"Aren't we gonna go after her?" I exclaimed as her figure sprinted away on all fours.

"The reason Thea is out in the woods is so that she can track Maia down," Jason explained, "Call it a failsafe."

"Why didn't you tell us that was why Thea was hiding out in the woods?" Abi frowned at him.

Jason shifted uncomfortably. "Because it was Storm that suggested it."

"You listened to the advice of a treacherous bitch?!" Jade screeched at our Alpha, "And you didn't think that it was out of place that she knew something like this—" She flung her hand at the broken window, "—was going to happen? I mean, how else would she know that if she wasn't in league with the hunters and playing us the entire time?"

"Because Storm, regardless of her betrayal, still has supernatural powers. Unlike Ryan, she wasn't a total fake," he explained slowly; he kept his words clear and his tone measured. "Besides, the game was up by then, she knew we knew about her betrayal, and that was the last thing she told me."

Struggling to believe that Jason had actually listened to Storm's advice, I walked out; if he knew something like this would happen to Maia, why didn't he do something to try and stop it or to help her?

Day by day, it was getting harder and harder to believe and trust in my Alpha. Something had shifted, like with the rest of the pack. A thought formed in my mind; what if it is time that we go our separate ways? If I couldn't trust Jason anymore, then surely...? No, no, I won't go there.

I went to the lounge, sat on the sofa and stared at Ember's iron jar.

"Everything's going to shit and I'm sat here staring at a freaking jar," I mumbled.

"We're leaving for school in 15 minutes!" Jason called out.

"We're seriously still going back to that detention camp?" I heard Jade groan in frustration.

"That detention camp is gonna get you a future!" Jason yelled back to her.

I only want a future if it's got Ember in it.

And then I realised that it was all my fault — Ember died because we were captured by the hunters after coming with me to check on those traps — Ember stayed in Coloma with me that night because I was being an asshat and wouldn't leave...

Numerous possibilities flooded my head before it struck me that all those what-ifs were useless; it was too late. Ember was dead.

One particular what-if stuck in my head — what if everything that had happened since Ember arrived here led up to her death? What if she was destined to die, like that on that day? What if she doesn't come back?

What if I was fated to lose her?

Fate is a cruel commander, following out a list of concrete actions determined by the cold and unaltering cosmos of life.

And so there I was, minutes away from going to high school instead of figuring out how to heal the broken pieces of my heart back together again without Ember.

Regardless of the fact I hadn't been going for about two weeks, I still wasn't prepared to return to school; even before the bell had gone, there was too much of everything.

Too many people, too many lockers banging shut, too many conversations. Too much of everything.

And yet, in the midst of it all, there was an emptiness without her there — even though she'd barely attended Hellgate High for less than three months. It was like everywhere she went; she left a trace of herself behind. More than just her scent, it was like an essence of her soul lingered behind.

Or maybe that deep-seated sorrow in my soul was worming its way into my brain as well, making everything I saw, smelt, touched, tasted and felt a reminder of her.

"You good, man?" Ryder's hand landed on my shoulder, startling me.

I swallowed. "Nope."

"Me either." He pulled me to one side and the rest of the pack walked on. "But listen, Theo, we'll get through this. Ember will come back to us — to you, she'll come back to you. Then things will start getting better, they always do when we find ourselves in a low place like this."

"Since when did you get so deep?" I scoffed half-heartedly.

He shifted, suddenly uneasy. "Since I started seeing visions of my mom again."

"Your mom?" I exclaimed; he'd first seen apparitions of her after she died several years ago —it was what led him to the supernatural world in the first place. "How long has it been since you've seen her?"

"Years." He eyed me seriously. "It's been years — I started seeing her again that night we left you and Ember in Coloma. We never should've let the two of you stay there. I should've done something, said something but I—"

"Hey," I half-smiled at him, "It's not your fault, and there's nothing you could've done."

Ryder started nodding back to me, a half-smile also finding his face, until he froze up completely — his eyes suddenly full of fear and dread, his chemosignals screaming out his anxiety.

"What is it?" The words had barely left my mouth when I turned around and, following Ryder's stare, saw Chris Woodman standing at the other end of the corridor.

Ryder struggled to grasp at my arm and failed to pull me back as I lurched off towards the treacherous son of a bastard.

He stood stock-still as I threw myself at him — only moving when I viciously shoved him against the wall of lockers. My claws were hidden as they dug into his hoodie; I had a hold of him now and I wasn't going to let the slippery bastard get away from me this time.

"She trusted you," I hissed at him, millimetres away from his quivering face, "She trusted you and you fucking betrayed her."

I landed the first punch, my fist connecting with his nose and resulting in a resounding crack. Another and another, and the blood was running down his face — just like they did to her, just like he did to her.

"Theo, stop!" Jason yelled at me, but I blocked him out, dragging Chris' unresisting body through the hallway and outside.

I threw him down and he fell sprawling on the grass, struggling to get away from me. Quickly, I pinned him to the ground and continued to hit him, each strike equivalent and justification to my anger, my pain, my loss.

"Theo — please..." Chris croaked out as my hands wrapped around his throat. "Ember... s-s-she... w-wouldn't... want this..."

"The dead don't want anything," I growled at him — what little control I had was rapidly slipping out of my grasp. "Because they're fucking dead, and it's all your fault that she's fucking dead."

I squeezed his neck tighter, enjoying watching his face purple as he struggled to breathe — my claws cut into his skin, gashing open veins, blood spurting out.

Pairs of arms wrapped around my shoulders attempting to drag me off Chris's almost-lifeless body but I wasn't stopping until the job was finished. Shaking them off me, I pressed my knee into the centre of Chris's chest, pushing down into his diaphragm and against his ribs.

I'm so close — so close to ending this once and for all.

A forceful kick to the side of my ribs sent me sprawling off Chris and onto the grass.

Springing back up to my feet, determined to finish the job, I tried to rush back towards the son of a murderer but Jason quickly restrained me, pulling my arms behind my back.

"Let me go, Jason!" I growled at him, twisting desperately.

"You look like a rabid dog and you were about two minutes away from killing a classmate," he hissed at me angrily below his breath. "You'll wind up getting yourself and the pack in a shit ton of trouble. So cool it."

I sucked in a breath, ignoring the stares from the ring of people that had gathered to watch me beat the shit out of that dirty little—

Chris was gone, limping away to the nurse's office no doubt.

Shit. I may have just blown my only chance.

Abi took hold of my arm as Jason let me go, her voice soft as she spoke, "You know that hurting him won't avenge what his father did, right?"

Sighing, I asked, "Abi... Do you know if Ember will return?"

She shook her head sadly, her strawberry blonde waves swaying side to side. "I can only see death, not rebirth."

"Did you see her death?" I asked quickly as the principal began marching determinedly towards me.

Abi swallowed uncomfortably, hesitating and failing to speak before the principal came over.

"My office." His cold steely eyes seemed to glare straight through me, "Now."

Head hung, I followed him past the quickly dispersing crowds of teenagers who had been so eager to see a fight, yet now so anxious not to see the aftermath.

Could you even call it a fight? It was more like a beating actually.

"You do know I'll have to call your father in after this incident, don't you?" The principal asked drily after a 20-minute lecture about morals.

My eyes widened. "You know he's in Montana?"

"Yes," he responded curtly, picking up the phone off his desk. "He called me yesterday to let me know."

A phone call and ten minutes later, my dad showed up — emitting disapproval and concern as soon as he entered Hellgate High.

After the whole situation was explained to him, my dad asked the principal to give us a minute alone. A clock on the wall ticked slowly as seconds of silence stretched into minutes of silence before my dad started speaking.

"Redemption isn't a destination; it's a journey," he told me, and I was expecting more but he left it at that.

"Are you gonna yell at me or something?" I frowned at him. "Normally when your son gets in trouble, you're supposed to yell... But, if that's not the case." I stood up and turned to the door, my hand resting on the door handle.

"Going to finish the bastard off, are you?" My dad asked tiredly.

"Can't say the thought didn't cross my mind." I scoffed but didn't leave.

"I'm not going to tell you what you've heard from Principal Martin for the last 20 minutes. But I will tell you this: what you did out there, to that defenceless boy — regardless of who he is and what his dad did — what you did to him is just as bad as what the hunters do to supernaturals."

He's right.

"I didn't think... When I saw him, it was like seeing his dad kill her all over again." I squeezed my eyes tightly shut as I let the confession slip out, "I don't know what I'll do if she doesn't come back."

"I can't tell you for certain that she'll come back..." My dad told me hesitantly, "But I do know that if she doesn't, she'll live on in your heart and in your memory."

"I can't give up on her." I snapped my eyes open, shaking my head. "She'll come back to me, and when she does, everything will be right again."

Walking out, I left my dad in the principal's office and headed to my next class: American History. Ryder and Abi both eyed me as I walked in late and mumbled an apology to the teacher.

Avoiding everyone's gazes, I sat down at an empty desk and stared at my healing knuckles.

I once heard it said that dying is the easy part and that the hard part is for those who are left behind. And life was so hard without her — she'd been gone less than two days but it felt like she'd been gone for two years. I wouldn't cope if she didn't come back to me, that much I knew.

Without her, I'd spiral out of control and become the monster I always feared I'd become.

Shit, I'm already spiralling — beating the crap out of Chris proves just as much.

"Theo?" The teacher called to me, jerking me back to reality.

"Yes, sir?" I sat up in my seat and tried to look like I knew what was going on.

"Can you tell me the date of President Abraham Lincoln's assassination?"

"He was shot on April 14th but died on April 15th, 1865," I answered the question that I thankfully knew by heart.

"Good, where was he assassinated?" He pushed further.

"He was shot in Ford's Theatre, but died in Peterson House, Washington D.C.," I repeated the words of a textbook almost robotically.

"That's right. Who shot him?"

"The Confederate sympathiser John Wilkes Booth."

"Right again. Now, who can tell me—?"

I zoned out once again; I'd done my part, I'd done the best I could. If only I did my best when it came to Ember, and those last few minutes.

The bell suddenly shrilled, meaning it was the end of that period already.

"We've got a free now," Ryder told me as a gentle reminder, his hand landing on my shoulder in reassurance. "Fancy hitting the court?"

"Sure." I nodded — letting off some energy through basketball was exactly what I needed.

After changing into our kit, we found that the gym hall was thankfully empty — contending with Brooklyn probably would've ended just as badly as contending with Chris did. But probably with more emotional damage to her than physical damage like to Chris.

I didn't want to talk, but as soon as we started dribbling the ball, Ryder started talking.

"What do you think Thea is gonna do when she finds Maia?" He passed the ball to me, and I bounced it over to the hoop — popping up to shoot the hoop, but it bounced off the ring.

I'm clearly more out of practice than I'd thought.

I shrugged. "Probably lock her in the basement as we did with Jade when she was acting all psycho."

"Heard that!" Jade's voice echoed through the gym, and we turned to see her sitting in one of the bleachers, a book in her lap.

Turning away, I rolled my eyes and picked up the ball once again.

"And what if Thea doesn't manage to track her down?" Ryder pushed, and I momentarily shut him up by chucking the ball at his chest.

<Thea... Have you found Maia yet?> I desperately thought to my telepathic twin sister.

The blunt and resounding answer came in a split second: <No.>

"You ever met a skinwalker before?" I asked Ryder, standing with my hands propped up on my sides and watching as he shot a near-perfect hoop.

"Once, yeah." He nodded, bouncing the ball up and passing it to me.

I swallowed and bounced the ball a couple of times. "What happened?"

"When I was in Oregon before I was bitten and before I met Hayden... I came across some sort of homeless tribe." His eyes flicked away. "They were almost a cult... One of them was a skinwalker and they worshipped her like a goddess."

"Is it only women that can get turned into skinwalkers?" I asked, attempting and failing once again to shoot a hoop. I swore as it bounced off the ring, "Shit."

"No." Jade's voice echoed across to us and she held up the book she was reading as proof. "But apparently women are more susceptible or some crap like that."

"What I don't understand is how Maia could've shifted into a skinwalker when the hunters deliberately wanted her to be able to return to being human." Ryder fumbled over his words and shot another successful hoop.

"Maybe she just wasn't ready to let go of her wolf." I shrugged, before turning to Ryder and Jade, "I mean, would either of you be?"

"No." — "Nope." They spoke simultaneously.

"Exactly." I tried for another hoop, and this time the ball looped around the ring before dropping in.

"Hell yeah!" Ryder exclaimed, grinning at me.

I rolled my eyes at him but couldn't hide the smile that found my face.

"So apparently skinwalkers are pretty unstoppable." Jade voiced, and my good mood quickly diminished. "They're also supposed to be Navajo witches, but Maia's not a witch and she's certainly not from a Navajo tribe."

"How do you kill one?" Ryder asked nonchalantly, shooting another hoop.

Jade read aloud from the book, "Killing a skinwalker requires the aid of a powerful shaman, who knows spells and rituals that can turn the skinwalker's evil back on itself—"

"Ah yes, let me just drop by the local shaman's hut to see if he can help us." Ryder scoffed sarcastically.

Jade rolled her eyes. "You didn't let me finish. It says that they can also be killed by shooting them with bullets that have been dipped into white ash — and that this shot must hit the creature in the neck or the head..."

"You can't seriously be thinking of killing Maia, can you?" I questioned incredulously — basketball now entirely forgotten. "I mean, surely there's something else we can do to help her?"

Abi suddenly walked into the gym and leaned against the bleacher railings. "Thea might be able to do something if she can track her down."

A thought hit me, and I shook my head as I aired it, "What if Maia turning into a skinwalker is also part of the hunters' plans?"

"For God's sake," Jade muttered, "How deep does this conspiracy go? The next thing you know you'll be suggesting the hunters want to 'cure' supernaturals all over the world..."

"And why wouldn't they want to?" I countered, "Wouldn't it make sense if they did?"

"How much sleep did you end up getting last night?" Ryder raised an eyebrow at me.

I threw a look across at him. "Clearly none."

"If it's insomnia that you have," Abi began offering gently, "I've got some really good sleeping pills that could help you."

"Sleeping is the last thing I want to do." I huffed and shot one more successful hoop before walking out of the gym.

The rest of the day passed slowly with the usual monotony only possessed by high school. Chris was kept out of all the lessons I usually had with him, and they kept him well away from me at break, lunch and changeovers as well — they were probably afraid I'd attack him again as soon as I saw him. Apparently, he even left school ten minutes earlier than the usual time for the rest of us.

It was weird that they didn't make him go home for the rest of the day, but then again, maybe he'd rather stay in school than face going home to his family — is Evan even dead?

Ember's second day was quickly drawing to a close; only one more day and two more nights before she'll be back with me.

The GMC Sierra somehow got all of us back to the ranch in one piece, though by now there was a rattling sound coming from one of the rear axles — we decided to ignore it.

My dad stood outside the ranch's front door, waiting for us to get home.

"Did Thea find Maia?" I asked, jumping out of the truck before Jason had even parked it.

Dad nodded. "She did, and she's got her locked up in the basement. But Theo." He grabbed hold of my arm and warned, "That girl isn't the same one you used to know. Becoming a skinwalker has changed her, she's dangerous."

I nodded. "Okay, I'll be careful when I talk to her."

"You don't understand." My dad gripped my arm tighter. "Skinwalkers are bloodthirsty for vengeance, and Maia was already on a warpath when Thea managed to track her down."

"Vengeance..." I swallowed. "Vengeance against the hunters? For doing this to her?"

"That would make sense," Jason confirmed beside me, "She could be a valuable asset in the days to come."

My dad let go of me, and I walked inside the ranch. A rancid smell filled my nostrils and I followed the foul scent down into the basement — where Thea was sitting on a stool watching a dark cage. Around the cage, there was a white ring of ash; I could smell the remains of wood from the doorway, proving it wasn't sugar or cannabis.

"Tell Theo why you murdered those hunters," Thea asked Maia, her voice tired and drained despite her alert and upright figure on the stool.

Maia's voice came out raspy and seemed to have multiple layers to it — as if multiple voices were talking at once, "Ven-Veng-Vengeance for-for-for the-the Ph-Phoe-Phoenix-ix."

I blinked; despite everything I'd heard about skinwalkers, I'd never heard it anywhere that skinwalkers are bloodthirsty for revenge. Something about Maia was still Maia — why else would a skinwalker care about Ember and her Phoenix?

But Jason had been right; Maia could be useful — we had to take down the hunters one way or another after all they'd done.

Not saying a word, I left the basement, pushing past the rest of the pack and heading upstairs. I went straight to my room and pushed a chair under the handle, wanting to be left alone. The iron jar of Ember's ashes sat waiting for me on my bed — I'd taken her in there that morning before we left for school.

Collapsing onto my bed face first, I groaned to the bedsheets, "You'd hate me for what I did for Chris today. I wouldn't be surprised if you can't forgive me for it."

Against my will, I ended up falling asleep — my body had been deprived of sleep for so long that my system couldn't take it anymore.

She crawled onto my bed and slid into my lap, wearing nothing but a thin, black meshy material, her body visible through it.

"Ember..." I sat up, squinting into the darkness as a half-moon illuminated the night sky through the window. "Ember, what are you doing here?"

She leaned forward and kissed my lips softly — eliciting a soft moan from me as I slid my hands up her thighs to rest on her lower back.

Breaking the kiss, I asked once again, "What are you doing here?"

"Giving you a sweet dream for once," she whispered, "I think you deserve that much after everything we've been through."

"Are you really her?" I frowned, stroking up and down her arms.

Ember nodded. "It's really me."

I placed my hand under her chin and brought her lips back to mine. Her lips were so soft against mine and her tongue — so warm and wet in my mouth as we closed the distance between us. My senses heightened and I seemed to come alive as Ember started grinding her crotch against mine, her hands sliding down my bare chest and mine pulling off her meshy lingerie.

She rolled off me and I transitioned to be hovering over her, leaving kisses along her jaw bone and down her throat — her naked body pressing against mine as she wrapped her legs tightly around my waist, her soft moans exciting me.

Loving her wordlessly, I kissed up and down her torso, paying extra attention to her perfectly rounded breasts and pleasuring her endlessly; as long as Ember was content, nothing else mattered.

Whimpers left her mouth as I gently spread her legs and used my tongue to satisfy her —stroking her, caressing her, tasting her — loving her.

I'd love her for all eternity, until the end of time.

I'd love her until I had no more love to give.

I'd love her no matter what has happened, no matter what will happen.

I propped myself up on my palms. "I love you, Ember Hestia Milburn."

"I love you too, Theodore Jonathan Oakenbank-Aquila." She smiled at me; eyes hazy with lust.

An annoying beeping sound started going off, causing me to grow angrily, "What the fu—?"

I finally found the bastard alarm clock and launched it across my room, the beeping weakening but not fully stopping as it slammed against the wall.

Groaning, I rolled my head back onto my pillows; how is it already 7 am?!

I looked down to see the evidence of my excitement pressing up against the bedsheets, causing me to groan again.

Turning to Ember's iron jar, I frowned grumpily, "You're not even here and you're making me hard."

Someone knocked on my bedroom door, and I rolled over quickly. "Who is it?"

"It's Ryder." He pushed the door open. "And Jason's making us go to school again."

I buried my face in my pillows, I need sleep...

"Oh, and um, Theo?" Ryder hesitated, hovering at the doorway.

"What is it?" I frowned at him.

"You, um, you were pretty loud last night — have a good dream?" He smirked.

I picked up a lamp and hurled it at his head — though he dodged it and it smashed against the doorframe.

Today is Ember's last day... I thought as Jason yelled at me and Ryder.

You better come back to me, Milburn.

I could almost imagine her response; don't worry, Aquila, I will.