Natalia’s P. O. V

I yawned as I walked out of my house. My stupid internal clock had gotten me up before the sun again so I’d only caught three hours of sleep at most.

I hailed a cab and told the driver to take me to a good real estate agency. I watched the city through the window. It never seemed to rest. Even now, there was quite a bit of traffic and the sun hadn’t even grazed the horizon yet.

The cab dropped me off at a place called Palace Homes. I walked into the lobby and to the front desk.

“Good morning. Welcome to Palace Homes, what can I do for you?” The brunette behind the desk eyed me up and down, sizing me up and probably making judgements that were most likely wrong.

“Can you get one of your agents to show me some houses?”

“Sure. Just write down your requirements and we’ll narrow it down.” She handed me a paper and pen then went back to texting.

‘Can we please get a walk in closet?’ Candy pleaded before I even put the pen to the paper.

I chuckled in my head, ‘Of course.’

After a few minutes of contemplation, I’d written: at least three bedrooms, four bathrooms, at least one walk in closet, a balcony, a big kitchen, a Jacuzzi, a study, a chandelier in the dining room, a fireplace in the living room and an outdoor pool. The balcony, walk in closet, Jacuzzi, chandelier and pool had been Candy’s idea. I just hoped she wasn’t planning on trying to get me to throw any parties.

I looked over the list, ‘This’ll be expensive, Candy.’

‘Aww. Come on, Nat. You saw the numbers, this’ll barely put a dent in your account.’

She did have a point. ‘Fine, but you only get three picks on the furniture and you can only choose the paint for one room.’

‘Deal’

I handed the paper and pen to the lady and wrote my number down.

“You should get a call before noon about your appointment. Have a nice day.” She didn’t even bother to look up from her phone. I thanked her and walked out.

I took my phone out and called Hailey. It was surprisingly easy to figure out.

Her voice was laced with worry and tension, “Hey, Ari. What’s up?”

“Hail, is everything okay?”

“Fine! Everything’s fine!” She uttered a nervous laugh. I could imagine her eyes darting from side to side while sweat droplets dotted her forehead. Why didn’t she want to tell me the problem?

I guessed she needed her secrets. We’d only just met.

“O-kay then. I was just calling to ask you the name of the college you’re going to attend.”

“Oh. It’s called Killdrain Puncturial University. Is that all you need?”

“Yeah, that’s all. Are you alright?” She was breathing so heavily that I was pretty sure that I would hear it without my advanced hearing. I also caught a few sobs.

“NO! I mean yes. Yes, everything is fine. There is no need to worry. Everything is fine.” She sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than me.

“Alright, if you insist. You know you can tell me anything, right?” she made a distracted sound of agreement, “Call me if you need anything, kay?”

“Okay. Bye, Ari.”

“Bye.”

‘I wonder what the problem is.’ Candy mused. I shrugged and pocketed my phone.

‘Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. If she trusts me enough to tell me, then we can worry but until then, it’s none of our business.’

‘Yeah. You’re right.’

I decided to see what Central Park looked like before going home to get my results. I remembered coming across it in a library book. I hailed a cab and told the driver my destination. After a full minute without movement on the driver’s part, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

I slowly reached out to tap his shoulder with caution, “Sir? Is everything al-”

He abruptly whipped around to face me. His glowing black eyes held mine and I found that I couldn’t move. I wasn’t even able to blink.

The hairs on my neck strained against my skin. ‘Candy! Candy! What’s happening?! Candy!’

She didn’t respond. Why didn’t she respond?

I tried to take in his appearance but I couldn’t look away from his eyes. All I caught sight of was the orangish-red hair that fell in his eyes. I couldn’t look away.

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The intensity of the glow of his eyes rose as he uttered one word; “Sleep”

‘CANDY! HEL-!’

Darkness overtook my vision and I did just that – I slept.

**********

I woke up lying in a bed in an unfamiliar room. Judging by the room’s lack of personality, I assumed I was in a hotel.

‘Candy? You there?’

‘Yeah’ She sounded sleepy.

My eyes landed on a pair of grey eyes slightly obstructed by familiar ginger hair. I shot out of the bed and took a defensive stance.

“Impressive. Most people wouldn’t be actively aware when they’re under control. I saw your panic and struggle back in the cab. You also woke up a lot earlier than most people would and you seem to have remembered everything immediately.” His drawl was lazy as he sat casually on the table across the room.

“Who are you and what do you want?” I demanded.

He couldn’t have been from the Lightwood pack. I remembered all their faces and his wasn’t one of them plus, he didn’t smell like a werewolf. What if they’d enlisted his help in order to find me? That was highly unlikely. Only one person in the pack knew my name and I’d gone by Ari since I arrived in the city. They also should have been fooled by my ‘death scene’ and it wasn’t like them to persistently search for someone like me. None of the pack allies knew who I was either and there was no one who could have told them my location. It didn’t make sense but if it was the pack, I wasn’t going without a fight.

The bathroom door opened and out stepped one of the last people I expected to see: Kirstin

“Oh, you’re awake! This is awkward. I was planning on practicing what to say before you woke up.”

I didn’t feel any hostility from her as she moved closer but I still kept my stance and followed her every move.

She sat on the bed and waved the guy away with slight playfulness, “Thanks for all your help Danny. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’ve got very important things to discuss.”

Danny shrugged and got off the table then walked out of the room in a way that made me think he was ready to fall over asleep.

Kirstin clapped her hands together once the door closed behind him, “Alright! I know we got off on the wrong foot and I don’t expect us to become pals right away but I think I can be of help to you.”

I blinked, “Help?” Kirstin wanted to help me?

“Yes, help. You weren’t the only one who was rejected on the night of that birthday party.”

“Rejected?” How did she know I’d found my mate that night in the first place?

“Yes, rejected. Harry was supposed to be my mate but he rejected me for Kylie. You have a similar situation with Callum and Brittany.” It wasn’t a question.

Of course, I always knew that Callum would end up with Brittany and Harry with Kylie regardless of who their mates were. My presence always went unnoticed so I’d heard a lot of private conversations while cleaning.

“We have quite a few common enemies. I don’t like the pack either and your letter to them was true.” She grinned and I returned it with one of my own.

I relaxed and sat next to her, “What are you suggesting?” I asked even though I already knew the answer.

“You don’t like the pack, I don’t like the pack. You want revenge, I want revenge. You’ll be on the outside while I’ll stay on the inside and gather information that can be used to destroy our common enemy.”

I smirked, “That sounds very appealing.”

She smirked back.

“Can we start over? I’m really sorry for being so horrible to you for all those years, you seem like a good person.” She seemed sincere and I didn’t think any of the pack members were smart enough to come up with a plan like this. If they wanted me back, they’d most likely use force.

‘What do you think, Candy?’

‘I don’t sense any signs of her lying but even so, we should still be careful.’

“Okay, we can start over.” I said.

Her face broke out into a smile, “Great! First thing’s first – I don’t know your name.”

“That’s fine, only Callum does and that’s because he needed it to reject me and I had to say it to accept the rejection. It’s Avarielle but just call me Ari.” I saw no use in lying about it since in the unlikely event that the pack was behind this, Callum already knew.

Kirstin’s P. O. V

“That’s fine, only Callum does and that’s because he needed it to reject me and I had to say it to accept the rejection. It’s Avarielle but just call me Ari.”

Wow. Who would’ve guessed that she’d have had such a pretty name? And it looked like Ari had accepted her rejection and moved on with her life while I was still making goo-goo eyes at the person who would never glance at me the way I stared at him. She was obviously a lot more than just physically strong.

My train of thought came to a halt at the sound of her voice, “So, Kirstin, what’s the plan?”

I blinked in surprise, “You know my name?”

She raised a single brow as if to say ‘Really?’

“Oh, right, you had the whole silent but always there thing.”

She almost seemed like a completely different person from the way she was before. Since she no longer used her now luscious, chestnut hair as a curtain, I could see how beautiful she was. Her smile was radiant and it lit up her once dull eyes so they shined like emeralds. I couldn’t fathom how I’d never noticed her beauty before. Callum must have been either temporarily blind, blindfolded or in a very dark place when he decided to reject her.

She cleared her throat, “The plan?”

“Oh, right. This is what I’ve come up with: I’ll stay with the pack and gather information for a few years then six months before we’re ready to expose them, I’ll leave. I was thinking of just going to the royal family to report them.”

Her calculating gaze never left mine even after I was done explaining my half cooked plan. A smirk that made her look like she pitied my idea appeared on her face, “While your plan is nice, I have a more elaborate one.”

“Oh?” The look in her eyes made me grateful that it wasn’t me she was plotting against.

“Don’t we have specific targets? Yes, I promised to destroy the pack but that’s pretty general. I promised Kylie, Brittany, Callum and Harry that I’d destroy them but to do that, I’ll need valuable information on each of them. That’s where you come in. I’ll need you to get closer to them and snoop around. Find delicate secrets. Things that they make a lot of effort to hide. You’re already friends with each of them so it shouldn’t be a problem. While you do that, I’ll take care of things on my end by gaining friends in high places and rallying their enemies. We can stick with the aspect of your plan that involves you leaving some time before we strike.”

Her plan a lot more detailed than mine and she’d only just come up with it. Other than Kylie, I didn’t think it would be much of a problem to find dirt on them. I perked up as a thought came to mind, “Why don’t we make a pack?”

“Why don’t we make a pack?”

We said at the same time then grinned at each other. I liked her more and more by the second.