It's dark when we hear the growls. Turning, I see see four infected, one a werewolf and the others human. We are far too close to the house. We cannot lead these things back to our home; we have no choice but to take them on, despite the fact that I am barely able to stay on my feet and Ethan is not doing much better.

"They must have smelled their blood," Ethan says, putting down Alexis while I do the same with the werewolf slung across my shoulder. Luckily they are both unconscious. He makes his way over to me, handing me two daggers before swinging up his bat, waiting for the infected to approach. "There is no way we are getting out of this unscathed."

I don't bother to respond, instead choosing to prepare for the approaching creatures. The infected wolf reaches us first, moving faster than the others. I throw one of the daggers, hitting it in the neck and making it stumble, but not killing it. Ethan does not waste time, moving quickly to swing the bat up in a wide arc and smash it against the werewolf's head. The beast falls to the ground. While Ethan finishes it off, I push my body forward towards the other approaching infected.

The one closest to me is the least disturbing of the bunch. It has an eyeball dangling from its socket and bones for fingers, but it does not disgust me as much as the other ones. A surge of adrenaline runs through me, and I stab the slow infected in its empty socket, watching as it sinks to the ground before stomping its head in.

"Tatum, look out!" Ethan yells from behind me. Turning, I see that one of the infected that had been far away had somehow managed to creep up on me while I was distracted. It snaps its jaws at me while throwing itself against my body. My tired arms and legs do not allow me to absorb the impact and instead I fall to the ground with the infected's snapping jaws only an inch from my face,

I push against its chest, trying to roll it off of me, but a terrible pain in my right arm causes me to cry out. I must have landed wrong when I fell, leaving me with only one arm to fight of the infected. Just when I think I am done for, the beast is thrown off of me, and I watch as Ethan swings the bat down hard on its head, effectively killing it.

Ethan stumbles on his legs before dropping his bat and collapsing down next to me. Looking around, I see that he took out the last infected, meaning we are safe for now. The sky is getting steadily darker, though, and we still are about another thirty minutes from the house. Despite this, I cannot find it in myself to move, my arm throbbing and my body weak from exhaustion.

"You okay?" Ethan asks, tiredness in his voice. I shake my head while looking over at him. He is holding his side, blood seeping out from the wound he is trying to hold together. He must see me looking at his wound. "The last one had claws. Fucking claws. I have no idea how an infected human had wolf claws."

We sit there in silence, trying to will each other to get up and walk the last bit of distance to the house. Just when we are both trying to get on our feet, fighting the exhaustion that is trying to weigh us down, we hear footsteps coming towards us.

"I can't go another round," Ethan says, leaning up against the nearest tree. With a shaky hand, I hold the dagger Ethan had given me out in front of me. There is no way I stand a chance against the approaching figure, but I will not go down without a fight.

"Tatum? Ethan?" a familiar voice says, shining a flashlight between our bodies. I squint my eyes against the sudden light, trying to see who is behind the glare. "Where's Alexis? Where's my sister?" The voice that I now recognize as Jesse becomes frantic when he cannot immediately locate Alexis.

"She's alive, Jesse, but just barely," I say, using my dagger to point to where Alexis's still form is lying, He rushes over towards her, and Erik steps up from behind him.

"Holy shit, are you guys okay?" he asks, making his way over to us. I shake off his hands before nodding over at his brother, knowing that he is in more need of help than I am. "We heard yelling, so we came to investigate."

"Obviously not," Ethan says smartly, wincing when Erik assesses his wounds. "Everything got fucked up and chaotic at the end."

"Let's get you all back to the house, then you can tell us what happened." Jessie joins us, holding his limp sister in his arms. He has her cradled close to his chest, the blood that the towel was unable to absorb seeping into his shirt. I can see the distress on his face, which shocks me a little bit. Most of the time he wears a mask, not showing his real emotions. He must be pretty upset if he is not trying to put up a front.

"Erik," I say, pulling the alpha's attention away from his brother. He looks up at me with his green eyes. "We have someone else, and I don't think I can carry him back the rest of the way."

His eyes scrunch up in confusion, but he follows my line of sight over to the unconscious werewolf. "An alpha? How the hell did you guys manage to stumble across an injured werewolf?" He does not wait for an answer, choosing instead to walk over to the werewolf and crouching down next to him so that he can place him over his shoulder.

"Let's get out of here," Jesse says, leading the way back to the house. "We don't want to be out here in case something else may decide we would make a tasty snack."

Jessie leads the way back, his large build making it easy to follow behind him. Ethan and I stumble along behind him, occasionally leaning against each other in support since we are both about ready to collapse in exhaustion. Erik walks behind us, probably to make sure that we do not get left behind. Together, we walk silently, the only sounds coming from the occasional hoot of owls in the trees above us.

After what seems like hours, we finally make it back to the house. Ethan is shaking against me, probably from all the blood loss, and I wrap my non-injured arm around him, helping him to make it up the porch steps.

The front door swings open, all of the omegas standing in the door way. It is only silent for a couple of seconds before there is a flurry of conversation.

"Holy shit."

"What happened to you guys, Tate?"

"Ethan? Erik, what's wrong with Ethan?"

"Let's get you all inside, come on."

Liam comes over to me and Ethan, slipping his arm around his mate in order to help him into the house. I sag in relief once the added weight of the alpha is taken away, and familiar arms wrap around my own waist, encouraging me to lean against the warm body.

"Tate," Taylor breathes, helping me into the house before locking the door behind us. "God, what happened to you guys?"

"Too many things," I say, fighting to keep my eyes open against the exhaustion weighing them down. Taylor guides us into the living room, depositing me on the couch before running off into the back of the house.

Allie spreads clean cloths on the ground, allowing Erik and Jesse a more sanitary place to lay the injured wolves. A low moan reverberates throughout the room, drawing everyone's attention. Alexis's blue eyes are blinking open, and as she becomes more awake, she lets out a loud cry of pain.

"Hey, Lexi, you're safe. I've got you. Try to stay still, okay?" Jessie hovers over her, his hand running through her tangled hair as he brushes it out of her clawed up face. Tears stream from her eyes and the pain she is feeling is clear in her eyes and the quiet moans she is releasing.

"Jesse," Micah says from behind him, holding a box of medical supplies that we had found in the house and from our own packs. The omega watches his mate, his worry and sadness shining through his eyes. "You're going to have to scoot over so that I can get her cleaned up."

Jesse does not move for a minute, before leaning down to press a kiss against his sister's forehead and sitting back so that Micah can tend to her wounds. He never lets go of her hand, though, making sure to stay close enough so that he does not have to let go.

Taylor comes running back into the room with an armful of clean clothes and hydrogen peroxide. I can see the indecision on his face as his eyes flick in between the unfamiliar wolf and Alexis. He must decide that Alexis is in more serious need of medical attention because he joins Micah by her side.

"Let's get her out of this," he says, ripping away the remains of her shirt. She is naked underneath, but no one bats an eye at that, too focused on the oozing wounds going from her hairline all the way down to her waist. "Alexis, this is going to hurt, I won't lie. Don't try to fight the sleep if it becomes too much, your body knows when it is time to disconnect from the pain."

Alexis gives a shaky nod but stops when the movement pulls on her wound, causing her to cry out again. As soon as he gets the confirming nod, Taylor peels back the towel that was covering the deep grooves in her neck and face, revealing the damage. The sight of the ripped, dangling flesh causes me to gag a little bit, and I turn away. My eyes land on Allie tending to Ethan's bleeding claw marks. His face is screwed up in pain while she pours the hydrogen peroxide on it before pulling out a sterilized needle to sew up the torn apart pieces of flesh.

A loud cry makes me whip my head back around to Alexis. Taylor is steadily pouring the hydrogen peroxide into her gashes, and she screams, her eyes screwed up in pain. It must get too much for her, because she falls silent, passing out from the pain.

"Thank god," Taylor mumbles. "I didn't want her to be awake throughout this whole ordeal." He takes a small flashlight that Micah handed him, bending down so that he can get a better look at the wounds. His finger prods at the dangling flesh, gently pushing it a little so that he can find any debris that could have somehow gotten into the gashes. Satisfied, he sits back, taking the sterilized threaded needle from Micah and starting to sew everything together. It is a solid thirty minutes later before he is wrapping everything tightly in clean bandages and sitting back on his butt.

"Is she going to be okay?" Jesse asks, the same distraught look on his face that he was wearing before.

"It's hard to say. She lost a lot of blood and might go into hypovolemic shock because of it. Once she gets over that hurdle, she still has the possibility of getting an infection. It's not like we have the most sanitary things out here, but we were as clean as we could be. All in all, it's going to be touch and go for the first week or so. But, I've done all I can for now. Why don't you take her up to her bed? Make sure to keep a close eye on her and tell me if anything changes." Taylor gives Jesse a reassuring smile before turning to work on the unfamiliar werewolf.

"Now this guy here, that's a different story entirely." Taylor cuts away all the clothes from his body, not paying attention to Jesse's retreating figure as he carries his sister gingerly up the stairs.

"How bad is it?" I ask, watching him through half lidded eyes. It's taking a lot for me to stay conscious right now, but I do not want to leave Taylor down here while I go to bed.

"Pretty bad. His leg is obviously broken, it looks like in at least two places, maybe more, but it is hard to tell," he says, fingers ghosting over the bruised skin. "He has at least four broken ribs, his shoulder is starting to pus, and," he lifts the unconscious wolf's eyelid, shining the small flashlight at it, "he has a pretty severe concussion."

"Do you think he will be okay?" Liam asks, his hand rubbing through Ethan's rowdy curls.

"Honestly?" Taylor says, finally pulling his gaze away from the wolf. "I have no idea. It's going to be a tough ride for this guy, no matter what." With that, he positions himself next to the swollen and purple colored leg. "Erik, come hold his shoulders down, I don't want him to wake up and move while I try to realign his leg. Micah, you come hold down his other leg, I don't feel like getting kicked in the face while doing this."

They both do as he says, weighing the wolf down so that it would be nearly impossible for him to move while Taylor gets started on fixing him. "Here we go," Taylor mumbles mostly to himself, before reaching down and pushing and pulling on the guy's leg.

The previously unconscious werewolf wakes up, a loud yell ripping from his lips. Erik and Micah hold him down, but I can see that they are both struggling. Taylor keeps pulling on the leg, and just when he has it back in the position where it is supposed to be, the werewolf passes out again, sagging into the ground.

"That was fun," Micah says, breath huffing from the exertion of having to hold a struggling alpha down. Erik nods in agreement before joining his mates again on the couch.

"Micah, why don't you splint his leg, and I'll start on this stab wound." Micah nods in affirmation, and together they patch up the injured wolf. After nearly an hour, the pus in his stab wound is drained and the hole is patched, his ribs are wrapped, and I am standing up from the couch, allowing Erik, Liam, and Micah to place him on the softer surface.

"Tate, you look like you are about to pass out where you are standing. Let me see your wrist, and then we can head up to bed, okay?" I nod, taking a seat in the vacated recliner. Everyone else had wandered off to bed at Taylor's insistence, and now it is just the two of us.

Taylor works in silence, giving me a sympathetic look when he has to move my hand. He ends up using one of our wooden spoons as a splint to set my wrist before wrapping it in some left over gauze,

"If you weren't so dead on your feet, I would be asking so many questions right now." He helps me to stand and walks us up the stairs to our room. "As soon as you wake up tomorrow, you're telling me everything."

I nod my head in confirmation, sagging against the bed once we make it into the room. Taylor runs off into our closet, coming back with a washcloth and a bottle of water. He doesn't hesitate to strip me down and wipe away all the grime from my body before helping me under the covers. Throwing the dirty washcloth in the corner, he strips down to his boxer briefs and joins me under the blankets.

"I was so worried about you, lovely," he says, tucking himself close to my side. "When you didn't come back before sunset..." He trails off, not able to finish his sentence.

I pull him closer to me, wanting him as near to me as possible. "I promised I would come back, and I always keep my promises. I'm sorry I couldn't be back sooner, lovely, but things got a bit complicated."

"Tell me tomorrow?" he asks, looking up at me with his beautiful tawny colored eyes. When I nod my head, he leans over to place a chaste kiss on my lips before laying his head on my chest. Pulling the blankets closer, I finally give into the sleep that has been weighing on me ever since carrying the injured wolf. It doesn't take long for me to slip into the land of blissful sleep.