The full moon is hanging high in the night sky, illuminating the dirt pathway that I am walking on. A cold breeze blows through the nearly leafless trees, making them rustle with every movement. It is getting towards the end of autumn, making the nights longer and colder, but usually there are still plenty of animals out. No other sounds can be heard, though, and the silence is off putting.

It has been weeks since anyone has last seen Erik and Jesse, making everyone in the house anxious, but especially Micah and Liam. The two of them have been pacing all day, not seeming to find comfort in anything. Liam refuses to even hold Matty, only giving in when the baby is screaming from hunger. Ethan is just on edge as the rest of us, maybe even more so since Liam has been snappier lately with every passing day without Erik.

Taylor, though, is who is worrying me the most. Ever since the baby kicked for the first time, he has been in a weird mood. He almost seems to be in a trance, not snapping out of it until you call his name multiple times. Sometimes, I will find him murmuring down at his stomach, a soft hand rubbing against the now well-defined bump. His words make my heart ache, whenever I am able to catch a few of them when he is too distracted to see me.

They are usually happy words, but he always manages to slip in a quiet prayer that the baby is a boy, saying how he doesn't know if he can handle a girl. No matter what I say, he will not accept my words of comfort when I tell him he will be a great father, no matter the gender of the baby. He just shakes his head and says he has already lost one baby girl; he doesn't want to lose another.

He won't let anyone mention that the baby may be a girl, his heart racing and breaths quick whenever someone accidentally brings it up. Now, everyone knows to refer to the baby as a boy, too fearful of Taylor's reaction to say anything else. No one wants him to have another panic attack.

The baby's gender had never occurred to me before. As soon as Taylor told me about him being pregnant, I have just wanted the both of them to be healthy. Weeks ago, when he had that huge panic attack and ran out of the house, I thought something horrible had happened. Waking up to an empty bed and not being able to find my pregnant boyfriend anywhere in the house was one of the worst feelings I have ever experienced.

Ethan and Liam had helped me look for Taylor, and it was Ethan, in fact, who had found him. He came and found me, though, instead of approaching Taylor, knowing that he may not respond well to someone he wasn't close with.

Now, weeks later, I still fear that Taylor may have another full blown panic attack. Both he and the baby could be badly injured if he does, seeing as he is not able to completely control his actions when he has one. The frequent baths and the hushed words he has with the baby seem to help him, though, which I am counting on.

The sound of a twig snapping in the background pulls me out of my thoughts. Looking around, I see that I have walked further than I had originally intended. All is silent again, making it impossible to find the source of the noise. With a shake of my head and an ominous feeling of someone watching me, I continue down the path. If I am already this far out here, then I might as well finish the entire loop.

All of the betas and Alpha Seren are out on patrol tonight since the others are in the middle of their heats. Each of us took a different section of the territory and are responsible for looking out for anything strange. The infected humans and werewolves can't get through the fence, but that doesn't mean anything else will be dissuaded by it. With some of us out of commission, tonight would be the perfect night to strike, and the thought of someone else knowing that terrifies me.

Something rustles in the distance, and it sounds suspiciously like footsteps. Stopping in my tracks, I cock my head, trying to find the source of the noise. The footsteps are gone, though, and the rustling of the leaves starts up again. Shaking my head, I try to get rid of my paranoia.

Just as I am about to start walking, a low moan sounds from my right. My head snaps in the direction of the sound, but I am unable to see anything. With careful footsteps, I walk off the path and towards the fence. Twenty feet later, I am standing next to the fence, my brows scrunched in confusion when everything is silent again.

No movement is coming from this side of the fence, at least not from what I can see. Something pushes me to move closer. I put my knife back into the holster strapped to my waist, freeing up my hands. The fence is easy to pull myself up onto, but the edges near the top are worn down, meaning that the edges are sharp.

"Ow," I say, jerking back my hand. Looking down at it, I see that there is a cut directly across my palm. With a shake of my hand, I try to rid the pain. "Jesus, Tate, can't go one day without hurting yourself."

A groan from above me stills my shaking hand. Looking up, I see something that makes my breath catch in my throat and sends a rush of fear throughout my body.

"What the hell?" I mumble, my eyes wide as I try to take in the sight. "Erik?"

There, strapped to a tree about twenty feet above the ground, is Erik. His arms are held out and strapped to the branches on either side of him, making it look like he is hanging on a makeshift cross. Even from this far away and through the darkness, I can see that something isn't right.

Before I can stop myself, I lift my legs up and over the fence, landing harshly on the muddy ground on the other side of the fence. Another groan, one not coming from Erik, pulls my eyes away from the alpha and over to another large tree, only ten or so feet away from the one Erik is strapped to.

Another slumped figure is up there, one that looks exactly like Jesse. I look around, trying to find someway I can get up to them, but I can't find anything. How they even got up there is a mystery to me.

That is when something clicks in my mind. This isn't right; this has to be some sort of set up. They couldn't have strapped themselves to the trees, and when I take a closer look at them, I see that they are both heavily beaten. They couldn't have done that to themselves.

Quickly, I pull out my knife, holding it tightly in my hand as I try to find the threat that is hiding somewhere in the trees. My palm stings from the pressure of the knife pressed tightly against the cut I had gotten only minutes ago, but I ignore the pain.

"Looking for someone, Tatum?" an eerily familiar voice says from the right of me. I twist around towards the person the voice belongs to, holding my knife in a defensive position in front of me.

Less than ten feet away from me is a werewolf I never wanted to see again: Zalo. Something looks very off with him, though, something more obvious than before.

Chunks of his shoulder length dark hair are missing, and the rest that is on his head is in wild disarray like he is always pulling at it. Probably why he has chunks missing, actually. His hands twitch at his side, seemingly involuntarily, and a sick smile spreads across his face. Scratches and claw marks are all over his skin, looking like he got in a fight with something that has vicious claws. It must have been recently too if he hasn't healed yet.

"Like my new look, hm?" he says, eyes wide as he stares at me. "That would be courtesy of those beasts from Washington. What did you all call them? Claistes, right?" He doesn't wait for me to answer him, instead waving a bloody arm in the direction of the trees. "That's what happened to those two, with a little help from me and my friend."

"What the fuck, Zalo?" I say, body tense in anticipation of an attack. "What the actual fuck is wrong with you?"

"You," he spits back, his creepy smile from before gone from his face. Instead, he is sneering at me, looking like he is barely holding himself back from jumping me. "You are what is wrong. You took my mate. Mine."

Confusion comes over me and I shake my head as I try to form the right words. "What the hell are you talking about. I didn't steal your mate. You don't even have a mate."

The sick smile from before is back now, and he stands up straight, looking worryingly pleased. "Oh, he didn't tell you?" He cocks his head to the side, eyes fixed on my face.

"Who didn't tell me what?" I question, a feeling of dread creeping up on me.

His smile grows even wider, stretching the already tight skin across his sunken in face. Now that he is closer, I can see how much weight he has lost. He looks like he is just skin stretched across bones. In fact, he looks almost like those claiste beasts with no muscle, just all skin and bones.

"Taylor didn't tell you that I am his mate?"

His words cause me to rear back, my feet stumbling around on the branch laden ground and almost making me trip over myself. Pain lances through my heart at his words, feeling as if someone is stabbing me. My breath starts to quicken, but I hold it in, not letting it out until it is almost under control.

"No, you're lying," I say, voice hoarse.

He shakes his head, his ragged hair flopping around at the movement. "Now why would I lie about a thing like that?"

I clench my trembling hands into fists, reveling in the pain that shoots through my hand at the movement. It takes away from the pain in my chest, at least.

"Too bad he didn't choose you," I say, the bravado strong in my voice even though I am not feeling brave at all. "He is with me."

"Only because that fucking omega stopped me." His words come out viciously, almost like he is trying to actually spit the words as he speaks. "Taylor would be with me if it wasn't for him."

"Taylor doesn't want to be with you," I tell him. At least I know that is true, Taylor had told me that himself, multiple times.

"That's not his choice," Zalo says, taking another step closer to me. "And I am going to get him, no matter how hard you try to stop me."

Anger rushes through me, not quite replacing the hurt but damping it down some. The thought of him being with Taylor, against my boyfriend's will, makes me hate the alpha even more.

"You won't touch him. I won't let you." The fury is coming through strong in my voice since I don't try to hold it back, but Zalo doesn't seem affected by it at all. Instead, he seems to find it funny.

He chuckles, his whole body shaking with his laughter. I grit my teeth, barely holding myself back from just attacking him now, but I don't know it there is something else out there waiting for a signal to pounce. The thought of getting close to the alpha anyways sends a feeling a fear coursing through me. Everything is off about him, from the way his eyes are too wide to how he is so rail thin now. Going up against him seems like it would be the worst idea right now.

"You think you can stop me?" he says, finally standing back up from the hunched position he had been in from the strength of his laughter. His eyes squint at me, but still seem to be eerily wide at the same time. He gestures in the direction of Erik and Jesse where they are still hanging in the trees. "Why do you think I captured them?"

Another moan rings out from the trees, this time from Jesse. I don't turn my eyes away from the deranged alpha in front of me, though, knowing that if I look away he will attack.

Honestly, at this point, I am just waiting for someone else who is on patrol to wander by. I can't take Zalo on my own because even though he looks weak physically, an insane mind is a dangerous one.

Footsteps come from the right of me and hope starts to gather inside me. It dies, though, once I hear the voice of an equally insane person.

"Zalo, we gotta get out of here, baby," Bethany, the beta who had been beating Nik and Andrea, says. "That shitty alpha from before is on his way over here."

"Time to go, Tatum," Zalo says, quickly closing the distance between us. His hand clamps down hard around my arm, and when I try to wrench free, his grip only becomes tighter. "Ah, ah, ah. We don't have time for that. Either you come with us and I leave the other two behind, or I kill them and still take you with us."

I rip my arm from his grip anyways, backing away from him as quickly as possible. My journey is stopped short, though, by the barrel of a gun being pressed into the back of my neck.

"Come on now, pretty boy. You wouldn't want me to mess up that handsome face of yours, would you?"

I snap my teeth at her, unable to hold back the anger bubbling inside me. She seems to take delight in it if the large smile that appears on her face says anything. She is just as deranged as Zalo. I guess they really are perfect for each other.

The barrel of the gun presses even harder against my skin, and I know there will definitely be a bruise there tomorrow. If I will still be alive tomorrow. It's hard to know with these two.

Footsteps sound in the distance, the crunching of leaves signaling the arrival of someone on the other side of the fence.

Zalo holds up a finger in front of his mouth, signaling for me to be quiet. Bethany jabs the gun deeper as if to warn me, even more, to be quiet. Not wanting to lose my head, I don't say anything the entire time as the footsteps come close, pass us by, and eventually keep going.

Zalo doesn't say anything until the footsteps are inaudible. "Time to get out of here. We got other things to do now that we have you." Bethany cackles behind me as she pushes me to move forward with the gun.

Gritting my teeth, I start walking behind Zalo, even though all I want to do is get away from both of them and go and help my very injured pack mates who are tied up in the trees and make sure the others are safe, as well. The gun pressing against me doesn't give me much of a choice though, so I keep my feet moving. As long as Taylor is still safe behind those fences, then I will die a happy werewolf.