The heat of the sun is becoming tiring, and I can feel my skin trying to burn from the constant exposure to the heated rays. Looking over at Alexis, I see that she has pulled out a t-shirt from her pack and draped it over her hair, letting it fall against the back of her neck and managing to keep it in place from where she knotted it under her chin. Not a bad idea, but I can't find the motivation to reach back in my pack and grab a shirt to do the same.

I have no idea how long we have been walking, each day passing in somewhat of a blur. My wolf spirit keeps fighting me, and there have been a couple times where I lost control completely. Alexis had had to tie me to a tree and wait for me to eventually calm down. Whenever I woke up after those episodes, I had a raging headache and rope burns in all the areas of my body that were in contact with the restraints.

Each time, Alexis had just looked at me, her lips pursed in worry but never saying anything out loud. It's probably for the best. I don't know what I would say if she started asking questions.

Because I have no fucking idea what to do with myself. My wolf spirit seems to know that I am distancing myself from Micah, and it is only seeming to become stronger. The solution to my problem is to wait it out, but I honestly don't know if I am going to make it.

But I have something that I am supposed to do, something to keep my mind occupied while I am out here wandering around.

The humans.

Just thinking about humans makes my skin crawl. Before this whole overtake of the infected, humans had not even known we existed. Well, maybe some had, but not the vast majority. We were relatively unharmed by them, and we intermingled with them on a daily basis.

But something about this viral outbreak has driven them mad. Alexis and I have both witnessed it many times, seeing the humans killing each other over simple things instead of working together towards something larger.

Since my wolf was fighting so hard to make me go back to pack lands, Alexis and I had decided to get as far away as we could, and then once I begin to gain more control of my body, we will turn around and go to investigate the humans that Micah had heard talking.

So, we decided to head Southwest, wanting to cross over to California and maybe even visit the coast. Who knows when we may be able to do that again.

While walking, sometime around the end of our first week being away from pack lands, we stumbled across some humans living inside a rundown church. We didn't think anything of it at first but decided to observe them from our hiding spot in the trees.

At first, nothing had seemed out of the ordinary, the humans going about their business as if nothing was amiss. The only thing that had seemed a bit strange was their clothing and the weird designs decorating their skin. They seemed to have succumbed to the heat, only wearing miniscule pieces of clothing over their genitals, but leaving everything else bare. The designs on their skin stood out the most though, weird shapes and symbols that I had never seen before. That was what made me want to observe them for longer than we usually do, curious to see if there was anything else strange about them.

Never before in my life had I wanted to be more wrong.

That night, when the sun was setting, weird music had started up. It was mostly beats of a drum, but then the chanting and weird singing had started. Alexis and I had exchanged looks before returning our gaze back to the now dancing humans.

Together, we watched as all the men and children danced around a stone circle, a large, flat rock placed in the middle. Then, two women had thrown open the church doors, standing out due to being completely naked, sans a lace veil draped over their faces. Their voices joined the others, sounding shrill compared to the men's baritones.

While walking down the steps leading away from the entrance, they each pulled on the chain they had wrapped around their arms. It only took a few seconds to see what they were hiding in that small dilapidated church.

Two large infected with unmarked skin stumbled out the door and down the steps after them, moaning and snapping their jaws the entire time. The two women did not seem concerned with being bit though, just continued their weird chant as they walked over to where the men and children were dancing.

Once they reached the circle, they chained the two infected down onto the large rock, making it so that they couldn't escape. They then proceeded to pull out knives from their hair before cutting their arms and allowing some of their blood to drip along the bodies of the infected.

The infected went into a frenzy once the scent of blood reached them, their bodies thrashing even harder to escape the chains binding them to the rock. This only seemed to encourage the humans, who only sang louder the more agitated the infected became.

Once satisfied, the women pulled their arms back and then faced each other. They held out their still bleeding arms to one another before licking the wounds left behind from the knives. With satisfied smiles on their faces, they pulled their translucent veils back before turning to the infected.

Everyone then froze, the singing abruptly cut off and the dancing stopped mid step. All the men turned to watch the women while the children giggled. Before I even had a chance to react, the women pounced on the infected, biting into their unmarred flesh and ripping it apart. It was then that I realized that they were eating the infected, and even worse, that they were enjoying themselves.

The men and children only watched, not coming any closer until the women stepped back. Then it was just a free for all, everyone trying to get their own portion of the still thrashing infected.

Alexis and I had slipped away after that, seeing all that we needed to further confirm the insanity of humans.

That was probably almost two weeks ago, and Alexis and I have been walking ever since, getting closer to the coast with every passing day.

The loud snapping of a stick causes me to snap out of my thoughts. Alexis is watching me closely, her blue eyes squinted slightly as she looks me over.

"Are you alright?" she asks, her voice sounding loud in the forest.

It only takes me about a second of debating with myself to decide that telling her the truth is probably the best thing. She joined me on this trip when she didn't have to, so she deserves to know what is going on with me. Besides, I'm pretty sure she would just tackle me down and proceed to wrestle with me until I finally relented.

"Better."

Her eyebrow raises slightly at my answer, causing her scar to stretch at the movement. "How much better?"

A tired sigh leaves my lips before I can stop it. "Not enough that we can turn around in the next couple days, but I think that by the time we reach the coast, my wolf will have finally given up."

"Is he finally starting to recede, your wolf?"

My head bobs side to side as I try to find the right words. "Slightly. It seems as if it is about to burst out of my skin, but I can also tell that it is getting weaker. I think that it is starting to realize that I won't relinquish control. But I don't want to turn back until I have complete control again. I am not going back until I know I am not a threat to Micah or the baby."

It takes me a second to realize all that I revealed with that last sentence, and when I do, my head quickly snaps up. Alexis waits for me to look over at her before raising an eyebrow.

"You think I didn't know?" she asks, a fond look of exasperation coming over her face. "Jesse, Micah has become even more rumpled lately, and his bump is more visible than he realizes whenever he turns or stretches." She shakes her head before turning her eyes back to the path in front of her. "I'm honestly surprised it took you this long to figure it out."

A grunt makes its way out of my chest at my sister's words, and she stops completely in her tracks, causing me to almost run into her.

"You didn't know he was pregnant until he told you, didn't you?" she asks, not a hint of doubt in her question. Her blue eyes widen, causing her scar to stretch, and her words come out even quicker than before. "Is that why he wanted to talk to you after meeting with the alpha?" I open my mouth to answer, but she just continues to talk. "That's what made you have to leave so suddenly, your wolf tried to take over when Micah told you about the baby."

"Sometimes I wish you weren't so much like Mom," I mumble, beginning to walk again. Alexis quickly catches up to me, a small smile on her face. She used to always grumble about being compared to our mom, not wanting to be a Luna of a pack, but after our parents were attacked, her grumblings had stopped.

"Well, Mom was one of the smartest and most stubborn wolves I know."

"You definitely got her curiosity," I say, looking over at her with a fond smile.

A small laugh slips out from between her lips, and it causes a jolt of surprise to run through me. I can't remember the last time I heard my sister laugh, and that is enough to cool some of the happiness that was running through me.

"Well, you definitely got her curiosity as well, along with her and Dad's stubborn streak."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I say, a smile spreading across my face when Alexis just scoffs at me.

The next couple hours are relatively peaceful, the both of us reminiscing about the times before the apocalypse. It has been a long time since I have been able to think about our old pack without an ache forming in my heart, but now it feels as if a weight is being lifted off my chest.

The sun is just starting to set when a moan rings through the air, cutting off whatever Alexis had been saying. We both halt in our steps, exchanging worried looks before scrambling to get up the nearest tree. Luckily, there is one with a wide trunk and low enough hanging branches that we are both able to climb it in less than a minute.

Not even a minute later, a couple of claistes come lumbering through the trees, both dragging ripped up humans behind them. My stomach turns at the sight, and from the corner of my eye, I can see Alexis turning away from the disturbing scene in front of us.

Each claiste is dragging their own human, one dead and one unbelievably still alive. The alive one is gurgling against the blood flowing from his mouth, and he seems to be barely hanging on. It is a little surprising that he is even still alive, since one of his arms has been ripped completely from the socket, leaving just a gnarled stump, and the soft tissue of his stomach is flayed, exposing some of his innards. Most likely, he will succumb to his injuries in less than an hour. Hopefully, he will be able to pass before the claistes start to eat him.

The thought makes a cold shiver run down my spine.

Even though I don't want to leave these people in the hands of the claistes, I know Alexis and I most likely won't be able to to take them on. She almost died last time she had been confronted with one, and I won't take the chance that it will be able to finish her off this time. So, we sit there and wait.

It seems like forever before the claistes are finally out of our eyesight, and it takes even longer for them to be far enough away that we can't hear either them or their innocent victims.

We stay in the tree a little longer, just to be sure that they really are gone.

It is almost dark out by the time we feel comfortable enough to climb down from the tree. So much time has been wasted, and now we are left out in the open while it is night out.

"We should head back towards the road we came from," Alexis says. "We should be around that roadblock by now, and if we follow the road, we should come upon a town soon enough."

Nodding my head, I follow behind her as she starts heading to our left, back towards the road that we had been hoping to completely avoid. Early this morning, we had been following it. Even though we are both hyper-vigilant, we were almost caught in the trap that was so cleverly set a half a mile ahead of us.

There had been a little girl calling out for help, and immediately, we had picked up our step, not intending to leave a child in a dangerous situation. But, when we had gotten closer, we had realized that the little girl had no arms or eyes, only legs to stumble around on.

By then, we had realized that something was severely wrong. We decided to get off the road and wait in the tree line, observing the strange situation in front of us. A half an hour later, a small group of humans had lumbered out of the broken down cars laying in the ditches on the side of the road.

One of the women, most likely the leader, had walked straight up to the girl, her fingers winding in her hair and jerking her head back. The little girl had let out a harsh cry, but that didn't seem to bother any of the humans.

The woman had growled something at the little girl, her words too quiet for us to hear from where we were hiding. Whatever she said had made the little girl cower in fear while shakily nodding her head. The woman had shoved her away after that, before gesturing for the others to hide back in the cars while she followed.

Just before she had slipped back into a green Subaru, she turned in a circle, her eyes scanning the tree line. With her weak eyes, she had not been able to see me and Alexis. Not wanting to take any chances, though, we got out of there as soon as she was inside the car.

Alexis hitting my arm pulls me back to the present. Looking over at her, I see her nod her head to the right. My eyes flick over to where she is gesturing and see that there in front of us is the road from before, minus the immediate threats.

As we get closer, a small town comes into view, shops and duplexes showing the toll of abandonment. The thought of going in there without knowing the threat level makes a shred of unease run through me but being out here exposed to everything else is an even bigger threat.

Together, we walk over to the closest duplex, the one sitting farthest away from the road. Pulling out our weapons, we approach the building slowly, eyes taking in everything. Alexis moves to open the door, but I put my hand on her arm, stilling her movements.

She looks back at me, a look of confusion on her face. Before she can protest, I pull her behind me and open the door, not wanting her to be the first one exposed to any possible threat inside. She grumbles behind me, but follows me into the house anyway, splitting away from me to clear the bottom level while I check out the top.

The steps creak under my weight but don't break, which is a good sign. Once I reach the top, I quickly go room to room, checking every bit of space for any possible threat.

The last room, though, makes my steps falter.

There, sitting under a window, is an off-white crib, a few blankets and stuffed animals piled inside. The air in my lungs comes out in a harsh hiss, and I can't seem to stop myself from walking over to the infant bed. My hand brushes along the soft blankets, my heart stuttering when I see the blood on the corner of the one sitting on top.

"Jesse?" Alexis says from behind me, causing me to jerk in surprise. I hadn't even heard her come up the creaky stairs, and that is a worrying thought. She comes closer to me, her steps slow as she takes in the room. "Are you alright?"

Pursing my lips, I nod my head, trying not to let all my fear and anger bleed through. Micah is having our baby soon, and I had left him without a word. Left him without my protection during a time where he shouldn't have to worry about a thing.

Alexis seems to read my mind, because she lays a hand on my arm, just like I had done earlier, but instead of trying to hold me back, she is offering comfort.

"You can fix everything once we get back, but we first have to survive out here." She pulls me out of the room after that, closing the door behind us. "Micah will understand, Jesse, you two just have to learn to actually communicate. But that boy has been in love with you since he was three years old and first started to follow you and Levi around, so I have no doubt that the two of you will figure this out." She opens the door furthest from the baby room, letting out a satisfied sound before pushing me inside and following behind. "Besides, I am going to be an aunty, and part of my responsibility is making sure the parents of my future niece or nephew get their shit together."

With that, she unclips her back pack and collapses onto one of the twin beds in the room, seemingly asleep as soon as her head hits the pillow. Following her lead, I slip off my backpack, not getting into bed, though, until I slip a chair underneath the doorknob.

Laying in bed later that night, the thought of being with Micah again makes a smile spread across my face. My wolf is calmer than I have ever felt before, the pressure of it significantly less than it was earlier today. For the first time in a while, hope for a positive future doesn't seem so crazy.