Leah's Death and The Bloodlust.

"Leah's dead?" Mel exclaimed.

The shout broke the heavy cloud that hung inside the hall after everyone heard the news.

Kristensen felt all the accusatory and suspicious glances on her - to make it worse, some pointed fingers at her. She felt wry amusement at what was happening, how they could accuse her of being capable of killing a capable beta, she wished she did have that kind of stres - Isaac wouldn't have made her bedridden if she had.

Mel and Trudy came running to her side as soon as they woke up from the shock. They pulled Kristensen outside the hall and looked at her questioningly.

"Is he really?" Trudy probed unsure.

"Yes, he is." Responded Kristensen, her voice still emotionless. "When Isaac intruded on my chamber and tried to kill me, he kept mumbling how he had to kill Leah."

"What?" Mel and Trudy asked at the same time, their eyes wider than the moon.

"Isaac did that to you? Is that why you didn't go back to our house when the full moon passed?" Asked Trudy.

It dawned on Kristensen then that Isaac's disappearance had still to be noticed by the recruits or explained to them. Right... they weren't people - it was only different this time because not many of them died.

What had transpired inside the hall about Leah put her mood down and thinking about it more didn't help, Kristensen felt too irritable as though she would snap at any given moment.

She hated it... she hated them... she hated...

Kristensen closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her emotions were getting the better of her right there - and the bloodlust - what else could it be?

Usually, after a person's first transformation, the alpha of their house would take them to the awakening room again to wash of the primal instincts that a wolf was born with.

Kill, hunt, and kill.

However, for those at the Camp, recruits were normally recruited before their transformation, so they had never had a problem with the bloodlust.

It would be only this time that they would have that problem - because of Isaac and Leah and the masked figure.

But Drew hadn't explained how to quench the bloodlust after all. It wasn't possible to kill for the sake of sanity... right?

"Kris!!!" A shout and a shake of her shoulders from Mel brought Kristensen out of her daze.

"Huh?" Answered Kristensen briskly as she looked at the faces in front of her.

It wasn't her day at all.

Kristensen face was covered in a thin layer of sweat, and her usual clear, calm eyes weren't as calm but tinted with a subtle shade of red - the color of blood.

"Are you okay?" Mel and Trudy asked.

She didn't know, and that alone alarmed her and scared her shitless. Kristensen wasn't one to blank out. She wasn't one to get angry at meaningless things.

What the hell? Bloodlust? Her, here and now?

Kristensen sighed. It seemed she was a trouble magnet no matter what she did. "Never mind that. Isaac and Leah are both from House of Caston Maddison. One is missing because of attacking me, and the other is dead because the one who attacked me killed him. Either way, do you think it had to do with what we saw in that building?"

Mel and Trudy looked at one another, then at Kristensen. They hadn't thought of what they saw back then because no follow-up came, so they thought they'd escaped, and it didn't matter.

"Could it?" Asked Mel skeptically. Isaac attacked Kristensen alone after all, so she doubted if it had to do with that.

Kristensen looked at them silently and didn't respond. It was good if it didn't, but if it did and they thought she wanted to throw trouble at them, she thought it was better if she kept her thoughts to herself.

There was also the alpha's symbol and Mara Ryson, and she couldn't tell them that she might be related to her.

Kristensen looked at the closed doors of the central hall and wondered if she wanted to go back in there or not, she didn't want to but Ocean was still in there and he'd told her to choose House of Caston Maddison. It didn't seem to be a viable choice now.

She sighed again as her eyes lingered on the closed doors.

As she was busy pondering, the closed doors opened, and Ocean stepped out.

Their eyes met.

Ocean let out a slight smile as he strode towards the trio. Mel and Trudy exclaimed appreciatingly. They'd seen their fair share of good-looking men, but this one - they sighed.

"Let's go meet that Casey person." Said Ocean as he stopped in front of Kristensen. "He's giving us a free pass to House of Caston. Wouldn't we be disappointing him if we didn't take him up on the offer?"

He said it so naturally, Kristensen thought the two of them weren't that close - right?

"Us?" begrudged Kristensen. Since when were they an us or we?

"What? I'm offering to share your burdens with you, and you're declining my kind offer?" Ocean replied in a light tone. His eyes twinkling with mirth.

Mel and Trudy exchanged gossipy gazes, withdrawing from the two ever so slightly till they were a couple of steps away from them.

"Go, go, go. I still have to choose an alpha house." Mel remarked, and Trudy nodded.

Kristensen threw them condemning gaze. What friends they were. They didn't know who and what he was, yet they sold her out that easily.

Ocean chuckled at the look on her face and leaned close to her. "I don't bite. Well... I won't bite unless you ask me to?"

She stepped back as she threw an irritated glare at him. Who knew what he did...

It made Ocean laugh.

Kristensen glared at him, and he raised his hands up in defeat. "Okay, fine. I won't tease you anymore. Let's go."

Ocean led Kristensen through the labyrinthine corridors of the campgrounds. His pace so relaxed that she kept stealing glances at him and hurriedly looking at buildings they passed when he caught her.

It still marveled her how big the place was. Where were the people originally in charge of the camp? Kristensen refused to believe Tate, Leah, Isaac, and Leah were the masters of that place.

Not only were they irresponsible, but they were too cautious when dealing with Drew and Ocean.

As they walked, Kristensen asked the question that plagued her the most. "Where's Isaac really?"

"Do you care about his fate that much?" Ocean replied lightly.

His tone was light, but Kristensen felt there was more to it than that, yet she couldn't catch what it was...

"Shouldn't I? What if Casey accuses me of killing him, too?" She responded.

"He won't. Don't ask me about him again." Said Ocean, still in the same tone.

"Why not? I'd like to know if someone who tried to kill me is still out there or not. Is that too much?" Prompted Kristensen.

Ocean stopped abruptly and watched his pub from behind. When Kristensen realized he wasn't walking beside her anymore, she turned back and looked at him questioningly.

"Have you felt anything out of the ordinary today?" Asked Ocean as he caught up to her.

Kristensen raises her eyebrows astonished. How did the conversation change to her well-being? Well...

"Huh?"

"The bloodlust Kristensen. Have you felt it or not?"

"How did you..."

"Then don't worry about Isaac. You should worry about keeping yourself from turning into a mindless animal instead." Said Ocean faintly.

The bloodlust wasn't something all wolves suffered from, apparently. Only a selective few did after their first transformation if they didn't fully incorporate with their wolf form.

They would lose themselves and turn into their basic instincts without having any rationality.

Belonging to an alpha house helped because the alpha could subdue them until the phase passed, that and the awakening pool.

Kristensen hadn't pledged to any house, and she didn't know an alpha that would willingly and without any other intentions help her pass that phase. Her gaze on Ocean became hot...

Wasn't he an alpha?

"No, no, no, and no. Can't help you. I'm not mated yet. What if I accidentally form a bond with you?" Said Ocean in a suspiciously serious tone.

He resumed walking, and Kristensen chased after him. The more she thought about it, the more she thought it was plausible. How could he form a bond with her like that?

They weren't matched at all.

"Didn't you say when we first met that bonding wouldn't happen that easily for alphas?" She said as she caught up with him, her gaze on him unwavering. "You wouldn't watch me become a mindless animal, would you? Please?"

His golden eyes brightened as he looked at Kristensen, and she didn't see the glint as she was busy recounting how miserable she would be if she fell to the bloodlust.

Ocean sighed and reluctantly said, "I'll help. I'll help you but you have to agree to go to House of Caston Maddison."

"Fine. I have to go there anyway."

The smile in his eyes deepened. It seemed he was going to catch his pub soon...

They arrived at the building that Casey stayed in - the party of House of Caston Maddison stayed in - Ocean went in without announcing himself or knocking.

The building was similar to an inn, only it was a collection of small cottages in one building but separated. House of Caston Maddison - of course - received the bigger and more independent cottage.

The scene they walked in on was Tate and Winnie facing Casey with their heads bowed. Seemingly, they were being reprimanded.

"Bad time?" Asked Ocean when Casey threw then a stern gaze.

Casey, visibly annoyed by Ocean's nonchalant approach, asked with a forced smile. "What can I do for you?"

Ocean acted as though he didn't see Casey's struggle and took his time sitting down, pouring himself the wine on the table, and gestured for Kristensen to join him.

Through all that, he didn't throw the other three people in the room a glance.

"You left the hall so abruptly, we never reached a conclusion on which house Kris is going to join." Ocean said leisurely, only after Kristensen had taken her seat and poured herself wine at his bequest.

Casey's eyes flickered between them and struggled to maintain the welcoming smile on his face.

"What? You didn't think I was joking when I said I'm going to pay your alpha a visit, did you?" Continued Ocean with the same leisurely tone.

He looked at Casey over the rim of his wine glass, his gaze tinted with authority.

Casey felt a heavy pressure as though a mountain sat on his shoulders crush onto him, and before he fell down, Ocean turned his gaze towards Kristensen. "Well?"

"We... we have to settle the matter of Leah's death anyway. Miss, you can follow us then." Casey proclaimed.

Kristensen didn't have much of a response towards the man, given how he'd treated her in the hall.

She wasn't watching him, but Tate and Winnie, thus she missed the way he reacted strongly to Ocean - the fear.

"Did you know?" Kristensen asked abruptly as she watched Tate and Winnie.

They looked at Kristensen, bewildered, and turned to Casey, who nodded his head and then turned to her again. "What?"

"That Isaac and Leah were the ones abducting the missing recruits?" She said nonchalantly as though she was reporting the weather.

Tate and Winnie shook visibly, extremely flustered and afraid.

"What?" The prompted, they shock evident in their voices.

"They're your colleagues after all. How can you not know they were planting and harvesting people here?" Kristensen said lazily, yet her tone didn't match the look in her eyes.