It took a little longer than we planned to get everything we needed together before heading out to find the creature. Plus, Matty had decided that he wanted to give up his perfect angel persona for a few nights and keep everyone up with his crying. Suffice to say, we were walking around like the infected for a few days, stumbling around the house and only using grunts to communicate to each other. Now, after four days of no sleep and two days spent recovering, we are finally able to do what has to be done.

"You'll be careful, right?" Taylor asks me, blinking up at me with his tawny colored eyes. His arms are wrapped around my neck while mine are wrapped around his waist, keeping each other close.

"Yes, lovely. I won't be gone long. We'll most likely be back before sunset." The worry is clear on his face, with his lips pressed tightly together and his brow slightly furrowed. Leaning forward, I press a gentle kiss between his brows, trying to soothe the worry.

Taylor tilts his face up so that he can capture my lips with his. It's a harsh kiss, almost as if he is trying to reassure himself that I am here with him and that I will be coming back. After a minute or so, he pulls his lips away from mine, breathing harshly. "You better, or I'll come get you myself."

"Like Liam would let you do that," I say with a breathless laugh. Taylor's lips finally quirk up into a smile, but it does not reach his eyes. I know that he will continue to worry until I get back, and he doesn't try to deny it when I tell him so.

"Just be safe," he tells me, eyes hardening as they look into mine. He doesn't let me look away until I reassure him that I will not let anything happen to me. Finally, with one last kiss, Taylor steps away from me but does not let go of my hand.

"You ready to go, Tatum?" Ethan asks, walking out of the house and over to where Taylor and I are standing.

I send Taylor a reassuring smile before looking back over at Ethan. "Yeah, ready when you guys are."

"We're just waiting for Alexis. I think she said she wanted to grab one last thing before we go." I nod my head, not really in a rush to leave our safe haven.

The sun is starting to rise, causing the darkness of the night to slowly creep away. I can't remember the last time I saw a sunrise, usually choosing to sleep for as long as I possibly can. The sun changes the dark sky into a wash of color. The black is slowly replaced by dark orange, colors brightening as the sun makes its way higher into the sky.

"Ah, there she is," Ethan says, drawing my eyes away from the sky and towards where he is looking. Alexis is climbing down the porch steps, zipping up her backpack before tightening the straps and clicking the buckles together.

"Sorry about that," she says, a touch of her usual sarcasm in her voice.

"Let's head out. I want to get there and back as soon as possible," Ethan says, his jaw clenched as he looks at the second floor window where his room is located. Alexis nods her head before turning to face the woods, walking in the direction where we have to go. Ethan walks behind her, hands holding onto the straps of his backpack as he walks.

"Bye lovely," I say, sweeping down to give Taylor one last kiss on his frowning mouth. "I'll be back soon, I promise." He gives a slight nod of his head, bringing my hand that he is holding up to his mouth to press a kiss to the back before slowly letting it go. Reluctantly, I walk away, forcing my legs to move in the direction where the others are walking. With one last look over my shoulder, I see Taylor cross his arms, the tension clear in the way he is holding his body.

"Come on, Tate," Ethan says from in front of me. Huffing out an irritated breath, I catch up to him and Alexis.

Somehow, we were chosen to go find out more about the creature that Alexis had named a 'claiste,' because according to her, it means 'broken'. "It was really fucking broken, and those people who were captured by it were as broken as a person could be while still being alive," she had said.

"How long do you think it will take us to find the claiste?" I ask, walking on the right of Ethan as Alexis walks on his left.

"Probably around three or four hours," Alexis says, stepping over a fallen tree. "It's about ten miles out."

"Why did you guys go out that far anyway?" Ethan questions. We trail behind Alexis, watching as she uses small trees to balance herself while climbing up a steep hill.

She doesn't answer us until she reaches the top of the hill, turning to look down at where she left us. "We were following some tracks. Jesse and I like to discover our surroundings whenever we settle in a new place, and once we found the deer tracks, we decided to see where they led us." She places her hands on her hips, looking down at us from the where she stands. "Now, are you two coming or what?"

"How the hell are we supposed to get up there?" Ethan asks, a slight growl in his tone.

"Use the trees, dumbass," Alexis says, looking at us with exasperation. "Just pull yourself from tree to tree, it's easy enough."

"I swear to god she is the sassiest fucking werewolf I have ever come across," he mumbles to himself, grabbing onto a tree to start hauling himself up.

Once he is far enough away, I follow behind, feeling a slight burn in my arms as I pull myself from one tree to another. "I don't know, Ethan. Liam is pretty damn sassy."

"That's true," he says, shooting me a quick grin over his shoulder. "We're surrounded by sassy wolves, considering the fact that Taylor can sometimes put Liam to shame with the amount of sass he has."

A smile spreads across my face as I laugh quietly, unable to do much more with it becoming harder to catch my breath the farther we go. We finally make it up to Alexis, where she stands with her arms crossed over her chest and a dark eyebrow quirked at the two of us. She had made it look a lot easier than it really was.

"Let's try to go a little faster or we may not make it back until next week." She turns around and starts walking again, not seeming to care if we follow or not. "And Micah has everyone beat in the sass department."

Ethan and I both protest as we follow behind her, both trying to argue for who we think is the sassiest. Before long, Alexis is shushing us, motioning for us to climb the nearest tree. Ethan goes up first, holding out his hand to haul both of us up onto the highest branch, which is six or seven feet from the ground.

By the time we make it about thirty feet from the ground, a rustling sound draws us to a stop. Peeking down through the branches and leaves, we peer in the direction of where the noise is coming from.

A low moaning sound comes closer and closer to where we are hiding. Holding my breath, I wait for the source of the noise to reveal itself. We don't have to wait long. A tall and thin creature unlike anything I have ever seen before lumbers through the trees, dragging behind him a moaning body. The creature itself has to be at least seven feet tall, with pale skin stretched over bones and a menacing body.

Alexis makes a small noise behind me before quickly covering her mouth with the hand that is not holding onto the base of the tree. Looking over at her, I quirk my brow, asking if that is the claiste creature we came out here to find. She shakily nods her head before turning her gaze back to the creature.

The body it is dragging behind it moans again and a familiar scent catches my attention. "The body is a werewolf," I breathe, quiet enough so that only Alexis and Ethan can hear me. They both turn to look at me, and I watch as their eyes widen when they also catch the scent.

"How in the world was it able to get a werewolf?" Ethan mumbles, eyebrows scrunched together. I shrug my shoulders before looking back down at the creature and its latest victim.

"Do you think we stand a chance?" I ask, and I feel the others staring at me. Moving my eyes away from the creature, I look back at them. "What? That werewolf is still very much alive. We can't leave them to die in the hands of that creature. We all heard what that creature will do to them."

They stay silent for a couple seconds, and together we watch as the beast lumbers down a small hill and behind a thick wall of trees. My heart pounds a little faster at the thought of what that werewolf may go through if we do not save them.

"I don't know, Tate," Ethan mumbles. "We could end up getting killed if we go up against the claiste."

"We have to try," I say, a hard edge to my tone. Leaving someone in the hands of a monster is not something I am willing to do.

"Tate, w-," a loud scream cuts off whatever Alexis was trying to say. She pales even further as the scream dies off and the creature comes back into sight, minus the body dragging behind it.

"Holy shit," Ethan breathes, and I nod my head shakily. The creature has blood on its claws, licking them with a long tongue as it walks past the tree we are hiding in. When it is out of sight again, I let out a ragged breath, trying to calm my harsh breathing.

The image of the moaning werewolf flashes in my mind again, and I have to know if they are still alive. I could not live with myself if I left someone to be tortured and killed by a beast that is far worse than anything I have ever seen before. Before Alexis or Ethan can react, I start climbing down the tree as quickly and quietly as I can.

"Tate!" They both say in a harsh whisper, but I do not stop. I know if I do, they will convince me to leave the werewolf behind.

Leaping the last seven or so feet, I make it to the ground. The rustling of branches from above tells me that Ethan and Alexis are making their way down, probably to try and stop me. With that thought, I run in the direction of the injured wolf, noticing the moaning the closer I get. Footsteps rush after me, spurring me on further. Making it around the curve, I stop once I see the one I am trying to save.

A large guy, probably an alpha judging by his scent, is slouched against a tree. One of his legs is bent awkwardly, and purple bruises on his torso tell me that he most likely has a few broken ribs. My eyes land on his shoulder, where a three-foot-long branch is stabbed through him, keeping him trapped to the tree.

Walking over towards him, I try to calm my racing heart and ragged breaths. Crouching down next to him, I take a closer look at the branch.

"Tate, I cannot fucking believe you," Ethan says from behind me, but I choose to ignore him. "Taylor is going to kill me if you die."

"Hey," I say, looking down to try and catch the eyes of the moaning alpha stuck to the tree. "Can you hear me?"

The moaning stops and the wolf looks up at us, fear shining in his brown eyes. "Get away from me," he says in a scratchy voice. "Get away!"

"Shh," I say, holding a finger up to my mouth. "You'll bring that beast back if you keep on yelling."

"Uh, I don't think we have to worry about that," Alexis says with a hint of fear in her voice. Knowing I will not like what I see, I have to force myself to turn around. There, standing no more than ten feet away from us is the beast, but it looks different. This one has a darker complexion to the skin stretched across its bones, telling me that it is a different beast than the one that we had seen earlier.

"Oh shit," Ethan says, slowly reaching behind him to pull out his trusty baseball bat. The claiste sees his movement, turning its attention from Alexis to the alpha.

Before any of us can say anything, the beast is charging at Ethan, moving faster than I thought possible. Ethan brings up his bat, connecting it with the monster's head and knocking it down to the ground. Alexis charges it from behind, thinking that it will not notice her.

The beast moves minutely, just enough to show me that it is not knocked out and I shout out to Alexis to try and warn her, but it is too late. Just when she is in striking range, the claiste sweeps its arm in a wide arc, clawing her from her hairline all the way to her waist, leaving deep wounds behind.

Alexis lets out a scream, spurring me into action. Ethan hits the beast again across the head when it is distracted by Alexis, this time not stopping until its head is all the way beaten in. Stepping over the splattered brains and blood, I hurry over to Alexis. She lays on the ground, not moving.

"Oh god," I breathe, kneeling down next to her. Blood gurgles out of her wounds covering most of her body in the red liquid. Ripping off my shirt, I try to cover as much space as possible with the cloth, hoping that the bleeding will slow down and eventually stop. Ethan joins me where I kneel, hurriedly unzipping his backpack and pulling out a towel.

"This is all we can do for now, it's too dangerous to stay here. The other one may come back, and I have a feeling it won't be too happy with us once it sees what we did to its friend." Ethan does not look up from where he is pressing the towel against her neck and chest, applying as much pressure as he can.

"Okay," I say, forcing myself to stand up. "You grab her and I'll grab the one staked to the tree." Ethan gives me a harsh nod before turning his attention back to Alexis.

I hurry over to the other werewolf and see that he is watching us with curious yet hesitant eyes. He doesn't say anything, only clenching his teeth and letting out a grunt when I pull out the branch holding him to the tree. Crouching down, I haul him up and sling him over my shoulder, trying to be mindful of his injuries. He lets out another injured moan, and I wince, knowing that this is going to be a painful journey back home.

"Let's get out of here," Ethan says from behind me, and turning, I see that he is holding Alexis in his arms in front of him. He starts walking back in the direction we came and I follow behind him.

"I don't know if they are going to survive the journey back, Ethan," I say, readjusting my grip on the werewolf slung across my shoulder.

"They have to," Ethan responds, picking up the pace.

We stop every twenty minutes or so, needing to take breaks from carrying another werewolf. By the time we are only an hour or so away from the house, the sun is starting to set, casting orange and red glows through the forest. I am dead on my feet, struggling to keep myself walking under the weight of a one-hundred-and-fifty-pound body.

"I don't think I can go any further," I huff out, stumbling over dead branches and tree roots. Ethan is not doing much better, but he keeps pushing us along, not allowing us to take any more breaks.

"Come on, Tate, we have to keep going," he says breathlessly. We keep going, and the only way I am able to force myself to keep walking is by counting my steps, trying to figure out how many more I will have to take before we make it back. Looking at the woods surrounding us, I internally cringe, realizing that it is going to take a lot longer to get back than we originally thought.