After the car rolls twice, I think, I open my eyes to see and feel my back against the cold wet road, the door along with the rest of the car on top of me from my lower ribs down.

Instantly, I realize I can't breathe. Frantically, I try to wiggle out of under the car.

The heavy weight of the car hasn't shifted at all. Air refuses to enter my lungs. I try to suck in air, but my body doesn't absorb any of it.

Then, I hear low growling behind the car. Slowly, my eyes widen and my heart starts pounding like it's going to explode out of my chest, I turn my head to see the giant black wolf coming towards me from the front of the car.

At the sight of the abnormal crimson red eyes, I start struggling beneath the car's weight even more, trying more and more to get air inside me. At my struggle, it seems that the wolf's mouth turns into a dangerous smirk. Despite my efforts, I haven't budged at all.

The wolf, now standing in front of my face, looks down at me, it's bright crimson eyes glowing. Overcome by fear, I stop my struggle and my breathing quickens as I try to keep oxygen in my body.

The red eyes scan every visible part of me and licks its lips, dangerously. I want to punch it's nose or something, but I'm still frozen solid.

The wolf places its huge paw on the part of my torso that's not covered by my car and rests it there, almost as if it claims me. Suddenly, its claws come out and I feel a new wave of pain as the wolf claws my middle!

There's nothing that keeps me from screaming in pain and in horror. I feel my hot blood spread across my front and my shirt sticks to me as I feel blood pool around me.

The wolf looks proud at what it has done as I scream and blood doesn't stop flowing. It puts its paw on my chest, pushing down, slightly.

Suddenly, all efforts to attempt to keep oxygen in my body fall null and void. But I, finally, unfreeze and my arms go the paw and try to pry it off me.

The wolf seems to grin at my feeble attempts to get it away from me, but I don't stop, even as if pushes my body down against the road more.

My vision starts to fade as I can't get enough air inside me and my blood flows more and more.

I'm going to die. . .

Suddenly, I hear a wolf's howl and it doesn't belong to the one killing me.

The weight of the black wolf lifts off my chest and I start to get more air into me, my vision still fading.

From what I can see, I see the black wolf run away from me quickly. But not because of me. . . Because of the pair of wolves that stand on the other side of the road.

I look across the road to see the two wolves. . . Two HUGE wolves, by looking at them, I can easily tell that they're as big as the black wolf even with my tunneling sight.

My eyes start blacking out as I see another wolf walking to the pair. After looking like it's conversing with the others, it looks across the road at me.

Then, I see. . . or I think I see. . . the wolf morph into a man. . .

I'm already dead. . . There's an angel to take me to heaven. . .

As the man starts to walk almost run to me, my eyes start to close of their own command and I black out without ever seeing the face of my angel. . .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MYSTERY POV:

It's a normal night with a normal border patrol with two members of my pack, in our wolf forms which we normally do for this.

Tonight is a terrifically boring night. I kinda want to cut patrol short so we can go home. . .

Suddenly, I hear a car crash not too far from where we are. I freeze where I stand and look in the direction of the crash. The others stop as well.

"What is it, Mal?" Bryan, my little brother, asks in my head.

"I don't know. . . There's a car crash not too far from here. . ." I reply back to him before turning and slowly running in the direction of the crash.

"So what? Car crashes happen all the time." Serena, my little sister, states as she and Bryan follow me on my detour.

"I know. But, something's different about this one. . . I don't know what, though. . ." I tell her as I run closer to where I heard the crash, and I start to smell a strange scent mixed with burnt rubber, ground metal, and. . . blood.

Then, I hear screams of a woman in fear and I instantly run faster to investigate what's going on.

And I finally see what was different about this crash.

A rogue wolf. So, he's the strange scent I was smelling. Then, I see an overturned car on top of. . . a young woman, I think.

And I see the pool of blood coming from her. She's being attacked by him. He's killing her!

"Kai, what do we do?!" Bryan exclaims in my mind as he and Serena finally see what I've been talking about.

"I'll scare him off, then I'll chase him away from the woman and our lands while you two go to the woman and see if there's anything we can do to help." I quickly instruct them.

They nod before I let out a howl, letting the rogue who he's about to deal with. At the sound of my howl and undoubtedly the sound of my siblings closing in on him, the rogue gets off his prey and looks in my direction.

After a split second, he turns and runs south. I immediately follow close and run quickly behind the rogue.

I chase him away from my land and that poor woman and finally let him go. As I stop to watch him run away, I turn around and run back to where Bryan and Serena are.

They stand on the opposite side of the road from the woman and the car. They haven't gone close, they just stare.

"What are you two doing?!" I demand.

I told them to see if there was anything to be done about the woman and they haven't done anything.

"There isn't anything we can do, Mal. She's dying quickly." Serena tells me, nodding to the woman.

I look at the woman, sad to hear that there's no hope for her. Then, something happened.

Looking at the woman, I suddenly realize that nothing else matters, except that I need to keep this woman alive. She is the only thing that has kept me tied on this planet. My main reason for living. She's the one that I'm meant to protect, save, and. . . love.

She's my mate. . .

Serena and Bryan look at me as they hear my thoughts and try to discourage me from going to her by saying she's dying and that it's pointless etc.

But I ignore them as I phase into my normal form, wearing my black tee shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes that I wore before phasing into a wolf and walk to her, our eyes still locked.

Her eyes, beautiful brown eyes, are barely open, but are open enough to make me catch my breath.

They have so much pain and sadness in them, but still have such a light of life that makes me almost lose myself in the depth of her eyes.

I feel like I'm about to explode with so many things: worry, anxiety, and happiness. I thought I would never find my mate. I gave up hope about finding her so long ago and have endured the pain of life without her until I thought I buried it within me.

But seeing her now, brings everything into focus and it's her, that's my focus for living. Her breathing and her heartbeat fill my ears and mind as the single most important sounds in my life right now. The sight of her blood angers me that I just let that rogue go and that I didn't kill him.

He touched my mate. . . He hurt her. . . If he ever crosses into my life again, he will pay. . .

I walk to her because I don't want to scare her and cause her further injuries, but as I cross the street, her eyes close and I hear her heartbeat slow down almost to a stop.

I run to her side to see the damage that the rogue inflicted on her. And it instantly makes me angrier and more worried about my mate.

Trying to shift my focus on keeping her alive, I turn to the car and slide my hands on the sides of my mate, under the car, and begin to lift it off her.

My strength allows me to lift it a little of my mate, then Bryan and Serena, who are still in their wolf forms, help me flip the car off her. As the car's weight leaves my mate, I hear her breathing improve drastically, but she still doesn't wake up.

I look at my mate for a second before sliding my arms, carefully, underneath her knees and torso and standing so I hold her close to me, bridal style.

Her blood starts to flow more and seeps into my shirt, but I don't care.

I turn to look at my brother. "Bryan." I simply say.

He nods and kneels down so that I can climb on his back so that I can keep my mate close and be sure she's safe as we go home. I climb on Bryan's back, holding tight to him and my mate.

As soon as we are secure on Bryan's back, he stands and runs quickly in the direction of home, Serena follows close behind.

While Bryan races for home, I focus on the way ahead to not panic at the extent of my mate's wounds. Her wounds are deep and there are probably more than I can see.

I hold her to me tightly, none of my bare skin touching hers, her blood spilling on me and soaking my clothes. We're almost home.

As I look at the way my brother goes, I listen to my mate's heartbeat and breathing. Both have improved in rate since Bryan and I got the car off of her, but that doesn't stop my worrying.

Bryan finally runs through our village to our house and stops, kneeling so that I can get off.

As my feet land on the ground, my mom and dad run out to us, obviously having heard my howl and us running back home.

"Kai, what is it?" my mother asks me, worryingly, but obviously haven't seen my mate on Bryan's back. "What's wrong?"

I don't answer as I pull my mate off Bryan's back and back into my arms and they both see her.

"Son, who is that? What happened to her?" Dad questions me, a little apprehensive.

I ignore them both as I run past them and go inside our home. I run down hallways, mentally cursing the distance between the door and my destination.

Finally, I make it to the person I needed right now, who, of course, is in his healers room that he has here.

"Elijah." I call him as I slow my pace barely as I step into the room.

He turns to me and his eyes widen at the sight of the woman in my arms. He steps close to us as I lay her on one of the hospital beds and I hear my family run into the room.

"What the- Who is this?" Elijah asks me as he lays one of his hands on my mate's shoulder.

I know he doesn't mean anything by it, but that doesn't stop me from growling at him and am about to lunge myself at him to get him away from my mate, but then, Bryan steps in between me and Elijah.

Just by someone else touching my mate, my nerves snap. My hands grip into fists as Bryan forces me to back up.

He slaps Elijah's hand off her shoulder before pushing me back against the wall so I don't attack Elijah.

"Malakai, calm down!" he exclaims as he tries to keep me against the wall.

"I can't, she's dying!" I shout back, tearing my eyes away from my mate to look at my brother.

"Who is she?!" Mom asks, more like demands, as she motions at the unconscious woman on the hospital bed.

I go to answer her, but my voice catches in my throat as my eyes go back to the bed and stay focussed on the injured woman.

Bryan looks at Mom and answers for me. "She's his mate."

Mom gasps and Dad's eyes widen in shock. Elijah looks down at her before seeing her middle, which is still bleeding.

He immediately turns around and starts grabbing things to start to help her. More calm than I was a minute ago, Bryan lets me get off the wall and walk to my mate's side.

Elijah turns around again with a knife in his hands and steps closer to the other side of my mate.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" I exclaim as I immediately lean over her and put my hands on the other side of the bed, creating a sort shield over her. "What are you doing?!"

"Kai, I have to cut her shirt away to treat her wounds!" Elijah almost shouts at me, not moving away from her side.

Deciding to listen to him for my mate's sake, I straighten up again and grip the side of the bed as Elijah grabs my mate's and smoothly cut the middle of the blood soaked shirt from the bottom to the neckline.

After Elijah moves the cut shirt away from the wounds, I see the marks of claws on my mate's blood covered torso. Three deep claw cuts.

If I ever find that wolf again. . .

My rage flames at the sight of the injuries but I start to focus on Elijah as he works to save my mate.

He starts by quickly washing away the already spilled blood that covers her body with a wet white towel and I grip the bed more, stopping myself from killing him from touching my mate's body.

He's wiped away all blood away but as he feels along her lower ribs, he pauses.

"What? What is it?" I ask him, my worry rates rising.

He doesn't answer me right then, instead he feels the other side's lower ribs and gives a deep exhale.

"Crap. . ." he trails off as he puts the towel on the table next to him.

"What is it?" I ask him again, this time more insistent on an answer.

"A lot of her ribs are broken." he says as he looks at me. "There's a few options on how to fix her and heal her."

"Such as?"

"You could mark her."

My eyes widen in shock as he says those words. "Mark her?" I ask, incredulously.

"That's the fastest way to heal her." he reasons.

I think about it for a second before answering. "No."

Elijah's eyebrows furrow in confusion. "Why not?" he asks, bewildered. "Kai, this is your mate! You can heal her quicker than anything else!"

"No." I simply say. "I won't mark her without her permission. I won't force myself on her."

That ends that discussion as Elijah sighs and nods in understanding. "Alright. . . but, you're not going to like the other option." he sighs.

I look at him, suspiciously. "What's the other option?" I ask him.

"You promise not to kill me?" he looks at me, cautious for what he's about to do, whatever it is.

"If I try to, Bryan and Dad will drag me out of the room." I tell him, not exactly promising.

He nods, satisfied. Then, he turns to his equipment and grabs a medium sized glass clear bottle filled with a milky white liquid with wisps of gray swirling around.

Then, he grabs a huge syringe and fills it full of the liquid from the bottle. After filling it, he presses it a little to see a little liquid come out.

Then, he injects it straight into one of my mate's ribs!

"What are you doing?!" I exclaim and Dad and Bryan instantly grabs my arms, ready to drag me away.

"This is a healing potion, made specifically for bones." Elijah says as he pulls the syringe out of the rib after injecting a little of the liquid before injecting another rib. "This will mend the bones, but she'll be in pain for the rest of the night and maybe several days after."

He repeats the injecting cycle on a lot of her ribs and I see her slightly wince in pain. By the time he finishes injecting my mate's ribs, the syringe is empty.

Then, he puts the syringe down and grabs a few swabs with medicine on them to pat on the claw cuts quickly before grabbing a stitching needle and thread and starts closing the wounds.

At this, my mate winces a bit more than before, I shake my dad and Bryan's hands off and lean close to my mate's head.

I watch as her closed eyes crinkle more for a second before relaxing again. They do this several times. I sigh deeply as I lightly brush away a small strand off of her forehead, still not touching her skin.

Please be getting better. . .

I look away from my mate's face to see Elijah finished with the stitching her up and covering her middle with a white bandage before getting white gauze off the table.

"Sit her up a little." Elijah says, kindly, motioning to her.

I nod as I carefully slide my right arm underneath her back and slowly lift her upper body up a bit. As Elijah wraps the gauze around my mate's middle and her bandages, my eyes return to her face.

Really looking at her since I discovered her to be my mate, I finally see what she looks like.

My eyes absorb the beauty of the one that's meant just for me. Everything about her is perfect; from the structure of her face to the color of her hair.

The reality of this example of perfection being mine slowly sets in but is still surprising.

I slowly raise my left hand to her face and gently stroke her cheek with my fingertips. The moment my skin touches hers, sparks of what feels like electricity ignite and send a current throughout my body.

The sparks I feel at our touch makes my heart skip several beats and air to catch in my throat.

I gently cup her cheek and rub my thumb on her cheek, which doesn't make the sparks leave, and I don't want them to.

Someone clear their throat and I look up from my mate's face to see Serena, who's smiling happily at me, holding a pile of clothes. The gauze was fastened on and everyone is looking at me, all of them smiling at me.

"She should be fine now." Elijah tells me. "It'll take a little time for her to completely heal, but she'll be fine."

I nod my thanks since I can't seem to find words as I am filled with relief. Serena walks up to me.

"Me and Mom will get her changed, then you can take her to one of the rooms." she says, meaning she wants me to get out of the room to give my mate, my mom, and Serena privacy.

I nod slowly as I carefully lay my mate back onto the bed. Then, Dad walk out of room, followed by Bryan and Elijah. I look at my mate for a second before following my dad as well.

Mom closes the door behind us as I step out and sit down on the bench that is positioned next to the door.

"I'll get you some clothes so you can shower." Bryan says as he motions to the bathroom that's down the hall that has a shower in it.

I nod as he turns and runs to my room. I sigh deeply, absorbing all that has happened, as I lean back against the wall.

I hear Dad chuckle a little next to me and I look at him, eyebrow raised. "What is it, Dad?" I ask.

He gives me a small smile and shakes his head a little. "I'm just happy for you, son." he says. "You finally found your mate. And you gave up hope a long time ago."

I smile a little, too. "I know. . . I thought I would never find her. . . But now that have. . ." I trail off, not knowing how to describe how I feel.

Dad smiles, knowingly. "There's no other feeling like it, is there?"

I shake my head, agreeing with him. Then, Bryan came running in, holding a clump of clothes in one hand.

"Thanks, Bryan." I say as I stand up and take the clothes from him, and he just smiles and nods.

I walk to the door of the bathroom, open it, and go inside. I take my blood soaked shirt off and throw it into the sink and I turn on the warm water to soak it and try to get the blood out, even though it's not really visible in a black shirt.

After a little while, I turn off the water and take the rest of my clothes off be for stepping into the shower and turning on the water.

I think about my mate in the bed room as I watch the blood that stuck to my chest flow into the drain.

I wonder what she's like. What's her personality like? Does it fit the beauty of her body?

What kind of things does she like to do? Does she like to read? Paint? Sing?

These kind of questions swim around in my mind as I quickly shower and get dressed.

Bryan got me a white shirt, jeans, black briefs, and a pair socks. I quickly change into my new clothes and slide on my black tennis shoes that I previously wore.

I step out of the bathroom to see Serena and my mom standing outside the door, waiting for me.

I walk to them. "You guys done?" I ask, kindly.

Mom smiles at me. "Yeah." she says as she nods.

Without waiting a second, I walk back in the healer room and see her resting peacefully on the bed, wearing a white robe over new, clean clothes that should make her comfortable.

I walk to her side and see that she looks a lot better than before. Color had come back to her skin and instead of a sickly white, she was now a beautiful light golden brown, her full lips are now a deep red instead of pale pink.

If I thought she looked beautiful before, then she's divine now.

I lift my right hand and use the back on my fingers to stroke her cheek, which feels softer than the silk robe she's wearing. The sparks ignite again, but I enjoy the feeling this time instead of being surprised.

Someone steps behind me and I turn my head to see my mother as she puts her hand on my shoulder and smiles kindly.

I smile back at her. "I have some clothes in the bathroom that I'll take care of after I take her to her room" I say to her.

She shakes her head. "Don't worry about it, I'll take care of the clothes. You just stay with her." she tells me, nodding her head towards my mate at the last part.

I smile more at this. "Thanks, Mom." I say, gratefully.

She leans up and kisses my cheek. "No problem, sweetheart."

After she kisses my cheek, I look back at my mate and carefully pick her up, bridal style. After I make sure she's secure in my arms, I start walking to the room where she'll be sleeping. . . for now.

I walk down several hallways to the largest guest room we have in the house. I want her to be comfortable in every sense of the word.

After lightly nudging the door open, I walk across the room to the large bed, where I lay her down gently.

As she lays still on the bed, I cover her with the blanket that already is on the bed. After I pull the blanket up to her collarbone, I stare at her, still standing.

I hear her breathing and heartbeat go at a normal pace and it relaxes me as I grab the chair at the desk that this room has and bring it next to the bed so I can sit beside her.

After I sit down on the chair, I cross my arms and lean on the bed, still looking at my mate.

I know tomorrow is going to be interesting and so will the upcoming days. I don't want everything to just appear in her life, so I'll make sure everyone will take things easy until I'm sure she's ready.

If I waited this long for her, she must be worth it. So what's the harm in a couple more days, maybe even weeks?

I just can't wait to know her. . .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello, my lovelies!

I know, I've finally updated a book!

I hope you guys like this chapter!

I introduced Anna and let you see a little bit of what she's like, so in this one, I thought to introduce our other protagonist, along with some other characters.

If you're confused by some things, don't worry; all will be revealed in time!

Until the next time,
-AleinaLister