A/N:  I just found a half complete story I wrote ages ago and am thinking about finishing. Once I'm done with this one, and maybe some of my other stories. I need to learn to finish one thing before starting the next. Still sometimes you just want to change things up and write something new (or in this case old)! 

Enjoy!

Chapter Eight

-The Side Effects of Pizza-

Part II

*Annabeth*

 //

"Hannah?" I cried into the phone."Hannah talk to me-"

But she didn't.

Instead the call was cut off.

"Hannah," I cried again, even though as I looked at my screen I could see that the call had disconnected.

//

I stood looking at the cell phone for a moment, dazed. Then reality seemed to snap back into me and I hit re-dial while quickly heading towards my dad's office. I passed a few people from the pack. They were in the living room watching a movie. Waiting for Don and the pizza I guessed. The phone kept on ringing and the panic I'd first felt when I realized something was happening, doubled. No tripled. Hannah should be answering her phone. She should have just told whatever jerk or werdio that had tried to cup a feel or whatever, to piss off. She should be okay. She should be answering.

The call went to voice mail just as I got to dad's office and didn't try again as I entered the office. Calling again wasn't going to help if something was wrong. And something was wrong.

"Daddy," I said as I walked into the room. He looked up, his face which looked tired, became worried as soon as he got a good look at me.

"What's wrong?" he asked, getting up from his chair and walking around his desk.

"Hannah," I said. "Hannah was... there is something wrong. There was someone..." I held out the phone as if that would somehow explain it. "...I heard it and now she won't answer the phone."

Dad grabbed my shoulders. "Tell if from the start. You're making no sense."

I pulled away from him and held up the phone. "Hannah is in town. The general store. Someone did something. I think someone attacked her. Is attacking her. We need to go and help her!"

"Rogue?" dad asked. I suddenly felt dizzy. No. It couldn't be. The rogue couldn't be attacking Hannah. That wasn't possible. She was my best friend. She couldn't be hurt. She was Hannah. It wasn't possible. Besides rogues mostly hunted in wolf shape. Hannah had spoken to the guy.  

I shook my head. "She was talking to him."

"Maybe he's in human shape," my dad said and headed for the wall safe. I wanted to yell at him we had to go help Hannah. That we were wasting time. Hurry, hurry, I wanted to yell.

"We have to go now."

"Charlie's birthday," my dad said to himself as he looked at the keypad.

"February fourth," I said automatically. My dad tapped the numbers onto the keypad.

The safe opened. I knew what was inside. Files about insurance, some expensive jewelry, dad's baseball cards. And Guns. Handguns, no big hunting things. I knew how to handle hunting rifles well enough –all you did was point and shoot -but handguns were harder. Back when dad and my brothers had taken me to the practice range regularly, I could usually get at least some of the bullets in the targets, but if any got in the smaller rings it was usually dumb luck.

Dad took out the smaller gun, the one I usually used; 9 mm Luger. He took a box of amo out too. He walked over to me."You still remember how to use one of these?"

"Think so," I said as I took the weapon. I was a bit surprised. I was going to get to tag along?

"Good. Now go to the basement, lock yourself in with your werewolf. Load the gun. If anyone else but me comes down there you shoot them, okay?"

I tilted my chin up."I want to come save Hannah."

"I know. But I'm not going to risk it. If you want to waste time arguing about it we can, but it won't change anything. You're staying here." He went back to the gun safe. I opened my mouth, wanting to argue, but then closed it. "Good girl," dad said without looking my way.

My dad had his wepon and another box of amo out in a second and closed the safe. He turned me and pushed between my shoulder blades to get me to move. We walked briskly to the living room. I wanted to do something, but I couldn't seem to make myself say, do or even cry. Alpha magic I suspected. My dad was compelling me to be calm.

"Anyone armed or willing to change fast, is leaving with me," my dad said as we walked into the living room. "Five minutes. I want three cars at least." The room snapped to attention and a second late everyone was moving. Doing the alpha's bidding. Some asked questions. They all shut up when dad added, "Jeremy's daughter is in trouble."

I left them all to it because I suddenly couldn't think about anything other than doing what I'd been told by my dad a minute earlier. Go to basement, lock yourself in, load the gun. It had to be alpha magic too. My dad was compelling me to do what he'd told me. Go to the basement. Lock yourself in. Load the gun. It kept repeating in my head.

Holding both the gun and amo box in one hand I put the security code into the basement door. The stairs were lit since I'd turned the lights on when I was walking upstairs with the plate less than ten minutes ago. Had it only been that little time? No. It had to be much longer. I felt like time was all wrong, kind of like I was trapped in syrup and couldn't move faster even if I wanted to. Like dad was too. Why weren't he hurrying faster? I could still hear them getting ready. They should be gone. Gone to help Hannah.

My fingers feeling icy I walked down stairs. My dad wasn't hurrying I realized, because town was at least ten minutes away. If it was the rogue chances were Hannah would be dead or gone before they got there. Ten minutes was a long time for one girl, even a werewolf girl, to defend against either a crazed wolf or a fully grown man.

No. It wasn't the rogue. It couldn't be. Hannah was going to be fine. She was going to come here later and we'd watch chick flicks. Her biggest worry tonight was going to be why Josh had ended things. It was. It had to be. She couldn't be hurt, she couldn't be missing or dead. She was Hannah. She was my best friend.

"What's going on?" Ryan asked, his voice breaking through my worry-fog. I was still holding the gun and amo under one arm. I put the box down. Then the gun. It wasn't loaded. Dad had said I had to load it. So I had to load it.

I ejected the clip. Thumbed bullets into the clip. Put the clip in the gun. Heard it click. Released the safety. Pulled back the slide to put one bullet in the firing camber. Done. I had done what I was supposed to do. I slowly felt the faint traces of alpha compulsion my dad had used on me fade away. I put the gun down on the work bench.  Shook my head, and took deep breaths.

"What's going on?" Ryan asked again. "What's with all the commotion upstairs? I can hear people moving about."

I could hear them too I realized. They were leaving the house. I could hear the door close. They were going to help Hannah. They would help her. Save her. It would be alright. It had to be.  I stumbled over to the Cage and tapped my birthday. The door slid open.

"What you doing?" Ryan said, surprised, taking a few steps away from me as I entered the Cage.

"Please come outside," I said. "I can't talk to you when you're in there. It's not right. You shouldn't be in there and you are. Everything is just wrong. Bad things aren't supposed to happen to good people."

Ryan, clearly sensing I was upset followed me out of his glass prison without further argument.

I saw him glance over at the gun once again. He wanted to know why I had it. I wanted to tell him, but more than that I wanted him to just hug me and tell me it would be alright. I knew it was stupid but it seemed like the only thing that could make me feel better would be for him to tell me it would be alright.

Ryan studied me as I began to walk back and forth in front of him. His grey eyes were focused, intent. Trying to figure something out. Trying to figure me out.

And then like magic, like he'd read my mind, or maybe just my body language, he took two long strides up to me and wrapped his arms around me.

"I'm not gonna hurt you," he whispered, like he was worried I might think he would. I wasn't. He might worry about that but I didn't.

But I couldn't get those words out so I just nodded, my head pressed to his chest. He was warm and smelled of wolf, yet not. Of the ocean too. And of the soap the Cage's bathroom was stocked with. Some generic brand that somehow managed to be delicious on him.

His hands began to trace slow circles on my back. I felt myself relax some. I was over reacting. I was letting fear and alpha magic mess with my head. I just had to focus on the now. Focus on Ryan's warm arms around me. I couldn't change anything about what happened outside this basement, but I could be in control of how I felt here.

I wasn't going to act like this crazy emotional girl who was about to freak out because something might have happened. My dad hadn't freaked out. He'd taken control over the situation. I would be luna, one day and then I'd be the one who had to act. Who had to be in control.

I wasn't sure how long we stood like that, but after a while I felt the change in the way Ryan was touching me. Or maybe it was me suddenly changing how I viewed the touches. They became more than calming and comforting. They became thrilling, electric and more urgent somehow.   

Leaning back a little I looked up into his grey eyes. They were stormy, but there was no yellow in them. They were just that deep gray-gray that took my breath away.

He moved first, but only by a millisecond, and our lips met in perfect sync. Like a movie kiss we'd practiced ten times. Only there was nothing routine or fake about this kiss. It was all my worry, all my pent up want for him, all his desire for me, all his frustration with his situation. All the good and all the bad in one kiss.

It was unlike any kiss I could have ever imagined before. His hands were no longer on my back but all over me. My hands were all over him. I had no idea how we managed to stay upright.

As we pulled apart slightly I drew all the air I could managed from him, wanting him to be part of me, to share the very air with him. His eyes were turning gold. I didn't care. Smiling I kissed his neck as his hands moved from my hip to up under my tank top, his fingers trailing over my stomach and up to under my left breast.

Ryan growled faintly somewhere in the back of his throat. I could feel it vibrate through him, through me. I nipped his neck, a playful bite, not drawing blood, but it made him tense. He pulled me a little away from him.  

"We should slow down," Ryan managed, his hands pulling out from underneath my shirt and moving back to rest just below my shoulder blades. "You're upset. I'm not all me. We should slow it down. "

I kind of agreed and felt a bit bad about enjoying kissing him when Hannah was in trouble. "Yeah." I nodded but didn't move out of his arms. It just felt so good to have him wrapped around me. It felt safe. Like nothing could ever go wrong as long as we stayed like that. Only something had already gone wrong with Hannah.  

"So you want to tell me what's going on??" he said after a few seconds.

"We got a rogue," I said quietly looking away from his face.

He tensed."Rogue?"

"Yeah. Wolf who has either left their pack or been kicked out of it. Not all of them are bad but this one is. He's taken two people from our pack." I took a deep breath, Ryan frowned.

"A boy and a girl right? I saw their missing persons' posters in town the day I got here."

I nodded and put my head on his chest. "That's them. We're pretty sure they're dead. We might not ever find their bodies. The woods here are big and with the snow they'd be buried quickly along with any trail that had been left. And there are plenty of scavengers."

"I'm guessing you guys didn't get him," Ryan said dryly glancing over to the work table with the gun. "Or else you wouldn't need that. He attacking this place?" I shook my head. "Then what?"  

"Hannah," I said, looking up at him. "You remember I told you about Hannah?" I'd shown him a few video clips of me and Hannah doing silly things as kids and some other pictures of us goofing around.   

"Yeah," he said, nodding. "The girl that likes to hijack your phone."

I smiled, not sure how I managed it. I'd told him about Hannah waking me this morning. I'd told him about the app thing.

The app.

The GPS app. It would tell me where she was. If someone took Hannah and she had her phone with her I'd be able to find her.

"You're brilliant," I burst out and leaned up to kiss him real quick. Then I stepped out of his embrace to tug my cell phone out of my pocket. "The app. I can use it to find her."

"What?"

"Remember how I told you she put a stupid tracking app in my phone, and how I wished she'd stop downloading weird shit into my phone? Well this time I'm so glad I let her. It's going to let us find her."

Ryan looked a bit impressed with this sudden solution, even though he hadn't known the problem – that Hannah might be missing like the other two. We took a few steps over to the medical table, sat down on it, put our heads close together and my hand shaking just a tiny bit I reached to press the app's launch icon.

Only before I could the phone rang, making us both jump and me nearly drop the phone.

It was my dad.

"God dad you scared me," I said, putting it on speaker phone, figuring Ryan deserved to listen in.   

 "Good news," my dad said and I breathed easier. "And a little bad."

"Is Hannah okay?" I asked, clutching the phone so hard I thought it might break.

"She's fine. That's the good news. The bad news is her wrist is broken and she's got a few bruises. Doris is taking care of her right now though."

"I wanna come see her," I said, standing up. Ryan snagged my arm before I could get very far.  

"No," my dad said roughly. "I want you safe in the house. Hannah is going to be fine. Don is taking her home and her dad will be there."

"Don is taking her home?" I asked, my voice a little odd all of the sudden. Ryan let go of my arm.

"Yes," he said. "Didn't I mention he was the one that saved her?"

"No," I said, suddenly glad Don was around. "You didn't."

"Well he did. He was in town getting pizza and thought she was you, since she was driving your car. He got here and ran the guy off. "

"Tell him thanks for me."

My dad chuckled. "I will. At least something good has come out of this."

"What?"

"We got his scent; his human one anyway. It's all over this place.  It'll be a matter of hours until we catch him."

I looked over to Ryan, our eyes met. He looked pleased but also a little awkward, like he felt he should be back in the Cage. I thought that might be a good idea, since I might start to kiss him from relief if he stayed so close to me.

"Great," I heard myself say. "Talk to you later."

The call disconnected.

"You should lock me back up," he said as I took a step towards him.

"Yes I should." He took a very small step towards me. "I will. Just kiss me one more time."

Nodding he stepped even closer to me. I took the last step and his arms went around me and his lips came down to meet mine.

One kiss.

Just one.

Or two.

Or maybe three.