The sound of snuffling has me waking up from the light sleep I had been in. Rowan is already up, the other side of the bed warm.

The snuffling gets louder, slowly turning into little cries. Sitting up, I see Rowan walking around the tent, Elias in his arms.

"How long has he been awake?" I ask, pushing myself up into a sitting position.

The crying pauses for a moment, before it starts up again, this time harder than before. Rowan walks over to me, climbing onto the bed.

"A couple hours. He was content to just be held, but I think he is getting hungry."

Nodding I lay down, pulling the blankets down to my waist before patting the spot in between us. Knowing the routine, Rowan sets Elias down, laying on this other side.

The little boy snuffles, his hands coming up to his face. Lifting up my shirt, I pull him close, having to help him get latched properly. He immediately calms against me, legs curling up as he rests a hand on my chest. He is still so small, but Taylor says we should only worry if he loses weight.

"A week old already," Rowan murmurs, fingers trailing down Elias' back. "I can't believe it."

Nodding, I watch the baby, not able to take my eyes off of him. This is how it has been ever since he was born, the both of us completely entranced by him. After waking up from three days of sleeping, it feels as if I need to catch up on lost time. Despite the aching in my body, I push myself to wake up with him, not wanting to miss another moment.

"Neither can I," I whisper.

It is still mostly dark outside, seeing as it is some time in the very early morning. This is Elias' favorite time to be awake, preferring to nurse none stop. To say my nipples are sore would be an understatement, but I push through it. I can't risk my milk supply dropping at all.

Rowan pulls the covers over me when I start to shiver, the cold air biting at my skin. Despite it being spring, it is still pretty cold out, especially in the mornings. There is usually a fire going by now, and I am just about to ask Rowan if he can start one, when someone is ringing the bell to our tent.

The sudden sound has all of us jolting, Elias unlatching in his surprise. He immediately starts to cry, and I pull him close to me.

"What the hell," Rowan says, pushing himself out of the bed and over to the entrance. He pushes aside the flap, letting in the person from outside. "Beckett?"

He is huffing, obviously having run a long distance to get here. "All fighters are needed. There is a horde of infected moving towards the Southern slopes. Too dangerous for us to just let them even attempt to get in."

Rowan looks over at me, his eyes creased in worry.

"We'll be fine." He doesn't look so sure, obviously wanting to stay, but more ruckus is coming from outside, people running around, obviously getting ready to push back the approaching infected. "Go."

After a full minute of him watching me, he nods. He quickly crosses over to the bed, pulling me into a deep kiss before nuzzling Elias' cheek.

"I'm going to send Noah over here," Beckett says once Rowan has grabbed his spike-studded baseball bat, two daggers tucked into their holsters. "I don't want him to be over there alone."

They duck out into the night together, leaving me and Elias alone. My baby boy snuffles against me, and I scoot over to the other side of the bed before getting him latched again. There is no way that he is still hungry, but I can tell he needs the extra comfort right now.

"Matty?" a familiar voice says from outside.

"Come on in, Noah," I say, voice just loud enough so that he can hear me.

The flap of the tent is pushed back, and Noah ducks inside, clothes soaking wet. I hadn't even realized that it was raining outside. Now that I concentrate, I can hear the raindrops hitting the tent, the heavy downpour a constant rhythm.

"I have some extra clothes over there you can wear," I say, nodding over to a basket of clean clothes I had finished yesterday. "There should be a towel in there that you can use, too. You look like you need it."

Noah nods his head, tying the entrance to the tent closed again before heading over to the basket. Somehow, he is able to balance Aria while drying them both off. The baby doesn't approve of being stripped of her clothes but cuddles right up to Elias as Noah takes care of himself.

"Did you hear any more about what is going on?" I ask, watching as Noah walks over to the woodstove, getting a fire started.

Noah shakes his head. "No. Dad had just come over to our tent to get Beckett. He was in a hurry, so only said the bare minimum. But he is always that way, too."

"Do you think we should be worried?" I ask. Aria lets out a content sigh when I rub down her back, the little baby drifting off to sleep.

The fire is quickly built up, and Noah is soon filling a pot with water before setting it on top of the stove.

"It seemed like they were worried, but I think they will have it under control. They infected still seemed pretty far off when they discovered they were headed this way. Besides, there are many more fighters here than we had at home. It would take a lot to overwhelm this place."

Despite his words, worry still settles in my gut. I don't like that Rowan is out there, fighting those rabid creatures.

The bed dipping down has me slipping from my thoughts. Noah is sitting down next to me, his hand settled on top of where mine is rubbing his daughter's back. "They'll be okay. We have all been training since we were three. They can take care of themselves."

Letting over a long sigh, I turn my hand over, capturing his with mine and giving it a small squeeze. "I know, but I still worry."

"You're not the only one." He gets up then, grabbing the pack that he brought over and rummaging inside. "Speaking of me worrying, I finally found something in that book about the whole mate situation."

That peaks my interest. As gently as I can, I unlatch Elias, quieting him before sitting up. "Really?"

"Yeah," he is quickly flipping the pages, brows furrowed in concentration. "Let me just find it." It takes him a minute, but his face finally lights up. "Ah, found it."

His finger runs along the page. "The mating of three, if left incomplete, can be dangerous. The drive to mate is often overwhelming, pushing the wolf to overpower the human brain, all in an effort to survive."

"This doesn't sound good," I murmur.

"Oh, just you wait. It gets even worse." He looks back down at the book. "In a matter of months, a wolf can start to emerge, becoming stronger with each passing full moon. Signs of a strengthing wolf include heightened aggression, heightened sexuality, and loss of sleep. The end stage of this process will entail the wolf completely gaining control and the human brain becoming unreachable."

"Shit," I mumble, worry growing inside me.

Henry has been getting more aggressive, but I don't know if he has been experiencing something else. Rosalie, though, I have not seen showing any of the mentioned symptoms of a wolf getting stronger.

"I know," Noah says. He looks up briefly. "But listen to this. This is the good part."

Nodding, I scoot over closer to him, trying to catch a peek of the book, but the text is so small, that it is impossible for me to see.

"In order to prevent the wolf from gaining control, there are three options. The first is to have all mated members complete the mating process. This could be dangerous, though, if any of the mates are starting to lose control of their wolves." He pauses, skimming over the page really quick. "It goes into depth about it, but we'll just skip that for now." His finger stops on the page. "The second option is to force all mates apart, and eventually the bond will die. Also nonapplicable. The third option is to break the bond of one while completing the bond of two. This will end the bond between one of the mates. By having the other mates complete the bonding, the trauma from the other mate leaving will be soothed. This process should be conducted as soon as possible, and breaking a bond when the wolf spirit is in control can kill the affected mate."

Noah looks up then, and we are both silent. My mind is trying to process all the new information, and for the first time in a while, I feel hope. There is a real chance that we will all be okay. We can get on with our lives without feeling guilty about a mateship being broken.

"We need to talk to Rosalie and Henry," I say, immediately sliding out of bed.

Noah grabs my wrist, keeping me from standing up. "Maybe we should wait until the attack has been dealt with, Matty. That way, Rowan can be here too."

Knowing that he is right, I start to sit back down on the bed, but a loud scream cuts off my progress.

Noah and I exchange a wide-eyed look before we both run over to the entrance of the tent. Peeking outside, it is difficult to make out what is going on, the rain coming down so heavy that it is impossible to see too far in the distance.

Others are looking out of their homes, looking just as confused as us. Another scream comes, a little closer, but still pretty far away.

"What the hell is going on?" Noah murmurs.

Someone calls my name, and I turn to see Gwen running towards us as quickly as she can, her feet slipping in the mud. She is utterly drenched, hair stuck to her face, but she doesn't seem to care.

"The infected are getting too close," she pants once she reaches us. "We're being told to evacuate to the caves."

"Was that what the scream was about? Did the infected reach the camp?"

Her brows scrunch. "No, the infected have just reached the top of the hill. There is no way the scream was their doing."

"Then what the hell was that?"

She shrugs. "No idea, but don't worry about it right now. We have to go."

"I have to get some stuff from my tent," Noah says, "I'll be right back."

He is gone in a flash, and I quickly duck inside my own tent, noticing that both the babies are fast asleep, undisturbed by what is going on outside. Gwen is quick to help me pack up all of our essentials, mostly composed of food, water, and baby things. Everything thing else can be left behind.

The tent flap opens again, and someone steps inside.

"Noah, can you hand me the baby wrap? I want to strap Elias to me instead of having to carry him."

"Holy shit." Gwen's shaky words have me looking at her in confusion before turning to look at the entrance of the tent.

Rosalie is standing there, shirt torn and blood running down her body. It has mixed with the rain, making it look like small rivers of blood running down her arms and torso.

"Oh my god, Rosie," I say, using the nickname that I haven't used in years. "What the hell happened to you?"

"I-I couldn't stop him. He was too strong." Her words come out as sobs. Stepping towards her, I watch as her legs start to tremble, before giving out completely. Dashing forward, I grab her before she can hit the ground. She is trembling in my arms, eyes barely open. "Help him, please, Matty, please."

That's when it hits me.

The screams from before, they were from Rosalie. That means that she can only be talking about Henry.

His wolf has gained control.