A/N: In honor of getting this book back on the ratings list (that's so exciting y'all like seriously, even though it's still not rated all that high...) I am posting a bonus chapter of the night Alexis escapes Castle Tyler's POV! Yay! Love you all <3

Vote, Comment, Enjoy!

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Tyler's POV:

My heart sunk when I realized what I had to do, she wouldn't leave me unless I pushed her and as I watched her beautiful face soften, she looked overwhelmingly sad when I lifted her just over the broken glass of the window and let her go.

And just like that, she was gone.

But my life had changed. I loved her. More than anything. She made me feel worthy again. Of a life worth living. That maybe what I am doesn't have to define what I do. I can be better, do better.

I didn't want to, but I find myself looking through the broken window and down out to the grounds, that were scarcely lit and hardly well guarded. It was the perfect spot for them to get away. I spotted her blonde ponytail right away as it bobbed in the wind while she ran and I couldn't help but smile. I studied every detail of her, her lean figure, her curvy behind, and the unmistakable ere of determination she always had about her. Until she disappeared under the thick coverage from the forest trees.

I let her go.

Shouts from behind me pull me out of my dreamlike trance and I swiftly turn and race back to the dining hall and more public areas. I knew father was already suspicious of my relationship with Alexis, especially of how I had saved her from him, on more occasions than he even knew about.

But it was better that way. After his romantic past, he had become embittered and pessimistic about anything and everything to do with living and had forced his doubts on to me. It wasn't until I met Alexis that I realized what he had done.

"Hey!"

"What are you doing here?"

"Did you know a prisoner has escaped?"

Well if I didn't before, I do now, morons. "No," I feign ignorance. "How'd that happen?" I turn it back on them easily and they, as predicted, stumble over their words in response.

"Well, uh, Sir-"

"It was, well."

"Uh it was the werewolf, Sir," One of them finally spat it out and I turn my menacing stare on to him. His adam's apple bobs up and down and even though we are both vampires, I know he is afraid of me. I'd been around for a while and so had been learning to fight much longer than him.

"The werewolf?" I don't have to fake my anger this time. Seeing Alexis with him, even just touching him, made my chest hurt. Without thinking twice, I speed forward and have the guy hanging by his head against the wall. The terror in his eyes is now tenfold from what it was before as his wide eyes face down the man who holds his life in his hands; me.

I'd forgotten this power, this feeling of euphoria. To be able to feel so powerful with this, dwarfed my helpless feelings from before. From seeing him hold my Alexis, protecting her from me as if I would hurt her. I scoff internally as I snap the man's neck as easily as breaking a twig. I would never hurt Alexis.

"Tyler!"

I don't have to turn around to know who it is. But my patience was lacking as it were to deal with my father. So when I turn to him, I allow my expression to morph into one of boredom.

"What," I don't bother phrasing it like a question as I watch his face turn from anger to pure rage at my disrespect.

I see his flinching hand considering the move before he makes it and I easily grab his wrist before his palm can connect with my cheek. "Father," I placate, disrespecting him once again as I change my foreboding frown to display my best smirk. "Careful now..."

"Careful?" He screams but backs away from me. "Our best bargaining chip is gone! And you want to talk about being careful? With me? You watch yourself, boy. That girl is getting into your head."

I chuckle and look down then back up and to the guards and then him, "If you were being careful, they would have never escaped." I finally look at him, when I realize my mistake.

"They?" The word echoed in the cavernous hall around us and I feel its meaning weigh heavily down on my shoulders. I feared for Alexis's safety now more than mine.

"THEY?" He repeats with finality.

I bite back a more attacking remark, "I couldn't stop him. And Alexis, she was with him."

To my surprise he starts laughing, which only makes me more terrified and my eyes sneak over to the vampire I had killed and the guards I'd left alive. If I was scared, I couldn't imagine how they were feeling.

"So she got out did she? Left her poor grandmother, no less. Well I guess she made her decision, then."

"What are you talking about?" I knew Cecil to be manipulative but I couldn't hide my anger and hurt at what he was suggesting.

"She must not have told you," his victorious smile solidified my fears and ate at my growing pain. "I gave her a decision. You, or him."

I flinch, finding this foreign pain harder and harder to hide as I clenched my jaw and looked down. My chest heaves as I look back at him, knowing full well, as he did, that he had won. She broke my heart as he had suspected she would.

"Are you really surprised, Tyler?" He laughs again as if to pity me and my eyebrows rise up in the middle in realization that he was right. I wasn't surprised. I knew even if I let myself fall, I could never have her. She had hurt me and I let her do it.

I let her in. It was my fault.

"Listen to me now, son. And please, do yourself a favor and heed my advice. This time." He walks up to me and puts a hand on my shoulder, really playing into the part of a 'father' that he hadn't done in decades. "Move on. Move on with other women if it so pleases you, but move on. She is making you weak. And you have to get rid of that weakness,"I couldn't decide if I hated him, or respected him.

"How would you propose then, that I get rid of this weakness?" I cock my head at him angrily. Alexis wasn't a weakness. But he did have a point. She could be my greatest ally, or my greatest enemy. Right now I couldn't tell which.

"Go. Go out and find her. Kill that dog she's with, and bring her back to you. To us."

"Then what?" I throw his hand off my shoulder.

"Whatever we want," He smiles and it sickens me.

"I'm not an idiot. I know what you want with her. What you suspect she is," my fist ticks at my side as I fight internally with myself to throw it across his face.

"Yes, but they are only suspicions. And you know as well I do how much of a threat she is to us just by being out there again."

"She wouldn't do that."

"And how would you know?" He laughs at my denial.

"She never wanted any of this. She always only wanted to just go home..." I'm such an idiot. I miss her already.

"Good. Then if we know where she's headed, we can intercept her and threaten her with that to get her back here."

My eyes widen at his implication, "You mean to threaten her family?"

"Of course that's what I mean, Tyler. Do you really care about her so much that you'll risk our lives, to save hers? A human?"

Yes. Instead I tell him, "There has to be another way."

"There isn't one. We only have so many options," He insists as he shakes his hands in emphasis.

"What other ones then?" My heart picks up at the possibility.

"Well, we still have Tammy... Her grandmother, though I'd like to keep her alive as bait, and hmm," he holds his finger to his chin as he thinks.

"Tammy?"

"She's more powerful than we thought," He smiles encouragingly.

"Lucius," he regards his right hand man that guards him on an almost 24 hour basis. "Gather the human prisoners and get a head count, we need to make sure no one else has escaped. Post the guards along the perimeter and at all exit points. And we need a small party to go after them. Now!" He demands as the vampire speeds away to do his bidding.

"I go after her. Alone."

He watches me, studying me almost as he considers my demand. "Why should I trust you with this?"

"I'm your son," I say even though I'd grown to hate that fact.

"Fine. I will stop the search party for her, but you leave now."

I nod my head, thankful for the conversation to finally over, as I turn to leave. But he stops me, "Tyler. I hope you understand I need her brought back here. I don't care what you do with that thing. We couldn't get any useful information out of him anyways. But if you fail, I will be forced to send someone else..."

I rotate back around on my heels swiftly and move so that I am face to face with him, hoping to intimate him even though deep down I knew better. "Fine, but she won't come back as a prisoner. She'll come back with me."

His smile was like a punch to the gut, as I feel my knees physically bow. It wasn't a smile of laughter or smugness, it was one of pity and true doubt. "You find that funny?" I couldn't help but ask aloud.

"You think she'll willingly come back with you? You? Hah!" He had to step back now to bend over from his fits of hysteria.

My gaze drifts once again to our onlookers and I feel the judgement in their eyes as they too begin to chuckle lightly. "Tell you what, son," I clench my jaw at his term of endearment, as I face him again, despising my relation with this man. Yes, he was a leader, and I respected that of him, but he was a lousy father. "If she agrees, fine. But I doubt she would come back here, even for you."

"But I love her," I say it so quietly I wasn't sure I said it at all. Till I hear the gasp from my father's mouth, the distinct silence that follows, and the light chuckles from the guards still listening. Furious, I don't hesitate when I kill the two remaining guards, and as I look back to my father, I'm not surprised by his eerily stoic, borderline manic expression on his face. He looks from me, to the still beating hearts in my hand, and shrugs.

"I think you know what you need to do."

"How," I say to no one, hoping he would still be there to at least help me understand. But he was already gone, having sped away to deal with the current crises, among others that are sure to now be piling up.

He was right. I knew what I needed to do, or what he wanted me to do. But how could I actually follow through with it? What would I do?

*

Days later, I tread through the dark, endless forest, despising the difficult, albeit smart, path they had chosen as their escape route. I had been tracking her scent to get here, and even though it faded in and out, I was still able to recognize it from the time I'd spent with her.

"Guess getting to know her was worth something after all. Huh, Father?" I say to myself in spite of Cecil.

Leaves crunch ahead of me and I stop to strain my ears and listen. This wasn't the first time I was led to believe it could be her, when it was only a wild animal. At least that was still food, but I wasn't hungry now.

It was hard to distinguish but I was almost certain I was now hearing her breaths, slow and controlled as she ran. And I dart after her.

As much as I hated to admit it, the idea of seeing her again had my heart soaring. I press forward and within seconds she is in my view. Another second and I'd have her.

But then a tree trunk suddenly connects with my cheek in a painful snap and my shoulders next, continually being pushed into it. I grunt and with enough effort, push back and away. Then I turn to see the wolf.

His fur is black with some silver highlights here and there but I don't take the time to study it when he lunges for me again. I step to the side to avoid it and snap my shoulder back into place, rubbing my cheek in pain.

Then I ready myself for another attack as I swing around. Except he's human again, covered only by torn shorts.

"You need to leave. Now," His request is simple as he begins to redress into more appropriate clothes.

"What makes you think I will?"

"For Alexis. If you really love her, you'll let her go."

My chest tightens and I lose my words, he knew the dilemma I'd been contemplating with since I left the Castle.

With a nod he bows back, not out of respect but in understanding and runs away after her, presumably. It was a quick, simple conversation, but he'd gotten through to me more than he realized. I had to remember why I'd let her go. It was because I loved her, still do, and wanted a better life for her. This was it, there was nothing for her inside Castle, not even me.

But I let my selfishness decide my next move for me.

I had to see her.

***

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this! Had fun writing it, since it gives some interesting insight into the events that take place between the two books.

And you find out why Tyler says the things he says to her when he warns her later. But was he lying to cover up the real reason he'd gone after her? Or was what he told her still the truth? Hmmm...

Remember the next installment of this Freedom Series is already up, "The Fight for Freedom." You can find it on my profile!

-E