Clint watched as the guards argued amongst themselves, their eyes dancing warily from the basement door, to Adeline, then back.

"We need to notify the alphas," one of the guards, a male named Jeremy, muttered, his eyes trained on the unconscious girl.

The male's fellow guards all shook their heads, the tangy scent of anxiety leaking from their pores.

"No." One of them growled. "Not yet. We don't even know if she is really ill, after all, she has acted like this before-- the moment one of us had stepped inside her cell, she tried to attack."

Murmurs of agreement rippled through the basement.

Clint's head turned in the direction of Adeline's lifeless cell. The basement was usually dim due to the dying, ancient lights above, but the girl's personal cell was anything but dark. The lights that hung in Adeline's cell were constantly replaced with the brightest, strongest blubs possible; but even the lights couldn't chase away all of the shadows.

Darkness seemed to envelop the girl's limp form, clinging to her thin arms, her bony legs, her sharp cheekbones. The grey t-shirt that had been slipped over Adeline's body right before she had been chained, was enormous on her- the hem of the shirt brushing the girl's knees.

Clint's head turned away from the unconscious girl when the door to the basement opened, a tanned hand pushing against the handle with caution.

The Southern Beta's voice rang through the room, "Has she awakened?"

A warrior shook his head, "Not truly, Beta. She slips in-and-out of consciousness, but when she is awake, she isn't aware of anything. As the day goes on, she has been waking up less and less, and when she is, it's for no more than a minute."

Clyde stepped deeper into the basement, passing the former Delta's cell without a single glance. Behind him, the lithe form of a woman trailed after the Beta, the woman's straight, shoulder-length, glossy black hair swaying with each step.

Kara Tanaka, the former Head-Enforcer of the pack, and now, the current Delta.

The she-wolf that had taken his position as third in command, the Beta's right-hand wolf.

But Clint couldn't be mad at her, not even if he tried. Kara was an admirable wolf, she had not only defeated many, many male competitors to get where she was now, but she had also shown her former pack that women can do a "man's job".

Clint had been the one that had found her, that fateful day. He remembered the skinny, bruised and bloodied female that had stood at the border a little over a decade ago.

Those fierce brown eyes outlined in black and blue, still haunted him to this day.

And everytime that he looked into the she-wolf's eyes, he saw another pair staring back at him; crazed, confused honey-brown eyes...

"Kara," Clyde said, turning to face the stoic female. "Can you please go call Alpha-- tell him that Adeline is not doing well, and that their return is needed."

When Kara nodded and turned to leave, Clyde dismissed most of the guards, telling them to stay put out in the hallway, just in case Adeline was indeed faking.

But everyone knew, as the day dragged on, that Adeline wasn't feigning her sickness. No one could miss the sickly scent emitting from her, nor the shallow breaths leaving her lungs.

Clint scowled, a red-hot anger rising up within him, but he didn't let it show... he couldn't let it show, not with these many wolves around.

'How could they wait this long?' He growled. 'I can smell her sickness from here! How could they try to pass that off as possible 'acting'?′

The door closing behind Kara reminded the male to shove everything back into that little box within him, the box that was padlocked with the chains of oath.

In a fraction of a second, the emotion that had sketched across his face disappeared, replaced by a face of cold indifference.

The room dropped into silence as Clyde grabbed the keys to the girl's cell, and unlocked the cell door, pushing it open with the palm of his hand.

Clint watched as the male stood at the doorway, his face illuminated by the fluorescent lights hanging above.

The former delta's nostrils flared when the delicate scent of salt flooded the air, squeezing the organ in his chest.

"She deserves so much more than this," Clyde whispered, his hands clenched at his side. "She deserves to live a happy, pain-free life. Free of that damned Beast, free of the darkness, free of H..." Clyde's voice trailed off, but the male knew that it had been his wolf, reminding the beta that he wasn't alone in the basement.

But Clint didn't care what the male spilled, he already knew everything that couldn't be said.

Clyde looked over his shoulder, his eyes glowing fiercely. "I want Adeline to be mine; my mate, my everything."

He could see the desperation in the male's onyx eyes, the hopelessness. Clyde was an old male, nearing that dangerous age that very few unmated males lived past. With every passing year, the chances of the beta finding his mate were rapidly decreasing.

Clyde had talked to him about it once, he had said that his wolf was beginning to push at the boundaries that kept it controlled, that the wolf's thoughts were becoming more and more violent as the days dragged on.

If Adeline wasn't Clyde's mate...

Clint could see it in the male's posture... the anxiety... the fear.

He felt for the male, and, if things had been different, he would've done more to comfort him, but he couldn't. Not now, not ever.

Because Clint knew of the inevitable.

Fate couldn't be changed; not when it was clasped in a fist of darkness and unimaginable power.

And Clint knew, deep down, that the beta knew it, too.

????

Adeline hung in an empty, soundless void. Darkness surrounded her on all sides, encasing her in cold, unmoving air. She knew that she was asleep, but she had never felt so alert... so aware.

Her head swiveled on her shoulders, looking this way and that, trying to pick apart the blackness lurking. But, the more she looked, the more disorientated she became.

The darkness messed with her head, causing her ears to ring, and her heart to beat faster. She couldn't see her own hands that were no more than half-a-foot from her face; there was no way in Hell that she would be able to try to walk around... or find a place to curl up and hide.

What a top predator she was-- resorting to hiding like a frightened rabbit.

Adeline's throat closed as her heart thundered in her ears. She knew this type of dream... She knew how each one would start, and how it'd end.

They always ended when, either the Beast tore her apart with its teeth, or her childhood best friend ripped her apart, mentally and emotionally.

The blonde girl never once touched her in the dreams, but her harsh words and sneers punched Adeline straight in the gut.

She would often wake up after those horrid dreams, drenched in sweat, with tears streaming down her face, her hands fisting the blankets covering her frail body.

She wanted the pain to stop.

But, as a mocking, feminine voice broke the endless silence, Adeline knew that she wasn't that lucky. That she'd never be that lucky.

After all, the chances of her parents finding the witch that had cursed her, were slim to none.

And she had just over a week until her eighteenth birthday...

"Dear, dear Addy," cooed an all too familiar voice.

Adeline's face twisted into one of disgust, but she knew that it would do nothing to intimidate Zoë, if anything, it would encourage her.

In a sudden flash of light, the darkness scattered, racing to the far corners of the dream realm.

Adeline's eyelids snapped shut as the light pulsed, pushing back the darkness until it could recede no further. Just like a lightning bolt frozen in time, the streak of energy hovered right above the marble floor, the end of the bolt barely making contact with the ground.

The atmosphere dropped into silence once again, cloaking a false sense of relief over Adeline.

Warmth flooded over her trembling body, warming the bones that practically rattled in their joints. She suddenly felt stronger, too.

Looking down at her hands and arms, Adeline had to suppress the gasp that tried to escape. The once prominent bones that had laid just beneath her skin, were hidden-- now covered by healthy, tanned skin that seemed to glow in radiance.

Or, perhaps they glowed from the huge bolt of lightning pulsing nearby; who knew?

Before she could look at more of her body, to see if her hair, too, had been restored in this strange dream, the lightning bolt completely vanished.

Immediately after, the darkness closed in.

Adeline scooted backward until she felt a solid wall press against her back. Curling her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, she stared off into the black void.

Now, she just had to wait.

????

Finnian hated waiting, especially when it concerned those who he cared about.

And, he most definitely cared about Adeline.

Letting his head fall back against the feeble wall, he let out a harsh breath.

"What are they doing?" Sasha whispered, pressing her face against the trailer window, her golden eyes fixated on the pissed off alpha pair.

Desmond, the red-headed delta of the Western Pack, shrugged his shoulders, his hand clasping his mate's shoulder possessively.

"I think they're on the phone." One of the younger warriors said sarcastically.

Choosing to ignore the foolish wolf, the Oracle just rolled her eyes, but a smile tugged on her full lips.

Tuning out the others in the van, Finnian relied on his advanced hearing to listen in on the alphas' conversation.

He could hear the pair perfectly well, but trying to listen in on the wolf speaking through the phone, was the difficult part, especially at the distance he was sitting at.

He saw Dillon nod his head curtly. "Yes, this is Dillon."

Alexandra's face paled slightly as she heard what the speaker was saying.

The chimes swinging from Lydia's trailer sang a haunting tune.

Finnian's world stopped.

He even stopped breathing.

"Adeline has been slipping in and out of consciousness. We are moving her up to the infirmary." Kara, the Southern Pack's current delta, said.

Even Finnian's wolf froze, its ears pressing forward as its jowls twitched with the need to growl.

Lydia's wide eyes danced from wolf to wolf as she took another sip of her tea.

"Is... she currently stable?" Dillon asked, repeating the question that Alexandra had been growling at him.

Kara cleared her throat, "Yes, at the moment. But..." Her voice trailed off, replaced by sounds of hesitancy.

Alexandra snatched the phone from her mate's hands, her eyes glowing fiercely. "Well?" She barked.

The words that left Kara's mouth had the beta seeing red, and sending his wolf into a fit.

"When we were transferring her, her vitals had dropped significantly... dangerously. Her heart had nearly stopped. The pack doctors want you both here, because they're not sure if she's going to survive the night."