I sat on my front porch, breathing shallowly. It'd been an hour since I'd gotten home to that nightmare, and my little sisters were obsessed with the new kitty. He let them touch him, let them pet him, but he glared at me the entire time. I was only out there to keep the girls safe; I was afraid he'd hurt them if I wasn't there. They were trying to feed him some cat kibble they'd gotten for me- though they didn't know it was me they were feeding- but he wasn't opening his mouth. It was creepy, like he was waiting for something. My parents had left me alone, knowing that I'd shut down yesterday, and today had been so much worse. I wanted to shower, to wash the icky feeling of his hands away, but my sisters were more important; and I was too afraid of them bringing him inside while I showered to risk it. He'd probably rape me in the shower.

So I sat out there, shivering slightly and holding his gaze until my brother shook my shoulder, making me jump in panic. He knelt down, opening his arms for a hug, and I realized everyone else had gone inside. I glanced at the cat, eyes tearing up, and grabbed George's hand to pull him inside, closing and locking the door before I let George hug me. I shivered, and he squeezed me before pulling away and looking me in the eye. "Are you okay?" He asked, sounding sincere and guilt-pained. I shook my head, eyes tearing up as I blinked my eyes and remembered the feeling of his hands on me. I still felt so filthy, like I was being grabbed by dozens of hands and they were all rubbing their greasy selves along my stomach. I opened my mouth and spoke for the first time since the incident that day. "I'm going to shower. Don't let the cat in until I'm done... okay?" My voice was soft, hoarse from lack of use, and dry.

He nodded, not questioning it. I'd made weirder requests in the past, and I hugged him gratefully; I loved that he loved me so much. When I let him go, I all but ran downstairs to our shower, grabbing spare clothes and my towel before walking into the bathroom and locking the door. I stripped, folding up the clothes and placing them on the counter, while I put the clean ones on the toilet seat and covered them with my towel. I turned on the water, waiting for it to heat up before turning on the shower-head and stepping inside the thing. I felt my muscles relax as I stood under the water, sighing and feeling the stress, fears, and worries of the day wash off of me. I sped up the process by gently rubbing the water across my skin before stepping back and leaning my head into the water. I soaked that and pulled it out before taking the shampoo and squeezing some into my hair.

I rubbed it in, scratching my scalp with my nails before washing off my hands and turning to grab the body soap. I shivered, almost feeling like someone was watching me, but I knew no-one was in the bathroom with me so I simply began lathering the body soap across my skin before washing it off under the water. I let myself get lost in the feeling of the warm water against my skin and waited a few minutes before washing the Shampoo out of my hair. When that was done, I simply relaxed in the warm water, basking in its wonderful clean feeling before reluctantly turning it off and stepping out of the shower. I grabbed my towel and began drying off, ignoring the world as I tried to push away the sense of being watched.

Until I heard the meow.

I whipped my head around and stared at the cat in my bathroom, paling at the sight of him. I whined, backing up against the side of the tub as tears began to sting my eyes. George had promised, but he'd lied. I hid under the towel, and shivered, my eyes squeezed shut until a person spoke. "You're an omega, that much is obvious; but you are way more submissive than you should be, and terrified of how easily I can control you. This is odd..." I was frozen, my eyes wide in terror at the sound of his voice. It was the alpha from the alleyway, and this time I was locked in a bathroom along with him. My breathing grew hitched and shallow as I tried to think of some way to get him away other than screaming. He'd shift back, and my family would see me screaming at a cat. They knew I wasn't that crazy, and I'd have to show them my gift to get them to believe I hadn't snapped and gone off my rocker. A hand touching the towel had me covering my mouth as I screamed; and he jerked away. I breathed shakily and heavily, still hiding under the towel, my eyes burning with held-back tears.

He was silent for a moment before he spoke again, thankfully on the other side of the room. "Why are you so... innocent? My body is aching with how conflicted I am. That stupid Luna had to come and throw off my hormones... look, kid, I'm sorry about what happened today. I wasn't thinking right, and... and now I'm making things worse by trying to apologize to the most submissive little twit ever. You're terrified of me, and I snuck into your shower. Just the kind of horny, screwed up thought process I should be expecting of myself. I'm sorry. I won't let myself or my cat bother you again unless you walk into another alley. I hope you forgive me eventually..." I heard a sigh, and then nothing. I was quiet for several minutes, and when I looked up, I saw the door open a hint of a crack and he'd left me.

I finally began sobbing again. Not because I'd almost been raped- again- but because, deep down; a part of me wanted to forgive him. And that wasn't right. That just... it wasn't right. George found me there, crying, almost half an hour later; and he sat next to me in silence for another half hour. It was Monday, and I knew he had a job to go to, but I couldn't bring myself to push away his comfort. It was so confusing, and every part of me was fighting itself as I tried to figure out what I was feeling and what I wanted. There was one thing I knew for certain though. No matter how much he wanted me too, and no matter how conflicted I grew about it...

There was no way in hell I was forgiving him.

_____________Since I was asked, have some time with Alex... and Alec. :)________________

I sat grooming myself in a tree on the edge of the forest, waiting for Alec to get here. My cousin was visiting from down in some Texas forest, and I was waiting for him. I couldn't get the blasted boy out of my head. He was terrified of me, and that hurt me in a confusing way. I knew why he was scared of me, I understood the reasons perfectly, but I was still confused. I hadn't felt any hatred from the boy, no anger or desire to get payback; just a sense of fear and sadness. That was the most confusing part. How could someone endure something that obviously terrified them, scarred them in some way, and not feel anything for the person who hurt them? I mean, even disgust would've been better than nothing; it was completely weird and made less than no sense, but I guess I'd simply have to deal with it. Which returned me to my problem. Why would I have to deal with it? Why couldn't I get him out of my head?

Of course, that's when Alec pushed me out of the tree.

I landed hard, sprawling flat against the forest floor as I heard him purring above me. I painted for a few moments before shaking myself and looking up to glare at him, watching him slowly make his way down from the tree. Then he growled playfully after hitting the ground. Most species alphas are naturally bigger in all of their forms, but cats are only big when they aren't small. Yeah, I know, duh; but I mean small as in when they are in their domestic forms... house-cats. I myself spent most of my time as a house-cat since my larger form, a mountain lion, tended to catch the attention of the humans. It was more fun to watch them live their lives unknowing of us. It gave us benefits that most humans only wished for; mostly that none of our bodies were dissected to figure out what scientific explanation there was for how vampires were dead but alive, how shifters shifted, how witches used magic, how the mer and dragons existed in the first place, despite evolution denying the very possibility of their ability to be alive and do what they did.

Of course, we also did things that humans would consider illegal, like our pack systems that controlled how we fit together as shifters, and the vampires diet- those only the largest, most obvious things. Humans would demand that omegas be given as much control in a pack as the alpha, but that physiologically wouldn't work; omegas were simply too subservient. As for a vampires diet... there was no substitute for blood, and shifter blood like my own couldn't sate them as well as human blood. Humans would demand they feed far less often, and they'd demand that they themselves be left alone, that vampires not feed on any more humans. Those kind of actions would drive the vampires into a literal starvation mode, making them lose their minds until their craving for blood was sated; and then the humans would punish them for losing control under the idiotic, uncompromising laws that they put in place without trying to understand why we were against it.

Humans were moronically single-minded and stubborn that way.

I got tackled for losing my attention again and he held me down as I growled, glaring up at his smug face. He leaned close and licked my face affectionately as I writhed, grumbling and managing to push him off of me before standing up. He shifted, grinning as he leaned back against the tree, and I sat glumly in my cat form. He was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and he smiled cheekily at me. He had brown hair and grey eyes, his skin a Grecian tan that made girls fall for him. And he had clothes. I glowered at him and he laughed, before pointing up at the branch he'd knocked me off of. "Look up there, pouty kitty. And try to keep 'em this time. No more bets or strip poker, you suck at gamblin'." I glowered as I walked to the tree and leapt up the trunk, shifting and changing on the branch before dropping to the ground. We were cousins, but where he was a Greek god, I was a dark-skinned devil.

I had dark, caramel colored skin and all-but black hair. My eyes were so dark brown they seemed to be black. In fact, sometimes he simply said they were black, despite the impossibility of that coloration in human eyes. The dark contrasted against the light amber color they gained when I let the magic in my blood rise to the surface. He smiled lazily at me and I shrugged. "It's good to see you cuz, why'd you choose to visit today? It's been a month, and you killed the last pack-mate I sent to tail you. Why can't I know where you live again?" Alec chuckled, eyes flashing dangerously. "Simple, cuz. 'cause, I don't want you to visit me and pester me for clothing every time you gamble yours away." I narrowed my eyes. "That doesn't answer my question, cousin." I hated how manipulative he could be. Luckily he only got this way on rare occasions when his family was hur-...

I paused at the thought, blinking as he raised an eyebrow. I groaned. "Oh, come on! How?!? There is no way in the hells you could have known I felt off!" He smiled. "I didn't. I came by to check on you. People often tell me when they're upset as soon as I ask them why I came to visit. Like with my raised eyebrow." I sat there, dumbfounded as he grinned, then saw my expression and collapsed in laughter, falling over on his side as he did so. When he calmed down, he looked up at me smiling. "Okay then, Alex; what's wrong?" I thought about telling him to buzz off, but, knowing him, he'd trick me into telling him anyways. I sighed, slumping in defeat.

"A Luna went through recently and messed up my head. I almost raped some kid two days in a row and my hormones are still off kilter. I thought he was human at first, but he can shift. One of my Betas is certain he saw the kid shift, even though he smells completely human. He's certainly submissive enough to be an omega, but..." I trailed off, remembering how badly he'd reacted to my touch. How scared he'd been when I was merely in the room with him. Even as a cat. Alec watched me, taking his time. "But what?" I sighed, looking away. I opened my mouth to answer his question but he spoke before I could. "He's way more subservient than an Omega, to the point it actually scares you, and now you think you're starting to fall for the guy. Right?" I froze, staring at him in horrified confusion.

"How...?" He grinned, and a slight twang in my head let me realize he'd looked at my thoughts. I watched him warily, anger nowhere in my mind. "You sir, are goood." He nodded, smiling as his eyes sparkled. Then he grew somber again. "Well... he definitely is a shifter. He knew who you were the moment he saw you earlier today, and he wasn't shocked. As for Omega... he probably is. Your memories don't really show him displaying any other kinds of traits, and there is no way in the hells he's an alpha with that kind subservience. But... he may have a mental disorder." I listened carefully, and I blinked when he said disorder. "What... What do you mean?" He looked at me sadly, standing and stretching. "I mean, Alex, that he might have Aspergers syndrome, or Tourette's, or SAD, or some other problem. You've fallen for a broken boy, Alex..." He smiled sadly, turning and shifting before dashing away into the woods, as per flipping usual, leaving me to digest what I'd just heard. It made sense.

I was going to freaking slap myself when I got back to the alley I called home.
_________________________________(A/N) Hey Guys! Chapter three! Kill me! Goodnight! X)

Till next time, Sept-Mates!

Your Poet and Scribe,
~ShadeFinder<(0^0)>