Chapter 12

Percy stopped running halfway to the Romanian pack mansion. He set me down on my feet and I wiped away my tears. I had hurt Jen. I had burned her. It's now going to be a permanent scar on her skin that I caused. Suddenly, my legs weren't able to support my weight and I leaned against Percy for support. He turned his head to face me.

Please don't cry, Luna. It breaks my heart to see you sad.

Well, how can I not be sad, Percy? I hurt Jen and now I'm never going to be allowed to do see them again. Not only that, but there are two psycho wolves on the hunt for me, who want to become my- I sniffled. I turned away and closed my eyes. I couldn't handle what my life had suddenly become. I saw the world going black and before I could black out Percy thought, Don't worry, Crystal. I will never leave you. I'll always be beside you and fight with you. I love you.

~~~
The next thing I knew, I was waking up in an extremely comfy bed. I opened one eye to see if anyone else was in the room. On my right, I saw Percy fast asleep in a chair, holding my hand. With him asleep, I opened my other eye and looked around the room.

This room was similar to my old one but just didn't have my belongings in it. There was a TV across from me, a little seat next to a big rectangular window There was a wooden door leading to the bathroom on the left side of the tv and in my left there was a huge sliding door closet. I saw that there were still two more doors in the room. Each on different sides of the sliding glass door closet.

One must obviously lead out into the hall, I thought to myself. But where does the other door lead to?

"Glad to see your finally awake," Percy said as he yawned.

"Yeah, you too." I looked down at my hands in my lap.

"It leads to my room."

"I'm sorry. What?" I asked.

"I was answering your unspoken question. That door on the left leads to my room."

"Oh." I looked at the door then back at him. "Why does it lead to your room?"

"Because my mother thought that since my father found her so early in his life, I would find my mate early too. So she had this door made to connect our rooms. She figured that you were anything like her, which you most definitely are, then you would want to stay in your own bed. She also attached a lock on the door."

"To keep me from escaping?" I said with a smile.

"No, to keep me from entering when I wasn't allowed. The lock is on your side of the door, so if you lock that door and your bedroom door, I would have no way to get to you without busting through an innocent wall."

"Well, I like your mother already."

Percy smiled.

Then I just realized that the first time his parents saw me was when I was unconscious. Just great.

Percy must have heard my thoughts because he laughed out loud.

"Hey! You have no right to eavesdrop on my thoughts!"

"I have as much right to listen to your thoughts just as you have complete access to mine."

I thought about looking into his mind but decided against it. It wouldn't be right.

Percy squeezed my hand and I looked up at him to meet his eyes. "Anytime you want, you can go through my thoughts, feelings, and memories. I am yours, Luna, just as you are mine. You never have to worry about me being mad at you or it not being right. We are mates. We are supposed to know more about the other person than we know ourselves."

I couldn't help it. I got frustrated. When you grow up in the real world, you don't know that a guy can actually be like this; like a guy from a chick flick. Don't get me wrong, I love sappy romantic movies, but when it really happens to me, I don't know what to do, so I did the only thing I could think of.

I put up an imaginary wall between us. Sally taught me how before I found that picture in the library. I pictured the cord connecting us and I thought of the biggest possible wall and placed it between Percy and me. I didn't want him to hear my thoughts. Of course he growled a little for not having access to my mind anymore but I just turned over on my side, facing away from him and pulled my hand out of his. He didn't try to make me face him or grab my hand again. He just got up from his chair and left the room through his door. I ran over and locked both of my doors and slid my back down the one connecting our rooms. I landed with a thump on the ground.

Percy isn't the same goofy, fun-loving guy that I met at the pond. He's now super protective of me (although he protected me from Decebel so that's a plus). He's changed and I don't know if I like it yet or not. He now talks like William Shakespeare practically. I don't know if I want this yet. I don't know if I want a protective, Shakespeare-talking, hunk. I really liked the carefree boy who I could be myself around and just have fun. I let out a breath and slammed my hands down on the floor. I just turned 18 for crying out loud! I'm supposed to be somewhere where everything makes sense.

I had a plan. I was going to be an actress and a writer. I knew exactly what college I wanted to attend that wasn't too far from my parents but just far enough for my own independence. When it came to dating, I didn't want that. I knew that most of the couples in high school never last (except my parents, they're awesome like that). Because of this, I kept myself distant. I had a bunch of guy friends but never dated anyone. That's why I hadn't had my first kiss until Percy. I figured that once I had my life sorted out and knew exactly where I was going and how to get there, then I would start dating and find someone I could have as a best friend for the rest of my life.

And now I have a mate? Who's going to be with me forever? That's not what scares me. I like that I never had to have gotten my heart broken before finding Percy. He's just changed! And I have to stay here. Forever. Two psycho wolves are hunting and looking for me and I now have to be the Alpha female of an entire pack. Not only that, but the Alpha of this certain pack is also the most dominant wolf in the flipping world and since I'm his mate, I'm practically the Alpha female of all wolves. Just great.

I had just got up from off the floor when I heard a voice from outside my door. "Hey, watch it!....Oh, no excuse me I wasn't looking where I was going. It's completely my hot, I mean fault. Uh, by any chance you wouldn't have a girlfriend, would you?"

I ran to my hallway door, unlocked it, opened it, and saw my best friend Riley standing next to one of the wolves.

"Riley?!" I asked, shocked.

She turned to face me. "Crystal! There you are! I've been looking for you!" She ran up to me and hugged me.

I pulled back from the hug and looked at her in disbelief. Is my mind playing tricks on me or is she really here? "What...what are you doing here?"

"Well, you haven't called me or texted me or anything since you left to study abroad. You didn't even tell me! How could you? You stopped texting me in the flipping middle of a conversation! So when I asked your parents where you were and when they told me you were in Romania and handed me a postcard of the place you were staying at with the address, I knew that I had to come and see you myself because you can't get rid of your best friend like that you know. So I waited for spring break to come and well here I am!" She went from having a sad and angry face to a happy one as she talked.

I knew that Peri had given my parents a fake postcard and brochure but she left the address of the Romanian pack mansion on it while I was actually in Serbia?! That Peri. I frowned and Riley mistook my frown.

"You're not happy I'm here are you?"

"No, No! I mean, I'm so glad you came to see me but-" I was cut off because Percy then decided to walk out of his room. He looked at me with such an angry expression and pushed against the wall that I had put up in my mind. I stood my ground and didn't let him intimidate me. I'm supposedly his equal, so he'll just have to live with this wall until I want to put it back down. When he finally saw that I wasn't putting down the wall anytime soon, he turned his gaze toward Riley. He gave her a dazzling smile and she went weak in the knees. I rolled my eyes and grabbed her shoulders. I steered her into my room to start questioning her about how she got here and how she was even freaking let in but before I could close the door, Percy called, "Are you going to tell her the whole truth or not, Crystal?"

"I was planning on it!" I called back.

Riley was sitting on my bed with a confused expression on her face. 'What whole truth?"

I turned back to shut the door and saw Percy only a couple of inches away from my face. "If you need me, I'll be discussing...important things with my parents if you want to come and meet them consciously this time, of course."

And with that, he turned on his heel and left without another word. I let out a big huff as I shut and locked my door. I turned back to face Riley and she said, "Who was that hunk and if you don't want him, can I have him?"

I knew that there was no way I was going to lie to Riley. I always told her everything and she could always tell when I was lying so I just took a deep breath and sat down on the bed next to her. "What I'm going to tell you may sound crazy, ridiculous and insane, but just hear me out because this is my life now alright?"

She nodded her head and I proceeded to tell her everything that had happened to me since I had ran into Peri.