Ganked: Life Bitten And Taken

I looked around the giant hall at all of the people, noticing the tan and white mixture of people. Many of them were staring at me as they passed by, making me feel awkward. Maybe it was the dress and heels? I just shrugged it off and took my first step forward, immediately bumping into somebody. "I'm so-" I began, but as the person I ran into turned around, I became speechless. It was Jason! My eyes went as wide as his did as he looked down on me.

"Riley?"

"Jason!" I jumped up and wrapped my arms around his neck. He slowly wrapped his around my waist.

"What are you doing here?"

I let go of him realizing where we were, and what we were here for. I looked up at him, my brows furrowed. "What are you doing here?" He just looked down at me, completely dumbfounded...until he noticed Kane's arm had slipped around my waist again and pulled me back into him.

"I'm so sorry for your loss. Leinad was a great man." Kane used his free hand to shake Kasey's, who had just come up behind Jason. My eyes went wide as I just looked up at Jason, then to Kasey.

"Thank you for your condolences." Kasey said somberly, then glanced at me, and back to Kane. "What is your relationship with her?"

I bit my bottom lip, trying not to cry, knowing that Daniel was Leinad (which I should've known. Daniel backwards is Leinad and Noiro their last name backwards is Orion), and knowing that he died. My efforts were futile. Tears came rolling down my face anyway. My best friends had been lying to me all these years, they're the reason my family is dead, and now, Daniel is dead. This was like no pain ever felt before. I thanked God Kane had his arm around me or else I could've sworn I was going to fall into a million pieces.

"Riley." Kane's voice was velvety soft as he lifted my chin to look at him, and I snapped back to reality. "Do you want to go back to the hotel? I can just have Devin take my place at the table and report back to me." I just nodded.

"She isn't going anywhere with you." Jason was glaring viciously at Kane.

"Oh yeah. Now you care about me." I glared at him angrily, and saw the pain cross his face and Kasey's.

"Riley, it's not that we didn't care-" Kasey began.

"Take me to the hotel Kane." I cut him off, burying my face into Kane's chest.

"We're here." He said, softly touching my shoulder. I just bawled, falling to my knees in front of Kane, and fisting his shirt in my hand, while the other covered my mouth. He got down on his knees in front of me and picked me up into his arms, then sat down Indian-style on the ground, cradling me in his lap. "I'm sorry Riley." He whispered. I just kept crying.

"What? Are you kidding me?!"

"Keep it down, Kane."

I heard voices slowly get louder as I slipped back into consciousness. I had fallen asleep shortly after arriving at the hotel room. I opened my eyes and saw Kane and Devin talking over in the small living room area of the room.

"Guys." I heard Aaron behind me, and turned my head to see him sitting on the other side of the bed, watching me. He smiled and moved my hair out of my face. "Hey. How are you sleepy head?" Terrence was in a chair next to the bed.

"What's going on?" I ignored the question, since the answer was obvious.

"The Katherone and the werewolves are preparing for war. The Jerichan are remaining neutral and will not be fighting." Kane said, sitting down in a chair, when a knock was heard. I looked to the door, and saw Kane was already there opening it. He glanced at me, then back at whoever was at the door. "Guys. Leave the room please." They all did as he asked, then Jason, Kasey, Todd, Sean, and Kevin walked into the room. Great. All of my friends were wolves! Just f*cking terrific.

They all walked into the middle of the room as Kane closed the door and walked over to sit on the edge of my bed. I sat up.

"Riley, we want to know what happened. How you ended up here." Kasey said softly, obviously still hurt by what I had said at the Circle HQ.

"Why do you-"

"Riley." Kane said sternly.

I sighed and ran a hand through my tangled hair, not meeting his eyes. "How much do you know?"

"Nothing."

I took in a deep breath, hoping I could make through the entire story. "I woke up the day after I almost got raped and Mom told me you guys weren't going to school that day. But when I got to school, none of you were there." I glared at them all and got out of bed, noticing I was still in my dress. "None of you were there." I paused for a moment seeing the pain and shamefulness in all of their eyes as they watched me. A lump began to develop in my throat but I swallowed it back. "So I went to every single one of your houses and do you know what I found? Empty houses. You all just moved away while I was sleeping."

"We-" Todd began, but I just motioned for him to stay quiet.

"So I went home." I looked down at the ground, my brows furrowing. "I heard screaming and my front door was open. So I ran inside and do you know what I saw first?" I looked back up at them all, tears developing in my eyes. "My brother was on his back, his eyes wide open in shock as he laid there in a pool of his own blood leaking from his neck!...My eight-year old brother..." The tears fell. "Then I found my dad. Blood everywhere, his eyes open as well. Guess what I found next?...I ran upstairs and found a man standing over my mother's dead body with blood all over his face. And he came at me, grabbing my throat, asking me where Orion was. And I didn't know..." I paused for a minute, looking sadly at the guys I had once called my friends, my breathing shaky. "He threw me through my own bedroom wall and continued to beat me until Kane came and saved me." I scoffed. "A stranger saved me while my friends ran in fear for their own lives. Didn't you guys even think that when the vampires came looking for you he'd follow your scent back to my house?" No one answered. "Didn't you?!!"

"Riley we though they would follow our scent out of town. We had no idea he would still be looking for us there." Kasey spoke up and walked towards me. "We didn't know this would happen." He put his hands on my shoulders, and I could see the tears welling up in his eyes, and the pain he was suffering. He had just lost his father, and now just found out my family had died because him and his family. I looked to the other boys and saw the same pain in their eyes. I broke down again. What was I suppose to do? Forgive them and let things go back to the way they were? It wasn't really their fault. But I needed something to hang on to. Something to be mad at. Anger is so much easier to deal with than pain.

"Riley...I..." Jason tried to say something, but he didn't really know what to say.

I backed away from Kasey and into Kane, who had stood up behind me. "Please...just go." I whimpered, my jaw trembling. I watched as they all walked out of the room, then turned myself into Kane, and completely drenched his shirt with tears.

All he could do for me was rub my back, and hold me in his arms. At least he was there for me when no one else was. And I knew he'd always be there for me when I needed him.