Sleep didn't come easy as I tossed and turned. I couldn't stop thinking about my reaction to the guys. I'd had similar responses to select other people, but they were mild compared to what I'd experienced today.

When Tyler touched me, I'd nearly passed out and fallen over. When Justin touched me, it had been seductive and caring, but my vertigo had been intense, and his energy had literally caressed mine. When Lucas touched me, I'd somehow let him into my soul without a fight. I'd felt more joy than I ever had in my life. It was like I'd been floating on a cloud of unconditional love that was made just for me.

Why couldn't my life just be normal?

My mother had taken me to see a specialist after I turned sixteen, when all this shit started. The specialist said I was suffering from something dumb, like being extremely empathetic to the emotions of others. Of course, she didn't listen when I told her I didn't go through the same thing with everyone.

With most people, I felt nothing at all, but when I had a reaction, I always got a horrible migraine afterward. The doctor gave me a prescription to some horse pills that helped, but they had terrible side effects.

Most days, I went through life feeling nothing at all. I mean, I was me, but it was like I was on autopilot. For the past year, I went through the motions of daily life, but the pills made me feel like I was standing outside my body watching myself. At one point I gotten fed up with the lack of information about what happened to my dad. I decided I needed to be strong enough to get real answers, so I stopped taking the pills until a man accidentally walked into me at the mall.

The reaction I'd had was so horrible my boyfriend had to take me home. Even though they made me numb, I couldn't live without the pills. I could never go through that again.

Today I'd gotten three unimaginable reactions, and none of them had been bad. They'd been good, and one of them had been out of this world. Addictive. Maybe I could touch Lucas again to see if I could create the same reaction. I'd held his hand and given his energy permission to play with me, and it had been glorious.

Well, except for the extreme pain in my shoulders, and what the fuck was up with that shit? There had most definitely been something wrong with my shoulders like I was coming apart at the seams.

All the new things that happened today gave me nothing to look forward to tomorrow. If anything, I was scared shitless. I'd taken my pill when I came home earlier, and it should've worked by the time Lucas touched me. It should've blocked him out, but my reaction to him had been stronger than ever before.

I rolled over and tried to touch that spot on my shoulders to see if I had any injuries. Nothing. My skin was smooth and healthy.

A howl outside my window made me freeze in place. What the fuck?

Crawling out of bed, I tiptoed to the side of my window. Somehow, I knew something was out there watching my window, and I didn't want it to see me directly.

Carefully, I pressed my nose to the window frame and very slowly moved one eye to the side so I could see outside.

In the moonlit yard, I could see three huge dark shadows roaming around in the grass. They looked like gigantic dogs or... wolves? Were those fucking wolves?

One wolf glanced up at my window, and I immediately ducked into my hiding spot, falling to the carpet.

My heart raced in my chest as I struggled to catch my breath. Why in the hell were there wolves wandering around outside?

I glanced at the clock. Two in the morning. Everyone was asleep except for me, and the vicious wild animals clawing around under my window.

A loud howl came from one of them, but I was too petrified to move. Dogs did not like me, and I couldn't even imagine what wolves would do to me. This wasn't good.

For one moment, I questioned if I should run downstairs and wake up Aunt Debbie. Maybe she had a gun or something. If anything, I knew she had knives. Basic kitchen knives would be better than nothing.

And what the hell was I going to do? Walk outside and stab a fucking wolf in the middle of the night? No. That was not happening.

After five minutes of static silence, I finally mustered up enough courage to peek outside again.

Getting to my knees, I trembled as I slowly lifted my head just high enough to see the yard. It was empty.

Was I seeing things? If so, I was most definitely losing my fucking mind.

Crawling back into bed, I tossed and turned until I finally fell asleep.

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