I pull my hand away from my stomach as I stare down at the blood. It soaks through my clothes as my mind fully comprehends what just happened.

"Axton," I breathe out as he stares at me before I crumble to the ground.

I feel his arms go around me seconds before hitting the dirt. My eyes start to close as he cups my cheek with his hand, "Ellie, look at me. Please, just keep your eyes open."

I feel the pain spread through my entire body as it intensifies. I feel myself whimper into Axton's arms, "Axton."

"Sh. It's alright. I'm right here," he whispers to me before looking up from the ground to a few of the warriors that I hadn't even hear approach. I try on focus on Axton as he yells for the pack doctor and to put guards on someone, but I can't focus on the words.

I hear someone yelling as another pair of hands touch my wound, "It's deep. She's still bleeding."

"Shouldn't she be healing, Jade?" Axton asks, panic and pain in his voice. I just continue to stare at him and try to focus on the sound of his voice as another wave of pain shakes through my body, "What do I do?" his voice breaks, just barely a whimper that I'm not even sure Jade could hear it.

"We need to get her back to the hospital. Now."

Axton lifts me off the ground, pulling me close to his chest so he can take off running through the trees. My mind starts to drift in and out of consciousness as the pain increases, "Keep your eyes open, El. Just a little longer, alright? You're going to be okay. You have to be."

As we come up on the building, darkness takes me as I rest my head against Axton's chest.

"Bring her over here," I hear Jade say as I am placed onto what I can assume to be a bed, but I still feel Axton's grip on my hand. It's strong but shaky. I focus everything on tying myself to the feeling of his hand.

"She's still bleeding," his voice rang out.

"There must be something still in the wound for her healing to not even start healing," I hear Jade say when another wave of pain swims through my body from my wound. I can feel Jade's hands and tools as she digs into my skin.

"What are you doing?" Axton yells.

"I'm trying to find the source of the bleed and whatever it is obstructing her healing," she answers him as she starts digging again, "Now I know you are Alpha, but if you don't stop asking me questions, your mate is going to die. Either get out or shut up. I don't care what you choose, but you need to let me do my job."

I can picture Axton's face in my mind as Jade says that to him, and it isn't a happy one. His grip on my hand tightens, but he doesn't say another word as Jade continues to work on me.

I don't know how long it has been. Maybe minutes, maybe hours, but I can feel the pain decrease just a little bit as Jade calls out, "I found it."

"What is it?" Axton asks.

"It looks to be a claw. One of the rogue's nails must have broken off during the fight when they attacked you," she says, "Just give me a couple of seconds to try and get it out."

I feel her hands leave me as she takes out what I'm guessing is the nail. I feel stinging pain as she closes the bleeding off and stitches my wound.

"Is she going to be alright now?" Axton asks, his hand squeezing mine as I feel the other one run over my face.

"If her body starts healing, yes," Jade says and I wish she would have just stopped there, "But I have to tell you, she lost a lot of blood. She might not have enough energy to heal."

"Thank you, Jade. Please leave now," it doesn't sound so much as a suggestion, but more of an order. I hear the door shut as she leaves the room, "I know you're tired and I know you might want to quit on me, but I'm asking you to just hold on. I just got you back, Ellie. I can't lose you again," he whispers.

I want to tell him that I am not leaving. I want to tell him that I can hear him, that I am right here. But I can't get my eyes to open. I don't even have the energy to squeeze his hand back.

*****

"Has there been any change?" I hear Sawyer asks.

"None," Axton answers her. I think it might have been a couple of hours since the attack, but I can't really tell and since no one has given me any clues as to how long I've been like this, I just don't know, "I thought you were watching Zea."

"I am," Sawyer answers him, "She wanted to come. She tried running past one of the guards just to get here."

"Did you tell her what happened?" he asks.

"Of course not, Axton," she says. I can hear her shock in her tone that he would even suggest it, "But she still knows. I don't know how, but she knows that Ellie is hurt," I figured he nods his head, so she continues, "Zea really wants to see her."

"You can let her in," he tells her.

I listen as I hear my daughter's footsteps come running into the room, "Mommy!"

"Shh, mommy's still healing. So, we are going to have to be kind of quiet, alright?" Axton tells her.

"Okay," she says, her voice small and scared, "Can I sit with her?"

"Of course, sweetheart," Axton says as he places Zea next to me.

"Alpha," a voice calls out. It sounds like Reid, "The guy from the forest wants to see the Luna. He's right outside."

"Give me a minute," he leans over me as I feel his lips on my forehead, "I'll be right back."

When he leaves the room, I can sense Zea shifting from her seat as she grabs the hand Axton had been previously holding.

"Mommy, my bad dream came true. You're hurt," she says. I can hear her sobs as she chokes back a sob, "I know you tell me never to do it unless you say it is alright, but I have to. I need to make you better."

I know what she is about to do before her hands even touch my wound. I feel the familiar warmth it brings as my wound heals. Feeling the energy throughout my whole body, I peel my eyes open to look at my daughter as she smiles down at me.

I smile at her, "Are you angry with me?" she asks me.

"Of course not baby," I sit up to kiss her head.

"You aren't going in there!" I hear Axton yell in the hall. I can hear a fight starting to break out.

I look over to Zea and smile, "Why don't you go get your dad?"

She nods happily as she jumps off the bed and runs out of the room. Within seconds, Axton is standing in front of me with his hands on my cheek as he surveys me completely.

"Ellie, you're awake," he breathes.

"Hi stranger," I smile at him, "You didn't think I would leave again. I did make a promise after all."

He pulls me up and kisses me passionately, "Thank you for keeping that promise."

I continue to smile at him as he pulls away.

"Mommy, Michael's here!" Zea runs in, dragging Michael in with her as Reid, Walker, and Sawyer all follow them into the room.

Michael looks exactly as he did the last time we saw him. His auburn hair is pushed back as he smiles goofily at Zea and me, "I see you have been healed. Quickly I might I add."

"Get away from my daughter," Axton's voice growls dangerously low.

Michael raises his hands up, trying to show that he won't hurt her, but Axton just keeps growling, "I would never-" His words are cut off when Axton takes a step toward him and Michael moves three steps back, "I am just here to talk. I don't want any trouble," he says before turning to me, "Come on Ellie, you know me."

"Yeah, I do," I speaks up, having all the guys turn their heads to me as I turn to Zea, "Hey baby, why don't you go play with Sawyer," I tell her before nodding to Sawyer and watching them go into the hallway, right outside the room. I turn back to Michael, "I know you extremely well Michael."

"Then you know," his sullen eyes meeting mine. We both know what is coming, just neither one of us want to admit it out loud.

"Know what?" Axton asks, looking at me with an unreadable expression, but I can't get my eyes to break away from Michael's.

I let out a shaky breath as I say my worst fear, "He's coming for her."

"You were the test," Michael tells me, "You didn't heal yourself. He knows the truth now."

Silence fills the room as Axton looks back and forth between me and Michael. I can see fear in his eyes as he asks me who it is. He knows the answer. He knows that Cortez is coming. I had already told him before, but that isn't what he needs to know.

"Axton, come sit down," I tell him, "I need to tell you something, something about Zea and I."

His face twists with even more worry, "What is it?"

I grab his hand roughly and pull him down to sit next to me, "Axton, this is about what I was talking about in the forest, about pregnant she-wolves and gifted wolves?"

He looks at me before nodding. I think he knows what I was going to say, but he doesn't want me to say it.

"When a she-wolf is pregnant with a gifted child," I start, "She can sometimes, I don't know how to describe it, but she can tap into the child's gift. Do you understand?"

"Are you telling me what I think you are?" he asks, his voice low so Zea won't look over here.

"Yes," I say honestly, "I was only two months along, but her power is so strong that I was able to heal that little girl. Cortez didn't know, almost no one knows about a mother's connection with her gifted child. Since he thought it was me who could heal him, I let him believe it."

He shakes his head as both our eyes stare at our little girl as she sits on the ground, playing patty cake with Sawyer in the hall.

"So now you know. It isn't me that Cortez needs," I tell him, "It's her. It's Zea."