"Shit," Taylor says from where he is standing in front of the window. Curious, I stand up, shifting Elliot so that he is on my hip before joining Taylor by the window.

"Oh my god," Liam whispers from the left of Taylor. It takes a second for everything to fall into place, my mind trying to catch up with the reality that we are faced with.

Erik is the one who is able to snap out the trance and into action the fastest. "Liam, take the little ones upstairs and go wake up the others. We are going to need everyone. Put them in the room with Alexis and Meeka, then lock the door." Liam nods before taking Matty from Ethan and ushering the little ones quickly up the stairs.

"Taylor, you and Ethan go and get all the weapons we have in the storage room and bring them down here. Make it quick. We don't want the infected to get too close to the house." They both run off, not wasting another second before doing the task that Erik gives them.

"What should I do?" I ask, eyes turning away from the slowly approaching infected to look at Erik.

"I don't think you'll be able to fight safely with your broken wrist. You and Ethan will wait on the porch, basically being the last line of defense if we are not able to take down the infected before they reach the house." Erik doesn't leave me anytime to argue before running out of the room.

Footsteps clamber down the stairs as Jesse, Micah, and Allie join us. They are all sleep rumpled, having been woken up only a minute ago. The omegas are both shaking a little bit, and the wideness of their eyes and the way they are holding each other tells me how truly terrified they must be. Jesse, though, looks fierce. His usual stony expression is replaced by a look of pure rage. He quickly takes two daggers and a wooden baseball bat laden with nails from Taylor once they come back into the room.

"Those fuckers aren't getting anywhere near Alexis," he says, more to himself than to anyone in particular, but we all here him nonetheless. Micah's wide eyes flick over his mate's tense body, seeming to gain a little confidence from Jesse's self-assurance.

"Ethan, you're hurt. You need to stay behind this time," Erik says, joining us in the room with his frustrated brother following behind.

"Erik, I can still fucking fight. It was just a scratch. It's mostly healed by now anyways," Ethan tries to reason, but Erik doesn't budge.

"It isn't just a scratch. I saw it yesterday and you were dizzy from all the blood loss. Now, suck it up. We don't have any more time to waste arguing." Ethan turns to look at us all, his voice rising so that he can be heard over the moans and howls coming from outside. "Make sure to stay close to one another. If we get separated, then it is easier for them to take us down. Remember your training. I know we haven't had much time but use the skills you have been taught. Keep an eye on one another, and don't let anyone be cornered. We're going to take those fuckers down. Nothing threatens our pack and lives to see another day." With that, he turns and heads out the door, the others following close behind.

Just as I am walking out the door, Ethan turns to look at where Zalo is laying on the couch. "You're the first line of defense if something gets through this door. You let them get passed, and you'll see how much of an alpha I can be. You take them down, and we'll discuss letting you be a part of this pack." Zalo's jaw is tense as he clenches his teeth, but he nods his head anyways. Erik hurries back over to him. "Here's this," he says, handing him a small dagger. "Hopefully, you won't have to use it."

By the time we make it outside, locking the door behind us, the infected are less than thirty feet away, steadily making their way across our yard. Erik stands a little in front of the others, metal bat in his hand and a knife clipped to his waist.

"Stay together," he says, giving everyone a hard look. Once he gets a confirming nod from the others, he turns his gaze back to the infected. "Let's take these infected out."

With that, he takes up a steady jog, heading for the closest infected. Jesse follows close behind while the omegas take up the rear. The moans are getting louder as if the infected are excited by the prospect of fresh meat. The infected werewolves pace the edges of the territory, watching us with as much agitation as dead wolves can have.

"God, Allie and Micah shouldn't be out in this," Ethan mumbles from beside me. I nod my head in agreement. The siblings have had virtually no training, what with them being so young. Allie is barely sixteen, while Micah is only two years older. They both have endured a lot of trauma, and just the fact that they have to be out here because the rest of us are too hurt makes my anger and frustration grow.

Erik meets the infected first, swinging his bat so hard into the infected's head that it is ripped away from its rotting neck. He stomps in the head once it hits the ground, not paying it any more attention once it is completely dead.

Jesse runs strait for a small cluster of three infected, not seeming to be bothered by the fact that he is outnumbered. He swings the nail encrusted bat into the skull of the nearest infected, taking off half of its head with the force of the blow. As it collapses, he takes out the other two infected with the daggers strapped to his chest, effectively killing them with a stab clear through their eye sockets.

A cry of fear snaps my gaze away from Jesse and over to where Micah and Allie are standing back to back, facing off with two haggard looking infected. The one standing in front of Allie is missing its jaw and right arm, reaching for her with its relatively intact left arm. She attempts to strike it with her machete, but the blade gets stuck in its neck.

Micah is able to kill the infected he is facing off by kicking it in the chest and beating its head in with the butt of his knife. Allie lets out another cry of fear once the infected manages to nearly bite her arm. Micah turns to help her, but Taylor gets there first. He swings his bat up, hitting the infected in its half severed neck and ripping it the rest of the way off. The head hits the ground with a thud, and Taylor stomps it in, crushing its entire face.

"There are so many of them," I say to Ethan, not turning my gaze away from where Taylor is currently bashing in the skull of an infected that was attempting to creep up behind an occupied Liam.

"We must have left a blood trail on our way back last night. That is the only way there could be so many of them here so soon," Ethan tells me. It makes sense. Last night we were so worried about making it back to the house alive that we didn't even think about the repercussions of leaving a blood trail.

"Liam, shit." Before I can stop him, Ethan is jumping over the railing and running over to his overwhelmed mate. Liam is trying to fight off four different infected, and everyone else is too preoccupied with their own fighting to see how much trouble he is in. A wide shouldered one lumbers the closest to him, rotting hands grabbing onto his arm and pulling it towards his mouth.

"Come on, Ethan," I mumble to myself, but Ethan is still a good fifteen feet away. Somehow, Liam is able to dodge the broad shouldered infected's snapping jaws by only a few inches. The machete he is holding swings up, chopping off the hand that is holding onto him.

By the time that he is stabbing the fallen infected through its face, the others are closing in on him. Liam lets out a cry of fear when he isn't able to pull his machete from the infected's skull.

Just when I think that he is not going to make it, Ethan reaches him, tackling the nearest one and beating its head in with his elbow. The other two are distracted by Ethan and turn their attention away from Liam. Ethan stands up on wobbly legs and looking at his shirt, I see blood. His stitches must have been ripped open during the tussle, but he doesn't let that stop him. He faces the other two infected head on, swinging a dagger down into the head of a female infected and dropping it to the ground. Liam chops off the head of the other one, chest heaving as he tries to catch his breath.

"Ethan, you shouldn't be out here," Liam says, worry in his tone. Despite the fact that the omega was almost killed, he is more concerned about Ethan ripping open his stitches than being saved by his mate.

"I am not even going to bother to respond to that," Ethan says, loudly enough that I can hear him from the porch. Liam tries to protest, but Ethan just turns away, ripping out his dagger from the infected's skull and running over to help Micah and Allie.

All of them out there are so busy defending themselves against the increasingly ravenous infected that they do not notice the few that were able to get passed them and are now less than five feet from the porch. I was so distracted by making sure everyone was still alive that I didn't even hear the approaching infected's moans until they are nearly on me.

"Shit," I mumble to myself. With my left wrist being broken, I am left with only my nondominant hand to fight with. The infected reach the porch but aren't able to get to me because of the railing holding them back. I take one last deep breath before steeling myself and walking over to the monsters.

With a clumsy hand, I walk down the line of infected, stabbing them in whatever soft spot of their skull I can find. The first on is missing an eye, so my blade goes through the empty socket. The second one has the back of its skull missing, making it easy for me to puncture its brain. The last one manages to dodge my clumsy strikes. Gritting my teeth, I grab its head with both hands, smashing its head into the railing until it cracks open and its brain starts leaking out of the damaged skull.

Pulling my hands away, I try to catch my breath despite the pain radiating all the way from my elbow down to the tips of my fingers from moving my broken wrist. Gritting my teeth, I tuck my knife back into its sheath and hold by throbbing wrist against my chest.

"Allie, no!" Micah's loud cry causes my gaze to snap over to where he is standing over his fallen sister and where an infected is closing its jaws over her shoulder. He is too late, though, his blade making contact with the infected's head a second after its teeth break the skin on Allie's shoulder.

Despite my pain and Erik's words, I hop over the railing of the porch and run over to where Micah is crouched over his sister, tears streaming down his dirty face.

"It's okay, Allie," he says, words garbled from his tears. "It'll be okay." His shaky hands press against the bite wound, but blood still pours out from between his fingers. Allie is crying, her breath becoming shaky as the infection courses throughout her body.

"Micah..." she says, giving him one last scared look before her eyes glaze over. Micah lets out another cry, pressing harder against the bite wound.

"No! No!" he screams, shaking her in an effort to try and wake her.

"Micah," I say, reaching up my non-injured hand and closing it around his arm. "She's gone."

"No! She can't be. I can save her!" He looks up at me, blue eyes so like his sister's overflowing with tears. I shake my head in denial, and he wrenches his arm away from me. "If you're not going to help me, then get away!"

"Micah," a deep voice says from behind us. Turning, I see that the others are gathered around us, all of the infected crumpled on the ground, dead. Jesse takes a step forward, falling down to his knees where his mate is crouched. "She's not here anymore. Any minute now, she is going to wake up, but she isn't going to be herself any longer." Micah shakes his head, pressing harder against Allie's wound. Jesse creeps closer to him. "You see how the hair is growing on her body, how her teeth are elongating? She is only seconds away from becoming one of those beasts that are pacing our territory."

"She's my baby sister," Micah sobs, finally looking away from Allie, who is slowly turning into a wolf and over at his mate. "I have to save her."

"Sweetheart, I'm sorry," Jesse says, wrapping his arms around Micah's shaking body. "We have to finish this before she turns completely. Do you want me to do it?"

Micah shakes his head before pulling away. "No. It was my responsibility to protect her, but I failed. Now, it's my responsibility to save her from becoming one of those creatures." With a shaky hand, Micah picks his knife up from the ground. Leaning down, he presses his lips to Allie's forehead one last time before bringing the knife down where his lips had been.

The sound of Matty crying from inside the house pulls Liam and his mates away from the group. The twins squeeze his shoulder as they pass, but Liam leans down to whisper something in his ear, quiet enough that only Micah can hear him. Micah lets out a tiny cry at whatever Liam says, nodding his head before laying in the grass next to Allie's still body.

Seeing Micah cry next to his sister brings back memories of my own family being torn apart from me. The only relative I have left is Elliot, and there have been multiple times where I have almost lost him. Even though Micah may feel so alone in his grief, I try to comfort him. "I know it seems hard now, Micah, but someday it won't hurt as much. If you need someone to talk to, I'm here."

Micah doesn't respond, just cries harder as he presses his face against Allie's blonde hair and wraps a trembling arm around her waist as if she will come back if he just loves her enough. Knowing he needs some privacy, I stand up, taking Taylor's outstretched hand. Before leaving, Taylor bends down to press a kiss against Micah's tear streaked cheek.

"Do you think he will be okay?" Taylor asks once we reach the porch. Turning around one last time, I see Jesse lay down next to Micah, not speaking but allowing the omega to take a little comfort in his presence.

"It's going to take awhile, and that hole he is left with will take some time to heal. We have all felt the loss of someone we loved. We'll just have to show him we're here for him, no matter what." Taylor leans his head on my shoulder, guiding the both of us into the house.

The crash of distant thunder causes the both of us to look out the window, noticing the dark clouds that are rolling into the clearing. Micah doesn't move as the clouds roll closer to the house, but eventually, Jesse scoops him up in his arms, cradling the omega as he continues to sob. They are just walking into the house when the rain starts, washing away the evidence of everything that happened moments ago. The rain may wash away the blood and the scents, but it will never be able to wash away the tragedies of today. No, those will forever be held in our minds, never to be forgotten.