I hope that last chapter was interesting!  I’m trying to find good Ren quotes, preferably one-liners so if you know any let me know!

Quote of the Chapter:
“This is only about love.”
~Renier Laroche
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Chapter 7: Black Rose

Ren

In the morning, Ren’s body wracked with pain; at least it wasn’t as bad as last night’s.  He groaned at the memory.  He was pretty sure Shiloh would’ve killed him if Arya hadn’t intervened.  At the thought of Arya, Ren opened his eyes.  She was supposed to talk to her second this morning.  Was she talking to him right now?  And if so, what were they talking about?  Probably Shiloh was convincing Arya that his, meaning Ren’s, time was up here and that he needed to leave.  Ren hoped she wouldn’t agree.

“Ren?” Arya’s soft voice floated from the entrance to his room.  His eyes flitted over to the doorway.  She stood there hesitantly, her hands clasped behind her back.

“Hey,” he murmured, and mentally cursing himself for not being able to sound stronger.  He was an alpha; he was supposed to be strong twenty-four-seven.

“May I come in?”

“Of course,” he replied.  Arya padded over to his bed and sat on the edge of it.

“How are you feeling?” she asked quietly, studiously avoiding eye contact.

“Better than last night, but that’s not hard.” Ren sat up, trying to hide the pain it was causing him, but Arya instantly saw his discomfort.

“Let me check your ribs.” Without asking for his permission, she lifted his t-shirt up and lightly trailed her fingers over his torso.  He hoped she couldn’t feel the muscle spasms her touch was causing him. “Well, they’re definitely healing but you’re going to be sore unless you take more blood.”

“No,” Ren protested firmly. “I brought this upon myself.  I’ll let it heal on its own.  The worst damage is fixed.”

Arya looked down at the sheets and started drawing circles on them with her thumb.

“Arya?”

“Hmm?”

“Did you talk to Shiloh?”

Without looking up, she nodded. “He said he was sorry for attacking you; once I told him the whole story, he calmed down…”

“I feel there’s something you’re holding back from me,” Ren observed, taking a hold of her hand.  When she still didn’t look up at him, he lifted her chin and was shocked to see her eyes were bloodshot. “Arya, what happened?”

“He’s threatening to leave the pack,” she whispered.

“Surely there’s a way he would stay,” Ren said.

“There is… and I’m sure you can figure it out,” she replied quietly.

Of course he knew.  He had suspected it all along.  Ren knew it was probably for the best that he had to leave but he was shocked to find how his chest tightened at the prospect of leaving Arya. “I’ll start packing,” he murmured, kissing her on the forehead.

“No!” Arya jerked her head up to look at him; her vehemence surprised him. In a softer tone, she added, “That’s just it; I don’t want to lose you either, Ren.  You’re a part of this pack just as much as he is.  He might have been here longer but it doesn’t matter.  Not even Derek was able to fit in as easily as you did.  You haven’t noticed it but I have; the pack is more… stable.  They look up to you, and to be honest, it’s nice to have another alpha around, someone I can relate to.  I’m not ordering you to stay; you’re an alpha and can make your own choices.  But I am asking that you stay.  Except for Shiloh, everyone here loves you and Leyla even told me before I went to talk to Shiloh that if you left, she would really miss you, and not just because you’re hot.  Just… please consider staying here.”

Arya had barely taken a breath throughout that whole speech and she was somewhat breathless.  Ren cupped one of her cheeks. “I would love to, Arya.  You have no idea how much I would love to… but I don’t know.  I know what it’s like to be in Shiloh’s position.  He was pretty much the alpha male here and then I come waltzing in and take over.  It’s what happened to me in my old pack and it hurts like hell.  I don’t want to do that to Shiloh… even if he does hate my guts.”

She gave a small smile but her eyes were tearing up.  She wiped away a stray tear that fell down. “Damn it… I hate crying.”

“You’ve had a stressful few hours with little sleep… did you get any sleep at all?”

She snorted. “No.”

“Come on; you’ll feel better once you get some sleep,” Ren said, pulling her into his arms and lying down.  Arya didn’t resist but she also didn’t try and get as close as she could to him.  In fact, the moment her head was down, she shut her eyes and a in a few moments, she was asleep.  Ren grinned down at her.  He couldn’t believe he had a girl sleeping in his bed with him.  The last girl he had done this with was Calla and that had only been brief and a hot make-out session.  With Arya, they had talked; okay, it was a pretty deep conversation but still, Ren usually had the girls trying to rip off his clothes by now.  She seemed completely unfazed by him and seemed to have no such intentions.

Pushing away his thoughts of previous girls, Ren pulled Arya close to him.  She unconsciously threw her arm across his chest.  If she had been awake, it would’ve been an undeniable gesture of ownership, but asleep, he had no idea what it meant.
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Later that day…

When Ren woke up again, Arya was gone, but there was a note on his pillow.  In her flowing, half-cursive, half-print handwriting, she said she had gone to hunt.  Not wanting her to be out alone, Ren forced himself to get up.  He walked downstairs, not even bothering to change outfits.  When he walked out of the house, he immediately ran into someone.

“Ren.” The voice was curt and instantly recognizable.

“Shiloh,” Ren answered, his voice terse as well.

“Do you know where Arya is?”

“She told me she was going hunting,” he informed.  He purposefully had avoided saying that she had left a note on his pillow after falling asleep in his arms.  After seeing Shiloh’s feelings towards her, Ren had no intentions of giving the beta information about his and Arya’s relationship.  Hell, Ren didn’t even know what to make of it…

“Damn it… I hate it when she does this,” Shiloh grumbled, turning around.

“Is she okay?” Ren questioned, unable to stop himself.

“Who knows… when she has a rough time or whatever, she’ll go hunt by herself and she’s gotten injured way too many times doing that.  I’m going to go search for her.”

“Would you like me to help?” Ren offered politely.  He tried to keep his voice neutral so that Shiloh wouldn’t assume he was only helping so he could make-out with Arya later.  Not that he didn’t want to, because in all actuality, he did.  Ren only refrained because he wasn’t ready for a relationship yet, Arya probably didn’t even like him that way, and Shiloh would kill him before Ren could even lean in for the kiss.

“Sure,” he replied, hesitating only a little. “Arya’s probably more willing to talk to you than she is to me.  Oh, and alpha, just because I’m being polite to you now doesn’t change anything between us.  I still think the pack would be better off if you were gone, and I still don’t like you.”

“The feeling’s mutual; and as for the pack, I’m inclined to agree with you,” Ren admitted.  That actually stopped Shiloh.

“What did you say?”

“Arya told me that you were threatening to leave the pack.  You can believe this or not, but I know your position right now.  You want to leave because of that ‘new guy’ but you want to stay because this is your territory and you love her.  I’ve been there, and it sucks.  So when we find Arya, I’m telling her I’m leaving.  I hope you’re happy,” Ren said before he shifted forms and trotted off in search for Arya.
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Shiloh

Shiloh stood dumbfounded as he watched Ren leave in search of Arya.  How much had Arya told him?  Apparently a good deal because the male alpha seemed to know a lot of what Shiloh was feeling.  Something else that shocked Shiloh?  Ren was leaving the pack because of him.  In all honestly, he thought he would’ve been glad, but seeing Arya’s reaction last night made him realize something: she loved Ren, and more than she would ever love Shiloh.  It hurt, but he would rather Arya be happy.

“Shiloh!” Carrie’s voice shouted.  He turned around and looked at her.

“Yeah?”

“The pack has gone out in search.  Where are you headed?”

“I’m going the way Ren did.  He’s helping too.  Do you want to come?”

“Sure.” The two shifted forms and trotted down the hill.

So what happened between you and Arya?  I heard a lot of shouting coming from your room. Carrie said casually, although Shiloh could hear the worry.

Nothing of importance.  I just have to convince Ren to stay.

He’s leaving?! Carrie demanded furiously.

That’s what he said.

Why?  It’s obvious he loves it here!

He’s leaving because of me…

What?  Why? So Shiloh dove into the story about his conversation with Ren just a few minutes before.  By the time he finished, they were far away from the compound.

So that’s why I have to convince him to stay.  He loves her and she loves him; that’s all there is to it. Shiloh said.

It’s a very noble thing to do Shiloh. Carrie praised softly.  He turned to look at her.

Thank you. He replied.  His hazel eyes met her chocolate brown ones and they just stared at each other.  It was only Arya’s urgent, heartbroken howl that broke them from their trance.  They bolted off in her direction.  Shiloh had never heard Arya’s howl so sad and tragic and desperate.  Something was terribly wrong.  She howled again and this time, Shiloh knew that Ren had found her… and that he was the cause of her pain.  A brief image flashed across his mind of the alpha hurting her, but Shiloh quickly pushed that down.  He knew Ren would never do that.  When he and Carrie reached the scene, bile rose up in his throat.  Besides the pungent smell of beer and cigarettes, Ren lie in a pool of blood- his own blood.  Arya was desperately trying to get him to drink some of her own blood but he wasn’t moving all the while swearing in different languages her second didn’t even know she spoke.

Shiloh shifted forms and walked over to Arya.  She was in near hysteria, partially for her worry over Ren and partially due to the fact that she had lost so much blood trying to get Ren to drink it.  Carrie came over as well (in human form) and helped Shiloh get Arya off of Ren’s motionless body.  The alpha was still breathing but only barely.  Shiloh made an incision on the fatty side of his hand and forced it into Ren’s mouth.  For an agonizing two minutes, nothing happened other than the fact that Dmitri, Derek, Leyla, Rigg, Taki, and Katrina showed up.  Finally, Ren moaned in pain and Shiloh let out a small sigh of relief.  Arya looked like she was about to collapse so Derek lifted her up and carried her to the compound.  She tried to fight him so that she could be with Ren but when she saw Shiloh carrying the wounded alpha, she stopped and allowed herself to be carried.

The trip to the compound was long and excruciatingly nerve-wracking.  A few times, Shiloh had to put Ren down and give him blood when he thought the alpha had stopped breathing.  Each time Ren would come back around but only for a few minutes.  About an hour later, they reached his room.  Derek had put Arya in her bed.  Somewhere along the way, she had passed out.  Ren was still bleeding but not as badly as before.

Shiloh still didn’t know what had happened to cause Ren to bleed so much.  After ordering Derek to go get bandages, Shiloh lifted up Ren’s shirt to find a gaping bullet wound in his stomach.
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Dun dun dun… poor Ren.  He can’t catch a break can he?  Please review!