My mind was racing to make sense of things as I walked aimlessly down the school halls. I had been so absorbed in my thoughts I hadn't realized class had ended until someone from the next class tapped me on the shoulder asking for his seat. As I continue walking down the halls, I try calling both Alice and Cora for the tenth time, but they're still not picking up. I decide to leave another voicemail.

"Where the fuck are you guys? I need you to call me as soon as you can, something major has come up."

I hang up and my gaze falls to the envelope in my hands, my mind once again going over the photos inside. The pictures were clearly taken before Keira's pack had arrived in Crestwood, but that IS Keira in the photo. What does this mean? Should I tell my parents? Should I confront Keira about this? So many different thoughts and questions were running through my head, I didn't know what to do!

I'm snapped out of my thoughts when I'm suddenly jerked back by someone grabbing my arm, that's when I notice the wall in front of my face. If the person hadn't grabbed me, I would've walked straight into the wall, I turn around to thank the person who stopped me and see that its Hannah.

"Are you okay?" Hannah asks me. "I was calling your name, but you didn't respond, at first I thought you were ignoring me but then I saw you about to walk into that wall."

"Yeah, sorry. There's just a lot going through my mind right now." I haven't spoken to her since that awkward moment at the party, I wasn't sure what to say.

"Look Caden I'm sorry about how I acted at the party, so much happened with Cole, Demetri, and the pack that I went looking for something anything to take my mind off it. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable." Hannah explains to me.

"No Hannah you don't have to explai-"

Hannah cuts me off, "Yes, I do. I consider you a friend and I want you to know that you can come to me if you need someone to talk to."

"Thanks." I replied.

"Now, you want to tell me what's got you so distracted." Hannah asks and looks at me with anticipation.

Even though I do consider Hannah a friend it felt wrong to share this with her.

"Hannah I can't-"

"Well, well, well, seems I went a little too easy on you last night." Keira's voice says, cutting in from behind.

I turn around surprised to see her here, the surprised look on my face seems to make Keira smile. But the smile quickly disappears when she sees Hannah and lets out a low growl. Hannah's eyes narrow but she quickly turns and leaves. I try to stop her, but she's gone before I could say anything.

"What the hell was that!?" I exclaim.

"I don't want you talking to that bitch." Keira tells me in a steely voice.

"I already told you she's just a friend, and what are you even doing here? You made your feelings about school abundantly clear last night." I say in a low voice, annoyed by her use of the word bitch for Hannah.

"Obviously I'm here for you, and forgive me if I'm a little less than happy by the fact that your friends with a girl that practically threw herself at you two days ago." Keira says sarcastically.

Okay, she had me there and it's not like I can take the moral high ground here, since only a week ago I was the one pining after Hannah. I had decided not to tell Keira about my previous crush on Hannah, for fear of what she might do to her.

"Besides, I don't trust her." Kiera says.

"Pfft, that's funny coming from you." I blurt out without thinking.

I slap my hand over my mouth as if trying to take back the words that just came out, but it was too late. Keira's eyes narrow at me, her intense questioning gaze has me fighting the urge to squirm.

Well it's too late now, I tell myself.

Rolling back my shoulders and straightening my back I look Keira straight in the eye and hand her the envelope with the pictures. "Explain this." I demand.

Keira opens the envelope and her eyes go immediately wide with shock.

"Where did you get these?!" Keira demands.

"You first, explain!" I demand back.

Annoyance at my attitude flashes in Keira's eyes, she lets out a huff and grabs my hand.

"Come on we're going home." Keira states.

I pull my hand back, "No, I'm not going anywhere until you explain." I say defiantly.

Keira's hands clench into fist crushing the envelope with the pictures inside. I could feel her anger at my defiance growing. In her eyes I could see the internal battle she was having, the alpha who wants to punish my disobedience conflicting with her instincts as my mate to protect me.

By this point the people around us had noticed us arguing and were now actively listening in on our conversation. Looking around I notice some had even stopped what they were doing and were now looking at us.

Keira suddenly grabs me by the collar and slams her mouth against mine. The kiss was hard and unapologetic, leaving me dizzy. She then pulls me by the collar toward the closest classroom and slams the door open stunning the teacher and students inside.

"Excuse me! What do you two think your doing we're in the middle of class!" The female teacher yells.

Keira just stares at the teacher and releases her aura and in a steely voice says, "LEAVE."

The teacher's eyes go wide and she immediately rushes out of the classroom, Keira turns her head and looks toward the students. Without her having to say a word the kids immediately get up and rush out after the teacher leaving just me and Keira in the classroom.

Finally releasing her hold on me I stumble forward.

"Are you out of your mind!" I yell at her.

"Tell me, where did you get these photos?" Keira asks me again.

"No, not until you tell me why you were taking surveillance photos of my family weeks before you arrived here. I mean, was this all planned were you targeting me and my family from the beginning, goddess are we even mates?" I begin to question.

Keira gets in my face with inhuman speed causing me to stumble back into the teacher's desk.

With our faces barely an inch apart Keira looks me dead in the eye. "Don't you ever say that again, YOU. ARE. MINE." Keira says to me in a dangerous tone.

Her tone sends a shiver down my spine and all I could do is nod. She takes a single step back giving me just enough room to straighten myself out again.

"Yes, I took these pictures a few weeks back, but I took pictures of all the packs here." Keira admitted.

"Why?" I ask.

"Because I was being careful, I didn't know if your counsel could be trusted. I had to be sure it was safe for my pack here." Keira explained.

It made sense, if I was in her shoes, I would've probably done the same thing.

"And just so we're clear, when I took this picture of you, I had no idea who you were. I didn't find out until that night in the clearing." Keira continued.

"Then why did you take a picture of me." I asked confused.

"Because the moment I saw you I felt an attraction I'd never felt before. You're the only reason I even bothered registering for school. I was planning on looking for you that first day, but you just happened to show up the night before at that idiots party." Keira said.

I look down in shame, "I'm sorry." Was all I could say, feeling like a total jerk for doubting my mate.

"It's okay, I could understand your confusion if I was in your shoe's." Keira says with a small smile. "Now Caden please, where did you get these pictures?"

"Noel brought me the envelope with the pictures earlier this morning when I got to school, apparently it had been mailed to my parents' house." I tell her.

Keira frowned; I could feel her concern.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"I had left these and the other pictures in my office so the only way for someone to have mailed them to you..."

"Is if they took them from your office." I finished, stunned by this revelation.

"My only real question is why? I just had one of the wolves at home check and all the other pack photos are still in my office. Only these were taken." Keira wondered.

I could understand Keira's confusion, if whoever sent me these photos wanted to cause any real trouble for Keira, they could have taken all the pictures and sent them out to all the packs. Instead they just took these and sent them to me her mate, that's when it hits me.

"Keira, you said at the time of this picture you didn't know who I was, so did you keep the picture by itself or did you file it with the others?" I ask.

"I kept it by itself." She answered. "Why?"

"It means that whoever sent me these photos was hoping to cause a rift between us. It's the only explanation that makes sense when you think about it. Why else would they make sure to include my picture when sending me these but leave all the others. But I'm not sure what the benefit of having us fighting is." I explained.

I feel Keira go deathly still beside me, and then a sudden burst of anger hits me.

"Keira, calm down its okay." I say trying to soothe her.

"Okay, okay! Someone just tried to fuck things up between me and you, my mate." Keira replied through clenched teeth.

Her anger was still building, I have to calm her down.

Not knowing what else to do I wrap my arms around her neck and pull her down into a kiss. Her shock lasts only for a moment before she starts kissing me back, her anger beginning to fade. Once I feel she's back to normal I break the kiss.

Keira rest her forehead against mine, "Sorry, and thank you." She says.

"So, what now?" I ask.

"Now, your staying here while I go back home." Keira tells me.

"You're not taking me back with you?" I ask surprised.

"The only way someone could've gotten these photos, is if someone from my pack gave it to them. So, until I find out who, I thinks its better for you to stay here at school."

Just then the bell rings.

"Come on let's get out of here." I tell her.

Walking out of the classroom and into the hall Keira turns to me and gives me another quick kiss before disappearing into the crowd of students.

The moment she disappears a wave of exhaustion hits me. The whole situation with the pictures had completely drained me. I look around trying to remember where exactly I was in the school, finding my bearings I'm thankfully not to far from my next class. Making my way to class I feel my phone start to vibrate, taking it out and looking at it, the caller id says Peter.

The moment my finger swipes left to answer; a tirade of indecipherable words starts coming from the earpiece.

"Peter! Pete! Stop! Slow down." I say through his yelling.

But Peter continues to ramble, "Dude I'm freaking out! Some weird shit just went down and I don't know what to do! First Gabriella isn't really Gabriella and now Alice and Cora are out cold on the floor and-"

"WHAT?!" I yell over Peter. "Alice and Cora are unconscious?!"

"That's what I'm trying to tell you!" Pete yells back.

Taking a deep breath, I calm myself down and think back on my training with James.

"Where are you guys?" I ask.

"At my house."

"How's there breathing, is it even and steady?"

"Yeah, it looks normal, I guess."

"Are there any visible injuries?"

"No, they look fine but there not waking up. I tried calling their names and poking them with a stick."

"You poked them with a stick?"

"Well not a stick, stick a broom stick."

"That's not really answering my question."

"Dude, just get over here!" Peter yelled annoyed.

"Okay, me, Lucas, and Noel should be there in 15 minutes."

Hanging up I text both Lucas and Noel emergency, all three of us are in Lucas's car and driving towards Peter's within minutes. Arriving exactly 15 minutes later I jump out of Lucas's car and run towards the front door. Before I can even knock Pete opens the door and stands in my way.

"Before you guys come in you gotta promise not to freak out." Peter asks.

"What?" I ask.

"Just promise." Peter asks again.

"We don't have time for this!" I exclaim pushing past Pete.

Rounding the corner to Peter's living room I see Alice and Cora and I can immediately see why Pete would think we would freak out. Alice and Cora were both in their wolf forms and taking up most of the living room.

Fuck, this is not good. Especially for Peter, but I'll deal with that later.

"See this why I said not to freak out." Peter says to us.

"Lucas, Noel check on Alice I'll check Cora." I say quickly.

I get right to it and immediately start checking on Cora. All her vitals seem normal and her healing factor seems to be fine.

I look over to Lucas and Noel and they give me a thumbs up for Alice.

"Hey, how did you guys know which one was Alice and which one was Cora?" Peter asks.

Me, Lucas, and Noel just look at each other before looking back at Peter.

"Holy shit, you guys knew they werewolves all along, didn't you?" Peter asks.

"Peter this isn't the time for that, what happened to Alice and Cora?" I demand.

"I don't know man it all happened so fast. You remember that new girl I was telling you about, the one at the party?" Peter asks me.

"Yeah, Gabriella." I answer, remembering my suspicions about her.

"Well turns out Gabriella isn't her real name, its Aspen, and she's some sort of witch."

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