Feeling This...

“That is the face of busted everybody!!!” Zacky yelled as we walked through the front door after the long miserable ride from the police station home.

“She wasn't alone believe it or not!” Brian spoke to the room, grabbing a beer from the table as Josie and Jack followed into the room.

“So Jail birds! How was you're time in?!” Zacky yelled again, clearly he'd had his share of drinks.

“Well, Jack didn't get a boyfriend, so I don't consider it successful!” I joked with Zacky.

“No one is laughing Charlie!” Brian interrupted our fun.

“Clearly Zacky is!” I yelled back at him. The room filled with a low whistle.

“You all need to mind you're own fucking business!” Brian's low growl filled the room.

“You do too, I am none of yours!” I hissed at the guitarist.

“Both of you need to stop it!” Val spoke sweetly trying to calm both of us. The heat in the room must of raised a hundred degrees, both Brian and I were as red as a tomato.

“You are my business! Like it or NOT; and last I checked I had to come bail your ass out of jail!” he chugged his beer.

“I don't think so dude!” I yelled back shoving my finger into his chest! Before making my way into the hall where my purse hung.

“Matt stop them!” Val yelled at her mate.

“Let them go for it! I'm testing something!” I could hear the smile on his face.

After finding what I was digging for I marched back into the kitchen tossing the cost of my bail at him.

“Here is your money back! Shove it up your ass!”

“MATT!” Val yelled again.

“What is everyone yelling at?” Lacey asked coming into the kitchen running sleep out of her eyes.

“NOTHING!” We both yelled at her.

“HEY!” Johnny yelled back at us.

“I'm out of here!” I screamed into the room, “I'm not a part of your pack! I'm not your mate or any of your business! AND IM NOT A WEREWOLF!” I began marching to the front door again.

“CHARLIE GET BACK IN HERE!” Matt got involved for the first time. “YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!”

I felt a bubble in my gut, a urge to move towards the kitchen; before I thought better of it. I quickly grabbed my purse and started digging for my car keys.

“Charlie! Don't go!” Jack came out into the hall.

“She is NONE of your business JACK!” Brian come into the hallway his beer in tow.

“EVERYONE STOP!” Matt's large form was the last one in the hall way. “Jack! Back off! Go home! Brian you need to quit it, your being an asshole! And Charlie,” his eyes met mine, and I instantly dropped twenty degrees. “Calm down, you are not going anywhere, okay?” He asked, for the first time it wasn’t' a direct order.

“I'm going to bed!” I informed everyone hanging my purse back up before running up the stairs.

Angry tears were streaming down my face the second I was at the top step. What was happening to me.

“Charlie wait!” Val said to me following me up the stairs.

“I don't wanna talk about it!” I said to her whipping my tears away.

“Good me either!” she informed me, following me into my room.

“I don't want to talk about the pack, or mates, or jail,” she smiled, sitting on my bed while I walked into the attached bathroom, leaving the door open.

“No offense then, but why are you in here?” I asked while I began cleaning my face.

“I want to know how you are for real, how's work, how are your friends,” I noticed I was smiling in the mirror. Who could really be mad at Val?

“Everything's good, everyone is good,” I dried my face and sat beside her on the bed.

“Can I ask you a question?” I asked,already turning back on what I had said “I just have no one else to ask,”

“Anything,”

“It doesn't mean anything,” I informed her.

“Of course not, it's just a question,” she tapped my nose with her finger.

“What does it feel like when you are around Matt?” I looked down at my lap, paying far to much attention to my nail polish.

“It's like breathing, you don't know how to not do it,” she squinted, “Does that make since? It's like I had never moved, never lived, until I met him.”

“I don't feel that with Brian,” I informed her.

“What do you feel?”

“Anger? Confusion?” I thought for a minute, “Like I want to punch him in the face,”

“I feel that way around him too,” she smiled at me.

“But a few weeks ago, I had a nightmare, and he must of heard me and came in,” I paused, trying to stop the word vomit from escaping. “And he stayed in there because I was kind of freaked out, I fell asleep, and it felt like I slept for the first time, I hear him moving around when I'm not thinking about anything else, I can smell where he's been,”

I looked at her embarrassed by what I had just admitted to a woman who I barley knew, a woman who was a part of this wolf world.

“That is you breathing for the first time,” she smiled.

“I'm not a wolf though,” I told her like I had been telling everyone else.

“Keep telling yourself that, in the mean time we will figure this out, and don't worry about what happened downstairs, you could use this mate thing to your advantage, Brian will be more upset about that then you will be!” She laughed getting off the bed pulling down the blankets. “See you in the morning!” she was still laughing as she walked out of my bedroom shutting the door.

------

“Morning birdy,” Zacky smiled at me from his spot at the island, a bowl of cereal in front of him.

“Not with the jail bird thing again!” I smiled at him shoving a spoon into his bowl stealing a bite.

“Last night was quite a show,” he didn't seem to mind that I was stealing food.

“I'm going for a run, I'll see you later!” I informed him putting my spoon in the sink.

“Wrong, you're going with me today!” he stood following my actions with his bowl.

“Where are we going?” I asked putting on my shoes

“Don't be stupid, were going to the woods!” he laughed pulling me towards the door.

“What are we going to do in the woods?” I questioned following him towards his car; getting in.

“We need some questions answered, and we are going straight to the source!”

“Who is the source? And what questions?”

“We are going to find the witches, and ask them what is up with you!”

Panic rose in my throat, and sweat formed on my brow, something I was becoming used to.

“No Zacky! I don't like witches!” I slapped his arm, hopping he would turn around.

“These are good witches!”

“I don't think there is such a thing!” I informed him.

“Wait you'll see!”

---

“Well she's definitely a shifter!” the one eyed witch, Zelena touched her scaly hands on both sides of my fore head, clearly she felt something I didn't.

“But that magic on her is strong,”

“Very strong,” One of the other old witches Belinda gave her input from where she sat sipping tea.

“He's also marked her,” The third and final witch, Martha, spoke from beside me on the couch.

“Marked me? For what?” I asked her,the most average out of the three, while Zelena kept her hands on my forehead.

“Something big!” Belinda answered cryptically once again.

“Well can you undo it or not?!” Zacky asked, having about enough.

“No, no one can, she will have to do it herself, when she is ready,” Martha smiled over at me.”He will help her!”

“Who?” I asked my head still being held.

“He, the wolf of yours,” Zelena stated, finally letting go of my head.

“But never forget!” Belinda grabbed my arm and began pulling me towards the door, “That he is watching you,” she finished before pushing Zacky and I out the door and slamming it behind her.

“Well, that was pointless!” I looked at Zacky, cracking a smile having no choice after that awkward...whatever that was.

“Well, at least we got out of the house!” He smiled back, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking about the fact that Charles was still watching me, what did he want?

----

“Well, how did it go?” Matt asked when we got back to the house, everyone was out back having a cook out.

“They were useless!” he sat down at the picnic table, thankfully taking the empty spot beside Brian so I could sit at the end by Uncle Joe. “They told us what we already knew, she is a wolf, no one can break the spell besides her, and Charles is watching her.”

“A waste of gas and half a day!” I added.

“That is all they said?” Brian questioned throwing his burger down on his plate.

“Basically,” Zacky informed him while fixing a plate.

I continued starring at Brian, watching the twenty different emotions pass over his face before he looked up to meet our eyes.

“Well that is just fucking great!” he slammed up from the table and into the house; before Matt stood up to follow him.

----
Brian's POV

“Gates, what is going on with you?” Matt demanded of me, following me in the the living room, “Your acting like a teenage girl!”

“BECAUSE I FELL LIKE ONE!” I yelled hitting the wall, causing all the picture to rattle. “ Do you know what it feels like? To have a mate, one you want so bad that doesn’t' want you, that doesn't feel the earth shattering need to be with you? No because the second that Val saw you it was over, well that shit isn't happening for me, I see her! I feel her! But I can't have her! And now the witches, our only hope of understanding this says there is NOTHING WE CAN DO!” I turned to my alpha “ I can't take it Matt, I cant' fucking take it!” I tightened my fists and loosened them trying to calm myself.

“Help her Brian, you heard Zacky only she can fix this, make her want this with you, stop acting like a bitch and get to know her, get her to like you! Like normal people have to do!” he rested his hand on my shoulder. “She's changing more than you realize, pay attention, did you see how hot she was getting during your fight last night? How hot headed she is becoming? It's all signs of someone coming into their own, most of us had it going into puberty, but I think she is going the shift now.”
“Now go to the woods, shift and run this aggression off Gates, before I am forced to beat it out of you!' his damn smile spread on his face.