Tonya, in her silver form above

Chandler POV

The silence is ringing in my ears as I watch with focus the inside of Tonya's cell on the computer screen. She is lying curled on the floor, shaking uncomfortably. The quality of the recording isn't the best, but she has changed. 

She hasn't shifted into her wolf, but she looks like she is stuck in the middle. Her muscles seem bulged, and the fur covers some parts of her body. As far as I can see, her face has transformed to a certain degree. Bigger and more dangerous is what I can see now looking at her. Her claws are for sure sharper because she managed to make very deep claw marks in the walls and the door and also had two attempts of banging very strongly into it, but it withstands, at least for now.

She is bleeding because she has also scratched her arms and legs with her claws and even has bitten into herself. I'm sure she is fighting because every time she has made herself bleed, she stopped attacking the door, and next, there has been a moment of motionlessness.

I glance at Kathy, sitting extremely tensed next to me. I admire her decision to let Terry take charge. Kathy would have an extremely difficult time making a reasonable decision if she had to choose between Tonya's safety and other pack members' safety or hunters' safety. Terry wouldn't have that burden, and his decision would be accepted easily by both werewolves and hunters.

"How long it will go?" I ask, looking at Beta, but Carson answers:

"Last time, it took a couple of hours, at least Nelson estimated the time when he heard the screaming in his packhouse and when the screaming was gone to the duration of at least an hour, but he was waiting for another two before he entered. The footage in his packhouse was turned off during the incident; his Alpha at that time hadn't wanted any proof of his crimes. Tonya's memories from that time are very vague. She was not in control. Silver was in a killing rage, but Tonya had just witnessed the murder of Kathy's father, so she didn't try to stop Silver. This time, she is struggling to restrain herself."

"We made any possible precautions possible after that incident, but truth be told, we have no idea how that state Tonya is now really works," Kathy finishes in a dead tone.

I avert my eyes from the footage where Tonya starts banging at the door once again and concentrate on my gun with tranquilizers, the strongest we have, hoping that it will be sufficient if anything happens.

"So, in short, we have no idea if she can be reason with, or if she can distinguish friend from enemy, and so on," I say.

None of them answers, as Kathy's eyes are glossy.

"James mindlinked me; they have established the base in the house. Everybody has been evacuated; there are only your people and some of ours staying here now. We should wait."

"Why have you agreed for Tonya's mates and Rosie to stay?"

"Because even though Tonya is now not in control, the bond is our most primal instinct. They may be able to calm her, and Silver shouldn't be able to hurt them, but of course, I'm not sure, so we will wait to check this up. The same is true with Rosie; her wolf is making everybody around her calm, so maybe..."

She doesn't finish, but I understand her point of view. I'm so happy that Pearl was moved out of danger, and I can be certain that at least she is safe.

The time passes by very slowly; it's barely minutes, but they feel like hours when suddenly Kathy swears, and I understand why. Tonya is standing, pushing the door to her cell. She seems more vicious every minute, and to my horror, I see the door starting to bend slowly as she crashes into it more and more.

"We will go there," I say, slowly taking my gun and looking at Kathy, who takes her knives; it will be better if she doesn't shift.

I won't be lying that I'm not scared, I think as we go toward the safe rooms, hearing the banging sound and scratches on the metal getting louder. I know that she will be able to break free. I hope; I don't even understand for what, is to happen.

We scout in the core or hide behind the door to the living room stairs, close to the stairs that lead to the safe room; the moment we hear the loud bang and snarls, we know that the door has been destroyed. I hear strong steps on the stairs and very strange, raspy growling and hard breathing. I gulp, feeling cold sweat on my body, but I don't shake. My killer instincts kick in; it's just another hunt, it's just another fight for my life.

She steps into the corridor from downstairs, and I look at her. Her body is bigger but still maintains a humanoid shape, with no fur, but her skin is the color of ash; I can see her veins popping out. The blood drips from her mouth as she bares her canines; she walks a bit, huddled in a crouching position like an animal, scratching the floor with her extended claws.

Her nostrils move rapidly as she sniffs the air, and her now silver eyes seem to see nothing, as if she is blind.

Neither Kathy nor I dare to move as Tonya sniffs around, and suddenly, I know that she got our scent. She roars and jumps, moving herself extremely fast on the ceiling. Kathy swears as I shoot.

 I get her hit, but she doesn't slow down, and I'm not crashed by her only because Kathy's strong hands wrap around me, and she jumps away from her Alpha. We both fall to the floor as Tonya launches, and her claws pass us barely an inch as Kathy jumps once more to the back of the corridor. She lets go of me and actually saves me by lunging into Tonya, who doesn't stop moving. 

They both cannon into the glass wall, which separates the corridor from the main living room. The glass breaks, and they fall inside. I have problems with distinguishing their movements, but Kathy mainly avoids Tonya's full-blow attack on her for a minute, two minutes, or maybe three minutes until she is thrown into the wall. Seeing her back ripped open with Tonya's claws, I don't waste my time and aim again. I shoot again, managing only to distract Tonya from Kathy.

She turns in my direction but seems to be more confused. I move as fast as I can back into the corridor as she runs after me. I wonder if she is chasing following my scent or the noise I make. I burst out of the packhouse,  wondering what the fuck I should do now. I can't contact anybody; taking out my walkie-talkie now is out of the question. I hope Kathy is well. I hope I will survive, I hope...

Her louder snarls make it evident that I won't run away and that I will be killed... 

Feeling a sharp pull on my ankle, suddenly I'm waved into the air and thrown. The contact with the ground is so painful that I have problems taking air into my lungs. But I manage to pull myself a bit up, even though my ribs scream not to do it. Tonya threw me into the air, which is good because now the space between us is at least 20 meters. And yet, when I look at her curled, snarling figure, I know there is no way out if she charges at me with full force...

...but that never happens because I hear the loud howl. Tonya stops and turns herself in the direction of the noise. Out of instinct, I do, too, and barely manage not to scream.

Kiana, Pearl's wolf, is standing at the edge of the forest howling, and Tonya runs in that direction immediately. Thanks, God Kiana doesn't wait and turns around and disappears in the forest. For now, she is far ahead of Tonya, but how long will she be able to keep that distance?

I feel my lungs almost killing me as I run after them, grabbing standard with regular ammo. There is no chance I will be able to catch them as long as they run, but maybe I will get close enough to shoot Tonya before she kills the woman I love. Fuck the alliance, fuck everything, Pearl is the only one that matters.

The moment I reach the tree line, I'm no longer alone. The bunch of wolves actually comes close to me very fast. I recognize Terry sitting on one of them; they are small, all but two. One I recognize as Noah, and the other one, I'm sure, is James. Could the rest be omegas?

Noah kneels next to me, and I don't hesitate to sit on him as we resume our chase. We run so fast that I have problems distinguishing what we pass along our way. I grip my gun, praying to be there on time.

The moment I hear the pitiful whining of the wounded animal, my chest clenches as the James wolf starts running faster, and Terry nods to him. Soon, I see Tonya standing motionless as the white wolf is hanging down on her raised hand, with her claws sunk in its body. I don't dare to hope, and yet I pray to everything I hold dear that this is not happening, that it is not over, not yet...

James, who is closer, charges at Tonya as she throws Pearl into the air, and her motionless body falls to the ground. Noah throws me off him rather brutally, but my body knows what to do, and I land on my feet. 

During that time, Tonya manages to pin James to the ground, I'm sure breaking some of his bones. But she doesn't kill him because Noah howls loudly, running in her direction, omegas after him. I kind of expect them to attack her, but they don't. Instead, they turn around and run deeper into the woods, which lures Tonya into chasing after them instantly.

But I don't care anymore and run as fast as I can in Pearl's direction. By the corner of my eye, I notice James's wolf standing slowly up and running after them, despite the fact that he can't use one of his hind legs, as Terry and I reach Pearl's motionless body.

"Fuck, is she alive!"I scream, squatting next to her and gently taking her head into my palms. "Please darling, fuck, please don't go..."

"She's breathing," Terry whispers slowly, gently patting her fur; he seems as shaken as me but, despite that, stands up and takes his walkie-talkie.

"Anne, they are coming in your direction. Are Charlie and Rosie ready? Ok, let's hope it will work."

I look at him, still cuddling Pearl close to my chest.

"What is the plan?" I manage to say.

Noah POV

It was almost three hours since Tonya was poisoned. I was trying to reach her through our bond, which had strengthened since the day we had mated, but I could only feel emptiness and fear. James and Terry were discussing something very intensively with Anne at the end of the room, as I couldn't take my eyes off the screen, which showed us what was happening in the safe rooms.

She looked like she was in much pain; every time she attacked the door or herself, I felt my heart clenching, feeling so powerless, so useless.

From time to time, I glanced at Charlie, who was sitting curled in the corner of the room, close to Rosie. I would've prefered to send him away, just like Terry did with Pearl, but he put so much resistance that I would have to tide him and basically was out of other options.

"Noah," James summoned me to them at some point and told me what they decided to do when Tonya got out, and I had no doubts that she would be out, sooner than later actually.

And now I run as fast as I can through the forest with a bunch of omegas behind me. James precautions, actually. When the whole first territory was evacuated, he demanded all the omegas to stay and brought with him those from the second territory.

Our task was supposed to be easy, to try to lure Tony apart from a particular spot, but it went downhill because she attacked Kathy and Chandler. It was too quick, and we wouldn't have been able to get to Chandler in time if it wasn't for Pearl. Fuck, I should have known that she didn't listen to evacuate and sneaked out to stay close to guard Chandler.

So to save her, the whole plan had to be slightly modified or, more likely, made more difficult because now we have a considerably much bigger distance to be covered so we could lure Tonya to the place where Charlie and Rosie and the rest of Omegas are waiting, alongside the hunters hidden on the trees with their ammo. 

Silver bullets can't be used, and the normal one shouldn't be able to kill her, at least, I hope. Anne and Terry promised that they would not shoot to kill. Fuck, but still, everything in my is screaming against believing hunters; everything in me screams not to let anybody hurt Tonya more than she already is.

I can hear her low growling and loud steps behind me. I can hope that our strategy works and we will be able to make her somehow calm. But suddenly, I hear the painful howl and smell blood, so I stop and turn around in a flash, heading in the direction of Tonya and the small omega she has managed to sink her claw in. Tonya snarls as I jump into her. 

Her punch throws me into the nearest tree; I feel Linus whimpering and the pain in our body caused by the hit into the wood. Tonya leaves her victim and runs into me; there is nothing but a blunt instinct to kill on her face. I don't even know why, but in a moment, I shift and huddle into the grass, showing her my submission. All my body is shaking, but I don't move, nor dare to raise my eyes to look at her.

She snarls lowly, getting closer to me, sinking her claws in my arm to yank me up. I lock my eyes with her silver now despite the pain,  and she takes a big sniff of my scent. It feels as if the time has stopped as she holds me in front of her, panting hard and sniffing. I see the blood dripping from her mouth, and I don't dare to blink, not knowing what she may do.

Linus is covering in my mind; he wants to trust that his mate won't hurt him but, at the same time, is scared shitless and pushes me to try and run, and fuck, I just know we both die if I listen to him.

The slight rustle from the forest makes Tonya look behind her, and I see Zoya gently stepping closer. Despite my dire situation, I feel mesmerized by her beauty and the waves of calmness from her.

Tonya seems confused about what to do, yet her grip on my shoulders stays strong, and suddenly, I'm able to grasp some of the connection of our bond. I relish my scent, daring to touch her gently in her hand. She moves her attention once again to me, and this time, I focus on her as much as I can, trying to reach her despite the walls in her mind she seems to be trapped behind. And I know, I know she feels me; she may not recognize who I am, but she feels my love, my care...

Charlie slowly steps away from among the trees and crawls in our direction. Fuck, he hasn't shifted and is better for keeping Tonya calm, but in case anything happens,  he won't be able to run away.

I dare to reach my hand slowly toward her. There is a snarl, but she doesn't try to move away; she leans into my touch. Charlie is coming closer and closer as Tonya moves to sit on the grass, finally taking her claws out of my shoulder; she seems tired. I gently warp my arms around her neck, pressing her nose into my neck.

She breathes hard and shakes a bit when Charlie manages to come to us, pressing himself slowly to her back. It is strange because I can hear our heartbeats, concentrating only on them. I feel surrounded by care and gentleness, being sure that it's Rosie omega's pheromones alongside other omega's pheromones, who for sure are surrounding us now; they don't allow themselves to be seen.

I have no idea how much time we spend like that... when Rosie moves uncomfortably and starts shifting. Tonya jerks a bit in my arms as Rosie stands in front of me, totally scared.

"The huge group of rogues has entered our border," she whispers.