"What is it?" Della asked, looming behind her.

"Nothing," Kylie lied, still on the ground where she had fallen.

"Try again," Della said, obviously having heard her heart's untruth.

"Let it go. And please ... give me some privacy to talk to ... him."

"I'm shadowing you," she said and watched Kylie stand up.

"I know," Kylie answered. "But I'm begging you. Please. I need some privacy."

"To do what? Go jump his bones?" Kylie didn't even reply to that. Della swung around and stomped off.

Kylie pulled back up on the windowsill, hung on with one hand, and knocked with the other. Both parties in bed bolted up.

Derek's sleep-filled gaze shot toward the window. Kylie wasn't sure what Jenny-as in Hayden's sister, Jenny-did. She'd vanished.

Brushing a hand over his face, Derek came to the window. Kylie dropped down as he lifted the window up. He reached out and offered her a frown and a hand to pull her up.

"It's about damn time," he muttered as he hoisted her up. "What the hell took you so long?"

Feet on the bedroom floor, Kylie frowned. "You saw me at dinner and didn't say anything."

"What could I say in a room filled with vampires?"

Hell, he was right. "What's going on?" She looked around. "And Jenny, you can make yourself visible.

I already saw you."

Jenny appeared and her cheeks turned red. "This isn't what it seems. We weren't..." She pointed to the floor where a blanket and pillow were thrown.

"You were supposed to sleep on the floor," Jenny snapped at Derek.

"I couldn't sleep, so I just..." He glared at Jenny. "I didn't touch you."

Kylie shook her head. "I don't care about that."

"I do," Jenny said, and glared at Derek.

"I didn't touch you!" he repeated.

Kylie moaned. "Jenny? What are you doing here?" Right then Kylie remembered the alarm. "That was you that jumped the fence."

Jenny frowned. "I didn't know the place was wired. Even the compound doesn't have an alarm."

But the chameleons weren't waiting on a psycho rogue to attack. Kylie shook her head, reminding herself to focus on one issue at a time. And this was a big issue, too. "Shit!" she muttered. "Does Hayden know you're here?"

Both Derek and Jenny shook their heads.

Kylie looked at Jenny. "You ran away, didn't you?"Jenny nodded and gripped her hands together. "Please don't ... don't be mad."

Derek looked at Jenny with empathy and then stared at Kylie as if frustrated. "Why are you upset? You said you wanted to help her."

Kylie frowned. "I do, but ... running away isn't the answer."

"Please," Derek muttered. "For someone who ran away a couple of weeks ago, I don't think you have a lot of room to judge."

"I didn't run away. I told everyone I was leaving. And I'm not judging." Frustrated and yet a bit amused at Derek's defense of Jenny, Kylie inhaled and looked from Jenny to Derek. "If a chameleon runs away before they're mature they are excommunicated from their family."

Derek cut his eyes to Jenny, up and then down. "She looks pretty mature to me."

Kylie rolled her eyes. "I'm not talking about her body. I'm talking about her being able to change her pattern." Moving her gaze to Jenny, Kylie realized something. "But you're able to go invisible. I thought that didn't happen until later?"

"It doesn't normally. I've been working really hard on my own for the last couple of years so I could leave early. But I still can't control my pattern." A sadness entered the girl's eyes.

"Are you really ready to completely walk away from your family?"

Jenny dropped on the bed and bunched a handful of Derek's loose-fitting pajamas in her hands. "It hurts like hell, but that family is trying to force me to marry someone I don't love. And he doesn't love me, either. I don't want to live like that."

Kylie's mind raced. She had told Holiday that what the chameleon elders were doing was almost as bad as the weres. Now she realized how right she was. The elders were doing to Jenny what Lucas's father was doing to Lucas.

Did that mean Lucas was right to stand up to his pack, and to his dad? Everything felt so mixed up.

Realizing Derek and Jenny stared at her, she decided now wasn't the time to think about Lucas. One problem at a time.

Problem one, her grandfather and the entire chameleon community were going to blame this on Kylie because she was the reason Hayden was here. How in the hell was she going to fix that? She looked at Jenny again. "Okay, so now explain to me why you haven't gotten with Hayden?"

"Because," Jenny said. "Every time I talked to him about me leaving, he'd tell me it was wrong. To stick it out until I matured. But everyone knew that the day I matured, I was out of there, so the elders were trying to find another way to stop me. They were going to force me to marry Brandon next week."

Her expression grew solemn. "Besides, I didn't come here because of Hayden. I came here because of you. I thought you'd understand. I guess I was wrong."

Guilt filled Kylie's chest. "You're not wrong, I just ... I don't know how to make this right." Kylie looked around. "How did you end up with Derek?"