Nate and I spend the day at the pond. He didn't go back in water after almost marking me, though. I want to ask Ekaterina why she stopped him, but I think she's avoidoing me.

"I think I'm feeling better now. Please, can you turn away?" When he turns away, I step out. Even though we were half-naked under the water a few hours ago, I'm still not comfortable being seen only in my underwear.

My throat doesn't feel sore anymore, and it doesn't hurt to talk. My body temperature's gone down. I feel stronger. I'm sure it's because of the spells Ekaterina cast into the water. They must've helped me recover. I dry myself with the hand towel I packed from home.

"You can turn around now," I say once I'm done putting on my clothes.

"Are you sure you're feeling better?" Nate asks, facing me.

"Yes," I say, and he places his hand on my forehead.

"You're right. Your temperature is much lower," he says, removing his hand from my forehead.

"Yep. Where's Ekaterina?" I ask.

"She went to look for food. She should be back soon."

"I hope she finds something nice to eat."

"Me too," Nate says, picking up the hand towel. "Come here," he says, gesturing for me to come closer.

"What's wrong?" I ask, walking closer to him.

"You didn't dry your hair properly. You have water dripping all over your clothes," Nate says, using the towel to dry my hair.

"Thank you," I say, looking up at him.

He hums and concentrates on what he's doing. It's so funny how he looks serious doing such a mundane task. He always looks serious regardless of what he's doing.

Nate finishes drying me then suddenly spins me around. I'm confused why he turned me away from the other side. But then I understand when I hear Nate groan in pain. Nate got shot. How, I don't know. I look ahead and see a human holding a gun pointed at Nate. The human's about to shoot again, but before he can, Nate grabs me and we start running.

"Shift!" Nate commands, using his Alpha tone to make me shift by force. Eva hasn't come back or spoken to me yet, so this is the best way I could shift right now.

My clothes tear as I shift and continue sprinting. Nate follows suit, shifting and continuing to run beside me. Nate is strong. He got shot with a silver bullet and he can still shift into his wolf.

'How are you feeling, Nate?' I ask, worried he might be in a lot of pain. He's bleeding. I feel tears threatening to fall from my eyes, even in wolf form. He got shot while protecting me. I can't believe he took a bullet for me.

'I'm fine, don't stop running,' Nate says with his voice low. He's in a lot of pain, but he doesn't want to tell me.

I continue running at full speed. I think this is the fastest I've run in my life. I almost stop when a bullet whizzes by me. The shot barely missed me. I wonder how they were able to catch up to us. I turn back and see the human hunters on motorcycles racing after us. It explains why they can keep up with our speed—no human can match the speed of a werewolf.

I see the cave up ahead. I think about if it's wise to hide there or continue running. I don't get to decide when an arrow comes my way. I freeze, only moving when Nate pushes me out of the way. I let out a wolf cry as I watch Nate fall to the ground, the arrow piercing his fur.

I quickly run toward Nate to protect him as I watch another arrow coming his way. But again, he pushes me out of the way and takes the arrow in his shoulder blades. I watch as Nate's eyes close after the second silver arrow lodges in his flesh.

'Nate,' I say, mind linking him, crying. 'Please don't die, you can't die. Please get up!' I try to wake him up but nothing.

I'm about to use my teeth to get the arrow out but stop when bullets begin flying around us. Nate quickly pulls me under him and shields me from the oncoming fire. I close my eyes and listen to his heartbeat as I wait for our death.

The shooting stops, and I feel Nate's body pulsing above me, so I know we're both still alive. I come out from under him though he wants to protect me, but he's too weak right now. I see ten human hunters surrounding us. Before I know what's happening, I feel a sting on my hip. I turn around and see a syringe in my fur. How did this get here?

I look ahead and see a human with a weird kind of gun in front of me. He must've used it to shoot the syringe. My eyes start to become heavy, and I find it hard to stay upright. The last thing I remember is Nate telling me to stay awake, but I'm too weak to do that.

***

I open my eyes, feeling pain all through my body. I try to move my hands, but they're stuck. I look down and see them chained to the floor. I look at my legs and see the same thing. I hear someone groaning in the corner. Where I am is dark, so I can't see around me. I drag myself to the corner to find out it's Nate.

"Nate, is it you?" I say, touching the body.

"Yes, Elizabeth, it's me. Thank goodness you're alright," Nate says, touching my face with his hands.

"I should be the one saying that, not you. How are you feeling? You must be in a lot of pain. I'm so sorry, Nate. You risked your life to save me. I'm so sorry. It's my fault you're in pain," I say, crying.

I feel so guilty for Nate's pain and injuries. I can feel some of his pain. I know he's holding back most of it. He's still trying to protect me.

"I'm fine. It's not your fault," Nate says, wiping away my tears.

"How can you say that? All the hits you took were aimed at me. Of course, it's my fault."

"No, it's not."

"I should be the one bleeding out right now," I say, tearing up.

"Elizabeth, look at me," Nate says, and I look at him. He makes his eyes golden so I can see him in the dark. He takes my face in his palms and stares deep into my eyes.

"Nothing is your fault. End of discussion. Stop crying," Nate and his Wolf say together.

"Okay," I say and try to stop crying. "How are your wounds?" Have you taken out the arrows?" I ask.

"No. I'll need you to do that," Nate says, moving closer to me.

"Okay, but it's going to hurt," I say, running my hands over his body to find the arrows.

"I know. We need to get the bullet, too. I don't know what kind of bullet they used, but it's leaking silver into me."

"Okay, let's take out the arrows first," I say, placing my hands above the arrow on his right shoulder. "You can hold me to muffle the pain."

"I won't need that," he says. I ignore him and place his hand on my thigh. "I said, I don't need to hold you," Nate says, removing his hand from my thigh. I stop him again.

"Please just listen to me for once," I plead. He'll need to hold something to muffle the pain as I rip the arrow out of his body.

Nate doesn't say anything but he does place his hand back on my thigh.

"Thank you. Now on the count of three," I say, placing one of my hands on his shoulder blade while I wrap the other one on the arrow.

"Do it!"

"One...three!" I say, pulling the arrow out of his flesh. Nate squeezes my thigh so tight, I feel the blood there stop flowing.

"You didn't count to three," Nate says, when the pain starts to subdue.

"It's better to pull when you're not expecting it."

"Good idea. But don't do it again."

"I won't." I don't let him know and rip the other arrow out while counting backwards. I tear a piece of my shirt and use it to tie off wounds to stop the bleeding.

Now we need to remove the bullet. This is going to be difficult for me because, unlike an arrow, the bullet is inside his body. I hold my breath and dig my finger inside Nate's wound.

"Sorry," I say, as I hear Nate whimpering as my finger pushes around inside his wound. I dig my finger deep into his injury. He lets out a loud, pained groan as I rip the bullet out. "I'm so sorry you're going through all this pain."

"It's fine. Don't start crying again," Nate says, beads of sweat pebbling on his forehead.

"I won't," I say, pushing the tears back inside. I use my shirt to wipe his forehead. The humans must've put these clothes on us while we were unconscious.

When Nate tries to speak he's stopped by the sound of the cage door opening. I look to see who's entering. As they walk into the room, the light comes on. I didn't think there was any lighting in here. I see the human in front of me. He has brown hair with blue eyes, and a long scar on his face. It looks like a claw mark, and I wonder how he got it.

"It's nice of you to finally wake up. I was starting to think I'd killed the Alpha King before I had a chance to torture him," the man says, with a sinister smile on his face.

"It'd take more than your stupid arrows and bullets to kill me, Walden," Nate says, hatred dripping from eachword.

Nate knows who he is. Maybe Nate's the one who gave him the scar on his face. It looks like it was made by a wolf, so I wouldn't be surprised.

"You're calling them stupid, yet you're in chains and locked up in a cage. How stupid can they be if they work?"

"We both know the only reason you were able to catch me is because I was protecting my mate. Don't get ahead of yourself, Walden."

"You can say whatever you like, but all I know is that you're in chains, and I'm the one standing outside the cage with the key."

"Not for long. You better pray to whatever God you have that I don't find you once I'm out of these chains."

"Don't worry, that's not going to happen. I need to run along now. Someone would bring you two food and water. I advise you to take what we give you and don't get petulant on me. You'll need all the energy you can get for what's coming," he says and walks out of the cell.

What does he mean, what's to come? Something more horrible than silver bullets and arrows? I hope whatever it is, Nate and I will be able to face it.