Chapter 3:

"Where the fuck did you run off to last night, Liv?!" August nearly screams as I push my way into the kitchen.

I woke up this morning feeling sore in my muscles, especially the one between my legs. Kind of like I got aggressively fucked last night, and the sweet scent of honey is stuck to my skin.

Well, that could be a probability because all I remember from last night was that my friends and I decided to give into a dare to stay out in the woods till after midnight.

Not just any part of the woods, but the part that was marked out as forbidden from trespassing.

There's an abandoned cabin out there that was burned down some twenty years ago, and it's believed that it's occupants died in the flames.

A few weeks after that incident, a hunter who happened to be stuck in a storm out in that area took shelter in its ruined remains.

He claimed that he was attacked by the ghosts of the cabins' occupants. A man with hair so long and skin so smooth, you won't tell it's a man until he spoke to you, and a woman with obsidian endless pools for eyes.

Many that went to that part of the woods that period reported the same sightings and three people went mysteriously missing.

Our town mayor forbade people from venturing that far into the woods after that, but trust teenagers and college students like us.

Young blood, all for the thrill.

The cabin has become an attractive sight for Halloween pranks and everyone wants to prove their fearlessness by staying in, until after midnight.

Just like my friends and I.

Wait, I was against the idea and I only followed them just in case something went wrong, because they're both idiots.

I also remember that August got so scared, she began eating her moral support brownies. By moral support, I mean brownies baked with...you know what.

Ethan and I had to snag some from her before she over dosed herself and well, my memory is hazy after that.

"Ethan and I were so fucking worried when we noticed you weren't with us anymore."

"Which was when exactly? When your emotional support wore off?" I snap, feeling irritable already.

"No, we weren't too far gone like you," she throws back with an eye roll.

"Oh, I'm sorry for eating your brownies just so I could prevent you from an over dose."

I hustle out a bowl and begin shuffling through the shelves to find the cereal box.

August and I have been roommates since our first year in college. And even before then, we've been friends since our childhood.

Ethan is a little older than us and we only got to be close to him when my brother died when they were in sophomore year and August and I were in our last year of junior high.

Even though I was adopted, my brother Luke, and I were pretty close and he was overprotective of me so much that the only friend of his I could speak to was Ethan, his best friend.

Which is why Ethan took me as his minion when Luke died, and I guess August was part of the package for him.

"You didn't have to eat that much," she mutters as she opens a shelf and grabs the cereal she knows I'm looking for, then hands it over to me.

"You're welcome," I grin sarcastically.

"Olivia!" She groans. "We were scared okay? After what we heard out there and we were high as shit, we run back to town and we don't find you with us...I admit, I was too scared to go back in to look for you, but Ethan went back and he didn't find you."

I pause pouring milk into my bowl and look up at her. "What we heard? What did we hear?"

She looks at me like I've grown two heads, then amusement clouds her features and she bursts into an amused laughing fit.

"Oh...my...gosh. Just how high were you?"

"High enough to make it back in one piece I guess," I shrug as I continue with my milk.

An image flashes through my head, but it's gone before I can even identify what it is. A familiar feeling begins to rouse in my body, like the feeling of hands touching me delicately.

It's nice, but it leaves me with a confusing sense of longing. And I don't know what I'm longing for, or who. Just that I'm slowly becoming aroused and there's this warmth inside of me.

"Livy, God, you sure were baked," August, who is still laughing, says. "Well we heard a wolf, remember? We were in the cabin and we heard a wolf howl? Ethan said they usually move around in packs and we had to leave before they closed in on us. That was scary, honestly. I'm never going into the woods again."

At the mention of a wolf, something tickles my inner senses and blurry images begin to pass in my memory.

Kind of like a dream I can't quite remember.

"So when we didn't see you last night, we feared the worst and would have gone to the sheriff to file a missing person report today. I already called Ethan when I found you asleep in your room this morning."

"So let me get this straight. I was so high, I can't remember hearing the wolf out last night and I someway somehow, made my way through the woods and back here at some point in the night?"

"Yeah."

"As high as I was?"

"There's no other explanation, Liv," she shrugs. "Unless..." Her eyes trail over my body and rests on my neck, then she frowns. "Olivia, what the fuck is that??"

The alarm in her voice sends a mild wave of panic through me and I bring my hand up to my neck. I feel around it until I come across a bumpy area that is so sensitive.

The moment I touch it, something stirs in me, and the feeling of satisfaction creeps through me.

"Why are you smiling? Who bit you?"

August is on me in a second and she's examining my neck.

"Do you remember running into someone last night?"

"Uh...no? I was baked, remember? Even if I did, I don't remember."

She looks panicked as she runs her eyes over me again. "What...what are you...?"

She picks the hem of the oversized hoodie I'm wearing and her panic grows. "This isn't yours."

I look down at the outfit, noticing for the first time that it actually isn't mine, and it doesn't belong to anyone I know well enough to wear their shit.

I want to panic and take it off, but is smells so comforting and addicting, that I know I would feel lost if I take it off.

But I'm a logical person, and so I'm wondering, how the fuck did I get this on? What happened to my clothes? Why am I naked underneath?

August is already on the phone with Ethan, beckoning him to come over as something seriously terrible must have happened to me out in the woods.

Even with all the panic in the air, there's this feeling that whatever happened to me out there was completely what I wanted to happen.

August turns to me again, this time there's tears in her eyes. "Take it off," she commands.

"Huh?"

"Take that fucking thing off, Olivia. I want to see your body."

Weird, but okay.

I zip the hoodie down and I pull it off my body, though not completely. I'm not about to part with the scent of it.

She scans my body and she gasps. "Oh...my..."

I look down at myself and even I am surprised at what I see. Scratch marks that look to be healing decorate my body. They're pink, but they look like they might have been red and swollen at some point.

"Someone had you last night, do you remember who it was?"

The image of a man floats into my head, but it's out before I can even grasp his features. At the memory of him though, my stomach does a flip, and there's this burning sensation on my neck.

It's a good way.

Suddenly, the scent of the hoodie means so much more than the sweet and comforting honey. I just know that it has something to do with the man that I just can't seem to pinpoint.

And I know that whatever happened between us last night was purely consensual. But what happened?

I mean, we had sex. That's pretty much obvious as it makes sense that I woke up feeling sore, and I am in fact still sore.

The marks on my body... including the bite mark on my neck, is also related to him.

Huh. Didn't pin myself for the rough sex type, but oh well, I was high and things happen when you're high.

What I can't wrap my head around, however, is the fact that I might have just had sex with a total and complete stranger, and I don't feel irked about it.

Just what happened?

Was it the influence of the brownies or did something more than that happen? Why don't I remember anything?

The only thing I am certain about is that whatever happened between me and the mystery guy was definitely what I wanted, and I wasn't taken advantage of in anyway.

But August doesn't know that and any minute now, Ethan would be in our dorm, freaking out as much as August is.

Urghhhhh!

I hate when my business has to be out in the open like this. Especially one as embarrassing as the one I'm in now.

Olivia the logical pessimist, just had a one night stand with a random stranger in the woods? Hell nah.

"Mate."

A strong voice in my head suddenly barks out. It's loud, convincing and very possessive. It's almost like I imagined it, especially as my head goes silent after that.

I brush it aside and pull the hoodie back on my body.

"Look, there's no reason to panic okay?" I tell August as she tries to pry the hoodie off me once again and I resist.

"What do you–"

"Yes, I was with someone last night and he brought me back here."

She frowns, then her brows quirk up in that way that I know she doesn't buy what I'm saying for a bit.

Of course she wouldn't. I have never made mention of a guy since after my last break up in our second year. What guy do I mean now?

"Who?"

"Zeke," the voice in my head speaks again, and I say it out without even thinking.

"Zeke? As in the freshman from the biochemistry department?"

There is a Zeke in the biochemistry department??

"No...no, God no. He's not from around here," I clarify, and somehow, it doesn't feel like a lie. There's a satisfied grunt in my head, and I take it that me and my mind are agreeing with that.

"Oh...so he's from...?"

"Out of town, I think. He's a–"

"Mate," my mind interrupts.

"Mate," I repeat out loud, only then realizing how stupid that sounds.

"Mate? He's an Aussie?"

"No," the voice in my head growls. "He's mate."

I believe I'm still a little too high, so I ignore it and agree with August.

"Something like that," I shrug, facing my bowl of now soggy cereals.

I stuff my face with it anyway, turning away from the scrutiny of her gaze.

"And when exactly were you going to tell me about this...Zeke?"

I make a sound and pair it up with a shrug, shoving another spoon of soggy cereals down my throat.

"You know I can tell you're lying, right?"

"I'm not, really."

Another image flashes through my head, and this time it stays.

It's the memory of a man with a lopsided grin. He's staring at me from behind a cage and his beautiful red hair frames his face.

His captivating green eyes are playful and I can tell he's very naked. He's tattooed on his arm and all the way to his neck.

Is that the man I was with last night?

Zeke?

"Ezekiel. Alpha Ezekiel," my mind tells me. "Mate."

The bite mark on my neck flares up again and I suddenly feel sick.

"Uh, are you okay? You're pale all of a sudden," August comments when I turn back to meet her gaze.

"I'm good, Gus. I just need to take a nap."

"Yeah, I can only imagine after you had a really wild night with a Zeke that's from out of town." Her voice is mocking, but there's a curiosity behind it.

"And possibly Aussie" I add.

"Uh huh."

I dump my now empty cereal bowl into the sink and begin heading back to my room. Just as I grab my door handle, the front door to our dorm opens and I hear August talking to someone.

"Livy?" It's Ethan's voice.

I can hear August whispering to him about how I was baked more than they thought last night, and very clearly, might I add. It's almost like I'm in their presence.

I resist the urge to ignore his call, because knowing him, he'd come after me anyway.

Dang it.

"I'm alive, Ethan. Don't sweat it," I say as I turn away from my room door and head out to the little living room.

He has this smile on his face like he's less concerned about how I made it back to town and wants to know something else.

"Zeke, huh?" He teases and I groan, turning full three sixty and heading back to my room.

I hear him bark out a laugh behind me, with August trying to chide him and telling him it's not something to joke about, and that I might have been potentially assaulted.

Oh, God.

How am I even supposed to talk to them about someone I don't even fully remember?