Is this what it felt like for thousands of years of lovers admitting their feelings? It felt like a thousand pounds on your heart, while at the same time it's boiling and lifting through your chest and the only thing you can respond as is a smiling girl. Every touch we ever had electrified on my skin and my wolf howled as if he revealed our mating status as something I didn't know. But that smile died as soon as Ryder abruptly looked away and stood up after a moment passed and his phone chirped.

"Ryder, wait," I said, standing up and watching him near my door. "I—"

"—didn't say it back," he interrupted with a sigh and with an additional "It's fine," I could tell he was hurt. I called for him to wait up, but he didn't stop or slow down. Not until we made it to the front door.

"Ryder Ramon," I finally shouted as his hand made contact with the door and revealed a crack into the dark, outside environment. As his shoulders moved up and down, I knew he sighed and I only wrapped my arms around his torso from behind. "I love you. Even if I didn't immediately say it back, I love you. I was just relishing the moment."

He spun around, grabbed my face and pressed his lips to mine for reassurance, but aside from the cliché fireworks he left me with, I could sense something else. He pulled away and I saw his eyes quiver back and forth before threatening to tint to red.

"What's wrong?" I asked him and then heard my wolf growl as if on red alert. Something was wrong. "What's going on?"

Suddenly Ryder's hands stretched out to cup my face. It didn't take him anytime to lean down and kiss my forehead, but his lips lingered for a second or two. He was saying goodbye.

"Ry—"

"Stay here, stay safe," he huffed before turning to the open door. I stepped onto the concrete porch to see him jogging off to his car right as Stormy was walking up. Once his car doors chirped, Stormy sped up and called his name. "I don't have time for you, Stormy."

"But this is important!" she yelled and stood in front of his car. Ryder, even through the darkness, looked over at me. And with a faint voice that he knew I could hear only with wolf hearing, he called out: "I love you."

"Ryder, stop!" Stormy ordered, pressing her hands on the hood of the car as Ryder sat in the driver's seat. He turned on his engine regardless to Stormy's presence and much to my surprise, he took a hard left onto the open street and barely missed clipping her side. Then, Stormy was stomping in my direction.

"Where is he going?" she asked. I shrugged but to my surprise she aggressively passed me to enter my house, throw down her bag on the couch and wait for my company.

"I don't really know; he just sort of took off," I replied.

"And you don't know where he's going?" she asked, doubtful that I was telling the truth. I shook my head and she rolled her eyes.

"What's so important?" I asked her, crossing my arms. Her face looked uneasy and finally she took a seat on the couch.

"My family...well my coven was united tonight because there was a seal broken to corrupt fate and I—"

"English."

"My relatives came over from out of town, and I overheard my family talking about a break in fate and I know I'm not supposed to even talk to anyone outside of the coven about it, but it's important," she said.

"Okay, well what is it?" I asked and that's when she looked down. I frowned.

"A werewolf's death sets the new course tonight," Stormy said.

"Stormy, what—"

"—I overheard Preston and Ryder's dad plotting and—"

"Wait, what are you even talking about right now?" I asked, frowning down at her. Her grey eyes finally met mine and they were filled with somber.

"Marc Ramon's planning to kill Ryder..." Stormy announced. My wolf immediately howled and my blood boiled.

"You must be wrong," I said. "Why would Marc kill his own son?"

"Maybe Ryder being gone will bring back Zander? I don't know. I heard the news and I charmed—"

"But Ryder's his son too," I raised my voice. "They're brothers. Marc can't honestly think Zander would stay and face the man who murdered his brother. That doesn't make sense—"

"Look, I don't know all the details, but I know Preston's involved, so he's probably blackmailing him into doing it," she guessed. I growled.

"So Preston thinks he can run a pack, but punk someone into doing his dirty work? Douchebag," I named, already grabbing my shoes to put on and my car keys.

"Well he wouldn't risk it," Stormy suddenly said.

"Risk what?"

"Apparently werewolf legend dictates that if someone kills the wolf who Bit them, they return back into being a human—sometimes die," Stormy explained. "I don't know if it's true or not, but if Preston wants to be Alpha, he isn't going to risk losing his lycanthropy by killing Ryder since he's his Maker."

"Well then I'll have no problem killing him in that case," my anger spoke as I ran up the stairs to claim the pure silver blade I had found in the Obsidian house. When I got downstairs, Stormy's eyes fell upon the blade I carefully held by the hilt until I stored it between the band of my pants at my back. Then she looked up at me.

"I don't know what's going to happen tonight, but the only reason my coven meets up and worries about a future they can't see is when something is about to disrupt fate," Stormy notified. "That can be a number of things that may or may not even involve Ryder."

Disruption? Like what happens when a True Alpha is killed, maybe.

"Anything involving a werewolf dying involves Ryder," I insisted. "And now it involves me."

***

"Ryder, I don't know where you are, but do not go home. Stormy—" I had finally been able to leave Ryder a voicemail since his phone was obviously off, but my phone had died right at the message.

I drove to his house where I would go to finish things before they happened, but to my surprise, Preston was leaning on the front porch's railing, a story higher than the sidewalk. Before I got out, I brushed against the blade, making sure it was secure.

When I got out, Preston was descending from the stairs. I noticed that besides the red truck that always remained in the driveway, Preston's car was besides Marc's. Ryder wasn't here. I didn't know if that was a good or bad thing yet.

"Look, just because you're Ryder's pick of the month doesn't mean you can just stop by whenever you want, okay?" he tried to insult. "Go home."

"And considering you're his...what? Ex-Beta, you have no purpose being here," I retorted. "What are you even doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," he said, mocking my suspicion. I didn't know when to pull out the blade and use it on him, but his stupid smirk was convincing me of sooner rather than later. "You heard him earlier. Leave him the hell alone."

"Then you heard him very well tell you to leave too," I reminded. He scoffed at me and still managed to smirk pathetically at me.

"I don't get how you're so desperate for someone who's probably hooking up at Stella's right now—" I silenced him when I abruptly produced the blade and held it up to his throat. He held his hands up. "I definitely didn't expect this."

"What? Me finding out that you're the bastard I thought you've been since the beginning?" I asked, lightly touching his skin above his Adam's apple and seeing the skin sizzle ever so slightly and cause Preston to flinch.

"No," he pursed his lips. "I just thought that you would've been smart enough to give it to Ryder instead of try to handle something you have no skill with."

He quickly threw my arm to the side, grabbed my wrist and hand with his giant hand in order to press me to his body with the blade at my own throat. I would've freaked out if I didn't know that the blade couldn't hurt me.

"If you were smart, you'd know that you can't hurt me with that," I hissed and tried to defy his grasp, but of course, I couldn't—not even with additional strength.

"Yeah?" he hummed. "I can do a lot worse without it."

Suddenly, he threw me away from him and in that same instant, it seemed, there was a wolf standing over me, snapping his teeth at me. Before he lifted a paw, I brought my feet up to kick beneath his jaw and roll backwards in order to get up, but from behind, he had clawed me and I could immediately feel the oxygen meet the open wound, down to the muscle. I yelled aloud, halfway whining as a wolf, but then I saw the wolf shadow shrink from the sidewalk as Preston turned me over. He even crouched near my side, but my eyes had tears in them.

"I don't need that stupid knife to kill you. I don't even need extra strength. You're weak enough to beat with my own hands," he spat, but I somehow generated enough energy to phase into a wolf right then and there and pounce on him to catch him off guard. Of course, I was working with an injured back, but I had gathered a paw-full of Preston's chest right as he phased back into a wolf. Being in that state or maybe his maturity, he healed it over easily and ripped me away from him. He threw me into the construction site of a house across from the Ramons' and in the debris, he did whatever he could to maul me and throw me into the street since I was nowhere being a good fighter. I saw and smelled blood and had no energy left. The last time Preston had bitten my shoulder and threw me into the street near the sidewalk where we started, I had phased down, careless to my naked body, but I just tried to stand—difficult with many possibly broken bones—and put the car between me and the giant beast. But then, Preston phased down too. He neared me as I made it to the back of the car. Everything hurt and I saw each bloody hand print on the Mustang that got me to that place, but instead of letting me slip off the trunk and add another print to the sidewalk, Preston yanked me up.

"Pull yourself together and stand up," he told me with only a scrape on his head that I could see healing. It seemed that my own wounds were taking time and my back had grown numb with pain. Preston glared at me and I tried to pry his hand off my arm and spot the dagger, but it was someplace unknown in the grass perhaps. I peeled him off me and laid a punch in his face. He grabbed his jaw that seemed to break the remaining bones in my hand that caused me to suppress a cry of pain, but then he raised a fist at me. I prepared my body for the impact, but he lowered it. "I'm not going to hit you because I know it'll kill you."

The knowledge that he didn't want to kill me was shocking to say the least, but I was grateful...That was, until he shoved me backwards so hard that I stumbled backwards and my head hit the concrete first because my back spasmed in pain. Then, there were multiple naked Prestons above me as my vision crossed. I didn't have a fight within me. I didn't know pain. All I knew was weightlessness that I felt from the impact...and the smell of blood. But from my right, as my eyes were threatening to close at the sure concussion, Preston crouched down again.

"Killing you would be too easy," he said. "After Ryder's dead, you'll want to kill yourself anyways because everyone knows the only thing worse than death is living without your mate, so happy sufferings—"

Preston's pretentious banter was cut off before he was able to finish. Though I'd like to think I had the ability and strength to phase and shut his ass up with whatever inherited fighting abilities I was bestowed as the universe took pity on me...I didn't. There was, however, a dark brown wolf—darker than Ryder, but not as black as midnight—leaping into the air to pin Preston to the ground. By then, I had no nerve signals to turn my neck to see what happened, but I heard a deep growl and bark.

"What the hell, Marc!?" Preston yelled. "You—You're—How—"

No one's going to hurt my family, I heard Marc think somehow. I didn't even know he had the ability to phase. I thought his werewolf ability to shift had "gone away" according to Ryder and the others. I was more surprised because the ability to hear his thoughts meant that there was loyalty between us. Meaning, he was loyal to me in some way despite how he acted I was bad for his son.

"She's in our way!" Preston yelled. Marc growled even louder—if that was even possible. "How is this possible? You don't even like her—" Suddenly, I was hearing something—a body—being thrown against the Mustang.

"Well my destiny proves otherwise," Marc spoke and I assumed he was the one pinning, now in human form. "She is my son's mate and therefore my family. And no one hurts my family, not even you."

"Well obviously I already did," Preston taunted before there was another ripping sound. Not too long after, my head began throbbing from countless thumps on the ground of wolves on top of each other, bounding against the ground while sharp sounds presumed the breaking of skin and teeth and bones. I assumed Marc's age would give him advantage in the battle, but maybe it hindered him because after my eyes had closed and there was a spotted darkness, I heard two heavy breathers and no more fighting. Then, the silver dagger was slid against the concrete.

"Who needs you anyways? You got what you wanted and screwed over everyone you ever cared about in the process. And to your disadvantage, you pissed me off too," Preston muttered. I managed to crack my eyes open and see that Marc was slowly getting up from the lawn as Preston neared him with the blade. In one swift movement Preston dropped to his knees and lifted the blade into the dark wolf. Immediately, the body fell back into a human's while Preston grabbed his shoulder. Marc's brown eyes met mine for a split second before Preston stabbed him in the heart, causing not only for Marc to cry out in pain, but officially piss off my wolf and phase in order to charge at Preston who had swiftly wrapped the bloody weapon with scraps of clothes, put it between his teeth, phased and ran off. I howled and called out for anyone on my frequency, but there was no response other than the light turning on in the Ramon house as I phased down and tended to Marc who barely clung to life.

"I'm...sorry..." he told me with blood running out of the side of his mouth while tears streamed from my eyes. I heard the front door open and heard Merida cry out in despair while racing down the stairs. I was out of breath and in more pain than before, wondering why I wasn't healing so fast, but Marc was fading as well...so fast that he thought instead of spoke. And when it happened, it took me a while to register that he was allied with me to such an extent that I could listen. You and my son deserve the world. I'm sorry for anything I've done against you and your family, but that's over now. Do what's right for the Obsidian pack and for Ryder.

His words replayed again and again in my brain as Merida had made it down to the lawn and propped her husband's head on her knees to cry. Her screams were louder than any howl that I could think to make in the absence of even Ryder, but once I heard Marc produce his last words of "I love you" after a last farewell to his one true mate, I had blacked out. The only thing I could recognize in the blackness was the sound of a car door and the scent of Andrew.