Hope you guys enjoy! These next few chapters are going to be small and suspense-filled, so I hope you're prepared for the rollercoaster ride ;)

Let me know what you think,

Libby xx

The vampire doctor soiled himself as he saw the large black beast standing in the doorway, saliva dripping down its teeth. Its smoking muzzle and paws were giving the only indication that the contact with silver was still dangerous to her. Dark gold eyes glowing in fury - a wet snarl sent shivers down the neck of the vampire doctor and he let go of the rope holding the chains down, sprinting out of the compound.

Buchannan, however, was smiling... but he wasn't moving. The large black wolf was half the height of the doorway, and although Raven's human form was malnourished, the obsidian beast seemed to have fed off her pain and fear over the years. It was gigantic, almost filling up the doorway itself, and jam-packed with enough strength to send Buchannan flying... but it wasn't. Even though her wolf was raging against her heart, Raven was struggling for the slightest bit of control. She was holding back her wolf as much as she could to not kill the vampire but she couldn't hold out forever.

Raven had voluntarily shifted into her wolf – after who knows how long – but she hadn't expected another force to be controlling that other side of her.

The midnight wolf's ears twitched as he heard a vampire scream in the distance before being abruptly cut off but she ignored the cry. Crouching low, her eyes locked onto the Master Vampire. He was still staring with illuminating green orbs but he slowly started to walk to the left, giving Raven the view of Thalia and Elijah trapped under the toxic chains.

The chains had sunk into the Princess's skin, and would soon go through her entire body if they weren't removed soon. She was dying at her feet, and Elijah couldn't push the heavy weight off of him to help his mate. Buchannan was killing the Princess... her Princess... her saviour.

Her wolf sank its claws into the concrete floor, as well as into Raven's heart. Elijah gulped when he saw her eyes transition from gold to black, but were back in a heartbeat. The darkness in her mind was closing in all around her now, pushing Raven to strike. To kill... Just one movement of her jaw. She pressed against the walls of her mind, but Raven's deranged wolf was in control.

Raven's wolf took a few steps towards the pair on the floor, ever aware of Buchannan's eyes on her sleek onyx body. The wolf couldn't stop snarling at the stench of his presence. He was foul, and needed to go.

Please! Raven begged to her wolf.

Save Thalia and Elijah, he's done enough!

Save them!!

Please!

The beast's snarls died down to quiet rumbles in its chest, as another scream sounded from outside; no doubt the doctor being slaughtered from one of the wolves looking for its Princess. The large wolf reached down and bit onto one of the sides of the silver chain net, barely feeling the burning of her gums.

"Almost..." Buchannan whispered. "You need one more dose."

Thalia screamed as Raven's wolf eyes shifted to black, with smoke seemingly pouring over the edges of her eyes, and as the silver was suddenly thrown off her burnt body. Raven flung herself in Buchannan's direction, taking the silver net with her. The Vampire yelled as the heavy chains slammed into him with a force so strong he went through the wall behind him. The raven wolf was viciously snarling towards the broken wall as Raven herself rooted the wolf's paws. His death wasn't hers to take, not with all the horrible things he had done to others as well.

No!

He's dead already. Raven screamed in her head as her wolf replied. The mind was clashing against her and another force, and the young girl shed a tear for the bond she'd inevitably lost with her wolf. She tried with all her might to push against her beast's killing craze but Raven couldn't fight herself... especially when the other half of her was stronger. She felt her body take a step forward.

Thalia reached out and grabbed the black wolf's hind leg. Its head whipped around, with determined black eyes, but seemed to halt when she caught the look of the Princess. Her hypnotic brown eyes were vicious but proud as they stared into the wolf's soul. In Raven's mind, she saw flares of gold envelope the dark fog around her and push it away from the young pup. The darkness of her wolf fought back, but the Princess's power crackled and snapped against it. She quickly muzzled the beast and Raven started to see clearly again. The control she had on her wolf grew as Thalia's stare reined her back.

The Royal's envied power of accessing minds was currently a gift as Thalia pulled Raven's soul forward, to beckon her shift back. With the fire of her body giving her all the motivation she needed, Thalia slammed Raven's unstable wolf into the back of her mind and pulled the trembling young girl out of the mental anguish she was in.

Elijah quickly turned away as the black beast burst into an innocent girl. He removed his outer plaid shirt, leaving him in just a singlet, and handed it behind him. Thalia pressed a hand to his shoulder when it was safe to look and she herself cringed at the look in her mate's eyes. The three of them were sitting on a scratched concrete floor in a former vampire compound... they should have been dead; but they were close enough mentally.

The Hunter opened his mouth to say something, anything, when he heard a wolf howl from outside. An eerie, clear howl that made Thalia flinch, even though she was already shaking at her bloody burned body.

"Lara's outside." She translated. "Greg's killer is down, and she has the doctor unconscious for questioning."

"And Buchannan?" Elijah asked, daring a look at Raven. If he thought the girl had a haunted look before her second kidnapping, he was incredibly wrong. Raven's eyes were stark white with horror. Her face had an oily tone to it now, and a sunken in look around her eyes and cheeks. Blood dripped from Raven's mouth, no doubt from flinging the silver chains off the two of them, and she had bloody burns and blisters around her wrists and along her forehead and cheekbones from where she'd been chained up and slammed into the silver door holding her in place. The pup looked like she'd seen her mate burned to death in front of her... that was almost Thalia.

"He's not there." Thalia breathed, alarmed. Raven flinched visibly, bringing her arms around her knees as her head rested against the cool ground. She didn't care about the blood over her body, wasn't paying attention to the pounding against her brain and the beast that was lurking in the shadows. No, she was officially petrified.

Buchannan, the Master of the Vampires, was gone and he still had an army of vampires with him. While Raven was petrified, she was just too tired to get up. She was fighting another battle – another entrapment. But she wasn't a fighter, she just wanted to survive and live for once in her life. Raven was done.

Elijah was about to reach out and touch Thalia's blistering burns but dropped his hand away. He was all too aware of the criss-cross lines from the silver that adorned her back, legs, arms and even the sides of her neck. Festering with blood and raw to even look at, no doubt Thalia was in a tremendous amount of pain... but Elijah's heart was burned as well. The last three words he said were still ringing in his mind; he hadn't said those words. Not even to his parents, or his younger brother.

But to Thalia, she would have died if Raven hadn't saved them, the chains would have sunk into her body and cut her up in the most painful way possible. To have the Wolf Princess; the one who nagged, provoked, snapped and snarled, the one that laughed and smiled at him... to have her gone, Elijah still wasn't over how close they came to that possibility, and doubt he ever would be.

The Princess, even with her scarred and raw body, stumbled as she stood on her own two feet. She was still shaking but Thalia was adamant on getting a move on. Her head was high, even if the burns on her neck strained at the movement. Looking down to see Elijah crouched and Raven cuddled on the floor, Thalia started to breathe away the pain and focus on what needed to happen.

"Let's go find Buchannan." She declared with all the determination she could muster, despite having had a wrestling match with silvery fire. Thalia was a fighter and a Princess – she was going to settle this once and for all.

Just as a recap for those who have forgotten - in this story, a wolf's coat is the direct opposite of their human half's hair. So for Raven, she has blood-red coils, so her wolf is onyx-black. The lighter the red, the lighter the coat (you get the picture).

Next two chapters are going to be small, the three after are going to be long! But not long after that it's the end of this segment in this series - I'll update you later on whether there will be a book after or another series for you to enjoy.