Feeling This...

“You spend a lot of time out here,” Every time he spoke it bothered me how my body reacted to it.

“I like it, it's quiet,” I tried extra to make it sound rude as I turned towards the lead singer and alpha.

“When I first shifted I slept in the woods every night for three months,” he smiled over at me and his eye brows rose above his signature aviator sunglasses. “Are you doing okay Charlie?” he questioned leaning against the tree behind him.

“I guess so,” I raised my shoulders in response, “Everyday I get more questions with no answers,” I admitted.

“You know you don't have to do this alone, we all will help you,” his smile finally fell, “I will help you,”

“So far none of you have been helpful with anything,” I snapped crossing my arms over my chest, “I want help figuring out what happened to me, I want to know who my dad's family is and what they want me for, I want to find my mom,” the heat began forming on my spine like usual.

“Those things we don't know the answers to either,” he didn't move one muscle, he remained lounging against the tree like we were discussing the weather.

“Then what were you offering to help me with?” I wanted to take steps closer to him to confront him but thought better of it, or something inside me thought better than it.

“The real shit, the temperature change, the wolf things,” he took a deep breath and a smirk crossed his face, “You're more like me than I realized, when I first found out I wanted to rip your grandfather apart, he was my alpha, I hated being told what to do, I wanted to be a lone wolf, I needed to rebel against everything,” he finally stood up straight asserting his height and size, “I needed to fight it, I didn't want a set out plan, to this day sometimes I think I would just run away,”

“I just want to find my mom,” he had hit the nail on the head but I wouldn't admit it.

“But then I saw Val, met the guys, felt it all, and I knew that I belonged to something bigger than the normal life, that I was special to a group of people, that I was exactly where I needed to be.” he crossed his arms to match mine, “The other guys just fell into place, did the right things at the right time, I still need to fight everyday to do the right thing for everyone,”

“I've never done the right thing,” I confessed.

“I know, and that is why I am trying to say I understand, that I still feel the same way you do, I need you to understand that it is okay to feel like this, because you play your part in our pack, you are exactly who you are supposed to be Charlie, and I promise I will never try to change you, but I will do what I need to do to protect you,” he smiled again and instantly the heat that had risen over my body washed away into a calm feeling floating in my stomach.

“I don't think I will ever be a wolf if I don't find out what is happening to me,” I felt myself match his smile even though that statement made me want to cry, “I don't know that I want to be a wolf,”

“That is something none of us get a choice in, your one of us,” he filled in the space between us and his large arms pulled me into his hard chest, wrapping me in warm fatherly hug, “We haven't stopped searching for answers Charlie, we just need to play it right, we will figure all of this out,”

“Thank you,” I said quietly into his ear feeling moisture fill my eyes, he was the first person to hold me since this all went down, and I don't think it could have been a better person to do the job.

He pulled back and pressed his lips against my forehead, pressing a light kiss and pulling back, “I know you and Josie are up to something, and I know you are not going to tell me what, but please be careful, for your sake and ours, especially Haner's if you're hurt he's hurt, remember that,” he let me go and nodded his head in the direction of the house, “Come on lets go get something to eat,” he reached up and wiped away the tears falling down my cheeks in an act that reminded me of something Uncle Joe would do.

“I am hungry,” I smiled and led the way out of the woods towards the house.

“There you guys are!” Val's voice filled the space between us and the house as we got to the back yard where everyone was sitting at a large table of food.

“You know we wouldn't miss a meal babe,” Matt's face filled with a smirk to meet Val's blush.

“I know, both you and Charlie are going to eat me out of house and home,”

“She's a growing wolf,” Matt defended me, and hit me with the side of his hip, knocking me off my track.

“And what is your excuse?” she asked him, handing him a beer as we got to the table.

“Charlie!” Josie said my name getting my attention and pulled out the empty seat beside her, which happened to be right across from Brian.

“Heard anything from Kevin?” I tried to say quietly, but from the way the guys around the table reacted I should of just yelled in through a bull horn.

“That would be a negative!” she said loud enough for everyone to hear but under the table I felt her leg tap mine, she was lying.

“We are never going to get to that concert,” I tried to think of a reason to talk to a known computer hacker.

“What concert and why didn't you bitches invite me,” Jack asked from the other side of Zacky.
“I take offense to the word bitch,” Josie snapped at him.

“Because we clearly didn't want you to go!” I play yelled at him.

“I think it's a fitting word for both of you!” he laughed as we all began digging into our food.

No one's POV

“Those two are clearly up to something!” Zacky informed his pack at the meeting later that night, “I googled it, there isn't a good concert in town for like two months,”

“You really thought they were talking about a concert dumb ass?” Joe ask the rhythm guitarist.

“We all know Kevin is a hacker, and not small shit, he's done work for the pack before,” Matt spoke to the group. “We need to know what they are looking for.”

“Clearly they are looking for her mom,” Johnny finished.

“I stayed in the woods the other night when Josie and Charlie went running out there, and I smelled a witch.” Zacky finally added some useful comments to the conversation, “But it just led me back to the westwood witches, we have already asked them for help and they gave us nothing,” he ran his hands through his hair pushing it out of his face, “They told her she would figure it out herself,”

“Witches are sneaky, good witches or not I don't trust them,” Matt commented, “If her father's family is trying to use her for something, the westwood's can use her just as easily,”

“She was asking about Alpha's the other day,” Brian informed the group, “Do you think that is what it could be? Take her out so there will be no new alpha,” he had thought of multiple reasons why Charles would need Charlie, none of them made any sense, this was just his new theory.

“But that makes no sense, we would still be around,” Matt added.
“If we don't have one, there won't be one, and if we are not around any longer then that's the end of us, a pack can't survive without an alpha,”

“They would come after you two?” Johnny questioned putting the pieces together.

“We are forgetting Jack, he's double gifted too,” Joe reminded the group.

“Yeah, but it's not a natural way,” Charlie's grandfather finally spoke, “He was the child of a fling not of a mate, he doesn't even know,”

“We need to see what we can get out of Kevin,” Matt tapped his hand down on the table letting everyone know that the meeting was over when he saw the woman's car pulling into the drive way, but no one moved they all remained around the bonfire out behind the house.

Charlie's POV

“I found something in your name,” Kevin pulled multiple screens up on his computer. “When I put in Charles you came up too, probably because your names are so similar,”

“Me?” I tried to make out what we were seeing on the screen but it may as well be in french.

“Your name has been used all over the place, online shopping, car rentals, and plane tickets, all in Louisiana,”

“Didn't your mom say the last place she remembered being was New Orleans?” Josie questioned staring at the computer screen too.

“Yeah, but who knows if that was even her texting me, that could have been Charles,”

“this could be a trap,”

“We didn't go through all this to FINALLY find something and then say oops better not it might be a trap,” I looked over at my best friend.

“What are you two up to?” Kevin questioned finally looking away from the computer and over at both of us.

“Nothing,” we both snapped at the same time.

“Yeah it really sounds like it, but that’s all I could find, nothing in this Charles guys name, only you,” he pulled out a piece of paper with an address on it, “This is where the packages for the online orders are being delivered to,” he paused to look us over again, “Whoever is signing for the packages is named Cynthia,”

I had forgotten all about Cynthia, whoever she was she seemed to be my grandfather's right hand man, maybe his wife? I didn't even know what my grandmothers name was.

“Are you any good at ancestry?” I questioned Kevin with a smile on my face, “Can you find out more about my grandfather Charles? Like if he's married? Is my dad his only kid?”

“This is going to cost you way more than a sack of weed,” Kevin shook his head at me but started writing notes on a piece of paper, “It's going to cost Avenged tickets, I know you two are tight with them,”

“Consider it done,” I put my hand out for him to shake as Josie's phone began ringing. “Look into that and let me know if you find anything, it's to easy for them to see my texts so email me what you find,”

“Do I even want to know what you two are up to?”

“No,”

“We've got to go,” Josie informed me as we got off the phone, “Jack just called, the guys are looking for us,”

“Keep me in the loop,” I smiled at Kevin and kissed his cheek before we made our way out of his house.