The sticky mess with Andrea wasn't all that shocked me, especially her interest in women. Maybe what shocked me the most was I partially let her fight me and cut my lip open, because I had this feeling she lived a double life long before she ever knew she was a werewolf. That was the truth of her madness.

I walked away from the situation with her, the mess I created, and fell in line next to Deacon. He was with Bones who was desperately trying to inform him, "I want to give Evan the burial he deserves. I need to know where you hid his body. Saige told me all about it, so you don't have to keep anything from me."

What did I walk myself into?

"Then I'll have to show you the exact cemetery he's in," Deacon informed back. "Anton's very own."

A jaw clenched and a set of claws protruded. "You did what?"

Deacon twitched, grasping the situation. Bones wasn't happy, he was furious about it. "Oh, sorry, man, you don't like that?"

Bones took a moment. "For a second there, no. Why a cemetery of all places? He's my distant relative, the only family I had left, a wolf and a commander of this pack...but now that I think about it, the more I remember him saying he loved human tradition. It's only fitting for him." Bones let out a small chuckle.

"It doesn't make it right for what these vampires keep doing! Intervening our lives!" Connor barged in, overstepping his place. "He shouldn't have taken Evan's body like that without permission! Him and Saige-Mage should've just left him alone!"

"Would you have wanted to see him like that?!" Deacon spat out.

I was only adding fuel to the fire. "I swear, I didn't do anything to his body. I found out same as you." Frustration was peaking at full performance. I was trying to keep it altogether and it was difficult to do after what he's done. "Don't go spewing lies like a hypocrite when you shoved me without Bones permission!" I began to threaten. "Don't test me or I'll show you Mage-Rage!"

At this point, I was taking a lesson or two from Pansy, taking charge of my confidence and taking charge of him. She should be here biting his neck, too. She wouldn't back out of this. Where was she?

I could handle him by myself, but I didn't expect her to leave me alone with Deacon forever. I felt alone and abandoned in my fight against Connor. In many ways, I was fighting for us both.

As alone as I could be, I wasn't aware of how much the loneliness was actually in my head. I suppose I didn't realize until I saw how tense Deacon and Bones were at the information they heard.

"You've gotta be joking, right?" Deacon looked at me. "He wouldn't—"

"He did what to you now?!" Bones couldn't be more pissed than in this moment. He couldn't believe what was said, not able to look at me. He had his direct attention on Connor. Bones was planning his next move and I didn't even know it yet, reassuring me in simple phrases he was about to do something drastic. "Did he do it after I walked away from you, Saige? After I told him to cool down and leave you alone? Did he do it all then?"

When Bones addressed me, still speaking, listing reasons for punching someone's teeth in, I replied, "Yes, he did. I hope he sobered up since then, but he tried to push me to the ground. He had one too many drinks. Pansy had to give him a new face, the one he wears now." I provoked Connor. He was out to destroy me as he went and lunged at me.

"You little—" He was hot on my trail, his bruises fresh and relentless. I've never seen him like this.

Arms swooped around him, holding him back. He was inches away from backhanding my cheek. I don't think I wanted to know what that would feel like once Bones began to tell him, "Don't you dare!"

Connor wouldn't step down from a fight. As Bones' eyes narrowed on him, all Connor wanted was to be heard. "Andrea was right what she said before. I can't believe you are putting her above your own pack. She doesn't follow rules. I don't care what you say about her at meetings, she doesn't belong here!"

Could he be right? I've caused so much chaos.

"Just because she's not completely one of us, are you kidding me?" Bones then said as a reminder, "Her father was once the leader. Show her some respect."

"Well, her daddy isn't here to lead us anymore, you are, and neither can save her when it truly matters."

My brain was in overload. I couldn't process that.

"There's no need to be ignorant!" Bones retorted.

"There's no need to be defensive over her!" Connor shouted. "Another witch?! Come on! We didn't care for the last one and we don't care for this one! Everyone knows you're into her, even the poor vampire here who you said has her heart!"

Deacon expressed to himself sadly, "Not anymore..."

Bones was in disarray, gasping inside. He tried to hide it, not letting it distract him from Connor and what couldn't be stopped. The next move was happening. There was no telling where this was headed as he took my hip for guidance. "Trash talk all you want, I don't care, but touching them is a different story!" Bones then released me, grabbed Connor by his right ear, twisting it to drag him off somewhere. There was hell to pay. "We can talk about a memorial later," Bones had left to inform.

...

"Sis?" A voice so close to home I rendered in the sense of him once Bones and Connor vanished from view. It was close enough for me to cherish it this time around, almost like a blessing in disguise.

"Alex, is that you?" I asked, clasping my necklace, following the voice and where it led me. Deacon didn't come with.

"Yes, it is," he said nervously, looping his fingers through his dirty blonde locks, standing before a clothesline. The hung up laundry still looked damp, but close to drying. "I struggled to get here, almost missed the entrance to camp. I met this kid wolf who showed me the way and helped me find you."

Grant was right next to him, ever so cute with his brown hair and brown eyes that I soaked in. I could recall how we first met; memorable. I couldn't see him standing below me and now he and my brother were inches from my height. Having them both was a blessing. It was heartwarming, like I was whole.

I bent over and hugged Grant, thanking him for being there for my brother when I couldn't, and then I walked Alex off to speak to him. We had a lot to catch up on. "It's so nice seeing you. What are you doing here? Why aren't you in Troll Territory?"

Without warning, he threw his arms around me. I sank into the fabric of his black and grey checkered sweater that smelled of daisies under a tan coat and couldn't let go. "I missed you so much. I should've came back with you, but I couldn't. It's hard to explain, but I was supposed to be there...with the trolls. I think it's my calling or something, Sis."

Our cheeks touched. Chilly, soothing, and everything I loved about having a sibling. As soon as our parents told me they were pregnant, I loved him. Like what Pansy and Deacon have done for me, I do for Alex. I protect him. I always have, I always will.

"It's okay, you don't have to explain, I know what having a calling is like and feeling out of control..." If Pansy hadn't told me her theory about supernatural traits and what his connection could be to the trolls, I probably wouldn't have understood him so quickly. "Do they know you're here? How did you find me? You fell asleep the first time you came here with Bones and I..."

"I'm not sure I should tell it..." Alex began. "I need you to come back with me. I never thought I would have to ask this, but I need you...I need your help."

I was suddenly quick to drop everything to be there for him. That's all I've ever known in my life. Even with our distant phone calls over the years when I was on the run, never seeing him, he was still too important to pass up, too important to forget. "Sure, anything. You know I'll always be there."

...

Out of all of the hands to tap my back and out of all the eyes I wanted to see, I wasn't expecting Pansy to approach us. I was thankful for it, her eyes so emerald they shattered in a green sea. I needed her company after what felt like my heart was being stomped on. She was going through the same thing; it just so happened to be the same guy.

"It probably wasn't easy talking to him, huh?" asked Pansy.

"No, not really," I realized.

"Hell, it was rough for me and we were only meant to remain good friends."

"I'm still learning to let go," I replied, because I was.

"He needs to be selfish for once. I tell myself this every time I think of him even though it hurts, even though I know I'm not supposed to be with him. Being a vampire wasn't completely in his control; it was mine. I spent thirty years regretting it and he never moved on. It wasn't an easy task for him to take on. Some don't survive the process. When I bit him, he was sure he was ready. We grew a bond. We would have it forever. I didn't want him to be one of the lonely ones living or walking down alleyway streets. He wanted a life. This was it..."

Deacon snuck up on us, giving everyone a jolt in their feet. Even Alex was silent. He was already that way when Pansy approached, so he probably had an hourglass or something and needed to give word back to Troll Territory soon.

"Maybe in the first ten years, I was mad. Like Saige said, I'm learning to let go," Deacon expressed. "I don't regret or blame you for turning me. Please don't think I'm lonely like I was in those streets, I'm good. I don't think I'm a burden. I just know when someone's happiness doesn't include me anymore and when I should walk away..."

"We love and care for your kind heart so much," Pansy said, wanting to sob. Her eyes swelled.

I surely agreed with her. Deacon's the best of us.

"Thank you both for being there for me," Deacon replied.

"Speaking of being there, guys," I started. "Alex isn't exactly here for a reunion. I need to meet the one who leads the trolls. It's important for us."

"I'm definitely coming with you," Pansy answered.

Deacon added, "Yeah, you're not going there alone."

"Just so you know, you both won't be able to get in," I reminded, hoping they notice their support roles. "There will be a door you'll have to wait from."

"What are you trying to do? Keep us from going?" Deacon asked, confused, scratching at thick spots on the back of his shiny black hair, hair he rocked better than Connor's. Deacon's was cool and natural.

Behind Deacon, you could see the broken arm and hand affiliated with the man responsible for some of the hurt caused as he wandered back to the lunch tables for some water. I was the first to make eye contact when he sat down at the bench, struggling to open a bottle cap because his fingers were blue. I knew I shouldn't have, but there was still a stare in his eyes so deadly I tried not to give in, but I did.

I should have looked at Bones and gave him my devotion when he took me by my hips to greet me, same like he did when he needed guidance through me to deal with Connor, but I couldn't catch my bearings from the trauma that was inflicted; he was unpredictable. Connor could've grown up with a knack for vampires and I probably wouldn't have liked him then either. I guess Bones was unpredictable with trauma too, considering the wounds he left behind as punishment were hell-paid. Especially to someone he used to call 'friend'.

Bones, while wrapped around my waist, smirked with everyone well aware we were touching and whispered in my ear, "I know I may not appear like a good man on the outside, but he deserved what he got for saying those things about you, your family, and more. I should have ended him. Something inside of me said I shouldn't. He's alive somehow and you could be the reason for the change I see in myself. If Connor does something worse in the future, I told him as I cracked his fingers, bent his knuckles, broke his wrist, and twisted his arm that he wouldn't live to see another day. I can't have a lone wolf roaming around, someone who has gone rogue. It never ends well."

I was utterly speechless, yet I couldn't spend extra time on this. My brother was eager to tell me his hourglass was ticking down and running out.

I whispered back to him, removing Bones from his latch on my hip and taking Alex's hand, "We have to go to the mansion. Actually, behind the gazebo inside a tree, but we must go now. I already told Pansy and Deacon moments ago, Alex isn't here for a reunion."