-Luis's POV-

One week passes before Serena lets us have any sort of glimpse into her mental state.

During this week, Serena didn't speak to anyone. She kept her bedroom door locked and moved from her bed to the forest via her window. If she got food from the kitchen, no one saw her do so. She ignores mindlinks, texts, calls, and knocks on her door. My mother advised us to leave her alone.

The one thing she did engage in was the battery of scans designed by Dr. Cannon.

Dr. Cannon requested the presence of myself, Rowan, Josiah and Serena at the NALA lab in Portland. Serena took her own car while Josiah drove Rowan and me. When we were led to the room Dr. Cannon was working in, we kept silent as Dr. Cannon finished her cursory examination of Serena, taking her vital signs and testing her reflexes.

Then Dr. Cannon informed us that we were part of the investigation.

"I'm going to scan Luis twice under two different circumstances, and Josiah and Serena once each," she told us, opening a door in the far corner of the room to reveal a PET machine. "Everyone okay with that?"

We nodded. Serena's eyes never left the doctor.

My first scan was the same as Serena's and Josiah's. I just laid in the tube, listening to the clattering noises as I tried to stay still, praying Dr. Cannon has an answer for Serena. But the last scan, my second scan, was different.

Rowan called out to me as I lay in the tube.

"Hey, Luis. It's me. Stay in the machine, okay? Dr. Cannon wanted me to come in and chat with you while she scanned you."

"Is it safe for you to be in here with it going?" I asked, my brow furrowing.

"Yes. It's not an X-ray. I can be in here. I just wanted to tell you how much I love you, Luis. How excited I am to go to school with you. How happy I'll be when you finally put a ring on it," he laughed.

I smiled as the machine started up again, trying to keep my head still.

"Don't talk, baby," he said, resting a hand on my shoe. "Or use the mindlink. Just listen to me. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me, Luis. I can't wait to grow old with you. Get married and have kids. Or pups, if you prefer me to call them that. Waking up in one of the suites in the packhouse with a couple of excited kids bouncing on our bed sounds amazing."

Rowan chuckled. "And you know what, Luis? I never really thought about having kids before you. But now I can't wait. I'm so excited. I'm so excited for everything." He thought for a moment. "I want to take a trip with you soon. Just the two of us. Ending the summer on our own terms. Rent a cabin somewhere in the forest. Snuggle up by a fire and drink hot chocolate. Ooh, or we could get one on the coast. Maybe we'll get lucky and there will be a nice, mellow storm. We can curl up together and watch the lightning hit the waves." He paused. "I know the ocean's always freezing, but I could probably get you into it if we did something naughty under the water, right?"

I didn't know what he was doing, but I did know what it was doing to me. The thought of holding Rowan tightly under a frigid ocean spray made my entire body warm. I fought to keep myself flaccid, not wanting to offend the doctor or Serena.

"I'd like that," he decided. "Draw our initials in the sand and do all that silly, lovey stuff. Play fetch with Perry as we hold hands. You know... I've been thinking about it, and I think that that might be my pick for our wedding. A campground by the coast, where the air is chilly and we can smell salt on the breeze. Have the forest all around us as we become husbands. We'll have to have some kind of ceremony in a temple, though, or my grandparents will lose their minds. I know it's not your culture, but I'd love to see you in wedding red." He laughed. "We can do the Priyanka Chopra-Nick Jonas thing. One Hindu ceremony, one western, with a priest, if you want. And I suppose, one werewolf ceremony where Arlette Fuselier can have her "debauchery" and everyone wears jeans and howls at the moon. I think I'd like that, too. I bet a lot of wolves from all over would want to watch the alpha who survived silver marry his Solar mate. Though we'll have to make a rule about no one trying the two-truths-one-lie game during my damn wedding."

The machinery shut off. I waited for a moment before the table I laid upon slowly moved me out of the guts of the machine. I sat up and reached for Rowan, but he was already there with a hug and a kiss.

"We can do all of that," I said earnestly. "That was torture, not being able to respond to you."

He smiled and kissed my forehead. "I meant every word, but I was under orders. Cannon told me to come in and talk about how much I love you. I hadn't realized I'd been planning our wedding in the back of my head."

Though I wanted desperately to talk with him more about the beautiful subjects he had brought to the front of my mind, I knew that neither of us wanted to be too loving around Serena. We didn't want to rub our happiness in her face. So Rowan took my hand and we walked back into the room with the others.

"Good job, Rowan. I got what I needed," Dr. Cannon said, messing with some monitors. I couldn't distinguish the different scans with my untrained eye, but after a moment, she pulled one up and turned to us.

"This is Luis's brain when Rowan wasn't in the room. See this activity here?" she said, gesturing to a small, almost fishhook-shaped bright line of yellows and reds in the center of my skull. "This is a link between the limbic cortex and the thalamus. Basically, a route between the emotional center of the brain to the part of the brain that perceives physical sensation in the body. That link has been dubbed the "Mate Curve"." She clicked a button and another scan showed up, nearly identical to the last, though that fishhook shape was even more vivid. "Here it is, pronounced by Rowan's presence and Luis's thoughts of his attachment to him." She showed us another scan, where the curve was gone. "This is Josiah's brain. No Mate Curve here because he doesn't have alpha blood." She moved to another scan. "And this is my brain. No Mate Curve either. But..." She trailed off, clicking the last scan. "This is Serena's brain. Do you see what I see?"

I do. I see the light fishhook shape in Serena's scan that was present in my first scan, the one taken without Rowan talking to me.

"The Mate Curve," Rowan said.

Dr. Cannon nodded. "Every person with alpha blood starts to develop the Mate Curve around age fifteen. It finishes developing at age eighteen. The Curve is particularly pronounced if the mating bond hasn't completed, or in this case, if it has been completed, but the mate of the person being scanned is close by. What this tells me is that Serena's brain is functioning exactly as it should be. Her brain is ready for the mate bond and capable of feeling it the way it should be felt. We haven't figured out how exactly a person identifies their mate, but that's what the roadblock is. Think of it like two cell phones, right? Serena has service and is sending and receiving signals. Her mate, for some reason, doesn't have service and isn't reciprocating the signals."

Silence followed this. "Is it... is it possible her mate is deceased?" Rowan whispered. Serena's stony expression didn't change. I wondered if she had had this same thought herself.

Dr. Cannon shook her head. "No. However the mating bond is decided, it accommodates for an early death. If Serena's mate had died before the bond started, she would have instead bonded to someone else with equal compatibility. This is our theory, anyway, because never before has this situation been recorded. We have to assume that premature death is accounted for by the mating bond, or else there would be lots of recorded cases like Serena's."

"What if she has a TBI? Or is in a coma or something?" I asked.

"Coma wouldn't affect it," Rowan said, shaking his head. "I still felt it when you were out after the silver."

"There are different types of comas, injuries and vegetative states that could hypothetically affect the mate bond, but it would still be present. She would feel something." Dr. Cannon sighed. "Serena's mate is out there. Something is just blocking the connection."

"Like what?" I asked.

Dr. Cannon looked at Serena with sorrow in her eyes. "I have no idea."

Serena left without another word.

That was the only time during this entire week that I saw Serena. I haven't heard her voice since her birthday. This waiting game is killing all of us.

***

Rowan and I are awoken with a start in the middle of the night, July fourteenth. I reach to shield him instinctively as Perry begins barking in the direction of the door. Someone is still knocking.

"Rowan? Luis?!" Hannah's voice sounds out through the door. I jump out of bed and open the door as Rowan turns on the light. I'm in nothing but my underwear, but I don't give this a second thought as Hannah looks up at me with her blue eyes wide.

As Hannah speaks, she walks backward to the door after mine, which leads to Josiah's room, and knocks on it as well. He opens it immediately. He was probably on his way to see why Perry was barking. "I- there's- loud sounds coming from Serena's room. She wouldn't answer the door. I- I think she's hurt," she says, clearly fearful for our friend.

I walk out the door and run down the hallway and to the stairs, Rowan, Josiah and Hannah right behind me. Like me, Josiah wears only a pair of boxer briefs. Hannah wears a sports bra and a tiny pair of shorts. Rowan is at least wearing a pair of athletic shorts, but his slim torso is bare. None of this bothers any of us. No one wants to wear pajamas in July.

"Serena?" I ask, trying the doorknob. Of course it's locked. I hear a sharp, heavy thud from inside and I can't imagine what she's doing to make that noise. It doesn't sound good. "Serena, open the door."

"Kick it open!" Rowan hisses quietly. "What if she's hurting herself?"

"She's never had self-harming behaviors before," Hannah says, her eyes wide in fear.

"Serena," I say again, trying to focus enough to use my ability to compel her. "Open the door. Now."

There's another thud. But this time, it's paired with a stunned gasp that moves fluidly into a cry of pain.

I move away from the door. Josiah pulls Rowan and Hannah back as I position myself properly to kick the door open. My mom taught me this skill when I was very young. Aim a flat foot near the handle and lean your entire weight into the kick. Fear for my friend strengthens me and the door swings open, part of the doorframe splintering off, revealing the darkness inside.

I shift without thinking and scan the room for an attacker. Josiah flips on the lights and I confirm that it's only Serena in here, crying as she kneels at the foot of her bed, so I shift back and crouch beside her. She's clutching her right hand in her left. Her knuckles are split and she's bleeding heavily, the crimson running down her bare arm. I look up to realize that the thudding noises had been Serena punching holes in her wall. One of the holes is bloody, and I see the sharp edge of a two-by-four stud peeking from the broken drywall.

Drywall is tough to punch through, but doable. A pressurized, construction-grade wooden stud is not.

"First aid kit," I say, looking up at Josiah. He nods and darts out of the room.

"Serena," I say, reaching for her injured hand. I try to pry her arms away from her, both to let us look at her wound and also to embrace her, I guess. But she rips her arms back, her overflowing blue eyes filled with anger and bitterness.

"Serena, you have to let us take care of that," I say, reaching for her hand again.

"What's the fucking point?" she cries. "I can't do this anymore!"

She squirms out of my reach and stands up, swaying for a moment as her shoulders shake with wordless, moaning sobs. Hannah steps back to block the doorway, preventing her from running. Serena looks up at Rowan for a moment before she seems to almost fall against him, melting into his hug like a scared child. Rowan holds her tightly, her head against his chest, stroking her dark hair. He looks up at me, as broken as I am, softly whispering to her.

"It's okay, Serena. We're here," he tells her. Serena sobs even harder.

Josiah returns with the first aid kit and I clean and dress Serena's hand as Rowan, Josiah and Hannah try to comfort Serena. "Try" being the operative word there. She's inconsolable and I don't blame her.

"But you know what, Serena? You're right," Rowan says once I'm finished. He leans back, his hands on her shoulders, looking down at her face. "You can't do this anymore. This isn't working. Something has to change."