I roll over and hum in content at the softness of the surface that I'm on.

I slowly open my eyes and see Charlotte fast asleep on her side of the bed. She's laying comfortably on her side and her hair is messily sprawled out over her face and her pillow.


I laugh at her situation before getting up. I open her door and walk out of her room, shutting the door behind myself.

I carefully walk down the stairs since I'm still waking up.

As I enter the kitchen I see Carolina making a huge breakfast.


At the sound of my feet hitting the hard floor her head snaps in my direction.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'll just come back later" I say since she might still blame me for everything


I'm unaware why she would think that I'd want to be involved with something as violent and scary as that, but I can't really judge her since everyone has their suspicions.

I go to walk out to the kitchen but get stopped by her voice.

"Wait, stay" she says

"Are you sure?" I ask her since she looks a little uncomfortable

"Yeah, I could use the company" I jokes with a small smile but it doesn't reach her eyes. I laugh lightly to make her feel better but stop when I see a guilty expression appear on her face.

I quietly walk into the kitchen and take a seat on a barstool.

She carefully removes the pancakes from the griddle before turning towards me.

"I'm sorry," she says

Okay, I guess we're jumping into it with full force.

"I'm sorry for assuming that you had anything to do with that, I'm sorry for blaming you about something you had no control over, and I'm sorry for disrespecting you" she says as she looks down at the floor in shame

"It's okay, at least you didn't try to harm me" I say as a lame attempt to shine some light on the situation

I see the corner of her lip twitch up slightly.

"I'll do anything to make it up to you" she declares

Interesting.

"I need answers" I say seriously

"About what?" She asks as she looks up to make eye contact with me

"First, I have a bunch of questions about this gang, and Second, I need you to hack into something" I say getting straight into business

"Lets go into the dining room, it's sound-proof" she says before leading me out of the kitchen.

Oh my goodness.

I'm actually about to get answers about all of this.

What if I'm not ready?!

What if I can't handle the truth?!

Fuck, I'm scared.

-

She takes a seat across from me as if this were an interrogation.

She gives me a serious look which makes me sit up straighter from intimidation.

"Just remember that I can't tell you everything" she says

"Okay" I reply

"Great, whats your first question?" She says with an encouraging smile

What should I start off with?

"When did all of this start?" I ask as my first question

"I don't know, but I've been in here since I was thirteen" she says with a shrug

She's been in here ten years?!

Wow.

"Um, how many members are there?" I say as I nervously tuck a strand of hair behind my ear

"Around thirty something" she says with a thoughtful expression

"There's thirty people living in this house?!" I exclaim in shock

"No, only half of them live here, the rest live with their families" she says quickly

How did I not know that, that many people live here.

"Oh," I reply as a question that's been on my mind became more prominent

"Why does Charlotte go by the name 'Thunder' and why do you guys call her your boss?" I ask

"For the first half of your question you're going to have to ask Charlotte about that, but for the second part it's pretty simple" she explains

"You know how in most werewolf books there's an Alpha and he or she are the leader of the pack?" She questions

I think back to the time I read this werewolf book but never finished it since it was too intense for my liking.

"Yeah" I respond which makes her smile

"She's like our leader, whatever she commands, we do" she says

"What if she told you to slam your head into a wall?" I question which makes her laugh

"She only commands us to do serious things, like meet her at a specific location for training" she says as she waves her hand for emphasis

"Like when the members met us at that building a couple hours ago" I point out which makes her nod

Her eyes flicker up for a second before they look back at my face. She smiles at me mischievously which makes me give her a confused look.

"Boo" I hear someone yell near my ear as their hands are placed on my shoulder

I scream in fright and use the only sense of self defense that I have.

I use the back of my hand and swing it back into the persons face.

I hear a familiar groan before they fall to the floor.

"Shit, I'm so sorry" I say as I quickly stand from my chair and look down at Charlotte

She looks up at me in shock.

"Are you okay?" I ask as I kneel down and turn her face so that I can look at the area where I hit her

I see that it's bright red and starting to swell.

"Shit, follow me" I say as I help her up and pull her into the kitchen

"Aspen, I'm okay" Charlotte says with an amused tone

"Shush" I say as I open the freezer and pull out an ice pack

I walk up to her until I'm directly in front of her. I carefully grab her face and gently turn it to the side before bringing to ice pack up to her cheek.

"Aspen, seriously, I'm okay" she replies

"I don't care, your cheek is swelling up" I say seriously as my eyebrows scrunch together in concentration

"Aspen" she says as if she's going to argue with me

"Charlotte Anne Wilder, I swear to god if you argue with me" I say with a stern tone

She rolls her eyes before falling silent and wrapping her arms around my waist.

I glance over and notice that Carolina is looking at us with an amused expression.

I raise my eyebrow at her. I guess I still look irritated since she scurries out of the kitchen immediately.

"How did Maddie and Ocean's date go?" I ask

I can't believe I completely forgot about that

"Surprisingly, really good" she says

"That's great" I say excitedly.

Her mood dampens as she thinks about something.

"But my parents still aren't revealing anything" she suddenly says with a sad tone

I remove the ice pack from her cheek and look into her bright green eyes.

"We'll get our answers sooner or later" I reply

"What if they never fess up?" She questions seriously

"Then we'll take a DNA test or something" I say which makes her smile as her eyes light up

"Why don't we take one now?" She says excitedly

I laugh at her childlike behavior.

She's so cute.

"Okay, lets do it" I say.

Its been three days since we captured Charlotte's parents.

They're surprisingly calm considering their situation.

But I'm not complaining.

Ocean has been visiting Maddie every chance she gets, sometimes multiple times a day.

I think that they're really getting along.

The rest of the members only make an appearance when there's a game playing on tv or if Carolina cooks for them.

That same day Charlotte and I took a DNA test.

She's been anxious and tracking it all day.

"It's arriving in two days" she says as she slams her phone down on the counter

I flinch as the glass screen collides with the granite countertop.

"I'm going to take this before you break another phone" I say as I reach my hand over and gently slide her phone out of her hand

I glance at the screen and notice the various cracks along it.

Great, this is the fifth phone she's cracked in the past three days.

She brings her hands up to tangle in her hair while she sports an irritated facial expression.

"Sit, I'll make you something, what do you want?" I ask her as I walk towards the refrigerator

She gently grabs my hips and pulls me into her.

I look up at her and notice how affected she really is.

Her bright green eyes are dull and they look like she hasn't slept in days.

I reach up and place the back of my hand on her forehead.

"You're burning up" I say with a sad tone

She looks away from me in shame.

"I want you," she says with a heartbroken tone, she tilts her head to look back into my eyes

"I want my girlfriend back" she whispers as a tear slides down her cheek

I pout at her as I wipe her tear away.

"What are you talking about?" I ask her with a gentle tone

"You still have me" I say

"No, I don't" she says

"We're at this weird halfway mark" she says which causes me to give her a confused look

What is she talking about?

"Can you please elaborate?" I ask her carefully

"We're below girlfriends, but above best friends" she explains

"We'll figure this out," I say since I don't know how to respond

"Until then, you need to get some sleep" I say with a small smile

"I can't sleep, there's too much to do" she says with a stressed tone

"When you wake up I'll help you with it" I negotiate

"Only if you lay with me" she says

I nod my head before leading her upstairs and towards her room.

As soon as we enter her room I kick my shoes off and lay on my side of her bed. Charlotte follows my actions before laying in the middle of the bed and pulling me on top of her.

I make myself comfortable before quickly relaxing into her hold.