It's warm.

I don't know where I am, nor do I care. All I know is that I've never been more comfortable than I am right now. So, whatever the source of the warmth is coming from, I don't care.

I slowly nuzzle further into the warm, tingly sensation coursing through my upper body and completely melt into whatever it is, letting out a contented sigh at the feeling of utter relaxation.

Only when I hear the sound of a breathy chuckle do I actually begin to question my whereabouts.

I slowly peel an eye open, catching a glimpse of the most gorgeous boy sitting by my bedside in what looks to be... the nurse's office?

Hold on... there's a boy sitting at my bedside?

I flinch back when I realize the very beautiful breathy chuckle came from Trenton Wolfe causing me to almost fall off the bed. Trenton tightens his grip on my hand, catching me before I fall to the ground.

Oh my gosh, was I snuggling his arm?! I frantically wonder to myself as I begin to panic.

"Woah woah, it's okay, Kai. How are you feeling?" Trenton asks me in that deep voice of his, concern evident in his features.

"Tr-Trenton? W-What happened?!" I ask him, clutching his arm tighter to me. I want to get as far away from him as possible, but I don't want to let him go at the same time. I can feel the beginning of a panic attack coming on and begin hyperventilating.

"It's okay. You were attacked by Jake and his friends. Just breathe, Kai. You're safe, I'm not going to hurt you. I'd never hurt you, Kai." He whispers softly, running his free hand gently through my messy red locks.

I involuntarily lean into his touch on my hair and take a deep breath. Damn, he's really good at calming me down.

"Jake?" I ask him, my voice barely above a whisper.

"Yes, him and his two idiot friends dragged you to the abandoned part of school and ganged up on you. Do you not remember?" He gently asks me, his left hand continuing to run through my hair while I hold onto his right arm for dear life. This is embarrassing.

My embarrassment only grows as the events of the day come back to me with a vengeance. Who knew I was such a cuddle bug in a delirious state of mind... I mentally groan to myself at my ridiculousness.

Judging by the smirk on Trenton's annoyingly handsome face, I'd say it's safe to assume whatever expression I am currently wearing tells him I remember everything.

"Heh, I'm guessing that tomato red face of yours is because you remember? Are you alright, Kai? Does anything hurt? Well, that's a stupid question, I'm sure everything hurts after what you've been through." He begins to nervously ramble on. That's cute, is this a habit of his? I can't help but silently coo at his worried habit.

Just as he asks me, all of the pain from the previous events comes crashing down on me, eliciting a groan of pain to escape my lips.

"Umm... yeah. I've been better." I say, sarcasm dripping from my voice.

"How did you... How did you manage to calm me down just now? I was beginning to have a panic attack, no one's been able to stop those except for my sister." I ask him tentatively, still apprehensive of his presence.

"It's the mate bond." He starts with a small smile full of love on his face, his left hand still massaging my scalp, "My presence automatically calms you down, and you me."

Something about the way he's looking at me, how gentle he is with just running his hand through my hair; it really makes me think, maybe he can be trusted. I want so desperately to give him a chance, but I need time to get to know him first. I can't just rush into any sort of magically appearing friendship or relationship of any sort. I'd become too overwhelmed. I need time. I have too much on my plate right now to also be dealing with a werewolf.

The way he's looking at me right now makes me think he can read my mind. It's like his beautiful ocean eyes see right through me and he's silently letting me know that it's okay. I don't have to rush with him. Maybe he doesn't want to rush this either, whatever this is. It's like we've had a whole conversation just by looking into each others' eyes. Is this also a part of the mate bond? I can't help but wonder to myself.

"Can you walk? Roni can give you a ride home, is that okay? Ms. Miller told me you walk home every day. I don't think you should be walking." He says, concern still etched into his handsome features.

"I'm fine." I tell him, attempting to stand up. His hand leaves my hair, but he refuses to release my hand from his other one.

I slowly sit up in the bed, wincing from the pain. Trenton sees my evident pain and quickly stands up, moving his chair back and coming over to where I'm sitting up on the bed, standing in front of me.

"Okay, I'm not letting you walk. Come here." He says, causing my expression to form into one of confusion. He sees this and decides to explain further.

"Roni's Jeep is just outside, I texted her. She's waiting for us just outside the door so it isn't far. Let me carry you." He tells me, the realization of his words causing my face to heat up.

"No no! It's okay, I can walk. Who's Roni?" I ask, curiosity in my voice.

"Roni is my cousin, she's also to be Beta when I take the title of Alpha once my father retires. Now come on, this isn't up for debate." He says, using an authoritative tone.

"ALPHA?! You're going to be Alpha?" I ask, trying to change the subject in hopes of him forgetting about it and letting me attempt to walk on my own.

"Kai. I know what you're doing. We can discuss this later but there is no way I'm letting you walk right now. I have some things I want to ask of you as well, but I don't think now is the time." He says, grabbing my shirt from the foot of the bed. Ooookay, didn't even realize I was missing that. I mentally scoff at my obliviousness. Throwing on my shirt, I closely watch Trenton as he comes closer to me, making space between my legs that are swung over the edge of the bed to stand.

Trenton leans down and swiftly, but gently, picks me up, eliciting a small yelp of surprise to escape my mouth and leading me to reflexively wrap my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you but I knew if I let you keep stalling, you would've found a way to avoid this. You're hurt, Kai. Let me take care of you." He softly whispers in my ear, sending shivers down my spine.

"Just go..." I mumble, voice muffled from my face being nuzzled into the crook of his neck, attempting to hide my blushing face from his view.

He lightly chuckles causing a vibration deep in his chest that I can feel prominently. My blush deepens as he supports me by hooking his arms under my bum.

I nuzzle my face further into his neck, not able to deny how much I love our close proximity. He takes us out the door of the nurse's office and then we're on our way to Roni's car.

~

"Oh, my goddess! What happened to Kai, Trenton? Is he okay?!" The very beautiful girl leaning against an equally as beautiful black Jeep asks Trenton just as we exit the school building. Oh my gosh I'm so jealous of that car. I can't help but think to myself.

"He's alright, Roni. I'll fill you in later. For now let's just get him home." Trenton tells her, that authoritative tone prominent in his voice once again making it clear not to argue. Home? Tsk... right. I can't stop myself from mentally scoffing at the idea of that house ever being considered my home.

Roni just nods her head and turns around to open the door to the backseat.

Trenton carefully places me in the backseat of Roni's Jeep, cautious not to touch any bruised part of me. Once I'm settled, he climbs in the backseat next to me, entangling our fingers once again. He puts his free arm over my shoulders, using his hand to guide my head to his chest, snuggling me close to him.

Once Roni gets into the driver's seat, she looks at us through the rear view mirror, a knowing smirk etched onto her lips. I just roll my eyes at her antics, eliciting a giggle to escape her soft lips. Something tells me her and I will get along just fine. I think to myself as she puts her Jeep into drive after I've given her my address.

"So... you both are werewolves?" I can't help but ask the question that's been bothering me since we left the nurse's office.

"...Yes." Roni answers me tentatively, as if I were made of glass and saying the wrong thing would shatter me.

I involuntarily tense up at the thought of being in a confined space with two werewolves. Trenton takes notice of this and starts rubbing my arm gently with the arm around my shoulders and rubbing his thumb soothingly over my knuckles with the other. Completely melting into his embrace, I can't help but marvel at the feeling of his chest rumbling when he speaks next.

"There's nothing to worry about Kai. If anything, you can feel safe with us. We will protect you with everything we have, I promise." Trenton tells me in a voice that sounds so sincere I can't not believe his every word.

"Okay." I start with a relieved sigh, "So, how many werewolves are there at Cherryw— Never mind, I don't want to know." I say, cutting myself off mid sentence and getting small laughs out of the both of them.

"Yeah, probably best for you to just get used to us first before we introduce you to other werewolves, yeah?" Roni suggests playfully, trying to lighten the mood.

I nuzzle my face into Trenton's chest, silently nodding my head against him to show I agree with Roni's suggestion. Two werewolves is about as much as I can handle right now, throwing any more into the mix would definitely send me overboard.

The drive to my house remains silent after that, a comfortable silence that eases any further anxiety remaining after the previous events. Trenton continues to soothe me while I rest against his chest, easing me into a state of complete relaxation.

Finally, after about 10 minutes of driving, Roni pulls up the driveway of my "home." Detangling myself from Trenton in hopes of him not noticing how I've tensed up once again, I open the back door and climb out. Biting my tongue to suppress the pain filled groan that wants to escape from standing, I turn myself around to face Trenton still seated in the car wearing an expression full of concern.

"Thank you so much for the ride, umm... bye." I say with a nervous wave, going to close the backseat door.

"Wait!" Trenton stops me before I can close the door completely.

"Yes?" I cautiously ask him.

"Could I get your cellphone number?" He asks me, completely shocking me. I wasn't expecting that.

"Umm... I don't have a cellphone, but there's a house phone I can snea— I mean, I can use sometimes. Do you want to give me your number? To ease your mind. I'll call you if I need you or something." I tell him with what I hope is a reassuring smile.

He looks at me with an unreadable expression on his face for a minute before getting out a piece of paper and a pen to write down his number. Once he has it written down, he hands it to me and I once again attempt to close the car door.

"Hold on Kai! One more thing." He stops me once again before I can close this damn car door. Uuuuugh...

"Yes, Trenton?" I ask, a hint of annoyance in my tone. I can't help it, okay? I have a ton of shit to do. Homework, avoiding Jessica, avoiding Rick, crying myself to sleep, all the works. Let me leave! I silently cry to myself.

"I... uh... I have your sketchbook. You left it in the library yesterday and I've been holding it since. I wanted to give you a little bit of a break today so as not to overwhelm you, but uh... here we are. I'm sorry I didn't get it to you soo—." Cutting off his nervous rambling, I jump back into the car and engulf Trenton in a big hug.

"Oh my gosh! You have no idea how much I was panicking without this sketchbook! Thank you so much Trenton!" I tell him, voice muffled from my face being buried in his chest. Trenton hesitantly wraps his arms around me, hugging me back and breathes a sigh of relief at my actions.

He releases a huffy chuckle, sending a vibration through his chest and allowing me to feel his chest rumble against my face with the beautiful sound. I love his laugh. I can't help but think to myself.

"Well, I'm glad you're so happy about it. I thought you'd be mad that I didn't give it to you sooner." He says, pulling back from the hug to hand me my beautiful sketchbook.

I bite my tongue to suppress the whimper that wants to escape my mouth at the loss of contact between us and take my sketchbook from his hands.

"I understand, I was just so worried I lost it! It's the last thing my sis— never mind. Just, thank you for this. You don't know how much this means to me." I fix myself before letting that information slip. I don't know why it's so easy to talk to him, but I'm not ready to talk about Kelly and Miles, Kelly's mate, just yet. I need more time.

Now that the situation has settled into my mind, I realize that Trenton had my sketchbook, the one filled with drawings of him in it. Oh boy...

"Umm..." I start, face a cherry shade of red, "Did you... you know... look in it?"

Once the realization of what I just asked him kicks in, he gives me a knowing smirk.

"Maybe." He tells me with a wink, causing my face to heat up even more. Raising my hands to my face, I press my palms to my cheeks as an attempt to cool my face down, looking everywhere but him.

"Oh... okay well IshouldprobablygoBYE!" I screech out, quickly scrambling out of the backseat and slamming the car door shut before he can stop me again. The last thing I hear before the door closes is Roni and Trenton both laughing their heads off at my reaction.

Walking toward my door I give a small wave over my shoulder without looking back to the two werewolves before entering my house. That was embarrassing. I can't help but think, releasing a breath I didn't know I was holding as I walk to my room.