A/N: I'm so stokes! 100 votes on the last chapter before I even posted this! I love votes! :D No, but seriously, thanks for the support guys!

 Enjoy the chapter!

Seven

-Cookies, Carvings and Compromises-

Part I

 *Annabeth*

I was having a rather odd dream about being trapped inside a gigantic crystal bowl when someone knocked on my bedroom door and woke me up.

“Go away,” I called to whoever was out there. Light was coming in through a crack in the curtains so I guessed it was pretty late. But it was Saturday so whatever.

Despite my protest the door opened revealing my best friend Hannah. I groaned. Not that Hannah wasn’t a nice thing to see first thing in the morning. In fact I imagined quite a few guys had fantasized about (among other things) waking up with her. Hannah had gorgeous long black hair, green eyes, pale nearly transparent skin but unlike me no freckles and a generous C-cup (those last two I’d been insanely jealous of her for during most of our youths). What I wasn’t so excited about was the perkiness that Hannah always brought.

“Morning,” she said cheerfully as she walked into the room. She was wearing a pink winter jacket and high heeled boots that made her legs look a million miles long but hardly could be practical in this weather. I glanced over at the clock. It was 9:07.

“How are you awake?” I asked, sitting up. “And dressed? And here?”

She crossed her arms over her chest.“Car keys, remember? You said me and Josh could borrow your car and drive into Helena today.”

I did vaguely remember her mentioning/asking something along those lines when I had called her late last night to tell her about the events that had transpired during the afternoon and early night. I’d however been far to occupied with complaining about Don to remember much about the conversation.

“Did you have to come up here and wake me?” I said as Hannah plunked down on my bed. “You know where the keys are.” They were in a jar down stairs, mixed in with a whole bunch of other keys. But she’d be able to find them. Hannah was always borrowing my car since hers was always breaking down and Josh’s car was such a gas guzzler I wouldn’t be surprised if it was named our state’s biggest source of pollution. My red Toyota on the other hand was new, a hybrid and it had IPA - Intelligent Parking Assist - which was great when you were going to the city.

“I had to come over because I wanted to show you this fun app.” She tugged out her phone from her jacket pocket.

“Had to?” I said as I slumped back on the bed, closing my eyes. “I think that can be debated.”

She took my phone off the nightstand.“I’ll download it for you and add me.”

“What does it do?” I asked. I wasn’t very into technical stuff. Apps, cell phones and computers were more my dad’s area. And sometimes Hannah’s.

“It lets me see where you are and you me by using our phones’ GPS or something. If we get close, like say we’re both in the general store at the same time, they beep. We can set how close we need to be for it to ping and I think it can tell us when we enter a building and stuff. So it could like let you know when I arrive at school and stuff like that,” Hannah said sounding way too excited.

I opened one eye to look at her. “But you tell me when you’re going to the store and text me when you get to school so why do we need this?” I said pointing to the phones.

“Because…” she said as she tapped in stuff on first mine then her phone. “…it’s fun and free. You can add other people too. Maybe you should add Don so when you get a ping from him you know you should head the other way.” She chuckled a little at that, but I thought it sounded like a pretty good idea. “You got a missed call from him by the way. No message though.”

I shrugged and she put my phone back on the nightstand. “Things cool with you and Josh?” I asked wanting to distract her with something before she asked about Ryan or Don. I wasn’t awake enough tot talk about either.

“Yeah,” she said dreamily, tilted her head to me, pushed some hair away from her face, showing me her left ear. She had on a glittering little earring. “He gave me these this morning. He says they’re like real diamond or something but I’m not sure. That seems too much even for him.”

“I don’t know,” I said, leaning in closer and squinting at the little piece of jewelry. “Josh likes to spend his daddy’s money. They might be the real deal.”

Hannah smiled prettily. “I’m just glad he got me a proper gift this year.” I nodded in agreement. Last year Josh had given her a gift card. How unromantic was that? At least earrings were a little more personal.   

“Well I’ll bring the car back tonight, tank filled up and hopefully by then you’ll have talked your dad into letting you see Ryan. Heck maybe even I can see him,” Hannah said raising and eyebrow before leaning in to hug me goodbye. “Oh and you should put some decorations up. This place is depressing. Christmas is just two weeks away.” With that she hurried out of my room, not bothering to close the door.

I groaned, wanting to go back to sleep but knowing there was no way. Both with the light coming through the curtains and because my door was open. I never slept with my door open.

Besides I wanted to see Ryan. It had driven me a little crazy last night knowing he was in the house, well the basement, and I couldn’t see him. I had wanted to ask him so many things but mostly I wanted to talk about the kiss. Yesterday it had been a goodbye kiss, as much as a kiss to make him stay. Now it had the potential to be so much more. He was here and he would be staying until my dad figured out what to do with him. We’d be able to spend time together – at least I hoped we would.

Feeling suddenly giddy and wide awake I got out of bed, shower and dressed in no time. I was feeling good. I might even get some decorations out. In the beginning of the week I had gone up to the attic to try to find some that didn’t make me think of April, but the only ones that didn’t do that had had been kind of old or sad looking. I’d taken those to Ryan. But maybe putting up some decorations that made me remember April wouldn’t be so terrible. It might even be nice. So she could be there with us in spirit or something like that.

The TV was on when I headed down the stairs, which wasn’t that odd. The pack were all welcome to use our house whenever they wanted or needed – which was often to watch TV on the weekends. The house was big and had lots of common areas and plenty of guest rooms. What was a little odd was that Ink was the only one in the living room.

“Hey,” I said, making sure I wasn’t standing in front of the TV since there was a game on. Ink was really interested in football. I think maybe he’d been a football player or something when he was young. He certainly was big enough. And scary looking enough. But I didn’t know for sure since Ink wasn’t the chattiest of guys. Mostly he only gave scary stares with his dark eyes.

Ink grunted in response, his eyes flickering briefly from the TV to me. He blinked as I began to move towards the corridor that led to my dad’s office. “He’s out with Don, Carla and Jimmy looking for the rogue. Someone called in a wolf sighting outside of town.”

That made Don’s missed call make sense. He might have wanted me to join them to help track. But if he’d really felt they needed me he would have told my dad to wake me. Or maybe he had and my dad had decided not to. Dad liked to think he was the best tracker around and didn’t like putting me in danger either. Not that tracking together in a pack was dangerous. Not when there was only one rogue wolf out there.

“Alright,” I said, changing my course to the kitchen. This made everything easier. No dad to argue about me seeing Ryan.

“Hey,” Ink called after me, pausing the game and standing up to look at me properly. “No going in the basement without your dad here. His orders. You better obey.” He sat back down but I still felt a little shiver run down my spine. Something was just so scary about Ink. Something about the way everything he said sounded ominous. 

I shrugged, pretending that didn’t bother me. Pretending I would be a good girl and obey. But I knew the codes to the basement door and I had no plans on obeying. I wanted to see Ryan. “I’m going to make some Christmas cookies,” I told Ink, smiling sweetly even though his back was mostly to me.

He grunted but didn’t turn around again, which I was glad for.

Making cookies would be a good excuse for me to be in the kitchen, a place I didn’t much frequent unless I was collecting food to take to the living room or my bedroom. But today I needed to be in the kitchen - because the basement door; a honking big metal thing with a keypad, was there.

Now all I had to do was figure out how to make Christmas cookies. I scratched my head then headed for the pantry. April had kept a bunch of books on cooking on one of the lower shelves. One was bound to have a good recipe. And by good I meant easy.

Thankfully it turned out Christmas cookies weren’t that hard to make.

I mixed up the quickest batch of cookie dough anyone had ever made and put blobs on it on the baking tray and then put it in the oven. Cookie “cover” managed. I quickly set the timer on my cell phone and I went to the reinforced metal door that led to the basement. I tapped in the code – April’s birthday and the door beeped and bolts inside the thing moved. I held my breath waiting to see if Ink had noticed the sounds.

Nothing happened and I headed inside and shut the door. The stairs that led down to the basement were dark, but the basement itself was light so I just headed for the glowing at the bottom figuring there wasn’t much that could go wrong.

Our house is big and so is its basement. We got a medical area, a workshop/ garage thing and then there is the Cage.

The Cage was to the far back of the basement, and wasn’t so much a cage as it was a room behind Plexiglas. The Cage was set up with a bed, a desk and a book case and there was a door that led to a spars bathroom (which was the only place in the Cage you could get any privacy) where the mirror was plastic and nothing could be torn lose and used as a weapon. The Cage wasn’t used all that much. I knew they put wolves that went crazy – like some did after losing their mates and rogues that weren’t violent but we weren’t sure we could trust. There was a slot which was big enough for a food tray and other necessities to be passed through and little holes through which you could talk to whoever was inside the Cage.

Which today was Ryan.

“Ryan,” I cried as I hurried over to the Cage, pressing my hands to the glass. He had been on the bed but had stood when he saw me. “Are you okay?” He looked fine. Not at all like a guy who had been shot and had his head cracked open about fourteen hours ago.

“I’m good,” he said, walking up to the glass. His voice sounded a bit odd coming both through the glass and the little talking holes. He was limping a little but that was all. His forehead I noted as he came closer spotted a mostly scabbed over wound. Impressive. He must heal twice or three times as fast as we shifters did and we already healed a lot faster than humans. “It’s good to see you,” he said looking down at me through the glass. “I wasn’t sure you’d come.”

I wanted to ask how he could have thought anything would keep me away but felt that might freak him out. We’d only known each other like a week. Still it was an intense week and it was what I felt.

Smiling I turned to look at the keypad to the Cage. I wasn’t sure about the password for this one, but I guessed my dad had gone with more birthdays. I headed over to it, willing to try every single birthday I knew to get him out.

“No,” Ryan said when he realized what I was about to do. “Don’t let me out. I don’t want to lose control again.”

“You only lost control because they scared you,” I said, ignoring him and testing my eldest brother’s birthday. The light flashed red.

“No I lost control because of you,” he said roughly as I tried another birthday. “It was what started it. Them showing up made it worse, but I’m glad they did. If I’d lost control-”

I glared up at him.“You wouldn’t have lost control. It was their fault.”

“Don’t let me out,” he whispered. “I should be in here.” He turned away from the glass and went to sit on the bed.

I banged my fist on the glass. “No you don’t. You’re a good person. I may not know all that much about you but I know that. I saw it in your eyes.” I thought about how he’d looked at the popcorn I’d brought him. How surprised and happy he’d been by something so small. “You just need a chance.”