"There you go," Wes whispered down to me as I sat on the counter and he stood up, fixing my cut on my neck. Even though I was sitting that high, he still towered over me. He bent down and kissed my neck where the wound was and took me in a hug around my waist. I added my arms around his shoulders and then I pulled away. I saw the bruises along his neckline and cuts around him.

"I thought you guys had super healing," I muttered.

"It's complicated," he replied before leaning in to kiss me, but I leaned away from him and he gave up. Alternatively, he turned and I hopped onto his back, piggy back style. He jogged off and ran around the house before jogging up the stairs and dropping me on the bed in his room. He hovered above me.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

"For what?"

"You keep getting hurt by me," he reminded. "In every way possible you've gotten hurt by me, just being around me and being with me."

I bit my lip and decided what to say next.

"It's worth it," I ultimately decided before he figured his attempt at kissing me now was better suited. He pressed his lips against mine softly. He flipped me on top of him and then his hands roamed beneath my shirt and traveled up my sides in a way that I actually liked. He kissed down the good side of my neck as his hands played at the back of my bra, but then I pulled away feeling the same guilt I felt when he was dressing my neck minutes ago.

"I can't," I choked out. "I can't do this when we're just gonna break up in the morning."

"Who said we're breaking up in the morning?" he asked. I moved off of his hips and we sat up against the head board.

"She's back. So why are we even doing this?" I asked. He sighed.

"Doing what?" Wes asked confused. I gestured to the situation. "I don't know. I just..."

I scoffed and rolled my eyes as I rolled out of the bed. As I walked toward the door, he barricaded it from me.

"Wait," he pleaded.

"What for?"

"Because I don't want you leaving here thinking that I'm using you right before we end it," he said. Hmm. That was a good excuse, but I still looked away from him so he cupped my chin and made me look up at him. I reluctantly looked into his brilliant sapphire eyes. "I still love you. I just don't know how to navigate this."

I blinked and pouted.

"Nah," I shrugged.

"Nah? Did you just 'nah' me after I said I love you?" Wes asked incredulously as he dropped his hand. "You're supposed to say it back."

"Well I don't want there to be conflict with April. She's a good girl from what I've learned and I don't want us to come in between of you two," I sighed and shifted. Wes scoffed as if what I said was ridiculous.

"I. Love. You," he repeated with a smile for how petty I had been. I still saw the pain and sorrow from how he said it...like his bond with April was forbidding it as it should be. "Say it back."

"I love you too," I returned with my arms crossed as if I were forced, but then failed at hiding my creeping smile. He stepped out of my way with a victory half-grin and I opened the door, but then turned back to him. "You know, you were kind of a great first boyfriend."

"Thank you. You were a kick ass girlfriend for it being your first time," he smiled back. He dropped his expression. "But you know that I'm gonna go back to tormenting you, right?"

"What more is there to expect?" I joked back. We laughed briefly and then sighed. Before I turned to leave, he gave me a small hug. I smiled faintly and then held out my hand.

"Good relationship, good break up," I said, offering my hand as the last interaction before I left and we were officially broken up. But we should still be close. He looked down at my hand and shook his head. I gave him a confused look and then he leaned down to press his lips to mine and added a hand along my jaw. I kissed him back since it would be the last time and ran my tongue along his lip ring that I'd grown fond of. I pulled away and turned to say "bye" over my shoulder, but he grabbed my wrist and turned me back around.

"Don't think of it as a break up. Please don't. I know how crazy girls can get about that," he said.

"I'm not like those girls," I reminded with a smirk. It hurt, but I did it to myself when I insisted to be with a werewolf and learned about his mate that wasn't me.

"Of course not," he smirked back and I saw as he played with his lip ring from inside his mouth that I just visited. "Oh and Alicia?" he asked. I looked up at him, nervously. "I saw only one reason to why we'd break up. If it wasn't for this soul mate obligation, I think we could've lasted."

"Likewise..."

He leaned down to kiss me again, but I dodged it.

"I'll see you later," I mumbled before kissing his cheek. He took me in another hug and his head rested on mine.

"I'll always love you," he whispered. Just not like April.

I pulled away and just walked down the hallway. Around the corner, I ran into Nathaniel.

"Watch out," he warned before continuing to walk.

"Hey!" I called after him. He looked at me over his shoulder. "Thanks for earlier..."

"Whatever," he returned. I didn't know if that made him humble towards his heroic deed...or just the perfect response as a usually angry fourteen year old.

"This is your fault!" I heard someone accuse as I was leaving down the porch steps to find Eli to take me home. I saw Dane and Chase standing by their cars.

"My fault?! How the hell is this my fault?!" Chase returned. His entire body was tensed and his face was full of anger. I was sure all the negative energy would weigh on him more than normal because he was in worse shape than Wes was and should be resting right now.

"You know why!" Dane yelled back as he stood inches away from Chase. "If you didn't play your stupid little mind games, this wouldn't have happened!"

"If I didn't play my 'stupid little mind games,' we would all be dead," Chase returned.

"I rather be dead then have to suffer through this," Dane commented.

"I never told you to go along with it—" Chase was silenced by an upper-cut to his jaw by Dane. I immediately ran over as if I hadn't learned not to interrupt werewolves fighting.

"What is your problem?!" I yelled at Dane, pushing him away. He breathed heavily as his black eyes shot daggers at me. I half thought that he would just then phase in front of me to kill me right then and there, but he turned around, walked a few steps, and then started running into the forest as a quick-transformed wolf. I turned to Chase and added my hand to his that massaged his abused cheek.

"Are you okay—"

"Get away from me," he ordered. He jerked out of my touch and then pushed me away. I fell flat on my ass because it caught me off guard, not because he had any real strength to the movement.

"Chase! What the hell is your problem?!" April's voice yelled as she rushed over and helped me from the ground.

"She is!" he yelled while gesturing towards me and running off in the opposite direction as Dane.

"Are you okay?" April asked me.

"I'm done with this!" I yelled. "I'm done with trying to help and be his friend!"

With that, I stalked off and eventually minutes later, April drove me home and informed me that she'd be there if I needed to talk, but considering that she had a lot to explain to people about her disappearance, maybe she'd be grounded or not be able to talk. I, on the other hand, stormed up to my front door, pissed off at the world.

"You're back!" Zoey and my mom exclaimed as I entered the house. They engulfed me in a hug.

How the hell was I going to explain what happened?

"Are you okay? What happened?" My mom asked frantically.

"Well where would you like me to start?" I asked.

"Well Wes said that he had to go to his uncle's house to get something and when he was coming back to drop you off, he ran out of gas in the middle of the trail by the forest so he left to go find phone reception and gas, and he said you weren't there when he got back," Zoey explained. Damn. Tori was right when she said once before that the boys were good at cover stories. "Where the hell would you go?! You don't know your way around a freaking forest!"

"I thought I saw something and it looked familiar..." I lied. My mom took me in another hug. She looked as if she'd bust up in tears at any moment.

"What happened to your neck?" Zoey asked about the bandage on the left side of my neck that I thought I covered up with my hair.

"Oh you know my klutiness. I ran into a tree branch," I added to my lie. And surprisingly, they believed it. Once my little 'I'm so glad I made it home' façade was over with, I marched into my room and contained myself from screaming into my pillow.

I was realizing that Wes and I were officially broken up and it wasn't numbed as much as I thought it would be considering I had been telling myself this could be a reality once April returned. Then I had to deal with the fact that someone I thought was my friend turned out to be a selfish vampire who didn't actually care about anything or anyone but his territory. And to top it all off, I had to process the fact that Chase was on a new level of anger or disappointment or something with me because not only had I been a cause to another vampire/kidnapping fiasco, but it was to such an extent that he phased when fighting with Dane. Even though I had silenced my conscience that told me to leave the wolves alone to save myself earlier, I was hearing it loud and clear right now in the aftermath. I'd actually have to leave them alone now.