The press of lips on my shoulders rouses me from the half-sleep I have been in for the last few hours. The familiar scratch of Tate's beard on the back of my neck and the tightening of his arm on my waist cause me to finally give up on the idea of sleep. Stretching, I feel the wonderful ache in my body from last night's activities. My cock twitches when the memories from last night come flooding into my mind. Tatum must see, because he lets out a quiet chuckle before trailing his hand down from my stomach to my cock.

"Good morning, lovely," Tate says, a morning rasp in his voice. I stretch back against him in response, loving the way his hands feel on my body. "We have to be downstairs in ten minutes. Do you think I can get you off before then?"

I nod earnestly, smiling at the laugh Tate releases. With one more stretch, I blink open my eyes, squinting a little bit at the bright sunlight shining in through the half open curtains. It is warm in the room, especially with the sunlight shining right onto the bed. Hopefully, this sunny day will be the start of a real summer, instead of the cool days we have been having.

Tate throws the blanket that was covering our waist down to the bottom of the bed before rolling on top of me. He kisses along my shoulders and all the way up to my lips, brushing his mouth teasingly against mine before finally giving me a real kiss.

Wrapping my arms around him, I trail my hands down his back, reveling in his warm and toned body. Tate has the body I wish I had. His muscles are not overly defined, but they are still easy to see, and with only a light dusting of hair on his body, he is so different from everyone that I have ever been with, willingly or not.

"How do you feel?" he questions softly, pulling his lips away from mine just far enough so that he can talk, and his soft lips brush against mine with every word he speaks.

"Fine, but I would feel even better with your lips back on me," I say, pressing a kiss against his lips, but he pulls back again, a serious look on his face.

"Taylor, I'm being serious. I don't like the thought of you being in pain, and with what we did last night..." he trails off, and I can see the uncertainty shining through his eyes. Reaching up my hand that was resting on his back, I brush away a stray curl that had fallen into his face. He leans into me, turning to place a soft kiss on my palm.

"Tate, I am being serious. I feel fine, great even. I'm a little sore but in a good way. I don't regret last night, but now I am starting to feel like you are." Tate surges forward, kissing me deeply. His tongue licks along the seam of my mouth, and as soon as I part my lips, his tongue finds its way into my mouth. It is the most delicious kiss he has ever given me, and my toes curl in pleasure as a lick of heat curls in my stomach. My arms tighten around him and my legs twine with his, effectively trapping him against me.

Tate pulls away slowly and looking into his sky blue eyes, I can see that I am not the only one feeling the heat. "Taylor, there is no possible way that I could regret last night. It was amazing, you were amazing. As long as you're happy, then I am happy."

"Oh god, I love you so much," I say, and before I can help it, a laugh slips from my lips. Before long, I am laughing so hard that I can barely catch my breath. Tate is watching me with a raised eyebrow, but the smile stretching across his face tells me how amusing he is finding my predicament.

"Mind sharing what you find so hilarious?" he asks, nuzzling into my neck and placing a kiss behind my ear. My laughter finally peters off, and I bite back a groan as Tate starts to suck where he used to be kissing, hard enough that a mark will be left behind.

"We're so sappy and corny, lovely. Like, sappier than Liam and the twins, and that's saying something. We all know how disgustingly cute they can be, especially now with the baby in the mix."

"Oh god, you're so right," he says, lifting his head from where he was sucking the mark into my neck. Soon enough, he starts laughing, which ends up sending me into a fit of laughter as well. It only takes a couple of seconds for the laughter to turn into kisses, and the kisses to turn into grinding and moaning.

Just when things are starting to get interesting, a knock comes from the door. "Come on, you two. Your hour is up and everyone is waiting for you downstairs," a voice I recognize to be Alexis says from behind the closed door.

An irritated groan slips from my lips before I can stop it, and Tate kisses me in response. "We will finish this later," he says, punctuating his words with a roll of his hips. It does not do anything to help with my overeager cock, and I roll him off of him before flopping my head back on the pillow.

"Come on, Taylor. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can get back to doing what we both want," Tate says, wrapping his arm around me and pulling me out of bed. He kisses the pout from my lips before handing me a pair of clean boxer briefs, which reminds me that our ever growing pile of dirty laundry has to be washed sometime today.

As I am finishing getting dressed, Tate walks over to the window, drawing the rest of the curtain open and flicking down the latch in order to open it. Fresh summer air filters into the room, washing out the stuffy smell that comes with a night of sex. Tate walks back over to me, ushering me out the door once my shirt is over my head.

"Who knows what they will do if we don't get down there in the next few seconds," Tate says, closing the bedroom door behind us and following me down the stairs. My ass twinges with every step I take, but like I told Tate, it makes me feel happy. The reminder of what Tate and I did last night brings a smile to my face, and Liam shoots me a knowing look once we step into the living room.

"Have fun last night?" Liam asks, lifting a knowing brow at me. A faint blush spreads across Tate's face, but I just return the smile.

"You have no idea," I say, walking over to Liam. He hands Matty to me as soon as I am close enough, knowing that holding the baby is one of my favorite things to do. Matty stares up at me, his blue eyes focused on me and his pacifier bobbing as he sucks on it earnestly.

"Hey, little wolf," I say, nuzzling my nose against his tiny one and pressing a kiss to his chubby cheek before joining Tate on the couch. Matty contentedly lays on my chest as I rub his back, fisting my shirt in his tiny hand.

"Oh, we do," Ethan says, a wry smile on his face. Liam's jaw drops when he says this, before picking up a pillow and throwing it at his mate. Ethan catches it before it can hit him in the face, laughing as Liam scowls at him with no heat in his eyes, and Erik just rolls his eyes at the two of them.

Micah and Allie sit in the loveseat next to the couch, tired smiles on their faces as they watch Liam and the alphas banter. They both have to be exhausted. Since they did not have anyone to help them with their heats, they would have gotten no rest last night. Allie looks as if she is about to fall asleep any minute, her eyes half lidded and her head laying on the arm rest. Micah seems to be a little bit more awake but not by much. His tired eyes rest on Jesse a lot, but whenever his mate looks his way, he turns away from his gaze. He must still be upset about Jesse not wanting to spend his heat with him.

"Okay, everyone calm down. We need to discuss the possible threat that Alexis and Jesse discovered a couple days ago," Erik says, cutting off whatever smart ass thing Liam was saying back to Ethan. The noise in the room quiets down immediately and everyone looks over at the alpha.

"Alexis, Jesse, what can you tell us about the thing you saw while on patrol?" Erik asks, and the betas take a seat on the raised bench surrounding the fireplace.

"Like we said last night, we found something that was highly disturbing. We were about ten miles north of here, following some deer tracts, when we came across the thing. It didn't see us luckily since it was too preoccupied with what it was doing." Alexis has a hard look on her face, much like the one her brother is wearing.

Jesse takes over the talking, once he realizes that Alexis is not going to talk anymore. "We heard it coming, so we climbed into a tree, thinking it was an infected and was just stumbling through the forest. But, when it came into view, it was the most disturbing thing I have ever laid eyes on. It looked like a human, but a very deformed one. It almost had wolf like features."

Alexis cuts in again, her voice slightly shaky as she speaks. "It was pale and thin. Its bones were protruding from its skin, but that wasn't the part that was disturbing. The face of the creature was completely messed up. While it had human eyes, the rest of it looked like deformed versions of wolf features. The nose and mouth were protruded like a snout, but the teeth were human. The human ears were ripped away, leaving just holes behind, but it had wolf ears on the top of its head. There is no hair on its body, either, just stretched out skin over protruding bones."

We all sit in silence, trying to absorb what they are telling us. The happy atmosphere from before is gone, and looking at everyone in the room, it is easy to see the tension and fear we thought we left behind creeping back. Liam looks over at me, and I can tell that he wants Matty back in his arms, and I do not blame him. Without hesitating, I stand up and hand him his baby before returning to my seat, watching as he cuddles the little boy close and his mates wrap them in their arms.

"Is it a threat to us? Maybe it will just wander away?" Tate says from beside me, but everyone in the room can hear the doubt in his voice. His arm slides behind my back, pulling me against his side.

"No, the creature is dangerous." Jesse looks up and meets Tate's eyes. "When it was walking by the tree we were hiding in, it was dragging a body behind it; a badly mutilated body, but a body nonetheless."

"The person wasn't even dead yet," Alexis says, a tremble in her voice. Her face is pale and she clenches her fists as they rest beside her. "It was moaning. The person was barely alive, and they had to be in severe pain. One of its legs looked like it had been torn off, broken bones were protruding from both their arms, and their eyes were missing like they had been gouged out."

"What the hell?" Ethan breaths, echoing all of our thoughts. "Did the creature do that?"

"Well, who else would have?" Jesse says, looking up at the young alpha with a furrowed brow. "The thing didn't even care, just kept dragging the barely alive body behind it. It had a particular place it was going because it did not seem at all lost. The one good thing was that it was walking away from our lands."

"Do you have any idea where it came from?" I ask the betas, and they both turn their gazes to me.

"No idea," Alexis answers. "We've never seen anything like it before. It's obviously not human, and our wolves don't look anything like the beast."

"Maybe it's a cross between a wolf and a human?" Liam says, rubbing circles into Matty's back as the baby squirms.

Jesse shrugs his shoulders. "I have no clue. There are so many possibilities. It could be a new mutation of the virus, something that turns humans into something much less human. It could be a human who was bitten by a werewolf infected, and this is how the virus affects them. It could be something entirely different that we may never think of. No matter where it came from, though, it is highly dangerous, and we should probably think about relocating."

"Wait, what?" I ask. "We just got settled here, and now we have four small children. We can't go trumping through the forest like we did before. We barely survived last time. How the hell do you expect us to do it this time?" Tate squeezes my side in comfort, and I try to calm my racing heartbeat and ragged breathing.

"We may not have a choice," Jesse says, not backing down from his stance. "Staying here and leaving are both dangerous. We just have to decide which one is the better option."

"Okay, everybody calm down," Erik says, his voice soothing some of the tension in the air. He looks over at the betas. "Maybe we can kill it? That way it's gone and we don't have to leave here."

Liam and I nod our heads in agreement while the others mumble words of assent. Jesse and Alexis share a long look, seeming to communicate with one another via eye contact. After a full minute, Jesse sits back, letting out a long breath before nodding his head. His gaze flickers over to Micah. For the first time since we began this conversation, I see genuine fear flash across his face.

Looking over at the omega siblings, I see them huddled together holding each other close and watching our conversation with wide eyes. They haven't said anything throughout this entire time, but I can tell how well they have been listening by the fear shining in their eyes.

"Okay then," Erik says, eyes sweeping from person to person. "Tomorrow morning, we'll send out a scouting trip to find out more about this creature. We'll start packing up some of the supplies here, just incase something goes wrong but let's not get too ahead of ourselves. If there is a possibility that we can kill this creature, then we should take it. This is the first safe place we have been since this whole world went to shit almost a year ago. We can't just pack up and leave, not unless there is no possible chance for us to live here safely."

We nod our heads, staying silent as we absorb his words. Little footsteps on the stairs draw our attention, and turning, I see Elliot and the girls making their way down from upstairs into the living room. Elliot walks tiredly over to Tate, not hesitating to climb onto his brother's lap and receive his morning cuddles. Olive and Grace do the same with Erik and Ethan, not making a sound as they cuddle with the alphas. The tension in the room is high, and the little ones must feel it, as they don't say a word.

Ethan claps his hands together, causing me to jump a little bit at the sudden noise. "Let's get started."