3 Chapter 2

"Carla?" My earpiece ringed through Carter's voice, "You okay? Your heartrate is levitated."

Our watches send status updates to homebase every five minutes with our heartrate and blood pressure. If things are elevated then it sends a notification to everyone's watches with coordinates. It was Hannah's idea so that if any of us are in trouble then everyone else immediately knows.

In a flash of lightning Carter appeared infront of me. He instantly ran his hand down my cheek and checked my neck and arms.

"What happened?"

"Some creepy guy," I sternly said. Carter continued to obsessively check for scrapes or cuts. I slammed my hands on my thighs so he'd stop checking to see if I was alright, "I'm fine Carter, you can stop."

He took a step back, "Sorry."

"Its fine," I laughed, "You don't need to worry about me Carter."

"I know, I was just worried," Carter admitted with a smile. I thought about how he cared and I started to feel my cheeks getting warmer.

"So this creepy guy?" Carter started, "What did he look like?"

"He was really skinny and pale. His eyes were sunken like he lived in a cave he whole life and he had light brown hair. He was super creepy, his smile was shaky like he was unstable," I throughly described, "He said he knew me but I've never seen him before."

"Have you seen him in a vision or a nightmare?" Carter asked concerningly. He knew I've been having nightmares every night since Valerie died.

I took a deep breath and nodded slowly.

"Okay," he replied with a slight smile, "I'll put his description on flyers and pass them around to see if anyone knows him. Maybe he worked with Valerie and wants payback."

"Carter..." I mumbled.

"Yeah?"

"He disappeared, like he used a power and disappeared," I added, "He's like us."

Carter nodded, "We'll be okay, we've dealt with people like us before."

I nodded. I knew we were strong so I wasn't worried. I was just trying to figure out how he knew me.

We started walking back to the cabin. Eclipse walked between Carter and I, we've been working with him but for some reason he doesn't like Carter being around me. Eclipse always has to be between us. I'm just glad that he's not growling at Carter anymore.

"Did you finish dinner?" I asked.

"Yeah, after you left everyone put their plates in the sink. Paige felt really bad for making you storm out," Carter explained.

"I need to talk to-"

Paige's voice was shaky and panicked. It blasted over my earpiece, "Carla, Carla, get here quick, please."

Carter looked at me, she had blasted it over everyone's radios on accident, Carter's face looked extremely concerned. I looked down at my watch to see the coordinates, she was in the northern forest, our hunting territory.

"Stay," I ordered Eclipse. His facial expression relaxed when the word came out of my mouth.

I shifted into my lioness and took off running. I sprinted out of the woods and through town. People cheered. Everyone knew about the wolf-lion showdown a few months ago and today was the first day in four months that I'd been in lion form. It was quicker to get places in this form.

My feet were flying beneath me as I ran, I was running faster than I was on the beach. I darted into the forest again and ran towards where Paige was. I leaped over falled trees and around shrubs.

She was standing in the middle of a hollow part of the forest, it didn't have very many bushes or trees. The guy was there, they were staring blankly at one another.

I hunkered down so they couldn't see me.

"I missed you," the guy squealed as he pretty much threw himself into Paige's arms. Paige was hesitant and took a few steps away from him.

"Who are you?" Paige asked, she was scared, her whole body language screamed it.

"You don't know me yet, I came back to see you guys," He smiled with that creepy smile. At least thirty seconds passed before he said anything else, "Come out Carla, stop hiding, I know you're there."

I stood and slowly walked over to the two of them. Paige immediately hid behind me.

I let out a low bellowing snarl, but he didn't flinch at all.

"You didn't tell me that you and mother fought on the island," He eerily added in a creepy dark voice while looking at me.

Mother?

I shifted down.

"You're trespassing, leave now. We will eliminate you on sight next time we see you within the territory lines," I declared in a stern, commanding voice.

"You sound just like your daughter," He snapped, "I never thought you'd be the one threatening to kill me."

I had officially become entirely and throughly confused. Why me? Who was this person and why was he surprised that I threatened to kill him?

He disappeared through another blue portal looking thing.

What.

The.

Heck.

Paige looked at me and I could tell she was just as confused as me.

"Daughter?" Paige asked in a super confused manner.

"I have no idea," I replied with a shrug, "We should probably get back."

"Yeah," Paige quietly responded.

We walked back in almost complete silence until we were almost to the treeline.

"Carla?" Paige asked.

"Yeah?" I responded with a light and joyful demeanor. Paige had seemed nervous and that was the only tone to come from my mouth.

"Your lione-"

"I was on a run with Eclipse, it's the only reason it was out," I lightly interrupted. I didnt really want to tell her I was deathly worried about her wellbeing.

"So you didn't bring her out because you thought we were in danger?" Paige asked. She looked over at me with a obvious fear. She was kinda bad at hiding her feelings, or maybe I was just good at picking up on them.

I shook my head, "I'm gonna be perfectly honest with you, I have no idea if he's dangerous. But I do know that he's like us, and if he's like us then-"

"All you have to do is touch him," Paige said with a smile. Her smile quickly faded and I could tell she was thinking, "He said he knew you. What if he knows you can do that?"

I put my hand on her shoulder to comfort her, "We'll come up with a game plan, don't worry."

"Just don't burn down a city this time," Liam laughed as he walked towards us. He was wearing a dark red polo shirt with blue jeans and black tennis shoes.

I shook my head, "No promises."