52

"Tonight, he is hunted. Stalked. Prey for the beasts that roam our land. But you've saved him. And one day he will grow up strong and able to save himself. He will never be hunted again. Instead, he will be the Hunter."

My eyes remain focused on the path in front of me, as I put one foot in front of the other. I can hear Chesca breathing heavily, knowing she is still weak from giving birth, and everything within me cries out at the injustice of this situation.

Hunter.

"It's perfect."

Then another familiar scent slams into me a second before Chesca yells with joy. "Kaiden! We're over here! Oh, Kaiden—"

Her mate has her instantly enveloped in his arms and I watch the tearful reunion, sinking to my haunches to catch my breath. We are safe for the time being. A few other warriors surround us, panting and covered in mud and I assume they have run nearly the entire perimetre of the territory, looking for us.

"Careful," Chesca whispers and Kaiden steps back from the tight hug. "Meet your new son."

He peers at the baby wrapped in my jacket and I can't begin to imagine the emotions he is feeling. Awe. Relief. Agony. Love. Hope after despair.

"I was so worried. I had no idea where you'd gone—" his voice breaks as he kisses his mate and child. "I was about to go crazy if I didn't find you."

"Shh, it's okay. I was stupid, yes. We can talk about that later. But Ariella saved us. Saved us from Caleb, but again that's another story—"

"What?!" Kaiden roars and glances around, perhaps wanting to see the man and ask just what he has been accused of. Or perhaps he wants to just rip his head off.

"It's okay now. He's gone. We have to get Aunt Chesca and her baby home. They need proper care," I jump up and hand over the responsibility, still wanting to ensure the mother and baby are in good hands before I leave.

Before I go back to DoubleEdge.

"Yes, we need to get you home." Kaiden sweeps up Chesca and the baby in his arms as if they don't weigh a thing. "Thank you, Ariella. I can't wait to hear the whole story after we get you all cleaned and warmed up. Come on." He turns to go, his men falling in around us protectively.

"You go. I have to get back to my pack." My pack. The one I betrayed to save Chesca.

"What?" Kaiden spins back and faces me. "But it's too dangerous. There are rogues lingering around here. I can smell them."

"I know. I've seen my share of them tonight. But..." I shuffle my feet on the spot, shoving my hands in my jeans pockets and becoming antsy. "I just have to go back. Now." I have a strong feeling, a sinking sensation in my gut that I can't ignore any longer. Something has happened because of my actions tonight, and I need to go find out what. I need to fix it, if I can, before it's too late. Already Knight is dead because of me. Despite all the good I may have done, helping Chesca and saving her life, I've also done something terrible and I'm beginning to hate myself before even knowing the full extent of the matter.

"And I think this belongs to you." I hand him the knife.

"A hunting knife? But..."

Chesca takes it and turns it over in her palm, a faint glow of moonlight illuminating the etchings on the carved handle.

"My grandfather's dagger. The artefact that hangs on his study wall. But how did you get it?"

"Luci..." I begin, then shake my head. "It's a long story. I really have to go."

"Luci?" Kaiden and Chesca share a glance but I am already jogging into the woods, across the boundary line, and onto DoubleEdge land.

The fast pace of my run warms my body, but not my heart. It feels like a heavy stone, thudding with cold dread and sending tentacles of ice through my veins.

I am almost out of time, I know that now.

The lights of the mansion come into view as I run up the last hill, but I pass by the wrought iron gates and continue down into the town. I see a group of wolves lingering outside the hospital, and I smell Malachi's scent on the air.

Not only his scent, but the scent of blood.

It thickens the closer I get to the clinic doors, and I ignore the stares of the startled warriors as I push past them and into the foyer of the building.

"Ariella, wait!" Devanshi calls out, but I keep going, my eyes on the emergency room where I see a few men laid out on stretchers, the pack doctor and some nurses hovering over them. Before I can barge through the door, a face catches my eye.

"Knight?" I stop abruptly as he turns to face me, emerald eyes darkened with a frown. They brighten and I don't think, I just run straight to him and wrap my arms around him as my heart leaps to life again. "But they said they killed you!" I mumble into his chest, my face buried in his shirt that is stained with blood.

"I'm not that easy to kill, Kiddo. Seems it ain't my time to go just yet," he pulls back and ruffles my hair, smiling at me kindly. His face is still sporting the bruises I saw inflicted, but otherwise, he is unharmed.

"I don't understand—"

"Ariella?"

I turn at the sound of my mate's voice, his presence washing over me in a tidal wave of relief. I see him struggling to stand up from one of the beds, ignoring the nurse trying to push him back down. I run to him and grasp his outstretched hands.

"What happened to you? Are you okay? How is everyone?" I search his face, seeing scratches and a deep cut near his throat, then I scan the room around us and see similar injuries on Hamilton and some other warriors. There's also another bed near the back wall with a sheet pulled over it, the unmistakable form of a man underneath. All this in a single second's glance before Malachi encases my face in his warm hands and pulls my gaze back to his.

"We were attacked by rogues on our way home from Alpha Asa's pack. But what happened to you? Who on earth did this to you?" he traces my jaw tenderly with his thumb.

My concern for him and the others have made me completely forget the wounds I bear myself. The dried blood on my clothes. The mud on my boots and jeans. The claw marks that traverse my pale skin and stain me with imprints of cruelty.

"I.... Knight and I went for a walk earlier and we were also attacked by rogues. They caught me and Aunt Chesca too but we escaped with the help of my friends. Then Chesca went into labour and I helped her through the birth of her baby boy in the middle of the horrible forest, then another rogue attacked us but I killed him. Then we eventually made it back to her territory and Alpha Kaiden, and I came back here as soon as I could. I didn't know if you would be okay or not. I was so scared...Malachi, I was so scared for you." I bury my face in his chest, and bunch his shirt in my fists. My story tumbled out in a mess of words and tears, and I have no idea how much of it he understands.

"Shh, it's okay now. You're safe. You're okay, my dreamer. Goodness, I have no idea what I would do if you got seriously hurt." Malachi takes a deep breath and I feel his heart racing in his chest. His hands rub soothing circles on my back and he breathes deeply of my scent. I feel him relax as he tightens his arms around me.

I imagine he is communicating with Knight, wondering how on earth he could allow me to get hurt.

I won't let him take the blame for anything. "Listen, don't worry about me," I peer up at Malachi, his blue eyes looking at me with such an intensity, my throat constricts. "As you said, I'm okay. I'm more concerned about you guys." I look to Hamilton whose shoulders are sagging and his face is etched with pain.

"Seems like rogues were busy tonight," he huffs and pushes his tangled curls back from his face with one hand, the other freshly wrapped with bandages.

"Do you think it was coordinated? Them attacking our Alpha and Alpha Chesca of ForgedHearts? As well as Ariella and Knight. What are the odds that all this would go down on the same night?" one of the warriors asks from where he is leaning against the wall, his black leather jacket torn and his dark fringe hanging messily over a fresh scar on his forehead.

I begin to feel sick as realisation settles in my mind.

"Maybe so. But how could they be that smart? No one even knew where we were or what we were doing," Malachi shakes his head, a dark look of anger settling in his eyes. As soon as he catches me staring at him, they lighten a shade and he gives me a reassuring smile. It barely puts a dent in the wall of uneasiness that builds around me.

"But it felt like an ambush. It seemed like they were almost waiting for us at the gap by Sunset Falls," Hamilton rubs his chin and grinds his teeth together. "How would they even know we were coming that way, Mal?"

"I told them." I blurt out, unable to hide my fears any longer.

Malachi grips my shoulders and stares at me with confusion.

"They wanted to know where you were, but I wouldn't say. I didn't even know exactly," I begin explaining, the words tasting like poison on my tongue. "But they started torturing Alpha Chesca, injecting silver into her body and almost killing her baby. I had to..."

I stop when I see the calm settle over Malachi as his hands slip from my shoulders. Yet, it is not calm. A muscle tightens in his jaw. The blue darkens to navy in his eyes. His gaze pierces me like a sharpened arrow of pure enmity.

Then in a perfectly clear voice, he asks the question that I already know deep down.

The question that crushes my already battered heart.

"You betrayed me?"

"She wouldn't have. You wouldn't have done that, right, Ari?" Hamilton looks at me, his hazel eyes clouded with the unacceptance of what I just told them.

But I know what I've done, and I know it is hurting them as much as it hurts me.

I shake my head, then stop once I realise what I'm doing. Words are stuck somewhere between my mind and heart, my throat squeezing the lies from them.

"Tell us again exactly what you did," Malachi pins his unrelenting gaze on me. A gaze I can normally hold onto for strength, knowing it can pull me from the depths of his darkness. But now, it washes over me in depthless waves of disbelief.

"A couple rogues wanted to know where you were. They kept trying to make me say, but I didn't know exactly and wouldn't tell them. Then they started torturing Aunt Chesca. They had her tied down in chains and injected silver into her bloodstream. Her baby would've been killed, so I just said you were at the Justice Pack. I didn't think they'd actually find you! But I knew you could protect yourself—"

"You told them." Malachi states. Clarifying the horrible truth of my words.

"I didn't want to. I didn't care if they hurt me so I would never have given them what they wanted. But as soon as they started cutting Chesca with a knife..." Even my own words sound pathetic in my ears, despite knowing I would do the same again if the night played over. I shrink under the heavy stares of the men around me, their disgust for me evident in their cool eyes.

They hate me. For so long I've been working to gain their trust, yet now it feels like in one night I've ruined all hope of ever being trusted.

Hamilton looks at me with lips pressed tightly together and brows scrunched up, and the sadness and disappointment in his eyes makes me want to run into an oblivion and bury myself ten feet under.

Blinking back tears, I whisper, "Malachi?" I turn to him and take his hand, willing him to understand what I feel for him. "I knew you could take care of yourself." In the back of my mind, in some twisted way, I probably thought that a group of wild rogues would be no match for the dark beast lurking under Malachi's skin.

Is that it? I sent them to Malachi hoping he'd tear them to shreds and give them what they deserved?

He doesn't reply. For a moment, I watch a few emotions briefly cross his face, darkening his eyes that refuse to meet mine. He clenches his jaw and his throat convulses as he swallows hard, then he looks at me.

His face is now void of all emotions. This expressionless mask he wears is cutting me deeper than any anger or rage I expected from him. Harsh words being flung at me is what I deserve, yet this cold silence is breaking me so much more.

It is deafening, screaming louder in my mind than an entire chorus of haters.

"Then it seems we know where your loyalty lies." He tears his eyes from mine and turns his back to me.

"Malachi, it's not like that! I care about you—"

"Just leave." He pulls away when I lay my hand on his arm. "I have my men to care for," he murmurs in a tone of finality.

My feet take involuntary steps back. His quiet rejection slams into me and pushes me with a force I not only feel, but see. The darkness emitting from his hunched shoulders, the despondency permeating the air around him and his wounded warriors— it makes me want to hold on and never let him go, but at the same time give him the space he is demanding from me.

I messed up.

I may have ruined the chance we had for us.

"Ariella, come on. I'll help you get cleaned up." Knight wraps his arm around my shoulders, effectively stilling the sobs that wrack my body. I am shaking, but he guides me through the clinic, shielding me from the cold stares of those lingering in the foyer.

"There's nothing else you could have done," he tells me later as he wipes the blood from my face. Throwing the cloth in the laundry tub, he grabs another and dabs antiseptic on my scratches.

"Then why do I feel like I failed? I failed everyone tonight," I squeeze my eyes shut against the sting.

"No, you didn't. From what I hear, Alpha Chesca had a healthy baby and they're both alive because of what you did for them. It was an impossible situation. The rogues wouldn't have let you walk away alive."

"It wasn't just rogues." Fresh tears fill my eyes but I blink them away, trying to forget the horrible memories that replay over and over. "Some guy called Caleb from her pack was there, wanting revenge for something she did to him years ago."

Knight's hand pauses as he puts a plaster over the deep cuts on my neck. Then he firmly presses the last one on and wipes the area clean. "Did you see what he looked like? Maybe we could go after him."

"No, he was behind the wall. But I'm almost glad I didn't see the monster. I can't remember him at all from being in my pack years ago, but it makes me wonder what kind of psycho would hurt a pregnant woman like that?"

Knight releases a breath. "I can't imagine. But pain makes some wolves do disgusting things. Usually the most horrible crimes are fueled by past hates. We all feel it to some extent, but those who lose control eventually act out from the bitterness they feel inside."

I shudder at the truth of his words. I'd seen it tonight, and I'd experienced it too many times in my life. When would these senseless attacks cease? When would we learn to respect and care for each other despite our differences?

After having a long, hot shower, I dress in my warmest pyjamas and head back downstairs. I can hear Knight rummaging in the kitchen, and find him eating leftovers from dinner.

"You want some?" he offers when I slide into the seat at the bench.

"No thanks. I'm not hungry." In truth, I still feel sick about what happened, and I don't think I'll regain my appetite any time soon.

"Stress makes me hungry. Weird, I know," Knight says, as if he needs to explain himself. Then he tilts his head and looks at me carefully. "Girl, you look beat. Why don't you head up to bed?"

I shake my head and rub at the creases on my forehead. "I am so tired, but I don't think I'd be able to sleep. I keep seeing..." I rest my elbows on the bench top and bury my face in my hands. "So many horrible things. I can't get them out of my head."

Instantly Knight comes around to me and slings his arm over my shoulders. "Then let's watch something distracting." After guiding me to the living room, we settle on the couch and he flips on the tv. He finds a nature documentary and I watch the screen absently as images of colourful birds, plants, and beautiful scenery replace the horrors in my mind's eye.

"You know I'm sorry about tonight, Kiddo," Knight pulls me closer and places a kiss on top of my head.

The action reminds me of my dad and gives me a small piece of comfort. "I should've protected you instead of letting those filthy rogues abduct you like they did."

I look up at him and scrunch my brows as something occurs to me. "Thanks, but...if they hadn't taken me, Alpha Chesca would've been by herself, and her story would have had a very different ending tonight."

"Still," a muscle in his jaw tightens as he stares off seriously into space. "I once swore I'd slay a thousand rogues to protect you. But I couldn't even save you from four. Just because tonight had a good outcome, doesn't excuse my inability to protect you. I failed you, Ariella, my Luna." He looks into my eyes with such contriteness that I can't help but forgive him.

I smile a sad smile. "Then it seems we have something else in common." My mind goes back to the body on the stretcher under the sheet. I don't even know his name, but I do know his death is on me.

I failed him.

And I deserve this rift between my mate and I. I deserve to pay the cost of my decisions, no matter how impossible they may have been at the time.

I awake the next morning in my bed, the space beside me cold and empty. I expected nothing less from the man I betrayed.

But I find him in the kitchen having some breakfast when I head down soon after waking. He looks at me with an unreadable expression, one that I should be used to seeing by now but still it hurts me in ways I can't explain.

"This morning, we're commemorating the guard who was killed last night. I don't expect you'd want to attend the ceremony," he tells me flatly.

"Of course I do," I breathe into the stillness between us. "I feel terrible about what happened and the least I can do now is pay my respects for what he did. He died for this pack, and I—"

"That's enough, Ariella," Malachi cuts me off coldly then leaves the house quickly, his sharp tone ringing in my ears.

So with a detached sense of obligation, I prepare myself for the ceremony, dressing in black and finding some heels in my small collection of shoes. Pausing by my pots of flowering plants that sit by the back door, I pluck the first bloom of adenium before I slowly make my way over to the town square. This is the place where I attended Archie's commemoration not too many weeks ago, and as I walk, I go over in my mind how this is going to play out. I need to be prepared for the dark looks I will receive, the ugly attitudes everyone will have towards me after last night.

I try and remember the good I'd done, how I saved Chesca and her baby. But the reality keeps pricking my conscience. The reality that someone is dead because of me.

I push the guilt aside and tell myself to deal with it as I enter the square and catch the attention of the gathered wolves. I can handle this.

However, I'm not prepared for the absolute disrespect that oozes from them towards me. It takes all my strength to keep my head up and my shoulders back as I walk straight to the front, to Alpha Malachi and Beta Hamilton as they wait beside the stage. They are dressed in black suits, with polished shoes and somber gazes.

In many ways my old pack and DoubleEdge are similar—honouring those fallen with ceremonies to remember their sacrifice. But while ForgedHearts is warm and filled with raw emotion, this pack is formal and holds itself distant from the grief they undoubtedly feel.

"What's she doing here?" one of the injured warriors from last night asks, his eyes flashing with anger. Malachi and Hamilton trade glances and fist their hands by their side.

"I'm here to show how sorry I am for what happened," I tell them, praying they'll allow me to stay.

"But you're not sorry for what you did. Is that it? You think you can just show up and pretend like none of this is your fault?"

"Jett, knock it off," Hamilton takes his arm and gives him a hard glare.

I don't know whether to feel relieved that Hamilton would stand up for me.

"She probably just wants to ease her guilt," the Beta looks at me with the same dark look he just gave his warrior.

So much for standing up for me. I cringe inside but don't back down. "Please. You have to believe I never wanted any of this to happen. I just—"

"Tell that to him," Jett points a finger at the veil-covered body on top of the pyre. "See if he will accept your apology. Oh wait, he can't. He's dead."