Dedicatedto:  Angelini & jindonteatbunbacon for kindly upvoting~

And, as always, to my readers. I seriously appreciate every single one of you guys, no matter if you just skim through my book or dedicate yourselves to waiting for updates. Love you guys to the moon and back~

T H I R T E E N

 C O N F E S S I O N: to acknowledge a crime, misdeed or weakness by way of declaration (see: Aaemi's father)

I checked his face before continuing.

“My father...” I trailed off, looking for a word to describe him, “Well, his name was Matthew and when my mother, his mate, died ten years ago he went crazy.”

My wolf snarled. Just crazy? She asked, her voice strung with disgust.

“Like super bat- crazy,” I added. I pushed the hair out of my face, taking care to neatly tuck it behind my ears, needing time to think about what exactly I wanted to tell him and what I wanted to keep to myself. “He was still Alpha of our pack back then, but when my mother died, it was like something-” I halted, thinking, “-broke inside him. He couldn't-” Another pause, “Think for himself.”

The warm hum that came from kissing Jungkook, the feeling of safety, was beginning to ebb away at this point and the usual red warning alarms that sounded, when I talked about my father, were threatening to start wailing.

“You don't have to tell me anything,” Jungkook said, probably noticing the tension in how my hands clutched the parka, “It's okay, I understand.”

I bit my lip, considering taking his offer of a subject change. But there was something tugging at the back of my head. I could sense that Jungkook placed a lot of trust in me, as reluctant as I was to admit it, and I wanted to trust him too.

“I want to,” I said, feeling his surprise as the atmosphere around him suddenly changed. “My father went out the night of my mother's burial ritual, almost hitched another woman and then accepted her as his second mate the next day.”

Monitoring my voice so that I didn't come out sounding like a whiny girl with 'daddy issues' I locked my eyes onto the steering wheel, noticing how Jungkook's hands were slowly beginning to tighten around it.

“My step-mother's name was Kali. She was like, queen of es.” Jungkook coughed out an involuntary snort, “I don't really know for sure, but she was rejected by her true mate before she met my father. Kali was-” I inhaled and tried to put my absolute hatred of her into words, “-manipulative. Unloving. Ungrateful. She wanted something from my father, and Matthew mistook her greed to be alpha female for love.” My throat began to ache.

“She had this- hit list, of people who had hurt her in the past. And my father was desperate for someone to fill the space my mother had left, there was nothing Kali asked for that my father wouldn't give her. Kali asked for people killed, tortured, humiliated and he went to the extremes to get it done for her.” I swallowed, “The alpha of the Four pack, he was the one that rejected Kali. They were true mates, but he already had someone he didn't want to leave. She wanted my father to kill their newborn son as some sort of sick revenge.”

I turned to look at Jungkook again. He kept his eyes on the road as his jaw worked.

It was becoming difficult to breathe, “So when the Four's alpha traced the murder his only son back to my father they took over our territory and kept Matthew's pack, my pack, under pack law as 'spoils of war'. I was still young, and I'd just taken over as alpha. There wasn't much I could do. We were prisoners for almost five years.”

“You can't be serious,” Jungkook's voice was low, colored with disbelief.

“It was extremely efficient and very legal.” This time, I couldn't keep the acid out of my voice, “Do you understand now? I broke pack law to get my pack away from the Four. I can't allow Four scouts to get near us, not even in a bordering state. If they find us, they can legally declare war. And they will win.” My pack was rather sizable, but the Four pack has been around for decades. They outranked us in experience and overwhelmed us in numbers.

“What are you going to do?” Jungkook asked finally, I couldn't tell from his voice how he was taking the sudden gush of information. Just saying half of that out loud made me feel cold. “If you find fighters or scouts in California?”

I sighed, pulling my legs up in the seat and crossing them underneath me, “I don't know. But I cannot allow them to find my pack.”

Jungkook was quiet for a few moments but when he spoke, his voice had changed slightly as he let out a soft, long breath, “Okay.”

He was speechless. He had to be. The knot in my throat, increasing steadily in size, stung as I wrapped my arms tightly around stomach. I felt like I needed to brace myself for a storm like I needed to protect myself. I felt strangely vulnerable and self-conscious.

Great. My wolf snarled. He knows. Now, what?

I had no idea.

But for some reason, now that I'd started talking, I didn't want to stop.

“What are you thinking about?” I asked, my voice barely over a whisper.

“How good your legs would look in skinny jeans,”

I almost choked on my saliva, a strangled laugh erupted from my stomach. Turning to him with a reflexive smack onto his shoulder, I wrinkled my nose at him as I spotted the smirk on his lips, “Seriously?” I coughed, moistening my dry lips. “That's seriously what you're thinking about?”

“I am,” He smiled at me demurely, lowering his eyelashes to look at me through them. Probably because he knew how good it made him look. I narrowed my eyes at him. “Don't worry, love. I'll keep your secret.”

"I just unloaded my crappy- sob story to a boy I met two Monday's ago. I'd never told anyone outside my pack. This was more than just keeping my secret. This- I-” I was stumbling over my words, struggling. I had no idea what I was trying to say. Questions began forming in my head. Was this more than just a secret? What did I want to hear from him?

“Aaemi,” Jungkook's voice was low and unusually serious, “Do you want to hear my crappy- sob story?"

I had no idea what to say so I just nodded.

“I'm kind of an illegitimate son,” he said casually.

Whoa. I was so not expecting that. I whipped around to stare at him, wide-eyed. Jungkook chuckled, noticing the look on my face. He leaned back in his seat a little, resting one arm on the open window, “After my father and his mate Jennifer had Nathaniel , there was a short period of time where they agreed they wanted to see different people. Or at least, that's what my father said.”

My mouth fell open, “Their wolves let them?” I was still new to this whole 'mate' thing, but just imagining Jungkook with someone else didn't feel right. Jungkook shook his head.

“My father and Jennifer weren't true mates, they married to unite their packs,” He explained, “They really had no problem at the time with seeing other people after they had successfully produced an heir.”

“I see.”

“And in that time, my father found his actual true mate, got her pregnant then rejected her after the pup was born,” Jungkook's voice didn't change, but a strong i