My mind was hazed with sleep and my eyes burned dryly as I blinked them open, the sound of growling and claws scraping over rock in the distance, my body shuddering at the sound.

My eyes were swollen with tears from the night previous but it took them not one second to open wide as I pushed myself up out of the cocoon of blankets someone had wrapped me in and found myself precisely where I didn't want to be right now; in Tatum's room.

The growling was growing more vicious and violent as the seconds passed, making my head throb and my heart pound against my ribcage with fear like a drum being beat with excessive force.

When the growling didn't subside after several minutes and pain laced yelps started to methodically join the rhythm, I dragged myself out of what seemed like a hundred furs and quietly made my way towards the main room of the cave, the thrones devoid of the Alpha.

It seemed like the whole pack was gathered in a large circle, no one moving or making a sound other than the odd cheer, the rare snarl and the semi-frequent grimace as if they were glad it had not been them subjected to whatever was being done.

I don't know what come over me but I pushed my way through the sea of people with a newfound confidence and wormed my way straight to the inner ring of people.

There, in the center were two wolves snarling at each other, circling, one horribly wounded, his grey and white fur matted with thick red clumps of blood, his nose dripping red and his jaw slack. The other wolf, a black mass of muscle and dominance radiating hate. I could feel it pulsing off him in wave after crashing wave, his fur only touched by the helpless saliva of a failed bite.

I knew who these wolves were, I could tell from their eyes, the coat and my mate's unmistakable wild musk, that scent surging pulses throughout my body. The other wolf could be the only other green eyed wolf I knew who had a distaste for Tatum and seemed to be the only one brave or stupid enough to say a bad word to him

Tatum lunged at Dustin, ripping at his fur and face, blood pouring from the wounds and creating little rivers where the rock floor had divots and holes.

My body flung itself into the battle the moment I heard a growl of pain come from my mate's wolf as the grey one swiped his left shoulder. My arms ached as I tried to pry the two apart before my head flung back in a silent scream, tears spilling from my eyes as my knees fell to the ground. My back burned with a searing pain as if hot oil had burned and tore its way down my spine as the room filled with an eerie silence.

My right arm was sagging over Dustin; my head hung low and my body shaking with pain. I could see Dustin's head slowly move from one direction to me and then away again.

A soft whine of disbelief broke the echoing silence and then I felt a tongue lap at my back but it only caused more pain so I tore myself from it, stumbling and falling as I reached the opposite side of the ring of people.

I turned for only a second to see the way Tatum's head had hung and his eyes pleaded with sorrow.

The claws that burned a trail down my back had been his.

It took me only a few painful seconds to stand back up and carry myself anywhere my feet would take me. No one followed me and that at least eased the pain if only a little.

I eventually found the hot pool, my back screaming for me to stop, tears falling from my eyes only aiding the swelling from the night previous.

It was an unbearable pain; the pain of a dominant's claws. Even more so was the pain of an Alpha or Alpha-to-be's claws.

My back hurt.

Alpha's had this sort of toxin that seeped into wounds they had created, as a sort of warning to other dominants who challenged them in a fight. To a high ranking dominant or middle-rank it would be like the pain of pouring alcohol into a fresh wound, for a lower rank it would be a severe punishment but for an omega, the pain was catastrophic and often times fatal.

My back hurt.

I slowly peeled the large shirt from my body, the blood sticking the material to my skin making it feel like sandpaper scraping its way across the four freshly opened wounds.

My back hurt.

I sunk into the water with my pants still intact, the water rushing over my wounds no matter how slow my movement, the pain of the hot water making my mouth drop open in another silent scream, eyes filling with new tears as I sunk further, the water lapping the wounds much the same way Tatum had tried to.

My chest hurt.

* * *

''Why'd you do it?'' My head swung around to come face to face with a battered and beaten Dustin, however his healing make quick work of the evidence of a fight.

I stayed quiet, my head turning back to the water and my hands shaking in my lap.

I felt the water ripple and raise as another body joined me in the pool, the soft waves making me wince as I wiped my face to hide the evidence of the tears that had slipped past my eyelashes and left trails leading down to my jaw.

I wouldn't let him see me weak.

We sat in silence. Not moving at all until Dustin rolled his shoulders as his healing finished taking care of his last tear in his shoulder before he looked over at me, his body free of wounds and only sporting a few nasty bruises that would heal much faster than a papercut would to a human.

''Why don't you heal?''

I turned my head in the opposite direction of him.

He didn't need another reason to detest omegas.

He was suddenly right next to me moving my right shoulder forward rather abruptly so he could get a better look at my back.

''Hey!'' I was cut short.

''Even our omegas would have already healed at least the smaller cuts by now.'' His fingers ran the surface of the marks making them burn angry and fierce.

Ripping my shoulder from his hand I stood and started to make my way out of the room, my ego screaming and my tolerance simmering away to nothing.

''Hold on! I wasn't making fun of you I promise....this time at least.'' He was by my side again, his hands rose to show no harm. ''Just let me clean it for you. It's started to ooze.''

I reluctantly made my way back to the pools however he sat on the edge behind me, cupping water in his hands and letting it spill down my back. My muscles bunched and I shuddered under the heat of it on the tender flesh but it was nothing compared to the feeling when Dustin started digging his fingers into the claw marks, bringing out of it a foul yellow puss from the toxins.

My hands were firmly clamped over my mouth sheltering screams of pain as I went through what I could only describe as the feeling of being ripped open by barbed wire and then running the lengths of those fresh wounds with a fishing hook over and over again.

The process lasted ten minutes before it was all washed away with the water, the flow carrying it out of the pools and down the opening towards the back that fell into the river.

''It should feel better now. I remember my first time getting hit with Alpha toxins when I was a pup. I near cried for a week before I was taught this trick by the Luna.''

I nodded my thanks, my hands shaking and my breathing returning to normal, my legs barely keeping me standing as we walked out of the pools. Dustin wrapping my fluffy white towel around my shoulders carefully as to not aggravate the now slowly healing cuts.

''Dustin!'' One of his friends yelled out to him and quickly dragged him off probably to hear a recount of the fight from his point of view.

I had nowhere to go so I stood in the halls, not moving before making my way back to the hot pools to get changed quickly, not wanting to go back to Tatum's room to do it.

''Princess.'' My head snapped up from the ground to see Alic making his way towards me, arms swinging by his sides in a muscled mass.

I wasn't sure how to approach him. He had never done anything to harm me but he failed to tell me that my mate was an enforcer. That Tatum was an enforcer.

''I'm not going to hurt you but give me a look at your back I need to make sure you're okay. If you won't let your mate look after you, someone else has to.''

''It's taken care of.'' I moved away from his reaching arm, my back screaming in protest of the movement.

His eyes widened a second before they softened and he smiled a wide toothy smile.

''Then I guess it's time for me and you to have a girl's night in then.'' He grabbed my arm and dragged me along with him, happily whistling a tune I had never heard before.

My ears hurt.