HI! So, as I said the last chapter was connected to this one and it would be all one big chapter but yeah a 7,000 word chapter is a bit of a joke SO HERE'S THE SECOND PART! Lot's of love x

P.S. Also Hugh Laughton Scott as Cameron Reid!! He was suggested as Cole before but his baby face pulled me much more to him being a Cam! Super happy with it - just imagine him a little bit ginger haha!  

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CHAPTER 59

"I didn't mean to hurt you," Cam defends, fists shaking as he stands tall, "I would never-"

"NEVER WHAT? DO ANYTHING?"

The eruption should have been expected, it's not as if I assumed Trent was going to take the development well.

But I could never have prepared myself for the downright blood-curdling voice that echoes around us, the fury in it igniting that familiar feeling of fear so intense that it's as if someone has dragged a knife down my spine.

"You're right," it laughs and I step away from the body that's beginning to convulse at my feet, "You don't do anything."

It rises up slowly, limbs twitching and head rolling as the muscles across it's back begin to shift; stretching under the skin as if they're trying to break free. The grotesque figure growing unnaturally, a demonic and guttural growl echoing from its core.

"You stand there and preach to me that I'm not good enough for her, yet what have you done."

I can't take my eyes away from the pulsing creature that's ripping at its own skin, it's ungodly snarl making me flinch back in terror as I struggle to comprehend what I'm watching.

Clearly, someone has a deathwish because my stubborn mule of a best friend finds the courage within him to bite back, his own body itching to be free while the other three around him growl, warning him to stop.

Of course, he ignores them.

"How dare you, I-"

"HOW DARE I?"

The words are a roar across the beach, the world seeming to freeze in its wake.

I can't breathe.

Slowly, a dark snicker begins to echo and his head to vehemently shake like there is some amusement to be found in the question.

Somehow, this was more terrifying than him screaming.

"You spend years sitting there," he leers, putrid words dripping from his tongue, "Standing there, watching her be hurt by people who are meant to love her. Seeing how much she is in pain and you-"

He scoffs, turning to look at his target and revealing his face to us all, the whimper escaping my mouth involuntary as my muscles clench in preparation to flee.

"You dare to sit there and try to tell me that I'm not good enough for her, as if you are?"

My heart is like a hammer in my chest as I finally see his face in the sunlight. Morphed into a creature that seems to be half-human and half-beast, the man before me has lost all signs of Trent's soft expressions - his eyes like two black holes that could swallow your soul.

"You, who even when you were gifted with the powers to protect her, to defend her, still did nothing."

His voice rises with every word, the suppressed anger breaking free with every syllable, turning words into monsterous sounds that scratch my skin.

"You who has hidden away, in fear and in shame, pretending that you didn't have the strength to overpower the monsters in her life? Ignoring her silent cries for help that you could so plainly see with your own eyes. Like you had to wait for her to not be in love with someone else before you tried to help."

There's a tearing noise as his shorts begin to rip, his thighs bulging as his feet twist and dig into the sand, the strain overcoming him as he hunches forward, dropping to his arms with a scream. Even Cam has stopped trying to speak, to defend himself, in the wake of the sight before us.

He was shifting.

"You who just chose to wait for her to beg for your help," he roars between guttural moans of agony, "Who hung around until the day that you could swoop in and save her like some hero you've convinced yourself you are?"

I want to look away, to stop witnessing the unravelling of the man that I'd come adore but his words hold me - the passion that they're said with beckoning me to pay attention as they growl.

"As if you don't know what you could have done years ago if it wasn't for your own damn selfish desires."

Silence.

An unsettling feeling creeps it's way over me, like a spider slowly weaving a web, Trent's words dig at the pit in my stomach. The eerie realisation that his words aren't being rebutted, that his scathing view of our relationship is nothing short of the truth.

I never expected my friends to put themselves at risk for me, I never wanted to put them in harm's way. That's why I never told them what was going on, why I tried to contain it myself - so that I didn't have to watch anyone around me suffer. So I could shield them from the horrors of my home life.

I'd always made excuses for him, for the little boy who had cried to me when he was bullied and who I'd defended when even he began to turn against himself, ashamed of the woman who had brought him up and his lack of a father.

I'd tried to protect Cam because I still saw him as that small boy who cowered in the playground but...

Cameron had power.

He's had it since we were sixteen, since the first time that he changed.

I understood that maybe he didn't know what to do at first, didn't know his own strength or the limits that he could push himself too but now?

If he felt strong enough to challenge Trent - who he knew was an Alpha - then he had to know that he had power which could have overcome a human.

I look at Cam in tears, my throat closing up with agony at his refusal to meet my eyes- the shame radiating off of him like a flag being waved in the middle of a war.

He could have overcome my father.

A painful breath.

He could have overcome Matt.

"You think that you deserve her more than me?"

The voice is like gravel as it breaks apart, alerting me to the fact that the human side of Trent was about to disappear just as I rip my heartbroken gaze back to him and witness the beginning of the black patches of fur sprouting through his skin.

"I'll show you what you deserve."

Trent's body seems to explode and retract at the same time, his physical being elongating as if someone was pulling him apart, while his human body seemed to shrink; being replaced by a coat of pure darkness.

It's almost unbearable to watch. He seems to be in pain as he cries, his wolf tearing through his human form with zero regards for the torture it might cause, his nails turning to claws.

His teeth turning to fangs.

I had seen Trent's wolf once before although I didn't know that it was him. And looking back now, it's hard to believe that it was him. That wolf had been cautious but made me feel safe; his eyes never looked at me as though I was in any danger if anything a sense of peace had overcome me.

But now I was beginning to feel very different.

Scarlette, Lee and Cole begin to howl, a chorus of battle cries that somehow don't feel strange coming from the mouths of people that look like ordinary humans but have the eyes of animals. I'm helpless, watching as Cam stands with a wild look, unafraid to back down - his pride stopping him from running.

Did I hate him? Did I want to scream and shout at him for never helping me, for never stepping in and stopping Matt over the years of pain that he'd inflicted?

'Yes' - a small part of me blurts out before I can stop it, the honesty like a slap in the face.

Everything slows down around me as Trent's wolf completely breaks free - the animal before me fully formed as it stands tall, lifting his neck to the sky. It joins the howls around it, it's own much louder and deeper than any other I've ever heard before its eyes drop back to the ground and zero in on the figure across the sand. 

But I didn't want him to die. 

It was still Cam.

Off to one side, I stand alone witnessing what could very well be the death of my best friend. It was clear that that was the intentions whether anyone wanted them to be or not. 

It's like I'm forgotten.

I had thought that I had gotten through to Trent, thought that his wolf had listened to me.

I watch as he pulls back his shoulders, his paws finding their support to push off from the ground at a pace which seems almost impossible to catch. 

Maybe I was wrong.

Maybe he didn't listen to me.

My ears ring as I remember the way he looked at me.

No.

Trent had heard me. He had heard me through the fog of his wolf; he had managed to control it, to become equal with it. 

I had seen it.

A voice whispers to me from my soul, it's soft tone barely audible but there.

But only when his wolf felt comforted.

"It's scared," I whisper, the tingles through the veins telling me that I'm right, "That's it."

My feet take off, sand falling behind me as I stumble to Cam, begging my legs to get me there before the animal charging at him did.

I don't know what I'm doing - every part of my head is screaming for me to stop, to accept that it's too late, to flee from the path of destruction that I'm beelining straight for. 

But there's this flicker of hope. Like a dying lightbulb that's echoing for me to move, telling me that I can help despite the plummeting of my heart and the hopelessness nipping at my heels.

Trent was so afraid of showing me his true nature, he was so caught up in the past and the mistakes that he made because of his anger that he never let anyone see that part of him. He tried to keep it hidden away as if admitting that he needed help was shameful. 

He had never let his wolf free; he always held it back when it would beg to be released or listened to. 

He was so afraid of what he might do that he never realised what he was doing.

Trent's wolf races for its prey, bloodthirsty eyes zoned in on the threat.

Threat.

That's what it sees us all as, other threats waiting to pounce on him, to hate him the same way that Trent does. 

If it's treated like a beast then it'll act like a beast.

Cam's eyes widen in horror when he glances to see me running at him, my legs burning as they scream at me to stop, his own feet trying to run to me to get me out of the way.

Even Trent's pack are no longer howling and instead are following my movements with bated breath, their fingers reaching for me.

But it's too late.

Trent didn't trust his wolf, and the wolf trusted no one.

But I did.

I throw myself forward, right in the line of the wolves prey, my arms held tightly to my side as I slide across, my knees scraping in the sand.

The fear that I felt, the panic that overcame me as he changed, the horror-filled expression that I didn't even realise I was wearing; they weren't real. 

It was Cam that he wanted to hurt - not me.

Never me.

Because I knew - I knew that he couldn't hurt me.

Not Trent.

The world seems to be silent as I breathe all of the air out of my lungs, my body deflating as I stretch my head to the side, brushing back my hair as I close my eyes, the last thing I see the sharp canines of the wolf that's leaping towards me.

"I trust you," I whisper, pulling myself away from the fear, "Every part of you. Completely."

Sand sprays over my legs but nothing else touches me.

The feeling of hot breath on my skin lets me know just how close he is, how easy it would be for him to sink his teeth into me or fling me out of the way. In the darkness of my closed eyes, I can only imagine the scene unfolding, witnessing my own death like a replay in my head with Trent losing all control.

But he doesn't.

There's a gentle brush against my neck, the feeling parallel to running your hand across a rug in front of a warm fire - a deep prickling heat but a softness that soothes at the touch. I feel it as it trails down my shoulder and across my collar bone, before it makes it's way back to my face, this time prickling the skin on my cheekbone.

A noise breaks the silence - like a whine of a puppy it calls to me and pries my eyes open, letting me finally look at what's in front of me. 

Black fur, protruding canines and a terror inducing stance make up the creature but it's eyes-

It's eyes are Trent.

My chest heaves as I break from my position, my hands automatically threading themselves into the fur along his neck as he leans into me, nuzzling me with the same affection that Obi would often show. 

I'm in awe as I bring my hand along with his head, tracing the sharp edges of his jaw before stroking his long muzzle that's barely an inch from my own face.

He was beautiful.

His head dips forward, following my touch and I gently lean into it, my mouth pressing softly into the crown.

I'm freaking out internally, my thoughts so scattered and bewildered by what's just happened but there's a deep comfort that's settled in my stomach as if it's telling me that I should have known all along.

True mates.

"Mi Reina?"

It takes a moment for me to understand what it means to hear those words, my ears taking their time in letting my brain register in what they're hearing.

But when I do, I bolt up in shock, my eyes wide as I realise that the wolf in front of me is no longer there, and instead a very handsome, bare-chested man has taken it's place.

"Hi," I squeak, the anticipation inside of me bursting as his astonished eyes glance over me, "How are you?"

He lets out a bewildered laugh as he stretches his hands out in front of him, seeming to not quite believe that he was sitting in his human form.

"How am I?" he chuckles, shaking his head, his grin spreading over his face as he grabs my hands. There's an emotion in his eyes that make the golden gleam seem even brighter - the feeling is foreign but indescribable.

"How am I?" He howls, moving into me,  "I'm completely and utterly in lo- naked."

His entire body seems to cringe as he takes his hands out of mine and covers his lower region, his face bright red as he looks anywhere but me. Sand begins to get patted onto him awkwardly in the hopes that it'll cover what it lands on. 

But it doesn't.

"I'm completely and utterly naked."

I bite my lip in an attempt to hold my laughter, my eyes staying locked on his face as I try to not let them wander anywhere I'm not ready to see.

Maybe you are ready.

My own face ignites and I'm now grateful that he's refusing to look at me so that he can't see the physical sign of my unholy thoughts as I sheild my eyes. 

"You have a pair of shorts in the truck."

Cole's voice brings us out of our own little bubble, making me jump as he speaks which only serves to bring him more amusement. 

I'd completely forgotten we weren't alone.

He looks between the two of us in confusion, as if trying to figure something out but there's a fondness as he does that settles my paranoid nerves. 

He gives me a quick smile before he grabs Trent's shoulders and pushes himself in front of him, blocking anyone's view of his body as he pulls him to his feet.

Very ungracefully I might add.

"We -uh-" Trent's head peaks around Cole's torso with an apologetic grimace, "We will talk, I just need to- yeah."

Cole's shove and low laughter force him to move away from us, the two of them arguing as Cole attempts to cover Trent who slaps his hands away with grunts of 'that's too close, man' and 'I didn't touch anything'.

I clear my own throat and stand up quickly, trying not to stumble as my jelly-like legs catch me. Scarlette makes a noise like a strangled cat as I spin to her, my obvious blushing face a dead give away for how I'm feeling and she quickly grabs Lee who is standing with his mouth hanging open in pure shock. 

So, I wasn't the only one gobsmacked by what just happened.

"Come on," she shoves with urgency, "Let's go check that everything's fine at the house."

She doesn't miss my grateful smile and squeezes my hand in return, unspoken words of support and a promise to talk later embedded in the curves of her lips.

They stumble away with hushed voices as Lee continues to look back at me, disbelief oozing from him even with Scarlette's attempts to cover it up. 

As he moves out of earshot, I don't miss the glare that he shoots to the person standing next to me and I'm harshly reminded of everything that's happened.

Suddenly the beach seems very big and I feel very small.

"How did you..." Cam's voice trails off unsurely, his voice sounding shaky, "Why did he..."

When I finally look at him I see the real confusion on his features' the way his brows are almost touching in the middle and his eyes are looking far away like his memories are battling with each other, painfully. His attention so focused on the things that he doesn't understand that he's completely oblivious to my almost shattering disappointment. 

Something breaks his train of thought and he now looks at me, the internal struggle plain on his face. 

"Elle, how did-"

"You need to leave," I state, my tongue heavy but the words strong, "Right now, before you say anything else that could cause an argument."

Just because I'd saved his life, didn't mean that I wasn't furious with him over how he treated Trent. Did he expect me to just forget how viciously he'd turned on the pack?

"Another argument?" he guffaws, arms flailing, "Did you see him? That's not normal, that's not-"

"Any of your business," I finish flatly, catching him off guard.

It's only now that he takes in my folded arms and strained jaw, my hurt gleaming in my eyes like freshly painted seas; waves of turmoil threatening to break me.

"Elle," he says pleadingly, reaching for me, but I knock his hand away before it can even try to hold me, taking it one step further by actually moving back from him.

"Leave," I repeat, "Now."

I don't know if it's the finality of my tone or a look in my eye that stops him from continuing to try, but to my relief he does. He holds in whatever words he was so ready to spill and grits them between his teeth, eyes blazing.

"Fine," he half spits, as we hear the car doors shut, "But I meant everything that I said. You'll see."

He turns and takes off down the beach before I can so much as get a word in, leaving me to stand with a deep feeling of confusion and anger rocking against my heart. His retreating figure heads to the woods on the other side of the beach swiftly, charging into the darkness, not even a look back. 

There's a part of me that wants to reach out to him, to run after my best friend of so many years with apologies and a willingness to listen to his thoughts on this new life that I'd begun because I wanted to believe that he had to have justified reasons to be so against it.

But I couldn't.

Whether it was the sound of Trent's laughter as he shouted goodbye to Cole or the way my stomach flipped when he looked over at me with a timid but glowing smile, I just couldn't.

There is this nibbling thought that I keep pushing down - even as he stops in front of me and runs a hand through his unkempt hair, I try to ignore it.

"So," he whistles, hands shoving themselves into the pockets of the shorts that he now wore, "I think we probably have a lot to talk about."

It's only as the anxious expression flickers across his god like features and my breath catches in response that I know exactly why I couldn't follow Cam into the forest, why I couldn't believe his awful view on the man before me.

Why I couldn't leave him.

"Yes," I whisper, a warmth pooling through my entire body as I accept the thought that I've been trying so hard to push back, the acceptance blowing out any ideas of hesitance that I'd been clinging on to. 

I can't ignore it anymore.

He has my heart.

"Yes, I think we do."

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I hope you all loved it and don't hate me!!! I feel like these emotional scenes and that are dragged out sometimes but it's because I feel like we're all so invested in their characters and I just adore making you guys feel everything that they're going through so hopefully that was the experience for you!

ALSO _ SO MANY REVELATIONS IN THIS!! the next couple chapters are going to be info filled and dramatic to say the least so I hope you're ready.

I LOVE U ALL!