Drunk humans, outcast wolves, and stubborn mates...fun! 

School was a nightmare. Everywhere I looked, there were sympathetic stares, it made me sick. I refused to talk to Damian, and Trevor refused to talk to me. He felt betrayed that I didn’t tell him, this was exactly why I didn’t, I was afraid he’d tell me I was weak and never speak to me again. Now he just won’t speak to me.

I sighed as I walked back to my car. I’d waited until everyone had left to leave myself. I wanted to go to the beach again. But this time, I was going to enjoy the waves as they rushed over my skin.

I made sure my bathing suit and everything was in the trunk and then got into my car, speeding off towards the beach. The sun was still pretty high in the sky, so I was going to need sunscreen.

I pulled into the lot and sighed, knowing that the beach was going to have a few more people than it usually did. Mostly it would have teenagers; they’d just gotten off school and were enjoying the sunny day at the beach.

I grabbed my bag from the trunk and walked to the changing room, slipping out of my flats.

I quickly changed and lathered on sunscreen, before walking out on the beach with my bag slung over my shoulder.

There was a young couple strolling on the wet sand a ways down the shore, and a bunch of teenagers had started a bonfire and were listening to the radio, I smelled the faint smell of alcohol and sunscreen from their direction.

I set my bag on my towel and walked over to the water, sitting down where the waves met the shore. 

I smiled as the tide washed over my bare legs, leaning back on my elbows to let the sun warm me. I pulled my hair from its ponytail and shook it out, letting it take its natural wavy shape.

“Hey! What’s up, beautiful?” one of the teenagers had strayed in my direction.

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, you know.” I looked up at him; he had brown hair and dark, muddy green eyes. He was definitely one to work out, with beefy arms and a six pack stomach, but nothing could compare to Damian’s. “I strangled a kid like you once. He was hitting on me.” I said, hiding my smile.

The guy’s eyes widened and he turned and walked away. I smiled and looked back out at the ocean, staring at the white caps far off. I realized before it was too late that one of those white caps was way too close, it rolled in and washed completely over me, I screamed as the cold water made me shiver and crawled backwards, getting to the dry sand. I let out a loud profanity and heard the howling laughter of the drunken teenagers behind me. Oh! So they thought this was funny! I grumbled as I shook out my towel and dried myself off, shaking out my now sodden hair.

I wrung my hair out with my hands and plopped down on my towel, which was now haphazardly laying on the ground. “Hey baby! I know something that will keep you warm!” I looked over as another Jock waggled his eyebrows at me.

“And I know something that will put you six feet under!” I yelled back.

He held up his hands as if in surrender and sat down. I pulled my phone from my bag, and without thinking, went to call Trevor. I realized that he kind of hated me right now and felt tears brim my eyes. Who was I going to cry to now? Damian was an asshole, Trevor hated me, my brother was probably busy studying for college right now…and Derik is the one that got me into this mess.

I wasn’t as mad at Derik anymore as I was mad at Damian. He lied, when he should have come to me, asked me the questions that he wanted to ask.

I felt betrayed, I felt lied to, and most of all…I felt as if he failed in promising me that he wouldn’t hurt me. He did hurt me, he hurt me without even realizing it.

The only person I could seek comfort from daddy, and that was probably not a good idea, didn’t want him getting into a fight with the alpha. I sighed and stared across the water, letting a single tear roll down my cheek. “Hi. I’m Gabriel.” I opened my mouth to tell him off but he held out his hand.

“I don’t want to hit on you. You seem…lonely.” He said. He had chocolate brown eyes and sandy blonde hair, he was wearing swim trunks, and he had a six pack. He still wasn’t as good looking as Damian, and I had to grudgingly admit it.

I sighed. “I’m Cat. And my week hasn’t been the best.” I said.

He sat down beside me. “I know you don’t know me…but would you like to talk about it?” he asked.

I stared out at the ocean, contemplating. “Come on, you don’t know me, and I don’t know you, we could just exchange problems, and be on our way.” He said.

I smiled slightly. “Okay. I’ll tell you, but if I find out you blabbed this to anyone, I’m going to kill you with my bare hands and laugh about it” I threatened.

He held up his pinky and I wrapped mine around his. “I swear.” He said.

“Okay…well it all started when I met Damian. He’s a big…giant…controlling jerk and…” I sighed. “I can’t help but have feelings for him.”

“And this guy hurt you?”

“Yeah…he tries not to…but he can’t help it, he’s very controlling and he can’t deal with his anger very well-“

“He’s hit you?” Gabriel asked in alarm.

“No! Of course not, he’d never! He just…he walks away from me when I need him most because he doesn’t want to show his anger to me. I’ve had a lot of abusive relationships before, and when I told him about it, he left, trying not to show me his anger. He’s sweet…when he wants to be.” I shrugged.

“So let me get this straight. He walks away from you, to keep you from seeing a side of him that he knows you won’t like? To protect you?” he asked.

I thought about it, and slowly nodded. “Like I said, he’s sweet.”

“I can understand that.” He said softly.

“Anyway I…I had a best friend named Trevor. I’ve known him since I was a little girl. I…” I hesitated, should I tell him?

“I promise I won’t tell anyone.” He said, seeming to read my thoughts.

I sighed. “I was…raped, in elementary. My history teacher had treated me…a little too differently from the other students. I was walking down the hall, going to walk home from detention, when he pulled me into the janitors’ closet and raped me. My friend Derik caught me limping home, and I made him promise not to tell a soul. He recently told Damian…and then I accidentally told everyone else in a blind rage.” I blushed.

“You…you were raped?” he asked quietly.

I shrugged. “Yeah. Anyway, Damian told Derik that he knew me better than Trevor, and…Derik told him, thinking it would be okay. Damian really hurt me and…I can’t bring myself to forgive him. Now my best friend feels betrayed that I didn’t tell him and…I’m alone.” I whispered.

Gabriel threw a friendly arm around my shoulders. “Well. How about this? You give me your number and I’ll give you mine, and whenever we need to talk, we’ll text or call one another. We’ll just rant until our hearts content.” He offered.

I looked at him, studying him for a few seconds. The wind blew from his direction and I immediately smelled wolf. I gasped, jumping up and getting away from him. “You’re wolf.”

He sighed. “Yeah. It’s kind of hard being a loner. I was thrown from the pack when I was nineteen. Apparently, I was unacceptable as a member.” He explained.

I sank down in the sand on my knees in front of him. “Really? Do you want to talk about it?” I asked him.

“Well you do owe me.” He joked. I smiled. “It started when I was eighteen, I had no family, they left me on the streets when I was thirteen. I came to the pack house for the evaluation, and Alpha Damian accepted me out of pity. A year later, as I was hunting, I was ambushed by a few vampires. They were too much for me to handle, so I howled. Damian had not been on the hunt with me, or anyone, for that matter. At the time I hadn’t known that it was unacceptable.” He explained, seeing my alarmed expression.

“What happened to make him throw you from the pack?” I asked him.

“Well, I kind of back talked him. He told me that I was stupid and that I shouldn’t have done it, and I told him that he should have been a better Alpha and told me we weren’t supposed to go out alone. I suppose he didn’t think about it, your parents are supposed to teach you the rules.” He said.

I nodded; my parents had told me many times never to go out alone.

“Well. I wasn’t taught that you were forbidden to speak to an outcast. Would you still like my number?” I asked him.

He smiled. “Sure.”

After exchanging numbers, I felt my hair and sighed in relief as I realized it was partially dry. “I probably should go. My brother gets worried when I don’t get home after school. I’ll call you.” I said.

“Yeah. I’ll just go hang with my stupid drunk friends.” He rolled his eyes.

I smiled. “You do that.”

I gathered my clothes and changed in the rooms, sighing as I caught a look at my hair; it was a big red mess, very attractive. I pulled it back into a messy ponytail and called it a day.

As I was walking out, a hand grabbed my arm and pulled me to the side. I wasn’t alarmed, I knew who it was before having to look at him. “Hi, Cat.” Damian said, his eyes dark and studying mine.

I pushed away from him, but he only pulled me closer. “We need to talk about this.” He whispered in my ear.

“We need to talk about nothing. I don’t want to talk to you, you’re a jerk and a liar.” I said, pushing away from him again, and having no luck of getting away.

“Okay, now we’re getting somewhere, what did I do?” he asked me.

I glared at him. “Remember how you “bumped” into Derik that day? Well when you “bumped” into Derik that day, did you, I don’t know, tell him that you knew me better than Trevor?” I asked him sweetly.

He tensed. “I might have said something like that.”

I now pushed away from him with enough force to push him back against the wall, quite a feat with how strong a hold on me he had. “You are scum! I don’t know why I ever even thought you wouldn’t hurt me again!” I shouted at him, stomping back to my car.

“I just wanted to get to know you, and I thought you wouldn’t tell me!” he said, chasing after me.

“Well you could have at least come to me and asked! I was willing to get to know you, Damian! And now I don’t even want to look at you!” I exclaimed.

He was suddenly in front of me, I bumped into him and his arms encircled my waist before I could fall. “Just hear me out. I love you, but I don’t know how to…show that love. You are everything to me now, I’m just not sure how to tell that to you. Please, I’ve been waiting so long for you, don’t take your love away from me before you’ve even given it a chance.” He was almost begging, his blue eyes pleading with mine.

I looked away before I could get lost in the ocean that was his eyes, but his hand gently pulled my face back up. I reached up and caressed his cheek in mine. “You’ll have to promise, whatever it is that you want to ask, you come to me.” I said softly, but sternly.

His mouth stretched up into a bright smile and he pulled me into him, hugging me close to him. “I promise.” He whispered.