"Genesis, how are you hanging in there?" My nose scrunched at Amaury's question. I'm sure it was in good faith but truthfully? The cold was starting to get to me. My head was woozy, and there was a low growl rumbling deep within my stomach. His voice was the only thing keeping me afloat. Some food would be nice. Maybe some water too.

"I'm breathing, I suppose." I sighed.

"Fair enough. And your side? Your ankle?"

"They've both stopped throbbing. Now they're just red and sore."

"Genesis, I am worried about your condition. . ."

"There's not much to do, is there? Besides, wait it out and hope for the best." I knew I wasn't being the most helpful but my mental and emotional capacity was at its limit for the day. "If Bennett or either of those Erebus wolves catch me, I'm toast. I'm already cornered."

"We need to formulate a plan," Amaury urged.

"Amaury—" A long drawn-out howl, somewhere in the distance, reached me in the tunnel. I looked both ways, my body on high alert. At first, I was prepared to write it off as a wolf I didn't know, or perhaps I should say, a wolf that I didn't care to welcome. But after hearing it again, I realized the howl wasn't so unfamiliar. In fact, I was drawn to it. It was coming from deep in the middle of the woods; further up the mountain, from the direction of Calamitous. Then, it clicked.

Vincent. It had to be him. He sounded just as he did the very same night Claudia and I talked in his home, and he called to her. I hadn't known it was him howling that time around. I knew now, however, it was his wolf. I could feel the power oozing from his calls. But rather than a cry for help, it sounded like a desperate plea. Something only shared between mates, it felt.

Amaury inhaled, then said, "He's looking for you."

"I know. . ." I frowned, struggling to my feet.

"He must have noticed you were gone too long."

"Amaury, what do I do? I can't howl back! It'll draw too much attention." Another lengthy howl bled into the tunnel, this time, accompanied by others. A pause, then a breath. "Amaury, he's not alone. . ." It pained me not to respond. Probably as much as it pained him that I wasn't.

Amaury remained silent; his mind most likely gearing up for a motivational response. I took that as my chance to observe my surroundings within the tunnel—more thoroughly this time. There was the entrance of the tunnel I came in through. Then, there was the route delving deeper into the darkness where I already found myself stranded. How far back did this tunnel go?

I turned towards the darker end. "Amaury, do you know what's down this end?"

"Further into the darkness?" he asked, cautiously.

"Mhm-hmm."

"Vincent and I . . . have never been that way."

"Not even out of curiosity?"

"No," he said.

I nodded slowly. "Is it possible this tunnel connects to Calamitous?"

"No, we have a map drawing out all the locations and routes of Calamitous' underground tunnel system. This tunnel would have been listed as a part of the chain but it is not."

"Then, is it possible there's a way out? This is a tunnel, not a cave, right? Tunnels usually have two exits. If this side leads closer to Havford, then maybe the other side leads closer to the pack. If Vincent and company are coming down the mountain, we can meet them halfway up."

"Is that a risk you're willing to take in your condition?" There was no trace of him mocking me, only pure worry. I looked down at my injuries, then back into the darkness.

"Do you have any other options?"

"I suppose not." He sighed. "Okay, Genesis. Do what you must. But be careful. Please." I nodded again and leaned on the wall for support. One hand guided me along the wall, the other helped me to limp down the path.

Bad enough, I was nearly blind without my glasses. But I had no idea where the hell this tunnel was taking me, or what might've been awaiting me on the other side. I could only hope for a miracle. I closed my eyes, envisioning myself in Vincent's home, soaking in a warm bath that rid the tension from my body. Maybe even a warm bed, or preferably Vincent's body. It helped to take my mind off the cold and the injuries.

I ignored all the weird bumps I felt on the tunnel wall—damn, I sure hope those weren't bugs I touched. That made it a little harder to focus but if I just pushed a little further, hopefully, I'd make it to my destination, or any destination, really. I wanted to shift since that was the only way I could see, but I didn't want to use the little bit of energy I had left. Shifting seemed like the sort of thing I'd do in case I needed to run for my life again. And that could be at any given moment.

"Genesis, I see a light!" announced Amaury.

"Really?" I laughed in delight, then hissed.

Ouch, no laughing. Got it.

I bent down, my hand still on the wall for support. The light Amaury mentioned brightened my path towards the end. Minutes turned into seconds, then moments. But I knew I had reached the outside when a strong breeze captured me—one that I wouldn't have felt in the tunnel.

"Amaury, do you recognize any of this?" I wheezed. As the air clung to my lungs, I welcomed it with shallow breaths.

"Looks as though you were right. Calamitous is up there," answered Amaury. I saw what he meant when I looked ahead. Surely enough, Calamitous was a few more miles up the mountain.

"Oh, thank goodness—" Something rustled in the bushes.

I froze, my eyes darting around for the source of the noise. Whatever it was, it sounded like there was only one of it. Shit, who was it? An animal? Bennett? An Erebus wolf? I couldn't tell. Dammit, when I figured I'd need to run, I hadn't planned on doing it this soon. As a last minute retreat, I tried to back up into the tunnel again, but that resulted in a pained whimper.

I crouched forward on my knees, my palms spreading on the ground.

A familiar scent overwhelmed me. From the bushes across from me, the first thing I saw were large golden-yellow eyes. Dark and hypnotizing. Only once had I felt an overwhelming alpha's presence this strong—the night Amaury and I crossed paths.

"Vincent. . ." My voice cracked.

I recognized his dark fur the second he jumped out from behind the bush. I'd barely had time to register him as he rushed towards me full speed. Only did he slow down when we were close enough that our heads touched. He dropped the cloak in his mouth between us. I ran my fingers through his fur, resting my forehead against his jaw while he nudged my cheek with his snout.

The hair above his eyes pinched together as if he wanted to scold me. Probably right after he turned human. But my injuries immediately caught his eye and he growled his concern instead.

Rather than commenting on them, I decided to inquire about the others' whereabouts. "Hey, you weren't alone, were you? I heard a lot of howling." I received a nod in response. He then howled, I assumed to let the others know he'd found me. As touching as this reunion was, I needed to tell him about Bennett and Sophia.

"Vincent, we need to get back to Calamitous. There's something you and everyone else needs to know," I spoke in a rushed tone. "I know who's behind this. Bennett is an accomplice."

Vincent took a step back to put distance between us. His body began to shift until he was back in human form, and in his cloak. For a moment, he focused on me. Quiet and unmoving.

"Bennett? . . .What? B-Bennett did this?" he asked, breathless. His eyes were back on my injuries. It was as though I'd slapped him with the truth. And as much as I'd have liked to give him more time to process his close friend's betrayal, we didn't have time.

I winced. "Well, technically no. But also yes. It's a long story."

Vincent's mouth fell agape. But he said nothing. Everything was so sudden. His nose flared, then his arms were around me in a protective stance. He pushed me to the back of him. I yelped in confusion. But I soon realized what caused his quick reaction. From the pits of darkness in the tunnel, emerged a group of wolves; sinister and menacing. I grabbed Vincent's arms. At the very middle, a dark gray wolf lingered in the back of the group.

Vincent's muscles were in knots beneath my grip. I didn't think that had anything to do with me though. If anything, it had everything to do with the gray wolf maintaining his distance. Hearing Bennett was involved was very different from witnessing his involvement first-hand.

Vincent scoffed his laughter. ". . .Wow. It really is you."

This was bad. Really bad. There were six of them and two of us. No way in hell was Vincent taking on all six wolves by himself. One wrong move on my end and I was as good as dead.

"Vincent, you can't fight them alone," I whispered, tugging on his arm.

He paid me no mind.

"I don't understand, Bennett. . . Why?" Vincent could beg all he wanted but the fact of the matter is, he wasn't getting answers. Not like this.

The wolves began to disperse—scattering like bugs as they circled us as though we were prey. I let go of Vincent's arm, backing away. Growling commenced between Vincent and the group. Behind us, footsteps pounded into the ground. Several scents swept my nose. When I turned my head, a blur of white leaped into the area. Claudia. Dylan and Dimtri's wolves were next, followed by a wolf I'd never seen before. The wolf's fur was closer to red than brown. Mariah?

"Just in time," Vincent breathed out. That's when I realized it wasn't just them. There were a few more wolves alongside them.

I checked left and right, searching for the quickest possible retreat. But nothing came of it. The next few moments were chaotic. I wasn't sure who made the first move. It didn't matter though. Every wolf was at each other's throats.

I covered my ears to block out the loud noises projecting over my thoughts. Avoiding the madness was harder than it looked. If I moved one way, an Erebus wolf was coming at me. If I moved another way, two wolves were coming at me, entangled in each other. I could hardly keep track of Vincent as he searched the crowd for one person. And in the midst of it all, that person had been fading into the darkness of the tunnel. Bennett turned and ran.

"Like hell I'm letting you get away." A snarl slipped through Vincent's lips. His eyes flickered the color of his wolf's as he bounced off his feet, mid-shift in the air.

"Vincent!" Dammit.

I swore under my breath and scanned the ground for Vincent's cloak. Then, I looked back at the fighting—Calamitous seemed to be doing just fine on their own. So, I darted for his cloak, then shed my own as I shifted and ran after them, cloaks in mouth.

"Genesis, you can't keep up!" Amaury hissed.

"I can try!" I argued. I wasn't much help back there, neither would I be much help here. But to sit back and do absolutely nothing wasn't an option.

All I could feel was pain. It tore through every inch of my body. But I relented. Vincent and Bennett were a little over more than a few feet ahead. Vincent was gaining speed on him.

"They're approaching the other end," Amaury soon announced.

I panted, nearly breathless. And not because I was running so fast. More or so because I was losing feeling in my side. Black dots danced around my eyes. Even after blinking them away, they returned. I wasn't sure how much more I could push myself.

"Come on, Genesis. You're almost there. Don't pass out now." Amaury's words were motivating but not enough. My legs were slowing down.

A loud snarl echoed through the tunnel. I realized it came from Vincent as he tackled Bennett to the ground. Their bodies fell with a booming thud, tumbling outside the entrance. I skid across the grass, digging my paws into the dirt to stop faster. Vincent's dominance overrode Bennett's. That much was obvious. Bennett, however, wasn't one to give up so easily. He stood his ground, his movements slow and calculated; matching Vincent's as Vincent shadowed him.

They were like two magnetic forces pushing and pulling away from each other. Vincent launched himself again. But Bennett was quick to dodge the attack. In an attempt to gain control, he tried launching as Vincent steadied himself. But Vincent wasn't alpha for no reason. Vincent twisted the upper half of his body, his open mouth colliding with Bennett's. Again, they repeatedly fought for the upper hand. Blow after blow, neither of them allowed the other to win.

When an opening appeared—that Vincent must have spotted—Vincent rammed his head into Bennett's, knocking him off his paws. Vincent hadn't given Bennett a chance to recover. He immediately aimed for Bennett's neck. Bennett's body flipped over as he flailed under Vincent's jaw. But Vincent pinned him down by the throat. The pair continued to scuffle, leaves and grass rising in their battle, until Bennett could no longer move. He lay immobilized and defeated.

Vincent's warning growl was the last straw. Growling turned into panting when the two of them shifted back. Bennett was still pinned beneath Vincent. While Vincent crouched over him.

"How could you!?" Vincent's hands were still secured around Bennett's throat. He yanked Bennett by the throat and slammed his head into the solid dirt. Bennett coughed, winded. "Give me one good reason not to rip your fucking throat out right now," sneered Vincent.

Bennett remained silent.

"Answer me you conniving son of a bitch!" Vincent slammed Bennett's head again.

"Calm him down. We need answers." I heard Amaury's voice.

"Vincent!" I rushed forward—after also shifting back and slipping on my cloak—trying to hold Vincent's arms before he blacked out completely. "We need him! Don't kill him just yet." He was already stronger than me but him seeing red was ten times worse.

"Vincent, please!" I begged.

"I-I tried to prevent this from happening for as long as I could," Bennett wheezed.

"To hell with your excuses!" Vincent yelled. "We trusted you, Bennett. I trusted you. Yet you betrayed us all! Did you hurt Genesis too?" Trying to remove Vincent's hands from Bennett's throat was useless. So, I gave up and threw Vincent's cloak over his bare lap. Not that they probably cared that they were naked and sweaty.

"No, I didn't hurt her," Bennett seethed.

"You were going to though." Vincent's eyes glowed darker, his grip tightening.

Bennett clenched his teeth. "She was never supposed to get hurt."

"What? You and five other wolves chased me," I revealed, baffled.

"I had to!" He scowled.

"You had to?" Vincent chimed in.

"Yes, because she wasn't supposed to be there! She wasn't supposed to be here. Joining Calamitous. Do you understand? Genesis, you were never supposed to be involved!"

"The laptop in my ceiling." Vincent frowned. "Was it you?"

"I hid it there in case shit hit the fan . . . which it has," Bennett said.

"In case shit hit the fan?" I frowned.

Bennett sighed. "When you and Amaury crossed paths, that wasn't supposed to happen. But I used it to our advantage. It was easier to frame you than to leave Amaury's body there alone and raise more questions. But I knew there was a chance it would be obvious that you were framed.

"So, I tried to make amends for that. I figured if you guys found out Genesis was framed, then I'd just give you a lead to go off. By hiding the laptop in Vincent's office. That way it'd look like the alpha was the one who framed Genesis from the start. Vincent would have taken the fall. . ."

"You intended for Genesis' laptop to go missing then. . ." Vincent was fuming.

"What? Why didn't you just kill me then!? If you were the one who stabbed Amaury and planted all that evidence against me, why go through all the trouble to do that?"

"If I would have killed you, it would have come back to us. I couldn't allow your town to think Amaury killed you or it would have screwed us over! I couldn't complicate things!"

I scoffed. "Who cares? You're helping your mother kill your pack as it is!"

Vincent froze. "Sophia?"

"My mother." Bennett sighed.

"She's . . . alive?" Vincent whispered.

"Apparently," I mumbled.

"Bennett, what the fuck?" Vincent's response was very on-brand for the matter. Bennett laughed. The dry, batshit crazy kind of laugh that made my skin crawl.

"You think this is funny?" Vincent snapped.

"No," was Bennett's forward response.

Vincent's eyes narrowed. "When did you find out she was alive?"

"I didn't know until a few days after my twentieth birthday. She paid me a visit one night. Not in Calamitous. It seems she was lurking around the border of town," Bennett admitted.

"Why?" Such a simple question. Yet it had so much impact.

I kept quiet while Vincent waited for an answer.

Bennett's throat bobbed. "To apologize for being absent in my life for the two years she was. She said that Calamitous was to blame. She wanted to convince me to join her."

"And you did." I didn't think Vincent could look anymore disappointed than he sounded. "Bennett, I don't understand why you did. Do you hate the pack?"

"No," he said.

"Okay, then do you hate me?"

Something changed in Bennett's demeanor. "I respect you."

"You respect me. . ." Vincent repeated, then laughed. "That wasn't a no."

Bennett hesitated, "My mother. . . She resents Alpha Amaruq and the pack."

"Cut the shit, Bennett. I'm not asking about her. I'm asking about you."

Bennett was quiet for a moment. "I don't know how I feel. . ."

"Just answer me this"—Vincent inhaled and closed his eyes—"why Amaury? What did he do to deserve this?" I was scared Bennett's response would be what set Vincent's anger off again.

Speaking of the wolf, he was oddly quiet up there.

After another moment of silence, Vincent whispered, "You can't, can you? Was it worth it? Was helping her worth all the lives of your pack? Your kind? Humankind?"

"She's all I have left," Bennett replied, weakly.

"All you have? Bennett, you have us!"

"Stop. Don't do that," Bennett hissed.

"Don't do what?" Vincent growled.

"Act like you never once yearned for your family again. You hated Calamitous when Lady Teresa and Alpha Amaruq first brought you in. You had us, and yet you still weren't satisfied."

Vincent reeled back as if he'd been slapped.

"So what? You joined her because she's your mother?" he asked.

"I joined her because we were treated unfairly—"

"We or she?" Vincent scowled. "How much of the truth did she actually tell you!? You let her into your head. Your mother could have put the pack in danger if she was allowed to stay!"

"She just needed help!" Bennett argued.

"She didn't want help!" Vincent retorted.

At this, Bennett's mouth snapped shut. I watched from the sidelines, unsure of what to do. Who knows how long this had been brewing? For Bennett, especially.

"So, she's using you? Manipulating you to do all her dirty work within the pack? Is that what you've become now, Bennett? Just a puppet?" Vincent delivered blow after blow.

Bennett snarled and struggled to move. "Fuck you."

"She. Didn't. Want. Help," Vincent repeated. By now, his chest was heaving but his voice was lower. Gentler, dare I say. "You can't help someone who doesn't want help. . . People make mistakes in their state of grief. I get that. But some mistakes are hard to come back from. Because they can hurt the people around them. They do hurt the people around them."

I paid attention to the way Vincent's jaw ticked. I could've sworn I saw tears building along the brims of his eyes. He blinked them away, however. My heart swelled.

"Amaruq's decision left me stranded to fend for myself. . ." Bennett whispered.

So, that's what it was. Resentment for going the rest of his life without parents. A parent he had no choice but to let go. And a parent he thought could've been saved. This put a lot more into perspective. Even though he was eighteen-years-old at the time of her banishment, I could imagine how lonely it must have been for him to have gone two years with a mother trapped in her own grief after his father's death. Then, for her to be gone and him to be alone while most wolves had their families. Until her return two years later.

Shit, I felt sick to my stomach.

I hadn't thought about it like that. Was that what happened to wolves whose families vanished over time? They were left orphaned or they went rogue? It made me wonder what would have happened if Vincent hadn't been left in safe hands. Maybe he'd have been a loner—belonging to no pack. Or maybe he'd have become an Erebus wolf. Or maybe his pack would have still been here today, and someone would have taken him in. It was a lot to consider.

"Why didn't Sophia come back for you sooner, then? Two years you thought she was dead. That she killed herself and left you behind. Then, she appears out of nowhere. She abandoned you like my mother abandoned me. . . Whether she intended to or not. Packs are your family.

"After all, Calamitous picked you over me. Didn't they? Even though you were alone, they took care of you after she was gone. You want her to get help? Well, stop enabling her. Help us help her. We have to put an end to this, Bennett. . ."

Vincent's face was void of any emotion as was Bennett's. I dug my hands into my thighs. The tension was so thick it was suffocating. Bennett's nose flared, his eyes clenching shut as he lost himself in thought. When he opened his eyes again, I saw a new purpose in them. I didn't know how long it'd last or if Vincent would kill him when this was all over (he was being pretty forgiving at the moment), but if it meant he was going to help, then I didn't care.