32 Well This Isn't Good

I wake up in the bed I've been sleeping in the past few days, not knowing how I ended up here. Someone had to carry me.

It's Tuesday!

I sit up. Meaning that if my letter was picked up, it could be delivered today. I could go home today.

I sniff. Something smells really gross. I grab a handful of my hair and burry my nose in it. Oh yeah. It's my hair. It smells like the basement. I pull back the covers. The dress is also giving off the offending odor.

I spend a long time in the shower trying to get the smell out and afterwards dress in more of Eliza's clothes.

I spend the morning avoiding Xavier as best I can and late into afternoon the first eventful thing of the day happens. Sadly it isn't the marines. Rory tells Xavier (yeah, I kind of got stuck in the dining room with them for a late lunch which should be considered an early dinner) that Jasper is ready to talk but it has to be upstairs.

Setting his sandwich down, Xavier rolls his shoulders back. "Bring him up."

Eliza watches me as she finishes up her lunch. I avoid her stare by watching the clock. Four minutes pass before Rory returns with Jasper, two other males helping hold/guard him. Jasper looks like he's having a hard time standing.

"You wanted to speak with me?" Xavier asks him.

"Yes, but I need an assurance first."

"What's that?"

Sirens blare from outside and Eliza runs to the window. Could it be? I join her side, my heart racing. Police cars race down the driveway. My letter. I don't see any tanks. Can police take these werewolves in a fight?

"Xavier?" Eliza calls.

"Don't worry. These police should be a part of my pack. Just follow my lead."

My heart drops. My parents—if they're out there—are going to walk into a death trap.

"Rory, Will, Cam, take your hands off the luprau. It will look suspicious."

When they do, Jasper looks like he's going to crumble. I run to hold him up.

Car doors slam, and the police tell us to open the door which Xavier does.

"What's the problem?" Xavier asks.

"Those girls," the officer in front points to Eliza and me—"have been missing."

Police swarm the room and escorted by five more are my parents and Eliza's. Momentarily forgetting the naked Jasper, I run to my parents and wrap them in a hug. Eliza's parents hug her as well.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Xavier holds out a hand to her parents. They stare at it, not taking it. "Eliza and Addison have told me so much about you all. My family's been nursing them back to help since I found them half dead in a ditch."

"And you didn't call the police?" my dad snaps. If the police are in Xavier's pack, that means they're werewolves, and I'll be stuck here.

"It was me," Eliza speaks up. "I told him not to. I'm sorry, but I knew if you had seen us when Xavier here found us that it would have been horrifying for you."

I want to say that I've only been missing for a few days, that that isn't enough time for me to heal. But we're not getting help from the police and have to play our cards right.

"Alpha," someone yells. The police part to let a breathless woman through. She collapses. "Lupraus."

"Get the humans upstairs." Xavier grabs Eliza.

"Mom. Dad." I push them forward. "Get up the stairs." My mom's almost eight months pregnant. She won't be able to make it up the stairs in time. The closet I was going to hide in when Jasper originally attacked is just a few feet away. "Get in there." I point to it as the police rip through their uniforms as they shift into wolves.

My mom gasps, and I shove them the rest of the way. There's no room for me in there and to still be able to close the door.

"I love you," I tell them and shut the door. I run for the stairs, but Jasper grabs me and lifts me in his arms, carrying me out the back door.  "Jasper, what they hell are you doing?"

"Getting you to safety." He sets me down once we're in the woods, but keeps his arms on me. His body is miraculously healed.

"What happened to your skin?"

"I shifted and shifted back. It heals us."

"Did you know about this attack?"

Growls and barks, and cries come from the house. Eliza, our parents.

"Yes."

"You told Xavier you wanted to talk to him so you could be up here?"

He nods.

"My parents could be killed now."

"And how did they know to find you here?"

I swallow. This is my fault. But in my defense, I said bring marines, and I wasn't planning on a luprau attack. I wanted to go home; I didn't realize that was a sin. "So you were fine with me getting killed?"

"No. That's why I brought you out here."

My parents. . . my baby brother. Eliza. Jasper's grip prevents me from dashing back in there.

"I don't know what to say, other than I can't believe you. Over the past few days I thought I could trust you some, but no. We"—I motion to the both of us—"aren't perfect."

Jasper's eyes darken to black, reminding me of the eyes that haunted my dreams. He yanks me against his chest, dipping his head toward the base of my neck.

"Jasper—"

He bites into me, tearing my flesh. I grip his arms in agony. A voice in the back of my head whispers, 'He's marking you.' but that voice is drowned out by the screaming resounding in my head, the screams that I can't release. I feel tears run down my cheeks.

"Jasper, please—" I gasp, choking.

Jasper unclenches his teeth from me, and I slip through his hands and drop to where the leaves and twigs await me. I don't touch the mark, the pain from it fire. I'm scared to move my neck in fear the ache and blistering escalates. Out of the corner of my eye I see blood poring from my collarbone and down my shirt. He marked me. I'm going to be a werewolf.

"Why?"

He crouches down next to me, the look on his face so concerned.

"Get away from me."

He winces. "You won't turn until the full moon."

"I didn't want this, Jasper! You didn't ask me if I wanted to be like you. If this is perfect we obviously majorly screwed up in our past to have deserved each other."

"Addison, you don't understand."

"Then tell my why."

He shakes his head and stands. "The attack's over. Xavier's won." He offers a hand. I glare at it and help myself to my feet, my neck stinging like a hundred wasps are piercing the wound.

Inside, dead wolves are being carried out. Eliza consoles our parents. Xavier, at Eliza's side, growls, seeing my neck that's still bleeding.

"Addy"—my mom runs over—"are you all right? Were you attacked?"

"Something like that." The room spins.

So my parents now know about werewolves. Now what?

Eliza walks in from the kitchen with a handful of paper towels. I thank her for them and press a few to my. . . mark. I'm going to be a werewolf.

"You all can go," Xavier says. Does he mean Eliza and me too?

"Xavier, no." Eliza rakes a hand through her hair. "The wolves. . ."

"Go." He looks at our parents. "Breathe a word of this to anyone, and there will be a lot more human deaths as werewolves freely start defending themselves."

I'm leaving. I'm going home.

In silence Eliza gathers up her things, and we head to the SUV our parents rode in together. The police cars are no longer here. Xavier and Eliza have a long goodbye and Eliza climbs in the back with tears in her eyes. I stare at Jasper a few seconds before following Eliza.

How am I supposed to tell my parents I'm going to be a werewolf?