"Uggghhh...." I grumbled into my palms.

My entire skull pounded like I smashed it into a brick wall. Heavy and swollen shut, my eyelids were squeezed shut. A dizzying sensation of movement forced them open, offering a view hidden under my blonde lashes. A blurred vision of gray filled my sight, which came into focus the longer I breathed.

Twitching my fingers, the tendons in my palms stretched. A weight pressed down on my chest. With a groan, I brought my hands up to whatever diagonally restricted from my left shoulder down to my right hip. My fingertips rubbed over a soft, flat, glossy material. I needed a few moments before I recognized it was a seat belt.

Why does everyone resort to drugging me out?

"Not much gratitude for someone I had to wrap in a tablecloth like a burrito, then carry out like a dead body," a male voice grumbled.

My eyes tracked his hand's movement to his side, where he hit a button that lowered the gray darkness surrounding us. Bright sunlight blinded my eyes. I hissed like a vampire, blinking until the blurred face turned into almond-shaped eyes and short, jet-black hair.

Tobias' eyebrows were drawn and crease lines tensed in his forehead. He rested his chin on his fist and looked at me blankly.

"Wuh-what?" My lips cracked with my stuttering. My dry throat felt like a sock was stuffed into my mouth.

"Good morning, Miss Zara," Tobias spat. "Or afternoon. You were out for longer than we thought you'd be."

"Tobias!" A shrill shriek ripped between my lips once his face cleared into my vision. Lunging forward, I gagged when the seatbelt restrained me. "You... you drugged me!"

"You weren't listening," was his moody response. "I needed you to move. It was easier to carry you over my shoulder."

"But -" I started when last night's events unfolded in my mind. One of my hands pressed over my forehead, like the movement would release my memories.

He was there again, the rogue. Correction, the jerk rogue.

My hand moved, following his outstretched hand, fingers curling up.

Why was I drawn to him? I don't even know his name.

"Try to calm down, Miss Zara," another voice spoke up into the car's interior space.

My eyes shifted over and took in a disheveled-looking Simon. His black hair was tousled wild in different directions, blood stains spattered over his white lab coat, and his horribly-patterned plaid tie hung around his neck like an afterthought.

"Easier if my head wasn't trying to split itself in half," I moaned and clutched my pounding forehead in my palms.

The sway of the car alleviated none of my discomfort. Had my stomach contained anything, then I'm positive the contents would have been spewed all over the seats by now.

"Here." Tobias handed me a small, white, circular tablet of medicine, which I turned my nose away from. "For motion sickness. We're, uhh, weaving through the mountains. Sorry."

"Thanks," I mumbled and swallowed the pill dry.

My eyes flickered over to Simon, whose white-knuckled hand clutched onto the nearest door handlebar like he rode on an amusement park ride that he was desperate to exit.

"Simon," my voice softened. "Your family..."

"Are currently riding with Elena, Rose, and Meredith to the Southern border." Turning his head, the sun highlighted his beaming smile. "Thank you, Tobias."

Wait, thank you -

Tobias' response was his jaw and fist clenched tighter. "It's best for Errol."

"It is," Simon cleared his throat. My eyebrows drew together, so he clarified, "My son."

My frown deepened at Tobias' sullen reaction. Looking out the window and gauging our direction, a sense of guilt that sank in my stomach like an anchor through water.

"If we're not going south, then we're going..." I mumbled.

"We'll get there when we get there," was Tobias' cryptic response. "It's best if you don't know the details."

"And you want me to trust you." I scoffed.

He groaned and dragged his eyes out the window. Resting his hand over his mouth, he muttered, "I suggest instead that you get as much information from Simon as you can, since we'll be there shortly."

Always on borrowed time. Let's start with how my headspace feels like an empty cave.

"Simon?" My eyebrows lifted. "What can you tell me about Lumi? I still can't feel her."

"That should wear off in a day or two," he assured me with a tight smile. "I apologize, I didn't have enough time to switch that with a placebo before Alpha Fenris took you down."

"Alpha Fenris?" My lips parted at that news and I caught fresh, faint scratches on my forearms.

Explains those.

"I ran some tests on you, after..." Simon's words snapped my gaze up. His eyes softened into a somber expression. "Good and bad news about Lumi's... condition."

I didn't even blink. "Hit me with the bad news."

"Ahh, well, the suppressive medications were very effective," he started with a grimace. "I believe since she was dormant, Lumi's developmental age compared to yours is roughly three years behind. She fought against the medications over the last six months to year. We were monitoring your hormone levels..."

His voice lowered as my eyes narrowed. After a small round of light coughing, he guessed, "You might've had connections with her during that time."

"Dreams," I mumbled with a small twitch in my lips.

But I haven't had any lately... none about her.

The thought pulsed uncertainty through my body, so I threaded my fingers together and squeezed them.

"Ordinarily, we shift around twelve to fourteen. Some even as late as sixteen," he offered. "Anytime over the age of eighteen, we start to find our mates. Our wolves identify their counterparts, although our human sides also feel the connection."

Tobias groaned at the word 'mates.'

"Stuff it, Tobias." My eyes narrowed until I fuzzy blackness circled around Simon. "What are you suggesting? Lumi's mate detector is broken?"

"Not broken but... delayed, like the rest of her." His shoulders lifted. "Her speech I assume is quite cryptic?"

"It is," I admitted as tears pricked into my eyes. "Mostly a few words, phrases. She used to repeat a lot of phrases at first, but I think she's getting better."

Or, she was. Even if we had a setback, it doesn't matter.

The sympathy in Simon's eyes blurred as I blinked away my tears. "She will improve, but your mate -"

"I think everyone here knows the mate selection tour is bullshit." I dragged my eyes over to Tobias, who hid an amused smile behind his fist. "No offense."

"None taken," he muttered. "You're not my type."

Alright then. Glad we cleared that up.

My eyes rolled up to the car's interior roof before they settled back on Simon, who was smiling at Tobias. "So it's... temporary?" I pressed. "Like she's a few years behind? That is good news."

"She might never fully get there." He hesitated, like he held a drawn breath in his lungs. "Time will tell there. A mate or pack bond might heal that damaged link."

"So..." My fingers rubbed my forehead while I tried to piece this together. "The idea was to suppress the link between me and my wolf?"

"Yes." Simon nodded.

"Why?"

"Because it weakens the werewolf," he replied with a sigh. "You saw the damage Lumi did to our floor in one bout of rage. Your father needed you... or rather her, under control."

"Of course he did," I muttered while my eyes scanned the scenery outside for familiarity, finding none. "You told me about the mate recognition issue. As for a pack..."

I leaned my bent elbow against the window, then rested my ear on my forearm and whispered more to myself, "I don't belong anywhere."

"I wouldn't jump to any conclusions yet," Tobias spoke up, but averted his eyes when I glared at him. "Except that you don't belong in mine."

My hands clenched knuckle-tight. "You're asking me to -"

"Ahh, on another note," Simon picked up his talking pace, fortunately. "Your mother. She arrived here, pregnant with twins, and there is another, subject four. So you are not as alone as you think."

Simon's response didn't instill a single ounce of happiness inside me, only sympathy of someone else being subjected to being a lab rat.

"A male, twenty-two years old and recent discovery," Simon, unlike me, marveled at the revelation. "His DNA samples and tests sent down from the Northern Territory were inconclusive. However, unlike yours and Solomon's, they were not a good match for the DNA-based serums. We... haven't determined the source of the discrepancy but assume it relates to bloodlines."

"Subject four..." My pulse surged within my veins at the idea I had another living relative. "Is he -"

"You're unrelated." Apparently, none of us knew how to respond to that news, so we didn't. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Simon coughed again and patted his palm into his chest. "Biologically speaking, that is. Perhaps you're friends..."

"My friends." I directed my gaze and next question to Tobias. "Cole, Raina, Idris, are they -"

"Fine, fortunately for them," he replied more to his fist than me. "They got out of our territory, right as the war broke out."

Dramatic description for a rogue attack.

"War!?" My mouth gaped and my eyes stretched as wide as they reached. "Where? Who?"

His fist near his mouth tightened. "Alpha Faelon declared war on your father. Mine... decided he will align with the Central Territory, if asked."

"Let me guess." My flat, emotionless voice reflected that, for once, I knew the answer to my own question. "East is sitting this one out? What about the South?"

"For now, both are uncommitted." Tobias frowned. "But geographically, the South and North both border the West and Central, but they are separated. So, your friends are heading south, while Alpha Faelon is leading the first attack wave in the North-Central territory line. That is why your father did not come to collect you here."

"Alpha Faelon?" My lips trembled at the name.

"They're preemptively acting after they discovered your father's plan to invade them anyways, subdue the Northern pack," Tobias spat. "Your little mate tour was a diversion, to distract the other packs while allowing this year's vaccine to be administered, while your father waited until they were most effective."

I sat back in my seat, numb with the finality of the truth.

That's why he said don't reveal my choice until the end.

He knew I'd never find a mate.

''Zara?' Elena intercepted my thoughts with a mindlink. 'I heard from Cole. They're traveling with -'

As quickly as she appeared, her voice in my head was silenced. My eyes strained with how hard I reached back.

'Elena? Elena!?'

I reached out to her with every inch of my mind but again greeted with silence. My mouth dried and my lower lip trembled, as if my stomach wasn't already upset enough. My uneasiness grew tenfold once our car pulled off the curved mountain highway onto a single-lane, unpaved exit ramp. The pullover reminded me of the turn off Cole and I had made on the way up, for the geode caves, but the rocky cliffed looked unfamiliar.

"We're here," Tobias announced.

He shot out of his seat the second the car lurched to a stop.

A sharp breeze bit into my cheeks when I exited the car. It whipped my hair as I looked around. Gray, jagged mountains surrounded us on both sides. With a cave entrance ahead of our car, the only way out unless we were cliff-diving was back the way we entered.

"Where are we?" I looked at Tobias, who now stood with his arms crossed over his chest and legs locked wider than his hips. "Looks like nowhere."

"That's the idea," he muttered, shifting his eyes over my shoulder.

I turned around at the sound of crushed gravel and swallowed against the dryness that crept up the back of my throat. A single, black-windowed SUV bumped up the same narrow path toward us. When it parked near the way out, we were trapped.

A chill ran down my spine and I looked around for any possible exit options. My nostrils twitched and flared at the thought Tobias delivered me to my father's men.

That traitor. He's just like his father!

My fists tight, I lunged at Tobias. The muscles in my shoulders rotated, my bicep clenched, and I swung hard. Shifting up his forearm, he blocked my punch, narrowly missing the knuckle sandwich that he deserved. His hand encircled my wrist, then twisted me around and tucked my arm up behind my back.

He growled warm vibrations in my ear, "Completely ungrateful."

The SUV doors opened and a single male exited. His black boots were stained brown and gray with mud, his pants weren't much better, and his gray T-shirt was ripped near the collar. His chocolate brown hair flipped up in the wind as he narrowed the gap between us. A dark brown leather coat hid the arms I wanted to scan for his tattoo, but his brown eyes focused right on me.

Not that he didn't already have my attention, but the dark intensity burning in his gaze demanded it.

Other than a scowl that wrenched the corners of his mouth down, he looked exactly as he did the last time I saw him. My heart flipped as his hand, the one he offered to me, clenched at his side.

An upward wrench of my arm jutted up my chest. A strain of pain pushed a squeal through my lips. Writhing in Tobias' grasp drowned out any other emotions that arose from our reunion.

"Tobias," his deep voice called in a borderline growl. "Let her go."

"With pleasure." Slamming his hands between my shoulders, Tobias shoved me. "She's your problem now."

My feet shuffled back to put more space between us, before I motioned for Tobias to back the heck up. He rolled his eyes but stood up with a grunt. Holding up his hands, he backstepped until his shoulder was parallel to the rogue's.

In addition to an amused smirk, the rogue flashed his palms to me on his slow approach. He paused after taking one step closer, when my hand slipped down into my pants. In a death-tight grip, I removed the Silencer from my thigh holster and aimed it between Tobias' eyes.

"Get up!" I snarled as one of my fingers snapped off the safety and gestured with the gun to move. 

My feet shuffled backwards to put more space between us, before I motioned for him to back the heck up as well. He rolled his eyes but held up his hands and walked backwards until his shoulder was close to the rogue's.

"This part of your plan?" The rogue glanced sideways to Tobias.

"Not exactly," was the muttered response.

"Zara." The rogue's eyes softened, like they pleaded with me. "You don't want to -"

"Don't tell me what the fuck I do or don't want to do!" My voice was loud but even toned, then I pointed the gun down.

With a squeeze and soft air pop, I shot Tobias' left quadricep. The wound spurted out blood on contact and he clamped his hand over it. He crumpled onto the ground and released a string of curse words faster than the blood that poured from his wound.

'Put the damn gun down, Zara!' A link from Cole burst into my mind, halting my gun as it moved to the rogue.

I dragged my eyes up as the other doors of the SUV opened. My eyes blinked in slow motion. I loosened my grip on the trigger when Cole, Raina, and Idris stepped out. They all froze outside the SUV, their eyes locked on me and mouths gaping.

What? How are they here? And in the same car as -

"Zara..." The rogue started with a shuffled step closer, his eyes fixated on the gun. "Please, listen."

"Let me talk to her," an unfamiliar yet recognizable male voice rang out. It echoed and bounced off the rock walls that surrounded us.

A glint of silver flashed in front of me, the gun slipping from my trembling fingers. My heart pulsed like a drumbeat in my ears, my words and thoughts ran dry. Refusing to make the same mistake twice, my eyes dried at their refusal to blink at the additional male. He stepped out of the car, approaching like he stepped out of my dreams.

His platinum blonde hair tossed in the wind. A pair of light, sky-blue-green eyes fixated on me with an intensity that sent shudders down every vertebrae of my spine. The paleness of his skin against the dark mountain background glowed almost angelically.

"She's not going to listen to anyone else." His voice was confident, deep, and radiated straight into my heart.

If I needed any further proof of his identity, his mindlink cemented it.

'As you shouldn't.'

At the click sound when the gun hit the rocky earth at my feet, my lips finally parted and a choked whisper escaped.

"S-S-Solomon?"

- The End of the Western Territory

A/N: This Part ended up being a lot different than I originally planned, refocused less on the Western territory/pack and more about Zara's story. Only one more part left until it's complete!

South is next!

-me