• I sat up stairs with Lexi, feeling a little antsy. Lindsey was eight months pregnant and almost due at anytime, Gracie has the flu, and Luke, Drake, Jen, Tom, Nick, Heather and Megan all went to watch over J-J as he went through his first Warp.
    I was alone to guard the rest of the family. So, if anything goes wrong, it’s my head.
    “…So, what did you get for number 6?” Lexi asked looking at her paper.
    I was stirring into my door way. My door way was the last door in the hallway in the upstairs, all the way at the end. I can make sure Lindsey is sleeping soundly, Gracie too, and that no one is coming up the stairs to kill all of us, all just by looking straight ahead.
    “X equals 563.5678 over Y.” I confirmed, checking over the problem over and over in my head. I actually haven’t at my book yet. Photographic memory, it rocks. Don’t let anyone tell you anything other wise. It’s also a curse of you lived through some bad times. Remembering everything in picture perfect detail, almost like a home movie of a nightmare.
    “Oh shut up! I know that’s wrong because you haven’t looked at your book once!” she shouted. I jumped. My legs tensed, my heart raced. My body felt like I was going to run a million miles an hour while caring an elephant. Yes, I am easily startled.
    My hands rushed to Lexi’s mouth and back of head. I was breathing hard, teeth bared and shining. That was all faster than she could see…at least the teeth part anyway.
    She threw my hands to the side. “Why are you always so tense when you’re home alone?” she asked, a little pissed that I had also startled her. She also hates it when I put my hands over her mouth.
    I looked at her, then the hallway, then around my room; perimeter check. It was a dusty, old dainty house that didn’t have much to say to it. Wooden floors, chipping paint, a house that was built and forgotten till we moved in. Holes in the drywall, but they were in the shadows, where no one could see. Not to say that we’re not fixing them, we just ran out of supplies for the time being.
    My room in relation to the house was…nasty. Remains of yellow carpet in the corners, rotten color wood crept were we walked. A computer and piles of CDs and junk in the corner, my bed in the middle, and my dresser in the other corner. It was small really, that was all of it. There was a window above my bed. High enough on the wall to be safe from someone accidentally punching it, but low enough to not be considered a sky light.
    It was just angled right too so when it was sunny or lighting, the light would light up the hall way if the door was open, but not touch my eyes. You know, heats up the rods so I can’t see in the dark. It was a nice room really. Is it falling apart? Yes, yes it is to the highest extreme. Luke offered to work over time at the slaughter house to pay for my room to be fixed up. I decided no, it would by the young ones some toys or cloths for Christmas. Yeah, that was nice of me, but I need all the good karma I can get.
    We all can.
    “I’m not tense…” I said, finally answering her question. “I’m just…alert. I don’t want anything happening to my little woman.” I said sweetly, rubbing her chin.
    Yeah, I and Lexi are going out. Not all the family knows. Just the woman so far and they’re helping me keep it a secret. If Luke, Tom, or Drake found out…I’m dead. But I don’t care.
    She’s beautiful. Drop dead gorgeous. This light doesn’t bring her any justice. Her flowing, wheat hair so beautiful and delicately put in place. Blue eyes the color of the darkest pair of blue jeans in the world. Her skin just seamed to glow under any light. Her legs where long and slender, hands and arms soft as down feathers. White, perfect teeth and lips as red as…blood. She was an amazing human.
    I was too in terms of attractions. Black, dark blue long hair. It was a bit like that popular Emo hair style, but people said it looked different on me, some how nicer. They say it’s because of my white as paper smile that I wear all the time, it’s my trademark. I have green emerald eyes. We all do really….But other than my facial qualities, I have…it pains me to use this description…muscles out the whazoo I’m told. That’s not a choice when your part of this family though. Even the little ones can push you around if you cross them.
    “That’s sweet…what do you think if we take a little time off of studding and…study each other?” she offered, lashes fluttering. I smiled. I knew what she was talking about and she knew that calmed me down. We put the books back in our bag and got comfy on the bed, arms wrapped around each other so tightly you couldn’t fit a slice of paper between us. I started the make out session. I did, I won’t lie.
    I started by kissing her neck passionately, softly and genital. She breathed a little hard; eyes shut and heart open, completely unaware of her surroundings. Not me. I could tell you the type of cricket making the chirping noise outside the window and where it was. I could hear the starting drops of water of the storm that the weather man said would come in around ten, but it really coming in around 9:30 now. They’re always wrong. I could tell you that Gracie and Lindsey just rolled over to their other sides, snoring, and where all the creaks and squeaks in the house were coming from.
    I’m paranoid, even by my family’s standers. That’s saying a lot. I usually could fool Lexi, make her think she was all I was thinking about, but to night I was more antsy than usual. She and I both knew it…especially her.
    “You know what, just…stop.” She said, pushing my head away angrily. I don’t like being shoved. At least, I don’t like the sudden change of movement. It makes my head unclear.
    “What’s wrong Lexi?” I asked with a stroke of the cheek, trying to calm her. I tried using the ‘you might be angry but I’m going to be calm’ card, but it didn’t work. I was slapping on the hand. I snapped it back, cradling it.
    “Oh, don’t act hurt. If you don’t want to make out just say so, I’ll be happy to leave.” She said as she pretend to get up, but she was getting up slowly, gathering her stuff even slower.
    “No, Lexi come back,” I demanded. I stood up, took a hand behind her neck onto her shoulder and pulled. I threw her back into her position on the bed.
    She would never admit this but she smiled at that. She likes it when I take charge. I barley ever do and she makes a lot of decisions, I’m changing quickly though. I like taking charge now and days, not so much way back when. “Look, that murder last night gots me a little antsy, that’s all hon. I swear, it’s nothing you did or I don’t want to make out with you. I’m just that paranoid. You know that.” I said. She’s been thinking that I don’t like her anymore. You know, that crazy thinking those girls get into sometimes. I don’t know why, I haven’t been doing anything different…well, that’s a lie. I had to blow her off a couple times to do some earns for Luke, but I don’t have a choice in that matter.
    She was beneath me, rubbing my chest as she looked up at me. “Really?” she asked playfully.
    I nodded, smiling. She smiled too, and then started kissing my neck. I closed my eyes and upped my breathing. I hate to admit it, but tonight I was faking…a little…ok, I was barley faking. It was like an actor had to cry, so he stabbed himself; that kind of faking. I held Lexi close, taking deep breaths, inhaling her essence, her smell, her being. I swear, that shampoo of hers that she finds in little, out cast shops…I could track her down across a state after a day of rain.
    “Jack…I love you.” she said as she took a break for air.
    I froze. My heart stopped. I…was taken off guard? ME?! I was hit with a sucker punch? H-how!? I mean, this is the first time she’s told me that and I would always think I would just say it back coolly, but it’s different when she said it for no reason at all! I was lost. I mean, I’ve dated a lot of girls, and those first few, I did love them. Then I realized that girls just say that to say it; most don’t mean it.
    I’ve been hurt by a lot of girls, I will say, but I’m over that. What I’m not over is that door closing my heart to almost everything…everything but Lexi.
    I was thinking a mile a minute, what should I say, or what should I do? And…for the first time since I was a child and maybe that’s not even true…I lost track. I lost track of everything. The cricket, the store, the kids, the house, the time, my thoughts, my breathing, everything. I was floating on cloud nine. Away. Away from Earth and in…love. I was just about to say I love you too, when I heard it. Bang!
    The door. Down stairs.
    I jumped from the bed, into the hall way, a good ten feet. I broke rule one of my family. Don’t do anything weird. I went from a laying position and jumped ten feet, landing like I just jumped from a tree. I was barring my teeth, hands our reached and ready to grab something, ready for a fight. Then I froze, realizing Lexi was here and it was just Luke and the others, returning home.
    I was speechless as I turned around, and so was Lexi. She was sitting up straight, smiling. “How did you do that?!” she asked excitedly. Oh thank God…I didn’t raise suspicions. I sighed a breath of fresh air. I always forget she thinks I’m normal and doesn’t suspect a thing with this family. “Adrenaline. First you, than that loud bang? I was startled and ready to protect my girl.” I said with a big smile. A comforting smile. She shrugged and rolled her eyes, pretending not to believe me and throwing her book bag over her shoulder.
    “Yeah right. That was not adrenaline.” She sarcastically said as we walked down the hall.
    “What do you think I am? Edward the shiny vampire?” I snickered.
    I was secretly holding in the biggest laugh ever. It was really funny actually. “Yeah, vampire, of course. If you were I would dump you. You know I hate vampires. Werewolves are better and you know It. It was testosterone from me kissing you and you know It.” she declared as we walked down the stairs next, meeting the mob of people down below. That is just one of the reasons I know I love her. The main one, but it’s one of them still. She thinks I’m better than vampires.
    As we walked down the stairs; Tom, Drake, Nick, J-J, Megan, Heather and Luke all said hi.
    I’ll start from youngest to oldest. Tom, the oldest out of all of us, just turned forty yesterday, had a grey pony tail. Like an old hippy type of style. He looked younger than he was, but that was soon going to catch up to him. He had warm, welcoming green eyes that just seamed to hug you at the right green-hazel temperature. He was a tall one though, ducking under door ways at an incredible 6’ 6”.
    Heather, age thirty five…well, reminded me personally of Amelia Earhart. A really hard worker and persistent one didn’t show any sighs of slowing down. Her heavy hazel and light green eyes buzzed with energy. Her short five four figure gave a warm feeling of her.
    Then there’s Luke at twenty five. He’s…a hippy really. At least in the way he dresses. He’s usually, unless he’s going into public for some reason or work, shirtless. Yeah, I know it’s weird, but he’s allowed to be weird. He doesn’t like wearing shoes very much, so his feet look and (I’m told) feel like leather. His feet were the first to come out of his shoes and socks, fallowed by the others. We all like being bare foot. Luke has hard green eyes…judging is a better way to describe them. He had blond hair which came into a small pony tail in the back of his head, which is six feet two inches off of the ground.
    Megan is Luke’s…girlfriend I guess. She’s a peppy twenty four years old. Brunet and green, laughing eyes. I say laughing because you can’t…like, feel awkward around her. She always had a smile on. No matter what really. She’s a hugger too. She’s about five inches shorter than Luke, who is pretty tall for a girl, but Lexi is one inch taller.
    Then there’s Drake. He’s twenty one. He’s a bit of a bad boy he likes to pretend. He’s a real sweet heart though. His eyes look cold and hard, but when he cracks a smile, you can tell it was just an act. He likes to be silent and to be ignored or something. In this house that’s hard to do so he has really stealthy skills for no one to start talking to him. He has blond hair too, but his comes down to his neck or just below his ears. He likes leather jackets too. Makes his own sometimes.
    Jen’s next at twenty. Jen’s…well, to put it plainly, hot. She’s blond, heavenly hazel green eyes to match with it too. She was a tall 6’ 1” and super model skinny. She has hips to spare for her, the next girl and the girl after. A perfectly toned butt, but she does like a billion of squats a day for that. It’s quiet funny really. It blows like at least two hours of her day those damn squats. Anyway, she’s always wearing pounds and pounds of make-up. She has legs up to her neck too. She’s Drake’s girlfriend. They tend to…not get along really now and days. I would be next in age, at eighteen (almost nineteen), but then it’s Nick.
    Nick is fourteen. But he’s…not, normal really. Even by our standers. We love him though, don’t get me wrong. He’s just…quiet. His feather brown hair just sits on top of his lonely head. His eyes are a cold and heartless stone green. Are kids his age allowed to be cold and heartless? I don’t know…he’s tallish for his age. Around six feet give an inch or so.
    Lastly, there’s J-J. J-J is the youngest of the gang here. Gracie is younger though. He’s nine and has the funniest, wittiest, kick-butt attitude of a nine year old I have ever seen. He has little kid excitement green eyes and blond hair on his mop top head. He loved wrestling and Fly Away game we do.
    Fly Away is well…until his first Warp, he had a lot of adrenaline to burn off, and at that stage it would take a thousand bullets to kill him. So…I would pick him up and throw him up the stairs and he would land softly at the top stairs. Yeah, yeah I know, bad parenting, but after Luke said don’t do that, I stopped. We didn’t want to hurt the walls.
    “Lexi! Lexi! Guess what! Guess what!” J-J said running to Lexi’s legs.
    She bent down with a smile. “What J-J?”
    We all were a little twitchy. I mean, I was, but I’m sure they told him not to tell anyone about this. But J-J tends not to listen…ever. Like, one time we told him that birds where suppose to stay outside, next thing we knew he was hiding a hawk in his room.
    He opened his mouth like it was on a hinge and what seamed like slow motion said, “I killed an animal today!”
    We all froze. J-J is a little bit of a…you know, rebel. Likes to screw with us all. Regally. Purposely too.
    “What? J-J that’s terrible!” Lexi said in a semi-horrific face.
    “Jeez…they’re just ant.” He said at last, a little hurt at the notion of actually hurting an animal. Even though you didn’t see it, we all breathed a little easier. I swear, that kid is just…a trouble maker. He’s cute though. Bad combination.
    Lexi huffed happily and rubbed his head. “Oh, ok, you had me going there. I thought you really killed an animal. You know it’s not good to kill.” She wagged a finger at him.
    J-J frowned, looking up at Luke. I knew why. Luke said something to him and waved him away to go to bed. He did, I said good bye to Lexi, Jen said something to Lexi about hitting the mall tomorrow, and she stepped out. She knew I didn’t like a good bye kiss if my family’s around. Other wise I would have planted one right on her.
    “Tom?” I asked. He nodded. I wanted him to fallow her home, make sure she’s safe. He went to the kitchen and out the back door. I felt better already. He’s a good guy.
    “So, everything went well?” Luke asked me, taking a look around and stretching out his back. Everyone else went up stairs, anxious for sleep and tomorrow. Tomorrow’s my Warp day. I haven’t Warp for a while, so a lot of rage and monstrous rage is bottled up inside of me. I was about to take it out on Lexi to tell the truth…work out all the rage through some fooling around
    I nodded to Luke. “Yeah. You?” I asked.
    He shrugged. “Good. He killed a Bambi and felt bad afterwards, but I told its ok for us to kill; we need it to survive. He almost tore off Jen’s leg though. She smacked him so hard he made an imprint on a tree.” He said with a slight chuckle.
    I shrugged. That is true. It’s either animals or humans, and animals it’s legal and not suspensions at all. Working at the slaughter house doesn’t rise a bit of concern either, but yet we still get the blood we need when we’re ‘thirsty’. We’re like dieters to the extreme. We eat human food for taste and stuff, but that’s it. Blood is what we live on. Meat too, but that’s for the pure chewing aspect. We can live on blood, and it’s just easier and faster to drink a bottle of blood instead of a stake, but man…you can’t beat a good bloody stake. Blood and meat our whole lives. No vegetarians in the family as you might suspect.
    Speaking of which…“Hey, you get any more juice today?” I asked him.
    That’s what we call it, juice, just to be sly like that and we can say that in public too, so it’s kinda of an inside joke. It’s funny for us…it’s really, actually lame, yes, I know.
    Luke face lit up. He ran over to the bag on the table in the living room to the left. The living room was just...plain really. A white cream couch with the same color carpet, a chair and an arm chair and recliner. That was basically it. That and the fire place imbedded in the west wall.
    He opened the bag and threw me a water bottle. Jugging by the brick red fluid in it, it wasn’t spring water. I smiled as I unscrewed the cap. “What is this? Cow, pig?” I asked as I about to chug it down.
    He nodded. “Cow, but this cow died from a heart attack. Blood was fresh till we chopped it up. You taste it? You can’t get any fresher unless you slain the cow itself” he promptly said. I nodded as I chugged the blood. It was delicious. It was what I needed exactly. Just the smoothness in it, a little tad of saltiness…just what the doctor ordered.
    “So…” I asked as I walked over to the couch. Luke’s the leader of our pack, the Alpha male. Megan’s the Alpha female, just incase you didn’t know how it works “Any news about our visitor that was snooping around our territory?” I asked.
    He shrugged. “Eh, not really. Me and Drake went looking for him but couldn’t pick up a single scent or print. We think he ran, but he could be living in a van, you know; staying down wind?” he threw out. I shrugged. “Yeah. I’ll double time the watch on Lindsey…anything else?”
    See, when a werewolf is pregnant, she’s open game somewhat. Well, ok, get ready for a sex talk, werewolf style. Well, a female werewolf can only get pregnant it’s a day before her third Warp of the year and it’s a full moon. So it’s like, babies among werewolves are more planned than humans.
    Then traditions start to get in. If the father doesn’t want to take care of the child and for some weird, awkward reason the female got pregnant by accident, he has two choices; one, run away from the pack (if they’re in one) and not touch the female or child ever unless they’re the leader of a pack or he’s challenging for the leadership of the pack. And two, the father can kill the child when it’s born. Heartless I know, but that almost never happens. Right now, Lindsey is really weak, like all werewolf mothers are. So, we’re keeping an eye open for her ex, incase he wants to come back for Lindsey and not the baby, if you know what I mean.
    His eyes lit up. “Oh yeah! I forgot to tell anyone about this! You know that pack that was mile or two away from our boarders? Well, they sent me a message saying that four other werewolves are after them and they need to bunker down with another pack. I told them that our number one werewolf, AKA you, was Warping tomorrow.
    “So, not only are some ‘relatives’ visiting tomorrow, but they challenged the werewolves at a fight near field Jace. I personally think that our little visitor was a scout for those guys. So, they’ll be coming in.” he said.
    I nodded approvingly. “You tell them we have no room almost?”
    He nodded.
    “And the fact that blood is scarce as it is?” I asked again.
    He nodded again.
    “Alright…what’s the male and female count?” I asked.
    Luke smiled a wide smiling, almost laughing. “Jack my little hound dog!” He wrapped his arm around me and gave me a noogie. It hurt, but it was a sigh of affection. That and wrestling. I laughed. I still acted like I wasn’t seeing anyone, for Luke. That wasn’t acting though. Even though I just started dating Lexi, who’s been my best friend for a year, I’m allowed to know if other girls are coming…and if they’re hot or not. I’m not going to do anything about it! I just…it’s the guy in me. “Yeah, yeah, what’s the number already?” I asked.
    “It’s a pack of four, three girls, one guy.” He snickered. Lucky dog…how’d that guy get three females in his pack? I shook it off. “And their ‘numbers’.” I said, stretching out ‘numbers’.
    Werewolves judge each other based on numbers. A one through five. One’s the worst, two’s ok, three’s average, fours great and five is awesomely awesome. We bass that on strength, speed, agility and how hard you can take a punch.
    It usually goes in that order.
    “Nothing special really. Mostly threes and a couple twos. I think like the best they have is…a 3343. So they need a strong pack to roam with for a bit. Also, just so you know, during your Warp tomorrow, I’m going to go sick you on the other werewolves.” He told/ commanded me.
    I smiled. When a werewolf Warps, they because twice as strong and fast and everything. Plus, we’re thirst for a fight. We’re like a pissed off elephant. “It’ll be my pleasure.” I smirked.
    We talked for a bit afterwards after all that, but he ended up going to bed too. I waited a bit, sitting there and thinking. I was thinking about going to go drink a bottle of scotch. It won’t do anything but upset my stomach really, but that seams what lonely, depressed people do. I don’t want to say or admit it…but I’m depressed.
    I don’t know why…I mean, I have a great life. A lot of friends, a super model girl, an awesome life…so why do I feel this way? I just hope it’ll turn around soon.