I held the towel closer to me, as a flush of embarrassment traveled all over me. "Did you...?"

"Yes, Hillary..."He said as he walked slowly to me. "And I'd say that you're indeed the most adorable lady I've ever set my eyes on."

With every step he took towards me I made a step backward, until I was resting on the walls of the bathroom.

I felt intoxicated and high by his closeness to me, like I was under the influence of hard drugs. I felt really high that I didn't know when I uttered. "And how many ladies have you set your eyes on?"

He chuckled. "More than you think? But none of them have ever made me feel this way."He reached for my hand which was holding the towel, and gently released my grip from it. "None of them have ever been so beautiful."He said as he let loose the towel.

I bowed my head as I watched the towel fall to the floor. I could feel his ravaging eyes wander all over my naked body and I didn't have the courage to look up at him.

Like he felt my fears, he slowly raised my head with his finger and said softly, "You don't need to be scared, Hillary, just...feel, okay?"

I nodded my head.

His fingertips began to trail my bare shoulder and ran down slowly to my chest. His hands drew closer to my bare breasts...and I pushed him away.

"I can't..."I muttered silently, catching my breath. "I'm sorry..I just can't."I bent and picked the towel and wrapped myself with it.

"It's fine, Hillary "he held my face gently. "We have all the time in the world to get fond of each other."

He patted my chin and walked out of the room. It took me two to three minutes to get control of myself. I couldn't believe my emotions, I had really wanted him to touch me however he wanted but I was just too scared and paranoid.

At last, I moved out of the bathroom and changed into a dress I saw on the bed. It was a short wrapping flared gown with beautiful sunflower patches on it. It wasn't my type of gown, as it was way higher than my knee. I looked at the mirror for a while, admiring the beautiful gown which showed my curves–curves which I've always hidden in my baggy pants, floor-touching skirts and Cinderella-like gowns.

I sat down on the bed and exhaled loudly through my mouth. I couldn't believe that so much could happen in less than thirty minutes; I had been tortured, accused and almost drowned by Ava Saints, a girl who I thought was my friend, and also what transpired between Dylan and I.

From the window I saw a small yellow tweeter hitting the window. I stood up and walked over to the large glass and mahogany framed window and opened it.

The beautiful bird had somehow gotten stuck in the wet clay of one of the vases which had beautiful flowers in them. It was young and beautiful and it suited the beautiful weather. I helped it out, and I let go of it...but it didn't fly away, instead it climbed onto my outstretched palms and chittered beautifully.

While I was still focused on the amazing tweeter, I didn't notice Dylan walk into the room. He walked to my side and said softly. "It likes you, doesn't it?"

I shook a little bit and the beautiful bird flew from my hand. "Oh, no."I exclaimed, but then it perched on my palms again.

He laughed. "Like I said, it does like you."

"Maybe."I giggled.

"Just accept it, Hillary, why is it always so difficult for you to accept love?"

My smile faded. "Because it's not real, Dylan. It's something formulated and it's never true...at least even if it was, it never comes to people like me." I said as I lifted my hand and urged the bird to fly away. It flew away and I shut the large windows.

"That's not true, Hillary. Everyone has a shot at true love and unlike humans we werewolves are lucky to always know our mates. So all you have to do is to accept it."

I looked into his deep golden brown eyes and tried to see if he meant it, and from the way he looked at me I was almost sure he did.

I looked away. "So, where's your dad? The alpha."

"Follow me."

*****

We were in a massive superbly decorated and furnished bedroom which had several pictures around, most of which were of Dylan and another girl who looked like Dylan, but was obviously younger.

On the bed, was an elderly man with long gray hairs, full gray beards and black shining eyes. Although he was old and his face was wrinkled and folded, he still looked strong and bold. He had the look of a leader, now I knew why he was the Alpha. His old eyes were focused on the ceiling, when Dylan and I walked in.

We went beside the bed and Dylan interrupted the old man from his daydream. "Dad."

The old man shook from his daydream. "Is she here?"

"Yes."Dylan said.

The old man groaned as he shifted his body to face me. His black eyes were fixed on me for a short moment, which felt like a whole year to me. I stood there confused and had an awkward feeling. I was tense until his wrinkled face gave in to a wide smile which exposed his old crooked teeth. He patted the bed beside me and told me with his old and shaky but bold voice. Come over here, sweetheart, don't let this old man make you frightened."

I hesitantly sat beside him.

He reached out to my face and rubbed it with his wrinkled but strong hands. "You're so pretty. What's your name, Angel?"

"I'm Hillary...Hillary Hunter."I said nervously. I wasn't used to being around nice old people, I never had grandparents, the only family I had were Maribel, My mum and Steve Harrows.

"Hunter....."He looked at me, and pity was written across his face. "I knew your father, Anthony Hunter."

What! He knew my father. He was the first person who had ever talked about my father. I wondered how he knew my father, and I really wanted to ask him multiple questions but I held myself. I had always thought of my father as a nice, generous, superhero-like person and now I was scared to hear about who he truly was. It hurt me so much that I knew nothing about my Dad and I didn't even know his name. I wanted to know badly if he looked like me or Maribel, if he liked soccer like I did, if he enjoyed cooking or if he admired nature like me, but I didn't ask any of those because I was scared to hear the answers to them.

The old man held my hand and wrapped it with his large hands. "You have a lovely name, Hillary."

"Thank you, sir."I said sheepishly.

"C'mon, don't sir me. Those days of me being over-respected are gone and over, right now, I'm just an old man who wishes the best for his son and his pack, and an old man who impatiently awaits his newly made friend named Death."

I looked at him pitifully. From the strongness and hardness of his palm and his hands which must have been really muscular some years ago as they weren't sagging like most old people's hands did, I was certain that he must have been a man of many amazing virtues and now he was chained down by age and illness.

He must have noticed my sympathetic face as he laughed happily and continuously until he began to cough. "Dearest Hillary, don't even think of pitying me. Today is a day which i have waited to witness for years, the day that my beloved young boy will find a mate who will be with him forever, and now I was blessed by the angels to witness my only son find His mate with not only a beautiful and intelligent child like you, but also the beloved daughter of my late friend, Anthony."

"You knew him well, didn't you?"I asked as I resisted the burning urge to request for the old man to tell me everything he knew about my father, every time they laughed and played together, everything they had witnessed, how he was so unfortunate to meet my mother, how he had felt when Maribel and I were born. I wanted to ask him to possibly say how my father felt every moment of his life, but I didn't.

"Your father was my friend and was the Alpha of this pack, Hillary."

He cleared his throat. "Yes, he was the Alpha of the pack... before he died."

"Really?"

"Yes, Hillary. He was also my friend. Now, let's do away with the history and welcome the future."He held my hand tighter. "Hillary, I have dreamt of this day for many years and I can't believe that it's right in front of my eyes."

Dylan glanced at me and smiled and I reciprocated.

The old man clapped and smiled happily. "You guys truly love each other...don't mind me I'm.old fashioned, most of you modern youths hate using the word love and prefer 'really like', right?"

I replied with a smile although I felt like screaming.

"Yea, I thought as much. I can't wait...let the Alpha ritual be done by midnight. Dylan, alert everyone about it, it's going to be amazing."

I tried my best to remain cool, as I was really frightened and perplexed. What did he mean by that? Was he talking about marriage? I barely even know Dylan, how can I marry someone I just met a few weeks ago? Impossible. My mum and Steve didn't even know about him, I had met him only twice, and now I was expected to get married in a few hours. Crazy! Impossible! The only reason why I was still calm and I didn't object to the old man's speech was because he was nice and he said he knew my father very much and I didn't want to ruin my relationship with the only person except my mum, who had known my Dad.

"OK, dad."He said. it was obvious from his countenance that he felt uncomfortable.

The old Alpha rose up and gave me a Peck in the cheek. "Margaretta!!"He yelled with his old crooked voice. "Margaretta! M-A-R-G-A-R-E-T-T-A!!"

An elderly woman in an apron around her came in. She brought with her a tray which had a cup of chinese tea and some unleavened bread on it. She dropped it aside on a bedside table, took off her glove and dusted her apron. She had a nice and welcoming smile on her face and she graced me with it. "Old Jodan, what else do you need?"

He grumbled. "You're calling me old, like you're not old yourself."

She laughed. "Jodan, you and I know that I was still in the 5th grade when you were done with college, so let's not argue about age now, shall we?"

"Fine, but you look just as old as I do."He said.

"Hmmm, yet I'm not the one on the bed who can't do anything else but eat and sleep."She said jokingly.

"Whatever, you won."He said, surrendering to her. "Anyways, 'young' Margaretta, I would like you to prepare this angel of a lady..."He said addressing me. "For her ritual to become a Luna, can you do that? Or are your bones too weak to move around?"He said taunting her.

"Joke's over, Jordan, insult me one more time and you'd have anchovies on pizza as food for the next five days."

"OK, I'm done. But seriously, I'd like you to prepare her and dress her like the angel she is."

He looked away from Margaretta and stared at me. "Honey, I'm really grateful and I wish you all the best. Now, I think it's best if you get ready and prepared for the ceremony."

Dylan placed his hands on my shoulder and aided me in getting up to my feet. "Thanks, Dad. We better leave you to enjoy your meal and your chat with Aunt Margaretta."

"Sure thing, Kids. Margaretta's is feeling too good of herself and I need to change that, by the way."He waved happily and continued his chat with the old lady.

Immediately we left the room and Dylan shut the door, I asked him. "Nothing like that is happening, and I don't know how you're going to tell your dad that, but you'd have to deal with that. Right now, all I want to do is to leave here."

He stared at me in disappointment and said. "Of course, he walked down the long and wide stairs. The house was indeed enormous and was almost like a five-star hotel. There were several people moving around, some of them kids, some youths, some were couples , many were in their teens and many were as old as Margaretta.

There were so many eyes on me and some of them even smiled and greeted me.

Everyone looked so happy and it looked like they were all one big family.

Dylan escorted me out of the villa which was situated in the woods, but not the one close to my house.

We finally arrived at the road which led out of town.

"Goodluck, Hillary."

"Yea, I'd really need that."I said as I managed to smile.

"So, you're leaving town, aren't you?"It was obvious that he was sad.

"Yeah."

"Whereto, Hillary?"

"As far as possible."I said.

"OK.."He said reluctantly. "If you ever need help, feel free to contact me", he handed me a slip of paper which had his number on it.

I collected it and squeezed it in my hand. "I better leave, now before My Mum and Steve get back, i t would be better if I had some hours advantage over them."

He sighed and he hugged me. "Hillary, I hope the next time we meet, you'd be less stubborn and more...submissive."

I laughed. "Dylan, I can bet that we'd never meet again, but it was nice knowing you. You taught me something very relevant, at least I now know what I truly am, and also I know some things about my father."

"Hillary, fate is stronger than you think. Fate brought us together, so no matter where you go, how far you travel or even if you go to the other end of the world, Fate would still bring us back together. It may take years, decades or it may even be sooner than you can ever imagine, but I'm sure that you and I will be together someday and I hope it's soon."

I smiled. "I don't believe in Fate, Dylan, so goodbye."

I turned around and walked hurriedly back to the school compound where my car was. I thought about Dylan Woodluck on the way and somehow I knew that in better circumstances, being with him would have been better than wonderful. I wished that he'd find a better person someday, a person who would love him and aid him in leading his pack. I also thought about Jodan Woodluck. I wished that he had a nice and proper life and that death would meet him well and that when he died, he'd join my Father in heaven and probably keep him company.

When I arrived at the car, I cleaned a teardrop which had escaped my eyes. I took in three deep breaths, each having significant meanings, the first breath was for me saying farewell to my past, the second was saying farewell to My sister, Dylan, Jodan and to the old me and the third one was for welcoming a new life and future for myself.

After my usual deep breathing ritual, I opened the car door and i... froze.

In the front seat was Ava Saints and in the back seat was my mum and Steve Harrows, both of whom were pointing guns at me.

"Seems like you're going somewhere, Hillary?"Steve said, with a wicked smile on his face.

"Get in the car, now!."My mum spat out.

I slowly hopped into the truck and prayed that my head wouldn't get blown with a gun from behind.

"Now Hillary, let's go back home."My mum said with a cold voice.

My head went blank and my body felt frozen. I didn't know what they'd do to me, but I knew that it would be the most horrific thing ever. I slowly shifted the gear to drive and I drove slowly to my waterloo.

*****

We arrived back at the house after twenty minutes of silent driving.

I got out of the car with shaking legs. Ava, my mum and Steve also came out and led me back into the house.

At that moment, I had no idea of what to do, I didn't know if I should cry or I should plead or I should even give up on living.

When I had left the house earlier in the morning, I had promised myself never to come back under any circumstances, but now I was back to the hellhole I had left for good.

I stared at Ava with anger, I didn't even know how she had met my parents but what I knew was that she was one of the people who didn't wish me well, and that she had a hand in my current predicament.

She looked back at me and gave a naughty smile and waved at me.

My mum had gone out the back door and Steve had followed her. I had no idea of what they were doing but I was sure that whatever it was, it wasn't in any way a good thing for me. It had to be some kind of torture or extreme punishment.

Steve came back from outside and walked upstairs, panting like a wild animal. He came back down after some seconds with a very large chain, he stopped at the end of the stairs, glared at me and stormed out of the living room and through the back door.

Now, it was just me and Ava.

We were both staring at each other, but the difference was that she had a victorious look on her face with a smile which I had once thought was beautiful but now all I saw in it was Evil–pure evil, and I had a look of fury and rage which made me look like a sorry loser.

Finally, she broke the silence with a loud laugh which echoed in my ears over and over again. "Hillary, don't look at me like that, it makes you look stupid."

I didn't have time for her silly comments, so I simply ignored it and asked her the question which was aching inside of me. "What the hell are you doing here, Ava?"

Her smile faded and the look of hate which I had seen earlier at the pack house came back. "I think you should know already?"

"All I know is that you're a crazy person who should be nowhere else but behind strong and thick bars of a prison cell."

"Yes, you're right. But the main reason I'm here is to finish what I have already started."She giggled. "You have no idea what I have planned for you, Hillary."

And she was right, I had no idea what she had planned for me, but I knew that it had to be extremely horrible and unimaginably hurtful.

She chuckled as she swiped away a teardrop which had escaped her ocean blue eyes. "Hillary, do you know what happened after Dylan came in to rescue you?"

I didn't respond and I didn't even move. I just sat in the chair like I was a doll.

Her eyes were red and tears were now escaping freely from her eyes. She didn't even bother to clean them, she let them fall without any form of resistance. "I bet you don't know, so I'll tell you. After your superhero came in to rescue you from me, the villain, I was tossed in a cage and left there...until he came back to meet me in the cage...he didn't look at me with love like before, he looked at me like I was some kind of disease that needed to be eradicated. Funny enough, when I saw him, I thought he was going to take me away from the cage, hug me and tell me everything would be alright. I thought he was going to tell me that he didn't care if you guys were mates or not, I thought...he would tell me that he loved me...but he didn't, instead he told me right in my face that I was a problem to the pack and then he banished me and told me that if I am ever seen around the pack that he wouldn't think twice before ending me."

I looked at her and all I saw was pain and hate.

She cleaned her tears with her long fingers which still made me shiver after remembering what had occurred in the pack house, how she had tortured me with those sharp manicured finger nails.

She stood up and walked to me.

My heart began racing as I anticipated the worst.

She sat beside me and held my face with her fingers. "You stole the love of my life from me, Hillary, and if you know anything about me, then you wouldn't have."

She applied more force on her fingers and they pierced my soft cheek, resulting in a small stream of blood from both my left and right cheek.

I winced in pain as her fingers dug deeper into my skin.

She burst out into laughter as she saw tears form in my bright green eyes. "Wow, I love seeing you cry, Hillary Hunter. How I wish you had seen me weep when the love of my life rejected me because of you."She removed her fingers from my bleeding cheek and slowly rubbed the blood around my face. "Hillary, I promise you that you'd pay for what you have done. Not only did you take away my lover but you also desire to steal the position of being the Luna, a position which I have suffered to be in for the past three years."Her fingers began trailing my face. "But I promise you this, as long as Ava Saints is alive and breathing, you and Dylan would never be together, I'd rather die than watch that happen."

"Ava, I don't even want to be anyone's mate nor Luna, I promise that if you let me go, Dylan would never see me again. I would go someplace far away that no one from here would know."I said, shivering.

She looked at me for a while and then burst into laughter. "That was funny, Hillary... really really funny. So, in your dumb and childish brain, you think that I'd let you go...after you have ruined my life. Yea, you think I'd let you go, and maybe you'd find a human boyfriend, give birth to as much children as you wish, have a family and die one day looking at your lover in the face, while I would forever be alone, faraway and hated by the only man I love and will ever love."

Her fingers reached my eyes and circled them slowly and gently. "If you think so, then you must be really stupid like Janette had said. I would make your life a living hell, I would make you suffer until you'd beg for death and then I'd make you wish you were never born."She gripped my face with her hands and attempted to use her fingers to press my eyeballs but luckily my mum stormed in and prevented her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, lady? My mum said.

Ava looked around, then dropped her hands from my face. "Nothing ma, I was just telling her that running away from her family isn't the best thing to do."

"Please help us educate this blockhead of a daughter we have here because we have tried everything we can."Steve said.

He made a way to shake Ava but my mum pushed his hand away, and gave Ava a stern look. "Don't you try fooling me young girl, I know you hate my daughter and I don't give a shit to know why...but don't you try hurting Hillary because you have no right to, she's my daughter, my property, so leave me alone to torture my slave the way I want to."

It wasn't like I didn't know that my mum hated me, but still her words felt like I was being stabbed with a long blunt sword through my chest. A couple teardrops fell through my cheeks and my mum slapped them away.

"Now get your lazy ass up, Hillary."She pulled me up and held me roughly by my neck. She looked at Ava and said; "Thank you, you spared me a lot of money, it would have cost me some dollars to buy a new pet...and even if I had gotten a new one, it could never have been a human being who my blood runs through."

Ava smiled. "Don't mention it, it's my pleasure. But I would like you to do me one favor."

My mum smiled. "Whatever you say dear.I owe you one by the way"

She held my face and kissed me on my cheek. "Well, I'd love it so much if you keep her indoors for a while."

My mum laughed. "If that's what you wanted then I'd say you wasted that favor, as I have already planned to keep her in a place where she'll never see the sunlight until she's as old as I am."