Matthias's POV

While it was not quite required, I should have been rushing to help with the fight, but I had not been able to resist rushing to her side instead.

I had not seen her in this state before, she seemed as shaky and miserable as that first day she had been struck by the damn curse. I truly had intended to help with the inner defense after checking on her, but when I saw how the curse plagued her less when I was with her, I could not force myself to go back up those stairs.

Apparently I was going to be the last defense this night if it came to it.

I picked her up in my arms and took her chair, settling her pleasing weight on top of me, although that was not my intention. She was wearing a hoodie and had been wrapped in a blanket, but it had come askew when I moved her. I adjusted her coverings so she could retain as much warmth as possible under the circumstances.

Her phone pinged and I took it out of her shaking hands.

"Four, eight, six, two," she whispered to me before I could even ask.

I held her more securely and looked at her message. I read it out to her. "Your dad says 'Austin is sending a second wave and Matt is going to help with the inner defense.' Guess you figured out that last bit though."

She nodded. "Can you respond 'Thanks,'?"

"Sure," I said, punching in her response. I set the phone on the floor beside us and wrapped her trembling form in my arms.

The wait was excruciating. I was completely helpless to alleviate her suffering and it frustrated me to no end. My beautiful Elise was nearly catatonic, a shuddering pile of fear and despair. I hated the bastard as much in that moment as I had in the first moment that he had cursed her.

I did not care that it was an accident, I did not care that he was sorry, I did not care that he had not hurt her intentionally, I did not care that he wanted her to be cured as much as I did.

I did care about what she wanted and what was good for her, so when Serge made his way down the stairs, I did not react. I did not put her down and beat the crap out of him no matter how satisfying it might have been. I did not protest as he indicated I should follow him, as if he had some right to order me.

With Elise still in my arms, I lifted her up and carried her up the shelter stairs and out to Serge's truck.

I kept hold of Elise for the duration of the ride. Even before we got back to Serge's place, Elise began to come out of her stupor. She nuzzled in closer to my shoulder and I found a deep satisfaction at the action. I wanted to protect her from everything that could ever harm her, but the thing that was harming her most hid deep inside her where I was helpless to fight it.

Carrying her into the room that was gradually looking more like it belonged to her all the time, I set her down. She gave me her nervous little smile and gathered up some clothing before retreating into the washroom. She was in there for a few minutes before coming out dressed in a white tank top and grey pajama pants.

I was accustomed to her appearance, but whatever she wore it struck me, and all the more so now that she had decided to be with me.

I did not know if our new relationship was going to dislodge the curse. I had loved her for so long already, it was hardly new to me, but the expression in her eyes was something entirely new. It was no longer just friendly affection I read there. My satisfaction was a living thing inside my chest and it devoured her attention.

She looked a bit unsure, so I moved forward and kissed her quickly. I was never going to tire of this.

I could feel her lips moving beneath mine and it fed my desire for her. Just touching her was enough to make me want so much more.

Breaking the kiss, I said, "I should probably go," but I did not move away from her even though I should have, letting her proximity torture me instead. I was used to patience when it came to her, but my patience was being tested far more furiously than it had ever been before. It was one thing to for me to hold myself back when my fear of losing her had been so prevalent in my mind, but now it was increasingly difficult as the barriers between us crumbled.

While I took deep steadying breaths I reminded myself of all the good reasons not to push this faster than we should.

There was the fact that her father would absolutely want to murder me if he found out I slept her before we tied the knot, but I could not bring myself to be too concerned with that.

There was the fact that we were in the bastard's house and he might be able to hear us, but again I did not care what he thought about anything. It was his own fault we were in this situation at all.

There was that flimsy layer of cloth covering her body that could be so easily removed if only she were willing, and everything I could see told me she would not protest if I went for it.

There was the fact that I did not want her to regret anything between us, and even though she clearly wanted to in the moment, I did not want her to second guess this tomorrow.

She looked a bit disappointed. It almost broke my resolve.

Instead of giving in and pushing towards something I had been wanting for so long, I kissed her again and pulled her to her bed. She got in and I covered her in her blankets before I walked away, feeling like a damn fool for doing what was almost certainly the right thing, even if it did not feel like it in that second.

I left her there, against the screaming of every instinct I possessed. I ran through the forest, dodging unthinkingly around trees and rocks in the darkness. All the while I thought about the previous day. A hell of a lot had happened.

My proposal had been an utter whim. In all my debating over the years, I had never imagined throwing it out there like that, and in all my imaginings I had asked her out on a date or something equally small. Serge's audacity had driven me into a blind rage. Countering him had been an intense gamble, one which I miraculously had won.

I had believed that she would choose the bastard in spite of everything. I had watched her softening towards him since she had been here, but what else could I expect? If I had stopped to consider I could have predicted exactly what she would have done.

She handed out forgiveness with ridiculous ease. I could think of countless examples, when one of the older boys had accidently hit her in the back with a baseball when we were in the early grades. He had freaked out, worried that he had hurt her and about Nick's reaction, but she had never been angry about it. There was the way she put up with Ernie and my irritating sisters and Sean when he was going out of his way to annoy her.

Every one of those situations pissed me off royally, yet she always simply accepted everything and moved on.

Then there was the incident with Neal. He had gotten her alone to talk to her, which I suppose was acceptable, except I had been close enough to hear the nonsense about liking her that had come out of his mouth. Then, before she even had the chance to agree, he had went ahead and kissed her up against the school wall.

She pushed him away and I had been ready to beat his damn face in, but then Sean started arguing with me, giving Elise time to collect herself and stop either of us from giving him his well deserved pounding.

Neal still looked scared of me to this day when we crossed paths.

I had not even known what was going on in my head at the time. Maybe it had just been me defending my friend, but I doubted it now. It was almost impossible to place the moment when my love for her as a friend had become something more.

Not that I ever would, but I could not blame her for not seeing my feelings sooner since it took a while for me to clue in myself about the whole thing.

But now, things seemed to be going better than I could have possibly hoped. She was responding to my advances in that enthusiastic way that made my blood heat and sent my better judgement scattering to the four winds. Just thinking about her filled me with happiness that I was certain I would never find with another person.

If we broke the curse, then there would be absolutely nothing for me to complain about.

When I got home, my irritating family was mostly still up and milling around. I supposed it made sense, since a couple of my brothers had rushed to aid in the fight. They did not look happy, however, so it raised my concerns.

I thought about my previous concerns about the battles and wondered how it went. Serge had not volunteered any information and I certainly was not going to ask him.

"How'd it go?" I asked to the room in general.

All three of my sisters were sitting in the living room looking grim while they watched something on television and I my concern grew.

Isaac was sitting at the kitchen table and he looked over at me. "We pushed them back," he said, but I could tell there was more.

I raised an eyebrow.

"There were four causalities."

I cursed. "Who?"

"No one from our territory this time, but still. Ivan and William from Austin's, Peter and Nelson from Serge's."

I gritted my teeth. Another loss we could not afford, not to mention all the people who were left behind to pick up the pieces. I had known all of them well enough to know that none of them deserved that.

Ivan had been a damn good fighter. We had gotten paired frequently in joint training exercises since we were well matched, and the fact that the easterners had managed to take him out was shocking.

I did not know William well, but I did know he had just gotten married last year. It hit close to home.

Peter had been a bit too overfriendly for someone I had known in passing, and I had last seen him in the crowd watching at Landon's challenge, alive and perfectly healthy.

Nelson was another I would not have expected to fall. He was probably ten years older than me and I had a distinct memory of him in his wolf form ripping our enemies to shreds on the day in which Elise had first been cursed. He had had a demeanor I had found easy to relax around. I remembered him talking about his kids once or twice. I did not remember how many, but the fact that they would never see their father again was pure horror.

None of them seemed dead in my mind, so that the idea they were was difficult to reconcile with reality. Still, I was becoming accustomed to reconciling my memories of a living person with remains that were only left to be buried.

Everyone had become too used to that.

They truly were bleeding us dry.

Serge's words about this being a battle of attrition returned to me. My jaw clenched. I had to find a way to make Elise safe, to make everyone safe.

Ruth brought me out of my grim contemplations. "So, congratulations, Matt," she said cheerfully.

I snapped my head towards her. She had been at work when I told my parents and whoever was around. "Thanks," I said, trying to shake off the morose mood that had gathered about me.

"I was rooting for you, bro," she said with a smile.

"We all were, for all the good it did," Lydia added with her usual deficit of helpfulness.

I tried not to let my annoyance show, because it only made the twins more determined.

"Yeah, I never imagined that Matt would be the first one of us to get married. Although at the rate he moves, the date'll probably be twenty years from now," Isaac pointed out in another blatant attempt to annoy me.

"Don't pick on your brother," my mother said from the kitchen where she had apparently been listening.

I grinned and eyed my brother. "Don't worry, mom. I can take Isaac out if he gets too annoying. He doesn't have a size advantage anymore." I was actually just a touch taller than him, and it pleased me greatly to rub it in.

"Good luck with that, kid," he said. "I've still got experience on ya."

"Wanna try me?" I offered innocently. It would feel great to punch out some frustration on him.

He shrugged. "Anytime, little bro."

My mother marched over from the kitchen. She glared at both me and Isaac. "Number one, there's no fighting in the house. Number two, Isaac already fought tonight so it would not be a clean win. Number three, Isaac, Matthias and Lydia, go clean the kitchen."

"What? Why?" Lydia whined.

My mother narrowed her eyes at my sister. "For annoying your brother and annoying me. If you're going to be bickering, you might as well be useful while you're doing it."

"I was just in the battle tonight," Isaac pointed out in an annoyingly reasonable tone.

"And you had the energy to threaten another one with Matt, so use that to make the dishes sparkle."

She turned to me stubbornly. "Do you have any objections, Matt?"

I shrugged. I was not so stupid as to waste my energy on a losing battle against my mom. One of the advantages to having so many siblings was you could just sit back and let them test the parents.

My mother rubbed my hair affectionately as she walked by me, although nowadays she had to reach up instead of down. I went into the kitchen and started cleaning up.