SAVE YOU by TURIN BLAKES

MY OWN by WHITAKER

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SIXTY SIX;

MEANS TO AN END

Two Years Ago

Her back slammed hard into the bedroom door, but the moan from her mouth was silenced by the lips on hers. His hands were so familiar with her body that it curved in response to his touch, and she knew immediately by the feeling in her heart that she was at home with him. Grabbing a hold of his shirt in her hands to pull over his head, she pushed on his chest so that she could turn them around, him taking her position against the door and her swallowing all of his groans with her tongue. A grin pulled on his face as the change of dominance, teeth clashing with her own as she gave him a shove to stop being so arrogant. Instead of commenting, he just grabbed the side of her neck and left a trail of open-mouthed kisses until he settled on a a certain spot.

"Hey," she muttered against his lips, hushing him a bit as she pushed back on his bare chest.

Aiden pulled away immediately, looking at her with confusion. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just love you."

Aiden smiled, his eyes twinkling in the dim light. He went for her lips again, this time directing them towards her unmade bed. It didn't matter what it looked like. It would look worse by the time they were done. Before he could even touch the button on her pants, a ringtone cut off their short breaths and aching muscles. Aiden groaned loudly, grabbing the phone from her pocket and throwing it away from them. Then, he continued to trail dangerous lips down her body. Sage's hands caught his biceps, gripping tightly onto them as her impulses screamed in reply to his touch.

But once again, the sound of a phone ringing interrupted them. Both of them stopped at that, Aiden raising his head to look at her in confusion. If someone was trying to reach her that bad, it meant that it wasn't going to be a casual conversation. Giving the teenage boy a frown, she stretched her body out to grab the phone and answered the call before it ended.

"What's going on?" she asked, watching Aiden's biceps as he pushed off from her with a grumble. She was briefly distracted when his chest flexed from unresolved tension before turning her eyes away from her distraction.

There was a muffling before she finally heard Derek's voice on the other end. "Hey, do you want Chinese for dinner?"

"Sounds great. Bye, love you."

She hung up quickly after that, moving to reconnect her lips with Aiden but he stopped her with a grin. He pulled away, looking at her with a grin. "You know, I came over to watch a movie, and all you've tried to do is get into my pants. I thought you wanted to do a marathon of Peter Hopper."

"Harry Potter, you dweeb. Don't act like you don't know what his name is." She rolled her eyes, the mood dead now as she pushed him off her completely with a palm on his forehead. "I still don't know how you haven't seen this. Even Ethan said he's seen some of them before."

"Whatever. You're the dweeb. So is Ethan. Werewolves are better than wizards anyway."

Sage scoffed out loud at that, turning around from her DVD player to look at him. "According to you. I'd take a wizard over a werewolf in a fight any day. They can wave a wand and kill your werewolf ass in seconds without even touching you, bud."

"Oh, yeah?" Before she had the opportunity to realize what he was doing, Aiden was lunging forward and grabbing at her waist, carefully pulling her down onto the bed with him and trapping her. His hands reached for her limbs, feet holding her legs in place as he grinned down at her struggling figure. "Bullshit."

"You're bullshit," she said, but it didn't meet her eyes as she smiled up at him.

Aiden knew that there was absolutely no one else in the world who would take so much of his heart like the blonde underneath him. Seemed impossible, really. He'd only ever known the type of love that he felt with his brother, and to have experienced something entirely different and entirely too real with her changed it all. The idea of a first love was bullshit, and he would always think that, but he did know deep in his heart that Sage would never be out of his mind. Until he was old and grey, he would remember everything about her. He loved every inch of her, every eyelash and every groove on her skin—and if she were to ever realize she deserved better than him one day, he was glad to have been so in love with her. Because in that moment, being loved back just as much was enough.

It was because of these thoughts running wild in his mind that he felt a rock of ugly emotions forming in his chest. He reached out to brush her cheek gently. "I don't know why you chose to love me, but thank you for it...'cause every day has been a little bit better with you in it."

"Baby," Sage muttered, her smile falling a bit but losing none of its affection as she moved her hands to the sides of his neck. "You are deserving of every bit of love that this world has to offer, and I wish that I could give you all of it. I didn't choose to love you—you don't choose those kinds of things. It just happens...and even then, I'd always choose you."

"Fuck. I love you, Little Red." Aiden's eyes got hazy without his permission, and he was grabbing the side of her face to kiss her temple and tuck it gently underneath his chin. "I am so, so in love with you, Sage Connelly."

Sage's heart swelled, and at the age of fifteen—believing entirely in the idea of first loves—she knew that he would always be it for her. They could move on from one another, part ways like the seas, and they could even hate each other, but he would always be the first person who brought her back to life after the Hale fire. He was the first person to make her walk through the ashes and accept the other side. For that, his place could never been taken away from her. That could have been the most terrifying part of it all; they had fallen in love with one another before truly understanding the sacrifices that came with love. Maybe their love was a means to an end, but maybe it was meant for more.

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"Sage?"

Isaac waited for her to turn around, breath caught in his chest with no intent to exhale. Sage had finally walked into Allison's room, but unlike him, she stayed standing directly in front of her friend's dresser of pictures. A few of them were in frames, but others were scattered around the edgings of her mirror. Most of them, Sage realized, were pictures of her family. The very same family that had only one survivor. Her fingertips grazed the picture of her, Lydia, and Allison from the skate rink date nearly a year ago. Everything was different now.

When a hand gently grabbed her arm, she flinched away and stepped out of the hold. Isaac's hand went away immediately, both raising in the air as a sign of surrender. "Sorry. That was my fault."

"Do you remember when I told you that I was having nightmares?" she asked, her eyes still focused on the picture of her, Lydia, and Allison. "That I kept seeing all of you dying. I never said how...but it was always the same. The same demons, every second."

"The Oni?" his eyes flashed with something unrecognizable. "You were seeing them?"

Her teeth ground together, jaw tightening around the expanse of her mouth as she felt the anger start to surge through her body. "I didn't think anything of it. I didn't even think. I assumed that I was just seeing them because the Nogitsune was feeding into it, using them against me...but what if I was wrong? What if...what if my abilities were developing, and I didn't even realize it? What if I could have saved her?"

Sage couldn't feel her nails digging deep into her palms, and the sudden stickiness growing against her skin was not noticed. Isaac, however, straightened up the second that he smelled the bitter scent of iron. Trying again, he reached out again for her and quickly pried her fingers out of their fists. When they both glanced down, there was a small streak of blood smothered into her skin, four indentions from her nails in her palm.

"You saw all of us," Isaac whispered, his words coming out strangled as the lump grew in his throat. "Which means that there is no way you could have known who was going to...what was going to happen, Sage."

Finally, she glanced up at him with weathered eyes. "What if I did know? What if we're all going to die, Isaac?"

Isaac was silent. He didn't look away from her, watching every emotion surface and disappear in the other's face as the minutes passed. Then, without another word, Sage moved until the distance between them was gone and wrapped her arms around his waist. Her ever-so-familiar gentle giant returned the gesture, his hands tightening like vines around her body.

"You know," he mumbled, "I think that this is the first time we've ever hugged."

She heard the shuttering in his breath and felt his chest tighten against her. Pain, as she knew so well, could be seen in the physical sense easier than the inside. "Guess that means the world's really ending, Lahey."

"Guess so."

Sage let go of him first, being mindful of her bloody hand. Not that it mattered much in the first place, seeing as both of them were covered in a variety of different bloodstains. Some were their own, others were from their friends. Isaac took a few steps back, immediately going to fiddle with his hands anxiously. Something he hadn't done since his father was alive. He walked over to the dresser she was just standing by, his hand reaching for one of the Chinese ring-daggers left out. She watched, her eyes bleary, as he turned on his heel to go sit by her bed.

"Careful. That one takes some practice." Both Sage and Isaac looked over at the sound of Chris' voice. He looked as well as one could given the circumstances, but he was no longer teary-eyed like earlier in the hallway with Sage. Slowly, he made his way into the room until he was standing by the window between them. "When Allison was learning, she had to bandage her fingers because they got so raw. She wouldn't give up on it, though."

Her lips pulled up halfway, glancing at the knife. "She always tried to get me into knives and her bows whenever we would practice. She always said that it was more efficient than guns."

"Subject to opinion," he replied, giving her a soft and sad smile.

"She kept trying to say something," Isaac interrupted, sniffling as he held the dagger. Both Chris and Sage turned to him with furrowed brows. "She was trying to say something to Scott...'you have to tell him,' she said. 'You have to tell my father...' She didn't get the chance to finish it, but I'm sure it was just that she loved you."

Chris paused, his face twisting in pain before he slowly made his way over to Isaac. "It's okay...she―she made a point of telling me earlier."

"Earlier?"

"There's a tradition we have―"

Sage frowned as she stepped closer. "The silver bullet."

"She was making a silver arrowhead," Chris explained. He hesitated before looking at her. "We were talking about having you come down when we finished this to make one yourself―a bullet, if you wanted."

Her eyes softened on Chris, heart thumping in her chest. There was no way for her to say anything to that, even if a thousand different responses were going through her head at the moment. Was she meant to say thank you, and that she appreciated how accepting Chris and Allison were of her? The tradition of a silver bullet was tarnished now, if only because Sage could never share that moment with her best friend again. While Sage and Argent slowly came to realize that the rite of passage for her would have to wait, Isaac was focusing on a separate part entirely of his explanation.

"Where is it?" he asked, sitting up straight with more urgency. "The arrowhead."

Chris's forehead creased in confusion. "Downstairs."

"I need to see it."

"Why?" Sage was curious now, especially when Isaac stood up with a look of determination flashing in his eyes. "What are you thinking?"

"I have a feeling it isn't there."

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"Sage?"

Derek stopped everything when his phone started ringing, and his heart dropped tenfold when he saw the name on the screen. It was the first time he had heard from anyone about what was going on since Argent rushed out of his apartment earlier. He didn't know who was hurt, if the Nogitsune was dead, not a single bit of information had be relayed to him in the last two hours, and all he could hope was for good news. He wouldn't accept anything less, especially not about her. The twins stood in front of him, their attention quickly turning to the phone call and the person on the other end of it. Aiden, in particular, looked ready to jump out of his skin as he waited impatiently to hear the familiar sound of the blonde's voice—because, God forbid, it was anyone else but her on the other end of it. He couldn't take any more news of her being hurt again.

But all Derek heard was silence. "Sage, I need you to talk to me. What's going on? Are you okay?"

"Allison's dead."

The three werewolves froze in place. Allison was dead. Derek's next words got caught in his throat, trying to figure out anything possible to say to Sage, but all he could focus on was the flashes in his mind of Paige. Paige. History was repeating itself, and Derek could hear the thudding of his heartbeat as it pounded in his chest. Scott was the first person that he thought of—of history, and how desperately it was trying to repeat itself.

Before he could even begin to ask any questions, and before Aiden and Ethan could even recollect themselves, she was speaking again. "I told her to stay close to me, and... I felt it happen, Derek. I felt her die."

"What?" he asked, the confusion taking over his grief. "How is that even possible? The Nogitsune took that away from you."

"I don't know." There was a long pause on the other end. "Are you okay? Are the twins with you? Are they all right?"

"They're with me. Everyone's fine here. Sage—"

She was quick to interrupt. "No. I'm not, but we can talk about it later. I have to go talk to Argent and Isaac. They may have found something that we can use against the Oni. Scott is going to talk to Deaton and figure out another plan to end the Nogitsune. If I hear something before you do, I'll text you."

Derek nodded, although it couldn't be seen by her. He glanced up at the boys in front of him, noticing that Aiden's jaw was clenching tightly as he resisted every need to talk to the girl on the other end of the phone. But just as it was Aiden's job to take care of his brother, it was Derek's job to take care of his sister—and there were things more important right now than the unresolved problems between Sage and Aiden. Ethan placed a hand on his brother's shoulder, holding him back from so many things.

Just when he thought she had already hung up, the blonde on the other end said her parting words. "Tell them that it's okay to leave. They don't have to stay here. Tell him I understand."

It was almost like she had known what thoughts were racing through Ethan and Aiden's minds in that very second—she always had, though. Just like that, the call had ended and Derek was back to square one with the twins. Finding out that someone who was alive only a few hours ago was gone set off something in Aiden that he didn't like. Fear bottled itself in the pit of his stomach and rattled his bones because all he could think about was how willing Sage would be to sacrifice herself next. That was enough for him to turn on his heel after a look to his brother, both knowing where their mindsets were. He would get her, and his brother would just as quickly get Danny.

"She won't leave. Not for you. Not for me. Not for anyone."

Aiden turned around with a glare. "Then, I'll make her."

"You know as well as I do that isn't going to happen."

"Because of Stiles?" he asked with a bitterness in the back of his throat.

If there was one reason why Aiden would lose Sage again, it was because of Stiles. He knew that she still loved the other boy; he could see it in her eyes, and part of him would always know that Stiles was the better guy at the end of the day. He knew that—hell, everyone knew that, but Aiden was the one who saw all of her bad and accepted it for what it was. He hoped, if only the slightest bit, that that was enough for her to go with him.

"Because of Scott," Derek corrected, surprising Aiden. "You've been trying to find a way into his pack, trying to earn his trust, trying to fight for him, but you've had it wrong the whole time. You don't fight for a leader. You fight for a leader's cause."

His brows furrowed. "What cause?"

"Scott's always been about one thing. Saving his friends. He will do anything and everything to save the people he cares about. When there's no chance of winning, he keeps fighting. When all hope is lost, he finds another way—and when he's beaten down, he stands up again. You want to earn a place in his pack? You want redemption? You want forgiveness? Find another way to stand and fight. Because she will never take your side over Scott's. He isn't just her alpha. He's her pack. Her brother. No one in this world could tear her away from family, Aiden. Not even you."

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In the time that Sage had known the Argents, she had only ever been downstairs to their armory one or twice. Both times, she had the filled absence of a certain brunette next to her. Walking into the place now, all that she could see were the weapons that Allison once used and the very sight of it felt entirely too wrong to her. Her eyes fought to ignore the spare bow and arrow hanging up, tightening her fists as she tried her best to look on. Isaac and Chris stood at the crafting station, leaning over the set of arrowheads. When Sage got close enough, she could see that there were four sitting leftover.

"Why would she make four of them?" Chris asked, confused.

"She didn't," Isaac explained, watching as he stared at the four silver arrowheads. "She made five. She made the first one, and then she figured it out...she used the first silver arrowhead to kill one of the Oni...we saw her do it."

Isaac spared a glance Sage's way, looking to her for confirmation. She swallowed hard before nodding Chris' way, knowing that the last arrow in her quiver was the silver-glinted one. They all saw the way that it went through the Oni―how Allison was able to save Isaac's life.

Chris shook his head. "How?"

"The same way you almost did. Do you remember when you told us about your first gun deal, the Yakuza?" Isaac asked, his anticipation rising as he tried to get Chris to understand. "The bullet you used to shoot the Oni―was that a silver bullet?"

"Yes, but it didn't kill him. It just broke his mask―"

"Because it didn't stay," she said, finally. An exhale left her mouth at the realization. She glanced between them. "The bullet didn't work because it went through, it didn't stay in the body. Not like an arrowhead would. Isaac, you're a genius."

Isaac nodded, gesturing his head down towards her before back to Chris. "What if silver is a poison to them? What if that is what she was trying to tell Scott? What if that was what she was trying to tell you, that she figured it out?"

"These four would have still been setting when she went to meet Scott."

"We could stop them," Isaac urged.

"No," Chris corrected. "We can kill them."

Sage met eyes with Chris and Isaac, the three of them assembled around the silver arrowhead without noticing that they had unconsciously left a small space in between. They knew who it was meant for. Bearing the weight of Allison's fight, they all broke apart and started to build themselves up for the ending of it all. The spare bow and arrow had been picked up, and Allison would continue living on within them.

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From: SCOTT MCCALL

High school. Now. We'll save him. Tell Derek.

She kept glancing at her phone, tossing it between her hands anxiously as she waited to hear back from anyone. The text that she got from Scott was self-explanatory, and she was quick to relay the information to both Chris and Derek. They were all off in seconds, splitting up in their own way to the same destination. Isaac took the front seat while Argent drove, and she sat silently next to the pile of weapons that they picked up from the armory. Unconsciously, she tightened her hands on her phone in hopes that she would get a reply from the others. No reply meant that they were already there. It meant that they were already fighting.

"How much longer?" she asked, her eyes flickering to look in the rearview mirror.

Chris glanced back, frowning. "About two more minutes. Nothing?"

"No," she explained, her throat closing up. "But I don't know if they've started fighting yet."

At the mention of that, there was a sudden chill that ran through her body. One hand crushed around her phone, and the other lunged forward to grab onto the first thing she could find in front of her. On instinct, a gasp rang through her chest and she cried out at the sudden jolt of pain. It flooded through her like a current of electricity, shocking her nerves back to life in a way that was too familiar and so very different than before. Isaac's eyes widened, grabbing the hand that she had clutched around his jacket shoulder.

"Sage. Sage, what's going on?"

She grit her teeth down, feeling the tears rise in her eyes. "It started."

"Who is it?" Isaac said, urgently. "Sage. Who is it?"

"Everyone."

Chris pressed down harder on the gas at Sage's response, his eyes constant darting between the road and her every time she snarled out another gasp. The two minutes were up, and all three of them saw the high school parking lot only a distance away. The tires skidded to a halt, the wheels burning into the asphalt as they all quickly threw their doors open. She ignored the pain that was surfacing around her, enough to make her stumble on her feet as she reached to grab the bow and arrow. Chris picked up the crossbow, handing Sage two silver arrows before taking the last two for himself. There was no moment of glancing at one another or standing around saying last words.

Instead, the blood curled under their skin when they heard the sounds. Clashing of swords, the roar of wolves, and the sound of death. With that final thought in mind, the three of them raced towards the fight. Isaac took the lead, running faster than a pain-ridden Sage and a human Argent. When the sounds finally got louder, and she began to recognize the voices making the sounds, her heart skipped in her chest and she moved faster than she was before. The second that they could see the open walkway of the school's courtyard, all of the air in her lungs disappeared.

Derek was there, an Oni directly in front of him with their sword raised to his back. Pain shifting into a different emotion, and the way that her body moved was like second nature. Fluidly, she grabbed a hold of the bow and reached for one of the arrows in the quiver. A single breath, with steady hands, she released the silver-tipped arrowhead with every thought of Allison holding her hand as she did so.

The arrow lodged itself in the middle of the Oni's chest, beginning to glisten the bright yellow that they remembered only a few hours ago. The second that the Oni tried to rip out the arrow, she knew that she beat it. In seconds, what was left of the demon disappeared and became dust. Derek's head turned quickly in the direction of where she shot the arrow, his eyes glowing in the dark night the blue that she knew all too well. As Sage gave him a nod, Isaac finally jumped from the overhang above them. Only a bit of a way beside her, Chris stood with his crossbow raised and the other two arrows ready to be shot.

She did a quick glance to see Ethan on the steps, sitting and clutching his shoulder. Further down in the center of the courtyard was Aiden, momentarily shocked as he looked in the place where the Oni once stood.

"What was that?" Ethan shouted, his eyes wide in disbelief.

The cut in Chris Argent's voice burned their hearts. "Silver."

"Isaac, the box!" Derek was shouting before any of them had the chance to recover, his eyes desperate as he found the beta. "Get the triskele box to Scott!"

Isaac was barreling into the middle of the fight within seconds, and Sage was not far behind. Chris stayed at the top of the steps while she moved closer to the middle, second arrow already set and waiting for the opportunity to shoot again. Just as another Oni closed in on Derek, he met eyes with her briefly before grabbing a hold of the demon's arm and twisting it until their chest was exposed. Sage released the string instantly, the arrow flying out of its hold and landing into the chest of the Oni. Just like the others, it disappeared in seconds.

Sage went to reach for another arrow when she saw another Oni rushing forward, but realized that she had come up empty. "I'm out of arrows!"

Before the Oni could get near her, another arrow was whipping through the air and landing directly into the chest of the third Oni. Now, that left only one. Sage turned quickly to meet eyes with Argent, her eyes wide with panic until she realized he was already ready to take the shot. Right when he released the final arrow from the crossbow, she felt it. Pain that was different from all of the others she felt that night. Pain that she recognized too well because she had only just experienced it with Allison. Pain that was loss. Pain that was death.

Her hands dropped the bow, blindly reaching out for her stomach as she glanced down to see if there was any blood. Then, the second wave of pain flashed through her body and her eyes widened. Glancing up, all of her emotions lodged in her chest, she went running directly into the fight with only one intention in mind. She heard Argent screaming for someone to pick up the lost arrow, and she saw Isaac rushing for the split pieces just as quickly as everyone else was.

Everyone else was not her biggest concern because it was not everyone else that she was going to lose. No, all she could feel in that moment was the pain of one person, and she would be damned to all hell if she lost him too.

"Aiden, don't!" she screamed, her voice so loud that it cracked around the walls.

Her hands were pulling at him right after he picked up the arrow, the silver acting as a painful reminder now. Just before he could stick the piece into the Oni, Aiden was pushed out of the way and Sage took him with her. Her eyes widened, glancing down at him with panic as she looked at his abdomen for any wounds. When there were none, and he was safe, she met his glowing blue eyes with a relief so profound that it made her want to cry right then and there.

"Sage, what are yo―"

Aiden stopped speaking, his eyes widening as he quickly twisted them around until he was standing in front of her. Right when she was about to ask what he was doing, her nightmares flashed before her eyes when she realized that the Oni was in front of Aiden all over again. The arrow he held tightly in his hand was gone, hitting the body of the demon the second that he switched their places.

"AIDEN!"

The pain was everywhere. In her hands, in her throat, in her eyes, in her chest. The agony soared through the ends of the earth and caught itself in the very heart of her stomach, and Sage could not take her eyes away from his back. She could not see his eyes, not like the others could, and she could not see the beginnings of the sword that penetrated the very same space that screamed on hers. What she did see was his back, and she saw the bloody, sharp ending only centimeters from her abdomen and pushing directly through the body of the one person she thought she had saved.

"No," she whispered. "No. No, no, no, no."

Suddenly, the back of the sword was gone but the pain was not. No, that was everywhere, and she swallowed down every urge inside of her to take the sword herself the moment that she finally realized what had happened. Aiden's body failed him in seconds, and he was stumbling back on his feet and directly into the outstretched arms of her before either of them could think. She was not sure if it was the weight or the agony that pulled them down, but two bodies were hitting the cement without care.

She finally saw his eyes. His body was laying on her legs, face close enough to hers that she was able to see every single thought that was reflecting in his face like he was an open book. Only after that look were her trembling hands reaching for the wound, eyes frantic and wild as she tried to stop the bleeding in any way that she could. Seconds later, another body was crashing at her side and taking spot by their brother.

"Ethan, put your hands over mine," she ordered. "Okay? We can stop the bleeding long enough, and then he'll start to heal. I just need to put pressure on the wound. We just need to―to stop the bleeding, and then everything will be alright. Okay? Everything is going to be fine, Aiden. Ethan, help me!"

Her bloody hands worked to move frantically, taking one off to try and grab a hold of the jacket wrapped around her body. They needed to put pressure on the wound, and he would be okay. Before she could, another grabbed tightly onto her wrist. Her eyes met Aiden's with disbelief, watching as he carefully moved her hand until it was placed over his heart instead of his abdomen.

"What are you doing?" she argued, widening her eyes further. "Aiden, we need to―"

"Stop it," he said quietly, his eyes already full of tears. "Don't."

She glared at him, her jaw tightening. "I can fix this."

"You can't, Little Red."

He paused momentarily, trying to pull up his head to choke down the blood that was drowning him. Instead, he had to spit up the black blood, and she looked at him in horror. A choked sound escaped her own mouth, and she was moving her hands back to his wound in seconds. When she realized that the blood just would not stop, and that Ethan was sitting like a statue beside her, the realization finally sunk in. The cry got stuck in her throat before she released it, turning to look over at Aiden with a new spark of determination in her eyes.

"I love you, you hear me," she said, rushing through her words with urgency. She reached to grab his face, discarding his wound so that he could look at her. "I love you. I love you―you were right. I never stopped. You are not the bad guy, Aiden. Okay? Okay, you are one of the very best guys that I have ever...ever...you are everything, do you hear me? I love you. I love you."

Tears were falling down his face, and she wasn't sure which were hers and which were his. His hand went up to grab her wrist again, squeezing it gently. Then, his eyes moved in the direction that he had been avoiding. Sage pulled back, ignoring the stuck sensation in her chest as she watched Ethan take one glance at his twin and break down. He leaned forward, putting his head up against his brother's. The sobs finally started to come out of their mouths freely, Aiden's body shaking against her as she held onto him for dear life. Suddenly, Aiden's other hand reached for his brother. He squeezed both, looking between the two of them.

"Does it hurt you as much as it hurts me?"

"Yeah," Ethan whispered, tightening his hold until he believed he would break his twin in two.

Aiden nodded weakly, his eyes burning with tears. "It's okay."

He shared one final, long look in Sage's direction had her lip trembling in agreement.Yes, she was telling him. Yes, she felt it. Most importantly, she was answering the question that he was wondering about the most. Yes. If she could hurt in this way, that meant that he was a part of Scott's pack. Her body curled further into his, her other hand wrapping desperately for any opportunity to hold him closer and breathe life back into his body. It was no use, though, because both she and Ethan could feel that Aiden was slowly getting heavier. His strength was disappearing. They were losing him.

Sage squeezed her eyes shut tightly, moving so that she could press her lips to the side of his head. They didn't open until the weight in her arms was unbearable, and the pain throughout her body slowly dulled until it was only the suffering in her heart left behind. Neither she nor Ethan spoke when they finally heard the labored breathing stop, and they said nothing when Sage finally build up the courage to look at the reflection of the first boy she ever loved. They said nothing, in fear that taking away the silence would take away the very last part of him.

A means to an end. The only end was pain.

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Author's Note:

My heart hurts worse than it did with Allison. I know that this chapter has been long overdue, but writing the death of Aiden has truly been the one thing I've dreaded from the moment I started writing this book. To those of you still hanging onto this story, thank you. Leave a comment letting me know what you want to see from here, and how you liked this chapter.

One more chapter until this story is officially (and finally) finished.