Chapter 1

Dawn was quickly approaching, and I had only a few minutes to make it back to the house before school started. It was senior year, and I was excited to get out of town and go to college. It would be difficult convincing my Aunt and Uncle, but it was the only choice I had in order to stall some time for the Run. The Run was where the females would run through the woods, and the males would fight over the female to become their mate. The one that caught the female first would be mated, and the unfairness of this was that only the Alpha families had to do this. Since I was in the Alpha family, I had to do this. This was the law so that the Alpha family would contain the best male genes along the bloodline. Ninety-nine percent of the time, soul mates were found. There was only one case where my great great grandmother was mated to this guy, but later found her true mate, and the Run was reversed or in modern words, a divorce. There had to be a divorce because mates cannot live without each other.

Anyway, I ran until I saw a brick house in the clearing. I stopped by some trees and changed back into my human form. After putting my clothes on, I quietly leapt into my room. My room was average size with a walk-in closet and my own bathroom thanks to my Uncle. He and my cousins, Will, Logan, and Gabe were very protective of me, and since we always had people coming and going, they decided it was best that I had my own bathroom where no males could barge in or make a pass at me. Just thinking about the time I was young and a guy in his forties almost came into the bathroom even when he saw me in there gives me the chills. If it hadn't been for my Uncle passing by, the guy would have molested me. Some of the unmated males have problems controlling themselves when they see an unmated female.

Since that incident, I had gotten my own bathroom. I grabbed a t-shirt and jean shorts and took a quick shower. Hopefully, my idiotic cousins waited for me or else I would be late and my Uncle would be very upset because he is busy most of the time dealing with pack matters. As I ran down the stairs, I saw Gabe about to leave.

I shouted, "Wait Gabe!"

He turned around to the sound of my voice and smiled. "Hurry up or we'll be late on our first day of school."

From all my cousins, Gabe was my favorite and the nicest. I quickly grabbed a banana from the kitchen and my bag and dashed to the garage where Gabe was waiting patiently, while Logan had a scowl on his face, and Will had a smirk.

"Took you long enough," Logan sneered.

"You don't have to be such a jerk about it. It only took me ten minutes to get ready," I said angrily.

Logan huffed and turned to look out the window. He was always like that in the mornings. Actually, he always acted like there was a stick up his arse. Even though he acted like he hated everyone even me, I know he loved me because he was furious once when I didn't come home for two days, and he wouldn't let me out of his site for a whole month until Uncle Tristan intervened.

I smacked Will up side the head for trying to steal my banana when I was lost in my thoughts. He always tried to steal my food, but never succeeded. Will yelped and went to the other side of the back seat.

I laughed while he just pouted. "You could have just asked you know."

"It's much more fun to steal your food," he grinned.

That earned him a smack from Logan.

"Hey! That's not fair. Two against one," sulked Will.

"Life's not fair," I smirked.

Will growled and was about to tackle me when we arrived at school. I hurriedly got out of the car and ran for the school. I heard Will yelling behind me, "I'll get you! Just you wait and see!"

"Just like you did last time." I chuckled at the memory of Will's plan of dropping a bucket of ice water on my head. It had back fired and landed on my Aunt. To say Will was trying to bribe my Aunt was an understatement. When he couldn't bribe her with chores, he started crying his eyes out because my Aunt could be scary when she wanted to be. His punishment was hilarious; my Aunt made him wear a vest and dress like a geek for a whole week of school. Will was upset that the girls stayed away from him, but according to him, "They just couldn't stay away from his hot body that long".

I looked at my schedule in hand, and headed off to Mr. Gale's class. He was a werewolf just like us and was good friends with my Uncle. I made it to class right before the bell rang. Mr. Gale raised an eyebrow at me, and I just shrugged. He started class by telling us what we are to accomplish in his history class. I zoned him out and looked out the window. After five minutes of zoning out, my best friend, who is also a werewolf, threw a paper ball at me. I turned around in my seat to see that Fiona was sitting beside Gabe, her crush. I opened the piece of paper and read:

What took you guys so long?

I wrote back to her:

You just want to know because you missed your lover.

I threw the note back at her and grinned evilly at her red face. Mr. Gale turned around from the board and "fake" glared at us. I smiled apologetically. After another few minutes, another paper ball hit me in the back of my head. I turned to glare at Fiona, but it was Gabe.

The note read:

Why is Fiona red and has her head down on the desk?

I wrote back:

Why don't you ask your lover since you're so concerned?

I threw the paper at him and hit his nose. I almost jumped up and yelled, Score! I looked at his face and saw that he was turning the same exact color as Fiona. I don't know why they can't just get together already. They are soul mates after all, but Gabe refuses to tell everyone that he's found his mate because he's afraid to scare her with his revelation even though I think he's stupid because she already loves him; on the other hand, Fiona refuses to admit her feelings to him. It doesn't matter now because I'm going to get them together before I leave this place. I just have to figure out how.

Once class was over, Gabe, Fiona, and I walked to our lockers which were right beside each other. Afterwards, Gabe went in the other direction to his math class while glaring at me. I knew he wasn't mad. That left Fiona and I. She looked around to make sure no one was around. I laughed at her antics.

"What's wrong with you?" she whisper yelled.

"What do you mean?" I said innocently.

"You know what I mean," she growled.

"No need to get angry," I grinned.

She banged her head on the locker, and glared at me. "I don't even know why I'm friends with you?"

"You love me, that's why. Anyway, I just wanted to see how your face would look especially sitting next to him," I sighed.

"It's not funny. He could have seen the note," she lectured.

"I'm sorry that you're just paranoid," I rolled my eyes at her antics.

"I guess that's the closest thing I'll get to an apology so I'll accept," she sighed.

"Can we get to class already because we're late?" I asked.

"Oh crap! We have Mrs. Millard. She already hates you, and now she's going to hate me," moaned Fiona.

"Chill, at least she doesn't hate you as much as me. I don't even know why she dislikes me so much," I said calmly.

We arrived to the English teacher's classroom only to be surprised to see a substitute instead of the old hag Mrs. Millard. Fiona and I smiled at each other because the sub was Ms. Young who adored us.

"Why are you two late?" she asked us.

"My locker wouldn't open and Fiona was helping me with it," I quickly made up an excuse.

She smiled a knowingly and told us to go to our seats. We had to sit in the front because all the seats were taken. Thankfully, we were watching a movie so I took a nap. Fiona didn't bother me because she knew that I hardly ever got sleep. Most nights I run in the woods or just knock myself out with sleeping pills. It's a good thing to be a werewolf sometimes. Overdose of sleeping pills don't kill you like it would a normal human. As I was napping, I was taken back to the same house I grew up in when I was younger. I've had this nightmare most nights that I sleep. It's the night of my parents' and my unborn brother's murder. Every time, I wake up with goose bumps and the red eyes embedded into my mind. However, this time, I was woken up abruptly before my mother's murder.

"Wake up Ivy!" yelled Fiona.

"Huh?" I rubbed my tried eyes.

"Are you ok? You were shaking violently," she asked concerned.

"I'm fine," I lied.

"The bell rang so let's go before Logan has a heart attack," smiled Fiona.

We made it to class on time. Before I knew it, it was time for lunch. Like always, I forgot to bring food and refused to eat school food unless it was pizza. I really wasn't in the mood to argue with Logan about lunch so I decided to go to the library after telling Fiona where I was. She gave me a concerned look, but let it go.

I walked into the library and greeted Mrs. Reed. She and I had gotten to know each other the last few years.

"Hi, Mrs. Reed," I greeted.

"Hello dear. How was your summer? Meet anyone?" she asked.

"No. What about you? Did you decide to leave Mr. Reed finally?" I teased.

"You know he would die without me so how could I?" she continued jokingly.

"Well, if you do change your mind, Mr. Edith is always there for you?" I chuckled.

Mr. Edith was the school janitor who has had a massive crush on Mrs. Reed since before I started high school. He always got her a Christmas present and Valentine's Day present, and she took it so that it didn't hurt his feelings. It's was too bad that Mrs. Reed is married; although, she would never give him a chance anyway because Mr. Edith is stalkerish.

I went to the bookshelves and started browsing for a good book to read. When I came across, Blood and Chocolate, I couldn't help but chuckle at the irony. Despite most of the stuff about werewolves being false, their was some truth to it, but most of it was hilarious, as if the moon could really affect us and make us change unwillingly. It was a good book, though. I have a copy at home that I read just for fun. A while later, I sensed Gabe come in.

"Hey, Gabe," I said without looking at his face.

"Why aren't you eating? Wait, you forgot your lunch again," stated Gabe.

"Yeah, and I'm not hungry," I said offhandedly.

"Logan's not happy about you skipping meals. He's worried, and so is everyone else," said Gabe quietly.

"Logan acts like he's my mother. I wish he wouldn't act so protective all the time. I can take care of myself, "I said angrily.

"He's just worried. You hardly eat, and sometimes you forget like last time you fainted," Gabe said softly.

"Tell him I'll eat as soon as I get home."

"Anything you want to talk about?" inquired Gabe.

"Fiona told you, huh?" I questioned.

"Yeah, I don't like this at all. You can't even sleep without the nightmares. If that monster hadn't been killed already, I would have ripped his throat out," Gabe said through clenched teeth.

"Don't worry about it. I should be used to this by now, considering it's been eleven years."

"How can I not? I'm your cousin, and even if it's been eleven years, you still can't get over the nightmares," Gabe said softly.

"It's not as bad as it used to be or that often," I lied.

"I'm not here to argue because I know you won't listen. How about half of my sandwich?" he offered.

"Gabe, I'm not really hungry, but thanks for the offer," I muttered sincerely.

"Alright, see you later," he waved walking out the library.

For the next twenty minutes of lunch, I surfed the web. When the bell rang, I waved goodbye to Mrs. Reed and left for my next class. Two more classes and I could finally go home. Math class was a nightmare, literally. Dalia, Diana, and Jasmine were in the class and couldn't stop trying to insult me, and it was worse because Logan was about to change forms because he was already mad at me for skipping lunch, and now, the three "divas" were messing with me. Logan absolutely despised them because they seemed to have a grudge against me. Thankfully, their "Queen" Portia wasn't in the class. She was a part of the pack but hated me for some unknown reason. We used to be friends, but she used me to get to my cousins. How cliché is that?

After that class was finally over, I went to my favorite class so far, free period where I could do anything I wanted to do including leaving school early. All my friends, Fiona, Will, Logan, Gabe, Emery and Sean, were in this class. I hugged Emery and Sean when I saw them since I hadn't seen them all today because apparently they had skipped until this period. Why bother coming than? I had asked them. I was trying to take a nap, but Emery thought it would be funny to throw paper at me every ten minutes. It got to the point where I chased Emery around the class until Mr. Banner told us to sit down. Then, Sean and Will started throwing spit balls at Fiona and me. When Mr. Banner wasn't looking, Fiona and I pinched their ears until they cried out mercy.

With the remainder of the period, I did most of my homework. Once the bell rang, I put my things in my locker and grabbed the last assignment to work on at home. I was the first person to get to Gabe's car so I waited. Fiona, Emery, and Sean were coming over later during dinner because of some meeting. I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't hear Will creep up on me. I screamed when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Don't do that!" I yelled at Will.

"That was so, ha- ha- ha, funny!" laughed Will.

Logan came up behind Will and smacked him upside the head. I smiled smugly while Will pouted.

"Where's Gabe?" asked Logan.

"Don't know," shrugged Will.

Finally, we spotted Gabe talking to Fiona, and it looked like they were smiling and flirting. Will and I exchanged looks while Logan just grunted. We saw them hug which made me smile. They were finally making way. On our way home, I told Gabe to drop me off at the park. Gabe seemed upset too but did not comment, while Logan demanded that I be home in two hours, or he'd come to get me. Once they left, I ran into the forest and found a good spot to hide my clothes. After shedding my clothes, I changed forms and ran through the forest.

11