Chapter 7

"So, where are you going?" Joe asked. He hadn't explained what he meant, why he said everyone was looking for me, instead he opted to get out of the street as quickly as possible and dragged me to some restaurant not far from where we had been walking once he had knocked out the other wolf and tossed him into an alleyway.

I shrugged pulling my caramel milkshake closer to me and taking a sip. I was glad he was paying because I could not afford it with the amount of money I had and possibly having to fork out for a hotel room or something later.

"I was thinking the cinema tonight. Don't know about tomorrow, probably a hotel." I said.

"What about my pack? There's always been space for you." He smiled at me.

"Yeah? I'm not sure... I don't want my Dad thinking I went rogue and then joined a new pack – I-I mean, Ian. I don’t want Ian thinking –” I said.

"He is your Dad, Izabella. That's not going to change because he wanted you to feel like he was truly your father by not telling you that you were adopted." Joe said.

"Yeah?" I sighed, "I kinda miss them now... My mom always yelled at my brothers because they would come to my room and joke around while I was apparently 'asleep' and then they would argue that she woke me up by yelling." I mumbled. He chuckled. "Tell me about the Titan thing now?" I asked.

"It's one of the only two other Amarelo packs. They're weak though. What do they want from you? The same thing everyone else does. Your blood."

"My blood?" I asked confused, he nodded.

"Yes.”

“As… you mean I should… they want me to donate blood?” I did not even know my blood type. Was it rare or something?

He chuckled, “No, Izabella. You probably don’t know your blood can make other wolves immensely stronger." I stared at him shocked and confused. He couldn't be serious.

"Yeah?" I asked, my tone of voice making it sound like I thought he was messing with me. He rolled his eyes.

"Izabella, when you were three, you hurt yourself while you were playing with one of the other pack girls, your finger was bleeding and some of the blood fell onto her food, she didn't notice and ate it before the adults could stop her. In the next few hours her strength grew substantially. Her level of power matched full grown fighters’ easily, she just could not control it at the time. We did not understand how it was possible, but your father told our pack not to tell anyone or they would be killed. Not rogued, Izabella, killed, because he knew the implications of other wolves finding out." He said, "Somehow word got out to the Titans and some other wolves, and that's how your parents died, the Titans used to outnumber us by so much, but these wolves that attacked us were new, strong, they were at least three times as many as we were. We were strong but they had numbers and so much power, they raided our pack trying to get to you, your blood… and your parents died that day. By the time we all healed from the fighting, the weird wolves were gone, our Alpha male and female dead and their daughter had just disappeared. The fact that it was one of the coldest winters we had ever experienced forced us to believe that if you had escaped, the cold would kill you. I have no idea why the only people they killed were our Alpha couple." He said looking slightly torn by the memory as he swallowed once he finished.

I was trying to figure out how to respond to all of that when I felt a buzz and remembered I had my phone with me. I checked it, it was a message from Dad. I noticed that I had missed about seven calls from him and eleven from my mom. I smiled. Oh, Mom. I opened the message.

'Come home. I'll explain everything, I promise. Please.' It said. I bit my lip.

"What's your pack's name?" I looked at Joe.

"Have you not done any research on packs excluding your own?" He asked.

"I have, on the packs that I thought mattered. I didn't exactly know wolves of our type existed until a few of days ago." I said. He rolled his eyes.

"Inferno." He replied.

'I'll be staying at the Inferno pack for a few days. I’m okay. I'll be back by next week, I promise.' I sent, a few seconds later my phone began ringing, I knew it was Dad and did not even bother looking at the screen as I answered the call.

"Dad," I said.

"You're joining Inferno? I know we lied, but Sweetheart, this is drastic." He asked sounding slightly panicked.

"No, no, Dad. I'm just staying there for a while. I… uh... found my uncle... He's the Alpha there. I'll be back home in a week." I said.

"What about school?" Dad asked. Mmm... I hadn't thought about that... I heard him sigh. "Fine. A week. Five days. Seven days at the most. I'll call the school and have them send your work with Corey." He said. Damn. I'll be drowning in work when I get back home.

"Okay." I sighed frowning at the work part.

"Don't stay out past eight and –” he was saying when I heard the phone being shuffled. "Hillary –!" I heard Dad say her name in surprise. I laughed. Mom must have snatched the phone from him.

"Don’t eat too much junk, make sure you're warm, you know how cold you get, Izzy. Call me before you go to bed, remember to –” Joe was laughing.

"Ma!" I cut her off, "It's only a week. Calm down. I'll be fine." I said. She sighed.

"Fine." She mumbled. I smiled.

"I'll call you tomorrow." I said.

"Inferno. Is that the pack with Joe Foster as the Alpha? Is he your uncle?" Dad asked sounding slightly surprised.

"Yes, Ian." Joe spoke smirking. I heard Dad snicker and I raised my eyebrows at Joe.

"You know each other?" I asked.

"Unfortunately. Sweetheart, why is Sean looking for you?" Joe smiled when Dad asked that.

"I don't know. He has always been weird. Don't tell him where I am." Joe chuckled.

"Yeah, right. You liar. Did you start another fight with him?" I smiled hearing Adan despite being annoyed by his question.

"When did you get here?" That was Dad.

"A while ago." I heard the smirk in Cohen's voice at the fact that Dad had not heard them.

"Getting old already, Alpha Ian?" Joe asked.

"I'm not too old to break your arms again, Joey." Joe frowned as Dad laughed.

"That was one time and I wasn't allowed to hurt you back." Joe mumbled.

"Yeah, right." I heard my dad, I could just picture him roll his eyes.

"I'm confused." Gray voiced my thoughts.

"IAN!" I heard Cole.

"Ah, I have to go, Sweetheart. We love you," he said, “Joe, I will personally kill you if you let my daughter get hurt.” Joe frowned but did not reply so I spoke quickly.

"I love you too," I said and hung up. I looked back at Joe once I had put my phone away, "How do you know my Dad? What did he mean about breaking your arms?" I asked.

"Camp. He was the counsellor and I never listened to him, so in return he never listened to me, gave me the worst room possible and got all the counsellors pranking me. Once I woke up to find cockroaches all over me and my room smelling like crap because the guys’ bathroom was right next to it." He shuddered. I laughed. "We fought one day, training exercise, and he assumed that because I was an Amarelo I would heal faster so he was hard on me. He broke my arms by mistake that day, it healed pretty quickly so he was not wrong about the healing. It's not an excuse though. I had to be fed by someone else for a day and a half." He frowned at the memory, I laughed, "Come on, let's get to my pack." He got up.

"Wait, are there any more relatives I need to know about?" I asked him.

"Uh... My wife, Gail, our daughter Clara, your cousin Tyler and your grandfather, Walter." He said.

"I have a grandfather?" Ian and Hillary's parents had been killed before they got me.

"Yeah. Wacky old fella despite being a former Alpha. Your father's side. You'll probably love him." Joe said. I smiled as I got up and he threw some money on the table. He glanced at the door and frowned. "How fast are you?" He looked at me. I shrugged.

"Normal?" I asked. He rolled his eyes.

"Very insightful, Izzy. There's trouble at the door, they know me, I can't let them see you or they'll know you're still alive. Everyone thought you had died when your parents did, if they find out you're still alive like they did back then, we're going to have a serious amount of trouble. I need you to go out back, I'll distract them before I meet you at the mall and we'll go to my pack from there, alright? Go." He disappeared and I saw the men at the door fall onto the ground. I stared in awe. How was he that fast?

I turned and walked out of the back of the restaurant before sprinting to the mall. I figured he would be at the entrance closest to the restaurant so I made my way there and immediately heard his voice upon my arrival.

"I have to beat up five people, and I still get here before you. We really need to work on your speed, Izabella." I heard Joe. I looked to see him leaning against a wall.

"Yeah, well, we have to work on your hair too but we'll talk about that later. Where's your pack?" I asked.

"There's nothing wrong with my hair." He said.

"Yeah, it's cool to look like you stepped out of the 80's. Let's go." I said.

"I don't look like... My hair is fine..." He ruffled his hair and I smirked. His hair was fine, I had just been messing with him. He glared at me before smiling, "Keep up, Izzy," he was gone. I cursed under my breath sick of running before I went sprinting after his scent.

If it wasn't for my wolf's anger and annoyance I would never have been able to keep up with him but she was sick of everything we had been through today and boosted our power a lot.

"You're faster than I thought!" He called as we ran.

"Yeah? Well I'm faster than I thought too." I was being serious. I had never run this fast. It was incredible.

He stopped suddenly and I stumbled by him, tripping as I tried to stop. He laughed grabbing my arm to keep me from falling on my face. I glared at him before my eyes widened as they fell on a house and I gasped.

"Welcome to my pack house. Completely hidden in the leaves." Joe said.

The house looked like it was made out of mostly glass on the outside. I was amazed to say the least. The curtains were all green making the house blend in with its surroundings very well.

"So, your entire pack lives in one house?" I asked.

"Yeah. All three hundred of us." He said. I was not shocked by their numbers. Dad's pack had exactly six hundred and twenty eight wolves in it with about eleven pups on the way.

"Come on," he took my shoulders and steered me in through the front door.

"Daddy!" I looked down to see a six-year-old girl running at us.

"Princess!" Joe caught the girl in his arms, swinging her as he turned to me, "This is Clara, my daughter. Princess, this is Izabella, or Izzy, your cousin. Say hi," He said.

"Hey, Clara." I smiled.

"Hi, Izzy." She said shyly as she hid her face in his neck.

"She's only shy for three minutes. Trust me, I’ve counted." A boy that looked about my age said from beside me. I looked to my side surprised as Joe chuckled.

"Iz, this is Tyler, your father's brother's son. Or... your cousin." Joe said.

"Izabella?" The boy stared at me, a mixture of shock and surprise in his eyes as his eyes ran over me, “Father’s… Richard’s Izabella?” He asked in disbelief.

"Yes, Tyler." Joe said.

"Oh my God, you're not dead..." Tyler mumbled.

"Duh. How could she be dead, Ty? She's standing here! Unless... You're not a ghost, are you?" Tyler looked at his watch before looking back up at Clara.

"Two minutes and twenty three seconds. That's a new record for you, Clara." Tyler said to the little girl. She frowned at him as Joe chuckled.

"Izzy!" I looked at Clara to see her wiggle out of Joe’s arms so he put her down and she ran up to me to stand right in front of me. I gave Joe an uncertain look which he just chuckled at before I knelt down in front of her. She had her father's brown hair and eyes, so she looked somewhat like me. “Hi.” She grinned at me.

"Clara, don't drive her crazy." Joe said. I laughed because all she had said was ‘Hi’.

"I like dolls." Clara told me.

"Um... I like dolls too?" I said slowly. Tyler and Joe chuckled as Clara cheered.

"Joe, we just received word that – Izabella?" I looked to see a blue-eyed man. He wore a brown coat and huge glasses, his black hair a mess. His appearance kind of reminded me of Einstein but younger, less grey.

"Iz, this is Walter, your father's father. Your grandfather." He said. Oh? Werewolves looked the same for thousands of years so I expected he would look like a twenty or thirty-something year old. I guess the glasses and long, messy hair made him look quite old. The man ran his eyes over me looking shocked.

"What are you doing here?” Walter asked, “Joe, why is she here?”

“We ran into each other, I’ll explain later.”

“She can’t be here.”

“She’s only going to stay for a few days and she won’t be going anywhere while she’s here. We’ve been very careful, no one but the few of us know that she’s alive, Walter.” Walter did not look happy about that and I just gave an awkward smile as I stood up and felt Clara hug my legs lightly. The older man tilted his head as he walked closer to us before he gave me a soft smile.

“I... Wow... You look just like your mother..." Walter stared at me, “You’ve grown so much, the last time I saw you, you were practically the same size as Clara.” Almost as if on cue, Clara gave a yawn and Joe chuckled.

"Oh, she's tired, I'll take her to bed –” He began to reach for her but she shook her head.

"No! I'm not tired!" She held onto me. We laughed.

"This is the worst time for her to be here." Walter said suddenly as he looked at Joe.

"I know, but she needed time away from her pack. Like I said, she'll only be a week, we’ll make sure no one knows she's here –” Joe was saying.

"Alpha!" Someone shouted making us all turn to the door. I heard Clara gasp as she looked up at the bloody man who had just stumbled into the house, his arm looked like it had been ripped into, his shirt basically torn off and his chest cut badly. His face looked mauled. Tyler covered Clara's eyes quickly, despite her already have seen everything.

"What happened, Bruce?" Joe ran over to the man to keep him from falling as he stumbled.

"The north fence is down. The five guards stationed there have been killed!" Bruce coughed.

"NATHANIEL!" Joe yelled piercing my ears but I didn't mind because he was probably calling one of their pack doctors, "Ty, get Clara and Izabella to the camber –” Joe was saying.

"No, let me help, I can –” I was saying.

"We can't risk anyone else finding out you're still alive, Izabella. Go now. Bruce, Nate's on his way, when he's done, go to the chamber as well; I can't have any more wolves dying today and you cannot fight in this state." Joe said as he carefully helped Bruce onto a chair before he left with Walter following him out.

"Come on," Tyler lifted Clara into his arms before he grabbed my arm and began pulling me through the house. I turned back letting him lead me as I heard a loud howl outside. It sounded like Joe, and that was confirmed by several people sprinting out of the house as they shifted.

Tyler led us through their pack house – or pack mansion, rather – until we reached a huge door that looked like a safe.

“Take her.” I held my arms out to take Clara quickly before Tyler shoved the huge door open with a grunt and pushed us inside lightly. I heard murmurs and saw some other teenage girls and little children in the chamber not far from us. "Stay here," He said.

“Wait.” I grabbed his arm, ‘They won't recognise me if I shift, no one knows who I am.’ I linked to him.

"Can you control your wolf?" Tyler asked. I stopped. Well... No. He knew my answer from my silence and nodded. "Stay in here, okay?" He didn’t wait for an answer and left pulling the door shut again.

I stepped back from the door looking up as I realised the chamber was mostly soundproof and I could barely hear anything happening outside. I guess that was so that the people inside did not panic. My head turned when someone spoke.

"Who are you? Why are you holding Clara?" A woman asked. I turned to look at her.

"Um... Joe's – Joe’s my uncle." I said quickly, figuring they would be quite on edge with everything going on. I held Clara closer when I realised she had fallen asleep.

"Izabella?" Someone said from the other side of the room. Crap. They weren’t supposed to know. Did Joe not have any other nieces? I turned to face a woman that had bright blue eyes, her facial structure was like Clara's and they had the same noses. Her mother?

"Izabella? She's dead." Someone else said. I swallowed stepping back as I had no idea how the people around me were going to react to my not being dead.

"No…" the woman that resembled Clara said as she approached me, "Joe just told me you were here. You've grown. You're so beautiful, like your mother." She said. I felt my face heat as my heart warmed a little.

"Um... Thank you." I mumbled.

"I'm Gail by the way. Joe's mate, Clara's mum." She said. I was right. Some of the kids cried out and I stumbled back from the door trying to shield Clara when we heard a sudden smash. It was immediately followed by another that seemed to make the room we were in vibrate with the blow.

"Someone's trying to open the door!" A woman yelled as everyone rushed to the other side of the room. I glanced around and my eyes fell on a broom.

"Here," I handed Clara to her mom before I grabbed the broom to break it against my knee so I had one sharp, jagged-edge stick.

"Izabella, what are you –?” Gail was cut off by screams as the chamber door suddenly smashed open, without hesitation I launched forward through the dust and stabbed whoever was behind the door, forcing the stick deeper into whatever was screaming at the impact. I heard a grunt as I kicked my foot forward against the man so I could pull the stick from his chest and he dropped dead at my feet.

As the dust cleared I spotted another man and shot at him but he had already seen me and grabbed my wrist so he could swing my arm to throw me over him causing me to smash painfully onto the floor on my back, but I made sure not to let go of the stick. Ignoring the pain as I realised he was now between the chamber and me, I didn't hesitate to twist from his grip before I turned to lift my foot and try to kick him in the face, he saw it coming and caught my foot but hesitated for a moment when his eyes landed on my face. I took my chance to stab him without thinking about it but his hesitation only lasted for a second before he tried to dodge my attack and I stabbed into his shoulder instead of his heart. I saw his eyes flash topaz before I froze.

Oh shit. Judging by his scent, he was a Titan. He was an Amarelo like I was, and he was obviously way more experienced and trained than I was. When he began to shift I rolled away before jumping to my feet. I could not fight a wolf in my human form and I could not shift. I couldn't risk having my wolf hurt someone in the chamber instead of him. She was the stronger one between the two of us, I would never be able to control her. I stared wide-eyed at the much bigger, grey version of my own wolf as the man finished his shift. I wished I had some wolfsbane or platinum so I could have some type of chance against him.

He launched at me and I tried to dodge but I must have been too slow because I was ripped back as the wolf's teeth pierced into the flesh of my arm and dragged me back in one swing. I screamed feeling him shake his head trying to rip my arm off. I felt myself beginning to shake, my eyes beginning to blur as my blood pumped faster signalling that I was nearing a forced shift. My wolf was not going to go down without a fight, but I had to fight her to stay inside. I couldn't shift. Not there, so close to everyone in the chamber. I cried out as the wolf suddenly seemed to me moving faster and then I realised: it bit me. My blood was not only running down my arm, but down its throat as well. As I was getting weaker losing so much blood, it was getting stronger because of my blood. I cried out when the wolf suddenly stopped shaking its head and just fell onto the floor, lifeless.

I looked up through my blurry eyes and felt my wolf calm down allowing my blinking to clear my vision, my eyes widened slightly as I saw Joe throw the wolf's heart to the side like his ripping it out of the wolf's chest had been nothing. He knelt in front of me quickly and began checking my arm. It had almost healed completely already.

"You alright, Iz?" He asked. I nodded. "Didn't I tell you not to get involved?" He frowned at me.

"No, actually. You just said something about not risking people finding out I'm alive –” my eyes blurred again and I shut my eyes trying to control my wolf as I wondered why she was getting railed up again.

"Izabella, are you alright?" He shook my shoulders lightly as my head began pounding painfully, making me dizzy. She seemed to be fighting harder but I was determined to keep us from shifting like I always had despite how much it hurt.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fi – no I –” I couldn’t finish as I feeling my body go numb while I was pulled into darkness as Joe’s concerned voice disappeared from my ears.