STRANGERS AND DANGERS

"No, no, no, it can't be next week," I say while I run my hands through my head in panic. There's no way it can be next week. I don't want to be an anatomy practical. From how she described the whole bones reconstruction, I know it will be friggin painful.

"Breathe Drake, you need to calm down," Lena says trying to calm my nerves. I guess the mate bond already hit her with my emotions, heck she doesn't need the mate bond to see just how dispersed I was. She kept on trying to calm me down but her words were getting fainter as I was getting dizzy from anxiety.

"Something's wrong," I say to myself. I immediately try to grab a nearby counter.

I feel excited.

No, it wasn't my mates.

It wasn't mine.

Then whose is it?

My vision turns dark as I now see nothing but black. I then hear that one sinister growl, the growl that's hunted me for days in my nightmares. I turn around to the monster in the darkness.

It was smiling.

It lunged straight at me fangs barred to rip my throat out and out of overwhelming fear I scream into the darkness.

"Hey it's okay, it's okay I'm here," I hear Lena's voice as a whisper. Her comfort slowly brings me out of my nightmare. I open my eyes and see Lena's eyes looking straight into mine, worrying and fearing that something might happen to me. I've only been a day into this mate bond thing but I can tell that it would break me if anything were to happen to her. I put my hands on her face and smiled at her to reassure her that I was okay.

"What happened?" She asks, clearly still concerned. Well not that she'd admit it. She'd give an excuse like 'it's just the mate bond'.

"It's nothing love, just a migraine," I say to her not wanting to disclose my horror. For some reason, I just thought it would be better if she didn't know. As I expected she wasn't satisfied with my answer but she shrugged it off.

"Okay, so what do I need to do to prepare for the full moon," I ask her trying to shift the mood.

"Well, there's nothing you can do. We've only got 7 days left." She replies resuming her position on the kitchen stool. "Only option is to lock you up and probably chain you up,".

"Chains? No one said nothing about chains." I say immediately. I mean what are all these conditions that come with being supernatural? For something that she calls a blessing it's starting to sound a whole lot like a curse to me.

"Hey, your strength is way above normal now so the chains are just a safety measure. The last thing we want is you running around rabid and ripping some poor passerby's throat off," Lena replies making the concept of ripping throats sound so normal. I gulp at the scene of my mate in the said situation in my head. One word. Shivers.

"Okay, so what other things do I need to..." I am cut off by a knock on my front door. I see Lena sniffing into the air. I'm confused at first but I immediately understand that she's trying to pick a scent of who's there. Yeah, that's right, I learn fast.

"Oh, there comes my Beta and gamma," She says as I exit the kitchen.

"The heck is a Beta and Gamma?" I ask.

"Just go open the door,". She says giving me the I'll explain later expression. I sigh and walk towards the door. Steps away from the door my abilities kick in and my sense of smell starts to work too well. I pick up familiar scents. Ones I know all too well. I open the door to see my two best friends who got me into this mess. Normally I'd want to yell at them for all the trouble they've put me through these past few days, but proving to them that I was not crazy was more important and now I've got the perfect evidence.

Lena.

She was a werewolf so I'm sure she could prove to them that I wasn't delusional.

"Hey Zack, Ace. I told you both I wasn't crazy" I say immediately grinning.

"Hey Drey," Zack says. His usual chirpy self was gone and he seemed all too serious. The same was for Ace. But that didn't matter for now. I could always ask them what was wrong later. The important thing was that I prove to them that I'm not crazy.

"Have I got something to tell you," I say to them both.

"Yeah about that..." Ace starts but I immediately cut him off not listening to a word he said.

"That can wait, come in, come in," I start as I pull them both inside.

"Remember that night we went into the woods, you guys said the attack never happened, that nothing happened that night." I continue.

"Drey..." Zack tries to talk but I immediately cut him off cause this time I'm not delusional. I have proof. I have Lena.

"Not now Zack. Something did happen that night and this time I can prove it," As I finish my statement we arrive at the kitchen door and I spot Lena on the spot I left her.

"Zack, Ace, meet Lena," I say to them pointing to her as they stepped into the kitchen. What happened next shocked and confused every single fibre of my being.

"Good to see you, Luna," Zack and Ace say as they bow their heads. If I didn't know better I'd say they were paying their respects to her like she was a higher being in the world's hierarchy. I mean she is. But Zack and Ace didn't know what she was, right?

"Luna?" I ask eyebrow raised, completely confused and oblivious to what was going on here.

"Yes I'm their Luna," Lena says resting her arms on the table.

"Okay what the heck is going on, what's a Luna?" I ask, my question directed towards my mate.

"A Luna is the female leader of a pack and they are my wolves," She says all too casually. Something funny was cooking here and I didn't like the scent it was giving off.

"Wolves?" I ask this time looking at Zack and Ace. They immediately but slowly avert their gaze from mine.

"You guys have known each other but I guess a proper Reintroduction is due" Lena continues. What does she mean, what's going on, what does she mean by Reintroduction?

"Drey meet my pack officials. My Beta, Ace, and my Gamma, Zack..." She starts. What does she mean? What's going on here?

"Ace, Zack, meet my mate, Drey. Your Alpha."

----------------------------------------------------------------

"Zack, what's going on here," I ask my emotions already jumbled.

"Hey Bro, chill we can explain, you've just got to trust us," Zack immediately says trying to calm me down. Trust him? I was finding it very hard to do so right now. The atmosphere was tense. I could tell they all knew I was losing control. Ace had his arms out trying to reach out to me. My mate or rather the woman I now finally grasped that I knew nothing about was going round the table slowly trying to get to me and Zack was trying to calm me down with words.

"What does she mean by you're in her pack?" I don't know werewolf myths all too well but I'm sure that only wolves can be in a werewolf's pack and that could only mean one thing.

My best friends were strangers to me.

"So you guys are..."

Ace immediately chips in "Yeah we are, you need to calm down Drey. We can explain,"

I was doing the complete opposite of calming down. All that I could feel right now was rage and something else was helping me fill it, the beast in me.

"So you guys knew about that night, you knew I was telling the truth but you decided to make me look stupid like I was delusional. YOU LIED TO ME!!!" I asked both Zack and Ace my anger pouring out. At this point, I was a loose canon looking for an excuse and a target to fire my balls of anger at.

"Drey, it's not their fault, I told them not to..."

"Shut it, Lena!!!" I growl at her my anger taking all control. My words take full effect as I know they hurt her deeply. I felt it, her pain. My mark begins to hurt as hell and I immediately start to regret raising my voice at her. Zack immediately goes to her front, takes a stance and bares his fangs at me, ready to protect his Luna at all costs.

This sets me off.

I was still broken from hurting Lena, from hurting my mate.

I was angry that the people I called family were nothing but lying snakes.

I was mad that Zack had turned on me.

I was angry at myself for what I was. A lycanthrope with no feasible control over what I am.

I need an outlet, I need a way out of my current reality.

I need to Run.

At the immediate thought of running, I blacked out. I felt pain all over, my bones felt like they had a mind of their own as they shifted around my body like rigid metal worms.

It hurt.

I could hear myself screaming but nothing came out.

I could hear the world outside trying to talk to me but I had no idea of what was going on.

A minute later the pain stopped and my hot bones started to cool down. I had no control over my body I could hear, see, smell, and feel, way better than I could before but my speech was impeded and my movements restricted as I had zero control over what I did. My body didn't feel quite right. My eyes scan the room and I can see the panicked and shocked look on everyone's faces. I could pick out someone saying "his fur, It's black". I look towards my mate and look into her eyes one last time before giving in to my instinct to run. I break the kitchen wall and head off into the woods running as fast as my legs can carry me.