Branches slap me in the face while I try to make my way through the thick underbrush. With every cold bite of the wind blowing around me, my body releases an uncontrollable tremble, making my teeth chatter and my body shake. The middle of winter is not a fun time to be trudging through the woods, a thin jacket and worn out tennis shoes my only protection against the weather.

Leaving Liam and his sisters alone in the treehouse was not something I wanted to do, but Liam had practically pushed me out of the hatch, knowing that we are running low on supplies. They are unprotected up there, the only defense they have is the camouflage of the treehouse with the tree it is built into. The thought of them being up there unprotected pushes me to go faster, despite the fact that I would rather just curl up in a ball than face the harsh weather out here.

After the tenth time of being slapped in the face with a sopping wet tree branch, I wish I did not have to leave our cozy little home in the tree. The sleeping bags and blankets make it a nice place to live considering the world we live in, and I have not had to go outside for a while now. But with Liam and his sisters, we have gone through supplies faster than I had anticipated.

Not paying attention to where I am stepping, my foot gets caught in a tree root. My arms flail as I try to catch myself, but it is useless. In only a matter of seconds, I am laying sprawled on the cold, muddy ground. With a sigh, I push myself up, my hands squelching in the mud. Exhaustion tries to weigh me down, but I push it away.

Finally, I make it out of the forest and into the small town center I have been looking for this whole time. There are only four stores in this small town circle. The one on the far right is an outdoor shop where I found all the sleeping bags and pads we are using. An animal shop sits next to it, its windows broken out and the front door swinging precariously on its hinges. This throws me off guard at first, but I just shake it off, knowing I do not have time to worry about a broken door.

The store I am looking for is to the very left of me, a few dead infected piled in front of the entrance. Not wanting to risk one of them not being completely dead and ending up being bitten, I decide to go through the back entrance.

"I hope no one is in there," I whisper, low enough that even I can barely hear myself.

With one last look around, I quickly run towards the back door, making sure my footsteps are silent, as to not draw attention to myself. Time seems to freeze as I sprint across the open space, and I am not able to breathe again until I am safely through the fence guarding the back door.

"You can do this, Taylor," I tell myself before carefully opening the heavy door.

There is no noise coming from the store, but I do not let that fool me. Humans are smart, even if they have gone insane, and the infected can lie in wait to attack their prey. With hesitant footsteps, I make my way to the canned food aisle. Peeking my head around the corner, I let out a shaky breath when I do not see anything. Quickly, I unzip my backpack and stack the cans in my bag as quietly as I can.

When I am finished, I turn around, coming face to face with a snarling infected. Its eyeballs are gone and the skin everywhere along its body is ripped as it is decaying. It snaps its jaws at me, but I am able to dodge them. Clumsily, it stumbles after me as I run down the aisle into the next one. Without stopping, I grab bags of jerky and chips, pushing them into my bag before zipping it up and slipping my arms through the straps.

Uneven footsteps follow me through the store as I make my way back to the rear entrance. The door is loud as I push it open, but I do not have enough time or energy to care about it anymore. Turning, I slam the door shut, the infected slamming against the metal and letting out agitated snarls.

I collapse against the door, my breathing erratic and my heart racing as I try to calm myself down. My eyes snap open at the sound of more infected coming from the other stores. Hauling myself off the door, I look over the fence that surrounds the outer portion of the store, only to see about ten infected slowly stumbling out of the animal shop with the unhinged door and the broken window.

"I knew something was off about that store," I mumble to myself.

Deciding that it is now or never, I hurriedly zip up my jacket and tighten the straps on my backpack. A crack of thunder from the sky scares the shit out of me and looking up, I see huge dark clouds heading in my direction.

"Can anything else go wrong?" I say, wiping my light brown hair out of my face. The growls of the infected get louder, and a deranged howl sounds from behind the door I had just closed a few minutes ago. Snarls of the two infected are becoming louder and heavy thumps against the door indicated the both of them trying to break it down.

"That was not a challenge!" I yell at the sky, irritated that every possible bad thing is happening right now.

Not wasting another minute, I throw open the gate and start sprinting towards the woods. Infected are streaming out of the stores, trying their best to hobble after me, but seeing as most of them are missing a leg or two, it is not too hard for me to dodge them.

The only thing that worries me is the infected werewolf trying to escape from the store I had pilfered. I have no idea why I had not noticed it earlier, but I decide not to dwell on it too much. Thank God the metal door seems to be holding it back, but the thought of it managing to break it down pushes me to go faster.

The exhaustion I had been feeling before seems to have vanished. My legs work in over time as I push myself over fallen trees and hop over any roots that are trying to trip me. Mud splatters all over the place as I run, but I no longer care.

Another loud crash of thunder shakes me to my bones and snaps me out of the trance I was in while running. Startled, I look around while resting my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath. Branches break to the right of me and turning, I see a few infected trying to push their way through the underbrush towards me.

There are too many for me to fight, and I do not even have a weapon to defend myself. With heavy feet, I trudge over to a sturdy looking tree and pull myself into the branches, barely dodging the arms of the infected.

Out of nowhere, an arm grabs my leg and pulls me out of the tree. The branch I am holding onto breaks, causing me to fall to the ground. Groaning, I haul myself up and face the infected advancing on me. The one that had pulled me from the tree only has one arm, seeing as the other one had been ripped off during my fall.

I lift up the branch that I am holding onto and swing it around, trying to put as much space between me and the infected as possible. They are determined though and do not seem deterred by my branch.

"Get away from me, you freaks," I say, hitting them with a branch whenever they try to get closer to me.

Two of them grab onto my branch and manage to rip it out of my hands, leaving me utterly defenseless. They hobble closer to me, effectively backing me into the tree I had fallen out of. Knowing I am trapped, I close my eyes and wait for the inevitable.

Loud snarls from the infected cause me to snap open my eyes. Running towards us are two guys wielding metal baseball bats. They make quick work of the infected, smashing their skulls in with the bats and splattering blood everywhere. Luckily, none of it seems to get on their faces.

They are both huffing, trying to catch their breath after killing the infected. Together, they turn to look at me. Taking a closer look, I see that they look identical, both of them having curly blonde hair and green eyes. By their scent, I can tell that they are both werewolves, alpha werewolves. Something that I am not too keen of.

One of them seems to catch my scent and surges towards me, wrapping his hands around my arms and making it impossible for me to escape. Fear courses throughout my body as I try to shake off his hands, but his grip just gets tighter. He bends down, scenting my neck. I cringe as he gets closer to me, but try to hold back my fear.

"Hey!" I say, trying to pull my neck away from him. "Get off of me!"

"Why do you smell like my mate?" he growls, once again invading my personal space.

My eyes squint in confusion. I am stumped by what he had just said. The only other wolf I have been around has been Liam. That is when it hits me: they must be the mates Liam has been telling me about. Well, at least they really do seem to care about him, if the way they are growling at me says anything.

"So, you're Liam's mates," I say, a smile stretching across my face as I look from the one holding me to his brother. "We've been waiting for you guys for a while, which is a risky maneuver seeing as we had to leave Liam's scent unmasked."

The calmer twin who is standing a few feet away from me walks to stand just behind his brother. "You know where he is?"

I nod my head while once again trying to escape from the hands of the alpha holding me. This time, he lets go, allowing me to escape. Rubbing my arms, I take both of them in. They are both taller than me and more intimidating, but I try not to show my fear to them.

The sound of someone moving through the brush causes me to sink back against the tree behind me, and the alphas pick up their baseball bats as if they are ready to take on whatever is coming towards us. The rustling gets louder until someone breaks through the underbrush, coming into sight. The alphas drop the bats and motion the guy holding a small boy over.

The wolf is attractive, and taking a deep breath, I realize that he is a beta. His hair is dark, almost black, and curly, but it seems to suit him. The darkness of his hair makes the blueness of his eyes stand out, almost seeming to trap me with their gaze. Once he finally makes his way over to us, I am able to pull my eyes away from him, even though it is hard.

"So," I say, looking at the brothers in front of me, "which one of you is Erik and which one is Ethan? And who are they?" I bend down to pick up my backpack that had fallen off during my skirmish with the infected, sliding my arms through the straps.

"I'm Erik," the calm one says before pointing to his brother, "and he is Ethan."

"And them?" I ask, waving my arm in the direction of the attractive beta and the little boy he is holding. My eyes once again become trapped by the beta's, and a smile spreads across his face as he takes me in, causing my face to break into a smile as well.

"I'm Tatum, and this is my brother, Elliot," the beta says, brushing the dark curl's sticking out of his hat away from his face.

His blue eyes practically twinkle, and I am only able to break my gaze away from him when someone clears their throat. Turning, I see that it was the alpha standing right in front of me- Ethan- who did it.

"Okay, now that you know our names, what's yours?" he asks, raising a blonde eyebrow at me.

I roll my eyes at them before readjusting my beanie and sliding my gloved hands into my coat pockets. "Taylor. Let's start walking back. I don't want to be out here at night time, and it looks like it is about to rain."

We all look up at the sky, and I notice how the dark clouds I had seen earlier are rolling in closer to us. We probably have about twenty minutes before the dark clouds reach us and it starts to downpour. Looking back at the other wolves, I motion for them to follow me before walking in the direction of the treehouse.

We exchange stories about our encounters with humans and other wolves, coming to the conclusion that humans have gone crazy but wolves seem to be persevering. My eyes keep flickering back to Tatum whenever he talks, and I see how amazing he is with his little brother. He never complains about having to carry him half the time or listening to his chatter. This intrigues me.

Finally, we make it to the treehouse. It is completely hidden by the branches and foliage of the pine tree. The only way that you can see it is if you are looking for it, or if you stand directly beneath the branches. I let out a soft whistle, telling Liam that I am back, and he drops the rope ladder down.

"Here we are," I say, climbing onto the first few rungs and pulling myself up.

Looking over my shoulder, I see the alphas and Tatum exchanging skeptical glances before shrugging and walking over to the ladder. The dark clouds are getting closer, meaning we only have a few minutes before the rain starts.

Tatum climbs up behind me, and I try not to blush at the fact that he is right below me. The alphas come up next, but I make it into the tree house before they start to climb.

"Liam, I have a surprise for you," I say once I climb through the hatch. Tatum is not too far behind me, unzipping his jacket once he makes it fully inside and allowing his brother to sit on his lap.

"Who are you?" Liam asks, looking over at Tatum. Before Tatum can say anything, though, the alphas climb into the treehouse.

As soon as Liam sees them, he launches himself at them, wrapping his arms tightly around Ethan's neck. Erik pulls the both of them close as they have their moment. Both of the alphas' hands drift down to Liam's stomach. They look awed as they feel the baby kick, and it makes my heart ache. I have grown close to Liam over the past few weeks, but it still hurts whenever I see his pregnant belly, knowing there is a living baby inside of him.

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I go around the room closing the windows and curtains and making sure the hatch door is shut and locked, the rope ladder lying next to it.

"Okay, all the windows and curtains are closed. The hatch is closed. I think we are all set to ride out this storm," I say while pulling out a spray bottle from one of the crates and handing it over to the new wolves. "All of you need to mask your scent so that we don't attract any unwanted guests. We already put ourselves at risk so that you could find us. Luckily, the storm will wash away any traces of Liam's scent outside."

I sit down on the crate closest to the camper stove and light it before placing a kettle on top of the flame. Tea sounds amazing right now, and I will make some no matter how tired I am. As soon as it is done, I pass it out to everyone before sitting back down and taking a sip of the hot liquid.

Liam and his mates seem to be arguing about the gender of the baby and I feel a small smile spread across my face. Turning my head, I look over at Tatum, whose eyes seem glued to Liam's belly. Oh, that's right. I guess he would be confused about a male being pregnant. Some packs, such as Liam's, do not talk about an omega's ability to get pregnant. Liam must feel his gaze on him because he turns to look at the beta.

"So, who are you, again?" Liam asks. "I didn't hear you before. The whole seeing my mates thing surprised me." He gives Tatum a reassuring smile.

"Um, I'm Tatum, and this is Elliot," he says, gesturing at his little brother who seems content to cuddle his bear that Liam's sisters gave him.

"Yeah," Liam tells him. "Part of being an Omega allows me to bear children. Terrifying but interesting at the same time."

Tatum nods his head before finally breaking his gaze away from Liam's stomach. He clears his throat before settling against the wall behind him.

"Wolves are so freaking weird," he mumbles while resituating his brother so that they are both in a more comfortable position.

"Too true," I say, smiling at him, and he gives me a matching one of his own. Biting my lip, I look away before sipping my tea and thinking about the beta less than five feet away from me.

*****

The picture at the top is of Taylor