Lilly

"Just my f'ing luck! Of course it breaks down on me now!" I shout shoving open the driver side door and slam it shut. Rounding to the front of the car, which now has steam spewing out of it, I pry open the hood using a crow bar that I keep in the trunk, not wanting to touch the hot surface. "I don't even know why I opened it; what am I even freaking looking at?!" Feeling overwhelmed, tired and on the verge of tears ungracefully I sit down on the dirt road I have been driving down. Squinting up at the blazing sun, I give it the ugliest look like it is the source of my despair and then back down to my ballet flats covered in dirt. "Ok…there's no use in crying about it all." After I sit there awhile holding back tears the little car repair shop in town comes to my mind. "Surely this piece of junk can make it 10 miles," I mutter as I gather my curled hair off my sweaty neck and secured into a ponytail.

Parking my mustang in front of Johnny's Auto Repair shop, as the sun is starting to set; there is an uneasy feeling that creeps into my spine. Tired and stressed, I shrug it off and open the door to Johnny's. Inside the empty old shop there is a reception area that has a desk littered in paperwork and tools and across from the desk are worn chairs sitting around a wooden coffee table holding newspapers and old car magazines. This place in away feels like home, but looking out the window of the door which leads to the garage behind the reception desk, I suddenly know why I felt so on edge.

Turning quickly from the window, I take off towards the front door, my mind screaming at me to get out of there! Just as I am about to open the front door a rumbling voice stops me, "Can I help you with something?" Contemplating about just running out of the shop, I slowly turn around. Standing beside the desk wiping the motor grease from his hands, is a tall, muscled, tanned man. Staring at him, I think to myself, "If I was human I would think I was the luckiest woman alive right now….but we both aren't human now are we?" Realizing that I still hadn't answered his question stuttering I replied, "Uh Umm, yes. Well…. I don't know much about cars, but something's wrong with mine." Well shoot good getting you outta there. "Uh, but you guys look real busy. I can just take my car somewhere else." Seeing that as a feasible excuse I turn back towards the door. "Oh? But it would be no problem at all. You do need help with your car don't you?" He says walking past me to open the door I was going to run out. Holding open the door for me he tells me, "Let's have a look."

I stand to the side of the garage while Gage O'Brien, as he introduced himself to me while getting my car, works at the hood of it. Letting my eyes wander around the garage, I find that those men I had seen while looking through window earlier where no longer there. Only one other was in the back fixing up an old rusty truck. Where and why did they go? "Are you from around here, Lilly?" He questions, breaking me from my thoughts. Before I can answer he interjects, "I haven't seen you here before."

I think to myself, "Geez Louise! I need get out of here fast before he asks anymore questions." Lying through my teeth I reply, "I'm just visiting a friend." Thinking, "He'll never know I live here. Yes, it's a small town, but we will never run into each other … and there are probably plenty of pretty girls throwing themselves at him already. Yup see there's really no reason to feel guilty for lying…But why do I still feel guilty?" "I'll just be going now – thanks for the help!" I say backing as fast as I can out of the shop door.

"Oh no you don't," Gage says grabbing my wrist pulling me to him just as I am about to disappear out the door. Whispering in my ear he says, "I know you're lying. I can feel the fear run through you." His hot breath tickling my ear causes me to close my eyes and I savor the shivers that run down my back. My eyes snap open; I realize what is going on. Snap out of it Lilly! Get away from him now! "I have nothing to lie about. Let me go!" I reply in a high whisper. Putting himself directly in front of me so that I cannot be seen by the other two men across the way Gage says, "Sorry, love can't do that. I have to know that you're going to be safe." Why in the world…what? "Why?" Gage seems to struggle over my question internally, but replies "Well, being that its dark out. I just want to make sure that you make it safely to wherever you may be going is all." Breaking away from Gage to push open the door again I tell him, "Thank you for your…thoughtfulness. But I can handle myself out there. Have a good night."

"I sure hope you can…my mate," mutters Gage. "Excuse me?" I gasp turning back to him. Gage shakes his head as if trying to clear his thoughts, turning to head back into the garage. "Have a good night, Lilly. I'll be seeing you in the morning." I stand in place watching him walk, hesitating a moment and then quickly going out the door into the dark night.

Gage

"I'm such a fucking idiot! The moment she came into the shop I knew she was my mate and what do I do?" I shout slamming a wrench against the wall. "You scare her and then let her run away," A calm voice answers back to me from across the garage. I frown and turn around to look at my Beta and friend since grade school, Nathan. "What did I do wrong?" I ask Nathan, "Aren't mates supposed to know each other? We are supposed to just fit, right?"

"Gage…man you need to calm down," Nathan says walking towards me with hands held up in surrender pointedly nodding to the tool I had picked up to throw again. Dropping the pliers that were in my hand back into the metal drawer, I lean against the work bench. Sitting down beside me Nathan sighs, "Dude listen, it's just, I think you went a little too fast a little too soon. You get me? And I mean how do you know she's your mate? What if she's human-do you really think she's going to understand her feelings right away for you?"

"I just know she's my mate. Look I know it seems stupid but she's just the one and no, I don't think she's totally human. I mean the way she acted. I almost had her and then it was like I dumped cold water on her," I respond.

Nathan stood up from sitting, "Exactly, so let's say you are right about her not being solely human. What do you think she is?"

"I'm pretty sure I scented werewolf, but it was light."

"I think your right because I did too, but wasn't sure," Nathan states. "Do you think it's because she hasn't been through the change from human to werewolf yet? Females usually start the change later than males."

Nathan continued when I didn't respond, "It would make since especially the way she was acting. She must know our ways." I nod agreeing with him. "You need to be careful man. You don't even know what clan she is from. There's no Thompson pack around here that I know of. Just get to know her first Gage. You can't go around threating and being all Alpha on her. The more Lilly is comfortable with you, the more she will open up. She'll come back for her car and that's when you can start over."

"Fuck. I just wish I hadn't messed this all up in the first place." I say going back to work on the mustang, but it isn't long before Lilly starts to make her way back into my thoughts.

Lilly

Realizing that I have nowhere to go after running out of the garage so quickly I sink down next to the trash can against the wall out of sight were no one can see me. I can hear tools and what sounds like cursing going on inside. Putting my hands into my jeans I feel my phone in my front right pocket. I sigh knowing that I'll probably have to get my brother Zane to help me even though I don't want him to because he's been so busy and cranky lately. I pull the black phone out of my pocket and swipe the screen to unlock it. I hesitate looking at my icons on my wallpaper and then started a text to Zane.

L: Hey could u pick me up?

Z: I'm kind of busy. Y?

L: Look I know ur busy but I have no one else to help me. My car broke down plz come pick me up.

Z: Where r u?

L: In town Johnny's.

Z: Y the hell r u there? U know who they r don't u?

L: I do now.

Z: Shit. Lilly, do they know about u?

L: Probably ok. Do not even start. I have done a lot of crap for u, this is the least u could do for me. Just because ur all big man now does not mean u can run over me.

L: If u can't help me I will just see if my new "friends" in Johnny's could help me.

Z: Do not do something that stupid. I'll be there as soon as I can. I'm leavin now. R u still johnny's? If u r go to the shopping center across the road. Get as far away from them as u can.

Putting my head into my hands I groan knowing that I should heed my brother's warnings, so I pick myself up off the ground and head toward the shopping center. Looking both ways I find the road I'm going to cross to be empty. I listen to how quiet the night is, but that's how it is most of the time here and that's the way I like it. The quiet gave me a sense of peace after that run into with the O'Brien's. I think about why I was so afraid when I looked into that window at the garage. My mind picks through memories and brings my past to the present.

No matter how much I did not want to relive this memory, it still came to me anyways.

It started out with my six year old self eating spaghetti at the dining table with my Mom and little brother, Zane. As we're eating, Mom suddenly jumps out of her chair and runs to look out the large front windows of our living room. I sit there watching her with my fork frozen in midair.

"Mom?" I climb off my chair and run to her. I pull on her dress trying to get her attention. Calling her name over and over, but she just stares out the window with a look of horror on her face. I move closer to the window so that I too can see what she is staring at.

There were these men; they were just standing there on our front porch, each with a disgusting smirk on their faces. Getting uneasy, I pull hard on my mom's hand. "Mommy, who are they?" Suddenly as if just noticing I was there, she turns to me and that's when all the chaos begins. She runs and grabs Zane from his chair at the table with me following close at her heels. Mom takes us into her room and pushes open the closet door. Grabbing me by the hand she hurriedly takes us to the back of the walk-in closet.

"Here, sit here." I sit where she points to as she sets a whining Zane down next to me. We were hidden behind the long suits and dresses hanging in the closet. Mom gets down on her knees in front of me and gathers my face into her hands. "You got to listen to me ok, Lilly?"

I nod yes into her hands slowly. "But Mommy, those people, who are they?"

"Listen to me." She says again, but with more force this time.

"You are going to stay in here with your brother. Do not open the door for any reason. Don't move. You and Zane need to be very quiet, ok? Do you understand me?"

"Do not leave that spot and keep Zane quiet." She repeats before I can answer her last question.

Crying, I ask her, "Mommy, what's happening?"

She stands back up suddenly looking over her shoulder as we hear banging at the front door; she then leans down slowly giving both of me and Zane a kiss on our heads and lingers there as if she wants to say something more. The next thing I know though, she is walking quickly out of the closet and shutting the door tightly behind her. She didn't even give a glance back to us. I just sit there sobbing, not knowing what to do. "What is she doing?" I start screaming, "Mom, where are you going? Mommy?" I get up to follow her on shaking legs with tears streaming down my face.

I remember though, what she has said to me as I reach to turn the doorknob. I look back at Zane who is now crying too; he has big alligator tears running down both of his red cheeks as he stumbles after me. Turning back I grab Zane into my arms and pull us back further into our mother's long dresses to hide us. I try to soothe him. "Mommy said we have to be quiet!" Desperately I cry to my little brother. Rubbing gentle circles down his back as I had seen mom do so many times to get him to sleep. I just kept whispering to him over and over again, "Shh…It's gonna be ok."

Now I am just angry. Angry at my mom, my life, my car, heck I'm even angry at the myself. I grit my teeth as I find myself entering the grocery store that is a part of the shopping center. Why can't my memories just stay where they need to be, in the past? Walking down an empty aisle, I fight the urge to knock over the cans of green beans that I so want to take my frustration out on. Aisle after aisle I find myself getting more irritated and I decide that going through the maze of the store is not a great way to vent.

So I make my way out of there and find an empty bench that has seen better days. Flopping down onto it, I let out a long sigh and let my eyes wander around the almost empty parking lot of the shopping center. Soon my mind starts to wander as well and I think about what had gotten me so angry.

The day those strange men came and my mother hid me and my brother was the day that changed our lives forever. My father, Adam Thompson, had wanted to be his own leader. He no longer wanted to follow under the shadow of an Alpha. My mother, Mandy, was scared though of what would happen if he had lost. She wanted to keep under the rule of the Coles even though they were evil, vengeful people using everyone under them like dogs.

She separated from him and took me and Zane to live in another town. I remember her waking Zane and I in the middle of the night and putting us into the car and driving off. I don't remember much of my Dad. Pretty much everything I know about him has been told to me by other people. One memory that I do have though is asking my mom over and over again when we were going to see Daddy. I remember the pain of missing him. Well, I guess finally she got tired of my asking one day and shouted, "We are never going to see your asshole of a Daddy ever again. Don't go asking me anymore!" About three weeks after we left my Dad, he did go through with challenging the Alpha, Ryker Cole. My Dad lost and he was killed on the spot. The men's names that came to our house that day were Ryker, Brayden, and William Cole. They felt that if the Father had the thought stuck in his head to overrule the Alpha and to start another pack, that the offspring and wife would think that way as well.

Killing my mother by shooting her in the head, they left her to bleed out onto our front lawn. They then continued on into our house ransacking it until they found me and Zane. Dragging us out of the house, they threw us out beside our Mother. Landing in the blood soaked grass, I slowly moved to kneel and as I looked into Mom's open lifeless eyes staring at me, I screamed. I grew quiet when a hard slap made my face whip to the side. "Shut up, you little shit!" I did not move or say anything after that as tears pooled into my eyes. Zane had his face burrowed into my stomach with his little hands making fists grabbing onto my clothing and I held him to me vowing to myself never to let him go.

Before this day, I had never known of werewolves, but it had very soon become my life. The Cole's brought us into their world and thrust me and Zane into being pack members of Clan Cole. We had lived under their roof doing their dirty work. The Cole's did not have a great relationship with the other clans in the town of Fort Grant which were the Fleming's and the O'Brien's and were always starting trouble with them. Our only savor was a sweet middle aged woman, her name was Fiona Reaney. She had been brought into the Cole clan when all of hers were killed by them. Everything we now know to survive within a clan and everything from manners to bravery we owe to Mrs. Reaney.

From being thieves to spying to killing we did it all just to continue on because we had no one left to turn to. When I was thirteen though, I got a job separate from the clan at clothing boutique. The only reason I was allowed to get that job was because of Cara. She was Brayden Cole's daughter and also my best and only friend since being thrown in to the pack. Cara convinced her Dad to let her and I work at that little boutique called Georgiana Clothing. I worked as much as I could trying to balance it, school and pack duties. Around this time, when Zane was ten, he went through the change and was able to shift between human and werewolf. Finally, by the time I am twenty one and Zane is eighteen, I have saved up enough money to buy myself and Zane a house of our own. We vowed to still be indebted to the Clan and were granted the "right" to be able to move out of the clan house. I would never forget thought. I will never forget and I will never let my brother forget that we are Thompson's and not Cole's. One day the tables will soon change.

A car horn brings me out of my thoughts and I look up to see my brother waiting for me in his Jeep. "Thank you Zane," I say as I get into the car before he starts with his scolding. "Well, what are you going to do now for transportation?" He questions me as we head out of town toward our house.

"What do you mean? I'm going to get you to drop me off in the morning so I can get my car." He looks over at me like I had suddenly grown another head, "No you're not! You can't just go waltzing back in there thinking everything is all fine and dandy!

"They are O'Brien's for Christ sake! What if they find out that we are in Cole's clan, huh?" "What are you going to say, Oh, Alpha Gage thank you for fixing my car and by the way I'm so sorry for that raid we did on your cousin's house the other day," Zane exclaims using a shrill voice to imitate a woman with his hand flung over his heart.

I had been glaring out the window, letting Zane be the grown up one for once. I am trying to figure out how to get out of this "mate" mess until he says Gage's name. Jumping around to face him I ask, "How do you know his name?"

"Are you even listening and whose name are you talking about?" He grumbles setting the cruise control.

"Gage's," I yell throwing my hands up into the air.

"I dunno Lilly! Geez, it's just like common knowledge. Why?"

"Uhh no reason, no reason at all," I say giving him a reassuring smile.

After glancing at me with a weird expression, Zane turns back to watching the road. With his eyes still on the road he says, "You could always ask Ol' Ryker for a loaner car."

Now it is my turn to stare at him, "Are you insane? I am not going to be indebted to Ryker. We both know that if I were to ask to borrow anything from him, he will ask for something much more in return."

"Well, what are you going to do then?" Zane asks again.

"Holy heck! It's not like I told Gage I'm in the Cole clan!" I exclaim feeling exasperated. " I don't go around introducing myself to everyone like 'Hi, how do you do?' My name is Lilly Thompson and I'm a loyal pack member of the Coles."

I manage to get a grin out of Zane from that one, but he asks once more, "Are you sure they don't know because I'm sure they would like to get some retribution from what Ryker has been planning for the O'Brien's."

Pausing before I speak, my mind wanders to Gage and I lie, "Yep, I'm sure they are clueless."