Scratching.

It was this itch on my back that I couldn't scratch.

Reaching around, I tried not to wake Ethan, but the itching was getting worse. I was squirming, my arms twitching to reach an itch that seemed to be spreading over me.

Ethan stirred then rolled slightly, pinning me on my back while he had his head buried in the crook of my neck with an arm and a leg tossed over me. Sighing, I tried to squirm some more and get the itch on my back but it was a futile effort.

"Charlotte," something whispered.

I stirred and scratched at my arms. "Charlotte come and see."

"What?" I murmured out while I scratched at my stomach.

"It's time to see Charlie, you need to see," it sang to me.

Charlie. It called me Charlie. Only people who really knew me called me that–really only Levi called me that.

"Eve?" I whispered out.

"Wake up and come," the whisper said. I scratched at my thigh, sleep fighting hard to pull me back. "Wake up!" it yelled out.

I sat straight up in bed, the itching getting worse and my skin starting to break out into a cold sweat. "Lydia?"

"Charlotte," it sang a little louder.

"Babe," Ethan said, the sound of his nose sniffing breaking up the quiet in the dark. He reached over and clicked on a bedside lamp while I looked around the room, but I knew I wouldn't find anyone. It wasn't a person, it was them. It was the ones that whispered to me. "Shit, baby!"

"What?" I asked while Ethan pulled an arm to him. Looking down, I muffled a scream with my mouth; I had scratched so much that I had scratched my skin raw.

Quickly I lifted up the shirt I was wearing to look at my stomach; angry claw marks were raked across it and matching ones were on my thighs. "Baby? Did you–"

"The itching," I muttered out. "All night, it was so bad. I–I."

Ethan got out of bed then went quickly to the bathroom. He grabbed a few towels and wet them in the sink before he made his way back to me, eying the scratches that I couldn't take my eyes off of. "Baby, did you hear the whispers again?"

"Did you?" I asked while he tugged my shirt off.

He nodded. "Before I woke, that and I smelled blood," he said while wiping away at the blood on my stomach. "Ok, lay back. Let me lick these."

"They called me Charlie, Ethan." His surprised gaze met mine while he crawled back on the bed, leaning over my stomach slightly.

"You're sure?"

"Positive," I replied back before cool tingles spread over my belly where he licked at it.

"Do you still itch now?" he asked while he looked down at my thighs.

"A little," I answered honestly. I clenched my fists together while he dabbed away at the blood with a towel to keep from reaching back out at my skin.

"Was it like this before?" he asked before he leaned down and licked at my right thigh.

I shook my head. "No," I breathed out. "Never."

He pulled away then looked back at me while his fingers mindlessly traced the scratches on the inside of my left thigh. "Baby, what are you thinking?"

"I need to follow them, Ethan," I said, his face slightly dropping before he started to lick at my thigh. "I don't think they will hurt me. I need to go."

He let out a shaky breath then scooted up so he could rest his head on my stomach. "I'm going with you."

"Obviously," I replied. "I'm not chasing some creepy ass shadowy fog people without you."

Ethan smiled tiredly then leaned up to kiss me. "Alright, let's go walk into what sounds like the plot of one of those awesome horror movies you love," he said sardonically.

"They're scary!"

"Sure babe." He got off the bed and held out a hand to me. "Let's go then."

I took his hand and when I did the butterflies in my stomach erupted. They erupted but my beast nudged me forward–we had to find out. We had to know what was going on.

We were also pretty sure that whoever these things–these people were, wouldn't hurt us. My beast and I had no idea why we thought that, but it was a feeling as strong as the itching. The itching that Ethan had to help me stop a few times while we ran. I didn't even realize that I was doing it until Ethan would snap at my paw, stopping me from further harming my skin.

Ethan jogged to a burrow and pulled out some clothes for us. I shifted while the tree swayed in the wind while cool fog rolled in. Someone was pulling a thick gray sweatshirt over my head, before shorts were being put into my hand. "Remind me to put those packs of shirts and sweats at Sam's on the list for the next Sam's run."

"Got it," I replied while I slipped on the shorts.

Ethan sighed. "Fog? Really? This couldn't be less creepy?"

I smiled then walked over to him and took his hand in mine. "Now what fun would that be?"

He dipped down and kissed me, his lips lingering before he rested his forehead on mine. "I love you sunshine."

"I love you too," I replied before I tiptoed up to kiss him again.

The tree was swaying again when I walked up. It was swaying and the leaves seemed to be vibrating–shaking with energetic anticipation. I could feel it–feel it reaching out to me like gentle hands pulling me into the shallows of a pool to only walk deeper in.

"Are you sure?" Ethan asked.

I nodded. "Yes, I have to do this."

"Alright, let's do this then," he replied before he tugged us forward. He looked at the tree and let out a hot breath. "Lucas this better not be a damn joke."

I breathed out a sharp laugh. "This would be our luck that your brother and Lucas had this all planned out."

Ethan pulled me against his chest and wrapped an arm around my waist. "Well," he said, linking our fingers together. "Let's find out."

He held out hands up and I could feel it. I could hear it. It was a woman calling to me–yelling at me to come. She sounded frantic, so desperate.

The blood in my veins lit up and soon I found myself moving our hands to the trunk of the tree. Touching it while a rush of a thousand electric tendrils combed over me–combed over me as I was pulled.

"It's time to see Charlotte," it whispered.

"Come and see," a female whispered.

Something cool was tickling my cheek. I blinked and I was in front of the tree with my hand pressed to it. I was there, but Ethan was not.

Quickly I turned around in the night while the fog continued to rush past me. My heart beat frantically while I searched around for my mate. "Ethan!"

My voice echoed in the night, but Ethan never called back. My beast reached out to him–I reached out to him. The bond was there, the link was there, but it was like it was frozen–like the link was put on pause while I was running on play.

"Ethan?!" I yelled out again.

"He's fine," a female answered.

"Who are you?" I asked, looking around for the person that the voice originated from.

"Who are you, Charlotte?"

"What–"

And I was pulled.

I was back in the kitchen. Back in the kitchen Ethan and I had seen before. But this kitchen was not bright and happy like I remembered it, it was covered in blood.

Blood spattered on the yellow cabinets. Blood smeared by handprints on the wall. Blood spilled in puddles on the floor.

There was so much blood.

And there was a man.

There was a man in a chair with his hands buried in his hair while he let out sharp sobs. Shaking his head, he looked up at something but I couldn't see his face. It was blurred out and all I saw was a mess of dark hair and blue eyes.

"What have you done?" he choked out. "What have you done!?"

I was pulled again; quickly but gently through the air until I landed on my feet where I stood on green grass.

Looking down at the green grass between my toes I could feel the sun on my face. I looked around but all I saw was trees. Tall trees that looked similar to the ones back home by Levi's cabin.

There was a cry, more like a laugh. A baby's laugh. I ran towards it, the sound of the baby cooing pulling me like a rope that was tugging me hard.

There was a man, but he was different than the one I has seen before. All I could see was him, but I couldn't see his face. His face was blurred out as well.

But I could see the baby.

There was a little baby with dark hair and blue eyes in a carrier. It was hugging a blue bear to it–a blue teddy bear.

"Is this–"

"What is this? What have you done?" a voice asked.

I turned around to see who it came from. I wasn't paying attention to the voice because I was so transfixed on the baby. However, when I turned I was back in the fog, back at the tree.

A series of pants came out of my mouth while I tried to put it together. I had to put it together.

I knew it was a memory; and if it was a memory, that means the person whose memory it was, was there when it happened. That means that if that baby in the carrier was who I thought it was, then these people–shadows, showing me were there as well. They were there. They had to be. Someone had to be.

"Who are you?! What the hell do you want?!" I cried out.

"Who are you, Charlotte?"

I growled out in frustration. "Christ, will you stop with the redundancies?!"

"You're supposed to be dead Charlie," a man's voice said from next to me.

"What–"

I was tackled. I was tackled and I couldn't see who it was but I could sure as hell feel their claws raking against my stomach.

I cried out then sent a blind fist in front of me, hitting something on the dark shadow around me which seemed to work. Scrambling to my feet, my beast charged forward–ready to protect us, but she didn't have to.

Because we were pulled again.

The man I had seen in the kitchen, he was pacing. He was in a room, an office maybe? There was a desk and muted beige walls with a pleather futon in the corner. I still couldn't see his face, but his back was tense. He was pacing back and forth in front of the desk, while an angry energy poured off of him and to me–sending goosebumps to my skin.

"I want nothing to do with this–this is your war, not mine!" he bit out.

"Don't you turn your back on me brother!" the voice from across the desk drawled out. His chair was turned around so he faced the window, conveniently leaving me in a mystery.

The man pacing stopped and clenched his fists. "You turned your back on me when you turned into a monster! Can you even see what you have done?!"

I was pulled again.

Punched.

Something hit me in the shoulder. Something that felt like fire.

I reached out and grabbed what felt like a wrist, snapping it and drawing a hoarse cry from the thing. The shadow around me was thick though–it felt like it was attacking me.

I heard something coming and dodged it. Jumping back and lifting my arms up to block another blow, something sent me a few feet back. "Run!" a voice called out.

I scrambled up in the fog. The shadow was gone but I didn't believe it. I could feel it. It was like it was breathing down my neck.

"Charlotte!" a strained voice cried. "Get out! Wake up!"

I turned to run but I was pulled.

I was pulled to a living room. A dark living room with one old vintage lamp with fringe hanging on the edge of it illuminating the room. It sat on an end table close to a slow burning fire where two people were talking. A man and a woman.

"I want to be with you," a woman said.

I walked closer in the dark towards them. "You will never be safe," the man said as I got closer.

"I'm not safe with or without you. He knows who I am–he will take me," she argued back.

"Why don't you let me hide you away?"

"What fun is hiding if we can't do it together?" she replied with a hopeful smile.

"Charlotte lookout!" Lucas yelled.

I blinked and opened my eyes to see a shadow coming towards me. Falling to the ground and covering my head, I scrambled up and was knocked to the side in the fog. "Ethan!" I cried out.

"Get out of here!" a female cried. "Go Charlotte!" she yelled again.

It wasn't that I didn't want to leave, I just didn't know how. The tree had controlled that before. The tree had decided when we left. Which means I was stuck until it let me leave.

Another shadow knocked me down. It had sharp claws that were digging into my arms. I cried out and kicked at it, tried to get it off of me but trying to fight something that looked like a cloud felt like a losing battle.

But then it was yanked off of me. It was yanked off of me and something with stormy blue eyes looked down at me.

Then I was pulled.

I was pulled again back to a different room. A living room with shag carpet. A man was sitting down on the carpet, looking down at his hands–his hair hiding his face. I looked around and saw another man–another man sitting across from him in the darkness.

It was dark out. There was no light coming in the windows or lighting the room. The moonlight barely lit the room, but it lit it enough for me to see the outline of two men.

"You have to hide her," a man said that I recognized from one of the visions before. "They find her, then it is over for me. Everything I've done for nothing."

"Don't ask me to do that. I can't do that," the other man answered. A man whose voice I recognized, but I couldn't place. It was slightly muffled and they were talking so quietly that it was hard to hear.

"You have to. You know you have to. Please do this."

I was pulled again.

Blinking I was leaning against the tree as the fog rolled in. Immediately I pressed myself against the tree, my eyes searching for more shadows within the fog. "Ethan!"

"Charlotte," a woman whispered. I could see her outline in the fog as she moved closer to me.

"What is this? What do you want?"

"The truth. It's the truth," a man answered. A man who was hidden by the fog, but through it, I could still see stormy blue eyes.

"God, why is this so hard for you people?!" I growled out. "Who are you?!"

"The truth is dangerous Charlotte," the man said.

"The truth can kill," the woman echoed.

"No shit," I grumbled.

"You have to protect this place," the man said.

"What place? What are you talking about?"

"The tree, the rock," the woman answered. "You have to keep it safe."

I blinked hard as tears of frustration beat at my eyes. A shaky breath found its way out of my lips while something cool caressed my cheek.

I quickly opened my eyes. Something touched me again–touched my cheek. Fingers.

Fingers to a woman with dark cocoa hair, almost black looking at me. Her eyes were a light blue, like the sky and her cheeks were well defined with porcelain skin. The more I looked at her, the more our gazes held each other, the more I realized what she looked like–she looked like me.

My breath caught in my throat and I found myself leaning away from her. "What are you? Why am I here?"

"Because I wanted to meet you, I never got to," she replied with a sad smile.

"She looks like you," the man said.

The woman shook her head while she looked me over. A mix of pride and sadness in her smile. "She has your eyes. She always had your eyes."

The breath left my lungs. "Are we related?" They were quiet. They were quiet and I felt my throat start to clench and my body forget how to breathe. I sucked in a breath, forcing air back into my body. "Why? Why are you doing this?"

"We're so proud of you," the man said from behind the fog, his stormy blue eyes looking back at me.

I looked at the woman and cocked my head. While I couldn't deny that she did look like me, she didn't look how I remembered my mother looking. However, then again, my mother had been sick for most of my life. The last time I saw her she was a little more than a skeleton, but still, if she was my mother I felt like I would know.

She reached out and brushed her fingers against my cheek. "I so wanted to get to know you."

"Why didn't you?" I asked.

"Because she died," the man answered. "We both did."

"How? Why? What happened."

"We died so you would live," he replied.

"She does have your eyes," the woman murmured to herself, her eyes looking at me like I was some kind of jewel.

I looked over at the man. Even through the fog he was well built; strong and tall, dripping with an energy that made my veins hum in delight. He wasn't my father. I remembered my father and his silly glasses that he was always losing. I remembered his buttoned-down shirts and terrible singing voice that he would make me listen to on road trips. I remembered my father before the car accident took him–before that lake took him.

"She doesn't know us," the woman said more to herself than to me.

"It's not her fault," he replied.

A single tear slid down my cheeks. "What is this?"

Someone sighed before a finger reached out and wiped away the tear. I turned to see the man. The man with stormy blue eyes and black hair. He had a scar running from the top of his right brow down to the middle of his cheek. He gave me a soft smile then reached out to the woman who walked to him.

She was right.

His eyes were like mine–stormy gray-blue like a winter storm over the sea.

My head started to shake. "This isn't real, this is impossible."

"It's the truth," the woman rushed out.

"Then tell me. Tell me the truth–no more games," I replied back, my voice shaky while I looked at them.

The man looked at me, opening his mouth before something caught his eye. He looked back at me. His eyes wide and fear slightly churning in them. "You have to go. There's danger."

"Danger? What are you talking about?"

"The rock," she murmured against his chest. "The tree."

The man stepped forward, taking my face in both his hands. I felt my body go numb–go stiff. My beast was shocked. She was frozen stiff as well as something reached out to her, an energy that we did not recognize but it zipped over my skin and sang to me in a way that was like raw pure energy hitting me like lightening.

He placed a gentle kiss on my forehead. A simple kiss that reminded me that this–this moment, was real. His lips on my skin were real.

He was real.

He looked back at me with eyes that held a firmness–a warning. "Do not make deals with snakes my daughter."

"What–"

And I was pulled.

The next thing I knew, I was standing on my feet with my hand still touching the tree at night. Looking around, I pulled away as the realization had set in–I had been pulled out.

"Charlotte!"

"No, no, no, no," I muttered out. My heart beating frantically while my beast barked out for the ones we had just seen–for the answers we still needed.

"Lucas!" I yelled, reaching out to touch the tree again. "No! I have to see! I have to find out!"

"Charlotte stop!" Ethan barked out.

"Let me go!" I struggled in his iron grip. "Lydia! Lucas!"

"Charlotte!" Ethan yelled out, his voice stopping me while he held my face to look at him. His eyes were large–wild with worry as he looked down at me. "Baby, I can't let you do that. You can't touch that tree again."

"Wha–no, why?" my breath was labored while I shook my head, my brain still trying to piece it together.

Ethan let out a sharp breath then pulled down the collar of my shirt. "Look," he said, his voice softer, but still strained.

I looked over and felt my stomach turn. Burn marks covered my shoulder. Burn marks and claw marks. It was like I had been in a war with fire and teeth. They littered my skin where I had been hit by the shadow–real wounds that were further evidence that it had all been real.

The fight was real.

And if the fight was real, that meant that they were real. The ones who called me. Who whispered to me. The one who called me 'his daughter.'

His daughter.

"Charlotte you need to speak," Ethan rushed out, his beast close while he kept looking me over. "Baby you need to show me–I need you to show me now."

The tree swayed in the wind and a chill crept up my spine. "Not here," I replied back, my eyes holding the tree. "Home. We go home."

"Ok," he replied back.

"Link Jake and Jaxon. We need more patrols around here, we should make a line around the tree."

"Charlotte," Ethan said. "Baby what did you see?"

I opened my mouth and closed it while my throat clenched. "Just take me home, ok?"

"Ok," he replied reluctantly with a nod. "Ok, come on."

Jake had warriors circled around our tree within the hour. Both he and Jaxon had upped their security; According to Jaxon, his rock had been whispering all night and keeping Andrea and he up at night. Ethan asked him if he ever touched it and apparently he did.

He said that he saw his mother. He saw his mother and an uncle. However the last time is what shook him up the most–the last time he and Andrea touched it, they saw Billy.

Billy was the reason they started to up patrols on the borders. Apparently, he had told them to watch the mountains because 'they will come like rain.'

The whole thing was making me sick–overwhelming. Ethan didn't push me when we got back home. He rushed around until he settled on starting the tub.

The tub that he set me down in while my beast and I tried to work everything out–tried to work our truth out. Ethan stepped in and sat in front of me. He took my face in his hands and looked me over; his eye so full of confliction and questions. "Show me, Charlotte. I need to know what happened."

I nodded slowly and laid back on the tub. Ethan rubbed my foot while I let the images pour into the bond, the images I had seen. The images of the fog and the man and the woman, the man in the blood kitchen, the man in the office talking about how someone would find him–find her? The images flashed to the shadows attacking me in the fog and the man pulling them off of me.

Ethan growled lowly as the scene of me fighting the shadows flashed in front of us. The image of the carrier appeared–the carrier with a baby and the blue teddy bear. The baby that looked like me. The baby I knew was me even though I didn't want to believe it. Because it wasn't possible. My family lived in the city, not the mountains. My family. I felt like I didn't even know them.

More images poured through, the image of the two men talking at the table and the scene of the two people talking to me in the fog. The woman talking to me in the fog. The man talking to me in the fog.

The man whose eyes I had.

The man who called me 'his daughter.'

Ethan sucked in a sharp breath as the memory finished out over the bond. He was still for a few moments–a few minutes. Neither of us moved.

He looked up at me with large eyes and shook his head. "What was he talking about? What did he mean?" I shook my head while my mind was still trying to piece it together. Ethan grabbed my shoulders. "Charlotte what was that?!" he rushed out desperately, his hands shaking me.

"I don't know!" I shook and clenched my eyes shut as his grip on me loosened. A mix of a sob and a pan and a growl came out of my lips. "I don't know anymore."

Ethan sighed then let my shoulders go. He took my hand and kissed the back of it. "I'm sorry–" he paused as my eyes met his. "I–you just stood there and then you were bleeding and the bond was twisting and there was nothing I could do. I–he–" he sighed and looked back at me. "It scared the hell out of me baby. I'm sorry."

I slowly nodded while the family wetness of tears grew behind my eyes. "Ethan, he called me his daughter." I shook my head again and looked back at him. "I don't know him. I don't know either of them. That–they–" I started to say as my breath hitched. "They weren't my parents."

"Come here," he breathed out, holding his hands out to me.

"They said it's in danger Ethan, they said the tree was in danger," I said while Ethan pulled me to his chest. "They said the rock too."

"Baby I'm more concerned with the fact that something attacked you in there and that some asshole  you saw called you his daughter," Ethan said. "That was you–in the carrier. That was you, baby."

"I know," I choked out.

Ethan rubbed my back, more like he was trying to work out his own anxiety than mine. I could feel his skin ripple against me, the fur poking and receeding from his skin. His wolf was close. I could feel him over the bond–pained and worried, desperately reaching out for my beast in fear of something happening to her.

We sat a little longer in the tub, saying nothing to each other. My mind was a mix of tired and awake while I tried to piece everything together.

Ethan eventually scooped me up out of the tub. He dried me off then carried me wordlessly to bed where he licked over my new wounds before he pulled the blankets over me.

I turned and faced him. "I can't sleep."

He had his hand resting on my hip; his thumb rubbing the skin while his tired eyes held my gaze. "Me either."

"Do you think they were lying?"

"Why would they?" he replied. "He did have your eyes sunshine, I'm sorry, but he did."

I blinked hard then shook my head. "I keep trying to think of where I've seen them, but I can't remember. I don't remember them at all."

He nodded. "I don't remember seeing them either when I marked you, but if you were just a baby then you wouldn't remember anyways. We don't remember things until we're like what? Four-ish?"

"We never lived outside of the city. My father's job was close to Portland so we lived in a suburb close to it," I thought out loud. "So how did I get in that carrier and who was carrying me?"

"It looked like Levi's land," Ethan mused.

"Ya but if Levi saw me before he would have told me," I replied. "Right?"

Ethan nodded slowly. "I mean I don't see why he would hide something like that from you. Did you ever hear back from Helen?"

"No, we should call them," I said while looking for my cell phone.

"Char–" Ethan's hand stopped mine before he pulled me back to him. "It's three in the morning."

"But they're vampires!"

"Yes and they, like us, still need to sleep," he replied simply.

"I can't sleep Ethan," I said, my voice slightly annoyed because I wanted to be out of the bed and doing something to solve the jigsaw puzzle in my damn head.

"I'll tell you a story then," he said, pulling me to him.

"A story?" I asked with a raised brow.

"Yes sunshine, used to put me to sleep when I was fussy."

"I'm not being fussy!"

"Right," Ethan incredulously breathed out. "And you're not exhausted either. No, totally not fussy."

"Shithead," I grumbled. "Fine."

I nuzzled against his chest while he started to play with my hair. "Once upon a time there was this girl–"

"Really?"

"Sunshine this is my story now shut the hell up." My eyes met his, that were looking down at me with smug satisfaction. I sighed out in defeat then laid back on his chest. "Anyways, this girl–well, she turned out to be a sock thief, stubborn, equally as beautiful as she was crazy at times–"

"I am not crazy!"

"Sunshine how do you know this is about you anyways?"

"Fine, fine, go on," I replied.

Ethan chuckled and kissed my hair. "She was a good woman and she loved her family and friends more than herself to a fault. Then she touched this damn tree that I kind of want to burn down right now, and it really turned some things into a shit show."

" A shit show?"

"Mhmm, lot's of blood baby," Ethan replied casually. "But then she saw these people in the tree that scared the hell out of her, and that scared the hell out of me because she's usually pretty damn fearless."

"Who were they?"

"It doesn't matter," he murmured against my hair. "It doesn't matter, because either way her family will still love her, and I will too."