Aspen County

Louve dozes off soon after we finish, and I pull the blanket up to cover her body so that she doesn't get cold as I slip out of the bed to pull my pants back up and so that I don't wake her.

I wander off to the kitchen while she sleeps to find something to munch on. Lovett and Keene soon bust into the house, alarming me. I immediately tremble with guilt. "Um, Lovett. What are you doing here? Louve is asleep."

"Oh shut up. I know what you were doing." He glares at me, and Keene places a comforting hand on his arm.

I back away, afraid that giving into temptation with the girl of my dreams may very well cost me my life. Thinking about it, it seems worth it. "You do? How?"

"How do you think?" He begins storming to Louve's room, and I put two and two together.

"I thought it was in your head!"

He turns back to face me. "It's not like we have a custody agreement, Ryder. I can't control whose head she occupies at any given time." He throws the door open, and we all see Louve sitting on the bed with the blanket wrapped around her and a devious look in her eyes.

"Hello boys."

I sigh, grateful that she at least left us alone for a little while.

"Why did you come bother her?" Lovett asks from beside me.

"Well, no one can apparently expect you to break up these romantic little interludes for my personal amusement, at least not with that one sticking to your side like a lost pooch." She nods at Keene. "I miss when I was able to do anything I wanted without anybody trying to be noble and stop me, but now you all see me coming. I'll have to become creative. But, at least I can still torture you all in the meantime. So, let's play a game. Does anyone have any suggestions for how I can mess with Louve today?"

"Let her go!" I command.

"Oh come now, Ryder. I've interrupted you two enough for you to know that that command does not work on me. Now come on! I love getting suggestions from the audience." Her wicked sneer makes its appearance, and I snarl at her.

"Okay then, what about me?" I hear Lovett say as he shoves me aside—more roughly than necessary, I might add—and moves to stand in front of Louve…Monique, whatever. "You're able to take over my mind just as easily, and you said that I'm becoming more amusing now. Why don't you leave her alone and come harass me. Besides, when you mess with her head, she becomes depressed and mopey. When you mess with me, I become angry. Which one do you prefer?"

Keeping the sheet around her even though I'm the only one that would actually be interested in what's under it, she rises from the bed to stand before Lovett. He doesn't meet her gaze but keeps his head held high as she looks him up and down. Finally she whines and sags her shoulders, shimmying her body from side to side. "But Lovett, it's no fun if you ask. Noble—I'll give you that—but boring. And by the way, she's still awake in here and isn't too happy with any of us, just warning you."

I sigh. "You are exhausting."

"Then why don't you punch me. After all, 'I'll heal immediately and slapping is for girls anyway.'" She begins cackling, and I advance, strictly keeping my hands tight against my sides.

That phrase registers immediately in my head—I remember when Louve said it to me when she was trying to get me to be myself again. At least, I thought it was Louve who said it. "You were there?" I ask defensively, not wanting to seem weak but feeling my resolve to deal with this thing breaking.

"Honey, not only was I there that night, but I was the ringleader. While she may not have regretted it, do you really think that Louve would've slapped you if I hadn't been there whispering for her to just do it? Don't make me laugh."

"Ugh, you little—" I cut myself off, refusing to give into my anger. I won't hurt her.

"You know, right now, she's begging you to just get it over with and punch me. You should hear her screams. 'Ryder! Just hit her! It's not me! Hit her!'" She looks around me at Lovett. "She was calling for you to do the same thing earlier, but you were too scared to do it. All of you are. Especially your new friend, Lovett."

She moves to stand in front of Keene, who's only peeking at the scene from around the corner of the doorway, using the slab of wood as some sort of protection, and Lovett immediately becomes defensive. "Leave him alone. He has nothing to do with this," Lovett calls out, grabbing Louve's shoulder as Monique struts past him.

She twirls around to face him, knocking his hand off of her shoulder. "Actually, he has as much to do with me now, courtesy of you, as Ryder does thanks to Louve. But at least you, Ryder, and Louve actually try to fight me. But Keene—he's more stand-offish. He's not like Ryder. He's too empathetic, and he hides behind intuition and what 'Grandmother says.' All in all, I must say that while your wrath may be more amusing than Louve's moodiness, I think I may just prefer Ryder because he has an anger within that's powerful enough to rival that within you, even when I am within you. It's almost exhilarating." She bites her lip with excitement, seeming to get off on watching us all suffer. "Now would someone like to just hit me already? I told you: she's just begging for it. And honestly, Ryder, you find bondage hot, don't you? What about domination?"

"You sicken me," I growl at her.

"You know this isn't the first time I've interfered with your relationship. In fact, if it wasn't for me, you two wouldn't even have a relationship to be in. You should be thanking me."

"What are you talking about?"

"Louve was always very cool and controlled, even during the Cycle, you know, until I came along. Besides, think about it, werewolves don't get sick. Put two and two together, Ryder." She laughs sadistically at my befuddled and stricken expression. "I saw you. I wanted you. I was learning how to control Louve. That was my first night out, but I couldn't yet fully control her. I only had influence on my side. Put together the pieces of the puzzle, Ryder. You're dumb, but you can at least do that. You're not that thick."

"You couldn't be responsible. Louve was just—"

"Acting a bit like an elephant in musth? Yeah, she was. Take a wild shot in the dark as to why. Face it, you should be thanking me. After all, where would you be without me? Alone in mommy's house? Being thrown around by that nasty old step-ass hole of yours? Maybe running around with Kain and about 10 different STDs? Please. You'd probably be dead without me, Ryder, 6-feet under like your precious mate's parents. So you're welcome."

"I hate you so much."

"Ouch, Ryder; now that's not very nice. And you weren't saying that towards the end there when she and I momentarily swapped places. Need I quote you in front of Lovett and his shiny little toy?"

"Shut up!" I refuse to accept that statement as being true right now.

"No need to be embarrassed. I wanted to see what Louve was up to. So I popped in, and then I popped back out just before you did to go tell her dear big brother." She glares at Lovett. "Once again, you were pretty useless by the way. I was counting on chaos, but thanks to the Grandma's boy over there, you were able to fight me." She sighs dramatically and glances over at me as if looking for sympathy. "Mutts, they're completely useless."

"Why you little—"

"We'll chat later. For now, I think that you'll all enjoy having Louve back, and I have to save my strength, now don't I? Toodles, for now." She winks, and Louve collapses to the ground.

I hurry to her side and envelop her into my arms. She gratefully allows me to, and we keep the blanket wrapped around her as I gently place her on the bed. I can practically feel Lovett glaring daggers into my back, but I don't care. "Are you okay?" I ask gently.

Looking disappointed in herself, she subtly nods. I turn and look at Lovett. He still looks like he still wants to kill me, but Keene manages to pull him away. Lovett offers me one last death stare before they leave us alone.

"Don't listen to that thing. It may have to tell you the truth, but you know that she just wants to mess with you. That's all that she wants. You heard her say that she told Lovett what we did just so that she could create more chaos."

"But you heard everything else. She told me a while back, back before I killed Damien's father, that she and I are becoming more and more merged and that her behavior seeps into me. That's why I was behaving so crazy back then, but what if she was mucking up the truth a little when she said that she hit you. What if it was her influence but I could've kept from doing it... What if it was her that made me want to make love to you?"

I feel hurt, and I pull away. "Are you saying that you didn't want to?"

She wipes her eyes, looking exhausted. "Of course I did—I have since you told me. But like you said, I wasn't ready up until just last night. What if she just pushed me to the breaking point? Maybe I wouldn't have said yes if she hadn't made me."

"Did she?"

"I don't know. Like I told Egeria, I can barely feel it any more when it's me and when it's her because she usually just tries to influence me now into getting angry or doing things that I normally wouldn't. What if, for just a few moments, before I said yes, she was there and I didn't realize it."

"Louve, listen to me. You said things to me that she never would've said. It was you're passion and love and warmth that I felt—not her. It was you. I'm confident that it was."

I wrap her in my arms, and she gladly lets me, as I think of how big of a lie that that is as I remember the distant look in her eyes back when she said it. I really have no clue whatsoever anymore how much of our relationship really is true.