I woke up in a strange room on a bed I didn't recognize. So naturally, the first thoughts I had were centered around getting out of there. But I happened to not remember the searing pain on my leg. I looked down to see my leg neatly wrapped up where I was hit by that bullet. Even though I was in pain, I limped over to the door, opened it and looked down the hallway. There were several doors down the long corridor that were all shut, and I managed to see a railing at the end.

Quietly, I limped down the hallway—that seemed to grow longer and longer with my pain. I finally reached the stairs and heard an argument downstairs with voices bouncing off the walls. I reached a few steps down and identified another hallway, but shorter. I reached my head around and still couldn't see where the bickering people were. I sighed before using both sides of the railing to hop down each stair on one leg.

Once I reached the first floor, all noises stopped. Anxiously, I heard footsteps come overand they belonged to a teenage boy with brown hair that reached beneath his ears under a hat. I gave him a confused look as he smirked and walked past me. Seconds later, after watching the boy jog up the stairs, Wes walked over and said nothing. He only offered out his hand to me, but I didn't take it. He sighed at this, but eventually turned his shoulders and nodded over for me to follow him. We ended up in a living room with Eli, Tori, Mason, Chase and Chase's brother. Chase's eyes were as dark as can be and he stared coldly at either me or Wes. Wes took a seat on the recliner and unexpectedly pulled me onto his lap by my waist. I sat horizontally on the recliner—er, Wes' lap—and my wounded leg was hanging loosely off the side. But not much considering that I was still in my Halloween costume and I tried to keep my legs closed as much as possible.

"Why the—what did—how—" Chase ranted off different introductions to questions but fell short. Chase's brother stood, gave me a rude look, and then walked off.

"Dane," Chase called. His brother turned around.

"No. I don't want to be around her," Dane stated. "Especially if you're gonna tell her—"

"She should know," Chase reasoned. Know what?

"I beg to differ," he said before turning to leave.

"It's almost a full moon. Don't do anything stupid!" Wes yelled after him.

"Well?" Mason suddenly asked. "Who's gonna tell her?"

"Tell me what?" I asked.

"Well who's her—" Tori started to ask. My what?

"I'll tell her," Chase and Wes said at the same time. They stared at each other.

"Can someone please tell me?!" I yelled out.

"The guys are werewolves," Tori blurted.

"TORI!" all the boys shouted.

"Speaking as a girl who went through this, it's better for her to just know no matter who the hell tells her," Tori responded.

Werewolves? They're werewolves? I was absolutely frozen at that revelation for so long that it caused Tori to stand up and grab my wrist to pull me off Wes' lap. She took me back upstairs and into a room decorated with silver, beige, and gray. She sat me on the chair since the faint gold bed was rather high. Even her and her long legs had to have a short running start to hop up on it.

"You're in shock."

"Is that a statement or a question?" I asked.

"Yes," she answered. Well okay then. "But that's okay. So was I at first."

"Are werewolves even real?" I asked, skeptically.

"There are almost half a dozen of them downstairs as proof," she humored. I sat there, still in a stunned state. Some part of me wanted to know everything...it was only being muted out by the side that was intent on not believing in the realness of it all. "You want to know all about them...I can see it on your face."

I gave her a confused look.

"I'm sure that it's the same for everyone who finds out," she nodded to answer my unasked question. "You'll want to know everything, but there are only one or two people that can clearly tell you. But I doubt they'll tell you now. You have to be trusted."

"I'm trusted," I insisted. Says the girl who secretly followed Wes and Chase...

"I don't think so..." Tori denied. I frowned. "You followed them. And then you got hurt in the process. They can't trust you any more than you can trust yourself to be around them. Werewolves can hurt people easily. Especially these werewolves."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"They have a lot of shit going on around here," she informed and then began texting on her phone. "So much that I don't even know it all myself."

There was a knock at the door and she answered it. The teen boy from earlier stood there.

"Time to go..." he said to her. "You know the drill."

"I got it," Tori assured. The boy looked past her to glance at me.

"Oh. So she's your friend," he said as if he knew about me.

"She's everybody's friend," Tori responded in a slight laugh.

"Not mine," he replied as he walked into the room and kneeled in front of me. "What's your name?"

"Alicia."

"Oh you're Alicia," he said as he stood up, his smirk drained from his face. He whispered something to Tori before leaving. That wasn't too promising.

"Don't mind my brother," Tori said, playfully rolling her eyes. "He's a new werewolf...not by blood of course. He pissed off Mason a bit too much on a full moon and then bam. 'I don't trust you around my sister so stay away'...and then 'grrr'—wolf—bite."

Tori role-played and made it seem like there was a comical factor to the fact that her boyfriend turned her brother into a beast.

"I cover for him some nights of a full moon week so he can be out of the house since he can't tell our parents," she informed.

"So they only turn on full moons?" I asked. Is the term 'turn'?

"No. They can phase whenever they want out of will, but they take certain...precautions on a full moon because their genes go crazy or something like that," she said. "Tommy isn't used to any kind of phasing so they keep an eye on him."

So he was bit and turned into a werewolf, just like that. Tori said it herself that he wasn't controlled enough to handle it, so why did they do it? Because they could? What did that say about what they could do to me if I wasn't "trusted" as much as I "should" be?

"None of the guys will bite you though. I mean, they can, but there are different ways...It's confusing. I'll let one of them tell you."

"Earlier you said that only one or two of them could explain this stuff to me," I recalled. "Which two?"

"The Alpha or your mate," she answered. "Alpha is the head wolf in charge. Everyone listens to him and is basically forced by fate to do whatever he says if he chooses. Your mate is like your soul mate. They were seemingly born to be in love with you."

"Like you and Mason?"

"Yeah," she smiled. "It's weird at first—for someone to be all obsessed with you and make you happy all of the time, even though they can get a bit...territorial, but you get over it and realize that you were meant to be with them..." she explained with a distant look. I bet she was going into her memories of when she and Mason first got together.

"Who's my mate?" I whispered. It sounded interesting enough, even though I didn't really believe it. All the guys in the group gave off a weird vibe upon meeting them, but for one of them to be my soul mate? Yeah right.

"I'm not sure," Tori answered with her eyes confused along with the expression on her face. It was just another indication to me that this was all make believe. I hardly let people inside my walls in the first place and now I was supposed to not only believe that werewolves were real, but also that I was "meant to be" with one of them? It only made my mind spin more but immediately attach to Wes of all people. Then my stomach was the one doing flips.

"How do you know who...?" I asked. She shrugged. This werewolf crap was confusing.

"Shit," she commented as she looked down to her phone.

"What?" I asked in a mumble.

"Mason needs to go and so does Tommy so I have to go as well," she sighed. "Have fun around the house..."

"Wait. What day is it?" I asked.

"Tuesday?" she answered. Thankfully we had Tuesday off after Halloween because the festival was in the parking lot and would need serious cleaning...not a thousand plus students parking over the trashed event space. I always thought it was a day for excuses of the drunken teenagers of the Hallowed evening, but it came in handy this year considering I was wounded and held captive by a house of werewolves. "It's okay though. I think Chase or Wes told your sister something to cover for you."

"My sister isn't gonna believe some shit like that and give it a rest..." I said. "Especially not if it came from Chase or Wes." I didn't care what Zoey said; she really didn't want me to be close with Chase. And up until last night, she knew I never wanted to be around Wes. She would ask questions.

"Alicia," Tori named. "These guys are professionals. They have a wide range of excuses. You're okay."

I sighed. How did she know so much? How long has she done this?

"How'd they tell you?" I asked her. More like when did they tell her? Maybe she got told in a way that made sense...

"Mason told me literally so long ago that I don't even remember when. We're mates so he was obligated to tell me pretty early on," she answered and then I heard her phone buzz again. "Well I gotta go," she sighed. "Be safe and don't piss the guys off...and don't go looking for any more trouble in forests!"

"No promises," I tried to joke, but then realized this probably wasn't the best time.

She flashed me a smile before we left the room and she walked me across the hallway to the room I was in before. She left once I was positioned on my bed and then I looked to the doorway once more and saw Wes leaning on the doorframe. I bit my lip.

"Last night sucked huh?" he started as he walked over to the bed.

"Of course not," I said sarcastically. "What girl wouldn't want her sixteenth birthday filled with various experiences of dressing like a slut, getting her first kiss by an idiot, being shot, and then finding out the next day that her friends are a bunch of werewolves?"

"Okay, enough with the slut shaming. You looked fine," he scoffed. "And secondly, I'm not an idiot and you kissed me back" he added within a frown. He dismissed it by shaking his head. "Happy belated birthday by the way. I'd say I got you a present, but apparently it was on your little list."

"Mmh..." I discharged with a roll of my eyes.

"Unless you wanted birthday sex," he said, wiggling his eyebrows. I kept a straight face.

"I heard that at least a dozen times yesterday," I informed.

"Maybe because you were dress like this," Wes guessed, rubbing his finger beneath my short dress.

"Whatever," I said, shifting away from him. I looked at his brilliant blue eyes. I was laying down, propped up on pillows while he sat beside me with his left hand on my left side on the bed by my waist. He was close, so I slid away from him.

"Can I ask you something?" he asked.

"You just did."

He shot me a look.

"Are you afraid of me now?" he asked.

"Nope." Maybe.

"Good," he said, close to my face. He leaned in a few more inches and pressed his lips to mine. He was much more hesitant about it now than he was last night though. As my eyes closed, I felt a bit of tongue in his kiss, but I still kissed back. I swear I hated him before, but there was something about him that reassured me that him being an asshole was just some façade—especially when he kissed me like he'd never again have the chance. He collided his body with mine as his hands trailed up my body. Suddenly, he grabbed me tight enough to flip me onto him. My ponytails hung off to the sides of his face as I leaned down to kiss him. Again, I could've sworn I hated him, but now I felt...attached. Oh God no.

"Wes. Let's go!" I heard a Chase's voice growl as footsteps passed the room. Chase's voice was charged with anger instead of the nervousness from catching us last night. Absent-mindedly, Wes got up after kissing my cheek. I only sighed.

My friends are werewolves.