Mia's POV

The sun went down and the fire crackled in the night. I could hear the crickets chirping around us as Aunt Diana was cooking a squirrel on the bright yellow and orange flames. Brady took a seat next to me and put the small throw blanket from the backpack on my lap and his.

I rest my head on his bare shoulder and scoot closer to him for warmth. He wraps an arm around me lingering a kiss on the side of my head then resting his forehead on the side of my head.

"Are you warm enough?" Brady whispers in my right ear.

I nod and snuggle into him a tiny bit more. There was a feeling of surprise at his affection even after I ran away and broke literally all the rules.

"Why aren't you mad at me?" I blurt out.

"There is no reason for me to be mad, I am just glad you are safe and unharmed. I probably would have done the same thing if I loved anyone else. But I don't. I only love you and I promised to make sure you know that."

His response made my heart skip a beat and I gulped my spit as I smiled a tiny bit. Aunt Diana pulls the cooked squirrel off of the fire and cuts it in half with her knife. My smile fades when I see some blood drench at the end of the blade.

She slides half of the squirrel to Brady and me while keeping the other half for herself and Uncle Luca. I pull a piece of the squirrel meat and bring it to my lips. It wasn't as pleasant as I hoped for, but I couldn't complain about even getting food.

I rip apart another piece and bring it to Brady's lips. He chuckles a tiny bit and pushes my hand back down.

"I'm fine. You go ahead and eat."

I nod slowly and quietly eat my half of the squirrel thinking about the female I had killed.

"How was everything before we came along?" Uncle Luca asked. It was like he read my mind.

She drops her piece of the squirrel and lifts up her shirt a tiny bit. Uncle Luca growls when he sees the deep claw marks engraved in the side of her petite waist.

"We met a couple of female rogues but we handled it. Unfortunately, we had to kill them both." Aunt Diana said truthfully.

Brady's hands roll up the sleeves of my shirt as he looks for any wounds on my body.

"I'm okay Brady, I promise."

"Are you sure? Did you have to kill one of them?" He mumbled the last part.

I nodded slowly and brought my head down in shame. I never thought of taking anyone's life even if they were a rogue. My mate was a rogue for heaven's sake.

"I am so sorry you had to go through that. I wished I was there for you so you didn't have to experience it. I know how scarring it must be."

I was so glad Brady was here. Once we find Xavier's body, I can't wait to have time to just cherish good moments with Brady and the rest of the pack.

*****

Morning soon came and we were off. I was walking next to Uncle Luca on my left while Brady was on my right. Aunt Diana was walking on the left of Uncle Luca as they were holding hands. I decided to avoid as much PDA as possible with Brady near my uncle. I wanted my mate to live during this journey.

"How far away are we from Estes Park?" I asked.

Uncle Luca answered almost immediately.

"We have a few miles left. Let's push through it so we can get there faster and leave faster. Now that Brady and I are here, we are at a higher risk of getting caught."

It was quiet for the next half hour of us just walking, I enjoyed the nice sounds of the birds chirping and continued to stay in step with Brady. It became like a little game to me and I tried to follow his steps while trying to stay in step with him.

There was a cold breeze that flew by and I shuddered dramatically literally feeling my soul leave my body for a moment. Brady noticed and came to a complete halt giving me an 'are you okay' look. I couldn't complain about being cold right now, especially since he and Uncle Luca were naked with absolutely no clothing but half of a terribly torn blanket.

I tore the blanket from last night when we were resting to help cover up Brady.

Aunt Diana gave Uncle Luca the other half of the blanket from last night. I was glad that I hadn't seen anything.

Brady put the back of his hand to my forehead and gave me a strong look of concern. I glanced at my Aunt and Uncle to see Aunt Diana shivering slightly. It was getting quite cold.

"You're freezing!" Brady exclaimed, "here, hold this babe,"

Brady took off his blanket and put it in my arms as he shifted in front of me. I stared down at his wolf and saw him shake aggressively to ease his muscles a tiny bit. He whimpered while nudging his head towards his back.

"He's telling you to get on, Mia." Uncle Luca answered my confusion.

I came to realize that Brady had shifted to keep me warm. My stomach was tied in thousands of knots at the thought of him caring for my well being. I slowly began to climb on his back and wrapped the blanket around my body before laying my chest on his back. My hands gripped onto his fur tightly and my legs were hitched up slightly so he was able to walk.

In an instant, I had felt myself getting warmer than ever. He wrapped his tail around me slightly to add more warmth causing me to snuggle into his touch. We continued our journey to Xavier.

"We are almost there,"

*****

I felt a cold hand on my shoulder trying to shake me. The sudden touch made me peel my eyes open and gasp. My eyes blinked rapidly as they were making sure my vision came back without any problem.

"Good. You're awake."

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and stretched my sore muscles as I was sitting straight on Brady's wolf's back.

"We made it," Aunt Diana whispered.

There was a heavy sound of a creek that had water streaming aggressively. I climb off of Brady and wrap the blanket around me tighter. Aunt Diana drops the bag on the floor and grabs the rope as well as other things to get Xavier's body.

Brady shifted back and I tossed the light blanket to him before following my aunt and uncle towards the creek. I covered my mouth and held back a gag when a strong smell of flesh rotting fill my senses. Uncle Luca coughs a bit and holds the back of his hand up to his nose.

My eyes widened when I saw what was behind the trees and bushes near the creek. There were about hundreds of decaying bodies that rested in a pile as their flesh was sagging from the creek water. Aunt Diana let out a sob when she saw Xavier's body trapped under the large pile of bodies.

"NO!" She screamed while dropping all of the contents out of her arms.

Uncle Luca had a look of shock at the sight and watched Aunt Diana run to her dead friend. I felt my eyes burn at the rims trying my best to hold my tears from seeing the horrid sight. Uncle Luca wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and sniffled before slowly walking to his mate.

I turned around only to meet Brady face to face. My bottom lip quivered and he pulled me into his arms hiding me from the massacre that was only a few feet away from us. He rested a hand of the back of my head trying to shush me a tiny bit.

Who the hell was doing this and why?

"D-Diana, look," I heard Uncle Luca's voice scratch as he began crying a tiny bit harder.

I peeked my head out a bit to see Uncle Luca pointing to a headless body only meters away from Xavier's. Aunt Diana whimpered a bit and rushed to Uncle Luca holding onto him tightly.

"B-Brady! W-who is that!?!" I sobbed out.

He kept quiet and I looked up to see his jaw slightly open as he tried to find words. I was about to speak again until Brady shoved me to the ground and covered me with his body.

"WATCH OUT!" He screamed loudly.

Aunt Diana was pushed behind Uncle Luca but it was no use. He flew into a tree from the sudden action while Aunt Diana laid in a fetal position to protect her head. There was a loud explosion that thudded the entire ground. The smell of burning flesh soon masked the scent of rotting skin.

I squeezed my eyes shut and breathed heavily trying to calm myself down. Brady stood up within seconds and dragged me off of the ground behind a large bush. There were large flames that engulfed the large pile of humans and wolves.

"UNCL-" Before I was able to call out for Uncle Luca, Brady covered my mouth and put a finger to his lips to indicate being quiet.

He removed the finger from his lips and pointed to the group of men and women with guns and large machetes'. Who in the name of Mary were they? All I knew is that they were dangerous and I felt my heart pounding violently in my chest.

"Boss! Look! We got two alive." A deep voice spoke as his eyes wandered around the entire forest trying to check if they were alone. His eyes found the bush we were hiding behind and I shot my head down.

Brady was breathing heavily and tried to control his anger while his claws started to grow. I held his hand to comfort him slightly along with trying to prevent him from doing something stupid. Uncle Luca groaned in pain calling out for my aunt.

"D-Diana!" He gagged out.

His body fell to the ground and he coughed roughly as black tar left his system. What is the hell is HAPPENING?

"LUCA!"

My eyes shot to my aunt only to see her being dragged away into the woods and disappearing without another trace. I heard a small cough behind me causing me to turn around to see Brady trying to prevent himself from gagging as well. Oh no.

I stared back to where Uncle Luca was but he wasn't there anymore. They were gone.

Brady started to sweat terribly and coughs left his body this time. He couldn't stop coughing until finally, the black tar had started to leave his nose and mouth as well.

"Brady? BRADY! Oh no, no, no. We need to get out of here right now."

I stood up and pulled Brady up with as much force as I could. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder as I continued to carry most of his weight and mine. I didn't understand what was happening, but I knew it wasn't good.

Brady kept coughing trying to speak only to have incoherent sounds leaving his lips.

"What? What is it?"

He stopped walking and hunched over to vomit all over the floor. All of the contents in his stomach left him.

"Brady?" I questioned.

He put a hand up to stop me from speaking any further. I put a hand on his back and rubbed it to comfort him as best as I could.

He dropped to his knees and had a hard time breathing. I saw his eyes start to close and all of a sudden.

He fell to the ground unconscious.