"Why do I keep doing this to myself?" I sighed into his shirt.

"What?" Wolfie rubbed my back soothingly.

Oh, screw you and you're soothing touches.

"Falling back into your arms after telling myself I wouldn't. How can I not get something as simple as that right?"

He gave a sad chuckle. "Don't worry, the mate bond makes me do crazy things too. I don't wanna care about you so much," he hugged me tighter, "but I do."

"Oh wow, thanks so much for the honesty," I rolled my eyes.

He sighed. "Why do we always have to fight?"

"Ha! What a dumb question. I thought we covered this at the club?"

He shook his head. "Listen. I see you. As much as you think I don't, I do. I know what I'm missing out on. I know you deserve better than me." He inhaled a deep breath of my hair and took my face in his hands. "You don't deserve any of this, all the chaos that I brought into your life and even everything that was there before me. . . You don't deserve any of it. I'm so sorry."

I gave a humorless chuckle. "Don't deserve it but not worth the trouble to stop it? Yeah. I get that a lot."

Nothing.

He's speechless.

That's what I thought.

  I had to dig for the strength that a new day after a h3llish night gives me and pushed away from him to stand on my feet.

  "C'mon, we've got ground to cover," And I was off.

  Let's just hope I can keep my promise to myself to stay away from him this time.

  Ha, who am I kidding?

  At least my leg and arm are a little better.

•••Jason's POV•••

  'Grrrrr!'

  What are you growling about? I questioned Ki dejectedly.

  'Comfort mate!'

  I rolled my eyes. She doesn't want our comfort.

  'That never stopped us before!'

  I know, and it's not going to stop us later, but now she needs time.

  'Ugh! Time, time, time! That's all I hear about with her!'

  Calm down buddy.

  'No! She needs to —'

  "Did you hear that?" Her voice broke my train of thought.

  I shook my head to clear it, "Um, no, what?"

  I watched her look around attentively. Not stopping her stride forward but slowing down enough to analyze her surroundings very carefully. Skeptically.

  Goddess, she looks delicious in this light.

  Well, she looks devour-able in every light, but the rising sun sending golden rays on her pale skin is enough to make me melt.

  And how her curvy hips, even in basketball shorts, sway as she treads carefully.

  Jeez, I can't wait to grab onto those hips and —

  "There it is again," she jumped and swung her head toward another spot in the forest.

  I almost sighed out loud.

  Why you gotta ruin a good thought like that, Maria?

  "I don't hear anything," I shrugged, going back to sulking behind her.

  She gave one last skeptical glance around the forest and finally digressed. "Alright well, let's hurry up and get back to the group."

  "Right behind you."

  And I wouldn't trade the view for anything.

  "Stop staring at my @ss."

  "Stop being so gorgeous, then maybe I'll consider it."

  She didn't say anything, but something, maybe the mate bond, maybe intuition, told me she was blushing.

  I smirked.

  I just made a vampire blush.

  And it was the only one I'm really interested in seeing blush again.

We finally made it back to the group.

  The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful, other than Maria constantly looking over her shoulder.

  She keeps a relaxed exterior, but I can tell she's watching, waiting for something to happen.

  "Does anyone else feel like they're being watched?" She asked, still maintaining her cool.

Rose looked around, "Nope, why? Your spider senses tingling?"

"Yeah," Maria's nose scrunched up a bit in an adorable way, "but I don't smell anything out of the ordinary."

Zach took a whiff of the air. "I don't either. Must just be your imagination."

"Yeah. . . Must be," she mumbled.

But, I could tell throughout the rest of the way she had her guard up.

  A few hours later her mood changed completely.

  She rang her hands together and her eyes were darting every which way.

  "Did you hear that?" She asked the group again for the first time in hours, but her eyes were wide and she looked anxious. Scared.

  It's unsettling. I don't know why, but it is.

  Everyone looked around.

  "Nope," Cali responded.

  "You're just anxious, Maria," Brandon said softly. "It was probably just an animal."

  I stayed quiet.

  "No, it sounded like a person. A person running," she shook her head. She looked to me, her eyes almost doe like, "Didn't you hear it?"

  "Um, uh," I looked at her pleading eyes.

  My eyes shot to Zach to see if he smelled or heard anything. He shook his head.

  If none of our strong @ss senses can pick it up. . . Then it's probably not there.

  "Maybe you are just being paranoid," I tried to put it delicately because she looks like she's about to go over the edge with paranoia.

  'Poor mate.'

  "No! They're here! I know they're here! I can even smell them!"

  "Maria, that's probably just from the dagger we brought with us," Stephan shook his head.

  "No, no, no! I can feel them. That's my thing! You guys know that's my thing. I can smell them, I can hear them. They're so close. Watching us. Why can't anyone else sense them?!" She looked around frantically.

  She went over the edge.

  My heart hurt for her.

  "We have to run. We have to get away from them!"

  "Maria, we ran the first day straight, we —"

  "No! Listen to me! Why isn't anybody listening to me! Can we PLEASE just get away from here, away from them," her frantic gaze was back on me. "Please, please, we have to run," she grabbed onto me.

  "Run where?" I questioned.

  "ANYWHERE! Anywhere but here. Anywhere they're not."

  "Wait aren't we literally looking for them? You're going to have to deal with them considering that's who we're out here for," Cali pointed out.

  "We're looking for their base so we can regroup and plan a real attack. They're not supposed to find us and pick our little groups off one by one. If we're not careful, that's exactly what's going to happen!" Maria exclaimed.

  She looked back up at me. "Please, please, please! Help me convince them!"

  Oh s**t, the doe eyes are back.

  And they're filled with tears.

  'Why is our mate always so sad?'

  She's had a hard life Ki. . . And we don't make it any easier.

  Remorseful silence was all that came from him.

  "Guys let's just run a few dozen miles," I sighed. "Better safe than sorry," I shrugged.

  "Ugh! I don't wanna run for nothing!" Cali groaned. "She's just wigging out."

  "Hey," Rose narrowed her eyes at Cali, then continued, "Her talent might be giving her information about our surroundings that we don't have."

  Maria nodded hurriedly, "That's true. Thank you. Now can we please leave?"

  There was a chorus of groans but Maria took that as her cue to take off. We eventually followed.

  She finally stopped after hours of running.

  I don't know how she managed to do it with her leg.

  We tried to stop her mid way because she started going the wrong direction, away from where we're supposed to be going, but she wouldn't listen to anyone.

  "What the h3ll was that, Maria?!" Cali exclaimed, breathing heavily.

  Oh no.

  "You've got us going the wrong direction!" She continued.

  "No they —" Maria was cut off.

  "No! Stop it with your craziness! I'm done with it. I know they traumatized you or whatever, but if you thought it was going to get in the way you shouldn't have come!"

  "Hey!" Brandon jumped to defend her.

  Ki let out a small growl.

  Maria put up a hand to signal she didn't need help. "I know, I'm fine now. I know I was acting a little unreasonable before but —"

  Maria has clearly calmed down because now she's able to look Cali in the eye and keep a steady voice. Something I don't think she would have been capable of a few hours ago.

  'The mate bond feels less strained now.'

  I do feel a little lighter.

  . . . The weight on my shoulders has been her this whole time.

  I don't know why it didn't occur to me the churning in my stomach was way out of the ordinary. I just correlated it to the long and hard run.

  I can't imagine how she must have been feeling.

  "No buts! You're crazy!" She wouldn't let Maria finish.

  'She needs to stop screaming at our Maria. It's not that big of a deal.'

  Maria closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Listen, I know I lost my cool, I've kind of got a lot going on right now."

  'She means us.'

  I know Ki.

  "It won't happen again, I just got a little over excited. I'm good now."

  She took another breath, "Now, I know this may be a little much to ask after my freak out, but do you guys think you can take me seriously enough to hear me out?"

  Cali rolled her eyes.

  Stephan sighed, "What is it Maria?"

  "We didn't lose them. . ." Maria said hesitantly.

  Everyone groaned.

  This time, Zach spoke up, but gentler than Cali, "Maria, I don't think we have to worry —"

  Something happened.

  Everyone went silent.

  With the speed of light, Maria's hand had shot out.

  She caught the dagger that was headed straight for the side of my head.

  I blinked.

  How did neither of us hear the knife flying through the air, Ki?

  'More importantly, who threw the knife and why didn't we smell or hear them?'

Maria inspected the knife and twirled it in her hand.

"Told you so."

Then everything went to s**t.

~~~~~~~~
(A/N)

  Super late update:)

  As usual.

but hey my sixteenth birthday just passed!

Yay, aging.

Anyway, plz VOTE, COMMENT and SHARE if you want:)))))

Thanks sm for reading<3

~ The Awkward kid