You'd be surprised...

"You've been quiet." Fred snapped Grace's thoughts. "Ask whatever you want to know about, I'll answer if I know."

Grace stayed quiet, repeating her thoughts again and again. She had revised it so many times now to think that she's the nutcase for hearing and thinking things. She thought over how she had caught Mathew staring at like he's seeing her with two heads, or when Fred rubbed himself on her like it was normal to do so. When Mathew yelled at the group for acting like 'humans' or when Malick spoke like he meant everything in a double meaning. With everything that's happening, maybe Grace should've reconsidered about her stability and stayed with Charlotte and Susan. She was also numbed after the wolves, and to overthink that Anne climbing a tree that only had a few branches, above the height of a house, Grace was sure that she was going to die because of brain-confusion. She tried to remember how the young girl had climbed; Anne had got onto another tree nearby and had climbed over to its branches since they were lower, then jumped across to the main tree as if she'd done it too many times to count.

Grace hadn't said anything too; since she was obviously stilled about the wolves.

"Hey, don't dwell on it too much. I can feel your brain starting to let steam out and ready blow." Fred joked bumping her shoulders. They were sitting on a large root of an oak tree. The tree was old, Grace knew that, but for some reason, it held the beauty to hold such strength and stand tall and proud. In front of them, Jude and Lucas had finally finished putting the small tents up and were sitting at the front, laughing along with whatever they were talking about. Grace couldn't see her uncle or the other guy from where she sat. She was glad, she didn't want to see their reactions to her being in front of them. Her uncle had kept his worried glances at her and Mathew Johnson had been glaring or staring right through her the whole day.

"I don't want to myself." She answered back with a sigh. "What's going on? I feel like everyone knows something and I don't. What are they hiding?" She waited for his reply but her questions only met silence. "What are you hiding?"

"I don't know what I'm hiding, that's the problem." He answered truthfully. Even though he never conversed with Grace when they were in the same town, he knew not to give out much information to her; he held a very important role after all. "I know there's something, but I haven't figured it all out yet." He glanced at the girl and turned back to watch the scene of Anne hitting Jude on the shoulder again and again, only because she was laughing; that girl sure had a huge energy box inside of her. "You know what? Once I find out about what I know," he turned back to Grace to already have her staring at him to reply. "You'll be the first to know."

Grace nodded and smiled a little to let him know that she appreciated it.

"And for what they know," Fred started, "I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say. But know that they're doing what they're doing for a reason. Nothing bad, I hope. We all have a secret to hide for ourselves, yeah?"

"Mm," she let her eyes search for something unusual in the woods. "But, their secrets seem to be shared among themselves." She found nothing.

Fred chuckled along with her, half heartedly.

"Don't act, you're bad at it." She spoke softly giving him a glare. "I know you're part of this secret." He gave her a look that said that he didn't have much choice in it. Grace sighed, "at least tell me why you hugged me like that." She waited, she didn't want to bring that up, but she was curious. "Not only was it out of ordinary, but it was also the most uncomfortable feeling ever, no offence."

"None taken." He replied finding his lips form a ghostly smile. "All I'm able to say is that Malick knew that there were wolves coming our way." He waited for Grace to give a surprised look but she kept it neutral. "Humans have weird sent, so we needed to cover you up with something else strong. So the wolves could be fooled that you're not food."

"So," Grace outlines the words, "you're saying that you're not human?"

She was going nuts, she knew it.

"What?!" Fred suddenly looked up alarmed and awake from the drowsiness he was feeling before. He couldn't believe that he had let that slip away. "N-no. I meant that w-we already had the smell covered for ourselves. You know, the things that the shop near the woods sell to help us stay safe in the forests? You didn't because Malick forgot to give you some of that- some of that spray. I had way too much on me, so he decided that if I'd hug you, some of that smell would get on you. That's it, why would you think that I'm not human? If not, then what am I? An alien?"

Grace gave him a worried glance and shook her head. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that." She was a little disturbed at how Fred had reacted but decided to let it go and call it a night.

"Let's never bring that up in the future?" Fred had requested before they left their little converse place. She'd nodded.

Grace soon found herself inside her own mini tent, lended by Lucas, which got situated on the left of Mathew's and the right of Malick's.

The uncle and the London guy returned a few minutes later, settling themselves to sleep part time and guard the tents. Once they were sure that Grace was asleep in her tent, Jude reported to Anne that he had some talking with the men. The five of them made their way as far as possible with eyes on their stay for the night.

"What did she ask?" Malick asked Fred as soon as they were out. Fred explained to them what he knew from his side as Mathew explained next about what he now knows.

"Why aren't you telling her?" He'd asked a while later. "How are you hiding it from her? You're not feeding her potions on preventing her shifts, right?"

The men looked at him, bewailed.

"We're not evil, there's no way any of us would try to hurt her." Jude said slightly annoyed that the older man thought so.

"And we are definitely not giving her anything to hide her." Lucas was glaring into Mathew's fist that was clenched tight in anger. "That's on whatever goes down in her house."

"What's happening in her house?" Mathew could feel that something was off about the whole situation and tried to ignore it.

"How would we know Genius?" Malick snorted while Mathew frowned at him.

"Are you not her uncle?"

"Just because I'm her uncle doesn't mean I know what's going on inside her house. God, you're making me sound like I'm a wanna-be pedophile." Fred snorted back at that earning a hit on the back of the head by Jude. As Fred scowled at the boy, Malick continued his comment. "Let's just leave it at the fact that I'm wasn't really happy wappy with Grace's dad."

"But, here you are, protecting her with all you've got."

"Shut your mouth Lucas before I shove something inside and end your endless years."

Fred scoffed at that, "that wasn't the best comeback old man."

Malick rolled his eyes; leave it to the clueless primary schooler to understand everything.

The was a mini pause while Fred continued to annoy the high school boy.

"What about her mate?" Mathew finally asked. He was relieved that he'd finally asked the question that's been pricking at his chest for long years.

A mate is a werewolf's other half, his or her soulmate. The one that is made just for you and the only one that will ever love you the way one does back. A mate is a blessing from the gods and goddess themselves. In history, only the deserved ones get a mate, but as generations continued to sprout and the lives of werewolves were laying thin, they put it upon themselves that everyone deserved to love and perish such feeling. When a young werewolf turns eighteen, they will have the senses to find their mate. They say that a mate's smell is the most wonderful smell in the planet. A mate's smile and even frown will be the revelation in one's life. A mate is a gift. Having to never be able to find a mate is like living without a heart, the pain of loneliness overpowers the pain when the dear one itself dies.

Mathew didn't like the idea of Grace having a mate, but he didn't dwell on it for long, well, tried to. His thoughts didn't matter on Grace's life.

"Mate?" Lucas asked, eyebrows frowning. "There's no mate, Mathew. Never was."

They stayed quiet, thinking.

"Why?"

"The reason why you were sent to London," Lucas started but Mathew seemed to catch on.

"She hasn't shifted?" He received four shaking heads. Mathew's eyes were wide as he realized that he was wrong the whole time. There was something else to this. "How come she doesn't remember though? The last time I had seen her, she was a very proud she-wolf."

No one said anything and that made Mathew angry all of a sudden, "what did you guys do to her?!" His voice was starting to grow loud and he knew that his gray eyes were turning black. He heard a clearing of throat and turned to face Malick to see him all his eyes.

"We didn't do anything, you idiot."

Mathew turned to the rest to see them shrug. "We don't know how, we were just told what to do, Alpha's orders." Jude muttered.

"Actually, Lucas knows." Fred pointed out and in a flash, he felt Malick's eyes pierce him with needles.

'You asshole.' Fred winced at how loud Malick was in his head. 'Sometimes I forget how young you are to be a Gamma.'

Mathew turned to give Lucas his full attention when he felt his wolf stir inside of him. Mathew's wolf paced around his place at the back of Mathew's head.

Lucas watched as Mathew's eyes turned back to its original color and go smoky. Lucas eyed Malick and the others as they waited for Mathew to come back to reality.

Suddenly, without warning, Mathew pushed himself away from the men and sprinted towards the tents. Taken aback by his behavior, the rest of them followed behind.

"Matt!" Fred called him, but he didn't turn back. Mathew was at Grace's tent in seconds as he roughly opened it. "What are you doing?!"

Without giving the team a glance, Mathew stood up from the tent and ran into the woods.

"What's going on?" A soft voice grabbed the men's attention. Anne was in the middle of their light campfire area, looking tired with sleep inviting her over as she stood.

"Nothing Anne, go back to-" Jude was interrupted by Lucas's curse. He turned back to find his team mate holding the tent with one hand, the bedsheets inside rolling out one by one. "Where is she?"

Malick ran a hand through his hair sighing too loud.

"Where's Grace?" Anne was wide awake now waiting for the big mens to explain. "Where's Mathew?"

"Shit," Fred cursed. "She doesn't have a scent."

"Let's spilt up." Lucas announced, "Anne and Jude, to the east. Fred, take the west. Malick to the north and I'll take the south." Without another second to waste, the team spilt up keeping their sense in height, on the look out for a black haired werewolf who didn't know how to shift.

We'll find her, Malick thought as he speed walked through the trees. How hard can it be?

The sense of someone calling made Grace fasten her pace. She shouldn't be out in the woods alone, she knew that. But she had tried so hard to ignore the voices that she couldn't take it anymore. Something was calling her, and she had to find out. She had surprised herself for sneaking away from the tents without waking anyone up, but again, surprised herself when she climbed a tree like it was second nature for her. She didn't know her way back, which only made her heart beat quicker.

Maybe, I shouldn't've come here, she thought. She turned back to see where she'd come from, but only saw darkness and a spooky aura. She could feel her breaths start to waver as she hugged herself from the cold. The mist on the ground was starting to heighten as she stepped behind as if to hide away. She turned around noticing the trees starting to fade, which only meant one thing from all those horror movies she'd watched with her high school during sleepovers: she was near a cliff.

Grace tightened her hold as she kept walking away from the trees and the fog. She could hear her breaths now as she turned to see that she'd reached the edge. What do I do now? She asked for help in her brain. Do I jump?

She felt like there was something missing from her life. As if she's forgetting something or someone, someone very important. Something in her pulled away, telling her that this was all a big joke and that she was being tricked, but Grace help but step a little towards the cliff. She wanted to know what was down there.

Hey, show me your wolf?

Back off Matty, I'm not in the mood for your stupid games…

Oh come on, you're good at them though! It'll be fun.

Leave the girl alone when she wants to be.

She lifted her left leg, taking another step forward when she felt something grab onto her by the waist. Terrified of what it may be, Grace screeched on top of her lungs as she struggled to run away. She had her eyes closed in fright as she thrashed on whatever was holding her. Her hands were held with her body as she was trapped by an arm of some sort.

Dad, what's going to happen now?

Don't worry Dove, I've got you. No one will find you as long as you follow the protocols and stay in town.

But why is this happening to me?

I don't know dove, I don't know.

Grace didn't stop screaming as she kept pulling and moving her legs to escape. With all the thrashing, she was able to untangle a hand and pushed it behind to shove the thing away. What she felt made her scream louder as she kicked behind, falling forward in the process.

She was free from the ghosted hands.

She was free from the slimy face.

She was free.

Grace sucked in a breath. It was a dream, or a daydream of some sort. She was still standing on the cliff, but she was alone. There was no one with her and felt safe for a brief second. Then, suddenly realizing that she was as alone as she was in her mini dream, her heart picked up a beat as she frozen on her spot.

What do I do? She asked herself. She didn't want to turn back and see what's behind her. Do I jump?

She felt that same feeling of loneliness again. She was forgetting something or someone, who was it? Why did it feel so important? She felt incomplete, as if she's missing half her body.

Hey, show me your wolf!

Happy birthday beautiful, today's very special for you huh?

What is it about non-shifters? What does that have to do with me?

What's wrong with me?!

She was about to take a step forward when she was suddenly grabbed by the waist and was thrown over to the other side of the cliff. She let out a screech, just as she had in her dream, her eyes closed; too afraid to have eye contact with the slimy face. She moved her arms around, syncing with her legs as she tried to push whatever that was on top, away.

She struggled, kicking the object only to get a grunt back as a response.

"Stop," Grace heard a faint voice, struggling along with her. Mathew? She questioned, finally opening her eyes a little to peek. "Stop before I knock you unconscious."

She slowly stopped thrashing as she found Mathew on top, his legs on either side of hers to trap her from escaping. He was finding it hard to balance himself without squeezing her.

"God, you're good with kicks. Can see that you still have the same strength…"

"What are you doing here?" Grace asked ignoring his comment as she equally panted as him. The confusing scenes that she'd seen earlier flashed before her eyes.

In that second, she felt as if she knew Mathew a lot more than she'd thought. But that was not true. In real life, Grace had never talked to Mathew except for those times when they'd nod and wave in school hallways. Grace was so sure that she would escape everything when she finished high school, but boy was she wrong. Everything was haunting her back.

She stopped moving all together and waited for him to roll over, but he didn't. He stayed as he was and watched the woman underneath him. He waited for her to do something but then realized that he should be the one to do so. He was too close to her.

Realizing the position they were in, Mathew quickly rolled to a side, letting Grace sit up and stare back at him.

"What are you doing here, alone?" He finally asked. The girl shrugged looking anywhere but him. "Grace." He gave a warned tone.

She hesitated but decided that it wasn't going to hurt telling him. "I felt like someone was calling me. So I followed, which I obviously shouldn't have done." She waited for him to start yelling at her. He seemed like someone who would, but he stayed quiet, making Grace thankful. "Thank you for coming and finding me. I don't know what I would've done without you."

"You would've fell down that cliff." He answered back dryly. "Come on, let's go back." The two of them jumped up and walked away from the overhang. They walked in silence when suddenly, they heard a few rustling. "Fred." Mathew announced to her.

In a matter of seconds, she was pulled into chest and was being smelled at. She didn't want to question it.

"Thank god!" Fred let out a relieved sound and hugged Grace closer. "I thought that we wouldn't be able to find you." Grace felt a nice, warm feeling emitting out of her when she realized that Fred actually caed for her. Not like those students that'd given her pity looks from school; she still didn't know why they'd stared at her like that.

"Well, here I am." She answered dryly, giving Mathew a glance that told him to keep quiet of what she'd said before.

"What were you thinking? Running off like that!" He let go and was now frowning at her. Then he turned to Mathew, "we need to talk." He only received a nod.

"Why don't we take this reunion back to the tents. I'm sure the rest of the team are worried." Fred gave Mathew a nod.

"I've already con-" Fred stopped and turned away from Grace.

"What?" She asked worried. Fred didn't tun back.

"Nothing, I just thought that I saw something move." He answered, fastening his pace. "Anyways, why are you limping Mathew?"

Mathew blushed, "someone is really good at kicking and punching that they underestimate themselves." Fred frowned at him, completely oblivious to the fact that the someone could only be Grace at that situation, while it made the said girl blush back.

It took over a minute for the team to get back together at the tents. Grace eyed her tent that was ripped in the center and listened to her uncle rant on and on about how she had been so immature. She had said her part of 'sorry's as soon as they'd got back, but he couldn't stop. Only when Lucas assured him that it was enough did he go back to his tent ordering Jude to make sure that everyone gets into their sleeping order. Anne paired with Grace since she didn't want her to wander off, while her boyfriend and Mathew shared. Fred bunked inside with Lucas telling him that he had bad sleeping habits. At that moment, Lucas really felt like he wouldn't mind Ryne and her overthinking-self instead.

Grace glanced at Anne as the younger girl settled next to her, hugging her tight. "Come on, get all the sleep you can get. We have to wake up early to start hiking again."

Grace closed her eyes and drifted off to a dreamless sleep. She was the last one to doze off and the first one up. She had never been a very cheery morning person, but for some reason always woke up early, a few hours before the sun rises. The next day was no change as Grace slowly made her way out of Anne's tent, careful not to wake her up. Once she was outside the tent, she noticed how the mist was stating to clear out as the birds started to chip lowly, from afar.

There was more light than last night as she scanned the area and all the tents. No one was up yet, but Grace almost screeched out surprised when she saw a figure leaning on a log, legs sprawled. She walked up to the fit figure to see that it was none other than Mathew. He had stayed out, afraid that something else would happen after.

Grace squatted down next to him and lightly tapped on his cheek. "Mathew?" She whispered. After a few more attempts, he woke up with a start and a growl but relaxed when he saw Grace's face. Grace on the other hand, had wide eyes and a gapping mouth as she froze.

"What are you doing out?" He lazily asked. He had only dozed off an hour ago, and was not happy that his sleep was disturbed.

A few seconds pass before Grace willed herself to speak again. "Go sleep inside Mathew, it's cold." Grace said trying to get him to stand.

"No, no. I'm fine." He replied ripping out of the girl's grip. "You go back."

Grace shook her head and decided that if he wasn't going to go, then she was going to stay with him. They both sat near as Mathew couldn't stay awake any longer and slipped into a deep sleep on Grace's shoulders. The second time Grace had woken up, Lucas was standing in front, arms crossed over his chest as he raised an eyebrow at her. He looked very intimidating, she wouldn't say old-looking but definitely something like a bad mafia or some sort of a boxing guy. Chuckling at her horrendous thoughts, she shooed him away and pushed Mathew's head away from her shoulders as she twisted her muscles.

Lucas stiffly walked away, gesturing her to follow. As she stood up, she noted the sun rising and Anne was already out, trying to wake up her boyfriend. He slept hard, not even knowing that his tent-partner never made it to bed. Grace concluded that her uncle was still asleep since he was nowhere to be seen. Once the two of them were out of ear shot, Lucas softly pushed Grace's shoulders to a tree and stood in front, looking like he was the meanest teacher in town.

"What is it?" She asked confused on why Lucas has been acting all tough and rough since the start of the trip.

He'd always been that carefree, 'I'm-too-cool-for-this-scene' type of man during Grace's childhood. He always stood near her father and only talked to her when it was a must. It was never awkward though, Grace found Lucas as the quiet, troubled man so she didn't make it a big problem. Lucas did try to be friendly with her; giving gifts on special occasions and being overprotective when she'd bring boys home for a friends' night.

Lucas shook his head and messaged his temples, "why where you out of your tent last night?" Grace didn't expect to be interrogated about this by Lucas but decided to answer him, with half the truth.

"I just wanted to see what was out there, nothing happened." She tried to make a result out of the guy's expression but he was too good at hiding it.

Though he didn't look convinced, Lucas didn't ask her twice. "Don't ever go out on your own, okay? You don't have the scent on you now, I'm sure it's faded. We don't want you to be eaten by bears or something."

Huh? So they'd talked about it… she thought. "Something, as in, wolves?" She asked and finally got a reaction of Lucas flinching.

"M-maybe."

"Hm, I'm pretty sure that I would be fine with them, even if they do scare me," she glared at him, making sure that he could feel her penetrating look. "They won't be the ones to hide something behind my back."

"What are you implying here Grace?" He narrowed his eyes at her. There's no way she can find out, he thought.

"You know." She said back, finally feeling like she knew more than the others. "Tell me Lucas, what's going on here, that I don't know of? What is my uncle hiding from me?"

She waited fo him to comply and answer her, but what she didn't expect is to have him start a chuckle that turned into a very loud laughter. Grace frowned, how did the tables turn so quickly?

She didn't comment and paused herself from swearing. Lucas continued for a while and suddenly turned to his right making Grace follow his eyes. Just next to their sleeping spot, Malick was standing, with an unsettled expression. Then, he walked away, as if he'd not seen them.

"What was that?" Grace questioned Lucas and he shrugged her off.

"Look Grace," he started taking her attention back to him. "I'm really happy that you're growing into a wonderful woman, but please keep in mind that you can't make me do whatever you want; not yet anyways."

Grace scrunched her face, "you're not making any sense." She paused before adding, "you sound like an old man."

Lucas chuckled again before raising a brow.

"You'd be surprised."