*****

*Jayden*

"Jay..." I looked up from my guitar. I never left home for trips more than a day without it.

"Yes?" I smiled at Izabella. She shut the door before taking a seat on my bed, her legs crossed in front of her.

"What happened?" She asked.

"I got beat up." I shrugged, "Not a human, though. I'm not that weak." I gave a light-hearted smile but she just stared at me concerned before she looked at my neck. Her eyes almost looked pitiful and I hated that.

"Your scars don't disappear..." She observed.

"Yes, well, you get why not," I said. The stronger a wolf was, the faster they healed. My scar wasn't close to disappearing. A couple more years maybe?

"Well," I watched as she pushed her sleeve up, "You know what my blood does... Here..." She held out her wrist. My eyes widened. Was she serious? She noticed my reaction, "It'll make you stronger –" She began to add.

"No... No way! You want Sean to kill me? And I don't... I don't bite people's wrists. I can't hurt you for a little bit of blood. I won't drink your blood –" I was saying.

"I have plenty more of it, Jayden. And I'll heal, Sean won't see it –" she was saying.

"No!" I cut her off.

"Don't you want to heal?" She asked. I opened my mouth but stopped. Yes, obviously yes. But I didn't want to hurt her. "It's fine, Jayden. You won't be hurting me. You'll be a lot stronger and it only wears off after five or so years. You'll be able to get everyone off your back."

I opened my mouth to say no again but my voice caught in my throat as I stared at her wrist. I wanted what she was offering so badly. Of course, I wanted to be stronger and heal faster... but I didn't want to hurt her. "You promise this won't hurt you?" I asked slowly as I looked at her.

"I promise." She smiled. I glanced back down at her wrist before swallowing nervously.

"Alright."

------

*Corey*

"Are you serious right now?" I frowned as my beer was taken from me. "Really? Corey?" Trent threw the bottle into the bin.

"I paid for that." I glared at him.

"I forgot your kind can't compel." He smirked causing my glare to deepen and he laughed.

"Why the fuck are you here?" I asked completely annoyed.

He frowned. "You're not much fun when you're not completely sober or completely wasted." He stated.

I sighed turning around and signalled for the female bartender. "Hey, Beautiful," I smiled as she reached us.

The black-haired girl smiled back at me. "Hey, what can I get you, boys?" She asked.

"A –" I began.

"Just water. That will be all." Trent cut me off.

"Water? You could have gotten that at a grocery store." I chuckled at her reply.

"Or a tap," I added. She laughed. "He's not really the fun type," I explained why Trent didn't want any alcohol.

"Mmm, but I bet you are." She said giving me a sexy stare while licking her lip. I chuckled.

"I –" I began.

"So this is why you get paid? To tell customers to go buy drinks elsewhere?" I rolled my eyes as she frowned at Trent, "Water, thank you, Love." He said giving her a smile.

"Coming up." She rolled her eyes at him before winking at me and leaving.

I looked at Trent annoyed. "What the hell is your problem, man?"

"You are. What the hell has gotten into you? I would have thought you were out looking for the guy that beat your mate up, but no, you're looking for another random hook up." He said.

I snorted. "Excuse me, but I think all of you need to back off a little. He isn't your mate and I don't give a fuck about him." Of course part of that was a lie considering that I did come to the bar to drown out my constant need to protect him, I had hoped the beer would do the trick and I wouldn't care about what his father had done but so far it had not done that.

"You don't? Really? Weren't you the one that freaked out when that first guy was touching him? Or the one hating on Finn for liking him?" Trent asked.

"Aren't you the hopeless loner that everyone would probably mistake for a homosexual or the guy that will one day live in his mom's basement?" I asked jokingly.

He frowned as I smirked. "This isn't a joke, Corey. You're going to look back and hate yourself if he gets hurt or if you go through with this." He said.

I snorted. "Because you just know everything about regret and mates, don't you?"

"Yes! Yes, I do!" He snapped, I opened my mouth but stopped when I glanced at his face and realised he wasn't joking.

I didn't want to say something bad so I settled for: "You don't even have a mate." He was quiet for a few seconds before giving a heavy sigh.

"Yeah... not anymore." He mumbled.

I turned to look at him confused. "What?"

"Hey," he called, I watched as the pretty waitress from before turned away from the freezer, "Uh... Forget the water." I raised my eyebrows. Something had messed him up badly in less than a minute.

"Something strong?" She asked with a smile.

"Please," Trent replied.

"'Not any more'?" I questioned.

"I only told Izabella this, Kade and Jay know about it though. My mate...she di... she's gone." He cleared his throat. I stared at him, completely annoyed.

"Is this your way of getting me to accept Jayden?" I asked a little pissed. Saying his mate was dead was a little over the top, wasn't it?

"I used it on Izabella when she hated Sean, but I'm not using it on you. I get that Jayden's not what you expected and I get that it's really hard for you to even accept him as a friend because you're afraid you'll end up liking him as more. But that's alright, Corey. Liking him is alright, I mean, who doesn't? I love him –" a growl escaped my lips before I realise what was happening, let alone stop myself and he smirked. Shit.

"Don't you dare, I didn't do that." I hissed at him.

"Yeah, I bet Casper did." He rolled his eyes, "If it makes you feel better I was going to say 'I love him like a brother'." I tried not to respond to that, "Whatever you're afraid of, Corey, you know we all got you no matter what."

"I know," I muttered. Obviously. But they were my friends, that's what they did. I wasn't worried about them.

"Then it's Galaxy? You're their Beta –" he was saying.

"You think that makes it any better? I can't be seen as some gay freak. I won't." He opened his mouth but I went on, "Maybe no one will be able to fight me out of my position, but I can't force anyone to stay in the pack, what's worse is that everyone will think we're weak. Everyone will think that Galaxy is a fucking joke! I won't have that! Not for anything. Not for anyone. I won't have most of the pack going rogue and I won't let people think we're weak. Jayden will find a new mate eventually. He'll be fine." I said. I got up to leave but he grabbed my shirt.

"No. No, he won't. You know he won't, Corey." Trent said. "Just because someone's gay does not make them weak. You won't randomly lose every ounce of strength you've ever had." He said. I knew he was right, but that wasn't the only problem. "You pretend to have so much faith in your pack... But you don't and them seeing that will lead to more problems than you accepting Jayden, you being gay or bi, ever will." He said before he sighed. I didn't speak. What was I supposed to say? I was worn out and I knew he was right so there was no point in arguing. "Let's go home before you wake up with another hangover." He smirked. I chuckled, happy the mood was lightening.

I chuckled. "Let's get those drinks first." I sat back down as the waitress slid the drinks in front of us.

"You know I don't drink, right?" He asked as stared at the glass in front of him.

"You need it more than I do," I replied.

He laughed grabbing his glass. "Yeah? One drink. One." He said.

I smirked.

"Alright."

*****