Tears leaked down her face, her legs failing her as she stood in the clearing, utterly dumbfounded at the sense of loss she was feeling. She'd have thought she'd be relieved. She'd no longer have to worry about talking to Finn, or worry about raising a child by herself, and yet there she was, bawling her eyes out as a set of arms caught her before she could crash into the ground.

She was losing the last part of him she had.

The thought shocked and terrified her. It was impossible. She hadn't known him for that long before he'd shunned her and pushed her away, and yet whenever she thought of him it brought a blush to her face. A sad smile graced her lips. It was undeniable in a sense... Somewhere along the line she'd developed a crush on her mate, and it had only intensified with the distance he'd put between them. She had no clue whether it was the work of the mate bond, or something else entirely, but she could delude herself any longer.

Genesis wanted to be with him.

"How selfish of me..." She mumbled, staring up at the sky, feeling oddly faint as she was carried towards the castle.

"That doesn't look right..." Riley mumbled, his eyes narrowed at the amount of blood he could see.

"No kidding!" Finar hissed, worry masking his expression. "She's losing way too much blood. She's haemorrhaging..." He said, and with that she was being whisked off to the hospital at record speed.

The world was growing distant, Genesis's consciousness slipping as she was set on her hospital bed, her ears ringing barely able to hear Finar's words. "Come on, Genesis!" He yelled, patting her cheek to no avail. She was out like a light in seconds.

***

A slow steady beeping reached her ears when she woke, the sounds of a newspaper being rustled making her ears twitch as she opened her eyes slowly. The crusted layer of sleep made it hard to pry open her eyelids, and when she eventually did she wanted to slam them shut again. It was too late to do that though. He'd seen her. He knew she was awake.

Finn was there.

He was waiting by her bedside, flicking through a newspaper while he waited. "So..." His voice rang out through the air, a deep sigh resounding from his lips as he saw her snap her eyes shut. "I know you're awake, Genesis."

"What do you want?"

"Finn." Finar rested a hand on his arm. "Don't stress her out too much."

"Why is he here?!" Genesis hissed, rolling over on the bed, yanking out the IV from her arm.

"Genesis!" Finn scowled, watching as she ripped away the other tubes branching out from her skin. "He's here because you almost died!" He said, glaring at her as he hurried to her side. "We couldn't really keep that information from him..." He scowled as she slapped his hands away. "Now, stay still and let me reattach-"

"Was this your revenge for me not paying enough attention to you?!" Finn cut him off, eyes glaring daggers into her spine. "Do you really hate me that much?" He strode to her bedside, hauling her up to face him by the arms. "Whose was it?!" His voice was a snarl, his eyes glowing with rage as she climbed back to her feet, earning another sigh from Finar.

"Lie back down, Genesis." He ordered, scowling as she climbed to her feet, ripping her arms from her mate's grasp. "You're not well enough to be on your feet..."

"Enough." She sighed.

"Answer my question!"

The slap resounded around the room, a dumbstruck Finn staring sideways across the room with a bright red handprint on his cheek as her fragile temper finally snapped. "You want to know what happened when you were drunk that night?!" Genesis hissed. "I ended up in your room, tried to leave and ended up with you kissed me and taking me to bed..." Her watery purple eyes met his. "Don't you dare accuse me of sleeping with someone else! Don't you dare accuse me of wanting revenge against you! Do I have to say it out loud for you to understand?!" Her voice cracked, tears leaking down her cheeks. "I'll only love you, Finn... only you... because that's what mates are supposed to do." And with that said she shoved past him, running into the corridor, covering her face with her arms as she sprinted away.

***

"What caused it?" Finn sighed, glancing over at Genesis as she lay on the bed. The previous Alpha of Medicine had soon caught up with his mate after she'd ran away, quickly dragging her unconscious form back to her hospital bed.

Finar shrugged. "In all likelihood, it was probably the high amounts of stress she was under... but I'm still investigating it, so I'm not a hundred percent sure."

"Stress?" He blinked. "But she was supposed to be relaxing here... What were you guys making her do?"

"Think about it very carefully." He folded his arms, closing his eyes as he sighed deeply. "She's been raised believing that her mate would be the one to love her and cherish her despite her bloody past... only to find out that she's the one who killed his parents while on her first rampage." Finar said, his expression dark. "Not only do you refuse to see her, you practically push her to one side after sleeping with her, and then sent her as far away as you could without endangering her safety... She had no idea if you loved her... She had no idea what you'd say if she told you that she was pregnant with your child..."

"So it's my fault..."

"Not entirely." He sighed, sinking onto the sofa next to the Alpha by Genesis's bedside. "How were you to know the thoughts running through her head...? You had enough problems of your own, and you thought you were doing the right thing by sending her here."

Finn's shoulders sunk, tears leaking down his face as his head slid down onto the Elder's arm, his soft brown locks eventually finding their way onto his lap.

"It's OK." He said, patting his head exactly how he'd used to when Finn had been a child. "Everything's going to be OK." He whispered, feeling the tears leaking through his trousers. "But I'm not going to lie to you, Finn. You've got a decision to make..."

"A decision?"

Finar nodded.

"What?"

"You need to decide whether you want to accept your mate's past."

He blinked.

"If you choose to stay with her, then you need to be prepared to hold her hand through everything – the good, the bad, and everything in-between."

"And if I choose to leave her...?"

"Then I'll have to send her somewhere for psychological treatment." His face was grim. "She should've had all that help and support a long time ago."

Finn's mouth was dry, his mind racing to come up with an answer. His brain told him to leave, and yet his heart thudded painfully at the thought.

"Decide, Finn."

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