ETHAN

Seriously! A fucking human was my mate. How could this happen. I wondered to my self as I ran through the forest. I was finally able to get my wolf under control and let Mia go. And once that happened I took off towards the forest. Unfortunately, it was too late my wolf marked her and now she was officially claimed as mine. I always wanted a mate but I had no interest in a human.

I usually always agreed with the decisions my wolf made but this was unforgivable. The further I got from my parents house the more irritated the wolf got. I ignored it and pressed forward until I reached the pack house. Once there I threw some clothes in a bag and hoped in my car. What I needed was time to think about what happened and the best place to think was  at Jenny's house. Jenny is a friend from a neighboring pack, we hooked up from time to time to have sex. It was casual and over the years we have developed a friendship.

"I'm surprised to see you." Jenny said once she opened her front door and found me standing there. Her house wasn't far from my pack lands and it only took me a couple of hours to get there. She lived in the city which was considered neutral territory in the wolf world so I didn't have to worry about any one noticing an Alpha roaming around on their territory.

"Yeah, I needed an escape for a couple of days if that's ok."

Jenny frowned, "Yeah that's fine I guess. What's going on?"

"I found my mate." I said walking into the house and dropping down on her living room couch.

"Um, that's a good thing isn't it?" She sat down next to me folding her legs under her twisting a lock of her long brown hair around her fingers.

"She's human." I said simply. Jenny knew of my distain for humans, the nature of our relationship means we know a lot about each other. Pillow talk usually does that to people. Its funny how you are your most vulnerable after having sex. I wouldn't consider myself to be a cruel leader. My pack has access to me when they need it and I try to be friendly and relatable but there aren't a lot of people that I allow to know my innermost thoughts.

"Ok, lets take a step back. Is she nice? What is she like?"

"I don't know. She's a friend of Beths and I hadn't met her until today. Shawn interacted with her on more than one occasion and he is definitely smitten with her. So today when I finally met her, I lost control and shifted and marked her." I sighed and leaned back on the chair.

"Wait a minute...this all happened today? Is she ok?" Jenny asked genuinely concerned.

I shrugged, "I don't know. As soon as I got enough control back over my wolf I ran out of there and came straight here."

Jenny was clearly horrified, "Ethan! You didn't even make sure she was ok? Are you kidding me?"

I got up from the couch and started pacing, "Its not that simple!"

"It is that simple Ethan. I know you are a better man than this to just leave like that. I understand that you don't like humans but this is your mate."

"Jenny you are the only person who knows what those humans did to me. You know this is not simple for me. I don't trust humans and I don't want anything to do with them."

"Your mate wasn't involved in any of that th-"

"Just stop, Jenny. I don't want to talk about this. Can I stay here or not?" I said cutting her off. I definitely didn't want to relive the past with her right now. All I wanted was a place to try and sort out my thoughts.

She sighed, " Yeah, you can stay.  You know where the bed room is."

MIA

I had been laying still on the ground with my neck bared for what seemed like forever until finally he left go and took off running. As soon as he was gone Shawn ran up to me and the look on his face pretty much said it all.

"Shit, what the hell was he thinking." He moved out of my line of sight and I felt myself being lifted up. "We are gonna get you to a hospital. You're going to be fine." He reassured me. I wanted to believe him but the pain I felt in my neck and the fact that my whole body started to feel cold had me thinking differently. I felt my eyes starting to close until I felt Shawn gently shake me.

"No sleeping ok. Try to say awake if you can."

"Ok," I said weakly trying to comply with his wishes even though against my will I felt myself falling.

"If you sleep I am going to sing to you." Shawn teased.

"Oh God no, anything but that." I teased back. Shawn had tried to sing to me once and bless his heart he was the worst singer I had even come across. He slid into a car with me and I felt a pressure against my neck and I winced.

"I'm sorry Mia but we have to slow down the blood flow." 

Shawn talked to me the whole car ride to the hospital and I tried my best to focus on his words and respond appropriately but it was hard. Once we finally got to the hospital and I got a room, there was a flurry of activity around me but I couldn't keep up with what has being said or what was happening. A nurse finally came up to me and I saw a large needle in her hand, I started to freak-out a little but I felt several pairs of hands holding me down so I couldn't move. I felt the pain of the needle and soon after found myself slipping into a deep sleep.

***

"This is not good Beth." Shawn's voice filtered into my sleep.

"I know Shawn. You need to find him and get him back here. He fucked up the mating process and I have a feeling that when her change starts to happen its going to be very painful for her." I couldn't concern myself with what they meant by change because at that moment a sharp pain shot through my neck causing me to groan out loud.

I heard shuffling in the room and just as I was able to pry my eyes opened. I looked around the bed and found Shawn, Beth, Ian, and Mr. and Mrs. West all surrounding my bed. Thankfully, Ethan was no where around. "So who is going to explain all of this?" I asked, the anger was evident in my voice.

Shawn rubbed my shoulder, "Maybe we shouldn't do this right now. Your shoulder probably hurts so how about we give you some pain medicine and we can talk about this in the morning."

I glared at him, "Are you fucking kidding me? I just got half of my neck ripped out by a man who turned into a wolf and you want to talk about it later? I don't think so! I deserver some answers and I want them now."

Everyone standing around my bed looked guilty and I had a feeling that I wasn't going to like anything that was going to be said from this point forward.

"Mia, everyone in this room has the same abilities as Ethan. All of us are werewolves, except Ian." Beth explained.

"All except Ian...because Ian is...." I trailed off waiting for Beth to fill in the blanks. Somehow I didn't think she was going to say human.

"Ian is a vampire."

I  felt my eyes pop out of my head, "What...he's a what?"  I was slowly coming to the realization that I was in a room full of predators and that thought definitely didn't sit well with me. Frustrated tears started to roll down my cheeks. "Am I in a regular hospital?"

"This is a hospital on our pack lands." Phil, Beth's dad spoke up, "I assure you the hospital is fully functional and you will receive the same treatment if not better than a human hospital."

"The bed and breakfast?" It was becoming clear to me that I had been surrounded by supernatural beings ever since I stepped food on this land.

"Mostly werewolves but occasionally we get human guests." I stared at my best friend for a moment trying to formulate my thoughts. Her blue eyes were red and puffy.

"So you brought me here knowing I could be in danger? Why would you do that? And on top of all of that you lied to me." To say I was hurt would be an understatement. I lost a lot of friends on my path to stardom people automatically assumed you changed or became stuck up once success starts to happen. And making new friends is nearly impossible because you can never be sure who is using you for status or money. I found or at least I thought I found a true friend in Beth. I shared everything with her and our bond only became tighter after my family died.

"I would never put you in danger this is my family-"

"Your family just tried to eat me Elizabeth! You should have told me before you brought me here and given me the choice for if I even wanted to come!" I was full blown sobbing by now and probably getting slightly hysterical if the increased beeping on the heart rate monitor was any indication.

"There are rules in my world. I cant just go around and tell any and everybody that I am a wolf."

"Wow...wow... any and everybody! Is that what you think of me? Here my dumb ass thought we were friends.  You literally walked me right into a den of wolves! I had every fucking right to know what I was getting into!" I took a deep breath and switched gears, "What is the change, what does that mean?" Everyone glanced around nervously. "I heard you talking about it before I woke up."

"Maybe we should talk about that later, its been a long day." Diana, Beth's mother said.

"What does it mean?" I asked. I wasn't going to let this go. The way I see it this is my body and I have the right to know what is going to happen to it now.

Shawn signed and sat down on a chair next to my bed and grabbed my hand. "Wolves have mates, which is basically like having a husband or wife. For us a mate is found by scent and once you find your mate there is this instant attraction and a need to be with that person. Once you decide to accept your mate you do so by marking them with a bite on the neck. Now for wolves, the process is simple meet, get to know each other and mate. It becomes more difficult when one mate is a human. The human doesn't feel the attraction as strongly and the mating bite is more than just a bite. It also initiates the process for the human to become a werewolf."

I started shaking my head, "No, no, no, no, no I don't want to change I want to stay human. Make it stop."

"I can't. Once you're bitten there's nothing that can be done."

"I didn't ask for this." I sobbed.

"There's more that you should know." Ian spoke up for the first time. Looking at him I still couldn't believe he was a vampire. He reminded me of the guy who played Thor in those movies. Not at all pale like vampires are usually depicted.

"Ian..." Elizabeth warned. It instantly irritated me that she was still hiding things.

"She deserves to know sweetheart."

I turned to Shawn figuring he could fill in the last few blanks.

He sighed, "mating is usually done when the couple is having sex. It's highly important when dealing with a human because once you reach climax and bite your mate a sort of....pain killer is released with the bite. Making the change pain free for the human. With out that chemical....your change is going to be painful."

"Exactly how painful?"

"We've never seem a human changed this way in our pack so we really can't say. Dr. Anderson is researching it now but we predict you'll start feeling the effects of the change within the next 48 hours."

By now my shoulder and neck were hurting so bad that I could barely concentrate. How do you process the fact that in less than two days you would be changing into another species?