"Consuming all the air inside my lungs, Ripping all the skin from off my bones, I'm prepared to sacrifice my life, I would gladly do it twice. "
                                - Shawn Mendes
                                       (Mercy)

THIRD PERSON
[October 25th, 2020]

There is the deafening sound of Ailee cocking her gun and every single snipper positioning themselves and leveling the guns directly at each one of the individuals in the room except for Kai as Ailee would be the one who was going to end his life.

Kai holds in his breath and closes his eyes, allowing a tear to escape his eyes that was unnoticeable to everyone but Declan whose heart constricted painfully in his chest. Numerous gun shots are heard and for a moment it's silent.

Kai begins to feel heavily lightheaded with his heart racing and beating out of his chest. When he stabilized himself, he realized soon that he was breathing and no pain consumed him. He slowly and shakily opened his eyes and all you could see were all the snippers shot dead with blood pooling from their head.

Their bodies laid limply on the floor, the crimson color stained the hard wood floor and other furnishings in the room. When Kai looked around, he saw with astonishment, Bryn holding an advanced looking gun herself.

Ailee was alive as Bryn hadn't decided to kill her just yet because there was the chance that Ailee would trigger her gun quick enough to shoot Kai in the head. Now, Ailee was nervous because she never expected something like this to happen. She never calculated that her plans would go astray and simply and honestly, she didn't know what to do but was quite afraid. But sly and calculating, Ailee didn't show the fear inside her but faced Bryn with quirked eyebrows and pursed lips in thought.

"Thank Moon Goddess for her," Vera sighs as her legs give out from shock and Marcus does his job of supporting her instantly.

Marcus runs gentle fingers through Vera's hair, his hands large but calming against Vera's scalp. Her heart was thundering and she felt inner shame that she felt so helpless in this kind of situation. She was a warrior. A better warrior than some of the guys in the pack yet she was no use in a situation like this.

It was really an ego crusher for her but she could only be thankful that everyone was okay and that no one died or got hurt because that's what really mattered.

"Let go of Kai," Bryn says as she holds the gun to face Ailee, it was perfectly measured to hit Ailee in the head and instantly kill her.

No one but Elijah knew that Bryn was a master gun woman. She was skilled with a gun whether it was up close or long distance. This was something she didn't reveal often and her own pack members weren't aware that she had such a skill. Most werewolves didn't practice using guns because they could shift and their werewolf form was their weapon but Bryn faced enough turmoil within her life to know that sometimes werewolf form just wasn't enough.

Another reason why Bryn wasn't shooting is because of the way Ailee was positioned by Kai. She was close to him with the gun pointed at the side of his head. If Bryn were to shoot, it would kill Ailee but the bullet would go straight through her head and it would end up puncturing through Kai's head and the bullet would most likely land at the right hemisphere of his brain, damaging his brain and many vital nerves or possibly even kill him.

Shooting Ailee right now was not the right move and Bryn only hoped that Ailee wasn't aware of the real reason she wasn't shooting at Ailee.

"Why would I let go of him?" Ailee scoffs haughtily.

Suddenly, a wicked thought began to brew within her corrupted mind as her lips turned into a smirk. She faces Bryn fully and the fear seemed to evaporate like water that's been boiled for a long time.

"It seems that you're unaware of somethings," Ailee began to speak but Bryn merely raises a brow.

"Let go of Kai," Bryn repeats herself.

"I guess you don't wish to know how exactly your mate died," Ailee studies Bryn and wears a satisfied smile when she sees how the brunette responds.

Bryn swallows, her stance wavering as she can't help but lower the gun slightly so now it isn't pointed at Ailee but her feet instead. Her heart clenches as pain engulfs her whole being but she defiantly shakes her head because she'd be damned if she believed a girl who was so insanely set on killing a whole pack of good people.

"Don't talk about what you don't know," Bryn bites back with annoyance, leveling the gun back at Ailee's head.

How would this girl even have known that her mate died? Bryn was convincing herself that what this girl was spewing out of her mouth was straight bullshit.

"Oh, I'm sure I know everything that's been going on in here. My lovely spy has helped me after all," Ailee says sweetly at Elliot who cowers and hides his face behind his overgrown hair.

Bryn glances over at the boy briefly wearing a glare because she hated people who were fake and people you couldn't trust and Elliot was exactly that.

Elliot felt the glare from Bryn on him and guilt consumed his entire being. He didn't think this would happen but then again he didn't know what to expect from a girl who was quite sociopathic by nature.

It's not that Elliot wanted to hurt the pack or anyone for that matter, he only did this for his mother. After he left his previous pack and joined this pack, he went back in search of his mother and felt so much panic rise in him when he couldn't find her anywhere. Did she die? That's what the poor boy wondered and he was near tears.

Outside, deep in the woods was Ailee who approached Elliot and told him that she had his mother. Desperate, Elliot begged her to release his mother but Ailee wasn't willing to do that without being given something in return. It was a 'give something, get something world we live in,' is what Ailee told him.

That's how Elliot began living amongst the Blue Moon Pack while sneaking off from time to time and told Ailee what she wanted to know. Recently, five days ago, Elliot pleaded to get his mother back who he saw was in a cell with tears streaming down her face. Ailee assured him that she'd be given to him in five days time, but he didn't know this would happen. He didn't know that in exchange for his mothers release, the important leaders of this pack would die.

Guilt ate at him and he felt even worse about himself, he felt terrible knowing Elijah was given the worse luck at having him as a mate. Elijah didn't deserve such a disgusting mate.

Elliot softly cried, it was so silent that no one but Killian heard it. Killian wanted to be sympathetic because Elliot was the type of crier that had everyone's heart in pain, but he couldn't. The boy betrayed his whole entire pack. If anyone got out of this alive, Killian would have to order the worst punishment Imaginable for Elliot because he was a traitor and threat to his pack.

"I'm going to give you to the count of ten," Bryn was bluffing but Ailee wouldn't know that because Bryn wore a stoic expression that barricaded any real emotion.

So Bryn began to count aloud and everyone allowed their anxiety levels to rise, dreading the number one. However, when Bryn got to four, Ailee bursted out.

"The Blue Moon Pack killed your mate!" Ailee screams, heart racing because she felt like she was moments away from death which is something she was actually terrified of.

Bryn froze, her mind going blank as she didn't know what to say or what to think. She shook her head, regaining movement as she violently wanted to diminish what Ailee said out of her mind. Not possible.

"I don't believe you," Bryn said simply.

"Oh really? I'm pretty sure you remember the big fight that happened between this pack and Nicolas of the opposing pack that's pretty far off from both your territories. I was in that fight and so was Lyn. You want to know who killed Lyn? A bunch of wolves from this pack," Ailee spits out with utter hatred as she recalls the battle from before.

Bryn didn't say anything but she didn't want to believe the words coming out of Ailee's mouth. Bryn looks at Kai.

"Is this true?" She asks him.

Kai didn't know what to say. He didn't want to answer because he knew Bryn would be torn apart if he did. He also knew how much mates meant to a werewolf so his answer could trigger Bryn and easily turn her against them in the blink of an eye. He felt suffocated because Bryn looked desperate, the only emotion that he's seen on her face throughout this whole ordeal.

He couldn't lie to her, that wasn't something he could do but it was hard to utter the word, 'yes.' He was scared but sucked in a breath knowing that if he died today, it would be his fault. Bryn asked him before how Lyn died and he didn't tell her, instead he told her some bullshit answer.

If only he had told her then, maybe things would have been different now. It was too late to dwell on the past because they were in the present and it felt as if time was ticking even slower.

"Yes," Kai chokes out, his throat sore, dry and wavering because he was afraid.

Declan closes his eyes as if not wanting to know what would happen next. He was livid because he was just standing there and not doing fucking anything to help get Kai out of Ailee's hold. But what could he do when she could end his life if he even took so much as a step closer? There was nothing anyone could do except for Bryn and Declan hated that.

Bryn blinked, her body tense as her mind was all over the place. She tried to conjure up a single thought but it was almost impossible as emotions swirled within her, coming together like a tornado about to destroy a whole town.

Ailee released Kai and her gun was no longer pointed at Kai. Instead, Ailee began to slowly approach Bryn.

"See?" Ailee began slowly, "if you join me we can seek revenge on all of them. They're the reason you don't have a mate, they're the reason you're not happy. Together, we can kill them and get rid of their whole pack. They killed my mate too."

At Ailee's last words, Bryn looked at Ailee. Ailee was close to Bryn now, inches away.

"They killed your mate too?" Bryn asked Ailee.

"Yes," Ailee nodded aggressively, angry tears filling her eyes, "now we're going to kill them!"

Bryn nods, deciding that this was right. Joy filled Ailee's eyes and she dropped her own gun and appeared quickly next to Bryn on the left side. Ailee holds Bryn's hand as she guides the gun to face Kai who is paralyzed and transfixed at the turn of events.

Somewhere deep in his heart, he wished desperately that Bryn would forgive them, that she wouldn't change to be on Ailee's side but he couldn't be mad either because it was his fault.

"Shoot him!" Ailee demands.

Kai let tears fall as he looked at Declan who had his fist clenched at his side.

"I love you," Kai said to Declan.

"Now!" Ailee screams.

Bryn points the gun at Kai.

A bullet was shot.

Another sad and climatic chapter, I am just on a roll. Don't hate me too much pls. I also sincerely apologize for this late as hell chapter and promise the next one won't take forever to be posted.

~xoxo, Babybird.