"I don't like this," I repeated, curling my hands tighter around my scorching mug of hot chocolate.
"Relax baby." Zach's fingers separated my locks of hair in a soothing manner. His warm lips pressed against my cheek for a moment and in that second, I could breath easier.
"I don't like it at all. Something just doesn't feel right," I grumbled, downing the scolding liquid in my cup.
"What do you mean?" Liam asked from opposite me, watching me with one raised brow.
"I mean, they took me and you and the only thing we have in common is Zach," I replied, turning to Zach. "What if the purpose of taking us wasn't to put us in danger but to put you in danger?"
"But I wasn't attacked, nobody was spotted at the border and surely if I was the target, they would've just killed me when they knocked us all out," he rationalised and I took a steadier breath.
"Yeah, I guess." I sighed, leaning into him a little more. "I still think there is something going on," I told him.
"Me too." He nodded.
"Me too," Liam agreed, staring into the distance, deep in thought.
Not long after, the doorbell rang and Liam left to answer it while Zach peppered kisses over any skin that was available to him.
"Hey!" I heard Ryders voice shout from the hallway. "We are coming in so I hope you two are decent." He laughed.
"Shut up!" Jordan giggled.
"Ella!" Alexia sang, skipping into the kitchen with a grin plastered on her face.
"Hey." I waved, hopping off my seat to hug them all.
"Hey, are you ok? We wanted to give you time before we came to see you but we missed you," Jordan explained.
"I'm fine," I told her, throwing my arms around her.
"Are you ok, man?" Ryder turned to Liam who nodded in response before the two started a lengthy conversation.
"So, El. Are we ok to stay for a bit?" Caroline asked me.
I turned to Zach who nodded and to Liam who was still in deep conversation with Ryder and nodded. "Great, because we all brought our stuff to stay the night." Mason laughed before throwing himself onto the sofa.
We all joined him, cramping together on the sofas or sprawling on the floor, listening to Ryder explain a dream he had last night. Tears streamed down my face from laughing so hard and I realised in that moment that I truly loved my friends.
"And then, a gorilla appeared and started dancing with her instead." He laughed, making us all howl with laughter until we couldn't breath.
I watched as Lexi laughed from the other sofa with her wicked, devilish giggle that always made me crack up. However, the funniest part of the story was when Blake snorted from laughing and set us all off again.
"Lets play pictionary!" Caroline suggested, hopping to her feet after we had scoffed off our pizzas. She pinned a large sheet of paper to the living room wall and grabbed a pen from my office.
She started by drawing a long, thin oval shape in the middle of the page. "A penis!" Ryder guessed making us all laugh.
"A sausage?" Liam guessed before Caroline carried on. She then drew a large triangle over the long thin oval.
"Um..." I stared at it, laughing along with Jordan for a while.
"Come on guys." She sighed, drawing some squiggly lines either side of the penis shaped thing.
We all stared blankly, trying to hold in our laughs as she grumbled and continued. "Oh! I got it!" Ryder cheered and we all turned to him. "It's Masons dick." He smirked and we all laughed, rolling our eyes while Mason grunted a response to Ryder.
Caroline continued to draw something that looked like a head. "Dickhead!" I guessed but she shot me a glare while Zach chuckled along with me. She then drew the eyes and coloured one in.
"Cyclops?" Zach frowned.
"Black eye?" Mason asked.
"Black eyed penis!" Jordan shouted and we all looked to her for a moment before erupting into a series of laughter.
Once we all caught our breath we realised we still hadn't managed to guess it so looked back to the drawing. Caroline added a cross with a circle in the middle to the centre of the triangle and looked back at us expectantly.
"Um... so its not someone with a black eye...," Blake mumbled. I knew he would be the most angry if he didn't get it, Blake loved to be the best at everything and had always hated loosing. "A pirate?" He questioned and Carolines face lit up.
"Oh ok! Um... pirate...," we all shouted, excited to have a lead. "Oh! Its a pirate ship!" Mason yelled and Caroline screamed in relief while we all howled with laughter.
"How is that a ship Car?" I laughed.
"A penis!" She yelled at us. "Black eyes penis!" She shouted in utter disbelief while we all laughed.
"I love their music," Liam laughed and we all joined once again.
****
"Oh no." I hid my face in Zachs shirt, keeping one eye on the TV and clinging to the material tightly in my fist.
"Don't go in!" Ryder warned the character in the movie as the creepy background music floated through the room.
"Don't do it!" Mason shouted, holding Caroline in his arms and using her shoulder to hide his face.
"No... no don't." Jordan winced as the handle slowly turned.
"Well whatever happens, she deserves it now. We warned her," Caroline laughed and we all nodded in agreement.
"Stupid idiot should just go home to that gorgeous husband of hers," Lexi grumbled.
"He is gorgeous though isn't he," Jordan whispered as the character stepped into the room.
"I agree, he is seriously hot," I added, my voice muffled by Zach's shirt.
"I have never understood you girls and your obsession with Leonardo Decaprio." Blake furrowed his brows.
"I don't know what it is, he just has this... thing," Caroline explained.
"Thing?" Mason raised his eyebrows at us.
"Yeah, a thing," Lexi agreed.
"Guys don't have obsessions with girls like that." Ryder laughed.
"Kate Moss," Jordan said and they all stared at her.
"Yeah well... she is hot," Liam explained.
"What about her is hot?" I asked.
"She is just... I don't... she...," Blake drifted.
"Has a thing?" Lexi asked but before they could answer, a scream erupted from the TV, making us all jump and squeal from the fear. Eventually, our fear faded into laughter as we all recalled each others faces as the scene occurred and we ended up talking over the film for the rest of it.
"So you think something is going on?" Mason asked me later that night. I lay across the floor, slouching against the sofa, tangled in Zach's body and the sheets.
"Yeah there has to be." I shrugged. "I mean we were all there and they only took me and Liam," I replied, thinking over the events of that night. "You went to the doctor right?" I asked Mason and he nodded. Wolfsbane petals are poisonous to werewolves but it can also harm humans if they breath it in for a long enough time so Mason had to get checked out since it obviously affected him too.
"Well, other than the obvious," Jordan started, glancing from Zach back to me. "What else do the two of you have in common that could make you targets to someone?"
I glanced to Liam to see him looking right back at me, flitting his eyes from my face to Zach's and then back again. "I have no idea," I whispered in reply.