"You wanted to see me?" Leo closed Chase's office door behind him. I immediately looked to the Alpha himself, willing him to leave.

"You have to torture me every time, don't you?" Chase groaned. He lifted himself from his office chair, kissed the top of my head, and left.

When I locked eyes with Leo, I could see his confusion. He smiled, nonetheless, and started to walk towards me.

"Thank you." My words had him coming to a halt.

"Don't thank me." He shrugged.

Block your mind. Isn't that what Chase said to do? Put up a wall.

"Why shouldn't I? You saved my mate." I smiled gently. "I owe you."

"You don't owe me, Macey." Leo played with his hands as he spoke. "I was only acting as I should. I'm Head Warrior."

"That doesn't matter to me. Chase threatened you when he found out about our past, yet you still protected him. Why?"

Leo took a deep, slow breath. "He's my Alpha, and you would be hurt without him. Macey, I was only doing as anyone would. You really don't need to be so-"

"I can't thank you enough," I interrupted him. "The bravery you obviously had to save Chase for me is incredible."

"Blake still got hurt!" The irritation in Leo's voice had me snapping my mouth closed. He stared at me with regretful eyes, seeming to let all his emotion show through. "I'm Head Warrior and my Alpha almost got killed and my Beta is nearly dead. So please, don't thank me."

Good going, Macey.

"I'm sorry." I felt breathless as Leo's outrage.

Would he hurt me?

Leo ran a hand through his freshly washed hair. "Mace." He stepped up to the desk, right in front of me where I was leaning against the desk top.

"I can't help it. You're a wolf, Leo."

His eyes widened in hurt. "You think I would hurt you?"

"I don't know." I think I'm just terrified of not knowing.

"I would never!" Leo stepped closer, too close. He grabbed my hands in his. "Hurting you is the last thing I want to do. That's why-"

"If I were you, I would remove your hands this instant." Our heads snapped over to see Chase standing in the open door frame. His hands were balled into fists at his side and he was glaring at us with black eyes.

"Chase, we were only talking," I insisted. Leo quickly stepped away from me.

"Little close for only talking." His eyes wouldn't leave Leo's still body.

"He saved your life, Chase!"

"That doesn't give him a right to touch you!" His eyes finally latched onto me. The emptiness of them, paired with the snarl on his lips and the sharp canines protruding from his gums had me freezing.

Don't move. Don't move or he'll attack.

When they are antagonized, stay calm. Keep your head.

They aren't thinking properly. You have to to survive.

"Macey, whatever you are thinking, you need to stop," Leo whispered.

"Don't say her name." His rage was vibrating through my chest.

"Chase." I took a deep breath and forced myself to step towards the angered beast. "Please, I'm...I'm scared, Chase."

"Of me," He stated. There was no question in his heavy statement.

"Please calm down."

"This is who I am, Macey. I'm a wolf. I'm a wolf who will protect his mate at all cost and this mutt is getting in my way!" Chase looked back to Leo, who was bowing his head and remaining stoic.

"He's not threatening me," I assured.

"You let him close to you, but not me. It will never be me, will it?" Chase started breathing heavy again and his hands relaxed, only to produce claws. "I won't let it be him."

I have to protect Leo.

Chase lunged at Leo and I lunged at Chase. My strength wasn't enough to tackle him, but his was enough to knock me to the floor. I cried out, knowing it would take my mates attention.

The half turned beast turned to me, black eyes wide and horrified. I gave one nod to Leo and he bolted from the room, closing the door behind him.

"Mate." Chase fell down to me and grabbed my arm where I was hoping my bicep. I slowly moved my hand, carefully deciding my actions.

He closed his eyes, slowly taking deep breaths. When he opened them again, they were back to green.

"You faked it," Chase growled. I nodded. "I thought I hurt you."

"I had to do something. I won't apologize."

"I know." Chase broke our gaze by standing back up.

"You're still insecure. You think I'm going to leave you for Leo." I recalled his words in my head. I won't let it be him.

"Why wouldn't you? You could kiss him without losing your stomach." Chase tuned his back to me and gripped the edges of his desk.

"That's not fair!" I forced myself to stay calm. "I know him, so I'm more comfortable with him. But I don't want him."

"Can I hold you?" I didn't answer soon enough and Chase sighed. "I-"

Stepping forward, I wrapped my arms around his back and around to his front torso. I held myself close against him, trying and failing to stop the shaking in my arms.

Chase slowly turned in my arms and lifted my chin so I looked at him. The raw worry in his bright green eyes took my breath away. I wanted to kiss the worry out of him.

"Please don't." Chase stopped me when I leaned up on my toes. "I just want to hold you. I can't..."

"You can't what?"

"I don't want to feel like you are just reassuring me or proving something." Chase tightened his grip around my waist. "We should go see Blake."

"Yeah. We should," I agreed. Slowly, I let my arms fall to my sides and I started towards the door.

I felt like I had been stung or struck right in my chest. There was a lump in my throat. My hands ached to do something but I didn't know what, or I wouldn't accept what.

"You're very good at blocking me out." There was silence between us for a few awkward minutes of Chase leading us through the house. He didn't speak until he had opened the front door for me to go outside.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I tried to walk away, but Chase gripped my arm to stop me.

"Don't be like this, Macey. Please, I'm tired."

We just stood there and stared at each other for so long. I could feel that my gaze was passive, blank, while he was showing me everything. The weary, longing look in his eyes told me everything.

"I'm sorry. C'mon, we should check on Blake." Before I started to walk again, I pushed my hand into Chase's. It brought a smile to his face. He looked like the world had been saved.

"I won't make you walk. The hospital is half a mile away. We can take my jeep." Chase brought us to a garage that was separated from the house, but only just to our right once we had stepped out of the door. Inside the ridiculously large doors were ten vehicles. Three were trucks, two were jeeps, three were black hummers, and the other two were very expensive looking sports cars. All were lined against the walls, facing us.

I looked to Chase for an explanation.

"Sometimes we have to get places fast." Then he leaned down and whispered in my ear, "and I love a good joyride."

Laughter bubbled through my throat. Chase didn't laugh with me, but he grinned victoriously.

Chase took me to a soft topped jeep. It was obviously far from new, and the license plate told me it was an antique.

"She still runs great, don't let her fool you."

"Who's cars are these?" I asked as Chase opened the passenger door for me. He tried to lift me up into the seat, but I was quick to help myself in.

Leo used to lift me into his truck.

Chase tensed, inhaling deeply, and I knew that I had not kept that thought locked into my own mind. In fact, looking back on it, it seemed like I had pushed it out.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled. Chase didn't reply. He quickly walked to the drivers side and climbed in.

"The trucks, one of the hummers, and this jeep were all bought when my dad was Alpha. The rest I have acquired myself."

"They're all yours?"

"Blake and I have rule over them. The hummers are usually used whenever we have to drive fighters to other packs." Chase's movements were smooth as he switched gears, never making the engine rev more than necessary.

"You're a good driver." Small talk definitely wasn't my strong suit but I needed something to avoid more awkward silence.

"How long were you and Leo together?" I hadn't expected him to bring my past up. It wasn't exactly a welcome subject, in close to all aspects of it.

"A while," I eluded. Chase flexed his fingers on the steering wheel.

"How much did he mean to you?"

The truth?

"The truth, Macey," Chase confirmed. I felt my neck heat up.

"I don't like that I have to constantly block my thoughts from you," I stated.

"You realize that I have to do the same if I want my own thoughts to remain as such?"

"You've had years of practice."

"Fair enough."

The jeep soon pulled up to a large building. It had the appearance of a hospital, only not so advanced or large as ones in a city.

"Don't get out," Chase stopped me. I suddenly felt crowded, suffocated. "How much did he mean to you?" His question was becoming more strangled.

I took a deep breath. I knew I had to be honest, but I also knew that my answer could change many things.

"At the time, he meant more than anything to me." Chase opened his door to leave. "Don't get out," I mocked.

He froze before forcefully slamming his door and turning to me.

"I just fought for you and you-"

"Choose your words wisely, Brian!"

"Did you just use my last name?" I stayed silent. "That was kind of hot."

My eyes locked onto his grinning face. I was left speechless, dumbfounded actually.

"I said that he meant everything to me. He doesn't anymore, Chase."

"Do I?"

"Not yet."

It was then that Chase nodded, accepting my answers, and climbed out of the jeep. I followed after him. There was a lump in my throat and I felt as if someone was squeezing my chest. It hurt to breath.

"Let's go see Blake." Chase began to walk towards the double doors before I rushed to catch up with him.

After hesitating for a minute, I pushed my hand into his. Chase accepted the affection and guided me inside.

Blake was lying in a hospital bed. His eyes were shut in a peaceful way, but the sight of him was anything but.

His face was scratched and stitched from his left temple in a jagged line that disappeared under an oxygen mask. His eye was bruised and slightly swollen. The gauze wrapped around his abdomen was clean on the outside, but the thought of what it looked like under the gauze made me choke up.

A steady beep filled the room from a heart monitor. An I.V. was stuck into his arm.

"Are you alright?" Chase tightened his hand around mine for a few seconds.

"Does Kendall know about this?" I could barely find my voice.

"Yes, she does. The nurses had to sedate her because she went hysterical while they were trying to do surgery on him. She's asleep in the room next to us," Chase answered.

"She was so worried. She knew something was wrong. She kept saying that Blake would have contacted her if he was still okay." I couldn't take my eyes off of his wounded face. "I thought she was overreacting."

"Macey, that's not your fault. This could have happened to anyone there." Chase's voice was so tense and I knew he could barely handle what he was seeing as well.

"It could have happened to you," I whispered.

Chase sighed and turned me, forcing my eyes off of the sleeping man. "It would have happened to you." I corrected myself before he could try to reassure me. "If it didn't happen to him, it would have been you."

"Blake protected me. I owe him my life." He took a deep breath. "I want you to realize that we will be going back and we will end the threat these wolves put on us."

"No!" I pulled myself out of his grip. "Your best friend is-"

"I'm doing this for him, Macey, and for you." He took another very deep breath and tugged at his hair. "There's things that I can't tell you, Macey. You know that. I have no other choice but to defeat these wolves."

"Why?" I pressed. All I wanted was to know what was so urgent that he would risk himself for it.

Chase stared at me a moment. Then, "If I don't, much worse things may happen to you and many others. A much larger threat would come up to the werewolf population."

"Your answers aren't reassuring me," I choked out. Chase nodded and rubbed my arms with his bare palms.

"Trust me. Okay?"

The question seemed to hold so much weight for us as I stayed quiet.

Trust a wolf?

Don't ever trust a beast.

Trust my mate.

"I trust you to do the right thing," I eluded. I didn't trust he would come back to me unharmed, especially not with Blake's condition.

We stayed in the hospital for quite some time. At first, we just sat in awkward silence. I watched Blake and Chase watched me. I could see his hard, focused look from the corner of my eye. The silence was impeding and the tension in the air was suffocating.

"Thank you," I finally whispered. Nobody replied to me, but the one I was talking to was in a medical induced coma.

That's all I said. Blake remained unresponsive and Chase didn't say a word. He didn't move from his chair at the end of the hospital bed.

"Can you tell me what happened again?"

"I don't want to," Chase replied. I looked to him in disbelief.

"You don't want to?" I was surprisingly not too shocked at his childish reply.

"No, I don't. I honestly can't stop replaying it in my head. Looking back, I can see where I could have kept this from happening." Chase chewed momentarily on his lower lip. When he didn't say anything else, I decided to change the topic.

"You bite your lip." He looked at me, dropping his lip from between his teeth. "When you're focused, confused, or stressed you chew on your lip."

His face tinted red as he avoided my gaze. "You spend that much time focused on my mouth?" I could hear in his voice that he was only trying to divert the attention from himself.

"You also don't like me pointing out your little quirks. Especially about your mouth." I couldn't help but grin. "Your blush looks funny."

"God, I'm glad Blake isn't hearing this," Chase mumbled. "He liked picking on me enough without you in the mix."

"He's your best friend." I don't know why I pointed that out. We both knew it was true.

"Who was your best friend?" Chase asked me. I gulped.

"I just had my brother for a while. Then he started avoiding the house and Dad. Then I had Leo. Then no one." I didn't have a terribly sad childhood. Possibly just a strange one. An abnormal one.

"You have Penelope and Kendall," Chase pointed out. I laughed.

"More so with Penelope." Then, I frowned. "Do you think Penelope and Heath are mates?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I thought it was impossible to tell unless both were of age?" I recalled. Chase watched me carefully.

"It is. Heath is of age and Pen isn't. It seems likely they would be with how they are together," Chase accepted. His smiled. "Are you taking an interest in mate theology?"

"I don't think they're mates."

"That is also a possibility," Chase agreed. "I don't believe their wolves would take such a liking to each other if they were not though."

"Is there any possible way for mates, even just one of the pair, to be able to tell early?" I knew I was pushing it with my questions, but the thought of Chase with another female hurt me enough to know that Mark was less than pleased.

Chase didn't reply right away. He seemed to think for a second as he contemplated either my question or his answer.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" Chase asked. I shook my head. "Does this have anything to do with one of my pack members?"

"No, Chase, I'm only curious."

"Macey, I need you to tell me the truth here. Is one of my pack members a Targeter?" The agitation, perhaps fear, in his voice had me freezing. I slowly stood from my chair, taking myself out of an easy target range.

"What are you talking about?" Chase stood up with me. "Chase, I was only asking questions. I'm sorry to pry."

Block your mind. Block your mind. Block your mind.

"You're sure?" Chase pressed. I could see the tension in his shoulders.

"I'm positive." I've got to talk with Mark.

Chase hesitated a moment before sighing. "I'm sorry to worry you. I'm just anxious."

"I understand." I lied. I didn't understand a single thing that was happening here. Everything was only getting more and more confusing as time went on.

~~~~

I'm always late with these updates aren't I?