Leah hovered over Natania, watching the remaining wounds close much slower than normal. She expected her to wake when the last one finally scabbed and disappeared, but she remained sleeping for hours. Alistair came and went without paying any attention to them, a fact for which she was grateful. Leah didn't know what had inspired her to face him down, but whatever it was had faded, leaving her huddled and trying to avoid his notice.

"Wake up," Leah murmured desperately. "You can't die."

Natania stirred at her voice, her eyes flickering and Leah frowned. For just a moment, it looked like her eyes were yellow, instead of their normal blue. Natania eased back into sleep beside her and Leah gently pried open one of her eyes. Blue. Leah shrugged. She must have imagined it.

"What are you doing?" Natania muttered, her words slurred by sleep.

Leah jumped, and let her hold on Natania's eyelid fall. "It's nothing, sorry. Are you okay?"

Natania grunted, swiped a paw over the eye then tried to stand. Leah caught her as she staggered. "Careful."

"I'm fine." Natania said gruffly, getting to her feet and shaking out her pelt. She froze for a second, then turned to Leah, searching over every inch of her. "Are you okay?"

"Don't worry about me, I'm not the one who almost died."

Natania scoffed and twitched her ears. "He wouldn't have killed me."

"Could have fooled me," Leah snapped. "What the fuck happened? How does he know about them?"

Natania shifted to her human form and sat on the ground, rubbing her eyes. Her wounds had closed, but they still hurt, and she was exhausted. "I don't know. Someone must have told him. Or he found the scents." Unlikely, she thought, he doesn't patrol that often.

"I didn't tell him," Leah murmured, crouching beside her. "And we were the only ones there."

Natania scowled. "Howard. The rat bastard."

"Could have just as easily been Tyson," Leah pointed out. "You did reject him."

"Tyson didn't want to kill them either," Natania said, "but Howard is the kill now, talk later type of wolf. The balancing scale to his alpha's weakness." Howard would have told Reagan, and Reagan would have told her father. But why wait so long to do it? "Gah, whatever. What's done is done. There's no going back now." Even if she could go back, she wouldn't kill the child. Their paths were set in stone. She took a deep breath. "So, what now?"

"Well..." Leah hesitated for a moment before explaining what she had done.

"You did what?" Natania snarled under her breath as Leah finished her explanation.

Her mate didn't meet her gaze as she whispered, "he was going to kill you.'

"No, he wasn't," Natania snapped. "I'm his only heir, by law I have to live to make my own pack, or he has to produce another. You think any other pureblood would mate with him, the way he is now?"

"Yes," Leah roared, surging to her feet. "When are you going to understand that you are an outlier and not the norm, Nat? You think anyone cares what he does to his pack? He is one of the most powerful alphas alive. When given the choice, we will always pick power."

Natania had started to stand as she ranted but froze at her words, feeling despair rise up in her chest. She had said 'we'. "Is that what you did?" she choked out. "Did you pick me for power?"

Leah closed her eyes and Natania wondered if her heart could crack from the inside.

"I don't know," Leah whispered after a long moment. "Maybe, at first. Do you know how many times I've asked myself that? Did I pick you to be safe? To keep my parents safe? I would have done anything for them and you..." Leah shook her head, her voice softening. "You didn't pick me for power, but I wouldn't have picked you without it. If you were just one of us..." she trailed off uncertainly.

Natania felt like one those rocks balanced on a point, hovering over the void, one word from slipping into despair. One breath from falling into nothingness.

"And now?" Natania whispered, teetering on an edge, expecting to be swallowed whole.

Leah bared her teeth. "I think I got my answer today. Watching you almost die, again, even as I hated you for leashing me... I would have done anything to take your place." Leah stalked forward until she could grasp Natania's face in her hands, holding her gaze. "Because I'd rather die than live in a world without you in it."

Natania half laughed, half wheezed out a breath of relief as Leah kissed her, hard and demanding. "You are mine," Leah snarled as she pulled back to breath. "And if you ever leash me in such a way that I have to watch someone hurt you again, we are done."

Natania blinked as pure, unfiltered rage oozed out of Leah. Leah pounded one fist on her chest. "I love you," she hissed in a tone that people typically used to tell someone to take a short walk off a tall cliff. "I can live with you laying down the law, and making the big alpha decisions. I can live with you letting assholes that hurt you live, and I don't care if you send me off to count grains of rice, or clean your dad's underwear." Leah started stabbing her with a finger instead as she spoke. "But don't you ever fucking force me to watch someone hurt you, to watch you die. I'll spit on your grave." She paused for a moment then corrected, "you know what, no, that's not good enough. I'll piss on your grave."

Natania couldn't help the snort that escaped her, drawing Leah's fury back. "I'm not joking," Leah snapped. "I'm not some helpless damsel for you to protect. If I'm going to be your mate, then I'm going to die by your fucking side not standing by like some useless twit. You stupid, fucking, reckless idiot."

"Okay," Natania said, curling her hand over Leah's. "I get it. No trying to save your life, and no defiling my grave." Natania cupped her face and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Clearly, I shouldn't have made you my second," she muttered.

Leah narrowed her eyes. "Why?"

Natania kissed her softly before answering. "Because one of us needs to survive to protect the pack."

"Fuck the pack," Leah growled. "Let Valerie lead it."

Natania laughed. "You don't mean that."

"Who says I don't?" Leah replied, her tone utterly serious.

Natania ran a hand through her hair. She knew Leah didn't mean that. She had seen her fight for them. "I do. I love you too, you know."

Leah smirked. "Damn right you do." She reached up to kiss her again, then abruptly stepped back, cocking her head to listen.

"What?" Natania asked, then heard it too. Playtime was over, her father was coming home. She sighed and rubbed her face in an attempt to cover Leah's scent.

"You're awake." Her father barely spared her a glance as entered, stomping his boots on the mat. "Took you long enough."

Natania held back the snarky retort on her tongue and shrugged. Another fight would do them no good.

Alistair finished putting away his outdoor clothes, notably soaked, and stalked into the kitchen. "Your second filled you in?" He didn't need to speak loudly, Natania could hear him fine from her spot in the living room.

"Yes," she replied through gritted teeth. Leah put a hand on her shoulder but she shrugged it off.

"Then get on with it," he ordered. "Don't come back without their heads." He poked his head around the corner so he could narrow his eyes at her. His voice took on a menacing tone. "I mean it. Don't come back until you've proven yourself."

Alistair returned to whatever he was doing, then continued. "Your second can remain to take care of your pack."

Leah took in a sharp breath. Natania glanced at her then closed her eyes. She had just promised Leah they would fight together. "No," Natania told her father simply, keeping her voice neutral. "She's coming with me."

Silence permeated the air and she braced herself for his anger, but all she got from him was a snort. "Fine, leave the snivelling coward to take your place and see how well that works out."

Natania set her jaw. She had planned to bring Branson as well, but she couldn't now. Shielding him would be telling her father that she didn't trust her third, didn't trust her own judgement. She had to leave Valerie to support him, she couldn't leave Hayley, or Alex or their doubts would undue him. Natania closed her eyes again and rubbed her temple. She needed Leah to stay.

She didn't give her father a response, just grabbed Leah's hand and pulled her out of the house behind her.

It was raining, storming. Natania paused outside her home as her entire body was soaked within seconds. Leah had pulled free from her grasp and remained under the shelter of the porch. "Did you not hear the rain?" she asked.

Natania snarled under her breath. No, she hadn't. She'd known it was raining, her father had left water in his wake, but she was too caught up in her own head.

Natania shed her human skin and disappeared into the woods. She heard Leah swear behind her moments before pawsteps thudded behind her. Leah was fast, she caught up to her quickly. "What are you thinking about?"

Natania slid to a stop, the other wolf bumped into her backside. "You won't stay behind."

"Not on your life," Leah growled, righting herself.

Natania paced, mud squelching under her toes as she put words to her thoughts. "Then I need Branson to prove himself. Valerie needs to stay to back him up. I can't trust Hayley or Alex, I don't even know if I can trust Rayla." She could feel Leah's understanding. If Leah left, she'd have to travel with wolves she didn't trust.

"You should have made Valerie your second," Leah remarked.

"It's too late now," Natania snapped. "I chose you, and I would choose you again." She wouldn't be so worried about Bran if her father hadn't assigned her pack to take over all of the morning patrols recently. Practice, he had said, for when they had their own territory, and something to do while school was out for the summer. Natania decided each morning who would do what, Bran was too indecisive.

Leah ran her nose along Natania's flank. "Calm down. Leave Valerie and Keiran to prop up Bran. Bring Avery, Alex and Hayley. Valerie can handle her sister."

"Can you handle travelling with them?" Natania demanded, a note of accusation in her voice. She dipped her head, regretting the sharpness of her tone as soon as the words left her mouth.

Leah twitched an ear. "Do you have so little faith in me?" Leah held Natania's gaze, water streaming from her muzzle.

"No," Natania admitted, "I'm sorry." Her pelt itched to shake the water from it, but there was no point, it would be like bringing a towel into a swimming pool.

Leah nodded once. "I don't like it, but we have a common enemy. They'll be more focused on getting revenge than causing drama."

"Then let's go," Natania said, "before we grow webbed paws."