need to let go of everything that controls me— everything I possibly can. I kick of my slides and shiny out of my clothes until I'm in his mothers old two-piece swim suit.

But it looks so far down, so uncertain and unknown and it makes me squirm with discomfort. I shouldn't do this, it's reckless and dumb and I probably could seriously injure myself, perhaps even die. If Micah knew about it... all of it.

I think about the way Gabe touched my chest and my heart picks up. He doesn't need to know, it was innocent, an innocent moment of a friend being encouraging. And besides, keeping a secret from him feels right in a way, empowering considering he knows so much about me that I didn't give him the right to know.

I take another step to the edge.

It's like despite being riddled with anxiety constantly, my body craves the small bits of fear. Only fears that I can physically overcome, the adrenaline pumps through my veins with ferocity and washes away all those deep-rooted feelings. I can control this fear, all I have to do is let loose and jump.

So I clench my eyes shut tightly, releasing a wild scream, full of every bit of emotion I've been holding in and it travels across the vast planes of the sea as I plummet down.