McKenna POV.
I forced myself to remain calm as I attempted to finish my yoga-based cool down. My work-out session had been hijacked by a bunch of immature losers that were commonly known as Avenged Sevenfold.
“Peace be inside me, tolerance all around me, forgiveness in my path. So help me Jimmy if you do not stop that irritating, child-like giggle I will feed you your testicles.” I threatened, finishing my meditative chant and slowly moving out of my tree pose. The giggling abruptly stopped. I sighed, you’d think shooting someone twice and then beating the shit out of them would earn you at least a smidgeon of respect. Nope, not me. I stood in the middle of a cluster of mats, surrounded by gym equipment and looked at the guys spread across the room. “What, pray-tell, is so interesting about my workout session that all of you had to crash it?” almost simultaneously all five guys shrugged.
“Nothing really, we were bored and you spend forever in here.” Was Johnny’s explanation. I rolled my eyes. Typical. I grabbed my water bottle and towel, stalking out of the room. I heard footsteps following me as I headed upstairs for a shower. I opted to ignore them as the other option was a roundhouse to the face. Two arms caught me from behind as I entered my room. I glanced down to see monster tattoos. Syn. I sighed. I wasn’t going to get a shower at this rate.
“Gates, what do you want?”
“Now that’s a bit rude.” His voice was close to my ear. I closed my eyes and enjoyed being this close to him. “We were thinking of watching a movie, you wanna join us?”
“Is there going to be blood, guts and horror?” He laughed.
“Of course”
“Then let me shower and I’ll be right there.” He hesitated before letting me go.
“Take your time, we’ll wait.” I turned to face him, smiling.
“You’re too nice to me.” He shrugged and tucked a lose strand of hair behind one of my ears.
“You’re my girl. It doesn’t matter how we ended up together, you’re still my girl.” He smiled wickedly. “Besides, I want sex when we’re married.” I threw my towel at him.

~*~

I was sat in Syn’s arms watching The Omen. I loved this film but today I just couldn’t relax and watch it, no matter how comfortable I was cuddled up with Syn. The past was slowly killing me. After the other day, I knew that these guys would trust me with their lives and how did I repay them? By keeping secrets. I couldn’t do it anymore. Syn’s fingers were resting gently over the scars on my back. I could feel the heat from his fingers spreading across my shoulders. I loved this feeling, being close to Syn, being happy. I sighed, knowing that if I didn’t tell them now, while I was feeling guilty about it, I probably never would. Syn moved.
“What’s up?” His voice was soft. It made me realise how much I really liked him. I owed him this.
“It was illegal were-fighting. The scars. There’s a big underground circuit in Queensland. My Alpha started putting me into fights after my Gran died. I had no legal guardian so there was no-one to stop him.” I closed my eyes. “I was 12.” Syn’s grip around my shoulder tightened. I felt his whole body tense but I wasn’t done yet. “As I got older, I got better. He pulled me out of school, trained me until I was his best fighter. I didn’t know anything else. I hated it. I wanted out, but there was no way to escape. At the time I could only find one way out.” I swallowed back the flood of tears and glanced at my wrists. “The suicide didn’t work. It only made everything worse. It didn’t even stop after I was almost killed in a fight with a werebear. I tried deliberately loosing, but he just threw in fights to the death. I should have known that he wouldn’t want me around once I turned 21.” Tears silently flowed down my cheeks.
“Why would he want to get rid of his best fighter though?” Asked Johnny. I smiled ruefully through the tears.
“I’m a half-breed. Don’t know who or what my father was. Blake would sooner have died than let me settle down and have kids in his pack.” Syn moved, pulling me to my feet and into the kitchen. I stood opposite him, scared to look at him. I had no idea how he’d take what I’d just confessed. He stepped in closer, his fingers tilting my chin up to look at him. He didn’t say anything, just pulled me into his arms. I broke down as he held me. everything came back, all the memories that I’d run from for a long time. His lips pressed against my forehead.
“How the hell have you managed to survive all of that Mac?” He whispered.
“I don’t know Syn.” He took half a step back and looked at me.
“There’s more isn’t there?” I bit my lip and nodded. I loved hated how he just seemed to know when I was holding something back from him.
“I’m not ready to talk about some of the things from my past.” Syn nodded, playing with a rogue strand of my hair. He seemed to like doing that. “I don’t know if I ever will be.” Syn’s hand slipped down to my neck.
“Don’t worry about it Mac. Take your time. I’ll wait.” He whispered, leaning in closer. He was only centimetres away from my lips when I stepped back, looking away. I wasn’t ready for this yet. As much as I wanted it. His lips pressed against my forehead again before he pulled me back into his arms.