Prisoners

It's been an hour since we arrived at Charlotte's house and the whole time we've been down in the basement trying to get answers.

You could probably imagine my shock when I first walked down here and discovered that it was full of jail cells.

Oh, so that's why she didn't want me down here.

Bruce, Nina, Maddie, Hayden, and Henry were locked away in separate cells.

Charlotte's members caught Henry trying to sneak away when we turned our backs.

I still need to thank them for that.

"Aspen, you don't really want to do this to us, do you?" Maddie asks from her cell

"What is this, guilt tripping?" I ask her with and emotionless voice

I dislike her but I can't have her coming after me or Charlotte ever again, especially sexually.

Someone knocks on the basement door before peeking their head in.

It's a person that I'm not familiar with so I just assume they're in her gang.

"Aspen, there's someone at the door requesting to see you" he says

"Okay, I'll be right there" I say with a smile, he nods before walking out and closing the door behind himself

"Who's here to see you?" Charlotte whispers near my ear with an angry tone

"Someone one who's going to help us" I say with a smile

"I hope so" she replies and pecks my cheek before turning towards Hayden with an angry look

I'd be angry too if I found out that my 'friend' was a double agent.

I quickly scurry away from the conversation and make my way towards the door. I open the door and close it behind me.

On my way to the door I walk through the living room and discover a large group of boys watching a basketball game.

I roll my eyes at them before opening the door and revealing a casually dressed Ocean.

"Hey" she replies

"Hey, come in" I say and open the door wider for her to step in

As she steps in her eyes widen at the size of the house.

"Nice house" she comments nervously

"Thanks, but it's not mine, it's Charlotte's" I say

"Wow" is all she says

"Come on, I'll introduce you to your secret companion" I say as I close the door and lead the way towards to basement

As we're walking I suddenly realize something.

"Why didn't you call me?" I ask

"I did, but you didn't answer" she says which make me blush in embarrassment

Right, I left my phone in Charlotte's car.

"If it's okay, can I ask one more question?" I ask

"You just did" she replies teasingly which makes me laugh

"At the hospital why did you say your name was Skylar?" I question

"Oh, that" she says nervously as she fixes her ponytail

"In middle school I got bullied for my name, so when I started high school my mom agreed to let me legally change my name to Skylar" she says

"Well, I happen to think that your name is cool" I say with a smile

"Thank you" she replies as we stop in front of the basement door

I nod my head.

"Wait here, I need to make sure she's ready" I say with a smile before opening the basement door and walking into the room

Okay, that was a lie, I need to tell Charlotte that I invited the girl she hates to her house for a blind date.

I walk up to Charlotte and notice her pulling her hair in irritation.

"What's wrong?" I ask gently ask I stop in front of her and bring my good hand up to caress her cheek. She sighs before wrapping her arms around my waist and burying her face in my neck.

"I need a new plan, they're not willingly admitting it to me" she mumbles

"We can think of a new plan in the kitchen" I suggest, she nods her head and starts to walk away from me only for me to stop her.

"Wait, I brought someone here for a blind date" I say cautiously so that I can prolong the inevitable

"Blind date, For who?" She asks with confusion

"For Maddie" I reply

"Oh great, who is it?" She asks with slight relief

"Ocean" I say lowly

"Please tell me you're kidding" she says seriously, I shake my head which causes her to groan in annoyance

"Aspen" she says in a scolding tone

"I know what you're going to say, but hear me out," I say

"Their attitudes are very similar and they have a lot of things in common" I say

"That very unstable grounding for a relationship" she states with and emotionless tone and crossed arms

"That's how most relationships start" I say with a 'duh' tone

"Whatever, if she does something that I don't like then I'm kicking her out" she says before walking away from me.

As we walk out of the basement I see Charlotte give Ocean a side glance before walking into the kitchen.

I roll my eyes at Charlotte before telling Ocean that the girl she's meeting is named Maddie and that she's in the cell farthest to the right.

She should know what she looks like since I described it to her at the hospital.

Ocean thanks me and walking into the basement, I shut the door behind her before walking into the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" I ask Charlotte as I see her staring at her tablet and eating a bowl of Cheeto Puffs.

"I'm keeping an eye on them" she says as she shoves a Cheeto into her awaiting mouth

I walk over to her and peek at the tablet only to find of that I could see and hear everything happening in the basement.

She has a camera down there?!

Jesus Christ.

She sets her bowl on the counter and lifts me up before sitting me across her thighs. She grabs the bowl and places it in my lap before continuing to eat out of it.

I roll my eyes at her before laying my head on her shoulder and listening to her steady heartbeat.

-

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.