- "hat ere ou hinking, eneca?!"

Chaos.

That's the only word to describe the mini-war going on in front of my eyes.

A handful of wolves also joined the black alpha wolf out of nowhere and now it's almost a battle raging between packs.

Seneca-Wolf pounces on Red, and the two are locked in an intense fight, which Seneca seemed to be winning with ease. All around me, Seneca's Warriors are growling and snapping at Enemy Alpha's Wolves, who are gravely outnumbered.

Oh, how the tables have turned.

I hear a final snap and turn around, only to meet with a pretty gruesome sight. I would've cringed so hard, were I still in human form. Red's head is off his body, which is not in good shape.

I'll spare you the details.

Seneca turns to me, her cerulean blue eyes meet my own green ones—that's my Wolf's eye color if you didn't figure as much—and nods once. But in that small gesture, an unspoken message pass between us, even without a link, and everything around us ceases to exist. It's only Me and Her.

'I'll protect you,'

'I know you will,'

She starts to walk forward, but a Brown Wolf leaps from behind her, trying to catch her off guard. I catch sight of him before her, and before I could growl out a warning, Seneca senses his presence, turning around at the last second.

She growls out furiously, the sound similar to a series of thunder rolling across the sky. Brown backs away for a minuscule part of a second, but then all hesitation vanishes from his demeanor and he leaps forward, making the first move.

Big mistake.

In a second, Seneca has him pinned to the ground, begging for forgiveness.

Ha, take that sucker.

Before I could realize what's happening, his head is off his body, a bloody mess flying off in another direction.

Oops...

Two down, six more wolves to go.

Seneca kicks his body off the way as she slowly makes her way towards me. Her steps are cautious, wary and slightly hesitant as if she's expecting me to run away any second.

Is she worried that I might be afraid of her since she's killed in front of me?

'But you're already afraid of her,' My Wolf barks, and that's when I become aware that he is, indeed right.

Though I'd come to warm up to my Mate in the past week, there's still a lingering sliver of fear that I haven't quite gotten rid of.

Yet.

But the fear I harbor is not one that makes me think that she might kill me. Well, she has the power to, but I know she won't.

The fear that I have is one that plants the insecure thought that she might not want me. That one day, she might wake up and realize that she's worth so much more, and would move on.

That is what I'm scared of.

Suddenly, Seneca leaps forward and hurls herself at me, canines bared.

Woah, just now I was so sure that she wouldn't kill me. Now, I'm not that sure...

Even though a sane person—or Wolf—would run away from a mighty silver Wolf charging at them, the shock of the situation and instinct commands my body to a stop, freezing my movements and paralyzing my limbs.

When Seneca comes so close to me that her canines are inches from my neck, everything becomes slow motion.

I watch helplessly as her eyes fix on something behind me, and turn just in time to see a Wolf who's about to sink his claws and teeth on the back of my neck; from behind.

My body is too sore, too tired to move fast enough in that endless second, and when the reality of what's about to happen dawns on me, it's too late, too late, too late.

It happened.

Everything comes back to normal speed and I want to do something, anything to prevent it, but I can't.

Seneca's paws land hard on me, sending me skidding to the ground. But before she has time to stop Brown, his open jaws—that were about to bite me—close around the portion just to the right of her neck, too close, too near her pulse.

NO!

A howl of pain bubbles from Seneca's throat, the sound so heart-breaking that my Wolf wants to crumble down in misery. In one nanosecond, the sorrow morphs to anger like a switch flipped on, and I want to kill the Wolf who did this, who caused her this soul-wrenching pain.

A harsh, inhuman growl that breaks from deep within me startles several Wolves, and I don't hesitate for a second before jumping into the air and closing my jaws around Brown's exposed neck.

Hard.

The Wolf moans and his grip on Seneca loosens, but that doesn't make me let go of him. No, I want his blood, and I want it now.

In a matter of moments, his breath is snuffed out, the life force that once propelled his body, dead. That draining of light in his eyes, that sagging of his fighting body, that stopping of his thumping heart is what that sates my Wolf, assuaging him and giving him a sense of rest.

Only after the ordeal is over, do I realize the impact of my rash actions.

I'd killed a life.

'Well, he was about to kill our Mate.' My Wolf justifies and the mention of 'Mate' pulls me out of my mental monologue.

I avert my eyes from the corpse of the dead Wolf and turn around and what I see makes me want to cry.

Seneca's huge Silver Wolf is lying on the ground whining silently.

And there's blood. So Much Blood.

That's when it hits me that something's off. Something's not quite right.

Oh.

Everything is eerily quiet.

My eyes scan the crowd and it's safe to say that I'm shocked. All eleven Wolves—ten Warriors and Beta Ezra—are standing with their heads bowed, waiting for a command from their Alpha.

Why are they like this all of a sudden?

I push the train of thought away, not having enough patience to care about it. Just as I'm running to her, my Wolf forces me to shift back and inspect her—and though I vehemently oppose, I shift before I even know what's happening. UH!

Before I could think too much about all the She-Wolves and Seneca seeing me naked, I rush forward to her huge Wolf form, checking to see if she's conscious.

"Seneca, Seneca! Are you alright?" I cradle her head and put it gently on my lap, petting her forehead. Her eyes flutter open slowly, revealing bright cyan irises.

Thank Goddess, she is.

"What are all of you waiting for?! Get help!" I yell in frustration and my voice seems to break them out of a trance, because everyone rushes everywhere, running in all directions, and making quick work of disposing the other four Dead Wolves and rushing to find clothes. I don't know what happened to the other two Wolves, and I can't be bothered enough to care about such unimportant stuff right now.

"Here! Put this on her, she's gonna shift back!" Beta Ezra yells and a huge t-shirt is thrown at me. I catch it just in time for Seneca to shift back and I avert my eyes quickly, pulling the t-shirt over her head and leaving it to droop down her, without pulling her hands through the sleeves.

I look up and Beta Ezra nods at me, and together we lift her up gently. He helps me carry her in my arms, placing her carefully in my grip. He knows that he's stronger than me and can carry her back quickly, but he also knows that in this situation, my Wolf needs to hold her.

I respect him for that.

Together, we rush to the Pack Hospital, with me torn between feeling the need to cry and kill everyone around me.

⦿⦿⦿

"She's out of danger."

The moment the doctor says these words, I jump out of my seat in the waiting area and rush past her—despite her protests to treat me—slamming the door of the emergency room in the Pack Hospital open.

I'd taken a shower and had first aid done to me, but I'd refused to let anyone come near me till my Mate awakens—much to Dr. Rosaline's dismay. One of the warriors had handed me my glasses, which had magically survived the attack without a crack, despite the way they were flung when I'd shifted. Now, don't go ahead and think that I can't even see without wearing glasses, I can see well enough without them, I just feel like I'm straining my eyes when I read without them.

The sight that greets me the moment I enter the room crumples the strong will I'd been maintaining the whole time, crushing me altogether.

Is this really my powerful, Alpha Mate?

Seneca lies on the single cot placed in the middle of the room, with needles connected to the blood vessels on the back of her hand. Her usual vibrant red curls are dull, fanning around her face limply, on the thin, white cotton pillow. The huge pale blue hospital gown dwarves her, falling up to her knees. Her skin is pale for the first time since I've met her, the color pastel-like and lacking its usual glow. But what breaks my heart is the huge bandage wrapped around her neck and part of her shoulder.

A few nurses are milling around, checking her machines and cleaning. My sudden burst captures their attention and all three of them refuse to let me in.

"Aleph, sir. You can't come in here."

"Please, Aleph. She has to rest."

"We'll alert you once the Alpha wakes up."

I ignore all three voices as I stare at my Mate, contemplating whether to make a run for it, just to get a closer look. As if on cue, her eyelids flutter open slowly and I mentally thank the Goddess. She stares a the ceiling for a few seconds, blinking in a disoriented manner. A small from creases her brows, and one word escapes her lips in a feather-like whisper.

"Cage . . ."

Happiness blooms in my heart, at being the first person she wants to meet and before I could realize it, I'm moving forward, and the nurses don't utter a single word this time. I'm filled with this overwhelming urge to hug the life out of her, but seeing as she's not in a very good physical state, I settle for sitting in the corner of the bed and cupping her cheeks in my hands.

"What were you thinking, jumping in like that, Seneca?!" I yell and hear the sound of doors clicking. Guess the nurses decided to give us some privacy.

"W-water..." She rasps, and I feel like a complete moron for not giving it to her sooner. I reach to the stand on the right of her bed, and unscrew the bottle, pouring the water on the glass near it. I give it to her, but seeing as both hands are occupied—one hooked to IV, and the other plastered to her body—I bring it close to her lips hesitantly.

She stares at me for a second, before accepting it and gulping the cool liquid slowly. Once she's done, I place the glass back on the table and wait patiently for her to swallow her last mouthful.

"Why would you do that?" I whisper, knowing full well that my voice is oozing with pain and worry. Let her think I'm pathetic if she wants, All I care about right now is her.

"What else was I supposed to do? Let my own Mate die?" She asks, staring back at me.

I don't have an answer for that, and I have this need to hold her close, to express this extreme affection bubbling inside me like a never-ending fountain. Impulsively, I lean forward, placing my lips on her forehead, left cheek, right cheek, the tip of her nose, showering her face with butterfly kisses. I pull back, staring into her gray eyes, a gap of mere centimeters separating our faces.

Only then do I realize how brazen and bold my actions were. Old Micajah would've never dared to come within a foot distance of a girl.

The realization makes me blush slightly, the color of my cheeks mirroring hers, which are a light shade of pink as well. And yet again, she astounds me with her beauty, and how she manages to take my breath away, every time I look at her.

"You realize you could've died, right? Please don't ever do that to me again." I plead and place one firm kiss on her forehead, before pulling back and sitting erect. She stills for a moment, and her sharp eyes lose their focus on me, staring off into space. I can almost feel the wheels spinning in her head, and I desperately want to know what she's thinking.

"Yeah. I know."

That's when we hear a commotion outside—breaking our moment—along with yelling and swearing.

"No! Let me in!"

I recognize that voice as Beta Ezra's and I count down the seconds until he'll burst in.

Five.

"But, Beta! You need to be treated—"

Four.

"I don't care—"

Three.

"But—"

Two.

"Just move!"

One.

The door flies open with a bang, revealing Beta Ezra; who looks no better than Seneca, with bandages on his chest and a ripped out IV hanging from his hand. But what amuses me is the murderous look on his face.

"If you do that again, I'll kill you with my own hands Seneca!"

I sit back, enjoying the show.

Damn, I should've brought some popcorn.

⦿⦿⦿